Rusty is being magnificently restrained considering he’s faced with the two organizations who, as a whole, represent everything that destroyed his childhood.
When you think about it... This summit was never about both groups finding common ground. This was Jonas' excuse to humiliate both organizations and laugh at them. Rusty is not only the adult in this scene, he surpasses Jonas by actually making these people find common ground for the better and actually forces them to act like adults.
to be fair, this man has just condescendingly referred to a gathering of high end villains and government agents, one of which being Brock Samson, as children. the kind of equalizing factor when someones going to call you on your bullshit despite how weak they are compared to you is a big power move
Cory Hooper True, but as a counterpoint, Rusty is also wholly unimpressed by these people on a very genuine level. The theatrics, the show of force, the menace; he’s seen it all before to the point of being almost bored of it. Sure, they could kill him. So what? People have been trying to do that since before he was out of training pants. In a way his ability to not give a fuck about all the pomp and circumstance and cut to the heart of the matter without any formality or concern for social correctness made him uniquely qualified to oversee this summit.
He was always trying to cast a shadow, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Rusty didn't condemn a super successful research and development company to obsolescence, he inherited it in a nose dive that he was even less capable to pull out of than his dad was. In a world that glorified Jonas Venture (Sr) so far as to glorify his exploits in television (interviews, photo ops) and cartoons (The Rusty Boy Adventurer cartoons), Sr found himself at odds making super scientific ends meet. I'll bet everything he had at one point or another was being developed for someone, _for money,_ to use as a villain (the gas he was using in his underground society, the experimental jet, A.I. tech, a shrink/growth ray). And for every public failing, like the Helper recall, there were a *slew* of private disasters I'm sure they just swept under the rug and those disasters are _costly!_ I would wager Jonas Sr dies on Gargantua-1 after he's exposed for being an underground villain tech developer, slowly turning into a villain over time, and killed before it can be discovered in the past and do something scary like: Turn Billy into the most terrifying villain the world knows because his boyhood hero and idol (son excluded) turned out to be the biggest villain of all!
The best thing about this is that he's pretty damn spot-on with the whole children comparison. The whole superhero/ supervillain/ super spy thing is just a really big game of "cops and robbers" or "cowboys and indians" when you really think about it.
Serpentking789 B-Mask actually did a whole video on that exact topic. Basically, you have a bunch of former heroes and villains clinging desperately to the roles of their youth because they are afraid to embrace the larger world that is adulthood and confront their deficiencies as people. They just bury the fighting in a bunch of bureaucratic nonsense to hide how immature the whole thing is.
Which makes it all the scarier since the whole reason for these accords is everyone knows the villains would be way worse without rules to both restrict and protect them; they like using the kid gloves but have access to so much worse. While the OSI barely has the moral high ground given how paranoid, over-reacting and often outright fascist they are. It's the one case where Rusty's traumatic life actually helps him because he knows all about how this works and has plenty of contempt for and familiarity with both sides, and the point isn't to make either side happy but give them a feeling of stability and establish a status quo.
It's not that hard, but still. Yeah. As much as it hurts to say, informing your kids that total fairness is impossible and that you have to deal with what you got is a legitimate lesson that needs to be taught. Otherwise, you end up will stalemates like this one.
Pretty sure adults need to take that lesson to heart too, Chris. All diplomatic screw-ups are made by people either not willing to compromise even a little or screwing up an agreement due to ego and feelings of unfairness and last I checked kids weren't the ones making the screw-ups.
Or secret punitive clauses- remember both groups have screwed him and his family over, imagine if the next time they try it turns out its against the treaty. HAH!
I love the fact that once Rusty starts calling his dad a shitty parent and how there is no fairness, your immediate thought is "Ugh, Rusty's gonna whine about his dad again", but then the speech continues. And then it hits you. Yes, Rusty is horrible and whiny, but if anyone out of the entire cast knows how unfair life is, it's him. He's been through so much crap as a kid and as an adult not just from the various villains, but also his own father and his friends. And none of his current peers or friends even acknowledge that Rusty suffered at the hands of the so-called "heroes". I love Rusty's development throughout the show. He's still a jackass by season 7, but a far cry from what he used to be in the early seasons.
I love the diversity of reactions here (1:10) a little after when the OSI and GCI members are called "children" for the second time, and what the reactions tell about the characters. - Phantom Limb looks maybe a bit disdainful or like he's just ignoring Rusty, but he could be thinking about it. - Dr. Mrs. The Monarch is just plain insulted and not giving Rusty the time of day, though she was listening to him for a little while (if you watch you can see when she turns her shoulder). - Red Mantle and Dragoon both look decently ashamed/guilty, Red Mantle more so. - Colonel Gathers has chronic "I must cross my arms if I'm not using them," that plus the shades makes it a bit difficult to parse his emotions, but he's hunching his shoulders a lot more than he was earlier, seeming like he's also a little ashamed. - Brock just looks like he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. - Snoopy's just trying to busy himself with paperwork like he's not there. - Shore Leave is having a reaction similar to Dr. Mrs. The Monarch and looking like a kid angrily in timeout (he's even pouting). Their reactions if anything reaaally just back up what Rusty was saying about them being kids. He's not really wrong, is he?
I like how a good chunk of the characters in this show would a force to reckoned with if they were able to get over some thing about them. Rusty would be a top dog if he could get over his daddy issues, the Monarch would be an outstanding villain if he weren’t obsessed with Rusty, and many more characters have one thing holding them back from being so terrifyingly powerful. It’s nice.
The key to Monarch and Rusty is that they are both half of Jonas. Monarch has all the flair, ambition, charisma and cunning with none of competence. Rusty has all the intellect but can't get past the laziness.
Really, the sanest and most competent and capable person in the whole series has got to be Red Death. Intelligence, flair, sense of morals, epic villainy, and a damn good husband and father. I think the biggest reason he's not even _more_ dangerous is because of his wife's pushing him to hang up his cape, so to speak.
thats why characters like red death, brock and 21 are absolute powerhouses, they have most of their personal issues solved and can actually function logically
Thing is I’m pretty sure monarchs ability to be a good villain is fuelled by said hatred of rusty, and rusty himself ain’t even that good of a scientist let’s be real
I was so expecting Dr. Venture to morph back into Killinger and make it a gag where Rusty was off on vacation somewhere but this was 100x better and showed growth in his character.
The thing people seem to forget about Rusty is that while he may be mediocre as a so called super scientist, he’s a _damned_ good adventurer. He’s learned not only how to survive but to thrive in this world of mad scientists, super powered weirdos, SHIELDesque government agents, secret societies, demonic entities and costumed freaks constantly threatening to exploit, maim or kill him. He knows how these nutbags think, and he knows how to use it against them. If he weren’t so wrapped up in his daddy issues and constantly getting in his own way as a result of his own insecurities or greed, he’d be a force to be reckoned with. God help them all if he ever actually becomes a healthy, functioning individual.
Honestly, thats what makes rusty an interesting character. He is great at the adventure stuff but sucks at the mundane stuff where he struggles to "get his shit together". without the life-or-death situations where he has to be decisive, he is indecisive. Without urgency, he procrastinates or gets distracted. his insecurities, greed and sloth are his big personal failings, but he actually has unrealized potential, which is both interesting, but also sad.
@@colin8696908 Funny enough while his Mini Brother had his life together he really did not seem to do well with the adventure stuff. From arranging parties with Villians next to "heroes" that were clearly doomed to fail, or him not understanding monarch and the whole arch villain thing.
@@BlueHero45 Also, he wasn't raised by Jonas Sr. That was a plus for him, but I don't believe he ever learned that his father was a horrible human being and is the main reason why his brother ended up as he did.
Sometimes, not often, Rusty really shows how smart and pragmatic he can be when he really applies himself. He's not stupid or weak, he just is so scared of failure that he puts in little effort and acts like things are impossible, but when he really tries, he succeeds.
He’s spent so long trying to live up to peoples expectations of his father while a) lacking his father’s skill set and having an entirely separate one and b) his father’s reputation being built entirely on an empire of lies that when he finally stops caring about living up to that myth, he’s a perfectly serviceable individual. He blends perfectly between the various organizations just because he’s equally fed up with all their shit and will call them out for it.
Lol it's a good thing JJ was never around to hear Rusty call Jonas Sr. a shitty parent. He would have denied it or made an excuse since he never experienced the abuse or manipulation personally.
@@t.c.thompson2359 Her pout is, frankly, super childish and is up there with Brock's open mouthed shock as some of the great expressions of the series.
This is an amazing contrast to Fallen Arches where Watch and Ward are shitting on Rusty for being nothing other than his dad's loser son. Here he has RESPECT of the two most powerful organziations on Earth. So proud.
Problem is, in recent times we’ve seen one side unilaterally decide that no negotiation is a viable option especially when their whole goal is to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the system
I love how Rusty has grown throughout the series, in small ways, but they all build up to these moments in the end where he's the only one who can see past the nonsense. Also a huge part of what makes this scene one of my favorites in the whole show is how great James Urbaniak is at delivering these lines.
In Hindsight, Jonas was a bigger failure, as alot of the crap Rusty had to deal with was what his Dad left behind, as revealed by the old venture team later on. Jonas was a super smart and talented Manchild, who quickly got bored with things and did something else without caring what was left when he did. He didn't give a shit about the outcomes of his actions. The amount of people Jonas abused and abandoned to cruel fates that Rusty in later life had to deal with makes Rusty the better man, Jonas' success were a smokescreen to how much of an awful person he really was and if the public knew who he really was, he wouldn't be the celebrated hero he is in the venture bro's world. The worst part of Rusty living his Jonas' shadow is that shadow is a web of lies and misdeeds to protect one man's ego, and Rusty knows that on some level.
One of the rare times where Rusty is a great and respectable character. Despite everything, he humbles the leaders of the biggest operations and gets them to settle their stuff like adults.
It's not weird that Rusty is the voice of reason, it's weird that he talked mad shit to people far more intimidating and threatening than him right to their face. Imagine any other context where Rusty could call Brock, Hunter and Phantom Limb a baby, much less just one of them and walk away being congratulated for it.
The thing is, he talks smack to everyone all the time, including Brock. It probably comes with growing up around folks as high tier as the OG Team Venture and having his childhood be Ground Zero for them all to demonstrate how screwed up they all were, especially his own dad.
Plus, as the moderator for the convention, neither side could afford to alienate him. After all, if the guy who makes sure the scales are balanced is pissed at you, those scales may end up a bit uneven. Plus they don't want to look bad in front of the other side.
Moments like these really show you how, underneath all the self absorption and narcissistic tendencies, Rusty can accomplish a great deal, and be a great voice of reason.
My Dad taught me and my brother how to compromise one day by asking what we wanted to eat. We wanted different things, so instead of showing favoritism he said he'd drive straight until we made up our minds. We argued for over an hour, driving from the residential suburbs to the major city in the county off of streets instead of highways. Everytime we passed a restaurant he'd ask us if we wanted it, then we'd argue it out in the car. Eventually we saw a restaurant that, from the outside, looked run down and scummy. It wasn't in a good area, but me and my brother compromised because we were starting to get light headed. The inside of the restaurant had alot of red and gold decor, it looked awesome compared to the shitty exterior. The food was some of the best I ever had, and in the end we learned to not be stupid and try some newer food stuff.
I love when people say "getting" like it's some development that wasn't already around. When were adults not in some way angry self-absorbed children? I'd love to hear your response on this.
@@EmptyMan000 There were times when that kind of pettiness wasn't indulged to the kind of degree that it is now. Yes, there was always opposition, that's a given, but you can certainly trace a lot of the vacuous refusal to cooperate to fairly recently. I mean, it wasn't until recent that the supposed leader of the free world would be permanently glued to their phone getting into embarrassing Twitter feuds. And I'm fairly certain the complete lack of self awareness that's also come about is relatively new.
They're not getting childish, they've just stopped hiding the fact that they're whiny fucking children who will fuck everyone else over to get what they want immediately, with zero regard for who they're hurting. Politics has always been disgustingly self-absorbed and manipulative, it's only now that information is vastly more accessible, so the veneer of civility is rapidly dropping.
@@GiratinaofFury I'm glad you're certain, but you're pretty wrong on that too. A lack of self-awareness walks hand in hand with acting childish, mainly because it depends on not thinking one is acting children. All the unreasonable lot think they are reasonable, it's that same self-centered worldview that is often ascribed to children. You say there wasn't a time when it wasn't so divulged. I say you're wrong in that it was always divulged and you just couldn't see, and because you weren't there because no such time existed.
Rusty really stepped it up this season, probably his best moments came from this one. Even though he's still very cynical and disenfranchised with the guild and heroes lifestyle, he still managed to take the role of an authority figure because he alone understands just how idiotic and crazy things can get without somebody putting their foot down to control all the craziness between the factions.
"You won't get EVERYTHING, but you'll get SOMETHING. Stop with this "fairness" crap and make some compromises. Then go home to your friends and brag about how much you got 'em! OR... you can go back and go 'oH! wE dIdN't GeT _EVERYTHING_ wE wAnTeD, sO wE gOt _NOTHING_ !!! bEcAuSe We'Re BiG BABIES!'"
I love moments like these that show that Rusty, although he's not the smartest or most accomplished character out there, showcases an experienced and somewhat wise mind. Under all that egoism, self-centeredness, low-self esteem and sass, there's an actual mature adult that understands things as they are and isn't afraid of calling out people for their immaturity. There was a small but similar moment in "A Very Venture Halloween", when he told Dermott to go back outside and knock the door because he barged into the room, and when he said "Seriously?", Rusty just looked at him and blinked slowly, and then Dermott went and actually did it. It was such a parent move.
Doc is the only one in the room with known parenting experience, which is why he is the only one to understand what is happening. (Brock has cared for the boys, but he doesnt really parent them he is still formerly their bodyguard and that dynamic is constant thruought the whole show, even if he does love them. Also he has had illegitemate kids and actively avoids them, ala Spanikopita)
0:47 “NEWS FLASH! My dad was a shitty parent. But when my boys cry about fairness, I remind them fairness is the philosophical tooth fairy. THERE IS NO FAIRNESS!!!” Considering at every aspect of his life he gets screwed over regardless of his intentions that statement couldn’t be any more true for Rusty.
Rusty as the voice of reason... and a successful one at that. Between this and all, ALL of the super science, Magic, or whatever else (LOOKING AT YOU, MR MURDERBAG), now has the world NOT been obliterated yet?
I’d say more a antihero/moral less hero. He did good things for the good of people, but was too selfish to care about laws or morals. A perfect example of this is the MUTHER episode. He makes a nuclear safety bunker, but wants to use mind altering drugs to normalize people. He invites some orphans to see the underground, but when MUTHER starts releasing gas, he leaves ALL the children, and never go’s back down to save them, despite unplugging MUTHER, thus making the underground safe for a explore and rescue. Good scientist and adventurer, terrible father and human.
Jonas Sr. was in fact a supervillain that took the most joy in convincing others to love him by making his self serving actions benefit the public JUST enough to be considered a hero. Ingenious, resourceful, and one of the worst human beings ever to walk the face of the Earth.
You know, if your definition of fairness is getting everything you want, then going to a meeting like that I’d kind of pointless and might as well default back to attempting to *take* everything you want.
