And you’re right on that; she was perfectly dark. Unfiltered enough to actually address all that anger and hurt squirreled away, mean enough not to care who her feelings hurt.
Although I am gonna argue the godhood and delusions of grandeur, because, like. Comparatively speaking, she is a god, and her grandeur and ability isn’t delusional; she IS ACTUALLY capable of everything she claims. That’s part of what’s so scary about it. She could literally raze the city to the ground. The only difference is she’s flouting that ability now.
But on that same vein of thought, that’s why I say she’s mild. She’s mild for a Kryptonian.
Imagine Astra or Non altered by RedK. Imagine them crackling with power, with a dozen other just-as-powerful Kryptonians, their heads full of thoughts like, “All it would take is one, well-coordinated attack to upset the human’s power structure long enough to seize control.”
They could punch through the ceiling of a global conference and full-on Ghost Ship a room full of world leaders and diplomats with just their heat-vision. They could destroy the companies ruining the environment by just breaking them apart.
And because they’re human-size and can fly faster than the speed of sound, even last-ditch options like nuclear weapons wouldn’t be effective in stopping them. They could just as easily lure war-ready nations like the US into doing half the work for them, just by tricking smart-bombs into following them to their chosen targets.
The only reason Astra and Non didn’t consider those options before is because there are so many humans on Earth that their best option was to force global compliance, but on RedK, and having just lost his wife, Non wouldn’t have freaking cared anymore. “Just kill em all,” would’ve been his go-to.
Now you compare ability to what Kara did. She acted out. Threw a tantrum. Gave in to, and let free, all those selfish, self-serving thoughts that hit all of us in our worst moments, but that’s all they are; selfish moments.
She was forced to be something she’s not for most of her life on earth, so RedKara made sure everyone who looked at her knew she wasn’t like them.
Her softness has lead people to take advantage of her, so RedKara made people afraid to cross her.
Her actions are all backed up by insecurity, more comparable to what you’d seen in kids and people acting out in mourning, in stress, in fear. Not malice. If they were, she would’ve killed Cat. She would’ve killed Alex.
When she wakes up, she has to ask Alex if she killed anyone. Not because she doesn’t remember, but because, if someone had been killed, it would’ve happened as a result of her not paying attention while having her fun; not because she’d willed their death to be so.
And yeah, as a tv show that doesn’t want to put long-lasting consequences on their character in the middle of a story-arc they hadn’t yet concluded, there were restrictions to what they could and could not have her do, but I also argue that a majority of that restriction exists only because of who her character actually is.
For all her darkness, RedKara didn’t cross lines she had the ability (and possibly drive) to do so. Like that unconscious part of your brain that won’t let you bite through someone’s finger, even though you could. She was dialed back. Too good at her core to be truly evil, even then. Angry, yes. Frustrated and loud, vindictive, even, yes. But for all her power, she doesn’t actually use it. Shows it off, but doesn’t wield it.
Even when she was advancing on Alex with her heat vision, there’s not a single part of me that believes she would’ve done it. There was probably a voice telling her to just do it, but she couldn’t. Didn’t want to. Was angry at Alex, but didn’t do anything with it.
When I say she’s mild, I say that because she didn’t have to be. She could’ve done anything she wanted, and she did do whatever she wanted. She just didn’t want evil things.
No one died. No one was hurt except Alex’s broken arm (which RedKara didn’t even know had happened, and thus wasn’t her strict intention [and also probably was only included because Chyler had an injury at the time]).
So yeah! That’s why I say she’s mild.
RedK!Kara mild? That’s a wild assessment, I’m like super curious as to what you would consider extreme (outside of canon-altering murder). Kara’s off-the-deep-end dive into self-proclaimed godhood complete with delusions of grandeur were way darker than and of Clark’s RedK depictions in Smallville or Adventures. She got wonderfully dark and she got there quick
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Question of Smoke 