Lanterns Episode 3 Introduces The Power Ring's Strangest Weakness

Contains spoilers for "Lanterns" Season 1, Episode 3 — "OutKast"

As "Lanterns" has established, the Green Lantern Corps keeps the peace in the galaxy with power rings granted by the Guardians of the Universe. However, "Lanterns" Season 1, Episode 3 also confirms that there seems to be a hitch in this particular operation — at least, when it comes to planet Earth and its denizens. Without putting too fine a point on it, it appears that the Green Lantern rings tend to favor human carriers who aren't very nice.

Ever since the perfectly awful Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) appeared in "Superman," it's easy to ask: Who in the universe gave this guy a ring? "Lanterns" Season 1, Episode 3 offers an explanation, and it doesn't make either Guy or Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) look very good. In fact, it appears that the DCU Green Lantern rings have a glaring, but fun weakness of recruiting gigantic jerks from the human species.

A Guardian of the Universe (Laura Linney) explicitly tells John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) that the rings act weird with humans, choosing hosts tha are not necessarily ideal. This is why Jordan has been admonished multiple times for using his powers to meddle with human affairs. The Guardians seek to replace him with someone better — namely John, whose parents were effectively instructed to train him into Lanternhood since he was a child. This is a first-time procedure, and a direct counter-measure to the ring's unique malfunction.

Historically speaking, there have been Green Lanterns not from Earth and who are extremely unpleasant. As Looper's Sinestro explainer details, Hal Jordan's old mentor (Ulrich Thomsen) becomes the ultimate villain for the corps he used to serve. However, even he has a caveat. The Prime Earth Sinestro was never chosen by the ring. Instead, he kept a borrowed one for himself after the Lantern it belonged to died. When it comes to Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner, on the other hand, their rough edges seem to be an attractant, not a deterrent, to the Lanterns' selection process.

In the comics, greedy, angry, or otherwise flawed figures rarely remain Green Lanterns, or never end up becoming one. They tend to gravitate toward other colors in the emotional electromagnetic spectrum and what they represent — for instance, Sinestro's fear-themed Yellow Lanterns. This is something that "Lanterns" has not touched yet, and might never dive into considering that the vast comics lore is almost impossible to capture across one TV show. 

Still, human Green Lanterns tend to stand head and shoulders above the rest in good and bad both, when it comes to DC comics — and it certainly seems that the DCU version of the Green Lantern Corps could work similar themes of uniqueness into its portrayal of Hal and Guy.

"Lanterns" Season 1 is streaming on HBO Max.