For Zack Snyder fans, moments of peace are rarer than those interested in the new phase of the DCEU. In yet another attempt to throw the director to the lions, Rolling Stones magazine, using “sources” from inside the now deceased WarnerMedia, made serious attacks on Snyder and everyone involved in the director’s actions on the Internet. It is worth remembering that WarnerMedia no longer exists. The company, a result of the merger between Warner Bros and AT&T was dissolved, after the merger of the film company with Discovery, which gave rise to Warner.Bros Discovery.
“Coincidentally”, 3 months after several layoffs and changes in the company’s lineup, and hours before the digital release of the movie, yet another negative piece surrounding the Snyderverse movement was released. It was the Rolling Stones’ turn to host the article. Not glad to bring a new attack on fans, the article attempts to paint Zack Snyder as a major evil articulator.
Understand the case
As usual, once again, fans are called bots, for no reason at all. In a network like Twitter, where almost all users use nicknames, it is almost impossible to define who is authentic or not, since getting the profile verified is complicated. This is not the first time we are called bots. As we said in our article “The limit of desperation for creating narratives“.
It’s hard to accept that Snyder Cut was the most talked about movie on Twitter in 2021, and that the tag #RestoreTheSnyderVerse, which calls for restoration of Snyder’s vision for his DC hero universe, has reached 1.5 million tweets, a record on the network. Automatically, these achievements are invalidated with a new narrative of accusations of automated boosting (the well-known bots), which people believe and take as truth.
In a way, therefore, nothing made from Twitter can be considered, right? Well, then, just delete the whole hate campaign against Batman Vs. Superman and then we’ll start again from there.
The “Sources” in Check
All the information was just thrown out as coming from “sources”, without mentioning where it came from. ~ Are they from beyond? ~ However, through a confidential report that the magazine had access to, ~ very confidential, huh? ~ they claim to have talked to a significant number – just not – of 20 people. Of these, “most” said that Zack Snyder worked to manipulate the campaign for the release of his vision. ~ Believe me, this is a report taken from Rolling Stone, not a reddit or a wattpad fanfic.
Such sources claim that the groundwork for the movement around the Snyderverse was started long before 2020. In the report submitted, the director reportedly hired a digital marketing team to encourage fan engagement about the movie, on social media. No doubt it worked as well, as did the idea of taking Henry Cavill’s mustache off with CGI. After all, in 2016, the number of people criticizing the film was massively absurd. In fact, given the success of the endeavor, the crew must have been the same!
According to “most of the 20 heads of the finite WarnerMedia,” Snyder was like “Lex Luthor wreaking havoc.” In yet another part of the article, Zack is accused of threatening to “destroy” Geoff Johns on social media. That didn’t happen. In fact, destroying is something Johns knows well! After all, the producer is the real Darkseid within the DCEU and the greatest villain in the history of cinema.
Is Snyder the villain?
Contrary to what the “sources” say, Snyder has NEVER used social media to spread hate. Quite the contrary. For those with weak memories, Zack was a father, in mourning. Besides dedicating his cut of the movie to his daughter Autumn, he used his network to publicize a fundraising campaign for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the cause of his daughter’s death. The campaign, which continues to this day, has raised more than $500,000. It is hard to understand how bots could reach such a mark. Fortunately, the real numbers from the SnyderVerse belie the claims made by this “source”.
The legion of the “50% +1” named “source” ~ stun ~ even puts the veracity of the fan Fiona, one of the prominent names in the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement, implying that she is a fantasy profile to generate engagement. The script level is good, D-.
Are we all bots?
However, we leave questions for those who follow us ~ and for those who are eager to contradict us ~: How do bots manage to wipe out stocks of physical media from sales shelves, all over the world? How do the same Social Networking bots manage to beat the huge numbers of Streamings (captured by FlixPatrol ~ and which beat SambaTV that only counts SmartTVs, in the US)? Why would Warner.Bros Discovery insist on Digital Sales, if “we are all bots”? Apparently, it will take more than mental juggling acts to get these questions answered.
Promptly and surely, Zack Snyder denied the accusations made by the unnamed sources ~ and occupations.
As an artist, it was gratifying to finally be able to see my vision realized after such a difficult time in my life and be so well received. I am grateful to both the fan community and Warner Bros. for allowing this to happen. Dwelling on negativity and rumors serves no one.
Making reference to the various charitable causes that he have yielded funds, he adds:
If this is truly a balanced article, I hope that all the good work that the fandom has done, is being represented.
But in this article, Zack, it wasn’t. Neither balanced, nor well represented.
Other allegations
The article, furthermore, calls into question the massive amount of “almost at the same time and in large numbers” tweets on specific days.
There are certain patterns that the bots emit that we have seen here. They arrive at almost the same time in large numbers. And often the origin of thousands or even millions of messages can be attributed to a single source or two. Sometimes they can be traced to unusual servers in remote countries. And their contents will be precisely similar.
Surely, perhaps, they forgot to warn Rolling Stone, that this is extremely normal, since all hashtag movements are performed via a stipulated date and time, in order to appear in the Trend Topics. This is a worldwide known strategy on Twitter. It is also worth remembering that this practice has been extracted from Kpop fans’ movements.
Perhaps, these people related to Warner, have a certain eagerness to replay the scene of the character Lex Luthor, in Smallville, when he says the following sentence: “You were right, Mr. Kent. I am the villain of the story. Seeing that this is not going to happen, it is not new this attempt to put Zack, as an evil director who has such power to hold a studio, such as Warner Bros. hostage to his attitudes. In the report, they reiterate that actor Ray Fisher was used as a puppet and manipulated by Zack Snyder in his accusations against the studio and director Joss Whedon.
Conclusion
To conclude, it is undeniable the attempt to relate the director to every agenda that, nowadays, is rejected as intolerable in society. On the other hand, they protect those whose accusations were publicly made and whose past they try to omit. In a low way, they politicize the issue and contradict themselves by trying to label Snyder, who receives unconditional support from all the actors and actresses who participated in his work/productions, as intolerant, while they do not listen to the complaints made by the minorities they claim to defend.
What they are achieving, once again, is to further divide the DC fandom, to subsequently place the blame on just one man.
I don’t control my fans. They have their own will and their own opinions; you really give me too much credit!
We live in a society where the vision of one director is so powerful as to implode, even if unintentionally, a conglomerate of Entertainment Productions, filled with accusations of abuses and mistakes. These abuses, contrary to what was said in the story, have factual and real sources. The former officials, already purged from the new company, worked so hard to destroy Snyder’s career, that they eventually died to the Film Industry.
However, it is not a matter of whether or not you like a movie, a vision and a character. It’s not about being a True DC Fan. The talk, here, therefore, is about ethics and truth, something that whoever wrote or was the “source” of the article, does not have.
So, if you are a True DC Fan and Superman (one of the sparks of disagreement from fans, since 2013), do like the character: stand up for justice and freedom, something that is usurped from Zack Snyder, since 2016.