#i like the dynamic of batman teaming up with a superhero in each episode

[jojolimons]

im rewatching batman the brave and the bold and its still pretty good :]

[comicaurora]

Do you know of any other good cartoons, especially if they don't end on a cliffhanger?

Is it my birthday already?

ReBoot (s1-3)

You've already all heard my pitch for this, but TLDR it's set inside a computer, the heroes defend the integrity of their home system by battling viruses, playing games and defeating The User, a godlike being outside their comprehension (aka us). Evolves from episodic pop-culture referential humor into an incredibly immersive and fraught character drama unpacking the nature of heroism, family, growing up and losing who you used to be vs growing up and not losing yourself, and what it means to become a monster to defeat a monster. A series technically canceled that ends on the mother of all cliffhangers, but the season that was canceled was the bonus season they weren't expecting to get anyway, and also it sucks. Watch the first three seasons instead, they form a cohesive overarching narrative and end incredibly satisfyingly.

Batman Beyond

50 years after Batman: The Animated Series, hooligan with a heart of gold Terry McGinnis becomes the new Batman, quippier, capeless and a bit more irresponsible than the old one, guided by an old and reluctantly retired Bruce Wayne. Basically "what if Batman were Spider-Man", but somehow really good. Like most DC cartoons from that era, ends with a loose "and the adventure continues" vibe. Highly episodic, a couple two-parters sprinkled in there for flavor. Also has a few follow-up comic series, some of which are even good! As a corollary, the other DC cartoons in this zone are also good - Justice League, Batman: The Animated Series, etc.

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

The best version of The Avengers. A team of colorful superheroes slowly assemble over the course of the first half of the first season, fighting a very large rogue's gallery and occasionally each other. Contains the best version of Thor ever written and an astoundingly good portrayal of Captain America, but the entire core cast are well-written and have solid interpersonal dynamics - half the fun of each episode is just seeing what unique friendships every random subset of The Avengers have with each other. Having recently rewatched some of it I can say I actually think the first season is the best it gets, and the second season struggles in places - a few episodes become full-on idiot plots to facilitate certain plotlines (Hulk vs Red Hulk being the worst offender) but the second season has a nice conclusive finale and a few bright spots of characterization. Captain America's writing is rock-solid all the way through, which it needs to be to make the Secret Invasion plotline work. The first season is incredibly good.

Transformers: Prime

Robots in disguise etc etc, a crack team of autobots live in hiding on Earth fighting decepticons and occasionally ferrying their three human friends to school. Good team dynamics, a fantastic portrayal of Optimus Prime as a rock-solid paragon hero, a team dad and a millennia-old warrior of incredible skill who is very, very tired. Great versions of Megatron and Starscream, lots of other fun secondary characters. Three seasons, portrays a very slow war very well - ground is gained and lost from episode to episode, big battles feature every single asset the heroes have managed to scrape together in previous arcs, etc. Also portrays how fucking terrifying it would be to be a squishy human child underfoot during a giant robot fight. Dwayne The Rock Johnson is in the first five minutes of the show until he gets killed for being too expensive. The 3D animation takes a little getting used to, and I say that as someone who genuinely likes how ReBoot looks.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

preaching to the choir with this one here on tumblr.hell, but this show slaps. A reboot of the 80s cartoon, but the kind of reboot that's basically the story someone would make up when playing with the original's officially licensed action figures. Loyal horde soldier Adora learns to her shock that she's actually on the bad guy side (and also can transform into a magical warrior with a fancy sword) and immediately defects to team good guy, which is seen as the ultimate betrayal by her best friend/repressed childhood crush Catra, who doubles down on the bad-guy thing super hard for four seasons. Characters written with a surprising amount of emotional depth who often react to things more realistically than one might expect - frustration, lingering anger, calling people out for mistreating them, etc. Shouldn't be a high bar, and yet so many shows just use characters as emotionless props incapable of advocating for themselves ever.

Castlevania

Dracula's wife is killed by the church and he sets out to exterminate all of humanity in retribution. He's opposed by three heroes of varying levels of heroism - his half-vampire son Alucard, the speaker magician Sypha, and Trevor Belmont, last son of the family of monster-hunters who dedicated their entire existence to fighting Dracula. Animation is absolutely gorgeous but very not kid-friendly. Ends on a completely satisfying and happy note, which is shocking considering the tone of the show leading up to it.

Hilda

A very, very cozy and adorable urban fantasy slice-of-life story about Hilda, a little girl from the wilderness who moves to the big city with her mother after their house is accidentally crushed by a giant. Features a lot of scandinavian folklore. Got two seasons and a movie that wraps everything up pretty solidly. Absolutely incredible aesthetic with occasional moments of abject horror, just how I like it.

Dishonorable mentions, aka shows I watched but can't 100% recommend because of Grievances I Will Enumerate:

Centaurworld

A warhorse from a war-torn world falls through a portal and gets isekai'd into a brightly-colored magical bubblegum dimension where everyone is a boggle-eyed magical centaur. First season has incredible musical numbers, like broadway level stuff, and it's got some appealing nightmare fuel, but the problem I keep running into is the silly elements are so over-the-top that they undercut the serious parts in a big way. Also, the appeal of a cohesive found family narrative is pretty seriously undercut when the entire found family is composed of joke characters that don't experience plausible emotional investment in their circumstances and don't act like people. The thing is, this isn't a mistake, this is very deliberate on the part of the show and it's doing what it's doing incredibly intentionally - I just don't think I like it.

Dota: Dragon's Blood

A dragon-slaying warrior gets whammied with a dragon curse that sometimes turns him into a monster, and also about a million other things happen. Not finished yet, so I can't guarantee it won't end on a cliffhanger. Based on a game series I'm unfamiliar with, and unfortunately, unlike Arcane (which I would whole-heartedly recommend, it just currently left off on a cliffhanger) it doesn't really seem to know how to stand on its own without the game lore. It jumps around a lot between a huge number of characters, and a lot of the time it's not clear why we're watching what we're watching. I do like the parts of it I've seen! I just haven't been able to stick with it because it feels so scattered.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

An anime based in the universe of Cyberpunk 2077, which is in turn basically just Shadowrun with none of the interesting fantasy elements. A gritty and unpleasant universe where everyone is a jerk, everyone is very narratively disposable and only bad things happen. Seems to have nothing an audience is supposed to get invested in - it gives us a colorful squad of found-family types but covers the entire friend-making in a dialogue-free montage and then kills all of them in like two episodes, it gives us a romance but undercuts it with a timeskip covering the actual getting-together part, it seems to have a theme about how believing you're special is bad but it also demonstrates at several points that the hero actually is kinda special, it has an extremely solid anticapitalist theme but because it's a cyberpunk dystopia nightmare there's nothing any of the main characters can actually do about any of it, etc. I watched it all in one go and the whole thing slid out of my head right after. Also this is a niche complaint but the use of futuristic cyberpunk slang nonstop in the dialogue might really grate on you. The animation is very nice, though.

Tales of Arcadia (Trollhunters, 3 Below, Wizards)

Urban fantasy series made in large part by Guillermo Del Toro, featuring a whole bunch of characters doing assorted fun things - some chosen by magical artifacts, some alien royalty on the run from a civil war, one the apparently-immortal apprentice of Merlin, etc. I whole-heartedly recommend all three of these shows! I do not recommend the grand finale movie, which feels like it was written by someone who read the script notes for the previous shows and nothing else. Ends with a timeline reset that completely undoes the entire timeline of the series. Because it ends with a retcon, the movie feels comfortable killing characters pointlessly and letting our heroes act totally out of character whenever convenient. A bafflingly terrible ending for a series I otherwise really, really liked.

[commonratmiraculous]

Daminette Soulmate AU - Idea/Prompt?

Yes, I know that not everyone likes Daminette in the fandom, mostly because they don’t like Damian, or crossovers, or the salt that generally comes with these fics (though I plan to keep this salt free). Which is fair.

But Daminette Soulmate fics tend to have similar starts to explaining the specific soulmate type that Damian and Marinette have that is so rare seemingly no one else has it. This is a twist on that.

The “ultra-rare” versions that I’ve seen picked are always something kind of dramatic, I guess? Swapping bodies for a period of time as an example. And sure something like that does fulfill the general understanding that the League of Assassins might not look favourably on soulmates, as Damian wouldn’t want to have a physical mark if you’re going down that route.

But I saw a Soulmate prompt that’s far subtler and kind of perfect if you’re the kind of writer who likes to play things for comedy purposes. I can’t remember the exact wording, but it goes something like:

Everything you can do, your soulmate can also.

This would go someway into explaining how Marinette can just become a superhero in minutes, what with the necessary fighting skills and battle strategy. Sure her mother was introduced as being a trained martial artist in Troublemaker but there’s no evidence that she did teach Marinette - she’s only now learning Mandarin after all (though Marinette probably would know Mandarin since it’s likely one of the languages that Damian speaks: little baby Marinette speaking random Arabic) Not to mention the idea that Ra’s and Talia accidentally taught a random French-Chinese infant how to be an assassin with no knowledge they were doing it.

Damian has mentioned a lot about the things he can do beyond fighting and language skills of course. Like being able to drive by the age of ten, hacking into NASA at six and finding it easy, he’s mentioned that he could have had a Geometry Degree (by what 13?) had his mother not killed his tutor. He’s a great artist, and he’s also able to perform magic (which he doesn’t persue despite his interest in doing so).

Of course the art and the magic could be explained in this AU as having come from Marinette. And his training and tutoring both goes some way to explaining why Marinette is almost two years younger than some of her classmates (Alix, Adrien, and Nathaniel have their 15th birthdays while Marinette is thirteen though she gets her 14th towards the end of the school year, the last timeline I saw had Befana placed in June) as well as the aforementioned fighting skill.

(When it comes to the fighting aspect of MLB I’m acknowledging that we’ve actually seen Gabriel teaching Adrien Kung Fu (?) in the Felix episode, as well as his Fencing skill. NOT writing him off completely)

But with Damian, imagine he’s now at the Manor and things have settled down into the fanon batfamily dynamic (canon batfamily has no place here and DC fans on this site have accepted that) and all of a sudden they find out that Damian can bake. Their reaction to that has nothing on finding out that Damian can make his own clothes. Of course Damian being Damian doesn’t mention not knowing where these skills came from to his family members because he already thinks it’s weird. He’s definitely not mentioning it to them after he’s convinced into playing Mecha Strike V with his siblings - the first time he’s even played a video game - and just trounces them all.

Marinette doesn’t get the luxury of being able to explain away her quirks to her family though since she’s raised by them. I’m entertaining the idea that neither Tom or Sabine actually know for sure that it’s a soulmate bond giving M the weirdest skills (though she’s never been raised to think that violence is the answer so they’re probably not as worried as they should be). Perhaps though, the closest they got to being told was a conversation with Andre the Ice-Cream man, whose advice they disregarded because he’s an ice-cream man. So Marinette definitely doesn’t know that this is abnormal.

Until, she’s in the middle of a fight as Ladybug and her miraculous starts beeping despite Lucky Charm not being called because Damian called it by accident.

He could have:

a) actually needed whatever the miraculous gave him at the time, or

b) been in an argument with a sibling about cereal (since Lucky Charms is an American brand of cereal)

Tikki tells Marinette what’s up, to her anger and frustration (and also giddiness because she’d thought she never had a soulmate - a topic that Chloé definitely bullied her on as children and Lila probably can’t comment on without the class getting defensive because of said history on the topic - and it turns out she does.)

A magic user on the League, or Wonder Woman, tells Batman. Who immediately tries to figure out who Ladybug is (this isn’t a JLA ignored Paris’ call for help fic since it plays with both LB and CN being more capable then one would assume - the miraculouses do balance each other whether you like the Love Square ship or not, and it’s not like Adrien isn’t the child of a supervillain being trained by said supervillain, I’m whether he knows it or not) only for the magic to stop him. But Damian might know.

And if Damian does know you have to entertain the thought that he also knows the rest of the Miraculous Team barring Chat Noir. Just imagine for a minute the rage he would have over his soulmate apparently not knowing who her partner in the field is. The fact that Marinette doesn’t know the identities of everyone in the Justice League until they’re standing right in from of her can be explained as her having no interest whatsoever in finding out who they are. Which would be an interesting way of showing that just because they’ve got the same skills that does not mean they’re the same people.

[ablogthatishenceforthmine]

My Thoughts On Titans Season 3 Trailer

Overall

So, the trailer was pretty much what I expected (and I don’t mean that disparagingly); mostly focusing on Red Hood and new Gotham setting, but with a fair amount of other stuff, with most character getting at least one moment that emphasized them.

The characters who I felt got the most focus were Red Hood/Jason, Dick, Babs, and Kory (in that order). No, this isn’t based on a quantitative analysis of screen time in the trailer, just a general feeling of who was emphasized that I came away with. But overall, it didn’t feel that unbalanced to me, and felt like is tried to give at least something to most of the characters.

Kory

Kory looks so good! Like so so good! I can’t get over it. I know people were hoping to see more of her (and I for one could always take more Kory), but I didn’t feel like she was sidelined. As previously stated, I felt like she got the fourth most focus/emphasis (and Titans has a lot of characters). And she got the final line of the trailer, which I don’t think is insignificant.

Blackfire

I know people are also disappointed by the amount of Blackfire in the trailer. But, I don’t think that necessarily reflects her role in the season. And I don’t necessarily mind. There are many possible reasons that she was only in a few shots. They could want to keep her role and what she is doing under wraps (if this is the case then I support it, because I kind of want to be surprised with her story). Or the trailer could only be from the first few eps, and her role in those may be smaller. Or a lot of other reasons. Based on how much she’s been filming, I’m not super worried about Blackfire’s presence in the season.

Dickkory

I, like a lot of fans, were disappointed with the lack of Dickkory in the trailer, but, I didn’t really go in with any expectations of what we would see of them in the trailer. So, I’m not upset or angry; it’s just something I would have liked to see. I also think you can’t tell anything about Dickkory this season from the lack of them in the trailer. They might get together this season, they might not. This trailer doesn’t say anything in regards to that; it’s totally neutral.  I don’t think the lack of them in the trailer says that they won’t happen or that they won’t have that many scenes together. I’ve seen some people convinced that they will never happen or that they won’t have scenes this season because of this trailer, and I think that is WAYY too much to extrapolate from a trailer. A trailer only tells you a very limited of stuff, and doesn’t always mean that much. While I have no idea if we will get romantic Dickkory this season, I do really think we’ll at least get some scenes, based off things one of the writers and the Titans account said on twitter. Now many scenes they’ll be or if it will be building to a romance, I have no idea, and I don’t think anyone else can reasonably say so either based off the small amount of info about them and this season that’s been released. 

Also, on this subject, while the writer’s and Titans twitter’s account responses about Dickkory have been encouraging, I also don’t think that means we will necessarily see them in a romance this season. For one, for some people using a shipname might not necessarily using or seeing it in a romantic way. They might see Dickkory as referring to Dick and Kory and their general relationship, and not as referring to a romantic relationship. I’ve definitely seen that happen with other fandoms, where people behind TV shows would respond to or use shipnames just to refer to a dynamic between two characters. Now, I’m not saying that’s the case here (I actually lean more towards that it’s not), but it is still a possibility that I think a lot of people overlook. I’m not trying to discourage anybody or rain on anybody’s parade, I just don’t want people to feel they have been definitively promised something. I’ve seen this a lot in fandoms (people feeling they were promised something and getting angry when they don’t get it) and often it comes from a miscommunication between the creative teams and fans. That being said, I am still pretty confident we’ll get more scenes between them in season 3 than we did and season 2, and am also hopeful about their romantic future in the series; nothing in this trailer changed that.

Dick

I so a lot of people fearing that Dick will take up the Batman mantle, and again I don’t think that’s NECESSARILY the case. It might be! But it might not. For one, we didn’t see Dick’s response to Bruce’s request. And second, it’s unclear what Bruce even means by telling Dick he needs to be a better Batman. He could be referring to literally being Batman, or he could referring to “Batman” just as a superhero who protects Gotham. In the latter case, Bruce could just want Dick to protect Gotham as Nightwing. Like most things in this trailer, and most trailers, it’s unclear. Overall, despite his prominence in the trailer, I didn’t get a good feel of what Dick’s story would be this season, so I don’t really have any judgements on his character this season yet.

Babs

I’m excited to see Babs this season. I’m intrigued (although I little worried) to see her dynamic with Dick. I’m diehard Dickkory, so I hope it doesn’t turn romantic. But if it happens, it happens. While I definitely see tension between them in the trailer, I didn’t get the impression that they hate each other, like some people did. For one, there’s only like two or three scenes between them, and one is delivering exposition. And the other seems tense, but not hateful. The writer said on twitter that their relationship would be one of respect, so I don’t think they will be hating each other. I hope that their dynamic is one where they disagree and argue with each other, but there’s still that respect there and that it doesn’t turn romantic again. But we’ll have to see!

I’m also curious to see how much of the season she is in. I’ve heard it thrown around online that she is only going to be in 5 or 6 episodes. But I have no idea where this idea originated. Does anyone know? I think it might be from IMDB, in which case it might not be accurate. IMDB is very inconsistent when it comes to the accuracy of information posted there. And given that she is on the poster, it might be more than that. But again, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Trailers in General

In fandom in general, I think people really overestimate how much they can gleam about the actual show or movie from trailers and other marketing materials. First and foremost, trailers are intended to advertise a show or movie, not give an accurate representation of what the movie or season will be. Trailers can often be misleading, but even when they are not, they are only giving viewers limited information, and without context. Often, trailers aren’t even made by the writing or directing team, but by an in-house marketing team at the company that produced the show/movie or an outside.

Really, trailers are just giving viewers breadcrumbs; sometimes accurate breadcrumbs, sometimes misleading breadcrumbs. But that thing is, it’s impossible to know how accurate a trailer is until you see that actual show/movie it’s advertising. So, you can never really know ahead of time how representative what you’re seeing in a trailer is of the actual movie/show. 

Not to mention, there is very little context for the scenes, images, and lines of dialogue you are seeing. And in understanding scenes, and characters, context is EVERYTHING. And for TV shows, you also don’t know how much of the season the trailer is using. This titans trailer could only be using a few episodes, or it could be more. There is no way of knowing unless we’re told. There is just so much uncertainty with trailers.

When it comes down to it, trailers are just scenes, lines, and images completely removed from their context.

But unfortunately, I think fandom can sometimes treat trailers as a lot more than this, believing they have a better understanding of what they season/movie is going to be than they possibly could given the nature of trailers. Sometimes these impressions are right! But i just find it so hard to ever know.

[formless-monkeys]

What is your favorite relationship(s) in the show (romantically or platonically, doesn’t matter!)

Anon you will regret opening pandora’s box. Or not. In any case, this post is going to be very long because I’m full of love. Also, anything marked romantic does not need to be romantic for me to lose my shit over them. In no particular order, either. Just in the order I thought of them.

1. The Black-eyed trio

Characters: Otto, Sparx, and Gibson.

Type: Platonic, Romantic,

Explanation: These three are grouped together by virtue of not being obscenely powerful and serving more practical uses on the team. Also, their eyes are all the same color. Besides the poetic connections of the colors of their design, they were alone in the robot together while the other three monkeys were out training.

Sparx and Gibson’s interactions give me life, going from playful jabs to genuine fighting right back to ride-or-die is amazing. The beginning of Night Of Fear, the battles in Brothers In Arms, and a bunch of small moments throughout the series are wonderful for this.

I could write an essay about Otto and Gibson, and someone else already has, but I’ll summarize it as ADHD autism solidarity with a side of Shut The Fuck Up Gibson. They care about each other and learn to respect each other in a way that’s better for both of them. I know a real-life Gibson to my Otto and learning that she’s just pretentious and doesn’t really hate anyone, and figuring out that we’re both equally brilliant and incredibly similar has made life a million times better.

Otto and Sparx don’t have as much development as Gibson with both of them, but their jokes together and general trust is amazing. Sparx is the dumb monkey and Otto supports him in his himbo endeavors. 

These three together make an unstoppable technical team, and the only reason they probably couldn’t be a superhero team on their own is because of the raw power and fun dynamics brought by the other half of the team. 

Romantically, these three would make the DUMBEST polycule ever. There is no true mediator here. It’s three dumbasses figuring out how they could possibly share a twin-sized bed when they have the ability to just make a bigger bed. Gibson calculates the most efficient 3 monkey makeout and none of them follow the statistics. They all give Chiro equally useless and conflicting advice on homework. Trying to give them a mediator in the polycule just makes me go back to shipping polymonkeys because I literally can’t decide if Antauri or Nova go better with them.

2. Quiet trust and encouragement

Characters: Otto, Antauri

Type: Platonic, Romantic

Explanation: When Otto is being dismissed by the other monkeys, or by the show itself, Antauri is usually the first to say “that’s bullshit, Otto is wonderful”. Circus Of Ooze is a notable example, but there are little moments in other seasons as well. 

I just love the idea of the historically MOST SERIOUS and strongest monkey, sometimes even elevated to god-like status by some fanworks... paired with the monkey that has been infantilized and disrespected to no end. I personally like making Antauri have to lean on Otto, just to subvert that even further. 

Beyond spite, I ship this simply because I like their dynamic. Antauri needs someone to ground him with more tactile physical things, and Otto needs someone to share his more nebulous thoughts I can’t imagine the others listening to. I love them.

Also, I want Antauri to unlock his true dumbass potential. He has the abilities, but not the will. Be silly with Otto. I want to hear him snort-laugh.

I literally forgot all the silver monkey stuff but I got three fics about that you know I go nuts over mechanic x robot shit.

3. The monkeys and their human son.

Characters: Chiro, Antauri, Nova, Sparx, Gibson, Otto

Type: Familial

Explanation: This family gives me joy. They were forced together through astronomical means and they made the best of it. 

Everyone living in the robot is absolutely fucked up. They help each other in the darkest of times. They lift each other up when it’s light. They are a perfect team and nobody can be missing without it feeling wrong. But they can add people!

“Girl Trouble” as a concept is AMAZING to me but my secondhand embarrassment is so strong that I hate the episode. But never once is any of the monkeys resentful of Chiro. Not even Mandarin is like “wow I wish he didn’t take my place” no he’s also struck with the urge to nurture this kid to his fullest potential. Whether you see the team as a bunch of older siblings or 4 dads and a mom doesn’t really matter, they’re a family.

I mean, this also has a sprinkling of shipping all the monkeys in a really domestic way because I like seeing my optimal future in characters I like, but like literally all of these, it doesn’t need to be romantic for me to go nuts. I just think it would be fun to throw just a big monkey wedding or whatever. And funnier for Antauri to go “Chiro I’m having a baby. The baby is you” and holding up adoption papers because on the principle of Toby “Radiation” Fox I love that joke, especially when made much less weird than the original context.

I have a set of characters who is just 5 people in a polycule raising kids and living life because I really love this concept as a family.

4. Evil Coworkers

Characters: Mandarin, Sakko

Type: Romantic, Platonic,

Explanation: Why the hell are these two, in particular, working together? SK could’ve put Mandarin with literally anybody else and he chose what on the surface appears to be the LEAST compatible person on the account that they’re both monkeys. Some bitter asshole who now looks like the epitome of toxic masculinity and this tiny pink pet who used his femininity both as an advantage and a style. They’re different but it ends up working really well for both of them because they’re different in ways that cover each other’s bases. It’s wonderful. Pink and Orange go well together. Green and Purple go well together. Mandarin and Sakko go well together. Also, they clearly trust each other. During almost the entirety of “Hidden Fortress” Sakko was presumably just chilling inside of Mandarin’s armor. Mandarin trusted him enough to have Sakko in a place where he’s able to mess with his cybernetics, and Sakko trusted Mandarin enough to go into the battlefield with him and probably get tossed around.

If they were both human and in a more modern media, then they would definitely be shipped in the straightest way you can get without actually being straight. The Straightest Gay Ship. 

5. A Witch and her Accidental Evil Coworker

Characters: Skelemandarin, Valeena.

Type: Platonic, Romantic, 

Explanation: These two have been through some shit. Skelemandy was made to serve Skeleton King only to have that purpose yanked away from him. Valeena was groomed to idolize and serve Skeleton King for nearly her entire life. They were forced together by SHEER CHANCE and they both hated it. Arguably they both died at some point. 

They both have absolutely NOBODY they can trust so let’s make them trust each other. All hilarity and sweetness comes from that. 

Their dynamic is so good that I have them on a blog for a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FANDOM and people love them with no context. 

This is the only cross-species ship I have (besides chinmay and the antauri ships but that doesn’t count), but the fact that Skelemandy isn’t actually a monkey and needs no cybernetic assistance to be human-level sentient makes it a lot less weird. Just put them on equal ground power-wise (like by nerfing Valeena’s magic) and you have the ingredients for bonding. 

They have like, no cute moments in canon, but that’s why we have fics and art. They have potential. I want them to help each other figure out who they are without their purpose. I want them to survive this horrible life together. I want them to figure out how to trust again. I want a lot but Valeena is fucking dead.

But she doesn’t have to be.

(Also Valeena is REALLY HOT and Skelemandarin is just me as a monkey)

6. Gay Dads

Characters: The Alchemist, Captain Shuggazoom

Type: Romantic, Platonic

Explanation: Oh my stars. Oh null. Oh me oh my hhougfhfakjghf. These two have the angst of Mantauri but on crack. 

They only appeared in about two episodes each and all three episodes are top tier. They call each other “Friend” multiple times in their shared episode. THEY’RE FRIENDS!!!!!!!!! The face Al makes when he realizes that Cap is visiting makes me really happy. The fact that Cap had this whole Batman Double Life thing and he shows the Alchemist BOTH OF THEM is amazing. The alchemist is a hermit living in the woods and he lets Cap into that life. 

There isn’t a lot shown, much less than everything else here. But that makes every single fanfic so much richer since they’re almost completely based on headcanons. Friends who have a mutual crush on each other but are No Homo about it? Secret boyfriends? Husbands with 6 monkey kids? An Old man and a grumpy Skeleton making it work? Literally just platonic friends? Dude, you can do whatever you want. 

The tragedy of these two losing each other to one big horrible event crushes me. It influences my every move in my creative work. I have an entire character dedicated to reuniting these two in the most astronomical and ridiculous way possible because the alchemist angered the gods but she thinks he needs some company in his eternal punishment.

I want Clayton to unlock Al’s less serious, more fun side. I want them to work together. I want them to hold hands. GHGHGHDFBG UTTHTYE CNAZSNT EBCV ASUA ER

7. The girl power duo

Characters: Nova, Jinmay

Type: Familial

Explanation: These two were my only comfort during the uncomfortable nightmare that is “The Hills Have Five”

Nova was the one who trained Jinmay, and it seems like they hang out a lot offscreen in season 4. They fulfill the early 2000′s cartoon archetypes of girl and Girl, so they’re supposed to get along. If they didn’t I probably wouldn’t like Jinmay.

Nova is a really good big sister/parental figure to Jinmay, who never had any family to speak of. 

Anyway, this entry has to be shorter because most of their bonding is in “The Hills Have Five” which is either #1 or #2 in my least favorite episode list. Not because it’s bad, but because it makes me viscerally uncomfortable. I really wish literally any other character than Jinmay was in her role in that episode. Or that the “taken to an offscreen area by an adult man while she screams” just wasn’t there. SHE’S 13!!! Nova did literally all she could to help. 

I really like that scene in questionable where Valeena kills almost the entire gang. It’s what they deserve.

Look I just really like Jinmay and I always have. She deserves a good Mom.

8. "My Second In Command”

Characters: Antauri, Mandarin

Type: Theoretical

Explanation: The fandom has really made this ship go from “literally nothing to stand on” to “integral plot point in a lot of fics”. Seriously. I have TWO screenshots that vaguely imply these two ever stood next to each other on the battlefield. This was entirely title-based and fan-made until ProjectAfectivity interviewed Ciro. Yeah he knows Antauri but only as well as the rest of the team. Anyway. Wow. This ship.

This is by far the worst breakup in history. These two, despite what Antauri says, were on equal ground at some point. According to Ciro (and fan speculation), they trained together. This (and other Mandy ship) changes wildly depending on if you think Mandarin was corrupted by the portal or not. Maybe Mandarin was once a kind leader who just crossed the wrong boundaries and paid for it. He could’ve held Antauri gently before battle. He could’ve been the monkey Antauri went to when he needed someone to talk to. He could’ve hyped the team up like Chiro does.

Or maybe, they were constantly fighting against each other in small ways. An incredibly unhealthy relationship, yes, but an interesting story. I like stories where Antauri isn’t this all-knowing pillar of stability. He’s got weaknesses. One of them may have been Mandarin.

Now that’s a good nickname from one to the other.

Imagine Antauri, in a moment of complete trust, declaring Mandarin his weakness. A sweet sentiment. They both know the other is incredibly strong, and trust that the other would never take advantage of that connection. They love each other. Until...

9. "My Closest Ally”

Characters: Otto, Mandarin

Type: Theoretical

Explanation: Okay I'm looking at the screenshot I put for this entry while also having watched Evil Ages recently. My brain is making uncomfortable connections. Combine that with the fandom and the show’s general treatment of Otto and I’m about to slam my head into a wall. I really do not like that, but I feel like there’s somebody out there who does. 

Anyway, this is Gibotto and Ottauri but with all the spice that shipping Mandarin with one of the other monkeys brings. When done well, it’s all the respecting Otto that comes with Ottauri and all the intimate partnership of Gibotto. And the Angst of Mantauri, but a lot more grounded. 

It paints a lot of stories. A story of a single point of comfort in a world Mandarin thinks is out to get him. A story of powerful validation from the one authority in Otto’s life. Of letting your guard down. Of trust, then breaking that trust.

I’d LOVE to see some things with Mandottotauri because that’s epic and cool and poggers. Don’t see a lot, though.

10.The Hets, I guess.

Characters: Jinmay, Chiro. 

Type: Romantic. Platonic. Canon.

Explanation: Look two entries on this list are polyamorous and four of them are mandarin so I have to say SOMETHING for the heteroes following me. Picked this ship over Spova because when I was a young child still suffering from comphet, I never watched the last episode of the show. I only saw up to season 3 at the most. This was the only canon ship for me. And out of all the ships, it’s the most relatable. I’m currently a teenager with black hair who looks really good in eyeliner dating a girl with pink hair who can pick me up and is unbelievably sweet. Except we’re gay and polyam. Wait a second I totally had a crush on Jinmay as a kid and now my gf is the Jinmay in this situation. Oh my god I was going to make this comparison if I did Spova too and I liked Nova.

ANYWAY

These are two LONELY kids. Chiro had bullies during school, and now he doesn’t even go to school. Jinmay hasn’t really had friends at all. Two kids with places in their universe that they aren’t too sure about, and just need someone to lean on. Their date was cute. They instantly bonded over their love of monkeys and I love that. 

The super robot is sometimes an analog for Chiro, in the first two season at least, and the way the super robot held Jinmay’s hands to keep her steady on the COB while her head flew in was SO SWEET. Chiro’s instant recognition and reaction to Jinmay’s head being thrown at the team, as well. He really loves her.

I think it’d be interesting if she didn’t love him back, though. I might take a stab at writing that.

[davidmann95]

So do you think Superman & Lois will be actually good in a Flash S1 way or just pure cheese like Legends of Tomorrow? What do you want from the show?

‘What I want’ is a little complicated to publicly assess, because I’ve already read the script for the first episode and thereby have something of a decent sense of the tone, basic setup, and several of the characters. It absolutely seems like it’s touching on just about every angle I’d want it to to one degree or another though, other than missing some levity that’s I think more than safe with a Superman show to assume will emerge over time. Judging by said script though, genuinely very good for the most part, so what I want at this point is for them to keep doing what they’ve been doing between that and his past appearances. Just throw on top the family getting into a hijink or two and fighting Solaris, and I’m golden.

Anonymous said: Why do so many people seem to dislike Tyler Hoechlin as Superman ? The major criticism is that he seems like a Christopher Reeves ripoff, but putting aside the fact that he really isn't, I thought people liked Reeves Superman.

It seems to break down into two major schools of thought (not that everybody who doesn’t dig him falls into these categories), both of which seem to have emerged gradually over time given when he first showed up the response was almost universally positive:

1. Folks who flatten out him playing a fairly classic-flavored take on the character into him doing a hollow Reeve riff. There’s a subset here of Snyder folks specifically who see him as not only essentially ‘stealing’ limelight and love from Cavill’s Superman, but believe he’s been built above all else around doing so. Suffice it to say, I think there’s way more to him than that.

2. Folks who consider him ‘weak’, whether resenting his position to date as a supporting character and how thereby in Supergirl she’s consistently positioned as an equal or greater hero, or literally critiquing Hoechlin’s physical condition as being insufficiently ripped to play Superman.

Uh...I guess I’ll concede that if you consider bicep size a barometer of quality in your Kryptonians - I do not, if his appearance had to be proportionate to his strength he’d probably dwarf Jupiter - he probably won’t be able to work out 6 hours a day every day for however many years his show runs to keep up with Cavill, but bro still looks like he could tear me in half. As for his narrative role, of course he says Supergirl’s better than him whether you agree or not, he’s Superman and he’s a nice guy who sees the best in people, and of course he hasn’t been getting the big wins yet when he hasn’t been a lead. They’ve still gotten his character right in ways no other mass-media adaptation has touched, the rest’ll follow.

(And for that matter: he fights on even terms with a future Christopher Reeve Superman while at a disadvantage, and of the 50+ superheroes who stick their heads in during Crisis on Infinite Earths is one of the *three* who manage to actually land a hit on the universe-devouring Anti-Monitor. I’d say he’s just fine in the power department.)

Anonymous said: Three part question: 1. The CW shows won’t be able to start their next seasons until at least next year; what would you like for them to focus on fixing either individually or as a universe in the meantime? 2. The next crossover will be between Batwoman and Superman; what do you hope that ends up being and if you had to pick one character from each other shows to join in, but NOT the mains, who would you pick? 3. On a scale of 1 - 10, how smoldering is Hoechlin in that Superman & Lois promo?

1. Okay, entirely non-spoilery: having read the script as I said, the main thing they need to do is get some 15-year-olds in there with red markers to take to the kids’ dialogue. It’s not a worst-case scenario, Jon and Jor and Sarah have good moments, but it’s clearly teens as viewed in shows about adults rather than teens as depicted in shows about teens, and if they’re gonna be co-leads that can’t fly.

2. This is 100% where they’re gonna debut Bruce. They could have teamed up Superman with Flash for that old-school JLA action, they could’ve returned to the World’s Finest dynamic they established with Supergirl and Batwoman, but instead they’ve paired up two characters where the only thing they have in common is that they both know Batman. Sadly they will probably be COWARDS and not use Conroy again EVEN THOUGH HE HAS SAID HE’D LIKE TO COME BACK, and that it’s a two-parter probably shoots down my theory that Bruce would be introduced via an adaptation of Metal (Batman being gone because he’s trapped in the Dark Multiverse being tortured by Barbatos and in need of rescue by Batwoman and Superman, the introduction of Batman to the universe introducing ALL the Batmen) - while an eventual adaptation of that seems inevitable, especially given Red Death has already been namechecked, it probably won’t be as a relatively measly two-parter.

My idea I’ve floated on Twitter however as a joke that I’ve become increasingly, quixotically serious about overtime however is still very much doable: since CW Oliver Queen is just Batman, make CW Bruce Wayne Green Arrow. Have him grow a Van Dyke and make offensively spicy chili and rail against the fat cats on Wall St.; seriously, him having divested himself of his assets because he realized it’s impossible to be an ethical billionaire is a better answer to what happened to Batman than whatever these shows will actually come up with. And I don’t know what a boxing glove batarang looks like, but I want to find out.

Or also someone suggested on Twitter that it could be Clark playing Super-matchmaker getting together Kate and Maggie Sawyer, and I’d also be fine with that.

3. I’ll give it a passable 6, but he’s clearly not really trying.

[beatriceeagle]

no pressure if you're busy but i was wondering - is titans good? or is it more a show where you're like it's not /good/ but i like it? i thought it looked interesting but then everyone was so negative about it i kind of got put off. And then your (really excellent btw) video resparked why i thought it'd be interesting to watch in the first place. thanks!

I haven’t paid a ton of attention to what fans have said about Titans, although I’m aware that there’s a general negative vibe around it. I suspect that whether Titans is worth watching for you depends a whole lot on what you want out of Titans.

I went into the show having never read a DC comic in my life. I was coming off of a week-long Wikipedia binge on Batman and his associated characters—the Robins, the Batgirls, some dude named Signal—and was talking to @thirdblindmouse about how it had become overwhelmingly clear to me that we’ve been doing Batman all wrong for decades, and the way to tell the story is as an ensemble family drama about intergenerational trauma. And she was like, “Uh, have you seen Titans?” So all of my pre-existing understanding of the characters comes from Google and selected comics scans.

I suspect that the show’s interpretation of Dick Grayson, in particular, is... skewed? I’m almost certain, based on scans of comics I’ve seen/the half a season of Teen Titans I watched a lifetime ago, that its interpretation of Starfire is highly nontraditional. There are certain storylines that I know they’re adapting, but like, they are playing very loose with the adaptation of even some of the characters’ basic personalities. (I’m pretty sure—again, not really a DC comics fan!)

So if you’re very committed to a generally cheerful Dick Grayson, Titans will not give you that. If you have a vision of Batman as a generally decent man, Titans will really not give you that. In general, I think that the show would be better if it erred more towards a lighter tone for Dick—there are moments where he has shades of Quentin in season three of The Magicians, when Q was kind of endearingly hapless, and the show is better for it. But I think it earns its ambivalent stance on Batman, and uses it well. Batman in Titans looks and acts like your dad whose office you’re not allowed into. And Titans!Starfire is really amazing. Like, Anna-Diop-is-a-revelation, fuck-now-you’ve-got-me-shipping-against-my-will amazing.

The bigger issue that Titans has—and this is not unrelated to Dick’s characterization, I guess—is its relationship with violence. Titans is a really violent show, especially in its first season, and it’s off-putting. Pretty much every superhero show involves the heroes beating up bad guys; not every superhero show involves the protagonist mutilating someone in the course of a fight.

This is not unthinking hyperviolence. Titans (which is actually annoyingly pretty good about tracking character through action sequences) is trying to make a point: The compounding traumas of Dick’s childhood resulted in an explosion of rage. Batman funneled his anger into Dick; Dick funnels his anger into whatever bad guy he’s fighting. The show isn’t subtle about this idea. Dick says it out loud several times. Nor (after the first fight) does the show endorse Dick’s over-the-top violence. Everyone from Donna Troy to Dick himself remarks on it with, at minimum, concern. And over time, Dick’s fighting style changes; he consciously leaves the hyperviolence behind, until his final fight of season two is primarily evasive.

But Dick is not the only Titans character who is working out his rage on the criminals he apprehends, and the show is considerably less coherent in its tonal approach to other characters’ violence. Hank and Dawn—the masked hero team Hawk and Dove—have an origin story that plays out like the the backstory of a serial killer couple, their interlocking trauma and rage and grief finding expression and acceptance in each other. The show is aware of the dynamic, but it’s not clear that it’s aware of how disturbing it is. Hank and Dawn are, primarily, people who need to cause violence in order to be at peace in their own heads—and only secondarily, people who want to protect others from danger. Season two does do some work exploring this idea, but the exploration is confused by the fact that, in the end, the show wants both of them on the cast.

Which is kind of the problem with any superhero show that sets out to explore the ethics of superheroism—at the end of the day, the characters aren’t gonna retire to Wisconsin, you know? So Titans presents hyperviolence, presents it as problematic (sometimes), presents it as almost an inevitable consequence of traumatized teenagers deciding to pursue vigilante justice... and then builds a superhero team of traumatized teenagers and young adults. As is its basic conceit.

And on a more fundamental level, the hyperviolence just sort of makes the show feel very grim. It’s already an aesthetically dark show, a lot of the time, and then you’ve got people getting mutilated, and Batman’s an asshole and Dick Grayson’s got anger management issues, and it feels like the show’s grimdark. 

I don’t think it is, though. First of all, despite everything, Titans actually has a sense of humor, both in general and occasionally about itself—I mean, it’s not Legends of Tomorrow, but it understands how to crack a smile every now and then. (They have a superdog. He shoots lasers out of his eyes!) But more importantly, at the end of the day, Titans is hopeful. Yeah, it’s a show about anger and violence and intergenerational trauma—but it’s more specifically about moving beyond those things. At its heart, it’s about being a better parent to your children than your parents were to you.

That central relationship between Dick and Rachel—Dick trying, and sometimes failing, but always caring and trying to be better for Rachel, and Rachel’s absolute fury with him when he fails, but her unshakeable devotion to him for being there, the unbelievable amount of sway he holds in her world—that’s what makes the show work for me. There are other vital relationships, too—Rachel and Kory, especially, but also all of the pseudo-familial relationships built up between all of the characters—but it all comes back to Dick and Rachel.

I mean, it’s a found family show. So much so that in season two, there are like, three separate speeches about how this is a family, not one of those stupid biological families, but a family we found, and isn’t that the important kind? And how grimdark can a found family show really be?

The other thing that might throw some people off—but which is actually one of my favorite things about the show—is the structure. If you take a look at the Titans episode list, you’ll see that roughly 75 percent of the episodes are named after a character or characters. Season one of Titans is basically about Dick, Starfire, Gar, and Rachel (Raven from the comics) traveling the midwest, picking up the people who will eventually form the main Titans team. When they encounter those people, they get a spotlight episode. So in episode two, “Hawk and Dove,” when Dick and Rachel lay low at Hank and Dawn’s, the episode starts out with an extended cold open, entirely disconnected from the main characters, just introducing us to Hank and Dawn as characters. Episode eight, “Donna Troy,” sees Dick go to visit his old friend Donna in Milwaukee, and... basically just hang out with her for half the episode, while the rest of the cast does plot stuff. Occasionally, these spotlight episodes stop the plot completely: Towards the end of season one, an episode ends on a cliffhanger. the next episode, rather than showing the outcome of the cliffhanger, is “Hank and Dawn,” an episode that flashes back to show the story of how Hank and Dawn met and became masked heroes. (There’s an in-episode device that eventually makes it clear why this story is related to the cliffhanger.) Season two uses the cliffhanger-into-a-flashback-spotlight-episode structure two more times, once with a character we’ve never met before.

I can see this being deeply frustrating to a viewer watching week-by-week (and I would not recommend watching Titans in that manner). And it’s certainly an unconventional way to structure a season of television. But honestly? I think it’s half of what I like about the show. The spotlight and flashback episodes are good—often some of the best the show’s produced. They don’t stop the plot for no reason; in season two, in particular, they provide context and backstory and characterization in a way that would be almost impossible to do, or to do so well, without the space of a full episode. They make the show more episodic than it would otherwise be—always a joy, in a television landscape full of 10-hour movies—and give it space to experiment with tone and genre. They make the characters richer, and the relationships more complex.

Does it slow down the plot? Absolutely. But Titans is not overflowing with complex plot, and I don’t really think it should try to. The plot of Titans hangs together juuuuuuuust enough to make the themes and characters and relationships work. It’s coherent—we’re not talking Teen Wolf, here—but it’s not brilliant, and honestly, that’s fine by me. But I suppose if you want your plot to be really good, this may not be the show for you.

Finally, I’ll say that Titans, though not what I would call a feminist show (it has a primarily male writing staff and I think it shows) does have a kind of surprisingly large female cast? I wanna say it’s five men, five women, by the end of season two? (Yeah, it’s a fucking enormous cast.) And the women have actual relationships with each other, ones that the show puts some effort into maintaining and remembering. I realize this is damning with faint praise, but honestly I’d just expected a show like Titans to not do that, and was prepared to ignore it, and was kind of pleasantly surprised when I didn’t have to.

In summary: I told my sister that Titans is 10% men in spandex standing on cars, 30% team as family, 30% intergenerational trauma, 20% an uncomfortable relationship with is own hyperviolence, and 10% Krypto the Superdog. I think that tracks. That show, despite having Anna Diop’s glowing presence, has a lot of flaws, but it also really worked for me on some soul-deep level. I am exactly on its wavelength.

I do not think that Titans is a fantastic television show, but I also don’t think it’s a very bad one. I think it’s generally competent show that is very interesting in some aspects, is weak in some areas, falls prey to some inherent trappings of its genre, is thoughtful about familial trauma, is not thoughtful enough about violence and criminal justice, has a lot of very compelling performances, is really poorly lit a lot of the time, pays a lot of attention to its visual language, kind of thinks Batman’s an asshole, and has Krypto the Superdog. It really worked for me; I can see why others might not be into it; it might work for you!

[mejomonster]

some show recs, cause why not:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (give it into mid season 2 - that’s when the show starts shining as a monster of the week with overarching plots always weaved in, with big bads for each season, and with pretty solid storytelling - although some people love season 1 as well which is fair enough. this show grows with the characters as they grow up, and so its fun and fantastical but its also really grounded in life experiences.)

Star Trek TOS (and any other star trek shows that’s connecting to u, so for me it’d also be DS9 - like all star trek shows, combines fun and bright and strange new worlds with some absolutely brutal contemplation on social issues and questions humanity needs to consider and face, and TOS being the original is a fine example of that - we got episodes on war, on time travel, on eugenics, on birth control, on peace versus freedom, on space, also i just kinda get the vibe no one’s straight in space and would like to recommend City on The Edge of Forever as a bi love triangle tragedy and also one of the highest rated tos episodes for good reason. the rainbow lighting in this, the dracula romantic anime softness, the silly costumes, for me these are all wonderful additional pluses - which subsequent star treks will have or not have to varying degrees. Also, if you get into this you’ll have over half a century’s worth of official and fanmade content, to continue drowning happily in. Also Spock and Kirk are soulmates. And the movies really hammer that home in case anyone didn’t notice somehow - along with just being fun, the whale movie The Voyage Home IV is just a good time, even if you see nothing else star trek related.)

Xena Warrior Princess (right up there with Buffy and Star Trek for fun and playful while also being incredibly grounded and heartfelt, Xena is a fantastic hero with a past as a genuinely destructive person, the characters that recur in this show are fantastic - with Callisto being on of my favorite villains ever in a show because... in a way Xena and Calisto’s dynamic is like Buffy and Faith’s taken to a horrific extreme. Calisto is such a product of what Xena did to herself and the world, and yet also this living consequence that has now grown beyond just ‘a shadow Xena left behind.’ Gabrielle meanwhile is yet another examination into what good and evil are and why people do the things they do, and how they grow from that. This show starts with Xena’s redemption and just trying to do some good now, at least now - and in a way it never drops that theme for anyone. Also Xena and Gabrielle are the DEFINITION of soulmates forever - there’s episodes where they’re reincarnated and still soulmates, they are THE soulmates. It’s deeply romantic and it hurts my heart beyond mending.)

Guardian (cdrama, this baby can fit everything I love into it as well as other the top 3 more or less do - you got mutants, magic, star crossed loves, allegory for social issues, soulmates, time travel, sexy fun villains, cat/mouse protagonist dynamics, a sweet core relationship, a nice big found family team, its also got the niche draw of a batman-like dude with a secret identity who is professor xavier by day and is batman by night and is Always bad at hiding his secret identity to the point other superheroes/villains would probably be laughing if they ever saw him - hell his crush is only not laughing cause he’s beyond frustrated he’s being so blatantly lied to repeatedly about the clear-secret-identity thing. Thanks Guardian, you’re the reason I started learning Chinese. And got into way too many books. Thanks.)

In The Flesh (short, 9 episodes, fantastic, its about what happens after a zombie apocalypse once people are ‘treated’ so they’re no longer raging zombies but conscious again. it’s a rare take on the zombie concept, and handles them a lot like how mutants are used in xmen as allegory to explore issues in the real world. Also our main man is not straight, that’s explicitly a plot point and he has some heavy romances - and friendships, and family relationships - so like prepare for that emotional weight. It’s a very intense show emotionally, and the writing just. Fantastic. It’s heavy, again, like most zombie shows, and like most very emotionally grounded shows.)

X-Men Evolution (yes I’m throwing a cartoon in here, it was a good cartoon, n like all the tv xmen adaptations it changed some things, but I think it kept the spirit of the themes and expanding threats of the comics probably the most. if i’d seen the original 90s xmen cartoon I imagine it’d be here too probably.)

Bureau of Transformer (cdrama, this baby ALSO somehow fits a majority of the things I love into it - with two main characters who are explicitly bi as the leads, which is nice as hell, along with heavily characterization driven storytelling and arcs, along with themes both about issues in society and personal questions of how to be honestly ourselves versus what people expect of us, how to embrace our feelings when we fear them, how to let ourselves risk caring when we fear abandonment, how to embrace who we are in a world we know we don’t fit in, ahhhh. Just, an incredible amount this story juggles in such a short time span. It’s much more realistic than Guardian, surprisingly. More of an ‘in the flesh’ feel in how it handles it’s sci-fi setup. This show, like many of my faves, takes a sci-fi/fantasy concept and mostly just uses it as a light allegory to allow itself to focus on discussing real world issues. This show takes the discussion much more directly than Guardian does (Guardian is more gentle looking-at, the way Xmen tends to do, whereas Bureau of Transformers gets much closer to reality the way In the Flesh does). What I mean by that is, yes there’s mutants in this show, but at least half of the actual issues discussed are just real things like not-being-legally-allowed to marry who you love, being discriminated against, being abandoned, having to choose a life path and regretting it, country/city differences, healthcare choices, deciding if you’re willing to trust others, etc. This show was AMAZING in how it managed to weave literally every minor plot point into the huge overarching plot, in a way I haven’t seen since person of interest. This show weaves a dog running away, into 2 main character arcs, and the show long main arc, and I am still shocked how well it was done. And there’s so much bigger stuff, done just as well and better. The only thing it does NOT have on my list of favorite things, is soulmates through lifetimes and ridiculously over the top villains, but I’d argue this show is more grounded like In The Flesh so it’s expected those less ‘grounded’ things aren’t as present. This show’s arguably my favorite cdrama writing wise I’ve ever watched. And it’s also just wonderful it’s in that same niche kind of genre as Angel, Buffy, Guardian, Xmen, In The Flesh, that I personally really love. This show, at heart I felt, was about figuring out who you are and living authentically, and about how to try and do the right thing for yourself and others in this world when there are power systems that enforce harmful practices, what the people within those structures responsibilities are to not support them, etc. It was very Star Trek esque in its themes. This show also kind of touches the concept of ‘person who changes genders’ in a sci fi premise, but unlike every other show I’ve seen with disguises or powers as the cause for it, this show actually handled it without picking any of the easy routes. It never back pedalled into a safer more widely used trope I’ve seen so many other shows do. it never said ‘actually only when they’re like X someone loves them,’ it never said they had to change for anyone, the show only uses it to explore real world issues and the character’s inner arcs and growth, like the show uses everything else. and like most of the themes of this show it went the extremely grounded route about it, like In The Flesh. So instead its a slightly sci fi roundabout route to allow the show to address trans issues and gender and sexuality while i would imagine avoiding getting censored a bit more - and i’ve seen people quite surprised this show got to explore the topics it did, without getting them censored out, and i’m guessing the ridiculous mutant sci fi premise on the surface drew a lot of attention away from the fact it got DEEP the way Star Trek tos under its silly costumes got DEEP. I absolutely Love this show’s writing. As a final bonus, despite being quite realistic in how it handles real world issues, it’s very optimistic and hopeful the way Star Trek is.)

Person of Interest (if you are a sci fi fan, it’s ridiculously worth watching. This show appears like a case of the week at first, but actually things from cases of the week in season 1 contribute to the plot all the way in season 5. In that way, the story is immensely satisfying because it feels well structured, well planned, and like it’s written to be exactly the finished story that it is. The only ‘weak’ points in this whole baby’s writing - I’ve heard season 1 had to look more ‘procedural’ to get the greenlight, so that’s why it’s more episodic than any other season, and then second the final season is a bit shorter then I think was planned - because that last season was cut short. Fantastically, they still managed to shorten season 5 into something that feels complete, feels like enough, and wraps everything up beautifully. But its a bit obvious once you know it was cut short, that one plot element might have been a bigger deal with a few more scenes and characters involved, if they’d had more episodes. That’s it, the only ‘weak points.’ The characterization in this show is phenomenal, for everyone. The found family dynamic is here, the characters Root and Shaw are some of my favorite ever on television, somehow the writing and characterization is so good I even cared about Reese who’s formed from a base-backstory that I usually don’t care for. It’s been described as a low key sci fi batman and it feels very true to that at times. The real appeal for me was the cast of brilliantly fleshed out feeling characters, their incredibly solid arcs, and how they tie in so deeply to the main sci fi plot. Then the main sci fi plot - the other big draw for the show, its based on a concept that literally is so close to reality it could almost be happening right now. It’s not sci fi you have to imagine happening one day, it’s sci fi that could be happening right now. For me that’s just not a niche in sci fi I see explored a lot on tv. In a way it reminds me vaguely of The X Files - just in the sense that the threats and conspiracies and layers all kind of feel like they could genuinely exist, maybe. Except way more so, because POI is not aliens but plays instead with a lot of science we’ve actually seen in the real world. Also the questions of morality on this show are well worth experiencing - who’s worth saving, to who, and how that question is handled by bodies of power versus individuals. How technology, and leaders, and manipulating parties, all affect those choices in reality and all affect what those choices are even based on. In the end, this show is about everyone being important, being not just a number.)

[aion-rsa]

Green Lantern and Hawkgirl Team Up in Tribute to Beloved DC Writer

https://ift.tt/2zxFSkD

No celebration of the history of Green Lantern would be complete without acknowledging Dwayne McDuffie. McDuffie was a titan in both the comic book and animation industries before he passed in 2011, co-founding Milestone Comics and helping turn Milestone character Static into a successful, beloved Saturday morning cartoon (Static Shock), among a myriad of other accomplishments in both mediums. 

But to many superhero fans, McDuffie’s most iconic work was on Justice League Unlimited, the massively popular cartoon expansion of the Batman: The Animated Series universe. It was there that McDuffie paired John Stewart and Hawkgirl in what became a definitive romantic pairing for a generation of DC superhero fans. To honor his work with Stewart, Charlotte Fullerton McDuffie, his widow, and ChrisCross, his friend and former artistic collaborator, got together to jam out a John/Shayera story for June’s Green Lantern 80th Anniversary 100-Page Spectacular. 

“I specifically asked if ChrisCross could come on and draw it because we’ve always wanted to work together,” McDuffie tells us in an interview. “I love the dynamic approach to his staging that he takes.” 

He was as eager to work with her as she was with him.

“Charlotte was pretty much on the bucket list of people I wanted to work with,” Cross says. “It’s always feast or famine with this job, man. I’m working on stuff…and then this pops up. I’m like, ‘I can’t not work on this.’ I kind of owe it to Dwayne and owe it to Charlotte to work on this.”

Of course, honoring Dwayne meant doing right by the characters he loved. “Dwayne loved Gil Kane Silver Age Green Lantern,” she says. “I loved John Stewart Green Lantern and Hawkgirl together, so I wanted to make sure to do it right.” And she did: the story she and Cross produced feels like it could have fit right between the Christmas episode, with John and Shayera snowboarding and bar brawling, and the Shadow Thief episodes of the cartoon.  

The story pits Green Lantern and Hawkgirl against Dr. Polaris, who broke into the Watchtower to steal a rare element that would significantly amplify his power: Milestonium. “I read that, and I was like, ‘Does that say Milestonium?’ Cross says. 

“I got to write in an element that is now canon in the Justice League world. This is wonderful,” Fullerton adds. 

For Cross, the biggest challenge in drawing the story, both in designing the signature element and in putting Lanterns on the page, is trying to convey how to show the power and character inherent in the story through the design of their powers. “When you’re drawing certain constructs, you have to make sure that echoes the character [creating them],” he says. “Even if you’ve never seen him before, or if you never worked with him [you have to consider] what would this rabbit person with this ring, what would he put out?” 

A big part of the success of the homage is Cross’s art. The artist got his break working for Milestone, the comics company co-founded by McDuffie and others, in the early ‘90s. Since then, he’s drawn just about everything, from X-Men to Batman to Bloodshot. His art has always had a distinct style, a clean, crisp flow, but the most surprising thing about his work on this story is how successful his mimicry is. The tone matches the cartoon so successfully because, in part, the art matches the show beautifully. 

“Working with Charlotte, I don’t know. It was just a weird connection…” he says. “[When] I started working on this stuff, I was just thinking, ‘Just make it look good and make sure it has a certain way of  movement from one particular page to the next.’ When they sent me the [pages] before they put it out to the printer, I sat there and I read it and…I was like, ‘Wow, this looks like the cartoon.’”

Read more

TV

Green Lantern HBO Max Series Will Span Decades, Focus on Two Green Lanterns

By Mike Cecchini

Despite only meeting face to face for the second time during the interview, the pair vibe in person and through their work like old friends, as if they have  developed a comfort level with each other over years. In fact, Cross didn’t remember their first meeting. “I know why you didn’t remember it,” she reminds him, “because you were being swamped by fans. New York Comic Con, maybe around 2006 or 2007 you were signing for fans and Dwayne and I came up to you and he talked to you like a little brother.” 

“Yeah, he was always like that. I always called him Uncle Dwayne,” Cross says. That trust enabled them to work comfortably “Marvel style” (after the manner in which Jack Kirby and Stan Lee used to create comics during that company’s early years)  – Cross drew off of a story outline from McDuffie, and she filled in the dialogue after the pages were drawn – on a legacy tribute to the man they both clearly adored, love that shines through in the finished product. 

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The post Green Lantern and Hawkgirl Team Up in Tribute to Beloved DC Writer appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[kalinara]

Rip Week #1  The Many Faces of Rip

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything positive about Legends of Tomorrow.  However, it’s Rip Hunter Appreciation Week, which is a time meant for positivity!   At one point this show, and this character, had me blogging meta on a daily basis for almost two and a half years and introduced me to some great people! And I will always be grateful for that.

So the topic for Day 1 of Rip Hunter Appreciation Week: The Many Faces of Rip Hunter.

One thing that still fascinates me about Rip as a character is that, even though he’d only been a central character on the show for 1.5 seasons, we’ve gotten to see so many different sides of the character.  He’s been deconstructed so thoroughly and so fascinatingly, allowing us to really appreciate what makes the character tick.

Let’s start with Rip himself, the baseline number.  The guy who kidnapped a bunch of assholes, brought them to the roof of a tall building (and I still wonder how the stringy little bastard actually managed that) and gave them a sales pitch of a lifetime.

From the opening scene of the pilot, to Rip’s almost goodbye into the sun in Legendary, season one was first and foremost the story of a man broken by grief and betrayal, who slowly, and reluctantly found a reason to go on, and people to share it with.  Rip spent season one a raw, open wound, ugly in his pain and rage.  He tried very hard not to stay focused on his goal. He tried very hard not to care about his team.

He failed pretty much on day one, when he saved Martin Stein’s marriage.  He failed again not too long after that when he abandoned the closest thing he had to a working plan to get Carter’s body back for Kendra.  And he kept failing over and over again.

And they saved him.  They challenged him.  They forced him to look outside of his single-focused obsession and look at the people that they could save around them.  They forced him to take a long hard look at what he was doing when he started to go too far.  And he very clearly and very obviously loved them for it.

I still can’t believe that fandom still tries to claim that Rip didn’t care about his team, when we saw how broken he was after each major loss: Carter, Leonard, even Jax (almost).  That’s not a man who is unfeeling.

We saw Rip as a child: a tiny savage creature who, even when warm and fed, was still ready to stab the nearest adult who threatened him.  It gave a new, fascinating insight to the tension Rip had with both Leonard Snart and Mick Rory.  As well as possibly another reason that he’d bonded with Sara so strongly.  Rip is someone who understands what it means to become a monster in order to survive, and what it means to have to live with that afterward.  It likely does make it difficult when face to face with people who represented the worst of that time (and that’s not even touching on how child Rip probably met a number of people who looked and acted similar to our lovable Rogues, and it likely would not have ended well.)

We’ve never really seen the man Rip was before he was broken.  Except perhaps for a giddy romantic moment with Miranda and that horrible humiliation when they were caught.  We’ve heard a bit more: from that pirate in Marooned, from Magister Druce and Jonah Hex.   We can draw inferences: a man who was capable and skilled (though perhaps not as skilled as his wife :-)), who never the less was a rulebreaker at heart.  Someone who fell in love with the idea of heroism to the point where he almost left the Time Masters entirely.  Someone who, while loyal, wasn’t quite willing to trust his masters with the tool to unmake reality.  But at the same time, someone whose fundamental trust in INDIVIDUALS like Mary Xavier and Magister Druce, survived even when his world fell apart.

At the end of season 1, we got a Rip Hunter who was ready to finally move past his grief, and it will forever be something of a disappointment to me that the series decided to give us a time jump instead of actually showing us Rip learning to be part of a real team.

But season 2 did give us a truly fascinating deconstruction of Rip Hunter as an individual.

One very common plot in almost every superhero’s story is the depowerment story arc.  Who is our hero when he doesn’t have what makes him a hero?  It’s most common for men like Superman of course, but we even get it for folks like Batman or Green Arrow.  What are these men without their money, or their physicality?

What is Rip Hunter without his knowledge, his memories, or his time machine?

Well, we saw him.  And he was adorable!  Phil Gasmer was a hilarious story beat, but unlike maybe certain other storyline elements that we see in later seasons, there was also a point to Phil Gasmer.  Phil Gasmer showed us the kind of man that Rip Hunter is deep down.

He’s creative.  He’s clever.  He’s determined.  He’s a little whiny.  And definitely high.  Rip is a man who would benefit from a little unofficial pharmaceutical help.  He’s a man who, when the world suddenly goes sideways, will first attempt to protect his friend.  He’s a man who, when face to face with a stranger with scary abilities, will try to hit him with a script.  He’s a man who loves his team so much that even when he has no conscious recollection of them, he made them the basis of his movie.  And he’s a man who walked out to face the Legion to save a bunch of strangers who kidnapped him, because it was the right thing to do.

I’d like to think in another universe, Phil didn’t get kidnapped by Eobard Thawne there, but instead made it back on the ship, where the crew actually got the chance to get to know Rip without all the baggage.  I think they’d have gotten along.

And then there’s evil Rip.

“Teammate goes evil” storylines are a dime a dozen, in superhero lore, but there’s a reason for that.  When done well, they can be amazing.  And ultimately, I think the evil Rip storyline was done very well.

One of the things that I always liked about the evil Rip storyline is how it utterly destroyed that pervasive (and wrong!) fan idea that Rip never cared about his team.  Because they showed us a Rip who didn’t care about his team, and he was a fucking scary son of a bitch.

He also showed us how Rip’s best worst enemy was always going to be himself.  Because holy shit, Rip is competent when he’s not tripping himself up.  Turncoat was terrifying in all the best ways, and even that opening of Land of the Lost was amazing.  It’s still very amusing to me that the most effective member of the Legion of Doom was the one Eobard brainwashed into it.

One thing I always found fascinating about evil Rip is that, for all that he lacks Rip’s compassion, empathy and love, he didn’t go the usual scenery chewing sadist route.  He’s a monster, of course.  He was perfectly happy to murder Sara, to carve the spear piece out of McNider, and brainwash the entire knights of Camelot.  But it was always a measured sort of evil.

Evil Rip had a goal, and evil Rip pursued his goal.  And if he could get what he wanted in a relatively non-disruptive and non-violent way, he was willing to try it.  He had no interest in terrorizing the Waverider crew once he had the spear piece from them, even when he saw that Sara had survived her murder.  He tried to trick McNider, only resorting to violence when McNider saw through it.  When he had control of the knights, he just had them stand there, much to Darhk’s boredom, rather than playacting some farce for his amusement as some of the others might have done.

Evil Rip was our chance to appreciate how truly formidable Rip could actually be, and also appreciate those qualities that kept him from turning into that monster again.

My biggest disappointment in this story arc was how little we got to see Rip interact with the other members of the Legion.  His interactions with Eobard and Darhk, in what little we had, were very entertaining.  But we never saw him interact with Malcolm at all (I admit to being intrigued by this, because I thought Malcolm had actually had the most interesting dynamic with Phil in Legion of Doom), and we never saw Eobard react to his capture.  Missed opportunities or food for fanfic?

I don’t know if Doomworld Rip really counts, but I have to admit that, compared to some of Rip’s other coping mechanisms, baking cakes to deal with a year of solitary confinement (Gideon sort of counts, but she’s just a voice at this point), is pretty good for him.  I hope he actually got a chance to eat them.

The idea behind Rip at the Time Bureau really was a good one.  The idea that Rip would have created this organization, but specifically designed it to be the antithesis of the Time Masters: open, transparent, and accountable, is a good one.  But unfortunately, season 3 never really explored that to the extent I would have liked.  

It’s hard to imagine the Rip who recruited Sara before she could die with her sister to Damien Darhk would be okay with leaving Zari in a prison without a very good reason.  But we never got that reason.  Of course, maybe he wasn’t.  He wasn’t in that episode.  We know from Ava that he didn’t want her chasing the Legends, and wanted them given “lenience”.  But if he’s not on board with that, how much of the Time Bureau is actually under his control?

Considering that Return of the Mack told us that Rip allowing Darhk to be resurrected in order to confront him with agents was a “sanctioned” plan (that Rip still ends up in prison for, because Rip is just that good with people), that implies a certain level of oversight.  His and Bennett’s dynamic seemed just shy of outright antagonistic.  And certainly Rip seemed a lot more blase about seeing Bennett meet a grisly end than seems warranted.  This is a man who dismantled the team after Leonard Snart died.

I mean, trying to work out coherent characterization for ANYONE in season 3 is a bit of a problem, but I feel like if the Time Bureau had gotten the same level of focus that it gets much later, perhaps some of these things could actually work.  If, for example, there are multiple factions within the Bureau with their own ideas on what the Bureau is supposed to do, (perhaps tied with the oversight that Rip specifically put in place, because there’s nothing more Rip Hunter than getting hoisted up by his own petard), then a lot of the more confused behavior by the organization could make more sense.

In the end though, Rip is still a secretive, scheming bastard who cares very deeply for his team, and I wouldn't give up that wonderful, almost baggage free friendship with Wally for anything. So it does have its good points.

Ultimately, I think that all of these facets make Rip one of the most well-developed and defined characters in the CW-verse, even when compared with others who have had years and years of screentime.  It’s fun to poke around and explore all of these layers and see how they fit.  And it definitely is food for some great fanfic.  I’m told some other Rip fans will be writing some great fic for #RipWeek.  You should go check them out!

[pfkoolkitty]

Unpopular DC opinions

- I don't like Dick and Barbara together. Besides the very loose excuse that they're not siblings, Barbara is just a very boring character to me. Not only do they throw her at LITERALLY every bat romantically, she just doesn't have much personality besides The Smart One. @amcsummersgoddess said she's like the Jean Grey of DC and I agree. She's one of the only batfam members I can't stand and even if she was interesting she's still in the BAT FAMILY do she shouldn't date any of them.

- Ive actually been really wanting to read heroes in a crisis. I know people were really upset about who the murderer was, but i think it was an amazing twist and really well done. I get that it sucks to see such a sweet and popular character like that, but it felt very real and showed how damaging superheroing can be on someone's mental state.

- even tho suicide squad had problems and the story was very one-dimensional, i feel like it was a bigger experience than just the story. The establishment of the bigger universe and the characters was what really made it amazing to me. The cast was amazing and their dynamics were great. I also loved how they each gave their characters depth that felt very authentic and they all had pasts and connections outside the team that made everything feel really connected.

- Aquaman was good, but it was very safe. Like the plot was predictable and it felt like they were afraid to go deeper than the typical hero arc because of how people reacted to justice league and bvs. I still really liked it tho, i just wish it tried to be more original. I can see why they kind of wanted to make a movie thats closer to whats trending right now. People were shitting on dc a lot for the originality and I guess the win helped them out in the long run and opened more people's minds to the universe instead of blindly hating it. I hope we see kaldur'ahm in the next one tho because Garth is already on Titans and I wanna see my guy be aqualad. PLUS itd be a great opportunity to do a real gay storyline ir at least portray a character as gay in the movie universe.

- I actually liked Green Lantern and Batman and Robin. Like i literally didn't know people had beef with GL until the deadpool memes came up. It used to be my favorite movie and GL was my favorite superhero for the longest because of it. The suit wasn't bad to me, especially for something that came out that long ago. Like idk how they were expected to pull off a glowing green suit that came off and on in the blink of an eye. Ive seen shittier cgi in movies that have come out in the past like 3 years so yall need to chill. And B&R was weird, but thats what made it so iconic. It isn't the kind of batman movie that could be in the bigger universe of movies, but for a movie set in a separate universe I think it was a cool take on Batman and the cinematography was gorgeous. Plus if you have beef with Uma Thurman as Poison Icy, you're a weakling. B&R was also one of my favorite movies when I was younger.

- even tho it was kind of annoying seeing them running away for like 3 episodes, I really liked Jenn and Khalil on Black Lightning. They had a really cute dynamic as best friends who realized they were in love with each other and I loved them together.

- even tho ryan is fucking murdering it as beast boy, i still would have really pliked to see him as tim drake

- I like the casting of Robert Pattinson for younger bruce Wayne, but id really like to see Ben Affleck continue in the present universe. He did really well with the role to me and I loved his dynamic with the team. It'll feel different if they replace him :(.

I'll stop here, but this was fun.

[that-shamrock-vibe]

TV Review: The Flash (Spoilers)

Season 5, Episode 9: Elseworlds - Part 1

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the day the episode becomes available to stream online so if you haven’t seen it yet or are waiting for the entire crossover to air before watching then don’t read on until you have done that.

Overview:

I cannot tell you how much I got a kick out of this episode. I have not done any TV reviews for a while because of my university commitments but I did partially review Crisis on Earth-X last year and wanted to review this crossover because of what is promised but also because it’s the big superhero event on the small screen. I love an elseworlds story in any genre and show/movie that I watch, I love it when they do parallel worlds and alternate realities, I love it when they have dream worlds and any situation or story where the characters we know and love are portrayed differently. This wasn’t exactly that, but it was still so good. I loved the comedy, the Easter Eggs, the callbacks to previous seasons and the change in dynamic, but also I LOVED the new additions to the Arrowverse and will be talking about them down below.

Freaky Sunday:

So I was going to call this a Freaky Friday before thinking it would be funnier to say Freaky Monday but then realized this episode would have aired yesterday so am calling it a Freaky Sunday. Anyway the movie I am parodying is referenced by Barry because of the situation that he and Oliver find themselves in at the start of this episode.

At the very start of this episode we have that same clip that played at the end of Supergirl, Arrow and The Flash last week, so this is now the fourth time I saw it, which shows John Wesley Shipp’s Flash who he portrayed nearly 30 years ago struggling over a warzone of Easter-Eggs, I mean dead heroes, and speeding away from a weird man with a destiny changing book. This man is called The Monitor and I will talk about him when he is focused on more.

Fortunately this isn’t all of the opening scene otherwise I would have been very annoyed and the rest is Oliver waking up in Barry’s bed with Barry’s wife Iris calling him for breakfast. Oliver is now Barry Allen and has his life including speed, wife, friends and most likely job. The interesting thing is even though this an obvious re-written reality, the same storylines that have been happening in all seasons are still going on. So Oliver has just got out of prison, joined the SCPD as a vigilante and now finds himself as Barry Allen the Scarlet Speedster of Central City. It was funny watching him grasp this realization and to be fair to Stephen Amell he does allow himself to have some much needed fun this episode after all the doom and gloom he has been through this season.

However, because he’s new to the speedster game, he almost screws up in thwarting a robbery attack on Ivo Laboratories. Whether or not this new reality created Ivo Laboratories in Central City or not isn’t confirmed but this is a place that has never been mentioned in previous episodes.

Regardless, despite giving the wrong vigilante line before stopping the bad guys, he does stop them with an impressive trick shot of his lightning throw. How he knew how to do that without guidance is a mystery but I digress. Also for any comic-book fan that knows Ivo is a reference to Professor Anthony Ivo, they’ll know the robot Oliver’s lightning bolt accidentally hits.

But then we arrive at S.T.A.R. Labs, which has not changed, and Oliver is scanned for abnormalities I’m presuming because his takedown of the bad guys was unlike Barry’s normal quality, yet to all the brilliant minds in that room, as well as Iris and Ralph, no one can deduce that Oliver is not Barry. Oliver and Barry are the only two on their Earth that seem to not have had their memories affected by this altered reality...so naturally Oliver goes to find Barry to try and make sense of the situation.

We then cut to Star City and Barry seems to have woken up in the middle of a sparring match with Diggle at ARGUS. I have to say, I am slightly confused about John’s position at ARGUS, I know Lyla is the director but does that make John the Deputy or Acting Director as Lyla never really seems to be there?

Anyway, Dig thinks Barry is Oliver and Barry knows he is Barry but when he discovers his body has been changed by this altered reality due to his tattoos, he too suspects something is up. However there isn’t time to contemplate this fully like Oliver did because he is told to suit up as Green Arrow is needed on an ARGUS mission...Green Arrow who was almost arrested last week for being an active vigilante before joining the police force as their agent is suddenly allowed to join ARGUS in a mission...logic!

As with Oliver, Barry takes to his new vigilante fighting skills rather well, possibly because the basis of vigilantism is training in fighting and coordination, but after subduing the threat he and Diggle are sped away by Oliver. Diggle throwing up after speeding is still funny but just seems like it is in there as a cheap Easter Egg.

Somehow ditching Diggle, Oliver and Barry go to the disused Arrowcave which made a return last week and while Oliver has his serious face on trying to understand their current predicament, Barry is weightlifting up that old bar pole that my sister used to get a kick out of every time Oliver used it...Barry has used that pole before and with super speed so has done it better than how he is doing it now so why he was so happy with it I don’t know.

I did like how Oliver was trying to get Barry to be serious because it is very telling of the tone the two shows have. Arrow has always been rather dark and like a Batman story whereas The Flash has always been more like a Marvel Movie or Superman pre-DCEU. However on this point I have to say I was on Oliver’s side because the situation is these two are currently not themselves and Oliver wants his life back, funnily enough after Oliver lets slip he woke up with Iris that morning Barry gets his serious face on.

This early mid-section of the episode is where I lose a lot of respect for Team Flash because they know of the multiverse, time travel and Flashpoint yet they don’t quite grasp the fact that maybe something happened to change reality so that Barry is now Oliver and Oliver is now Barry...none of them, you have a biochemist, a mechanical engineer, two detectives and a journalist yet no one has the perception to even conceive that what two people they know rather well is telling them is a possibility?

Also, when this is all over and fixed and Oliver is Oliver and Barry is Barry, Iris needs to sit down with Oliver and talk out their differences because I did not know Iris had this much dislike for Oliver. I can’t even call it dislike because she must like him on some level, I mean she openly admitted to fancying either him as Oliver or the Green Arrow during the Invasion! crossover but here, because of what has happened to Oliver recently, she cannot seem to get her head around loving Barry as Oliver because the Oliver she knows who in actual reality is at this point her Barry is a man of pain and vengeance. I do like how this is picked up with the two guys later but I’m getting ahead of myself. Iris needs to sort herself out.

Because of Iris distrusting this situation she drugs the man she supposedly loves while Ralph knocks out the man he believes is Oliver and they are locked in a cell in the Pipeline. I love the fact that because they’re not really catching Metahumans of the week anymore these crossovers are really the only time we see the inside of these cells.

I love how Barry and Oliver interact in this episode and the prison scene is one of my favourites because they have to play to each-other’s strengths due to the fact they have each-other’s abilities. Barry dislocating his thumb was hilarious not just because of how it looked but also because Oliver was so blahzay in telling him to do it just like it was a walk in the park. “Just break your thumb, your body has been conditioned by Anatoly in this reality so you can do it”. Also Oliver’s reaction to actually seeing a broken thumb was slightly bizarre because surely he would have seen his own thumb before. Oliver phasing through the door was slightly overkill because he hasn’t found the breaks on his speed yet, also why was everyone so confused by phasing in this episode? It’s a cool power to have, it can get you out of prison cells, or stop a plane from crashing into buildings. One thing I didn’t understand is Barry said the cell was designed to dampen powers so how was Oliver able to phase?

Anyway regardless of continuity errors they escape and plan to use the only interdimensional extrapolater they have left, despite Sherloque breaking it I’m guessing they fixed it, to go to Earth Thirty-Eight to get Kara’s help. Iris apparently predicts this and beats them to getting the extrapolater...incase anyone isn’t paying attention I don’t like Iris in this episode, I don’t know why but something about her just seems off.

Barry however finally manages to get through to his wife by recalling a memory only they would know and finishing it off by calling her his lightning rod, which he told Oliver to call her and he called stupid, and agree I agree with him. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for sentiment but I never understood the lightning rod metaphor. I guess it’s how lightning conducts to the rod as an analogy for how Barry would always return to Iris but it just never sat right with me. It does with Iris though and she gives Barry the extrapolater and they go to Earth-38.

I laughed with joy at this moment and this scene because entering Earth-38 the episode has Remy Zero’s “Save Me”, also known as the Smallville theme song playing over it. Anyone who keeps up to date with behind the scenes gossip knows they were using the Kent Farm from Smallville as the Kent Farm for Earth-38′s Smallville but with the theme song playing and I think even the tractor is the same. Although on Riverdale last week they also used the Kent Farm in another capacity so maybe the CW, which broadcasts all the DC shows and Riverdale like that set, I know I do. It’s such a feel-good nostalgia trip seeing it. Also that song, I just love it!

We are reacquanted with Tyler Hoechlin as Clark Kent and, despite not appearing in Season 3 of Supergirl he did easily slide back into the role. I mentioned in my first reaction to seeing Tyler Hoechlin as Superman that I was won over by the acting and look just the choices taken by costuming threw me. Here we see more of Clark Kent then we do Superman and for me it works. However my biggest issue right now is if they are trying to make out as if this Superman is the same one we saw the origin story for during Smallville played there by Tom Welling. With the theme song playing and the same farm being used it does seem that way. I would be very happy if ti wasn’t as that would obviously mean this Supergirl is the same that Laura Vandervoot portrayed and her Kara was more evolved as a superhero than this Kara.

Also, we meet this Earth’s Lois Lane, portrayed by Elizabeth Tulloch. I like her as Lois Lane, I think she has the same level of drive and bite as Erica Durance and Teri Hatcher did in the role and isn’t as wet and dull as Amy Adams. Interestingly enough when it comes to Superman mythos, the small screen seems to get right what the movies get wrong.

Kara is visiting her cousin after being fired from the D.E.O. and is debating whether or not she should have revealed her identity to Clark looking I guess for justification in her decision, Clark obviously tells her she did the right thing because secret identities are there to keep loved ones safe and that is obviously the right thing to do.

Barry and Oliver arrive giving Lois a fright but it seems whatever alternate reality was put in place only affected Earth-1 because Kara still knows them as themselves. Barry and Oliver are formally introduced to Superman at both are a little bit starstruck but handle it in different ways fitting their characters.

Then when it comes to Barry and Oliver training as each other, Barry has to target practice while Oliver runs at him being a moving target.

The only issue with this setup is while is it is done to make an excellent callback to when Oliver trained Barry, Oliver still thinks he is training Barry here and gets very offended when Barry doesn’t take playing him seriously.

Lois is great in this scene as the impartial spectator and calls it how she sees it calling Oliver a dick. Hilarious.

Barry and Oliver then have a heart-to-heart and discover that in order to be each-other they need to embody what makes each other work as vigilantes, Barry is very light-hearted and positive whereas Oliver is very grounded and serious. So for Barry to be the Green Arrow effectively he needs to be grounded and serious while Oliver being The Flash needs to be upbeat. As I said before I love the meta referencing of how the two shows and characters are so different from each other yet exist in the same space, then Kara comes along who is a bit of both, it’s the trinity right here. DC’s original Trinity of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman has been made DOA thanks to the movies so the small-screen has a new trinity of Green Arrow, Flash and Supergirl.

Cisco arrives and tells the group that they need to come back to stop A.M.A.Z.O. and both Kara and Clark tag along for the ride, with Cisco finally meeting Superman.

Ambushing A.M.A.Z.O:

Back on Earth-1 and sure enough A.M.A.Z.O. makes his debut as these crossover events need badly CG’d robots in them. A.M.A.Z.O. as his comic-book counterpart does, is a robot who mimics powers so as he battles he just gets stronger. Here this is done through displaying symbols of each person mimicked on his chest...the only issue with this is while I understand Killer Frost’s symbol I do not get Vibe’s.

After having their asses handed to them, Cisco decides they need Oliver and Barry, but Iris says she let them go due to believing their story and Cisco goes along with it going to Earth-38 to get them. Whether or not the extrapolator knew where Kara was and so ported Oliver and Barry there is one thing but how did Cisco know where they were? I guess he vibed them but it is never shown.

After returning with Barry, Oliver, Kara and Clark what follows is an amazing battle and it’s only the first part of the crossover. Okay yes the CG on A.M.A.Z.O. is shoddy but so was the CG on Red Tornado and Metallo last year, here the focus is really on Barry and Oliver working as Green Arrow and Flash respectively.

They figure out a plan that includes the Super-Cousins as they are used essentially as battering rams to hold A.M.A.Z.O. in place, I am just thrilled to finally see at least 2 members of the original Justice League working side-by-side, I know Martian Manhunter is coming up most likely in the Supergirl part so I cannot wait for that.

Team Flash acquire a virus that would destroy A.M.A.Z.O. because turning him off manually has been made impossible. In order to install the virus, Barry had to shoot the virus at A.M.A.Z.O. but to make sure he couldn’t phase it through, Oliver had to counteract his phasing. So you had Barry waiting for the right shot while the other three held him in place. They succeed and, after a familiar line from the Green Arrow, A.M.A.Z.O. is no more.

Future Repercussions:

This part got me excited, this was Iris, coming round to the idea that Barry is actually Barry, and warning him not to turn into Oliver. Again the girl has some sort of issue with Oliver being dark and miserable all the time and while Barry is playing Green Arrow for the moment, doesn’t want him to become Oliver.

This got me thinking, what if the events of this crossover have a lasting effect on the future of the Arrowverse? What if by learning how to be each other’s vigilante personas, both Barry and Oliver are changed when they return to their respective personas? I would love this crossover to make that possible as I feel it would make both series’ more compelling going forward.

Preluding the Bat:

So at the end of the episode, Cisco mentions a scattered vibe he had earlier in the episode of this mysterious figure who we know as The Monitor. Again I won’t go into much detail here because we are not given much as is but the vibe shows him with this lecturer John Deagan who he gave this all powerful reality writing book to and caused the events of this crossover.

While no one else really knows who the men are, Oliver spotted a key fact as to where they are, a Wayne Enterprises building...tomorrow’s Part 2 episode will bring about Gotham City and more importantly Batwoman who is seen atop a rooftop from a far distance but it is definitely her. I cannot wait!

Easter-Eggs:

So many Easter-Eggs and this is only episode 1. We see a barrage of dead heroes in that opening scene, these include Captain Cold, either Jesse Quick or Speedy, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, The Ray and a Green Arrow who is in the Green Arrow suit used in Smallville.

Smallville is an Easter-Egg cache of itself here due to that cameo plus the theme song and the farm all being used, most likely just fan-service but I loved it.

I don’t really want to rate the separate parts of the crossover and will rate the whole thing at the end of the event but I think this is a great start to the crossover and I cannot wait for Part 2.

So that’s my review of Elseworlds - Part 1, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more DC TV Reviews and well as other TV Reviews and posts.

[justgotham]

Robin Lord Taylor, the third actor to play famous Batman villain The Penguin, talks to us about finding his confidence as an artist, his creative family in Gotham, his independent film work out of it, plus waddling in the footsteps of Burgess Meredith and Danny DeVito.

It's the first morning of this year's Heroes & Villains Fan Fest at Olympia London, and with press access I am able to take in the calm before the impending storm. Not the storm that will rock the city later that evening, but the imminent opening of the floodgates through which thousands of genre TV fans will pour.

Fans that have been drawn, in no small part, to the attendance of Robin Lord Taylor, who stars as The Penguin, aka Oswald Cobblepot, in TV hit Gotham. The character is one of Batman's most iconic enemies, played previously as a sneering caricature by Burgess Meredith in the 60s BatmanTV show, then physically grotesque and almost inhuman by Danny DeVito in 1992's Batman Returns. It is Taylor's very human and nuanced portrayal of the character that has seen him become one of the series most stand out turns.

As such, crowds lined up early to meet the star, many dressed up in full Oswald regalia and some of whom he has time to greet before he's torn away to chat to me (sorry everyone). He arrives in the press room buoyed by the morning's reception and I ask what it was like landing the role of such a well-known character.

"The role of "The Penguin" has just been such an amazing experience in so many ways, but mostly because the range of emotion that he goes through, it's the entire spectrum. I just feel confident now and not afraid. I feel like the best work I've ever done is coming up. It's really exciting. From the way they had already cast Gotham, I just knew it would always be me [chuckles]. I've never really felt that way at auditions, but I knew after the Gotham audition, I was like, "I think it's mine." [chuckles]. I had that feeling. Then talking to the executive producers, they were like, "The second you walked in the room, we were like, 'It's you'. It's incredible." My life has changed completely."

Far from a mere foil to pit against Gotham's caped crusader - albeit a teenage one - this Penguin, like many of the villains in the show, is often seen to be a victim of tragedy and injustice that goes on to form the famous alter-ego. One story-line in particular [SPOILER ALERT}, involving an unrequited love between Penguin and The Riddler, confirmed the shows willingness to give these characters a unique, fresh and modern take. Is this something he knew was planned from the beginning?

"I had no idea, I really didn't know. I don't know if they knew. I feel so fortunate in so many ways. Bringing the human experience to these larger than life characters has just been incredible. To find that common thread in these characters that have been around for 70-80 years, it's just been so great. Again, to be able to show certain aspects to these characters that people haven't really seen or thought about before has been probably my favourite thing about the experience. When you're an actor, that's the good stuff. I'm only the third "Penguin" on screen, which is great because I don't have the pressure of trying to live up to anything that's happened before. Not just that I'm the third one, it's such a departure from what Danny DeVito did, and then also what Burgess Meredith did, and so, I don't feel like I have to live up to what they did. Those guys are geniuses. That was nice and not having that pressure was great. Also, just to be one of the first major villains that launched from the pilot episode is just an amazing feeling. I'm just so grateful to be able to colour with all the crayons in the crayon box.

There is a pitch perfect cast that makes up the entire roster of Gotham's main characters, each bringing their own uniqueness to some well-worn roles. One of those is Ben Mackenzie, playing James Gordon, who has also directed episodes of the show. Taylor has nothing but good things to say about his experience of a cast-mate slipping into the director's chair.

"It was fantastic. Again, because he's an actor, he's so much more direct with us in a way. It's so much easier for him to get the kind of performance that he wants out of us because he knows us all so well. We're like a family. We all love each other. To have him behind the camera, he'd give this look at me and say maybe two words and I know exactly where he's going and what he wants. It's a really fantastic experience. [With guest directors] the great thing is that they really encourage us to make these characters ours and to just own it. Also, because I've been playing the character and it's been 88 episodes now or something, every once in a while, as the years go along, there'll be something in a scene and I'll have to remind the director, "Two years ago in season two, I did this thing, so that's not going to work because of that." I'm able to remind everybody where the character has been and all of the directors have come through really appreciate that. Because again, I know it better than anyone else does in some ways."

Where that familiarity with his role and working with the team on Gotham gets tested, is during the hiatus between series when Taylor has had the opportunity to sign on to independent feature film projects.

"It's daunting at first, but then at the same time I really look forward to any sort of opportunity to play a different character. I get afraid sometimes that I'll lose my job. "Oh, my God. Am I only ever going to do this? Do I know how to get through this?" Then going to these other films, especially because they're low budget, it just feels very creatively fulfilling in so many ways. I've been really lucky in the sense that I've been able to nail down a couple of independent features over the hiatus, which was really nice. I love it so much because it's the antithesis of Gotham. Gotham is a machine in the best way, but it's like multi-cameras, and it's very specific about the angles and the lighting, and everything is just super-designed to the moment. To be able to go on to an independent set where things are more freeing and open, it's amazing."

There are three films that look to all be approaching completion around the same time. Those are The Long Home, Full-Dress and The Mandela Effect.

"I did The Long Home first and that was directed by James Franco. We shot in Ohio, and it was a really, really crazy set. I really had no idea what to expect when I walked on to that set. At one point, I didn't even know where the camera was. He kept a very free-flowing, open environment on that set, which was, again, fun because it was so much different from Gotham.

After that was Full-Dress, which was an amazing experience because the director really attempted to shoot without any cuts so that it feels like a continual moment, which was really exciting because, again, it's so different from Gotham and it feels like a play in a way. We would do these scenes that just flow into one another, and so, you're doing the entire scene in one take without any coverage. It was a really fascinating experience because it's almost like choreography because as we talked, the camera had to find us, but we also had to find the camera, [all with] zero time and zero money. Everywhere we shot was basically a favor [chuckles]. It was really an amazing experience. I just talked to the director, Carlos Puga, and he says it's wrapping up, so it's almost out which is really fun and exciting.

Then, The Mandela Effect was directed and written by my good friend, David Guy Levy, who directed another independent film that I did some years ago called Would You Rather. It's a horror film. He wrote this. My other friend, Charlie Hofheimer, who is also the lead, was also in Would You Rather, so it was like coming-back-together-with-family moment."

One of the best things about these projects for Taylor is not always having to audition, and instead receiving straight offers. It's a testament to his work on Gotham and having the opportunity to display such a dynamic range, that these projects are now coming to him. But what about his own projects? In another interview earlier this year he talked about his desire to move in to producing. He already has a project in mind and credits his experience on Gotham for instilling in him the confidence to take it on.

"I'm working on producing. My sister is a novelist and I'm adapting one of her novels for screen. It's been with my good friend, Ashley Hudson, who I met through Gotham, actually. It's really exciting. I never thought of it as a possibility. Now and again, I just see all these opportunities now that I just want to take advantage of. It really is just confidence. It's just like being able to walk into a room and know that I belong there, and I deserve to be heard, and I have a voice. I have my own agency now. I found it within myself and that's been the best lesson ever. We're so fortunate with Gotham in the sense that the cast just really feels like a family. Going forward, I know that that's the vibe that I want to recreate on the set. I want to have that feeling where even though, for Gotham, it's a multi-million dollar budget thing, superheroes and stuff, but at the end of the day, it feels like a community theater [chuckles]. It still feels like we're a bunch of people coming together to play. I think that's why the show is just so vibrant and beautiful."

And with that, our whirlwind 13-minutes is up. He returns to the waiting fans at his table eager to meet the man who really has made the Penguin fly.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Justice League vs. Teen Titans (2016)

If you’ve always wanted to see Beast Boy beat up Superman, that’s not what you’re getting in Justice League vs. Teen Titans. That’s alright. This may be a flawed film - certainly not the strongest in this series of DC Animated features - but it’s still pretty good.

Robin/Damian Wayne (Stuart Allan) is sent to hone his superhero skills with the Teen Titans, a rag-tag group of super-powered youngsters. When the Justice League is overwhelmed by a mysterious demonic force, Raven (Taissa Farmiga), Robin, Beast Boy (Brandon Soo Hoo), Starfire (Kari Wahlgren), and Blue Beetle (Jake T. Austin) team up with Cyborg (Shemar Moore) to deal with this new threat.

This isn't an instance where the cover lies completely but there aren't a whole lot of scenes of Superman fighting the Teen Titans. If you've been following each "episode" of this story, you won't mind too much because we finally get to see this universe's version of the Titans. Their character dynamics are interesting, their abilities are cool, and being vastly underpowered compared to the likes of Wonder Woman, The Flash, Superman, Batman, and the others, raises the stakes. There’s a different level of tension when these heroes with something to prove face off against the big bad.

To be clear, this iteration of the Titans is unrelated to those we've seen in past animated series. There are missed opportunities in that respect, but the film also gets many elements right. Starfire and Beast Boy both shine. Cyborg being bumped up to a member of the Justice League means Jaime Reyes as Blue Beetle is a mainstay and he’s a great fit. The real gems of this story, however, are Robin and Raven. The boy wonder's character development continues to pay off in this new adventure. As for Raven, she is well fleshed out. She truly feels like a teenage superhero, someone who's often insecure, caught in a transitional period of her life, and given plenty of opportunities to show off her powers.

The animation is pretty good (not quite as good as 2014’s Assault on Arkham but better than in Justice League: War). The character designs are terrific. Unfortunately, the dialogue leaves a lot to be desired. There's so much clumsy exposition. I wish Warner Brothers would charge a dollar or two more per Blu-ray so they could make these animated films just 15 minutes longer and give these stories a bit of time to breathe. This would reduce the need to have characters just tell each other (and the audience) what’s going on. It’s also obvious that the voice actors did not record their lines simultaneously, resulting in conversations that always feel slightly off.

After Batman: Bad Blood, Justice League vs. Teen Titans is a disappointment. Then again, it’s miles above Throne of Atlantis and Justice League: War. With a scene during the end credits hinting at a sequel, I have no guilt about giving this film a recommendation despite the now-familiar story (we've seen the big bad several times now) and certain technical aspects that leave a bit to be desired. The special features included make this a nice package worth picking up. (On Blu-ray, June 28, 2016)

[scrawnydutchman]

Why “Justice League” is One of the Best Shows Ever Made

Let’s talk about one of the hottest topics of the week . . . the Justice League. What is perhaps the most exciting and mindblowing crossover superhero team in comic book history, the idea of DC comic legends like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and many others coming together to fight off the baddest villains in the DC multiverse is an idea too good and too profitable to pass up. The team has seen many incarnations across many mediums over the years. Many are heartfelt and memorable, others we’d like to forget. But Today I‘m talking about my introduction to the team; Bruce Timms animated run on the JL and the rise of the larger expanded DC animated universe, also known as the “Timm-verse“. After all, what better time to talk about this show than it’s 16th anniversary?

Oh, also the JL movies out I guess. Yeah, cool.

Premiering on November 16th, 2001, the Justice League animated series was an in-canon spinoff of the previous highly praised series Batman TAS and Superman TAS, both also produced by Bruce Timm. It offered everything it’s predecessors offered and more with tighter, more concise animation with fewer errors, faster paced action, thicker plots and schemes and best of all an unforgettable dynamic between the main cast. For all these reasons, It is easily my all time favorite TV show, and it gets even better with Unlimited. I’ve been thinking a lot about just how amazing this show is and watching some episodes in retrospect, it hasn’t gotten old in the slightest. Here are just some of the reasons why Justice League and Justice League Unlimited kick so much ass.

1. A strong showcase of multiple DC characters

When writing a long format piece like a film or television show, juggling multiple main characters is no easy task. It’s a great challenge to make each character involved feel real, distinct and like there really is crucial difference between them and the rest of the cast. Without doing this, there’s no real reason for an audience member to pick their favorite outside of who is the most physically powerful (hence Power Rangers). The best way to go about it without resorting to clichés too often is to make a central theme of the show all about interaction; express each characters personality in how they react and perceive each other. This show gets it, and as a result has excellently portrayed DC icons really show their chops in a way where everyone can pick a favorite based on their personal preference. It’s hilarious to watch the stern, cynical, no-nonsense Batman work off of the lighthearted, goofball Flash, and it feels extra sweet when in spite of their comedic banter they really express that they have nothing but respect for each other. The Flash is made all the more goofy by Batman and Batman is made all the more bruiting by Flash. Then of course you also have the noble boyscout Superman, the proud but compassionate Wonder Woman, the militant authoritative marine Green Lantern, the spunky and hard hitting Hawkgirl, and finally, the stoic and softspoken Martian Manhunter. All of them become lovable for different reasons and bring their own signature charm to the show. Not only do they work well off of each other, they each get a healthy dosage of screentime to do something silly, something badass, something sad, something touching. This show perfectly balances these heroes to really make them seem like a team and it becomes a fun discussion to talk about who in the group is your favorite. Not like a lot of other DC properties where they constantly insist Batman should be your favorite because he can beat anyone, solve anything by himself and really, if not for him the rest of the characters would apparently be incompetent assholes. Here he’s WAY more interesting because he still has badass moments but he‘s allowed to need help every once in a while. It also helps that the show has SUPREME acting talent like Kevin Conroy, Phil Lamarr, Clancy Brown and George Newbern.

This element of the show only gets better in Unlimited by the way. the team expands to lesser known characters like Green Arrow, Vigilante, Vixen and so on, and each one of them gets their fair share of badass likeable moments and nobody ever feels like they ever get too much or too little exposure. Except the Question and Star Girl. the Question should have been on screen way more often because he’s the best part of Unlimited and Star Girl was the worst part of it because everytime she appeared she was a snarky condescending bitch who ended up getting her ass kicked more than anyone else. 

2. Great Action (and Animation in General)

*this show has more than a few bitchslap moments and I love it for that*

Now, I’ve mentioned before and still hold onto the opinion that Justice League is the best work of Bruce Timm’s. I know many people hold Batman TAS to that stature for it’s intense drama and theming, and I certainly agree it is groundbreaking, but JL and ESPECIALLY JLU perfected what Batman TAS established. Batman TAS was the first look into what would become the DCAU and it very clearly shows that the show writers and animators were still trying to find their voice. If you watch the Batman TAS (especially earlier episodes) with a trained eye for animation you’ll notice more than a few consistency errors, with awkward stills and elements of character designs dropping out of frame here and there. JL and JLU is consistently more crisp and the errors are MUCH farther and fewer between. Not to mention the action and pacing are just better. I LOVE Batman TAS, I never want to make the impression that I don’t, but it DID have a tendency to move a touch too slowly at times, especially for what were supposed to be intense action scenes. In justice League the fighting is dynamic, it’s snappy, it‘s crackling with energy and creativity. Every punch, every kick, every spit in the eye really feels painful due to how quickly and smoothly it happens; you feel the weight of all of it. Each and every fight has a genius setup and plays further into enhancing how badass every character is. Not to mention the stakes are always high, be it on a physical level of how many people could die in the process or what the fight represents in who is in the right and who is in the wrong. One of the best examples is the fight between Superman and Captain Marvel. The context is Superman thinks Luthor is hiding a sinister motive because he can’t find it in himself to trust him, while Captain Marvel is defending Luthor by saying he believes in the merit of giving people the benefit of the doubt. The physical fight really came down to a difference in ideology and Superman losing sight of who he was. The fights are never random; they always serve the theme of the show greatly and the outcome of them further instills the drama of the subject matter. Going along the same example, Captain Marvel delivers a chilling and biding speech at the end of the episode that gives the conflict a bitter sweet resolution. I love it.

Oh, did I mention it’s all in GLORIOUS frame by frame? Yeah, this is right up there with Avatar: The Last Airbender as some of the most glorious and high quality animation to ever hit the airwaves. The easing, the anticipation, the reaction, the timing, it’s all on point.

3. Great plots, better execution

This show has TONS of iconic episodes and plots, whether they be wholly original or inspired by a comic book plot of the same name (like “The Man Who Has Everything”, the only Alan Moore adaptation approved by the man himself). The conspiracy about Superman murdering president Luthor, the invasion of Darkseid, the dark heart, the hijacking of the annihilator armor, both fights with the android Amazo. I honestly can’t think of a single bad episode of this show. I think the reason this shows stories are so strong are largely due to the reasons I already listed above. They play largely into character interaction which usually perpetuates some sort of central theme of the episode (and in some cases we get a showcase of a one time appearing DC character like Captain Marvel or Deadman). They also showcase well choreographed, well animated action that perfectly compliments the conflict and feels very deliberate. This shows greatest tool however, is how it uses escalating stakes. when making an action oriented show or movie, in order to keep the action truly compelling, you have to make it feel like there is something being lost as a consequence of the action. The reason why so many people don’t like Superman is because they don‘t see the drama in it if they feel like he can never lose. But this show ALWAYS makes sure there is something to be lost like mass destruction, the health of our heroes, sometimes straight up death. Or sometimes the fight results in a greater lesson being learned. The point is, the fights are never inconsequential. Something changes as a result of what has transpired. This seems so blatantly obvious but You’d be surprised how much media just throws a bunch of mindless shit at the wall and thinks it’s engaging because there’s a lot of shit going on and that‘s the only thought you have to give to it. This doesn't just apply to the physical fighting either. Everything that goes on is governed by character decision making, NOT by coincidence or happenstance. It’s such an easy trap to fall into to just have shit happen to people out of nowhere and on any other given day it would have never transpired, but real compelling storytelling happens as a result of who is in control of the situation, not nobody having it. So much of new fiction has an issue of “this guy robbed a bank JUST as Spidey was swinging around one day“ or “they were in a bad trap but luckily Batman had JUST the right gadget for the occasion” and other deus ex machina shit where the only reason the day is saved is basically because the heroes got lucky, but here each and every hero involved actually influences something in this show. It also helps that they made the DCAU more balanced physical wise so that more characters are actually a presentable threat to Superman. Also, though not completely necessary, this show will often reference previous episodes as justification for characters actions which makes for great continuity.

Conclusion:

Justice League and Justice League Unlimited is fantastic for all the same reasons many shows out there are fantastic. It gracefully juggles attention between a diverse set of characters, it perfects the Bruce Timm animation style with crisp and consistent animation and it has high stakes manifested by the characters being in control of the conflict. It certainly isn’t the first to accomplish any of these things, but it IS one of the very few shows ever put out to pull it off just so darn effectively. For those reasons among many others, Justice League is EASILY my personal favorite show of all time. Bruce Timm Himself once said it’s his favorite of his productions because it’s the only one he can go back to and still wholly enjoy every time, and I wholeheartedly agree.

[forthemultiverse]

AU Questions: If Robin/Dick Grayson, Kid Flash/Wally West, Aqualad/Garth and Miss Martian became the Team (under different circumstances), how would they interact with each other? Who do you think would be in charge of that group of teenage heroes? Robin, KF or 'Lad? And what happens when they clash with the Secret Spies of The Light (which includes Artemis, Kaldur, Superboy and their newest member in Icicle Junior) sometimes?

The real question is what are the new circumstances that form them together? Becuase that would definitely shape the team slightly, like if it was just the boys and Roy storming out with M’gann coming later then it would all be pretty normal, if it was like some invasion or something then that make the team a more hardcore team with more pressure on trust and relationships. 

Adding Garth over Kaldur would be more like the Titans comics which means they would all click. Part of the thing about Young superhero teams, even for the characters without powers - they are trained to take down people with powers, and when you’re a teen, having someone like you means you often end up being friends, whether you have anything else in common or not. Part of what I love about the Young Justice comics is how the group kind of bonds together without having much common ground. Cissie and Cassie bond because they have similar names and having that one thing sparks a really strong friendship.

I reckon Robin would be the leader because he is trained to be that way and it’s hard to argue with a Bat. Plus, Dick is so likable that people do tend to gravitate towards him. But then, you do have the issue that Wally would probably want some role or want to prove himself that could create tension. If we’re going off comics, they’re still pretty close friends (I think) so it would probably be an episode thing - they’re battling for control, one goes in alone or does something rash that maybe works out but pisses the team leader off. Dick would also be a very problematic leader in the beginning because of his need for fun and lack of communication, but he’d soon be hit with reality. Like they’d try other leaders for a bit after his lack of communication caused a problem but then it’s proved that his plans are the best and he is a very good people person when he’s allowed to be him and not a miny Bruce. That could then be played into the Nightwing transition and their falling out - He’s his own person and he’s good at what he is. ( I feel like I’m turning this into a Titans/Teen Titans thing now 🤣)

Without Superboy, Miss Martian might fall a bit more into Wally’s flirting which would be interesting to see. The dynamic would change definitely. They’d maybe get together but it would take longer since M’gann didn’t actually like Wally’s flirty - He’d have to realise that he was making her uncomfortable because she snaps and he then starts trying to prove himself till she falls, or it would be one of those suddenly he’s serious moments in the middle of a battle or mission and she’d see him differently. I don’t think it would last though, not at all. Whether my Artemis point in a later paragraph is the reason or just they realise they don’t click perfectly and not all teen romances last forever (which would be a good message tbh)

I’m taking secret spies of the light to mean they aren’t part of the team at all and a team the group clash with, which would be so interesting to see.

Superboy would be a big gun to fight but since Batman has connections to Kryptonite, Robin should have it covered. The debate would then be that Superman would want him brought to the right side and wouldn’t necessarily be okay with Kryptonite just being used out there. He would probably try and talk Conner over to the right side which would plant doubt in Conner’s head but wouldn’t work completely. 

If Artemis was fighting for the Light, I imagine her to be similar to the way Cheshire is, the flirting and mind games. I reckon Wally and her would probably have a similar chemistry, where she’s undercover somewhere, he flirts, she’s revealed as evil and he takes it a personal declaration of war - meaning whenever they meet there’s that tension and his game goes off a bit because he doesn’t know what to do. She is his to take down. She still has her show spunk and attitude that would probably get her in trouble with the Light a few times. That added with Icicle Junior would be fun because ice countering speed. Wally realising he needs to let the team help him and stop focusing on just Artemis.  

(I’m coming up with like a full story idea now so thank you lol)

Garth and Kaldur would also be a personal fight - whether Tula or just Aqualad chose you and lied to me fight (probs both). I could also see Garth being goodish at leading but I still feel like it would probably fall mainly on Dick 

M’gann and Robin would have the least personal conflicts till M’gann tries to go in Conner’s head and see’s the pain he’s in and makes it her mission to help him.

I like to think the teams would end up working together to bring down the Light because I’m all for redemption arcs plus learning to be one team and trust each other would be awesome. 

Sorry if this is full of grammar and spelling errors + longer than expected, I’m writing this very late. Interested why you wanted to know though and what your own opinion is 😊