GL:TAS Ep 5: Heir Apparent

BETRASSUS! I was really surprised that this episode ended up borrowing several story elements from the "To Be a Lantern" story from GLC a few years back, but it was really great. Pretty awesome guest stars this week, Will Friedle from Batman Beyond, Brave & the Bold and Thundercats as Ragnar, and John "Bender" DiMaggio doing his best tough guy voice as the (apparent) antagonist. It'll be interesting to see if Ragnar ends up taking a page from the Amon Sur playbook in a future episode and comes back wearing a ring of a different color.
This episode also had several great examples of Hal being Hal - I think some highlight quotes would be "Any girl who can get ready in less than three seconds has my stamp of approval" and the terrible "Iolande? Your name sounds like a waterfall" line deemed appropriately groan worthy by Kilowog. Also a great comedy moment of Hal's overconfidence in his ability to fly a hoverbike. But the episode also did a good job of showing Hal still being pretty badass without his ring, which is definitely good for the show to do from time to time.
Oh, and we can't forget this one:
We saw yesterday that there is no one else on Betrassus brave enough to face me.
Hal: No, but there is one brave enough now
Kilowog: Here we go *drinks*
I really like how they're continuing the plot thread of Kilowog being creeped out by Aya's sentience and walking around "like a real person." One new thing I didn't see coming at all is from this telling exchange:
Aya: Are my components properly aligned?
Razer: You look fine
Aya: You also look fine
Red Lantern/android romance? Why not. Anyway, obviously I'm totally geeking out over this show and loving it right now. Jim & Dan, have you guys decided how you're going to cover it on the podcast?
Off to ECCC.
-Zac

Not yet. One of the down sides to being like three weeks ahead means that we can't be timely with things like the animated series, but we'll get there. The comic tie-in, too.

This episode really surprised me, it was straight out of the early Tomasi/Gleason GLC. As soon as they named Iolande, I was so happy. And hell, I even prefer this pronunciation of her name to the one I've been using for years!

Razer continues to prove himself to be my favorite character in this show, which surprises the hell out of me. It didn't even occur to me until now that them having essentially a villain on their team might cause problems when they interact with worlds. I really like his approach and attitude, and yeah, the foreshadowing of a thing between him and Aya is kinda weird.

Honestly, the worst thing about the episode is that they didn't keep Iolande around as a cast member. But she still has her ring, so I imagine she'll be around. I can see this show eventually doing something where the conflict with the Red Lanterns comes to a head, and Hal rallies all the Frontier Lanterns together, and pulls in everyone of note they've teamed up with up to that point, so hopefully we'll see Iolande again.

Hope you're having fun at Emerald City!

True confession time:

This... this was the first episode of this show that I actually watched.

I know, I know.

Anyway, I'm a bit of an animation snob, and I have long lamented that CGI has become the choice so often over traditional animation. That is what kept me from actually sitting down and watching an episode of this show.

This week, though, I was there, nothing to do, and it was coming on... and I sat through it.

It was much better than I expected. Don't get me wrong - I still think the animation is generally crap, but it wasn't quite as polygon-ish as it seemed in the footage I'd seen prior to the show coming out.

I really enjoyed that they borrowed the story from the comics, and if this episode was an indicator of the general writing quality of the show, I'll start keeping an eye out for it.




Still not a fan of CGI, though.

First off I loved seeing Iolande! I was thinking "is that Iolande? no it can't be, but it looks a lot like her int he comics". I was so happy that they used her here!

DeepBlueZ wrote:I really like how they're continuing the plot thread of Kilowog being creeped out by Aya's sentience and walking around "like a real person." One new thing I didn't see coming at all is from this telling exchange:
Aya: Are my components properly aligned?
Razer: You look fine
Aya: You also look fine
Red Lantern/android romance? Why not. Anyway, obviously I'm totally geeking out over this show and loving it right now. Jim & Dan, have you guys decided how you're going to cover it on the podcast?
Off to ECCC.
-Zac

I think they have been hinting at this since the previous episode where Aya got into Razors head on the prison.

And yeah Jim and Dan, WHEN are you goign to cover this stuff on the podcast?

EarthGBilly wrote:Still not a fan of CGI, though.

You should give anything a chance if the subject interests you! But I have to agree, I'm not big on the CGI myself. I do like it that they look like the action league figures though.

GLKitteh wrote:

EarthGBilly wrote:Still not a fan of CGI, though.

You should give anything a chance if the subject interests you! But I have to agree, I'm not big on the CGI myself. I do like it that they look like the action league figures though.

One thing that I learned from the Bruce Timm panel, is that at least as far as WB Animation is concerned, CG is much more expensive than traditional 2D, and the powers that be deciding to back it as CG was a mark of confidence in the show.
And for what its worth, Timm wasn't a fan either at first, but is now very proud of how its turned out in comparison to other, un-named CG shows.
That said, Bruce Timm can't tell you what to like. It definitely takes a little getting used to, but the story has me hooked.

I remember him saying something last year about how the show's going to have to prove itself before Warner gives it a bigger animation budget, citing things like the backgrounds as being kinda simplistic...which makes sense, especially considering this being their most expensive-to-animate show yet.

with how the movie went I really think they should have just done 2D. Then everyone would be happy and they could have done more with it with less cash.

Only little nitpick I can think of was that the twist was kind-of REALLY obvious. Outside of that, it was pretty great.

GLKitteh wrote:with how the movie went I really think they should have just done 2D. Then everyone would be happy and they could have done more with it with less cash.

I agree they'd have had a better shot in the long run, but I wouldn't want to lose the visual that they've been giving us. Yeah, it's got some problems, but I really enjoy seeing it.

Jay Kay wrote:Only little nitpick I can think of was that the twist was kind-of REALLY obvious. Outside of that, it was pretty great.

They almost got me, because the ass Hal was fighting was dressed just like the killer from the comic version of the story.

gland wrote:

Jay Kay wrote:Only little nitpick I can think of was that the twist was kind-of REALLY obvious. Outside of that, it was pretty great.

They almost got me, because the ass Hal was fighting was dressed just like the killer from the comic version of the story.

I haven't read it, so I wouldn't know. What story was it, anyway?

For me, it became especially obvious when

Spoiler:

The story arc is "To Be A Lantern". And yeah, the second drinking scene is where I got it, too. It's weird, I never know just how obvious they'd make something for a tv show, ya know? I was totally ready to believe it was the guy they blatantly wanted me to hate.

gland wrote:The story arc is "To Be A Lantern". And yeah, the second drinking scene is where I got it, too. It's weird, I never know just how obvious they'd make something for a tv show, ya know? I was totally ready to believe it was the guy they blatantly wanted me to hate.

Yeah--you get a semi-weird feeling about the guy being SO eager to find out how the rings transfer to people, since we know that typically involves death, but that's the moment where it was cinched.

And yeah, for a show that is supposed to be for kids, it was a pretty decent mystery story. Makes since, since at least one of the B:TAS alum is producing it.