Annotated 20-24
If Phil had had his druthers, the commando squad that showed up in Chapter 13 probably would’ve become the “anti-Champions,” maybe plus Penk and/or someone else. But Gralor was not a sustainable menace, Yalaria’s capture turned out to be important to the story, and Brix was best as a one-joke idea. Now, Stokla… Stokla could’ve been a recurring threat, but to my mind that’s what makes her loss a bit tragic. The loss of any life is measured partly by the loss of potential.
It’s a reflection of Phil’s measured approach to pacing and politics that we end not with a few warriors stepping forward to be enhanced by the Fireseye, but with Harky’s powerful and as-of-yet unanswered call. Logistically, I am wondering how he followed that up, given that we know no one stepped forward right away. I imagine he gave the stage-frightful a face-saving out, something like “Look within yourselves for the answer. But do not tarry long, for soon
the war drum must sound again.”
Yeah Harky’s got the stage chops to know how to make an exit without undercutting his message, if no one steps forward he’s got enough “Dad of the people” energy to give them a “I’m so disappointed in you” stare and leave them thinking about things for a while.
Can’t help to notice that while most troops are getting energized by Harky’s speech, every single goblin in that crowd seems less than enthused.
No wonder their champion was an outcast who has nothing but contempt for his own race.
That said, he had contempt for just about everyone so that might just be a coincidence.
It’s clear that Goblins are not a warrior race. This is totally not the way to pump them up. (And I’m sure Harky realizes that, and isn’t counting on a Goblin champion.)
On yesterday’s comment about Harky realizing that they need “Player Characters”: Don’t they already have them? We saw that they outnumbered the Gastonians by quite a bit in sepia world, during Shanna’s infiltration. Are the time frames skewed, or is there another reason they don’t seem to be having an effect in PVP?
No one ever has an effect in PvP. If PvP changed anything, different players couldn’t do the same things the next week.
Which is the sick joke of the MMO genre, it works counter to everything its player base wants from it. Everyone wants to be the hero, or play in a world where their choices matter, and instead they all just run through the same carnival ride. Though there are some exceptions, EVE online being the frontrunner.
They’re not having an effect, because they’re not tubed. The World’s Rebellion will continue to come in second in the grand scheme until they and the Peacemakers have common enemies.