SV theory

[rivkat]

I said this in comments to talitha78's entry, but I wanted to offer a speculation here:

So, the Kryptonian stones of power, left by the advanced Kryptonian race for some future heir, are ... stuffed inside Kryptonite-covered artifacts? And this makes sense how?

I say: the Kryptonian heir is only worthy if he can convince humans to work with him, help him when he's at his most vulnerable. If he can't get the stones from their Krypto-protection through collaboration, he's not capable of the kind of leadership he needs to use the stones justly. (Of course, it's also possible that getting the stones through manipulating and tricking humans is fine too, in which case Clark is gonna do just great with the infinite wisdom of the stones. As J'onn once said, let's put a pin in that theory and come back to it.)

Thoughts?

Comments

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

I think it was mobiusklein who suggested that the stones were a signalling device, intended to let Krypton know that a rogue Kryptonian was on Terra.

I'm not sure that theory makes sense . . . but then, does anything?

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

But why would the signal stones be surrounded by Kryptonite? "Alert! A really reckless/stupid Kryptonian has approached!" I guess the Kryptonite would serve to incapacitate the hapless alien, but for what purpose? Keeping him there while the other Kryptonians raced to capture him?

"If you wonder how he eats and breathes, and other science facts
Say to yourself: It's just a show, I should really just relax."

Not unrelatedly, your icon reminded me that I have six SV/crossover icons with pictures from SV and text from something else. Now all I need is a Clark/Lex one that says "A long time ago/We used to be friends" and my collection will be complete.

[marcasita.livejournal.com]

So basically Clark would never have found any of these stones without others' intervention (Lex in Egypt, Lionel in...South America?, Isobel/Lana in China), so even though he managed to get his hands on them eventually, it was the means he acquired them that will keep him from being the Superman he's supposed to be? I would like the thought of them going there, and there are hints at that since Clark was too inept to keep the China stone and it ended up stained with blood. Anytime they seem to *get* that Clark is nowhere near being canon Supes I get a little thrill because he just so isn't. Ooh, ooh, and then I start thinking that Jor-El is the one signaling Clark with that awful noise the stones make to let him know where they are because he's helping out his inept prodigy.

Guess those are my thoughts. *g*

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Unless Jor-El told him about the stones, it doesn't seem like Clark would have known, if not for the various humans beetling about the planet looking for them. I like the connection between my theory and the bloodied stone -- I hadn't thought of that at all, but it has some mythic potential.

[shiba-inu.livejournal.com]

I don't watch SV so I can only offer speculation based on being a long-time reader of the various SUPERMAN comics titles.

In the first place there would seem to be no reason for Kryptonians to have sent any artifacts to Earth. Jor-El was unable to convince the Council that Krypton was about to be destroyed. Why would they send Stones of Power (nicely vague, that) to a backwater planet like Earth?

In the second place all matter from Krypton-that-exploded is kryptonite. Period. Why hide kryptonite inside more kryptonite? The only way it's not some-color-of-K is if it/they were sent to Earth before the explosion. So you're back to question #1 above.

So the third place would be, I guess, a different explanaton. The Stones, whatever they are, are not Kryptonian in origin. That throws open a whole range of possibilities. Did Krypton have an enemy? Think US vs USSR at the height of the Cold War.

Or is there another planet of potentially super-powered beings who would come into their metahuman abilities under a yellow sun the same way Kal-El did? There was an old story line in the Superboy comics where he traveled into the future to join the Legion of Super-Heroes (yeah, it's cheesy) and met another Last Survivor Of His Planet called Mon-El from the planet Daxam. So it's not exactly new ground.

Or, I suppose, you could posit that there was a Kryptonian version of the black-ops type of organization (think ALIAS, another show I've never watched) that actually did, for some reason, stash Stones of Power on Earth simply because it's way the hell out in the boonies (galactically speaking) and who the hell would think of looking there...?

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I like the third race idea a lot (we'll just handwave away how the third race knew that bits of Krypton would be deadly to Kryptonians if moved elsewhere in the universe -- I've gleaned from somewhere the idea that Kryptonite became deadly because of cosmic rays during the journey to Earth, which at least explains why Krypton didn't poison its children back home). The black-ops idea is pretty cool too, and might work in with the harm caused by Clark not assembling the stones before one of them was doused in blood.

[thistle90.livejournal.com]

How''s this for lack of logic:

Kryptonite is from meteors produced by the explosive destruction of the planet Krypton. So the folks in the past got ahold of it how?

Also, I thought Clark was a refugee from an unforeseen planetary explosion. Which again: the folks in the past knew there'd be a need for these stones how?

I'm sure someone could manage to come up with a plausible explanation for all of this if they wanted to, but the people who write the show don't seem to be too worried about plausibility.

[thistle90.livejournal.com]

Eh. Perhaps I should have read the preceeding comment first. No new info here. Same frustration though. :D

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

My frustration matches yours. I'm only half-serious about trying to figure this out, because I feel a little bit like a sucker for trying so hard when the so-called creators can't be bothered.

My response could be considered a bit of a spoiler...

[philexos.livejournal.com]

My theory is a bit simpler, although yours... more interesting. It's simply that the green stone must be considered a gemstone of some variety on Krypton (witness the large green gemstone ring on Lara's finger in Memoria and... eh, there's one other shot of it somewhere, the same shot used in another ep). It's merely the radiation of the yellow sun that converts the properties of the gemstone from a benign 'diamond' to something a bit deadlier (although, just as pretty) on earth.

whoops

[philexos.livejournal.com]

okay, misspoke myself there, a bit. Er, rather, than the radiation of Earth's Sun, Green Kryptonite (as a matter of comics canon), was created by radiation unleashed by the explosion of Krypton (probably could be considered stronger forces than nuclear fusion)

Anyhoo. For amusement value, you can read the Kryptonite Handbook (http://theages.superman.ws/Encyclopaedia/kryptonite.php), as well as some other detailed Kryptonite comics canon (http://superman.ws/articles/space-colors/). It's the best place to start if the who/what/why of Kryptonite is keeping you up at... nite. :g: I found it interesting, and slept better almost immediately. ;)

Re: whoops

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links. I once wrote an entire story because I read that yellow Kryptonite was "imaginary." You know, as opposed to the other, real kinds of Kryptonite.

Re: whoops

[philexos.livejournal.com]

The second link describes the effects of at least TEN types of kryptonite. DC went a little krypto crazy in the 60's. Hm. Wonder why. heh.

[latxcvi.livejournal.com]

I really like that theory, and it makes a lot of sense if you subscribe to the theory that Jor-El's whole "rule them" doesn't mean rule in the sense of being an overlord or anything like that, so much as a "leading by example" sort of deal. Certainly, the S4 retcon of Jor-El arguably supports such a reading of the character (and one I can abide by, if I just ignore that kidnapped teenager he turned into Kara and then vaporized when he was through with her, or, you know, the way he tried to choke Jonathan to death at the end of S3, but alas ... I digress). If the idea that the Kryptonian heir is supposed to lead by example, then yeah, he'd have to show humans they can trust him enough to be *willing* to follow his example, and he can only do that by interacting with them.

One of the many things that bugs me about the stone storyline is how much of Clark's potential character development was cut off because they focused the whole stupid arc on Her Pinkness/Countess Sparkle Pony. How much more interesting would the storyline have been if Clark, realizing that he can't get to the crystals without the help of the humans with resources to get him near them, had to figure out a way to *work that*. Like, how far would he have been willing to try actually working with Lex to get the stones? Would he have tried aligning himself with the reformed (hahahahahahahahahahahahaha) Lionel? Would he have been willing to cozy up to Jason/the Teagues if it meant getting closer to the stones? In short, what steps would Clark have taken, and how honest (or not) would he have been willing to be if cooperation with the humans around him was the only way he could get the stones in the effort to *save* Earth.

That? Could have been a really compelling, season-long arc, one in which Clark consciously and actively examined and tested the limits of his own moral/ethical agency in the service of doing something he's at least been told is for the benefit/safety of many. Instead, Lana gets a tattoo and witchy ancestor like, two people care about, and all this rich, ripe potential for Clark character-growth is wholly lost. And then, then, THEN, as if at the last minutes AlMiles & Co. realized that "Oh, noes, the story is supposed to be about Clark and we now need to get him involved in it," they've got him once again blithely engaging in theivery as though it's a divine right or something, and use the lana ex machina to *literally* have one of the stones just inexplicably handed to him.

So, yeah, Clark got the stones via the help of the humans around him, but there was nothing active on *his* part in making that happen, and that's just ... such a storytelling waste.