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Martman posted:I don't think they're meaningfully subverting any superhero cliches, they're just being a lot more gruesome in the way they play out. Nah that’s pretty much Invincible and most properties like it in a nutshell. “Deconstructing superhero stories from someone who doesn’t actually have anything interesting to say about superhero stories”.
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Mar 25, 2024 09:58
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Captain Oblivious posted:Nah that’s pretty much Invincible and most properties like it in a nutshell. “Deconstructing superhero stories from someone who doesn’t actually have anything interesting to say about superhero stories”. Invincible falls firmly inside of the realm of genre reconstruction, not deconstruction. It lacks the cynicism of a deconstruction. Super Heroes are decidedly a force for good, even if they themselves aren't perfect and sometimes fall short. Notice how no one, not even Rex, is in the game for fame, money or recognition. The job sucks, but they do it anyways because they're there to help people. And they do help people. And it's not treated as naïve or foolish. poo poo, even Cecil is the least black-ops guy of possible black-ops guys.
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Mar 25, 2024 11:34
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Man this season has been so unfocused. All the fake out deaths really suck too.
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Mar 25, 2024 12:08
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It seems like the main focus of the season, if anything, is people coming to terms with their identities, I guess. Mark struggling with whether he's like his father or not, Debbie questioning her marriage, Nolan finding himself more Earthling than Viltrumite, Eve trying to determine how to best use her powers, Rex's introspection after his near-death experience, Robot getting to a new life, etc. It's just doing a bit too much all at once. Angstrom being disconnected from all of the conflicts doesn't help either.
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Mar 25, 2024 13:20
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Is this second part of season two also 4 episodes? Meaning we only have two left?
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Mar 25, 2024 15:47
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Kingtheninja posted:Is this second part of season two also 4 episodes? Meaning we only have two left? Yes, only two left
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Mar 25, 2024 15:53
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Pretty straightforward episode this week.
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Mar 28, 2024 08:59
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Nuebot posted:My biggest criticism of the show is that they dropped my favorite reoccurring gag:  Famouslastwords.txt The Donald and Rick scenes were great. I half expected Anissa to do the problematic thing when there was a fade. Maybe they will cut it?
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Mar 28, 2024 15:32
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Collateral posted:
the thing happens way way later. Like probably season 5 or 6 later at this pace
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Mar 28, 2024 16:19
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lol at the Boy Meets World-rear end solution of having a high school principal become a college dean
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Mar 28, 2024 16:22
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Mark should obviously not be in college and should probably be training nonstop since he's the only defense they have against the Viltrum Empire. The relationship drama is fine and makes sense, but the "oh no I have to stay in school. My grades are going to poo poo. Maybe I should get a part-time job," part of it is complete fluff. Just get on the government payroll. Debbie should too. You're still selling houses? Why? I'm pretty sure they're gonna find a big bloodstain where that nanny used to be when the toddler gets superpowers. I'm glad Bulletproof finally pointed out that the Guardians are a trainwreck. They have Worf Syndrome. They got their asses kicked by the joke lizard club guys. Atom Eve or Invincible have to bail them out of every situation at this point. PostNouveau fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Mar 28, 2024 |
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Mar 28, 2024 16:55
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PostNouveau posted:Mark should obviously not be in college and should probably be training nonstop since he's the only defense they have against the Viltrum Empire. The relationship drama is fine and makes sense, but the "oh no I have to stay in school. My grades are going to poo poo. Maybe I should get a part-time job," part of it is complete fluff. Just get on the government payroll. I thought the show established that they're refusing to take government monet because they're trying to keep Cecil out of their lives.
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Mar 28, 2024 17:04
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the Guardians are severely dysfunctional right now and you kind of have to wonder if that's by design also, every time they show Rae in her ICU bed, she's Rudy/Amanda sized. Something tells me that when she recovers, she's probably not going to rejoin the team because she can't use her powers effectively, or at all. She may not have died, but she may as well have because she's been forcibly retired Also, considering how excited Debbie was and the numbers she was throwing out for her realty stuff, she's probably doing more than fine in terms of commission (and Cecil or Nolan probably paid off the house YEARS ago). Honestly, Mark doesn't "need" college in the same way that Eve doesn't need it, seeing as they both finished high school I think they have plenty of social experience and would be better off just becoming better superheroes. Although Eve might do well to actually work with others instead of just doing her own thing, I still get angry about how her terraforming that urban greenspace went down. She was in the right, but her execution was faulty. With her powers, she could've coordinated with survey teams and other experts and she could've created exactly what she did and it wouldn't have fallen to poo poo if she knew what to watch out for and correct. Anyway, now that Anissa has been introduced, we are getting to see how loving depraved a lot of watchers who read the comics are  buuuuuuut it did lead to another A+ emotional scene with Mark and Amber, so I'll let that slide. Bye Amber, hope you still get to be part of Mark's life
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Mar 28, 2024 17:26
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Anissa's appearance felt like a shot in the arm for the show. It's really meandering around a lot of fluff lately, things don't feel like they've progressed at all. Like, I'm not anticipating next week's showdown with brain man because they've barely built it up at all and he hasn't done anything for like 5 episodes. I'm sure it'll be okay. I hope this is the end of Amber/Mark - she's been a drag on the show since the beginning. On the plus side, traumatised Rex is a lot more tolerable than he was before so he can stick around if he continues to act like a grown up. It's a weird show overall. It keeps doing just enough to be entertaining but it feels so unfocused and unrealistic while giving the impression it wants to be both of those things. I think the thing is - this is a bunch of shows mashed together, and some of them are inherently worse shows than the others. Maybe it's just trying to do too much instead of focusing on what works. I wonder if Mark's going to get any stronger because he almost seems like a non-factor in the eventual Viltrum/Allen confrontation. I get the sense he's severely below every other Viltrumite and all he has going for him in a fight is the ability to not be disintegrated by one punch. roomtone fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Mar 28, 2024 |
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Mar 28, 2024 17:48
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Brain man's reappearance in the comics was a big  moment that had no buildup whatsoever compared to what they've done in the show. But, that happens when you're doing an adaptation, you have to leave juuuuust a little bit of bait for the audience
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Mar 28, 2024 18:15
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Open Source Idiom posted:I thought the show established that they're refusing to take government monet because they're trying to keep Cecil out of their lives. Yeah, and he's managed to have Mark on-call constantly and openly planted a spy inside Debbie's house. You're already under his thumb, you may as well have access to his vast resources for it. And it's just practical realities of things. Mark and Debbie can't have normal lives. The world is about to be conquered and burned down by a powerful alien force. Wanting to go to college, have relationships with normal people, work at a real estate office, that poo poo ain't happening. roomtone posted:Anissa's appearance felt like a shot in the arm for the show. It's really meandering around a lot of fluff lately, things don't feel like they've progressed at all. Totally. It should have happened like 5 episodes ago. The Viltrum threat is the main plot of the show, so just put it front and center rather than have everyone pretend it doesn't exist for most of the season.
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Mar 28, 2024 18:25
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Mark did well against the Viltrimite lady, he just needs to be more ruthless than he normally is in fights.
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Mar 28, 2024 18:28
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roomtone posted:I hope this is the end of Amber/Mark - she's been a drag on the show since the beginning. I feel like it is totally over. I gather from the spoilered comments that in the comics Anissa murders Amber. Amber's speech at the end seemed like the show saying "We are not going that direction, and we are going to give this character some agency by completely disconnecting her from Mark for good." LRADIKAL posted:Mark did well against the Viltrimite lady, he just needs to be more ruthless than he normally is in fights. I think he also needs to train. Nolan emphasized ruthlessness to him but he also talked a lot about training. Mark never seems to train at all, despite indications that he could be a lot better if he did. Spending too much time on college work and girlfriends. Go lift some giant weights!
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Mar 28, 2024 18:31
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Collateral posted:I half expected Anissa to do the problematic thing when there was a fade. Maybe they will cut it? That doesn't happen in the first meeting.
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Mar 28, 2024 18:40
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PostNouveau posted:
My head canon is that Viltrimites have a second puberty at like 50 years old where they bulk up and grow the stash.
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Mar 28, 2024 19:13
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This was definitely the best episode of this half season. Maybe all of s2 so far. Mark and Rex / Mark and Amber scenes were good. Even Donald got his chance to shine.
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Mar 28, 2024 19:26
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PostNouveau posted:I gather from the spoilered comments that in the comics Anissa murders Amber. Amber's speech at the end seemed like the show saying "We are not going that direction, and we are going to give this character some agency by completely disconnecting her from Mark for good." I haven't read the Invincible comic in full, but I do know Debbie is the one there when this event happens in the comic. That being said, I have no idea if Amber dies later.
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Mar 28, 2024 19:40
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The comic-con scene was even better than I had hoped 
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Mar 28, 2024 19:48
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How exactly do Nolans books end up being relavent? Is there something I'm missing? I'm assuming he wrote from his experiences actually conquering planets and all that, maybe it's a way to give Mark an idea how the Viltrum empire operates?
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Mar 28, 2024 19:59
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They cover that in the last episode where they show dramatizations of not Nolan fighting the creatures, and the space racer with his infinite gun. What is there to figure out?
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Mar 28, 2024 20:03
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LRADIKAL posted:They cover that in the last episode where they show dramatizations of not Nolan fighting the creatures, and the space racer with his infinite gun. What is there to figure out? Yeah they’re already explicitly laid out as an encyclopedia of ‘oh poo poo these things can probably kill viltrumites’
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Mar 28, 2024 20:08
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Yeah, the stories are basically about real poo poo Nolan presumably did before coming to Earth, specifically stuff he encountered that is very capable of harming Viltrumites. That is obviously of great interest to anyone who opposes Viltrum. Also, quick thinking by Allen there. He catches an off-hand mention during the fight that Anissa intends to drag him off to Viltrumite SuperMax, and immediately hatches a plan to let himself be defeated so he can infiltrate it and find out if Nolan is there for Mark. Dude's a real bro and much smarter than he sometimes seem.
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Mar 28, 2024 20:11
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I think they hosed up by making Allen too powerful. We see Anissa basically mopping the floor with Mark, then her hits barely register on Allen. I would have wanted to see a bit more of a ramping of his regenerative strength increase that a lot of the Viltrumites also have in the comics.
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Mar 28, 2024 21:11
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I sure hope that Cecil is draining as many barrels of Mark's blood as possible when he shows up beaten and crumpled up like an old receipt after nearly every fight. It'd be very selfish of him to hold onto cells that regenerative while shirking hero work to do useless human filler stuff like sleep or cook dinner for him and his mom.
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Mar 28, 2024 21:17
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RareAcumen posted:I sure hope that Cecil is draining as many barrels of Mark's blood as possible when he shows up beaten and crumpled up like an old receipt after nearly every fight. It'd be very selfish of him to hold onto cells that regenerative while shirking hero work to do useless human filler stuff like sleep or cook dinner for him and his mom. Look, all I'm saying is Mark should be running on a big hamster wheel like in that comic about Superman being a transitional energy source
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Mar 28, 2024 21:19
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I think there's a line of fairness when it comes to exploiting Mark for his powers. In reality, most of us could be doing a lot more to help the world around us if we were really honest and focused about it, but even the most selfless people wouldn't be wrong to take some time for themselves. Mark should have time to himself without responsibility up to a line. I think loving around with college attendance and grades is over that line. Mark will never, ever, need those things. In fact him attending is doing nothing but wasting other people's time. It isn't like he lacks a social context or ability to better himself, either, he has all of those things. As far as romance goes, yeah it's probably also over the line for your to be putting a target on powerless innocents by dating them, and also further pulls you away from the work you could be doing and like we saw with Nolan inherently creates a weird power dynamic. Just drop out of college and go date Eve, Mark. Jesus christ.
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Mar 28, 2024 21:24
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CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK posted:The comic-con scene was even better than I had hoped They did the meta joke. 
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Mar 28, 2024 21:27
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PostNouveau posted:Look, all I'm saying is Mark should be running on a big hamster wheel like in that comic about Superman being a transitional energy source I hope next season shows us a little bit of an (Evil)Heroic Invincible that's living up to their full potential. Liquifying a son/daughter because they're perfect genetic matches to each other that you can easily stitch a hole in the parent.
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Mar 28, 2024 21:29
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LRADIKAL posted:Mark did well against the Viltrimite lady, he just needs to be more ruthless than he normally is in fights. You mean he beat up an old woman?
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Mar 28, 2024 21:56
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Viltrimites live for hundreds or thousands of years, I don't think she was supposed to be a particularly elderly person.
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Mar 28, 2024 22:48
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CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK posted:The comic-con scene was even better than I had hoped Yeah, it was great!
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Mar 28, 2024 22:51
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LRADIKAL posted:Viltrimites live for hundreds or thousands of years, I don't think she was supposed to be a particularly elderly person. Viltrumites age extremely slowly, and she clearly looks like a fit human woman in their late 50s/early 60s. Meaning, while she almost certainly had a few good centuries left ahead of her, she was pretty mature.
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Mar 28, 2024 23:55
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yeah I do get the impression that while she was still obviously in her i dunno LATE prime, she was like 60 in human years and mark beating up a 60 year old woman isn't that impressive. that's a double advantage son, and you still almost lost. the thing is, nolan said he needed to stop holding back in that scene and it made me think, is the reason mark is so weak compared to other viltrumites, because he doesn't actually want to kill anybody? it's possible. i think it'd be a pretty weak conclusion to this issue, given how close he has been to death so MANY times, but it's possible. i'd much rather than he just needs to train so he can go from normal viltrumite to jacked viltrumite, without any necessary changes in physique cos lol. the difference between a weak viltrumite and a strong one must be vast, if you consider the human variation.
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Mar 29, 2024 00:03
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Mark is weak for two reasons: 1. He's a reedy teenager who just got his powers relatively recently. He's not as built as Thula was, let alone Anissa or his dad. 2. His mentality really does hold him back. Put aside killing, you need to at least be able to commit to beating someone until they physically can't fight back. Mark should be familiar with this state, given how many times he's been in it.
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Mar 29, 2024 00:14
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roomtone posted:the thing is, nolan said he needed to stop holding back in that scene and it made me think, is the reason mark is so weak compared to other viltrumites, because he doesn't actually want to kill anybody? it's possible. i think it'd be a pretty weak conclusion to this issue, given how close he has been to death so MANY times, but it's possible. They had some dumb technobabble from Cecil and Donald about how they'd measured her somehow and determined scientifically that she was going to beat his rear end real bad. It was very dumb, but it seemed like the viewer is supposed to take it as true that she was much stronger than Mark no matter how hard he tried to kill her.
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Mar 29, 2024 00:14
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