Hey-ho, Babieca! – Chapter 9, Act 2, Strip 81

Yeah, there is a point where trying too hard only makes things worse. For professors, the more common problem is looking kinda pathetic when they try to appear younger than they are…but in panel two the Bratessor demonstrates that a very old professor can also look kinda pathetic when he’s trying hard to look older than…uh, he looks. And, don’t worry, that’s only a one-off, not a permanent re-design of the Bratessor…in fact, in panel four he already looks normal again, probably because the task at hand has distracted him from trying too hard.

While the Bratessor immediately senses an insult to his manliness, Maru-maru had actually only spoken, gender-neutrally, of ‘leadership charisma’. Perhaps all of that sensitivity training did have some effect…aside from making his nipples super-sensitive, I mean.

Sensing that there is a task for his deep well of historical knowledge, the Bratessor overcomes the injury to his self-image commendably quickly, and puts his full academic capability in the service of Maru-maru’s cause. But perhaps his approach is a bit too academic? While he picked a particularly nice example from the pages of hist…uh, okay, let’s be honest, the pages of mythology*, he might underestimate how much the psychological impact of something like that might decrease even over a comparatively short span of time, like 825 years. Plus, that amount of time also has a bit of a physiological impact on a human body, if we’re not talking about ancient Egypt. Sad to say, but I kinda share Maru-maru’s pessimism regarding the attempt to motivate the team via the return of good, old Cid.

Which is particularly sad for Snuka, who had all of the work (and attendant risks) with getting El Cid’s body from Burgos, and his sword Tizona from a museum in Madrid. Although it might have been worthwhile for him, since he probably took a few more pieces from the museum by accident. Which he then sold to a local fence in order to, uh, make sure they get back into the right hands. >_>

More on Thursday.

*The popular tale of El Cid’s posthumous victory is very likely not historical. Valencia was actually not at war when he died – it came under attack three years later, but we can quite safely assume that word of his death had leaked out by then.