With This Ring / Tropes I to R

Tropes A to C | Tropes D to H | Tropes I to R | Tropes S to Z

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I - K

• I Can Live With That: This is Paul's reaction when Red Arrow points out that protecting the Rhelasian peace conference means they've done Lex Luthor a big favour.
  Paul: Seventy four million people will be happy with the result. I can live with it being seventy four million and one.
• Idiot Ball:
  • The whole team getting captured in Homefront (S01E12) by only two robots.
  • Almost the entire Justice League getting infected in Auld Acquaintance (S01E26) — despite Paul’s warnings about the potential danger and required caution.
  • Belle Reve mass escape not being prevented despite Paul's and his teammates' suspicions regarding its integrity breach.
  • During the negotiations following the Kahndaq crisis, Paul’s seeming inaction to prevent both Queen Bee from provoking Teth Adom into doing something stupid and Teth Adom from doing that stupid something. The result was: making an already bad newsbreak even worse, giving grounds for future potential public unrests regarding meta-humans, and losing a valuable source of information on smuggled Apokoliptian technologies. Could probably even count for a Lost Aesop, since only a chapter before Paul was taking care to convince Adom to not rush and make a blunder.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: When Red Arrow is busy listing off how various members of the Team could be the mole, Orange Lantern defends himself by pointing out that if he was the mole, then the week before where he became the Host of the Ophidian and became a Physical God would have been more than an ideal time to not only off the other members of the Team, but accomplish any number of goals for the bad guys.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Inverted by Paul, who goes to visit Lawrence Crock and warns him never to have any contact with his family again.
  Paul: Jade and I are romantically involved, and no, because I'm sure you're about to make a comment, I'm not asking your permission or anything stupid like that. You see, I don't really care about you one way or the other, but Jade really hates you. So I thought I'd say from the outset, that if you become involved in the life of your natural family -or with me- in any way, I will kill you.
• Ignored Epiphany: Father Mattias nearly gets through to Paulphidian that he doesn't need the Ophidian and it's trying to make him believe that he does. It falls apart and then Paulphidian immediately forgets what they're talking about.
  Father Mattias: You are stronger than this. You do not truly want this.
  Paulphidian: But. We. Still. WANT.
• I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Paul accidentally destroys Superboy's inner ears with a sonic weapon when fighting Mister Twister.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight:
  • While fighting Black Adam, OL implores Teth Adom to resist his bondage and fight back to prove the wizard Shazam wrong.
  • Father Mattias and all of OL's friends do this in hopes of Paulphidian breaking the Fusion Dance.
• I'll Kill You!:
  • When the Team believes Robin to have died, Wally slips into this trope.
  • Paulphidian says this when Martian Manhunter "killed" Miss Martian in a telepathic simulation. Then he makes good on his word (in the simulation).
• Immortal Procreation Clause: Zigzagged for Themyscira. While the Amazons are immortal as long they remain on the island they can still procreate if they wanted to, but since they want nothing to do with men, they won't. Practically speaking, the island does have a limited amount of arable land as well as living space, though this hasn't been an issue for as long as anyone can remember. Socially, this is enforced as some parts believe the desire for motherhood is a mental and moral weakness. To the point that Hippolyta was almost overthrown when she had Diana due to how much controversy it caused, though there were examples of Amazons who did crack mentally due to a desire for motherhood. And then Orange Lantern came along, revealing that the Ring can combine the DNA of two females, allowing the Amazons to breed without men, allowing for the first time in thousands of years that natural birth can happen on the island. Paul points out that this trope is nearly disastrous for a warrior society like the Amazons, since there have only been six new people who live on the island in the past century, which is far outstripped by those who died in the past thousand years, subtly pointing out that like it or not, the Amazons are very slowly dying out.
• Impossible Theft: Thaddeus Junior and Georgia managed to steal a device from OL's subspace pocket, right under his nose, since he didn't get basic training on locking his subspace.
• I Need A Drink: When Thaddeus Sivana Jr and Georgia start arguing, Paul turns to their older siblings to see if he needs to intervene, but finds that they've both pulled out hip flasks.
• Inferred Holocaust: Utterly averted with the events of "Misplaced". In Gotham, OL finds a bridge on fire and many children injured or dead due to the adults driving their cars disappearing. OL states that the situation will get worse because there are many children without caregivers and many that might die of exposure. By the end of the incident, the official count is somewhere around eight hundred thousand children.
• Insistent Terminology: Paul doesn't like letting people just refer to "Green Lantern" or for that matter "Orange Lantern," because there are several Green Lanterns on Earth and he wants the Orange Corps to work similarly someday.
  Tour guide: Thank you. Everyone, this is Orange Lantern. He's-.
  Paul: Two eight one four. Orange Lantern two eight one four. This is Sector two eight one four, I'm the Orange Lantern assigned to it. Sorry for interrupting you, it's rude of me, but if people just say the job title you get silly situations where people think there's only one Lantern or something.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite the Renegade and Paragon being very different people, both of them express their contempt for Superman to his face, both of them picking Renegade options to call him out on his treatment of Kon.
• Internal Reveal: Due to the Dramatic Irony, OL is a bit embarrassed when it turns out there was a mole.
• Interspecies Romance:
  • Ferdinand the minotaur chef at the Themysciran Embassy has a relationship with Leslie Anderson.
  • M'gann and Kon, but that was canon already.
  • Swamp Thing and Abigail Cable are married. Unfortunately, since this was before the laws were passed by Orange Lantern and Lex Luthor's campaigning, it counted as Crimes against Nature and caused legal issues.
  • The Renegade dates Luna, because Power is Sexy to Apokoliptians, and she certainly has that. It doesn't hurt that Starswirl's Mirror allows them both to shift between pony and human.
• Intoxication Ensues:
  • As long as he doesn't have a soul, Paul is severely affected by ambient magic. He first encounters it when visiting Gaia's temple, which makes him basically high, and then spends hours bedridden after getting magical tattoos that will help him slowly grow his own soul.
  • Apparently, Euanthe responds to Swamp Thing's fruit like catnip while she's un-adjusted.
  • The Titan seeds would never poison a guest, that would be against Sacred Hospitality, but if the fruit bowl happens to be somewhat alcoholic, that's the guests' own lookout...Aporia doesn't seem to care much, though, and finishes the entire bowl.
• In-Universe Catharsis: After the useful but frustratingly incomplete results of testing the Danner formula on rats, Paul takes out his feelings by smacking the rats around with a baseball bat (which, having been enhanced, they can shrug off).
• In-Universe Nickname:
  • OL calls the Guardians "Bobbleheads", the Green Lanterns "Greenies" and Artemis' bow a "pointy stick launcher".
  • The Ophidian calls Green Lanterns "Green Men" and constructs "toys" and Larfleeze "the gnat". She also calls Paul "My Agent".
  • Orange Lantern is referred to by Kid Flash as OL.
  • After being fused with the Ophidian, Paul is commonly known as "The Cake Man" for the huge cake he made over the skies of New York.
• In Vino Veritas: Alan Scott drunkenly reminisces on his dead comrades, his lost love, OL's sexuality and how OL resparked his hope.
• Irony: Orange Lantern is mistaken for being a Palette Swap of Green Lanterns. His natural eye color is green.
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople): As in canon, being a DC Universe, several countries have different names, even when supervillains aren't involved.
  • Instead of North and South Korea, the local equivalents are called North and South Rhelasia.
  • With Teth Adom now in control of Black Adam's power, Kahndaq (the local form of Egypt) is getting more attention.
• Is This Thing Still On?: OL gives Cat Grant an interview detailing the events of "Displaced" and his role in it. He was completely unaware that it was a live telephone interview for the GBS morning news until after the fact.
• It Only Works Once: Anything that works against a hero or recurring villain once is often rendered useless by the next encounter. In a nice twist, this is not because (in most cases) the resource is used up, but because both sides work to adapt past that weakness.
  • Paul once used his ring to find the League of Shadows. A few hours later, the Light had measures in place to shield themselves from detection. Then it starts becoming widespread.
  • Klarion used magic to nearly kill Paul. He immediately looks into getting amulets that can block magic, as well as render him undetectable by magic.
  • After learning that the Spell Eaters render magic directly used on its wearer useless, certain foes started just using magic on the area around them to block their senses and so on.
• It's All My Fault: Miss Martian blames herself for trapping them in the scenario. Both OLs point out that she was not truly responsible for it as Martian Manhunter was. He was the one running the scenario, didn't properly assess her and didn't take OL's concern about the training simulation's limitations seriously . Whether she is comforted by this depends on whether it's done by the Renegade or the Paragon.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Thana mentions, having just gained immortality, that a thousand-year service to Hades seemed like a good idea. They, however, came to regret spending weeks on end isolated in catacombs. Other than that, it's just boring work for the most part.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Orange Lantern does this to Demon Constantine in Zigzag 16.
  I take another Mage Slayer out. "It wasn't. I normally don't go in for this whole… Jack Bauer thing. But you disgust me…" I nod. "Just enough, Demon."
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Hal Jordan says to Paul that even though he understands his powers are limited in usefulness compared to Paul's, he's willing to work within the (restrictive) rules because it allows him to protect his own homeworld from huge threats to it (Alien invasions, demons, mad scientists, etc.)
  • Hal Jordan points out that the Green Lanterns' ring restrictions were made so the thousands of users would be less capable of abusing it, something Paul wouldn't understand since there is only one other Orange Lantern.
  • Paulphidian and Renegade!OL both point out that it was mostly Martian Manhunter's fault that the training scenario went so horribly for failing to properly assess M'gann's telepathic potential, throwing the team into a high-stress scenario in a technique the team never used before and for his poor methods of ending the scenario. Black Canary couldn't give a counter to that.
  • Paulphidian also points out that Black Canary shouldn't really be doing the psychoanalysis stuff to the Team after the Training Scenario went south, since she doesn't have psychiatric training, unlike Lantern Gardner.
  • After getting superpowers, Robin admits that OL had a point in the comparative frailty of the Badass Normal.
  • Hal Jordan has a point when he points out OL's recklessness when he contacted the Swamp Thing for assistance without any backup plan in case he was hostile.
  • While Paul admits he thinks Superman was cruel for rejecting Kon, he does have a point that it's unfair to expect of Superman to take on someone who was made without his consent and has no true obligation to.
• Kick the Dog: OL goads Artemis in a fight when he tries to get her to supplement archery with something he sees as more effective. When Artemis tries to distract him with a shirtless Superboy, OL makes an off-color comment that Artemis should flash him if she wants to distract him. Everyone is angry at him for that comment and OL does make amends with Artemis.
• Kill the God:
  • Lord Kilderkin of Order will consider setting Giovanni Zatara free from Nabu if Paul, Zatanna, and John Constantine kill Klarion. Paul figures that if he has to kill one Lord of Entropy, he may as well kill the other too.
  • He also kills The First of the Fallen (Hellblazer).
  • Renegade!OL assimilates Nabu's helmet and brutally kills Klarion with a demon slayer sword.
• Ki Manipulation: On Earth 16, chi is a spiritual power that everyone uses, but only in minute amounts.
  • Mr Zoat later says that learning mystical kung-fu is complicated, as even the ones teaching it aren't entirely sure of how it works.
  • Studying chi can interfere with a metaphysique's development.
• Klingon Promotion: The Citizenry chooses its leader this way. Since they're a race that considers Spartans to be wimps and eats nothing except a porridge made from the species they've genocided, this fits right in.
• Kneel Before Zod: Paul is mildly impressed, but mostly appalled, to realise that if he begs, then Zeus will release Diana from Tartarus, just because of the enjoyment of seeing Paul humbled.
  How utterly contemptible. He's clearly not worthy of his position, but that should have been obvious a thousand years ago. But this... He actually would. He'd do it. And from the way he's looking at me, he knows I'd know it. If I fall on my knees and plead with him, Diana will be out before too long.
• Knockout Gas: OL ends up having to basically gas the entire town of Minions when Terror Thing tries to make them kill themselves in fear... and then it starts using them as People Puppets.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Fabiao, one of Bane's henchmen, surrenders to the police after Ghost Fox Killer kills his former boss. In exchange, Paul heals the tears in his skin from the Blockbuster serum and he'll do 8 years hard labor before he may get brought into China's Great 10 or sent back to Brazil.
• Kryptonite Factor: New Gods' Super-Toughness is vulnerable to radion weapons. The Renegade has regenerated his body even from a nuclear explosion at close range, but still has scars from a radion injury. (Radion weapons also work on other species, but are relatively slow and cumbersome, so aren't normally the first choice.)

L - M

• Lack of Empathy: Paulphidian cannot understand why his friends are so upset about their merging and seem so listless after seeing themselves die in a horrible scenario.
• Lampshade Hanging: When asked why she has Wildebeasts- which are native to Africa- in the wildlife preserve (which is in the local equivalent of Iraq)- Marie Logan starts to explain, only for the author to end the section there. ^note It is explained in full a few chapters later.
• The Law of Conservation of Detail: Many times in the story, something minor is mentioned, only for it to become much more important later on when no one expects it.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • When OL uses his powers or shows great avarice, his text turns orange. When others or himself show great feelings of any of the other colors of the emotional spectrum, their text also turns that color ^note Red, Rage. Orange, Avarice (this one shows up a lot for fairly obvious reasons). Yellow, Fear. Green, Will. Blue, Hope. Indigo, Compassion. Violet, Love. When they're overwhelmed by the emotion, the punctuation changes color too. When angels speak on behalf of the Silver City, they get chapter and verse numbering on each paragraph - but if they fall, that goes away. In addition, when OL is under the effects of a drug trip or magic, the font of the text changes.
  • When Paragon!OL reaches Avarice enlightenment his quote marks when speaking are orange.
  • New Gods have their unique way of communication between each other that is undetectable to regular people. Dialogues in godspeak are rendered with invisible text in the story — you have to highlight the whole body of text to see it.
  • M'gann asks "Who would write fanfictions about a show several years off the air?" OL responds that "You'd be surprised."
  • When he was held hostage with no access to his ring, OL wonders his likelihood for resurrection given that he's a DC hero. He concludes it’s unlikely given that he's not a long established character.
• Ley Line: Ley lines are used for certain rituals and magic, with John mentioning that he'd been attacked by someone using one as a conduit for fear magic. Mercury follows up by explaining they are artificial. Ancient Druids used them to force natural energy into straight lines.
• Like a Son to Me:
  • OL is like a grandson to Alan Scott.
  • Kon is one to Diana. The latter eventually decides to adopt Kon.
  • Jay Garrick mentions that he and his wife Joan think of Barry as their son.
• Like Brother and Sister: While Artemis and Paul do have their Ship Tease, both keep their relationship platonic and give each other emotional support.
• Little "No": OL lets out one when while under Helios' blessing, Kon's presence causes Kara to develop heat vision that she can't control inside of an asteroid of krytonite and limited air.
• Living Battery: The Citadelians were using Adam Blake, aka Captain Comet, as one.
• Living Lie Detector:
  • Wonder Woman can tell when someone directly lies to her. Evasion and half-truths can get past her, though.
  • Paul's empathic vision isn't a direct lie detector, but it can often serve the purpose, because any significant lie will have emotional associations that he can see and trace. (It doesn't work as well on species with very different patterns of thought and association, but quite a lot of DC species are humanoid.)
• Locked Out of the Loop: Paul keeps everyone but a select few unaware of his plan to gather arcane power to combat Nabu. This comes back to bite him when Beryl ends up calling Nabu for reinforcements when his plans with Terror Thing go slightly off the rails.
• The Lost Lenore: Alan Scott reminisces with OL how he permanently lost his love, Rose Canton to her evil personality, Thorn.
• Loyal Phlebotinum: Something about qwa-matter causes it to explode when handled by someone other than a Qwardian. It's perhaps not surprising that qwa-matter and qwa-energy feature heavily in their religion, as a sign that they are marked out as the Anti-Monitor's chosen servants. Weaponer Kalmin is astounded when Paul is able to manipulate qwa-energy with the Ophidian's help.
  Lysis: Anti-Monitor judge my worth-. Me worthy.
• Lured into a Trap: Paul lures Klarion into this by proposing an Enemy Mine against Nabu. Mind you, he didn't exactly lie. He fully intends to have a Lord of Chaos help get rid of Nabu; he just intends for that lord to be John Constantine.
• Macross Missile Massacre: "HOW THE HELL DID BANE GET MISSILE TRUCKS INTO TAIPEI?!" There are actually only ten missiles, but their anti-scry warding means that Paul can only find them indirectly, detecting the thermal signatures of their launches and checking visually, so he has to deal with all of them in very quick succession.
• Mad God: Paulphidian has pretty much lost his sanity and has the power to move celestial bodies! The good news is that he's not malicious. The bad news is that while they're not actively harmful, he has little impulse control and can't understand why people wouldn't want the things they're giving them, such as Artemis and Robin getting super powers, or them turning the moon around because they thought it was a shame no one ever saw the back side.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter:
  • Beautia Sivana, the good-aligned daughter of Dr Sivana. She takes Paul to an annual family get-together in order to fend off her mother asking questions about her love life, and they work together on testing and mass-producing the purple healing ray, but don't end up going any further than that.
  • Technically, Magnificus Sivana is a male example of this, being both handsome and law-abiding. However, he is a huge jerk, even though he isn't really a criminal.
• Magic Versus Science: OL is working hard to avert this, pointing out that magic is a freely available resource with many practitioners and many benefits, but no one is willing to examine the industrial or scientific potential of such resources. He uses as an example that people have made many attempts to clone Superman (pointing to Kon as one example), but no one has ever tried to copy the spellwork that allows Billy Batson to turn into Captain Marvel, whose power is at least as effective as Superman's. Following the "World Without Children" storyline, it looks like some headway is being made in that department. Both Lex Luthor and members of the Justice League are looking hard at alchemical sciences (such as the Garrick and Danner formulas). The world governments opened communication with Atlantis to find someway to get magical defenses. At the same time, he's also investigating ways to improve Earth's scientific knowledge and technological capabilities.
• Magnetic Weapons: OL's favored firearm is a railgun he uses to fire Mageslayer or Crumbler rounds.
• Magic Must Defeat Magic: Power rings are the greatest tool in the galaxy — when it comes to technology, at least. Magic, though, breaks the rules, consistently able to bypass Paul's shields, evade his detection, and generally bring him down to normal. He can fight space fleets from interstellar empires with just his orange ring, but in order to fight magic users, he has to commission special Anti-Magic ammunition and warding pendants from Atlantis.
• Magic Pants: During Paul's week as a Physical God, he destroyed Superman's external underwear because he considered them to be ridiculous. Batman later gives Superman a pair of super-tough underwear as a joke gift. They're the only part of his clothing that survives when the League fights Mister Atom.
• Magical Society: Atlantis, and London's Tate Club.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Justified for Paul, since his ring can both alleviate pain and restore his body near-instantly. He shrugs off getting stabbed in the chest by Lady Aeres, and even rapidly recovers from having both arms cut off, since he can call the rings back.
  Paul: Six months ago an angel shoved a burning sword through my skull, while I was in hell and defended by an army of demons. I'm sorry, but no matter what you do you're not going to get the emotional reaction you're looking for.
• Make an Example of Them:
  • The Renegade brands an Intergang member and makes her sing against her will, to intimidate her into cooperating — and also to persuade the watching Forever People that he really is Grayven, since the results make them think he's used the Anti-Life Equation to break her will.
  • An assassin tries to kill the Spider Queen, whom Paul has been hired to protect. He brands her in front of everyone and makes her follow him, demonstrating what will happen to anyone else who does so, and they quickly scatter.^note The onlookers don't realise that branding is actually quite a mild way of putting someone down, painless and entirely reversible.
  • In the Renegade timeline, the First Citadelian is brought to Tamaran and publicly executed.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Paul bluntly asks during a trip to Gotham why the Joker hadn't "fallen down some stairs" in prison. The cop who answers tells him it’s because he wasn't on duty when the Joker was brought in.
• Male Gaze: OL has a couple of moments.
  • He checks out Wonder Woman when he first meets her, noting that he's never before seen a woman so muscular.
  • He accidentally sends a mental picture of M'gann in a bikini when telepathically communicating with her.
• Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex:
  • Averted for the Man of Steel himself in the Paragon timeline, when the SI enhances Lois Lane with the Danner Formula. The SI later notices that Superman is being particularly helpful and cooperative.
  • Both played straight and averted in the Renegade timeline.
    • The Renegade, after using Kobra Venom to become huge and muscular, briefly runs an off-screen ogre sex cult, at which one woman apparently attempted more than she should have, and suffered unfortunate consequences.
    • When Komand'r and Koriand'r get frisky in the wake of the destruction of the Citadel Empire, the Renegade is their partner of choice because they would be less likely to injure him.
• The Matchmaker:
  • Paul triggers some raised eyebrows when he suggests that Athena marry the Kahndaqi (Egyptian) goddess Sekhmet, to give the Amazons an alternative war deity to Ares. However, Sekhmet sends a message via Teth Adom to let Paul know that she doesn't think of Athena that way.
  • Paul is more successful despite being fused with the Ophidian when he suggested it in accelerating the start of the canon relationship between Guy Gardner and Tora Olafsdotter, especially with Guy's personality no longer swapping every time he hits his head. Paul is even able to provide them with a long-distance communicator (at Guy's request; Green Lanterns aren't allowed to use their rings for purely self-interested reasons) so they can stay in touch while Guy is away from Earth, helping their relationship to last much longer than canon.
  • The Renegade ends up playing one to Maxima, by pointing out the flaw in her methods for finding a mate. Since she wants someone to rule by her side, she'd need someone who complements her abilities rather than just having the same ones. She also forgot to take into account that any children would have to be grown in a lab, since she wouldn't be able to reproduce with another species. In the end, she decides to marry her advisor back on her home planet, because she's already a capable strategist and civil planner. Among the telepathic males the Renegade shows her are Manchester Black (not a good leader and doesn't like kids), Brainwave II (too old), and Dr Psycho (a stunted, ugly psychopath).
  • Adam Blake (Captain Comet) mentions wanting someone to travel the universe with, and Paul suggests Hera. Who is actually open to the idea. (Paul's first suggestion was Mother of Mercy, but Adam would prefer a humanoid.)
• Mayfly–December Romance: Discussed in regards to Lois and Superman (and Kon and M'gann) during Jungle Gym. Kon's genetic makeup along with everything else means its complicated while M'gann being Martian means she'll have a longer lifespan by default. Lois, on the other hand, is a pure human and so she'll have a far shorter lifespan. OL convinces her to take the Danner Formula, as it will extend her life by quite a bit and it also solves the Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex issue.
• Memory Gambit: When transferring Psimon for his trial in Qurac, Orange Lantern and Miss Martian want to find out why Psimon wanted to go be extradited and go to Belle Reve when he has no ties in the U.S. Miss Martian suppresses both their memories and gives Firebrand a memory trigger, so they won't trigger any suspicion from Psimon.
• Mercy Kill: After the Renegade reveals that Amazing Grace is actually an agent of Darkseid, Barda exposes her and immediately kills her. The Renegade takes the fact that Barda didn't leave Grace to the mob as a sign of how much she's been hanging around superheroes lately.
  There's no way the old her would have been anything like that merciful.
• Metaphorically True:
  • OL says a number of things that are technically true, such as that he works for the Controllers rather than the Guardians - he certainly plans on working for them, and would submit to their authority if they asked, but they don't actually know he exists yet.
  • OL tells Karen that M'gann and Kon can't donate blood due to having non-standard biology. Karen believes that he, M'gann and Kon are all metahumans, which OL doesn't actually say but lets her draw her own conclusions.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Reducing his testosterone levels with the ring makes Paul start to miss certain social clues and think differently, without even realising that it’s affecting him so much. Several people call him out on this, pointing out that basically turning off his sex drive has consequences
• Mind Manipulation: Both through personal powers and artifacts, in this universe.
  • Lynne is a powerful telepath, able to puppet anyone who doesn't have serious resistance. The Renegade internally reflects that J'onn J'onzz, a Martian and therefore a telepath in his own right, nevertheless avoids her because she "could make him think that Apokolips was a liberal democracy."
  • Powerful Lanterns can influence the thinking of those around them, simply by their presence and their connection to the associated emotional light. Even Lantern Gardner is not immune to being subtly affected, without immediately noticing.
• Mind over Matter: Several people in the series, like Martians and Psimon, have this power. The Thinking Cap gives Bobo the Chimp telekinesis.
• Mind Virus: The Anti-Life Equation has similar characteristics.
• Mirror Universe: There is one that is based on Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.
• Mischief-Making Monkey: Bobo the Chimp gets an unexpected intelligence upgrade from the Thinking Cap, along with its usual telekinesis, and someone had built him a suit of Powered Armor with an invisibility feature. Paul has a surprising amount of difficulty chasing him all over KordTech and subduing him, as he flips tables, raids vending machines, and otherwise causes havoc.
• Mistaken for Cheating: Some of Conner's schoolfriends see an attractive girl who isn't Megan Morse hug him and then kiss him on the forehead just before school starts. It was his adoptive mother, Wonder Woman.
• Monument of Humiliation and Defeat: OL built a giant, indestructible nude statue of himself on the borders of Bialya. Queen Bee tried having it destroyed, but ended up covering the nude parts with tarp when she couldn't get rid of it.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • Paul having a fun time at dinner with Artemis and Paula is interspersed with the utter disaster that was the scenario with his friends dying and OL becoming more desperate.
  • Paul and Zatanna talking about the "Cake Incident" in Black Reign eventually spirals into dealing with a terrorist attack on Teth Adom's people while he was a at a peace conference.
• Morally Superior Copy: In the story arc Triumph Of the Will when the Justice League are tracking Nazi supervillains Wolf Krieger and Captain Nazi, Orange Lantern comes across a man named Helmut Schreiber, a Brazilian citizen who turns out to be the only survivor of a post-WW2 project to clone Hitler. However, the project had fallen apart and Schreiber had simply been raised in a normal orphanage completely unaware that he was in any way out of the ordinary, and would go on to become a successful architect and marry a black woman with whom he has three children. Krieger eventually hunts him down, planning to use him as a focus to pull the remains of Hitler's soul out of Hell and create a magical embodiment of fascism, but he is stopped by Orange Lantern and Rocket. Schreiber is portrayed as just a normal man with nothing in common with the original aside from genetics.
• More Dakka: The Flash bypasses Queen Gloriana's defensive magic by filling the room with relativistic projectiles, leaving no safe spot to teleport into.
• Motive Rant: Truggs goes on one, telling OL his reasons for becoming a supervillain despite Bane trying to get him to stop.
• Mugging the Monster: Invoked by OL during his trip to Gotham; with his power ring it doesn't matter if his presence provokes some gang-bangers. Sure enough, the gang-bangers try picking a fight with him. They immediately back off when one of them notices OL's eyes, and practically fill their pants when OL shows off a little bit.
• The Multiverse: Directly showcased in this story are two universes for “Paragon” and “Renegade” walkthroughs. This later expands as other Alternate Timelines and Alternate Universes are shown.
• Mundane Utility:
  • The Sword of Beowulf, a powerful magical sword capable of launching blasts of magic, wielded only by those of pure heart... and Cornwall Boy is capable of using it as a recharger for his power, since if anyone who isn't pure (read: most people) attempts to pull the sword from its scabbard, it throws a powerful pulse of magic at them. Considering his power works by absorbing magical energy...
  • OL tends to use his super-powered ring for mundane tasks, like cooking or making chairs. He's hardly the only one to do that with a ring, though. This tendency does bite him in the butt when he gives up his ring and now needs to get some basic toiletries.
  • Canis Minor uses his Super-Strength to carve statues with just a chisel, using his hand to smooth it.
  • Hephaestus owns a magical hammer that controls heat, able to absorb and release it at will — which apparently is not all that useful in combat, but very helpful in a forge.
• Mundangerous: Prior to OL's arrival, Guy Gardner was in a coma after he got run over by a bus crossing the street.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Not entirely true, eg Superboy is noted to have much larger muscles than Paul, but there are multiple forms of Super-Strength available that are not reflected in muscle mass. The Danner formula, for example, makes recipients slightly more muscular, but allows a teenager to lift and throw a logging truck.
• Mushroom Samba: No less than seven times; thrice from magic, once from the above drugged lipstick, once from magical LSD (yes, that's counted as separate from the other three magical sambas), once from believing he was dreaming, and a mild samba ensued once from a mild concussion. He has done this so many times, the Mushroom Samba state occurring during a mission is more of a rule than an exception.
• My Grandma Can Do Better Than You: The owner of the West Side pistol and rifle range is not impressed with Paul's initial efforts to learn marksmanship.
  Paul: (internally) Better this time? Oh? Well, your ten year old probably has more experience than me.
• My Secret Pregnancy: An Inuit woman Aquaman had an affair with years ago (before meeting Mera) has his child.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In this world, Street Sharks out-competed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and are now the dominant "Mutant-man-like-teenage-good-guy-cartoon-franchise" for kids... because in this universe, Greg Weisman was the one who made one of the reboots and is credited for its massive success. In our universe, Greg Weisman (in addition to other shows) created Young Justice (2010), which this fic is based on.
  • OL believes that Kon would have taken in by someone else even if he hadn't been around.
  • Since the Host of Ion was called Ion, Paulphidian thinks that the Host of the Ophidian should be called Ophidian.

N - O

• Narnia Time: Things like visiting the Honden of Avarice, deep-scanning his surroundings, and communicating with a soul trapped inside a Fear Elemental objectively take much more time than Paul would estimate.
• Nazi Gold: Lex Luthor kept a surviving pre-war painting made by Adolf Hitler for curiosity.
• Necromancer:
  • Thana of the Amazons, though she mentions explicitly that she can't create The Undead. She can merely speak to them and, should the Old City be attacked, Lord Hades would call upon her fallen sisters to aid her. She can also commune with the other Death Gods, but she mentioned that the Silver City guards its flock jealously.
  • To absolutely no one's surprise, John Constantine dabbles with this sort of magic enough that he's the go-to guy for the team when they need someone raised from the dead for a little talk.
• Negatives as a Positive: The story is all about an Orange Lantern finding ways to turn avarice to good purposes. He builds a Lantern Corps full of people who love killing and points them at an Evil Empire. He welcomes those who are planning on a Klingon Promotion over his dead body because they are among the most motivated to improve. When he participates in a Battle in the Center of the Mind between the personalities of Teth Adom and Theodore Adam, spectated by the seven gods of Kahndaq and the seven Enemies of Man, he is sitting on the head of the statue representing Greed — but his presence and advice about understanding and asserting oneself helps Teth Adom to gain the upper hand and emerge as a hero. At one point, he expresses disappointment that Lex Luthor isn't avaricious enough; Lex is too paranoid to act in his own self interest when the stakes are high. Even the Guardians of the Universe, with billions of years of experience, consider the orange light of avarice to be too unstable and dangerous to use, but Paul's steadily proving them wrong, with his recruits tackling enemies that the Green Lantern Corps hasn't been able to handle.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • When M'gann accidentally traps the teams in a training simulation. Martian Manhunter has to shock M'gann to end it. He kills M'gann to end the simulation...right in front of the Ophidian-infused Paul. Watching M'gann die in front of him, after he already failed to save his friends, traumatizes him and causes Paul and the Ophidian's minds to fuse.
  • OL makes sure that Miss Martian knows that the training simulation was all Martian Manhunter's fault since he didn't take OL's concerns about simulation's safety or the effect OL's powers would have on it, giving them such a dangerous scenario in the first place when the Team had never used it and failing to make sure how M'gann would react to it and failing to keep track off her strength. As a result, OL forces Martian Manhunter to resign as M'gann's telepathy teacher and reassigns her Brainwave II.
• No Clear Leader: On the way to Santa Prisca, Paul internally notes that Batman has told the team to choose a leader, but he assumes Aqualad is such an obvious choice that "We haven't even needed to discuss it." He then discovers that not only do the other team members not agree it's settled, but Robin is making a play for leadership, resulting in the mission going off track and "covert" being thrown out a window. When debriefing and discussing it later, Paul finds that Miss Martian thinks he does a decent job, except he insists he was only coordinating, not the same thing as leading, and the team does end up choosing Kaldur. (And this is vastly less messy than the canon leadership situation.)
• No Conservation of Energy:
  • It's noted how Kid Flash violates this. If the Garrick formula was applied correctly, he would play this straight but not be a Big Eater. The fact that he needs to constantly eat but doesn't need to constantly go to the bathroom means that something is up.
  • Exploited by Bleed Membrane Instability Generators, which take advantage of the raw chaos between universes where physical laws don't apply; they are explicitly designed to create energy from nothing. Paul makes limited use of them, but doesn't flood the Earth with them, because he wants humanity to build its own power generation solutions that don't depend on him.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Lords of Chaos can't be truly harmed by damage to their physical bodies, but Teth Adom once beat up Oggar so hard that Oggar retreated. Circe, who has history with Oggar, is most impressed.
  Circe: He is a Lord of Chaos. Could he really die from mere physical injury?
  Adom: No. But he could feel pain.
  Circe: You hurt him so much that he fled?
  Adom: In a manner of speaking. I broke his body, and then waited for his magic to repair it. And then I broke it again. And again. And again, until he abandoned this world and returned to the Realm of Chaos.
  Circe: How long did that take?
  Adom: Perhaps twenty days of constant activity.
• No Kill like Overkill:
  • OL tends to lean towards this, favoring more permanent solutions to problems than the standard "Capture Villain, wait for him to escape and cause death and havoc, capture again, repeat." Just for one example, when he found out where the Injustice League's headquarters were, his first thought was to orbitally bombard the place until it resembled the moon.
  • A hit from the Sword of the Fallen is enough to disable the target's magical abilities, making them easy to kill. But when using it against the First of the Fallen, Paul didn't want to leave anything to chance; after decapitating the First, he slices up every part of his body like a salami.
• No Mere Windmill:
  • Senator Henry Knight is dismissed by the public and made a laughingstock when he made an ill-informed bid to make a law banning magic after Orange Lantern mocks him in an interview informing the public on the events in Displaced. But Senator Knight was acting in response to an event caused by evil magicians that killed thousands of children when no politician dared to touch the topic.
  • Senator Knight later redeems himself politically after accidentally meeting Orange Lantern in a very informative talk. Orange Lantern gave him the most recent information explaining magic to non-magic users and ways to boost America's magical defenses. Which is to initiate talks and trade with Atlantis, a magical-based country trying to establish relations with surface world countries.
• Noodle Incident:
  • At some point in the future, the Orange Lantern Corps are responsible for an event so horrible, so nightmarish, that Abra Kadabra specifically checked for signs of them before time-traveling, and just the sight of Orange Lantern causes him to start gibbering in terror.
  • In Earth -14, the events of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths resulted in the deaths of the 'Crime Syndicate's Management, referred to as the "Decapitation", which caused numerous turf wars between the Made Men that are being taken advantage by President Slade Wilson.
  • Apparently, the reason that the Frees had to move from New York was because of something Barda did, and it involved a "Five Items or Less" line.
• No-Sell: Power Rings are unable to scan some of the things magic can do.
• Not His Sled: In the Renegade timeline, Zatara doesn't get possessed by Nabu.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Paul to Lex Luthor. Both are people seeking the improvement of humanity and hope for people to stop relying on superheroes to make their own defenses. Paul points this out in order to convince Lex to leave the Light. It fails.
• Not So Extinct: Thanks to cloning facilities that the Renegade took from the Psions, the Kryptonian species will be brought back from near extinction.
• Not So Similar:
  • Paul to Truggs. Both are outsiders seeking to change the world for the better and use fantastical methods of doing so. However Paul is working with the heroes as Internal Reformist and does it because Good Feels Good while Truggs does it out of a sense of entitlement and resorts to villainy because Villains Act, Heroes React.
  • While having similar powersets and a desire for power, Teth Adom and Black Adam couldn't be more different. Teth Adom is The Good King seeking to help his people despite how much things have changed and is willing to let go of his hatred if he has to. Black Adam is a petty, sadistic bully that enjoys how he can make people suffer.
• Not What It Looks Like: Paul helps Artemis try on a power-suppression collar when they were discussing the pros and cons of giving Artemis the Danner Formula. It's not until Artemis's mother, Paula walks on that Paul realizes that he's putting a collar on Artemis.
• Nuclear Option: Canis suggests this to deal with where Black Manta's island is. Paul actually considers it, but decides against it because it wouldn't affect an enemy if they were phased. Note that this is his only reason, and near the end of Titanfall even Batman was agreeing to this to deal with Oceanus.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Mayor of Gotham refuses to let Swamp Thing's wife from prison in Bindings, despite the new law being passed and OL's insistence.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse:
  • Paul visits Chantinelle the succubus and bribes her to stay out of the way when he ambushes Nabu.
    Chantinelle: Now I'm curious. What exactly happens if I say 'no'?
    Paul: I shoot you dead with the Ace of Winchesters. Though I would really rather not do that.
  • After dismantling the Light and killing every other member, Renegade Paul visits Lex Luthor and makes it clear that Lex can either do exactly as he's told from now on, or he won't live to see a courtroom.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • In the Paragon timeline the League of Shadows is completely dismantled with most of the leaders and minions arrested, their allies and victims turned on them. This was all done by Paulphidian who wanted a chance to cheer up their friends.
  • During the New-Years Eve Battle on the Watchtower to free the Justice League from The Light's mind control, we see Orange Lantern and Teth Adom fight Vandal Savage, Captain Nazi, Wolf Krieger, and Klarion, all the while everyone else fights their way through the Nazi infested Watchtower, freeing any superhero that they come across.
  • At the end of Episode 33: Doppelgänger a news report mentions that Queen Bee has been absent from public events for several weeks. Paul starts to theorize what may be the cause, only for Danni to offhandedly mention that she's probably waiting for her burns to heal.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • This is OL's reaction to Bane's chosen method of attack on a peace conference.
  • Paul gets this big time when he learns that the man who will be teaching him about ringslinging (Guy Gardner) really likes Lantern Kilowog, who is not only Guy's friend, but also the one who taught Guy everything he knows... and whom Paul had previously described as "A muscle brained idiot"; and Guy knows that Paul said this.
  • Martian Manhunter and Batman get one in Part 22 of Contingency, where they meet Ophidian-infused OL.
  • The Renegade gets this big time when he finds out that the mark he placed on Desaad is being personally examined by Darkseid. It takes all of his avarice and the aid of Father Box to break the connection.
  • Zatanna and Paul get one when they find out that the Justice League let Nabu join despite him blackmailing and kidnapping Zatara.
  • Tia Sivana gets one when she finds out that the tall, muscular, handsome, kind man that she fell in love with — Captain Marvel — is actually a ten year old boy. The words "Oh god I'm a pedophile," are uttered by her and she renounces romantic love for him for the foreseeable future.
  • The Renegade gets the mother of all Oh Craps when Darkseid himself decides to make a personal appearance, to the point where every word he speaks is tinged with utter terror.
  • Lantern Gardner arrives at Ranx the sentient battle station to assist Paul — and then Ranx activates its massive arrays of gravity disruptor weapons and point defence lasers, enough to fill space around it.
  • Paul gets one when Karrien Excalibris, the Archangel of War, declares that he is here to execute Paul and all who stand with him.
  • The system controller at the Yuna system is cheerful and helpful, arranging a routine pilot to lead the ship in-system — and then he learns that the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps is a passenger, making him turn green.
    Controller: I will refer that upwards at once. Excuse me.
  • Paul is highly alarmed when he learns that the Reach have gained access to a weapon that destroys constructs in a single shot. Lantern Jordan is initially blasé about the news, then Paul explains the implications and he gets it too.
  • Paul's ring alerts him to the arrival of a Green Lantern, and Lantern Toren tells him that the incoming ships hail from sector 1634 — but there's no sign of Lantern Priest. Meaning that it's Lord Malvolio.
• Older Than They Look:
  • OL, thanks to the ring, obtains a "perfect" body (or rather, the "most perfect form of 'me'"), as per his desires. Unfortunately, this makes him look much younger than he is, causing people to think he's a teenager instead of an adult. He doesn't find this out until much later, much to his horror.
  • His mentor, Alan Scott, also appears far younger then he actually is. It is the result of years of direct exposure to the Emotional Spectrum Light via his damaged ring.
  • Miss Martian is forty-eight years old according to Earth years. When OL reveals this to Kid Flash, the latter's response was a Flat "What". Of course, she's still the equivalent of a teenage girl due to how slowly Martians develop.
  • This is explicitly a symptom of the Danner Formula; they age much slower than baseline humans do as Hugo Danner can attest.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: OL has a habit of doing things while in a Mushroom Samba that nobody will let him forget.
  • Such as the mile-high indestructible naked statue of himself in the middle of the Bialyan desert.
  • Paul will never live down the cake incident where as Paulphidian, he made a giant cake directly on top of New York City. It doesn't help he did a live interview during it using a literal song and dance number.
  • He can't really blame anyone else for the Spider Queen incident; the fact that moisturising her with anti-chaffing cream became rather more intimate than intended was a true accident and a result of Poor Communication Kills, but it was his own fault that the story spread.
    Paul: She said it was a spiracle!
• One-Hit Kill: Both The Ace of Winchesters and The Sword of the Fallen are capable of killing powerful entities if used correctly.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. Several characters share a first name or a nickname, meaning people sometimes have to specify who they're talking to/about.
• Only in It for the Money: The Free Lancers are happy to do business with the Reach, and then happy to pause that while waiting to see if Paul can outbid them. It's all just business to them.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • When Paul stops taking his ring off to meditate and starts getting more and more violently protective after the attack on the base by Red Torpedo and Red Inferno, Diana and Guy figure out that something is wrong and stage an intervention to let him know that he was being influenced by the Orange Light.
  • Renegade!OL realized something was off when Kid Flash and Robin are distraught over Artemis' death when they weren't moved at all at the death of their mentors. He realized that they were mentally tampered with and realized the scenario wasn't real.
  • Paul, the first one of the team to accept M'gann's telepathy, starts blocking her and asks to not include him on the Psychic Link after he resolves to kill Nabu and doesn't want her finding out.
• Open Heart Dentistry: Averted. When Paul is debating with Wonder Woman on how to treat Match's chemical imbalances, he tells her he can't help. While he is a Combat Medic, he is not a brain surgeon and doesn't know how to heal a full-blooded Kryptonian without causing them pain to get through their invincibility.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: OL has several cases of this.
• Order Versus Chaos: An ongoing theme with several variations.
  • The Team v. Klarion: The Team is order, trying to protect everyone while Klarion causes a lot of destructive chaos.
  • Orange Lantern v. Klarion: Orange Lantern's positive chaos of change and innovation while Klarion's destructive chaos of destruction and confusion.
  • Orange Lantern and John Constantine v. Nabu
  • Orange Lantern v. Themyscira: Orange Lantern is trying to bring change and modernize his new country while the Amazons are conservative and want nothing to do with Man's World. It's not helped that the last people who tried to change things were worshipers of Chaos, and caused a lot of problems.
  • The Renegade v. Darkseid
  • The Renegade v. the Justice League
• Organic Technology: Paul encounters several variants.
  • Planet J reverses the roles of plants and animals, with intelligent plants having gardens of mostly immobile lizards and crab "grasses". Some of its inhabitants are able to magically manipulate plants — which is what brings Paul to visit, when he wants Lantern Medphyll's help — although the planet is mystically not very strong.
  • Alstair is similarly inhabited by plants, but further from human norms and with stronger magic. Paul puts them in contact with J, leading to a blossoming of trade between them.
  • The Sheeda, from Earth's far future, use exclusively organic technology, built and controlled with magic: rocket beetles, living houses, eye-stalk arrows, chitin data archives, with the materials collected by harvester zombies. Even their clothes plug into the wearer's arteries. It turns out that the Vampire Sun, aka Starbreaker, consumes and destroys anything not containing Sheeda DNA.
• Our Souls Are Different: Souls are structured collections of magic that basically stick to everything, and then move on to an afterlife when the body dies. Paul initially doesn't have one at all, but eventually gets a very different one, made mostly out of orange light instead of the usual earthly magic.
  • One's metaphysique has a natural limit on how powerful it can become. However, there are ways to get around this.
• Overused Running Gag: OL, M'gann, Artemis, and Superboy are so sick of the mole rumor. The mole was Roy Harper, the loudest proponent of the mole rumor, as he was actually a brainwashed clone of the original Roy. OL eventually exposes and frees him.

P - R

• Padded Sumo Gameplay: When Superboy and Donna spar, it's a very drawn out affair. They're both tough enough that blows don't hurt them much, nor does getting slammed into the ground. Donna isn't even inconvenienced much by being flung through the air, since she can fly, and Superboy can take an elbow to the back of the neck with barely a flinch. And they both have the endurance and motivation to keep it up for hours.
• Painting the Medium: People's emotions literally color the text depending on the Emotional Spectrum.
  • When Paul initially Fusion Dances with the Ophidian, the text is entirely orange except when other people speak. Paul has large orange paragraphs indicating his internal monologue and he refers himself in the first person while the Ophidian makes the occasional comment in orange italics. Once Paul goes through a Heroic BSoD and his mind merges with the Ophidian, Paulphidian then refers themselves in the first person plural. Paulphidian uses third person to indicate differing memories belonging to either Paul or Ophidian. When Paulphidian is observing their friends, they tend to smaller paragraphs.
  • After Paul reaches Orange Enlightenment, his quotation marks permanently turn orange. We later see that this is a trait shared by others who have reached emotional enlightenment- the Queen of The Zamarons has violet quotation marks, Guy gets green quotation marks, etc.
  • When subliminal Godspeak is used, the text is invisible unless high-lighted. Hera gets a special case, with her god powers resulting in visible text surrounded by hearts that are invisible unless highlighted.
  • Johnny Sorrow uses Zalgo-speech.
  • Shivering Jemmy uses the same speech as Johnny Sorrow.
  • The text switches fonts when OL is in an altered mental state, such as his first visit to Gaea's temple or when he was drugged by Cheshire.
• Palette Swap: Subverted. Everyone thought Orange Lanterns were basically Green Lanterns with a color swap, but he proves them wrong when he temporarily kills Ra's al Ghul.
• Pass the Popcorn: When Neron and Rosacarnis and Satanus all start arguing about who should take possession of the Sword of the Fallen, the demon Constantine just stands back, grins, and lights a cigarette.
• People Puppets:
  • Terror Thing eventually takes over everyone whom it haunted with fear after they were unconscious.
  • The Starro in A Star Reborn do this to everyone they get their hands on.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Any competent Lantern has the power to be this, but since Green Lanterns are ordinarily forbidden to kill, Paul shows many people a new perspective on what Lanterns can do.
  • He destroys the entire Citadel Complex, with casualties possibly approaching a million. Note that he did bring two other Lanterns to help, but that was primarily for their sakes (training, prestige, etc); given the level of difficulty they faced, it's very likely that he could have done it alone.
  • He doesn't usually use them because they're power hogs, but when the situation calls for it, he generates beam singularity projectors, which basically collapse everything in their line of fire into black hole material.
  • When joined with the Ophidian, he would be capable of assimilating the entire population of the world.
• Pet the Dog: OL apologizes to Artemis for his distraction comments by giving her arrows strong enough to destroy his shields. Artemis takes great pleasure in testing their effectiveness.
• Phlebotinum-Proof Robot: Earl Dukeston gets a bit concerned about the prospect that he could be taken over by a digital lifeform like Kilg%re, but Paul consoles him by pointing out that on the other hand, he's immune to all forms of telepathy, of which there are dozens.
• Photographic Memory: While wearing the ring, Paul has perfect recall. Without it, his memory is still better than it used to be, the ring apparently having made small improvements because he (perhaps subconsciously) wanted them.
• Planetary Core Manipulation: Paul asks Prince Jemm of Mars if there's anything a Sector Lantern can do for the planet. Jemm wants to know whether he can do anything about the fact that Mars' core doesn't spin and thus doesn't shield the surface from radiation, but that's beyond Paul's skill or power level without trying unwise options. He later recruits Mother of Mercy, who is a planetary scale organism with a natural talent for gravity manipulation, and she's able to start the process of spinning the core safely.
• Plausible Deniability:
  • When Director Armstrong wants to get Misa Amane registered and certified as an active superhero, the Renegade points out that it might be better if the US government didn't have paperwork that could suggest they support her activities (which include stopping civil wars by killing selected perpetrators, and other such messy business).
    Renegade: If it became more widely known, and people saw that she had a licence from you… I mean, obviously we know that it's not an endorsement or a sign that she's acting on America's behalf, but it may be more convenient for you to not have anything written down that says otherwise.
    Director Armstrong: And what did General Lane say about that?
    Renegade: He hasn't said.. anything..? I'm not sure if that's because he genuinely doesn't know, or if he's officially not knowing.
  • Unfortunately for Von Daggle, part of joining the black-ops Green Lantern Corpse is that the Guardians will officially disavow any knowledge of your activities or even the existence of the Corpse. So when his assassination attempt on Grayven fails, he doesn't get ransomed back.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Averted. When OL learns of his weakness to magic he immediately informs Kaldur, so as not to endanger himself on the mission.
  • Played straight when OL deferred to Kaldur thinking he was already leader while everyone was making a power grab before the team dynamic was established.
  • Averted again when the unnatural extent of Paul’s knowledge about Constantine’s life makes the latter suspicious. Paul chooses to reveal the source of his knowledge. Had he chosen otherwise, Constantine may have not trusted him on the Beast/Shadow Dog warning.
  • Played tragically straight in Teth Adom's backstory: Teth Adom was trying to form a team with other powerful heroes of his time to combat greater growing threats. Shazam saw this as a horrific abuse of power and did not let Teth Adom explain himself before he was horrifically punished.
  • Apollo sent a vision that seemed entirely straightforward to him, causing Alkyone to see Cottus standing over Queen Hippolyta during Diana's creation. Apollo intended for her to go and ask Cottus about it, which would have led to her learning about Cronus' attempt to duplicate the feat, resulting in Donna Troy. But since Hippolyta said nothing about Cottus being present, Alkyone concluded instead that someone was tampering with Hippolyta's memory, that Cottus was somehow involved, and that Diana's creation was suspect — which resulted in her and her compatriots attempting to assassinate Diana. Apollo is quite miffed when Paul calls him out on being cryptic.
  • Konvikt attacked after being attacked first because no one could communicate with him.
• The Power of Rock: The team help exorcise Paul by singing the song "Invite Them In".
• Power Perversion Potential: Unlike Green Lanterns, Paul can use his power ring in the bedroom, as Jade finds out firsthand.
• Powers Do the Fighting: Paul believes that Black Canary's unarmed combat lessons are actively harmful for a Lantern, since they train the wrong instincts, and he struggles to respect any experienced Lantern who still projects constructs directly from the ring, since gestures are unnecessary and limiting.
• Prime Timeline: Zigzagged. Paul thinks of his home dimension as the "Prime Timeline," even though just about any other DCU character might disagree. (And this story doesn't even take place in the DCU's Prime Timeline, it's on Earth-16!) Their insistence that Paul use the same numbering system they do is hampered by the fact that Paul doesn't know his home dimension's number.
• Psychic Surgery:
  • Power rings can heal or alter someone's body quite easily and painlessly, depending on the type of ring and the motivation of the Lantern; all that will happen to the patient is that they'll glow for a moment. Paul particularly uses this to heal himself, resetting his body to peak condition after any injury.
  • Inverted by Lantern Nax, who practises psychic vivisection, splitting the patient into floating pieces to allow easier study. The process is apparently harmless, yet extremely painful.
• Psychoactive Powers:
  • In general, since his constructs' strength is determined by avarice, Paul has difficulty making strong constructs in situations where he lacks strong desire. In effect, this means that a shield over a random stranger is not going to be nearly as strong as a shield over a friend, and making a construct strong enough to harm a random villain he doesn't want to fight is basically impossible. He works around this by training himself to see the connections between his actions and his goals, eg he wants universal peace and justice, therefore he wants a strong Orange Lantern Corps, therefore he wants to advance his recruits' education, therefore he can make a vase of flowers as a training aid — and make it strong enough that a student lacking similar motivation can't easily break it.
  • Also since the ring is powered by greed, he can't use any other emotion. He can't call upon his ring when he's afraid, he can't help or heal people when he's feeling too compassionate, etc. This is no longer the case after he achieves enlightenment.
  • All lanterns work like this for their respective emotion.
• Psycho Serum: One of the Alternate Universe versions of Paul found a Super Serum that worked well in animal testing, but turns out to essentially remove the instinctive capability for morality and compassion. He still achieves some broadly good changes in the world, but mixed with some casual murder, Mind Rape and Sex Slavery of people who were in his way.
• Pulling the Thread: OL hazes Artemis in her introduction by poking holes in her cover story. All he does is ask her, as an Arrow, what she thinks of his chili.
• Puppet King: Downplayed with Xalitan Xor, who seizes power because his girlfriend advises him to, and who will then likely rule however she wants. It's not entirely played straight because he is far from helpless, and has already learned to think for himself about whether those who give him orders are worthy to do it; he just recognizes that she's a better planner than him.
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • Paulphidian wins the Unwinnable Training Simulation by overwhelming the scenario, only to find out that it wasn't real and he is stuck with the consequences.
  • Canis reveals that Apokolips embraces any kind of victory; it doesn't matter if you lose roughly 90% of your population.
• Qurac:
  • Kahndaq. OL describes it as 'Saddam's Iraq, without his noble self restraint and fair-mindedness' and it's ruled by President for Life Asim Muhunnad, who is condemned at international conventions and the country gets repeatedly sanctioned.
  • The Team also does actually go to the real Qurac a few times.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Swamp Thing gives a short but poignant one to Poison Ivy, effectively refuting everything she has ever claimed about being the plant world's chosen champion in a few terse lines.
    ”You.”
    ”Your.. voice. Always.. on the edge of hearing. Whining, screeching, demanding voice! Be... silenced."
    “The Green is... not your playground. We care not for your causes, your pettiness.”
    ”By command of the... Parliament of Trees... I cast you out.”
  • Father Mattias gives a well-meaning one to Paulphidian in an attempt to help Paul to expel the Ophidian. It deconstructs Paul's reasoning to why he summoned the Ophidian, detailing while he had a good reason in the scenario it was made pointless because it wasn't real. The Ophidian is trying to convince Paul to keep it but it's using its power in very petty ways.
    Father Mattias: You have the power of a pagan god and you spent the morning making ice cream. Paul, is that gain proportionate to what you gave up? Would you make the decision that you made in the training scenario if all that was at stake was ice cream?
  • Paulphidian, the Renegade and Paragon all give Martian Manhunter one on M'gann's behalf on how it was his fault that the scenario went so badly, calling him a terrible teacher.
  • Paulphidian gives one to Black Canary when she tries to counsel them, pointing out that she's no way qualified to do so.
    Paulphidian: Why are we even talking to you?
    Black Canary: The League felt that it might help if the team had someone to talk-
    Paulphidian: Counselling? From you? Guy Gardner is trained as a counselor with several years experience working in criminal rehabilitation. You're a florist! Could the League really find no one with relevant skills?
  • Paul's speech to Guardian is all of this, pointing out that he's responsible for keeping an entire sapient race locked away in caves underground, making them work for no pay, and no hope of a better life. In short, he and Cadmus have become slave owners.
  • Paul gives a short one to Miss Mercury pointing out that for all that she "lives closer to nature", does little to actually help the environment and just sits around wasting her potential. Whereas Paul cleaned up the oceans, restored the ice caps and is working on clean energy.
  • After he kills Nabu, Paul lets out both barrels on exactly how the Justice League failed on every level from the personal to the international by allowing Fate to keep Zatara imprisoned.
• Recruitment by Rescue:
  • Princess Komand'r & Princess Koriand'r (Blackfire & Starfire) are inducted as the first Orange Lanterns in Paul's new corps after he pretty much dealt with their planet's issues and rescued them before they could undergo the experiments that gave them their in-canon powers in Headhunters.
  • The Renegade also saves them, but he saves them right after the experiments gave them their in-canon powers.
• Redemption Rejection: After the Light loses containment on a highly dangerous specimen that could have killed all of humanity, Paul approaches Lex Luthor and puts his cards on the table, pleading with Lex to cut ties with the Light and give Paul the info he needs to eliminate them all immediately, so they can start over in a more sensible fashion. Word of God is that the reason Lex turned him down was because he was paranoid and thought Paul might be influencing his mind with the orange light.
• Remember When You Blew Up The Sun: OL has a habit of doing things while in a Mushroom Samba that nobody will let him forget.
  • Such as the mile-high indestructible naked statue of himself in the middle of the Bialyan desert.
  • Or the time he made a cake big enough for everybody in New York City to have a piece.
  • Interestingly, the most terrifying things he did while fused with the Ophidian, namely rotating the moon on its axis so that the dark side faces the earth, or dragging an asteroid down to Mount Justice, get barely any attention, but making cakes and delivering fruit get plenty.
• Removed Achilles' Heel:
  • Not only does Paul grow himself a soul in order to resist magic attacks, he also has it carved with epic-level wards against magical scrying. And commissions ground-breaking new magical warding amulets, taking advantage of his ring's ability to fabricate sigils at smaller scales than could be achieved by hand or by regular machinery. And "mage slayer" ammunition that eats other spells. And his Enlightenment Superpowers include immunity to Emotion Control. And he eventually learns to use the orange light to consume just about anything, including magic. He still can't cast spells, but he makes a point of learning quite a lot about magic anyway.
  • The Renegade doesn't do as much magic study, but instead of hiring John Constantine to help him grow a soul, he uses a Father Box, giving him a New God soul that is highly resistant to external magic.
  • Superman and Superboy both end up wearing radiation shields that make them largely immune to kryptonite. After Superman publicly No Sells an attack by the Persuader, crime rates in Metropolis drop sharply; anyone who was counting on kryptonite protecting them from Superman is fleeing elsewhere.
• Rescue Romance: Euanthe, who OL rescued from being forced to open a Hellgate, wants to be "closer to him" after she recovers. He deflects it because, again, it wouldn't be proper given everything.
  OL: Not on the first date. Not even during the Dionysia. Not with someone who went through what she did.
• Retcon: Due to how long the story is, Mr Zoat occasionally has to make some of these.
  • After the Renegade uses Nth Metal, he changes how the metamaterial interacts with transitioning.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: After doing a background check and some tests, Aqualad and OL conclude that there is no mole on the team. They're right because Red Arrow isn't part of the team.
• Royal "We": Paulphidian refers to themselves as we as they find it more honest since they're a Fusion Dance of the Ophidian and Paul. Although they also address themselves in the Third-Person Person when they address emotions or actions one of them did.
• Running Gag:
  • Clark Kenting is frequently mocked.
    • Paul points out how easily he found Alan Scott's identity with a facial recognition scan and reveals his distaste of it to the Team.
    • Wonder Woman trolls him by not telling him about Troia, figuring that he would find out himself since Troia doesn't wear a mask.
    • He notes when he has to give an interview with Clark Kent that Clark is still built like a line-backer and doesn't even change his body language.^note He often does in the comics. In Ex Perdition, a suit and a pair of glasses effectively mask OL's identity without him intending to.
  • Someone saying a villain's codename followed by OL saying their actual name.
    • Another running gag, related to the first, is people pointing out when OL doesn't do this. For example, Wally asks about Doctor Cyber, whose name Paul didn't correct... only for Paul to tell him that the woman has a Doctorate and her surname actually is Cyber. "Doctor Cyber" is, in this case, a legitimate way to introduce her.
  • Another one was that Kid Flash would attempt to flirt with a newly introduced girl, then Orange Lantern would steal their attention.
  • People assuming OL's interest in certain women, and/or the time he spends with them, stem from — *ahem* — a certain kind of interest. Invariably, it turns out he's interested because they can help his engineering projects/give him expertise he's looking for/can benefit from his completely platonic attention/connect him to information he wants. Additional hilarity comes from the fact that it's a fifty-fifty chance OL even notices their assumptions.
    • By Episode 46: Family Day, Artemis at the very least thinks that this happens so often that she needs to warn Donna about it.
  • OL mentioning someone only for the person(s) he was talking to to have no idea who they are.
    Kid Flash: (in the background) Who? No, it's Oh El, there's no way I'm gunna have heard of them. I'm gunna go look him up.
  • Once the story moves to outer space, there is the running gag of aliens being completely amazed/horrified at how insane life on Earth is.

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