Kahina Ziri’s subplot in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).
This totally changed Senator Finch’s “Today is a day for truth” line during Superman’s hearing. She was going to expose Lex.
This is also the reason she needed to die from Lex’s standpoint. She was a respected Figure who knew the truth and would not be manipulated by Lex. She could have swayed the world to believe Superman was on their side.
I mean if you really think about it what actually drove Clark being antagonized by politcians, the media and parts of society was his silence. He didn’t outright speak for himself and he was never offered a space to. Instead he was constantly talked about. Clark is definitely the type who would want his actions to speak for themselves at least as superman. However without context his actions could be interpreted any which way and that’s what Lex was working with.
Senator Finch was just about to let Clark do his whole “I’m as american as they come I’m from Kansas senator” thing and create a context in which he could be seen as a guy trying to do the right thing.
Senator Finch was going to give Clark a Voice and that was actually the biggest threat to Lex’s plan.
I’m just thinking about how this could also be a parallel to Lois in MoS, because it would have been the easiest thing to agree woth everyone and say he’s an alien we’re better of without him. She somehow believed however that he should have the chance to talk about what happened. As Lois immediately believed that Clark had a story and upon finding that he had a life like anyone else she allowed him privacy.
It’s amazing to see women in positions of power using their emotional intelligence to make good decisions and they’re a perfect contrast to the antagonists who didn’t have or didn’t use their emotional intelligence and therefore made catastrophic decisions.
Ooop i still had more.
Because ultimately Kahina also made a choice. Whatever Lex gave her to play a pawn in his game her conscience didn’t agree and especially with what Lex had planed, she was also a very dangerous loose end. She went to the Senator to tell her about Clark what would have stopped her from going to the press? She seemed determined to right her wrongs. This is also interesting if we keep up the theme of ladies with emltinal intelligence v men who didn’t use it.
Wallace Keefe was used like a weapon. Just like Bruce. Their anger made them an easy target. Lex let Bruce steel the kryptonite because he knew Bruce would know what to do with it and he would have the best chance of killing Clark. Wallace was used because he would have taken any chance to stand up to Superman and throw his faults in his face. To show the world that superman is no hero and a fals god. Both of these men had hate so great they didn’t even for a second question the situation they had found themselves in.
Whereas the women did and found flaws which they tried to correct and therefore they were a great danger to Lex’s plan.
I keep remembering how many people freaked out when Martha Kent said:
“Be their hero, Clark. Be their angel, be their monument. Be anything they want you to be. Or be none of it. You didn’t owe this world a thing anyway.”
Don’t you think Clark having a choice in his status makes it stronger?
He’s not just Superman because he needs to be, he’s Superman because he wants to be.
He wants to save the world. He wants to be a hero. It makes everything he does much stronger because it’s his choice to be this way.
Humans are these dark, twisted beings. We’re this unsettling mix of good and bad.
Yet there is a person who looked at us, looked the darkest of us in the eye and realized that he wanted to help us. He wanted to use his powers for our benefit.
Doesn’t that mean anything to anyone?
Superman could easily leave the earth and go as far away as he can, but he doesn’t, because he made the choice to stay on earth and help humanity out.
And it’s that choice to stay that truly makes Clark Kent super.
like to expand with the concept art version BC IT IS THE MOST:
also, i want to back up crediting patty and zack bc this is not just a one off aesthetic choice. the dceu is intentionally maintaining a classical paintings motif that’s BEYOND standard referencing:
fall of the rebel angels depicts michael casting down lucifer
and this is important bc! right after this scene with finch and lex we get one of bruce’s crazy dreams! where he sees, ding ding, michael!
this is not even the first time we’ve seen an ANVIL sized church window visual red cape motif:
except i’m not here to talk about jesus parallels
i mean, it’s possible, lol, but this post is not about that. it’s about how hard the dceu is going on this motif. it’s reference, it’s thematic, but also clearly a huge visual inspiration
(the descent from the cross)
and it’s now being incorporated into the story. by turning the painting upside down the narrative is drawing our attention back to it. it’s a message or/and there’s a hidden message (common in detective fiction).
AND bc this post is really about celebrating how wonder woman is an intrinsic part of the dceu AND bvs and that patty and zack and others worked closely: let’s look at the what stands out about hippolyta and antiope:
hippolyta and antiope share the visual of the first painting. hippolyta gets the white horse. ANTIOPE GETS THE RED CAPE! it’s not just a staple of superman anymore, it’s associated with angels and with michael, with battling hell and with sacrifice.
I didn’t think I could appreciate the DCEU more than I did before and then this happened
“When you see bad things in the world you can either do nothing or do something.” – Steve Trevor
Gah. This kills me. It kills me a lot. And anyone who says Gal Godot can’t act wasn’t really looking because look at her eyes. Look at the fourth gif, I would wager you anything it’s a similar look just before she reached the trenches of No Man’s Land.
It’s more contained now, tempered by her experience and time, it’s been a long time since she was that young woman on the steps of the dais with her mother a step above her and Steve Trevor described the victims of the supposed War to End all Wars. And, yet, Diana can’t look away.
She can’t help but watch, riveted to the screen, and perhaps at that moment, after seeing the picture with Steve Trevor and her old friends, she remembered his words: ‘You can either do nothing or do something.’ And, for a bit, maybe Diana tried doing nothing. She’s tried doing nothing now.
Then that shift in the fifth gif, that resolve, finally giving in to that part of her screaming: ‘dosomething.’ wins.
Like seriously. that shift, with nothing more but a tightening of her jaw, that brief blink, and then that steely resolve. She doesn’t even care that there might be cameras pointed.
Diana is going to help because protecting mankind is her sacred duty.
I just noticed that she is flying Turkish airlines. We know the island has to be somewhat near Turkey because that is where Steve was flying from. Are we assuming that she was flying home to the island?
I noticed the airline but didn’t make the connection until now!
What if Diana was flying to look for Themyscira? She seemed to be on a quest to look for parts of her past in BvS, what if part of that was searching for her way back home? What if, Diana is retracing Steve’s steps hoping it would lead her back to home?
In the new Rebirth arc under Greg Rucka’s run, Diana’s on a similar quest to find Themyscira. Maybe that’s what Hippolyta meant when she told Diana ‘she may never return’, without magic or a guide Diana can’t find Themyscira.
Oh but you know what that would mean? If she’s been looking for a way home then choosing to go help save humanity again would basically mean giving that quest up. Because it’s not like going to this battle would be a short side-trip.
Going means, choosing humanity once again. It means picking up the mantle of that faith for justice again (which is something I can’t see her having abandoned, but can see her having felt weighted by, especially when humans are just so… hard to root for).
Going would mean that Themyscira would have to wait. And it might have to wait for a 100 years again.
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