Annotated 36-37
The last time we saw Bandit was the moment she went beyond all reason. No words can reach her right now. She can’t even hear Syr’Nj in panel 2 over the blood pounding through her ears.
Syr’Nj is, emotionally, close to where Bandit was when Bandit began this fight. There is no time for panic or shock or any natural reaction. Saving Byron, if there remains even the faintest chance he can be saved, is priority one. Feelings can wait.
The extra-strength anti-berserk has heavy sedatives in it, unlike the regular-strength brew Syr’Nj made that allowed Byron to live a normal life. Bandit’s adrenaline is pumping hard enough that she doesn’t just keel right over, but she’s already slurring a bit and unsteady on her feet.
So Bandit is too…Keen to Keel (over)?
Looks like we got a double update today :D
WHOOPS.
This was not intentional, but I’ve decided to just leave it. Enjoy a little more pain and suffering as the work week begins!
Thanks T, love ya! It’s funny, I could always go back and read the pages I’m waiting to be re-uploaded but something about this second run has me looking forward to each page again like it’s brand new. Lovely idea y’all had!
Let’s take a moment to reflect Syr’nj thought Bandit was a Berserker the way she kept stabbing Byron.
Probably more like a “Gotta get her attention, while also not going in range of her stabbity – and this shit is otherwise under control, so might as well use this non-lethal stuff I have loaded up”
You don’t use non-lethal to get someone’s attention, you use non-lethal because the only other option is 100% lethal.
I disagree in this specific scenario.
She yelled to get off her husband who is in dire need of her help. She didn’t reply.
Sedative.
Seems reasonable to me when she thinks she’s running out of time to help Byron.
I don’t think she would’ve continued to talk to her in panel 5 if she thought she was a berserker.
Yeah, Zerkosis isn’t exactly hard to diagnose :p
Even in this situation with both parties having different amounts of Intel and not being on the same page, I have to side with Bandit through her bloodlust. Byron and Bandit have history sure but there is undeniably only one reason Bandit would do something like this. It’s likely Syr’nj thinks she’s berserking upon first approaching the scene but she should also be well aware that Byron is NOT a priority rescue at this point and especially if Emeril told her the full situation.
Syr’nj is by far the most competent medic on the squad she brought along and her spending time seeking out and worrying over Byron at the center of it has very limited immediate value beyond ensuring he’s not wreaking more havoc. Emotions are high and she certainly loves him which nobody can fault, but she made an emotional decision here and let the ramifications of those emotions define her relationship with Bandit from here on out, and question Bandit’s abilities unjustly.
Even if she genuinely thinks that Byron needs to die in order to stop another calamity in the future, this is not the way to go about it. Byron is badly injured, everybody else is dying. Finishing Byron off at this point will achieve literally nothing and she could spend her energies saving more people as Scipio did. This is 100% personal both from her previous resentment and her deflection of the blame she shares in freeing the berserker spirits.
I don’t blame her for /feeling/ this way, but her actions are entirely in the wrong.
haha, I don’t think anyone is arguing that it’s a-ok and totally justified for bandit to kill byron. I feel like the least the story asks us is to empathize with both sides (bandit and syr’nj), and on this reread for me, I also find myself taking bandit’s “side” way more against syr’nj. you said it’s 100% personal, and I totally agree – it’s better to be personal than impersonal! or worse, pretend your decisions are impersonal when they are still completely emotional (every other dude obsessed with logic; syr’nj in this coming chapter). anyway, I think there’s not much of an argument here cause we all empathize with bandit!
One thing to remember: Byron is pretty obviously stone dead at this point.
Put aside that he died before he was host-ified already, only we know that bit… but we also know that an unknown number of minutes of stabbity will kill anything that isn’t either a troll or an eyebeast.
So Syr is definitely out of her usual rational boathouse.
We haven’t seen any berserkers use any language more sophisticated than “WUAAAARRRHHH!,” have we?
So it seems pretty certain, if so, that Syr’Nj knew that Bandit wasn’t berserking.
It’s worth noting that Syr’nj shoots Bryon first (thrice!) despite his seemingly inert state. I think it’s to her credit that she is taking care of the threat of a berserking Byron first, in a manner she has no reason to doubt will be effective. Then she moves on to sedating the actively stabby Bandit.
Absolutely. I think Syr’Nj understands on some level what Bandit is doing, and why. If Syr’Nj had not turned up in time, I think she’d have acknowledged and accepted that Bandit did use the serum first and had to resort to her daggers when that failed, even though it would have been hard to stomach.
I think what she does not understand is just how traumatized Bandit is, how wrong everything has gone for her, and how deeply it has hurt her. She does not see or understand Bandit’s loss. The reason Syr’Nj gets angry is not because of what Bandit did but because of the things she said about it (or: is going to say, on the next page). Things which I think are just as understandable as the fact that Syr’Nj is too focussed on Byron’s fate to notice.
To me, the great injustice in this conflict is that Bandit is punished and Syr’Nj is not, because she’s right by default. This scene shows that she is not the epitome of justice she hopes to be (in fact, nobody could), and she too can get to a point where she uses her position to avoid having to seriously consider the other side of the story.
YES. Justice that isn’t blind, isn’t justice. What good is reason and inquiry if we close it off and favor our own emotional biases when the situation suits us? How will we ever learn to accept one another, warts and all, if we refuse to acknowledge each other’s experiences before passing judgment?