Teres

So their solution to killing so many children due to their own stupidity is to...breed more cannon fodder to potentially kill. Brilliant. I'm never going to get over how absolutely braindead these guys have to be to think continuing to do this is a good idea. They're committing self-inflicted genocide.

SCSF: And this has apparently been standard practice for the last hundreds, if not thousands of years! If Douglass did this intentionally, I would be quite happy with the result, but since she did not... this is already oen of the poorest-designed cultures I have seen.

I feel like a distressingly alarming amount of this book is little more than a giant "As you know, Jim". Having the readers know things that the characters don't can be done, and done very well, but the way to do it isn't to constantly reiterate those things we already know under the guise of characters thinking about it. It's tedious, it's repetitive, it's a horrible writing choice, and I hate this book.

I suppose it goes back to Douglass's attempts at mystery, which means that she wants to have quite some "reveals", no matter if the information already has been revealed multiple times. That also slows the story down quite severely and indeed does not make it engaging at all.

Every time Axis shows a basic positive human emotion, we're either supposed to be stunned, or fawn over him for being so kind and noble. Douglass, are you...are you a robot? Maybe an alien? You're clearly some kind of creature that thinks they understand human emotions, but in reality, they have absolutely no clue what they're talking about.

I mean... Axis having positive emotions is a relatively uncommon thing, but Douglass clearly went quite overboard qua praise.

That actually would have been a decent revenge, if she had known what she was doing. Stomach wounds are horribly painful, and usually slow to kill. If she wanted him to suffer the way she suffered, that would be a good method. I'm kind of sorry that's not what happened, honestly. It would have been some excellent character development for Azhure. Was she justified in giving him a slow death after all he did to her? Should she have just run without severely injuring him? Does this mean she's evil? What's the right thing to feel about his death? Happiness? Relief? Apathy? I feel like Douglass tried to go in this direction, but it just didn't work.

Yes, it actually would be quite appropriate if she were more like Axis and Belial think she is! And yes, it would be good to explore (if Douglass gave it nuance, at least), and it would give her a very good moral dilemma. As it is, Douglass clearly did try to go in that direction, but since Azhure cannot have killed him, it is just contrived; she only needs to point out that she couldn't have twisted his arm while lying on the floor to show it was an accident.

Those two idiots shouldn't be put in charge of babysitting a stack of bricks, let alone an injured person! They're probably just as likely to eat him as they are to heal him. Never let them be alone with anyone. Ever.

Exactly! I still do wonder if they bothered brainwashing Belial, too...

Yeah, it feels like Douglass took the whole "nobody had a bad word to say about him" thing and cranked it up to a hundred, and now expects us to take it seriously.

Oh, I am quite certain she actually means it, and let me just say that will not go good places.

To be fair, since the wound is going to be covered up, they don't have to make the stitching pretty. It would be respectful to do the best work you can even on a corpse, but somehow, I don't think that's one of their considerations.

That is true... though I do wonder if the stitching would even be sufficient (and why not put some people who are not crying on the task, anyway?).

Oh, cool, so their wailing and sadness was all just a show, if the burial is viewed as nothing more than an entertainment. I know that the concept of professional mourners exist, so the tears don't actually have to come from a place of sadness or grief, but the way that's phrased just makes it feel like the villagers are bored, and hey, something happened! We don't have to be bored anymore!

Yes, that is what Douglass meant. I suppose there would be some legitimate grief, but for the most part, they do not seem to care about Hagen at all, and rather about the excitement that comes with his death. A stereotypical small town that cares quite a bit about these things would be fine, but they really seem to approach a hive mind here.

Axis, you don't even know who or what you really are, so this statement kind of falls flat. You have an idea, sure, but maybe don't start moping around, woe is you, how can you hold up under such hardship when you only have the word of one person, who is a stranger to you. He could be lying, for all you know!

To be fair... he does have the word of GoldFeather and Raum. Still, he should be more concerned with whether Arne will even believe him in the first place rather than if he will believe in him. The people who have stayed with him for so long will truly not abandon him for this, so it does come across like you say.

In a better book, this would actually be a cute moment of playful banter between close friends. Even though it's Axis, I don't completely hate it, but because it's Axis, I can't quite bring myself to smile over it like I otherwise might have.

Yep! I do like Belial's comment here (because it is a little goofy and I do appreciate that about him), but Axis makes it... less comfortable, in part because this is a diversion from him confronting the Sentinels, and in part because I always expect him to show his true colours.

Actually, it's quite common to use "slide" when you're talking about some kind of blade going into a body. It might be because extremely sharp blades really can go through flesh like its butter, but regardless, it's a genuine description.

Amended! I meant specifically that "sliding" a blade through someone's throat would be hard to do, and I have put that in.

If I didn't hate these two so much, I might be willing to cut them some slack and say that since they've been using those identities for who knows how long, that's the form they're most comfortable in, and the one they would choose to return to if they had to change into someone else. As it is, though...fuck 'em.

Given that they are thousands of years old and they only had these forms for thirty-nine years, I am even less willing to (and Yr had no trouble changing form, either!). Sure, if they really want to keep these forms, that is fine, but at least assume your own name and make it clear you are not the real Brothers!