Annotated 46-17
I mentioned earlier that Savasi culture was changing and uncertain after its years under Iver the war-loving warlord. As it is growing recognized that the Savasi have taken many casualties and must breed aggressively to survive, Iver can paint abstinence and homosexuality as betrayals of one’s duty to society. What the last generation might’ve called hedonism and promiscuity is now what Iver can claim is good and normal. (Again, some of this has its roots in the early Bible, which has plenty of its own reproductive obsessions.) I’m obviously not endorsing “monogamy for all” as the only sexual morality worth having—you’ve met Frigg, right?—but the point is that Iver can ride that cultural shift and bend it toward his own ends, while indulging his own homophobia at the same time.
Would this mudslinging have worked out for Iver if not for Gravedust’s intervention? At this point, I honestly don’t know. In the short term, Harky and Penk are getting politically blitzkrieged: neither of them was remotely prepared for this sort of attack on their character. They’re paralyzed by outrage and amazement. On the other hand, insulting two warrior trolls to their face right when they’re both already primed to kill somebody is a course of action with a few obvious drawbacks. Iver’s anticipated a bit of that, bringing Magda in to act as his bodyguard, but Magda’s as likely to turn on him as help him at this point.
Iver is, I think, best understood as a middling politician with ambitions beyond his abilities and a talent for gaining power by betrayal, a bit like Taro, or like Scar in The Lion King. He’s not savvy enough or emotionally balanced enough to found a lasting empire. But such people can still do a lot of damage before their downfall, so it’s important that Gravedust makes this coup attempt a short one.
FB: Iver won’t rest until he’s been heterosexual with ALL the she-dwarves of the Savasi! Truly, there are few who love their country quite as he does.
I can see the argument for pulling this before the fight though…right now both Harky’s and Penk’s claims to leadership are contested by the other. If he waits until one beats the other, he’s now challenging the clear leader (who has just won that position through combat). But going right now, and trying to undercut their credibility exactly when their credibility is already on the line…it’s probably the best shot he had (unless he waited for the new warchief to die in war or something.)
Just like every cult leader ever.
I wonder what will happen to Iver’s wives. It’s not like Gravedust will take over the harem.
What would happen if Harky wins the fight? Gravedust doesn’t want to eliminate all humans, so that means the Savasi would leave the alliance. Also, the remaining Peacemakers should flee at once, probably by Sky Elf portal. How much help can they expect from the remaining Champions? Auraugu and Magda are not evil; Goblaurence is indifferent enough that he probably wouldn’t obstruct them.
Gravedust is not evil, which means he’d see to it that Iver’s wives will not come to harm, let alone be killed or cast out from society. So, he’ll probably encourage them to find other partners. If we translate this situation to the Middle Ages, the most realistically benign thing the new ruler could do is probably a) guard the wives until they have given birth, b) send the kids to an orphanage and c) place the wives in a convent. And realistically the kids would more likely get killed. Surely the convent is too misogynistic an option for Guilded Age.
We don’t really know much about that side of Savasi culture to really say. In human culture they would generally be shamed for carrying a shamed man’s children. However, for all we know, Savasi culture could very similar or completely different.
We do know that they have close child/parent relationships similar to those we commonly see in western culture (look at Bonesmasher+wife? and Thunderpeak). But we don’t even know if they are biologically related, of if Savasi culture just places an enormous importance on the primary caregivers, irrespective of biology.
So it’s entirely possible that their culture would place zero importance on who “delivered the seed”. And again, they may put it above all else.
Did you and Flo ever develop this aspect of the Savasi, T?
The one aspect I find a bit weird is why he’s bringing three pregnant member so of his harem to the arena, in person. Wouldn’t it be enough to reference them? I wouldn’t have expected him to have kept them a secret, after all, so why bring them along, simply in order to be able to point at them?
And on the other hand, he simply implies that Harky and Gondolessa have a thing, but does not explicitly say so, which kind of makes it sound like he expects everyone else in the arena to know already. But in that case, he wouldn’t be saying anything new here.
Also “I have more kids than you” is hardly a great argument for an application for leadership of the Rebellion.
Circular reasoning on Iver’s part. He decided that producing offsprings is an important quality for a leader, and then applied himself to it.
Iver’s main take was quite common two or three generations ago. “That makes the strength of a nation are her children. The more, the better, and everybody should do their duty and produce offsprings.”
I have actually met a guy like this, some years ago. An old timer who had a strong opinions on my country’s recently adopted law allowing same-sex marriage and he was quite intend on sharing them.
To be fair, there were a number of other grandads and grandmas in the room, and they were a lot more open-minded.
Also, don’t miss the subtext.
Iver is into a pissing context. He is claiming to be a better alpha male than either Harky or Penk, because he is hetero with some strong seed, not some unnatural perv avian-loving sissy.
Iver brings his wives into the arena because this is a comic, so there’s a need to visualize the wives for the readership, who have never seen the wives before. (Or if we have, we sure needed a reminder!) But yeah, don’t expose your baby mamas to Trolls who are primed to attack, Iver!
On the topic of offspring… I’m not sure if Trolls and Avians would be able to interbreed, but Trolls and Savasi might. So, if Penk and Magda had become a couple — did you have a view as to whether they’d have had children?
I don’t think we’re seeing any mixed-race individuals in among the World Rebellion, which is likely because the different peoples don’t mix much. Which makes sense since they might not actually be super best friends or have much to unite them beyond the common goal of killing all humans, which means they might not trust each other too much, either.
As someone who faced a lot of unwelcome expectation to… reproduce, this hit me hard the first time around. It hits me differently this time, but I’m glad to observe that I’ve come a long way in that regard.
The connection of Iver’s ploy to the Savasi population issue is a solid point, though. I didn’t think of that last time. Obviously he’s still gross, but I can see how his position would resonate.
It still seems a tactical blunder for Iver to challenge here and now, especially making it about the trolls’ fitness to be leading at all. Some of all the races (except landsharks) might be gathered at the arena, but surely trolls predominate because of what was about to happen.
Possibly the best alt-text in the entire series right here. Unexpected, wouldn’t possibly be said, and yet it fits weirdly well.