"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Sunday, November 25, 2018

Relationship Spotlight: Kara Zor-El & Alex Danvers (Supergirl)


I love a good familial relationship, and the Danvers sisters have quite a good one.  It has complexity and conflict, but it’s also absolutely loving and comes from a continual place of support for and belief in one another.  This one gets extra points for showing such deep ties between adoptive sisters, which doesn’t always get its due in the media (some Kara-Alex-related spoilers.)

Kara has friends, she has mentors, and she’s had love interests, but from Day One, it’s always been her and Alex.  It began in a pretty unhealthy way, with Alex taught to sublimate her needs for the sake of her alien adopted sister’s.  Kara’s childhood and Alex’s teen years were frequently about considering Kara’s feelings as someone who’d lost her home and family, helping Kara understand her powers while keeping them hidden, teaching Kara how to navigate “normal” human life, and making Kara feel welcomed and loved in the Danvers family.  All of this is important, obviously, but a lot of it came at the expense of Alex’s emotional well-being rather than alongside it.  It’s a pattern that continues to crop up today, with Alex blaming herself whenever she “lets” anything bad happen to Kara, and Kara not even realizing when she makes things all about herself without considering what Alex might need.

But they’re working on it.  The series begins with them starting to really get to know each other.  When Kara first reveals herself to the world, Alex is immediately there to scold her for being reckless and indiscreet, even though it was seeing Alex in danger that made Kara step up.  However, just as Alex needs to get used to the idea that her “baby” sister believes herself to have the great responsibility that comes with great power, Kara needs to meet the Alex she’s never seen, the badass DEO agent who fights alien threats and works to keep National City safe behind the scenes while Kara flies through the sky with a red cape.  More revelations.  Kara isn’t incapable – she’s hugely powerful and has an enormous drive to do good – but there’s a lot she doesn’t know, and Alex’s experience and expertise is instrumental in helping Kara hone her raw abilities into talents.

Working side by side at the DEO, they’ve grown together so much.  They look out for each other in the field (sometimes to the other’s “I can take care of myself!” exasperation,) and they make each other better, both as fighters and as investigators/agents (and now, in Alex’s case, as director.)  Kara’s sunny impulsiveness is balanced out by Alex’s cynical practicality, and each brings their own strengths to the table.  They can clash hard, but when they do, it’s usually because one thinks the other is endangering themselves by going about things the wrong way, and when they make up, it’s with mutual, heartfelt understanding.

Alex’s relationship with Maggie also changed her relationship with Kara in some interesting ways.  It shook up their patterns quite a bit, as Kara had to learn to be proactive in recognizing when Alex needs support – Alex doesn’t often put herself in a position to be vulnerable in front of people she cares about, and Kara got used to not having to look for it.  Additionally, while Kara will likely always be Alex’s number-one person, Alex getting together with Maggie was the first time Kara had any serious rival for Alex’s attention, and both struggled a little bit with figuring out where the balances lies in Alex’s life between her sister and her girlfriend. 

Relationships have come and gone on both sides – James, Maggie, Mon-El.  Dynamics have changed, with Alex now wrestling with the responsibility that comes with being DEO director and knowing that her decisions could risk her sister’s life.  But at the end of the day, no matter what’s happened, what journey either character has been on, and what’s passed between them, it comes down to two sisters sitting on a couch, eating takeout in their bare feet as they offer one another advice, support, commiseration, or whatever else they might need.  Danvers sisters forever!

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