𝗥𝗲𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗢𝗳𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 ⏻@Rebel0fReality
The biggest issue between Superman and Supergirl fans when it comes to their relationship with Krypton is that they’re hardly ever able to meet in the middle and see where each other are coming from, trapping us in a cycle.
Superman fans are understandably very protective of Clark’s traumas over losing his home as it resonates with the refugee allegory, makes him a more nuanced character, and because frankly he had it first. Clark has been mourning the loss of Krypton many years before Kara even existed. It only makes sense they get pissed off whenever Supergirl fans try to rewrite this character’s history and experiences to prop up someone who came later. They already have to go through this with Batman who made having dead parents popular despite Clark literally having that first but now stuck with both of them being alive to reinforce him not being as lonely as Bruce. Throughout history, many of Superman’s nuances have been watered down to simplify him and give the characters around him his complexity, which is sickening.
Supergirl fans also are very protective of Kara’s traumas over losing her home mainly out of a want for independence and because it makes her a more nuanced character. When you grow up being told that your favorite character is just the female version of another character, it makes total sense that you’d want to establish core differences between them. Superman fans, if we’re being real, haven’t really done much to push back against this notion either. They’ll champion pre crisis Supergirl as the best iteration of the character, when that’s arguably where she’s the most like current Superman. Big wide eyed happy go lucky personality, primarily earth bound, and cherished Earth as her new home. I like Pre Crisis Supergirl, but I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t seem like Superman fans champion her because that version is least attached to Krypton and saves like 75% of trauma for Clark unless she’s playing sidekick to him lol
The focus shouldn’t be on who has the most trauma, but rather how that trauma affects them differently as there is no one universal refugee experience. Clark was displaced from his home as an infant and was forced to surround himself by people who could never understand him and had to dress up in bright colors so he wouldn’t scare people merely by using his latent gifts that made him different from humans. Kara was raised on a chunk of a deteriorating civilization from an otherwise destroyed planet. People were constantly dying around her from rapid illnesses and inevitable detonation. Hope and preservation was proven futile, and she watched the living proof of this.
They’re both battling with grief from a similar source, just with different experiences and methods of dealing with that grief. It’s why they need each other.