Ultraman Nexus
Civilian
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2005
- Messages
- 242
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 11
Dude i was thinking the same exact thing! I was going to start a thread "Jor-el and Lana Ruined Smallville", seriously.
I had the same reaction watching the premiere, i just hate this version of the Jor-el AI. Why do we even need Superman if we have the all-powerful Jor-el AI watching over the planet, he can turn back time, incapacitate clark, strip Kara of her powers, block out the sun, give humans Powers like Clark and do anything else the plot requires.
In going back and watching season one i found clark to be a much more likeable person, and i started asking myself just when did things go wrong with this show. Yes the acting was kinda bad in early seasons and the freak of the week was tiresome but the concept of Lex and Clark, the contrasts and comparisons of there upbring, the hints about clark's future were all setup nicely and only need more development. In looking at where the heroic clark, who was young, inexperienced, but still likable and heroic became teh guy who doesn't want to live up to his potential, just wants a normal life and can't fly, i think you can track it down to Season 2 season finale, the emergence of Jor-el.
Yes back then i was exicited and thought it was great idea to in retrospect that's when the series starting going off course. For the first time we started having this "destiny" stuff forced down our thoats and clark's. we also see for the first time clark really screw up big time, in destroying the ship and killing his mom's unborn baby. Which leads us to clark using red-k and becoming a crimminal for several months. Which leads to Johnathan making a deal for Superpowers to take down clark which ultimately leads to his early death b/c of his heart. This also lead to the artificial "lana and clark can't be together for multiple seasons" which was awful adn irritating. We also consistantly got more of the clark who doesn't believe in himself, only wants to be normal, doesn't want this destiny etc etc from like season 3 - season7. At least a few times through it a very heroic clark does show up but the overwhelming irritating attitude of the character, the screw up clark, seems to have made his debut after his encounter with Jor-el.
Jor-el ruined Smallville. Just think of any interpretation of the character, how often is Jor-el actively involved with clark becoming Superman? Well you have the movie, in which 18 yr old clark leaves home to figure it all out, makes the fortress and has jor-el explain it all to him, fine, simple worked well. tHen you have every other version in which it was his upbringing with the kents that creates the heroic clark that emerges as Superman. I know Smallville wanted to do something different,, but they should've stuck with the original premise of young clark kent developing into Superman, not Jor-el trying to force some artifical destiny on him that clark spends the marjority of the series fighting against. B/c of that Clark seem so much less heroic than any other character, until he became more proactive in Season 8. And now like Martha makes the costume but Jor-el takes it away, come onIf i was clark i'd just call her up and say "mom i need another suit". Just really silly.
Also we have Kara showing up and basically becoming Supergirl, before clark ever become Superman? Does that strike anyone else as odd? I love Laura Vanderhoot, but the idea just reinforces how artificial they made clark's development or threw random things in the way of his progress.
Yes Jor-el in your infinite wisdom you ruined what could've been a great hero. If you would've simply left him alone he would be flying by now, but no you and your little "you must fulfill your destiny routine" stopped a character from reaching his potential. Great job.
Also if they were advanced enough to create an AI Jor-el that is very much alive not just a recording of data, but active and powerful, how could they not survive krypton's destruction? I mean really...
I pretty much agree with you and much of my disagreement with the show starts at exactly that point. (oh god the stupid caves!) Both that and the moment they gave Lana that silly back story about her father not being her father+having a 17 year old running a coffee bar, it was all downhill for her from there. Which is a damn shame because that scene with Clark and Lana in the graveyard in the pilot ep was magic.
Getting back to Jor-El, the combination of not only Jor-Els spirit being a jerk but also that he's this seemingly all powerful force was just dumb. Plus in the dialog he alternates constantly between telling Clark to be a savior and telling Clark to be a ruler. He's clearly willing to throw human lives under a bus while in the next episode he'll be *****ing at Clark for not thinking about human life. Granted there was an element of conflict between Superman and Jor-El in those movies but there was never a doubt that Jor-El cared for his son and cared for human lives. He was a dick about Superman wanting to be with Lois but I think that was more because at the time Superman clearly wasn't considering the big picture.
But if this had been Smallville Jor-El, Lois or somebody else would have had to die horribly for Superman to get his powers back. When your take on Jor-El is so much of a dick that it's got the audience thinking he might be Brainiac, you've ****ed up.
The only thing I can think of is that somewhere in the development they got the idea to beerslam the voice of Jor-El in the Fortress from the Superman movies with the Eradicator (more-so the device as it was when it first appeared than the actual character who shows up in Death/Return).
Post-Crisis did get a lot of dramatic mileage out of having Superman be a character who must constantly assert and reassert his humanity against forces trying to control or change him. This often included Krypton but this was also working from a horrible dystopia version of the planet that IMO was not one of Byrne's better ideas. In Smallville the picture of Krypton is just as muddy and random as their take on Jor-El.
It's like the show can't decide if they want Jor-El to kind of be the mentor wizard who tells the hero of his quest and gives him guidance or wanting him to be some kind of disembodied Darth Vader.
I also agree with you about Kara. I love Laura Vandervoort in the part but she comes in during an era where the show is padding itself out to continue it's own existence. So everybody else gets there first including Kara flying. So really instead of Superman being the first and greatest hero, he'll be the last one to get a cape and a clue.
