Interesting questions, Gerry, because they raise so many questions about characterisation, both Luthor's and Lois's.
I guess my response is - I'm not so sure that Lex would have proposed to Lois, let alone have destroyed the Daily Planet, without the stimulus of a Superman whom he saw as his primary opponent . I just don't see Lex doing those two things without the added competition of Clark and Superman. Luthor was very competitive - remember how he corrected the woman who introduced him as the world's 5th (i know that's the wrong number <g>) richest man. One of the reasons Lois was attractive to Lex was that she was percieved as being Superman's girlfriend. That upped her marketability in Luthor's eyes; in that sense Lois was a trophy. Remember, at the beginning of HoL, he has this fantasy where he's flying, wearing the Superman suit. Clearly, his wedding to Lois (and his control of the Planet) was symbolic of his having beaten Superman.
But, on the other hand ... I could be convinced that Luthor might have proposed without the Superman factor
The biggest issue to deal with is his character – he's a sociopath, maybe even a psychopath. Given that, he's not going to be motivated by love … heck , he's not capable of it. He's too marvelously, wonderfully evil.
It all about him, his power, his pleasure.
Now, Lex Luthor, in the TV show Lois and Clark, wasn't especially interested in marriage - he'd had children by his first 2 wives but was uninterested in those children, and he certainly wasn't interested in being faithful to one woman. Throughout S1 we see him sexually involved with many women - Toni Baines, a couple of nameless women, Mrs. Cox, etc He's a womanizer - even when he's engaged to Lois he's still sexually active elsewhere (Mrs. Cox). So, I'd argue that while he would pursue her, as he did other women, he would be unlikely to propose to her. Why would he want to or need to?
I just don't see Lex, pre-pheromone, (Paul's point about the significance of the spray), as being interested in marriage at all. Now, Lex was attracted to Lois, (in S1 the man was attracted to anyone under a certain age who had great legs<g>) but until he was sprayed by the pheronome he wasn't obsessed by her, as Paul points out. So, if Superman hadn't come to Metropolis would that event still have happened.? Maybe - Miranda was not motivated to destroy Superman but to getting Lex back as a lover. So if Lex had been sprayed, then, yes, he might possibly propose.
There is another way to go here, though.
Any non-pheromone scenario that has him proposing would have to set up a situation that explained why it was necessary to marry Lois rather than just seeking a quick affaire with her.
Could marriage be a way of neutralizing a reporter who had a known track record of crime exposes? (Lois's Kerth's were likely not for puff pieces) did he suspect that she was about to expose him? (btw, is it still true in the US legal sysytme that a wife cannot give testimony in court against her husband?) But why wouldn't he kill her instead? After all, he hadn't baulked at killing women to whom he had been attracted before (poor Toni:( ) so I'm not sure why Lois would be any different.
But if he had decided that Lois Lane, reporter, was a threat to him, would he propose? Possibly.
But would he destroy the Daily Planet? Not so sure that he would have needed to. He had already gained control of the Planet finacially and used his power to get rid of Lois's friends. Destroying the Planet with a bomb would be redundant - he'd already destroyed it. Why risk a possible criminal investigation when it was so unnecessary?
Jude wrote: <She was beautiful, but he knew many beautiful women. What attracted him were her Mad Dog Lane qualities. She was relentless in pursuing what she wanted, ran over anyone who got in her way, and wasn't above skirting the law in pursuit of a story.>
I'm not convinced that this would be as singular a motivation for Luthor as Jude suggests ( sorry, Jude, but i disagree with you on this point:) ) That same ruthlessness, with an added dash of killer instinct, was there in other women, with equally strong intellectual backgrounds, with whom we saw Lex - Toni Baines in the pilot, Miranda.
The only thing that does make Lois different is that she was as big a believer in"truth and justice" as Superman. Remember it was she who puts those words in his mouth. In S1 we see all sorts of situations in which she pursues the truth regardless of the consequences. So could it be, in this hypotheical, non CK/S universe, that Luthor regards her as a menace - so destroy her and also the Planet?
The question remains though, why not just kill Lois? Luthor dealt with his enemies all the time like that. I've argued that Luthor was a sociopath, but was he also a sadist ? Would marriage be a slow way of first destroying Lois psychologically ("She's a little too independent, don't she think?" he asked Superman in HoL, a question he prefaced with a very insincere "I love Lois, I really do.") and then killing her?
Jude wrote: <The presence of Clark and Superman only sweetened the challenge for Lex. They made winning a supreme victory, but he would still have gone after Lois without them.> I disagree here, (but respectfully, Jude) if by "gone after" you mean "propose"
) I think Luthor would have proposed *only* if he thought she was a threat to his empire. Now I do agree that he might pursue her for a brief fling - that she was a reporter with a reputation for pursuing bad guys would have been seductive to him - flirting with danger, so to speak.<g> But there would have to some issue beyond love for Lois (because he wasn't capable of love) that would make him see marriage as a means to an end. Like a 100% pheromone solution. Or a sense that Lois was getting to close to the truth about Lex Luthor.
Jude also wrote: <<He thought he and she were alike and that she would come to revel in evil as he did>>
But, if he thought that, then he must not have been reading her newspaper articles. And how would he know she was prepared to do a bit of B & E to get her stories?
Now Gerry didn't ask the question: would Lois have said yes to a proposal and why? But this too has to be explained (easier to do maybe than Gerry's questions:) ).
Also - what Tank said
But I know that Wendy will come up with a logical explanation for all of it.
cc m
