Not to be argumentative, but I am not impressed with the second talking point that you mention. It kind of encapsulates everything that I dislike about Kyle: his actions and decisions poison any good that he does. Yes, he showed compassion toward Jonathan when he was down and out and gave him a job. But he immediately starts hazing him at that job. And I get it, that can be the culture in those situations. But when the show presents someone as altruistic as Superman as the benchmark, having a character like Kyle deliberately disrespect and humiliate a teenage kid at work in an effort to toughen him up does not ingratiate the character.
The same thing goes for his family. Sure, he is trying to remain involved and not be a deadbeat. That’s honorable and good. But it was the guy’s own decisions and selfishness that played a huge part in setting the marriage on the course for failure in the first place. And with their daughter’s history, both Kyle and Lana need to get their acts together and stop being so self absorbed.
Thank you for valuing polite discussion. Yes, fans will inevitably disagree about things, but we can be calm and polite about it, and everybody wins that way.
I think that what's bothering me about the heated reactions to Kyle that I've been reading in this forum is that those reactions seem out of proportion to Kyle's actions. For example, Kyle made the decision to have an affair, and in doing so he hurt his family, and his decision is having lasting consequences, but he seems to have repented and seems to be trying to make what amends he still can by being a good father. He never intended to hurt his family, and that certainly doesn't excuse what he did, but it counts for
something. He's not a villain. I get the impression that some fans feel that Kyle's fault in the breakup of his marriage means that he should not now be in a relationship with Chrissy, but two single adults have every right to find happiness together if that's what they both want.
Regarding Kyle being angry at Jonathan for suspected use of super-powers while fighting fires, I think that Kyle is justified. The leader of a hazardous-situation response team needs to know the full capabilities of each of the team's members, to direct them to where they can most effectively and safely deal with the emergency, and throughout the emergency needs to know at all times where everyone is and what they're doing. Jon's supposed freeze-breath could have injured a person, or may have been better used elsewhere, or Kyle might have sent firefighters into the burning building where they could have been injured trying to rescue a secretly-invulnerable rogue team member who did not need rescuing.
To me, Kyle comes across as a generic drama series character, and so I get the frustration that people feel when screen time is devoted to a Kyle side-story instead of a Superman storyline. When Kyle
is part of a Superman storyline, he seems to be there for when the plot needs the main characters to deal with a nuisance but not a full-scale antagonist.
I think that's what's at the core of the — how shall I put this? — the very expressive hatred of Kyle that shows up in this forum, that it's not really about his harmful choices or his abrasive personality, that it's instead about screen time that goes to this side-character instead of to the main characters. I think that it's like in school, where a kid is awkward and unpopular through no terrible fault of his own, and so everyone starts making fun of something easier to point to such as his hair.
