real life, BASCon con't

[lierdumoa]

Was at the store before class getting new headphones. Suddenly panicked thinking I forgot to put in a tampon. Saw tampax at the register, threw them in with my purchase, then ran to the bathroom only to realize I had, in fact, put in a tampon. Now I have a box of a brand I hate (seriously -- most uncomfortable tampons ever) that I will feel obligated to use because waste not want not, etc. Grrrrrrrr.

On the bright side, I now own what I think might just be the sexiest headphones ever. More importantly, headphones with a 1.5 meter cord. Last time I didn't check and accidentally bought a 1 meter cord pair. Fine for listening to your CD player or laptop, but too short if you're vidding on a desktop. Which I am.



In other news, my birthday present to myself finally arrived in the mail a few days ago. Season 1 of The OC and the Postal Service CD Give Up. Have fallen in love with the show all over again. Watched the deleted scenes and fell in love Seth. Oh, I know what you're thinking -- "DVD's and a CD? What's she planning to vid?"

*cough*vidbunny*cough



Things I still need to do: 1) burn all of Cowboy Bebop from my co-op server for permetaform (do you want the movie too?) 2) burn all of BtVS season 6 from my co-op server for this vidbunny 3) burn all the movies I want to vid from my co-op server 4) kill myself...oh, wait...1, 2, and 3 already take care of that



Oh, but where was I? BASCon. The Smallville and livejournal panels.



The Smallville Panel: The World As It Revolves Around Lex Luthor

permetaform and I dropped in a tad late, but from what I heard we didn't miss much. The highlights, as I remember, basically revolved around discussion of Lex and his transformation into an evil fucker that we are seeing in season 4 of the show.

I first remember that people were discussing the sekrit obsesso room of Clark that Lex had hidden away at the mansion. Long story short, Lex told Clark he'd stopped investigating, Clark believed him, then Lionel gave Clark the key to the obsesso room because Lionel's such a spiteful fucker. Then Clark broke up with Lex, like (for the first time -- he broke up with him about five more times over the course of the episode). And that was the end of season 3.

There was a general consensus in the panel that Lex's investigation wasn't really about Clark at all. It was all about Lex. Clark wanted Lex to just accept certain things about him on faith. Everyone pretty much agreed that it goes directly against Lex's nature to take anything on faith. When Lex said that it wasn't about Clark, that it was for him, he was telling the truth. Yes, his discoveries had the possibility of hurting Clark, but the research wasn't really about Clark. After all, it was Lex's lab, and everything in Lex's world revolves around Lex.

The panel speculated on the growing evil in Lex. In the comic books, the original Lex Luthor was a total psychopath who murdered his parents and inflicted pain on a whim. In the television series, it is Lionel Luthor, Lex's father, who murdered his parents. Lionel is the one who kills anyone who gets in his way. Lionel is the psychopath. The fact that Lex so badly does not want to be his father makes it seem impossible that he could possibly become as terrible as the Lex in the comic books. For one thing, he just doesn't seem to have it in him. For another, that would be a tad too redundant.

permetaform brought up her theory that the Smallville incarnations of Clark and Lex are the next generation of Superman and Luthor -- that Lionel is the Lex Luthor of the comics and Jonathan Kent is the Clark of the comics. The two, when looked at like this, do seem almost charicatures of Clark and Lex. Similarly the superhero and supervillain were given more depth as the comic evolved and went through numerous writers. permetaform mentioned that Clark was much like Con-El of the comics (Clark and Lex's test tube baby in comic book canon). Someone in the panel made the point that Lex couldn't be the Lex of the original comics because the way they've written the show, there's no way he wouldn't know that Clark was Superman. Unless of course they decide to include that comic book canon detail where Clark can erase memory with a kiss, in which case I think I would pay good money to see Clark kiss Lex on screen outside of a CPR situation.

There is one comic book incarnation, someone mentioned, of a Lex Luthor who truly did love humanity, and was enemies with Superman because Superman wasn't human and Lex didn't trust him. The show almost seems to encourage this interpretation. There was that episode in season 3 when, regarding the cave paintings prophesizing Clark's coming, Lex speculated that perhaps the coming being was not the hero of the tale. After all, a creature that can shoot fire from it's eyes and has the power of ten men sounds more like a monster than a savior.

Perhaps my favorite part of the panel was speculation on Clark and Lex's influences. Someone made the point that Jonathan is too closed minded to truly help Clark become what he needs to become. It is Martha's influence that will truly help him to become Superman. Lex, on the other hand, doesn't have that maternal influence. Clark has Martha to balance out Jonathan, basically. While Jonathan is constantly bombarding Clark with mixed messages (you can't play football son, be careful to hide your abilities son, lift the tractor for me son, split some logs for firewood would you son), Martha teaches more by example than by any sort of preaching.

Someone drew the interesting parallel (or is it anti-parallel?) of Lionel and Jonathan. Jonathan is constantly giving Clark affirmations for his physical prowess and Lionel encourages Lex's intelligence. Telling Lex that he is an expert manipulator, that he is clever, his father is proud of Lex's intelligence. It isn't as if Clark's strength is the only thing he has going for him. We know he's going to grow up to become an excellent journalist. We know that Lex is certainly no invalid. He never gets sick. And perhaps this is just the WB's doing, but Lex has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, physically. Lex's greatest influences are his father, Clark, and Johnathan. Someone made the point that Lionel is a sadistic asshole and Johnathan is a self-righteous asshole. I made the point that what Lex needs to realize is that it's not an either-or. I think that Lex idealizes Johnathan, in a way. He doesn't realize that if he tries emulates his father or Clark's, he's going to end up an asshole either way.

Yet another interesting point brought up in the panel was the type of evil that Lex is growing into. He won't be like his father, who kills anyone who gets in his way and is cruel merely on a whim. Maternal influences were mentioned earlier. Lex's memory of his mother is that of a woman who killed her child because she believed it was for his own good. Lex killed Nixon when he put the Kent family in danger. Lex would be willing to kill if he thought it were for a person's own good or for the greater good. The frightening thing about Lex isn't that he's a simple sadist, but that the conscience he's developed over the years is a conscience that is willing to cross lines others wouldn't cross. Lex is dangerous for the same reason vigilantes are dangerous. He's not cruel, but misguided. I'm reminded of the man in season 1 who could kill people with a touch and used the ability to perform euthanasia on the old -- who, when he realized he was in fact doing more harm than good, killed himself out of guilt. I can only hope Lex won't end up like that.

I'm not quite sure where to fit this bit in, but there was also a point I made that Lex wanted love from his father so badly, and he couldn't believe his father was truly a bad person until he recovered the memory of his mother killing his brother. It wasn't until he knew that his mother believed Lionel incapable of love that he could himself believe Lionel incapable of love.



The Livejournal Panel: On Topic?!? Eh?!? No Comprendo

Well, we started out talking about livejournal. A few of us mentioned how we got into livejournal. Some of us used it for mostly real life things, and some for mostly fandom things. We discussed livejournal news listings and named a few more popular HP ones.

Then iibnf grabbed my cherry vanilla cream soda off the table, sniffed it, and pronounced with a perfect "eeew" face that it smelled like, if I remember correctly, marzipan cough medicine (in her perfect Australian accent). She thrust it up under a few other people's noses. Her friend that came with her commented made the comment that we could go home and tell our friends we spent the whole our sniffing each other's cans.

If I can recall correctly, iibnf was discussing how when she first started her livejournal all she talked about was her real life until she realized to her shock and surprise that people were actually reading her journal about how her pet rats were doing on a given day.

Pet rats somehow moved the conversation onto Willard. Then we were discussing Christian Hellion Glover. I professed a certain fondness for Creepy Thin Man.

I honestly don't know how we got to talking about Christopher Walken. Apparently, though, he danced before he acted, and iibnf owns a copy of Puss In Boots wherein he plays Puss In Boots himself. And sings. And dances.

I think the panel ended somewhere in the midst of us discussing Christopher Walken's SNL sketches.



My next post will be my review of the vid show.

Off to vid, now. Ta ta, folks.

Comments

[tehshiny.livejournal.com]

You could always use those tampons as the "of course I have a spare tampon you can borrow" tampons.

...that's what I do.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's because they both push so much and it's done out of their "love" for their son. Lionel may be a little more misguided but I certainly feel that he's doing what he thinks is necessary, same for Jonathan.

Actually the show has pretty much explicitly stated that Lionel does not love his son. I don't know if you ever saw the episode where Lex recovered the memory of his brother dying. Lex made Lionel think it was him who killed his brother so Lionel wouldn't go after Lex's mother. You got to see the look of horror on Lionel's face when Lex revealed the truth made Lionel realize that he'd hated his son all those years and for something his wife did. Lex knows that his father hates him. Lex's mother even believed Lionel incapable of love. Chloe at one point asks Lex, "Why does your dad hate you so much?"

I'd have to disagree with you. I don't think the image the writers are trying to get across of Lionel is that of a misguided father. I think they want to show that Lionel is a sociopath, and virtually all his actions are self-motivated. Like I mentioned earlier in my post, I think Lionel is a caricature of evil, and Lex on the other hand, at least has good intentions. Lionel raised Lex the way he did so he could have a suitable heir for himself. He gave Lex electroshock therapy that could have killed Lex or reduced him to a vegetable because he didn't want Lex telling anyone that he'd murdered his parents. He then felt he had the right to be offended that his son would send him to jail for killing his parents. He pretty much orchestrated the rift between Lex and Clark out of simple vindictiveness because Lex sent him to jail.

I disagree with you that Lionel loves is son but is misguided. I agree with you, though, that Jonathan loves his son but is misguided. I think the parallel we ended up drawing was that Jonathan has good intentions, Lionel has bad intentions, but either way, their kids are both ending up pretty fucked up. Not that Lionel isn't evil, but that sometimes being misguided is just as bad as being evil.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

I suppose we should just agree to disagree.

Sounds good to me.