# Green Lanterns vs. Sinestro question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-lanterns-vs-sinestro-question/1032640>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** comic-books-manga\
**Created:** [August 28, 2026, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-lanterns-vs-sinestro-question/1032640 "2026-08-28T21:15:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-lanterns-vs-sinestro-question/1032640/1 "2026-08-28T21:15:31Z")

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Something I’ve never quite understood: if in the classic version of the Green Lantern Corp their rings don’t work against anything yellow, then why aren’t they all utterly and completely helpless against Sinestro’s yellow power ring?

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**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-lanterns-vs-sinestro-question/1032640/2 "2026-08-28T21:20:15Z")

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AIUI, the GLs dealt with fighting Sinestro by dodging his yellow energy blasts, using their rings to drop things on him, create environmental effects, etc., as going head-on against him didn’t directly work.

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**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-lanterns-vs-sinestro-question/1032640/3 "2026-09-07T02:59:22Z")

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I think it was in one of the old _Super Friends_ cartoons where Sinestro trapped Green Lantern in a cage of yellow energy and banished him to deep space. Green Lantern escaped by somehow causing the cage to spin faster and faster until the color changed from yellow into something that he could affect with his ring. It seemed like a pretty genius move to me.

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**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-lanterns-vs-sinestro-question/1032640/4 "2026-09-08T13:24:27Z")

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AFAIK, at some point Parallax was removed from the big lantern battery on OA and that removed the weakness against yellow from all green lanterns.

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**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-lanterns-vs-sinestro-question/1032640/5 "2026-09-08T18:55:08Z")

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> [@Ike\_Witt](#):
>
> AFAIK, at some point Parallax was removed from the big lantern battery on OA

It looks like this happened in 2004-2005, in the _[Green Lantern: Rebirth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Lantern:_Rebirth)_ miniseries; the fact that Parallax (the embodiment of fear) was imprisoned in the power battery was revealed in that series, and served as a retcon explanation as to why GL rings had the “yellow impurity.”

AIUI, the absolute weakness against the color yellow was significantly reduced, but not entirely eliminated: a GL with sufficient willpower and experience can now overcome the yellow problem, but less-skilled GLs might still be affected by it.