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

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

[greenlady2.livejournal.com]

... is somewhat analogous to being in the closet for gay people. I'm not gay myself, so I can't speak from personal experience. Everything I say on this subject is second hand, from things I've read or heard, so it's all pretty obvious. But gay people who have been in the closet all say it's divisive to your personality, that they hate lying to their friends and family, and that coming out is a relief, that it makes them stronger and happier.

I know it's not quite the same thing for Clark. Clark is the last Kryptonian, as far as he knows, so there isn't going to be a Kryptonian Liberation Front waiting in the wings. His parents are the first to know his Kryptonian identity, not the last, as is often the case with gay people and their gay identity. His identity as an alien is far more dangerous for his friends and family to know about, than would be his identity as a gay person. So I'm not suggesting it should be as easy for him to 'come out', and that he should come out publicly. I'm saying that hiding his identity as an alien must have something of the same effect on him.

In fact, the original comics did realize this. There is that split between 'Clark Kent' and 'Superman'. They're two different people, really. And Clark Kent from the comics was a rather unpleasant person, which was why Lois Lane didn't like him much. It was 'Lois and Clark' that really made Clark the hero of the show, I think. Though Christopher Reeve's Clark was an improvement on the comics Clark, too.

SV's Clark is shaping up to be much more like the Clark of the original comics. And it is his lack of any sympathy for, or understanding of, how his lies affect other people that I find distressing.

People keep saying he's young. Well, how mature do you have to be to realize that you hurt people when you lie to them? When Clark ran off, leaving Lex to be taken back inside Belle Reeve and essentially tortured, all to protect himself... that was unspeakable. But when he and his parents justified his actions, by saying it was all for the best, and Lex was happier for having his brains fried.... Gah! That was the worst. He'd just had a terrible revelation of how he hurt people by lying. If he'd seriously questioned his own actions, if he'd even seemed to consider whether or not it was worthy of him to allow his friend to be tortured to protect his secret, if he'd shown any sign of maturing through his experiences and being less judgemental of other people's faults, I'd like him more. But there it is.

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!

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

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

It's true! And SV Clark works better for the closet gay metaphor than Superman, even. The difference is that Clark doesn't really have a secret identity yet - like those people who are closeted, Clark doesn't share his real self with almost anyone but his cabal (and a million meteor freaks, but let's not get into that...) While as Superman is known to the world - that he's Clark Kent is the only secret he's keeping. (Well, excepting those canons that the Daily Planet's clutzy Clark Kent is an act, and his true self only shows on rare occasions. That's getting into some serious psychological troubles.)

One difference between Clark and most gay people is that Clark's parents knew before Clark himself does. They take the secret so seriously that they kept it even from Clark himself for over a decade! The Kents really seem to feel that they own Clark's secret, that they have a right to control it, even when it affects and involves other people to the point of life-threatening danger...

As for Clark...I think Clark in later seasons completely internalized his parents' instructions. And I think he did it by convincing himself that protecting his secret really is protecting other people. He doesn't think beyond this axiom because to do so, he'd fall apart psychologically. Lying does not come naturally to Clark (as it does to Martha...less so to Jonathan; Jonathan would just prefer for Clark to stay hidden, so the issue doesn't arise at all...) I think subconsciously Clark must be aware of how his lies hurt people...Clark has too much compassion and conscience not to realize it. But he's hiding from that truth, because otherwise he'd have to betray his parents, and he can't do that. (It doesn't help that every single person who's brought into Clark's secret feels so privileged that they don't want anyone else to come in on it and lessen their specialness. Not a single member of his cabal has ever done anything but reinforce to Clark how vital it is to keep the secret at any cost.)

Spoilers?

[m-lasha.livejournal.com]

Hi,

I read the warnings and saw the Lex!torture warning. I was just wondering is there a non-con plot in this story? I don't read rape stories and didn't want to start reading the story if that's what the "torture" was. Just wanted to check beforehand. I do like to be spoiled in those cases. *g* If you don't want to say in a public post, you can e-mail it to me.

Thanks!

Re: Spoilers?

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Nope, no non-con; the torture is just a bit of interrogation from generic bad guys, it's very mild by fic standards, no worse than anything that happens in the show. I tend to be overly cautious about warnings.