#my man cannot win anything outside of his own state as proven by all three primaries

[certified-bi]

Look I thought about not being nasty. So I won't be to the extent I feel it. That being said: everyone who thinks

1) Harris shouldn't have focused on the center as much as she did, despite Biden being even more center than she was and winning in 2020 with voters who didn't bother to show up this time, and instead should have tried to pander to inactive voters who cared more about moral grandstanding than the rights of those around them or couldn't be bothered to show up without a pandemic on their minds.

2) That Bernie is right and the working class didn't show up for her because her economy policies weren't that good for the working class(they were, I read them), despite the fact numerous economists said he would at best put us in a recession and we were actually doing fairly well considering covid, and not that no one in this country actually understands the economy outside of stocks.

3) Or that any of the losses that occurred were not because of the fact voters have short fucking memories and democrats would rather stay home than protect themselves and their mothers, wives, sisters and daughters than vote for a black, asian woman.

Like we can pretend that men haven't been in echo chambers online breeding incel communities. We can pretend that Harris was somehow way more awkward and stiff than Biden in 2020. We can pretend she wasn't competent in her presentation and messaging. We can pretend that FBI launching an investigation into racist text messages has nothing to do with the climate around the politics of this election. We can pretend that identity has nothing to do with politics despite evidence to the contrary but let's be fucking real.

People weren't willing to vote in 2024 without 4 years of hell fresh on their memory and a candidate who would stop it. Instead they got complacent with Biden making positive changes everyday despite the House flipping halfway through his presidency. The voters who didn't show up decided they didn't care about the threat to women's rights, or the safety of minorities or even FDA food inspections to name a few things of the top of my head, which honestly hurts more than the half of the country that wants him somehow. Because we know they could have made an effort. They just didn't.

[hufflepuff-ravenclaw-reviews]

Proven Innocent Season 1 Episode 4

This review contains discussion of abortion and miscarriage/loss of a baby

We begin with some old news footage, of a Muslim woman wearing her hijab, walking into court through a hoard of protesters screaming about abortion. Somebody dumps something red all over her, and the poor woman is made to sit in court, covered in the substance.

In the present, Madeline watches this footage with disgust over how the judge could make the poor woman sit in court like that. The lady's lawyer says that the judge wanted to go out of his way to show how much of a monster that the woman was. He asks that Easy and Madeline take over her case, because he doesn't think that he can continue to do a good job.

Our client du jour is a Muslim woman who was charged both with feticide, but also the murder of her baby. What doesn't help with this is that she had bought “abortion pills” from Mexico, although she insists that she never took them because she'd changed her mind. Her story remains that she went into premature labor, and the baby was delivered as a stillborn. But then she panicked and threw the dead baby away in a construction site dumpster.

As Madeline and Easy drive away from the prison, they fight about the case. Madeline is obviously on the side of their client, as she always is. But it's not exactly black and white for Easy. He's pro-life, and eventually decides that he doesn't want anything to do with this case.

Meanwhile, Bellows talks with the talk-show host. She knows that “Rosemary's Law” to ensure the rights of the victims, and to ensure that literally nobody ever gets out from jail, even if they never committed a crime, is a fat load of bullshit and will literally never EVER pass. However, they kind of gloat over the idea of Madeline taking on the “Muslim babykiller” case. Ugh.

Later, a senator, Isabel, and Bellows watch the talk show lady talking about “Rosemary's Law”. The senator also knows that Bellows is full of shit. However, Isabel quickly says that she'll go to the press and say that the senator won't endorse crime bills! She also says that she'll run against him... and that she'll probably win because she young, female, and Hispanic. Ugh. The entire thing makes my skin crawl.

Even later, Bellows dramatically burns a picture of Rosemary. No, I don't know what that's about. But I just thought that I'd mention it, in case it becomes relevant later.

Madeline and that reporter have sex. He's surprised the next morning to find her asleep on the floor at the foot of the bed, which is something that we've seen her doing from time to time. He also takes a look at her Rosemary's Murder Wall.

In court, Madeline argues that feticide laws were used to protect mothers, not to punish those who wish to harm their own unborn child. The judge doesn't see it that way, which seem fair, I suppose. However, this opens the door for Madeline to get one of the two thrown out, because either the client murdered her fetus, or she murdered her child. It cannot be both, because that's physically impossible. The judge is reluctant, but grants her this.

Later, Madeline explains to Violet about the “lung float test”. It's a test that's used to determine if an infant took a breath outside of the womb or not by dropping it into water. However, as Bodie is quick to point out: it's about as reliable as dunking young women in the lake to see if they'll float or drown to determine if they're a witch or not. He also comes with good news: he has an expert witness who'll testify that the float test is junk science.

Violet and Madeline go meet the man who is... er... an aging hippie. He's literally just a tinfoil hat away from being a crackpot. However, he agrees with their assessment that the float test is a load of garbage, and should never have been used in the first place. However, before he can appear in court, he needs a... make over. Violet gets a super flaming homosexual friend of hers to help give the guy a haircut and shave, and Madeline puts him into a suit.

He testifies in court about how easy it is to get a false positive on the float test. However, the judge thinks that it's just as likely that the test was correct. He also doesn't give the prosecutor any chance to ask questions of her own, because he asked them after Madeline presented her witness. Madeline is steamed about the judge's obvious bias towards her client.

Madeline then goes to visit Rosemary's dad. He's exceptionally pleased to see her, and acts like a proud uncle about all of the work that she's been doing. Madeline then asks about reopening Rosemary's case. He tells her that he hired a PI to try and crack it open, but the guy came up with nothing. However, he feels like it's too painful for him to deal with now. Madeline understands, and leaves.

However, he changes his mind a few days later, and calls Madeline up again. They go to a storage locker where some of Rosemary's things are. While looking through a box, Madeline finds a bottle of adderall “hidden” in a sock. Mr. Lynch is surprised over this, and even more so because the prescribing doctor is Heather's dad, who was treating Mr. Lynch for... something. In short, he's not the kind of doctor who would have prescribed something like adderall to a teenager.

Madeline then goes to find Heather, who denies knowing anything about any of that.

Bodie, meanwhile, goes to pick up his detective girlfriend, who's undercover as a prostitute. After they have sex (off screen; this isn't freaking HBO), they get into a fight because Bodie wants more than just casual sex, and she's... afraid of something.

Easy goes to speak with his pastor about the case. He was in court to support Madeline, even if he was just watching the trial and not asking questions or helping to find evidence. The pastor asks why Easy is so upset by the case, and then argues: even if she did have an abortion, does she really deserve 25 years for it? He then reminds Easy of Jesus's teachings of kindness, compassion, and mercy. Their client deserves all three.

Easy goes back to the office, where he says that they need to figure out what was going through their client's mind at the time. This leads them to find her parents, who weren't at the trial, and they sure haven't visited their daughter in prison. However, they tell Madeline and Easy that they'd stopped talking with their daughter some time before she became pregnant, so they wouldn't know what her state of mind was during her pregnancy.

However, this raises some questions, because during initial interviews with their client, she said that she'd hid her pregnancy because she was ashamed of what her parents might think. This leads them to the conclusion that, not only had she had premarital sex, but it had been with a non-Muslim, white man. They ask their client who he was, but she says that they'd broken up before everything happened. She doesn't want to ruin his life, and doesn't want him to go through this.

Bodie tracks the guy down, where he works at a gun range. He refuses to testify about everything at first, and offers up his fiancee as more evidence that his life is great. However, Bodie says that he'll leak to the press about the “Muslim Babykiller's” dad, so either way, this is getting out.

He goes to testify, where he says that even though his girlfriend bought the abortion pills, she was upset over the entire thing. He flushed them down the toilet. However, much like with the expert witness earlier, the judge asks all of the questions, rather than the prosecutor. He asks if the client couldn't have bought more abortion pills later, which the boyfriend can't say either way. Despite the fact that the only reason why he flushed the first pills down the toilet was only because he had said that he wanted the baby, and that he'd wanted to be with his girlfriend. So at this point, I feel like it's pretty safe to say that it's a wanted baby.

Later, Bodie is in bed with his detective girlfriend, when he brings up the issue of them being in a relationship again via a metaphor for their client and her ex-boyfriend. This leads to how imperfect that the police department can be at times. She's so upset over the entire thing, even though she clearly knows exactly what he does for a living. She storms off in a huff.

However, she later pulls him over, and invites him back to her place. So she'd clearly missed him, and reconsidered having ended their arrangement.

Back in prison, their client says that she didn't want for her ex-boyfriend to testify, because she didn't want to ruin his life. (He said as much on the stand, that his fiancee broke up with him after this came out. Which... she sounds like a piece of shit anyway.) She keeps insisting over and over that all of this is God's way of punishing her. However, Easy then turns the tables on her religious talk. He asks her if God is punishing her... or testing her. He also mentions this phrase: The Lord works in mysterious ways. She responds by saying that they have their own saying: God knowith. This convinces her to keep on fighting.

She takes the stand on her own behalf, but, as you might imagine, the judge made up his mind over what had happened a long time ago. It doesn't do any good. After court recesses for the day, Madeline catches up with the prosecutor. Both of them know that the judge is a piece of shit who shouldn't be on the bench. Madeline asks to cut a deal, but the prosecutor refuses, saying that Madeline will go back to Chicago when this is over, but the lady still has to work with the judge.

Later, Madeline gives closing statements. However, as I keep mentioning, the judge has already made up his mind long before it got to this point. He hates the client on principal, and refuses to listen to facts. The prosecutor stands up and says that she's filing for “improper disposal of a fetus”, which is what Madeline wanted, and wants to let the client off with time served. Madeline then says that she'll push this all the way to the supreme court if she has to. The judge doesn't want to continue this nonsense with Madeline, so he agrees to the plea, and releases the client.

Finally, Madeline goes to prison, where she meets up with her former prison girlfriend. They were together for a long time, clearly, and obviously once madly in love. Or at least, their options were limited because they were in prison. Madeline tells the woman about how she's dating a man, and she really likes him. There's a lot of hand touching, and then they kiss.

[daniellebest90]

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Get Your Ex Back Matthew

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How To Get Your Ex Back After 1 Year

[confessionsfromachristian]

Story time! It’s long, so my reflections are under the cut. 

TLDR: I’m hopeful but cautious. This may be what keeps the UMC a viable denomination, if it can pass General Conference 2020, because right now we’re a church of divided theology, and neither side is going to compromise their beliefs.

Long before I left my former church, back in 2015, I was at church preparing for the following week’s VBS when I got a news alert on my phone about the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges. At the time, I kept my elation mostly to myself - I didn’t know how the pastor at the time would feel about it, and I didn’t want anything to dampen my mood. Just over two months prior, I had defended my undergraduate thesis, which argued that bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional, and proposed one thread of reasoning that I thought the Court might reasonably adopt, and while my research advisor and my thesis advisor had both thought I was dead wrong, I was pleased to be proven right (and, of course, pleased that the Court was taking steps to fix what seemed to me to be an ongoing injustice in the United States).

See, I had left the Catholic church, in part, over the same-sex marriage issue. While I’m not LGBTQ+ myself, I felt that the issue was one of fundamental fairness and compassion - and it was important to me that it be resolved. The Methodist church also didn’t support LGBTQ+ rights, but it had always seemed less vehement about it than the Catholic church, so I always kind of just hoped that the change was coming. 

In 2016, with the same-sex marriage issue broiling in advance of General Conference, I took an interest in how the UMC underwent changes for the first time. My pastor’s encouragement of that interest started me on the path toward serving at Annual Conference in my area, but I read news from General Conference 2016 praying for a resolution. The debate, and the protests, left an impression on me, and I had real hope heading into my Annual Conference that year that the compromise - the Way Forward Commission - could actually work.

At Annual Conference, I heard the story of bishops meeting late at night, summoning people from both sides of the debate, to try and find a way to avoid a schism. And at the time, “schism” was a scary word - could the UMC survive a split? I also encountered the Reconciling Ministries Network for the first time. They gave me a rainbow stole; I wore it happily. I also saw my pastor wear one, and for the first time I really believed, not just hoped, that change was on the horizon.

Things stagnated, then, though I had the pleasure of getting to really know a woman who brought their adopted daughter to Children’s Church every Sunday, and occasionally her former foster daughter as well. She was in a lesbian relationship, and especially after I started law school she opened up to me frequently about how frustrating it was for her and her partner to constantly be viewed with more suspicion than an average straight couple. It was one of the reasons, she implied, that her partner didn’t regularly attend church.

In came a new pastor. He was friends with our former pastor, so I had high hopes for him. As my previous posts will display, the hopes were misplaced on a personal level, but we actually had somewhat compatible politics. The Way Forward Commission came out with their three plans.

The Traditional Plan would retain anti-LGBTQ+ language in the Book of Discipline, and strengthen disciplinary measures against gay and lesbian clergy members.

The Connectional Conference Plan would form three sub-churches: one for traditionalists, one for progressives, and one for “unity”-minded churches and clergy. 

The One Church Plan would remove the anti-LGBTQ+ language and permit local churches and clergy to express their conscience on the matter.

And in February of 2019, a special session of the General Conference voted on the Traditional and One Church Plans. I had school obligations those days; I ignored a good chunk of my classes to follow the news. I knew - I just knew - that the One Church Plan would succeed. I had already formulated my arguments to my local church as to why we should embrace our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters. It was the perfect compromise; I never expected it to fail.

But General Conference 2019 voted it down. At the time, this is what I wrote, and I stand by it today when I think back on it:

“I cannot fathom a church that would choose divisiveness and alienation over compromise and compassion. We waited three years in the hope of progress. The delegates gave us nothing but regression.

The United Methodist Church is dying, at least in the United States. Fewer and fewer people are joining. More are leaving. I don’t understand the reasoning behind choosing to alienate and reject people who are begging for inclusion and acceptance.”

The next day, Reconciling Ministries tweeted that they had been informed by the General Conference staff that the area now had “police with their guns and security with pepper spray (or similar) roaming and ready for action.” What it sounded like - and sometimes appearances are everything - was a violent precautionary measure, aimed at intimidating those who had supported the One Church Plan, and who vehemently opposed the Traditional plan, so that those who wanted inclusion and compassion would sit down, shut up, and take what was coming quietly. I felt sick at the time, and still feel sick thinking about it now.

I was in class during the vote on the Traditional Plan, ignoring my professor as I watched Twitter and Facebook for the news. And by the time I got home, I had recognized why passing the Traditional Plan bothered me so much: John 8:3-11. 

For those who aren’t Bible buffs, John 8:3-11 recounts the story of the Pharisees bringing Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery, then punishable by stoning. When the Pharisees demand that Jesus tell them what to do, he famously responds: “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Of course, no one could live up to Jesus’s standard. Those hoping to stone the woman disperse and, when the woman observes that her accusers have left, Jesus sends her on her way: “Neither do I condemn you.”

Back in February, I summed it up like this, and I can’t really think of a better way to phrase it now:

“To declare that clergy members who do their earnest best to live the life God calls them to live should be punished because we disagree with their moral determinations is arrogant. We allow liars to be clergy. We allow those who speak unkindly to be clergy. We allow it, even if these sins happen more than once.

Why is the sin of loving the wrong person worse than lying? Worse than being unkind? And even if you believe that the sin is worse, who are we as humans to overrule what Jesus said about justice and mercy?

In my heart of hearts, I can find no rationale for pushing to increase enforcement of the anti-LGBT language in the Book of Discipline other than hatred for that which the Traditional Plan’s supporters do not understand. Jesus calls for compassion; and, as a church, we have no right to ignore that call.”

As time wore on, I observed one more thing: if God calls a lesbian woman, or a gay man, or anyone else, to the clergy, who are we as humans to deny that calling? Who are we to tell God that he called the wrong person? How arrogant and presumptuous must we be under the Traditional Plan?

In February, things were drawing toward the end at my church. But in the days following General Conference 2019, I found myself heartened by the message on the marquee sign outside: “ALL MEANS ALL.” My pastor signed an open letter to the church condemning the Traditional Plan, and one of the women in the church whom I’d thought was genuinely a good friend told me that she, too, was broken over the decision, but had resolved to fight for something better.

My co-teacher and I made the decision on Sunday to talk to the kids about the decision of the General Conference. It was difficult - remember, one of our students had lesbian parents - but, we felt, it was necessary. And I have never been more inspired than when our little kids expressed their confusion and outrage over a decision that, to them, made no sense. One little girl expressed confusion at how something as basic as the freedom to love someone and get married to them could be controversial.

The little acts of resistance, the outrage from the kids, it all came together to reignite my own hope.

In the months that followed, just about everyone expressed their opinions. In the Washington Post, a queer clergywoman summed it up: “We queer clergy begged our fellow Methodists to love us. They voted no.” On Facebook groups, on Reddit, and in person, the heretofore forbidden s-words became more common: splitting. separation. schism.

A prominent minister on the traditionalist side, less than a month after “winning” at General Conference 2019, made clear that unity, compromise, and compassion were never an option. Mainstream UMC posted his e-mail in full - in summary, he gloated over the traditionalist win at General Conference 2019, and suggested that those who opposed it should leave, as their continued presence in the UMC is an embarrassment. 

And talk of schism, and of separation, has continued to simmer, until now. Now, the water’s reached its boiling point. We have a plan. We have the Way Forward we were promised. And at General Conference 2020, at least the way I see it, the delegates have two options: stop the pot from boiling over, or ignore the problem and hope we can clean up the mess in 2024. 

Membership in the Methodist Church in the United States has been dropping for years. Increasingly, young adults looking for churches veer away from churches that preach or even merely accept exclusion and intolerance. Splitting the church, accepting that we cannot compromise on issues of love and compassion, seems to me to be the only way to prove that we mean it when we say “Jesus is Love.” It seems to me that this is the only way to prove that we’re convinced of our own beliefs, that we’re serious about welcoming everyone, that we’re a church of love, and inclusion, and protection of human dignity.

So long as it passes. 

[theartfulmegalodon]

My Unpopular Opinions of the Wonder Woman movie:

First let me say, I’m not trying to puncture anyone’s balloon of goodwill for this film.  I don’t hate it.  It was okay.  But I was reading yet another glowing, worshipful article on just how great it was from FilmCriticHulk this morning (along with his recent Spider-man: Homecoming article in which he bashes Marvel’s latest movies for their character development, then contrasts it by praising the WW movie yet again) and it prompted me to finally put down my feelings all in one place.  As someone who really appreciates good storytelling and good character building, it is frustrating when it seems I’ve seen a completely different movie from everyone else.

I realize that saying anything negative about the Wonder Woman film is just asking to be shunned around here, and around some of the prominent film review sites, but in response to the FilmCriticHulk article  I happened upon today, I addressed to him in a comment this small essay in disagreement.  I’ve copied it here.  If you absolutely love this movie and its portrayal of WW, and don’t want to hear a single word against it, then please pass this by.  I’m not trying to take away anyone’s joy, here.  But if you don’t mind reading a long, off the cuff post about all the ways in which I believe the movie failed to give us a good Wonder Woman, then please proceed.  These issues have been nagging at me for awhile.

[As I said, addressing this to FilmCriticHulk, I wrote:]

I realize this is an incredibly unpopular opinion around here, but I have to disagree...  Hulk, you like to (deservedly) call out a lot of films for paying lip service to a theme or message without physically or dramatically backing it up.  I'm not sure why you can't see it here.

I understand that Diana is supposed to be this paragon of empathy and female empowerment, but how can anyone possibly relate to her?  (Again, I realize I'm in the minority.)  Her character barely has an arc, and her ability to fight for justice (or whatever) wherever she can is hardly empowering when she's INVINCIBLE.  Seriously, there were NO STAKES for her in this movie.  We never saw her get hurt, or lose a fight.  It sort of comes down to what makes a hero, for me.  I can't help but compare it to Captain America: The First Avenger.  It's the parable about courage: courage isn't the absence of fear (that'd be Diana), courage is being afraid but doing it anyway.  In Cap's story, we see Steve Rogers doing the right thing before he has any strength or influence to back it up.   As a skinny shrimp, he's the only one to jump on a grenade without hesitation.  He uses cleverness where brute strength would fail.   (Retrieving the flag during training by pulling the pole's hinge out.)   "A weak man knows the value of strength."  It's so poignant, so admirable.  What makes Diana a hero?  She's just doing what she was trained to do since childhood, what she was told she was made for, destined for.  She's never known anything but strength.

And I'd like to address that No Man's Land scene: everyone and their mother thinks this is the best scene since sliced bread, and it fell absolutely flat for me.  As I said, it means nothing that she "defies" the men telling her not to go, because she's INVINCIBLE.  Not a single bullet touches her.  She takes no damage.  And she knew she wouldn't.  That's the thing.  She knew she could do it, while the men up to that point had NO REASON to think she could.  Why would Steve think she could handle a barrage of gunfire?  He already saw other Amazons get killed by bullets.  He has no reason to think Diana can survive such an attempt.

I hate, actually hate, that that moment is framed as "Diana defies all who doubt her, and has the moral fortitude to do what the quivering menfolk won't: face down danger to rescue innocent lives!"  That's incredibly unfair.  These men aren't abandoning the innocents because they think it's not worth the risk; they are accepting the terrible reality that they physically CANNOT save them.  It's called “No Man's Land” for a reason.  They know they would literally all die in the attempt and it would waste even more human lives for no gain.  So to have Diana's big moment be "empowering" because she dismisses their warnings and proves them wrong is just... kind of disgusting to me.  Paragon of empathy?  If she was, and if she had even a little bit of tactical intelligence, she would feel for these men that she knows and the horrible no-win situation they're in.  She would acknowledge their powerlessness.  In my opinion, this moment could easily have been actually empowering if instead of "Fine, stay cowering in your trenches; I'm gonna go do what's RIGHT!" Diana sympathized with the men, and it was "I see now; you can't save them, but it's going to be alright! You don't realize it, but I'm strong enough to take their fire and make it across!  I can help you help them!  Come on, men; I'll lead the charge!"

And that's just the one scene.  I have a problem with her character for the entire movie.  I don't find her naivety charming, because she never seems willing to learn.  She actually comes across as quite stupid.  It's as though her Amazon upbringing did quite a lot of damage, ensuring she was ignorant of so many things that you'd think they'd teach her (tactical warfare, for instance) but at the same time filled with righteousness!  I mean, she bulldozes her way through this movie, unwilling to hear a single argument that goes against her preconceived plans.  (For Zeus's sake, she can't comprehend the simple concept of "The battle is really far away; we have to arrange things to get there, so we need to go THIS way before we can go THAT way.")  Her boundless confidence is not inspiring, since again, she's INVINCIBLE, and she KNOWS it, while the others around her DON'T.  Of course she can afford to be insistent and unyielding.  She knows she won't lose.  Did you notice?  Nothing ever actually humbles her in this movie. She doesn't even admit that she might be wrong about something until the general's death.  She is eventually made sad because her favorite man dies, but before that - in fact, outside of Steve and to a lesser extent the three other guys - she never seems to connect to humanity on any personal level.  She observes them from afar, and has Steve explain their behavior to her.  It's all very detached, very academic.  And then when she sees the people at war injured and struggling and wants to stop to help each one, it should make me believe she cares, and yet...

It's the childishness of her approach to "helping".  Again, those Amazons who raised her made her believe that she was destined to fulfill this fairy tale purpose: defeat Ares and thereby magically flip the switch in humanity to make them all peaceful and loving again.  She believes she is meant to Help People, even though we never see this behavior in her towards her fellow Amazons.  We never see her helping any of them, being kind or encouraging to them, showing any kind of strength of character there.  There's no innate "goodness"; she's just been programmed to someday carry out this concept of Helping People.  And throughout the movie, she makes no room for nuance.  She never once changes her mind, not until the very, very end.  She approaches the entire world with the stubborn, black-and-white views of a child.  When she sees people being good, well that's just their natural state.  When she sees them be bad, well that's just Ares.  Gotta go defeat that Ares!

And talk bout fumbling your message!  For half a second there, when she's killed the general and the war doesn't magically stop, and Steve is there frantically trying to get the concept of "maybe you're wrong" through her thick skull (honestly the most believable person in the entire film), there was a glimmer of hope that she might have to adjust her perception of the world and of humanity, and admit that there are no easy answers.  Maybe it would have led to her finding a more genuine, personal reason for "fight the good fight anyway" instead of just fighting evil because she's "supposed" to.  Buuuuut NOPE! Here's your big easy answer!  Here's your simple bad guy to defeat!  And then again, for half a second, with all of Ares' jawing about humanity being plenty terrible all on their own without his help, Diana gets to give her "this is what I've learned about humanity: they can hate AND love!" speech, you think the movie will admit to that nuance and leave it on that note... buuuuut NOPE!  As soon as Ares is killed, the fog of war literally blows away on the wind!  Soldiers of both sides take off their helmets and embrace!  The war is over!  Easy-peasy!

[This still addressing Hulk about his articles:]  You write here about WW being slow to anger, because she's more interested in fighting the good fight.  You write in your recent Spider-man essay that WW "is about not staying put, not out of juvenile frustration, but out of the living heart of empathy and taking responsibility".  I don't buy either of these things, not for a second!  You say it's backed up beautifully through dramatization...  no it's not! Don't take this as a personal attack; I just saw a very different movie than you, it seems.  Diana may not be "not staying put" because she wants to join the big boys or something, but her reasons are no less shallow.  As I said, I don't see her fighting out of love or empathy - she's doing it because she was raised to, told her whole life that she was meant for one thing only.  And she's never proven wrong, or given reason to change.  From your Spider-man take-down of Marvel, you write that Marvel movies are about "making you feel like you did or learned something you really didn't do or learn. Out of the side of their mouths, they [tell] you all about how *wink wink* you don't have to really have to change, because you're already awesome."  What exactly is the difference here??  And what now?  Diana chooses to hide herself away as a mild-mannered archaeologist or whatever for 100 years?  While occasionally... donning her flashy costume and leaping off tall things to go fight... what?   We're never told what she's doing these days exactly.  Or why she retreated from heroism for a century.  I just have so many problems.

At some point in the movie, I realized that I was watching a child.   Mentally, morally, she was a child approaching the world.  An invincible child, but that only meant she never had to reevaluate herself.  Her one-dimensional view of humanity became (gasp!) TWO dimensional, but other than that, she learned nothing, and her personal character had no arc.  And I was reminded, painfully, that these superhero comics were mostly meant for children.  Attractive heroes, flashy action, and simplistic morals, very clear-cut right right vs wrong.  And I just made my peace with that.  This movie will win over a ton of little girls and boys, and is a perfectly fine role model for them.  But I just can't understand how so many reviewers and adult fans think this is somehow a phenomenal movie, or that she's a phenomenal hero.  "Wonder Woman done right!" they say.

My very last thought is about that "Wonder Woman done right" opinion.  I will readily admit I've never read a full WW comic, but through everything my friends, WW fans, and the internet in general have told me, Diana is supposed to be the hero who wants peace, who loves and feels for humanity, who fights when she has to, but only as a last resort, right?  Remember that whole "We have a saying, my people.   Don't kill if you can wound, don't wound if you can subdue, don't subdue if you can pacify, and don't raise your hand at all until you've first extended it."  Um, where was THAT Wonder Woman?  This Diana didn't solve a single problem except with violence. It was her first instinct.  The Amazons in the movie raised her to be nothing but a warrior (despite, again, paying lip-service to just how good and pure she was, too good for humanity).  When she was given new clothes, her first thought was how to fight in them.  She snuck into a fancy party with a “god-killer” sword.  When in the trenches, being told of a complicated stalemate, she didn't spare a thought for how to proceed, she just plowed straight ahead.  Never once did we see her even try to solve a problem with understanding, with placation, with compromise, with kindness.  Nor did we see her try to outsmart anyone at any point.  The only possible example I can think of is her telling the one guy "Who will sing for us?" to keep him from leaving.  Does that count?  It actually seemed out of character for her.

[Yeah, I’ve noticed Tumblr building altars to that one tiny scrap of dialogue.]

So, sorry to drop an essay on you, but it's been driving me a little batty that I never see anyone pointing any of these things out.  (Though my friend, who I saw it with, came away with the same impression.  We're both kind of baffled at the over-the-top praise.)  In conclusion, the movie was actually FINE.  It did clearly borrow a whole lot from other movies, and it did have a weak, cartoonish villain and a thematically shallow ending, but it was overall assembled nicely enough.  It was watchable.  It showed women in a good light while showing Not All Men to be sexist pigs.  It had enough flashy action and likeable characters to be a Good Movie. 

I just felt they missed something essential with her characterization.  I couldn't really admire her, because she was just blindly, ignorantly blundering towards her "destiny".  I couldn't be inspired by her, because she was a literal god who could do things no one else (like me) could ever hope to do.  I couldn't relate to her, because she couldn't relate to us.   When Captain America first ignored his orders and crossed into enemy territory to rescue captured troops, he returned marching on the ground with the host of them at his side, and then immediately submitted himself for discipline.  When Diana charged in to save the town, it ended with her standing on high, with the adoring little townspeople she saved cheering her from below.  A hero who is one of us v. a hero who stands above us. 

I think I would salute this Wonder Woman as she soared past me, and cheer her on, but I would follow Captain America into battle in a heartbeat.