#so kara and barry and oliver and black lightning and batwoman etc etc

[sapphic-luthor]

Wait wait wait wait wait

Did original Lillian die? The one that Lena used a truthseeker on? The one that tried to poison Lex in the White House?

I'm just so confused with everything all of the sudden.

And do we have the same Lex, or is this one different?

ok i’m about to get way deeper into this than you asked, my bad lmao

first, it’s definitely the same lex! he was a big part of crisis the same way kara and j’onn were, so he survived from earth 38, throughout the whole process, and made it out to the other side as himself.

as far as lillian, this is where you have to try not to think too hard or crisis will rot your brain out. technically yeah, the lillian that we saw in s2-5a died when all of the worlds got destroyed. our current lillian, however, has been brought up to speed about the past world by lex, so as far as we can tell, we’re operating under the conditions that she’s the “same” lillian as before. (but who knows how much lex has told her? and is she acting strangely because she’s different post-crisis or because there’s no continuity in the writing? nobody knows!)

but by that same logic, technically everybody except the paragons (kara and j’onn, for sg purposes) died*. when we came out of the other side of crisis, oliver had created a new world that looked and felt similar to (our) old world-- so many of the same people existed in it, but presumably with whole different histories (for example, lex was a good guy in this world, and has no outward history of villainy.) BUT, j’onn then gave all the important players their pre-crisis memories back (brainy, alex, and so on) so that they can be narratively the same as the pre-crisis characters we know and love. this does mean, however, that their individual histories might be totally different.

like, did kara’s high school crush ever get killed in this world? did jack? did alex ever meet maggie, or did she have a whole different coming out arc? and the one that i find the most fascinating: do the people who had their memories restored now have two totally different lifetimes of memories in their heads?

if you get too far into this, you start veering toward philosophy and thought experiments like the teletransportation paradox, or (sort of) the ship of theseus. so is a person a person because of something inherent to them-- their body, a soul (if a soul is physical), etc? or could you feasibly extract all of somebody’s thoughts, memories, feelings, experiences, etc., stick them in a “new” body, and is that now the same person as before?

it’s a mess, dude, and it would actually be rather compelling to watch any other network besides the cw tackle the complexities of it.

* lena may not have died, technically. lex made a deal with the monitor to save her, but we don’t know how that was managed. did he actually physically save her from the destruction of all the worlds (which i don’t think would’ve been possible)? or did he just save her memories for her? again, who fucking knows. the writers sure don’t

[yutaya]

Headcanon: Batwoman WAS actually on another Earth(???)

When Kara and Barry were going around exclaiming over all being on the same Earth now I was like "lol Barry you were already on the same Earth as all these people (except Black Lightning I guess) Kara's the only one who was elsewhere - I love how excited you are for your friend that she's on the same Earth as you and Oliver and all your other friends now!" And when Kara was all "IT'S KATE KATE'S HERE TOO!!1!" I assumed it was more of the same. Kara's just excited to be with all her friends.

But!

Something else that was bothering me during crisis: what the hell even is batwoman's timeline?

Like, it seems to me like not that much time has passed in Batwoman. When she showed up in Elseworlds it was sometime after she'd gotten semi comfortable with the whole Batwoman gig, so that had to have happened somewhere... Mid season ish?

But they kept referring to Elseworlds as "last year" during crisis. Which. Fair. Elseworlds happened last year for Barry, Kara and Oliver. But it was before batwoman's show even premiered, so we didn't see a whole lot happen in Batwoman "after" that, comparatively.

During Elseworlds, both Barry and Oliver (Earth 1) and Kara (Earth 38) made reference to knowing about Batman. Barry and Oliver arguing about whether Batman was real or a myth, Kara dropping hints about "my cousin knows Bruce" with a *wink wink nudge nudge* kind of tone, the GCPD knew Oliver Queen, and they travelled to Gotham from Barry and Oliver's Earth 1. I assumed at the time this meant Batwoman was also on Earth 1, and maybe Bruce Wayne just had an Earth 38 doppelganger - wouldn't be the first time we deal with cross-Earth doppelgangers. Heck, it's what all the new show arcs seem to be right now.

But! Elseworlds was an altered reality event to start with! Maybe part of the altered reality was letting them bleed into Batwoman's world. Maybe in their original Earth 1 batman existed more in shadows as a myth-like figure without ever really coming into the spotlight or being captured on camera etc the way he's implied to be in Batwoman. Maybe in the original Earth 38 Batman had some Justice League esque dealings with Superman but like, whatever, that's ancient history by the time Kara emerges as Supergirl, apparently. (Or he just decides to stay in his city every time there's some National City crisis. if Clark wants to go help just cause Kara's his cousin - that's his problem; ain't got nothing to do with Bruce.) Maybe the GCPD and the gossipy radio host lady either knew some alter Oliver Queen (like how Earth 2 Oliver Queen was mostly the same playboy Oliver as Earth 1 Oliver) or maybe it was part of the Elseworlds meld, making them face challenges as part of the monitor's test.

I mean, Elseworlds was the only time we saw Kate + Earth 1 so much as hinted at. Maybe she was on her own Earth all along. Elseworlds was a reality altering event that blended them temporarily, and then it went back to normal, and possibly they didn't even notice bc they didn't bother trying to talk to each other. Why would they? Those guys were just some Gotham gate crashers Kate kicked out of her city once.

I mean, the other option is to believe an entire year passed somewhere between Kate adding the wig to the outfit and Alice killing Catherine. I grant that clearly there is some amount of timeskip we don't see in batwoman - she becomes the city's favorite vigilante awfully quickly otherwise - but still. It didn't feel THAT long to me. Like, if it took an entire YEAR Alice must have been sitting on her laurels a lot more than I thought, and also both the Crows and the Bat Team must be really bad at their jobs, since they seem to make very little to no search progress in between episodes. If some of those eps had MONTHS passing in between, the way they would had to have for Elseworlds to have taken place an entire YEAR before crisis, you'd think there'd at least be some sort of establishing "it's been months, and we're still no closer to finding Alice and now we have to wait for her to come out of hiding to get any new info" dialogue every now and then.

So yeah. I might actually headcanon that batwoman was on a different earth before crisis. It doesn't really effect the plot at all, but it makes more sense to me. After all, I always felt like a large part of the reasoning for Supergirl to be on a different earth in the first place was bc her world's history with Superman and all having already been established would clash with the Earth 1 history of arrow being the first confirmed vigilante and all the chaos of the metahumans being created on a city wide scale for the first time. Batwoman likewise had some established preexisting Batman stuff and no mention whatsoever of either metas (Earth 1 stuff) or justice league/at least Superman (Earth 38 stuff).

Kate probably just rolled with everyone calling that time she saw them a couple months(?) ago "last year" during the crisis crossover. She didn't care at first, and then she got stuck at the vanishing point with only 5.2 other people for actual months, so she figured she can't really ever assume what was going on with them and their personal timelines.

Tl;dr: Batwoman had her own Earth before the crisis bc I prefer to view her personal timeline to be shorter than the others'. Sorry for the text wall.

[samcarpnter]

do you recommend batwoman? I see you post so much about it but I just see so much negativity surrounding it but idk if it’s cuz it’s bad or just general sexist homophobic fanboys that don’t like it, or maybe it’s a mix of both, but I have followed you for awhile and I guess trust your tv recs lmao

Hi, anon! It’s so happy to know you’ve been following me for a while and want my opinion ah thank you ily! And yes I 100000% recommend batwoman, and I’ll give you the details about the show and why it has so much negativity surrounding it (wHEN IT SHOUDLN’T!) under the cut with a TLDR at the bottom if you don’t want to read everything I said! (and I'm warning you now I rant a little sorry!!)

So you have to keep in mind that it is a cw show so some of the special effects are gonna be questionable and the writing is often going to be shitty and the plot is gonna have plenty of cringe-worthy young adult elements

However, I think that there are so many other aspects of the show that make you forget about all of the typical cringe-worthy cw traits like:

the show is very female-centric (similar to supergirl except the starting cast is made up of fewer male characters and more woc characters)

the show is very LGBTQ+ supportive - this isn’t to say that other dc shows aren’t (i mean just look at the current legends, supergirl, and black lightning lineup), the difference is that the title character is a part of the LGBTQ+ community and thus the main relationship of the show is as well (again, not to say that other dc shows do not incorporate this as the current main relationship of legends is wlw and the current lead character is bi but this didn’t happen really until s3 whereas batwoman is being built as a show with a lesbian lead character and a wlw main ship)

the characters are so real and well developed with lots of room to grow

THE VILLAIN - Alice is such an intriguing villain who is fighting with not only batwoman and the crows but with her humanity and makes for a very compelling antagonist

Now, of course, there are people who are simply not going to like the show and that is perfectly fine, we are all entitled to our opinions. But there are so many men people who despise the thought of another female-led show and especially a show led by LGBTQ+ women that can find nothing better to do with their lives but trash and give ridiculous and hateful reviews (very very similar to what happened to captain marvel earlier this year) of the show because they think that it’s all about “the leftist sjw agenda” and “the lesbianism is being forced on me” … i mean it’s being forced no more than any other main arrowverse couple, like Barry pining for Iris in s1 of the flash or Kara pining for James in s1 of supergirl or Oliver pining for etc etc … you see what I’m getting at? It’s exactly the same as any other dc show, except that it’s between two women so men people think it’s being shoved at them when in reality it’s no more forced than any other show’s main romantic relationship

TLDR: batwoman is definitely worth watching if you like superhero shows, especially because it’s finding its footing and each episode is better than the last, and critics have rated the show well, there is just so much negativity because of homophobic and sexist fanboys review bombing the show on any outlet they can find.

[evilwomanlezlover]

Will Kara survive Crisis on Infinite Earths?

That’s a REALLY good question, honestly.

For Oliver and Barry, I feel like because those shows came earlier than Kara’s that their storylines have been more fully told. There could be a little more wiggle room to get another season out of Flash and have Oliver do a switch and take Barry’s place because the Arrow story is really done. Plus, you could see Barry dealing with Oliver’s sacrifice. However, I don’t know how much time you could get from that. Maybe finish out next season for both Arrow and Flash? Like I said, they’ve been around longer, and we have new superhero blood with Batwoman, Black Lightning, and even Legends to go with. And, what if they do decide to have a spinoff of Tyler with this new Lois, and their Superbaby?

Back to Kara...would she survive? 

To be brutally honest, I think it’s kind of 50/50. Kara is kind of dancing in this limbo of being open about her real identity, and how that affects everyone around her, the reasons why she’s kept it hidden for so long. There are consequences to relationships when you keep secrets. It does damage. This could be good storytelling if used well. There are so many stories that Kara can be a part of too - Alex, Brainy, Nia, J’onn, etc. She could be THE focal person and the hero in other people’s stories, and FINALLY get to be the center of her show again. This season, except for the crossover, has gotten better about that, but there’s so much more that can be done. Kara has accepted her role as National City’s Hero. Now she needs to be more at the focal point as that hero in everyone’s lives.

So, yes, she COULD survive and get probably another season beyond Fall 2019. 

My concern though is not in the character or the character’s potential, but in what the execs will ALLOW. Match that with audience enthusiasm (or lack thereof) for Supergirl, recently, and there is cause to worry. The show hasn’t pushed boundaries that hard. Alex’s coming out was pretty daring, and Nia being transgender was bold. Those are good things, but I notice how Alex’s sexual identity has basically disappeared, except for how she looks, and Nia mentioned being transgender once, but the audience can easily forget/ ignore these things when they want to. The storyline this season is current and has a pertinent meaning for our times; however, we live it day-to-day. Some people just want to escape, and Supergirl hasn’t been a fun escape. (Maybe this is why Legends is popular? It’s campy and ridiculous, but damn, don’t we just need that sometimes these days.)

So, Kara CAN survive past Fall 2019 and past Crisis on Infinite Earths, But will she? Should she? It’s 50/50.

[afaimsblog]

Gleichberechtigte Partnerschaften? Nicht mal in Fiktion erwünscht, wie es scheint

Achtung! Im Folgenden sind Spoiler für “THe 100″, “Supernatural”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Supergirl”, “Batwoman”, und “The Flash” enthalten.

Nachdem sich das Startdatum für die 6. Staffel von “The Flash” in der USA langsam aber sicher heranschleppt, ist es an der Zeit uns zu fragen, wie der Mirrorverse Handlungsstrang weitergehen wird, und ob wir eine Iris West-Allen mit Superkräften aus dem allen hinausbekommen werden, und wenn ja ob nur bis zum Ende dieses Handlungsstrangs oder auf Dauer.

Nachdem mich das Arrowverse bereits zweimal betrogen hat, was Vigilanten/Superhelden Partner-Partner angeht (in “Arrow” mit Oliver und Laurel und in “Supergirl” mit Kara und Mon-El) würde mich das zwar sehr freuen, aber ich mache mir keine großen Hoffnungen, genauso wenig wie darauf, dass Kelly in “Supergirl” Guardians Schild erbt und sie und Alex in der Abschiedsstaffel zusammen ein Vigilanten-Pärchen werden. Denn offenbar will so etwas - eine gleichberechtige Partnerschaft - heutzutage niemand mehr sehen.

Zunächst dachte ich, es sind nur die Männer. Nachdem die “Run Iris Run” Folge, in der Iris vorübergehend zum Flash wird,  vor allem unter Männern verhasst zu sein scheint, dachte ich, dass es mit dem männlichen Ego zu tun hat. Dass es ein Minderwertigkeitskomplex ist, gepaart mit der absurden Angst, dass der Held ersetzt werden könnte. Dadurch, dass es Iris vergleichsweise leicht gefallen ist mit ihren Speedster-Kräften umzugehen (was logisch ist, wenn sie jahrelang diversen Speedstern dabei zugesehen hat, wie die ihre Kräfte entdeckt und benuztzt haben), dachten diese Männer, dass die Aussage wäre, dass Iris der bessere Flash wäre und Barry möglicherweise ersetzen würde (also ob das jemals passieren würde!). Aber dann wurde mir klar, dass es nicht nur die Männer sind, dass es die Frauen angesteckt hat, und nicht nur die Überfeministen, die Mon-El und William hassen, weil sie jeweils einen Penis haben, nein, auch ganz normale Frauen. Und das Schlimmste ist, dass es von den Fans auf die Autoren übergesprungen ist - was glaubt ihr warum Sophie Moore nicht die neue Batwoman werden darf, obwohl sie die Fähigkeiten dazu hätte? Genau, weil die Love Interest nicht zur Heldin werden darf, sondern gefälligst eine Love Interest bleiben muss!

Das ist eine neue beunruhigende Entwicklung. Ich habe Körper- und Kräftetauschfolgen immer geliebt. Und nicht nur ich, sie haben immer zu den Highlights der diversen Serien gehört, und für Liebespaare waren sie sogar eine Art Rite of Passage - man kann einander nur wirklich verstehen, wenn man zumindest kurz einmal in den Schuhen des anderen gesteckt hat (Himmel, das ist der nicht-romantische Ausgangspunkt von “Freaky Friday”!). Dass Lois zwischendurch einmal Clarks Kräfte erhalten hat, war sowohl in “Lois & Clark” als auch in “Smallville” ein Muss. Gerade damit sie Clark besser versteht. Tropes wie diese sind essentiell für jede Art von Beziehungsaufbau, gerade im fantastischen Genre, und es sind nicht nur Superkräfte, es geht auch um verschiedene Spezies, Rassen, Geschlechter etc. So was ist gut und gerne gesehen, weil es Charaktere einander näher bringt.

Oder war es zumindest mal. Aber irgendwann zwischen den 90ern und den späten 2010ern hat sich das geändert. Wie gesagt, ich persönlich habe mich furchtbar darüber geärgert, dass M.J. ihre Spinnenkräfte in “Spider Island” aufgeben musste, obwohl sie sie eigentlich behalten wollte, das war ein von drei mal, dass sie bei Dan Slott In Character geschrieben wurde, aber so weit sie wirklich zu einer gleichberechtigten Partnerin zu machen, ging er nur in einem AU-Verse. Aber wie wir wissen hat “Renew your Vows” trotz anfänglicher Begeisterung nicht lange überlebt, genau deswegen: Weil Peter hier seine Kräfte mit seiner Frau geteilt hat, und sie ein Verbrechensbekämpfungsteam (zusammen mit ihrer Tochter) waren; die Mehrheit des Leser hat “Spider Gwen” bevorzugt, weil Gwen die unumstrittene Heldin dieser Serie ist und das Scheinwerferlicht mit niemanden teilen muss.

Für mich werden Charaktere dann interessant, wenn sie über ihre Funktion hinausgehen. Ich habe Blaine in “Glee” in dem Moment wirklich zu lieben begonnen, als er von Kurts Love Interest zu einem echten Charakter wurde, vorher mochte ich ihn, aber als er zu leben angefangen hat, war er interessant. Das ist auch der Grund warum ich Mary Jane Gwen Stacy immer vorgezogen habe, weil sie ein Charakter mit Bedürfnissen und Motivationen war. Andere haben darüber gejammert, dass sie Peter in “Spider-Man 3″ zu wenig unterstüzt hätte, dabei war der Punkt, dass in einer Partnerschaft beide einander unterstützen müssen. Klar is Leben retten wichtig, aber immer nur an sich selbst denken und niemals an den Partner ist keine gleichberechtigte Partnerschaft. Aber genau das wollen die Leute heutzutage sehen, wie es scheint, offenbar erwarten sie sich in ihren echten Leben einen Partner, der sie über alles andere stellt, während sie für diesen Partner ihrerseits nichts tun müssen, und wollen das auch in der Fiktion sehen. Eine Love Interest, die Fehler macht, eigene Bedürfnisse und Interessen hat, und nicht nur die Füße des Protagonisten küsst wird gehasst. Wenn eine Love Interest den Helden nicht sofort zurückliebt und es wagt andere interessanter zu finden ist sie ein schlechter Mensch und quält den Protagonisten mit voller Absicht. Das klingt jetzt sehr nach egozentrischen Teenagern, die ihr eigenes gebrochenes Herz in eine Fiktion hineinprojezieren, aber leider scheinen die Menschen zunehmend auch im fortgeschrittenen Alter in dieser Mentalität stecken zu bleiben.

Und in unserer Gegenwart geht es dabei nicht einmal nur um Love Interests. Nein, auch platonische Partnerschaften bleiben nicht verschont. Und das jetzt eben auch schon In-Story. Man muss sich nur “The 100″ ansehen. Nach sechseinhalb Jahren der gleichbrechtigten Partnerschaft haben sich die Autoren nicht nur entschlossen uns die Romanze vorzuenthalten, die sie seit Folge 2 aufbauen und die Schauspieler seit dem spielen, nein, sie haben sich entschlossen, dass Bellamy ganz weg muss, weil seine Partnerschaft mit Clarke ihr das Scheinwerferlicht stehlen würde. Zuletzt geht es nur noch um Clarke, und von Partnerschaft kann keine Rede mehr sein, im Gegenteil was sie tut, zeigt uns deutlich was Jason Rothenberg von der Idee einer gleichberechtigten Partnerschaft egal ob nun im romantischen oder im platonischen Sinn hält.

Genauso SPN. 15 Jahre lang waren die Winchesters gleichberechtigte Partner, keiner hat den anderen jemals im Stich gelassen, zumindest nicht auf Dauer, beide waren gleich wichtig für die Serie. Im Finale aber wird uns gezeigt, dass es im Grunde immer nur einer der Held sein kann, und daher ist auch nur einer der Held, nur eine Geschichte ist wichtig, welche das jetzt ist, kommt auf die Sichtweise an, es sind beide Interpretationen möglich, aber von Gleichberechtigung gibt es auf jeden Fall keine Spur mehr.

Warum auf einmal? Das hängt mit dem zusammen, was ich vorher über “Spider Gwen” und “Renew your Vows” gesagt habe: Es kann immer nur einen Helden geben, das Scheinwerferlicht soll dieser nicht teilen müssen. Egal ob mit seiner Geliebten, seinem platonischen Seelenverwandten, oder seinem Bruder. In unserer heutigen Zeit, in der nichts wichtiger ist als Repräsentation und sich jeder immer nur in jeden wiederkennen wollen will anstatt diesen anderen verstehen zu wollen, ist jeder der Held seiner eigenen Geschichte; alle anderen sind nur Nebenrollen, wenn überhaupt. Eine gleichberechtigte Partnerschaft würde diesen Konzept widersprechen, also muss man sie vernichten, wo es nur möglich ist. Was denkt ihr, was der wahre Grund ist warum “Black Lightning” nur vier Staffeln haben wird? Nicht weil die Pierces schwarz sind, sondern weil sie eine Heldenfamilie in den Mittelpunkt stellen, und in unserer heutigen Zeit interessieren Ensemble-Serien die Menschen offenbar um einiges weniger als Serien mit einem klaren Helden. Und genau deswegen muss Meredith Corona bekommen und keiner der anderen Charaktere, weil  sie die Heldin sein muss, da die Zuseher sonst abschalten würden.

Was für eine traurige Zeit, in der wir alle leben. Fürwahr.