In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, how did Diana get to Metropolis/Gotham so quickly when she'd just left the area? She flew herself!
A lot of viewers noted that in Justice League (theatrical version), Diana still can’t get over Steve’s death despite it being almost a century since then. This movie explained why: she got him back in 1984 when she wished upon the Dreamstone, only to lose him all over again so she can save the world. The pain of losing the man she loved again is still fresh in her memory, and this time it happened by her own choice, making it that much more hurting for her.
An explanation is hinted why Diana doesn't have the invisible jet in BvS and JL. The jet she and Steve use in WW84 wasn't hers and was "borrowed" by them. And after learning to fly, she wouldn't need the jet.
The Dreamstone is made of citrine quartz. Citrine has long represented prosperity and wealth, and has been referred to as the "merchant's stone" or "money stone". It is, however, rather cheap and is therefore commonly used in fake artifacts (this is why Diana and Barbara laugh at the idea of a valuable artifact made of citrine). Perfect for something made by the god of lies.
The actual Dreamstone as owned by the Sandman has been various jewels (a ruby, an emerald, a fire opal, a black pearl, and a rosequartz). This stone, as owned by a god of deception and lies, is ultimately a copy of a true artifact that can manipulate dreams. And while Morpheus admitted his dreams could never become reality, this god lies that wishes and dreams can become real, if you don't mind the cost.
The story of WW 84 is actually very similar to the first movie: A god with a dim view of humanity gifts tools/methods for humanity to obtain what the humans believe they desire. It is up to a demigod who is human on neither side to show humans that the cost of using those tools/methods to get what they want is too high. The difference in WW 84 is that it Brought Down to Normal Diana in more than just her superpowers—it showed her how easy it was to trade who you are for the things you think you want, a very human trait.
Max Lord starts the movie as a conman running a Ponzi scheme. After his wish, his newfound power starts destroying his body, which he tries to fix through gaining more power, which destroys his body faster, which he tries to fix through getting more power... Essentially, he's using the same logic as he did with his business, only costing his "investors" a lot more than their savings.
How did Max Lord's message reach non-English speaking countries? They used subtitles after translating his message.
Both In-Universe and a Meta example. People are unsettled by the fact that Diana and Steve are using some poor schmuck as a meat puppet and disregard him entirely. Which would be creepy in-universe and elicit a What the Hell, Hero? response from the audience. But it makes perfect sense. The Dreamstone is an evil wish granting artifact that gives you what you think you want/need but only gives you what you ask for, usually with a cruel twist, and takes from you something important. Steve's resurrection and its circumstances are meant to be creepy and wrong as are Diana and Steve's reaction. The stone made Steve's resurrection a messed up situation while influencing Diana and Steve to be blind to the horrible implications.
This also explains why tying the Lasso of Truth around Maxwell Lord as he was giving his television speech to the whole world convinced him to give up his wish. The Lasso would have been the only thing powerful enough to counter the Dreamstone's deception magic and let people see the consequences of their own actions again, giving them back their empathy.
The movie leaves it ambiguous if Barbara renounced her original wish since Maxwell renouncing his returned her to normal, presumably. She was listening thoughtfully to Diana's speech and knew that the woman left her alive for a reason. Even so, Barbara also looks resentful at the end when she's human again, and Diana does not bother searching for her; her bigger concern is helping Maxwell. This not only helps for a Sequel Hook but also for how Maxwell also has decided to renounce his wish and descent into villainy, with him walking into a new future with his son as a modest man. The Ambiguous Ending provides hope that Barbara can not only change but that she and Diana can become friends again. Diana also wants to give her the choice to do that, rather than pressure her for the greater good. That's what Diana advocated in the first movie; Life Isn't Fair, but there is always the hope that people can become better than they were, which is why you don't give up on them. She may sense that Barbara needs space, and can respect that.
In Justice League (2017), Diana was the most vehemently opposed to resurrecting Superman. Bruce was suggesting using a device created by an evil God to bring back someone whose death he felt guilty about. He was basically trying to recreate what Diana had done in this film. No wonder mentioning Steve Trevor at that moment made her lose her cool.
Barbara and Diana's outfits throughout the movie are polar opposites right up until their final battle
In their first scene their introduced to each other, Barbara is wearing a red top (showcasing her brightness and warmth despite nobody looking past her messy hair and glasses) while Diana is wearing a dark blue romper (highlighting her beauty and elegance while at the same time showing off her noble qualities when she helps Barbara and treats her to dinner).
The next day (after Barbara makes her wish) Barbara is seen in a significantly more form-fitting outfit (throwing away the long skirt she had and just pulling her red top over her white tights to make a minidress), her wish already giving her more confidence. Diana is wearing a gray-black version of her romper the other day (possibly foreshadowing her encounter with Max Lord, the leader of the Black Gold company, and why he ordered the Dreamstone in the first place and how she starts to take this situation more seriously)
That night at the party where Diana reunites with Steve, she's wearing white. White can sometimes represent love in its purest form. Barbara on the other hand is wearing a Little Black Dress, and as she continues to wear black after the party is when her Start of Darkness begins
When Diana, Steve, and Barbara visit Babajide, in a turn of events, Barbara is wearing the more 'glamourous' outfit with the large fur coat and thigh high boots. Diana is wearing yet another romper but it's militaristic, representing how she needs to be on top of things in order to stop Lord.
During their brawl at the White House now they're completely flipped from the first days of their friendships: Diana is now wearing the bright primary colors of her Amazon attire while Barbara traded her soft fur jacket and gently blown out hair for a spiked jacket and hair harshly pulled to one side
Their final fight reflects their character development: how they've become each others opposites. Diana wears Asteria's winged golden armor while Cheetah has light golden yellow fur. Diana still looks elegant and beautiful and while Barbara is by no means hideous, her transformation has made her angry, cold, and beastly.
Diana's Amazon armor apparently doesn't make that much difference in her struggle against Barbara/the Cheetah when it was previously stated to be able to hold out against entire armies, but keep in mind that Lord boosted Barbara's power by channeling the energies from some of the people whose wishes he granted into Barbara herself. In the past, any armies faced by the wearer of that armor would have had their strength dispersed across the army as a whole, but right now Diana is potentially facing the power of several people consolidated into a single person, with the result that the armor is basically being overwhelmed because it's taking the kind of punishment from one that should have been divided across multiple foes.
The President in this movie not being Reagan actually makes a bit of sense when you remember that the President in Batman v Superman was another unnamed generic individual instead of Obama. It's possible that the DCEU follows Our Presidents Are Different to a heavier degree than other settings; in that most, if not all of the Real Life Presidents did not hold the office in this universe. This is further supported by Birds of Prey (2020) implying that Bernie Sanders actually made it to the position of Democratic Presidential candidate, so DCEU politics in general may look very different from ours.
When Diana is trying to appeal to Maxwell Lord and the people of the world to renounce their wishes during the climax, the soundtrack is "Beautiful Lie", a recycled piece from music from two pivotal scenes in Batman v Superman. Hans Zimmer used it as a piece of temporary music for Wonder Woman 1984 and kept it in the final film because he felt it fit the mood of the scene. Thematically, its appearance during Diana's speech does make sense. Lies that we tell ourselves and the damage they can cause played a large part in Bruce Wayne's character arc in Batman V. Superman: his nihilistic outlook on the world that had been growing ever since his parents died nearly drove him to murder someone and compromise the core of who he was, until he underwent a massive Heel Realization. Diana has her own experience with being blinded by lies in this movie, and while she's urging everyone not to make the same mistakes she did, she guides Maxwell to undergo his own Heel Realization, by forcing him to see that his greed and his lust for power will only wind up costing him the thing he values the most.
Unlike Luthor Sr and Sivana Sr, both billionaire parents in the DCEU who had a negative impact on their villain kids Lex and Thad, Max Lord truly loved his son Alistair and treats him well, even choosing to renounce his wish rather than enable his harm. Him rescuing his son redeems and rescues him too.
The 1984 refers not just to the era, but to the famous Orwell novel that sets up a network of cameras across the world where everyone can be observed and ordered. Maxwell Lord employed this network to reach the whole world and get them to grant wishes and take their health, unknowingly setting up a Big Brother network that’s more dangerous that its original concept could have been.
The Duke of Deception's power is so strong he can make Wonder Woman, a superhero who stands for integrity, want to believe a lie up to the point it corrupts her moral compass. This made her selfish enough to ignore the fact that Steve is in another man's body to continue the relationship. It implies then the Duke has the power to turn darker superheroes into outright supervillains. Thank goodness the Duke never had the chance to corrupt other superheroes.
So the Dreamstone can grant a wish as fantastic as "I want to be equal to a demigoddess". Just imagine someone getting ahold of it AFTER Superman became a public figure.
Worse yet, imagine Lex Luthor getting ahold of the Dreamstone and just wishing for Superman to die. Sure he'd have to lose something to have his wish come true, but as we've already seen, Lex Luthor doesn't seem too bothered by expenses.
And to keep this ball rolling, imagine Darkseid getting ahold of it and wishing to have all of existence bend to his will. It's already established that the Dreamstone can override free will.
The oft-noted creep-factor of the Diana/Steve-In-Handsome-Man's body should really be driven home when Diana and Handsome Man meet at the end. Think about it: Diana knows what Handsome Man looks like naked (though she says she only sees Steve, this may or may not be literal and may or may not be mitigating). Handsome Man not only did not consent to this, he has no idea Diana might have ever seen him naked. She knows where he lives, she's been in his apartment, she's used his stuff and eaten his food, and he has no knowledge of any of this. Chilling.
Some poor shmuck gave up the most important part of himself, for a cup of coffee. Worse, he had to renounce the cup AFTER he drank it.
We don't even know if he renounced it. He likely had no idea he actually wished for coffee and thought it was just an amazing coincidence.
The scene of him having the coffee makes it so hot he can't even drink it. That could just be the Dreamstone recognizing that a trivial wish has a trivial cost.
During the final fight with Cheetah, Diana uses a downed power line in a pool to shock Cheetah into submission. Cheetah survives, but what about those guards we'd seen who'd already fallen into the water?
It is possible that not everyone renounced their wishes. For example, anarchists and terrorists might be having a field day from seeing all the carnage directly and indirectly caused by their wishes. Seeing the world in chaos is precisely what they wanted.
Not to mention people who'd died after their wish. Given the carnage implied, that's going to be a decent number of people.
It's possible when Maxwell Lord renounce his powers, undoing every wish willingly or not, people who died were revived (like the woman her husband wished was dead).
Is the woman revived with any knowledge that her husband wanted her dead, or does she stay with him, totally oblivious of her own murder?
On the other hand, there's no sign that he seriously wanted her dead beyond an idle frustrated threat.
Steve Trevor is brought back to life via having his consciousness reborn in a stranger's body, with a mixture of magic and psychology making him look like Steve. That stranger was unconscious the whole time they were together, including when Steve and Diana slept together. Diana knew full well that there was a third party in their relationship that had no agency.
It's not as squicky when you think about, because Steve was always there and there is no indication that this man was looking from his body, unable to control it or something like that. And at the same time it's actually worse, because Diana was ready to let that man's death stick. Yes, he didn't consent, but he was also erased from existence for there to be any implications.
It’s implied that while Diana sees him as Steve, everyone else would still see the stranger instead, as proved when Steve looks into a mirror and saw the stranger’s reflection instead of his own. This means that while he goes on an adventure with Diana and breaking various laws, the public will see the stranger committing all those crimes instead of him. Crimes that he presumably had no idea at all when he’s back in control of his own body in the ending. Steve’s actions while he’s hosting in this man’s body could have potentially ruined his life.
He's walking around fine at the end, though maybe he did get in trouble.
Steve and Diana's moral dilemma was that having him back was depowering her. Neither of them gave any thought to whether the man serving as Steve's vessel had a family, friends, or coworkers who might miss him, or just the basic right to exist. The film didn't even bother to portray him as a Jerkass who Steve Trevor was a big improvement on, instead treating him akin to a Meat Puppet outside of showing his apartment and clothing choices.
It may be that Diana and Steve were both choosing not to analyse this issue through Selective Obliviousness, deliberately choosing not to explore the question of what the other man was like. They could have even told themselves that the other man could have died when Steve originally 'possessed' him, thus initially justifying the situation by persuading themselves that Steve was giving the man's body a new lease on life when the original owner was dead.
When Max Lord arrives at work the first time, with Raquel following him, he enters the empty offices to find his son has been left alone there. Then we find that he wasn't even left alone, but left with Simon Stagg in the otherwise empty office. So Raquel didn't just leave a child unattended, she left a child unattended with a total stranger.
The film shows the Dreamstone had no limitations when it came to granting wishes. Things just happened instantly and if matter had to be created out of nowhere, it just did (as evidenced by a gigantic kingdom-spanning wall and a bunch of nuclear missiles materializing out of nowhere). This means there was no reason for Steve to show up in possession of someone else's body instead of his own... unless this was part of Diana's wish. This implies she deliberately wished for Steve to return in someone else's body, which makes you wonder what was going through her head to ask for such a thing.
While the Dreamstone was all-powerful, it was clearly also malicious. Every wish was both granted and twisted such that the wisher had regrets. The fact that the downside was her powers dissolving and not the moral dilemma of human possession is the horrific bit.
Steve explicitly references The Monkey's Paw, a 1902 short story that basically created the Be Careful What You Wish For trope: in the story, a couple wishes for their deceased son to come back to life, but because of the Exact Words charm, he is resurrected in his horrifically mangled body with all of the injuries from the machinery accident that killed him. Considering Steve was killed by being blown apart in an explosion, his soul becoming a puppetmaster in someone else's body may well have been the less horrifying option.
The Dreamstone is truly the Jerkassiest of Jerkass Genies, in that it not only demands a steep cost but perverts your wish at the same time. Barbara just wanted to be beautiful and confident, but because she said "like Diana" she got superpowers she never wanted and couldn't handle, especially with the cost being her humanity. Diana wanted Steve back, so he was put back possessing some other dude's body, while the cost was Diana losing her powers. Since the Dreamstone was apparently created by an asshole god who wanted to watch people destroy themselves For the Evulz, this should not be unexpected.
Even worse, Diana didn't consciously make a wish. She merely held the stone, thought about Steve, and put it down, explicitly saying that her wish was impossible. Despite that, the Dreamstone brought back a version of Steve.
Taking that even further, considering how Barbara was morally compromised after making her wish, it's possible that Diana experienced a similar but less obvious 'moral compromise' that stopped her acknowledging the negatives of Steve's situation in favour of just enjoying having him back in her life.
Taking that even further, the Dreamstone is stated to "take your most valued possession". Not just something you happen to like a lot, most valued. Barbara makes a wish and loses her humanity, Diana makes a wish and loses her powers, not her humanity. Meaning Diana, a hero who's supposed to conquer her enemies with compassion, values her own powers over said compassion, and Barbara's value of her own ability to empathize and care for others is higher than Diana's. Even worse, since Barbara made her wish to be "just like Diana" after Diana absently wished for Steve, not even the Dreamstone considered Diana's compassion worth bestowing on Barbara to fulfil the conditions of the wish, instead giving Babs powers she didn't know Diana had, even when what made her latch to Diana as ostensible friend was her being compassionate when other people ignored her.
Of course, considering that Diana shows no concern for the man Steve's possessing until after Steve makes her face the implications of it, it could be that Diana was morally affected by the wish in a similar manner to Barbara and her physical abilities being lost was just the most obvious flaw.
It may even be that what the Dreamstone took from Diana was her ability to be Wonder Woman, depriving her of both her physical strength and her morality, so that she would be unable to face her foes or the moral right to make the kind of choices necessary of a warrior; people just focused on her physical losses because they were easier to see.
The Dreaming Stone does have limitations. It feeds off of the act of wish granting, and taking from what is valuable to the person, and becomes more powerful the more this occurs. When it was first found, it had been centuries since it had last granted a wish so it was at its weakest. Instead of immediately materializing things out of thin air, it was probably limited to just playing with probability (guy has an extra coffee on hand instead of the coffee cup instantly coming into existence in the man's hand; gradually giving Barbara Diana's qualities instead of just transforming her instantly). Instead of resurrecting Steve with his body, it instead is limited to taking another man's body and places Steve's soul in it. At first it's limited to manipulating variables in reality instead of outright materialization. It also took time to gradually change Barbara to be more like Diana instead of doing it instantly. Even the manifested oil and the stone wall could have just been manipulations of things that already existed (moving oil from the mantle to the surface where Black Oil can find it, causing already existant stone from the Earth to erupt to the surface where it is needed to form a wall). As more wishes are granted, the Dreaming Stone gains more steam and the wishes start happening faster and are more obviously Reality Warping than simple twists of coincidence. And in the end it was able to materialize hundreds of nukes out of nowhere — the height of its power.
It's been merely three years after Bruce Wayne lost his parents, an event that still affects him to the present day: it's entirely possible that he had wished for his parents back only to renounce that wish minutes later.
The problem is: Why in the world should he renounce to his wish?
