–You know, until rewatching this, I had forgotten the whole bit where the Monarch feels sorry for Doc. He realizes that the guy is so pathetic, that it’s barely worth the effort to hate him. It really feels like he’s this close to giving up on arching, but the OSI attack puts him back into his maniacal mode. I feel like this was meant to be more about a realistic assessment of Doc rather than any sort of statement about the Monarch, but now that he’s such a major character, it’s hard to see scenes like this as simply reactive. At this point, the Monarch wasn’t really hating Doc full-time. It’s not the obsession it would soon become. And yes, something changes in the next couple of episodes to kick the hatred into high gear. Still, it’s really fascinating to see the Monarch have such a range of emotion this early in the series – only his third appearance. If I had to guess, I’d say it was this scene that turned him into a major character. Even though we’ve seen him in three episodes already, Jackson and Doc mention in the commentary tracks that Baron Underbheit was supposed to be the series’ main villain. (Check out his prominent placement in the opening theme.) Heck, James Urbaniak said that the Monarch wasn’t even in the original series pitch and Girl Hitler was supposed to be a recurring character. I feel like the Monarch fought his way to prominence, and I think this is the episode that clinched it.
