Episode 5: Krypton and Vegeta

**Krypton and Vegeta** is the fifth episode of And Beyond.

## Summary

*In this special episode of And Beyond, we travel across dimensions to view planets you may think you are familiar with, until you learn of their alternate history. With the endless possibilities of the multiverse, we hope you enjoy this re-telling of the Dragon Ball and Superman lore.*

*Including an epic story across intergalactic generations, dive deep with us into the story of Rao, the founding of Krypton, the evolution of the Saiyans, and a planetary fight against an evil dictator.*

## Details

### Major Events

* Gero's robotic assistant Zero travels to investigate the Saiyans of UNUA-0001, to acquire potential data for Project Cell.
* Gero, unsatisfied with Zero's findings, activates his self destruct sequence.

### Characters

* Zero
* Dr. Gero
* Horas (cameo)
* Milleous (cameo)
* Freeza
* Zarbon (cameo)
* Dodoria (cameo)
* Ben Tennyson (cameo)
* Gwendolyn Tennyson (cameo)
* Kevin Levin (cameo)
* Rook Blonko (cameo)
* Zed (cameo)
* Piccolo (cameo)
* Krillin (cameo)

#### Kryptonians

* Rao
* Kod-Zel (cameo)

#### Saiyans

* Tomma (cameo)
* Bardock (cameo)
* Radditz (cameo)
* Broly (cameo)
* Kakarot (UNUA version; cameo)
* Goku (SIMIO version; cameo)

## Mythology

* Located in The Darklands of the planet Krypton, lies the planet's greatest resource: Kryptonite, a crystal that can harvest solar energy as a power source.
* The Rrejjoe, are the oldest species found on Krypton and are made of the same minerals as the planet and can turn anything into Kryptonite as a part of their diet.
	+ Many are abducted by the Kryptonians, who force them to make Kryptonite for their societal development.
* On the surface of the planet, lies the Kryptonian Metropolis, home to the Kryptonians.
* The Kryptonians are a highly intelligent humanoid species that closely resemble humans.
* The Kryptonians colonized the planet after a Galvan advised them to.
* Their intelligence has allowed them to make many incredible technological inventions, putting their species at an impressive Tech Level 18.
* The Kryptonians are fierce and cold people mostly due to their first ruler, Rao.
	+ Rao was an abandoned Colonizer who was cut-off after Krypton became their primary home.
		- After being attacked he drifted through space and gained his full evolutionary potential after drifting into a system with a yellow sun.
* Rao's bloodline has become a family of dictators, who keep away the secret of the Yellow Sun's power from the rest of their people to stay in power.
* Sadala, was a failed Kryptonian Colony whose inhabitants were saved from extinction by the Dragon species, who brought them to their neighboring planet Vegeta.
* Over time, the Kryptonians evolved to better suit Vegeta and became the species known as Saiyans.
* Together with the Dragons and Tuffle (A native species who are able to control Ki to manipulate plant-life), the three species have lived in a thriving utopia and were able to defeat the powerful warlord Freeza.
* The Tuffle taught the Saiyans how to manipulate and utilize Ki, as well as generate it.
	+ Ki Masters can unlock their full potential. Though their culture has no name for it, Gero's robot Zero, classifies it as a "Senzu Form".

## Errors

* The planet Sadala, is misspelled as Salada.
* The sound effect for the Eradicator activating shortly after Zero hacks into it was accidentally removed during the episode's render.
* Krypton's landscape is put as being 89% Domesticated and 19% Darklands, which adds up to 108% instead of 100%.

## Trivia

* The idea to begin this episode in the *Dragon Ball Universe*, and ***then*** travel into the Ben 10 Universe, was to help unfamiliar audiences understand that this episode will not be covering the traditional Kryptonian and Saiyan lore.
* This episode had a lot of firsts for the series:
	+ This is the first episode not to be hosted by a Horas.
		- Thus, the method that the "audience" travels to different planets is hinted at being via a special Pod (presumably created by Dr. Gero) rather than Horas's usual built-in portal.
		- The episode's theme music was different as well, using the song 'Bow' by Human Design, with permission from the band.
	+ This is the first episode to cover more than one planet.
	+ This is the first episode where Horas's eyes moved.
		- To achieve this effect in time, Kuro had to animate Horas's original model used from the previous four episodes, despite getting an "upgrade" in the Create-Your-Own Horas Contest Winners Special on The Ink Tank's second channel. All future appearances of Horas will use the newer model going forward.
* The ending scene panning over a beach on Vegeta shows Ben Tennyson and his team on vacation, with The Rust Bucket III in the background. This is a reference to the final episode of the original *Ben 10* continuity, where the team prepares to go on a galactic road trip.
* All of the main full-blooded Saiyans from the *Dragon Ball Franchise* has an alternative universe cameo in this episode, except for Vegeta and Nappa.
	+ While Freeza's involvement is played straight-forward, Zarbon and Dodoria also make cameos during the Freeza Invasion segment.
		- In the same scene, Fro, Mochi (Kuro's cat), and Shivers (Kuro's hedgehog) all make cameos as Freeza Soldiers.
* Although the planet Krypton is featured, Ben does not have a Kryptonian transformation.
* The main inspiration behind this episode was to "break the mold" early in *And Beyond* 's episode run that the series would strictly follow *Ben 10*-themed episodes, and The Ghost Zone episode was not just a one-off. While this episode does take place in Ben's Universe, it is primarily focused on *Dragon Ball* and *DC* mythology.
* The Ink Tank spent 5 months developing this episode.
* Kod-Zel's name is a combination of Kal-El and Zod.