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hey, random question but if it were up to you, what emotions would you have the lantern corps representing the invisible spectrum of light represent?

...Oh this is like...a fun ask...oooh...

Okay, so I get what Snyder was trying to do with the Ultraviolet Corps initially, and I think it's a cool direction. Umbrax is a very fun concept, and brings to mind Caiphon from Forgotten Realms lore. A sentient, sapient, evil eldritch star is such a fun concept. And taking the light we can't see and turning it into unconscious, hidden emotion kinda of works in a thematic vacuum? But the problem is how it sits with the rules of the other lights.

Note, I haven't spoken to Johns about this (god that'd be a weird conversation for so many reasons) but the way the Emotional Spectrum was fleshed out was pretty intentional in a lot of ways, and seemed to be pulling from a number of different ideas. Some evolutionary psychology, a little science abut how light works, etc etc.

For example, Sapphires being Violet and not Pink is somewhat important, because Violet is both more distinct from Red than Pink would be, and that light is the most energetic on the visual spectrum. Which means that their wavelengths are very close together. The more energetic the light, the more physically dangerous it is to us, and the ultraviolet spectrum is even more energetic than visible violet. Gamma radiation is the extreme end of all of that, we know that stuff will mess you up. We must remember that light itself is radiation. To that point, he intensity of violet light is pretty easy to see reflected in how the Sapphires were classically depicted, as well as the way their light is notably dominant over the others in the spectrum. Sapphires have no weaknesses to any other light specifically, and in fact hard counter a good number of them by just being overwhelming.

It's not perfect 1-1 science logic matching here, and it's not all consistent, but it's a useful jumping off point.

So, the evolutionary psychology bit comes in when we look at the emotions chosen. For a strong emotion to evolve and stay around as a common response, the idea is that it's gotta be useful to the organism in some way.

Will is less of an emotion and sort of that baseline impetus to do in the first place, that's why it's the center, that's why it feels so weird compared to the other emotions, because it's more of an underlying requirement for the others than specific on its own. If you think about how the other colors need to mix with Green to be able to destroy a Black ring, it kind of tracks. Green is kind of the ability to feel strongly in its most neutral sense. We'll come back to this idea later.

Fear and Rage keep you safe from negative outcomes (fight or flight yeah?)

Love, Compassion and Hope are important for creatures who form social bonds and need to rely on each other, as well as making it more likely for reproduction to occur and young to be cared for.

Greed keeps you fed, it doesn't have to be excess, but the desire to acquire is foundational and useful in proper context.

I think Curiosity also fits cleanly into this thematic and rationale, and that's a whole other thing I'm working on. I do genuinely think it's the only major emotion that is distinct enough to not be captured by the other lights on the spectrum, and follows the usability rules.

Happiness and Sadness are less driving emotions, and more positive/negative reflections on the current state of the organism. So they're feelings, but not as independent and actionable as the others. Content/discontent are things to seek/avoid, but both are points of stagnation, which is why I think they're not good or interesting to make lantern weapons out of, despite them being valid emotions. They just don't fit the vibes of the others, and TBH I do think Black and White in many ways already fill their thematic slots as the positive and negative poles.

That being said, part of the conceit with the UV lanterns is the idea of primal, negative emotions, which I don't agree with. Emotions are all neutral, it's just the context, so the light itself cannot be only a bad expression of itself, it all has to have nuance and variability.

...SO! With that out of the way, what would I do with Ultraviolet light if I already thing most of of the usable emotions are already depicted?

Couple of thoughts:

We lean into the idea of high frequency light being focused and powerful and branch off from love and make it Desire. Which is kind of like Will in that it's a baseline requirement for all of the other emotions. If Will is the ability to DO, Desire is the ability to WANT, and those are related, but different foundationally. So what would that mean practically? Much like how Will can be used for whatever the user cares most about, Desire would be similarly flexible, but instead of the freedom of neutrality, the Ultraviolet light would take whatever you feel most strongly about and amplify it. Most rings require you to already have a notably potent emotional expression to use. These would work on literally anyone who put one on, the drawback being that it's a much less stable expression, and can lead to some scary stuff if given to the wrong person. So reasonable, a lantern who knows themselves and has good control over their emotions like John would be able to use one of these rings safely, because his identity and leanings are strong enough that he'd probably just be a bit more intense but still the same overall. Whereas you give it to a random person and suddenly they're spiking wildly everywhere because they're less focused. This is fun too because it's the concept of the Indigo ring being able to touch other lights because of neutrality but reversed into something more chaotic. Keeps Umbrax able to control is lanterns by imposing its own desires on them (Like Atrocitus used to do), as well.

We go a little "Colors Out of Space" with it. Lean into the idea that it's something we can't properly perceive, and make it an indescribable, Eldritch Emotion. Much like our eyes only developed to see certain waveforms, our brains only comprehend certain sensations natively, and so you could have some fun with the idea that this ring is pulling from something you don't really understand or have the ability to process or name. Regardless of what the purpose of that feeling would be, our inability to process it could lean to a form of madness as our brains start firing off and panicking trying to respond. So you still get erratic and unpredictable and dangerous, not because the emotion is evil, but because we can't handle it.

Similar but different to 1, it could be Passion as well. More pure than lust or rage or greed, Passion is Desire, but less fleeting. Where Desire is dangerous because it's intense and mercurial, Passion is intense and long-lasting. It finds that core drive that you care about, that dream, that ideal, and because of the energetic potential of that part of the spectrum, cranks it all the way up to single-minded obsession. It's that madness that Oranges and Reds and Sapphire's all experience, but much more individually specific.

I'd probably do something along those lines if I ever bothered with it, but even then I'd leave it as a one-of, or very rare thing, like Volthoom's ring. In my mind, it's always going to be to unstable and inconsistent for a group to unite around, outside of Umbrax asserting itself.

#shut up cerata #emotional spectrum #green lantern #green lantern comics #star sapphire #umbrax #ultraviolet corps #cerata speculates about fake rules #asks #answered #thanks for the ask!