Lana

[hils]

Ok, I have issues with Lana and I need to get them written down because it's bugging me. Don't expect any sort of logical coherence here because I'm just venting. Don't feel obliged to read and don't feel you need to defend her. I am aware that at least some of my feelings towards her are totally irrational.

Spoilers for everything up to Wrath


I wish I could put my finger on why I have such an intense dislike of Lana. I realised tonight that it is getting kind of irrational when I was bitching about the Clana sex scene in Wrath. Come on, if you were dating Clark but could never have sex with him because it'd kill you of COURSE you're going to jump him as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Why do I hate her for doing what any warm blooded woman would do in the same situation? It's not jealousy but I don't know what it is.

I liked her when she came back from Shanghai and was being all evil but behind everyone's backs. It was interesting and I loved seeing her being devious and manipulative. Maybe because that's how I've always seen her. She's always had a knack for being able to get what she wants out of people or turning their problems around to make it about her. What we were seeing at the start of Season 7 was just a more direct manifestation of what's always been there.

The problem, in my head anyway, is that people know now.

When she was being all secretive and lying to everyone it was fun. Now I don't know what's going to happen. Clark will likely try and redeem her, whilst at the same time blaming her behaviour on himself and Lex. Chloe will be doing all she can to protect Clark, although I suspect she will eventually go down the road of trying to help Lana too. Lex, at this point, is just enjoying the view I think and that's probably the only good thing to come out of this mess.

Lana, at least, says she wants to be held accountable for her own actions but whether that remains the case or not. I certainly think she doesn't want Clark to blame himself but I suspect she would care less if everyone starts blaming Lex for what she did. Even Lionel, from the barn scene with Lana in Action, seemed to be saying all of her evil actions were because she wanted revenge for all the evil things Lex has done to her.

The sad thing is that no matter what Lana does I don't think I'm ever going to like her. And this goes way beyond my Clex shipping. I would happily see Clark with any number of characters on the show. Just not her.

I hated her in Season 1 where she was just the mystical wonder that Clark loved from afar and every meteor mutant worshipped.

I hated her in Season 2 when she decided that she was bored of Whitney and started to persue Clark.

I hated her in Season 3 when she finally dated Clark but they broke up because of all the lies.

I hated her in Season 4 when she dated Jason but still wanted to be with Clark.

I hated her in Season 5 when she broke up with Clark and a week later got together with Lex.

I hated her in Season 6 for taking forever to work out that she loved Lex, then deciding that really she loved Clark.

I really thought I was in for a refreshing change in Season 7. I liked Lana for a while and to be honest I still should. Nothing about her has changed other than people now know what she's really like.

Maybe something cool will come from this but at the moment I am doubtful. If this had happened nearer the end of the series it could have been great. Lana, knowing what Clark can do, would pretty much send him away to complete his training and become Superman. But I think we're a long way off from that yet.

Edit: And another thing! We've had the writers telling us for six seasons how wonderful Lana is and how perfect she is at everything and now we're supposed to understand that she's annoyed at this image Clark has of her. It's not an image, that's how she's been written. That's been her character since Season 1.

Comments

[voldything.livejournal.com]

YES. Everything you said, YES.

[hils.livejournal.com]

Oh good, I thought it was just me. LOL

[itsaslashything.livejournal.com]

Definitely not just you. I can't even seem to like the actress in other shows...the Lana has killed that for me. I can't seem to see her as anything other than whiney and manipulative. And to have Lex fall for that was a slap in his face...he's well above such as her. WELL above!

[hils.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was the final nail in the coffin for me. Seeing him so desperate to win her love when really he could do so much better.

[lexalicious70.livejournal.com]

It's not just you, hun . . . Wrath just proved in spades everything I hate about Lana. She gets powers, but does she think about helping people with them? No . . . her first orders of business are to boink Clark and then plan all the sneaky things she can do with her abilities.

She hurt Lex and Lois physically . . . she wanted to murder Lex in cold blood and basically called Clark a big wuss because he never did. Bleah, the whole thing just left me with a very bad aftertaste. Lana must die

[kantayra.livejournal.com]

She hurt Lex and Lois physically

This really bothers me about her. With Lex, I can at least understand where she's supposed to be coming from, even if I think she's being idiotic about it. But Lois has never done a damn thing to her, yet Lana treated her just as callously. And she turned to trying to beat the shit out of Clark just as quickly. I just don't see the value in this. At least when Lex or Lionel hurts someone, there's a reason I can comprehend, even if I don't agree with it. Lana's reason seems to be "I'm more important than everything else." *face palm*

[hils.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I noticed that afterwards no one even mentioned what she did to Lois

[hils.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she really needs to. I'm just glad Chloe at least wasn't falling over herself to forgive Lana

[pepperjackcandy.livejournal.com]

I don't like Lana, so I'm certainly not trying to convince you to like Lana, but my theory is that Lana's the stand-in for the cheerleader who was all phony-nice to Al for four years of high school and then laughed in his face when he asked her to the prom.

I guess that I've always seen a lot of unresolved anger issues in the overall writing of her. I can just hear Al now, "Everyone* thought that butter wouldn't melt in Jennifer's mouth. But she was a two-faced, backstabbing bitch. I'll show them. I'll show them all! Bwah-ha-ha!"

*Except for a few h8er girls who were jellus of her beauty. They wouldn't date me either. Not that I asked. Because they weren't :sigh: Jennifer.

Insert similar story here for Miles, with some kind of UK school-related youth romance milestone instead.

See, we're the h8er girls. We didn't see through Jennifer. We were jellus of her beauty. Just like we don't see through Lana, either.

That's where the "you're just jellus!" thing comes from. They can't believe that we see through Lana, because to their minds, no one but they can.

Does that make sense?

Yay! My first edited comment!

[hils.livejournal.com]

It totally does. Al and Miles clearly have issues. LOL.

[tariel22.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I hear you! I think half of my episode review of Action was a huge Lana rant! LOL! My biggest problem with Lana is that for the life of me, I cannot figure out why Clark supposedly loves her.

She's treated him horribly time and time again, and never believes him when he warns her about her stalker boyfriends, even though he's always right. She's totally fickle, falling for other guys instantly after she and Clark break up, and then always wanting him back right when he's finally getting over her. She has an incredible double standard, expecting Clark to be totally open with her at the same time that she's keeping her own secrets.

She's also written so inconsistently! She hates meteor freaks, but she's okay with Clark when he shows her his powers in Reckoning. Later, when she's with Lex, she wants to lock up all the MFs and kill all the aliens, but when Clark tells her his secret, she's fine with it. Grrr!

I liked her when she was EVOL, but then they ruined it by having her emasculate Lex and pine after Clark. I could have gone for Lex and Lana as the dark king and queen. And she never, never, never gets called on her shit! Lex pays, Clark pays, Chloe pays - everyone pays for their mistakes except Lana!

Okay, I'd better stop. LOL! I get kind of carried away about Lana. So I cling to that final scene in Wrath, hoping against hope that Clark will begin to see her clearly now. It's so important to me that Clark choose to leave Lana, rather than her sending him away to his destiny, but I'm afraid I'll be disappointed there. *sigh* This show kills me sometimes. :)

[hils.livejournal.com]

It's so important to me that Clark choose to leave Lana, rather than her sending him away to his destiny, but I'm afraid I'll be disappointed there. *sigh* This show kills me sometimes. :)
Yeah, this is pretty much where I am at the moment

[vzg.livejournal.com]

Here via sv_ledger.

She's also written so inconsistently!

That has always been my problem with Lana, personally. Although I do like the show, After a while I looked back on it all and thought, "Wow... some of the writing is really bad." Lana is the biggest part of that. She is the writers' blank-slate girl. Whenever they need something to complicate Clark's life, they put a new personality and some new skills in her, take away some of what she had before, and voila! Brand new Lana to make everything difficult. A prime example is the art school; before she suddenly decide to MOVE TO FRANCE to go to a special school for art, there was no indication that she had any outstanding interest in art at all. The only time we saw her really do anything artsy was when she got the mark on her back. Then she fled home because she was scared and didn't even think about going back to school or sticking with art at all. No one even questioned it. It's not like she had the money to do it to just see if it felt right, either.

And Clark said to her (in season five, I think) that he had never loved anyone else. Well, then he must have lied to Alicia, at least, because I'm certain he had said he loved her. But, hey, it's Lana — there is no canon where she's concerned.

Her ability to stand up for herself fluctuates constantly. The fighting lessons she got from Lex, for example — after that, did we see much more of her ever physically defending herself? No, she was right back to the damsel in distress. One moment she's weak, then strong, then weak again. She's timid, then strong-willed, then timid again. She's naive, then smart and quick-witted, then naive again. There were times when it seemed like she broke up with Clark just because their relationship was going well for once.

And there's the fact that she always seemed angry when Clark interfered with her life, but then felt perfectly fine poking around in his. Lex is like that, to some extent, but he's aware of what he's doing; she's just being a hypocrite (until season six, at least).

Oh, but I could say a thousand things about her. I actually paused the show, got up, and danced around the room the two times I thought she was dead. And bringing her back the first time? Pissed me off so much. I get annoyed by how stupid they make Clark at times. He just loves her SO MUCH that he apparently can't even realize that if he brings back one person from the dead, someone else he loves will die in their place... even though Jor-El had been practically beating that into him! "SOMEONE WILL DIE. YES, EVEN IF YOU BRING HER BACK. SOMEONE YOU LOVE WILL DEFINITELY DIE. ARE YOU SURE YOU WNT TO DO THAT? 'CAUSE SOMEONE ELSE IS GOING TO DIE..." And so Clark ruined everything. I was always amazed he never seemed to feel any guilt about that.

And it's not just a love of Clex, though I do have that. Crimson pleased me even though Lois isn't my favorite, and I loved Alicia in spite of her flaws. Chloe's awesome and I could even get used to her being with Clark, though I do honestly prefer them as AWESOME FRIENDS. And I never got why Chloe and Lana became friends, either... they really didn't seem to have anything in common. And Chloe didn't like Lana at first, but then Lana got close to Clark and suddenly they were the best of friends.

...I'll stop now. XD Sorry.

[hils.livejournal.com]

Hee! That was an awesome reply to my post. I was sat here nodding when I got to the end of every parapraph.

I would definitely have less of an issue with Lana if they were consistent with her, but you're right about the blank slate thing and that is why I could never warm to her as a character. Just when I think I'm starting to like her (Season 6 and Season 7 have both been guilty of this) they dramatically change her and I wind up hating her again.

As you say, I would happily see Lana with Lois, Chloe, Alicia or Lex (*g*) but I just see no features in Lana that I want to associate with my hero.

[vzg.livejournal.com]

...Oh, I do think there was actually one time I did like her, though: Labyrinth. Not a lot, but still. Heh.

[hils.livejournal.com]

Ack! I hated her in that episode. LOL

I liked her in Static

[tariel22.livejournal.com]

There is so much truth in your post! It's amazing the depth of emotion Lana can inspire in me, but so much about her is just so wrong! LOL! If I think about it too much, it just makes my head hurt. *sigh*

[kantayra.livejournal.com]

If I thought for a minute that Lana would get remotely the same treatment Lex got, I would be excited right now. Lana's even already done much worse things than Lex did when they all started spontaneously shunning him! But these things seem to be more determined by who has to end up good and evil than anything logical from what we see on screen. *sigh*

*is still bitter that one of Clark's primary points in favor of Lex's evilness is the Silver Kryptonite incident, when that was entirely Brainiac's doing and Lex was completely innocent*

[hils.livejournal.com]

This is what kills me about this show. It's SO badly written. It could be a thing of awesome with someone like Joss at the helm

*sighs*

I'm still baffled that Lex went over to the dark side for NO REASON!

[kantayra.livejournal.com]

I'm still baffled that Lex pretty much hasn't gone over to the side of evil. If I were Lex and had had to deal with all the shit he's had to, I would've started pointing death rays at the entirety of Smallville looooooooong ago. Apparently, Lex Luthor is a nicer and more forgiving person than I am. o.O Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees a major problem in that? :P

[hils.livejournal.com]

No, you're not the only one. It's all bad writing. They don't want Lex to go over to the dark side until MR leaves the show (at the end of this Season I believe) because then his 'journey' will be complete.

Meh!

I freely admit I liked it when he was one of the good guys in the early seasons but these days it's just crap. Kill everyone and have done with it Lex!

[vzg.livejournal.com]

It's SO badly written. It could be a thing of awesome with someone like Joss at the helm

Oh, man, yes. I don't think he'd ever do it, but yes. You know of Dollhouse, right?

[hils.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think he would either but, oh, it would be so wonderful! And so full of angst. LOL.

I have heard vague things about Dollhouse but nothing specific. I know it's Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku.

[vzg.livejournal.com]

It's going to be on Fox (because Joss apparently had temporary memory loss... :P) and it's going to have seven introductory episodes instead of a pilot, so hopefully it'll at least run for those seven. It's about people who keep getting their minds wiped, Eliza's character (Echo) included, so that rich people can play games with them, essentially. (They act out a fantasy or do a job for them after being implanted with the proper memories, personality, and skills.) It's about Echo starting to gain a consistent memory over the mind wipes.

I'm excited for it!

[hils.livejournal.com]

OOH! That sounds really interesting. When does it start?

[vzg.livejournal.com]

It depends on how long the writers' strike goes for. They'd just started it all up, and Joss said in one interview that it would have been running by February if there was no strike, but with it... I think he's hoping for a spring start.

[hils.livejournal.com]

Cool. I'll have to keep an eye out for it :)

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

I feel bad for Kristin. I think she's doing her best with what they give her, inconsistent as it is.

I just watched Partition again, on my TV instead of at the theatre this time. She made me cry. She's quite wonderful in it.

[hils.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't blame Kristin at all. She's probably as pissed off as the rest of us

[ladydreamer.livejournal.com]

Join the We Hate Lana Irrationally Club. See, I know that there are ways to make Lana somewhat likable. They aren't willing to do them. They need to have characters around to spear her. They need to give her real flaws and make her face consequences.

What we were seeing at the start of Season 7 was just a more direct manifestation of what's always been there.
Word.

It's my fear that she's not going to get punished for this either. I don't understand why they expect Lana to get off for this when everyone else is locked away in the horrifying asylum.

[hils.livejournal.com]

I don't understand why they expect Lana to get off for this when everyone else is locked away in the horrifying asylum.
Exactly! And you know Clark is going to fight with every breath he has to save her, when he just gave up on Lex.

[goth-clark.livejournal.com]

It's the show's pattern. I've noticed that a lot of people like her in the beginning of the season and then the show just gets it wrong and most people are right back to hating her.

I just hate her all the time. I hate that she plays so big a part in this story. I will never like that. She's a horrible human being and people around her act like she isn't.