It’s so weird to think about but literally like half of the series so far is JUST this arc. He went I’m like 4 to 5 page arcs to this behemoth. Nothing wrong with it It’s just an interesting shift.
It’s so interesting to me that even before either of them had any suspicions of Clair, they both automatically defer to her as an authority. Both react as if Clair forbidding Achilles from doing anything could be binding. Which is really odd, because Clair is only presented to us as a *failed* authority! She cannot get Chloe to do anything; she could not stop Achilles from pestering Mars… Even when she tries to tell people what to do, she never invokes any kind of power or authority beyond her own opinion, same as every other character. The only power she really has (that they are aware of now) is that she facilitates move-ins and could theoretically embargo them from trading goods for luxury items, but Achilles does not care about those things, and she certainly hasn’t used it to squash frowned upon behaviors in the past.
Pepper tried to frame himself as “the adult” previously but quickly flounders on this page when he admits that he actually does not know anything, and then, because apparently someone must be the authority, he quickly reframes himself as, like, an older sibling who can tattle, and a theoretical doctor becomes an expert to defer to and Clair, despite her utter lack of leadership, becomes a civil authority who can lay down the law. If Pepper doesn’t know what to do, *someone* must, even if the fit is poor.
Spoilers for the next twenty pages or so: I wonder if this is part of why Pepper freaks out so badly at the one-two punch of “the world is actually wildly different than I thought” and “Clair may be a sinister force that does not have our best interests at heart” revelations? Clair’s legitimacy as a “leader,” to the extant she ever was one, is degraded by the suspicions Achilles’ story casts on her. She can’t be trusted, and yet everyone else on Halo Head, including Pepper, is completely ignorant of their reality (and also too wrapped up in petty interpersonal drama). No one has the authority vested by knowledge to replace her. They are home alone, and the babysitter is a stranger.
This also might be why he so fixates on (again spoilers) Ares, the only person he knows of who seems to have both expertise about is actually happening and has some level of moral authority. She is the only alternative now that both Clair and himself are out of the running.
It’s so weird to think about but literally like half of the series so far is JUST this arc. He went I’m like 4 to 5 page arcs to this behemoth. Nothing wrong with it It’s just an interesting shift.
:achilles-serious:?!?
It’s so interesting to me that even before either of them had any suspicions of Clair, they both automatically defer to her as an authority. Both react as if Clair forbidding Achilles from doing anything could be binding. Which is really odd, because Clair is only presented to us as a *failed* authority! She cannot get Chloe to do anything; she could not stop Achilles from pestering Mars… Even when she tries to tell people what to do, she never invokes any kind of power or authority beyond her own opinion, same as every other character. The only power she really has (that they are aware of now) is that she facilitates move-ins and could theoretically embargo them from trading goods for luxury items, but Achilles does not care about those things, and she certainly hasn’t used it to squash frowned upon behaviors in the past.
Pepper tried to frame himself as “the adult” previously but quickly flounders on this page when he admits that he actually does not know anything, and then, because apparently someone must be the authority, he quickly reframes himself as, like, an older sibling who can tattle, and a theoretical doctor becomes an expert to defer to and Clair, despite her utter lack of leadership, becomes a civil authority who can lay down the law. If Pepper doesn’t know what to do, *someone* must, even if the fit is poor.
Spoilers for the next twenty pages or so: I wonder if this is part of why Pepper freaks out so badly at the one-two punch of “the world is actually wildly different than I thought” and “Clair may be a sinister force that does not have our best interests at heart” revelations? Clair’s legitimacy as a “leader,” to the extant she ever was one, is degraded by the suspicions Achilles’ story casts on her. She can’t be trusted, and yet everyone else on Halo Head, including Pepper, is completely ignorant of their reality (and also too wrapped up in petty interpersonal drama). No one has the authority vested by knowledge to replace her. They are home alone, and the babysitter is a stranger.
This also might be why he so fixates on (again spoilers) Ares, the only person he knows of who seems to have both expertise about is actually happening and has some level of moral authority. She is the only alternative now that both Clair and himself are out of the running.