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Why is Jonathan so disrespectful?

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  • Why is Jonathan so disrespectful?

    Does anyone have any thoughts or feelings as to why Jonathan Kent is so rude and disrespectful towards Lex? can any one give an explanation as to why Jonathan is the way he is with Lex? and what are Jonathan's reasons for being rude? or does he have any reasons as to why he is? I am trying to understand this Jonathan Kent character and I can't make sense of his perspective on this show. I mean what is his function on this show? I mean what is his purpose? and what are his flaws? and do they outweigh his good points?

  • #2
    He explained it early on during the series that he didn't trust any Luthor's after what happened with the Ross family. Lex makes a comment about it to Clark about Jonathan figuring the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

    Later on though Jonathan did seem to get on with Lex, at least for a period of time though he still held resentment and distrust for him as Lex was always poking around Clark's life and trying to figure out what he was hiding. In that regard Jonathan was being a protective father and not wanting the world to suddenly know about Clark, especially someone like Lex who may choose to attempt to extort him.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by laurarawlins
      Does anyone have any thoughts or feelings as to why Jonathan Kent is so rude and disrespectful towards Lex?
      As lipzo said, Pa Kent mentions that he doesn't trust Lionel Luther and by extension does not trust Lex either (seeing Lex as just too much like his father). It is wrong of Jon to judge the son based on the father's actions, IMO. He does soften towards Lex after a while, even letting Lex help out. But then he turns against him (as does Clark).

      I mean what is his function on this show? I mean what is his purpose? and what are his flaws? and do they outweigh his good points?
      His function, like Martha's, was to be a role model for Clark. While Martha has (almost) always been portrayed as the ultimate loving mother, Jonathan Kent has sometimes been more conflicted and sometimes even flawed. They showed some of that here. A usually very trusting and kind man, he can be stubborn and pig-headed when it comes to rich people he feels take advantage of poor or helpless people. Then there is his protectiveness of Clark. He knows that if the wrong kind of people find out about Clark, it will be bad. So he sometimes gets belligerent around those he thinks threaten Clark (at least that's my take).

      He is, I think, on the whole a good man. He just has a bit of a blind spot against the Luthors and those like them and is also very protective of Clark.

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      • #4
        Ahem to what the posters said up above. That's actually one of the things I liked about Smallville and Jonathan Kent.

        In any other show Jonathan Kent would had been painted as an total Gary Stu father figure. Always morally correct, always right about everything and always wise about everything. So his actions on Smallville wouldn't had been seen as rude, etc if it was any other show.

        But here Smallville shows us that everyone has a good reason for their actions... well, most of the time. But despite having a very good reason for your behavior, doesn't always make you 100% correct all the time. That sometimes your greatest strength can also be your biggest flaw at times too... if you take that behavior too far.

        Understanding why somebody does something doesn't automatically make them right all the time. There was plenty of times when Jonathan was totally justified... but there was also times when he was unjustifiably rude to people too.

        He tries so hard to be a good man, but sometimes he fell short. Yet despite falling short at times, he never stopped trying his best to be a father and a husband for his family. I think that's the one positive thing that Clark Kent could had stood to learn from his father, instead of adopting his judgemental side.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Aurora Moon
          Ahem to what the posters said up above. That's actually one of the things I liked about Smallville and Jonathan Kent.

          In any other show Jonathan Kent would had been painted as an total Gary Stu father figure. Always morally correct, always right about everything and always wise about everything...
          Agree! And for me that serves an additional purpose of keeping Jonathan interesting.

          If Jonathan had been portrayed as a perfect Gary Stu dad, then there'd never really be much for me to consider about his actions/choices except: yep, he did the perfect thing,the right thing, once again as usual *yawn*. There'd be no challenge, nothing for me to think about, to grapple with, to debate about regarding what he does or says and how I might or might not be able to reconcile that with my opinion that Jonathan is basically a good person. How boring would that be? On balance, as I said, I do think Jonathan is a good person, but when he violates one of my expectations of what I think being a "good person" entails, when I see him failing to apply a particular moral virtue (such as, when he negatively pre-judges Lex based on his opinions of Lionel, which I guess violates my idea of "fairness" for one thing)then I have to think about Jonathan and I have to reconsider my original opinion: okay, given this new information, do I still think Jonathan is basically good or do I now think something else about him? Do I now have additional information about him that allows me to understand him as more complex than I originally thought? Etc...And that's interesting to me. Sure, I get a certain kind of pleasure out of seeing someone behave "perfectly" (whatever that might mean) maybe a few times, but it's like eating chocolate (or insert your favorite food here): the first few bites are very pleasurable, but after that it's pretty much just the same and that for me is not interesting, it's not stimulating, it's just -- more of the same over and over and over again (But granted, Jonathan can't just be bouncing off the walls, constantly doing wacky contradictory unpredictable things that are totally out of realistic character range, or else I'll become frustrated that I can't form any kind of opinion about the character, can't find any kind of unifying elements so I can at least try to understand what kind of personality I am dealing with when I watch Jonathan [either that or I'll have to conclude that he is insane, I guess...])

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