Annotated 18-13
War is hell, sure, but stories shouldn’t be hell to read, at least not if you’ve established them as escapist entertainment. So portraying a serious battle usually requires a mix of “YES!!” and “NO!!,” some hooray-for-the-good-guys moments (“I’ll let you know if I see any!”) interwoven with outrages against justice (“Kill anyone who looks important”), each controlled and balanced so the reader feels the appropriate amounts of exhilaration and upset.
Syr’Nj’s scenes, starting here, are a little bit of “YES” and “NO” at the same time. Her grief is transparent, her resulting recklessness almost as clear. This could end badly for her and her allies. But there’s still certainly a thrill to watching her cut loose, to watching her apply her previously established abilities to pure combat without her usual prudence to restrain her.
Laundry Deer is here to save the day!
There is nothing more terrifying than when a (wo)man of Peace decides to make War!
Just killing it with the art in this whole sequence.
War is hell, but those moments of epic glory also happen, the things songs are sung about and grand scenes are painted from, they just don’t make the rest of it worth it at all (though some who have experienced them find themselves feeling differently, against their better judgment). I think in a world that has rules flexible enough that it can also be a video game, moments of heightened realism like this are more than fine. Part of fantasy’s appeal is the way that the reality of the story at times flexes and warps in reaction to the emotional state of the characters, in a way contrasts heavily with the ambivalence our own exhibits in response to us. Fantasy is reality with authorial intent.
HEY THAT GUY HAS TREES FOR EARS!
Syr’Nj going on a tear was always some of the greatest moments in this comic. She’s such an awesome character.
Does anyone else find that Vox headline unsurprising?
I mean, the odds you’d encounter a shark-bear-gator mob just seem astronomically low, right?
Depends on how rational you are about your phobias!