Flexible Uncertainty – Chapter 8, Act 3, Strip 38

Unlike the Queen, Snuka doesn’t go for the obvious and simple feel-good solutions when it comes to preparing for violence.

After all, he didn’t only adopt the violence – he was born in it, molded by it. It’s not a well-known fact, but “Cairo” actually means “violence” in Arab.
>_> <_< …ok, so maybe that’s not only not a well-known fact, but actually not a fact at all*. But growing up as a street urchin is pretty tough in the best of places. And would be even tougher in Cairo, which, I’m reasonably sure, isn’t the best of places for that. And I was only speaking metaphorically, anyway!

So, based on that intimate knowledge of violence, Snuka takes a sober and rational approach on preparing for violence. He knows how many different forms it can take, and that different tools are best for each. That’s why he is keen to maintain flexibility and to avoid narrowing his choices down too much too soon.

For this, he uses the remnants of his resemblance to a typical Japanese highschooler and his knowledge of anime/manga stereotypes (fully applicable to the magical-girls subgenre). Shinai or baseball bats are the kind of things this sort of bag was designed for (and is used for in real life), and they can make for somewhat useful weapons in a pinch – and are, of course, frequently employed so in fiction.
Carrying a real sword inside such a bag is considerably more rare in reality, but also very, very common in fiction…
and, yeah, from then on it’s all fiction, all the way. The MG42 and the (censored) are just two of the many implausible and bizarre things that have been observed being drawn from this sort of bag in manga.

And since a degree of parody can be involved, physical limitations can be handled loosely: the MG42 is really a bit too large for such a bag, and its weight would make it uncomfortable to be carried slung like that (especially if you’re the size of an average Japanese highschooler). And as far as the (censored) is concerned…well, they aren’t even produced in that massive size. There really wouldn’t be any use for it, aside from such physically impossible feats of comical violence.

In summary: Snuka is well prepared for pretty anything now, as long as it involves violence.

More on Monday.

*al-Qāhirah (القاهرة) means ‘the Vanquisher’ or ‘the Conqueror’ in Arab…so there’s some connotation of violence in the name, but it doesn’t actually mean violence.