Annotated 48-25
FB: “…Wait, ‘peace-making?’ Why would I call it that, it’s pretty obvi that the only way I’m ‘makin’ peace’ is the way I’m ‘hammerin’ people and objects down ’til they stop movin’… Ohhh, you wanted us to be PEACEMAKERS! I thought you were askin’ for a lot of PACEMAKERS, because you’re gettin’ old and have a high-stress job. Yeahno, maybe you shoulda hired some monks or somethin’.”
I started to say that Ardaic’s side of the debate feels a little flat, like we’re not really trying as hard as we can to make the verbal fight as well-matched as the physical one. But that’s probably the point: Ardaic falling back on empty platitudes and ideas of “loyalty” because he sure can’t fall back on the greatness of a civilization that serves Taro. “It is for the people that I fight” is getting him through the worst of his doubts for now, but that last crutch is about to be kicked out from under him.
What pushed them apart in panel 2?
The sheer awesome might of their clash. Them being more forceful than they have mass, even in full plate.
Given the length of Ardaic’s sword, I’d say panel 2 is about the distance you need to maneuver. It’s also not hard to reach assuming that the camera in panels 1 and 2 is not pointing in the same direction: If the two meet, while running, but don’t run straight into each other, then one or two steps after panel 1m the distance would increase again. Of course, as Velgar said, the clash itself should also push them apart.
The skidmarks on the ground in panel 2 suggest that they were forcefully pushed apart rather than simply taking a few steps back.
Faith-Based Glamor Repulsion baby. Fabaglare among professionals.
While your comments on Ardiac’s rhetoric are correct from the perspective of both the reader and the peacekeepers, you’ll notice something interesting if you shift your perspective.
Instead of trying to determine who’s objectively in the right, look at it this way: how effective would Frigg’s words be at convincing someone in Ardiac’s position about the rightness of his actions.
Yes, he clearly despises Taro, which weakens his resolve. But he doesn’t know what the plans of the savage races are. He already assumes the worst about them, so from his perspective he’s fighting for the life of every man, woman and child inside
Gastonia’sIwatania’s walls. What good would Frigg’s words do when they’re pitted against someone who believes that his entire society is facing genocide?It’s not like that’s an unreasonable assumption either, since genocide was Harky’s original plan.
It’s not until he see’s Frigg’s actions protecting his own men that he had a change of heart.
(Yes, I realize that I’m arguing with a creator about his own characters’ motives, but I think it’s a point worth making: being right is not the same as being convincing. You won’t be able to convince someone that they’re wrong until you consider what their vantage point is).
Really, you’re just using different words to say the exact same thing. Either way, it boils down to this:
Ardaic is resorting to those tired slogans and excuses because they’re all he’s ever had. And now Frig is about to accidentally force a change of perspective that makes him acknowledge the truth that he’s literally spent decades trying to ignore.
Yeah, Frigg argues like the early-internet troll she’s always been modeled after. She’s not really interested in convincing Ardaic so much as defying him. In another scenario where Ardaic had passed the Silver-Centurion mantle to another and he was having this fight/debate with Byron, Byron would seek to convince him. And if it were Syr’Nj, not only would she seek to convince him, but his old-man crush on her would give her a chance of doing so. But that ain’t Frigg. And this scenario allows for more explosive action.
Honestly? I’d say She’s doing pretty good from that perspective.
“You forced my hand” is what you say when you know someone else is right but don’t want to admit blame. So I would say Frigg is getting to him as much as he can be gotten to.
Yeah. “You forced my hand” when that hand is green-magic-nuclear-holocaust-beam-balls is… um… not a very convincing argument if you’re claiming to be on the side of “civilization”. On the other hand it IS a great argument if you’re on the side of empire, which he kind of is at this point. On the other other hand, Ardaic of this exact moment would probably be offended by the suggestion that he is fighting for imperialism and not civilization.
It’s a pretty bad argument, but one which a lot of people will still happily buy, as current political events show…
Also: He *would* have a point if he were correct to assume that the World’s rebellion had come to eradicate mankind, which in turn would not have been unreasonable not long ago, and he’s not the type to update his opinion daily, what with all the loyalty.
And that in turn … shows nicely how even mostly-reasonable people can come to very weird convictions, given a comparably modest initial difference in perspective, which leads someone to seek out different information, assess it differently and eventually end up in the craziest places… The fact that Ardaic is able to notice his error later actually means he’s still preserved more of his integrity than most other people could be expected to, despite everything.
But “If we can’t survive, nobody will” is a pretty spicy take.
Something Peter Thiel would say, as he presses the Doomsday button, when the filthy peasants come to burn down his castle on the hill.
Even in the face of eradication, there are limits to what is permissible.
Let’s not forget that Taro secured Ardaic’s loyalty by threatening personally, only giving him the “defend the people you always defended” line as a rationalization he would accept (chapter 45, p. 12)
Ardaic KNOWS he’s in the wrong. It’s not a matter of convincing him of that, it’s a matter of showing him just how hypocritical he’s being and just how far he strayed away from his ideals due to fear for his own well being
In my experience, and I have bashed a lot of online fash, the only thing that ever brings one of those suckers back to reality is pushing them over the edge.
Once the cognitive dissonance hits critical levels, they either lose it completely, and double down on “Yes, evil is good”, or they go through a crisis and snap out of it.
In-person, if you had the time, it might be possible (but very dangerous for yourself) to flip their perspective by showing them real humanity.
But don’t their victims deserve that time and effort more, when the resources are limited?