Part II: Young Justice
The timeline of Young Justice as been said to revolve around 2010 for the series first season.
"Officially, the series does not have a canon year, but for season one, the producers used 2010 as the basis for days of the week and calculating time relative to events in the past." - YJ Wiki
However, I disagree with this. Let me reference
the following conversation...
spence writes...
Does the show take place in 2011? The photograph of Dick in the trophy display in "Schooled" shows the year 2011 on it.
Greg responds...
No. That photograph, or rather the date on it was a mistake.
We intentionally have NOT put a year on the present day events on the show. There is NO CANON YEAR, as far as I'm concerned.
But the days of the week are based on the 2010 calendar. And in my timeline, now a whopping 185 pages, for purposes of math - relative to events in the past - we're set in 2010.
So in one sentence Greg says "there is no canon year" and then goes on to say "we're set in 2010". Which one is it? I think 2011 works just fine if "there is no canon year". That means it's up to the individual, after all, it's all fiction!
To my knowledge, there was never another date actually seen in the series, so I'm going with 2011 as the basis since there is no reason it can't be. On-screen content always trumps "official" statements in my opinion. Some will disagree.
In the second episode of season one, John Stewart and Hal Jordan are shown as active Green Lanterns (now members of The Justice League). This lines up with both men being established already in GLTAS and that show being a prequel. It is unlikely both were members of the League in GLTAS since the JL was never referenced in that show.
Guy Gardner shows up in the middle of the first season sporting the same haircut, but with a lighter warm weather uniform. Since the character was already introduced in GLTAS, that gives more evidence of that series being a prequel.
Years later, in the third season (which I have set in 2019), Guy sings about Oa - the headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps - and Mogo, a sentient planet and fellow Green Lantern first established in the previous show.
Now onto Season Four - set in 2021, which ties HEAVILY into Green Lantern TAS and is what provides the main connective tissue between the two series.
Both Tomar-Re and Kilowog were established as active GL's in the previous series. They both return here, with Kilowog even sharing the same voice actor from the previous series.
Perhaps the best piece of evidence that places the two shows in the same continuity is not only the appearance of GLTAS original character Razer, but the fact that this season literally flashes back to the events of that show's final episode and gives the audience the immediate aftermath of it.
Dialogue indicates that Razer leaving Hal Jordan and Kilowog (as seen at the end of the "Green Lantern: The Animated Series" episode 1.26: "Dark Matter") occurred four years before the events of this episode. Metron saying it took Razer less than four years to lose hope may indicate that the time was being rounded up instead of down. This suggests the events of the "Green Lantern: The Animated Series" episode 1.26: "Dark Matter" ended in late Team Year Six (2017) or early Team Year Seven (2018). This doesn't line up, as the entirety of "Green Lantern: The Animated Series" has to occur before "Young Justice" due to the appearances of Guy Gardner and John Stewart, who are both introduced in that series for the first time (John Stewart is never seen.)
Kilowog tells Razer "
Four years. Four years! You don't call, you don't send subspace mail. And suddenly you're here wearing blue pajamas." Razer then states "
Four years ago, I captured this Blue Ring's potent energy signal and tracked it to you." followed by "
Shortly after we parted (at the end of "Dark Matter"), a blue lantern ring powered by hope found me in deepest space." This would place "Dark Matter" in 2017 to line up with this episode being set in 2021. However, in "Dark Matter", Aya transports Hal Jordan back to the beginning of time and then returns in the "present day", which could theoretically be a different year (2017 in order to line up with this episode being in 2021).
To keep Green Lantern and Young Justice as close as possible to each other from a timeline perspective, I have Green Lantern TAS beginning in 2009 and ending in 2010, with the final scenes of the series occurring seven years after the rest of the season in 2017.
So, with all of that said, the TL;DR version of this is Green Lantern can absolutely be a prequel to Young Justice if one assumes there is a time jump via time travel during the Green Lantern series finale. Design updates/changes can simply be chalked up to the different animation styles. I think both shows being connected makes sense and the general audience watching will see the cohesiveness of them both and how they compliment each other so well. Thanks everyone.