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SV "What If" Game
Edited to rename my game now that it is famous all over teh internets, since "an SV Game/Poll Thingy" doesn't scan quite as well.
I have one of those extremely tedious projects at work that require, for sanity, an lj break every half hour or so, so it seems like a good time to play a game.
So here's the premise: the SV fairy has appeared to you and offered you the opportunity to travel to the SV-verse, temporarily, to improve Smallville and/or the lives of the characters in any way you see fit. There are rules, however. You can either (1)have one conversation with one character (and only one character), time length up to one hour, at any point in the timeline OR (2) you can change one event, but not speak to anyone.
--If you choose the conversation, you can talk to anyone at any point in their timeline, but you have to be yourself (mysterious stranger); you can't, for example, be Clark to talk to Lex. You can, however, be a mysterious stranger who knows the future; you just can't hang around more than an hour to show that your predictions were accurate.
--If you choose changing an event, you have a fair amount of power--let's say the limit of your power is that of a meteor mutant--but you can only change one event, and you can't speak to anyone. So, for example, if your goal was to prevent Jodi from becoming a fat-sucker in "Craving," you could either magically prevent her father's greenhouse from being salted with kryptonite OR you could have a conversation warning her, but you couldn't do both. If you wanted to save Jonathan's life in "Reckoning," you could have a conversation with Clark or you could blow up the Fortress of Solitude (if you think that would help) OR you could puncture Jonathan's tires so he never has the encounter with Lionel, but you could only do ONE of those things, not all of them. If you want to redirect the meteors in the first meteor shower to squash Lana, you can do that, but you can't then talk to Clark to get him to wait on Loeb bridge so he saves Lex's life even though he no longer has Lana to moon over and so he may not end up there on his own.
SO:
What is your goal?
What are you going to do to accomplish it, given the constraints on your powers?
What do you think the effect of your change will be?
What might be the unintended consequences?
For example, here's mine.
What is your goal?
I want Lex NOT to become an evil monster whose sociopathy exceeds Lionel's. It turns out I want that even more than I want Clark and Lex to get together.
What are you going to do to accomplish it, given the constraints on your powers?
After much thought about this, I think what I would do is appear to Lillian a couple days before she kills Julian and HEAL HER with my magical kryptomutant powers.
What do you think the effect of your change will be?
Even though I don't get to talk to her, my hope is that healing her would cover both her post-partum psychosis (to which I am attributing her desire to kill Julian) AND her heart condition, so she would live and continue to be a countering influence on Lex. I think by the time Lex gets to Smallville it's really too late for him to really change; he's too fucked up already. My hope is that if Lillian is not sucked down into despair because of her mortal illness, she would actually be able to support Lex in not becoming like his dad. And Lex would still have a little brother, who he clearly loved a lot, so that would give him motivation to try to be a good person and set a good example.
What might be the unintended consequences?
Well, Lillian might already be so damaged that she would still kill Julian, and maybe this time Lionel would catch her and she'd go to prison or be locked in an asylum, which probably would NOT make things better for Lex. Or maybe she wouldn't be caught, but she'd live, and instead of being Lex's dead model of goodness, she'd be the psycho-mom he was protecting, and that could get ugly and he might go evil earlier. Or maybe none of that would happen but instead Lionel would succeed in molding Julian to be the heir he wanted Lex to be, and instead of Lex being the evil genius he'd be locked in an eternal struggle with his brother the evil genius.
So, does anyone else want to play, or did I make the rules too complicated?
I have one of those extremely tedious projects at work that require, for sanity, an lj break every half hour or so, so it seems like a good time to play a game.
So here's the premise: the SV fairy has appeared to you and offered you the opportunity to travel to the SV-verse, temporarily, to improve Smallville and/or the lives of the characters in any way you see fit. There are rules, however. You can either (1)have one conversation with one character (and only one character), time length up to one hour, at any point in the timeline OR (2) you can change one event, but not speak to anyone.
--If you choose the conversation, you can talk to anyone at any point in their timeline, but you have to be yourself (mysterious stranger); you can't, for example, be Clark to talk to Lex. You can, however, be a mysterious stranger who knows the future; you just can't hang around more than an hour to show that your predictions were accurate.
--If you choose changing an event, you have a fair amount of power--let's say the limit of your power is that of a meteor mutant--but you can only change one event, and you can't speak to anyone. So, for example, if your goal was to prevent Jodi from becoming a fat-sucker in "Craving," you could either magically prevent her father's greenhouse from being salted with kryptonite OR you could have a conversation warning her, but you couldn't do both. If you wanted to save Jonathan's life in "Reckoning," you could have a conversation with Clark or you could blow up the Fortress of Solitude (if you think that would help) OR you could puncture Jonathan's tires so he never has the encounter with Lionel, but you could only do ONE of those things, not all of them. If you want to redirect the meteors in the first meteor shower to squash Lana, you can do that, but you can't then talk to Clark to get him to wait on Loeb bridge so he saves Lex's life even though he no longer has Lana to moon over and so he may not end up there on his own.
SO:
What is your goal?
What are you going to do to accomplish it, given the constraints on your powers?
What do you think the effect of your change will be?
What might be the unintended consequences?
For example, here's mine.
What is your goal?
I want Lex NOT to become an evil monster whose sociopathy exceeds Lionel's. It turns out I want that even more than I want Clark and Lex to get together.
What are you going to do to accomplish it, given the constraints on your powers?
After much thought about this, I think what I would do is appear to Lillian a couple days before she kills Julian and HEAL HER with my magical kryptomutant powers.
What do you think the effect of your change will be?
Even though I don't get to talk to her, my hope is that healing her would cover both her post-partum psychosis (to which I am attributing her desire to kill Julian) AND her heart condition, so she would live and continue to be a countering influence on Lex. I think by the time Lex gets to Smallville it's really too late for him to really change; he's too fucked up already. My hope is that if Lillian is not sucked down into despair because of her mortal illness, she would actually be able to support Lex in not becoming like his dad. And Lex would still have a little brother, who he clearly loved a lot, so that would give him motivation to try to be a good person and set a good example.
What might be the unintended consequences?
Well, Lillian might already be so damaged that she would still kill Julian, and maybe this time Lionel would catch her and she'd go to prison or be locked in an asylum, which probably would NOT make things better for Lex. Or maybe she wouldn't be caught, but she'd live, and instead of being Lex's dead model of goodness, she'd be the psycho-mom he was protecting, and that could get ugly and he might go evil earlier. Or maybe none of that would happen but instead Lionel would succeed in molding Julian to be the heir he wanted Lex to be, and instead of Lex being the evil genius he'd be locked in an eternal struggle with his brother the evil genius.
So, does anyone else want to play, or did I make the rules too complicated?
no subject
What is your goal? Fix Clex (or at least buy them more time to fix things), and in turn hope to fix Lex.
What are you going to do to accomplish it, given the constraints on your powers?
Change the way by which Clark saved Lex that very first time-- Magically give Clark the presence of mind to refrain from peeling off the roof of the car, instead just pulling the door open (not off) and pulling Lex out.
What do you think the effect of your change will be?
This was the first major red flag to Lex that there was something Special about Clark. Altering the event in such a way that they still dramatically meet, still become strangely smitten with/drawn to each other, but without the specter of the Secret immediately there gives Lex a chance to get to know Clark for Clark. Clark could relax, let his guard down around Lex, and though he'll probably still continue to save Lex's life and invite questions-- imo that first dramatic save was the biggest question mark of them all and it's clear that "just a guy that tried to do the right thing" isn't good enough to keep Lex waiting. So I'll remove that first gigantic specter of suspicion and hope they'll do the rest themselves. After trust is built up, Clark will tell go on to tell Lex everything and they'll work it out, much the same way as Pete/Clark and Chloe/Clark.
Upon further thought...I realize in a lot of ways this is how the Chlark friendship played out--they got to know each other pretty well, as people, first before a major WTF revelation about Clark. They were equipped to deal with it then. Yes, there were question marks for Chloe along the way, but because the friendship got off on the right foot, she and Clark were able to compromise and he promised to tell her when the time was right.
What might be the unintended consequences?
I routinely wonder if Lex really cared for Clark beyond his "Special"ness so the biggest unintended consequence would be Lex just thanking the farmer kid with a truck and moving on with his life as though Clark was just a random good Samaritan. But if Lex's spiel about flying over Smallville during the save is to be believed, I think there's a good chance the friendship will grow.
Alternates scenarios...(if I was able to leave my personal morals behind in this fictional world ;)), preferably that Lionel or Jonathan die (I'd make it so that Sheriff Ethan really did kill Lionel for instance) and Lex is drawn closer into Clark and Martha's world-- important because I think... whereas a teenage Clark wouldn't know where to start with a case like Lex'sMartha as surrogate mother figure, with Lionel and/or Bo out of the way, would have done wonders.
no subject
I *hope* Lex would still be interested in Clark, even without the mystery, though I do wonder. (He still also might be convinced he hit Clark with his car, of course, and eventually Clark's ability to be in the right place at the right time would be apparent).
And oh, Lex becoming Martha and Jonathan's surrogate son is really one of my favorite scenarios. (And clearly Lex's, too, if Lexmas is any indication--the fact that Jonathan was the one honoring him clearly carried a lot of weight with him).
no subject
That's just it...I mean, it's easy to forget that Clark and Lex? Kind of found out how truly Special Clark was at the same time. Clark always knew he was some sort of mutant, but until the accident, it came off like he hadn't yet realized the true magnitude of his secret. Clark's meltdown about that was what prompted Jonathan to finally reveal that Clark was an alien. So yeah...I think Clark needed time to come to terms with that all on his own before he had a new friend asking questions about and investigating it. Because no matter how much he loved Lex, how intense they were right from the beginning? I still think it's all a bit too early, to reveal your secrets to someone you just met...letting the trust grow first would have given Clex a firmer foundation to deal with things better later on.
You give Jonathan more credit than I do in such a possible scenario...Just to be on the safe side, I'd want him out of the way completely and just have Martha, Clark, and Lex as a little family. I felt like Martha wanted Lex around more but differed to Bo. Jonathan...he seems to flip flop too much about Lex. And yes, sometimes parents just can't get over their dislike and distrust of a certain friend and that's cool, but in this special case, the lives of billions are at stake decades down the line so he needs to be out of the way and let Martha nurture Lex and Clark/Lex just be themselves :)
no subject
(And also, though I really do love Mionel enough to let me accept things I wouldn't normally in service of that pairing--which is why I haven't been too critical of Martha this season--I'm not very impressed at Martha without Jonathan. If Jonathan's death changes Martha to such an extent that she's no longer really sensitive to *Clark's* feelings, I'm not sure she'd do so well with Lex, either. Martha seems to need Jonathan to be her anchor, regardless of how we feel about him, so I'm not sure getting rid of Jonathan is going to have the effect that you think it will).
I think we both completely agree on Clark needing more time to adjust to his alienness, though.
no subject
I would have been more behind Mionel if it was built up with more finesse and more gradually. I like that Martha is attracted to Lionel in spite of herself and thinks she can change him; I like the Lionel's one weakness seems to be Martha (why else hasn't he exploited the Kents?). It's just how soon they've moved things along post-Jonathan's death that is icky. And they'd have to have a talk about all the crazy shit Lionel has done, like try to experiment on her son, and then build a bit of trust or something. I like the pairing, it's the execution on the show that needed more care.
I'm not very impressed at Martha without Jonathan. If Jonathan's death changes Martha to such an extent that she's no longer really sensitive to *Clark's* feelings, I'm not sure she'd do so well with Lex, either.
This is a good point...I'm not sure what's up with her making the moves on Lionel considering how Clark feels about him but I see it as her ultimate weakness...should both Bo/Lionel die, her love for Lionel wouldn't be an issue. I think she'd be a warm enough mother figure. I mean...she wouldn't be perfect. Clark/Lex/Martha would cope with all their losses together and be stronger for it, ideally. But she'd be a good, sane stand-in for Lillian or Lionel and maybe that's all Lex would need? I don't think he needs a mother Teresa so much as a mother figure that loves him and confirms to him that Lionel was full of shit.
no subject
I can see why you think that, but since I happen to know personally three widows in their 40s who all remarried within a year or less of their husbands' deaths, I think it's probably a more common response to grief than is generally acknowledged. I'm more concerned about how gullible she's being, especially given the heinousness of his past crimes. I mean, he murdered his parents! Tortured her son! Fried his own son's brain! Changed or not, these seem like problem areas for a relationship.
But it's true that Lionel really does seem to have a soft spot for Martha--though I'm sure that's tied to his desire to establish some sort of hold over Clark, as well.
You may be right that without Lionel to tempt her, Jonathan's death might not affect her moral compass quite so much. (But which meteor shower are you killing them off in--the first one or the second one? I'm confused).
no subject
I'm more concerned about how gullible she's being, especially given the heinousness of his past crimes. I mean, he murdered his parents! Tortured her son! Fried his own son's brain! Changed or not, these seem like problem areas for a relationship.
I have a harder time with that too. Especially since one of Lionel's victims was her own son. Makes it particularly callous. The "dating widow" thing is only secondary and only because it's Lionel in particular.
no subject