Thoughts on Lex and General Smallville
Mar. 24th, 2005 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annundrielHeavy Smallville-fan type post. You've been forewarned.
The WB finally showed a preview of new upcoming SV episodes. They won't start until April 13, but at least we know they really do actually exist now. And there's footage of the two Lexs together. I know one is evil (apparently. Evil on SV is not the same as evil on other shows. For example...On Farscape evil is Scorpius sucking John's brain out through a straw; on SGA it's the Wraith slowly sucking the life out of their victims. On SV? It's having sex before you're married. ::shrug::). So one is evil, but is the other one good or just regular, i.e. the usual, Lex?
I could probably find out if I actually wanted to, but right now it doesn't matter enough to make me want to search it out. The preview does have some interesting things going for it though. Like evil!Lex punching Clark while holding Kryptonite. They cannot have that happen and tell us Lex doesn't know. Lex *so* knows. I'm a firm believer that Lex has known for quite some time. And the episode where they went to China and Lex was all "Don't you want to come look at this thing with the pretty green rocks, Clark?" in the temple and Clark's all "No thanks, Lex, they make me woozy" really just supported my belief.
I've got this whole theory, if you can call it that, that Lex has slowly recovered the memories he lost during the treatment at Belle Reve. I guess that I like the idea that sometimes at night he would dream about those lost seven weeks and wake up only half remembering these phantom events. They would make him feel like something was missing, sort of like an amputee who has ghost feelings of their lost limb. He'd end up having nightmares and wake up sweating and disoriented, not quite sure what to make of what he'd seen.
And then hints of memories would start to pop up while he was awake. Perhaps he would be talking to Clark and would have a feeling of deja vu, later remembering this whole other, earlier conversation. It would drive him a little crazy not being able to tell what was going on.
Then maybe one day Led would wake up and know. He would continue with his act of not knowing because he wants Clark to tell him, to trust him. But Clark, on the show at least, won't ever do that and Lex is going to be bitterly disappointed.
But wouldn't it be nice if one day something happened and Clark made his move to lie to Lex, or lie to him by not acknowledging whatever had happen, and saw the look on Lex's face and instead told him the truth. Saw the hope that maybe this time would be different and then its fall at Lex's own admittance to himself that Clark doesn't trust him enough, and decided that not trusting a Luthor wasn't worth losing Lex's friendship over. And, y'know, Michael Rosenbaum is just good enough that it would be an awesome scene if the show ever got its head in the right place and realized that they really don't need to try to follow DC canon if the characters really don't want to. The fans would be just fine with that.
At this point I feel the need to recommend one of my favorite pieces of Smallville fanfiction: Interstitial by Punk. The summary says only, "[Clark] doesn't know why this is happening." It takes place sometime in the future, with both Clark and Lex in Metropolis, and deals with Clark's otherness and how that relates to Lex, as well as the break-up of their friendship when Lex gets one obvious lie too many. I spent a nice afternoon reading this and was absolutely enchanted by the whole thing.
The Lex Remembers Theory reminds me a lot of that piece of Angel fanfic I wrote about Connor. A lot of that is because of the quote I used ("All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams." -Elias Canetti) and a lot of it is because in some ways Connor and Lex are in the same sort of situation. Both had an upbringing that left them harder than they really need to be, both were/are manipulated by a father figure, and both had their memories wiped or changed because of a father figure. Of course, in Connor's case the memory change was for the best. Angel gave up his son so that Connor could actually have a life. Lionel wiped Lex's mind because, um, why'd he do it again? I honestly cannot remember. (First they made Lex crazy and then....?) Crap. Anyway, I don't believe Lionel did it because he wanted Lex to have a real life without the weight of the world on his shoulders. Lionel's motives are always a bit fuzzy. But Holtz took Connor and raised him to hate Angel. Because of Holtz, Connor was raised in a hell dimension. And that fault can actually be traced back to Wesley and the fake prophecy that "the father will kill the son." (Although that did happen in the end. Metaphorically-like.)
Smallville should have prophecies, and not ones involving evil Frenchbitches witches. It should have neat prophecies involving Lionel and Lex and Luthors and the town and Clark can be thrown in there because they do actually already have the whole Naman/Sageth thing going on. And as dumb as some of that was/is, it is still a prophecy. (Plus, Lex's interpretation of it was so much better than everyone elses. That boy has it figured it.) It should have prophecies and a Metropolis branch of Wolfram & Hart and a new club/bar that is both demon and billionaire friendly.
Wouldn't that be neat? A whole universe where Angel exists with Smallville. Things would happen differently, because I want Lilah around. And Wesley. And Lorne. And Cordy. Hell, Lindsey could even come back and sic his stupid hair on Lana. And then he could cut it and be not-stupid looking again and debauch Chloe or something. ::shrug:: Pete and Gunn could bemoan the loneliness of being the only black character in an otherwise white dominated group. Possibly Fred could send Lana to Pylea where they would make her into a cow because she doesn't have visions like Cordy did, so she'd have to muck out stalls while wearing burlap and a collar that will explode her head if she misbehaves. Heh. ::cue evil laugh::
I'd so watch it every week and twice on Christmas. The whole show I mean, not just the part with Lana.
Anyway, all crazy alternate universes aside, I'd love to see them take the Lex Knows idea and run with it. Because he does. He's not stupid, he's not blind, he knows. Give us that much!
I have to say that I'm kind of relieved that, given the nature of this particularly rambling stream of consciousness post, SG hasn't completely knocked my SV love. I don't want it to. SV was, obviously, a really big fan thing of mine for awhile and I don't want it to be pushed aside and sort of forgotten like HP has been. And, to a lesser extent and slowly being remedied, LotR and PotC. Mostly I don't want it to get completely dropped from my fan life because I love the Lex and Clark I've come to know and understand through the doors that Smallville has opened. I care for them too much to be comfortable with forgetting them and how much fan, reader, and writer wise they have meant to me.
And boy is that sappy or what? But it's true. It's hard to explain. A lot of it has to do with the fandom, or at least the fanfiction. It has been, without a doubt, some of the best stuff I've read anywhere. Going back and re-reading some of them helps me remember why I began loving it all in the first place and makes me even more determined not to forget it. Because, as silly as it is, they're important to me.
It's pathetic that fictional characters and not forgetting them is the biggest thing that bothers me in my life right now. I should either be grateful that's as crazy as my life gets, or I should be worried that they're that important to me creatively.
Which ever. They make me happy and that's good enough for me.
Pathetic fan, signing off.
That totally went all sorts of places. Go stream of consciousness. But I had to get some of that down somewhere. Also, I totally kind of started that fanfic for Natasha. Go me.
The WB finally showed a preview of new upcoming SV episodes. They won't start until April 13, but at least we know they really do actually exist now. And there's footage of the two Lexs together. I know one is evil (apparently. Evil on SV is not the same as evil on other shows. For example...On Farscape evil is Scorpius sucking John's brain out through a straw; on SGA it's the Wraith slowly sucking the life out of their victims. On SV? It's having sex before you're married. ::shrug::). So one is evil, but is the other one good or just regular, i.e. the usual, Lex?
I could probably find out if I actually wanted to, but right now it doesn't matter enough to make me want to search it out. The preview does have some interesting things going for it though. Like evil!Lex punching Clark while holding Kryptonite. They cannot have that happen and tell us Lex doesn't know. Lex *so* knows. I'm a firm believer that Lex has known for quite some time. And the episode where they went to China and Lex was all "Don't you want to come look at this thing with the pretty green rocks, Clark?" in the temple and Clark's all "No thanks, Lex, they make me woozy" really just supported my belief.
I've got this whole theory, if you can call it that, that Lex has slowly recovered the memories he lost during the treatment at Belle Reve. I guess that I like the idea that sometimes at night he would dream about those lost seven weeks and wake up only half remembering these phantom events. They would make him feel like something was missing, sort of like an amputee who has ghost feelings of their lost limb. He'd end up having nightmares and wake up sweating and disoriented, not quite sure what to make of what he'd seen.
And then hints of memories would start to pop up while he was awake. Perhaps he would be talking to Clark and would have a feeling of deja vu, later remembering this whole other, earlier conversation. It would drive him a little crazy not being able to tell what was going on.
Then maybe one day Led would wake up and know. He would continue with his act of not knowing because he wants Clark to tell him, to trust him. But Clark, on the show at least, won't ever do that and Lex is going to be bitterly disappointed.
But wouldn't it be nice if one day something happened and Clark made his move to lie to Lex, or lie to him by not acknowledging whatever had happen, and saw the look on Lex's face and instead told him the truth. Saw the hope that maybe this time would be different and then its fall at Lex's own admittance to himself that Clark doesn't trust him enough, and decided that not trusting a Luthor wasn't worth losing Lex's friendship over. And, y'know, Michael Rosenbaum is just good enough that it would be an awesome scene if the show ever got its head in the right place and realized that they really don't need to try to follow DC canon if the characters really don't want to. The fans would be just fine with that.
At this point I feel the need to recommend one of my favorite pieces of Smallville fanfiction: Interstitial by Punk. The summary says only, "[Clark] doesn't know why this is happening." It takes place sometime in the future, with both Clark and Lex in Metropolis, and deals with Clark's otherness and how that relates to Lex, as well as the break-up of their friendship when Lex gets one obvious lie too many. I spent a nice afternoon reading this and was absolutely enchanted by the whole thing.
The Lex Remembers Theory reminds me a lot of that piece of Angel fanfic I wrote about Connor. A lot of that is because of the quote I used ("All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams." -Elias Canetti) and a lot of it is because in some ways Connor and Lex are in the same sort of situation. Both had an upbringing that left them harder than they really need to be, both were/are manipulated by a father figure, and both had their memories wiped or changed because of a father figure. Of course, in Connor's case the memory change was for the best. Angel gave up his son so that Connor could actually have a life. Lionel wiped Lex's mind because, um, why'd he do it again? I honestly cannot remember. (First they made Lex crazy and then....?) Crap. Anyway, I don't believe Lionel did it because he wanted Lex to have a real life without the weight of the world on his shoulders. Lionel's motives are always a bit fuzzy. But Holtz took Connor and raised him to hate Angel. Because of Holtz, Connor was raised in a hell dimension. And that fault can actually be traced back to Wesley and the fake prophecy that "the father will kill the son." (Although that did happen in the end. Metaphorically-like.)
Smallville should have prophecies, and not ones involving evil French
Wouldn't that be neat? A whole universe where Angel exists with Smallville. Things would happen differently, because I want Lilah around. And Wesley. And Lorne. And Cordy. Hell, Lindsey could even come back and sic his stupid hair on Lana. And then he could cut it and be not-stupid looking again and debauch Chloe or something. ::shrug:: Pete and Gunn could bemoan the loneliness of being the only black character in an otherwise white dominated group. Possibly Fred could send Lana to Pylea where they would make her into a cow because she doesn't have visions like Cordy did, so she'd have to muck out stalls while wearing burlap and a collar that will explode her head if she misbehaves. Heh. ::cue evil laugh::
I'd so watch it every week and twice on Christmas. The whole show I mean, not just the part with Lana.
Anyway, all crazy alternate universes aside, I'd love to see them take the Lex Knows idea and run with it. Because he does. He's not stupid, he's not blind, he knows. Give us that much!
I have to say that I'm kind of relieved that, given the nature of this particularly rambling stream of consciousness post, SG hasn't completely knocked my SV love. I don't want it to. SV was, obviously, a really big fan thing of mine for awhile and I don't want it to be pushed aside and sort of forgotten like HP has been. And, to a lesser extent and slowly being remedied, LotR and PotC. Mostly I don't want it to get completely dropped from my fan life because I love the Lex and Clark I've come to know and understand through the doors that Smallville has opened. I care for them too much to be comfortable with forgetting them and how much fan, reader, and writer wise they have meant to me.
And boy is that sappy or what? But it's true. It's hard to explain. A lot of it has to do with the fandom, or at least the fanfiction. It has been, without a doubt, some of the best stuff I've read anywhere. Going back and re-reading some of them helps me remember why I began loving it all in the first place and makes me even more determined not to forget it. Because, as silly as it is, they're important to me.
It's pathetic that fictional characters and not forgetting them is the biggest thing that bothers me in my life right now. I should either be grateful that's as crazy as my life gets, or I should be worried that they're that important to me creatively.
Which ever. They make me happy and that's good enough for me.
Pathetic fan, signing off.
That totally went all sorts of places. Go stream of consciousness. But I had to get some of that down somewhere. Also, I totally kind of started that fanfic for Natasha. Go me.
