FL_Ag1998 said:

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There shouldn't be any real comic book spoilers for this show because this storyline is not really based on any specific comic book storyline, and even a lot of the characters and their actions are incompatible with their actual comic book versions.

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Which, of course, begs the question, why base it on a comic book character at all?

agdoc2001 said:

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FL_Ag1998 said:

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There shouldn't be any real comic book spoilers for this show because this storyline is not really based on any specific comic book storyline, and even a lot of the characters and their actions are incompatible with their actual comic book versions.

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Which, of course, begs the question, why base it on a comic book character at all?

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The same can be said for Endgame. Why does it matter?

That's helpful to know, thanks.

The kid who can't throw a football is the manhunter

Devious, it pretended to die and then copied a real baby after throwing the baby out so it had a birth certificate and everything

Watched the first two episodes and really liking it. Chandler is perfect in this role. I don't know the source material, but part of good producing/writing/directing is adapting the role to the actor and he is PERFECT in this role. So charming and cocky!

We don't really have a corollary for a jaded Hal Jordan to my knowledge because the comics always move forward in that the origin decades always slide. Grant Morrison said this Hal is more of a Doctor McCoy rather than Hal.

And frankly I don't care this is just incredible casting and acting. You could make the case of Luke Skywalker being a similar trajectory but one, Mark Hammill is nowhere near the actor of Chandler, and. 2, the writing and direction is light years ahead of TLJ

Helps not being nearly enamored with Hal vs Luke so I can see some Hal fans being upset about like many were with Luke

Another thing that we haven't discussed…what's up with the hospital?

We have a small town hospital with brand new barely out of the box equipment with almost zero staff or patients. Something is either going on with the people here, the technology available, or both.

Agreed, GL is a comic I haven't read much of and I'm loving this series. Both Chandler and Aaron Pierre are fantastic in their roles and the more minor characters have all been great.

I'm putting aside my knowledge of the true comic book Hal Jordan so I can judge and enjoy this version on its own, and i've loved kyle chandler in everything he does so that's easy to do. My only quibble with this version of Hal is that he seems to make some dumb decisions sometimes. For example, he's been a GL for twenty years and yet he let his ring deplete down to 5% power before doing anything about it? That's not cocky, that's stupid.

FL_Ag1998 said:

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I'm putting aside my knowledge of the true comic book Hal Jordan so I can judge and enjoy this version on its own, and i've loved kyle chandler in everything he does so that's easy to do. My only quibble with this version of Hal is that he seems to make some dumb decisions sometimes. For example, he's been a GL for twenty years and yet he let his ring deplete down to 5% power before doing anything about it? That's not cocky, that's stupid.

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Yeah I thought that too, but I think maybe it speaks more about what was actually going on off-world when he shows up late at the start of the first episode. He claims he was off world stopping a civil war, but maybe that's not really true and he was doing something that considerably drained the ring and he thought he wouldn't need it back on Earth.

Really glad he got the lantern in the same episode though, I didn't want a depowered Hal; I hate when they do that to Superman with Kryptonite or the endless ways they depowered Professor X in the first X-Men movies.

Admittedly I have no idea how the ring power works but he also probably didn't anticipate having to contain a neutron bomb with it.

I appreciate both of your attempts at explanations, but at the end of episode 2 we saw Hal shoot off to Oa to visit Sinestro in prison, and we can safely assume that was a pretty quick journey. In other words, at any point in the previous 48 hrs Hal could have zoomed to his house, charged up the ring, and zoomed back to Nebraska in 10 mins or less. The fact we have to look for excuses why he didnt and instead he let his ring power deplete just indicates a weak point in the writing.

Its still an interesting mystery to this point, I just have to ignore some stuff.

But could he? When he hovered up to look around Rushville he started losing power after only 5 or 10 seconds.

There was also some discussion on New Rockstars about how part of the power of the ring is in the wearer, and that Hal's belief and mindset could affect what he can do.

fig96 said:

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But could he? When he hovered up to look around Rushville he started losing power after only 5 or 10 seconds.

There was also some discussion on New Rockstars about how part of the power of the ring is in the wearer, and that Hal's belief and mindset could affect what he can do.

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Yeah, the writers of the show are playing very loose with the power capability of Hal, John, and the ring. I mean, hell, John somehow maintained that bird construct WITHOUT EVEN HAVING THE RING ANYWHRE NEAR HIM FOR LIKE 24 HRS! They're deviating from the comic book so I'm in the dark and its just frustrating, for now at least.

If they start fleshing out the ring power more as they go, and it explains these discrepancies and questions then great and I'll take back my current reservations. But for now I just end up the episodes with questions (and not the type of questions about the mystery plot that the writers are intending me to have).

So many of these critiques are premature, imo.

We have no idea what story the showrunners are trying to tell. Saying it's a failing in the writing after only 2 episodes doesn't really make sense. If the questions are this glaring, I'm assuming we will get answers and they will shed light on a lot of the mystery surrounding the story. Now, if we hit the last episode and no explanation was provided, then I would agree it's lazy writing.

He was also completely recharged by then.

Like fig said, the ring power was basically immediately out when he flew up in town.

That actually points to an answer for a different problem I had with this, which is what would he have done if John was actually able to fly if the whole point of that was to get John out of the way for a bit? But he knew that even if he could have, he didn't have enough power left to get all the way there.

Lathspell said:

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So many of these critiques are premature, imo.

We have no idea what story the showrunners are trying to tell. Saying it's a failing in the writing after only 2 episodes doesn't really make sense. If the questions are this glaring, I'm assuming we will get answers and they will shed light on a lot of the mystery surrounding the story. Now, if we hit the last episode and no explanation was provided, then I would agree it's lazy writing.

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Yeah, I agree that there's a lot that may be explained fully by episode 8, in which case I'll fully applaud the writers. But there's also little things like Hal letting the ring running out of power that many people are grasping for excuses to justify. Hal waiting until the ring ran out of power before sending John back to get the lantern is not some big mystery with a complicated explaination that needs to be unraveled.

bobinator said:

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He was also completely recharged by then.

Like fig said, the ring power was basically immediately out when he flew up in town.

That actually points to an answer for a different problem I had with this, which is what would he have done if John was actually able to fly if the whole point of that was to get John out of the way for a bit? But he knew that even if he could have, he didn't have enough power left to get all the way there.

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Exactly. There are simply some things about this show that you just can't question too much or examine too closely if you want to enjoy it.

I keep thinking there is something under the football field. Maybe something that has been there a long time. Maybe that's why Abin Sur came to Nebraska?

I do like the theory that the whole town (save maybe the Sherrif) are some kind of alien. Would explain why seemingly nobody else has been in the hospital.

l'm leaning towards Abin Sur's crash, the town full of aliens, and the various factions coming to light are all wrapped up in a big cover-up conspiracy by the Guardians which Hal will uncover, causing the Guardians to have Hal killed (or at least sit idly by while it happens) because they want John to replace him. Why do they want John to replace Hal? Because Hal is obviously disillusioned, stumbling onto the rotten underbelly of the Guardian's dealings with these manhunters, and he'd pose a risk of exposing it all.

Or something along those lines...I'm not exactly sure who's supposed to be the bad guys (as I think is the point right now).

With Sinestro in Lantern Jail, I assume that means he's already made the yellow ring and been busted. Or does this all lead to him getting out and making it?

Unsure. When Hal woke in the hospital, the sheriff gave the known history that Sinestro tried a coup but we don't know if the yellow lanterns were involved.

I don't have faith in HBO to have enough seasons to move on to wider stakes GL lore.

Hello, there.

That opening scene of episode 3

That was a great episode!!!

this thread was nice for a while

plowboy1065 said:

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That was a great episode!!!

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So good, really interesting to get a lot more insight into John's character in this show

So many eye-rolling moments, lol.

Really interesting back story, but jesus christ, - the white guy is fearless because of privilege?

I thought his parents were aliens because of the bizarre way they acted the whole episode.

At least I can appreciate the irony that Laura Linney, my least liked TV character of all time in "Ozark" was in the episode where John Stewart's mother took the belt away from her.

Well this thread is gonna be insufferable from now on, it was good while it lasted

Great episode, mother was almost manic. Seeing John's dad having been a choice was very interesting

Midnight Boys were thinking that the guardians are wary of Hal because he is so fearless that he doesnt fear authority aka the guardians. He was trained by Sinestro, and what if Sinestro while wrong killing a guardian uncovered a conspirqcy involving the man hunters

They wanted the mother to raise a robot that obeyed authority but also fearless. Dude sits over night in the office. Takes the fall for a dishonorable discharge

The crux of this story will be John needing to be his own man when presented with the evidence of Guardians

Damn was trying to edit not double post

Apparently the inspiration of the parents was very much the Jacksons and Williams sisters parents

To clarify my comments last night, I have zero problem with the storyline of John's dad being chosen and them training him from one day be chosen.

It would be like being told your baby would someday be the first Black president or the first Hispanic astronaut or anything else.

Just the heavy-handed way they went about it was a turn off. Being upset that the Guardians who rule the universe don't know about the plight of Black people. Telling him he's going to be a superhero while his 2 older brothers just have to stand there feeling like crap, etc.

Did anyone else pick up the fact that the Guardian was saying that they had noticed that humans (plural) had bad reactions to the choosing process, which would imply that Hal Jordan also wasn't their second choice?