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onebadwinter · 3 years

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The Joker Tropes

Taken from Here

0% Approval Rating: Apart from Harley (and even then, only when their on-off relationship is "on"), Gaggy and Punchline, no one likes or supports the Joker. In any way, whatsoever. Damn near every other member of Batman's Rogues Gallery hates his guts, mostly because not only is he completely sociopathic and unpredictable, but also they are all scared shitless by him. The only reason why he's even allowed in teams such as the Legion of Doom is because of that fear: if they exclude him from the lineup, then chances are that dead bodies will be lining the streets in their name. Trickster spells it out in "Underworld Unleashed." Trickster: Great going, Neron, bring in the one guy no one wants to be in the same room with. When super-villains want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories.

Abusive Parents: One common tactic for the Joker to garner sympathy is claiming he was ill-treated by his parents. Given his propensity to spew out different and sometimes contradictory backstories, nobody knows if they're true.Harley Quinn: Joker told me things, secret things he never told anyone... Batman: What did he tell you, Harley? Was it the line about the abusive father, or the one about the alcoholic mom? Of course, the runaway orphan story is particularly moving, too. He's gained a lot of sympathy with that one. What was it he told that one parole officer? Oh, yes... 'There was only one time I ever saw dad really happy. He took me to the ice show when I was seven...' Harley: (crying) Circus... He told me it was the circus. Batman: He's got a million of them, Harley.

Acquired Poison Immunity: In many continuities, he's immune to his trademark Joker Venom/Smilex. In a crossover comic with Captain America, he also proves to be immune to Red Skull's "Dust of Death", as their trademark poisons are too similar to each other.

Ambiguous Disorder: He's undeniably insane and Ax-Crazy, but has no official diagnosis. If anything, he can just be diagnosed with "Being the Joker". However, it’s possible he’s perfectly sane and just The Sociopath, and is using his manipulation abilities to continue his reign of terror.

Ambiguous Start of Darkness: Related to his Multiple-Choice Past; the only thing consistent is that he was a low-level crook who got dunked in chemicals to become the Joker. C While some origins (most notably The Killing Joke) have him being forced into crime, others have him as already a sinister criminal beforehand. Batman (1989) and Batman: The Animated Series choose the Evil All Along interpretation.

Appropriated Appellation:

Arch-Enemy: A classic example to the Batman, and not just in the comics - they are pretty much the iconic gold standard when it comes to this trope. The two of them are the page image for a reason.

Attention Whore: A big part of his motivation in various continuities. He even admits as such at one point, while denying he's not behind one particular crime.Joker: Do you really think I would stir up so much trouble and not make sure you knew it was me?

Ax-Crazy: One of his main characteristics is his willingness to psycho on anyone, including his own henchmen.

Bad Boss: Willing to casually kill his own henchmen for any reason, be it part of a plan, for amusement, or simply on a whim.

Bad People Abuse Animals: Defied by The Joker in at least one story (Emperor Joker). Evil Jimmy Olson kills Superman, who has been turned into a dog, by crushing him underneath a fire hydrant. The Joker is simply annoyed, because he doesn't know how to make something as pointless as beating a dumb animal funny. Jimmy Olson is then beaten to death by two giant robots who appear out of nowhere.

Believing Their Own Lies: He sometimes believes his Multiple-Choice Past, Depending on the Writer of course. One issue of the Robin Series had the Joker actually in tears as he told the psychiatrist of his abusive childhood, only for the psychiatrist to coldly point out that it's the seventh story he's told now.

Berserk Button:

Black Comedy: This is one of Joker’s specialties. To normal people, killing would be a terrible thing, but to Joker, it’s hilarious, especially if he does it in a way that amuses him.

Bond Villain Stupidity: In a "Detective Comics" story written by Paul Dini, the Joker (while impersonating a stage magician he had previously murdered) shot Zatanna in the throat so she couldn't recite a spell to save herself, then locked her in a tank of water while strapping Batman in an electric chair. He didn't shoot her in the head because he wanted Batman to watch helplessly as she died. This didn't go so well because first, he's BATMAN! and second, Zatanna was able to write a healing incantation on the lid of the tank using her own blood, which made the spell even more powerful.

Boring Insult: While the Joker has used it a few times on others, he mostly does it to hear the sound of his own voice as the people he usually slings this insult at don't really care whether or not they're boring. On the other hand, this is Joker's Berserk Button when others use it against him. Most notably, he reacts poorly when Terry deliberately exploits this flaw with glee and even rubs it in his face in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. After all, the natural enemy of a comedian is The Heckler.

Breakout Villain: The Trope Codifier for comics. DC's initial intention was to kill him off in his second appearance. Fortunately, editor Whitney Ellsworth convinced DC to spare him, a panel was hastily added to show that he'd survived, and the Joker rapidly became not only Batman's Arch-Enemy, but arguably the most iconic example of an Arch-Enemy in all of fiction.

Break the Comedian: A sure way to determined if things have gotten real, even for the Joker, is if he isn't laughing or joking. A famous example involved the Joker being frightened during the events of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run, when he was horrified by Arcane's actions.

Clear My Name: The Brave and the Bold has him framed for several murders and he must use Batman's help.

Collective Identity: As revealed in Darkseid War and DC Rebirth, the Joker has been used by three people, though Batman: Three Jokers clarified it as this: The Criminal (the original "Golden Age" Joker from the character's debut in Batman #1), The Clown (the "Silver Age" Joker, strongly implied to be the one who killed Jason Todd), and The Comedian (the current "Modern Age" Joker, who kidnapped and tormented Jim Gordon).

Combat Pragmatist : While his fighting prowess varies from remarkably proficient to extremely weak Depending on the Writer, the Joker is a consistently dirty fighter, striking enemies when and where they are most vulnerable. Besides his myriad of gag gadgets, he often carries concealed weapons, gases and acids on his person, and won't hesitate to brandish a wrench or smash a chair over your head in a pinch. He is usually adept with knives and, unlike Batman, rarely has any reservations about firearms. He has no qualms kicking an opponent when they're down, and will employ deception, feigning surrender or defeat to get Batman to lower his guard.

Comic-Book Fantasy Casting:

Confusion Fu: This is often his last line of defense when Batman corners him, especially in the animated television shows. Effectiveness varies.

Cop Killer: Sometimes police officers are among the Joker's victims:

Create Your Own Villain: Most stories posit he was chased by Batman through a factory with No OSHA Compliance, which caused him to be exposed to acid, discoloring his skin and hair and driving him insane when he sees his reflection. Often he claims Batman is responsible for turning him into The Joker.

Creepy High-Pitched Voice: In voiced roles, he usually has a high-pitched voice to contrast Batman's Badass Baritone.

Crossover Villain-in-Chief: In DC's Crisis Crossover events that involve a lot of villains, like Salvation Run and Forever Evil, The Joker usually fills this role along with Lex Luthor.

Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Insanity aside, sometimes the Joker's plans and methods are so out there they just seem stupid. Despite appearances, he's usually very cunning, and always very dangerous. In fact, part and parcel of what makes the Joker's plans devastating is that he knows how to hide the punchline for lack of a better word. The plans are so innocuous, so disheveled and so utterly random that they usually have no sane MO, which makes it hard to see the bigger picture of the plan unless Batman pieces it together quickly.

Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: Happens frequently, though this may be an indication of the competence of the staff at Arkham. One such time was with Dr. Harleen Quinzel, who bought his story hook, line and sinker and declared him sane, then broke him out of Arkham and started dating him (of course, her exact analysis was that he was utilizing Obfuscating Insanity and it's implied that she was actually right, so perhaps she was the only good doctor at Arkham after all...)

Deadly Prank: He generally considers murdering someone for a joke to be morally no different than putting a whoopie cushion on their chair.

Depending on the Artist: His depiction varies a lot between eras and between different artists in the same period. Major differences are whether he can form facial expressions other than a grin, and whether he is average-sized or freakishly tall and thin.

Depending on the Writer: There are many huge variations, the most common and glaring being:

Depraved Homosexual: Not above invoking this deliberately to get under Batman's skin. Whether he means all his flirting and feel-copping varies slightly Depending on the Writer and heavily depending on one's own interpretation.

Diplomatic Impunity: In A Death in the Family, Ayatollah Khomeini appoints him the UN ambassador to Iran, giving him diplomatic immunity. This was later retconned to the fictional Syraq due to reasons of taste.

Dirty Coward: There is a common misconception that Joker has no regard for his own life and doesn't care if he dies or not. In actuality he does care, and the reason he keeps taunting morally good characters into killing him is because he's confident that they don't have the guts to off him. When he comes across someone who is willing to kill him, he shows his true colors as a sniveling little coward where he starts pleading for his life.The Punisher: I got all the therapy you need right here, comedian.The Joker: You're really going to do it.

Disproportionate Retribution: Has been known to try to kill people for minor slights, such as welshing on a bet on a sporting event for trivial stakes.

Domestic Abuse: This characterizes his relationship with his "henchwench" Harley Quinn to a T. Joker frequently yells at her, puts her down, humiliates her, and exposes her to all manner of violence ranging from "merely" slapping or punching her to outright trying to murder her. Such is her Mad Love that she ignored his abuse for most of her existence in comic history, with the two only separating in the late 2010s.

The Dreaded: Easily one of the most feared villains in the entire DC universe. Other villains are afraid of him; it's been said that when criminals want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories.

Driven to Madness: Doing this to others has become part of his MO. What triggered his own insanity and belief in nihilism remains unknown.

Early Installment Weirdness: Just take a gander at his earliest appearances:

Electric Joybuzzer: One of his signature weapons, a lethal variation, most memorably used in Batman (1989). He ended up Hoist by His Own Petard when trying to use it on Static.Static: That was fun. Let me try! (BZZZZT!) (Batman approves.)

Enemy Mine:

Even Evil Has Standards: Oddly enough, this trope does occasionally apply to him.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Completely averted with Harley. He physically and emotionally abuses her and tried to kill her on numerous occasions. They eventually break up in the New 52 continuity.

Evil All Along: Some versions, such as the DC Animated Universe and Batman (1989), go with the interpretation that the Joker was evil, if not outright Ax-Crazy, even before his fateful transformation, with the chemicals just making him worse.

Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The Joker is Nihilism Incarnate: he believes that life is pointless and insane, and the only thing anyone can do is give into the madness. Life is a joke, and once he got the joke he never stopped laughing at it. One of the reasons he's obsessed with Batman is because Batman is The Anti-Nihilist: Batman also thinks, to some degree at least, that life is meaningless. But rather than embrace the madness, Batman fights against it, trying to bring order to chaos through his heroic actions. So Batman got the joke too, but he's not laughing, and the Joker doesn't understand why.

Evil Genius: Though rarely the focus of his character, Joker is usually an extremely gifted chemist, constantly creating new and better versions of his signature laughing gas. He's also (unsurprisingly) a skilled planner on par with Batman himself, in addition to being extremely charismatic and manipulative when he wants to be.

Evil Is Petty: Joker truly sees no difference between throwing cream pies, robbing a museum, and brutal, torturous mass-murder. To him, it's all just part of the joke.

Evil Sounds Deep: Jack Nicholson in Batman (1989) and Kevin Michael Richardson in The Batman both give the Joker a deep, sinister voice, contrasting his usual higher-pitched depictions in other works.

Facial Horror: His iconic "perma-clown" appearance (the green hair, chalk-white skin, and most of the time, red lips) is the result of being submerged in a tank of chemicals. However, there was times this has gotten worse.

Fame Through Infamy: He's practically built a career on crimes designed more to spread his infamy than anything else. Perhaps his true illness is that he is an Attention Whore through and through...

Faux Affably Evil: Often addresses others in a polite and friendly way before he unleashes merry hell on them.

Flanderization: Over the years, his actions have become almost exclusively focused on causing as much carnage and chaos as possible or harassing Batman and his allies rather than performing any non-lethal mischief or practical crime.

Foe Romance Subtext: Sometimes will mess with Batman's mind by calling him by pet names or using innuendo. Or outright groping him. According to later writers, Joker regards their hero/villain dynamic as a very special relationship, and resents anyone or thing that gets in the way of it (like all those family members Bruce enjoys hanging out with), which is disturbingly like a jealous lover.

Foil: To Batman in several ways. If the origin offered in Killing Joke is to be believed, both Batman and Joker had one bad day that put them on very different paths.

For the Evulz: The usual motives of the Joker. Many of his crimes always involve sowing chaos and the schadenfreude of other people's misery.

Freudian Excuse: Even he isn't sure of his own history and will crop up multiple reasons for his insanity. The most accepted version is that he was a thug named the Red Hood who gets disfigured falling into a vat while trying to escape Batman. His backstory still remains a mystery.

Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Best displayed in The Killing Joke: Joker's "one bad day" is just an excuse, as he neither knows nor cares if it actually happened that way, and Batman confronts him on how his attempt to similarly break Commissioner Gordon failed.Batman: Despite all your sick, vicious little games, he's as sane as he ever was! So maybe ordinary people don't always crack. Maybe there isn't any need to crawl under a rock with all the other slimey things when trouble hits. Maybe it was just you, all the time!

The Friend Nobody Likes: Often plays this role among villain team-ups. It's implied that the only reason the other DC villains ever invite him to things is because they're terrified of what he'll do to them if he's not. Alexander Luthor Jr.'s death at the end of Infinite Crisis is brought about because, as Lex Luthor puts it:Luthor: You made one big mistake. You didn't let the Joker play.

From Nobody to Nightmare: The key thing about his Multiple-Choice Past is that nobody really knows who he was before he put on the Red Hood and fell into a vat of acid. As such, Joker was literally a nobody... who turned into the DC Universe's scariest villain, and who at times has upstaged even Brainiac or Darkseid.

Frozen Face: Most depictions have his face as such, with his massive rictus grin being something he can't really stop doing.

Gadgeteer Genius: While he seems to be a chemist first and foremost, the Joker has no trouble coming up with a range of tools and weapons of his own design and is easily as smart as Batman in this area. Other stories show that he has a solid enough understanding of such varied fields as engineering, computers and even robotics that he can at least hijack the sophisticated inventions of others and use them for his own ends with no difficulty whatsoever, and he is generally implied (though rarely outright stated) to have had a scientific background prior to becoming the Clown Prince of Crime.

Glasgow Grin: Heath Ledger's portrayal features very noticeable scarring from such wounds and tells two conflicting stories of how he got them. Sometimes, Depending on the Artist, the Joker has one in the comics, usually in out-of-continuity stories.

Gonk: Depending on the Artist, he varies from "disfigured, but still fairly handsome" to "barely passes for human", the latter cases usually feature him with a really long and narrow nose and a huge, exaggerated mouth with a permanent Slasher Smile.

Guest Fighter: After making appearances in the previous crossover and being a major player in NetherRealm's other big series, Joker shows up in Mortal Kombat 11 all on his own, freed from the restrictions of a Teen rating and able to showcase the true depths of his depraved bloodlust.

Handshake of Doom: Often kills unsuspecting victims by offering a handshake. When the other person grabs his hand, their palm is pricked by a device that resembles a joy buzzer, which injects deadly venom into their blood stream.

Hate Sink: Posthumously, his Injustice-verse incarnation is the primary target for audience scorn and gets saddled with this role by everyone in the game, its sequel, and the tie-in comics — the version from the Injustice-verse itself, at least. This is because he tricked Superman into killing his own wife Lois Lane and nuking Metropolis, then pulling a Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred on the poor guy who that set him on the path to becoming a tyrant, all for the sake of doing it, and because he was tired of losing to Batman, so he decided to go after an easier target. His role as The Corrupter to Harley is explained to make her redemption feel more plausible, as even she has come to despise him for his actions. In particular, while Superman does terrible things, he is portrayed as a Tragic Villain due to the losses he suffered before becoming a bad guy, and as such, his killing of the Joker is always played for maximum pathos. Even villains as despicable as Brainiac, Darkseid and Gorilla Grodd openly despise him. This even continues into his Guest Fighter appearance in Mortal Kombat 11note , where even the likes of Kano, Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn can't stand him.

Human Head on the Wall: There's a rather famous piece of comic book artwork◊ drawn by Brian Bolland featuring The Joker lounging in a chair in front of a trophy wall mounted with the decapitated heads of various DC heroes and villains, all of them painted white and their faces distorted into a smile like the Joker himself. It's even been parodied a bunch of times with other comic supervillains sitting in Joker's place.

Iconic Outfit:

I'm a Humanitarian: There have been a few times when the Joker engaged in cannibalism, such as an issue of Grant Morrison's JLAnote after Day Of Judgment, where upon the reveal that the Martian Manhunter took the League and the now Hal Jordan hosted-Spectre into the Joker's head, the Joker lamented eating a man's tongue raw. Additionally, an infamous bit in Emperor Joker has the Joker eat all of China while he had Mr. Mxyzptlk's powers.

Insane No More: Is cured by Batman forcing unknown pills down his throat in the non-canon Batman: White Knight, causing him go back to his real name, Jack Napier, make a Heel–Face Turn and accuse Batman of being part of the problem (he's also considerably better than the usual Joker, being closer to the earlier trickster personality).

I've Come Too Far: At the end of The Killing Joke, Batman tries to reason with the Joker, insisting that they've got to stop before one of them kills the other and offering to help rehabilitate him. Joker briefly considers the offer before solemnly turning it down.Joker: No. I'm sorry, but... no. It's too late for that. Far too late.

It Amused Me: His raison d'etre. Why kill people in horrific ways, ruin their lives, and generally make the entire universe a worse place than he left it? Because it's funny.

Jekyll & Hyde: Inverted in the case of Batman: White Knight, where taking pills cures Joker of his insanity and brings back his original Jack Napier persona. However, if he fails to take the pills, the Joker resurfaces, which is exactly what happens in Batman: Curse of the White Knight, and he's much worse than before.

Jerkass: Though that is a total understatement, Joker still more or less counts as one. When he isn't killing or torturing people for his own amusement, he's taunting them and trying get under other people's skin.

Joker Immunity: The trope namer. He was originally conceived as a one-off villain but proved too interesting a character to be killed off so quickly, and a last-minute edit had him survive instead. He's so famous for this that most works that kill him off, the audience doesn't buy it, and it serves as an effective twist the rare times when he is Killed Off for Real. But even those rare occasions may continue to feature him in flashbacks or hallucinations as a Posthumous Character.

Knife Nut: In many appearances, knives are his Weapon of Choice, either to disfigure his victims or kill his foes. Often both.The Joker: Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too... quick. You can't savor all the little emotions. You see, in their last moments, people show you who you really are.

Large Ham: Holy shit, yes. He has an enormous sense of showmanship and is seen cracking Black Comedy jokes every minute, and it's a nigh-guarantee that whoever is portraying him will be munching the scenery to the very structure. Most especially the case if it happens to be Mark Hamill.

Laser-Guided Broadcast: In comic books as well in most of the media, when The Joker takes the control of TV and makes one of his menaces to threat and/or destroy Gotham City, good part of his message goes directly to Batman by tempting him to stop his plans, where usually destroy the city is just a secondary plan, getting/trapping/killing Batman as his real main plan.

Legacy Character: The idea of multiple Jokers is used in Gotham. There are two Jokers - Jerome Valeska, and his twin brother Jeremiah Valeska. The former is a deranged mass murderer who spread madness through Gotham. The latter is the actual Joker who becomes Batman's Arch-Enemy, and is even more dangerous than his predecessor.

Lethal Joke Character: In-Universe. Those unfamiliar with him tend to write him off as just some fool dressed as a clown, only to realize very quickly why they should keep their guard up around him. He's still one of the most dangerous characters in the DC Universe, despite existing in a world filled with super-humans and gods.

Master of Disguise: A talent he possesses even in his earliest stories. Joker is an expert with make-up, costumes and impersonations and has posed as everything from police officers to doctors to even Batman himself. He can go to extremely elaborate lengths to pull off his deceptions too, fabricating entire backstories and staying in-character for months at a time to see his plans through.

Mirthless Laughter: The Joker's constantly laughing, either at the pain and misery of others, the pain and misery he inflicts on others, or even his own pain. However, as describe by many and offered by the reader based on his scenes and what he does, there is NEVER any joy in his laughter. Never any real happiness. Just cruelty and mockery of pain and sorrow. If he does indeed have a tragic backstory that caused his madness, then this makes sense as he has chosen to laugh instead of cry. His statement about how the universe should end "so there won't be anymore people like me" during the Emperor Joker storyline lends weight to him being a Sad Clown.

Misanthrope Supreme: While it's not evident given Joker's Laughing Mad demeanor and his penchant for macabre jokes usually at the life and limb expense of someone else, Joker is actually absolutely full of hatred and spite towards basically everyone and the entire world. Several stories have gone into this and it's implied that the Joker finds it so easy to kill everyone around him, not because he feels nothing for them, but in fact because he loathes everyone aside from his twisted relationship with Batman.

Moment of Lucidity: There've been a few times when outside forces have sent him into a fit of temporary sanity over the years.

Monster Clown: One of the classic examples.

Multiple-Choice Past: Practically the poster child and possible trope namer. Even he isn't sure of his own history. The most accepted version introduced in Detective Comic #168 (1951) has him as a thug named the Red Hood who jumps into a vat of chemicals to escape Batman, disfiguring him and inspiring him to adopt the name Joker. Why he went by the name the Red Hood has changed over the years: The Killing Joke claims he was a failed comedian pressured into becoming a criminal to support his pregnant wife. The trauma of his disfigurement from jumping in the acid and his wife's earlier accidental death drove him insane. However, even this backstory is questionable, as the Joker himself calls it "multiple choice".

My God, What Have I Done?: Whenever he is made temporarily sane, most notably by a Lazarus pit after Ra's Al Ghul killed him after a Villain Team-Up and in JLA #15 during the Rock of Ages storyline, Joker usually expresses deep remorse for his crimes. Unfortunately it never lasts.

The Nicknamer: He's prone to giving nicknames to allies and enemies alike. Sometimes affectionate, sometimes snarky, but always undesired. Calling Batman "Batsy" or "Bats" and Robin "boy blunder" are probably his most iconic.

No Celebrities Were Harmed: Some of the Joker's victims fall into this.

No Name Given: The Joker is the only Batman villain who doesn't have an official real identity. However, there are three occasions where names have been used. The Jack Nicholson version used the name "Jack Napier", which was briefly mentioned in the Animated Series episode "Dreams In Darkness" since the series was partially based on the movie, albeit the doctors list it as one of his aliases. The Gotham version played by Cameron Monaghan gives him the name Jeremiah Valeska. The Joaquin Phoenix version used the name "Arthur Fleck", though the movie raises the question that he doesn't know who his father is, so 'Fleck' might not even be his surname. The Telltale series plays with this by 'naming' him 'John Doe' - which is just a stand-in name police/hospitals use when they don't know someone's identity. While he still has no official name to this day, it's general fan consensus that it's either Jack Napier or just Jack.

Not a Mask: Sometimes he pretends to wear makeup, but it ain't makeup. Jack Nicholson's version wore flesh-tone makeup over his pale skin several times after his transformation. Though, this is Depending on the Writer, as Heath Ledger's depiction does wear makeup. It's unclear if this is the case for Caesar Romero's depiction, as Romero's mustache is visible at times (he refused to shave for the part).

Not Me This Time: Though he certainly wouldn't mind committing them, he's been framed for murders he didn't commit several times, such as by James Gordon Jr.

Obfuscating Insanity: Zig Zagged Trope / Depending on the Writer. Some stories claims The Joker is actually sane, but pretends to be otherwise to avoid the death penalty. Others says he is genuinely crazy. It must be noted that Joker, like other Batman villains, was only identified as insane from the 70s onwards by various writers.note

Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Despite the Joker's infamous reputation and violent instability he never has any issues finding new henchmen for his schemes nor does he ever has any issues finding the resources needed to pull off his often convoluted plans and he's often able to do it all without attracting the attention of Batman or the authorities until he's ready for them.

OOC Is Serious Business: A general rule of thumb: If the Joker isn't smiling, something very bad is about to happen.

The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Pretty much sums up his feelings towards Batman. He often flies into a rage whenever someone else attempts to kill Batman when in his company, and whenever Batman (seemingly) dies he has a tendency to completely snap and turn sane. This actually goes the other direction as well: the Joker feels that Batman is the only one allowed to defeat him, and it's shown he's terrified of someone else doing him in in some continuities.

Outside-Context Problem: A recurring theme of Joker's "first appearance" stories in various adaptations is that nobody in Gotham is prepared for a guy who's only in it For the Evulz. Also, the Joker himself likes to find these, and exploit them.

Phrase Catcher: Back in his prankster phase during the Silver Age, whenever one of Joker's capers got foiled, someone would inevitably trot out the line "The joke's on you, Joker!" For obvious reasons, his current Monster Clown incarnation doesn't get this nearly as often.

Pimp Duds: He sometimes accessorizes his purple suit with a very wide-brimmed hat, which makes the ensemble look like a stereotypical pimp costume. Jared Leto's turn in Suicide Squad (2016) runs with this in his dynamic with Harley Quinn.

Pre-Insanity Reveal: The Joker, depending on the version, may have been an ordinary comedian before he went crazy and became a super-villain.

Purple Is Powerful: Purple is one of Joker's three colors (along with white and green) and he is powerful.

Psychopathic Manchild: For starters, when Batman is telling Joker to stay away from the Gordons after he apparently hurt Gordon's wife (it was actually his son, Gordon Jr. who did the deed), Joker commented that he didn't do anything to "the old bitch", and starts commenting to Batman that he misses the old Batman, and commented that he "doesn't want to go to bed yet" and that he "wants to play."

Redemption Rejection: In The Killing Joke, Batman defeats the Joker once again and then desparately pleads with him to accept help recovering from his madness before they eventually kill each other. In one of his rare, completely serious moments, the Joker sincerely apologizes and tells Batman that it's far too late for that.

The Resenter: Joker has often shown resentment towards people in many ways in different stories. The best example is him being resentful of anyone who garners more attention from Batman than him and anyone he sees as "stealing his act", i.e. being a laughing mad, jokey maniac cramping his style (The Creeper in Batman TAS). Regardless, many of his crimes and attitudes often carry an undercurrent or resentment be it towards to Bat-family because he resents sharing Batman with anyone or normal people for living their mundane lives free of care. Given how much spite seems to fuel his rampages, Joker's probably got a mountain of resentment inside of him.

Restoration of Sanity: On occasion, Joker's sanity will suddenly return to him, usually in stories where Batman retires or is believed to have died. His reactions tend to vary - sometimes we don't see how he reacts to what he did, but other times he actually shows genuine regret for his actions. Of course, these never tend to stick.

The Reveal: When Batman sat in Metron's chair in Darkseid War, one of the questions he asked was who the Joker was and the answer freaked him out. In DC Rebirth, it's revealed why: The Joker is a Legacy Character: the Joker responsible for Death of the Family and Batman: Endgame is not the same man who crippled Barbara Gordon—and neither of them are the original Joker.

Riddle for the Ages: Being the Trope Namer for Multiple-Choice Past, it's unknown who he was before falling into an acid tank and whether he was nuts even before being dunked. He even believes his origins, Depending on the Writer of course.Joker: They throw me out, and I had a wife and an unborn child… or it was two cows and a goat? Sometimes it's so confusing…

Rule of Funny: One of his primary themes (alongside insanity), as explained in Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?: "Kid. I'm the Joker. I don't just randomly kill people. I kill people when it's funny. What would conceivably be funny about killing you?"

Secret Identity Apathy: In most continuities, he simply doesn't care about Batman's Secret Identity, understanding that Batman is the true face and not the man behind the mask. It's shown sometimes that the Joker will actually be upset if someone outs Batman's identity to him, usually because it spoils their dynamic in some way. When Scarecrow pulls off Bruce's mask in Harley Quinn, it practically triggers a Villainous Breakdown.Joker: Half the fun of our relationship was the mystery! Now I know Batman is just some boring, rich asshole with parental issues!

Self-Made Orphan: In The Brave and the Bold #31, Atom reads his mind and sees The Joker burning his parents alive after they catch him killing animals.

Slasher Smile: He wears one almost by default. Reportedly, it was inspired by this photo◊ of Conrad Veidt in character as Gwynplaine (a man with a disfigured face, causing him to have a perpetual grin) in The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo.

The Sociopath: A skilled and gleeful manipulator, a vicious butcher who brutally tortures and murders others simply because he thinks it’s funny, extraordinarily impulsive given that he’s prone to turning his murderous urges on his own men on a whim or because one upset him in some way, shape or form, and has not even the vaguest notion of empathy, neither for his men or his victims.

The Spook: His backstory is an eternal Riddle for the Ages. DC Comics refuses to take an official stance on this.

Start of Darkness: Detective Comics #168 posits he was a laboratory worker who becomes the Red Hood in order to steal a million dollars from his employers and retire. In The Killing Joke he quits his job to become a comedian, but fails and is coerced by mobsters to commit a robbery, becoming the Red Hood. His disfigurement and (in The Killing Joke) his wife's death earlier in the story destroy what little was left of his sanity and he becomes The Joker. Maybe.

Stealing the Handicapped Spot: He doesn't do this. Rather, he hates it when other people do it and finds it hilarious to horrifically cripple them so they can legitimately park in handicapped spots.

Straw Nihilist: Provides the trope image and is the poster child for this. He claims that everything in life is just "one big joke" and death is the ultimate punchline. Joker also believes that "a bad day" is more than enough for anyone to turn out like him. This is shown notably in Injustice: Gods Among Us, The Killing Joke, and The Dark Knight. The Red Lantern Atrocitus even wonders what drove Joker to nihilism during an intro banter with the clown in Injustice 2.

Strong as They Need to Be: His fighting skills fluctuate wildly. Sometimes, Joker is an excellent fighter who can actually defeat Batman in a straight-up fight, whereas most writers prefer to present him as so weak that he can be knocked out cold with one punch.

Stupid Evil: Depending on the writer, The Joker can sometimes fall under this, where his cruelty and sadism tend to lead to his own death at the hands of all the people he's wronged.

To Create a Playground for Evil: His motivation in stories like Emperor Joker.

Too Kinky to Torture: The Joker has shown a proclivity for this over the years. At one point, the Joker berated a man who'd captured him for only hitting him in the face and The Dark Knight similarly sees the Joker berate Batman during the the latter's beating of him. He also enjoyed his and Bruce's final fight in The Dark Knight Returns. Salvation Run had established the Joker's been in constant pain since he took his fateful dive into the vat of chemicals that altered his appearance and not only had gotten used to it, but grew to enjoy it. This quote from The Dark Knight sums it up perfectly: Stephens: I can tell the difference between punks who need a little lesson in manners, and the freaks like you who would just enjoy it.

Tombstone Teeth: He is often drawn with too many too-long teeth as part of his trademark rictus grin, highlighting his nature as a psychotic and sadistic killer.

Troll: Most incarnations of the Joker dress themselves as being a lethal one of these. The best example is his DC Animated Universe version, who tailored each of his schemes as a joke or a prank, and sometimes even lectured his underlings on the importance of proper buildup and delivery when telling a joke. Batman in particular is the Joker's preferred victim, and many a Joker has refused to kill or unmask a Batman dead to rights, simply because it would spoil the fun of trolling him. But when others upstage or taunt him, he really goes nuts, as it's one of his Berserk Buttons.

Unreliable Narrator: Even he isn't sure of his own history, so anything he claims is suspect at best.

Villain Has a Point: Given his devotion to Rule of Funny, he's quite knowledgeable on what makes successful comedy, as seen with the featured image on Don't Explain the Joke.

Villain Song: There's no other villain who has belted out as many memorable music moments, not even the Music Meister. Three of them incidentally were sung by Mark Hamill behind the mic:

Villainous Aromantic Asexual: He is shown to be more interested in his schemes and mayhem rather than sex. He has had sex with Harley, but it is implied that it's more for her rather than his own enjoyment. He has actively ignored her when he simply wants to work on his schemes, even when she's in the translucent red night dress.

Villainous Friendship: No matter how bad things turned out last time, Lex Luthor and Joker will always work together again. Played With, as it isn’t just because of friendship. As Luthor himself notes in the ending of Infinite Crisis, you always "let the Joker play," lest he come after you for revenge later on for leaving him out.

Villainous Harlequin: He was this during the Silver Age. He is also this in Batman (1966) and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Villainous Rescue: In Dark Nights: Metal, The Joker pulls this off by teaming up with Batman to defeat the Batman Who Laughs, Batman knowing that a jokerized Batman would have the upper hand teams up with the Joker. It is so unexpected that the Batman Who Laughs, who is still prepared for anything Batman would conceivably think of, is unable to counter it let alone even consider it a possibility.

Villain Protagonist: He was the star of his own nine issue self-titled series from 1975 to 1976. In order to adhere to the Comics Code Authority, The Bad Guy Wins was never in effect - while he usually managed to get one over on other villains, each issue would end the Joker being apprehended for his crimes. He also got his own movie in which Batman didn't even exist yet, delving deep into what someone would have to go through to become the Joker.

Weapon of Choice: The acid-spitting flower, Smilex/Joker Venom... and simple crowbars, established by how he killed Jason Todd.

You Gotta Have Blue Hair: He has neon green hair caused by the chemicals he fell into.

#TheJokerInformation

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speckledbears · 5 years

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Thoughts on “Far From Home”

SPOILERS FOR “Spider-Man: Far From Home”!!!!

this is for you anon

ok so basically i thought that it would have been good if it wasn’t a Spider-Man (“children’s”) movie.

Like, I think Quentin (Jake G) was such an interesting character, and an amazing villain but, I hated that his entire reason was because he wanted to be the New Iron Man. It bugs me to NO END that THATS the reason. Tony stole the projector tech he made, made fun of him (even if the audience didn’t know), and fired him. I think that’s a much better reason than wanting to be the next Annoying, Mean, Rich Rich Rich So Fucking Rich Metal Guy. The tech was so fucking cool? Like, projectors that seemed so lifelike,,, that’s so cool (also i kinda feel like you could relate it to how disney is only using GCI now but the russos are dumbasses). And like, the story Quentin and his team put together for Mysterio, and all the planning and the production value (if you can call it that lol) was so interesting and I was so intrigued. If there was a movie for him, and he didn’t fucking suck, I would pay to see it. His issue is that he’s so hellbent on killing Peter, MJ and Ned that I was put-off from like, half the movie. It’s kinda terrifying that someone can say, “I’ll just have to kill the kids myself,” and NO ONE IS CONCERNED??? And the fact that he was willing to kill innocent civilians just to make headlines, that’s fucked (and modern). Also, I think the directors missed out on a big opportunity for Peter to have a new father figure. Peter looked up to Quentin, trusted him, seeked him out for advice, like he would a father. I don’t remember him ever doing that with Tony. Peter was always too worried he was bothering him, and Tony seemed to brush him off a lot. Sure, Tony picked him and placed so much faith in him but, in the end? I feel Peter became more of a toy for the Avengers than an actual team member. If Quentin had been a good guy, doing this shit for the “right reasons” (idk like, taking the burden of becoming Iron Man off Peter, and maybe mentoring him) he could’ve been AMAZING. I still love him (except his dumb reasons) but, y’all missed out!!!!

Next: The whole deal with Peter being chosen by Tony to be the next Iron Man. Fucking hate that shit!!!!! Peter is a CHILD, he’s 16, and obviously he’s not ready for that responsibility!!!! In the movie, he’s manipulated by Quentin (which i lowkey also hate and explained above) and he just!!! gave EDITH to him!!!!! He’s a good kid, but not mature or responsible enough to handle having access to that kind of tech. I mean, dude almost killed a classmate?? Literally called a drone strike on the kid, couldn’t figure out how to cancel it, and destroyed the drone himself. Let’s not forget that this responsibility was FORCED ON HIM BY TONY???? Like, there was this scene where Peter literally told Quentin that he didn’t want EDITH!!! He didn’t want that kind of responsibility that came with being Iron Man!!! All he wanted for the summer was to hang out with his friends and kiss the girl he likes!!! Peter just wanted to be a normal child for one summer and, apparently, that was too much to ask for. Also, in the scene where Happy and Peter are in the jet talking about Tony, Peter says that he doesn’t know if he can be the new Iron Man. Happy doesn’t even hesitate when he says, “No, you can’t. No one can replace him.” Like hello!!!! And then they immediately forget that little nugget of wisdom, and Peter starts playing with Tony’s tech and literally everyone with eyes can draw the parallels between Peter and Tony. It’s frustrating. I hated how Tony was treated after his death. I completely understand mourning a character, especially one as important as Tony Stark, but it didn’t feel like mourning. It felt like worshipping. Tony had become a martyr, and he fucking knew it (EDITH = Even Dead, I’m The Hero 🙄) and people are still licking his boots. It’s just so weird that, even though he’s supposed to be dead, he’s still a main character and RDJ isn’t even in the movie!!!!!!!! When a character dies, that’s it, they can’t directly influence the story anymore, and yet Tony is still the reason for everything Peter does? He doesn’t have his own initiative. He lived and breathed in Tony’s shadow, and he’ll live in it forever. He’s being forced to become the next Iron Man. And believe me, I love Tony. I grew up watching the “Iron Man” movies with my parents and brother, and I remember watching one in the theatre and laughing till I cried. Guys! He’s dead! He’s done more than enough! It’s Spider-Man’s turn now.

I really hated Nick Fury in this movie. I grew up watching the OG Marvel movies and I loved Nick, but holy fuck. This dude hounded Peter, a CHILD, for help against those Elementals when he could’ve literally asked anyone else (side note: he shot Ned with a tranquilizer dart like? dude he’s a child calm down-). He gave a shit ton of excuses for why he couldn’t get in contact with the other Avengers but, I call bullshit. This dude is like, one of the most powerful men in the world (Quentin’s words, but it’s also been proven in other movies). He managed to track down Peter, how is it THAT HARD for him to find an adult??? Then he hijacked the school trip so that Peter would be in Prague, and he KNEW that once Peter was there he would help. It’s manipulation. Never mind the scene like, 5 mins later where Peter says he’s worried about his friends getting hurt (and having EDITH but not really understanding her), and Nick exploded on him. LIKE DUDE??? he’s a child. I’m also super pissed off at the fact that Nick manipulated Peter using his Avenger status. OOOOHHHH you whore!!! Literally everyone knows that Peter loved Tony (🙄🙄) and he used him against Peter! ASK AN ADULT FOR HELP YOU HAVE AN ENTIRE TEAM OF THEM????? Oh also, the bitch KNEW Quentin was evil. There’s a scene that proves it. It’s right after their first meeting where Peter says no, and leaves. Nick and Maria (the brunette lady hes always with, im surprised i remembered her name) share a knowing glance. They fucking KNOW. And yet?? They let Quentin do whatever the hell he wants?? He literally tried to kill 3 teenagers, and planned to kill hundreds of civilians in London (and i’m not sure if anyone did get hurt or died but, i wouldn’t be surprised). But the most powerful man in the world can’t stop him, apparently. He wants a 16-year-old CHILD to do it for him. It’s ridiculous!

The romance was also a bit hit-or-miss for me. Like, Ned and Betty?? It felt so forced and contrived? It literally only existed so that MJ could take Ned’s place. Y’all notice that Ned basically ditched his best friend for the entire movie for some girl he barely knows? Also, the fact that they “fell in love” on an eight hour flight. Hate that. It’s such a trope and it’s ugly. The romance with Happy and May was kinda weird, too? I mean, I don’t know their past together. I didn’t watch “Infinty War” or “Endgame” but, it also felt forced. Especially at the end, when Peter asked if they were dating!! May said no and Happy said yes!! I’m assuming that’s supposed to be comedy?? ig??? Anyway, I didn’t really like the romantic rivalry between Brad and Peter? (btw no shit i almost called peter “tony” i’m telling y’all they’re synonymous now). Like, Brad’s logic in using the photo of Peter stripping to “expose the truth” about Peter to MJ was so weird and awkward? The entire scene felt forced and I was so uncomfortable watching it. Also, MJ would’ve stuck up for Peter anyway, so it didn’t even matter, and the rivalry was dropped so easily after the opera in Prague. I did actually like the romance between Peter and MJ, even though I wasn’t expecting to. It’s a bit weird how quickly he got over Liz, but whatever; he’s a teenager. (I was going to comment on the necklace thing but, that’s actually kind of in character for him so, y’all get ONE (1) pass). I thought their hug and kiss at the end of the battle with Quentin was super fucking sweet and innocent, and it was refreshing compared to most teen romance movies where they act like adults instead. I was in LOVE with that scene, and it was one of the only scenes I honestly loved.

Ok, I wanna go back to Quentin for a bit. This dude absolutely destroyed the Peter Parker we were given in HOCO, and at the beginning of the movie. Yeah, Tony already had him as a puppet, but Quentin took his innocence. Y’all saw how easily Peter trusted people before him!! Like?? When he found out Quentin manipulated him, he lost almost all his faith in other people, except for MJ and Ned. For example, the scene where Peter calls Happy to pick him up because he’s in a holding cell in the Netherlands? Love that scene BUT! As he’s limping over to Happy, so obviously fucked up and hurting, he makes Happy prove it’s really him. THAT FUCKING HURT LMAO!!!!! I hated that. And that last battle with Quentin on the bridge? He maneuvered so easily through the drones, it was impressive, and he’d only fought against them once before (seems impossible but whatever). And watching the projections dissolve away into just pixels and a scared little bitch in a fish bowl helmet? Classic Theatre. But, he was traumatized by previous experiences fighting Quentin. Peter’s growth made the movie good but, his loss of innocence really made this movie kinda suck. Sure, his innocence still there—the scenes later with MJ prove that—but he’s still lost his easy trust in other people. It hurt to see. And, like, I’m not saying he can’t be more mature but, he didn’t even trust Happy!! He’s so paranoid that he’ll find his loved ones replaced by Quentin’s illusions!! It sucks!!!! Peter isn’t Peter without that sense of childlike wonder, curiosity, and helpless faith in others.

Anyway, I wanna talk about that Netherlands scene again because, holy shit, I loved it. After Peter was hit by that train (i actually screamed but the cinematography inside the train? *kiss*), he wakes up in some holding cell in the Netherlands with a band of friendly locals, and the guard, who’s talking on the phone with his pregnant wife. I don’t know why but, that scene was one of the first to make me smile? Like, it was so sweet how the other men were so happy for the guard and his wife, how they gave Peter a spare shirt because he looked cold, how Peter just broke the lock and left? How the guard was wearing Peter’s mask???? I’m in love. The next scene I liked was literally right after, of Peter limping through the tulip field, and Happy landing the jet nearby. Without dialogue, that scene is so pretty?? The petals stirring in the wave the jet left as it landed?? The HUG???? UGH! I fell in love. Another scene I loved was the scene when Peter went to Berlin to meet with Nick Fury and Quentin manipulated it with the projection technology. Even though I knew it was fake, I was worried about what was going on outside the projection (he got hit by a fucking train so,,,,,, iwas right to be worried-). Watching Peter so helpless and trying to stay vigilant was so heartbreaking, yet I was lowkey impressed. Like? How many other mean ass men could pull that off? None, next question. I can’t even think about how to explain it. I watched that scene at least 3 times, and was amazed every time, my only thoughts anxiety for Peter.

Okay, lastly, I wanna talk about the tech. I thought it was so interesting and unique. Like, I’ve played with the idea of projection in stories, or with characters as magic but, never considered applying it through technology, especially tech as capable as it is. And every scene where the projections were being used were amazing. I mean, obviously it’s CGI, but in the context of the MCU, it’s so interesting and cool to see tech like that used in a very public way. And no one knew!!! The whole system (along with Quentin and his team) was so good at camouflaging that I was fooled at the beginning of the movie. I seriously believed in the Elementals and Mysterio’s ruined Earth. It’s part of the reason I really enjoyed his character. And, like I said earlier, Peter was fooled by it too; everyone was. He learned it, eventually. But not before Quentin could manipulate the situation one last time and claim Peter called the drone attacks on London, and revealed his identity.

All in all, I didn’t have fun watching “Far From Home,” and it’s mainly because it didn’t feel like a Spider-Man movie. I enjoyed “Homecoming,” so much more. The villain was far more relatable (even though you could see it as demonizing the poor), Ned and Peter’s friendship was so wholesome and sweet, the entire cast was fun, and it was more enjoyable than watching some angry rich white man trying to kill children so he can get richer.

#long post #spiderman #spiderman: ffh #peter parker #mysterio #mj spiderman #ned spiderman #im angry haha

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ichigo777666 · 4 years

Text

FE3H Character Impressions

Just my thoughts as I’m playing through. I’m including 4 sections for each - first impressions, impression at end of WC, first PTS impression, ending impression. (BE route will have more than 4). Characters for the PTS are ONLY for their ending routes, since that’s where they main. Will updates as I progress. Spoilers ahead, obviously.

**These are listed in the order of paths I played them in with exception to CF (which was my 4th) which is added in under BE. I actually wrote this all down in a notebook and am slowly typing it in here when I have time, so INC for now**

Black Eagles (due to this being a branching path, this is going to have 5 sections)

Edelgard

FI: I like this sassy lady. Obviously the best choice. C1E: Okay, Edel...just wow. You became so much cooler! PTS: Um the hair is...no. But hey, you didn’t kill Byleth! END-SS: No, my Edels.....WHY IS THERE NO SPARE OPTION?! END-CF: My Edels :) I like her in CF - it’s power child Edel! This is the only route where your “leader” is actually a leader.

Hubert FI: Creepy, one half of a hidden face. Betting on this guy being EVIL! C1E: Well I did call it. I still like him tho. PTS: So, they decided to go with the whole “vampire” aesthetic I see. I can’t decide whether I love it or I hate it... END-SS: Uh, well he showed up what, twice? Not much to judge here... END-CF: Loyal Hubert. I grew to like him a bit....

Ferdinand FI: He’s kind of annoying. But hey, at least they picked a good color orange for his hair. C1E: Um...well...did he actually change? No, no. PTS: I’m not sure I like the long hair. His voice though...it seems to suit him better now. END-SS: I liked using him in combat but not as an actual character. END-CF: Doesn’t seem much different than in SS....

Lindhardt FI: Okay, so you’re the unmotivated lazy character, Got it. C1E: Well, there’s actually something interesting about him! Yay. PTS: No, the outfit. Just no. The hair, yes - the clothes, no! END-SS: You kinda removed his laziness and sleepiness...WHY?! END-CF: No real change from SS.

Caspar FI: Loud, short, obnoxious battle nerd. C1E: Alright, I can kinda get him. I can sorta understand why he’s like this. PTS: Armor...no. And why didn’t you change his hair at all...feels lazy. END-SS: And he’s basically the same but older and a bit more mature. Okay. END-CF: No real change from SS.

Bernadetta FI: Aw, she’s a scaredy-cat. I’m intrigued. C1E: I get it. I wanna HURT whoever hurt her. PTS: Bernie’s gotten a glam up! The pouch is a good added detail. END-SS: I like that she grew a little and got some confidence. Good for you Bernie! END-CF: No real change from SS.

Dorothea FI: Okay, so she’s the pretty one? Got it. C1E: Okay, so she’s the pretty one who’s concerned about her future....okay, I can understand. PTS: The BEST PTS outfit from the BE crew (and possibly from all of FE3H). I want this... END-SS: She’s the only one who seems to have ANY regrets about turning on Edel....and for that, she’s got respect. END-CF: Aw, best friends with Edie forever!

Petra FI: The foreigner who can’t talk well. Okay, she’s adorable and tough. C1E: I really like Petra! My she-beast Amazon! PTS: Okay, she went totally exotic - is this Brigid style? I like! END-SS: So, she’s leaving. uwu END-CF: No real change from SS.

Jeritza (yeah, he’s going here...) FI: Quiet and mysterious guy who wears a mask. Yeah he’s not suspicious at all! Also adding to that is the fact he’s the only other character besides Jeralt who you cannot have support conversations with so...hmmmm..... C1E: Okay, serial killer vibes... PTS: They just removed his mask...in combat his outfit is great...but yeah... END-CF: Okay, I can kinda get it but...he’s so flat. I get that it’s his thing but....just no.

~~~~~~

Church of Seiros I (Basic grouping for all the faculty + knights. Endings will be for the ones they’re most impactful in)

Rhea FI: Okay, so we’re supposed to be suspicious of her, right? I kinda like her even though I know she’s not being honest with us... C1E: Okay, wow...yeah....cool! END-SS: Well, that went from 0 to 100 real fast. Anyone wanna explain WHY?! *END-CF:

Jeralt FI: Dad maybe? Is it odd I’m questioning this? C1E: Okay...so, yeah that happened. Wow. ...I didn’t know where to stick him, so...here ya go!

Catherine FI: Strong female knight character? We’re getting to play with a girl knight before a boy?! WTG FE! C1E: I really like her dedication. PTS: So, no change huh? *sighs* END-SS: Aw, I like how she got all emotional!

Shamir FI: Okay...cool girl. That one strand of hair tho... C1E: Alright, so she’s cold for a reason. I’m curious. PTS: And another no change huh. *sighs* END-SS: So, she’s a bit more friendly, eh....

Cyril FI: Is this kid really necessary for this game? Just no... C1E: Well his stats are okay but I don’t think so.... PTS: Okay, he grew up. He’s still annoying. END-SS: Yeah, just no.

Seteth FI: Sexy green-haired mysterious distrustful priest dude? AKA the only PERSON WITH LOGIC for the first few chapters. I like this :) C1E: What do you MEAN I can’t take you with me?! NO! PTS: No change...but I really loved your original design, so yay! END-SS: My dragon daddy! :) Best character EVER! And he feels so right as the one planning and leading everything.

Flayn FI: She’s small and green and kind of adorable! I sense an interesting dynamic at play! C1E: So...this explains her odd relationship with Seteth. But still, I must protect the bean! PTS: Well if Seteth didn’t change, I wouldn’t expect Flayn to either. END-SS: Aw, cute! I really don’t get why people hate Flayn - she just wants everyone to get along!

Gilbert FI: Brooding...and bland C1E: alright, so regrets over abandonment and self flagellation... PTS: you couldn’t even add a few more gray strands? really? END-AS: Boring much?

Alois FI: Oh boy...hes going to be loud, huh? C1E: do I have to recruit him? how many more dumb jokes do you have?! PTS: yeah, same outfit....why do the older characters just get NO changes... END-AS: Well he’s still Alois..

Hannerman FI: a scholarly type huh? let's see if he's interesting. C1E: a word comes to mind: obsessed. yup, obsessed. PTS: a suit during war? really? really! END-?: So more crests basically....*sigh*

Manuela FI: I really hope her only quality isn't "i'm sexy" C1E: okay, so she's an ex diva struggling to find love who turns to alcohol...might be the most realistic character.... PTS: would she really be wearing this same outfit during a war? END-?: Is it wrong that I laughed here?

~~~~~~~~~~

Blue Lions

Dimitri FI: Pretty boy prince character. I don’t really like you. And the haircut with the long bangs over your eyes drives me INSANE! C1E: Okay, so he’s a psychopath. no wonder I didn’t like him. PTS: uh...just no. also are you going to remain in this brooding i’m-angsty-but-a-murderer mood for the rest of the game? END-AS: I cannot bring myself to like Dimitri...I cannot. Jeez, it honestly feels like someone tried to ft a whole bunch of tropes into one cohesive character and failed massively.

Dedue FI: Okay, so you’re a foreigner and people hate your people and you’re used to it. The obsession over Dimitri is weirdly off-putting. C1E: eh....you really don’t have much of a personality do you? PTS: ...so you added scars and gave him armor...wow...also, you tried to fool us with the whole ‘he’s dead’ thing and yet HE HAS AN A RANK SUPPORT with Byleth that you cannot unlock pre-skip and Dedue is non recruit-able...so yeah, no. END-AS: Let’s face it, Dedue’s going to be doing Dimitri’s work every time Dimitri goes all angsty....I feel sorry for him

Ashe FI: Ah, he’s cute and shy and innocent and helpful. Why do I feel like they’re going to exploit this? C1E: ...poor kid, really. PTS: okay, so he looks better. kinda nice actually. END-AS: Eh....I feel like he has little personality now...

Sylvain FI: I...actually like him! I was expecting to not like him but hey, this might be my favorite BL dude! C1E: Okay, calling it now - favorite BL character unless something major changes, PTS: Well they could have done more, but it’s not terrible. END-AS: Okay, so he’s cool. I was right - this is my favorite BL dude!

Felix FI: Grumbly weapon boy. He’s got to have so major character development...please? C1E: Okay, so he’s an ignored child who’s got a dead brother. I can get it. PTS: Did they make his hair wilder? END-AS: Oh Felix. He’s alone now and I honestly think that might be for the best with him...

Mercedes FI: Her voice doesn’t seem to fit her character as well as some of the others. I do not understand her shirt. C1E: Um...she’s not really a standout. PTS: Okay, I liked the outfit: the hat, the veil, the dress. I’m ehhh....on the short hair... END-AS: Mercedes with confidence?! Okay, yes!

Annette FI: I kinda hate her and love her. Squeaky high pitched mage who’s also a walking disaster - she’s toeing the line. C1E: please no more singing....please. That maybe from before is leaning drastically towards the ‘hate’ PTS: wtf is this outfit? what’s with that blue tab thing on her butt?! END-AS: Please no more. Please no more....just take her away

Ingrid FI: A much better written female knight character! She reminds me a bit of Ferdinand...but better! C1E: she’s cool really. please don’t ruin her... PTS: Okay, outfit is a +. way to give her a nice looking knight outfit but feminine! END-AS: I like Ingrid, I like Ingrid a lot. Best BL girl.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Golden Deer

Claude FI: Okay, so he’s the “schemer/rogue” character eh? Let’s see if they do this well.. C1E: Okay, so he’s got some depth. Good for you. PTS: Oh no - why is the outfit slightly metallic looking? That bothers me sooo much. END-VW: Alright so he’s got big dreams...also why is he in the ending picturegram if Byleth is going to be king/queen?

Lorenz FI: What is with the hair....oh no.... C1E: I actually kind of like you...huh... PTS: OKAY, HOTNESS. BEST GD PTS MAKEOVER! Yes, yes, yes - please give me! END-VW: I like Lorenz’s character development arc!

Raphael FI: Big burly guy with muscles....okay. Bet they make him kinda dumb too... Will there be any character at all? C1E: It’s as I suspected... PTS: Okay well...it’s a change...but not too much. The outfit is weird. END-VW: And Raphael is still basically the same...

Ignatz FI: Uh....okay, so this is the house of the weird haircuts. What’s with his eye color? Nerd? C1E: Alright so he’s indecisive and troubled about choosing his path vs the path his parents want for him...okay PTS: Oh TFG the hair is fixed! At least his outfit has personality! END-VW: Yo do you, boy!

Lysithia FI: Okay she’s kinda cute. She’s spunky too! Why do I have the feeling there’s something awful hiding here? C1E: I’m intriqued. I want to know more. PTS: Okay, nice outfit! Good design there. END-VW: POOR BABY!!! Someone save the girl!

Hilda FI: So, her thing is that she’s a spoiled brat? And lazy. Gotcha. C1E: I don’t know whether I hate her or I like her.... PTS: Um....what’s with the sleeves? All I can see is weird clown outfit... END-VW: So is Hilda this route’s advisor? Why did they use her and not Judith?!

Marianne FI: Aw...she’s so cute and shy and her hair is messy. Please don’t ruin her.. C1E: Okay so there is a reason she’s like this...give me more! PTS: Yes, a good design! She looks so much better! END-VW: I’m glad to see she slowly evolved. Good character.

Leonie FI: Is every conversation going to involve Jeralt? It is, isn’t it? *sigh* I might have found my least favorite character.... C1E: Can I not take her back PTS? Can we just forget she exists? PTS: Okay...so she’s dressing like Jeralt...nope. END-VW: And I don’t care. You’re the winner of my worst FE3H character Leonie!

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purpledragon57 · 5 years

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Dragon Reviews: Tokyo Mew Mew

I recently finished watching the magical girl anime Tokyo Mew Mew. I’ve been meaning to get into the habit of writing reviews for things I watch, and I had quite a lot to say about this show, so it seemed like a good place to start. Full review under the cut. Apologies in advance for any misspellings - the subs were incredibly inconsistent.

I’m going to break my thoughts up into categories, starting with the characters and ending with the overall plot and themes:

The Magical Girls

I like the overall visuals of the magical girls. The outfits, transformations and attacks are all good looking and mostly well animated. The outfits hit a good balance between uniformity and individuality, which I like.

Personally I didn’t enjoy the girls very much as a group? The best magical girl teams are fun to watch even when they’re just hanging out, but the Mew Mews’ dynamic just didn’t click with me. Most group interactions consisted of arguments and running jokes - they barely seem like friends half the time. This also made it hard to feel invested when things get emotional or during battles

On to the girls as individuals:

Ichigo was a perfectly fine magical girl protagonist. I liked the focus on how her magical girl and regular identities affect each other, and how this wove into her romance plot.

Minto was my favourite initially because I love Tsunderes, but ultimately she was more annoying than anything else and her arc wasn’t particularly interesting to me. She still has the best transformation though.

Retasu is the Shy Nerdy One, which made me like her initially, but there wasn’t anything that really stood out about her most of the time. I think maybe she was supposed to be a ‘straight man’ to the others’ wackiness (esp. Bu Ling), but her demeanour is too reserved to really pull this off in an entertaining way. I liked that she provided a side romance, but it never really went anywhere, which was disappointing.

Bu Ling is best girl. Her childish behaviour and Wacky Antics can get a bit annoying, but she’s cute and genuine enough to avoid being grating. I like her incredibly friendly and determined attitude. Also her focus episode was great and made me cry a little bit.

Zakuro is great just for having punched Kish in the face. 10/10 most satisfying scene in the whole series. On a more serious note, I think Zakuro was the most unique character on the team, but I’m not really sure what to make of her. She’s kind of cold and distant with high standards but occasionally soft, but I don’t really understand why she is this way. There’s hints that she has some kind of tragic backstory and possibly ulterior motives but I feel like this is never properly explained??? Maybe it’s something that didn’t translate well from manga to anime. It’s weird.

The Villains

This segment is gonna get spoilery so skip it if you care about that. The tl;dr is that the villains just kinda suck.

I just have to say it, this show had the ugliest villain designs I have ever seen in a magical girl series. I hate their outfits and the massive ears just look weird.

The Aliens have the theoretically sympathetic desire to return Earth to it’s old state now that their race is dying out on another planet - though doing so will wipe out humanity. This could be an interesting motivation, but unfortunately they are way too self-righteous and hypocritical about this and it just gets annoying. It’s possible this was the point but it’s still tiresome.

The most grating example of this is when Kish gets wounded in a fight and the other Aliens have the audacity to get angry at the Mew Mews for hurting their ‘friend’, even though neither of them showed anything but dislike for Kish, and they’ve been hurting the Mew Mews all the time.

Thoughts on the villains individually:

Kish is the most complete character of the lot - he at least succeeded in getting me to hate him with a burning passion. When he’s not busy being disturbingly possessive of Ichigo, he’s an obnoxious brat but largely a fairly competent villain. He also has the most braincells in the group, being able to come up with almost successful plans and figure out the big bad’s true intentions before the others. I think if his arc had been better paced he’d be a pretty solid MG villain over all.

Tart is just the ‘bratty child’ villain archetype, which I always hate. His relationship with Bu Ling is cute and actually has a satisfying payoff though.

Pie is just confusing. He has a ‘priorities orders over morality’ thing going on but it isn’t made very clear why he’s like this, and his last minute redemption-by-'death’ comes out of basically nowhere. The other villains are annoying but Pie is boring, which is even worse.

Deep Blue is just a generic pure evil villain once he actually becomes a character and not a voice in a void. He also had a possession plot line, which is a trope I like, but they didn’t do anything particularly interesting with it.

The Supporting Cast

Quick shout out to the Blue Knight for being the first time I’ve seen a mysterious ally character get introduced without their secret identity being immediately obvious. It’s fun to try and figure out what’s going on alongside the protagonists instead of knowing straight away.

Masaya was my favourite secondary character. His relationship with Ichigo felt a bit flat at first but after we find out what it is specifically that they like about each other I was sold. Cute and wholesome.

Ryou was an ok character. I feel like his story lines were kind of underutilised?? Feels similar to Zakuro in that he had hints at being a deeper character but couldn’t get me to connect to him.

The other guy felt like barely more than a background character. I can’t even remember his name and most of what I remember about him was ‘makes cake’ and ‘gives exposition’

Presentation

Besides the magical girl designs, I didn’t really like the visual aesthetic of this show. The colours are mostly either too saturated or too bland and the way the characters are drawn is not appealing to me.

The animation mostly ranges from passable to janky, besides the transformations. I remember some of the late-series fight scenes just consisted of awkward loops and quickly cut together stills and it looked more hilarious than intense. Intense facial expressions are sometimes so exaggerated they become laughable.

The voice acting is mostly fine, and sometimes really good, but sometimes it gets really overwrought. The amount of screeching in the last few episodes made me want to slam my head against a wall.

Plot & Themes

I thought it was interesting how much emphasis they put into the puberty metaphor. The Mew Mew powers come with a bunch of uncomfortable side effects (acting more like an animal, sprouting animal parts at inconvenient times, etc.) and the show spends a lot of time focusing on Ichigo’s emotional reactions to her body changing. I haven’t really seen other magical girl shows explore this aspect as much.

Obviously one of the biggest themes in the series is the environmentalist message. This theme gets pretty heavy handed at times but since it’s a children’s show I’m willing to give them a bit of a pass. I think it would have added a bit to show the girls being more environmentally conscious in their day to day lives or something but it’s fine.

Like I mentioned in the character sections, some character arcs and story lines are just kind of left hanging and it’s weird.

The plot about the aliens’ families back home is just flat out ignored at the end????? This was the most bizarre to me because they spent the whole show trying to reshape the Earth into somewhere they could live but then at the end they just leave. You can’t just ignore the plight of a slowly dying alien race like that, what the heck.

For some reason at the end they pull out of their bittersweet ‘powers are gone forever’ ending and have the girls randomly transform and leave to fight some unspecified enemy. I don’t know if this was supposed to be sequel set up or the staff decided it would be too sad or what but it was weird and dumb.

Conclusion

Tokyo Mew Mew is a weird mixed bag of genuinely good ideas but unsatisfying execution. I will say it isn’t really bad, it’s just that I’ve seen most of what it does done better in other series, so it doesn’t really stand out to me for the most part. My experience may also have been skewed by the long breaks I took between episodes at times - perhaps the pacing just seems worse to me because of this. Though on the other hand the fact that I had so little motivation to watch it quickly is a bad sign in itself. If I’d watched this show when I was younger perhaps I would have enjoyed it more.

Overall Rating: 6/10

PS - I get a vague impression that some of it’s flaws may be adaption problems - perhaps I’m wrong but it sometimes gives that ‘weak adaption of good source material’ vibe.

Have you seen Tokyo Mew Mew? What did you think of it? And if you have read the manga, do you think it’s better than the anime?

#dragon reviews #tokyo mew mew #putting thoughts into words is hard but I think I did ok #idk if this is too harsh sounding compared to my thoughts

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quiznakwaffles · 6 years

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About Voltron’s S7 and its flawed writing

Have you ever thought « Wow, this is so amazing. The person who did that is incredible, I would have never thought of that. This is so clever ! » ? I've had. When I read FMA. When I read books written by Marguerite Yourcenar or poetry by a lot of talented people. When I read amazing fanfictions this fandom come up with.

You know when I've thought the opposite of that ? When I watched Voltron's season 7. I've rarely felt so disrespected as a viewer. I've rarely thought my intelligence had been so insulted, and I've watched Besson's Lucy. A lot of people have correctly wrote about the queerbaiting the show pulled at us. What was the point of introducing Adam and building up the hype around his relationship his Shiro it was to kill him for absolutely no acceptable reason ?

What I'm going to address isn't only the queerbaiting of the show, that a lot of people simply reduced as « being angry because ships weren't made canon ». If you really think that, maybe you should educate yourself on the matter of representation for the LGBT+ community. Who is a lot, lot larger than you think, but isn't in your mind because we're not represented anywhere. And when we're barely represented, it's for us to appear evil and/or die (or suffer endlessly). But yeah, continue thinking it's because ships weren't made canon.

What I'm going to address is the lazy and flawed writing in this season.

I've caught up with Voltron in July, and was pleasantly surprised about it. A lot of unresolved plot lines came to term in season 6, and the way it ended. It was so promising ! Paladins journeying through space, having so much time in their hands that they actually could deepen their bonds... It had so many opportunities for good content. So. Many. They were actual good moments, particularly with Hunk. And yet, I can think of a hundred ideas to give a much better content with these characters than it actually did.

What with bored and angsty Paladins in space when they could've been finding ways to keep themselves entertained and get to know each other better ? What about Romelle written as annoying when she hit it off so good with Hunk in the first episode and had a lot of potential as a comic character and strong ally to Allura (or potential love interest but that’s just me fantasying) ? Hunk had good character development about him, but even that could have been even better paced with little effort.

I see a lot of people saying “ It's a kid show, stop making it about yourself “ or "We were hyped by what we expected of it”. And of course we did, that’s what all fanbases around the world do because we’re smart being who like thinking about the plot and hoping for good content. And do you think kids are stupid ? Do you think kids don't care about relationships, friendships, conversations about feelings ? Hunk and Keith's discussion was so important, and I wish it was given more time, more consistency, and was done with other characters.

Of course giant robots and beautifully animated intense fights in space are cool. But you know what else is ? Emotion awareness. Kids need it so bad. As we grow up, because of our misogynist society, we often see being vulnerable and talking about feelings as something feminine and shameful. Because it would be considered weak. Voltron may be a kid show, and it's for this exact reason it needs to show them how talking about your feelings and your identity, struggling about it but coming to terms with it by actually sharing about it with people around you is crucial.

But what is Voltron doing ? It's queerbaiting its fandom, killing LGBT+ characters for no purpose and making them at best invisible and at worst evil. It's portraying its own characters as unimportant, inconsistent and dumb.

Keith and Lance have made steady progress in their relationship since season 3. But then suddenly, Keith is doubting Lance abilities when he was giving him leadership on the team before ? Keith is insulting Lance, saying he wouldn't want to be stuck up with Lance forever when they've been sharing their insecurities and trusting each other over leadership ? Have we seen the same show ?

What would it had cost them to make Keith say something like “ Lance has a family on Earth he wants to go back to so bad. And I've just reunited with mine so I guess I would want him to experiment this as well. “ Keith has grown for two years apart from them. He was supposed to be more matured, more in control about his feelings. What about those awful inconsistencies in his writing ? Making him say that wouldn't even had been a ship thing, it would just had been true and nice from him ! It would have created emotional value in the show ! What kept them to do that ?!

And Allura, oh my god ! She's such a strong and great woman, trusted with an infinite Altean's knowledge about alchemy but in season 7, she's reduced to being Lance's love interest ?! I wouldn't have minded their relationship, because it could be very sweet. But she's shown no romantic interest in the boy for the past six seasons. In season 7, they barely even talked, apart from the « Would you just shut up Lance ? ». Barely interacted on their own. And now, suddenly, they just say at each other to stay safe while blushing and really ?

Veronica, while she never saw Lance and Allura interact at all, said « I think the princess likes you back ». Like really ? You're pulling this hetero-normative trope of a third party watching a man and a woman they'd never seen interact before and judging they're in love ? This is so boring and forced. I've felt I was being talked to as if I was a kid when I watched this scene, like the show was screaming at me “ Look !! Allura never reciprocated Lance's feelings for six seasons and now, for absolutely no reason the show even bothered to tell you, she's suddenly returning them ! “ I felt like the sandwich guy from the meme. I am. I am the idiot sandwich who wouldn't understand hints about a developing relationship. I felt so embarrassed watching that whole season, wondering if the show was actually doubting my own thinking ability.

And now, my personal pet peeve. A strong woman being pictured as evil for no reason and then dying so she can atone for her sin. I couldn't even remember her name. She was the head of the Garrison. Adam was a sacrificial paw to show just how threatening Galra were (yeah, I couldn't deduce that by myself, not like they've been conquering the whole universe for ten thousand years. Silly me !) and how this woman was evil, having no second thoughts sacrificing people for absolutely. No. Purpose. We don't get a backstory or a single flashback. Once more, what would it had cost them to add something so we could have understood her reasons ? Or, more, what would it had cost them to not make her evil because she was a strong and smart woman ?

Am I the only one, as a 23 lesbian, feeling insulted by Voltron's trying to making me believe this experimented woman, head of the Garrison, just went on the enemy's territory and thought they would respect the bargain, not listening to experienced people ?! Why would this lady do such bad choices ? Am I supposed to believe she couldn't think of anything else ?! And of course, who's the nice ones trying to fix this lady's issues ? Nice guys obviously ! This mean lady made Sam Holt and that guy who spent years yelling at children and deprecating them as the nice ones !

And what about Shiro not getting closure? Neither on his relationship with Adam, neither by taking down Sendak himself, letting Keith get the spotlight (once again) and robbing him of this moment? What were the writers thinking?

And I’m not even talking about Zethrid and Ezor who were coded as romantic, unsure and supportive lesbians for a minute before swiping to evil and masochist lesbians. And I think I've already made a point about Romelle. I'm not mentioning Acxa because I didn't really thought when I watched her scenes with Keith that they were romantically coded. I think she's fond of him in a sibling way, and for once in this post, I'm not sure Voltron tried to made us think other way. But, hey, it's heterosexual so after all, no reasons for it not happening since, you know, it’s not LGBT+.

They had so much opportunities to make this show mark history. To make it meaningful, touching, ground breaking with amazing characters and sweet LGBT+ relationships developing with time. They had gold in their hands and just wasted it. That’s why I’m so sad and hurt. It could have been so great.

#voltron #voltron spoilers #klance #vld spoilers #voltron season 7 #keith #shiro #takashi shirogane #allura #romelle #zethrid #ezor #vld meta #voltron meta #talking about writing #this show is so inconcistent

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quousque · 7 years

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finally saw wonder woman

and it was great, but boy oh boy do I have my gripes. I haven’t really seen anyone bitching about any of these, though, which is odd, because I can’t be the only one. Keep in mind that I like the movie and I would see it again. I’m not trying to diss anyone’s favorite film, particularly the first woman-lead (and directed!) big-studio superhero film. I recognize the importance of Wonder Woman as a female-led box office success, and I will heap praises on it on other posts. This one is for critiquing, so here’s the things I want to bitch about:

-they fridged General Antiope. Granted, Diana isn’t a man, so at least it lacked the gendered manpain dynamic, but the plot would not have changed at all if she had lived. Meaning it was a completely unnecessary lesbian death (assuming, as I’m pretty sure is canon, that the distraught Amazon running to Antiope’s side after her death was her girlfriend).

- 95% of the movie was full of the born sexy yesterday trope. If you haven’t seen the video explaining it, go watch it now, but the basic rundown is that for some sci-fi or fantasy reason, there is an incredibly beautiful and sexy woman who is also completely naive about everything, and the friendly helpful man (first man she’s ever seen!) gets to show her How the World Works. Wonder Woman certainly isn’t the grossest example, but boy howdy was it full of it. It made for some cute/funny moments, but it came at the expense of my respect for Diana as a character (seriously, she’s unable to notice that she’s acting strange for the entire time they’re in London, it’s like she’s completely incapable of observation or listening). The prevalence of the Born Sexy Yesterday trope is probably my #1 least favorite thing about the movie.

- For all her idealism about humans being 100% good and her surprise at the pain and suffering caused by war, Diana sure gives zero shits about killing a bunch of soldiers. Killing people should have had more of an impact on her as a character.

- also, her naivety about how people can be bad sometimes was unrealistic. Either they needed to spend MUCH more time building up the idea that she literally thinks all humans are good 100% of the time unless they’re under some evil influence, OR she should have shed that idea much quicker. I mean, she yells at the British generals for sacrificing soldiers near the start of the movie, so she knows that humans are capable of bad things while not being “influenced by Ares”. Yet somehow, the idea that the soldiers just might keep fighting after she kills Ares never even enters her head, to the point where she’s willing to blow the whole operation- risking thousands of lives- so she can kill Ares. Her belief in utter human goodness could have been interesting, but they needed to play it up much more, like let her have a conversation with Steve where he tells her that humans do bad things all on their own, and she utterly refuses to believe him, or tries to excuse literally every crime/bad act by blaming Ares or something. That would have made her later actions make much more sense. Her continued naivety and lack of basic observational skills made it really hard for me to relate to her as a character, because I was spending too much time being exasperated with her.

- also, Steve had way to big a role, and was too much the hero, for a movie that’s not supposed to be about him. He’s the one who saved the entirety of London- if Diana had done nothing, London still would have been saved, but if Steve had done nothing, London would be destroyed. Steve orchestrated and planned the mission, got together the ragtag crew of misfits, and directed their goals at every turn, bringing Diana along for firepower.

Throughout the movie, there was too much Steve and too little Diana. His agency was what directed the plot. Diana’s agency was “I want to stab this dude, steve take me to the dude”. It would have been totally awesome if Diana had planned the attack on the base (whether to destroy the gas or kill Ares, or whatever), and if Diana had assembled the ragtag team of misfits. It should have been Diana gathering information about the current situation with the war and deciding their goal and drawing up their plan of attack. Steve should have been the one offering her information and pointing out when her lack of knowledge about the 20th century causes her to make dumb plans. It should have been her saying “I don’t fit in with these people, Steve show me where I can get clothes like theirs”. Even her big awesome moment- crossing no man’s land- didn’t change the plot that much. If she hadn’t done that, the group would still have crossed, just much more slowly and less dramatically, and it would have taken a few days.

-General Antiope’s lessons were apparently 100% combat, 0% tactics and strategy. Steve came up with all the plans of attack, and Diana was basically “I have a plan, attack!” Which basically meant that it was Steve and Steve’s sidekicks completing the Big Mission, and Diana was, as I said, really kickass firepower.

-for a movie that’s ostensibly all about how there’s no one big bad guy in a war, it sure managed to have one big bad guy.

- also, I wish they’d let the female villain be the villain. Instead of General Lutendorf or whatever his name was. The stereotypical thing where he’s the volatile threatening man with the awkward semi-sexual, definitely threatening dynamic with the woman who is definitely evil, but it just kinda seems like maybe he’s made her worse than she is and maybe she’s only doing evil stuff at his command.... it was just annoying and old. Let the woman be the fucking villain. Let her be the one making the threats to him, let her be the one to decide that the war is NOT over and kill the generals arguing for peace. Let her be the big fucking evil. I get that they needed a red herring for Ares, and it had to be a guy, but Dr. Poison could still have been the main villain.

If Dr. Poison were the big bad (of the German side, at least), I think it would have made Diana’s sparing her life that much more meaningful. The movie made Lutendorf the driving force behind the development of the gas, meaning that with Lutendorf gone, Dr. Poison is much less of a threat. That might not be literally true- she could always go off and start making more gas- but, within the plot framework, the villain with the agency to Do the Bad Thing is already gone, so letting Dr. Poison go isn’t really that big a deal. Imagine if Diana had let Lutendorf go. Big difference.

The moment where Diana refuses to kill her is the Big Moment of the movie, where Diana realizes that yes, humans do bad things of their own volition, but that she’s going to try to save them anyway. As the movie was, she realizes that and refuses to kill what is essentially a tool that the villain used to hurt people. The emotional impact would have been so much more if it were the villain herself- the driving agency behind the villain’s half of the plot- whom Diana decided to save anyway. For an example of this dynamic done right, look at Legend of Korra. Kuvira is the driving force behind all the Bad Shit in season 4- it’s her decisions, her force of will, that does everything Korra’s fighting against. Bataar, her husband, is important to her plans, and is an important male villain, but without him, Kuvira would have done the same things anyway (WW implies that without Lutendorf, Dr. Poison might not have developed that gas). At the end, Korra decides not to kill Kuvira. She chooses to see the part of Kuvira worth saving, and to save her anyway, despite all of the lives she’s taken and destroyed. Diana’s moment would have had similar impact if Dr. Poison had been the big bad in Lutendorf’s place.

- Hippolyta was unrealistically stupid and overprotective. She knows that her daughter is a weapon meant to kill Ares. She knows that Ares will return/has returned. She knows that, at some point, Ares and Diana will fight. And yet, she refuses to tell Diana these things, even when Diana leaves the fucking island to literally find and kill Ares. She also makes it clear that Diana can’t return (why though?) meaning it’s literally her last chance to say anything, and yet she still doesn’t give her this extremely vital information that could possibly save her life. Her reasoning is that if Diana knows, Ares will find her sooner. So basically, her reasoning is, “don’t tell her this extremely vital information, without which it is reasonable to expect that she will lose the fight and die, because if I tell her and thus give her the tools to win the fight, the fight will happen sooner”. She’s going to fight Ares anyway, so just fucking tell her! (also, her literal last words to her daughter are “you are my greatest sorrow”. fucking ouch.)

-also, the romantic subplot seemed contrived and unnecessary (my opinion, your mileage may vary). Seriously, she’s known him for like 2 days, and she just had her aunt and mentor die in her arms, and she’s left her entire home and family forever, and she’s trying to complete a task she’s trained for all her life and save the world, with literally millions of lives depending on her. You’d think she wouldn’t really have the mental space for a romance.

-less of an egregious error, but still a gripe: at the beginning of the movie, Diana seems to consider people in terms of their value in a fight. I forget what line it is, but at one point she’s like “but how do they fight?” (I think it’s talking about the drunk men or something). Also, when Charlie is involved in the bar fight, she says “at least Charlie is good with his fists”, meaning that his redeeming factor is his fighting skills (before finding out, of course, that that guy isn’t Charlie). Later on, she has that truly beautiful moment- that I’ve seen a lot of people praise- where Charlie suggests that he stay behind because he can’t shoot, and Diana says “but who would sing for us?” showing that she believes that people’s non-fighting skills are just as valuable. I don’t think there was enough of a character journey presented on screen to justify that change of attitude in Diana. The potential for a really great character arc is there- especially since it would parallel her whole arc of losing her naivety about human nature- but it just wasn’t there.

To me, the movie felt like a hero story about Steve, told from Diana’s perspective, with a side dose of her completing her (ultimately mostly inconsequential) goal, and liberally sprinkled with scenes where she’s naive about the world in a funny way and Steve long-sufferingly herds her along, and scenes where she is the ultimate badass, says something dramatic, and then flips a fucking tank (which was AWESOME btw).

Also, I think it would have been better if they’d let her actually kill Ares. I know she killed him, but I mean, really kill him. She did this classic thing where the hero takes the villains power and throws it back at him, which accomplishes two things: the death is not visceral: she didn’t shoot or stab him, hit him, or in any way damage his body in a traditional fight-y way, and two, it wasn’t really her lethal force and ability that killed him. It’s a thing storytellers use to keep their hero one step removed from the nasty business of killing. Harry Potter is another prime example- Harry doesn’t cast the killing curse at Voldemort, or sectumsempra, or whatever (despite being more than capable), he deflect’s voldemort’s own curse back at him. Disney does this a lot (the villain being the ultimate cause of their own death): Scar being killed by his own hyenas instead of Simba killing him, Frollo falls to his death from his own cathedral into a fire set by his own men, Gaston falls off the roof trying to kill the Beast, blah blah blah. This whole trope (does it have a name yet?) means that yes, technically the hero killed the villain, but the actual thing that does the killing (usually in a way such that the audience doesn’t really see the death) is the villains’ own fault, not the hero’s. Part of the purpose is that usually these deaths come right after some sort of dramatic confrontation, which includes a conversation, and killing someone right after talking to them really looks a lot like cold-blooded murder, no matter how righteous you are, so it looks a lot more heroic if the villain strikes the final blow against themselves.

I think that Diana should have beat the ever-living hell out of Ares with her fists. Only a god is capable of killing a god, and I think she should have killed him with her own power, not by parry-riposting his power back at him. If they were willing to go R-rated, she could have torn his head off (how awesome would that be?). If they wanted to keep it PG-13, and didn’t want her to basically punch him to death, she could have done some sort of ass-pull big-explosion-y strike thingy (no more ass-pull than the crossed bracers + righteous fury = Lightning Rod of Doom). Whatever it is, it should have been Diana’s own power destroying Ares. Also, I think (personal opinion) that after Ares died, we should have just seen his body lying there on the ground instead of the big crater. Right after Diana kills Ares, there’s a scene where the German soldiers pull off their masks and fall down in relief, enemies embracing, etc. It’s supposed to be an incredibly human moment, and I think it would have been improved by having a very human body of Diana’s fallen enemy instead of the hollywood-esque CGI crater. It would have emphasized Diana’s emotional journey, too- instead of cheering because she destroyed a Force of Evil, we would have been forced to recognize that Diana killed someone, and, even though it needed to be done, and she was saving lives by doing it, a life was still ended. A bittersweet moment- Diana recognizes that people can be both good and bad at the same time, and chooses to recognize the good in everyone, spare the life of a very bad person despite her bad-ness, and chooses to believe in love- but, that means killing another being, meaning that Diana, too, is capable of both good and bad- she also has darkness within her. It would have been a very poignant point. (I have a similar gripe with the 8th Harry Potter film- in the book, Voldemort’s body just lies there after he dies, and it’s made clear just how human he was in the end, but in the movie, he disintegrates like some sort of magical video game boss).

Basically, I think the movie undermined its own message by keeping Diana too far from the realities of war and keeping her in a zone of Fantasy Hollywood, where as long as you don’t spend too long looking at the people she punches, it doesn’t matter that she’s killed them (and thus literally killing people for the first time ever has zero affect on her as a character), you can defeat one bad guy and therefore the war is over (despite trying to prove that that isn’t how it works, the movie still worked exactly that way), and the villain isn’t really a person who dies and sits there all gross and dead like a human, they’re just a video-game boss proxy-of-all-evil who vanishes when they die (preferably with an explosion), and just in case, it wasn’t really the hero who killed them anyway, since the villain struck their own final blow.

You know that moment in the trenches, where Steve tells Diana that they can’t save everyone? And Diana says “fuck that” and crosses No Man’s Land and it’s awesome? There should have been a moment later in the movie where Diana realizes that she really can’t save everyone, even if she does everything 100% right, people will still die. The moment with the gas killing the village doesn’t count, because Diana still believes that if she had stabbed Ares, they wouldn’t have died. There should have been a moment where Diana looks back and realizes that she didn’t make any mistakes, she did literally everything she could have done, everything she should have done, and innocent people still died. That would have been a great character moment.

-One thing I can’t tell if I’m happy or sad about: no “you’re a wonderful woman” or any “wonder woman” title play/pun. Either a missed opportunity, or a merciful omission.

-not really Wonder-Woman specific, since literally all movies forever do this: since when has the super fucking sinister “join me and together we can rule a world that is literally the antithesis of everything you’ve worked for your entire life” villain speech ever worked? How stupid are villains? You sound threatening and ominous, and you’re not even trying to play down the fact that you’re asking me to commit mass murder, also I hate you for personal reasons (usually involving the death of a loved one), of course the fucking answer is no.

So them’s my gripes about Wonder Woman. I did like it though! It was much better than most other superhero movies- I could write much, much longer posts about, say, Avengers, or any of Nolan’s Batman films... I only bitch this much about Wonder Woman because I loved the film and therefore the parts I didn’t like bothered me that much more. Brief list of the parts I did like:

-flipping a fucking tank

-ok, just all the action scenes

-Diana’s fuck you, I’m crossing No Man’s Land

-the way the movie managed to make “I believe in love” and “I believe that love can save the world” actually make sense and not sound stupidly cheesy

- the muscles on the Amazons

-a visibly middle-aged woman in a badass, sexy outfit kicking ass

-ZERO shots of Diana or ANY Amazons designed to show off their asses, boobs, or any other body parts for the male gaze. Yeah, I can gripe about the costumes, but it’s such a minor fucking gripe and part of it being so minor was that the costumes were not in any way a tool for the male gaze. Yay!

-the fight choreography. I thought I’d be quietly burying my annoyance at all the flips and twirls, but that wasn’t really the case. It really fit with who the Amazons were and the world they come from. I have a lot of thoughts about this, actually, but i’ll put that in a different post. Also, it looked really fucking cool.

#wonder woman #wonder woman review #sorry it's so long lol

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