Kara/Lena

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Pairing
Pairing: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Alternative name(s): Supercorp, Karlena
Gender category: Femslash (F/F)
Fandom: Supergirl (TV series)
Canonical?: no
Prevalence: popular
Archives:
Other:
Supercorp AU fanart by vale.
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Kara/Lena is the juggernaut femslash pairing between Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor in the Supergirl television series fandom. The ship is one of the largest f/f ships, being the highest tagged on Ao3 as of August 2023, and is iconic and well known in sapphic fandom.

Overview

The pairing of Kara/Lena is a popular ship in the Supergirl (TV series) fandom. Their non-canon relationship is one of the largest femslash ships, or ships in general, in the Supergirl (TV series) fandom.

Shippers of Supercorp feel that Kara and Lena have much more romantic and sexual chemistry than one of Kara's canon ships, Karamel, which is deemed evident in the scenes the two share, Kara buying Lena donuts, believing in her despite their family history, the frequent off and on-screen lunch and dinner dates, and the fact that only someone romantically interested in a person will fill their office with flowers on the day before Valentine's Day, as Lena did for Kara at the end of 2x12 "Luthors". This is often seen by those who don't support the ship as subversion of a common trope due to it happening offscreen.

History

While there is no evidence that the pairing existed before the premiere of the second season, it quickly gained popularity: the first fanfic under the tag Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor appeared on AO3 a day after the second season premiered, introducing Lena Luthor. Since, the pairing has exploded into one of the biggest ships in the Supergirl (TV series) fandom, with over 20,000 separate works existing on AO3[1], surpassing the canon femslash ships in the fandom, Alex/Maggie, Sara Lance/Alex Danvers, and Alex Danvers/Kelly Olsen, despite those ships having more screen time in canonical romantic encounters.

There has been some tension between Supercorp fans and fans of other ships within the Supergirl fandom, and the Arroverse at large. The tension included not being able to stay in their lane on Tumblr and then-Twitter, and getting upset when people 'didn't see the chemistry' in their ship despite it not being canon. See Supercorp vs. Karamel

San Diego Comic-Con 2017

While promoting the upcoming third season at SDCC17 the cast sang a recap of the previous season. Jeremy Jordan at one point sang how Kara/Lena would never get together because they were "only friends", noting later he had "debunked" supercorp. There was an almost immediate backlash from fans and press,[2][3] with Jordan going on to issue two apologizes on his Instagram.

It should be noted that the fandom did not behave themselves before or after this debacle. They often mocked Melissa for pointing out she was on Glee and many of them refused to accept Jordan's apologies. They were also known for harassing the cast and crew of the show, to the point where the cast warned Azie Tesfei when she joined in Season 4..

Queerbaiting Controversy

Despite otherwise featuring several LGBT+ characters, the Supergirl show has at times faced criticism from fans for perceived queerbaiting, particularly centered on Kara and Lena's relationship.[4][5][6]

Statistics

Common Tropes in Fanworks

Works in this pairing often include a very optimistic, sunshiny and awkward Kara, which is often in contrast to the trope of Lena being very closed-off emotionally. Lena is often portrayed as burying herself in her work as a CEO and is shown as much more experienced than Kara when it comes to dating women, although Kara in works is often portrayed as the first person Lena had any sort of emotional-romantic attachment towards. Likewise, Lena is often portrayed as the first woman Kara has had a romantic and/or sexual attraction towards, although whether Kara knows she's attracted to women at the beginning of the work is often left up to the author.

Lena's adoptive mother, Lillian Luthor, is often portrayed as the homophobic, xenophobic disapproving mother, who will stop at nothing to kill all alien life on earth, including Kara.

Common Storylines

  • Secret Identity Reveal: In works where Lena is unaware of Kara's secret identity, Kara often confesses her identity, while also telling Lena about her feelings for the CEO. In other works, identity porn often features and eventually results in the big reveal.
  • Fake Dating: This trope also overlaps with identity porn and can result in a secret identity reveal. Kara might be pretend dating Lena, or Lena might pretend to date herself as Supergirl, or Lena might be pretending to date Supergirl to make Kara jealous.
  • Lena knows that Kara is Supergirl is a common tag on Supercorp works. Canonically Lena didn't know Supergirl's identity until the season 4 finale. In fanfiction, she was often more astute. This can lead to unnecessary secret identity reveals, as Kara often doesn't know that Lena knows.
  • Kidfic: In these works, one or both women have a child from a previous relationship, or one of the two acquires a child.
  • AUs: Common AU settings include High School AU, Medieval AU, Soulmates AU. No Powers AU is also a common AU scenario.
  • RedK!Kara
  • Established Relationship

Noted Proponents

  • Mehcad Brooks, actor who plays James Olsen on Supergirl (TV series). While he has not specifically said that he endorses Supercorp as a ship, he has voiced a general displeasure for the current canon Kara ship, Kara/Mon-El, on various social medias. And he 'liked' an Instagram post directed towards him saying "MEHCAD, IS SUPERCORP REAL?" The like is presumed to be confirmation.
  • Brenda Strong, actress who plays Lillian Luthor on Supergirl (TV series). Again, Brenda Strong has not specifically endorsed Supercorp, she has expressed support by retweeting various Supercorp posts on Twitter, including a Supercorp Fifty Shades of Grey parody gif-set. This is in stark contrast to her character who is often portrayed as homophobic in fan works.
  • Dichen Lachman, actress who plays reoccurring villain character Veronica Sinclair, or "Roulette". While making no comment on Supercorp, on or off social media, she has endorsed the idea of Lena Luthor being LGBTQ, as in response to a tweet directed at her referencing a comment made by Lena in an episode that her and Veronica "went to boarding school together", and how that could be a innuendo for dating. Dichen responded with "sure" and a flower emoji.
  • Katie Mcgrath, actress who plays Lena Luthor. McGrath said in an April 2017 interview with Matt Webb Mitovich of the website TV Line that while she did not play the role with romantic intent, after being told of Supercorp by numerous people (including her brother and Supergirl lead actress Melissa Benoist), McGrath re-watched earlier episodes and could see what people mean. Further commenting on how she thought this was the first of her roles in a while that weren't either gay or had heavy gay undertones, saying "...how naive was I?"[13]
    • She also noted that she saw it as 'fan interpretation' in another interview.
  • Natalie Abrams, Writer on Supergirl (TV series). She sent out a tweet that mentioned Supercorp and how there was more to come. Although this can be interpreted that she was referring to a friendship, not a romantic relationship.
    • She would later write a media tie-in comic for DC (she now writes Batwoman in the main timeline) where it's perceived she 'canonized' the ship. However, with seven pages where Lena talks about them being great friends, and the last eighth page vaguely referencing a date with no gender pronouns while Lena is standing under a Pride flag in a city with a lesbian superhero (in this case, Ryan Wilder), it's more author headcanon than anything, especially since she did not confirm her intentions until a year and a half later.
      • DC doesn't appear to have any intention of following up on this issue in any other timeline in the comics, as Lena Luthor is still in a coma she's been in since 2017, and Kara Danvers is a 16-year-old Kryptonian refugee in Metropolis in the main timeline. The media tie-in comics for both Batwoman and Supergirl have both been cancelled, with more to meet the same fate as the Arrowverse is ending on the CW following the conclusion of Superman and Lois.

Fanworks

Fanfic

Fanart

Fanvids

Meta

Zines

Challenges

Archives and Fannish Links

Tumblr

Twitter

Notes and references

  1. ^ AO3 tag (June 2019)
  2. ^ Supergirl Fans Are Rightfully Angry With the Cast’s Flippant Dismissal of Kara/Lena Luthor Shippers (The Mary Sue)
  3. ^ ‘Supergirl’ actor angers fans at San Diego Comic-Con (Dailydot)
  4. ^ Spencer, Hayley (2020-02-24). "Supergirl and The CW: How a Lack of Representation Has Led to One of the Worst Cases of Queerbaiting in Modern Television". Medium. Archived from the original on 2020-11-30.
  5. ^ Stacy, Shaun (2020). "Supergirl: Is the series alienating fans with queerbaiting?". Culturess. Archived from the original on 2021-11-21.
  6. ^ Liszewski, Bridget (2017-05-10). "Supergirl's Responsibility When It Comes to Kara and Lena's Friendship". The TV Junkies. Archived from the original on 2022-04-22.
  7. ^ Tumblr Year in Review: 2017′s Top Ships.
  8. ^ 2018’s Top Ships (November 2018)
  9. ^ AO3 Ship Stats 2017
  10. ^ 2017 Year-to-Year List
  11. ^ AO3 Ship Stats 2020
  12. ^ AO3 Ship Stats 2021
  13. ^ Supergirl: Katie McGrath Is in Love With 'Badass' Lena Luthor — Aren't You? (TV Line, April 2017)
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