1.2.5-Acegrantaire

Catch-up Post: 1.2.5, 1.2.6 and 1.2.7
i have been v tired lately, so here is my wholly inadequate posting about these three chapters.

'''Vis et Vie

Wow this is a really cool chapter just looking at the prose? I mean, it’s really gross with the whole gore-bodies-in-pieces thing, but the prose is nice.

"the fragile matching itself against the invulnerable"

Wow this gunner is kind of an incredible guy? He takes on something that’s SO TERRIFYING because it’s his responsibility. Which is a big contrast to The Peasant (come on Hugo, what is with your aversion to names in this book?) who gets involved because he just kind of??? chooses to?

Anyway, the gunner does his best to stop the cannon at all points, while the Peasant takes the opportune moment and will not be moved before that specific moment. Which is interesting.

'''The Two Ends of the Scale

Lots of talking about how much of Claymore's' armament is destroyed—she's now entirely dependent on the great sneaking weather Hugo was talking about a few chapters ago. She's now stuck trusting in her disguise and her sailor's ability.

I AM DISPLEASED. But the gunner is honored before his execution rather than posthumously. Absolute law over humanity, but he’s still honored before he dies. I’m sticking a pin in this thought for later because i know there’s probably something more to it.

I DO NOT LIKE THE PEASANT. and i want a name because saying “the peasant” or “the passenger” is starting to wear on my nerves. He’s very mechanical in a lot of ways? He waits for the perfect moment to act, works by the book and is completely unmoved by someone’s humanity and is also no good at disguising himself whatsoever.

'''He Who Sets Sail Puts into a Lottery

I’m cackling a lil bit over the weather, to be honest. They’ve had weather that is EXPLICITLY GREAT FOR SNEAKING and then their cannon gets loose and destroys most of the ship. If they had more sneaking weather they might make it, except a storm seems to be coming. Then the storm goes away with the usual unpredictability of life, and they get out of that sticky situation only to be almost literally between a rock and a hard place. The world does not want these guys to succeed, apparently.

Hugo’s whole thing about the sea being unfriendly to people reminds me of what I was talking about in the first post, where we weren’t at sea yet, but everyone was still in a hostile and unpredictable environment. Does this whole thing about how the sea seems to act in deliberately unpredictable and malicious fashions have anything to do with what the soldiers back in the forest might end up going through?

Commentary
Shirley-keeldar I love your summary of the weather conditions. It really puts the whole sequence of events together wonderfully to show how everything is just throwing up the middle finger at this ship. It is soooo doomed.