Not gonna lie, I’d trip him down one of the excessively large staircases his home is probably littered with. Wouldn’t even feel bad about it, if anything I’d laugh my head off.
I can see it in his beady little eyes. “My dad is going to rule Gastonia! …which means all I have to do is get rid of him..and then I will rule Gastonia!!”
And his father won’t even get mad about it, just tell him how he went wrong, what he should have done, and give him a lecture on planning more thoroughly, before sending him to be without supper.
I don’t wonder if he’ll attempt patricide. I just wonder when. Does he have the patience to wait for dear old dad to kill off the remainder of his fellow illuminati members, who still foolishly think this is a temporary measure?
Yeah but does Iwatani have the power to maintain control longer than temporarily? How would he maintain his position should the others start to oppose him?
I’m sure after the war ends he’d have a great amount of difficulty with just that.
I’m also quite sure his plans don’t involve any of them being able to oppose him by that time. Now, he probably won’t kill all of them, disgracing or arresting them might do the job just as well. But if he has his way, there will be nobody to say they don’t like him staying on as monarch that can do much of anything about it.
They’re different kinds of bad, I think. Taro is sociopathic – he doesn’t care about the welfare of others as long as he can benefit, but generally inflicting suffering on others for its own sake isn’t the point of his plots. He doesn’t have the thoughtless cruelty of Joffrey.
A convenient way of distinguishing them is giving them the choice of hurting someone or gaining a political advantage. Taro would do the latter, Joffrey the former.
Aye, I always viewed Ramsey as a more competent version of Joffrey, someone with the same sadistic tendencies but who had to work for what he had instead of having it handed to him.
Get ready, the fertilizer is about to hit the impeller. Everybody which aint related to Iwatani will be up the estuary of excrement without a manual marine propulsion device.
It’s honestly gotten weird how much they spin their actions to *each other*, in *private*. Do they see dropping the mask as a sign of inferior commitment? Has it become an inside joke they never get tired of?
There is no mask. You just need to understand the code. Whenever one of them talks about “the good of Gastonia” or “the good of the country”, or any such phrase, it actually means “my personal benefit”. Using the code means that they never have to worry about accidentally dropping a mask in public while maintaining the illusion of altruism to those who don’t know the code.
It’s also not unusual for politicians to come to believe their own propaganda, if repeated often enough. Their label, their opinion is how they define themselves.
Also, people belonging to a self-professed elite class – blue-blood aristocrats, communist leaders or, like here, merchant princes – tend to see the rest of the society as only resources for them to use. The only purpose of the working classes is to provide the elites with the means to live as they wish. In this vision, the prosperity of their own house overlaps and fuels the prosperity of the country: they honestly come to believe that anything benefiting them personally will also benefit the nation.
tl;dr: “L’Etat, c’est moi” – I am the State (Louis XIV)
My father told me once (editing for language) “If a politician says it’s for the good of the country watch out, if they say it’s for the good of the people your in trouble, if a politician says it’s for the children bend over because you are about to get it the the posterior. “
What I’m wondering is what kind of stance he’ll take on the cultists, given what he’s seen of them personally. I think he’s still less trusting of them than his father, but H.R. is a bit less keen on destroying all of life forever than the guy he replaced. I could see one of them trying to strike a deal that doesn’t explicitly lay out inevitable betrayal as part of the contract.
Though it’s also possible that H.R. will take one look at a uoung boy being kind of Gastonia and think “Wow, I thought I might have been going off the deep end with all this using magic video games to become the god of a death cult and eventually its world business, but at least I’m not as crazy as whoever put this kid in charge. “
Back when the devil’s deal went down, I had thought that maybe Taro was gonna bite it at the hands of the cultists when Iwatani inevitably backstabbed them. That it would be the unforeseen price Iwatani would pay for his hubris in meddling with things much darker and bigger than he gave them credit for being. I guess it could still happen, but given the state of the cultists now, I’m guessing not.
The thing is, he’s an archmage. Do you suppose he could just stop them all in his tracks with his magic if he wanted to (like he did to Annunziata)? Or has Iwatani even figured out a way around that?
Oh, he could probably murder everyone in the room inside of ten seconds if he felt like it. The problem is the far reaching iimplications and backlash. The humans can already hit the skies and they likely outnumber the Sky Elves greatly. Going against the Heads would essentially be a death sentence, if not for him personally, at least for his civilization.
Oh I wasn’t thinking of murder, just a Holding spell. Of course that would also have major political consequences but might be appropriate in a desperate situation.
My guess is he is extremely well aware of what Iwatani is, and what he’s planning. And that his rigidly maintained disinterest in how government is run or proceeds is calculated to make anyone who intends a power play to NOT see him or the Sky Elves generally as a threat that must be quelled.
Taro reminds me a lot of Sydney Yus from Shortpacked!. Neither of them can hide the comical glee they get from their own nefarious schemes. All Taro lacks is a maniacal laugh.
Taro offs his dad in order to take his place.
His dad sees that coming, and preemptively offs the brat.
His dad sees it coming, and lets him do it.
His dad sees it coming, and sends him to bed without supper.
Now taking bets on which way it’ll actually turn out.
I’m going with Taro plots his father’s death after he gains the throne, but Iwatani Sr. believes he can easily counter it so does little to prepare himself. It succeeds due to outside interference. Probably cultists.
Son: Was my father a traitor, mother?
LADY MACDUFF: Ay, that he was.
Son: What is a traitor?
LADY MACDUFF: Why, one that swears and lies.
Son: And be all traitors that do so?
LADY MACDUFF: Every one that does so is a traitor, and must be hanged. 50
Son: And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?
LADY MACDUFF: Every one.
Son: Who must hang them?
LADY MACDUFF: Why, the honest men.
Son: Then the liars and swearers are fools,
for there are liars and swearers enow to beat
the honest men and hang up them.
And now my penny dropped; Taro looks like a ventriloquist’s dummy. That’s why he’s so creepy. (Well, that and the whole evil-spawn-of-the-devil thing.)
Caneghem knows Taro has the skill and ambition to grab for power but not the patience to plan enough to ensure his plans succeed. The most likely result will be chaos and civil strife, possibly a full on civil war that will gravely weaken Gastonia. At that point the Sky Elves simply retreat to their cloud cities and watch.
Oh my COG! I am honestly getting tired of seeing Taro and his stupid grin. Can someone PLEASE assassinate them already? Or just outright murder them in broad daylight? One poisoned arrow in the heart and another through the eye into the brain apiece.
I think that kid is going to end up making Nero look well adjusted.
Oh wait, I was thinking of Caligula, actually, but Nero works too, I guess.
Pretty much any Roman emperor applies.
As discussed a few pages before: Most of the ones who came to power as a child apply.
Point in case: Qin Shi Huangdi, according to traditional Chinese histories.
Howzabout Brutus? I have a feeling that a little father murdering may happen…
I watched Game of Thrones Season 1 for the first time this weekend, and the first thing in my mind at that last grin was Joffrey.
The most recent episode of the current season probably has a similar moment with a very similar sociopath.
Yes. Letting Taro even remotely close to actual power is a terrible terrible idea…
I really, REALLY dislike that sh1t eating grin..
I’ve always liked him. He’s a good kid. I think he’ll make a fine leader and be a wonderful friend to the heroes.
I’ve seen worse. I play Crusader Kings 2.
There’s a mistake in the tags.
“Damian Spawn of Hell Iwatani” is missing. Dunno who that Taro guy is.
… enters ‘ittle Jeffrey Dahmer
Yeaaah, I don’t think that’s the best comparison of crazy.
Unless demonstrated otherwise, Taro is not crazy.
Just viciously evil.
I rarely want to see a child come to harm but…
I mean…
Would it really be SO bad with this one?
I mean, I can’t say it’s good, but I’m sure there’s plenty of people who would happen to be looking the other way if something happened, just sayin’.
Not gonna lie, I’d trip him down one of the excessively large staircases his home is probably littered with. Wouldn’t even feel bad about it, if anything I’d laugh my head off.
Thunk,thunk,thunk,thunk, CRASH.
I can see it in his beady little eyes. “My dad is going to rule Gastonia! …which means all I have to do is get rid of him..and then I will rule Gastonia!!”
I really can’t wait for Taro to mess it all up with an early and poorly thought-out grab for power.
During the dessert course.
And his father won’t even get mad about it, just tell him how he went wrong, what he should have done, and give him a lecture on planning more thoroughly, before sending him to be without supper.
I don’t wonder if he’ll attempt patricide. I just wonder when. Does he have the patience to wait for dear old dad to kill off the remainder of his fellow illuminati members, who still foolishly think this is a temporary measure?
Yeah but does Iwatani have the power to maintain control longer than temporarily? How would he maintain his position should the others start to oppose him?
I’m sure after the war ends he’d have a great amount of difficulty with just that.
I’m also quite sure his plans don’t involve any of them being able to oppose him by that time. Now, he probably won’t kill all of them, disgracing or arresting them might do the job just as well. But if he has his way, there will be nobody to say they don’t like him staying on as monarch that can do much of anything about it.
He could go the “Night of the Long Knives” route.
Wee hee hee!
I’d like to see that creepy, smug little prick kicked right in the teeth.
I’d like to see him used as an airship anchor.
So we’re all in agreement, that Joffery Jr. here needs a swift kick in the face?
Taro makes Jeoffrey look like a rather nice person.
They’re different kinds of bad, I think. Taro is sociopathic – he doesn’t care about the welfare of others as long as he can benefit, but generally inflicting suffering on others for its own sake isn’t the point of his plots. He doesn’t have the thoughtless cruelty of Joffrey.
A convenient way of distinguishing them is giving them the choice of hurting someone or gaining a political advantage. Taro would do the latter, Joffrey the former.
Agreed, Taro is more Ramsey Bolton than Joffrey.
Aye, I always viewed Ramsey as a more competent version of Joffrey, someone with the same sadistic tendencies but who had to work for what he had instead of having it handed to him.
In particular, I was always impressed by his ability to make restaraunt owners cry for the sake of increasing his own show’s notoriety.
Get ready, the fertilizer is about to hit the impeller. Everybody which aint related to Iwatani will be up the estuary of excrement without a manual marine propulsion device.
EEEE! HAPPINESS ALL AROUND!
I like you. Don’t stop.
It’s honestly gotten weird how much they spin their actions to *each other*, in *private*. Do they see dropping the mask as a sign of inferior commitment? Has it become an inside joke they never get tired of?
There is no mask. You just need to understand the code. Whenever one of them talks about “the good of Gastonia” or “the good of the country”, or any such phrase, it actually means “my personal benefit”. Using the code means that they never have to worry about accidentally dropping a mask in public while maintaining the illusion of altruism to those who don’t know the code.
It’s also not unusual for politicians to come to believe their own propaganda, if repeated often enough. Their label, their opinion is how they define themselves.
Also, people belonging to a self-professed elite class – blue-blood aristocrats, communist leaders or, like here, merchant princes – tend to see the rest of the society as only resources for them to use. The only purpose of the working classes is to provide the elites with the means to live as they wish. In this vision, the prosperity of their own house overlaps and fuels the prosperity of the country: they honestly come to believe that anything benefiting them personally will also benefit the nation.
tl;dr: “L’Etat, c’est moi” – I am the State (Louis XIV)
My father told me once (editing for language) “If a politician says it’s for the good of the country watch out, if they say it’s for the good of the people your in trouble, if a politician says it’s for the children bend over because you are about to get it the the posterior. “
That’s a Joffrey Baratheon-level shit-eating grin right there. I already hate this kid.
Joffrey LANISTER I think you meant to say.
Li’l Taro being as subtle as ever…
Oh, Taro…. if you were real, not a day would go by without me giving you a wedgie!
That kid is the AT&T of people.
Oh, hey, it’s the little shit.
What I’m wondering is what kind of stance he’ll take on the cultists, given what he’s seen of them personally. I think he’s still less trusting of them than his father, but H.R. is a bit less keen on destroying all of life forever than the guy he replaced. I could see one of them trying to strike a deal that doesn’t explicitly lay out inevitable betrayal as part of the contract.
Though it’s also possible that H.R. will take one look at a uoung boy being kind of Gastonia and think “Wow, I thought I might have been going off the deep end with all this using magic video games to become the god of a death cult and eventually its world business, but at least I’m not as crazy as whoever put this kid in charge. “
Back when the devil’s deal went down, I had thought that maybe Taro was gonna bite it at the hands of the cultists when Iwatani inevitably backstabbed them. That it would be the unforeseen price Iwatani would pay for his hubris in meddling with things much darker and bigger than he gave them credit for being. I guess it could still happen, but given the state of the cultists now, I’m guessing not.
Unless the cultist were able to subvert a member of the household staff.
Is Caneghem ever going to truly rue the day he supported these schemes?
The thing is, he’s an archmage. Do you suppose he could just stop them all in his tracks with his magic if he wanted to (like he did to Annunziata)? Or has Iwatani even figured out a way around that?
Oh, he could probably murder everyone in the room inside of ten seconds if he felt like it. The problem is the far reaching iimplications and backlash. The humans can already hit the skies and they likely outnumber the Sky Elves greatly. Going against the Heads would essentially be a death sentence, if not for him personally, at least for his civilization.
Oh I wasn’t thinking of murder, just a Holding spell. Of course that would also have major political consequences but might be appropriate in a desperate situation.
My guess is he is extremely well aware of what Iwatani is, and what he’s planning. And that his rigidly maintained disinterest in how government is run or proceeds is calculated to make anyone who intends a power play to NOT see him or the Sky Elves generally as a threat that must be quelled.
Exhibit A: His warning to Reynolds to keep the hell out of sight for as long as he can manage.
Caneghem gesturing Taro to come forth, looks like a double cross plan, inside a conspiracy, wrapped in a machination.
I had wondered about that gesture; it seemed somewhat out of place. Makes a whole lotta sense from that perspective.
Taro reminds me a lot of Sydney Yus from Shortpacked!. Neither of them can hide the comical glee they get from their own nefarious schemes. All Taro lacks is a maniacal laugh.
“I have a bad feeling about this ” – Me, one reader
“Yes …. yes.” – You, the other readers
OK, I can see 4 ways this can go…
Taro offs his dad in order to take his place.
His dad sees that coming, and preemptively offs the brat.
His dad sees it coming, and lets him do it.
His dad sees it coming, and sends him to bed without supper.
Now taking bets on which way it’ll actually turn out.
I’m going with Taro plots his father’s death after he gains the throne, but Iwatani Sr. believes he can easily counter it so does little to prepare himself. It succeeds due to outside interference. Probably cultists.
In this scenario, Taro also probably bites it.
Oh! It’s Taro’s hand on the cover page!
Oooh! I think you’re right! He’s the only one wearing orange and white.
Son: Was my father a traitor, mother?
LADY MACDUFF: Ay, that he was.
Son: What is a traitor?
LADY MACDUFF: Why, one that swears and lies.
Son: And be all traitors that do so?
LADY MACDUFF: Every one that does so is a traitor, and must be hanged. 50
Son: And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?
LADY MACDUFF: Every one.
Son: Who must hang them?
LADY MACDUFF: Why, the honest men.
Son: Then the liars and swearers are fools,
for there are liars and swearers enow to beat
the honest men and hang up them.
Next chapter: Off with their miserable heads! The rise of the Brat Prince.
There’s an Eiffel tower in the collection of knick-knacks atop the bookshelves, second panel.
Hmm and there’s little Caligula in the background…
It’s good to see little Selim got work after FMA: Brotherhood wrapped.
And now my penny dropped; Taro looks like a ventriloquist’s dummy. That’s why he’s so creepy. (Well, that and the whole evil-spawn-of-the-devil thing.)
Caneghem knows Taro has the skill and ambition to grab for power but not the patience to plan enough to ensure his plans succeed. The most likely result will be chaos and civil strife, possibly a full on civil war that will gravely weaken Gastonia. At that point the Sky Elves simply retreat to their cloud cities and watch.
Oh my COG! I am honestly getting tired of seeing Taro and his stupid grin. Can someone PLEASE assassinate them already? Or just outright murder them in broad daylight? One poisoned arrow in the heart and another through the eye into the brain apiece.