Young Diana Emulates The Amazons
Wonder Woman is an origin story, and so we spend the first act of the film on Themyscira. This is vital to the movie, and the character, because it’s her homeland that makes her unique. It’s this specific origin that informs all her future choices, and strikes at the very heart of the point of her creation: she exists to provide an alternative perspective. She was invented – literally by William Moulton Marston, and figuratively by the character of Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) – to be the embodiment of the idea that there is another way. Hippolyta hopes for a different purpose for Diana and, once she reaches Man’s World, her origin helps highlight the absurdity of patriarchy and violence.
But, in these first scenes, she’s simply Diana – Princess of Themyscira and daughter of Queen Hippolyta – and, like every young child, she wants to emulate the adults around her. The difference for Diana is that the adults around her are Amazonian warriors, and so we see her spying on their training sessions and trying to copy their moves.
Yes, there’s an adorability to seeing a child trying to copy the actions of grown ups – but that’s neither the point, nor the impact of this scene. Instead, putting this scene right at the beginning of the film encapsulates the justification for the movie’s very existence, and speaks to the extent of the impact that these superhero tales have on society as a whole. It’s in the nature of all children to want to emulate those adults that they see around them. Through marketing and media, pop culture saturates every aspect of society, and currently, pop culture is dominated men who are supported by women. Girls need leading heroes to emulate, too – and now they have one. Moreover, it’s vital that girls have the opportunity to emulate women such as the Amazons, as opposed to passive female characters that only exist in the perspective of men, in most other superhero films.
At the same time, the overwhelming innocence of the young Diana in this scene, as she tries her hardest to execute the same round-house kicks as the warriors she watches, echoes the idea contained in the story of another iconic superhero – that with great power comes great responsibility. The depiction of superheroes in pop culture has a resounding impact on the young, developing minds that follow them. If superheroes are quick to anger, fight among themselves, and require a giant threat to allow them to access their best selves, then that’s what young people hold as honourable behaviour. Wonder Woman offers an alternative, because she leads with love, compassion, empathy and emotional intelligence.
The Amazonian warriors that the young Diana ties to emulate do not fight for the purpose of defeating a villain – they fight in defence of that which needs defending. They do not seek to ‘avenge’ and they do not engage in vigilantism. They’re neither aggressive, nor passive, but rather defensive and protective of the innocent, and the vulnerable. The Amazonian warriors are different, and we feel every measure of the young Diana’s ambition to be just like them.