Guys, I'm not sure I can keep reading this comic. I should be thrilled for Bern, but... I'm not.
I'm not really cheering for the other guy, either, because he's a bully. I just plain hate this battle, and that it's dragging on like this.
I don't blame you. I don't think this chapter is necessarily a mistake, though. This chapter definitely has a "monty hall" feel, but that's not unheard of in a comic book series, and an enchanted weapon or artifact alluded to earlier in a story is common in fantasy. Normally it results in a very powerful, impressive presentation, and it can be against overwhelming odds, its supposed to be satisfying as we cheer the character on, and wish to see more of the weapon/artifact/tool can do, where we can then see more of its strengths and how they compliment the fighter, or if we take a more storybook route, its weaknesses, or what happens should the fighter rely on them too much. These are all viable options in the Flipside-verse, right now.
So why is this not flashy and fun? That's ultimately, at least in my opinion, the biggest point to showing off such weapons, unless the point is to create such a contrast with crippling weakness later. Why is
The Indomitable Blades, part II, such a "tedious, dragging on scene" when so many people wanted to get to the fight, already?
Because
The Indomitable Blades, part I, did one of the worst things it possibly could to a protagonist: it made her unlikeable. (Edit: Just a warning guys, this is insanely long)
The naive protagonist is not a new concept, not even close. There are tons of characters like that, and many of them quite successful; consider ironic characters like Frodo Baggins or Luke Skywalker. When it came to the world beyond their own, both of them were ultimately clueless, or naive, or both. That's not to say a competent character can't be important; someone like Aragorn could fit this bill quite nicely. I don't think even combining the two is necessarily a problem. I think a lot of us felt really bad for Bern when she was begging for directions on the streets of Marvallo, scowled at the high price of healing and the healer's crass treatment of both her and the father, and some of us probably cheered when she whipped out her blades and asserted her own dominance. I'm sure some people were critical, or didn't get why Bern would do so much for a drunk that she barely knew, but I remember the reception to what Bern did at least being, overall, positive.
But then we get to the Colosseum, and here's where it becomes a problem. The thing with the earlier example in Marvallo is that Bern was, ultimately, treated unfairly by a cruel, uncaring world. Legality won over morality, or at least, the reader's
perception of morality. However, in the arena itself, Bern refuses to fight because of her
own perception of morality. To fight simply to entertain and earn her freedom is something she refuses to do. Still fine so far, fits the naive, albeit technically competent protagonist.
However, there are two very,
very, big problems with this. One is the fact that Blackbird is here, period. This makes Bern's desire to not fight, at all costs, come off as extremely
selfish, not just in terms of being a bad teammate, although that is certainly there, but also because of the fact that she ultimately is taking the stance that by not fighting, she is putting herself and her moralities above every single fighter in the fighter in the Colosseum, including the woman who sacrificed her freedom to mitigate Bernadette's punishment. The second problem, and ultimately, the bigger problem, is the fact that the Colosseum comes off as...pretty fair, honestly. Yes, when we're introduced, it was portrayed as a place in the middle of transition, with a leader that used to enjoy raping women, with several protestors lining up against them, but beyond that,
on screen, what has the Colosseum done that's actually wrong? Bern didn't fight the warden during her application, and let her teammates do all the work, so they didn't want to give Bern a chance to fight for her freedom (not even that bad, they just placed heavy restrictions on her right to fight and cancelled her fights for that week), because she refused to fight in the first place. Those are pretty reasonable consequences for Bern's actions. No one's being unfair in this situation, really, but Bern.
Then we get to "the talk" with Bernadette and Warden. Warden is fair, and realizes Bern is a much better fighter than she is, but lacks the "warrior's spirit", or at least, the warrior's spirit as fits the arena. Long story short, she gives Bernadette an ultimatum, Bern accepts, and allows Polly to once again throw herself under the bus for our protagonist. This makes Bernadette even more selfish, and even more unlikeable, by again placing her own perception of morality to not fight, even for her freedom--or to see Maytag again. So right now, Bern has been portrayed as selfish, ignorant, not a team player, and a whiner.
As a plot device, this could work very well if it bit her in the ass, but it doesn't, because next is the deathmatch. Because the three fighters are facing her in an unfair fight (and possibly the only unfair part of the arena we've actually seen so far), we're put in a situation where Bernadette either has to rise above this, and gain much despite her selfish, indecisive actions, or die. Several pages of the legendary twin swords of uber pwnage later, and we have Bern more than likely victorious, and we have two chapters that are probably the worst two in the entire series, and chapters that should have made Bern take a level in badass, and stand firm against a cruel, uncaring world, and be the hero, ends up portarying her more as a Mary Sue type that gets bailed out whenever there's a problem. What should have been one of the most satisfying arcs has become very unsatisfying.
Why? Honestly...the Colosseum
was fair. The organizer didn't treat Bern any differently than his other fighters, and war concerned for his business, that he is trying to reform (even if to just save his own neck), and the Warden is more than reasonable, especially by Marvallo standards. I personally don't think this chapter coming to play earlier than intended is the problem, because i think the damage was done in the scenes I outlined earlier. Bernadette could have had her perspective change in this cruel world, and still be a noble, selfless fighter: she simply needed to change the means she did this. She could have even flat out regretted the blood she shed after adapting to the Colosseum, thrust her swords into the ground, declaring "never again", and walk off.
Then Bern could have started questioning herself and what she was doing and why she was fighting, and I think we as readers would sympathize with her plight more.
Or, if we wanted to go with this "rise above the arena" thing, that could actually have worked. However, for this to work, the Colosseum needed to be unfair, even if it was unfair to everyone. The organizer's intro was fine, and the notion of Blackbird kicking ass for Bern could also work. The two of them being separated works. At this point, we really should have seen more about the Colosseum being cruel, callous, and flat out negligent.
Some people said, in jest, that Bern should have gotten raped/sex slave, etc. Honestly? In all seriousness, it could've helped this arc. However, I don't mean by route of option A: One of the other prisoners should have done it, or better, one of the guards in the Colosseum. Bern should have been traumatized, as early as possible, into this arc, and we should have seen it. This would make the reader's sympathize with Bern, and it would give her a reason beyond her own personal morality to not want to play "these barbaric games", severe trauma can do a lot, and whittling away at someone's courage or decisive nature are generally considered to be among those things. This would also make Option A a lot more repulsive, and maybe even trigger some level of trauma for Bern, and make us
sympathize more with her: our poor hero was already raped once, why should we want her to put herself through that again? This also makes Polly's decision look a hell of a lot more heroic, and really drives the sinister nature of the Colosseum home. It doesn't have to be rape, the Colosseum simply needs to be brutal and unfair, but because of Bernadette's views of sex and violence, the question of rape certainly hits her, in my opinion on a moral level as well as a physical and emotional one, it certainly makes us sympathize for her, it justifies her indecision, her crying, her loathing of the arena, and it paints her as a victim. Then she gets set up for the deathmatch, tricked, traumatized, and guilty that Polly sacrificed herself to protect her, and then the swords bail her out until she finds her own confidence again, her own strength, and she manages to defeat True Strike in the iconic perfect counter that we know her for. She stays true to her morals, becomes stronger for holding onto who she is, and demonstrates the great power behind these swords, and everything she did was now worth it as she is much closer to completing her quest.
I think that's what Brion is going for, but going back to the reader's perspective of morality, all we see, on screen, is Bern not being a team player, and the only reason we see is that she thinks she's above the Colosseum's games, and again, this is primarily a problem because the Colosseum, before the slaughter match, has been more or less
fair. That makes Bern herself look unreasonable, and when there are no consequences for that kind of mentality for the hero, it makes her very unlikeable, regardless of how good she's been in the past.
God, that was longer than I intended. I do apologize. I'm not some award winning author, but based on my experience in reading and at least dabbling in writing, that's my perspective.