Annotated 38-29
Yeah, every single reader knew how this scene was going to go as soon as Iwatani and Taro showed up. Just look at Taro, doing his best to arrange his smile so that it reads as “charmingly boyish” and not “Moohoohahaha MOOHOOHAHAHA MOOHOOHAHAHAAA MURDER MURDER MURDER!!!”
Persson, like Pardo, adds some interesting nuance to our series’ eat-the-rich themes. He’s a sort whom I have met in real life: someone who retained his position by hard work and thought generously of those underneath him. He is proof that power need not corrupt, and therefore that the corrupt and powerful bear responsibility for their own corruption. The fact that the Altruists don’t want this guy is the clearest sign yet that their consolidated government will not be benevolent. “Political will” can be a convenient euphemism for “naked ambition.”
This poor medic. She’s never met an aristocrat except Persson, so she thinks they’re all like him. “Your Grace,” she will learn, is more a title than an accurate descriptor.
🎶 Oh Persson, Persson, we’re really missing you / It breaks all of our hearts to know / that you just want to come on home / so come on home / The telephone, it just doesn’t seem to do / To let you know how much it’s true that we love you / Yeah, we love you / Oh Persson, Persson, Persson / Oh, Persson, Persson, Persson… 🎵
(with apologies to Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn)
I have never been able to fully understand with exactly what Iwatani was accomplishing here. It always seemed like he was off the reservation, rather than being a joint decision by the rest of the cadre, and a risky move for little advantage, when it was clear Persson was not likely long for this world anyway.
And of course, bringing the little sociopath was a terrible idea. I have always kind of appreciated that for all his smarts and scheming, Iwatani had such a blind spot for the evil little shit. It’s a good character note.
It actually might have been for the sole purpose of teaching the kid “what might need be done”.
But yeah. It’s ironic that for all the scheming and plotting, he was yet blind as well when it mattered the most.
Out of these monsters, the father was far better than the son.
It may well be that the illness that has befallen Persson was helped along by Iwatani, too, and needs to be … “fed”.
Obviously not intended to offend or anything here, but you might wanna avoid the phrase “off the reservation”. It’s not got a great history.
I kinda hoped the image to go with the text would be an iteration of this one:
https://www.queensvintage.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Blik-Drostes-Cacao-hoogte-125-cm-diameter-8-cm-1-scaled.jpg
There’s a non-zero chance that John Waltrip meant to reference this image, since apparently the Droste effect is world-famous. Its importance to me personally is that this image has been with me from early childhood; it was on the tin we kept cocoa powder in.
Well, it’s better than what I had, so why not?
Oh, that’s nice! :)
I was immediately thinking of this one: https://www.posterlounge.de/das-schokoladenmaedchen-pr568458.html
But actually yours is a better match.
Apparently the Chocolate Girl was an inspiration for the Droste advert!
“since apparently the Droste effect is world-famous”
Never heard of it.
You can tell Iwatani has already been quite successful in consolidating his power, when he can just show up at a rival’s house, convince the nurse to let him deliver the medicine, then have the rival die mysteriously while alone with him, and face no consequences or attempts at persecution.
I’d say it’s a Heads thing. If a Head of the Houses wants to walk somewhere, he damn well does it. If a Head of the Houses tells you to take five while he does something in your stead, you damn well let them do it. And if you ever try to say a Head of the Houses did something they don’t want others to know they did, you damn well better be his peer or someone of serious importance or you’re damn well damned…
Aren’t they in-laws?
Yeah, now I think the implication is that the Altruists had decided that those quasi-members who couldn’t be trusted to uphold their agenda were to be killed, and Iwatani just happened to be the one to conduct/arrange both assassinations, but reading this without commentary, I thought Iwatani had put the coup that led to Gastonia being renamed Iwatania in motion with two entirely unilateral assassinations, while the rest of the Altruists were still waiting for Syr’Nj’s decision.