The Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum, if it Wasn't Written by Idiots

Or: On the Value of Commonly-Maligned Emotions

The emotional electromagnetic spectrum, as written in the DC Comics superhero universe, is terrible and badly-written. There are like two emotions that aren’t evil, and those ones are perfect snowflakes that could never do anything wrong. Every other emotion is exclusively evil, and should not be trusted. ¹ Love is on that list, by the way. And I don’t think they meant for their version of compassion to be awful? But it is.

This, uhh… fucking sucks.

So, here’s my take on the emotional electromagnetic spectrum.

Red: Rage

Rage is the emotion of those who have been wronged. When something is terrible and wrong and unfair, the bearers of Red light stare it in the face and scream no!

For as long as there is wrong in the world, there will be the rage of those who feel it and oppose it. Without rage, the wrong goes unrighted, and the wronged continue to be wronged.

At its worst, rage is senselessly beating against the world, flailing against the injustices and hurting anything you can.
At its best, rage means seeing all that is wrong in the world and tearing it out at its root, protecting all that wrong harms at your back.

Orange: Avarice

Avarice is the emotion of those who have gone without—the emotion of those who need. It is the urge, when you find something important, to take it and keep it, safe from all who would harm it or take it away. Avarice is about knowing how you want the world to be shaped, and needing to make it that shape. Avarice is the emotion of protectors: It drives us to keep what we love safe, and what makes us reach far into the heavens for our goals.

At its worst, avarice means desperately clutching things so close to you that they crumble, and never letting go of that which is not, or should not be ours.
At its best, avarice means fighting to get what we need, cherishing what is ours, and protecting it with all we have.

Yellow: Fear

Fear is the emotion of the wary. When something is precarious, fear is what keeps us alert and focused, ready to respond the moment things go wrong.

At its worst, fear means quaking at every sudden movement or sharp sound, even when all is right—it means preparing forever, at the cost of the ability to allow or appreciate those things we are afraid of losing.
At its best, fear means holding onto and appreciating that which we are afraid to lose—being ever-ready and ever-prepared for something to go wrong, and to spring into action and protect it.

Green: Will

Will is the emotion of the committed. It is the emotion of those who strive and those who continue to strive, no matter how hard the journey becomes. Will is our drive and ambition to carve the world we want out of solid steel if we have to.

At its worst, will means controlling others, enforcing your will against them and substituting their will for your own.
At its best, will means unceasingly working for what you and others want, in spite of any and all opposition.

Blue: Hope

Hope is the emotion of the downtrodden. It is the belief that no matter how bad things get, they can always become better. Hope gets us through our darkest days, and sees us through the other side. Hope is the possibility that can never be destroyed.

At its worst, hope means believing, against all reality, that things will get better, and letting that hope deter you from making it so.
At its best, hope means staying strong in the face of hardship, and knowing that things can always get better. It is seeing your house burned down, and knowing that eventually, you can rebuild it.

Indigo: Compassion

Compassion is the emotion of those who have been to a dark place, and come out the other side with understanding for anyone else who is suffering. Compassion is the emotion of those who have done wrong, and know what it is like to be someone who does wrong—of those who have felt pain, and know that none of us deserve it.

At its worst, compassion means letting those who have harmed you harm you again and again, because you understand why they do it.
At its best, compassion means lifting those who have hurt you out of the darkness, and making them into the people they deserve to become, and who you deserve to live amongst.

Violet: Love

Love is the emotion of those who have been alone. In its purest form, it is the desire and need for another person, and for the well-being of that person. Love is not the fear of losing someone, or the avarice of attachment. It is not the compassion of understanding. Love is valuing another being, not for who or what they could become but for who they are.

At its worst, love means taking someone, keeping them from any else who could love them, and never letting them leave your sight. It is the worst of many other emotions, bundled together and tied around another.
At its best love means wanting the best for someone, no matter what. It means cherishing them not for who or what they could become, but for who they are. It means protecting them from all that could harm them, and making a better world for them, because they deserve one.

Grey: Sorrow

Sorrow is the emotion of those who have lost. It is the emotion of those who know that the world is not right, and that horrible things are happening, and who choose to accept that reality and to keep going. Sorrow is about seeing the horror and pain of the world, and refusing to look away or hide. Without sorrow, there is no acceptance.

At its worst, sorrow means giving up. It means wallowing in the pool of infinite sorrow and deciding that nothing will ever be good again.
At its best, sorrow means grieving. It means bathing in the pool of infinite sorrow and coming out of it with resolve and understanding.

Conclusion

Ok, so what is this for?

Well, you absolutely can (and I might) use it to write Green Lantern fanfiction with much more interesting worldbuilding than the original, but that isn’t the primary thing I meant this for when I was thinking about it.

No, when this caught my eye and bothered me enough to write my own version, I was thinking about it as a way of thinking about types of people, and what drives them. ² Partly inspired by Duncan Sabien’s conceptualization of the MTG Color Wheel as an intuition pump for understanding people.

A person can have any number of these colors, but they tend to be primarily driven by one or two. For instance, you might know someone who is primarily driven by their knowledge and guard of their own desires (Yellow), or someone who is driven to do what must be done because it must be done (Green), but you also might know someone who is primarily driven by multiple of these emotions, like fear and hope, or love and compassion.

There are many different ways to express these colors, but I think it’s still an interesting and useful way of conceptualizing people, and naming a part of how they work.

It’s important that every emotion listed here can be both positive and negative. No emotion is solely evil, and none is solely good. The DC conception of this system is offensive to me because it places a normative judgement on each of its colors, where, in reality, each of them serves a purpose.

I wrote this post in a righteous fervor, after reading a wiki article on the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum and being heavily disappointed. I hope it’s useful to you.