Feel free to chat with me on social media!
https://www.instagram.com/sarcasticchorus/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChorusSarcastic
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sarcasticchorus
ending theme:
Artist: Causmic
Title: Much Higher
https://www.instagram.com/sarcasticchorus/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChorusSarcastic
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sarcasticchorus
ending theme:
Artist: Causmic
Title: Much Higher
Category
🎮️
GamingTranscript
00:00This episode made me want to slap Mark which is insane cuz I'm talking about the good one
00:06The Invincible War is finally here and it is proving Cecil right and offering one of the saddest moments in the series
00:14The animation. I mean not really as I've just accepted how the show will never give its crew enough time to cook
00:19We must come to Invincible for the violence and the writing
00:23Which is where I have actual critiques of this episode as yeah
00:27Daddy Cecil got proven right, Mark left the rest of the world to die
00:32But the roughest thing to happen this episode is that it made the rest of the season
00:36Weaker in hindsight for me as we have had a lot of opportunities to build up and pay off Mark's story
00:43Only for a red idiot to completely steal the show. Let me explain
00:52To get my overall opinion out of the way first, I think this episode is
00:56Solid but I have serious
00:59Serious notes on how it handled certain things and how it makes it just it makes me look at the rest of the season in
01:04A harsher light. Though yeah, Cecil was proven a hundred percent correct by the end of this thing. Mark may hate Cecil
01:11But those countermeasures came in clutch. His faith in Darkwing took out a Mark
01:15You may think he's an unethical control freak and you'd be right
01:18But his desire for countermeasures against Mark and Viltrumites have just been proven exactly what the world needed in this
01:25Particular case and in the very foreseeable future
01:28So despite Mark not wanting to admit it, Cecil was proven right and that's something Mark is gonna have to grab with
01:35One of these days. Also speaking of people who were right, me. Rex continues to be an MVP
01:42Crazy how you went from just an asshat early on to actually learning to care about others undergoing all this growth and oh shit
01:49It's gonna be Rex isn't it? Rex is the one who's gonna die
01:56I've never been more heartbroken to have called something. Rex again has been an MVP this season
02:02His growth from a douche to a lovable goof has been one of the best examples of character growth in the series
02:08His relationship with Rey managed to be just so endearing it annoys the shit out of me
02:13How even Mark don't have a quarter of this chemistry despite having so much more screen time
02:18I will do a video on why I find them boring
02:20But I think the funniest realization I can just give right now is that while watching this episode
02:27I noticed how even when Eve is unconscious
02:30The only thing Mark has to talk to her about is still just his own problems
02:35Meanwhile Rex and Rey have a genuine back-and-forth that is truly adorable
02:39Even as Rex basically throws up death flags like it's an Olympic sport
02:42He talks about how much he's changed and grown how good life is right now and like there has never been a more obvious
02:48I'm about to die speech than this
02:51Rex's death was metal as hell deadening his own skeleton just kill one of the marks and while it hurts
02:57This is what the season has been prepping us for
02:59I think the way they structure the scene could have been tweaked a little bit and I don't love the
03:04Immediate song afterwards, but I think my biggest wish is that we just got a little bit more time to marinate in Rex's sacrifice
03:12We go so quickly down. Oh my god Rex died and all these other people who we don't care about
03:17They are also gone. I was like, no, no, no, no go back Rey needs like sit there and
03:23Maybe find a piece of him somewhere. The he's deadline is solid
03:28Just stick that knife into mark a little bit deeper as it deserves to be
03:32I'm just saying like damn they could be milking the death of the one of their most beloved
03:36Characters a little bit more and I'm pretty sure we're gonna do that as we have a whole other episode
03:41They can have a funeral and I'm going to be broken whenever Rey just whatever she does
03:46the last thing it would be nice if we got in one more scene of him being a hero between leaving Rey and his
03:52Death just to make it so we don't go from a hundred death flags to his immediate death
03:56But overall, I think it works
03:58Unlike Rey not immediately joined the fight once she turned on the news and realized Rex was up against an invincible
04:04This is on day two. I think she would have been with the team instead of just driving up right now
04:09That's that I do like that. This episode lives up to the threat of multiple evil marks invading the devastation is
04:15Catastrophic lots of dead heroes and hey, we may have even seen some of them before which given how big this cast is
04:22Yeah, that that fits Steven. Yoon did honestly a fantastic job of getting each of these marks their own unique voice
04:29They could have easily just had him speak the same for every single one
04:31But no each one is unique and I really appreciate that. We don't get a chance like really dig into any of their characters
04:37I do appreciate just these little moments to say like, okay some of these marks
04:41They are crazy, but then others we these moments of sympathy that like, okay, no, there's still a bit of mark in there
04:47It's just been warped to hell and back. I think my favorite out of all these was Omni mark
04:53He just had the single best line in the episode that I can't play because Amazon copyright has been
04:59Insane lately like they're claiming my entire video based on one frame. Like seriously, what the hell is this?
05:05Yeah
05:05Omni mark really liked him and hope we get to see more of him and the rest of these marks at some point later on
05:11and I can't wish we could dig in more into like their backstories and like what made them the way that they are as
05:15Some of them just seem almost not evil
05:18I mean, they're still pretty fucked up as they made deals with angstrom of all people, but that is something for another time
05:24I also like though how our mark is the strongest all these other guys
05:28They probably never had to train to do anything. They can 1v1 pretty much anyone
05:35Everywhere so there was very little incentive outside like the other Viltrum my ones to train to get stronger
05:41Well, our mark has just been buckling down to be ready for like whatever fight comes next
05:45These other marks had just way too easy. So they never had to try though
05:50Speaking of easy
05:52I'm still a little bit iffy on how strong these marks and our mark is supposed to be a single
05:59Vulture might can easily wipe out a planet
06:02So I was actually surprised that the normal heroes were just winning they could beat a mark
06:08They could beat a Vulture might and after all the worry and dread from how much they have been built up
06:12That is honestly surprising to me. I mean just look at the Guardians
06:16these guys are supposed to be the strongest heroes on the planet the greatest hero team that Cecil can make and they
06:23Basically lose these guys couldn't take down one of them
06:28Yes, this is the broke version of the already broke Guardians
06:31But this was a total party kill and would have been a complete failure
06:35If not for Darkwing taking one for the team yet when we check to other places
06:40Yeah
06:40Some these other marks lose without like the help of Cecil and the rest all over I buy Cecil's countermeasures checkout
06:48Powerplex built himself around killing mark, but I have questions about these other randos and why the hell they aren't on the Guardians
06:55I don't care how much they want pay them
06:57We need to get shapesmith and duplicate just on the bench as they have not been clutch this entire series
07:03Hell black Samson's grace achievement is just being the team dad
07:09And not dying if a mortal and Darkwing had some actual backup
07:13They might have been able to take down at least one of these guys
07:16Also, I bring this up because knowing how strong Earth's heroes are and just how they can take on one mark
07:23Having that answer goes a long way to justifying or at least made me slightly less infuriated and mark
07:35I
07:36Was so pissed off at mark when he was like trying to justify staying on the bench like Anakin shut up
07:43There's literally tens of thousands of people dying every minute
07:48Choosing to stay on the off chance of one of those marks attacks a Pentagon valid
07:52I understand why he would make that choice, but that doesn't make it any less just
07:57incredibly
07:59Irresponsible when Cecil roasted him for being childish. This should be the number one example going forward
08:06I know Eve means so much to him
08:08But I don't want to hear a word out of his mouth about out
08:11I should have killed ain't someone know the man should be dead
08:15But it's this choice to stay by Eve's side even as his copies commit mass murder
08:20This is what I feel like we should be grilling him for as yeah, how does mark bounce back from this?
08:26How will the story make him suffer because of it? I'm curious to see how this will play out
08:30I don't think the public will ever forgive him for this. I mean you have to save the world least a couple times which oh
08:37Yeah
08:38Conquest that is how you get semi get out of it
08:41But to talk about the things I'm slightly more middling on as at least mark not join the fight makes sense other stuff
08:48I'm like more iffy on like angstrom
08:52Now personally, I have never loved angstrom. I think him holding Debbie hostage one of the most intense scenes in invincible
08:59He serves as an interesting manifestation of the unseen victims of superheroics of and this just occurred to me
09:05He is a man who wanted to do good to save the world only for his desire to be the good guy
09:11resulting in just
09:13Thousands of deaths, but all that aside
09:15I just don't think he has the narrative presence needed to make him the main antagonist of a season
09:21He is barely in season two. The foreshadowing is just oh look
09:25He's up to something then we never get enough of him to really build dread for whatever he ends up doing
09:31Which is the same issue that I have with this season
09:34my honest take is that this season did a better job of setting up Cecil as the main antagonist then angstrom or
09:41Conquest the guy's presence in this season boils down to like oh a tease and bring the actual threats
09:47I chuckle we claim that he likes to make an entrance as this man has so little stage presence
09:53He has no and I hate to say it aura like Sterling K Brown is giving a good performance
09:59I don't think he is the problem whatsoever
10:01It is just the how the show uses him angstrom just comes off as so bland to me
10:06The most interesting thing he does this episode is rip off Megamind
10:12I'm gonna talk about this more in a bit
10:14But I think invincible has developed a bit of a problem with its love of shock value of villains popping at the worst possible time
10:20Unannounced which is cool in some cases
10:22But however, I think it comes at the cost of actually having them in the story to build up and focus the plot
10:27I think angstrom's and the defeat of the other invincibles is just
10:31Anticlimactic the invincibles that survive just get double-crossed and angstrom's fight didn't pop up despite the bones of a great action scene
10:39Clearly being here these villains came out of nowhere and by the end of the episode
10:43They've all been dealt with for the time being I figured these events will play a huge role later in the story
10:49That doesn't shake the sense that while good. I like this episode
10:52I think the concept and the execution just so many missed opportunities and I wish we could have done more with it
10:58If there was ever an episode of invincible that could have been stretched out to be a full hour
11:02This was it give us extra time to indulge in the chaos rather than just getting what feels like cliff notes those cliff notes work
11:09I think it does tell a compelling story for the most part
11:12But on the whole this has been the episode invincible I have been the most
11:15Critical of which brings us to my biggest issue with this episode and the season as a whole you see
11:22Personally three seasons in I think invincible peaked in its first been rewatching recently
11:29And yeah, it did look better in places, even though it was still clearly janky as fuck season one
11:35Though is just the best when it comes to the actual narrative as this season has an actual through line
11:41Aka Omni, man. Well, most of invincible's first season could be considered episodic each episode. It's its own story
11:48It's doing its own thing
11:49but the thing that ties all these events together is that slow build to the Omni man reveal for Mark Debbie and the world to find
11:56Out who Omni man is and for us to find out why he did it every episode inched us closer new information was revealed
12:03Nolan's mask kept slipping and we're bracing for the shit show that will happen once that bomb drops
12:09This was the central hook for the season hell
12:12It was the hook for the series invincible may be character driven and it is good at it
12:17The series is inability to give each season a genuine overarching plot and mystery or just anything
12:23Hurts it it leaves us to just follow the lives of the characters and it's good
12:28But there's nothing to lock in all these storylines and create a sense that we are building to a big finish and climax like we
12:34Did in season one instead the things just happen to the characters with us having to shrug and accept like okay
12:40This is what we're doing now. It's still good, but I think it's missing that structure to really make it great
12:45This is my main issue with season two besides the random ass gap
12:49I enjoyed it as a falling action slash setup season
12:52But the main conflicts here pop up out of nowhere only for the show to just go back to business as usual
12:58Nolan's return just happens anissa just happens angsturns like getting built up in what was near exclusively
13:05Mcu mid credit scenes just kind of happens the shock factor for all these events is effective
13:10But I think that isn't worth leaving the rest of the season without just that
13:14Thing to really guide and like tie all these events together this creates a situation where the individual episodes are good
13:21But I don't think they build to a greater whole as well as they could with season three
13:25Being the fucking worst at this when mark had this line about spending all this time torturing himself over how he
13:33shouldn't have killed angstrom only to realize he probably should have
13:36That pissed me off as this has been the angst season of mark
13:41Every episode has dragged this man into the mud of some new moral quandary only for the hero reeling from his seemingly
13:48Killing of angstrom to double down on being just a standard good guy
13:52Not wanting to compromise his morals even as the world just kept showing him how things are complicated
13:57And that being good doesn't always lead to the best results. Yes
14:01Cecil has entered the chat yet
14:03Despite this season low-key trying to bully mark into being an anti-hero. It doesn't fucking go anywhere
14:10No straight up after episode two of this season
14:13You could play any of the events in the next four episodes that happen to mark in any order
14:17And it wouldn't make a difference to mark storyline as in this season. It's just a broken record. I enjoy it, but it is
14:26Repetitive there's next to no carryover or progression for his character
14:30He doesn't learn a lesson in one episode that gets carried over to the next like besides getting guilt-tripped by powerplex
14:36Making the two instances in this episode where they're trying to bring this arc home
14:40Even as like clearly they're gonna finish up fully in the next like what they did annoyed me as yeah
14:46The line is a massive no shit from me story has been ranting at him this entire time
14:51While each episode present a different moral quandary the essential question remain the same
14:57Does mark want to be a good guy or does he want to be the guy who saves the world?
15:01With mark never arriving at any real answer till this
15:05With the weak payoff making all the prior events feel just all the more repetitive to me
15:10They are interesting on their own
15:11But they don't build to make this moment more impactful and just highlights to me
15:15What was probably the more standalone pacing of the original comic where each issue was doing its own thing
15:20Even as it built up to just the grander narrative where season one felt like it had been refined to fit an eight episode season
15:25Of tv also the other thing that makes this episode just weaken the rest of the season
15:31It's just how strange the conclusion to mark's fight with angstrom is as I don't know why oliver is here
15:42This season has been building towards mark choosing to kill he's gotten some freebies from people who technically could have survived being killed
15:49So him finally being faced with a threat he has to put down to protect those he cares about
15:54That is what this season has been building to even if he still end up failing to kill angstrom
15:58I think mark truly forsaking his aversion to killing would work to wrap up this part of his story, but
16:04The way this moment is set up is weird to me as mark was going to kill angstrom
16:11He had that dude by the throat
16:13It felt like he was one sense away from scrambled eggs only for oliver to show up and state the obvious
16:19Oh, he killed people. He should die so he can never do it again
16:23Like what are you waiting for and the answer is for you to shut up everything that happened in this episode
16:29everything that's happened in this season has made the need for oliver to show up and scream the main idea just
16:35Fully unnecessary, but what's worse?
16:38The way the scene was going made it feel like mark was already about to kill angstrom
16:45If mark was debating it more. Yeah, oliver being here to push mark would make more narrative sense
16:50He does ask the question like why would you do this?
16:52But from what the scene is giving me it feels like we could have had angstrom make one snarky comment
16:57Then mark would have snapped his neck like this was so weird to me that I did something out of character for myself
17:03I read the comic. Yeah, I actually looked up and read the invincible war issue and yeah shocker
17:07It makes way more sense there as in the comics mark is monologuing at angstrom
17:12He's talking a big game only for oliver to cut in and say yeah
17:15Just kill him already as his bro is wasting time
17:20Oliver is the one who tells mark to his face that this all could have been prevented if he had really just killed angstrom
17:25With this being enough to make mark find a side to just end it in the show
17:29invincible says
17:32Two sentences and is already on the cusp of killing him mark doesn't debate like oh my god
17:37I can't do this in front of oliver instead
17:40He just goes through with what he was already gonna do
17:42Making oliver's inclusion feel like it's really just here to give angstrom time to come up with an escape plan
17:48Leaving this whole moment to feel not just
17:50Unsatisfying but just confusing and after this I kind of don't care if he kills conquest
17:56That won't fix how strange this scene is and how little the show seems to trust his audience to get what's going on
18:02I know it might seem like i'm jumping the gun as we have one episode left to this season
18:06But my gut and the comments are telling me conquest versus invincible is gonna be primarily
18:11Spectacle. In fact, i'm going to make a five dollar guess on exactly what's gonna happen
18:17It's gonna be mark getting his ass kicked till oliver or debbie someone important gets maimed forcing mark to lock in
18:24And finally start going for the kill
18:26He'll get comfortable with just getting his hands dirty if it means protecting others roll credits and at that point it's like, okay cool
18:34Finally paid that off, but it feels like it's too late and mark's arc has just been too repetitive
18:39Which I think ties into a criticism I agree with from cosmonaut marcus who said in season two
18:44Mark is outshined by the rest of the supporting cast his arc is good
18:48But it's stretched out over the course of the entire season
18:52And I think that it still holds very much true for this one
18:55It feels like mark's arc is stuck on a treadmill with interesting ideas being present
18:59But explored better through other characters like powerplex
19:02The should we kill villains and their humanization is best explored through oliver and the various baddies
19:07But while we're getting all that good stuff mark's personal opinion and way of operating remains the same
19:12Till he gets bummed out by powerplex and then he hides in a hospital room while people are dying
19:18I like mark and the ideas being played with however for a character driven season
19:22These events don't change the main character as much as I think they should
19:26Which is a shame because I feel like we need that so that we can keep having these episodic
19:29Adventures with this through line going through all of it also to glaze the comics just a little bit more
19:35I personally think the comic did something that would have been a huge benefit to the show and by that I mean
19:41Really intercutting all the scenes together
19:43It would have been a nightmare to plan out and it's way easier to do in the comics
19:47But I can't help but think that a few scenes dragged on just a bit too long
19:51The guardian fight being the biggest offender for a thread that is supposed to feel this overwhelming having that sense
19:56There are too many fires to put out would have been enhanced by constantly intercutting to multiple different scenes
20:01We do this a little bit with the montages
20:03But I don't think it goes far enough with us usually sticking to one fight till it's finished
20:07If we were constantly cutting between different moments
20:09Then the sense of chaos would give us no room to breathe
20:11Which would then make the quiet scenes like market eve side feel just out of place and highlight how he just isn't doing jack shit
20:18I understand the idea to give moments like rex's sacrifice more time to like be there
20:22But again, I think we need one more extra scene of rex being a hero to really make this death sink in plus removing the music
20:29So I think it would have been great if we just got the dire struggle of all the heroes happening
20:34Simultaneously have rex get caught give a speech about how heroes are stupid and never give up cut to all the heroes darkwing
20:40Donald all start to lock in to keep on fighting with all their sacrifices happening all at once and rex's big explosion being the finish
20:48Now i'm slightly biased as I knew the invincible war was coming
20:52Spoilers were everywhere. I was expecting it. I and I thought it would be a bit more chaotic
20:57We were this close to having that level of energy, but instead we settled for serviceable
21:03Which is how I would describe a lot of the production for this show though
21:06Again, I know the crew wasn't given time to cook and I just assumed that the animatics for a lot of these moments
21:12Pop the fuck off then had just get crunched down due to the lack of time
21:17Animation takes a long time and the fact that robert kerman said like oh, yeah
21:21The goal for invincible is to put out a new season every february just sounds insane to me
21:27Though it fully explains why this show feels so bare bones at times personally
21:31I'm always down to wait a little bit longer to give the animators more time to work
21:35Like if this is what the show looks like after only a year and some change
21:39Imagine what it would look like if we had like a year and a half or two
21:43Now all my whinging aside again, I did enjoy this episode
21:46It has the most promise yet. It also has some of the most glaring issues of any invincible episode i've ever seen
21:52Like outside of what was clearly them having no money
21:55I like shock and awe as much as the next guy
21:58But when I finished this episode it made me look at the rest of the season in a different light
22:03And it wasn't for the better
22:05Maybe the final episode will flip me to thinking that this whole thing is a masterpiece
22:09But from how much i've heard this is going to be the big fight the biggest fight
22:13Seeing what they did to angstrom versus mark. Okay. I'll believe it when I see it