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Y’all didn’t hear it from me but the reason why Lex hates Superman so much is Superman once princess carried him to safety and he was so outraged (smitten) that he didn’t know what to do

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Enemies to lovers has really done something to my brain. I saw that clip of the new Superman movie where Lex is rage baiting Superman and I’m like, oh he’s flirting 😂

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Not that anybody asked, but I think it's important to understand how shame and guilt actually work before you try to use it for good.

It's a necessary emotion. There are reasons we have it. It makes everything so. much. worse. when you use it wrong.

Shame and guilt are DE-motivators. They are meant to stop behavior, not promote it. You cannot, ever, in any meaningful way, guilt someone into doing good. You can only shame them into not doing bad.

Let's say you're a parent and your kid is having issues.

Swearing in class? Shame could work. You want them to stop it. Keep it in proportion*, and it might help. *(KEEP IT IN PROPORTION!!!)

Not doing their homework? NO! STOP! NO NOT DO THAT! EVER! EVER! EVER! You want them to start to do their homework. Shaming them will have to opposite effect! You have demotivated them! They will double down on NOT doing it. Not because they are being oppositional, but because that's what shame does!

You can't guilt people into building better habits, being more successful, or getting more involved. That requires encouragement. You need to motivate for that stuff!

If you want it in a simple phrase:

You can shame someone out of being a bad person, but you can't shame them into being a good person.

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Guess that's what happens when you suck at lying and are partnered with a detective

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This is probably a controversial Merlin take but I absolutely hate the scene where Queen Annis asks for Merlin to perform for them. Like I'm so sorry that scene belongs in Season 1 NOT Season 5 and it should have been played for showing how much Arthur needed to change not the witty merthur moment that it was shown to be.

Merlin's "I am not a fool" practically begging Arthur not to make him do this. Then Arthur's response of "that's debatable" would work if it was in the privacy of his own chambers or even just around the knights and Gwen since then Merlin would actually be able to fight back. But in a foreign kingdom, where speaking out isn't permitted, absolutely not. He even looks to both Leon and Elyan for help and is granted none. The look they share is not one of annoyed fondness it is Arthur using his power over Merlin in that moment and liking the way Merlin is upset by it.

Merlin is, to Arthur's knowledge, just a servant. Sure, we as an audience know that Merlin is powerful but in this moment, he holds no control. This is shit that belongs before the character growth we were supposed to see and not at the tail end of a series.

The worst part is by far when Merlin rises to the occasion cause we legit see Arthur's face drop. He wanted Merlin to humiliate himself so he could laugh at him. That is bully behavior. Something we are told time and time again that Arthur has moved past, yet his actions speak to the fact that he still treats servants like pawns for his own amusement. Given that at this point in the series, Merlin is the only peasant left in their group of friends and he is constantly belittled for it.

Don't even get me started on the knights.

Anyways this scene came up on my tik tok and now I'm all heated because that shit should have been left in season 1, maybe season 2. And like it's indicative for a much bigger problem in the show, that the writer's think Arthur can do no wrong even when he's being an objectively bad person.

In this essay I will...

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There are many, many differences between Lex in Smallville and Lex in Superman (2025), but one of the biggest ones is that SV!Lex absolutely knows he’s down bad for Clark in a gay way while 2025!Lex has his “I hate you, stupid alien” blinders on so tightly that he doesn’t realize what he really wants is to fuck Superman. SV!Lex is like “we’ll be the stuff of legend” and “you and I share a destiny” and “I’ll always love you” because he knows exactly what’s up, whereas 2025!Lex is like “I’m so obsessed with you that I memorized your every move” and “I tried to start a war just to get a chance to meet you” and “I cloned you” with a big dose of “which could mean nothing!!!”

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in all seriousness it's very alienating knowing theres Something Wrong With You. like seeing your mental illness come through in your behaviour and thought processes and knowing it's irrational and unhealthy, knowing other people are reading you as weird or stupid, and not being able to do anything about it is such a lonely experience

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but also, just- evil deranged Lex is so important- as much as I love “getting good dick from Superman fixes him” I love the deranged take of “gets superman to suck his dick and it’s the biggest power trip he’s ever had and this leads to worse war crimes somehow”

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I keep thinking about Lex Luthor and his Infinite envy and hatred for Superman. Lex’s ego tells him that he is already the peak of what humanity can achieve, and yet he is still not enough — that his inherent nature as a human is what limits him, rendering him forever lesser than an alien. He looks at Superman, and comes away with the idea that he will always be inferior unless he defeats him. Meanwhile, Clark looks at Lex and sees something completely different. Clark has wholehearted faith that Lex would be further empowered by his human nature if he let it, that this brilliant, intelligent guy who’s consumed by a superiority (inferiority) complex actually has so much more potential than he knows.

At the end of the movie, both of them know that Lex has lost. Lex has failed. Lex absolutely sees this as something shameful — and is probably already calculating about how to drag this out, to change that ending, to not let things die there so shamefully. But Clark stands there with no intention of humiliating Lex for his failures; instead, he’s appealing for this to be an opportunity for a new beginning, for Lex to become genuinely better, the way Clark genuinely believes his nemesis can be.

Lex looks at Clark with so much hate, sourced right from his crisis of identity — that he must be the best to be worth anything, really. Clark looks at Lex with so much love, empathy, and kindness — with the hope for this guy to just fuckin’ accept himself for what he is, and stop destroying the world for it.

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i feel like it's necessary to rant about this because of my dad who walked out of the theater after seeing the early screening of superman with me, and said that lex luthor crying was "a bit over the top."

listen. a little psychology lesson for you: hate is just as powerful a feeling as love. it is a feeling, period. it comes from fear, anger, frustration, envy, and/or disgust. these are all emotions that take hold of us, sway our decision making, and ultimately change the way we think and act. just like love does.

lex luthor is no exception to this. lex luthor hates superman.

he hates him so much, that he was brought to tears. to tears. lex luthor is filled with so much complete, pure hatred for superman, that he started crying. trembling, even.

james gunn and nicholas hoult managed to give us one of the most, if not the most, beautifully accurate representations of a villain on screen.

the way i could absolutely feel lex's hatred for superman in that moment is unparalleled, and i don't think anything will ever come close to it again.

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like you just knowww lex imagined having clark in a cage for so long. once he had him, he's like "what, am i Not going to badly flirt with him and put my hand against his on the other side of the glass and do a little psychological torture?? please"

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Do you think Lex Luthor would be pro Dark!Superman RPF because it tarnishes Superman's image or would he be against it because HE wants to be Superman's dark abusive billionaire BF, not the other way around

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Superman: Your obsession with me is starting to get a little creepy

Lex: *internally* He can never, ever know how I feel about him. Quick, play it smooth

Lex: Don’t worry—tall, dark, and Martian isn’t my type

Lex: *internally* did he buy that?