LIKE COMMENT SUBSCRIBE

Is Lex Luthor comic accurate in BvS? Is he too much like The Joker? Does his motivations make sense? Was Jessie Eisenberg the right choice for Lex Luthor?

All this and more is answered in my ever more controversial series comparing Cap America Civil War with Batman V Superman Lol

I'm gonna be upfront about this I think Lex Luthor is pretty brilliant in this movie, however I also believe that Jessie Eisenberg's performance as much as I enjoyed it, may have ultimately been too distracting for audiences to see past.

IMO Lex Luthor from BvS is the best written comic villain, since the Comedian in Watchmen and The Joker in The Dark Knight. However the performance itself by Jessie Eisenberg, may have distracted audiences from the brilliance of the writing. I think Jessie himself did a magnificant job, but going into the performance he had too much of an uphill struggle to get over all the hate and ill will against him even before people had entered the theatres. Added to that, so many people judged him off adaptations of Lex Luthor that they were familiar with from popular TV shows like Smallville and the fantastic animated shows like Justice League. There we saw a calm, in control, stoic strategist, rather than a manic, spoilt, boy genius, so irritating it could make your skin crawl.

However if we watch closely even in the animated series and especially in the comics, Lex has always been insane. This is not just the domain of the Joker. If anything Joker is a very sane man playing as if he is insane when he's actually a brilliant criminal, whereas Lex is a very insane genius, playing as if he's an upstanding business man. As you'll see from the JL clip below Lex can be pretty unhinged.

I won't say much more because it is all there in the video. However I do want to outline what I saw when watching BvS and why I think Eisenberg's performance is so misunderstood. Jessie is playing a semi-autistic, sociopath with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. What does that all mean in terms of his motivations in the movie and why does this make him so manic? (This is explained in the video)

But why does he hate Superman?

However, I will touch on his motivations for hating Superman here, as I think this is the biggest bone of contention people have with the movie and I'd like to discuss it with those interested even if they have not got the time to see the Video. :) He basically hates and wants to kill Superman for three reasons connected to the co-morbid psychopathologies he suffers from.

1. He doesn't want a greater being than himself existing in the world., To him the fact that he is the smartest individual in the world means he ought to be most powerful, and it is paradoxical that the vast knowledge he has, does not allow him to have the power Superman possesses. He also wants to be perceived as humanities ultimate savior because he is a narcissist, that is why he wants to tarnish Superman's image.

2. He sees Superman as a symbol representing God. God to him has to be corruptible if he exists because that is the only way to explain all the pain in the world, specifically the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. He therefore wants to frame Superman, so he can prove to the world God is a fraud.

3. He's A SOCIOPATH. This is reason in and of itself. Ask a serial killer why he's murdered 18 women, usually you get nothing satisfying. No sob story about how his Uncle was abusive and his Mother made him wear tights, usually it's just because they're evil. Lex when put in this light doesn't even need any direct motive. The guys completely messed up in the head even though he is also a genius.

A lot of people I hear who complain about Lex in the movie think he contradicts himself because they don't undetstand why if Lex wanted to protect humanity from the threat of superman, does he release Doomsday on the world. What they don't seem to get is that all his talk about protecting the world from Superman is a smoke screen. His intention from the very beginning is to murder superman. That's the whole point of the senator saying: "You can call me whatever you like. Take a bucket of piss and call it Granny's peach tea. Take a weapon of assassination and call it deterrence. You won't fool a fly or me. I'm not gonna drink it."." . She's already on to Lex Luthor. She can already sense there's something marcarbre about Lex's intentions to import Kryptonite.

LIKE COMMENT SUBSCRIBE

@lvenger: Lol why? Is the trolling coming?

@jphulk26: *Thumbs up*

Apart from that clip, a good reference is Superman birthright, in the Smallville days where he's so intelligent, he comes across insane and weird and is therefore ostracized.

Yeah his motive is repeated a lot, it's basically to prove the 'oldest lie' that power can be innocent, formed by his existential crisis and world view shaped by his experiences.

Performance wise could he have done with less twitching? Sure, still liked a lot of what he did and imo and as you said he is one of the best written villains.

No, Eisenberg was a terrible Luthor. No amount of crazed mental gymnastics is going to change that.

Another brilliantly reasoned argument from a BvS detractor. :)

I didn't mind this Lex, I liked the overall idea behind him, and one of my favorite struggles beteen Lex and Superman is the battle of brains vs brawn(which is why I don't like versions of Superman whose brain works better than a supercomputer, I like him maybe slightly above average, not dumb, but generally wouldn't be able to beat Lex in chess)

the only real problem I had with this Lex is his characterization, one word that describes both Superman and Lex is "stoic"

I think he should have some outbreaks to show that he's not completely mentally stable, but stable enough to fool many if not most

after the kryptonian tech taught him I hope his demeanor changes with upcoming movies

The hate probably comes from how wacky he behaved throughout the entire film. Sure Lex is ultimately insane, but Jim Carrey-like levels

He was horrible. But I do enjoy all the effort and ridiculous amounts of threads people come up with defending this garbage.

I was ready to forgive his performance, under the assumption that he was Alexander Luthor, not Lex Luthor, but they made it very clear in the movie that this was a man named Lex Luthor, so it went from possibly ok, to just bad and out of character.

If you're going to talk about staying true to character, don't post a non-canon cartoon as your proof.

The movie was terrible. The writing was bad, the characters were bad, the plot was horrifically bad.

No one talked like a human being. Every sentence had to be melodramatic monologues with flower, over the top language that was always challenging someone or asking questions. There was not a single conversation that was fluid and human.

No one acted like a person would, the plots were jumbled, pointless, full of dead ends and loose ends and, "...but why did he...?" A few examples. Why would Lex leave evidence directly implicating himself in the bullet? Why did his men use his special bullets? Why did the CIA not check the bodies and see bullet holes and all the obvious evidence in the bodies, walls, etc that there had been a firefight and obviously they werent killed by Superman? Why did a woman who had been living in the US get up infront of congress to testify against Superman and people didn't vet or check her out? Why didn't Superman save Jimmy Olsen, his best pal? Why did the CIA let Lois Lane walk with full knowledge that it was a CIA operation in violation of US policy and international law? Why was that entire setup even needed when Luthor already knew the connection and knew he had to just kidnap Superman's gf and mom to get him to do whatever he wanted? Why did he blow up Mercy? How did they even allow a bomb into the US capital? Why wasn't Bruce Wayne pushing for any sort of legal repercussions against Superman or trying to counter Luthor's plans publicly, like on the side of the senator? Why didn't Superman just say a single more word at the start of their fight to keep it from even happening? Why did he say, "Martha" instead of, "My mom" like any normal person would, especially one with a secret identity? Why did learning the name of Superman's mom make Batman do a complete 180 in his morals and motivations and convictions that had already driven him to kill? Why did they leave out his character arc to what led up to that point, like having the bombing of the capital be his trigger? Why did holding the spear for a few seconds make Superman pass out underwater but a few seconds later, while still holding onto it, he was able to fly with it? Why didn't he just give it to Wonder Woman, who was already kicking his butt with her sword? Why would Luthor create an alien godlike being he knew could wipe out him and the human race to kill another alien godlike being? How did Luthor know to do that? Why was the door to the super secret, secure, doomsday weapon lab on the ship secured with the same technology people's iPhones are now? Why did the government not immediately arrest Luthor and post a single person to secure the ship after he was the far and above only real suspect to bombing the US capital building? Why did the senator let the woman who implicated Luthor, her biggest enemy and richest man in the country, after she said he had been trying to kill her, just walk away out of her office with no protection? Why wouldn't she have Luthor arrest right then and there and call off the hearing given the previous testimony was recanted? Why did they reveal the Justice League in a terribly done computer video compilation? Why would Batman have so many weird, overly long, dreams full of events and information he's never had access to?

NOTHING in the movie made sense. Nothing was enjoyable, other than maybe watching Wonder Woman fight, but that was just because she seemed to be the only person with any amount of joy in the whole movie. It had production value and big name actors, but oh my god, everything else was so soulless and fake and overly dramatic.

@Opalance: while i believe that BvS was quite a flawed movie, imo you simply seem bent on hating it as most of the pount you raised are either nitpicks or already explained in the movie. Heck i only agree with you on the part about martha which was really dumb.

Why thank you, kind sir!

There is no defense for this:

I agree completely, Lex from BvS was fine and the people who hate the portrayal likely hated it from the moment it was announced Eisenberg was to play him and I suspect more than a little sold on the White Collar Buisness Tychoon version from the animated series... which had the crazy downplayed alot right up his merger with Brainiac in JLU. Unfortunately for them however is the Lex is crazy, but he is just very good at hiding it:

• Origins: Lex was concieved as a flat out, mad scientist. It was actually only after COIE the buisnessman aspect came to the forefront.
• As such, both Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey played him as being an unhinged real-estate developer... willing to kill millions of people to make his properties more valuable.
• Post-COIE theres been much less of the crazy, but it occasionally popped up... like below:

But in all honestly, I dont see Eisenbergs portrayal of Lex as being all that different from how Kevin Spacey depicted him in Superman Returns. Since Spacey could also do grandios speeches about Promethius and dance around on the scene when he seemed to be on top of things. What Spacey didn't do however, was feel dangerous, because he kept up a disarming smile throughout most of the movie, while Jesse's twitching gave the impression that he was at times mere inches from exploding.

OP,

I hope you dont mind me asking, but where in the whole of the movie does it imply that he was jealous of Superman's existance infront of his own ?

The only scene I remember is when he has the party at his manor and he quotes some greek gods gift of knowledge then he snaps infront of everyone, but it was very subtle...anywhere else ?

1. A really easy moment to see Lex's envious attitude is on the Helipad where he tells superman "I have to show the world the fraud that you are." Why would he need to show supe's as a fraud if he weren't jealous of how people view him, as a masiah like figure?

By the way you nailed it on the head. When Lex says "Books are knowledge and knowledge is power... and I am... no what am I..." there you have the clue that he is referring to himself. Then what does he say next. "The bitter sweet pain among men is having knowledge without power. Because that is paradoxical..." He says in anger.

If you assess this statement and the way he emotionally responds to it as he saying it, what is it actually telling you?

Remember this guy is some genius autistic guy, who probably can't bare for such paradoxes to exist in reality. All this time he saw himself as powerful due to his knowledge and wealth. And then the Superman arrived and he realized humanity and specifically himself, with all our accomplishments and all the knowledge we've managed to gain over time, in the end when looked at from the perspective of Superman's existence, humanity and Lex pale in comparison. Superman is all powerful. in comparison to humanity. Lex and all his genius, is nothing in the face of this God.

That specifically is where he states his envy. It is just not hammered over our head because Lex in this movie speaks on some whole other level. The script is clever and multiple viewing really help, I don't mean this condescendingly. I didn't even pick it up at first. Chris Terrio the writer is some Ivy League genius and I think he got a bit carried away for mainstream audiences, who often expect these movies to spoon feed to them. Added to that because of Jessie's controversial interpretation (that I liked cause I thought he was being annoying on purpose, but many people couldn't stand) I don't think people have listened carefully enough to what's actually coming out of Lex's mouth. He explains his motivations in metaphors, double entendre's and philosophical musings, but trust me it's all there.,

There are so many examples of him using double entendre's in this that are so clever, that reveal multiple layers to why he acts like he does. For instance when Lex says "You wouldn't want to pick a fight with this guy!" he's not just saying Clark is strong you wouldn't want to pick a fight with this guy, because we later find out Lex know's who Clark is and set the meeting up, and Lex has already quote on quote picked a fight with him. He's kind trolling and winking at the audience as if to say "Yeah but I'm Lex Luthor, and I'm so smart I will pick a fight, without laying a punch and I'll still beat superman." That was the first time I noticed Lex's constant use of double entendre's.

Once you notice them in the script, you realize how condescendingly funny Lex is being all the time.

Like when he say's "Holy Mary mother of God, look at the time!" he's reminding Superman of the threat to his mother, as he sees Supe's as God, so he's calling her mother of God.

or when he says "Boy do we have problems up here... The problem of virtue... the problem of you on top of everything else. The problem of you above everything else." Again another genius line he says to Superman, alluding to him being a God flying above everyone else including himself. Lex has never had to look up to anyone since his father died, so of course he must hate looking up to Superman being the narcissist he is.

Honestly speaking I think this whole scene is one of my favorite of any comic book villain ever. It is so smart.

I have to answer @Opalance like this. The reason for plot contrivances in BvS is the same for in any movie. The movie can't be 9 hours long lol. If they had every single detail perfect like you want, it would have to The Godfather, except with 3 more parts.

In almost every movie like this, any action movie, you can nitpick to pieces the whole plot. The main issue shouldn't be find plot holes and conveniences first, then if it passes that test, you can finally enjoy the movie. It's the other way round, was it an enjoyable movie? then if there are glaring plotholes you might be able to forgive it.

I'm not going to go through every question, but basically most of your questions can be answered, because its fiction not reality. As for the action being horrible, I don't agree, the acting was magnificent, the dialogue was some of the smartest I've ever seen in a big budget superhero movie, and the plot holes (which I don't agree there were above nitpicks) are about as consistent as the baffling plotholes in most Marvel Movies, especially CW.

@lvenger:

As with most DCEU defence threads...

Nice write-up, but you won't change any minds at all.

I never wanted to. This was just to purge my frustrations. I've been seething since I watched the movie and held my tongue for so long I just had to share my thoughts. Its been very therapeutic :)

Cool, i'm surprised no one has called you a fanboy yet lol

No they've generally been good lads here. That's more the guys on comicbookmovie who come up with that stuff.

1.) That's not true. Atleast not for this Lex. Even if it somehow was, the performance detracting from that aspect was enough for people to not catch on. That's a big minus on Jessie's part.

2.) That's basically what he said, sure, but the performance was aweful.

3.) Sociopath, not a Psycopath.

Agree with everything no matter what anyone says...

You didn't think it pointless, the entire first part of the movie and Lois' entire story line, when in the end it amounted to nothing since she gets kidnapped just to get Superman's attention and blips out of the story after that? That whole story line did nothing and added nothing to the movie. Everything showed through that was shown elsewhere . Lex Luthor is bad, wants to make Superman look bad, and has mercenaries while Lois Lane is a reporter. Ok, all that was shown elsewhere in the movie or already known from previous movies. Even the tone of burning piles of dead bodies and crying widows was just a horrible way to start a superhero movie, even Watchmen didn't linger on the burning bodies that much, it mostly happened out of frame.

I didn't go into the movie wanting to hate it. I didn't watch or read any reviews and went to it with an open mind, ready to enjoy some DC superheroing on the big screen. It just wasn't a good movie on any level but production values. It wasn't enjoyable. I enjoyed Suicide Squad. It knew what it was, it was an action movie, it was fine as an action movie. It had problems too, yes. But it limited its scope and kept more or less focused, it accomplished most of what it set out to do. It wasn't trying to be a huge, dramatic, thought provoking, puzzler of an epic clash of heroes and personalities.

You can enjoy a movie that isn't a good movie, but don't say it's good because you enjoyed it. I can enjoy watching Kung Pow, but it's a hoooorrible movie by anyone's standards. It's like laughing at a well crafted, thoughtful piece of researched, meaningful dialogue vs laughing at a fart. Both make you laugh, but one is clearly better than the other.

Exactly. I know when I'm enjoying a bad movie. Like Cap America Civil War. That is a bad movie I enjoy cause I like cartoons and comics. Or. The Avengers. Another awful movie, but because I love cartoon characters in it I can sit around pretending that a film that contains dialogue like "Hulk Smash!" is something as an adult I should enjoy. In fact looking at it, pretty much all comic movies have been bad outside a select few. Watchmen, Sin City, Kick Ass, Maybe Blade, GOTG, WS, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Original Donner Superman movies, if I've missed any forgive me. But too date as far I'm concerned outside a few remarkable entry's comic book movies are terribly generic, with horrendous childish humor and they appeal to the lowest common denominator of intelligence. They are literally just a notch above Transformers for the most part. Batman v Superman is one of the few I would say was trying to be more than just a generic comic book movie but actually a great movie.

I am almost 150% confident that it will be remembered as a film long after most Marvel movies are forgotten.

Wow, Im really gratreful for all the work you put into your article OP. Im actually baffled by your discovery.

This movie really comes down to a matter of taste, if your into the man of steel initially you will be sitting and watching the movie little by little - its a fan pleasure I guess.

What makes Lex Luthor seem more scary in terms of his persona is the fact that he is autistic - because you see the general populace is usually sympathizing with a man who may have challenges like being disabled - however in this scenario the disabled person is an evil cunning man not to mention autistic which makes his persona more frightening as you dont know excatly what he is planning or what to expect. In a sense, he closely resembles the Joker in terms of persona deficiency.

But yes I think what you said about Lex really opened my eyes to many things he quotes. I have been following this site:

http://www.manofsteelanswers.com/

As they have many questioned also answered about both MOS and BVS

I hope you will enjoy it.

@farkam: No, thank you!

No, thank YOU!!

I thought it was a shallow performance. Batman's reason for wanting Superman dead was much more understandable. All I got from Lex was he was Xenophobic and crazy. Superman saved him from his own creation, Doomsday was about to smash him...

I also found it extremely hard to believe he was able to actually run a criminal organization or have significant political contacts. He really came off as some crazy rich kid who, somehow, had people listening him and taking him seriously (Cause he threw money them? - can't recall exactly).

Yeah, well look at Donald Trump. Money goes a long way to getting people to listen to insane, xenophobic, sociopaths.

@jphulk26:

true but trump at least has bark, lex had more of a whine

Motives

weirdness

Ending

Verdict

He made a good Riddler.

@drgnx said:

@jphulk26:

true but trump at least has bark, lex had more of a whine

Motives

Loading Video...

Loading Video...

weirdness

Loading Video...

Loading Video...

Ending

Loading Video...

Loading Video...

Verdict

So um, yeah you just proved they acted nothing alike. Have you watched these clips back to back.

Eisenberg is more confident, brash and arrogant. He also is nowhere near as camp. Don't get me wrong there is camp in his performance, but there's also a sinister edge as well. And he is meant to be whiney and unlikeable. It was a character choice and I think it works for this Lex.

I don't see lex laughing or making silly faces or hamming it up even half as much apart from in the infamous "ding ding ding" scene. He's more just high pitched and slightly more animated than his more stoic counter-parts. He's also very sarcastic about it, so he's more using his flamboyant manor as a way to subtlety in put down Superman and Batman. It's a completely different performance with only a few minor, shallow resemblances, which mainly come from the character design.

Face it, he wasn't Cranston, so a bunch of people have decided to hate on him with erroneous shallow comparison's which when examined hold very little weight to them.

If you filmed an interview of a sociopath for 2 hours I bet half of his dialogue wouldn't be "OOO!", "MMMM!" And "Ah!"

He didn't act like an actual sociopath, he acted like a cartoon in what was clearly meant to be a serious and grounded movie.

You mean like this. No 2 sociopaths are the same anyway, so that's kind of a moot point. He's playing a completely fictional character. I'm sure somewhere out there there is a sociopath very similar.

It doesn't help that you compared a character clearly intended to be portrayed as a Psychopath to someone who was intended to be a portrayed a Sociopath: since there are "generally" many similarities between the two, we can overlook that. However, Bateman's portrayal in American Psycho was intended to be fairly comedic, it should be notable just by looking at the scene you've posted, that Bale's actions were clearly exaggerated. Don't take my word for it, see the actual actor who played the role. So you've actually just supported @silverpool's point.

OP,

I enjoy your indpeth look on the matter, and honestly speaking, I have alot of question in terms of Man of steel still unanswered, especiialy in regards to the motivation of Superman in all of its plot. Is it ok to ask here or would you want a private message ? also would it be possible if you can give me a indepth look to my question just like this thread ?

Thanks

Luthor was also intended to be funny and exaggerated and you're right about the sociopath and psychopath thing, plus pls don't get me wrong I think Bale is infinitely better in American Psycho. Like there are only one or two actors I'd even consider may have done a better or even equal job to Bale's performance in American Psycho, (that was his role and Oscar worthy if you ask me) compared to maybe 50 people who could have played the Lex they were going for equal or better. My point in showing the video was to say, hamming it up as a sociopath or psychopath can be appropriate as a character choice if the idea is that the character is in someway using this exaggerated manner to mock those around him. I think that was what Jessie was doing. Lex was very layered. I saw the many emotions and the internal dialogue going on inside the character. I saw him struggling with the turmoil inside himself, as he was battling with his fearsome intellect. Even through the hammy acting. Lex was actually more insane in this movie than Bale was. As you said Bale was a psychopath and more in control, Jessie was spiraling out of control from the very beginning because his narcissism would not allow him to conceive that a being could exist that was superior to him. He would do anything to destroy superman by the end, even if it meant destroying every last living thing on the planet. That is the sign of a completely f%""$d up individual.

Three scenes I love that show this. 1. When he's first in the ship and he wants to take control, you see all the bravado slip from his manner. You see his vulnerability and insecurity in the face of something greater than himself. It is the first time he has been humbled by anything in this world apart from his father 2. When he's making the speech in front of everyone at the Library. Again we see how his mind is racing at a pace so beyond the rest of humanity that he is hardly capable of communicating it. 3. when he first meets Clark and Bruce is also brilliant. You see him literally try and match their physical stature with his over the top mannerisms.

In these 3 scenes we see there are real layers to this character and it is not just a one note performance at all.

But again, hear it in his own words, as you said. (By the way I first saw the video right below today, and he says everything I was saying in the original post)

5.00 to 9.02

sure man. yeah, ask me.

@drgnx@avk111 By the way since we're debating this and I'm honestly enjoying it, so pls don't take what I say as hostile (who knows we might both be right) :) However one thing I must say is that I don't believe the motivation of Lex and Riddler were the same at all. This is why.

I wanted to compare Lex to The Riddler in Batman Forever, because actually they suffer from very different mental illnesses which on the surface may seem the same. I studied forensic psychology which is why this is interesting to me, but I thought you might be interested.

The Riddler Erotomania

Depsite hating Jim Carrey's Riddler in Batman Forever he does have an interesting psychological profile that is consistent with another type mental illness. Erotomania is a rare condition typically suffered by stalkers.

In Batman Forever, The Riddler becomes obsessed with Bruce Wayne, falling in love with him and feeling that Bruce should equally share that admiration as he is the only other person in the world who could possibly understand his genius.

Symptoms of this would be:

• In order for the patient to be diagnosed with erotomania, the patient should have shown at least a month of being delusional.
• Patients are unaware of the psychiatric implications of their behavior.
• Usually the object of their affection is inaccessible like a superstar, an actress, a rock star, etc.
• The patient has the delusion that the object of his or her affection is the one more in love than the afflicted person. The patient often takes real pride of his or her belief.
• The patient also believes that the object of his or her affection cannot let the afflicted person know of his or her feelings too because of some reasons like difficulty in approaching him or her.
• Eventually, this type of behavior may pose danger to the person being the object of the patient’s affection as he keeps on stalking his or her victim. In addition, due to its aim of getting the attention of the victim, it might result to threatening the victim.
• The patient will continually stalk the victim and might lead to delusions of persecution following the delusions of passion.
• Patients may be violent to those people who stand in the way between the patient and the victim.
• This needs thorough psychiatric evaluation in the diagnosis and assessment of this condition.

Erotomania Symptoms

• Delusions – this is the main symptom of this psychological condition
• Harassing behavior – due to the fact that the afflicted wants to pursue the person they desire because they cannot accept that there is no romantic relationship that exists between the both of them, the afflicted resort to stalk their victim and might eventually harass them. Often the afflicted person acts like the both of them are having a normal romantic relationship because they send love letters, flowers, and chocolates and even make telephone calls. (Or in The Riddler's case, very pathetically easy Riddle's to solve :), threatening him in the process)
• Stalking – this symptom of erotomania can be expressed through special glances, signals, or mental telepathy.

LEX LUTHOR

My diagnosis of Lex Luthor as I said is a narcissistic sociopath with co-morbid psychopathology of Asperger's (By co-morbid I mean having multiple mental illnesses that combine to make a unique psychological profile) Asperger's in that he is a high functioning autistic person.

The symtoms of this would be:

Traits of a Narcissistic Sociopath

How do you spot a sociopathic narcissist? Watch for certain traits:

• A driven quest for power. If a narcissistic sociopath cares about anything other than himself, it is destructive power and control over people.
• Behaviors that seek love and admiration. To be sure, this isn't needy love. It's not even emotional love. It's superficial. A narcissistic sociopath sees love and admiration as power tools to manipulate and dominate (Do Sociopaths Even Have Feelings?).
• No apologies, no guilt, no remorse under any circumstance. A sociopathic narcissist believes that she is a gift to the world who makes it richer and more colorful. Therefore, her calculated, even cruel actions are always justified.
• Invincibility. The narcissistic variety of sociopath believes he is indomitable. Even punishment and prison can't stop him. They're merely part of the game.
• Wholly self-serving. The needs and wants of others are insignificant and undeserving of consideration.
• Act as the producer, director, and only actor of his own show. The narcissistic sociopath casts people in roles that increase his power and sense of importance and when bored, casts them aside.

Symptoms of Asperger's:

• Marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as: eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction.
• Extreme difficulty in developing age-appropriate peer relationships. (e.g. AS children may be more comfortable with adults than with other children).
• Inflexible adherence to routines and perseveration.
• Fascination with maps, globes, and routes.
• Superior rote memory.
• Preoccupation with a particular subject to the exclusion of all others. Amasses many related facts.
• Difficulty judging personal space, motor clumsiness.
• Sensitivity to the environment, touch, loud noises, clothing and food textures, and odors (remember when the senator touches Lex how he flinches)
• Speech and language skills impaired in the area of semantics, pragmatics, and prosody (volume, intonation, inflection, and rhythm).
• Difficulty understanding others’ feelings.
• Pedantic, formal style of speaking; often called “little professor,” verbose.
• Extreme difficulty reading and/or interpreting social cues.
• Socially and emotionally inappropriate responses.
• Literal interpretation of language; difficulty comprehending implied meanings.
• Extensive vocabulary. Reading commences at an early age (hyperlexia).
• Stereotyped or repetitive motor mannerisms.
• Difficulty with “give and take” of conversation.

@avk111

Thanks

• They referenced the Birthright "version" of the character
• They pointed out this is not a version we've seen a lot in mainstream for a while.

Which all supports the common complaint with this SVB version of the character.