Doing some fancy visual things in that “first panel,” hunh? More than most pages I’m convinced this one stands on its own rather well, so I’ll try to avoid commenting too much on it.

I suppose I do wonder, “Is this really the first time Bunners has seen another one of her species fighting?” But there’s a lot left unspoken in this story. In the text, Bunners seems to have managed to sleep through some fights and she comes off as rather oblivious. I also wonder how old she is – in my head, she’s probably only been with Racia for a year or two.

Anyway, I don’t see that sort of information as important to the story – if I thought it were, I would’ve included it in the actual text. I have my own prejudices, though, which I recognize influence how I consume stories and how I tell my own. I like feeling slightly frustrated or confused by a text. I assume negative emotions I feel toward a work I mostly like are negative emotions I was meant to feel. I guess that’s a good argument for not explaining too much in these blurbs – if you walked away feeling upset and I intended that, but then what I say down here makes you less upset, there’s an argument to be made that I’m detracting from my own work.

An argument to be made, sure, but not one I’m totally convinced by. I’m not sure. As a somewhat related anecdote that may or may not be relevant: I really enjoyed disliking Korra during The Legend of Korra’s Season 2 and I made a lot of arguments on various comment threads before the Avatar Wan flashback that not only were we, the audience, supposed to dislike Korra’s actions during that arc, it was also the only way we could ever really like her again after the disappointment that was Season 1. Not only were a lot of people stubbornly opposed to my interpretation of that season, I was also treated not-too-kindly for the suggestion that a show that was annoying so many of us could possibly be doing so on purpose for an emotional change in the back half of the season.

When my predictions came true I’d already grown tired enough of being mocked and ridiculed in those spaces that I didn’t bother logging back on to tell the usual suspects, “I told you so.” Oh, wait, uhhh– I mean– I’m not the sort of person who would say I tol– oh, screw it.

Poor Bunners.