How religions and culture affect character choices and behavior has always been something that fascinated me, especially in shows and stories where such “small details” are painfully neglected. *Cough* Supergirl *Cough*. Just the little things that can cause massive butterfly effects, like the Kryptonian hatred of monarchy, something displayed with the daxamites but that would also have massive ripple effects on how Kara herself would interact with varying human civilizations and history. What does Kara think of the Queen of England, for example, or other non-monarchical, but also non-democratic dictatorships. Does Kara have the same disdain for Oligarchy that she has for monarchy? Is Kara one of those people who gets incredibly upset when someone says they don’t vote?

But one of the big culture and religious effects that I personally have always adored and played around with is how a sun god affects death and grieving rituals. We know from 1x14, that Kryptonians are sent to burn in their sun upon death, that a surviving female is supposed to lead these rites and that Kara knows how to perform it(this will be important later). We also know from the first season, but more in-depth the third, that Kara still practices her faith. (though that may be a strong word. How watching your world explode into a thousand tiny pieces as a child, and then being abandoned with aliens to be raised on a planet that despises your existence would affect your faith is a whole other essay). We also know from 1x14 that this death practice is incredibly important to the Kryptonian people. Non gives up his crusade for two weeks to observe the rites, a crusade he believes is the only salvation to Earth, and when questioned on whether or not Non will properly observe the mourning period Kara becomes very offended, saying “Do you think he is going to let his wife walk alone in the dark?”. The prayer for the dead also contains multiple allusions to bringing people home in the light and staving off darkness. 

This all brings me to the conclusion that, to a Kryptonian who worships a sun god, wouldn’t burial be the most horrific act to perform on the dead? We know from the 3x04 that Kryptonians can and do use candles and fire as a sort of replacement for sunlight. We can guess that pre-space flight Kryptonians would simply burn their dead. We know Kara doesn’t have a problem with humans burying other humans, we see her at funerals. But the real question I have is about Non. We don’t know whether or not Non survived the fight in the finale of season 1, but if he didn’t-- which I choose to believe because it’s more in-line with Kara’s character in S1, S2 and S4 (we are ignoring the utterly random and weird ‘wait i don’t kill people’ in S3 because it was random and weird) and, like, his eyeballs got blown up-- we never see Kara go through any kind of grieving rite. In season 1, Non begins the death rites within 24 hours of Astra’s death, and less than 12 hours after Non’s “fate”, Kara is home and having a party with her friends and family, and directly after that, Mon-El arrives. 

Sure, Kara could have just done the rites sometime when we weren’t watching but it’s just as likely that to her, Non no longer had the right to a Kryptonian funeral. Kryptonians had an honor based culture, and one where houses were everything. Non had done a bunch of, well, really shitty things, and had already been sentenced for murder and terrorism (a murder he actually committed even if the terrorism charge was less earned) before he arrived on Earth and attempted to murder his niece against orders (an action which indirectly led to his commanding officers death) and oh yeah attempted xenocide (not entirely sure whether to use xeno- or genocide here but they both work). If ANYTHING strips you of your right to honored rituals it has to be that. Beyond all of these things it is entirely up to Kara. A person who he 

A.) set a black mercy on 

B.) repeatedly tried to murder + her friends and family 

C.) forced the friends of whom to jump out a window, one of them to their deaths, 

D.) forced the sister of whom to try and kill her 

E.) had her martian friend stabbed and of course 

F.) tried to murder literally every friend and adopted family member she had.

After all of the pain he put her through, would it be so shocking then, that she chose to punish him for that the best way she knew how? 

Would it be so out of character that Kara sentenced the man who made her life a living hell to his own? Burying his body, and leaving him to rot in the cold and dark ground. 

Given how little Kara canonically discusses her faith and culture with others, even with Alex. Would anyone even know what she had done? And if Alex or J’onn did know, would they just not mention it and allow her the smallest of retributions for all that Non had done?

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This a headcannon of mine that has actually wormed its way into multiple of my fics, published and in progress, and one that I think invites thought. I might post more on how having a sun god would affect Kara’s perception of things (especially the phantom zone) but for now I hope people enjoy this.