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Collateral posted:The thinking is: We would prefer our scary indestructible guardian not to be a socially maladjusted misanthrope. Which is a coin flip for both home schooling and normal school, but forcing homeschooling on a kid that doesn't want it isn't a good starting point. It's a trope for a good reason, telling a child what is best for them only really works* once they already to listen, usually after they experience why. It's good narrative. This is the exact plot of J Michael Straczynski's Supreme Power. Superman crashes in Kansas as a baby and is found and taken in by a childless couple who live on the farm near the landing site. The difference is that it's the end of the 20th century instead of the start, so the landing was tracked and black ops military are there within 24 hours to pick him up. He's taken to a black site, educated and raised as the perfect American patriot by fake parents. Then he finds out that there's a real world that he isn't a part of, and that he's been lied to his whole life, and it goes exactly as well for the US as you might expect. Takes No Damage posted:Wait, his name was really Ray, as in Ray Romano? So that's why his supe name is Shrinking Ray? Surprised we don't have another speedster in the series named Justin Time. In case you hadn't noticed, there's a lot of nominative determinism in Invincible. In addition to Shrinking Ray you've got Rex Splode, Dupli-Kate and her brother Multi-Paul, and Angstrom Levy. Atom Eve also uses her real (middle) name to make an "Adam and Eve" pun, although that's slightly different as while the pun reflects on her power to rearrange matter her name isn't strictly part of it.
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Mar 18, 2024 02:14
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Megillah Gorilla posted:I know it's been a trope since the very first Spider-Man comics, but I'm really sick of "hero tries to attend college and have a regular girlfriend" bullshit. Thats an excellent point. Why is Mark going to college? wtf is he going to do, graduate and get an office job? Work his way up to middle management? Any time not spent as Invincible has a literal million/billion dollar price tag
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Mar 18, 2024 02:15
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Vampire Panties posted:Thats an excellent point. Why is Mark going to college? wtf is he going to do, graduate and get an office job? Work his way up to middle management? Any time not spent as Invincible has a literal million/billion dollar price tag He's a person, not a tool.
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Mar 18, 2024 02:29
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Vampire Panties posted:Thats an excellent point. Why is Mark going to college? wtf is he going to do, graduate and get an office job? Work his way up to middle management? Any time not spent as Invincible has a literal million/billion dollar price tag https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-07-13
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Mar 18, 2024 03:33
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I think Mark just wants some experiences typical of a guy his age.
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Mar 18, 2024 03:41
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Why don’t they simply hook Mark up to an enormous generator
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Mar 18, 2024 06:44
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Kid wants to have his cake and eat it too. It's already hurting his girlfriend and mother and will probably hurt a lot more people before he's done.
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Mar 18, 2024 08:34
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The series has hammered home pretty clearly that Cecil's primary worry is Mark going all god-king like his father and acting unilaterally in a way that Cecil, and by extension the combined governments of Earth, won't be able to stop. I suspect he'd be perfectly happy if Mark just quit the superhero thing entirely to live an ordinary unassuming life, where he's less likely to encounter catalysts for attempting to make drastic changes to the world, and they can more easily spot it if he does. But since Mark doesn't want that, Cecil indulges him by pretending to give him permission for something Mark would do anyway, in exchange for Mark (at least in theory) only doing it the way Cecil tells him to. If Cecil was going to make Mark choose between being a Superhero and college, he'd tell the kid to focus on college. Slashrat fucked around with this message at 10:49 on Mar 18, 2024 |
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Mar 18, 2024 08:40
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It's kind of amazing how shortsighted Cecil is about Debbie. Of COURSE she's not going to trust you to look after her ex-husbands new baby. You run a government blackops unit which makes you inherently untrustworthy, have had a bad history of unethical experiments on children, a terrible bedside manner and the teenagers who sign on with you are treated terribly by you because you somehow expect them to behave like a military. He can't be surprised when she tells him to gently caress off. Especially since the audience have seen how poorly he's handling Donald, who's PTSD is bad especially since it was artificially delayed the way that it was so now he has to deal with that on TOP of his new trauma, but would likely pale in comparison to Bug!Mark's upcoming teenage years.
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Mar 18, 2024 09:35
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I remember a story where Superman tried to do the grain thing. He got hit with a missile for entering foreign territory. Didn't hurt him, but the grain wasn't so lucky. BioEnchanted posted:It's kind of amazing how shortsighted Cecil is about Debbie. Of COURSE she's not going to trust you to look after her ex-husbands new baby. You run a government blackops unit which makes you inherently untrustworthy, have had a bad history of unethical experiments on children, a terrible bedside manner and the teenagers who sign on with you are treated terribly by you because you somehow expect them to behave like a military. He can't be surprised when she tells him to gently caress off. Especially since the audience have seen how poorly he's handling Donald, who's PTSD is bad especially since it was artificially delayed the way that it was so now he has to deal with that on TOP of his new trauma, but would likely pale in comparison to Bug!Mark's upcoming teenage years. Cecil's lack of boundaries don't help either.
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Mar 18, 2024 10:45
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Slashrat posted:The series has hammered home pretty clearly that Cecil's primary worry is Mark going all god-king like his father and acting unilaterally in a way that Cecil, and by extension the combined governments of Earth, won't be able to stop. I suspect he'd be perfectly happy if Mark just quit the superhero thing entirely to live an ordinary unassuming life, where he's less likely to encounter catalysts for attempting to make drastic changes to the world, and they can more easily spot it if he does. But since Mark doesn't want that, Cecil indulges him by pretending to give him permission for something Mark would do anyway, in exchange for Mark (at least in theory) only doing it the way Cecil tells him to. He wouldn't be happy then because Mark would still exist, still be powerful, and still be a threat. He wouldn't be happy until he had a perfectly certain chance to kill him should he ever do anything.
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Mar 19, 2024 03:59
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Yeah. As much as Mark wants to have his cake and eat it too, Cecil's in that boat even moreso. Mark being a rogue super is obviously his worst case scenario, but he'd much rather have Mark under his thumb, lock and key, or the barrel of a gun than living a normal life.
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Mar 19, 2024 04:37
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Cecil should get fired for how he handled poo poo this week
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Mar 19, 2024 04:44
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I love Donald's reaction to being blown off, after begging him to make time he just barks at the rest of the room "EVERYBODY OUT NOW! I need the room." Screw Cecil's excuses, he's going to MAKE time.
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Mar 19, 2024 05:04
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Stairmaster posted:Cecil should get fired for how he handled poo poo this week He could at least start by offering Mark a huge salary. He has hosed up gaining his trust so many times, he needs to hire someone with people skills to interact with the Nolan family.
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Mar 19, 2024 05:43
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Stairmaster posted:Cecil should get fired for how he handled poo poo this week Its ironic tbh. I feel like the field team would've been way better on the ship and the away team would've been way better at base. When their capitalization on Rudy's EMP was to start stomping sequids one by one I knew it was gonna go real bad real fast. Meanwhile, even just Black Sampson or Bulletproof could've handled Komodo no problem. They'd need proper protective suits of course, but between Rudy and Eve I can't see that being too hard.
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Mar 19, 2024 05:51
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Megillah Gorilla posted:He could at least start by offering Mark a huge salary. He does. Also it's the Greyson family. (Even though Greyson was just something Nolan made up cause Viltrumite's don't have family names).
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Mar 19, 2024 05:53
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The Bee posted:Its ironic tbh. I feel like the field team would've been way better on the ship and the away team would've been way better at base. When their capitalization on Rudy's EMP was to start stomping sequids one by one I knew it was gonna go real bad real fast. Meanwhile, even just Black Sampson or Bulletproof could've handled Komodo no problem. The space team should have been Invincible, Monster Girl, Robot in a remote suit, Bulletproof/Immortal and anyone else who is possibly immune to getting sequoided. Hell I'm surprised Cecil didn't just try to nuke the ship.
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Mar 19, 2024 06:37
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BioEnchanted posted:I love Donald's reaction to being blown off, after begging him to make time he just barks at the rest of the room "EVERYBODY OUT NOW! I need the room." Screw Cecil's excuses, he's going to MAKE time. I really enjoyed that scene, there's a steel in Donald that doesn't show on the exterior and I think people forget about that a lot even Cecil.
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Mar 19, 2024 06:55
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Hughlander posted:there's... steel in Donald 
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Mar 19, 2024 08:41
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Cecil probably forgets that Donald's tougher than he acts because unlike him Donald is a good person. I'd like to see Donald and Debbie starting their own little Trauma Support Group because they know that Donald won't judge Debbie for being married to the man who killed a million people and Debbie will understand Donald's situation as a robot boi.
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Mar 19, 2024 09:08
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MonsterEnvy posted:He does. Well he did, Debbie told him to shove the money up his rear end.
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Mar 19, 2024 17:17
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Jedit posted:In case you hadn't noticed, there's a lot of nominative determinism in Invincible. In addition to Shrinking Ray you've got Rex Splode, Dupli-Kate and her brother Multi-Paul, and Angstrom Levy. Wait what's the joke in Angstrom's name
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Mar 19, 2024 18:16
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GunnerJ posted:Wait what's the joke in Angstrom's name Oh, his penis is 10−7mm long (I kid, I don't know enough about particle physics to get it myself other than that it's related to quantum physics)
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Mar 19, 2024 19:12
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I still love that mustaches are the defining feature of a male viltrumite. They're apparently literally physically unable to grow different facial hair.
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Mar 19, 2024 20:03
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GunnerJ posted:Wait what's the joke in Angstrom's name There's an argument (and common SF trope) that every universe within a multiverse exists in parallel in the same place at the same time, separated from each other by the thickness of an atom. The thickness of an atom is one angstrom. So it's nominative determinism that a multiversal traveler is named Angstrom.
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Mar 19, 2024 20:07
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Right, and Levy is another way to say impose. So he imposes on the walls between universes.
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Mar 19, 2024 20:47
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ikanreed posted:I still love that mustaches are the defining feature of a male viltrumite. I've heard viltrum is a play on philtrum, which is part of the upper lip.
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Mar 19, 2024 21:45
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The alternative explanation is even funnier - he actually did grow that beard for real, and ripped it out for the reveal.
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Mar 19, 2024 22:07
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BioEnchanted posted:The alternative explanation is even funnier - he actually did grow that beard for real, and ripped it out for the reveal. This is the actual case. That's why Allen immediately assumed Viltumite. Normal people can't do that poo poo. It does, however, imply that Viltrumite facial hair grows as a single unit and the only part strong enough to resist being pulled off is the 'stache.
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Mar 19, 2024 22:36
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The other, more sensible explanation is that Viltrumites can grow beards but customarily don't. Thaedus is sentimental enough to keep up the tradition of wearing only a moustache, and wears the false beard to conceal that he does follow the Viltrumite style.
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Mar 19, 2024 23:37
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if a lady Viltrumite wore a fake moustache as a sort of funny prank would she be summarily executed?
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Mar 20, 2024 00:40
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Knowing the way the empire seems to operate? Most definitely, they don't seem to have a sense of humour
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Mar 20, 2024 01:06
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I bet Viltrumite mustaches are like Saiyan hair. That poo poo is permanent.
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Mar 20, 2024 01:17
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Bloody Pom posted:I bet Viltrumite mustaches are like Saiyan hair. That poo poo is permanent. So the whole thing is based on GT Vegetas moustache?
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Mar 20, 2024 02:09
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Darko posted:So the whole thing is based on GT Vegetas moustache? The original author claims he never saw DragonBall Z. Thaddeus ripping off his beard and Allen immediately pegging him as a viltrumite because of the mustache left over is the best Clark Kenting moment I've seen in a while.
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Mar 20, 2024 03:06
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BioEnchanted posted:The alternative explanation is even funnier - he actually did grow that beard for real, and ripped it out for the reveal. It is called the toolock pull and it is a sacred ritual Good Citizen fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Mar 20, 2024 |
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Mar 20, 2024 03:53
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Good Citizen posted:It is Shhhh. Put that in spoilers. It's too good to ruin.
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Mar 20, 2024 05:45
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uber_stoat posted:if a lady Viltrumite wore a fake moustache as a sort of funny prank would she be summarily executed? I think even an attempt at humor is punishable by death in their culture.
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Mar 20, 2024 17:52
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Hughlander posted:I think even an attempt at humor is punishable by death in their culture. Well part of their culture is you can freely kill people for being weak. (Not spoilers this happened during the meeting with Nolan and when they started talking about the brother) 
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Mar 20, 2024 19:14
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