Annotated 25-5
As I think I mentioned before, I had intended Embraisch’Nj as a one-off. This meant that I burned through all the “A” material I had for him in his first appearance, so I was kind of worried I wouldn’t have any good jokes left for his reintroduction here.
But I was pleased to discover, when it came time to do this scene, that the idea of comedy in wartime gave him a fresh angle. The average Gastonian is a little scared of what’s going on at the front right now (history will show this fear was largely justified), and Emb knows how to take the tension of that fear and use it to fuel laughter.
Joke we didn’t use: “I’d be a spear, but I have this nervous condition where getting my bones broken gives me social anxiety disorder.”
What’s up with the two guys at the right in panel one that look like they don’t get it. Is that all there is to it, or was there some other meaning that I missed?
I think the storytelling could be clearer there, and that’s on me. I wanted Emb’s routine to build to a climax, to start with some people thinking, Not sure where he’s going with this, and at the end for everyone to think, Oh, HAHAHAHA, THAT’S where he was going with that! Would’ve been better if we’d shown the same two folks laughing, though.
Gotcha. Thanks for explaining, little bits of hanging plot like that frazzle my brain sometimes.
I think a *gasp* after the first line would have helped more. It has me really confused too until you explained it.
The only thing I could figure is that the serious-faced people were offended, non-human sympathizers or something.
Oh hey, it’s the avatar I was given starting with the final chapter. Couldn’t place where he was from.
What’s Caneghem’s story, here? Why would he be hanging with Annunziata? Is he making sure the scene will be set perfectly later in the chapter?
More broadly – as revealed later, Caneghem has (or seems to have) a much higher station than mere “envoy to Gastonia”, so why didn’t he delegate this whole unpleasantness to someone else? Is it a “The only person I trust to engage with them is me” thing?
Already wrote the answer to this one in tomorrow’s comment!
Oooo, I just noticed that contrary to my original reading, he didn’t say “your people.”