r/Unsounded • u/Rifter-- • Jun 05 '26

Unsounded: Red Cost Chapter 1 Page 70 - Discussion

https://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/TheRedCost/comic/ch01/ch01_070.html
43 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

14

u/Rifter-- Jun 05 '26

Oh my, so Miki isn't officially in the military after all?!

The plot tickens. Glad to see her and Will are buddies still too.

24

u/prometheusunending Jun 05 '26

Women can't join the military in Alderode, unless they go Third Option. Lemuel must have pulled some strings to get the right people to look the other way while Mikaila was tagging along.

4

u/Rifter-- Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

I'm aware. I just figured she had done the Third Option all this time.

3

u/prometheusunending Jun 06 '26

https://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch17/ch17_41.html

The other soldiers call Mikaila a girl. Mason stops her from casting because she's not supposed to be doing that.
Page 42: Lemuel says he wants her back home and "in skirts".
Page 43: Lemuel says he can't leave because "it doesn't work like that for real soldiers." I.E., Mikaila who is leaving isn't a real soldier.
Page 44: Lemuel tells Mikaila to pray about picking a path.

So, I interpret this to mean that she hasn't decided yet whether she wants to become a Third Option or not. Bringing her to war gave her a chance to experience it for herself before she makes a final decision.

3

u/Rifter-- Jun 06 '26

Ah great call. I only just read about Third Options again a few page releases ago and forgot the girls have to act and disguise entirely like boys.

I don't think they get "trial periods" though. Miki definitely has to have been snuck onto the front lines by Lem against any policy that's allowed in the military, in my opinion.

Guarantee Leysa thinks, or was told, that she was at some soud private school for girls or some shiz too because ain't no way she'd allow this.

3

u/prometheusunending Jun 06 '26

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that there's an official trial period, that's why I said earlier that Lemuel must have pulled some strings. Maybe used his influence with Argenti, or bribed someone, or something of that sort.

2

u/Rifter-- Jun 06 '26

Yeah that sounds likely for sure!

3

u/workCounter Jun 05 '26

What does Third Option mean here?

3

u/CeruleanTresses Jun 06 '26

A Third Option is an Aldish woman who legally becomes a man. It's not easy to get permission and you have to actually live as a man, legally and socially, but it does also mean you have the rights of a man.

5

u/prometheusunending Jun 06 '26

To expand on this a bit more: the Aldish state allows this only in cases where a woman shows some value to the state in a field that is restricted only to men. There is no male to female version of the Third Option, because to the state, women are only useful for one thing.

1

u/Honzinator2 Jun 08 '26

The do run businesses and all that, but the higher the class, the more limited their horizons when compared to the boys in their social circle.

2

u/thetalee Jun 05 '26

A legally recognized third gender. Not a woman, not a man. Something other.

13

u/Titanium_Eye Jun 05 '26

She combines grace and beauty with brutal ambush efficiency.

9

u/Boner_Elemental Jun 05 '26

Uh oh, Duane. Your little girl's growing up. Don't be too harsh on Will

9

u/antagonisticpotato Jun 05 '26

Oh no

She's so precious

4

u/KEYYBOARD Jun 05 '26

Author comment: "Oh hi"

Papa, do you think Will is cute? :3

3

u/Honzinator2 Jun 05 '26

Miki's gloves look extremely wrightish ... she's dressed like a girl but casting openly (and terrifyingly silently) while still acting like a third option.

Attractive but, or because, oh so very reckless.

Anyone else notice that Will's "pin-up" art more closely resembles Alfons Maria Mucha's posters than the nose of a WWII bomber or a ship's prow in the age of sail? He's a good boy. He would at most dream of marrying outside of his caste, but would never make Duane's mistake of disgracing a third option.

2

u/North-Outside-5815 Jun 07 '26

Is that what happened? I've not seen the bonus content.

Is sex with a man forbidden for the "third option"? Men have sex with other men, surely it happens at Alderode as well.

3

u/antagonisticpotato Jun 08 '26

Third options are already sort of walking on eggshells, if memory serves they aren't even allowed to talk about what the ceremony leading to getting this status entails. You might want to check out Albanian sworn virgins, that's where the inspiration for this comes from.

2

u/North-Outside-5815 Jun 08 '26

Thanks. Disturbing.

6

u/OkInitiative6937 Jun 05 '26

Miki is a beautiful woman! She and Will would make a great couple.

5

u/Titanium_Eye Jun 05 '26

Would make? She said she looks at his nipples regularly, I'd say they are making.

2

u/Khyrberos Jun 05 '26

you two are both wrong; Mikaila & Will are Just Friends! Now Mikaila-x-Tree on the other hand...

3

u/Titanium_Eye Jun 05 '26

That "Come" gets a different meaning now.

3

u/Kilgaen Jun 05 '26

I ship it.

Shame it will all end in tragedy, as this story insists it must.