#khantemplations

1: Marla chooses to be with Khan. She isn't forced to. Kialna explores this point further in their meta, and does such an excellent job of it that I feel no need to go over those points myself.

2: While Marla helped Khan gain control of the Enterprise, she's also a big factor in him not maintaining that control. Saving Kirk ultimately resulted in Khan's "defeat." Despite this, when Marla chooses to go with Khan, he calls her superior. 

¿What exactly is it that makes her superior in Khan's eyes? 

Well, she betrayed him to save her captain, a member of her crew. And none of Khan's crew died as a result, so it's possible he respects that decision. 

More importantly, she chooses to follow Khan to the dangerous, difficult, savage unknowns of Ceti Alpha V. Her alternative was to be court-martialed, which may be worrisome but is still much easier and predictable than following a 200+ year old (the age given in TWOK) man to a savage planet. So she's probably earned Khan's respect. 

Then, according to the sidebar bio on Memory Alpha, he marries Marla. He has, what, 72 surviving crew members? And he chooses the non-augmented human to marry. 

Later, in the Wrath of Khan, he says the only indigenous life-form left on Ceti Alpha V killed 20 of his people, including his "beloved wife". Marla isn't just a woman he married- she's, in his own words, one of his people. Not only that, she's the only one of these 20 people he bothers to specify individually, and he uses the term "beloved" to further emphasize her importance to him.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of his crew aren't augments at all, but regular humans that swore their life to him. He fought wars against other augments, so being an augment isn't the one thing that makes someone a part of his crew and family. It's, imo, their actions, bravery, and willingness to follow him. They say 80 or 90 augments went unaccounted for in the Eugenics wars, but there's really no reason to assume every single one of them were Khan's people. And surely some went into hiding, or died without being identified (which leads to my headcanon that Kirk is descended from one of those "hiding" augments, or descended from a half-augment child left on earth ;P ) 

And thus, I am of the opinion that while Khan definitely prides himself on his genetically augmented status, he doesn't see a lack of genetic augmentation as a reason to kill people. In fact, he doesn't see it as a nonbreachable block against being superior, either.  Superior people are those that recognize him as superior, and dedicate themselves to him despite the challenges and sacrifices that may entail. 

Things we know: Khan believed Marcus had killed his entire crew. Then, he got the threatening message from Sulu, about an advanced payload of long range torpedoes. Khan hears this- and knows it has to be his family. (how many advanced, long range torpedoes are out there?)

But how many of his family members were allowed to live, if only for the purpose of blowing him to pieces and starting a war with the Klingons?

Spock tells him, "72." I'm assuming this (plus Khan) was the amount that survived the S.S Botany Bay ship, out of the 84  cryotubes  (plus Khan) that were originally on it (as happened in the episode Space Seed).

This makes me wonder how Marcus told Khan that 12 of his family were already dead, and if Khan believed it wasn't Marcus' fault. Does he believe Marcus already killed off a dozen of his family before waking him? Was he allowed to examine the "12 failed life support canisters" for himself, or was he told to take Marcus' word for it? Or did Marcus just decide to claim that he killed them to further threaten Khan (which would only increase Khan's wrath)?

This expression is heart breaking. You can see him processing these facts, see the way it's effecting him. Like he hardly dares to believe it. All of his feelings are on display here (naturally that means it's a super shadowy scene >-<).

Then, he looks down, gathering himself together. Until the bridge scene on the Vengeance, this is really the last time we see him express emotions without the possibility of it being for manipulation purposes. 

"I surrender."

Questions I'm left with:

Was it always his intention to surrender? Surely he had multiple theories as to how Marcus would try to go after him, and multiple plans of response. It was a risky gamble, but he thought his family had died, so I believe he was fully prepared to die on Kronos.

If they didn't have Khan's family on board, or he hadn't heard Sulu's 'torpedo' message, what action would he have taken?

Srsly tho, look at this face. IMO, here he looks way more unguarded and vulnerable than in the Brig.