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/pabsthekid]

Debbie cannot catch a break

[u/Smash96leo → u/pabsthekid]

Theo really a dickhead for reacting like that ngl. I know he’s in pain too, but jesus man.

[u/ZachLaVine4MVP → u/Smash96leo]

Such a fucking douche, him lashing out at Debbie at the end just made me hate him

[u/watashi_ga_kita → u/ZachLaVine4MVP]

I mean it's basically the same situation for parents of kids who became a school shooter. There's an argument to be made that they should've seen the signs and did something to stop the would-be killers.

And sure, the parents or spouses of the killers need support, but they ain't gonna get it from friends and family of the victims.

This comment helps puts things in perspective, I think.

[u/NevisYsbryd → u/watashi_ga_kita]

It does not because it is wrong. Parents actually created much of the environment and nurturing that a shooter is brought up in. They unequivocably contributed to the development of a child into that person, or was neglectfully absent in their involvement to prevent it to at least some degree.

Debbie did not raise Nolan from birth. Virtually no one suspected Nolan, including the Guardians. Debbie did not have not have adequate information to be reasonably expected to be able to predict this, had insufficient power to prevent it at any point (Nolan was planning this before Debbie was born), and was herself abandoned, ostracized, and left with a fractured home by Nolan's actions. Of what we have seen of Debbie's past, her influence on Nolan through Mark is why Nolan is gentler and left rather than raze Earth as he initially intended.

A closer equivolency is blaming the one fellow student was kind to the shooter and attempted to stop them.

[u/watashi_ga_kita → u/NevisYsbryd]

Surely not all parents of school shooters were abusive, right? But even then you can substitute some mall shooter or something to keep the example relevant.

And similar to how you can say the parents should have known something was up, you can similarly saw Debbie should have known something was up. It doesn't matter if she didn't raise Nolan. She was his partner for multiple decades. Being his partner and the person he was supposed to be closest with, she was in the best position to figure out something was amiss.

Now, we know the full story. That Nolan had planned to capture earth for the Viltrumite Empire and had planned to from the beginning. That she was absolutely blindsided and was kept in the dark until it was too late. That the reason Nolan ended up leaving was that their son.

We know the full context. But do you think Theo did? Do you think any regular person did? Do they even know what a Viltrumite is? Do you think he knew that Nolan planned on subjugating earth from the beginning? Most of the details would have been kept from the public. So if he's not aware of everything that went down, it shouldn't be surprising that he thinks she should have known better. That she shares some of the blame, just like we would like to give her some of the credit for how Mark turned out.

Even if he didn't blame her, it would be very natural to not want her around. He did something stupid by breaking the rules they were given about personal info but Debbie was a bigger idiot for doing the same, given her situation.