TLA 12 Anno
FB: #iknowthatfeelbro
Flo and I both believe in character change, and there are some strong examples of it through my career. Fans’ most central character goes from a stuttering teenage virgin wallflower to a battle-scarred retiree in a poly marriage. Penny and Aggie’s title teenage characters go from enemies to allies to (briefly) lovers before ending the series as adults with a hopeful but uncertain future.
Even among Guilded Age characters, there are some dramatic turns. When we met him, Penk was a homesick nobody: now he’s the troubled leader of a battalion with increasing political power and responsibility, and in the future, he’ll be basically president of an empire. Carol’s gone from chirpy, cheerful assistant to a hag-ridden fusion of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and she’ll play a role in the series climax that neither her past nor her present self could’ve imagined.
There are also characters who stubbornly refuse to evolve in any meaningful way, even as the world around them shifts or their own circumstances change. Taro’s one of those, and for all his depths, so is Harky.
Payet Best, for most of the series’ run, seemed to belong to that category…and that’s what may make his change unique. He had false starts, superficial transformations, but always seemed to end up right back in his “skill exceeded only by his ego” template. Until now. I’m sure he was a frustrating read for that reason, sometimes…but it’s moments like this that, I hope, made all the buildup worth it.
I liked I lot this scene ;_;
There we go. That’s Best.
I can’t decide if this scene calls for the Beatles song insinuated in the alt-tex or for Barney’s theme
It’s still kinda … not sure. Best had so many moments where he could have shown he cared just a little bit, or where we could have seen that/what he was trying to do, or …but no. He just straight up always chose the arrogant idiot path. No trying to do good but his ego getting in the way, just ego all the way. The long series of shocks he’s had in the recent past are certainly enough (and probably also required) to justify a change of mind like this, but it doesn’t feel like a buildup to me that’s finally paying out. It’s more like relief that that annoying idiot is finally stopping with the annoying idiot stuff. Which is welcome, and so is the whole scene because I love this kind of message, and I particularly love the change of perspective when Best brings up that the berzerker, of all people was acting like he’s better than Best, just to make Best feel bad. But this whole exchange feels more like Byron’s hard work paying off (supported by a large helping of luck) than like Best finally winning the struggle against his own ego.
I’ll still take it. Good riddance to Old Best.