Annotated 45-20
FB: These Expendables sequels are getting weirder and weirder.
I’m a bit sorry to condense this fight the way we do in panel 4 here. On the one hand, the four-against-one battle is weighted in Ardaic’s favor. But there could’ve been some interesting maneuvers here before he started winning, and we could’ve shown more clearly that he’s not quite the warrior he once was. Still, the character moment we’re setting up here for Keynes is more important.
Interesting that Ardaic uses his power to magick himself up a horse, not some kind of tank or airship. I think that shows the humility at his core: for all his power (political and magickal), he thinks of himself as a simple soldier.
This episode was particularly fertile ground for punsters in the original comments.
What’s Bandit’s agenda in stealing the plans? She’s cut ties with the other Peacemakers, ergo she’s not part of the newly-formed detente with the World’s Rebellion. It’s understandable that she doesn’t trust Taro, but that doesn’t seem like a strong enough motivation for trying to undermine Gastonia’s military defense.
I think they started out curious, but when they saw the scope of things and realized that the only way the plans could come to pass is through the enslavement of their race, that upped the urgency significantly.
The whole point of Bandit’s team was Reynolds (and most likely the rest of the Gnomes) stop trusting the Heads of Houses. They screwed over the Gnomes once, it was likely they would do it again once it was apparent they where consolidating power. Brock seemed to be spying on the Iwatani’s for some time seeing he was recognized as the help and trusted enough at that point. Brock most likely figured out there where plans and sent the Bat… er… Bandit signal once Taro, destroyer of Gnome town suddenly became the head of the house.
http://guildedage.net/comic/annotated-42-11/ and the following comic(s) cover it. She and her team were working for Reynolds to keep him informed of Gastonia’s plans and how they might affect the Gnomes. The ramp-up for war will require more weapons etc. from the Gnomes leading to enslavement hence the attempt to copy the plans before being discovered and escaping with them.
Rather than being humble, it just looked to me like Ardaic was using what he knew.
That could also be it!
Bandit probably doesn’t know that this is Ardaic but considering she just encountered him and the next person to come running after them is the Silver Centurion, she probably put two and two together.