Not another one!
So since yesterday, I've been constructing in my head my own version of a female Lex, rule!63-ing like I have a tendency to do (see: Daredevil, Batman, etc.). It's fascinating how little would actually change. What do you guys think? I love the idea of Lex with a wig room, developing a sense of self-flagellating glee in whipping off a wig just to make someone recoil, recreating that rejection from Lionel over and over again in some attempt at overcoming the need for emotional attachments. Maybe during the accident on the bridge, she's not wearing a wig and so Clark's first & lasting impression is her bald, and he's constantly put off every time she shows up with hair. Maybe she wears red wigs, and Lionel likes redheaded women. Maybe Excelsior was co-ed, and so Oliver & co.'s bullying takes on a different and more terrifying slant. Maybe Martha and Jonathan react differently; maybe Pete and Chloe and Lana react differently to a woman who does everything male Lex does; the townfolk of Smallville and the plant workers would definitely view her intrusion a bit differently and likely more negatively; you can bet the media wouldn't hesitate to call her a whore and a slut to her face, not just shrug off the rumors of promiscuity like they do with male Lex. What about her relationships with Victoria? Desiree? Helen? Lana? Clark? Lionel rebuking her for being too emotional would still simultaneously piss her off and bring her up short, Lex perhaps taking her natural urge to dress across genders and either playing it up to unsettle people or, if she's wanting to be in Lionel's good graces (or deliberately subvert them), playacting and overcompensating as "fully" feminine or masculine.
I think I've just dug myself a new pit in which to wallow. (There are probably fics like this out there, but I don't want to read them. Like a lot of SpN stuff, I'm sure my vision is dramatically different from others', so the dissonance would likely ruin the concept.)
On a related note, I also have a CFMWH prequel story that's been knocking around in my head for awhile that I don't know if I'll ever actually write, or even want to. It focuses on Lillian. I'm always fascinated by the myriad reasons fanfic-ers "justify" or explain why she married and stayed with Lionel. Did she fall in love with him? Was it like Lanning's Identical series, where she felt compelled to give her children what she perceived as the most powerful starting position in life? Was she as abused and cowed by Lionel as Lex? Was she as virtuous as both Luthor men paint her? How serious was her mental illness? Was it post-partum that moved her hand to Julian, or something that was always there? I find Lillian a fascinating character, in part because her influence and memory are what Lex attempts to cling to in his fight to break free of Lionel.
I think I've just dug myself a new pit in which to wallow. (There are probably fics like this out there, but I don't want to read them. Like a lot of SpN stuff, I'm sure my vision is dramatically different from others', so the dissonance would likely ruin the concept.)
On a related note, I also have a CFMWH prequel story that's been knocking around in my head for awhile that I don't know if I'll ever actually write, or even want to. It focuses on Lillian. I'm always fascinated by the myriad reasons fanfic-ers "justify" or explain why she married and stayed with Lionel. Did she fall in love with him? Was it like Lanning's Identical series, where she felt compelled to give her children what she perceived as the most powerful starting position in life? Was she as abused and cowed by Lionel as Lex? Was she as virtuous as both Luthor men paint her? How serious was her mental illness? Was it post-partum that moved her hand to Julian, or something that was always there? I find Lillian a fascinating character, in part because her influence and memory are what Lex attempts to cling to in his fight to break free of Lionel.