Annotated 48-30
Frigg: “Sorry, I didn’t get any of that, I’m just tryin’ to remember where I’ve seen your face before.” As FlyingFish pointed out, the last time Frigg saw the Silver Centurion, it was when the Silver Centurion was standing next to Ardaic. So this reveal of his identity is as much a surprise to her as anything else. She probably got the basics from Syr’Nj about Ardaic being a toady to the Altruists, so it’s not like she’s entirely surprised to find him fighting against her, but it’s the details.
Flo spun out this Batman-esque backstory for Ardaic off the cuff. It does lend his story a certain tragic weight: it’s as if police corruption has finally gotten so bad that Batman has to start helping criminals in order to do right. (Yes, I know vigilantes are technically criminals, but you know what I’m going for here, let’s not go down that road.) Or maybe it’s like that bit at the start of Batman Beyond (right), where Batman finally realizes that not only is he too old to keep doing this, he’s come close to sacrificing all his principles just to continue the fight.
FB: If ⚠️, then ➡️, but if ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️, then 🛑.
Ardaic has something of the proverbial frog in the slowly heating water about him here. He’s finally realised that his people and his way of life have been slowly dragged away from his ideals by corrupted leadership he for whatever reason didn’t question enough. It takes some bravery to admit you’ve made that kind of mistake, many people find it easier to just keep denying reality, rather than admit how much wrong they might have participated in.
This the source of the power of cults in a nutshell right here: People have great difficulty admitting they were wrong about something.
Especially once that wrong belief costs you something. Now you cling to it as “the cost will be worth it; the cost MUST have been worth it.” (No, something the purpose of the cost is a warning of what MORE it’ll cost you to continue.)
He fell for the trap of blaming people, not violence itself for his loss. Violence can come from everybody but it is those who want you to do violence on their behalf who’d tell you that the problem is (other) people. And those people will never run out of people to point to you as the cause of your loss, all while you keep inflicting violence on their name.
For the record, the slowly-heating-frog thing is from an experiment where the researcher lobotomized the frogs first. If you heat a frog slowly–without first inducing brain damage–they will actually jump out of the water before dying.
Here’s a fun video with that, and other fun little animal myth-busting
Man, I wish the Altruist Conspiracy had a tag, because every time it comes up I have trouble remembering what it’s supposed to be. That it’s ironically misnamed doesn’t help a bit.
That right there is the good aspect of people having integrity despite definitely being on the wrong side. It’s also the benefit of fundamental ethical principles over tribal thinking: it helps you notice when your own herd starts turning the wrong way. Someone for whom political/ideological or similar affiliation/opposition is the main driver is way more likely to go through with whatever horrible scheme their people eventually come up with. Someone who remembers *why* they joined that club instead of the other one also has a test they can apply to find out whether to try and change course or just leave.
…it does not, of course provide a handy reminder of when to apply that test, of course. Otherwise dear Ardaic would have left around the same time as Syr’Nj did.
When was the last time Frigg saw the Centurion? I dug around some but am apparently missing the obvious.
It was during Chapter 29, when Ardaic ordered the Silver Centurion to the front lines and the Peacemakers to the back.