He doesn’t have a real name, just a purpose.
That little detail says a lot about Conquest, the fearsome Viltrumite enforcer who makes sure to leave a trail of devastation behind. He’s the second strongest Viltrumite in existence and one of the most brutal fighters in the series. He takes grotesque pride in what he does.
And yet, you can’t help but feel a little sorry for Conquest. It’s not that he deserves your sympathy, but he was molded into becoming the monster he was. Under different circumstances, his life could have followed a similar trajectory like Thaedus or Nolan.
Born Into Brutality
The Viltrum Empire raises its people to be soldiers and conquerors. The goal is to weaken a planet’s defenses so the Viltrumites can take it over with Conquest being a consequence of that mindset.
All we know about Conquest is that for most of his life, he was sent from planet to planet. Committing atrocities on behalf of an empire that simultaneously uses and fears him. He is, by his own admission, so powerful and so unstable that even other Viltrumites want nothing to do with him. They send him to do their dirty work. The better he gets at his job, the distance between him and everyone else grows wider.
A society that rewards cruelty will produce cruel people. And then, when that cruelty gets too extreme for them to be comfortable around, they isolate the person they created. Conquest is a weapon that even his makers don’t want to hold.
Lonely at the Top
In the Season 3 episode What Have I Done? Conquest arrives to see if Earth is prepared for the incoming Viltrum invasion. He and Mark get into a vicious fight that results in countless casualties and destruction.
In the next episode I Thought You’d Never Shut Up something unexpected happens. Conquest actually takes a break from pummeling Mark to give one of the most devastating confessions in the series.
“I am so lonely. All the other Viltrumites are scared of me. No one talks to me. No one wants to be my friend, they think I am unstable. They send me from planet to planet, committing atrocities in their name. And as I get better at it, they fear me more and more. I am a victim of my own success. ‘Conquest’… I don’t even get a real name. Only a purpose. I am capable of so much more, and no one sees it. Some days I feel so alone, I could cry, but I don’t. I never do. Because what would be the point? Not a single person in the entire universe would care. Take it to your grave.”
The sad part is that Conquest can only say to someone he believes will be dead in minutes. Violence is the space where he knows how to be vulnerable. Destroying another person’s body is the only form of intimacy he knows.
The monologue doesn’t excuse a single thing he’s done, of course. But it does explain how the Viltrum Empire can corrupt their people. It’s not like he woke up and decided to be evil. He was conditioned to be the psychopath he is, then spent a lifetime doubling down on this identity because it’s all he has.
Held Together by Pride, Not Purpose
After his defeat in season 3, Conquest is kept alive by Cecil Stedman, who keeps his body contained underground while it slowly regenerates. Cecil wanted him alive so he could interrogate him about the Viltrum Empire. When Conquest regains consciousness, he assumes Mark either failed to finish the job or chose to spare him. He breaks free and returns.
He returns to Viltrum and approaches Thragg in his throne room with visible fear. He pleads for a painful death as punishment for his failure. But Thragg doesn’t execute him because to him, it’s an act of mercy Conquest doesn’t deserve. Instead, Thragg keeps Conquest alive as his attack with a new mission. Find Mark Grayson, who’s being recruited by the Coalition of Planets, and eliminate him and his allies.
And so a humiliated Conquest does the only thing he knows how to do. He goes back to work.
The Final Fight with Invincible
Conquest intercepts Mark and his allies in space for another punishing battle.
Conquest almost kills Oliver Grayson (again) but Mark slams into him before he can lay any hands on his brother. He locks his hands around Conquest’s neck in a tight grip and doesn’t let go, no matter what Conquest does in response.
Conquest punches Mark repeatedly, flies him into the mountains. He impales him and rips out Mark’s intestines in desperation. None of it works and in the end, Conquest dies a slow, undignified death.
Think about how sad and even pathetic Conquest’s arc is. You have a being who was treated as a monster by the very empire he served. He didn’t have a name or friends. He not only fails his mission, he also gets his ass handed to him by a younger, smaller half-Viltrumite and his human girlfriend. He finally gets a second chance to redeem himself only to die from suffocation. And he couldn’t even take Mark with him.
While it’s not hard to feel some pity for Conquest, it doesn’t change anything. He’s still an irredeemable monster who killed innocent people, some of them being children. He chose brutality at every possible turn, even when he stopped believing in the Viltrum Empire’s mission. He had moments where he could have gone down a different path, but didn’t.
So the sympathy here is not for the horror of what was done to him. How he never considered he had a chance to become something else. Season 4 of Invincible is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
