I keep seeing people being like "Oh, Clark's parents were just freaks about the secret harem thing and ruling over the planet." And like, sure, it's funny, but I don't think the other Kryptonians were perfect either.
In Supergirl, I almost felt the comment of "The baby he wants to become a conquerer" (or whatever it was) by Kara's dad was more about the fact that he was a baby. I think Krypton was a conquering planet bloated by its ways that lead to the collapse- like the Roman Empire.
For one, the golden towers you see everywhere. Unless you eat and breathe gold, life would not be possible on a planet with that much gold. It had to have come from somewhere, though. I think of this quotation from Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
"But she wondered why beautiful things had to be wrapped up with evil history. Or was it the other way around? Maybe the evil history made it necessary to build beautiful things, to mask the darker aspects."
For the whole planet to be covered in it, multiple other planets would have had to have been pillaged for it. There's a non-zero chance those planets were already populated by the time the Kryptonians came for the resources.
Another point was the disregard for scientists by those in power. Kara's dad is warning them right up until the planet collapses. I feel like a truly good and just society would listen to the truth.
In addition, the movie makes a point to show the people outside the barrier when Kara's dad activates it. The ones running and trying to support each other and still not making it in time. The ones left behind with no regard. We're safe on Argo. We've saved ourselves. In my mind, that would be a heavy burden. We survived, but imagine all those who didn't. I know it's hard to make an impossible choice like that, but it didn't seem to be among the things that troubled Kara's dad.
I don't think that changes Kara's mom's message of be good, even if you're not nice. She individually could have meant it completely and truly, but that doesn't mean all of Krypton would agree with her.
In summary: maybe Clark's parents weren't the freaks of Kryptonian culture. Maybe Kara's mom was the outlier instead.
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