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Spoilers Supergirl - Season 3

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James: Okay, the show was trying to make a real world statement (this late in the game) about the idea of a hero not being accepted with a black face behind it, and the police automatically considering a black male the suspect/criminal instead of the white people who were clearly identified as a threat (the scene with Tanya). This should have been explored long ago on the series with it happening to James as just a regular black man on the street--the situation innumerable black males face, especially in Western countries. The impact of its message would have worked using that approach early on. In the way it was presented here, it leaned in the "Very Special Episode" direction, even with its dramatic moments.

"Racism is the oldest form of bullying" No. That's an incredibly gross underselling of racism as one of the only forms of genuine evil in human history, with mass murder, enslavement and propaganda keeping entire populations in a constant state of being dehumanized / suppression being just a few of its hallmarks.

James deciding to go public was--frankly--the most heroic moment of the entire series. As a regular human--and a black male, he has everything to lose if he exposes himself. He does not have superpowers to fall back on for protection, no Fortress of Solitude to run to if society turned on him. He would just be a target with no serious protections in society.

Nice Guardian moment as James sort of Batmans his way into the secret room holding his costume.

It was like someone on the Supergirl staff watched an episode of Black Lightning
 
It was like someone on the Supergirl staff watched an episode of Black Lightning

Well, it seems like the Supergirl showrunners suddenly developed an interest in black identity after the debut of the Black Lightning TV series. Before BL, James rarely spoke of his identity to any degree, and it was not a main subject matter. Even in this episode, the writers/showrunners show how wrongheaded they are by having James refer to racism as "bullying" when the very well known nature and history of it could not possibly be mislabeled more than with the "bullying" tag. I give then credit for finally owning up to James not living on Planet Disneyland, but one of the worst acts/behaviors/beliefs of evil should have been addressed long before he took on the Guardian secret identity.
 
Well, it seems like the Supergirl showrunners suddenly developed an interest in black identity after the debut of the Black Lightning TV series. Before BL, James rarely spoke of his identity to any degree, and it was not a main subject matter. Even in this episode, the writers/showrunners show how wrongheaded they are by having James refer to racism as "bullying" when the very well known nature and history of it could not possibly be mislabeled more than with the "bullying" tag. I give then credit for finally owning up to James not living on Planet Disneyland, but one of the worst acts/behaviors/beliefs of evil should have been addressed long before he took on the Guardian secret identity.

Prior to this I think the only character who actually talked about being black was the SHAPESHIFTING MARTIAN WHO ISN'T REALLY BLACK. So maybe there was some kinda message relayed to the staff at some point like "Hey... You know, you have an actual BLACK CHARACTER in the cast and could maybe have him address being black and not have the shapeshifting alien character do it."
 
Prior to this I think the only character who actually talked about being black was the SHAPESHIFTING MARTIAN WHO ISN'T REALLY BLACK.

No, it came up in season 1, in the scene where James set up a suspended car for Supergirl to use as a punching bag while they worked out together to blow off their anger. James mentioned how society wouldn't really tolerate him showing his anger in public.

As for J'onn, though, his people were imprisoned, enslaved, and slaughtered by a white-skinned race, so I'd say he can relate to the African-American experience pretty well. And his speech the other week about how he's chosen to embrace a black identity, even though he could easily look like anyone, was actually a pretty significant statement about the worth of that identity.
 
She’s Superman’s sidekick. That’s common knowledge.
Anyway, it is rather odd he hasn’t shown any interest in what’s going on. He must be dealing with a greater threat.
When? She's part of the extended Superman family, but she's always had her own solo comics, movie and now show. She's never been depicted as his sidekick.

Superman has never had a sidekick, except for maybe his son in the new comics. Maybe Silver Age Jimmy Olsen, but not really.
 
The relationship between (Silver age) Jimmy seemed totally different in his comic than in the Superman comic itself.
 
When? She's part of the extended Superman family, but she's always had her own solo comics, movie and now show. She's never been depicted as his sidekick.

Well, at the very beginning, Supergirl was sort of Superman's secret reserve, someone he could call on for emergencies. But that was mainly so that she could have her own independent series and remain largely apart from Superman's stories.
 
The relationship between (Silver age) Jimmy seemed totally different in his comic than in the Superman comic itself.
People back in the day really seemed to enjoy emotional abuse, attempted murder and forced beastality from superheroes towards teenagers (I think, Jimmy may have been in his early 20s) in comics written for children.
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He's such a dick.
 
Prior to this I think the only character who actually talked about being black was the SHAPESHIFTING MARTIAN WHO ISN'T REALLY BLACK.

James touched on it, but as mentioned earlier, it was rare, and race was not a main subject matter, despite the fact the second most important character on the show (arguably--at least when the series started) is black. Having J'onn give his alien reasoning on why he chose to be black was another example of the showrunners being out of touch with this issue, as there's no believable parallel they could make with J'onn's experience to the depth of psychological/spiritual/political conditioning one endures being black in the Western world. None. That's why the James plot leaned in the "Very Special Episode" end of the meter, as it was so much surface "key racism exposition" instead of his current situation being one of the building layers of his deeper experience with race while living in that city, and not dropped out of (almost) nowhere after nearly three full seasons.
 
I thought she was a character in her own right with her own show? :shrug:

Sexism, the world's oldest form of "bullying".

It strikes me as strange, that no one is calling out Lena for torturing Reign this week.

Lena doesn't want Reign to see what she's doing, so she erects a visual scattering screen that causes Reign to cry out in pain the second Lena deploys it and LENA gets pissy with Supergirl when SG complains about being out of the loop on new weapons?

Also, Lena is playing the misunderstood victim a little strongly for my taste this week.

James gave her a taste of what being a misunderstood black kid in a white world was this week. What I would give to hear SG give Lena a lesson about being a Super in a world of Luthor ingenuity.

The first time your mom captured me, I was lured to her lair to save my friend M'onel. She wanted to drain me of my power so she could safely extract my blood, and she forced me to comply by firing a lead bullet into M'onel and refusing to treat him for lead poisoning unless I capitulated. Of course I did, and of course your mom did NOT hold up her end of the bargain.

Or what about the time she created not one but 2 Metallo's, men powered by Kryptonite hearts that seared my flesh and would have killed me in my first encounter had my cousin not whisked us away in time.

My cousin and J'onn were on the outs for years because of the DEO's stash of Kryptonite, and it was my near death from stuff stolen by your mom from the DEO that forced J'onn to hand over the rest to protect it from further misuse.

Speaking of kryptonite, what about the time she framed you for breaking Metallo out of jail so she could break into Lex's vault and used Lex's weapons on me when I arrived to save your life from Metallo's literal melt down!

Or the time I came to warn you about your mother's plan to kill all alien life on the Earth with a genetically modified virus, and you accused me of prejudice against Luthors rather than admit to me I could be right. Sure, your plan ultimately succeeded, but what you didn't know was that at the time I came to your office, M'onel had been lying in the DEO's sickbay dying from that very virus.

Your mother has actively tried to kill me at every turn, just like Lex tried to kill my cousin. Even when she LOOKS like she's helping, she usually is not.

Kind of like the time she claimed she would help me rescue you and M'onel from his Parent's ship, and conveniently left me and M'onel up there while you and she escaped with her henchman.

So PARDON ME if I tend to get a little paranoid around you whenever you trot out a new technology, like synthetically produced krytonite that burns my flesh or scattering screens that burn my eyes, because it makes me wonder what else you have up your sleeve.

You are not your mother's ONLY victim, you know... and I think I can be forgiven when I hear Reign cry out in pain if it makes me wonder if your apple has fallen very far from her tree.
 
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Lena SHOULD have known by their second or third meeting (and the way the Elevator scene is\\was played, it's clear Lena still doesn't have a clue.)

I heard a nice theory that tries to explain it, it basically says that Lena knows Kara and Supergirl are the same person, but because the only other Kryptonians Lena has encountered, like Sam/Reign and the other Worldkillers are all split personalities, she might have come to the conclusion that Kara and Supergirl are also different personalities inhabiting the same body. I really don't think that's the actual intention of the show, but it's a somewhat plausible explanation.
 
It strikes me as strange, that no one is calling out Lena for torturing Reign this week.

Lena doesn't want Reign to see what she's doing, so she erects a visual scattering screen that causes Reign to cry out in pain the second Lena deploys it and LENA gets pissy with Supergirl when SG complains about being out of the loop on new weapons?

It only causes them pain if they try to pierce it with their x-ray vision. Lena explained as much, and we saw that Supergirl was able to look in its direction without harm as long as she didn't kick in the x-rays. It's more like an electrified fence -- it'll cause someone pain if they touch it, but they have the choice not to touch it, so it's not torture, just restraint.
 
Those covers were from the era where the editors would come up with covers like this first, positing wild or inexplicable situations to hook the readers' curiosity, and then assign the writers the task of coming up with stories to explain them. The Comics Code didn't let them tell stories with much in the way of violence or danger, so they had to rely more on mysteries and character interplay. And since Superman was supposed to be the ultimate hero, an easy way to create a mystery or an inexplicable situation was to show Superman appearing to be cruel or malicious. And it was up to the writers to explain why his seemingly awful behavior had a perfectly benevolent explanation.
 
Supergirl's God complex continues to be off-putting. Lena puts her in her right place by saying she doesn't have to tell SG everything she does.

Lena--no matter the nature of her plans--is not ethically or legally bound to tell Supergirl anything, so yes, she's correct in reaffirming her rights to the authoritarian with a red cape.

Also, Lena is playing the misunderstood victim a little strongly for my taste this week.

As posted above, she's not beholden to Supergirl, who stomps around trying to force her will on a free person. Rule by force and paranoia races down a dark path, ultimately leading to the dead end of "Do as I say or else". That's where Supergirl is headed with her current worldview. Lena is not playing misunderstood--she's being very clear that she has a right to experiment in the manner seen, as its not one--illegal, and two, is not a threat to Supergirl at this point in time, and since Supergirl cannot read minds or predict the future, she can only base her views on the here and now.
 
Lena--no matter the nature of her plans--is not ethically or legally bound to tell Supergirl anything, so yes, she's correct in reaffirming her rights to the authoritarian with a red cape.



As posted above, she's not beholden to Supergirl, who stomps around trying to force her will on a free person. Rule by force and paranoia races down a dark path, ultimately leading to the dead end of "Do as I say or else". That's where Supergirl is headed with her current worldview. Lena is not playing misunderstood--she's being very clear that she has a right to experiment in the manner seen, as its not one--illegal, and two, is not a threat to Supergirl at this point in time, and since Supergirl cannot read minds or predict the future, she can only base her views on the here and now.
You really loathe Kara, don't you? Do you mainly just watch for James?
 
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