Annotated 31-17
“I have lived too long” produces a genuine ache (and I feel Gravedust there, now and again, when I worry about my own ideals going out of style). And his talk about his values meaning nothing to anyone else has been a long time coming, spelled out in the Ask an Adventurer series but hinted elsewhere.
But again, his characterization of Ardaic just kinda bugs me here. It’s true that Ardaic’s service to Gastonia will always come first, and that will always hobble his promises to help anyone else, because Gastonia itself is ultimately wildly selfish. That too will be proven true later.
But it’s not being proven here. This isn’t a case of Ardaic throwing other races over to protect his own nation, this is a case of his refusing to abandon one war to start another against what seems to be a less deadly but more elusive opponent. Like stopping in the middle of World War II to go to Vietnam and just letting the Nazis do whatever on the fronts you’ve left behind. The elder sky elves and gnomes and wood elves would grudgingly thank Ardaic for his refusal, if they had seen this talk.
The best justification I can give for “he will not help anyone” is the way Ardaic snapped at Gravedust at the very end there. “Shut the hell up about your people” is a hell of a thing to say to your last dwarven ally. But so is “Y’all did this to yourselves, really” to a wounded commander who just lost thousands of soldiers. Again, read the room, Gravedust. You’re probably not even aware of it, but those wounds on Syr’Nj that Ardaic’s fretting about? Those were specifically dwarf-inflicted. No, while Gravedust’s intuition about the Cultist threat is correct, he’s letting some long-held issues color his views and perceptions otherwise.
Thankfully, the beating heart of this scene isn’t about the somewhat sketchy argument in those few balloons. It’s about friendship, and how friendship can twist even bureaucracy into something beautiful.
I always read this as Gravy hitting his limit. He has all this anger, sadness and doubt he has kept bottled up and it seems like the whole world has written him off, the dude is going to be a little more angst than usual.
We all have a limit to how much disappointment we can take, even a stoic like Gravedust, I agree.
It’s a moment where it feels like nobody got his back; though really when the actual hell has anyone made a single move to forward any of his goals? No light at the end of his tunnel at this point. Not even Syr’Nj gave him a tenth of a split fucking second in that whole argument. The people that know him and the ones that don’t alike spit in his general direction. He TRIED explaining, but the racist ass home invader just told him “know your place and just GTFO right now!” after God knows how long of empty promises, which he’ll probably never fulfill until his greed-rotten nation can get something out of it.
I am, however, making this argument as through (what I feel is) Gravedust’s lens. He doesn’t know about Syr’Nj’s current condition and what just went down in the battlefield. Not to mention he’s uh… let’s say “not very socially adept” and honestly rather prejudiced too towards humans and Gastonians… Also considerably bad at conveying the significance of this new threat to begin with.
All in all, I think his characterization of Ardaic is fantastic. For who he is, for what he knows, for what he’s experienced. Even without knowing what comes after. It makes this whole scenario here more believable, unfortunate and emotional, in my opinion.
On a side note I really like that Byron was the first to show up but also that E-Merl was there almost as quick. I always loved their relationship with Gravedust and that Byron was his first human friend. When a real friend like that saves you from your worst is an incredible moment.
Since this comment section lacks the “proper” ways of showing appreciation towards comments, consider this one of the no doubt many likes you’d have. :D
The same with Steel Raven there. Didn’t leave me anything other to say after these. XD
Should also add Gravedust spends allot of time self isolating, being a island to himself. Might be good for self reflection but it’s also why he often comes off as brash spite his compassion and ultimately feels so alone in these two pages prior to Byron and E-Merl reminding him that he has friends. That wait of the world is not yours alone to carry.
* weight not wait, I hate auto correct.
Meanwhile, I don’t think Gravedust is wrong at all here. Insensitive, arguably, insofar as Ardaic’s “no one ever criticize Gastonia!” perspective deserves any level of accommodation, but he’s right that no meaningful Savasi reparations were ever on the table, that Ardaic’s response on that subject was nothing but glib, that it will take Frigg beating him down for Ardaic to help anyone but the “altruists”–and that if those things were not the case, Ardaic wouldn’t have a “how dare you criticize Gastonia” reaction. Gravedust has accepted that they all need to fight against his people; Ardaic chokes on “Gastonia has done something bad, ever, in its existence.”
hard agree
Gravy *feels right* to me, here, as someone marginalized and so often dismissed that they despair of their supposed allies.
And — yeah, totally someone who is bad at reading the room but also? Someone who is always *expected* to read the room, but nobody’s expected to read *them* and see where they’re coming from.
Yeah, pretty much what Beroli said. I have to disagree that Gravedust is being that bad here.
Gravedust did not get here in one conversation. Gravedust got here after… how many strips has it been, of him helping Ardaic’s peacemakers and gaining nothing in return, being promised things for his people, and seeing precisely none of them? At this point in the story it is clear that the only person in the peacemakers that Ardaic actually listens to is Syr’Nj. Gravedust, Byron, Frigg, Bandit, E-merl… well, I don’t know if you *meant* to write Ardaic like that, but what you did write is a man that considers all of them entirely beneath his attention.
And here is Gravedust, coming in with dire warnings, and getting brushed off yet again. And _finally_ he snaps.
No, by this point, Gravedust being undiplomatic is entirely understandable. That Gravedust even tried to follow the proper channels is, by now, more courtesy than Ardaic has earned from him, truth be told.
It is perhaps a sign of my own age that I can empathize with Gravedust in distrusting and also boiling over with anger about an authority I’d been counting on, despite markedly different circumstances, but I’m sure I’d have a similar reaction in his place because I’ve *had* this kind of reaction in my own life, and I don’t have nearly his years yet.
Eventually, enough becomes too much, and something better give.
Gravedust already knew Gastonia was an unreliable ally at best and a ravenous, destructive beast at worst. I guess he became hopeless when he realized Gastonia was a self-destructive beast as well