No, under genuine fascism (before the definition got rewritten) she’d either be taken for reeducation to the people’s cause or summarily executed for anti-revolutionary thinking.
To have become the town’s nuisance so thoroughly that they already take preventive action to protect the tourists from you!
I am both amused and scared for Scarlet
So this means that Scarlet is on the list of the town’s Usual Suspects! 🙂 Technically, they’re lying about the amount of peace and order that the town has, but it’s actually the Golnar war’s fault. Oh, the problems when your town is so clean that the police probably don’t have the junk needed to plant evidence on Scarlet, either. Or the booze needed to get Scarlet drunk enough to arrest her as a drunk and disorderly. 🙂
Gelning probably just doesn’t want to teach Scarlet to become a murderer. That or they don’t have any open murder cases. At least she’s not trying to get into the morgue to see the dead bodies. Or the service firearms. Or stealing a patrol car… Scarlet with a box of unclaimed “personal effects” porn mags? She’d probably heckle the photographic quality.
It seems that they don’t have the technique of making photographs on Laverel. I think all the illustrations we saw in books and in the museum are drawings.
Also, they don’t have the technique of communicating at a distance, by wires or waves.
The creation of photography is easy with enough of a technological base and massive amounts of supplies. Some silver, some chemicals, some fine machinery. There just needs to be enough for everybody. The same with radio. There’s no reason that Lavarel would lack either of these things in some amount.
No One of Consequence
The comics shows a civilization with the most immediate problem being progressing climate changes resulting in food shortages. There are plenty of points where it was made clear that the current tech level is lower from the past. This indicates material shortages, so lack of resources for innovation.
Also, with hunger being a recurring problem, people tend to focus on that.
We have seen so far that in Kirelia there is a bureaucracy that can be too meticulous (SFOS 003), as is usually the case with bureaucrats.
The absence of even minimal social services – state, church or voluntary – is surprising. When Tibor was injured at work, he had to pay for his own treatment, received no aid and had to beg to survive.
It is also strange that the authorities do not seem to care that all the children go to school; after one incident Scarlet was expelled (SFOS 031) and the authorities no longer cared that she did not go to school.
But the police are surprisingly good-natured, kind and relaxed. We saw this earlier in Samaris, and now in Kirkiok. We see, for example, that the policeman has well-groomed long hair. The policeman in Samaris gave Tibor alms (SFOS 026). The police in Samaris also openly did not care about a regulation that is clearly stupid and against the interests of everyone. (SFOS 051) This is admittedly bad for the state in principle, but reasonable in the given situation.
And here they are implementing some measures, albeit on the edge of the law, but understandable, to preserve public order and peace, without unnecessary harshness.
We didn’t see any large city yet. All were small towns, villages even. Not enough size to organized crime (not economically feasible), not critical mass for a network of corrupt interests. The whole country seems to be a buffer one. On the other hand, out of the villages/towns, crime seems to be rampant. Corruption is widespread, you can see hints everywhere. The point here is the absence of.railway, not exactly communications per se (which seem to be as fast as needed). The invention and development of railway or similar system of mass transportation would ruin this state of affairs (in fact, there is no official hour, presumably it’s sundial, countrywide official hours came with railways too).
I don’t think Samaris and Kirkiok are small towns. Samaris, until last year when the famine struck, was a prosperous town: “lots of construction going on” (SFOS 004)
The “Setting” explains that the central government is weak. The situation in various towns depends on the circumstances and the capabilities of the local authorities. The authorities in Samaris were irresponsible: they relaxed after a series of good years and did not prepare supplies and measures for the crisis.
In such a situation, the local police can be violent, corrupt, oppressive. But it is noticeable, as I mentioned above, that the police are “good-natured, kind and relaxed”. Unusual.
The lack of fast and mass means of transport, such as railways (and trucks also), is also noticeable and important, as is the lack of means of communication.
The post office is modestly developed: there is a Royal Mail of Avernum, and in the square they shout for anyone who has a letter for (SFOS 019).
On the same panel we see an advertisement for “Capella Star”. but we never saw any one read the papers, or that they were sold; they may be sold by subscription only.
We do not know how much time has passed since the time of great empires and advanced civilization. Maybe hundreds, maybe thousands of years of gradual regression.
Poyntre
Well, yes, of course, it depends on what you or me consider “town”, “city”, and “big city”. 20,000 people was a huge urban area in European Middle Ages, 100,000 a metropolis, Tenochtitlan which was made by neolithical population, peaked somewhere between 250,000-400,000, it was totally out of range in Europe, technologically way far more advanced. I guess Samaris could be around, at most, a few tens of thousands, I’d bet for a small figure like 10,000 to 20,000, even less. It’s enough for everyone knows everyone, no unknown people, so.it’s another problem for criminal networks. Besides, we have the problem of supply urban areas, we don’t know the agricultural management of Lavarel, but supply food to large urban areas (no railway!) it’s a hard task. I insist that technology (which is always cultural, not neutral) is what make things change, so this world is.limited by its communication networks and its means of transport, more than any other thing.
Their technological progress is negative. Invention of railway is not something in front of them, it’s likely something they had but is no longer operational and not considered worth of resources needed to fix. I mean, the rails need lot of steel, and this steel needs lot of coal to make, and any coal is more likely to be used for heating.
…. if they HAVE coal. Remember that coal was formed when dead plant matter decays into peat which is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years. If Lavarel was terraformed just several tens or hundreds of thousands years ago, there is no coal.
It’s also possible their train used electricity but their electrical grid is unusable now.
Poyntre
No railway, no modern society. It is a problem of human resources. Mechanization and mechanized systems of transport means freed people from hard labor available for advanced economic developments. In fact, if you don’t have coal, you cannot go very far, you haven’t basic alloys (in the industrial sense), not electricity even. I don’t know if Lavarel has coal or not, it has “energy crystals” (sort of mining) which can be enough for metalurgy, or not. The point here is the self-organization of society, if you have an efficient mass transport system, call it railway, superloop or flying zeppelins, you can access the next step, if you haven’t, you are trapped. In Africa (as in the whole of Eurasia before the domestication of horses), there were no horses, zebras are not useful to.ride (nor elephants can replicate what horses do, apart from they eat and shit literally heaps), so until very recent ages sub-saharian African states were limited in size, reach and resources, and so on. I hope to have better explain now.
On the other hand, in SFOS 081, it was implied that the chief of the city guard was going to lynch Tibor for killing his son – even though it was a legal killing.
My general impression is, Kirelia is on a brink of a complete breakdown of an organized society, due to all the wars and famines. So the justice becomes somewhat frontier-like – people, including the law enforcement, routinely choose which laws to respect and which to ignore.
Yeah, I agree, it’s a general sittuation. Not everyone chooses to be violent. Many are kind and willing to help. Society is on the edge, but it has not yet sunk into chaos.
I would LOVE LOVE LOVE the Scarlet as plucky girl detective arc. I’d also be thrilled with a hilarious buddy cop arc before it got back to the serious stuff.
I’m torn between the type of setting for Scarlet’s Buddy Cop adventures. Lethal Weapon is too well known. The Tick is totally heedless of reason or caution. Lupin the 3rd has enough action, and no-one really gets hurt- unless they deserve it.
Scarlet’s clearly brilliant, but she hasn’t quite learned to apply that intelligence to the softer “people skills” in life. Looking forward to the moment she finds out that being right is only half the game — the real magic is getting people to *want* to listen. Once she figures that out, she’s going to be unstoppable.
By the way, there is no comment about what seems to be a flag in panel 1. If it is such a thing, it’s not heraldric (no animals, no weapons, no standard symbols of power like mills, bridges, keys, and the like), quite on the contrary, it appears to be either too modern or too primitive. The half green could be the land and the half blue the sky… or not.
I really love how the authorities work really hard to not become the bad guys. I guess their efforts are doomed by the merciless rules of storytelling, but showing their efforts of trying not to is really appreciated.
Wonder what’s more likely: Scarlet finds out somebody who’s accused is actually innocent (+1 to the Machine Cult), or something happens out there so it’s all hands on deck and Sergeant Cyril Gelning ends up in the field with the notorious redhead still stuck with him as per Chief Rodar’s orders…
35 thoughts on “Machine Girl 026”
Isharfoxat
Gelning, don’t be an idiot…
The girl has more brain cells than your entire brigade!
No One of Consequence
Scarlet Carolus, consulting detective. 😉
PoisonousEarthworm
Scarlet Carolus, insulting detective. 😉
No One of Consequence
That goes with the job I guess. 🙂
Nick/Tyrong
We won’t kidnap you.
We’ll only KINDA kidnap you.
No One of Consequence
When authorities do it, it is called detention.
Nick/Tyrong
Sounds like good old fascism to me.
Chumbawumba.
Llywenna
No, under genuine fascism (before the definition got rewritten) she’d either be taken for reeducation to the people’s cause or summarily executed for anti-revolutionary thinking.
Nick/Tyrong
why can i not reply to this guy?
Oh well, bootlickers gonna lick boot.
ToBeFree
😂
El Principe Austral
To have become the town’s nuisance so thoroughly that they already take preventive action to protect the tourists from you!
I am both amused and scared for Scarlet
Vicious Sand
So this means that Scarlet is on the list of the town’s Usual Suspects! 🙂 Technically, they’re lying about the amount of peace and order that the town has, but it’s actually the Golnar war’s fault. Oh, the problems when your town is so clean that the police probably don’t have the junk needed to plant evidence on Scarlet, either. Or the booze needed to get Scarlet drunk enough to arrest her as a drunk and disorderly. 🙂
Gelning probably just doesn’t want to teach Scarlet to become a murderer. That or they don’t have any open murder cases. At least she’s not trying to get into the morgue to see the dead bodies. Or the service firearms. Or stealing a patrol car… Scarlet with a box of unclaimed “personal effects” porn mags? She’d probably heckle the photographic quality.
No One of Consequence
I don’t think they would want to plant evidence on her. On the previous pages the police was annoyed by her but was neither hostile nor malicious.
Hegel-Marx
It seems that they don’t have the technique of making photographs on Laverel. I think all the illustrations we saw in books and in the museum are drawings.
Also, they don’t have the technique of communicating at a distance, by wires or waves.
Vicious Sand
The creation of photography is easy with enough of a technological base and massive amounts of supplies. Some silver, some chemicals, some fine machinery. There just needs to be enough for everybody. The same with radio. There’s no reason that Lavarel would lack either of these things in some amount.
No One of Consequence
The comics shows a civilization with the most immediate problem being progressing climate changes resulting in food shortages. There are plenty of points where it was made clear that the current tech level is lower from the past. This indicates material shortages, so lack of resources for innovation.
Also, with hunger being a recurring problem, people tend to focus on that.
BlackDragonSlayer
Anticipatory arrest? I feel like they could’ve done something else to keep her busy that was less… morally dubious.
Alex
Seems like the RSS feed is only updating every several posts for this… is that by design?
Shankar
It updates every post as expected for me.
Hegel-Marx
We have seen so far that in Kirelia there is a bureaucracy that can be too meticulous (SFOS 003), as is usually the case with bureaucrats.
The absence of even minimal social services – state, church or voluntary – is surprising. When Tibor was injured at work, he had to pay for his own treatment, received no aid and had to beg to survive.
It is also strange that the authorities do not seem to care that all the children go to school; after one incident Scarlet was expelled (SFOS 031) and the authorities no longer cared that she did not go to school.
But the police are surprisingly good-natured, kind and relaxed. We saw this earlier in Samaris, and now in Kirkiok. We see, for example, that the policeman has well-groomed long hair. The policeman in Samaris gave Tibor alms (SFOS 026). The police in Samaris also openly did not care about a regulation that is clearly stupid and against the interests of everyone. (SFOS 051) This is admittedly bad for the state in principle, but reasonable in the given situation.
And here they are implementing some measures, albeit on the edge of the law, but understandable, to preserve public order and peace, without unnecessary harshness.
Poyntre
We didn’t see any large city yet. All were small towns, villages even. Not enough size to organized crime (not economically feasible), not critical mass for a network of corrupt interests. The whole country seems to be a buffer one. On the other hand, out of the villages/towns, crime seems to be rampant. Corruption is widespread, you can see hints everywhere. The point here is the absence of.railway, not exactly communications per se (which seem to be as fast as needed). The invention and development of railway or similar system of mass transportation would ruin this state of affairs (in fact, there is no official hour, presumably it’s sundial, countrywide official hours came with railways too).
Hegel-Marx
I don’t think Samaris and Kirkiok are small towns. Samaris, until last year when the famine struck, was a prosperous town: “lots of construction going on” (SFOS 004)
The “Setting” explains that the central government is weak. The situation in various towns depends on the circumstances and the capabilities of the local authorities. The authorities in Samaris were irresponsible: they relaxed after a series of good years and did not prepare supplies and measures for the crisis.
In such a situation, the local police can be violent, corrupt, oppressive. But it is noticeable, as I mentioned above, that the police are “good-natured, kind and relaxed”. Unusual.
The lack of fast and mass means of transport, such as railways (and trucks also), is also noticeable and important, as is the lack of means of communication.
The post office is modestly developed: there is a Royal Mail of Avernum, and in the square they shout for anyone who has a letter for (SFOS 019).
On the same panel we see an advertisement for “Capella Star”. but we never saw any one read the papers, or that they were sold; they may be sold by subscription only.
We do not know how much time has passed since the time of great empires and advanced civilization. Maybe hundreds, maybe thousands of years of gradual regression.
Poyntre
Well, yes, of course, it depends on what you or me consider “town”, “city”, and “big city”. 20,000 people was a huge urban area in European Middle Ages, 100,000 a metropolis, Tenochtitlan which was made by neolithical population, peaked somewhere between 250,000-400,000, it was totally out of range in Europe, technologically way far more advanced. I guess Samaris could be around, at most, a few tens of thousands, I’d bet for a small figure like 10,000 to 20,000, even less. It’s enough for everyone knows everyone, no unknown people, so.it’s another problem for criminal networks. Besides, we have the problem of supply urban areas, we don’t know the agricultural management of Lavarel, but supply food to large urban areas (no railway!) it’s a hard task. I insist that technology (which is always cultural, not neutral) is what make things change, so this world is.limited by its communication networks and its means of transport, more than any other thing.
HKMaly
Their technological progress is negative. Invention of railway is not something in front of them, it’s likely something they had but is no longer operational and not considered worth of resources needed to fix. I mean, the rails need lot of steel, and this steel needs lot of coal to make, and any coal is more likely to be used for heating.
…. if they HAVE coal. Remember that coal was formed when dead plant matter decays into peat which is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years. If Lavarel was terraformed just several tens or hundreds of thousands years ago, there is no coal.
It’s also possible their train used electricity but their electrical grid is unusable now.
Poyntre
No railway, no modern society. It is a problem of human resources. Mechanization and mechanized systems of transport means freed people from hard labor available for advanced economic developments. In fact, if you don’t have coal, you cannot go very far, you haven’t basic alloys (in the industrial sense), not electricity even. I don’t know if Lavarel has coal or not, it has “energy crystals” (sort of mining) which can be enough for metalurgy, or not. The point here is the self-organization of society, if you have an efficient mass transport system, call it railway, superloop or flying zeppelins, you can access the next step, if you haven’t, you are trapped. In Africa (as in the whole of Eurasia before the domestication of horses), there were no horses, zebras are not useful to.ride (nor elephants can replicate what horses do, apart from they eat and shit literally heaps), so until very recent ages sub-saharian African states were limited in size, reach and resources, and so on. I hope to have better explain now.
SadBeaver
On the other hand, in SFOS 081, it was implied that the chief of the city guard was going to lynch Tibor for killing his son – even though it was a legal killing.
My general impression is, Kirelia is on a brink of a complete breakdown of an organized society, due to all the wars and famines. So the justice becomes somewhat frontier-like – people, including the law enforcement, routinely choose which laws to respect and which to ignore.
Hegel-Marx
Yeah, I agree, it’s a general sittuation. Not everyone chooses to be violent. Many are kind and willing to help. Society is on the edge, but it has not yet sunk into chaos.
Werwolfe
Betcha I can eat more donuts than you too! Beet donuts. Burnt soap donuts. Ew, actually scratch that.
Quixote
I would LOVE LOVE LOVE the Scarlet as plucky girl detective arc. I’d also be thrilled with a hilarious buddy cop arc before it got back to the serious stuff.
Vicious Sand
I’m torn between the type of setting for Scarlet’s Buddy Cop adventures. Lethal Weapon is too well known. The Tick is totally heedless of reason or caution. Lupin the 3rd has enough action, and no-one really gets hurt- unless they deserve it.
Rynn
Scarlet’s clearly brilliant, but she hasn’t quite learned to apply that intelligence to the softer “people skills” in life. Looking forward to the moment she finds out that being right is only half the game — the real magic is getting people to *want* to listen. Once she figures that out, she’s going to be unstoppable.
Poyntre
By the way, there is no comment about what seems to be a flag in panel 1. If it is such a thing, it’s not heraldric (no animals, no weapons, no standard symbols of power like mills, bridges, keys, and the like), quite on the contrary, it appears to be either too modern or too primitive. The half green could be the land and the half blue the sky… or not.
Clevershitter
I really love how the authorities work really hard to not become the bad guys. I guess their efforts are doomed by the merciless rules of storytelling, but showing their efforts of trying not to is really appreciated.
Llywenna
All day with him ? One convert to the Great Machine Cult coming right up 🙂
Tadrix
Wonder what’s more likely: Scarlet finds out somebody who’s accused is actually innocent (+1 to the Machine Cult), or something happens out there so it’s all hands on deck and Sergeant Cyril Gelning ends up in the field with the notorious redhead still stuck with him as per Chief Rodar’s orders…
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