Blush: You say those names like I should know them? Remember I ain’t fully caught up yet on the last fifty years.
Violet: One of them I don’t expect you to know . . . but the other is President literally right now.
Blush: Really?! . . . Not your sister, right? Or there’d be a lot more Order of the Horn around.
Violet: I’m my own security — but it’s Romarin, yeah.
Blush: So one of them . . . well, us . . . is running the country now, huh. Is she the first one? Rhodón doesn’t count.
Violet: Sure is. First Getsunese president too, if you want to know.
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Wait…Violet keeps talking about her sister in the past tense…
Calling it, Romarin had her eliminated.
Geez, dark much?
…
Aren’t you the same author who has an entire relationship plotline where one is enslaved and the other is struggling with PTSD?
What part of that suggests Romarin would want Cymbeline dead?
Dark plot elements have to come from worldbuilding and foreshadowing and characterization, they can’t just be slapped on at random.
My primary evidence is admittedly circumstantial, but Cymbeline talking about knowing enough for a tell-all and seeing Romarin’s more pragmatic moments in dealing with the SOMH leads me to believe that there are skeletons in the closet she can’t have coming out, and that Cymbeline couldn’t be allowed to risk letting loose.
I doubt it.
This comic is pretty light-hearted, even with its serious aspects; those are treated with the seriousness they deserve, but at the same time, there’s a strong aspect of hope. Even the Woman in Black has an aspect of levity to her, despite how unsettling the concept is. Violet’s sister being eliminated by Romarian seems more like darkness for the sake of darkness, as opposed to darkness as a part of life, if that makes sense; I could see Violet talking about her sister in the past tense *due to her discussing things that happened in the past* as opposed to her being dead.
Why does Blush look so sad in the last panel? What would be bad about a long runner as President? They don’t live forever, they just know their past lives. That seems ideal: someone who doesn’t just study the past, they KNOW it.
Light-hearted answer? Maybe SHE wanted to be the first Long-Runner president other than Rhodón/Leachtric.
Yeah but a President should also be someone who also KNOWS the present. And not entangled with the past.
Order f the Horn = secret service?
Exactly.
So Rhodón/Leahtric is a Long Runner and not just reincarnated?
What would you call the difference between the two?
My guess: “just reincarnated” is “pulled the same heartsword so definitely the same soul, BUT doesn’t personally remember their past life/lives”.
It was stated that you don’t have to be a long runner to be a reincarnation. Rowan, for example, has seen his Heartsword on display at a museum, but doesn’t remember anything about his past life. Being reincarnated is a prerequisite for being a long runner, yes; but being a long runner isn’t a prerequisite for being reincarnated. Or to put it another way; just because you reincarnated doesn’t mean you’ll remember who you were, but if you remember who you were then you were definitely reincarnated.
So Rhodon may reincarnate into new eras, but she’s not necessarily a long runner. I imagine some people might assume that’s the case, though, hence the need to clarify that she doesn’t count.
I assumed she “doesn’t count” because she was a culture hero and not within the current framework. Like discounting someone as the first woman general appointed in France due to the prior existence of Joan of Arc.
I would guess she “doesn’t count” because she wasn’t elected.
The strip just says “one of us running the country”, nothing about being elected or not.
(Shard’s explanation from 2017 was the right one here.)
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