Page Commentary No. 295

Gunwild: I'm not sure "shards" is the right word, I bet they're actually planed off the ships' hulls when they're decommissioned in strips! But shards sounds pointier.

Psu: Pointy like a sword, you mean? Anyway, there is definitely something romantic about making a sword or whatever out of an ancient piece of history. Like it embues it with a soul or whatever. But does that mean you have a ghost sword or something? I'm being silly. This is a serious page. For serious comics.

Gunwild: It's fine, we can do serious stuff while being silly. Personally I don't like romanticizing weapons too much, but I understand why people do it. I also like to feel that I understand why symbols can stop meaning things to disillusioned people!

Psu: I was just thinking about all the different cursed swords I've seen in DnD and how much story telling opportunity there is there. But every player now is way too aware about fantasy tropes so the FIRST thing they check on a magic sword is whether or not it's got some ancient ghost demon or something. Anyway, Maddy's Regency Swords probably don't have ancient ghost demons in them. They're just made from old boats.

Gunwild: I ever tell you the difference between a boat and a ship?

Psu: Nope!

Gunwild: "You can put a boat on a ship, but you can't put a ship in a boat, because it wouldn't fit."

Psu: ... Yeah that makes sense. We should probably talk about Maddy's feelings. I know we were building up a lot of this story to have Maddy make a realization about the Regency, but it's probably not an on/off switch for her. She's worried she's not in a good place, doing good things, because people have bad intentions.

Gunwild: There's a Mark Twain bit for this, like there is for everything.

Mark Twain: “My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death.”

Gunwild: It's from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Unfortunately, it did not make it into that movie adaptation you and I saw where the 90s kid plays baseball and rollerblades in the Dark Ages.

Psu: I only read like the first paragraph of that and I was like, "Oh this seems like a fun book, I should read it sometime."

Gunwild: If I suddenly found myself in old-timey days, I'd probably be like, "Well, time to use my impressive modern knowledge to thrive here!" and then fail to convince anybody to boil their water before drinking it. And then get killed. But Regency orthodoxy is that you'll get more across with a little politeness and a sword than just a little politeness by itself... maybe they're onto something.

Psu: Well... in reality I have some thoughts about "politeness." And I guess they feed into our thoughts about Cassiopeia and the comic. "Politeness" is not being nice on it's own. Plenty of polite people are actually awful. I've come to the opinion that... one of the real hallmarks of being a good person is knowing when you're wrong. A lot of polite people will use their "honor" to cover for a lot of misdeeds.

Gunwild: Well whatever, I'd still take a super-hardened spaceship hull sword. Or kitchen knife!