#boravia

[tomfoolerytotality]

I love this fucking movie, man

[galahadwilder]

There was a lot that was great about the new Superman movie but I think my favorite part was how personal the stakes were. After like a decade of Marvel being like "oh no the planet is going to be destroyed! Now the universe! Now the multiverse!" I was starting to get a little burned out. It's like "oh wow big stakes whatever" but the thing is when the stakes get too big you know the author is going to chicken out, right?

Superman 2025 didn't do that. Yes they threw in the obligatory supervillain end-the-world bullshit with the black hole eating Metropolis but those weren't the stakes. The stakes were about Jarhanpur and Clark. Superman, obviously, was going to live, but how many people he cared about were going to die? Malik already got shot, and we liked him. And Jarhanpur? A faraway country, right, until they showed us that brave group who went out to face the Boravian army with nothing but pitchforks.

And the kid. The kid with the Superman flag, who even in the middle of a genocidal invading force with guns pointed at his head refused to run or let the flag fall.

Metropolis was going to live, we all knew that. The invasion of Jarhanpur was going to be repelled. But the smallest stake, the most important question of the movie, was, is flag kid going to survive? And that's where the tension was. And that's what made the movie hit the way it did.

[heydocverdant]

I don’t get why people keep saying Superman was a political movie, the only things really political about it were

Superman intervening in a conflict in the Middle East in order to save civilian lives

A twelve-minute long sequence where Lois and Clark debate the political and moral implications of Superman intervening in said conflict,

during which they note that the invading nation of Boravia is a close US ally despite their president’s shady track record,

and that the invaded nation of Jarhanpur having a controversial government does not justify the mass slaughter of their civilian population (who also seem to be primarily Muslim)

Lex Luthor is a billionaire misogynist with eugenicist overtones who invests heavily into propaganda and misinformation to make himself look good and turn public opinion against his enemies

Luthor is also privately allied with the Boravian government and is providing them weaponry in exchange for half of Jarhanpur’s land to develop in his own image

Luthor is operating a black site for-profit prison where he incarcerates political prisoners, whistleblowers and any ex-girlfriends that try to leave him

Luthor thoughtlessly murders an innocent Palestinian-American man just to taunt Superman, much to the cackling delight of Boravia’s pasty white president

Speaking of the Boravian president, when that guy orders a second invasion of the (mostly-unarmed) Jarhanpur, he publicly claims it’s to “liberate” the people of Jarhanpur while simultaneously commanding his army to genocide the entire population of the country

and as an added kicker, the Boravian president at one point claims during a press conference that Superman is only saving people to build a “harem” of exploited women, before leaving to privately surround himself with fawning young women, and later visiting Luthor’s private prison that’s full of kidnapped and abused women

The US government makes a big show of brutalizing Superman during his arrest before very publicly perp-walking him away (despite Superman actually turning himself over to federal custody, and also Superman apparently only being handcuffed with standard-issue cuffs due to the Earth’s explicit lack of kryptonite)

When Superman points out that nobody read him his Miranda rights, Rick Flagg says “you’re an alien, you don’t have rights” before shipping him off to the aforementioned black-site prison

but other than that, I don’t think it has anything to do with politics at all

[fandumb-thoughts]

The way my friend first misheard “Boravia” for “Israelia”. The way Vasil Gharkos looks and acts in a way that strongly resembles the way Netanyahu conducts himself in interviews. The way Lex and Vasil are dividing Jarhanpur for prime real estate—the “Riviera of the Middle East,” anyone? The way Clark keeps repeating “they were going to kill people” in the face of every single question he was asked in that interview, the way Lois even agrees before pushing past her own morals for the “standard” question set. The way Lex speaks with government officials in depths of military bases. The way “The Justice Gang” refuse to get involved because they don’t want to mess “with politics”. The way that the elderly and the children and the women of Jarhanpur stand between invading tanks and their home. The way the Boravian forces take aim anyways. The way Lex Luthor doesn’t even care about Jarhanpur or Boravia he’s just using them for his own fucked up domestic goals.

When this movie began production and writing I’d be willing to beat it was supposed to be about Russia and Ukraine. The Eastern European influence on Boravia is more than clear. And it probably still is, at least a little bit. It’s a movie with fictionalized nations and conflicts. At this point, though, you cannot ignore the clear parallels with the genocide of Palestine. And thank every good thing in this world that the superheroes showed up and saved those people because in real life that’s not what’s happening.

[pizzapasta23045]

WDYM THE HEAD OF BORAVIA LOOKED AT THIS SHIT AND STILL TRIED TO TAUNT HER...

"You won't kill me you're weak like superman" Bitch she came at you with a fucking MACE swinging and screaming like a lunatic.

[cardboardboxy]

Fun fact: Boravia is older than Israel!

Boravia first appears in Superman #2 (B story), which began sales in August 1939, almost a full ten years before Israel even got it's name

[r2x2]

Hawkgirl: What? I didn't murder the President of Boravia!

Maxwell Lord:

[thedeadsun]

okay so i FINALLY brought myself to watch superman cuz ive been getting into dc but i didnt know where to start in terms of movies (yes ive been rawdogging random shows ive always loved the titans (not teen titans go but i admit that ones still funny)) and i haveeeeee thoooooooughts on the jarhanpur/boravia thing.

there are about a million connections ive made between the movie and irl. first of all, theres the very obvious jarhanpur = palestine / boravia = israel. we all know that. but ive been thinking about the part everyone else plays. lex is an awful lot like a certain elongated muskrat we know—billionaire, making unnecesary bs for himself... pretty accurate, no? I mean, we have no idea what he's doing behind the scenes. while my next point does happen after the movie came out, i think its still a very interesting point. also, id like to mention how the raptors + superman clone kind of felt like all this clanker (ai) generated slop that keeps making its rounds. superman and the justice gang kind of seem a lot like the flotilla. if you've not seen, the flotilla is an emergency aid that was headed to gaza completely abiding by international laws. completely disobeying international laws, israel has recently intercepted the flotilla, abducting its crew and arresting them. one thing to note is that many in support of israel have tried to make the flotilla crew look evil. same thing with superman, right? furthermore, those kids holding up the makeshift superman flag? thats rather similar to the kids you see online, filming their daily lives direvtly from gaza. the people who are making small rebellions in any way they can. and i'd like to make clear, we might nit have a superman. But superman is a kind, empathetic, and strong guy. and that is humanity. Gaza and palestine as a whole, sudan, congo, every country that is being oppressed and hidden by the media. it's not over until humanity gives up. when people stop talking about it. so speak up. it doesnt matter if something doesn't match your aesthetic; what isnt aesthetic is not caring about people dying to authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. if you cant donate directly, speak about it. use your platform, however big or small, to shout it across the internet. its not iver until palestine is free. until humans are free all across the globe. empathy is pretty punkrock if you ask me.