DC Universe's Stargirl

The preview seems to indicate the latter. It does still leave the question of why the staff works for her though.

I mostly think of it as similar to Green Lantern rings even though DC streaming has Green Lantern. I think the Cosmic Staff simply chose Courtney because of some heroic quality that Pat lacks or something. This Geoff Johns after-all.

So, Henry's dead, but specifically he died while stuck in the middle of the lair of an infamous unethical medical / genetics experiment enthusiast with little respect for the bounds of human mortality, and access to brainwashing tech and a vested interest in exploiting his abilities.

I give 50/50 odds that Henry shows up a few episodes from now as a brainwashed psychic lab-experiment / zombie.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jul 22nd 2020 at 7:25:26 AM

I considered it. It would just makes his sacrifice, redemption and death that more awful and depressing if they don't find a way to get him back to who he was if that's what happens and he really does wind up a villain.

Pat punching that douchebag in the face was the greatest moment

Also, there I thought Icicle would get some humanization, but at the end he got even worse than before.

So was I the only one thinking that the staff wasn’t working because Courtney gave away her locket and it was what connected her to the staff?

I assumed it was because of the talk it had with Pat and the fact that she was considering leaving Blue Valley with her mom

Yeah, I don't the locket has anything to do with it. It seems simply to be a state of mind, confidence sort of thing. Once Courtney regained faith in herself, she and the staff seemed more in synch than before.

I liked Justin the Shining Knight and his struggle in the episode even if he is a late story element.

I liked Pat punching Courtney's Father in the face because I love how much he cares about his family.

I don't know much else to say.

Edited by Matchingbone on Jul 29th 2020 at 10:49:50 AM

The fact that Justin knows they did something to him and can't do anything about it makes it worse. That's messed up...and probably hits close to home.

Promo for next episode. Guess no more diet tips from Larry?

Yeah, that was actually a pretty emotional episode. And yes, Courtney's dad getting punched by Pat was good. He was so asking for it.

So, Brainwave seems to have absorbed something from his son. What do you want to bet the effect is not just increased powers? Or maybe I'm just Wild Mass Guessing again.

Pat better tell Mike about all this shit sooner rather than later. There is literally no reason to keep him in the dark whatsoever.

Yeah, it does seem to be making him suspicious and resentful, and I could see not knowing getting him hurt...

Yeah, I dunno what the end goal for that is, simply because Mike's relationship with everybody keeps going one step forward, two steps back. That plus it looking like he's definitely going to find out next week makes me wonder why they those to make that such a constant plot point.

Is he going to accidentally betray Courtney or something and then be wracked with guilt about it?

If THAT ain't a damn cliffhanger.

Man, I want it to be next week already!

I'd settle for it being tomorrow! Maybe I should get that DC app...

Tomorrow: Watching the episode now. Missed the first ten minutes, tho.

It just occurred to me that Brainwave has the same reason for being a misanthrope as Psycho Mantis.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Aug 4th 2020 at 5:33:36 AM

Something I appreciate about Dr. Henry King and Jordan Mahkent is how they are so dead-set on their misanthropy and negativity and that they know they do bad things but have deluded themselves into thinking they are right. Jordan has many moments in the series where he doubts whether what he is doing is right but he always thinks that he has to keep going on this dark road. Henry gained a whole lot of knowledge because of his powers but he also can't understand the good in people which leads him to violent acts instead of trying to gain greater understanding as he just sees their surface level evil. Big props to all the actors of the ISA for being deep in some parts and fun in others. Usually you get one or the other in CW superhero shows

I like the bit where the heroes find out the Injustice Society's manifesto and get confused because it's all good things, except for the part where they're murdering millions in order to ensure those good things happen.

It reminded me of the bit in BTAS where Ra's Al Ghul tells Batman his motives (save the environment, more or less), and it doesn't really garner a reaction until he explains that his plan is going to wipe out billions.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Aug 4th 2020 at 7:58:23 AM

I'm not entirely convinced that manifesto is real and not something the Gambler made to mess with the heroes.

Depends. My guess is the Injustice Society used to be about regular old world domination until Icicle's priorities changed with the death of his wife.

Now he's all about protecting the environment and ruthlessly destroying amoral business practices and all that jazz, except he's still an evil asshole so he can't think of any way to do it that doesn't involve killing loads of people.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Aug 4th 2020 at 8:44:48 AM

Oh man. They pulled a Ozymandias on us!

Well, maybe not fully since it's 30 minutes to failure instead of it's been 30 minutes, so you fail, but still.

Given Brainwave's motivation, I think he was all about the good stuff when joining up. It's just that he hates people so much he's super happy to kill a lot of people.

The ISA wants to make America great at the cost of people losing their lives. Our heroes only have to fight because for the ISA to have that better America millions of adults have to die. Due to the internet and people not seeing beyond their own bubble of where they are I think there are people in the audience that want the ISA to fully win even if people die. I would appreciate if we could see that our heroes fight because it takes all the people to make the great reality the ISA wants for America and not some, but I think if they tried to say it in the show it would come across very clumsy and preachy.

It's easy to think that maybe the ISA are still right even with the high price of their plan. Some people are just so dumb, stubborn and self destructive that they'd fight against this idea even without the 25% of the people will die part of it. Again, Real Life is kicking us in the face with how people will scratch claw and bite to avoid doing something that actually benefits them.

That being said, while you do need to break an Omelet in order to make some eggs, if you have to break that many eggs....you won't have much left for later omelets. More to the point, if the only way to make things better is to kill a lot of people, then what's to stop someone else from deciding to do the same thing later on to accomplish their own goals. And then someone else does the same thing. Cause that's the example you set for future generations. People only listen if you kick their ass and leave a lot of bodies.

A certain magus from a long running Japanese fictional series (which also deals with King Arthur) learned that lesson himself. If you keep killing for the greater good...

Then you just gonna end up killing until the only people left are the ones you like.

Oh, and that dude I mentioned: he ended up killing the people he liked....twice. First directly in an illusion, and then indirectly through his decision to actually not keep killing people for the greater good....which resulted in a lot of people dying anyway.

So yeah, murder doesn't fix every problem. If you have to force people to do something, even if it's legitimately for their own good, then they won't actually learn it's for their own good.