It seems that each week we see a little morality play unfold during the newest episode of Green Lantern: The Animated Series and this week continues the trend by delving into the nature of love and how it can consume us if we’re not careful. The latest entry in the series, “…In Love and War” follows up on plot threads that begun both in the two part debut and last week’s episode, “Fear Itself” while introducing the Star Sapphires to the Green Lantern animated universe.
“…In Love and War” begins with Kilowog pining for Galia, the alien woman he fell for in last week’s episode, and while Hal tries to get the Bolovaxian’s mind off of her the Interceptor is attacked by a large creature. The crew’s efforts fall short and fortunately Queen Aga’po shows up to save the day and invites the crew to Zamaron where Hal and Kilowog are targets of a plan to imprison them at the hands of the two latest recruits, Galia herself and Carol Ferris. However Aga’po’s plans are foiled when Carol Ferris shows Aga’po’s niece Ghiata the real meaning of love.
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| Another color of the emotional spectrum is added to the mix |
Once again the show pays homage to the rich history of the Green Lantern mythology by making sure that the connection between the Zamorans and the Maltusians is mentioned and I thank them for their continued success at taking all that complex history and not only embracing it, but making it easily palatable for anyone for whom this is all new. I really enjoyed seeing the moment that Carol gets the ring brought to life and was then surprised to see how see ultimately responded to being a Star Sapphire. Her decisions and the message behind her decision was a powerful one that I think resonates with the audience no matter how old you are.
Seeing Hal and Carol reunited was great fun and Hal cannot help but be fueled by Carol’s support in all of this. However it’s Kilowog who gets the short end of the stick as Galia remains a love just out of reach. It was also very satisfying to see an acknowledgement of Aya’s choice in physical manifestation being tied so closely to Razer’s own tragic loss and I am interested in seeing how their relationship will be moving forward. Aya showed her true abilities and she is a force to be reckoned with given her power level and ability to quickly analyze and deal with multiple threats.
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| Poor Kilowog just can’t catch a break |
I’ll admit that when I first saw the promotional images for this episode I assumed that Miri would be making an appearance but that character turned out to be Ghiata, Aga’po’s niece. Series producer Giancarlo Volpe tweeted that the character is only half Maltusian which really piques my curiosity about her background and I’m really hoping that we see more about her history. Ghiata proves to be a pivotal character in the episode by the lessons she learns from Carol. In fact if there was to be any criticism leveled at this episode at all it would be how abruptly it ends with Ghiata’s proclamation that she has much to teach the Star Sapphires. Here’s hoping that the producers already plan on elaborating more on this plot thread in episodes to come.
Visually the creators did a good job at translating the Star Sapphire look to one that would be okay on a Saturday morning cartoon although I could see some criticism about them showing as much skin as they did. Everyone will have their own opinion about that subject, but I personally found no problem with it and thought it was very tastefully handled. I also feel the need to point out that the quality of the camera work continues to get better with each episode. I don’t know if that’s Bruce Timm getting more experience with the tools or something else, but I think that each episode has those visual moments that illustrates the benefit of CGI animation.
“…In Love and War” is another winner – five out of five lanterns.
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