Annotated 41-22
There’s nothing I can add to Byron’s panel-1 reaction, it’s perfect.
Technically it’s “third chance,” panel 3 Gravedust, but don’t let me stop you, I can see you’re building up momentum to something.
In an earlier conversation on this topic, Gravedust spelled out what no one in this chapter will say out loud: “If I [returned someone to the living] of my own volition…I would then lose my power and my duty.” But that doesn’t mean he can’t do it, in fact, it means the opposite: he absolutely can do it…all of once. As E-Merl and Syr’Nj say earlier in that same chapter, there’s always a price for such a resurrection. But ever so slowly, Gravedust has turned into someone willing to pay that price.
Oh, so this “Will of the Cosmos” is an actual thing? I kinda thought it was just these 4 assholes making the rules and making Gravedust follow them. It’s not like he was really eager to resurrect them all the first time either. “Then you said I MUST resurrect him, now you say I CAN’T resurrect him, make up your damn minds!”
And Syr’Nj made a fair point that hasn’t really been answered: what’s different about this time?
I always interpreted the unspoken subtext here as “Gravedust loses his spot in the afterlife at all, and gives a “his” second-chance ticket to Byron. The callback to chapter 18 wasn’t clear at all, and I didn’t remember any specifics about the rules when remembering Naror’nj’s (< that’s fun) death and its effect on Syr’nj.
Echoing Jason’s comment – what is it that takes his power away, exactly? How’s that work mechanically?
Gravy just didn’t like old man ‘Nj that much.