#villains that have been battered down and treated as a freak and a monster time and time and time again | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nightcoremoon · 3 years

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so for the first time I saw batman: the killing joke.

...

it was okay I guess. but massively overrated. I expected some fucking masterpiece of cinema but instead it was just two unrelated short films that were more style and flash than substance.

so first off, barbara's storyline was mediocre. franz wasn't a compelling villain; just a creep, and a trust fund brat. oh wow he's a mafia kid who stole his family's fortune by hacking. if it was the falcone family I'd have cared more but it wasn't so it's just some faceless deathfodder rando. who gives a shit. the whole situation was just a vehicle to shove batman's dick into babs. which kinda fucks over bruce's character here and judging by the timeline kinda makes him a bit of a groomer, yikes. bruce and gordon have known each other since bruce was a young boy and we know that bruce is way older than babs so yeah bruce totally knew her from birth until present day, he literally utilized an active power dynamic to police her crimefighting activities, and he should have fucking known better and stopped her when she kissed him because it would (and did) compromise their professional dynamic, but hey, batdick. and at least barbara recognized that she was behaving emotionally rather than logically when it came to bruce and paris and took the high road out. that would be a serviceable standalone episode to write her on a bus in a serialization but THIS IS A MOVIE. so for a waste of an already short runtime it's like having an appetizer before your meal but instead of something like a crab cake before stuffed flounder, you get greasy onion petals that are more fried batter than onion before getting a well done cheeseburger that's just a glorified hockey puck on a sponge with a kraft single on top. the animation and vocal delivery were excellent of course, not gonna disparage that aspect, so it was well made, but the writing was just not very good. a polished turd. quantic dream must have developed it then because it feels like I watched a david cage production.

so in a 78 minute movie, five of which were the credits, we had a half hour Disney/Pixar short except those bring joy and this brought boring. also there were a lot of shots of her ass tits and underwear that were obnoxiously male-gazey and there was a token gay for the sole purpose of dangling a carrot on a stick for the queers. look kids, warner brothers and dc comics cares about the lgbts! give us money! a waste of time before the real reason why anyone came to see the movie that literally only exists to pad out the runtime to make it a feature length (even though paying a full ticket would've been a total ripoff because, again, IT WAS ONLY 78. even 9 was 81 minutes long and that had an amazing storyline so I forgave it, but 78 minutes? ugh.

also, GOTHAM RAGE??? CRINGE. SO CRINGE.

alright now for the joker segment.

*ahem*

what the fuck? that sucked! *throws tomato*

mark hamill and the joker's lines and the art and the cinematography and the choreography was all good and the plot was cohesive. I get it.

but holy shit was the writing weak as fuck.

okay so some rando breaks the J-ster out of Arkham (already unlikely but ugh whatever), he didn't turn a trick or recruit or anything, he just went to purchase a carnival. or, steal one. but wait, he DID recruit, but he went to get all of the stereotypical Circus Freak™ stereotypes. little people, fat lady, bearded lady, wolf man, strongman, diaper man (wait, what?), and the two headed woman. I guess if you don't really think about why all of them were super readily available in the outskirts between arkham and gotham [i just realized they both end with -am] then it makes enough sense. and then literally right after that HE RECRUITS SOME GUYS TO HELP HIM KIDNAP GORDON. and then strips and photographs barbara. um. ew. you can tell the writer and director were men. Alan Moore is constantly molesting women in his comics and this one trick pony should be put down already. but whatever. the plot is weak and it only gets saved by the flashback sequences.

oh.

oh no.

they're not that great.

he's a failed unfunny comedian who just wants some money to move his wife to a better house so he turns to thievery with the mob. OR YOU COULD JUST STOP GOING TO THE BAR AND BLOWING IT ALL ON BOOZE. I mean the cops knew where to find him after all so clearly he's a repeat customer (or moore is a bad plot writer who relies on convenience and shut the fuck up and don't critically analyze it). alright so he gets wrapped up in the mob to perform a heist on a playing card factory. GET IT, BECAUSE HE'S THE JOKER??? and he uses the moniker of the red hood to retain his anonymity. I expected the mobsters to be working for francisco but no the paris storyline was only cooked up screenplay for passing the runtime so why would they do something clever and interesting and make the film cohesive? that'd be really stupid to make the movie feel more like one movie and not two short films. at least when grindhouse & planet terror did it they advertised themselves as an anthology film. whatever. he falls in the vat of acid which melts the red hood to his face and I gotta say that's actually a pretty good idea to get his face white and his hair green and his lips red. I like that part. oh wait I forgot about the most important part! his wife gets shoved in the refrigerator. OH WOW THAT'S JUST SO COMPELLING AND ORIGINAL, TOTALLY NOT SOMETHING THAT ALREADY HAPPENED TO GREEN LANTERN. TWICE. although she wasn't literally shoved into a literal refrigerator like alex was. rip in frozen pieces you absolute legend of a trope namer. alright, so... so the joker is sad because his wife died. you know, the wife we saw for two minutes and knew the moment we saw her drenched in sepia she was gonna die. and she died offscreen. kyle's gf died and he was fine. gordon's wife died and he was fine. batman's parents both died and he was fine. oh boo hoo someone I love died! fuck off. I am so goddamn sick of people trying to justify their evil with "I was sad once". it's a stupid trope and it's not compelling. the only valid version is doctor doofenshmirtz' evil(er) version in the PF movie because it's hilarious that it's because of a toy train because that's the emotional depth that fridgewomen is treated with in all of these storylines. but at least batman said so. oh yeah, I almost totally forgot, batman's in this movie.

batman punches people and nonlethally takes them out. by suffocating them and letting them get stabbed and throwing them into pits of spikes and HEY WAIT A GODDAMN SECOND! okay let's just ignore that bit and hope that the little people squeezed between the gaps in the spikes and the strongman could breathe in the face mask and the two headed women had KO gas and the fat lady was fat enough that the knives only stabbed her cellulite. it wouldn't be the biggest reach one would have to make in watching this fucking disaster of a plot mess.

now I did like that it was actually batman, and by that I mean he gave a shit about the insane because he recognizes that mental illness is not a cause of dangerous or criminal behavior, just a potential exacerbating factor if it wasn't treated. yeah he brutalized mobsters and crime lords but they were mostly in self defense while gathering intel. he politely asked sal maroni and the sex workers for information and they gave it to him without violence- he manhandled maroni but only after he reached into his pocket for a cigar which could've been a gun. also batman says sex work should be decriminalized if only by not ratting them out to the cops. he was a genuinely good person in the second half of the movie. too bad it was ruined by the shitty first half that made him a borderline groomer.

joker's song was... bad. mark hamill performed his ass off but the song wasn't that good. it just tried to be willy wonka if he was a voyeuristic monster. oh yeah have the only girl character be paralyzed stripped and photographed only to give her father ManPain™. again... the fuck? joker and batman were both gross but, again. male writers. if it was a one-off I could drop a thermian argument because, alright one and done makes sense, especially 1988 standards. but it saturated and soured the entire goddamn movie because of abhorrent pacing decisions. so you're goddamn right I'm gonna bring it up twice! joker was a creep, his plan was dumb, nolan and burton and lord/miller and even ayer had better motivations. YES I AM SAYING THAT JARED LETO'S JOKER HAD BETTER WRITING THAN MARK HAMILL'S JOKER. not nearly to the level of ledger nicholson or galifanakis but hamill didn't have a lot to work with here and I maintain that his performance was amazing; honestly I like his the best out of all of them but just... not here. but I think I can cut some slack to firelord ozai and luke skywalker even if he just phoned it in here which he didn't. writing was just weak. and that's all there is to it. don't anon me and threaten to remove my bones ok?

alright so batman and joker fought and joker got the upper hand and was gonna kill him but it was a prop gun. haha. they had a heart to heart and batman tells joker that he wants to help him get better, even after joker killed robin and molested barbara and traumatized gordon and did countless other travesties, he still said he would help. but joker said no, and told a joke that was good enough to make batman laugh. and then the credits rolled.

...

what a completely pointless and empty ending. oh it's deep and meaningful and poignant? ok sure, I guess, movie, but you didn't earn that. shyamalan did the same thing a dozen times. that doesn't make him any less of a shit writer.

I can understand the concept of batman laughing at joker's joke, humanizing him.

I get it. I see what they tried to do. I respect it.

but this movie was massively overhyped and overrated and I expected it to be so much better than it was. but overall to me it was just another batman cartoon to throw on top of the pile. maybe it was influential to graphic novels. maybe it shaped batman into what he is today. it published right as tim burton's movie and I can respect its place in the pantheon of comic history. but sometimes things that are classic...

aren't that great.

citizen kane, casablanca, the maltese falcon, the treasure of the sierra madre, gone with the wind, singing in the rain, all of them are classic and legendary pieces of art. but they're just not that good, interesting, appealing, watchable, or FUN. they were good at the time- I mean come on we all know them today- but on going back you'd have to really appreciate the finer details to still love the movies today. and this belongs there, in the vault, to be appreciated from afar. influential if dated.

but god am I still disappointed nonetheless.

TL;DR

it was just okay. had some good ideas, had some really bad ideas, had some ugly stuff. overall mediocre. first half 5/10, second half 7/10, overall 6/10.

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sserpente · 7 years

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A/N: Finally, this is Part II. Part I can be found on my masterlist. Thanks for your lovely ideas, guys! I tried to work them all in!

Words: 1649 Warnings: violence/blood/injuries

I love yah too. The words filled you with power and pride, igniting the very core of your abilities and making you stronger than ever.

You wanted to prove to Digger that you were not a monster, no freak as he had once put it. It had hurt terribly, knowing that the man you loved despised what you were. But now he was aware. He knew what you were capable of and he had not left. Not yet. You hoped it would remain like this, that he would eventually be able to accept you being a meta human.

There was a lot of awkward silence between the two of you as the lot of you walked down the streets of Midway City. Digger hardly spoke, occasionally eyeing you suspiciously, hesitantly even, as if he was weighing his chances of endangering himself by getting near you. The looks stung like daggers being rammed into your body. How could he ever think you would hurt him?

Maybe, and so you knew, sometimes you couldn’t quite control yourself, for you were still learning how to use them properly and safe, but you were certain that you would never be capable of hurting the one man that cared for you, even if he was a criminal.

“So, you can control minds, huh?” A calm voice suddenly spoke up, a bald man with countless tattoos approaching you rather carefully to not startle you. Digger shot the fire man next to you a threatening glare but said nothing, whatsoever.

“Yeah. Got me into a lot of trouble in the past. I always got what I wanted without knowing why until I discovered that I was influencing people’s thoughts. It’s when I got determined to learn how to control it. A few months after I met Boomer.” You explained, hoping that your boyfriend was listening. You wanted him to know you were no danger, not to him at the very least and that you hardly ever used your powers to your own advantage. You were no villain, nor did you want to be one.

“Me too… I did things I’m not proud of. Did you ever lose control? Without wanting it? Without realising what you’ve done?” El Diablo asked, frowning as he did.

Biting your lower lip, you attempted to shake your head. But there was no reason to lie.

“Once. It was… an emergency. And an accident. The person I controlled did things I am not proud of either. She is still in prison for what I forced her to do and until today, she has no memory of how she landed in there in first place.” You admitted embarrassed, staring at the dirty asphalt beneath your feet.

It was then you felt Boomerang’s arm sneaking around your waist to pull you close. Your heart skipped a beat. He was here for you.

“Why don’t yah go an’ tear down someone else, fire bloke, ey? It’s kinda obvious (Y/N) don’t wannah talk about this, so fuck off before I make yah.”

Chato shook his head before he apologised for upsetting you, much to your surprise, however, he actually walked away, catching up with Killer Croc and Harley.

“You didn’t have to do that.” You whispered quietly, pressing yourself even closer to Boomerang’s muscly body.

“Don’t mention it. I’m still mad at yah fah nevah tellin’ me but yah still me girl.” He gave back, sending a shiver down your spine. Still, you didn’t dare to smile.

“So… how does it work?” He continued, eyeing the many battered and destroyed buildings around him as you kept walking through piles of debris. You could tell he was interested, that he wanted to know more. Despite his hatred, he tried, he tried hard. For you. And you appreciated it so much there were tears in your eyes when you replied.

“It’s… it’s complicated. People have told me they have no idea when I control them so I could never be sure whether I did it or not. I simply… concentrate on the thought I want my opposite to believe, it’s like transferring it over to their mind and then… they simply do what I want them to. It’s like… electricity in my brain, it feels weird but… it’s not painful. I never realised it came from my powers until I found out about them.”

Digger answered with a strange noise, however, never let go of your waist. Then he spoke again, making it harder second by second not to cry. You could already feel the hot tears burning in your eyes worsening your sight, your environment all of a sudden blurry and fuzzy.

“I’mma take care of yah, yah hear that? I’ll make sure yah’ll be okay.”

“Get down!!!” Flag suddenly interrupted with a shout. Instantly, the whole group including Boomerang and you docked down. No second to late, he figured, maybe, however, for you.

The explosion right in front of you all caused by the EA’s was powerful, more so than anything you had ever experienced or seen on TV. When Digger threw himself on top of you to protect you from whatever was to come, the pain in your body had already spread, your body heating up like you had been tossed into a boiling pot of water.

Hesitating, your hand moved to your stomach only to feel a hot and sticky liquid around a sharp piece of glass that had borne itself into your flesh.

“Yah alright, luv?” Screams, shots and fighting emerged but it seemed all too far away to be noticed by either of you.

You tried to nod, do anything to show him you were still alive but the pain was unbearable. You needed to treat the wound now or you would bleed to death.

“My… stomach…” You murmured out of breath, coughing only the fraction of a second after, your face distorted from the pain it caused.

“Fuckin’ shit. Hey, Flag, I need gauze bandage!” He screamed but the soldier didn’t seem to hear him. Cursing loudly, he got to his feet, growling as he did and then ran towards him, tearing so hard on his backpack as he shot at his enemies that he almost tripped and fell over.

“(Y/N)’s hurt, I fuckin’ need a first aid kit or somethin’!” You could hear him yell. Flag’s gaze wandered over to you, seeing you lying there half-dead.

It was just a flesh wound, for Fuck’s sake. It shouldn’t drain you so much.

“You can’t do anything for her right now, Harkness, we need to fight before even more of us get killed!” Sacrifices for the greater good. Disgusting. You spat on the ground, your saliva grey from the dust you had inhaled during the explosion.

When Boomerang shot you a worried look, his eyes glistening with anger towards the colonel, you immediately knew what to do. Gathering the last bit of strength you could summon, you concentrated on your thoughts and sent them over to Flag’s mind, having his face turn expressionless as he suddenly put down his gun for a moment and handed Boomerang his rucksack.

“All you need is in there, get going.”

The Captain was only slightly confused, although he could guess what was going on. Ripping the rucksack from his grasp, he rushed back to you to treat the wound.

“Yuh did that, didn’t yah?”

A nod was the only thing you managed as he removed the shard from your body and tried to still the bleeding, causing you to scream out in pain in the process.

“If yah would’ve told me, none of this would’ve happened!” He growled angrily, his eyes never leaving your wound.

“Are you blaming me?”

“I sure am, luv. If yah would’ve told me, I could’ve protected yah an’ get yah tah Australia or somethin’ like that.”

“What? Boomer, you told me you hated meta humans, what was I supposed to do?! I was scared you’d break up with me if I told you!”

“I could nevah leave yah, (Y/N), I told yah I love yah!” By now, both of you were screaming at each other, though your words were by far not as powerful as Boomerang’s, your injury taking its toll on you.

Suffering, you closed your eyes, hoping that all of this was just a terrible nightmare and that any moment, you would wake up right next to Digger in bed, with him not knowing that you’re a meta human, with him not being forced to join a suicide commando.

But no matter how hard you tried, you didn’t wake up. It was real.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t ‘ve yelled at yah. Let’s get yah taped up an’ hide yah ‘til this shit is ovah.”

“No. No, I’m sorry. I should’ve told you, Boomer, this is all my fault.” Tears were rolling down your cheeks, both from pain and your confession.

It was then you finally realised that your lie had ripped your relationship apart, that there was so much you had to get repaired, this time with nothing but the truth. If both of you got out of this alive, you would do as Boomerang had said. You would go back to Australia with him and hide, let him protect you and be your saviour because in spite of everything that had happened, you still loved each other.

Nobody and nothing would be able to take that from you, not Waller, not your abilities. Boomerang was not a team player, it was something both him and you had always known perfectly well and still, he had decided to stay with you and to share with you and you had ridden roughshod over it.

You knew that he had already forgiven you despite his madness in this very moment. And you would do everything possible to get him to trust you again as much as you trusted him.

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