Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Was Pete a failed character?

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #76
    Originally posted by Sexy Kal
    The only difference is that Hermione was in the Harry Potter books and Chloe Sullivan was never in the Superman comics. It would have been fine if she was killed off but instead she's on the show for all 10 seasons which goes against the Superman lore. I could rant all day about Chloe Sullivan but this is Pete's thread and not her's.

    The point is, Pete shouldn't have been replaced by a non-canon and completely unrealistic character. Pete was 100x better than Chloe but I guess Chloe's fans wanted her to stay on the show and the directors just decided to turn Pete into a jerk who's jealous of his best friend.
    Someone's position in the comic canon does not guarantee their relevance. And Pete wasn't made into a jerk. And his character showed signs of being jealous of Clark way back in season 1. Almost all the characters on this show are unrealistic. There's no reason to draw the line with Chloe.

    Comment


    • #77
      I wanted to like Pete, but he was pretty much useless in the show. He pretty much became a punching bag, once he found out Clark's secret. Whether, it was Bryon tossing him into a car's windshield, Tina Greer throwing him a locker, or Agent Loder abusing to find out about Clark, it was just a mess for him.

      Comment


      • #78
        Originally posted by TheSecretVampire
        I wanted to like Pete, but he was pretty much useless in the show. He pretty much became a punching bag, once he found out Clark's secret. Whether, it was Bryon tossing him into a car's windshield, Tina Greer throwing him a locker, or Agent Loder abusing to find out about Clark, it was just a mess for him.
        True, the poor guy did get knocked around a lot. But there were other times when he was really able to help out b/c he knew the secret. He went with Clark to the lab and supplied his DNA when Clark needed to swap out the cotton swab that had been used to get Clark's DNA; he was able to serve as an information conduit between Chloe and the Kents when he found out from Chloe that the school rings contained RedK; Clark used him to distract Lionel in the Caves so Clark could steal Lionel's GreenK octagonal key; he served as a decoy for cops when Jonathan/Clark broke into a building to take back the octagonal key.

        I am biased though: I liked Pete and was sorry they did not make better use of him. And I hated the storylines where they showed him as petty, self-pitying and complaining about being in Clark's shadow.

        Comment


        • #79
          I do wish they did more with Pete Ross. I mean, he was Clark Kent's best friend long before Lex Luthor and stuff like that.

          Comment


          • #80
            His character wasn't really progressed beyond high school buddy so he really would only have been a spare wheel had they kept him on. Still it would have been nice to have him show up at either of his two old best friends' weddings or maybe Clark's bachelor party (which though it turned out to be an absolute riot, was pitiful in terms of numbers with only Oliver and Emil on the guy's side) to at least suggest they'd kept in touch.

            Comment


            • #81
              Originally posted by Bally
              His character wasn't really progressed beyond high school buddy so he really would only have been a spare wheel had they kept him on. Still it would have been nice to have him show up at either of his two old best friends' weddings or maybe Clark's bachelor party (which though it turned out to be an absolute riot, was pitiful in terms of numbers with only Oliver and Emil on the guy's side) to at least suggest they'd kept in touch.
              i would have had Pete lose the roadie gig, go back to school and have a summer internship or co-op student gig with Martha Kent. He could have been been brought back in "Beacon". Then have him stay around for the bachelor party in "Fortune". In the comic they could have him join the peace corp and run into Lana offscreen.

              I feel like the writers only had Pete on the show because they felt they needed to. They had no idea how to write the character and were more interested in playing with love triangles with Chloe/Clark/Lana while he was on the show. They could have had him work on Jonathan's senate campaign with Lois in Season 5, jus the like he worked as Clark's campaign manager for class president. Would have made for an interesting reversal on Pete being Lex's Vice President in the comics.

              Comment


              • #82
                Yeah I'm aware of course that this post is old, but it seemed like a good point for me to give imput.

                Originally posted by jon-el87
                Even Whitney (despite being a jerk and written off, after the first season), had his own struggles. His desire of going somewhere and not become another "remember him" (you know, some guy who played sports in HS and never amounted to anything afterwards (a lá Al Bundy)). His dad's illness and eventual death.
                Also helps that Whitney was also an obstacle for Clark regarding Lana's affection, plus you had a bit of development with the two of them developing some respect for each other.

                And he was the only ex-boyfriend of Lana besides Clark who didn't go evil. He was just killed and replaced by someone who was evil instead.

                What were Pete's dreams and desires? What was the conflict(s) in his life? The only thing that comes close, was his parents divorce and that was really just a plot device, to get him off the show.
                True to a degree, but if the writers had really given him consideration, maybe that could have been a strong point. I mean give him some conflict here and there or just some story directions, but Clark could definitely have used a friend who could provide levity (Aside from Lionel screwing his family out of the cream corn business or the divorce bit which was a means to get him out of the show).

                I mean even with his other friends during the first three season, they all had some baggage which was fodder for angst. Lex, nuff said. Lana lost both parents due to the meteor shower, plus she had Clark had a relationship that went south in Season 3. Chloe's mom ran off when she was a kid and later she was investigating on Clark, then after backing out on it her father was fired from his job.

                Heck, fast forward to Season 6 where it still wasn't too long after Jonathan's passing, Clark lost two confidantes. Not to say that Chloe and Lois aren't good friends, but the season did at least to me feel like more of a downer compared to the preceding and even to a degree the following ones. Had Pete been better utilized and still kept on the show, they could easily relieve some negativity with some hoops.

                Comment


                • #83
                  I was completely unfamiliar with the Pete Ross character, before "Smallville" ever started...and I don't know if he's even in the comics now. I liked that they gave Clark a childhood friend, who could potentially be trusted with his secret...but it really should've been Lana, early on. She filled that role in many of the older books, but instead the writers dragged her story so far out, it stopped making any sense after a while. What did Pete really do in the books, anyway?

                  This ties into the bigger problem though, that "Smallville" was mainly geared toward preteens and young women from the start. That shifted a few times over the course of the series, most notably in Season 3...but it mostly stayed the course.

                  Comment


                  • #84
                    Originally posted by moviefan2k4
                    I was completely unfamiliar with the Pete Ross character, before "Smallville" ever started...and I don't know if he's even in the comics now. I liked that they gave Clark a childhood friend, who could potentially be trusted with his secret...but it really should've been Lana, early on. She filled that role in many of the older books, but instead the writers dragged her story so far out, it stopped making any sense after a while. What did Pete really do in the books, anyway?

                    This ties into the bigger problem though, that "Smallville" was mainly geared toward preteens and young women from the start. That shifted a few times over the course of the series, most notably in Season 3...but it mostly stayed the course.
                    It depends on what version you're looking at. Originally, Pete was a school friend of Clark's, who learned his secret by accident. He didn't inform Clark, until they were adults, and occationally helped him (without Clark/Superboy knowing about it). He didn't have any involvement with Clark, apart from a few stories, that related to Pete's son.

                    After DC revamped Superman in 1987, Pete became a minor character (and no longer aware of Clark's secret). He eventually married Lana Lang and became President of the United States. The latter of which, could never have been done on Smallville. To be President, you have to be over 35 and Pete was in high school on the show (starting out as a freshman, in S1). So, President Ross couldn't be done, in this universe, prior to 2024 (the nearest election, after his 35th birthday). A good 20 years, after the character departed the show (not counting his one-off appearance in "Hero"). I don't see how the show could've set up and explored Pete one day becoming President, between 2001 and 2004. They did a tease of Lex becoming it, in S1, but it was just a tease and his main plot concerned him becoming the evil Lex Luthor, not him one day becoming President.

                    Comment


                    • #85
                      I'm currently rewatching Smallville....I'm at season 4 so having watched Pete Ross in his 3 full seasons on the show I can say that he was a failed character in terms of the writing. I think the actor who played Pete Ross did a very job with the material handed to him but the writers really never gave him a decent storyline. Take away him knowing Clark's secret and there's nothing there. Sure, he had his main feature episode in Velocity but all that did was drive a small wedge between him and Clark after that he wasn't on screen that much to really feel that impact and then one of his last arcs was the divorce between his parents....but that was like a big who cares because it was done very quickly in one episode, instead of being spread out in a couple episodes and we never seen his parents go through their martial struggles (save for his mom in one episode) to even care about what was going on there.


                      To me it seemed like they had Pete there just to be a friend for Clark and nothing more. And even knowing Clark's secret didn't do much for Pete because his screentime went way down especially towards the end of season 2 and then 3.....heck, he barely appeared in the season 2 finale and didn't even get a chance to finish out season 3 as he left in the next to last episode of that season. He even missed full episodes in season 3....so yeah, he was a failed character in terms of character development from the showrunners and writing team.
                      Last edited by TheSecretVampire; 06-09-2019, 07:03 PM.

                      Comment


                      • #86
                        I was recently rewatching the cartoons and reading the comics that Pete Ross happened to appear in them.

                        It just struck me how much character development he had in both the cartoon and the comics despite having only brief cameos or even only having one or two issues of the comic series dedicated to him. Meanwhile, on Smallville, he showed up constantly yet had zero character development. Where's the justice in that?

                        In the cartoons and comics, he had a strong interest in the political sciences and were often an activist for various causes out there. He genuinely cared for people, and you could tell why Clark was such good friends with him, and why Lana eventually ended up marrying him and had a child with him. Although in the JLA series, he only had a brief cameo in a flashback episode that showed him to be a little bit of a womanizer in high school.
                        That already fleshes him out as far a more interesting character than the one on Smallville.
                        Last edited by Aurora Moon; 06-12-2019, 06:07 PM.

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X
                        😀
                        🥰
                        🤢
                        😎
                        😡
                        👍
                        👎