Batman and Superman do not currently exist on Earth-1; this has been confirmed via "word of god" statements, so Talia definitely never met her "beloved".
Spoilers Supergirl - Season 3
- Thread starter dahj
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She would not be pointless if she fulfilled her destiny as a Luthor (and again, her chess piece scene was not misdirection). She should be plotting to be the "bigger, better" Luthor than anyone else in her family--playing the game like no other, instead of what I believe is coming with her in season three.
Yes, he was sidelined--aggressively so--after the producers bowed to the loud, James-hating fans who did not want to see him anywhere near Kara in the romantic sense. Nevermind how well that was built up in season one (even the Bizarro SG revealed that Kara loved James), once he was booted to the curb, there was no reason to focus on him, and he lost his place as the voice of reason--also carefully built in season one. Character development is supposed to be just that--but James had his natural course of development ripped from him, while forcing the Guardian plot on him in such a clumsy way.
He's largely invisible on a series where character (and actor) is next in line after SG/Kara. So, if he's not killed off in S3, I would not be surprised if he (in soap opera fashion) goes out for a bottle of milk and never returns, or they will have him get involved with someone who turns out to be bad, so after a period of doubting himself, he will "Spider-Man" the Guardian costume in a trash can and walk out of the series, feeling he can never not be in identity crisis mode as long as he's around SG.
But who wants to stories about *that* boring-arse universe? Personally, I prefer the universes in which TV shows are based to be entertaining.
But that's just it -- it's not all the same universe. Earth-38 has Superman, Supergirl, Martian Manhunter, and Batman (and presumably the Batman family), while Earth-1 has most everyone else (except Jay Garrick, Jesse Quick, Gypsy, and probably Black Lightning). Since we get to follow both universes regularly, there's no need for duplication.
This is completely unfounded paranoia.
I got to admit I wouldn't mind if they got ride of James. I like my Jimmy Olsen to be nerdy and not a super hunk. Plus I was expecting Maggie to actually become more of a action character next year and she would have been a good fit to take on the Guardian role. Shame she isn't going to be in the show all that much.
Jason
Jason
It's kinda weird to me that people have the impression of Jimmy as "nerdy." That's basically exclusive to the '50s TV series and the movies. Originally on radio, he was meant to be a pretty typical, if wholesome, teenager, an identification figure for young listeners, so he was "cool" by the standards of the time, although 1940s "cool" seems dorky to later generations. Jimmy appeared very infrequently in the comics until the '50s, when the TV show's popularity led to Jimmy becoming a regular in the comics and even getting his own spinoff series, which ran for 20 years. In the comics, Jimmy was a pretty adventurous fellow and fairly popular with the ladies (except for his actual girlfriend Lucy Lane, who was a total shrew who treated him horribly, which seemed to be obligatory for DC love interests in the era). By the '70s, he'd become a world-famous TV journalist known for his intrepid adventures. I don't know as much about post-Crisis Jimmy, but from what I've seen, he was a pretty typical young man without anything specifically nerdy or dorky about him. On Lois and Clark, first-season Jimmy (Michael Landes) was quite cool and street-smart; his replacement for the rest of the series (Justin Whalen) was more of a naive kid, but not nerdy in any particular way that I can recall. Smallville's Jimmy was Aaron Ashmore, and was about as cool and charming as your typical Aaron Ashmore character. Supergirl's James, personality-wise, isn't too unlike what Landes's or Ashmore's Jimmy might've grown into a decade later.
(And by the way, I've mentioned this before, but not only did the Reeve movie revive the '50s show's idea of a "nerdy" Jimmy, it also turned him into a photographer for the first time; before then, he'd been initially a copyboy, then a cub reporter, and then a veteran reporter. Even the post-Crisis Jimmy didn't take up photography as his primary occupation until the '90s.)
Although it's nice to have a large cast of characters, too many "regulars" will probably put more noses out of joint as story telling time is taken from the core group and spread outward
That was my main complaint about the first series of Batman films back in the 80s - 90s. The first was good, with Batman & the Joker. Then # 2 had Batman, the evil CEO plus Catwoman and Penguin. They were so busy telling everyone else's story that "Batman" got short shrift that year. It would be a pattern repeated in #3 which had to deal with Robin, the Riddler and Two Face, not to mention in #4 with Mr Freeze, Poison Ivy, Robin & Batgirl.
With so many distractions it's not a wonder that Batman himself was rarely seen after the movie series debuted in 1989.
Fewer regulars could be a good thing if we want to find out more about Kara, Alex, J'onn, Winn, James and now (presumably) Lena & Monel.
That was my main complaint about the first series of Batman films back in the 80s - 90s. The first was good, with Batman & the Joker. Then # 2 had Batman, the evil CEO plus Catwoman and Penguin. They were so busy telling everyone else's story that "Batman" got short shrift that year. It would be a pattern repeated in #3 which had to deal with Robin, the Riddler and Two Face, not to mention in #4 with Mr Freeze, Poison Ivy, Robin & Batgirl.
With so many distractions it's not a wonder that Batman himself was rarely seen after the movie series debuted in 1989.
Fewer regulars could be a good thing if we want to find out more about Kara, Alex, J'onn, Winn, James and now (presumably) Lena & Monel.
First loves rarely ever last.
Alex should have some fun, before settling down forever.
Alex should have some fun, before settling down forever.
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Yeah, this show is in dire need of a bit of streamlining.
Sucks that Maggie is the one leaving though, I figured since she got the least to do of all the regulars this season they'd come up with some interesting storylines for her next season...
I'm assuming that the number of actors in each tier is part of an agreement with the studio about how money is spent, and changing Supergirl from a show with 8 permanent actors to a show with four permanent actors would require a nod from above and a visit from the accountants who would want to know where the money is now going.
If they were still filming in LA the answer would be cocaine(in the 80s). Or kale(now).
Since they're now in Vancouver... dunno, maple syrup?
Actually... it "should" go to build a new Catco since the old Catco building must need a total overhaul after what the telepathic kid a few eps ago did to it and the beating it went through when Superman and the Daxamite were brawling through it.
Of course, that's an "in world" cost.
A more serious real world cost that I could live with would be the cost of flying Calista Flockhart back and forth from LA.
Resorting to flames again? Gotcha.
From the old IMDB threads on the series to YouTube videos, there was clear, bald-faced hatred of the James character, all thanks to his romantic connection to Kara, with posts such as "I want James to die," "I f*cking can't stand him with Kara!!" to the you-know-where-this-is-going classic, "I'm not racist, but..." Supergirl counts among it fans those who did hate the James character, not because he was not the comic version (which most TV viewers are not familiar with), but due to his race.
...but "having fun" seems like Maggie would be filed away as Random Relationship 2A--in other words, that all that this 2nd season presented--that they were always there for each other, and would pretty much give their lives for the other--was just a passing thing. Why not have at least one SG character have a stable relationship?
We've been told the actress is having her screen time "reduced" which may mean a break up, and may not. I'll admit I had one of my brain farts where I "briefly" thought that Floriana was out right off the show for unspecified reasons, which is not the case, which would have definitely mean that they were splitzville.
Sorry.
Denouncing your claim that Supergirl's writers torpedoed the Kara/James relationship because of negative fan reaction as "completely unfounded paranoia" isn't flaming, because it's not an attack on you personally.
Anyway, moving on to other things, I wanted to address the "too many characters" and "Kara wasn't the focus of her own show" complaints.
First of all, Season 2 added exactly 2 new Regulars, but only "upped" its "main character" count by 1 due to Calista being "downgraded" to Recurring status.
Secondly, the vast majority of Season 2 was focused on Kara in one form or fashion or another. She was tied directly to both of Season 2's primary arcs (Cadmus and the Daxamite invasion), we saw her struggle, even moreso than in Season 1, to figure out who she is and what she wants, and we saw her once again make the "harder choice" to give up part of what she wanted in order to save the world.
The season's other three narrative arcs - Alex's "coming out", James becoming Guardian, and J'onn's bonding, both literally and figuratively, with M'gann - had, at most, a dozen episodes devoted primarily to them COMBINED, with everything else being focused on Kara, her growth both in and out of costume, and the development and progression of the Cadmus and Daxamite invasion story arcs, which often dovetailed with and were integral to her own personal character growth.
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Your claim is still incorrect. Producers do react to the cries of their fans on occasion., Plot-wise, the romance story was moving along in a natural manner, strongly suggesting that the James/Kara relationship was part of the series development phase. It was only after a certain amount of aired episodes (season one) when the hate-cries against James / James with Kara (from people who "loved" everything else about the show, so they would not be ignored) reached a level where the abrupt, unnatural break-up was shoved into the plans for season two. All other development markers for their relationship were steadily and carefully laid out (including Kara's true feelings as explained by the aforementioned Bizarro SG), yet it ended with the sudden effect of flipping a switch.
What Moron didn't know Jimmy and Kara would eventually be fucking, after watching the pilot, which had a cold opening 8 months before it's debut on cbs?
The decision to move away from the Kara/James relationship was made between April and July of last year, and there is zero actual evidence supporting the notion that negative fan reaction had anything to do with it... hence my emphatic dismissal of said notion as "completely unfounded paranoia".
I think the main problem is that her ties to the ongoing storylines were more indirect than direct this year. Last year's ongoing baddies, Astra/Non and Max Lord both worked in a very personal way with Kara, the former were family and the latter's plans were focused directly on her.
But if you look at Cadmus, they work on a more personal level with Lena(because Lillian), Alex(because Jeremiah), J'onn(because Hank), even Winn(because Lyra). And while Kara did indeed fight them, none of those stories were primarily about her. Daxamites were a bit more personal, but only because Mon-El is her boyfriend, so again she's one step removed from the baddie.
Not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, in fact it's good that other characters got interesting plotlines, but shuffling all those threads was done somewhat haphazardly and it felt like Kara got slightly lost somewhere in there.
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