WHAT

Before you continue any further, I would like you to take a moment to think of Kara’s storyline this season. And when I say Kara, I mean only Kara: what growth has she had? How has she bettered herself? What has she done?

I can think of one plot that actually revolves around Kara: her job as a reporter. Which, of course, she was recently fired from. (And it is worth noting that this plot is not entirely Kara’s; it is often used as a device to further other plots. That, however, is unavoidable to some extent.)

Other than that single storyline, Kara Danvers has nothing to do that is not done to further another character’s plot. In short, Kara Danvers had shockingly little agency. From episodes one to seven of season 2, Kara’s speaking time was very nearly cut in half. That is an enormous fall for the eponymous character of a show.

Minutes of speaking time per episode (source)

If this is not an obvious problem, I do not know what is. Supergirl is not an ensemble show. Supergirl is about Supergirl, about Kara Danvers (though they seem to have forgotten that part, too).

Do you remember when Kara Danvers was the main character on this show? The CW doesn’t.

This lack of a story is not a problem that is easily solved, mostly because it was not caused by any one issue. Indeed, it is complicated, the result of both too many plot threads and the wrong ones.

But a lot of it comes down to one character: Mon-El.

I will discuss the potential alternatives to the Mon-El problem later, but for now, I would like to talk about why he is so misplaced. Why, in many ways, he is the antithesis of what Supergirl’s message should be.

ARGUMENT: “If you were to wake up on a foreign planet, you would be defensive too.”

That is fair, to some extent. But according to the US Department of Justice, men are quicker to violence than women, committing many more physically aggressive crimes. Or, in other words, this reaction would appear abnormal to viewers had it come from a woman; from a man, though, it is par from the course. That is a damaging mentality to perpetuate.

Additionally, that is not the only time we have seen Mon-El react with violence. His first job, after all, was beating up aliens who owed money. Or in episode 13, Mr. Mxyzptlk, he challenges the titular character to a duel to the death.

The issue here is not that he defended himself; rather, it is that he did so through physical violence and continued to use physical violence as the means to further his goals.

ARGUMENT: “All couples argue.”

All couples disagree sometimes; that is true. There is no point in arguing that perfection is the goal, for it is not.

That said, there is a world of difference between disagreements and the reality of Kara and Mon-El’s relationship. From season 2 episode 13 to s2e16 — the episodes in which they have been an official couple thus far — they have argued nearly 50% of the time they have spoken. (An argument here has been defined as any conversation or scene that ends with them on shaky ground — eg. raised voices, requests to leave, disagreements that are not resolved until later.)

That’s not healthy.

I am not baseball. — Kara Danvers

ARGUMENT: “He didn’t approve of the slavery, misogyny, etc. on Daxam.”

I’d like to address this in two parts.

One: slavery. Mon-El brings up slavery when they are on slaver’s moon, to which Kara scoffs: Daxam owned slaves, she remembers, and she is not pleased.

It is then that Mon-El defends himself. We do not hear anything from the narrative before this or — perhaps more importantly — after this. Yet if it is a throwaway line meant to portray Mon-El’s distaste of Daxamite customs, why have him say it only after Kara expresses disapproval? Such a decision paints his words as reactionary rather than genuine.

The misogyny on Daxam, though, is referenced multiple times. And none of these references treat the problem as anything all too serious.

Was this meant to be a joke? The narrative sure didn’t treat it like one.

There is nothing in the narrative that shows Mon-El’s long-term disapproval of any of Daxam’s more disgusting traditions. If anything, it is portrayed as something new.

Characters can grow, certainly. But their pasts actions cannot be excused in the name of “growth,” for that is not growth. That is condonation. To show that Mon-El disapproves, he either has to have disapproved all along, or he has to demonstrate concretely how he has changed. At the moment, he has done neither.

ARGUMENT: “He never did anything wrong.”

This argument quite frankly goes against the narrative. He has done things wrong. We are meant to see him as “rough around the edges,” a bad boy who will someday be turned good.

The issue, of course, is that he has not yet accomplished the latter part.

ARGUMENT: “He went back to Earth because he knows he is better there.”

Yes, so he took the easy way out. He went back to a place where he does not have the temptation to be an awful person instead of actively fighting the systems and society that he came from.

ARGUMENT: “Kara is helping him become a better person and a hero.”

There are many kinds of labor. Physical and mental labor are obvious (for example: lifting a box and spending hours studying, respectively). But emotional labor is much more hazy of a concept, usually defined as the process of maintaining one’s own feelings or the feelings of another.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, women perform the vast majority of emotional labor. Even when working full time alongside a man, women are expected to lift much of the emotional weight; this can range from organizing the family’s schedule, remembering what needs to be done, etc. to, in Kara’s case, having to train a man to be a hero.

In short, this is not Kara’s job. And the response “but she does it willingly” forgets that this is a narrative crafted by a team of writers; as much as we all wish otherwise, Kara Danvers does not exist. Kara Danvers cannot willingly choose to assist this man. She does so because the story written has her do so, and we must question that decision.

Why, of everyone on the team, is it left to Kara? Why must a woman continue to be left with the vast majority of the emotional labor?

This argument is meant well. It is, after all, a positive thing at first glance: she is helping him become better, and isn’t that what we are searching for? A better Mon-El? Yet the method of betterment is just as important as the end result, and this change coming about because of an imposition on a powerful female character is unacceptable.

ARGUMENT: “The culture of Daxam is different than the culture of Earth.”

As a statement of fact within the show’s canon, this is likely true. Daxam is meant to be different.

But as an argument here, it falls short. Daxam is not real. Mon-El is not real.

When the narrative condones the distasteful actions of Mon-El and his people, it is important to remember the fictional nature of the show. Because Mon-El does not exist in real life, his actions do not either; therefore, any acceptance of the things he says and does comes as an acceptance of the message they send unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Every word that is spoken is written first. It is practiced. It is edited. The writing team chooses the message to send, and by condoning the words of Mon-El and other characters on Supergirl, they are condoning that behavior and that message.

He is not real, but the effect of his character is.