LIGHTNOVELONLINE Not a Chapter – Situation in Krypton
Krypton:
Krypton was governed by a High Council composed of the leaders of each guild, with a lot of influence from both the Science Guild and the Religious Guild, Krypton's imperialist age ended with a decree to the Religious Guild, which called back every Kryptonian and forbid them from leaving the Rao system, but that was ages ago.
Over the years, Krypton grew distant, paying less and less importance on feelings and more on logic and, slowly, they stopped inovating, stopped dreaming, their society started stagnatting. They were still a great society, but they were in a very, very, VERY slow decline.
Dru-Zod:
He was the perfect general, and the perfect leader for the Military Guild. It's a saying that, "to be kind to your enemies is to be cruel to your allies" and Zod took that as dogma.
To his allies, he was a kind, carrying, loyal and decidated man but, to his enemies, he could lie, torture, manipulate and be as cruel as it was needed.
He had the best in mind for Krypton, but he did see other races as... lesser, and he did have a certainty that he was always correct, with only a few people being capable of changing his mind, such as his wife and Jor-El himself. Still, he obeyed the High Council's orders.
When informed about the imminet destruction of Krypton reached him, he initially supported Jor-El but, when Jor-El failed to convince the rest of the High Council, he was greatly disapointed. He still supported his old time friend, but subsequent failures convinced him that the Council was far too rigid to ever see the light, and that Jor-El himself could fail, something that he had never thought about before.
With his conviction in Jor-El affected, he started making his own plans, where once he was content on following Jor-El's lead, he now thought that his way was the better one. He started making plans and presented them to Jor-El, but Jor-El asked for more time, because he too was making plans.
Unfortunately, Dru-Zod was not as trusting of Jor-El's actions as he had once been, and believed that his own plans would be supperior. Without Jor-El's support, Dru-Zod initiated his revolt, thinking that, once things were in motion, Jor-El would have no choice but to support him. He was wrong.
Not only did Jor-El not support him, he actually warned the rest of Krypton, causing Zod's revolt to fail before it caused any damage, and he was sentenced to the Phantom Zone for his rebelion, together with all of his supporters, Krypton exploded before his sentence was over.
Zor-El:
Zor-El was the perfect second in command, if he was leading the El house, it would be terrible, he was an almost completely amoral scientist willing to do pretty much anything, and he was also incredibly efficient.
While he trouble shooted a lot of Jor-El's projects, his older brother often had to tone down his own projects in order to prevent too much damage, and make them more humane.
He still loved his family, and he even loved his own wife, even when his mariage wasn't by choice, but he was very cold to them, and even colder to anyone else, with barely any political ability himself. He supported his brother and, at the very end, he did consider overthrowing him, but his loyalty stoped him, and then he realised it was already too late anyway.
Jor-EL:
An extremely inteligent man, he was only slightly below his brother as an inventor, but he was much better as a politician, and could look at the big picture far better.
When Jor-El assumed his place as the head of the El house, and the Science Guild, he studied Krypton's history and concluded -correctly- that Krypton had started to decline. For generations, their development had been slowing until it reached a peak and, very slowly, started decreasing.
Jor-El decided a change was necessary but, after long consideration, he realised that he wasn't the right person to do it, neither was it his brother or any of his allies, so he planned. He planed for Kara's birth, and helped design her genetics, then planned for Kal-El's creation, and also his entire childhood.
His plan was for Kal to be a kinder, more idealistic person, one who embodies everything that Jor-El thought as good, the greatest Kryptonian to ever exist, Kal-El would take his place as head of the house, and then take control of Krypton's government, starting a new Era for Krypton. Kara would be his right hand, just like Zor-El was for Jor-El.
As the older cousin, Kara would help raise Kal, getting his respect so that, even when he assumed control, he would still be willing to listen to her, and she would be a harder, less kind person, one willing to call him out, and do what was necessary when Kal hesitated.
With both Jor-El and Zor-El allowed to focus on studying and inventing things, Kal-El to guide the new society, Kara to help guide him, and Zod to be their general, Jor-El imagined Krypton stepping out on the wide Galaxy, and becoming a never before seen powerhouse, maybe even making the Green Lanterns obsolete.
Kal-El would be a great diplomat, able to empathise with all races, and to speak out to them, while Kara would be the harsher, more pragmatic right hand man, willing to inform him when it was time to stop being nice.
Unfortunately, after discovering that Krypton was going to be destroyed, Jor-El had to change his plans. He was forced to act before he was ready, and to compain for leaving Krypton far earlier than he planned. He had been playing a very, VERY long game, and was suddenly forced to move decades before he was ready.
Unfortunately, that showed his hand, and he wasn't the only genius in Krypton, much less the best politician. In fact, while he was good, there were much better politicians than him, and they started blocking his every atempt when they realised he wanted to take power.
Had Krypton not been about to explode, he'd have only acted when he was certain, and he would have won.
It was not that Jor-El didn't have other plans, but he was blocked every time and, everything he did was sabotaged by people who thought they knew better, and who were better politicians than him once they realised what he was trying to do.
Once people figured out he had been trying to set things up so he could take over in the future, because he trully believed, (and he was right) that Krypton was in decline, every one of his actions were interpreted as trying to regain his power, not save Krypton.
When Zod atempted to force his hand and start the revolution, Jor-El had a decision to make, The fact was, Jor-El valued all life, including those of "aliens". He was perfectly aware of what kind of person Zod was, to his alies, Zod could be kind but, to his enemies, he was a monster. Unfortunately, Jor-El also knew that Zod saw Kryptonians as superior to every other race.
To support Zod's revolt would be to save Kryptonians, but also unleashe them into the wide galaxy, a race that naturaly believed themselves superior, under a leader that was willing to be as brutal as necessary, and only had the limits others imposed on him. As a general, Zod would only go as far as he was allowed to, as a leader, he would not have any limits.
Worse, from Jor-El's point of view, Zod was convinced that he was right, he would have made small changes to Kryptonian society, but they wouldn't have solved the issues that Jor-El believed to exist and, once he won, Zod could not be defeated, or convinced to step down. Once they were away from the Rao sistem, Zod would probably be exposed to yellow or blue sunlight, resulting on a nearly immortal emperor for the Kryptonian people, and the almost certain full stagnation of their society.
So, he didn't support Zod, and actually argued for sending them to the Phantom Zone, because that would mean Zod would be out of the way, but still alive after Krypton was destroyed. And Jor-El was convinced that his son could earn Zod's loyalty later.
After that, Jor-El continued to try and solve the issue with Krypton, and it was not that he was stupid, but he trully believed that the High Council would see the truth.
It was a combination of his conviction in his own capacity, and hope in his fellow Kryptonians. to the end, Jor-El believed he could suceed, but he wasn't completely blind to the possibility of failure. He planed to send both Kara and Kal away from Krypton before it's destruction and, since he trully believed that his son would be the greatest of them all, Jor-El believed that Kal WAS the future.
It was simple, Jor-El believed he could solve things but, if he couldn't, that would mean that Kryptonian society was even worse than he thought, and he accepted the risk of it's destruction, because he believed that Kryptonian future lay with his son.
It was not that he wanted Krypton to be gone, he did his absolute best to change that, and he believed, and hoped, that he would succed to the very end but, in the VERY, VERY unlikely case that he -GASP- failed? (It wouldn't happen.) He was willing to accept the results as long as Kal survived.