You know, I'm glad this is a Grayven episode, if only because I'm increasingly not liking the Paragon character. It's like he's just completely incapable of understanding any of the motivations of other people. Or maybe he's completely forgotten what it's like to not be enlightened, and he just assumes everyone else has a perfect understanding of exactly what they want and why at all times. And they are also have absolutely no issues sharing anything they feel with other people at any time, assuming there's no active reason not to.
So, basically, he has no empathy. Ironic for the guy who just admitted to being empathetic. He thinks everyone else comprehends stuff the same way he does, and he's just not able to understand that they don't. Maybe he's turning into the Orange version of the Guardians, too focused on Avarice to understand the other emotions properly anymore. I mean, we all know he doesn't think the same way other people do, but I'm fairly sure he's forgotten this himself. It's long since gone past the 'oh that silly Paul, look at him not understanding signals' stage and started getting annoying, but now it's getting into the 'actually emotionally hurting other people with your ignorance' stage.
I mean, this is probably going to be nothing compared to the eventual Zatanna blowup. That'll have the Star Sapphire backing it up, and literal months of emotional dependency on Paul where she's also been effectively led on into thinking they can start a relationship once her father is free.
Is there a way to undo enlightenment? At least temporarily? I think he needs to un-enlighten himself occasionally so he doesn't totally lose touch with the way normal people think. Or maybe just stop wearing the rings for a while; he mostly stopped taking them off some point after reaching enlightenment, right? Maybe that doesn't protect him from their mind-altering effects like he's assumed, it just grants resistance.
