scholar in fucked up mentor/protégé relationships

when it comes to possessions and the loss of bodily autonomy, the connection is always there to make and with parallax's obsession with hal and the terms it uses for him (my precious, my host, [my] significant other), or how it refers to being one with hal again a pleasure and its possession of hal an union hal must stop fighting, I'm surprised i haven't seen this discussed more. sinestro calls parallax a demon lover, and in that very same issue hal is forced to "submit" to it and left alone in tattered clothes. it forces significant changes on hal's body, worsens his mental state and goes after everybody hal cares about - really it's all there and it's not surprising that this comes from the personification of fear.

(there's more to say about how the different emotional entities enact violence on/ control the people that use its powers - the predator is very much an allegory for sexual assault as well, doesn't matter which version of it you reference; whether it's pre-crisis where he forces a kiss out of carol (who is him and is star sapphire) or it's a demonic entity that got star sapphire pregnant, thus denying carol of her autonomy OR if it's simply the entity of love that preys on carol's emotions and declares its love for her. but that's a separate topic)

various panels from sinestro (2014) issue #5

i could be crazy, but something about this scene between sinestro, parallax, and hal had always struck me as being allegorical for sexual assault.

maybe it's sinestro previously referring to parallax as a "demon lover" which primed me to make that association, maybe it's hal's clothes being torn in suggestive areas without him even properly lighting up to fight against parallax, maybe it's how hal is constantly getting pinned underneath parallax and otherwise positioned as vulnerable in contrast to both parallax AND sinestro, maybe it's the unusually heavy emotional weight of the scene where soranik seems to be concerned about hal and uncertain in an almost child-like fashion whereas hal can't even look her nor sinestro in the eye.