How Nolan's backstory recontextualizes his relationship with Mark
An Analysis
This is my first time writing out a full analysis, I hope I did well :)
Invincible Season 4 Episode 2 Spoilers.
Let's get the obvious out of the way, this interaction is a clear parallel to Nolan's fight with his own son.
Guess it runs in the family.
As a rite of passage, Nolan is expected to fight both his parents on his 18th birthday. His parents will then evaluate his performance throughout, and if it's to their standard, he will be allowed to live and be initiated as a soldier, coming of age. This is a ritual that every Viltrumite must go through.
The level of brutality in their attacks are normal. They also gang up on him and create an unfair fight, which is realistic preparation for what Nolan will encounter in the future. Though his father doesn't pull his punches, his mother is noticeably more vicious. When Nolan's father expresses satisfaction, his mother rejects it and instead makes what is arguably an attempt to kill Nolan.
Viltrumites take, 'I brought you into this world, and I can take you out', very literally.
Now, it's Mark's turn to be an adult.
When Nolan starts fighting Mark, he begins in this manner. He gets cocky that Mark even thinks he can harm him, and is quite violent with his attacks. Mark's physical and mental pain doesn't outwardly bother him, and Mark's attempts to appeal to him emotionally are unsuccessful. Nolan also psychologically traumatizes Mark on purpose by causing human deaths and verbally trivializing humanity and his family. This 'kill switch' is Nolan embracing his Viltrumite side, which he gets from his mother.
Nolan's father represents what will eventually grows into Nolan's human side. This comes out in the other half of the fight, concluding with Nolan sparing Mark's life just as his father had spared his. There were cracks in his behavior that made him softer than most by Viltrumite standards. However, his kindness was by no means overt.
[Nolan instinctively reaches for his father but is not helped.]
In this flashback, we see Nolan taking after his father from the very beginning, whether he realizes it or not. When educating the Viltrumite children, he focuses on a girl who is initially struggling to answer.
Her hesitance is a reason to kill her, which he verbally reminds. He considers it briefly, but he ultimately does not go through with it, sparing her life.
Both Nolan and his father are considered weak by his mother, and there are likely many other instances where they showed behavior that indicated weakness.
"You are just as pathetic as he is. I hope to never see either of you again."
Viltrumites do not have typical family structures and are paired up only for the sake of reproduction. Family members have no emotional commitments to each other and any childcare is an investment into the future of the empire.
Nolan is abandoned by his mother when he turns out to not be the son she wants. He will never see her again. She is free to kill him and leave at a moments notice, she can simply have another child if she wishes. Considering their lifespan, this is not a significant cost of their time. Children are trained and tested from birth, and should be discarded the moment they're deemed defective. You can always start again.
Does this sound familiar?
"What's seventeen more years?"
When Nolan realizes that Mark is not going to join him in his quest to control Earth, he considers him defective. Many are attached to lost causes simply because of the time and effort they've put into it already, but Nolan remarks, boasts even, that this is not a problem for him. Mark is too injured to continue fighting at this point, and yet, he is continuously beaten.
Nolan is no longer teaching Mark, he is no longer punishing him. He is killing him, and that's his right as a parent.
After Nolan leaves Earth, he has a difficult time working through his emotions and even desires to give up his life. As part of his own version of healing, Nolan starts a new family.
Despite not intending to replace Mark, and still loving Debbie, this upbringing where commitment isn't prioritized is why Nolan finds it so easy to start afresh. He is happy with his new life and is able to settle in quickly without guilt surrounding his old family. At this point in the story, Nolan doesn't intend to see Debbie ever again. It takes him later to process that he still misses her, and to feel regret for leaving her.
Returning to Mark and Nolan's fight, the very last scene is easily the most poignant. It's one of the most iconic dialogue exchanges to come out of the whole show.
Nolan is desperate to convince Mark that his resistance to occupation is pointless. He reminds him of the length of his lifespan and that he will outlive every person he is trying to protect. He tells him that Earth will eventually fall and be forgotten. He asks him, "what will you have in 500 years?", with the implied answer being nothing and no one.
Nolan already knows what it's like to lose everything...
...and it's genuinely not what he wants for Mark.
This is not a mere hypothetical. This is a lived experience that traumatized Nolan. If that can happen to Viltrum, then Earth must be pre-destined for doom, in his eyes. He sees himself in Mark, who never even considered what could happen to his home in the next few centuries.
"You, Dad. I'd still have you."
Nolan is so devastated by this response that he can't continue, and it shifts the entire course of his life from that point onward.
Nolan did not have his dad.
Deep down, having his father may have been the one thing Nolan wanted. It may have been the single thing that would have made Viltrum's extermination bearable for him.
When Nolan discovers that he is dead, we see a moment of shock. He only gets a few moments to process this information before throwing his body away, having to move on to his next task unemotionally. Nolan is forced to let go of him, maybe reject him, see his father as someone who was weaker than him and succumbed. Whatever kindness was in him did not get him anywhere, right? Nolan can now rise above that and be greater.
Nolan's grief may have resurfaced in this moment with Mark. Nolan now has to confront the fact Mark loves him, even with all the suffering he's caused him. Mark also expects to be loved back. That's what it means to be his father.
Nolan taught him that.
As much as Nolan wants to ignore it, being on Earth caused him to grow into a person capable of compassion. This was the side of himself that he showed to Mark all those years, and he's now realizing that it was his true self, not an act.
Nolan has internalized for centuries that he can always be better. He is great and can be greater. He grew up with one image of what that should look like.
For the first time in his life, Nolan considers something else.
This.
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To anyone who liked this analysis, I think a fic I wrote a year ago is worth a read :) it is an introspective character study on Nolan surrounding the topic of rape and Viltrum's society.
Acts are not described. This is not graphic. It is a wider exploration of the concept in relation to Nolan's psyche.
Still, please be mindful of the topic <3
The same way this is my first analysis, that fic was my first one in the fandom, thought I have written more fics after!
Linked here, titled, The Space Between