Annotated 45-12
Taro’s testing Ardaic in panel 1. The renaming of “Gastonia” to “Iwatania” can’t be sitting well with Ardaic. He told himself it was just a rebranding, but…that’s just the latest thing he’s been turning a blind eye to.
Taro’s right and wrong about the poison’s origin getting him off the hook. It probably is of Savage origin, and Taro probably learned this when watching his father poison his “uncle.” But the Iwatanis are a well-connected family: acquiring a dwarven poison is a trivial matter, given time. And others know this. It’s hardly an airtight defense. But as the last few years have amply demonstrated, evidence matters less than the political will to prosecute.
Taro’s last argument was much stronger than this one, really. Ardaic has spent enough time on the front to know that losing the war is a real possibility. Could they win without Iwatani’s notes? Could Iwatani’s shorthand, the low-tech equivalent of a proprietary OS, be deciphered in time? Perhaps to both, but he can’t chance it. To protect the nation and the people he loves, Ardaic would gladly sacrifice the status that Taro’s trying to motivate him by threatening. But to protect those people, he will also call Taro “Your Grace” if he decides that’s what’s necessary.
Today’s page came out on a day we threw a lot of effort into selling our merchandise, which explains the direction we took the Facebook ad…
FB: On this Black Friday full of national anxiety, say “bye-bye” to the Gastonian Republic…
…
…
…And “BUY! BUY!” TO THESE GREAT DEALS!!!!!!!1!!eleventy!!!11!!
Never thought I’d see my hometown mentioned.
It never made sense that the farmer’s tactical plans were so important, nor that the man who serves the literal military head would think Iwatani would have a better understanding of tactics then the man he serves. It was a loose and unfitting way to keep Taro on the throne. It would have been better, smarter and even a foreshadowing of events if the papers were already crying out about the assassination by the time Ardaic had any say in the matter, rolling together all the lessons Taro has learned from watching his father.
Rather, a pay off of foreshadowing, not in and of itself a foreshadowing.
This actually gets to the heart of why I simply do not find it realistic that Taro managed to take over: he’s not politically savvy at all. Oh sure, he’s good enough to snow Ardaic like this, but the other three Heads of House? They’re a lot more savvy, and not likely to knuckle under to some brat who thinks the end-all-be-all of strategy is to just try to bull over the obstacles in his path.
Right now, even while Taro is cackling at Ardaic like this, the three remaining Heads should be meeting in a quiet room somewhere, sharing a pitcher of wine and discussing the leash they would soon be wrapping around Taro’s neck. By the end of the day, Beddard’s broadsheets should have been screaming: “KING MURDERED, SON UNABLE TO EXPLAIN” or something along those lines. They should have had Taro neutered and under control before his father’s body was even cold. Instead, the brat just…did it somehow?
Nah, I just don’t buy it. This is where the story just stops working for me.
Rather than try to address this here, I’m just gonna put my thoughts about it in an upcoming annotation for the most part.
This.
Of course by this time I was too invested in the story over all, but this whole plot line just utterly failed to make any sense at all/
Goddamn my man, we had the same thought and I didn’t refresh to check.
I agree, the “you need my dad’s plans” line is a weak argument. Iwatani Sr. may have been very politically savvy, but that doesn’t make him a military genius. I can see other reasons why Ardaic would choose not to act against Taro, though:
– The Iwatani family has immense popular support, thanks to Bedard, and how many people would believe that a kid is actually capable of murdering his entire family?
– Ardaic doesn’t actually have the authority to remove Taro from power himself, and he can’t count on the Heads of Houses backing him up. Of course, he could always shank the brat, but that probably goes against his conscience, plus he wouldn’t be able to help defend the nation from a jail cell.
– The actual plans Iwatani drew up don’t actually matter, because as the last page pointed out, Jarvis can give whatever order he sees fit. So allowing Taro to take over his dad’s position wouldn’t really hinder the war effort, and might be preferable to a succession crisis.
That’s very close to what I was going to say. It has not been established that Iwatani’s plans were in any way superior to what Jarvis and Ardaic are coming up with.
Actually: If that *had* been established, it would also have made Iwatani’s rise to power a lot more believable. Because in that case, he would have a valid argument to support the statement that Gastonia has a better chance of winning the war quickly than if the other heads “watered down his plans” all the time. But for that, there would have had to be a few instances where Iwatani’s plans work, and/or his ideas are not implemented and later shown (or seem) to have been a much better way of dealing with a given situation.
As it stands, we just have to believe that those plans exist, and that whatever is in them can be plausibly assumed to be of value to Gastonia, in Ardaic’s view.
Another defense for Taro would have been if he had a plausible way of framing Ardaic for something else that would end his career. Like maybe helping Syr’Nj, who is now an enemy of state, or something else that would question his loyalty (i.e. personally wound him, in addition to removing his ability to press charges, or help Gastonia) — but that is also something that vulnerability of Ardaic’s would have had to be established in some form before this scene.
I could believe Ardaic thought “pfft” at the mention of Iwatani’s plans, but on this page, was convinced by “Taro has enough political support that trying to bring him down could cause a civil war and leave us all conquered. His defense about poison may be weak, but I’d need much more solid proof to turn his allies.”
Well none of this really holds up on scrutiny. The first mistakes is – as has been pointed out – the ‘war plans’. Iwatani’s not military. It doesn’t make sense for him to have any tactical plans at all. It does make sense for him to have plans how how to stabilize the country politically and logistically after a massive power shift so that the war effort can be supplied uninterrupted and that is valuable. But here’s the other thing I noticed:
“You think the people will take orders from a child.”
“Oh, I won’t be a child forever.”
That’s…not a rebuttal. Taro’s agreeing with Ardaic. Except literally everything he’s said before AND after this shows intention to have his authority be recognized. Only he can understand his father’s plans, the people will support his crusade, he’ll strip Ardaic of his authority etc.
It just rings hollow as a response since he very clearly has no intention to wait around till he’s grown up and also because this politically savvy side of him basically evaporates into the ether after this scene and…people take orders from this child.
I feel using “I can read dad’s plan” is a weird upper hand.
I honestly can’t even remember the merits of Iwatani to the nation anymore, but really? The military strategy and defense of the country is HIS master contribution? The key of their salvation?
Why did they fire Annunziata? Fire Jarvis already.
I’m guessing this was one of the plot points that had been sped up to get to the next story arc.
Gentlemen! There’s an answer here that you’re not seeing.
*Shank the smug little goblin.*