Annotated 39-23
[MCU-ish music kicks in, builds to feel-good crescendo]
I think the energy in the room here could’ve easily gone the other way. Before Kaye’s death, Chrissie was the only one of the gamers really advocating involvement. Now part of her feels like her own fervor is what got Kaye killed…she just kept arguing for a fight against Hurricane and then Hurricane struck back. That’s not a rational feeling, but it is a powerful one.
Pre-murder, Kaye was solidly against and Lia was a bit more regretfully against. Lia wants to believe in causes and justice, but she’s been burned too much in her life to lead any revolutionary charges. If two sides are arguing equally hard, she’ll usually pick the safer path. She needs someone else to awaken the Rachel in her.
Daniel was the only gamer who spent most of this chapter firmly undecided. He’s the sort, it seems, who isn’t too quick to make commitments…but he locks himself in 1000% once he does.
Lia has not failed to notice this about him.
And all this time Xan has been solidly in “I really wish I could disappear into the wallpaper” mode.
yep. Anyone else noticed how he turned away from the laptop when JJ made his appearance?
I suppose he has a much better idea of what this decision involves and may mean for everyone than the others do. On the other hand, everyone else just had from one moment to the next, their moderately happy gamer lives uprooted by witnessing a murder of a friend and being announced as the next ones to go. It’s curious that not one of them is running in circles and screaming. I probably would. Maybe the actual meaning of what’s going on hasn’t quite sunk in yet?
I noticed it (maybe because it was pointed in the comment the first time around). Here is a guy who knows the vision field of a laptop camera.
The gamergirl who called the police has sorta run into this phase, she was limit panicky over the phone.
I think the key factor is Daniel. By going straight into the angry phase, he is providing a direction/steering the others into that direction, rather than going full panic.
As the author point out, if Daniel usual behavior is undecided, his sudden drive is bound to be noticed.
»I noticed it (maybe because it was pointed in the comment the first time around). Here is a guy who knows the vision field of a laptop camera.«
He could have done better by staying out of the vision field — pretty sure that JJ would have recognized him anyway. But at least he didn’t get to see his expression.
Maybe he also didn’t want to look at JJ for other reasons. The guy put a knife through his hand, after all. That might trigger some reaction. Or he was trying to gather some useful strategies because he knows it’s not easy to hide from JJ, and they have to do it quick.
Always appreciate the commentary on the pages. On this page, what an amazing mix of different personalities, grief responses, and change. I think the art on this page (and so many others) hits it out of the park. The multiple panel compositions captures that energy of grief, pain, and change; faces are show this change, body positions show this. And panel 5, wow, with the focus toward the pin and Lia’s mouth and her Rachel resolve returning. Panel 5 also works well with the contrast from all the other panels filled with all the people and all the words and just a pin and a mouth and two words.
Hm.
Upon reflection…honestly, the more words are used to explain J.J.’s motivations and reasoning, the less I find myself believing in it. Okay, he expects people to try to avoid risking their lives when they know the risk is genuine. But it never occurred to him that “look at this, I just killed a woman I didn’t know casually” would lead logically to “he’s probably already planning to finish off the rest of us too”?
The more I think about it, the more I think he actually just got angry for letting Shannah get away, didn’t expect to find the others in video chat, and once he was on that, he went into his “friendly, yet determined and strangely intimidating, but really polite” persona. He probably had a chance of getting them to follow his demands (and kill them later, anyway, to be sure) if they were other people. If that failed, he would have had a chance of getting them to panic and make silly mistakes until he reaches them and ends the story.
So actually, it kind of makes sense from his perspective. If they didn’t have Xan, it would even have worked. They wouldn’t have stood a chance.
He’s playing a role most of the time, so I guess an unfeasible motivation sorta fits the bill.