Man of Steel answers insight commentary episode six weaknesses part one environment and equipment will ask the obvious question of answers welcome to Man of Steel answers insight commentary on your Man of Steel apologist Dr. awkward I cover a mosaic of topics for fans who love discussing the Man of Steel and the DC cinematic universe together will endeavor to answer the questions criticisms and controversies raised by the Man of Steel and those excited by the anticipated DC cinematic universe in this episode we cover some of the possible weaknesses and how they may have worked in the film specifically Wenonah cover how the environment and equipment works with kryptonian's this podcast dives deep into the Man of Steel to answer the critics and the confused the show is not meant to convert anybody but the celebrate a film that leaves a lot of wonderful room for interpretation and investigation reasonable minds will differ but this is a show for fans who love to the Man of Steel and who love to chew their food will start with die genic analysis for what happened in the film then analyze the creative decisions that took place outside the film for now were doing general topic episodes like this one so thanks for joining me in the last three episodes be covering the powers that set callow apart considering them altogether Superman seems nigh invincible or easy this episode is the first of a two-part series about one of the most misunderstood topics for Man of Steel the kryptonian weaknesses now admittedly it was probably conveyed in a confusing manner but will endeavor to do a little bit better by exploring how the kryptonian's get there powers how those powers get suppressed and how that interacts with the environment and their equipment like their helmets and their armor the next week will break down the insights that Man of Steel provides on how Batman another future opponents of Superman might have a chance to scrap with them but the loss discussed how compelling conflict doesn't necessarily require so will start with the basic theory of how the powers and weaknesses work that will point out the possible problems with the basic theory that will cover some of the alternative explanations address their issues and finally will pick a theory that seems best for now I always disclaimed that reasonable minds will differ and it's especially true here since the ambiguity of the film leaves a lot of room for interpretation I had so much fun working with that though I got my crazy TV detective obsessed investigator murder wall of evidence tact in a largely indecipherable manner with hints of order known only to me colored string and dry erase no stations peppering the construct that's what my Microsoft one notebook looks like for this after turning it over and thinking about a lot and asking the community for some answers a crystallizes into a maybe a clear table which of shared on Reddit and should be available in the show notes so let's start with the basic theory it has two basic precepts one kryptonian's get there powers from yellow sun radiation which they can store and their cells and to the powers are suppressed by breathing kryptonian atmosphere 10 that is not a huge insight right that's not an incredible answer that's not something completely unexpected but to be fair that's in a aside from the kryptonian atmosphere aspect is pretty traditional and that simple understanding covers 90% of the movie it it it doesn't have any conflicts or contradictions are issues and so if that's the extent of the understanding for most the moviegoing audience that's all they need but here it Man of Steel answers insight commentary we do like to dig a little bit deeper and try to address any possible contradictions issues plot holes the people might have and that little bit a 10% starts a rather Hall that the rest of his episodes can cover personal let's look at what supports that basic understanding that basic theory that we've got and let's go to Jor-El who as far as we can tell is the main authority on these powers in the film mostly information that we get from the film in the first person or that's explicitly stated comes from Jor-El and we first had that line where it's not actually Jor-El signing it's Lara but she says a main sequence yellow star and to that Jor-El says a young star his cells will drink it's radiation right then later in the film Clark meets Jor-El's hologram for the first time and he asks the question that has been burning in his mind his entire life he says why my so different from them and we get Jor-El's narration he says earth sun is younger and brighter than krypton was your cells have drunken it's radiation strengthening your muscles your skin your senses earth's gravity is weaker yet it's atmosphere is more nourishing you grown stronger here than I could've ever imagined the only way to know how strong is to keep testing your limits so we got a lot of information in just those two scenes in those handful of lines let's break it down little bit first we have the fact that the radiation is is stored it it doesn't necessarily have to be on tap all the time in order to operate the analogy that Jor-El provides is drinking and if you think about drinking then when you take in the water you are hydrated only while you are drinking right you are able to take that water in keep it within stores within your body and rely on that that drink that liquid that that water until you feel thirst again contrast that against a character like nuclear man from Superman for not the greatest movie in the world but the villain in that case did need to perpetually be within the sun in order to maintain his powers that something that distinguishes Emir a little bit a detail that comes from Jarrell's metaphor about how his powers work another thing the Jor-El's mentions is that it has strengthened your muscles your skin your senses now the fact that he says strengthening it tends to imply a degree of permanence so a an actual tangible change or a fact I would go so far to say as his powers come from his muscles being strengthened we did talk about that extensively in our last series of episodes simply put strengthening your muscles would not enable you to accomplish the great feats that Superman does but it doesn't mean that his strength isn't enhanced beyond just say a normal baseline humans strength and before you jump to the conclusion that that's how Superman maintains his incredible muscle tone without having to do resistance training we do have an answer for that but that's another show notes important to take note of this drinking analogy as opposed to continually needing to be on top because of some later discussions will have the show some just highlighting it for your information right now another thing that's interesting about were Jor-El says is that he says that radiation is the source of his powers notice the Jor-El says that radiation has strengthened your senses a common theory out there is that the radiation provides part of the powers but that earth's atmosphere provides the following complement powers with particularity the sensory abilities however Jor-El statement doesn't exactly back that up he says your cells have drunken and it's radiation strengthening… Your senses so here it is the radiation that is causing Superman super senses not necessarily the atmosphere at the same time then it seemed like there's some surplusage in his terminology and his explanation the gravity seems to be a non sequitur as far as I can tell it doesn't seem to play into the movie at all and it's never raised or addressed in any direct fashion that ties specifically to his powers I guess you could explain it is tied to the struggle against the world engine but we'll talk more about that later right now just ask are highlighting the points and lastly of course he mentions the more nourishing atmosphere and that of course causes ulcers of problems in that remaining 10% which is which of this episode is going to explore and talk about that that's a basic understanding of how the powers start and how they work we has also look at the second supposition which is that powers are suppressed by the breathing of K air and we have a lot of lines in the film tied to this understanding or the Safeco play some audio clips in case I don't get to that hears me reading off those lines so failer the atmosphere composition of our ship is not compatible with humans you need to wear a breather beyond this point have Druze odd you spent a lifetime adapting to earth ecology but you never adapted hours have jacks are here in this environment you are as weak as a human you have Jor-El I can modify its atmospheric composition to human compatibility you have Lois if that thing makes earth more like krypton won't you be weaker around it that you notice that both jacks are and Lois use the word week in the environment described by all these lines above that is the kryptonian atmosphere has forced let's call it K air just the same ensembles so while Superman is weak he's likely not drained because he bounces back as soon as Jor-El changes the atmospherics on the ship and Superman is no longer breathing the care of course the other possibility that is that his powers are fueled by earth's atmosphere which now will call the air but I think is discounted by the examples outside of Earth atmosphere and Jor-El statement of how the powers work when I save examples of his powers outside of Earth atmosphere we covered that in previous episodes and talking about the examples where he's in the oil rig fire and the conditions of that atmosphere is not earth's atmosphere when he's drifting in the ocean underwater that's not earth atmosphere and of course the three trips to space going all the way up all way down but the wide range of different earth atmosphere conditions but certainly by the time you reach the vacuum of space that's definitely not earth atmosphere so in all the circumstances Superman's powers were able to work and so doesn't seem like he's fueled by earth atmosphere and as we discussed above Jor-El statement of how the powers work it seems to come from radiation not earth atmosphere as we also discussed before the metaphor of drinking means that the power is stored within him so by being no longer exposed to the K air his powers are no longer suppressed and he has access to the stores again and therefore his strength comes back and he can break his bonds that's a basic understanding of how the powers and like a set covers most the film and it's enough understanding that in less you really start to worry about these contradictions shouldn't bother you for most the film and probably for any future felt so that's all you need to rationalize it that's great we can move on for but here's where the stumbling blocks come into so taken together you gain powers from the sun you lose powers from breathing care and that basic theory is enough to work for the entire film except the battle a small the that here we can Anita more sophisticated theory to address everything that happens in small still is the basic problem and it a comes down to essentially to theories but or branch off as does the two issues come in this fashion issue number one it K air drains all kryptonian's of their powers than what was odd breathing if it's not K air what's the function of his helmet alternatively we've got issue number two it K air does not suppress powers and all kryptonian's why is callow distinguishable from's odd why does he keel over in the black zero where aside can breathe K air in small bill and still exhibit powers and function perfectly fine so theory one branches into two basic theories the first is saying essentially that reside was demonstrating abilities but not through his kryptonian powers and the second is that he was demonstrating abilities but he wasn't breathing K air will talk about the first branch of the first theory first so if K air does drain all kryptonian's of their powers and's odd was breathing care then rationally he doesn't have any powers but as we see through the film he clearly does have powers he throws the truck through the 10th Homestead he endures Superman's blows and then failer and now Mac clearly exhibit extraordinary abilities one of the most common reconciliations I seen people before for this is that the kryptonian's actually didn't have any powers but they were relying entirely on the abilities and powers their armor in other words that there armor is powered know we discussed this in the past and in the first episode I may have gone too far and said that the armor is not powered what I meant to say is that is not power to the extent that we see in the battle small veil and the reason for that can be some the pre-quickly with a handful examples I first we have Jor-El versus odd on krypton and in that case they were both wearing armor and they were both engaged in quite an extensive melee they both were very motivated to and that battle and a lot of the blows landed on their face on the fleshy part of their head in fact was odd gains a memorable scar from that fight if they were punching with the abilities or forces that we saw demonstrated in the battle small bill I'm pretty sure one of those two guys with a been decapitated in that fight second during Lois's escape from the black zero there's a couple of indications that the kryptonian's on board clearly are not powered first off you have guards that are stopped by mere doors and as we see later with Superman casually tapping a panel and causing it to blow how the whole of the black zero if they had powers they would not have been stopped by mere doors specifically Lois engages in a struggle with carved backs played by Samantha Jo and in that struggle she's able to kick Carmax off of her and engage in a physical struggle now again Carmax was wearing armor at the time and it was powered to the degree that we see in the battle of small bill that it's highly unlikely that Lois would've been able to wrestle with their kicker off and escape now some have suggested in that scene that Carmax has powers or powered armor because she punches through a back panel the pod and causes some structural damage now to me does damage only to decorative molding if I gave you an armored gauntlet I'm pretty sure you could mess up a cars – without superpowers and that's essentially all that's inside and escape pod it's just plastic molding to one that plastic but some sort of molding to separate the passenger from the you know functional wires and gizmos and gadgets within the in the pod itself we doesn't Messerli take powers or a super feet or power armor to do that kind of damage that said obviously the armor is powered to some degree it does run on power it has powered component like the gauntlet bayonet that is odd deploys it has that retracting facemask and if you consider the helmets in the breathers a component of that clearly that also has a powered component to it so it is not to say that the armor is completely inert I don't believe that but at the same time I don't think it grants you the powers that you saw in small bill because if it did then things would've gone differently on krypton and on the black zero in now Lois is trying to escape beyond being just stop by doors are being able to be wrestled Lois does apparently stop if not kill to kryptonian so apparently they did also did not have that same level of invulnerability or durability that the kryptonian's in small bill had so to the extent that there in vulnerability comes from their powers Lois being up to down to of them suggest that those on the black zero didn't have any powers so that's theory one branch one where K air does drain all kryptonian's is odd is breathing K air so he doesn't have powers except through his armor branch to says that kryptonian air does drain all kryptonian's but there's odd was not breathing K air instead's odd was either breathing the air or something that was neither E air or K air so that leads naturally to to questions why are you breathing anything other than K air and if you're not breathing care what's the use of the helmet let's answer them in turn first why aren't you breathing K air well Jor-El lays out for us earth air is more nourishing so why not if earth air is purely a plus factor if there is no consequences to breathing earth's atmosphere for adult kryptonian switch the matter under any of these theories that you you follow appears to be the case insofar as respiratory distress the helmets do get compromised for his odd and Feodor so they whatever their breathing before they go from that to earth there and in that span neither of them experience respiratory distress so if it is sufficiently compatible for kryptonian's to breathe and as Jor-El puts forward it is more nourishing then why not in the Lords you may have a breather function on your helmet but why turn it on the atmosphere is fine for you to breathe in fact is better for you to break maybe that's the case in other words they came down and they just said work Hembree ear so that's one possible apologetics the other possibility is that they are breathing a mixture however that mixture is not K air in other words K air still causes kryptonian's the loser powers but although there using their helmets and their breathing and something else they are breathing in something other than K air and then you have that's yourself what what would they be breathing and why would they breathing while let's look at other warriors other individuals that where gas masks that where environmental suits and we can think of two very good reasons to do so one reason is for safety and redundancy in the case of fighter pilots fighter pilots will often where oxygen masks that feed a mixture although it is diluted to become more like earth atmosphere it does start out as a pure oxygen mixture so for example was on and his crew may have a enhanced combat mixture something that helps protect them if they were to experience say explosive decompression of a dropship during transit from space to earth's atmosphere so that mixture would still substantively be similar to K air but it may be different enough that it doesn't called the same suppressing effect that we saw with the care in the film another good reason to potentially be breathing something other than K air is a little off base and to be honest there's no direct support for the film but it's essentially to be high to be drugged to be on narcotics to be on opiates in human history we have a long history of warriors who take performance enhancing intoxicants such intoxicants would dull their paint all their fears reduce their inhibitions instead create stronger braver bolder more fearless warriors you have a lot of incentive to dope up your warriors so that there less inclined towards compassion so that their more suggestible programmable perhaps or aggressive so for all we know it's possible that every time that little bit of that little gas masks thing pops up Feodor is taking a hit so that she can be a little more juice to go and killer enemy under speculation completely unsupported except by human history not really the theory am going with but I just submitted there for your thoughts okay so if you're satisfied that there is reasons to breathe something other than K air such as E air which is nourishing and apparently does not affect adult kryptonian negatively or perhaps some sort of combat mixture for either performance enhancement or safety in case of decompression of their dropship's then you have the natural question why are you wearing these helmets at all the first thing is many people had mistakenly called them breathers exclusively as if the only function of the helmet is to act as a breather when Superman refers to the headgear which he had damaged he says without your helmet you're getting everything so clearly in Superman's eyes it's function goes beyond being a breather and that's perfectly reasonable to say or do if I were to say to you to make a call hold that microphone to your mouth it doesn't mean that the smart phone that I'm handing to you is a microphone solely and exclusively it means that a microphone is a component of that smart phone so likewise that Feodor references a part of the helmet that is relevant to Lois his respiration as a breather that doesn't mean the entire's assembly is a breather only in function or in name in fact we see at least a couple of other functions first it protects side from the physical strikes that he endures during Superman's angriest moment second it protects on from sensory bombardment will talk about this in just a bit third they could act as comes or communication devices as an aside and to make things even more complex and confusing the gas mask portion of the fully assembled armor is part of the chest plate and not the helmet when Lois gets the helmet with the breather she doesn't get that little gas mask and wins odds helmet is damaged if you watch closely the gas mask struggles to retract itself into his chest plate so it is a separate piece of armor a couple of more notes about that mask you never see Nymex gas mask retract alternatively they are it does retracted but with no necessarily clear rhyme or reason now the main thing that I believe the helmet does for sodden fair in the film is that the act as sensory compression devices if you look at them carefully there's portions that cover their ears entirely with little active flaps that open and close in response the sound and the environment we also see that they have variable up a city when fair or first lands it's black and then it's able to turn transparent so it can act as a shield or sensory compression just from the brightness of light now if you don't know what sensory compression is a what I'm talking about it's taking the wide berth or band of senses that you could be receiving and bringing them down and into safe and comfortable ranges so for the light of the sun or glare coming off of other vehicles on the road or glare coming off the lake while boating by wearing sunglasses particularly those with polarization your able to filter out or filtered down the information that you taking into your eyes to be more comfortable and safe for them for example completely filtering out UV or polarizing that glaring light so that it's cut back to something more comfortable in the case of auditory compression typically what we do is we take the very high amplitudes bring them back down to say for comfortable hearing range and in some cases we may take the quiet noises and amplify them up into normal hearing range for the very loud sounds it's very obvious why you would want to do this in combat it helps you cut out gunshots tank fire explosions but at the same time it still allows you to hear the commands of your commanding officers and fellow servicemen and communicate clearly for hunters they appreciate the amplification of soft sounds so that they can hear rustling of leaves breaking of twigs and be more prone or easy to stocking catch their prey the US military has been deploying something called T Tactical communications and protection system essentially these active hearing protection devices by active I mean it's an electronic device that uses algorithms and senses to actively bring the band of audio noise into this tight range compare that to say passive your protection which suggests is basically your standard earplugs are earmuffs that dulls all sound down by a certain amount but that would include the commands of your officers the communications of your teammates so as you can see that kind of ability would be very useful on the field it's something that we already employ in today's technology so it's very plausible and it seems apparent by what happens in the film that you also have the same kind of sensory compression going on with kryptonian armor known ancillary question that comes up that even if the senses were being compressed even if they were being locked out if indeed side and Feodor it were fully powered even within their suits why aren't there super senses going off within the helmet right so in other words their x-ray vision could still be seeing through the helmet or that they'd still be they still have supersensitive hearing inside the helmet I think the answer to that is that the compressed senses which the helmet provides gives you an artificial band of focus which is Superman's solution for avoiding sensory overload or attack in other words by bringing all your senses and all the information into your head within a comfortable normal band at that point your unlikely to trigger a sensory overload causing you to x-ray vision through your own helmet or have super hearing within it those kind of things and as we saw with Clark as a child and with decide as an adult in the Arctic it is something that you can overcome with a degree of focus and mental control so as long as the helmet is providing that focus and mental control then there's no need or expectation that the kryptonian inside it would have to so whether breathing in the air or a performance-enhancing mixture neither would sap's odds powers and the helmet can still be fully explained by the utility provides is also explains why there's no respiratory transition when the helmets go down because they were already with breathing that same or similar atmosphere and it also explains why there's still sensory issues because they lose the the sensory compression or focus but the helmets provide it does introduce another question another issue and that is if the helmets are so useful if you have so much utility them why not on krypton when starting a coup to overthrow your government well there's a couple of possible answers one you know it is a rebellion and you are fighting loyal kryptonian's so in may be useful to have your face is visible to idea your fellow insurgents but as we can see the helmets can be completely transparent so I don't think that argument holds a whole Lotta weight instead I like an argument that inspired by Superman the animated series you have to remember that the government they're trying to overthrow is the established system they control everything in the helmets that were talking about are loaded with information technology that technology is the technology of the established system so it's loaded with calms it's loaded with networking and now you're endeavoring to overthrow a system where they have full control over that system in other words the system in place may already now have all the identities and information's on your movements and locations and your communications if you were to use their helmets in Superman the animated series there's an episode where they go back and show jacks are and Moeller trying to overthrow the kryptonian counsel in that episode Jor-El actually uses the insurgents helmets against them he takes one of them overloads the senses and that and the network of insurgent helmets causes all of the insurgents to crumble simultaneously and thus the rebellion is stopped Zonta in our film may have foresaw such an issue that's they decline to use the communications calms and information technology that's already linked to the system that they're trying to overthrow this would explain why thought had to walk out of the Citadel to communicate his orders to his troops on the platform rather than relying on the calms again which would be in possession or control of the existing system so that would explain to us why these highly useful highly utilitarian helmets weren't used during the kryptonian coup that were used on earth in the battle a small bill writes Elizabeth branches under theory one if you want to make the conclusion that God was breathing K air then that brings us back to theory to under theory to the helmets do act as breathers side was breathing K air but we drop the assumption that care suppresses powers in all kryptonian rather it affected Superman differently than it does odd or at least it does under the circumstances in the movie in trying to figure out what distinguishes Superman from Zide while we are told at least one thing is on says that Colwell has spent a lifetime adapting to earth's atmosphere that's something that he did that God didn't and of course the corollary of that is that's odd and his crew spent a lifetime adapting to K air the presumption there is that if you've adapted to K air it no longer acts as a suppressant to your powers the obvious question then is why does callow keel over when going from year to K air whereas Zide and Feodor have their helmets compromised that they don't suffer any respiratory distress going from K air to the air I think the answer to that is again borrowing from the theories above that the air is better than K air and so for callow going from the air to K air he's going uphill but for's ongoing from K air to the air going from a harsher environment is Jor-El called it to a better environment to a more nourishing environment another ancillary question then is if all it takes is adaptation to overcome it how could they have relied on restraining I think the answer to that is that they didn't have to worry about Superman breaking his restraints because it takes a lifetime and they were anticipating and spending a lifetime on their ship however this does tend to contradict jacks are his comments he says here in this environment your as weak as a human and he seems to be laying the blame on the environment rather than Cal Wells ability to adapt or lack there also as we discussed in past episodes callow has shown the ability to adapt as a child and in fact Cal Eldred did adapt to some degree he was experiencing respiratory distress and blacking out when he first appeared on the black zero but when he wakes from unconsciousness he's no longer coughing even if he's weak of course this uphill argument does struggle with the fact that Cal Al suffered years of pain is not describes and things were so hard for him as Martha describes as a child if he air is purely a plus factor then why would a child struggle and I think this is explainable using juvenile asthma many individuals have asthma as children but they grow out of it and like many things related to allergies and physiology is not completely understood but most of the prevailing theories of why growing up neutralizes the asthma has to do with an adults greater ability to resist allergy and inflammation for example the bronchial pathways of the bronchial leaves grow in diameter as the child grows into an adult now that the pathways are wider and larger more air can pass through the their less susceptible to allergy or inflammation and to the extent that they do get inflamed area still able to pass through them to the composition of Earth's atmosphere may have been inflammatory reaction to Clark as a child but as he grew older and as he adapted to the situation over course of years and he grew out of that respiratory distress it's something that we see in humans it's not beyond the realm of reason for kryptonian current those are working theories but they do take some time to explain and they are somewhat counterintuitive so let's get to what I think is the best theory and I think credit goes to Reddit user godless hero for responding back to our thread in the Superman Reddit exploring this issue he did come up with the framework for this however this is my analogy of it and I think it's the most elegant explanation so far so above we use the film's metaphor of drinking sunlight and being hydrated as being powered however I think a better explanation or more clear metaphor would be to imagine a battery-powered laptop with a charging cable we analogize Superman's reserves of solar energy to the laptop's battery and will analogize being in direct sunlight with the power cable being plugged in obviously he can use his powers if he's in the sun and with energy stored just as a laptop is operational if it's plugged in but also has a charged battery he can also use his powers without being in the sun like at night this is as if running off battery power with the power cable unplugged so what if his battery is inaccessible but his power cable is still plugged in with a laptop we know that certainly works and I think it's the same for Superman I think that's where the K air comes in the K air axis something that cuts Superman off from his battery it doesn't drain the charge it's still there is evident from when he breaks free from the black zero but it does prevent him from using or accessing his stores like taking the battery out of the laptop but that isn't a problem so long as he still plugged in that is standing within direct sunlight so in small bill Zonta may have been breathing K air and unable to tap into his stores but having powers directly from the source he could still exhibit his powers the black zero is a spaceship and thus naturally this shielded from radiation for its inhabitants to survive the journey through space so on the black zero Superman no longer had the direct radiation from the sun nor did he have access to his stores and that distinguishes his weakness on the black zero having access to neither of his sources of power from Zide who had access to at least one source of power there is some support for this position based on the fact that Zide failer and now Mac exhibited powers immediately without having to store energy for law as well as the fact that Superman is able to tackle the world engine despite the presence of at least some K air in fact if you watched the world engine choreography carefully he loses his strength and ability to fly briefly while choking while in a cloud of care which is arguably suppressing his powers and the opacity of the cloud blocking his direct access to the sun as soon as he falls below the cloud however he recovers that just as a quick aside and I don't want to get too much into this obviously that short exposure to the sun or even long decades of exposure to the sun does not generate enough energy for all the feeds and abilities that we see in Superman and the kryptonian's you may be aware of a recent physics study or paper that was printed that came to this rather obvious conclusion that the amount of output that Superman generates in no way matches the amount of solar radiation he takes an even if it was converted at 100% efficiency as this is obviously the realm of fantasy and comic book tropes I don't know that there is a satisfying scientific solution for this but I figured I might as well share something from the late 90s as an explanation for the powers of Marvel's X-Men leader Cyclops and his optic blasts which you may or may not know was also justified through the absorption of solar radiation the late 90s explanation was that his powers didn't come from the sun per se but rather that they solar radiation that he absorbed acted as a gate to extra dimensional power source so applied to Superman and the kryptonian's it's not that they are literally using the power that they are gaining from the sun but rather exposure to the sun gives them access to some extra dimensional energy which they can either tap into at that moment or also include into their stores their own personal battery as it were I think this particular analogy is mostly consistent with the entire film to be fair and only reviewed it for about half a day but I don't see any problems with and I kind of like it the questions that I do see that arise from it are answered by our previous theories and why we walked through all of them because it seems that you do need to layer some of these explanations to address some of the more ancillary questions for example having seen what K air does to LL on the bridge of the ship why then does odd breathe K air on earth well like we discussed before maybe it's merely for comfort maybe he understands the mechanics of his powers and recognizes it won't be an issue as long as he remains within direct sunlight but I think the answer that we alluded to before but maybe I'll spell it out little more clearly here is that it may just be SOP or standard operating procedure in order to make the transition from space to atmosphere Zide is militarily minded and so when he's transitioning in a dropship from a state of no atmosphere to a state of is survivable atmosphere it's quite reasonable to as a precaution where a gas mask in between should you experience explosive decompression or retaliation or your trip be interrupted it's one of the reasons that are fighter pilots where gas masks it's a redundancy their cockpits are pressurized in fact you will often see pilots take the mask off or have it hanging to the side just for comfort convenience but nonetheless they habit there is a redundancy or security in case of an issue in the film's odd is leader of an aggressive alien incursion there is the possibility that humanity retaliates and just somehow someway successfully manages to damage or destroy a dropship before it makes its way to safe earth's atmosphere so it's reasonable for his audit his group to take the measures that you would normally take when transiting from space to landfall this is supported by the fact that the two times you see them come off the ship their masks are fully opaque the little gas masks part of their armor is up with her mouth and their breathers are fully intact as if to make the transition with maximum protection and shielding only once they make it to earth do they begin to retract some of these things they let their helmets go translucent or transparent they retract the mouthguard on their masks and Zide even does without the breather at a later point the second point of support is when Zide leaves the black 02 go fetch the scout ship at that point he doesn't bring a helmet with him and that's because he's making a flight within earth atmosphere is on is no longer transitioning from space to earth atmosphere but rather flying within it and so the function of the helmet is less necessary now is a character motivation I think it's more clear that was on believes that it was a point of vulnerability and as a warrior he seeks to eliminate that vulnerability for any future engagements and so I I feel it's more like God is confronting a potential weakness that could be exploited again more than traveling to earth atmosphere the standard procedure not be SOP no longer requires them to have a helmet but nonetheless it arguably support so to review kryptonian's get there powers from either direct exposure to yellow solar radiation or from stores of the same K air affects all kryptonian's but only affects their ability to access their stores of solar energy it does not remove there powers while they are in direct sunlight why did side still choose to breathe K air well maybe it was standard procedure maybe understood the mechanics of his own powers and wasn't concerned about accessing stores of kryptonian energy another question is why Zide didn't experience the same respiratory distress going from K air D air under this particular theory and I think the explanations are essentially the same as the above theories he air is mostly a plus factor and Zide is an adult now this whole theory is a described that slots in nicely and reconciles with that last percent of the felt like as of the general theory covers 90% of the film this whole complex theory just needed to cover that 10% occurring in the battle a small bill and for that one little scene during the world engine where Superman loses his powers but something that doesn't quite slide and is neatly right now is the prequel comic and if you read the prequel comic there is a scene where I believe this is roughly the intention Kara and dead them are hurtling towards earth they've entered solve our solar system and their in a life-and-death struggle Kara attacks dead them with a space helmet which she cracks over his head and causes him to bleed he is damaged he is harmed but then there's a handful of panels showing the yellow sun through the bridge window or viewscreen of the scout ship I think the intent is at that point they are somehow seeing were exposed to the yellow sun get then tries to throw a punch at Kara she dodges and he makes a massive dent in the whole will be on his expectations or his normal strength and dead them is actually surprised by his own strength now my issue with this and specifically that panel is that scout ships are spaceships replicated 1000 times over to go to a variety of star systems in order to spread across the universe and colonize the stars at a bare minimum they should be shielded for radiation this is something that even our earth of vehicles in the 1960s endeavored to do it's also our rationale for why the kryptonian do not have powers on the black zero unless we go back and I theory and say that K air does completely cut kryptonian's off from there powers not just their store of powers in other words the kryptonian's on the black zero still are exposed to solar energy still have the potential of power but because their breathing K air they don't have access to their stores nor do they have access to direct energy in the countermand's are contradicts our third and most elegant theory that sort of laptop analogy one proposal raised by godless hero in on Reddit was that the black zero would have additional or special shielding because of its entry into the Phantom zone while that's a reasonable distinction at the same time just baseline solar radiation is something that any and every scout ship should be shielded against I think we can do apologetics for this and that might get into even more my new shut and more mechanics of how either solar shielding works on the ships or how solar powers working kryptonian's but I think at this point it's easier just to discard that one offending a panel and talk it up to a miscommunication between the filmmakers who were in charge of the story and the actual comic book writer who was in charge of the script is not impossible to reconcile but now were leaving even more the realm of the intuitive for something that's only 8.05 occurrence it's hard for something it's only just one panel in a comic of the prequel of questionable canonicity so I think we'll wrap it up here next week will come back with an episode applying the principles and the theories that we've developed here on how Batman and other opponents might exploit this weakness and others that we haven't talked about but we will hope you join us then eczema soliciting I love discussing the stuff been sticking with me for this whole thing is to gently and everything is going to Man of Steel answers.com that way questions is one answers insight to the share commentary to make composing for all your like-minded apologist or you can email me Man of Steel answers.com May 1 if you like what you heard please review the show I arrived this is Dr. awkward your Man of Steel apologist signing off the