Annotated 23-6
This page was Phil’s addition, seasoned by me. Even now, I’m not fully sure I understand why he wanted it or what motivates Miyamoto’s actions. In the former case, I think Phil wanted to emphasize the Gastonian government’s inhumanity and put a greater emphasis on Rendar, whose inventions Phil was planning to roll out in upcoming stories. (Plus, he had plans for “Jarlssen” we ended up abandoning.)
But it’s an odd scene. Military matters like this are Jarvis’ jurisdiction, and failing that, Ardaic’s; Miyamoto is seriously overstepping his bounds as municipal chief by presuming to dictate what’s necessary to win the war. In fact, if Rendar’s this important to the war effort, Ardaic should be more familiar with his name and accomplishments than Miyamoto is. (I think Ardaic’s interruption was partly meant to convey that Gastonia still had some military secrets Syr’Nj wasn’t aware of. But that raises other questions.)
In my view, this was an unusual case of too much dramatic urgency. I was trying to do a low-key comedy and keep things fun, and here’s Miyamoto going “KILL EVERY LAST SON OF A BITCH IN THAT AREA IF YOU HAVE TO, IN FACT I’D PREFER IT, SO LONG AS YOU BRING THAT ONE GUY BACK ALIVE.” Like, OK, boomer.
Huh, I thought this was Jarvis the entire time. It would fit for him to show up and hand down orders via the chain of command, and to be more open in private then his ‘speaking little’ during council meetings. A show that he does pay attention and does make sure stuff happens, just not always in public.
And Ardaic did read as ‘yes yes, we already know’ sort of thing, but not wanting to just tell his nominal boss to get on with it bluntly.
I thought this was Jarvis the entire time, too. I mean, it fits, he’s Ardaic’s military superior, and he never talks in council, and always has a sour look. Maybe I just get the councilmen mixed up, but it makes sense in my head so Imma just stick to it, haha.
Miyamoto’s outfit makes it easy to forget that he’s *not* actually part of the Gastonian military. Maybe he dresses that way because he’s a wannabe? Also, bridgeworks would fall under the auspices of municpial services, would they not?
Incidentally, what’s the “Renderer” appellation intended to mean here? “Render” means a number of different things in different contexts; the first one I think of when I see his name is rendering fat to make soap — which I assume is *not* what you had in mind.
“Renderer,” as I read it and I think Phil intended it, refers to Rendar’s ability to take an until-now-imaginary machine and render it real. There’s a slight whiff of its computer-graphics meaning as well, if you’re looking at it through the it’s-all-a-game-or-tied-to-a-game lens.
I believe one of the amazingly numerous meanings of Rend(er) is to tear something apart. I thought this was the idea behind the naming of “Render” and “Sunder” with the two brothers.
The verb “rend” does have a similar meaning to “sunder,” but the verb “render” is closer to “make” or “offer up.” Their full handles are Rendar the Renderer and Sundar the Sunderer. I think Rendar was meant to be a builder by nature, and Sundar a breaker. We can sometimes rise above our natures, but that takes work.
If you tell me to render something, I’ll ask “render it how?”
Which, in fairness, is kind of philosophical for Rendar, since the machines he makes are machines that can render enemies dead.
With the way Miyamoto is cut off here while naming Rendar’s designs, I Like to imagine he was just about to say ” mechanical whores!”
:-D
I felt like this was Miyamoto pushing machinations. He’s not quite the right person to be delivering this, but it is a hell of a way to make people wonder what else could be going on, since he was just seen scheming with Brother Tom.
He wants the peacekeepers involved. He says he wants them to try and keep that one guy intact. And he doesn’t want to hand this off through proper channels and trust that things will work out. If he weren’t requesting the engineer’s retrieval, he couldn’t justify his own intervention.
Seemed like a Sun Tzu sort of meddling. Trying to arrange things so that all paths lead to victory. If the army tried, it’s a clusterfuck of revolution. If the peacekeepers try, and succeed… great, “But wasn’t that a little too easy? They had such… ready contacts with the seditious elements.” and tarnish their reputation. If they fail, it’s a clustefuck, but the army looks good cleaning that up. And if anyone blames him, well, he just passed on the information he had, and left it up to them. Who could blame him for trusting their reputation of effectiveness? And no one can prove he even mentioned the engineer. Not a lot of witnesses.
He’s out of place for the chain of command, but he’s perfectly in place for scheming, and his involvement at all is foreshadowing.
It’s Iwatani that wqas conspiring with Brother Tom, not Miyamoto.
Yes, this. Miyamoto is apparently the least subtle, least manipulative, and most overtly racist and sexist of the Heads of Houses, and not part of the “Altruist” conspiracy. More given to bellowing than to scheming.
I thought those “honors” belonged to Annunziata?
TIL they’re different characters. :o How do you tell them apart?
Miyamato wears orange and has that distinguish graying sideparted hair and is generally grumpy about something.
Iwatani wears yellow and has a pulled back ponytail, and is mostly amiably scheming.
Jarvis (confused above) wears blue like Ardaic, has a sidepart in solid black and a soulpatch, and is broodingly silent with notable exception.
http://guildedage.net/comic/annotated-20-4/