Annotated 36-5
Byron was not Patient Zero for the Battleshirean Madness, so he didn’t “meet” Brother Tom that day until Tom was on his way out of town and the spreading berserk was commanding a lot more of Byron’s attention than some creepy guy in a robe.
As others have pointed out, Homon’s eyes are pretty small to be an Arkerran. It’s as if his body hasn’t fully assimilated into Arkerra’s style, perhaps because it’s still linked to HR in Sepia World. When HR himself enters the game, his face will take on more Arkerran proportions.
Love that diss track in the last panel. Byron needed this moment of defiance, and really, so did we, given all the grimness that has been and is yet to arrive at this point. From FoolishOwl: “Now even Byron’s accusing people of being Best’s alts.”
I get Byron’s defiance here. To his mind, the cultists shouldn’t be aware that he is medicated against the berserker curse, which I guess would actually make him the LEAST risky person to send into this trap. Heck, I even thought that myself on my first read.
Poor guy was done dirty by Homon’s hacks.
Honestly, I thought then and still do that Byron bragging about the medication was the single stupidest thing he could possibly do in that situation.You don’t tell people you’re immune and they need to try harder until /after/ they’ve released you
Honestly, sending anybody into a situation that had to be a trap was stupid in the first place. This was the one part of the comic you knew was rushing towards one conclusion.
I can completely understand Byron there. He’s in a difficult situation, and he’s just had some traumatic memories floating back, in very uncomfortable ways. He needs something to hold on to. It’d be great if he could act intimidated (better: panicked) while thinking in a very level-headed way, but that sort of thing is beyond most people, even when they have not been through the things Byron has experienced.
That doesn’t make it the smartest reply but about as good as you could expect from him in that situation.
I don’t see how it’s stupid. He would not gain anything by not bragging about it, they would find out anyway as soon as they tried the “regular approach” and saw that it didn’t work.
Besides, he knows how long Syr’Nj spent working on the anti-berserker formula. Someone can’t just counteract a substance by knowing it’s there, it takes analysis and tests to find out how it works and develop a counter-drug. The time anyone should reasonably spend on that would be plenty time for Byron’s backup to arrive. He is only defeated because Homon can bypass analysis and literally just read the code of this world.
SteelRaven is correct that Byron messed up by going in the first place. Especially once they start talking about the Berserker the level of his screw up should have sunk in.
In a situation where you are faced with your captors having a standard procedure that works but which you believe yourself to be secretly immune to, and the logical possibility of an enhanced procedure that works but with risk of killing the patient? Said patient should be doing everything in their power to encourage the use of the standard procedure first and then trying to fake their way through the other end. A tactic which ties into Byron’s whole “play for time” monologue (which he then completely abandons the moment he’s done mentioning it).
Homon/HR’s cold reveal that he’s aware of the suppressant and has a counter agent for it would have been a far more horrifying plot twist.
Oh it was definitely a major fuck up to even go when everyone knew it was a trap. I still don’t quite understand that they all went along with it.
I don’t know what makes you think anyone should consider an alternative procedure to berserker-making. We have seen no indication of such a thing until the page after this one.
I think you are right that Byron trying to fake his way through their ritual only for Homon to reveal that he is already aware of the suppressant and has the counter-drug would make for a very chilling scene.
Although what happens here is also a very good insight into Byron’s perspective. He went into this mission with (way too much) confidence, and was quickly and violently shot down.
Look at him! This man’s just bragging about his girlfriend just like that!