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yourgirlsfriday · 2 years

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Verses: Cheat Sheet

Updated: 5 May 2022

Forget everything you think you know | Wildcard

- like it says on the tin, this is typically the ‘I’ll go where ya’ll take me’ universe. A largely blank slate where muses meet in the middle and paint in the world state.

Nothing makes sense? Everything seems dire? sounds like Tuesday | base m!mcu verse

- Modified Cinematic universe, the timeline has elements of the comics, fox!x-men, and just little tweaks in it that make it make sense. Some events happen earlier, some don’t some last properly realistic spans of time.

Keeping up with the Wilsons/That’s Mrs. Wilson to you/Bullets && Babies -

- largely/entirely closed verses that encompass the entirety of Sorcha’s life and marriage to Wade Wilson, Steve, her twin, is married to Sharon Carter. The Rogers are legion, and quite capable/well adjusted, considering how the world works. (Typically if Sorcha mentions children or a husband, Kuwtw/tmw2u is the verse being used/referenced.)

Earth 5 - Home of the Rogers Triplets

- you read that right, Sorcha, Steve, and Masha (Saoirse), are all alive in the same universe. Saoirse is lost with Bucky Barnes on the train in the Alps, Sorcha beats out Steve getting onto the Valkyrie and is presumed dead. Steve returns home from war, and has to find his footing, eventually helping Peggy Carter and Howard Stark found SHIELD while maintaining his commission as the official liaison between the agency and dod. He officially retires from the Army when the Vietnam war looms, unable to compromise his morals to fight a war they have no business being a part of. Sorcha resurfaces in 2012, a mind-wiped “Masha” aka Red Widow surfaces in 2016.

Time lost but it gave me you

- the family epic following Sorcha & Tony Stark, Kara Stark & Bucky Barnes, Becca Barnes & Steve Rogers as they navigate finding balance between life as heroes, life as people, while somehow finding time to fall in love.

I can see the skies are Gold

- closed universe revolving around the crock-pot friends-to-friends-who-hold-hands-and-maybe-kiss story of Sorcha and Loki Friggason. 2012 nothing bad has befallen our beloved baby heroes and Loki gets to Loki healthily vibes on lock.

Wonder Twins

- Steve’s home base. Sorcha is his ‘baby’ sister. This is heavy on the propaganda that was lobbied with the Rogers from birthdate switches ( from 31 Dec and 1 Jan respectively to 4 July) to middle name changes ( Aibhilin-Victoria to Evelyn, Cian to Grant ) to make them into the perfect brother-sister war machine. Sorcha is Lady Liberty, she can punch out axis soldiers and be home in time for dinner! Steve is the good old, All-American man, leading the fight to keep democracy safe and put down the fascist regimes. Bucky still falls from the train, Sorcha is engaged to Howard Stark but ends up on the Valkyrie. Fast forward 70 years and Captain Rogers is found, with Captain America having moved out of the limelight some thirty years prior to live a life.

Infinite Earths Collide | DCCU + MCU wildcard

- in which New York City, Gotham, Chicago, Metropolis et all exist at the same time, next to one another for a wild ride.

The Witches who Won to live their lives for themselves

- Hermione and Hadriana leave Britain behind once they’ve taken their NEWTS, officially immigrating to the US. Hermione pursues her potions mastery, while also going to law school, Hadriana pursues medimagic mastery and becomes a nurse practitioner. They heal from the traumas of the war, and blend magic with mundane in a world full of oddities where they hide in plain sight.

Living Soulstone

- Sorcha (and Steve if you’re feeling frisky enough to deal with two of them) are the living embodiment of the Soulstone.

Hero is a subjective world

- obligatory villain origin verse based on Sorcha’s timeline, in which she manipulates everyone around her to dance to the tune she composes. Can be applied to legit any other muse because I happily tie all of them together.

I don’t give a fuck about price I’ve paid it in blood

- the Venom Symbiote (affectionately called Vee/V by Petra) finds Spidey after May’s death (just six months after the loss of Gwen). Her grief, need for support, and desperation for family ties makes the perfect storm for V and Petra to forge a strong, as permanent as it can be, bond.

Muse base timelines

- these follow the muses biographies with wiggle room for various events to change/occur, often used in conjunction with the Wildcard verse.

Dragon Age Choices (these are just the defaults until/unless plotted):

Elissa Cousland becomes Queen with Alistair (Depending on verse, her twin will have completed the ritual with Morrigan, making Kieran either her nephew or ‘step-son’. ). She through the quest to stop the blight, saves the mages including an admitted blood mage, saves Jowan for judgement by the circle, saves Connor with Wynne and the mages, sending him to the circle for training afterward. She finds the ashes and doesn’t defile them, softens all of her party members except Morrigan (she lies saying she killed Flemmeth), convinces Zathrian to release the curse, acquired Shale and brought her into the deep roads to find Branca and the Anvil, destroying the Anvil, chooses Bhelen as the new Dwarva king, sends Dagna to the circle, acquires the Warden’s keep, killing Sophia, allowing Avernus to continue ethical research. She does not help the chantry establish a center in Orzammar. Post Blight, Elissa opts to travel to Amaranthine to establish a Warden base. She recruits and creates wardens of: Anders, Nathaniel, Justice via Kristoff Corpse, Sigrun, and Velanna. She helped Oghren and Felsie twice and did not put Oghren through the joining. She saves Amaranthine over the keep, and allows the Architect to live in return for help killing the Mother. Elissa follows Morrigan through the Eluvian after picking up the journal to see Kieran (headcanon choice)

Khaalida, Leandra, and Carver Hawke survive the Blight with help from Flemmeth. Carver becomes a Grey Warden and Khaalida consistently sides with the Mages, She allows Feynriel to seek out the Dalish, kills Karras and his men for the group of escaped Mages, kills Vernell and advises the Viscount not hide the dead warriors from the Arishok. She allows Petrice to be killed by the Qunari, and later Khaalida fights the Arishok to keep Isabela from the Qunari & end the invasion. Merrill was given the Arulin’Holm, and saves Merrill’s clan by taking the blame for Marethari’s death. Merrill is advised to focus her efforts on improving the lives of the Alienage residents, and leave the mirror inert. She helps Samson return to the Templar Order. She inadvertently helps Anders in the creation of the bomb that takes the Chantry. She allows him to escape alive before taking on Meredith with Carver’s help. She had no romantic connections, but deep friendship with all her companions.

Giselle-Sophia aided the soldiers, saved and allied with the mages, sentences Alexius to help the mages of the Inquisition, reunited Celene and Briala while exiling Gaspard to keep Celene reliant on the Inquisition, leaves neither Stroud or Hawke in the fade (headcanon choice), allies with the wardens, takes abelas’ alliance, and drinks from the well to keep Morrigan from it not trusting her. She saves the chargers, softens Leliana, dismisses Sera from the Inquisition, encourages Cole to keep become closer to spirit than human, allows Dorian to speak with his father, sends Rainier to the Wardens, she helps Solas release Wisdom, and does not stop him from killing the mages who bound it, gets Vivienne the ‘wyvern’ heart, helps Josephine deal with the house of repose, and encourages Cullen to continue detoxing from the lyrium. Leliana becomes Divine. DLC: Hakkon done post Winter Palace. The descent completed right after Adamant. Trespasser: Inquisition becomes a peacekeeping organization, Dragon’s breath defeated and the Qunari retreat north, Cassandra serves on the Exalted Council, Cullen stays as Commander of the Inquisition forces, Giselle opts to attempt to redeem Solas after the loss of her arm.

Sylaise attempts to bargain her survival with Solas, and Eirwen pledges herself to his cause in return.

Isabela - out doing her Pirate Queen things, aiding the Warden, Hawke, and Inquisitor as called upon.

Dragon age transplanted into Marvel Timeline:

Queen Elissa Cousland and Morrigan team up after the events of Awakening to find a cure for the blight, the pair travel with Morrigan’s son (and Elissa’s stepson), around Thedas looking for clues as to the blights’ origins. When they discover Eluvians, they test them fairly extensively before starting to travel through them - making sure Elissa could ‘jump’ first and return if need be. One such Eluvian spit them out in 2023 Earth in NYC before going inert, it was destroyed in the coming weeks as Elissa and Morrigan attempted to reopen it.

Khaalida Hawke is left in the Fade by the Inquisitor, and rather than fighting the nightmare, runs for her life, hoping to find either a helpful spirit or an open rift. She finds a rift, but it spits her out on Earth.

Giselle-Sophia is sent to Earth via a magical accident while researching with Dagna.

Sylaise retreats across the void with Eirwen her last living Sentinel to avoid fighting Solas.

#( answer; answer; I need the a n s w e r | cheat sheets )#( find all the u n i v e r s e s | quick tag )#( will update when i have more time )

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81scorp · 4 years

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Consctructive criticism: Man of steel

(Originally posted as an editorial on Deviantart May 1, 2015. It has not been changed from how I originally wrote it.)

With Superman Returns not being the success Warner Bros hoped for, no more sequels that take place in the Superman universe that Richard Donner created have been made since. But since a reboot worked for the old Dark Knight it could work just as well for the big, blue, flying boy scout.Superman`s movie franchise got a reboot in a movie directed by Zack Snyder and written by David S Goyer. The result was... a little bit divisive. Some loved it, some hated it but never the less it made money, enough to greenlight a sequel... or rather: a bigger, shared movie universe. Not unlike what they were doing over at Marvel.Personally I kinda, sorta liked it, at least more than Superman returns. But, like I mentioned in my "More thoughts on Frozen" Editorial where I briefly talked about Avatar, I can see it`s flaws. Otherwise it wouldn`t have ended up here.

Where did it go wrong and how could it have been better?

The S stands for SPOILERS

The colour saturation

With the failure of Green Lantern and the success of The Dark Knight trilogy, the film makers came to the conclusion that future DC movies has to be more "Dark and Serious". Just because it worked for Batman it doesn`t necessarily mean that it would work just as well for their other characters. The tone of the story differs a tiny bit from Batman`s because Superman`s image of a beacon of hope rather than justice lurking in the shadows is heavily ingrained in the public`s perception of him. That left the film makers with one thing left to "darkify": The colours of the movie. A little bit more colour wouldn`t have hurt.

The shaky cam

Usually I don`t care (much) about this, but in this case I noticed it while watching the movie for the first time and it bothered me a little. Less of the shaky cam please.

Johnathan Kent`s advice to young Clark

Young Clark: "What was I supposed to do? Just let them die?"

Jonathan Kent: "Maybe." He`s not saying "Yes! You should`ve let them die!" So he`s technically not giving him bad advice, but he`s technically not giving him good advice either.

He should have focused on teaching Clark to have a low profile. That doesn`t have to mean that he shouldn`t help. He can still help as long as he does it in secret. So instead he could have said."If you`re gonna keep doing this, try not to get seen. Think before you act."Then he could pause and then add: "But at least your heart was in the right place." If it was my hypothetical kid from another planet with great powers who did something good and heroic I`d want the discussion to end on a positive note to give him the feeling that technically he did not do a bad thing.

Johnathan Kent`s death

Yes, I get that he did not want Clark to expose himself, but still. He died not because Clark couldn`t save him but because he wouldn`t let him. How about: Jonathan dies from a sickness. Yes it is similar to the Donner version but the difference is that in this version it doesn`t happen as suddenly and Clark gets time to say goodbye to his dad on his death-bed. Jonathan can remind him about the "Think before you act" bit, and say something about how he will change the world.

Lois telling Superman about her mindprobing

Movies are a visual medium and there`s a rule called "show don`t tell". Telling through pictures is a more universal language. Instead of Lois telling Superman what she went through they could have showed it in some way. From what I remember we saw what was going on in Superman`s head when they probed him but not what was going on on the outside. Here`s what they could have done: After we have seen Superman`s little nightmare landscape we could see what is going on outside his body as Zod`s voice keeps talking about how he`s gonna revive Krypton. We see him lying in an alien chair with a mindprobing helmet on and his face twitches as if he`s having a nightmare. Move the camera a bit to the right and we see Lois lying in an alien chair going through the same thing. Cut to: close up of Lois`s face, then cut to: inside Lois`s mind: pretty much the same thing we saw in Superman`s head. Cut to: close up of Superman`s face, then we go back inside Superman`s mind.

Yes, I said "lying in a chair". The correct word is "sitting", but I imagine them as kind of like dentist chairs...evil dentist chairs.

Zod showing Superman all that nightmarish landscape

Besides that it would "look cool for the trailer", what reason is there for Zod to scare Superman with that nightmare-landscape? Shouldn`t he try to make Superman trust him and see him as a friend?

How about: Supes is shown what Krypton looked like before it blew up.

Zod: "Behold Kal-El, this what Krypton once was, and what it can be again." Clark wonders what would happen to the people of earth. Zod uses the cold, empathyless logic that "simpler civilizations will have to make way for the more advanced ones."

"Krypton had it`s chance"

I get where they were going with this but still, it sounded a bit too cruel. This would have sounded better: "Krypton should not live at the expense of Earth!"

Saying it like that would make it open for the interpretation that he does want to see Krypton resurrected, (just not at any cost).

The level of destruction

They could have toned it down a bit. Some say: "But this is what realistically would happen if someone with Superman`s powers were to have a big fight." Someone with Superman`s powers yes. But how about someone with Superman`s mentality?

Yes: most of the destruction was caused by the terraforming machine, but when that destruction was over and it was just Superman and Zod they still plowed through a few buildings.

Let`s forget that it`s Superman. Someone with concern for human life and the ability to strategize, at least a little bit (which Superman is fully capable of doing), should try to direct the fight away from heavily populated areas. Yes, Zod would try to use this weakness and direct the fight back to said populated areas, but Superman would still do his best to keep the fight in safe/safer places.

Plus: The "Think before you act" lesson from his father could come back to play a part here.

"But he was new at this, he was learning to be a Superhero." We saw earlier in the movie that he had been doing this for a couple of years, so he would have gotten the hang of (most of) it by the time he donned the cape." It`s the first time he fights other super-powered Kryptonians." I can`t argue that much with this statement, even Supes has limits. On this point the fault is not on Superman as a character but rather the filmmakers who wrote him into a corner and made sure that there was no other way out than to destroy almost more than half of Metropolis. They seem to suffer from a "darker-and-more-action-is-always-better" perception. Not all DCCU movies have to be the Dark Knight.

On the fence: Jenny

First I thought that she had a last name, and that it was Olsen. So I thought she was a genderbent Jimmy Olsen. But last time I checked (on imdb) she didn`t have a last name. Could she be an original character created for the movie? I`m OK with that. But I want to talk about what I feel about if they were to change Jimmy`s gender.

This makes me feel like the film makers haven`t bothered to check the comics that the movies are based on. Not because of the change, but some seem to think that there are only four people working on the Daily Planet: Clark, Lois, Perry and Jimmy. The majority of the people that I mentioned are male so I agree that there could be at least one more woman. But instead of changing one of the characters they could just pick one from the comics. How about Catherine Grant? Or Alice the intern? And if you`re looking for a black character, how about Ron Troupe?

Sorry for being a purist, but I feel that if you want to add a little diversity, look for a character that has what you are looking for in the source material before changing one or some of the other characters.

That`s why I hope that we in future DCCU movies get to see Maggie Sawyer and/or Renee Montoya.How do I feel about Perry White? Well, he`s played by Laurence Fishburne. So I`m good.

On the fence: Superman killing Zod

When I heard about it at first I thought "Oh come on! Superman doesn`t kill!" But then again, he could be pushed to a point where he would have no other option. Then I thought "If he`s gonna kill someone he should at least feel bad about it." And he did, so I guess I`m OK with it. But still, the way they did that scene made me feel like there was more that could be done before they went in for the kill. Technically, Superman could have just knocked him unconscious. And then there`s the film makers`s explanation: "He needs to kill so he learns that it`s wrong to kill." I haven`t killed anyone and I know it`s wrong to kill.

I think the real explanation is: He needs to kill because the movie needs to be dark, because DCCU movies needs to be dark to be good, because it worked for the Batman reboot. The thing is: Nolan`s Batman had a little thought put into it. Man of Steel`s darkness didn`t have much thought behind it.

A light-hearted, silly and campy movie with a bad script is a movie with a bad script. A dark, gritty and serious movie with a bad script is still a movie with a bad script.

If I were to change this, here`s what I would do: Zod and Superman are flying around, fighting each other. The spaceship (that was sent far away thanks to Clark`s babyship`s warp drive) is still on earth. Superman punches Zod so hard that he is knocked back onboard his ship. The warp drive is activated and Zod and his friends are warped to God knows where.I also want to point out that I´m not too crazy about when they kill characters that have played an important part and/or has been in the comicbook a long time. That`s why I`m a bit critical not only to Zod`s death but Prof: Emil Hamilton`s as well. (Though he may not be dead.)

Yes, there are other things wrong with this movie. But if you did the changes that are mentioned here, I personally wouldn`t care about those other things

I want to finish with two things that, while they aren`t constructive criticism, are at least Superman related.

Joe Quesada`s reason for not liking Man of Steel

“As a comic book fan, I wanted to love that movie so much,” said Quesada. “I wanted to love it so much, and I didn’t love it so much. Again, there are little things here and there that you could pick at and things like that, but I just think at the end of the day, Zod was the hero of the movie to me.”

Interesting defenition of a hero you have there.

“He wanted to save his race, and Superman didn’t let him."

Oh poor Zod, all he wanted to do was to rebuild his planet at the cost of billions of lives on an already inhabited one. It`s not like there were any other Earth-like planets in the solar system, suitable for terraforming, like Mars or Venus. No. Clearly Superman was the bigger badguy here.

“I was in the mood to watch that Superman movie, and afterwards I was just angry,” said Quesada.

Well, I, and many others, felt similar after reading One More Day so I guess that makes things even.

In defense of the Clark Kent disguise

I`m sure many of us has questioned that no one can recognize Superman in his Clark Kent disguise just because he wears a pair of glasses. However, here are some examples from real life:

An author who interviewed Marilyn Monroe later wrote of an incident that occurred when they were walking down the street talking. The author was confused that, although they were in plain sight, no one seemed to recognize her. Monroe then said, "Do you want to see her?" She changed her posture, walk and way she was speaking to what she used in the movies and suddenly people saw Marilyn Monroe, movie star and sex symbol, and reacted accordingly. Shakira, a famous singer, managed to spend an entire summer at UCLA posing as a normal person. She went by her middle name and dressed up in a cap and pants. The fact that it hit the news after she was done with the classes proved how effective her disguise was. Comedian Groucho Marx painted on his famous mustache with grease paint for most of his career. He was surprised to find a large crowd of fans who had gathered to see him at a train station completely ignored him when he got off the train. Realizing what had happened, he ducked into his car and smeared on a grease paint mustache, and was instantly recognized. So you see, real people are pretty stupid too. ^_^

#superman #man of steel #dc comics #dceu #constructive #criticism #editorial #81scorp

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psychotropicplague · 5 years

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HONEST REVIEW:

JOKER (2019)

WHEN ONE THINKS of director Todd Phillips, for the most part our brain subconsciously sees Road Trip, Old School or The Hangover franchise but few had in mind that he’d (Todd) ever delve into gritty films— maybe its our naivety that it’s almost like you think comedy-directors can’t direct these kinds of films, then there’s Joaquin Phoenix known for Her or Walk the Line, basically none of us expected to see this project play-out well.

Initially, Phoenix’s casting met with a decent amount of backlash because immediately people saw Ledger’s portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime and lauded it to the point of a posthumous Oscar then we saw Leto’s portrayal and some absolutely loathed it— mainly it was the costume-design and the final-look of the character that really unsettled people and I do not blame them, so it’s natural we felt that nobody could top Heath Ledger; I’m here to tell you that you can put that way-of-thinking to rest.

For starters, let’s just look at the character of Arthur Fleck, a washed-up comedian who is struggling to stay relevant and even so much as likability as a person— to be fully honest he does give off a bit of a creepy vibe with his almost menacing and slight maniacal laugh which is an chronic tic, that’s right, the laugh you have heard is a cog that plays a vital role into his arc. Fleck is a kind-man at heart, and we can truly sympathize with his struggles but his descent into madness is not-without lots of these struggles; so naturally we can watch a man who goes from innocent to pushed-over-the-edge so don’t go into this movie expecting him to wreak havoc right away. Seriously don’t.

You’re going to see character-development, truly unlike a one from any of the one’s we’ve seen in a Todd Phillips or Phoenix film at that but I digress— this is where the film really shines.

In-terms of production-design this is my one and only gripe— Todd has stressed that the film is dark-and-gritty, I will not deny that it is in-fact gritty but it is also dark, and yes in content it is pretty dark, at times very depressing— but what you’ve probably noticed is that the film does not have a bright-and-chipper color-palette we’ve seen in other films nowadays, it’s almost as if the cinematographer (Sher) who is a frequent collaborator with Phillips, editor (Groth) and gaffers had the intention to make the film hardly-visible in some dimly-lit scenes with a very high emphasis on increased contrast and minimal brightness which at times was quite jarring.

Now back to the content; I would divulge more into the storyline but for the sake of sparing those who despise spoilers, I’ll leave you with this— it’s fucking phenomenal. It’s the origin-story that the DCCU needed to keep afloat as a world in-itself: take it from me or the critics who’ve said there was a standing-ovation which is not a lie, everyone stood.

This is arguably the best film we’ve ever seen from Todd Phillips and a very bold move for a filmmaker known for raunchy humor, I surprisingly enjoyed Joker a lot and it does deserve the accolades and praise it’s getting— it will not disappoint and maybe we’ll see another Oscar for someone playing The Joker.

Final Rating: 10/10!

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pennywaltzy · 5 years

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Writer’s Meme!

Sorry it took so long to answer; my browser crashes every time I try to load the stats page on AO3 and I just got it to load yesterday. I ended up having to screenshot it to do this. But here goes!

Tagged by both @strangelock221b and @fibrochemist

Author Name: afteriwake on AO3, pennywaltzy on Tumblr, Ragna (which is my actual first name) on some platforms; have also been known as SpikeGrrl1, WritingGoddess, goddess_loki, scandalbaby and a few other names over the years.

Fandoms You Write For: Just current ones? Sherlock, Star Trek AOS, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Doctor Who, Elementary, St. Trinian’s, Marvel Cinematic Universe, DCCU (specifically Wonder Woman), DC Comics (mostly Gotham Rogues in the DCAU but kind of all over), and I’ll occasionally still dabble in Eureka, Supernatural, Bleach and the CSIverse at times. I also wrote book!Good Omens years ago and am going to write TV!Good Omens as soon as I get to see it, along with expanding my Marvel offerings into Venom and Into The Spiderverse once I watch those and my DC offerings into DCTV and more of the DCCU and the DCAU and the books. And since I have most of what’s aired aside from Season 2 on my comp now, NCIS: New Orleans may be a thing I dabble in since it’s my fave of the NCISverse. And my former fandoms list is pretty long, but occasionally stuff for the Buffyverse, Heroes, Criminal Minds, Caslte and other oldies will pop up on AO3 and Tumblr as I transfer my old content to AO3.

Where You Post: AO3 and Tumblr. I just found a huge stash of old Buffyverse fic on Yahoogroups and a personal archive someone runs that will be transferred to AO3 slowly but surely, and I have a private archive on DW that holds the last of my LJ fic that I saved before my LJ community got purged that will also be transferred slowly but surely.

Most Popular One-Shot: yet our roots remain as one, which is a Loki POV fic where Odin dies instead of Frigga in “Thor: Dark World” and is a part of my MCU/Sherlock crossover series ”Just Pieces On The Board.”

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: This is actually a surprise, because it used to be #3 on the list the last time I checked about two weeks ago, but Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures just edged out the fic above and The Art Of Love Is Largely The Art Of Persistence, which is my most popular finished multi-chapter story (Desperate Times... will be finished by September 1st, I swear)

Favorite Story You Wrote: Aside from The Art Of Love... which is listed above, I’d have to say In Dreams, There Is A Kernel Of Truth, which, even though the exclusion of John is kind of a polarizing thing, I’m having fun playing around with a universe where most of “His Last Vow” and series 4 were just a dream.

Story You Were Nervous to Post: Honestly? Every time I write a Jlock fic for a friend or an exchange because the ships is so polarizing in the fandom. I get worried non Jlock fans will call me a friend of the enemy and Jlock fans will call me an imposter since I don’t ship the ship.

How Do You Choose Your Titles: I have no idea. Magic. I have titled thousands of fics and series over the years I just pick a random string of words and hope for the best these days.

Do You Outline: Ha! Maybe on 1% of what I write. Maybe. Mostly I fly by the seat of my pants.

How many of your stories are…

Complete: Who boy...I have 1,824 on AO3 right now, and many more to transfer over from various mailing lists and archives, probably at least another thousand? So all up at the interwebs there’s probably just about 3K complete fics scattered to the winds from me.

In-Progress: 76! I’m so fucking proud of myself, it’s finally under 80...but I have about ten more to finish for this current round of WIPBB so I’m hoping it will be down to 66 by September 1st, and then I’ll just need to do 6 more to hit my New Year’s resolution of getting to half my old amount (was 120).

Coming Soon: The last of the WIPBB fics I have to finish. It’s what I’m concentrating on the moment, plus about 30 pieces of art for other people’s fanfics for WIPBB. Then @miz-joelys-sherlollilists last two requests for John Watson’s Groundhog Days, a ton of Molly Hooper-centric one-shots for Molly Hooper Appreciation Week, and more stuff in non-Sherlock or Sherlock crossover fandoms.

Do You Accept Prompts: I’m currently taking them but there’s no way anything is getting answered until at least the middle of September.

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: I will finally finish my first multi-chapter Midsomer Murders fic (sort of, as it crosses over with Sherlock)! Like you all have no idea how much of that series I am madly in love with, and the plans I have for the series said fic is in, but I’m psyched because I knew a few other Sherlock fans love my MM easter eggs in Sherlock fic so it’s nice writing Barnaby and Troy themselves for a change. And eventually...Jones Jones JONES!!!

Tag Five Fanfic Authors to Answer These Questions As Well: @glowingmechanicalheart, @idabbleincrazy, @onceinabluemoon13 and honestly I have no idea who else hasn’t been tagged so if this interests you, have at it!

#about me!#fic meme

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fire-fira · 5 years

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Aquaman (2018) is a fucking GEM and here’s why

Buckle up, get your popcorn, get a drink, because my squawking about this film--

--is gonna be long!

Okay, so as anyone who knows me reasonably well or has followed me for my DC stuff can tell you I am a MASSIVE nerd about DC’s Atlantis (thanks in large part to my wonderful and adorable fishy son La’gaan).

(Obligatory shot of this kid’s happy smiling face because I love him and he deserves at least a moment of attention.)

SO--

The Big Things

This film freaking delivered with showing us Atlantis in full lit-up glory, not to mention showing a clear delineation between the lower levels and the upper levels. We didn’t get to see much of the lower levels unfortunately, but the fact that what we did see of it was an old shipwreck says some things. (Which I’ll probably extrapolate on under Social Things.)

I was never left in doubt for even a moment that Arthur and Mera were capable of what they were doing. Both of them are badass beyond words, are goddamn tanks who should NOT be trifled with, and have genuine complexity and chemistry that makes me heavily invested in their relationship. I can understand why they would be drawn together and how their dynamic would work out, and even as that’s going on I am never once left in doubt that both of them are a force of nature who are just as capable of flattening their enemies individually as they would be if they joined forces and fought side by side. Get on their goddamn level, because they are a power couple who can and will destroy you (or make you wish they had) if they deem it necessary.

BLACK. FUCKING. MANTA. I was not prepared for the sheer level of genius badassery from this man. It was one thing finding out that he got his tech from atlanteans (fuck you Orm), but it was something else watching him break it down and rework it to suit his needs while making his own helmet for-- oh yes-- the goddamn eye-lasers. We are very clearly shown that with his first attempt if he’d been wearing the helmet he would have died, but this brilliant badass pretty much just, “Guess I need a bigger helmet,” and then just went ahead and made a second one with everything figured out and sorted so it wouldn’t blow his damn head off any time he used his main weapon! Just HOLY SHIT BLACK MANTA! On only the second try?! What the shit dude?! Granted, you started out as a pirate and then stepped it up to being a supervillain, but HOLY SHIT. I’m surprised he stuck with being just a pirate for as long as he did!

Also, Black Manta’s motivation makes perfect sense. It took one of the more dick-ish moves Arthur’s done (which was also in character for him at that point in the movie), but that act of not saving Black Manta’s dad (especially since with their interactions I’d argue it’s fair to assume that his dad was a good dad to him) feels exactly like it was all that was needed for him to decide he wanted Arthur dead.

(And RIP me, when I first saw Black Manta’s dad my first thought was ‘Is that Coffeepot Guy from Young Justice?’)

Orm. Hoooolllllllyyyyyy SHIT Orm. Full props to that actor, because he completely sold Purist McDouche-Face Orm for everything he was worth. Even down to the subtle nuances of how easily he let Atlantean slurs fall, the casual arrogance and unnoticed contempt for anyone who wasn’t ‘pure’ (though that specific word didn’t come up) or who he viewed as ‘traitors’, and the fact that this son of a ba’athu-kest had his brother dragged to him unconscious and in chains in his throne room. There was a fucking COLLAR around Arthur’s neck! And then he has the fucking gall later on to essentially say, ‘If you leave now I’ll let you live and we never have to be at odds again, just ignore the fact that I’m going to be committing genocide that’ll probably include your Dad since he’s close to the shore. No hard feelings. ‘Kay?’ and act like it was an act of goddamn mercy or benevolence. Just... OMG. Seriously, just... fuck you Orm. Fuck you so much for engineering a goddamn war. JFC.

And speaking of Arthur’s Dad-- Arthur’s Mom and Dad are PERFECTION. Yeah, we don’t get to see as much of their relationship development as we do with Arthur and Mera, but Tom Curry and Queen Atlanna are the kind of partners you would expect to see epics written about in the old and ancient days. If we’re talking The Odyssey, then they are Odysseus and Penelope with their roughly 20-year absence from each other-- except Atlanna’s Odysseus and Tom’s Penelope. And when they came back together? I was almost crying in the theater. Holy crap. It was just SO MANY FEELS. Not even a moment of doubt that the two of them loved each other, that they loved each other deeply, that they loved each other intensely, and that they loved each other so much that they were willing to wait until the end of time if that’s what it took for them to be reunited. And if I’m not careful I’m going to get misty-eyed over them again.

And can we just appreciate the fact that Tom and Arthur are indigenous? I mean actually? Because dear gods when Tom greeted Arthur and they pressed their foreheads together and breathed I started fucking crying in the theater. I needed that. I needed to see an indigenous superhero with his culture woven in in subtle ways and for it to play out through affection between him and his dad WHO HE ACTUALLY HAS A WONDERFUL RELATIONSHIP WITH-- and fuck I’m crying again. (I’m assuming because Jason Momoa is Maori that that means they’re Maori? I’m not sure though. I hope the specific culture gets mentioned on the bluray whenever it gets released, because I’m forever after this film going with indigenous Arthur and I want to know I’m referring to his people correctly. Indigenous Arthur is in, all other versions of Arthur can go home.) Gods I have so many feels. If Atlanna had showed that she’d adopted small parts of Tom’s culture by doing the forehead thing with Arthur that would have ended me. On the spot. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, 404: Fira not found due to breaking down over all the feels.

Shifting a little (because otherwise I’m grinding to a halt and I have SO much more to get into) let’s talk about the kisegra, the Trench, and the various beasties! Of the kisegra we only really get to see two types-- the Fishermen (merpeople essentially) and the Brine (lobster/crab-centaur-ish people). I’m not going to fault the people working on the movie for showing us only those two types because they busted their asses on this movie and it shows-- hell, even among those kisegra there’s a diversity of coloration and body-build!-- but I was a tiny smidge disappointed not to see more diversity. Maybe something for a later movie. And then there’s the Trench. THE GODDAMN TRENCH. THESE NIGHTMARE FUEL BA’ATHU-KEGEST.

The La’gaan muse in my mind may as well have been screaming bloody murder. The scene with them is THAT MUCH NIGHTMARE FUEL. It’d be one thing if only a couple of them had been on the boat and the ones on the boat were all there were.

AHAHAHAHAHA-- NO. I do not have words for the SWARM of them that we end up seeing on screen. JFC. (Though there is the vague indication that the Trench may???? be some type of kisegra???? in this reality??? Don’t like that implication one bit, especially with how it gets tied to bigoted purist comments. Might just be a thing purists were saying because fucking sea-nazi purists though.)

And can I also say that the Karathen is a damned Queen? Yes, Julie Andrews voiced her. Yes, she was voiced by Mary-goddamn-Poppins. Yes, she is “practically perfect in every way” and will flatten (or eat) a bitch as needed. Lava doesn’t affect her, she is fucking impervious. It’s no wonder why King Atlan wanted her to go with him when he fucked off into permanent self-imposed exile for his GIANT ASS mistake-- because who wouldn’t want to have their bestie to spend the rest of their life hanging out with when said bestie is the ORIGINAL ‘Deep Beast’ and will cheerfully destroy any of your upstart descendants if they try to be as stupid as you were by attempting to repeat your mistakes? (Real talk though, the fact that King Atlan made friends with her in the first place implies that he learned how to let go of almost all the excess pride that got him in trouble in the first place. Congrats for having some character growth and having stuck with what you felt was right my dude.)

SEA. HORSES. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA They were SO DAMN COOL.

And armored sharks. Fucking armored great whites. For when you absolutely, positively, have to kill every mother-fucking thing in the ocean around you.

The Differences From Other Realities

So one of the big things that stuck out to me was the “only the high-born can breathe air” thing. While I do agree that the ability to breathe air, or water, or both probably varies due to genetics and whatnot, in most realities and interpretations I’ve seen the ability to breathe air isn’t something only found in ‘high-born’ individuals. (Case in point, La’gaan. I love him to pieces, but as someone from the Outer Provinces there ain’t no way that boy is ‘high-born’, and yet he can breathe air.) I’m not pointing this out as a “screw up” of any sort on the part of the writers, but more to point out that this is a detail that makes the DCCU unique from other DC universes.

Atlantis-- Something that caught my attention was how Atlantis was spoken to in relation to other kingdoms. We have several kingdoms mentioned in the movie-- the Kingdom of the Fishermen, the Kingdom of the Brine, the Kingdom of the Trench (who tf decided they had a kingdom???), the Kingdom of Xebel-- but the way they’re each spoken about implies that they’re not seen as being part of Atlantis. Whiiiiiich is kind of weird, because Atlantis (in most iterations) is implied to have been a small continent/large island and not just a single city-state. On the other hand there have been (mostly older) renditions where it was a single city-state. Going off of what we see though, I’m inclined to think that what may have happened is that what was that world’s Poseidonis at some point during their history got renamed Atlantis (so kind of like a New York, New York situation; New York City in New York State, Atlantis City in Atlantis).

The number of kingdoms-- This is something I’ve seen vary SO DAMN MUCH. Some realities it’s only one, others have implied as many as 12 (before several were lost), and this reality says that there were 7 and that 3 have been lost. Fun details.

And Xebel being one of the kingdoms? Most renditions I’ve seen have it as a place for criminals or sealed off in its own pocket-dimension. So it being one of the kingdoms is pretty unique.

ARTHUR’S. PARENTS. ARE. ALIVE. HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT.

AND NEITHER OF THEM DIE!!!

And thank you SO MUCH to the writers for completely erasing some of the more questionable things that have been done with Mera and Xebel, and with Black Manta. As far as I know none of the recent comics dip into that uncomfortable written history, but I still couldn’t help but be thankful that none of that awful crap got used.

No use of the word ‘pure’ in regards to the purist rhetoric of some of the characters, but it was so heavily implied that I think it’s safe to assume. Still mentioning it because with everything else going on it was almost weird that it wasn’t mentioned even once.

BORDER PATROL AND WALLS AROUND ATLANTIS. What the actual fuck?! What the fucking fuck?! Who the hell in Arthur’s family thought that was a good idea?! ‘Oh, you’re trying to go up and over the wall and not through the only gate into or out of Atlantis-- ‘cause that’s not asking for trouble AT ALL-- how about... No. Instead we’ll just FUCKING ANNIHILATE YOU WITH GIANT ASS LASERS BECAUSE THAT’S REAL PROPORTIONATE TO THE SITUATION.̓ (Seriously. What the fuck.)

The split between upper and lower levels. I’ve seen splits between inner and outer provinces before with various iterations, but this reality is the first one where I’ve seen an upper-versus-lower-level split in Atlantis.

Arthur being the eldest. Some realities he’s older than Orm, and in other realities Orm is older than him. It’s kind of a toss-up.

Atlanna being ‘sacrificed’ to the Trench. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK ATLANTIS?! Granted, the Trench are a recent addition to the Aquaman mythos (a la New52), and it could be argued that for other realities they’re almost a myth, a legend of nightmare stories to warn reckless guppies away from going into open and empty areas away from others where it’d be easier for predators to snap them up and swim away; but for a reality where they’re known to factually exist and for people to be completely okay with SACRIFICING THEIR QUEEN TO THEM... What. THE. FUCK.

The Social Things

Technically I could put this point under Differences From Other Realities, but it has to do with a huge social detail for this movie, so it’s going here. ARRANGED MARRIAGE. I think it’s fair to assume that it may have been a thing in the past in most DC realities, but this reality is the first one I know of where it’s a current thing. Obviously this has HUGE repercussions for how things play out (like Queen Atlanna getting ‘sacrificed’ to the Trench for ‘committing treason’ thanks to having fallen in love with Tom and having Arthur-- WTAF Atlantis?), and it implies a lot more heavy restrictions in Atlantis than even I headcanon-- and I’ve headcanoned some really dark shit based on the crumbs and hints DC has given us over various renditions.

This movie did not sugarcoat or simplify the bigotry in Atlantis. They very clearly conveyed that being bigoted isn’t just “deliberately being mean to someone” and that bigotry is pervasive and can affect damn near everything. In fact they did an artful job at subtly and carefully weaving it into interactions that you might not even notice unless you know what to look for. This includes such “tasteful” (NOT) Atlantean slurs and comments rendered in English as:

- Half-breed (canonically an in-world slur)

- Mongrel (implications similar to ‘half-breed’)

- Savage (I hate this word so GODDAMN MUCH, you have NO fucking idea, my kneejerk reaction to hearing this word is the urge to either deck someone or set something on fire)

- “If that half-breed mongrel wields the trident, then that half-breed mongrel is your king.” (May not be word-for-word exact, but it was said by Mera’s father-- which fuck you Nereus, you purist piece of shit, and fuck you for daring to refer to the man you just told your people to follow by using a goddamn slur.)

- There’s more, but goddamn if I went through it all this thing would get even longer and I’d be screaming even more about Orm and Nereus.

- Though I will say with Arthur being indigenous, that insult of ‘half-breed’ carries WAY more weight than it might otherwise. Like WAY MORE.

Oh yeah! And before I forget! Because fuck that hagfish-sucking purist piece of ba’athu-kest shit ORM! THE ASSHOLE KILLS KING RICOU, KING OF THE FISHERMEN, IN FRONT OF HIS FAMILY BECAUSE HE WAS CALLING ORM ON HIS SHIT AND REFUSING TO GO ALONG WITH HIS WAR.

And then he fucking threatened to kill King Ricou’s partner and daughter if they don’t do what he wants!

Just... FUCK ORM. Fuck his purist bullshit, and fuck his purist bullshit that obviously made him think nothing of killing a kisegra where he actually hesitated over the idea of killing someone ‘pure’. (Think Vulco, to a certain extent, and Nereus when Nereus told him to back down over killing Mera.)

Mera says that people try to get into Atlantis over the wall “all the time.” Um, hi, because that’s not saying anything intense. At all. What it immediately calls to my mind is that it may be a direct hint of kisegra not being seen as citizens in Atlantis and (generally) not allowed in. In fact, in the main crowd scenes during the first fight between Arthur and Orm I only noticed ONE kisegra, and then only because of their tail. I may be wrong, there may have been more that I didn’t notice, but in the brief amount of time there was I tried to scour the shots of the crowd for kisegra and came up empty aside from the one. (Can we say ‘possible hints of that arc in the pre-boot comics where kisegra weren’t citizens until Arthur took the throne’?) It also implies-- if they’re willing to risk getting FUCKING ANNIHILATED BY GIANT ASS LASER-CANNONS to get in-- that things are B A D outside Atlantis.

(Arthur, you poor bastard, you’re walking/swimming into a shit-storm.)

And ‘battles to the death for the throne’???? In a goddamn ARENA?! What kind of fucking hellscape is Atlantis that they’ve had such advanced tech at their disposal for centuries and they’re doing that shit?! (Again, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK ATLANTIS?!)

The division between the upper and lower levels. Um... What... the fuck??? Apparently the “low-born” aren’t able to breathe air-- which okay, whatever-- but they apparently have to live with/in wreckage???? Without electricity??? (Obviously the Atlanteans have some form of energy production going. Magic or electricity or both, idek, but that shattered wreck of a ship looked like there wasn’t anything on it or in the area around it that might have cast some light that wasn’t whatever happened to be shining through from higher up.) And apparently without the means to build actual houses???? Great system there for the poor Atlantis. Really.

Arthur, you poor, poor bastard, you’re swimming into a shit-storm.

A gigantic shit-storm.

Arthur, you poor, poor bastard, you’re swimming into SUCH a gigantic shit-storm.

Arthur, you have my deepest sympathies. (Pun not intended.)

I know I said it before, but I’ll say it again: the implications for this world’s Atlantis are way darker than my headcanons have been.

Though this does make me wonder just how much shit Arthur and Mera might get over their relationship and how it came to be (since it obviously wasn’t through “proper traditional procedures”).

Some Other Points I Realized After Getting Some Sleep

Even though we get the sense that everything is headed by kings in Atlantis (HA), we also actually have evidence that Atlantis might not actually go in for surface-world sexist shit.

- Atlanna is clearly Atlan’s descendant, not Orm’s father, otherwise Arthur wouldn’t have been eligible for the throne. Which means the throne was hers (before she was going to be ‘sacrificed’ as a traitor). So that brings up the possibility that things may have played out differently if she’d been found out before Orm was born. (Maybe they wouldn’t have been able to safely ‘get rid of’ her without having someone of her family line available and ready to step in.)

- When Orm kills King Ricou it’s very clearly implied that the throne immediately goes to Ricou’s daughter and not his partner. There is no question or doubt that the princess is immediately in charge of her people’s armies, not even a hint that her gender is a factor in the situation. (It also reinforces the prior thing in the point about Atlanna that family-line seems to be the important factor over everything else for the royal families.)

- Atlanna and Mera both are shown to be highly capable fighters who aren’t to be taken lightly, and though we only really see them being pursued by and fighting against men, there’s not even a moment where any of the atlanteans seem surprised that they’re as capable as they are.

- The Karathen is arguably the biggest badass tank in the entire movie, and yet it’s safe to assume that when King Atlan went into his exile that he cared more about what she was capable of than he cared about the fact that she was the biggest badass woman in the entire ocean. (Assuming the Karathen even has the concept of gender. Pretty sure that’s up for question.)

Chances are high that when Atlanna was ‘sacrificed’ to the Trench, Orm saw his father’s show of harsh and callous ruthlessness and told himself that it was strength, it was admirable, and he wanted to be as much like him as possible. And there’s also the possibility that he had some part of himself deep down somewhere that was absolutely terrified over what his father might do if he ever was or became anything that his father saw fit to ‘destroy’. (Not that it excuses his purist bullshit for even a moment-- purist fucking McDouche-Face Orm can still fucking die in a fire as far as I’m concerned-- but that kind of thing may have added fuel to the fire for his purist bullshit.)

Since it’s very clearly implied that Mera and Orm were raised together, there’s a high chance they were friends as kids. It also means she got to see his increasing asshole-ish-ness, and while she may have missed the friendship they used to have as kids (thank you @tamlins-stories-and-poems for bringing this point up) she also would have known how quickly the switch could be flipped from him caring about her to him deciding she needed to die if he saw her as a ‘traitor’. (Which also explains her deliberate anti-surface comment to him before trying to say that she felt he was going too far.)

I just have to say, in regards to my fishy son La’gaan, he’s the kind of person who doesn’t willingly bow before or submit to anyone unless he feels they’ve earned it. The versions of Mera and Arthur in this movie? They are exactly the sort of people he would be ecstatic to call his Queen and King. They’re the sort of people he would be loyal to and fight with everything he has to defend them-- because they’re both the sort of people to essentially say “fuck you” to social conventions to do the right thing.

With the 7 kingdoms, at least 6 are outright mentioned (unless I’m not remembering the seventh, and even so I’m dubious about the kingdom of the Trench even counting).

- The Remaining 4: The kingdom of Atlantis, The kingdom of Xebel, The kingdom of the Fishermen, and The kingdom of the Brine.

- The ‘lost’ 3: The kingdom of the Deserters (implied to all be dead), The kingdom of the Trench (again, I’m dubious about their claim to the title, but there’s that purist rhetoric about some people having ‘regressed’-- fuck that noise SO much-- but if we put any stock in it then it would imply the kingdom was ‘lost’ because they ‘fell’ so far), and then the third one which may have been mentioned but I don’t recall.

- I just have so many doubts in regard to the Trench having their own kingdom. They’re screwed up nightmare fuel, and claiming they’re one of the Lost Kingdoms feels almost like one of those things that purists thought up as a way to support any claims they have about kisegra being “savage” and all that shit.

And while I’m at it, I fucking love how Orm’s spouting bullshit about how ‘savage’ and ‘barbaric’ kisegra are, and meanwhile the King of the Brine and King Ricou both tell him in no uncertain terms that he’s the one who’s being a violent asshole who needs to back the fuck off.

Really fucking pissed about how Orm killed Ricou and was going to kill the King of the Brine (after he’d already ripped his arm off, fucking asshole Orm).

- Also not thrilled about how after Orm gets ripped away from the King of the Brine, we don’t get to see that king again. I would have liked a moment of him making his way to Arthur to talk. (Maybe something to hope for in a sequel. And hopefully they’ll give him an actual name.)

Also, I appreciate that the one group of kisegra were called fishermen and not fish-men. It’s only something I’ve seen come up in a couple iterations (the animated Young Justice being the main one), but ‘fish head’ is yet another Atlantean slur. Presumably going off of that, things like ‘fish face’, ‘fish lips’, etc.-- while possibly not outright slurs-- could be similar enough to the actual slur to (justifiably) make any kisegra bristle. By going with ‘fishermen’ for that group, it’s pushing away the negative connotations of a possible slur by invoking a term and imagery that implies they are hunters, and therefore shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s a nice little touch that I’m not sure if the writers intended or not, but I appreciate it all the same.

That said, for all my screaming, I LOVE THIS MOVIE.

#Aquaman #Atlanteans #Arthur Curry #Queen Mera #Black Manta #La'gaan #Lagoon Boy #Orm can die in a fire #long post #meta #updated

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justinofthearts-blog · 7 years

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MCU vs DCCU

David and Goliath, Achilles and Hector, Floyd Mayweather and Connor MacGregor. History is filled with the clash of two titans and I think the MCU and DCCU are no exception. If your a fanboy or fan girl you'll probably hear a lot of debate over who is better. I'm here to put my two cents in and state my opinion. Since the release of the first Iron Man film, the MCU has been a major game changer in films about super heroes. The build up, character developments, story lines are all spot on, maybe not always sticking directly to the comics but keeping elements of them within the film, albeit adding their own vision of the characters. We are a year away now from the cinematic masterpieces that are Infinity War I&II as well as Justice League. With the DCCU, Zack Snyder decided to go a different route and give us Justice League before addressing the origin stories of some of the leagues major characters such as Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg who will be getting their own solo films after the first Justice League film. Opposite from Marvel who established several solo films before releasing The Avengers. In this case, I have to say that Marvel wins the award of better character development than DC. DCCU though I have to say though loves using iconic actors from previous films such as Watchmen with the casting of Patrick Wilson as Ocean Master for the solo Aquaman film starring Jason Momoa and Amber Heard. Wilson previously played Night Owl in Watchmen. We also had Jeffrey Dean Morgan cast as Thomas Wayne, father of Bruce Wayne in Batman vs Superman. Morgan had previously played The Comedian alongside Wilson in Watchmen. And with the confirmed future The Flash film being titled Flashpoint, its possible we'll see Morgan play Batman from Flashpoint. In Flashpoint, Barry Allen aka The Flash goes back in time to save his mother, but in doing so alters the timeline therefore Thomas Wayne becomes Batman, not Bruce with the latter having been killed, and Martha Wayne becoming The Joker. Crazy right? I for one would love to see a female representation of the Joker on the big screen, if Lauren Cohan is on board to play it. DCCU I believe also captures iconic comic images and places them into their films for split seconds but it's more than enough for the average fanboy or girl. But all in all, I love comic books and both cinematic universes have their pros and cons, and at the end of the day they are stories meant to inspire and motivate. It's a wonderful time to be alive in the case of seeing these cinematic masterpieces come to life.

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geekade · 7 years

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Some Thoughts About Suicide Squad

Hi Geekade readers! I’m not taking to coding as quickly as I’d hoped, and find myself making the hard decision between using my Pi to learn and code or to install Retropie and play games, so I thought I’d take a brief departure from my normal tech talk to discuss another passion of mine: Harley Quinn.

She’s possibly one of the best, most tragic female characters in literature. There’s no one on earth in a better position to be fully lucid while they go insane than she is, nobody who consistently and knowingly chooses her own imprisonment and torture more frequently. It’s like if Jack Sparrow had a law enforcement degree and still made all the same decisions while pirate hunters repeatedly and desperately offered him help and companionship. I could go on, but I have an actual point, so I’ll spare you. As you can imagine, I was both fearful and thrilled as I awaited the Suicide Squad release, rightly imagining Margot Robbie to be absolutely perfect for the part, and wholly unconcerned with the building, meme-fied humiliation of Jared Leto’s Joker. (The Joker, arguably, is inessential to Harley’s transformation‑PLEASE ask me about this, I’d love to tell you.)

Suicide Squad was fine. It was nowhere near the let-down of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (which I’d awaited for 4 years by the time it was regrettably released in theaters instead of burned in the dead of night in ditches somewhere), but nowhere close to as satisfying and funny-while-successfully-introducing-otherwise-unknown-characters-to-mainstream-audiences as Guardians of the Galaxy had been. However, if you’d like to watch Suicide Squad, but also would kind of like to watch a good movie, I’ve got news for you.

Suicide Squad is essentially a DCCU remake of the DCU movie Assault on Arkham, which was released a few years beforehand. It’s, honest to goodness, basically the same movie but instead of being potentially a waste of $9-14 dollars, it’s GREAT and a totally appropriate use of maybe $4 to rent on Amazon Prime. (I know, no smarthome stuff and I still manage to be a shill for Amazon. They’re not even paying me.)

Assault on Arkham is a part of a set of movies and shows that I don’t feel could possibly get enough attention - the Batman Animated Universe, encompassing everything from Batman: The Animated Series (arguably the definitive Batman) to the more recent The Killing Joke, and the upcoming Batman and Harley Quinn (which, AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH). In Assault on Arkham, Mark Hamill returns as the voice of the Joker facing Kevin Conroy as Batman, and Hynden Walch as Harley (Princess Bubblegum/Starfire/Penny from Chalkzone.)

I highly suggest that you go watch Assault on Arkham, but just a warning, there are spoilers ahead.

Assault on Arkham takes place at a time after the Suicide Squad had already been formed, so it saves us the trouble of a full origin tale, but it also begins with a bit of a changeup in the team - both from the Suicide Squad movie gang, and from the formation of the squad in the animated universe. We’re treated to the more characterized and strangely sympathetic King Shark in place of Killer Croc, who in the Suicide Squad movie is bold and violent, but not much else. We’re also introduced to Killer Frost, who is an icy villainess a-la Livewire from B:TAS. She’s sassy and has what appear to be magical ice powers; like Elsa, but mean. Black Spider, a bloodthirsty, crime-hating vigilante also joins the team, apparently only grudgingly in the company of everyone else. We keep Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, and Harley Quinn herself, but the dynamics of the team are the same. One hulk, one killer-killer, one elemental, one nutty Australian robber, one entrepreneurial dad, and one crazy former therapist.

Oh - and one sacrificial lamb. Both movies kick off with a “proof of concept”‑someone nobody particularly cares about to prove that Waller will actually blow their heads off. In Assault on Arkham, it’s a raging Red bull called “The KGBeast” who nobody would ever mourn, and in Suicide Squad, it’s “Slipknot,” the man who can climb anything. This proves for us how cruel Waller really is‑and in both movies, Waller gets called out as the devil. This is a reference to the comics, as well as simply a fact. Waller is probably actually Satan.

See‑in each movie‑not only is Task Force X Waller’s vanity project (which is entirely unnecessary and completely inhumane, not to mention a complete violation of the constitutional rights of the prisoners involved), but the main conflict faced by our hostage heroes is a mishap of Waller’s own making. In Assault on Arkham, Waller had slipped a Suicide Seed into the Riddler’s neck to test her prototype, and he figured out how to disarm it, so, she created a fistfull more, stuffed them into some other criminals, and sent them to murder the Riddler. And also, the Joker has supposedly hidden a dirty bomb somewhere in Gotham and Batman is tearing the city apart to find it. (SEE DC? You still could have shoehorned Batman into this movie too.)

But all the plot-relevant stuff aside, the meat of Assault on Arkham is Harley and the Joker. They start the movie out broken up, which, if you follow their relationship as obsessively as I do, you’ll know is not actually an uncommon thing for them. Harley and Mister J are currently canonically canned. She’s even been out with Bruce Wayne on a legitimate and mutually enjoyable date. Heck, she only lives about 40 minutes from me, in Coney Island in a shabby apartment with her pets and pals and her primary non-monogamous partner, Pamela Isley (Ivy). But in Assault on Arkham, Ivy is is still incarcerated, and H&J are on the rocks.

It’s heavily implied, in Assault on Arkham, that Joker had thrown Harley out of a moving car and left her for dead, which might sound familiar because it’s almost exactly what they did in Suicide Squad‑but that’s hardly the only thing he’s done to her, and it’s hard to tell if Dr. Quinzel’s rage in the confrontation in Arkham comes from that particular assault or from his complete and utter destruction of her legitimate career, social abilities, criminal record, and sanity. Let’s say both. Harley starts Assault on Arkham out confidently and unconvincingly unattached and reinforces her apparent split by banging Deadshot.

Ok this part, I see why they didn’t snag for Suicide Squad. Will Smith is 48, and Margot Robbie is 26, and while she’s “Daddy’s Little Monster,” I personally don’t want to see her have a fling with someone who was already on Season 3 of Fresh Prince the year she was born. (Yes, Jared Leto is 45 and no, I don’t want to see her with him either.)

When, in Assault on Arkham, Harley (spoiler) breaks into Arkham with Deadshot, she (spoiler) runs into the Joker in his bulletproof cell and (spoiler): it doesn’t go well. He taunts her as only Mark Hamill’s Joker can, in the seductive and deranged varying pitch of a madman, and she is...triggered. (I got puns.)

She manages to keep it together while firing to help Deadshot with the task they’re there for; planting a small hacking device‑Batman-y technology that allows everyone else to sneak in past security, and here is where I pause to rant about Harley Quinn some more.

She knows that his cell is bulletproof and fires at it anyway. This convinces all of the onlooking guards that she’s currently deranged, and convinces Deadshot that she’s (oh, spoiler) not thrilled with the Joker. Her rampage allows Deadshot to complete their first mission, but it also helps the Joker to escape.

It takes Joker what seems like an hour to realize what she’s done for him, what she later confirms she did on purpose for him. This is one of my favorite pieces of evidence that Harley Quinn is the real criminal mastermind behind Joker’s modern accomplishments. For the other, watch “Mad Love,” Season 4 Episode 21 of Batman: The Animated Series, which Suicide Squad also clipped a bit, free on Amazon Prime. Harley has full knowledge of the entire schematics of Arkham Asylum, because, you know, she worked there, and throughout the movie uses passcodes and shortcuts that move the whole team forward, and she chooses to let her puddin loose in the halls, so she can catch up later. Yes, spoiler, she was faking the whole time, and is more than happy to be daddy’s little monster again. She’s even been hiding the dirty bomb.

Ask me what she gets for it.

So, you might at this point be thinking: Gabbie, you’re bizarrely passionate about this clearly unhealthy couple, but also, this movie sounds nothing like Suicide Squad.

Well, you’re wrong. About the second part, at least. Let me take you through it.

Amanda Waller wakes up one morning and decides to randomly create a huge problem‑murdering the Riddler (or releasing the Enchantress, in Suicide Squad). Granted, nerdy Nigma isn’t nearly as frightening as Cara Delevigne slowly building one of the mechanical space worms from Avengers in downtown Chicago, but both are problematic, and both are entirely Waller’s fault.

She pulls together her team of criminals, puts them through a suit-up montage, kills one of them, then drops their helicopter literally out of the sky into a situation that she does not explain to them fully. The Joker and Harley have some sort of private understanding between one another, as could probably have been expected. In both movies, Harley has a camaraderie with Deadshot. Harley also notably does a Matrix” lean in both movies for no discernable reason.

Inevitably, our villain-heroes are actually the patsies. Also inevitably, both the elemental and the tank are killed in explosions of the neck-bomb or fiery variety. And in both movies, the Joker appears to die in a helicopter crash, though in Suicide Squad, we actually get to see the happy couple reunited, whereas in Assault on Arkham, we’re merely told the body wasn’t found, which, for the Joker, is as good as proof that he’s alive.

To be totally honest with you, my main conclusion is that I’d have killed to see Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn in this Suicide Squad movie instead of the one that we got. She was the one part of Suicide Squad that makes watching it worth it, and while Princess Bubblegum did an amazing job in Assault on Arkham, I’d really like to see a live-action portrayal of Harley having her own hidden agenda, but giving us a full range of emotions and a tiny taste of her‑hate?‑for the Joker.

The Suicide Squad Harleen transformation was painfully unfulfilling, but the canonical story of their mad love is actually very interesting. While Suicide Squad paints Quinn as the Joker’s dupe‑tortured to madness and turned to a crime queen‑the older story is a little more compelling. Over multiple sessions, Harleen realizes that the Joker is able to make her laugh again after years of unwavering, humorless professionalism and ambition. Their sessions become discussions, and she falls in love. This not only makes the Joker seem more dangerous, capable of corrupting a psychiatrist with only his words like a genial, gentlemanly, green-haired Charles Manson, but tells us a lot about the good doctor. And it really makes Harley’s blow-up in Assault on Arkham an incredible moment, especially considering that it’s a dupe. How self-aware is Harley? How actively, and independently, is she choosing the Joker again and again? I for one would have enjoyed seeing that explored in Suicide Squad, just a bit more than I enjoyed the pin-up show we got instead.

I hope I’ve convinced you to check out Assault on Arkham. It’s really an amazing movie. And I hope I get a little bit better at Python, so that next month I can get back to writing about technology instead of rambling justifications of clown-on-criminal romance.

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