… And from a mockery of the system… make an ultra-mockery in turn… great move if you want to lose any illusion of your image. Zuurith has to be damn stupid, if he’s gonna agree… but maybe he doesn’t actually know about the real situation there…
Either that, or he’ll suddenly have two problem prisoners instead of one.
“The extremely noble and interesting prisoner is refusing to hurt people? I know, let’s have him fight Hero McGoodguy after giving them some time to talk to each other and connect. Surely that will result in brutal bloodshed.”
“Have you not noticed my white strip and retreating hairline? That’s from stress. Stress he is causing me!”
It seems Zuurith isn’t in the mood for the A.M.’s toadying but his logical reasoning as to why making Kendal fight will solve existing problems, and whatever his actions he does won’t be his fault, may sway him.
I have to wonder if the Arenamaster’s plan has been hijacked by Caliban and Tahraim, and if so by how much? Caliban incarnated as a guard, sent Kendal to Dainix’s cell and has warded off attempts to free both of them; could the fight the arenamaster is proposing play into their scheme or go against it?
My prediction for next week: Zuurith will agree while the gang may or may not be informed of the fight. Kendal and Dainix will spend the fight more sparring and training each other than fighting, further infuriating the Arenamaster.
I was thinking of Tynan crashing the arena but I’ve just thought that maybe Tess will; infuriated she can’t find anyone to talk to she decides to land in the arena and announce the storm’s weirdness to the entire arena crowd.
I mean, they could always just decide to… not. Like, that is, as far as I know, a thing those two could decide on. Or treat it like a spar – no serious injuries, no killing blows. Like, there’s leeway here!
Why do I get the feeling that any attempt to make them fight will just end with Kendal surrendering immediately and Dainix refusing to kill him. Arenamaster, you better get some lions prepared just in case.
TL;DR: I suggest we now pit our buddy cellmates against each other in cruel bloodsport. Ain’t it fun being heartless? After all, it’s what our city is known for.
For someone whose entire life seems to be about upholding a rule of law, this Arenamaster seems awfully quick to try to circumvent them, because someone is following the rules in the wrong way.
Your brilliant plan has a slight problem: Kendal and Dainix do not want to hurt each other.
ThengdaMudiyan:
Correlation is not causation; remember that The Collector is centuries old (and doesn’t seem like the type to have children), while this guy looks to be in his forties at most.
Evil Tree:
I love the prospect of Tess giving zero fucks in front of a crowd of bloodthirsty spectators. “I’m trying to save your lives, assholes!”
Somebody:
“Welcome to Zuurith, try our spiced meats and amorality!”
Maybe, and maybe I am just bleeding heart here, mister arena master, but maybe you should have made people fight against their wills and morals if you didn’t want to look bad, but idk
Ima hop on board the bandwagon of wanting to see Tess crash the friendly spar as the Arenamaster fumes… Problem is, if Tynan is fed by fear, and Tess makes an announcement to *an arena full of people* things will go sideways very fast…
Yeah, I still want to see that.
@merletastic I love malicious compliance! It warms my striving-for-lawful-good heart…
I got confused for a sec looking at the ‘Characters’ page and seeing the Collector right next to the arena master. They look pretty similar and both have a less-than-positive relationship with Vash. Maybe something could come of that.
Or how prone he is to being influenced–it came up a few pages back, but there’s a theory (can’t recall off the top of my head if it was confirmed) that the ties between a city and their people work both ways–that the people of a city can influence the personality of their god even as the god’s influence affects them. And if the Arenamaster happens to hold a position in Zurith-the-city high enough to influence a lot of it’s goings-ons, then he might have more than a little say in the personality and/or vulnerability to manipulation (for lack of a better description at the moment) of Zuurith-the-person… And because Zuurith is as much the soul of his city as he is an individual, he probably wouldn’t even realize what was happening to him.
I hope that makes sense. I’ve got a character who’s the same way (being a manifestation/magical core/genius loci), and it is amazingly difficult to try and explain him without tangling said explanation too badly. Which makes sense, given how complicated the minutiae of such a character are to work out in the first place, but it can be frustrating.
Long explanation short, think of anything you’ve read or seen with a king and his evil advisor, and that’s kind of what appears to be going on here. ‘The Legend of Nightfall’ would be a good example in my opinion, but since that might be a somewhat obscure book these days, you might think a little more along the lines of ‘The Dragon Prince’–there are a couple of really good examples there, but one’s spoilers.
(In any case, Zuurith just got the loophole he’s been looking for…)
And so, instead of letting some slight problems pass by without much inconvenience, the Arenamaster is intent on digging up that grave and making even bigger problems out of pride.
So i wonder what will blow up first, the storm that is approaching, the political mess, or the two fighters simply sitting down and refusing to fight.
All three at once, probably. That seems to be how this sort of thing usually ends up.
On a side note, is anyone else getting ‘Magic the Gathering: Arena’ vibes from this? Granted, the MtG books are probably fairly obscure, but I am seriously reminded of that one for some reason. Must be something about the characters here, since ‘Dragonlance’ had a gladiatorial arena plot in one of its trilogies and i’m not getting the same vibe…
Ah, that’s it! It’s the smell of sleaze and corruption. That’d do it.
So for once we have an arena-master who follows their own rules instead of just making things up to deal with a problem. Then again considering who is master is, he would have to be very careful about that lest he find himself as one of the inmates. This does also suggest that there were indeed some compelling and reasoned points made for the existence of the arena. Probably involving population control, dealing with extra dangerous criminals who would just be repeat offenders and a continued danger to the population, as well as maintaining an image of strength and power to the population and inmates.
Kendal: “Hey, I surrender, and killing me would be uhhh, really bad for the reasons Zuurith has already outlined to you, and also we were trying to leave, and the terms of my imprisonment was only that I’d be here until we left the city, and we’re leaving so you can’t keep me here, or you’re breaking the very clearly established contract k thx bye”
Yeaaaah. I don’t think Kendall’s gonna murder just to make his life easier. There are lots of things he could have done to make his life easier already and he’s passed on that chance. Try again.
I wonder how the next day will play out… an arena battle between two incredibly powerful beings, the Elemental Magus sneaking into a place that actively thinks the being inhabiting him is the devil, an angry storm god finally able to wreak havoc, a lightning lady, and the probable vesself of Life itself just hanging out. And Falst is there, too.
I am ALSO going to hop on the “Tess shows up to slap the world with a wake-up call” train. She’ll definately make a move somewhere, and I’m excited to see where and what.
Caliban might show up for some in-universe explanation over the whole ~getting Dainix to forge himself~ plan, but only after he actually forges himself, whatever that ends up meaning.
I wonder if Life Mom is strong enough to defeat Tynan. She’s shown up during a lot of the more pivotal battles, and I imagine this will be one, so is Tynan even going to be a problem?
The fact that the arena master even thinks this argument will work does such a good job of telling us how fundamentally bad the society of this city is. Amazing job Red!
Is the Arenamaster a prick? Will Zurrith betray his principles for this appeal to his ego? Will Kendal and Dainix comply if forced into a crokinole match? Will I ever get these in on time again?
MyDogIsTheBestDog: It may be tradition, but I think the point is that it’s being portrayed as bad because it’s forcing our protagonist into a situation he didn’t ask for. Pretty much everyone in the comments wants to see those cellmates get along
Skye:
It must not be universal, then; on my tablet, it pops up a right-click adjacent menu with a miniature picture of the page, its number, and its alt text above all the options.
By “convince” did he hear “manipulate/gaslight” ???
This is NOT excusing other of their actions, the god is a wimpy noodle. Just simple stating that this ‘god’ really doesn’t know anything because he’d rather be told lies than face the truth, learn & grow. Tch.
Have you considered: “fuck you”, arena master?
Arenamaster
is making his argument.
Will Zuurith agree?
Of course he’ll agree.
How else will there be conflict
between prison pals?
Wait, arena master is one of his emissaries?!
*surprised pikachu face*
Not good.
“So, we’re here in this arena.”
“Yup.”
“I don’t really feel like fighting, do you?”
“Not really.”
“So….. know any good songs?”
AHH WE’RE GONNA GET A DAINIX AND KENDAL FIGHT!!
This is going to be epic.. the emotions… the vibes…
Arenamaster openly manipulates a God. He’s definitely related to the Collector.
… And from a mockery of the system… make an ultra-mockery in turn… great move if you want to lose any illusion of your image. Zuurith has to be damn stupid, if he’s gonna agree… but maybe he doesn’t actually know about the real situation there…
Either that, or he’ll suddenly have two problem prisoners instead of one.
“The extremely noble and interesting prisoner is refusing to hurt people? I know, let’s have him fight Hero McGoodguy after giving them some time to talk to each other and connect. Surely that will result in brutal bloodshed.”
god damn all these butts!
i wonder whether kendal will actually fight dainix
although, to be honest, it would be a really awesome fight
And this is how you convince lawful neutral NPCs.
oh i’m sure this will *all* resolve cleanly over a lovely game of chess, right Red? …right?
I knew what he was gonna say the moment he said Ignan
I think it’d be hilarious if the two just sat down in front of each other and just fought verbally.
“Have you not noticed my white strip and retreating hairline? That’s from stress. Stress he is causing me!”
It seems Zuurith isn’t in the mood for the A.M.’s toadying but his logical reasoning as to why making Kendal fight will solve existing problems, and whatever his actions he does won’t be his fault, may sway him.
I have to wonder if the Arenamaster’s plan has been hijacked by Caliban and Tahraim, and if so by how much? Caliban incarnated as a guard, sent Kendal to Dainix’s cell and has warded off attempts to free both of them; could the fight the arenamaster is proposing play into their scheme or go against it?
My prediction for next week: Zuurith will agree while the gang may or may not be informed of the fight. Kendal and Dainix will spend the fight more sparring and training each other than fighting, further infuriating the Arenamaster.
I was thinking of Tynan crashing the arena but I’ve just thought that maybe Tess will; infuriated she can’t find anyone to talk to she decides to land in the arena and announce the storm’s weirdness to the entire arena crowd.
I mean, they could always just decide to… not. Like, that is, as far as I know, a thing those two could decide on. Or treat it like a spar – no serious injuries, no killing blows. Like, there’s leeway here!
I hope you all realize that they can both just refuse to fight, after all the arena master doesn’t have any leverage in this situation.
“Arenamaster, that is a terrible idea! How will I look if the vessel refuses to kill as well?”
“If we make the vessel fight this guy we don’t like then there should be some death.”
Have you not been paying attention to the story thus far?
I’m not comfortable with someone eloquently talking up bloodsport
problem is you locked them in a cage together
now they’re friends
Sure this system is flawless, if you are not the one that get fucked by it offcourse.
Why do I get the feeling that any attempt to make them fight will just end with Kendal surrendering immediately and Dainix refusing to kill him. Arenamaster, you better get some lions prepared just in case.
TL;DR: I suggest we now pit our buddy cellmates against each other in cruel bloodsport. Ain’t it fun being heartless? After all, it’s what our city is known for.
For someone whose entire life seems to be about upholding a rule of law, this Arenamaster seems awfully quick to try to circumvent them, because someone is following the rules in the wrong way.
Man, the hypocrisy is staggering.
Either the Arenamaster is assuming Kendal s way bloodthirstier than he has any right to assume, or he has some trick up his sleeve…
HA HA HA unfortunately for you, evil vizier, they’re already making friends
Why is everyone in the comments so against bloodsport? It’s a TRADITION, people!
Grumble grumble liberal snowflake millennials grumble grumble…
Your brilliant plan has a slight problem: Kendal and Dainix do not want to hurt each other.
ThengdaMudiyan:
Correlation is not causation; remember that The Collector is centuries old (and doesn’t seem like the type to have children), while this guy looks to be in his forties at most.
Evil Tree:
I love the prospect of Tess giving zero fucks in front of a crowd of bloodthirsty spectators. “I’m trying to save your lives, assholes!”
Somebody:
“Welcome to Zuurith, try our spiced meats and amorality!”
Man, what a jerk. If your rules can be mocked by following them, perhaps they’re not such good rules in the first place…
this man severely misunderstands kendal’s nature and is about to have a fit when he realizes both kendal and dainix aren’t about that life
Maybe, and maybe I am just bleeding heart here, mister arena master, but maybe you should have made people fight against their wills and morals if you didn’t want to look bad, but idk
I gotta admit though… that IS a clever bad guy
Ima hop on board the bandwagon of wanting to see Tess crash the friendly spar as the Arenamaster fumes… Problem is, if Tynan is fed by fear, and Tess makes an announcement to *an arena full of people* things will go sideways very fast…
Yeah, I still want to see that.
@merletastic I love malicious compliance! It warms my striving-for-lawful-good heart…
Well, there is no reason Kendall has to take the fight seriously either. They’ve built up camaraderie and can easily discuss before the match?
… With how much I hate conflict, maybe I should stop reading webcomics lol
I got confused for a sec looking at the ‘Characters’ page and seeing the Collector right next to the arena master. They look pretty similar and both have a less-than-positive relationship with Vash. Maybe something could come of that.
Arena master: tells kendal and dainix to fight
Kendal and dainix: lol no *has a sparring session that dessolves into a philosophycal debate/tea party
Good, we get to see if Zuurith is actually true lawful or just a tyrant.
Ignan? Oh, man, talk about independent inspiration. Ignans are a race in a story I’m writing (In The Dragon’s Shadow). They’re just… Not human.
To Lazuul:
Or how prone he is to being influenced–it came up a few pages back, but there’s a theory (can’t recall off the top of my head if it was confirmed) that the ties between a city and their people work both ways–that the people of a city can influence the personality of their god even as the god’s influence affects them. And if the Arenamaster happens to hold a position in Zurith-the-city high enough to influence a lot of it’s goings-ons, then he might have more than a little say in the personality and/or vulnerability to manipulation (for lack of a better description at the moment) of Zuurith-the-person… And because Zuurith is as much the soul of his city as he is an individual, he probably wouldn’t even realize what was happening to him.
I hope that makes sense. I’ve got a character who’s the same way (being a manifestation/magical core/genius loci), and it is amazingly difficult to try and explain him without tangling said explanation too badly. Which makes sense, given how complicated the minutiae of such a character are to work out in the first place, but it can be frustrating.
Long explanation short, think of anything you’ve read or seen with a king and his evil advisor, and that’s kind of what appears to be going on here. ‘The Legend of Nightfall’ would be a good example in my opinion, but since that might be a somewhat obscure book these days, you might think a little more along the lines of ‘The Dragon Prince’–there are a couple of really good examples there, but one’s spoilers.
(In any case, Zuurith just got the loophole he’s been looking for…)
The arena master wants them to fight but little dose he know Kendal is just as much of a cinnamon roll as Dainix is
Today’s Alt Text:
careful, he’s gonna slip from how much you’re buttering him up
To Lazuul:
I am an idiot, the god-mortal influence thing was outright stated a few chapters back. Just ignore that goof.
And so, instead of letting some slight problems pass by without much inconvenience, the Arenamaster is intent on digging up that grave and making even bigger problems out of pride.
So i wonder what will blow up first, the storm that is approaching, the political mess, or the two fighters simply sitting down and refusing to fight.
Yeah, but Zuurith doesn’t even *like* the arena! Arenamaster might be taking the wrong tack, here.
To VBA:
All three at once, probably. That seems to be how this sort of thing usually ends up.
On a side note, is anyone else getting ‘Magic the Gathering: Arena’ vibes from this? Granted, the MtG books are probably fairly obscure, but I am seriously reminded of that one for some reason. Must be something about the characters here, since ‘Dragonlance’ had a gladiatorial arena plot in one of its trilogies and i’m not getting the same vibe…
Ah, that’s it! It’s the smell of sleaze and corruption. That’d do it.
What if Kendal and Dainix just flat out say “no”
So for once we have an arena-master who follows their own rules instead of just making things up to deal with a problem. Then again considering who is master is, he would have to be very careful about that lest he find himself as one of the inmates. This does also suggest that there were indeed some compelling and reasoned points made for the existence of the arena. Probably involving population control, dealing with extra dangerous criminals who would just be repeat offenders and a continued danger to the population, as well as maintaining an image of strength and power to the population and inmates.
Kendal: “Hey, I surrender, and killing me would be uhhh, really bad for the reasons Zuurith has already outlined to you, and also we were trying to leave, and the terms of my imprisonment was only that I’d be here until we left the city, and we’re leaving so you can’t keep me here, or you’re breaking the very clearly established contract k thx bye”
That would be beyutiful if instead of fighting, they treated the audience to a nice well reasoned philosophy discussion.
@I have questions
Honestly what can the arenamaster do if they just refuse
Yeaaaah. I don’t think Kendall’s gonna murder just to make his life easier. There are lots of things he could have done to make his life easier already and he’s passed on that chance. Try again.
I’m imagining Kendal and Dainix sitting in the arena, braiding each other’s hair and waiting for Tynan.
I wonder how the next day will play out… an arena battle between two incredibly powerful beings, the Elemental Magus sneaking into a place that actively thinks the being inhabiting him is the devil, an angry storm god finally able to wreak havoc, a lightning lady, and the probable vesself of Life itself just hanging out. And Falst is there, too.
Zuurith is a piece of cold bread. The butter just ain’t gonna stick to em.
If you don’t get it, hover your mouse over the page
I am ALSO going to hop on the “Tess shows up to slap the world with a wake-up call” train. She’ll definately make a move somewhere, and I’m excited to see where and what.
Caliban might show up for some in-universe explanation over the whole ~getting Dainix to forge himself~ plan, but only after he actually forges himself, whatever that ends up meaning.
I wonder if Life Mom is strong enough to defeat Tynan. She’s shown up during a lot of the more pivotal battles, and I imagine this will be one, so is Tynan even going to be a problem?
The fact that the arena master even thinks this argument will work does such a good job of telling us how fundamentally bad the society of this city is. Amazing job Red!
“We have a problem in the arena in that there is one guy who rebels against the system. I think we can solve it by adding more rebels.”
Yeah. Yeah this is gonna work out splendidly.
Yellow Rose:
Or tap and hold the image on mobile devices.
I can just imagine Kendal and Dainix in the arena being like “haha yes we’re totally gonna fight to the death oh yes we definitely hate each other”
Is the Arenamaster a prick? Will Zurrith betray his principles for this appeal to his ego? Will Kendal and Dainix comply if forced into a crokinole match? Will I ever get these in on time again?
Tune in Next Week and Find Out!
To TheUnknownGame:
I tried that. The device in question decided to treat it as a right-click.
MyDogIsTheBestDog: It may be tradition, but I think the point is that it’s being portrayed as bad because it’s forcing our protagonist into a situation he didn’t ask for. Pretty much everyone in the comments wants to see those cellmates get along
Maybe they just need to watch Bloodsport. Maybe Bloodsport 2. Never Bloodsport 3.
Skye:
It must not be universal, then; on my tablet, it pops up a right-click adjacent menu with a miniature picture of the page, its number, and its alt text above all the options.
Somebody:
I think MyDog was being sarcastic, though I understand it can be hard to tell sometimes.
To TheUnknownGame:
There’s a pretty good chance that that’s the case, especially if they each use a different OS.
To Gorbash:
Sorry, but I have to ask–is your alias a reference to the Dragon Knight series by Gordon R. Dickson? If it is, it’s nice to see a fellow fan!
I wonder what the arenamaster thinks would make them fight.
For Dainix it could be getting out early, for Kendal maybe full library access for Erin.
I want this to happen. I want to see these two characters enter the arena.
And then things go HORRIBLY.
For the Arena Master.
“Do you want to fight?” “Not really, but there are still a lot of people watching, something to do instead?” “Well, now we DANCE!”
OnO this won’t go well for anyone…
… His desire for control (and not looking weak) is really greater than standing to his principle.
By “convince” did he hear “manipulate/gaslight” ???
This is NOT excusing other of their actions, the god is a wimpy noodle. Just simple stating that this ‘god’ really doesn’t know anything because he’d rather be told lies than face the truth, learn & grow. Tch.
In terms of appearance, the arena master reminds me a bit of (Marvel) Loki… Or is just me?