“Gaffes for Saphs?”

This scene’s mostly an incidental palate cleanser after the almost unrelenting grimness of the Sepia sequences. It’s the most carefree bit of business we’re going to get this chapter, so I almost hesitate to point out that one could also read it as a bit of a critique of the Gastonian military (and other militaries by extension). The Battle of B’ial Vezk was about defending a rich and vibrant civilization; the Battle of Beacon’s Hill will not be. Gastonia has some culture, but the way these grunts don’t seem to have any sense of history, their own or anybody else’s, implies that they aren’t really part of it.

Clark and Merv could’ve been one of our recurring comical duos (John showed a good sense of them here, adjusting their expressions from the script to better fit the dialogue). But we just didn’t have time to look in on the Gastonian ground troops much after this, not even when our heroes were out there fighting against them (spoiler?).