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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jian" data-source="post: 9662379" data-attributes="member: 78087">Sorry, you’re right (though that’s not even slightly the definition of sociopathy). Caring what other people think about you is part of being human, but letting it stop him from doing what’s right is a narrative weakness for Superman, in that it’s something that stops him from acting for the greater good. If Superman doesn’t save people in a burning building because he’s afraid people will say mean things about him on Facebook, when actually those mean things have no actual consequences for him (unlike for every celebrity and politician) and he doesn’t have to read them, then he’s not Superman.Should Clark do what other people think he should do (or not do what they think he shouldn’t)? Honestly, I think no, generally - he’s not a democratic hero. He’s a hero with all the power who uses it responsibly because he is also omnibenevolent in a way that society otherwise arguably only ascribes to God - he always knows what the right thing is to do and what he does always turns out to have been the right thing to do.Which isn’t to say that Superman can’t change his mind, but I’d say that his opinions and decisions seem to generally be based on an internal moral compass and higher (possibly superhuman) understanding of morality, not a collective reflection of social values or what other people around him tend to believe.My point is that while we can thrill to his adventures and insights, fantasise about having his infallibility, or empathise with his suffering, my view is that Clark isn’t actually human on any level. Of course he’s not human physically, but he also has superhuman morality and willpower, which is very hard to present on screen and which writers will generally want to avoid lampshading or making explicit because we don’t want to think too hard about how alien or divine Clark is.If Clark is just an unstoppable man with normal human emotions and morality, well that’s great, but I think you’d end up telling a different story. He’s not the guy who’s always right and always uses his power responsibly and infallibly, who always helps as many people as he can and never uses his power selfishly. He’s just yet another person who has much more power and privilege, and much less accountability, than anyone should have; and that makes him potentially both a threat and a liability, like any billionaire.</blockquote>

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