Zenation asks, “Why would anyone want to terraform a planet that gives their people god like powers in order to protect them? This just seems counterintuitive.”
Finding the terraforming of Earth odd tends to be based on a few misconceptions. Primary amongst them is the idea that Zod is flexible enough to accept alternatives. Instead, after you’ve thought it through, you may come to see that Zod was a man of conviction willing to die for a specific vision of Krypton and rather Krypton go extinct than see an alternative.
Let me run you through some things to think about to get there.
- Zod had 33 years and a ship full of Kryptonians of both sexes and a brilliant geneticist aboard. If he was willing to accept a different vision of Krypton, could he not have procreated or began cloning?
- Zod’s part of the warrior caste and thus his toolbox is limited. Up to the last minute, Jor-El was petitioning the Council, suggesting that Krypton’s foremost scientist and most brilliant mind considered that a viable tactic worthy of his time… but Zod didn’t petition the Council. Instead, Zod betrayed the ones he had a duty to serve and follow, based on a vision of eugenic perfection he was willing to risk treason for.
- When Zod tells Superman that, “If you destroy this ship you destroy Krypton!” That’s not factually accurate. Kal-El was specifically sent to Earth to bridge two people and co-exist. Destruction of the Scout Ship would only remove the Genesis Chamber and Zod’s ability to continue the Ghost of Eugenic Krypton, rather than Jor-El’s Best of Both Worlds Krypton, which Jor-El pleads with Zod to accept before Zod deletes him. So again, Zod’s concept of Krypton is narrow. It doesn’t include co-existence, it doesn’t include natural birth, it doesn’t include anyone controlling the eugenics but him… and thus it is fairly intuitive that it shouldn’t include a super-human society that he cannot fully control.
Admittedly, the last part is speculation, but it is backed by strong circumstantial evidence. However, let’s go over what the fear is first. The fear is that after you give all the Kryptonians on the Black Zero god-like super powers, you’ve suddenly democratized New Krypton… and despite Zod’s narrow vision of him controlling the bloodlines, Zod fears that some- like say, Jax-Ur of the science guild, not loyal to the warrior caste- might not be willing to forfeit that god-like power out of pure loyalty to Zod’s plan. Zod was himself a betrayer to the Council. Is it any wonder he suspects or fears betrayal? Now the evidence to consider:
- Note that the Black Zero wasn’t designed for Zod. Jor-El said he designed it. Jor-El died in Zod’s coup attempt. Therefore, Jor-El designed the prison ship for prisoners other than Zod. Jor-El says that they’ve exhausted their resources so the Black Zero wasn’t built for fun… it was built to house pre-existing prisoners during a time of unrest. That means that it is highly likely that not all the prisoners were revolutionaries. They were not all part of Zod’s coup who can be trusted absolutely. After 33 years, Zod certainly has them in-line… however, not so in-line that Zod can trust everyone to be on Earth. Indeed, while Zod is on an away mission, during Lois’s escape, we see no less than five different armed guards. If your prisoners (Kal and Lois) are depowered and secured, why do you need armed security guards on a 100% loyal ship when they could be a dramatic force multiplier on Earth? Simply put, you don’t… the guards are Zod’s continued show-of-force, military might and loyalty aboard the ship to maintain his 33 year long rule. With a New Krypton and everyone depowered, that rule would continue so long as Zod lived.
- Note too that Zod leads from the front in a classic loyalty pyramid. Zod may be able to defeat Faora 1 v 1 and command her loyalty. Zod and Faora may be able to defeat Nam-Ek 2 v 1 and command his loyalty, thus he fields Nam-Ek. The three of them can defeat any three other Kryptonians and thus risk of mutiny or rebellion is low so long as Zod never fields more than 6 Kryptonians on Earth at a time… and that is exactly what we see. Even with Zod himself is forced to withdraw, he allows only Faora and Nam-Ek to remain, even if he could command or field more Kryptonians… precisely because he wants to limit the number of Kryptonians with access to these powers to the few he can trust absolutely.
tl;dr: Zod did not want to risk democratizing New Krypton, he would rather it go extinct than compromise his vision, which is why there was no natural birth on the Black Zero for 33 years.
“Reposts” are republication of informal forum replies addressing relevant topics but not up to typical site standards.
In this episode, we unpack the virtues of the oil rig scene and the virtues exhibited by Clark in that scene; we listen to Zack Snyder talk about the making of the scene and Henry Cavill talk about some of the stunt work with Jay Leno a week before the film’s premiere; and we discuss what makes a hero. We touch on the topics below:
