Lena Luthor: Can You Read My Mind?

[legaleagle53]

I decided to start this thread because it looks as though we're going to be getting more into Lena's backstory soon, and I thought this would be a more appropriate venue to discuss her.  The thread title comes from the fact that the Silver Age Lena in the comics was a telepath, as explained in a comment I made in the Spoiler forum a few days ago (no spoilers here though):

Quote

It will be interesting to see their take on Lena's backstory, since in the Silver Age comics, she was always the biological younger sister of Lex Luthor. When she was a little girl, she touched a space brain that Lex had been studying (this was before Lex became a criminal), and as a result, she gained the power of telepathy.

After Lex turned criminal, his and Lena's parents were so ashamed of him that they completely disowned him, moved away, and changed their name by juggling the letters of their last name into an anagram of "Luthor," "Thorul."  Lena was too young to remember that much about Lex, so her parents decided that when she grew old enough to understand, they would simply tell her that Lex was dead.

When Lena was a teenager, her parents were killed in an automobile accident that also left her with partial amnesia, so she had no memory of her past as a Luthor.  This proved to be a problem later on when she applied to join the FBI, since there was no way she could pass the required background check.  Fortunately, Lena had met and befriended Supergirl when both were still in high school, and Supergirl went back in time to find out what she could about Lena's past.  It was then that she discovered who Lena really was and to whom she was related, and she disclosed this information to the FBI, but did not disclose it to Lena.  Lena only found out the truth years later when an aneurysm that was a delayed side-effect of the accident that gave Lena her telepathic powers nearly killed her, prompting her fellow-FBI agent husband's mother to share with her the classified file containing the information about her past and her true identity that her then-deceased husband had smuggled out of the FBI.  She later lost her telepathic powers as a result of the brain surgery that was performed to repair the damage caused by the aneurysm.

As I said, quite the backstory for the Silver Age Lena.  I know that after the 1986 reboot, she was originally recast as Lex's daughter rather than his sister, and she never had telepathy.  Still, I'd like to see at least some shout-out to the Silver Age Lena, and yes, I'd love to find out that she DOES have telepathy -- and that she uses it unbeknownst to everyone else!

Discuss.  What's your take on Lena?  Would you like the show to at least give a shout-out to her Silver-Age powers?

Edited January 29, 2017 by legaleagle53

[honeydo7]

Caught last night's re-run where Lena tells Kara & Clark she was adopted by the Luthor Family when she was four years old.......maybe my idea that Lena learns she's actually Reign from Krypton & assume her special super powers in season 3, isn't so off-the-wall.

[secnarf]

6 hours ago, honeydo7 said:

Caught last night's re-run where Lena tells Kara & Clark she was adopted by the Luthor Family when she was four years old.......maybe my idea that Lena learns she's actually Reign from Krypton & assume her special super powers in season 3, isn't so off-the-wall.

Isn't Lena biologically a Luthor? So she was "adopted" by her father and Lillian when her mother died, but her and Lex are half-siblings through their father.

[GHScorpiosRule]

7 minutes ago, secnarf said:

Isn't Lena biologically a Luthor? So she was "adopted" by her father and Lillian when her mother died, but her and Lex are half-siblings through their father.

Yup. Plus if she was Reign, where are her powers???

[Lazlo]

I originally assumed Lena being an adopted-Luthor was a handy meta-ish excuse for Katie McGrath's accent issues. I think she's easily one of the best actresses on the show and a great addition to the cast but she does drift into Irish a lot.

Of course when they gave young Lena a standard American accent in her flashbacks I had to drop that theory.

[tofutan]

So I guess I'm alone in finding her acting pretty obnoxious sometimes? I think she often really, really overdoes the weepy eye stuff. (the episode with Rhea was particularly bad). 

For the record, I think most regular actors on the show are at best solid, outside of "Alex" and and "J'onn" who are actually good. 

I like the Lena/Lillian scenes but to me they are carried by Brenda Strong. 

[Lady Calypso]

8 hours ago, tofutan said:

So I guess I'm alone in finding her acting pretty obnoxious sometimes? I think she often really, really overdoes the weepy eye stuff. (the episode with Rhea was particularly bad). 

I'm sure you aren't. I like Katie's acting, personally, but I can understand your view. Maybe she does overdo it sometimes, but maybe it's because she's trying to mask her accent so she has to go a bit over-the-top to try to make sure her accent doesn't come out? Just speculation, not entirely sure about this theory.

[Lazlo]

3 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I'm sure you aren't. I like Katie's acting, personally, but I can understand your view. Maybe she does overdo it sometimes, but maybe it's because she's trying to mask her accent so she has to go a bit over-the-top to try to make sure her accent doesn't come out? Just speculation, not entirely sure about this theory.

Katie isn't a trained drama school actor or an 'acting since childhood' actor; she's been pretty open in interviews about how she started acting relatively late (in her mid 20s) and how it was a bit of a career shift. As I've said I think she's magnetic onscreen but I can agree she might be a bit unpolished, of which the whole accent thing is probably a part.

[tofutan]

I think she's beautiful and charismatic and even likable. But a good actress? I don't get that from her at all. (and she is in good company on this show in this regard) 

Especially with how many people say that Cat has no range. 

I don't see why masking one's accent should lead to one acting a scene way more crybaby than makes sense for the scene. I just find it distracting rather than touching. (I think Mon-El also made some really distracting/obnoxious acting choices particularly later in the season, while imo season 1 was  more about people being pretty bland, so maybe it's a directoral shift that let's the actors go more wild and for some people that kind of freedom just clearly isn't justified; though I think Melissa had more uneven performances in season 1 I think, Melissa I think sometimes puts out amazing episodes, but she's very uneven, she doesn't maintain a clear character line throughout the episode the way I think Alex and J'onn do). 

I've seen Katie on Merlin btw, and I got pretty much the same impression from her there. 

Edited June 1, 2017 by tofutan

[stealinghome]

I would agree that Katie McGrath isn't the most skilled technical actress in the world, but that her charisma, likeability, and ability to spark with any and all screen partners does a lot to mask the technical deficiencies. I find her very watchable, but I wouldn't say she's a great or even necessarily a good actress, if that makes sense.

It's part of the reason I'm a little wary about her being promoted to a regular. On the one hand, I do enjoy Lena, think she's interesting, and believe that the character has a LOT of potential (whether the writers will do anything with that potential is another question entirely); on the other, I do worry that more screentime might expose some of KM's acting weaknesses in a way that more limited appearances in S2 didn't.

Edited June 1, 2017 by stealinghome

[Lazlo]

1 minute ago, stealinghome said:

I would agree that Katie McGrath isn't the most skilled technical actress in the world, but that her charisma, likeability, and ability to spark with any and all screen partners does a lot to mask the technical deficiencies. I find her very watchable, but I wouldn't say she's a great or even necessarily a good actress, if that makes sense.

That's probably stricter than I'd go but it does make sense and I'd agree she has that 'spark' thing. I've been complaining all along that the show only ever puts her in scenes with Kara and Lillian - let's see Lena share a scene with Alex or J'onn or James (at least she worked with Winn a little in the finale which was fun.)

Actually all this talk of technical ability verus charisma and chemistry makes me think of Cordelia Chase from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I've been rewatching both shows recently and Charisma Carpenter, despite some good comedic chops wasn't/isn't a technically skilled actress either but she had, well, charisma and likability.

[JapMo]

On 5/31/2017 at 10:53 PM, tofutan said:

So I guess I'm alone in finding her acting pretty obnoxious sometimes? I think she often really, really overdoes the weepy eye stuff. (the episode with Rhea was particularly bad). 

For the record, I think most regular actors on the show are at best solid, outside of "Alex" and and "J'onn" who are actually good. 

I like the Lena/Lillian scenes but to me they are carried by Brenda Strong. 

I don't find her acting obnoxious, but I'm glad I'm finally seeing a little difference of opinion from so many other posters on this board who went overboard on her the minute she showed up (same with Lyra...she was on like what...2 seconds?).  My hearing is not so great so I don't hear her accent, but now realizing she has one, I understand her acting style a little more.  She's not stiff but she pronounces her words very carefully.  In doing so, IMO, she projects a strength that for me makes her a believable CEO of a major company.  I also think she did well in her romantic scenes a few episodes ago.  What I'm having a problem with at this point is Katie playing vulnerable.  I just can't buy her best huggy friendship scenes with Kara (in truth Melissa doesn't sell it for me either).  

[nightwing877]

Is Lena really born in 1993. I saw this on the Arrowverse wiki that she was. That can't be right, so Lena is only 24 years old. The actress Katie was born in 1983, so she is playing someone a decade younger than her real age.

So Lena is younger than Kara. This show has a bad track record when it comes to ages. 

[Lazlo]

On 11/21/2017 at 1:46 AM, nightwing877 said:

Is Lena really born in 1993. I saw this on the Arrowverse wiki that she was. That can't be right, so Lena is only 24 years old. The actress Katie was born in 1983, so she is playing someone a decade younger than her real age.

So Lena is younger than Kara. This show has a bad track record when it comes to ages. 

Yeah, Lena's age makes no sense whatsoever either in-universe or out - Katie McGrath does not look younger than Melissa Benoist. 

[Lady Calypso]

On 11/20/2017 at 8:46 PM, nightwing877 said:

Is Lena really born in 1993. I saw this on the Arrowverse wiki that she was. That can't be right, so Lena is only 24 years old. The actress Katie was born in 1983, so she is playing someone a decade younger than her real age.

So Lena is younger than Kara. This show has a bad track record when it comes to ages. 

I've decided to look up the wiki as well, and...well, they actually might have made it canon. The wiki does say in the episode Luthors, that Lillian adopted Lena twenty years ago, and the girl in that particular flashback was about three or four, possibly five so oddly enough, they did make it canon that Lena is between 23-25. I honestly thought that Lena would have been older than Kara, at least by a couple of years. 

[legaleagle53]

1 minute ago, Lady Calypso said:

I've decided to look up the wiki as well, and...well, they actually might have made it canon. The wiki does say in the episode Luthors, that Lillian adopted Lena twenty years ago, and the girl in that particular flashback was about three or four, possibly five so oddly enough, they did make it canon that Lena is between 23-25. I honestly thought that Lena would have been older than Kara, at least by a couple of years. 

Which is completely understandable, given that Kara still seems in many ways to be stuck at the emotional level of a 16-year-old.  Lena comes across as years older by default because she's emotionally that much more mature than Kara is.

[Lazlo]

24 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

I've decided to look up the wiki as well, and...well, they actually might have made it canon. The wiki does say in the episode Luthors, that Lillian adopted Lena twenty years ago, and the girl in that particular flashback was about three or four, possibly five so oddly enough, they did make it canon that Lena is between 23-25. I honestly thought that Lena would have been older than Kara, at least by a couple of years. 

I've said it before but I never understood why they didn't throw in a line about Lena being raised in Ireland by her birth mother until she was adopted by the Luthors. They had a perfect opportunity to explain away any accent slips Katie has (granted she's much better at making Lena sound American now.)

 

Then again this is the same show that gave us an American Silver Banshee.

[nightwing877]

For someone promoted to regular, Lena sure feels like a recurring character having missed 4 episodes already. She has been absent for 3 episodes. Guess Katie has had a nice long holiday for over a month while these episodes filmed. I'm sure she will not miss anymore episodes though. 

[Gareth3]

Now that we know that "My Way" is Lex's supervillain song, what's Lena's? Yes, actually making her a supervillain might be a bad idea, but it could be a villain Lena from another universe or she could be pretending to be a supervillain, or whatever. I suppose the Pretenders' "Brass in Pocket" is the female "My Way", but what other options are there?