Preoccupied Observers – Chapter 8, Act 2, Strip 136

The final fight is raging, and the Crystal Palace is suffering structural damage – likely fatal structural damage. Which isn’t much of a surprise, of course – as I’ve already pointed out, these places have a track record of burning down in real life, and the track record of ‘crystal palaces’ in magical-girl fiction getting shattered is no less impressive. One of the main things attracting the creators of such fiction to the whole idea might very well be the possibility of spectacular shattering and magical restoration that’s inherent in the concept of creating buildings from magical crystal.

The other take-away from today’s episode is that it really pays off to have intelligent subordinates. In their earlier, less intellectually enabled form, the twins would likely just have moped around, frustrated with the marginal role to which they have been reduced. But the new and improved twins are not only capable of appreciating the importance of their roles as outside observers and cue-givers to their queen’s epic conflict with the heroes – they’re also capable of self-diagnosing the slight drop of morale they still suffered in spite of that, and have enough initiative to take immediate action to bring their morale back up with a method of well-proven effectiveness. The older, less smart versions of the twins would never have reached that point…admittedly, they’d probably ended up doing exactly what their newer versions are about to do, anyway – but with far less of a rationale.

And a third, perhaps not entirely irrelevant, take-away: it looks like the Queen has some sort of ultimate attack lined up. Could that mean that her inevitable defeat is perhaps not as inevitable as it should be at this stage of the plot? O_O

More on Thursday.

4 Replies to “Preoccupied Observers – Chapter 8, Act 2, Strip 136”

  1. Good pay, simple responsibilities, physically comfortable work environment, and a ready partner with whom to celebrate when it’s done. Where do I sign up? XD

    1. I’m afraid this specific position isn’t one you can sign up for – you have to be born into it. If you aren’t born with an identical sibling, it’s hard to construct that situation at a later date. XD

  2. “The final fight is raging,…”
    It would seem that’s not the only thing raging.

    I can’t remember if I asked this before but did Nolan get a sponsorship by Censorship bar? Not only is it appearing frequently but always in places of nudity or sexual content; and as any marketer knows, sex sells.

    1. XD I wonder whether something like a sponsored censorship bar would work in reality, i.e. if it would have a positive effect for the brand involved? Obviously, censorship as such isn’t popular with the viewing public, but the censorship bar is naturally always at the center of attention – it’s quite possible that that sheer amount of presence would have a positive brand-awareness effect, in spite of the negative association with censorship…

Leave a Reply to SkyBlueElite Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.