CW: This thread contains spoilers for Season 1 of the @PrimeVideo series #Invincible completed on Friday

@InvincibleHQ and the Anxiety of Interracial Relationships a :

Invincible tackles a lot of topics that would require multiple threads to unpack, but today I’m going after one that Hit for me

That’s right, I’m talking about Interracial Relationships and the anxieties surrounding them which were expertly showcased and deserve this deep dive

The IR relationships in this series that I’ll be discussing in no particulars order are:

1. Debbie/Nolan Grayson
2. Amber Bennett/ Mark Grayson
3. Kate Cha/Rex Sloan
4. Eve Wilkins/Rex Sloan/Mark Grayson
#InvincibleOnPrime #interracialrelationships #interracialromance

To begin I have a question for the creators of @InvincibleHQ :

Is Kate’s lack of characterization and story arc in comparison to her cohorts done with intent?

By that I mean is her immediate sexualization and then push back to a background character in the narrative symbolic?

Like were y’all making commentary on how Asian women are hypersexualized and silenced in popular (superhero) media like Amazon’s other series @TheBoysTV which ignited #TheSilencingOfTheShrew as a trope being created and discussions of better Asian Representation in Media? https://twitter.com/faatithestreet/status/1302297317656219649

I’m asking this question fully in Good Faith, because I’m aware that Academy Nominated @steveyeun and the Incomparable @IamSandraOh are both leads in this series

I’m Not calling y’all out, I’m wondering if this particular characterization of Kate voiced by #MaleseJow was Meta?

As in Kate’s depiction amongst her fellow heroes on her team is representative of How she’s viewed by the team

Essential and useful almost to the point of objectification?
How many Asian women are treated in Society overall in fact

She serves the purpose she serves and then?

Kate’s Interracial Relationship in this series casts a bright light on the Hypersexualization of Asian women in a way that I feel deserves deeper exploration

and this series explores this narrative more fully byway of Debbie’s relationship with Nolan, we’ll get there though

Note how in this scene Kate is both lied to and Used by Rex

Rex even goes so far as to say Right In Front of Her that it meant nothing and doesn’t count because her duplications (an extension of herself via her powers) Aren’t really even her

He tosses her aside SO quickly

and her Friend, Atom Eve, tosses her aside too

The anxiety of interracial dating:

Will I be an object if I pursue someone I’m interested in that used to date my friend?

Will I be lied to and held accountable to His lies?

Will I lose Both my friends?

The Anxiety of Interracial Relationships and the unfair comparison between Women of Color and their white Counterparts

I’m new to this fandom, but I’m not NEW to fandoms and I’ve already seen the discourse and hatred of Amber Bennett voiced by talented actress Zazie Beetz hmm

I wonder what it could BE about her that folks HATE so much
It’s probably that she utilizes an out of regulation ladle pouring technique when she feeds people in her community in need

You know what it Probably is
What it Actually is?

Amber, the total fool, expects her boyfriend to be Honest with her and to Treat her with Respect

Doesn’t she know she’s a Black woman? Ah the naïveté of youth

Seriously though, I’ve seen the series and yall Amber haters are

I noted seeing folks hating on Amber prior to watching the series yesterday so I kept my eye out for any shady behavior of hers

I also didn’t say anything to my husband while we watched the series to see if I could get his take too

He’s a white man AND a nerd and his take was

The thing is Amber IS a normal person with normal expectations

But when a Black femme has normal expectations by merit of our being Black and Femme those expectations are seen as ridiculously unfair

The Anxiety of Dating as a Black femme: Will they see me as a person?

The way that Amber is viewed by the Fandom is reflective of how
BLACK FEMMES are seen by society at large
I applaud this series for having Amber Bennett not only voiced by a Brilliant Black woman, Zazie Beetz, but also portrayed as a dark skinned Black teenaged girl with an Afro

This Forces the audience to reckon with their own biases and misogynoir internalized or otherwise

To see their relationship play out and come to the conclusion that Amber is Toxic for not forgiving him for the fifty eleventh time of stepping on her boundaries is just sickening

Am I saying Amber’s and Mark’s relationship is perfect? No

Am I saying Amber’s just an innocent kid trying to understand her super powered boyfriend’s constant lying and bailing on her? YES

They’re teenagers and even Mark’s own best-friend got Real with him and told him:

Amber’s hatred in the Fandom and mistreatment by her boyfriend Mark within the series come from the same place actually

A distancing of self from your actions regarding Femmes and Women of Color and is represented also by Debbie x Nolan’s dynamic

Y’all:

Which brings us to the most unsettling representation of Interracial Relationships I’ve ever seen in media

Unsettling because of how darkly real it is for many people in current and former IR relationships

The anxiety of marrying a white person: Are they secretly a Nazi?

I bet white people who date and marry People of Color don’t think about this anxiety much comforted by the fact that you’re Not a Nazi

Because you don’t believe in Eugenics you just think people should be tested before they have kids

You’re not a racist you’re Dating a ____.

Meanwhile those of us IN IR Marriages with white people who are watching this show?

Yeah for us this scene with Mark and Debbie hit different

The Anxiety of Having Biracial Children with Colonizers: Will they be like Us or like Them and is this feeling of Anxiety over it Okay?

Yeah this show devastated us all with that train scene

Having a Metaphor for a Nazi brutalize countless people using a train was QUITE the artistic decision

So why was it this line that stuck with me and hurt the most? :

It shook me
There’s tons of memes and reactions all across the internet to this one line

But I want to really take a stab at why this one hurt

Because this visualized the single greatest fear and anxiety that comes with relationships (any and all) relationships with white ppl

This series is amazing and incredible and the gratuitous violence therein doesn’t feel gratuitous though IT IS
in some places

It feels like a metaphor

For the lakes and rivers of blood that’s shed for Great white men to be Great it’s a metaphor For US
For what it takes to be:

The #Invincible Thread on Interracial Relationships Part Deux Y’all Hear Me

Before Mark has powers he does something brave and to some viewers ‘stupid’ he stands up to this bully

He stands up to this bully in defense of Amber (this is part of why this action is seen as stupid)

He stands up to a bully and gets physically hurt for a Black Femme

Malcolm X said this quote 60 years ago and it’s meaning is still clear and it’s still accurate

“The most vulnerable person in America is the Black woman, the most unprotected person in America is the Black woman”

His insistence upon standing up for her is what wins her heart

The thing that Breaks her heart is his doing and showing the Opposite of this action that’s the foundation of their relationship

Lying to her, distrusting her, stringing her along, making promises he Knows he can’t keep: Listening to his Father

The fact that Amber comes to his house to Be There for Him after everything that’s happened shows the kind of person She is

She’s incredibly caring, and yet the fan base hungered for Mark to slam the door in her face

Why?

“Is this thread about Interracial Relationships in #Invincible or your chance to hate on Mark?”

Who’s hating on Mark?
Holding the young man accountable for his actions is Exactly how we keep him from becoming his father

Were we watching the same show?
His father’s influence:

Mark’s mother Debbie is literally the Hero of the show

Without her influence Nolan ‘OmniMan’ Grayson would’ve committed horrific atrocities ages ago

Aww isn’t that sweet?

No, it’s not, my heart breaks for Debbie who loved with her whole heart and stood up to a tyrant, a god

The thing that hit me hardest about her’s and Nolan’s relationship was this scene where she literally taught him the value of humanity

It triggered memories of former white partners and having to Debate my own humanity with them

It’s unsettling and dark and Real
Sandra Oh-wow

The show is also the wildest metaphor for biracial identity crisis I’ve ever seen

Mark struggles with his identity and isn’t helped by his father who increasingly pushes him towards elitist thought

In the end Mark is like his mother and loves his father and That’s why he’s:

He literally responds to his dad beating him bloody asking him who will be there for him in 500 years with ‘You’ and it shatters the man and makes him fly off world

He ran away!

He was so ashamed of himself for Feeling that he RAN

Mark makes small mistakes
well big mistakes he is super powered and Did break an old lady on accident

But Mark’s mistakes are ones he can come back from

He’s aware that he HAS a choice in a way that his father isn’t, and I’m a big fan of the kid for that reason your choices:

Can I just gush for a second that some of my favorite Actors of Color participated in this show?

This is one of the most important pieces of Super Hero commentary I’ve ever seen and I’m so proud that these amazing Actors were in it:

These incredible Actors made this show even more amazing and they deserve recognition:

And finally a shoutout to Zehra Fazal because I’m a fan of Talia from the Animated Batman films and I’m a Friend of Mara IYKYK

If you enjoyed this thread and found it Educational AND Entertaining feel free to buy me a drink

I’m gonna go play Resident Evil 5 with my husband: a Very Problematic game about an Interracial (couple?) https://ko-fi.com/faatithestreet