Karadox

Karadox is the het ship between Kara Zor-El and Querl Dox from the Supergirl fandom.

Season 3
THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES

Kara wakes up in her loft, hearing a knock at the door. She opens it to reveal Querl standing there, talking nervously about meeting her. Kara is very confused by his comments till he calls her Supergirl. She immediately pulls him into the loft telling him to be quiet. He officially introduces himself as Brainiac 5, otherwise known as Querl Dox, but that the Legionairs just call him Brainy. He informs Kara about what's going on. Specifically that she's been in a coma after being nearly killed by Reign, and that he's hear to help her wake up. She becomes panicked and tries to open the loft door repeatedly, becoming more frustrated with each try. Brainy suggests that she relaxes, but she ignores him.

Brainy looks around the loft while Kara sits on the couch. She asks why he's looking around, and he explains that he's checking for brain damage, which would manifest itself as damage in the loft. He needs to check to make sure she's ready for reality re-entry. Kara asks if that means she is ready to wake up, Brainy confirming so. She asks what she needs to do to get out of the coma, Brainy coming to the conclusion that opening the loft door is the most likely exit. She tries the door but it doesn't open. Brainy then tries the door, but it doesn't open for him either. This confuses him, since she should be fine.

Kara continues trying to open the door, as Brainy makes tea in the kitchen. He comes to the conclusion that Kara not being able to wake from her coma is a mental problem and not a physical one. Kara punches the door, while Brainy asks if there would be any reason as to why her subconscious wouldn't want her to leave, suggesting self preservation. Kara doesn't believe so, but Brainy reminds her that she was badly beaten, and that fear would be a logical response. She then uses her heat vision on the door, Brainy staring at her, as she destroys the room around her.

Kara starts cleaning the loft, Brainy asking why, since it's not real. Kara doesn't know, only that she like putting things back in order. Kara realizes that she chose everything in the loft, and that there's probably something in there that her subconscious wants her to see. Brainy say that it isn't a bad idea, and wonders why he didn't think of it. Kara then begins to search through her stuff.

Kara eventually finds a picture of herself and a black cat. Brainy asks if that was her pet, Kara says yes, but quickly wonders why her subconscious would want her remember her cat. Brainy says it could be a random neuron firing and asks the name of the cat. Kara named him Streaky and that he had been a stray like her. Brainy asks if she had felt an emotional connection with the cat. Kara says yes, she and Streaky were friends. Streaky suddenly appears in her loft. As she walks over to him, she explains how she used to feed him every night, but was so scared to touch him due to her super strength. She had practiced being gentle, until she was confident that she wouldn't hurt him. She then pet him, and he purred, the act making her feel human, instead of like an alien.

Brainy accidentally talks about the battle against Reign while in Kara's head. He tries to brush it off, wanting her to keep talking to keep his mind off the battle. Kara says that he should be entirely focused on the battle. Brainy says he's capable of doing both, but shows his strain when he stops mid sentence to tell Mon-El to evade one of Reigns attacks. Kara tells him to go help the legion instead of her. As he's about to leave, he says that it looked like Supergirl had a great life. Kara says that, the stuff in the loft weren't Supergirls, but Kara Danvers'. Brainy tells her how Alex said something similar. Specifically that Kara Danvers was her favorite person. He leaves to join the battle, Kara thinking over his words. She then wakes up and fights Reign alongside the Legion and J'onn.

After she checks on Mon-El and Imra, Brainy walks through the DEO in her direction. Kara see's him and says hi, then asks if he's shorter in reality. He then asks if she's suggesting that he changed his height while in her head so that she would see him as someone more stable and trustworthy, thereby making her more likely to want to work with him to help her. Kara confusingly answers yeah, and Brainy confirms that she's correct. She laughs, and he says that it's nice to meet her in real life. As he walks away she smiles at him.

Moments
Fort Rozz
 * Brainy remarks on how brave Supergirl is given how unreliable the technology of the time is
 * Brainy becomes stressed at the idea of being known as the person who let Supergirl die

Fanon
Those who were fans of the pairing in the comics were quick to ship them in the tv series, given the canon status of the pairing in the comics. Although it would be considered a rare pair in the fandom. This is most likely due to most shippers already having a preferred pairing by the time Brainy is introduced.

After his introduction, SuperCorp shippers didn't express concern when it came to the possibility of Karadox becoming canon whereas Karamel shippers did. Shippers tended to either love or hate Brainy as well as his interactions with Kara, and it became very apparent that only the non-karamel shippers accepted the pair. Following the confirmed departure of Chris Wood (Mon-El) from the series, Karamel shippers have started engaging in online and social media hate towards Karadox, Brainiac 5 and Jesse Rath himself.

Fandom
ART
 * karadox tag @ DeviantArt

AO3

FORUMS
 * Karadox @FanForum

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * Kara Zor-El and Querl Dox met for the first time in Action Comics #276 (May, 1961). Since then Brainiac 5 has been the most prominent love interest of all major incarnations of Supergirl.
 * Kara and Querl have a daughter in the Kingdom Come elseworlds story, called Brainiac's Daughter.
 * In the Justice League Unlimited episode, Far From Home, the legionnaires bring several Justice League members into the 31st Century, including Supergirl. She and Querl meet and fall in love. She decides to stay with him in the future instead of returning to the 21st century.
 * Querl's design in Supergirl is more based on his design from this episode instead of the design from the comics where he's green.