Annotated 29-1
Favorite comment, by J: Whence they came from, whither they went? Whence they came from, Cotton-Eye Kent?
A lot of my character generation comes from looking at an earlier character and saying, “On the other hand, not all…” Like, “The Fans protagonists may be super into fan rights, but on the other hand, not all pro-fan types are worth trusting.” “Charlotte may be both a victim and example of the worst kind of American religion, but on the other hand, not all teenage Christians are abused, unforgiving baby Coulters.” And here, “Iwatani may be an oligarch who pretends to do his own farming but is really supported by a small fiefdom of serfs, but on the other hand, not all Gastonian farmers are phonies; some live their lives by an honest day’s work. Or they do, at least, until the oligarchs hire someone to kill ’em.”
Sundar continues to combine being a lovable dumbfuck and being almost supernaturally correct about everything the real bad guys are doing. He’s like if Cassandra were also Pete from Goof Troop. I think we wanted to indicate by his presence that we hadn’t forgotten the Adventurer’s Guild and that they’d be helping out our heroes where they needed it (which would become more important in the next six chapters), but he gives this subplot a lot of pep. Points to Phil for remembering his feelings about magick users from Chapter 2, though it’s fair to say he’s mellowed a bit on that point.
Is Sundar’s accuracy here intended as a hint that there is a real Altruist conspiracy?
It was planting for later payoff, but we didn’t expect you to guess that part the first time around.
Hey T, I started following your Shakespeare’s Trump (which is bloody BRILLIANT, by the way), but I can’t seem to find Act I Secne I. It seems to start at Act I scene II…
Or is that intended? I’m always suspicious that I’m missing some joke or reference, (part of why this second read-through is such a delight) but this seems more lile a mislabelling, since scene II seems lile a pretty solid Shakespearian opening…
Cheers,
Côté
You can find Act I, Scene I right here. It might seem to be missing if you’re looking at a list of my recent Medium work, because I wrote it in 2017. (I meant it as a one-off at first, but decided I’d come back to it in 2020-2021.)
Gah! Not that song! That’s on my list of the top three most annoyingly-repetitive songs ever written.