Annotated 40-22
Had we gone with the plan of making Miyamoto, not Iwatani, the Head of House engineering the Peacemakers’ deaths, their status as enemies of the Gastonian state would be a little less cut and dried. But I think they’d be fleeing regardless, because either the Altruists are united in wanting them dead, or the Altruists are already killing people to sabotage each other, which is hardly any safer for Syr’Nj or her allies.
Who indeed, alt text. The original plan for this page was for Sundar to get a “SMUG!” sound effect in the last frame, which would have echoed a very early gag in the series. Leaving that out was a last-minute call by Flo, which should annoy me, in principle. But most of the expressionistic sound effects had fallen by the wayside at this point in production, and without those to give such a gag context, I think Sundar’s face works better without it.
Sundar’s grown too much to become as completely insufferable as this sequence might imply. But he is never ever going to forget this moment, you can take that to the bank.
A picture really paints a thousand words anyways. Look at ‘im.
He really earned it, let him have his moment.
I’m really curious about this alternate timeline where Miyamoto is the villain in this arc. Would he have been the one to kill Iwatani, followed by Taro taking over? Would there have been a different Gastonian Tyrant at the end of the series? What else would have gone differently?
I take it the Sky Elves are not used to this level of byzantine political backstabbing? Clair and Hollister’s shock could be because they’re young and not too savvy about affairs of state, but Clair is simply not following the logic of this revelations. Are Sky Elves that different from the other races?
I mean trying to kill your fellow heads of state usually doesn’t result either to or from a stable government. Plus if it is more because she is a sky elf, their city is pretty small, any internal strife on the level of assassination would potentially be catastrophic to such a (comparatively) small community
Clair also acts a bit young (however old she actually is) even compared with Hollister.
Aaand, somebody had to be naïve enough to ask, or we wouldn’t get the necessary exposition. :-)
Given Sundar’s track record, he’s probably Right For The Wrong Reasons, or The Cloud Cuckoolander Was Right. There’s no way he knows exactly who’s in on it, or exactly what they’re doing, or why.
“Waiting for my missive to reach Hollister and Clair” — that’s the missing bit here: How did she contact them? I don’t suppose she sent a courier on horseback, and she may not have had a carrier pigeon to hand, either. Is there a magic way for this to happen? E-Merl was given a portal ring, but that only generates a portal, not send a message, and Syr’Nj wouldn’t have had that at her disposal…