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the Tragedy of Lex, 5th season ultimate edition
Just finished watching 5th season SV. After spending most of the season totally WTFing at Lex, because it initially seems like he just wakes up in the premiere with his supervillain switch flicked on - it's pretty cool how that's all explained in the second to last ep. Only it's done in such a way that we didn't get it until ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gnine figured out the explanation that makes the most sense, and now we're wondering where the fics are...the trouble with getting into fandom late is that we miss all the meta! (That is to say, you've probably seen this all before, I'm writing it out for my own benefit. And possibly future ficcing.)
Also - I gotta say, kudos to SV's writers. I'm not sure this is what they were going for for the entire season, but it does explain quite a bit that made no sense whatsoever otherwise, and it's a darn nifty slow-realization reveal. Even if man, yow. Poor, poor Lex. I've gone on before about the Tragedy of Lex but this...he's no villain. He's trying his damndest to be the hero.
For four seasons Lex has toed the line, but in 5th season he becomes so much more tragic ('cuz, yeah, the one thing Lex needed was more tragedy.) He starts slipping to the dark side for real - but he does it in a way it's damn hard to fault him for, because rather than bearing a personal grudge over Clark's betrayal, or proving himself worthy of love and respect, or whatever other petty motivations Lex offers up throughout the course of the season, in truth Lex Luthor spends the year trying to save the world. Everything he does, from the day after he's attacked in the caves by Zod's minions and finds the black ship, is motivated by the desperate and entirely understandable fear that alien invasion is imminent. And okay, the ends don't always justify the means - but when you have good reason to think that the survival of your species is at stake, a lot of means are pretty darn justified.
"Mortal" is Lex's first seemingly evil act, sending those mutants after Clark. Lex saw Zod's minions superspeed in the cave, and he clearly recognized that trick. He's got good evidence to theorize that Clark might be one of them; it's imperative to make sure of that ASAP, by any method. And no wonder he's thrown when it seems to be disproved - because finally, finally Lex was understanding why Clark was lying to him all this time; Clark might be a sleeper agent for the invasion. It couldn't have made him happy, but at least it would make sense. And then he's thrown back to square one: Clark is lying to him, and Lex can't figure out what he's doing wrong, that he can't be trusted. Only he can't care about that now, because there's a lot bigger things at stake.
"Aqua" was the ep that totally confused us; it made no sense that Lex would not only go ruthlessly evil, but change LuthorCorp's direction to defense contracts. It's the first time that we can recall ever seeing Lex interested in any kind of military applications. And he was so stupidly un-PC about the poor corporate publicity of a marine-life-killing weapon, his blasé "there's plenty of fish in sea," and - yeah, fate of humanity at stake. The potential political suicide isn't nearly as important as ensuring, not national, but global, defense. "Cyborg" is the same story. Why else make super-strong cyborg soldiers, but to battle super-strong aliens?
Then there's Lex's political ambitions. He gives a lot of excuses for why he's running for office, mostly related to his personal ambitions. The one he never mentions to anyone is that he needs political clout, pronto; he has to make the connections and get into a position where he can convince people of the reality of the peril the world's facing. (And, yeah, best reason ever to get wasted after losing - "Cheers, Mr. Kent, you and your son are gonna take over the world now.")
Lex gives a lot of excuses for his actions all through fifth season, because he doesn't know who he can trust. He's been raised to be paranoid and that instinct is in overdrive when the world's in danger. And the two people he has the most faith in, who he might have considered teaming up with: Lionel - Lex knows his father has been compromised by the alien threat, he's never going to drop a hint to Lionel; and Clark - might well be one of the invaders he fears. At the end of the season it seems like he comes to the conclusion Clark isn't, after seeing him go up against Fine, and he makes a couple tentative efforts to restore their friendship, but it's too late. Clark, realizing what Lex has been doing but not why, isn't able to trust him anymore. It's a sacrifice Lex accepts. With the stakes this high, there's very few things he can't afford to accept.
Meanwhile, there's Lana, who he can be pretty sure is not a potential invader, but who he doesn't want to freak out with ravings about the end of the world. Tentatively, he brings her into what he knows, but he's trying to keep her safe. I also can't help but wonder if he has some idea of using her to control Clark, if Clark does prove to be a threat. At any rate, she's the only one he can dare be at all honest with; little wonder they bond.
The road to hell, they say, and Lex has the best of intentions. If he lets his morals slide, if he lets that darkness he so feared earlier creep into his heart, then he has good reason. In 4th season he was still terrified of his darkness; in 5th season he embraces it, as the only way to save the human race. He's a sacrifice, with the others he makes, and it will be worth it. The tragedy is that it's all unnecessary. Krypton is destroyed; Zod and Brainiac are only a remnant, and other heroes are already out to stop them. If Clark had been honest with Lex, he would know what he was facing. But Clark isn't, and Lex doesn't know, and therefore takes measures that appear absolutely necessary.
The double tragedy is that the invasion happens anyway - and Lex is its instrument. He loses his gamble with Fine* and wakes up twenty-four hours later to find that he almost ended the world. "Guilt money," Chloe says, derisively, of his donating millions to Metropolis's reconstruction, and much as I love Chloe I could slap her for that line. Damn straight Lex has got guilt, and it's mostly unjustified; he would have done anything to stop Zod, had he been able. "I would have done the same thing," he tells Lana; but he couldn't, but he's not going to easily forgive himself for that. It's a wonder he doesn't have a complete mental breakdown. Or if he does, we don't get to see it, because we almost never see Lex alone with just his thoughts (grr again at the writers for dropping the "Lexmas" ball) and he's not going to scare Lana with that, and he doesn't dare tell Lionel, and Clark isn't talking to him anymore...
(* There's a bit of Brainiac mind control, or at least a tranquilizer, in the cocktail Fine shoots Lex up with; he may remember what happens after that, but he's acting entirely out of character from the moment he comes home to when Zod's ship summons him. Also this means that both times we see Lex asleep, he's under the influence of something. I am seriously starting to wonder if he actually has a bedroom, or sleeps at all.)
And the worst thing is, Lex, as far as we can tell, doesn't have any proof that the invasion is over. He still doesn't know that Krypton was destroyed; for all he knows, there's still a force on its way to Earth, and he's possibly the only thing standing in its way. Of course he's going to continue with 33.1 - mastering the mutants might be key to raising a defense. Whatever he's got going on with Lana might be equally important for that.
In fact, unless he finds more facts out later in 6th season eps we haven't seen, Lex is probably still operating under these assumptions. And might keep holding them until the day Kal-El publicly announces himself as the Last Son of Krypton, and wow, I will not blame Lex for having a total meltdown. After selling his soul to defend against a threat that doesn't actually exist - no wonder he decides to focus his efforts on the only alien threat still extant. It'll be the only way he has to stay sane.
gnine figured out the explanation that makes the most sense, and now we're wondering where the fics are...the trouble with getting into fandom late is that we miss all the meta! (That is to say, you've probably seen this all before, I'm writing it out for my own benefit. And possibly future ficcing.)Also - I gotta say, kudos to SV's writers. I'm not sure this is what they were going for for the entire season, but it does explain quite a bit that made no sense whatsoever otherwise, and it's a darn nifty slow-realization reveal. Even if man, yow. Poor, poor Lex. I've gone on before about the Tragedy of Lex but this...he's no villain. He's trying his damndest to be the hero.
For four seasons Lex has toed the line, but in 5th season he becomes so much more tragic ('cuz, yeah, the one thing Lex needed was more tragedy.) He starts slipping to the dark side for real - but he does it in a way it's damn hard to fault him for, because rather than bearing a personal grudge over Clark's betrayal, or proving himself worthy of love and respect, or whatever other petty motivations Lex offers up throughout the course of the season, in truth Lex Luthor spends the year trying to save the world. Everything he does, from the day after he's attacked in the caves by Zod's minions and finds the black ship, is motivated by the desperate and entirely understandable fear that alien invasion is imminent. And okay, the ends don't always justify the means - but when you have good reason to think that the survival of your species is at stake, a lot of means are pretty darn justified.
"Mortal" is Lex's first seemingly evil act, sending those mutants after Clark. Lex saw Zod's minions superspeed in the cave, and he clearly recognized that trick. He's got good evidence to theorize that Clark might be one of them; it's imperative to make sure of that ASAP, by any method. And no wonder he's thrown when it seems to be disproved - because finally, finally Lex was understanding why Clark was lying to him all this time; Clark might be a sleeper agent for the invasion. It couldn't have made him happy, but at least it would make sense. And then he's thrown back to square one: Clark is lying to him, and Lex can't figure out what he's doing wrong, that he can't be trusted. Only he can't care about that now, because there's a lot bigger things at stake.
"Aqua" was the ep that totally confused us; it made no sense that Lex would not only go ruthlessly evil, but change LuthorCorp's direction to defense contracts. It's the first time that we can recall ever seeing Lex interested in any kind of military applications. And he was so stupidly un-PC about the poor corporate publicity of a marine-life-killing weapon, his blasé "there's plenty of fish in sea," and - yeah, fate of humanity at stake. The potential political suicide isn't nearly as important as ensuring, not national, but global, defense. "Cyborg" is the same story. Why else make super-strong cyborg soldiers, but to battle super-strong aliens?
Then there's Lex's political ambitions. He gives a lot of excuses for why he's running for office, mostly related to his personal ambitions. The one he never mentions to anyone is that he needs political clout, pronto; he has to make the connections and get into a position where he can convince people of the reality of the peril the world's facing. (And, yeah, best reason ever to get wasted after losing - "Cheers, Mr. Kent, you and your son are gonna take over the world now.")
Lex gives a lot of excuses for his actions all through fifth season, because he doesn't know who he can trust. He's been raised to be paranoid and that instinct is in overdrive when the world's in danger. And the two people he has the most faith in, who he might have considered teaming up with: Lionel - Lex knows his father has been compromised by the alien threat, he's never going to drop a hint to Lionel; and Clark - might well be one of the invaders he fears. At the end of the season it seems like he comes to the conclusion Clark isn't, after seeing him go up against Fine, and he makes a couple tentative efforts to restore their friendship, but it's too late. Clark, realizing what Lex has been doing but not why, isn't able to trust him anymore. It's a sacrifice Lex accepts. With the stakes this high, there's very few things he can't afford to accept.
Meanwhile, there's Lana, who he can be pretty sure is not a potential invader, but who he doesn't want to freak out with ravings about the end of the world. Tentatively, he brings her into what he knows, but he's trying to keep her safe. I also can't help but wonder if he has some idea of using her to control Clark, if Clark does prove to be a threat. At any rate, she's the only one he can dare be at all honest with; little wonder they bond.
The road to hell, they say, and Lex has the best of intentions. If he lets his morals slide, if he lets that darkness he so feared earlier creep into his heart, then he has good reason. In 4th season he was still terrified of his darkness; in 5th season he embraces it, as the only way to save the human race. He's a sacrifice, with the others he makes, and it will be worth it. The tragedy is that it's all unnecessary. Krypton is destroyed; Zod and Brainiac are only a remnant, and other heroes are already out to stop them. If Clark had been honest with Lex, he would know what he was facing. But Clark isn't, and Lex doesn't know, and therefore takes measures that appear absolutely necessary.
The double tragedy is that the invasion happens anyway - and Lex is its instrument. He loses his gamble with Fine* and wakes up twenty-four hours later to find that he almost ended the world. "Guilt money," Chloe says, derisively, of his donating millions to Metropolis's reconstruction, and much as I love Chloe I could slap her for that line. Damn straight Lex has got guilt, and it's mostly unjustified; he would have done anything to stop Zod, had he been able. "I would have done the same thing," he tells Lana; but he couldn't, but he's not going to easily forgive himself for that. It's a wonder he doesn't have a complete mental breakdown. Or if he does, we don't get to see it, because we almost never see Lex alone with just his thoughts (grr again at the writers for dropping the "Lexmas" ball) and he's not going to scare Lana with that, and he doesn't dare tell Lionel, and Clark isn't talking to him anymore...
(* There's a bit of Brainiac mind control, or at least a tranquilizer, in the cocktail Fine shoots Lex up with; he may remember what happens after that, but he's acting entirely out of character from the moment he comes home to when Zod's ship summons him. Also this means that both times we see Lex asleep, he's under the influence of something. I am seriously starting to wonder if he actually has a bedroom, or sleeps at all.)
And the worst thing is, Lex, as far as we can tell, doesn't have any proof that the invasion is over. He still doesn't know that Krypton was destroyed; for all he knows, there's still a force on its way to Earth, and he's possibly the only thing standing in its way. Of course he's going to continue with 33.1 - mastering the mutants might be key to raising a defense. Whatever he's got going on with Lana might be equally important for that.
In fact, unless he finds more facts out later in 6th season eps we haven't seen, Lex is probably still operating under these assumptions. And might keep holding them until the day Kal-El publicly announces himself as the Last Son of Krypton, and wow, I will not blame Lex for having a total meltdown. After selling his soul to defend against a threat that doesn't actually exist - no wonder he decides to focus his efforts on the only alien threat still extant. It'll be the only way he has to stay sane.
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