Justice League

Do Your Worst (Part 2.)

/ toseealife / Leave a comment

Okay, continuing from part 1…

So, as I have already covered, there is an attitude toward both real and imaginary people that is very harsh, and it is very prevalent.

But I recognize that I may be the only one who thinks it is a problem. So I am now going to dive into this question: Is it deserved?

Specifically, do these both real and unreal people deserve to be spoken of, cursed, and held a grudge against, in this manner?

What makes this question important even for the made up characters is that many of them do things that real people have done, so we have something to compare them to.

I’m going to go back to Hawk Girl, a. k. a. Shirira, what exactly did she do?

Well, she lied. But that is hardly enough, we all have lied. What makes hers worse, so we think, is that she lied to her friends, multiple times. About who she was, why she was there, and what her own people planned to do.

To be fair, the last one she didn’t know herself and lied more than she thought.

We might jump on that and say, she should have found out what her own people were really planning. Ignorance is no excuse.

It may be no excuse, but all of us have been ignorant and I daresay we acted upon what we thought, instead of what we knew.

So far, I see nothing that overwhelmingly wrong in what she did.

But it turned more serious, she helped her own people defeat her friends, telling them what their weaknesses were, so they could be exploited. She did nothing to stop them from hunting them down. She sucker punched the guy who she’d claimed to be in love with. After asking him to trust her. Not to mention that she’d never told him she was already engaged.  Not that she could be absolutely certain that was going to be a problem since it had been five years with no word from her own people.

All this is pretty bad. On top of it all, she was betraying the whole planet of Earth, almost leading to its destruction. This was heavy stuff.

But as bad as it was, Hawk Girl was never the callous kind of betrayer. She felt guilty for everything.

And I never blamed her for wanting to believe in her own people, who wouldn’t?

It was a tough call, because if they didn’t destroy earth, their enemies would destroy them.

At one memorable moment in the film, Hawk Girl is angrily arguing with her old fiancé, Ro, and cries “So we just trade their lives for our own? That’s not right.” Or something like that.

In a word, Shirira is talking about Honor. Earth is full of life, and its people have no quarrel with the Gordanians, they are not in the war. They were duped. There is no excuse at all for, as she says, for committing this kind of holocaust. Even thought Thanagarians do face extinction by letting Earth survive, it was their fight, their risk, and their choice. We never find out how the war started or who was at fault, but it is certain that the technologically advanced Thanagarians could have had other options, had they not been such a barbaric society. They waited too long, but that was their own fault.

There is no country on earth that could substitute another into its war to be killed in its stead, thank goodness, and I think because of that it is difficult to realize how horrible the idea is. But Shirira did, the reason she was conflicted was because these were her people, how could she turn on them?

She does the same thing to them that she did to the Justice League, but she tells Green Lantern “I did what I thought was right then, which is what I’m doing now.”

I wish I could say that Shirira at least never regretted her choice, but she did. Not enough to unmake it, but she felt horribly guilty and to make matters worse, many people, even in the Justice League, kept ribbing her on it. Eventually she got to the point where she didn’t even want to hear about forgiveness because it was too painful. She got flack for not being able to be loyal to anyone.

I just shake my head, these people entirely missed the point.

Honestly, I think the people writing the series missed the point.

Shirira messed up, but she was listening to her conscience the entire time, and ultimately she did the right thing. She lost her people, you’d think a smidgen of sympathy would be possible. Just a little bit, but it never occurred to anyone to put themselves in her place. Except Superman, I liked him better for that.

And outside the DC universe, what about in real life? Does it ever occur to anyone that these are real people we’re talking about? Who have real feelings, who go through the same things we do, and maybe they made the wrong choice, or maybe they didn’t, but could we just put ourselves in their shoes for one second?

I don’t mean to rant.

Look, I have my beliefs about Mercy, and I know many people do not, but two things Jesus said about it sum up the reason it is important to me. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy,” and “Judge not lest you be judged.”

I want to be shown mercy for my many faults, and I do not want to be judged, so I need to be merciful and not judge other people. Christians are famously accused of being judgmental, but from what I’ve seen, non Christians are every bit as judgmental, if not more.

Who is leaving those hate comments or hate mail; who is blasting those political people; or the opposing side? Yes, Christians do that, but it would be delusional to say all or even most of the culprits are Christian.

And it is not my intent to point fingers, I just mean we all do this. Few people are born merciful. But we all need it, and we all need to learn it.

There is one more thing I want to talk about concerning this, so watch out for part three,

Until next time–Natasha

Do your worst. (Part 1.)

/ toseealife / Leave a comment

Today I want to address something very important, and I’m going to do it with the help of yet another animated TV show example.

This one is really fitting, actually.

I’m going back to that show I used to watch every day, Justice League/Justice League Unlimited. (JLU.)

Until I started watching that show I had never heard of at least two of the members of the original league, that would be the Martian Man hunter, and Hawk Girl.

I like both of them, but I am focusing om Hawk Girl, also known as Shirira Hall.

To make a very long story short, Hawk Girl appeared on Earth, claiming it was a mistake, but in reality she was on a secret military mission, to learn about the planet and the people. This was unknown to all her friends and fans until out of the blue, an alien warship showed up with her fellow Thanagarians in it. It pretty much went downhill from there. Her friends felt hurt that she had never trusted them enough to tell them and suspicious of the new comers, but they agreed to help them set up a defense on earth against their mutual threat, the Gordanians. However it soon turned out that the Thanagarians really wished to use Earth to build a sort of shield against their enemy, and in the process earth would be turned into an hourglass shaped hunk of itself, destroying all life on the planet.

Needless to say, Hawk Girl was horrified when she learned this, and more so because she had helped her people to capture and neutralize the Justice League when they got too antsy. They had already escaped, so she found them and gave them the information hat she’d learned, none of them really wanted to trust her, but they took it.

Hawk Girl then returned to her people, only to be found guilty of treason, and locked away. There ensued a final battle between the League and the Thanagarians. Hawk Girl was reluctantly set free by Wonder Woman, and then helped Green Lantern to defeat her former fiancé, and shut down the bypass before it could activate.

The Thanagarians recognized their defeat and left, of course leaving hawk Girl behind, she was then voted on to stay or be kicked out of the League, but she left before hearing their decision. She told GL she was going to find a place where there were no more secrets, no more lies. And she left.

Hawk Girl later was readmitted to the league, they had voted in her favor, but it took a long time for the rest of the world to forgive her, if they ever did. And things got no easier for her in other areas.

So, why am I telling you all this? Well, I want you to understand the scope of the story. It involved a lot of deception, a lot of betrayal, and  a lot of bitterness, which is perhaps the worst, in my book at least.

My major complaint about the whole movie they made about this was that despite the outcome, Hawk Girl’s own friends did not let go of their anger for a long time. Well, I should say, not all of them did. (Flash is awesome.)

Also, when I watched a commentary on the movie, I learned that many of the real life fans of the show though Hawk Girl should have been left to her fate by Wonder Woman.

Since then I’ve run across other situations where the fans were the same, they had absolutely no mercy for the characters. And the characters aren’t even real. Nothing they did actually hurt these fans, or endangered our world.

What does endanger us, is their attitude.

Because I have to wonder, if you cannot forgive someone who is not even real, how can you forgive someone who is?

You may think, “Well, if the characters aren’t real, it can’t hurt to hold a grudge against them.” And I would have to politely disagree.

For two reasons: One being, many fans of superheroes consider the heroes to be quite real, to the point where they are irrational about it, and if they can think that way about them, they can think that way about anyone.

The other reason is that I have not missed the things people say about those in politics, or those who are just famous, or even those who are not but who have a small public voice. Horrible, terrible things are said of them.

It is a sad fact that humans beings can be very cruel to each other.

(I’m going to get more into Hawk Girl herself in part two, but for now I’m focusing on this problem.)

And I am sorry, but what a person will say about a fictional character, they will nine out of ten times say about a real human being. I have heard it many times.

The fact is, we are not aware of real or unreal when we pass judgement on people or their actions. That is a simple truth. Our brains will make no distinction, and neither will our feelings. All that changes is how personal it is.

Someone who cannot be merciful when it is not personal will have a hard time being merciful when it is; unless they are working from the inside out, but that is rare. Our attitudes do not switch on and off with our televisions or phones. (That is so a quote I want to remember.)

This goes for other things besides anger by the way, it goes for hate, sadness, exhilaration, envy, and host of other emotions.

I’ll be getting more into the first one in part two, until next time–Natasha.

The Questions Post.

/ toseealife / Leave a comment

What makes a leader great?

Is it what they have accomplished in life?

Is it popularity?

Is it charisma?

Is it kindness?

Is it strength?

Is it power?

Is it love?

Do you measure them by money, or public support, or by their skills of communication?

Or are these things tools that a great leader may or may not have?

Do you measure a man or woman by what someone else says of them, or what you actually think makes someone great?

What is most important for a people to have?

Is it honestly?

Is it integrity?

Is it to be unbiased towards all?

To have malice toward none?

Is it to have hope?

Is it to be able to do whatever they want?

Is freedom having no responsibility or having all the responsibility?

Would it be better to have all decisions made for you?

Or to make all your own choices?

Is it better to realize you have made a mistake?

Or to wait till you suffer for it to regret doing it?

How you answer these questions will show your attitude toward other people and yourself. I may have left some out, but I wish the whole country could look at these questions and answer them honestly.

here are my answer:

A leader is made great by the strength of their character. Kindness, courage, and love all combined.

I measure a person by what I hold to be the right code of conduct; and also of beliefs.

It is most important for a people to have integrity and they should be personally responsible for it.

It is better to change your ways while you can than to suffer when you can’t.

We might want to consider these questions and take a good, hard look at our country now; and at our leaders.

Bonus question:

Are our real leaders the ones with the title or the ones we let influence ourselves?

–Natasha.100_1582

Earth Crisis: Part one.

/ toseealife / Leave a comment

I’m not a huge superhero fan now, but a few years ago I was obsessed with the Justice League. I no longer indulge my taste, but one of their movies I still watch occasionally. And I’m not sorry, because among superhero movies I think it’s a rare find. (Yes, I’m geeking out).

JUSTICE LEAGUE: Crisis on Two Earths.

It’s not a movie simply about the Justice League. In fact, they are not even the prime characters any more than the villains or non J-leaguers are. The set up is of a parallel universe (in Sci-Fi  this is not uncommon) where each earth–and there are thousands– has its parallel, and that parallel has a parallel, and the original earth has another parallel, which has its own parallels–like a Fibonacci sequence. The story centers on two earths. On one, all the villains we DC comic fans are familiar with are actually the heroes, the Justice League, led by Lex Luthor. The superheroes likewise are actually the villains, forming a crime syndicate. Which is really nothing like the Justice League; the only similarity being the characters’ parallel selves. Ultraman heads up this syndicate and is known as “the boss of bosses.” Anyone who ever got in his way is dead (his words).

Then we have the DC world we’re used to. Or if you aren’t, you’ll get enough idea to keep up with me. The Justice League, at the moment consisting of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Martian J’onn J’ozz, and the Flash, are hard at work constructing a new watchtower that will orbit the earth like the moon, of course being much smaller.

Lex Luthor is in the opening scene reduced to being the last survivor of his Justice League. The Crime Syndicate; Ultraman, Superwoman, Owlman, Evil Green Lantern (for lack of a given name), and Johnny–the evil Flash (the evil Martian is killed early on and is of little importance) are all set to finish him off. But in a brilliant scientific last resort he vanishes to a parallel earth, clearly having planned this in advance. After getting the Justice League’s attention, he makes his appeal: “You people are my world’s last hope.” So it begins.

The unique factor of this story is its ability to make everything on the human level. Superheroes usually are so unevenly matched with villains that the villains have to have terrifying, horrible machines and unbelievable stunts to be a problem. Nothing feels real. In this imaginary world, the playing field is leveled. The villains have exactly the same powers as the heroes, and the regular government is not completely helpless. It has one small power over the Crime syndicate: nuclear weapons. Not much of an advantage, but enough to hold Ultraman at bay for a while. The syndicate bribes the Government (America’s in the story, though it could have been every government) to keep them off their case. Literally. Enter Rose.

Rose is my personal favorite character in the story. She is the daughter of the president, in the parallel earth of course. Rose hates how her country has surrendered completely to “vicious criminals.” To justify her case, the syndicate is shown with (probably stealing) chemicals, ship’s cargo, and looting Lex Luthor’s former hide-out. Not to mention Ultraman killed the first Lady to scare the president into complying with him. Oh, yeah, Superwoman is also a self-confessed murdering psychopath, and all the villains do damage every now and then to keep up their rule through fear. (Luthor tells us this.) So, Rose is very reasonably disgusted with the system. She’s begun making speeches against the syndicate and against her father’s policy. Respectfully of course. Rose has no powers, no protection save her required bodyguards, and no money to bribe the press or the people. She has no promise of safety. Her plea is simple: “Might doesn’t make right. It may seem that way sometimes, but in the long run it’s the other way around. We’re always stronger when we’re doing the right thing.”

Proverbs 28:1 says “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous is bold as a lion.” Rose makes me think of this verse.

Rose naturally supports the Justice League when they decide to take action against the crime syndicate. She’s not blind to the fact that the people need help, especially since her father won’t advocate standing up to the syndicate. The president tells her that having a chance is “a fantasy.” They can’t do it without risking the lives of millions. Which is true, truer than they know. Rose is unmoved and wonders at his cowardice. The Martian, J’onn, reads her mind and gently tells her, “He isn’t a coward. Men who have seen battle are often among those who hold life most dear.” (Her father was a war hero.) She is surprised, but it doesn’t change her mind. She’s still angry and refuses to stop her speechmaking. Later we see her making another speech and almost being shot by Archer (evil Green Arrow for you fans). J’onn saves her and keeps watch over her because she’s a target.

What is amazing to me is that Ultraman himself views Rose as a threat. Why? She inspires the police to take action (against Archer as it turns out), and the people to believe in the power of Good. The Justice League’s actions only confirm what Rose was already telling everyone. Ultraman may not be afraid of what Rose herself alone can do to him, but he is afraid of what she can do by believing in the power of Right and inspiring the others to believe in it. So he threatens her father by suggesting they’ll take her out if he doesn’t get her under control. The same way they killed her mother. Of course the president is angry, but Ultraman isn’t worried; see, his crew has invented a bomb. (More on that later.) So, he’s got firepower now. I guess his philosophy is he who has the biggest toys wins. (He ought to watch Big Hero 6.)

Returning to Rose, she isn’t much daunted by the attempt on her life thanks to her new friend J’onn. He was watching over her for some time without her even knowing it. Now he stays by her in case there is another attempt. Eventually as they discuss the problem, Rose ends up getting him the crucial information, the location of the syndicate’s base (on the moon), of which her father has known for years. The assault on her prompts her father to finally come through for the League. So Rose tipped the scale. One young woman who had the courage to speak out against evil. Rose is not what I’d call charismatic; she’s not skilled. She doesn’t shoot any villains. She doesn’t have to. Her firm stance on what she believed in was enough.

As a Christian, I know that doing the right thing does have power. But never human power, and it can never be completely controlled by a human being. I know that I too have a protector whom I can’t see, but He is there. Rose’s power lay in stepping outside herself, while sticking to her own values. She didn’t care about getting the glory, and she didn’t get any. But she is in my book of heroines in the fiction world.

I have lots more to get into in this plot, so if this was interesting, watch for my next post.–Natasha.