Hello,
I know there are already a lot of discussions about Lana Lang and her character, but many of them are years or months old.
I only recently started watching Smallville and I’ve tried to analyze the characters as deeply as possible, at least as much as I can as a beginner.
I’ve also read quite a few comments about Lana Lang, and I have to say that I agree with a lot of it.
However, there are a few things about Lana that I’ve noticed that I haven’t really seen mentioned before — or maybe just phrased differently — but in my opinion, Lana Lang is a terrible character. She is intrusive, has no respect for other people’s privacy, often plays the victim because her parents died, and is very manipulative. She’s not a good friend either.
She is after power. At least that’s how it comes across to me.
Clark didn’t tell her his secret — and sorry, but everyone has secrets and has the right to keep them. No one has the right to know someone else’s secrets, and that applies to Lana just as much as to Clark Kent. But she didn’t care. Instead of respecting that, in Season 6 she started snooping around behind Clark’s back and even locked Chloe Sullivan in a wine cellar just to get to Clark’s secret. In my opinion, that has nothing to do with respecting a friend.
So how do I come to the conclusion that Lana is power-hungry?
It’s simple. When Clark didn’t tell her his secret, she got involved with Lex Luthor and quickly realized that power and influence come with a lot of advantages. And once you’ve had a taste of that, you don’t want to give it up. When Lana then found out Clark’s secret through what she did to Chloe, she immediately realized that Clark has far more power than Lex could ever have (despite his billions), and she instantly shifted her focus back to Clark. That didn’t happen because Lionel was blackmailing her, but still.
When they got closer again — once more — and Lana temporarily gained Clark’s abilities, it became very clear (to me) that it was really about power for her. She wanted to be on the same level as Clark, to feel that power. It felt like she never truly saw Clark as an equal human being with flaws, but reduced him to what he can do: his powers.
And that’s what annoyed me throughout the whole show. If he didn’t do what she wanted, she complained. If he didn’t tell her his secret, she turned her attention to someone else and kept snapping at Clark.
That got long — sorry about that. But I really needed to get this off my chest about Lana.
What do you all think about this? I’d really like to hear your opinions.