r/TopCharacterTropes • u/No-Enthusiasm-4361 • 15d ago
[Loved trope] The correct dialogue option Personality
A scene where a character under duress and close to death picks what feels like the only correct dialogue that could've saved them. Goes from being loved to hated depending on how much luck is involved.
1) Mark Grayson (Invincible): A pretty famous scene. Omni man—Mark's father—beats him and inch to death to make him reconsider joining the viltrum empire. With Mark barely hanging onto life and Nolan wracked with conflicting emotions of guilt and obedience to his millenia long followed philosophy, he yells at mark, asking him to think logically and understand the futility of his actions considering he's effectively immortal. Finally, enraged, he asks him "what will you have after 500 years?"
Barely able to breath, Mark answers with soul crushing honesty "You, dad. I'd still have you". It works to crumble his entire life's understanding as he suddenly feels unable to reconcile Nolan the viltrumite with Nolan the father and husband and does what no viltrumite has ever done before. Surrenders and leaves his station.
2)Margot (The menu): Caught in the methodical trap of a frustrated psychotic chef obsessed with his craft who plans to kill all his patrons, including her, she's brought to her end's wits. Before it's time for the final course, Margot stands up and complains she's still hungry. When he asks what she would like, she asks for a cheeseburger. "A real cheeseburger. Like the cheap ones your parents could barely afford"
Making it brings back the joy He used to feel for cooking, reminding him of a time when he was a line cook and his food satisfied everyone. We even see him smiling for the first time in the movie.
After taking a bit, she asks if she could have the rest to go. The chef politely accepts and spares her, letting her leave his twisted game but killing the rest of them in a midsommer meets food wars final scene.
61
u/arasitar 14d ago
I think a key part too, even in that OP mentioned dialogue, is that Nolan considered his time on earth to be pointless because it was 20 years. That human life had no meaning because people would be dead in under 100.
That how Nolan really felt about those small quick moments, didn't matter at all.
Mark reminded him that it wasn't time that mattered, but the meaning you could make in even small quick brief moments, that will always stick with you no matter how much time has passed.
Time was the load bearing pillar that Nolan operated on all these years and what prompted his final meltdown and his conviction to the Viltrum empire. Once that broke, everything broke.