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#sorry to everyone except for guy and kara you are just not my blorbos like that
green-lanterns-c0ck · 3 years
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Send me a character and I’ll tell you a song lyric that reminds me of them. - Guy (and if u want also any other JLI character that you like)
I have... many songs for Guy... I'll try to sort them by time frame, vaguely. This will probably be very cringe but I refuse to apologize. It also got really long, so I'm putting it under a read more lol.
TL:DR:
JLI Era Guy - Industry Baby by Lil Nas X: "You was never really rootin' for me anyway / When I'm back up at the top I wanna hear you say / He don't run from nothin', dog / Get your soldiers, tell em that the break is over"
Yellow Ring Guy - Lips Shut by Nina Chupa: "I killed kindness, with my own violence / I'm thinking twice now, I'm on the brink of niceness"
Warriors Guy - Under The Pressure by The Score: "No, not today / Not gonna make the same mistakes / No, not today / Not gonna cave, not gonna break "
Post-Warriors Guy - Born For This by The Score: "We are the warriors, who learned to love the pain / We come from different places but have the same name / 'Cause we were born for this / We are the broken ones, who chose to spark a flame / Watch as our fire rages, our hearts are never tame / Cause we were, 'cause we were born for this / We were born for this"
JLI Green Lantern Guy: Industry Baby by Lil Nas X
"And this one is for the champions
I ain't lost since I began, yeah
Funny how you said it was the end, yeah
Then I went did it again, yeah
I told you long ago, on the road
I got what they waitin' for
I don't run from nothin', dog
Get your soldiers, tell 'em I ain't layin' low
You was never really rootin' for me anyway
When I'm back up at the top I wanna hear you say
He don't run from nothin', dog
Get your soldiers, tell 'em that the break is over"
I think it fits Guy in that time period really well, because his life's - his life's pretty shit. He's recently come out of a six year (-ish) coma, he's lost his job and his ability to do his job, he has two - three friends max, and even they get annoyed and angry at him often. He gets treated so unfairly and is being given... very little consideration and compassion or awknowledgement for the good he does.
If I was in Guy's position, I'd probably throw the towel really fast, but Guy's not the kind of person to give up, even if going on hurts him and he's so desperate to prove himself. He wants people to see how good he is, he wants to be awknowledged as the Top Guy (hehe), by the JLI and the GL corps. He's treading water and still swimming upstream, no matter what.
Yellow Ring Guy: Lips Shut by Nina Chupa
"I killed kindness, with my own violence
I'm thinking twice now, I'm on the brink of niceness
With myself in hindsight, I should love the highlights
I should treat myself right
I should not be scared of night time thoughts
That I'm not enough for my own life
[...]
I hear a million carbon copies of myself
And every single one of them is shouting
You should go to hell
The more they talk the more I think I might as well
And maybe, maybe I should sew their lips shut
They want me praying at the altar of my doubt
They shout Judas in the flesh has come around
So it's supper for suckers before I'm out
I should sew their lips shut"
I love the opening lines of this song for Guy, because when Guy first gets his yellow ring he is literally on the brink of niceness and he struggles with it. He's trying so hard to kill kindness with his violence, but he can't, because Tora has shown him kindness and made him show his own niceness and now he can't stop! He's a softie! He hates it! I love him!
This period of Guy's life is about him healing, from the downward spiral he was in since he got trapped in the Phantom Zone - he's realizing he doesn't have to be the though Guy leader all the time, he gets friends who genuinely like him, in an uncomplicated way (Sally... My fave), because he can have relationships like that again and he's getting better, feeling steadier and calmer, he starts not hating himself so much and being less insecure, because for so long, being a Green Lantern was the only thing that gave him value and now it's gone and Guy's still here, he picked up the pieces of himself and found... that he's still worth something, if he tries to be. And he does, even when other people don't accept him or value him. (Superman, the League after Tora's death...)
Guy has lost everything at least twice now, and he's still going on and I think that's the point where he gains his amazing confidence in himself, because he knows he can pick himself back up now, no matter what, even if he has to do it alone.
Warrior Guy: Under the Pressure by The Score
"Fear wears a smile but I'll be the last one laughing
Try to take me down, no it ain't ever gonna happen, no, oh oh
No, not today
Not gonna make the same mistakes
No, not today
Not gonna cave, not gonna break
Under the pressure
Under the pressure
(I'm never gonna break)
(No matter what it takes)
Pressure, pressure calls my name
I think it's time that I should
Push it back and entertain it
Forever, ever like a game
Stacked up the cards against me
Now I think my luck is changing"
As Warrior, Guy finally gets a fucking break, he's still going through a lot (Tora's death, his own death during Our Worlds At War, Arisia...) BUT he finally has friends, finally has a real home, is finally happy with his life again. He gets visited by other heroes, they meet at Warriors, children look up to him again - Guy's finally settled into his skin again. He knows who he is again, he knows what he can do, he knows what he's worth. He's calmed down and steady, able to support others, like Kyle and Zinda, and Impulse, and - and everyone who comes through the door long enough to be spotted.
Warrior Guy is so wonderfully warm, and open, and accepting. I really do think this is the ideal Future for Guy - being able to grow old as a fixture of the hero community, someone the younger generations all look up to and can lean on, call on for advice, someone incredibly dependable.
But still rough around the edges, and inappropriate at times, headstrong and stubborn, difficult to get along with. Because by god, has Guy learned how little being nice and normal will get you, how little people will give you if you struggle like he has. If someone sticks around while he's a gruff and rude asshole, they're gonna stick around. If someone's only friends with him while Guy plays nice, polishes off his accent and his crude jokes, then they're gonna drop him as soon as things get difficult.
He's found his people now, in his Warriors Crew, in Zinda, in Ted, in Kyle, even in Bea and he's content now.
Post-Warrior Green Lantern Guy: Born for this by The Score
"We are the warriors, who learned to love the pain
We come from different places but have the same name
'Cause we were born for this
We are the broken ones, who chose to spark a flame
Watch as our fire rages, our hearts are never tame
'Cause we were, 'cause we were,
'Cause we were, 'cause we were born for this
We were born for this
I've struggled for years and
Through all of the tears
I've faced the doubts I hide
I never gave into my fears deep within
'Cause I heard my voice inside
I know I was born for this
I know I was born for this
I will never lose my voice
If I cut out all the noise
I know, I was born for this
I know, I was born for this
I believe, I believe
We can write our story
I believe, I believe
We can be an army
[...]
These words that I write are for someone like me
To know you're not alone
The moves that you make ya they come with mistakes
Don't ever lose your hope
Just know, you were born for this
Just know, you were born for this"
This one is kinda my anthem of the entire New Green Lantern Corps, but it's always tied up with Guy specifically. I hate every word Geoff Johns has ever written with a burning passion, but I love Guy rejoining the Corps and getting to be a mentor, and appreciated and loving the Corps so much and finally getting loved in return, and finally, finally getting part of the group, of the family. After literal decades of being an outsider, Guy is finally part of the family. I am going to make myself cry.
Like, Guy is more than just a Green Lantern, he has lived without the Corps before and he can do it again, he doesn't need them - but he loves them. He loves them so much. Guy has loved the Corps with all his heart ever since he first put on the ring, first recited the vow, and by god he has never stopped loving it and his fellow Lanterns, even while he was in a coma, even while they treated him like shit, even when he wasn't a Lantern anymore. Guy has loved the Corps for decades, and he's finally getting loved back. He was born for this, and he's home.
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