Questions (Eventually) About Smallville Fandom and Bo Duke (also Metropolis!) and Lex is J Geils!

[sisabet]

I was kinda bored this morning and not wanting to update my resume cause I really hate updating my resume and my phone doesn't work so of course my thoughts turned, as they so often do, well toward Angel, but then they turned to Smallville.

Specifically to questions I have about the fandom in general. See, I am not so much a participant in fandom as a very interested observer who sometimes peeks over fences to see what is going on. I am the nosy neighbor from "Bewitched" - I am the Gladys Kravitz of fandom. I have all sorts of opinions on just about everything, but actually going to the trouble of finding a board and registering and posting and having to interact with all those people and while I might like some, I'll probably be irritated by many and it just makes me tired.

Cutting for length

So I stay at home on my LJ and talk to anyone who stops by and try to keep up with what's going by peering at my fList. Which can leave me with very strange impressions in general - like I had no idea there were Clark/Lana shippers until linzeems told me. I just automatically assumed that everyone that watched the show, watched for Clark and Lex. Maybe some Chloe. I got this notion from the reviews at TWOP and everyone I know that watches Smallville, teenage girls included. Now I feel like the J Geils band or something... my blood is running cold and it is very possible that my memories have just been sold.

Oh! Like Lex!!!

::dreamy sigh::

Dude - I should totally vid that song to SV. Oh god. My sides hurt from laughing - I had to get a go get a drink of water. If I could stand the feminine pronoun being applied to a male character at all I would start clipping for it tonight.

Now listen:
It's okay, I understand
This ain't no never-never land
I hope that when this fish is gone
I'll see you when your clothes are on
Take your car, yes we will, we'll take your car and drive it
Take it to a motel room, and take 'em off in private
A part of me has just been wrecked
The pages from my mind are stripped
Oh no, I can't deny it
Oh yeah, I guess I got to buy it



OH! LUM!!! CHEAPSHOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

::adds to list::

I apologize for that unscheduled break in my post - shit like that happens 'round here though and I am certain that you would have already unfriended me if it really bugged you. If it does bug you and you are just holding out on the unfriending b/c you are worried about my self-esteem and all - please - don't. I can take the hit.

But the purpose of this post was... god - what was it? Oh yeah - I had questions about SV fandom - or rather - just stuff I've noticed:

1. Is it canon that Metropolis is in Kansas? I know it is canon that it is 3 hours by car away - but have they ever stated that means you are still in Kansas? Cause I know that I am 3 hours from Indianapolis and three hours from Nashville and neither of those cities are in Kentucky. So, couldn't Metropolis - at least theoretically - be in, Oklahoma? Missouri? Perhaps Colorado? I always thought growing up that it was Chicago and Gotham was New York - but I really like the idea that Clark will eventually settle in the city that is closest to the place he grew up. Even if he is super-sonic - I think it is appropriate. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of a major center of commerce being in Kansas.

Hey! Wasn't KC from "China Beach" from Kansas? I loved her.


2. Does everyone in the fandom hate Bo Duke? Cause I don't get that. I keep hearing (especially in fanfic) about how prejudiced he is and how he is a bigot and how he would never accept a gay son or how he is just so unfair to Lex and... well, it is like he is worse than Lionel. And I Just. Do. Not. See. It.

I love Bo Duke; well Jonathan Kent - but I call him Bo cause he is forever and ever Bo to me and that is something I cannot stop. What was once set in motion in a six-year old's heart cannot be undone.

I understand that I am not the norm in this regard - so even looking at the character of Jonathan Kent without my Bo Duke colored glasses, I still don't get the hate.

I think it might be cause Bo does not like or has acted in the past very unfairly (or what is percieved as unfairly) toward Lex.

I also think that most of the SV people I know are Lex-Fen. I totally get this. I mean - I love Clark and all, but I get the Lex thing and share it for the most part - I'm not about picking hot boy sides so much as revelling in the hot-boy presence. On both sides. From all angles. You get the picture.

So I decided that Lex is probably analogous to Spike in this fandom. That would make Jonathan the Xander and now it all makes sense.

A lot of my friends absolutely hated Xander during Buffy S6 because he picked on (as in hit and was verbally derisive) Spike. A lot of fen felt very protective toward Spike. I felt protective toward Xander - it made for some really interesting discussions where for the most part we were all talking at each other and no one was hearing the other and this is why I stay away from boards now -period.

But I got the animosity Xander felt toward Spike and while I felt that it was morally wrong to hit someone (even if provoked) and that wrongness is intensified when the person you hit is unable to fight back or defend themselves to an exponential degree - I also understood where that anger was coming from (Spike did try to kill him and Willow and did hold them hostage not so long ago) and while Xander was prejudiced (if you can call it that) toward demons/vamps but turned an almost blind eye toward Anya - I thought that was interesting. I thought that made him really really real. Not a 100% morally absolute character - but I wasn't watching for that and those kind of people are boring and also? Don't exist. I thought it was interesting that here is a guy who understandably hates vampires (best friend Jesse was killed and turned in the first ep - Xander accidentally stakes him and watches him turn to dust. I think his absolute intolerance for any vamp, even Angel, after that point was a defense mechanism. You can't acknowledge that a vampire can be "saved" or "redeemed" or whatever without having to admit that you did not save Jesse. Interesting) but is in a long-term relationship/almost marriage with an ex-demon. This kinda shit happens in real-life all the time - only the context is different. And yeah - the show did not explore this as thoroughly as some would like, but that is why we have fanfic.

That being said - I am *much* more protective of Lex than I am of Spike. Spike - he's made it over a hundred years without me worrying over him - I am not about to start now. He does not need to be coddled - he needs shit to do to keep him distracted and out of trouble. I am much more brusque with Spike. But I like him. Mostly.

Lex - well I do want to protect Lex and coddle him and feed him soup and smack those who would hurt his feelings upside the head. But - there is a path that he is on that cannot be stopped and I know and accept this and if it gets to be too much I will just go read lanning for a while and then I'm okay.

Because this is a show about Destiny with a capitol "D" and Lex believes that he has one and he is absolutely correct - he just doesn't know what it is. And that is for the best. For now.

And one of the things that possibly puts him on this path is the fact that he will never really be accepted by Jonathan Kent. Although for a brief period of time in S3 he was accepted by Bo - I am willing to ignore that here.

Does Bo's attitude about Lex and the Luthor's in general mean that he is a small minded bigot who put the red in redneck?

I don't think so - but I will acknowledge that I am not unbiased here. Not only is Jonathan Kent also Bo Duke to me, I am also knee-jerk about the topic of farmers-as-fathers as well seeing as how I was raised by one.

Farmer does not equal idiot or uneducated or misinformed. My father is one of the most intelligent people I know. We disagree about a lot of social issues - but I would not call him closed-minded. Sometimes I think he takes an opposing viewpoint from mine just to get me riled up - this is a family trait that my sisters also share. When push comes to shove I have never seen him turn his back on anyone in need. I have always considered that the measure of a man.

So let's think about the Jonathan of the show and the man I see in him: He grew up poor as a lot of us have done and he made the decision at some point to stay poor in order keep his family's farm going. Do not discount this - this is a conscious decision and he knew what it meant when he made it. Family farms are endangered and speaking as someone who has had to make this decision and chose the opposite of Jonathan - it is not easy either way and I think about it a lot. The fact that one day I may have to see my family's land cut up and sold off bothers me a lot. Not enough to want to cut tobacco, but still...

Jonathan also grew up in a town where probably the entire offensive line of his freshman football team was drafted. County kids go to war. Poor people go to war. Rich people don't. Even though he was too young to be drafted himself - the effects of watching this happen to his cohorts a few years ahead of him is not to be discounted. If you don't believe that Vietnam had a profound and lasting effect on rural America - go and find someone over the age of 40 who lived in the countryside and ask them what they think about Lyndon Johnson. It can be chilling. It can also influence forever how they view people born to privilege. Right or wrong - this is just how it is.

I'm not about making judgements anyway - I'm more about understanding why.

So, you have a poor farmer who meets this rich kid - but let's address the "kid" part as well - Lex is 21 when Jonathan meets him. He is past any milestone our society places on childhood (well - other than the renting a car and insurance dropping at 25 milestone) and especially in a place like Smallville - most 21 year olds are working, getting married and having kids. Lex is running the Plant - he is the largest employer in the region - he is young, but not a kid. Remember, Jonathan does not know Lex like we know Lex. He knows him as the spoiled son of the man who blackmailed him into betraying his hometown. He knows him as the idiot in the Porshe who would have killed his only son, if not for the fact that his only son is a super-powered Alien. And to Jon that is beside the point, because he will do anything - well almost anything - to protect his child.

I think that is admirable. I think he screws up all the time in this quest - but I think parents in general screw up a lot and kids still turn out more or less okay and a perfect parent would be so much less interesting. Yes - at first glance the Kent household appears like the Waltons - but take a closer look and underneath the platitudes there is a very stubborn man who is not right all the time but loves his family and his community and his land. I like that.

So - even if it wasn't Lex's fault (technically) when that land was poisoned and all of Jonathan's cattle died - I get the anger. I get the stubbornness.

Jonathan cried when this happened. That made me love him, cause dude - you would. And you would be pissed off for a very long time.

Hell - K.G. is still scared to come round my family's place and all he did was shoot my brother's dog in front of him and my mother 12 years ago. I vow this to you now though - I ever get my hands on that sumabitch it won't be pretty. I can't imagine what I would feel like if it was entire herd of cattle.

Hell - if it was just Split Ear and No. 43 that got it, I think that would devastate my daddy. Daddy've taken the money to replace them from LuthorCorp, but Daddy is much older and mellow now than he was. Jon hasn't been through enough just yet to get to that point.

So Jon loves his animals, loves his land and obviously is devoted to his family.

So when I read a fic where Jonathan turns his back on Clark when Clark comes out to him - I want to know where in the world did this come from? I can't imagine a universe where he would do that - I mean for starters - since when is he intolerant? He is an organic farmer - to other farmers Jon is a hippie. Jon is open to the fact that his only son was sent to Earth to rule it - he accepts all sorts of insane things about Clark every single day - his child defies the laws of physics - I don't really think a little thing like sexuality is going to be a deal-breaker.

Now I do think that if Jonathan found out about Lex's interest he'd be after him with a shotgun - but dude - remember how Martha felt about Desiree hitting on Clark? Same damn thing. Clark is a kid, 15-16 so far in canon (he's 17 now - right?) and these are adults interested in him.

The Boy is almost 15. If there was a 21 or 22 year old ANYONE interested in him I would also probably reach for the shotgun. Later I might stop to ask questions.

So I like that Jon isn't perfect and I get why he does things and I am kinda bothered when he is misunderstood or bashed cause dudes - if you hate Jon, then you probably won't like my father one bit and then that is fighting words and I am then obligated to defend my family's honor, it becomes this whole thing and really, if we just acknowlege that while Jon has his faults - the fact that the person most adversely affected by these faults just happens to be Lex does not make Jon an inherently evil person anymore than the fact that Xander had issues with Spike and treated him incorrectly makes Xander and evil evil man.

But maybe the entire fandom doesn't hate him. I don't know. Gladys often gets her information jumbled and I suppose it could be the same with me.

Comments

[lexcorp-hope.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, it's the WB and the last time we saw Clark, he was nekkid. I bet he's nekkid again in the premiere, too. You won't have long to wait! :)

In re the Protect thingie, I totally agree! And that's the thing that really pisses people off about Jonathan: He sat there and would have let Roger Nixon kill him, then cart Clark off to some gummint lab because that's the line he wouldn't cross (and Lex did, so he didn't have to,) but the same guy who prevented his own murder and his son's vivisection, he actively discouraged Clark from preventing serious physical harm to him. I personally think that Jonathan's flaws and merits make him fascinating, including his hypocrisy (dude sold out his best friend to keep the baby, yo!!) See also: large, vocal contingent of fans who hate Clark for being a hypocrite when it comes to Lex and their opposite cousins, the large, vocal contingent of Clark fans who hate Lex for lying to and investigating Clark.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

See - all this fandom hate is the exact reason I tend to just only operate out of LJ as my fannish outlet. I *like* that Clark is a screwed up intensely confused and conflicted teenager and that Lex is just as messed up, if not more, and that Jon will do some things and not other and is capable of extremes for his child because this makes them interesting. And I don't think that b/c Jon would not kill Nixon means he will never ever cross that line, because I think if right this minute - if it came down to Lionel Luthor's life or Lionel strapping Clark down on a lab table, then Jonathan would put a bullet between Lionel's eyes faster than we could blink.

And I don't think this would contradict the early S2 Jonathan at all because the danger is different and is immediate and represented by Lionel and Jon is *not* the same person he was then and is not the same person he was 15 years ago and is not the same person he was when he met Martha. But none of us are and this makes it fascinating.

So I don't get people who don't get that.

[lexcorp-hope.livejournal.com]

Me either, man. I've been fighting a losing battle for years trying to point out that flawed and complicated is *good*, for all the characters. But mostly, I'm just pissing into the wind, so I watch the show and talk to my friends about it, and pretend that I don't see the rest of fandom eating itself. I think you're totally right; I think if push came to shove, Jonathan *would* kill Lionel. (I don't, however, think that he would be able to kill Lex . He's disliked him all along, but he's had those moments where he recognized that Lex was, well, not Lionel, like with the compass for the wedding present, etc., and I don't think he could go that far.)

I had a heads up with fandom though- when your show is about Clark Kent and Lex Luthor, you know that the factions are gonna be drawn, and early. *grin*