Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Can we trust Lois's POV?

I'm working on a fic to try and appeal to the hopeful Sam Lane in Requiem for a Superhero, but I'm hitting a brick wall because I'm not sure how much to trust of what Lois says. For example, she tells Clark that Sam, yet she's been to the gym with him enough to have known Allie almost her entire life. Sam admits he put his work over his family, but the depiction Lois seemed to have gotten was that he just didn't care. I know there are other factors involved, and there was still an evident issue there, but I can't help wondering whether this lessens her credibility somewhat.

Another factor here is Paul Bender. Lois tells Clark she was dating him, but Linda comes out and says she's exaggerating. What was her relationship with Paul? Was it something that would give her the right to feel betrayed by him, or was it just Linda?

When it comes to one's own life, one isn't always the one's best judge of it. Lois sees her life through her own Lois-hazed glasses. We like to say here on the boards that Lois isn't an honest narrator (i.e. if the story is from her POV, then maybe the facts as she tells it aren't exactly what she says they are.)

Her father doesn't care, because that's how she always saw him, how their relationship felt, (and Ellen probably reinforced this belief... as often happens with parents of divorce. "He not only cheated on me, he cheated on you two girls, too.") It also could be that now that Sam's older, he realizes that he has missed out on much of Lois's life and wants to make up for it... but she isn't willing to give him an inch, because of how strict he was with her earlier.

With Paul, both could be true. It could be that Lois and Paul had a relationship, but then he dumped her for Linda. It also could be true that Lois THOUGHT they had a relationship, but he was taking it casual until Linda, when he no longer wanted Lois. Lois could've WANTED a relationship with Paul (daydreamed of one) and when he started dating Linda, it felt as if Linda had stolen him. Therefore, when she tells Clark that Paul was her boyfriend, she's telling him how she felt about Paul (whether it's true or not), but at the end she admits to Linda (and to herself) that there really hadn't been a relationship there.

Usually, most writers have Paul being the jerk because Lois says most of her relationships were federal disasters, so we lump Paul into that group. But feel free to re-write history and have it happen another way.

Lois could have thought that there was more to Paul than there ever really was. I have an ex-friend who will swear up and down that she dated my ex-boyfriend. When I asked him about it one time, he said they'd hung out once and he'd paid for the food just to be a nice guy. (I trust his word a LOT more than her word.)

With Sam, Ellen could have fed into her fading relationship with Sam. ("Your father chose his affairs over you girls. He abandoned you.") Or maybe she blamed the divorce for Ellen's alcoholism. Maybe it was years of resentment over his not-so-subtle wish his daughters had been sons.

I agree with Virginia. Perception isn't always indicative of reality.

You make good points. I agree with Virginia and DC--our perception doesn't always align with reality and it makes sense for the same in fiction. Besides, if the character always jumped the right way and never had any misunderstandings it would come across as phony unless it was done with great care.



Hmmm. I didn't realize they gave Paul's last name. I wonder if there's any relation to Sheldon Bender there...

Yeah, and there're several fics that used this premise I think MLT's There's No Place Like Home is one of them. And possibly one of Virginia's... But there's always room for more!

Michael

I plead guilty to relating them in several of my fics. Most recently, Paul was Sheldon's nephew in Wrong Clark. And their family trait of both being slimeballs is there, too.

I've actually never thought about this. I don't usually think of Lois as an unreliable narrator. It might be interesting to see a story that kicks her unreliability up a notch or two thousand.

I had considered perception in other things, like things pertaining to Lois's trust issues, but I'd never considered that maybe she really did think she was dating Paul. It could easily have been a misinterpretation. That doesn't give Sam a ton of leeway, but it helps a little.

I love the possible connection in the name Bender, which is in part why I'm wondering if I could slide with Paul being a little bit more in the wrong. Lois does tell Clark that things were happening, and even if that was exaggerated, I think Paul had to have been giving some sort of positive signal for Lois to assume they were dating.

True, misinterpreted it might have been, but there has to be something to misinterpret in the first place......