Ok, I get that Clark want to be sure that Lois loves him for himself. But she has shown that she is interested in him romantically. So you would think it would be a good idea to tell her what she is buying into. By asking her to marry him without knowing him, he shows appalling disregard for her feelings.
I can only interpret it as a test. Lois must show that she is truly serious about him. But what is his plan afterwards? He can't possible hold her to her presumed Yes when it turns out she doesn't know who he is, that he has deceived her for years?
If you start by humiliating your intended and showing so little trust you really deserve to be smacked around silly.
But not only does Clark lack any contrition he gets HUFFY when Lois asks for some time to reconcile his dual identity. WTF is wrong with him?
It's so out of character and so unbelievable that it is almost funny. I don't think have read a fanfic that has handled the subject worse.
Arawn, Clark wasn't
thinking when he proposed to Lois. After her near-death at his own hands, he was obviously in a seize-the-day mode, and I don't believe his secret was really on his mind. Before, when he still thought she was immortal and that he had plenty of time, he had tried to do it in the right order--tell her his secret first and start a relationship second. But now, he was reacting out of terror at nearly losing her, and the only thing that mattered to him was showing her how much she meant to him. That was totally in character for the Clark who used to vanish with stupid excuses and completely forget about them until he saw Lois after he returned (Clark: "Uh... I'm in the mood for frozen yogurt. Want some?" ... (Later, after a Superman intervention) ... Lois: "What happened to you? You left two hours ago. And where's my yogurt?") He focuses on one thing at a time, unlike Lois, who can focus on any number of things simultaneously. But that doesn't mean he was testing her when he didn't tell her he was Superman before proposing. It means he was focused on showing her how much he loved her rather than how much he trusted her.
