i don't know what i'm doing

kryptonian powers, to clark, mark the difference between humans and kryptonians for the first chunk of his life, long before he ever begins to understand his home culture or meets others like him. he looks human, he’s treated as one. his powers are the only thing that sets him apart (culture too, but that’s something he won’t uncover for years.) so those powers become his only tangible connection to his people. he has never existed as a kryptonian without them. to him, they are something normal for kryptonians. it's what ties him to krypton, because they’re the one thing kryptonians have that humans don’t. at least as far as he understands. he doesn’t yet grasp that on krypton, his people didn’t have powers either.

kara, on the other hand, lived as a kryptonian without powers. earth is where she first experiences them when she was a teen, and because of that, they don’t feel inherent. they feel foreign. gaining those abilities is what makes it undeniable that she’s no longer home. because on krypton, she lived a life without powers.

clark's powers come from his kryptonian biology. kara's from earth’s yellow sun.

powers remind clark that he’s kryptonian. they also remind kara she'll never go home again.