With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[RichardWhereat]

I... Find myself struggling to figure out what the point of this episode was. Or the previous one for that matter.

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Earth got a massive wake up call for how fucked they are without a unified government, and Paul got to chase off one of his lanterns who wasn't aiding his alliance under-the-sea. With a bunch of funny bits.

 

[Flux Casey]

Earth got a massive wake up call for how fucked they are without a unified government,

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Okay... That happened last episode. Except then it was undone because the bad interstellar merchant left Earth never to return. Great job Justice League! Earth is in your debt once again! Now let's all go back to the status quo and pretend it didn't happen, as was established to be our problem when this situation cropped up in the first place!

Paul got to chase off one of his lanterns who wasn't aiding his alliance under-the-sea.

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No he didn't. Manga Khan left of his own accord. Paul had nothing to do with him showing up, nothing to do with him leaving, and Manga Khan didn't actually do anything whatsoever in his entire time in the story except be comic relief.

 

[Mr Zoat]

'limbed'

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Thank you, corrected.

maybe 'front'

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No.

'drawn'

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Thank you, corrected.

maybe 'to them, swimming among them' , just add a comma.

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No, this time the odd structure is intentional.

hosts -> host

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think it should be 'or even'

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Could probably delete the I.

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Vaermina]

I... Find myself struggling to figure out what the point of this episode was. Or the previous one for that matter.

• Manga Khan showed up, mildly upset global politics and trade, is now fucking off with no consequence
• Russians launched a space fleet, it got stolen by freaking star conquerors, resolved with minimal fuss
• Turns out Pluto is a Mother Star... But it died two updates after appearing without intervention
• Atlantean politics is chugging along at no particular consequence

Is... Is that it? I mean feel free to remind me if I missed anything but it feels like most of the last forty updates did absolutely nothing, save for a couple of funny moments.

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Pretty much.

Welcome to the end result of continually nerfing things in a story so there's no real conflict.

 

[Revlis]

"Illustres to Clarissi Dox."

"Illustres. Do you have something to report?"

"Yes. I am requesting a new LEGION flotilla."

"Is there a problem with Lantern Manga Khan?"

"He did not send a report to you? Then I should inform you the Lord Latern Manga Khan has tendered his resignation, returning to just being the CEO of ClusterCorp™. He is in the processes of pulling his assets out of Sol."

"....What happened?"

" His insurance doesn't cover Earth or Sol."

"....."

 

[Darko]

And what happens to Venturia now?

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Either Dox sends someone else there, or orders OL to protect the city if it's attacked.

Did... Did the Starros consider themselves to be helping people?

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Abusive parents sometime think that they're helping their kids by 'toughening them up' for the real world, so people can convince themselves that their actions, no matter how pointless and harmful said actions are, are somehow good.

I... Find myself struggling to figure out what the point of this episode was. Or the previous one for that matter.

• Manga Khan showed up, mildly upset global politics and trade, is now fucking off with no consequence
• Russians launched a space fleet, it got stolen by freaking star conquerors, resolved with minimal fuss
• Turns out Pluto is a Mother Star... But it died two updates after appearing without intervention
• Atlantean politics is chugging along at no particular consequence

Is... Is that it? I mean feel free to remind me if I missed anything but it feels like most of the last forty updates did absolutely nothing, save for a couple of funny moments.

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We may have just found out the origin of the Starros and this could be a reason for OL to go to the Dreaming.

Plus they also got the body of something that came out of it, so the Atlanteans can dissect it on some far away planet where it can't enslave civilizations, thus advancing the whole Dreaming research.

Okay... That happened last episode. Except then it was undone because the bad interstellar merchant left Earth never to return. Great job Justice League! Earth is in your debt once again! Now let's all go back to the status quo and pretend it didn't happen, as was established to be our problem when this situation cropped up in the first place!



No he didn't. Manga Khan left of his own accord. Paul had nothing to do with him showing up, nothing to do with him leaving, and Manga Khan didn't actually do anything whatsoever in his entire time in the story except be comic relief.

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Think Zoat mentioned that there was a 'Hell on Earth' scenario sometimes in the past of Earth 16, but most people still didn't believe in magic, and yet after the Roanoke Incident people believe in it now and are taking precautions.

So it is possible that even without Manga Khan there anymore that the people of Earth, or at least the governments, would want some safety precautions to be placed so that they don't flail around like they did when Manga showed up, instead of just ignoring the problem.

The governments may not want their rivals getting their hands on advanced tech, so they have a lot of incentive for trying to create more unity now.

Leaders seem to be taking good initiative, like Senator Knight.

Manga served as a catalyst for potentially getting the governments of Earth to cooperate more, even if it was accidental on his part.

 

[Darko]

" His insurance does cover Earth or Sol."

"....."

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'doesn't cover'

 

[Sockmonkey]

So, the stars get something psychological from their hosts? Otherwise there's not really any point to having hosts. They have telekinesis so they don't need them to performs physical tasks.

 

[Rebu]

"I don't understand! What do you eat?"

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Always a good question to ask when worldbuilding.

 

[Darko]

So, the stars get something psychological from their hosts? Otherwise there's not really any point to having hosts. They have telekinesis so they don't need them to performs physical tasks.

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In the Dreaming comics it was shown that creatures from the Dreaming would eat the dreams of mortals.

Matthew the raven once ate the crushed dreams of a kid who had his dreams of being a professional athlete destroyed after getting crippled.

Now I'm thinking that maybe Morpheus deliberately set this thing loose on the universe for some kind of task.

He did create the Corinthian and other nightmares after all.

 

[Vaermina]

You guys realize that was just Zoat telling the story of the Hatorei right?

Basically a billion years ago the Starro were just predatory telepathic space animals that would migrate from planet to planet taking over whatever life they found as part of their breeding cycle. Eventually those Starro happened upon the world of the Hatorei, a race of natural telepaths that basically lived within their own hive mind. (The happy days Paul saw.) The Starro took them over. (Turning them into the puppets Paul saw.) And eventually the Hatorei's collective negative emotions corrupted the Starro and gave birth Starro the Conqueror who basically uplifted the Starro into sentience and went on to wage war on the galaxy.

 

[Ngamer11]

"I quit." He pulls the ring off his finger and tosses it to me, his environmental shield fading out at once. "My insurance doesn't cover giant starfish gods. No insurance covers that. We'll be leaving the Sol system as soon as we've recalled our planetside assets."

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Good riddance to bad garbage, I say. Glad this guy won't be a Lantern anymore. That does make me wonder how many people are chosen to be Orange Lanterns, but then decide that it isn't for them. Is it a lot or a minority Mr Zoat?

 

[Darko]

You guys realize that was just Zoat telling the story of the Hatorei right?

Basically a billion years ago the Starro were just predatory telepathic space animals that would migrate from planet to planet taking over whatever life they found as part of their breeding cycle. Eventually those Starro happened upon the world of the Hatorei, a race of natural telepaths that basically lived within their own hive mind. (The happy days Paul saw.) The Starro took them over. (Turning them into the puppets Paul saw.) And eventually the Hatorei's collective negative emotions corrupted the Starro and gave birth Starro the Conqueror who basically uplifted the Starro into sentience and went on to wage war on the galaxy.

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Huh, you're actually right.

Still the comments about the Dream could mean that the ones in Earth 16 were creatures from the Dreaming who somehow came into the material universe when the Hatorei engaged in their telepathic union.

Though if they were just aliens and don't have anything to do with the Dreaming then that too would make sense.

The fact that the Star has been frozen for half a million years and is dying could mean that her words were just a bunch of nonsense jumbles.

Their resistance to being fully controlled could also explain why they were still doing the things they were doing before they were enslaved.

OL also probably didn't recognize those scenes seeing as Cobi and that particular version of Star Conquerors appeared in like 17 issues, while the Starros as being giant space monsters has been around for decades.

This is Cobi by the way:

Spoiler: Cobi the Star Conqueror

Good riddance to bad garbage, I say. Glad this guy won't be a Lantern anymore. That does make me wonder how many people are chosen to be Orange Lanterns, but then decide that it isn't for them. Is it a lot or a minority Mr Zoat?

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A similar question to this Zoat, but what happens to Orange Lanterns who have abused their positions and rings, but have not been corrupted by the Orange Light?

I'm assuming that they're either put into the Controller equivalent of ScienceCells, or given to the authorities of whatever civilization they may have harmed?

The whole sending them to the Anti Matter universe is most likely off the table after Sinestro.

 

[Jacen]

A similar question to this Zoat, but what happens to Orange Lanterns who have abused their positions and rings, but have not been corrupted by the Orange Light?

I'm assuming that they're either put into the Controller equivalent of ScienceCells, or given to the authorities of whatever civilization they may have harmed?

The whole sending them to the Anti Matter universe is most likely off the table after Sinestro.

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I think you are making a fundamental mistake here in assuming that there some actual standard of activity that orange lanterns are held to.

They literally can't do things they don't want to.

 

[Darko]

I think you are making a fundamental mistake here in assuming that there some actual standard of activity that orange lanterns are held to.

They literally can't do things they don't want to.

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There are probably guidelines that prevent them from doing certain things, like say Assimilating people willy nilly on a whim, or not allowing them to engage in acts of violence or destruction without good reason etc.

The OLC may have more freedoms than the GLC, but there are probably some restrictions and standards of behavior, since it would be stupid to allow them to do the above mentioned things without good justification.

The Controllers want at least some control over the organization, Dox also wants control over it, OL wants to create a functioning police organization and having them act like crazy lunatics that destroy things for no reason is not a good way to garner support or approval from people they are trying to protect.

 

[Senevri]

So, a completely anti-climatic ending.

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I think that's the cost of doing business when you post daily.

I... Find myself struggling to figure out what the point of this episode was. Or the previous one for that matter.

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I think it's an aborted arc.

Mr. Zoat probably thought this wasn't working or couldn't come up with something more interesting.
But that's just a theory.

 

[Darko]

I think that's the cost of doing business when you post daily.


I think it's an aborted arc.

Mr. Zoat probably thought this wasn't working or couldn't come up with something more interesting.
But that's just a theory.

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Another point could be Paul giving Kori the option of wielding a Blue Ring and introducing us to Princess, who will feature in future episodes and may have an impact in the OLC's recruitment.

 

[Rahvin]

I... Find myself struggling to figure out what the point of this episode was. Or the previous one for that matter.

• Manga Khan showed up, mildly upset global politics and trade, is now fucking off with no consequence
• Russians launched a space fleet, it got stolen by freaking star conquerors, resolved with minimal fuss
• Turns out Pluto is a Mother Star... But it died two updates after appearing without intervention
• Atlantean politics is chugging along at no particular consequence

Is... Is that it? I mean feel free to remind me if I missed anything but it feels like most of the last forty updates did absolutely nothing, save for a couple of funny moments.

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Sure, nobody got facepunched, but we got plenty of interesting developments:

• We got to see some of Dox's more "unconventional" Lantern choices, and talk about the difference between what makes a good Orange Lantern vs a good Green Lantern
• We got to see OL struggle with delegating authority to others when he knows he could do it better himself
• Earth's nations got a wake-up call about how chaotically unprepared they are for extrasolar contact
• We got a glimpse at what's been going on over in Russia while OL's been tunnel-visioned on the US and Atlantis
• We got some really interesting character development on the Star Conquerors, their origins and their motivations, which will almost definitely be setting up for a future plotline
• Atlantis is actually fracturing, and we're potentially being set up for conflict between OL and Orin/Kaldur (since he's basically providing the motive and means for dissatisfied city-states to viably secede)

Also, I find it super intriguing that Manga Khan was able to give up an orange ring so easily. I get that it was a punchline, but still, voluntarily giving up an orange power ring is hard. Either his emotional processes are really different, or he's much stronger willed than I gave him credit for.

 

[Bolo]

Paul just seams to care less. Getting tons of I don't give A f vibes lately.

 

[Diraniola]

Okay... That happened last episode. Except then it was undone because the bad interstellar merchant left Earth never to return. Great job Justice League! Earth is in your debt once again! Now let's all go back to the status quo and pretend it didn't happen, as was established to be our problem when this situation cropped up in the first place!

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The difference this time is that OL is here. Remember Boss Smiley has been maintaining the status quo but can't directly manipulate Paul, hence the entire holy war arc. This is the first interstellar threat (a) that happened after OL arrived and (b) the Justice League could just face punch until it went away. Even though it went away on its own, the world won't forget that they were powerless to stop it and that next time they may not be so lucky. Mostly because Paul won't let them.

 

[Rafin]

12th April
12:07 GMT

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This wasn't just anticlimactic, this was a double anticlimax. What's going on?

 

[Soul Shocker]

Also, I find it super intriguing that Manga Khan was able to give up an orange ring so easily. I get that it was a punchline, but still, voluntarily giving up an orange power ring is hard. Either his emotional processes are really different, or he's much stronger willed than I gave him credit for.

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He wants profit, and having the ring doesn't actually give him much profit, while actively endangering his profit from standing orders.

He wants to get rid of it.

 

[PurpLexed]

The JLU cartoon did have an episode with starros that showed the POV of the thrall. I believe superman had a wife and son on krypton and Batman saw his father beat up the mugger that in reality killed him.

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I think this was the episode with Mother of Mercy, not Starros? The episode was supermans birthday and Vandal Savage sent him a package with MoM vines in it. Batman had to let the symbiote attach to him in order to free superman.

 

[infinityDivided]

**Remember. RememberDream.**

"How can I help-?"

**Rem… em...**

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Half-glimpsed images continue to flicker through my mind

and I take a moment to check my spell eater and my armour's telepathic defence modules. No, they're all working just fine.

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I've noticed a lot of people complaining about how this episode will have no lasting impact, but I haven't seen anyone bring this up. I think that the Mother Star copied or transferred over some part of it into Paul's mind/soul.

 

[Darko]

I think this was the episode with Mother of Mercy, not Starros? The episode was supermans birthday and Vandal Savage sent him a package with MoM vines in it. Batman had to let the symbiote attach to him in order to free superman.

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It was Mongul that sent it, not Savage.

 

[NeoDarklight]

So... Mother Stars are literally Starro Gods? And Paul, in the process of ascending to godhood, may have somehow linked to this one more deeply than he thought? Is this going to affect his apotheosis?

 

[LazySloth13]

Yeah I can understand why some people maybe put off by the lack of righteous face punching, or lack or orange guns and destruction, but the last two episode focus on the fact that Paul's actions are upsetting the status quo and create new issues most characters hardly ever deal with in Canon.

Half the time Atlantis is brought up it's because someone or something is trying to destroy it as a whole, or some tyrant wants the throne and wage war on the surface world, hardly has Aquaman have to deal with a city-state that wants to secede from the kingdom.

Almost all the time some alien fleet arrives to Earth its usually to either conquer or destroy the planet, Manga Khan is probably the first to show up and offer trade with no other ulterior motive other than to line his own pocket. And the various government can hardly work together to defend the planet, usually just to buy time for the superheroes to come in punch the problem away, and are less likely to agree on united trade agreement without having to go to the superheroes for help.

The Mother Star being a god to the starros is an interesting development similar to how the Old Gods of Earth where supposedly formed from ideas/concepts and magics of the people/beings who believed in them, or how Uncle Sam is the embodiment of America, plus interesting take on beings who have little to no lore behind their existence.

Though I hope we get to have another time travel episode just to see the effects of Paul's actions from as far as a decade to as far as the Legion of Superheroes. Or have Paul further explore the Dream and interact another of the Endless, to expand his knowledge of magic and the metaphysical, maybe have him being able to use actual magic.

 

[Jacen]

As a side note. Happy treason day, from an ungrateful colonial.

 

[Mr Zoat]

As a side note. Happy treason day, from an ungrateful colonial.

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I'd say something, but [deleted due to modern politics] takes the fun out of it.

 

[Jacen]

Truth