The last full-rhyme page of “Battlemon.” I came up with the idea for this story largely in one depressed flash of inspiration and in my mind’s eye saw it run over the course of about twenty minutes as though it were an animated special, which I think explains why there are so many visual callbacks. That sort of thing would be very striking over the course of twenty minutes. Heck, it’s visually striking over the course of these 25 pages, but it’s harder to recognize that until you can sit down and read the whole thing in one go. We’re only three more updates away from that world, though!

A while back someone asked, “Why is Bunners so against fighting?” and I am resisting, as much as possible, the temptation to hold everyone’s hand (hold your own hand), but I think it’s fine to “clarify” at this juncture: no reason. If you want to imagine there’s some reason Bunners hates fighting so much, more power to you. The author is dead and the text is all that matters, yeah?

But for those of you who think the author is still alive (thanks), I was definitely trying to tell a story about a Battlemon who just doesn’t like battling, who doesn’t need a reason to not like battling. In retrospect I might’ve made that clear earlier in the story – I assumed that, since I wasn’t going out of my way to give a reason, it might occur to some people that there just isn’t a reason, and maybe some people did, but I realize that even if you do think there’s no reason, you might not realize that’s part of the “message.” Well, you live and you learn, and RACIANTAU is meant to be defined by experimentation and iteration.

These last few pages were pretty sad, hunh? I was pretty sad when I wrote them, too. I don’t entirely remember why, and it was probably a whole bunch of reasons. I have, on my phone, this note from around that time that reads, “I just want RACIANTAU to make people sad the way I’m sad so I’m not so lonely in my sadness.” Well, from the people who’ve read “Battlemon” all the way through, I hear it does what I set out to do. That makes me sort of happy, but then I realize happiness makes it harder for me to write good RACIANTAU dialogue, which makes me sad again, which– you get it.