Fans Are Accountable For Their Own Happiness

It’s time to start admitting that it’s not all WB’s fault if you’re unhappy with DC content.

To be clear, that doesn’t absolve WB from any of its massive errors since at least 2016, from the fear of putting a 3-hour version of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in theaters, through the knee jerk reshoots and slipshod editing of Suicide Squad, into the unmitigated disaster that is Josstice League, all the way to WB CEO Ann Sarnoff’s tone deaf and completely unnecessary interview after the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. All of that still happened, and all of it is still bad business for several reasons.

It’s also now all in the past, whether we admit it or not.

When people feel wronged by someone or something they truly love, we have this tendency to say “forgive, but never forget,” and we say that because we don’t want to cut that person or thing completely out of our lives, but we don’t want to be hurt by them again either. So we keep our guard up and make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes that got us hurt the first time, but what usually ends up happening is that we spend most of our time reminding ourselves how bad that pain was so that we never forget it, and we don’t do any forgiving.

We’re not talking about forgiving the WB executives here. They can all still get fired. We’re talking about forgiving DC itself.

If you’ve been a DC fan for years, you know where your heart lies and it’s not with the executives, producers or even the creatives behind your favorite DC movies, shows and comics. It’s with the interpretation of those characters that they provided you that you hold so dear to your heart, be it your favorite version of Superman, Batman or any member of the Justice League and their rogues as well. You might be grateful to those involved for giving you that favorite version, but your attachment is to the version itself, not to them, and you want more than anything else to see that favorite version thrive, or at least be given the fair chance to.

So when it doesn’t, and DC itself takes a new direction, either with a different version of your favorite character, or by focusing on other characters that aren’t your favorites at all, that’s when you feel hurt, and that’s when you blame the people in charge of that change for your pain, because they cut your enjoyment too soon and it feels like they’re saying you can’t have anymore of what you liked.

What makes it feel worse is when toxic bloggers, critics and fanboys pile on that sentiment and act like what you enjoyed was bad or “wrong” in the first place, even though they’re no authorities to listen to at all on something so subjective. They never spoke for everyone and they still don’t, no matter how much they want you to believe that they do.

So now you’re upset, disappointed, infuriated or all of the above, and all you want is that version of the characters or their stories that are so important to you. You want to be happy, and you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that that version, whatever it is, makes you happy. So you obsess over it, and dismiss everything else that DC as a whole is providing you because all you want is the version you think they’re telling you that you can’t have, and we’re not just talking about the Zack Snyder fans either. Christopher Reeve Superman fans fall into this category too, as do the fans of any DC character interpretation over the years.

The thing is, at some point, you have to ask yourself who is really making you unhappy? Is it truly the creatives and executives behind DC content that have chosen to make a Peacemaker show, bring Michael Keaton back as Batman, or develop a Wonder Twins movie for HBO Max? Is it Sarnoff, WB Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich and DC Films boss Walter Hamada for completely dismissing what would be very expensive and increasingly difficult to schedule Justice League sequels?

Or is it really YOU for hanging onto that pain you felt so dearly when things didn’t go the way you wanted them to, and now you’re going to make sure you never get hurt again, even at the expense of your own future happiness with DC content?

The easiest thing to do when we when feel wronged is blame someone else for it happening, especially if it was a decision we didn’t make. There’s a reason that all of WB’s past errors should be considered “bad business,” because however personal they might have been between the executives and Zack Snyder, they were never meant to be personal towards the fans or the audience, but because of how deeply we care about those character interpretations he provided us, we take it personally, and we allow it to keep us from being truly happy with DC content ever again.

That’s truly why you asked who cares about a Peacemaker show, why you think Keaton’s return to the cape and cowl in whatever fashion is just a cheap nostalgia grab, and why you feel cheated for still waiting on Man of Steel 2 but you’re getting Wonder Twins instead.

It’s also why lately, whenever the Marvel Cinematic Universe releases anything, it causes you to feel jealous at that fanbase for seemingly “getting everything they want” and “making their dreams a reality,” when one has to seriously question if most Marvel fans have truly been clamoring for a Doctor Strange sequel or an Agatha Harkness streaming series for “years.” For that matter, how many Marvel fans really cared that much about Iron Man, Captain America or Thor before 2008? But now things like Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy trilogies and a Thor Quadrilogy are “making dreams a reality?”

The reason MCU fans are happier is because is they don’t dwell on “what could have been” all the time. They don’t focus on Edgar Wright’s original plan for Ant-Man, or what Patty Jenkins would have done with Thor: The Dark World, or how much better Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk might have turned out if they hadn’t cut his scenes from the Battle of Wakanda in Avengers: Infinity War. They focus instead on what the franchise has planned for them next, and because they’ve allowed themselves to largely enjoy what they’ve been watching for 14 years, they trust what they’re going to be given for the next 14 years or however long the MCU truly lasts.

DC fans are the ones that have to make a choice about how much longer they’re going to dwell on WB’s past mistakes, and whether or not they’re going to let that pain over what happened with their favorite versions of characters keep them from enjoying anything else that DC is giving them going forward, because at the end of the day, it’s not the studios, executives, producers or creatives that are truly responsible for our happiness. WE are.