you know i don’t think anyone ever told eliza that alex was on that plane like if alex travels a lot for the DEO and to keep up the front of being a lab rat–and considering she’s probably published as well, to keep up appearances and also to be like @ the deo yes I’m still useful–then Alex probably doesn’t tell Eliza every single time she goes out of the country
so there’s a very good chance that Eliza is under the impression that in a way the plane rescue was–the best word here I can think of is almost a whim in that it was a random act of heroism, but not quite because if Kara saved that plane then maybe it was something she was gearing up to do, especially as saving a plane is the first thing that superman did
maybe eliza doesn’t know that the reason why kara finally revealed herself to the world wasn’t because she wanted to be a hero or reveal herself but first and only she wanted to save alex
eliza undoubtedly loves alex wholeheartedly but alex doesn’t exactly talk to her much–eliza didn’t know about alex partying her way to failure, or the DEO, or how she felt about Eliza’s expectations (and once she did she actively and we see continuously try to change her behavior)–so a lot of that Thanksgiving dinner makes more sense with the lense of maybe Alex knowing about Kara’s plan and wanting Alex to stop her for a pre-planned reveal, rather than Alex possibly dying without Kara’s interference.
Tag: supergirl meta
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.
There is a very specific way I want to see Kara’s identity
reveal and the very last thing Lena
learns is kara’s name, not the first. For James, all there is to his Guardian
reveal is that he is Guardian—sure there’s maybe a few details about his suit
specs and maybe what might have motivated him to do this, but that’s it. But
for Kara, revealing that she’s Supergirl means so much more than revealing she’s
a mere superhero. There’s only ever been one person that Kara’s told her identity
to (Winn), and that was when she was going off the rush of adrenaline and the
high of flying again. Kara was told all her life she has to hide and blend in—sure
some people have figured out that Kara is Supergirl but none of them know that she
is Kara Zor-El, not simply a human with powers but a Kryptonian always, someone
who is a refugee and has been hiding for the past decade—even when she’s
Supergirl, she’s still hiding. The last of her world–she’s always afraid.I want Kara as Supergirl to tell Lena about Krypton, about her religion,
about Rao, about the way Argo city looked way up high in the crystal
towers, the songs her people would sing, the way it feels to be the last speaker
of a dying language, what it was like to live a childhood without powers only
to gain them, the color of her mother’s eyes, how the one thing she wants more
than anything in the world is just one I love you—just one more hug. How it
felt to see that message from her mother and seeing her face for the first time
in more than a decade, how she tries to remember the sound of her father’s voice
and how there are days she can’t remember what it looked like when they laughed
because she has her mother’s AI but it’s
not the same.I want her to tell Lena what it was like to have to pick
herself up when everyone was gone and
there was no hope of any of them coming back except Astra did. Astra did—and she
never got a chance to hug her. She never got a chance to let her aunt know the
person she was able to become. I want to see Kara talk about her absolute terror
of people experimenting with Kryptonite, about how one experiment gone wrong
resulted in being forced to act on every bad thought and impulse she ever had,
fully cognizant after of what happened and understanding all too well what Sam
is going through on a level humans can’t—it’s not quite the same, but it’s
closer than anyone else can understand.Kara talking about her anger
with her parents, how maybe they could have saved their planet and their
race (echoing back to that scene with her mother’s AI could Astra have saved us?—she was a criminal—but was she right) and how that anger also wars
with her guilt—guilt that saving Krypton means that she would never come to Earth
and she wouldn’t trade that, we see that when Kara gives up Krypton and in the
Black Mercy episode she would choose Alex every time.I want to see Kara tell Lena the only reason why she ever
revealed herself and saved that plane was because she would do anything for the
people she loves and won’t lose
another person she cares about. That choosing to be the light in her friends’
life is an ever constant choice—it’s not always easy but god does Kara try, tries not to let her anger and
loneliness and grief consume everything that she is I want Kara to tell Lena
her name is Zor-El—her family’s
legacy, about el mayarah.And then, when Kara
is finally ready and no longer scared, I want her to tell Lena, fully knowing
that she is echoing that conversation from so long ago and all its implications, those flowers remind me of my mother.
Here’s a SG concept:
Alex is already a superhero in my book. If she was in the batfam she’d be running around with a cowl by now.
I was going to use this concept for a later story but I’m gonna speak it into existence now. Stay with me here guys. Alex as Nightwing.
Before you start crying that Nightwing is a Batman thing let me remind you that lil’ nerd Dick Grayson named himself Nightwing after the Kryptonian god that’s associated with Flamebird.
Reasons why Alex should be Nightwing:
1) Alex has no superpowers. Is a trained federal agent and scientist. If Dick Grayson can do it with a background of a carnie, Alex could certainly pull it off.
2) The Kryptonian god Nightwing was created by Rao to hunt evils that lived beyond his light in the shadows. Being a creature of shadow itself Nightwing lived a lonely existence until it was introduced to Flamebird, it’s soulmate. Alex also lives a life in the shadows hunting evils. The shadow of her family of her parents and Kara doesn’t stop her from finding her place in the DEO.
3) It fits in thematically and aesthetically. It would be poetic to have a set of Kryptonian made villains like the Worldkillers to be stopped by a member of the house of El and the avatar of a Kryptonian god.
4) Because I say so
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
y’all: i hate kara
i’m rewatching the scene with alura’s hologram, “could she have saved us?”
“she was a criminal” “but was she right?”do you think about how many nights this rattles around in her head, over and
over and over, staying up all night wondering if there was a way to save her
planet, if her family could have lived“we were both given life sentences by my mother” god, kara viewing this on
earth as a life sentence, as a forced exile–and then there’s the fact
that kara also spent 24 years in the phantom zoneThere’s just one more line that I think about, in that confrontation “I think
you went crazy in Fort Rozz. I think
you stared into miles of pitch black space until everything good inside of you died.”This
is specific, this isn’t out of
nowhere, this sounds like someone who has gone through the same experience.And Astra? Astra doesn’t deny it. Astra
talks as if she thinks Kara is wholly unaware of what it’s like to be in the Phantom Zone “my
mother was the best person to ever live” “tell that to us thrown into that
nightmare prison.” Kara wasn’t in Fort Rozz but she was still in the phantom
zone—Kryptonians don’t age, not really. We’ve seen that with Clark. Astra didn’t
know that Kara was alive—god, when do you think she finds out that Kara spent
24 years in that abyss, just like she did? Because when she did—I think it
broke her heart.
Okay, but how scared do you think Eliza was, after Alex left the second time to go help Hank and Kara with Livewire? Right after she’d decided to tell Alex about what happened to Jeremiah.
And all she could do was sit in the dark and wait. And wonder if her daughter was coming back.
Look, I’m not saying anything she said to Alex was right, or good—but look at the words she used with Alex when…
Kara is in a bathroom stall trying to finish a particularly long rambling text when the two walk in. She doesn’t pay them much mind at first, but her ears perk up just a bit when she hears one of them say supergirl in a heavily accented, heavily vitriolic whisper.
She floats her legs up so they can’t be seen under the door.
“I know it is uncomfortable,” the other one is saying as the water turns on, “but it is the price we pay. With them here at least we know we’re safe.”
The first one laughs a throaty, obviously alien laugh, and says, “tell that to those who died in the attack. You know that would never have happened if they were not around.”
“Look, there’s nothing we can do. They’re friends with the owner. Besides, all my interactions with them have been pleasant.”
“My brother is still missing, you know that? Those pigs took him from our home four years ago without any warning and he’s still gone. No word if he is even alive. But now that they’ve got their little human looking poster child suddenly it’s okay to be extraterrestrial, it’s okay for them to come into our space and act like they are not our oppressors. Like they have not stolen our children away time and again. It sickens me.”
“I have heard of another place opening soon. less legitimate but a strict no human policy.”
The other one grunts, shutting the sink off. Kara can hear the sound of paper towels being used.
“And none of their little alien pets, either.”
The other laughs – a shrill groan that makes Kara’s insides feel like mush – and agrees.
“Of course. No supergirl.”
Kara waits nearly fifteen minutes after they leave to let her feet touch the ground again.
She walks slowly back to the table where her friends sit drunkenly arguing over a story from a few weeks ago. She sees Alex with her arm slung casually around Maggie, sees the hint of her sidearm under her jacket. Winn is loudly refuting James claim while munching away at the only bar food edible for humans. Kara lets her eyes wander over the rest of the bar and it feels like she’s really seeing it for the first time.
She sees how the other patrons huddle on the walls with at least two tables between them and her friends. She sees The tells of agitation, the side eye glare that flashes towards Winn when his excited yell results in spewed food crumbs all over the group. Everyone yells back, jumping up to try and escape his spray. Kara hears the grumbled mumblings of a large bug-like humanoid who tosses its money on the table and skitters out in a huff.
She’s brought back by a soft hand on her shoulder. Alex is giving her a concerned look.
“Hey,” Alex says quietly, “you okay?”
It feels like the walls are creeping in on her and her ears are ringing.
“No. I’m not.”
Kara starts the next morning.
She doesn’t actually wait until the sun has risen. She talked with Alex for an hour and formulated a plan. Alex isn’t entirely on board–yet–but she’s willing to give it a shot. And that’s a good enough place for Kara.
She has Vazquez teach her the last bits of the system she didn’t know and is halfway through the records before J’onn and Winn even get into work.
J’onn examines her work and just sighs. She glares. “You knew this was coming.“
“I did.”
“Times have changed, J’onn. We can’t do what we used to. We can do better. It’s time. It was time months ago, years ago. We can’t put this off.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
And they begin.
Kara speaks to everyone personally. They can’t put every alien through their rehabilitation program. But they have a relocation program for those who want it, and they move all but the most dangerous into better accommodations. Bigger, with more light. A comfortable bed and a stack of books and a window–reinforced bulletproof glass, but still.
About half their prisoners are released within six months. There are some that have been locked up for a while, for no particular reason. Many had minor misdemeanors. Lots just didn’t know how to deal with their abilities on earth, and weren’t given the same loving care Kara first had. Kara–and J’onn and Alex–work with them on controlling their abilities. And they’re let free, with only a little bit of oversight. Not parole, not a supervisor, just a sort of… someone looking out for them. Someone in their corner. A lot of DEO agents volunteer for the new mentorship program.
And slowly, so slowly, the DEO isn’t a prison. For the most part. They still have the most dangerous alien criminals locked up. The rehab program isn’t for everyone. Some aliens are just bad, the same way some people are just bad. Kara chats with Psi weekly. She flies to the old bunker and all their other facilities to help out with the program.
Some aliens are harder to rehabilitate than others. Some can’t speak English. Some are completely out of control with their powers. Some have been locked up in a fish tank in the dark since the real Hank Henshaw and now are so mad at the DEO they’d be a threat to public safety if they were let out. But Kara won’t give up. And pretty soon, there are a lot more people working on solutions with her.
Kara writes a hundred stories on the aliens now out in public. Lena works on tech to help suppress the powers of those who ask for help with it. Alex teaches them how to defend themselves without taking out a city block. Winn gets them ID’s and starts a weekend class so they can learn computer skills. James and Sam work to find them all jobs until they find something they want a career in.
J’onn’s still nervous about some of them. Kara finally rolls her eyes and fixes him with a stare. “Do you really think that I can’t track down anyone if I need to? Give them a chance, J’onn, the world is changing and they deserve a chance. We got one.”
J’onn finally wraps an arm around her. “I know you’re right. I trust you. Change can be hard, but you’re right, it’s worth it.”
And if one day, Kara hears that voice from the bathroom again, but this time it’s to her face, somewhat mumbled, and thanking her for her efforts, well… she’ll know she’s on the right track.
headcanon time
so everyone thinks that kara’s this sweet kid who never uses language stronger than ‘hell’ and ‘goddamn’, but when she’s really frustrated she sometimes goes off in kryptonese and no one knows what she’s saying, until one day clark and astra are there, and alex asks them to translate, and clark just goes bright red and refuses because, honestly, it’s filthy and some of the anatomy involved doesn’t really translate, and astra asks him why he’s looking at her, because she didn’t teach kara how to say that (even though she probably totally did)
supergirl headcanon so what if Clark doesn’t know any slang because he learned kryptonese through manuscripts and videos and other boring educational avenues so when Alex asks him to translate Clark only gets half of it because ‘that’s not supposed to do that’ ‘why would Kara start talking about prostates?’ Astra sort out of looks at Clark and mourns the loss of kryptonian culture even if it’s super vulgar she sees it as a form of poetry she’s touched Kara remembered some of the choice phrases from years ago and is impressed with the depraved phrases kara’s come up with since because that really /isn’t/ supposed to do that when Astra busts out laughing it’s kara’s turn to go bright red because she’s not used to anyone picking that up later they spend time trading and honing the insults and curses they’ve picked up over the years they have crash courses to teach Clark when he’s in town via stuffidontneed
# and alex is surprised because while kara did teach her a little bit of the language # she had no idea that kara kept all the good insults to herself via @karaalex
alex being, not just surprised, but insulted and a tiny little bit betrayed and the next time, just before they spar in the ring, she slugs her in the shoulder because do you know how much i needed to cuss that alien out that one time, kara, because it was a lot, kara, and i’m your sister, gdi, and you kept this from me, and all those times i got in trouble for swearing as a kid, while you were saying that behind the vice-principal’s back!? how dare you
oh my god, poor Kara
just wants everyone to get along
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 