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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?
Re: Kill Lionel, Of Course!
Lana tries to leave Smallville, but her need for 'having' and being 'had' brings her into a relationship with Lex. He caters to her inner princess and she can't help but stay, trapping herself even though it's the last thing she wanted.
Lois tries to deny her interest in journalism, but a barn door falls out of the sky right behind her. She could ignore it, but her character compells her to investigate further and warn others of the mysterious dangers of freak weather.
Clark, of course, tries to fight embracing his heritage. Every time he tries to ignor it or make it go away, it ends in disaster. He could continue to chose to fight it, but he doesn't because of his own set of values. He can't continue to put the world in danger.
I respectfully submit that despite all that has happened to him, Lex still has a very strong sense of self. He knows who he is and he knows what he's capable of - it used to scare him, and now it doesn't. He's made the choices along the way to get to that place. He chose to sabatoge genuine relationships for contrivances and manipulations. He chose to torture A.C. and Victor. He chose to examine the results of Duncan's testing. He chose to kill Nixon and Amanda. He chose to create and maintain Level 33.1 for two years now. His situation didn't push him into those choices - his character did.
Re: Kill Lionel, Of Course!
quibbles are fun :-)
I'm not sure Lex temporarily denying A.C. water constitutes torture so much as it does understandable caution ... I can't really see that Lex was all that terribly wrong to lock him up, if only as a prelude to calling in the authorities.
It's true that Lex was proven correct wrt his suspicions that A.C. could escape if given water. It's also true that Lex stated being called 'a tool' as motivation for his taunting A.C. I could concede your point of A.C.'s attempting to destroy Lex's property, however, I don't believe Lex had any intention of calling in the authorities. First, the best opportunity for calling in law enforcement would have been when A.C. was first hit with the dart at the lake and rendered unconcious. Second, the first thing we see once Lex has A.C. in his lab is a doctor withdrawing A.C.'s blood. At this point in the show, Lex had an already established history of incarcerating meta-humans against their will for the purpose of experimentation (Molly, Mxyzptlk, the goons in "Mortal"). Third, Lex's line of questioning once he had A.C. dehydrated and restrained in his lab had nothing to do with eco-terrorism. He specifically witheld a biological need to the point of causing pain and suffering with the goal of getting A.C. to reveal information (How does he swim so fast? Why does he need water so much?).
Lex did NOT torture Victor -- he saved Victor's life in the only way it was possible to save it ... he forcibly kept Victor from throwing that life away, but so would the U.S. legal system have done, if it had had the chance
Actually, Victor was already dead. Lex didn't notify the authorities that he had a 'dead' alive person in his custody. In fact, he hid that from them as a means to forcibly experiment on Victor. Once again he caused a person physical/psychological/emotional pain and suffering in pursuit of information.
I do not see examining the results of Duncan's treatments as evil; knowledge is never inherently evil
Good point. I suppose, one could even argue that he wanted to give Duncan's life meaning. I included it as a knee-jerk, I think. That moment in "Reunion" was spine-tingling creepy for me because it brought me to Lex's past actions wrt experimenting on people and although he hasn't used (to our knowledge) the information for ill purposes yet, it stands to reason that he will. But, you're right, he can't be held accountable for something he's likely to do, but hasn't yet done.
The only Amanda I can think of committed suicide
Doh! *smacks forehead* Yep, you're right. I was thinking of Amanda's fiance, Jude. Since "Zero" is ambiguous as to who exactly killed Jude, I probably shouldn't have used this as an example. (Especially since I typed the wrong victim!) I think Lex killed him, though.
Lex did not sabotage his relationship with Clark (if that's the one you're thinking of); Clark THREW THEIR RELATIONSHIP AWAY with his myriad lies and betrayals.
Actually, I was thinking of Lana. She could've genuinely loved him for himself if he hadn't contrived to (figuratively) capture her and then continued to manipulate her once he had. Now that you mention it, I think this does apply somewhat to Clark, too - with the advice about Lana, buying the farm, the CoCK, the football team sponsorship, and the "Mortal" set-up being cases in point. You obviously feel very strongly with the all caps, so I just want you to know that I don't mean to offend you with my perspective - it's just my perspective. I think both Clark and Lex are culpable for the state of their relationship. They've both been active participants in its downfall.
Re: quibbles are fun :-)
Lex may or may not have intended, at some point, to call in the authorities once he had A.C. in custody. (One could argue that Lex was better equipped to contain a metahuman criminal than the average prison facility, and thus was behaving in a reasonable and pragmatic way by imprisoning A.C. himself. And, as far as Lex tending to imprison metahumans, the only ones I can specifically recall him holding in custody were individuals who were clearly a danger to others -- or, in Victor's case, to himself -- so you could make a case for Lex simply doing what the authorities had so far failed to do in order to protect the public.) In any case, naturally Lex was going to get all the information he could out of A.C. while he had him; Lex's insatiable curiosity is one of his most notable traits (and not necessarily a bad one), and he had more than ample reason to be curious in this case. As for withholding water to the point of causing A.C. pain and suffering, it was my impression (and probably Lex's) that A.C. was greatly exaggerating his discomfort in order to trick Lex into doing something that would enable A.C. to escape, so I still have trouble seeing Lex's actions there as torture rather than as simple and reasonable precaution.
Yes, Lex and his people were covertly experimenting on Victor, but it was only that experimentation that saved Victor's life, and -- since, by the end of the episode, Victor had clearly decided that he wanted to live -- I don't think you can really blame Lex for that. Saving lives is not necessarily evil. Lex, or his scientist, did keep Victor contained, for a time, against his will, but that was apparently necessary to keep Victor from ending his life while still highly emotional due to the trauma of his family's deaths; certainly, he kept protesting that he did not want to live. And while I would probably have respected Victor's decision and allowed him to end his own life, the authorities certainly would not have, so you can't entirely fault Lex for not allowing it, either.
Re: quibbles are fun :-)
We don't truly know who killed Jude, and probably never will. I tend to believe Lex when he said Amanda shot the man, but it is entirely possible that Lex himself pulled the trigger. Either way, I saw the shooting as something done in defense of innocent lives: Jude had already attacked Lex with a knife while Lex was unarmed and offering no physical threat to Jude whatsoever, and Jude seemed about to attack Lex again when he was shot. Consequently, I don't consider that shooting an immoral or unethical act, no matter who was actually responsible. (True, Lex set up the initial situation to let Amanda find out Jude was cheating on her, but -- in all honesty -- she did have a right to know that. Jude turning violent was his own choice; it was not something Lex forced on him.)
Admittedly, Lex does manipulate people; he learned that under Lionel's tutelage while growing up, and the vast majority of people he's known have done their best to use Lex to their own advantage, so I cannot entirely fault Lex for tending to see the world as a case of 'use or be used.' Despite this, when Lex and Clark first met, Lex was (for the most part) surprisingly honest and open with Clark...until it became so clear that Clark was lying to him that Lex turned more wary and, of course, more curious. Again, I can't really blame Lex for that.
Finally, you mentioned the "Mortal" setup. There was no proof whatsoever that Lex deliberately set that situation up. Yes, he was at Belle Reve that day; Lionel had just been admitted as a patient, and Lex wanted to personally check on his father's condition and to personally discuss Lionel's treatment with his doctor. And, yes, Lex bumped into one of the metahumans in the hall -- but I can personally attest to having bumped into any number of people in my life, without ever having been involved in a criminal conspiracy with any of them. The metahuman may well have bumped into Lex on purpose in order to free himself from his manacles, but there's no reason to think Lex had anything to do with that beyond happening to be the first person the guy was able to bump into. Lex had security at the Luthorcorp plant, which is only natural, and he had some of the cameras on different power sources, which is a perfectly understandable precaution. When he arrived back in town and was told there'd been a security breach, he naturally checked the video footage on the working cameras...and was surprised to see Clark and Chloe breaking in, and further surprised to see Clark injured when Lex had good reason to suspect Clark was a lot harder to hurt than that. Clark and Chloe jumped to the conclusion that Lex had set the whole hostage situation up, just as they have jumped to many similar conclusions of Lex's guilt in situations where we, the audience, know for a fact that Lex was perfectly innocent. To me, this looks like just another case of Clark wrongly accusing Lex, and physically assaulting him into the bargain. I credit Lex with great restraint that he waited so long to use force to defend himself, and that he didn't report Clark to the police afterwards. (Not that he ever has, no matter how much Clark has deserved it.)
And, no, I wasn't offended by any of your comments. I hope you're not offended by any of mine.