#his capacity for kindness in general gets to me but especially with joker as someone who virtually everyone else has given up on

[clownprince]

Girl help I am thinking about batman 130 again...

[lunatrick]

Since soooooome body took what I was gonna askkkkk....... I'll ask for Ezra, Rishi, May, and Zohar instead and Alex and Ten :3c (Cause I wanna know what u think about my babies)

SO MANY CHARACTERS AND I LOVE IT

Ezra/Bonez

favorite thing about them: Probably his capacity for love. He had a… Let’s say troubling past, and now he holds one of the highest positions one can hold in their community, which tends to corrupt or harden people, but he’s never forgotten that what matters is people. He built his own family, which continues to grow, and he never fails to give them everything they could possibly need.

least favorite thing about them: Hmm I think that sometimes he puts too much faith in people.

favorite line: ….. Umm… I can’t think of one, but it would probably be something really romantic, or some cleverly veiled double entendre. 

brOTP: Ezra with everyone in his quad/family tbh

OTP: Tezra/TenEzra (Ten™ Fish)

nOTP: Ezra with anyone in his squad(except Nico)

random headcanon: He loves classic rock, among other music genres, and he usually has it playing in his car or apartment, but if he’s flipping through radio stations or his mp3 is on shuffle and an Abba songs comes on, he will turn the volume up, grab a brush/spatula/dildo and sing at the top of his lungs.

unpopular opinion: “I actually liked the last two Twilight movies.”

song i associate with them: “Centuries” and “Immortals” by Fall Out Boy, “You Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC and “Pure Imagination”

favorite picture of them: The first sketch I ever did of him

Rishi

favorite thing about them: His optimism despite witnessing so many horrible things.

least favorite thing about them: How nosy he can be sometimes. But at the same time, he probably ends up helping JD and Alex a lot with his butting in.

favorite line: To Alex about JD after Jalex’s first kiss   "Oh no, I’m sorry, he’s not here anymore. You juuuuuuust kissed him. Oops, did I say kissed? I meant missed. You just missed him.“

brOTP: JDRishi

OTP: Dashi/DahliaRishi… Huh, maybe DioRishi, they’d have a lot of fun together honestly (And lowkey Tenshi/TenRishi but don’t tell Ezra)

nOTP: Idk, anyone who is mean to him. Lot’s of people are assholes to him tbh

random headcanon: He often takes food to JD’s apartment when he’s out of town but about to come home so he’ll actually cook for himself, or he’ll cook for JD. He also puts premade food in his frezer so he can just warm it up.

unpopular opinion: “JD is the best friend anyone could ever have.”

song i associate with them: “Story of A Girl” by Nine Days

favorite picture of them:

Maahes/May

favorite thing about them: His passion

least favorite thing about them: He can be kind of stuck up and very stubborn

favorite line: “Could you get Ten’s dick out of your mouth? I have an actual problem here!”

brOTP: MayMaka and MayBonez

OTP: MayTen Mayco/MayNico

nOTP: May/Any female. I know he’s cute, but the little bitch is GAY

random headcanon: He’s descended from a line of the Sphinx

unpopular opinion: “Fast food is disgusting.”

song i associate with them: “You Don’t Own Me” by Grace “Tightrope” by Janelle Monae, “Miss Independant” by Kelly Clarkson and “The Fools Who Dream” from LaLa Land

favorite picture of them: 

Had to include this fucking gem because who doesn’t like it when Ez gets teased?

Zohar

favorite thing about them: They are very forgiving, but will kick ass if they need to.

least favorite thing about them: Umm… Nothing? Mostly, I feel sorry for what I’ve done to them. So I guess my “least favorite thing” about them is their most prominent ability: empathy, which leads to their apathy.

favorite line: This might sound dumb to anyone who doesn’t know Zo, but Zo finally telling Hibiki “I love you, too.” is probably my favorite thing they will ever say, because that is such a big step for them.

brOTP: Zodon/ZoharJadon and to a lesser extent Ezhar/EzraZohar. He just tries too hard lol

OTP: Zobiki/ZoharHibiki(Hibiki™ Fish)

nOTP: Zo with… Like… Anyone else so far? I just don’t find them compatible with anyone but Hibiki thus far.

random headcanon: They have a cabin in the woods somewhere, or maybe in Antarctica or something, where they go to be alone because their empathy is so strong they struggle being near anyone. They stay there most of the time despite liking the sights and sounds of big cities.(Did I already tell you that? If I did, here’s another fact) Zo doesn’t have a sense of taste, which is probably something I included because of Kamen Rider OOO which no one will understand. 

unpopular opinion: “Hibiki’s first album was her best.” and “Hibiki’s ballads are her best songs.”

song i associate with them: “Numb””Somewhere I belong” “Shadow of the Day” and “Leave Out All the Rest” by Linkin Park and “I Have A Dream” by Abba/Amanda Seyfried

favorite picture of them: 

Alex

favorite thing about them: Everything… Just… Everything… But if I have to pick, probably his loyalty and compassion, and how he’d do whatever it takes to keeps his loved ones safe.

least favorite thing about them: Probably that he doesn’t realize how amazing he is? And he’s so in denial about JD. Boiiiiiiiii. Yo like dat boi. Get over it and smooch him.

favorite line:  “Y-you don’t have anything to be afraid of Jadon.” because honestly, he’s afraid of so much, and hearing someone reassure him so genuinely really gets through to him. And honestly, their arguments are fun.

brOTP: … I feel like Alex would get along really well with Makana and Lydia. Mostly, Alex would be in awe of Lydia/scare/confused because of her, but Lydia would poison a bitch for Alex.

OTP: JALEX(Honestly my otp overall) Tenex

nOTP: DioAlex Maylex/MayAlex (May is too highstrung for him honestly, not that JD is a walk in the park either) but more importantly, Chadlex/AlexFUCKUCHADYOUTINYDICKFUCKWAD

random headcanon: Idk why, but I feel like he’d be good with whittling or clay sculpting, but he’d be especially good with charcoal art. Just, he’d be good with doing detailed things with his hands even though he has big hands.

unpopular opinion: “Crocs aren’t that bad.” “I mean… The Harry Potter Books can’t be that much better than the movies.”

song i associate with them: “I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz(more Jalex), “You Will Be Found” from the Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack, “Gasoline” by Halsey and “Carry on My Wayward Son” by Kansas

favorite picture of them: It’s still this first one you and I did together

Ten

favorite thing about them: Ten tries. He has a lot of anxiety, and good/awful reasons for having them, but he always tries, even if he fails to get something done, he tries to try, and I love that about him.

least favorite thing about them: Sometimes he lets his anxiety take hold of him. anxiety is hard to manage in general, and a lot has happened to him, so it’s completely understandable, just sometimes it’s so sad to see him suffer because of his own insecurities and I want someone to wrap him up in a blanket burrito, and put him in a blanket/pillow fort and give him all the cookies he wants.

favorite line: “Like what…? Living vicariously through strangers loosing their shakeginity?”

brOTP: MayTen TenNaz

OTP: Tezra and MayTen

nOTP: TEATHER IS A BIG FUCKING NONO

random headcanon: One day while shopping in a human mall, Ten spots a really bright store and Ezra asks if he wants to go in. Thus begins their 5 hour adventure in a Sanrio. They find May there.

unpopular opinion: Thinks Batman should just kill the Joker already. Some people deserve to die.

song i associate with them: “It’s Time” by Imagine Dragons “Pretty Little Head” by Eliza Rickman, “Sail” by Awolnation and “Shatter Me” by Lindsey Stirling and Lzzy Hale

favorite picture of them: Obviously this one.

JK! It’s actually your current avatar/icon on a different site(you know the one), but I’m not about to upload it.

[akashpoet12]

Day 17

Knowing me

Well, a person has his favourites in such a wide range of topics and it's impossible to sum it up in an anthology but know that I will tell some close secrets of mine through this prose. Well, the almighty shows no favourites and that's why all are equal in his eyes. Now you might say, that then why is someone so helpless and someone so happy. There is always diversity in integrity, the greatest example is India. So, though there is so many diversity in humans, God is dispassionate and listenes to all sooner or later. Common likings come out to be so similar. About my colour, it's blue; about an animal, it's cat; well I have about 20 fishes as pets; about food, it's paneer...well I am a foodie so it has a wide range, especially the specialized chef foods from youtube. But, even being a bengali, I don't like fish. Let's talk in detail.

If you ask my hobbies, I love to play music, watch tv, read books, watch movies. I am not a sporty guy but if you ask me about it, I used to prefer football first but now cricket. As gifts, I love them who give me books, perfumes and watches. Isn't it becoming too much informative? As I am a writer, so writing should be my hobby right? No, it isn't. I doesn't consider it as my hobby or job, it's my passion to let others know about me and to tell them every story that comes in my mind as my job offered by the God via this life as I believe every story has a capacity to influence someone or the other. Poems just come out of me as a flow, even I sometimes compose music for those. They just express my state of mind or my thoughts about a concerned topic.

Friends have been an inseparable version of my personality. Even I feel so bad on leaving my childhood place Farakka for two years for my senior secondary. I had to leave my friends but thanks to the technological miracle 'social media', we are in contact but that essence is missing but hoping to meet them after these two years or else if it would be too late, the laughter will have gone by then, just that we won't become strangers to recognize each other. I hope they will also be so delighted to see me. All my friends support me and we share such a strong bond especially, Surjendra, Deepayan, Debanshoo, Rohan but still there is one more with whom I feel a completely different persona whenever we meet, that's why I consider him as my best friend and he's Abir.

Someone has said so right, "Life is what happens when you're busy planning other things." Same is what's happening with me. I was dreaming of so many things and I couldn't realize when the time has passed on so much and till the time I came into my senses, it was so late. Leaving Farakka was one such thing which I couldn't resist even I wanted to. Now, I am in the process of being made a doctor. Well, one of my favourite subjects was always Biology due to SKD Sir, one of my favourite teacher. He used to teach it so interestingly without books and so many extra things and always answered our interesting questions regardless of its any connection with the syllabus. He used to ask questions before exams and never scolded if you were wrong. My favourite teacher was Proloy sir, who used to teach us physics. As a tribute, I would also like to say about my english teachers, Arnab sir, for whom I am a writer today or else I would know nothing of the language, and Subrata Sir, who supported me at every step. But, my favourite subject has always been history, which doesn't make me a backbencher, yes I am a topper which has brought me great praise from teachers and respect from friends and now this praise has become an addiction and this praise has also blocked my free-life friendship. This topper identity has brought me my favourite goddess Saraswati, it's not because I am a student and I pray for marks before exams, but it's a kind of 'Thank you'. I never used to study day and night, just only before exams and yes, I used to be very attentive in class and listen to what the teacher says, so I was just amazed that how without studying, I always used to get full marks. An atheist becomes a theist only when he sees something which has no logic.

I always wanted to be a historian and archaeologist, to do Ph.D in medieval history with one of my favourite language urdu(which I don't know) and my favourite Mughal, Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar. I want to discover many truths like the hidden Dwarka, the unraveled existence of the epic of Mahabharata and many other such unsolved mysteries. These discoveries are so exciting. I also rather wanted to teach students...So let's see what the future awaits for me, for now, I am a medical student.

Well about my other favourites, favourite cartoon show was Oswald, my IPL team is KKR, favourite cricketer Sourav Ganguly and Gautam Gambhir, my favourite fruit being guava, ice cream flavour none other than vanilla. I don't like cold drinks. I neither like mountain nor sea. As on vacation or travel, I only like to visit and tour historical places, such a great flavour of enigma and nostalgia can be expressed all around. Actually I like to be around many people, in a gossip, so love group travelling. Though by nature, I am shy and introvert but like to hear to talks of the folk and enjoy the company of people as I am a good listener and sharp observer and that's what makes me interested in mystery books like detective Feluda and mystery movies. I am an extreme lover of thrillers and Feluda. I can tell a lot about people by just seeing them and that's god gifted maybe. As in writing essays or long writeup, I was inspired by Rishi Kapoor's autobiography 'Khullam Khulla', where he gave so detailed descriptions. My favourite poets are Harivansh Rai Bachchan and William Wordsworth, the nature lover boy. My favourite season is kind of summer due to the pleasure of air-conditioners, a nature-villain right?

Well, this is about what youths like, but even on being a 17 year stud, I doesn't belong to this generation not in any way. If the world calls me a luddite, I accept this tag and yes, I am an old lover. My favourite directors are Hrishikesh Mukherjee(Hrishi Da), Satyajit Ray and Raj Kapoor. My favourite actor is Amitabh Bachchan and yes my only wish on deathbed is to meet him for once. I am probably the biggest fan of him. My favourite film is of course, Sholay and also Anand. Sholay is such a film with great dialogues, that one can watch it a 100 times, but still it will feel as a new film. Of Amitabh's roles, the best is in Sharaabi. Of this generation, I like Kartik Aaryan on screen, though Big B continues in this generation as well. As of classics, I like Mughal e Azam( best role of akbar), Shree 420, Kal aj aur kal. My favourite song is 'Gaadi Bula Rahi Hai' from Dost, such meaningful lyrics and also 'Jeena Yahan Marna Yahan' from Mera Naam Joker. I am a old bollywood and bengali cinema(Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chatterjee) lover, those songs had so great melody and so meaningful lyrics. I am literally an old butch. Even if I see something of this generation, it is generally message-giving, biopic, mystery and crime thrillers. My favourite singer is Kishore Kumar, the man had so great versatility, sad to energetic songs. Mostly, I like sad and soulful songs. As in TV shows, my favourite has always been Adaalat (fan of KD Pathak), CID and KBC. Well, I also like Sumedh Mudgalkar in RadhaKrishna. Mahabharat on starplus was also my favourite once.

There's a lot to know more about myself because I am kind of unique and I prefer to have my flavors different which helps others to spot me out in the crowd of followers and trends. I don't follow favouritism and please don't follow me, yes you can admire me and get inspired by me. There are thousands of people I hope who think like me, great thinkers with philosophies and day dreaming, to them I say see me, do what I do, think what I think but at the end, add pinch of your own flavour to my style that makes it yours.

Akash Ganguly

[reactingtosomething]

Reacting to Justice League

You Never Come Back Right

This official concept art first appeared here

Two Guest Reactors join Kris to talk about DC’s indisputably awkward but intermittently promising attempt to out-Marvel Marvel: Andrew, whom some of you may know from our Baby Driver reaction, and another of our film school buddies, Zack Snyder loyalist Justin.

KRIS: Unfortunately this is just a text post and we haven’t graduated to multimedia presentations, so we can’t properly reproduce JL’s cameraphone video opening, but let me ask you guys: What’s the best thing about Earth?

ANDREW: *Thinks for a minute*

It's-

JUSTIN: The best thing about Earth...

ANDREW: And my phone dies.

Did we ever get an answer??

I don't remember.

KRIS: Someone asked Henry Cavill about this in an interview and he said something about Superman believing in humankind’s capacity to be good even when everything is awful

But I’m 99.9% sure the real answer is Lois Lane

Which, fair

ANDREW: If you asked Batman, he would say Superman is the best thing about earth.

JUSTIN: LOL, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, I’ll agree

If actually answering for myself, I’d say the best thing is the uncertainty.

ANDREW: Of Life?

Of death?

Of coming back to life from death?

JUSTIN: Of life.

ANDREW: Spoiler?

JUSTIN: No no. You never come back right.

KRIS: I feel like if Whedon had made JL from the ground up there might have been a more coherent thread for that, but as it is I think the best parts of this were Snyder

Which I probably would not have said if you’d asked me a year ago

JUSTIN: I couldn’t agree more.

KRIS: I mean I’m glad that we’re probably not going to get the version of the story that they had in mind when they made the “Knightmare” sequence in BvS, because it felt like they were going to do an Injustice thing and kill off Lois

ANDREW: I'm actually not sure whose version I would prefer. But it is very obvious who did what scenes, and there is a bit of whiplash.

Why do you guys say Snyder?

JUSTIN: Well I’m a Snyder fan in general but if Whedon was on board from that start we’d have a good but much different film.

ANDREW: Out of curiosity.

We would have had Avengers 3z

KRIS: I think part of the reason Whedon’s stuff felt half-assed to me wasn’t really anyone’s fault, it was just the horrible luck and the tight timeline

But there’s also stuff like the sight gag of Barry falling into Diana’s cleavage, which a lot of critics have already called out as a repeated joke from Age of Ultron

JUSTIN: Exactly. This film release should have been delayed.

KRIS: It did sound like Snyder’s original version was going to be eight hours long with way too many supporting characters

ANDREW: Directors cut.

JUSTIN: Yeah those moments just had such a different tone from what we knew.

ANDREW: Oh, I forgot about that gag... sigh...

KRIS: Yeah, tonal consistency is a big part of it for me too

JUSTIN: I was wondering the same thing. The things I hear that were cut sounds like a lot of pages

Well the first act is just so rough for me, so rushed. But I’ll be the first to acknowledge BvS has the slowest, longest first act.

KRIS: I think I’m in between you guys in terms of how much I like Snyder’s DC movies, but I was invested enough in them, and especially in the characterization of Superman, that the course corrections in JL in terms of “more fun” and “less brooding” just feel too big

JUSTIN: Snyder’s cut sounds like a two parter.

ANDREW: But Kris, it's okay. Cause he was revived as a different character.

KRIS: I was honestly glad they abandoned the original plan for a two-part Justice League, but the ways in which the studio has reacted to both critical and audience feedback have been kind of nuts

JUSTIN: Yeah it’s more of 90 degree turn and needed maybe 45, if that makes sense.

ANDREW: I concur Justin.

KRIS: Like the Suicide Squad recut by the folks who made that really well received trailer

I think if Bruce hadn’t felt like such a totally different dude, Superman feeling pretty different might have landed better

What I did really like in Cavill’s performance was that even as an oddly happy dude, his Superman is still pretty restrained and quiet

ANDREW: There problem is that they're too reactive to what everyone says, instead of going with a vision anymore.

D.C. I mean.

KRIS: For sure

JUSTIN: My issue with Bruce was his sudden brotherhood with Supes and really odd when he mentions Clark. He didn’t know Clark Kent!

ANDREW: He looked it up.

With the... bat... Wikipedia

JUSTIN: Found him on Facebook.

KRIS: Even Diana suddenly knowing a bunch about Krypton felt a little weird

ANDREW: Yeah!!

KRIS: I do wonder why if Bruce felt so bad he didn’t reach out to Martha and/or Lois sooner

JUSTIN: Kal-El

ANDREW: I wonder why the first thing he thinks of when getting the magic box is team

JUSTIN: Martha lost her house! How did Bruce not go in and clear all her debts after he paid for the funeral?!

ANDREW: Reanimate the dead*

Thanks autocorrect

JUSTIN: Do you think the black suit was used and then cut?

KRIS: What’s kind of funny is that Bruce has (probably accidentally) been established at someone who doesn’t pay much attention to his finances -- no one ever realized those checks to the Scoot McNairy character in BvS were “returned”

ANDREW: Black suit?

KRIS: For Superman

It wouldn’t surprise me

It feels like a Snyder-y aesthetic choice

JUSTIN: True, he’s a one track mind

ANDREW: I wouldn't pay attention to my finances either if I were him.

JUSTIN: Cavill teases it too

KRIS: I did have to appreciate the “I bought the bank” line

JUSTIN: Yeah. And that was Snyder

KRIS: Which weirdly reminded me of Ken Watanabe buying the airline in Inception

ANDREW: It's a reflex!!

KRIS: I don’t know how much of it is deliberate but I kind of dug Bruce’s consistency in continuing to say things like “If there’s even a fraction of a possibility...”

JUSTIN: I surprisingly wasn’t bothered too much by how he was brought back.

KRIS: The idea and the process I thought were pretty cool

It didn’t actually feel like a big enough moment when Bruce presented that idea

I don’t know if that’s because it needed more setup, or it was just kind of boringly shot, or what

JUSTIN: I could see that. I really enjoyed the moments of friction in the group

ANDREW: It wasn't really how he was brought back. It was more of it coming up out of nowhere.

JUSTIN: Flash finishing Bruce’s thought was kinda like, “where did that idea come from?”

ANDREW: In think I did a literal double take on the theatre.

JUSTIN: For me I mean, I wondered

KRIS: They maybe needed to let Bruce, if not everyone, see the Mother Boxes in action

JUSTIN: That would have helped.

ANDREW: That probably would have worked.

Something!

Anything that could lead  this train of thought.

KRIS: They also hadn’t really established this Bruce as the polymath genius of some other incarnations

ANDREW: Not really, no. He's not dumb, but he's not a super genius.

JUSTIN: Yeah. He comes across as a brute

ANDREW: And tired of everything

KRIS: And I missed that -- maybe not how INTENSE AND ANGRY he was in BvS, but actually showing us a late 40s/early 50s Batman

ANDREW: Grisly! Has arthritis

I would dig it

KRIS: There’s some lip service dialogue about it, but Bruce being tired and worn out could have also fed into the arc of building a team and a legacy

JUSTIN: That’s what I liked in DKR.

ANDREW: Awww that's so good, Kris!

Especially if Robin is dead in this universe, which he is... right?

JUSTIN: And just preparing for the future

KRIS: Yeah, we see Robin’s armor in BvS briefly

JUSTIN: Well Nightwing is out there

KRIS: With the Joker’s graffiti

Caroline Siede, the culture critic, tweeted that with actually pretty light editing, the first act could have set this up as a Diana POV movie instead of a Bruce POV movie, which would have both been an actually appropriate response to outside feedback and also made more sense for the characters

JUSTIN: Jason Todd’s Robin?

KRIS: I assume Jason, yeah

ANDREW: Ahhh yes. Oh, so nightwing is out there. Probably?

KRIS: It’s around the time Bruce gets the invitation to the Friends of the Metropolis Library event

ANDREW: Ooooh Diana pov.

That would be sick.

Hey remember that brief fight scene where she blocked all the bullets!

That was one of my favorite scenes in the movie.

JUSTIN: Well Jessica pointed out Bruce should have asked Diana to talk to [Arthur Curry] since they’re both, you know, special.

KRIS: I’ll link to it properly in the post, but Caroline’s proposed edit was to start with the present-day Amazon sequence, then go to Diana[’s action scene then to] the museum seeing the beacon, then have her go to Bruce

Oh man, yeah

ANDREW: Sounds more straight forward to me, actually.

KRIS: Right?

JUSTIN: Ooh I like that.

KRIS: And that Amazon sequence had some really cool stuff in it, action-wise

ANDREW: I was actually really nervous, cause I was afraid they were all gonna die.

JUSTIN: I was just typing that. One of the best action. Just shows off how well they work together.

KRIS: The CGI for Steppenwolf was surprisingly awful, and the newly hypersexualized costume designs were pretty annoying, but the whole keep-away tactic for the box was great

ANDREW: Yeah... Magic Carpet Ride looked really really bad.

Like really bad

Like awful

KRIS: It was at the point where they should’ve just given him a full face helmet

JUSTIN: Not to start comparisons to Avengers but I like when the opposition is more intellectual in Loki than physical, like Steppenwolf

ANDREW: Is it sad if I keep wanting to make music jokes with Steppenwolf?

It's the name!

JUSTIN: It’s only natural

KRIS: You should give him a new name every time you mention him

ANDREW: On it!!!

JUSTIN: I think his mother’s name is also Martha

KRIS: WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME

ANDREW: That's how they should have stopped him.

KRIS: Oh there was this one Bruce-Barry character beat that I was really surprised they never actually concluded

JUSTIN: That brings up one of my Snyder complaints. He’s great visually but I don’t know that he directs the actor’s performance

ANDREW: That's not his strongest suit.

What's the beat, Kris?

KRIS: Yeah, Miri and I have talked about that -- he has pretty terrific casting instincts, but either he’s really hands off with the directing or just kind of bad with actors

It was the “Save one” thing in the sewer

JUSTIN: Yeah except for Lex I love his casting choices

KRIS: When Bruce gave him the pep talk I was totally invested in whatever mini-arc that was going to be

And Barry has like two seconds where he seems to realize whatever Bruce meant when he said “Then you’ll know”, but there’s not a third scene where Barry and Bruce talk about it again

JUSTIN: Oh yeah, I can see that. It was a great little speech.

ANDREW: I... forgot... all about that.

KRIS: I loved it because they didn’t do the first-choice thing of having Bruce just get annoyed and tell Barry to Man Up or whatever, and it was such a great Elder Statesman thing, and even on-brand for the animated Batman

JUSTIN: A line with Bruce joking, “you caught on fast.”

KRIS: But they didn’t pay it off

ANDREW: Dang it!!

KRIS: I wonder if it was a cut Snyder scene, or an unfinished Whedon rewrite

It feels more Whedon-y but I could see it being either

JUSTIN: We probably won’t find out for another 5 years.

ANDREW: I could see it being either too.

Speaking of whedon-y, my favorite part was the moment after they resurrected superman.

KRIS: That big Flash moment with the slow motion and the sword was pretty great and almost definitely all Snyder

JUSTIN: Oh god that was awesome!

KRIS: Not quite as amazing as “Time in a Bottle” in Days of Future Past, but way cooler than anything Whedon did with Quicksilver

ANDREW: I also liked when the flash and superman fought, and Flash realized that he could see him

Yeah, he did like nothing with quicksilver!

KRIS: YES. I tend to think Barry should be definitively faster than Superman (if not necessarily WAY faster), but the eye contact in that post-resurrection fight was great

Ezra Miller was really great in general

ANDREW: Ezra Miller was fantastic.

JUSTIN: It was great with Barry still being able to dodge him but his shock on how fast Supes was.

The characters and interaction are what really made this movie enjoyable for me.

ANDREW: Same, actually.

KRIS: I think individually most of the performances were a lot of fun, although as a team the cast doesn’t yet have the same chemistry as the MCU Avengers

Cyborg seems to have been a victim of the rewrites

ANDREW: And exposition

KRIS: I don’t know if we saw enough to even judge whether Ray Stone is a good actor

ANDREW: Not really.

JUSTIN: And that’s a product of not having individual films leading up to this.

KRIS: Right

Does either of you guys know much about Aquaman?

ANDREW: I'm in the same page with Aquaman. I think he did well, but I don't  he had enough to do? Or say?

I don't know much about him from the comics.

JUSTIN: Not a ton. And now I really want to read some more.

KRIS: For me Aquaman definitely felt like everyone just sort of dusted their hands off after casting Momoa, like “Our work here is done”

ANDREW: Pretty much.

JUSTIN: I think his performance definitely drew my interest for the movie next year.

ANDREW: But sadly, it wasn't enough

At least for me

KRIS: I feel like this Aquaman is just as different from comics Aquaman as Snyder/Cavill’s Superman is different from more classical versions, so it kind of annoys me that the general consensus seems to be loving one and hating the other

I mean I get that part of it is about tone and theme and not just about fidelity to the comics, but still

And I did like Arthur a lot

JUSTIN: I read some comments from Momoa about how he and Zack worked on this outsider on land and sea who is just a loner. That annoys me knowing there was more to his story.

ANDREW: I think people just really like him from Game of Thrones, and they aren't thinking about tone or theme.

Ya! Khal Drogo is playing the character that people make fun of!

Etc

JUSTIN: I haven’t seen GOT so I only know him a few other things.

KRIS: He was Conan in that 2011 remake that was not great, although he was good in it

JUSTIN: But I appreciated his enthusiasm for the character

KRIS: And I LOVE the casting choice of a Pacific Islander

ANDREW: Me too!!

JUSTIN: Oh yeah, I get that and The Rock’s Hercules confused.

KRIS: Hahahaha

Not unfair

JUSTIN: Both roles Arnold played back in the day.

KRIS: A few years after that movie he was pretty candid in a spotlight thing at C2E2 in Chicago, about most of the top leadership on Conan just not really knowing what they were doing

That’s another character he actually seems to know really well and care about, so it was a bummer

I do have high hopes for Aquaman

JUSTIN: Just trying to cash in on the IP

KRIS: Though I wonder what the financial situation is at Warner now, in terms of going beyond Aquaman and the Wonder Woman sequel

ANDREW: I do too. I want it to be good.

JUSTIN: And with James Wan directing

ANDREW: Oh yeah; JL didn't do as well as they wanted, right?

JUSTIN: Did the air bubble bother you guys?

KRIS: The air bubble surprised me but I didn’t hate it

JL didn’t break 100 mil domestically for opening weekend

JUSTIN: Me either. Wan said his movie wouldn’t have bubble conversations

ANDREW: Why do they need that though? They live under water!!

Is that bad for them? Box office wise?

JUSTIN: I like to think that’s how they have a private conversation

KRIS: Everyone seems to think it was pretty bad, yeah, although I think it had a decently strong Chinese opening

ANDREW: They can whisper! Under water!

JUSTIN: Yeah Box office was projected at 110-120

ANDREW: Ouchie

KRIS: Budget was supposedly 300 mil before adding marketing costs

ANDREW: Oh my god!

JUSTIN: Yeah international will be the thing that saves it

ANDREW: Including re shoots?

KRIS: I assume/hope so

ANDREW: Oooooh boy

Reboot

JUSTIN: I think reshoots brought it to 300 mil. Marketing 150-200 million

KRIS: It’s wild, considering how mediocre most of the VFX were

ANDREW: Yeah man! Born to be wild looked awful!

KRIS: Another thing Snyder does really well, or at least did before BvS, is the sheer scale of superhuman action sequences, and you really miss that in the Superman scenes

(He had a different DP on BvS than on MoS)

ANDREW: I know we talked about it. I just wanted to make another joke.

JUSTIN: And a different one for JL too right?

KRIS: Yeah

Looks like a lot of TV credits, including some major GoT episodes

JUSTIN: MOS is still my number one.

KRIS: Same

JUSTIN: Yeah

KRIS: I mean Wonder Woman is objectively better crafted, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much I still like MoS on rewatches

ANDREW: Yeah, but in the supermen scenes he just... dominates. In fact, you didn't really need anyone else in the climax. He saves people faster than Flash. He easily subdues Who Needs Ya, more than Wonder Woman or Aquaman. And he helps cycborg with the unboxing.

It makes me mad...

KRIS: The thing with the Russian family was I guess a Whedon add-in, which makes sense, and I did like the punchline of Superman carrying an entire apartment building

ANDREW: I liked the punchline, but it undermines everything about them working together

KRIS: Yeah, it’s interesting and frustrating at the same time -- there’s a way they could have actually played Superman DRASTICALLY altering the balance of power as this huge, amazing thing

But they ended up in this awkward middle space

JUSTIN: I feel you Andrew. It’s like, “we need Superman back so the rest of us can go back to our regular lives.”

KRIS: On paper Superman changes everything but it’s not directed in such a way that you really feel it

ANDREW: Well, he does change everything. Everyone else can go home.

KRIS: I don’t for a second believe this will happen, but I think what would make the most sense is for Diana to remain the leader of the team and Clark to be basically the Thor-esque muscle

I did like Bruce explicitly acknowledging that he wasn’t cut out for leadership, but it also draws attention to the point that the movie would make more sense from Diana’s POV as she takes up the responsibility

A detail that I’m irrationally annoyed about in the climax is the use of Superman’s freezing breath

Which I’ve always thought is kind of a dumb power, but they also hadn’t established it in MoS

ANDREW:  What you're saying is, it should be Wonder Woman 2: Wonder Woman and Friends. Which I support.

He had some winter fresh gum in his pocket.

It's in a deleted scene.

JUSTIN: Wonder Woman should be the leader, at least for now. I like that in MOS he doesn’t know to take his fight out of a huge city and Batman knows that in BvS. And now they both can guide Clark to be better at what he does.

KRIS: Something that wasn’t set up well in the previous movies is Bruce’s idea of Superman as a beacon of hope

ANDREW: Yes! That was... odd.

KRIS: You can sort of connect the dots from the world’s uncertainty about Superman to feeling bad after he dies, but JL doesn’t do the work for you

JUSTIN: Yes!!! The whole hope thing bothered me from the first trailers

KRIS: I do kind of like the idea of Bruce being guilty

ANDREW: But there is a line between grief and total admiration.

KRIS: Right

It’s also weird that Bruce understands that Diana is an inspiration

It’s not like Steve Trevor had a journal we know about

To be fair there’s no way that was going to feel anything other than transparently reshoot-y

JUSTIN: I feel like it would have been better if Bruce had said that after Superman’s death he’d become a sign of hope, or something

ANDREW: Why is batman putting these things on other people? He can be a symbol of hope!

He can be the hero we deserve! And need!

JUSTIN: He’s a symbol to fear

KRIS: I would have bought and maybe even preferred a more personal angle that emphasized Bruce trying to fix his mistakes, which is sort of hinted at

ANDREW: Like Stark post- age of Ultron?

KRIS: I guess, yeah

ANDREW: But hopefully not as catastrophic.

Or civil war-y

KRIS: Bruce as Tony, Diana as Steve, Clark as Thor -- it’s a little too convenient but it’s all there and it would work!

Bruce wallowing in his guilt might have also been an interesting counterpoint to Diana (and I guess to some extent Arthur) taking on the big-picture concerns

JUSTIN: If this were from Diana’s POV definitely

KRIS: I think ultimately the idea to get Bruce on a healthier track of mind was right but it could have used an actual arc

ANDREW: Right.

Through friendship

And justice

JUSTIN: Of course

KRIS: Oh my god, Clark having the title-drop line was so corny

ANDREW: Title drops are my biggest pet peeves in films and shows.

No lie

KRIS: “I’m also a fan of justice” doesn’t even make sense in that context

ANDREW: Or for him to say in context!

JUSTIN: Makes no sense except if kind of fit in with some other cheesy dialogue. You just knew it was coming.

KRIS: So much Whedon dialogue

“Yeah, something’s definitely bleeding”

JUSTIN: I did get a chuckle out of  Arthur sitting on the lasso

KRIS: “I know you didn’t bring me back because you like me.” “I don’t... not.”

ANDREW: That was also very out of character.

He had to be sitting on the lasso for any of that to make sense.

And he hit on Diana, which was weird.

JUSTIN: Yup

KRIS: I did like the lasso gag (which had an actual setup! when Diana helpfully explains it in the bank scene), although I also was not of fan of the hitting on Diana

JUSTIN: I do like Supes asking Batman if he bleeds.

KRIS: Even if it wasn’t creepy it’s just such a too-easy joke to go for

And I did love Gadot’s delivery of “Well I thought that was beautiful.”

JUSTIN: She makes it work.

ANDREW: Cause Gadot is awesome

KRIS: Let’s talk a little about Lois

ANDREW: Sure?

KRIS: She’s very... un-Lois in this

Explicitly, which is interesting

JUSTIN: The scene at the planet was odd.

KRIS: So odd

ANDREW: Soooo odd

KRIS: “You’re the thirstiest young woman he’d ever met”

ANDREW: Oh god! I forgot about that joke.

JUSTIN: I wasn’t sure why I was supposed to be laughing

KRIS: Amy Adams can do no wrong and she sold the reaction shot about as well as she could but geez

So, I think it would have been more in character for Lois to grieve, or more accurately sidestep grieving, by throwing herself into her work

But for the sake of argument, is there something to the idea that even a Lois Lane should be able to just sit with her grief for awhile?

JUSTIN: Sidestep grieving with Work and that’s why she hasn’t been in touch with Martha

KRIS: God, yeah

I feel like there’s an abstract idea about #feminism, and in general the idea that a person can be more than one thing, that the movie gestures toward there, but like so much about this it’s never actually developed

Lois Lane as Grieving Sort-of-Wife would also obviously play better if the gender ratio in the cast was different

JUSTIN: I feel that Amy Adams portrayal of Lois has had strong feminine presence.

*always has a strong feminine presence

KRIS: She’s a strong presence by virtue of being Amy Adams, and her characterization in MoS is mostly pretty good, but here the character suffers for having to just be a stereotypically feminine archetype

JUSTIN: The ratio does lead well into the comment Diana makes about working with children.

True.

KRIS: I mean in a literal sense Diana would still be working with children if there were more women

ANDREW: Her presence is negated by lack of screen time as well. Though I don't know if it would have helped shake the archetype she was stuck in.

JUSTIN: Yeah but I guess I’m just referring to her as mother figure.

ANDREW: Amy Adams, I mean.

JUSTIN: I agree. She is one of my favorites in BvS and in this we just don’t get enough.

KRIS: The specific nature of Lois’s relationship with Clark has been a little bit of a problem for the universe of these movies from the beginning, actually

I mean to be clear, I love her in Man of Steel

And I even kind of like the idea that she’s the first person outside the Kent family to show Clark the best of humanity

ANDREW: But then she's only there to show that to Clark.

KRIS: I think where it becomes a problem is the second half or so of BvS, with the “You are my world” thing

I do think Lois has a fair amount of agency in MoS, in addition to being a lens to the wider world for Clark

JUSTIN: I wasn’t a big fan of them already living together in BvS. I wanted to see them develop in a sequel

KRIS: The problem is that we never see Clark develop a relationship with other people, or with humanity in general

So if nothing else the idea that only Lois can pull him back from the brink post-resurrection is consistent, but this is where the “What’s the best thing about Earth?” thing doesn’t work -- it’s just Lois, again

JUSTIN: That’s a good point.

ANDREW: You just brought this full circle.

You son of a bitch!

JUSTIN: Haha

KRIS: I have my moments

The other thing that will annoy me about the Lois and Kansas scenes until I die is that they don’t use the “This Is Clark Kent” music

JUSTIN: And that’s why he runs the show.

KRIS: I get, on a really abstract nostalgic level, why Danny Elfman would want to bring back John Williams’s Superman theme

(and his own Batman theme)

ANDREW: I liked that touch. It was nice, albeit distracting.

JUSTIN: I found the score brought me out of the moment sometimes. The bank robbery scene was one.

KRIS: Me too

JUSTIN: I liked John Williams’s when Clark first came back

KRIS: It was a weird score -- when it wasn’t distracting because of those callbacks, it was mostly forgettable

I also don’t like Wonder Woman’s electric cello theme, which seems to be a minority opinion on the internet

JUSTIN: But to be honest Danny Elfman’s comments about his score for Batman being the only one annoyed me.

KRIS: I loved Zimmer’s MoS soundtrack, and the parts of the BvS soundtrack that use his Superman themes, and I really wish more of those had been brought back

Oh I didn’t even see those. Will Google.

ANDREW: I don't like the cello thing either for Wonder Woman. I never did.

Kris! I'm glad you said that.

KRIS: Lois’s VO at the end is kind of lame and nonsensical, but the TV writer/producer Kevin Biegel tweeted that the “What Are You Going to Do When You’re Not Saving the World?” cue from the end of MoS would have been a great fit for that ending montage, thematically

JUSTIN: Oh I have to disagree. I loved WW’s theme from the start

ANDREW: Ooooh yeah... there was lame voice over.

KRIS: I think I’d like it better if its first appearance in BvS wasn’t SUPER weird -- it just blares out of nowhere when he finds the World War I photo

ANDREW: Fuck

JUSTIN: It does just come out suddenly.

KRIS: I also really love the orchestral music in Wonder Woman

JUSTIN: Yes, it fit the feel of the movie.

KRIS: It’s a little less memorable, melodically, than some other superhero scores but it’s so well composed for the images it accompanies

ANDREW: The score I Wonder Woman i like. Her theme, not so much. Your right, it does kind come on at the loudest volume.

KRIS: Man I just really love that little piano theme for Clark Kent and it seems like such an obvious thing to do in the Kansas scenes

It must have been there before Elfman replaced Junkie XL, whom I admittedly wish I didn’t have to refer to as Junkie XL

JUSTIN: Isn’t it in the last trailer?

Haha

KRIS: Side note: I love the less-than-a-minute-long “Four or Five Moments” cue he did for the Deadpool soundtrack

(I think the reason undercutting Colossus’s traditional hero speech works so well is that it’s actually a pretty good hero speech)

Any other lingering annoyances or unmentioned high points?

JUSTIN: That opening Batman scene, with the robber

KRIS: Holt McCallany!

ANDREW: Not that I haven't mentioned... I think.

JUSTIN: I like him but the whole thing was too on the nose.

KRIS: “FEAR”

ANDREW: FEAR

KRIS: It’s a weirdly unnecessary scene

JUSTIN: “It’s because he’s gone isn’t it?”

KRIS: Especially now that we can’t shake the Diana POV idea

THANKS A LOT CAROLINE

It was fun to see a Green Lantern

Although I also appreciated the “isn’t this just the Lord of the Rings prologue?” jokes that went around

ANDREW: You think they would make Superman a black lantern?

K: I first misread this as Andrew asking if DC/Warner would go for a black Green Lantern, i.e. John Stewart

KRIS: I think Geoff Johns is personally too much a fan of Hal Jordan

for them to do that, I mean, not just in an abstract sense; it’s fine to love Hal Jordan

ANDREW: Awwww but then they could do a blackest night thing.

KRIS: I vaguely remember an announcement that the GL movie would be a Corps movie rather than a solo thing but who knows now, if the financial hit is too big

ANDREW: Who knows!

KRIS: Ohhh sorry I just misread that

ANDREW: Just don't do cgi suits!

Oh god!

JUSTIN: I believe I keep hearing Lethal Weapon in space with John Stewart

ANDREW: Oh my god do it!

Now

KRIS: That would be great

JUSTIN: Get Shane Black to write it

KRIS: I’m fine with flying in Shane Black to fix any superhero franchises

JUSTIN: Well it depends on how you feel about IronMan 3

ANDREW: I'm on board.

I like iron man 3!

KRIS: I LOVE Iron Man 3

JUSTIN: Me too.

KRIS: I guess to end this, just for fun do you guys have quick pitches for what you would have done post-MoS if you were in charge of the DC movies?

ANDREW: Booster gold and blue beetle buddy cop movie.

KRIS: I would’ve made the Man of Steel sequel promised by that great ending at the Daily Planet, partly because I want more of Lois and Perry arguing with each other

I also would’ve just not immediately introduced a new Batman

ANDREW: Same.

Or perhaps... Nightwing.

Instead of Batman?

Or GASP

A Batman... Beyond.

KRIS: Now that you mention it I’m kind of surprised they haven’t revisited Batman Beyond in any of the animated movies

JUSTIN: MOS sequel and WW.

KRIS: I have to admit that I’ve never really liked Lex Luthor

So I’m not sure who my MoS 2 villain would be

JUSTIN: Eisenberg as Lex?

ANDREW: I don't think it has big enough of a fan base to be honest. Batman Beyond; I mean.

KRIS: Lex in general

I also would’ve been fine with never introducing kryptonite

ANDREW: How so?

JUSTIN: I once wrote a Superman origin and used Metallo

I actually like how they introduced kryptonite.

KRIS: I guess I’ve rarely felt that kryptonite outgrew its origins as a convenient way to depower Superman (I believe in the old radio plays?)

If they had to intro kryptonite I did like how they did it

ANDREW: I also like the song.

Oh my god! He went crazy... and they still called him superman!

KRIS: MALOY

ANDREW: Damn it!

KRIS: That might be hard to beat as an exit line

JUSTIN: No no no stop it right there Andrew

Coming soon: One of our epistolary Reactions, on Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

[victoriousscarf]

for the meme: Jason Todd and Slade Wilson

Jason: First impression

Okay I’m reaching back to 2008 for this but I’m pretty sure the first time I ran into Jason was Hush because I read Hush really early. I remember it being my introduction to a lot of characters (including Dick as Nightwing) which is both great because it covers like Batman’s entire rouge gallery and crew but is also awful because it covers everyone and that gets confusing fast hah.

So my introduction to him was Bruce’s overwhelming guilt and rage over his death. That’s a pretty strong impression. I also know I read Under the Red Hood fairly early and liked it enough to get the animated movie the instant it came out. But I don’t remember really LOVING Jason at that stage. Like I liked him but he wasn’t someone I was so into. I’m pretty sure the first time I ever wrote him was Find the Sun. I had Dick and Tim in the first story I ever wrote but I’m pretty sure Jason wasn’t in it.

Impression now

God I can not with this compassionate broken and angry child. He’s brash yet kind, too messed up by his own tenderness and driven to extremes by his anger. Someone hug this boy.Favorite moment

Damn I don’t know. I mean the end of Under the Red Hood when Bludhaven is nuked and he fights Bruce anyway creates this really interesting triangle between Bruce Jason and Dick and tho Dick isn’t there he’s still so much a presence of the screen, the favored son vs the one who messed up and died and Bruce’s panic while finally facing this ghost. I don’t know if I can say it’s my favorite but it fucks me up to this day. I also like him fucking with Black Mask that always gives me a kick. And I really love him first meeting Dick back as Robin (the post zero hour one, not Nightwing Year One).Idea for a storyI’m sure variations have been done but I’d love more about him dealing with the Lazarus pit and how that continues to effect him. Unpopular opinionI really don’t like new 52? Like I’m all for Jason having actual friends and there’s some good in Red Hood and the Outlaws but like that’s never where i go first. Like Roy and Kor almost always are Dicks friends first. I wish Jason had been allowed to keep growing in the pre 52 with maybe some more links to Donna and Kyle and building a life post all the things he had done instead of scrapping the slate back and making him WAY less angry or brutal. Like, I’m glad new 52 reframes his compassion but I really like his compassion held in tenuous balance with his rage. (I feel starved for truly angry characters okay that aren’t just assholes). Pre 52 had some major issues with him too but tbh I’m more in Under the Red Hood territory than Red Hood and the Outlaws. Favorite relationshipYou gonna make me say it??? Really? Okay fine I’m totally into him and Dick. And I don’t just mean I really like making them kiss: I am so fascinated by the possibilities of their relationship in canon: favored son vs second son, and how Jason’s idolization of Dick turns to rage contrasted with Dicks behavior toward Jason starting as Robin, changing to his guilt and missing Jason so much turning to complete disregard for Jason when he comes back which directly contradicts Dicks entire reaction the whole time Jason was dead. Dreaming about him, getting into fights with Bruce, and perhaps most importantly beating the Joker to death with a crowbar when he mocks him about not remembering Jason’s name. (Sure it got fixed almost instantly but like mocking Jason’s death drove Dick, guilt complex almost fell apart when he let someone else kill Blockbuster Dick, to actually /kill the Joker/ which makes him the only member of the batfam who actually avenged his murder at any point??? Does Jason even /know/?) Add on legacy issues (when Dick disappears for a year Jason takes up the Nightwing suit too) and like yeah I’m fucking here man. I mean I love Bruce and Jason and the pain between them, and Jason and Tim starting with rage and moving to actually being friends but like the miasma of whatever the fuck is between Dick and Jason keeps dragging me back. (Come home brother is the only page I want to keep from Battle for the Cowl)

Favorite headcanon

Jason is acting president of all Robin’s have a crush on Dick Grayson club. They’re still trying to figure out where Duke lands but Steph is a member, tho she got the least of it since her stint as Robin covered Dicks mental breakdown era.

Slade:First impression

Damn I don’t remember. I’m fairly certain I ran into him in the teen Titans before anywhere else and he’s always interested me but I can’t quite remember which issue I found him in first. I know I spent a lot of time tracking down Judas Contract since it was out of print at the time and I have like a really early printing tpb from the 80s as a result. And even more time finding the issue where he just strolls into Dicks apartment to tell him he’s in Bludhaven because that issue never was collected in trade, so I was checking every comic store I could find and their back issues.

Impression now

I’m really disappointed he’s become more of a generic villain in a lot of DCs media. Like I loved him under Wolfram, when he was a Merc with an honor code and snarky outlook who was as likely to tutor the Titans as attack them. He almost became an ally a few times. And like I haven’t dug into his post new 52 comics that much but he just seems so bland and like oh ho ho he’s such a badass and that’s all that matters!!! So like I’m still attached to the character I just haven’t paid much attention to his recent canon.

Favorite moment

Hmmm… I mean I really like the time he allies with the Titans and the old squad was just side eying him the whole time while the newcomers where sorta more like eh? Is he so bad? And then Dick rode a goddamn nuke because why not.

But honestly it’s probably him and Dick standing outside the abondoned Titans tower, fighting over their guilt over Joeys death. It’s showcases both of their emotional pain, Dicks temper, and Slade’s strange capacity for compassion.

Idea for a story

Can I have another 80 stories set in Flashpoint with him as a pirate???

Honestly I’d be really here for an actual nuanced story exploring his relationship with his kids. Too often it gets reduced to hate or them being too much like their father and that’s not what I want.

Or! Considering I have no idea what the fuck is happening with DC right now but I just read that Superman and Lois from pre and post new 52 just got combined and have memories from both universes combined Slade dealing with his kids and Dick and sure throw Ollie in here too. The fact he’s both not met Grayson and has spend years intimately knowing Dick and the workings of his mind would be a trip and could be fun, plus his more complicated relationship with Joey and Rose pre new 52. Also Ollie would have a shit of a time figuring out his two lives (as he’s a set of characters that changed by far the most with the new 52) and why not throw Slade at him again too for old times sake? (Hey asshole remember when I crashed your wedding? I’m not even–actually yeah yeah I do you ASSHOLE)

Unpopular opinion

I have no idea??? I honestly don’t know what’s popular and what isn’t with him. So far no one’s bitched at me with anything to do with Slade.

Favorite relationship

While I’m totally here for the respectful turned to hateful rivalry between Slade and Dick (and honestly that’s another relationship that’s been stripped from Dick that drives me MAD) my favorite is actually Slade’s relationship with his kids. He’s distant, moves on a scale as simply a neglectful and not great dad to full on abusive and using his kids for his own ends (like for sure sticking kryptonite in Roses eye is a great idea!!!! But that was also at the height of Slade loosing his morals and mind). But as much as he wasn’t there for Grant, it was Grant’s foolish death and Slade’s pride that sent him on a collision course with the Titans. His guilt over Joey, first with his muteness and later for killing his own son, the fact that as terrible as he was to Rose he wants the person he respects possibly the most (Dick) to take care of his kids, especially her. The fact that when he looks at Rose the emotion the black lanterns see is love. The fact his entire plot in Flashpoint was his quest to save his daughter as the world goes pear shaped into apocalypse. Slade loves his kids he’s just a terrible fucking father and I love it.

Favorite headcanon

He still respects Dick despite everything they’ve done to each other.

[2700fstreet]

THEATER / 2017-2018

Ever in the Glades

JUN 6-8

Produced by Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts at Northwestern University from Evanston, IL Written by Laura Schellhardt Directed by Rives Collins

Bank of America is the Presenting Sponsor of Performances for Young Audiences.

The Story Behind the Play

Five teenagers growing up on a fictional island in the Everglades where the adults are as dangerous as the gators. When one of the kids returns from juvenile detention to help the rest escape to the mainland, it seems their prayers have been answered. There's only one problem—they need a boat, and they need it before the adults catch wind of their plan and end it, or end them.

Playwright Laura Schellhardt says the idea for Ever in the Glades took root in the wake of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, that began in 2014. To save money, the city had switched to the Flint River as its water source, but residents soon complained of health problems related to the water. Tests revealed dangerous levels of lead and other contaminants from the river. Children were particularly at risk. State and city officials tried to cover up the threat before being forced to take action.

“A group of adults knowingly poisoned an entire generation in one town for profit,” Schellhardt says. “And children were the hardest hit.”

Echoing that betrayal, Ever in the Glades portrays a moment when a group of five teens realize most of the adults in their lives may not have their best interests at heart. Life has beaten down their supposed caregivers so much that they have grown hopeless and mean—behaving like gators—and seem determined to drag the kids down with them. At one point, Z (a character in the play), says to their faces:

Why are you like this? Did you all want something this world never gave you? Did everyone give up on you til you gave up on yourselves — I’m asking, I’m really asking, cuz I get it, that urge to give up on yourself, I see how it hardens a person, I feel it hardening me, and I don’t wanna be like that——

Gradually, the friends realize that if there is going to be any salvation, they are going to have to save themselves. And they join together to plan how to do that.

The play is not some mean-spirited rip on all adults—Old Lady Simms is a loving, helpful soul, for example—and it is even sympathetic to their broken spirits. However, it does ask why young people are often not included in conversations about the future, a future that will more and more belong to them. They are not even given much say in their own futures. Perhaps the adults fear what it says about them if the young people succeed in escaping the Glades, or succeed in making better lives for themselves than they ever did or could.

As she drafted and revised the script, Schellhardt watched young people in the real world growing more aware of the perils they face. Reflecting the play’s theme of one generation failing the next, young leaders have emerged willing to point out the hypocrisy of their elders, including real-world issues such as the brutalization of African American youth, school shootings, the sexual abuse of gymnasts on the U.S. Olympic Team, and environmental destruction.

At the same time, the playwright says she feels heartened. She sees young people, harnessing the power of social media, organizing in unprecedented ways on a national and global scale. Active in groups including Black Lives Matter, March for Our Lives, and #MeToo, youth are bypassing the grown-up gatekeepers and seizing control of the narratives that directly affect them.

Like the five friends in Ever in the Glades, more and more young people know that the best way their stories can have better endings is if they tell them themselves. A growing movement of youth is insisting their truth will be heard and their hopes will be considered. “My hope is that young audiences will feel empowered by the play,” Schellhardt says. “There’s a world that is theirs and it’s waiting for them to find and create it.”

Who’s Who

The Kids Ames Johnson, 15—a smart, bookish, sensitive teen who’s running low on hope Zero “Z” Johnson, 17—Ames’ older brother, just returned from a stint in juvenile detention Elijah Brown, 15—a born preacher and Ames’ best friend, he bears a heavy-duty secret along with his enthusiastic faith Deland “Delia” Simms, 14—daughter of a drifter and granddaughter of a fortune teller, Delia is a new arrival on the island Junker G, 17—son of the pawnshop owner, Junker G is a joker who dreams of making music

The Adults Mercy Johnson—Aunt of Ames and Z Mr. Sticks—the boatman who delivers people and things, but always for a price Mr. G—Junker’s father Reverend Brown—Elijah’s father Mama Brown—Elijah’s mother Charity Simms—Delia’s mother This Guy—boyfriend of Delia’s mother Old Lady Simms—Delia’s grandmother

So, What’s Going On?

Whip-smart, wise-cracking, caring, creative, and hopeful—Ames, Elijah, Delia, Junker G, and Z are good-hearted teens. But they’re not just stuck in a small community—they’re trapped on a small island surrounded by alligators. Maybe worse, they’re under the supposed care of supposed grown-ups who seem determined to feed on whatever dreams these teens can conjure.

The expectations, neediness, and greediness of the adults are closing in on the young people and they can sense it. One by one, they realize they’re running out of time to escape. Together…they make a choice.

Where in the World

The action takes place on a small fictional island in the Everglades, a vast area of tropical wetlands in southern Florida. It features diverse ecosystems that include sawgrass prairie, cypress swamps, marshes, pinelands, and mangroves. In the last 150 years, about half of the region has been drained and transformed into farmland and urban areas. Very few people live in the wetlands themselves, but the habitats there are alive with birds, small mammals, and many types of reptiles, including American alligators. Everglades National Park, established in 1947, is the third-largest national park in the United States, and protects about 20 percent of the original wetlands.

Playwright Laura Schellhardt has lived in Florida and describes the Everglades as an extreme place—extreme beauty, extreme climate, and extreme isolation. “It has the capacity to be gorgeous, but it’s also a hard place to live,” she says.

What to Look and Listen for…

how sound effects and lighting are used to create the swamp-surrounded island

how lighting and props are used to indicate the dock, a church, and other places

ways the costumes reflect themes of the play (hint: compare the pant legs of the adults with those of the young people)

how the adult actors shift between different characters

how the adult characters show menace, especially toward the five friends

What to Think about…

What do the five main characters want? What stands in the way for each of them?

What are the parents and caregivers like? How might you explain their attitudes and behavior?

Z tells Ames: “… you’ve got your story, I’ve got mine. But maybe we could write a new one, together, you and me.” What purposes do stories serve, both the ones we tell ourselves as well as those we tell others? How do they affect us, and why are they important?

What does Old Lady Simms mean when she tells Elijah, “There’s more than one kind of family …”; and “There’s also more than one kind of faith…”?

Ames says, “Imagine what happens if we stay.” What do you imagine would happen?

Imagine the lives of the friends if they make it to off the island. What do their lives look like?

After the performance, conduct a poll of your peers and the adults around you. Did they find the play hopeful or sad? Explore the answers in a discussion.

Analyze the Characters

When analyzing a character, actors learn to ask three questions.

What does the character say?

What do other characters say about that character?

What does the character do?

“Someone might say they’re a great person, but you have to watch what they do—and don’t do—to find out the truth about them,” says playwright Laura Schellhardt.

Pick one teen character and one adult character from Ever in the Glades. Analyze them using the three questions above. How does what they do differ from what they say? Are the differences big or small? How would you assess these characters’ trustworthiness?

Youth in Numbers

Consider … When have you felt lonely and vulnerable? When have you felt alone and strong? When have you felt strength, even joy, in being part of a group with a purpose?

Alone, each of the young people in the Ever in the Glades feels powerless. During the course of the play, though, they build trust in each other. This solidarity—the sense that they are not facing their troubles solo—builds and combines their courage. They gradually accept they must push back against anyone or anything determined to shut them up, put them down—or eat them.

Consider making art that celebrates the strength in numbers, as in collaborating with a friend or friends for a cause or to create something good. Write a story or script, draw a picture, and/or create a collage by clipping and combining images. Try to capture the energy and feeling of a fearless, resilient, motivated group.

We can also think outside our personal bubbles and troubles. Teens in the United States and around the world are organizing with a resolve that has not been seen in generations. Got a cause you believe in? Chances are your peers have already laced up their marching shoes, put up a website, and faced down Twitter trolls. Here are several causes to consider:

Black Lives Matter—Teens have been at the vanguard of this national and global movement to raise awareness of systemic injustice and violence that affect black communities. https://blacklivesmatter.com/about

March for Our Lives—Following the murder of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, teens there and elsewhere ignited an international movement to address gun violence. https://marchforourlives.com/home

Dosomething.org—A clearinghouse for teen activism—from disability rights to water conservation to positivity campaigns—can link you to the causes closest to your heart and conscience. https://www.dosomething.org/campaigns

Youth Activism Project—This org promotes and supports youth-led campaigns in the United States and globally. http://youthactivistmproject.org/what-we-do

Whatever you create or do—a letter, artwork, a play, a teach-in—share it at #youthinnumbers.

More About the Creators

Laura Schellhardt, Playwright

Laura heads the undergraduate playwriting program at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Her original works include Upright Grand, Air Guitar High, Courting Vampires, and Digging Up Dessa, which appeared at the Kennedy Center in February 2018. She also has adapted The Phantom Tollbooth and The Outfit as well as authored Screenwriting for Dummies. She urges young writers to tell their stories. “We need them,” she says. “People out there want to see themselves reflected in our stories, and that reflection is where hope is found.”

Rives B. Collins, Director

Rives teaches in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University, where he is the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence. In addition to his work in theater, he is nationally known as a storyteller. He sees live theater as a unique form of art where performers and audience collaborate to bring an event to life. “There is something so powerful to be in the same space with the actors, where the applause and laughter has a direct effect,” he says. “Together, we harness the power of our collective imaginations.”

New Visions/New Voices

Ever in the Glades has been developed with the support of the New Visions/New Voices program, part of the Education Division of the Kennedy Center. The New Visions/New Voices workshop and festival is held every two years to stimulate and support the creation of new plays and musicals for young audiences and families.

Talking with the Creators

A Couple Qs & As with the Playwright and Director

What is unique about theater as an art form?

Laura Schellhardt: Theater demands a live witness. There’s a pact in the air between live actors and the audience, and there should be a kind of conversation going on between those two entities. For that period of time they form a community. Some stories, as in movies and TV shows, are better consumed from your couch where you can rewind and re-watch certain parts. Not theater. In theater, the story is a little different each time it’s performed and each group of people has a different experience.

Rives Collins: Theater is a living experience. It is both constrained by the space and liberated by those boundaries as well. If I’m making a movie, I can do all kinds of special effects—animatronic alligators, for example. On the stage, in that space, we harness the power of our collective imaginations. The audience’s applause and laughter have a very real effect on what happens on stage.

The idea of narratives and how they shape people and their experiences shows up in several places in the play. What purpose do people's internal narratives serve? Why is it important or helpful to be aware of our narratives?

LS: We can learn to be in charge of our own narratives, and see that our world is shaped by our actions and not just our words, formed by what we do and don’t do. For the characters in the play, they have been taught that the world is going to happen to them; that what they want may not matter because they don’t have control. They are told to follow the path laid out by other people, specifically adults. The young people learn that’s not true. They can choose their own way forward. They realize, “I can be shaped by what I choose to do, not just what I feel or what I believe.” It can feel like waking up when we realize that.

As the director, what speaks to you most about Ever in the Glades?

RC: I felt drawn to this play because it never preaches, yet it tells the truth. I feel like the interwoven stories of five compelling characters creates a tapestry of the lives of these funny and complex and heartbroken teens. They’re like a lot of young people I know.

Old Lady Simms tells Elijah, “There's more than one kind of family, young man.” For some people this is a radical idea, who may have been taught that blood is always thicker than water. What does it mean to choose a family? How might young people go about creating the “kind of family” they want?

LS: As we go through life, we find that we develop different “families” in addition to the one we’re born into. You will always have that family, but you may find eventually that you have different values than they do. Then you may need to create your own, a family of like-minded friends or co-workers who will offer other forms of inspiration and support. You can also recognize others you could be family for. You can become the family someone else needs.

What are you hoping audience members, especially teens, leave the theatre thinking or feeling?

RB: I hope they’re so engaged and entertained they’ll be saying “Let’s see it again!” I hope they’ll leave asking questions and having conversations about why that character did this and this character did that, and filling in the blanks with their own imaginations.

LS: I want the younger generation to feel empowered by the ideas in the play. If they don’t recognize themselves onstage, I hope they will recognize the questions and desires the characters have. I think young people today have a lot of questions for their elders, questions like, “Why are you so afraid of change?” “What will it take for you to take us seriously?” “Who is looking out for us in the decisions being made about us?” Our culture and its systems aren’t very good at inviting outsiders, including young people, to sit at the table when decisions that affect them are being discussed and made. I hope the play inspires more conversations between generations, and that the adults will think to ask their children or students, “How can we be your ally?”

Explore More

Go even deeper with the Ever in the Glades Extras.

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Additional support for Ever in the Glades is provided by A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation; the Kimsey Endowment; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; and the U.S. Department of Education.

Major support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by David M. Rubenstein through the Rubenstein Arts Access Program.

International Programming at the Kennedy Center is made possible through the generosity of the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts.

Kennedy Center education and related artistic programming is made possible through the generosity of the National Committee for the Performing Arts.

© 2018 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts