Lest anyone doubt the relevance of Supergirl's commentary ....
Supergirl - Season Four
- Thread starter Kai "the spy"
- Start date
I don't think that was a reference to it's scale as a major world ending threat, but just the fact that instead of one person or a relatively small group of people with a specific world ending plot, this is hundreds or possibly thousands of regular people all over the country. This is not the kind of threat that she can just punch, it's easily the most dangerous, and insidious threat we've seen them come across so far.
I had the same thought.
You don't watch it? I could have sworn you posted in the threads for it.
A great start to the season, and some interesting set ups.
The opening with Supergirl going all over the world helping people was a lot of fun, and the reveal of the Russian Supergirl under the train was a cool little twist.
I really liked the stuff with Nia, it was fun to see Kara in the mentor role.
Mercy and Otis seem like they'll be good villains for the season, and Agent Liberty is definitely creepy. With everything going on in the real world right now, I like that they are going back to the all of the anti-alien stuff.
The stuff with Alex and Brainy was good too, I especially like him trying to act like Winn once he realized what was going on.
Exactly. A single, clear-cut evil mastermind and their immediate minions present a clear, finite target. Supergirl can beat them up and put them in jail and that's the end of it. But a movement consisting of thousands of extremists across the country, people who are living among our neighbors and coworkers and could be anyone we pass on the street -- how do you defeat that?
^ Yep. It gives them no mental pause whatsoever that they personify everything the noble hero fights to oppose. It's just more of them there SJW liberal lies.
To counter that, the history of that which Supergirl is a part of (comic character adaptations) more often than not, including most of the big budget comic book movies of the past 10 years, have been largely apolitical, escapist productions. Beyond some character making a comment on a personal growth challenge, most productions do not dive into politics to this degree. I think it works with Black Lightning because the characters--by circumstance and something as unavoidable as racial identity--are forced to address whether they want to or not.
I would say a world threatening event and/or group cannot be a lesser threat (overall and in terms of lasting impact) simply because one is promising the subjugation of or end of an entire species and other is not. That's the heart of everything for everyone on earth that cannot be avoided, managed, bargained with or ignored, so all other interpersonal matters are moved to the side until (or if) there's a resolution. That's why Supergirl's statement was incorrect or lacked perspective.
While its good to see her seem mature, I do hope (as mentioned yesterday) that the showrunners do not have Nia walk in the same path/behavior/pitfalls as season one Kara. Nia needs to reach different solutions for her growing pains, some Kara never considered. Unlike Kara's early days, Nia does not seem to have a James or Winn close by to help her through growing pains / anything else (and Kara other life means she cannot be on site all of the time as a mentor), which could be a showrunner point--to have her more independent in a "sink or swim" environment.
I'm betting Winn will make a one-time return toward the end of the season to not only help with some problem, but give proper closure to his friendship with Alex.
But in the current environment, a show focused on a woman is pretty much in the same place.
Those kind of threats can be defeated with a simple weapon or a strong enough fighter, threats like racism can't be defeated in one fight like that, and it could be pretty much anyone, anywhere. Those things make it a much more serious, and dangerous threat than the simple alien Big Bad of the season.
I hope you mean to detect impostors/terrorists and the like, rather than human vs. alien. Anyway, this isn't Star Trek. In real life, testing DNA takes days to weeks, depending on how backed up the lab is. Even if the DEO has a faster DNA-testing technology, it's unlikely to be in ubiquitous civilian use. Not to mention the horrific civil-rights and privacy violation that universal, mandatory genetic testing would be. You're suggesting a police state, and that would be the downfall of American civilization (what's left of it).
Aliens are beside the point. The entire political, criminal, and economic system is based upon facial identification. There is really no end to the chaos of such a device. Counter-measures would need be produced ASAP to keep society functioning.
Didn't we see a DNA-based security system in this episode? Obviously, real life technology is much more limited.
Ideally, they would just develop something to counter the electrical field of the image inducer or otherwise allow others to see through the masks. In the absence of such solutions, though, yes, such devices would lead to a police state or anarchy.
Wasn't that Superman as a natural-born citizen status based on a Superman origin that had him not be "born" until he landed on Earth because he was in the birthing matrix the entire time? That wouldn't be the case for all of the Superman origin stories.
BTW, can someone explain how Supergirl is "faster than a speeding bullet", flying around the globe filling the void left by Superman offworld...
But she can't catch up to a friggin motorcycle in the forest?
That was lame.
As a person who has and still deals with varying degrees of racism, I can tell you that yes, it is a problem well built into the institutions and social relationships of a certain part of society, however, if something on the scale of fantasy threats like the Chitauri invasion, the Reign plot, or the worst kind of threat in the form of Thanos hit earth, suddenly every person on earth would be engaged, suppressed, hurt or killed and just as quickly, tribal matters (or those who weaponized race in society) would seem small in comparison. People are still having to live through mass death/destruction (and its global consequences) before a "punch" can solve anything. The point being is that the showrunners' statement lacked perspective in trying to make their issue of the week (immigration / xenophobia) seem like the end-all Is Here Now, but those matters do not just happen and explode into the end-all overnight (as the tone of Supergirl's dialogue tried to sell), no matter what some politician says or incident(s) unfold.
Since society has always fought the purveyors of racism in one way or another (for centuries in the U.S. where Supergirl is set), audiences know that in reality, the situation just did not creep up and overwhelm when in fact, certain people have dealt with forever--handed from one generation to another like some terrible heirloom.
That said, in fantasy fiction, the fight against racism / xenophobia works in a more compelling / realistic way, when its established that its always around and as mentioned earlier, built into up-front, social relationships and institutions, as that is the gnawing, bleeding, face-slammed-into-the-wall problem that poisons lives every day, (as seen in Black Lightning's Freeland with its police abuses & A.S..A. manipulation issues) as opposed to writers trying to jump on the "Trump vs. immigrants" stage as if that is a threat to all life on earth that landed overnight just to be topical.
Supergirl as a series introduced the xenophobia or anti-extraterrestrial (Luthor / Cadmus) sub-plot seasons ago, but in order for it to have been truly effective, I think its clear the series needed writers who seriously understood the complexities of subjects like race in America (again, where the series is set), and that selling it as an important, on-the-street issue required more characters--main characters--who could speak to how that treatment shapes or hurts lives on an daily basis.
As it stands, that opportunity was barely touched on--well into season three--by James, but he--the living embodiment of victims of built-in discrimination--hardly said a word about, or experienced any serious issues with it over said three seasons. Then, there's J'onn: he's made his comments about xenophobia before, but its always in the surface-y, "One to Grow On" way, or its here today, gone tomorrow as in the M'Gann or Lyra storylines with no lingering consequences for the regulars, as it should be. Instead, we had Supergirl running up acting as if this is some new discovery of a super-bomb set to go off...yesterday, and that speaks to the showrunners mishandling the subject where it could have been explored as a paced, layered character development issue with James and J'onn all along.
This is why I hope that whatever episodes are already shot, the plot of James becoming the Guardian again, is arrested and stands trial is among them, so at least it might offer concerned audiences the hope that showrunners dealt with the issue / of society's treatment / perception differences between James and Supergirl (who was a vigilante before joining the DEO) to hit home a real human example of mistreatment (as a point of identification for audiences) based on racial origin. Then, you'll have a greater commentary on hated not just limited to immigration, but that ancient evil overall.
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You need to pay more attention to what's going on rather than what celebrities say.
The problem is, these writers are not taking on social issues--they are forcing their one sided extremist views on the viewer, which isn't right. Star Trek used to be very good at weaving certain issues into their episodes, but they didn't hit it on the head with a hammer.
There's a difference for example, of saying "racism is wrong," and "people who disagree with my politics are racist." When Supergirl takes on Trump, they usually do it in an inaccurate, obnoxious, and offensive way. The country doesn't need to be lectured by the extremist writers of Supergirl.
Here's the thing--if I want political commentary, I will watch a channel or a show that has that. I don't need it with Supergirl. Let's also not forget that today, there are literally dozens of places at any hour that can talk politics. Supergirl is not needed for that.
Flash didn't get political, and its premiere was terrific. Arrow had its best premiere in years and no politics. It's almost like these writers are using their extremist views to make up for a lack of ideas. It's a shame because when they DON'T focus on politics, the show is damn good.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
That shit seems really extremist. Everyone being equal with the same chance to happiness?
— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
That shit seems really extremist. Everyone being equal with the same chance to happiness?
No, we saw a biometric security system based on identifying the doctor by his tusks, which probably works similarly to fingerprint or iris scans.
Forests have a bunch of trees in the way, with birds and squirrels and things living in them. Supergirl probably didn't want to smash apart all their homes.
I was gonna say she could have run on the ground instead of flying, but then I remembered the Flash also has problems catching up with motorcycles for some reason...
