Discussion YMMV / WonderWoman1984

This page places both Wonder Woman and the Cheetah as Designated Hero and Villain, respectively, under the following arguments:

• Designated Hero: At its worst, the film makes Steve Trevor out to be more of a heroic figure than Diana herself, particularly where it comes to Steve's situation. From using the body of the "Handsome Man" for sexual activity without any ability to consent (which is sexual assault and/or rape) to her reluctance to ever let this nameless man have his own life back instead of keeping Steve possessing him, she is rather selfish overall, with it being Steve insisting on her going to save the world from catastrophe. Much like the prior film chronologically, she only allows someone or something she truly desires to leave when the object of desire itself says so while telling of her heroism, showing that if she actually has a possible penalty to her actions personally on an emotional level, she would more likely not suffer said consequences at the expense of the world unless forced to.
• Designated Villain: Barbara's wish to be like Diana is completely understandable given her circumstances. She's overlooked by almost everyone at work despite her positive qualities such as her sweetness and her knowledge. She had to rely on Diana to save her from a rapist, with the only lesson said rapist learned from the encounter was that Barbara was powerless on her own. Steve then tells Barbara and Diana that anyone who made a wish on the stone must renounce it regardless of their reasons for making the wish. Diana agrees with Barbara that they just can't do that; they are both reluctant to renounce their wishes. It doesn't help that Barbara's wish is corrupting her mind, while Diana's own wish is for reasons that seem frivolous in the big picture (see Designated Hero). Adding to all of this is that Barbara's less-sympathetic moments only ever kicked in during moments when selfishness would be a natural reaction. For what it's worth, Diana never sees Barbara as a villain and keeps trying to reason with her; Barbara momentarily stops attacking Diana on seeing the latter renounced her wish.

Okay, I have to ask, are these arguments valid? I did watch the movie, personally I believe these arguments to be flawed. The movie goes out of its way to make Wonder Woman realize it's selfish of her to keep her wish, especially because of the price she has to pay. As for Cheetah, she she never visibly renounces her wish even after seeing the consequences the collective wishes of humanity are having on the entire world.

I know that YMMV pages are meant to be opinionated, but it looks like there are people who using this particular YMMV page to voice their grievances with this movie and I would like to remind everyone that TV Tropes and the Internet are not your personal echo chambers you can use to say whatever you want and not expect any consequences.

So, what do you think?

I think the entry under Anvilicious is more of an Alternate Aesop Interpretation - Diana's speech was mainly about being honest with yourself and that while it's human to want things, an all-consuming obsession with wanting more can blind you to the harm you cause yourself and others. (As a side note, a message about unfair shortcuts not leading to true fulfillment, and sometimes leading to outright harm, doesn't seem to me to be the same as a Hard Work Fallacy, but again, that's why I'd say that's more of an Alternate Aesop Interpretation, not the main takeaway the writers intended.)

Regarding the 'Never Live It Down' example, the intention was to point out that the thing many viewers seem to take notice the most from the movie is how Diana has a most likely nonconsensual intercouse with the stranger whose body Steve is inhabiting and it seems to be one of the most, if not the most, talked about topic whenever the discussion about it comes up, which has extended to the point where some viewers see Diana (and by extension Steve) in a negative light despite everything else they do in the movie. Granted, the topic itself IS serious and should've been given much more attention than the movie gave it, but the controversy it generated seems to be what viewers brought up the most at the expense of other things in the movie, which is why I thought it qualifies as a "Never Live It Down" moment for Diana and something that most viewers will brought up first when talked about the movie.

There could be a better way to put it in an example, but if this doesn't qualify then I apologize.