Hi, I’m Ernie and I am the staff writer for GLTAS. I’d like to weigh in on this point for anyone who thinks The Tear is a logic hole in the show. Not any of you great fans, I know, but there are people out there who want to destroy your joy and I won’t let them because you guys are awesome so I shall give you my answer.
Bruce, Giancarlo, Jim, and I tossed around The Tear A LOT. Should we do it? Was it too cheesy? Was it too good a visual to pass on even if it made no sense? (Writer Rule #8.1c — Fun Ride Trumps All). We went round and round and then I think GC just did it and it looked good and stayed. I’d always been a fan of The Tear, but I do like things to make sense, too.
The following is my own personal logic (headcannon, if you will). Keep in mind GC, Jim and Bruce might have totally different reads on this. Here goes: Aya has been taken over by Drusa’s gadget. Her systems are fighting the offending program with everything they have, trying to break free of the compulsion to obey Drusa’s orders and betray her friends.
This fight going on inside spikes the pressure in the pneumatic fluid circulating in Aya’s body and forces it out a safety valve. In a regular computer the safety valve might be a hose into a spill container, what have you. BUT Aya built her body in a bipedal form and used tear ducts to be her safety valve because they worked well with that form.
So—pressure spike, safety release, “tears.” There you go. Perfect answer for any yingyang that tells you “Robots can’t cry” at Comic Con. FU, they can too.
So, did I just ruin everything because I have a logical explanation for those tears? Was there no magic by our little robot girl?
Not so fast!
You see, tear ducts are a good idea, smart and logical, which is why an AI would put them there. But Aya is developing exponentially… in many ways. She KNEW she was being forced to betray her friends and comrades by Drusa after seeing how loyal, brave, and honorable Hal, Kilowog, and even Razer have been all this time.
As you know, Aya is brand new to the world and experiences things differently as an AI, which is why her reactions are sometimes off the mark and why she’s so interesting. She’s our super-smart but woefully inexperienced fish out of water. Sorry, I digress…
Back to safety valve tears and do they take the magic away by giving you the air tight answer needed to smash a joyless know-it-all nerd… Nope. I begin by submitting into evidence two lines from Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
John Connor: Does it hurt when you get shot?
The Terminator: I sense injuries. The data could be called “pain.”
(Haven’t seen it? Shame on you! It’s sci-fi Old Yeller with big explosions.)
So, to ME, at this point in Aya’s development—and keep in mind I’m firing my headcannon for the first time here so it’s gonna get messy—what once would have been a solely mechanical reaction because of a spike in fluid pressure (and smart design by an AI that wanted a body) ‘could be called “sadness”’ because of Aya’s season long experiences and bonding with Hal, Kilowog, and Razer, or as you call them; Papa Hal, Kilodad, and the Rage Bunny.
So yes Green Fanterns, IT WAS ALL REAL!
(AND totally logical. So suck it, haters.)
E Altbacker
Lord of Darkness and Pie
Silliness aside, Aya is a hyper-developed AI who has had 9 months to mature and learn under extreme circumstances. Her physical body is quite literally made primarily of Green Lantern energy with a few bits of robotics at the seams. Considering everything Hal and Kilowog can do with their ring constructs, her ability to cry hardly seems far-fetched. What’s most impressive is that she’s developed a strong enough personality and emotional matrix to feel the need to.