Wonder Woman 1984 Makes Donna Troy’s Titans Death Even Dumber

When  Wonder Woman 1984 was released, it made Donna Troy’s death at the end of Titans season 2 even more annoying to fans. After the success of Titans season 1, season 2 underwent a soft reboot to add new plot threads as the show continued. This was complicated by the fact that season 1 was originally going to be longer, but once season 2 was confirmed the conclusion to the first season was bumped to the beginning of the second. Titans season 2 sees Dick Grayson, Kory Anders, Rachel Roth, and Gar Logan no longer as the founding members of Titans, as was previously implied, but were instead shown to be the second iteration of a previously failed project. With Jason Todd also making the move to San Francisco, Dick resolved to train the newly-crowned second generation of Titans. Unfortunately, everything was thrown into disarray when Slade Wilson (aka. Deathstroke) made himself known and pursued a violent vendetta.

While Titans season 2 introduced a lot of new characters and storylines, it ended with a scene that drew attention away from some of the more detailed plots. After the Titans save some carnival-goers from a plot by Cadmus labs, Dove (Minka Kelly) is threatened by a falling electrical tower. Donna Troy (Conor Leslie) rushes to push Dove out of the way but is electrocuted by the tower and dies as a result. Although the series wasted little time in teasing that Donna would be resurrected in Titans season 3, it was a disappointing and frustrating scene for how pointlessly contrived it felt.

Wonder Woman 1984 only served to inadvertently emphasize how silly Donna’s Titans season 2 death was. Following Gal Gadot’s previous outing as the Amazonian hero in Justice League, the sequel adventure delves once again into Wonder Woman’s past. Wonder Woman 1984 sees the return of Chris Pine as Steve Trevor and the dual introductions of Pedro Pascal as Maxwell Lord and Kristen Wiig as Barbara Ann Minerva (aka Cheetah). The movie includes a number of blistering action sequences, including a battle at The White House and Wonder Woman traveling through the skies by lassoing bolts of lightning. It’s the latter, however, that is most interesting – especially in relation to Donna Troy. After all, Wonder Woman is clearly unaffected by direct contact with actual lightning. As such, as a fellow Amazonian warrior, Donna Troy’s Wonder Girl really should have been able to endure what is no doubt far less voltage.

Of course, there is the reasoning that Wonder Woman is unique, even among Amazons. Recent continuity after all – which the existing slate of DCEU movies have mostly drawn from when it comes to Wonder Woman – stated that she is the daughter of Zeus. As such, Wonder Woman’s connection to lightning would be very much a singular trait – hence why Diana is able to ride it as effectively as she does. That doesn’t change the fact, however, that all Amazons are imbued with gifts from Zeus. And that being able to survive such electrical currents is a different matter altogether. Even if it is the case that few besides Wonder Woman would be able to survive contact with lightning, it still tracks that regular Amazonians would be able to endure amounts that aren’t too far behind.

While Titans has been confirmed to take place in its own continuity within the Arrowverse and is not technically part of the DCEU, it still trades on many of the same rules. While it could previously have been handwaved that in this universe Donna Troy is weaker for some reason, Titans season 3 doubles down on the problem as it works to fix it. In the Titans season 3 finale, having been resurrected Donna Troy uses her lasso to ground a storm leading to electricity running through her body but not harming her. The dialogue that surrounds the action makes it clear that Titans is consciously acknowledging the silliness of Donna’s death in season 2 and clarifying that Donna is stronger now and won’t go out so easily again. While this is satisfying going forward, it highlights the problem with the original Titans season 2 scene just as Wonder Woman 1984 did before.