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It's a known fact that Sinestro was a Green Lantern before he defected and created his own Yellow Lantern Corps.

If Sinestro had this inherent ability to feed off peoples' fear (as proven by how he ruled his home planet) then why did the ring choose him to weild the power of the Green Lanterns?

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    Those rings have good days and bad days. Oct 3, 2011 at 13:51
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    To add to this question, why did the yellow ring not reject Sinestro for previously having wielded the green ring? The yellow ring 'rejected' Batman b/c he wore Hal's ring briefly, no?
    – spong
    Oct 3, 2011 at 17:32
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    @sunpech: 'A' yellow ring did, yes. But that was one Sinestro created - it's entirely possible that's a directive HE put into the rings, since he knew no other green lanterns would agree with him.
    – Jeff
    Oct 3, 2011 at 18:39
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    @spong The yellow ring detected that Batman had worn a green ring before, but it rejected him because he resisted its influence. Simply wearing a green ring doesn't stop you from wearing a yellow one.
    – Nerrolken
    Jun 10, 2015 at 18:43

2 Answers 2

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Simply put, he also had great willpower, and was willing to use power to vanquish evil. Also, even though he instills fear, he is quite fearless himself.

Sinestro is a very good character to show that the ends don't justify the means - aside from his war against the Corps, he does want the Universe to be orderly and without evil. But he believes that the way to achieve this is to instill fear in people's hearts.

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Batman has similarly worn both green and yellow rings. People with great willpower can also be horrible monsters (as Bats could be if he let himself).

Sinestro wasn't always a totalitarian dictator - his is the story of a man who fell from grace due to his own tragic flaw: hubris. Essentially, his story would fit nicely on the stage at Athens, and the Greeks would have recognized it easily.

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