14 KiB
[RT] [HF] A Practical Guide to Evil, Ch 49: Victory
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Author: u/MoralRelativity *
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URL: https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2016/12/21/chapter-49-victory/
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Score: 36
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Created: 2016-12-21T05:41:42
Post:
Comments:
u/melmonella [+14] Tremble, o ye mighty, for a new age is upon you (a day later)
Lately there has been a lot of discussion about Rule of Three in regards to Catherine and Heiress. Honestly, you aren't digging deep enough. Or being paranoid enough. Catherine's story is, effectively, a continious fractal cycle of Hero's Journeys, filled to the brim with threes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero's_journey
Take book 1. Black giving a knife is a pretty clear Call to Adventure. Catherine's banter in Masus palace is an attempt to Refuse the Call, which Black handily negates by allowing her to do so (“So,” I said calmly. “Now is when you make your pitch, I’m guessing?”->“And if I say no?”[One girl found floating by the docks, missing a throat. Wouldn’t be the first time someone dumped a body in the Silver Lake, wouldn’t be the last.]->He shrugged. “You return to the orphanage. I’ll see to it that you’re put on the rolls at the College, with the first season’s tuition paid. I’ll look forward to your service in the Legions.”)
(brilliant move, by the way)
Then he stabs her, which is our Supernatural Aid along with Crossing the Threshold. Name vision is a pretty clear Belly of the Whale. Next, we have the trials, which "often occur in threes". Well shank me sideways and call me Chancelor, if that's not exactly what we see happen.
Catherine fights three claimants three times in melee (twice with Rashid, and once with that copying girl with the spear) to get her Name. She encounters three Named crucial to her story. Swordsman in summerholm, with whoms she crosses blades three times (once when her cover is blown, once when her truce with him ends, and once when she kicks him off the wall), estabilishing him as a direct threat. Black in the town square, who orders her three times to learn the results of her foolishness, estabilishing him as The Harsh Mentor. And finally Heiress on the Blessed Isle, who skillfully entraps her three times-once back in Summerholm with the other claimants, once with the orphanage threat, and once by literally surrounding her with mooks-estabilishing her as a political/intrigue threat. In that encounter three mooks shoot at Catherine three times altogether (Three strings twanged and I felt a bolt come within a hair’s breadth of my throat. Too slow.) and she kills three of them. I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.
Heiress also serves as The Meeting with the Goddess, by tempting her to turn away from being the Squire. Then, we have Atonement with the Father (Slowly, I turned to face the Black Knight. “I’ve missed enough lessons,” I said. “Let’s get to work.”), which leads to Apotheosis (How can you justify working for these tyrants? the Lone Swordsman had asked. I finally had my answer. Justifications only matter to the just.), giving Catherine her OP anti-angel-mindraping catchphrase.
Bam. Hero's Journey cycle almost complete. All we have left is Ultimate Boon-what the person went on the journey to get-and what did Catherine set out to get? Placement in the Legions. Which she gets in the very next chapter. And then there is Return, but we can't have that, so Journey just skims across the Threshhold again and loops right back to The Road of Trials.
"That's all well and good, but I bet this is all just a coincidence. You won't be able to keep this up."
None of this is a coincidence because nothing is ever a coincidence, you dummy. Let's see what happens next in the story. We are due some more Trials, followed by Death, Revelation, Rebirth, and a brand new Boon.
O look, games in the legion are pretty much your trials. They even come in neat bundles of three for convenience. First we have three tactical trials: assault on the watchtower, then assault on the fort, and finally Catherine's run for the prize. Then we have three political trials: Catherine has to make alliances with three other company captains to insure her victory. Finally, we have three strategic trials: betraying Morok, surviving Aisha's betrayal and taking her out, and finally defeating Juniper. Before Callow manages to finish her third trial, she goes to brood for a while (Death), gets a visit from Hakram (representing Revelation), is Reborn and goes back to schemeing, coming up with undead suicide goat plan. Her Boon for going through all this trouble? She gets Juniper as her legate, as well as the Fifteenth legion.
[She probably would have gotten a legion no matter what happened: I figure Black anticipated something along the lines of Heiress' move, and that's why she was given command over 15-th legion, and not 14-th. On the off chance she lost he could have just said "O sure, I'll just give 14-th legion to Catherine then, since you won't need it. By the way, 15-th legion recruitment is planned to start 25 years from now. See you then."]
Onwards to Book 2! Our hero, once again, skips Return because ain't No Rest For The Wicked, and goes to Trials. Once again, three of them.
First there is the meeting with Swordsman in Summerholm, then The Three Hills, and finally Marchford.
Whole debacle at Summerholm is roughly split into three chapters-8 (heroes at the palace), 9 (meeting the Swordsman) and 10 (Warlock says "Boom"). Confrontation itself is also split into three parts- before Struggle activates, before Warlock arrives and after Warlock arrives, with clear single-line split each time (“You wanna go, Swordsman?” I laughed, veins flooding with power. “Let’s go, then.”->“Let’s get this over with,” he spoke.->“Well, this is a mess. It used to be such a nice city and now there’s blood everywhere. Think of the resale value, children.”).
The Three Hills is literally named the three hills. It is also split into three parts-first, “FOUL MINIONS OF THE DARK”, then the actual battle and confrontation with Page, and finally the end of the battle with goblinfire. Is it a surprising coincidence that Catherine makes three snappy responses to Page in their fight and that the whole battle takes three chapters? No it's not, none of this is a coincidence because nothing is ever a coincidence.
Marchford, likewise, is three-part. First there is the failed rescue, then the fight between the devils and the Gallowborne, and finally the fight with the demon itself. "Ah, but what about Catherine challenging demon for her aspect?" -I hear you say- "That's clearly another challenge."-No it's not. Catherine isn't challenged there, she just straight up loses the battle. That, my friend, is Death, Rebirth and Revelation. Like two previous times, Catherine has to metaphorically Die and be Reborn (this time as a Callowan-allied villain, the whole tavern scene with the kid is about that), and receive a new kick in the butt getting her back on the horse before her final trial. And what do we get after the battle?
O look, Black arrives out of the blue (Get it? Blue? Because Arcadia is full of snow?). Atonement with the Father. New Boon? Heiress is kept close and personal, Catherine is as good as promised the rulership of Callow, Adjutant gets a new aspect, she gets a spymaster (Aisha)... Pick whichever you like best.
Now we get to Liese and a new batch of Trials. First Trial- getting past the gate. Second-threeway between Swordsman, Heiress and Squire, and please get your mind out of the gutter. You'd think that the fight with the Swordsman is the final trial, since it's next in the story, but that would be violating the narrative. Next, Catherine has to Die. As she did three times before, she has to Die before confronting the last trial. And she knows that- (“There has to be another way,” Adjutant said quietly. “We’ve discussed this before,” Apprentice replied flatly). So, she does just that. Then she violates her own narrative and finishes her final trial (getting the Countess to surrender) before getting Reborn (“Not nearly as much of a problem as you’d think”). After that we have Rebirth and Revelation. And that explains why Chider wasn't nearly as much of an obstacle as she could have been-she confronted a hero on their way to being Reborn. I have seen stories where hero fails during Trials, stories where they get tempted away from their path during The Meeting with the Goddess, stories where they die during Return...But once hero is Dead and all broody? They are as good as invincible until they get back on that metaphorical horse. That's probably the only part of the narrative where you actually can't kill a hero, barring Rule of Three shenanigans. Great timing Chider, it was nice knowing you.
So Catherine gets Reborn (literally, this time), Angels try to force some false Revelation onto her (she safely tells them to get shanked, since it doesn't fit her story), and guess what happens? That's right, Atonement and Boon.
I am currently out of time, you can probably find more threes in Liese that I missed.
u/MoralRelativity [+3] (a day later)
That's... amazingly thorough. Thanks for the explanation. Also,
because nothing is ever a coincidence
I saw what you did there.
u/Arancaytar [+4] (a day later)
None of this is a coincidence because nothing is ever a coincidence
Heh
u/narfanator [+2] (an hour later)
Okay, so, Catherine is spoilers
PS - Also, why does it not look like I did spoilers correctly?
u/ErraticErrata [+9] (an hour later)
Marchford is not under Liesse, which is no longer a duchy anyway. The city is now an Imperial governorship under Heiress. Catherine was granted a former county as her personal fief, and is a sitting member of the ruling council which supervises the entire governorship system.
u/Running_Ostrich [+4] (3 hours later)
Not sure if it helps, but there are some maps on the site. This looks like the best one: https://practicalguidetoevil.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/wnkjrov.jpg
u/aldonius [+3] (6 hours later)
The more I look at this map the less it makes climatological sense by Earth standards. Hopefully in another arc or two we can learn some more about the world as a whole.
u/JackStargazer [+12] Primordial Apologist (7 hours later)
Remember that this is a world where an Empress tried and failed to steal a neighboring nations weather. The backlash created the Wasteland.
I think you can toss climatology.
u/aldonius [+3] (7 hours later)
ahh, that would do it.
There's also something wacky about the Steppes and the Golden Bloom, but I can't recall an explanation for that either. No doubt if there is an explanation, Cunningham's principle will kick in.
u/Arancaytar [+2] (a day later)
Yep, what the hell is going on with that river and the mountains around Foramen? It looks like the river is starting practically on the southern sea coast, then passing through the mountains to the north, then crossing the continent before ending at a delta in the northern sea coast.
It's as though the entire continent is on a steady inclined slope, and the southern seacoast is a magically erosion-proof cliff face kilometers high. ;)
u/ricree [+2] (a day later)
Tectonic rift channel that happens to have actual rivers flowing into it?
u/Zephyr1011 [+1] Potentially Unfriendly Aspiring Divinity (12 hours later)
What parts of the map make no climatological sense?
u/hoja_nasredin [+6] Dai-Gurren Brigade (13 hours later)
there is a river that starts at a sea and goes to a sea. This does not happen. There is lake with no connecting rivers (possible but very rare) people say steppes can start near the the cost. There are big mountain ranges but no river comes from mountains.
u/Flashbunny [+2] (16 hours later)
I think that river starts in the Golden Bloom, and then forks in a somewhat odd manner into to courses, each going into the sea. But I could be wrong.
u/hoja_nasredin [+3] Dai-Gurren Brigade (a day later)
as a matter of fact you are. https://practicalguidetoevil.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/continent-map.pdf
u/Flashbunny [+1] (a day later)
Okay, so the river is made up of multiple tributaries (several starting in the mountains) before getting to the Golden Bloom. Does this disprove my overall point somehow?
u/hoja_nasredin [+2] Dai-Gurren Brigade (a day later)
we are talking about two different rivers (two different parts of the river)
u/Flashbunny [+1] (a day later)
Oh, I figured that the river I was talking about spilt right at the mouth and went south to another mouth - this seems incredibly unlikely (and might well still be impossible, I'm by no means an expert) but would give an explanation. But fair enough!
u/hoja_nasredin [+2] Dai-Gurren Brigade (2 days later)
yeah rivers split only at the delta near their end.
u/NotAHeroYet [+3] City of Angles Municipal Government (an hour later)
I want to say that those are different places, but I can't find any mentions of the one that starts with L that aren't in the context of "battle of" or the Chider plot. Still, that probably means those are different places.
Actually, I'm 95% certain those are different places, here's my understanding of what they are and why they're relevant.:
u/Zephyr1011 [+2] Potentially Unfriendly Aspiring Divinity (12 hours later)
For spoilers in this subreddit you need #s not /s