Just some thoughts about Canto V story

[76561199403730936]

PM did a terrific job in building Ishmael's character. Chapter 4.5 and chapter 5 part 1 was good, chapter 5 part 2 was simply amazing (the part where the crew entered the whale's maw, Ishmael's VA literally sent me chills). But part 3 somehow almost lost all the hypes they had built up. Like I think they focus too much on Ishmael but not anyone's important to her story. If they could focus more into other characters, like how they did with Dongrang and Dongbaek (both of them are peak character design), I think chapter 5 could be much better. I really like Ahab and her manipulative tendency, and I think it's a shame that she didn't have enough screen time to be appreciated.

[teamol]

ishmael queequeg yuri sex all night on the ship
thats why ahab couldn't sleep and stare at the map

[blindmew]

Originally posted by jobhobster:

Factually wrong. Ahab was written REALLY well, and they built her on Ishmael obsession, since Ahab knew how to still manipulate her to achieve her goal. Other members of her crew is whatever, no one cares about them, Que-Whatever only importance was that we got buff Heath, I just happy that Ish and Ahab got some decent writing, alongside Dante becoming less of a wimp.
P.S. No idea what you talk about Dongbaek and Dongrang being peak. First one is the most whatever character with sob "I want flowers" motive, and other one is boring ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, it didn't even felt like Yi Sang actually was trying to change, he just kinda came to be an actual character now. After Canto V I have no idea how you can look back at the slog what Canto IV was, and thought "wow that was cool I want more of that"

It's not factually wrong if they're just stating their opinion. And they never said that Ahab wasn't written well either.

The problem they emphasized was that Ahab and the Peqoud crew didn't get enough development for the Canto, and I'm inclined to agree with them. They were written well for the time that they got, but they definitely would have benefited from more screentime. Ahab in particular feels like she should have been given more time. She transitions from a character we reluctantly trust to one we openly antagonize at a rate that was far too quick in my opinion. It was obvious from beginning that she would be someone we would have to fight before killing the whale.

[SmallGespenst]

Originally posted by blindmew:

It's not factually wrong if they're just stating their opinion. And they never said that Ahab wasn't written well either.

The problem they emphasized was that Ahab and the Peqoud crew didn't get enough development for the Canto, and I'm inclined to agree with them. They were written well for the time that they got, but they definitely would have benefited from more screentime. Ahab in particular feels like she should have been given more time. She transitions from a character we reluctantly trust to one we openly antagonize at a rate that was far too quick in my opinion. It was obvious from beginning that she would be someone we would have to fight before killing the whale.

I don't agree. We had exactly enough time with Ahab at the start to establish that she's extremely sus, but we need her resources so we have to work together. Dragging things out would've just belaboured the point and had people asking "why don't we just stab her already, the impending betrayal is very obvious"
Instead of "Just stab her already" we got insight into the characters before they sacrificed most of their personality to the all-consuming-hate-black-hole to stave off the pallidification and got to see Ahab's descent into full-crazy.
Having Ishmael interacting with the repressed-pallidification Queequeg provides a lot more insight into how surviving in The Whale has broken the crew than just listening to Ahab rant and wondering why Don hasn't shanked her yet.
The reveal of just how much Ahab was willing to sacrifice to get a chance to kill The Whale was sickening because it was something revealed all-at-once, and it couldn't've worked with the sinners present 'cause 5-6 cutseces of "Ahab sacrifices someone, Sinners upset, Quequeeg/Starbuck says to have faith in the captain" would've been agony to put up with.

[blindmew]

Originally posted by SmallGespenst:

I don't agree. We had exactly enough time with Ahab at the start to establish that she's extremely sus, but we need her resources so we have to work together. Dragging things out would've just belaboured the point and had people asking "why don't we just stab her already, the impending betrayal is very obvious"
Instead of "Just stab her already" we got insight into the characters before they sacrificed most of their personality to the all-consuming-hate-black-hole to stave off the pallidification and got to see Ahab's descent into full-crazy.
Having Ishmael interacting with the repressed-pallidification Queequeg provides a lot more insight into how surviving in The Whale has broken the crew than just listening to Ahab rant and wondering why Don hasn't shanked her yet.
The reveal of just how much Ahab was willing to sacrifice to get a chance to kill The Whale was sickening because it was something revealed all-at-once.

Even if that's how you view it, I can't help but view Ahab's decision to kill off most of her crew to be poorly thought out. The crew members should have been competent to make the journey if they were able to survive in the whale for that long, and Ahab definitely could have benefited from having extra numbers for when she planned to betray the Sinners. I don't think something like that really enhances her character or anything like that, it just feels like a stupid decision on her part. She clearly shows sharp intelligence upon first meeting the Sinners, recognizing their motives and persuading them to work with her. And yet it feels like she quickly throws that away by the second time they meet.

[SmallGespenst]

Originally posted by blindmew:

Originally posted by SmallGespenst:

I don't agree. We had exactly enough time with Ahab at the start to establish that she's extremely sus, but we need her resources so we have to work together. Dragging things out would've just belaboured the point and had people asking "why don't we just stab her already, the impending betrayal is very obvious"
Instead of "Just stab her already" we got insight into the characters before they sacrificed most of their personality to the all-consuming-hate-black-hole to stave off the pallidification and got to see Ahab's descent into full-crazy.
Having Ishmael interacting with the repressed-pallidification Queequeg provides a lot more insight into how surviving in The Whale has broken the crew than just listening to Ahab rant and wondering why Don hasn't shanked her yet.
The reveal of just how much Ahab was willing to sacrifice to get a chance to kill The Whale was sickening because it was something revealed all-at-once.

Even if that's how you view it, I can't help but view Ahab's decision to kill off most of her crew to be poorly thought out. The crew members should have been competent to make the journey if they were able to survive in the whale for that long, and Ahab definitely could have benefited from having extra numbers for when she planned to betray the Sinners. I don't think something like that really enhances her character or anything like that, it just feels like a stupid decision on her part. She clearly shows sharp intelligence upon first meeting the Sinners, recognizing their motives and persuading them to work with her. And yet it feels like she quickly throws that away by the second time they meet.

It works to sell how singularly obsessed Ahab is with her one goal of killing the Whale. Her crew are expendable for the purpose of getting her to the heart, as long as she can kill it then their lives are well spent from her perspective, raking risks to keep more people alive could mean she wouldn't get to the Heart, and from her perspective that's a far greater risk than just sacrificing some manpower.
And in case you missed it, the Sinners weren't supposed to all make it, the whole point of the Sinew Bridge scene was that the plan before Queequeg changed things was to kill-off some/most of the LCB, for the purpose revealed in the confrontation; to take the Golden Bough shard from Dante's head.
The only reason there was a real fight at all was because Queequeg got cold-feet and bailed on the plan.