Crossposting from a Livejournal Reply: Faith and Green Lanterns

Over at his livejournal, jarodrussel posted a nice essay on why he thought Barbara Gordon would make a good Green Lantern.

Personally, I disagreed and went into why. Anyway, through replies, I ended up digressing into the nature of faith/belief and Lanterns. My reply was, I shamefully admit, pretty much an essay in and of itself. Since I'm an egotist, and moreover, I like to keep all my essays in one place, I decided to reproduce it here. To see the full discussion and context, please follow the link above.

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"I suppose in a sense, limiting was the wrong word. What mathematics and programming language and other things do that makes them ultimately incompatible with the ring is that they quantify. The ring does't allow for that. Engineers and mathematicians and programmers, used to being able to quantify and analyze, would be hindered.

Any other power and they'd be fine. Just in this case, I don't think it would work. People used to that sort of quantifying, would then be trying to use it on their environment. Which means, if nothing else, an element of hesitation. Even for just a split second, the programmer would be thinking "Okay, how can I do this?" while the other Lantern would have it done.

I think the core element needed for the ring to work is blind, irrational faith:

John is a character that's very tied to high ideals from his conception, and he never falters in his belief in them. He became a crusader for social justice because it's what's right. That strong belief is central to what makes him work as a Lantern. Superman might be a good Lantern for the same reason.

Hal is arrogance. He's a man who can't conceive of failure at all. He will never be able to understand that some things are just impossible, that he can't do them. Hal doesn't have contingency plans. He doesn't compensate because his faith in himself is so strong. He can't believe in defeat.

Guy's is emotion. When Guy feels an emotion it's pure. If that makes sense. Logic never enters into the equation. Anger's the obvious example, but Guy also loves very deeply and he has an amazing capacity for forgiveness. For example, in the Christmas issue, a gift from the Spectre allowed for a final meeting and emotional reconciliation with the spirit of his abusive father. Before that, in Underworld Unleashed, Neron's offer to him, his heart's desire, was his father, brother (a villain) and Ice back. The series actually ended with a gesture of forgiveness on his part, allowing Parallax to remain at Arisia's funeral, regardless of everything he did to the universe, the Corps and Guy personally.

People give Kyle a lot of credit for Rebirth, when he brought back Hal on sheer faith. But Guy actually goes one better, because Guy didn't know and wouldn't have believed a folktale about some mind-controlling yellow space bug. As far as he knew, Hal had done all of those things of his own free will and he'd forgiven him anyway. It's a deeper facet of the character that tends to get forgotten beside his general obnoxiousness.

Kyle's source of strength is his cluelessness. He's a character profoundly aware that everyone in the room knows more than he does, that no matter how much he learns, there's so much more out there that he can never and will never understand. It's strange to see this as a asset, because in any other situation, it would make for a very short career.

But what it amounts to is that he's completely without pre-concieved notions, to the point where even his subconscious can get in on the act (which was long considered impossible). It's like a very small child, trying to reach the moon by climbing a tree. And the ring works with that. I bring up the DNA scanner, not because of the coolness of creating one, (I don't doubt Barbara could), but because for a long time it was assumed that a Lantern had to understand the principles behind what he/she created. Kyle doesn't know anything about DNA, sequencing or electronics. Honestly, I'd be surprised if that boy could get his clock to stop flashing 12:00. And yet he creates complex mechanical devices at the drop of a hat. Simply because he had no idea that he's not supposed to be able to.

He started at a time when there was no Corps at all, he was alone. So everything he knows is what he's learned from other people. He's got a very idealized and confused idea of what Lanterns do, of what the Corps is, of what the ring can do. But he has such absolute faith in that idea that it works anyway.

Honestly, the biggest problem I have with a character like Barbara as a Lantern is because she's incapable of blind faith. Barbara, like most very smart people, has very strong convictions. They're supported by facts, evidence, logic and rationality. But it's not the same."