"We are unable to identify with Steppenwolf" -- Speak for yourself. As someone who also lives only to conquer worlds, I found his depiction ver identifiable.
@@Captaintrippz right? Every Monday before lunch I’m thinking “if I could just go villain today...”, fantasize scenarios and... then the day’s half over and I’m just ready to get off work lol
@@Espartanica I feel that way at times. Born into the wrong period of time. I want to explore space freely, as simple as it’s done in an anime like Cowboy Bebop or in a galaxy far far away. Yeah...that’s not happening in my lifespan. Additionally there are some other impossible dreams I won’t go into detail here.. When your dreams are held down by the limitations of your world...you truly have “died” before you had a chance to be “born”.
His redesign also helped immensely. The more I looked at Steppenwolf, the more wrong and alien he appeared, which is perfect for a being from another world. His hands had seven fingers, his body proportions seemed just slightly off, the muscles bulged in such strange ways. Compare that to Wheadon's, who just looked like a big guy in armor. That redesign made him a much more fascinating and interesting character.
@@mrslick58 Some parts of the characters just don’t translate all that well to film, though, and his redesign also helps him feel a little unsettling and intimidating - something that the original design just didn’t do. Not everything in the comics is necessarily something we should model the films by, either. In the comics Steppenwolf and Wonder Woman shacked up and had a kid. Would you want that in these films? Probably not.
That’s why the moment when Darksied just crushes his head under his foot is SO GOOD because Steppenwolf did so much and it literally didn’t matter to Darksied at all
@@ShawFujikawa the editing is a little questionable in the first act, and the epilogue was unnecessarily long and heavy handed. Aside from that, it was a decent watch. More enjoyable than man of steel.
@@matthewparker9276 Although, I think that there’s a bunch of “Extended” stuff that lead to nowhere. Like, we don’t need to devote 5 minutes to The Flash saving what I presume is Iris West in the DCEU and grabbing a hot dog. (Not to mention, the way he touched her hair was a little... weird, to say the least) And then at other times, there’s excessive slo mo for scene’s that don’t need it. Or just Icelandic song breaks that last for 5 minutes, which is a biiiittttt too much if you ask me. Instead of doing that, what I think they should’ve done is divert that extra time to showing StephenWolf’s backstory as a “Prologue” to the movie or after the Amazon attack, which would make us understand him more way earlier. And if there’s time left over, I’d give an extra scene to Cyborg at the end, where after listening to the tape, he starts crying and gets in a bad state of mood, and the rest of the JL find him, they just give him a silent team hug, as the camera does a close-up on Cyborg as he narrates, one last time, “I’m not broken.” Then the camera pans out to a group shot of all of the JL members hugging Cyborg. “And I’m not alone.” I still think that The Snyder Cut is a great piece of cinema, and a great movie. (In comparison to Marvel, I’d say better than Avengers 1, great movie, and I’m interested in the DCEU again when DC decides to continue the SnyderVerse [Which I think they will, because it’s logical and smart and will lead to money]) But if I do a video on it, I’m going to include those changes in a soft rewrite, because if anything, I want Zack Snyder to improve and for the other movies to become greater and greater. So yeah, that’s my criticism, review, and my thoughts. Yeeeeeeeee.... Sorry for long comment, Rah rah Rasputin.
@@master0fthearts894 had Snyder not put the flash saving iris scene everyone is gonna start whining that the character had a poor story put in the movie like they said for suicide squad.
Not only that, but Snyders Steppenwolf fought like a warrior to the death even against impossible odds and didnt bitch out to parademons like in Josstice League
@@pr0x1madigital84 It’s mainly because of all the accusations of workplace abuse that he did during the reshoots of JL. The actors and Gal Gadot didn’t like working with Joss because he was overly aggressive and an asshole during filming. The actor that plays Cyborg also came out and mentioned how Whedon and some of the producers like Geoff Johns treated him harshly. There was mentions of some rather racist attitudes towards him from some of the other producers as well. There’s A LOT of reasons to dislike Whedon as a person. As a filmmaker, I can understand a lot of the changes done to the film at the time, but it doesn’t excuse his behavior and abuse.
That was actually an attempt to have some semblance of a theme, since in that version, Parademom’s feed on fear, so they’d target StephenWolf, and it was supposed to be a “Proper Ending” to the villain. I mean, it’s was poorly done, like everything in Josstice League, but I can’t really say that it’s a fault since it was an *attempt* to do *something* with the story.
Steppenwolf is just overall an extremely expressive villain. You can see the regret and pain in his eyes and trembling voice while begging to Desaad to go home and fear while speaking to Darkseid. I just loved it.
@@captainflowers748 He is Darkseid's high priest as well as chief torturer. He serves as the main advisor to Darkseid and, as such, has considerable authority in his court.
Video: "Revealing his true bare self, something that looks like..." Me: A hammerhead shark with legs Video: "A minotaur covered in ballsack skin" Me: *chokes*
The great thing about Zacks Steppenwolf is, he’s not a villain with complex motivations & grand plans for the universe, nor is he a nihilist visionary trying to send a message to prove a point. He’s just an abused, overworked & homesick soldier trying to win his war just so he can go home. You can see his wrathful psychopathic side when he’s fighting his enemies but when he’s groveling to Desaad & Darkseid you can see just how tired he is of fighting & how he just wants to come home.
NGL, I kind of felt bad when the boxes talk to him and he closes and opens his eyes, they seem youthful in that moment, adn when he speaks to Darkseid, his eyes seem to have a lot more shimmer. I really wonder what other details I've missed because I've only watched the movie on my laptop
I wasn’t expecting to feel sympathy for the 9 foot tall world destroying alien monster man. Then we see the scene with his backstory and suddenly I felt bad for him. Well done Mr. Snyder.
I love how you broke down certain terminologies that some of us may have not understood, and concisely explained every detail to your reasons as to why Whedon's Steppenwolf lacked relatability and understandability. Great video.
i think the bigger less talked about benefit of giving Steppenwolf a motivation in the Snyder cut is that it makes Darkseid even more imposing and directly malevolent. Darkseid's an evil dude so obsessed with domination and so callously brutal even to his own men that he refused to allow someone powerful enough to destroy our world the ability to return to their home. Darkseid has such a stranglehold on Steppenwolf, a creature only beaten by a team of 2 metahumans, a Kryptonian, the rightful king and queen of atlantis and the amazons --- Darkseid pushed Steppenwlf to a point of so much desperation that just to get a chance to speak with Darksied, he would have to literally destroy all of humanity, AND atlantis, AND the amazons before even being allowed to talk to this guy. That's actually an amazing job at putting Darkseid way outside of our current scope of power-scaling for the justice league
What I find interesting about the motivation of Snyder's Steppenwolf is that it's a drastically different take on the redemption arc trope we see in movies and TV shows. Rather than have the villain do good deeds out of the kindness of his heart to atone for his sins, Snyder instead makes Steppenwolf still commit heinous atrocities like killing his enemies under the illusion of rebuilding his character. It's a unique spin on the redemption arc I never saw before, and the way Zack Snyder did it, or at least the idea behind it, is really engrossing to me.
As someone in the comments pointed out, he has Zuko's redemption arc (gone wrong). Also, what's your opinion on his "proselytizing about death, destruction, and Darkseid"? I found it being exposition hinting at character. He's gloating about building a stronghold in his [Darkseid's] name as if he's trying to prove his loyalty. Like a villainous version of holding a "I'm sorry" placard. Not just in action, but in almost everything he says he's trying to regain Darkseid's favour.
@@meghnadfilmclub2389 I always find the complaint of Steppenwolf “expositing” this info to be a bit unfair. People treat exposition in general as a bad thing that should be exterminated in writing when it isn’t. As you said, it’s a hint of his character gloating about conquering Earth for Darkseid! That and not everything can be easily shown through visuals since most of the info isn’t really “self explanatory” or “open to interpretation” unless you have prior knowledge of the expansive DC lore
Actually a villain trying to show their loyalty to an even bigger villain, specifically in the context of having betrayed said bigger villain Previously Is an incredibly common trope
That scene about family does have subtetly because at first we might be thinking Steppenwolf is saying "Hah, you are weak because you have a family", but instead he's saying "I know that feel". Gotta say that's actually not bad.
@@fredleeland2464 Doesn’t Joss’ version respond by asking why do they continue to ask that? (which clearly expresses that Joss’ Steppenwolf has no feelings at all and doesn’t understand what this family shit is all about)
Look, as a world conquerer myself, I actually appreciated the straightforward nature of Joss' Stephenwolf. Every planet you take over is always 'Woe is me, why can't you understand us? Why can't we understand you?' Look, I saw a waterfall I liked, decided I wanted to set up shop on your planet, and so I did. Plain and simple. I am your conqueror, not your best friend. I don't need characterization, I just need to be effective.
@@malsummers6515 ...Excellent name. Henceforth, I shall be known as Coco the Conqueror. You, your pet, and one member of your family shall survive the coming conquering of your country and its citizens.
@@EmrysMerlin8807 When will you come around? I need to know if it makes any sense to begin watching Loki, and what would be the point if I didn't manage to see the ending?
@@wojciechficek616 Yes, I too am excited to see the latest Legends of Tomorrow season. Strange that they'd bring in Tom Hiddleston, but let's face it, they've done weirder. Beebo was excellent. Thankfully, just because I am a conqueror doesn't mean I don't appreciate fine art.
Idk man, Steppenwolf saying things like "I've come to enlighten you to the great Darkness, i will bathe in your fear" sometimes just fits a character. Unlike: "You will LOVE😈 me... You all will"
@@jonryder7269 It's likely also a mindfuck. He's conquered a literal 100.000 worlds. He knows that fear alone might beat his enemies, making his conquest easier. He doesn't enjoy the fight anymore. Just wants to go home.
Thats not even remotely explored or existed in his Character before and the whole Daddy and Mommy issue fits other New God DC characters more like his Great Nephew Kalibak even Darkseid fits this more because his Mother Poisoned his wife.
There are so many villains better than Zack Snyder’s Steppenwolf, but he’s so much better than Joss Whedon’s Steppenwolf that he almost feels like one of the greatest villains ever by comparison. Such an amazing phenomenon.
I don't think anyone is saying ZS's Steppenwolf is a greatest villain, but rather that Zack correctly gave him a clear motivation to make the stakes meaningful. In Whedon's version, between the silliness of the 'smell fear' ending, one note 'evil for the sake of being evil' attitude, and lethargic investment in the action, the stakes are low. For Steppenwolf conquering is his day job so he just goes through the motions. Yes- Steppenwolf is strong but there is no sense of danger really. In Snyder's version the heroes will stop at nothing to save the world BUT the bad will also stop at nothing because he wants to go home. The faster and more decisively he can conquer Earth the faster he can move on to conquering the next planet and the closer he gets to getting where he yearns to be. And in this context also Steppenwolf wasn't meant to be the end all, be all of enemies for the Justice League. He was merely a stepping stone for the overall story introducing an opponent giving all but a hint of the challenges ahead. This was one guy with a few soldiers almost destroying the planet. How much worse can the guy who sent him with a massive army be? (We know the answer but this JL was building to that.)
@Mr Calvi He still failed. There are no excuses to Darkseid. He was expecting when he arrives on Earth, he'll be unopposed to claiming the equation---That's what Steppenwolf had set for his master. But now with Superman up and running, and more metahumans coming, it would be quite the headache to send the entire Apokolips Armada on Earth. Diana lopping Steppenwolf's head off was mercy compared to what Darkseid does on incompetent underlings.
Pretty freaking sad when you realize how much of an underdog steppenwolf is. Fighting godkiller, superman, time traveler and few others with just a bunch of CGI bugs. He was barely winning even before they revived superman and aquaman showed up. Makes the final scene where superheroes go out of their way to humiliate and decapitate his corpse pretty fucking cruel if you think about it. I love this edgeverse.
Underdog? He slaughtered millions - no, billions over his lifetime. He killed lots of Amazons and Atlanteans. He whiped the floor with the whole League before Superman showed up. Sure, WW gave him a good fight, but it was nothing he couldn't deal with. It was only when Superman showed up that he was overpowered (cause Superman is WAY OP). Everything up to that was just an annoyance to him.
@@BernieDSniper Nope. They all sacrificed themselves trying to keep the motherbox away from Steppenwolf. They all knew what they were doing because if they failed and the Unity happens, everyone is dead anyway.
I can think of a few flat and static characters with no sympathy that still worked such as Sauron and OG Emperor Palpatine. But these characters had such great past accomplishements and were feared so much by other strong characters that it worked because they felt like impassable walls to the goal of the characters. Joss's Steppenwolf felt like a fence... at best...
exactly - those things weren’t afraid to kill main characters - lord of the rings more so than star wars and those characters were so powerful and feared taht u actually feared them for the sake of the characters u had grown to love. when in the whedon cut A u don’t care about the characters enough B the villain isn’t even powerful enough to pose a serious threat to those characters/plot armour, it’s just boring
Also, both of these were the ultimate villains of their respective works. Steppenwolf is ultimately just a minion to Darkseid (himself pretty flat and static), and we all know what happens to evil minions.. they get killed as heroes make their way to the big bad. After all, only the main villain usually poses a legitimate threat against plot armor
@@thorveim1174 Totally... meta-knowledge of Darkseid existance and... promotion telling us that Superman would be back at the end broke any kind of tension or threat.
I think what makes characters like Sauron and Emperor Palpatine good villains is that they are almost meta-villains. They are villains to the other villains. Saruman built up his power in hopes of overthrowing Sauron, but was deceived that he could even try. Darth Vader opposes Luke Skywalker in service to the Emperor, and when Luke tries to return Vader to the Light Side, Vader resists him not because he wants to, but because he fears the Emperor.
“Antagonist at Rest” is just the Bechdel Test for bad guys. Does this character get to think about something other than your protagonist? Yes? Then they exist outside that protagonist.
That reminds me...I need to give Lava Tigre more motivation. Otherwise, it makes no sense how Frank is able to control him. Or why he'd even waste his time with the Purge-Flare.
@@Flamme-Sanabi Then that is the whole point of the story, and needs fleshing out, doesn't it? They would still have a social network of other people they have to interact with, even if its just to disappoint them.
@@an_amazing_ace7810 : Novel in the works. Ciem: Inferno. Working on character motivations. Heroes and side characters make sense. The villains...are still pretty much just doing evil shit for the sake of evil. Gonna have to fix that.
With the snyder cut steppenwolf, I considered his armour to be similar to darth vader it's meant to punish him. When its pulled back his skin looks similar to scar tissue that's been built up. My theory is the armour actually punctures his skin as a form of torture. Not enough to kill him or inconvenience but irritate like a pin prick.
I think a video about when, not just how to use “A Villain At Rest”. Personally for me, I think the ideal time to use it would be when the villain “Wins” or has taken some form of ground. Thanos got his Villain at Rest after getting Gamora to his ship The beach Episode happens while the Fire Nation is basically on top of the world, preparing for a full scale genocide of the Earth Kingdom I think that these are the ideal times to use the Villain At Rest method. Agree?
Not completely. Ever seen that scene in Kingsman where Samuel L Jackson's character starts losing his mind when his plan starts failing???? He's losing and the fact we can feel his own peronal goal slipping through his fingers, his anxiety rising up and his anger turning into fear is very relatable. Or have you seen Rocky II? Watching Apollo getting death letters from fans while he tries to make his daughters happy by hiding his disappointment and guilt really gets you to like him and sympahtize. I'd change your statement to "The ideal timing is after any tense scenario, to give both the protagonist and antagonist motivation for a climax"
All three of them are gods really. It's just that Darkseid is the master god of Apokalips and the sheer weight of his true form is enough to destroy reality.
24:37 To be fair, him endlessly praising him does fall into the fact that he wants redemption, and for Darkseid to be pleased with him, to see his accomplishments and award him from them, by letting him come home and restore his formal glory. So he feels the need, that it’s an necessity, and even a responsibility to praise and worship him as much as he possibly can, to make the chances of redeeming himself more possible. So I think this is pretty fitting for his character
Idk if I would say the bare minimum, I mean everything changed. The style, voice, intimidating, purpose, the word mother! Was taken out, the eyes the puppy looking eyes on wanting to go home.
Pretty sure Whedon wanted to go down in history as the first director to make a parody movie for a movie that doesn't exist. If everybody made fun of Martha from DoJ, then he made Steppenwolf's mother the motivation for the actions during the whole movie. Turns out, people cared so little about JL there werent even any memes.
He is relatable because this is a really reaelistic goal: he is like a person who keeps paying a mortage, knowing it will never be over, and he will never be free anymore.
Static flat can villans works well for "force of nature" antagonists. Which works well if the villian serves a purely allegorical role in service of messages and themes.
Several video games use excellent usage of 'Static flat' villains as sort've 'things wrong with the world' type villains. For example, the Cabal from Destiny tend to be mostly just exploitive militants but they provide more than enough threat. (Which actually is then used to elevate the villain Destiny 2, Dominaus Ghaul. A rather on point name, as he became a round villain with a complex where he HAD to prove himself to the traveler.)
@@nerovanguard846 Another good example of a "force of nature" villain is Sauron. Sauron basically isn't a character. His only motivation is power and world conquest. He's still interesting because of how immense his power is. You can see how all the characters react to this impossibly difficult task of defeating this almost god-like evil. They are called "force of nature" villains because they may as well be an earthquake or a tornado with the narrative interest coming from how other characters react to the villain.
@@jack-exzolt9858 I'm not saying it's bad. It looks cool and distinct as it should. Still looks weird because it's not exactly a hand. It's just a bunch of fingers and looks uncanny
I feel like the Snyder Cut shows how thin the line between trash and good is. The good movie was there, but got butchered in the edit. It makes you wonder what movies were also hidden gems that were destroyed on the cutting room floor.
The kingdom of heaven. Watched the dire tors cut so much better. Even explains how the main character can fight and defend the city. If don't wanna watch he was a military engineer
is it just me or does Steppenwolf sound really bored when he says the "I've come to enlighten you..." line? like he's thinking "shit how many times do I have to give this speech?"
When watching the Snyder cut, the thing that stood out to me the most about Steppenwolf is that he has less dialogue and I think that honestly made me like him more than just the change to his motivation. It made him seem a lot more focused
@@fleisbester612 LoL, no, that’s an accurate representation of events. I’m definitely not the only one to point out how they really dragged out a lot of pointless seems and really plodded along at times. They’ve got a joke reel of Steppenwolf just yakking to Desaad that is like whenever the guy from Ant-Man rehashes stuff, but they forgot to make it entertaining.
@@magosexploratoradeon6409 the three-to-five minute one where he relates the entire plot to Desaad in a droning monotone. It felt like reading stereo instructions. ruclips.net/video/SxLqEggjyo8/видео.html
I'll give Snyder Steppenwolf some slack since he would always be overshadowed by Darksied as a the bigger threat. I mean imagine the beast Darksied must be if he's the boss to the guy who almost successfully took over the world.
does anyone else get zuko vibes? both committed shameful actions that made their overlords punish them by exiling them or making them complete an impossible task. Zuko was forced to capture the avatar, a powerful being that was missing for generations and was almost like a death sentence because i’m sure the fire lord thought he would die at sea without a care in the world. Stepphenwolf is the exact same. after betraying dark side of his enemies all that stephenwolf wants to do is redeem himself to darkside and go home. Same as zuko 🤷🏾♂️
I don't think having a flat and static villain is necessarily a bad thing. Sauron in LotR (not counting the Silmarillion) waa pretty flat and static. A simple villain can work well if your srory is more focused on the protagonist and their struggle, and your villain is mainly needed to provide them something to struggle against.
Yeah but the problem with that is, why bother having a villain then? You could have like a natural distaster or monster or some other catastrophe be the "villain" if they're just gonna be evil for evil's sake. Villains are characters, and characters need depth and change to be interesting. Sauron is iconic in a "cool" way but I know absolutely nothing about him from the movies.
@@RacingSnails64 because a villain can and 99% of the times will operate as an antagonist force, creating conflict, which is what you need in a story. Yes this brings them closer to be plot devices, but you can't just substite them with a natural happening or monster. Their villanous nature helps the story. They need to be evil, and so, human. Palpatine is a good example of pure evil villain. He's just the worst. Would Vader redemption works if he was a "natural disaster"? No it wouldn't. You need to have Chancellor Piece of Shit. What I mean is that a pure evil ("flat and static") villain creates a kind of conflict that you can't have with other things, because of their evilness. It's not exchangeable
The thing with Sauron was him being a mystery, his screen time wasn't crucial but the idea of him was Also, the time that was written utilized the evil/good tropes often and that has been challenged in recent decades to talk about subtle conflict
Worth the wait. I watch a lot of RUclips video essays and this is one of those rare channels that actually feels like I’m being taught by an intelligent adult instead of just being yelled at by my idiot friend who took three college classes and thinks he knows everything about the topic. Idk maybe it’s just because you don’t have a cartoon avatar that rotates between 4-5 poses as you talk but I appreciate your channel’s more mature, dry presentation.
Honestly the best part of JL is how every single character was relatable. Hell, I myself related to Bruce Wayne of all people. Deep in cynicism, and redeemed through hope after seeing someone break-through your cynicism.
I thought the synder cut version's introductory line actually fit his character really well. Not so much because of what the words _were,_ but how he said them. If you listen to the way he speaks, he's _bored._ He's said these words a thousand times, they've lost absolutely all meaning until he's just saying them by rote cause that's part of the job. Helps set up just how tired of it all he is, and how much he just wants to be done with it all and go home.
There was no editing done on this one besides the additionally shot Knightmare sequence. This is the original vision. Whedon is the one that cut it all.
@@TheStraightestWhitest 90% of it was brand new CGI. None of the Darkseid, Desaad, or Martha Manhunter stuff was “shot,” though it was storyboarded. That’s all editing. Then there was editing colors and angles and such. Editing isn’t just deleting scenes.
I used literally the concept of Antagonist at Rest in a novel I'm writing. I didn't have space in the narrative due to the nature of the story I'm telling, but I gave the main villain a haunting dream sequence in wich I flesh out his motivation and backstory using metaphor. It worked great!
Steppenwolf may not be my favorite comic book movie villain, but I genuinely liked him and felt for his character. Even his eyes are made to be more expressive as to the Whedon one.
I absolutely LOVED Zack Snyder's Justice League. It was the most fun I've had watching a comic book movie since Avengers: Infinity War and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And it has made me a believer in his vision.
@@StareachValcin but it works in other movies, like Michael Myers in the current Halloween timeline, or Otis Driftwood in the Firefly Trilogy, while it just didnt work with Steppenwolf
thank you for acknowledging Steppenwolf's puppy eyes. I thought I was crazy to think why this villain is given puppy eyes but I guess I understand now.
Love this analysis and your videos. However i don’t believe Batman from Dark Knight to be a static character like you stated. He does go through a significant change when he decides to kill Two-face to become the dark knight.
16:06 “Whedon’s steppenwolf might as well be wrinkly space Hitler with a side of Satan.” Ironically, that description is more towards Darkseid (minus the wrinkly part) because Jack Kirby basically used Hitler as the influence for Darkseid
you're videos are so well written & helpful for my own writing that whenever you release a new, I go into a Savage Books' binge rewatch! Love both of your channels!
@Six Paths Naruto Snyder said it wasn’t the longest one he’s gonna make. And trust me, I’ve seen every marvel movie three times over and the Snyder cut is better. So do me a favor, stick with naruto
@@j3qer267 that’s not what I said. my point is the mcu will never be as good as when stan was able to watch over it. it just became even worse when Disney bought it. DC has been able to stay good, so what im saying is that recent dc is better than recent mcu. i will always watch marvel but until Disney steps up their game im gonna stick to dc.
I really Loved this video for 3 reasons, Your Thorougness & Clarity, The Rare Framing of the screen using Negative space frame I wish more people knew about, and the fact that I have had plans to create similar content focusing on my theories, reviews, and deep looks at movies much like this right here. And that's encouraging seeing that the format does work.
Wait what Batman does change in the Dark Knight. The Joker tries to change him by making him break his one rule of no killing, which Joker thought he would when Batman threw him off the building and fails but Batman did break that rule in killing Harvey Dent. That's why when will see him in The Dark Knight Rises, Bruce is a broken man.
4:17-4:30 except for Rey who defeated her 'Vader' in the very first major fight, doesn't change or grow much and the final fight with him doesn't have the tension it should have.
@@fredleeland2464 “Luke’s character wasn’t assassinated at all.” I dunno, the fact that he produced the Anakin blue saber in front of Kylo even though they all know that Rey took it (and was in fact destroyed) and his whole last stand was to BUY TIME for the survivors…
Thanks for showing Samurai Jack some love again. Would love to see a video of that show on your channel some time. I love watching some of my old shows with my kids and seeing them getting into it, sometimes more than I did.
I mean well where I disagree is that when you introduce a villain. His first appearance all it needs to do is appear badass and evil and menacing. And then we unpack his character later as the story progresses. The “great darkness” lines were perfection in my eyes and delivered perfectly
So I actually liked the first Steppenwolf better. The dialog was so strait forward, and the "flatness" of the character makes him seem like something that is just pure evel. The Snyder Steppenwolf did everything because he wanted to go home to mama. Like, what a frickin bitch.
I disagree on Steppenwolf not being a good, interesting, or whatever character. He's a religious zealot to his own family lineage & has, like you said, contrasting ways in dealing with that by constantly wanting to be both affirmed by & liberated from his idolatry of his own nephew. He's also tragic; all he wanted was to go home, he got it, & he was also liberated from the idolatry of his lineage.
Since everyone already knows the character is an improvement story wise I wanna talk about the design, I love this demon/other worldly take for Steppenwolf and Apokolips itself. The armor is not a mess when it moves around cause the animators actually put the armor spikes in specific patterns, the lighting on the cgi is better, and the design is the consistent. Whedons Steppenwolf design just changes in every scene mostly around the face and coloring of it.
I wonder about your take on Eren from Attack on Titan, because he never lost sight of his goal but his role changed across the story. I personally loved how it ended but everyone has its own different opinion, cant wait to find out yours!
It'd be interesting to see his take on it, that's for sure. The ending was just okay, for me. I was kinda expecting more, as I felt that it didn't show enough for that chapter to feel convincing. I kinda wished it got the FullMetal Alchemist treatment, which had a final chapter with 76 pages; 31 pages more than the standard.
@@Manganization there's actually gonna be an extended edition of the final chapter, adding further context to the events of 139. Check Forneverworld's channel on his latest video if you wanna know more.
@@thebraydenchannel78 Was just about to say that! Yesterday I learned the news that it will be extended, which I really appreciate. I would've liked to see the characters explain themselves a little more than they actually did and also, we deserve to see them happy for longer than 2 panels per character :(
This is exactly what I'm looking for in writing videos. I often find videos like these either surface-level to the point that they’re devoid of purpose, or else technical and niche enough that I don’t feel I can extrapolate what I’ve learned to my own writing without a better understanding of the fundamentals. But here, even though none of the terms you discussed were new to me, giving clear definitions with examples and - crucially - their value within a narrative is both useful and fascinating. I feel like it provides a knowledge base that I can use as a stepping-stone to more complex topics while also getting use out of what I’ve learned in the present. Great work!
For those wondering why Steppenwolf got banished, it is more than likely he took it upon himself to kill Darkseid's Mother Heggra, and Second Wife Tigra (Orion's Mother) for the conspiracy and Murder of Suli, Darkseid's first wife, and Kalibak's mother.
Didn't he get banished because, in the original, he was the one that lost the fight on Earth? They changed it to Darkseid as fan service, like adding the black suit. Neither has an actual explanation; it's just digital crayons appllied to the original vision even before Whedon got hold of it.
@@steveking1037 Steppenwolf references his crime in one of his zoom calls to Desaad, "killed those who sought his throne". Superman's adoption of the Black suit is also explained through Jonathan and Jor-El dual monologues as he walks through the ship. It represents Clark finally embracing his Kryptonian heritage and reconciling it with his human upbringing.
@@unholyrevenger72 it represents Snyder wanting to make the fans happy, which is cool and all, but that’s not much of an explanation. It doesn’t make any sense that him wearing the suit for the “genocide” nightmare from Man of Steel was embracing his heritage. But I I did catch both that and the nebulous reference to Steppenwolf’s crime during the zoom call. Those were just quick “tell don’t show” sound bites to cover for the plotholes.
@@steveking1037 All the Kryptonians wear the black suit, even Jor-El. This is the first time Clark is embracing that part of himself. And as for Steppenwolf, he left his backstory nebulous, like Arthur's, Diana's, Barry's, and even Batman's so that other filmakers wouldn't be beholden to minute character decisions.
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Idk about Bare Minimum though. A lot of things changed for him as a character which made his defeat even more powerful. All up till the end, he literally won. Even with Superman beating his ass. The Unity was complete and he had won and probably gained Darkseid's respect all for Flash to do the most epic scene in the movie and reverse time.
I don’t think that every villain needs to needs to be understandable or relatable, sometimes they can just be cool and that’s enough. If we look at Darth Vader when we was first introduced audiences liked him because he was cool, it wasn’t until later where he became both of those things (even more so through the context of the prequels) that people grew to truly love him. We can’t really empathize or even sympathize with him but because of what’s implied through his relationship with Old Ben he’s not flat, later in ROTJ we see he’s not static either
“Just look back at some of your favorite cartoons or movies and think about how the villain only really appear to oppose the hero” Oh, you mean like the sudden ad break that just appeared to oppose the video from continuing.
Snyder's Justice League is... tonally consistent. In that sense it's an improvement over the previous version. I'll give the people who demanded this cut that much. Beyond that, I still think it's not a good movie. It's four long hours of grim darkness using characters that should be anything but that pretty much treats anyone who isn't the heroes as fodder, almost proving Darkseid's position. But I'll say this, this "bare minimum" improvement discussion is VERY good all the same, and it took such an otherwise dull movie to make a perfect example.
I have absorbed more in 3 videos than I had in all of my Syd Fields books... Seriously! The lightbulb that you've turned on I didn't know existed! THANK YOU!!!
"We are unable to identify with Steppenwolf" -- Speak for yourself. As someone who also lives only to conquer worlds, I found his depiction ver identifiable.
You died before you were born then
Who hasn't felt the need to conquer a few worlds here and there. Gotta spice up them mondays.
@@Captaintrippz right? Every Monday before lunch I’m thinking “if I could just go villain today...”, fantasize scenarios and... then the day’s half over and I’m just ready to get off work lol
@@Espartanica I feel that way at times. Born into the wrong period of time. I want to explore space freely, as simple as it’s done in an anime like Cowboy Bebop or in a galaxy far far away. Yeah...that’s not happening in my lifespan. Additionally there are some other impossible dreams I won’t go into detail here..
When your dreams are held down by the limitations of your world...you truly have “died” before you had a chance to be “born”.
@@TVthePunisher personally I'm more of the classic territorial conquest of historical warlords
Genghis Khan, Charlemagne, Julius Caesar so on
His redesign also helped immensely. The more I looked at Steppenwolf, the more wrong and alien he appeared, which is perfect for a being from another world. His hands had seven fingers, his body proportions seemed just slightly off, the muscles bulged in such strange ways. Compare that to Wheadon's, who just looked like a big guy in armor. That redesign made him a much more fascinating and interesting character.
That's how he looks in the comics tho. Like some guy in armor
@@mrslick58 Some parts of the characters just don’t translate all that well to film, though, and his redesign also helps him feel a little unsettling and intimidating - something that the original design just didn’t do.
Not everything in the comics is necessarily something we should model the films by, either. In the comics Steppenwolf and Wonder Woman shacked up and had a kid. Would you want that in these films? Probably not.
@@raysdesk that's kinda hot tho 🙄
@@raysdesk Steppenwolf looks WAY cooler and intimidating in the comics. As much as I hate to say it I even prefer Whedon's design over Snyder's.
After watching the Snyder cut, looking back at the 2017 Steppenwolf makes me physically nauseous.
It helps that they gave Steppenwolf puppy dog eyes. The 2017 version just couldn't emote well despite having a less alien face. Irony.
Ikr
This is an excellent point, he had way more expression. You could see anger and sadness which helped significantly
@@ANerdyCanadian It's kind of what the Lion King needed tbh.
It’s weird how an alien could express more human emotions through facial expressions than the one who’s design is more human like
@CPM3 I respectfully disagree.
That’s why the moment when Darksied just crushes his head under his foot is SO GOOD because Steppenwolf did so much and it literally didn’t matter to Darksied at all
He got the dude 100.000 worlds and he just crushed Steppy like that. What a fucking douchenoozle.
Damn never even thought about it that way
I didn't like that part at all lol but yeah he's a monster.
@@sunofabob why not?
Seems like Darkseid is more p... at the justice league.
When I saw this scene I thought to myself "huh, they gave him a motivation" and then I gave the movie a chance.
And what did you think of it?
@@ShawFujikawa the editing is a little questionable in the first act, and the epilogue was unnecessarily long and heavy handed.
Aside from that, it was a decent watch. More enjoyable than man of steel.
@@matthewparker9276 Although, I think that there’s a bunch of “Extended” stuff that lead to nowhere. Like, we don’t need to devote 5 minutes to The Flash saving what I presume is Iris West in the DCEU and grabbing a hot dog. (Not to mention, the way he touched her hair was a little... weird, to say the least) And then at other times, there’s excessive slo mo for scene’s that don’t need it. Or just Icelandic song breaks that last for 5 minutes, which is a biiiittttt too much if you ask me.
Instead of doing that, what I think they should’ve done is divert that extra time to showing StephenWolf’s backstory as a “Prologue” to the movie or after the Amazon attack, which would make us understand him more way earlier. And if there’s time left over, I’d give an extra scene to Cyborg at the end, where after listening to the tape, he starts crying and gets in a bad state of mood, and the rest of the JL find him, they just give him a silent team hug, as the camera does a close-up on Cyborg as he narrates, one last time, “I’m not broken.”
Then the camera pans out to a group shot of all of the JL members hugging Cyborg.
“And I’m not alone.”
I still think that The Snyder Cut is a great piece of cinema, and a great movie. (In comparison to Marvel, I’d say better than Avengers 1, great movie, and I’m interested in the DCEU again when DC decides to continue the SnyderVerse [Which I think they will, because it’s logical and smart and will lead to money]) But if I do a video on it, I’m going to include those changes in a soft rewrite, because if anything, I want Zack Snyder to improve and for the other movies to become greater and greater.
So yeah, that’s my criticism, review, and my thoughts. Yeeeeeeeee....
Sorry for long comment,
Rah rah Rasputin.
@@master0fthearts894 lover of the Russian Queen.
@@master0fthearts894 had Snyder not put the flash saving iris scene everyone is gonna start whining that the character had a poor story put in the movie like they said for suicide squad.
Not only that, but Snyders Steppenwolf fought like a warrior to the death even against impossible odds and didnt bitch out to parademons like in Josstice League
I dont understand the hate on Joss...
@@pr0x1madigital84 It’s mainly because of all the accusations of workplace abuse that he did during the reshoots of JL. The actors and Gal Gadot didn’t like working with Joss because he was overly aggressive and an asshole during filming. The actor that plays Cyborg also came out and mentioned how Whedon and some of the producers like Geoff Johns treated him harshly. There was mentions of some rather racist attitudes towards him from some of the other producers as well. There’s A LOT of reasons to dislike Whedon as a person. As a filmmaker, I can understand a lot of the changes done to the film at the time, but it doesn’t excuse his behavior and abuse.
You mean like zack snyders darkseid?
That was actually an attempt to have some semblance of a theme, since in that version, Parademom’s feed on fear, so they’d target StephenWolf, and it was supposed to be a “Proper Ending” to the villain.
I mean, it’s was poorly done, like everything in Josstice League, but I can’t really say that it’s a fault since it was an *attempt* to do *something* with the story.
he was still useless against superman, so yeah, big deal.
Steppenwolf is just overall an extremely expressive villain. You can see the regret and pain in his eyes and trembling voice while begging to Desaad to go home and fear while speaking to Darkseid. I just loved it.
You feel sympathy for him.
I love how his armor removes itself like a non offensive look
@@domanater480 almost like removing ones hat as a sign of deference
Who is Desaad actually? He seems... interesting
@@captainflowers748 He is Darkseid's high priest as well as chief torturer. He serves as the main advisor to Darkseid and, as such, has considerable authority in his court.
The Snyder cut steppehnwolf looked like the scary boss, while the original looks like a boss character when it becomes playable.
So true. They always hold them back
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Haha, I know what the OP means.
The Snyder cut is "The Original"
It's Ogre vs True Ogre equivalent...either too damn simple and boring or an overdesigned mess.
Video: "Revealing his true bare self, something that looks like..."
Me: A hammerhead shark with legs
Video: "A minotaur covered in ballsack skin"
Me: *chokes*
It was an accurate description
@@devoid4661 Yeah, but also, now I can’t stop comparing StephenWolf to “Ballsack Skin”, so accurate, but also...
I'd choke on something that big too buddy
@@fireraid9173 what
It seems to be a villain thing, Thanos's chin also looks like shaved balls
The great thing about Zacks Steppenwolf is, he’s not a villain with complex motivations & grand plans for the universe, nor is he a nihilist visionary trying to send a message to prove a point.
He’s just an abused, overworked & homesick soldier trying to win his war just so he can go home. You can see his wrathful psychopathic side when he’s fighting his enemies but when he’s groveling to Desaad & Darkseid you can see just how tired he is of fighting & how he just wants to come home.
And that's why I love him.
That makes him quite similiar to Zuko
Yessss
Makes it kinda sad that he gets stabbed and beheaded and thrown to his home like trash.
NGL, I kind of felt bad when the boxes talk to him and he closes and opens his eyes, they seem youthful in that moment, adn when he speaks to Darkseid, his eyes seem to have a lot more shimmer. I really wonder what other details I've missed because I've only watched the movie on my laptop
Lets be honest, the **real** reason Snyder's Steppenwolf is a better villain is because he has 300% more spikes.
And adorable puppy eye
And 90 minutes more exposition.
@Alexander Nguyen But more importantly *SPIKES*
Formula for a successful Steppenwolf: Homesick puppy eyes spikey boi with a terrible abusive father
That’s actually not wrong. The inclusion of how the armor is gives you something to look at instead of just grey
"He conquers worlds"
meh
"because he misses home"
AAWWWW
I wasn’t expecting to feel sympathy for the 9 foot tall world destroying alien monster man.
Then we see the scene with his backstory and suddenly I felt bad for him.
Well done Mr. Snyder.
That's what happens when you see a character instead of a literal pawn
@@Randarrradara somethings wrong I can feel it
I love how you broke down certain terminologies that some of us may have not understood, and concisely explained every detail to your reasons as to why Whedon's Steppenwolf lacked relatability and understandability. Great video.
Hello
I was just looking for you
Love your english.
Well said my guy, well said.
There you are!
i think the bigger less talked about benefit of giving Steppenwolf a motivation in the Snyder cut is that it makes Darkseid even more imposing and directly malevolent. Darkseid's an evil dude so obsessed with domination and so callously brutal even to his own men that he refused to allow someone powerful enough to destroy our world the ability to return to their home. Darkseid has such a stranglehold on Steppenwolf, a creature only beaten by a team of 2 metahumans, a Kryptonian, the rightful king and queen of atlantis and the amazons --- Darkseid pushed Steppenwlf to a point of so much desperation that just to get a chance to speak with Darksied, he would have to literally destroy all of humanity, AND atlantis, AND the amazons before even being allowed to talk to this guy. That's actually an amazing job at putting Darkseid way outside of our current scope of power-scaling for the justice league
What I find interesting about the motivation of Snyder's Steppenwolf is that it's a drastically different take on the redemption arc trope we see in movies and TV shows. Rather than have the villain do good deeds out of the kindness of his heart to atone for his sins, Snyder instead makes Steppenwolf still commit heinous atrocities like killing his enemies under the illusion of rebuilding his character. It's a unique spin on the redemption arc I never saw before, and the way Zack Snyder did it, or at least the idea behind it, is really engrossing to me.
As someone in the comments pointed out, he has Zuko's redemption arc (gone wrong). Also, what's your opinion on his "proselytizing about death, destruction, and Darkseid"? I found it being exposition hinting at character. He's gloating about building a stronghold in his [Darkseid's] name as if he's trying to prove his loyalty. Like a villainous version of holding a "I'm sorry" placard. Not just in action, but in almost everything he says he's trying to regain Darkseid's favour.
Rather than a villain redeeming himself to the heroes he's a villain redeeming himself to the villains.
@@meghnadfilmclub2389
I always find the complaint of Steppenwolf “expositing” this info to be a bit unfair. People treat exposition in general as a bad thing that should be exterminated in writing when it isn’t. As you said, it’s a hint of his character gloating about conquering Earth for Darkseid!
That and not everything can be easily shown through visuals since most of the info isn’t really “self explanatory” or “open to interpretation” unless you have prior knowledge of the expansive DC lore
Actually a villain trying to show their loyalty to an even bigger villain, specifically in the context of having betrayed said bigger villain Previously
Is an incredibly common trope
22:35 “I find it cool from a narrative standpoint” but “he’s an armoured scrotum” .My favourite dialogue
I'm the 69th like
@@nerovanguard846 I promise you that I did not ruin your 69 number...
That scene about family does have subtetly because at first we might be thinking Steppenwolf is saying "Hah, you are weak because you have a family", but instead he's saying "I know that feel". Gotta say that's actually not bad.
Not what Joss was going for though, he was going for the first option
Lol dude was straight projecting
@@fredleeland2464 Doesn’t Joss’ version respond by asking why do they continue to ask that? (which clearly expresses that Joss’ Steppenwolf has no feelings at all and doesn’t understand what this family shit is all about)
Look, as a world conquerer myself, I actually appreciated the straightforward nature of Joss' Stephenwolf. Every planet you take over is always 'Woe is me, why can't you understand us? Why can't we understand you?'
Look, I saw a waterfall I liked, decided I wanted to set up shop on your planet, and so I did. Plain and simple. I am your conqueror, not your best friend. I don't need characterization, I just need to be effective.
Okay Conqueror Cory, aka Coco.
@@malsummers6515 ...Excellent name. Henceforth, I shall be known as Coco the Conqueror. You, your pet, and one member of your family shall survive the coming conquering of your country and its citizens.
@@EmrysMerlin8807 Conquero Cory the Conqueror
@@EmrysMerlin8807 When will you come around? I need to know if it makes any sense to begin watching Loki, and what would be the point if I didn't manage to see the ending?
@@wojciechficek616 Yes, I too am excited to see the latest Legends of Tomorrow season. Strange that they'd bring in Tom Hiddleston, but let's face it, they've done weirder. Beebo was excellent. Thankfully, just because I am a conqueror doesn't mean I don't appreciate fine art.
Idk man, Steppenwolf saying things like "I've come to enlighten you to the great Darkness, i will bathe in your fear" sometimes just fits a character. Unlike: "You will LOVE😈 me... You all will"
His nephew and boss is a LITERAL god of evil, course hes gonna spout some noncense like that i think its cool. xD
@@jonryder7269 It's likely also a mindfuck. He's conquered a literal 100.000 worlds. He knows that fear alone might beat his enemies, making his conquest easier. He doesn't enjoy the fight anymore. Just wants to go home.
Who said, “You will LOVE😈me... You all will”?
Who said "You will love me. You all will"?
@@Harvey_Mod Josstice League's Steppenwolf
Another difference is that Steppenwolf didn't say "Mother" all the time. Like seriously, the guy had mommy issues lol
Everyone did
If only they would have expanded on that.
@@Flamme-Sanabi it's probably the writer that had mommy issues XD
Like Batman
Thats not even remotely explored or existed in his Character before and the whole Daddy and Mommy issue fits other New God DC characters more like his Great Nephew Kalibak even Darkseid fits this more because his Mother Poisoned his wife.
There are so many villains better than Zack Snyder’s Steppenwolf, but he’s so much better than Joss Whedon’s Steppenwolf that he almost feels like one of the greatest villains ever by comparison. Such an amazing phenomenon.
One thing that should be considered is that Snyder's Steppenwolf was written to be the appetizer to Darkseid aka the JL trilogy's main villain.
I don't think anyone is saying ZS's Steppenwolf is a greatest villain, but rather that Zack correctly gave him a clear motivation to make the stakes meaningful. In Whedon's version, between the silliness of the 'smell fear' ending, one note 'evil for the sake of being evil' attitude, and lethargic investment in the action, the stakes are low. For Steppenwolf conquering is his day job so he just goes through the motions. Yes- Steppenwolf is strong but there is no sense of danger really.
In Snyder's version the heroes will stop at nothing to save the world BUT the bad will also stop at nothing because he wants to go home. The faster and more decisively he can conquer Earth the faster he can move on to conquering the next planet and the closer he gets to getting where he yearns to be.
And in this context also Steppenwolf wasn't meant to be the end all, be all of enemies for the Justice League. He was merely a stepping stone for the overall story introducing an opponent giving all but a hint of the challenges ahead. This was one guy with a few soldiers almost destroying the planet. How much worse can the guy who sent him with a massive army be? (We know the answer but this JL was building to that.)
@@ferdinandofallica5869 And he's the perfect one.
@@memecliparchives2254 -- He would be pretty close to perfect if only Snyder was given the green light to finish his JL trilogy.
@@ro4eva how? He doesn't make it out of the first movie.
DOING THE BARE MINIMUM LOL
oh hello there verified person
Lmao yeah
Brutally honest on a whole other level lmao
wassuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
Yeah. It's that easy to make a character better.
TBH, I felt a bit sad when Steppenwolf had his head lopped off.
Compared to dealing with Darkseid, I'd say decapitation is mercy tbh
Same vibe when Thanos couldn't enjoy his soup 😢
@Mr Calvi He will probably still get punishment
win the warr
@Mr Calvi He still failed. There are no excuses to Darkseid. He was expecting when he arrives on Earth, he'll be unopposed to claiming the equation---That's what Steppenwolf had set for his master. But now with Superman up and running, and more metahumans coming, it would be quite the headache to send the entire Apokolips Armada on Earth.
Diana lopping Steppenwolf's head off was mercy compared to what Darkseid does on incompetent underlings.
Pretty freaking sad when you realize how much of an underdog steppenwolf is. Fighting godkiller, superman, time traveler and few others with just a bunch of CGI bugs. He was barely winning even before they revived superman and aquaman showed up. Makes the final scene where superheroes go out of their way to humiliate and decapitate his corpse pretty fucking cruel if you think about it. I love this edgeverse.
To be fair, Steppy killed a shitton of Amazons
@@internetdinosaur8810 I thought the Amazon Queen was the one who slaughtered her own people
Underdog? He slaughtered millions - no, billions over his lifetime. He killed lots of Amazons and Atlanteans. He whiped the floor with the whole League before Superman showed up. Sure, WW gave him a good fight, but it was nothing he couldn't deal with. It was only when Superman showed up that he was overpowered (cause Superman is WAY OP). Everything up to that was just an annoyance to him.
@@BernieDSniper Nope. They all sacrificed themselves trying to keep the motherbox away from Steppenwolf. They all knew what they were doing because if they failed and the Unity happens, everyone is dead anyway.
This guy had no one in his corner at all. Even out of universe he's a literal who to most casual superhero/casual comic book fans.
I can think of a few flat and static characters with no sympathy that still worked such as Sauron and OG Emperor Palpatine. But these characters had such great past accomplishements and were feared so much by other strong characters that it worked because they felt like impassable walls to the goal of the characters. Joss's Steppenwolf felt like a fence... at best...
exactly - those things weren’t afraid to kill main characters - lord of the rings more so than star wars and those characters were so powerful and feared taht u actually feared them for the sake of the characters u had grown to love. when in the whedon cut A u don’t care about the characters enough B the villain isn’t even powerful enough to pose a serious threat to those characters/plot armour, it’s just boring
Also, both of these were the ultimate villains of their respective works. Steppenwolf is ultimately just a minion to Darkseid (himself pretty flat and static), and we all know what happens to evil minions.. they get killed as heroes make their way to the big bad. After all, only the main villain usually poses a legitimate threat against plot armor
@@thorveim1174 Totally... meta-knowledge of Darkseid existance and... promotion telling us that Superman would be back at the end broke any kind of tension or threat.
I think what makes characters like Sauron and Emperor Palpatine good villains is that they are almost meta-villains. They are villains to the other villains. Saruman built up his power in hopes of overthrowing Sauron, but was deceived that he could even try. Darth Vader opposes Luke Skywalker in service to the Emperor, and when Luke tries to return Vader to the Light Side, Vader resists him not because he wants to, but because he fears the Emperor.
@@themetalstickman That's a really cool observation. Have you seen Avatar? If so, would you put the Fire Lord in the same category?
“Antagonist at Rest” is just the Bechdel Test for bad guys. Does this character get to think about something other than your protagonist? Yes? Then they exist outside that protagonist.
That reminds me...I need to give Lava Tigre more motivation. Otherwise, it makes no sense how Frank is able to control him. Or why he'd even waste his time with the Purge-Flare.
*But what if the Antagonist is just a yandere person, obsessed with the protagonist?*
@@Flamme-Sanabi Then that is the whole point of the story, and needs fleshing out, doesn't it? They would still have a social network of other people they have to interact with, even if its just to disappoint them.
@@DozerfleetProd Excuse me sir, but *w h a t d o e s t h i s m e a n ?*
@@an_amazing_ace7810 : Novel in the works. Ciem: Inferno. Working on character motivations. Heroes and side characters make sense. The villains...are still pretty much just doing evil shit for the sake of evil. Gonna have to fix that.
Not to mention how SICK Seppenwolf looks in the Snyder cut
I mean, he is still a big grey mass of CGI. But I appreciate the puppy eyes.
@@LucasDeziderio at least he's not a DUDE in a leather jacket
@@tedarcher9120 Actually, in the comics Steppenwolf does look like a dude with dark metal armor. Take that as you will.
And fucking c u t e
looks, yes.
but the character isn't.
With the snyder cut steppenwolf, I considered his armour to be similar to darth vader it's meant to punish him. When its pulled back his skin looks similar to scar tissue that's been built up. My theory is the armour actually punctures his skin as a form of torture. Not enough to kill him or inconvenience but irritate like a pin prick.
That's a deep fan theory.
The armor can repel the Amazonians arrows tho so I think it's just an actual armor
@@Dapin. what if just does both?
@@Dapin. sounds like torture device strong enough to keep its subject alive but not painful enough to kill them.
Yeah maybe a little bit of both
The magic of giving a character a relatable motivation lol
any
@Slippy Frog being in debt? yeah very much so lmao
@Slippy Frog Idk if you've heard, but not minding your own business is something most people find pretty annoying.
@@Amartin-mu6oj idk if you have heard, but contributing absolutely nothing to the argument is something most people find annoying
He just wanted to go home, he seems real tired of doing this world conquest stuff.
'He lived only to conquer."
"Steve Trevor tell you that?"
I think a video about when, not just how to use “A Villain At Rest”. Personally for me, I think the ideal time to use it would be when the villain “Wins” or has taken some form of ground.
Thanos got his Villain at Rest after getting Gamora to his ship
The beach Episode happens while the Fire Nation is basically on top of the world, preparing for a full scale genocide of the Earth Kingdom
I think that these are the ideal times to use the Villain At Rest method. Agree?
This reminded me of the Dr. Evil scenes where they're just doing random stuff.
Not completely. Ever seen that scene in Kingsman where Samuel L Jackson's character starts losing his mind when his plan starts failing???? He's losing and the fact we can feel his own peronal goal slipping through his fingers, his anxiety rising up and his anger turning into fear is very relatable. Or have you seen Rocky II? Watching Apollo getting death letters from fans while he tries to make his daughters happy by hiding his disappointment and guilt really gets you to like him and sympahtize. I'd change your statement to "The ideal timing is after any tense scenario, to give both the protagonist and antagonist motivation for a climax"
I love that Desaad and Steppenwolf refer to Darkseid as “Him” and “He” as if he’s a god
Darkseid is actualy a god
"I am many things Kal-El. But here, I am God."
-Darkseid
All three of them are gods really. It's just that Darkseid is the master god of Apokalips and the sheer weight of his true form is enough to destroy reality.
He is.
They all are its just that Darkseid is the most Powerful New God
24:37 To be fair, him endlessly praising him does fall into the fact that he wants redemption, and for Darkseid to be pleased with him, to see his accomplishments and award him from them, by letting him come home and restore his formal glory. So he feels the need, that it’s an necessity, and even a responsibility to praise and worship him as much as he possibly can, to make the chances of redeeming himself more possible. So I think this is pretty fitting for his character
Idk if I would say the bare minimum, I mean everything changed. The style, voice, intimidating, purpose, the word mother! Was taken out, the eyes the puppy looking eyes on wanting to go home.
Pretty sure Whedon wanted to go down in history as the first director to make a parody movie for a movie that doesn't exist. If everybody made fun of Martha from DoJ, then he made Steppenwolf's mother the motivation for the actions during the whole movie. Turns out, people cared so little about JL there werent even any memes.
He is relatable because this is a really reaelistic goal: he is like a person who keeps paying a mortage, knowing it will never be over, and he will never be free anymore.
Static flat can villans works well for "force of nature" antagonists. Which works well if the villian serves a purely allegorical role in service of messages and themes.
Interesting. May I have an elaboration, pls?
@@nerovanguard846 Doomsday
Several video games use excellent usage of 'Static flat' villains as sort've 'things wrong with the world' type villains. For example, the Cabal from Destiny tend to be mostly just exploitive militants but they provide more than enough threat. (Which actually is then used to elevate the villain Destiny 2, Dominaus Ghaul. A rather on point name, as he became a round villain with a complex where he HAD to prove himself to the traveler.)
@@nerovanguard846 Another good example of a "force of nature" villain is Sauron. Sauron basically isn't a character. His only motivation is power and world conquest. He's still interesting because of how immense his power is. You can see how all the characters react to this impossibly difficult task of defeating this almost god-like evil. They are called "force of nature" villains because they may as well be an earthquake or a tornado with the narrative interest coming from how other characters react to the villain.
Joker as well. Not all examples of him, but Heath Ledger's Joker is purely made to be the opposing view against Batman and "Order".
Also it helps that Steppenwolf’s hands aren’t ridiculously large in this version lel
They look weird as hell tho
@@siegfried8644 I mean he's an alien.
@@jack-exzolt9858 I'm not saying it's bad. It looks cool and distinct as it should. Still looks weird because it's not exactly a hand. It's just a bunch of fingers and looks uncanny
@@siegfried8644 I mean he is an alien
@@siegfried8644 I mean, he’s an alien
I feel like the Snyder Cut shows how thin the line between trash and good is. The good movie was there, but got butchered in the edit. It makes you wonder what movies were also hidden gems that were destroyed on the cutting room floor.
Suicide Squad
@@MissMartianDCAU agreed
Batman Forever? I heard that movie was supposed to be darker than the Burton films
The kingdom of heaven. Watched the dire tors cut so much better. Even explains how the main character can fight and defend the city. If don't wanna watch he was a military engineer
Fant4Stic
12:43 “we can’t relate to conquering entire planets... I hope”
*me playing no man sky*...hold my spaceship
Hahahahha
is it just me or does Steppenwolf sound really bored when he says the "I've come to enlighten you..." line? like he's thinking "shit how many times do I have to give this speech?"
Aha I was thinking the same thing
*Insert Dragon Ball Z Abridged Frieza Voice Here*
You're tripping
When watching the Snyder cut, the thing that stood out to me the most about Steppenwolf is that he has less dialogue and I think that honestly made me like him more than just the change to his motivation. It made him seem a lot more focused
Did he really? There's that one scene where he summarizes the plot to Desaad that felt longer than the entire 2017 cut of the movie.
@@steveking1037 Nah you're just hating...
@@fleisbester612 LoL, no, that’s an accurate representation of events. I’m definitely not the only one to point out how they really dragged out a lot of pointless seems and really plodded along at times. They’ve got a joke reel of Steppenwolf just yakking to Desaad that is like whenever the guy from Ant-Man rehashes stuff, but they forgot to make it entertaining.
@@steveking1037 What one scene? Honestly all of his interactions with Dessad doesn't feel long so idk where you're going at.
@@magosexploratoradeon6409 the three-to-five minute one where he relates the entire plot to Desaad in a droning monotone. It felt like reading stereo instructions.
ruclips.net/video/SxLqEggjyo8/видео.html
I'll give Snyder Steppenwolf some slack since he would always be overshadowed by Darksied as a the bigger threat. I mean imagine the beast Darksied must be if he's the boss to the guy who almost successfully took over the world.
does anyone else get zuko vibes? both committed shameful actions that made their overlords punish them by exiling them or making them complete an impossible task. Zuko was forced to capture the avatar, a powerful being that was missing for generations and was almost like a death sentence because i’m sure the fire lord thought he would die at sea without a care in the world.
Stepphenwolf is the exact same. after betraying dark side of his enemies all that stephenwolf wants to do is redeem himself to darkside and go home. Same as zuko 🤷🏾♂️
That's the first thing that I thought too! hahaha
I don't think having a flat and static villain is necessarily a bad thing. Sauron in LotR (not counting the Silmarillion) waa pretty flat and static. A simple villain can work well if your srory is more focused on the protagonist and their struggle, and your villain is mainly needed to provide them something to struggle against.
Yeah but the problem with that is, why bother having a villain then? You could have like a natural distaster or monster or some other catastrophe be the "villain" if they're just gonna be evil for evil's sake.
Villains are characters, and characters need depth and change to be interesting. Sauron is iconic in a "cool" way but I know absolutely nothing about him from the movies.
@@RacingSnails64 because a villain can and 99% of the times will operate as an antagonist force, creating conflict, which is what you need in a story. Yes this brings them closer to be plot devices, but you can't just substite them with a natural happening or monster.
Their villanous nature helps the story. They need to be evil, and so, human.
Palpatine is a good example of pure evil villain. He's just the worst. Would Vader redemption works if he was a "natural disaster"? No it wouldn't. You need to have Chancellor Piece of Shit.
What I mean is that a pure evil ("flat and static") villain creates a kind of conflict that you can't have with other things, because of their evilness. It's not exchangeable
The thing with Sauron was him being a mystery, his screen time wasn't crucial but the idea of him was
Also, the time that was written utilized the evil/good tropes often and that has been challenged in recent decades to talk about subtle conflict
Sauro. Definitely has character ixation you learn that he has a lighthouse eye. And can impressively look around
Took me long enough, didn't it?
yep
But why rush greatness? Quality over quantity.
Worth the wait. I watch a lot of RUclips video essays and this is one of those rare channels that actually feels like I’m being taught by an intelligent adult instead of just being yelled at by my idiot friend who took three college classes and thinks he knows everything about the topic. Idk maybe it’s just because you don’t have a cartoon avatar that rotates between 4-5 poses as you talk but I appreciate your channel’s more mature, dry presentation.
Savage in a gruff voice: "Kept you wantin', huh?"
"You can't rush art."
Honestly the best part of JL is how every single character was relatable.
Hell, I myself related to Bruce Wayne of all people. Deep in cynicism, and redeemed through hope after seeing someone break-through your cynicism.
I liked how the movie didn't just focus on Batman. Cyborg and Barry's development within this movie made all the difference.
@@Manganization Absolutely, Cyborg was golden
I just realized that Steppenwolf looks like the chad version of Azog the Defiler 😂
Azog if he started lifting
I thought the synder cut version's introductory line actually fit his character really well. Not so much because of what the words _were,_ but how he said them.
If you listen to the way he speaks, he's _bored._ He's said these words a thousand times, they've lost absolutely all meaning until he's just saying them by rote cause that's part of the job. Helps set up just how tired of it all he is, and how much he just wants to be done with it all and go home.
How a little bit of editing can improve stories/characters with glaring problems.
I think you mean destroy. Whedon was the one who actually made changes and odd editing choices
There was no editing done on this one besides the additionally shot Knightmare sequence. This is the original vision. Whedon is the one that cut it all.
@@TheStraightestWhitest there's $70M worth of editing on this one, actually...
@@steveking1037 That's not editing. That's after effects. The scenes were all already shot, and even much of the VFX was already done.
@@TheStraightestWhitest 90% of it was brand new CGI. None of the Darkseid, Desaad, or Martha Manhunter stuff was “shot,” though it was storyboarded. That’s all editing. Then there was editing colors and angles and such. Editing isn’t just deleting scenes.
I used literally the concept of Antagonist at Rest in a novel I'm writing. I didn't have space in the narrative due to the nature of the story I'm telling, but I gave the main villain a haunting dream sequence in wich I flesh out his motivation and backstory using metaphor. It worked great!
Nice!
@@thesaltedlamp3444 Thanks!
how goes it? the novel, I mean
Steppenwolf may not be my favorite comic book movie villain, but I genuinely liked him and felt for his character. Even his eyes are made to be more expressive as to the Whedon one.
I heard "2017 Steppenwolf" as "2007 teen Steppenwolf" and was confused for a bit. :D
new headcanon
This made me laugh so hard my usually clingy cat who was sleeping next to me got annoyed and left.
like some other video said, 2017 Steppenwolf is basically an entitled teenage girl lmao
Oh how I missed @savagebooks - now I’m ready for your take on Omni Man and Solar Opposites season 2 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
2021 Steppenwolf: bruh I just want to go home
2017 Steppenwolf: MOTHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I absolutely LOVED Zack Snyder's Justice League. It was the most fun I've had watching a comic book movie since Avengers: Infinity War and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And it has made me a believer in his vision.
I will admit that Steppenwolf is better in the Snyder cut than in the theatrical cut.
Anyone who disagrees is confused
Bruh.
@Micolash I respectfully disagree. Sometimes villains don't need motivation to do evil things. Sometimes villains are evil just because they are evil.
@@StareachValcin but it works in other movies, like Michael Myers in the current Halloween timeline, or Otis Driftwood in the Firefly Trilogy, while it just didnt work with Steppenwolf
thank you for acknowledging Steppenwolf's puppy eyes. I thought I was crazy to think why this villain is given puppy eyes but I guess I understand now.
Love this analysis and your videos. However i don’t believe Batman from Dark Knight to be a static character like you stated. He does go through a significant change when he decides to kill Two-face to become the dark knight.
Exactly. Not to mention abandoning his role as Batman altogether at the end of the movie.
@@MissMartianDCAU He didn't even need to abandon it. Just blame the deaths of Harvey Dent's victims on the Joker.
16:06
“Whedon’s steppenwolf might as well be wrinkly space Hitler with a side of Satan.”
Ironically, that description is more towards Darkseid (minus the wrinkly part) because Jack Kirby basically used Hitler as the influence for Darkseid
“What do you want out of this?”
“What anyone wants, human… To go home.”
I still want to see you talk about the final Obi-Wan vs. Maul fight from Star Wars Rebels
Yes!!
you're videos are so well written & helpful for my own writing that whenever you release a new, I go into a Savage Books' binge rewatch! Love both of your channels!
19:01 Greatest villain of all time!
the Russo bros: we made this massive, 3 hour movie-
zack Snyder: hold my darkseid action figure
@Six Paths Naruto Snyder said it wasn’t the longest one he’s gonna make. And trust me, I’ve seen every marvel movie three times over and the Snyder cut is better. So do me a favor, stick with naruto
@Jason Wilson yes i have seen age of ultron thank you
@@fartmaster0707 in no universe is the DCEU better than the MCU LOL
Civil war alone is far better than that snyder binfire
@@j3qer267 that’s not what I said. my point is the mcu will never be as good as when stan was able to watch over it. it just became even worse when Disney bought it. DC has been able to stay good, so what im saying is that recent dc is better than recent mcu. i will always watch marvel but until Disney steps up their game im gonna stick to dc.
I really Loved this video for 3 reasons, Your Thorougness & Clarity, The Rare Framing of the screen using Negative space frame I wish more people knew about, and the fact that I have had plans to create similar content focusing on my theories, reviews, and deep looks at movies much like this right here. And that's encouraging seeing that the format does work.
Wait what Batman does change in the Dark Knight. The Joker tries to change him by making him break his one rule of no killing, which Joker thought he would when Batman threw him off the building and fails but Batman did break that rule in killing Harvey Dent. That's why when will see him in The Dark Knight Rises, Bruce is a broken man.
When I see glaring mistakes like that I stop watching these sorts of videos. I'm sure there's good info but I can't trust anything they say lol.
i loved the puppy eyes when thinking of or seeing Darkseid
4:17-4:30 except for Rey who defeated her 'Vader' in the very first major fight, doesn't change or grow much and the final fight with him doesn't have the tension it should have.
They honestly shouldn't have fought the whole series to build tension of who was good and who was evil
@@fredleeland2464 “Luke’s character wasn’t assassinated at all.” I dunno, the fact that he produced the Anakin blue saber in front of Kylo even though they all know that Rey took it (and was in fact destroyed) and his whole last stand was to BUY TIME for the survivors…
Thanks for showing Samurai Jack some love again. Would love to see a video of that show on your channel some time. I love watching some of my old shows with my kids and seeing them getting into it, sometimes more than I did.
I mean well where I disagree is that when you introduce a villain. His first appearance all it needs to do is appear badass and evil and menacing. And then we unpack his character later as the story progresses. The “great darkness” lines were perfection in my eyes and delivered perfectly
19:00 u brought back soo much nostalgia, I had to rewind a lil to make sure I wasn’t bugging
So I actually liked the first Steppenwolf better. The dialog was so strait forward, and the "flatness" of the character makes him seem like something that is just pure evel. The Snyder Steppenwolf did everything because he wanted to go home to mama. Like, what a frickin bitch.
OH MY GOD HE USED SAMURAI JACK AS REFERENCE, HEEEELLLLL YEAH, I LOVE THIS SHOW
This is actually the original script Snyder had for the movie but it was later changed when he stepped out
Or something like that
I’m also kinda glad Snyder’s Steppenwolf wasn’t trying to sleep with his mom the whole time
I disagree on Steppenwolf not being a good, interesting, or whatever character. He's a religious zealot to his own family lineage & has, like you said, contrasting ways in dealing with that by constantly wanting to be both affirmed by & liberated from his idolatry of his own nephew. He's also tragic; all he wanted was to go home, he got it, & he was also liberated from the idolatry of his lineage.
Since everyone already knows the character is an improvement story wise I wanna talk about the design, I love this demon/other worldly take for Steppenwolf and Apokolips itself. The armor is not a mess when it moves around cause the animators actually put the armor spikes in specific patterns, the lighting on the cgi is better, and the design is the consistent.
Whedons Steppenwolf design just changes in every scene mostly around the face and coloring of it.
BvS: Martha
Justice League: *Auntie Lyfe*
"The anti-life equation"
Narrator: I can't relate to Thanos...
Me to narrator: Please watch a few tiktok videos, then you will.
I wonder about your take on Eren from Attack on Titan, because he never lost sight of his goal but his role changed across the story. I personally loved how it ended but everyone has its own different opinion, cant wait to find out yours!
It'd be interesting to see his take on it, that's for sure. The ending was just okay, for me. I was kinda expecting more, as I felt that it didn't show enough for that chapter to feel convincing. I kinda wished it got the FullMetal Alchemist treatment, which had a final chapter with 76 pages; 31 pages more than the standard.
@@Manganization there's actually gonna be an extended edition of the final chapter, adding further context to the events of 139. Check Forneverworld's channel on his latest video if you wanna know more.
@@thebraydenchannel78 Thank you, Lord Jashin! My prayers have been answered!
@@thebraydenchannel78 Was just about to say that! Yesterday I learned the news that it will be extended, which I really appreciate. I would've liked to see the characters explain themselves a little more than they actually did and also, we deserve to see them happy for longer than 2 panels per character :(
This is exactly what I'm looking for in writing videos. I often find videos like these either surface-level to the point that they’re devoid of purpose, or else technical and niche enough that I don’t feel I can extrapolate what I’ve learned to my own writing without a better understanding of the fundamentals.
But here, even though none of the terms you discussed were new to me, giving clear definitions with examples and - crucially - their value within a narrative is both useful and fascinating. I feel like it provides a knowledge base that I can use as a stepping-stone to more complex topics while also getting use out of what I’ve learned in the present.
Great work!
For those wondering why Steppenwolf got banished, it is more than likely he took it upon himself to kill Darkseid's Mother Heggra, and Second Wife Tigra (Orion's Mother) for the conspiracy and Murder of Suli, Darkseid's first wife, and Kalibak's mother.
Didn't he get banished because, in the original, he was the one that lost the fight on Earth? They changed it to Darkseid as fan service, like adding the black suit. Neither has an actual explanation; it's just digital crayons appllied to the original vision even before Whedon got hold of it.
@@steveking1037 Steppenwolf references his crime in one of his zoom calls to Desaad, "killed those who sought his throne". Superman's adoption of the Black suit is also explained through Jonathan and Jor-El dual monologues as he walks through the ship. It represents Clark finally embracing his Kryptonian heritage and reconciling it with his human upbringing.
@@unholyrevenger72 -- Thanks for letting me know. I love the lore related to IPs that I immensely enjoyed.
@@unholyrevenger72 it represents Snyder wanting to make the fans happy, which is cool and all, but that’s not much of an explanation. It doesn’t make any sense that him wearing the suit for the “genocide” nightmare from Man of Steel was embracing his heritage.
But I I did catch both that and the nebulous reference to Steppenwolf’s crime during the zoom call. Those were just quick “tell don’t show” sound bites to cover for the plotholes.
@@steveking1037 All the Kryptonians wear the black suit, even Jor-El. This is the first time Clark is embracing that part of himself.
And as for Steppenwolf, he left his backstory nebulous, like Arthur's, Diana's, Barry's, and even Batman's so that other filmakers wouldn't be beholden to minute character decisions.
This is the channel I’ve always been looking for!!! I finally found you in my recommended and I LOVE YOUR CONTENT!!!!!! Please keep it coming!!! I hope the algorithm makes your channel visible to more ppl out there because I know A LOT of people that would love your vids!!!
" I have come to Enlighten you to the great Darkness I will bathe in your fear"
Such a badass line from that moment I knew he was going to be special
The Snyder Cut made me weep for Steppenwolf. Bloody brilliant.
Idk about Bare Minimum though. A lot of things changed for him as a character which made his defeat even more powerful. All up till the end, he literally won. Even with Superman beating his ass. The Unity was complete and he had won and probably gained Darkseid's respect all for Flash to do the most epic scene in the movie and reverse time.
At least OP would agree that Snyder needed to be left alone when making dc films.
You have my respect, Steppenwolf, I hope they remember you. And we will
Joss whedon’s steppe wild has no traits beyond conquering.
No true he’s also a creepy old man, look at his interactions with the Amazons
Very interesting. I guess you could say that JRR Tolkien was guilty of having static antagonists with Melkor and Sauron.
I don’t think that every villain needs to needs to be understandable or relatable, sometimes they can just be cool and that’s enough. If we look at Darth Vader when we was first introduced audiences liked him because he was cool, it wasn’t until later where he became both of those things (even more so through the context of the prequels) that people grew to truly love him. We can’t really empathize or even sympathize with him but because of what’s implied through his relationship with Old Ben he’s not flat, later in ROTJ we see he’s not static either
This video makes me like Snyder’s steppen wolf a lot. I didn’t even watch the Snyder cut, but I still sympathize with him.
I have already forgotten how I missed this
I knew he would be different when instead of "YES! Run!", he said "NOOO!" when Hypolita took the box from him.
Please do more comparison between the two movies! I will watch all of it, 1,2,3,4 hours, please please please!
“Just look back at some of your favorite cartoons or movies and think about how the villain only really appear to oppose the hero”
Oh, you mean like the sudden ad break that just appeared to oppose the video from continuing.
Snyder's Justice League is... tonally consistent. In that sense it's an improvement over the previous version. I'll give the people who demanded this cut that much. Beyond that, I still think it's not a good movie. It's four long hours of grim darkness using characters that should be anything but that pretty much treats anyone who isn't the heroes as fodder, almost proving Darkseid's position.
But I'll say this, this "bare minimum" improvement discussion is VERY good all the same, and it took such an otherwise dull movie to make a perfect example.
I have absorbed more in 3 videos than I had in all of my Syd Fields books...
Seriously! The lightbulb that you've turned on I didn't know existed!
THANK YOU!!!
Darkseid is the best thing in ZSJL. That voice is just amazing. I really love how these villains are pure evil and not some rebel or revolutionary.
Really thank you for this! I’m writing my villain and needed something extra to make it right