Spoilers Lanterns season 1 spoilers discussion

[AnotherGuy]

They had restrained him, they just didn't account for the distraction of the bird construct. And that whole thing was to give that insight into John's control and relationship with the construct.

Right so they eventually stun him - but they don't tie him so we can go through this again on the highway.

What I'm saying is this is padding...

Suspect runs off the field, Hal doesn't use his ring
Hal uses his ring to make money to pay for a song on repeat to annoy civilians in order to start a fight in order to get arrested only to not succeed in his objective so that later the cuckold exhibitionist who runs the town under the "powerful" Manhunter instruct the sherirrif to have Hal interrogate the suspect.
There is a lot of unnecessary backwards-and-forwards.

 

[AnotherGuy]

This sort of stuff has been recognized in various comics (such as the Justice League having a UN charter, and not being allowed to go into certian countries who are not signatories of that charter). In this case, Jordan's identity being out would make it easier to use him in legal cases since he doesn't have to worry about outing himself in testimony, and I'm guessing over the last 30 years the US and other governments might have some level of "deference" to certain situations to make things easier. Whether it's properly codified or if it's sort of a "bend the rules to make things function", I'm not sure, though the latter would probably make the fallout from episode 5 more understandable.



They  did tazer him at the beginning of the fight: when they got him in the car. But the guy with the tazer wasn't in the car and I'm guessing they thought he'd be compliant if he was already in their custody. They underestimated him. But even if the tazer was nearby or in the car, the fight basically  starts with making the car swerve, at which point the guy is grappling him and trying to prevent him from jumping out. Like, trying to get a tazer out of a pocket or something might not be your first instinct in a close up battle, especially when you have a distinct physical advantage already.

Like, this whole critique feels like a massive nitpicky reach.

You misunderstand - they stuck a hoodie on his head. He started kicking their asses.
Then they pull the tazer. WHY NOT TAZER HIM FIRST!

Then a 2nd fight happens because they didn't secure him properly.
Only for him to be beat down again.

I was really hoping for a 3rd fight to understand how badass cool John was.

I'll be honest: the "green things" aren't the most important things in a show, and while it's fun to be flashy, it's better to actually have interesting characters and a plot, which this  does have.

Why bother making a show about Green Lanterns then?

 

[Justice and Rule]

Right so they eventually stun him - but they don't tie him so we can go through this again on the highway.

They actually do, you just didn't notice: he's clearly zip-tied. The ties break when the dude does the massive slam and John had his hands around the dude's neck.

What I'm saying is this is padding...

It's not. More than anything, it shows they are alien through the dude demonstrating that he is physically  powerful in a way humans aren't. He pulls John off the floor of the car and slams to the roof one-handed; it's saying that while they look human, we are actually seeing that they are, in fact,  inhuman.

Dude runs off field, Hal doesn't use his ring

That's Hal being an a**hole. Like, do you not understand the subtext of the scene? Do you really want me to explain it to you?

Hal uses his ring to make money to pay for a song on repeat to annoy civilians in order to start a fight in order to get arrested

Yeah. But that was necessary because he didn't have money. And it works...

only to not succeed in his objective

Well, yes. The whole thing shows that Jordan is rough but also clever. It also shows that the sheriff is a match for him.

so that later the cuckold exhibitionist

Well, clearly we know what  you are interested in...

who runs the town under the "powerful" Manhunter instruct the sherirrif to have Hal interrogate the suspect.

It shows several things: the town is small and power is consolidated: the guy who runs the town is also the father-in-law of the sheriff, who is married to the defense lawyer who gets him out. It makes for an easy confrontation to establish the Macons, what they are about, and how they can control the town, as well as showing Kerry's own running conflict of trying to do the right thing while being entrenched in a power structure that is clearly shady.

Like, how else would you like to establish this?

There is a lot of unnecessary backwards-and-forwards.

None of this is "backwards-and-forwards": it's all just forward motion. You just want more green boxing gloves, which is understandable but also not really a  real critique of the show.

You misunderstand - they stuck a hoodie on his head. He started kicking their asses.
Then they pull the tazer. WHY NOT TAZER HIM FIRST!

"He's started kicking their asses" I mean, not really, he puts in some swings, but he goes down to the ground quick. Not leading with the tazer might have simply been to not lead with the most extreme option since those things really hurt and can take it out of a dude. Either way, it's a nothing critique: they attempt to grab him, he is able to resist them more than they expect (since they have an obvious physical advantage) and they employ a tazer after that. Trying to really nitpick how everything didn't go down as perfectly as it could in your mind isn't something that ais actually substantively wrong.

Then a 2nd fight happens because they didn't secure him properly.
Only for him to be beat down again.

It's because they underestimated the construct and him. It happens. They are aliens who are clearly more powerful than him, so underestimating him is not that hard.

I was really hoping for a 3rd fight to understand how badass cool John was.

Eh, you have one to capture John, you have one to show that John doesn't go completely quietly.

Why bother making a show about Green Lanterns then?

Because it involves Green Lantern characters, concepts, and themes. And it still has constructs, but they don't make the entire show about it. I'm sorry this a drama about characters. Maybe you should take the advice Morrus gave and watch a cartoon instead.

 

[AnotherGuy]

The suspect says he has enough explosive to blow up this entire town and when they do explode on the ranch they do so little damage....

The viewer has no concept of how long the ring lasts, seems like it is always on empty.

The manhunter is built to be this dangerous force initially, and reinforced by Sinestro, and the death of Abin Sur, etc etc and it survives a blast from space, only to get taken out by a sniper. What?! It had no tech to protect itself?

And when Zoe's car explodes, Hal immediately surges into space and destroys the space weapon, but when the attack happens on the town, Hal is unable to do that.

The aliens under Anton don't even have special weapons, they have no tech, they're just suicide bombers. Sigh! They do not even explode when you kill them like some D&D monsters.

It is these inconsistencies and poor ideas, that we need to keep make excuses for.

 

[Justice and Rule]

The suspect says he has enough explosive to blow up this entire town and when they do explode on the ranch they do so little damage....

The suspect is bluffing how big the explosion is to try and get out. It's still big enough to take out Jordan, which is what matters.

The viewer has no concept of how long the ring lasts, seems like it is always on empty.

Eh, sure, I guess? Then again, we only see him recharge the ring once, and then we have the Hammer of Dawn "hit" Zoey, at which point Hal a shield over the motel for an interdeterminate amount of time which could definitely pull the charge from the ring, possibly coupled with some time factor. The ring is not fully explained, it's kept somewhat in the dark... but then again, we are viewing this from the perspective of someone who also doesn't know much about the ring, either.

The manhunter is built to be this dangerous force initially, and reinforced by Sinestro, and the death of Abin Sur, etc etc and it survives a blast from space, only to get taken out by a sniper. What?!

The manhunter is dangerous because it infiltrates and co-opts a society as well as being able to build incredibly potent technology. She has space lasers and artificial darkness that seems to nullify Green Lantern rings. Zoey's not the classic space robot with a stick, but she's definitely  dangerous. I don't even see how this is a debate.

And when Zoe's car explodes, Hal immediately surges into space and destroys the space weapon, but when the attack happens on the town, Hal is unable to do that.

Because that's not going to stop the  next space laser from firing. When we get to the attack on the town, the important thing is to find the person firing the laser. Plus the charge is low (hey, he had a shield up over the motel for a while, maybe he knows the limitations of his own weapon), so traveling into low-orbit might be more trouble than its worth.

The aliens under Anton don't even have special weapons, they have no tech, they're just suicide bombers. Sigh!

I mean, I guess? You can create any number of reasons as to that, like they didn't want to take anything that could be found on their person lest it falls into the hands of humans or simply be exposed if one of them accidentally got caught by regular authorities. A raygun can be lost, found in a patdown, noticed in a jacket. An exploding skeleton, much less so.

They do not even explode when you kill them like some D&D monsters.

Oh nooooooooessss!!!

It is these inconsistencies and poor ideas, that we need to keep make excuses for.

These aren't actually  inconsistencies, these are just preferences. You want more space stuff, they didn't include as much as you wanted. Okay, fair. At the same time, none of these are really reasons why a show would be  bad.

 

[Morrus]

It is these inconsistencies and poor ideas, that we need to keep make excuses for.

You don't need to. You could just stop watching this show that you hate so much.

 

[chuckdee]

Right so they eventually stun him - but they don't tie him so we can go through this again on the highway.

They zip tie him. He breaks those.

 

[Justice and Rule]

The viewer has no concept of how long the ring lasts, seems like it is always on empty.

...

And when Zoe's car explodes, Hal immediately surges into space and destroys the space weapon, but when the attack happens on the town, Hal is unable to do that.

Eh, sure, I guess? Then again, we only see him recharge the ring once, and then we have the Hammer of Dawn "hit" Zoey, at which point Hal a shield over the motel for an interdeterminate amount of time which could definitely pull the charge from the ring, possibly coupled with some time factor. The ring is not fully explained, it's kept somewhat in the dark... but then again, we are viewing this from the perspective of someone who also doesn't know much about the ring, either.

...

Because that's not going to stop the  next space laser from firing. When we get to the attack on the town, the important thing is to find the person firing the laser. Plus the charge is low (hey, he had a shield up over the motel for a while, maybe he knows the limitations of his own weapon), so traveling into low-orbit might be more trouble than its worth.

Actually, going to correct myself on this, because the show is actually remarkably consistent on these two things. I was in a middle of the rewatch of the show since my brother came into town, and we just got to the fight.

The first time we see the ring, we don't know how long he's gone without charging, but Hal just charged off to Nebraska immediately and didn't get a chance to really charge before the interrogation. Up in the air, but whatever. He charges at the end of episode 2 before he leaves for Oa.

He does not charge up again until the fight with John. During that time, he

• Went to the Science Cells and came back
• Creates the big tunneling machine
• Creates a shield against further space lasers
• Blocks the blood at the slaughterhouse.
• Creates a shield to block Kerry's bullets.
• Creates a shield to block Antaan's men's bullets.
• Flies up into the stratosphere to take down another satellite (I forgot as well, but I never saw it as the crucial detail you did, so that one is on you)
• Blocks a blast from a third satellite before it hits in town.

At this point, we get the "Ring charge low". So honestly, I think they are pretty consistent, I think we just don't register it because we don't have a bunch of updates of how charged the ring is, nor are the constructs ever the  focus of what is happening. But it's definitely not an "inconsistency".

 

[chuckdee]

Flies up into the stratosphere to take down another satellite (I forgot as well, but I never saw it as the crucial detail you did, so that one is on you)

Actually, looking at the number of beams that come down, it was multiple satellites. Those satellites were shown when he took down the one that 'took out' Zoe. There were a number of those beams coming down. From the size of that satellite, I'd say that each beam was a satellite (and them being that small would help them to keep off the government's radar as anything major with the amount of detritus we put into orbit).

 

[Justice and Rule]

Actually, looking at the number of beams that come down, it was multiple satellites. Those satellites were shown when he took down the one that 'took out' Zoe. There were a number of those beams coming down. From the size of that satellite, I'd say that each beam was a satellite (and them being that small would help them to keep off the government's radar as anything major with the amount of detritus we put into orbit).

Maybe. At any rate, this sort of Cinema Sins-style nitpicking really doesn't come to the level of an actual argument about of characters, plots, or themes. It's pedantry masquerading as critique.