If my eyes don't deceive me

[rivkat]

I have book reviews, but first I want to talk SV fic. I just reread Lanning's excellent Agenda. I love the Identical series, I love Eli (though I doubt he'd call a man a yenta as he did Jonathan, but maybe that's just the way my family uses the term), I love the twists and turns and the way Lionel loves Lex, after his fashion. Yet I discovered

Comments

[rivkat]

Thinking through it, I don't have a problem with the characterization as Lillian's described to us; rather, I think that Lanning's Lex and Eli are deluding themselves in their descriptions. Eli probably knows it, too. Eli's explanations are simply insufficient, and Eli can't understand why anyone would love Lionel so he can't explain what it was that drew Lillian. But Lionel is tremendously vital, sexy because he's dangerous -- a lot like Lex, really -- and Lillian had to be a certain type of person to be attracted to that, maybe someone who didn't want to be the good girl that others around her wanted to see.

What I don't buy is that Lillian needed Lionel's resources. First, she comes from a wealthy family herself, and Eli could have protected her. Second, she never heard of alimony and child support? Third, and probably most important, if I accept that she believed this to be true, that makes her a softer version of Lionel, sacrificing her son's emotional health for his wealth.

That said, I think it's fine as characterization for Eli and Lex to believe in their perfect dead lady. All I want to say about that is that they're just sexier versions of Lana mourning her flattened parents. Er, mom. Maybe part of Lex learning to be a good guy could be learning that his ideal didn't necessarily make the choices that were right for her son.

Re:

[thornsilver]

Yes, dead are so much nicer then the living...

Do we really know that Lillian's family would have been in the Lionel's magnitude of rich? Or that they would have kept their wealth?

I just kept getting a funny feeling that it was not so much wealth, as the... less savory resources were things that made Lionel more attractive.

[rivkat]

Yeah, I agree that Lillian was probably looking to put a tiger in her tank. But Lex probably doesn't want to think about his father's animal magnetism or how sexy his amorality is.