i’ve been gone for like an hour
WHAT THE HECK DC FANDOM?????
Suicide Squad behind the scenes photo from Premeire Magazine (x)
Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Thomas Wayne in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
- everyone in JL rebirth: we're fighting some sort of amphibian alien form. arthur, can you communicate with it?
- aquaman: hey how about a big can of FUCK you for thinking yet AGAIN that i just HAVE to be able to talk to something looking like FISH because that's the only thing i do isn't it guys haha talking to goddamn FISH——it's distressed. preparing an invasion. more are coming. i can feel it in my head. there's open link communication betw
Note : I am in no way an expert about religion. My knowledge is pretty limited on this subject so keep that in mind.
I remember we talked about this on Skype with the BvS Positivity Net but I don’t think I’ve ever written a post about it so here :
- Bruce starts coming back to his senses after he fights Clark under the rain. He’s, in a way, purified from his sins.
- Lois has a scene under the rain with Swanwick. It is the scene where she expresses her will of solving the Nairomi case, because she knows she has a responsibility in this. She’s “purified” from her sins.
Later, she is saved from drowning by Clark (maybe she’s definitely “purified” at that point, since it’s after she solved her cases ._.). And only then, when she’s “cleaned” by the water and gets out of the water thanks to Clark, can she…
- …..gets Clark out of the water with the spear. Both Clark and the spear are perfectly “clean”, or should I say, “purified” before killing the abomination. (That being said, since Clark completely embraces being Superman when he kills Doomsday, I guess we can also see that as a sort of baptism, which would then be interpreted as “…and thus, Superman is born”)
According to some of the meta/rants I read, it appears that those who committed “sins” and needed redemption are Lois, Clark and Bruce. They all get to be “cleaned” at some point by water (either rain, or the lake at Gotham or a bath/shower).
Diana doesn’t even touch a drop of water, maybe because she doesn’t need to make amends for any sin (or none that we’re aware of).
And Lex…huh….well huh…..
…let’s not talk about Lex. ^^;
I’d go a step further:
Bruce has confused vengeance for justice, succumbing to the sin of wrath. He emerges from the fight in the rain having re-learned compassion.
Lois was an unwitting participant in the incident in Nairomi, an act of deception. Her investigation, which is associated with water many times (the bath, the rain, the river), exposes the truth.
Clark is struggling with doubts over whether he can really do good in the world, feelings of despair. When Lois pulls him out of the water, he has rediscovered reason to hope.
As for Lex, the insidious figure orchestrating the deception, urging on the wrath and the despair for his own purposes…
Lex is also immersed in water when he creates Doomsday, using the functions of the Kryptonian ship’s Genesis chamber, a possible reference to the “waters of creation” mentioned in Genesis 1:2. But in his mimicry of divine creation, Lex is in fact seeking destruction - the death of Superman - and destruction is certainly what his creature will achieve.
The waters of the Genesis chamber apparently turning to blood could also be drawing on Revelation 16, where all the seas and rivers of the world are turned to blood as punishment for those who have spilled the blood of the faithful. Lex also has a good deal of blood on his hands by this point, arguably including that of a saint, and the imagery in this scene reflects that.
All of this, along with Lex’s role as foil for Superman and his self-identification with the devil, makes a compelling case for reading Lex Luthor as an antichrist - one who sets himself up in opposition to God, attempting to usurp the divine role.
Okay, look, I would just like to say that Lex is NOT just evil. There’s waaaay more to him than that. He’s not just there to be the villain and stand against superman and kill people. He is a broken, damaged, psychologically screwed person due to the horrific abuse he endured all throughout his upbringing. He is ma smile baby and ya’ll hero types need to realize that there is more to a villain than “just being evil.” They are people too, who have been damaged and their minds have been twisted to darkness. But there is hope. There is always hope. Any villain can be redeemed, and the first step is trying to help them out of the darkness. It will be a long and difficult road, and there will definitely be resistance, but it’s worth it to redeem one more lost villain.
Sure, Lex isn’t just evil. He’s not literally Satan, the same way Clark isn’t literally Jesus, but in terms of his role in this story so far? Yeah, that’s pretty much it. A few lines hinting at a tragic backstory adds interesting depth to the character, but it doesn’t change the fact that, in this movie, he very much is there just “be the villain and stand against Superman and kill people”. He’s given complex motivations for wanting to do these things, but narratively that’s all he does, because that’s his function in the story. And the movie uses visual imagery, musical cues, and pointed dialogue to repeatedly tell the audience that we’re meant to view him this way.
None of that affects his hypothetical potential for redemption down the line, of course. Any villain can be redeemed, but not every one will. I personally don’t think they’re going to take that route with Lex, but it’s not unimaginable.
But it’s important to remember that with fictional characters, they really don’t exist as people beyond their role in the story, and Lex’s role in this story is so far a clear-cut villainous one.
All of the above lol.
But let’s take a look at Bruce Wayne and his water symbolism. The only time we see him wet is during the fight in the rain, but even though he is never immersed in it he’s surrounded by it in much of the film. His house overlooks a lake, he stares out at the water all the time as he contemplates his mission, his car enters the bat cave through the river entrance (notice he’s safely enclosed in the car, doesn’t ever get wet entering). His bat cave is surrounded by water, it drips in through cracks and crevices as he works out but it doesn’t touch him (confusing vengeance for justice as noted above by the lovely @catie-does-things). But my favorite is the fact that there is a large waterfall that is directly behind him and/or Alfred when they sit in the computer room. You can see it behind in several shots in the film. A free flowing waterfall rushes past them, but never touches them. Soooooooo close to justice, the entire lair is built on that ideal. But it misses the mark and becomes vengeance.
I also find it interesting that Bruce is in the rain wearing his ultra thick armored suit while fighting Superman, and it’s not until after some of it cracks and exposes his face that he begins the process of change. It could be taken simply as the extra layer of protection or symbolically as an outward manifestation of him becoming hardened and less able to feel empathy for others.
Yay I’ve wanted to talk about this stuff for a while but you guys took it to the next level!
Seriously, I love this fandom!!