smallville is so brilliantly torturous to watch.
clark being the only person who sees past the fact that lex is a luthor and they become best friends, but lex is slowly getting more insane because of his relationship with his father and everyone else in the world, and clark doesn’t understand because even lionel likes him; what’s even worse is that a huge reason for lexs insanity later on is the fact that clark doesn’t trust him with his secret, which is fair enough because every time he nearly did tell him lex did something to show his untrustworthiness, but the reason he can’t be trusted in the first place is because he doesn’t trust anyone BECAUSE OF HIS DAD WHO CLARK THEN TRUSTS WITH ALL OF HIS SECRETS. it makes sense from clark’s perspective sure but lex sees his father who he’s done everything to prove himself to, see the only person who was supposed to be his friend as ‘the son he never had’ - BUT HE DID HAVE A SON.
i feel so bad for lex throughout the whole show - like every time he did something horrible i was just like “yeah but like he needed therapy but his dad electroshocked him unnecessarily instead to protect his own secrets, or when everyone has hated him his whole life because of things his father did, he took the blame of his brothers death when he was 12 because he didn’t want his dad to hate his mum”. lex really did try but i think it was inevitable that he would snap eventually because who wouldn’t.
i think the whole arc from best friends to enemies is so horrendously perfect. lex doesn’t hate clark, he hates that he is what lex could never be, no matter how hard he tried.
it’s like your dad abusing you for years and then comparing you to another kid who is so much better because he doesn’t flinch when someone raises their hand.
