too autistic for this bullshit

Jon is, more than I've seen in any member of the Superfamily, terrified of doing the wrong thing. He's seen more than one evil Superman in his lifetime, and he knows the catastrophic consequences that causes, so he's determined not to be that Superman. So he tries so hard to stick to the most socially acceptable version of heroism he can think of, trying to restrain the voice inside of him that wants to make the world better by any means. But that's the thing: he fails.

Jon physically assaults the leader of a sovereign nation because he's an evil piece of shit. This, like many point out, is not generally chill with the United Nations or whatever, yet he does it anyways. He assists in the over through of a United States-backed dictatorship and openly associates himself with a suspected terrorist. He breaks the law flagrantly and without much consequence. No matter what he does, the core of his being is acting on what he believes is right, even if other people say it's wrong. And look, I think that's based. But Jon certainly doesn't.

He's so scared of his own powers. Whenever he acts in a "controversial" way, he fears that he might have overstepped, that he's becoming a little more like the man that kidnapped him for half his life, and that he will be the downfall of the free world. There's a theme about choice and how he's been controlled somewhere in there but I'm trying to stay on topic. He folds like a wet paper towel under pressure because he already believes he's dangerous and prone to violence, so other people saying it just confirms that. He WANTS to be good and moral and loved by everyone, but he NEEDS to do what he knows is right.

And that's perfectly shown in the moment where he throws off the wig and glasses and takes bullets for his classmates just hours into his new alias' life. Batman has worked to get Jon a secret identity for college. He wants to keep this identity so bad because the weight of being Kryptonian and more importantly the expected successor of Superman crushes him flat like a pancake whenever he thinks about it. There are a million personal and logical reasons to protect this anonymity, and there was probably something else he could have done in this situation. He's got super speed ffs, I feel like DC likes to forget how OP that is. But going out of his way to protect himself first is unacceptable, because it increases the risk of someone getting hurt. He acts with his heart and not his head and puts himself in danger for others. Yes the bullets blah blah but more importantly he gives up being safe, liked, and normal, because he can't stand people getting hurt. He doesn't think about it for a second, there's no hesitation, the right thing is more important. Clark maintained a secret identity for decades, and yet Jon never can.