YMMV / Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox

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• Accidental Innuendo: The Top's quip about how "Once again, it looks like you're the bottom, and I'm..." well, you get the idea.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Flashpoint Aquaman. Is he really grieving and regretful and he feels guilty about his infidelity with Mera and he wants revenge against the woman who killed his wife? Or avenging Mera is only his duty as Atlantis' ruler and he still is in love with Diana? It's also implied that he deeply blames Mera for the war between Atlantis and Themyscira...
• Audience-Coloring Adaptation: The film has generated interest in Flashpoint as an event and has shaped the way people interpret this event.
• Can't Un-Hear It: Try reading the comic without hearing Kevin McKidd as Flashpoint Batman or C. Thomas Howell as Professor Zoom.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Flashpoint Grifter's gained quite a bit of popularity, courtesy of his badassery during the final battle.
  • Flashpoint Tula has gotten some notice.
  • Flashpoint Deathstroke, being as badass as any other version of the character and featuring a Role Reprise from Ron Perlman to boot.
  • Yo-yo has about 2 minutes of screen time, yet is fondly remembered for being a badass alternate version of Harley Quinn capable of going toe to toe with Flashpoint Batman.
• Genius Bonus: When the Amazons wiped out the UK it was stated 32 million were killed. The population of the UK is 64 million. And with the Amazons being who they are heavily suggests they wiped out the male half.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Even after fixing things, Barry's time travel is still a case of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero as Justice League Dark: Apokolips War revealed that Darkseid's interest in Earth in Justice League: War was because of the events of this film — and Apokolips War saw Darkseid invade again, but this time, he won and taking Earth back was such a Pyrrhic Victory that Barry had to Cosmic Retcon the universe again to set things right. Just to add salt in the wound, even that ultimately led to the titular events of Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths.
• He's Just Hiding: A few fans have called the deaths of Flashpoint Deathstroke and Clayface as situations they could have survived, even though realistically their prospects don't look good regardless.
• Jerkass Woobie: Flashpoint Batman, who's in fact Thomas Wayne. This version of him watched his only child die and then after that his wife turn into a maniac and his world go to hell in a hand-basket. It's hard to fault him for his bitterness following all of this.
• Les Yay: The Flashpoint version of Harley Quinn—Yo-yo—is still madly devoted to her Joker, and the Joker of this world is Martha Wayne. One wonders just how similar their relationship was to the mainstream one.
• Magnificent Bastard: Thomas Wayne, in this timeline Flashpoint Batman, is the greatest tactician in the world. Upon being found by Barry Allen, he helps recreate the incident that helps Barry regain his powers, wanting to cause a timeline where his son is alive. After learning that Eobard Thawne is preventing Barry from fixing the timeline, Batman teams up with Cyborg and others to find him while also contributing to the war effort. Despite being mortally wounded during the final battle, Batman sneaks up on Thawne and kills him while his back is turned. Before he succumbs to his wounds, Batman gives Barry a letter to deliver to his son, not caring that he will die in the new timeline.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Flashpoint Batman's stoic stare followed by a nonchalant swig of alcohol from his flask has become a semi-popular reaction gif.
  • Reverse Flash's appearance in the climax served as a template for more zoomposting. Though this time he turned Flash into a one-pump chump... ^note  voiced, if you prefer
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Professor Zoom crosses it either when he plans to kill numerous innocent civilians in Central City to spite the Flash, or when he makes it abundantly clear that he's fine with the world ending just because he knows the Flash is suffering because of it.
  • Flashpoint Wonder Woman was way over the line when she murdered a rightfully angry Mera and sent Aquaman her head and kept her crown as a trophy, but murdering the young Billy Batson destroyed any semblance of sympathy for the character.
  • Flashpoint Aquaman crosses it when he sinks most of Europe and in the process kills over one hundred million people. It says a lot that Deathstroke is appalled by the atrocities that have been committed.
• One-Scene Wonder: Martha Wayne's flashback appearance where she grieves young Bruce. It only last for exactly one minute, but everyone remembers it very well for how terrifyingly tragic it is.
• Squick:
  • Barry's body covered in third-degree burns after his failed first attempt to recreate his powers.
  • Flashpoint Wonder Woman pulling a Decapitation Presentation with Mera's severed head.
  • Flashpoint Wonder Woman's sadistic murder of Steve Trevor via strangulation.
  • Flashpoint Wonder Woman stabbing Billy Batson to death with a broken sword — in his his true, kid form.
  • Cyborg's exposed organic heart as Aquaman prepares to impale it.
  • Professor Zoom's death, where he is shot in the back of the head by Batman, leaving a massive hole in his forehead.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Unsurprisingly, since it's a film with a large cast, and unlike the original comic book and its many tie-ins the film is the only work using this setting. Anybody other than Flash, Batman, and Cyborg is lucky to have more than a few minutes of screen time. Some examples include:
  • The members of the Resistance (including Lois Lane), who have barely any presence during the final battle, with only Grifter getting a few scenes to himself.
  • Orm, who is a major villain in the original story, is essentially reduced to a cameo, and gets Killed Offscreen. This despite him being Aquaman's most famous antagonist and a top threat within his forces.
  • And then there's the team of supers that Cyborg had been recruiting. The Shazam kids are the only ones to actually join the war, to the point it's a mystery why the film even bothered to introduce them in the first place.
  • Flashpoint Joker. Batman's intro scene has him interrogating Yo-yo about the villain's whereabouts; and the conversation at the Bat-Cave hints that the Joker may be an even greater threat than Wonder Woman and Aquaman. In reality, the Joker arc is Adapted Out, with her single appearance being in a flashback as Barry learns how the new timeline came to be.
• Too Cool to Live:
  • The Flashpoint versions of Deathstroke, Lex Luthor and Clayface are executed when Aquaman attacks their ship, not even halfway through the movie.
  • Hal Jordan is sent on a suicide mission to destroy Aquaman's doomsday weapon. His plan is effortlessly countered by Aquaman summoning a giant eel to swallow his spaceship whole.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: This is one of DC's darkest and most violent films, as the PG-13 is pushed pretty far in regards to the violence and gore. Up in Canada this got the PG rating when it is more than worthy of the 14-A rating. In particular, it's hard to believe that Professor Zoom's death, shot in the head by Batman with a bloody wound so large, you can see through the other side, would garner a PG-13 rating.
• The Woobie:
  • Flashpoint Superman, like in the original source, although possibly his life was worse in this adaptation than the Flashpoint comics. Flash and Flashpoint Cyborg seem to have been his first friends in his entire life, and then one of them dies in his arms.
  • Flashpoint Mera, who was cheated on by her husband and then murdered by his mistress via decapitation. To add insult to fatal injury, Wonder Woman mailed Aquaman her severed head and kept her crown as a trophy.
  • Flash. In addition to his mother's Death by Origin Story, there's also how his attempt to save her creates the Flashpoint world and then he has to willingly sacrifice his mother to set things right in the end.
  • Billy Batson/Captain Thunder. Given that the latter has a scar across his face, there is no doubt Billy has went through some serious shit while still a kid no less. Him being murdered by Diana was the icing on the cake.
• Woolseyism: Wonder Woman says she intends to enslave Atlantis' "daughters". The Brazilian dub changes her line to "females", which is a pejorative in the Portuguese language and further highlights her contempt towards non-Amazons.

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