The Petra backstory is WTF in all the wrong ways to show us why she’s a Goth. She can say her parents were good Christians but the comic shows they were more Gothic than the teen wannabes like Petra. Show beats tell. It also doesn’t show how a trauma victim ends up as a scholarship student in a murder academy. It’s not like murder is a happy time she wants to relive. So it’s WTF that way too. Also, this is entertainment? WTF?
Billy the victim was sold to be an assassin? I’m with Lin on this, the scholarship should go to the ones who’ve demonstrated an aptitude for mayhem and murder, like Marcus. Even if you manage to force yourself to believe the mob is blind enough to see Billy as a good investment, worth writing off a debt for, they’re going to keep tabs on their money. Where are Billy’s minders? Even in its own fictional universe terms this is a really stupid story.
The notion that abuse makes you stronger strikes me as nonsense. (The agoge discipline was severe, but there were carrots too: Friends/sometimes lovers with a powerful esprit de corp; a more or less guaranteed place as a Peer, an Equal with other Equals ruling a powerful nation; the well-founded belief that completing the training would make you a skilled warrior better than others.) The notion that Saya’s cousin is so besotted with her he’ll send assassins after her makes her into a sexual prize, not a character. Also, it would be much easier to call the school and tell them to withdraw her than this nonsense.
Willie trusting Maria? Unlike Marcus, he’s supposed to be wise to the world. Unlike Marcus, he’s just stupid, not naive.
Marcus’ ability to pick locks comes from where?
Overall a bad episode in my view. My patience is waning. The advent of the pervert roomie may finish it completely. First it is hard to believe how coy the show is about Marcus being raped. Second it is hard to believe anyone that stupid could find Marcus. Third, it is hard to believe that pervert roomie is the one who set fire to the place but is still obsessed with killing Marcus. What is he, some sort of complete set fetishist, he has to kill all the orphans? What would make sense is that Marcus did set the fire, killed all those orphans, but pervert roomie in spite of Marcus managed to survive. And pervert roomie is after Marcus, because he is annoyed about being burnt. Marcus is denial about what he did is believable. Pervert roomie being a homicidal robot with magic powers isn’t.
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