The scene from ILTY would be an interesting source for the heartbeat idea. It never occurred to me that Clark would be listening for something so much quieter than Lois's breathing, particularly since the director cut from Superman outside the gold repository listening for Lois to Lois breathing noisily inside the vault.
Well, I'm not sure if the connection was made because people thought he was actually listening to her heartbeat in that scene or because he
could've been. You have to take into account the fanfic "what if" factor after all.
All it takes is for someone to wonder if he'd been listening for
her heartbeat? Not just anyone's heartbeat but hers, and hers alone. The significant of
that would be enough to make most FoLC's hearts beat a little faster and then they're all off and running with it.
And I think this is an important aspect to remember in the tangential discussion of whether it's important where these things originate. To me those origins of FoLClore aren't as fascinating as whether they stick.
And why.
Because if they stick over time it means that enough writers
and readers have accepted them, whatever they are, as true enough to the characters and the premise of the series that they make it into our collective consciousnesses and are used over and over again.
Now that
is significant.
And as a sort of PS to this post, I'd also like to point out that on reflection I'm not sure that scene from Sanctuary counts as one of the heartbeat uses. After all, there's a big difference between him picking out her heartbeat in the middle of Metropolis and a field in Kansas. Or on an island, which is where I was thinking it happened. Must've been in another draft. :p
