History Fridge / Invincible2021

** Also, when Nolan is reunited with Mark, the first thing he says is, "Hello son. It's been a while." Season 2 takes place 1 year after Season 1. During Season 1, Nolan hardly notices that his first date with Debbie was 20 years ago and constantly brings up his vast lifespan to Mark during their fight. But after his time on Thraxa? He now considers a single year to be a long time. This hints at how his perception of life has changed. It's no longer about the quantity of time, it's about the quality.

* All of Season 1 can be seen as a metaphor for domestic violence. Specifically, an abusive father. Mark grew up viewing his Dad as the perfect role model, an indestructible and flawless superhero who can do almost anything (literally and figuratively). However, besides his powers, Mark's perception of Nolan was based on a lie. When Mark is faced with truth, he can't process it at first. He assumes his Dad is innocent and couldn't be responsible for the things he did. When he finally realizes the truth, he stands up to his father. Nolan viciously beats and berates his son as punishment, and hurts many other people along the way. He even insults his mother, describing her as a worthless "pet." He also uses standard abuser methods like victim blaming (e.g. asking "Why did you make me do this?!"). Mark stands no chance against Nolan in a fight, and only survives through showing his unconditional love, making Nolan realize the consequences of his monstrous actions.

* All of Season 1 can be seen as a metaphor for domestic violence. Specifically, an abusive father. Mark grew up viewing his Dad as the perfect role model, an indestructible and flawless superhero who can do almost anything (literally and figuratively). However, besides his powers, Mark's perception of Nolan was based on a lie. When Mark is faced with truth, he can't process it at first. He assumes his Dad is innocent and couldn't be responsible for the things he did. When he finally realizes the truth, he stands up to his father. Nolan viciously beats and berates his son as punishment, and hurts many other people along the way. He even insults his mother, describing her as a worthless "pet." He also uses standard abuser methods like victim blaming. Mark stands no chance against Nolan in a fight, and only survives through showing his unconditional love, making Nolan realize the consequences of his monstrous actions.

* The first season had the running theme of more and more blood splatter getting thrown on the title screen of "Invincible", reflecting on Mark's increasing disillusionment with the idealized image of super-heroics and how effective he could be as a hero, culminating in him ''losing'' the climatic battle with Omni-Man and overall failing to protect any civilians from the fighting, even if he saved the planet overall. This season, the bloof splatter fully covers the whole screen and just leaves the blood-red words of "Invincible" handing in a black background, which then starts to crack. Given it occurs on the heels of Angstrom levy's declaration of {{revenge}} against Invincible for his disfigurement, its implied the theme for this season will be people expressing doubt or distrust against Invincible's good nature on the heels of his father's reveals, expressing disillusionment in ''him''.

* The Show putting Donald through an AdaptationalAngstUpgrade regarding his transformation into a cyborg and giving Angstrom Levy AdaptationalSympathy in his backstory a decent to villainy creates [[Foil a unique parallel between the two]] in the second season, and conveys the season's CentralTheme of dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic event. Both Donald and Angstrom were genuinely good people with noble intentions but mentally and physically affected by the involvement of superpowered beings. Donald was an agent who worked for the GDA for years but his selflessness and desire to protect others in the name of his department took a toll on his body and had his own memory erased so he wouldn't develop PTSD to keep him from helping others. Angstrom (aside from his dimensional portal powers) was a normal guy and an idealist who wanted to use the best aspects of multiverse's knowledge to improve his world and other universes, but his decision to involve the Mauler twins led to Invincible's involvement and nearly getting the hero killed, Angstrom wanting to stop the Maulers ended up causing the machine to explode and [[BodyHorror mutate his brain to grow down his back]], and going insane from his brain overflowing with memories of his [[AlternateSelf variants]] trauma from their encounters with [[EvilCounterpart evil versions of Mark]] killing their friends and loved ones, making Angstrom declare vengeance on ''his'' invincible and determined to kill him. Although Donald did order his mind wiped several times because he couldn't cope with his existential angst, learned that he isn't defined by ''what'' he is but rather ''who'' he is and his relationships with others and was able to accept his condition knowing that doesn't change who he is, meanwhile Angstrom's goal of killing Mark for his deformity and his SanitySlippage from his counterparts' memories made him shed his enlightened philanthropic pacifistic self and [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis became a vengeful and irrational maniac motivated by his own misplaced grief]]. Like Cecil said, "no one should handle that much trauma", Angstrom is essentially what Donald might've become [[ShadowArchetype if he didn't have the strength to persevere and lost himself in his own trauma]].

* The Show putting Donald through an AdaptationalAngstUpgrade regarding his transformation into a cyborg and giving Angstrom Levy AdaptationalSympathy in his backstory a decent to villainy creates a unique parallel between the two in the second season, and conveys the season's CentralTheme of dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic event. Both Donald and Angstrom were genuinely good people with noble intentions but mentally and physically affected by the involvement of the Grayson family. Donald worked for the GDA for years but his selflessness and desire to protect others in the name of his department took a toll on his body and had his own memory erased so he wouldn't develop PTSD and keep him from helping others. Angstrom (aside from his dimensional portal powers) was a normal guy and an idealist who wanted to use the best aspects of multiverse's knowledge to improve his world and other universes, but his decision to involve the Mauler twins led to Invincible's involvement and nearly getting the hero killed, Angstrom wanting to stop the Maulers ended up causing the machine to explode and [[BodyHorror mutate his brain to grow down his back]], and going insane from his brain overflowing with memories of his [[AlternateSelf variants]] trauma from their encounters with [[EvilCounterpart evil versions of Mark]] killing their friends and loved ones, making Angstrom declare vengeance on ''his'' invincible and determined to kill him. Although Donald did order his mind wiped several times because he couldn't cope with his existential angst, learned that he isn't defined by ''what'' he is but rather ''who'' he is and his relationships with others and was able to accept his condition knowing that doesn't change who he is, meanwhile Angstrom's goal of killing Mark for his deformity and his SanitySlippage from his counterparts' memories made him shed his enlightened philanthropic pacifistic self and [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis became a vengeful and irrational maniac motivated by his own misplaced grief]]. Like Cecil said, "no one should handle that much trauma", Angstrom is essentially what Donald might've become [[ShadowArchetype if he lost himself in his own trauma]].

* The first season had the running theme of more and more blood splatter getting thrown on the title screen of "Invincible", reflecting on Mark's increasing disillusionment with the idealized image of super-heroics and how effective he could be as a hero, culminating in him ''losing'' the climatic battle with Omni-Man and overall failing to protect any civilians from the fighting, even if he saved the planet overall. This season, the Blood splatter fully covers the whole screen and just leaves the blood-red words of "Invincible" handing in a black background, when then starts to crack. Given it occurs on the heels of Angstrom levy's declaration of {{revenge}} against Invincible for his disfigurement, its implied the theme for this season will be people expressing doubt or distrust against Invincible's good nature on the heels of his father's reveals, expressing disillusionment in ''him''.

* The evil Invincible who kills Angstrom Jr. is Sinister Mark, who in the comics [[EvilerThanThou was the absolute worst out of all of Invincible's alternate counterparts]] and also [[ImAHumanitarian a cannibal,]] which means he probably ate Angstrom Jr.'s corpse after killing him and most likely did the same to his father as well.

* The Show putting Donald through an AdaptionalAngstUpgrade regarding his transformation into a cyborg and giving Angstrom Levy AdaptionalSympathy in his backstory a decent to villainy creates a unique parallel between the two in the second season, and conveys the season's CentralTheme of dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic event. Both Donald and Angstrom were genuinely good people with noble intentions but mentally and physically affected by the involvement of the Grayson family. Donald worked for the GDA for years but his selflessness and desire to protect others in the name of his department took a toll on his body and had his own memory erased so he wouldn't develop PTSD and keep him from helping others. Angstrom (aside from his dimensional portal powers) was a normal guy and an idealist who wanted to use the best aspects of multiverse's knowledge to improve his world and other universes, but his decision to involve the Mauler twins led to Invincible's involvement and nearly getting the hero killed, Angstrom wanting to stop the Maulers ended up causing the machine to explode and [[BodyHorror mutate his brain to grow down his back]], and going insane from his brain overflowing with memories of his [[AlternateSelf variants]] trauma from their encounters with [[EvilCounterpart evil versions of Mark]] killing their friends and loved ones, making Angstrom declare vengeance on ''his'' invincible and determined to kill him. Although Donald did order his mind wiped several times because he couldn't cope with his existential angst, learned that he isn't defined by ''what'' he is but rather ''who'' he is and his relationships with others and was able to accept his condition knowing that doesn't change who he is, meanwhile Angstrom's goal of killing Mark for his deformity and his SanitySlippage from his counterparts' memories made him shed his enlightened philanthropic pacifistic self and [[BecomingTheirOwnAntithesis became a vengeful and irrational maniac motivated by his own grief]]. Like Cecil said, "no one should handle that much trauma", Angstrom is essentially what Donald might've become [[ShadowArchetype if he lost himself in his own trauma]].

* Anissa's introduction in Season 2 Episode 7 and her interactions with Mark (namelly the CurbStompBattle on her favour) take a ''much'' darker tone if you know [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil what Anissa eventually does to him]] in the comics.

* Omniman's HeelFaceTurn after meeting the Thraxans makes a lot of sense when you realise they basically serve as the perfect counterargument to Viltrumite philosophy: "Now or fifty years from now when he's old, what difference does it make?" The Thraxans are to us what humans are to Viltrumites. Their year-long lifespans are just as short to us as human life is to Nolan. Yet, the Viltrumites believe that self-worth is determined by how long you live and how strong you are, while the Thraxans' short lifespans make them care about all of their people even more. The Thraxans cherish every moment due to how short their lives are, which makes the point that just because life is short, that doesn't mean life is meaningless, and just because some things are physically fragile, that doesn't give someone the right to break them. For Nolan, the Thraxans were basically a more extreme version of what he experienced on Earth. So, when Nolan was breaking down upon seeing the Thraxans massacred, he really was finally feeling the true horror of what he did on Earth.