Recap / With This Ring Episode 42

Episode 42: Fool's Canon

Takes place 1 April 2011.

This episode begins a tradition of April 1 episodes being focused on crossovers and alternate universes.

Short version

Paul encounters Ambush Bug, who recognises him as a self-insert and attempts to eliminate him as a threat to the franchise, but is eventually neutralised by raising the possibility that Paul is a genuine character.

Longer version

A mysterious escape pod approaches the Earth. The Renegade detects it early, intercepts it at its landing site, and kills the bug that he finds inside before it can do anything; it later turns out to be Not Quite Dead, but all it does is teleport away. Later in the day, while shopping with Lynne, he meets and recruits Misa Amane and Sunset Shimmer.

In the Paragon timeline, on the other hand, the Team reaches the escape pod much later, only to find that Ambush Bug has taken a host and started warping reality. He is initially friendly to the various team members, whom he recognises, but upon seeing Paul, he recognises him as a self-insert and becomes enraged, declaring "No filthy SI in my story!" He attempts to remove Paul by sending him to a succession of alternate universes which contain versions of himself, as well as to entirely different fandoms such as Kung Fu Panda and Captain Planet and the Planeteers. When Paul keeps returning, Ambush Bug resorts to summoning allies from the past and future, until Paul talks him down by pointing out the possibility that Paul is actually a minor, forgotten, DC-owned character, which would make his presence authorised by DC Editorial. Ambush Bug reluctantly agrees to perform an exhaustive search of everything DC ever produced, and leaves.

The title refers to the many, many alternate universes depicted in this episode, and to "fool's gold" (pyrite).

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• Adaptational Wimp: Paul looked up the local Maxwell Lord and found that he isn't a telepath.
  Maxwell Lord was one of the people I checked out very carefully early on, but the Earth 16 version isn't telepathic and has no obvious reason to hate metahumans, meaning that the personality shift he underwent in the comics hasn't happened and hopefully won't.
• All for Nothing: Tai Lung laments this when he sees what's on the Dragon Scroll.
• Alternate History: In Universe 50, the Green Lantern Corps didn't attack Apokolips, and subsequently get repelled.
• Alternate Self: The first time Ambush Bug sends Paul across the multiverse, it was through the eyes of versions of himself stuck in other universes.
• Alternate Universe: We get to see several in this episode thanks to Ambush Bug sending Paul throughout the multiverse twice.
  • He first tries sending him into universes where alternate versions of him exist.
    • First up is a version of the SI who ended up on Earth 32 with a Red ring. He works under Atrocitus and is starting a relationship with Blackfire.
    • Next is an Anti-Green Lantern. He's forced to attack Green Lanterns to recharge and in order to avoid the 24 hour lifespan from having the ring, he's made a deal with someone who can dip him in a Lazarus Pit. The only thing he has to do in exchange is hunt down Ra's al Ghul.
    • The next one is an Indigo Lantern, who goes by Saul Talbot, who ended up in the world of The Boys. He joins Vought and decides to try and help the superheroes actually be heroes, starting with Superduper.
    • We then see Power Ring Blue back when the Management was still alive. He to talks Ultraman about Owlman's bomb plan and convinces him that it is insane.
  • The second time around, Ambush Bug sends Paul into the mind of his own future self, who is travelling across the multiverse to different franchises.
    • The first stop is in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender before or during the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise. He decides to help out Azula work through her mental traumas.
    • Next is the world of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. He is present when Nightmare Moon is freed and offers her a place in the OLC as an alternative to fighting her sister.
    • Then he ends up in the world of Captain Planet and the Planeteers. He helps Doctor Blight get an unambiguous win against the Planeteers in exchange for her becoming a member of the OLC.
    • Last is the world of Kung Fu Panda, where he interferes with the events of the first movie so that Tai Lung instead repents for his actions and reconciles with Shifu.
• Animal Eyes: When Fire Lord Zuko asks for proof that Future Orange Lantern was sent by a spirit, the latter manifests the Ophidian's Eyes.
• Anti-Climax: Brum-El's escape pod, jettisoned from his dying planet, contains the things most important to him: his sock collection, hats in their original boxes, and his beautiful, beautiful oven gloves.
• Apocalypse How: Owlman, from Earth -14, wanted to build a Class X bomb. Blue Lantern Paul convinced Ultraman that it was a bad idea.
• An Arm and a Leg: Anti-Green Lantern Paul can't cut off his hand because the ring will just reattach itself.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Doctor Blight wants this to happen in exchange for her working with Future Orange Lantern. He delivers by convincing her to perform legal experiments that seem illegal so that the Planeteers can get arrested when they try to stop her.
• Bad Liar: Paul immediately realizes that Diana is trying to keep something from him when he notices that she's acting a little odd and won't look directly at him.
• Bad Powers, Good People: One version of Paul was conscripted into the Anti-Green Lantern Corps. It's not that bad, apart from the ring demanding that he pick fights with everyone interesting in order to gather data. And torturing him if he thinks the wrong thing or disobeys. And giving him a fatal brain aneurysm every twenty four hours... Ok, it is that bad. But at least he has superpowers, right?
• Bail Equals Freedom: The Planeteers will be bailed out in a day.
• Batman Gambit: Future Paul recruits Doctor Blight by helping her set up a line of research that's actually ethical and beneficial, while looking extremely suspicious. Because what she really wanted was to see the looks on the Planeteers' faces when they burst in and found out that there's no evil to fight and they're going to be arrested for trespassing.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Misa Amane is polite, soft-spoken, moving into a minor career in modelling. Once the Renegade recruits her and gives her Super-Speed, she becomes a fanatically and disturbingly obedient soldier-assassin who smiles cheerfully about leaving no survivors when doing her master's work.
• Big "NO!": Sunset lets out one of these after the Renegade tells her that the portal that brought her to Earth already closed itself.
• Blank Slate: Part of the reason the Renegade gave Misa powers is because she doesn't know anything about the superhero life, meaning he can shape her as he sees fit.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: This is pretty much Ambush Bug's shtick. When you're a self-insert character to begin with, knowing that you're in a comic world but experiencing it as real, and knowing about Ambush Bug's powers, it gets weird.
  • When Mr Zoat first posted the parts of this episode, the titles for the parts that later turn out to be Crossover parts first appeared as Error! on the table of contents as a way to show Ambush Bug's interference with the story and to not spoil the surprise.
  • The Queen of Fables briefly posts again.
• Break Them by Talking:
  • Future Orange Lantern does this to Azula in order to rehabilitate her.
    Her eyes are locked forwards, unseeing. She's shaking slightly. "You built your identity, your concept of the good, around a man who cared for you not at all. You pushed away everyone -just like you were supposed to- and you were left with nothing. And fixing that is what I am here to help you with."
  • He also does this to Tai Lung to get the latter to reconsider his obsession with the Dragon Scroll.
• Call-Back: Back in Unusual Suspicions, Paul told Wonder Woman that the Shade never fought the Justice Society seriously, and that if he did, he would've won with little effort. She didn't take this well, and this episodes reveals that she challenged him to a fight off-screen and not only lost, but also got burns to show for it.
  Paul: Did you wrestle an Elemental or something?
  Wonder Woman: No. But it seems that you were right about Richard Swift.
• Chekhov's Gun: Back in Carpe Tempus, Mr Zoat mentioned that he watched an episode of Teen Titans (2003), as pointed out by one poster. This episode shows which one that is thanks to the Red Lantern Paul segments.
• Continuity Nod: While in Japan to take Lynne shopping, the Renegade runs into one of the women of his tentacle ogre sex cult.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Paul argued that he himself might be a minor DC character and that the only way for Ambush Bug to be certain would be to read every comic DC ever made. This successfully gets Ambush Bug to leave.
• Crossover: This episode has the Renegade run into Misa Amane and Sunset Shimmer, both of whom would go on to be supporting characters in his timeline.
• Cuteness Proximity: Although he doesn't let it show in his conversation, Future Orange Lantern mentally squees while talking to Nightmare Moon.
• De-power: After studying Compound V, Saul is able to develop a chemical compound he calls 'Purge'. It takes away the superpowers of those affected by Compound V.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: As one poster notes, Doctor Blight's reaction to finally getting a win over the Planeteers has her act as if she just had an orgasm.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Misa Amane thought the Renegade would grant wishes to kill others in exchange for sex due to him previously being in a tentacle ogre sex cult. As such, she attempts to offer sex in exchange for killing the man who killed her parents.
• Everyone Has Standards: Altering someone's personality for no good reason is a red line for the Renegade, which is part of why he didn't change Misa.
• Flash Forward: A distant future Paul is seen recruiting Lanterns and fixing problems using careful application of avarice in non-DC franchises, including Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Kung Fu Panda.
• Foreshadowing: The Renegade isn't aware of it yet, but there is already a new Lord of Chaos to replace Klarion.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • The Watchtower in the Paragon timeline lacks the advanced sensors that are available for the Watchtower in the Renegade timeline. As such, it only detected Brum-El's pod after it crashed.
  • Since the robotic bug wasn't found by Irwin Schwab in the Renegade timeline, it's fourth wall breaking affect was used on the Renegade instead.
    • It's later explained that the bug displaced bits of the story lines of other universes into Universe 16.
• Freudian Excuse: Mr Zoat gives one for Blackfire to both explain why she is the way she is, and why she would be attracted to Red Lantern Paul.
• Futureshadowing: Future Orange Lantern mentions a Lantern Onik at one point. It is later revealed that this is a future recruit of the OLC who Paul takes in for personal instruction.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: This might happen to Blackfire as a result of interacting with Red Lantern Paul.
• Humanity Ensues: Sunset Shimmer becomes human from traveling through Starswirl's Mirror, and she is not happy about it.
• In Another Man's Shoes: Thanks to Ambush Bug, Paul briefly experiences parts of the lives of his Alternate Selves as they lived them.
• Is This a Joke?: When OL reveals that the pod contains socks, Roy can only say that he can't be serious.
• Jaw Drop: Downplayed, as Wonder Woman's mouth only opens slightly after hearing what Paul did to get rid of Ambush Bug.
• Jurisdiction Friction: This is basically why Red Lantern Paul saved Blackfire.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Cornwall Boy had no idea who Euanthe was and asks Paul and the rest about her while on the way to Antarctica.
• Logical Latecomer: Ultraman, secretly J'edd J'arkus in disguise, asks Power Ring Blue for his opinion Owlman's planet destroying bomb because he, allegedly, sees the latter as this.
  Ultraman!J'edd J'arkus: You're a smart guy and you're not… You don't think like the rest of us long time Syndicate types.
• Mad Scientist: Doctor Blight performs insane experiments simply because they interest her. Once she's done, she gives it to someone else so that she can start her next experiment.
• Moral Myopia: Atrocitus only cares about the Guardians and anyone who allies with them.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Ambush Bug gets a crazy mish-mash of tropes happening in order to buy himself enough screen time to end Paul.
• No-Sell: Ma-Ti's attempt to turn things around with his ring are stopped by Future Orange Lantern using the power of Avarice.
• Not So Invincible After All: Diana herself notes this after her altercation with the Shade, having come out with burns along her arms. While they will heal, it reminds her that she is not invulnerable.
• Omake: A non-canon one has Paul confront Amanda Waller about her plans to form the Suicide Squad, but he can't get involved because Suicide Squad is DLC that he hasn't paid for.
• Only the Worthy May Pass:
  • Red Lantern Paul informs the Teen Titans that if they're unhappy with how he conducted himself, they can lodge a complaint with the Corps. However, the process includes traveling to Ysmault and defeating a Senior Lantern in single combat, before submitting form 701B. Word of God is that if anyone feels that this process unfairly excludes individuals with a valid grievance but little personal power, they want form 701C, which is implied to have similar requirements.
  • Getting a red power ring also requires going through a ritual.
    Red Lantern Paul: There's a.. three day ritual. Senior Lantern Qull gradually regresses your mind to its most primal, rage-filled state, until you're reduced to a savage, animalistic level. At that point, they throw you naked into the Lake of Blood which surrounds the Red Central Power Battery and Lord Atrocitus himself calls forth your rage with which to forge your ring and personal lantern.
• Our Wormholes Are Different: The Renegade recruits Sunset Shimmer, after her return portal closes sooner than she expected.
• The Power of Hate: Atrocitus hates the Guardians for what happened to Sector 666, and nothing will ever get him to reconsider his hatred.
• Red Is Violent: Paul gets a glimpse of his Red Lantern alternate self in the Teen Titans universe.
• Revenge: Miss Amane will do anything for a shot at the man who killed her parents. She tries offering the Renegade Sex for Services to kill the murderer of her parents. When he turns her down and instead recruits her as a New God with Super-Speed, she becomes his devoted follower thenceforth. After violently killing her target, that is.
• Sanity Has Advantages: The Red Lantern Corps isn't made up of unthinking berserkers because Atrocitus saw that they weren't good enough to take on the Green Lantern Corps in that state.
• Secret Test of Character: J'edd J'arkus took on Ultraman's appearance and met with Power Ring Blue to test his loyalty on Owlman's orders.
• Sex for Services: Repeatedly averted.
  • The Renegade turns down Miss Amane proposition and instead empowers her so that she could solve her own problem.
  • Saul Talbot attends a hero convention that supplies prostitutes, and spends time playing the Babylon Five card game with them.
    Saul: For a start, Babylon Five isn't a children's card game. It's very complicated and I usually have trouble finding opponents. I mean, those ladies were there to keep us happy, right?
• Shout-Out:
  • When the Renegade is briefly worried that Lynne will react badly to Jean's telepathy, he calls what Lynne did to her parents the mind crush.
  • The name the Renegade gives Misa after Awakening her, Iname, comes from a Magic: The Gathering card.
  • Future Orange Lantern call Doctor Blight a malign hypercognitive.
  • Ambush Bug references Batman: The Brave and the Bold when talking about a show that "fell into the abyss".
• Spirit Advisor: Future Orange Lantern acts as this to Tai Lung.
• Super-Empowering: The Renegade gives Misa Amane Super-Speed via the Garrick Formula before Awakening her, turning her into the New God of Death, Iname.
• Take That!: Paul argues that it should be possible for a story to be realistic about the consequences of a society with superheroes and supervillains without becoming grimdark.
• What If?:
  • If there was a Renegade on Earth -14, he would've joined President Slade and been given Power Ring's gauntlet.
  • If a version of the SI with an orange ring and a lantern ended up in Worm, he'd immediately shake up the status quo.
  • If the Renegade were on the world of Captain Planet and the Planeteers, he would kill Zarm to take his powers, and then make a deal with Gaia.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Indigo Lantern Paul asks to be assigned to a team of misfits with nigh-useless powers, where his compassion-based ring can easily do some good.
• Why Won't You Die?: Ambush Bug is incensed that he can't get rid of Paul even after sending him across space and time twice.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Downplayed. Euanthe the dryad has been eating Swamp Thing's fruit and gained a lot of arcane power from it, but doing so has essentially rendered her drunk, though she eventually adapts.
• Word of God: There is no chance of Lynne accidentally learning that the Renegade isn't actually Apokoliptian.
  • Batman has theoretical plans to take down the Renegade. Also, the guys in the military who did this sort of thing were taken in by SHADE.
  • Atlanteans have options when it comes to their afterlife.
  • The Renegade was able to get two radion blasters from fighting the Thanagarians on Earth 50.
  • Mr Zoat explains why the Renegade has deep space sensor systems and what Paul would do if he saw the Reach scarab, which is currently in Ted Kord's house.
    • He later elaborates on how the Renegade got his scanners and why he can't share it with the Justice League.
  • Starro-tech allowed Klarion to bypass the ring's defenses against being used for lethal force and it's wielder being controlled.
  • The Reach are prepared for the possibility of the Green Lanterns fighting them again, so when the Orange Lantern Corps coming into existence to fight them the Reach can fight back.
  • Zatara put scry wards on the Watchtower in the Renegade timeline.
  • The Renegade doesn't tell anyone that he isn't really Grayven in order to keep that knowledge from ever getting out.
  • Paul didn't upgrade the Watchtower because the Justice League hasn't ask him to.
  • The Justice League can't normally get to Antarctica quickly because there's no zeta tube there.
  • Two Face did a lot damage to the mobs of Gotham.
  • The way the Red Lanterns of Universe 32 work usually ends up with their victims being abused.
  • Thanks to Blackfire, the Red Lanterns of Universe 32 will be paying Vega a visit.
  • Red Lantern Paul has met most of the members of the Shadow Cabinet.
  • Raven is currently in Azarath.
  • Due to Atrocitus being a clerical worker before the Massacre, he's knowledgeable about how bureaucracy works.
  • Trigon doesn't care about the fact that Red Lantern Paul is killing his cultists.
  • Mr Zoat explains why the different versions of the SI try to go others who can make power rings.
  • Mr Zoat explains why Larfleeze wouldn't come out when the Red Lantern Corps go to Vega.
  • Despite both Red Lantern Paul and the Renegade being Anti Heroes, the latter is more capable of bringing positive change due to their differing methodologies.
  • Atrocitus suspects that Red Lantern Paul's original ring was made by a Guardian. He also believes that he can't risk opening the ring up.
  • Red Lantern Paul doesn't know about the possibility of Krona being the reason the Manhunters committed the Massacre of Sector 666.
  • Part of the reason the Renegade gave Misa Super-Speed is because he wants someone who has that ability in his employ.
  • The Renegade didn't offer Misa an alternate solution because he wanted one with immediate results and wouldn't draw attention.
  • Turning Misa into a New God is a Renegade decision because it's a violent or confrontational position.
  • Both Iname and Kid Flash will eventually be a little faster than the Flash thanks to their Awakening.
  • Mr Zoat explains some of the Renegade's recent actions.
  • Paul hasn't fixed Kid Flash's eating problem because he doesn't have the necessary knowledge and there isn't a great need for it.
  • Death of the Endless won't just show up in the story.
  • The Renegade's Father Box's thought processes are given.
  • Mr Zoat sums up what happened to the Renegade at the Source Wall.
  • Mr Zoat summarizes why Paul is able to use his ring in ways Green Lanterns normally can't. He also confirms that Paul won't get all of the ring colors.
  • Saul gave samples of Purge to Vought.
  • Even if Paul fixed Two-Face's appearance, it wouldn't make him sane again.
  • The Renegade remembers My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic but never saw any movies/episodes including Sunset Shimmer.
  • If the Renegade were to become a pony, he would look like a bigger Sombra that has bat wings, and has a fasces for a cutie mark.
  • There will be no version of Paul in Watchmen.
  • The other versions of Paul remember Young Justice (2010), with the exception of Power Ring Blue.
  • Since Mr Zoat didn't watch Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths before writing the story, the versions of the SI don't know it either.
  • No version of the SI will be in the Ultimate Marvel universe.
  • The Renegade used Teekl's remains when he lured Klarion into a trap.
  • Paul is still checking up on William Hand.
  • This story won't have a crossover with Discworld.
  • If Paul were to give Deus an orange power ring, the latter wouldn't change due to already being almost completely in tune with his desires.
  • Paul knows there's no version of himself on Earth 16 because he ran a facial and genetic recognition scan.
  • Neither OL nor Wonder Woman do regular patrols.
  • The sirens from My Little Pony: Equestria Girls were killed by Jon Haraldson.
  • Hephaestus is studying up on arcane literature.
• Wrong Assumption:
  • Paul assumes that the Watchtower has advanced sensors that he doesn't know about.
  • The man who killed Misa's parents would actually have a high chance of being convicted. The prosecutor just downplayed it to Misa in case there was a not guilty verdict and her imagination went wild with it.
  • The Justice League thought that AGL Paul would take more time and be less lethal. The latter is because they're used to how John Stewart operates.
• Yandere: Miss Amane latches onto the Renegade as the focus of her existence after he gives her the power to avenge her parents. From that moment on, she is his obsessively devoted (and bloodthirsty) servant. For his part, the Renegade doesn't let it become anything romantic; she's simply a valued member of his team.

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