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brindaneer · 3 years

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“Brinda: I love Superhero films. Marvel, DC and of course, our very own Krrish!

Neer: umm…I really can’t watch anything from the entire genre except Krrish!”

This is an appropriate example of a typical conversation regarding ‘superhero’ ventures between us. Shocked? What?! We already told you that our opinions varied at times! Oh! Ok! Shocked about the fact that Neer does not like the Marvel and DC universe? Well, yeah! Neer can be a bit ‘weird’ about certain things 😝! Don’t worry! Brinda loves them all❤️... However, what really matters is that both of us absolutely adore our first Indian superhero, Krrish; the reason for that is not Hrithik Roshan alone although he obviously is the primary source of our attraction.

MR. Rakesh Roshan! What a man! The sheer courage that must have been required to even dream of making a film about an Indian Superhero, all those years ago, is rare to find; it makes us salute the possessor, Mr. Rakesh Roshan again and again. At some point, fed up with relentless struggle, many among us have probably thought of giving up on our dreams. Let us take a lesson from this man and aspire for great things without worrying about the results. Only then can we achieve that which is largely perceived to be unattainable.

Technically superb with high quality VFX and cinematographically fabulous, Krrish possessed all ingredients that are usually required to make a commercially successful superhero venture. Yet, in a hypothetical SWOT analysis of the film, its numero uno strength would definitely have to be the script. We realize this must remind you of the blog on Koi Mil Gaya but please excuse us for sounding repetitive. It is not our fault that Mr. Rakesh Roshan places utmost importance on the script of a film. No, we are not saying it is his either. In fact, it is quite the reverse. Mr. Roshan’s astuteness in coming up with a crisp script with the help of a very talented team of writers is undoubtedly his best quality and that, in turn, enhances his abilities as a director, thereby making the end product not only saleable but also worthy of critical acclaim. Therefore, not surprisingly, Krrish had a sound and very believable storyline, which ultimately is the most essential element of any film. So, lets just delve into it right away!

Krrish is all about Krishna, Rohit’s son, who has inherited special powers from his father, the very ones that Jaadoo had gifted lovingly to Rohit years back in ‘Koi Mil Gaya’. Unfortunately, Rohit and Nisha are no longer alive, having died a few years after we had last seen them (😭😭). Scared of exposing her super heroic grandson to the world, Sonia Mehra leaves Kasauli and retires to an obscure but beautiful little place somewhere in the Himalayan countryside. Krishna’s face is an exact replica of Rohit’s but otherwise he is quite different from what his father used to be at this age. Krishna has superpowers that allow him to leap across mountains, fall into a gorge from the top of a high peak and yet escape unhurt, climb mountains faster than any other living being, and run faster than a horse! He is also a lonely young boy, desperate for companionship and exposure to the vast exciting world he has been kept away from. Despite harbouring a grievance towards his ‘Daadi’ for this confinement, Krishna loves her too much to be really offended. Her world revolves around him and he is very aware of it. Yet, he cannot let go of his boredom in the sleepy little hamlet he has been forced to dwell in! What a tragic irony! The very powers that had once enabled Rohit to be largely accepted within the so-called mainstream society have now chained his son, keeping him forcibly hidden from the rest of the world.

However, destiny obviously has other plans, and Krishna meets Priya (Priyanka Chopra) who is visiting India with her friend Honey from Singapore and are in his neighbourhood with an adventure group. For him, it is love at first sight. For Priya, he is initially a mystery and eventually a friend. The parallel between Krishna and Priya’s story and that of Rohit and Nisha is worth mentioning in this context. Nisha had also considered Rohit just a friend for a long time until she fell in love with him.

Despite his grandmother’s restrictions, Krishna’s powers are revealed (somewhat deliberately by the man himself) in front of Priya and Honey, who are naturally awestruck. The scenes where they and their companions mistake the superhuman Krishna as supernatural and are convinced that he is the ghost of Ramcharan provide some very effective comedy to keep the audience engaged.

After spending some lovely moments together, and getting acquainted with Krishna’s grandmother, Priya leaves, much to Krishna’s disappointment. Having grown up far from the madding crowd, away from the complexities of urbanism, Krishna is still innocent to a degree that is rare to find in the contemporary world. Priya is aware of his feelings but she does not reciprocate them despite genuinely liking him. However, that does not deter her from luring him to Singapore with false proclamations of love just so that Honey and she may save their jobs by showing off his unique skills in a television show. Quite a diabolical plan! Naturally, we were developing acrimonious feelings for Priya at this point when we first watched the film, and we are sure, so were you! However, keeping aside our concern for the ever-lovable Krishna for a while, how refreshing was it to see a flawed heroine for a change? We are definitely not suggesting that this was the first portrayal of such a female in Hindi cinema, but Bollywood had most diligently followed the tradition of glorifying female lead characters up to a very long time, and it was not completely out of fashion in the late 2000s. In fact, it is still frequently observed in television shows that are highly influenced by obsolete Bollywood themes. How many heroines can you name off the top of your head who were selfish and unsympathetic in mainstream commercial films during that decade? Yes, definitely more than what used to be in the 60s, 70s and 80s, but still not too many. Just close your eyes for a moment and think of the number of films where the ‘hero’ has faked love for the heroine due to selfish reasons (to win a bet with friends, to satisfy his own ego, for the sake of his job, etc). If you can think of such films far more easily than the ones where heroines have made similar mistakes, we have made our point. Please do not get us wrong; we are definitely not advocating such behaviour. However, our society has normalized the concept of a ‘virtuous’ female to such a massive extent that sometimes people forget we are human beings, made of the same flesh and blood as men, and capable of making similar mistakes and sins. We do not intend this blog to be a discourse on feminism by any means; yet somehow this discussion seems very relevant here.

Moving on, Krishna is elated to find that his feelings are reciprocated and wants to go to Singapore at the earliest to get permission from Priya’s mom for their marriage. However, his daadi has severe objections in this regard. The scene where Krishna lashes out in anger and accuses her of selfishly wanting to keep him to herself is one of the best enacted scenes of the movie. But more on that later. Heartbroken by her grandson’s accusations, Sonia Mehra finally reveals the reason for her apparently irrational fear, and in the process, we get to see our very own Rohit once again, although in flashback.

After Jadoo had given Rohit his powers back, he became widely known in the scientific community due to his research works, eventually attracting the attention of internationally renowned scientist, Dr. Siddhanth Arya (Naseeruddin Shah). Dr. Arya wanted to collaborate with Rohit and build a computer that could predict the future, thereby saving the world from catastrophes. To that end, Rohit moved temporarily to Singapore and worked day and night in Dr. Arya’s research laboratory. Nisha, who was pregnant at the time, was being taken care of by Rohit’s mother. The day Nisha was hospitalized for delivering the baby, Sonia Mehra called Rohit who anxiously told her that he was coming back because his powers had been used for wrong purposes. The next day, she received news of his death in a lab accident. Nisha could not bear this shock and passed away a few days later, leaving little Krishna as Sonia’s only reason for existence.

Convinced that Rohit’s death was not a mere accident, Sonia decided to keep her gifted grandchild away from prying eyes so that the same people did not try and use his powers for evil as well.

This revelation naturally mellows the agitated Krishna down and he feels guilty for having hurled harsh allegations at the person who is actually his protector and saviour; more so because she not only agrees to let him travel to Singapore but also ushers the best possible blessing upon him by giving him Rohit’s coat. On his part, Krishna promises that he is going to keep his powers hidden from all. However, that’s easier said than done, as he soon finds out. Although he manages to ruin Priya and Honey’s attempts to showcase his skills for a show, it becomes impossible for him to keep quiet when a circus tent catches fire in front of his eyes and children are trapped inside. As he dons a common mask and wears his father’s coat inside out as a cape, Krishna becomes Krrish, a superhero who does not think twice before jumping into fire to save the entrapped. The name is a shortened version of his real one and he uses it as a pseudonym so that he may keep his promise to his grandmother. However, when has truth remained hidden? As they say in Bollywood, ‘sach ko to ek na ek din saamne aana hee hoga’! Priya, who has now actually fallen for Krishna (who wouldn’t?) comes face to face with him as he emerges out of the burning tent, carrying a child in his arms. Since he is all masked up, and the surrounding is filled with smoke, she only sees his intense greenish grey eyes, and quite logically draws the conclusion that he is none other than her very own Krishna. Smart girl! Who else has those gorgeous pair of eyes in the world? Nevertheless, Krishna’s promise to his grandmother is worth more to him than admitting the truth to Priya, and he ruins all her attempts to make him confess including getting deliberately beaten up by goons to prove that he is not the superhero she thinks him to be. He also gives his identity willingly to Christian, a young man in need of money for his wheelchair-bound little sister; a pair he had already helped before by collecting money through a stunt show on the streets (a particularly touching scene).

Just when everything seems rosy in Krishna and Priya’s life, he gets to know about Priya’s lie after a chance conversation with her supposedly sick mother on phone. Priya had hitherto avoided their meeting on the pretext of her mother being sick but the latter herself exposes that lie unknowingly and Krishna is stunned by the disclosure. Hurt and angry with Priya’s betrayal, Krishna decides to leave Singapore immediately. Meanwhile, Priya comes across a clip in her own video recording of that night at the circus and realizes that her initial intuition about Krishna being Krrish was right all along. Elated, she tells the truth to Honey and also confesses her true love for him, all the while unaware that her past lies are about to haunt her soon. She also gives the tape to Honey to show it to their boss, this time not for the sake of their jobs but also for Krishna’s fame. When she comes to meet Krishna and reveals what she has discovered and then done, he lashes out at her in probably one of the best scenes of the film. His every word is justified, and she is repentant. However, Priya crosses the line when she rebukes his grandmother and throws the same allegations at her that Krishna himself had once. Furious, Krishna reveals the reason behind Sonia’s overprotectiveness to her and starts for the airport, leaving an utterly ashamed and heart broken Priya behind.

We are now in the last leg of the film. Reenter Dr. Arya, who is definitely not what he seemed like! He too is wearing a mask like Krishna, the only difference being in their intentions. Krishna has put the mask on to save the innocent while Dr. Arya wants to destroy them. He is a power-crazed egomaniac who has already rebuilt that computer from Rohit’s lab notes so that he can effectively play the role of God. And surprise surprise! To fulfill his purpose, he has kept Rohit alive. Well, barely alive at least! What actually happened all those years back was that Rohit had successfully built the computer that could foresee the future. During his time in the laboratory, he had formed a deep camaraderie with Dr. Arya’s head of security and after Rohit had finished building the computer, his friend wanted him to foresee the gender of his unborn child through it. The computer correctly predicted Krishna’s birth but it also foresaw Rohit’s death on the very day his son was born. After further exploration, Rohit realized that Dr. Arya was going to kill him so that no one else knew how to operate that computer. Shocked and distraught, he understood that he had been used. That was when he had received the call from his mother and informed her about his decision of coming back. Before leaving Singapore forever, Rohit decided to ruin Dr. Arya’s evil plans by destroying the computer he had toiled over for months., and he was partly successful. Although he managed to destroy the computer, Dr. Arya caught him before he could leave. But for the Chief Security Officer, Rohit would surely have been killed. That honest man who had genuinely become fond of Rohit saved him by reminding Dr. Arya about the password to the computer- Rohit’s handprint and retina. Dr. Arya who had already hatched the plan of rebuilding the computer kept the latter’s heart beating. But just that. This story is narrated in the present times by Dr. Arya’s Chief Security Officer to Priya who brings him to the airport and stops Krishna from leaving. Meanwhile Dr. Arya has already seen his own future in the computer. Any guesses? He has seen his death at the hands of a masked man! Of course, the man is none other than Krishna or Krrish himself. Eager to destroy every threat to his existence, Dr. Arya promptly kills Christian, the guy who had taken up Krrish’s identity at Krishna’s behest. However, when has anyone ever escaped destiny? Even Dr. Arya doesn’t! Krishna in complete superhero mode leaps across tall buildings and finally defeats his nemesis (The insanely dedicated Hrithik Roshan who performed every stunt by himself escaped a near fatal experience when a cable snapped during a stunt! As fans we are both amazed and concerned about this man’s immense humility and absolute submission to his craft. We just hope and pray that he takes care of his health since it is more important than anything else). Before dying, Dr Arya asks why Krrish wants his death. In a terrific cinematic moment, Krishna takes off his mask and reveals his face. The shock and realization on Dr. Arya’s face is evident as he breathes his last. Finally, everything turns out fine as Krishna comes home to his daadi with not just Priya but Rohit (who has now recovered sufficiently and is back to his old self) too. The film ends on a positive note with Jaadoo’s spacecraft peeping through the clouds once again as Rohit plays that same old tune which had beckoned the former and his companions to earth in the first place.

Now that we have recounted the story, a few much needed words about the actors- Rekha ji was once again at her best in the film, effortlessly slipping into the role of Krishna’s grandmother. Hrithik and her chemistry was as fabulous here as it was in ‘Koi Mil Gaya’. Priyanka was her charming self as usual. Undoubtedly, she is one of the most natural actors in Bollywood, and this film was no exception. The easy, playful chemistry that Hrithik and she shared was one of the major highlights of ‘Krrish’. What do we say about Naseeruddin Shah? Well, probably it is better to say nothing because it might be redundant. Finally, praising Hrithik Roshan is also becoming repetitive in these blogs. So, we have decided to stop it henceforth! Just kidding! At least in this life, it is utterly impossible! Brilliant in every frame, Hrithik aced the role of a superhero like only he could, his body language being as flawless as his expressions; actions as perfect as emotions. The moment when Krishna met Rohit was a proof of this man’s immense versatility and talent. Who would think that someone that perfect as Rohit could also be equally superlative as a superhero or vice versa? The scenes where Krishna lost his temper with his daadi and Priya were also among the best moments in the film. Hrithik is always so natural at portraying rage, but he never goes overboard with it. But then, isn’t that true for every emotion in the book?

Krrish 3, the third project in the franchise continued Krrish’s saga and Rohit’s story with a vitality that characterized both its predecessors. The film featured Hrithik in a full-fledged double role and pitched him against Vivek Oberoi as Kaal who was a far tougher villain to destroy than Dr. Arya. Kaal was the quintessential supervillain, at times even more ‘powerful’ than the hero himself but ultimately destined to lose as good always triumphed over evil. In fact, this is the message that pervaded throughout all the three films- ‘Koi Mil Gaya’, ‘Krrish’ and ‘Krrish 3’. It was only natural that Hrithik’s terrific performance simultaneously as Rohit and Krrish grabbed a lot of eyeballs and went a long way in making the film a massive box-office success. It broke major box-office records and set new ones. However, Vivek Oberoi also deserves special mention in this context. His portrayal of Kaal with an optimal mix of cunning, intelligence, and cruelty earned major brownie points from the audience and definitely contributed to the mammoth success of the film. We finally lost Rohit forever in Krrish 3 and as tragic as the moment was, Hrithik’s performance was so good that we still watch it frequently despite the pain involved. Then again, Hrithik usually has that kind of impact on the audience every time he performs. Krrish was able to destroy Kaal at the end, thereby proving yet again that no matter how challenging times were, with goodness in heart and genuineness in intentions, any evil could be defeated. The assertion ‘Hum sab mein Krrish hai’ has never seemed more important than the present times. Let us all truly believe in it. We can and we will defeat this virus by our individual as well as collective efforts. So please #MaskUpIndia and #GetVaccinated. How uncanny that the plot of Krrish 3 actually revolved around a virus and vaccines! Just like Rohit and Krrish were able to defeat that virus, let us have faith in our real-life superheroes too.

P.S: At the end, Krishna and Priya had a son who also seemed to have inherited his dad’s superheroic powers. So, is there any chance of daddy Krrish in the fourth venture? Fingers crossed for that 😊😊

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afaimsarrowverse · 4 years

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Top 30 Arrowverse Storylines we never got to see:

30. Ray and Barry as Friends hanging out and superheroing together (The Flash/Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow)

I am not really sure why this never happend. Grant wanted it, Brandon wanted it, the fans wanted it, but somehow Ray ended up not even getting invited to Barry’s Wedding, while Sara, who never even interacted that much with Barry before, did. „All Star Team Up“ did work very good and showed that Ray was quite a good fit for Team Flash, but when „Legends“ came along letting those two character interact outside of Crossover became a problem, but still the writers could have them have interact more during the Crossovers or at least, you know, have Barry invite Ray to his Wedding!

29. Jacob finding out thaz Kate is Batwoman at a point where it still matters (Batwoman)

Seeing how Anti-Batwoman Jacob was, it would have been a very big moment when he would finally find out that Kate is the one wearing the mask. One can argue that is was still a big moment, but Alice telling him flat out when Kate is not around anymore does not have the same impact or consequences this storyline was supposed to have. It would have been interesting to see if he would have changed his tune (probably) and how much. In the comic Kate’s Father is actually one of her biggest supporters Batwoman-wise, and while I don’t think that we would have gotten to this point quickly, it would have been interesting to see the Crows working with the real Batwoman with Jacob’s grudging permission and what impact this revelation would have had on his relationship to his daughter.

28. Laurel Lance Lives (Arrow)

Laurel was never supposed to die, but the writers were pressured into killing her of, so Oliver could be with Felicity instead. But you can’t just kill of the Black Canary! She is arguable one of the most important female superheroes of DC Comics, maybe the most important one right after Wonder Woman. Which is why we got a whole line up of new Black Canarys after her death. But the Original One (not counting Sara, who never actually called herself that on the show, I mean we don’t refer to Shado and her father as Green Arrow either, do we?) was the best one and was the Female Lead of the show and would have deserved to go to amazing places after Season 4 and would have gone there if she had had the chance. Too bad shipping is more important than storylines, characters, and legacy to The CW, Warner, and DC.

27. „Green Arrow and the Canaries“ Spin-Off (Arrow)

We waited almost a year for the news that this is not happening after all, after everyone pretending it’s a go for a very long time. Which is a major disappointment. Not so much because the show would have been that great - the Backdoor Pilot did not look like it - but because many storylines remained unresolved and will probably continue to remain that way because of the cancelation, inculding William’s abduction, the question who gave JJ his memories back and why, the whole mystery about Dinah and the Black Canary, and the question what Laurel is really up to. It’s said that not the whole show would have taken place in the future and there would have been a Laurel Storyline in the present, but in any case it would have been „Arrow“s Legacy Show, where many of the characters from the old show could have popped up, not only those features in the Backdoor Pilot, and it would have finally given the Canaries the spotlight they deserve and the Shadowhunter-Fans another show to watch, so in short: Why make false promises for over a year, if you are not willing to deliver? Not cool.

26. Kara‘s and Kate’s friendship replaces Barry‘s und Oliver’s after Crisis on Infinite Earths (Supergirl/Batwoman)

Marc Guggenheim promised us this when „Crisis on Infinite Earths“ aired and the world was still sane. Things were looking really good for the Arrowverse, and no one had any idea the world’s newest health crisis would turn life into „mere existing because suicide is bad“. At this point pregnancy, Shut-Down, unfinished seasons, Melissa not extending her contract, and Ruby Rose exiting hers were unthinkable. We should have at least gotten one more Crossover which would have delivered on this promise – in the current season to be exact. But someone decided not to recast Kate Kane because of their Super Ego, so no .. this only happend Off-Screen in Season 1 of „Batwoman“ and that’s it. I am not even sure Kate will be mentoned in the final season of „Supergirl“ at all, however even if the „Whatever happend to Kate Kane“-Storyline should get resolved in Season 6 of „Supergirl“ rather then in „Batwoman“ that would be the end of that and in no way be a worthy heir to the epic seven years spanning Olivarry Friendship.

25. „Supergirl“ and „Superman& Lois“ airing side by side

That was the dream. Has been the dream for fans since Season 2 of „Supergirl“ when Tyler first appeared, and has been the plan of the producers since around „Elseworlds“ when they started planning the Spin-Off. Now, Covid and Pregnancy combined and pushed Season 6 of „Supergirl“ backt to who-know-when, while „Superman & Lois“ got a much shorter season then it would have gotten under normal curcumstances, so they won’t air on the same night or even during the same period of time. Which also means that all those mini-crossovers we would have gotten – remember back when „The Flash“ first started and how many Characters from „Arrow“ ended up crossing over into the new show? – won’t be happening now. Which is a shame and very frustrating.

24. „The Atom“ Spin-Off (Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow)

Now, this one was fist mentoned when Ray Palmer showed up in „Arrow“ back in Season 3. Instead we got „Legends of Tomorrow“ with him as the de-facto Male Lead in it. Which was probably the better Spin-Off then, but now Ray has left„Legends“, they did introduce Ryan Choi, and yes, if I could pick the Spin-Off I would want to see right now, it would be „Atoms“ starring both Ray and Ryan along with their wives. I have no idea how Fairy Godmother Nora would fit into „The Atoms“, but I am sure if one tried, one would find a way. But of course there is no way this is happening anytime soon or anytime at all. Not only because Brandon is now in „The Rookie“, but mainly because someone behind the scenes is clearly pushing for baggage-less Spin-Offs like „Wonder Girl“ or „Nomi“. We did not get „Green Arrow and the Canaries“, might not even get „Painkiller“, and are most definitly not getting an „Atom“-Spin-Off. Which is just wrong and missed opportunity in the size of the Moon.

23. Harry and H.R.-Team Up (The Flash)

I never expected the Arrowverse Shows to be „Orphan Black“, but until recently they had all those Doppelgangers and hardley ever did something with them. Now Harry and H.R. are the only Main Characters ,with whom the writers actually did something with the fact those two are Doppelgangers and around at the same time, but to be honest, this makes it even worse, the carving for those two to meet, interact, and riff of each other. Because they actually worked well together, and it’s a shame they never got a storyline o rat least en episode where they had to team up and so something together. The Council of Wells is nice, but mainly just for fun. H.R. is the least Wells like Wells, and Harry everyone’s favorite Wells (Eobard does not count), so why did no one ever write something great for those two before they went and killed H.R. off?

22. Sam sacrifces herself tos top Reign and Alex adopts Ruby (Supergirl)

First of all, I do like Sam, I didn’t want her to die. But the problem is that literally everything about Season 3 was building toward this. Normally everyone bitches about the writers killing off characters, but in this case, it was a grave mistake not to kill off someone. Sam’s Guilt about Reigns crimes, Alex’s bond with Ruby – all of this was literally for nothing and stopped dead with Sam not dying. Somehow getting rid of Reign magically solved everything for Sam (or not, because she was written out between Seasons, we don’t really know if she ever got over her trauma), while Alex’s Adoption Storyline went nowhere and was put on indefinite hold after that one episode in Season 4, where she almost got a baby. Worse, the writers actually admitted that they had planned this, but then changed their minds because they did not want to take a mother from her child. Which just means they were and are cowards – if you compare „Supergirl“ to the other Arrowverse Shows, there is one major difference and it’s exactly that one – only villains and side-characters die on „Supergirl“ (and M’yrnn whose storyline bascially was dying), in other words less heartbreak but also less courage is found here.

21. Nora dates Spencer Young (The Flash)

Spencer Young was conceived as Nora’s Love Interest, who was to lure her into the Young Rogues at a later point of this season, but something went awry behind the scenes with the actress it seems, so the storyline was pushed back and back, and Spencer was replaced in every episode she was meant to be in after the first one by other characters, until she was eventually dropped alltogether and Bug Eyed Bandit got her gadget, so that a least some of that storyline could get a pay off. As for Nora’s Rogue Love Interest Weather Witch ended up getting this role, which just about works, but given that there is no real foundation there, the romance was only implied and never took off, which is too bad for the shows‘s Queer Record.

20. Cat remains Kara‘s boss (Supergirl)

„Supergirl“ has changed so much over the years, that is actually kind of impossible to say how the show would have turned out, if certain elements would have sticked around. One of the biggest casulties of the change in style and tone was the loss of Cat Grant as a regular character, and it’s hard to say what the show would have looked like after the first Season, if she stuck around, but it would sure looked have very different. Now I am not so sure we would have gotten Lena Luthor the same way into the show we got her in reality, if Cat wouldn’t have left, but there is no telling, after all Lena quickly went from a kind of mentor character to a female friend, so maybe not much about this would have changed. However James‘ Storylines and all the back and forth with who is owning and running CatCo would of course not have happend like that either, and I think „Supergirl“ would in the end have been a more coherent show because of that. Plus Cat was the best character in the show and having her around would have made everything better anyways.

19. Anissa meets the other Heroes of the Arrowverses (Black Lightning/ The Other Shows)

This could still happen in the next season or so, if the actress is willing to go to Canada and come back to Anissa Pierce after the end of „Black Lightning“, but even if it happens, it wouldn’t be the same. Due to curcumstances „Black Lightning“ ending up on Earth Prime was just for cosmetics, which is sad, because what’s the point of a Shared Superheroes-Verse if your characters can’t interact? Am I the only one who would have wanted Anissa to meet Kate (never going to happen now), Sara, Barry and Kara? I don’t think so. Sadly it wasn’t to be.

18. Iris and Kara have a Journalist Team-Up (The Flash/Supergirl)

This is the one thing fans have been asking for, the producers pretended to listen to, but still ignored. It could happen during the current season, but I have my doubts. The window has closed, and no one knows why this never happened. We did have Iris team up with Lois and Clark during Crisis though to recrut the Paragon of Truth, which was a Journalist Storyline, if you will, but all the fans always wanted both Iris and Kara to have actual Journalist Storylines, but we rarley got them. Yes, teaming up on an Inverstigative Story was always difficult while they were living on different earths, but it would haven been possible nevertheless. And on Earth Prime even more, but no, it was more important to do that endless Mirrorverse Storyline than to have, I don’t know, Iris and Kara break an Investigative Story about Lex to bring him down. Well, maybe we will get another Iris/Lois-Team Up with Journalism rather than Multiverse Saving Topics instead at a later point, but we sadly won’t get a Iris/Kara/Lois Team Up like that.

17. Amaya meets Charlie (Legends of Tomorrow)

I don’t know why they did not do that. After all Charlie pretend to be Amaya in Season 4 so often, it kind of would be obvious to have them meet at some point. It’s the same actress for God’s sake! But I guess the main reason we never saw that was that „Legends“ has short seasons. Season 4 had only 16 episodes and Season 5 only 15, of which one was the Crossover, so only 14 they could use, and they just ran out of space to insert a meeting between those two ladies that would have had any reason to happen beyond the fact that fans would have wanted it to happen. I am normally all for things happening for storyline reasons and not only for them to just happen, but in this case, I would just have taken it happending without any compelling reason.

16. Leo meets Leonard (The Flash/Legends of Tomorrow)

I would have payed extra-money for this to happen. But I do get why it didn’t happen, because if you come right down to it, we only had Leo for five episodes across two shows, two of those episodes being part of the Crossover, which left three episodes, that really had other things to do than to bring back Leonard just to have him meet Leo. On the other hand those two were so different, it should have been an obligation for the writers to make it happen somehow. Maybe at least in a vision or a dream or something like that. Gah, I wish Wenworth Miller would just come back in the flesh as any of those two to our shows….

15. Joe and Cecile as Older Parents for a Newborn (The Flash)

This Season 5 Storyline was cut short, when Jesse L. Martin had to take medical leave from the show. Which is too bad, because it was the very reason why Cecile became a Main Character in the first place, and was an important part of the original Seaon 5 plan, which would have three sets (or rather two and a half sets) of parents: Barry and Iris, Joe and Cecile, and Orlin. Now we got a sort of aimless Cecile for the most part of the season, and the very problem the show actually wanted to avoid in the first place: Jenna merely existing, but not being there for most of the time (but this got way worse in Season 6, if we are honest). Real Life can really be a bitch sometimes.

14. A Flashback about Sara joining the Legaue of Assassins (Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow)

We were promised this before Season 3 of „Arrow“ aired. Of course the only reason we were promised this was to obscure the fact that Sara would be killed of in the premiere. Same for all those fotos featuring her a part of the main cast and all that jazz. Still, Caity was contracted for Season 3 and showed up in a handful of episodes, but all we got was Maseo saying that he joined the League around the same time Sara did. Since then Sara came back to life, and we still have not gotten that flashback. Why? I know the initial statement was a purposeful lie, but that does not mean we did not want to see that. On the contrary we have been waiting for this since Season 2 of „Arrow“! And we are still waiting. But it does not look like we are ever going to get it.

13. Oliver meets Jefferson (Arrow/Black Lightning)

I am kind of miffed about that. I wanted Oliver and Jefferson to growl at eacht other, showing us who is better at it. Jefferson only came into Crisis after Oliver was already dead and did point out in Part 5 himself that he never met the man. But he should have. The two oldest Arroverse-Vigilantes apart from the Bat should really have met, just because they are the first ones. But now it will never happen, even if Oliver comes back somehow. (Unless the the new Crossover Strategy is bringing back the characters from the shows that are not around anymore, and future Crossovers will feature Oliver, Kara, Jefferson and his daugthers in the still existing shows instead of having characters from the still existing shows meet, which I kind of doubt, but if that leads to them meeting, I will take it.)

12. Pay Off for the Tommy Elliott Storyline (Batwoman)

Given how much of Season 1 built that storyline up, an actual pay off would have been nice. But instead the storyline got killed off in the first episode of the new season. And now, before you argue: no, that was not Pay Off. Pay Off would haven been someone other then Luke, who was close to Bruce and knows he was Batman (like his loving cousin called Kate, you know) interacting with Fake Bruce. For episodes. Tommy actually knew Bruce pretty well, so he might have been able to pull a long con. Maybe Kate would have believed him, but Luke would have gotten distrustful, or the other way around, and this would have lead to friction between those two. And maybe this storyline would have eventually even led to the real Bruce Wayne or at least to a clue of his whereabouts. Like I said: Pay Off and not Kill Off. Wouldn’t that have been something.

11. Laurel comes back (Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow)

Everyone got resurrected in the last episode of „Arrow“, except for Earth-1 Laurel because of the whole „There can be no more Doppelgangers“ business. Now I really don’t see why we can’t just have both of them, but the real kicker is, that the main reason Laurel-1 was not brought back is the Spin-Off, that never was, „Green Arrow and the Canaries“, that was supposed to star Earth-2 Laurel. Now that Spin Off was not picked up after all, and Marc Guggenheim stated that they probably would have brought Original Laurel back in the Finale if it weren’t for the Backdoor-Pilot. Now of course Laurel 2 was the MVP of Season 8, so it would have been a mistake to let her cease into nothingness in the Finale. But they could have just shown her alive and well on another earth in a scene and have Earth 1 Laurel in the other scenes instead. But why did they never bring her back before that? I mean, there was a whole subplot around that in „Legends of Tomorrow“ which ended with Sara not bringing her back, which would be alright, if it weren’t for the fact that another lost sibling that couldn’t be brought back came back on „Legends“, namely Zari’s brother Behrad, which yes, deleted Zari from the timeline and replaced her with a new version of herself, so it wasn’t a cheap fix, but it is just one more reason to be miffed about the fact that Laurel obviously was not important enough to anyone to be brought back anywhen in „Arrow“ or „Legends of Tomorrow“. But maybe there is still hope, I mean two alternate Versions of Laurel were introduced in „The Flash“, so maybe she can still come back there, or at some point in „Legends“ as long as the show is still around.

10. Ralph and Sue get together and become Partners in every sense (The Flash)

This could of course still happen sometimes down the road, if they do recast Ralph after all, or if Hartley is allowed to come back at some point. Or they could just say it in a random episode that only features Sue. However, it won’t be in the way the the show has beeing building toward since Season 5 (actually 4, but that’s not the point). Back when Sue was introduced, we were blown by the chemistry between those two, dreaming about their own Spin-Off etc. and what has become of it? 2020 destroyed so much….

9. Two Zaris for Good (Legends of Tomorrow)

Tala wanted that, the fans wanted that, even the writers kind of wanted it and thought about doing it, but in the end, like I mentoned before, „Legends of Tomorrow“ is not „Orphan Black“. „Legends“ already is the most complex Arrowverse Show to shoot, having Tala do double duty for good would have complicated the shooting process even more. Still we love both Zaris, and while it’s understandbale and even right to focus on Zari Tarazi for now, Zari Tomaz is better not gone for good. We might get two Zaris at the end of Zari’s storyline anyway, but until then the best we can hope for is a Caitlin/Killer Frost situation, which might be a problem for both Nate and John, and also is not likely to happen soon, so, yeah, that would have been great, but we are never going to get it.

8. Ronnie and Eddie return from the Singularity (The Flash)

Well, yes technically Eddie is dead, but his body was sucked into the Singularity, which did not need to happen, if they just wanted to kill him. And Ronnie never actually died, he just was sucked into the Singularity, never seen again, and assumed to be dead (well, without a Partner to replace Martin to merge with him, he should have died by now, but let’s ignore that for a moment). Anyhow the fact that those were sucked in, but Jay’s Helmet came through it, led to the believe that there would be consequences to those two being sucked into the Wormhole. But nothing ever came from it. Not even for one of those two. Season 2 did go down a very different route, and while we are still waiting today to learn what actually happened to those two, it does not look like we are ever going to find out. Which is strange, considering how much time was spend emphasizing this stroryline in the earlier seasons.

7. Chas returns (Constantine/ Legends of Tomorrow)

It’s still not confirmed „Constantine“ took place on Earth-1, but we always assumed it. And also Chas was refered to in Season 5 of „Legends of Tomorrow“, and let’s face it: John Constantine without his Chas is just not right. Aside from the fact that Chas‘ „Constantine“ Storyline is still unresolved, John need his oldest friend in his life. So not only fans of the „Constantine“ Series would really love to see Chas Chandler on „Legends“. But sadly I doubt this will ever happen - with any actor that is.

6. Lois and Clark as Parents of Baby Jonathan in „Superman & Lois“

This was after all the initial promise. That the show would pick up where „Lois and Clark“ ended, with the pair as parents, but as parents of a baby not of teenagers. And it was set up this way. Of course we know all the reasons: The claim that Action Series with Leads who have a baby do not work, the problems revolving around Babies and Little Children on Set, the need to write for actual characters instead of mute crying little things, and the fact that storylines for older kids are more interesting than for younger ones, but while we understand all of that and recognize „Superman & Lois“ will be the more interesting show with Teenage Sons in it, the fact remains it is not the show we were promised.

5. Sydney Palmer (Legends of Tomorrow)

This was set up in Season 1, Brandon did talk about it with the writers and was expecting it to happen as much as we did, and then … nothing. Now he is gone from the show, and we will never get to meet his illusive twin brother. Everything concerning Syndey is strange, starting with the fact he never seemed to be around, even when Ray was a kid. Of course this might be because the Palmers had a „every parent takes one twin“ situation going on, but even if you consider the fact that Ray und Sydney obvioulsy weren’t on good terms, the fact remains everything about him is weird. There even is fan therory that Ray does not have a brother, and Sydney actually is his alternate personality. Which at least makes more sense than the fact that we never got to see him.

4. The „Whatever happend to Mon-El“- Flashback in Season 3 (Supergirl)

Normally, if a main character disappears for a certain amount of time, and then turns up again, and the stuff he or she had beeing doing in-between is important for the current storyline of the season, we are told what he or she has been doing, and I don’t mean in words, we are talking about television after all, it’s show not tell. This is why I did assume that we would get at least one episode in Season 3, that would show us what happened to Mon-El in the future. At least a flashback subplot in an episode. Something for God’s sake! But I waited and waited and waited – and nothing, not a single scene. Now they did have the Legion Cruiser, they could just have used that set, and they could have only shown us Imra and Brainy, if there was no other way, but we did not even get that. I never understood why we have never ever gotten to see a single scene in the future, where three of our main heroes have spend a significant amount of their time in, why we never got to see someone from the Legion who isn’t Mon-El, Winn, Brainy or Imra (at this point we never even got to see Nura!), but this particular storyline was teased and actually essential to Season 3, and it still never happened via images, and that I really never understood. There is just no excuse for it.

3. General Eiling hunting Meta-Humans (The Flash)

Whatever happened to this storyline? I guess the Singularity sucked it up. I don’t think they even picked it up in Tie-In Comics or Novels. It went away when Clancy Brown declined to come back, I guess, but I am not so sure they even asked him. You see, even if the argument was, that he was too traumatized from Grodd to go after Meta-Humans any more (which he wasn’t, we all saw the last scene with him), some underling could just as easy have taken over. I mean Eiling knew about at least two Meta-Humans personally, Barry and Martin, and had kidnapped Firestorm in the past, and cleary did not learn anything from his run in with Grodd, which only came about because Eobard thought he was too dangerous and knew too much to be running around freely, but Barry and the others did set him free at the end of Season 1. Even if he would have been too thankful to come after Team Flash, why wouldn’t he come after all the criminal Meta-Humans out there? This storyline was cleary set up for Season 2 and then dropped like pretty much almost everything else in Season 2 that had been set up to be continued before. Lazy! I know it’s kind of X-Men, but the military going after Meta-Humans kind of was a Must Happen that never happened. But there might just be something along those lines happening in Season 7. However it does not invovle General Eiling or anything else related to the Earth-1 storylines, I fear.

2. Green Arrow and Black Canary as Street Fightning Hero Partners – with an without masks (Arrow)

This was the initial promise of the Pilot and all of Season 1 and still remained a promise until that episode of Season 4, I guess. Everyone who knew anything about Green Arrow was expecting this from the show, instead we got what we got, which has not very much to with the actual Green Arrow or DC Comics. I mean. we kind of got a brief glimps at it in Season 2 with Sara and Oliver, but that didn’t last very long. However the writers were still fighting for that end-goal, when Season 5 rolled around, because it sure seemed like Dinah Drake was considered as a Love Interest for Oliver at the beginning. But nothing ever came of it, and Dinah even gave up the Black Canary inbetween, so … no, we never got this, only ever on Earth-2 with Adrian-2 und Laurel-2, where he even called her Pretty Bird. In the end this is the initial broken promise, the first lie of the Arrowverse, and it would be the gravest one, if it weren’t for a certain other Arrowverse-Show that bascially died between Season 1 and 2.

1. An actual proper Season 2 of „Batwoman“

Do I even have to say it? I can’t even blame Ruby Rose for that, if I were in her shoes, I would have left too. The person I blame is Caroline Dries. Not only did she not recast Kate Kane, no she also refused to make an established character into the new Batwoman. Politics is only one reason. Sophie Moore is black after all. The other reason is an oversized ego. She wanted to create her own superhero. Which is fine, if you make your own show, but not if you replace your main hero, who your whole show revolved around, after one Season with an Original Character and in the same instance kill off your own story. It would have been better to cancel the show than to do this. I mean, what’s the point? It’s not like Alice can’t function without Kate, but why should we care about the things she does anymore, when her main nemesis is just gone?( Ignoring the fact that she is going to be replaced by Black Mask as the main villlain of the show in this season anyway.) Literally everyone in the show was defined by their relationship to the Wayne-Kane-Family and/or the two Bats. Bringing in someone from the outside does just not make any kind of sense. I mean Luke has a sister in the comics, who actually was Batwoman in an Alternate Realitiy, just saying. So yes, this is the gravest broken promise of all the Arrowverse: The promise that we would actually get a second Season of „Batwoman“, which we did not get, no matter what The CW and Caroline Dries and even Greg Berlanti the traitor are calling the Adventures of Ryan WhatsherFace Wilder.

#Arrwoverse #Top 30 Storylines we never got to see #Arrow #The Flash #Supergirl #legends of tomorrow #Batwoman #Black Lightning #superman & lois

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chaoticsoulsword · 6 years

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Talking about objectification does make a difference: an MCU/Marvel comics analyze regarding female representation

Oh, comic books. A lovely media that reaches from children’s imagination to adulthood’s conflicts in a world of fantasy. Only it isn’t this bed of roses.

Considering the chronology of this industry inserted in a historical context, it is possible to point out that women have always been an important part of the success of comics books. They started producing comic strips which evolved to publishing houses that we would know later as famous stamps such as DC and Marvel Comics. The market was almost based on equality between genders and many women worked to build what we know today as the comic book industry.

But it all changed during World War II, when most men left the USA in order to serve, which included artists, writers, pencilers and so on. Women managed to take care of publishing houses, producing and selling their works. But when the war was over, a wave of conservadorism stroke american culture. Women were expelled from their jobs in order to regain old costumes like taking care of children and their husbands. In other words, sexism at its finest.

That said, it is important to understand the history of the comic book industry for, firstly, many conservative men believe this is a place exclusive for them. It’s not. Women helped founding it and were miserably expelled by a thing called sexism. Secondly, with few women in the field, men tended to portray female characters as they seemed fit, which is clearly a position of privilege. And that’s when things started to go bad.

Usually portrayed as s//e//x symbols, wearing bodysuits and posing with impossible elasticity in order to show both chest and hips, female heroes were nothing more than killing machines and/or a resource to satisfy male audience. Frank Miller himself once admitted he loves the “femme fatale” troupe, which is why he conceived Elektra the way she is.

Make this experiment: pick up some 80′s/90′s comic book with female heroes and pay attention at what they are wearing or how they are positioned on panels. You’re probably gonna find a situation that fits this description. Maybe you can even find it in 2000′s ones: for instance, titles with Spider-Woman or Ms. Marvel before she changed her alias to Captain Marvel.

But we’re not living in that age anymore. Technology and globalization allowed women to question their image in media, including comics books. Marvel has been trying to bring those women back to their field and are very concerned about women’s representation in their stories. But did this attitude come only by readers’ demand? Hardly.

The most important part of this demand came from the Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (MCU). They started this linked universe targeting the maximum audiences as possible in order to join new and old fans to their brand. Within their aims, there are children and women as well, which means they simply can’t ratify objectification as a pattern in this kind of media. The MCU has also the purpose of inspiring children to admire heroes.

In times when we debate how women have been portrayed across the decades, it is of utmost importance how young girls will look after their heroes. Not ladies in distress, not princesses without determination anymore. We want women with personalities, dreams, strength, and most importantly, not as objects. Not with perfect bodies, limited to their “womanly” clothes and behaviors forced into their subjectivities and attitudes.

And the producers are finally listening. Obviously, industries follow the language of money. And since this debate is in and pleases their targets, bringing profit and good feedback, it is expected to result in change. Unless you’re a close-minded old executive with conservative ideas. But no matter. The MCU is delivering results not only in cinemas, but also in comics. And that’s where I intend to get to.

As you can see throughout the pics in this post, my intention was to show this pattern:

comics before live-action adaption > live-action adaption > comics after live-action adaption

For instance, all the Guardians of the Galaxy were reformulated in order to bring the team to the MCU. Gamora would never appear with only a strip over her chest and be a fighter. Everyone knows this is quite impossible. And this change was reflected on her outfit in comics.

Of course, there are exception on both sides. Captain Marvel was the first to leave behind the bodysuit and become a hero based on strength and sheer will, not appearance. Spider-Woman had her outfit changed during the All-New, All-Different Marvel era, whose intention was precisely to reformulate old concepts. In other words, they didn’t depend on the MCU to earn proper representation. On the other hand, in comics, some female heroes are still submitted to objectified outfits, such as Moondragon, She-Hulk, and especially Emma Frost and Psylocke, who were brought to life through the X-men universe and still remain the same.

There is still a long road to follow. But there is the perspective of change. And this is why it’s so important to talk about how we wish to be seen in cinema, tv shows and comics.

Captain Marvel (and Wonder Woman, although I’m limited to Marvel in this post) was just the beginning. As children can see themselves in minorities, like Miles Morales, T’Challa, Amadeus Cho, Sam Alexander and so on, now girls can also be part of this world, especially when these heroes they are real enough to be admired and loved. Kamala Khan, Squirrel Girl, Ghost-Spider, Nico Minoru, Karolina Dean and so on.

We’re taking our places back and this is a good thing.

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bigskydreaming · 5 years

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Do you shipp bats and superman? Or bruce and selina or you don't ship bruce with anyone?

Tbh, I don’t have strong preferences on the matter of Bruce’s ships. Its not a matter of disliking them usually, so much as just not being super hardcore one way or another lol.

I would say probably my go-to is Bruce/Selina, just because I love Selina and there’s that opposites attract element to them that can be hard to make work, but when it works, ugh, it just WORKS, y’know?

I do ship Bruce and Clark for similar reasons, though this is actually more of a recent thing, honestly.....back before I first left DC fandom the first time around, probably around 2012-2013, I definitely would not have called myself a Superbat shipper at all, but that didn’t really have anything to do with not seeing their potential or not liking the characters together. It was more just a byproduct of like.....back then, I didn’t really like how Bruce and Clark tended to be written together?

Like, a lot of that was probably due to the tendency there sometimes is with slash ships to not really write just two male characters from some show or comic and put them in a relationship together, but rather to just kinda take two characters and write them in such a way that they feel like this kinda generic cookie cutter relationship that has more to do with going down a checklist of characteristics/specific moments/themes/etc than it does with who those characters are and what they’re like normally.

But for whatever reason, since I started getting back into DC fandom stuff last year, I’ve found a lot more Superbat fics that are a lot more to my liking, or that just FEEL more like Bruce and Clark in a relationship rather than coming across as two characters who have little in common with them and just happen to share the same names. I honestly have no idea what’s changed in the time since I was last in fandom til rejoining it, at least in regards to this specific ship and how its written, or just as equally likely, something changed about my perspective between then and now that made me read it differently or be more open to it than I was in the past. *Shrugs* Who knows. So again, its like Bruce/Selina, I’m not opposed to it at all, have enjoyed several, but I just don’t tend to ship Bruce the same way or to the degree I have ships I’m more invested in, for most of his kids.

My one big caveat with Bruce and Clark is that like, its GOT to be respectful of Lois, she still should have a presence in Clark’s life and not have been just...erased or overlooked or killed off or just sacrificed on the altar of Superbat to make room for them to get together, y’know? Like I don’t have a particular preference here, like, they could have previously discovered they just prefer being platonic soulmates and just have a super strong friendship that’s not threatened or replaced or lessened by what Clark comes to have with Bruce later, they could have previously been married and are amicably divorced now for whatever reason and still successfully co-parent Jon now, who splits his time between living with his Dad and Bruce and step-siblings at Wayne Manor, and then the rest of his time with his mom and her new girlfriend or wife Diana, perhaps...whatever. Not picky on the particulars, I just need Lois to still be important to Clark rather than treated as though an obstacle in the way of Superbat’s true love.

As far as other ships go......I never got on board with Bruce/Diana even though they do at times have great chemistry.....I’ve just never seen that really successfully resulting in an actual relationship....unless Clark is involved as kinda a...not buffer, exactly, so much as a third complemetary piece needed to complete the picture. Same thing with Clark and Diana too, though, their brief New 52 relationship not working for me for the same reasons. The full Trinity together in every sense of the word? I can dig it. Just two of them though....Clark and Bruce is the only pairing out of the three of them that actually fits on its own, IMO, because something about Clark and Diana has always just felt a little too....forced, or artificial to me for some reason, like.....people always try too hard to emphasize how good a pairing they make on paper, that it just never FEELS natural or organic in execution, and I’ve never really felt any interest in trying to execute a version of it myself to have any idea how my own attempt would fare. *Shrugs*

And then Bruce and Diana on their own, like.....I think Diana respects the hell out of Bruce and will always have a soft spot for him, but her bullshit tolerance does come with a ceiling, and I think for Diana, Bruce is one of those people where she does better with him in small doses, lol. Too much exposure to Bruce, too constantly, and for too longterm.....I think she would end up being like “this relationship is starting to feel too much like a Greek tragedy, and not even one of the good ones, I gotta go, bye” lololol okay so it wouldn’t really be like that. I just mean.....Bruce thrives off of structure and rigid discipline in a way that Diana would find stifling, I believe?

Don’t get me wrong, Diana is incredibly disciplined herself and capable of holding herself firm and steady in anything with a kind of discipline few others could ever dream of, but its not her PREFERENCE, I don’t think. She’d rather default to a freer approach to and through life, whereas Bruce can do that at times to accommodate loved ones needing or wanting that from him too, but at the end of the day, I think he’s always going to rather scheduling in some time set aside for the both of them, as something to look forward to....rather than just letting it come when it comes and then when it does, obsessing over whether he’s neglecting something else as a result.

So again...Bruce and Clark I think work, but Bruce and Diana or Clark and Diana - require all three working in harmony to be what all three of them actually need and want from that triad.

And then Bruce and Talia I’ve talked about a couple times before in depth, and I have hugely complicated thoughts on them due to the sheer bullshit writers have subjected Talia to over the years. I try to ignore Morrison’s take on Damian’s conception as much as possible, like, I never go with that angle or that particular taint on their relationship unless for whatever reason its absolutely relevant to the plot - and I’ve never come up with a plot where it is, nor do I think I’m likely to. And this is for a couple of reasons - the first is that while I’m always saying that any writer could make a case for any character doing anything, conceivably, Damian’s conception as written by Morrison just...destroys so much of the amazingly complex and multi-faceted character Talia often was before he wrote that, and recasts every aspect of her and Bruce’s previous love story as just...a painful, not funny joke. Its not remotely something I ever want to read into those two, even if I’ve never shipped them as endgame myself.

But at the same time, because it did so unequivocally happen in canon, I can never really blame others for accepting it as the reality of their relationship by this point, for whatever reason.....I mean, there’s the simple fact that something like that is so hugely personal to read about and see yourself in as a survivor, for instance, for any survivors who read Morrison’s story and afterward had trouble separating that view of Talia from previous stories of her....like to me, no matter how much I think Morrison is bullshit for writing that story, especially since its hardly like he had any interest in writing or acknowledging Bruce as a survivor in its aftermath.....I fully believe Morrison was like “how can I make Bruce a biological father who owes nothing to the mother and has no obligation to share the child with her or fight over custody or anything like that.”

Which is a shitty reason to do that particular kind of story. And why I don’t blame anyone for disregarding it, as I try to whenever possible, but neither do I blame anyone for finding their relationship kinda ruined in the wake of it, just because sometimes its physically/emotionally just hard to see PAST that kind of thing, even when you know the reasons for it existing at all are threadbare in the first place.

(Its like how I do write and focus on Bruce’s abusive behavior with some of his kids in the past, not because I necessarily LIKE to, so much as it just being such a personal topic to me that from the second it was written into his character and dynamics, whether written WELL or PLAUSIBLY or not, it just became impossible for me to pretend it just never happened or I never read any of those stories, so I have to find some way to tackle it in my stories and takes. But because I do think that the reasons for writing Bruce act that way in the first place were always poorly thought through, and it is a disservice to a lot of the reasons others love the character, I don’t blame them for disliking it and disregarding it themselves, so long as they don’t shit on me or my reasons for not doing the same).

So yeah, I don’t tend to write that particular element into Bruce and Talia’s story ever, for all those above reasons and also one other specific one: it doesn’t just make Talia a rapist and Bruce a survivor, it makes Damian the child of rape. And he’s just had so much shit to deal with in his life with everything else alone, I never am comfortable heaping that onto him as well, because sooner or later it WOULD eventually become something he had to deal with, and no easy thing to deal with, so I’m just like....what if he didn’t have that particular issue to deal with ever.

NOW, all that said....Bruce and Talia still even without that have never really been an endgame ship for me, but rather something that’s kinda always been doomed to be a tragic romance, like they’re each other’s one that forever got away. And that’s because for me, unlike Bruce and Selina being opposite in just the right ways, Bruce and Talia are alike in the wrong ways. Its part of WHY they have the connection they do, and such a deep one....they GET each other, in ways I don’t think anyone else has ever truly understood them. They might not subscribe to the same beliefs, even have the same morals, they might not be willing to use the same methods, their ultimate goals aren’t necessarily the same....but their PASSION for their goals, their beliefs, their commitment to doing whatever each believes they have to do in order to see their goals fulfilled, to see that they never stray from what they believe is their duty, their reasons for existing....THAT is something I think they’ve both always understood about each other, that they have in common. Both believe too strongly in what THEY believe and value as most important, to be truly willing to give that up and follow the other to their goal or along their path instead.....and they get that, so they never truly ask that of each other, or at least aren’t surprised nor hold it against the other when they turn them down. I think they do love each other, and on some level always will.....and it might not even be that they don’t WANT to give everything else up to be with them.....its just, I don’t think either truly knows how to do that and still be them, like they know that even were they to make that choice, it would cost them too much of what makes them THEM, to ever truly do it.

And aside from that, even in an AU setting where Talia didn’t raise Damian in the League, where he wasn’t forced to grow up fighting the way he did, and say she spirited him away and into hiding at birth to hide him from Ra’s, but still never sought Bruce out til Damian was ten or so, even if only because Bruce is too easy for Ra’s to find or keep an eye on....basically, I just mean even in an AU where Talia was a great mom to Damian from Day One til the day Bruce met Damian, and she only kept him from Bruce for ten years or whatever for Damian’s safety....I think that would still destroy any chance of Bruce and Talia ever being together after that, just because in that kind of scenario, Bruce might absolutely understand why she did what she did, even agree with it....and still not be able to get PAST it, not to the degree of....trusting her with his heart again, even if they were perfectly able to coexist well for Damian’s sake. Bruce missed out on the first parts of all his other childrens’ lives because they were someone else’s first. The fact that Damian is the one and only kid of his that theoretically, there was nothing keeping Bruce from being a part of that from day one....like this is the one and only way I will ever accept Bruce having a distinct view of Damian as being different from his other kids in his eyes....its not about him being Bruce’s biological son, its about him being Bruce’s son that he never had to be second to come into his life, that there was nothing stopping him from being there from the start....the fact that Talia, for any reason, did keep him from that, even were it with the best intentions, IMO....that would be something that might not even be Bruce’s to ‘forgive’ per se, like that’s not even the right word to describe certain scenarios that might result in that.....but it would still just irrevocably change something between them I don’t think they could ever get back.

So except for AUs where Talia brought Damian to Bruce right after he was born and stayed with him to raise Damian together, I don’t see them ever working out longterm.....and I don’t really see Talia ever giving up her own beliefs as to how to live her life, shape the world, wield her influence....just to live in Bristol with Bruce and raise Damian with him, even as there is nothing really in that case keeping Bruce from still at the same time continuing to be Batman and do all of that the way HE prioritizes. But again, by the same token.....I also don’t see the inverse ever happening, where Talia finds a way to go where she needs to and do what she believes needs doing, with Damian in tow....and Bruce willing to give up being Batman to just come along for the ride and to help raise Damian. So yeah, ultimately, for me those two are the ultimate tragic romance of Bruce’s core ships, where love has nothing to do with whether or not they work out....just rather who and what they are getting in the way of what they are too each other.

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davidmann95 · 5 years

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So, what's the deal with Kingdom Hearts? I mean, it's a Disney/Final Fantasy crossover, right? Hard to see why would that cause such dedicated whatever.

I’ve had this in my drafts for a while, and given today’s the series’ 17th anniversary it seems like the time to finally get back and finish it. Simple answer: the music slaps and you just want the soft children to get to go home.

Long answer: Even now people joke about the baseline absurdity of a universe in which Donald Duck can go toe-to-toe with Cloud, and while I think 17 years in we’re past the point where it’s time to accept that this is just a part of the landscape for these characters, yes, that does remain objectively bonkers. It’s not a natural, intuitive combination like your JLA/Avengers, this is Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe-level “well, I suppose they both exist in…the, uh, medium of visual storytelling” stuff, other than I suppose that they both tend towards fantasy in this case. And then that whole wacko premise got hijacked by Tetsuya Nomura for an extended epoch-spanning drama driven by labyrinthine, (occasionally literal) dream logic mythology where it’s genuinely impossible to tell at this point what’s being thrown in by the seat of the creators’ pants and what was planned out since day one, pretty much casting aside the franchises that were in theory the main appeal as relevant parts of the plot even as you still hang out with Baymax from Big Hero 6. Step back even a touch, and there will always be a whiff of derangement about the entire affair - it’s simply baked in at this point.

My controversial opinion however: it’s actually good. There are structural issues and awkward moments and aspects ill-served, I’d never deny that, but even diehard lifelong Kingdom Hearts fans tend towards prefacing appreciation with at least two or three levels of irony and self-critique. I suppose it’s in part a response to the general reaction to it I mentioned before, but no, I absolutely think these are genuinely good, ambitious stories build on a foundation that’s still holding strong. An important note in service of that point: Winnie the Pooh, maybe Hercules, and with III Toy Story aside, I have basically zero childhood nostalgia for any of the properties involved. Wasn’t a huge Disney kid outside maybe very very early childhood, and only dabbled with Final Fantasy after the fact (still intend to play through XV someday though). It won me over young, yes, but on its own.

The building blocks help: the characters designs are great, the individual Disney settings in their platonic representations of various locales and landscapes make perfect towns packed with quirky locals to roam through on your quest, the Final Fantasy elements are tried and tested for this sort of thing, the original worlds each have their own unique aesthetics and touchstones and come out lovely, by my estimation the gameplay’s fun adventure/slasher stuff even if it’s had ups and downs over the years, the actors largely bring it, it all looks pretty, and as noted, the score is as good as it gets. They’re games that look, sound, and play good made up of component parts that unify into a sensible whole. And for me, the scope and convolution of the plot that so many leap at as the easy target - with its memory manipulations and replicas and time travel and ancient prophecies and possessions and hearts grown from scratch and universes that live in computers and storybooks and dreams - is half the appeal; I live for that kind of nonsense. Not that folks aren’t justified as hell in taking jabs at it, but I’ll admit I often quietly raise an eyebrow when I see the kind of people I tend to follow having an unironic laugh at it given *gestures toward the last 40 years of superhero comics*.

All that through is ultimately window dressing. The most powerful appeal of Kingdom Hearts is I suppose hidden if you’re going by commercials and isolated GIFs and whatnot, and even the bulk of the content of the average Disney world, charming as they are. It’s deceptively easy to pick out something else as the fundamental appeal too; even if I’d call them incredibly well-executed examples of such the character archetypes it deals in are relatively broad, and while it handles the necessary shifts in its tone from fanciful Disney shenanigans to apocalyptic cosmic showdowns for the heart of all that is with incredible skill - and that might be its most unique aspect, and certainly a critical one - a lot of that comes down to raw technical ability on the part of the writers, appropriate dramatic buildup, and demarcation between environments and acts of the story.

The real heart of the matter, to speak to my typical audience, is that Kingdom Hearts in a profound way resembles 1960s Superman comics and stories inspired by the same: it’s 90% dopey lovely cornball folk tale stuff, until every now and again it spins around and sucker punches you in the goddamn soul with Extremely Real Human Shit. Except here instead of being lone panels and subtext, it builds and builds throughout each given adventure until it takes over and flips for the finale from fairytale to fantasy epic.

That can probably be credited directly to Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi suggesting to Tetsuya Nomura to try treating this weird gig seriously instead of as the licensed cash-in it seemed destined to be, since if this didn’t have a soul the target audience would recognize it. But in spite of that seriousness, it’s perhaps its most joyfully mocked aspect in its entirely unselfconscious dedication to making Hearts and Feelings and Light and/or Darkness the most important things in the universe that lets it do what it does. It’s childish in the most primal way, absolutely, but what that translates to is that there aren’t cosmic or personal stakes that swap places as major or subsidiary at any given point, because in this world they’re always literally the same thing. There’s no major relationship where the fate of a primal power or a last chance at salvation doesn’t ultimately hang in the balance depending on how it shakes out, and there’s no prophecy or ultimate weapon or grand scheme that doesn’t have direct, fundamental ramifications on the life of an innocent or the memories that define them or whether they’ll ever be able to find a place to call home. ‘Hearts’ is an all-encompassing theme, whether in strength of will or redemption or questions of personhood or the ties that bind us, and by making it a literal source of power, it lends personal dimension to the unfathomable universal and the grand weight of destiny to whether or not someone can come to terms with who they want to be or apologize to those they’ve wronged. It’s a world where emotional openness and personal growth ultimately works the same way and achieves the same results as doing calisthenics in five hundred times Earth’s gravity does in Dragon Ball. and it’s tender and exuberant and thoughtful enough where it counts to take advantage of that as a storytelling engine.

That’d be why Sora works so well as the main character, because he straddles the line most directly between those poles. He may stand out as a spiky anime boy when actually next to Aladdin and the rest, but when it comes down to it he’s a Disney character, just a really nice, cheeky, dopey kid who wants to hang out with his friends and go on an adventure and believes in people really really hard. As the stranger in a strange land he’s a tether to a wider, sometimes more somber and weighty world when he’s sticking his head into the movie plots, but when he’s in the midst of stacked-up conspiracies and mythic wars that make all seem lost, he’s the one whose concerns remain purely, firmly rooted in the lives of those connected to him. Other characters get to go out there into bleak questions of self-identity or forgiveness, but while he might wrestle with doubt and fear Sora’s the guy who holds the ship steady and reminds all these classic heroes and flawed-yet-resolute champions and doomed Chosen Ones what they’re fighting for by just being a really good dude.

Given superhero comics are my bread and butter it doesn’t come up much, but Kingdom Hearts is really about as foundational to the landscape of my imagination as Superman and company, and while 100% that’s in part because it came into my life early it didn’t take hold by chance. It manages its stakes and its drama in a way and on a scale unlike just about anything else I’ve ever seen (even prior to getting to the weird mythology stuff that’s so profoundly up my alley), and somehow the aesthetics and gameplay and dialogue and all the million and one details that needed to come together to facilitate that story joined together into something that’s become one of the most curious, beloved touchstones of its medium. It’s a small, lovely bastion of warmth and sincerity in a way that only feels more like a breath of fresh air with time, playing out over decades a bunch of kids’ journeys to try and find the people they love most and help them and go home together when everything in the universe seems to be against them. It’s special in ways that will for me always be unique and meaningful, and I’m glad it seems to have plenty more in it before it’s through.

And seriously THAT MUSIC.

#Kingdom Hearts #Sora #Analysis #Opinion

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actuallylorelaigilmore · 6 years

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Tagged by @comepraisetheinfanta exactly when I would have wished for the tag!! <3

List the first lines of your last 10 published stories (or whatever number you like). Look to see if there are any patterns that you notice yourself, and see if anyone else notices any!

“Maybe we should get married.” That was Schneider’s idea of a romantic proposal, on a random Tuesday night while Penelope was studying math at his place. She was so lost in equations and word problems–god, she hated math even more now than she did the first time around–that she didn’t process his words right away. When she looked up and over at his side of the couch, he was watching her. Waiting. “What did you say?” (A Truth Universally Acknowledged)

Donna Moss was a U.S. History teacher at an underfunded public school in DC. Her second year there had just begun, and she was grateful to have made a few friends among the other teachers–leaving behind everyone she knew in Wisconsin wasn’t easy, but she wanted to go where they needed teachers, and she felt like her determination and empathy were more valuable in the District. (Continuing Education)

“Rise and shine!” Syd’s voice broke through Elena’s dreams, eliciting an indecipherable “Urrgnnh” before she pulled the blankets over her face and tried to fall back asleep. “Nope nope,” her girlfriend declared, tugging the covers back down. “Wake up, Elena. Or I’ll have to eat your breakfast myself.” (Long As You’re Here With Me)

It was the summer of 1968 and Toby Ziegler was about to marry his fiancee, in between marches and work on radical campaigns that he knew probably wouldn’t win but that he loved fighting for. Claudia Jean Cregg had been his closest friend since they were still in college, and she agreed to be best man in his wedding–right before getting arrested at a protest for punching a cop whose hands roamed south of anywhere legal. The ceremony was rapidly approaching, 13 hours and counting, as Toby went to bail her out of jail at 1am. (Silent All These Years)

They each find the other super frustrating. Because my god does Leslie ever stop being cheerful?? it’s way too early and dear lord why won’t Ben do things the right way? aka her way!! Months of confined space and forced collaboration lead to grudging respect and heavy sexual tension but neither of them is going to be the one to make the first move because that would require admitting to having feelings. (Breathless)

Frank doesn’t have much of a life once he’s on his own. His day-to-day rhythm is erratic, just like his moods. But he does have one routine that he stick to as reliably as the seasons change: every year since they died, he buys flowers five times and leaves them for his wife and kids. Three birthdays, one anniversary, and once to mark the day they were taken from him, as time continues to pass and the years turn him more to stone. On each of those days, despite the risk, he allows himself the memorial…and every time, he buys the flowers from the same florist, pretty Karen Page with her kind, watchful eyes. (Dangerously Tangled)

It's Penelope’s 40th birthday. Schneider is a joyful presence at the family party, of course, where he brought extra cupcakes even though he knew her Mami would be baking. Penelope’s been quietly freaking out all week about getting older and what this year means, so it doesn’t strike her as unusual that Schneider wanted to do something more. And she knows the kids will be happy to eat the extras. After the singing and the presents, when the others are sitting around the living room fed and happy, he finds her in the kitchen and hands her a cupcake. (Make A Wish)

Josh tried to argue with Colin ‘impossibly handsome and well-traveled photographer’ Ayres about his feelings for Donna, but he knew he wasn’t very convincing. He had dropped everything to be there, after all. He arrived sleepless and disheveled and panicked, because he hadn’t been able to relax or take a deep breath since the news hit the White House. (When It All Falls Down)

Schneider was the 40-year-old son of old manufacturing money in Canada. He spent his life making the news for excessive partying and affairs with actresses and models, until he suddenly dropped out of the public eye. Rumors speculated that he was in witness protection, evading law enforcement, or had been disowned by his father and left destitute. Penelope Alvarez turned her ex-military background into a career as a bodyguard who was highly selective about which clients she took on. She was solicited by Schneider’s father, the well-regarded Canadian billionaire, and met with him knowing only what the world did: he had a son with a reputation…and enough money to pay whatever it took for her protection. (I Will Keep You Safe And Sound)

Alex didn't show much interest in the idea when she explained it to him the first time. Since he was five years old, she couldn’t blame him. A girl at school had introduced herself to him--to every kid in his class, it turned out--by saying, “My name is Gabriella and maybe you’re my soulmate.” Penelope had to laugh at the mental image of a first-grader proclaiming her destiny, the solemn words coming out in a rush each time she met someone new. But she hadn’t expected to have to give Alex the talk so young. She hadn’t even given him his first sex talk yet! (Some Truths Are Stubborn As Gravity)

I tag... @actuallylukedanes, @mossdonnatella, @when-did-this-become-difficult, @fandammit, @finehs, @aerosmiley219 and any other writer friends who want to do this! just say i tagged you <3

#tbh the only pattern i notice here is that most of my recent fic was prompt based and started out not meant to be fic at all--#most of it was me describing how i would fill a prompt and then accidentally...doing so #fanfic #writing #i got tagged in this by #comepraisetheinfanta

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catfishmaster · 6 years

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tagged by @cyanidekyanite. thanks friend

tagging: whoever, idk who to tag bc idk who’s already been tagged. i could have been tagged before and not known it bc tumblr sure as hell isn’t telling me if i’ve been tagged in posts. thanks a lot tumble

Have you ever been in love? I thought so at the time, but nah.

Who is your favourite artist? uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh @aseraphfell and @nastyfaace are my favourite artists

What is your favourite musical genre? this is hard to pick. i like all kinds of music really, like my taste is pretty mixed its just like. a bunch of different artists and individual songs i enjoy. my favourite band is metric so… whatever fucking genre that is is probably my favourite

Have you ever had a pen-pal? on the internet yeah. like, we’d talk exclusively in long six paragraph messages and we’d talk about books and stuff. but other than that, nah

Are you single or in a relationship? single

What colour are your eyes? brown

What is your favourite word? none that i can think of. cataclysm is a good one

Do you play any instruments? none really. i had piano and guitar lessons when i was a kid but i dropped them pretty soon after

What is your favourite colour? purple.

Do you have any nicknames? catfish is a nickname i guess. fish, terrie uh. none other than that

What is your favourite flower? buttercups

What qualities do you find attractive in a person? i like girls who are tough and boys who are sweet. generally just kindness and bravery really that’s pretty universal. and dimples.

Do you have any pets? a cat and a dog

Have you ever traveled outside of your home country? yeah, i went to vietnam when i was fourteen.

What language(s) do you speak? english

Who was your first crush? uh. i had a crush on my best friend in grade one even if it’s taken me ten years to realise that. for fictional um… can’t think of one. dawn from pokemon i guess

Do you wear glasses? nope

What is your favourite pastry? danishes are my favourite i think

Do you prefer swimming in a pool or the ocean? pool. i always nearly drown in the ocean. though like, further out into the ocean is nice. just not the beach

Bright, dark, or pastel colours? dark bc i’m emo

What is your favourite social media app? tumblr I GUESS

What is your sexuality? bi and ready to die

Do you have any siblings? yeah

What is your favourite scent? food. freshly baked apple pie for specifics.

Where do you want to travel to? wherever my friends are tbh. i want to visit people.

What is your favourite film? Heathers, Batman: Under the Red Hood and Spirited Away are all tied for that place.

Who do people say you look like? my father. james from the end of the fucking world. i was told i looked like L once. basically creepy pale white kids.

Who is your best friend? i have a few best friends

What is your dream job? actor. comic writer would be pretty satisfying too. mostly bc current DC writers make me want to SCREAM

Do you know how to drive? i know how to drive myself into a lake. probably

Who is/was your favourite teacher? i really liked all of my drama teachers. bianca and natalie in particular. i also liked my year nine humanaties teacher a lot too bc he was a cryptid whose teaching style was like “Today we’re learning about Mao. Did you know I once fistfought him in a Denny’s parking lot? It’s an interesting story, it was in 1954 and”

Are you a feminist? yes

What is your zodiac sign? capricorn honk honk

Do you enjoy reading? yeah but i often struggle to find the energy and focus to continue doing it. it’s something i need to get better at. i’m currently midway through good omens

Do you have any hidden talents? i think i’m good at reading people and telling when people are lying. also singing, i guess? but i don’t do that anymore. idk i’m kind of a talentless hack.

Have you ever dyed your hair? nope

What is your favourite thing in your bedroom? my bed bc i sleep in it

What is your biggest fear? having to let go of the people around me. which is a pretty selfish fear but eh. also this is pretty Edgy but i scare myself sometimes

Can you whistle? yep

Do you make your bed every day? nah, too depressed for that bs /dabs

Do you have any tattoos or piercings? nope

Have you ever been on a roller coaster? i have, when i was little. i thought it was a pretty lax one at the time but it was apparently really intense. i was always fucking terrified of roller coasters but i want to try to go now that i’m older

Surfing or skateboarding? surfing bc i’ve done that

Are you a dog or a cat person? probably leaning closer to dogs but i love both.

What is your favourite animal? owls are good feathery friends with big ol eyes.

What time do you typically go to bed and wake up? 2am and anywhere between 7am and 1pm

What is your favourite memory? this is always really specific and i never really have an answer for it. idk, memories are memories. i have a few happy ones but they’re personal.

How tall are you? 5′11. i might be taller though, i haven’t checked in a while.

What is the best gift you’ve ever received? my cat of course.

Do you have a garden? i did but then it all died because my entire family is impossibly lazy

Do you like bugs? not really. ladybugs are wholesome though. i also really like snails but they’re not bugs they’re just tiny slimy boys

What is your natural hair colour? dark brown.

What is your favourite food and drink? pancakes i think. and vanilla milkshakes are probably my favourite drink though i really like bubble tea and properly made ice tea too so.

Do you want kids? someday, i think. not really sure i’d be good at it but i’d like to.

What is/was your favourite class? drama and production was always my fave. less so theatre studies. i think currently my favourite is screen & media bc i end up doing more actual acting in it than theatre

What colour shirt are you wearing? dark blue.

If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why? there are several people in the past i would kill. hitler, columbus, trump, captain cook, my dad’s legal guardians etc. ancient China and ancient Greece also seems pretty cool i’d like to check that out

What is your skin colour? white. i’m pretty pale

Hugs or kisses? both is good i like affection even if i rarely know how to deal with it

Have you ever drunk alcohol? yeah. with my friends though, never alone. and not often

Have you ever done drugs? i’ve smoked weed once. it was interesting

Netflix or youtube? uh. both. though i use youtube more nowadays but not as much as i used to so.

Ice cream or frozen yoghurt? ice creams

Succulents or flowers? succulents

#personal

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briangroth27 · 7 years

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The Flash Season 3 Review

The Flash is my favorite of The CW’s DC shows, and probably my favorite show on TV at the moment. Season 3 continued to thrill me with a terrifying villain and a great exploration of the Flash himself! It truly felt like Savitar helped close the book on a chapter of Barry’s life and I can’t wait to see him move forward.

Full Spoilers…

Barry Allen/The Flash I really enjoyed Barry’s (Grant Gustin) growth this season. He seemed to truly learn that he can’t be selfish and change time to suit his wishes or ease his sorrow after Jay (John Wesley Shipp) talked to him about how time can’t ever be perfectly restored, and I’m glad he stuck to his guns on that score. I was also pleasantly surprised that Barry was—for the most part, at least—up front with the rest of Team Flash about what he’d done in creating and undoing Flashpoint and what he saw of the future instead of dragging the reveals out for several weeks and straining his trustworthiness with the team. I liked that there was a concerted effort on Barry’s part to keep the family aspect of the team together, particularly after seeing what became of them in the potential future he visited. It was clever that this allowed him to finally figure out who Savitar was and I was happy that Barry got to decipher it out on his own.

I really like the metaphysics of the Speed Force and that the show often has it talk with Barry to guide him or, as was the case a few times this season, admonish him. The Speed Force being upset with Barry over Flashpoint was a great beat and a solid reinforcement of what Jay had told him. I felt like an unspoken lesson the Speed Force had for Barry when it spoke to him through Ronnie (Robbie Amell), Eddie (Rick Cosnett), and Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller) was that all three of those people chose to sacrifice themselves and none of their deaths were Barry’s fault, so any guilt he felt over “causing” them was misplaced. Even if the Speed Force had to kick him into gear again, I loved Barry getting back into hopeful hero mode. This was taken to the extreme when he agreed to the brilliantly bonkers plan to wipe his memory so that Savitar’s would also vanish, and happy, blank-slate Barry was so good to see! Cisco (Carlos Valdez) coaching him through his statement in court was a fun scene that reminded me of Barry going on his literally blind date with Patty Spivot (Shantel VanSanten) last year, and I loved that that aspect of his job came up.

I think the show should emphasize Barry’s scientific knowledge more at Star Labs—though I understand the rest of the team simply needs things to do too—and early episodes this year struck a good balance when it came to fighting crime. For example, Barry coming up with the idea to stop Magenta’s (Joey King) ship plan and Team Flash figuring out how to execute it was a pretty good compromise. On the other hand, I did think the show downplayed his CSI skills too much this year, particularly with Julian (Tom Felton) constantly showing him up at work. Barry doesn’t need to be the best CSI, but he shouldn’t be repeatedly shot down like he’s new to the job either. Similarly, adding Tracy (Anne Dudek) as yet another scientist at Star Labs—one who’d be working on manipulating the Speed Force, no less—felt like it was stepping on Barry’s toes; he could have at least helped her create the Speed Force Bazooka. As likable as Tracy and Julian were, I wish the writers had found a better balance between their skillsets and Barry’s.

I was happy to see that Iris (Candice Patton) and Barry didn’t treat Flash like distinct personality: Barry doesn’t have a divide in his persona like some heroes do; as we saw when he lost his memory, Flash is just his ability to do extraordinary things and Barry is the motivating factor behind his heroism. I’m also glad they dealt with the potential awkwardness of Barry and Iris having been raised together. I never thought it was weird since he loved her before he lived with the Wests, but I've seen that "incest" complaint online a few times. That Barry’s reluctance to move the relationship forward was fear of losing everything now that he finally had it was a great and natural place for his character to go, particularly right after losing his father after he’d just returned. As it turned out, this was also a clever way to foreshadow the end of the season: he almost lost Iris and then willingly entered the Speed Force—giving up his dream life—to save the city. I thought Barry’s first proposal to Iris was a little underwhelming, so I was glad that they played it as Barry getting ahead of himself and trying to change the future more than truly celebrating their relationship and wanting to move it forward. Barry breaking up with Iris to fully focus on Savitar is not the move I would’ve made, so when they got back together in the musical crossover with Supergirl, it felt like Barry fixing a mistake rather than a rushed plot reversal. Barry singing “Runnin’ Back to You” to propose the second time was much more romantic! That was a smart use of Gustin’s singing talent and a cool tie-in to the musical nature of the episode. When Barry erased his memories, I loved that it was Iris and their love that brought them back; she’s his lightning rod, after all. Her line about good memories getting you through the bad ones was great. I loved the couch moment at the end of the season with Barry and Iris, with their playful conversation about wedding invitations. I really wish we’d see more of them as a couple; it’s weird that we haven’t seen a lot of their dates or general relationship moments outside the big ones. Hopefully we’ll get that upon Barry’s return next season. Barry telling Iris to “remember to run” was a heartbreaking way to close this season and I can’t imagine it’ll be very easy for them to get through Barry choosing to walk away from her without a discussion.

I thought it would be far too soon for Barry to get sidekicks—it seemed like he hadn’t really had a chance to dig in as a solo Speed Force expert before becoming a mentor himself yet—but training both Jesse Wells (Violett Beane) and Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) worked out really well! I loved the callbacks to Barry being trained by Ollie (Stephen Amell), and once Barry really started teaching Wally, those scenes felt extremely iconic. “Run, Wally, run,” indeed! It was nice to see Barry’s reaction to hearing that Snart had died a hero too; it’s good to see he was right about Snart having good in him and to see that Barry can inspire people to be better. I was also happy that Barry’s morality triumphed in the Gorilla City invasion, though I think they needed to clarify a few things in the past regarding Barry being a killer. While he never did anything like Oliver, it looked for all the world like the first two metahumans in Season 2 were killed when Barry stopped them. Maybe they were Flashpointed back to life, but if they’re going to make a point about Barry not being a killer, I think they need to do more than just leave a vague possibility that a criminal didn’t die at his hands. I’m happy to see they want to play Barry as a hero who doesn’t kill—who’ll find the impossible answer no one else has time to think of—but I think they should also either clarify or deal with their continuity on that score. If he’s going to do it, he needs to deal with it.

That said, Barry had a number of fantastic superhero moments this year! Phasing an entire train was nothing short of astounding. Snapping his fingers into a stream of compressed gas to ignite it, creating a makeshift flame-thrower, was a cool way to vary his powers. He demonstrated a much greater control of time travel than he has in the past when he went to visit the future, leaving me legitimately shocked that he really did come back just a second after he’d left, as planned. It was slightly odd that he’d run off right when Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) had gone Killer Frost, but I get that his worry about saving Iris trumped that and he was right about his time travel capabilities. There are a few times where Barry could’ve used his speed more wisely, like unmasking Alchemy faster: they could've easily had Barry speed for his mask, then have Savitar catch his hand before he got to it and pin him against the wall. Another time he could’ve done more with his powers was during an otherwise show-stopping fight with an ice slide-creating Killer Frost. Barry could’ve thrown lightning at her or created wind tunnels to ground her; Cisco’s not the only one with ranged attacks. Aside from small moments like those, I never felt like Barry was going easy on criminals for the sake of the plot.

Finally resolving Barry being his own worst enemy felt like the natural close to this chapter of his story while also giving a really good reason why Flashes can't just use time travel to fix everything. Physicalizing Barry’s more selfish impulses in Savitar was brilliant and I love that these first three years built to Barry fighting the darkest version of himself. Barry voluntarily entering the Speed Force was sad, but it also felt like what a responsible, selfless hero would do and I like that he's grown to the point where he knows he can't control or change everything. Even though his progress will be a bit hampered by his time in the Speed Force, I can’t wait to see where he goes once he gets back!

Savitar At first I wanted Savitar to be an actual god of motion—that seemed like a good step up from Thawne (Matt Letscher/Tom Cavanaugh) and Zolomon (Teddy Sears)—then I wanted him to be just some random original speedster, so the season’s main enemy wouldn’t be the third traitorous member of Team Flash in as many years. But as the season continued, I came around to the idea of Savitar being Barry; it was the ultimate way to make Barry literally face his mistakes and his worst impulses; even Eobard pointed out that Barry had become the villain of the story. Savitar had a very impressive, scary introduction, and there was never a point where I thought he was needlessly going easy on the heroes. The only moment that came close to that was when he said he had plans for Jesse so he wouldn’t kill her, which were never brought up again but I assume were meant to go into motion after he had secured his origin. I briefly thought Savitar might be a resurrected Eddie Thawne (either via Flashpoint or Eobard bringing him back with the Spear of Destiny over on Legends of Tomorrow) or Barry from the original pre-show timeline gone insane, but I was sure early on that he was a Barry Time Remnant from the future. “I am the future, Flash” was a very cool clue and the fact that he knew the team sealed it for me. I saw a few tweets complaining that they had called Savitar’s identity as well, but I can't imagine a more impactful or satisfying reveal. I'd rather see it coming than have a crazy twist that has little impact. I didn't think Future Barry needed to omit the existence of a surviving damaged Time Remnant—they could've just as easily not known he survived—but that abandonment explains why Savitar went bad when the prime Future Barry didn't. I liked that they combined elements of the comics’ Savitar—a nobody (literally; we never learned his name!) obsessed with the Speed Force who had a long existence with a cult springing up around him—with Cobalt Blue—Barry’s evil twin, adopted by the Thawnes—and an evil future version of Barry Allen from the New 52 timeline—to improve on all three characters. Thanks to his terrifying power, personal tie to Barry, and the fact that he was a manifestation of so many of Barry’s issues, I definitely think Savitar topped Thawne as the best Flash villain so far!

I enjoyed the mythology Time Remnant Barry created around himself by going back in time to cement his place as the “first” metahuman with superspeed. I loved his increasing god complex and his use of Alchemy to lead his growing cult of followers. That he could be trapped within an Arc of the Covenant-style box was a perfect touch. I loved the origin of the Philosopher's Stone and the reason it allowed him to deflect the Speed Force Bazooka's blasts was pretty cool. “God feels no pain, so I had to become one" was a great line and cool motivation to reshape himself in the wake of Iris’ murder and his abandonment by Team Flash. Since Barry is so dependent on his familial connections, Savitar cutting them all off felt like a perfect direction for his character. At one point I wondered why Savitar wouldn’t just kill himself to save Iris (or give himself over to the Time Wraiths, as the Speed Force suggested Barry do), but I think in addition to completely losing his mind he wanted the power to fix everything…he is Barry, after all. He didn’t think his younger self was worthy of the life he led, so killing himself wouldn’t solve anything anyway. I would’ve liked clarification on his plans beyond recreating himself: my theory is he wanted to make another Flashpoint to create his perfect world; this could’ve grown into an attempt to control the Speed Force itself, since it was preventing Barry from further rewriting time (and I really like the idea of a “god” out to control/manipulate speedster Heaven). Like Barry trying to fix the past, Savitar may have been fully confident he could perfect time and make everything better once he’d secured his origin—including bringing Iris back to life—and it’d be like she never died…he just had to kill her first.

His successful attempts to mess with Wally’s head and orchestrate his escape from the Speed Force prison were a little similar to Eobard and Hunter manipulating Barry, but still felt fresh (and it makes sense that Barry would’ve learned tactics from those villains). Savitar’s seeming reluctance to kill the people close to Barry—besides Iris, who he needed to kill for his origin—despite claiming he didn’t need anyone, made sense given he was Barry, which eliminated what would’ve been a question about such an all-powerful supervillain’s restraint. I’d like to think that the moment Savitar was forced to relive over and over in the Speed Force prison was Iris’ death, with the additional knowledge that he did it. I didn’t see Savitar pretending to be Barry to discover Iris’ location; they could’ve had Savitar replace Barry at any moment, but that was absolutely perfect and crushing. It doesn’t (necessarily) refer to that moment exactly, but the message in the Invasion Crossover directing the heroes not to “trust Barry” was a cool bit of foreshadowing and another neat clue to Savitar’s identity that seemed to refer to Barry’s Flashpoint shenanigans. The gimmick of Savitar having all the new memories Barry creates as time changes was a great way to let him stay ahead of our heroes; literally anything Barry did, Savitar would remember.

I hadn’t expected the kind of vengeance that created Savitar to be lying deep within Barry, but after its reveal I could see where it comes from. I really liked how they balanced the anger in Barry to establish the potential for Savitar without wrecking Barry as a hero. The idea that Barry's lack of hope and mercy is the wellspring Savitar comes from is a cool way to dramatize the importance of him remaining an optimistic hero. Even though Barry came to terms with the idea that the darkness can drive him to better himself after making mistakes, his memory loss proved heroes don't need tragedy to be heroes. Barry’s attempt to save Savitar by helping him and bringing him back to the light side was unexpected and really well done; too bad the thought of living without Iris and the appeal of being an unfeeling god was too much for Savitar. Gustin did great playing both sides of this section of Barry’s arc (as well as the broken potential future Barry)! I thought Savitar’s plan B for godhood—splintering himself into every microsecond of time to evade the paradox coming for him—was even cooler than his plan to simply recreate himself. It would’ve been awesome to see him succeed and the heroes have to undo that, but I loved the Savitar arc overall and it truly felt like his defeat signaled the end to this chapter of Barry’s life. And what a defeat it was! The forest fight with Savitar vs. Barry, Wally, and Jay was incredible!

Iris West I love Candice Patton’s Iris, but I’m frequently left wishing she had more to do. This season brought her and Wally into Team Flash more, but Iris’ role was often left to acting as the glue of the West family (and sometimes, Team Flash as a whole). Patton is good at it and I like that Iris plays that role, but I really want them to find a way to incorporate her career as a reporter more. I had a similar gripe with Lois Lane (Erica Durance) on Smallville as well: when Barry runs off to fight crime, why isn’t Iris right behind him to get the story? Why not throw in a flirty-cute "see you there!" from her as Barry runs off? That would be such an easy way to incorporate her job into the show; even if she doesn’t have anything to do in a fight scene, it’d be a great reminder that she actually does her job. Since Cisco’s metascanner eliminates her ability to really feed the team scoops on crimes, she could bring some humanity to the villains Team Flash faces thanks to her investigations. While Barry gets physical evidence as a CSI, Iris interviewing the people in these enemies’ lives can provide emotional or background information that could help Flash understand who he’s fighting. Iris also gets saddled with a bit of the “ask questions so the audience understands” unnecessary exposition Firestorm (Franz Drameh, Victor Garber) gets on Legends of Tomorrow, though not as much as she did in Season 1, so this is improving. I hope that ends and the writers give us more credit. It’d also be cool to see Iris cross over to the other shows next time; I think she’s the only regular from Flash aside from Wally who hasn’t gotten to visit another series. I’d absolutely love to see her jump over to Supergirl and give Kara (Melissa Benoist) a few journalism pointers!

All that said, Iris getting to play a bigger role within Team Flash was great to see! It was neat to see her and Wally working together as crime fighters in the Flashpoint timeline and it’s cool that Barry’s season-ending sacrifice and Iris’ increased role on Team Flash effectively makes that the case in the real timeline as well. Iris and Wally had some great echoes of that crime-busting team throughout the season, such as when she distracted Joe (Jesse L. Martin) with a very funny conversation about her possibly being pregnant so Wally could snoop through his files. Iris knocking out Wally when he was possessed by Alchemy was great; I definitely thought she’d end up captured, so taking Wally down was a nice surprise. I was glad when the other characters finally stopped treating her like she couldn’t do her job without dying—especially knowing it’s Savitar that would kill her, not some random villain—because she’s an adult and it was time they accepted that she’s capable of taking the same risks they are (and more than willing to do so). I liked that they came to the understanding that she wasn’t going to stop helping people, no matter what the risk.

It was also fun to see Iris and Barry’s relationship develop, though I wish we got more of it onscreen. The show has never been very showy about Barry’s love life, so it didn’t feel like Iris was shortchanged in comparison to Linda (Malese Jow) or Patty, but while we’ve gotten plenty of moments of Barry being in love with Iris over the past three years, I wish we were seeing more of them actually dating. Nevertheless, what we got was fun; bits like their first date (which ended awkwardly), their redo (which also ended abruptly, but better), and moving in together were fun, as was her joking with him while he was trapped in a mirror. I liked her reasoning for breaking up with Barry after his future-averting proposal, and her video vows were perfect. Intercut with Barry’s futile race to save her, however, they were absolutely heartbreaking!

I'm not sure how I feel about Iris shooting Savitar right after Barry had a heroic moment for staying the course and not killing him. The idea is clearly that killing is not a heroic act for Barry, so why is it OK for Iris to do it? It's a gray area—Savitar was going to evaporate in seconds anyway as the paradox hit him and she does save Barry by killing his doppelganger—but it could've been a less fatal shot. Had she just shot Savitar in the leg, she would’ve prevented him from killing Barry long enough for the paradox to evaporate him. That's the one thing I'd change about the finale, I think; at least Barry brought it up later and it seems like Iris will deal with the effects of that choice next year. I’ve heard she’ll be the leader of Team Flash while Barry’s gone, so I’m definitely excited to see how she settles into that role!

Wally West/Kid-Flash As wary as I was of Wally getting his powers so soon, just like Roy’s (Colton Haynes) early introduction on Arrow, I loved what Keiynan Lonsdale brought to the show this year! I loved how much of a fan of the Flash they made him and how badly he wanted to be a hero, so his ascension to Kid-Flash was great and felt true to the original comics. His glee at finally getting powers was infectious! I love that Wally's the idealistic fanboy while Barry is more of an optimistic realist. It's a nice balance that proves you don't need a light/dark contrast to create friction or friendly competition between heroes. Moments of the guys ribbing each other, like a “Flash vs. Kid-Flash” conversation at Jitters and playing the truth of stage whispering as Barry was asking Iris to look after Wally while he was on Earth-2 dealing with Grodd were great fun and I’m glad that sort of competition never erupted into some epic argument between the two.

I thought Wally’d secretly seek out Alchemy to get his powers, so I’m glad they didn’t go that route (even if he did put himself in the cocoon). I liked that he was willing to use himself as an Alchemy tracker—Wally never needed powers to be a hero—and his moment about fear with Barry before they went into the lair was great. I thought pulling him out of the chrysalis before he was ready would cause more problems with his powers than it did. In the comics, initially they started to kill him so he couldn't use them much until his physiology was corrected, so I thought they were going to do something similar here (I even thought that would be the “fate worse than death”). Perhaps they’ll still play that card in the future, but I’m glad he got to have his dream come true. Wally’s eagerness to be trained played into the Invasion Crossover very well and jumping into that fray was a fun first outing for Kid-Flash! Once Barry started training Wally, I absolutely loved it! Wally's issues with phasing were a nice nod to the comics, where he originally couldn't phase "cleanly" through objects, leaving them unstable, and would instead leave Looney Tunes-styled holes in them. I do wish they’d taken the opportunity of Barry losing his memories to flip their relationship, so Wally could train him for a bit. He brought it up so it seems it happened offscreen, but it would’ve been nice to actually see him in Barry’s shoes and vice-versa.

Wally’s burgeoning relationship with Jesse was fun! The two have good chemistry. I liked their early issues caused by his jealousy over her powers and that they focused more on him putting himself in danger than resenting her for getting superspeed. I was glad that he was immediately honest with her about Harry (Tom Cavanaugh) “dying;” that could’ve been a source of cheap drama, but they chose to have Wally be mature and honor his relationship with Jesse instead. I really thought Wally would go with her to protect Earth-3 and I wasn’t sure why he wouldn't use the opportunity to get away from things so soon after his time as a prisoner in the Speed Force. I guess he needed his dad and sister more then, and he got his groove back in the Supergirl crossover, so I’m ultimately glad he stayed. I knew he’d get the fate worse than death, but I didn’t guess he’d be trapped in the Speed Force watching his mom die over and over again or catatonic and crippled in the potential future! It seems Wally is fated for a dark path, and I hope they can prevent that.

It was nice to be reminded of Wally's engineering acumen in the finale and I hope Cisco takes him under his wing as an engineering apprentice at STAR Labs. Like Barry as a CSI and Iris as a journalist, I’d love to see Wally applying himself as an engineer next season; Cisco as a mentor would also be a fun, new note for him to play and a different energy for Wally to play off of. I loved Wally's evolution into Kid-Flash and I'm excited to see how he handles living up to Barry, even though I’m surprised we’re getting Wally as the Flash so soon. I’m glad it’s not due to a permanent Barry death (I was afraid WB’s movie division might want that with Justice League’s Barry coming up), and while it seems Allen will be back faster than he should to really play out Wally as the solo Flash, I hope his return creates a lot of drama with Wally suddenly being put back in second position to Barry. Living up to Barry’s memory and then dealing with what his place in the world was after Allen’s return were big arcs in the comics for Wally, so I hope next season gives them the time they need.

Cisco Ramon/Vibe Cisco getting to be in the field more as Vibe was great! Perhaps that evolution is a chance for Wally to pick up his slack in the lab. His battles with Killer Frost were excellent and perfectly emotionally charged. I don’t remember them specifically stating it, but I feel like Cisco’s fear of turning evil after meeting Reverb added some great weight to his attempts to save his best friend from herself. If it wasn’t explicitly stated, that could’ve been a great argument for how she didn’t have to give herself over to the Killer Frost identity. I loved how conflicted and how concerned about hurting Caitlin he was whenever they came to blows and I honestly couldn’t guess how Vibe vs. Killer Frost would go down in the end.

I also liked how much Cisco has grown in hostage situations; he's come a long way since he gave up Barry's secret ID to Captain Cold to save Dante (Nicholas Gonzalez). On that note, I really liked Cisco’s angst about his brother this year. While correcting Barry on whether or not they were friends when they went to recruit Supergirl may have seemed a little much, I think his pain and anger needed to be that big and drawn out or else it would’ve felt rushed and underdeveloped. It’s also possible Cisco and Dante were closer in the post-Flashpoint timeline than they were in the original one, which would be a cruel irony in that they didn’t really get along in one reality and Dante died in another. I liked the way they finally resolved things between Cisco and Barry; it felt natural. I also liked that Cisco had a moment in the Invasion Crossover where he was faced with much the same choice Barry was. His reaction to accidentally changing time for the greater good was a great way to let him understand what Barry had gone through and to work through his problems with his best friend.

Another great development for Cisco was his relationship with HR. I wasn’t a big fan of HR, but at least he drove all of Team Flash to be their best without relying on the genius of a Harrison Wells. The “just show up” speech about heroism Cisco gave HR was excellent and such a great moment for both men! Cisco’s relationship with Gypsy (Jessica Camacho) was fun and breezy, which was a great switch from the angst of his strained friendships with Barry and Caitlin. I’m 100% sure that the dead partner Gypsy keeps referring to—the one that seems to be standing in the way of her starting a relationship with Cisco—was the Cisco of her Earth. I’m definitely interested to see where their relationship goes next year; it’ll be nice for Cisco to have a relationship that goes beyond flirting for once! I also liked Gypsy opening Cisco’s eyes to what he could accomplish with his powers, though I think he should’ve had to land more than one hit on her during their first fight. Oh well. Like pulling a Flash Signal out of the Batman mythos, Cisco calling Savitar “Two-Face” was totally unexpected and very funny!

Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost I’m torn about the portrayal of Killer Frost. On one hand, playing Caitlin’s metahuman evolution like a disease she was desperate to conceal and cure was a great, fresh take on the metahuman condition. I also really liked that she didn’t get over what Barry accidentally did to her with Flashpoint. On the other, it seemed like the show fought far too hard to make Killer Frost a separate personality without any reason why. Unless a split personality was Flashpointed into her past along with her powers, Caitlin showed no signs of one in the previous two seasons and while Magenta did have a split personality brought on by her powers, it was due to Alchemy granting her the memories of her life in the Flashpoint timeline. Caitlin didn’t get her powers from Alchemy and had no memories of any other life, so why was she alone subject to a split personality? It felt like the show was afraid to pull the trigger on a major character development for Caitlin and instead wanted to play it safe by making Killer Frost “someone else,” except they also had Frost say that she was the real Caitlin. There would’ve been absolutely nothing wrong with Caitlin being justifiably angry with Barry and going off the rails—even hurting her friends—in her frantic quest to be cured. Pining for Ronnie aside, we’ve never seen Caitlin really desperate, and this could’ve been a great way to explore a darker side of her (particularly with Savitar showing us Barry’s darkest side). They didn’t need to scapegoat her wrongdoing on her powers. The fact that she was often forced to use her powers to save her friends (freezing Iris’ arm to stop an infection, getting Barry out of the mirror, slowing Savitar, etc.), thus pushing her farther and farther into her Killer Frost identity was perfectly tragic, but it would’ve been better if Frost hadn’t been a separate person; they could’ve just played Caitlin as being sick of saving everyone else when they couldn’t do much to help her.

All that said, Killer Frost was great as an enemy and Panabaker was great in both roles; this may be her best material yet on the series! Her villainous puns were a lot of fun and the CGI—especially the Iceman-style ice-slides in a fight with Barry and Cisco—was outstanding! I didn’t see her being the traitor coming at all and teaming up with Savitar was a nice twist and echo of Earth-2 Caitlin working with Zoom. In hindsight, her early comment about all their friends being their greatest enemies was a fun bit of foreshadowing for both her and Savitar. I liked meeting Caitlin’s mom, Dr. Carla Tannhauser (Susan Walters), and I was sure she’d turn out to be an evil parent, so I was relieved it was actually Nigel (Thomas Cadrot) who wanted to force Caitlin to use her powers while Carla genuinely wanted to help her. I hope we get more of Caitlin’s relationship with her mom next year. At the end of the season, I loved that they didn’t take the easy way out by having Frost cure herself. Going through her full transformation and becoming someone who isn’t quite Caitlin or Killer Frost is the stronger choice and I’m excited to see where they take her character next year.

Joe West Joe’s season arc felt like one that forced him to begin letting go of his kids. From his Flashpoint-created estrangement from Iris at the beginning of the year to dealing with Wally beginning training as a speedster, to learning about Iris’ impending death, and finally to losing Barry to the Speed Force, Detective West was put through the wringer regarding his children. I thought Joe being overprotective of Wally and trying to stop him from being a superhero worked better than his being protective of Iris for most of the season, maybe because Iris feels like more of an adult than Wally does and she’d already been a reporter for years at this point. That said, Joe struggling with saving Iris from her fate and his recollection of when she was a baby was so sad! Her death was a standout moment for Jesse L. Martin. I didn’t think they had to hide Barry’s vision of the future from Joe and I’m glad there wasn’t a huge falling out over it when it was finally revealed. In hindsight, that was a clever reversal where Joe’s kids were needlessly overprotective of him instead of the other way around.

I did think we needed a bigger moment where Joe came around on Wally training. It felt a hair too fast IMO. I liked that his comments about love and family accidentally led to Barry realizing who Savitar was (particularly as Joe’s plot in that episode felt fine, but extraneous at first). His romance with DA Cecile Horton (Danielle Nicolet) is fun and I hope it continues. I’m definitely interested to see where Joe is after the hiatus. We’ve seen him repeatedly turn out much worse for wear without his kids, so losing Barry like this must be hard on him. I wonder if he’ll still be the same voice of the common man for Team Flash or if his role will change; I kinda hope it does. I like that he’s been the stable backbone of the West family and I don’t think I’d want a midlife crisis for him, but with all three of his kids growing up, I wonder where Joe’s energy will be put if not into being overprotective of them. I wonder if he has aspirations to climb the chain of command at the CCPD.

Harry Wells/HR Introducing multiple Harrison Wells was a fun idea (and Cavanaugh was clearly having a blast creating the most random Wells possible), but none of them could replace Harry for me. I love his friendship with Cisco and their mini-competition about naming supervillains was great! I thought pretending to be dying to convince Jesse to listen to him was a bit much, but I’m glad he owned it as a mistake. His reactions to HR were always entertaining! I loved that Team Flash hid Iris on Earth-2 with Harry and I was very worried Savitar would kill him (and Joe) when he came for her. I’m glad it seems Harry will be sticking around in Season 4, but I hope the team doesn’t slide backwards into leaning on him as a mentor figure. They’ve grown beyond that, so it’ll be interesting to see how he finds a new role for himself on the team.

I really disliked HR in the beginning: his being a “muse” helping others reach their full potential never worked for me and often came off as though he were just taking the credit for Team Flash coming up with their own ideas. That said, I’m glad that this Wells not being a genius forced Barry to step up as leader and the rest of the team to think for themselves more; I feel that was key to me never hating the character; instead I just struggled to see how he fit on the show at first. HR did grow on me, though, and even though training Wally at first sounded like a terrible idea, it worked. They also got some good comedy out of HR, such as “All’s Wells that Ends Wells.” He and Tracy had a cute relationship while it lasted, and I liked him just being there for the team as the series progressed. Moments like consoling Jesse and getting an inspirational boost from Barry in the final episodes made me like him more (and I liked that the latter was a direct example of what Cold said: the goodness in Barry was the key to saving Iris). I was glad he got to go out being a hero; Cavanaugh won me over on HR and I definitely appreciated how much he’d touched the rest of the team at his funeral.

Julian Albert/Doctor Alchemy This was a really cool reimagining of the comics’ Dr. Alchemy: he's "making gold" from raw materials by bringing people to their full potential! It was clever to take Alchemy’s split personality from the comics and twist it so that it was Savitar’s influence over him. I was torn on whether Julian was Alchemy or not, but there was really no other suspect. When it was finally revealed, it wasn’t a shock, but I wasn’t disappointed either. I liked that he wasn’t the third ally (however caustic their relationship) of Barry’s to knowingly turn out to be an enemy; his opinion that metas were wasting their gifts being evil was an original take on the situation and the layers they added to him as the season progressed all worked for me. His opinion that the police force had become lazy since Flash did more than all of them together was a great man-on-the-street take on Barry’s heroics! I liked that he provided an obstacle for Barry at work, but I do think the show dropped the ball a bit on letting Barry prove himself in that field; even getting Allan’s job back was more due to Julian figuring out who Barry was rather than Barry proving he deserved to be a CSI. Barry just lost too often in the face of Julian’s professionalism IMO. One time Julian’s skills didn’t make Barry look bad was when they had to operate on Caitlin; Barry and Wally could’ve sped-read medical skills to do it, but that would’ve been raw knowledge as opposed to Julian’s experience as a medic. Moments like that worked and I wish there had been a better balance of that sort of “competition;” Barry doesn't have to be the best at everything of course, but they almost made it seem like he was a total screw-up compared to Julian.

That said, once Julian joined Team Flash he was a fun addition and, as my friend pointed out, brought the snarky “friendly antagonist” energy back to the team in Harry’s absence. Bits like him geeking out over a “planet” of apes were fun; I enjoyed his whole Indiana Jones vibe, actually. His relationship with Caitlin wasn’t something I was rooting for initially, but I liked it. Their shared lack of control over their powers was a great bonding factor, even if his experience as Alchemy was much more clearly defined as a split personality than her changes into Killer Frost were. I felt sorry for him when Barry asked him to let Savitar back into his mind again and Felton was great with the agony and turmoil of becoming Alchemy again. Even though he’s not going to be a regular in Season 4, I’d definitely be open to Julian returning for a guest appearance now and again.

Allies I liked a lot of what they did with Jesse Quick this year, particularly when HR tried to stop her from going after Savitar and she responded that on her Earth, she’s the Flash. Though she got some training from Barry early in the season, I loved that she asserted herself as a main superhero instead of anyone’s sidekick. Also, even though HR grew on me and I liked him by the end, Jesse being over him and knocking him out still felt cathartic. I didn’t think Wally and Jesse would make it as a couple because I didn’t think the show would stick with three heroic speedsters on a single Earth for the whole year; it’d be too easy to defeat the villains. I’m glad I was wrong and they made their extremely long-distance relationship work, because I like them together. I liked that Jesse had real, valid concerns about Wally’s interest in superspeed; the drama generated by that arc felt valid and pressing. I did think it was a little odd that Jesse abandoned crime-fighting on Earth-2 to protect Jay’s Earth-3, but maybe she’d gotten things under control back home. There were a few missteps with Jesse that felt like she was simply written out of scenes to make them more streamlined, but ended up hurting her character a bit. For instance, Jesse was too preoccupied with Iris’ engagement ring to help Barry and Wally save lives? Jesse could've just taken in the ring in superspeed, making an out of character moment a little better by putting a fun Flash spin on it, at least. There’s no reason she couldn’t have been right beside Barry to witness Wally’s freakout at seeing Savitar either. She could’ve run off with Barry to try and save Wally from being sucked into the Speed Force prison too (though admittedly, he could’ve done more than watch once he got there as well). Facing off with Savitar and proving he was human, not a god (Stab, Jesse, Stab!) made up for this a bit, but these moments felt out of character and unnecessary. Still, Jesse is a fun recurring character and I’m hopeful she’ll be back often in Season 4!

I thought for sure Jay Garrick would play a role with the JSA over on Legends of Tomorrow, but I liked what they did with him here even better. Making Jay Henry Allen’s doppelganger was an inspired choice and I love it whenever he shows up; Jay stopping by to give Barry advice not only feels iconic but feels important, given Barry’s talking to a man with his father’s face. Read any interview with Shipp and it’s clear how thoughtful he is about his approach to playing both Henry and Jay (and his own Barry) and how best to use his time on the show (or why he should sometimes be kept away altogether), rather than being an actor who needs everything to contort to fit him in. I do think it’s sad they keep locking him away in prisons, though; just being away on Earth-3 is a good enough reason for him to not be around. That said, I hope he’s been helping Wally find his way as the new Flash!

Gypsy was awesome! I don’t know anything about the character she’s based on, so I was up for anything the show did with her and I loved all of it. She was a great adversary even though she didn't want to take over the world or steal things, and her interdimensional collector job made for one of the most reasonable hero vs. hero fights around. Her supreme confidence, tenacity, and preparedness (including handcuffs that Barry apparently couldn’t vibrate through) made her an instant favorite of mine. It was very cool that she entered the show not only with something of a history with HR, but Abra Kadabra too. I hope things work out for her and Cisco and I’m excited to see where she goes next season. Meeting her father (Danny Trejo) is going to be fun too!

I love Captain Cold, so getting to see him in flashbacks, as a Speed Force manifestation, and finally plucked from time to pull a heist with Barry was very cool and a lot of fun! With both his villainous and heroic versions showing up, we got to see all sides of Snart this year. I hope Barry gets to meet the “bizarro” version that’ll be showing up on Legends this season. I was so excited for Julio Mendez (Alex Desert) to finally be on the show, since he was Barry's best friend on the 1990 show! I liked that he ran the CCPD in Flashpoint and I was sorry to see both his appearances cut so short. Since he died in the normal timeline, I hope he gets to be Jay’s CSI buddy/police support on Earth-3. I liked Tracy Brand, but I still think Barry should’ve had a larger hand in helping her build the Speed Force Bazooka/prison. He’s the one with all the knowledge about the SF, so we should’ve seen them working together (the Speed Force even mentioned that, in the original timeline, they did work together on it). Dudek had good chemistry with Tom Cavanaugh and I liked how she acclimated to the team’s sci-fi craziness relatively quickly. I’d be up for more appearances in Season 4. Lyla’s (Audrey Marie Anderson) brief appearance was cool and I liked her reasons for not giving Barry the power source ARGUS had. He didn’t deserve her trust, which was a great example of unforeseen consequences of his actions. That her trust in him was restored by the end of the heist seemed a little rushed, but not unnatural. I thought the Accelerated Man of Earth-19 (Sean Poague) might be important to the Savitar mystery, but I’d still like to learn more about him. At least visually, he’s very distinctive and seems like he could have a cool story.

Villains Eobard Thawne is my second-favorite villain on the show and I love how much he loves tormenting Barry. I still wish his final battle had been with Barry, but I hope a younger version shows up sometime; I still think there’s more to explore with him hating Barry because he idolized him until he found out they’d be enemies. It was cool that he got to call Barry out as the villain of the season. I hope Abra Kadabra (David Dastmalchian) comes back soon and often. Playing him so much like a stage magician isn't what I had in mind, but I thought it worked well and I loved all his tricks! I really liked how creepy he got when he said not telling Barry about Savitar would be like he got to kill Iris too. Savitar aside, he’s my favorite new villain this year and I hope we see much more of him (even though he was taken off to be executed, we can still meet his younger self). The Earth-3 Trickster was fun (and it’s very cool Mark Hamill was willing to pop by for a reunion with Shipp from the original Flash show), but I prefer "our" version and would like to see him return!

I can’t believe we got to see Gorilla City and I loved every second of it, though I would’ve liked to see a bit more of their culture and world (but seriously: the fact that we got anything blows my mind!). I thought Solovar (Keith David) gave Barry a great fight in the coliseum and used original ways to counter his speed. Like I saw mentioned on Twitter, it seemed like Grodd (David Sobolov, Simon Burnett) should’ve been able to read Team Flash’s minds in the cells (or just compel Cisco to open a portal once Barry accidentally convinced the gorillas to fight humans), but I guess he didn’t because he got cocky or, perhaps, Grodd’s telepathy didn’t work within the cages and didn’t want to give Cisco a chance to escape by pulling him out. I liked Grodd’s missile threat a lot and even though they were severely outmatched and outnumbered it was spectacular to see Barry, Jesse, and Wally team up against an army of apes! Barry and Grodd’s rematch was slightly underwhelming after Barry vs. Solovar, but I liked that it was Barry’s goodness that won the day, not his fighting skills. I'm also glad Grodd is locked up at ARGUS for use later on. I don't need to see him again immediately, but I definitely want him back in the future. I hope Hunter/the Black Flash isn’t dead (or that he can be reconstituted somehow), because he was scary on Legends and I’d like to see him continue to play his role as the Speed Force’s Death.

I liked Mirror Master (Grey Damon), but felt they could do more with his powers, like endangering multiple civilians at once from various mirrors/windows around the city. It was cool to mention the comics' other Mirror Master, Evan McCulloch, as being from Earth 2. I’d like the characters to meet him and see what he can do with his tech-based powers. Exploring the mirror universe Scudder travels through between reflective surfaces could also make for some cool episodes. I thought The Top (Ashley Rickards) was better than in the comics and I liked her vertigo effect. Since Count Vertigo (Seth Gabel, Peter Stormare) doesn't have his reality-warping tech (yet?), I'd love to see her fight Oliver sometime on Arrow. However, both Top and Scudder could stand to have their own episodes to fully shine: there never seems to be enough time to really dig into either of them. On the other hand, I definitely hope that their Bonnie & Clyde routine continues a trend of the Rogues working together against Barry. Playing Jared Morillo/Plunder (Stephen Huszar) as a high-tech pirate thief was fine as a one-off villain. The comics' version was the mirror-verse clone of a cop (Morillo), created by Mirror Master to be his inside man. That would've been cooler, but there’s nothing to say that plot can’t be used with any other character either…evil Mirror Joe, maybe?

Like Grodd and Gorilla City, I can't believe they managed a giant kaiju monster on a network TV show! I might've given the moment at the end with the kid (Isaiah Lehtinen) controlling it being talked down to Flash instead of Joe, though I'm glad they made the kid face the consequences of his actions. Speaking of outstanding CGI, we got another fun King Shark appearance and another missed opportunity for a Street Sharks reference from Cisco. Hahaha! I loved the fin in the smoke and am definitely game for King Shark to return whenever they want. Matthew Kevin Anderson was scary as Clive Yorkin, who could disintegrate anyone he touched and was on a killing spree. Magenta may have been a bit low-key as a villain, but her story brought out some great parallels to Harry/Jesse, Barry/Flashpoint, Harry/Barry and mistakes, and Joe/Wally. I also really liked the way Barry talked her down instead of fighting her off. Shade (Mike McLeod) was kind of wasted in his episode, but at least he didn't die. In the comics, Shade's somewhat immortal and has been a villain and an anti-hero, which could provide an interesting perspective to contrast with Barry if he comes back. Given the caliber of other speedsters on the show, Edward Clariss/The Rival (Todd Lasance) felt underwhelming. He served his purpose and didn’t need to be epic, I suppose, but he wasn’t that impressive. Maybe if we hadn’t had so many evil speedsters or if he got more than one episode to show what he could do he would’ve been fine.

General Plot Notes It always feels like so much happens on Flash episodes and I wish more shows were like that. I liked the structure of the season, with the metahumans so closely tied to Flashpoint. I don’t want to get rid of 22-23 episode seasons, because I love getting to spend as much time as possible with these characters and worlds, but it might be better to split each season between two main villains. Alchemy and Savitar worked this year—and the ability to trap Savitar while still racing to rescue Iris from her fate helped to maintain his unstoppable shadow over the season without making him or the heroes look incompetent—so I think the show is headed in the right direction on that front.

Using the headlines glimpsed in the future was a clever way to propel the “save Iris!” plot; they could try and change the future, but they could never be certain of how successful any given change would be. Even travelling to the future didn’t afford Barry many answers, but I liked that it was another chance to show how Barry can inspire hope in even the most hopeless (and a Cisco so desperate for hope that he’d trap Barry there was a great manifestation of that). While the pacing felt a little off in that episode, I loved that it spent so much time with the Future Team Flash and that all the changes they’d gone through were fully explored. The Future Flash suit was a nice touch; I’ve always felt the belt buckle on the present-day suit looked a little awkward and bulky compared to the rest of the suit, but making it gold and incorporating it into his lightning belt made it look like it fit. If they take anything from the future suit for a Season 4 look, I hope it’s that. I enjoyed the fact that even though erasing Barry’s memories was a truly crazy Hail Mary scheme to beat Savitar, it actually worked. That was one of the best uses of (and reasons for) an amnesia episode I've seen in a long time. Wally losing his powers was a cool side effect of Savitar losing his memory that I didn’t see coming. The countdown throughout Iris’ death episode gave it a great sense of tension, even while balancing it with plenty of funny lines. I didn't expect Iris to actually die—and I totally believed it when it happened—but I didn't think it'd be permanent. I guessed HR would take her place with his holographic projector (and thought we might be seeing someone other than Iris as early as when Wally was having his visions of Savitar escaping the Speed Force), but the show had a much simpler way of doing that than my convoluted time travel theory. The finale was not at all what I was expecting, but I loved just about all of it!

The development of the world was cool and felt like we were taking baby steps to the iconic Flash mythos of the comics, particularly with HR opening a museum in Star Labs. It’s great that they have a continuing relationship with the city and its people; Flash shouldn’t be like other superheroes who are inaccessible to the public except when there’s a crisis. That they could teach kids about science to keep their doors open (their needing a source of funds was another good point!) was very cool. I do wish they’d taken the opportunity to rebrand the museum as the Flash Museum in an attempt to change the future; maybe now that the building has been destroyed, that’ll be part of the rebuilt Star Labs. That’d be particularly fitting after Barry’s “death.” The Speed Lab was another cool addition to Star Labs and I’m hoping we get more of this sort of world-building in the coming year. I wonder if they’ll take the building exploding as an opportunity to completely overhaul the Cortex and other sets. It was also cool to visit HR’s Earth-19 and Jay’s Earth-3 (and of course Jesse’s Earth-2); I hope we get to see more of the multiverse as the series continues!

I was wrong about how things would go in Flashpoint (I thought the Invasion Crossover would be a Crisis that would resolve it 8 episodes into the season), but I liked what they did a lot and I'm glad we got back to (approximately) the show we know quickly. I do think they missed an opportunity to have present-day Barry become the Flash who told his younger self not to save Nora in the Season 1 finale, but I guess that moment has been permanently erased (along with the original Barry of the Flashpoint timeline; I understood it that he’d fade away/merge with our Barry when he entered Flashpoint, like the first two times Barry time traveled). It also would’ve been fun to explore the Flashpoint world a bit more, maybe including a classic comic book goateed-Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance-Black Canary appearance, but overall I’m glad the show kept the focus on Barry and his world. As fun as dark alternate realities can be, I felt both the comic and the animated versions of Flashpoint lost the focus on Barry and his affect (or lack thereof) on Central City in favor of Justice Leaguers fighting each other. I’m glad the show didn’t do that and getting to see our heroes in this alternate timeline was a lot of fun. I was sorry to see elements of the show we knew go, but I really liked Flashpoint—and the damage it did to the West family dynamics, Cisco’s brother, and Caitlin’s health—as the reason Barry can't just go back and fix whatever he wants. Even though he came out of his first brush with the Speed Force wiser and more confident, losing Henry crushed him and I think Barry needed a big lesson about the consequences of his actions. That Flashpoint both served as the lesson and fed into the creation of Savitar was brilliant.

I liked the Invasion Crossover a lot! Despite a few choices I would’ve changed, Flash kicked things off (after a brief Supergirl scene) to a great start! I didn't think we needed to see Barry and Ollie pinned down outside Star Labs three times. Seeing the alien ship crash and the Dominators charge would've been enough of a hook to start the episode and I would've cut it to look like Barry and Ollie were being pinned by the Dominators to preserve the brainwashed heroes reveal. I also don't think we needed to see the Supergirl scene again; it didn't add any information to the crossover and it makes watching the Supergirl episode unnecessary if you want to see the "real" crossover. My only other (and larger) issue was a general lack of strategy from everyone involved: Ollie had people attacking Kara with no visible plan to adjust their methods to her powers and Kara and Co. just waltzed into the warehouse where the President (Jerry Wasserman) was being held. It’s true that’s her standard operating procedure since she's invulnerable, but you'd think Sara (Caity Lotz) would know better and at least offer an alternative plan. It also should’ve taken longer to mind-control that group. Ollie and Barry got smarter when their backs were literally against the wall, but I would've liked to see a little more tactical planning from everyone; Wally aside, they weren’t new at this. That said, it was definitely a great crossover! I was glad they got the obligatory hero vs. hero fight out of the way right off the bat. And it was a great, fun fight! I also loved that the front of the Star Labs hanger was the Hall of Justice from Super Friends! What a great shout-out! I love that these shows aren't afraid to dive head-first into Silver Age wackiness! I loved how Barry's Flashpoint guilt played such a strong role in the crossover (and that the invasion was a response to Flashpoint) without feeling like a pity party. Ollie talking to Barry about mistakes and responsibility was perfect; I love their brotherly relationship and was happy to see him reassure Barry (and to support Barry as the nascent Justice League’s leader). Their drinks at the end of the Legends episode were perfect as well. Ollie's right: everyone makes their own choices; Barry just shuffled the deck a bit as to what cards people got dealt. They have fully driven home the point that he can't just go and change time—no matter how much he hurts—and I truly believe Barry won’t ever screw with it again.

The second big crossover, a musical Supergirl adventure, was probably my favorite CW crossover yet. Barry and Kara (and Gustin & Benoist) are a great comedic team and I hope we get many more team-ups from them over the years. "Super Friends" was a ton of fun and a perfect encapsulation of their friendship; I’d love to see more of them just hanging out. Everyone involved in “Duet” sang really well; it’s amazing they’ve collected so many good singers across these shows! Maybe next time Pied Piper (Andy Mientus) and Hawkgirl (Ciara Renee) can join in the fun too. I loved the 1930s/40s setting and, while I would’ve liked more original songs instead of covers, I loved everything we got. I didn't expect Music Meister (Darren Criss) to be purely out to help the heroes at all, but I liked the twist. My theory is, he’s from our world (DC’s Earth-Prime: our world, where Grant Gustin plays Barry Allen on TV), and has been watching Barry and Kara on their respective shows; that’s why he’s so invested in them getting happy endings. It was nice to see J’onn (David Harewood) cross over, but I would’ve liked Chyler Leigh’s Alex to come to take care of her sister as well. The limited time spent in the real world prevented them from really getting into it, but it would’ve been cool if Iris had given Kara some advice on working her way back into the journalism business. It was also cool that they threw in another Supergirl “crossover” when Cisco and Gypsy were fighting through multiple Earths and landed in CatCo for a moment. Bits like that are fun reminders that the shows are connected without having to make a big deal out of it.

With Wally taking over as Flash and the team moving forward, I’m hoping we get to see Barry getting back to basics with science and CSIing this year. It’ll be fun to see how Barry deals with a world that’s moved on without him, particularly after seeing him in a world of his creation at the start of Season 3. Maybe his huge steps forward in personal growth will lead him towards the more responsible Barry from the comics. I wonder if Iris finally wrote the “Flash Vanishes in a Crisis” article, and it refers to the Speed Force storm at the end of this year. I’m glad we’re getting Clifford DeVoe (Neil Sandilands) as the main villain next year: there’s no way they could’ve topped Savitar with a sixth speedster villain (seventh if you count Hunter as the Speed Force Death avatar). We needed to get Barry vs. Barry to finish his current arc, so now I’m ready for the fastest man alive to take on the fastest mind alive!

I can’t wait for Season 4 next week!

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the-heat-of-the-moment-gabe · 7 years

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Tagging game

ASDFGHJK Thank you so much @oftrickstersandmoose for tagging me and saying that about my blog!! That’s sooo sweet <333

I am going to do this thing, even though no one probably cares that much... Still, I will use this opportunity to tell everyone that reads this that THEY ARE AWESOME AND SIMPLY SOME ADORABLE CUTE LITTLE ANGELS ^-^

Nickname: Riri (no one actually calls me like that, but I found out it’s another abbreviation of my name so I love it =)) ) Gender: Fangirl (that’s it. That’s my gender. Forget about female, I am a fan-femme ❤︎) Star Sign: Libra ^^ (the most indecisive person ever, I admit it) Height: a bit more than 5ft 1′ I think? (I know, I know... I am literally a shrimp! But at least I get to stay in front of tall people and watch better everything XD) Time: time...time is irreversible.. the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole... But, yeah, it’s about midnight here, if that’s the question =) Birthday: Oct 1st ❤︎ Favourite Bands: *pulls out powerpoint project* Are you sure of this?? *brings pictures and merchandise* jk XD My favorite band EVER will forever be Fall out boy I love them SO much,my wonderful adorable obsession!! <333 I also love mcr (my babies asdfghjk), p!atd, bvb, Green Day, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Rolling stones, Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Skid Row, The Offspring, The Beatles, Journey, Metallica, Gnr, Whitesnake, Foreigner, Boston,CCR, Van Halen, BOC, Asia, lynyrd skynyrd, alice cooper, Eagles... The list can go on till tomorrow :)) Also, a special mentioning would be Abba and Modern Talking <333 and, of course, my second favorite band (I shamelessly admit I have 90 songs of them on my phone device), QUEEN XD Favourite Solo Artists: hard to choose, uggh... My favorite singer used to be Celine Dion, so... I also love Kylie Minogue, Michael Bolton, Cyndi Lauper, Bryan Adams, Barbra streisand, Amy Grant, Bob Dylan, Elvis, too many to think of right now... Could I add Richard too?? =)) (even though he always says he is NOT a musician, his voice is wonderful aaaahh *sighs*) Song Stuck in My Head: “All star” by Smash Mouth! It’s kind of making me feel more confident though, but it’s annoyingly catchy... Oh and yeah, how could I forget about “anyway you want it” by Journey, it got stuck in my mind for a whole week, I am so glad I got over it Last Movie I Watched: Forrest Gump =) (watched it today, I admit I have cried a lot to it, and now I have only southern accents stuck in my head heeelp) Last Show I Watched: Big Bang Theory <33 (I adore sitcoms) I was trying to see if I can get to watch more Star Trek on tv, but instead I saw this :) When did I create my blog?: umm...My main one, I think around October last year?? And this secondary little thing that made my life better, I think sometime in May :)) What do I post? Post or reblog?: Both? =)) I reblog brilliant posts and I write anything that comes into my mind about Gabe <3 Also, I just simply adore making photo edits, gifs and stuff like that with him, so... Last Thing I Googled: it’s actually “sunburnt” because I got one during hiking yesterday, so I needed to know how to treat it better XD (I am so glad I didn’t have to do this game earlier, when my last thing was “how to burn people”, I assure you I am not a psychopath hehhe... Even though it was annoying that google was showing results for “good comebacks”, not actually burning people alive...) Any other blogs?: Hells yeah. Not many though. My main one where I haven’t posted anything for six months, a side blog with nice book quotes and nature landscapes that finally turned into a fandom one (oops!!) and one with song lyrics where I make photo edits and post mostly fob and mcr lyrics because when I don’t find them on google I must make them by myself :D But here I have most of my followers <33 Do you get asks?: Umm...Nope, never got one, only messages, but happily waiting for some =) The Story Behind My Username: *coughs*......it was, my darlings, the summer of 2017 when me meets the other inner me and I’m like “yo, I know about music” and the other me is like “yo, I know more about music!! ”, “that’s impossible! Do you wanna start a side blog? We’ll call it after your new favorite song ever that makes your heart sing and melt in the same time because of the most adorable mellow sweet feathered golden angel, that small tiny muffin who ruined your life” and I was like “yeah that’s cool” and that’s it XD Actually, I came up with the idea of this blog when I realized how obsessed I was with Gabe and at 2 AM I was creating gifs just to post them here, and the only logical username that came in my mind was this, I just love the heat of the moment!!! <33 *starts humming while eating a candy bar and sobbing in a corner* Following: 155! ;D Followers: 563 AAAHHH MY BEAUTIFUL RAYS OF SUNSHINE I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH THANK YOU FOR BRIGHTENING MY LIFE EVERY TIME YOU PRESS THAT “follow” button I JUST WANT TO WRAP YOU ALL IN WARM BLANKETS ❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎ *hug attack to everyone who reads this* Favourite Color: GREEN! Grass green, cyclam, turquoise, that coral red-orange wonderful thing, blue violet, sunflower bright yellow (guess why ;)))... Average Hours of Sleep: probably eight hours. Sometimes 6, sometimes 11... Two weeks ago I slept only one hour, yesterday 12, so it depends XD Lucky Number: 111 <3 Not lucky, but favorite one I guess :)) But usually all my lucky numbers contain “1” so... I also love 21, dunno why Instruments: Fountain pen. JUST KIDDING! If it means musical instruments, I used to play piano and violin, but now I only know a bit to play the national anthem, that’s all... Currently I am into guitar, I have been trying for six months to learn how to play it from youtube tutorials, I can play couple of chords ;D What I’m wearing right now: whoa easy there, tagging game! (just a joke again, sorry ^-^) It’s actually only a dress with green and pink floral print because summer nights when you don’t want to go to sleep, just to stare at the stars, hum songs and spend time on tumblr, that’s why :) I just find dresses easier to wear when the heat outside overwhelms you How many blankets do I sleep with?: umm... Like now, during summer? Only a white sheet, it’s too hot (even though I sometimes want to go back to my warm blanket in case of monster night attacks). But on winter I can sleep with two wool blankets or even more... :) Dream Job: Cardiothoracic Surgeon or any kind of doctor in general :)) It’s been my dream since I was two, I just love anatomy...<3 (probably I shouldn’t add my temporary dreams too, like becoming an actress, a Broadway singer, a detective or a novel writer and artist, should I?^^) Dream Trip: aaah hard to say, but I think it would be a road trip in Arizona or any western desert part in general, while driving an old rusty convertible car (preferably an impala, of course), watching the ruby sun going down into the lakes painted on the azure sky and the stars sparkling brightly at night, feeling the freedom air and humming old rock songs (and singing “take it easy” when I get to Winslow, AZ :D)... Also, another dream trip would be in my favorite cities: NYC (to see Tiffany’s and Broadway :)), Paris (mainly the opera house and get to sing “bonjour Paris” like in Funny Face) and Rome (driving a scouter or riding a vintage bike on the old streets, while picking ruby geraniums and singing Dean Martin songs aahh). Also, a trip to provence where I can dance through the lavender fields, the Alpes with warm small cottages or Greece would be wonderful (as long as I can admire the landscapes and the local culture with not so many people around... ^^) Favourite Food: grilled chicken with french fries and any kind of dessert (chocolate especially)<33 Also a bunch of sour soups, pasta, fish, meat, pizza and hamburgers, jam with butter and honey, cereals with milk, bacon and eggs, meatballs, chicken soup with dumplings, boiled potatoes with butter and parsley, pancakes, and this list could go on and on.... (now I got hungry ugh...) Nationality: Romanian :) (this should explain the “sour soup” thing) Favourite Song Right Now: umm...*trying to make up my mind while sweating nervously* Probably still the heat of the moment, or Tiffany Blews by fob... But right now, I mean really RIGHT NOW, I think it would be “don’t stop believing” it’s so uplifting and purely...gorgeous :)

Sorry for the long post, in real life I never speak up, yet, here, I am a chatter box oops >.<

Now, the ceremony of tagging people! *drums beating*... Aaaand the nominees are....LEONARDO DiCAPRIO!! (SOORY just a silly joke ^^) Now, for real, I am tagging : @scarlettwinchester23 ( ❤︎ ❤︎ ❤︎ ) , @sabriel-fanboy-83, @akhuna01, @hunters-hiraeth, @tricksterxangel, @lisiblack, @chaotictrickster, @quaker-wtf-lass and any other cinnamon roll that wants to do this, but I know you won’t do it unless I tag you, so, here you are : @that-sweet-person-who-read-my-ramblings-and-wants-to-do-this-game-too ❤︎ You have been officially tagged ;)

I love you all so much!! <3

#tagging game #i talk so much #sorry #geez its 2 am right now #probably tomorrow i will question my answers #especially that burning thing #no more internet for me #:)))

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silverscreenclassics2016 · 5 years

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by Paul Batters

Recently, Harrison Ford made an interesting declaration regarding one of his most iconic characters, which is also part of one cinema’s most financially successful franchises – Indiana Jones. Famously close-mouthed about previous roles, the actor made the comment in anticipation of the Disney announcement that a 5th instalment of the Indiana Jones franchise would be released in July 2021. Basically, Ford claimed the role as permanently his, stating:

‘Nobody else is gonna be Indiana Jones! Don’t you get it? I’m Indiana Jones. When I’m gone, he’s gone…’

Whether this declaration is tongue-in-cheek or serious, I cannot ascertain nor does it particularly matter for the purpose of this article. The vast majority of fans would probably agree with Ford, as Indiana Jones is one of cinema’s most loved action heroes. (If his friend George Lucas is anything to go by, there is little to be held sacred in remaking or re-hashing films. Star Wars, anyone?)

But it does raise an interesting question – are there screen characters which should never be re-visited?

It’s also a polarising question and one which probably raises another more divisive question – should classic films be re-made? Cinema is certainly in a strange place at the moment, and there have been consistent attacks on the state of film-making with criticism aimed at the lack of creativity, the focus on special effects and CGI and particularly the obsession on re-makes. The Marvel and DC domination has been discussed ad nauseam and the recent Godzilla movie speaks to this issue as well. (What’s the current tally of Godzilla movies since the 1954 original?)

The criticisms are not unfounded, and this reviewer certainly agrees with the aforementioned sentiments regarding cinema’s current sins. However, are these problems simply a contemporary phenomenon? Or has Hollywood been re-making films and re-casting iconic roles since its’ earliest days?

Indeed, the ‘re-make’ has been a part of entertainment that goes back to ancient times. Initially, the ancient Greeks, who created the concept of drama, would see performances only the once and their plays were unique, one-off experiences. However, over time, those plays were performed again and again, particularly during the Hellenistic period. It was also meant that those plays stayed alive and they are still with us today. Consider the plays of Shakespeare. They have been performed, interpreted and even changed (depending on context) since Elizabethan times. King Lear has been interpreted through a whole range of approaches from a medieval Japan context to one set with 1950s Eastern Bloc /Cold War aesthetics! The richness of these stories in language, theme, character and emotion are still alive because they have been performed for hundreds of years. And of course, the Bard’s stories have been interpreted for the screen. Think Olivier’s 1945 film version of Henry V, which is often considered one of the finest screen interpretations of the play. Does this become the one and only version, never to be remade? What of Baz Lurhman’s Romeo And Juliet (1995)? It is not the first nor will it be the last telling of the tragic story of two star-crossed lovers.

The truth is that some of our most loved, revered and celebrated films are remakes, whether we realise it or not. We often chide Hollywood for remaking films within only a few years of each other but actually it’s been a practice since the silent days. By the time, Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde was made in 1932 at Paramount, the story had been filmed at least 8 times, with three versions being made in one year! (1920 to be precise, two in the U.S and one in Germany). John Barrymore’s 1920 turn as the infamous dual personality was a benchmark performance but March as the doomed doctor is perhaps the most superb in sound film history, with even the great Spencer Tracy unable to reach audiences in the 1941 version with Ingrid Bergman.

The same is true for quite a number of films based on classic literature such as A Tale Of Two Cities, Treasure Island, The Three Musketeers and A Christmas Carol – all being filmed numerous times. By the 1935 MGM version, David Copperfield had been made 3 times. The story of Oliver Twist was on its’ 8thversion in the loved 1968 musical Oliver!(with the film being made 6 times during the silent era!). William Wyler’s Ben Hur is often cited as the greatest epic ever made and a standard by which other ‘big films’ are measured. Yet it too is a remake of the 1925 silent epic starring Roman Navarro and Francis X. Bushman. (Ironically, the recent remake of Ben Hur was critically panned and financially an unmitigated disaster).

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Interestingly enough, Cecil B. deMille is an example of a director who revisited earlier films he had made and gave them a new perspective. The Squaw Man (1914) would be remade two more times in 1918 and 1931! Of all the films he made, his most celebrated, known and loved is his final film, The Ten Commandments (1956), a far superior remake of his own 1923 silent version. In this case, the original is not the best. The 1956 version is the quintessential epic tale, resplendent in Technicolor, with all the kitsch, pageantry and excitement of Biblical proportions that are synonymous with deMille and the epic film.

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But not only have epics and tales from classic literature been remade to great or greater success. Contemporary stories have been revisited as well. In the world of film noir, one film which justifiably makes every top five list was on its third remake when it was redone by John Huston. The Maltese Falcon (1941) remains one of the greatest films ever made, far out-pacing it’s prior two incarnations which would have become little more than a footnote in cinema history. The previous 1931 same-titled version starring Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels is a little stilted, whilst its’ 1936 remake, Satan Met A Lady, starring William Warren and Bette Davis feels more like a typical Warner Bros. programmer and was even considered by critics at the time, such as Bosley Crowther, as ‘inferior to the original’. Neither are remarkable and again, the original is not the best. Huston’s version of the Dashiell Hammett pulp fiction novel, would help to create the tropes and cinematic expression for film noir, and Bogart’s performance as private eye, Sam Spade has become legendary and would make him a star.

Unfortunately, there is sometimes an element of exploitation that comes with the remake. But Hollywood is a business and driven by profit. If an audience responds, then it the film is deemed a success. The horror genre is one where the remake is a constant, driven by the profit margin rather than artistic merit. That has certainly been the impression felt with Universal’s recent attempt at ‘re-booting’ the classic Universal monsters with disastrous results. (This writer feels that Universal was making an attempt to trash its’ legacy!) The classic monsters were first seen in monochrome but would be remade in the 1950s and 1960s in Britain by Hammer Studios, complete with full-blown colour, gore and sex. Exploitive? Perhaps. Yet audiences saw a new interpretation of the undead Transylvanian count – from a dream-like, hypnotic and slow-speaking Lugosi to an animalistic and vivid Christopher Lee, complete with bloodied fangs. Horror fans often find it difficult to choose, with the character of Dracula ‘belonging’ to both actors. Yet Lee would be less successful with the Frankenstein monster, as would many who preceded and followed Lee, and the monster has been firmly associated with the brilliant performance of Boris Karloff in the original 1932 film and its’ two sequels. Still, the Hammer remakes resonated with audiences, offering something new and exciting.

Yet there are characters that belong to certain actors and actresses and their ownership of those performances are complete. It is impossible to think of anyone else but Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara or for that matter, Clark Gable as Rhett Butler. And of course, Gone With The Wind is a film that no-one would dare remake. The same could be said for Casablanca,again a film with iconic performances from Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, a song that had stood the test of time in its’ poignant definition of love and of course some of cinema’s most famous lines. How could it be remade? The story of Robin Hood has been told numerous times, with mixed results and mixed reviews. Arguably, the role was firmly identified with Douglas Fairbanks Snr, one of the great silent stars, after his 1922 film was a huge hit; until Warner Bros. remade the film in full colour in 1938, with Errol Flynn. A natural for the role, Flynn has owned the role since, despite numerous A-listers taking on the role over the decades.

There are countless other roles and films which, if recast or remade, would results in loud cries of protest. And perhaps rightfully so. Could The Wizard Of Oz be remade? (Actually, it, too is a remake!) How about Edward G. Robinson as ‘Little’ Caesar Bandello? Imagine a ‘reboot’ of Chaplin’s work. Or Hitchcock’s films. (It’s been done!) Singin’ In The Rain? Double Indemnity? The Godfather? Metropolis? Duck Soup? Some Like It Hot?

In the end, a remake will work or fail if it resonates with the audience. For better or for worse, that’s the lowest common denominator that determines a film’s eventual worth andif it will stand the test of time. For silent films (and indeed even some sound films from the golden years of Hollywood), this has proved difficult. Aside from cinephiles and classic film lovers, silent films find difficulty in gaining traction in a mainstream market and for audiences not exposed to silent film. Additionally, we have audiences trained to expect blockbuster films over-cooked with CGI and action every 30 seconds. A silent film, without sound, colour and very different contexts finds it difficult to gain a foothold.

But all the technological advancements in the world cannot replicate, re-design or replace the impact of story.

It takes a fair amount of courage and risk when a remake is given the green light. It means big shoes to fill and an attempt to draw out a performance from under the giant shadow of its’ predecessor. Cinematic history shows that it does happen. But there are films that are like classic works of art. Can a work by Monet or Dali be redone? Should a piece of music by Mozart or Brahms be re-written? And the importance of textual integrity cannot be over-stated either. The recent tragedy of the near destruction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, will see deep discussion and debate on how to ‘remake’ what has been lost or damaged. Will it be in keeping with the historic and architectural integrity of the building? Will it be true to the cathedral’s past whilst reflecting the modern era (or does it have to)? And how will people react in the present and in the future to any change or lack of change?

The remaking of classic film shares a similar dilemma.

There are advantages to classic films being remade. It sounds almost unthinkable but Nosferatu (1922) would be successfully remade by Werner Herzog (in an English AND German version!) in 1979 with the famed Klaus Kinski in the title role, to great critical and commercial success. It is an impressive film, with stunning visuals, incredibly deep pathos and emotion, and Kinski is outstanding as the vampire. As a result, it also brought new interest in the original 1922 film. If remakes can arouse interest, educate audiences and broaden the experience of cinema, whilst offering a new and exciting perspective/interpretation, then it serves a great purpose.

But just because classic films can be remade, does not mean that they shouldbe. As already mentioned, Universal came close to trashing their own legacy with the attempted (and hopefully permanently aborted) reboot of the classic horror monsters, which felt watching someone take fluorescent spray cans to the Sistine Chapel. But as audiences, we do need to set aside prejudged notions and allow for new interpretations of stories. This is what provides a richness to cinema and art. Multiple and contemporary readings offer greater insights and new interpretations offer inclusivity to modern and future audiences – and there is great value in that prospect.

But new is not enough. ‘New’ for the sake of ‘new’ does not do justice to a work of art. Nor does new mean better. What is also important to recognise is that masterpieces do not and cannot be replicated. Nor do they need to be. We can already enjoy what exists, revisit them time and time again and walk away re-spirited, revitalised and emotionally moved.

Paul Batters teaches secondary school History in the Illawarra region and also lectures at the University Of Wollongong. In a previous life, he was involved in community radio and independent publications. Looking to a career in writing, Paul also has a passion for film history.

To remake or not to remake? The question on rebooting classic film. by Paul Batters Recently, Harrison Ford made an interesting declaration regarding one of his most iconic characters, which is also part of one cinema’s most financially successful franchises – Indiana Jones.

#ben hur #cinema #classic film #classic horror #dr Jekyll and mr hyde #dracula #epic film #Hollywood #nosferatu #remake #silent era #the maltese falcon #the ten commandments

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creativeconmans · 6 years

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The Batman Rant

It’s always a bit embarrassing to have your first blog post. Especially if it’s a rant. Moreso if you catch yourself trying to be profound in doing so. With this bit of self-observation out of the way, I’d like to talk about something that has happened some time ago: Batman #50.

Now, I shall do something horrible and assume that everyone reading this knows the arc and issue in question – and all the rest of you people don’t care enough to be hurt by any and all spoilers this post may contain.

I have, living in Russia, discovered the whole arc of the Batcat wedding only recently. The stories precluding the wedding were… different, though not too meaningful, soap opera in DC Universe, which is more or less standard, wrapped up in some of the best art I have seen in popular media. Thanks for that trend. And then came the issue of a wedding that has been built up for a year not happening, that began with a series of very, very questionable choices by both characters, which turned out to be a catastrophe instead. That is, by the way, how I found out about the existence of Tom King and that spoke volumes to me about his writing.

But if that was all, I don’t think it would really merit blogging about it. I have studied some threads – what few I could find – where the fans stated their own reactions not to the spoiler (I actually think this could have been damage control from DC – spoil the issue so that people don’t crash too hard), but to the story. Only three points emerged throughout, and that was that

a. People loved Tom King and his writing (apparently)

b. People thought that DC considered marriage toxic

c. People think that breaking the Bat has been done so many times it’s not even remotely funny. Not even in the Joker’s terms. Although, perhaps…

There were a couple of less frequently encountered points �� and one of them was that a fulfilled – if not happy – Bruce Wayne would be, in fact, far more effective at stopping shit from happening that a permanently hurt fellow who needed his crusade to keep functioning. I sort of second that - a fulfilled Bat would have systematically empowered Gotham police and call upon his resources – League resources – to ensure specifically that threats were deconstructed on a more or less permanent basis.

But also throughout – and I may severely aggro the larger crowd now – there is, I think, a vast misunderstanding of two things. First is the fact that writers who keep dishing out the ‘No Bat without pain’ mantra severely misunderstand the character of Batman. In fact, in the King’s run, even his closest friends and family misunderstand Batman.

The second – is the fact that the writers aren’t in it to tell good stories. The game of writing has long since been forcibly changed.

At first, stories were made to convey meaning, from deep moral truths to memes to hitting your neighbor on the head with a sword and laminating his women being a good idea.

Then the stories were made to entertain at least, and at most - to force people to actually think before they act – and this is how the stories since circa 200 B.C. were written. Whether it is the classic Chinese epics or the cornerstones of French literature, or the Greeks or the Romans – this is how you normally find your story.

And then come the more recent times, and the invention of the printing press, and the proliferation of both basic literacy and paper. Suddenly there is more and more opportunity for more and more people to write – to tell stories for a living. They write, they draw, they paint, they make moving pictures. And a few of them find themselves in large collectives that are so stable that they can finally create a lasting mythos.

What would you do, if you suddenly found out you could create something that would – quite probably – outlive you and your children? What if it turned out to be so influential, even while being regarded as insignificant, that people would want more and more of it, would pay dearly for it? And what would you do, if suddenly control of such legacy, built well before you were born, fell into your lap?

Regardless of the answer, in our case the ever-winning pragmatism and child-like directness of people in power would dictate they would make money off those who believe in the legacy and want it continued.

That practical, inevitable decision suddenly makes everything else fall into place. One sees the audience not as your followers to be respected, nor a herd to be guided, nor even a crowd to be pleased, but as an opponent to be taken advantage of. And against an opponent you must arm yourself.

And with this opponent that is a renewing, rotating group of people, you have two specific goals in mind. One, to make your opponent pay for your product more than once, and preferably – for all your products. Two, to make sure your opponent is never destroyed, never pays too much, never stops – in short, never, ever hurt your opponent so much he won’t come back for more.

The shortest route to achieving Objective One is – forgive me for belaboring the obvious – to force your opponent to buy your product. Now we all know that under current labor market conditions men with tommy guns are a bit expensive to hire, too troublesome and can be creatively undirected – in the sense that they are as likely to sell your product to yourself as well as the target audience and then pocket the money. So if actual violence is impossible, our weapon of next resort is trickery and lies.

Now, it can – and, I’m sure, has been – successfully argued that people would enjoy being lied to, provided the lies were good and entertaining enough and told with a straight face and never weighed any on their pocket. The whole history of storytellers seems indeed to prove the point. Hence, the people of creative foundry in general seem to have adopted the tactics of lies.

So okay, people are lying to you. Some of them are even telling lies so that you, while listening or reading those, can arrive to a certain truth, perhaps even something deep. Or even profound. Where is the harm in that? Even if, in time, they start lying for the sake of you paying, and nothing else.

But there is a downside to a lie, and that is, once it has served its purpose it can only be discarded. No one will ever believe a lie told twice – or three times. No matter how you dress it up, people who have encountered it twice or more will recognize it, and react accordingly.

And so we come to a dilemma – we either tell different lies and change the legacy until we run out of believable lies, or maybe we stop telling lies, which would put us out of work and out of money.

This is where the nature of the target audience throws storytellers a rope. Storytellers, have easy times dealing with the young and the naïve, people who have not yet been duped many times, who keep having hopes and dreams of getting something out of every deal, every truth, every lie – everything. And their supply is replenishing, what with new people being born daily and all.

But telling old lies to new people only gets you so far – they can be easily inoculated by the older crowd who we have already lied to, successfully or not. Furthermore, the Internet and its propagation makes it harder and harder to peddle the same thing. You suddenly find that your consumer has collectively evolved and simple trick work no longer – they have already been seen and done and examined and analyzed to death.

You therefore must expand your repertoire of tricks and lies, and this is where the con comes into it. The long con.

Modern writing involves playing with your audience – in fact, running a long con on your audience. There is, in writing and drawing and filmmaking – in storytelling in general – an implicit promise. The promise is that a story will take you places, and that the world you heard about would change, and probably you yourself might change with that. It is that promise and hope of its fulfillment that makes one read a new story (barring professional readers, but those aren’t really a large crowd), invest time and emotion into it and its characters, willingly suspend disbelief as it comes. And it is that promise that is, in modern days, routinely and completely broken.

Which is where the long con comes into play.

A modern writer’s job is to make a script that fulfils the following objectives by any and all means:

1. Make people want to read what’s in their hands

2. Make people want to read the next one

The first objective is normally achieved with good graphics and composition and a story that is not entirely moronic, but mostly it is helped by the fact that once you buy a book – or a comic book, or whatever – it’s normally a waste not to finish it through (That has happened to me once or twice, though).

But the second one – that one’s a doozy. The term ‘plot hook’ now defines something that has evolved past simple hooking and into something that more resembles ‘plot anchoring drill’. Or whatever it is they anchor floating oil rigs with.

The original plot hooking mechanism worked on two simple mechanics – one, creating a gestalt that, by design, cannot be completed, until and unless the next piece of the story is experienced, two, promising that it will be completed in the next piece of the story in a satisfactory manner.

The actual execution of the scheme have long been any and all variants of a cliffhanger to a varied degree, but unresolved plot points also work towards the same goal, provided the main story is not concluded (i.e. the narrator isn’t planning to stop talking).

So where is the con?

If you analyze so many stories in the comic books of the Big Two – which is what actually prompted this post – you realize there have been supposedly radical changes throughout the comicbook universe, except they have amounted to nothing much. It is like a soap opera (Santa Barbara, perhaps), where everything keeps happening and nothing ever gets really resolved, because nothing ever really changes. Least of all, the direction.

In that regard, the canonic Batman suffers perhaps the most, both as a comic line and as the character. Every single positive influence that anything can possibly have has been for the recent years disintegrated either by some random villainous plot or by some immature and questionable choice of his own – except it really was the writer’s choice in every occasion.

But you know – you know – it will turn out okay in the end, right? Except it won’t. There is, for comicbook characters, an extremely specific baseline which determines what they are, and they aren’t allowed to be pretty much anything else. One thing that Batman is not allowed to be, for example, is efficient.

Another thing is apparently happy, but I have always – or at least since I started thinking about it – that it betrays either conscious manipulation on the writers’ part, or their complete lack of understanding of Batman as a character and as a man. We have been sold the ‘Happy man cannot be batman’ idea several times by now, but the rationale behind it is very, very questionable.

Let’s set aside for a moment the fact that Batman as a character is a paradox – anyone who has the sheer amount of will and determination to become as prepared for most conceivable situations could not have neglected his own emotional maturity, or lack thereof.

It is unrealistic that the man behind the cowl still has the same things and thoughts driving him fifteen years – and four Robins, and a tragedy, and a son, and several lovers, and countless instances of severe psychological ordeal and heartbreak after he had first started his crusade.

His personal trauma was the driving factor at the start of his career – and it was believable there and then. But after all these events – if the man is a living, sane creature not bent on self-loathing or self-torture (and such a person would have broken right about two world crises earlier) – he would want to be changed.

Which was in part why the idea of the Batman finally marrying Cat of all people (and which guy, exactly, hasn’t had a girlfriend not unlike the Cat in his life?) was sold very well. Depicting the romantic intimacy masterfully helped quite a bit. But the final ingredient, as it were, the core of all cons, was the hope. The hope that this time, this fellow who has survived chaos, murder, trauma to his loved ones, countless assaults on his sanity, couple of deaths in the family, psychological torture and continuous work well past the point of human endurance (mental and physical) deserves some happiness, especially where he had only to make a step to do it. The readers’ hope that finally everything would turn out right in the damn imaginary world that has seen too many wrongs. And it took a very long time and many plot arcs – not all of them particularly good – to settle the plot points and prepare the world for a transition…except the said transition never happened.

The number of gestalts formed throughout the arc numbers in dozens, all of them hitting a very specific group of emotions within the readers. Each and every marriage prelude pointed towards some serious character growth and a fulfilling resolution, despite the fact that Bruce Wayne is no Oliver Queen (but we know from the Arrow series that Ollie wants to face just as many sadistic choices as Bruce). And then it all gets spectacularly destroyed, all the gestalts incomplete.

With each incomplete gestalt the reader has formed comes a need – of varying power and degree – to see that gestalt completed, to see the resolution, and more specifically – the one resolution that has been pointed at and that the reader is hoping for. Some writers go so far as to push the hopes of readers into a specific direction, only to tear the gestalts in two later on.

And they do it consciously. The unfulfilled needs create a certain drive in the reader – or viewer. And the very first place where a frustrated reader will look in hopes of fulfillment and proper gestalt completion is the same place where the gestalt was created. Translated into consumer behavior, it means that #50 has virtually guaranteed a psychological need in its target audience to buy issues #51-#100. You can even see Tom teasing the audience with flashback pictures of Bat/Cat romantic scenes taken out of context, fueling the fire and bolstering future sales of hopeful, young, naïve and emotional consumers.

But the real bitch of it is, the con works if you emotionally invest in the story. In fact, it will work even if you take specific steps to prevent your own emotional investment. An unfinished story means an incomplete gestalt, and it is a micro-trauma for one’s psyche far more often than not (I believe there are times when implied completion of the story – and gestalt – is far more scary and traumatic than incompletion, but you’d have to talk to a practicing psychologist to be certain of that).

And so to the point. After #50 it has become clear that all Batman readers have been conned by Tom King et al into believing there was a chance of change. Especially those who missed his earlier statements about breaking the Bat – because, you know, the Kult didn’t do that (despite the series specifically stating it to be so), and Bane didn’t do that, and the Joker didn’t do that already.

And even as that is apparent, people – me, admittedly and regrettably, included – continue to hope for a better resolution, for Bat/Cat pair to drift back together and at least be no worse off than where they started… forgetting for the moment that the only real thing that could repair feelings on both sides is an actual consummation of marriage, impossible as it sounds. And since it is the only way to really repair the Bat/Cat pair, it probably won’t happen.

Nevertheless, people won’t stop forcing themselves to hope, because to lose the hope in good resolution would, for the hapless reader (also ‘punter’ or ‘sucker’ in this instance), be to lose hope of satisfying his own emotional needs – even if they originated – or became actualized – in an utterly fictional story.

There are worse conmen on the market of creative writing than Tom et al – one could probably write a short book on those – but this is probably the first time since the con has been ran on people with this much deliberation, for this long, using this particular base spectrum of emotions, and with such a long-term sales plan in mind.

So I postulate here and now, that the creative writing industry has finally become its own dark apex – it has necessitated manipulation and traumatization of readers through proxy of characters and it will, if left unchecked, have very serious and detrimental influence on both the readers and on writers. It will, if left unchecked, become a one-sided war of educated psychologists versus uneducated mass consumers. And, if left unchecked, it will by necessity upgrade the writers from creators of monsters into monsters themselves.

Not all writers are creators of monsters. But it has been something of a trend that so many of them are, and are lauded for it.

All we can do, perhaps, is educate ourselves and our young to fight, to perceive stories as means of manipulation and traps, to search for truths in a more profound way than what the mass industry offers.

Or maybe we can do nothing - but hope.

#Bat/Cat Batman Comics Psychology Con Rant

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