Some context before I begin:
There do9es appear to be a recurring theme since the CW move. Kara has a type. Someone that treats her like dirt and doesn't listen to her, then you have friends and family practically guilt tripping her into relationships. That's a dangerous theme to be teaching young girls
To which I replied:
I'm glad someone else recognizes that.
It's very frustrating for a show that preaches female empowerment to reinforce the delusion that if you dig deep enough, you can find that the (admittedly hot) person that treats you poorly is really just misunderstood--or worse can change--if you just give them a chance or two. Or several...
It's dangerous for anyone to believe, really, but especially for young women.
I don't want to focus on the "guilt trip" aspect, because I am not entirely convinced that's going on myself.
First off, I am not saying that the character of William is a bad person. In story, he had very good reasons for treating Kara the way he did at first. Therein lies the problem, as far as I'm concerned.
In the fictional universe, William is a great guy who undercut Kara with (arguably) the best of intentions. Kara was understandably outraged by his behavior. When she understood his reasons, she saw him for the man of upright character he really is. Good for Kara, but...
In the real world, people who treat you poorly overwhelmingly do not have valid reasons for doing so. But they always have tons of excuses. I have seen too many people suffer horribly, because they were convinced that if they just looked deep enough or tried hard enough they would find the wonderful person underneath. By "suffer horribly," I'm talking about broken bones, imprisonment in one's own home, death threats, theft to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, completely shattered lives. And those on the receiving end were almost exclusively women.
First with Mon-El and now with William Dey, Kara has been presented with and fallen for jerks that turned out to have a heart of gold. When writing for a strong woman lead in an openly progressive-leaning show, I would have thought dispelling that particular myth would be foremost on the creators' minds.
In story, William is a great guy. Wherever their relationship goes, if it goes anywhere, I don't think he's out to harm Kara. He's not "problematic," as such.The story arc is.
I'm not necessarily an advocate of "woke" storytelling, but would it kill the writers to provide a healthy romantic relationship for their lead character that's based on mutual respect and kindness from the get go?