14 KiB
[RT][HF] A Practical Guide to Evil: Book 4: Interlude: Red The Flowers
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Author: u/Zayits *
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URL: https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/06/20/interlude-red-the-flowers/
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Score: 83
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Created: 2018-06-20T04:01:05
Post:
Comments:
u/CeruleanTresses [+43] *
I'm absolutely certain that Champion's plan to have herself catapulted at the dragon would have worked.
u/Esryok [+20] *
Matured adventurer-style hero bearing an ancient and weighty Name with not just a history of beast slaying, but specifically Praesi beast slaying? I am wondering what sort of shenanigans stopped Fate from making that happen. Maybe it would be a suicide run and the "Anti-Malicia Party" story gave a veto.
u/N64_Chalmers [+8] *
That's a manoeuvre you need an entire band of adventurers to pull off.
u/Esryok [+33] *
Book I, Prologue
The four stood in silence for a long moment, watching the night slowly crawl over the fields of Streges.
“Ten years,” Black finally said.
“Six, for the earliest ones,” Scribe disagreed quietly. Book 4, Interlude: Red the Flowers He’d found a single instance, the Rebel Knight, who’d bared her sword at the man twice. Three years after the Conquest, a hidden bastard child of a branch line of House Fairfax who’d inherited the same Name as Eleanor Fairfax herself. HPMOR, Chapter 6: The Planning Fallacy It's actually really hard to be so pessimistic that you stand a decent chance of undershooting real life. Yup.
u/Zayits [+15] *
I've been wondering whether I would be the only one to recall that. In retrospect, Black expecting to have a ten year window because the orphans would be busy growing up is telling. Having children limits the possible age of the parent, not the age of the child.
u/Yes_This_Is_God [+18] *
RIP Black? It seems pretty final. The jig is up. A win, a draw, and now a loss. Well, I do hope Black and Warlock find their way out alive, if for nothing else but the fact that the series was going to be about them at first. Who knows? Maybe when Hanno was studying the blade, Black dug up some new stories to use. One can hope. I do like how the ability to draw on past heroes' memories provides a counter to Black. They had to grind through an abattoir's worth of heroes to map out all of Black's tricks. All the more reason to accuse the Heavens of cheating, I guess. So now it's Black and Warlock (maybe Assassin?) against White, Witch, and Champion (wearing Captain's dead body? Did I catch that right?). On its face, it does seem like the villains are going to get pasted all over the mountains. I hope not. That would be pretty disappointing. Oh, and finally a dragon!
u/sparkc [+31] *
I believe Black explicitly mentioned in one of his interludes in the third book that no pattern of three formed between himself and the White Knight. It was this that led him to believe that he had only a year or two left to live. In terms of extra-textual reasons, I don’t believe Black’s death, far away from Cat with little to no interaction between the two in the proceeding year, would be a satisfying resolution to their personal story.
u/soonnananadnaanssoon [+19] *
Not exactly Captain's dead body but her skinned hide. Which sets up a pretty strong revenge story in favour of Black and Wekesa. And also sets up a potential for Black and Wekesa to get really emotional and mess the operation up.
u/Empiricist_or_not [+10] Aspiring polite Hegemonizing swarm*
Wasn't Captain's curse on her bloodline? Doesn't she have kids? Yeah Warlock might have fixed the curse but I'd bet diamonds to dollars her kids might ask for it back and uncle Wekesa might be willing.
u/BlackKnightG93M [+9] *
Black? No, if anything he'd be more like Harry in his dark side, extremely cold and deliberately cruel. Wekesa on the other hand...
u/PotentiallySarcastic [+12] *
Captain's skin at least from her werewolf form.
u/CouteauBleu [+25] We are the Empire.*
That is so messed up. The Champion is definitely on the "murderhobo with divine backing" side of the heroic scale.
u/Empiricist_or_not [+10] Aspiring polite Hegemonizing swarm*
Um, am I the only one thinking
MasegoWekesa and Black will be savvy enough to pretend to fight their own counterpart but savvy enough to switch so each is fighting someone they are unprepared for? Edit: Wrong generation of reality violator
u/Yes_This_Is_God [+5] *
Maybe, but in that case, Champion still has to fight something. Maybe she's the wildcard that messes the plan up.
u/Empiricist_or_not [+5] Aspiring polite Hegemonizing swarm*
Where is Assassin?
u/sparkc [+23] *
The emotionless husk pretending to be Prince Arnaud.
u/names1 [+9] *
now that would be one hell of a twist
u/tadrinth [+7] *
Both the Grey Pilgrim and Catherine have noticed that Arnaud doesn't react emotionally to anything.
u/names1 [+3] *
plainly he's a kandra
u/Daimon5hade [+1] *
This is my theory as well since Pilgrim and Saint noticed. I'm actually less convinced since Cat noticed because no change in heartbeat would seem a tad obvious considering she genuinely believed Assassin was Black last time she saw him.
u/Yes_This_Is_God [+9] *
Busy being an eldritch horror somewhere. That's a good point you bring up. Perhaps Assassin will be sealed away in a more permanent fashion in this battle, since it seems like he's the Evil counterpart to the Bard (eternal existence, etc), who was banished by Anaxares.
u/Empiricist_or_not [+5] Aspiring polite Hegemonizing swarm*
who was banished by Anaxares. I really don't think that will be permanent, I'd be thrilled if it was the case, but I get the feeling death isn't that cheap (for POV characters) and she's the big bad, in that she is the hand of God enforcing status quo, and a major theme seams to be breaking the pattern.
u/Yes_This_Is_God [+5] *
Sure, what I was trying to convey was that Anaxares' judgment was extremely powerful because his rejection of the great game was effectively an earthly tribunal rejecting the meddling of the Gods Above and Below, and as such it should have a massive impact on one of their tools, the Bard. If she and the Assassin are diametrically opposed, it serves to reason that he should be equally impacted by such a ruling, though by different means.
u/Empiricist_or_not [+2] Aspiring polite Hegemonizing swarm*
Great point. I've seen this speculation that bard and Assassin are counterparts, but it seems unlikely because Black gives Assassin orders and was comparing Bard to Triumphant. I think Assassin's "immortality" might be more of a planned thing like using a MOL simulcrum (which has all the same abilities but is constrained by a common power pool)
u/None [+6] *
Can we assume Black has an Unspoken Plan guarantee? Maybe. Also, Hanno is strong, but doesn't seem to be using the stories. I feel like that's a big mistake on his part.
u/Empiricist_or_not [+3] Aspiring polite Hegemonizing swarm*
I see Hanno custom crafting himself as a tool to just kill Black in single combat as a Big glowing death flag the size of the sail navy battle Flags you can see in some museums. (Larger than two or three parking spaces)
u/aerocarbon [+8] NERV*
Yessss. I was set to cry if we didn't get another Interlude with Black at the helm. The Calamity Interludes in Book III were easily my favorite part of that book (next only to the climax, of course!)
u/cyberdsaiyan [+8] *
I'm interested to see how Catherine branding Black's name will come into play in the upcoming engagement. I'm guessing Black will straight up avoid 1v1ing Hanno since that's just fitting into the pattern of three. Maybe he will fight Champion? He has a revenge story there with Captain, and if Champion wears her fur cloak to battle all the more narrative weight will be given to Black.
u/WalterTFD [+3] *
I don't think bad guys get the revenge story. Like, I don't think Creation cares about their feelings like that. Gloating inspiring victory feels like a thing that works out for good guys, like most things.
u/WalterTFD [+5] *
I dunno what Klaus thinks White Knight killing Black Knight will do for his fortunes on the field. Grem is the one piloting the other side, and his problem is that the thin valley isn't letting his more numerous army defeat the higher quality enemy.
u/names1 [+17] *
It's the same mistake the Procerans made when Cat was unconscious. They assume that the Named is leading the army, when the Empire actually has a solid chain of command structure (unlike the Procerans).
u/Zephyr1011 [+1] Potentially Unfriendly Aspiring Divinity*
Is it unlike the Procerans? All the Proceran commanders are non-Named. Hell, Klaus even makes a point of not wanting to rely on Named to win battles
u/names1 [+1] *
The Legion of Terror has a very solid command structure, complete with NCO's leading ten-person squads. We've already seen lower ranking leaders take a higher ranks place when they fall or become incapacitated.
u/LordGoldenroot [+6] *
While you have a point, managing to kill black would crush morale is the Praesi soldiers, letting him get a much easier win.
u/Tallergeese [+9] *
Or it would piss off the Legions who worship him really, really fucking bad.
u/ahd1903 [+3] Neo-Victorian New Atlantis*
Shame about the timing. If Hierophant could get free from the northern front, he and his dad could double-team the Witch, and then evaporate the southern Proceran host.
u/middleofnight [+1] *
That's the thing, right? Cat seems very reluctant to actively help Black. Whereas, at least in the short run, optimal thing seem to be to help Black by using a portal to get there quickly.
u/ahd1903 [+3] Neo-Victorian New Atlantis*
Have to keep an eye on the northern host, or they'll attack and overrun the Army of Callow. Now me, I'd do a fighting retreat through a portal to Arcadia and break contact, then send the army back to garrison and recover, while heading south to play Fun With Heroes Not Covered By The Pilgrim Or The Saint. But there's a reason Cat isn't doing that. Wish I knew what it was.
u/Ardvarkeating101 [+3] Father of Learning*
One of the best chapters in a long time
u/BausMANGO [+6] *
So one of Hanno's abilities makes him kind of like Glaistig Uaine? - but only gets the knowledge and muscle memory kind of stuff, not actual powers
u/Yes_This_Is_God [+26] *
It's probably easier to understand it without putting it in the Worm context. He has the ability to dig through the memories of previous heroes and call forth their abilities, to a limited degree. If you look at their previous fights, you can see how Hanno uses it in combat.
u/soonnananadnaanssoon [+5] *
Yeap. One of Hanno's ability is to go through the experiences (memories) of dead Heroes and relive through them. His second aspect, Recall, allows him to remember the skills and fighting styles of dead Heroes and switch between different Heroes. From his 2nd battle with Black in Book 3, it seem that he can only focus on one at a time and every time he shifts, the cooldown time and shifting time increases. That, however, was 'shifting' in the middle of battle. From this chapter, he went through the experiences of the Heroes before the battle to simulate Black and choose the most effective anti-Black techniques beforehand. Given that: i) Hanno and Black currently have a Pattern of 3-ish pattern (Round 1: Hanno Lost, Black Won & Retreated, Round 2: Hanno Lost but Black Lost so Draw?) and ii) Hanno's 3rd Aspect has not been revealed, it's also likely Hanno's 3rd Aspect is going to be anti-Black. I'm picking up Black deathflags throughout the entire chapter.
u/Croktopus [+5] *
I'm picking up Black deathflags throughout the entire chapter. But, Black's whole schtick is that he puts a beatdown on narrative. That being said, I don't know if he's ever let narrative get this far before. I want
u/BlackKnightG93M [+12] *
It was explicitly stated that Black does not have a pattern of three with the White Knight after the first encounter with White. So no, he's not ordained to die here.
u/tadrinth [+7] *
Hanno's three aspects are:
- Ride
- Recall
- Judge (or whatever his coin flip thing is actually called)
“Formulaic aspect,” the Wandering Bard said. “You’re a little young to know about those, I suppose. Should have let him finish, Big Guy. You don’t interrupt the words of the Choir of Judgement without a price.”
u/WalterTFD [+2] *
VERY ominous for Black that the coin came up death. I can't help but think that if Hanno ever truly loses it will be because his coin betrays him.