Well, this chapter follows logically from the parts that have preceded it. Clark has high hopes for Robin and he so, so much needs her to succeed. Does he love her? No, that is not the word at all. He needs her for his self-image. He needs her to be a good person so that he can really, really believe that he is one, too.
On the other hand, it is possible that he feels some sort of attraction to Robin that he doesn't understand himself. He doesn't feel for her the way he feels for Lois at all - but it could be that he is as unwilling to give Robin up as he is unwilling to give up Lois.
It could be, in fact, that he is more unwilling to give up Robin than Lois. It could be that he sees Robin as more of a key to his own life and his own being than Lois could ever be.
One thing about Clark's relationship with Lois is that he has long been willing to have her only half way, to share only a part of him with her, and keep the rest completely locked away from her. When he proposed to her in the show, he didn't volunteer any information to her that it was in fact Superman who proposed to her. And I can't help thinking that perhaps he felt that it wasn't Superman who proposed to her. Perhaps he was really thinking that it was only Clark Kent who proposed, only the human side of him, the aspect of him that lives like a perfectly normal human. Perhaps he was really planning to keep the super side of him, the Kryptonian side of himself, away from her, just like before. Perhaps he was thinking that even if the human side of him married her, the Kryptonian aspect of him would still be forced to tell her, at any time of the day and night, that he had to run away to return a book to the library or pick up his Cheese of the Month shipment. And he would do that not primarily because he was forced to be Superman and help out at disasters, since that was a given. No, rather because he wanted to keep the Kryptonian aspect of himself away from Lois. Because she couldn't understand that aspect of him. She couldn't share it. And he didn't want to share it with her, since she couldn't, deep down, understand it.
Now that Robin has entered the stage, I think Clark is having to choose between the human and the Kryptonian aspect of himself. So far I don't think he realizes that he has to choose. He is thinking that he can have both these women, and that he can stay away from Lois regularly and for long periods of time so that he can spend time alone with Robin. That is how he felt about being Kryptonian without Lois before he had told her his secret - or rather, before she had figured out his secret. There were two sides to him, and he felt that one side of him could love Lois while the other side could cut her off from him and keep her in the dark.
As I said, some of my students have just read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and I think there are some similarities between Frankenstein's obsession with his monster and Clark's obsession with Robin. However, some other of my students have read Robert Louis Stevenson's Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, and I think there are similarities between Clark and Dr. Jekyll, too.
Stevenson's novella is a tragedy about a man who is torn in two different directions. He finds a way to let the suppressed part of himself out, so that he can exercise all aspects of himself and be more fully himself. Of course Dr. Jekyll's dream of self-realization is ultimately a dream of releasing the dark and destructive forces within himself, which is as far from Clark's dream of self-realization as could be. But like Clark, Dr. Jekyll thinks it is possible to live a perfect double life, to really be two people. Like Clark, he keeps his 'other identity' a secret from his friends. He doesn't realize that once Mr. Hyde has been released he can't be suppressed, and Dr. Jekyll's own existence will be shattered forever.
Will Robin grow into Frankenstein's monster? Will the aspect of Clark that is obsessed with Robin grow into Mr. Hyde, who destroys the 'Dr. Jekyll' aspect of Clark, the aspect of him that can live happily with Lois?
You warned us at the beginning of this fic that a character death was coming. Last time you gave us such a warning the casualty turned out to be the villain. This time it could very well be Lois.
There is another possibility. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is forced to try to destroy the monster he has created. What will happen if Clark is forced to conclude that the woman he has trained is too dangerous to be allowed to use her superpowers?
Ann
