#but by completely decimating the premise of the show and jonathan's character

[queernarchy]

you are definitely not the only one mad about this! i agree. it also feels to me like many people have forgotten the whole mental illness part of jordan’s character?? he has not been alright for like. a full season, at this point. boy is not doing well, and hasn’t been, long before doomsday ever showed up. i see people getting upset about how he’s reacting to jon getting powers, and its just like… remember back in s2, jordan was SO excited when he thought jon was getting powers. he was so excited to be able to do this together. why do people think his reaction has changed from then to now? why do people think he has been making these troubling decisions? because he’s in a completely different place mentally now than he was then. it is textbook “kid in crisis” kind of behavioral signs but instead of letting that have space it’s all just “jordan is whiny and selfish and a terrible person.” i’m not using mental health struggles as an excuse but it is not a negligible part of his character. his disorder isn’t an excuse for his behavior, but it is a driving factor in why he thinks the way that he does, why he keeps getting stuck in these ruts, why he’s not making the best decisions. if you want to talk about jordan’s character and jordan’s attitude and jordan’s relationships with other characters, you have to talk about his mental health. they are irrevocably intertwined and always will be.

jon has never had those problems. that was the whole point of giving powers to jordan, at first, and not jon. and now i’m seeing all of these people say “the REAL superboy has finally arrived!” and im sitting here like. do you not get it?? do you not get that this is the entire point, that this is a kid who needs help, who has always been a half step off beat?? and it just… it becomes very clear to me that some people that talk about this show have never experienced mental illness in the family. this is how it plays out. in many ways you have to dissociate the disorder from the person and you have to know that in other ways they will always be connected, and it is the type of thing that is difficult to untangle unless you’ve experienced it firsthand.

i am happy for jon and boy howdy was that scene a long time coming. but they are ??? both 16 year old kids ??? who have both made mistakes? and who experience the world very differently from each other ?? and it really just rubs me the wrong way to watch people have so much sympathy and grace for one and not for the other. there is not a good brother and a bad brother. i love jon. i love him so much. he will do such great things. but i also love jordan. it is not mutually exclusive, but people act like it is.

i will be so extremely disappointed if they do the villain arc thing with jordan. that’s not his character. he is not bad or malicious. he never has been. he’s been irrational and has had some poor judgement but that does not mean he is bad. if the writers go down that road, i think i honestly will not finish the season out. i am holding out hope that they will address all of this in a way that stays true to the character i’ve come to know, but i know that if they go the villain arc, then something has been sorely missed.

…..anyways. sorry for the rant. i appreciate you posting what you did, because i agree and often feel like i am the only one feeling frustrated by this.

no for real like thank you for the validation because like.

what made the premise of the entire series compelling was the idea that the twin who struggled more mentally was the one to get the powers, and that he'd need to balance figuring out how to control them when they're triggered by emotion, while also dealing with having popularity and power for the first time in his life and figure out what it means to be a hero and use them responsibly.

that's what the ENTIRE first season was about (and the second, since jon started taking the superdrug to compensate for feeling inadequate not getting powers)

and not only do i think giving jon powers undercuts jordan's character arc and the series as a whole (like what was the whole POINT of having any of the boy's storylines we've seen, if literally none of them matter the second jon gets powers?), it is also a MASSIVE disservice to jonathan's character.

like from what this episode shows, jonathan has essentially become a 100% good aligned and selfless hero who somehow mastered all of superman's powers in less than 5 minutes with 0 negative repercussions and is also still humble and kind and understanding to jordan and uhhhh. why are we suddenly going absolutely apeshit for a character that has now been stripped of any depth or meaningful flaws? jon is literally a god, and somehow immediately more powerful with a better grasp on his powers than even clark.

don't we like to see heroes have flaws and struggle? specifically WHY is this fandom all about perfect effortless characters and hyper critical of heroes with flaws? and WHY is the show is implying that jonathan wasn't able to be a hero without powers when his whole arc last season was trying to figure out how to be both human and a hero? when that's literally also the point of lois' character? WHY does suddenly none of that matter?

like i know we've only seen jordan with powers and popularity and jonathan struggling since like episode 2, so on some level it feels like this is what jonathan deserves, but in the world of the show it really has been less than 2 years that jordan has been gaining some status and canonically he's been struggling with mental health and bullying and being the least favorite in the family his entire life. so a return to the status quo like this not only feels unearned but also unnecessarily cruel.

from a narrative perspective it is SO frustrating on every single level i don't think there are enough words.