Monday, November 18, 2002
On Clark and Lex
Something occurred to me tonight while I was (am) writing the Clex for Miz E's birthday. It's a theory I've been musing on for a while, and it's certainly nothing earth-shattering, but...
Well, basically, Spike said she felt uneasy about a part of the plot, something that had to do with Clark developing a new power. She wasn't sure why, and I suggested it was because she associated the power with Superman, and thus with Clark hating Lex. And that got me thinking about how skewed Smallville has made (some of) us. I mean, I remember Mad Scientist Lex, sure, but for the most part, Comic!Lex was the pure evil businessman, the bugaboo of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and current days. And yeah, I joke all the time with non-Smallville watching friends who are familiar with the comic that if anyone had told me in the summer of 2001 that I would have some 40 Clark/Lex slash stories to my name I would have laughed hard enough to rupture something.
But I do have those stories, and that has a hell of a lot more to do with Lex than it does with Clark. Let me explain. It's simple, really: The writing staff of Smallville combined with Michael Rosenbaum have created a Lex Luthor so complex and understandable that quite a few people find themselves inextricably emotionally tied to his fate in a way that we simply aren't with Clark.
For one thing, we know everything's going to work out pretty much okay for our golden boy. For another thing... well, there simply hasn't been as radical a *shift*. Clark is a good boy, a hero in the making. For all his missteps and those flares of temper we occasionally see, there's just no problem whatsoever in imagining him growing into, if not the same old Superman, than at least a Superman not vastly different than the ones we already know.
And since we know that a Rift must come someday, in some way...
Well, here's how me, Lexgirl that I am, sees it:
On the one side we have Clark/Superman, rightly and righteously unable to forgive Lex/continue to give him his friendship. On the other side we have... well, that's the tricky bit. Because the Lex on that other side doesn't look very much like the Lex from the movies and comics at all. Doesn't look like him, sound like him, *feel* like him. In fact, he feels downright... familiar. Because we know everything that made him into a man Clark can't befriend, and chances are?
Well, judging by our reactions to the mistakes, missteps, and outright *crimes* Lex has committed in canon, we'll be able to understand this man Clark will loathe. We'll still love him just as much as we used to. And Clark's inevitable rejection will, no matter how justified, hurt like hell.
Now really, the intellectual part of me says that's good television. Or at least the potential for good television, being as how SV often doesn't do half the wondrous things it can with the material it has.
Still, the whiny, romance-loving part of me wishes to God they could've reinvented (the wheel) Clark a bit more while they were busy mucking about with Lex.
Music: India.Arie, "Video"
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Sunday, November 17, 2002
Insane Fangirl Project, sub 2
Okay, so maybe, just maybe, I can squeeze in a Xander POV story for Conversations With Dead People (die, Lemon Lashes, DIE!), and a story for Kita's sekrit challenge and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh...
Music: Remy Zero, "Grammareye"
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Some late, late, LATE thoughts on Spuffy
Riffing off elynross' fascinating essays:
I think the reason why the attempted rape in Seeing Red fits so well within my own personal view of the character, even though I *do* believe Spike was/is trying to be some variety of 'better man,' even though I love the character, is that... well.
Go back to OMWF. Go back to the songs he sings. On the one hand, he's tender and loving as all *hell*. And yet by the time Seeing Red comes around -- before the attempted rape, mind -- he's relating to Buffy in arguably as toxic and dysfunctional a way as she is to him. And no one was screaming OOC *then*. On the other hand, the violence and obsession is *right* there, even in OMWF, a dark thread running through all the sweet mush.
Mostly played for laughs, sure -- "First I'll kill her, then I'll save her" -- but there just the same.
So depending on my mood, I either view Spuffy/the attempted rape as a neatly done (and deeply sexy) downward spiral of lust, violence, and quasi-mutual obsession, flipping the coin of love; *or* as simply the inevitable result of dating a vampire whose only other relationships were:
1) A textbook case of addiction and codependency, (Dru)
2) A textbook case of quasi-paternal mutual abusiveness, (Angelus)
3) A textbook case of sexual use and abuse. (Harmony)
Look, soul or not, sincere attempts to try to be a better man or not, bad shit was going to happen. Do I think Buffy should've known that?
Well, honestly... I think she did. She may have relaxed physically around Spike, but she never really did emotionally. And I certainly don't blame her for anything that happened -- we all have our questionable coping methods, and Buffy surely needed *something* to get her through the days and nights.
As for Spike? I feel for him. And I'm happy that I'm healthy enough not to even *consider* dating anyone like him until they've had some serious therapy. *snerk* Because you know, my morals are hardly pristine... but I have a most sincere sense of emotional *and* physical self-preservation.
So, yeah. Te absolvo, Marti. I needed the time and distance to think things over, I didn't (necessarily) need the Afterschool Special Treatment of the scene in question, but it all runs smoothly in *my* mind, at least.
Music: STP, "Big Empty"
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