Sinestro (DC Animated Universe)

"I could've been the greatest Green Lantern ever, that's why the Guardians were afraid of me!! Why they took my Power Ring away! They couldn't have imagined that I would come back to destroy them!"

- Sinestro, while fighting Kyle Rayner "Johnny, Johnny, you've got me all wrong. I'm not going to finish you off, just your reputation. I'm gonna do every low life thing I can think of, by the time those other Lanterns get here everyone will be as sick of the color green as I am! (John Stewart: How could the Guardians have ever let you into the Green Lantern Core?) Those self righteous little twerps. They give me all this power and then expect me to be satisfied with fighting crime? I'd be crazy not to conquer the universe! (John Stewart: That's just the word I was looking for; crazy!) Got work to do now, Johnny. When i'm done, the Guardians will regret the day they ever gave you that ring."

- Sinestro to John Stewart Thaal Sinestro, or simply Sinestro, is a minor antagonist in the DC Animated Universe.

Much like his comic counterpart, Sinestro was once one of the greatest Green Lanterns in the universe until he went mad with power, discovered the Yellow Element of Fear and tried to destroy the Green Lantern Corps.

However, this version of Sinestro underwent many noticeable changes from the comic version, the most obvious change being that, in this version, Sinestro was responsible for the death of the Green Lantern Abin Sur (who, in the comics, was actually his best friend) instead of Atrocitus. It should also be noted that this version of Sinestro has no connections to Hal Jordan (who didn't appear in the DCAU outside of a minor cameo in Justice League Unlimited) and is instead the arch-nemesis of Green Lanterns Kyle Rayner and John Stewart.

Despite his status as a minor villain, Sinestro has appeared in four shows set in the DC Universe, a feat that only most major villains such as the Joker have accomplished.

Sinestro is voiced by Ted Levine up until the Justice League Unlimited episode "Alive", where he is then voiced by Robin Atkin Downes, who has also voiced a multitude of other comic book supervillains such as Abomination, Heat Wave, Solaris, Manchester Black, Electrocutioner, Jervis Tetch, Doomsday, Baron Heinrich Zemo, Firefly and Deathstroke.

Superman: The Animated Series
In the episode Brightest Day, after Superman discovers Abin Sir, who tells him to protect the Green Lantern before succumbing to his injuries, Sinestro pops onto the scene. After using his ring to search the the pod for traces of the Green ring, Sinestro assumes Superman took it and begins attacking and overpowering him. However, Sinestro soon realizes that Superman truly doesn't have the ring and crushes him with a giant hammer before flying off, unknown to him, Superman survives the attack and ends up finding Abin Sur's Lantern and teleports himself to Oa.

Meanwhile Sinestro finally locates Kyle Rayner, the new owner of Abin Sur's ring, and starts attacking him, demanding him to hand over the ring. However, Kyle states that he and the ring "have become attached" and then confuses him by entrapping him inside a construct of bubblegum like matter. Sinestro and Kyle continue fighting through Metropolis until Sinestro manages to grab Kyle using a giant hand construct and begins to crush him. Kyle then creates a boot construct and kicks Sinestro in the face before getting hit back and discovering that he can use the ring to pass through walls before continuing to battle him.

On Oa, the Guardian of the Universe explain to Superman that Sinestro was once one of the Green Lanterns until he stopped using his ring responsibly and they deemed him unfit to wield it. Sinestro would then discover a new kind of Ring and started killing other Green Lanterns, gaining more power from every ring he destroyed. Back on Earth, Sinestro prepares to kill Kyle Rayner after his ring runs out of power, however, Superman returns just in time and saves Rayner from Sinestro's attack.

Later on, Sinestro manages to catch up to Superman and Kyle Rayner and Superman goes off and fights Sinestro so Kyle can charge his Ring, however, he ends up trapped in a large drill construct and ends up burrowing into the ground. Kyle, after fully charging the Ring, then throws a mountaintop at Sinestro, crushing him, although he survives and continues to fight Rayner. Sinestro then throws Kyle into a plane in a Ferris Aircrafts field and finally surrenders his ring to Sinestro, however, just as he puts it on, the ring explodes, revealing that the ring had just been a construct. As he is off his footing, Kyle begins to beat down on Sinestro, finally defeating him by throwing him into a giant Lantern construct, electrocuting him unconscious. With Sinestro defeated, Superman manages to break free from his construct and crushes his Ring. Sinestro is then presumably arrested by the Corps for his crimes against the Universe.

Justice League
Years later, Sinestro somehow escaped from the Green Lantern Corps' custody and created a new Yellow Ring. Sometime before the episode, Sinestro was contacted by Gorilla Grodd and his henchwoman Giganta and joined his Secret Society in hopes of killing the Justice League's resident Green Lantern: John Stewart.

In Secret Society, starting off the first phase of Grodd's plan, Sinestro and the rest of the Society attack Morgan Edge's mansion, kill him and free Clayface from his imprisonment there and Grodd getting him to join his side by tempting him with the possibility of becoming human again. Later, Sinestro and the Society accompany Clayface to a chemical factory to help him fight off Batman, knowing he would try to apprehend him, with Sinestro blasting and destroying the electrified Batarang Batman used against Clayface. However, Batman had also brought the Justice League with him and the two teams begin to fight each other, with Sinestro taking on John Stewart. Unfortunately, due to the League's growing teamwork issues amplified by Grodd's psychic suggestions, they are easily beaten by the Society, although Grodd chooses to retreat instead of finishing them off and the League ends up disbanding.

In Part 2, after Flash heads to the North Hill Subway Station in hopes of finding Shade, he ends up in a trap laid by the Society and ends up fighting Sinestro, however, Flash ends up defeating Sinestro due to the fact that, while Sinestro's constructs can move at light-speed, he can't think that fast. Later, after Flash had been defeated by the other Society members and impersonated by Clayface, Sinestro tries to defeat Batman after he easily recognizes Clayface's disguise, but is instead taken out by a Batarang before he could attack.

Later, after the Society had captured all of the ex Justice League members and hijacked a football game to announce their victory to the world, Sinestro and the other Society members were shocked after realizing that Martian Manhunter had actually disguised himself as Clayface and that the real Clayface had been accidentally frozen by Killer Frost. After Martian Manhunter freed the Justice League, the Society and League began to fight each other again, with Sinestro yet again taking on John Stewart. However, the League, being far more organized that before, managed to defeat the villains and imprison them.

Static Shock
Prior to appearing in the series, Sinestro, after stealing his Lantern, changed his appearance to that of John Stewart in an effort to ruin his reputation. Sinestro, as Stewart, then went on a crime spree across the world, putting both the Justice League and the Green Lantern Core against the real Stewart and forcing him to go into hiding while Sinestro continued to ruin his life.

In the episode Fallen Hero, Sinestro, as Stewart, barrels through the security force of a bank and steals millions of dollars in gold bars. The next day, Virgil Hawkins (Static's civilian identity) reads about Green Lantern's attack on the vault in the paper and immediately dismisses it as false, but he is soon proved wrong when he and his friend/partner Gear later encounter Green Lantern robbing a truck full of microchips. Static tries to talk his hero out of committing crimes, but Stewart tells Static that he became tired with having power and nothing to show for it and starts attacking him with the microchips by giving them a charge opposite to his. Gear tries to help Static, but is overpowered by a blast from Green Lantern and Static retaliates by blasting at Stewart with electrical energy, but his blast fails to penetrate Green Lantern's shield and he is soundly defeated.

As Green Lantern flies off and gloats about his victory, the real John Stewart hits him and knocks him down into a junkyard. The two begin to fight and Green Lantern taunts Stewart by telling him that he doesn't want to use up the energy his Ring has and invites an attempt to blast him with energy. Stewart misses the shot and Green Lantern begins to laugh at him, only for the energy to come back around and strike him in the back. Stewart then pins Green Lantern down and he reverts back into Sinestro, however, before John can defeat him, his ring runs out of power and Sinestro pins him under a steel gate. Sinestro then explains that he doesn't want to kill Stewart but instead wants him to be arrested by the Core for all the crimes that "he" committed before re-disguising himself as Stewart and flying off.

Green Lantern then encounters Static and Gear again and tries to destroy them, however, using their teamwork, they manage to keep him at bay. John Stewart, having managed to free himself, looks to join the fight to prove his innocence, and harnesses all the power left in his Ring and dons his costume. Upon seeing him, Sinestro slams Gear and Static into a building and makes Stewart follow him into an alley and then disappears, tricking Static and Gear into fighting Stewart. After his Ring runs out of power, Static electrocutes Stewart and he is arrested while Sinestro gleefully watches.

During John Stewart's prison transport, Sinestro arrives to taunt him and collect his Power Ring, however, he quickly realizes that he doesn't have it and instead opts to look for it himself. When asked by Stewart why he wants the ring, Sinestro states that the ring will make a nice keepsake, revealing a necklace of Power Rings he had stole from other Lanterns, presumably after killing them.

After discovering Stewart's Ring in his coat pocket, Static goes to Stewart's cell and learns the truth; A few days ago, Stewart, with all the other Justice League members occupied, investigated a distress call sent to him by the pilot of a rocket that crashed on an asteroid. Recognizing the pilot as the only survivor of the crash and the distance from the asteroid to Earth, he took out his Lantern to charge his Ring, but it turned out that Sinestro actually disguised himself as the pilot and the whole crash was just a set-up so Sinestro could steal his Lantern. It is also established by Stewart that he had helped defeat Sinestro when he became power-hungry, which is why he hates him so much.

Static then tries to tell Gear the truth about Green Lantern, but when he arrives at his house, he discovers that he has been captured by Sinestro. Sinestro tells Static to give him the Ring, however, Static dupes him by giving him a plastic ring and the two begin to fight, although Sinestro easily wins. However, John Stewart arrives, due to Static having cleared his name, and he begins to fight Sinestro, revealing that Static had given his ring a new type of charge. After a short fight, John Stewart manages to beat Sinestro after his ring starts to lose power and Static uses his powers to charge John's Ring even more, allowing him to expose Sinestro to the public and reclaim his Lantern. Jon Stewart then takes off with Sinestro and presumably takes him to be arrested on Oa for his crimes.

Justice League Unlimited
Yet again, Sinestro manages to escape custody and is contacted by Gorilla Grodd and joins his new expanded Secret Society.

In the episode The Great Brain Robbery, Sinestro assists Tala, Doctor Polaris and Lex Luthor in robbing a train and, along with the others, turns on Lex when they realize that he had accidentally switched minds with The Flash.

In the season finale, when Grodd escaped his imprisonment and tried to take his position as leader back from Luthor, Sinestro, along with Star Sapphire, Evil Star, Toyman, Bizarro, Giganta, Atomic Skull, Heat Wave, Cheetah, Doctor Destiny and Volcana took Luthor's side and fought Grodd and his faction. After Luthor killed Grodd and Killer Frost switched sides and froze her teammates, Sinestro and the rest of the survivors watched as Luthor used Tala as a conduit in hopes of reviving Brainiac, but he and the others were shocked to see Luthor accidentally revive Darkseid instead. As Darkseid destroyed the Hall of Doom, Sinestro and Star Sapphire cast a force-field around their teammates (save Doctor Destiny, Major Disaster and KGBeast who didn't make it in time) to protect their teammates from his blast and, after Evil Star stole the New God Lightray's Mother Box, they Boomtubed themselves to Earth and call a temporary truce with the Justice League in order to stop Darkseid's Invasion. Sinestro then heads to Tokyo and fights off hoards of Parademons. Sinestro is last seen participating in the five minute head-start the League gives them in exchange for helping them save the planet.

Personality
"(John Stewart: Why do you even want the ring? It's out of power!) It will make a nice keepsake."

- Sinestro revealing his collection of Green Lantern Rings to John Stewart Sinestro is typically portrayed as selfish, greedy, arrogant, power hungry and sadistic. It should also be noted that, on occasion, the comic version of Sinestro is occasionally seen as anti-heroic, however, this version of Sinestro is never seen performing any deeds that would make him anything more that a standard supervillain and his motivations for becoming evil are mostly simplified to him being frustrated at having demigod-like power and not being able to use it for anything but fighting crime.

Trivia

 * Sinestro's taking of Luthor's side in the episode Alive was part of a homage to the original Legion of Doom from Challenge of the Superfriends, as Sinestro, along with Luthor, Cheetah, Giganta, Toyman and Bizarro were part of the original line up.
 * However, it should be noted that the homage was missing several key members; Gorilla Grodd was against Luthor and the team, Solomon Grundy and Devil Ray (the series' incarnation of Black Manta) had been killed in previous episodes, Captain Cold was not affiliated with the group and both Riddler and Scarecrow, along with any of Batman's other villains, could not appear in the series due to the production of The Batman.


 * During his second fight with Kyle Rayner, Sinestro knocked him into a plane that belonged to Hal Jordan, the second best known version of Green Lantern who originally fought Sinestro.
 * As mentioned earlier, despite being a minor villain, Sinestro has appeared in four shows set in the DC Animated Universe. The only other villains who have accomplished this are Joker, Toyman, Livewire, Brainiac, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn.