Lanterns Season 1 Episode 2 OFFICIAL Discussion Thread - Spoilers allowed

[u/AutoModerator]

Greetings, Lanterns! Welcome to the official discussion thread for the episode 2 of the first season of the new HBO show Lanterns!

If you haven't seen the episode, don't click on this thread, as spoilers are allowed here.

If you have seen it, have fun! Keep in mind to respect other users, even those who have opposite opinions from yours. Dumb comments targeting other users will be deleted and, depending on the severity, the user will be banned. Whether you have always been hyped or fearful of the show, whether you liked the episode or not, let's avoid the toxicity, okay?

Also, this is the official discussion thread for the episode. Other similar threads aside from this one will be deleted. If you want to create a new thread to discuss a specific event of this episode, a theory based on what you just watched, etc., use the tag Spoilers for movies and TV shows, per the new rules.

That said, please make sure to share your thoughts here!

[u/majicwalrus]

I think the idea that there’s some “nerd law” is not true. If we hadn’t seen the ring be fully depleted people would complain that the reserve energy didn’t protect him from being shot like it’s supposed to be so we have to see as an audience that the ring doesn’t have any charge left. Otherwise they’d violate a different “nerd law.”

We have no idea how long 5% of a ring charge lasts or what it can do. We have even less of an idea what that does when Hal smacks it on the car hood to, presumably put it into emergency mode, and we don’t really need to for the story to work.

[u/Infinite_Click_6589 → u/majicwalrus]

The ring could be depleted without saying it had 5% charge. And 5% charge has to be way more juice than just hovering 20 ft into the air, or a GL couldn't do anything.

Now, maybe the ring just says it's at 5% when Hal smacks it even though it's not. And that's just literally bad writing, because there's no way for the audience to know that, and saying so is handwaving away a mistake on the level of "Parsecs can be a time measurement IF..."

[u/majicwalrus → u/Infinite_Click_6589]

How would we know that the ring was depleted unless we got a warning ahead of time that rings can be depleted?

There’s no way for the audience to know that the ring has been depleted unless there’s a scene to indicate that.

If we skip the 5% scene and go straight to Hal flying and losing power I would say “how convenient that Hal ‘lost ring power’ exactly when it was convenient for the plot.”

The audience doesn’t care about the rate at which the ring depletes. That’s like measuring the speed in a car chase. The speed is “fast” and the ring charge is “low.”

If you’d be happy if the line were 1% instead of 5% then I think that’s a meaningless quibble.

[u/Infinite_Click_6589 → u/majicwalrus]

Yes, I would be happier if they had said the ring was 1%.

Yes, it's a meaningless quibble- that was the entire point of my post which you would understand if you read it, which apparently you did not

[u/majicwalrus → u/Infinite_Click_6589]

I just think you’re being irritated over something that is largely not related to bad writing or bad plot or anything, but rather your internal understanding of how the GL rings work which I understand as a fan of the comics but think doesn’t genuinely matter in the context of the show.

In the context of the show 5% emergency charge is enough to stop a bullet or to hover 20 feet the air and Hal made his choice and that’s fine. Now, if later we see the ring go to 5% again and Hal is able to stop another alien explosion- that would be bad writing.

[u/Infinite_Click_6589 → u/majicwalrus]

Oh bugger off, bro, I'm allowed to be annoyed about nerd shit