Weekly Update - 123 (Patreon)

Whoops, forgot to remove Riley#3 from Early Access (fixes).

Comic this week?:  Honestly? I'm not sure.  There's a lot of work still to do on this page and not a lot of time left for me to do it.  It ended up being a super busy week and weekend... I didn't even manage to get a sketch out on Friday when I was planning to catch up on Kuserran Heroes. Weeks do be like that sometimes.  >.<  As always, I will try, but if I can't quite get it done, I will let you all know.

Drawing: ALL THE THINGS.  But mostly Page 145

Playing: Not much. Too busy.

Reading:  Yes!  I've started trying to squeeze in more reading instead of video gaming.  Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie was absolutely fantastic and I completely devoured the last half of it (finally) and have started in on his next book, "The Heroes."

Ramble:

It has surprised me to learn that a lot of people assume the Redtail gang is "evil."  It's just an impression I've got talking to various fans of the series, that the Redtails are just objectively "bad guys."  Now, you all know by now my thoughts on the general topic of "evil," and how it is rarely simple or objective.  I've only rambled exhaustively about it, nonstop, to the point where anyone who reads my rambles is probably sick of hearing about it.  This ramble is going to be more about psychology and politics, BUT... since politics is a downright FILTHY word these days, rest assured I'm only going to be talking about FICTIONAL politics.  You know, the interesting kind of politics, not the soul-crushingly depressing kind.

Anyone who has followed me for any length of time will know that one of my favorite phrases is "nothing is so simple that words can describe."  I know this to be true, because every single week I can write until I am exhausted about a single topic and yet I know I'm still only barely scratching the surface (and that most of what I've written is probably wrong from a thousand different perspectives.)  We, as humans, have the very human tendency to oversimplify things.  We do it in our words, we do it in our thoughts, we do it automatically without any effort.  We boil and distill complicated topics down to their component parts, and then we simplify them even further down to a single component part that may often be summarized in a single word, because our brains are very efficient and if we're able to distill a complicated topic down to an oversimplified component part, that makes it far easier and far faster for us to know how to sort, store and process any other thoughts we may have pertaining to that topic.

The Evil Empire trope is a common example, I think.  Tropes and cliches are, at their very core, just stereotypes and stereotypes are the way our brains group information for efficient processing.  If I tell you there is a cat, your brain already has an image in mind for what a cat is.  I don't need to describe for you every detail, you can immediately and automatically imagine what it looks like, how it moves or acts, or even what color it is.  Perhaps you've owned a cat that defines your stereotype.  Perhaps your stereotype of a cat is just one that you've seen on the internet.  But stereotypes apply to all things.  When someone begins to explain to us about a brutal government-like regime that's draining resources from its citizenry, cracking down on any dissent and enforcing its rules with violence, we already quickly gain a picture in our minds of what that looks like, and it is easy to assume we know the rest of the information.  We've read about or seen many examples of the trope before.  Some of us imagine white plastic clad stormtroopers marching in formation, raiding homes and beating up innocent people for no reason beyond sheer cruelty and firing their laser guns at all the walls around the heroes. Others may be reminded of more historical examples, as there's no shortage of terrible empires in the real world that enforced their rule through violence, torture, efforts of genocide or at minimum keeping their boots on the necks of those they governed.

Governance, however, is very complicated. And somewhere in here, perhaps, I should mention that I don't expect my governing bodies are any better written or any more complicated than those written by others... it's merely that these are the things I think about when I write, and these are the things that I hope shine through in my story once it is written.  Evil Empires, however, are sort of a fallacy.  People don't often get to remain in power for very long if they are universally awful to all the people they rule.  The more oppressive the regime, the less inclined people are to live to there.  People are easily fed up with being mistreated, and eventually they will be inspired to act if nothing is done to create at the very least the impression of fairness.  Inversely, even the most beloved kings, emperors, monarchs and other leadership figures have their enemies.  Be it the people who are governed, the people who support the government, the opposed parties who desire to rule, the friends of the monarch who believe they are heading down the wrong path, the monarch's advisors who are tired of being ignored, or the disgruntled servant who pours the wine.  The point of governance, I think, in its simplest terms, is to enforce stability on an unstable society. To provide a framework by which civilized society can grow and expand.  Civilization thrives in stability, and it wanes in strife.  One might say that Kuserra has had its fair share of strife.  Perhaps it is due for an era of stability.  And while even governments aren't immune to entropy, and certain entropic actors can accelerate that faster than others, a form of government, no matter how rudimentary or crude, can be an improvement over total anarchy.

So, really, are the Redtails evil?  Well, like I said, it isn't that simple.  I've described them as a brutal, criminal gang that has attempted to use their superior firepower to seize power and establish themselves as the centralized rulers of the city.  I too, am human, and I too, oversimplify things for the purpose of communicating the basic concept of what I imagine them to be.  But in a lawless place like Kuserra, the Redtails are only "criminal" by our modern, civilized standard. If they end up being the organization that is making the laws, can they be criminal?  And there are almost certainly Landlords and other gangs in the city that would be far, far worse, if given an equal opportunity to wrest control.  If the Redtails respond to violence with violence, does that mean they are brutal and oppressive, or are they simply at war with those that would attempt to seize power for themselves?  If trade and quality of life is slowly climbing for most of the citizens that find themselves inside of their territory, are the Redtails really draining their population for resources?  Or are they replenishing the resources they require to govern a large territory?  These are questions I can't really answer for you.  I can only present the information, and let you decide.

And to pry even further, we can only ask questions and evaluate the answers. Do some people suffer under Redtail rulership?  Yes.  Are there people who are comfortable and who thrive under the atypical amounts of profitability, security and safety the Redtails provide to their region?  Yes.  Do the Redtails drain watts from the people in their territory in the form of taxes?  Yes.  Do the Redtails also provide a lot of jobs and services for the city?  Yes.  Are there corrupt Landlords who control portions of Redtail territory and enforce their own laws that run contrary to core Redtail rules while waving their red tail around? Yes.  Do some of these Landlords reserve more than their fair share of the resources they collect?  Yes.  Are steps being taken to curb and mitigate such corruption?  Probably, but there are many priorities and attacking those who claim to support you is generally an unwise way to govern.  Is there crime, violence, and strife within the Redtail territory despite their best efforts to end it?  Yes.  Is there less crime, violence and strife within the Redtail territory than without it?  Yes.  Are there people who hate living under Redtail rule?  Yes. Are there people who love living under Redtail rule?  Yes.  Are there people who are generally neutral towards the Redtail rule?
Yes.  Does one of those groups outnumber the others? Almost certainly.  Which one is bigger?  It's hard to know. Kuserra hasn't exactly had the time to set up its polling places and fund its census department, and given all the collective problems the Redtails are facing on all sides, gathering the opinions of the people isn't a top priority.

The point is that yes, from one perspective, the Redtail gang may be seen as evil.  Many Kuserrans are used to total freedom, without anyone telling them how to live.  Many Kuserrans enjoy the default lawless anarchy of the greater city area, and all the pleasures and dangers it provides.  Many other Kuserrans would prefer giving up some of that freedom and some of their watts for stability and security, living under the Redtails' and their enforced zero-tolerance violence policy.  Nevermind the fact that the Redtails themselves performed a violent upheaval of the tenuous status quo when they seized power about a decade ago.

So I leave it up to you to decide if you think the Redtail gang is evil.  It may sound like I've written this article with a bit of a bias, and I might have because I was surprised at how many people seem to think the Redtails are just straight up an evil empire.  They could still be, and I'd be willing to concede that possibility given a well-worded counter-argument, but like I've said, it's complicated.  For my own preferences, based on what I know of Kuserra and the "untamed zone" surrounding Retail territory, I would much rather live inside Redtail territory than outside it.