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Re: Epilogue
Mar. 2nd, 2013 10:00 amVortexx, sit down. We need to talk.
Now, I've been calling you out pretty much every weekend for the stuff you've been pulling with Justice League Unlimited. And there's a good reason: you guys are cutting funny parts and incredibly important parts because you're squeamish about how they're not exactly kid-friendly. And that's rendered the last act of "Epilogue," the seminal episode that reveals Terry McGinnis's origins and just who and what Batman truly is, into an incoherent mess of dialogue cuts.
Look, this is not the show for you to be airing. Something we've all been kidding ourselves with for the past several years is that JLU is not a kids' show. Yeah, there's action and stuff that appeals to kids, but really? There's no way in hell they can follow it. It relies on 14 years of continuity for you to understand anything. If a kid started watching JLU when it began airing on Vortexx, they'd have no clue who Terry McGinnis is (his show aired from 1999-2001, well before most of your target demographic were born), what happened to Tim Drake (Return of the Joker was 2000), why none of us can figure out if the show is 40 or 50 years after JLU, or who the Phantasm is (Mask of the Phantasm is from 1993--20 years ago!).
If you air JLU, you have to air the entire DCAU in order. You've got to start all the way back 21 years ago with Batman: The Animated Series. You've got to air concurrently with Superman: The Animated Series. You've got to bring in Batman Beyond, The Zeta Project, and Static Shock all about the same time. You need to start airiing Justice League with its episodes split in half to fit the timeslot. You've got to air the movies: Mask of the Phantasm, Subzero, Return of the Joker, etc. You've got to build up those 14 years all over again. Why was it so big? Why was it so important? Why are there people who still can't accept Young Justice or Beware the Batman because it's not the DCAU?
The DCAU is something that was pretty much novel at its time, and we're never going to see anything like it again. It was a massive universe of every superhero owned by a particular company, spanning over a decade. The closest comparison I can make is in Japan--the Toei movies-universe of Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Metal Heroes, and whoever else they feel like adding to their Super Hero Taisen movie series. That's a universe spanning over 40 years (insert prerequisite Batman Beyond timeline issue joke). And for any of that to make sense, you just have to decide "Fuck continuity." Even Power Rangers isn't that big, though they tried in their early years to bring in other heroes, but it failed (Masked Rider and the Ninja Turtles, anyone?) It's only beginning to get to that huge scale with Megaforce and Troy's premonitions of the Legend War. And that still doesn't get the sense that there are unrelated heroes all over the universe, all over time, who are still doing good--not the way that you got with the various unincorporated heroes in Justice League and Static Shock and the heroes of the future in Batman Beyond and The Zeta Project.
In short, you're out of your league. If you want to do justice to DC animated properties, pick ones that are more recent and lighter-hearted. Show The Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Show Teen Titans--kids will be thrilled.
JLU may have said it was made for kids, but to be honest, it knew it was made more for the long-time fans. This is to its benefit as well as to its detriment. It's much more mature than you're going to see outside of the comics or movies. People die. People make sexual references. Some of these fly over kids' heads, and some of them are meant to be blatant, to prove a point. If you can't handle that, don't show it. Show something a little more kid-friendly. I promise, I'll probably respect you more for that decision.
Now, I've been calling you out pretty much every weekend for the stuff you've been pulling with Justice League Unlimited. And there's a good reason: you guys are cutting funny parts and incredibly important parts because you're squeamish about how they're not exactly kid-friendly. And that's rendered the last act of "Epilogue," the seminal episode that reveals Terry McGinnis's origins and just who and what Batman truly is, into an incoherent mess of dialogue cuts.
Look, this is not the show for you to be airing. Something we've all been kidding ourselves with for the past several years is that JLU is not a kids' show. Yeah, there's action and stuff that appeals to kids, but really? There's no way in hell they can follow it. It relies on 14 years of continuity for you to understand anything. If a kid started watching JLU when it began airing on Vortexx, they'd have no clue who Terry McGinnis is (his show aired from 1999-2001, well before most of your target demographic were born), what happened to Tim Drake (Return of the Joker was 2000), why none of us can figure out if the show is 40 or 50 years after JLU, or who the Phantasm is (Mask of the Phantasm is from 1993--20 years ago!).
If you air JLU, you have to air the entire DCAU in order. You've got to start all the way back 21 years ago with Batman: The Animated Series. You've got to air concurrently with Superman: The Animated Series. You've got to bring in Batman Beyond, The Zeta Project, and Static Shock all about the same time. You need to start airiing Justice League with its episodes split in half to fit the timeslot. You've got to air the movies: Mask of the Phantasm, Subzero, Return of the Joker, etc. You've got to build up those 14 years all over again. Why was it so big? Why was it so important? Why are there people who still can't accept Young Justice or Beware the Batman because it's not the DCAU?
The DCAU is something that was pretty much novel at its time, and we're never going to see anything like it again. It was a massive universe of every superhero owned by a particular company, spanning over a decade. The closest comparison I can make is in Japan--the Toei movies-universe of Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Metal Heroes, and whoever else they feel like adding to their Super Hero Taisen movie series. That's a universe spanning over 40 years (insert prerequisite Batman Beyond timeline issue joke). And for any of that to make sense, you just have to decide "Fuck continuity." Even Power Rangers isn't that big, though they tried in their early years to bring in other heroes, but it failed (Masked Rider and the Ninja Turtles, anyone?) It's only beginning to get to that huge scale with Megaforce and Troy's premonitions of the Legend War. And that still doesn't get the sense that there are unrelated heroes all over the universe, all over time, who are still doing good--not the way that you got with the various unincorporated heroes in Justice League and Static Shock and the heroes of the future in Batman Beyond and The Zeta Project.
In short, you're out of your league. If you want to do justice to DC animated properties, pick ones that are more recent and lighter-hearted. Show The Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Show Teen Titans--kids will be thrilled.
JLU may have said it was made for kids, but to be honest, it knew it was made more for the long-time fans. This is to its benefit as well as to its detriment. It's much more mature than you're going to see outside of the comics or movies. People die. People make sexual references. Some of these fly over kids' heads, and some of them are meant to be blatant, to prove a point. If you can't handle that, don't show it. Show something a little more kid-friendly. I promise, I'll probably respect you more for that decision.