Smallville Extra: Kryptonian Symbols and Writing
In the closing overs of the second season, Superlad was struck by a Kryptonian rainbow and, as Sir Isaac Newton proved in his groundbreaking research into prisms, thereby immediately gained knowledge of the Kryptonian language, including all Kryptonian symbols and writing.
These Kryptonian symbols (also called ‘Kryptonese’ by traditionalists and the chemically medicated) were first seen in old Superman comics. Naturally, as with most things, Smallville took the Kryptonian writing and completely muddled the whole situation up, using some Kryptonian letters for words, others for vague, ethereal concepts and a handful for local Smallville traffic signs.
Regardless, Superlad’s instant understanding of Kryptonian writing proved almost immediately handy, as the Good Spaceship Jor-El took control of the Superlad hot-eyes and started burning Kryptonian symbols all over the place. He burned the Kryptonian symbol for ‘hope’ (
) into the barn, the symbol for ‘fear’ (
) into the bathroom sink and the symbol for ‘burrito’ (
) into the local delivery van.
The Kryptonian language has popped up here and there since then, baffling young Master Luthor’s resident linguist, Dr CunningLinguist with its, y’know, baffling refusal to succumb to traditional translation methods. Kryptonian writing has also offered any number of excuses to shoehorn the entire cast of the Superman movies into random episodes of Smallville. Most recently, the symbol for ‘Zod’ (
) was plastered all over a Kansas farmyard. Zod, genocidal but not all that subtle.
So what are we to make of the Kryptonian language? What does it offer us, the viewer? Does it help us to swear in imaginative new ways? Is it perhaps the language that the makers of washing machines use to encode their manuals? Or is it still just a simple letter-by-letter cipher originally developed by the comic books that has, in whole-hearted Smallville tradition, been shamelessly pilfered, distorted and recycled with gay abandon?
All of the above, really. The Kryptonian language – making Latin look interesting for a new generation of TV addicts.
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Posted: November 29th, 2004 under smallville.
Tags: Latin, lies about Sir Isaac Newton, scathing washing machine satire, smallville extra
4 Comments (including Trackbacks, Pingbacks, Razorbacks and, uh, Nickelback)
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[...] Such shenanigans end as one might expect (ie with a wolf fighting a blind man and dying as a result) but, alas, we are not allowed to forget the caves so easily. They are thrust into our face at every opportunity. Smallville becomes Spelunky Town as both sets of Luthors purchase the caves and attempt to unravel the Kryptonian symbols on the wall. [...]
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[...] Kryptonian Symbols and Writing [...]
That is not the symbol for hope!
Perhaps not. But the symbol for 'burrito' is definitely right.