2old2care

Well, the key here is timing. If they got Clark and Chloe (to put it mildly) together in an entanglement of hot and sweaty entwined naked bodies in season 5/6 then the above fans won't mind so much because their couple wasn't happening then.

FrellingTralk

I think Chlark could have worked and been accepted by the majority of the audience as late as season 8 as a romance actually! The writing for them was very intense that season in episodes like Abyss and Legion and it could easily have turned romantic IMO. There would have been a huge outcry from strict mythos fans obviously, but I wonder if a lot of casual fans wouldn't have gone with it? It's funny because at more general sites now I find a lot of people remember Chlark favourably. At big internet sites like Ohnoyoudidnt when I post with Chlark icons I often get comments from people saying they stopped watching that show years ago, but they always used to like Chlark and ship them. Chlark did have a pretty big fanbase in the first five seasons especially (winning favourite couple on k-site after season 5), and I think the showrunners could have won many more people over if Chlark did start dating on the show. In a way it's much easier for couples like Clana and Clois to have that popular support as they get the couple moments and kisses, where Chlark already had so much fan support as a ship from just the potential of what could have been, so I think they would have won even more popular support from fence-sitters if they had ever been given a real romantic arc

go_clo

I totally agree. I never understood why the writers completely ignored Chlark and why they were the one couple to never hook up because, from what I observed in the fandom, they had the most consistently supportive and positive fanbases out of all the ships as well as the largest (due to them being the longest running ship). I think on average, there were more fans than haters. I don't even think they even really started gaining haters until around S8. Before, everyone either shipped them or liked their friendship/potential. Some have said that they lost their chance of ever happening during S6 but even S8 brought back the strong possibility of a romantic relationship between them. I think they always had a chance of happening. Any time between S1-8 could have worked.

jette_

And how were the writers suppose to break them up once they were a couple? They seemed quite fitting for each other. Clark is not the person to cheat on his girlfriend or just leave her for some reason. Chloe's love and admiration for Clark seemed almost infinite. I think the problem never was pairing them up - it was what to do with them after that.
It was obvious that Smallville was setting up Clois as endgame of the show - any romantic relationship between Clark and Chloe along the way would have only destroyed their beautiful friendship.

FrellingTralk

Yeah honestly I never saw the Clois fanbase as all that big until seasons 8 and 9 time when the writers started heavily pushing it and making them a couple, not to mention feeding it to the audience with characters like Jimmy telling us what a great couple they would make. Whereas, like I said above, Chlark had a huge fanbase from the beginning just from the actors chemistry and the potential of what those characters could have had, so imagine how much much support they would have won from the casual fans if they had been been the couple allowed to date and be a cute couple together. I mean Vessal was just one kiss, and people still talk about it for years after!

At the time of episodes like Abyss I really thought that the writers were setting up a romantic arc there, and it still seems add to me to focus so heavily on all of Chloe's romantic memories of Clark and their first kiss, and then not not do anything with it. Ditto Clark's determination to save Chloe in Legion, carrying her in the wedding dress, and then those final looks they shared Even how intense the Beast phone call was with Clark smashing it and Chloe being torn between protecting Clark from Davis or letting Clark risk himself (while a romantic song played). Some of those scenes were definitely more what you would expect from the shows core romantic ship quite honestly, and just not how platonic friends go on most shows



And jette_ I understand what you're saying, but quite honestly Chlark did get thrown under the bus for romantic Clois in season 9 anyway when the writers started denying them hugs and physical contact, and Tom and Allison seemed to be directed to play all of their scenes with as little chemistry and affection as possible. I still believe that was down to wanting Lois to be the number one in Clark's life. Look at how jealous Lana was of Chlark's connection in season 5 when Clark was still spending most of his time with Chloe and she was the one to know the secret (even Jimmy often being jealous and questioning Chloe protecting Clark so much). It just doesn't work to have two people be as close as Clark and Chloe while another romance is playing.

Although of course I was a Chloiser, so I would have just given Chloe the Lois penname and put her with Clark forever But even without that, I still think they could have found a way for the romance to be wrapped up which necessarily need to go all that differently from how seasons 9 and 10 were anyway, with season 9 being the period where they're estranged, and then becoming lifelong friends again in season 10?

2old2care

Well this is Smallville after all. The writers had the freedom to pen ludicrous story lines so I'm sure that they would have figure out something that probably won't make much sense to us but still get away with it somehow.

But you are right, Clark and Chloe had so much chemistry so it will be next to impossible to break them up so the show runners can get on with the mythos hence the freedom they have to write scripts that define logic.

jette_

Yes. And it was easy for the writers to do that because Clark and Chloe weren't a couple. If they had been together at this point -let's say in season 8 - the reason for their fight in season 9 would have been non-existing since it was Chloe who begged Clark to bring back her one true love Jimmy and Clark denied her that wish. It would have been way more complicated to drive a wedge between those two. But yeah, I guess they could have come up with some twist to break them up.

2old2care

Speaking of ludicrous plots.....

jette_

I thought her wish to bring Jimmy back to live was understandable at that time. Not that I would have agreed that Jimmy was her true love but that was apparently what they wanted us to believe. The writers have ruined it in season 9/10 - when all of a sudden Ollie was her true love. The writers were very fast with using those words for her love interests.

FrellingTralk

I always felt like their treatment of Chimmy was inconsistent from episode to episode. One minute Chloe swears he's the only one for her under lie detector, the next Jimmy is upset because she forgets him before Clark in Abyss...

2old2care

Maybe it is my perspective of an ideal man for Chloe I'm speaking from here but Jimmy constant display of insecurities irked me to no end. So for that reason I never enjoyed the whole Jimmy/Chloe pairing especially in that horrid episode "Sleeper". It seems that Chloe's image of Jimmy was that he was cute and sweet but nothing more. He gave an impression that he was an excited boy than anything else.

Clark and to a lesser extent Oliver, were a great fit for her.

FrellingTralk

I agree, I didn't like how the shippers seemed to always blame Chloe when Jimmy's possessive attitude over her friendship with Clark seemed very unreasonable to me. We the audience knew that Chloe was doing the right thing in protecting Clark's secret, but yet she still get bashed for taking Clark's side over Jimmy's. So I guess that she should have just spilled her best friends most private secret in order to keep her boyfriend happy???

And yeah I think that Chloe was always better suited to the superhero types. Clark, Ollie, and Davis, I liked all three of them for her I know Davis wasn't really in the end lol, but when Chloe first met him and he's a paramedic and saving people that's obviously something that attracts her, whereas it was never that clear why she and Jimmy were together. It just kind have happened after Zod Idk

jette_

I understand why she wanted to be with Jimmy in Season 6. a) he was her first. b) He wanted HER. And that's something that she never had before. For Jimmy Chloe always came first, while Clark and pretty much any other guy on the show chose Lana/Lois over her.

Anyway we're a bit off topic right now, discussion Jimmy/Chloe. I'd say lets get back to Chlark for a while.



Tales of the Weird and Unexplained

FrellingTralk

It just didn't match up with Chloe brushing off Jimmy in Pariah as nothing special, it never came across as love of your life material to me after that because early season 6 didn't show why they did start seriously falling for one another. They were just all of a sudden making out in a car

But yes, good idea Guh love those moments for them

2old2care

Fair do. It is nice for a woman to put on a pedestal by a man but it doesn't always mean that the woman will reciprocate his feeling asking him to join her on it.

Anyway Labyrinth, it was getting so so good but then they had to spoil the ending!!!!