What if Clark and Martha had been estranged?

[Herofan]

This would have made the film seem quite a bit darker but maybe also make more sense ...

What if Martha had disagreed with and been angry about Clark agreeing with Jonathan to not save him? And so they had been pretty distant until the film's present? Would that altered relationship have made Clark's uncertainty and self-doubt more believable?

 

[Brutikus]

Are you meaning it would make Clark's choice more understandable?

 

[Herofan]

Many of his attitudes and choices. He would be reluctant to become an open hero, even after Jor-El kind of encouraged it, if his mother thought he didn't/hadn't known when to act or not act and he knew his parents disagreed about when he should have.