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  2. Supergirl General Discussion
  3. Wednesday, 26 June 2019
I did a response to one of the other subjects in the Forum a while ago - "Things Done Right and Wrong" - in which I pointed out some serious contradictions and inconsistencies regarding illogical timelines and Supergirl's powers which aren't powers at all at some times. There were a few responses after mine, and a couple of other people commented that they had noticed some of the same inconsistencies, as well as some others of their own too.
But "Things Done Right and Wrong" was a much broader topic than my inconsistencies were, so I've decided to try continuing this subject here as its own specialized topic. I don't know whether anyone else will have anything to say about this, so this invitation for others to contribute their inconsistencies about the show here will either garner a few contributors, or, if this isn't of enough interest to most people, then it will quickly die a natural death.
So, to get things rolling, here are a few more of the contradictions and inconsistencies that I've noticed on the 'Supergirl' show:

In the pilot episode, 1.01, after her arrival on Earth, Superman placed Kara with the Danvers because they were "scientists who once helped him understand his own super abilities" (quoted directly from that episode). But, if Kal-El's pod landed in Smallville and he was adopted and raised to adulthood by Johnathan and Martha Kent (as we all know is what did happen to him) then how could Clark know anything at all about the Danvers? Given the fact that their family names don't match up, exactly what is the connection? I've wondered if Martha and Eliza might be related somehow, and given the difference in their ages, I speculate that they might be cousins rather than sisters. (And, if that is the case, then that would have made Clark and Alex second-cousins long before Kara even arrived on Earth.) Whatever the connection is between the Kents and the Danvers, this has never been explained, and I've always thought that it would be nice to tie up what has always been (at least to me) a nagging loose end.

After Kara started living with the Danvers, she was having trouble getting used to some of her powers, especially her X-ray vision, which she had difficulty controlling. Jerimiah solved that problem by making a special pair of glasses for her, using lead for the frames to dampen her X-ray vision so that it wouldn't overwhelm her, as told in episode 1.17, "Manhunter". Of course, Kara soon learned how to control all of her powers, including her super-vision, but by the time she graduated high school a few years later she would have grown enough that the glasses that fit her as a 13-year-old were too small for her as an 18-year-old so, logically, a larger adult-size pair of classes would have been required. So if she had long-ago learned to control her X-ray vision, then why would she use lead for the adult-size glasses if she no longer needed that assist, especially given the perpetual inconvenience of her having to move the glasses up or down before being able to use her X-ray vision?

In episode 2.07, "The Darkest Place", Lillian encouraged Supergirl to cooperate with her by shooting Mon-El in the leg with a lead bullet, which caused him considerable pain and discomfort, but didn't kill him. And yet, in episode 2.22, "Nevertheless, She Persists", they countered the Daxamites by dispersing a very small amount of lead dust into the atmosphere, where it would have become diluted far beyond any usefulness. So if a bullet in the leg couldn't kill a Daxamite, then how could such a very small amount of lead dust dissipated into the atmosphere kill Rhea within seconds and send the rest of them scurrying from the Earth?

In episode 4.03, "Man of Steel", Mercy and Otis Graves used the exact same device to disperse a very small amount of Kryptonite into the atmosphere, thus making the entire Earth supposedly instantly poisonous to Supergirl (and Red Daughter too). And yet, in episode 4.20 "Will The Real Miss Tessmacher … ", Kara visited President Baker in the Oval Office, where a large chunk of Kryptonite was out in the open to protect the President from a rogue Supergirl. And yet, although Kara was standing fairly close to it, she showed no ill affects from the Kryptonite. So, just as with the lead-and-Daxamites example above, how could such a small amount of Kryptonite diluted into the atmosphere of the entire world be so deadly, and yet Kara could stand in the same small room with a large piece of it and not be affected?

In episode 3.06, "Midvale", Sheriff Rollins said that drugs were coming in from Canada, which is to the north of the U.S. And the forests which were in and around Midvale are more typical of northern California than in the south. And yet, when Kara and Alex were driving there from National City, the Pacific Ocean was on their right, which means that they were driving SOUTH to get there, and then NORTH to get back to National City. Shouldn't it have been the other way around; going north to get to Midvale, and then south to get back to National City?

If the DEO is such an ultra-secret organization, which will do anything to keep people from finding out that it even exists at all, then why is it that they have two of the highest and most prominent twin skyscraper towers in all of National City? So much for keeping a low profile.

At the end of Season Four's "Elseworlds" cross-over saga, we find out that Lois and Clark are going to have a baby. However, they believe that Lois will have to go to Argo to be safe 'when the baby starts kicking'. Why? Everyone knows that Kryptonians gain their super-powers because of their Kryptonian DNA and exposure to Earth's yellow sun. So if the baby won't actually get to be exposed to that yellow sun until after s/he has been born and literally 'seen the light of day', then the baby shouldn't have any powers at all yet while still in the womb. Or does that make too much sense?

Okay, those are a few examples. If anyone else has noticed any kind of inconsistencies or contradictions with the show, here's your chance to contribute them here.
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To me none of those things are really that big of a deal. For me the biggest problem is the inconsistency in Kara's powers.

The perfect example for me.... Kara opens the door and is TOTALLY knocked out by the Kryptonite in the box held by Red Daughter in less than a 5 seconds, Kryptonite has never done that to Kara that quickly before, and then just a short time later Kara says to Red Daughter, she has been dealing with Kryptonite for 15 years THUS being able to handle it better.......SHE JUST PASSED OUT FROM IT!!!!!!!!! and HER FIRST TIME COMING INTO CONTACT WITH KRYPTONITE WAS 3 years ago. The writers REALLY NEED to get stronger in the details. Watch the earlier seasons for starters.

To me, they could have simply had Kara weakened enough for Red Daughter to punch her out....instead of her just fainting, really lazy writing.

It is things like that, that take me out of the moment.

Another example.... The fight between Lockwood and Supergirl....then Lockwood and James. Lockwood has no known training to fight, so to me these 2 fights were a little strange that he was able to knock Supergirl back even once, but he did it twice. To me even having equal strength alone should not have been able to even come close to equaling the strength and ability of Supergirl. So to me, they could have had this fight, but Supergirl in full totality taking him out. However, I did love that last hit..... : )

As far as Lockwood and James.....what the heck happened to James so-called "Black Belt"? He sucked in the fight with Lockwood.... Even with James weakening, his "Black Belt" training should have come into play in a much stronger way.

BUT, in that particular episode, the writers came back strong with the fight between Lex and Supergirl......soooo good.
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The biggest inconsistency is her strength. (See https://supergirl.tv/forum/inconsistent-hero-abilities).
If she can lift 1 million tons in a couple of seconds without straining (the weight of the Fortress of Solitude key):
If she were to punch almost anything with that much force, the punch would penetrate that object or being (like shooting a bullet into a Jell-O mold) unless it had the tensile strength to withstand it (as her own bones apparently must, or they'd fracture as soon as she attempted it).
If she punches something with that much tensile strength (e.g. another Kryptonian), because Force=Mass x Acceleration, since the mass of the Kryptonian is far less than 1 million tons, that much force would cause the Kryptonian to accelerate backward at such a huge rate that he/she would instantly disappear from the screen, which doesn't make for much of a TV fight. (e.g. a 200 pound alien is one ten-millionth of 1 million tons; instead of traveling 5 feet in 2 seconds like the key did, he/she would travel 50 million feet or about 9500 miles in 2 seconds!). The alien would have to "fly" toward her at the same rate in order to stay standing next to her!
So I just enjoy the show and don't worry about this.
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First I’m going to say this is a show based on a comic book character. The source material isn’t without contradictions, try not to overthink things. That being said I think I have some answers.
After Kara started living with the Danvers, she was having trouble getting used to some of her powers, especially her X-ray vision, which she had difficulty controlling. Jerimiah solved that problem by making a special pair of glasses for her, using lead for the frames to dampen her X-ray vision so that it wouldn't overwhelm her, as told in episode 1.17, "Manhunter". Of course, Kara soon learned how to control all of her powers, including her super-vision, but by the time she graduated high school a few years later she would have grown enough that the glasses that fit her as a 13-year-old were too small for her as an 18-year-old so, logically, a larger adult-size pair of classes would have been required. So if she had long-ago learned to control her X-ray vision, then why would she use lead for the adult-size glasses if she no longer needed that assist, especially given the perpetual inconvenience of her having to move the glasses up or down before being able to use her X-ray vision?
I could wear the same glasses I did when I was 13. The frame size I wear now isn’t significantly different and I can wear the larger frames from the kids section. Kara wouldn’t necessarily have outgrown the glasses Jeremiah gave her. As for why she chooses to wear them now IMO the inconvenience of unwanted x-ray vision outweighs having to occasionally lower her glasses.

In episode 2.07, "The Darkest Place", Lillian encouraged Supergirl to cooperate with her by shooting Mon-El in the leg with a lead bullet, which caused him considerable pain and discomfort, but didn't kill him. And yet, in episode 2.22, "Nevertheless, She Persists", they countered the Daxamites by dispersing a very small amount of lead dust into the atmosphere, where it would have become diluted far beyond any usefulness. So if a bullet in the leg couldn't kill a Daxamite, then how could such a very small amount of lead dust dissipated into the atmosphere kill Rhea within seconds and send the rest of them scurrying from the Earth?
Think of lead as causing an anaphylactic reaction in Daxamites. Lillian even used the word allergy. When Mon-El was shot the bullet pierced his skin similarly to a human being shot however he did start to go into shock and was saved because Jeremiah removed the bullet. The lead from the bullet was leaching into his bloodstream. When the lead was dispersed into the atmosphere the Daxamites were breathing it in which is one of worst ways to be exposed to an allergen. Plus they couldn’t get away from it.

In episode 4.03, "Man of Steel", Mercy and Otis Graves used the exact same device to disperse a very small amount of Kryptonite into the atmosphere, thus making the entire Earth supposedly instantly poisonous to Supergirl (and Red Daughter too). And yet, in episode 4.20 "Will The Real Miss Tessmacher … ", Kara visited President Baker in the Oval Office, where a large chunk of Kryptonite was out in the open to protect the President from a rogue Supergirl. And yet, although Kara was standing fairly close to it, she showed no ill affects from the Kryptonite. So, just as with the lead-and-Daxamites example above, how could such a small amount of Kryptonite diluted into the atmosphere of the entire world be so deadly, and yet Kara could stand in the same small room with a large piece of it and not be affected?
Kryptonite is a radioactive mineral that effects Kryptonians. Being near it for prolonged periods is fatal but short term exposure is survivable provided they can get away from it. The Kryptonite in the atmosphere was deadly because even if it wasn’t particularly strong the radiation was everywhere. The chunk in the Oval Office may have not have been particularly pure and it did affect Kara a bit, she’s good at hiding it.

At the end of Season Four's "Elseworlds" cross-over saga, we find out that Lois and Clark are going to have a baby. However, they believe that Lois will have to go to Argo to be safe 'when the baby starts kicking'. Why? Everyone knows that Kryptonians gain their super-powers because of their Kryptonian DNA and exposure to Earth's yellow sun. So if the baby won't actually get to be exposed to that yellow sun until after s/he has been born and literally 'seen the light of day', then the baby shouldn't have any powers at all yet while still in the womb. Or does that make too much sense?
Kryptonians get their powers from the radiation of a yellow sun, that radiation is on the visible and invisible spectrums. IRL pregnant women aren’t supposed to get x-rays because the radiation can get through. A gestating half Kryptonian under a yellow sun would have superhuman abilities. Certainly not the same power level but enough that Lois’s life would be in danger.
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Are you talking about the weight of Fort Rozz or the key to the Fortress of Solitude? I believe Constance was talking about the key, which of course is much smaller than Fort Rozz (though it is supposed to be made of a super-dense material).

"But even so, being sufficiently strong enough to lift as massive an object as Fort Rozz in Season and then struggling to hold an airplane while rescuing Lena in Season 3 was a bit of a stretch."

And being apparently unable to fly out of Toyman's vat of quicksand without freezing it first was even more of a stretch:)



Sorry, I meant Fort Rozz, also given a weight of a million tons. And note that she didn't just lift it, she carried it to escape velocity(!!).

Why did you have to remind me about the quicksand? Painful. :D

@Brierrose: Theoretically, she should simply be ripping though many objects that she lifts due to stress applied to small surface area. I remain skeptical, but if I squint enough, I can buy that explanation. :)
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"And note that she didn't just lift it, she carried it to escape velocity(!!)"

Which is roughly 25,000 miles per hour or 11.2 kilometers per second (about 33 times the speed of sound)!
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Are you talking about the weight of Fort Rozz or the key to the Fortress of Solitude? I believe Constance was talking about the key, which of course is much smaller than Fort Rozz (though it is supposed to be made of a super-dense material).

"But even so, being sufficiently strong enough to lift as massive an object as Fort Rozz in Season and then struggling to hold an airplane while rescuing Lena in Season 3 was a bit of a stretch."

And being apparently unable to fly out of Toyman's vat of quicksand without freezing it first was even more of a stretch:)
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To be honest, I found myself wondering if the "one million tons" figure (regarding the key to the Fortress of Solitude) was actually intended to be taken literally. Maybe it was just a figure of speech, meaning that it was very heavy (and a normal human couldn't pick it up). After all, if you ask someone in your office (or teachers' workroom) if they have a paper clip, and they reply that they have "millions of them", you're not going to take the word "millions" literally!

I looked this up:
http://flash.esva.net/bigthings.htm

If the site is to be believed (I haven't run the numbers myself), a million tons might not be a bad estimate-- depending on how dense the inner workings were.

Like Constance, I try to turn that part of my brain off for the purposes of enjoying the show. But even so, being sufficiently strong enough to lift as massive an object as Fort Rozz in Season and then struggling to hold an airplane while rescuing Lena in Season 3 was a bit of a stretch.
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"The perfect example for me.... Kara opens the door and is TOTALLY knocked out by the Kryptonite in the box held by Red Daughter in less than a 5 seconds, Kryptonite has never done that to Kara that quickly before, "

That's the way the effects of kryptonite on Clark and Kara was always portrayed in the Silver Age comics. The writers seemed to have "toned down" its effects considerably for the TV show.

These inconsistencies are one of the main reasons I started writing my own Supergirl fan fiction stories. For one thing, I wanted to show that you could have Supergirl with a consistent power and vulnerability level, and still have a good story (and also one that incorporated elements of "the real world";). But I also found that I had to lower Kara's power and vulnerability level a bit, to perhaps those of the Golden Age Superman. That way human enemies (like Lex Luthor, Toyman, and assorted cartel bosses) would pose a real threat or danger to her.


But this is not the Silver Age comics, this is the television version. Within that version, there has been an inconsistency as to what impact the Kryptonite has on her. I'm fine, if it knocks her out like in the Silver Age comics, totally cool with that, as long as it does it every time, and within a few minutes after it doing that she isn't telling someone that she has had years of dealing with it and can still fight to a degree. PICK ONE......it knocks her out, or she can deal with it in certain quantities.....but not go from one end of the spectrum to the other within a 5 minute period. That is all I was saying.
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"But this is not the Silver Age comics, this is the television version. Within that version, there has been an inconsistency as to what impact the Kryptonite has on her."

I guess I didn't make my own feelings clear in my last comment. Yes, I agree! The portrayal of the effects of kryptonite have been inconsistent on the TV show. Before the example you mentioned, kryptonite seemed to simply weaken Kara on the TV show (sometimes more drastically than others). And now all of a sudden, a maybe 5-second exposure is knocking her out completely, the way it did in the Silver Age comics? Come on, it has to be either one effect or the other - you can't have it both ways, and expect viewers to buy into it!
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"But this is not the Silver Age comics, this is the television version. Within that version, there has been an inconsistency as to what impact the Kryptonite has on her."

I guess I didn't make my own feelings clear in my last comment. Yes, I agree! The portrayal of the effects of kryptonite have been inconsistent on the TV show. Before the example you mentioned, kryptonite seemed to simply weaken Kara on the TV show (sometimes more drastically than others). And now all of a sudden, a maybe 5-second exposure is knocking her out completely, the way it did in the Silver Age comics? Come on, it has to be either one effect or the other - you can't have it both ways, and expect viewers to buy into it!


Gotcha....
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Like Constance, I try to turn that part of my brain off for the purposes of enjoying the show. But even so, being sufficiently strong enough to lift as massive an object as Fort Rozz in Season and then struggling to hold an airplane while rescuing Lena in Season 3 was a bit of a stretch.
We talked about the plane in S3E5 at the time. It wasn’t the weight of the plane that was the problem but the fact that she couldn’t get a good grip. She was holding it between her thumb and other fingers. Try holding a heavy book like that, I’ll bet it’s harder than holding that same book any other way because it tries to slip down. Kara doesn’t have super-sticky hands, there’s no indication that things can’t slip between her fingers. Plus if she squeezed too hard to get a better grip she risked breaking her handhold completely.
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To be honest, I found myself wondering if the "one million tons" figure (regarding the key to the Fortress of Solitude) was actually intended to be taken literally. Maybe it was just a figure of speech, meaning that it was very heavy (and a normal human couldn't pick it up). After all, if you ask someone in your office (or teachers' workroom) if they have a paper clip, and they reply that they have "millions of them", you're not going to take the word "millions" literally!
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One thing that might seem to be an inconsistency, but really isn't (according to the laws of physics) is the effect of lightning on Kara (as Supergirl). Kara's skin is described as "steel-hard" in the "Adventures of Supergirl" comics series, and bullets just bounce off of it. But electricity, being a form of energy, can penetrate her skin. Normally, though, Livewire's lightning bolts aren't powerful enough to have much of an effect on Kara (unless she is being hit by one bolt right after another, almost continuously). So why did that one very large bolt that Livewire aimed at the helicopter at the end of the "Worlds' Finest" episode in Season 1 knock Kara out cold (when she intercepted it)? The answer, according to physics, is that it was a positive, rather than negative, bolt, traveling from the ground to the clouds (rather than the other way around, which is much more common). In nature, more than 95% of lightning bolts carry electrons from the clouds to the ground. Those are what we physicists call negative bolts. But then there’s the other kind – the fewer than 5% that go the other way, from the ground to the clouds. Those are the ones we call positive bolts – and those are always a lot more powerful, in terms of both current and voltage
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Thank you, Brierrose and Kelly, for your feedback as you both raised some very good points. I do have some thoughts on two of the items that were replied to:

As for why she chooses to wear [glasses] now IMO the inconvenience of unwanted x-ray vision outweighs having to occasionally lower her glasses.

I stand corrected on the need for adult-size glasses, and admit that I had just assumed that Kara had outgrown her first pair as she grew up.
However, Kara had obviously gained full control of her x-ray vision within a year of two of arriving on Earth and didn't need the assist of the lead frames after that. In Episode 3.06 "Midvale" she didn't wear her glasses at home around Alex and Eliza, or at a few other times as well, and she didn't have any trouble at all with her x-ray vision then. And she often goes without her glasses today, both when she is as Supergirl and in the privacy of her own apartment, and obviously never has to deal with supposedly out-of-control x-ray vision on those occasions.
In fact, I think that the only reason why she continued to wear the glasses after that first year or two is probably because other people had gotten so used to seeing Kara wearing glasses by then that it was easier to just keep wearing them than to explain why she didn't have to wear them anymore. And, of course, they unintentionally became part of her 'secret identity' after she became Supergirl years later.

The Kryptonite in the atmosphere was deadly because even if it wasn’t particularly strong the radiation was everywhere.

I too have always considered Kryptonite as being a form of radiation that affects only Kryptonians, and it was based on that theory that I described the inconsistencies that I did.
During Earth's history over the last century or so, there have been numerous instances when deadly chemical or biological weapons or nuclear radiation has been released into the atmosphere. But it is an incontrovertible scientific fact that any contaminant will diminish and dissipate the further you get away from the epicenter of the event, so even deadly and toxic ones lose their lethality before going very far. After the disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima, much deadly radiation escaped into the air but, in each case, an exclusion zone was created around the event, and anyone who was outside those zones was safe from exposure beyond a potentially dangerous level.
As far as Kryptonite is concerned, this exact scenario almost took place in Episode 1.19 "Myriad". Max Lord wanted to explode a Kryptonite bomb above National City, and using a much greater amount of Kryptonite than the device used by the Graves, thus poisoning the air and driving Non and his cohorts away. It was also stated that Supergirl would have to leave National City for about 50 years, but that no other place would be off-limits to her. So if a very large Kryptonite device would irradiate the air only in and around National City and nowhere else, then it goes totally against that previously-stated fact to say that a much smaller device, with a much smaller amount of Kryptonite, could somehow poison Earth's entire atmosphere; it should have been only National City that was affected.

As already pointed out, 'Supergirl' is just a fantasy, whether in comic book form or as movies or TV shows. But it would be nice if some level of thoughtful consistency were adhered to by the writers, and that was all that I was getting at when I started this string.
However, as very few others have joined in, I'm assuming that it wasn't that interesting to most, and will probably fade away pretty quickly.
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"The perfect example for me.... Kara opens the door and is TOTALLY knocked out by the Kryptonite in the box held by Red Daughter in less than a 5 seconds, Kryptonite has never done that to Kara that quickly before, "

That's the way the effects of kryptonite on Clark and Kara was always portrayed in the Silver Age comics. Until this episode, the writers seem to have "toned down" its effects considerably for the TV show. (It just seemed to weaken her - sometimes more drastically than others.)
Here's what I'm talking about:

. Kryptonite.jpg

These inconsistencies are one of the main reasons I started writing my own Supergirl fan fiction stories. For one thing, I wanted to show that you could have Supergirl with a consistent power and vulnerability level, and still have a good story (and also one that incorporated elements of "the real world";). But I also found that I had to lower Kara's power and vulnerability level a bit, to perhaps those of the Golden Age Superman. That way human enemies (like Lex Luthor, Toyman, and assorted cartel bosses) would pose a real threat or danger to her
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