#it is also interesting to me that this intervention is from superman ALONE

[eight-freakin-gids]

Top 5 Gideon Jura cards

For funsies, I wanted to rank something other than the Gideon planeswalkers (since I had a whole tournament of polls for them). So instead, I'm ranking cards with Gideon in the art, name, and/or flavor text with a combination of subjective and objective criteria. To do this, I have created the four G's:

Is it a Good card that sees play? (Through a predominantly Commander lens)

How well does it demonstrate Gideon's character?

In a vacuum, is it cool and Glorious?

Is it a Gersonal favorite? (I couldn't find a suitable G-word, sue me)

#5 Tragic Arrogance

Good: 3/5. In 3,000 decks on EDHRec, and that feels low. Really good board wipe. You get to pick what lives, it's sacrifice and not destroy, and everybody keeps a little something to not completely stall the game. My only hangup is that it affects all the major permanent types. Opponents get to keep up to 4 cards, and you don't get to break symmetry and keep any more than anyone else.

Gideon: 5/5. His most defining trauma, the moment that would eventually forge him into the hero he is.

Glorious: 2/5. Tragedy is not glorious, per se. Yeah, it's a good story spotlight, it's evocative, I'd even say it's a little metal, but it's not hype though.

Gersonal: 1/5. Not a card I've gersonally played. There's a lot of competition for board wipes, and I like ones where you can break symmetry.

Total Score: 2.75 / 5

#4 Annointed Procession

Good: 5/5. In 200,000+ decks on EDHRed. Commander players love their doublers.

Gideon: 5/5. Gideon is the type of person to adhere to his personal sense of justice, so he doesn't hesitate to question when things don't seem right.

Glorious: 1/5. Just a bunch of mummies carrying dead initiates. It does a good job of showing Gideon's shock contrasted against the Amonketti's total acceptance of their way of life, but that doesn't get me excited to play the card.

Gersonal: 1/5. I own a copy, but I have a hipster aversion to expensive staples.

Total Score: 3 / 5

#3 Worship (Signature Spellbook: Gideon)

Good: 2/5. Just shy of 6,000 decks on EDHRec. Used in certain locks, but not really pushing any boundaries. Easy to disrupt unless you're heavily building around it.

Gideon: 5/5. Gideon wants to believe in the righteousness of others. His faults with Amonket weren't with its gods, but how they were twisted to a cause other than the best interests of their people.

Glorious: 3/5. A melancholic toast. Not exactly blowing your socks off, but I find the art and subject matter more interesting that the previous cards.

Total Score: 3.25 / 5

Gersonal: 3/5. I think this + Near Death Experience is a fun win condition, but it's not something I get to do very often.

#2 Gideon's Intervention

Good: 2/5. Only in 1,200 EDHRec decks, but I think it's got chops. It is a little rude, but nothing wrong with that at the right tables.

Gideon: 5/5. Gideon will protect anyone from anything, even a god. Especially a god.

Glorious: 5/5. Again, standing up to a god is pretty damn awesome.

Total: 3.5 / 5

Gersonal: 2/5. I tried playing it once, but not much since I'm not a rude dude.

#1 True Conviction (Signature Spellbook: Gideon)

Good: 5/5. In 60,000+ EDHRec decks, and rightfully so. Giving everything double strike is very powerful. Plus, lifelink makes sure anyone still standing can't bowl you over on the crackback.

Gideon: 5/5. Peak. Textbook Superman shit. Love it.

Gersonal: 5/5. Love this as a finisher in any combat focused deck. I also like heavy white costs, so WWW is fun to see.

Glorious: 5/5. Local Man Stands Up To Writhing Tide Of Foes. Plus the name alone is dope af.

Total: 5 / 5

[covertblizzard]

Okay, I understand Superman’s point, and the main issue he seems to have is with worship rather than with the actions that Kyle has been taking. But it is also explicitly stated (multiple times in fact) that Kyle doesn’t actually have to APPEAR to the people to carry out his actions, it is entirely possible that he fertilises the lands, stop fightings, remove viruses, etc. without ever even appearing. Sure, some of the actions might end up being attributed to faith in a higher being, whichever they are inclined to, but not to him. So hypothetically, would he have an issue with Kyle carrying out more or less whatever he is doing, but just entirely without appearing to anyone ever?

[red-winters]

*Batfam fic-recs

*Some are Tim Drake Centric

**Some links are not working in mobile (and ONLY mobile) for some reason? And some titles that were bolded in the original post are ALSO not displaying on mobile correctly. Idk what to do about that, but you can still look up the fic, I guess.

The Bat’s Crest - livierambles

Note: I will always keep recommending this fic. It’s epic, thrilling, and hilarious and sometimes angsty. Also, everyone is confused, including the ones doing the confusing. Maybe especially the ones doing the confusing. Also, some Tim and Damian bonding, which is always nice.

Summary: Tragedy strikes the hero community when Bruce Wayne commits a crime so heinous even the best start asking for blood. However, as the heroes try to recover from the hit and carry out justice for their friends, a random assortment of people start acting oddly, including the current Speedy Tim Drake, a child hostage in Gotham, and a young man from an unremarkable circus amongst others. All of them seem intent on saving Bruce Wayne from the grasp of the Justice League for no apparent reason, going as far as betraying their previous allegiances.

Unknown to the Justice League, these people are equally confused. Clearly they're stuck in another dimension, but how do they get back? How did they even get here? Who else is stuck in this world? And how long will Tim's patience last? Back home, the Bat was a planetary symbol that struck fear in the hearts of criminals. In this new world, it has no meaning, save for the handful of stranded souls.

In the Shadows - Kieron_ODuibhir

(shortened) Summary:

“I’m not like you.”

The cowl still looked like something he was wearing, but Clark knew it was not. It flexed like skin when Batman narrowed his blank white eyes and said, “I can see you know that.” 

Chirp - AmariT

Summary: Every piece of the signal Tim unlocked revealed more locks, and by the time he broke through the last one, he was already mentally rehearsing his many upcoming talk show appearances. 'Yes,' he told the interviewer, 'it was difficult for me, a ten-year-old genius, to break open the worldwide alien conspiracy. That's why it took a whole hour.'

When the crackling audio started, he expected some weird alien language. Maybe squawks and high-pitched squeals mixed with musical woofs. Maybe they wouldn't talk at all, and images would beam directly into his mind. Maybe they'd talk in practiced English with a Midwestern drawl like their other resident alien.

Instead he heard a low, guttural voice growling out of his computer speakers. "Robin," it said. "Are you in position?"

A Better Cage - Mangaluva

Note: I was absolutely DELIGHTED to see a Young Justice Crossover with the Justice Lords (Earth-50) from the animated Justice League series, which is near and dear to my heart. I admit I haven’t really had much time to hunker down and read this, but even skimming, it’s an intriguing piece of work. Also, Justice Lords.

Summary: Wally's grateful to have woken up at all, really. He just doesn't know what to make of the world he's woken up in. At least they want to find a way to his world as much as he does, if not exactly for the same reasons...

Common People - AmariT

Note: The Bat boys are all Bruce’s blood sons, but it still feels very much like a found family. I haven’t really read everything in this series, but I feel the author has an amazing grip on all the characters. Lovely and heartwarming.

Summary: His whole life, Jason’s mom had told him his dad was Bruce Wayne, but he’d never been dumb enough to actually believe it. They lived in a rundown, one-room apartment in the worst part of town, and in every single picture he’d ever seen of that rich bastard he was wearing a suit or sipping champagne worth more than everything they’d ever owned.

But if he wasn’t Bruce Wayne’s kid, then what the hell was he doing sitting outside the man’s office in Wayne Towers?

Red Robin and the Hood - momoejaku

Note: Haven’t read this in a while, but it made an impression. Though it’s a fic set during the Red Robin arc, it very much is about both Tim and Jason. Plus, it fleshes out the Pru and Z a bit more, too.

Summary: Bruce Wayne is dead. Superman brought back his body, and the family mourned him, holding a quiet funeral in secret so that the legacy of Batman could live on. But not everyone has been able to put him to rest.

Reeling from the loss of Bruce, his identity as Robin and his trust in his family, Tim Drake sets out on a personal quest that will take him across the world to prove what he knows in his heart: that Bruce Wayne is alive.

Though intending to make his way alone, Tim reluctantly accepts help from his predecessor, Jason Todd, who knows from personal experience that death is not always as final as it seems.

Together, they are Red Robin and the Hood.

Liminal Spaces - Calamityjim

Note: Skimmed this only since I’ve been busy, BUT it does look well-written, and I’m always a sucker for alternate dimension/dimension travel intervention-type of fix-its. It’s a very specific trope.

Summary:

Bruce's habit of collecting strays is not limited by dimension.

Or

When Young Justice Batman comes across an angsty, seemingly abandoned by his Batman Tim Drake, he decides to step up to the plate and parent the crap out of him.

Little Bird’s Vengeance - KatHarkness-Katara

Note: Crossover with Avengers. Awesome fic with Tim and Jason and some Outsider POV (via the Avengers) of these dimensional stragglers. I think Tim’s team shows up in the later chapters, too. If you’re reading on mobile, it’s still very much worth reading despite FF.net’s horrible format and abundance of advertisements in the mobile version.

Summary: Why is life never simple? Red Robin's ended up worlds away from home once again, and now what's he to do? What do the Avengers want from him; do SHIELD have another agenda; and is there any way back? Pre-New 52. No slash. Rated for inevitable language/violent themes.

A Displaced Red Robin - dragonprincess1988

Note: Worth reading despite FF.net’s horrible format and abundance of advertisements in the mobile version. Well-written fic! EMOTIONS! I love them. Younger Dick Grayson is adorable, Tim is a competent fixer-upper for other people but not so much himself. He’s kind of angsty and making YJ Dick want to keep him (and YJ Bruce, too, if you read between the lines). On the plus side, seems like he’s making good friends with Young Justice Roy. This fic was written before certain episodes of YJ came out, though, and the fic reflects/will continue to reflect that. Still, I give it five stars.

Author’s Summary: Tim gets transported to the cartoon Young Justice world, and he's not sure he knows how to deal with it. Attention: If you want to know about Artemis or people from Tim's world the final note on my profile is for you. Also, a special thank you to angel-gidget over at Tumblr, who made the wonderful cover art for this story.

The Till-then From the Ever Since - Keiron O_Duibhir

Note: Fandom classic. Definitely a must-read for Batfam fans, in my humble opinion.

Summary: It began, or seemed to begin, with Jason.

Usually that would have meant something in the order of fire and explosion and probably at least one gunshot wound, but for once (as Tim said, sourly), it wasn't actually Jason's fault.

The Wayne Family Ghost - pupeez4eva

Note: Please read this. Especially if you’re sad or anxious or just have time. I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s my go-to cheer-up fic. Absolutely hysterical.

Summary: In which Bruce realizes that having a legally dead son, who regularly hangs around the family, might be slightly problematic. 

Bloodline - chibi_nightowl

Note: Complicated family dynamics, this time centering around Tim, Selina, Bruce and, surprisingly, Damian. Jason and Dick make an appearance as supportive big bros, too. It works. Take a read, it isn’t that long.

Summary:

“Mr. Drake, I can’t think of a better way to say this, so I’ll just be blunt. This file is for your first adoption. By the Drakes.”

Tim blinked. “My what?”

“You were adopted as a newborn by Jack and Janet Drake.”

“Excuse me, but what the fuck are you talking about?”

Talon!Tim AU Series by keeptogethernow

Note: Found family, from a different angle. Cool fic and well-written.

Summary of Tso’ape Mumbichi, first in the series: Ten years ago, two people made a deal with the devil--unlimited funds in exchange for their child. And now it's time to pay up. But there's no way to ensure that the child will cooperate.

Shutterbug Series by goldkirk

Note: Exactly what it says on the tin! Found family.

Summary:

Tim Drake is thirteen, runs the famous BatWatch blog that has spiraled hilariously out of control, has absentee parents that suit his purposes just fine, is training himself to run the streets at night, and is doing absolutely peachy, thank you.

Alfred and Jason disagree, and get Dick and Bruce involved in figuring out their weird next door neighbor kid’s life. Everything goes uphill from there.

Thursday’s Child - anthalogia

Note: Well-written and has found family and Tiny!Tim? Automatic win.

Summary:

He’s not the first child with nowhere else to go that Bruce Wayne has taken in. Dick Grayson was the first and the most high-profile – because no one would have thought Bruce Wayne was interested in ever raising a child, let alone the orphaned son of circus performers – but Jason was maybe just as much of a shock to society for being a street kid who came out of seemingly nowhere. Tim Drake is ordinary by comparison – his parents died in a plane accident. He can’t think of anything very special about him except that he met Bruce a few times when his parents hosted parties to keep in touch with Gotham society.

Or, tiny Tim Drake is adopted by the Waynes a little earlier than scheduled.

We’re Not Driving (How did we get here?) - TimTheToaster

Note: Short and sweet, a little angsty, and then very sweet.

Summary:

Tim stared at his phone, as if that would change what was on the screen.

Dick Grayson @FlyingDGrayson

It took some doing, and in some cases a little blackmail, but we've finally got the whole family together for a movie night! #WayneManor #movienight #familytime #schedulingisanightmare

15 minutes ago

Take It Back Now Y’all - TimTheToaster

Note: And Tiny!Jason has made his appearance. Also, Tim, I am begging you to please take care of yourself—ah, Bruce has made his appearance. Interesting. Also, I gotta say this author is good.

Summary:

There was absolutely no way this sunshine was from Gotham in April.

Not possible.

Which meant, Tim was no longer in Gotham, in April.

(In which Tim finds himself in the past, and tries to do the right thing. It's more complicated than he'd like.)

Takes a Little Time, Takes a Lotta Twine (To Get Us Back Together) - TimTheToaster

Note: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, beginning of reconciliation, and brotherhood. A satisfying, cathartic moment during the Red Robin arc to soothe your heart.

Summary:

Tim was in Gotham.

Tim had pretty specifically been avoiding thinking about Dick as much as possible for the last few weeks.

For the last year, really. No need to open that can of carnivorous worms.

Dick had other plans.

Everybody’s Heard (Bird is the Word) - TimTheToaster

Red Robin Era ANGST, but like, deliciously well-written. Also, protective Dad Bruce is always epic. Light bashing of Green Arrow and BC, though. But considering the situation (in this fic), kind of warranted.

Summary:

5 times Batman heard other heroes talking about his wayward brother,

And 1 time they were talking about his son.

A Choice to Make - scorbusfics

Note: fresh and interesting premise! Cool world building, too.

Summary: They have to choose. Dick and Bruce have to choose one person each to save, and one to disappear through the door.

“Send one of us,” Dick says fiercely, not for the first time. His face is dark and angry and desperate, eyes flicking from brother to brother. “Send one of us instead. I won’t choose.”

“Neither will I,” Bruce says.

But Tim knows.

Secret Places - RenaRoo

It’s ANGST, but the author knows how to use it well. Also, Jason’s line at the end killed me. Damn.

Summary: Tim Drake goes missing. The search to find him begins.

[ghostmartyr]

SnK 100 Thoughts

“He has the power to wipe out the entire human race, and if we believe there's even a 1% chance that he is our enemy, we have to take it as an absolute certainty. And we have to destroy him.”

Look, if you design a character who agrees with Batman in Batman v Superman, you just sorta have to accept that bad things are going to happen to him.

Though, since we are talking about it...

Now, I’m not making any giant leaps here.

All I’m saying is that technically all Eldians have the name of their mother in common.

Which means Eren’s going to die, Reiner’s Batman, and Wonder Woman is still waiting for her musical cue. Also, War Hammer is Doomsday.

#spoilers

Obviously I missed out on calling Falco Robin, which is even more tragic due to where his life story looks to be taking him, but then we have to get down to assigning a Joker, and I guess Gabi’s a pretty easy Batgirl, but I have a chance here to keep one of these posts short, and I can’t do that if fanfiction is being written in the margin.

Also, I think someone would yell at me if I suggested Zeke for Wonder Woman (heislookingbackatabattlefieldheisdepartingsotheblockingisthereevenifthemoralcenterisn’t) so let’s just stop.

Okay, so the brief summary of this chapter is ding-dong, the witch is dead, only there’s some disagreement over whether it was a good witch or a bad witch. A similar disagreement is ongoing regarding the perpetrator.

Truthfully, the one thing that can be said is that the good or bad witch’s slippers are unlikely to be taken by the good or bad witch who slayed him. They won’t fit, and the good or bad witch murderer already has the most powerful magic in the land.

The briefer summary is that Willy Tybur continues to be terrible, only in such a way that it’s confused for nobility, and I am so very tired of Marley.

He’s willing to die for his belief that his people are irredeemable monsters that should be eradicated--but he’d still rather they not be, because life gives him the warm fuzzies, and maybe the people whose abuse his family’s been profiting off deserve warm fuzzies too.

The idea of a nobleman looking at the life of luxury he has at the cost of his own people, and choosing to make steps to change the world for the better, is not a bad one. Doing that despite a wholehearted belief in their inherent evil is actually very interesting. It’s one more bit of cognitive dissonance that allows Willy to feel guilt over what has been done to his people, even though he thinks the world would be better off without them, and doesn’t mind killing large numbers of them.

At his core, all he is is a man who wants to live in the world he’s been born into, and he’s willing to sacrifice that life for a better world.

Here’s the problem.

His version of a better world is blaming Paradis for everything so that everyone can run off holding hands to murder them all.

He’s willing to die to make that vision a reality.

He’s never met anyone on Paradis. He’s never tried to talk to anyone from Paradis. He’s used diplomacy with nations in the rest of the outside world to ease the horrific damage Marley being Marley has caused itself, but not once with Paradis.

When it comes to the island, murder is always the only solution.

Willy Tybur is the one Eldian with a position in the world that can make a real difference. He can get ambassadors to change their minds. Despite never taking advantage of it, he does have control over Marley. Under his direction, Marley might have avoided the mass series of war crimes that the rest of the world hates them for.

(not that we have any idea why that is)

He doesn’t go that route.

He determines that the best path to world peace is uniting the world to kill his ancestors’ scapegoat.

Martyrdom is not a thing you do because you’re too lazy to put effort into actual change.

It’s easy to look at what Eldians are capable of from birth and call them monsters. It’s easy to say that, obviously, they never should have existed. Even if you have that same blood, and want to be alive, it’s very, very easy to reach that conclusion.

What’s difficult is carving your place into a world that is predisposed to hate you. It takes time, and concentrated effort. It takes giving a damn about treating people decently.

Willy has the means to forge a peaceful, humane coexistence between Eldians and the rest of the world. Or at least the means to make that attempt.

He chooses to forge his peace in the blood of other Eldians. The fact that he’s willing to die for that outcome doesn’t magically turn it into a noble gesture. He’s strong enough to make a decision that will cost countless lives in a war based on nothing but fear and prejudice. And that would be after knowingly sacrificing people he thinks of as less worthy to a terrorist attack.

Ding-dong.

Speaking of, Eren’s response to Willy’s declaration isn’t exactly on the moral highground you’d appreciate from your protagonist, so that’s nice. His lunge is as horizontal as possible, but it would take authorial intervention to keep him from killing civilians when he goes after Willy.

The only way this doesn’t seem like a very bad idea is if Eren agrees with Willy’s decision.

...I want more of a warmup before looking at that too closely.

Elsewhere, Titans in pits.

Or not.

Zeke’s still the only one walking around free. Galliard and Pieck are out of whatever fight’s coming next.

None of that appears to be expected on the Marley side. It looks like they wanted their Warriors gathered when everyone went horribly wrong. Possibly to keep the level of wrongness to a minimum. How thoughtful.

It seems pretty fair to guess that Galliard and Pieck are the work of Eren’s friends, but Zeke and his fancy glasses that hide his eyeballs are a little harder to pin down. We get one shot of him, walking alone.

I’m willing to leave that for another month though, so to the other pit!

Falco being the Eren to Eren’s Reiner is painful. Here he had this thoughtful adult encouraging him all the way into committing treason. He was just being a good person, and Eren takes advantage of that.

And right after all of that hits, he gets to watch Mr. Braun self-destructing, and hears about dead friends and mothers.

Falco’s a good kid. Assuming that Reiner gets him out of this alive, he isn’t only going to take death and betrayals from this. He understands the toll of being a Warrior, and understands enough to hate that people are okay with Gabi selling her life to the role.

Eren looks right at him and says that the people inside the walls are the same as the people outside. I don’t know how well the doubt will stick, but if nothing else, I think there’s a good chance that Reiner won’t be able to keep up the lies about Paradis demons--to Falco, anyway.

Falco’s in this spot because he cares about people no one else sees. I don’t know how much of his path can be changed, given the decisions made this chapter, but I hope that the idea that everyone involved in this war is a person sticks with him.

Even though that will be infinitely more painful than just being a participant fighting off demons.

Oki doki, so.

Eren.

Eren has gone on a very educational journey of learning that people are people. Willy even helps him along by directly quoting something Eren says way back in Trost.

“Because... I was born into this world.”

They’ve all been born into this world, and they all want to live in it, freely.

Time to go attack that island!

Eren spends most of his time in the pit prying everything that went through Reiner’s head out of him. Not for the sake of condemning it. Just to hear the honest words of a man like him, who caused incredible pain in the name of saving the world.

Their whole talk is about their similar intentions and circumstances, and being understood. And finding forgiveness on a road that doesn’t deserve any.

“This whole time... it was painful for you, wasn’t it?”

“I think now... I understand that [...]

I was right. I’m... the same as you.”

So

Yeah, Eren brings down the house.

The final page is his hands extended in Titan form the same way Willy’s are when he makes his declaration.

Reciprocity. Yay.

There are a few concerning things here.

The murder’s pretty low on the list.

These would be the panels that earn Eren the kind of looks Reiner is the recipient of when he’s going through his identity trouble.

Eren, last seen back home speaking as his father and Eren Kruger, has supernaturally granted identity troubles, and not recalling death threats to the point of asking Reiner to ignore that they happened is... weird. Whether or not it means anything, who knows, but Eren’s general stability seems to be mimicking the style of someone who has recently done pot up to his magic handshake. There’s so much personal history involved that it makes sense that Eren’s the one mostly behind the wheel, but... yeah, I’ll stick with weird.

Adding to that is what he says during the magic handshake.

(the magic comes from friendship)

“I just keep moving forward. Until my enemies are destroyed.”

Once upon a time, Kruger explains to Grisha what the Attack Titan is all about.

“No matter the age, this Titan has always moved ahead, seeking freedom. It has fought on for freedom.”

Eren has altered the deal. Pray he doesn’t alter it any further.

No, but I’m not big on speculation. I like waiting to see what the next month brings instead. But I keep waiting for more on the individual Titans having sentience, and it’s hard not to wonder a little if Mr. Attack and Eren are experiencing some unnatural bleed-through.

I don’t know, some things just feel very odd.

Anyway, outside the tempting cracklands of detours, there’s a really uncomfortable prospect presented in this chapter that I would prefer being wrong about, but at the same time, hey, Eren’s causing destruction and murdering people, so clearly happy funtimes are over.

Eren smiles when Willy says he wants his audience to fight with him against Paradis. It is not full of happiness, exactly, but it is not the look you would expect from hearing that kind of statement. Some mix of acceptance and sadness, maybe?

There are a lot of people on Paradis who, if asked, would know the exact best moment to kill Willy that would encourage his message most efficiently.

Eren waits until Willy is done with his speech to kill him.

Willy’s just asked everyone he knows for helps against the island devils, and... Eren gives them one. Whatever destruction does or doesn’t follow, Willy’s message is heard in its entirety, and he’s killed by the enemy he asks for unity in facing.

If you want to limit his support, this is, by far, the worst way to do it.

So even though I can’t imagine why anyone would reach this conclusion, I have to wonder if Paradis agreed with Willy. If they agreed that a unified world could only come about through a common enemy and a martyr.

Thematically, I have all kinds of disagreements with that, but Eren couldn’t have fulfilled Willy’s plan any better if he’d been in the room listening to its design. At the end of a grand speech, a monster rushes out and kills the only one in the world brave enough to call all people to arms against this great threat.

It’s beautiful, and... very on the nose.

You could not pick a better time to attack.

...For Willy’s purposes.

Even if this wipes out a bunch of Marley military personnel, care has been taken to keep all of the Titans out of the way. The main force is secure and breathing. This is not an attack that will devastate; it will invigorate.

And I can’t shake the thought that someone on the Paradis side thought that that was the only hope the rest of the world’s Eldians had. And having said that... it’s hard not to wonder if that someone is Eren.

Staged martyrdom only works this smoothly if both sides have the script.

Or maybe Carla just raised Eren to believe that it’s rude to interrupt people.

I really don’t know how to feel about most of what happens here. This is another chapter that I’d like to think would be benefited by future ones.

Right now there’s just this ominous dread that makes it difficult to appreciate that I don’t have to read Willy talk anymore.

Nothing next month can’t fix, I’m sure.

[gamerssphere]

Today we got to see the very first event in Saudi Arabia for the WWE when they brought the Greatest Royal Rumble. This event had to be rather compliant with many different requests from the country’s organizers, as well as laws, of course, therefore, they had to be really specific on what sort of show they’d be bringing.

The very first match of the night featured the Cerebral Assassin, Triple H, facing John Cena. The match started with some clash of strength by both of them, trying to show who was more powerful. This is certainly set to be an interesting show. Triple H was getting the upper hand at the beginning, going as far as mocking Cena’s “You Can’t See Me” hand gesture multiple times.

The match is really good and interesting, Triple H is going slowly, methodically, paused, and every single time Cena tried to attack back, Triple H was able to counter his attempts. This is a visual beauty of a match; however, Cena is looking too weak against The Game. I hadn’t seen such a weak John Cena since his Wrestlemania match against The Undertaker, but before that, I don’t remember seeing him in such a weak state.

Finally, Cena starts to fight back and goes as far as hitting an Attitude Adjustment on Triple H, but The Game was able to kick out. Right after that, Triple H got out of a second Attitude Adjustment to go into his Pedigree right away, but Cena kicked out at 2 as well.

Then, after a chain of an STF from Cena, to a crossed clutch by The Game, Cena hits Triple H with 2 Attitude Adjustments to win the match.

The second match of the event is for the Cruiserweight Championship between the current champion, Cedric Alexander and Kalisto. This starts completely different to the previous match, both competitors are going through some chain wrestling with the usual agility that is the main weapon 205 Live contestants bring to the ring. After a great match between them, the champion retains his title.

The third match of the event has The Bar (Sheamus & Cesaro) versus Woken Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt for the RAW Tag Team Championship. This is an interesting match given how The Bar is no longer part of RAW as they were moved to SmackDown Live during the Superstar Shake-Up.

At first, the newest Tag Team from RAW was dominating and animating the crowd, until The Bar started to play their heel roles during this match, which turned the table for the match.With great combination of a Twist of Fate with the help of Bray, Matt and Bray finally become the new RAW Tag Team Champions!

The next match of the event is for the United States Championship as we have Jeff Hardy defending against Jinder Mahal. The match starts with Jinder’s usual aggressiveness against Jeff, but the champion is able to counter him, keeping in mind that Jinder isn’t alone as he comes with Sunil Sighn.

There was an interesting botch in this match as Jeff tried the Whisper in the Wind but failed, and Jinder still went down, a few seconds late.

After an intervention by Sunil, Jeff is able to counter Jinder’s Khallas and use his normal Twist of Fate + Swanton Bomb to retain his title.

Now we have the SmackDown Tag Team Champions, The Bludgeon Brothers, defending their titles against The Usos. The former champions came into this match completely synchronized, using that to their advantage against the current champions. However, The Bludgeon Brothers are too strong, and fast, and they ended up retaining their titles.

The next match of the event is a Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship between Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, The Miz and Finn Balor. This ought to be a great match, a contender to steal the show.

To nobody’s surprise, this was a great match all around. Every single one of the competitors went all in for the title, giving a good use to those ladders, of course. The Miz, former Intercontinental Champion, gave a great match, going against all of his opponents and coming out on top of them in multiple times.

In the end, surprisingly, Seth Rollins was able to retain his title due to how quick and agile he is, as Finn was about to reach the belt, but Seth jumped from the ropes to the ladder, and “stole” the belt from Finn.

  Now we get the introduction of 4 candidates to join the WWE from Saudi Arabia, but in the middle of this promo, the Daivari Brothers come into the ring with the flag of their country: Iran.

The next match of the night is for the WWE Championship between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura. First thing to note is that the WWE gave Nakamura’s entrance some lyrics, and the way in which Nakamura moved was completely different than what we are used to see. It is also worth saying: it is great to see AJ’s entrance with pyro.

After about 2 hours and a half of almost complete silence in the crowd, we finally see them chanting, moving, cheering. Saudi Arabia seemed to need AJ vs Nakamura to wake up, because they do not chant the usual out-of-the-ring count, they don’t chant the usual “1, 2,…” when there’s a pin going on. But now, the crowd is reacting, and it is awesome to see and hear.

In the end, AJ Styles retains his title due to a double count-out. This keeps Nakamura in the championship run for sure, maybe we’ll see them in a no disqualification match in a future PPV.

Next on we have The Undertaker versus Rusev in a Casket Match. After a rather quick and aggressive match, The Undertaker got both, Rusev and Aiden English into the casket to win the match.

It is now time to go into the Steel Cage for the Universal Championship match between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns. We have to admit how great entrances are when pyro is in place.

The match starts with a Suplex City, there was no time to do anything, Brock literally went in to kill Roman. Four consecutive German Suplex followed by one F5. This is overkill. Lesnar is only sweating because he sweats like a beast.

Roman finally counters with 3 Superman Punches followed by a spear attempt that Brock defends against. Roman is close to get out of the cage until Brock takes him back in, leaving him the space to get out of the cage himself; however, Brock doesn’t seem comfortable at all going up the cage, which gives Roman time to get back on his feet.

Roman hits the first spear on Brock, immediately followed by a second one. Brock is still alive in the match though, so he uses the same spear he used against The Undertaker in Wrestlemania 33, with some push from the ropes and counts, but Brock kicks out. Roman is about to get out of the cage through the door, but Paul Heyman closes it on Roman’s face to help his client. Brock hits the second F5 and pins Roman, but he kicks out. Heyman throws a chair into the cage and Brock takes his gloves off before taking the chair, but Roman hits his fourth Spear. Brock kicked out again.

Roman takes the chair and starts hitting Brock with it. Even the referee cringes to these hits. Roman hits the fourth Superman Punch of the match. Roman hits a Spear against the wall of the cage which breaks it, and the ref says Brock has retained the championship. Contested, Roman’s feet were the first ones to hit the floor. This won’t end like this.

It is time for the main event of the show: the 50 men Royal Rumble match. There’s a shiny trophy accompanied by a Championship Belt waiting for the winner of this match.

The very first entrant is Daniel Bryan, followed by Dolph Ziggler. There’s really no point on talking too much about what happened in the hour and 30 minutes that it lasted for, so let’s jump to what happened at the end, and which surprise contestants we got to see.

Surprises:

And, after 1 hour 16 minutes and 5 seconds in the match, Big Cass throws Daniel Bryan over the top rope, to get to the ending of this match between him and Braun Strowman, who has thrown over 10 men over the ropes. In the end, the winner of the very first Greatest Royal Rumble is Braun Strowman.

Overall, the show was really good, although, there were absolutely no changes in championship belts, which is highly disappointing. When it comes to the crowd, it was quiet for most of the show, which is also disappointing given how wrestling is alive thanks to fans’ reactions, and even though matches were super interesting, it is a rather bittersweet ending, with an awful ending to AJ vs Nakamura, a controversial ending to Brock vs Roman, a 50 men Royal Rumble in which most of the wrestlers didn’t last 5 minutes. At least, Braun has won this match, and I hope they do something with that quite stylish belt.

  #WWEGRR #Recap #WWE #GreatestRoyalRumble Today we got to see the very first event in Saudi Arabia for the WWE when they brought the…

[dweemeister]

Wonder Woman (2017)

It might surprise you that DC Comics characters have been appearing in live-action films for over seventy-five years. That tradition began with Republic Pictures’ Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941) – a twelve-part film serial (serials released a new part in cinemas every week or so in a time when moviegoing was a communal, weekly tradition and when a ticket gave you admission to two feature-length movies and whatever serials, shorts, or newsreels in between). Since then, Batman, Superman, and even characters like Swamp Thing and Congorilla/Congo Bill have had their standalone films. One superhero in DC’s trinity had never appeared in her own standalone film.

That changed earlier this month when director Patty Jenkins brought Wonder Woman to theaters. The fourth film of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) – following the suffocating Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and the incompetent Suicide Squad (2016) – Wonder Woman is a much-needed course correction with its earnestness and good intentions (albeit with problems with Wonder Woman’s origins and depiction of World War I). Whether the maligned DCEU reverts to Zack Snyder’s twisted fantasies will be seen later in this year’s Justice League. For now, considering the history of women directors and women-driven superhero movies in Hollywood, Wonder Woman is worth rejoicing over.

Following a brief moment where Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot as an adult, Lilly Aspel and Emily Carey as younger Diana) is gazing on an old photograph, we see Diana and her early years on the island of Themyscira. Themyscira, long protected from the presence of humans, is inhabited by the Amazons – a race of warrior women created by the Ancient Greek gods. In this incarnation of Wonder Woman, all of the gods but Ares, the god of war, have been slain, and the Amazons are wary of any of his attempts to return. When American spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crash lands and brings a pursuing German warship with him. Diana and the rest of the Amazons spring into action and defeat the pursuing Germans. Steve informs the Amazons of the Great War, and implores that he be released so that he might thwart a German attempt to engineer a hideous mustard-based gas. Diana, believing that Ares is behind WWI, takes herself, a sword and shield, and Steve away from Themyscira and to Europe. She will soon find herself at the Western Front, later realizing that warfare need not divine intervention to unleash the worst in humanity.

Also starring in Wonder Woman are: Robin Wright as Amazonian General Antiope; Connie Nielsen as Diana’s mother, Queen Hippolyta; Danny Huston as German General Erich Ludendorff; David Thewlis as British PM Patrick Morgan; Elena Anaya as Doctor Poison. Ewen Bremner, Saïd Taghmaoui, Eugene Brave Rock, and Lucy Davis round out the cast as Steve’s partners-in-crime.

When she appeared in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Gal Gadot was one of the few redeeming aspects of that shipwreck of a movie. And she, as Diana, provides a stupendous, complex portrait of her character. From a requisite stiffness at home in Themyscira to her wide-eyed curiosity the first moments she visits London for the first time to a combination of compassion and horror approaching No Man’s Land, Wonder Woman is a demanding role for Gadot and may be as demanding as Hugh Jackman’s final go-around as Wolverine in Logan (2017). But where the seasoned Jackman was acting almost entirely on physical intensity, the relatively inexperienced Gadot rises to the challenge of nailing her physical and verbal acting, along with some sharp comedic moments. If Gadot watched Christopher Reeve’s performance as Clark Kent/Kal-El in Superman (1978) for inspiration and guidance, it would come as no surprise. Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, as she was crafted by creator William Moulton Marston and written for this film by Allan Heinberg, is what humanity could be, rather than what it is now or in 1918.

Nothing encapsulates that more than Wonder Woman’s introduction to humanity. It occurs in a scene somewhere in Belgium as she emerges from the trenches, her iconic costume revealed for the first time. The No Man’s Land scene is one of the most effective superhero introduction sequences one could ask for – from Jenkins’ sense of timing to the stakes involved. Rupert Gregson-Williams’ (an acolyte of Hans Zimmer at Remote Control Productions, but more on Gregson-Williams later; the name of this cue is “No Man’s Land”) score is lacking any discernible secondary themes apart from Junkie XL’s Wonder Woman electric cello-driven action motif that was established in Batman v. Superman and his own Wonder Woman motif, but it accompanies the grimy violence of this moment brilliantly. Here, Wonder Woman is acting on her convictions that something larger, something beyond the pale of even her own mythos, is operating in this nightmarish grove of dead, uprooted trees, mud, and untended corpses. In retrospect, those convictions underestimate the scope of human agency – which will provide greater irony in the film’s concluding act.

World War I is one of the least understood conflicts of the twentieth century. Patty Jenkins, in an interview, notes:

World War I is the first time that civilization as we know it was finding its roots... the way that it was unclear who was in the right of WWI is a really interesting parallel to this time. Then you take a god with a moral compass and a moral belief system, and you drop them into this world, there are questions about women's rights, about a mechanized war where you don't see who you are killing.

And yet Jenkins and Heinberg squander an opportunity to explore those complexities. The world apparently needs evil Germans, it seems, and the one-dimensional portrayal of German soldiers and officers without paying attention to the militarists spurring the war on at the time is contrasted with a mostly rosy view of the Allied Forces. Even when Steve Trevor’s potential deceptions with Diana are hypothesized, there is not even a question that such a dashing blue-eyed American is ever in the wrong. The entire conceit that Allied spies and politicians would pilfer German plans to create an even deadlier mustard gas and choose not to replicate such a chemical weapon is laughable. It is irresponsible, delusional. Though the Central Powers were first to use lethal chemical weapons in 1915 (the French introduced tear gas in 1914), the British, French, Americans, and Russians responded with their own lethal chemical weapons. All sides were culpable in this new form of slaughter we are still reckoning with in contemporary warfare.

What helps the film in this regard is that it does not hide the fact that Steve Trevor is coding Diana’s thinking to make her believe that she is fighting for the “correct” side. But this conflict that arises in the final third of the film is attached to their romantic chemistry. Jenkins and Heinberg seem afraid to complicate the good-versus-evil dichotomy that might be better established in a film taking place during World War II (perhaps they wished to distinguish Wonder Woman’s ethical dilemmas from the straightforward timeline found in 2011′s Captain America: The First Avenger?). All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) it is not, Westfront 1918 (1930, Germany) it is not. Yet Wonder Woman attempted a narrative of the most calamitous war ever seen at that point in history and a sincere commentary on the nature of violence within the confines of a superhero’s story. The filmmakers are responsible for such portrayals, as all too often history is rewritten in reckless fictions.

By film’s end, Diana realizes that though humanity’s capability for violence needs not activation from Olympian gods. Simultaneously, humanity’s capability of love of understanding is in continuous conflict with its darker tendencies, which makes living profound. What struck me – a twentysomething male who does not consume superhero comics, but has seen a share of superhero television and movies – about this depiction of Wonder Woman is that, unlike many recent superhero (male and female) depictions, that this is largely not a tale rooted in some sort of vengeance. Wonder Woman’s motivations for coming into the human world is not a retaliation to violence against her. Yes, the final fight – without venturing into spoilers – has some element of vengeance, but it is not the primary operating emotion. Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, too, is the master of her own future. Too many times female superheroes in today’s movies and television are depicted within the contexts, frameworks, and stories of a male superhero. Of course, Wonder Woman follows Steve Trevor around quite a bit at the Western Front. But she is still there on her own initiative, with motivations that are hers and hers alone (if you don’t count the Amazons, but they are all women, too). 

Because Wonder Woman has not been as widely depicted in film and television as Superman or Batman, her origin story is more susceptible to change. Wonder Woman in the DCEU is a demigod, not just an Amazon. The Amazons, framed as a matriarchal society meant to spread peace among humans, have secluded themselves in paradise. Usually, a contest among Amazons takes place to decide which one of them will accompany Steve Trevor back to the human world; this is not depicted in Jenkins’ film. Though the bonds between Amazons are decently established, this contest’s inclusion could have provided greater emotional linkages to the Amazons at large. Upon departure, Diana, in most incarnations including this film, undertakes a coming-of-age journey to a place which might not accept her. Her vulnerability is most compelling when she arrives as an Amazonian. That feminist resonance is weakened when she is portrayed as a demigod with powers derived from Zeus as this film does or as a disempowered pinup figure or a Goddess of War. At its purest conception, Wonder Woman is an empowering narrative that requires no support from men or gods; this cinematic treatment does not completely fulfill those demands, but it came far closer than many of Wonder Woman’s fans believed it would.

Despite a push to have a female composer score Wonder Woman (female composers are an extreme rarity in Hollywood), Rupert Gregson-Williams of Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions – which is close to monopolizing film scoring among tentpole blockbusters for the major studios, partly resulting in the sameness heard in film scores today – was ultimately tasked to write the music. His score to Wonder Woman is, from the first few minutes, far more orchestral than Zimmer’s percussion-crashing, synthesizer-deafening, one-dimensional superhero scores. Stylistically, Gregson-Williams’ work is more reminiscent of the compositions in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) – with their reliance on orchestras grinding away at repetitive ostinatos without harmonic depth or variation – but that is not necessarily a compliment. Where “No Man’s Land” (provided earlier in this write-up) is the score’s pinnacle of action scoring, “Amazons of Themyscira” introduces a motif for Diana (at 2:26, but listen to the whole cue) that did not appear in Batman v. Superman. The rise-and-fall of Diana’s motif – also well-used in “Angel on the Wing” – is layered with brass primarily, with winds and strings providing harmonic texture that is absent almost throughout the score. More of this layering, this attention to harmonies could have resulted in a more memorable film score.

Wonder Woman has taken a circuitous route to reach cinemas. Though the final product is imperfect, the very fact that her standalone big screen debut has finally navigated through the maze that is today’s Hollywood studio politics is a remarkable achievement. In the last several years, superhero films have pounded cynicism – social, political, personal – without respite. Wonder Woman steps back, kicks ass, and inspires. It dares us to wonder. And it’s one of the best superhero films of the last decade.

My rating: 7/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.