butterfly | Joan of Arcadia and Smallville (Reply)

I like the image of God as presented on this show. This is actually God as I would envision, if I went about envisioning God, which I don't, as a general rule. But if I went around doing that, I would indeed envision God as a presenter of opportunities who loves openly, selflessly, and responsibly. God loves Joan, therefore God would want Joan to reach her fullest potential, but ultimately, it's Joan's choice. God doesn't make the bad things happen -- that's the interaction of free will and consequence. Judith chose to drink herself unconscious, God merely provided the opportunity for Joan to do something about that if she so chose. All about choices and free will. Joan just has more opportunities to impact the world in a positive fashion because she has a loving force openly and obviously giving her guidance if she chooses to listen to it.

Reread Ishmael recently. It's one of those books that I can reread any number of times and still find new things in it. It's a bit of a philosophical treatise and one that I agree with fairly whole-heartedly. Sadly, no matter how many times I read it, I always start out wanting to smack the narrator. Probably because I've not lost my optimist outlook and he's very disillusioned.

I mentioned in my brief notes that I adored Lois. Yep, loved every minute of her. She's impulsive, tactless, and full of so much heart that it carries her through it all. She's like, you know, that horse in that movie. With Tobey Maguire. Like that. Seeing Lois in Clark's shirt and Clark's reaction to Lois in his shirt was just wonderful.

I loved the end of the Clark/Chloe/Lois reunion, because there's a possible believable female friendship there. On Smallville! Plus, it was just sweet. It's so great that they found her together, because they're Lois and Clark, investigative duo.

I don't understand when people complain about how this is uncanon (This would be at TWoP though, and I've pretty much given up understanding most of the people there). Dude, Chloe's existence was uncanon. Lex and Clark's friendship? Uncanon. Smallville is creating its own splinter Superman world, because that lends their show a hint of unstability and uncertainty. The show will probably end with Lex fully believing that he's the hero of the story, protecting the world from the most dangerous person he's ever known. So Lois and Clark meet before Metropolis and the Daily Planet. It doesn't impact the laid-out comic storyline unless the writers decide to let it. It certainly doesn't change past issues. Yes, Lois and Clark, for example, would not fit into the same canon that Smallville does. But Lois and Clark would not have fit into the characterization of the Superman movies. And Smallville also has cave paintings, Jor-el visiting Earth, Chloe's existence, Lionel being pretty much the comic Lex as far as background goes, and a Lex with a complicated and sympathetic backstory.

Something else that gives me pause is the idea that Lois has stolen Chloe's personality. Um, not to be junior high about it, but Chloe stole Lois' personality first. The show creators apparently claim that Lois is Chloe+Lana. Lois as irritating, persistent, and lacking that little thing we call common sense is Lois Lane as I've always seen her characterized. She's pushy and tough and always jumps without looking. That's Lois Lane. That's been Lois Lane. For, like, decades, man.