It is a well known scientific fact that water conducts electricity. But apparently there didn't used to be any set expectations for what that fact would mean for an electricity based superpowered being in a game of elemental rock paper scissors.
In the episode that introduced Livewire Superman ultimately defeats her using water. The month in which that episode aired is exactly a year before the Pokemon franchise made it's American debut. In Pokemon's system water based attacks are ineffective against Electric Type Pokemon.
Pokemon has became I'm willing to say equal to Superman in pop cultural importance, in fact I'm very willing to say it's had a larger impact then the DCAU specifically. Meanwhile Livewire is a somewhat niche character even within Superman and DCAU fandoms, while one of Pokemon's Electric based characters is it's Mascot.
So Pokemon's interpretation of how electricity based super powers should relate to water has became the standard even for people who haven't consumed any Pokemon media directly.
And yet whenever Livewire is reintroduced into a new version of the DCU, they feel compelled to keep the rules of that 97 cartoon. So even when she showed up on the Supergirl show in the fall of 2015 she's again defeated by water and thus everyone watching who didn't know the rules for this character were set before Pokemon was a phenomenon reacted with "wow they really didn't do their research".
And look popularity contests aside the science is on Pokemon's side here, Electric Eels live in the water, it's not a weakness for them. Livewire has been depicted as having the ablity to become pure electricity which I think makes the idea of water harming her even more absurd.
Livewire became a popular enough character to be a Canon immigrant because of her personality, I don't think anyone is really nostalgic enough for that detail of her debut episode to complain if DC decided to conform her to the modern rules standardized by Pokemon.
And yet whenever Livewire is reintroduced into a new version of the DCU, they feel compelled to keep the rules of that 97 cartoon. So even when she showed up on the Supergirl show in the fall of 2015 she's again defeated by water and thus everyone watching who didn't know the rules for this character were set before Pokemon was a phenomenon reacted with "wow they really didn't do their research".
And look popularity contests aside the science is on Pokemon's side here, Electric Eels live in the water, it's not a weakness for them. Livewire has been depicted as having the ablity to become pure electricity which I think makes the idea of water harming her even more absurd.
Livewire became a popular enough character to be a Canon immigrant because of her personality, I don't think anyone is really nostalgic enough for that detail of her debut episode to complain if DC decided to conform her to the modern rules standardized by Pokemon.
No comments:
Post a Comment