Annotated 41-12
It amuses me that this chapter has exactly one opportunity for a fight scene…a fight scene with unbelievably high stakes…and Gravedust just kinda nopes right past it.
IIRC, Flo didn’t object to how quickly we move past that battle. We could’ve shown Gravedust trying to fight the berserker before realizing what he needed to do. Or we could’ve just drawn out the sequence where he approached the berserker’s heart, long enough to see the other mystics fighting in more detail. But that would’ve been one of those fight scenes where you’d be pretty sure of the outcome from the first frame in (“It is futile”), and Gravedust rising above his assigned roles is much of this story’s point.
My version of this page’s script was a lot simpler, but it may have obscured the point of Gravedust’s choice. He came here with a “new mission.” And with calm clarity, he knows that what brought him here and the solution to the berserker problem are one and the same.
LOL, this is my first time hearing about this movie. Whatever it is, I’m looking forward to it!
A bit bummed that we are getting a horror film called NOPE before we got one called <iDO NOT WANT
Another good reason not to have a fight scene here: Gravedust’s narration and the visual style make this all seem a little unreal, like a dream, like he’s just seeing things out of a train window while passing through. If Gravedust joined the fray, that would change.
Gravedusts’ perception of these things is different, and he has already decided to break ranks with the other mystics, so it stands to reason he doesn’t play along.
I was still a little surprised that he was able to just dive into the thing, while the others were fighting it. Like — how does it fight back if you can just pass through its surface like that? But then, Gravedust is an observer, not a participant here, so maybe there’s other laws for him? If the whole scene had not seemed so unreal, it would have been more difficult to accept, but now it’s just fine.