S'on i est c'on hors en isse

Was it clark who, when she was first overwhelmed and screaming at the noise, shot up into space with her? As the noise died away did she realise she wasn't drowning in the vacuum? Is that how she learned to shoot into the sky for respite?

How did kara learn english? Does it count as "immersion" if your only source is your cousin? Did she ever join a class? Does she have peers, immigrants and refugees in a university language centre or town hall, or did she sit alone in front of a TV and an LLM?

Clark grew up in a farmhouse in a cosy room with posters on the walls. How did kara end up living alone? What ugly hurtful things had to be said for both clark and kara, angry, hurt and ashamed, to agree she should have her own space? Whose idea was it?

Does she still have that apartment? She could live anywhere and she mostly lives off-planet but when she's on planet does she live out Clark's hopes for her? Where else might she could she live?

Krypto wears his little cape when he's with clark but kara never puts it on him. That's not a question but it's compelling as hell. When kara came to pick him up she was wearing the suit. That's compelling as hell. She brushes her teeth earth-style, eats earth cereal even when she's away, and as far as we can tell speaks English to herself instead of Kryptonian. That's compelling as hell.

listen i enjoyed the supergirl movie okay. fantastic star wars movie. star wars wants what supergirl currently has. supergirl said "hey there hasn't been a mad max in like 10 years someone should make a mad max" and they were right. they said "the audience aren't tired of women-led diverse movies they're tired of marvel" and they were right.

i liked that kara gets to be messy. i liked that part of the movie is about how clark doesn't get it and can't get it (and did it in such a way that two women talking about a man was about the women). i liked lobo and i liked the violence and i liked ruthye (which i at first thought was a cute nickname kara gave her off the bat and was sorry to be proved wrong.) movie strongly implies some very dark things and resolves none of them. excellent.

and there are some things they nick off superman that are very good. the "bystander pov" for a superhero fight will never not be fun and hides a million cgi sins (the cgi was done very smartly). the final song being a different version of "The Middle", which is a deep cut to James Gunn's Superman playlist and rly sets out the stall for what the two of them are supposed to have in common.

that said. the villain has a russian accent and the immigrants die and i'm just like. is that rly what you took from superman 2025. aren't u tired. "Harpoon Bride" being Black doesn't "make up" for killing the Black family. we can't keep killing off people of colour for the sake of white people's stories. their motivations are complex and kara clearly sees her own family in them and the movie all but yells that at us by having their deaths be the emotional crux of the film. they are fully realised characters and their deaths really matter...in service of kara's story. the laziness of sticking one of your kidnapped women behind a harpoon in one shot as a weak attempt at a counter-move is more insulting than allowing your story to stand. "all the women" avengers shot nonsense.

a movie brave enough to imply sexual violence but not brave enough to let that carry the film. a movie which cannot decide whether its emotional heart is the relentless struggle for women escaping violence and being left to preserve their culture - or a dog (sound familiar?). a movie which strips out any romantic relationship nonsense in favour of solidarity among women but can only think of male violence as a reason why women would come together. a movie which recognises it isn't supergirl's job to End Sexism and so gives her a dog as motivation but which also....never has her save a single man. (actually,,, does Superman ever save a grown man? i'm not sure he does. he saves the families of other men who aren't Strong Enough but does he save a Man?) A self-aware film lambasting sexism in the convenient figure of White Man Superman whilst leaving Supergirl silo-ed into her (White Saviour) Saving-Women box.

a film which can't decide whether it wants to be tongue-in-cheek or sincere about bringing Superman in. is the point that superman's experiences are a counterpoint and family is messy and sometimes sympathy isn't enough from your older cousin who thinks he knows better but has no idea what you're going through? or do we just wanna profit over superman being here whilst also using him for cheap feminism points.

A film which is at its strongest when offering a reading of Kara as (Jewish) immigrant but which undoes all that work with lazy Eastern European villain stereotyping. i just think that if your Black family lives in poverty, and your two other Black characters either escape slavery or die trying, and your Asian character gets told they don't know what's good for them and only a white person with an American accent can take revenge for them,,,, the picture that forms isn't great!!!