Ok, this is about as nerdy as it gets, but what the hell.
Let’s talk about which Characters from Firefly would get
recruited for the various Lantern Corps.
To do this we’ll have to investigate which emotion is most
central to the various characters, as well as the emotions that they can
engender into others. Also, for the sake of this exercise we’ll be using the
characters at the time of the series, rather than after the events of Serenity,
which substantially changed many, many things.
Quick background: In the Green Lantern comics, it was
revealed some years ago that Green wasn’t the only color of Lantern in the
universe. There was an entire light spectrum tied to various emotions, which
granted their wielders tremendous powers. They are represented as follows:
Green = Willpower
Blue = Hope
Yellow = Fear
Red = Rage
Orange = Avarice
Violet = Love
Indigo = Compassion
So here we go!
Let’s start at the top of the pile with the Captain:
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds – Red Lantern
- “You have
great Rage in your heart.”
Let us ignore the cruelty of a universe in which we cannot
travel back in time to kidnap a 25 year old Nathan Fillion and cast him as Hal
Jordan. We’re talking about Mal, and Mal’s defining emotion throughout the
series is Anger.
And really, it’s almost for lack of anything else. Mal has
lost everything that he has ever believed in (and it is implied that he had quite a bit of belief) due to a soul-crushing loss to the Empi- um, Alliance,
and with that was lost any Hope.
"Huh, bummer. Who's down for IHOP?"
The Alliance represents everything that Mal hates in this
world: Oppression, opulence, negligence and advancement without purpose. And
they rule the galaxy. Everything that he ever does must be achieved through a
filter of cow towing to and avoiding a regime that he despises with everything
in his heart. Every day, all the time.
We see evidence of this when he very nearly allows Shepard
Book to die because asking the Alliance for help is so abhorrent a concept to
him that he will not even entertain it. Earlier, we see him actively seeking
physical fights with Alliance-loyal civilians, for no other reason that a
desire to hurt them.
"It's really more of a Burgundy Coat..."
But my biggest insight into Mal’s central emotion comes from
War Stories. Mal keeps Wash alive through hours of pain and abuse at the hand
of a madman. Beyond that, he is able to keep his sanity intact as he is
literally tortured to death and then brought back, for no other reason than
that he has not suffered enough.
Finally, the tables turn, and the man who has tormented Mal
lies cowering at his feet. Mal stands, battered and bleeding, his eyes wide
with grim focus. Through a voice raw from cries of pain, he bellows at his
captor, “Do you want to meet the REAL me now?”
And I fucking believed him.
"No thank you, sir, I do not."
Mal seems like an ideal candidate for the Green Ring, but
Willpower is a funny thing. It needs a motivating emotion to guide it, or its’
just Entropy. Mal definitely has a relentless Will to survive, and to protect
his family, but it’s not what drives him, truly. In War Stories, his
perseverance through his trials may seem like a testament to his Will, but I
believe that it was merely the focus of a feral rage, patiently waiting to
uncoil.
Mal is driven by his hatred of the Alliance. He must
survive, if only to show them that they haven’t won. Not everything.
Alright, Mal’s mad. So who gets the coveted emerald band of
Will?
Zoe Alleyne Washburne - Green Lantern
- “You have
the ability to overcome great fear.”
I said before that Willpower is funny, because it needs
another emotion to anchor it, to give it purpose, and although Zoe has this
(we’ll nail it down in a moment), it’s her ceaseless drive and focus that
define her, more so than for Mal. She has complete understanding of her own
motivations, and her life is driven by her devotion to carrying out those
principles. She gets the job done, no matter what, and anything between her and
her goal is an obstacle to be overcome.
"What kind of pussy passes out after getting shot?"
But what is her Willpower derived from? We said that it
needs another emotion to fuel it, and Zoe’s is Love. Now, her love for her
husband is potent, but one would rarely say that it defines her, or drives her
actions throughout the series. Rather, it’s her love for Mal that keeps her
moving forward.
Somethin' about that's downright unsettlin'...
When I say “Love” here, what I really mean is Loyalty which,
to my mind, is a very deep, yet totally platonic, type of love. She trusts Mal,
she is devoted to him, and she will follow him on whatever course he sets. Does
this mean that she always agrees with him? That she will not question him, or
even disobey him when she must? No, but her entire life is centered around a
command structure that she learned in the military, but has elected to maintain
perfectly even in civilian life. Why?
I said before that Mal lost everything in the war, and he no
longer truly believes in anything, leading him down a hateful path. It is here
that Zoe and Mal are truly different, because Zoe still believes in something.
Exactly one thing.
She believes in Mal. And that belief gives her the Will to
move planets.
Kaywinnet Lee Frye - Blue Lantern
- “You have
the ability to inspire great Hope.”
Although Mal is fueled by rage, what makes him fascinating
is that he not only understands and acknowledges this fact, but actively works
to counteract it. He does this by surrounding himself with people who embody
the things that he has lost in himself, and so it is that he brought Little
Kaylee onto Serenity, to save it every day.
Kaylee is a force of pure joy, powered and driven from
within by a deep and true belief that people are inherently good and that
everything really will turn out best in the end. That all will be well.
This fact makes her very trusting, occasionally overly so,
and unfailingly honest, but it does much more. Hope is the most powerful
emotion, not because it is invincible (indeed, as Mal has seen, it can be quite
fragile) but because it has the ability to affect the most change in the world.
Kaylee quite literally saves Serenity every day by keeping her flying and in
good repair, but she also makes sure that everyone on the ship understands what
it means that they’re all there, together, counting on each other, She makes
them a family, she believes in each and every one of them, and that allows them
to believe in themselves.
Was she stoned for this scene?
I very sincerely believe that, had she died in the Pilot, everyone
on that ship would be dead or a killer. She holds them back from the brink,
just by being herself.
Jayne Cobb – Orange Lantern
- “You want
it all.”
No real strain on this one. Jayne evolved a great deal over
the course of the series, but in his heart he always wants more. His character
development is not connected with his realization that Money Is Not Everything,
but rather in altering his views on exactly what he is willing to do to get it.
Indeed, in his most potent moment of self-examination, he
still cannot fathom why a man would jump in front of a shotgun blast to save
his life. The concept of self-sacrifice is alien to him.
The future version on a backwards chair.
Examples of this are too numerous to list, but here goes
anyway.
“Maybe it’s gold…”
“Might even pick us up a re-ward for our troubles.”
“How big a room?”
“I don’t see the value in getting’ involved in other
people’s troubles without an upfront price negotiated.”
“Money wasn’t good enough…”
“Money was too good, Mal…”
"HR would like a word with you..."
This doesn’t make him a bad person. Indeed, the fact that
he’s only betrayed the group ONCE speaks to his incredible restraint, given
what we’ve seen. But it would be hard to argue that Greed isn’t Jayne’s driving
emotion.
Dr. Simon Tam – Indigo Tribesman
- “You have
the ability to feel great compassion.”
Another one that’s a bit of a gimme. Throughout the series
Simon is only motivated by doing things for others, primarily his sister. He
has a very promising future in field that he loves and truly believes in, and
he sacrifices it without hesitation when his sister needs him. He is only ever
concerned for her safety in any situation, literally throwing himself into
harm’s way to give her even a chance at survival. He turns to crime to get her
a medical diagnosis. He stands with her to be burned at the stake. He jumps
onto a federal officer from 30 feet up to save her. Simon’s character IS
protecting River. Her fate is his. Perfect compassion.
Even beyond his sister, however, Simon is a doctor, and it
is a profession that he chose for very specific reasons: He is a healer. He has
an inability to pass by a fellow human in need. In the Ariel hospital, he risks
their entire operation to save the life of a complete stranger. When he and
River are kidnapped by crazy hill-folk, he can’t help but tend to the sick he’s
brought to heal, and after he’s rescued he genuinely apologizes for not being
present to help Shepard Book. Because he was busy being kidnapped.
Yeah. Not a tough call, this one.
Inara Serra – Star Sapphire (Violet Lantern)
- “You have
great Love in your heart.”
I actually had a bit of a hard time reconciling this one.
Just because you’re a whore (sorry, Companion) doesn’t mean that Love has
anything to do with it. Indeed, it’s categorically opposed to the concept. But
I came around when I realized that Inara’s driving emotion is the Love that she
feels, completely outside of her job, and that it is more varied than anyone
else on the ship.
First, she loves the entire crew. Where Simon is a healer,
Inara is a nurturer, and against her better judgment she often places herself
in a soothing, comforting role to anyone who needs it, from a shaken Shepard to
a lovesick mechanic to a doctor about to die on his birthday (even as she was
about to die herself).
Get over it, guys.
Secondly, she loves Mal. Obviously. Her struggle with her
feelings for him is central to her character evolution and choices throughout
the series, eventually leading her to leave the ship. She understand that it’s
a damn powerful emotion, and she feels it so much that it is physically too
much for her to continue as she has.
"What? No, I'm crying about a different heartbreaking betrayal."
Finally, and perhaps most subtly, she loves Serenity.
Indeed, she may be the only person on the ship that loves it as much as Mal,
because Serenity means the same thing to both of them: Freedom. It’s hinted at,
albeit sparsely, through the series that Inara left her world for a reason,
escaping something, much like Mal escaping the Alliance. They both love her not
for what she is, but what she could be.
And than just makes them all the more perfect for each
other.
OH MY GOD! JUST KISS, YOU FREAKS!
Shepard Derrial Book – Yellow Lantern
- “You have
the ability to instill great Fear.”
Some folks have accepted the telling of Shepard Books’
mysterious origin in the comics as canon, while others maintain other theories.
You may put me in the former category, but really, for our purposes here, it
doesn’t matter. We’re only looking at the series, and in the series, this
motherfucker can be pretty damn scary.
Just ask River.
We don’t really know Books’ history, but the clues that we
are given paint the picture of a man capable of great and terrible things. His
reception when brought to the Alliance station for medical care wasn’t one of
reverence, but of urgency. He wasn’t a hero, but rather someone they wanted
patched up and out of their vessel as fast as possible. His conversation with
Womack certainly implied a more sinister mind behind his seminarian
countenance, and his knowledge of and skill with firearms hinted at a past
littered with bodies.
But really, it’s in Objects in Space that we get our biggest
confirmation that Shepard Book is a man to be Feared. When River accidentally
reads his mind (sees into his heart, whatever the fuck she was doing), we’re
informed that this man of the cloth doesn’t give half a hump who’s innocent or
not, in a voice that would not sound out of place coming out of the Clown
Prince of Crime. Somewhere in there was a dark and terrible will, and a man
like that is surely one who has stuck terror into more than a few hearts.
So you might notice that
we’ve gone through the entire Emotional Spectrum, but we still have two crewmembers
left. Luckily for us, fictional nature abhors a vacuum, and so there are two
more “colors” to consider from the GL canon:
River Tam – White Lantern
- “Live.”
The collection of all colors, all emotions, and the embodiment
of life.
River is incapable of shutting out emotions. Simon states as
much after a scan of her brain reveals that her amygdala has been stripped. His
exact words: “She feels everything. She can’t not.”
"It's as I feared... She has Plot-Convenient Dementia."
River represents all emotion, and indeed, she displays each
of them at different points throughout the show:
Will – “No power in the ‘verse can stop me.”
Fear – “Two by two… hands of blue…”
Rage – “I function, like a girl… I hate it, because I know
it’ll go away!”
Compassion – “You have to eat… keep up your strength.”
Love – “But I understand… You gave up everything you had to
find me.”
Hope – “And I’ll get better. I’ll get better.”
Avarice – “I didn’t get you anything.”
Is "badass" an emotion?
She is the culmination of every feeling, simultaneously, and
it has driven her mad.
Now, Wash doesn’t really fit any of these molds perfectly.
There isn’t a Snarky Lantern, sadly. But, just for funsies, I’m gonna break my
“series only” rule to fit him into the final spot:
Hoban Washburne – Black Lantern
- “Rise.”
The complete absence of color, of emotion. The embodiment of
death.
This applies to Wash outside of the context of the show more
than anything else. Honestly, what is the one part of Serenity that is most
powerful, most affecting, for the viewer as well as the characters? Wash’s
death is so potent that it connects the character to death after the fact, even
when he’s has been the very opposite throughout the entire story.
This is the opposite of death.
I’ll also admit that this selection also has a bit to do
with how the Black Lanterns in the comics actually operate: When the embodiment
of Death, Nekron, decides to end all life in the universe, he sends out black
rings to bring the dead back to life. The purpose is to bring about strong
emotional reactions in the living, which can be harvested to power his final
plans.
Also, Batman was a zombie.... 'cause.
Now, with that in mind, imagine if Zoe wandered onto the
bridge to find Wash sitting in his old chair, reaching out for her, joking as
if nothing had happened. Imagine her torment as she realizes the truth, and the
pain when he reveals his tattered, rotted form, vicious and hurtful words spewn
at his widow in an attempt to provoke her rage or sorrow.
Yeesh. Grim, but MAN, I would love to read that story.
Ok, well… I guess that’s it! Agree? Disagree? Lemme know!
