#they could do the smallville route of gradual betrayal or the mos route of viciously righteous general

[noblechaton]

That looks more like Zod than Braniac.

oh that's totally valid to think! and I can absolutely see it, what little we know does fit Zod's typical traits and it would work for an Evil Krypton sorta thing, but for me it's sorta down to two things as to why I think Brainiac - the faceplate thingy opening up in that weird way when they did a big ol' heat vision laser blast(?) that felt. overdramatic for a humanoid face lmao. and more importantly imo, the logo on the machines - and the one on the big bad, how it's just a plain triangle that's maybe raised up -

and I think they'd show his shield if it were Zod - Zod's crest has been different across adaptations iirc (snyderverse's had sort of a horseshoe/U shape? smallville had a funky Z etc.) so there wouldn't be much given away there for the more casual audience at least - it could look like anything, might even be just a fancy Z similar to the S on Clark (which would be reason to hide it ig. keep the surprise till the end. or maybe that IS the Zod logo here which uh. weird but it could work? eh?)

but also personally my theory all season long has been that Sam/etc. misunderstood the events of Zero Day in some way due to it being Brainiac's doing - with Brainiac being some creation on Krypton (ala TAS, iirc) that rose up and doomed the planet, then sought out other planets for the typical Brainiac reason of putting them in a bottle, and that misunderstanding can be more. well. understandable if Brainiac looked Kryptonian, if he looks somewhat like Supes - the cape, the build, the triangle on the chest, etc.

now don't get me wrong, again, super valid read on things and would make sense, Zod loves him a good conquest, typical Zod Stuff, totally works, and really I'd love it to be him because he might be my second favorite Superman antagonist at this point - really wished he'd shown up in S&L - but I feel this more a Brainiac thing given the machines and how indirect this has all been. and also Zod's been weirdly absent in Supes stuff since MoS for whatever reason

tho there is a chance that it might be Zod and Brainiac which would be kind of wild lmao. could work tho. also thank u for giving me an excuse to speculate on a show I love - I haven't done this out loud in a long time anon and I appreciate u

#i think its also important to note that the design motifs in this show haven't been all that accurate to the comics #which in some cases ive really liked personally and in others uh. well. lmao (parasite is too voltrony for me lol) #maws spoilers #my adventures with superman spoilers #really i love the idea of zod here too bc of what it could mean for next season. clark finding out he isn't alone and such #they could do the smallville route of gradual betrayal or the mos route of viciously righteous general #or the uh. superman 2 route of. being caught up in a big thing of plastic wrap made to look like the S. lmao