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In S01E01 of Justice League Unlimited, Green Lantern, John Stewart, is wounded while on a mission with three other members - Green Arrow, Captain Atom, and Supergirl (Kara Zor-El). Believing Stewart to be unconscious, Kara interrupts the bickering Atom & Arrow to say that she is taking action since they won't. As she goes to leave, Stewart calls out and tells her she needs a plan first. When he calls her, however, he says "Shayera" instead of "Kara".

Is this an error on the part of the writers?

Screenshot showing Green Lantern calling out Shayera in the subtitles

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    Unless Lantern was supposed to be delusional, it's hard to confuse Hawkgirl and Supergirl. Best guess is that Hawkgirl (who's not in that episode) was originally written in and they changed it and missed some dialogue? otherwise, no idea.
    – KutuluMike
    Apr 18, 2017 at 2:45
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    Haven't seen the episode in a long time - but how badly was John injured? Could that explain him saying Shayera's name? Also (if I recall correctly) he and Shayera were somewhat estranged after the attempted Thanagarian invasion; this may have been done deliberately to make it clear that John did still have feelings for her (a bit harder to do with the cast expansion in the "Unlimited" seasons).
    – RDFozz
    Apr 19, 2017 at 22:11
  • @RDFozz - he didn't seem THAT badly injured. Arm in a cast, unconscious on the gurney. I suppose he could have been delirious and confused the two head-strong women for a second. They specifically showed that he still had feelings for Shayera when she returned within the next couple of episodes, so having this one mention of her name seems a little out of place.
    – Omegacron
    Apr 20, 2017 at 11:57
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    I believe John was badly hurt. The robot's blast ripped thru his full ring shield and left him in literally smouldering in a tattered costume. He even has little tube things up his nose! So, between pain, and pain-killers, I always reckoned his bottled-up emotions and feelings escaped in a Freudian Slip. After the events of last season, the whereabouts of Shayera were on every fan's mind with this first episode of the new season. And, point of order, Shayera would not be seen for another TEN episodes (more than a "couple")
    – Blaze
    Mar 17, 2019 at 17:01
  • @ Omegacron; The confusion thing is real. I was once in a similar condition and I told my best friend that I loved her. HE said, "That's great, but if you try to kiss me I'l pound you!" Maybe the writers had a similar experience.
    – JohnHunt
    Feb 24, 2022 at 18:45

2 Answers 2

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From IMDB Trivia:

When John is recuperating from injuries, he unconsciously calls out Shayera's name. This suggests he hasn't recovered from their break-up after the events of "Starcrossed", but the closed captioning for the DVD read that he says Kara's name, so this may just as easily be a goof.

Watching the scene now (at 1:21 seconds) , it definitely feels like a mistake. No one reacts or does anything to suggest Green Lantern is so out of it he is calling people by their wrong names.

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  • Video is dead...
    – Valorum
    Jan 27, 2023 at 21:31
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This was the first episode of the first series. The relationship between John and Hawkgirl had not yet developed at that point. I get the feeling this episode might have been intended to be used later, or that Hawkgirl was originally planned to be in Supergirl's place as the rookie.

Then again, it could almost be forgiven as a bad reading of "Kara", though I'm more of the mind that Phil LaMarr (Green Lantern's voice actor) simply got the characters' "real" names mixed up, and the director left the flub in because it sounded close enough.

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    Please don't vandalise an incorrect answer. If you're not happy with it, you can simply delete it
    – Valorum
    Jan 27, 2023 at 21:30

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