Aw, it's a good thing I caught this, because angst-fluff is a great thing to take before bed.
Smallville will always be a strange town, because Clark is the biggest fish in a sea of oddities that he should have a local reputation given his relationship with the two most famous/sought-after residents in town and the rate of his involvement in many strange happenings. No one seems to want to look more into Clark Kent beyond his farm boy facade, but I'd like to think that there's always a danger of someone smart getting a clue and wanting to capitalize on it, which the show should have explored rather than rehashing the Lana stalker storyline, which makes less sense because it focuses on her virtues that she doesn't even affirm of herself.
I've been tallying at the back of my mind the relative costs that people around Clark had to pay by not knowing his secret (if Clark in the show had been more thoughtful rather than mopey, he would realize that shield/alibi allegory you mentioned in the fic). Lana and Chloe had sacrificed a lot (physical harm, heartbreak, etc.) and have repeatedly shown willingness to suffer for that, because they love and are devoted to him without knowing he's an alien (their reactions to finding out were dramatic, but not angry). Lex would have been just like Pete, who would be angry for a while but would soon prefer to deal with the practicalities of that new information about a friend that he will never turn his back on as long as it's in his power. But because Clark is Lex's only friend, because he's a Luthor and has Lionel for a father, because his life has been altered by an alien since both his arrivals in Smallville (not even including), because he's got trust issues and needed someone to teach him that you don't have to control people all the time, Lex had the steepest price to pay, because Lex may be more powerful than Lana, Chloe and Pete combined, but he's all the more vulnerable for it. Lex could become whomever he would have wanted, but since he is so inexorably linked to Clark, he couldn't have pulled away even if he knew he should.
I'm not saying that Lex had unknowingly paid enough to earn Clark's secret, but he has shown more than enough willingness to provide whatever he can for Clark and his family in ways that he couldn't profit from. How could the Kents have handled Lex's consistent gestures goodwill so badly then? I'm not putting a direct causality here, but they essentially made Lex more dangerous than he initially was.
And wow, I can't believe I've blurted out my own issue with Clark's secrets here. While I'm saying with little knowledge on how this is handled in the comics, I think the superheroes should be more conscious of the responsibility of having two identities, which Clark hasn't realized the necessity of due to his desire for a normal life, the poor boy.
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winterfish
no subject
Date: 2007-06-15 08:16 pm (UTC)Smallville will always be a strange town, because Clark is the biggest fish in a sea of oddities that he should have a local reputation given his relationship with the two most famous/sought-after residents in town and the rate of his involvement in many strange happenings. No one seems to want to look more into Clark Kent beyond his farm boy facade, but I'd like to think that there's always a danger of someone smart getting a clue and wanting to capitalize on it, which the show should have explored rather than rehashing the Lana stalker storyline, which makes less sense because it focuses on her virtues that she doesn't even affirm of herself.
I've been tallying at the back of my mind the relative costs that people around Clark had to pay by not knowing his secret (if Clark in the show had been more thoughtful rather than mopey, he would realize that shield/alibi allegory you mentioned in the fic). Lana and Chloe had sacrificed a lot (physical harm, heartbreak, etc.) and have repeatedly shown willingness to suffer for that, because they love and are devoted to him without knowing he's an alien (their reactions to finding out were dramatic, but not angry). Lex would have been just like Pete, who would be angry for a while but would soon prefer to deal with the practicalities of that new information about a friend that he will never turn his back on as long as it's in his power. But because Clark is Lex's only friend, because he's a Luthor and has Lionel for a father, because his life has been altered by an alien since both his arrivals in Smallville (not even including), because he's got trust issues and needed someone to teach him that you don't have to control people all the time, Lex had the steepest price to pay, because Lex may be more powerful than Lana, Chloe and Pete combined, but he's all the more vulnerable for it. Lex could become whomever he would have wanted, but since he is so inexorably linked to Clark, he couldn't have pulled away even if he knew he should.
I'm not saying that Lex had unknowingly paid enough to earn Clark's secret, but he has shown more than enough willingness to provide whatever he can for Clark and his family in ways that he couldn't profit from. How could the Kents have handled Lex's consistent gestures goodwill so badly then? I'm not putting a direct causality here, but they essentially made Lex more dangerous than he initially was.
And wow, I can't believe I've blurted out my own issue with Clark's secrets here. While I'm saying with little knowledge on how this is handled in the comics, I think the superheroes should be more conscious of the responsibility of having two identities, which Clark hasn't realized the necessity of due to his desire for a normal life, the poor boy.