Originally Posted by
DochaDocha
I think a lot of long-time fans liked the Gal Gadot movie in spite of the escape-off-the-island origin, not because of it. The movie did more goodwill than not, so fans accept it as part of a movie that, while charming, has its flaws, particularly the villains and the ending. For fans who were introduced to WW by this movie, they don't really have a lot to compare the movie against, so there's nothing to miss in that sense.
Though to be fair, I think Patty Jenkins had the same idea in mind as the DCAU guys: they were in a rush to get WW into Man's World, so in that aspect the "escape" origin helps the movie's pacing. I say that meaning if we had the exact same movie but WW had to win the contest first, I think the movie would've felt like it was dragging a bit. Of course, that doesn't completely justify the decision, either. There would always be the option to tailor the rest of the movie to fit in a longer Themyscira opening.
By all three of these things' being a part of the show, you get a compounding, synergistic problem.
1. Wonder Woman dislikes men, but the one female on the show she doesn't like, either. Really, the only nice moment these two have is when they decide to bury the hatchet, which was long overdue. Just because you finally got out of massive debt doesn't mean you're all of the sudden rich!
2. The person she ends up liking and admiring the most is Batman, but he's written at his absolute nadir in the DCAU in the early seasons (at least Old Man Bruce in Batman Beyondone can sympathize with for various reasons): arrogant, humorless, prickly, never misses a moment to mansplain (to men or women), etc. He just comes across as an awkward, angry teenager at times, probably in a bad attempt to make Batman seem "cool." Luckily, they improved a lot in later seasons at writing Batman.
3. She overlooks all of Batman's $#!t qualities, but goes back to harping about men. Repeat step 1.
It's just an awful negative feedback loop. I think in a parallel universe, you could take these three disparate aspects of the character and play them off one another to explain that WW is a deep, nuanced character who has contradicts like the rest of us, but the show comes nowhere close to that.
Many fans may be hungry for content, but not so hungry they'll consume anything you put in front of them. You put the name and the face out there, but it misses the mark on a lot of things people wanted to see. It's like Superman Returns or any of the Fantastic Four movies from the past two decades. Ok, the Fantastic Four comment is a low blow, so let's just keep it at Superman Returns.