Chapter 45 – Page 12
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Hey Phil, what size are the volumes? I want to get Frigged up, but wanted to make sure they weren’t that really small manga-sized format. My aged eyes have a helluvatime reading those.
They are 8.5″x11“.
I am withholding judgement on Ardaic until he actually drinks.
There’s little reason to believe the drink is poisoned. Taro just poured and drank the very same substance right in front of him.
Taro has spent all of his life building a resistance to Iocaine powder…
Inconceivable!
[Didn’t we do this joke on the last page?]
h’yes. but is good one
Plenty of ways to deal with that. Either you’ve taken an antidote before you had your drink, or you’ve prepared the glasses.
It’s not the drink that was poisoned.
It’s the cup.
Maybe he didn’t drink it at all. He’s got a mighty conspicuous [purple drink] moustache there, and I imagine, among the many other lessons he taught Taro, the late senior Iwatani could have snuck in a quick lecture on how to imbibe your drink all dignified-like.
Looks kinda like the sort of thing you’d wear if you were just pursing your lips against the glass, hm?
Taro’s glass is full in panels 1-5. It’s half-full in panel 6.
Taro had the wrong cup all along.
Thus does Ardaic serve.
Tyrant Jr. has a point. Damn.
Only if he lives, my friend, only if he lives.
The simple solution to this problem would be to grab the little brat by the neck and squeeze until he turns blue. Then you tell the public the shock of seeing his family drop dead in front of him made him choke on his dinner.
“The poison is of savage origin, which would prove my innocence” that is not how that works are you kidding me right now Taro your father raised you smarter than this
Works fine with an angry mob. Probably even a moderately upset one.
“You know, it’s a shame that your entire family died from that poison, with no survivors at all.”
“Except for me, that is.”
“Nope, not even you.”
As much as we’d probably be pretty fine with it at this point, you are still suggesting that Ardaic should murder a child (and then that servant, assuming he can catch him quickly enough) in order to enact what would be very much his personal implementation of justice. There’s a lot of lines being crossed there, and frankly I think he’s just too good a person to do it.
Taro is appealing to Ardaic’s sense of doing “the most just thing he can do”.
Killing a would-be tyrant without proper prosecution could easily fall under that with more ease than following a would-be tyrant who’s a little too clever (presumably) to be taken down by proper prosecution.
I’m reminded of a character from a fantasy novel who did do just that despite being Mr. Honorable to Oath. He’d much rather martyr himself morally then allow the tyrant to continue living.
I was just thinking that, myself. He’s in the perfect position. He doesn’t even have to kill the Servant, just say the poison took a little longer to work.
He doesn’t need to be smart enough to overcome critical analysis from the internet, just critical analysis from Ardiac.
It’s more about overcoming critical analysis in the realm of public opinion really.
*Snarf* Critical analysis… Public opinion.. In the same sentence. Youre killing me!
Exactly. *stab*
no no, see, Best is supposed to stab Byron – you two need to switch your gravatars!
Too be fair Byron has had enough of Best attacking him.
If it’s stupid, but it works, it’s not stupid.
One day Gastonia will wake up to find every single one of its leaders have assassinated themselves overnight. This country keeps circling the drain and I keep wondering when its momentum will stop and it will gutter away.
As a matter of fact, your grace, Grand Marshall Jarvis did care. Very much. That’s why he helped your father become king, knowing that would give you the perfect motivation to poison him. Now we can get rid of House Iwatani altogether, clean, easy, and legitimately. If you’ll accompany me, please…
‘It’s too late, you can’t change a thing’.
Stab stabitty stab.
‘Yes I can.’
…would be an option if Ardaic wasn’ lawful neutral.
This is why in practice there is no such thing as lawful good. Or lawful intelligent for that matter.
At least not in fiction.
D&D alignment suck for this reason.
Because there will be that school of thought that a lawful good person could do exactly just that.
Because the lawful person values law so much that he respects Gastonia’s law, not the law of a murderer who got to where he was both evilly and unlawfully.
Basically the whole system allows for stupid handwavy excuses that adds nothing to the game or any nerd discussion ever.
For decades people have defecated copiously all over D&D’s alignment system, but your last line perfectly illustrates what they’ve been missing: Of course it’s not a accurate representation of morality’s every shade of gray. It’s a set of handwavy excuses – exactly what it was supposed to be!
Its sole purpose is to let people roleplay characters in a variety of ways, as opposed to getting into arguments over what’s right and what’s wrong, what makes sense and what doesn’t make sense. I’d take a handwavy excuse over philosophy amateur hour that bogs the game down any day of the week.
that, and a way to incorporate magic that has moral awareness in some fashion – all the Detect Good, Smite, and Protection From Evil stuff – without getting into all the minutia of having a shaded moral system – no one wanted a spell for “Detect Overly Complex, Long Term Morally Nebulous Only Potentially Justified Revenge Person” – you are, end of the day, intending to off a 3 year old for something his grandfather did, Evil is how you ping on the Magic Moral Radar.
How about Superman? He manages to be a superhero while sticking strictly to the rules. And he fights Lex Luthor, who manages to be a supervillain while also obeying the law. That’s LG versus LE if I ever saw it.
At first, all I could think was “Ardaic, you POS.” but then I GUESS Taro’s right.
Maybe this is finally where Bandit’s coming through. We already saw one of her group in the home.
Given that he looks like Tyrion Lannister, I agree.
But I’m still really disappointed by Ardaic’s capitulation.
You’re assuming he doesn’t go full Quisling. to Taro: “Yes Mr. Dictator sir” to the rebellion (adventurers?) “El Chibi Psycho is going to be a jackass here and here, you may want to do awful things to his government over there for a bit”
The damnedest thing is Taro is right. Consider this new power structure was made possible by Aradic conspiring to isolate and eliminate potential problems. And while he never knew the extent of Iwatani’s crimes he knew how ruthless he could be so the apple not falling from the tree should come as no surprise.
Or you could just be a real warrior and execute the arrogant murderous child right in front of you before he can orchestrate the destruction of your nation. They’re clearly depicted alone and so forth. The kid thinks he’s untouchable, but that’s only true if the Ardaic is stupid enough to believe it too.
To add, this isn’t really Taro convincing Ardaic of anything. This is the author trying to convince the audience that this makes sense, but it doesn’t. Despite this being a comic with magic, it is Taro who breaks my suspense of disbelief.
Taro is dumb and I’m bored now.
https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=aCPtFEhhs38
I never do this, ever, but I am kind of especially blown away by your hot take here.
Suffice to say, he’s not a warrior, he’s a *soldier,* one who cares very much about order, so no: child murder without due process (and without evidence) is not an option for him, you fucking psychopath.
As much as he’s a kid, and Garithos’ argument is cold-blooded, even in the US there’s the option to try a kid as an adult. Sometimes said precious little darling does something so heinous that “but they’re a child!” no longer justifies clemency. I’d say assassinating your family to pave the way for your ascension to power is a very adult decision and Taro by his actions accepts the consequences of failure in due course. But to your point, Ardaic is a king’s man at heart, and he needs someone to serve and to keep order.
Of course, but that’s still due process.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/11/ben-carson-may-have-never-stabbed-anyone.html
This seemed relevant
You rewrote The Bad Seed, and you’re calling someone a psychopath for wanting your carefully crafted irredeemable monster dead? Point me to the part of the story where you humanized him.
And while Ardaic may not have anything that can hold up in court, he has a pretty clear admission of guilt from the kid at this point. And the devotion to public order doesn’t automatically translate to a devotion to constant operation of law.
And we have a subplot where Syr’nj has pointed him at the cult’s dealings, as they might relate to the heads of houses, to investigate – we don’t know what that investigation might have turned up (or whether he even bothered). And we-the-readers happen to know Iwatani WAS involved with the cult.
My point is there are a lot of non-psychopath reasons not to allow this kid to survive the day. It’s one thing to say that murdering a kid in a closet isn’t within Ardaic’s character. But you’ve written Ardaic in a morally splotchy gray space, and that “what is the public good” splotch gets really big and extra-splotchy when the power structure loses multiple powerful people back-to-back and then a tiny psychopath declares himself ruler.
Man, call me crazy, but I guess I draw a hard line on murdering children, period.
Also, continue to call me crazy if you must, but I don’t recall putting down anything that has a “clear admission of guilt” that would hold up in American courts, much less courts in a fictional medieval society hundreds of years older than ours that would be predisposed to defending a family in power.
And IDK, maybe wait and see what happens later in the story? Just a suggestion.
That reader’s response that so shocked you – the promotion of child-killing – was a response to a carefully crafted character and scenario YOU CREATED, with, I assume, the intent of making us hate Taro Iwatani a great deal.
What kind of fans would we be if we didn’t take your lessons to heart?
Are you proud of us, father?
Am I allowed to be exactly as proud as I am horrified?
I think we just saw rebellion stir in Ardaic. Patience, Taro is a lesson you still need to learn. telling the guy most devoted to Gastonia that it doesn’t exist anymore? not smart. the fact that when he said ‘your grace’ it wasn’t ‘your Grace’ like it is normally when he speaks to a head of House? yeah, he’s not thrilled with you. and I’m sure Jarvis and Syr’ynj will be more then a bit…perturbed with your actions. he might not tattle in ‘public’ you little snot, but that don’t mean that other people in positions of power won’t listen to him and act accordingly. and boy do you put a lot of faith that Jarvis will put up with your antics. Your dad spent a LONG time getting Jarvis on his side for this, I’m sure. I doubt the same consideration and mutual ‘respect’ if not like, extends to you.
They may be depicted alone, but that servant shown earlier would’ve known that Ardaic visited while Taro was still alive. So unless Ardaic killed that one as well, there would be at least one living witness to that fact. And probably more witnesses, since Ardaic was probably called to the scene by a messenger, who’d also know that Taro was alive. So even if Ardaic had it in him to kill Taro, it would most likely be very difficult for him to get away with it at this particular moment.
But I’m sure that if Ardaic and Jarvis decide that killing Taro would not only be the moral thing to do, but also the necessary thing to do, they could have something arranged. You know, as long as they don’t trust whatever Taro tells them about his late father’s secret-scribblings war plans.
is it bad of me wanting to see a child get shiv in the back?
Welp, Frigg sure embodies perfectly the notion of “agressive merchandizing”.
Yes, there might be chaos now with a scandal. But I’m fairly certain it will be nothing compared to what will happen to the country with Shitstain Jr. running things.
The good of the many is definitely worth the violent death of the one in this case.
Ardaic doesn’t look too happy, but that might be because of the thought that he must plunge his country/people into chaos to save them from Taro.
He might “serve” but that might refer to his people and his country, not to Taro.
But him calling Taro “your grace” for the fist time does point to the fact that for now he think Taro has the (temporary) advantage.
..Ardaic drinks.
… Taro waits
…. Ardaic, most inconveniently, does not die
….. Taro: “waitwhatwhy? Butbutbutbut…..”
…… Ardaic: “I take a wide variety of antidotes every day. It’s part of my JOB you little psycho….”
……. Ardaic: …They also have a pleasant cherry flavor.
Some of the antidotes have unfortunate side effects.
Which is why my butthole is always clenched so tight.
Now I can’t help but wonder…GA’s Frigg vs PA’s The Merch. Who wins?
Discounts. Dope.
In the end, at least, Ardaic now knows exactly who and what he is working for, that’s got to count for something going forward.
Can’t wait for the first sit down with Taro and Iver, they both poison eachother and everything solves itself.
It’ll be fun when the other Heads of Houses get this story. Ardaic can maybe be swayed by this bullshit appeal to ‘order’, but people who actually want power for themselves…
I…. Hate….. You…….. Taro!!!!
I’d like to buy the printed volumes (didn’t even know the third one was out), but the shipping costs stack up to $45 for all three (I’m overseas). I’ll have to think about that before I decide.
Strangely, if I try to buy three copies of the same volume instead, the total shipping cost is down to $25. What gives?
(Also, did Taro just get a wine ‘stache? That’s… wow.)
Gimme a minute and I’ll make up a three-pack for you.
I’m new to Gumroad, so I’m still working it out, but if you go back to the page you’ll see the new three pack with the appropriate shipping applied to it! Coupon code ‘justfriggmeup’ gets you $15 off the cover!
https://gumroad.com/guildedage
Aaaaand order placed. Thanks, Phil! :D
I did actually have some trouble with the Gumroad store at first. Firefox cut off the image above the order form, like this. Couldn’t scroll down either; the right scrollbar scrolls the page behind the order form, and the left scrollbar is grayed out and doesn’t work.
I solved it by zooming out the whole page to 50%. Just a heads up in case anyone else has the same problem.
(And it wasn’t a problem with the three-pack, since that image isn’t as tall.)
Hilariously enough, I can’t actually get Gumroad’s management interface to work on Chrome, only Firefox!
Looks like the PWYW e-issues only go back to issue 12.
Nope, all the way back to 1! Maybe your browser didn’t finish loading them?
Maybe there’s some issue of a maximum page length for the Gumroad setup? Because it’s only loading to issue 13 for me. :/
Oop! Reloaded and this time it worked! It did pause for a long time at the same spot, though. Seems to be some sort of hiccup when it gets down that far…
Our only crime is making too many comics!
You horrific prince among men!
See, what I’d do is grab the little shit, and make him drink the poison, then claim someone outside the family entirely poisoned the entire lot of them. How horrible! We must go to war with the Savage Races! Oh wait, we already are… well, need some new leaders, otherwise, carry on.