Spoilers Supergirl - Season 3
- Thread starter dahj
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Having a 2.5 inch height advantage didn't help this guy from Kazikstan
I'm glad these guys, especially Mayweather, didn't know that smaller people lose all the time, before they started boxing.
https://bodyheightweight.com/boxers-height-from-shortest-to-tallest/
And of course, who can forget this opening from "Troy". ( I would have included a "David and Goliath" scene, but all the ones I found were "meh".)
My dad was a Ranger and he would show mom the new "throws" he learned when he got home. Well, mom heard him coming up behind her one day and was "tired" of these games so she braced herself against the fridge and when he reached for her she threw HIM across the kitchen. Dad was 6 inches taller than mom. He stopped showing her his new skills after that.
These bad guys don't look "weak" to me just because Jack defeated them.
In fact, Rob Tapert used to say, if you want to make your hero/heroine look stronger, you have to pit them against ever stronger opponents.
First of all, that's the fallacy of begging the question.
Secondly, we already have good reason to think that Kryptnoian superpowers are more than proportional enhancements of Kryptonian abilities as they are under a red sun, because Kryptonians don't seem to be able to do things like fly or emit heat vision under a red sun at all. If the yellow sun only enhances preexisting abilities by scaling them up, then even yellow-sun-enhanced Kryptonians could never fly.
Therefore, and thirdly, the yellow sun does more than merely scale up Kryptonian abilities as they are under a red sun. This is a separate point of the second point, because although it's explicitly demonstrated here only for powers such as flight, there's no reason to suppose it doesn't have implications for all powers.
And so, fourthly, the fight scores of Kal-El vs Kara under a red sun needn't indicate the odds of Superman beating Supergirl under a yellow sun.
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The biggest problem with the Superman/Supergirl fight is neither one should win the fight. Every superhero showdown I have seen has in some manner ended in a drawl. For the simple reason being that every hero is someone's favorite hero and you don't want to piss off those fans but you still want to have some of the fun of seeing each character go at it and get their licks in. If you want Supergirl to win that fight you should let him win a earlier fight and basically imply they are now equals and who would win is pretty random and anyone could win on any given day.
Also another trick is to show how each hero has something specific that only they can do. If Kara is stronger in physical strength then that is her advantage but then Superman's advantage is experience since he has been doing things longer and thus is better at planning and also generally has more trust from the people because he has been working on a global scale while Kara has mostly just been protecting her city. Maybe he has learned how to fly in space and she can't yet maybe her heat powers work better than his. Stuff like that.
Jason
Also another trick is to show how each hero has something specific that only they can do. If Kara is stronger in physical strength then that is her advantage but then Superman's advantage is experience since he has been doing things longer and thus is better at planning and also generally has more trust from the people because he has been working on a global scale while Kara has mostly just been protecting her city. Maybe he has learned how to fly in space and she can't yet maybe her heat powers work better than his. Stuff like that.
Jason
But this wasn't "every superhero showdown." This was a showdown dictated by the needs of this specific story. Superman was being manipulated by the villain into attacking the show's hero, so naturally he had to be stopped. And having Supergirl achieve a decisive victory was necessary in plot terms, because it led to her qualifying as Earth's champion and therefore being entitled under Daxamite law to challenge Rhea for the Earth's fate.
Besides, I've seen plenty of fans and critics denounce the "always end in a draw" practice as a tired, unsatisfying cliche. When the big two companies did the DC vs. Marvel crossover event in 1996, in fact, they made a point of giving every fight between a DC character and a Marvel character a decisive victory, precisely because they knew audiences had grown sick of the contrivance of such fights always ending in draws. (Although the outcomes were determined by reader votes, and thus some of them were ridiculously arbitrary, like Wolverine beating Lobo off-panel.)
Trying to offend no one is a recipe for banal, empty storytelling. You can't tell a worthwhile story by suppressing anything that you're afraid someone would dislike. You have to let the story take you wherever it needs to go, period. If you're too afraid to offend anyone, you'll never do anything that impresses or delights anyone either. Good fiction challenges its audience and forces them out of their complacency. If the only thing you have to offer your audience is affirmation of their existing prejudices and expectations, then you've given them nothing of value.
As I've already said, it's illogical to assume that Kara's advantage is one of physical strength. Her advantage is that she has military-grade training in hand-to-hand combat. Look back at the early first season when Alex used the kryptonite room to teach her fighting techniques. Alex made a point of teaching her to fight in ways that didn't rely on physical strength alone.
That's the logical part of your argument.
As I've already said, the illogical part is around here:
If you are questioning the logic of Kal-El being stronger due to his size, the default position should then be that they have a similar strength (and that it is Kara's reflexes, combat skill etc) that won the day rather than her being stronger, which makes no sense whatsoever as she has had less time to buildup a solar reserve that he has (even apart from her physical stats).
Do they say in the show how long it takes Kryptonians to become fully powered under a yellow sun, how extensive their charge reservoirs are, and whether all Kryptonians can hold the same charge? I honestly don't recall, but I never addressed that anyway. It would matter, clearly.
I'm pretty sure that I didn't claim that all Kryptonians have the same power levels under a yellow sun, though.
I remember that Supergirl drained her powers when she emptied her heat vision into Red Tornado IIRC, which was an awesome scene by the way. She was weak for a while, and then she got her powers back. That might mean that she pretty much reset her charging clock to that moment. How do we know Superman hasn't ever done the same?
Also, Supergirl's been in a red sun environment. What happens in a red sun environment to the charge acquired under a yellow sun? Probably Superman's spent time under red suns, too, possibly even for extended periods. He gets around at least as much as Supergirl.
They all charge up to full strength almost immediately under a yellow sun.
And lose their strength almost immediately under a red sun.
One could argue that Superman's solar processors are worn out, which is why Kara is stronger.
And lose their strength almost immediately under a red sun.
One could argue that Superman's solar processors are worn out, which is why Kara is stronger.
Basically isn't that saying Kara is stronger because she is younger where Clark has more age. Kind of like how a star basketball player is more athletic when he is 25 instead of 35.
Jason
Kara lost her super abilities as soon as she arrived on the red sun planet in season 2 and regained them as soon as she was exposed to Alex's solar grenade.
In the finale this year, Alura seemed to become superpowered as soon as she landed on Earth. It seemed within 5 minutes she was flying by Kara's side and using her heat vision to blast pieces of falling concrete and her freeze breath to help Kara control the tsunami.
Yeah, that was a narrative shorthand that bugged me. It should've taken her -- and Selena's trio, for that matter -- somewhat longer to figure out her powers and how to use them.
Only if Alura hadn't been under the influence of a yellow star before. Were the criminals she put in Fort Rozz all arrested in the Krypton system or could she have had to chase them elsewhere in the galaxy?
(Selena's trio, not so much, but they at least had a little bit of a lead time for learning.)
1. Kryptonians are ( or were) a space faring community. These well traveled cosmopolitans of space have seen a yellow sun before.
2. Considering how Pa Kent was given super powers on Smallville very easily and immediately by the Jor-El AI in the fortress, it's always been my belief that these are not biological abilities at all, but multipurpose nanites all Kryptonians babies are given, or these nanites are self perpetuating and sexually transmittable.
Hanging plotlines from season 3.
Who's going to run L-corp if Sam leaves, and if she stays will she and Alex become the next couple to ship?
What happened to Sam's Kryptonian crystal that built her fortress, much less her Kryptonian spaceship in her mom's barn?
Did anyone think to tell Wynn's mom that he was going to the future?
Will he come back once a year on her birthday to say hi and invent the next great tech to solidify his 31st cent rep?
Now that James is outed and his sidekick has gone to the future, will James give up being Guardian and like Oliver Queen run for mayor instead?
Speaking of James, without Winn, who will he male bond with... J'onn?
Will Brainy, defying his name, out Kara to Lena?
Will we ever see Lillian Luthor, Cat Grant or President Marsdin again?
Is that Kara's doppleganger in Russia, Or is Kara on an undercover mission looking for Hilary's missing emails?
(That last one was a joke)
Who's going to run L-corp if Sam leaves, and if she stays will she and Alex become the next couple to ship?
What happened to Sam's Kryptonian crystal that built her fortress, much less her Kryptonian spaceship in her mom's barn?
Did anyone think to tell Wynn's mom that he was going to the future?
Will he come back once a year on her birthday to say hi and invent the next great tech to solidify his 31st cent rep?
Now that James is outed and his sidekick has gone to the future, will James give up being Guardian and like Oliver Queen run for mayor instead?
Speaking of James, without Winn, who will he male bond with... J'onn?
Will Brainy, defying his name, out Kara to Lena?
Will we ever see Lillian Luthor, Cat Grant or President Marsdin again?
Is that Kara's doppleganger in Russia, Or is Kara on an undercover mission looking for Hilary's missing emails?
(That last one was a joke)
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I assume you have little experience of combat sports then?
Here's a fun video proving you wrong:
Happens all the time in fact.
Ummmm, no, it isn't even true.
Considered by whom? I'm assuming you aren't presuming to speak for every comic book fan out there?
He was and she did. Can't really put it any plainer than that, so yes she could.
And what does it matter?
Supergirl won this time, maybe Superman will win next time.
Supergirl won this time, maybe Superman will win next time.
It apparently matters to some really fragile egos
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