Annotated 17-21
I’m not much of a believer in first kisses that seem so spontaneous and perfect. Usually, it takes more practice or at least buildup. But Fr’Nj has been providing that buildup from the second she laid eyes on Scipio up through the rest of this page, and every once in a while, people do just click. (Also, they do both have some experience, just not with each other, a fact we’ll touch on briefly later.)
The penultimate panel sells it for me, really. Scipio is making his intentions clear, neither rushing nor hesitating. If Fr’Nj wasn’t ready for this, she could’ve pulled away without offense.
One exchange we cut involved Fr’Nj asking “Is Syr’Nj this curious about all of you?” (not meaning sexually curious, you understand) and Rachel saying something like “I get the impression she once was, but this war has taken more of a toll on her than she admits.”
This would’ve put a bow on the fact that Fr’Nj is a bit more similar to Chapters 1-4 Syr’Nj than Syr’Nj as she is now. Some people can retain much of their childlike wonder into adulthood, their openness to feeling. But once Syr’Nj committed to a medicated, PTSD-riddled boyfriend and leading a team to defend a corrupt nation from a genocidal one, she had to become a bit more of an “adult.”
(We also turned Rachel’s line in panel 5 into the alt text. Better for her to intrude as little as possible on the moment, I think.)
Reseeing this scene makes me remember Scipio was played by Kaye in sepia world right? Can’t honestly recall if she was a lesbian or not. But if it happened that she was , the ‘nothing of nature can be an abomination to it’ is really poignant here. Used to read some LGBT stuff when I was younger (highschool ) when it was bad-joked as GLEE (gay lesbian everything else) and a big reoccurring theme was acceptance of natures. Because it does sometimes happen in nature that females and males of various animal species will form pairings or communities that the male + female only crowd straight up disregard. That being anything other than hetero was/is a negative life choice in a time when it was much more personally deadly to be outed. Just. Damn. This is powerful. Not sure I made the words all come out right.
We’ve seen this just yesterday in Dumbing of Age. Do not recommend. It only works in fiction.
(Yes, Fr’Nj’s (and Joyce’s) reaction sells it, but in both cases it comes terribly out-of-the-blue on the guy’s part.)