dramatic irony (n) in which the audience knows more about a character’s situation than the character does, foreseeing an outcome contrary to the character’s expectations, and thus ascribing a sharply different sense to some of the character’s own statements
Chris Baldick, Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
When a line is repeated four times in scenes featuring the same two characters in the space of less than a year, something is up.
As the audience, we have a distinct vantage point when engaging with a text. A lot of the time we are given information within the story that the characters themselves aren’t privy to. Sometimes it’s something obvious – it’s the audience knowing that Juliet isn’t really dead when Romeo kills himself over her sleeping body out of grief. But sometimes it’s more subtle than that. Sometimes we only get a hint of the information that the characters don’t know, but that hint is enough to make something feel slightly off, or like it’s more significant than it seems at first glance.
Something’s up between Kara and Lena, and I think it lies in the dramatic irony at play throughout the continued repetition of the line “That’s what friends are for.” and its variations in scenes featuring the two of them.
If we look at the first use of the line in Luthors, we can track how dramatic irony is working in their dialogue. The unspoken act that Kara referred to when she said “Well, that’s what friends are for.” is her striking out against the people who she loves and trusts the most to defend Lena. The unspoken act was Kara ignoring seemingly concrete evidence of Lena’s guilt because of a look she saw in her eyes, despite knowing her for a fraction of the time that she’s known someone like James or Alex. The unspoken act was Kara risking her own life in Lex’s bunker to save her. Because we know all of this, “friend” in this context registers immediately as an understatement, but despite not knowing the full picture, Lena herself highlights that it’s an understatement in the following line:
No. I’ve never had friends like you before. Come to think of it, I’ve never had family like you before.
“No.” As in, No, that’s not what friends are for. Even Lena doesn’t know how to explicitly say that, though. This line, and its repetitive and dramatically ironic nature, represent their relationship as a whole. From the start, this line is established as a way to emphasise the fact that Kara and Lena are going above and beyond the bounds of friendship to care for each other, but are unaware of it, leaving the implications of their actions unsaid.
From our vantage point we can see their dedication, we can see the lengths they continue to go to in ensuring each others safety and happiness. Working from Baldick’s definition, because we know more about Kara and Lena’s situation than they do, the statement is “ascrib[ed] a sharply different sense” than it ordinarily would. Each time this line is used, it begs a lingering question to the audience: “Friend” just doesn’t really begin to cover it, does it?
There’s something slightly heartbreaking in that discrepancy between action and words. There’s bittersweetness in the contrast between what should be an earnestly platonic statement from Kara and the fond, wistful smiles she and Lena exchange as she says it. It’s as if the immensity of their feeling for each other is too much to make sense of, too intense to examine – and, in turn, too steeped in distinctly romantic implications for the text to fully recognise if they intend for Kara and Lena to just be “friends”.
So I had a thought earlier and now I need it to be a thing: What if Astra was the leader of the Legion instead of White Bread Manhell? Imagine Astra’s funeral pod getting pulled through the wormhole and it spits her out next to the sun so she heals, and then she crashes to Earth and finds out that a thousand years have passed and Kara is dead (whether from age or something else, I’m not sure) and she’s just so devastated because she thought she could have another chance with her little one. But Astra is nothing if not resilient, and she sees the state of the world and decides to be the hero Kara knew she could be, and so she gathers the Legion and trains them and they’re not an army but she leads them anyways and in time they’re the family she lost on Krypton.
Imagine dorky Brainiac and Imra seeing Astra as a mother. Imagine Astra learning to love these people and vowing to keep them safe no matter what. Imagine Astra being part of a team, having people who love and believe in her and knowing they don’t see her as less for her past. Imagine Astra getting to see Kara again at last when the ship gets sucked back in time and the joy mixed with agony because she knows she has to leave again. Guys, I need this.
So I’ve been thinking about it
lately and there’s one simple switch that could have put season 3 in a
different, possibly better developed direction. I’ve seen it mentioned before
but the more I dwell on it, the more sense it makes.
Lena buys CatCo and brings in Sam to
run that instead of L Corp. That’s it. Here’s why:
First of all, and this is a big
thing that has been bothering me, but Lena would never leave L Corp. L Corp,
her baby, her family company that she has vowed to pull out of the ashes and
make it a force for good under the new name she’s given it. She has poured her
heart and soul into this company and is damn good at it and they want me to
believe that Lena would ever give L Corp to someone else to run so that
she can look after another company? L Corp is the one part of the Luthor Legacy
that Lena is clinging to because she can do good and great things as its head.
It’s her father’s company, her brother’s company, her company and there
is no way in hell that Lena would hand the keys over to someone else, say “lol
it’s your burden now” and leave. L Corp means too much to her, it’s the key to
the redemption she thinks she needs just because she’s a Luthor and Lena would
not walk away from that.
Now Lena would of course still buy CatCo and take a little
time to know the company, that’s a no brainer. It’s a good investment, she’d be
pulling one over Morgan Edge, and most importantly, Kara asked her to do
something and Lena is whipped. Kara
is also whipped. Both these soft girlfriends are so in love and so whipped that
of course Lena would buy CatCo because she can’t resist Kara’s pout as we’ve
seen time and time again
Where was I going with this
Right so since we’ve established that Lena belongs at L
Corp, here’s why Sam would’ve been a good addition at CatCo…
KARA AND SAM WOULD ACTUALLY HAVE
SCENES TOGETHER AND WE WOULD GET TO SEE THEM BOND INSTEAD OF HAVING TO BE TOLD
HOW CLOSE THEY ARE IN A SHOE-HORNED SPEECH. I’ve talked about how much it bugs
me inthis post but goodness
gracious, I really can’t believe how badly they rushed their dynamic??? The show
is called Supergirl and we barely get to see the relationship between her and another
Kryptonian/possible relative? If Sam were at CatCo, we could see how she and
Kara interacted. We could see them become friends, how they work together, how
alike they are, how Kara and Ruby bond when Sam brings her to work. We could
have been invested in that relationship because we actually saw their relationship. We would’ve
rooted for Kara and Sam to be BFFs and would’ve been devastated during the
Supergirl/Reign showdown because it would have been two people we saw become friends
now fighting each other. It would have contained that emotional element that
the original, admittedly cool looking, fight scene lacked and the development
of that relationship would have been a lot more organic.
Plus can you imagine Sam’s reaction whenever she can’t find
Kara only to be told by some employee that “Oh Kara just left for her exclusive
interview with Lena Luthor.”
“How often does she have those?”
“Like every other day.”
Sam immediately calls Lena up “I know I can’t say anything
because you’re my boss but as your friend, damn get it girl.”
Plus whenever Kara isn’t out “interviewing” Lena 😉 you know she’s out on Supergirl
business and now imagine not one but two people with secret identities leaving
CatCo only to fight each other in the streets five minutes later.
Sam being at CatCo means an easy
integration into the friends group. She knows Kara, Lena, and James so being
invited to Kara’s apartment for game night? It’s no problem, she knows most of
them. Alex would still be introduced to Ruby and that part of the storyline
could continue without issue. This also raises the stakes for everyone because
the more fleshed out connections Sam has with everyone, the sadder it’ll be
when Reign is finally here to stay.
Speaking of James…James. I know
many, myself included, dislike the current story the show is doing with him and
I think Sam being the one at CatCo instead of Lena would fix all of that. The
most obvious reason being that there would be no abrupt BS “romance” between
him and someone the writers have made him continually put down. But for other
reasons too, I promise!
The transition of a new head at CatCo would have been easier
if it wasn’t Lena. James’ hostility towards Lena, whether it’s snapping at her
for asking where Kara (an employee of hers) was going during work or having a bit
of a condescending tone when explaining to Lena about advertisement space
wouldn’t have existed. He might have been wary of Sam when she started since
she was put in charge by Lena but I don’t see that lasting long.
James is so sure Lena is like Lex. He felt that way before
and after meeting her. He felt that Kara, who defended Lena over and over, was
under the same Luthor spell that Clark was under and because of that, didn’t
believe her. I know it’s silly to think that Sam of all people would have an
impact on James’ opinion regarding Lena when he doesn’t know her but I think
that’s why it would work. Because Sam
is someone completely unconnected to the Superman and Lex Luthor debacle. She’s
just a regular person (minus the whole…worldkiller thing) who’s friends with
Lena and has funny anecdotes about her and makes the woman in question seem
more Lena than Luthor to James. And I think that’s important because while I don’t
like the romance at all, I need James’s opinion on Lena to change and for them
to even become friends.
And you know what, I think James and Sam would really get
along. I just do. Whether as friends or a couple (we know James likes and is
good with kids) I think that if they wanted to put James in a romantic
relationship, this would have been a better choice. Sam’s a new character and
it would have been a much cleaner start since there’s no baggage between them.
And James is a good, stable guy. He’d be there for both Sam and Ruby.
And I do want James to have an actual storyline that isn’t
just about romance. James helping Sam run CatCo but having more time to return
to photography, getting over his unfair opinion of Lena, and connecting with
Sam in a platonic or romantic way seems to be a good start, at the very least.
Lena being at L Corp means that Kara
doesn’t have to lie to her as much. It’s amusing when it happens every so often
but becomes decidedly less so when Kara just has to run out at work and Lena
notices or other people have to lie on Kara’s behalf because Lena’s at CatCo
and can’t find Kara. If Lena’s at L Corp, Kara doesn’t have to make up excuses about
why she’s not at her day job.
The Morgan Edge storyline could
continue as planned because Lena would still have bought CatCo.
We could still get cute scenes of
Lena at CatCo because of course she would check in to see how things are doing.
We would get Lena back in her
office!!! Do you know how much I miss seeing Lena in her office?
The desk?
The couch?
Supergirl landing on the balcony
to talk/flirt with her?
I just miss all the supercorp office
scenes. They are so pure.
TLDR: It just
makes more sense for Lena to be at L Corp and to put Sam at CatCo instead
because everyone’s characterization would have been better, Kara and Sam would
actually have scenes together, and it’s so much easier for Supercorp to bang in
Lena’s office when Lena’s actually in her office.
sometimes i get really angry and frustrated at kara’s birth parents like. especially when it becomes apparent that she not only has this “i was sent to earth to protect it at any cost” mentality but literally had it from the time she was a child and i’m like. alura you know what would’ve been helpful is if you. would have gone to earth with her. to take that burden upon YOURSELF instead of putting it on her and to, you know, protect your own 13 year old daughter instead of expecting her to fend for herself and her baby cousin
like i get that alura felt that she should die along with krypton for her mistakes, but imo that was a selfish choice. the braver and more responsible thing to do would’ve been to live.
i’ve seen some conversations about how much alex has given up for kara, especially in season 1,and talk about how lopsided their relationship is but they conveniently leave out that not once but twice kara gives up her world as she knows it for alex–she exposes herself for alex, as she talks about in the cult ep in season 3, and the people in the plane just got lucky because she only did it because alex was there. she turns her life upside down without hesitating for her sister. because sure, Kara loves being Supergirl but her life got so much harder and dangerous after she did–and we’ve seen how much Kara hates change. This has been her life for the past 12 years, and she doesn’t hesitate to turn all of that on it’s head solely for the sake of her sister
and she gives up her greatest fantasy as well: Krypton and her family alive and whole, her aunt alive, neither of them have ever been in the phantom zone (because i think a lot about what kara said to astra–how astra looked at miles of never ending black space and how something inside her died and is she really talking about astra? or herself?). This is what she wants more than anything else–and it just takes a few words from Alex and she willingly chooses to lose them all once again
if alex’s tagline is “i come back with my sister or i don’t come back at all” then kara’s would be “there is no world worth living without you in it.”And I don’t think the severity and depth of that kind of devotion should be underestimated
This is your friendly reminder that shipping Kara/Alex doesn’t mean you’re “erasing” adoptive families. You’re talking about a hypothetical dynamic between two specific fictional characters, one that you understand involves a departure from their canon relationship. You aren’t talking about anyone else’s real family, or invalidating their family. I know that the vast majority of Kara/Alex shippers fully support the canon written dynamic and only want to engage in the romantic shipping in a fanon context, and you don’t deserve to be told that you don’t value or are purposefully sexualizing a sibling relationship. You are not. You are discussing a “what-if” scenario where the “what if” is “what if they saw each other differently?” You are, more than likely, picking up on tropes between the two of them that are heavily romantically coded, and while it’s an interesting thought experiment and a wildly positive thing in the context of mass media to see a relationship like that given the same weight as a romantic one–you are not a creator of mass media, and you are not fundamentally altering or disrespecting the canon text by interpreting it differently. That is one of the core tenets of fandom: The canon stands. And, shockingly, you can hold more than one interpretation of a text, even if the two (or three, or four) interpretations conflict.
Second, “erasure” is a social justice term applied to groups that face systemic societal oppression, and claiming “erasure” is in fact appropriating the term in order to give their personal squick discursive weight where it doesn’t have any. Is it personally irritating? Maybe. Is it possibly something they’ve had to deal with people insinuating about their family at multiple points in their lives, and they just don’t want to hear about it? Sure; and it’s basic decency to respect their wishes to not have people trying to talk to them about things that upset them.
Do adoptive families face systemic oppression that can include things like: Markedly shorter lifespans for people from that group, due to lack of housing, job, or economic prospects (e.g., do people not want to hire them, work with them, house them, etc. because they’re adopted?); entire conservative institutions dedicated to “protecting the family” from them; face potential firing, physical or sexual harassment, or even murder because of their status–so often that it’s necessary to create legal statutes specifying violence based on those characteristics as “hate crimes”; pathologization and attempts to forcibly institutionalize and “treat” them; or ban from engaging in activities or institutions considered benefits, privileges, or duties of “full citizenship” in society, like military service (however you may feel about that), marriage, or (pointedly) adoption?
No.
Are people mean to them for it? Yes. Do people bully them for it? Yes. Do people insinuate things about their families? Yes, and I suspect that’s part of the reason for the reaction some people with that background have. But the necessary implication of “erasure” is that the group in question is also systemically oppressed. And that’s not true in this case.
Do you ever think about how if Kara hadn’t lingered for one last kiss from her mother, she wouldn’t have been caught in the shockwave that sent her to the phantom zone and things would have gone as their parents had planned
Do you ever think about how Kara must have thought about that. I think a lot about how she must have grown up not only knowing that she was supposed to help Clarke but also that she couldn’t because she stayed back just those few seconds too long. How like, in the process of saying goodbye to her family, to a large extent she also lost Clarke
You cannot tell me that Alex Danvers doesn’t know Kryptonese. That while Alex was teaching her everything of Earth, that Kara didn’t teach Alex her language. That they didn’t stay up late, looking at the stars, and Kara said every word into relation of what they saw.
You cannot tell me Alex doesn’t speak better Kryptonese then Kal-El. Because it is something she actually wanted to learn and support of because of Kara.
Alex couldn’t give her her planet, her loved ones, or her life back, but she could talk to her in her language.
Question of Smoke 