fajrdrako | Smallville thoughts sparked by latxcvi....

I really enjoyed what

latxcvi has to say about Smallville in her LJ here.

Among other things, she says: "at the end of the day, if you asked me why I signed up in the first place and what it is that keeps me coming back, it's the stories of Clark and Lex becoming." So I thought about that, and I thought: that's not true for me. It ought to be true, but what I love is Clark and Lex being, not the becoming.

It isn't a matter of quality.

adamlizz and I were discussing that the other day: while I agree that there are badly-written episodes of Smallville and some appalling bits, there are also some wonderful episodes and superb bits - superb on several levels. And while it may be imperfect, it's the only thing on TV these days that is holding my attention - and earning my love.

See, I never liked Superman or Lex Luthor. I read Superman and loved it when I was about 9 or ten years old; and Adventure Comics featuring Superboy was my favourite series. But then I discovered Marvel comics (with Fantastic Four #4 and that was that. I read no DC at all for a few decades, until someone pointed out to me what good stories I'd missed, especially in various incarnations of Batman. Englehart and Rogers. O'Neill and Adams. I'd missed all that.

I even read some magnificent Superman stories, like the Paul Chadwick one about the man trying to kill himself at Christmas, and Alan Moore's retrospective that happened just before Crisis. Then I got heavily into Legion of Super-Heroes and loved Kal-El, though the era in which I was a Legion fan coincided with the era where Superboy didn't exist. Go figure. I still love that story, though, where Ultra Boy went to Smallville and thought Pete Ross was Superboy.

Years went by and I still didn't like Superman: a character too good to be anything but dull, too American, too easy, too untroubled, too simple of mind and morality. Lex Luthor didn't even register on my interest-scale. The world of comics held the likes of Magneto. Why bother with Lex Luthor? I saw a couple of Superman movies, I saw a few episodes of Lois and Clark and the show on Superboy where I really thought the kid playing Clark was cute and remember nothing else. I still didn't like Superman and once had an interesting conversation with Mike Carlin on the subject of why: essentially, I was annoyed by the hypocrisy of his standing for 'truth' and yet lying to everyone he knew about who he was, preventing any kind of intimacy or trust from building in his life.

Now: Smallville. There is so much I love about the show, and various things I hate, because they conflict with the things I love. I love many of the characters: Clark, Lex, Lionel, Chloe, Martha, Jonathan. I love some of the stories very much indeed. And I loved the first season relationship between Clark and Lex. I loved the Clex. I loved the sense of personal teasing, the ties between them.

But this isn't the Clark Kent (or Superman or Kal-El) that I had always known, and it's not the same Lex Luthor. Not by a long shot. It's something new.

That's where I have a quandary.... No, not even a quandary, because it isn't a choice. It's a paradox, a cognitive dissonance that I don't know what to do with. See, what they are becoming, what they are going to become, is presumably the Man of Steel and his arch-nemesis. And much as I may be enjoying the ride now, I live in horror of Lex being less sexy, less smart, less mesmerizing. I live in horror of Clark resolving his internal conflicts in a way I don't want.

I live in fear of the breach.

It's a show that I know will betray my love.

I'm not sure what to do about that, except to enjoy the ride as long as I can, and write fic that shapes the themes to my taste, and read fic that does the same.

I don't want the innocent farmboy to grow up. I want Clark to be beautiful and fresh, and I want Lex to be charming and way too clever for his own good. I don't want the troubled millionaire to go to the bad. I want the love between them to flourish, not to grow into hate.

I know I will ultimately be out of luck. I'm hoping it all happens in an interesting way, not like the Lex-Helen romance (which I thought appalling in its effect on Lex) but like a journey with twists and turns and psychological twists.

For the time being, I can only quote

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<ljuser="latxcvi">') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

I really enjoyed what <lj site="livejournal.com" user="latxcvi"> has to say about Smallville in her LJ <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/latxcvi/115387.html">here</a>.

Among other things, she says: "at the end of the day, if you asked me why I signed up in the first place and what it is that keeps me coming back, it's the stories of Clark and Lex becoming." So I thought about that, and I thought: that's not true for me. It ought to be true, but what I love is Clark and Lex being, not the becoming.

It isn't a matter of quality. <lj site="livejournal.com" user="adamlizz"> and I were discussing that the other day: while I agree that there are badly-written episodes of Smallville and some appalling bits, there are also some wonderful episodes and superb bits - superb on several levels. And while it may be imperfect, it's the only thing on TV these days that is holding my attention - and earning my love.

See, I never liked Superman or Lex Luthor. I read Superman and loved it when I was about 9 or ten years old; and Adventure Comics featuring Superboy was my favourite series. But then I discovered Marvel comics (with Fantastic Four #4 and that was that. I read no DC at all for a few decades, until someone pointed out to me what good stories I'd missed, especially in various incarnations of Batman. Englehart and Rogers. O'Neill and Adams. I'd missed all that.

I even read some magnificent Superman stories, like the Paul Chadwick one about the man trying to kill himself at Christmas, and Alan Moore's retrospective that happened just before Crisis. Then I got heavily into Legion of Super-Heroes and loved Kal-El, though the era in which I was a Legion fan coincided with the era where Superboy didn't exist. Go figure. I still love that story, though, where Ultra Boy went to Smallville and thought Pete Ross was Superboy.

Years went by and I still didn't like Superman: a character too good to be anything but dull, too American, too easy, too untroubled, too simple of mind and morality. Lex Luthor didn't even register on my interest-scale. The world of comics held the likes of Magneto. Why bother with Lex Luthor? I saw a couple of Superman movies, I saw a few episodes of Lois and Clark and the show on Superboy where I really thought the kid playing Clark was cute and remember nothing else. I still didn't like Superman and once had an interesting conversation with Mike Carlin on the subject of why: essentially, I was annoyed by the hypocrisy of his standing for 'truth' and yet lying to everyone he knew about who he was, preventing any kind of intimacy or trust from building in his life.

Now: Smallville. There is so much I love about the show, and various things I hate, because they conflict with the things I love. I love many of the characters: Clark, Lex, Lionel, Chloe, Martha, Jonathan. I love some of the stories very much indeed. And I loved the first season relationship between Clark and Lex. I loved the Clex. I loved the sense of personal teasing, the ties between them.

But this isn't the Clark Kent (or Superman or Kal-El) that I had always known, and it's not the same Lex Luthor. Not by a long shot. It's something new.

That's where I have a quandary.... No, not even a quandary, because it isn't a choice. It's a paradox, a cognitive dissonance that I don't know what to do with. See, what they are becoming, what they are going to become, is presumably the Man of Steel and his arch-nemesis. And much as I may be enjoying the ride now, I live in horror of Lex being less sexy, less smart, less mesmerizing. I live in horror of Clark resolving his internal conflicts in a way I don't want.

I live in fear of the breach.

It's a show that I know will betray my love.

I'm not sure what to do about that, except to enjoy the ride as long as I can, and write fic that shapes the themes to my taste, and read fic that does the same.

I don't want the innocent farmboy to grow up. I want Clark to be beautiful and fresh, and I want Lex to be charming and way too clever for his own good. I don't want the troubled millionaire to go to the bad. I want the love between them to flourish, not to grow into hate.

I know I will ultimately be out of luck. I'm hoping it all happens in an interesting way, not like the Lex-Helen romance (which I thought appalling in its effect on Lex) but like a journey with twists and turns and psychological twists.

For the time being, I can only quote <ljuser="latxcvi">: I still love it, though. Perhaps unreasonably, but there you have it.