When RAO is used right.

[llozymandias]

When used as the kryptonians' name for GOD. E Nelson Bridwell wrote it that way. In the "krypton Chronicles", Tio-El took the name of a sun-god & made it the name of the solitary GOD he was preaching about. At no time in the comics (before 1986, anyway) was RAO used as the name of krypton's sun.

[dupersuper]

I prefer him as a sun god, myself.

[666MasterOfPuppets]

Interesting. I had always thought of Rao as THE Sun God. Especially taking into account that Kryptonians were polytheists. But I do not remember anything about polytheism in Krypton during the Pre-CoIE days.

[Kymeric]

I want just one "Rao dammit" from Superman, Supergirl or Zod!

[lovelikewinter]

Isn't Krypton advanced enough that they would grow past the idea of needing gods?

[666MasterOfPuppets]

That was the case during Byrne's reboot. In the late '90s or early '00s it was changed, though.

[Mr. Holmes]

Isn't Krypton advanced enough that they would grow past the idea of needing gods?

They live in a universe where gods are real, not conjured by people.

Even otherwise, mythology is always useful as an expressive, artistic tool.

[dupersuper]

They live in a universe where gods are real, not conjured by people.

Even otherwise, mythology is always useful as an expressive, artistic tool.

Yeah: I could say "Zounds!" or "By Jove!", but I don't believe in any Greco Roman gods. For that matter I can yell "Jesus!" despite not believing in him any more than the others.

[ascended]

I always liked the concept that Krypton found scientific evidence of a higher god power and in that discovery realized that science is the true religion.

Rao would have been a remnant of their ancient and dead religious system, carried over as a way to simplify basic conversational statements.

[Rithmomachy]

I like the idea of the Kryptonians as erstwhile sun worshipers who use the name of their star as the name of their god. I didn't like "Rao" as just a meaningless calque for "God" without any distinct features, and I don't like the Kryptonians having yet another generic pantheon of Greco-Roman stand-ins.

BTW, how do you pronounce Rao? I think of it rhyming with "cow," but I sometimes wonder if it should rhyme with "mayo" or even sound like something else.

[Mr. Holmes]

Rao is also an Indian name, so yeah I pronounce it that way.

[Kurosawa]

I pronounce it as rhyming with "mayo", that might be my Americanness showing.

As mentioned before, Rao' ascension as the Kryptonian diety was explained by Bridwell:



And of course we all recognize the Mark of Rao from Jor-El's tunic: