Annotated 12-13
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: all the designated bad guys unite against our heroes and make impressive gains at first because evil is ruthless and often unpredictable, but eventually, they’re brought down by infighting because evil is selfish.
That’s not a bad message for a kids’ cartoon, but if your audience has seen that one a few times, you need to refine the idea a bit. Harky is intelligent enough to recognize that Iver and Gobligno will turn on him immediately if they think doing so will benefit them more than standing by his side, but all he can really do about that is to see them clearly, try to make the coalition beneficial to them as long as he can, and be ready for either of them to make a move.
Even if Harky and Gondolessa didn’t have their special relationship, Gondolessa would be more trustworthy. That shared sense of honor is one reason they get along, but unlike Gondolessa, Harky understands how to manage those without it.
I’ve just noticed the object in the foreground of the last panel (with the thick outline), and I cannot figure out what it is.
It’s the blood soaked rag harky has in the panel above on his arm
Oh thank you! Now I see him throwing it in the preceding panel — I thought he was just pointing out the allies fighting with them.