2021-05-31 14:52:44 ¶ ● ⬈

lime-bloods:

> Doing some reading back on Mindfang’s sections of the comic for the wiki - the ancestors now all have their own pages - and it’s fascinating to find out that the independence of land dwellers from sea dwellers was even more explicit than i remembered. I always point out to how counterintuitive it might be for the Grand Highblood to have the authority to execute Dualscar despite caste seniority, but Mindfang makes it sound exactly like a “you tell my boss and I’ll tell yours” situation when she discusses reporting Dualscar’s own crimes directly to the empress.

Damn, I really need to take a proper look at the latest book of commentary, because I’ve spotted some really good stuff in the process of skimming over this part of the comic - this quote I put on the ancestor page for example was a really great discussion and confirmation of stuff I’d already been thinking about for years.

On this Mindfang page Andrew again basically confirms the existing interpretation with some authorly insight:

> This also gives us a better sense of caste roles. Since purples are the highest land-dwelling caste, they end up functioning as the brutal enforcers of all laws pertaining to all lower land-dwelling castes, in any way they see fit, which due to their clowny nature obviously ends up being kind of capricious and not entirely logical. We see many signs later that this is exactly how the Condesce likes it, and she sees great value in outsourcing the mechanisms of authority through these nuanced layers of power, with the nastiest clown-thugs sitting at the top. Even sea-dwellers like Dualscar, who technically outrank all purple bloods as the reigning aristocracy of the planet, still have to defer to maniacs like the Highblood when it comes to navigating the dispensation of authority for all lower castes. Which isn’t ideal for them, since clearly engaging with them at all carries some risks. But the Condesce doesn’t care if a few high-ranking violet bloods end up getting arbitrarily whacked by her beloved clown muscle.

The bit about the Condesce deferring power over to clown thugs is, again, just bang-on exactly what I’ve been saying this entire time. It’s nice to know, at the very least, that Andrew hasn’t totally forgotten every single thing that was going through his head when he wrote this comic, which was dangerously close to the impression he was giving in the prior books.

Really hope these keep being made despite everything!