Jor-El, Prophecy, and Destiny

[norwich36]

I made the mistake of reading the comments on "Reckoning" on the TWOP right beofre going to sleep, and now I can't sleep because I'm arguing with them in my head! So some probably disjointed thoughts on Jor-El and destiny behind the cut; spoilers for "Reckoning."



Basically the impetus for this post was the argument made by many on TWOP that Clark had effectively killed Jonathan by "choosing" Lana over him. Now, as I said in my last entry on this episode, although I'm sure Clark *feels* that way, I don't think it's true--and not simply because I think Jonathan's own choices lead to his death. I'm starting to reconsider Jor-El's "punishment" of Clark.

I'm too tired to go searching for the actual quote, but from the many promos I remember it as "The life of someone you love will be exchanged for yours," or something like that. Now, we all read that as Jor-El punishing Clark for disobeying him. (Well, except bop_radar and supacat, who have been arguing for a while that Jor-El's message was more complicated than that--but I wasn't really convinced before now).

But what if Jor-El's power--to raise a human from the dead--was one of those one-time powers, like the time-travel crystal? Jor-El is not, I hope, omniscient, and can't read the future--which is why I had a hard time coming up with a benign interpretation of his prediction. But he knew that Jonathan's heart had been weakened by taking Clark's powers--and he knows (based on his experiences with Louise) that "human life is fragile, my son." Maybe he *intended* to use his one-time miraculous resurrection powers to bring back Jonathan, if necessary, but since he had to use them on Clark, he knew that at some point Clark would have to face a loss that could have been prevented if Clark had just listened to Jor-El.

That scenario works a lot better with what Jor-El had to say in this episode ("the tide of fate is impossible to stop" and "the universe will find a balance"--which seems almost like karma to me. (Btw, did anyone notice the Buddha on Lex's wall in the first scene between Lana and Lex? It was out of focus, but definitely there). The thing about karma, though, is it's a little more flexible than destiny, because the law of karma says that all of our choices--and all of everybody else's choices--have inevitable consequences, but choice still exists.

So yes, Clark's choices contributed to Jonathan's death--but so did Martha's choice to ask Lionel for money, and Lex's choice to try to blackmail Jonathan, and Jonathan's choices to accept the risks of Kryptonian powers to save his son and to provoke a fight with Lionel Luthor, and his father Hirma's choice to help a stranger, and the stranger's choice to send his son to that family, etc. etc. Jonathan's death is an inevitable consequence of choices made, but it's not a *punishment* Jor-El has sent.

That doesn't mean Jor-El isn't orchestrating some of the choices, because he has a goal for his son, which is probably shaped by the own choices he made while he was on earth. (I wonder: did he get the choice to try to save Louise? And if so, what was the outcome of that?) And this choice Clark has made is a "trial" (did he say it was the last trial? I don't remember--and maybe he was supposed to save the time travel for something important in the future, like defeating General Zod, who I assume is coming at *some* point in the future.) But I suspect we're going to find out his motives are more benign than we've been assuming.

Ok, I'm falling asleep *as I type this*, so I'd better go to bed. I hope this is somewhat coherent!

Comments

[latxcvi.livejournal.com]

So yes, Clark's choices contributed to Jonathan's death--but so did Martha's choice to ask Lionel for money, and Lex's choice to try to blackmail Jonathan, and Jonathan's choices to accept the risks of Kryptonian powers to save his son and to provoke a fight with Lionel Luthor,

Normally, I'm all about dinging Lex (and any of the other characters) when they deserve it, but you've lost me in lumping his decision to blackmail Jonathan into the group of choices that contribute to Jonathan's death. I could buy it if we *knew for sure* that what Lionel showed Jonathan was the same piece of material Griff came up with for Lex to drop as the atomic bomb on Jonathan's head, but we don't know that for sure. And given that Lionel is involved, I'm not sure we can just make that assumption, either. Lionel is obviously playing his own game, which means he may have an atomic bomb of his own that he was planning to use all along with Jonathan (since clearly, part of his backing of Jonathan over Lex was precisely because he knew he'd probably be able to control Jonathan in a way he's really come to realize he can't control Lex).

I definitely agree that Martha's and Clark's and Jonathan's choices all contributed to Jonathan's ultimate death. I just don't think Lex's decision in Lexmas can absolutely be included in that group, because we *don't* know what the ace up Lionel's sleeve is.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Well, I was just trying to include as many people as possible in that discussion of choices--because my point was really that Clark's choice, though undoubtedly significant, is only is only one of the millions of choices all of the characters made that lead to Jonathan's death. But you're right, I was assuming that Lionel was blackmailing Jonathan with Griff's information, and we don't know that to actually be true.