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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
And I don't even think it can be said that Lana's keeping Lex from completely going over to the dark side. I mean, he's pretty much already there -- 'cause hi, holding sentient beings against their will and experimenting on them -- so at this point, it's just a question of how dark is he gonna get before it's all over (i.e., will we actually get the patricide with Lionel before the series ends). Lana's not really doing anything to hold Lex in check (largely because of how expertly he manipulates her/how much she doesn't concretely know about his dealings); to the extent that there's the appearance that she's having some kind of effect, that's all it is -- appearances. Subterranean's awesome last minute and a half makes it pretty clear that Lex is going to do whatever Lex wants and in the end, I totally think he'd choose his ambitions over her if it became clear he couldn't have both.
Reposting with correct icon!
Points to icon.
I agree, Lex is firmly in the "villain" camp. I guess what I really meant is that right now, for some viewers (obviously not ALL) Lana functions to show us the sympathetic, or at least more human, side of Lex. I actually wish they'd get on with Lana's corruption a little more, if they're going there, because it would be very helpful to me to hear Lex's own justifications for what he's doing. I assume he has them, and that he's convincing himself that he's protecting humanity from the aliens, or non-mutants from mutants, or something, and I want to hear him tell her that.
Do you have any doubts about the patricide? Hell, I'll be surprised if Lionel makes it past this season.
Re: Reposting with correct icon!
See, I really don't think they're going there. Or, to be more accurate, I think their attempts to go there will be very half-assed. Already we have, what, three instances this season where Lana's quite deliberately been kept from knowing the full extent of Lex's shenanigans (here I'm thinking of Rage, Static and Subterranean although the latter two are arguably connected to each other)? The effect is that when she says she supports him, there's wiggle room because she doesn't know the full extent of what she's supporting; her choice actually isn't as informed as it could be.
If I were less cynical and more optimistic about the show, I'd think they were doing something really sophisticated and nuanced, i.e., positing that simply because Lana has chosen willful ignorance in terms of her relationship with Lex (she could learn this stuff if she pushed harder to find it out, etc.), she's not excused for her complicity in his wrong-doing. But ... I don't think that's what they're doing. I think they've actually be fairly careful in ensuring that Lana has an out: she can always say she didn't really know, that Lex really duped her and I do think that Clark, at least, would believe her (Chloe might be more skeptical in the wake of Static, but she'd still probably rally to Lana's side when the inevitable repudiation of Lex by Lana came).
In Subterranean, Clark isn't subscribing Lana's involvement to Lana's own choices. His accusation that she's a "puppet" is the kind of thing you'd say if you're essentially ignoring/denying the person's own agency in their actions. Even now, when Clark is rightly assessing her as being somewhat naive/foolish, he still doesn't view that as a function of Lana's active involvement; it's still all about the fact that Lex is manipulating her in some way.
I think they like the idea of Lana possibly being corrupted by Lex's influence (and even that approach is problematic, because it still puts the ultimate onus somewhere other than Lana's own agency). But they've done too much just this season to suggest that Lana really is an inherently good person -- like her willingness to potentially sacrifice herself to keep everyone safe from Zod or her explicitly stated desire to use Lex's money to "do good" -- for me to believe that they'd fully go there, with all that going there entails (up to and including Lana knowingly getting her hands dirty).
I assume he has them, and that he's convincing himself that he's protecting humanity from the aliens, or non-mutants from mutants, or something, and I want to hear him tell her that.
See, this is why I really wish they'd introduce Mercy and Hope (or at least Mercy). Because I don't think Lex will ever tell Lana exactly why he's doing what he's doing because I don't think he'll ever tell her exactly what he's doing. But if Lex had at least one character he could talk to that he knew would not judge him no matter what he did, I think he'd open up about his reasons/justifications. But TPTB seem to be really afraid of making us privy to Lex's internal landscape. I get the sense that now that he's moved firmly into the "villain" camp, they feel like it might make him too sympathetic if he ever got to explain himself.
Re: Reposting with correct icon!
Re: Reposting with correct icon!
Yes and no. I mean, he has explained his reasoning to Lana a couple times this season (in Fallout, for example, though she wasn't very receptive there to his "protecting humanity from the aliens") argument, and I almost felt Lana was speaking for Lex in Static when she said the meteor mutants were dangerous and she'd understand if he was studying them. So at least they're giving him some justification.
But I agree that they seem to be worried about making him too sympathetic, so when he's not mooning over/manipulating Lana, he's been extremely closed off this season. I had a conversation in the comments of somebody's episode review--unfortunately I can't remember whose--talking about how worried we were that when the Lexana comes to an end, we're not going to see an interiority to Lex anymore at all, just the cold opaque surface. And that worries me. I don't mind villainous Lex, but I want to be able to see his motives--otherwise he just becomes a cardboard villain, and that's no fun.
Giving him Hope or Mercy would definitely be a step in the right direction, though.
As for Lana--you're probably right that the writers are ultimately going to
cheat chicken outnot really allow Lana to suffer the consequences of the decisions she makes with Lex. It's too bad, because they managed to keep Lillian marginally sympathetic even though Lionel drove her crazy enough to murder her own child; it would be interesting if they went that far with the Lana parallel. But they probably won't.