Guilded Age

I’m gonna try to restrain myself from burbling too much, but this is one of my favorite single pages. The rhymes, the alliteration, the meter, it all just flowed out of me. And the job John and Jason did on the art, I mean, just look at those eyes. 

It could be challenging at times to do Scipio justice. Another “spotlight episode” would’ve felt formulaic and probably distracted from plot elements we needed to be moving forward. Most importantly, it wouldn’t have fit him very well. Partly that’s because he’s too laconic to give an account of his past more detailed than what he gave Fr’Nj, but also, he’s not the kind of guy to leave loose ends behind. His defining trait is simplicity. Perfect simplicity can’t always be achieved, of course, but he’s not one to wallow in internal conflict or shadows of the past like some (most) Peacemakers we could mention.

So if you really want a simple, modest warrior to shine, give him a simple, modest story. Again, unless you’re doing a purposeful fish-out-of-water thing, try to present your characters on their own terms.