OK, I admit it. I'm cheating. I'm asking for your help.

I'm taking a writing class, and we have to complete a character study questionnaire. I'm using one of my old fanfics as my "working story", so my two characters are - say it with me - Lois and Clark.

Some of the questions I have to fill in about Lois and then Clark are:
List 10 Positive adjectives/characteristics that describe the hero/heroine.
List 10 Negative adjectives/characteristics that describe the hero/heroine.
List 10 Neutral or Subjective adjectives/characteristics that describe the hero/heroine (such as Introvert or Quiet).

So...any good ideas out there? It's funny but I seem to have no problem coming up with positives for both (easier for Clark than Lois) and negatives for Lois, but I can't manage to come up with negatives for Clark. Perhaps that's because he's Superman <g>.

This should be interesting. Thanks.

Lynn

Negative attributes for Clark?

Hmmm... how about:

• Obsessive
• Over-protective
• Secretive
• Unreliable (so far as anyone who doesn't know that CK=S is concerned!)

This is just for starters - anyone got any others?


Wendy

I thought about it - well okay for ten seconds - hey, I haven't had lunch yet! This is good going for before lunch.

So far, all I came up with to add to Wendy's was:

Stubborn - once that man gets an idea in his head...

LabRat

Okay, I thought about it (or as much as strep throat allows me to think), and I'll pick...

Thoughtless

And I know he means well, but sometimes I just want to club him over the head for the things he does without including other people in his plans...like breaking up with Lois for her own good.

JD

Well, as always, negatives can be viewed as positives and vice versa. For example, Wendy picked 'obsessive' for Clark. Well, how about 'thorough'? Same thing from a different POV <g>.

Anyway, removing my devil's advocate hat for now, how about this for Clark:

Over-cautious

And his biggest failing of all, if you ask me, is that he's fictional and not married to me!

Yvonne

At the risk of having rotten tomatoes thrown at me, how about sanctimonious or self-righteous?

Clark / Superman is a lovely guy in the first couple of seasons. However, as he settles more into the role of Superman, he becomes much more sure of himself in terms of who Superman is and what he stands for. And in many ways that is good. However, his attitude in Sex, Lives and Videotape where he says that Superman stands for truth and where he rights roughshod over Lois's opinion is just <shudders> horrible.

Chris

Lynn, what a great thread! I'll have to mull over it more while doing mindless chores today, but the one that popped into my mind...

Jealous.

Kathy

I'll second that, but with the accent on... me!

This may be a sort of repeat of some of the others' comments, but how about "inconsistent"? He is, sorta...

~Toc

OK, Clark is very, very wonderful, especially without his shirt (etc.) on, but....

He could be a bit of a cad - his treatment of Mayson was pretty callous at times. In fact, it's a moot point whether he treated Mayson worse than Lois treated him in S1. For example, the scene in Lucky Leon when Mayson asks Clark to lunch and Clark clearly doesn't want to go but waits for Lois to bail him out (she doesn't) A tad cowardly of him. Definitely insensitive.
Come to think of it, as Superman, he treated Lois pretty insenstively in S1 - leading her on/ pushing her away. A mixed messages guy.

He could be a bit of a tease too - appearing in front of Lois in just a towel in the pilot - given his ability as a quick change artist that had to be deliberate. Trying to remember if he was shirtless when Mayson came to his apartment, too. Not that I'm complaining about shirtless Clark.

Oh, and as much I like Martha, Clark *is* a bit of a momma's boy. He's just lucky she is Martha.<g>

cc m

I found myself thinking about this thread some more last night and I've come up with three other adjectives for you (all of which I prefer to my previous suggestion; that, I think, was a more of a quirk of a particular script that a genuine character trait).

My new suggestions are:

Insecure
Jealous
Possessive

I think you can see all of these in his dealings with Lois. He was very tentative about getting involved at the beginning. Maybe this was simply due to his being shy and cautious.

He was obviously jealous of Dan and he certainly threatened Luthor during the clone arc. I'm sure I could think of other examples, too, if I set my mind to it.

I don't think he is jealous by nature, though, just very, very appreciative of what he has with Lois and very, very scared of losing it.

Does that make sense?

Chris

Catching up here, I was very surprised to see Yvonne come up with "over-cautious." I think, in many respects, Clark is, if anything, over confident.

I suppose I'm thinking mostly of physical situations here, though, like charging into the warehouse in the pilot... Clark tends to assume that his powers will see him through any situation, which can lead to a problematic lack of planning.

As for self-confidence... that's tricky. He can be very self-confident about somethings. Smug, even. He knows he looks good. He knows he's likable. He knows how to be charming, and he's not above using that. He knows hundreds of languages, a lot of science, and quite a few other things. He can read super-fast, and with his memory, he retains every last bit. He's certainly not above showing off a bit, as long as it's not too obvious that he's super-human. It's gotten him in trouble before with people wondering "how did he do that?"

OTOH, there is "secretive," as mentioned, and even somewhat paranoid. Despite his tendency to show off, he's very much afraid of people discovering his powers or (once established) his secret identity. He can also be just as afraid of the powers themselves and what they can do. The possibility that they can lead (directly or otherwise) to someone being hurt.

There's also "inflexible." As mentioned, he tends to be very morally rigid as Superman (though less so as Clark, especially when Lois is around). More, once he makes up his mind, it's often very hard to change it.

On the same note, I'm not sure what the word is, but he has something of a tendency to see the world in black and white. Admittedly, in his world, things often are black and white. Lois, Perry, and Jimmy are Good and Tempus, Lex, and Mindy are Evil.

Then again, there's Resplendant Man. Not Good, not Evil. He's just this guy, but Clark... *ding*

Self-righteous. That's the word I've been looking for.

So, my list so far...

Over-confident
Smug
Show-off
Inflexible
Paranoid (doesn't fit with the rest of the list, but there it is...)
Self-righteous

I'm curious, BTW... What are the positives you've chosen for Clark, and what are the adjectives you came up with for Lois?

It's been very interesting to see the differing views we have of Clark's (somewhat contravercial) negative side. I'm interested to see how we look at the rest.

Also... TDASC, where are you??

Paul

Paul, even as I wrote it, I knew 'over-cautious' didn't describe Clark in all situations. I was thinking of the contrast between Lois and Clark on an investigation: he doesn't like taking risks, whereas she thrives on them. He'd rather not break into an office to get some vital evidence because it's against the law and what if they got caught? Hmm... Maybe risk-averse is a better description.

Otherwise, I agree, he's not at all cautious. How can you accuse a man who wears spandex tights in public of being cautious? <g> And as Superman, he has a tendency to be over-confident of his ability to tackle difficult situations and challenges. And you can't accuse the man who freezes his fiancee in order to fake her death as someone who's over-cautious. Personally, that went well beyond the boundaries of acceptable risk for me, because he hadn't the faintest idea what it would do to her. I didn't actually think he would have done it, but that's for another discussion.

Yvonne

LOL! Let me just say, on behalf of TDASC, that this is a great thread and Paul's post said everything I would have said. Don't you love it when that happens? Saved me a lot of typing.

I'd also agree with Chris's "Insecure" and "Jealous" ... that boy could be downright snarky when confronted with the idea of Lois being with another man.

Kathy

how about...

lunk-headed

wild tied (okay i´ve made it up)

naive


MDL.