fic: The Right of Truth, part 1

[xparrot]

Next week we (hopefully) will return you to your regularly scheduled fic. For now - gratuitous Clex h/c, set in late second season. If I had been watching the show back then, this is just the sort of fic I would've been writing: slash angst-fluff, pretty much, exploring an issue about Clark's secrets (and in fact most superhero secret identities) that's been bothering me.

Warnings for a bit of good old fashioned Lex!torture in the beginning, and generally woobie!Lex. Also the Kents are perhaps not very nice here, which wasn't my intent, but how it worked out. Hopefully in an IC way, but still. (And may I say *sigh* that being an asshole is in character for SV's Jonathan...)

Smallville: The Right of Truth (1/2)
R, Clex, h/c; second season
Lex is kidnapped and it's Clark to the rescue as usual, but he might not be ready for all he finds.

Read it on AO3

Comments

Re: I've been thinking about how maintaining a secret identity...

[attaccabottoni.livejournal.com]

maintaining a secret identity is somewhat analogous to being in the closet for gay people.
I've read that meta before! Ah, here it is, in the context of Asylum.

I knew Comics!Clark could be such a dick, but I've never thought of SV!Clark being like that at all. *wibbles between accepting that interpretation and hoping that SV!Clark is the most realistic version of Clark Kent*

(Sorry, I don't mean to focus on the meta provoked by the fic instead of the fic itself, but next to Lex-nalyses, I love discussions that give me more insights on SV!Clark. :D)

Re: I've been thinking about how maintaining a secret identity...

[greenlady2.livejournal.com]

Wow! Thanks for the link. That's a great discussion, and gave me lots of food for thought.

I don't think SV Clark is such a dick, just that he's heading in that direction... and, oops! What a Freudian slip. Heading in the direction of dick?! :-)))

(I don't think xparrot will mind if we discuss the issues involved in the story for now, since chapter 2 has yet to be posted.)

Lex can't hide who he is. He's Lionel Luthor's son, and everyone knows it. He's instantly recognizable. People keep turning up in Smallville, with stories about his shady past. (Though most of those stories aren't all that evil.) He's definitely out of the closet.

Clark isn't alone in his differences. There are all those mutants around. But Clark keeps denying he's really one of them. And of course he isn't a mutant -- he was born that way. Is that why he feels he can't come out even to the extent of pretending he's a mutant? He's too honest to take such an obvious out, by claiming to be a mutant. He just clings to the lie offered by his parents: Move along, move along, nothing to see here, folks!

I was struck by the discussion in that link, about how Jonathan and Martha want to keep their power over Clark, and how Lex threatens that. Yes! It's horrible, but true. There isn't really much difference between the Kent parents and Lionel, when it comes right down to it. No wonder Lionel eventually worms his way into Martha's affections.

I remember discussions on TWOP, back during the early seasons, about this issue. Some people defended Martha and Jonathan by saying Clark was like a special needs child, who must be protected at all costs, and that M & J only did what they did out of love. But how loving is it, to teach your child that his or her secrets are more important than anything else, even the life and health of their friends? I can't see a self-sacrificing Superman coming out of this environment, so I'm not sure how it's going to happen. I'm trying to figure it out, to come up with a scenario.

(Ponders.)

Re: I've been thinking about how maintaining a secret identity...

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Heee - whenever the sis and I start complaining about SV Clark's asshattery, the bro always says, "But Superman's a dick! That's just the way it is!" I never should've showed him that site XD

(and no problem about the meta discussion - this really is another essay not-so-cunningly disguised in fic-form; in fact I almost wrote it as one, but then realized I could work in some h/c if I fic'ed it, so there you go ^^)

Thanks for the meta link, btw, will haveta check it out!