Annotated 50-31
The irony of this callback may’ve been lost the first time because of a tagging issue. Even though the Brad seen here is no longer “Private Brad,” we should tag him that way just so you know how to find him in the archives. He’s one of the guys who flatly refused to help a wood elf in episode 2, never realizing that wood elf would go on to become a Head of House and then a Councillor in the new Arkerran Union. Now he’s taking orders from that elf’s one-time assistant. His buddy, ex-Private Paul, can be seen near him in panel 1, bent over his work.
So yeah, the shoe is now very much on the other foot. But the new regime has a chance to be better than the old, even for those who aren’t high on the food chain. Kur’Ik is under a good deal of pressure, and that can make her a hard boss, but working from Syr’Nj and Faer’s examples, she strives to be a fair one.
FB: Look, Kur’Ik, you’re never going to generate any clickbait with that attitude.
Brad and Paul must’ve gotten a more generous severance package when the Gastonian military was dismantled. Not like those Iraqis who formed insurgency groups after they were liberated. It’s hard to read Paul, but Brad shows nothing remotely contemptuous taking orders from a non human.
So this publication is now less Daily Bugle and more…what? Reader’s Digest?
Presumably it’s an organization that publishes regular news but also standalone books.
So I followed that link back, read the (four and a half year old) commentary there, snickered… in hindsight, you had another example of a woman who found the Stooges amusing, and she was closer than you thought!
Ha! True enough!
It’s interesting to imagine what happened to Brad since his appearance since CH48 P10, since there he seems still firmly entrenched in his beliefs. I’m not saying the larger events that occurred aren’t enough to justify breaking those beliefs down, but he also seems to already be built back up again. Feels like there’s a story there.
Arkerran historians (some of them published in this very press) will later call the events of 1515 “The Great Nonandrophagy” (Non-Human-Eating). Gastonian propaganda had most humans convinced that Gastonia losing to the Savage Races would be (1) impossible and (2) an unthinkable horror show. Land sharks devouring humans in the streets. Trolls using orc labor to build furnishings out of human bone. Goblin engines using liquefied skin as grease. The few humans remaining would survive only as long as they were useful and be killed for the slightest failure or simply their masters’ amusement.
And then the invasion came and…none of that happened. For a while, humanity cowered, feeling sure that its holocaust had merely been delayed. There’s still some fear in Brad even now, and that lingering fear may help explain why most humans are being very very agreeable to the complete upheaval of the world they knew. But every day that passes adds a little more hope that the nightmare scenario was wrong. And many humans, now pushed to interact with races they’ve never seen before, are starting to consider what other things they might’ve been wrong about.
I wonder how much different things would have turned out if the land sharks were still part of the alliance. ;)
I think it’s the other way around though.
The alliance isn’t different because the land sharks left.
The land sharks left because Penk’s alliance is different from Harky ‘s. :)
Yeah, much as Penk regretted losing their muscle at the time, they would have been problems for him in the long run. He probably would have diverted them to some other hunting ground before the last battle of the war. But that causes problems of its own.
There’s also the fact that this chapter takes place over a considerable stretch of time. Gravedust’s writing is a flashback and now those memoirs are getting printed. Brad has had time to adjust his attitude.