Annotated 42-3
I think Flo’s alt text in the first page of this chapter was a nice double swerve. ICYMI, Bedard said “I think such a future-looking future monarch may be here in my household,” and the alt text was ‘So I propose we crown my butler king.’ Had she not put that in as a joke, more of you might have guessed that Bedard did actually mean someone other than Miyamoto.
Ha! I forgot it was actually Jarvis, of all people, who took the “The Peacemakers are gone, so we’re unprotected” tack. Oh, how we miss those Peacemakers! They were too good for this fallen world that we mostly control! If only someone in power had given them a fair shake, but that’s just the way these things go. Oh well, time for dictatorship.
I think everyone’s motives here are fairly straightforward. Jarvis, like Bedard, is mostly concerned with winning a war that’s beginning to make the general public nervous. Caneghem probably prefers a dictatorship as it means he has fewer humans to deal with, but he clearly doesn’t care very much either way. He’s just blowing with the wind until he can make his move, which won’t be long now.
I can see why Jarvis and Bedard want a monarch in principle, but why do they want it to be Iwatani specifically? I’d have thought they’d be canny enough not to trust him with absolute power over them.
They may have seen how it is going and understand that there options were to side with him and possibly gain from his rise, or stand against him and people who side against him have an unfortunate tendency to have illnesses turn to the worst. Alternatively, he controls farming and control of food has always been used to control power
Iwatani is generally not a selfish idiot. The other Heads of Houses are too useful to betray – at least, while they’re cooperating. Also, don’t forget that Syr’nj turning against them was not part of the plan. Jarvis flat out berates her for not being smart enough to keep her head down once she put the pieces together. I think they recognize how dangerous she could be as an enemy – after all, they worked very hard to have her as an ally – and they’re making this move at least in part to wall up and weather whatever damage she’s going to come back to inflict. Iwatani is the best direct match they have for Syr’nj in this regard – as far as they know, she’s more likely to lead to conflicted loyalties among the rank-and-file than to join the World’s Rebellion, so they need a charismatic and jovial-seeming leader to counter that with.
»I think everyone’s motives here are fairly straightforward.«
… I don’t any of them :(
Okay, Caneghem is basically fine with anything as long as it doesn’t annoy him. This is not his country, and if Iwatani did anything against Sky Elf interest, he’d be out of this faster than they can say “portal” — so he won’t oppose the move.
Actually, none of the others would oppose the whole thing on their own because they know what happens if you’re the only one to disagree with something. But why would they actively try to bring it about? How would Iwatani’s rule help end the war? Usually, absolute rulers seizing power in hard times have done so (as far as I’m aware) by appealing to the people, and claiming that unless they be given free rule they can’t save the country. Which is of course a bunch of hogwash, and their politician friends must know that. So the only people supporting such a move should be those who stand to personally gain, or are gullible enough. None of the people left in the House appear particularly gullible (in this respect) to me, and I don’t see what they stand to gain by handing their share of power over to Iwatani, unless they’re all scared of him, but it doesn’t seem as if they were (so far…)
Maybe hope that he will fail and they can succeed him? I.e. putting someone else in charge when you think things will go wrong anyway, so they can take the blame?
Guess Jarvis didn’t wear out his voice after all.