Lanterns has finally revealed why John Stewart has a thing for birds, and it’s more to do with character than power. Lanterns is in a class of its own as a superhero TV show; it’s prestige TV, with phenomenal character work. Episode 3 was a John Stewart origin story, daring to rewrite comic book lore and tell a chilling story in which a child’s parents tried to raise their son so he was literally fearless. In the process, they stripped their son of all his human connections.
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John never got to spend much time with his siblings, and episode 3 made it clear he wasn’t seen as the favorite son; when his parents explained it to him, the five-year-old John joked he’d always thought they simply preferred his brothers. What’s more, notice the episode never shows any other interactions with John. He didn’t have friends, and we haven’t seen any hint of a love life. Bereft of connection, John Stewart hasn’t truly lived at all. He’s almost as lifeless as the Guardians’ first synthetic peacekeepers, the Manhunters. But there’s one exception, teased in episode 2 and now made explicit.
John Stewart Seems to Have a Thing for Birds
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“Fly,” Hal Jordan told John in Lanterns episode 2. Rather than fly, John actually created a bird. It was initially an amusing twist, but Hal immediately realized there was something about that bird. It persisted even when John took the Power Ring off. Later, John’s subconscious mind appeared to sustain the bird even when he was unconscious. It appears to have briefly flickered out of existence when John’s mind was attacked by alien technology, because the bird goes curiously silent, but it was back again the moment the attack ended.
Naturally, viewers wondered just what Lanterns‘ bird construct really meant. Did it mean John’s willpower was greater than any other Lantern? Was he generating power for the bird himself, meaning he didn’t need a Power Ring at all? Theories were a dime a dozen, and most were based on “plot mechanics.” In reality, episode 3 has revealed it was something very different. This wasn’t about plot at all; it was about character, pointing to a deep wound that runs through John’s psyche. Because the birds actually have an incredibly deep meaning for John Stewart.
We Now Know Why John Focused So Much on Birds
Lanterns episode 3 shows John’s upbringing, and it’s pretty horrific. His father was passed on by the Power Ring, and never got over the trauma of that experience. After intervention from a Guardian, John’s parents committed themselves to raising John as what they imagined to be the perfect Green Lantern. They revealed their goal when John was aged five, lying to John that the Guardians watched his every move, and telling him the birds were their agents. Apparently John already loved birds, and they used this to ground their delusions in his life.
Taking a step back from the inhumanity of John’s parents, this is the kind of fantastical lie any parent can understand; a (normally) harmless untruth that builds fantasy in everyday life, all to encourage John down the path his mother and father want him to take. The problem, though, is that John wasn’t an ordinary child, and he was being directed down a dehumanizing path. Stripped of connection, John began paying more attention to the birds than he did to other people. They weren’t just companions, though; they were his judges.
Episode 3 makes this abundantly clear, because John continually focuses on nearby birds at moments when he fails or is failing. Yes, there’s connection there, but it’s deeply unhealthy. Fast-forward to 2016, when John manifests a bird in a moment when he can’t figure out how to fly, and you’re basically seeing John cast judgment on himself. Little wonder the projection was sustained; John’s self-judgment is so strong, so deeply-rooted, that the bird was no normal construct.
In episode 2, Hal said there must be some deep reason behind John’s manifesting a bird. John dismissed it, crushing the bird into dust between his fingers, insisting it was just a bird. He was lying, because it was far more than that. What we don’t know, though, is whether even John knows what that bird really was. He’s never cultivated an interior life, which means he doesn’t exactly have a great degree of self-awareness or a high emotional intelligence. Given this is the case, it’s quite possible Lanterns‘ bird construct is a clue viewers can spot but nobody in the show will ever fully understand.
Lanterns Just Quietly Dropped Another DC Mystery, And I Think I Know the Answer
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