Recap / With This Ring Episode 17

Episode 17: Reordered

Takes place 17-23 October 2010.

Short version

Paul spends a week merged with the Ophidian, essentially a Physical God but increasingly alienated from his teammates, until he is able to make peace with all his desires and reach a state of "Orange Enlightenment", letting him release the Ophidian into his personal lantern.

Longer version

The Team is trying to adapt to Paulphidian, with most being uncomfortable at best. The Justice League invites an exorcist called Father Mattias to get the Ophidian out of Paul, with it being almost a success until he makes the mistake of saying "You do not truly want this". This causes this attempt to fail, with Paulphidian not remembering the event after the fact.

Over the next few days, Paulphidian does what he can to make his friends happy. He creates hundreds of icecream flavors for Kid Flash to try; scans the entire world with construct eyes, to locate the League of Shadows, so that Superboy can fight ninjas; arranges an expense account so Artemis can afford to become more independent of Green Arrow, and funds it by mining an asteroid right in front of her; sends a shipping container to Themyscira, full of fruits and vegetables that don't grow there; repairs Red Inferno; and perhaps most memorably, bakes a four-mile-wide Christmas cake over New York (because Guy Gardner had made a comment about Paul having difficulty creating extremely large constructs, plus "We doubt that even Wallace could eat this much cake."). He also spins the moon around, because "We felt it unfair that the dark side was seldom seen by anyone." However, his team mates are increasingly upset about how his personality has radically changed.

Black Canary has a therapy session with each of the members of the Team. Her session with Paulphidian is cut short when the latter finds it a time sink. While eavesdropping on their sessions to find out how to help his friends, Paulphidian transmutes lead into Nth metal to create an armor that will allow Kon to fly. When the process causes the mountain to shake, the Green Lanterns are called in. They attempt to use the Star Sapphire to subdue Paulphidian, but the attempt fails, and all of them are incapacitated.

Paulphidian then attempts to convince each of the Green Lanterns that his/their presence is a good thing, by offering each of them the things that they appear to want. However, each of them, after considering the offer, refuses, and Paulphidian becomes confused and upset, retreating to the moon and curling up into a ball. The Team and the Green Lanterns follow him and sing a song by Milarepa about accepting all parts of oneself.

Inspired by the song and recognising that he cannot have his friends while fused, Paul achieves a mental state of not wanting, and is able to disconnect, leaving the Ophidian in the ring. The Green Lanterns bring him back to the Mountain, where he connects the ring to his personal lantern and allows the Ophidian to show him all of his desires at once. By understanding and accepting all of those desires as parts of himself, his mind is permanently altered to a state of Orange Enlightenment, allowing him to handle the orange light safely. The Ophidian takes up residence in his personal lantern, and he states his new Lantern Oath for the first time.

In the Renegade timeline, the Forever People arrive to take back the Sphere, known to them as the New Genesphere, when they mistake the Renegade for Grayven, son of Darkseid. The Renegade embraces their mistake, subdues them, and goes with them to retrieve other stolen technology, in exchange for a share of the spoils. However, Robin, who doesn't trust him, blows up most of the equipment he was going to claim, leaving him with only the Father Box taken from Desaad.

Equivalent canon episode: "Disordered". "Reordered" likely refers to the fact that Paul has not fallen apart in the aftermath of the training simulation, he's just changed. Also, achieving orange enlightenment restructures his thinking.

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• All for Nothing: Downplayed. The Renegade helped the Forever People in order to help himself to some of their tech. Robin destroys his share before they leave. It's not a total loss, as he recovers some of it and even gets Desaad's Father Box.
• Aura Vision: Upon gaining enlightenment, Paul gains the ability to look into people's souls and see their emotions and the experiences connected with them. Previously, he was able to use the ring to view desires, but this is an improved version, including all seven colours and not requiring the ring.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: No pun intended but the Ophidian. It understands the concept of wanting and being possessive of something but doesn't understand emotion outside of it. Paulphidian literally couldn't understand emotions such as love, hate and anger when he tried recalling what he felt.
• Breaking Speech: This is what Father Mattias' exorcism of Paulphidian consists of, deconstructing their motives so Paul would kick the Ophidian out. 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: He likes the ice cream!
• Brick Joke: Zatara isn't too impressed by Paul's association with John Constantine and assumes that associating with him will get Paul possessed or murdered. When Paul merges with the Ophidian, Zatara assumes that he's been possessed by a demon because of the tattoos. Paulphidian then scanned his soul and discovered that his main desire at the time involved strangling Constantine with his bare hands.
• Buy Them Off: Artemis accuses Paulphidian of trying this when he proposes to give her asteroid gold in order to give her the funds to go independent.
  Paulphidian: It has occurred to us that your resource expenditure per encounter is greater than that of any of our other team mates.
  Artemis: What?
  Paulphidian: Arrows cost money. Constructs don't. Punches and magic don't. Shapeshifting and telepathy don't. Wallace spends an unusual amount of money on calorie rich foodstuffs but we calculate that the cost to him per encounter is still-.
  Artemis: Really. Really! That's the best you could come up with! Trying to BUY ME OFF!
• The Cameo: Desire of the Endless pays Paulphidian a visit while the latter is freaking out on the moon.
• Can't Stay Normal: To survive disconnecting from the Ophidian, Paul had to achieve a new level of understanding of his own desires, which permanently altered the way he thinks.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Renegade!OL defeats the Forever People in seconds.
  • Paulphidian effortlessly disarms and immobilizes the Green Lanterns.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: The Ophidian, giant orange light snake, universal embodiment of avarice, capable of devouring the souls of the entire world, spends a morning making hundreds of flavours of ice cream for Kid Flash.
  Wallace: Y'know, I think I'm starting to like New Paul.
• Dude, Not Funny!: In-Universe. After Paulphidian makes Kid Flash ice cream, Kid Flash jokes that he likes the new Paul. Artemis, who was a close friend of Paul, attempts to deck him for the tasteless joke.
• Enlightenment Superpowers: Paul achieves "Orange Enlightenment", where he is constantly aware of all his desires and how they relate to each other. This makes him essentially immune to orange-induced insanity, and allows him to apply avarice to almost any situation (since he always understands how his desired action relates to his goals), but leaves him unusually goal-focused and somewhat "productively insane" all the time.
• Fighting from the Inside: As much as Paulphidian denies it, the Team takes his ring constantly playing the song "Invite Them In" as Paul's subconscious resisting.
• The Final Temptation: Paulphidian's confrontation with the Green Lanterns in his room. He tries tempting them into accepting him with various things: he offers to make Hal Jordan the best Lantern ever. He promises to make Alan Scott immortal. He offers Guy Gardner a way to let go of his anger by finding an Indigo Ring for him. He offers John Stewart an Orange Ring so he could build his heart's desires. They all refuse, Guy and Alan especially. Guy doesn't want any short cuts to deal with his anger while Alan has accepted that he will die and wants Paul back, who he loves like a grandson. Hal... has disagreements with the method by which becoming the greatest Green Lantern would happen, which is basically trapping him in a nightmare until he cannot feel fear anymore, thus having nothing weakening his willpower.
• For Want Of A Nail: The Forever People never show up for Sphere in the Paragon timeline because Paulphidian was running rampant. And considering their reaction to the Renegade's use of the orange light (they think he's Apokoliptian), their reaction to sensing an unleashed Avarice Elemental is (quite properly) to turn around and run away.
• Giant Food: The giant cake Paulphidian bakes.
• Hollywood Exorcism: Lampshaded. Paulphidian wonders why he didn't get any Latin chanting, no calls upon Christ or other trappings when the Inquisitor, Father Mattias attempts to exorcise him. The exorcism itself consists of Father Mattias talking to him. Father Mattias explains that exorcising an elemental like the Ophidian doesn't involve any of the traditional tools or chants; those are for demons.
• Hope Spot: It looks like Father Mattias is going to succeed in separating Paul and the Ophidian, but he fumbles at the last second.
• 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 Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Father Mattias and all of OL's friends do this in hopes of Paulphidian breaking the Fusion Dance.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Paulphidian initially mocks the idea of an exorcist having an effect on him, only for Father Mattias to make him eat his words by nearly exorcising him with a conversation.
• Is That the Best You Can Do?: Paulphidian is dismayed that Earth's Green Lanterns confront them without any substantial support from the Guardians (and consequently they don't have the raw power to win). Interestingly, Paulphidian isn't exactly hostile to the Lanterns when saying this, they just think that the Guardians are failing to measure up.
  Paulphidian: What else do they have?
  Jordan: Nothing. They were going to make you the offer they made to Larfleeze. As long as you stayed in this Sector they wouldn't touch you.
  Paulphidian: But that's a tremendous abdication of responsibility! And we are proof that it didn't even work with Larfleeze. What if we had been Parallax, The Butcher or The Predator? They are far less personable than we are!
• Jerkass Has a Point: Just because Paul is possessed, it doesn't mean he's wrong:
  • 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.
• 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.
• Mad God: Paulphidian has pretty much lost his sanity and has the power to move celestial bodies! Thankfully he's not malicious.
• Mundane Utility: Paulphidian has the power to move the moon at will and uses it to make ice cream.
• Mythology Gag: Since the Host of Ion was called Ion, Paulphidian thinks that the Host of the Ophidian (i.e. himself) should be called Ophidian.
• Not Good with Rejection: The entire Team and his mentors utterly rejecting Paulphidian causes them to flee to the Moon in a fetal position.
• Not Helping Your Case: M'gann believes that it was her fault that the training scenario went so horribly wrong. Paulphidian attempts to console her, but seeing how he's a result of it he doesn't really help.
• Painting the Medium: 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. Since Paulphidian is observing his friends, he tends to smaller paragraphs.
• Physical God: This episode just hammers home how Paulphidian is so much more powerful than most beings on Earth, with even people like Wonder Woman being in awe at what he is capable of.
  • When Paul reaches Orange Enlightenment, his quote marks are orange.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Paulphidian gives one about Martian Manhunter to Black Canary.
    Paulphidian: Now, we have a question for you. Who is taking over M'gann's telepathy training?
    Black Canary: J'onn is-.
    Paulphidian: No. If this debacle has proven anything it is that his abilities as a teacher are sadly deficient. M'gann needs a competent teacher.
    Black Canary: Do you blame him for what happened to you?
    Paulphidian: Yes. To Orange Lantern and to our team mates. The Ophidian.. objected less.
    Black Canary: That seems a little harsh. He was as much in danger as the rest of you.
    Paulphidian: He failed to assess the strength of M'gann's telepathic abilities in advance of the scenario. He did not investigate the effect of telepathic effects on power rings, despite working with two Green Lanterns for several years. He did not ask Orange Lantern about specific risk factors relating to the orange light. He decided to use a high stress scenario for our first use of that training technique instead of starting with something more basic. And when he entered, he was overwhelmed by our emotional response to the situation. Do Martians not study lucid dreaming? Self hypnosis? Why did he not bring in another telepath to oversee his attempts to liberate us? Why did he not use a psi-baffle or inhibitor collar on M'gann from outside? A catalogue of errors. He may be a highly effective police officer but he has demonstrated himself as an inadequate teacher.
    Black Canary: That...I.. Some of that may be reasonable-.
  • He then 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?
• Sanity Has Advantages: It's also why the Ophidian possesses him, OL can give the Ophidian needed perspective due to being able to prioritize. Unfortunately Paulphidian loses the ability once possessed, though arguably it still works to a degree— instead of becoming an all-consuming greed monster, it acts on his deep desires to improve the world.
• The Scottish Trope: The Forever People are too scared to even say Darkseid's name. The Renegade, however, has no such problem.
• Shout-Out: John Stewart's oath uses at least one line from Dune.
  "-alone I set my mind in motion."
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Paulphidian denies that the song, "Invite Them In" has any significance to them or their situation, despite the fact the ring plays the song constantly contrary to their desire.
• Tankard Of Moose Urine: Guy's terrible beer is terrible. According to Paulphidian's chemical analysis, it literally almost tastes like horse urine.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: As a point of pride, anything that Paulphidian does, they want to be the best at. Want to find the League of Shadows? Cover the entire planet, including underwater and local space, with construct-eyeballs. Need some cash? Teleport an 800-meter asteroid to the top of Mount Justice and break it down for materials while Artemis stares. Time to bake a Christmas cake? Make it four miles wide and mix it in the sky above New York so everyone can watch!
  Paulphidian: Lantern Gardner observed that Orange Lantern's ability to create extremely large constructs was lacking. We think that we can now safely lay his concerns to rest.
• Unwanted Assistance: In-Universe Everyone's reaction to Paulphidian attempting to help them by giving them stuff. The various things Paulphidian did in the name of helping:
  • Turn the moon around so people could see the dark side of it.
  • Make a humongous cake for the people of New York.
  • Give the Danner Formula to Robin and Artemis.
  • Take down the League of Shadows by scanning the entirety of Earth in an attempt to give Kon a chance to fight ninjas... by the means of creating enough floating eyeballs to literally see everywhere on Earth (and a good chunk of near-Earth space).
    Paulphidian: Everywhere except the Batcave and any toilet Wallace is in.
  • Transmute a suit of Nth metal armor, which nearly took out Mount Justice.
  • Give storage cases of fruits and vegetables to the Amazons. Though this one was actually appreciated.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Paulphidian breaks down when Father Mattias deconstructs their motives for releasing the Ophidian and merging with it. They recollect themselves when Father Mattias makes the mistake of telling the Embodiment of Avarice, "that they don't want this."
  • Paulphidian has a major one, breaking down in a gibbering mess when the Green Lanterns refuse to give in to their desires and refuse its help. They futilely try to feel something by hugging the Star Sapphire in order to feel the emotions their friends want them to have.
• Wham Line: Paulphidian completely changes the context for why Guy's favorite drink is A Tankard of Moose Urine.
  Paulphidian: Do you remember the first time you returned to your family home after your father's funeral? A funeral you did not in fact attend.
  Guy: A bit. Mom wanted me to clear out some of Dad's stuff.
  Paulphidian: I can only see links between events that have a strong emotional resonance.
  Guy: Yeah? Didn't mean anything to me.
  Paulphidian: You're wrong. There's a strong emotional resonance there. You're in the kitchen drinking from a can of cheap beer while pouring the rest of his stash down a sink.
  Guy: [nods and goes to take another drink] Yeah, I remember that. So what-?
  Paulphidian: It's the same brand. You like drinking it despite the taste because it reminds you that he's dead.
  [Guy freezes, staring at the glass]
  [Guy pulls the glass slowly away from his face before dropping it to the floor]
• Word of God: The Light will be investigating the orange eyes that covered the world.

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