Comments on: Page 379

By: Prairie Son

Prairie Son — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 06:37:58 +0000

Yes, Charles I lost his head to Parliament (and Cromwell, but he wasn’t the Big Cheese yet). Charles II got even by taking as many heads as he could once he got his butt on the throne, some (including Cromwell) posthumously.

Need I add there hasn’t been another King Charles since those two?

Maldik, however, doesn’t remind me of John. John was fairly competent, multilingual, trained in law and engineering. Maldik is much more Geoffrey (the legitimate one, not the Archbishop of York): pathetically scheming, betraying everyone to everybody else, and not the brightest bulb in the batch.

Which makes me wonder if Gudik is more Richard Couer-de-Leon or Henry the Young King.

By: TheLastGarou

TheLastGarou — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 22:47:00 +0000

I’ll bow to your superior knowledge on John and Richard, @ICWT. It’s not a period I’ve studied overmuch. I may also be wrong about which Charles it was that was deposed and executed by Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution.
That being said, no one with ANY character could do what that Charles did. Not even Maldik is foolish or self-centered enough to think that he could turn the highest cleric in the realm over to the mob for execution and claim it was his penance for doing the same to his Chief Minister, as Charles did to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury William Laud and Thomas Wentworth the Earl of Stratford, despite having sworn to stand by the man, who had shown him nothing but unswerving loyalty.
That’s the sort of logic that can only be understood by the TOTALLY self-absorbed, which Maldik has just proven he is not. I’m not saying I like the man or that I think he’s any less a traitor, simply that our own history is full of people who are worse.

By: Moox

Moox — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 02:36:00 +0000

Everyone keeps calling him “small dick” but his nickname should be “bad dick” or “sick dick” because that’s the meaning of Mal.

Moox

By: Lynnix

Lynnix — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 01:13:25 +0000

How dare you make me like him! D:

By: ICWT

ICWT — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:32:02 +0000

@John, one disagreement, Dia is better looking because she isn’t hiding inside herself from the world. She knows she is defenseless and allows herself to love anyway, she just has worse taste than Small Dick. She is also the only person we’ve met (at least until this mysterious procurer turns up) with less testosterone than the Prince. They are the two people least in charge of their own destinies.

By: ICWT

ICWT — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:05:43 +0000

@TheLastGarou, Addup2: You’ve undershot by 430 years! This just couldn’t get any closer to ‘The Lion in Winter’. All it’s missing is a half-dozen extra siblings for Maldik and Gudik. And John was also human, just a throroughly screwed up man who acheived power as an after-thought from his lineage, not by design.

By: Addup2

Addup2 — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:45:27 +0000

@TheLastGarou. I know this is pedantry, but it’s more that there is no record of Charles I showing this behaviour - but then it could be that either no record was made of the behaviour, or that the record hasn’t survived; not just that he never showed the behaviour. After all, Charles I ws human too!

By: TheLastGarou

TheLastGarou — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:46:25 +0000

I’ve been interested in history for a long time and particularly the time period surrounding the Thirty Years War after reading Eric Flint’s “Ring of Fire” series. So I’d like to point out that as lothesome as Maldik is from our perspective, from a historical standpoint, he’s really not that bad. His primary failing in the setting of early to mid 17th century Europe would be his incompetance, not his cruelty. There are a great many historical figures many times pettier and more foolish, Charles the First of England being a stellar example of petty, self-centered, childish idiocy. The big difference between him and Maldik? Maldik isn’t the legitimate ruler of his kingdom (yet), and Charles NEVER, in his entire life, showed as much personal character as Maldik has in the last two pages. Meditate on that for a while and get back to me.
Bravo JED. Deep, human, characters are always more interesting than one-dimensional caricatures.

By: warnie

warnie — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:38:35 +0000

ya know , Jed after that whole monologue , aint much to add is there??

By: mockme

mockme — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:33:57 +0000

in every person there is both good and evil. we have seen his good and his evil. i still say: fishhooks, weights, scalpel. and just enough room for him to squirm.