Day 4: John/Shayera (JLU)
Feb. 4th, 2015 12:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameHoo boy.
That's probably the best way to put probably the ship of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. This ship is "It's complicated" incarnate. I actually have to go into the whole description of the series just to explain the damn ship!
So, here goes. Martian Manhunter, J'onn J'onzz, calls together superheroes from Earth to fight an alien threat that killed off the rest of his people. Among the newly created Justice League are Green Lantern John Stewart (no, not that one) and Hawkgirl, whose name was later revealed as Shayera Hol. They complemented each other well: John was very much a by-the-book cop, while Shayera, who claimed to be a detective from the distant planet Thanagar who got caught up in an accident that sent her to Earth, was the definitive bad cop. And loved every second of it. They frequently found themselves on the same missions—Shayera had to try to clear John's name when he was framed for destroying a planet, she fought to control her impatience with gender norms from the '50s and '60s when they were sent to a dimension based off the comics John read as a child, and after traveling back to World War II, she had to make the difficult call to leave a de-powered John behind to fight with the troops while she worked rescue—something that got her blasted by their mutual friend, Flash/Wally West, until she showed him how many people she'd saved with this call. And I realize that the first season was a lot of "Shayera saves John," and I suddenly understand something about my ship preferences.
The second season of Justice League is where things became more interesting between them. John ran into his ex, another Green Lantern, and Shayera gave him a boost of confidence when he needed it most (well, that and an assgrab, which he might have needed? I don't know?) We got another alternate universe episode, "A Better World," which featured darker, alternate versions of John and Shayera in what appeared to be a sexually active romance. Well, as obvious as they could be in the early '00s. In the DCAU. Which is surprisingly obvious. At the same time, when our Shayera was injured, John did not take it well and was ready to rip Arkham a new one when he found her hooked up to life support. Obviously, they got her some better medical treatment back home, but he did hesitate to attack her doppelganger in a similar situation. Later, when the Joker set up bombs across Las Vegas and decided he was actively going to ship them (because, well, the Joker), John was severely injured by one of the explosions, to the point that his heart stopped. Shayera had to use the energy in her mace to restart it, then got him the hell out of there for medical treatment on the Watchtower, basically telling Batman he could go fuck himself if he was going to tell her otherwise. When he finally woke up, they discussed the relationship they were dancing around, and though she was hesitant, they couldn't deny their feelings anymore. He removed her mask to reveal her face for the first time, and it was clear how amused he was to see that she had green eyes, and they kissed. And everyone lived happily ever after and nothing bad ever happened again.
Or, rather, "Starcrossed" happened.
In retrospect, there were hints that things were off about Shayera's story. J'onn was a telepath, but for some reason, he couldn't make his way into her mind—she had some kind of block designed almost specifically for him, considering another telepath got through and almost killed her. In another episode, she seemed afraid that he might have read her mind when he asked if she was thinking about home, only for him to reveal he'd guessed. She claimed that there was no way she could get back to Thanagar, since Earth didn't have the technology possible for zeta beam teleportation, but when given the chance to search through records that might contain information on how she could get home, she didn't take it. She also got very aggressive in asking another character what they knew about Thanagar—and while she was a pretty tough woman, it's kind of an odd reaction for someone who wants to go home. And of course, there's that difficult decision she made, to save wounded soldiers instead of the man she loved, a man she was friends and teammates with.
"Starcrossed" revealed that everything we knew about Hawkgirl was a lie. There was no Hawkgirl. There was only Lieutenant Shayera Hol of the Thanagarian Army, an advance scout sent to Earth to survey its defenses and report back to her superiors. A spy. Oh, and she was engaged to her commanding officer, Hro Talak. Naturally, this left everyone feeling a little betrayed (including the Flash, Captain of the USS John/Shayera), but there was no denying that the Thanagarians seemed to be on the up-and-up and truly wanted to protect the Earth from an invasion by the Gordanians.
Unless you're Batman, of course, in which case you don't trust anybody until you've investigated them thoroughly yourself, and even then, you have some doubts. He discovered that the Gordanians were never going to attack the Earth, so the Thanagarians were occupying it and instituting martial law for some other purpose entirely, and the League was unwittingly helping. Also unwitting was Shayera, who discovered that Hro and the rest of the army planned to turn Earth into the last link for their hyperspace bypass/jumpgate system that would allow them to sneak up on the Gordanians and attack their homeworld. But creating this jumpgate would destroy the Earth and everyone on it, with no time for evacuation. Shayera risked everything to get this information to the League, but they still were not happy or trusting. Especially John, who no longer knew where he stood with her. Unfortunately, her defection was discovered by the Thanagarians, and she was captured, leaving the League to fight them and unwillingly rescue her. Shayera joined the battle to find her fiancé and her boyfriend duking it out—John for the sake of the planet, and Hro for the sake of her love, unable to understand just what John had that he didn't. Shayera tried to reason with him, but Hro lost it and attacked her. John finally tricked Hro into attacking the ship's systems, and both he and Shayera deactivated the force field around the bypass generator so Batman could drop the Watchtower on it. As you do.
With these actions and last minute redemption, the League wasn't sure where they stood in letting Shayera remain among their ranks. Due to his personal feelings, John recused himself from the vote, but Shayera took the choice out of their hands and resigned. John confronted her before she left, asking the most heartbreaking question I've ever heard:
"Was it all a lie?"
Shayera's response was equally heartbreaking: "I did love you, John. I never lied about that."
At that point, she flew off, never hearing John answer too late, "I love you too." God-fucking-damn you, people.
In the aftermath of "Starcrossed," the League rebuilt, restructured, and invited new members. Eventually, they began to move on with their lives. John entered a relationship with Mari Jiwe McCabe, the supermodel/superhero known as Vixen. Shayera found her way to Doctor Fate's tower, where she really fell into a funk, unable to forgive herself for her dual betrayals. Eventually, she made her way back to the League, but she never reclaimed her Hawkgirl name, instead fighting as herself, without a mask. As it turns out, the League never kicked her out, and she was always allowed to come back when she was ready. Though she and Mari were romantic rivals, they also became friends—something I really loved in the episode "Hunter's Moon," where Mari tricks the Thanagarian rebels into thinking that she'll sell out Shayera because they both love the same man (something that resonates with Hro's second, Kragger—and no, JLU didn't handle the gay character very well, I'm sorry), then hijacks their ship. They decide to discuss their feelings about John, and it turns out to be them drinking and laughing over how John is a dork who cries at Old Yeller and even folds his socks. It's awkward, but Mari admits that she's in it for as long as she can be, and Shayera respects her for that, even if she does make the occasional joke about how back on Thanagar, assassinating romantic rivals is totally okay...am I describing Thanagar or Centauri Prime?
And then things get more complicated, because of course they do. On a mission where time is utterly broken, John and Batman are sent forward to the future of Batman Beyond, where they meet the future JLU member Warhawk, who turns out to be Rex Stewart, son of John and Shayera. This future possibility haunts John, since he's in love with Mari, but he's never stopped loving Shayera. And Rex is exactly the kind of son he'd want—military in bearing, clearly a mix of Shayera's hardheadedness and John's discipline, and he clearly loves and values his relationship with his parents. The young man is from fifty years in the future—plenty of time for things not to work out with Mari and then work out with Shayera. But things get complicated on Shayera's side too when she turns out to have a stalker named Carter Hall, an archeologist who's become convinced that they are reincarnated lovers from Thanagar who'd crashlanded on Earth and been worshipped as gods. As you do. Also, Dwayne McDuffie wrote the first episode of it and Matt Wayne wrote the second, and I'm sorry, but I have to call them out. Seriously, Ghost of Dwayne McDuffie—they're white aliens being worshipped by the brown natives. Doesn't something about that seem not quite right to you? I don't care if the Thanagarians are all apparently Hispanic—there's still something not bueno about it. Also, Ancient Egyptian Shayera may have been secretly having an affair with Ancient Egyptian Priest John, who was also reincarnated? Shayera says in the first episode that these memories have to be false, because the Thanagarian artifact that implanted the visions into Carter is faulty, but the second episode makes it kind of ambiguous, so...yeah. Afterwards, John decides that he's done letting destiny control his life, and no matter what his past life may have said and no matter what his future may hold, he is going to focus on the here and now, and the here and now is Mari. While Shayera becomes curious about the future she's being denied and asks Batman about her son.
I refuse to discuss the comics because 1, I haven't read them, and 2, I do not like what I've heard about what they've done to Mari. What I loved about Shayera and Mari was that they could get along, even be friends, and any moments of tension between them (as with "Grudge Match") made me extremely uncomfortable and angry, and what I've heard about Mari's fate in the supposedly canon Earth-12 comics pisses me off moreso. As far as I'm concerned, Rex still exists in Batman Beyond. We've seen him in "The Call" and "Epilogue." He happens. How he happens maybe should be left up to the fans.
This is not my first ship. It is not the first ship to destroy me either. But it is the first ship where I can only say that I've survived it. So far, there's only one other one that's done that to me, where I honestly feel like I should be drinking heavily after trying to explain it. I do still read the occasional fic featuring them, but the overall reaction of the shippers just makes me want to hide under the desk and never come out. It is not a clean relationship. It has a lot of problems. Hell, it might honestly not work out between them, and maybe Old Bruce had better reasons to stop Rex from talking about how he came about than simply "Knowing too much about the future is a bad thing." It's complicated, and that's part of what I like about it, because at heart, I kind of want to believe that they can figure this whole thing out and pull through. That their stars may align instead of crossing.
That's probably the best way to put probably the ship of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. This ship is "It's complicated" incarnate. I actually have to go into the whole description of the series just to explain the damn ship!
So, here goes. Martian Manhunter, J'onn J'onzz, calls together superheroes from Earth to fight an alien threat that killed off the rest of his people. Among the newly created Justice League are Green Lantern John Stewart (no, not that one) and Hawkgirl, whose name was later revealed as Shayera Hol. They complemented each other well: John was very much a by-the-book cop, while Shayera, who claimed to be a detective from the distant planet Thanagar who got caught up in an accident that sent her to Earth, was the definitive bad cop. And loved every second of it. They frequently found themselves on the same missions—Shayera had to try to clear John's name when he was framed for destroying a planet, she fought to control her impatience with gender norms from the '50s and '60s when they were sent to a dimension based off the comics John read as a child, and after traveling back to World War II, she had to make the difficult call to leave a de-powered John behind to fight with the troops while she worked rescue—something that got her blasted by their mutual friend, Flash/Wally West, until she showed him how many people she'd saved with this call. And I realize that the first season was a lot of "Shayera saves John," and I suddenly understand something about my ship preferences.
The second season of Justice League is where things became more interesting between them. John ran into his ex, another Green Lantern, and Shayera gave him a boost of confidence when he needed it most (well, that and an assgrab, which he might have needed? I don't know?) We got another alternate universe episode, "A Better World," which featured darker, alternate versions of John and Shayera in what appeared to be a sexually active romance. Well, as obvious as they could be in the early '00s. In the DCAU. Which is surprisingly obvious. At the same time, when our Shayera was injured, John did not take it well and was ready to rip Arkham a new one when he found her hooked up to life support. Obviously, they got her some better medical treatment back home, but he did hesitate to attack her doppelganger in a similar situation. Later, when the Joker set up bombs across Las Vegas and decided he was actively going to ship them (because, well, the Joker), John was severely injured by one of the explosions, to the point that his heart stopped. Shayera had to use the energy in her mace to restart it, then got him the hell out of there for medical treatment on the Watchtower, basically telling Batman he could go fuck himself if he was going to tell her otherwise. When he finally woke up, they discussed the relationship they were dancing around, and though she was hesitant, they couldn't deny their feelings anymore. He removed her mask to reveal her face for the first time, and it was clear how amused he was to see that she had green eyes, and they kissed. And everyone lived happily ever after and nothing bad ever happened again.
Or, rather, "Starcrossed" happened.
In retrospect, there were hints that things were off about Shayera's story. J'onn was a telepath, but for some reason, he couldn't make his way into her mind—she had some kind of block designed almost specifically for him, considering another telepath got through and almost killed her. In another episode, she seemed afraid that he might have read her mind when he asked if she was thinking about home, only for him to reveal he'd guessed. She claimed that there was no way she could get back to Thanagar, since Earth didn't have the technology possible for zeta beam teleportation, but when given the chance to search through records that might contain information on how she could get home, she didn't take it. She also got very aggressive in asking another character what they knew about Thanagar—and while she was a pretty tough woman, it's kind of an odd reaction for someone who wants to go home. And of course, there's that difficult decision she made, to save wounded soldiers instead of the man she loved, a man she was friends and teammates with.
"Starcrossed" revealed that everything we knew about Hawkgirl was a lie. There was no Hawkgirl. There was only Lieutenant Shayera Hol of the Thanagarian Army, an advance scout sent to Earth to survey its defenses and report back to her superiors. A spy. Oh, and she was engaged to her commanding officer, Hro Talak. Naturally, this left everyone feeling a little betrayed (including the Flash, Captain of the USS John/Shayera), but there was no denying that the Thanagarians seemed to be on the up-and-up and truly wanted to protect the Earth from an invasion by the Gordanians.
Unless you're Batman, of course, in which case you don't trust anybody until you've investigated them thoroughly yourself, and even then, you have some doubts. He discovered that the Gordanians were never going to attack the Earth, so the Thanagarians were occupying it and instituting martial law for some other purpose entirely, and the League was unwittingly helping. Also unwitting was Shayera, who discovered that Hro and the rest of the army planned to turn Earth into the last link for their hyperspace bypass/jumpgate system that would allow them to sneak up on the Gordanians and attack their homeworld. But creating this jumpgate would destroy the Earth and everyone on it, with no time for evacuation. Shayera risked everything to get this information to the League, but they still were not happy or trusting. Especially John, who no longer knew where he stood with her. Unfortunately, her defection was discovered by the Thanagarians, and she was captured, leaving the League to fight them and unwillingly rescue her. Shayera joined the battle to find her fiancé and her boyfriend duking it out—John for the sake of the planet, and Hro for the sake of her love, unable to understand just what John had that he didn't. Shayera tried to reason with him, but Hro lost it and attacked her. John finally tricked Hro into attacking the ship's systems, and both he and Shayera deactivated the force field around the bypass generator so Batman could drop the Watchtower on it. As you do.
With these actions and last minute redemption, the League wasn't sure where they stood in letting Shayera remain among their ranks. Due to his personal feelings, John recused himself from the vote, but Shayera took the choice out of their hands and resigned. John confronted her before she left, asking the most heartbreaking question I've ever heard:
"Was it all a lie?"
Shayera's response was equally heartbreaking: "I did love you, John. I never lied about that."
At that point, she flew off, never hearing John answer too late, "I love you too." God-fucking-damn you, people.
In the aftermath of "Starcrossed," the League rebuilt, restructured, and invited new members. Eventually, they began to move on with their lives. John entered a relationship with Mari Jiwe McCabe, the supermodel/superhero known as Vixen. Shayera found her way to Doctor Fate's tower, where she really fell into a funk, unable to forgive herself for her dual betrayals. Eventually, she made her way back to the League, but she never reclaimed her Hawkgirl name, instead fighting as herself, without a mask. As it turns out, the League never kicked her out, and she was always allowed to come back when she was ready. Though she and Mari were romantic rivals, they also became friends—something I really loved in the episode "Hunter's Moon," where Mari tricks the Thanagarian rebels into thinking that she'll sell out Shayera because they both love the same man (something that resonates with Hro's second, Kragger—and no, JLU didn't handle the gay character very well, I'm sorry), then hijacks their ship. They decide to discuss their feelings about John, and it turns out to be them drinking and laughing over how John is a dork who cries at Old Yeller and even folds his socks. It's awkward, but Mari admits that she's in it for as long as she can be, and Shayera respects her for that, even if she does make the occasional joke about how back on Thanagar, assassinating romantic rivals is totally okay...am I describing Thanagar or Centauri Prime?
And then things get more complicated, because of course they do. On a mission where time is utterly broken, John and Batman are sent forward to the future of Batman Beyond, where they meet the future JLU member Warhawk, who turns out to be Rex Stewart, son of John and Shayera. This future possibility haunts John, since he's in love with Mari, but he's never stopped loving Shayera. And Rex is exactly the kind of son he'd want—military in bearing, clearly a mix of Shayera's hardheadedness and John's discipline, and he clearly loves and values his relationship with his parents. The young man is from fifty years in the future—plenty of time for things not to work out with Mari and then work out with Shayera. But things get complicated on Shayera's side too when she turns out to have a stalker named Carter Hall, an archeologist who's become convinced that they are reincarnated lovers from Thanagar who'd crashlanded on Earth and been worshipped as gods. As you do. Also, Dwayne McDuffie wrote the first episode of it and Matt Wayne wrote the second, and I'm sorry, but I have to call them out. Seriously, Ghost of Dwayne McDuffie—they're white aliens being worshipped by the brown natives. Doesn't something about that seem not quite right to you? I don't care if the Thanagarians are all apparently Hispanic—there's still something not bueno about it. Also, Ancient Egyptian Shayera may have been secretly having an affair with Ancient Egyptian Priest John, who was also reincarnated? Shayera says in the first episode that these memories have to be false, because the Thanagarian artifact that implanted the visions into Carter is faulty, but the second episode makes it kind of ambiguous, so...yeah. Afterwards, John decides that he's done letting destiny control his life, and no matter what his past life may have said and no matter what his future may hold, he is going to focus on the here and now, and the here and now is Mari. While Shayera becomes curious about the future she's being denied and asks Batman about her son.
I refuse to discuss the comics because 1, I haven't read them, and 2, I do not like what I've heard about what they've done to Mari. What I loved about Shayera and Mari was that they could get along, even be friends, and any moments of tension between them (as with "Grudge Match") made me extremely uncomfortable and angry, and what I've heard about Mari's fate in the supposedly canon Earth-12 comics pisses me off moreso. As far as I'm concerned, Rex still exists in Batman Beyond. We've seen him in "The Call" and "Epilogue." He happens. How he happens maybe should be left up to the fans.
This is not my first ship. It is not the first ship to destroy me either. But it is the first ship where I can only say that I've survived it. So far, there's only one other one that's done that to me, where I honestly feel like I should be drinking heavily after trying to explain it. I do still read the occasional fic featuring them, but the overall reaction of the shippers just makes me want to hide under the desk and never come out. It is not a clean relationship. It has a lot of problems. Hell, it might honestly not work out between them, and maybe Old Bruce had better reasons to stop Rex from talking about how he came about than simply "Knowing too much about the future is a bad thing." It's complicated, and that's part of what I like about it, because at heart, I kind of want to believe that they can figure this whole thing out and pull through. That their stars may align instead of crossing.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-02-04 06:27 am (UTC)The first 'ship' I survived even if it wasn't 'planned' out as a ship was Taichi/Sora from Digimon Adventure. Mostly thanks to the director in Japan, that pairing was never meant to be yet the writers there and over here for the dub ran with it and even thought they would get together. (Gabumon's VA in Japan, as well as Sora and Mimi's VAs even thought so as well.)
John/Shayera is definitely another ship I've survived and even though I do read comics I'm glad I don't know specifically what happened to Mari. I probably won't be pleased the day I find out either.