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Invincible Episode 6
780 Plays5 years ago
We discuss and analyze episode 6 of Amazon's acclaimed animated adaptation INVINCIBLE! You Look Kinda Dead
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Theme
00:00:00
Speaker
You're invited to explore cypress swamps and magical gardens and float along the rushing waters of an old-fashioned swimming hole. Plan your journey at visitmississippi.org slash outdoor adventure. Mississippi. Wanderers Welcome.
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of Animation Deliberation, the podcast where we take action animation and cartoons seriously, but not too seriously. On this episode, myself, Zuhair Ali, and guest host Nate Muzzy continue our coverage of Amazon's Invincible. We're doing episode six. You look kind of dead, so stay tuned for that right after these ads.
00:00:38
Speaker
Sing along if you know the words. A one, two, three, it's time for animation deliberation. A conversation and a celebration of our favorite action animated series. Yeah, yeah.
Hosts Introduction and Episode Focus
00:00:54
Speaker
All right, well, welcome back to another exciting episode of animation deliberation. I'm your host, Jay Scottie St. Clair.
00:01:02
Speaker
And I am joined by the awesome and stellar Zuhair Ali and the incomparable Nate Muzzy. How's it going fellas? I'm blushing. Incomparable. That's pretty high praise. I'll take it. Yeah, yeah. I don't think any of us can claim to be invincible, but I'll give praise where I can.
00:01:21
Speaker
If we do claim to be invincible, then they freeze and show the title screen. So we better not. Did that happen this episode? I think this was the first episode. We didn't get that. It did, but there wasn't any dialogue towards them. It was like, it was like side characters that led up to it. Oh, okay. Okay. I just remember I was like, Oh, it wasn't like a main characters doing it this time. I think it was like, it was the people like in the college town.
00:01:50
Speaker
on the cold open before introducing our main characters that said something along that line, like Invincible popped up. And I always forget that that's a thing until it happens, and then I'm like stunned for a quick sound, just like, well, done.
Recurring Jokes and Listener Engagement
00:02:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It's always such a nice little nod, and it continually gets bloodier and bloodier.
00:02:13
Speaker
Yeah, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it in the long run, but it's definitely grown on me, so I'll take it. Nice. At what point did you start questioning it?
00:02:27
Speaker
like episode two I was like oh they're gonna do this every time and I was like I wonder if that'll get old and like episode three I was like maybe it's getting old and now now like I'm back to liking it like in the first episode so nice mm-hmm
00:02:46
Speaker
Well, before we dive too terribly deep into this next great installment in Invincible, Zuhair, you had another five-star review that came through for us. Did you want to go ahead and tackle that? Let's do it. I appreciate all the review, guys. Whether it's good or bad, just go over to iTunes and give us your feedback.
00:03:08
Speaker
But this one is from Influenza, and they say, this is a great new podcast from the folks at the Stranded Panda Podcast Network. Jay Scottie and Zuhair are awesome hosts, and they have a good amount of background knowledge and appreciation of the material to cover the geeky animated shows that I love. The first two shows that they are covering, Young Justice and Invincible, are both great series, so I am fully enjoying re-watching Young Justice season 1 and 2 along with them.
00:03:36
Speaker
looking forward to what comes next. I really love how they came into Invincible without much knowledge of the comic because it provides a fresh perspective. I know a lot about that series and sometimes my base knowledge can get in the way of enjoying it. Listening to these episodes after the fact gives me added appreciation to the show.
00:03:54
Speaker
Thank you. Awesome. Awesome. I like it. I like it. Yeah, we appreciate that feedback. And as you here said, if anybody else out there listening wants to leave us a review, just find us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. We should be on all the major platforms now. And if you want to submit any feedback, I'll be addressing some feedback that we got at the end of the episode. But you can always send that to animationdeliberationpodcastatgmail.com.
00:04:20
Speaker
And with that out of the way, let's go ahead and get right into this episode. So overall impressions, we will give a overall spoiler warning as we have with all these other episodes. If you have not watched the episode, go watch it and tune back in later. What are your guys' overall impressions?
Episode 6 Breakdown: Character and Plot Analysis
00:04:38
Speaker
I thought it was kind of a nice change of pace episode. I know that might be a criticism for some people, but it was like the whole show was moving very fast. You know, we went from Mark not being able to fly to last episode, you know, he's fighting Battle Beast.
00:04:56
Speaker
And like this episode was like, it slowed things down. We got to see, you know, we haven't seen William since like the first episode. And it's like, is that character even in the show? And we got some character stuff between Mark and his best friend and some stuff between, uh, Mark and Amber. So I thought it was a great episode. It's, it wasn't the same pace as the others, but that's kind of nice every now and then.
00:05:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I could definitely agree with those points. In terms of pacing, I thought it felt a little more similar to the first episode. Outside of Mark spending so much time with his dad, I felt like that was almost kind of replaced with the time he was spending with Amber and or William, like you mentioned. Zuhar, what'd you think?
00:05:48
Speaker
It's interesting that I called the last episode a filler episode, but this one did kind of have that slow pace and I think the show just doesn't really have filler episodes and for eight episodes it really shouldn't. But I did like the pacing of this one and I will always appreciate a show where
00:06:10
Speaker
When the hero gets beat up really badly and has certain injuries, it actually affects their next fight. I think growing up with things like Dragon Ball Z and their instant healing all the time, it kind of took away from the factor of
00:06:26
Speaker
I actually do have broken ribs right now. I actually do have PTSD right now. I do have this. I do have that. So my next fight's not going to be as good or it's a factor of how I move or how how quickly I react and this episode kind of did that. I don't think PTSD really hit him too hard because he was trying to protect his friends but
00:06:46
Speaker
You could tell he was a little slower like with his motions and movements because he just got out of the hospital and For a human he actually did look like he got hit by a truck, which is the dialogue that came in from the show so I do appreciate that that was a huge factor on like I actually can't perform at my peak right now because This really like my body just hurts right now and I wasn't prepared to be in hero mode I thought I was gonna be on a break and
00:07:13
Speaker
I also really like Eve's storyline of kind of leaving her family and going off to do her own thing because, like we mentioned last week, the toxicity of her parents controlling her every move and everything just to make her be like, alright, I'm out of here.
00:07:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it was really nice to see her flourish in that regard, but I agree with all the points you guys brought up. I thought it was another excellent entry. You're kind of right in the fact that there aren't filler episodes and they're not necessarily bottle episodes either, but they are these self-contained kind of like adventures and escapades, but we always get these, you know,
00:08:02
Speaker
plants or like little hints as to what's going on with the greater scheme, especially involving characters like Omni-Man. And with that in mind, we were kind of breaking up what exactly storylines took place in this particular episode. And for the most part, it really is, the episode's called, You Look Kinda Dead. And that's really appropriate. I always appreciate clever titles like that. And not only is that appropriate because we pick up with
00:08:32
Speaker
invincible basically we get to see his like intestines like out on the operating table and all the guardians are in such a poor state and it's really like the gore there was was super effective but then not only that you get these these robocop villains
00:08:49
Speaker
that are basically these college students that have been deformed. And they're pretty grotesque as well. I mean, we get that opening scene with the douchey trust fund kid, Doug Cheston, who's voiced hilariously by Justin Roiland. Yeah.
00:09:07
Speaker
Yeah, they had a couple of guests on this, because Ezra Miller played Sinclair on this too. Correct. Yeah, DA Sinclair. Pretty creepy performance there. I'll try not to take Umbridge with the fact that they kind of co-opted my last name and bastardized it a bit for such a creepy guy. But yeah, I thought Ezra did a great job.
00:09:37
Speaker
And then, who's the gentleman that voices William? Because it was nice to spend a little more time with him. Bear with me just a moment here. Andrew Rannells. Yes, yeah. What do you guys think of his performance? Just out of curiosity.
00:09:56
Speaker
I think it fits what they're going for, especially when they, when he finally finds out that his best friend's a superhero. Like that overexcited geeky response was just very fitting for, I guess what we expect of the best friend that finds out. Yeah. Like he, it was, it was interesting to see like, you know, uh, the, uh,
00:10:25
Speaker
the first, I don't know, half of the episode or whatever, he spends most of his time being this thirsty high school boy. And then the second half is mostly spent like amazed that his best friend turned out to be a superhero. Right. But like, I thought it was nice just to get to spend some more time with the character. I hope
00:10:53
Speaker
we get more out of that character, which I kind of think they're setting up in this. Uh, because it seems like Amber and Mark are done for now. Um, so, so we might get, we might get some Mark leaning on his best friend because his girlfriend's no longer there. Okay. Yeah. I would like to see that explored. Uh,
00:11:23
Speaker
I did love that moment when they first embarked on the road trip where he was describing his crush Rick and it's like he and Amber were talking about what they call a thick horse's mane. And it's just little moments like that that's helped to endear you to the characters, especially the character of Amber.
00:11:49
Speaker
it would it would be easy to make a character like that unlikable but you really do feel for her and and she's justified in her offense and when she sheds those tears like you really feel for it and they actually do a great job of like Mark is is a lot of times not even though he's the title character he's not necessarily my favorite character on screen I
00:12:11
Speaker
Zuhair, you were mentioning Adam Eve. Like she quickly became one of my favorite characters this episode. They just made her so altruistic. Her tree house is badass. She had the best day out of any of the other characters. She got to go home and just like rest her head and have a peaceful sleep, which was so nice to see given the hell that she was put through by her parents. Yeah. Rex, we didn't get to see him this episode, but he's a real tool.
00:12:36
Speaker
Yeah, it was and we got to see just how powerful she is. Oh, yeah, you know, like, like, kind of making force fields and shooting little blasts is like an under use of her powers. And I think this is her realizing that. So that was like, really cool to see.
00:12:57
Speaker
Yeah, and a little bit too that possibly the reason the episodes spend so much time developing William is because maybe we're not gonna see as much of Eve in the coming episodes, you know because mark support system is kind of gone now You know his his dad hasn't been there for him, right?
Omni-Man's Suspicion and Guardian's State
00:13:20
Speaker
His mom is dealing with his dad's bullshit and
00:13:25
Speaker
And, uh, you know, Amber has dumped him and Eve is gone. So, you know, we might find Mark a little bit alone next episode.
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah, I could see him kind of being in some dire straits there. I want to dial back to Eve real quick. First off, I want to second what you said about the tree house. That is an awesome view. I wasn't expecting her to actually make a tree house. I thought she was just going to set up camp. But like Mosey said, what she does with her powers really isn't like
00:14:03
Speaker
the full extent of it and I think that's why my imagination didn't quite go that far because I was I mean yeah making the door in the house was like well that's trippy but then actually like manipulating the tree to actually make like a perfect home for her I was like that's
00:14:19
Speaker
Genius and then she can just fly to wherever she needs to go But whenever we we cover a storyline whatever universe it may be in I feel like whenever a hero says like we need to take our powers elsewhere because we don't want to be part of this team anymore like they become Grand scale heroes to like street heroes and they're kind of doing the same thing on a smaller scale, but she's actually like helping
00:14:44
Speaker
communities that we wouldn't quite really think about because all of these action sequences happen in big cities, but she's out in farms like helping to harvest and making things grow and really helping the lives of people that we really don't see from that perspective and for her to use her powers in such a unique way.
00:15:07
Speaker
I don't think I mean forgive me if I'm mistaking something from like Marvel or DC or any other hero franchise but that's that's quite creative and I like that she took that route of actually understanding like I don't need to be kicking people's asses to be useful like I'm very helpful you know in a very wide array of opportunities
00:15:29
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I can't think of any characters off the top of my head that have done such, you know, straight up like activism and volunteer work. Yeah, I think the only thing that's like briefly coming to mind now is I know Green Arrow and Green Lantern kind of had a run, I want to say maybe in like the 80s.
00:15:53
Speaker
That was supposed to have a little bit more of a, like, activism bent to it, but, uh, I can't, I can't speak to that too much to, to dive too deep into it, but no, yeah. Adam Eve, like I said, she's great, quickly becoming one of my favorite characters and Jill, uh, excuse me. That was one thing I had to learn here. Her, her name is pronounced Gillian Jacobs, which is kind of unusual, but definitely unique. Uh, does an excellent job, uh, showcasing the full range of emotion and the, the.
00:16:23
Speaker
especially in the scenes with her family, the frustration that's there. And even with Mark, that scene, it was almost kind of awkward in a way. It felt like she had something she wanted to say to him, but he almost just kind of immediately cut her off and started talking about his things.
00:16:41
Speaker
And then when she found out about the trip, she noted surprise and there was obviously a little bit of disappointment there. But she doesn't really interfere. She lets him do his thing and she just kind of gives the old Irish goodbye and flies right out the window. It's funny that she pretty much plays the same role that she does in community, but we're just taking the sitcom filter off of her now. The Brita filter?
00:17:08
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you very much. I'm here till Thursday. Try the view.
00:17:17
Speaker
Anyway, let's circle back to the Guardians. In addition to Invincible being in a pretty pitiful state at the opening of this episode, the Guardians are as well. Black Sampson had a pretty interesting scene in the hospital there where they're defibrillating him and then suddenly he emits a burst of energy himself.
00:17:44
Speaker
He seems to have his powers back. He heals pretty quickly and has some nice exchanges with Robot. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when...
00:17:57
Speaker
Oh yeah, Robot is saying that he'll stay there to observe, continue to observe Monster Girl, even though Black Samson's good. He's like, go back to the team and report there, I'm gonna stay here and continue to observe her. And he's like, yeah, okay. Yeah, you will. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with that character because he was definitely vying for leadership and the thing that they kept throwing back into his face is that he's an old man without power. So hopefully we get to spend more time with him now that he seems to be fully recovered.
00:18:28
Speaker
I did like robots dialogue in the beginning to regarding when the medical staff was trying to kick him out. And he was like, I have all the knowledge about this person. So we can either waste time or we can work together. And then he just started taking charge and actually coming up with the solutions needed to save monster girl. But it's just
00:18:50
Speaker
It's funny how he speaks with such eloquence, even in such traumatic situations. I mean, I get that he's a robot, but it's like, how do you not comply to what he says with a tone like that?
Robot's Intentions and Hero Origins
00:19:02
Speaker
Yeah. His kind of obsession with Monster Girl, I'm not sure if it's endearing or getting creepy. Yes. It is getting a little on the creepy side, especially because it seemed like she, correct me if I'm wrong here, but to me it looked like she visibly got notably younger because we had that scene when they were trying to put the breathing tube down her throat and then she transforms into the monster.
00:19:29
Speaker
And I kind of got Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 vibes where you get kind of the horror hospital scene and you realize how terrifying this would be for just a regular surgeon to be put in this predicament. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But the other thing I will say,
00:19:47
Speaker
about that whole robot monster girl storyline is the reveal of robot using drones was super effective for me because we saw that robot was battle damaged from the skirmish earlier on and then the next time we kind of see him is when he's completely beat to hell and frozen and holding that flower and then it just kind of crumples and then the the brand's shiny new one kind of steps out and I was like oh that was super effective I thought we
00:20:16
Speaker
I thought robot was going to be out of it for a second. Yeah. I freaked out. Like what the hell did you just go through? Like, yeah. Did you go through an avalanche to get that flower? What's happening? Just casually walks in. I was like, Oh, well, he said it was well protected. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if we're going to get to see that place eventually. Ooh, that'd be cool.
00:20:37
Speaker
Just, just because like, that's kind of a neat seed to plant that there's something there that's well guarded, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe that has something to do with the, the origin of her, her powers. Cause we really haven't gotten much of anything in that way, have we?
00:20:57
Speaker
Yeah, he just says she's cursed. Okay. Yeah, yeah, he does say that. Yeah, you're right. And then what about some of the other heroes? I mean, obviously, Nolan is a Viltromite as well with Mark being half Viltromite. And a lot of these other ones seem to be, you know, born out of like robotics and science. And we see that there are other dimensions, but I felt like we got some dialogue from Rex. And again, he wasn't in this episode, but I can't help bring him up.
00:21:25
Speaker
He made it sound like he was robbed of like a high school experience I should say, perhaps because he was experimented on or something to that effect. But I don't know if we've gotten anything definitive as far as any of that goes. No, I don't think we've gotten origins for most of them. Okay.
00:21:44
Speaker
It'll be, I mean, I know the season should be coming to a close pretty quickly here. This was episode six, and like I said, everything I'm seeing, it should be eight episodes. So next episode should be the penultimate episode, and then we should be, you know, coming to a close here, but I'll save my predictions until, you know, a little later on in the cast. And we've covered this episode in
00:22:11
Speaker
given it proper justice i should say i will say uh... going back to just some of the the hospital scenes we got so uh... with that conversation with sisal and omni man where basically on the man is questioning sisal about dark blood being the primary suspect for killing the guardians of the globe i thought that was was again super effective the undertones there that basically they were
00:22:42
Speaker
They were basically having it out without really having it out. Nolan was basically asking him, if you think I killed them, why would I do it?
Omni-Man's Tension with Cecil and Lies Detection
00:22:50
Speaker
Did you guys get that? Or am I off base there? Yeah. OK.
00:22:54
Speaker
The impression I got is Nolan was like feeling him out to see if they were gonna try pin it on him and like Cecil like was essentially saying yeah, we're just gonna Drag this thing with dark blood out, you know, they're both kind of lying to each other but like saying what they want to say at the same time and
00:23:17
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Because Nolan had that one line of dialogue. I think Cecil said something along the lines like, uh, why would he do it? And Nolan just kind of like, because he's a demon. And I was just like, Oh, are you kind of, is that self acknowledgement there? But I think we obviously know that there's some sinister undertones to his character anyway. And Dark Blood does have a past of, of solving the most difficult cases. Hmm.
00:23:45
Speaker
Well, so it's like oh because he's a demon it's kind of a lame excuse if he's kind of go to guy for these situations Yeah, that's fair. That's fair
00:23:55
Speaker
I'm wondering if, I know there's been quite a few heroes like Superman who like listen to your heartbeat to see if you're lying or not. So I'm wondering if like Omni Man has done that to Cecil or if Cecil's been in Omni Man's presence so long that he's like gotten better controlling his breathing in like intense situations like that. I don't know if like any of that is a factor, but it would be cool if that was addressed in these little verbal scrimmages.
00:24:20
Speaker
It would be cool if it was addressed. It hasn't been addressed yet, but I mean, we have to believe that he's capable of that kind of thing because we did get that scene with Deborah, Debbie, and the return of Arthur Taylor, voiced by the legendary Mark Hamill. And that was just like, Nolan becomes increasingly terrifying in this episode. So I was just, I was so scared not only for Debbie in that moment, but
00:24:46
Speaker
art as well, and he even says it, like, who am I going to tell? I'm absolutely terrified here. And then the exchange between Nolan and Art, where they're drinking those beers, I felt kind of echoed that scene that I mentioned with Cecil and Omni Man, where he's basically saying what he wants to say without saying it, you know.
00:25:10
Speaker
Yeah, it was kind of interesting because Nolan basically spent the episode figuring out who knows, you know, does Cecil know? Does the Taylor know? Does Debbie know? And like making sure those three aren't going to talk or reveal anything.
00:25:31
Speaker
Yeah. And I guess my question is, other than Cecil, like, what are they gonna do if this does, you know, if they pitted on him, what happens? He's still Omni Man. Right. Yeah.
00:25:47
Speaker
Although he is not omnipotent. Sure. Presumably if all the heroes, like not just the Guardians, but every power person we saw, like you could defeat him because the Guardians did some real damage to him. Which I appreciate. Definitely. I don't like, I mean, despite the show being named invincible, I don't like invincible superheroes at all.
00:26:16
Speaker
Yeah. Although I guess when they were experimenting on Mark's blood, there's a hint that like you can damage him, but he's just going to keep coming back. Hmm. Yeah. There was a.
00:26:32
Speaker
Yeah, because we talked about it on that coverage, but what was it? Chemicals, diseases, they pretty much tried everything and it was just resilient to pretty much any approach there. And I guess kind of spoilers for season two of The Boys, but there have been a couple of scenes and a bit of dialogue where it's like,
00:26:53
Speaker
Yeah, Homelander is the face of the United States, but if it comes to the point where they know what he's about and the people are against him, then what's his purpose at that point? So if Omni-Man's purpose is to be the protector of Earth and Earth doesn't see him that way,
00:27:12
Speaker
What would be his motive to stay at that point? Like, is he going to rule it? Would he just go back to another planet that doesn't know who his species is yet and try to protect that instead? Like, I think the public image is a huge is a bigger factor than we're giving it credit for.
00:27:34
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. Which might be why Cecil is playing things so close to his vest.
DA Sinclair's College Activities and Animation Praise
00:27:43
Speaker
He understands that not only the public image, but just the sheer and utter fallout that could come.
00:27:50
Speaker
with with that reveal not only what Nolan would do but how it might affect the populace because we've already talked about how complacent and dependent the people and even the police force seems to be in this world and I think that even you know speaks to the college campus the fact that a guy like DA Sinclair is even able to like set up a lab
00:28:11
Speaker
where he's able to abduct his fellow students and turn them into Android robocops. And it's like, you would think if people are going missing, they would, and there was a pattern established. It wouldn't take that long for some competent investigators to figure out what's going on, but he's basically doing it under their nose.
00:28:30
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't like they got to campus and there were like flyers or, you know, like news going on about, you know, all these missing students. There were flyers. Yeah, there were a couple.
00:28:45
Speaker
Oh, was there? Yeah. There was points where like, uh, when they first reached the campus and they were all talking in front of a wall, there was a, there was a billboard in the back that had missing in their faces on it and a couple of like, uh, club promos. Right. And then later on in the episode, you start to see Doug Cheston's like featured Doug Cheston's photo featured pretty prominently there. Yeah. I noticed the Doug Cheston stuff, but yeah, I totally missed the fires, uh, earlier.
00:29:15
Speaker
Um, but yeah, like, you want to see my big trust fund? Yeah. And Justin, I know, I know we mentioned Justin Rylan doing the voice already, but he, he kind of knocked that douchey
00:29:34
Speaker
Uh, that douchey frat boy spirit of that character right out of the park. Oh, totally. I think I've mentioned before, like I don't really keep up with the, the voice actors too much, but now I've just been consuming so much contact that sometimes I catch it and I text Jay Scott. It was like, this sounds like Rick from Rick and Morty. And then when it looked it up and I was like, yup, that's exactly who it is.
00:29:58
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, you had a good ear on this one because I have to admit, I did not recognize Ezra Miller initially. I knew that he was in the show and normally the great feature about Amazon is that they have that, is it called the X-ray? Where basically you can, at any point in the episode, even as it's going on, you can bring up the voice cast and we'll show you exactly who they're voicing. But for whatever reason, I just didn't happen to check in this episode. But on a rewatch, it's so obvious, it's him.
00:30:27
Speaker
So I checked that for Rick, and it was when I was checking that that I saw Ezra as the wise. I don't think I would have guessed Ezra either, because despite watching the Snyder Cut again yesterday, because I was on bed rest and had nothing else to do. He does such a good job at making the voice so unique for that character that I honestly didn't see the resemblance between him playing St. Clair and playing Barry Allen.
00:30:58
Speaker
Which, yeah, I didn't catch Ezra either. I only caught Ezra when my buddy was like, oh, Justin Roiland was in this episode. And I was like, oh, that's who that guy was. And then I went and checked to see if anyone else was in there. And I was like, holy cow, that was Ezra Miller?
00:31:18
Speaker
Like the the voice cast for the show is star-studded. Oh, it's phenomenal. Yeah Robert Kirkman has the must have curried a lot of favors In Hollywood, but his stuff is pretty stellar so I can see why people want to work with him
00:31:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. One other thing I wanted to bring up is, and maybe it was present in past episodes and I just didn't pick up on it quite as much, but I felt that this particular episode had a much more cinematic feel in terms of like some of the animations and the transitions. There was one shot in particular where speaking about Ezra Miller's character, DA Sinclair, he steps out from the shadows into the light.
00:32:06
Speaker
And just the way the light moves across his face and the shadows remain underneath his brow as well as his cheekbones was just super effective and gave him a very skeletal and creepy appearance. And then the other one that I noticed was when Rick brought back the beers to the apartment and he goes to crack one open, they do a really nice transition from that beer to Nolan having the beers with art on the rooftop.
00:32:36
Speaker
Yeah. Um, you know, I'm not, I'm definitely not, uh, as, uh, sensitive to animation, maybe, uh, as you are. I tend to not know, like in broad strokes, I can, I can see, oh, this was animated well. And, uh, or like, this was like the bad terrible animation cartoon said when I was a kid.
00:33:03
Speaker
But like, you know, I just, I feel like overall this show has been like, just kind of a treat to look at, you know, like, and it benefits from being animated. Like, you could never make this show
00:33:25
Speaker
You're invited to explore cypress swamps and magical gardens and float along the rushing waters of an old-fashioned swimming hole. Plan your journey at visitmississippi.org slash outdoor adventure. Mississippi. Wanderers welcome.
00:33:40
Speaker
There's a highway that stretches across the 93 days of summer, where worship isn't offered to the sun, but to the smoking tire, the S-curve, and the spin turn. And if you ride it, make sure you do it in a Dodge Charger, Challenger, or Durango. Because on this highway, the lines being blurred are the ones between drivers and demons. Welcome to Highway 93. Dodge is a registered trademark.
00:34:11
Speaker
any other way, like without millions of dollars per episode.
00:34:17
Speaker
Well, what's interesting, what I've learned after the fact is, and I think I might recall having heard it in the news cycle, but I guess that the time that this animated series was first, this animated adaptation was first announced, they announced a live action adaptation movie as well. But, and apparently that is still supposed to happen. I just, I don't know what the, at what point in pre-production they're even in.
Live-Action Adaptation Speculations
00:34:44
Speaker
I don't even know if I want to see that now.
00:34:47
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, like the joy of this series is all the small character work that just, like, it's, you know, not to get away from animation, but it's kind of like Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I wouldn't, I don't think it would be nearly as good as a movie. Oh, like, because you get to dwell and spend time with characters and get into like minutia. And that's really what I love about this show. Like,
00:35:15
Speaker
The action animation sequences in this are amazing, and I do enjoy those, but it's not like I'm bored between them. The inner character stuff is just great on this show.
00:35:31
Speaker
And you have so many amazing actors doing the voice work for this. How do you replace Ezra Miller and Simmons and all these people who probably for whatever reason couldn't be capable of playing their live action roles? While we're highlighting the voice actors,
00:35:52
Speaker
It goes without saying, Steven Yoon has been absolutely killing it. I probably haven't mentioned as much as I should have since the initial episodes, but yeah, he does such a fantastic job of, uh, he's a believable teenager, you know? Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And Sandra Oh is Debbie too. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like, like there, there's no,
00:36:32
Speaker
How would you put Battle Beast in a movie and not make it look bad? It is so much easier to be like, okay, it's animated and your suspension of disbelief is there and you're set up for something.
00:36:49
Speaker
There's no bad voice actor on the cast.
00:36:55
Speaker
You know all of a sudden like you're gonna have a dude in CGI slash some practical makeup like and like How do you how do you create omnivans mustache? They'd have to reverse the technology they used on the original kind of Justice League
00:37:20
Speaker
Now, this is an animation-focused podcast, but while we're talking a little bit about the live-action stuff, just out of curiosity, do you guys have anybody in mind other than J.K. Simmons that might be able to bring Omni-Man to life? Because I have a couple in mind. Off the top of my head, I will throw out Jon Hamm. Ooh, I hadn't even considered him. I like that, though. That's great.
00:37:49
Speaker
Okay. Zuhar, did you have any? Uh, Josh Brolin for me. Okay. I like it. I can see that. I think he could pull off the mustache. Yeah. Uh, I was thinking even though he's, he recently appeared as a deathstroke in the Snyder cut, I was thinking either Joe Manganiello or Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who has, who has a relationship with Robert Kirkman already appearing on The Walking Dead.
00:38:16
Speaker
I just call him Big Dick Richie from Magic Mike. You know, I like either of those. I'm a big D&D nerd, so anything Joe Manganiello does, I support. Because he's also a giant D&D nerd.
00:38:37
Speaker
But yeah, no, I think there's plenty of actors that could pull it off. But J.K. Simmons just does such a good job in this series. I think no matter how good the actor is, if you watch this, it's going to be jarring.
00:39:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Send us an email with who you think your fan cast could be for if any character couldn't fulfill like their voice role to live action role. Just while we're while we're kind of doing it again, I don't want to get too, too far away on this. But Timothy Chalamet for invincible action. I guess he should have that Asian ancestry. It represented a little bit more. I rescind that. Let's let's get somebody a person of color in there.
00:39:30
Speaker
Anyway, yeah, I mean, I could honestly, I wouldn't be upset if Steven Yoon did it. He's a little old maybe for it. Yeah. Because I think he's close to like my age. Okay. Which is a little old for a high schooler. But
00:39:50
Speaker
I don't know the dude's name, but I just saw Crazy Rich Asians for the first time last night I'm way behind, but you remember the dude in Spider-Man Far From Home? That kid that like got older like he used to be the younger brother. Oh, yeah Yeah, yeah Brad He would be great. Yeah, that's perfect right there. Yeah, good call. I like that
Revenge on DA Sinclair and Episode Critique
00:40:15
Speaker
There are a couple more things I want to address chiefly in terms of the action. These grotesque Android things were definitely... I'm trying to think of the right way to put this. The action was a little different. It was more claustrophobic in that underground chamber. But then when things finally turned around and Rick was able to free himself and free the rest of the drones,
00:40:45
Speaker
Not only did William get to wail on D.A. Sinclair, but invincible. Man, you just get to see how just a single punch from him destroys this guy's jaw. That's gonna take months and months of reconstructive surgery. Was it a punch or a pimp slap? Yeah, that's a good point. I'm pretty sure it was a pimp slap, and it was so satisfying to watch.
00:41:13
Speaker
like there's so much stuff that made me cringe in this episode like the whole thing about like these kids who went to college and like their lives are just eternally screwed up because literally a part of their brain has been removed and most of their body has been replaced with robots and they can't like live their lives anymore like that like genuinely pissed me off and
00:41:36
Speaker
and then to see him laying on the gurney with his jaw fucked up and I'm just like this is I'm so glad I get to see you like this as dark as that may be like I wish you are suffering a little bit more right now but this is such a satisfying view of your face just being fucked up because you can never give back those kids like what you took like that that that whole sequence like
00:41:59
Speaker
genuinely angered me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very sad. Uh, not to go back too far, but I just thought I'd pop in and say, uh, the actor who played Brad, uh, in Far From Home was Remy High and it's H-I-I-I-H-I-I. Okay. Um, uh, hopefully I pronounced that right. Uh, but yeah, just wanted to give credit where credit's adieu. No, I appreciate that. Yeah.
00:42:29
Speaker
Very good. Let's see here. He would totally fit that role. Yeah, yeah, he's excellent. He did a great job and far from home. He was a great foil to Peter. So yeah, I could definitely see him embodying that quiet confidence that a character like Invincible, he was very much an allegory for a Peter Parker type would definitely work.
00:42:56
Speaker
One other thing I wanted to bring up, and I don't want to be incredibly negative here, but we're talking about the animation and some of the stylizations and whatnot. Have you guys noticed when we have a shot that's pretty dialogue heavy with two characters, one thing that they do that I like that gives it that cinematic feel is that they're not afraid to just have
00:43:18
Speaker
Unfocused characters kind of like walk in front of the the frame to kind of like sell that environmental feel But the other thing I noticed is like if you look in the background a lot of times the character models that are in the background are these like really low rendered like 3d models
00:43:37
Speaker
Have you guys noticed that at all? I did notice that. I have not noticed that. But now I will. It actually took me away from the dialogue because I was like, is that a significant person back there? Like, who's walking? Oh, no. It was just a random student sitting and what is going on? Wait, what did you just say? Because I was focused on the dude in the back. I will notice it every single time from now on. Hopefully that's something they can fix season two.
00:44:04
Speaker
It's not entirely distracting. It doesn't necessarily look bad. It's just a different style. They're kind of like cell shaded and they're not super detailed. Like you might as well just put two dots and a little smiley face drawn off there. Yeah. I mean, the budget is going a lot of other places. We always get a lot of action. We've talked about the star studied cast and yeah, I mean,
00:44:29
Speaker
If that's my biggest complaint, I'm pretty satisfied. I forget about little things like that by the time we cast because there's just so much good that show does, but literally the second you said the exact scene just popped in my head and I was like, oh yeah, that did happen. I think we're both talking about the same one where Amber and Mark are on the bench.
00:44:50
Speaker
That dude just walks up in the back and goes, who's that? Well, anyway, I think we might have talked about it a little bit at the front of the episode, especially when we were talking about Robot, but I guess it's worth mentioning again.
Post-Credit Scene and Season Predictions
00:45:04
Speaker
We did get on our post-credit scene.
00:45:08
Speaker
The return of a kind of minor character, John Ham's, his security guard, Steve, his stepson, who I don't believe we've seen since episode two, I want to say. Yes. When the body parts were kind of raining in Britain, if I'm not mistaken. Right, right. Anyway, he and his buddy are digging up the immortal.
00:45:31
Speaker
And then that's when we have the Mauler twins show up, and then that's when we get a little payoff for that assurance or that leverage they were referring to. And apparently if you drink out of the skull of a mortal, you inherit his powers, at least. That's what this kid read on Reddit. And then we get the great Mauler twins PSA. Don't believe everything you read on the internet, kids. Credits. So do you think they're gonna revive or clone the immortal?
00:46:01
Speaker
Ooh. Cloning seems like a strong possibility because... Yeah. Because, you know, actually out of the original Guardians, Immortal was really the strongest. It's almost like both Omni Man and Immortal are super Superman, like just at different power levels. Right, right.
00:46:30
Speaker
And I guess the vibe that I got from, or maybe I read it on the wiki, I think I did. Immortal, they also classify as a Vandal Savage. I would agree, even though he's obviously a good guy. It's just that prolonged existence like that, yeah. Yeah, that makes total sense. My theory is that this is kind of far-fetched.
00:46:53
Speaker
is that Robot wants to make Immortal's body and transfer his consciousness over to it. But I don't think Robot's in on it. Robot didn't have his DNA. Yeah. He had Rex Blood's DNA. Right. And it's worth mentioning that we saw that that body is progressing along at a... Wait, so they're growing a Rex blood? I believe so. That's the blood sample he provided to them.
00:47:21
Speaker
At least the only one we've seen him take. Right, right. So he doesn't know anything about the the immortal. That's the mauler twins. They mentioned that they wanted assurance for their for their deal. And then the next time we see and then one of them says grab a shovel and then the next time we see him is at that. Burial site, so. So the twins. Have the body of immortal.
00:47:51
Speaker
But they're growing another Rex in front of Robot? Am I understanding that right? I believe so. Robot hires them to grow another Rex body. Right. Presumably to transfer his consciousness into. And the Mahler twins are afraid of Robot double crossing. Correct. So they dig up immortal, presumably to do something with that DNA.
00:48:19
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah, yeah. I would, I would think it'd be interesting if they revive him. Well, actually, I guess it wouldn't matter if they revive him or clone him because anytime they transfer the consciousness, if his brain, if they're using that same brain, he would have the knowledge of what Omni Man did. So it wouldn't really matter if he's a clone or revived. He could be, he could testify directly against Omni Man, if he can survive another bout with him.
00:48:46
Speaker
Yeah, that's the real question is like, you know, but like from what we saw with the original Guardians fight,
00:48:55
Speaker
if you took mauler twins robot and immortal yeah they might be able to at least stop omni man yeah yeah i agree with you i'm probably way off on that like no but i i think there's i think there's sound evidence for that uh he's he's shown and like like zuhair mentioned he's he's certainly not invincible neither one of them are and maybe that's
00:49:20
Speaker
why we've seen Mark go through such a beating so that we know Nolan can actually be defeated. And I think it is worth mentioning, just kind of talking about where the series is headed as a whole. I think it's fairly obvious that there's going to be a confrontation between Mark and Nolan by the end of the season. Yeah, I think it's going to come out
00:49:48
Speaker
I'm curious to see where that goes because Mark is not strong enough to beat his dad. Oh no. Which Nolan continuously reminds him of. Are you guys saying that just has me really worried for Debbie? Whether it be physically or emotionally.
00:50:10
Speaker
Yeah, I think we've seen Nolan be emotionally abusive. Um, I, he, he doesn't seem willing to hurt her physically, at least not yet. Yeah. But he killed the guardians of the globe. So who knows? Yeah. Yeah. It'll, it's the big mystery of the season. So.
00:50:37
Speaker
But hopefully we will get more answers very soon, as yeah, we've only got a couple episodes left. We'll look forward to covering episode seven sooner rather than later. Did you guys have any other thoughts or things you had to get off your chest relating to episode six? You look kind of dead. I'm just sad there's only two more.
00:51:03
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to be super bummed because Falcon and the Winter Soldier ends this week. And then the next week, Invincible ends. Then it's like, I think Bad Batch might be starting up. So maybe I won't have a May 4th Bad Batch start. So maybe I don't have a break.
00:51:27
Speaker
There is no end in sight, my friends. No arrests for the wicked. That's right. That's right. We got all the content for days and weeks and months. But I wanted to hit some feedback that was submitted to our Gmail account. Let's hear it. This is from our listener, Aaron Deming, AKA Sonny Tetris.
00:52:11
Speaker
The context of the comment was that people like me who have a pretty deepish knowledge of the source material would have been frustrated by the speculation. Trust me. I love that you guys have little to no background knowledge. Shows that are super faithful adaptations of the comics like Invincible and The Walking Dead tend to bore me after a while. I can usually pick up on clues for what's going to happen and then lose the total lack of surprise that the show is expecting.
00:52:17
Speaker
And he hits us with this.
00:52:38
Speaker
So far, Invisible hasn't been that bad, thankfully. While I have read most of the comics, I think I'm only like four volumes away from the end. It has been a few years. I intentionally didn't reread them before the show because I wanted my memory did not to be recent. That being said, I do remember the major story elements and that that have appeared in the show so far.
00:52:58
Speaker
Listening to your discussions and speculations is so rewarding to me. I get to hear what you think might happen and dig in on the parts that my mind might have glossed over because it was too familiar. The same thing happens when I discuss with my best friend Jesse, who recently joined the Stranded Panda Trivia under the name Citizen D-Bag. Nice. Yeah, right? I recognize that name.
00:53:18
Speaker
I have to work so hard not to shout out spoilers when he speculates or ask him in advance when he's okay with a spoiler.
00:53:35
Speaker
Thank you, Aaron. We appreciate that. I will say my limited understanding of the comics and full transparency. I've been enjoying this show so much that I couldn't help but I have listened to like some YouTube videos and stuff like that that kind of
00:53:52
Speaker
talk about the show and its relationship to the comics and stuff like that so I obviously don't have a full knowledge or anything like that but I have been able to get a little bit more context and it seems like the show really is doing its own thing in a lot of ways so hopefully it's really rewarding for everybody no matter how recently they've read the comic and I have no friends in the area who have ever read the comics I don't have too many friends in the area who are actually watching the show so
00:54:17
Speaker
I just watch an episode and look forward to the next one. And even while I'm recording, I'm giving all these names a quick look up because I can't remember them for the life of me and just to show how genuine it is. Because there are a lot of people out there who don't care about the source material because they just enjoy watching TV. They're not comic people. They're not readers. And yeah, this show is for everybody who fits any of those categories because we just want you to be able to enjoy good entertainment.
Adaptation Philosophy and Network Promotion
00:54:46
Speaker
I was just going to say, I've heard Robert Kirkman say that the show is going to be its own thing and it's not going to be 100% faithful to the comics. And I really liked that approach as kind of the Douglas Adams hitchhiker approach.
00:55:04
Speaker
Oh, sure. The radio play wasn't meant to be the same as the book. And, you know, the movies later weren't meant to be the same as the radio play. Each was its own thing. And if you enjoyed one, you'd probably enjoy the other, but there's going to be different twists and turns. Certainly. And like, I think that is a great way to adapt. In a way, that's the way the MCU is adapting. Oh, certainly. Yeah.
00:55:30
Speaker
Civil War was one of the big examples for that because in the comics it was like 50-60 people all fighting each other were in the movie there was like hardly 10 and there was a lot of die-hard fans who were like it's not the same we didn't hit the source material and I'm like but it was good
00:55:48
Speaker
Can you not acknowledge that it was a good movie with a good scene and a great story that people who don't read comics enjoy? Like, enjoy it for what it is and what the creators made out of it, not what it's based off of. If it pays homage to certain scenes from the comics, give it a clap. Enjoy the entertainment that you have at your hands and don't give people shit for not knowing what you know.
00:56:16
Speaker
Yeah, the only one I maybe have ever had a minor gripe about was Age of Ultron. Not because Age of Ultron was not the greatest comic series, and it wasn't the greatest Marvel movie either in retrospect, although I liked it a lot when it first came out. I don't think it's aged as well as other movies like Winter Soldier.
00:56:45
Speaker
The main thing is, the title just didn't fit what happened in that movie. But like, you know, the FCUcast guys joke about weekend at Altrons. Yep, I do love that joke. And I was actually just getting ready to say, until next time, true believers. Wait, wrong podcast. Well, with that in mind, we are a part of the Stranded Panda Network.
00:57:11
Speaker
of which the MCU podcast led by the great Matt Carroll and the talented Jeff Randall. That is the flagship show for this network. And we are part of that, so please check out all the great things that are going on at StrandedPanda.com. There are several geeky fandom-related podcasts there. And then we've also got the YouTube channel. I believe that's just YouTube.com slash StrandedPanda.
00:57:35
Speaker
And then we've also got a Twitch channel where a lot of fun things happen like the live MCU podcast and then the trivia that we do on Wednesday nights and that is StrandedPanda... Twitch.tv slash StrandedPandaTV, excuse me.
00:57:51
Speaker
And I think that's going to do it for me. If you guys would like to follow me on Twitter or check out any of the artwork that I do on Instagram, you can follow me at jscottyforreal. And that's it for me. You guys have anything you'd like to say? No, just looking forward to the next two episodes. Right on. Stay well.
00:58:13
Speaker
cool.
00:58:38
Speaker
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00:59:06
Speaker
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