Okay, this chapter was pretty good. Enjoyable all around, with interesting developments and these developments do push the plot forward quite a bit.
The attitudes of Joe & Marty are fun, though I do wonder what the thought process behind that Joe monologue was because last I checked there were some specific plans for these characters and hearing Joe's inner thoughts is a bit of a double-edged sword here.
I do see now where the absurdity of the chapter you mentioned comes from. I did quite like it, though it was also unexpectedly dark at the same time. Child mafia... Only in KOTOS. I do wonder if the Child Mafia is connected to the Child Uprising...
âItâs tough to set the record straight when youâre not given a voice to speak for yourself.â lol
I was curious to see what you'd do with Menaya after you first mentioned her, having Harold's chapter in mind. I have to say, I'm generally not a big fan of the "dramatic cliffhanger, but sike it's a twist and there never was any danger" trope, but seeing as it allowed you to use Menaya in another way that fast-forwarded the story towards some directions significantly, I don't think it's so bad. We'll probably end up not exploring Aquila that much, as I'd hoped, but on the other hand, we get done with what's actually crucial to the plot faster. Not a bad trade overall.
"When Marty emerged from it": Well bois, Marty has officially come out of the closet as have the rest of them
Ember vs Menaya: That's definitely an interesting matchup and a fight to get hyped for (especially if it was in a visual medium). KOTOS has never done much work in the power-scaling domain, but from the feel I get from those characters I'd say maybe Ember is overall more powerful, but Menaya has more variety. Could go either way honestly.
Hmm... Thomas died kind of unceremoniously there. It's the kind of death where you have to go back to reread the sentence, because it was so casually mentioned you almost miss it, but then you realise it actually said he was beheaded. I suppose if that's what you were going for, it might not be bad, but there is something rubbing me the wrong way about it not gonna lie. Though I think that its being acknowledged later on helps.
And we end with another revolutionary message. Nice. Not bad. Going forward, we have a chance to have the Iamos folks regroup with them, then go ally-chasing and maybe, if we play our cards right, even an Orlan battle. Though don't know how realistically plausible that is. Either way, this subplot feels properly back on track now.