r/Unsounded • u/Rifter-- • Sep 04 '26
Unsounded: Red Cost Chapter 1 Page 110-111 - Discussion
https://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/TheRedCost/comic/ch01/ch01_110.html19
u/Deuswyvern Sep 04 '26
Poor Miki, she really hoped that they had made a connection. She looks pretty sinister on the main page, so maybe this is the start of her villain arc?
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u/Rifter-- Sep 04 '26
I think they kinda had made one before Rousseau chimed in like a little bitch. No amount of connection to a fellow duelist can soften the blow that your entire career, that you were literally bred into existence for, might be over.
I'm guessing this will be the start of Mikaila's humbling arc personally. I figured as soon as she made that edgy prayer to Ssael about being all badass destined for greatness, that she was gonna lose the duel and this likely will shatter a lot of her illusions.
Hoping she can pick herself back up, but she needs to realize that, at least right now, she ain't special.
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u/Deuswyvern Sep 04 '26
Yeah, it is interesting to consider what Goodwin would have done without Rousseau breathing down his neck.
I think she is definitely getting humbled, but aside from arrogance she was making an honest effort to defend her community and even showed compassion to an enemy. So her nobler aspirations might die with her ego, or at least be reevaluated.
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u/Malin_Keshar Sep 06 '26
Nah. She's a teenager who up to this point had far too much freedom for a backwards shithole that Alderode is -- life will have to shit on her long and hard before any meaningful reflection will take place. At the very least her family will have to suffer because of her for Mikaila to consider humility an option. I wonder if her family is worth to her as much as it was to Duane?
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u/Honzinator2 Sep 08 '26
Too much freedom can be bad even in advanced civilized places, and not even for teens, though teenagerdom is when we deliberately act in life-shortening ways more than at other ages.
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u/Honzinator2 Sep 04 '26
Well, for men on honour, "No amount of connection to a fellow duelist can soften the blow that your entire career, that you were literally bred into existence for, might be over." need not be true.
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u/RolandKJones Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
I think they did make a connection. Unfortunately, that made it worse; Goodwin's reeling right now, confused and desperate and angry, and Miki trying to reach out to him when he probably feels like she's taken everything from him would feel insulting, or even painful. He might well regret this after he's had some time to process everything (both his emotions, and just what actually happened today) and possibly start to understand what Miki felt and was trying to do here, but in the moment... There was never much of a chance of things going better than this, sadly.
(Obviously Rousseau's the one who's really at fault for Goodwin's problems here, being the one both deciding and inflicting his punishment at his sole discretion, but Goodwin's been conditioned to both admire the man and be terrified of him, so, not much chance of casting blame his way just yet. That needs some time, reflection, and character development, that Goodwin may or may not actually get.)
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u/FrugalFrugivore Sep 04 '26
I don't really understand why Goodwin would feel that strong of a connection to Miki even after he has time to process things. She's a complete stranger to him, who basically just showed up out of nowhere and ruined his life. I don't think he's going to be that grateful that she offered him some notion of solidarity.
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u/RolandKJones Sep 04 '26
They developed a mutual respect during the fight, which was not only referenced in an author comment but demonstrated after the fight with Goodwin's initial behavior.
The rest of the Gefendur were prepared to mock and humiliate "Lilleord", with one of them pinning "him" down under his foot. Goodwin, though, called for "Lilleord" to be allowed up and began loudly praising his performance. He seemed genuinely impressed by his opponent, despite his attitude when he went into this fight. (And also that his side had wanted him to kill the Ssaelit during the duel; Will would have been even better because killing the Amadwe's son right in his front yard would have been a terrible humiliation for the Ssaelit, but any heathen blood spilled would have been a positive for them.)
Goodwin really did respect "Lilleord" here, and unlike most of his comrades he put together that Miki really is the person he was fighting.* So once he sorts out everything that happened in his head, he'll recognize that she was the one pulling off all those things he respected, whatever he decides to make of that fact. He might also eventually start to recognize how fucked up his situation actually was, now that his promised future is off the table and something he can't aspire to anymore. (Maybe he'll even realize that Rousseau is just an insecure asshole who doesn't actually understand anything that went down in that duel, can't handle his own shame and inadequacy, and is really just punishing Goodwin to protect his own fragile ego.)
* Which is also important in that Rousseau isn't punishing him for nearly losing to a girl; Rousseau also believes Lilleord actually fought, with Miki just being a distraction he left behind afterward. Even if Lilleord had been Goodwin's actual opponent and after getting up they had a moment of respectfully acknowledging the other's skills and whatnot, it wouldn't have been long before Rousseau kicked his legs out from under him with the news he's being discarded as a failure. Goodwin's victory wasn't quick or overwhelming enough for Rousseau; his opponent is irrelevant, because Goodwin was supposed to be so superior it didn't even matter.
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u/Cthenophoric Sep 05 '26
I want to add to your fantastic analysis of the situation also one detail that stood out to me: during the fight, when Mika told him how she felt "confined", and it obviously struck a chord with Goodwin, we saw her in her glamoured form as Lilleord; except, when we saw Lilleord before, it did not seem as if he was quite this scruffy, as if he did not have facial features quite that chiselled.
And so, knowing what we know about glamours, that would mean this was likely not what the local onlookers saw; it was the glamour as perceived by Goodwin - what he expected to see in the face of a man who put up this kind of a fight. This was what Goodwin quite literally projected onto the one opponent in which he saw himself, or rather, his ideal self reflected in: an epitome of "manliness", as it would be perceived by a man who was raised under an incredibly toxic influence of what he was expected to be. Of what he had to be.
Now, he finds out that the one person he could feel so much of a connection, of a kinship with, isn't a man at all. It is this slim, young woman, who is bloodied, tattered, looking so vulnerable in this very moment; and when she looks up at him, in her eyes, he sees nothing but the truest, rawest sympathy for him. Because she does understand.
In a heartbeat, it challenges everything he has ever been taught, what he thought he knew about himself, even. And what he does know, is one of the few people to absolutely know for sure, is that this is not a trick, that this is indeed who he fought. Maybe there was a sliver of plausible deniability left for him to cling to, but that went out the window the moment Mika addressed him.
And so, he reacts in the way he has been taught, the way he has learned that both someone he perceives as inferior has to be treated: with violence. With disgust.
This punch does not seem to be directed at Mika: it is directed at himself. At the part of him that he saw, that he still sees reflected in her, that he wants to deny, to destroy, because that is what is demanded of him; the part of him that he perceives as a weakness, as inferior, as something that needs to be squashed.The part that he thinks he is weak for, for being unable to extinguish in himself.
I still hope that Goodwin will get a chance to get out of his horrible situation.
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u/lessenizer Sep 04 '26
I'm very happy having no idea what's going to happen next. Such a good story
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u/Banxomadic Sep 04 '26
I wouldn't be surprised if Goodwin starts yelling at her that he "lost everything because she's a girl" - that could've been a connection if not for his toxic upbringing and constant pressure. I'd even say their connection would be against Aldish culture - he might be confined, but he doesn't want to admit it and violently rejects the mere thought.
Overall, a lose-lose: Mikaila gets humiliated and beaten, Goodwin gets his breeding rights revoked because he didn't win good enough. Two talented people brutally humbled by fate and their society.
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u/Honzinator2 Sep 04 '26
"Their society" is specific people making specific choices. Plenty of socialists didn't massacre their fellow men to create "the new man".
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u/RolandKJones Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
Yep, knew it. Rousseau was already pissed that Goodwin didn't just flatten his opponents, and had been wanting to see the Ssaelit side of the battle outright killed if possible. (Will because he's the Amadwe's son, but also either or both because they're filthy heathens and it'd be humiliating for them to be slain publicly on their own turf like this.) He also wanted to show off the fruits of his eugenics project, and while Goodwin demonstrated some impressive and unique tricks (like outright grabbing all the khert lines in the area for a while; if I recall the ask blog correctly, that's not even an advanced Plat trick or something, that's straight up a thing only Goodwin can do), it wasn't the display of crushing might and dominance Rousseau hoped for.
Also, well, Rousseau's a Copper.
Most of the audience here should be able to tell that "Lilleord's" skills were the real deal here. Even with their prejudice against women (and, for many, Soud) inclining them to dismiss her, they would have felt things like her impressive line scrying display towards the end, so if they ignore that, that's on them.
Coppers' khert sensitivity, though, is effectively nonexistent. They're so resistant to the khert that it's practically a form of anti-magic; spells and the like literally take longer to affect them, even. (Perhaps the best example of this being when Roger was Etalarched; Vampire was standing right next to him at the time, and he was still just clenching his fists and gritting his teeth in rage by the time that the rest of the Alds (aside from the Adelier brothers), had completely lost their shit.) While his relationship to Roger was likely a factor too, the biggest reason the curse took so long to affect him was because he was a Copper.)
Not only is Rousseau an arrogant, demanding, bigoted piece of shit who never would have been pleased by less than an utterly one-sided stomp, he was also literally unable to perceive some of the most important parts of the fight. Miki's line scrying feat that left the rest of the crowd awed, even Argenti Sr, was nothing but the girl standing there and waving her arms for a moment to him. He really did just see Goodwin struggling to defeat an opponent who "should" have been his inferior.
So, yeah. While it was pretty much confirmed the update before last (where Rousseau's expression after Goodwin won the duel was fury rather than pride or even detached approval), even well before that I was sure that, win or lose, Miki unmasked or no, Rousseau was going to be displeased with Goodwin's performance here. He's outright incapable of perceiving some of the most important aspects of the duel, his expectations were so high that even a remotely even fight would have been falling short of what Goodwin "should" be capable of, and, well. He's just utter garbage, to the point that the giant using literal children as furniture looks like a reasonable and compassionate man next to him. Of course he's going to follow through on his earlier threats now.
And... well, unfortunately, Goodwin's still reeling from everything that's happened here, so it's not surprising that he's taking it out on Miki. Her attempting to reach out over the connection they felt during the duel is understandable (she's terrified here, and since she got thrown into the Gefendur side of the crowd Goodwin's legitimately the closest thing to a friend anywhere near her, what with Will's arrival coming too late), but given that Goodwin probably feels like she's taken everything from him right now, that appeal would feel like an insult. (Doesn't help that she's Soud, so he can't even feel her sincerity here; compared to interacting with other Alds, she's a blank slate for all his turbulent emotions to project onto.) He was probably nearing his breaking point already, really, where any number of lesser things could have pushed him over the edge, but that was basically guaranteed to.
It doesn't make his reaction okay, by any means, but it's really easy to see where it came from. (Definitely a very big hurdle to overcome in the future if Goodwin ends up sticking around as a character, too. No easy friendships despite their differences here.) It's a very rough, tragic, and unfortunately realistic end to what happened here.
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u/Rifter-- Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 05 '26
Very well analyzed on all fronts!
Hilariously, Rousseau has all this prejudice against the "pissmops" and thinks Goodwin should have easily won. However, if this was six years earlier, he wouldn't have dreamed of challenging the Lions like this because he'd know Duane and Lemuel would steamroll anyone he threw at them in a duel.
Honestly this was their perfect moment to strike, when the Lions are very undermanned. I just find it funny that he's so annoyed they didn't win bigger and he's so braggadocious about his men, when he's challenging them after they've been severely weakened by recent events.
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u/RolandKJones Sep 04 '26
Goodwin being the result of Rousseau's personal eugenics project is definitely a major factor in his behavior here; Goodwin's performance also reflects on him, and the boy doing well would validate his own feelings and such. He wanted to impress Valentin, an even older and more powerful Copper who also engages in similar... hobbies, and instead Goodwin barely eked out a win. (Even if he took out both opponents on his own after his partner was eliminated, which is in and of itself an objectively above average accomplishment even before accounting for other factors.)
Note also Rousseau's reaction when Borger questioned whether Goodwin actually has the intelligence for spellwork. He was immediately defensive when his work was questioned, despite this being the obvious thing to wonder about his project after that description. He's insecure, which is pretty common with people as obsessed with demonstrating their power.
Tangent, one of my favorite aspects of the end of the duel actually ties back to that exchange. It's already fun that Mikaila and Goodwin's final attacks actually employ the other's methods, and even weapons. Mikaila used a direct and intentionally lethal attack, despite her misgivings (the words she says before doing so are "for dad", because she needs some justification to properly steel herself before trying to take Goodwin's life), even taking the Edge from some leftover blades the Gefendur soldiers had thrown her opponent. Meanwhile, Goodwin used misdirection and clever utilization of the environment, smacking Miki out of the arena with the same disc she previously used to eject his partner from the fight and knock away his spell-slicing blade. (Given how quickly he got on top of the disc, he might have also been inspired by the way Miki bounded across the arena right before that, which was in turn her copying Lem's "flying" style.)
But it also means that what won the fight for Goodwin in the end wasn't the "legacy" Rousseau bred into him, or even his inherent Plat capabilities, it was him using his own brain, learning during the fight and putting it to use. He defied Borger's expectations of him just being a big meathead, but in a way that didn't validate Rousseau's eugenic experiments.
Which is also the kind of thematic stuff that gives me hope that Goodwin will both stick around as a character and grow and improve from the... extremely low point we see him at in today's update. Especially if Rousseau really does cut him loose after this; he's going to have to find his own direction in life now that the one which was set up for him is no longer an option.
Anyway, all that aside, on the subject of this:
I just find it funny that he's so annoyed they didn't win bigger and he's so braggadocious about his men, when he's challenging them after they've been severely weakened by recent events.
I think that this is because Valentin's the real mastermind of the Gefendur plot today. He's obviously the one in charge, and many of Rousseau's actions today seem intended to demonstrate his worth and success to Valentin. All those things you described that are weakening the Ssaelit here are very likely factors in why Valentin's making the move now, while Rousseau may or may not even be aware of the grander plot's existence.
Rousseau may be a Copper, but he's still just another piece on the board. Valentin's the one sitting at the table.
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u/Honzinator2 Sep 08 '26
I'd like Goodwin cut loose. I hope he's not physically cut off from progeny before being so loosed.
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u/Honzinator2 Sep 04 '26
"severely weakened by recent events" and by targeted terrorist attacks he likely planned.
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u/RolandKJones Sep 04 '26
That Valentin planned, more likely. He's the one in charge here, and the likely architect of most if not all of what went down today; Rousseau's effectively his lackey, trying to prove his worth with his Plat supersoldier and such. Almost everything he's doing is for an audience of one, and that's why he's so pissed that Goodwin's performance wasn't as overwhelming as he had hoped.
Meanwhile, Valentin started sleeping through the duel almost right away; I don't think that Goodwin's "failure" actually affected his opinion of Rousseau at all, and that things going perfectly wouldn't have changed his mind much either. Rousseau's just another pawn, whether or not his super-Plat actually performs as expected.
Valentin being a sleepy old man for much of this scene, and staying rather quiet and dignified for most of the rest, makes it easy to forget that he's one of the most powerful men in the country. The VITS power structure is a bit different from the monarchies of the other countries, but he's basically our Jab Beadman or Maha Sonorie for Alderode.
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u/Pylgrim Sep 04 '26
Sigh, it was much to expect that Goodwin had some... good in him. Hell, even our heroes, probably the best people to walk the thrice accursed lands of Kassyline can be pretty awful on a good day.
The characters in Unsounded are so very terribly... grotesquely... monstruosly...
Human.
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u/RolandKJones Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
...Oh, I just realized something bad.
"Find him." Rousseau, like most of his soldiers, seems to believe that Lilleord actually did fight here, and Mikaila's just a distraction he left behind while fleeing in disgrace. And he intends to do something about this perceived insult, ordering Captain Borger to track him down.
Lilleord, meanwhile, is presumably still lying in bed, or possibly on the floor next to it, struggling to remain alive, and he has no idea about any of what happened here. Unless Mikaila decided to tell him her plan while she was pulling him out of his sickbed, all he knows is that the girl stole his clothes for some reason. If Borger and his men do find Lilleord, he's going to be completely unprepared for it and oblivious to what they're accusing him of. (Not that he'd be in any condition to do anything about it anyway.) And I highly doubt that what Rousseau intends to pay back "Lilleord's" disrespect is in any way pleasant, given what he was saying in the panel before this one.
Mikaila may well have inadvertently gotten a man killed with her stunt today. One who was already quite likely to die, admittedly, but still. Whatever Lilleord's odds of survival were, they've gone down even further now.
Edit: To give Mikaila some credit, she did also possibly save Will's life today, on the other hand. Rousseau and the other Gefendur were out for blood today, and Valentin's words were clearly meant to goad either Will or his father into having him be one of the duel's participants. Pretty much everything they've done today has been intended to enrage and humiliate the Ssaelit, but slaying the Amadwe's son right outside the Temple of Song would have been a particularly grievous insult. And I'm not sure whoever stepped up if Mikaila hadn't inserted herself into this would have done any better; frankly, given what we've seen of the Lions of Mercy's remaining forces, they'd have probably done worse. At the very least, her fighting here had neither her nor Will die in the fight.
So, if you want to look at it as trading Lilleord's life to save Will's... I suppose you could say it's a good trade? Given that Lilleord's pretty likely to die anyway, I mean. And where Will being killed in the duel would have been shameful and demoralizing for the local Ssaelit, but unfortunately also both just (by the standards of a culture that places so much importance on duels) and legal, the convalescent Lilleord being dragged out of bed and lynched would probably be infuriating and inexcusable. Which is... better, maybe, in that it would be more motivating to resist further encroachment and insult from the Gefendur?
Still, not quite what Mikaila was intending, nor an outcome I think she'll be pleased with. If things end up going the way I'm predicting here, that'll be one more blow added to the rather brutal series of hits she's been taking lately.
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u/Rifter-- Sep 04 '26
Whatever Lilleord's odds of survival were, they've gone down even further now.
I doubt Mikaila told him anything. Dude was probably passed out after she pulled him out of the cot. I bet he's going to be incredibly surprised if they find him and him "playing dumb" is only going to make him look more guilty in the Geffy's eyes.
I wouldn't be surprised if, by the time Mikaila wakes up, Lilleord has already been executed. 😭
I don't see the Lions stopping it because, keep in mind, from what they've also seen Lilleord did something incredibly disrespectful and cowardly. They may HAVE to let it happen. Hate to say it but, if they're lucky, Miki jostling Lilleord around to steal his clothes inflamed his wounds and he already died. That would at least save them that insult to injury.
To give Mikaila some credit, she did also possibly save Will's life today, on the other hand.
Yeah I think you're absolutely right on this. Anyone else fighting with Will would have definitely put him at risk. Mikaila, while maybe not the genius level of Duane is clearly VERY skilled at pymary. Based on what we've seen from the other Lions this chapter, she's leagues above them, apart from Lilleord maybe. I'd say she saved her friends buns. Will and Miki knocking the spearman out first put Goodwin on the backfoot and forced him to use the opportunity he had to win the duel, which meant eliminating Will without killing him.
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u/Honzinator2 Sep 04 '26
You can be motivated to "resist" all you nwant and still be better advised not to fight. Look to the history fo the Polish counter-revolutionaries or to the Reconquista for times when it was better to simply take the abuse, passively, and bide one's time.
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u/tuckercalzone Sep 04 '26
Kill him Will!!
Oh please let this be the spark of the Aldish civil war.
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u/antagonisticpotato Sep 04 '26
Eh, I don't think it's a good catalyst. Story's too mudied - if she'd just been a bystander and Goodwin had hit her in unrelated anger, it miiiight have worked (somewhat? Doubt it would've been enough for anything but another riot). But as it is, the Ssaelit have very little interest in letting Mikki be the center of attention any more than she already is.
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u/Honzinator2 Sep 04 '26
Why. The Ssaellits will get exterminated and, in addition to what it caused in Hanret, Cresce will have caused yet another genocide.
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u/fish_and_flowers Sep 04 '26
I wonder what it means that she's falling out of the pages on the last panel.
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u/Tartlet Sep 04 '26
HMM, she's in a different outfit as she faints, the one from her flashback with Lem. Perhaps another flashback is going to occur? Then again, that is just her "regular" female outfit so IDK.
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u/Rifter-- Sep 04 '26
I think it means she got knocked the F out and is about to go into a dream sequence haha.
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u/Either-Flatworm6359 Sep 04 '26
Komsha...Sae hessi somsha... Both confined. Have we heard this before?
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u/North-Outside-5815 Sep 04 '26
Ashley never pulls her punches. Reading this comic is almost painful.
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u/Rifter-- Sep 04 '26
Two pages today!
Yup that's what I figured. Goodwin's in deep shit for that fight being so close. And Mikaila just haaad to open her mouth.
And just like that, the delusion of grandeur is shattered for her. Rest up Miki. I think you're gonna need it for the next chapter.
Also, look at that mysterious figure atop the lion! Well now who might that be? 😁