Unsounded

>Cope has said that, in her opinion, Roger is the most noble and kindhearted person in the comic
Yeah, but she shlicks to babyraping cannibal zombies.

He's not too different from the spellmaster that just got shiskabobbed, and he's just as responsible for Jon's death as as that spellmaster is for his plats blasting themselves into unreality. He's not the exceptional leader he thought he was.

I don't see how the one relates to the other. If anything, wouldn't that imply her personal tastes aren't clouding her judgment on that one?

>I don't see how the one relates to the other.
user, please.
I was playfully pointing out that she might not be the best judge of character.

My guess is he fell in love with a plat or bronze or something and generally hates the idea of the artificially constructed lifespan caste system. Anyone who is devoted to seeing it gone would most likely be willing to throw their life away for the cause and since Roger is of the caste that has the longest lifespan, him wanting it gone is selfless and noble. Kinda like those rich old money white boy Kennedys caring about civil rights.

>Roger was angling to get cursed the whole time as part of THE PLAN
Feels good to be right. Though I can't be too proud because I only really suspected it on monday, but still.

I think it's more that the khert is fucked up so the curse can't reach him yet. Which suits his purposes since he's not out of Alderode yet. It's hard to know yet, however, if the timing of the khert fuckening was intentional or just a mistake that happened when Duane decapitated the plat leadership.

>what the hell does the Salt Lizard have to do with all of this
Presumably, it knows a way out of Alderode. Given what Ruffles's Grandmother related, despite thinking she was dead, the Salt Lizard was driven north by Cresce's conquest of the Two-Toes old homes. It should know the way back, and thus give Roger a path to flee Alderode into Cresce that by passes the problems of a sea escape, which might be blockaded, and the ever fucked border wasteland on the surface.

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I'm into some pretty fucked up things myself, pornographic fiction-wise involving people behaving poorly. But unless you're really fucked in the head, you're never under any illusions about the morality of what you wank to. Usually that very immorality is part of the allure.

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Duane didn't order Jon to fucking kill himself though.

doesn't the salt lizard hate cresce, dont see how its gonna be happy when roger drags a bunch of niggers into its new home

No, he's not dragging Crescians through its home, he just wants to know the way back to where it came from so he can leave.

I gather it's less "I'm just as bad as this guy" and more "the buck stops with me and I totally fucked up"

Essentially. Duane's castigating the enemy wright for misusing the authority and responsibility placed on him over children who wield tremendous power made him realize that he himself was doing the same thing to his own charges. Mixing up trying to help them mature and his own desires to be an effective soldier. And making him finally admit Jon was right to question his intentions. The battlefield isn't a great place to try and get kids to be a bit more daring and risk taking.

At least Magnus had fun.

In one regard, Duane was right. He's a very capable teacher and wright and he was clearly able to get the young plats to better utilize their skills and be more confident in their abilities. On the other hand, he was totally out for recognition and glory and these were fucking child soldiers in the middle of warzone. Duane's been caught between his natural paternal instincts and vanity here and it's finally broken through to him that he's been ignoring it all.

>Presumably, it knows a way out of Alderode
Interesting possibility. She Roger is in league with the lizard now, or at least dealing with the salt lizard, I wonder how that's going to color Duane's conversation
Just what could RF-H have to offer a senet beast like that

I like the setup, but it seems weird that Duane would say it out loud. It’s like Ash was worried the audience wouldn’t understand that he realized that he’s essentially done the same thing.

Better living conditions for the lizards? Their own country maybe?

It's a bit trite but I'll give him a pass on it because he's just had a train run on his mental health
Good thing Lem got that shit out of his system already so they've got at least one pissmop with their head on straight for the big fuck going down now

I just take it as a somewhat theatrical delivery, that tends to happen a lot in this comic. Especially with flamboyant personalities like Duane, their passions do run away with them at times.

Before that. If Jon didn't break the circle Duane's boys might have assploded also.

Ahahaha, this is exactly right. When I was editing the page last night I was worried some people wouldn't get it, so I added that dialogue box in the fourth panel. Even with it, people are asking "What did he realise? I don't understaaaaand." But now also I have some people saying it's trite and theatrical he said it aloud.

There is no way to win!

It just seems a bit too blatant for Ash’s usual style. Like is Bastion turned to wink at the viewer I could understand, but I’m not convinced that Duane would say something so obvious out loud.

There is. Kill one group. Please the other.

Sorry Ash.

>comic I've never even heard of
>bunch of rabid fanboys talking in depth about like its fucking reddit
this thread is cancer and you are all gay

Yeah yeah, but go start reading it.

But you love us more and if it comes down to going back on your artistic integrity to cater to one group specifically it’d be us riiight?

Read comic

>this is what brainlets actually believe

I think it was fine. It's the sort of thing people say to themselves in movies and it's accepted.

Never be sorry. Now that I know it seems too on the nose I can consider sneakily taking it out now, or for print later.

I don't know, there was someone up there who still didn't get it. Yea Forums is usually pretty sharp when it comes to picking up on what's going on but I've seen plenty of readers here miss the mark in the past. Usually I blame myself for it and definitely often I fuck up, but it's hard, man. There is such a fine line between implying something and overstating it.

Anyway, the next few pages are some of my favourite. I'm glad Claggart is going over well, he's the true hero.

i agree my fellow epic intellectual 19 year old, only redditors talk about things

>>comic I've never even heard of

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This is war. Can’t turn back time and have do overs. The future spreads its legs for dick of new better tomorrow

Did you base Claggart’s appearance on Mike from RLM?

"Base" seems like a strong word, but I took inspiration from him. That bitchy Silver wright chewing Duane out is named Evans for Rich Evans.

I think there was a bit of that going on

Does “close the deal” involve banging the salt lizard?
This is important information

Seeing as you’re here, what did you think of the announcements from SDCC this past weekend?

Given that it’s supposed to be a giant lizard they’d neither either a giant dick or vagina to close the deal. As much as Ash is fond of reptile sex, I don’t think this is one of those times.

Uh, I don't know, what were they? I don't care about capeshit, so if they were in that arena, I'm going to disappoint you.

Women have never stirred him but maybe Senet puss puss is what ruined him for all else

this is the correct answer

Playing any games right now? Sinking City seems like it's right up your alley.

I knew from the start I was right to like Claggart. He's rewarded my faith in him admirably over these last pages.

The context is strange. The obvious comparison is that Duane and the enemy spellmaster are both using naive child soldiers who will blindly follow commands. But the second panel shows a bloody Jon, who did the exact opposite and disobeyed a direct command but dies anyway from crossfire. I'm assuming your intention was to emphasize Jon's defiance was driven by the sense of morality Duane instilled in him, making the statement "they only know what I tell them" make more sense in context.

If this was indeed your intention, I think it would've been better to show the moment Jon broke the circle in the second panel rather than his dead body. The latter makes it seem like Jon died for the same reason the enemy spell master's kids did, which is true on a grander scale but not so much on the level of direct cause and effect.

Or maybe I'm retarded and also just don't get it.

>If this was indeed your intention, I think it would've been better to show the moment Jon broke the circle in the second panel rather than his dead body.
I feel like the intent was to show the consequences, hence Jon's bloody and battered body.

Jon died because he’s a child in a warzone, not a soldier. Soldiers break, children break much easier. Duane was in charge of those children and is hit with the realization that he’s as bad as the enemy spellmaster, the only difference is he’s still alive and could just as easily be dead.

>Claggart doesn't seem that bad now that we know more about what's going on.

That's right, Jay.

As if the vile Crescians could be trusted to do either.

Duane is melodramatic as fuck. I'm not sure he can help it.

>I don't care about capeshit

how can one woman be this based

That doesn't really connect with the "they only know what you/I tell them" line, at least not directly. Choosing the show it during that particular exchange of dialogue would only confuse the point being made in my opinion.

To me it seems Duane's realization there is that his parental impulses are in conflict with the necessities of war. He wants to protect his kids and raise them to be good people, but much of what defines a "good person" would be detrimental in a soldier and lead to situations like Jon, where being good can lead to defeat or death.

Jon, having idolized Duane, perhaps was only doing what he thought his spellmaster would've approved of, maybe not in the moment but from his overall lessons on being a decent person. Hence the line "they only know what I tell them." more directly ties into Jon's actions and ultimate fate.

Also I wouldn't call what Jon did breaking. He didn't rout, hesitate or act on impulse, he made a (perhaps poorly) thought out judgement call that overvalued empathy. This also isn't a unique quality to children; if anything he showed more empathy than you'd expect of a child soldier. Magnus was more in line with how one would generally act. Brash, impulsive, eager to fit in with what he thinks is right in the moment and rationalizes random violence as some kind of punishment for misbehavior.

Duane gave the boys a direct order not to break the circle and Jon broke it.

Duane was pushing them so hard if jon didnt break the circle they might've ended up just like those plat boys underground did

Because he thought his spellmaster was wrong, not because he was panicking. He wasn't reacting to stress and "breaking", he was defying an order because he believed his superior's judgement was compromised, which it was, but still within protocols. What Jon did was insubordination, not breaking.

About the battle scene, I wanna make sure I get what happened right: they thought underground plats were casting junk spells to push up the mogul number and disable spellcasting, so Duane and co were trying to fry them before that happened. Though what the junk spells actually were were individual teleports, and the enemy used their final casting to teleport their soldiers directly above Duane's. This pushed the mogul above 100 and the khert reacted by immediately fucking the last ones to cast spells and destabilizing physics in the general area.

That all right?