Symmetries in the emotional spectrum
I was thinking about how the emotional spectrum changes as you move away from the green light and realised that in the comics there’s actually a lot of symmetry in emotions that are in equal but opposite parts of the spectrum?
We know that the farther away from the centre an emotion is, the more possessive its light. Red and violet are on opposite but extreme sides of the emotional spectrum – when a red ring takes you, you completely lose control and all your sanity, unless you get thrown in the blood lake. As for the Star Sapphires- before the Zamarons started using rings, the Star Sapphire would completely possess its host, like what happened with Carol.
Possession by rage or love has long-lasting effects- if you remove the red ring you die, and if you’re encased in violet crystal, you get converted to a member of the Star Sapphires.
Orange and indigo are closer to the centre and therefore less extreme- they’re possessive to an extent, but the effects are less permanent and wear off quicker. When someone touches the orange lantern, they are completely overcome with greed and an obsession, but go back to normal as soon as they’re separated. Indigo rings convert criminals into compassionate people, but the effect is gone as soon as the ring is removed- or at least it would take years of exposure to truly change someone, like with Iroque.
Another symmetry in the spectrum is how rings connect to hosts’ emotions. Rage and love need that emotion present in the host and amplify it- red rings find people with great rage, then jack it up to 100. To possess and convert people, the violet light needs to amplify some sort of love already there, even if an unconventional one.
Orange and indigo, on the other hand, both force the host to feel those emotions instead of tapping into what’s already there; you don’t need to feel strong greed or compassion for the rings to latch onto you. We know compassion is the scarcest emotion in the universe so that might be a reason, I’d say greed is probably also pretty scarce in comparison to the more “primitive” emotions like fear and anger.
Fear and hope are a mix of both- they need the host to feel that emotion, but also to be able to incite it in others. Yellow rings go out to people who are greatly feared, but to join the Sinestro Corps you have to go through a trial where you embrace your own fears to light your ring, or die in the process. Members of the Sinestro Corps have to understand different types of fears so they know exactly what to scare you with.
Blue rings seek out people with never-ending faith like Saint Walker, but are almost impossible to use by those who have no hope, as Hal found out the hard way. Blue lanterns can heal by searching people’s memories to bring up what they think will provoke the most hope in a person.
Fear and hope are the closest to will, so they’re not very possessive, but both have a close connection to the green light. Green Lanterns are vulnerable to fear, but in learning to acknowledge and overcome it, they can become stronger lanterns. The blue light powers up green rings, but a blue ring has limited capabilities without a Green Lantern nearby. Fear is will’s nemesis while hope can’t go without it, yet both strengthen will in a way.
That leaves green in the centre of the spectrum– the balance. Willing constructs takes an extreme amount of focus, so Green Lanterns have to be able to understand and overcome all other emotions. And yet, the will to protect the universe wouldn’t exist without them.
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