Smallville/YMMV: Difference between revisions

** {{spoiler|Michael Rosenbaum}} agreeing to return for the finale, "for the fans." Much rejoicing, but apparently some fans find that motive suspect and thus aren't very appreciative.

** The confirmation that [[God Mode Sue|Lana]] [[Creator's Pet|Lang]] ''wouldn't'' be returning for the finale.

*** The announcement that the Smallville continuity will officially be continuing in comic book form as a Season 11!

* [[Badass Decay]]: Arguably Lionel Luthor.

* [[Base Breaker]]: Green Arrow. Some think he's the best character in the show; others see him as a [[Jerkass Woobie|whiny, self-centered douchebag]] who constantly treats Clark like dirt, despite supposedly being one of his closest superhero allies.

** Though to be fair, Clark has often called Ollie out in the later seasons, and on at least one occasion has even kicked Ollie out of the Justice League. In any case, Ollie's portrayal is actually rather consistent with the way he acts in the comics...

* [[Complete Monster]]:

** Brainiac. He has no redeeming qualities, ruthlessly manipulates those around him with sneering contempt, tries to unleash Zod to enslave the world, and later begins draining people of their trace minerals in order to re-build himself, murders his creator and finally [[Body Surf|body-jacks Chloe]] while attempting [[Omnicidal Maniac|to end all life on Earth via Doomsday]]. During the commission of the aforementioned crimes, he experiments on victims using various deadly diseases, and twice unleashes a lethal computer virus. The first one shuts down most the planet as a ''distraction'' while he works to unleash Zod; the second one is part of his end-the-world-plot. He infects Mrs. Kent with a Kryptonian disease to make Clark help him in Season 5, and puts Lana in a coma in Season 7 in order to achieve the same end, before trapping [[Supergirl|Kara]] in the Phantom Zone, taking her place, and revealing Clark's secret to [[Arch Enemy|Lex]]. And oh yeah, in a [[Bad Future]], he and Lex were going to [[Nuke'Em|nuke]] half the world so they could remake it in their image. He's treated with fear and revulsion by Clark, the Legion of Super-Heroes and even [[Even Evil Has Standards|Bizarro]], and actually gets the Legion to consider performing a [[Shoot the Dog]] on Chloe when he was inhabiting her. While he eventually {{spoiler|[[Heel Face Turn|Heel Face Turns]] it's after being forcibly reprogrammed by the Legion, and thus doesn't count}}.

* [[Evil Is Sexy]]: The opinion of many, many fangirls regarding Lex and Davis. The opinion of many fanboys regarding Tess Mercer.

* [[Fan Disservice]]: Metallo. He's a [[Walking Shirtless Scene]]...with [[Body Horror|hideous tubing]] protruding from his ribs.

** Chloe/Lex.

* [[Flanderization]]: Most of the characters to some degree, but Chloe's computer skills are the worst offence.

* [[Foe Yay]]: Between Clark and Lex - so heavy in places that fans often refer to the series as "[[Slash Fic|Slashville]]."

** Lois and Tess.

* [[Ho Yay]]: Lex and Clark during the first couple seasons.

* [[I Knew It!]]: Martha is the "Red Queen".

* [[In Name Only]]:

** While Smallville is full of different takes on the featured comic book characters, Cat Grant is absolutely nothing like her comic book counterpart. In the comics, she started out as a promiscuous gossip columnist and later became a cougar with breast implants and low cut blouses where the TV version actually spells the word "sex" at one point because she's too uptight to say it and is actually kind of pudgy and conservatively dressed. All this to turn her into a [[Straw Conservative]] where the comic book version couldn't care less about politics.

* [[Jerkass Woobie]]: Lex, Lionel, and Tess have all qualified on both counts. Must be a {{spoiler|Luthor family trait}} along with being [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastards]].

* [[Large Ham]]: Lionel (and the Earth-2 version even ''moreso''), both Zods, Rick Flag, Zor-El.

** Lex in Season 7's "Descent", where he {{spoiler|murders his father}}. Some feel it came earlier, when he {{spoiler|had his cloned brother shot just for getting close to Lionel}}, or afterwards, when {{spoiler|he destroyed the Fortress of Solitude}}. "Descent" is the most widely accepted and canonical one, as we see him literally throw his conscience away.

** Davis crosses this when {{spoiler|he kills Jimmy in "Doomsday."}}

* [[Motive Decay]]: Jason Teague. {{spoiler|He goes from refusing to help his mother after learning she may be manipulating him and Lana, to being a fully clued-in accomplice to her plan and treated as though he always was. It smacks of rushing him out of the show.}}

* [[Narm]]: The effects budget is... pretty noticeable as the series goes on. Admittedly, this isn't the showrunners' fault; it's simply due to the fact that the show was on the CW, which for many years was arguably being run into the ground by network president Dawn Ostroff (who, by the way, seemed to despise sci-fi shows, and only kept Smallville and Supernatural around because they were the two highest-rated shows on her network).

* [[Romantic Plot Tumor]]:

** Clark and Lana, non-stop. Even when she was gone from the show and came back, the plot came back around just as Lois and Clark began to get to know each other.

* [[Ron the Death Eater]]: [[The Scrappy|Lana]] [[Creator's Pet|Lang]] is incredibly annoying, but to hear it from some of the fanbase, she's a whiny whore, [[Axe Crazy]] [[Psycho Ex-Girlfriend]], and borderline [[Big Bad]] who just needs to die. Lionel Luthor was [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|no]] [[Self-Made Orphan|saint]] [[Abusive Dad|either]], but once again, there's a strong tendency (especially among [[Draco in Leather Pants|Lex]] fans) to turn him into [[Pure Evil]] in fanfics, complete with Sexual Abuse.

** The Kents also get this in Lex-centric fics, despite having very good reasons for wanting their son to stay away from the Luthors in the actual show. Lex himself will get ''heavy'' [[Draco in Leather Pants]] treatment, while the Kents will be turned into vicious, abusive [[Control Freak|ControlFreaks]] who don't care about Clark's happiness at all and loathe the Luthors for literally no reason, and occasionally scheme to steal the Luthors' wealth. This is especially jarring when one remembers that in the actual '''canon'', Jonathan and Martha Kent are supposed to be among the ''nicest'' people in the entire DC Multiverse.

*** Clark also gets this treatment very often in Lex-centric fics. Typically Lex will either be deeply in love with Clark or at the very least will care deeply about him in a platonic way (it varies from fic to fic), but despite this, Clark will treat Lex like crap. If it's a fic where Lex is in love with Clark, Clark will not only reject Lex's advances, but will say something viciously cruel to him and treat him worse than ever, in a series of increasingly-terrifying [[Kick the Dog]] moments for Clark. [[Beware the Superman|Thus, when Lex becomes the main opposition figure against Clark/Superman, the writer will be able to portray it as being completely justified.]] (Also in these fics, Jonathan and Martha will usually be cackling evilly in the background while Clark treats Lex terribly)

* [[The Scrappy]]/[[Creator's Pet]]: Lana. No matter how irrelevant her plot lines were, or how annoying the fans found her, she kept getting more and more screen time, until Seasons 4 through 6 were nicknamed "Lanaville" by the fans. The writers arguably kept the character on board way past the point of her usefulness to the plot, and in the case of Al Gough and Miles Millar even seemed to care more about Lana than any other character (even Clark). It really says something that in the DVD commentary, co-creators Gough and Millar actually declare that "she is the true magic of the show."

* [[Seasonal Rot]]: Pick any season after Season 3 and you'll find its fair share of haters or people who agree this is when the show got bad. However Season 9 has had [[Broken Base|more mixed reviews]] compared to past seasons, and the final season, 10, has been even better received, though the series finale [[Broken Base|breaks the base again.]]

** Actually Lex/Lana was hinted at the very first time they met, in "Metamorphosis." Lex stares at Lana, and tells Clark that he has good taste in women. Later, as Lana walks away, Lex is ''still'' staring at her.

* [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]]: Comic book fans seem to often have this reaction to the show. Not that the ''comics'' themselves have been all that consistent over seven decades.

** Fans of the earlier seasons often do this to the later ones as well. Especially Lex fans, who decry him a) actually becoming the villain, and b) being written out.

** And to be fair, a lot of the comic book fans had a reaction of "They changed it and made it suck", which is different from "They changed it ''so'' it sucks".

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: [[Damsel Scrappy|Lana]], [[The Load|Lana]], [[Creator's Pet|Lana]]! Most of the times she gets in trouble for Clark to save her, she only has herself to blame. Key example: in the Season 1 finale, she was stranded next to her car by a ditch and saw a huge tornado approaching her. Anyone with half a brain knows that the best thing to do in that situation is lie down in the ditch and cover your head. Yet Lana, who was raised in Kansas and probably had tornado safety drilled into her since grade school, went back into her car to get picked up by the tornado and nearly die!

** It appears this troper lacks "half a brain". Getting into a car to drive away from the tornado seems more reasonable than staying in the same area in a ditch, at first glance at least.

** Another one was the creation of {{spoiler|Zod's}} towers in Season 9. The writers decided that his weapon that he would use to destroy humanity would be disguised as a pair of towers in the center of the biggest city in the Smallville Universe. Further, the best way to deal with them would be for Clark to {{spoiler|slice them with his heat vision, causing the upper floors to collapse and the unfinished structure to implode, destroying the weapon before it could be completed and before Zod had a chance to use it.}}

*** This is actually briefly brought up in Season 10, where General Lane refers to it as a terrorist attack as part of his stance against vigilantes.

*** It can be [[Justified Trope|justified]] in Godfrey's respect, [[Dark Messiah|for]] [[Compelling Voice|several]] [[Co-Dragons|reasons]].

*** Though as of the mid-season finale, Icarus, {{spoiler|Cat seems to be "warming-up" to vigilantes after a chat with Lois. Or, at least, she's going to be more objective on the subject.}}

 

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[[Category:YMMV]]