do you like the character of tess mercer?

[Dagenspear]

I have a lot of respect for the actress who plays Tess mercer. She plays her role to total perfection, etc.

But most of the time I can't shake the feeling that Tess was basically just a genderbent Lex Luthor that the writers created, just so that they could explore Clex relationship themes without it being gay.

I mean, Tess looks at Clark in the same exact way that Lex Luthor does... and all the fans who doesn't like homoerotic stuff seem to really love Tess for that alone, and ships Tess/Clark together almost for that very reason. But to them Lex who does the same things that Tess does is just weird, gross, and evil.

So yeah, I do think Gender plays a lot into how differently Tess and Lex are treated from each other even though they're practically the same person.

I don't know if I got the impression that that's the way Lex looked at Clark. I do agree that there's so much put into Clark and Lex as a relationship that they have a close bond that can get shippers interested, but I always felt like with Clark and Tess there was a more heated energy physically, while there was still an emotional a bit, but not as much as with Clark and Lex. I do wonder if they had planned to explore the Tess/Clark relationship more than they did though.

[Neverending Story]

She was resurrected multiple times? I only remember one.

Chloe resurrected her in Sacrifice.
The doctors pronounced her dead in Salvation. Then, it seems she was resurrected between the season 9 finale and the season 10 premiere by Granny Goodness.

She was also "resurrected" aka: had her consciousness saved by some tricks and the team and got a new body, in the Smallville Season 11 Comic.

[Dagenspear]

Chloe resurrected her in Sacrifice.
The doctors pronounced her dead in Salvation. Then, it seems she was resurrected between the season 9 finale and the season 10 premiere by Granny Goodness.

She was also "resurrected" aka: had her consciousness saved by some tricks and the team and got a new body, in the Smallville Season 11 Comic.

We're including the comics... Okay. I didn't realize. I wouldn't count Chloe reviving her as resurrecting though. Not even with what they did with her in the comics really with how they explained it.

[Neverending Story]

We're including the comics... Okay. I didn't realize. I wouldn't count Chloe reviving her as resurrecting though. Not even with what they did with her in the comics really with how they explained it.

I count it as a resurrection in the comics. When someone dies in a series finale, it feels very definite and "finale" for me.
Sure, there was an explanation in the comic but for me, it felt the same.

She got multiple chances after everything she has done. Jimmy got none.

[Dagenspear]

I count it as a resurrection in the comics. When someone dies in a series finale, it feels very definite and "finale" for me.
Sure, there was an explanation in the comic but for me, it felt the same.

She got multiple chances after everything she has done. Jimmy got none.

Well you can blame all that on Kelly and Brian who made Jimmy episode II attack of the clones the definitive Jimmy.

[Neverending Story]

Well you can blame all that on Kelly and Brian who made Jimmy episode II attack of the clones the definitive Jimmy.

I always blame the writers. Never the characters.

And yeah, I said Jimmy instead of Henry. My mistake. Well... more like TPTB's mistake anyway.

[Dagenspear]

I always blame the writers. Never the characters.

And yeah, I said Jimmy instead of Henry. My mistake. Well... more like TPTB's mistake anyway.

I don't really take to the idea of nixing Jimmy begins for a younger version myself. In fact, I headcanon-ed myself out of what they did, by pretending that when Kara put on the legion ring she time traveled to the night Jimmy died, saved him, faked his death to avoid timeline disruptions, brought him several years into the future and gave him his younger brother's, who is now close to his age, identity, while also crafting a new identity for his younger brother and no one else knows but Jimmy's family. That's obviously why the Jimmy in the future looks the same! lol.

[jon-el87]

Looking back, she's probably my favorite female character among the main cast of all ten seasons. She's a confident and proactive character. Unlike Lana, her storylines doesn't revolve around what guy (or girl) she happens to be dating at the time. She certainly had a bit of romance, but it didn't define her. Tess Mercer's arc was about her journey from being Lex's underling, to trying to better herself and joining the proto-League (at the end of S11 becoming Red Tornado and a founding member of the formal Justice League). When she's first introduced, she's someone who is searching for the missing Lex, then, when she learns how he's wronged her, turns on him and never looks back. She tries to help Clark. Tries to save the world, but struggles with finding the way to do so.

Then we learn that Tess was born Lutessa Lena Luthor, making her an adaptation of Lena Luthor. An interesting development. Leaving her to struggle with her new lineage (at the same time that Clark and Oliver's (who both consider Luthor blood poison) invited her to join their group). So, she has to deal with both feelings of being abandoned, thrown away by her dad, while also fearing that this revelation may prompt her new friends to reject her.

On another thread, I saw someone refer to Lana as an underdog. No, Tess is the real underdog. Abandoned by her biological father at a young age and sent to an orphanage, run by Granny Goodness. Then she's adopted by a family, where her new father abused her. Despite these obstacles, she found the strength to move on. Getting into Harvard at 15. She became an agent of a government agency and CEO of a major corporation. Granted, the last one happened because the previous CEO knew that she was his sister, but it just means that she was given her birthright. In the end, even that was taken from her, by her father's counterpart from Earth-2. But, with her intelligence, she was able to outsmart him and get the company back. This time, no one gave her the job, she took it. Then she's seemingly killed by Lex, only to end up inside his brain, trapping her there for months. But she didn't give up. She fought, struggled to gain a limited controll over Lex's body, so she could send a message to her friends. Then she was uploaded into a computer and feared getting a new body. As then she'd be able to lose it again. In the end, she finds the courage to download herself into an android body and joins the battle against the Monitors. Becoming celebrated with a statue, alongside the rest of the new Justice League.

She's an adaptation of Lena Luthor. The modern version didn't appear until 2009, so the basis for her came from the Silver Age version. And I think they did a good job adapting her:

Lena Luthor (1961-1982): Lex Luthor's younger sister. Grew up unaware of her brother and had her name changed to Lena Thorul (after the family disowned Lex and changed their name to escape his reputation). Possessed a telepathic ability. Later married a man named Jeff Colby and had a telekinetic son named Val.

Lutessa Lena Luthor: Lex Luthor's younger half-sister. Put up for adopted and has her name changed to "Tess Mercer" (a bit more subtle than an anagram for "Luthor"). Grows up unaware of her brother. In "Finale", the neurotoxin she used on Lex created a telepathic link between them.

Pretty much all they didn't have was her marrying Jeff Colby (some reason it couldn't still happen in Smallville's future?) and have a telekinetic son (though, she was a sort-of surrogate mother to "Alexander"/Conner). What they did do was take an obscure character, with a handfull of appearances, and did something with her. Fleshed her out. Gave her a story of her own. By naming her "Tess Mercer" (an allusion to Mercy Graves and Eve Teschmacher), they added a degree of mystery. She didn't just show up saying "Hi, I'm Lex's half-sister". You got to know her, before they made the reveal. Both them using an obscure character and giving her an original name, I feel gave them much freedom. With Clark, Lois and Lex, you already know where they're headed. Tess, on the other hand, they could've taken down any road. And being an adaptation of a canon DC character, she's immune towards a common criticism against Chloe (that an original character is given such importance). They took an existing, if obscure, DC character and fleshed her out. Gave her a life outside of being Lex's sister. With the conclusion of S11, they had her become Red Tornado. As this show often talked about "destiny", this means that, from an in-universe perspective, becoming Red Tornado was Tess Mercer's destiny. Only, unlike with Clark, we didn't know it from day one. So, we're given a more "clean" superhero origin story with Tess. We don't go in knowing that she'll become Red Tornado. Nor does the writers throw in unsubtle hints at her future (with Clark it was stuff like people calling him "Man of Steel" and him, when talking about his future, saying that he hoped it didn't involve wearing a suit and doing a lot of flying). Instead, we're allowed to follow her journey, untainted by past knowledge of the character. We don't know that she's Lutessa Lena Luthor and Lex's half-sister, until she learns it. We don't know that she's gonna become Red Tornado, until she becomes that.

[jon-el87]

But most of the time I can't shake the feeling that Tess was basically just a genderbent Lex Luthor that the writers created, just so that they could explore Clex relationship themes without it being gay.

I mean, Tess looks at Clark in the same exact way that Lex Luthor does...

Interesting observation, considering that when Tess first showed up, a lot of people on here noted apparent same-sex attraction from Tess for Lois (rather than any attraction towards Clark). Cassidy Freeman once discussed it, in an interview with AfterEllen. She couldn't confirm it, but suspected that the writers had included a subtext of same-sex attraction, in her character's interaction with Lois. These days, we'd probably label it queerbaiting.

Tess and Clark, on the other hand... never seemed to be set up as a possible romantic pairing. The most were the Earth-2 Tess and Clark Luthor, while the Earth-1 Tess Mercer and Clark Kent were kept platonic. Antagonists turned friends, but never lovers.