Opening Remarks
So, how about that Freedom Fighters: The Ray, huh? As far as animated superhero shows go (if you can even call six 5-minute episodes a show), it's pretty mediocre. Not really good. Vixen was probably better (though never particularly great, either). Did you know that season 2 was released last month? I had no idea until just this morning. So I watched it... and discovered that it is unsurprisingly quite a headache for a discerning Arrowverse continuity-monger such as myself.
I titled this article "Continuity Curiosities" rather than "Continuity Flaws" because many (but not all) of the points of interest can be massaged without any truly irreconcilable continuity errors. Still though, it is plainly clear that the show's writers did a very sloppy job. By the way, I'm not exactly sure who the show's writers even are. As bizarre as it sounds, there are no writers listed in the show's credits. So I have no idea what to make of that. It's like a real-life continuity error.
Anyways, here are most interesting continuity points I found in Freedom Fighters: The Ray (FF:TR), along with my attempts to make sense of them.
Thousands of Earths
This one actually comes from season 1, but it's important enough that I should mention it here. Red Tornado tells Ray (of Earth-1) that there are thousands of Earths in the multiverse (as opposed to just 53 as claimed by Harry Wells). This doesn't seem to be a mere conjecture or assumption. Red Tornado mentions that he is equipped with a sensor that allows him to detect which universe he is in. He refers to Earth-1 and Earth-X by those names.
All of this demonstrates that he has almost certainly traveled through the multiverse before. Furthermore, he has apparently come into contact with people who use our familiar Earth-naming convention. In case it's not obvious, Harry explicitly says in "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 2" that Earth-X is named as such because it is such a horrific place. Whereas the other Earth numbers are based on objective scientific observations (each Earth's vibrational frequency difference from Earth-1, the base Earth) and could in theory be arrived at by independent parties, there is no way that Red Tornado would know to call his home "Earth-X" unless he learned that name from someone else--the same person or people from whom Harry learned that name.
This is all my long-winded way of saying that maybe Red Tornado had some interaction with the Council of Wells. But the more important point is that Red Tornado has a lot of credibility when he says that there are thousands of Earths. Perhaps this could become significant at some point in the future of the Arrowverse?
Update on 6/8/2019:
Confirmed! Elseworlds verified conclusively that Harry and Kara were wrong and there are many more than 53 Earths in the multiverse (though maybe not for long...). I've gotta doubt that this was an intentional decision by the FF:TR writers, though. I'm quite confident they just wrote that "thousands" line without any thought.
Conflicting costumes
Within literally seconds of season 2, we are confronted with our first continuity error. Costumes. The Flash wears his red-emblem Flash season 1 outfit. Green Arrow wears his sleeveless Arrow season 4 outfit. And Mr. Terrific wears his post-A5x14 red and white outfit.
Not only are these 3 costumes never in use at the same point in continuity, no 2 of them even are. So basically, there is no way at all to reconcile this. We just have to accept that the animators made a mistake (or three). This is frustrating because I'd like to be able to use the outfits to place the timing of FF:TR.
So just how well can we place the timing? Well, we know that it has to be after Curtis first meets Cisco and Barry in "Invasion!" It is perhaps telling that we don't see the Vibe suit and Cisco does not accompany the other heroes in response to Mari's distress call. These facts may suggest that the events of FF:TR take place before Cisco completes his suit and takes a more active crime-fighting role as Vibe in episode F3x11. All-in-all, I am inclined to place the events of FF:TR circa December 2016 or January 2017.
The Ray meets the Green Arrow and the Flash
The other immediate continuity error. FF:TR season 2 depicts the Green Arrow, the Flash, Cisco Ramon, and Curtis Holt meeting the Ray in both his civilian and secret identities. However, "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 3" makes it crystal clear that Oliver and Barry have no idea who Ray is. Even weirder, Ray doesn't recognize the Green Arrow and the Flash when he sees them in costume. You'd think that almost every random American on Earth-1 would be familiar with the Green Arrow and the Flash, right?
So this is another one with no real resolution. I think it's simplest to treat this as a minor retcon of "Crisis on Earth-X." I imagine everything in that episode would have unfolded in almost exactly the same way, regardless of whether Oliver and Barry had previously met Ray.
There's a giant robot in Detroit!
So this one's not actually a continuity error--it's just weird! The heroes battle a 100-foot tall robot rampaging through Detroit! They call it a military prototype, but still, that's totally out-of-place in the Arrowverse, right? Is this just me?
Curtis can fly!
Yeah, so... in the aforementioned giant robot fight, Mr. Terrific demonstrates the ability to fly. He's not standing on his T-Spheres like he does in the comics; he's just floating in mid-air with no visible means of propulsion. So that's totally weird.
I think common-sense dictates that Mr. Terrific definitely does not have the ability to fly in the canon. At least not yet. Maybe one day we'll get a little T-Sphere hovering on Arrow. Regardless, I'm calling this another animator screw-up.
Ray knows Supergirl
This one's interesting. When Ray is attacked by Overgirl at his home, he immediately identifies her as an evil version of Supergirl. Which is quite strange because residents of Earth-1 don't know Supergirl, do they? Remember, the events of "Invasion!" were kept secret from the public.
This is almost certainly just an oversight by the writers. However, we can perhaps interpret it as an implication that Kara has had other adventures on Earth-1 (probably with Barry), which were public in nature. On the other hand, as late as "Invasion!" none of the heroes recognized Supergirl. So if there was a public adventure it would have to be post-Invasion but pre-FF:TR, which is a pretty small window (~2 months) according to my reckoning above. As far as I can recall, there's no dialogue which specifically precludes this possibility (in "Duet," for example), but it is a bit of a leap nonetheless.
Update on 6/8/2019:
Well, if it was ambiguous before, the Legends of Tomorrow season 4 finale "Hey World!" confirmed that Supergirl has achieved significant celebrity on Earth-1. Of course, this is now after she has appeared semi-publicly during "Crisis on Earth-X" and "Elseworlds," so this FF:TR tidbit is still somewhat relevant. I guess I'm still inclined to infer that Kara had some undocumented and unmentioned adventure on Earth-1 in the months following "Invasion!"
Cisco knows about Earth-X
In FF:TR season 2, Ray enlists Cisco's help to breach him over to Earth-X. Doing so involves telling Cisco that there is an Earth ruled by Nazis.
This certainly seemed like a continuity error, seeing as how Cisco never mentioned knowing about Earth-X during "Crisis on Earth-X." However, upon double-checking I realized that Cisco actually doesn't appear at all in "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 2," the episode where the heroes learn about Earth-X (he's supposedly unconscious the whole time). He wakes up in the Pipeline with Harry, Caitlin, Heat Wave, and Team Arrow at the start of the next episode. Presumably, at that point Harry and Caitlin would have told Cisco about the events he missed, but that all happens off-screen. We don't see those characters again until the Legends break them out in "Part 4," at which point everyone is on the same page about the Nazi threat.
This is all to say that there's actually no reason to assume that Cisco didn't know about Earth-X before "Crisis on Earth-X." So this isn't a continuity error, just another curiosity.
In case you were wondering (who am I kidding? you weren't), Ray never (on-screen) tells Cisco the name "Earth-X." They simply refer to it as "Nazi Earth." That is to say, Harry probably didn't learn about Earth-X via Cisco via Ray via Red Tornado (which would wreck my reasoning up in "Thousands of Earths"). Harry almost certainly learned about it some other way. Then again, it's possible that Ray told Cisco the name "Earth-X" off-screen, though it would be weird that they would both continue calling it "Nazi Earth" after that point.
Dark Arrow vs. Black Arrow
So here's a minor yet interesting point of continuity. In promotional material for "Crisis on Earth-X," Nazi Oliver was dubbed "Dark Arrow." However, that name was not actually used on-screen during the crossover. It wasn't until Leo Snart used it in "Fury Rogue" that it became canon. On the other hand, FF:TR has its own name for Nazi Oliver: "Black Arrow." The name is used repeatedly both in the dialogue and in the acting credits.
Anyways, it's not at all inconceivable that Oliver's New Reichsman persona could be known by both nicknames. Just another curiosity (and indication that the writers were living in their own world while writing FF:TR).
A Fuhrer, a Chancellor, and a domino mask
This is probably the curious-est curiosity on the list. Throughout FF:TR, the characters never acknowledge the existence of Fuhrer Oliver Queen, even though they are actually fighting against him (in his Black Arrow persona). Obviously, it should have been a super-big deal to have a chance at capturing the Fuhrer of the Reich himself! There is an explanation, though--in FF:TR, Nazi Oliver wears a domino mask.
The full-face masks Nazi Oliver and Overgirl wear in "Crisis on Earth-X" could maybe be considered a form of armor, as opposed to identity concealment. Indeed, the Nazis voluntarily reveal their faces to the heroes in "Part 2." In contrast, a domino mask truly has no function except for identity concealment. Therefore, during FF:TR, the fact that Oliver Queen is also Reichsman Black Arrow is a secret. However, by the time of "Crisis on Earth-X," his identity is no longer a secret. Besides revealing it to the heroes, Oliver freely bears his face in front of dozens of Nazi underlings during the crossover.
After watching FF:TR season 2, it's pretty clear how Oliver's identity was compromised--the Freedom Fighters capture him (and Blitzkrieg aka Nazi Barry). But still, no one acknowledges the significance of his identity. The season ends with a Resistance soldier handing Phantom Lady an interrogation report from the captured Reichsmen, still without mentioning that HOLY SHIT WE CAPTURED THE FUHRER!!! Even weirder, the Phantom Lady says that the report gives them the location of the "Chancellor," whom Black Condor calls the "leader of the Reich." So what the hell's that about? I thought Fuhrer Oliver Queen was the leader of the Reich.
Anyways, it's possible that all this will be resolved in season 3 (if there is a season 3). I guess the implication is that Nazi Oliver has not yet ascended to the role of Fuhrer. Perhaps the Freedom Fighters will successfully assassinate this "Chancellor," leaving Oliver as next in line to take over. Still though, he would have to be a super high-ranking Nazi to be in that position, so you'd think the Freedom Fighters would still be a little more excited about capturing and unmasking him. Ugh, whatever.
The fate of Earth-X Vibe
Another interesting point to consider is what means of inter-dimensional travel are available to the characters. Let's break it down: Earth-X Vibe uses his powers to send Earth-X Ray to Earth-1 (with Red Tornado's cortex). Then, the Reichsmen capture Vibe and force him to send Overgirl to Earth-1 in pursuit of the cortex. Presumably, Vibe was also forced to bring her back to Earth-X. Then, Ray of Earth-1 enlists Vibe of Earth-1 to send him to Earth-X. At this point, Vibe of Earth-X escapes from the Nazis and rejoins the Freedom Fighters, giving them the exclusive power of mulitversal travel.
However, by the time of "Crisis on Earth-X," it seems clear that neither the Resistance nor the Reich have the power to travel between worlds. The crossover opens with the Resistance building a giant breach machine so they can travel to Earth-1. Then, the Reich storms the facility and commandeers the gateway. They also need it to travel to Earth-1. Once Nazi Oliver and Overgirl are on the other side, Resistance General Winn Schott wants to blow the gateway up, since--after all--it is the only way he knows that the Nazi leaders could ever get back to Earth-X.
So what can we extrapolate from all this? It seems pretty clear: Earth-X Vibe has to die before "Crisis on Earth-X." Somehow, this leaves the Resistance with the idea to travel to Earth-1 (likely based on what Ray tells them about his homeworld), so they pursue a technological means of doing so.
Ray told Ray?
This one's hardly significant, but it serves to demonstrate that the writers can't even be bothered to keep continuity within FF:TR. At the end of season 2, our Ray tells the Freedom Fighters, "Your Ray told me to destroy the cortex so the Reichsmen wouldn't get it."
Not true. Fake news. In fact, Earth-X Ray didn't so much as speak a single word to Earth-1 Ray before succumbing to his injuries. It was a hologram of the Red Tornado that told Ray to destroy the cortex. Like I said, not a really important continuity error, but just a kinda pathetic one.
Closing Remarks
So there you go. Like I said, quite the continuity headache, isn't it? I'm not really too surprised that the folks at the Arrowverse wiki haven't even made an effort to document FF:TR season 2, yet.
There are probably a few more little details that I've missed. Perhaps more continuity errors. Perhaps some flaws in my reasoning here. It's hard (impossible?) to recall every offhand remark the characters have made, but in many of these cases a single line of throwaway dialogue could be awfully important. So if you know of anything I've missed, let me know.
And also let me know your general opinions about Freedom Fighters: The Ray. I'll admit that it's a cool way to showcase a lot of fun characters from the Arrowverse, but beyond that the writing is pretty blah. A lot of that comes down to the time constraint, though. How much can you really do in 30 minutes?
Hope you enjoyed!
Phillip
