That last gif you reblogged of Lena asking Supergirl who she was? It's just highlighting yet another chance that Kara WELL INTO THEIR 'FRIENDSHIP' could have said who she was. It is a complete underscore of her duplicity. She dares to mock and insinuate that Lena has less than good intentions, parading as morally superior; when her behavior towards Lena is repugnant. Her actions as so very two-faced during this period, yet we romanticize it. It's abhorrent. Truly, what if Kara told the truth?
I wouldn't say repugnant, but it definitely was duplicitous. That's the thing about Kara, she comes off as a this paragon, not just of hope, but of optimism and all things good - and most of the time she represents that - but when you look at her closely, she actually is a very flawed, very human character. Even though the show itself and part of the audience struggle to see her that way.
Allowing for the issues with the writing we've seen so far, especially in 5b, which I think has definitely caused a lot of issues with Kara's character - I think that Kara is primarily motivated by selfishness when it comes to Lena. She's capable of great selflessness, but when Lena is involved, she puts her need to keep her relationship with Lena above all else.
(Remember when the Kaznian facility was literally about to blow up, and she still went back just to destroy pictures of her with Lena?)
I'm not saying this to romanticize or excuse Kara's actions, but I do see it as intrinsically tied to her need to preserve what she had with Lena.
During the initial stages of their interactions, Lena made it clear that she wasn't there to make friends, but Kara kept trying to get her to open up to friendship and to trust again. At that point, I don't think there was any malice in Kara's intentions. She was just genuinely drawn to Lena and wanted to help her.
The fact that she hid her identity at first is understandable, considering she owes no one her identity, and their relationship was new -- but the thing is, she pursued two very different relationships with Lena: as a Super it was inevitable that she would be tangled with a Luthor, but as Kara Danvers, she actively chose to keep her friendship with Lena.
And every point from then on in their friendship was a deliberate choice to keep the secret from Lena. Again, motivated by her need to "keep" Lena, as Kara herself confessed in 5x01. Which when you think about it, is incredibly selfish and unhealthy.
AND it's a direct contrast to that 5x19 scene where Kara says that she made "one mistake" in their friendship - because in reality, it was almost four years of deliberate choices to keep the truth from Lena. Which is where the abysmal writing ruins things 🙄 (cos what is continuity right?)
Now, I know the reveal got dragged out so long because the show wanted to drag the secret out as much as possible and to keep teasing Lena as evil.
But from a character standpoint, I can actually also see Kara not telling Lena the truth (perhaps not that long or unnecessarily dragged out) because she was getting so tangled up in the web she had created because of her selfish need to keep her relationship with Lena. Kara, by nature, surrounds herself with people she loves and she clings to them. I can see her hiding the truth because she knew that it would ruin this relationship she treasured above almost all else, and she knew that Lena would be hurt even more by it. I can still see that happening, even if the writing had been better. I don't think Kara would have told Lena the truth as early as she did in the 100th ep alt timeline if she hadn't known the consequences of not telling it, if they hadn't gone through the things they had.
Which is one reason why I liked that reveal speech in 5x01 (and I probably would have moved that scene a season or two earlier), because it finally addressed why Kara kept the secret, and addressed that Kara was in the wrong. I do still think that Kara's character would be selfish about keeping Lena to herself, but an admission of that, by Kara and by the writing itself should have been a great springboard for a redemption arc that Kara's character needed for what she did to Lena, no matter what her intentions were.
Instead, in an utterly abysmal twist, the writing flipped it around so Lena would be the one needing redemption (cause face it, Lena fucked up too).
I personally think Kara was written horribly in 5b because the show refuses to portray Kara as anything other than being in the right - as the hero, she must always be right and on a moral high horse - the last time Kara was allowed to be wrong was in 5x01, and when the fuck was the last time she was allowed to express anger that wasn't righteous? but anyway...
I'm just saying, Kara is a very flawed, sometimes selfish and hypocritical character, and honestly, I think portraying that is okay, because we are all flawed and make mistakes -- the problem is when a character like that isn't given the opportunity to acknowledge those mistakes and develop from it. That's just bad storytelling.
