Annotated 42-4
Take Your Most Psychopathic Child to Work Day didn’t really catch on.
With the alt text and that grin and just Taro’s mere presence, we decided to abandon any pretense about our endgame here. A few specifics may not be nailed down yet, but y’all knew this little guy anywhere close to power was a very bad idea.
So, uh, that second panel’s balloon is supposed to be Iwatani’s, not Caneghem’s. Flo made the mistake innocently but then argued it worked better this way. Gotta say, I’m not really seeing that, but YMMV.
Also, I feel like the title is getting ahead of itself a bit. Though the decision to seek the winter elves does begin with this chapter, the journey doesn’t begin until the chapter ends. Something like “Sallying Forth” or “Crossing the Threshold” would represent that better, but that wouldn’t maintain the gaming connection. The best I can do with the latter offhand is “Taken Off the Board,” referring to the chapter’s theme of demotions. It’s just tough to meet all our expectations for titles sometimes. Oh, well, it’s not like we got any angry feedback about it.
I can see it both ways. Coming from Iwatani, it’s meant to be disarmingly self-deprecating. “I don’t even want to be king, who wants to do all that work?” But from Canegheim, it’s him reinforcing his own reason for backing this power grab: “ugh, glad I’m not the one doing this.” Iwatani might have worked a little better but it had also kinda already been communicated o some degree, so it’s loss isn’t as bad as it could have been.
Why is Caneghem gesturing in the second panel? Is he trying to shoo Taro away? It looks more like he’s beckoning him into the room, but I can’t imagine why he’d do that.
Unless he’s a bad guy who wants to make sure Gastonia is ruled by someone so incompetent and psychopathic that his own nation of kleptocrats will be safe in the skies.
But surely, not with such a wise-looking trope-face?
Yeah, that Caneghem gesture is still a mystery to me (as it was in the first run).
(Unless you replace him with Iwatani?)
I read it in the first run – in combination with his eyes – as Caneghem delivering a line while rolling his eyes and having jerky hand motions. Him gradually bothering less and less of this crap, past being angry or annoyed, not even locking like playing his part. All while his other plans are getting finalised. The humans are to busy stabbing each other to care.
I think this is the last we see of him before the lift-off.
Iwatani gesturing to his son would make more sense with the hand motion.
“And really, doesn’t everyone?”
Taro: “About that…”
As Caligula plots his father’s premature death.
“I can’t wait to be king”
Or as Honest Trailers put it, “I can’t wait till dad dies”
Yeah, it does kind of jump out that the original script called for Iwatani to be saying that line and beckoning to Taro. I can see the case that Caneghem is too silent during the whole thing, but if it weren’t for that one panel, he’d get through the entire comic run without ever once acknowledging Taro’s existence.
Taro’s grin is so nakedly evil in that last panel that I couldn’t help but laugh out loud upon seeing it. But in a good way!
The line’s perfect for Caneghem. It exudes his usual passive-aggressive “I fucking hate it here to be honest” while still “agreeing” to the conversation. In fact Iwatani who keep’s acting like his nation and work are such a privilege, who keeps faking humbleness, wouldn’t say something like “a headache”. He’d imply it’s a big burden and he’d try his best, for Gastonia.
That’s my take.
It’s the gesture that got me at a loss. It feels like there might’ve been a woopsy when asking Waltrip to make the page and names got switched.
I just noticed that model of the Eiffel Tower on the top of the bookshelf. La France est partout!
The way I think it works better is that it gives Caneghem a bit more of a presence that he otherwise lacks here, and the double meaning of it, coming from him, fits perfectly for his character. It makes him come across like he’s backing up Iwatani’s assurances (“Come on, of course this isn’t a mad grab for power, who would want to deal with THAT much administrative work?”) while actually expressing how much of a dumpster fire this fucking place has become lately.
If it were coming from Iwatani, it would simply be another panel of him elaborating on the same assurances he’s already been expressing. It’s certainly not bad for him to do so, but another nod towards Caneghem’s true feelings while still delivering the same message is a better option.