Invincible [Episode Discussion] - S02E03 - This Missive, This Machination!

[u/mwthecool]

Episode 3 - This Missive, This Machination!

Mark starts his college career, Debbie struggles with personal trauma, and Allen the Alien returns home to find a new threat facing the Coalition of Planets.

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[u/Spider-Man-fan]

To be clear, what he did wrong was be in a relationship with Amber in the first place, correct?

[u/KBSinclair → u/Spider-Man-fan]

No. What he did wrong was stay in one while not telling her he was a superhero. He either should've broken up with her once he realized Superheroing would always take precedence over any commitment he made to her, or he should've told her, and let her make the choice to date a superhero or not. Making her figure it out on her own after months of making promises and lying to her were his major fuck ups.

[u/Cats_Cameras → u/KBSinclair]

Hard disagree. His identity is his family's safety, and even the best-intentioned teens can struggle to hold a secret.

[u/KBSinclair → u/Cats_Cameras]

His identity is his family's safety

His family is Omni-Man and his mom. Not to mention how they're monitored and protected by the gov't and Cecil. Even under the possibility of a reveal, they'd be fine.

best-intentioned teens can struggle to hold a secret.

Who's pressing her on it, and who would she want to even tell? Superheroes are pretty damn common place. Did you not see their reaction to Eve? Despite her power and being connected to the new Guardians of the Globe, no one gave a shit. And at that point, even less people know or care about Invincible in particular. He's a nobody. How would it service Amber to tell anyone about him in any regard? There's no reason for him not to trust Amber, or at least to show that he has abilities and is a superhero, even if he didn't say which one in particular.

And let's just say all that doesn't matter and Mark had to keep the secret. Ok, then he's still a piece of shit for lying to Amber and not breaking up with her if he couldn't balance a relationship and his superhero duties. Something he should've understood from leaving her in his room for hours to deal with a crisis. He should've recognized that would be the standard and she didn't deserve that. He had from that moment to the time they visited the college to come to that conclusion, yet he never did. That's a failure on his part.

[u/Cats_Cameras → u/KBSinclair]

All it takes is one nutter to kill his mom. We saw in-universe (with the intact Guardians) that the White House itself can be attacked and broken by random supervillains, let alone one random suburban mom.

If you spend any time with teens as an adult, you know that their secrets rapidly bounce all over, because poor impulse control and fluid relationships. Is it possible that Amber is absolutely someone that can be trusted with his identity? Maybe, but he wouldn't know after dating her for a few months. And that's without a breakup or other jilting.

Mark's not a "piece of shit" for trying to juggle his responsibilities with a relationship. Just an inexperienced teen dealing with much greater pressures than the usual. We've all flubbed relationships along the way as we grow. It's fine for Mark to be "human" and it's fine for Amber to want more and break up with him.

[u/KBSinclair → u/Cats_Cameras]

One nutter

Not with the dudes Cecil employs to surveil the family, nor with Omni-Man around her a great deal of the deal and able to get to her easily.

the White House itself can be attacked and broken by random supervillains

1. That was a comic story.

2. The Maulers may be a bit narrow minded, but they're absolutely not random villains.

because poor impulse control and fluid relationships

Again, who would she tell, and how would it service her to any degree. This is not real life, this is a fictional world where super humans are comm place, and a guy like Invincible is small potatoes. No one she would even tell us a threat. Trying to go on the internet with it would be a massive nothing burger that would either be ignored or swept up by Cecil.

Mark's not a "piece of shit" for trying to juggle his responsibilities with a relationship

Yes he is, because he saw very plainly that juggling wouldn't happen at all. He'd always, always, put Amber on hold when he got the call, and he didn't have the balls to either drop the relationship or tell her why that was. That's piece of shit boyfriend behavior.

If this is all you've got, I'm done wasting my time with you.

[u/Cats_Cameras → u/KBSinclair]

If Cecil couldn't prevent an attack on the White House, how could he stop someone like the Maulers attacking Debbie in a random spot. He couldn't, and she's much more fragile than the side of the White House.

[u/Spider-Man-fan → u/KBSinclair]

Invincible is not a nobody. The fact that he’s Omni-Man’s son makes him perhaps the most important person in the planet.

[u/GreatestJabaitest → u/KBSinclair]

1. This is just a stupid argument. Mark is not even an adult in S1 and you expect him to do everything right. You're insane for thinking that he's a piece of shit for not being able to handle being a super hero, a good student and a good boyfriend at the ripe age of 17. Most people without superpowers can't do this. That doesn't make him a piece of shit, it just makes him inexperienced.

2. You're also insane for thinking just because they're in a relationship, she should be entitled to know his secret identity. That's like giving your 5y old child access to your bank account. Yeah, it's possible they don't do anything with this info. Or they can completly fuck your life over in a moment of poor judgement.

3. Just this season the Mailers escaped, AGAIN. If you really think Debbie isn't in danger because Omni-Man is around I feel like you haven't actually watched the show. Omni-Man himself didn't fuck with Battle Beast. There are clearly people in the universe with more power than Omni-Man. Hell, he almost lost to the fucking tentacle monster.

4. "Again, who would she tell, and how would it service her to any degree. This is not real life, this is a fictional world" is a weird fucking argument. It's a fictional world. You're telling me it's that unbelievable that she could just be mind read? Or just, idk get tricked by a shapeshifter? Or that in this fictional world, there's no way a fictional character could go through drastic and unrealistic change caused by playing with powers outside their control? Surely that had never happened.