Oh dear, Ian! You've managed to baffle me again.
Let's call it the fall of a human being ;p Lex, (smallville version anyway) seemed to be doomed from the start

I'm guessing you're shinra18 commenting there.
It's simple.
The inevitable fall to darkness of a man who all his life strived to be good, despite who his father was.
Sins of the Father......like Michael Corleone ("Godfather").
Well yeah I guess, Lex's father Lionel (my fave character in the whole damn show, and I hardly watch it

expertly played by John Glover) is arguably much more malevolent than Lex..and he spent Lex's entire upbringing grooming him into an appropriate "heir"