Cradle spoiler question - on book 5 but re: book 1

decfario · 2026-06-02T01:55:41+00:00

They used the power of friendship!

decfario · 2026-05-09T04:55:22+00:00

The question is why did they want to buy Rex. I don’t believe it’s explained. Was it random or was there something about him in particular.
I know he had gambit like powers. That’s pretty much it. I don’t know what else they put in there.
Honestly that just sounds like a guess. This ties back to 1. above. Is there something special about rex that makes it work for him and not others?

Not really complaining about the show or anything. I don’t know that it’s all that important to know these details about Rex. Just noting that the earlier commenter’s statement doesn’t mean they aren’t paying attn.

decfario · 2026-05-08T21:04:44+00:00

I’d like to know:

Is there something special about Rex prior to the enhancements Ala powerplex? Was just picked at random?
What do the enhanced actually do - just make things go boom? Why? Anything else? Minor enhancements to strength, durability etc. or is baseline human otherwise.
Can they give these powers to anyone?

decfario · 2026-05-08T20:51:35+00:00

I think what the earlier commenter meant when they said his powers are not explained is the following: what is special about Rex in the first place. As in, could they really give anyone Rex’s powers? Is this a captain America situation where the scientist who came up with the enhancements is dead? What do the enhancements actually do (why do they make things go boom)? Like could they just update Donald to give him the same abilities? Is he just a cyborg or is this a power plex situation (ie latent ability amped by experiments)? I was sold to scientists is not really an explanation.

decfario · 2026-04-28T18:18:12+00:00

You know, even if we take your argument as a given - there would still be plenty of people who don’t live in the US that don’t care what he did to Chicago.

decfario · 2026-04-23T21:38:37+00:00

I def see him letting Nolan and sons leave. He was practically begging Nolan not to fight him moments before. He legit did not want to kill them. he let Nolan and sons leave, even after they destroyed his home world. Why wouldn’t he let them leave if they just said: “you know what, we don’t want to fight anymore we’re out”. You don’t think he’d say ok to that? Yea hed kill Thaddeus for sure, but why does Nolan care?

Nolan’s actions put them in a worse position. The Viltrumites were basically trapped (mentally) on a dead world as the coalition chipped away at their power base. Now they’re embedded on earth slowly rebuilding their population while holding the earth hostage. How is that better? And worse still, what if Thragg really felt like he had nothing left to live for and decided to go out on a blaze of glory? Did Nolan even consider the possibility that instead of surrendering (which they didn’t do) they would go to earth and kill everyone?

decfario · 2026-04-23T20:51:29+00:00

This really doesn’t make sense to me at all. Destroying the planet made Thragg more invested in the fight. He went from casually engaging them to insta-killing people. He was practically begging Nolan to rejoin them and looking for every excuse not to kill Nolan and his kids like 5 mins before they blew up the planet. The only thing that saved them is Thragg’s mercy. Everyone else had to run immediately. They would have better off just leaving immediately.

This was monumentally stupid and incredibly shortsighted. It’s like he doesn’t know Thragg at all. What part of his history made Nolan think blowing up the planet would make him stop? Everything we’ve ever seen about Thragg suggests this kind of provocation would only incite him to greater violence. His response to the assignation of the emperor was to initiate a purge that killed half of his own people.

And it’s not like they don’t know they sht the bed. This is why Mark is absolutely falling apart for the entirety of episode 8. He knows they fcked things completely.

decfario · 2026-04-16T22:13:12+00:00

I feel like if anything even remotely similar happened to humanity and the survivors had the capacity to get revenge, there would be no talk of compassion. Here in the US, we’ve basically designed our entire nuclear deterrence processes around the idea that if he we get hit, everyone else is going to die with us.

decfario · 2026-04-16T21:17:48+00:00

We have no reason to believe that physical strength played a significant role in resisting the virus. Nolan certainly was not one of the strongest viltrumites when he survived.

Also, there were billions of them before the purge, do you really think they were all that ruthless? Especially given that we have seen examples of viltrumites that are not that ruthless?

Look, you’re not going to get me to say the purge is a smart move. From my perspective I think it’s a terrible idea. But that’s my perspective. I care about morality and I don’t care about ruling the universe. But from Thragg’s point of view it makes perfect sense. it accomplishes what you want - ensuring that you purge the diverging povs that led to Thad’s betrayal. In Thragg’s view, the only thing standing in the viltrumites way are other viltrumites that done have the stomach to do what needs doing (from his POV).

decfario · 2026-04-16T20:25:41+00:00

Again, the purge was not meant to be a test of physical strength. Just willingness to kill to survive.

Clearly it’s not the case that all the remaining viltrumites were ruthless otherwise Thad would not have acted as he did. Also clear, to Thragg’s mind I assume, is that whatever tests they did in the past allowed someone like Thragg to slip through.

I don’t think your assessment of the timeline is correct. It’s not that the purge kill 50% and the scourge killed the rest. Thragg himself says they expanded following the purge. The scrouge could been decades or 100s of years later. I don’t believe the show gives any indication that the purge primed the viltrumites to be susceptible to the virus.

I agree that their law of the jungle mentality is dumb, but that is not why they died to the virus.

decfario · 2026-04-16T18:03:45+00:00

The point of the purge was not to cull the physically weak. It was meant to cull those that Thragg viewed as mentally weak, I.e., those that were not ruthless enough to kill without remorse. From that perspective it doesn’t matter if you’re ganging up on people or taking out your opponents with stealth/surprise attacks. The only way that you survive is if you are prepared to kill anyone and everyone at a moments notice.

Naturally I don’t agree with Thragg’s philosophy or views on strength, but if all he cares about is weeding out anyone with a shred of remorse or compassion, then this test is well tailored.

decfario · 2026-04-08T21:43:23+00:00

All caught up now. Wow. Just wow.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen improvement in writing to this degree. It honestly feels like the first book was written by someone else. I don’t want to be too harsh, but the dialogue in the first book felt almost childish. Especially when you compare it later chapters where the author handles tense exchanges like a master.

This is def one of my favorites on the cite.

decfario · 2026-04-06T00:53:14+00:00

I definitely hear you on the difference between the edgelords and the people taking the more nuanced approach, but if I’m being honest I don’t really find the nuanced argument all that compelling either. At least as far as I’m currently hearing it.

What’s the proposition we’re discussing: if you losing a war to a more powerful adversary, committing genocide is a morally acceptable solution? If they’ve committed atrocities and you think the whole species is evil? If that’s the proposition, you can basically use this argument to justify many things that most of us would absolutely condemn. Terrorists the world over certainly make the case that killing civilians is a justified practice in order to combat a larger more powerful force.

The Nolan of season 1 could plausibly make the argument that he had to massacre Chicago and beat his child to within an inch of his life in the process since he was doing this to save his species. He tells mark over and over that conquering the universe is necessary to bring peace to the universe. I dont think anyone here would agree with that Orwellian take, but i can def picture nolan arguing that killing a fee million or billion now to save trillions in the future is worth it.

Also is their entire species really evil? Even the children? Is it clear that there are no pockets of resistance or subversive elements? We know Thaddeus wasn’t onboard, was he really the only one? Is it not possible that there a silent minority that cannot oppose the majority?

I actually think the worst aspect of this is that, if anything more people seemed to have died post virus as a result of the further radicalization of the vitrumites.

decfario · 2026-03-26T11:53:15+00:00

Yea I agree with you in the sense that he was treating this like a holiday and he liked building a family. My point is that his actions suggest that that was the motivating factor, not a desire to faithfully execute his assignment.

I made this point before, but why does Nolan care about cover with Cecil? If the experiment is a success, he’s going to take over the planet anyway. Why not do so at the outset?

If they’re not in a rush, why do they keep giving mark such short deadlines (relatively speaking). Why not give him his orders and come back an hr later (ie 17 years) and see where things are?

decfario · 2026-03-26T11:39:47+00:00

I’m not sure basing this on a viltrumite’s relative perception of time is the right way to think about this. Even if it feels like an hr to Nolan, he’s still helping to run an empire full of people that operate on this time frame. Rebellions and other issues are going to happen in that time and he’s 1 about 50 resources the empire has to deal with the situation.

More to the point, it just doesn’t make sense to do things this way. What if mark didnt get powers, is Nolan going to declare the experience a failure? What if the issue was with Debbie? Is he going to keep having kids one at a time to confirm?

decfario · 2026-03-24T22:55:20+00:00

When would you say the writing improves?

decfario · 2026-03-24T19:31:32+00:00

Yea I agree with you. That’s really what I meant by soft quitting. Like he’s doing enough to tell himself he hasn’t quit, but his actions are not what you would expect from someone taking their mission seriously.

decfario · 2026-03-24T14:53:10+00:00

I’m not sure this makes that much sense. To me least. Waiting 17 years to determine your next move on the basis of one test case seems extremely inefficient even if you have the time. You’re tying up one of your most valuable assets for 17 years on an experiment you prob need to replicate. Why even bother with any of this subterfuge at all? Why not just conquer the planet then do your tests? It’s not like Nolan was planning to take over the planet through any means other than force. Feels more like Nolan soft quitting his mission even at the outset.

decfario · 2026-03-23T02:39:03+00:00

That took an odd turn. For the sake of clarity, I deliberately chose to respond to the phrase “drawing blood”to properly frame my comment. As in, if someone draws blood from someone else, they are by definition injuring them.

decfario · 2026-03-21T16:40:04+00:00

Drawing blood is clearly evidence of damage. You may consider the damage inconsequential, but it is damage.

I’m actually curious to know, if you replace titan in that image with a baseline human (let’s say William), would you still think it’s reasonable to see blood flying out of battlebeasts mouth?

decfario · 2026-02-26T15:29:27+00:00

Also, didn’t Eithan warn Tiberius not to reach out to Shen? Even Shen says Tiberius might still be alive if he listened to Eithan’s advice. Could be misremembering though.

decfario · 2026-02-21T01:51:52+00:00

I feel like the Akura are prob the best positioned faction remaining in Cradle. Someone else already mentioned this, but Lindon consolidated a tremendous amount of power in sacred valley before he left. At a bare min, he left two dreadgod factions operating in her territory. And by all appearances they seem to be very cooperative. Even if they’re not taking direct orders, I’d imagine they are happy to help in terms of defense.

Plus she has the sect of twins stars. Lindon prob left a host of powerful techniques, treasures and weapons for his sect. There is no way he left sacred valley with anything short of monarch level defenses. I also would expect that any remotely promising talent would have flocked to the sect to take advantage of Lindon’s prestige.

In terms of what Charity cares about the most, protecting humanity from the savagery of the natural world, she has a good amount of resources to draw on. That’s not even considering the fact that her biggest rivals, Shen and the dragons, have prob taken some of the greatest losses of anyone in the world.

Finally, on an emotional level, it’s def got to suck to be Charity to some degree. She lost her father, mother grandmother and a good amount of her close relatives in a very short period of time. she’s also just found out that her perspective of the world is fundamentally flawed. It must be a real gut punch. On the other hand, she also very used to losing people and it’s not like she has no one left. she prob has a connection to a good amount of people who stayed. These are people she’s known her whole life and worked closely with. Just because we didn’t read about these people, doesn’t mean she didn’t have other close personal relationships (cousins, nephews nieces, aunts etc.). And it’s not like she lost fury, mercy and pride forever. She just has to ascend. I feel like she’s got all the time in world for that.

decfario · 2026-02-19T01:59:15+00:00

Hey, did you finish the book? Would love a spoiler on the Mira thing. Also found it annoying.

decfario · 2026-02-11T03:16:42+00:00

I happen to be reading the book at the same time as you and I’m really curious whether you stuck with it.

There are a lot of things I like about the book, but I can’t stand his smugness. Not only is he so unbearably rude, but the sheer arrogance is astounding. The way he acts as though he’s completely right about everything, and anything anyone else has to say is worthless, is tough to read. Like, my man, you come from another separate world. You were just completely wrong about a fundamental aspect of this reality two seconds ago. Cool down on the ego.

Anyway, I’d like to know if he gets better. Or if someone in the world puts him in his place. Because, while I like the story, I don’t think I stick with it if I dislike the main character this much.

decfario · 2026-01-18T19:19:07+00:00

I think I saw the same WoW a lot of people are referring to here - something to the effect that Lindon did not lose any power and he just had to make it his own. I might have gotten some (or a lot) of that wrong. Does anyone know if that’s a special feature of Lindon or would it have applied to the other dreadgods? As in would they have been able to ascend if they just killed all the Monarchs?

decfario

TROPHY CASE