Annotated 37-17
Hope y’all enjoyed that little exercise over the last four updates. I didn’t have too many non-redundant things to say about the prior scene, aside from confirming that no, that’s not really Rachel in the illusion-hat, and E-Merl mostly knows this. Instead, I just started writing about the team’s “Fab Four” days, which the comic never really covered in more detail than we get in this chapter… and at some point, it became easier just to write the story than to talk about the story I wanted to see.
About this scene… I really like the way this pays off on issues raised the last time Syr’Nj and Scipio really talked, in a way that I don’t think Flo and I planned or could have planned. We’re also starting to get some comedy at the wrecked Syr’Nj’s expense, and the story needs laughs from some direction at this point, even if its characters aren’t in a joking mood.
My only regret here is that I don’t think the “We?” routine works in panel 2. Syr’Nj’s “we” could as easily exclude Scipio as include him, so his reaction to it seems disingenuous. I could imagine her glancing at him as she says it, but that’s a bit of a stretch. Something like “I’ll look after Scipio for you” would’ve been better.
Van Gogh vibes in the first two panels. Me gusta.
Gah, I just re-read the previous scene between Scipio and Syr’Nj you linked to, and there’s a whole different layer to it if you consider Syr’Nj as a power-conscious scheming person. She’ really putting the pressure on Scipio there, and this scene is where she loses her ability to do that, and viewed from that angle, the thing that actually scares her here is the loss of control over Scipio, more than the fact that he’s leaving.
Well, I mean, you could read it that way, I suppose, but the chapter we’ve got coming up should make it very hard to think of Syr’Nj as a schemer, because she’ll spend a big chunk of it surrounded by schemers and the contrast will hopefully be stark. However, it is true that Syr’Nj is a politician, and except when she’s off balance like this, she makes few moves without being conscious of various factors. There are strategic, political, and personal reasons it would benefit her to know just where Scipio stood…but no matter what phase of life he’s in, he’s not an easy guy to pin down.
You’re correct that she was pressuring Scipio before, but she was doing so on behalf of her sister’s feelings and some difference in expectations that Fr’Nj and Scipio might’ve had about the relationship. That’s a lot more excusable than trying to be a puppet master. But if you said she was trying to be a puppet master in this chapter, I’d say you had a point. Too much stress makes most of us into the worst versions of ourselves.
I hope this one doesn’t come off as too defensive. I guess I’ve still got a lot of affection for Syr’Nj, as well as some strong feelings about who should and shouldn’t be given certain labels.
I didn’t mean my comment as accusing Syr’Nj (or her writers) of anything, either. The thing with social interactions is that they can always be read in different ways, and I’ve recently come across a few examples of parents who love their kids in that particularly … possessive … way that makes it very hard for the kids to later do anything which they know their parents would disapprove of, no matter how reasonable or even necessary it may otherwise be, even if Mom would never know.
That, and of course going through the Syr’Nj–Bandit situation a second time, while focusing mostly on Bandit’s side, opens up this other perspective.
I’ve nothing against Syr’Nj, of course. She tries to be the best person she can (as does Bandit…). I just noticed that with the right kind of music in the background, and some slightly different stakes, that earlier scene could be interpreted in a rather sinister light, and so could the one here.
The very real, dark implication is that there’s no “hard” difference between them, it’s mostly a matter of framing. Which is of course one of the most important sources of political controversy, and a reason why unchecked authority (political, personal or otherwise) will be abused sooner or later, no matter in whose hands it ends up and whether that person believes they were doing anything wrong. See Galadriel’s speech to Bilbo in the first LoTR movie: “They shall love me and despair”.
Syr’Nj is of course miles away from Galadriel’s scenario, but imagine for a moment her carreer was on the way to making her the sole ruler of Arkerra — an alternate timeline where she maintains her friendly way for a quite some time after starting down the incredibly well-paved road to hell she has built for herself.
I get you now!
Wait…am I nuts or did the next page go up and then…not up?
You’re not nuts. These annos go into the system well in advance, and I make occasional errors in scheduling (although it feels like it happens every freakin’ week). Between 11 and 12 Eastern tonight, the next page will return.
Last panel, should be “I need you too!”
Either would work! But I prefer what we used.
It can be either. The way it’s written, she “needs him to [abandon Fr’Nj]”. It works but didn’t feel like it on my first read.
The issue could be resolved if they were speaking a language that makes a clusivity distinction between “we here” (me + at least one person present, who may or may not be directly addressed + possibly other people as well) and “we not here” (me + at least one person who is not present). I don’t know if there are any known languages that would draw such a distinction (as I understand it, this situation would generally call for exclusive we since Fr’nj is the addressee and Scipio’s presence is generally grammatically irrelevant) but it’s certainly conceivable.
And given that in Sepia World I presume Hurricane localizes their biggest product for more languages than just English, it seems reasonable to believe that residents of Arkerra speak no Sepia World language and are magically translated for the convenience of the players and us.
The whole thing seems needlessly confrontational. As if Scipio disliked Syr’Nj enough to enjoy kicking her while she’s down.