I was looking at the Soul Mates episode thread, and it reminded me of a conversation I once had with an elderly friend who believed in the concept of soul mates. He said that he had lived 13 times and his wife 12, and that he and his wife had been together in all 12 of her incarnations. He also said that it wasn't always a good thing--apparently he was pretty awful during at least one incarnation (supposedly he murdered his wife with an ax during the American Civil War).

That brings to mind a potential L&C soul mates plot bunny: What if during one or more incarnations Lois or Clark (or both) had turned out, for whatever reason, to be a horrible person? How would that affect them in that incarnation, and how would it affect them in future incarnations?

I have an interesting twist on this. What if Lois and Clark were in fact, *not* soul mates? They fell in love, they were dating, engaged, maybe even married, and suddenly Clark or Lois comes into contact with their real soul mates? What would happen then? (Which by the way is a splendid idea. I'm kind of toying around with that as it is with my anti-verse.)

Oooh, Mouse is evil!

What if Clark's soul mate was, in fact, Zara? Then he would be more likely to leave for NK for good. And Lois would lose her best friend forever.

What if Lois was Clark's soul mate but hers was Lex or Dan?

And some more thoughts....

What if Clark/Lois was soul mates with someone else but they didn't feel any sort of love for them? At least not as of yet... After all, Lois and Clark are soul mates, and it still took them a few years to figure it all out. Perhaps it's only the same with Clark and his soul mate (Zara, Mayson, or Oooh! Someone like Toni Taylor or some other villainess) or Lois and hers (Lex, Dan, Deter, Jimmy...)

Lots and lots of evilness!!

Ha! I was going to suggest the Lois/Jimmy pairing! What would suck worse for Clark...seeing his soul mate (assuming Lois was still his soul mate) with a villain like Lex or with his very best (guy) friend? With the former, Clark knows Lois is with a bad guy and can hope she'll come to her senses. With the latter, Clark knows she's with a good guy and will probably never leave him, thus shattering all hope she will one day be with him.

Good point--so maybe it would be less painful for Lois' soulmate to be Lex? Then Clark can put all of his energy into figuring out how to show Lois' what Lex is really like, and bring Lex down in the process... With Lois being with Jimmy, Clark knows he's a good guy--and with Clark being Jimmy's friend, he has all sorts of conflicting loyalties towards that friendship for him to hope/want to be with Lois. Painful all around...

Lots of twists and turns

I posted a link to this last year - an interesting calculation re. soul mates

http://what-if.xkcd.com/9/

Of course Clark does have some advantages in finding his, but even so...

Incidentally, the Tim Minchin song the article links to is brilliant - I won't quote because it spoils it, but it's great fun.

I've seen non L&C stories that have souls reincarnate in clusters. The reincarnations don't always have the same relationships but are always close. So married this time, siblings another life, best friends another, rivals etc. This can be used to explain why Lex threw away decades of caution when L&C got involved. He is part of the same cluster and that closeness made him react impulsively.

So who would you put in the same cluster with L&C? I'd say Clark's parents but not necessarily Lois's. Perry, maybe Lucy.

Jimmy, for sure.

From the Soul Mates episode Martha, Jonathan, Jimmy and Perry are all included in that close-knit group. Lois's parents nor Lucy were anywhere to be seen.

Has anyone ever written a Soul Mates story where Lex and Tempus are essentially the same man to explain Lex should be in their cluster but Tempus was the in Soul Mates episode? Perhaps Lex and Tempus shared a soul at some point or were twins who shared a soul, but fate destined that they were too dangerous/evil to allow both sides of their soul to be reincarnated at the same time. It would explain why both of their characters are screwed up and have trouble connecting to reality and other people, because half of their soul is missing. But if their soul was ever joined together it could be more powerful than Superman, ala Doomsday. Anyway, just a thought. You know me, always trying to find order in the chaos.

The "early Soulmates" story I'm attempting to decide where to place in S1 canon (before sending things had Tempus and Lex as the same soul, just different incarnations. The reason they saw Tempus and not Lex in "SoulMates" was because it was the incarnation that was "still alive" to interact with them and benefit from the curse.

Great minds think along the same lines! Good Luck!

Makes a lot of sense that Lex and Tempus are connected somehow, now that the idea was brought up....Lex is always power hungry and wanting complete control/Tempus, likewise, even goes for the presidency, etc. They both have such a hatred towards Superman and his power and want to do away with him. They both continue to reappear at different times throughout the series, etc...Together they definitely would create something all too powerful!

This makes the plot-lines of both Tempus and Lex throughout the series interesting to think through now--always fun when new angles come into play in a story we all know so well...

Your story, Christina, sounds like a great idea--can't wait

From the pilot:
Clark: "You slept with someone you work with? It wasn't Jimmy, was it?"
Lois: "Um..."

<Pepsi comes out of nose>