1.2.3-Shirley-keeldar

ClubNinetyThree: 1.2.3: Noblesse et Roture Mêlées
I am so angry about this conversation. There’s no point dissembling, I am and always, always have been spiritually on the side of the revolution — The Revolution, even — and these two assholes looking down on commoners — saying it’s not worth putting down the revolution if they have to be led by — horrors! — wigmakers to do it — it all makes my blood boil. I HATE THEM, and I am full of rage.

I guess it’s a good thing the explosion they were planning seems to have come ahead of schedule, from their own damn ship — I’ve very conscientiously not read ahead, but I can only assume the lovingly-described, oddly-placed carronades are causing the fuss at the end of the chapter — and it’s the kind of fuss you really, really don’t want when you’re in a wooden tub in the middle of a dark sea.

Now that that’s out of the way, I’ll go into a few points that struck me. I wanted badly to have a real analysis of this chapter, but instead I’m just going to vent my spleen and leave the analysis to others.

1. I can’t believe these idiots actually seem to believe the revolution started over a couple million dollars in deficit. ARE YOU LISTENING TO YOURSELVES, you are literally spewing your own belief in some kind of intrinstic value in the nobility, talking about commoners as though they were animals, and you think, you think, what, that the budget not being balanced is the only problem? UGH.

2. They are so not sold on The Peasant being any good. And I don’t think he’s a real general, either… This would all be funny if I wasn’t so angry. It actually is a little bit funny. Oh, not REALLY a prince, just a prince in Brittany, not THAT important, but I guess we’ll just have to make do, see how he pans out, I hope he’s any good at MASS MURDER.

3. Because frankly, what these two, La Veuiville especially, are clearly after isn’t war, it’s sheer butchery. They literally rush to brag that they would have done just as good as job as that other guy of slaughtering three hundred revolutionaries after making them dig their own graves.

4. La Veuville’s attempts at military theory are especially nauseating. Shut up, SHUT UP. No one cares about your opinions on other people’s military acumen, your opinions are terrible.

5. ''"We need a prince, a prince of France, a prince of the blood. A real prince."

''"Why? Who says prince…"

''"Says coward. I know it, commander.  It’s for the effect on the big, stupid eyes of the louts."

''"My dear chevalier, the princes don’t want to come."

''"We’ll do without them."

You are ACTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGING that being a Prince of the Blood doesn’t do anything to make you not a total coward, you’re acknowledging that having one would be just for show, that they have no intrinsic superiority over other people… in the very conversation you are complaining about the possibility of noblemen being led by commoners! UGH.

6. God, they want to go to back to Paris to watch the plays that are running. I HATE THEM SO MUCH.

7. I’m assuming we’re all going to be mentioning the watchmaker Joly and his son, but I can’t think of a single thing to say that isn’t awful, so I’m leaving it to the rest of you.

8. I was also going to say something about them making fun of baby Louis-Philippe — the Duc de Chartres — but I don’t actually have anything to say, except that apparently they’re invested in making him out to be more of coward than he was.

AND THEN THE END OF THE CHAPTER, discussed above.

I hope your ship burns. To the waterline. Jerks.

(PS upon reflection: I am perfectly aware that there were also bloodthirsty revolutionaries, and if — more like when… — we happen upon any of them I will also get upset; but not like this.)

Commentary
Jesuit-space-pirate I have nothing to add to this, so I’m just going to note that the first people to describe the Breton peasants as savages were the royalists.

And I wish they could all have heard it.

Mostly, though, that was some exposition dump ending in a cliffhanger.

Marsmeadow And I went into the chapter with such high hopes, too! After two chapters of setup and chocolate, it looked like the indentity of The Peasant would be revealed. And it was, kinda! I was happy for half a minute, before I got swamped in names. And rage.

The only silver lining I can glimpse is that aristos who keep their heads at a slightly greater distance from their own arses might lean to think of the ~lowly commoners~ as real people. Even our two choice drivel-spouters find some worth among the Third Estate. (By “worth” they seem to mean “willingness to kill a great deal of people.” But still.) “C’est que cette chienne de revolution nous gagne, nous aussi.” Go, revolution! Go!

Valdsbejakande "I hope your ship burns. To the waterline.  Jerks."

yesss

Pilferingapples When we get to the inevitable Problematic Revolutionaries, I will be upset with you, but then it will be NO HOW CAN YOU BE SO WRONG ABOUT SOMETHING THIS IMPORTANT, not YOU ARE WRONG AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN WRONG AND ALSO YOU ARE JERKS. :P

I do appreciate that these two are, you know, UTTERLY UNSYMPATHETIC without lacking all good qualities! They ARE brave and have clearly thought out their position some, it’s just that their position is inherently awful and they HAVEN’T thought that out. But their little “oh, I want to see the plays!” is almost painfully petty; they’re somehow still thinking of the Revolution as an inconvenience, and waiting for their lives as they know them to come back around. And I guess I can, at least, understand that sort of belief/denial mode about major change, and the wish for stability, separate from liking whatever the old status quo actually was. But then they’re willing to sacrifice SO MUCH— or rather, to see OTHER people sacrifice so much—for their own sense of normalcy, which ALREADY required other people to sacrifice for their comfort, not as an incidental but SPECIFICALLY AS PART OF THE SYSTEM, and thaaaaat’s where I’m hoping their apparently awesome ship goes BOOM.