[TheBlueMarvel]

@En Sabah Nerd:

A couple of points of info….lobotomies are still legally performed. Prefrontal lobotomies are rare, but they can represent a last resort solution for some neurological conditions. With that said, lobotomies are generally frowned upon by neurologists. The popular notion that you are laboring under, which defines lobotomy patients as severely limited, is not entirely accurate. While movie depictions of lobotomized patients feature them as veritable vegetables, the reality of the situation represents a much wider range of functionality. Check out the book ‘My lobotomy’, it’s pretty fascinating. The subject of the book was an American bus driver who had a lobotomy when he was younger (audio of his personal account-in his own words- is on the web - 'My Lobotomy': Howard Dully's Journey : NPR- yes, I listen to NPR). Sometimes we forget that the Science in sci-fi is usually pedestrian and light on the actual science tip…you will find that Mr. Dully is pretty lucid, which is a contradiction to what people generally believe about lobotomized individuals.

Without specific insights into Starlin’s mind, your statement about Nebula “standing there and waiting” in some sort of deliberate fashion is little more than conjecture. From the perspective of the story, she was ambling about in near proximity to Thanos for the majority of her time in that form. To define her as doing so with a plan to seize upon the very moment that Thanos exits his corporeal form (there’s no way to predict this action even with full faculties of the mind) is a theoretical overreach and ignores the vast majority of her time spent acting like a mindless zombie.

Regarding what it takes in the way of cognition to carry out grabbing a glove and putting it on, I disagree. Procedural memory (memory for: motor skills, operant, and classic conditioning) is how we do things like ride a bike, walk, run, and jump. These things take place outside of our awareness. We don’t think about these things (normally – well this is the case for those of us that are reasonably athletic, coordinated, or generally older than 5yrs). This is good because it allows our minds to conduct other more important functions. While these actions aren’t as habituated as autonomic functions like breathing, they are pretty damn close. Your understanding of “fight or flight” is not how the phenomenon actually works. If we as humans had to think about running or jumping away from danger, or spend time analyzing threats rather than responding to instinct…well, most of us (as in almost all of us) would not be here right now. By that logic, as a species, we wouldn’t have made it out of the prehistoric era.

I was aware of Thanos’ description of Nebula from the very start, and thought (hoped) you’d bring it up sooner. The descriptor of “near mindless” is the reason I responded to you with “semantics” and it only serves to buttress my point of such. Since we are truthfully talking about take-away interpretations of this story, my opinion is that Thanos left Nebula with only enough sentience to suffer/chafe within her new state of being. Just enough presence of mind to know that she was fucked up lol! The sadist in me loves Thanos for exactly these sorts of moments! The difference between “nearly mindless” and “mindless zombie” is one of minutiae…nominal...insignificant…wait for it…semantic. Is he “chubby” or “nearly fat?” Is she “broke” or “nearly destitute? “ Different statements? Only by degrees. Nebula can be whatever you want her to be, man. For me: If it looks like a “mindless zombie”, walks like a “mindless zombie”, and talks like a “mindless zombie”….then it must be Nebula transformed by Thanos into a mindless zombie!

Sorry for long diatribe, but we entered into the realm of ridiculous superhero/comic forum debate a long time ago...and what's you beef with koalas? I rather like them...