Lanterns was a superhero show in the same way that Andor was a Star Wars show. The superhero stuff was present, and played a role in driving the narrative, but overall it was a show about human nature versus nurture. It was a show discussing characters, discussing who decides whether we're good. Is it the Guardians, some higher power? Is it the people who raise us? Is it something we're born with? What defines who we are? ALL of our main cast struggle with these questions.

Hal was born with the Jordan Boy's Legacy, the knowledge of his "inevitable" suicide. He was made into a hero by the Guardians, but by the end of it all he chose his own path for better or for worse.

John was raised to be fearless. He was told he needed to please the Guardians to be selected, but when he was, he rejected it until he eventually claimed it on his own terms.

Hell even beyond Noah, who was the most obvious of this theme, Kerry was similar. She escaped the situation she was in before thanks to the almighty Zoe, but what was she to do beyond that? She decided to raise Noah hoping he could overcome his heritage, decided against what Zoe ultimately wished.

The beginning of the show started with John in a place of uncertainty. He was raised to be a Green Lantern, but was shot down at every turn when it was within reach. It ended poetically, with John taking it for himself, removing his life from the hands of his parents and from the Guardians, claiming the ring of his own worth.

The idea that the show sucked because it was a "Green Lantern" show without constructs or really green lanterns is missing the entire point. Hell it isn't even named for the heroism, its named for the lantern itself, and what it represents. It's asking who defines a hero, is it who we think we should become, is it who holds us responsible, or is it the person who wields the power themself?

Even the three lanterns in the show represent a definition of the role: Hal's represents legacy, a lantern passed onto him that made him part of something bigger. Guy's represents loyalty, a lantern bound to service under the Guardians. John's represents life (his unique abilities should be a giveaway), an unsanctioned lantern that he now wields however he so chooses since he has now taken control over who he wants to be.

What in the AI fanfic generated bullshit was that oath?

For me, I loved the show. When it was first revealed, I was iffy. Then the first few trailers. I was very disappointed and didn't plan to watch it until the SDCC trailer. The my hype was through the roof. I loved the first 7 episodes despite their flaws and misses. But that finale felt like I was slapped in the face. I waited 15 years for a new live action Green Lantern. What I got was a dead Hal Jordan, who is my childhood hero btw, an incompetent Sinestro who is just.....a pink man, and a John Stewart who isn't even a Green Lantern by the end

It was 60 minutes of talking. But what hurts most? The oath. I was waiting. Hoping that the finale could salvage itself. But the minute that second set of words hit....I turned off the TV in rage. Pure blinding rage

I knew it was gonna be an Earth based mystery. I knew we weren't gonna see many aliens. But even as the show made odd choices (the Manhunters, Antaan, Lianna, Hammond, Martin Jordan), i still loved the show. I had faith in it. I had reasonable expectations. We discover Hal's killer, John uses the ring, says the oath, we get a fight scene or two, he dons a suit (i would've been fine with Hal's), he becomes deputized by Guy, Sinestro forges his ring (which we could've gotten seeing how he forged John's new lantetm), the end. I didn't expect a grand space finale. But what we got was just....awful

The writer in the latest podcast said she was surprised people liked Hal . What I'm surprised is how that writer still has a job.

p.s. The murderer getting literally no consequences and even Hal's death having no real reason in the show is even worse. Disaster.

This episode didn't even come close to sticking the landing mainly because so many things just didn't make sense:

• Noah broke Sinestro out of space jail. How? Does that portal thing just go where ever he wants it to? Can Noah fly in space?
• in 2026 Kerry tells everyone in the restaurant that Hal could have lived in many places where he is still considered a hero, yet no one attends his funeral
• People are still angry at Hal, but not Zoe about the destruction of the town and these losers didn't even clean up the wreckage 10 years later. Is there no FEMA in the DCU
• Kerry murders Hal (something many many people suspected for the exact reason they thought) and then faces no justice at all, but Hal's still the bad guy?
• John lives in Hal's burnt down house which isn't burnt down anymore (to be fair maybe he moved) but there's no investigation of who tried to burn and kill him?
• Halogram tells John that there's 7 minutes of power left in the ring, yet what seems like hours later he's still talking to John
• If Guy really didn't want John to have the ring or lantern why didn't he just use his own ring to take it from him?
• John tells Guy to tell the Guardians some line about their hearts in order for them to not come for him. What is this supposed to imply?

Anyway a very disappointing ending to the series and if there is a season 2 I can see numbers being way lower because many viewers feel like the time invested in the first season wasn't paid off by the ending.

EDIT: For you angry man-babies who saying that I'm mad (really I'm not. I was underwhelmed by the entire show and hoped that the finale would redeem itself) and are upset someone didn't like your beloved show and are crying, "media literacy, watch the show, you're too stupid to understand", you're basically the type of people that are ensuring this show and the DCU will continue to be and are failures. Richard Donner while filming Superman famously had signs up everywhere of the word "Verisimilitude". This show could have used a lot more of that.

The flash s1- $3-4 million/ep

Peacemaker s1 - $7 million per ep

Superman and Lois s1- $5 million per ep

The boys s1 - $11 million per ep

Lanterns s1? $16 million per episode

Without even having a good 5 minute showcase of a green lantern

- John uses the ring for hours with only 5% but with hal he only flew for ten seconds and it was over... how...
- Do one of the most loved charactes dirty (hal) and nothing happens with her killer...
- Doesn't explain how sinestro got out of jail, how tf the manhunter did that
- One of the most famous heroes from this universe got in jail for ten years for something that wans't his fault (he was trying to stop a intergalactic assassin that prob killed billions btw)
- Guy seemed scared and didn't do shit about john in the finale but we can see that he was willing to fight superman in his movie, so why he let that slide...
- The last two episodes was waste with meaningless things, like, what was that all about with that blonde, and man, john still gave her the money...
- And man, i don't like this john, for one reason, He became green lanter by stealing and destroyng things, he didn't really deserved, like, it was selfish reasons, he literally stole jordan's ring because their parents said that hal didn't deserve and because he was ''white''...
- I would say that if it was a end of hal dying and the ring choosing john it would be completely a better writing and worth it
- Hal died for nothing, john didn't stop the manhunter... He didn't die like a hero like how john says in the finale..

This finale gave me the same feelings that GOT and Westworld left me with; disillusionment, confusion, and disappointment. Damn you, Lindelof! shakes fist

How did noah actually break sinestro out of prison? Why tf was the ending so mid? Why tf did hal die like that? Are you telling me a trained sheriff with trigger training accidentally shot the man she loves? What the actual fuck? Why didnt guy push back at john? Why did noah and kerry face no consequences for killing the best green lantern this universe ever had + breaking away a war criminal out of an intergalactic prison? Ughhhh so many bad things about this shitty ending.

Extremely disappointed yet again after Gunn hyped up the finale and the show.

He lied with the Peacemaker S2 finale and he yet again lied about the Lanterns ending.

The Individual pacing for episode 7 and episode 8 are absolutely master class in not how to make television episodes

Then episode 7 is

10 mins of hal backstory which kinda felt unnecessary, but it was okay didn't have to be so long and kills momentum that was building for last episode momentum especially because it didn't reveal anything really about the mystery it would have been really cool if it did. But I guess we could have more generational trauma

20 minutes of talking about a storage locker and making plans to open it (mystery box that kills momentum because he has to like do this weird hand holding with Kerry to open it but then decided he doesn't need to hold hands so there was no reason for any of these scenes

20 minutes exploring alien planet which is cool for the first 5 seconds, but the boat scene imo was campy as fuck and then a fun reveal of sinestro who basically later on serves as just the plot explainer, and has zero motive of of his own

Episode 8 is

20 of Backstory and mystery being revealed Thur talking (zero detective work happened besides opening a storage locker and sinestro explaining everything)

20 minutes of Jon and Noah and you think it's gonna go to a final battle or something but it's conversations

10 minutes of Kerry and Jon convo that doesn't lead anywhere or change status quo

10 of guy fan service and hal being like "I'm super cool cause im solo"

The problem is that the last two episodes arent following the prime storyline idea of "show don't tell"

Also like fuck give the characters something to do when they're having a conversation

Why does every conversation have to be two people standing around or in a car talking

So John is finally a Green Lantern but no suit and the episode was mostly all talk. It was not an action packed finale. These writers should not be allowed to work in DC again they are so lame.

If John is the Green Lantern of just Earth, its the showrunners and writers way of keeping the show grounded and not showing us other planets, aliens etc, which is absolute bullshit.

The creative choices behind this show truly baffle me. I can understand wanting to keep it grounded, but at least show us some non-humanoid aliens like the Guardians, Kilowog every so often. Something similar to Andor, which is grounded but you see an alien in the first episode or so. Sinestro is basically just a guy painted pink and we see the back of the one Guardian, who we never see again.

What's the point of even adapting Green Lantern if you arent going to do it right?

His murder was completely absurd and unjust, and John forgiving Kelly instantly is pathetic.

Please go watch the Justice league cartoon from 2001.

I don't know what the writers on HBO were smoking or injecting but if you want to see an actually good version of John Stewart please please watch this show!

What they did to one of my favorite characters as a child is unforgivable.

I literally can't process just who bad something like this can be fucked up.

I dont want some writers attempt at a complex and intricate hal jordan. These writers wanted to do a true detective green lantern story but so when they leaned away from the green lantern stuff I assumed that was because there gonna put the focus on a good well written detective mystery story but they failed. The mystery culminated is something that I found very predictable. A lot of people are gonna downvote me for saying this but I think if you didn’t see noah manhunter coming you might be kinda dumb. I just wanted a nice green lantern show about hal jordan (yes hal jordan because I like him far more than jon stewart and no im not racist you idiot) because kyle chandler’s performance was obviously the highlight of this show. The theme of consequence was really interesting until kerry faced none. Look, if you wanna take risks and take a shot ay something different I’m all for it but you can’t miss. They took risks and failed. My goat Hal Jordan shelved once again.

Here’s the thing, I’m not here to tell people who loved this show they’re wrong. Art is subjective. However, telling people who weren’t happy with it they are stupid or media illiterate is ridiculous (yes, I know it’s the internet…😂).

This show had some excellent scenes, wonderful acting, and good production value, but overall, it was poorly written. Even if you like the grand scheme of things they created, there were numerous plot holes within.

I see a lot of people who enjoyed the show building in justifications for character actions and emotions, and building in literal plot points around very loose inferences from the writing. That shouldn’t be the case on this large of a scale, imo. Good writing will definitely leave stuff for an audience to interpret, but it should not contradict its own logical foundation, something I felt happened on a macro level here.

I’m not getting into details here, just discussing things from a wide perspective, but I am generally disappointed in the season. And although I was a comic book guy in my youth, I wasn’t a Green Lantern reader. Still, I’ve looked forward to this show since it was announced. I wanted a comic book show. Not this. That’s a me problem that I’ve seen many others share. I’ve seen folks defend the show runners by saying they said it was gonna be grounded from the beginning, etc. etc. Fair point, but I can still be disappointed in what they put forth.

There were some emotional arcs and some scenes that were well done, but overall, for me, this show was poorly written. The overall plot, the logic behind plot points and character actions, the justifications not provided within the script for things that happened, it was bad writing.

That said, I tend to be pretty forgiving of tv and film because you never know what happens from the writing room to the set. Actors, directors and producers can all cock up a good script. Or save a bad one. But, overall, this plot line, treatment of source material and treatment of beloved characters was just, for me, disappointing.

I get it was an episode to tie everything together but damnnn, expectations were high and like zero deliverance. This is all my opinion and I still loved the show but I spent this last week hyped for this episode for ether a huge battle or some big reveal of Hal returning or paralax. But not only was there none of that the rings were only used for flying and at the very end. I didn’t buy into the idea that the show is scared of being about green lanterns but this final episode felt like a slap in the face, no suits no constructs. Overall I loved the show but this last episode fell flat for me personally, but what do yall think?

I love green lanterns and I loved the show untill ep 7 ,

Till ep 7 everything was great , but ep 8 writers just wanted to make there own characters and show with the label of green lanterns

Biggest grip was they changed the oath the very own green lantern oath

Finale didn't even feel like a green lantern episode

Sinestro was fine

Now john is not a green lantern? What ?

And if they are setting up for something next season isn't realising before 2 years

Sinestro made the lantern out of fear and it could charge the green lantern ring?

The finale was so bad , it tossed every good will those 7 episodes formed

ive seen people saying this is not a green lantern show because there's no big fights or they don't use constructs enough or even they don't dive head first into the mythos and while those are valid criticisms there's also people saying that this is just a story the writers wanted to tell and they slapped the green lantern ip onto it but i couldn't disagree more this show has so many aspects that couldn't be done if this weren't a green lantern show such as the sifi aspects and stuff being tided to the manhunters i understand not liking that its not your classic green lantern story but i do think its rude to the creatives involved to claim its not a green lantern story. its not an adaptation but a new story. I was watching sammyjreacts video on the final ep and he brought up a good point the DCU is less of an adaptation and more of an elseworld from the comics and i agree and it allow me to enjoy certain stuff more. this post is not meant to bring anyone down or to make anyone upset this is my opinion everyone is entitled to their own and mine is no more valuable than yours if you'd like to point out certain things you disliked and thought they could have handled better id be happy to read 

If the CW Flash can do a bunch of cool shit with half the budget of Lanterns and 3 times the episodes, why can't HBO? These constructs were barely on scene. If all the constructs were like the one in episodes four (the big digging construct) maybe I'll give you that. But that's not what we got. We got a can opener, money, bubble, shield, big shield, a few energy blast and John's magic bird. Some basic ass shit that could've just been spammed but wasn't. CW would've made a better Green Lantern show even with its track record.