#invincible analysis

[+ scene analysis]

Mind you, Nolan hadn’t even been born yet when Thragg had already been established as Grand Regent for who knows how long before his birth.

Nolan had just turned 18 Viltrumite years old (whatever that even is) by the time he was infected with the scourge virus. At the same time we’re shown Thragg and Kregg alongside the other higher up Viltrumites trying to mitigate the effects of the damage the scourge is doing.

Not to mention the time Nolan spent working on expanding the Viltrumite occupation as he illustrated in his Novels. I mean chalk it up to character design if you want but it’s worth wondering how much time would have passed for him to start looking like this;

PLUS how long did it take for him to be assigned the mission to go to Earth? He looks visibly older courtesy of the change in his hair;

And we know it’s not an editing mistake because the show was pretty consistent with what Nolan looked like when he met Debbie;

(In the comics he doesn’t even have the age indicator of whitening hair)

So rewatching the scene with Thragg and Nolan trying to ‘negotiate’ feels so bizarre because the way Thragg starts it off so amicably with “It’s been too long Nolan” you would think they had been working side by side but that’s his Boss, worse, that’s the almost carmic being he’s been brainwashed to worship, the walking apex of his species, and the symbol of everything he believed in.

But Nolan scoffs it off.

The dialogue afterwards is so telling:

N: What do you want Thragg

T: Simply to talk to an old friend.

N: Since when do we talk.

T: We’ve always talked. Some simply chose not to listen.

N: Then Talk.

Their dialogue feels so detached from the supposed shared experience Thragg seems to be recalling to, and it’s clear that Thragg isn’t really referring to a time where he and Nolan were literally talking to each other one on one because of his follow up use of the plural term ‘some’, but rather the times he would talk AT him along with all the other Viltrumites conditioned to obey him.

Note the emphasis of Thragg holding out his hand to Nolan. It’s a gesture the show clearly wants us to pay attention to since we get THREE different angles of it;

It feels so coercive and condescending when speculating the amount of time that would have passed since their last meeting which arguably wouldn’t have been face to face even if Nolan was regarded highly amongst Viltrumites.

(I argue Nolan only appeared on Thraggs radar when he started working against the Empire, after his capture on Thraxa and since there were so few Viltrumites left.

Otherwise Nolan would’ve been treated like the other disposable soldiers. Just a means to expand Viltrum until he’s not deemed strong enough via being killed in combat. As is the Viltrumite code of conduct.)

So this gesture feels like Thragg is trying to placate Nolan as if he’s some irrational runaway child, “come home Nolan, come home and all will be forgiven”, even the repetition of ‘come home’ is chant-like, perhaps Thragg is attempting to gage if there’s a part of Nolan that is still susceptible to being groomed back into the Viltrumite Ideology.

The obvious framing of Nolan looking up at Thragg not only reveals their former dynamic as subject and regent, but also shows Thraggs active attempt to reassert those roles.

This only further emphasises their age difference because it makes Thragg seem so out of touch and deeply deluded in his mentality. I mean it’s so on the nose, a younger open minded dude vs a close-minded old man.

For all the sentiments about Thragg being a cool headed, callous, and calculated Villain, he sure seems to fit the stereotypically crazed, easily rattled, and overly defensive paranoid old ruler archetype. All of which this scene subtly hints to with him briefly losing his composure

“Viltrum is NOT a tomb!”

Alongside being so far gone he repeatedly disregards Nolan’s efforts to reason with him.

Compare this frame with the one below, before their fight begins;

They are both level and in frame as it’s finally made clear to Thragg that Nolan can no longer be persuaded or rather manipulated into joining him.

I put ‘negotiate’ in quotation marks for a reason because that scene isn’t actually depicting two men negotiating a volatile situation instead it’s akin to a young man trying to convince a really elderly one that he has made and is continuing to make a deranged mistake of trying to keep up the facade of Viltrumites being unstoppable.

oh man oh god send help i've been going absolutely FERAL over this transition shot, LONG POST AHEAD

(minor spoilers for season 4 eps 1-3, but i do mostly stick to talking about cecil here)

Okay, so I really like the little subtle aspects of this scene.

Again, Thragg shows the difference between being a Viltrumite and being the Grand Regent The deal he proposes to Mark, while still terrifying as all hell, is actually really fucking tame compared to what he could have proposed and forced. But what I really want to focus on is this scene here.

Thragg could have just left. He could have ignored Marks comment and left him to wallow as he fucked off to his Ship/Base but...he didn't. He stops, pauses...and then advises.

He advises Mark. He tells him that what he's done he's done in the service of all. That he has saved lives by making and honoring this deal and before he can continue...he pauses. He stops...because while he is the Grand Regent and mark has survived his tests and proved he is a true Viltrumite...he is a Viltrumite who had a hand in destroying their home planet.

So, Thragg stops himself. Distances himself with the same measure he's done to other in order to make the 'hard choices' that a Grand Regent needs too...and leaves Mark alone to contemplate the weight of making such a decision.

A foreshadowing of what he'll have to do in his own future.

To me, Season 3 was all about forcing Mark (and the audience) to understand how Nolan became who he is through the parallels of Immortal, Conquest, Oliver, and Invincible.

Immortal exists as a contrast to Nolan. Despite living for hundreds of thousands of years, Immortal remained a hero because he lived amongst humanity as a regular person. He only becomes a monster once he is elevated ABOVE humanity, and shackled with the responsibility governing them. This is an intentional reversal of Nolan's arc, who started off as a detached monster but found goodness when he was forced to live amongst humanity as a regular person.

Conquest represents what Nolan could have become had he remained detached. A mindless force of violence, extraordinarily lonely yet too far gone to find redemption. All he can do is blindly go through the motions, his only connection with others being brief moments of confession before he kills them.

Oliver represents what Nolan started as, and how without guidance he became a monster. Oliver is a sweet kid whose accelerated growth and sheltered upbringing threatened to detach him from humanity. He couldn't understand why killing "bad guys" was wrong because of his limited connection to others. It's made clear that without Mark and Debbie to help him, he would have developed a simplistic and tyrannical perspective of the world.

Finally, Mark reflects the best and worst parts of his father. There's his "might-makes-right" clash with Cecil, his paternal role to Oliver even as they fight over the same issues of condemnation vs redemption that made him threaten Cecil, Powerplex reminding him of the weight of his responsibilities and if he deserves to live a normal life, the Invincible war showing him both how dangerous and frightening his power is to others, and finally Conquest forcing him to recognize his true capacity for violence.

The underlining theme within all this is how our connections to others keeps us grounded, and that the long-term impacts of isolation, responsibility, and power eventually corrupt us all.

i’ve not read much of the comics, but my friend has and she tells me about some of the changes, and this is definitely one of my favourites

i really love how the show is handling Nolan’s arc. because he did do terrible, he was responsible for so many deaths and even more destruction and trauma. and he did it all after building up a persons as someone good - someone to be trusted - which made it all the more damming

it was his mission, maybe that’s how he justifies it, but that doesn’t change anything. he still did it. he’s still responsible. no one should have to forgive him right away. they don’t even have to forgive him at all honestly. which makes everything so much more complex, because he’s back and he’s a necessary asset, and they don’t have much choice but to let him fight alongside then, regardless of how they feel

so, i’m really glad that they’re letting everyone have their qualms with him, that it isn’t just a clean cut “i forgive you/i’ve moved on/it’s all fine now”. because that’s not how it world be. that’s not how it should be. him being allowed (needed) to fight with them should not be comparable to him being forgiven. even if he does save people now, that doesn’t change the fates of people that he killed

so i love that Mark is still so cautious around him (even if part of him does just wants his dad back, which, again, is so real and so complex). Debbie is only tolerating being around him to see Oliver, because her priorities outweigh her anger. Oliver is probably the one most warmed up to him, but that’s because he didn’t witness destruction in the same way as the others (and even then, it still took work for oliver to want to be around him). Cecil was always sceptical and Cecil will always be sceptical, but he recognises a necessary ally, even if he will take all possible precautions to keep them in check

On account of the Grand Regent sending his little army to earth to reproduce and then coming back to rebel on him, there are a lot of people who wonder why Viltrumites bent se easily around humans, and I wanna offer my theory and insight, but let’s start with the bases first.

There is a point in the comics where Mark tells Nolan about the fact Anissa sexually assaulted him, and while Nolan understands how horrible this is for a human (well, a being raised among humans), he struggles to comprehend how bad it really is since apparently all Viltrumites mate like this. This was something normal among Viltrumites— sex is not supposed to be pleasurable but a task for reproduction and a painful one at that, which leads us to the next point; a lot of Viltrumites could’ve been not only perpetrators but victims under this scenario (and what my theory latches on).

My theory states that one of the reasons Viltrumites kneeled down to humans so quickly was because they had been the only being to be tender with them when reproducing. Yes, Viltrumites might’ve been excellent actors and liars, but after millennia of being convinced your body is a tool and of abusing and being abused over and over, a human—a much weaker specie mind you—offering gentle and pleasurable sex definitely breaks them down. That they’re not just a weapon, that they’re not just an asset and that they too deserve a soft epilogue

I believe one of the reasons Nolan didn’t break down as easily was because he had ‘hero’ work to do and that kept his head off the tenderness of a family and his wife. He was still perpetuating the cycle of violence at the end of the day.

Personally I do think they both *really* mishandled things. I personally think Cecil was worst though; in large part because using the sonic device as anything but a last resort feels very stupid (I understand the pragmatic reasoning for implanting it in the first place, but it just doesn't seem like something which should be used unless Mark's actively smashing up cities).

Mark's concerns/reaction was understandable, and I think Cecil could've had a good chance at talking him down (instead of escalating). Cecil probably should've predicted Mark would be angry though, especially given his past with Sinclair.

I guess on the other hand though, Cecil has spent years dealing with superhumans who are vastly stronger than him on an individual level. So "take no shit" was likely an important requirement for maintaining control.

(this turned into a slight tangent.)

YEAH. I really, seriously think they both just ended up crashing out on each other; Mark just got stabbed and saved by corpses, is in a trauma spiral of rage, and kills man after man in front of Cecil until Cecil is going down his OWN trauma spiral of everything he's ever done to stay on top and how this is going to mark the end of any kind of good tidings with Debbie and probably Oliver but too terrified of what Nolan would've done in his place to stop it.

I'm also so obsessed with the fact that Cecil had a "if I die, this thing doesn't stop" button in there. Because, like... that thing immobilized Mark completely. He was in no state to fight, and would have been recovered without death. It was not a matter of Mark getting him once deployed.

But to imply that A.) he might have others fighting alongside him, hence the need for a kill switch and B.) Cecil is willing to put Mark down if he goes too is flat-out insane.

En vrai en savoir plus sur l'empire Viltrumite permet de mieux contextualiser le comportement de Nolan. Car depuis que Thragg a prit les rennes et a ordonné la purge, les émotions tels que la gentillesse, l'empathie ou bien les sentiments et tout ce qui va avec sont mal vues. Par exemple dans le flashback de Nolan, on voit qu'il allait tuer une gamine car elle se souvient pas de ce qu'elle devait reciter. Mais une fois qu'elle l'a fait, il évite de le faire. Ou bien même ses parents qui lui font subir son rite de passage à l'âge adulte. Sa mère qui a failli le tuer puis le fait d'avoir survécu à un génocide voyant son père mort. Ça l'a affecté même si il le montre pas.

Puis arrivé sur Terre, il voit que les choses sont différentes, ici devenir le plus fort n'est pas une priorité. Il finit par fonder une famille car on lui a donné l'ordre de procréer afin d'assurer la survie des Viltrumites. Mais il a mit plusieurs années avant de mettre son plan de conquête d'exécution. Nolan est devenu humain sur Terre sans même se rendre compte dans la s1. Il y a un passage où justement Mark met du scotch partout sur lui. Et au final, sa mère lui dit de les retirer, Nolan se dit que son fils n'aura pas ses pouvoirs or Debbie lui dit que c'est pas grave. A un moment on voit l'expression de Nolan passant de la colère, à la réalisation, à la tristesse avant de poser sa main sur son front. Il s'est attaché à sa famille et sur Terre, il était même un écrivain.

Mais au final, il a choisi sa mission et après son combat contre Mark, il s'en va montrant que ce combat l'a fait changé. Et dans l'espace, il erre sans but et choisit de mettre fin à ses jours. Mais il vit un vaisseau et les sauve et une fois cela fait, il comptait repartir pour se suicider à nouveau. Or les Thraxans souhaitent qu'ils restent et il finit par fonder une autre famille. Pour moi, le fait qu'il fonde une famille sur cette planète était pour compenser la perte de sa famille sur Terre. Nolan à ce moment là, était vulnérable. Et cette gentillesse l'a touché. Ses retrouvailles avec son fils se passent mal mais c'est compréhensible de la part de Mark. Lorsque les Thraxx ont été en partie décimés. Il ne comprend pas pourquoi il se sent triste et son fils lui dit que c'est ce qu'il aurait dû ressentir pour les actes qu'il a commit à Chicago.

Il finit par se retrouver en prison et est sur le point de se faire buter. Et Nolan est résigné à ça après tout il n'a plus rien désormais. Alors autant en finir mais c'est sans compter sur l'intervention d'Allen qui se fait capturer volontairement tentant de convaincre Nolan en vain. Il lui dit même qu'il mérite la mort et pourtant sa femme lui manque. Il lui a fallu vivre tout ses moments là pour se rendre compte que non sa femme n'était pas un animal de compagnie mais une personne qu'il aimait et qu'il a tout gâché avec elle. En revanche quand Allen est à terre, il intervient pour le sauver montrant que leurs interactions avec lui ont eu un impact sur lui. Il finit par raconter le passé des Viltrumites mais aussi comment les vaincre mais de l'autre, il est tiraillé par ça. Ce qui est compréhensible, car il a été conditionné et endoctriné par l'empire Viltrumites. Donc se défaire de tout ça n'est pas chose aisé et Allen est compréhensif à ce sujet lui faisant même un câlin, ce que je trouvais adorable d'ailleurs.

En revanche ses retrouvailles avec Debbie, ne seront pas plaisantes et encore une fois c'est compréhensible. Debbie s'es sentie par trahie par lui, il lui a manqué mais de l'autre, elle lui en veut, toutes ses années de mariage partis en fumée, les actes qu'il a commit sont comme une trace indélébile qui ne partira jamais. Le fait que la tâche de sang sur son costume et près du cœur, symbolise leur mariage brisé. Debbie ne veut plus rien à avoir avec lui disant qu'il n'est pas humain ce qui le peine. Avec Oliver, il essaie de se rapprocher de lui en vain car il le repousse mais par la suite, il comprend qu'il a entendu la dispute entre Nolan et Debbie, le fait qu'il ait dit que la mère biologique d'Oliver était une erreur. Mais Nolan se rectifie en disant que grâce à sa mère et grâce à Thraxxans qu'il a pu se reconstruire. Et après ce moment, on voit ces deux là se rapprocher ce qui m'a fait plaisir. Lors de leur attaque envers les viltrumites, Thragg lui propose de revenir ce qu'il refuse et Nolan choisit de détruire sa propre planète avec l'aide de son fils et Thadeus laissant les Viltrumites sans maison.

Et maintenant Debbie veut partir rejoindre Oliver accompagné par Nolan et on voit que dans le vaisseau, il essaie de se rapprocher d'elle mais y renonce. Même si Nolan aime toujours Debbie, je ne sais pas trop si ils vont redevenir un couple. J'imagine que ça dépend de comment les scénaristes vont aborder ses deux là. Soit ils les remettent ensemble mais dans ce cas là, faudrait pas mal développer leur relation là dessus. Et non pas développer leur relation dans deux ou trois épisodes pour qu'ensuite ils s'embrassent. Ou bien ils se remettent pas ensemble mais ils se mettent d'accord sur le fait qu'ils sont tout les deux parents de leurs enfants et doivent veiller sur eux en étant plus dans une relation cordiale.

In fact, learning more about the Viltrumite Empire helps put Nolan’s behavior into context. Ever since Thragg took the reins and ordered the purge, emotions such as kindness, empathy, or feelings and everything that goes with them have been frowned upon. For example, in Nolan’s flashback, we see that he was about to kill a little girl because she couldn’t remember what she was supposed to recite. But once she did, he refrained from doing so. Or even his parents, who put him through his rite of passage into adulthood. His mother nearly killed him, and then surviving a genocide while seeing his father die. It affected him, even if he doesn’t show it.

Then, upon arriving on Earth, he sees that things are different; here, becoming the strongest isn’t a priority. He eventually starts a family because he was ordered to procreate to ensure the survival of the Viltrumites. But it took him several years to put his plan of conquest into action. Nolan became human on Earth without even realizing it in season 1. There’s a scene where Mark actually puts tape all over him. And in the end, his mother tells him to take it off; Nolan thinks his son won’t have his powers, but Debbie tells him it doesn’t matter. At one point, we see Nolan’s expression shift from anger to realization to sadness before he places his hand on his forehead. He’s grown attached to his family, and on Earth, he was even a writer.

But in the end, he chose his mission, and after his fight with Mark, he left, showing that the battle had changed him. Out in space, he drifted aimlessly and decided to take his own life. But he spotted a ship and saved them, and once that was done, he planned to leave again to kill himself once more. But the Thraxans want him to stay, and he ends up starting another family. For me, the fact that he started a family on this planet was to make up for the loss of his family on Earth. Nolan, at that moment, was vulnerable. And that kindness touched him. His reunion with his son goes badly, but that’s understandable on Mark’s part. When the Thraxx were partially wiped out, he doesn’t understand why he feels sad, and his son tells him that’s how he should have felt about the crimes he committed in Chicago.

He ends up in prison and is about to be killed. And Nolan has resigned himself to it—after all, he has nothing left now. So he might as well end it all, but that’s without counting on Allen’s intervention, who gets himself captured on purpose, trying in vain to convince Nolan. He even tells him that he deserves to die, and yet he misses his wife. It took him going through all those moments to realize that no, his wife wasn’t a pet but a person he loved, and that he’d ruined everything with her. On the other hand, when Allen is down, he steps in to save him, showing that their interactions with him have had an impact on him. He ends up recounting the history of the Viltrumites and how to defeat them, but at the same time, he’s torn by it. Which is understandable, since he’s been conditioned and indoctrinated by the Viltrumite Empire. So shaking all that off isn’t easy, and Allen is understanding about it, even giving him a hug, which I thought was adorable, by the way.

On the other hand, his reunion with Debbie won’t be pleasant, and again, that’s understandable. Debbie feels betrayed by him; she missed him, but at the same time, she resents him. All those years of marriage gone up in smoke—the acts he committed are like an indelible mark that will never fade. The fact that the bloodstain on his suit is near his heart symbolizes their broken marriage. Debbie wants nothing more to do with him, saying he isn’t human, which hurts him. With Oliver, he tries to get closer to him in vain because Oliver pushes him away, but later he realizes that Oliver overheard the argument between Nolan and Debbie, specifically when Nolan said that Oliver’s biological mother was a mistake. But Nolan corrects himself, saying that it was thanks to his mother and the Thraxxans that he was able to rebuild himself. And after that moment, we see the two of them grow closer, which made me happy. During their attack on the Viltrumites, Thragg offers him a chance to return, which he refuses, and Nolan chooses to destroy his own planet with the help of his son and Thadeus, leaving the Viltrumites homeless.