The one thing that bugged me with Canto V

[【Silver】]

The lack of Rodion's presence pretty much at all when there was a scene that basically mimic'd her own history with The Middle. More than anyone, I kind of expected her to say something or try to stop Ishmael or something. Was Dante just the only one realizing what she was about to do or something?

It's just the one thing that's been stuck on my mind since finishing the chapter and I'm curious of others thoughts on that scene in regards to Rodion.

[Nasty_Bdfp]

I seriously doubt Rodion's story is over.

For Ishmael, Sinclair and Yi sang, they all needed huge character developement to overcome their personal hell (and defeat the boss at the end).

Edit : even Gregor, while he didn't have a massive character developement, he had some through the loss of Yuri.

Meanwhile Rodion :

- Didn't defeat the boss of her dungeon, but ran away from Baba Yaga.
- Had no character developement.
- Was pretty much given her Bough for free by Sonia.

Also it would make sense to have Rodion's story split into two different cantos (or maybe even more), considering the structure of Crime and punishment which inspired her character.

[infantMajesty]

Gregor's "last boss" is Hermann.

[【Silver】]

Sorry, I probably should have specified the scene. The one where Ishmael goes for the kill on Smee at the club even after claiming she has backing from The Middle. It reminded me of the Tax Collector from Rodion's hometown. It just felt strange that the consequence if Ishmael killed Smee didn't garner any mention or anything from Rodion.

[Birp]

I doubt killing Smee would've changed anything; Ricardo didn't know who she was, nor did he seem to care after he found out.

The Tax Collector was a relative? of probably some higher-up from the Middle, whereas Smee was just a goon belonging to some subsidiary organization that pays tribute to the Middle.

[Nasty_Bdfp]

Originally posted by Birp:

I doubt killing Smee would've changed anything; Ricardo didn't know who she was, nor did he seem to care after he found out.

The Tax Collector was a relative? of probably some higher-up from the Middle, whereas Smee was just a goon belonging to some subsidiary organization that pays tribute to the Middle.

Not necessarily.

The way I see it, it seems to me like The middle just obeys the book of Vengeance like The Index follows the prescripts (well maybe not like the prescript). If the offense if in the book they must execute the punishment. IF the offense isn't, they don't care.

My guess is that beating up Schmee (or someone protected by the middle) isn't a rule in the book of vengeance while killing would be.

It could also be true that Schmee is less important than the tax collector to the mMddle. They might have different ranks between the people under the protection. (Like Schmee would just be an Important person (IP) while The tax collector could be a VIP.

We'll probably learn more next chapter.

[Birp]

Originally posted by Nasty_Bdfp:

Originally posted by Birp:

I doubt killing Smee would've changed anything; Ricardo didn't know who she was, nor did he seem to care after he found out.

The Tax Collector was a relative? of probably some higher-up from the Middle, whereas Smee was just a goon belonging to some subsidiary organization that pays tribute to the Middle.

Not necessarily.

The way I see it, it seems to me like The middle just obeys the book of Vengeance like The Index follows the prescripts (well maybe not like the prescript). If the offense if in the book they must execute the punishment. IF the offense isn't, they don't care.

My guess is that beating up Schmee (or someone protected by the middle) isn't a rule in the book of vengeance while killing would be.

It could also be true that Schmee is less important than the tax collector to the mMddle. They might have different ranks between the people under the protection. (Like Schmee would just be an Important person (IP) while The tax collector could be a VIP.

We'll probably learn more next chapter.

I mean, killing Smee would have eventually gotten them into The Book... but did you see how big Ricardo's book was? There's probably hundreds, thousands of names to exact vengeance upon. He would get to doing it, at some point, but it wouldn't be a priority by any means.

But if you steal his hair coupon or spill ice cream on his pants? Yeah your name is going to the top of the list lol.

[【Silver】]

Yeah, my issue is that Rodya doesn't even flinch at the possible consequence of Ishmael going at Smee the way she did, as far as we see. Especially since she mentioned not being ready to let go of her own mistake back in her Canto.

Maybe she just didn't believe Smee actually had anything to do with The Middle? Like a bluff maybe, considering she seemed surprised when the Big Brother actually showed up at the L. Corp Branch.

[Demonking]

i will admit, I kind of prefer the way the scene went with dante getting involved on instinct instead. I know why people would have liked Rodya to get involved, but I don't think she would have properly got through to her in that moment. If Ishmael kills Rodya to get to Smee then that's just another death. If she kills dante, then that's the end of line for all of them. The way Ishmael was the only two characters who could have gotten through to her at all were Heathcliff for catching her off guard and gradually becoming a more reasonable person, and Dante. Rodya would have just been the worry wart of the group being a worry wart again.