Discussion Franchise / GreenLantern

All of it's on a separate Your Mileage May Vary page. That's the latest thing going around; taking the subjective stuff off the main page.

How about we move most or all of it into a Synopsis page? That way it'll satisfy the ones who want to keep it and the people who want to shorten the article length.

I tried to cut most of it a week or two ago, though my rewrite was probably too short - pretty much just saying "Geoff Johns is writing the book now". But yes, cut it down; the top part that names the Earth Lanterns has the essentials - there's these guys, they're space cops, they have alien Phlebotinum rings. Like I noted when I cut it, an in-depth history of the comic is better left for The Other Wiki.

How is what I've tried to do? Is it cool with everyone?

I've remodeled the intro, and will try to go through the tropes themselves over the next few days. If anyone has a problem with my wording or tone, feel free to revert anything, as long as it doesn't make it too inside-knowledge-y. My apologies if I stepped on anyone's editing toes.

Not bad, though I liked what we had before in the form of the list of Earth Lanterns. Don't mind me, though; what's there now is good and I don't think you could stick the list back in without a big mess. Consider it mostly a mild case of They Changed It, Now It Sucks! that I'm sure will pass shortly.

Other than that, I'd select another adjective besides "wise" to describe the Guardians, but I'm not sure what else to go with.

ETA: I wrote this before seeing that the bios were now on the Synopsis page.

For the (future) record, I took out the list of Earth Lanterns because I thought it ate up too much real estate on the intro, when most of the same info could be conveyed in tropes or the charsheet. It was also about character notoriety: Guy Gardner may have history in the title, but nowhere near as much as Hal or Kyle, who were the showrunners for longer than he or John Stewart. Ironically, you can't just boil it down to Hal or Kyle, either, because so much of the title's minutiae is wrapped up in side-stories and mythology based around Abin Sur or Sinestro or Mogo or how their powers work in general, that one should really treat Green Lantern like a meta-franchise rather than a single hero amongst similar heroes.

And the Guardians sure as hell ain't "wise", but I couldn't find a trope for "seemingly wise sages who turn out to be dicks". Evil Mentor isn't it, because the Guardians aren't completely evil, just blind.

I agree about the Guardians to the point where I want to call Character Derailment. The Guardians have always had a philosophy that is at times both strange and unpalatable to humans but it at least made sense. The Guardians refused to let Hal Jordan resurrect the dead, they once intervened with Superman and suggested that his presence on earth was leading humanity to become soft and dependent on him (Something the Guardians would be very knowledgeable about and something thats consistent with how they run the Corps).

Most notably they initially objected to the idea of Green Lantern exploring street level issues with Green Arrow as they had empowered Hal to tackle serious galactic threats and patrol an entire sector of space. It was a very valid point and one they could have stuck with but when Ollie challenged them with the accusation of being out of touch, they relented and for a time participated in the experiment. Again this showed them to be thoughtful and reasonable and their history (especially with the Manhunters) would make them sensitive to Ollie's accusation.

But lately they've just been dogmatic and brickheaded. Some of that I blame on execution. Johns is stretched thin so it seems he never really explored the reasons why some Guardians did believe the Blackest Night prophecy and others didn't. Its one thing for Guardians to be divided on ethics, philosophy, emotion or procedure, but to be divided on the veracity of an account, these highly intelligent being should have been given some good motivations.

This could all be saved by a retcon explaining that, though rejuvenated, the Guardians have not regained everything they lost when Parrallax killed them. It would explain why Ganthet is the only one among them behaving reasonably.

How about just calling them "ancient" or something like that? I think it gives a similar "knowledgable Precursor" vibe without necessarily saying that all the advice they give is good.

And would it help to point out that most of their worst actions (that I know of, anyway) came while they were being manipulated by Scar?

Same reason The Joker, Jonathan Crane, and Lex Luthor do.

In the case of Crane, none at all. Theres a reason it got cut.

Willpower is presented as being a balanced neutral state (The Guardians are said to have purged emotion to master the green of willpower.). If you look at the spectrum, the red of rage and the violet of love are the two most extreme emotions (as depicted.) Red lanterns are generally out of control berserkers (until they become more experienced at least), whereas the Star Sapphires were an entire Corps of Clingy Jealous Girlfriend at least until they reengineered the sapphire into a ring and moved it from the head to the hand to allow the user more control. As you work your way inward, the colors allow more control and can be wielded more precisely. Orange has some versatility and Yellow can do pretty much everything Green can do.

First I must ask you, linnen: If you "gave up on DC", then why the fuck are you looking up Green Lantern? You fail forever, you moron.

Second, to answer your question: Willpower is basically a mix between the drive to do something along with a bit of courage and self-determination. It's been established that the Green was born when the first sapient lifeform actually worked up the will to freaking move. So basically it's what you feel when you run into a burning building to save someone, as opposed to feeling rage when you are told that the fireman who told you that you there were people still in the building when everyone had already been evacuated.

Willpower is the emotion you feel when you have an important responsibility that you see through to the end. It's a sense of duty, basically.

I seem to recall that the green lantern rings are SUPPOSED to be fueled by courage, but the Guardians of Oa felt that emotions were detrimental to the job, so they teach the Lanterns to utilize willpower instead.