Why is Carol/Kyle so terrible

“Carol believes she has to be in love to keep her powers” is something I detest. First of all, we have seen other sapphires acquire their abilities through non-romantic forms of love. How could Carol be unaware that she is the Sapphire with the most experience? Why further bind her to the men in her life, who have shaped her as a character for as long as she has existed? Jordan also speculates that she might be pretending to love Kyle and faking out her ring, but by the time he raises that possibility, the novel is nearly over, so he just leaves it open-ended.

It simply seems like a huge chance lost to let Carol grow as a character who isn’t reliant on her relationship with a man. Although I appreciate Jordan’s desire to give her a significant role in New Guardians, I don’t particularly like how he portrayed her and he didn’t have to coerce them into dating in order to accomplish this. Since M/F friendships are already uncommon in the media, I would have much preferred Carol and Kyle to be platonic friends. It would have still allowed her to shine. That “she HAS to specifically love a man to stay powered” nonsense is just nonsense. In Bedard’s New Guardians, she had spent time with him, but she had shown no interest in him.

And the timing was bad. Hal and Carol were going well before #21 when she abruptly left him, and even after three problems, she is completely over him and eager to date Kyle, despite having waited for Hal to pop the question for twenty issues. The Lantern novels all JUST had writer switches. It irritated me because it felt like a complete 180-degree turn. Since Hal did nothing wrong, I believe that a mutual breakup after he assumed leadership of the GLC or whatever would have been a far better alternative if they had wanted a reason to end their relationship.