Recap / Justice League S 2 E 24 To 26 Starcrossed

After Earth is attacked by a Gordanian battleship, the Justice League is aided by an army of hawkmen from Hawkgirl's home planet of Thanagar. The Thanagarians offer to help Earth build a shield to defend against the Gordanians, but Batman discovers that this is just a ruse. Hawkgirl finds herself torn between her allegiance to Thanagar and her commitment to the League, as well as between her betrothal to the Thanagarian commander Hro Talak and her deep budding romance for Green Lantern, John Stewart.

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Tropes:

• Adaptational Villainy: While the Thanagarians in the comics have at times been portrayed as The Empire, they more or less kept their conquests away from Earth. Katar Hol in particular has always been an anti-hero at his worst where Hro Talak is perfectly willing to murder billions to protect his people. Then again, he's not the show's true adaptation of Katar Hol.
• Admiring the Abomination: Batman is admittedly impressed by the Hyperspace Bypass. Superman's more interested in just wrecking it.
• Against the Setting Sun: Green Lantern and Hawkgirl say their goodbyes against such a backdrop, complete with Hawkgirl flying towards the horizon.
• Aliens Are Bastards: The Thanagarians don't think much of humans - considering them to be a weak, primitive people - (the last bit is all the more interesting given their own culture), and use them as slave labour for the hyperspace bypass. They don't even think much of the Justice League at first having captured them (largely thanks to Shayera's intelligence on their abilities) - one of them openly expresses doubt that any of them, even the Martian amongst them, could understand how the properties of Nth metal works; and even the protests from one of their own to stop the project as it will kill billions of lives is met with accusations of disloyalty to Thanagar.
• Alien Autopsy: Batman's analysis on a dead Gordanian taken from the Gordanian ship and finding out that they were long dead before the ship appeared on Earth, which lead to suspicions on the Thanagarians' true motives.
• Alien Invasion: The Thanagarians plant the fear of a Gordanian invasion as a False Flag Operation and pose as benevolent defenders while hiding their true purpose, which is more or less use Earth as a salient in a long-distance attack on the Gordanian homeworld, which will destroy Earth of course, but that's not their problem.
• Aliens of London: All the Thanagarians have Hispanic accents.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Thanagarians occupy the Watchtower at the end of Part I. Later, the Batcave is also compromised.
• Ambiguously Evil: Since no living Gordanians appear in this episode beyond prerecorded footage to give their own account of the war we're unsure how truthful the Thanagarians claims of them being Always Chaotic Evil monsters are.
• Ambiguously Gay: Kragger is a little too devoted to Talak and noticeably jealous of Shayera's relationship to him. The trip J'onn takes into his mind is where it is the most blatant, where a statue of Hawkgirl alongside Talak is smashed and replaced with Kragger. Word of Gay confirms it in the DVD commentary.
• And the Adventure Continues:
  Flash: No Hawkgirl. No Javelin. No Watchtower. What's gonna happen to the League now? Do we all just walk away?
  J'onn: No. We rebuild, starting today.
  Superman: J'onn's right. Earth still needs us, and we'll never let her down.
• Anti-Climactic Unmasking: When the League minus Hawkgirl are forced on the run from the Thanagarian forces, they duck into a clothing store. Martian Manhunter recommends going incognito as civilians to avoid detection since as they are, they stick out like a sore thumb. Flash is reluctant since it would mean revealing his secret identity to them all. Batman makes the decision for him by revealing he already knows who he is before unmasking himself.
  Flash: Hold on a second here! What about the whole secret identity thing? I mean, I trust you guys, but I'm not sure I'm ready to-
  Batman: (points to Flash) Wally West. (points to Superman) Clark Kent. (unmasks himself) Bruce Wayne.
  Flash: (Beat) Show-off... (unmasks himself)
• Anti-Villain: The Thanagarians are only concerned with winning their war with the even worse Gordanians (according to them that is), a loss of which would mean the deaths of tens of billions of Thanagarians according to Talak. Once the bypass is destroyed, Talak sees no point in continuing the fight and sadly orders a withdrawal.
• Any Last Words?: Hro to John. John's response? "Yeah. You can kiss my axe!"
• Arc Villain: Hro Talak, leader of the Thanagarians that came to Earth.
• Ascended Extra: Kragger in the comics was an ordinary member of the Wingmen Corps with Katar Hol who died fairly early in the first issue he debuted in. Here, he's The Dragon to Hro Talak and even makes an appearance later in the series.
• Badass Boast: As the Justice League face down thousands of Thanagarians:
  Wonder Woman: Pretty bad odds...
  Superman: Yeah. They don't stand a chance.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: When J'onn pries into Kragger's mindscape, he faces a massive flock of crows as the latter's form of mental defense.
• Bat Scare: When the Thanagarians invade the Batcave, Batman sets the inhabitants on them.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: During the final episode, in the climatic fight for Earth, Green Lantern and Hro Talak battle against each other, both ending severely bruised. But when it's Shayera's turn to fight Hro, the worst she suffers is being electrocuted by Hro's axe, which leaves no marks on her body.
• Benevolent Alien Invasion: The Thanagarians pretended to be saviors to cover their true purpose, but Batman exposed them in short order.
• Betrayal Insurance: Thanks to intel from Hawkgirl, the Thanagarians have prepared weapons to incapacitate the Justice League once they prove to be problematic. Wonder Woman and J'onn are taken out by electrical guns, John faces off against shields that absorb and reflect the energy from his ring, and Superman and Flash got hit with kryptonite and a gravity well, respectively.
  • Subverted with Batman, who's the only Leaguer who gets taken out by conventional means (and whose capture is what sets off the Betrayal Insurance). However, knowing by this point in the series just how dangerous and sneaky Bruce is, Shayera would almost certainly have warned her people to beware the Batman. Whether or not they had any contingency prepared for Batman becomes moot once he was discovered and captured aboard Talak's flagship.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: The fight between the League and thousands of fighters of the Thanagarian Expeditionary Force.
• Bittersweet Ending: Earth is saved from destruction...at the cost of their home base, one of their members leaving (breaking up the series' Official Couple), and an untold amount of the Thanagarians threatening the planet. Sweetened a bit by its Unlimited continuation, which shows that things can be rebuilt, but even then there's a note of bitterness lingering throughout the series.
• Blatant Lies: Hro punched Kragger right after he says he hated to be the one to tell him of Shayera's treason. Hro likely knows he's lying since Kragger has always been suspicious about Shayera from the start and wouldn't drop it (see Selective Obliviousness).
• Bookends:
  • Had this been the series finale as originally expected, Justice League would've ended the same way it began in the Pilot: With the team fighting another alien invasion. As it is, the Bookends still technically work, as this is the last hurrah of the original League roster and the show's original direction before the retool and rebranding for Justice League Unlimited.
  • Just as "Secret Origin", the aftermath of the invasion ends with a news report from Snapper Carr. The DVD Commentary confirms this was intentional.
• Bring It: After the Hawkmen break into the Batcave.
  John: All through hidin'. Come and get some.
• Captain Obvious: Flash after seeing the stuffed T. rex in the Batcave:
  Flash: That's a giant dinosaur!
  Alfred: And I thought Batman was the detective.
• Call-Back: A very subtle one to "Knight Time" in Part 2. Of the entire team, Superman is the only one before this episode to have actually visited the Batcave. When the Leaguers finally converge on Wayne Manor, Clark's casually leaning on the Batcomputer and is clearly at ease in Bruce's 'home office'.
• Catch a Falling Star: Batman is pulled out of the collapsing wreckage of the Watchtower by Superman seconds before impact.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome:
  • While in civilian guise, Wonder Woman and Batman see the Thanagarians accosting some civilians. Diana wants to jump in and give them what for, but Batman stops her. Then, they have to step in anyway when said accosting leads to a building collapse.
  • Batman being the one to do the Colony Drop. J'onn could've easily done most of the piloting, then simply phased out of the ship as it got close, without putting himself at risk at all.
  • Superman abandons the big fight in order to go save Batman's life during the aforementioned Heroic Sacrifice.
    Superman: Always have to be the hero, don't you?
    Batman: (smiles) Right back at you.
• Colony Drop: Batman maneuvers the Watchtower to crash into the Thanagarians' hyperspace bypass.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Hawkgirl as soon as she finds out that the Thanagarians are actually building a hyperspace bypass on Earth, starts having second thoughts on serving them, and eventually assists the Justice League in stopping them. She invokes this trope at the end, and resigns before hearing the League's verdict, feeling that she didn't want to divide the League further than she already did by making them take a position on whether to keep her or not.
  Shayera: I came to this planet as a patriot. I had a mission, and I carried it out. What I couldn't know was that I would come to care for the Earth and her people; that I've come to care for all of you. I've spent the last 5 years torn between my feelings and my duty. I won't ask you to do the same. Therefore I am resigning from the Justice League, effective immediately.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • A plot point in Part 1. Batman invokes this Trope to Diana during his autopsy of a dead Gordanian: A single Gordanian scout ship attacks a major city...and the entire Thanagarian fleet coincidentally arrives to save Earth? Bruce ain't buying it and his suspicious are ultimately proven correct.
  • In Part 2, the prison ship departs from the Gobi Desert and when the League make their Great Escape, the ship was conveniently flying over Metropolis.
• Corpse Temperature Tampering: What happened to the Gordanians, judging from Batman's frozen liver remark.
• Crazy-Prepared: Weirdly averted with the Batcave in Part 3, which lacks any significant security defenses against the Thanagarian attack. This incident might be what prompts Bruce to install the more extensive security measures we'll see by the time of early Batman Beyond.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • In Part 1, the Thanagarians deliver one to the League due to knowing their weaknesses.
  • The League returns the favor in Part 3's Batcave fight.
• Deadly Dodging: John goads Talak into attacking him while he has his back to a forcefield, then dodges. Talak electrocutes himself and destroys the field protecting the vital switch.
• Death Glare: Wonder Woman, still bitter about Shayera's betrayal, has a very unamused look across her face when the erstwhile Hawkgirl gives the speech announcing her resignation.
• Death Seeker: The DVD commentary points out this is the second time this season (after "Maid of Honor") that Batman purposely pulls a move that might get him killed to take out the threat, personally piloting the Watchtower to land on the bypass.
• Deducing the Secret Identity: The League members are forced out of their costumes in order to sneak around Earth which is currently under Thanagarian martial law. The Flash attempts to interject, stating that while he trusts the other members enough that he doesn't mind them knowing his identity, he's unsure if the rest of them are. Batman immediately calls him and all the other members by their real names before ripping his mask off and stating his own.
• Deep Cover Agent: Hawkgirl. Though she justified her actions because she thought she was helping Thanagar in a way that wouldn't involve hurting Earth. She defected when she learned that Earth would be destroyed in the process.
• Description Cut: During the peace summit at the beginning, J'onn thinks that terrorists may have already infiltrated the meeting, but Batman assured the League he's "got it covered". We next see Clark Kent inside as a member of the press.
• Domestic Abuse: Hro Talak turns abusive toward Shayera Hol when she turns against him in the latter part of the story.
• Doomsday Device: The hyperspace bypass, once activated, will destroy the Earth.
• Dramatic Unmask: While arguing with Shayera, Hro removes his helmet to reveal his handsome face has been scarred from when he was in an enemy prison camp.
• Easily Forgiven: Flash vocally defends Hawkgirl when the team is debating whether to expel her, and he gives her a goodbye hug when she announces her resignation. Alfred, too, is forgiving of her, being grateful that she helped the League save Earth and letting her know that whatever decision they make in regard to her staying with them, in his eyes, she'll always be a hero.
• End of an Era: Meta example. Due to the Bat Embargo that went into effect following Season Two, this episode marks Alfred Pennyworth's final appearance in the DCAU. This also makes it Efrem Zimbalist Jr.'s final outing as Alfred after over a decade of playing the Batman's batman since the early days of BTAS (and after having succeeded Clive Revill).
• The End of the World as We Know It: The hyperspace bypass that will destroy the Earth.
• Everyone Can See It: John and Shayera, courtesy of the rest of the League, except Flash.
• Expy: Hro Talak is basically Hawkman But Evil; his name is even an anagram of "Katar Hol". According to the DVD commentary, the writers were seriously considering having him actually be Hawkman; but DC vetoed the idea of making Hawkman a genuine villain and the writers ultimately agreed (and did eventually introduce a more conventionally heroic Hawkman in a later season).
• Exactly What I Aimed At: Averted. Batman throws his batarangs right at some Thanagarians but nothing happened. But let's be real, this is Batman were talking....

Thanagarian: Your weapons are pitiful.
Batman: Wait for it. *Hundreds of bats fly out and attack the Thanagarians*

• Fake Out Makeout: Bruce and Diana while hiding in an Indian restaurant. Neither seems to mind the opportunity.
• False Flag Operation: The Gordanian ship that shows up at Washington DC was a plant by the Thanagarians to lure Earth into accepting their help. They said they would build a planetary defense shield to help them, but both Batman deducing the Gordanian crew were dead before they arrived and J'onn having a better understanding of their advance technology eventually leads to an overt takeover. The third part reveals the shield was actually a hyperspace node that would destroy Earth in the process.
• Fingore: When John is trying to destroy the shield surrounding the bypass' force field controls, he was open to Hro's sneak attack, which destroys John's ring and injures him in the process.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: After Batman tells his teammates to take the Thanagarian soldiers to the escape pods, he can be seen backing a few steps away, just before he ejects the pod without him.
• Friendship Moment:
  • By the time Superman is freed from his cell, the red sunlight has left him incapable of even standing. Batman helps Superman to his feet and says to lean on him.
  • After Shayera announces she's quitting, Flash gives her a hug on her way out the door.
• Fugitive Arc: After the League escapes captivity, the Thanagarians paint them as wanted criminals, forcing the heroes to go into hiding.
• Genre Savvy: Shayera is not surprised to find that the League has escaped.
  Shayera: They're the Justice League, that's how it happened.
• Going Native: The culmination of Shayera's character arc, as she ultimately sides with Earth over her homeworld.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Green Lantern's fight with Talak.
  Hro Talak: I've beaten you, little man. Any last words?
  Green Lantern: Yeah. You can kiss my axe.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Two sets of them, and in a rare example of this trope are directly opposed to one another: the Gordanians, enemies of Thanagar, and the Thanagarian War council, who Hro answers to.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: The Thanagarians plan to build and activate the hyperspace bypass at the cost of destroying Earth in the process. Though they acknowledge this as a necessary evil and take no pleasure in this task, at the same time, they look down on humanity as primitives whom they don’t put much value on, they are not impressed with the Martian and Kryptonian either. The Justice League manage to save Earth; unfortunately, this action inevitably dooms the Thanagarian civilization to being conquered by the Gordanians, though considering how the Thanagarians would have sacrificed Earth and its inhabitants, humanity can’t really be blamed for defending themselves or accepting the Thanagarian's account of their conflict with the Gordanians.
• Handy Cuffs: Batman's hands are tied behind his back, but he fixes this mid-escape. John's hands are bound in front of him, and one of the first things he does is bludgeon a guard with his restraints.
• Heroic Bystander: When Bruce and Diana are exposed to the Thanagarians in their civilian clothes, a friendly restaurant owner sees them running and rushes them insider quickly. He and his staff help hide them in the back, and when the Thanagarians come in looking for them, he and his patrons cover for them, saying they have been there for hours. Then once the Thanagarians leave, he lets the two of them sneak away out the back.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Batman intends to drop the Watchtower on the bypass with him as pilot, but he is saved by Superman.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Talak is eventually defeated when Green Lantern tricks him into hitting the generator's shield, electrocuting himself as well as allowing John and Shayera to shut down the hyperspace bypass' force field.
• Hope Spot:
  • After the Thanagarians' treachery is revealed, Superman smashes up some mooks and makes a beeline right for Talak. Unfortunately, that's exactly what Talak was waiting for, as his men have a substitute for kryptonite on hand.
  • Green Lantern is last Leaguer in the desert still standing, and he almost manages to carry the others to safety, but then he's stopped by the force field.
• I Like Those Odds: Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern are heading straight for the Thanagarian mothership (and the dozens of smaller ships around it).
  Wonder Woman: Pretty bad odds.
  Superman: Yeah, they don't stand a chance.
• If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: One of Talak's lieutenants boasts about how easy it was to capture the League with the information Shayera provided the Thanagarian fleet on them. When Shayera still warns him not to underestimate them, he interestingly concedes and suggests that they be eliminated while they are still weak before they can become a serious problem, even giving Shayera the blaster to do it. Shayera in response points out that the mission was to construct the bypass and capture the League, nothing more (though she also points out that killing Earth's heroes will alienate the human populace, causing them to rebel). This gives the lieutenant the first hint that Shayera's loyalty to Thanagar is wavering.
• Informed Flaw: The episode reveals J’onn can’t read the minds of Thanagarians (at least not easily), something that’s never been brought up the entire show despite Hawkgirl being a member of the team for the entire series up to this point. This is slightly hinted at earlier in "Only a Dream", where J'onn couldn't get into Hawkgirl's mind to save her from Doctor Destiny.
• Immunity Attrition: The Thanagarians are initially immune to J'onn's power. (It's what clues Batman into thinking the Thanagarians are up to something.) Until the situation is critical enough for him to try harder.
• Ironic Echo: In Part 1, Shayera manages to talk John down from fighting her after the League realizes the Thanagarians are betraying them, only to sucker slug him with her mace. Similarly in Part 3, Shayera fights Talak while begging him to find another way to defeat the Gordanians without sacrificing the Earth; he seemingly relents only to slam and electrocute her with his battle axe.
• It Has Been an Honor: Batman to Flash and J'onn before making his planned sacrifice.
• It's Personal: Hro takes Shayera’s relationship with John very badly to the point that he’s willing to hand wave her committing treason against Thanagar if she tells him that her relationship with John didn’t mean anything. After she doesn’t, Hro spends the rest of the episode abusive and vindictive, snapping out of it only when the bypass is destroyed.
• It's Raining Men: The Thanagarian army descending from the sky. Considering they are all Winged Humanoid, it produces a surprisingly biblical image.
• I Warned You: More than once did Kragger caution his commander of Hawkgirl's loyalty.
• Just in Time: Twice over: Hawkgirl and Green Lantern turn off the force field just as Batman manages to drop the Watchtower at the hyperspace bypass at the very moment of its activation.
• Kick the Dog: After convincing John to drop his defenses, Shayera smacks him with her mace during the first fight between the League and the Thanagarians. He brings it up in the Batcave later.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: There was no Last Villain Stand. After the League destroy the hyperspace bypass Hro orders his men to stand down and withdraw from Earth.
• Latex Perfection: Bruce disguises himself as Alan Napier (complete with accent) to infiltrate the delegation to the Thangarian ship.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!:
  • Justified; once they change into civilian clothes, the Justice League split up because the Thanagarians will be looking for a group of six people.
  • Happens a second time in Part III, where Batman, Flash and J'onn head for the Watchtower to free it from Thanagarian troops while the rest take on the bulk of the occupation force in order to deactivate the force field protecting the bypass.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Shayera wasn't briefed on the Hyperspace Bypass Generator until the Thanagarian occupation is underway. She genuinely thought it was a Force Field Generator.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The entire world when the Thanagarians enact martial law in Part 2, as well as broadcasting the fact that the Justice League are easily defeated.
• Master Race: The Thanagarians clearly see themselves as superior to humans, and even to Kryptonians and Martians. When J’onn questions Paran on the mechanics of the shield generator, she dismisses him as likely not able to understand. He passive-aggressively then demonstrates his grasp of the potential science is pretty solid, annoying Paran for proving her wrong (and perhaps indicating J’onn might figure out it’s not a shield generator at all).
• Mental Shutdown: Martian Manhunter accidentally shuts down a Thanagarian pilot called Kragger in this manner, after being forced to "try harder" to read his mind and figure out how to fly his ship. Kragger needed to be mounted into advanced, specialized machinery to make him anything more than a vegetable in later episodes, and even then he was very feebleminded.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Shayera/Hawkgirl balks at hearing Talak's plans for Earth: to use it as the last chain of an Hyperspace Bypass, which would inevitably destroy it, and sacrifice billions. Talak points out that Thanagar's people number in the tens of billions and uses this as justification to go forward with the plan. He also believes that her attraction to Green Lantern is specifically why she's objecting to the plan, and not the deaths of the billions from the Earth's destruction, though considering the fact that he lied to Shayera the whole time and delayed telling her the truth, it's likely he's just projecting to hide his moral squalor.
• Mind Rape: J'onn inflicts one on one of Talak's generals, leaving the latter in a vegetative state. He generally avoids doing this since it involves using a stronger version of his telepathy, but the situation is so dire that he decides to try harder.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Arc Villain's name is a Significant Anagram of the Silver Age Hawkman's identity.
  • Batman dispatches the Thanagarians in the Batcave in the same manner as Brandan’s cops in Batman: Year One. On the DVD Commentary, Dwayne McDuffie points out that despite being one of the then-most famous modern Batman moments, he was surprised that Bruce Timm and company had never used it during BTAS (or in later Seasons and series).^note In fact, Timm would later admit he'd never read Year One until work began on the DTV movie in 2010. McDuffie was understandably delighted to finally be the one to bring that gag into the DCAU.
  • The storyline borrows some elements from the Tower of Babel storyline. The book's plot point about Batman betraying the League's trust and using countermeasures against them is transferred to Hawkgirl, and the final scene of the League debating whether to let Hawkgirl stay or not, and Shayera making the decision for them, comes from the final scene.
• Needle in a Stack of Needles:
  • The League discard their costumes and blend into the crowd to hide from the Thanagarians.
  • After accidentally exposing themselves, Bruce and Diana get to hide in a restaurant thanks to a friendly owner and his patrons. When the soldiers in pursuit ask the owner for the fugitives giving a vague description, the owner unfazedly retorts that he has to be more specific, since everyone inside fits the description.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Batman infiltrating Talak's flagship in Part 1. He confirmes his suspicions that the Thanagarians pulled a False Flag Operation, but he's captured and it forces Talak to take out the League.
• Nothing Personal: Hawkgirl sucker-slugging her boyfriend. GL of course takes it entirely the other way.
• Obfuscating Postmortem Wounds: A Gordanian ship is destroyed by Thanagarians while invading Earth. Batman believes the Contrived Coincidence to be too much, so he examines the corpses aboard the destroyed ship and, sure enough, there is evidence of Corpse Temperature Tampering.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The Unlimited episode "Hunter's Moon" reveals that it wasn't just the Justice League who are fighting against the Thanagarian invasion. Vixen and Vigilante (and possibly the rest of the future extended members of the League) mention that they were also fighting back, but it wasn't shown.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: When John gets into the Thanagarian ship and is on his way to destroy the shield, several soldiers prepare to confront him.
  Talak: Belay that! Green Lantern's mine.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Wally, the one possibly closest to Shayera besides John, is just as angry at her as the rest of the League for her betrayal, and he's even the one to point out the various offenses the Thanagarians (including Shayera herself) committed against them. At the end, however, it's shown that he has forgiven her.
• Pet the Dog: Hro saves a goat from being run over in contrast to Flash noting he doesn’t like him.
• Plot-Demanded Manual Mode: Batman decides to Colony Drop the Watchtower onto the Thanagarians' main base on Earth. Because the Watchtower isn't actually designed for such a function, he is "forced" to stay behind after everyone else evacuated to manually guide the descent until he passes out from the heat. He is pried out of his seat in the last second by Superman. Why he didn't just have J'onn do it, since J'onn could phase out of it, is never explained.
• Propaganda Machine: The Thanagarians take control of the Earth's satellites and begin announcing their occupation of Earth, telling them that they're "helping" them from the Gordanian threat, and trying to pit Earth's citizens against the League for resisting their occupation.
• Properly Paranoid: Batman senses the Thanagarians aren't being entirely truthful about their intentions early on, and sure enough, he's right.
• Reformed, but Rejected:
  • By episode's end, when the remaining six League members discuss Hawkgirl's fate, it's clear that Wonder Woman hasn't forgiven Shayera and may never do so. This remains even after she returns to the team until Shayera aids Wonder Woman during a trip through the Underworld.
  • We can infer that Batman also voted to dismiss her, given that John recused himself, Wally and J'onn took Shayera's side during the debate, and Superman broke the tie in Hawkgirl's favor.
  • As far as non-Leaguers go, Alfred is clear in his empathy to Shayera, but the general public would be divided for quite some time to come.
• The Reveal: The Flash’s real identity is Wally West.
• Secret Identity: Taken for a spin. Pursued by the conquering Thanagarians, the Justice League members decide the safest way to move is in their civilian identities (for the members who have them). The Flash balks at the idea, since it's, you know, his secret identity, and it's not like he doesn't trust the others, but...impatient, Batman simply rattles off everyone's real name, finishing with his own.
• Secret Secret-Keeper:
  • Batman reveals he already knew the identities of the League.
  • Shayera's sudden arrival at the Batcave demonstrates that she figured out at some point who Batman really was (and potentially Clark and Wally as well) but kept that knowledge to herself.
• Selective Obliviousness: Kragger proposes to Hro that they mind-scan Shayera when he believes living on Earth compromised her, but Hro refuses to put his fiancé through that. Even when it's becoming clear to him that she has feelings for John and is against destroying Earth, he doesn't want to believe his beloved would be a traitor. But only when Kragger exposed her to Hro and other Thanagarians for aiding the Justice League, was Hro forced to have her arrested and placed into custody.
• Series Fauxnale: As the producers weren't certain the series would be renewed at the time of production, the three-parter's conclusion returns to where the DC Animated Universe began - Gotham City and the Batcave.
• Servile Snarker: Alfred as always.
• Shoot the Dog: Hawkgirl helps the Thanagarian invasion force defeat the League and conquer the Earth, because she believed the occupation of Earth was necessary to defeat the Gordanians, which was in the best interests of both her home planet Thanagar and Earth. She later draws the line at destroying Earth to save Thanagar, and she turns on her brethren upon discovering that they intend to do exactly that.
• Shout-Out:
  • The hyperspace bypass scheme the Thanagarians are using is one to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
  • Kragger's homoerotic subtext in regards to Talak is a homage to a similar henchman played by Martin Landau in North By Northwest.
• Shut Up, Kirk!:
  Shayera: This war is no excuse to—
  Hro: I am your commanding officer! You will not question me!
  Shayera: I don't even know you anymore.
• Someone Has to Die: Batman realizes that dropping the Watchtower on the Thanagarian hyperspace bypass will require manual steering, since the station would otherwise miss the target. Instead of telling this to Flash and J'onn, he jettisons them in an escape pod and takes over the controls himself. He doesn't die, as he is bailed out by Superman just moments before the impact.
• Spotting the Thread: Batman realizes something is amiss when he performs an Alien Autopsy on one of the Gordanians and notices that its internal organs are frozen.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: The fate of the relationship of the Green Lantern and Hawkgirl.
• Suspect Is Hatless: When Bruce and Diana duck into a restaurant to hide from Hawk soldiers, said soldiers come in and ask if a dark-haired man and woman had recently come in. The restauranteur, who is Indian, along with all of his staff and most of his patrons, asks if they could be more specific.
• Tailor-Made Prison: When the League start questioning the shield they were building the Thanagarians revealed their true goals and incapacitated them with devices designed to target their weaknesses, information provided by Hawkgirl. Superman is hit by a Kryptonite weapon, Wonder Woman and J'onn are taken out by specialized tasers and Flash is caught by a gravity beam that prevents him from moving. They are subsequently imprisoned with power nullifying tactics: Superman in a red sun chamber, Wonder Woman tied up by her own lasso and Flash in a gravity platform.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: The Justice League exploit this to sneak their way to the Batcave, as when they're not in costume, they look like any other civilian (Except the Martian Manhunter, who can shapeshift) and, with a bit of luck and some bystander assistance, can blend in easily.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: As the vote is being hashed out, Alfred assures Shayera that he considers her a hero.
• Tragic Villain: Hro Talak may be an enemy of Earth and the Justice League, but on Thanagar, he is possibly its greatest hero, in addition to being Shayera's fiance. He sacrificed a lot as part of the war against the Gordanians, and was even captured and tortured by them for years before breaking free. This is implied to be why he was so dead-set in making sure the Hyperspace Bypass plan works, even if he had to sacrifice Earth to do it. Shayera's comments suggest that at some point, he changed from the man she knew, to the man the audience saw. In the end, his uncompromising stance on putting the Earth in the crossfire in the war against the Gordanians, pushes Shayera away from him, and he is further incensed when he comes to know about her attraction to Green Lantern, to the point that every plead Shayera makes to spare Earth is interpreted as her saying she loves Green Lantern more, which eventually brings them into conflict, and eventually with Shayera. In the end, the hyperspace bypass is destroyed by the League, and he is defeated by Green Lantern. Broken, he surrenders and orders his army to leave. Had he not allowed his experiences in the war to cloud his judgement, he may have found a third option in the war (like say, requesting the League's help in fighting it) and Shayera would have remained at his side.
• Trash the Set: After being the League's headquarters throughout the series, the Watchtower is destroyed when Batman drops it on the Thanagarians' bypass generator. The Batcave and Wayne Manor likewise take their share of damage during the Thanagarian strike team's assault in part 3 (though of course they'll be repaired before Batman Beyond).
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • Before the reveal, J’onn asks Paran how the shield generator is supposed to work. Paran brushes off his questions by stating it’s far beyond his comprehension, assuming Thanagarian tech to be too complicated for a Martian. When J’onn demonstrates he already holds a pretty good grasp of how some of it works, Paran glares, both annoyed that J’onn threw her ego back into her face and probably concerned J’onn will figure out it’s not a shield generator at all.
  • The Thanagarians believe John will be useless without his ring, apparently unaware he’s still a badass Marine who’s been in situations without his ring before. This bites Hro in the ass especially hard.
• Undying Loyalty: The second the Thanagarians burst into Wayne Manor, Alfred raises his fists. He gets casually tossed aside, but the point was clear.
• The Unreveal: The outcome of the League's vote on Shayera's dismissal. However, Flash, Wonder Woman, and Superman's votes are either easily inferred or clearly stated, as was John’s non-vote. This only leaves the knowledge that Batman and J'onn voted opposite ways, though their votes can somewhat be inferred, as well. The final vote count won't be confirmed until "Wake the Dead".
• Unwitting Pawn:
  • The League gets fooled into helping the Thanagarians until Batman learns the truth.
  • Hawkgirl being Locked Out of the Loop for what the Thanagarians are actually on Earth for, and later when she gives away the League's whereabouts not knowing that Kragger put a tracker on her.
• Vichy Earth: What occurs by Part II. A particularly harsh example as the Thanagarians intend to destroy it after leaving. Learning this actually makes Hawkgirl turn on them.
• Was It All a Lie?: Green Lantern asks this of Hawkgirl at the end of the three-parter. Hawkgirl replies, "I love you, John. I never lied about that" and flies off to parts unknown.
• Washington D.C. Invasion: The beginning of the episode where the League were staking out at a world conference held in Washington in anticipation of a terrorist incident, but only to be interrupted by a Gordanian ship. Lampshaded by Batman, who finds the small scale of the invasion and the convenience of the Thanagarian fleet being nearby suspicious.
• We Need a Distraction: Superman provides one when the League decides to dress up in civilian clothes, split up into pairs and rendezvous over at Wayne Manor. Green Lantern and Flash get stopped at a train station by Thanagarians who are growing suspicious, but Superman (as Clark) decides to go over and pretend interview them with J'onn posing as a cameraman, allowing Green Lantern and Flash a chance to slip past.
• Wham Episode: A major turning point for the series.
  • Hawkgirl is revealed to have been a spy for Thanagar the entire time and initially sides with her people over the League. This betrayal leads to half the League unsure if they can trust her (Wonder Woman especially feels betrayed) and Hawkgirl resigns in shame.
  • The fledgling John/Shayera relationship falls apart due to this revelation and the discovery that she was betrothed to Hro Talak the whole time. By series’ end, the relationship is still broken.
  • Thanagar is revealed to be a morally gray empire that sees other races (including humans and Martians) as inferior and expendable. Their actions give the earth as a whole a reason to distrust Thanagarians (and Hawkgirl especially).
  • The Thanagarian War leaves the Justice League without the Javelin or the Watchtower. The League resolves to rebuild and expand, setting the stage for the dozens-strong organization next season. The invasion also battle-hardens the team who begins to operate more like a military organization going forward with established hierarchy, support crews, and (most significantly) an orbital laser specifically created to prevent having to drop another Watchtower onto a target. This specifically comes to a head during the Cadmus arc when the government starts wondering how far the League will go to enforce their sense of justice on the world.
• Wham Line:
  • When Wonder Woman watches Batman peform an autopsy on the pilot of the Gordanian ship:
  Wonder Woman: You don't know anything about Gordanian physiology.
  Batman: No, but I know a frozen liver when I see one.
  Wonder Woman: What?
  Batman: The crew of this ship was dead long before the Thanagarians shot them down. I think we've been set up.
  • Batman identifying the Flash as "Wally West" in Part 2. Up to this point in the series, and even going back to STAS and "Speed Demons", it had been unclear if the DCAU Flash was meant to be either Wally or Barry Allen (as there was enough evidence to go either way). "Flash and Substance" will later expand on this and clarify that the DCAU Flash is a composite of both Wally and Barry (Wally's identity and personality and Barry's criminology profession).
  • Thanagar's real plan for Earth.
  Shayera: But if we open a hole in hyperspace, it will destroy this entire planet.
  Hro: Sadly yes. For Thanagar to live, Earth...must die.
  • After the League re-takes the Watchtower...
  Flash: So where's your secret weapon?
  Batman: You're standing in it.
• What Does This Button Do?: Flash pressing a button in the cockpit of a Thanagarian gunship...and blows a giant hole in the wall of Wayne Manor, almost killing Alfred. Batman immediately rounds on him, snarling "THAT'S. NOT. HELPING."
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The League are supposed to guard the peace summit because according to Batman there's going to be a terrorist attack. It wasn't terrorists who actually showed up, and this thread was completely dropped.
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • Having spent couple episodes on the fence about whose side she should be with, Shayera ultimately chooses the Justice League after learning about her people's true intentions to sacrifice Earth. Flash even lampshades that Shayera sacrificed countless Thanagarian lives to ensure their survival.
  • Wonder Woman finds an imprisoned Shayera. Still bitter about the latter's betrayal, she considers just leaving her to rot. After a brief moment of silence, Wonder Woman frees Shayera and leaves.
  • Shayera tearfully pleads to Hro to spare Earth and not destroy their love in the process. It seems Hro is about to stop until he smashes his axe right into Shayera before saying to his former fiancée that there's nothing between them.
• Whole-Plot Reference:
  • A multitude of friendly aliens appear and land on Earth with tales of an incoming external threat. They ever-so-helpfully offer the "technology" to defeat that threat, initiate a propaganda campaign against any doubters, and possess a hidden world-ending agenda? You could be talking about V; though the Thanagarians have somewhat different motives, the end result for Earth and humanity would be the same.
  • There is an even larger similarity to Invasion: Earth. An alien invader ship crashes in the park of a large Earth city, seemingly as part of an invasion, and another alien race, their long-standing enemy, claims these are genocidal villains offers assistance against them by building an enormous device in an uninhabited wilderness. In the end, it turns out the enemy corpses were planted, that the war is nowhere near Earth, and the aliens' motives are much less benevolent (although they involve robbing Earth instead of destroying it) with the device having nothing to do with the stated purpose. The aliens are forced to leave, most likely doomed.
• Worth It: Hro punched Kragger out of frustration for his broken relationship with Shayera. Kragger's smile afterwards show he's still proud of himself.
• You Have to Believe Me!: Shayera begs the League that she genuinely thought that the Thanagarians had noble intentions, not realizing till later that they intend to sacrifice Earth all along. The League understandably don't buy this at all since imprisoning them and taking over the planet are actions that are far from noble.
• You're Nothing Without Your Phlebotinum: Kragger comments that Green Lantern is "nothing without his toy", referring to his power ring. He's wrong, naturally; John still pulls his weight during the escape scene, and defeats Hro even after his ring is destroyed by tricking him into slamming his axe into a piece of machinery, electrocuting him into unconsciousness. After all, before he was a Green Lantern, John was a US Marine Corpsman.

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