Annotated 47-21
FB: Awkward moments like this are why superheroes stop getting invited to funerals.
Some readers found this scene heartbreaking, and I think Flo might’ve been one of them, based on the alt text she picked for it. Me, I find it sad, sure, but ultimately encouraging.
What Byron says to E-Merl is not as futile as it may look. E-Merl needed to know that Syr’Nj lived up to her promise, even if nothing came of it: he needed to know that his loss mattered to his friends, enough that they’d make it a priority even with the fate of the world at stake. And perhaps…perhaps at this point he needed the closure of a definite “no,” even if he’s not ready to agree with that “no” yet himself.
He still hurts. He’ll hurt for a while, and there’s no way to fix that. That’s a hard fact to accept for big damn heroes, who are used to problems that can be solved a lot more decisively. But he’s working with Kur’Ik in the library, he’s entertaining kids. He may not FEEL like he’s any better yet, but he’s sure as hell an improvement over the E-Merl who was drinking heavily and prone to fits of rage. And he feels genuine excitement over meeting Best. He is better. He will get better.
I’ve gotta ask… as an MMORPG, does Kingdoms of Arkerra have permadeath? Like, if a player character dies, is there no respawning?
I originally took Bandit’s “Harkey’s Blood” explanation for her death to be a hastily-improvised explanation for an in-game res pawn mechanic, but as the comic went on, it seemed less and less like that actually was a thing that happens.
Flo and T did address this a while ago actually. It was indeed a hastily-improvised explanation, because the “default” explanation players went with was: Pretend the death never happened. Bandit’s player was surprised that “Syr’Nj’s player” was bringing up something that (say) E’Merl’s player would have tacitly gone along with treating as “the Savage Races ambushed us, fade to black, we barely made it back alive!”
So no, the PC isn’t deleted on dying once (what happened to Rachel would have been much less of a baffling shock for Rachel’s player if they did), but there’s no “in-character resurrection,” either. And for the characters for whom Arkerra is their world, death means death.
That alt text definitely ended up aging like fine wine once the annotation run started up.
“Sorry, you can’t bring anyone else back from the dead. Also, hello, meet Payet Best! He just came back from a presumed death.”
Fucking hell that didn’t cross my mind but it gave me a damn hard surprise chuckle. The image of E-Merl going “Oh, come ON!!”
Oh crap … very good thing E-Merl didn’t know that Best used to run with the Peacemakers, and was last seen falling to certain death. This scene could have triggered a first class meltdown — or worse: implanted some vain hope that maybe Rachel was also now some other person in Cyberia, and might yet make it back to Arkerra in the same way.
This is funny, but if coming back from a presumed death was a problem, then 98% of adventurers with a few months’ experience would be guilty of it. E-Merl knows misdirection is part of the adventurer’s game as well as the magician’s. Still, if no one’s mentioned how Gravedust scanned for Best’s life force and thought it was fading because he was falling into another universe, it’s probably better not to bring that up now.
Aaand that’s why that whole “Have the strength to change what can be changed, have the wisdom to accept what can’t be” will strike as baloney to many, especially those who live in a place where there’s factual proof of the impossible becoming actually possible. And explaining why this happens is probably just making things worse “Oh, yeah. The impossible can become possible… for us. You can just go suck on a lemon, dude. Sucks to be you.”
the way I remember the saying, it’s “…the patience to accept what can’t be changed, and the wisdom to tell the difference”.
Because, of course, if something becomes possible, it was not impossible, it was just wrongly assumed to be impossible. And of course you can’t ever know which things can be changed and which can’t. That’s the point.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer
Thanks — seems I mangled it somewhat…
Also, I first saw it quoted on some kitschy Canadian souvenir, as a native American thing, and in all kinds of forms and attributions since then, so thanks to you and Wikipedia for setting the record straight.
The point indeed.
Returning from the dead is 100 % impossible for most Arkerrans. The hoi polloi has always known that if there’s a situation that can’t be changed, is being dead. Then again, what’s widely known to be unchangeable for Joe Arkerran, or for E-Merl Arkerran, if you will, is not written on stone for a lucky few. True, those lucky few are just like the rest of the hoi polloi now, but try to explain to a grieving person that there’s a guy who got to be the luckiest of those lucky few, and actually got to return twice. I wouldn’t expect said person to be patient, to be honest.
The very last time we saw E-Merl before this, he was indeed getting loud, bitter, and outright dangerous over the unfairness of it all. He could’ve been lost then. Obsessing over such a quest is a well-worn villain’s path. But after shocking himself with an outburst and getting the support of his friends (better late than never, in Syr’Nj’s case), E-Merl came to understand: obsessing like that, over time, would kill everything in him that Rachel loved. He may be right to hold onto hope, under the crazy circumstances, but if Rachel’s not coming back today, he still has to figure out a way to go on.