Annotated 50-22
FB: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Again, nobody’s gonna confuse Don Gobligno with a champion of civil rights, but as an obstacle to orc freedom, Syr’Nj and Gondolessa could be dealing with a lot worse. At least the Don is motivated by money, which is something they can do something about. In their new, more economically equal society, money is attainable—it’ll take some doing, but it can be done. It’s not like trying to talk to Priestlord Gigundus, who might say slavery was divinely ordained, or the pettiest Heads of Houses, who’d fight the idea just based on who proposed it.
But even so…there’s more than one kind of financial motive. Let’s throw a little extra love to Dean Reynolds, who has learned not only to speak up for gnome interests, but also how to do black-ops stuff off the books. But, you know, for good reasons. After the gnomes’ own bout with slavery, this issue is close enough to his heart that he’s willing to risk his best agents to act on it.
And if doing that means he has to work with true heroes and navigate the social rifts between them…well, that’s still a lot better than the days he was trying to work with villains.
Dean Reynolds is smug now, until the Goblin Mafia trash Gnometown’s Homecoming Parade.
He’s learned to speak up…AND to shut up when necessary.
For someone who says he’s not up for the job, Byron seems to be up for the job. He’s learned how to use plausible deniability quickly enough.
Dean Reynolds takes this time to practice his innocent whistling.
Worst poker face ever.
You left out how Byron again demonstrates how he belongs in politics. He gets his to have his cake and eat too. I’m sure he prefers to avoid any confrontation with Bandit if it all possible. And here, doing so furthers a good cause. Win win amidst an otherwise sad state of affairs in their relationship.
Hmm… not quite. I think a “proper” politician would have said something about condemning such acts of unlawful whatnot — and absolutely under no circumstances would they have smiled while doing so.
What good is plausible deniability if your face tells exactly the story that your words avoid? He might as well have directly supported Bandit — which, to be clear, I would have applauded, but which would also have been bad politics.
The lying part of politics is never gonna be Byron’s specialty, for sure, but I think he would maintain a poker face if talking to Penk about this or make a little show of sympathy if the Don were ranting about it. Gondolessa, for his part, may appreciate that Byron doesn’t try to hide his real feelings on the matter. It makes him more trustworthy on other matters.
It’s not just deniability…everything Byron says here is absolutely true. There are adventurers outside his guild and he has zero authority over what they do. Maybe he could lead his guild to take down a Fightopia-style uprising, but not a team of stealth operators. He couldn’t stop Bandit if he wanted to. He just doesn’t want to.
It’s Reynolds whose smirk is a bit more questionable, strategically…but I think his face in the penultimate panel reads as an unobserved one. And in both faces’ cases, our first priority was making their real feelings clear to you, the reader. I wouldn’t want anyone to think that Byron or Reynolds would frown on Bandit’s fight for sentient rights.
Especially the bit about making things clear to the reader resonates with me :)
I also don’t assume that Gondolessa is too upset by Bandit’s new career choice, either. So in a sense, what Byron says here is that if Don Gobligno were to get inquisitive, there is no link between his guild and those “interventions” staged by Bandit. Which is totally fine.
Byron’s behaviour, though, does show that he’s is not a “real” politician, which is also totally fine by me :)
I believe the “proper” politician response would be to say that there are of course no such actions coming from the guild, that neither he nor the guild would support them. Mentioning that there are of course also people over whom he has no control or authority, and with whom he has no contact, may already be a bit much.
A minute later, walking away, he could still give a friendly wink to Dean Reynolds, and maybe a word of appreciation that gnomes have a very clear stance on the issue of Orc rights.
… that, of course, would not be Byron because it requires creating the appearance of being opposed to something when actually he is not. It’s also something I’d love to be rid of in real-life politics, but see no plausible way to achieve that.
To me, the most unrealistic part of this page is the apparent speed at which Penk has apparently made trolls proud of doing their own work and “ashamed” of keeping slaves. This is a change I would expect to take years, if not generations, though not as slowly as it would take the goblins to do so. But it’s fine to be a little unrealistic when you’re wrapping up a story. :)
He’s the drummer.
People are proud of what they are told to be proud of.
People in the Deep South aren’t proud of their “heritage” because it’s theirs – they’re proud of it because present-day overlords are telling them to be proud of it.
It’s that simple. Change is real fast. The movement insisting that statues of slavers be somehow holy is newer than the movement to take down such statues.
Reactionary backlash has nothing to do with how things were, and everything to do with changing how things are now, to make things worse now.
Some cultural shifts are getting streamlined here for the sake of smooth storytelling, to be sure, and we’ve skipped a few months ahead from the fall of Gastonia/Iwatania. If we dug into the trolls’ reactions to this change, I’m sure we’d detail some resistance to it and grumblings that “This never would’ve happened under Harky.”
But a few factors do weigh in favor of a quick turnaround. Penk has immense political capital this early after the Rebel victory, and “We will become builders” was part of his victory speech as he claimed leadership from Harky. And he recognized, as Harky did before him, that the troll race badly needed its pride stoked after decades of losses to the human nation. Trolls’ relatively few numbers are actually an advantage here, too: a smaller culture is a more agile culture. (Though Penk would be glad to exchange the agility for numbers. Expect a postwar baby boom for certain races before much longer…)
Another case in point for Penk to make this change happen: Trolls were mostly warriors for a long time, until very recently. He needs to give them something else to do to make them proud because he needs them to stop going to war. Becoming builders makes sense because Trolls are physically strong and can survive most injuries without lasting damage. Also, there’s a lot to build right now. Pretty smart choice.
I do wonder why Penk is still wearing his armor from the war, though. Of course, it was given to him by Tectonicus, and it carries an immense meaning to him, but pretty much everyone else has taken off their war gear, and he got all the other trolls to do the same.
Dean Reynolds obtained that cunning smile after being shoved and pushed and stomped all the way to the bottom AND managing to still get back on his feet. That attitude and that accompanying smile are now things that he will use brazenly.
Also good thing for Byron and Bandit to use their rift for good.
Hey, Don Gobligno? You’re not losing an involuntary work force, you’re creating potential customers.