2013-07-26: [CT] Pocket Priests?

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The Comment Golem
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2013-07-26: [CT] Pocket Priests?

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Discussion thread for [CT] Pocket Priests?
BloodHenge
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Re: 2013-07-26: [CT] Pocket Priests?

Post by BloodHenge »

Is that Fran on the far left in the background of panel 2?
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Re: 2013-07-26: [CT] Pocket Priests?

Post by Graybeard »

BloodHenge wrote:Is that Fran on the far left in the background of panel 2?
And I could argue for Naga's distinctive hair right next to her.

Saus is maybe the most "cosmopolitan" place in the Errant World that we've seen other than Tsuirakushiti, but this still has to rank as ... surprising ...
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Re: 2013-07-26: [CT] Pocket Priests?

Post by Imp-Chan »

Yes, those are Naga and Fran. I needed more silhouette when I extended the panel and thought it would be a fun little easter egg.
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Re: 2013-07-26: [CT] Pocket Priests?

Post by eee »

The power of the snark is STRONG in this one!

She's pretty cynical too. Which doesn't mean that's not an accurate assessment.

(I've got to say, I was disappointed with Sarna in the end. Here's someone who by her comments makes it clear she regards the current leadership of the Elves as clowns and KNOWS what they do almost always results in disaster. And yet, when Sarine tries to argue her out of going along with what may wind up being the most disastrous and blasphemous plan of all, decides to kill her best friend as a traitor rather than finding out if Sarine had a better idea and should be supported in her efforts. If you complain about how badly things are going but insist on going along with them, that's not really a sign of character... :( )
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Re: 2013-07-26: [CT] Pocket Priests?

Post by Bytemite »

Or, she has the mentality of a soldier. Many of them go along with clusterfucks despite knowing better because they feel the principled thing to do is to stand by their country right or wrong.

I don't agree with that attitude, but it explains a lot about Sarna and might even explain what happened to the friendship with Sarine she once had.

Heck, even Misa eventually opts out of following Sarine because of duty. Sarna seems to have the same motivation only she's more sarcastic and far less innocent than Misa.
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Re: 2013-07-26: [CT] Pocket Priests?

Post by Bytemite »

Put another way:

Imagine that you're part of an entire species that is about to be wiped out by an outside force (not to mention the species can't produce offspring anymore). The leadership gets intelligence about an energy source that they think might give them a chance against both problems, at the risk of potentially turning someone insane and having to fight two demigods instead of one. But as far as they see it, this is their last desperate option, if it goes wrong they were already dead and screwed in the first place, and if it goes right, they think they might be able to save themselves.

A member of the special forces is sent to obtain this energy source, and they follow their orders despite knowing that it might/probably will go wrong, because they're also hoping it might work out. Meanwhile, a maverick member of that same group of special forces is sent away to a foreign country try to keep that agent from interfering. And that agent decides to create an international incident and send that foreign nation against her own people to try to stop them.

Sarna's reaction to this is really not that unbelievable.

And that's without getting into the fact that Sarine doesn't really manage to stop them, but instead delivers a suitable vessel to that energy source - one that doesn't go crazy right away and helps stop the other demigod, but ten years later proceeds to cause another clusterfuck we don't know the details about yet.

Frankly even though Sarine kinda became a hero again to her people and redeemed herself in their eyes, I'd be very surprised if she remained with the rangers after all this - or even if they didn't actually DRUM HER OUT of the service for refusing to follow orders. On the plus side, if Sarine had been wrong, there wouldn't be any of her people left to complain about her.
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Re: 2013-07-26: [CT] Pocket Priests?

Post by Graybeard »

Bytemite wrote:Or, she has the mentality of a soldier. Many of them go along with clusterfucks despite knowing better because they feel the principled thing to do is to stand by their country right or wrong.
Some, maybe. But many more, I think, go along with the CFs because they feel the principled thing is to stand by their buddies. Loyalty to one's unit, and a desire not to look like a coward/shirker/etc. in front of one's buddies, is an enormously powerful force in the military, and one that good militaries go to enormous lengths to develop in their soldiers. The bigger picture of standing by their country gets lost compared to the feeling that if Bill on my left and Joe on my right are going to march off to die in battle, then I'm gonna march off to die with them, dammit, because they're my buddies and I'm not gonna let them down. If you haven't read the late, great William Manchester's memoir/history "Goodbye Darkness," I recommend it; he examines this theme deeply and perceptively, including the way armies and their political masters exploit it.

Note that this has very little to do with what moves Sarna; she's a Peregin, after all. I honestly don't know exactly what to make of Sarna. However, the simple explanation that fits the facts is that she (1) has a double dose of the arrogance that most elves (even Sarine) wear like it's a uniform, and (2) isn't very bright.
Bytemite wrote:Heck, even Misa eventually opts out of following Sarine because of duty. Sarna seems to have the same motivation only she's more sarcastic and far less innocent than Misa.
If you mean here, I'd read beyond and behind her words. Misa doesn't opt out because of duty. She opts out because her sense of self-worth, which has been tenuous from the beginning of her 1400-year-long life, has been completely pulverized by Sara, and she needs to recover it. That's not quite the same thing as "duty," although doing her duty is one thing that -- she thinks -- may allow her to recover it. She says as much the second time she starts to opt out of following Sarine, but this time Sarine is smart (and sympathetic) enough to address the self-worth issue, and it works.
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Re: 2013-07-26: [CT] Pocket Priests?

Post by eee »

Sarna's reaction might have been believable. But I still question if it was smart. If *I* had been Sarna... well, first of all, that would have lead to considerable gender confusion :shock: . But following that, Sarine's revelation that the Tsuirakuans were on their way would have caused me to do two things. One, fix Sarine with a steely gaze and demand to know "What are you up to?" Because this is Sarine, after all; she's ALWAYS got a plan. Siccing the Tsuirakuans on the Elves, and hacking into the warpgate network to get her own strike force there first: All that should have suggested Sarine was up to something and it would have been wise for her oldest friend, who should by this time know how tricky Sarine was, to try to find out what.

Of course we know Sarine had no plan, all her efforts had gone wrong and she was winging it at that point, simply hoping she could make a difference and talk the Elves out of doing something stupid. But Sarna didn't know that. She should have found out, before moving to the Duel to the Death option.

And two, immediately think to myself "Yeah, Command needs to know this, and right now." Because at that point the Elves were stymied. Their one human was dead, they had no way to get through the anti-Elf shield, and now suddenly comes the revelation that they don't have an unlimited amount of time to figure something out. Trying to kill Sarine would raise the risk that the wrong person might die instead and Command WOULDN'T be told. Also, Sarine had conveniently brought two humans and a half-Elf with her, any of whom might be 'persuaded' to lower the barrier. The smart thing to do might have been to see if Sarine would agree to a truce, they all stop trying to kill each other, and Sarine go talk to the lead Elf. That could have had considerable possibilities. Instead, Sarna went the dumb route. And paid for it. :(
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Re: 2013-07-26: [CT] Pocket Priests?

Post by Bytemite »

Well, I'm not sure that Sarna was even the one in charge of the expeditionary force - seemed to me she was just put in charge of securing the warp gate and setting an ambush in case Sarine came through and tried to mess things up. And, it's Sarine, of course she was going to try to mess things up.

As such, I'm not sure Sarna was the only person who could have contacted the chain of command back in the mountain... And in fact she wasn't because the elf leadership found out anyway.

Secondly, I doubt any of the humans could have been convinced to help them bring down the barrier unless Sarine was dead and they were forced (possibly magically). Sarine was against it and they were kinda on her side. Only Sarine getting taken hostage was sufficient persuasion to get Jon to go along with it.

And lastly, from Sarna's position and considering just how serious this is for the elves, Sarine really does come across as going full on traitor. Based on what I've heard there was a fallout between Sarine and Sarna some time back, enough so that Sarna might not trust Sarine anymore, whether or not Sarine has a plan or is crafty. So I suspect Sarna wouldn't care about Sarine's plan by that point. She'd just care about stopping Sarine, friends or not, by any means possible.

It's one of the cool things about Errant Story that when things get serious, different characters respond differently based on their personality and what they would do, and that even villains and antagonists are sympathetic and/or have understandable motivations when you look at things from their perspective. Even Ian, crazy as he is, was still kinda sympathetic (albeit wrong) right up to the end or close to it because of the moral ambiguity of the elves.
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