Funny, I thought Lex was more of a hero sometimes than Clark, even if he had a different morality driving his actions (ends justifying means when the ends were really f'ing important... like humanity not getting wiped off the face of the earth by alien conquerors... not that he didn't know that the imminent danger wasn't as imminent as he necessarily thought). Lex consistently reached out to Clark, even after they were no longer friends. (I thought of it as a reversal, somewhat -- the guy who was supposed to be the "hero" ended up the "villain", and vice-versa. ...Re: vice-versa, see Jor-El and Clark. ^_^ *g* --I think because I expect more from Lex than Clark, my brain gets mixed up and sees Lex trying for ends as 'better'/normal/'good' even when the means aren't so great. Conversely, Clark gets lauded when he actually does things proactively, or the 'right thing'. So, yeah.)
I think he's halfway there because Lex is more of an example of an anti-hero with priorities gone very amuck. He has reasons for what he's doing, and they generally aren't selfish ones, the way I interpret SV canon, anyway. He takes the needs of the many very seriously, sometimes at significant cost to himself, personally. (Not that I agree with his actions; from a practical standpoint, a lot of the defenses he tried to set up were really f'ing stupid -- really? you make an army of super-clones when you're fighting Phantoms that can possess bodies? really? *headdesk* -- and a lot of the bad/wrong/evil stuff he did could've been done better with less of the above, like Level 33.1 and such. ...Not that we get to see or hear much of what actually went on there. Clark was shocked by what Belle Reeve was like, too.)
At least Lex seems that way to me pre-S8. We're left completely guessing as to motives at S8 onwards, instead of only partially after the start of S5 or so. Kind of hard to make excuses for a 'woobie' when the bombs start going off.
And yes, I realize that this is all SV-relative morality. Neither of these guys would really get my vote in real life, thanks. (Not unless Lex cut out the stupid shit / acted more optimally, and maybe actually had an ends work out for once. Though I doubt he'd have either problem IRL, since he wouldn't be typecast as always having to fail and always being betrayed by everyone ever. *heh* ...Except for maybe the whole, "Hah! Your name is Lex Luthor and you're bald? Really? *snickers*" that he'd get from people, assuming he stayed out of an asylum.)
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I think he's halfway there because Lex is more of an example of an anti-hero with priorities gone very amuck. He has reasons for what he's doing, and they generally aren't selfish ones, the way I interpret SV canon, anyway. He takes the needs of the many very seriously, sometimes at significant cost to himself, personally. (Not that I agree with his actions; from a practical standpoint, a lot of the defenses he tried to set up were really f'ing stupid -- really? you make an army of super-clones when you're fighting Phantoms that can possess bodies? really? *headdesk* -- and a lot of the bad/wrong/evil stuff he did could've been done better with less of the above, like Level 33.1 and such. ...Not that we get to see or hear much of what actually went on there. Clark was shocked by what Belle Reeve was like, too.)
At least Lex seems that way to me pre-S8. We're left completely guessing as to motives at S8 onwards, instead of only partially after the start of S5 or so. Kind of hard to make excuses for a 'woobie' when the bombs start going off.
And yes, I realize that this is all SV-relative morality. Neither of these guys would really get my vote in real life, thanks. (Not unless Lex cut out the stupid shit / acted more optimally, and maybe actually had an ends work out for once. Though I doubt he'd have either problem IRL, since he wouldn't be typecast as always having to fail and always being betrayed by everyone ever. *heh* ...Except for maybe the whole, "Hah! Your name is Lex Luthor and you're bald? Really? *snickers*" that he'd get from people, assuming he stayed out of an asylum.)
...And I thought MR said "love" too, FWIW :)