What exactly has Hal Jordan been doing with John Stewart for the last two months, and does any of it actually qualify as Green Lantern training?
In this episode, I take a deep dive into the increasingly strange relationship between Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart in HBO’s Lanterns, looking at some of the biggest questions the series is raising about mentorship, authority and the way this version of the Green Lantern Corps actually operates.
We’ll get into Hal’s methods, John’s growing frustration, the role of the Green Lantern ring, the Guardians of the Universe and the unusual circumstances surrounding John’s introduction to the Corps. There are also some fascinating DC lore questions here around how Green Lanterns are normally chosen, trained and replaced, and whether the rules we know still apply in the new DCU.
I also look at John’s relationship with his father, his behaviour under pressure, and the very different positions Hal and John occupy when it comes to reputation, status and authority.
And then there is Hal himself. What has changed during the missing years of his career? Why is this arrangement with John so unusual? What can the ring tell us about the man Hal used to be? And why does so much about John’s supposed training seem to fall outside the normal rules of the Green Lantern Corps?
This is a detailed Lanterns character and thematic analysis rather than a plot recap, exploring the writing, performances, dramatic structure, DC mythology and character psychology behind the series.
Follow the podcast for scene-by-scene Lanterns analysis, Hal Jordan and John Stewart deep dives, Green Lantern lore, DCU discussion and detailed breakdowns of the HBO series.
