## [RT][HF] A Practical Guide to Evil: Book 4: Interlude: Sing We Of Rage * Author: u/Zayits * * URL: https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/06/22/interlude-sing-we-of-rage/ * Score: 93 * Created: 2018-06-22T04:11:23 ### Post: [Link to content](https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/06/22/interlude-sing-we-of-rage/) ### Comments: > **u/Yes_This_Is_God** [+29] (27 minutes later) > > The creepy body double is really reminiscent of Assassin in Liesse. Maybe Assassin taught Black that trick? > Edit: Nvm, it's from Nefarious. > > The exploding horse is amazing as always, though this one needs a bit more goblinfire. > > EE has a real talent for snark, shown here: > > > “With the dark and wicked spell of wick and cheap matches. My coffers aren’t what they used to be. Tremble, White Knight, for my power is truly boundless within reasonable limits.” > > and > > >“I so rarely get to monologue, but this is fortunate happenstance." > > I like how Black seems to be leaning into his story much in the same way Cat learned to. I'm excited to see Cat's lessons manifest through Black—it's already been entertaining so far. > > Also, I just realized that the dragon's name is General Catastrophe, which is a pun I didn't really get til now. >> **u/None** [+24] (an hour later) >> >> I get the sense that Black is having fun now in a way he hasn't much in the last few years, as Warlock said he seems to have a new lease on life. >>> **u/stevedoesIP** [+13] (10 hours later) >>> >>> It was also IMO a careful playing of the story. The evil villain who monologues about destroying their opponent always loses, but the chatty villain who is constantly cracking jokes (Jack Sparrow in the beginning of Pirates 1) always gets away after pulling something clever. >>> >>> "You cheated!" >>> >>> "...Pirate." >> **u/soonnananadnaanssoon** [+12] (40 minutes later) >> >> Oh my. That's brilliant. >> >> General Catastrophe, a general catastrophe, is generally a catastrophe whenever he's unleashed. >>> **u/DTravers** [+1] (8 hours later) >>> >>> Also a pun on Black's apprentice bringing, well, a bit of *cat*astrophe herself wherever she goes. >> **u/CouteauBleu** [+3] *We are the Empire.* (6 hours later) >> >> > Edit: Nvm, it's from Nefarious. >> >> I didn't get that part, actually. How does that work? >>> **u/Ardvarkeating101** [+12] *Father of Learning* (8 hours later) >>> >>> Like how Malicia talked with Cat in her creepy puppet body >> **u/RynnisOne** [+3] (22 hours later) >> >> Goblinfire horse would be bad. He's animating the body through magic, and goblinfire consumes such magical enchantments. It would undo the work he's trying to do giving the White Knight a free 'victory'. > **u/CouteauBleu** [+11] *We are the Empire.* (21 hours later) > > I know we're all busy staring at how cool Black is, but can I just point out that Hanno's great master plan for defeating the Black Knight was "Find him, then kill him using the skills of heroes that already failed to defeat him". > > This guy sucks. >> **u/panchoadrenalina** [+12] (a day later) >> >> the heroes black defeated were not the ones hanno used to fight him. >> >> hanno aparently has access to every dead hero. he seached the heroes that black killed to learn how he fought then he searched among all the previous heroes for ones that countered blacks particular style. >> **u/RynnisOne** [+9] (22 hours later) >> >> His power is a hammer, and all his problems look like nails. >> >> Anything that goes beyond pure martial skill is beyond him to comprehend. He kind of reminds me of an apprentice version of Saint, really, whose solution to everything is violence. >> **u/zhaomeng** [+3] (22 hours later) >> >> My impression of it is he’s chaining/combo-ing the heroes from the past kind of thing? So while the past heroes might’ve failed individually in their own timelines, he’s putting all of them together sort of way...which might have worked if Black hadn’t cheated his way out. I love it actually, last chapter I thought WK had an unfair advantage of bringing the cheat sheet to an exam, this chapter Black changes the exam question after the paper’s handed in ha! >>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+6] *We are the Empire.* (23 hours later) >>> >>> Yeah, but his plan essentially boil down to "Be really really good at all forms of stabbing, then go confront Black". Which... okay, I guess that could be effective in other contexts (all your powers combined!), but essentially boils down to one trick. Compare to the ways we've seen other characters leverage their Aspects, this is pretty uncreative. >>> >>> I'm mostly annoyed from an "exploitability" perspective. Like, dude, your plan is "Go find him and stab him real hard", with no additional contingencies, without leveraging any intel you might have. YOU THINK PEOPLE HAVEN'T TRIED THAT ONE BEFORE? >>> >>> It's especially weak compared to the heroes who confronted Cat, who showed more creativity (baits, some switcharoos of their own) even though they have better odds to start with. >>>> **u/zhaomeng** [+6] (a day later) >>>> >>>> Right. Maybe that’s his tradeoff? Like he has to do it by the books, no shortcut, hard mode, and that’s his story...? >> **u/Zayits** [+3] (a day later) >> >> Not to mention that he calls "Black" an abomination for using essentially a nerfed version of his own trick - getting possessed by a more skilled Named to get an upper hand in the inevitable confrontation. > **u/Zayits** [+10] (an hour later) > > > His power was faint, even fainter than on their last encounter, but the taste of it had not changed. The presence of two aspects wreathed the man like two ravens on his shoulders, urging the villain to Lead and to Conquer. An old monster drenched in blood, come at his summons. > > Wait a minute. How the hell does his Name still work when he's in another body? Masego noted specifically, when describing Akua's version of the same trick, that he haven't seen anything like that when studying under his father. Wekesa *does* have the ability to fool the law of sympathy which may have been enough for the power to trickle through, and Black *is* a necromancer, but even with Nefarious' puppet there's still the question why did the White Knight sense the Aspects: even Akua's were sorcerous in nature and could be operated through her phylactery. >> **u/Esryok** [+23] (an hour later) >> >> Based on the "ravens on shoulders" thing I'm thinking right then they were manifesting as purely mental aspects à la Learn. Notably, Black didn't use any other Name tricks in the fight besides controlling his mount, and he can plausibly do that at a distance. > **u/18scsc** [+7] (9 hours later) > > Black is trying to play the role of a [recurring](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JokerImmunity) syndicated TV/comic book villain. [Escaping](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VillainExitStageLeft) at the last moment again and again to cause the heroes unending trouble. > **u/JackSpringer** [+8] (an hour later) > > Perhaps the puppet wasn't the one which died, but the one which lived. Black might have used this to cut himself off of his Name and any kind of story he was ever bound to since, from the perspective of Good, The Black Knight has already fallen to the White Knight. Just not Amadeus of the Green Stretch. But why would the Heavens care about some Nameless guy, right? >> **u/None** [+22] (2 hours later) >> >> [deleted] >>> **u/JackSpringer** [+5] (2 hours later) >>> >>> Ah crap, didnt catch that >> **u/None** [+6] (an hour later) >> >> Cool idea, but I feel like it would have happened more dramtically if that was the case >> **u/HallowedThoughts** [+1] (an hour later) >> >> That would be ballsy as hell and I would love it. Following Cat's lead in not needing a name to get shit done > **u/CouteauBleu** [+9] *We are the Empire.* (6 hours later) > > > “Blown up a rather expensive horse,” the Black Knight said. “With the dark and wicked spell of wick and cheap matches. My coffers aren’t what they used to be. Tremble, White Knight, for my power is truly boundless within reasonable limits.” > > Amadeus is the best. > > If he had a quote at the beginning of a chapter, this would be it. > > > “Do enjoy your victory, White Knight,” he said. > > > > When Hanno’s blade cut through his neck, the body already had empty eyes. > > "Oh, you thought you were going to kill me because you'd started a pattern of three? Nah, that actually happens every two or three decades. After a few times, even that becomes routine." >> **u/LordGoldenroot** [+1] (11 hours later) >> >> He actually did have a one sin one grace quote somewhere, but I am not exactly sure where. >>> **u/Nimelennar** [+4] (19 hours later) >>> >>> I could have sworn, just a few weeks ago, there was a definitive listing of all the chapter quotes on the PGtE website. I can't find it now, which only makes me doubt my sanity slightly. >>> >>> I don't think "One sin, one grace" is ever in a chapter quote; the first speech where he says it is quoted by Hakram in Book One, Chapter 19; he gives a better one in Book 3, Chapter 59. >>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+4] *We are the Empire.* (21 hours later) >>>> >>>> You can find a list on the TvTropes quote page, though I'm not sure how exhaustive or up-to-date it is. > **u/None** [+1] (an hour later) > > [deleted] >> **u/Nadav1351** [+10] (3 hours later) >> >> 2 of Black's aspects are passive, and give him a general power boost to every thing. That is probably what the white knight felt ---