I dont use reddit a lot, so bear with me – I love season 4, especially the revived romance between Mark and Amber (and idk how everyone feels about Amber but I was extremely frustrated with her in S1 and now am very satisfied with her). It’s also somehow still way funnier than I expected (I fucking love Rex), which is how I was with S1 as well, which may beg the question what’s up with my expectations?

BUT. & it seems like this is the somewhat less popular opinion just from digging around in the sub for 5 minutes. Omni man was one of my favorite characters in season 1, and seeing how he was faring in 2x4, how he’d realized that he had the capacity to love people who were ‘lesser’ than him – I was very unsatisfied with the sudden 180. Did anyone else feel like this?

During the flashback scene when he was gonna fly into the sun and all that, I felt emotional and engaged – I think some others might have seen it as Nolan atoning from the guilt he was feeling after beating up his son, but I interpreted it more as his impulsive reaction to the fear and conflictedness he was feeling about loving his family and still feeling completely dedicated to Viltrum. But then he saved the Thraxans and apparently was like “Fuckk yes, a purpose” and turned it all around – after the fight with Mark, was the conclusion he reached that he wasn’t loyal to Viltrum anymore? I didn’t think that his character was open to that in that moment so I was very frustrated. I thought he was still struggling with his fealty to Viltrum, but the first planet he encounters, he pledges himself to? He changed all his ideals at the first sight of them.

He said Debbie was a pet to him. Did he… realize that she wasn’t? Or was he lying to himself when he said that? He said all that stuff about Earth being nicr, but it also being a fleck of his lifespan so it couldn’t mean much to him – I feel like he said that with conviction too, but was there no truth in that at all?

Those ideals and convictions I felt were very well woven into the first series. They were foundational continuities of Nolan’s character. IE, him not wanting Mark to help Titan; killing the guardians; when the dragon attacked those people when he was with Deb; probably others. I felt like his first real step away from everything that he held dear, which was catalyzed by his conversation (well… ‘conversation’) with Mark at the end of S1, was a LEAP that had to lowkey retcon what was established about his character

Before season 2 came out, I was predicting that Nolan’s thought process was going to be more like: “Mark is (kinda) a Viltrumite, and I love him – I can’t kill him cuz of that, so now I desperately need to show him the way of the empire.”

Or: “I love Debbie too (I guess. Does he love his pet), but other human lives still mean so little to me. I did murder all those people callously. So… ig my family is the exception to my apathy, and I will probably not come to the realization that ALL lives have as much meaning and complexity as theirs for a long time, because that would mean that my empire that I’ve been serving for a while is categorically evil”

Sorry if these thoughts have been expressed or criticized before, I did see some people say that they thought this jump messed with the pacing of the show, which I also agree with. But I didn’t look too deep in the sub. I’m very open to other interpretations of Nolan’s character, which I’m extremely keen on and am willing to keep being keen on by any means necessary. ALSO I HAVENT TOUCHED THE COMICS. Ok thank you!!