Look, I know Aquaman hasn’t been shown in Western markets yet so offering up SPOILER FILLED questions about the plot feels uncouth and rude. It’s unfair to be talking about the plot and some weird things that the film brought up when some people haven’t even had the chance to watch Aquaman. Yet, here I am, about to talk about the film and some of the strange and probably unimportant happenings throughout Arthur Curry journey from the “mythical” Aquaman to becoming the King of Atlantis.
So, yeah. I do have some questions regarding DC’s new film. While I think Aquaman is really good, that doesn’t spare it from the admittedly inconsequential questions I have regarding its plot and whatnot.
Once again, I have to reiterate that there will be SPOILERS so don’t blame me if these questions that I’m about to raise ruin some of the surprises for you.
Why didn’t Atlanna just surrender when the Atlantean soliders came to take her back?
Aquaman does do a good job of telling the DC superhero’s origin story. It gets the important beats right without needing overly explain things or show everything about his upbringing. It shows Queen Atlanna (played by Nicole Kidman) escaping to the surface world to get out of an arranged marriage. She falls in love with a lowly lighthouse keeper named Thomas Curry and the two have a son, Arthur Curry. However, the king she was betrothed to send soldiers to take Atlanna back. Realizing that Tom and Arthur will not be safe, she reluctantly returns to Atlantis to keep them both safe. Like I said, SPOILERS!
That doesn’t stop Atlanna kicking the butts of the first soldiers that came after her, though.
While this does give Aquaman its very first action scene (and a cool looking one at that), did she really have to beat up and even kill the Atlantean soldiers in the first place if she was going to return to Atlantis anyway? I mean, she could’ve just surrendered and her murdering people who were just following orders wasn’t necessary at all!
Also, if she really wanted to keep her family safe, couldn’t they just have moved to the countryside, far away from any large bodies of water where Altanteans can pop up? I’d like to see the regular Altantean soldier walk around Kansas or other places with a helmet full of water! Hey, this is actually two questions! But I’ll be just counting this as one for now.
How come Arthur Curry didn’t know who Mera was when the met in Justice League?
While Arthur Curry has been superheroing for a while as Aquaman, his half-brother Orm has become King of Atlantis and is planning to wage war with the surface world, using an unwarranted attack by a submarine controlled by Black Manta. Mera goes to the surface in the hopes of getting Arthur/Aquaman to take over as the King of Atlantis and prevent the war from happening.
Mera does manage to find Arthur Curry after he’s been in a drinking session with his father. Mera does introduce herself but Arthur apparently has no idea who she is. This is kind of odd because haven’t the two already met during the events of Steppenwolf’s attack in Justice League?
To be fair, the meeting was fairly brief but it was significant because it was Mera’s speech that drove Aquaman to actually take up arms against Steppenwolf. What’s even weirder is that Mera felt the need to introduce herself since she should have remembered that they already met. Maybe Arthur forgot what she looked like or didn’t recognize her with that silly crown thing she was sporting during Justice League. But Mera really shouldn’t have needed to tell him who she was.
Speaking of Mera…
Is Mera the only person who can use water magic?
Aquaman used to be the butt of so many jokes during the Silver Age of comics. Many comic book geeks wrote him off to be incredibly useless if any villainy happened on land. He was just the guy who talks to fish.
After the events of Crisis of Infinite Earths, the writers over at DC seemingly made a concerted effort to ramp up Aquaman’s powers. He still retains his power of talking to fish (revamped to make him compel sea life instead of actual “talking” to them) and he still breathes underwater. But now, he’s super strong and his skin is nigh impenetrable as he does have to go to the deepest parts of the oceans and survive pressures that would crush a normal human being.
In the comics, Aquaman has limited ability of controlling water but it’s not an innate ability of his. He usually has a magical artifact, such as Poseidon’s trident or a magic hand given to him by the Lady of the Lake (long story). This is in stark contrast to Mera, his wife, as she was trained in Atlantean sorcery. This leads me to my question: why is Mera the only one in the entire movie shown using this water magic?
I understand that there are probably many more Atlanteans capable of controlling water. That’s the only explanation I can come up with regarding how Orm got that big tidal wave to wash up on the surface world. Yet I do have to ask why I didn’t see anyone in the entire film use water magic besides Mera?
How did Orm even hire Black Manta?
Aquaman’s basic plot is Orm, the king of Atlantis, wanting to wage war against the surface world. In order to do that, he needs the other underwater kingdoms to join him. He does manage to dupe King Nereus, the ruler of Xebel and Mera’s father, into thinking that a surface made submarine attacked them. It was all a ruse as, in truth, Orm hired Black Manta to attack the meeting with a stolen submarine.
Now, as far as I know, Orm has a strong distaste for the humans living on land due to all the pollution they’ve been dumping into the ocean and whatnot. There’s probably also the stigma that her mother fell in love with Thomas Curry, which eventually led to the king ordering her execution. So, if he hates surface dwellers so much, I’m guessing he never met anyone from there, much less hire anyone from the surface. So, how the heck did he even meet, much less hire Black Manta in the first place?
For one thing, I don’t think these people run in the same circles as they’re from different worlds in quite the literal sense. I also would believe Orm wouldn’t even need to hire someone like Black Manta since he does have elite guards and scientists in his employ. It would be so easy for his to send a platoon of soldiers to steal a sub and then figure out a way to attack the summit. Basically, there was really no need to get Black Manta in the first place. So why did he do it? I guess to introduce the Black Manta and show how cool he is!
What happened to the Brine Kingdom?
As mentioned earlier, Orm needed the other underwater kingdoms’ support in order to initiate his attack on the surface world. He manages to get the Xebel kingdom’s support thanks to the trick with the submarine. He then attacks the Fisherman kingdom and kills the king there, forcing their princess to join forces. He finally sets his sights on the Brine Kingdom, where both forces lay siege against each other until Aquaman returns with the Trident of Atlan. Aquaman faces off against Orm in one-on-one combat and wins.
But what happened to the Brine Kingdom?
I can pass over the fact that Aquaman, the Karathen (voiced by Julie Andrews!) and various fish literally murder hundreds of Atlantean, Xebel and Fishermen soldiers in order to save thousands of lives (which does seem hypocritical, in my opinion). At least you saw those kingdoms survive and bore witness to Aquaman and Orm’s rematch.
But you never see any Brine Kingdom creature during this scene. Does it mean Orm (and maybe even Aquaman by accident) wiped them out before the final fight? Are they still okay or were they decimated? Or did they just flee and not want to deal with the drama?
BONUS: Why is Nicole Kidman still hot?
More than 20 years ago, I watched Batman Forever. I didn’t care too much for the movie… but I really thought the gal that played Dr. Meridian Chase was incredibly hot. Sure, it was weird that she had a bat fetish… but she was hot!
Fast forward to today and Nicole Kidman, the woman that played her all those years ago still looks hot! How is that possible?
Have any inconsequential questions pop in your head after watching Aquaman? Let me know what they are in the comments section below!
3rd World Geeks 