Fantastic episode! The train bit was wonderful!
With how graphic the show is, I’m really curious how they will do a certain thing that happens to Mark later on. If you’ve read the comic, you’ll know what I’m referring to.
Mark getting his powers was the condition he created for himself to start Earth's preparation for Viltrumite rule. Up until that point the Guardians were sort of allies... because Nolan had no intention of letting Earth fall to some other empire, be destroyed, or whatever. But he always knew that eventually he'd have to eliminate them...because they would fight him as hard as they fought any other threat to Earth.
Well, Nolan said in the show he was waiting for Mark to get his powers before acting. The Guardians became a threat as soon that happened.
Some of the rest of that is me just extrapolating from all the things he said. If Mark's mother wasn't anything more than a pet...than, by the same logic, the Guardians wouldn't really be "friends". If the 20 years he spent on Earth were like a blink of an eye to his lifespan...than he could afford to be patient. The Viltrumites probably weren't expecting instant turnover.
Last edited by Egomaniac; 2021-05-01 at 11:48 PM.
Mark getting his powers was absolutely the reason Nolan decided to act but the exact reason for that won't be explained until later.
I just binged watched the show after having a bunch of YouTube clips pop up for the show.
I enjoyed most of it, I love the mystery running in the background... I just don't really like Nolan's motivations. I get the "reasoning" people are giving in here, but it's all so ambiguous to interpret it hurts the character from being really fleshed out.
The whole Viltrium thing doesn't make too much sense, the people Omni is killing are the people they would want to "add to the army". Also why wouldn't Viltrium go to planets and offer to them to join the empire... Like pretty much every empire in the history of the world has ever done. The guy that routinely comes past the planet "by accident" that Omni sent his son to go after... Omni knows who he is, and knows he isn't exactly there for a fight to the death, ...
Yeah, it's a good show, but for a short run seasonal show, I thought it would have been better thought out.
I don't get how that's not obviously clear.
The Viltrumites are ethnofascists. They don't want any weird inferior aliens in their armies. Hell, they exterminated the weaker segments of their own population. I think it's pretty clear that's why Nolan's so desperate to get Mark up to speed, and so intolerant of him faffing about. If he's not up to snuff enough to come off as a "true Viltrumite" but instead some weak half-breed, not only will Mark be killed out of hand, but Nolan probably will be too for diluting their gene pool.
He offed the Guardians because A> they might work things out as Mark gets his powers under control and B> Nolan's mission is to eliminate all potential opposition before the Viltrumite occupying forces arrive. While ensuring the populace is aware of how incapable they are of fighting back; if they couldn't stop one Viltrumite working on his own, what chance do they have against the couple hundred (or whatever) that make up the occupying force stationed there permanently? He hasn't gone on a rampage to kill every other powered individual because, as far as I can tell, he doesn't consider them any kind of threat, even if they work together. The moment he does, he'll throw them into the Sun or something.
He never asks or brings it up. The issue is he portrays it as being a net positive, jumping the planet forwards hundreds of years technologically. And the word enslavement is thrown around but it's hardly enslavement, especially if the question is broached, "want to join this space empire, be protected, keep most local control (not like earth had it's own space empire nothing would change), the strong of the planet would become part of the Viltrium army (they were still defending themselves anyway so again hardly a change.) The way it's explained is that the Viltrium simply can't take over more planets as it spreads them too thin the old way. So they started to send out people like Omni to recon and subvert the planets to their will... but the end result plays out the same.
Basically go to 4 planets, ask them to join, 2 join easy, cost no extra work to get, strongest join the space army, and you can either subvert the other 2 or just crush them.
As Daemos said though, the nuance of all of this is lost in the 1st season and it will be explained later.
The problem is you seem to think that the Viltumites are a rational people, but as we can see from Nolan they aren't. They believe themselves to be superior to everyone else and they view other species as being nothing more than animals. They take other worlds by force because they believe it their right to rule by being strong and according to their twisted ideology the weak can only benefit by being ruled by the strong. Not to mention the whole culling the weak thing which would be a major red flag to any society like Earth who tend to protect the weak rather than discard them.
You seem like you would have read the comics with the Hellboy/Mignola imagery and comic related talk, but I'll lightly say that...
It is interesting the Viltrumites are willing to get it on with half the galaxy. Pretty interesting results down the line from the Viltrumite's [I]willingness[/I].
I usually read trades, and Invincible's always been on my "I'll get that next time or two" list for like 10+ years now. I was pretty excited when I heard about this project, because I don't have to make room in my budget to experience a version of the story.
I read a fair bit, but I can't read EVERYTHING. And while I do like graphic novels, most of what I read is regular novels.
I thought it was explained though.
After their own civil war, they lost 1/2 their population. After conquering many planets, it became difficult as their people were stretching too thin. So instead they go to planets and weaken them from the inside so they can more easily conquer them.
RIP Genn Greymane, Permabanned on 8.22.18
Your name will carry on through generations, and will never be forgotten.