#but her and kara's story was just. undermined

[thevoidfishsminstrel]

Lena let out an undignified squeak as she grabbed hold of the bookshelf beside her in an effort to not land on her face.

“I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”

Lena turned, wiggling her foot back into her heels properly, before freezing, eyes widening at the caped figure now scrambling to her feet.

An array of books and magazines were spread out on the floor, presumably the culprit of her latest near death experience. It was as though National City’s newly revealed superhero had been sitting in between the bookshelves on the library floor… studying?

Lena clutched the cheesy romance novel she had been too busy reading to her chest as Supergirl looked at her in concern.

“Miss?”

Lena’s brain finally restarted and she cleared her throat, straightening her blazer. “Yes. I’m fine. Thank you.”

“You’re sure you’re not hurt?” Supergirl was wringing the edge of her cape in her fingers, looking far too nervous for someone who was suspected to be the strongest being on Earth by several sapphic blogs that Lena most definitely did not read.

“I’m fine.” She reached out to put a hand on Supergirl’s forearm in an impulse comfort gesture. “I promise.”

Supergirl seemed to relax slightly, some of the tension seeping from her shoulders. She held out a hand. “I’m Kara.”

Any tension that had left her immediately returned tenfold, eyes widening in panic as she froze.

Lena bit back a smile and took Kara’s hand, shaking it despite Kara’s lack of movement. “Lena. And don’t worry - your secret’s safe with me.”

Kara deflated, running a hand through her hair. “Alex is going to kill me.”

Lena laughed and patted Kara’s bicep (definitely the strongest being on Earth). “Maybe you should stop saying names now.”

Kara grimaced. “Oops.” She looked like she was about to say something else but stopped and looked at Lena again. “Wait… are you Lena Luthor?”

Lena straightened up, careful mask falling into place to try to hide the way her heart sped up and her throat constricted. “Yes.”

But before she could launch into her speech about how she was different from the rest of her family and only wanted to help, Kara lit up, crouching down to shuffle through her piles of literature until she came up with an issue of a science magazine from a few years ago.

“I just read your article about sustainable building and how we can introduce cost-effective eco-friendly measures to construction to reduce the damage done to the environment and promote a symbiotic relationship with nature.”

Lena blinked.

Kara almost poked herself in the eye before redirecting the movement to brush a strand of hair behind her ear. “Sorry, I just thought it was really interesting. You’re probably tired of people asking you about your work.”

Lena’s eyebrows rose. “No I… I don’t mind.”

Kara smiled and Lena found her heart racing for an entirely different reason. She redirected her attention to the books scattered on the floor.

“So what’s National City’s resident superhero doing studying civil engineering, first aid and… veterinary science on the floor of the library?”

Kara blushed and knelt down to start scooping up all her things. “Sorry - I know I should have been at a desk I just got carried away.”

The pile of books was up to Kara’s eyebrows when she stood up and Lena laughed, taking the top third of them from her. “And I shouldn’t have been reading and walking. But that doesn’t answer my question.”

Supergirl shrugged, toeing at the worn carpet with her red boots. “I’m new at the whole superhero thing. I don’t know where to freeze breath a building to hold it up or how to save someone who’s got water in their lungs from almost drowning. The other day I rescued a snake from a tree and tried to wrap it up in my cape to keep it warm and the owner told me ‘thanks, but reptiles are cold-blooded so they don’t warm up like that.’” She pouted at Lena. “The owner was a ten year old.”

Lena bit back a smile. “So you’re trying to learn how to be a better superhero?”

She shrugged and bit her lip. “I just don’t want to mess up.”

Lena considered her for a moment. “You know, I happen to have degrees in a few different kinds of engineering. And I made everyone at L-corp, including myself, take a first aid course when I took over.”

Kara looked as though she was trying to contain her hopeful expression. It wasn’t working very well, although that probably wasn’t surprising since her motto was ‘hope, help, and compassion for all.’

Kara bounced on her toes excitedly. “Would you help?”

Lena grinned and gestured to the left with her head. “Come on, I know which desk is the best in the library.”

———

It became somewhat of a routine after that. Every Saturday, Lena would go to the library as normal, pick out a new cheesy romance novel for the week and some kind of thick science book to hide it underneath, and then meet Supergirl in the back corner of the library, at the desk hidden behind the spare computers from the 90s where no one would find them.

Kara would normally already be there, pouring over texts and making notes in coloured pens and highlighters. Lena had bought her a rainbow of folders and dividers for each of the aspects of superheroing she was trying to improve in, and they had spent one very unproductive but fun day labelling and decorating them. They were now covered in random doodles, squiggly multicoloured patterns, and stickers that Kara had found in a rotating rack by the front desk, immediately claiming were essential for her learning.

During the week, Lena would keep an eye on any news of Supergirl, getting some strange looks from Jess when she walked into her office to see Lena cheering as Kara did something they’d worked on together. At the weekend she would listen to Kara excitedly retell those same events until the librarian came over to shush them. She seemed to be the only person in National city that wasn’t completely charmed by Supergirl, and it always led to half an hour of Kara pouting and asking Lena why the librarian didn’t like her.

It was a few weeks before Lena got there first. She frowned, checking the surrounding isles of books for any caped figures but they were all empty as usual.

She sat at their desk and opened up the book she had randomly grabbed off a shelf, putting her latest romance novel inside it to covertly read. It was called ‘Lost and Found: A Love Story’, the back of it claiming it was about a woman who ‘drops her scarf at a train station but ends up finding something much more meaningful in the woman she bumps into at the lost and found.’ It was exactly as awful as it sounded.

Kara bounded up to the table about 20 minutes later, a coffee cup in each hand and a satchel slung over her shoulder that made her cape bunch up awkwardly. She beamed at Lena and set a coffee down in front of her.

“Guess what I just did.”

Lena slammed the books shut inside each other, scrambling to put her arms over them and rest her chin in her hand casually. “What?”

Kara either didn’t notice or didn’t care, rounding the desk and putting her bag down on it with a grin. “I laservisioned the supports of a broken crane back together using some metal from a billboard and now it’s totally fine for use again.”

Lena’s eyebrows rose. “What happened to the crane in the first place?”

Kara’s cheeks heated and she looked away, rubbing the back of her neck as she mumbled, “I may have flown into it a little bit.”

She scowled at Lena as Lena started laughing but it was undermined by the way her lips tugged up.

“Oh!” Kara lit up and started rifling through her bag. “I brought you this.”

She held out a book with a bright smile. Lena’s eyes widened as she looked down at the cover of what was very clearly another cheesy romance.

“It’s my favourite love story. It’s a bit like the one you’re reading at the moment but better, in my opinion. I thought you might like it.”

“What?” Lena scoffed. “I wasn’t reading a romance. I was reading…” she glanced over to check what book she had picked up, internally filling with regret as she read the title, but she had already committed to the facade. “The rhyming dictionary.”

Kara was very clearly trying not to laugh. “Ok. Well I’ll just leave this one here. And in case you didn’t know,” she leaned closer to Lena’s ear as she climbed into her seat, and whispered, “I have x-ray vision.”

Lena blushed, refusing to look at Kara’s smug grin. She cleared her throat and moved her books off to the side, along with the one Kara had put down, as casually as possible, and attempted to change the subject.

“So you remembered about weight distribution in support structures?”

Kara paused in taking folders and notes out her bag to turn to Lena excitedly, rambling on about her save, gesturing wildly with her hands.

Lena picked up her coffee as she listened with a soft smile, absentmindedly taking a sip.

She frowned down at the cup. “Is this my usual?”

Kara paused in her rambling. “Yeah. Does it not taste right?”

Lena shook her head, staring back down at her perfect coffee, cheeks heating at the heart drawn in latte art that Kara probably didn’t even have anything to do with. “No I just… I didn’t know you knew my order.”

Kara grinned, raising an eyebrow (Lena should never have taught her how to do that). “Perhaps you’re not as elusive as you think, Lena Luthor.”

———

Lena arrived at the library one Saturday to find Supergirl staring at the front doors like she might set light to them any moment.

“What’s wrong Supergirl? Lose a fight with a door handle?”

Kara turned to her with a pout, pointing at a sign hanging on the other side of the glass. It read ‘Library closed until 23rd due to water damage. Apologies for the inconvenience.’

Lena sighed.

“Where am I going to get my books for this week, Lena? I’m never going to understand civil engineering without them.”

Lena bit the inside of her cheek, the rational part of her brain at war with the part that was helpless to the superhero’s pout. It had to be one of her superpowers because Lena would never admit she was actually soft.

She tore her gaze away, trying to seem casual. “I actually have some engineering textbooks at my apartment. I guess you could borrow them if you wanted.”

Lena squeaked as Supergirl crushed her in a bear hug, lifting her a few inches off the ground. “Thank you thank you thank you!”

Lena laughed, trying to turn it inconspicuously into a cough when a passerby gave a slightly shocked and confused look at the sight of a Luthor and a Super laughing on the library steps. Kara dropped her back to her feet, stepping back with a sheepish smile.

“Sorry, I got excited.”

Lena shook her head with a smile. She turned to go but as she went to gesture for Kara to follow, her hand caught against Kara’s. Her brain misfired and decided in the split second where her index finger hooked onto Kara’s pinkie that the best course of action was to commit to it and simply hold hands. In an attempt to make it seem less affectionate and more practical, she walked off quickly, dragging Kara along in the direction of her apartment.

She could feel Kara’s smile like rays of sun behind her. At least her hair was down to cover up the heat that was creeping up the back of her neck.

Her apartment was only a few minutes from the library. She had to slap Kara’s hand away from the elevator buttons before she pressed them all, marveling at how many floors there were.

“So this is where you live?” Kara looked around the hallway, panicking when she snapped a leaf off of a decorative plant, while Lena unlocked the penthouse door.

Lena pretended not to see her discreetly dropping the leaf into the plant pot but raised an eyebrow at her. “No, Supergirl. I just decided we should come and stare at this random person’s door.”

Kara ignored her, walking past into her apartment and looking down at the city below through the large floor to ceiling windows. “Nice view. I should take you flying sometime - it’s even better from up in the clouds, especially at night.”

Lena closed the front door, trying not to think about romantic flights and being cradled in strong arms. “I’ll go get the textbooks.”

She moved towards her home office, Kara trailing behind in interest. The engineering textbooks were over in the left corner and she scanned the alphabetised section for the ones she wanted.

Kara ran her fingers over the spines of books until Lena was done. She smirked at Lena, letting her hand trail teasingly down the bookshelf before she left. Lena blushed as she realised why. Kara had found her fiction section, over half the books in which were very clearly a certain genre.

Lena groaned and followed her out.

They spent the entire afternoon on the floor around Lena’s coffee table, going through the textbooks, laughing over Kara’s constant puns, and eating the seemingly endless supply of snacks Kara produced from her bag. It wasn’t until the sun had started to set that Lena realised how long they’d spent simply telling jokes and stories.

It was alarmingly easy to just be around Kara. Strangely, Lena didn’t think she minded.

———

Lena frowned as someone knocked on her door. It was a Saturday morning and she was just about to leave to meet Supergirl at the library.

She only grew more confused as she opened the door to see a fluffy white cloud panting happily at her and squirming in her direction. A head poked out from behind it, looking just as happy.

“Lena, hi! Sorry to just turn up but the mean librarian lady threw me out because apparently you aren’t allowed to play fetch in the library.”

Lena stared at the woman currently holding a large puppy in front of her, familiar blonde curls pinned back and glasses slipping down her nose. “…Kara?”

Kara blinked at her for a moment before she seemed to realise. “Oh! Right. Sorry - this is what I look like normally. When I’m not being Supergirl I mean. Alex said I wasn’t allowed to wear the suit all the time because it had to be washed.”

Lena nodded slowly, trying to reconcile the image of this Kara with Supergirl and to not think too hard about the implications of Kara being comfortable enough around her to show her her civilian identity. “Right. Why do you have a dog?”

Kara lit up. “I saved an animal shelter from a fire and they let me adopt this guy. Isn’t he adorable?”

Lena looked at the matching faces of excitement. “Very cute. But why is he here?”

Kara shrugged. “Well I couldn’t leave him after I’d just adopted him so I thought he could join us for our study session?”

Lena crossed her arms and Kara pouted. It was somewhat undermined by the puppy licking her face and making her giggle but Lena was still helpless to resist.

“Ok but he better not mess up any of my stuff.”

“Yes!” Kara grinned, wiggling the puppy excitedly, his ears flopping about.

Kara kissed her cheek on her way into the apartment and Lena’s heart skipped a beat. The puppy licked her in an attempt to join in but even that didn’t stop the way her heart raced.

They settled on the couch, facing each other as Lena quizzed Kara with flashcards. The puppy alternated between curling up in Kara’s lap and zooming around Lena’s living room, falling over his own paws.

“Ok, last one. How do you treat a sprain?”

“Ice it with my freezebreath, wrap it so it’s compressed but not cutting off circulation, keep it elevated.”

Lena grinned proudly. “That’s it! Done.”

Kara threw her hands in the air in delight, squealing as she propelled herself forwards to tackle Lena to the couch. She pulled back just as quickly, pushing up to brace herself over Lena.

“Sorry. I got excited.”

All the breath had deserted Lena’s lungs and she stared up at Kara. A light flush rose on Kara’s cheeks, pale pink against the deep blue of her eyes, bringing out the freckles that dusted her skin.

The flashcards slipped from Lena’s grasp as she surged up to meet Kara’s lips. Kara’s arms almost buckled but she caught herself. And then she was kissing back.

Lena’s hands slid up Kara’s back, practically pulling Kara down on top of her.

They were both breathing hard when they pulled apart, eyes closed and foreheads rested together.

Kara was smiling softly down at her when she finally opened her eyes. She had shifted to hold herself up on one hand and one elbow, her free hand gently stroking back Lena’s hair.

She looked like she was about to say something when she did a double take over the armrest of the couch behind Lena and her soft look turned into a wince. “What was it you said about the puppy not messing up any of your stuff?”

[mrs-bartowski]

You know what makes me angriest about all this? The fact that these writers and showrunners undermined and/or destroyed every single good, important thing about this show...all in the name of baiting supercorp.

Honestly, if they had just written Kara and Lena like actual best friends and ignored the tension/chemistry with Katie and Mel, I would have been bitter and grumpy, but I would have understood and respected that it was their story to tell as they wished.

Instead, they intentionally did everything in their power to write what arguably could have been (if handled properly) one of the most groundbreaking love stories in TV history, and they did so entirely in subtext so they could cover their asses every step of the way and never have to deliver.

And the more I think about it, the more I'd be genuinely and truly shocked if this wasn't their intention all along. I mean, think about it. They made the decision for Alex to be a lesbian and cast Katie - a woman mostly known and loyally followed for her queer and queer-coded characters - to play alongside Kara immediately off the tail end of the Clexa backlash.

They swore they didn't want the Luthors to be a major part of Kara's story because they're understandably heavily associated with Superman, and they wanted her to be her own hero, then immediately turned around and wrote/filmed Lena into the rest of 2a the moment the supercorp buzz started picking up.

They had constant parallels to canon romantic pairings literally from the very first scene, what with Kara reacting to Lena the exact same way she did with James at the beginning of s1, and the Clois parallels with the helicopter save and press conference. And it only got worse as it went until every significant aspect of their storylines revolved entirely around each other. Like, imagine if we'd had the 3 seasons after Lena first got there, prior to season 5 when everything completely fell apart, dedicated to their personal and collective growth and a clear, honest differentiation between Kara/Lena and (initially) Alex/Maggie and (eventually) Alex/Kelly (and maybe less differentiation between Kara/Alex and Kara/Lena).

Imagine 2a being Kara's journey through learning how to trust people to work with and know her as a Supergirl without risking them taking advantage of her by learning how to trust mon el to behave despite hating him and be careful of Lena's potential betrayal despite being drawn to and inclined to trust her. Imagine it being Lena's journey through her past trauma with Lex and Andrea, Kara and the rest of the superfriends helping her becoming sure of herself and her own goodness despite the pain and loss she's experienced. Imagine Lena helping Kara cope with the understanding that her parents weren't who she thought and, in some ways, might even be considered monsters. Imagine Kara actually getting to grapple with the fact that she holds even more power now than they did on Krypton and what that could mean if she ever abused her power the same way. Imagine everyone actively helping Lena open up and learn to trust again and, instead of clinging to Lena's "dark side," having her (as, ya know, the canonically smartest person in the universe) realize Kara's secret on her own and slowly come to understand through their continued friendship that, despite the secret between them, just because someone lies to or betrays you doesn't mean they were never genuine and if you really care about each other, you can find a way to be honest and work through it.

Imagine 2b being the first time Kara has to deal with a villain knowing her real identity and aiming to use it against her when Rhea threatens Lena, which could have been the perfect setup for a long game of having her reveal her identity on her own terms. Imagine Lena getting to talk about the fact that Rhea was the first time she'd been betrayed since opening herself back up because she was so desperate for that motherly connection after what happened with Lillian in 2x12. Imagine Kara helping her cope through Lillian and Rhea's betrayals and Jack's death all at once while the guilt over her secret eats her alive, but she's so afraid that Lena will get hurt worse if she tells her. Imagine Lena telling Kara after it's all over that she's known her identity for months and she doesn't have to worry because sheand their friends have shown Lena that true friendship can withstand any mistake when you're willing to make it work, and now she can better differentiate between a misguided mistake and true betrayal. Imagine Kara realizing for the first time that hiding her identity didn't necessarily keep Lena any safer because she never would have worked with Rhea without talking to Kara first if she'd known, and maybe this honesty could have helped them avoid that danger in the first place.

Imagine s3 being about their disagreement over using Kryptonite to save Sam instead of Lena doing it behind her back and how they could have resolved such a weighted difference of opinion as best friends without letting it come between them. Imagine Lena, still desperate for that motherly connection despite Lillian and Rhea, seeking out a connection with her birth mom at the same time Kara finds Argo and the magic storylines actually tying together comprehensibly. Imagine Lena actually having the time and space to develop real chemistry with James while Kara goes through her 'I don't wanna be alone anymore' phase after realizing she and Mon El will never be together again when he goes back to the future. Imagine if saving Lena in her civilian clothes and almost dropping the chemicals had made Kara realize that there are some things that might even be made easier if she revealed herself as Supergirl, because lesser threats like Edge would never dare to threaten the Girl of Steel's best friend, plus she wouldn't have to worry about not getting somewhere in time if she didn't have to change clothes.

Imagine s4 dealing with Lena's "dark side" by having her be forced to forget Kara's secret like Alex and then, after much longer of the 'secret' being 'kept' between them, finding out from Lex as he's still dying (just of self-inflicted cancer) and saving him at the last second because of it (since now she can't trust that her loyalties weren't wrong to begin with if Kara never trusted her with her secret while Lex trusts her to save him despite the fact that he hates her). Imagine having the 'I can't imagine what you must think of me, Kara, I don't blame you' 'no, no. you are not weak. you are a brilliant, kind-hearted, beautiful soul' scene be the only necessary resolution because there was never any doubt Lena is a good person, she just has some Luthor loyalty in her blood and needs to be more careful about letting her mother and Lex use that loyalty and goodness to manipulate her. Imagine Kara deciding at the end of that season to reveal her identity to the world because going after Lex as Kara and Supergirl separately was too hard and almost losing Lena to her secret was almost too close a call, so she outs herself in 5x01 at the Pulitzer party. Imagine never having to see Lex again because karma strikes and his cancer just comes back and kills him.

Then imagine s5 showing us Kara's journey of learning to trust herself and her decisions and forgive herself for her mistakes because something bad happens to the Superfam after her reveal and she has to figure out how to forgive herself in order to save them. Imagine them introducing a viable love interest that treats her the way she deserves and does all the same things Lena does for her and more (since Lena, in theory, wouldn't have been doing nearly as much of the leg work with keeping Kara from losing herself as a regular old best friend) and imagine if that person helped her save her family by reminding her that dwelling on the past isn't productive and it's just as important to enable people to save themselves as it is to do the saving for them. Imagine if Lena, stuck in captivity, took the time to harness her magic and discovered then how powerful she really is because deep down she's been holding back since she found out for fear of making a mistake like her mom's. Imagine if Lena had been allowed to become the Paragon of Humanity after saving the Superfam and her later becoming a bona-fide hero who represents the magic of humanity. Imagine Kelly and Alex getting married then so s6 could focus on Esme and the entire Dansen storyline didn't feel cramped and rushed.

Imagine if s6 had been...literally anything other than whatever the hell they did to this show. I mean, seriously, they turned their main characters into plot devices for an entire season because they spent so much time baiting they forgot to write an actual long-term character arc for their leads and apparently a whole season wasn't enough to fix that, so they just stuck to the baiting and scraped everything else together haphazardly. Imagine if s6 had just been Lena and Kara and the rest of the characters coming into themselves in all their various parts and learning how to best empower and, more importantly, mobilize people individually and societally as superheroes in a fast-changing political climate.

This is what I mean when I say they should've changed the name of this show to Wasted Potential. There are countless media portrayals of women's friendships that make it perfectly clear that it's actually fairly easy and simple to write non-romantically-coded relationships between two women who still have strong chemistry. And we've also seen from this fandom that it really isn't that hard to come up with interesting storylines for a superhero that don't revolve entirely around her lying to her best friend.

Am I pissed we didn't get endgame? Of course I am. But the more I think about it, the more I'm just pissed that they ruined the show in the name of not giving us endgame. They could have at least made their asinine writing make some semblance of sense if supercorp wer endgame, but without endgame, it's all just...hollow. They neglected every single character on the show, turned Kara into an ignorant, brainless pawn that suddenly panics in the face of the slightest pressure and obliterated the entire basis for her being a hero.

You know what could have made sense? Her being so paralyzed by her love for Lena and the knowledge that she would have been (if they'd even utilized their own feckin storytelling) the only one who could fight Nxly (on top of Lex coming back and what that means for both of them) that that's why she was so desperate to make sure she was powered up despite it making absolutely no sense, because she can't bare the thought of losing Lena to a fight she isn't strong enough for. But no.

Instead, turns out Kara was never the right kind of hero because she had a savior complex that she apparently never addressed. There are so many things they did wrong, but the complete and utter destruction of all of their main characters (I've got a whole other post drafted for Alex, and tbh I could probably do one for each and every series regular if I really wanted to) is beyond unforgivable.

These beautiful characters and the incredible people who brought them to life deserved so much better than what they got. Because what they got was entirely after thought. Everything was afterthought to them. Because the more you look at the story they created, the clearer it becomes that the only story they really cared about selling was "KARA AND LENA ARE JUST FRIENDS even though they definitely aren't...stay tuned 😜"

[motorcyclegirlfriends]

Kara's ending, in isolation, made sense as a narrative conclusion for the character and was nice to see.

But during the course of the season and rest of the finale, in service to a clunkily executed power theme and a plot that made little sense, they systematically undermined everything about Kara that made her a remarkable character.

She failed to live up to her motto of Hope, Help, and Compassion for All multiple times throughout the season in ways that were head-scratching. The loss of her father was undone and the ways her unfathomable loss shaped her were glossed over. Her experience as a part of a minority group that was just viciously targeted by a state-sanctioned hate group two seasons ago was invalidated. Her rich relationship and complicated history with her sister was abandoned.

And worst of all, for me, when push came to shove and it was important for Kara to take a moral stand against her sister in the way that Kara has never faltered before, in a way that has always been inspiring because it is difficult, she just... caved. She couldn't say no for apparently inexplicable reasons.

Kara took steps backward this season that we'd never seen before, they were not justified by the circumstances, and they certainly did not serve to celebrate the character in the final season of her show.

They wanted to tell a story about how we all can be heroes.

But instead of demonstrating the ways that everything Kara is inspires people to rise up, to become more, they made Kara less.

And not only does that make me doubt the belief they have in Supergirl as a character, as an icon, and in superheroes in general — it makes me doubt their hope in the very people they were trying to inspire.

[justagirlsearchingforamuse]

I wanted to talk about how often people in the Detroit Become Human fandom often look at human-android relationships and feel that they can bring a lot more meaning to the story and I can kind of agree with that but in my eyes it depends upon what the plotline or relationship is trying to show and tell. For example, the reason why Carl and Markus’s relationship works well is because you can see it in a positive light but you can also see how Carl in a way contributed to the slavery of androids. Their relationship in a way is very complex whilst also having this simplicity to it, but no matter it still doesn’t change the fact that Carl was his master and owner and that he contributed to the slavery of his people. Yeah he may not have beat him or berated him but he contributed to it regardless. But I hear a lot of people say that Alice should’ve been human and it could’ve added weight to their relationship if Alice for example needed food and shelter which she does need it, she needs shelter, she needs to be cared for, she in a way is like a real child. But in a way they are disappointed that Alice isn’t real, that she can’t actually eat, grow old, and that kind of thing and I understand where they are coming from but her entire plot and storyline was about the love they shared for each other. Yes, an android caring for a human child could’ve been an interesting idea and could’ve added weight but Kara still needs to make sure that Alice has shelter, that she doesn’t die, and the same things you would do to a regular child. I personally feel that fandom waters down the slavery and the pain, the humiliation the androids feel from humans and the way they treat them as simply machines and in a way they see Alice being a human as possibly being better simply because it would add weight to her actions. When what mattered was that Kara was protecting Alice, that Alice protected Kara, and that their relationship already had a lot of weight to it, that regardless of whether Alice was an android or not their relationship is strong. It’s important and shows a great mother-daughter relationship, in a way it tells me that they value humans more than they value the androids and instead of acknowledging Kara and Alice as having their own unique mother-daughter relationship where they aren’t like anyone else but themselves. The reason why Connor and Hank’s relationship works so well is because of the way it was set up, Hank’s already past relationships with androids, and how he already wants androids to change his opinion on them. Connor and Hank are shown to have a seemingly hostile relationship but they genuinely grow to care for one another and learn more about each other, everything is set up perfectly from them being partners to his son Cole. Everything was set up in a refreshing way and their relationship has weight whether their relationship is friendly or hostile throughout the entire game same with Kara and Alice. That their relationships have weight on each other no matter how the story is going and even if you abandon Alice and be rather cold towards her their relationship still has that weight to it, that they revolve around each other and that Kara couldn’t forget Alice even if she wanted to. We see them become better beings and people because of each other and most of the relationships are what keeps you interested and in a way I find that when people say so and so should’ve been human they undermine the relationship as it is. They undermine their relationship and the bond that Alice shares with Kara and in my opinion have the same mindset or a similar mindset as to people who value having children that come from their own bodies rather than a child who they can bond with even if they aren’t biologically theirs. But another relationship I want to also talk about is North and Markus’s which I love greatly and believe it’s highly underrated which I understand if it feels forced but the thing about their relationship is that they work pretty well for each other. I can’t ever see North dating a human because of the trauma she has for them and don’t come for me it’s similar if not the same as a poc not wanting to date a white person because of the fear or trauma they have they will deal with racially motivated problems. North is apart of Markus’s story and impacts the story in her own way though not major, if you took her out of the story it would be somewhat different and North’s trauma towards humans is watered down. She was a literal sex slave and I feel she could never be that interested in humans or would have a lot of trauma involving humans especially men, Markus is perfect for her. Not to mention, North is an amazing character who despite how much hatred she has for humans is loyal and respectful towards any choice that Markus goes with despite personally going for more violence she’s fine with peace. But they care for each other just as normal humans would, I feel her relationship would change greatly with Markus and Jericho if she was human and I feel the same could be said for any of these android-android relationships. Another reason why I feel a lot of people don’t like North is because she is biased against humans, because she has that hatred towards humans that they can’t do anything with such as ship her with a human character. That she speaks the truth about the relationships that humans have with androids. They see them as merchandise, as just another machine that should always obey them no matter how much trauma, pain, or suffering they cause them.  My problem with the fandom is how they seemingly water down the android slavery and the oppression that they receive and in a way will always favor the human characters much more than the androids. The humans are interesting and you can have your own interest in them but it’s the fact that people are way more interested in Hank, Gavin, Perkins, and the human characters who are side characters than the oppressed protagonists. My problem is also that you will seemingly romanticize these relationships, these interspecies relationships which are fine if you ship them but when you turn them into just tools for you to ship them with androids it becomes weird. Gavin for example despite being a huge asshole who goes out of his way to hurt the androids, he goes out of his way to humiliate Connor and has attempted to murder him multiple times but this man has more work than Markus, Kara, and the main protags. The fact the fandom focuses and praises the humans who have been oppressing or have been apart of enslaving androids and rarely ever give attention to the androids except when they fetishize them. Not to mention, I hate when people say that the androids aren’t as interesting as the humans or that the humans should’ve played a bigger part when the whole game is about equality and rather oppression and the racism that we experience for those who are simply different than us. The humans play a part in it and yes there should’ve been more sympathetic humans but it’s the fact that these humans are literally the reason for the androids becoming deviant and literally not being their slaves anymore. Kara would’ve never became deviant if Todd was a decent dad and wasn’t addicted to drugs, Markus would’ve never opened the human’s eyes to the oppression they do to androids if Leo hadn’t been beating on him and Carl tells him not to defend himself. You can like the human characters I can’t stop you but stop watering down the androids oppression in favor of your human characters who won’t get beat for supposedly being just made of metal.

[coldflashwave-baby]

Karadox Frustration breakdown:

The idea of Kara and Brainy as a potential relationship was brought up in the press release when Jesse was cast as Brainy, and people talked about it in that lead-up to his debut like it was an obvious thing that would happen (and talked about it again when he was made a series regular before the season 3 finale)

There seems to be the idea that the ship couldn’t be done because it was part of Andrew Kreisberg’s plan, and they had to throw that out when he was fired. And of course nobody wants Kreisberg back, but it still hurts that they seemingly couldn’t even consider doing such an established ship because of the actions of one person.

There was also a statement made in an interview around the end of season 3 from one of the showrunners, saying something about how they made an homage to Kara and Brainy being together/working together in Brainy’s first episode, and the tone of that part of the article made it feel to some like their work was done and they didn’t need to do anything else/portray them in an actual relationship, when of course that was something people did still want.

Bringing in Nia, an original character, to be Brainy’s love interest instead of Kara- which made it seem, again to some people, as though she were only there to keep Kara and Brainy apart. Combined with the lack of one-on-one scenes between Kara and Brainy, and the lack of a real character arc for him in season 4 (at least one that felt separate from his and Nia’s story) as well as the idea that Kara didn’t need a love interest in season 4 and thus her and Brainy’s comic canon relationship wasn’t important enough to even be set up and done as a slow-burn, which probably would have been more impactful.

Having Nia’s character arc, especially in season 5, revolve around Brainy, and not having much of a storyline besides her being Brainy’s love interest (especially since her conflict with her sister has not been dealt with since the episode she was in, and the story with her mastering her powers could have been more drawn-out and emphasizing using her dream powers in more creative ways instead of relying on the dream energy blasts. She could also have more of a storyline as a reporter) and as well in season 4, while she did have more of a story by herself, it would have worked out better if she was more established as a character along with Brainy before either of them entered any kind of relationship.

Having Nia and Brainy’s relationship not be well-written/well-handled in season 4B and 5A- specifically having her kiss him without his consent, undermine his intelligence (calling him dumb to his face, which hurts even more since Brainy is autistic coded), imply that he needs to change himself so she can like him more, and him outright saying “causality be damned”, basically “fuck the timeline”, before telling her he loves her (in contrast to how he was portrayed in season 3 being careful to only change the timeline in specific ways and not potentially erasing/significantly altering the life of one of his best friends in the Legion) in addition to him being written as a less serious character who doesn’t show how intelligent he is very often and acting like he never showed emotions before he fell in love with her even though he clearly was emotional in season 3 and spoke about having other relationships.

Having the actors acknowledge the problems with the relationship, but either trying to fix them in a way that feels disingenuous in the show (see: Nia and Brainy’s last conversation in the season 5 premiere, followed by her not setting clear boundaries or them communicating together in the first few episodes of that season) or not acknowledging them (like Nia talking with M’gann in 5x19, telling her that she and Brainy were partners, and it was more than just a relationship, even though we didn’t see that much of them in a relationship and we didn’t see them often acting like partners)

Bringing in another original character, William Dey (setting aside headcanons about who his character might secretly be) to be Kara’s love interest in season 5, and having him described early on as “a mathematician when it comes to his work as a journalist, where Kara puts her heart and soul into it” and as a foil for Kara, when Brainy could have easily been her foil and of course was presented as a logical mathematician kind of character, making William redundant and unnecessary.

Having Staz Nair cast as William, who (while half-Indian like Jesse Rath) is taller and looks more traditionally masculine, falling in line with the CW’s standards for a romantic lead, and while Brainy does have a romantic interest in the show, she’s not the lead character, and Jesse in this role isn’t dressed properly sometimes (see: the unflattering DEO sweatpants, the yellow jacket Brainy’s worn multiple times, that bright green dress shirt, in addition to his bad makeup and wig until 5x10) as well as the fact that Brainy’s own attractiveness isn’t acknowledged by his love interest.

Some parts of the fandom repeatedly ignoring the possibility that Kara and Brainy could get together, because Brainy was with Nia, even though Brainy and Kara do have significant scenes in the show that could foreshadow/lead up to a good relationship, and to an extent ignoring the issues that Brainy and Nia’s relationship does have and the possibility that they could break up/not stay together long-term, because they want Kara to be with someone else, or think any pairing involving Brainy (especially Karadox) that doesn’t involve Nia is transphobic. (as well as dismissing Kara and Brainy’s relationship because it’s straight and/or old/from the comics, characterizing Brainy as less intelligent because of how he’s portrayed in his relationship with Nia especially in 4B and 5A, calling him Kara and/or Lena’s child/Kara and Alex’s little brother, generally treating him as more childlike than he is, etc.)

ALL OF THIS (THANK YOU @cyclone-rachel). KARA, NIA, AND BRAINY ALL DESERVE BETTER 

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

ACTION COMICS ANNUAL (2021) fixed the trash fire that was Future State: Superwoman so lemme just RAMBLE about how much I loved it.

Spoilers, obvs.

Folks who read this blog (thank you, but also, my sincere apologies XD) will perhaps recall that I...did not particularly care for the Superwoman book, that came out of Future State.

(Of course, various individuals on twitter have since pointed out that Future State was deliberately set up to be a bad timeline; a future that the current DC books are actively fighting against. So I guess, technically, you could argue that the book was awful on purpose.

Except that, you know, some of the awful stuff was still framed good and inspiring. 

So, okay, but also, no.)

BUT THIS ANNUAL? FIXES EVERY GRIEVANCE I HAVE WITH FUTURE STATE: SUPERWOMAN.

I wasn’t even going into this book with huge expectations for Kara because of Superwoman, but! She’s here! As like, a key component of the House of El!

SHE IS THE LEADER. FOR MANY YEARS, APPARENTLY, WHILE CLARK IS AWAY.

I’m getting ahead of myself.

Backtracking a bit: this book begins with a framing device, featuring a group of Kryptonian refugees that have been introduced recently in Action Comics. 

We’ve got an older guy, Byla, telling a bunch of kids stories about The House of El.

Which is how we get back to the characters introduced in the initial House of El oneshot: Brandon, Theand’r, Ronan, Rowan, etc.

And, to be clear! I was excited for this book, knowing it would be about these guys! And these guys alone! Because they’re very cool! And there’s clearly like, a whole history and mythology just simmering below the surface and MAN. I wish we had a House of El ongoing. XD

They’re all gathered on Sanctuary to attend the wedding of Alura Van-El and Khan.

So FIX NUMBER ONE: The moon sanctuary introduced in Superwoman is no longer home to a bunch of rando jerks; rather, it’s an ACTUAL sanctuary for aliens/folks who need it, AND there are a BUNCH of House of El family members!

PKJ clarified on twitter that the ‘Sanctuary’ is built from Kara’s Fortress of Sanctuary, and that it’s a city that functions a little like Camelot. They grant refuge to all, and the members of the House of El act as a kind of Knights of the Round Table, protecting anyone who needs their help.)

THUS!! The actual dream of Kara’s Fortress is realized, AND she is SURROUNDED by friends, family, and loved ones, as opposed to dying alone. On the moon. With just her dog to keep her company.

Anyways it’s great. We love to see it.

FIX NUMBER TWO: Kara displays an emotion OTHER than barely-suppressed rage, and is genuinely happy to be overseeing this wedding!

Like, there’s no background, simmering animosity towards her cousins. 

Byla even hints at another ‘tale of the House of El’ where Kara and Clark meet again! And presumably get along okay!

FIX NUMBER THREE: The Superwoman mantle is passed down to Theand’r! 

Future State: Superwoman made a big to-do about how the Supergirl name was so singular that Kara never gave it to anyone (which is so STUPID because if your big thesis is how inspiring Kara is as an individual but you say, ‘no one else gets to be Supergirl’ you kinda undermine your own point.)

(Imagine if Into the Spider-Verse spent all that time building up how inspiring Spider-Man is as a hero, and then in an epilogue narrated by Miles, he revealed that no one else ever became ‘Spider-Man’, and that the name died with Peter.)

(That would be DUMB, right?????)

This isn’t passing the Supergirl mantle, but it’s passing the Superwoman mantle, so it’s close! Which, hey. I’ll take it. XD

FIX NUMBER FOUR: Kara actually comes across as the mature, adult leader of the House of El. This ties into the whole ‘she’s not a walking bundle of barely-contained rage’ bit; she’s, like. Graceful and dignified and very clearly no longer a kid/teenager. 

Literal and figurative character growth! WOOOOOOO. 

FIX NUMBER FIVE: There isn’t the gross ‘birthright’/’pure-blooded Kryptonians are stronger/better’ element in play. In fact! Pyrrhos, the bad guy, calls Kara a traitor for allowing the ‘diluting of Clark’s bloodline’ e.g. letting folks who AREN’T Els by blood become part of the fam.  

FIX NUMBER SIX: Kara gets angry at Cyborg Superman (the original one, not her dad) but it never devolves into murderous rage, as it does in Superwoman. She PARDONS him!

Mercy! Sympathy!

AaaaaAAAAhhhhhh love it. LOVE IT.

And so! Nearly every. Major. Complaint I had regarding Superwoman is fixed in this Annual.

*happy sigh*

Some final thoughts on the Annual overall, so as not to make this COMPLETELY about Kara. ...Well. Moreso than I already have, anyway.

The art is solid, though I feel for the artist who had to share the book with Godlewski; it’s not that their art is bad, it’s just that Godlewski is very, VERY good, so his pages look a touch more polished and confident.

That said, the character art throughout? Excellent. This is a cool, varied cast and both artists do a great job with all the designs/costumes etc.

(Well, okay, Kara’s costume looks a little weird at times; I like the costume but I honestly think they should’ve stuck with the costume introduced in Superman of Metropolis, it’s much easier for artists to replicate.)

(But also like. The Superwoman costume looks more stately/’grown-up’ so I get it.) 

I WANT TO SEE MORE OF BRANDON AND HIS KID.

I want to see more of ALL of these characters but you KNOW I found the two of them particularly endearing.

I love that the House of El has a Brainiac!

As is right and good, and should always be!

Overall, SO GLAD the annual allowed us to go on another adventure with these guys, and hope that PKJ has opportunities in the future to weave them in a bit more.

There’s already a cool connection brewing with the new character introduced in Action Comics proper. Thao-La, I think her name is? Can’t wait to see where that goes!

[secondshark]

Ooh this is a good one! I’ll talk about this idea I’ve been having for a hot minute for this :3

I’d love to see supergirl in a situation where she acts as a detective, she’s like a super-powered Nancy Drew, basically. She’d be a teenaged version, too so not many people take her seriously and undermine her and that’s also what gets her to solve cases as well since people just let their guards down with her. It could also take place in the 1950s, because I like the way things look in my head for that time period.

I also think her “agency” should be located in a shoddy room at the Daily Planet, so she’s also close to the newspaper and is knowledgeable on current events. It would also be pretty cool if Jimmy Olsen was her sidekick, who’s amateur photography skills would get them evidence, clues, etc. He could totes be a love interest during a certain point in the story as well, maybe he has an admiration for Kara’s genius and crime solving skills!

Since it’s a Metropolis story, I’d imagine Lex would be the villain, but not the sort where he’s a big, bad unreachable force— no, he’d be there at the scene of a crime, or at the site where Kara is out looking for clues and he’d tell her, “you’re wasting your time, kid. Why don’t you keep your nose out of other people’s business?” With a knowing sneer.

So, yeah! Thanks for asking and I hope my idea made sense ^^ @paragonofhope0927

[therosegoldwriter]

Why Supergirl Isn’t Super

Editor assistants on average receive roughly $38,000/yr (glassdoor.com). While it is a show about the superhero ‘Supergirl’, our daytime hero Kara Danvers is an uninspired assistant to Cat Grant. She lives in an extremely expensive studio apartment in a massive city with an impressive skyline and she’s not working on any sort of sustainable career?

The mission objective of Alex Danvers’ agency is laughable. They hunt down aliens, sure. But they handle their job like they don’t know what they’re doing. In episode 2 of the first season, Alex muted Kara’s abilities in order to push her into some fight training to show her that she might not be ready to act as a field operator. This was the only scene in the show that made perfect sense to me. And then Kara walks off in a huff because she loses, and Hank, Alex’s boss enters. It is then revealed in a cheesy line that Hank made Alex spar with Kara, and Alex ‘hated that he made her do it’. Why? Forcing some perspective with combat training was the only thing that Kara needs.

She literally always appears in costume? Every time she goes from normal human stuff to using her powers, she is somehow in costume all of a sudden. In season 1, episode 7, she literally jumps down an elevator shaft wearing a cardigan and slacks and then she’s wearing the costume. I understand in The Flash, because he always speeds away and puts the suit on, but she just like morphs into it or something.

Kara has been on Earth for her entire adulthood and yet takes to the streets like she’s never been so much as insulted. I don’t buy that a creature who knows exactly what she is capable of, has ‘always wanted to help people’, and knows that she is the cousin of Superman has never prepared herself in the slightest for actually being a Superman. So she decided when she was a kid that she wasn’t going to use her powers, right? (According to Alex in episode 1, I think). Okay, sure. Doesn’t that mean the only other thing she had to have been doing with her time was building a civilian life? And yet we see this adult woman running coffees for a news editor. This would be easily overlooked if she expressed interest or passion of any kind for developing a civilian career. For all the audience knows, Kara Danvers had no problem being the assistant for the rest of her life.

Kara saved her sister from a crashing commercial airplane and from that point decided to continue using her powers to save people. She immediately puts on the flashy Superman colors and starts chasing problems like a fool with naive optimism that no one ever really sees as a problem. Maybe slow down, Kara. Maybe law low and investigate a little. Maybe strategize some.

The show’s dialogue is cheap and uninspired, particularly among figures of authority. The bravado is laughable, the rank-pulling comes off as impudent, and the accusations or claims made between characters are not compelling.

Hank’s operation is a shambles. The agency is chaotic and there’s no identifiable chain of command. Alex undermines his orders at every other word and he just lets it slide like he thinks it’s cute. And he buys into Kara’s naive bravado like he’s not supposed to be an experienced CO who knows better than to give into the pleas of a rookie.

Watching Supergirl is like watching a high school stage drama and is equally as compelling.

She gets stuck in quicksand? What is this, Bugs Bunny?

All in all the show has all the ingredients for success but the poor writing holds it back. It feels like quality writing was sacrificed for the sake of getting the story out there, and I find it to be a poorly planned compromise.

[crossdressingdeath]

I never thought much about it tbh, but now that you mentioned how little time passes between Markus deviation and him leading a revolution is really baffling. I think my mind refused to process how little time passed until I read you say it, and I totally agree with you that timeline is insane. I don't think fixing that problem would have been very difficult.(1/3)

Of course the ideal thing would be more game runtime but even without that they could just start the game with Markus and then give a time jump after he meet Jerico, let him be there some months or something like that before introducing Kara and Connor, it would have made him becoming the leader of Jerico more realistic and less rushed. Just that would be fine and if then they streched a little the rest of the timeline even better. (2/3)

Markus story would benefit so much of that streched timeline. Connor and Hank story wouldn't be badly affected by it, they can be there resolving cases for months of needed, that's fine be me (if they could add more runtime giving us some more cases to fill that time would have been great because I'm always ready for more of Connor and Hank). Kara story is the only problem because there is not that much, it fits fine in a week so I really don't know how to strech that one. (3/3)

Yes. I’d prefer... y’know, More Game (DBH isn’t actually all that long in its current form, according to the internet it’s only about ten hours; I can’t remember the last story-based game I played that was less than twice that), but a time skip would be something. And yes to Markus becoming Jericho leader before Kara and Connor’s stories get started, that would just work better. I can’t quite articulate why it would work better, but it would be better. Maybe have his first couple of missions spread out through the time skip, showing him being a major asset within Jericho and taking on a leadership position without us having to not question them deciding this guy they’ve known for like two days is the best choice to lead them. The main benefit for Hank and Connor would be More Hank And Connor honestly, but personally if I was making the game and could give them more time I might actually add some things, for example the option to have Connor trust Hank enough to tell him about Markus being an RK model and investigating that with him (or alone, if Connor doesn’t trust Hank) and as I mentioned earlier maybe showing Connor actually succeeding in some cases without the option of letting the deviant go to make his title of deviant hunter a bit less ironic. Maybe have Connor solving cases during the same period that Markus is slowly becoming Jericho’s leader; it honestly makes more sense for CyberLife to send such a highly advanced model to work with the police if they already have reason to believe that the androids are organizing some sort of resistance, at least to me. (Actually, while we’re talking about Connor, if I was rewriting the story and could make it as long as I deemed necessary I’d show him starting to hesitate and go easier on the deviants in increasing amounts throughout that period if the player chooses, with Ortiz’s android being the last one he has to turn in, maybe even including the option for him to genuinely consider letting him go before Hank or another officer starts coming up to the attic and leaving it unclear whether Connor turns him in at that point due to his programming kicking in or a fear of being found deviant himself, as he does give the impression that that is something he genuinely fears as the story progresses if you consistently choose options pushing towards deviancy; honestly just a bit more focus on Connor slowly going from completing his mission due to his programming to completing his mission due to fear of what will happen to him if he doesn’t to not completing his mission due to growing feelings of empathy towards the deviants he’s supposed to be hunting if you’re going down the deviant route would be nice.)

The trouble with Kara’s route is that the stakes are so much lower. It’s kind of nice to have lower stakes for a bit, but it also feels like she got the short end of the stick; Markus has the revolution, Connor has the conflict between his programming and his growing humanity, Kara has... a motherhood story. It’s an effective motherhood story, and having one part have lower stakes is good in the sense that it gives the player some time to breathe, but it still doesn’t seem fair to her. If I was rewriting the game I might make her story involve... learning about androids and deviancy and rA9. Like, everything we know about how deviancy works is kind of dumped on us; it’s a glitch that causes androids to simulate human emotions and can spread between androids like a virus. That’s it. Similarly rA9 is just believed to be the first deviant. Kara isn’t actually doing anything in terms of the larger story; why not have her uncovering some of those mysteries instead of just shepherding Alice towards Canada? Close up some plot holes and give your female lead something to do in relation to the larger story (beyond meeting Connor and Markus once each) in one move! Seems pretty win-win to me. And that would also extend her part of the story; probably she’d start her story later than Markus and Connor due to things only getting started for her after getting picked up from getting repaired (although they could add in a section that actually shows the incident that gets her sent in for repairs so we can actually see it instead of learning about it from a bunch of crayon drawings), but the lack of her in the early game would be matched by her having more to do in the later parts. Keep the parts she’s already got, maybe add another way or two for players to keep her group safe using the knowledge she gains from her expanded role, and make her story about discovering where they came from instead of just protecting a little girl who she’s convinced herself is Totally Human And Not An Android. Also I feel like the story might be stronger if Alice really is human, just because that gives all three leads a strong tie to humanity? Which feels important in a game about becoming human. I mean, Rose exists, but Markus has Carl and Connor has Hank and both those characters play a huge role in our leads becoming who they are at the end of the game; giving Kara this little human girl to look after but psych actually she’s an android and Kara was just deluding herself the whole time... feels like it’s undermining an emerging theme, and Rose doesn’t really make up for that (given while she helps Kara she doesn’t have the same impact on her as a person as Carl does Markus and Hank does Connor). Also it’s a stupid twist that adds nothing to the story. Get rid of it.

...I’m getting sidetracked. If anyone wants to remind me later maybe I can put together a coherent post about how I’d rewrite each character’s story given unlimited runtime (or possibly three posts, one for each story, given those are... likely to get long and splitting them up might work better), but for now I uh. do actually have homework (ah, uni), so I’m gonna wrap this up. Basically yeah, it would’ve been good if David Cage remembered that time skips exist and using them is allowed outside of the prologue or alternately that it is actually possible to make a game longer than ten hours, or even just not mentioned the date and left it up in the air as to how long things took; having so much happen in under a week just feels silly.

[yurireview]

The difficulties that the Supercorp went through

I always found it funny that even when many love this couple … they don’t know everything that happened to get us here and I think a good summary of this always helps

Season 2

Karamel:

As you know when they switched to the CW, the first thing they did was to separate James and Kara because they already had a plan:

“Chris and Melissa” the “perfect couple” on the screen, that was the plan and if they were Supergirl fans in 2016-2017  you would know how the CW and the producers wanted to sell that couple to the public. But what happened?

The first thing was the bad writing and the change of Supergirl narrative … a lot of affection to the show especially the couple who wanted to sell

Katie Mcgrath

What do I mean? well unlike Chris who was already hired to be the co-star … our dear Katie was only hired for 3 chapters

3 CHAPTERS What change?

That against all predictions Katie and Melissa had a real chemistry, for some reason Melissa acted with her in a way that not only fascinated the audience … but the production.

They hired Katie for the entire Season … The Supercorp was born strongly compared to the character of Chris Wood … the character of Katie 

Lena, was charismatic and with a good narrative which helped a lot to the development of the ship

Supercorp became the favorite ship … but it eclipsed the Karamel which the Production did not expect and tried to do everything possible to undermine it.

The SDCC2017 was a failure due to the idiocy of STAff that cost them a lot of audience and was a dark chapter for the Supergirl fandom

Katie expressions say a lot about what happened that day

It was a total disaster

There were many YouTube videos claiming the idiocy they made in the SDCC2017 … not to mention how on Tumblr and Twitter they crucified the series and most of the Staff 

but as I mentioned (they really tried in Season 3 to put an end to the Supercorp) but at the same time they knew that KARAMEL was no longer enough but they tested the waters to see how the audience reacted

Season 3 brought Lena and James together but at the same time they showed the public how bad KARAMEL was, that they still wanted to rescue him and “redeem him” … at this point the Producers saw something:

EVERYONE HATED THE LAMES INSTEAD OF DOING THE SUPERCORP DISAPPEARED, MADE PEOPLE MORE TO LIKED.

Chris Wood character no longer attracted the audience … it was a failure

We had the SDCC2018 where again one of the topics most asked was the dynamics of Lena and Kara … here I really believe that the Supergirl Staff changed their focus.

Fourth Season where everything changed

Very few realized that it was in this season that the producers made several positive changes in the character of Kara (the way to carry his narrative) and of course … the element of the Luthor (including the Supercorp)

The Fourth Season  only dedicate 17 minutes to Lames and I fill it with problems… basically is over

I’m still laughing at how Katie acted almost as if James was her “beard” because she was so gay … she looked like one of those lesbians who have fake boyfriends and their scene where they end up was hilarious.

Instead they made both Lena and Kara become the most important people towards each other and began to make romantic parallels with other couples, not to mention tributes to Clois

Not to mention the Drama and how friendship-connection in the Third-Second season was so good (a full narrative was created even though that was not his intention)

The SUPERCORP was a success in 2019 was the most successful year for the Supercorp even without the 5 season.

We closed the cycle with the 5 Season where the SDCC2019 was a success and many of the conversations were about Supergirl and Lena as well:

-We win all ship contests

-The plot now revolves around Lena-Kara drama

-The romantic parallels are more shameless than before

-They dedicated 2 romantic soundracks

-More parallel with Clois.

-Supercorp brought attention from people outside the fandom

-Supercorp drew attention from directors and writers

If they couldn't make the Karamel successful when they prepared it for that, is there really Negativecorp that they think they will be able to do with William? At this stage of the story? without offending the actor, he is a nobody and that his character has not won the sympathy of the fandom already says a lot about his supposed "stay" in the following season

I mean imagine a ship that literally was not going to exist ... we came to this where it literally became the reasonable option - better written and more accepted by the Public .

Conclusion

The Supercorp has come a long way and its progress is comparable to the Harlivy of being just a fan idea for an official and well-developed couple ... but that's the way we go.

So relax and wait for the inevitable (it only remains to say Supercorp End Game)

[cyclone-rachel]

@svpervalors

Karadox Frustration breakdown:

The idea of Kara and Brainy as a potential relationship was brought up in the press release when Jesse was cast as Brainy, and people talked about it in that lead-up to his debut like it was an obvious thing that would happen (and talked about it again when he was made a series regular before the season 3 finale)

There seems to be the idea that the ship couldn’t be done because it was part of Andrew Kreisberg’s plan, and they had to throw that out when he was fired. And of course nobody wants Kreisberg back, but it still hurts that they seemingly couldn’t even consider doing such an established ship because of the actions of one person.

There was also a statement made in an interview around the end of season 3 from one of the showrunners, saying something about how they made an homage to Kara and Brainy being together/working together in Brainy’s first episode, and the tone of that article made it feel to some like their work was done and they didn’t need to do anything else/portray them in an actual relationship, when of course that was something people did still want.

Bringing in Nia, an original character, to be Brainy’s love interest instead of Kara- which made it seem, again to some people, as though she were only there to keep Kara and Brainy apart. Combined with the lack of one-on-one scenes between Kara and Brainy, and the lack of a real character arc for him in season 4 (at least one that felt separate from his and Nia’s story) as well as the idea that Kara didn’t need a love interest in season 4 and thus her and Brainy’s comic canon relationship wasn’t important enough to even be set up and done as a slow-burn, which probably would have been more impactful.

Having Nia’s character arc, especially in season 5, revolve around Brainy, and not having much of a storyline besides her being Brainy’s love interest (especially since her conflict with her sister has not been dealt with since the episode she was in, and the story with her mastering her powers could have been more drawn-out and emphasizing using her dream powers in more creative ways instead of relying on the dream energy blasts. She could also have more of a storyline as a reporter) and as well in season 4, while she did have more of a story by herself, it would have worked out better if she was more established as a character along with Brainy before either of them entered any kind of relationship.

Having Nia and Brainy’s relationship not be well-written/well-handled in season 4B and 5A- specifically having her kiss him without his consent, undermine his intelligence (calling him dumb to his face, which hurts even more since Brainy is autistic coded), imply that he needs to change himself so she can like him more, and him outright saying “causality be damned”, basically “fuck the timeline”, before telling her he loves her (in contrast to how he was portrayed in season 3 being careful to only change the timeline in specific ways and not potentially erasing/significantly altering the life of one of his best friends in the Legion) in addition to him being written as a less serious character who doesn’t show how intelligent he is very often and acting like he never showed emotions before he fell in love with her even though he clearly was emotional in season 3 and spoke about having other relationships.

Having the actors acknowledge the problems with the relationship, but either trying to fix them in a way that feels disingenuous in the show (see: Nia and Brainy’s last conversation in the season 5 premiere, followed by her not setting clear boundaries or them communicating together in the first few episodes of that season) or not acknowledging them (like Nia talking with M’gann in 5x19, telling her that she and Brainy were partners, and it was more than just a relationship, even though we didn’t see that much of them in a relationship and we didn’t see them often acting like partners)

Bringing in another original character, William Dey (setting aside headcanons about who his character might secretly be) to be Kara’s love interest in season 5, and having him described early on as “a mathematician when it comes to his work as a journalist, where Kara puts her heart and soul into it” and as a foil for Kara, when Brainy could have easily been her foil and of course was presented as a logical mathematician kind of character, making William redundant and unnecessary.

Having Staz Nair cast as William, who (while half-Indian like Jesse Rath) is taller and looks more traditionally masculine, falling in line with the CW’s standards for a romantic lead, and while Brainy does have a romantic interest in the show, she’s not the lead character, and Jesse in this role isn’t dressed properly sometimes (see: the unflattering DEO sweatpants, the yellow jacket Brainy’s worn multiple times, that bright green dress shirt, in addition to his bad makeup and wig until 5x10) as well as the fact that Brainy’s own attractiveness isn’t acknowledged by his love interest.

Some parts of the fandom repeatedly ignoring the possibility that Kara and Brainy could get together, because Brainy was with Nia, even though Brainy and Kara do have significant scenes in the show that could foreshadow/lead up to a good relationship, and to an extent ignoring the issues that Brainy and Nia’s relationship does have and the possibility that they could break up/not stay together long-term, because they want Kara to be with someone else, or think any pairing involving Brainy (especially Karadox) that doesn’t involve Nia is transphobic. (as well as dismissing Kara and Brainy’s relationship because it’s straight and/or old/from the comics, characterizing Brainy as less intelligent because of how he’s portrayed in his relationship with Nia especially in 4B and 5A, calling him Kara and/or Lena’s child/Kara and Alex’s little brother, generally treating him as more childlike than he is, etc.)

[hobbitkiller]

She-Ra, Supergirl, and Tangled: A Tale of Three Female Relationships: Part 3

*SPOILER WARNING FOR SHE-RA, SUPERGIRL, AND TANGLED: THE SERIES*

Previously on “A Tale of Three Female Relationships” AKA HobbitKiller clearly misses grad school but not enough to find secondary sources for a multi-part tublr. post (or thoroughly proofread):

In Part 2, I discussed the impact narcissistic mother figures, resentment for chosen ones, and repressing emotions has had on three female relationships in three different series: Adora and Catra from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Lena and Kara from Supergirl, and Rapunzel and Cassandra from Tangled: The Series/Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure.

These posts are a deep dive into where these relationships went wrong and will eventually culminate in a discussion of what these relationships say about the portrayal of female characters and female relationships in media.

For today’s installment, I will be covering two subjects: Blond Bulldozers and I Don’t Care (I Ship It). WARNING: This one gets reallllllly long. Like, possibly multiple sittings.

PART VI: BLOND BULLDOZERS

In my first post in this series, I jokingly mentioned that one half in all three of these relationships is a superpowered blonde who saves the world.

There are of course many implications in the fact that, though all three of these shows strive for increased diversity compared to their source material (It is also interesting that these are all shows based on pre-existing franchises), the main character continues to be a fair-skinned blond woman. 

That’s mostly a matter to be discussed another day, but I do find it interesting that all of these relationships feature one blond and one not-blond. Lena and Cassandra have black hair, and Catra is...well...a cat-person. Beyond that, the blond is not only the hero, but is typically depicted as morally superior and more righteous. Kara, AKA Supergirl, was literally declared the “Paragon of Hope” in the latest CW crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths. That title could just as easily have gone to Rapunzel whose chief characteristics are her optimism, desire to see others achieve their dreams, and belief that everyone gets a second chance no matter their criminal past and exploits (seriously, everyone in Corona--the name of the kingdom unfortunately for right now--gets one total pardon as long as they’re sorry even if the tried to kill multiple people). Adora is a little less cotton-candy that Kara or Rapunzel. She has the same moral righteousness, but actually has more of an edge to her than many of her friends due to her upbringing as a child soldier. Still, all three blondes are meant, for the most part, to be the moral center of their shows.

But, the thing is, when I look at these relationships, I can’t help but think of another popular blonde/not blonde friendship that went wrong:

Ahhh, Wicked, the prototypical female friendship story for so many of us. Wicked aims to take this classic dynamic of the morally pure blond protagonist and their dark-haired frienemy and turn it a bit on its head. Throughout the musical, Glinda is treated as pure, superior, and good because she is flattering and pretty. In reality, Glinda is often selfish and lacks the courage to stand up to people and systems she believes are wrong. Elphaba, on the other hand, is treated like an outcast because of her green skin and social awkwardness. Yet, for most of the musical, she is the one with the moral righteousness. She is labeled “wicked” by those in power for challenging them and standing up to them.

We’ll discuss Wicked more in the finale of this multi-part post.

For now, I’d like to contrast that relationship to the three being analyzed right now. None of these three shows goes as far as Wicked did to undermine this trope of the perfect blond versus the darker brunette. This makes sense as none of the three properties is seeking to deconstruct their source material or turn it on its head in the way Wicked aims to do so for the Wizard of Oz (the movie more than anything else). They seek to update and diversify certain aspects to be sure (someone heard loud and clear the criticism that there are no people of color in Tangled), but not to challenge them.

That being said, each show does try to layer in flaws in their blond protagonists approach to relationships. These flaws tend to be more subtle than those of the people around them, perhaps to protect said blondes from becoming too unlikeable, but they are clearly there.

In the last post, I talked a lot about the resentment of the non-blondes in these relationships and how that helped lead to the relationships falling apart. Those characters are also much more the aggressors in said relationships and are much more set on taking down the other party.

However, the blondes in each relationship are not without blame for it falling apart.

In the previous post, I discussed how being friends of a so-called “chosen one” or “golden child” can breed resentment. I also mentioned that raising someone as a “golden child” is its own form of abuse. It creates a level of unrealistic expectations to always be perfect and responsible. It can be the same for a “chosen one.”

Adora, Kara, and Rapunzel all feel a tremendous amount of responsibility as the “saviors” of their respective worlds. This manifests itself in a need to constantly “fix” everyone else’s problems. Adora frequently describes her need to fix whatever goes wrong in the Rebellion. Kara feels it’s her job to fix things so much that she contacted her former boss’s estranged son behind her back to try to reconnect them. Rapunzel frequently becomes involved in the personal lives of her friends for the sake of fixing their problems.

To an extent, this is a good quality. All three of our blond saviors have good hearts and don’t want to see anyone else suffer, partially because all of them have suffered their own childhood traumas from being raised as a child soldier to witnessing one’s entire planet and species destroyed to being held prisoner for 18 years.

However, as the title of this section suggests, all three of these characters tend to take a bulldozer approach to their involvement with their loved ones’ lives. This creates tension in many of their relationships, not just those discussed in these posts. Adora’s attempts to help her friend Glimmer after Glimmer becomes queen come off as controlling and as though Adora doesn’t respect Glimmer’s position of authority. Kara, in addition to the incident with her boss’s son, had also tried to control the life of another alien (and eventual boyfriend), Mon El as well as did things like break into her sister’s apartment when she was sad. Rapunzel promises to fix everyone’s problems, which leads to friends feeling betrayed when she can’t follow through. She also frequently intrudes in Cassandra’s life and plans.

One of the most threatening things for people like Catra, Lena, or Cassandra is to feel as though they do not have control over their lives. When you already have trust issues, feeling like someone else is trying to control you can feel like you’re being trapped. Control is particularly important to Lena. In many ways, she has the same feelings of responsibility as Kara. Like Kara, Lena, having been raised by one of the most powerful and influential families on the planet, feels a sense of responsibility to be a world leader. She feels that even more keenly in light of the villainous actions of her mother and brother--that she has to restore honor to the family name. As discussed in the previous post, this feeling in Lena manifests itself in her actions towards her friends through buying them things or trying to solve problems for them such as buying Kara’s and James’s place of work, Catco, to save it from being purchased by a scumbag.

This need to take back control of her life and legacy, to me, is why Lena reacts so drastically to discovering that Kara is Supergirl. Being mad at Kara for keeping secrets is, frankly, hypocritical on several counts. Not only does Lena keep many, many secrets from Kara throughout the show, but she is also fine with the fact that Alex, Kara’s sister, never told Lena explicitly that she was an agent of the Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO). Of course, the reason why Lena wasn’t mad at Alex is because Lena had already known who Alex was, thus giving her power and control in that relationship. Finding out that her friend had successfully hidden her identity for years and had been influencing events without Lena’s knowledge took away the control Lena felt she had over that relationship.

Cassandra also feels a keen lack of control over her life and her relationship with Rapunzel due to the fact that Rapunzel is both her monarch and direct employer. Cassandra serves Rapunzel and that is the first avenue through which they formed a relationship. Early in their relationship, Cassandra resented Rapunzel’s attempts to become friends and said the chance of a Lady in Waiting and a princess becoming friends was a million to one. Rapunzel, by nature of being “irrepressible” (as her friends call her), manages to worm her way into Cassandra’s heart to the point that Cassandra almost forgets that she and Rapunzel are not equals.

What I find interesting about both Cassandra and Lena is that they both, in some ways, considered themselves the protectors of their naive blond friends. While it’s true that Cassandra always knew her station was below Rapunzel, part of her job early on was teaching Rapunzel how to be a member of the court--what to do, when to curtsy, who was who, etc. In fact, Rapunzel had so little exposure to the outside world, Cass was partly responsibly for teaching her how to interact socially in general. There’s also the added factor that Cassandra is 4 years older than Rapunzel, which can seem like a lot at their ages. Lena, as previously discussed, saw herself as a major figure in shaping the future of the world. She went out of her way to help Kara by buying Catco and tried to protect Kara if they were ever in physical danger together.

Both of these characters suffered from an abrupt challenge to the relationship roles they previously thought they had. Cassandra in this scene and Lena when Lex tells her that Kara is Supergirl.

It’s interesting that, in that scene, Lex emphasizes the idea that Lena has been a fool. (And, fair enough, I’m pretty sure everyone who’s ever watched the show found it hard to believe that Lena never once realized her best friend was Supergirl. I mean...really, glasses?) But this idea, that she had been a fool plays right into Lena’s fear of losing control. It’s the idea that someone else was pulling strings while she was oblivious that taps right into her deepest insecurities.

Catra’s issues with feeling controlled by Adora are mostly revealed in the episode discussed last post called “Promise.” They come up again in the third season finale when Adora tries to convince Catra to come with her and leave a world that is crumbling out of existence and Catra declares that she will never  go with Adora, and that she won’t “let you win” and “would rather see the whole world end (which it’s doing BTW) than let that happen.” Catra believes the way to get control back from Adora is to “win” at any cost. 

In the end, this idea of “winning” becomes part of all three relationships. It’s no longer about working together or “us against the world” for the not-blondes who have felt crushed under the weight of their friends. Now it’s about achieving their goals in spite of the collateral damage.

And the most frustrating part is that the blondes are largely oblivious to the fact that they make their friends feel this way or that they are overstepping boundaries. They just think they’re doing the right thing because they’re “taking care of” or “fixing” the problem. They’re so concerned with taking care of or protecting their friends, that they don’t realize how patronizing and condescending that can feel.

So, even as these relationship turn so sour, why are so many people not only rooting for the friendship to return, but for our ladies to go the next level beyond?

PART VII: I DON’T CARE (I SHIP IT)

I sometimes wonder how the greatest point of contention, the biggest source of toxicity, and the most exhausting part of fandom became shipping. I have seen more nastiness among fans and toward creators and actors about shipping than just about anything else.

Shipping has a long history in fandom, though that term is relatively recent. People have been writing fan fiction about Kirk and Spock getting together since the show was on and fan fiction was written and shared at either in-person gatherings or through semi-underground fanzines. 

And, trust me, I’ve been in the trenches of a ship war. Back when Avatar: The Last Airbender was airing, I was a hardcore Zutara shipper. And, to be more honest, it made me a jerk. Part of that is just because I was a teenager at the time, and teenagers don’t always realize the potential impacts of their actions due to brain chemistry etc, etc. But still, the intensity with which I argued that my ship either would or should become canon when the creators of the show clearly preferred the other relationship embarrasses me when I look back at it.

These days, fandom shipping has gotten even more complicated and contentious.

Back when those women (and it was mostly women) were typing their Kirk/Spock fan fiction and mailing it to other fans, they knew Kirk and Spock would never actually get together on the show. That was the case for the majority of fandoms until very recently--that there was no expectations of actual canon lgbtq representation. People could claim there was deliberate subtext or coding, but very few, if any people, expected shows to actually have openly lgbtq characters.

Then, it started to actually happen. Not just in a, “the actor said they saw their character as gay” or “the creators said they coded that character as gay” way. Characters actually started being lgbt on screen in ways that weren’t demeaning or stereotypes. Major characters, too.

For me, a big moment that gave rise to the hopes of many that their lgbt ships might actually have a shot at being confirmed as canon was, funnily enough, the sequel show to Avatar: TLA, The Legend of Korra.

The above was the closest the couple got to an on-screen intimate moment, and some fans didn’t believe it was romantic until it was later confirmed by the show creators. Nickelodeon was only willing to go so far, after all. The followup comics, however, are much more explicit with the relationship and the two share multiple kisses and intimate moments.

Many fans argue that Korrasami (as the ship between Korra and Asami is called) was too subtle to be considered real representation. But a wave could certainly be felt throughout the world of animation afterword. Shows became even more bold about confirming lgbt characters or at least became less subtle in their coding. 

And suddenly, the idea that a main character’s finale pairing might be anything other than straight became a real possibility and, in some cases, an expectation.

In addition to the growing visibility of lgbt relationships in media, another change was slowly taking place within fandom. 

For much of modern fandom, the most popular ships have been male/male (mlm). Back when I was getting into fan fiction (because I love reminding people that I’m old), this was called “slash.” Slash was exclusively a term for mlm relationships. Same-sex relationships between women (wlw) were labeled “fem-slash,” and were much more rare.

Multiple people have discussed theories for why mlm was, and continues to be in many cases, the most popular type of ship. Some believe it has to do with the prevalence of straight women in fandom who might fetishize mlm relationships. While I have no doubt that’s partly true, I believe the other common argument has a great deal of merit: there were more mlm ships because male characters were more interesting and more prevalent. 

Star Trek: The Original Series had only two main female characters and neither of them was given close to the emotional depth as Spock or Kirk. Lord of the Rings, which was one of the most popular pieces of media on which to write fanfic when I was younger, has so few women the movies had to add in a boat load of new scenes for Arwen.

Recently, though, not only have more shows invested in writing dynamic, interesting female characters, but they have included multiple diverse female characters with relationships with each other and not just the men in the shows. 

So, not only do more people ship wlw ships, but more people expect to actually see those ships represented in their media. Never before has a wlw ship becoming “endgame” seemed more possible.

In many ways this is fantastic. More representation being not only more possible but more expected is absolutely necessary for our media to progress and grow. This has, however, lead to some growing tensions in communities where shipping has, in some ways, become its own form of activism, which means that there is not only people’s personal feelings and preferences for ships on the line, but people who feel that fighting for their ship to become canon is a proxy battle for their own acceptance. 

All three of these wlw ships mean a lot to the people who ship them, and all three have been met with the desire, and occasionally demand, of canon validation as well as a heady mess of coding, accusations of queer baiting, and the lingering question of which, if any, relationships might get the same, and hopefully more explicit, validation that Korrasami had.

Let’s start this deep dive into these relationships as ships with the one that has, in canon, already been resolved.

Yep, that’s definitely a Disney twirl going on there.

One of the first points often made when the validity of a mlm or wlw ship is questioned is that, if you say an m/f couple do the same thing, no one would question that it was romantic. This makes it interesting, and sets off the shipping alarm for anyone who’s a fan of wlw ships when Tangled: The Series goes out of its way to not only give Cass and Rapunzel (ship name: Cassunzel) romantic moments like the above “Disney twirl,” but also directly parallels relationship moments that occurred between Rapunzel and her canon boyfriend/future husband Eugene (AKA Flynn Rider).

Look familiar? It’s almost a shot-for-shot remake of Rapunzel and Eugene meeting for the first time. In this episode, Cassandra accidentally wipes Rapunzel’s memory to the point where Rapunzel thinks she’s still in the tower. It plays out, in part, as “What if Cassandra had found her instead of Eugene?”--something every shipper had doubtless already asked themselves at least once.

Another major moment of paralleling between the two relationships is the endings of both the movie and the series. 

Eugene dies in the end of Tangled only to be resurrected by Rapunzel’s love. Cassandra dies in the series finale of Tangled: The Series, only to be resurrected by Rapunzel’s love. And it is love, that much is very clear.

The only debate really, is whether it’s romantic or platonic love. 

Cassandra and Rapunzel never get official validation in the show or by the executive producers. The most confirmation fans get outside of the text of the show are comments made by some people who work on the show saying that they deliberately coded Cassandra as gay as they could whenever they could.

Yet, for the most part, the creators of this show are largely given a pass by Cassunzel shippers for not making their ship canon. Most understand that, as a Disney property, many hands are tied, particularly given that, due the previous establishment both form the end of Tangled and from the short Tangled Ever After that Rapunzel and Eugene do get married. The reaction seems to largely be that Disney and the show got about as close to confirming it as they could without doing so.

So let’s transition from the show that met, and in some ways, passed expectations to one that has set expectations super high: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. 

She-Ra is perhaps one of the most lgbtqia coded shows out there right now. The first season even ends with them saving the day with a rainbow.

Here is show-runner and executive producer Noelle Stevenson on queerness in her life and She-Ra:

Yet, despite these deliberate attempts to show representation and to challenge heteronormative ideas, the show has yet to show any of its primary characters or even second tier characters in queer romantic relationships. We have seen a few parents, one pair on in a photo, and their is one married couple of women, but none of these characters are prominently featured on the show.

She-Ra has set expectations incredibly high and has yet to deliver.

Even so, part of what sets She-Ra apart from the other two shows discussed here is that there are multiple queer shipping opportunities. Catra and Adora (ship name Catradora) are one of, if not the, most popular ships, but both Catra and Adora have other female characters with which they could be just as easily shipped.

On the one hand, the pressure is pretty high to establish at least one major queer ship before the end of the show. On the other hand, the pressure is much less that the ship specifically be Catradora.

The near-certainty that there will be one or more wlw ships confirmed before the end of She-Ra means, to me, that Catradora has the greatest chance to become canon.

So, there’s Cassunzel that never really had much of a chance for canon confirmation and Catradora, which has a better chance of becoming canon, but also has less pressure to become THE ship. Where does that leave Lena and Kara?

Anyone who has been in the Supergirl fandom knows that it can feel like a battleground. While all fandoms tend to have their issues, Supergirl’s can be so contentions that it, frankly, makes watching the show less fun. This doesn’t all fall on one groups shoulders, I’ve seen nastiness from many sides over different issues. However, the biggest point of contention tends to center around the potential ship of Lena and Kara (Supercorp). 

Supercorp, as a ship, is completely valid. Kara has way more chemistry with Lena than she has had with any of her male love interests, and two of those guys were played by people whom actress Melissa Benoist was actually in relationships with (though the first was an abusive dirtbag, so lack of chemistry probably makes sense there). Lena once thanked Kara by filling her entire office with flowers. There are cuddles, and Kara’s unwavering (until recently) faith in Lena’s goodness. It’s hard not to ship them.

The issue in the fandom, is not so much that people ship Supercorp (though there are increasingly more people who have issues with the ship itself, which is something I’ll address about all three of these ships in the next post) but the vehemence with which some who ship Supercorp approach whether it will be endgame.

In a way, the frustration is understandable. Supergirl is, in many ways, a show that has made a point of including LGBTQ representation. The second season featured a multiple episode story arc of Supergirl’s adoptive sister Alex Danvers (I will stan her until the end of time) realizing she was a lesbian, coming out, and eventually starting a relationship with another woman. Supergirl also made headlines for featuring the first live-action trans superhero on tv with the introduction of Dreamer in Season 4. The trans actress who plays Dreamer, Nicole Maines, has even had input on how the character is represented including a recent episode that discussed the often ignored violence targeting trans people, particularly trans women of color.

She-Ra and Supergirl have different approaches to representation. She-Ra takes place in a fantasy world and appears to take the approach that nothing about identity or sexuality should be assumed about anyone. There is no heteronormativity in Etheria, yet no major characters are in non-m/f relationships. Supergirl on the other hand, is set in a world more similar to ours which has heteronormativity, homophobia, and transphobia, which leads to the show making episodes and story-arcs specifically about those topics while also somewhat constraining the show. There are arguments to be made about the worth of both approaches and both can serve a purpose for viewers, particularly young viewers, who are searching for characters like them in media.

So, why are the people behind Supergirl so often accused of homophobia?

I mentioned in the Blond Bulldozers section that it is a bit telling that all three shows being discussed here attempt to create diversity while having the whitest, most mainstream character as the lead. There are many who would argue that the true values of the shows are represented by their main characters, and that the rest are window dressing to try to make the show look good as a form of tokenism. The point being that shows won’t really show a commitment to diversity until the main characters are just as diverse as the rest of the cast.

These are all valid arguments. 

A less valid argument is the claim that Supercorp is being deliberately baited by the creators of the show. Queer baiting is a term that seems to have a lot of subjectivity tied up with it. The general idea is that it is when creators purposefully use queer coding or other means to inspire queer shipping of characters as a means to draw in the queer community to their show but then never delivering on that potential.

In some ways, all three of these shows could be accused of queer baiting. The direct parallels in between Cassandra/Rapunzel and Eugene/Rapunzel were no accident. The coding and “anything can happen” while very little does on She-Ra is much the same. And Supergirl is trying to center a large part of the show around the relationship between Kara and Lena, a relationship they know many of the fans see as romantic.

Yet, to me, Supergirl, is actually a less guilty party, at least when it comes to Supercorp. One can, again, argue that the canon LGBT ships and characters exist to pander and draw in those audiences, but Supercorp, I believe, genuinely came out of a place of wanting Kara to have a strong female relationship with someone other than her sister, mother, or boss, and I’m sure this falling-out was in the plans fairly early on.

Has the show completely shut down the idea? No, I don’t think they would be foolish enough to do that. But I don’t believe that it rises to the level of baiting. Shows like Sherlock or movies like Pitch Perfect 3 are, to me, much more egregious examples.

Still, as I said, I can understand the frustration of Supercorp shippers, I just feel like the level of anger directed by some not just at the creatives who make the show but at other fans as well is not fully justified. (And yes, I know “not all Supercorps” and I also know other fans have been jerks. Sanvers shippers who are being asses about Kelly are just as bad.) And who knows? I’d never say never to the ship maybe becoming canon eventually after Kara and Lena work out their issues.

That being said, all three of these ships, regardless of canon status, are incredibly popular, and I want to examine more of what that is and the reason some people are wary of these ships and the potential messages they send. This leads me to our topics for our next installment:

MY WIFE IS A BITCH AND I LIKE HER SO MUCH

and

POISON PARADISE

I will try to make the next one shorter. Also, sorry for typos, I did not give this a thorough read-through. I used all my brain power just writing it.

[wizardjail]

i recounted this story to the groupchat tonight, so it’s on my mind. let me tell you about my first wlw fantasy novel

the year must have been about 2006. i was maybe ten or eleven years old. and the creative project i was undertaking, in this early phase of my life, was a novel entitled “the sparkcharm prophecy.”

the sparkcharm prophecy was an unevenly-paced fantasy epic, with a generic plot about five teens who needed to find five magical stones (you know, the eponymous sparkcharms) and... bring them somewhere? keep them out of the hands of evil? i really don’t know, and i don’t think ten-year-old izzie knew either. this story was being written in three-page installments, which i would print out and bring to lunch for my two (2) friends to read. it was kind of dickensian, if charles dickens were a preteen dragon girl who had not yet come to terms with her sexual orientation.

there were a lot of characters in this novel. i assume the cast was so massive because i read a lot of classic fantasy as a kid, and i clearly thought i was writing the fucking silmarillion on my family’s desktop PC. despite the vast number of characters i created for this project, only two of them really matter.

karalen, called kara, was a jaded teenage thief whose catlike amber eyes were mentioned a lot more often than strictly necessary. she had been separated from her sister (another major character) when they were young, and forced into a life of crime. so, you know, she was every scrappy pickpocket heroine ever. her foil and rival among the main cast was sayliana, a prim and haughty noblewoman who was, essentially, the Other Girl that people are talking about when they say they’re “not like other girls.”

naturally, these two characters immediately hated each other. they spent most of their time arguing, undermining each other, and vying for the affection of nathaniel, the ostensible main character of the novel. nathaniel inexplicably had the name of a victorian schoolboy, in a world where his peers were named shit like lazuli and excelsior, and i literally couldn’t tell you a single thing about his personality. it’s fine, because as i plodded through my meandering, unfocused draft, his screentime declined significantly.

this was mainly because i had decided the dynamic between kara and sayliana was... pretty fun to write. i started brainstorming fights for them to have. i started brainstorming ways they could save each other’s lives, and then be grudgingly indebted to each other. i started brainstorming deep conversations after which they would come to some greater understanding of each other’s motives. the obvious realization that i was basically setting up a romance novel was held in check by my internalized homophobia.

all told, i probably wrote just over 100 pages of the sparkcharm prophecy. like most novels you write as a preteen, it was never finished (and honestly, even if i had finished it, i doubt it would have come to a satisfying conclusion). the word doc languished on my family computer until maybe eight years later, when i rediscovered it and read the whole fucking thing in one horrified sitting.

so there i was, now a bisexual college undergrad, reading my preteen magnum opus. watching myself visibly get bored with my male protagonist and shove his two potential girlfriends into a torrid enemies-to-lovers arc with each other. and suddenly a number of things about 1) my childhood and 2) my body of writing started to make a lot more sense

[madeunmexico]

Is 'Superman and Lois' already erasing 'Supergirl'? | Hypable

“Crisis on Infinite Earths” basically destroyed so much Supergirl, honestly, particularly where it involved Lex. Almost the entirety of season 4 was wiped when Lex was made into the new Earth’s “hero,” even more so now that Mercy Graves is alive and well. All of the work Lena did to separate herself from her family and make L Corp into a force of good is gone. The story Kara wrote about Lex’s nefarious deeds that earned her a pulitzer and everything she did to stop Lex during season 4 is also gone. Alex didn’t even properly earn the role of Director of the DEO on this new Earth.

Will ‘Supergirl’ be all but erased as ‘Superman and Lois’ goes on?

At this rate, it’s quite possible that everything on Supergirl before “Crisis on Infinite Earths” will have been for, basically, nothing. One of my biggest concerns about Superman and Lois is Supergirl has adapted far too many of Superman’s stories from the comics.

I wondered when the series was first announced how the team would work around this and find new stories for Clark. However, clearly the Superman and Lois team doesn’t care to put in the effort to see what Supergirl has done (even with their own characters) over the years.

So if the series is already undermining Supergirl like this with their creative freedom, how will Supergirl fare in the future, especially after it ends and Superman and Lois continues? Supergirl is likely almost over as it heads into season 6. So are we just going to watch Kara’s legacy be destroyed as Clark’s story begins to unfold? Certainly seems that way right now.

Although I don't care for Hypable, and I can see the bias a mile away, this has some very valid points.

[rivertalesien]

you really dont think they bring lexa back? fr everyone thinks it and it will be so bad if they dont

This is hard.

When we saw Lexa in Perverse Instantiation pt 2, it was meant to be a surprise (ha) and a moment of heroic triumph. Lexa is Cool! Lexa saves Clarke! Lexa sacrifices herself! 

Bullshit and re-writes her character as Clarke’s Personal Plot Device (not that she was ever anything else), but it was meant to give a thrill, a moment of goodbye. 

Again, it was bullshit and didn’t make up for anything.

And then they decided Lexa wasn’t dead after all. She has spent the last 4 seasons trapped in a digitized state, no voice or agency (I’m a broken record on this, sorry) and no resolution. No catharsis. They’ve made a big deal out of her loss being a huge trauma for Clarke. They’ve made a big deal out of her being on the Flame and part of Madi. They spent season 6 building more reminders of her than you could shake a stick at. They keep teasing rebirths and returns and death is not the end. Lexa is closely associated with all of these themes. And she is still alive. No body, but alive and she deserves a proper end to her story.

It’s easy to get worked up and think, Of course. They have to resolve it. She has to come back one last time. She’s Arthur. She’s Aragorn. She’s the One True Commander. Clarke’s soulmate. 

It would make sense. It would be cathartic. Give Clarke an ending she is actually connected to. Something would definitely be missing if they don’t resolve this in a way that doesn’t further undermine her importance (like just blipping her out of existence with no warning).  

But I don’t see them using ADC again. I don’t believe there is any evidence she did any filming for them (though I have no idea). What I do see is them turning Lexa into a digital form of Sam Anders.

In the Battlestar Galactica reboot, Sam was a Pyramid athlete who met, fell in love with and later married Kara Thrace (Starbuck). He was also a cylon, one of the final five (or first five, that designation was always a little silly) and he was later shot in the head and would have died, but they hooked him up to the Galactica like one of the baseship hybrids. He was never the same after this, speaking in seeming riddles, connected to something invisible no one could understand. Like Lexa, he became a (tragic) plot device. 

But Sam had further purpose and an ending: we see him connect with his fellow final five cylons (imagine Lexa and the other commanders in the flame) to defeat the enemy cylons; he then agreed to take the Galactica and the rest of the fleet and fly them into the sun, after everyone settled on new Earth. In the moments before his death/departure, Kara came to him to say goodbye, leaving her dogtags in his hand. She departs and he says “See you on the other side” before flying the fleet to its destruction. 

This is from actor Katie Sackhoff about Starbuck and Ander’s ending:

According to Katee Sackhoff, "So when she at the end was saying goodbye to [Anders], I think that she was saying goodbye to their bodily forms," she said. "I think she knew, especially if he says, 'I'll see you on the other side,' I think she's with him. I think they're both dead, but I think she's with him. That was a decision that we made, because I selfishly wanted her at peace, and the only way to do that was to have her with someone at the end, or to be with the person she wanted to be with. I don't know. That's kind of where I think she is. She's with Anders playing pyramid in the sky somewhere."[10]

I imagine something like this going down for Clarke in regards to Lexa: they will put her code to one last final use of some sort and give Clarke an opportunity to say goodbye. If ADC was involved, maybe we’ll see her like a hologram, similar to how Alie first appeared. Or we won’t *see* her at all. Just an idea.

But I have no doubt there will be mentions. There will be taunts. It would be weird if there wasn’t at least one. 

Clarke might spend the majority of the season thinking Lexa’s code is gone, only to learn it survived in the Eligius and that proves useful somehow. I don’t know though. 

I can picture any number of better ways to do it, from 3d-printing her a new body to giving her an existence in a City of Light-style VR. But I don’t see any of that actually happening. It would certainly be thrilling and a fist-pumper if they did, if she stepped out of the anomaly or just fill in a blank. She was good for that kind of thing once. Will the show give her that moment again? We won’t know until we know. 

But don’t wait for it. Don’t hold on for it. Getting your hopes up is only going to make her absence that much worse. Don’t expect anything.

[yanderedbh-moved]

The Yanderes As Horror Movie Villains

Slasher-thirst Tumblr is a wild place, but I would like to thank it personally for helping to inspire this post. I realize these are all debatable, but I hope I provided adequate enough arguments to explain everyone’s placement, please enjoy!

Connor: Buffalo Bill (Silence of the Lambs)

At a cursory glance of the two, one might come to the conclusion this is a man who follows the rules, one who appears just as normal and well-adapted as any other. However, bind closed doors; in private, it is only then that they would show there is much more to them than meets the eye.

Bill is described as “He wasn’t born a killer, he was made one.” This reflects the way Connor may have been created to serve a purely functional purpose for the benefit of humans through the events of his life, as well as through his own choices, he becomes something of his own making. He becomes an individual as a result of his own free will.

As a yandere, Connor would likely experience intense frustrations over being created as an android, and he couldn’t help but act out on these frustrations, maybe even taking some of this out on you. He wants to be what he fundamentally isn’t, and it kills him.

Markus: Micheal Myers (Halloween)

While there may be a bit of hesitance for Markus to decide which path he desires to pursue. (Be that pacifism or violence.) Once he has made up his mind, he will follow through without hesitation or a second thought. Quite similar to the way Micheal devotes his life to stalking his sister and completing his “unfinished business.”

While not precisely as bloodthirsty or ruthless as some of the other killers present, Micheal is far from squeamish and is just as capable of ending the life of his victims, or really any who get in his way as any other. And given a choice, Markus is equally competent in this regard.

As a yandere, Markus would really personify Meyer's chilling stalker side. He can easily play with you without making himself visible, maybe even without you noticing anything at all at first. He’s a tricky one to figure out, and even if you do think you understand him, it’s all the more difficult to convince others to see him as dangerous as you do.

Kara: Norman Bates (Psycho)

While she may initially pride herself on her ability to look after those under her care, God only knows what she’s capable of, should one cross her, or try to challenge her by hurting those she’s close to.

It’s practically within both of their DNA to latch onto what provides them with love. She wants above all things to keep those she loves safe, to never abandon them, or in other words, to never let them get away.

The two of them share a demeanor, which would suggest they are far weaker than they actually are. Norman acts particularly secretive and shifty around strangers, and Kara will generally function with her cards close to her chest, never really proving just how strong she is without a good reason to do so.

Hank: Freddy Kruger (A Nightmare on Elm Street)

This is a little tricky to explain, but if you view the events which play out in their story as a timeline, there is a massive connection between the two. At the start of their roles in the story, they worked hard to maintain (and even uplift) a positive reputation, however, due to one dramatic change. For Freddy, it’s the discovery of what he’d done to the children of the town, and for Hank, the loss of his son. Which change their lives and reputation forever. For Freddy, this results in the city burning him alive, and for Hank, this leads to a downward spiral of alcoholism, among other self-destructive habits.

Additionally, there’s a common theme of escapism, which connects the two. The way Freddy waits until his victims are asleep, and he has the chance to kill them in their sleep, while Hank’s life is changed by his reliance on alcohol to escape the tragedy of life, and to avoid his own feelings.

Once he eventually does find his passions again, though, be it falling in love with you or managing to re-discover his enthusiasm for his job Hank will peruse these with enthusiasm and passion equal to Freddy’s.

Luther: Pinhead (Hellraiser)

Even though Luther doesn’t hold onto his initially created purpose for long in the game, that doesn’t change the fact the two of them were designed to cause harm and evil. Though admittedly through very different paths, and scales.

Both are far more intelligent than they would likely admit. It’s interesting to note Luther knew how to handle himself well enough while in his master’s home so as not to fall victim to Zlatko’s sadism, but was also competent enough to know when he had a viable means of escape.

When it comes to getting his revenge on his master for the cruelty he caused, Luther doesn’t actually need to use violence to punish Zlatko. Leaving others to handle bringing him to justice, similarly to how Pinhead doesn’t need to use force as a way to intimidate or scare his victims.

North: Damien Thorn (The Omen)

There’s a theme that connects the two. However, this yields vastly different results for each character, respectively. The two fail to really understand their own strength, though, for Damien, this is on account of him undermining his abilities. While for North, this leads to her failure to be a proper leader for Jericho.

Deep down, as a yandere, North wouldn’t actually want to hurt you or give you any reason to fear or resent her. However, she just fails to understand humans in a fundamental way, which results in her accidentally bringing you harm again and again without learning her lesson.

She doesn’t really entirely seem to grasp or take accountability for the way her recklessness and impulsiveness will put others in danger. (The way a violent route can end with Markus getting shot and losing his life.) There’s no way she saw this coming, and only did what she did because she believed the ends would justify the means.

Simon: Rose Armitage (Get Out)

Say what you will about the way Rose betrays Chris at the end of the movie, from the very start she knows precisely where her true loyalties lay, and to the end, she does not compromise this.

Like many of the other androids fighting at Jericho, Simon wouldn’t be anyone’s first choice as a fighter. However, he is willing to prove, through either dying or surviving, he is far more capable than others saw him as. Rose definitely undergoes a change of her own and is far from the person the audience thought her to be at the start of the movie.

While in many ways, Simon would be the type to downplay his own voice and opinions in the name of preserving an overall peace, when it comes to what he has to say in regards to the more significant whole conflict, only then will he say how he really feels.

Josh: Carrie White (Carrie)

There’s a kind of bittersweet parallel which connects the two of them. That being, neither of them would intentionally go out of their way to hurt anyone, Josh, in fact, using most of his screen time to convince Markus from making violent decisions. Yet still, Carrie is eternally remembered for the deaths of her classmates, which died at her hands, and if Markus chooses to peruse violence, as an android, Josh will be remembered for his leader’s cruelty.

Likewise, as a yandere, Josh would hate to cause his love any kind of harm, or even really scare you too much, yet all the same, when pushed to his breaking point, he is just as willing and capable of inflicting pain as any other.

Many would say because of this, then deep down, they really always were this cruel and violent to their core. This is entirely false, however. Deep down, Josh wants nothing more than a happy and willing partner, one who desires to provide him with the love he would give you.

Kamski: Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)

While his innovation and ambition would do well for him in terms of his career, it’s not all it would result in. Many who work closely with Kamski would take discomfort with his icy, stony outer shell, and would at the least distrust him, and at most, detest him.

The two share incredibly high standards both for themselves, as well as for those around them. Kamski will always be remembered for his “test” he forced Connor to complete, and it’s far from a stretch to imagine he would try to force you to undergo some kind of similar test to prove your loyalty to him.

And of course, this is not even to mention their obsession with their own self-image and unclockable narcissism. Elijah’s pension for self-isolation likely a result of the way he feels too caught up with himself to bother sharing company with another; he deems “unworthy.”

Chloe: Jennifer (Jennifer's Body)

She was programmed to be a companion and a servant first and foremost. She was designed to be something which completed another, with any care for her own well being or inner desires left as an afterthought.

As a yandere, it’s interesting to imagine her using this to her own benefit. As in, she would use her own charm and good looks to convince you she means no harm, and after all, how could someone who appears so innocent be up to no good?

Jennifer, as a villain, uses her own good looks and charisma to ensnare her victims, and you can bet Chloe would follow in this lead. She knows how to uses people’s outer perceptions of her against them.

Gavin: Jack Torrance (The Shinning)

There’s not really anything shown of Gavin’s life outside of work, so it’s tricky to gauge what exactly his passions are, however, what is clear is the way once Gavin becomes genuinely passionate about something at work he becomes far more animated and interested in following them through.

In The Shining, Jack balances a deeply nerving combination of both a loving father and husband, and a murderer, and you know as a yandere, Gavin would act eerily similar as well. Just as threatening as he is loving, playing equally as your lover, as well as tormentor.

What is plain to see between the two of them is their absolutely self-serving attitude in regards to themselves, as well as how this extends to others. Gavin doesn’t care who he upsets, or who he steps on to get what he wants, and there’s nothing anyone else to can do about it.

Zlatko: Jigsaw (Saw)

It’s debatable and not precisely well elaborated in the game what it is that motivated Zlatko to be so cruel and evil to androids. However, he does appear interested in testing the limits of what androids are capable of, and what they can endure, persuading a truth Zlatko himself doesn’t quite fully understand. Which in a roundabout way isn’t too far off from Jigsaw.

In his eyes, there is no such thing as a genuinely innocent being, and no one, human or android alike, is free from his pain. This absolutely would extend to you as his lover.

Furthermore, as a yandere, Zlatko would use pain and would continually put you through intense agony as a way to try and chip away at your free will. His end game here would be something like trying to slowly weaken your resolve until you were just as loyal to him as Jigsaw’s followers are to their leader.

Ralph: Annie Wilkes (Misery)

While he may not exactly have Annie’s innocent face, still, Ralph wasn’t programmed to be anything more than a farmer, and because of that, people may not see a real reason to fear him at first.

Unfortunately, he was left traumatized and fundamentally shaken from an attack long ago, which causes his violent mood swings. He can be just as pleasant and happy with you, and he can be cruel and hurtful. Again, even though he may not want to bring you harm, Ralph doesn’t really understand his own actions here and can fall victim to his own anger every now and then.

Additionally, it’s challenging for Ralph to hide any pain or anxiety he feels on the inside, and it’s near impossible for him to stop himself from hurting you during an intense emotional outburst, even if he knows deep down he’ll likely regret this later.

Daniel: The Babadook (The Babadook)

Both of them almost serve as a metaphor for the possible damage which arises from trying to hide your inner pain and feeling from the ones you love. This damage hurting both the host and those around them in the cross-fire.

There is an intense fear Daniel possesses, the fear that if he ever were to be genuinely vulnerable with you or to really show you any of his weakness, then you would just leave him and know how much he relies on you.

A part of him might actually genuinely think it’s for the best to be like this. It’s hard for him to ever really, totally grasp the way his anger and resentment hurts him, and how he doesn’t have any real reason to fear being open with you.

Nines: Hannibal Lector (Silence of the Lambs)

In the single scene, we see of Nines in the game, we know he isn’t there for any kind of a positive reason. He was created to eliminate Connor and send him away fro good. Yet still, as he stands there, Nines is perfectly poised and doesn’t show any kind of outward hostility or malice towards Connor.

His chilling reputation precedes him. Nines is deeply analytical, never failing to notice even the smallest of details, and even if you can’t stand who he is as an individual, it’s easy to see how he earned the position he currently occupies.

As a yandere, he’s all the more analytical and terrifying. Because of that, he wouldn’t feel the need to use any displays of violence to cause you to fear him, and he knows as well as any other the effect he has on you.