Well, hello Star Sapphires…
What They Say:
In Love and War
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One of the big positives with the Green Lantern franchise overall is the expansion of the colors and scope of the other Lanterns. With this series focusing on the Red and Green early on with a hint of Yellow as well, this episode brings us into the realm of the one that revolves around love with the Star Sapphires. When Hal and the others run into a rather nasty space beast after both Hal and Kilowog deal with their lost loves and those that are far away, they get aided by the arri-val of a pair of Star Sapphires. And through their ability, we see a very neat way in which this particular Corps works as they seek to help those that are dealing with issues of love like this, allowing the woman that Kilowog left behind to receive a ring.
The connection that the Star Sapphires and those of their world have to the Guardians is made clear in a brief form, especially in how they went a very different path than the Guardians when it came to emotions and the like. Getting a look at their world of Zamorra is pretty nicely done, thoguh the hues of course can be a bit overwhelming. The nature of love is ever present here and it’s fun to see how both Hal and Kilowog cope with it, especially since we do get a reminder at the start about Hal’s love back on Earth with Carol Ferris. As wonderful as all the love that’s here appears, there are dangers to it as well, made very clear when Kilowog goes missing after fidning his girlfriend from the previous episode has arrived there and has swayed him to her path.
With Hal, their attempts to sway him don’t go as well because he already has his one true love and those on Zamorra aren’t going to be able to change his feelings. With their need for the pair and their powers, it’s left them with the simple choice of bringing Carol into the fold, which she can’t resist considering her own love for him and the belief that he’s been dead or missing back on Earth. Naturally, this leads to her getting there at a time when everything is coming to a head and we get a good, albeit brief overall, actions sequence as Razer and Aya prove to be a good team and Carol goes off completely unbalanced because of her transformation. The show gets to deal with the emotion of love well and thankfully doesn’t avoid the reality of it by dealing with it, something that some other shows wouldn’t deal with anywhere near as well.
In Summary:
One of the things I appreciated in the comics when the emotional spectrum was dealt with and given clearer form with the rings was that they didn’t make them carbon copies of the Green Lan-tern Corps. Each operates very differently and with different motives. The Star Sapphies are a bit more unique even within this because of their ties to the Guardians of the past and how they were of one at one time. Focusing on them here and bringing in Hal and Kilowog’s true loves worked very well. While Kilowog doesn’t make out well here, Hal does have some good time but the real winners for me were Carol and the Zamorran’s themselves. This is definitely a very good episode and I loved the designs for all the Star Sapphires, especially with Carol.
Grade: A-
