Honestly remember season 1 and Maxwell Lord was taken into the DEO without due process and that’s when James was like hey maybe the DEO actually isn’t good. At all. And he was right but at the time he was only talking about humans at the time, and how they were treating humans. But what if this led his season 2 arc, with him as the head of this massive media company was James realizing that the DEO is actually alien Guantanamo.
These aliens had at minimum 24 years of being locked up, since that was how long Kara was in The Phantom Zone. We have no idea how long they were sentenced there for, or even for what. And what we know is that the DEO would then capture the alien, take them in, and decide whether or not they will be locked up forever and probably horrible confinement with no sunlight, or cell mates, or any chance of parole. Just look at that tiny cell Astra had. There is no parole, they are there forever without any kind of due process or rights, with agents possibly also conducting experiments on them, like they did with Astra and Kryptonite. They literally tortured Astra–and have you ever seen an alien prisoner with a lawyer? I haven’t.
Jonn had to pretend to be Hank for over a decade–Hank, who clearly had a bunch of friends in the military as we see in that ep where Alex is interrogated by Lucy in s1. You can’t all of a sudden be an alien lover and have extremely Progressive views. Maybe he can gradually and arbitrarily make changes, like letting go of the professor of astronomy that we see, who Hank probably would have kept imprisoned, or doing his best to recruit people who aren’t all hardcore xenophobes. But it’s not enough.
The DEO literally play judge, jury, and executioner with alien lives.
am not exaggerating when I say this is alien Guantanamo
and James realizing this, especially realizing this when he remembers that they shot Kara out of the sky with Kryptonite and locked her up before letting her go. It’s almost a survival thing for Kara to work with them, because this could be her. And it’s one thing when it is all the Fort Rozz aliens trying to kill her, but what about all the other aliens in national city?
And do you know who’s also end up being on his side? Someone he talks to
as a point to be like yes this is the alternative we need, James isn’t
just going to be like “this is wrong,” oh no, he’s going to have a
solution and ideas of how to make the system better, an alternate especially since right now it seems like for any crime aliens get life sentences.
Who this would bring him into contact with? Detective Maggie Sawyer
from National City Police Department’s science branch. And oh look. Now
we also have a cohesive storyline for Maggie that exists outside of
Alex.
And that’s definitely one way to cause conflict between James and Kara, temporarily breaking them up. Because yes Alex definitely took the job in case they ever came after Kara–she straight out says multiple times she did this to protect Kara, because as she was before she couldn’t take on the DEO, and this would give her hours, maybe days of warning that she might need to grab Kara and run– but it was also a Lifeline when she was struggling. and there’s also a fact that most of the aliens Alex encounters wouldn’t hesitate to try and kill Aluras daughter if they knew about her, and she says in season one that J’onn told her that they were going to save the world. She then makes a point that she can’t distinguish between aliens and humans anymore, but we don’t really see that in DEO policies, other than they’ll now take in humans with powers as well as aliens. To do what she does, Alex needs to believe that she’s in the right– and tbh it kind of reminds me about border patrol dynamics w their family members(when I went to El Paso,TX–and this is from both undocumented immigrants and the border patrol themselves–they mentioned that several border patrol agents would have family members who were there illegally and it’s just the dynamic they live with it’s definitely an interesting but complicated topic).
This entire media war would definitely place James at odds with Alex. And even if Kara understands (even if it’s a truth Kara doesn’t want to acknowledge because so much of her life is hard and complicated and she doesn’t want to think about how tenuous her freedom really is, and what she’s maybe done for the past year), both Kara and Alex choose each other first, always. It’s not a man (or racism) who breaks up Kara and James. And James understands, he does, and he hopes that one day maybe Kara will stop being scared of what could happen (and if she is, its because hes helped shape a world where she wont be)–but it’s not going to stop him.
This is what’s right. This isn’t bs contrived drama–god, the metaphor and symbolism alone, about a black man being in control of the media narrative of the xenophobic practices of shady government law enforcement that do what they want to a vulnerable minority population, shaping public opinion, acting as the moral compass of the show? Mindblowing
This is how James Olsen can end up being a guardian for others. Not with his fists, or against muggers. Because
this is something he can do that Kara can’t. Kara may be a reporter, can go against a thousand corrupt politicians and institutions potentially–but not the DEO. She can’t do this–as an
alien, she’s under their purview. But James, as a civilian and a human,
isn’t. Kara Danvers may be somewhat of a big name for a few select
journalism circles by being Cat’s assistant for 3 years but that’s a
selective circle (and how many nights do you think Kara stays up late,
trying to avoid thinking about what scenario would make the DEO come
after her, or how many times they almost did, how much
information they collected on her, before she ever became Supergirl)
James said it himself–he took that picture, and now everyone
knows his name.
This is not about punches and fighting–this is how
James can frame the narrative to shape public opinion and make change on a global scale. He’s not some
random reporter the DEO can disappear, or intimidate into compliance. He just became the head of an international media company, and he’s publicly known as Superman’s best friend–this has nothing to do with Superman, but he, with all his fragile humanity, has been threatened and intimidated by every single goddamn villain Superman has gone against and came out the other side breathing. Sure he’s scared, but when has that ever stopped him?
He’s James fucking Olsen, and he’ll hold his head high as he does what’s right.
Sometimes when it’s slow, Supergirl hangs out at the skate park
Oh you KNOWWWW I’m gonna headcanon the everloving crap out of this:
Alex goes through a skating phase. She’s out of it by the time Kara arrives, but she still has a couple boards. Kara finds them and can’t stop asking questions. Alex takes her to the skate park for some show and tell but soon learns she has to physically sit with Kara to remind her not to go try. (A kid that faceplants with zero injuries or a kid who flies when the board gets away from them, which is more suspicious?)
So Alex takes her in the dead of night. The summer before they go to college especially, Alex gets nostalgic and sad she’s leaving so they go skating at 3 am, like, twice a week. And Kara can master all these physics, so she watches a YouTube video like once and masters the most insane tricks.
Fast forward several years and she’s Supergirl. Whenever Kara’s really homesick, Alex doesn’t know how to deal with it either. So she finds a skatepark and drags Kara there at 4 am until Kara starts to smile.
Winn finds out after Alex comes in early one morning with some splinters because of Kara breaking the fifth board that year and she was picking up the pieces. Winn builds her a board out of titanium alloy and trucks that’ll actually hold up to the weight she puts on them, plus wheels that are soft enough they won’t damage the concrete when she lands, and they’re self-healing in shape. It’s also decked out with some super-awesome Supergirl designs.
And Kara’s thrilled. Alex wants one immediately. (Winn is the crowd favorite at Christmas that year)
Kara’s flying back from a fire on a Saturday afternoon and happens to see some kids trying to master a trick at her favorite skate park and having a tough time of it…
The third Saturday afternoon of every month at a certain skate park, kids know they can get free skating lessons on the absolute hardest tricks from Supergirl herself—and she’s a really good, patient, encouraging, and helpful teacher. It’s one of the better kept secrets of National City’s resident hero. (Sledding help, she leaves to Guardian and his shield)
And if skate shops everywhere see an uptick in requests for Supergirl logos on their decks and helmets and knee pads and bandaids, well, that was a long time coming anyway.
After swooping in to save no less than fifty kids in an afternoon from a nasty spill as they try new tricks, Supergirl has a veritable army of slightly grungy and ripped-jeans 6-16 year olds ready to go to war if anyone badmouths her.
And after the RedK incident, they’re the ones that help her find peace with herself first. We all get pissed sometimes, a fifteen year old with blue hair tells her. We all do things we regret. You just gotta get back on the board and remember that you love the sport. She sometimes wonders if she even needed forgiving in their eyes.
AHHH!! It got something written for it!!! It’s amazing! This is so great. (Tbh I did have the soccer headcanon in the spirit when I was drawing this).
Kara is mid-sentence with Alex and Winn and she just pauses, turns, catches the hammer, and chucks it back into space. Then returns to the conversation
Kara: hey so my planet blew up when I was a child my cousin and I are essentially the only survivors for that to happen and no one to try and escape there must have been SO MANY secrets kept also look at all the shit that my parents did, like my father creating the Medusa virus or that entire scene with my mother’s AI “Could she have [Astra] have saved us–but was she right?” and speaking of Astra I never knew what happened to her and only found out once she threw me through a wall after kidnapping my adopted sister oh yeah who also lied about actually killing her and along with that I was told my entire time on Earth that in order to survive in this deeply xenophobic society I had to hide every aspect of my being because if I don’t bad things would happen to me and the people I love if I didn’t also my sister lied to me for three years about being a Black Ops agent and I probably worried a lot about her various injuries that I now know were from various missions but I didn’t know that and couldn’t have helped her if she died also my two best friends went off to be secret vigilantes without telling me even though they have no training and I was honest about who I was and he can stop any time being a Vigilante but I can’t stop being Kara Zor-El, an alien, so no I am not all that fond of secrets I know it can seem a bit hypocritical but I am deeply traumatized and bad things happen when people keep secrets from me because if I don’t know I can’t help I have an entire ice fortress with Kryptonite tech I also have a Kryptonian education and know that this isn’t just science it’s magic maybe I could have helped Sam in some way I’m more than just a pair of fists
y’all: wow that kara she sure is an annoying hypocrite
also kara: lena i will literally die in your place I love you so much I’m just a little hurt right now ok I just want to know you don’t have any kryptonite considering I also cleared your name that time you went to jail and were accused of having it and you made me think that you would never do something like that when every other person INCLUDING JAMES TOLD ME THAT YOU WOULD
Okay, so this isn’t crack – it’s only vaguely funny and kind of went out on a vaguely angsty tangent, but here you go anyway!
–
“Why did I do this with you?”
Astra slides another shot of some kind of alien alcohol across
to her in answer. “Because, sister, you wanted a break from human law school
and going out with your human friends to get drunk isn’t feasible.”
Alura groans, leaning sideways onto her sister’s shoulder. “I
don’t like being drunk, it makes me think of lots of things I wouldn’t.”
“That’s what being drunk is,”
Astra replies, patting Alura’s head gently. “Did you get all your essays done,
before you came?”
“Yes,” Alura reaches for the shot glass at the reminder,
wanting to completely forget the nightmare that were her essays. Downing the
fiery liquid, Alura struggles not to cough, accepting the citrus piece that
Astra offers, still leaning on her. “I miss Lucy.”
“Oh?” Astra queries, sounding like it amuses her, “Do you
really? What do you miss about your wife, Alura?”
“Her hair. Her smile,” Alura sighs, moping, “She makes me scrambled
eggs in the morning and I haven’t been able to make them the same way.”
“You might have the milk to egg ratio wrong,” M’gann offers
as Astra motions for the bottle, watching as she pours more shots for them
both. “Or the temperature might be wrong. Oil makes a pan hotter.”
“We make eggs in the microwave machine,” Alura meets eyes
with the Martian, not expecting the horrified expression. “What is it?”
“Eggs in the microwave?
What kind of heathen is your wife?” M’gann demands, wrinkling her nose. “You
make scrambled eggs on a pan with bacon-”
“We don’t eat meat,” Astra interrupts, “Unlike my sacrilegious
niece.”
“The point remains: you make any type of eggs in a pan,” M’gann
moves away to answer some other patron’s demands, Alura frowning.
“Why does Kara eat
meat?”
“She was raised that way,” Astra replies magnanimously,
pushing a shot to Alura when – predictably – her sister’s mood sours as a
result. “Apologies. This is supposed to be a night of fun and relaxation.”
“Instead, we talk about the wrong way to make scrambled eggs
and how Kara was raised into eating animals.”
Astra clinks a shot glass against Alura’s. “To dreadful conversation.”
talk to me more about how Kara’s “sweet” and “sunny” disposition, as well as her tendency to let her feelings get walked all over, is explicitly tied (in season 1) to her experiences of loss. Talk to me about the psychology of that. ‘Cause I’m skeptical of any review or “fan” who makes a lot of Kara’s “sunny” and “hopeful” exterior, but…
Question of Smoke 