DC StudiosSpoilers ahead for the Lanterns Season 1 finale.Green Lantern fans know that John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) was always going to become one of Earth’s best defenders — but the path Lanterns takes to get him there makes the journey feel like a total waste of time. Thanks to flashbacks to his traumatic childhood, we know his relationship with fear, race, and the Lantern Corps itself was twisted by his parents’ training. He rejected the chance to become Earth’s next Green Lantern after Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) in 2016, but 10 years later, in Lanterns’ season finale, he finally finds his way back to that responsibility on his own terms. Oddly, it also brings him even farther from the version of the character fans know and love from the comics, tweaking a foundational aspect of Lanterns lore in the process.Bafflingly, John’s reconciliation involves an assist from Sinestro (Ulrich Tommsen), a disgraced Lantern who was ousted from the Corps after murdering a Guardian of the Universe. It’s a long story that ultimately doesn’t mean squat in the grand scheme, but he was broken out of his prison on Oa and forced to forge a new lantern on a strange, unnamed planet. As this planet was polluted by a chemical agent that imbues fear in all its victims, the lantern he makes there is also infused with fear as well as willpower. How? Who knows: Lanterns has never been interested in explaining how any of this lore works, and it doesn’t change its tune in the finale. All that matters is that this “unsanctioned” lantern will make John a very different kind of Green Lantern if he uses it to charge Hal’s old ring — which he literally pried off Hal’s corpse. Not a Yellow Lantern, as many theorized... just a freelance hero who doesn’t answer to the Corps and makes his own rules. Also: his own Green Lantern oath. For some reason.In brightest day, in darkest night...John makes his own oath in the Lanterns finale. | DC StudiosJust before John charges “his” ring in the lantern Sinestro forged, he admits to Hal (well... the hologram construct of Hal stored in the ring) that he’s never really jived with the Green Lantern oath. The Halogram tells him he can make it work to suit his own needs and intentions, and tells him “don’t be afraid to be afraid” before disappearing forever.John takes that advice to heart, freestyling a new oath that encapsulates his MO as a hero and acknowledges his relationship with fear:“In brightest day, in darkest night,I’ll embrace my fear, I’ll do what’s right.I choose this ring, I choose this fight,In service to this lantern’s light.”It’s... a little hypocritical, considering that not an hour before this pledge, he let Hal’s murderer and a Manhunter with half-baked plans for world domination walk free. If John intends to do what’s right, he’s off to a comically bad start. Said oath is also not very good, but hey — John’s an architect, not a wordsmith. If only there were a prolific sci-fi writer around to help him craft a punchier oath...The Lantern oath has defined the Corps for 80 years. Why is now the time to shake things up? | DCThere’s more than one Green Lantern oath out there, but what many consider the definitive creed for the Corps first appeared over 80 years ago in Green Lantern #9. Alfred Bester, the Hugo Award-winning author of several celebrated sci-fi novels, penned the original four-line pledge for Alan Scott, the Green Lantern of DC’s Golden Age. His work would become a fixture of Green Lantern lore, however: what began with Alan Scott was eventually co-opted for Hal Jordan and, later, the entire Corps. Again, a lot of Lanterns tweak the oath for their own purposes — even Alan had another catchphrase he’d use in battle now and then — but the oath Bester crafted for the comics is iconic for a reason. It’s a little piece of sci-fi history, one that even total novices to Green Lantern stories might be a little familiar with. That John doesn’t even get to say it when he realizes his destiny in Lanterns just feels wrong, not to mention a little disrespectful to the stories that paved the way. What about the original oath didn’t suit John’s intentions as a hero? His desire to acknowledge the power of fear is valid, to an extent, but it’s not like Hal’s creed made any grand condemnations about fear. Being a Green Lantern has always been more about will — the will to overcome fear, to design grand constructs, and protect the innocent — than fearlessness. Lanterns has misunderstood that at every turn, and John’s new creed only drives that point further. He may call himself a Lantern when the series comes to an end, but tweaking such crucial Lantern history strips John of any chance to live up to that title. It might have been better if he’d just become a Yellow Lantern instead, if this is the best hero’s journey the Lanterns team could have dreamt up.Lanterns is streaming on HBO Max.