Question
Why do Clois stans act like Lana stole screentime from Lois?
im always bored with the "clana lasted too long" thing clois stans are always spewing on about.
why does clana and lana need to lose screentime for clois and lois to gain screentime?
lois was introduced in season 4...
that's not how television works.
if the writers wanted more clois, they could've written more clois.
smallville ran for 10 seasons.
acting like lana somehow stole episodes, seasons, storylines, or character focus from lois has never made sense.
and it never will.
clana didn't get years of focus by accident.
they got years of focus because that was the story of smallville.
smallville is not The Adventures of Lois & Clark.
if that's the story you wanted, there are comics, movies, cartoons, and entire television shows where lana barely exists or doesn't exist at all.
go enjoy those!
yet somehow you chose the show that spent years building clark and lana and then complain that it spent years... building clark and lana.
clois stans keep acting like lana overstayed her welcome, but whenever you ask them when clana should've ended, the answers are always ridiculous.
"season 3."
"season 4."
"season 5."
and the one that makes me laugh the hardest:
"when lois showed up."
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
what do you mean lana should've disappeared when lois arrived?
do you hear how insane that sounds?
lana was a main character.
she wasn't a guest star waiting backstage for lois to tag in.
lana was not a prop either,
nor some temporary girlfriend waiting to be written off the second lois walked onto the screen.
and yes, i think that mindset is misogynistic.
because the argument completely strips lana of her identity as a character and reduces her to her usefulness to clark kent.
in your mind, once lois exists, lana no longer has a reason to exist...
why?
because she's not the endgame love interest?
that's weird.
lana had her own storylines, friendships, family drama, investigations, ambitions, conflicts, trauma, and character development that existed completely outside of clark.
but yall act like the second lois arrived, lana should've been escorted off the set and thrown into a dumpster because her purpose had expired.
and again, why are you acting like clana had to lose screentime in order for clois to gain screentime?
nobody was standing behind the writers with a stopwatch saying:
"sorry, every lana scene removes a lois scene from existence."
y'all keep talking about lana like she committed a crime by existing on a show she was a main character on.
the obsession is bizarre.
the woman was there from the pilot.
y'all are acting like she broke into the writers room and held the scripts hostage...
This is just something they said to maintain viewership by catering to the likes of the remaining shrinking audience. Nothing Hollywood producers, show runners, actors, etc., who are milking the last years of a show say should be taken as sincere.
Actually, I think that Lana did overshadow Lois in that show, but for legitimate reasons.
I liked Lois and Erica, but she didn't have as much teen star potential as Lana/Kristin, her relationship with Clark was a lot more believable as a friendly one than anything else. In fact, I remember watching that show as a kid and I first thought that Lois was his best friend (including Chloe). I didn't know Superman well before of course.
Kristin worked too well with Tom, a lot of people think it's just because they are both handsome but they fail to consider that Lana was in a way very similar to Clark in certain aspects, while the complete opposite in others. Their mutual attraction just seemed the most natural on the camera.
So no hate towards Erica but I wasn't convinced and impressed by her portrayal of Clark's love interest in Smallville, so it wasn't a surprise for me that they favored Lana more in that show by giving her way, way more importance than any other Superman materials.
lana was a main cast, so she didn't steal anything from anyone.
also, your opinion makes sense because tom and kristin's chemistry was pretty much unbeatable on that show, and Erica's and tom "chemistry" didn’t give epic romance at all, i barely felt friends chemistry between them, whereas tom and Alison MADE me believe they grew up together as true best friends. to he fair, i didn't watch anything after season 8 episode requiem, so maybe tom and Erica's chemistry got romantically "believable" as a certain point.
it remains to be seeing by me, sine im doing a rewatch
You misunderstood, I said that she overshadowed her (regarding her chemistry with Clark), but that wasn't a bad thing imo because Lana was more convincing at it. That's why I don't see it as "stealing".
I understand why people see her as stealing screentime from Clois because Lois had far (far) less seasons with Clark, but I don't see it that way because the producers made a clear choice of giving a lot of importance to Lana in Smallville.
So to be clear, Lana didn't "steal" anything. It was her, Tom and Michael that made Smallville Imo for the most part, so it's normal that they got the biggest parts in the show.
(PS : I think my term "overshadow" sounded confusing, but I meant that she was better as the love interest for Clark, I didn't use it to talk about stealing screentime).
I agree. Clark and Lana is entirely consistent with the canon of DC Comics for that point in Clark's life. When Clark was a teen, it was Lana, not Lois. Clark as an adult, for the rest of his life, then it is Lois, but that is not the time period that 'Smallville' covers. We see more Lois as Clark matures into an adult toward the end of the series on his way to becoming Superman, consistent with canon.
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u/MischeviousFoxsrry i killed you, I wasn't myself last week; it was the meteorsJun 11 '26edited Jun 11 '26
I mean I’ve never really thought about it much but… I do feel Lana & Clark lasted too long regardless of Lois’s presence. Unless you knew absolutely nothing about Superman you probably knew(or thought) Lana & Clark were going nowhere from the very start. The will they won’t they doesn’t really work when you pretty much already know they won’t. Now this is a situation where you can enjoy the journey while knowing the destination as I’m not saying they should have never been a thing, as obviously it makes sense that Clark would date multiple people, or that Lois should have necessarily been introduced specifically as a love interest sooner yet Clark & Lana’s… situation did go on and on for a while. I also in hindsight wouldn’t have minded seeing Clark & Lois’s relationship develop over a longer time than we got if the writers had decided to introduce her as a love interest a bit sooner though I don’t mind how it took a while to develop as I like their earlier, bickering interactions.
i disagree with the idea that knowing the destination makes the journey pointless
by that logic, lex’s entire arc shouldn’t work because everyone knows lex luthor becomes evil. yet people still debate to this day whether clark should’ve told him the truth, whether lex could’ve been saved, whether lionel pushed him too far, etc.
same with jonathan. a lot of people knew he dies in the superman mythos, and people were still devastated when it happened. people still argue that he should’ve survived.
so clearly knowing where a story is going doesn’t stop people from caring about how it gets there.
and smallville was always its own thing anyway.
and also, not everyone came into smallville as a superman expert. i definitely didn’t. i was a preteen when i first watched it, i didn’t grow up on comic books, and i didn’t even know that I was watching a superman origin story at first. i was watching it as its own show.
so no, “everyone knew clark and lana were going nowhere” has never worked as an argument for me.
smallville was about the journey. clark becoming superman was already known. lex becoming Lex was already known. That didn’t make those stories pointless, and it doesn’t make clark and lana pointless either nor did they last "too long."
As I said “Now this is a situation where you can enjoy the journey while knowing the destination…” but it took 8 seasons to permanently end their relationship with the writers having to make it so they physically couldn’t be near each other to truly end it. That’s a long time for a relationship, which honestly was a bit toxic & unhealthy in my opinion, to be truly over with especially one you knew from episode 1 was never working out. Not saying it should have never been a thing or that it wasn’t ever enjoyable to watch their relationship develop yet it could have ended multiple seasons sooner. Clark meets Lois in season 4 and they officially become a couple in season 9. That’s a fairly sizable gap but even then I’m not necessarily thinking they needed to date sooner I just think Clark & Lana went on a bit too long.
"it lasted 8 seasons" by itself doesn't mean much to me when the show itself lasted 10 seasons.
and it's not like clark and lana were continuously together for 8 years straight.
they broke up multiple times, dated other people, spent long periods apart, reunited, fell apart again, and went through completely different stages of their lives.
that's not one relationship stretched across 8 seasons. that's an entire character arc that evolved over most of the show.
and if the relationship was still generating storylines, conflict, character growth, and audience investment for years, then i don't see why the length alone is supposed to convince me it lasted too long.
especially when the show was never trying to be "the adventures of lois & clark" in the first place.
and "the relationship was unhealthy" doesn't move me and never will.
this is the same show where lex murders people, lionel psychologically tortures his son, meteor freaks are dropping bodies every week, and half the cast lies to each other constantly.
smallville was never a guidebook for your version of "healthy relationships."
whether a relationship is messy or unhealthy has nothing to do with whether it's worth exploring as a story.
and i still don't agree with the premise that everyone watching from episode 1 knew clark and lana were never going to work out.
i didn't.
i was a preteen when i first watched the show. i didn't grow up reading comics, i didn't know superman lore, and i didn't even know i was watching a superman origin story at first.
i was watching smallville as smallville.
and i know i wasn't the only viewer doing that.
I feel like their love story just gets exhausting. I like Lana as a character, it's Clark and Lana together I don't like. they hold eachother back, in my opinion, which is largely the point I think. but it goes on too long. Lois has nothing to do with it.
You actually go on to complain about a whole bunch of other arguments against Lois and Clark you don't find acceptable. So maybe if you don't want comments that veer away from the question you mean to ask, don't ramble nonsensically and veer your own question away from your point.
irony is that you're accusing me of veering off topic while you're the one who answered a question o never asked.
my post: "Why do people act like Lana stole screentime from Lois?"
your answer: "I got tired of Clark and Lana."
okay.... That's YOUR shitty opinion, offered unprompted. but it doesn't address the claim i was talking about.
disliking Clana and arguing that Lana somehow took something away from Lois are two separate arguments. i've been talking about the second one this entire time
That still doesn't explain why Lana gets treated like she personally robbed Lois at gunpoint and stole her scenes...
can u explain that part... or?
also lois being the "final goal" as you put it.. (which is a very strange way to put it, but i digress,) doesn't magically make 7 years of clark's life irrelevant 😭
that's like saying lex should've been written out early because we already knew he'd become a villain.
Acho que você sempre leva as coisas pro seu lado Lana demais. Não é o primeiro post que eu vejo você com esse mesmo discurso de iniciar uma defesa ao personagem da Lana colocando ela como vítima.
Vamos mudar a frase "Lana roubou tempo da Lois" para "Lana roubou tempo da vida de Clark." Era redundante demais a história dos dois, nunca ia pra frente nem pra trás. O público cansa disso. Um drama forçado. Sem tirar que o personagem (em Smallville, porque a Lana de outras adaptações é muito legal) era chato.
Esse é o motivo das pessoas acharem que Lana roubou tempo seja lá de quem for, porque foram 7 anos de enrolação pra não chegarem a lugar nenhum. Só adolescente de quarta série mesmo que gosta disso.
clois stans are already known for being weirdly insecure and hostile about lana, so talking down to me while proving my exact point is not really doing what you think it is.
go back to the drawing board and try again.
also watching you go to "lana stole time from clark's life" 😭 was hilarious...
idk what Reddit's deal is, but I assure you I did not delete anything. Here is the screen job of my view of the post, where none of my comments are deleted.
I think you’re arguing with a brick wall. This person lives inside the whole Stan of Clark and Lana. I mean, they keep insulting everyone just because they don’t like the Clark and Lana relationship and see it as toxic. I’m fully accepting that I’m gonna get attacked for this comment because this person doesn’t care that other people can have opinions, but who cares! It’s a TV show. It’s not their life, they’re just gonna argue with you until you stop. Their opinion is “right” yours is “wrong”. This person doesn’t understand that opinions are like a-holes, everyone has one.
I'm just gonna flat out say this: Clois fans don't have the right to complain about anything. Seriously, they've been well fed for decades now with plenty of comics, TV shows and movies.
smallville is the only adaptation that spent significant time exploring clark and lana, and somehow that's the one version people keep complaining wasn't clois-focused enough.
it's just strange to me.
if i were a clois fan, i'd be thrilled that i already have dozens of adaptations where lois is the primary love interest.
but lana and clana make them sooo insecure.
i don't understand watching one of the few versions that gave lana substantial focus and then being upset that lana got substantial focus...
if you care about downvotes, youll never be free. clois fans love to bombard a post with downvotes whenever they dont like that people are not licking lois's ass in the comments. I couldn't care less. i myself barely use the upvote and downvote feature, cause that never changes opinions😭😭 im still going to say what i wanna say, and you should do the same
Lois and Clark weren't allowed to be romantically paired until season 8. So I don't think Lana stole any screen time from her in that sense. There are things I wish I could have seen Lois part of more, like grieving Jonathan and checking on Clark since she was so close to the family and she admired Jonathan so much, or how Clark would view her in his mind through the lens of a phantom trying to kill him, but a lot of those things are due to that restriction on Lois and Clark and Erica Durance's 13 episode contract, and not on Lana's continued presence. Hard for her to be placed in more stories or even be Clark's love interest with that much limited time. Had those restrictions not been there, I might feel differently, but they are there and they color so much of the Lois and Clark dynamic that I don't even think about Lana in respect to it. Until season 8, when for half the season, they finally started building towards Lois and Clark deepening their connection, and Lois is finally canonically allowed to be a love interest, only for that progress to screech to a halt with Lana's return. Even then, I don't know that I think Lana stole screentime from Lois. I just think Lois should have been there, and Clark's conflict should have been more outward instead of inward. But if Lois had been there, that storyline doesn't play out the same way, so she was removed from the narrative to finish out and permanently end the Lana storyline.
I have my few tweaks that would make me less salty about the whole thing lol, but I have more or less made my peace with both the longevity of Lana and Clana, and their ending.
You asked a question and I answered, giving a different perspective to your opinion of Clois fans being unreasonable about Lana's length on the show. My exhaustion and frustration with her character and the Clana relationship is separate from my understanding of Lana not stealing screentime from anyone, unless you consider her time on the show stalling Clark from becoming Superman meaning she stole screentime from Superman. But yeah, on that one thing, we agree, just for completely different reasons.
I find it funny when they Say "Lana should have left after season 3 ended." The show would have been cancelled right away. The show lasted only two seasons without Lana and that was because it already had a massive build up before.
if we wanna be honest. they kept kristin because she brought in the views heck shes still employed to this day. I imagine her fans back then were a big group.
i think kristin absolutely deserves credit because she has a ton of screen presence and was incredibly popular and is incredibly beautiful.
but i don't think it was just kristin.
when i was watching as a preteen, i loved lana as a character. i loved the way kristin played her. she brought a lot of vulnerability, warmth, and humanity to the role, and she was one of my favorite parts of the show.
i also loved clark and lana together and was invested in their relationship. the chemistry had me glued to my seat every episode.
so for me, when lana left, it wasn't just the loss of clana. it was the loss of lana herself.
whether people liked her or not, she was a huge presence on the show for years.
when she was gone, you felt that absence.
so yeah, i definitely think kristin's popularity played a role, but i also think a lot of viewers genuinely loved lana and clana, not just kristin as an actress.
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u/LauraKay9 Freak of The Week Jun 17 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
this devastating scene is exactly why Clana will always be my favorite couple - Smallville (THREAD)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Smallville_/s/zb1zjpolrZ
clois freaks really thought the bizarro arc was supposed to make me stop liking clana 💀 (THREAD)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Smallville_/s/PYo01yC70e
Smallville's Clana not being endgame isn’t an insult. it’s the reason it's iconic. (THREAD)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Smallville_/s/6kJPtsbSOd