#james olsen deserves better

[moistvonlipwig]

🔥do you have any more for the cw's supergirl bc the last one was so so so so funny and real and true

thank youuu i had to think about this one though bc to be honest i saw this ask and the entirety of cw supergirl disappeared from my brain. but now i have remembered things to be salty about. looping in @yourlocalegotisticalqueerishere who also asked. anyway this one is not quite so funny unforchy, it's more morbid as hell?? but um i think the way the show/the superfriends handled the aftermath of crisis is genuinely really disturbing.

@sideguitars and i have talked a lot about this and i touched on it in my fic which everyone should go readies right now :3 but basically. the result of crisis is that everyone in the arrowverse (except a select few people - barry, kara, kate kane, the legends of tomorrow lady i legitimately forgot her name, j'onn, lex, ryan choi, technically the wellses who are stored instead nash (?), jennifer pierce, & lastly lena due to lex's deal with the monitor) dies. and when the world is "reset" j'onn flies around restoring a lot of the main characters' memories but not all of them. in practice, all the shows treat this less like our beloved characters have literally died and been replaced and their replacements have 'our' versions' memories in their heads as well, and much more like restoring memories effectively brings our dead versions back to life. let us proceed with the assumption that this is more or less what is happening, because that is how the shows act.

now there are 2 ways to read the morality of this action of restoring memories, which notably happens multiple times without consent from the person involved. #1 is that the new versions of these characters are people in their own right and deserve to live. through this reading, restoring 'our' versions is a violation of these people, tantamount to murder; it is overwriting their inconvenient experiences with the experiences of people our characters like better. there is no material difference, in this reading, between what j'onn does to the people whose memories he restores and what lena does to eve in s5 when she puts hope in her brain. through this reading, the superfriends are pure villains. you could imagine a superhero movie with this very plot, in fact: a sympathetic supervillain from another universe that got erased trying to replace people from this universe with people from their own.

#2 is that our versions of these characters, for whatever reason, deserve to live more than the new versions (or versions from any other earths). through this reading, it is justifiable to restore people's memories without consent, but anyone who is not restored is effectively being allowed to die, an act of criminal negligence by a band of so-called superheroes. the limits of who gets chosen to have their memories returned then become morbidly fascinating. on supergirl -- which is the only show that crisis really affects at all, frankly (besides arrow i guess but who gives a fuck), so it's kind of the only one where any of this matters -- we know for a fact that j'onn restores alex, nia, brainy, kelly, and clark and probably lois and maybe m'gann also i forget tbh. i think it is reasonable to assume he also restored james. i certainly hope he did! but we know he did not restore, say, cat grant, or andrea rojas, or william dey, or other people outside their immediate circle.

which raises questions like: why kelly? because she is alex's girlfriend of a few months? because she is james's sister? well, what about mama olsen? did they restore her memories? surely not remembering lex luthor torturing her son would change her significantly. what about alex's fake latina ex-girlfriend, maggie sawyer? does she not get her memories back, on account of being merely the ex, not the current girlfriend of supergirl's sister? and so on.

but of course the biggest crime by far is that the superfriends do not know that lex made a deal with the monitor for lena's survival and they believe she perished. and they do nothing to bring her memories back. this is despite the fact that she is unquestionably the number one person affected by the change to the universe. please consider that the biggest change to earth-prime from earth-38 is that lex luthor now never went evil, is friends with the supers, and is still in charge of luthorcorp. obviously this has a trickle-down effect on many people's lives, but i would think it obvious that the person most impacted is his little sister who he abused and manipulated for her entire life (per s4), who was left to deal with the fallout of his going evil and, oh yeah, who recently had to kill him. and now suddenly he is back in her life and has power over her and he remembers every way that she (rightfully) betrayed him. in fact i think it is not at all a stretch to say that lex's primary motivation in how he set up earth-prime was gaining more control over lena (which is why it's interesting and speaks to a lingering ember of humanity and love in lex that he lets her keep her memories at all).

and for some reason none of the superfriends are like. hey maybe lena, our former friend whose last action before her (apparent) death was helping to save three billion people at the superfriends' behest, deserves to live and know the full truth of who her brother is and what their relationship has been. alex even tries to argue that kara shouldn't tell lena about any of their history at all because then lena might be mad at kara for all the lying and that would, you know, suck for kara personally. which, like, i guess kara wanting to tell lena the truth is a step up from that load of horseshit, but again, none of you considered restoring her memories? you're just going to let her stay dead? after alex, j'onn, and kara all agreed in 5x08 that lena was not a lost cause and could still be saved? lmao. okay.

and then once they realize lena has her memories we again have the issue of like. why is it that alex and kara get to have THEIR support systems restored but lena doesn't? again. lena is the one whose life has been MOST overturned by crisis. she is the one currently under her abuser's thumb -- her abuser who is the only one who apparently bothered to consider saving her life, and who is the only non-superfriend she knows who also remembers their previous earth. which, keeping in mind that as far as she knows all the superfriends were down to kill her in 5x08 with a nuclear fucking missile, means that she has literally nowhere safe to go.

like. one of her best and most supportive friends was sam arias. and to be fair s5 seems dead set on pretending sam never existed with the exception of 5x13. but if she wanted to go to sam, it wouldn't be the same sam with knowledge of earth-38. andrea, also, isn't the same andrea. they make it a point to show us she has a different backstory. even lillian isn't the same lillian, and, i mean, lillian was indeed abusive to lena, but earth-38 lillian was more on her side than earth-prime lillian is. lena has literally no one. she has her abusive brother and her former friends who lied to her for years and tried to kill her (as far as she knows) and that's it. but alex gets her girlfriend of a few months back. and kara gets her cousin back. because what kara and alex want matters, and what lena needs does not matter. and then the superfriends are all Shocked and Appalled that lena goes back to lex. which like. i don't love that as a story beat either, but i put it to you: where the fuck else was she supposed to go?

anyway i could rant about this all day long lol but basically it points to how profoundly unconcerned the superfriends were with lena's status as lex's first and primary victim, which really undermines their later claims that they're lena's new and better family. and it also points to how little the show itself cared about the psychology of abuse victims (particularly female ones) that this was never factored into how they wrote the reconciliation between lena & the superfriends. and more broadly the whole thing suggests a frankly eerie self-centeredness on the part of the superfriends that makes all their moral posturing seem hollow. no matter which way you read the morality of restoring people's memories post-crisis, the superfriends (mostly kara, j'onn, and alex tbf) acted callously, selfishly, and without care for the very people they were supposed to protect. and, as always, lena luthor suffered for it.

[appropriatelystupid]

Kelly Olsen for the character ask game?

(since there’s no specific numbers here’s some bullet points)

THE SUPERIOR OLSEN

made more sense to become guardian than james did but i still didn’t like that it happened (i.e. not everyone needed to be a costumed hero)

deserved way better from the show

is the superior alex ship

character asks game

[jennysparksandtheauthority]

At this point, making Lena Luthor evil makes as much sense as making James, Alex, Winn and Mon-El evil. Or even Supergirl herself...

-Alex Danvers: Killed her sister’s only surviving relative with a Kryptonite sword (that could kill her sister too, btw). Her father switched sides and spent 15 years working for a terrorist organization, she believed in him no matter what only to be ultimately betrayed by him (still missing, by the way, but she hasn’t mentioned him for a whole season). Is a trigger-happy Black Ops operative. And a badass. And I love her. Could not do anything wrong ever even if she went crazy and tried to rule the world.

-James Olsen: wasn’t happy with the way justice was being handled in a city that has a resident superhero and a governmental agency dedicated to battling crime. Turns into a masked Vigilante to literally take matters into his own hands (fists). Calls himself Guardian though no one asked him to guard anything. Despises and criticizes a woman he doesn’t know based on her family’s deeds. Let’s take into account he broke into a jail to try and prove that woman was EVIL (btw now he’s dating her because why not, sounds healthy).

-Winn Schott: son of a criminal, still a cinnamon roll, basically a genius, but feels his potential is wasted (basically every Spider-Man’s villain origin story, will never ever do any wrong though, because he’s perfect like that).

-Mon-El: Former slave-owner and heir to a terrible fascist empire. When given the opportunity to go back to his home planet and try to lead a revolution to free his people, he refused because he wanted to be with his girlfriend of a few weeks, leaving millions of lives behind. Left a girl he just screwed to die. Robbed a pod to escape to Earth. Lied about his identity as long as he could to get into a girl’s pants. He did go to the future though, where he became a self-proclaimed hero. Also, he wanted to kill a guy because he liked her then-not-girlfriend and was very, very annoying about it.

-Kara/Supergirl: Superpowered being that does not respond to justice in any way. When called out on her behavior by a trained, legitimate law enforcer, she said (literally) ‘protocol gets in the way of swift justice’. Which justice? Hers, of course. Also, she said she doesn’t look before she leaps because she can fly. Such modesty, so classy. This behavior has been seen in other episodes where Supergirl seizes moral high ground. Was actually a dictator in another reality. But this one, we love. She’s an asshole, yes, but she’s OUR asshole, y’all.

-J’onn: Says he’s the good guy but basically just crosses his arms and does nothing when all these kids do all these crap.

And finally, Lena Luthor:

-Her adoptive brother who she loved with all her heart goes mad, kills lots of people, goes to prison and then tries to kill her. She changes his company name and vows to make it a ‘force for good’. Creates a device to identify aliens. A reporter she’s known for two days points out it’s dangerous, so the device is never seen again. Her mother tries to recruit her for her terrorist organization. She basically fools everyone, saves all aliens and turns her mother over to the authorities. Her mommy issues lead her to trust a woman that screws her over and incidentally creates a portal for an alien invasion, and can you believe this dork wanted to use it to end climate change? She modifies another device to end the invasion, then hands the switch to Supergirl. Never gets credit, nobody thanks her. Did I mention she has a hospital for children? Well, she does. She thinks she’s responsible for poisoning children so she steps down from her company and her new acquired media empire in the name of neutrality and freedom of the press. Tried to kill a guy, didn’t do it, ended up on a plane full with toxic materials, told Supergirl to let her go so she could save the city. Then confessed the murder attempt to her best friend, who said: “You’re not a killer”. A friend of hers turns out to be a supervillain though she really isn’t because her personality is split in two so she uses all her scientific knowledge and resources to try and save her friend. Gets accused of being BAD because she used Kryptonite, which is the same thing as accusing me of being evil because I eat melon from time to time (my wife’s allergic, but she knows I don’t want to kill her if she sees a melon in the fridge. She knows it’ll be ok as long as she doesn’t eat it. She knows the melon is for me because I like it and I’m not allergic and it’s good for my hypothyroidism, she doesn’t get mad because the melon can kill her, she knows I love her and I wouldn’t force her to eat melon, and the melon will always be safely labeled in case she somehow mistakes the melon for anything else).

Anyhoo, one of these characters is going to go evil at some point. Guess who?

(For the record, I’m not completely against Lena turning evil. All I wanted was good development and coherent writing. I’ll go eat my melon instead *sigh*)

[fictionxlover]

I just don’t like James and honestly I think it was down to that angle they did in S1 with Lucy, Kara and James. Kara and James just don’t have chemistry. But I was annoyed at how little he did in later seasons. I was happy for Guardian then Kara basically became Oliver Queen and was all I do it. I choose who can save the world you won’t do it. I was like just let the actor go or give him something. Shipping wise, him and Lena have way more chemistry than Kara/James which is non-existent.

I like Lena/James too! People were like its horrible blah blah and some spc fans true colors came out but I liked Lena/James dynamic and felt they were more honest with each other? Which was niice to see. 

wish we see James do more Guardian things too. I never seen Arrow don’t plan to but yes Kara became really like that. How she chooses who can save who and its like damn let Guardian do his thing. IMO it seems when they did let him do Guardian stuff it was to show that racism exists and struggles James faces every single day and I’m like yeah duh sg writers then they would not show James forever. *sighs* I can’t with this show. 

You know it is that thing give him material or let him go. 

[n00bara]

Y’all better show some respect to James Olsen it’s not his fault that he’s dating Lena Luther it’s the writers doing so stop hating y’all and deal with it just like y’all dealt with karamel

[keeloves]

Iris and James

You know these two characters have a lot in common. Both work in news related fields. Both have a desire to help their city and both are or at least one of them secondary lead. Last but not least both were red headed white characters that have been race bent so they are played by African American actor/actress. Everyone seemed to love those characters just fine until Black people were casted for these roles. I watched a video by this guy named Andrew Steele aka Bone Clinks saying Jimmy Olsen was the new Felicity and how Kara don’t need no man and that Wynn or Barry would be a better option. He got mad over stupid reasons like James getting jealous of Barry or how Barry bought her ice cream. Which are dumb reasons to complain about. Every time I say people hate these characters because they can’t stand the idea of a black person being the lead of anything or even the love interest I get comments like “Always about race with you people” or “No these (white) characters are more interesting” or “They have no chemistry” I find it funny in a sad way how much shit these characters get because the fandom deems them selfish or they are badly written and how the white characters are better written (all though SG writers can’t write James for shit he deserves better) but say Caitlin is an interesting character and say Iris is a burden or a just a love interest but don’t say how Caitlin continues to put the team at risk and go so far as to justify her betraying the team because she alternate personality disorder. They call Iris selfish even though she was the one keeping a level head and leading. They call Iris a bad leader and say Harry should lead because he knows a science. Yet I hear people justify Harry being a dick to Cisco and saying it is bad if Iris is slightly bitchy because “Iris shouldn’t be bitchy” People don’t say anything about how Patty tricked Barry into revealing himself as the Flash to her yet get pissed at Iris for being pissed for being angry at Barry and her dad for lying to her. I hate how people ship Kara with Mon El and talk him and when I and other people point out that Mon El isn’t respectful of Kara or her boundaries or how he owned slaves people bend over backwards saying he had a “hard life” but fail to mention James was bullied because one of the few black kids where he went to school but people trash him and say he is a horrible person. Anyways what I am saying is can we please stop pretending there are not any racial biases towards these two characters or any other TV show or movie where a black poc or even non black poc are the main love interest. I am so sick of half the fandom excusing the white character’s actions.

[shadowcatgirl09]

When your fav is a poc in a movie/tv show/game etc and you go to look for stuff about them to reblog but all you see is character hate or the white fandom fav in their tag.

[angelfireeast]

Do you ever think about the fact that Crisis on Earth X wanted to kill a main character/hero to show how bad the Nazis were & how seriously evil  Führer Oliver Was and decided use not only one of few black heroes on dctv, but only superhero from Supergirl not included in the crossover? The leading male no less. I think about that. I think about that a lot. 

The writers have screwed James Olsen over six ways till Sunday and still found another way to do it. They still found a new way to crap on him. The only want to could think to include James Olsen was to kill him not to have him as General (not that’s white man’s job so Winn) or have him included in the start of SG like Mon-El & Winn. I’m happy Iris, Joe, Wally, Diggle, Curtis were all not included in Earth X because they would likely share same terrible fate as Earth X James or Earth X Felicity. No getting to be general only getting to be stomped on to show how terrible things are.

I also think about all sick fucks in Supercorp fandom and karamel fandom who are laughing it up and enjoyed how watching a version of James being brutally killed by Nazi. How these people are so ugly they don’t feel any shame at gleeful openly celebrating a black character bring brutally killed by Nazi for shock value. Some people pretend they aren’t racist while other cheer on Nazis & bad things happening to POC fictional or real. 

[why-manhell]

friendly reminder

- the writers don’t think mon-el owning slaves mattered

- they wrote off karolsen because they were too good

- they are trying to make another victim of abuse out like her abusers

- they love mon-el

- they are abuse apologists

- they don’t care about any of the fans hurt by sdcc

- they could not write in a good interracial relationship so they wrote one with chris wood

- they did not give sanvers near the amount of screen time that karamel got

- they used sanvers to try and get the lgbtq fans back on their side

- they trashed kara’s character for a romance

- they threw away a good relationship for a toxic one

[shikaramelssay]

Someone owes James Olsen a Mon-el sized apology.

[deputy-ajay-ghale]

Season two Supergirl fandom: You know what would be cool??? Kara/James/Lena!!! Two people who aren't Mon-El that love Kara, how great would that be? My mind is filled with cupcakes and rainbows right now!

Writers: Okay, well if you want polyamory, go watch You, Me, Her... but we will give you Lena/James while Kara continues to go downhill.

Season Three Fandom: WHAT KIND OF NONSENSE??? SINCE WHEN WAS JAMES BOYFRIEND MATERIAL?? HE'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR LENA! HE JAY WALKED ONCE! HE WALKED THROUGH A SMOKE CLOUD, HIS LUNGS ARE GOING TO GIVE OUT ANY MINUTE.

[ramen-noomerals]

So you break up the lesbian couple AND shoot a POC? Nice, Supergirl.

[nerdramblings101]

No one ever answered my question about why everyone seems so opposed to James having a love interest. I see how it is.

[jamescarstairs]

why is my man James Olsen never in the crossovers 

[keeloves]

GaurdainCorp

People over here saying James is a terrible person because he had a bad opinion on Lena but he realized she was a good person Yet don’t say anything that their fav leading lady shoved a side James a black man and went on to date someone who owned slaves and said he missed objectifying women. People can say it is not about race all they want but most of us know that is a big fat lie!

[magickgirl786]

-James Olsen, basically