With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[NightmareWarden]

This Paul (Babylon 5 Paul) might have had a rather different run of things if he'd given the masked superhero experience a try. Being open his heroism and willingness to intervene, but cagy about his identity.

Most of the Pauls with a secret identity don't really have a private life though, hmm? There's the Leprechaun (Guardian) Paul-Knight from the Roswell cartoon, there's Suicide Squad angel Paul (involuntarily), uh... Gold Ring Paul COULD have a secret identity since he doesn't need to use the antithesis ring's "slave name" anymore, but his face would be somewhat public knowledge.

Uhh, it's hard to recall any other Pauls with secret identities.

 

[BR549]

Yeah, giving Delenn the full details of the project that produced Ironheart is going to be a nasty surprise for Psi Corps in the future, because you know that once Sheridan arrives and he and Delenn get together, he's going to know about it, and the last word you use to describe Captain John Sheridan is 'subtle'. Unless prefixed with 'emphatically not'.

Meanwhile in the more immediate future Mayan is going to get an absolute earful from Delenn...

 

[Vaermina]

Her eyes harden and her presses her ring-. And suddenly I weigh a good deal more.

I adopt a meditative pose and float into the air. And then I wait patiently.

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Oof... He doesn't have his ring set to auto block/dodge gravity weapons? He's very lucky Delenn only went for minimal power there.

I'm not sure Kosh really understands what the Ring is and can do, either. But it's the way of the Elder races to play mysterious...

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He sat in front of a Vorlon dreadnaught for several minutes and was scientifically examined by an actual Vorlon, they would have complete scans of the rings internal mechanisms.

Heck, they might have even pulled a reverse Orange Lantern and ripped a copy of its database and AI.

 

[Tzeentch]

"You do not understand the power which you wield."

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A phrase usually stated by people who tend to become a victim of said power at some point.

Talkative Vorlon Orange Ghost-Construct GET!

 

[teikan]

Hey Paul!" Eris waves as she heads in our direction

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I got the impression that she was avoiding him out of shame about the situation with the angels.

You want to carve my brain out of my skull!"

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I am for carnage!

"…obviously not going to work, but at least it will be over."

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From a narrative standpoint, it's a shame she agreed to have her memory erased.

I hear the cry of a bald eagle, and

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It would be funny if they emphasized that this is actually the bird's real cry, not the one Americans always use.

It's a shame the lantern never became American in this arc. Just imagine everyone's reaction to him eating a burger, applying for US citizenship, and changing his glow from orange to the US flag.

 

[Darko]

Gold Ring Paul COULD have a secret identity since he doesn't need to use the antithesis ring's "slave name" anymore, but his face would be somewhat public knowledge.

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Not necessarily.

He seems to have mostly focused on the League of Shadows, who he usually killed, and his only two public appearances were when he stopped those supervillains from rampaging and when he stopped some assassins, so his actual appearance may still be a mystery.

Oof... He doesn't have his ring set to auto block/dodge gravity weapons? He's very lucky Delenn only went for minimal power there.

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You do know that power rings are absurdly powerful enough that what Delenn did, even at full power, wouldn't strain the thing?

He sat in front of a Vorlon dreadnaught for several minutes and was scientifically examined by an actual Vorlon, they would have complete scans of the rings internal mechanisms.

Heck, they might have even pulled a reverse Orange Lantern and ripped a copy of its database and AI.

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Except the Maltusians aren't primitives that make it easy for others to scan their tech, so the most the Vorlons may just know is that it's a psychic weapon, but not the finer details.

 

[RichardWhereat]

If a poster posts in a forum, and no one reads it, did they really post at all?

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Yes, because I saw it before he deleted it.

 

[Ardy]

Planetary shields do indeed exist, but they require a lot of infrastructure that Earth doesn't have, and... It would be like building a force field which blocked ultraviolet light in a country that was undergoing a famine. It's not that it's not useful, it's that you've got more urgent things to deal with.

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Then it's a good thing he hasn't done something fucking stupid like tell the reach all about how interesting his home world is and also what it's called, that would be insane to let the reach, which he's acknowledged multiple times can get through the periphery to wherever they damn well please, know about earth when they want to destroy it rather than attack another yellow lantern like he already did to get Batman's ring in the first place

 

[Mr Zoat]

Then it's a good thing he hasn't done something fucking stupid like tell the reach all about how interesting his home world is and also what it's called, that would be insane to let the reach, which he's acknowledged multiple times can get through the periphery to wherever they damn well please, know about earth when they want to destroy it rather than attack another yellow lantern like he already did to get Batman's ring in the first place

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Do you think that the Reach has a list of every planet in the universe, with the names the natives call it?

 

[Ardy]

Do you think that the Reach has a list of every planet in the universe, with the names the natives call it?

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When they've done business with the free lancers, who have been to earth and auction info to the highest bidder? Yes.

Edit: not to mention Grayven's presentation from a few chapters ago, where he noted its easier to find places the reach haven't sent negotiators/scouts in galaxy than where they have

 

[Jankl]

Then it's a good thing he hasn't done something fucking stupid like tell the reach all about how interesting his home world is and also what it's called,

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Would that even matter? At this point OL has his lantern corps to destroy any reach fleet they dares approach the Earth. It would be tantamount to suicide for them. He is actively at war with them after all.

 

[Ardy]

Would that even matter? At this point OL has his lantern corps to destroy any reach fleet they dares approach the Earth. It would be tantamount to suicide for them. He is actively at war with them after all.

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So you're saying that the there's already a NEMO fleet waiting to protect Earth from a reach fleet? Because there isn't, he sent the only fleet nearby home a while ago. Earth is effectively defenseless to the Reach barring lanterns and superheroes. The most he could do was, when the reach finally do show up, teleport back to NEMO high command and hope they have a fleet all warded up and ready to go so he could teleport them back in time for the, at best, second salvo of orbital bombardment of population centers. Which could be the same protocol for dealing with a yellow lantern invasion, but it wouldn't because while it would fuck up the reconstruction a bit allegedly (since food and transport links are already up and running to a non-everyone dies degree, as established multiple times so far) they already have a dozen lanterns and high end superheroes available to defend it from yet ANOTHER yellow lantern(s) attack.

Sinestro has attacked earth plenty of times before when going after Jordan, and, I hate to restate this, Paul has ALREADY KILLED a yellow lantern and stolen her ring.

 

[Valint]

"You do not understand the power which you wield."

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I wonder how much Kosh is able to sense about the power Paul is wielding. An avarice-fueled ring feels pretty squarely in "What do you want?" territory vs. "Who are you?"

Ironically for Paul's preferred fiction as to the source of his ring, the Controllers are a reasonable philosophical match for (non-Kosh) Vorlons, given they're both isolationists who are heavily on the Order side of the spectrum (with themselves naturally making the rules) and both have their preferred method of dealing with things they decide as Evil being 'burn it all (and maybe everything around it just in case)'.

 

[Darko]

So you're saying that the there's already a NEMO fleet waiting to protect Earth from a reach fleet? Because there isn't, he sent the only fleet nearby home a while ago. Earth is effectively defenseless to the Reach barring lanterns and superheroes. The most he could do was, when the reach finally do show up, teleport back to NEMO high command and hope they have a fleet all warded up and ready to go so he could teleport them back in time for the, at best, second salvo of orbital bombardment of population centers. Which could be the same protocol for dealing with a yellow lantern invasion, but it wouldn't because while it would fuck up the reconstruction a bit allegedly (since food and transport links are already up and running to a non-everyone dies degree, as established multiple times so far) they already have a dozen lanterns and high end superheroes available to defend it from yet ANOTHER yellow lantern(s) attack.

Sinestro has attacked earth plenty of times before when going after Jordan, and, I hate to restate this, Paul has ALREADY KILLED a yellow lantern and stolen her ring.

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Honestly there may not be a Watsonian reason for why Paul hasn't dealt with Sinestro.

The one that would make the most sense is that the Reach can't just attack Earth due to their treaty with the GLC, while Sinesteo has no such restriction.