#(it's also interesting because in the emerald dawn origin there's an undercurrent of

[featherpitch]

In addition, the discharge was created in the Green Lantern 2005 #29-35 retelling of Hal's origin, which is actually a lot tamer than his previous origin in Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn 1989. In Emerald Dawn, he heavily injures his friend and gets a DWI for drunk driving. There's nothing heroic or purposeful about it. In fact, he runs from accepting the punishment from it but ultimately returns and serves a jail sentence.

Throughout this origin, there's a theme of accepting responsibility for your actions. But, it's never framed as a moral obligation from Hal himself, rather it's a culmination of pressures from everyone he meets:

"He's right, you know. So was Andy, and the nurse, everybody. I've got to face this thing down, and pay the price for screwing up."

This is also the origin that has Hal the most reluctant and even firmly against accepting the ring in the first place.

Your wants are not my concern. The ring has decided.

No. I'm not the one.

Contrast this with the more modern origin in Green Lantern 2005 #30:

Do you accept this duty?

If I'm not dreaming--absolutely.

This diminishes the set up from the previous age, which is not surprising given that the modern run tends to add more military ethos to the Corps. (The very first origin in Showcase #22 is incredibly neutral. Abin Sur simply slips the ring on him and it seems more like he's honoring someone's dying wish rather than accepting a duty.) Still, these origins show that he was propelled into the role and accepted it as doctrine.

But at his core, Hal is a character that is uncomfortable with responsibility, and by extension authority and power. He is uncomfortable with wielding power over others, the same power that he has been subject to under various authorities and institutions. And of course, the same power of his father, whom he idealized and feared.

What am I?

The power.

Am I afraid? Yes.

But the fear doesn't matter now.

it's very significant to me hal jordan's origin stands in contrast to the stereotypical superhero—one who independently pursues vigilantism—in that he did not become a green lantern his own volition, but was rather propelled into the role and limply adopted it as sacred doctrine. he navigates his entire heroic career while extremely susceptible to some ambiguous authority's tenet of morality. which is not to say he lacks principles or methodology,, but it's ollie's (yet another external influence whom hal holds in high regard) prompting that leads him to question the institution he's upholding for the first time. even hal's definitive tragic backstory exacerbates his desire to prostrate himself in the face of authority rather than yielding a moral code of his own (i.e. batman's no killing rule)!! the innate qualities for which he was selected were the very traits that primes him for indoctrination; he was dutiful and doomed from the start