Carlquest: Invincible Morality
Potential spoilers for Invincible: I talk about some stuff that’s happened in the comics but hasn’t come up in the show yet.
There is something of a back and forth with the idea of “what if Conquest was a part of the mission to infiltrate Earth?”
This what-if idea spawned a bunch of memes, art of Conquest as a farmer, and discussion about how he would even fare on Earth. Would he cave instantly at the first sign of affection and acceptance? Would he be too set in his ways, too closed off to change who he is as a person?
But often in response to this, someone smugly responds that “um, no he wouldn’t. He’s not a wholesome chungus, he’s super evil. Here’s a screenshot of him about to rip Oliver in half, look how evil he is! Obviously the idea of him becoming a part of human society is inherently stupid, and I am very intelligent for noticing.”
I don’t feel strongly for or against the concept of Conquest on earth as a hypothetical, but I feel that dismissing it out of hand because “he’s evil” is really stupid.
Every remaining pure-blooded Viltrumite is a monster.
They all killed children, wiped out entire species, peoples and cultures. They’re all survivors of the Purge, who had to fight others to the death or be deemed weak.
You could even say that the Purge was an express culling of morally “good” Viltrumites; traits like compassion, selflessness, and hesitation to kill those closest to you was deemed weakness, and would have gotten Viltrumites harbouring such traits killed.
They all participated in the killing the alien slaves on Viltrum to keep anyone from finding out about the Scourge Virus. They committed genocide against anyone and anything they deemed a threat to Viltrumite lives following the Scourge. They killed, enslaved, and subjugated entire planets worth of people.
They. Are. All. Fucking. Evil.
Honestly, the only good Viltrumite whose redemption I really respect is Thaedus. He came to see the evil in his people on his own, against the pressure of his society, and with no semblance of “reward” to motivate his change. His society accepted him for his strength, rewarded him with high position for his victories, and even still he turned against them.
The other Viltrumites only became less evil following the example of a new society they integrated into; they caved to peer pressure, and were motivated to change by the feeling of love and kindness that humans offered.
Thaedus had no peers to motivate him, and betraying Viltrum left him alone in the universe - and yet he did it anyways.
The only gripe I have with him is that he didn’t have the resolve to unleash the Scourge 2: Re-Scourged onto the Viltrumites before they made it to earth, but I get that to him it felt like an evil thing to do.
Kregg, Lucan any of the other Viltrumites get to be all wholesome hope-core redemption arcs because, what? They didn’t hurt a main character on screen? We, the audience, didn’t see them commit any atrocities, and so they’re morally in the clear?
You have to be braindead to think that they wouldn’t all rip a child in half, no question. Enjoying it and drawing it out is gross, sure, but I feel that it factors low in the scale of harm done in the galaxy by Viltrum.
Say for example, Conquest takes his time ripping Oliver in half, beats Mark to death, then rampages until the city is destroyed.
On the other hand, Thragg flies straight into the city from orbit, destroying it instantly and killing everyone within - Mark, Oliver, and all the humans - on impact.
In both cases, a Viltrumite destroyed the city and killed everyone. By the sheer volume of suffering Viltrumites have inflicted on people over the course of their long lives, I basically consider them all to be equally evil give or take.
So could Conquest find happiness on Earth? Who knows, maybe? The option would be open, it would be up to him to make whatever life he could find here.
Does he have less of a chance than any of the other Viltrumites? Is he so much more evil than the other Viltrumites that he doesn’t deserve the same opportunity they got?
Personally speaking, I don’t think so.
It feels like major double standards, and an unwillingness to accept how evil the “redeemed” Viltrumites were/are - sweeping it under the rug when it’s inconvenient to the narrative.