I think he was just using his life experiences to make money and didn’t have any ulterior motives

Yeah I thought that was weird too I’m guessing he just had doubts after he met Debbie

I thought it was in case he was killed for disobeying his earth mission, before mark came into his powers. The story gives the impression these were written within marks lifespan but at least a decade before current spot in time

Sublimated guilt imo. We’ve seen (especially in the time travel arc) that he’s deeply conflicted about taking over the earth well before he’s willing to admit it to himself.

I’m more surprised Robot and/or Cecil don’t immediately start analyzing his books when Omniman has his heel turn just as a perfunctory part of the larger investigating his betrayal.

Being a Viltumite I figure is like being in the mob. It was his insurance.

One of his tasks before Earth was documenting any potential threats to Viltrumites. Before the plague, they were considered unstoppable, the fact that something could wipe out 90% of their population was startling and they had to know what else could harm them. Pretty sure his books were like a secret code or meaning only to be recognizable by other Viltrumites who knew what to look for

I think the answer is much simpler than you think it is. I don’t think he was writing the book for any larger reason beyond needing a cover and career on earth.

If he wrote about all the adventures where he decimated planets within a day, those would get old fast and be relatively short reads. “I got there, killed everything and left.”

I don’t think the character had any reason to believe the books, or their contents would ever be needed for anything beyond entertainment.

At the point in which they were written, and the nature of the books being hard battles that required tact and training, their usefulness increased exponentially.

That’s why he doesn’t talk about why he wrote them beyond his career as a writer. He was just trying to write a story that was entertaining using the few examples he had of tough adventures.

I always got the impression that Nolan really had no concept of how to make money on earth until he heard that sci-fi books were a thing, and seeing as he could probably write prose 100 times faster than any other being on the planet and never was actually interested in being creative he just wrote about real crazy shit that happened to him and fluffed it up a bit.

He needed a way to earn an income on earth. He thought his adventures for the empire would be fantastical for any human to read about, so he figured writing them as stories would sell well.

My theory is that Nolan was writing science fiction books and he wrote about the scariest things he could think of and that’s things that could hurt Viltrumites.

Because he doesn’t trust the current leader of the Viltrumites. Nolan actually is descended from the royal branch of Viltrumites and balks at the current regents authority. Preparation basically for a coup in the future if he wanted to.

I think he intended them for Mark to use to understand potential threats later down the line if something where to happen to him. Than once the tides turned he realized Mark could also use them to take down the Viltramites as well.

I always thought of it as Nolan subconsciously feeling compassion and was the first inklings of resent towards the viltrum empire.

That or they are just war stories to him as the only good war stories out the main character in danger

I like to imagine that Nolan was always a little dissatisfied with the Viltrumite Empire, even if it was subconscious. He would still be completely unwilling to turn traitor until after his fight with Mark, but I imagine he wrote their weaknesses into his books because some small part of him hoped they would eventually be found and read by people capable of resisting Viltrumite rule.

Nolan has how many decades of experience? Other viltrumites haven’t ever really been friends, but moreso allies. Plus Nolan was, iirc, always seemingly dissatisfied with how the viltrumite empire was being run, but obviously never felt like he would ever have the power to stop it. Then mark came along and he’d been writing these books with secrets to defeating the empire just in case something happened to him because it was a contingency for if he ever found himself at odds with the empire. Because that’s what a smart man would do. He’d plan for the eventuality that the empire did not have his best interests at heart.