Line #23 Series/Krypton


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_7556.jpeg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Bad day to be a hero.]]
3
4	''Krypton'' is a Creator/DCComics-inspired ScienceFiction / SpaceOpera television series initially developed by Creator/DavidSGoyer and Damian Kindler for Creator/{{Syfy}}, with writing additions by Creator/GeoffJohns. The first season premiered on March 21, 2018.
5
6	The story takes place on the planet Krypton, 200 years before its [[EarthShatteringKaboom destruction]] and [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Kal-El]]'s arrival on Earth. It follows Seg-El (Creator/CameronCuffe), Kal's grandfather. As a boy, Seg-El witnesses his grandfather Val-El (Creator/IanMcElhinney) being sentenced to death for sedition and heresy by the oppressive High Council of his city, Kandor. The House of El is dissolved, with its members deemed among the "Rankless", Krypton's underclass (making him just Seg, in practice).
7
8	Decades later, as a young man, Seg meets a stranger named Adam Strange (Creator/ShaunSipos) who claims to be from the planet Earth in the future, and that Seg's grandson will become "the greatest hero in the universe". However, this means an enemy, ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} (Creator/BlakeRitson) -- who Val-El had discovered, to no avail -- is coming to destroy Krypton to prevent that hero from ever existing. Now Seg must take up his grandfather's work and fight to redeem his family's honor, save his homeworld, and ensure the existence of Superman.
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10	To promote the second season, a comic called ''Krypton: Tales from The Phantom Zone'' was released online.
11
12	A SpinOff centering around ComicBook/{{Lobo}}, who debuted in Season 2, was said to be planned. In August 2019, Syfy announced that ''Krypton'' was cancelled and (seemingly) the Lobo spinoff with it, leaving the last plot threads of Season 2 [[CutShort unresolved]].
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14	Previews: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvSZKB2WNKg Trailer for Season 1]], [[https://youtu.be/fVkNF9_pZHQ Trailer for Season 2]].
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16	'''Characters tropes go on the [[Characters/{{Krypton}} character sheet]].'''
17	----
18	!!The pilot provides examples of:
19
20	* ActorAllusion: In the first episode of Season 2, when Jax-Ur (Creator/HannahWaddingham) bumps into Adam Strange and grabs his face, he says "Shame!". Waddingham played Septa Unella in ''Series/GameOfThrones'', who has "Shame!" as CatchPhrase when watching over penance rituals for those the Sparrows condemn.
21	* AdaptedOut: Many members of the House of El fail to make it into this continuity.
22	** In the comics (in some continuities, anyway), Jor-El has an aunt with three sons and uncle with one son, but his father Seg is an only child here.
23	** Adam and Zod never say anything to indicate that Supergirl or her father Zor-El exist, as Adam doesn’t list Supergirl as another reason the timeline must be stabilized and Zod tells Seg that he knew his son (singular). However, [[spoiler:since Zod is unaware that Cor-Vex is Jor-El, his knowledge of the family may be incomplete]].
24	** In the Silver Age continuity, Jor-El has a twin, Nim-El, who goes on to have a son, Don-El, before both are abducted when Brainiac shrinks Kandor. Here, [[spoiler:Jor-El has no twin and if not for the altered timeline, Kandor would have been shrunken before any additional children Seg-El may have were born]].
25	* AdaptationNameChange:
26	** Seg-El's name is spelled Seyg-El in the comics.
27	** Also, his grandfather Val-El was Don-El in the comics.
28	** The show also changes the classic Kryptonian naming conventions. In the comics, females use their father's full name as their surname (ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} is Kara Zor-El, for instance). The show just has the females use the family name like the males (which would make her Kara-El, if she existed). WordOfGod says this was to make it less patriarchal.[[invoked]]
29	* AliensSpeakingEnglish: The pilot glosses over how Adam Strange can communicate with Kryptonians. It's later shown that there exist other languages on Krypton that a regular Kryptonian, like Seg, has no familiarity with.
30	* AlternateContinuity: While early in development, WordOfGod from Creator/DavidSGoyer indicated the show was set in the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse ("200 years before ''Film/ManOfSteel''"). However, this seems to have been changed as Creator/GeoffJohns later clarified that this is its own thing. It's also one to the Series/{{Arrowverse}} version of Krypton as seen in ''Series/Supergirl2015''.[[invoked]]
31	* AlternateTimeline: The series firmly becomes this as of the first season finale, where [[spoiler:Kandor is saved from Brainiac and Krypton's fate is altered, thereby erasing Superman from existence]].
32	* AndIMustScream: When Brainiac bottles a city, its inhabitants are put into a living stasis, unable to move, never suffering from age or the necessities of life, but constantly aware.
33	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Seg to Adam in "Civil Wars", after learning [[spoiler: that Krypton is doomed to explode]]:
34	-->'''Seg''': What's the point of any of it, of making the world a better place, of having children, of protecting our loved ones, if it all just ends in fire and death?
35	* ArrangedMarriage: Standard for at least the Kryptonian Houses. Seg is matched up with Nyssa-Vex (despite being Rankless) because of their [[SuperBreedingProgram superior projected genetic combination]]. Her father Daron-Vex even offers to adopt Seg into the family, making him Seg-Vex. Lyta-Zod is promised to Dev-Em.
36	* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: The leaders of Sagitari units can be challenged to single combat for command.
37	* BackForTheDead: [[spoiler: The Season 2 premiere reveals that Daron-Vex survived his speeder crash in his last appearance in Season 1, only for this revelation to be almost immediately followed by Lyta shooting him.]]
38	* BadassFamily: The House of Zod have a long history of military service to Kandor, specifically as commanding officers.
39	* BadFuture: In the season 1 finale, [[spoiler:Brainiac is sent into the Phantom Zone with Seg, and Dru-Zod destroys the projector to prevent any rescue. As a result, Krypton is spared collection by Brainiac, but Zod takes over as a military dictator. While the details aren't clear, it seems that Doomsday is eventually released on Krypton, and Zod makes his way to Earth, either becoming its hero or its conqueror. Brainiac then eventually collects a city from Earth, which presumably means Earth will be destroyed.]]
40	* BarBrawl: Seg's very first scene. He's drunk, owes some money to some people, said people beat him up, and he hits back.
41	* BatmanGambit: In the season 1 finale, Dru-Zod gives up the location of the Fortress [[spoiler:and Val-El with it]] to Brainiac in a desperate attempt to save Krypton. When he gets there, Seg threatens to [[spoiler:kill Val]] to deny Brainiac his prize, but Brainiac just tosses him aside with telekinesis and reveals that what Seg threatened to shoot is a mere hologram. Seg then reveals that the point was to maneuver Brainiac [[spoiler:into the path of the Phantom Zone projector]].
42	* BigBad: Though Krypton has an mysterious masked overlord called "The Voice of Rao" who holds sway over the Kryptonian High Council, the main villain of the story is ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}, who has traveled back into time to destroy Krypton in the past and thus avert Superman's birth, which would allow him free reign over a universe no longer protected by the greatest hero it has ever known. Creator/GeoffJohns literally [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WxikiYSnc0 calls him]] the Big Bad of the show. [[spoiler: And then there's the matter of General Dru-Zod -- whereas it turns out that Brainiac isn't a time traveler (his attack on Krypton was always part of the timeline), Zod is, having come back to save and take over Krypton, erasing Superman from existence as a side effect]].
43	* BigBadEnsemble: In Season 2, Zod, Brainac, Doomsday and Lobo are all separate villains following their own agendas.
44	* BilingualBonus: All the Kryptonese in the show does translate. The words on the Voice of Rao's robes are the Kryptonian version of [[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Malachi+3&version=GNV Malachi 3 from the Geneva Bible]].
45	* BodyBackupDrive: "Hope" reveals that the ruling class of Krypton have clone bodies in storage that would allow them to live forever and retain their power.
46	* ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts: Referenced indirectly. Krypton has three moons, and while only one is described as having a "completely self-sufficent, fully sustainable colony", that also seems to indicate that the other two moons have colonies more dependent on the planet (or at least they are during the main series). What happens to those moons and their colonists after Krypton is destroyed in the original timeline is unclear, although the two non self-sufficent ones would have been in for a rough time. [[spoiler:While the third moon, Wegthor, is destroyed during the course of the series, the chain of events that causes this happens due to history changing, making it unclear what happened to it in the old timeline]].
47	* CallForward: ''Plenty'' to drive the point home about how this is a Franchise/{{Superman}} prequel.
48	** Perhaps the most blatant of them all is the fact that Val-El has a secret icy lair called "the Fortress of Solitude".
49	** The use of the first notes of Music/JohnWilliams's Film/{{Superman\|The Movie}} theme here and there.
50	* CelebrityParadox: The ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies exist on Earth in the series' universe (they're mentioned by Adam Strange):
51	** Creator/IanMcElhinney (Val-El) played Jan Dodonna in ''Film/RogueOne''.
52	** Dempsey Bovell (Van-Zod) played an Imperial clerk in ''Film/{{Solo}}''.
53	** Creator/ElliotCowan (Daron-Vex) voiced several characters in ''[[Videogame/StarWarstheOldRepublic The Old Republic]]''.
54	* CityInABottle: The first live-action appearance of Brainiac's collection of shrunken bottled cities. One is visible in the first trailer. After he collects cities this way, he destroys the rest of their planets.
55	* CitywideEvacuation: In the season 1 finale, Brainiac tries to collect the city state of Kandor, shrink it, and put the residents in suspended animation, and lots of people try to get out before he can finish the process. Many citizens and soldiers flee in skimmers offscreen (although some are shot down), Seg tries to get people out through tunnels and calling transports from other cities, and Jax-Ur and her Black Zero troops pack up to flee across the Outlands on foot.
56	* TheClan: Kryptonian houses are basically family clans.
57	* {{Cliffhanger}}:
58	** At the end of Season 1, Brainiac drags Seg into the PhantomZone, Dru-Zod takes over Kandor as dictator and Superman's El cape sigil vanishes and gets replaced by a Zod sigil.
59	** For Season 2, [[spoiler:on the planet where she's looking for Sardath, Nyssa finds an [[ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} Omega Symbol]] painted on a tree and sees dozens of {{winged humanoid}}s flying above her. Meanwhile, Brainiac is headed to Earth with Baby Jor-El.]]
60	* CompensatingForSomething: One of Lobo's rants about Braniac mentions Brainiac's "massive, clearly overcompensating for something, ship".
61	* TheCoup:
62	** The Vexs plan to oust the Voice of Rao and seize control of Kandor. With Jayna's help, they make their move in "Civil Wars"... and [[OutsideContextProblem due to]] Brainiac's having possessed the Voice, they fail.
63	** [[spoiler:Dru-Zod takes over Kandor once the Brainiac threat is neutralized, with no Seg in his path.]]
64	* CrapsackWorld: Krypton is at its very worst before its death. The whole planet has had an apocalypse, stuck in a centuries-old planet-wide sub-zero snowstorm. The former mega-cities have been reduced to small, ugly police states where martial law is the official government and the Ranked have full reign over the poverty-stricken Rankless. Kandor is currently at war with giant monsters, undiscovered aliens, and all the other surviving cities. At this point, it's no wonder why the technologically-advanced space-faring Kryptonians didn't realize their planet was going to explode -- they were too busy trying to deny it along with the crippling, suicidal depression of a dead world.
65	* CrapsaccharineWorld: In season 2, everything looks better--Krypton is breaking out its stasis, the Rankless have been freed, and fortunes are up for all involved. [[spoiler: As long as you ignore the brainwashing, torture, the fact the Rankless are conscripted into the army, and the fact General Zod is making a fleet to conquer other worlds.]]
66	* DeathsHourglass: Seg gets Superman's cape, which is slowly disappearing. When it's completely gone, Superman will have been [[RetGone erased from history]]. [[spoiler:Reversed in the first season finale... then the sigil changes to the Zod symbol.]]
67	* DetonationMoon: In "Blood Moon", [[spoiler:the Resistance accidentally destroys Krypton's moon Wegthor when they detonate the tunnels to trap Doomsday. The explosion causes a chain reaction in the reactive minerals in the surface which causes the entire moon to explode.]]
68	* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Kem [[spoiler:[[FlippingTheBird raises his middle finger]] to Doomsday as he's being killed by the invincible monster and activates the detonator, which blows up not only the mine but the whole of Wegthor.]]
69	* DisappointedInYou: In "House of Zod", Jayna calls her daughter Lyta her greatest shame, since she was forced to make a deal to save her at the cost of her honor. [[spoiler: Though in "Transformation", Jayna tells Lyta if she knew the whole truth then, she would gladly do it again]].
70	* DistressedDude: Seg seems to require a lot of rescuing. In season one alone Lyta gets him out of being arrested, teams up with Adam to save him from Black Zero and punches out someone holding him at gunpoint, his mother rescues him from the Sagitari and is arrested in his place, Nyssa saves him from the [[spoiler:Braniac-controlled]] voice of Rao... frankly the guy just can’t seem to stay out of trouble.
71	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: A Sagitari fatally shoots a Rankless essentially for telling her not to choke his friend to death, and claims self-defense when Lyta-Zod demands to know why. Lyta, thoroughly unimpressed, snaps that a highly-trained officer of the law with a gun has no reason to be so afraid of a civilian--and promptly arrests her.
72	* DomedHometown: Kandor has a dome covering it to shield against the endless blizzard which has rendered most of Krypton uninhabitable. Other cities on Krypton are similarly domed.
73	* DragonWithAnAgenda: The commander of Black Zero knows of Brainiac and is also working to stop him, but is doing so separately from Seg and even Black Zero. [[spoiler: He's really General Zod, who's come back in time to prevent Krypton's destruction.]]
74	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: In the Season 2, while in the Phantom Zone, Seg sees a vision of [[spoiler: Zod strangling Lyta to death]]. It turns out to be a case of DreamingOfTimesGoneBy later on, [[spoiler:as it actually happened much earlier when Zod choked her unconscious and stuck the Black Mercy on her]].
75	* DressHitsFloor: In "The Word of Rao", Nyssa is checking out dresses with some holographic tech and when Seg walks in, she asks him to pick one. When he does, she [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl casually shrugs out of her current dress to change, which slides off to the floor]], which makes him very uncomfortable.
76	* EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse: Kryptonians believe themselves to be the only intelligent life in the universe, and any suggestion of other intelligent beings existing out there is treasonous and heretical. This is partly why Val-El was sentenced to death - he saw ''Brainiac'' coming for them.
77	* EasilyForgiven: In season 2, Seg is happy to see Adam again, despite the last time they saw each other Seg was angry at Adam for keeping the knowledge of Krypton's destruction from him.
78	* EnemyMine: In "Hope", Seg tries to get the Sagitari and Black Zero to work together to stop Brainiac. It's TeethClenchedTeamwork to the core, but they reluctantly go along with it. [[spoiler:Sadly, Brainiac telekinetically forces one of Black Zero's mooks to shoot a Sagitari, causing a firefight that quickly ends with all but Seg dead.]]
79	** At the end of season 2 [[spoiler: Seg teams up with Lobo to track down Brainiac and get his son back.]]
80	* EvilOverlord:
81	** The Voice of Rao is a theocratic dictator. [[spoiler: And then he gets possessed by Brainiac.]]
82	** [[spoiler: Zod, [[DownerEnding after he becomes supreme dictator of Krypton]] [[BadFuture and then, eventually, the galaxy]].]]
83	* EvilIsPetty: [[spoiler: General Zod]] takes the time out before leaving on a mission to retrieve a weapon of mass destruction to shine a flashlight in Adam Strange's eyes.
84	* EvilVersusEvil: [[spoiler: General Zod knows Krypton doesn't possess the technology to repel Brainiac, but he thinks ''Doomsday'' might have the strength to defeat him.]]
85	* TheFaceless: The Voice of Rao's face is kept hidden, either by his mask or being shot from the back. [[spoiler:Even when he rips the mask off during the possession by Brainiac, he covers his face with his hands. By the time he unmasks later in the season, his face has been distorted by Brainiac's machinery.]]
86	* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Val-El used a Phantom Zone projector to survive his execution, but lacked a way to escape thanks to Zod stealing the device which would allow him to return.]]
87	* FamilialFoe: Brainiac and General Zod, both of whom are destined to become members of Superman's rouges gallery in two generations, end up battling against Superman’s grandparents and great-great-grandfather.
88	* FantasyPantheon: Krypton formerly followed a pantheon of six gods before turning monotheistic. Rao is now their sole god, and Daron-Vex rattles off the names of the five others that the Kryptonians used to routinely worship. At least one of them, Cythonna, still has worshippers, the Cythonnites, but declare they were heavily purged in the past and now exist entirely underground.
89	* FlippingTheBird: Season 2 has quite a few of them.
90	** Both Seg and Adam Strange flip their middle finger to Lobo as they teleport away with the Zeta Beam after extracting Brainiac out of Seg's body.
91	** Kem flips the bird at [[spoiler:''Doomsday'', while performing his HeroicSacrifice by blowing up the mines of Wegthor, causing a chain reaction that makes the moon explode.]]
92	* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:The destruction of the Wegthor moon, the source of fuel needed for Zod's spacefleet,]] foreshadows that even if future warnings of Krypton's destruction were believed, a planetary evacuation by spacefleet wasn't even feasible. It also foreshadows the energy shortages [[Film/ManOfSteel mentioned as forcing the Kryptonians to resort to harvesting their planet's core as an energy source]], causing the catastrophe.
93	* GenderFlipped: Unlike in the comics or other adaptations, Jax-Ur is a woman.
94	* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: In "Blood Moon", [[spoiler:Jayna and Dev]] ask two {{Mook}}s they've just captured if anyone else know they are there. The two prisoners remain defiant and don't answer, but are spared after [[spoiler:Lyta]] convinces them to make a MookFaceTurn.
95	* HeroicLineage: Seg-El is Superman's grandfather and Jor-El's father, and he is the hero of this story.
96	* {{Homage}}: Seg-El's name is a modified version of Jerry ''Siegel'', one of Superman's original creators.
97	* HopeSpot: The season 1 finale [[spoiler:has Brainiac sent to the Phantom Zone and then Superman's dissolving cape immediately becoming whole again, only for Seg to be seized by Brainiac's tentacles and pulled into the Zone with him, and the cape's sigil of Superman/El turning into the sigil of Zod]].
98	* HotterAndSexier: The show is more sexually charged than most previous adaptations of the Franchise/{{Superman}} mythos. Seg and Lyta-Zod make love in the pilot, albeit with {{Modesty Bedsheet}}s. Nyssa-Vex's outfits show generous cleavage and later she changes in front of Seg, with a quick glimpse of {{sideboob}}.
99	* HumanAliens: As usual in any ''Superman'' media, the Kryptonians all look like humans from Earth. As a matter of fact, Adam Strange is the ''[[TokenHuman only]]'' human on the show.
100	* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Seg to Rhom.
101	* ImpaledPalm: Jayna Zod impales the hand of Lyta Zod to teach that Sagitari never ask for mercy, and never give it.
102	* KidFromTheFuture: Black Zero's commander is Lyta-Zod's future child, General Dru-Zod.
103	* InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers: In Season 2, [[spoiler:Brainiac ''kidnaps baby Jor-El'' and brings him to Earth.]]
104	* KneelBeforeZod:
105	** The ''House'' of Zod, who ''"kneel to no one"''. ItRunsInTheFamily apparently.
106	** In the first season finale, [[spoiler:the man himself makes this declaration after taking over Kandor as a military dictator.]]
107	* LaResistance: In the trailer, Seg says "The House of El led a revolution against tyranny." In the show, a movement called "Black Zero" opposes the Voice of Rao.
108	** In Season 2, the Els actually get to live up to that trailer promise, as Val (along with Nyssa and Jax-Ur) leads an underground rebellion against General Zod's rule of Krypton.
109	* LastOfHisKind: By the pilot's end Seg is the last of the El family, except that Adam Strange gives him Superman's cape.
110	-->'''Adam Strange:''' This belongs to your grandson, Kal-El. Emphasis on the El.
111	* LightIsNotGood: The Voice of Rao wears white robes and a gold mask, and is a theocratic dictator.
112	* LiquidCourage: Just like Earthlings, the Kryptonians produce liquors and get drunk for fun.
113	* LogoJoke:
114	** The DC logo is set in space, and embedded with red Kryptonian earth. It turns green (the color of kryptonite, radioactive Kryptonian earth) and explodes (foreshadowing Krypton's fate). The WB logo appears from the explosion, still shaded green. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okGiv737QdI here]].
115	** An accidental one: with all the flip-flopping of the show's DCEU-or-not status, the Superman logo having the DCEU version's extra lines but the classic version's proportions is ever so fitting.
116	* LotusEaterMachine: The Black Mercy shows up in another ''Superman'' adaptation, trapping its host in a happy illusion. [[spoiler:Zod used it to trap the real Lyta then had a clone made and reconditioned to better serve his agenda.]]
117	* MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight: Brainiac has traveled back in time to destroy Krypton and prevent Superman from ever existing. [[spoiler:In fact, this is not true. Brainiac isn't from the future; he was always meant to attack Krypton and steal Kandor. Doing so destabilizes the planet's core and ultimately causes its destruction 200 years later. Adam Strange is actually the one invoking this trope, as Krypton has to be destroyed so that Superman will come to exist. He insists he didn't know better, however, assuming Brainiac had traveled back until General Zod clarified history for him.]]
118	** As of the Season 2 finale cliffhanger (which we'll presumably be stuck with forever due to the show's cancellation), [[spoiler:not only has Krypton's continued survival called Superman's future existence into question, Brainiac has abducted infant Jor-El and plans to raise him as his own]].
119	* MercyKill: After Jayna-Zod shoots both Ter and Charys, Daron-Vex accuses her of giving them easy deaths compared to what he had planned for them. Jayna-Zod had earlier promised Cherys a merciful and quick death, pointing out that there were things they could do to the condemned worse than merely killing them.
120	* {{Mooks}}: Subverted in this setting, as Brainiac's sentry operates at first like the sentries/drones carrying out plans similar as presented in previous Superman media, then is shown able to carry out more complex and even subtle planning.
121	* MythologyGag: Enough of these to have [[MythologyGag/{{Krypton}} its own page]].
122	* NewEraSpeech: In the Season 1 finale, General Dru-Zod gives one about the glory of having united Krypton's city-states under a single regime, and how they'll now make Krypton the seat of an interstellar empire.
123	** He gives another one in the Season 2 premiere, celebrating how strong and unified Krypton has become under his rule.
124	* NoYou: Between Daron-Vex and Jayna-Zod.
125	-->'''Daron-Vex:''' You're just a blunt object.
126	* NomDeMom: Ranked Kryptonians will take the surname of the parent (or spouse, for that matter) who comes from the more influential House, regardless of whether that's the mother or father. Hence although Seg inherited the El name from his father, Lyta inherited the Zod name from her mother Jayna, and Nyssa inherited the Vex name from her own mother while her father Daron is a Vex by marriage. Seg and Lyta's son is named Dru-Zod (although in his case his father's identity was a secret), and Seg and Nyssa's son Jor-El was originally planned to be named Cor-Vex.
127	* TheOrder: Krypton's professions are divided into Guilds (Lawmakers, Military, Science, etc.), which are intimately linked with family houses and bloodlines.
128	* OffscreenTeleportation: {{Subverted}}. Seg explicitly states that he knows the tunnels better, allowing him to arrive shortly after two people who left hours before he did.
129	* OnlyOneName: Rankless Kryptonians don't have surnames.
130	* OutsideContextProblem: Brainiac is an alien intelligence of incalculable power menacing Krypton, a society that has laws against even believing other life exists, much less having a means to counter it.
131	* PalmBloodletting: Seg-El slices his palm to drip blood onto the El family glyph on a console in Val-El's Fortress of Solitude to activate the computer systems.
132	* ThePlace: The series is titled after planet "Krypton", the famous doomed homeworld of Superman.
133	* PlaceBeyondTime: The Phantom Zone exists beyond time and space. In there, everything is happening all at once, and both the past and future are visible to its occupants. Not that this is much help to its occupants, since there's still no way to leave unless you have a means to force open a wormhole.
134	* {{Prequel}}: Takes place 200 years before Krypton's destruction, although it veers into AlternateTimeline.
135	* RaceLift: In the show, the members of the House of Zod look similar to black humans. Its most famous member, Superman's foe General Dru-Zod, looks like a white human in the main comics universe and most incarnations. Though Val-Zod, the Superman of ''ComicBook/Earth2'', is a black Kryptonian.
136	* RankScalesWithAsskicking: The leaders of the Sagitari also tend to be the best fighters. In the entire series, the only character who even comes close to being able to match General Dru-Zod one-on-one is his Grandmother Primus Jayna-Zod. [[spoiler:Even in the final showdown it takes both Seg and Lyta to take him down.]]
137	* RelatedInTheAdaptation: [[spoiler:Dru-Zod is the son of Seg and Lyta, meaning that like in ''ComicBook/SupermanEarthOne'' he's Jor-El's half-brother and Superman's uncle]].
138	* RedShirtArmy: One or more of the Sagitari get killed almost per episode.
139	* RippleEffectIndicator: The fact that Kal-El/Superman's cape is slowly vanishing from existence serves as a hourglass for Seg now that he's in a RaceAgainstTheClock to save the future.
140	* TheScapegoat: After the botched Black Zero raid, the Voice of Rao demands someone be held responsible so the people will calm down. Lyta-Zod is framed for the casualties and arrested as a Black Zero supporter.
141	* SecretTestOfCharacter: A rare villainous example. The Voice of Rao, [[spoiler: who's now being controlled by Brainiac]], gives Ona questions about faith to see if she's worthy of joining him. While he does outright state it's a test, he does not tell her [[AssimilationPlot what kind]].
142	* SequelHook: The season 1 finale ends with [[spoiler:Zod taking over as a military dictator, Adam Strange in a bottled city evidently taken from Earth, and Doomsday's stasis pod failing, letting the monster free]].
143	* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler:General Zod claims to have come back in time to prevent Krypton's destruction, which will happen if Brainiac is allowed to collect Kandor. Unfortunately, this would also stop Superman from existing, if not in body then at least in spirit.]]
144	* ShoutOut:
145	** A couple to Franchise/StarWars:
146	*** Daron-Vex's excuse for his absence during the failed coup is that he was [[Film/ANewHope "on a diplomatic mission"]]. (And then Vex also gets subjected to a one-handed NeckLift from TheDragon.)
147	*** When the Voice of Rao is facing down an assassination attempt he removes his helmet, requesting that, if this his last moment, he be allowed to [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi "look upon it with his own eyes"]].
148	** In the second episode of season 2, Seg does Henry Cavill's memetic fist reloading from ''Film/MissionImpossibleFallout'' when facing Lobo. Cameron Cuffe confirmed that it was an intentional reference.
149	* SpaceElevator: Krypton has the Hypersonic Orbital Tether, a space elevator that links it to its moon, Wegthor, the soil of which is rich in [[{{Unobtainium}} Stellarium ore]], which is needed to make hyperspace fuel. [[LaResistance The resistance]] against General Dru-Zod's dictatorship established their base on Wegthor, and end up blowing up the Hypersonic Orbital Tether to prevent Zod from sending his Sagitari armies against them.
150	* StarCrossedLovers: Seg-El and Lyta-Zod are in a clandestine and forbidden relationship. They're in [[InterClassRomance different social classes]], and even if he wasn't, his grandfather was a notorious criminal. Oh, and they're both promised to other people.
151	* TheStarscream: [[spoiler: Daron and Nyssa are planning to overthrow the Voice of Rao and take control of Kandor for themselves.]]
152	* SuicideByCop: The HeroicSacrifice of Seg's parents to protect him and the secret of the Fortress of Solitude. They both draw a blaster gun inside the court room in which Charys was on trial, and Jayna-Zod shoots them both as a result.
153	* TimeSkip: The season 1 finale ends with a one-month time skip, during which [[spoiler:Zod has seized control of Kandor and conscripted its populace, Doomsday has broken free of his pod, and Earth has a dark future of being visited by Brainiac while Zod has replaced Superman.]]
154	* ToplessnessFromTheBack: When Nyssa disrobes in front of Seg in "The Word of Rao", her topless back is the only thing the audience can see.
155	* TokenGoodCop: Many of the Sagitari who enforce the laws of Kandor City are well-versed in PoliceBrutality against the lower classes (whom they show constant disdain for), but Lyta tries to be an InternalReformist, her mother and Dev-Em improve their behavior after {{Heel Realization}}s, and a handful of minor Sagitari troopers (like Tai-Un, Thur, and Pline) seem like decent people who do their jobs well and without malice.
156	* TrappedByGamblingDebts: Along with the very human practice of [[LiquidCourage drinking]], Kryptonians enjoy gambling, which Seg does and gives him trouble regularly.
157	* TwoKeyedLock: The seal on [[spoiler:Doomsday's vault]] requires blood samples from two distinct sources: [[spoiler:the House of El and the House of Zod, who originally sealed the monster away]]. [[spoiler:A time traveling General Zod eventually realizes that as the son of Seg-El and Lyta-Zod, he has the blood of both families and can open the vault on his own]].
158	* {{Unobtainium}}: Stellarium ore, which is needed to make hyperspace fuel. The soil of Wegthor, the moon of Krypton, is full of it, which makes the moon particularly valuable to Dru-Zod's space conquest project. The downside is that Stellarium is volatile. [[spoiler:The explosion Kem triggers to bury Doomsday is enough to make the Stellarium supply of the moon explode, and the moon with it.]]
159	* UterineReplicator:
160	** Kryptonians reproduce by putting their DNA in the Genesis Chamber, similar to ''Film/ManOfSteel'', leaving their offspring to be grown. Seg and Nyssa-Vex conceive a child that way in the pilot. But Kryptonians can still have old-fashioned coitus.
161	** Reminiscent of the film ''Film/{{Gattaca}}'', Seg and Nyssa's child has its sex, lifespan, career and likely cause of death computed and announced to them, all from a single fertilized egg. It's a boy, he's already named Cor-Vex, and he'll be a famed lawmaker before dying of old age. [[spoiler:Except he'll really be a scientist named Jor-El]].
162	* VillainousRescue: For some time in Season 2, Brainiac is in Seg's body and helps him survive with calculations and aiming. It's entirely out of self-preservation but still qualifies.
163	* VisionaryVillain: General Zod's goal in Season 2 is to build an empire, and terraform all conquered worlds into new Kryptons, in order to ensure that the Kryptonian species never faces extinction again.
164	* WhamEpisode: The season 2 finale, "The Alpha and the Omega", in so many ways:
165	** The war ends with [[spoiler:Zod deposed and trapped by the Black Mercy]].
166	** Nyssa steals Adam's zeta beam to teleport to Rann in a bid to find Brainiac, but finds the planet under invasion [[spoiler:by {{winged humanoid}}s. These could be either Parademons or Thanagarians, though the Omega symbol she finds suggests Darkseid is involved]].
167	** Doomsday, of course, is still in one piece and has crashed back on Krypton.
168	** Seg teams up with Lobo to find Brainiac and his son.
169	** And finally, [[spoiler:Brainiac has claimed Jor-El as his son, and plans to take him to Earth where Jor-El will gain power under a yellow sun]].
170	* WhamShot:
171	** Season 1, [[spoiler:the El crest vanishing from Superman's cape and being replaced with the Zod one.]]
172	** Season 2, [[spoiler:Brainiac's ship approaches Earth, nearly a century before Superman would exist to oppose him.]]
173	* XanatosGambit: Brainiac's sentry carried out the traditionally expected operation of reaching a planet and then signaling back to Brainiac, while carrying out a second plan to quietly approach and take control of Krypton's central leadership figure.
174	* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: The "Black Zero" group. In their first major scene, one member tries to suicide bomb the Voice of Rao, but Seg helps stop him solely to save his father who was in the same place. Later in the season, they're expanded on as wanting to end the oppression of the Ranked and bring equality and freedom to Kandor.

Context Series / Krypton