By morning, the storm clouds had cleared enough to allow the light of sunrise to pierce through and illuminate the grisly details of Lerris' fate. This was the scene that awaited the Noble Jury when it at last arrived, gliding swiftly down the sloping west faces of the mountain range. It coasted over the collapsed rooftops and corpse-ridden streets, plowing through the plumes of smoke that still lingered all across the pillaged dwelling.
When it was still meters above the ground, the hangar doors at the stern opened. Two figures hopped down, landing above all the rest. Eagle Eye stood up, panting heavily as he glanced every which way with wide eyes. Roarke squatted beside him, her body rigged with her tailor-made metal braces.
"Bellesmith?!" Eagle Eye hollered. His voice echoed against the devastation, and he panted heavier and heavier upon each dead, burnt figure that he spotted. "Pilate! Kera!"
Roarke's eye-lenses pistoned in and out constantly as they surveyed the death and carnage. With a cold breath, she muttered, "The battle's long over."
"Don't you say that! Belle!" Eagle Eye hollered, limping down a bloodstained street. He fought back the urge to whimper and yelled towards the gray heavens. "Rainbow Dash! Please tell me you're there! It's Eagle Eye! The Jury's here! Tell us where you are!"
The skystone ship touched down. Josho rushed out, manarifle levitating by his shoulder. He stumbled to a stop, jaw dropped as he took in the desolation all around. "Spark almighty..."
Ebon Mane, Props, Zaid, and even Floydien trotted out last. Props gasped, holding two hooves over her quivering muzzle while Ebon rested a limb on her shoulder. Floydien stared with thin red eyes while Zaid trotted out into the mud with a neutral expression. The former cultist strolled over to a buildingside where he gently nudged a rain-drenched corpse. He turned and looked helplessly towards the others.
Roarke sighed. She turned and spoke calmly, "We should fan out. Groups of two. Comb the wreckage."
Eagle Eye dropped his sword and shield into the mud. By the time he turned around, his face was wrenched in a sob. He was about to say something when—
A lone cry from the distance.
Ebon's ears twitched. He and Props turned to look, their eyes glossy. "Did... did you ponies hear...?"
Again, the cry lifted against the moist morning winds.
Roarke's brow furrowed while Eagle Eye gasped.
"Striped boomer's beloved..." Floydien murmured.
Eagle Eye trotted towards the sound. He began galloping. Mud splashed from his hooves, and soon Josho and Roarke were joining the sprint. They rounded the crest of a hill, and there they found three figures sitting—deflated—against the earth, right between two wooden beams stuck in the mud.
"Belle!" Eagle Eye stammered, tears streaming down his face. "Belle!" He slid to a stop and nuzzled her, hugging her as tightly as he can as he cast a breathless look at the stallion lying dormant in her lap. "Thank the Sp-Spark you're alive!" He gulped. "Pilate... is... is he...?"
"He's unconscious," Belle said. "O.A.S.I.S. is shattered. It sent a terrible feedback through his body, but..." She gulped. "I-I think he's going to pull through."
"And the filly," Josho asked, nodding towards Kera as the rest of the Jury ran up the rear. "What about her?"
"Kera..." Belle looked over, sniffling. "Kera's... she's..." Her face melted as tears streamed down her bloodied cheek. "Blessed Spark, I-I don't know..." She sobbed as she stroked Pilate's mane. "She h-hasn't said a word... she d-doesn't even look at m-me..."
Zaid trotted over to Kera, squatting down to squint at her face. When he got no reaction, he gave the filly's shoulder a little shake. The foal shivered, but nothing more. Biting his lip, the stallion looked at the others before enfolding the filly into a dear hug. The foal limply oblidged, collapsing against Zaid's chest.
Belle buried her face in Eagle's shoulder. "He... h-he made her see everything." He gulped. "Every throat he slit. Every house he burned. Every... every f-foal he strangled. Oh Spark..." She wailed. "Spark alive... he took her from us... he took our darling Kera..." Her next breaths came in indecipherable sobs.
Roarke stared at the filly in Zaid's embrace. For the first time in ages, her ears folded back, and the metal mare plopped down on her haunches.
Josho saw it. Nevertheless, he wrenched his gaze away from her and spoke towards Belle. "What about Rainbow Dash?" The mare was too distraught to answer. "Bellesmith, did you see Rainbow Dash? Do you know what happened to—"
"Guys!" Props squeaked.
Everypony looked up, including Belle.
A lone blue figure limped towards the scene, dragging something along with her. Her feathers and coat were covered with all manners of scrapes and bruises and lacerations.
"Rainbow Dash!" Ebon gasped.
He and Josho rushed towards her. When they came within a meter's distance, she stopped—and they stopped. The pegasus had her head hanging low.
Ebon bit his lip and looked at the obese stallion beside him.
Only Josho had the strength to ask: "Enforcer Shell." His eyes narrowed. "Did you run into him?"
Rainbow was silent.
"Rainbow, it may be too late for the village, but you need to tell us. What happened... to...?"
Josho stopped speaking, for the pegasus had just dropped a sharp stake to the ground. Its pointed end glistened with fresh red blood.
Belle blinked from afar, shivering in Eagle's arms. Both ponies flinched when Rainbow finally spoke.
"Y'know... for all the horrible mistakes that he made..." Rainbow Dash looked up, and a tear rolled down to her quivering lips. "He was right about one thing."
Josho and Ebon stared in silence.
Rainbow sniffled only once. She blinked her eyes dry and limped over to Belle and Pilate. There, she squatted beside them, joining the embrace with Eagle Eye as quiet sobs lit the air.
Zaid held Kera tighter, rocking her gently while smoke drifted over the deathly tranquil cemetery that Lerris had become.
Finally, the bastard is dead.
4004609
It stopped being interesting forever ago, though. Good God.
Hey, I'm pleased with this! I mean, Kera's scarred for life, Pilate's near catatonic, Belle's a mess, and Rainbow's empty inside, but it's all worth it because Shell's finally dead!
Right guys? Right? There should be confetti and ... cake ... and ...
... I-I'm sorry. I think I need a hug.
4004621
Freakin' hell. Bugger's finally got an onscreen (as much as it can be) kill. Everyone had so many damn chances to just shoot the guy. Nobody seemed to understand that heights tend to be non lethal.
Seriously, 50% of all the crap could've been stopped with him being cold n stiff. The one thing he did that remotely helped was airstalling an airship and ramming the Lightning.
4004685 "Are you sure he's dead?"
"I cut off his head."
"Well, that's step 1..."
4004685
It just feels forced. It might have been refreshing and original, if not bittersweet, if that really HAD been the last we ever saw of Kera, Belle and Pilate... ever. They finally found a place to call their own, they were the first to get off the bus and actually find a life and purpose outside of running for their lives at every turn. Of course it wasn't going to be anything but a tired, cliche enforcement of the status quo! Shell's death wasn't even satisfying, since Imre's death he has become steadily more and more flanderized until he became this rambling, incoherent mess of a creature. I just can't find it in myself to be happy about the way things have turned out. Could have set the pace and tone for a new, adventurous chapter in the Jury's quest, maybe like Austraeoh but, you know, with friends. Now the first leg of the next book is just going to be miserably, negatively colored by the meaningless death of Lerris.
There is no glory here, and nothing to celebrate.
4004717
Yeah, it was a piece of shit. I'm not even happy my character's still around!
I mean, I could've handled a small-scale Shining-ish chase/fight scene between the four of them. But a jump cut to a desecrated town followed by another scene of Rainbow Dash beating the shit out of somepony?
4004685
Ain't onscreen enough for me. Two bits says next chapter has Shell dragging himself away from Lerris using whatever teeth Rainbow let him keep.
This is getting WAY dark. I dunno if I want to stay on this train, Shell's death was anti-climactic in the worst way. Kill the rabid dog after everyone's already been bitten.
There are only 5 chapters left so I'll finish this installment, but we may be parting ways after this, sorry.
Shell deserved no redemption. He was the coward he constantly called Rainbow Dash. He was the monster. He took every observation that painted him as villainous and directed it towards Rainbow Dash, even the thoughts of his daughter, all to give validation towards his madness. The guy went blind long ago and the only cowardice I see outside of his self is that in the ponies who failed to stand up to him. Even Rainbow Dash. So yes, in a way, she is a coward, insofar as thinking she can continue to run away from everything. But when the world comes crashing down, the only way out is to dig yourself out, and so that's what she's done here in killing Shell. There was no redemption for Shell, but there is some to come out of Rainbow Dash.
It may be over, but no one is happy. It might not yet be the story's end, but I don't see any optimism coming out of this. I have huge respect for any author who can run a story into the grave and keep it there, rather than giving a twinge of hope at the end. Such true tragedies are seldom seen nowadays, sadly.
Could Shell's end have been handled better, as the above comments state? Perhaps. But I think it was pulled off well enough. I'm satisfied with what we got.
4004717
I have to agree, the main reason I'm glad Shell is dead at this point is because he had become a stupid and boring villain quite a while ago IMO. He really lasted far, far too long and at this point was basically a joke. I would have much rather seen Kera, Pilate and Belle just live a nice life in Lerris, I know its not really in line with this series to give out easy happy endings but this just feels pointlessly dark at this point. Hopefully something will turn this around somewhat but I don't see how that's possible.
What closure can there ever be now for her?
4004758
I have to agree. Frankly, at this point, i think the author is just beating a dead horse.
*runs off-stage*
I am really glad that Shell is (hopefully, this time, he's really and actually) dead.
But...the story. Kera is likely to be scarred forever. And what of Rainbow Dash?
...was Shell trying to repeat what Discord did to RD's friends?
How is RD going to act after this? Will the Noble Jury still be the same with these newly-broken ponies?
You know I think something that, to me anyway, would have made Shells death better is if it hadn't been Rainbow Dash that killed him. I would have really liked it if it had been Belle or heck even Kera who did him in and have RD come in on the aftermath of it. Like have Kera kill him to save some of the towns people because say Shell in his insanity forgot to properly secure her or something. That way you could still have Kera have some kind of trauma as well and keep some of this development intact.
I love all this debate and discussion. It's gotta feel pretty good, as a writer, to get such strong reactions, even when some people are getting pissed off. In some perverse way, it's a sign you're doing something right.
Did Shell overstay his welcome? Perhaps. Gawd knows he's lived through an almost comical amount of crap, and I'm as happy about his death as anyone. Though, for what it's worth, I still found him to be an interesting character, what with his obsessive descent into madness.
Now let us never speak of him again.
Obviously, Lerris' tragic end is gonna leave shockwaves in the coming installment, and Kera's certainly gonna need some... I dunno, therapy, if such a thing could feasibly exist on the Noble Jury. But somehow it seems to fit with the apparently arctic shift in climate. I foresee a bleak, introspective part five, and I, for one, can't wait. It's important to remember that this saga is going to be twelve books long. It's not going to be all sunshine-and-rainbows from here to the end. There are going to be ups and downs, and some of those downs are probably gonna be goddamn subterranean. Something, something, Sam's speech at the end of The Two Towers, yadda yadda, emphatic point.
Now, let's blow this god-forsaken continent.
Damn...about time he was put out of our misery...or at least I HOPE he is. I don't like "off-screen" deaths like this. Leaves potential for someone that SHOULD be dead to come back. That aside...I AM kinda disappointed that Belle and Pilate and Kera didn't get that happy ending they deserved...I knew Shell was going to return but I didn't expect him to destroy the entire town in the process. Worst part is that he was so far gone he turned all the blame onto Dash...fucking pile of filth. I was hoping Dash would bring him up to the storm, let him get struck by lightning and then atomic rainboom his ass into the ground. I sincerely hope that is the last we EVER see of him again. I was really hoping for once that we'd get a book that didn't end with something dark or depressing like the first two and while we have five chapters left i can't imagine they'll be TOO cheerful.
On the positive side, I'm glad Belle Pilate and Kera survived. Zaid...you are so awesome you don't even know! I really hope he get's developed into a sort of big brother figure for Kera...well as long as they are staying with the ship anyway. So far he seems to be working well on that account.
Well, five chapters to go. Let's see what happens, eh?
... Fuck.
Congratulations. You turned Shell into the first character in any written fiction anywhere that I wanted to actually strangle to death with my own hooves. I'm glad he finally has been put to rest.
Kera, Belle, Pilate... I guess you're with us for a while longer. I'm just sorry it had to be like this.
Holy fucking shitfuck.
I think that summarizes the latest group of updates.
Well....that was a shitstorm and a half.
Looks like the Jury isn't getting less crowded anytime soon.
Fuck though...Poor Kera...
... What the hell just happened?! I mean, this series has been getting progressively darker, don't get me wrong, but this has just entered a brand new level of fucked up. Where did the "carefree" adventure feeling of early Austraeoh go? I'm certainly not complaining, but... holy shit! I-I have no words to describe the last few chapters...
I just want to find out about the 'Lounge' creatures!
Rest in pieces, Shell, you bastard.
well. that was a trip. I'm glad it was rainbow who actually finished shell off cause in a lot of ways it shows how this journey has changed ( but not really ) her. has she ever outright killed a pony before? don't think so. I'm extremely sad that kera had to see what she saw. I hate that pilate is blind blind now, maybe a he will get a new oasis like bell mentioned making. but this all comes with what the author has written, which is an amazing story I look forward to reading everyday. looking forward, there is so much we have unanswered like whats up with props uncle, who the hell ebon really is, the lounge, changlelings, WILL ZAID EVER GET HIS GRILLED CHEESE SAMICH?! possible romamces? so much good stuff coming and I can't wait but I'm so glad and relieved this "shell saga" is over. in a fucked up way I guess I'm happy this happened because now they can still all be together..as messed up as some of them are now. the jury lives on.
4004966
Fair points. I'm certainly not going to jump ship just because of a series of questionable chapters, but I gotta say I'm a little hesitant to be optimistic for the next few, and the beginning of the next story. Just felt like a series of plot devices exploding in succession, and now, with the ocean of angst our heroes will be drowning in, I fear we'll be retreading old ground as they keep to themselves and mumble and brood. They just reestablished their group dynamic! They JUST got better! Makes the past week of chapters feel pointless.
Hm. Seems a lot of people ain't too happy with this here turn o' events. Personally?
I FUCKING CALLED IT.
I CALLED THE SHITSTORM, AND STORM SHIT IT DID.
Anyway. Onward and upward, gents.
If only the death of Lerris hadn't been predicted the very moment they decided to stop there, it could have actually had impact. The REAL shocking development would have been to let it, and the three ponies left there, live long and happy lives. But, no. No, that could not be allowed. We're sticking to the formula here, folks.
4005346 It's the same with most singular-plot long-running stories. Look at the Harry Potter series and how progressively darker and more twisted that became, the deeper in you got. This is just the same style thing.
I'm not sure what to say. I started caring about some of the villagers, but now Shell has slaughtered them all? I can't say I'm okay with this.
The only surprise here is that all three of Pilate, Belle, and Kera are still breathing. I wasn't willing to bet money on that. Oh, and I still haven't seen Shell's body, let alone in a non-resurrectable state.
And, about Shell. Our dear, hated, pointless Shell. A lot of people talk about how he'd gotten stale and overstayed his welcome, well, yeah. Shell was effective in his original role, and he was a decent enough antagonist right up until his death... the FIRST time. Way WAYYY back in Eljun when he was implied killed in the machine. If I recall correctly, it was even a decent 'villain' death, falling off the side of something way too deep to ever crawl out of, screaming in rage.
But, sometimes, authors fall in love with characters and just can't bear to see them go. Shell's place for the tail end of Eljun and Inna could have been taken by, literally, anyone. Yet HE stuck around, beyond all hope of realism. He broke suspension of disbelief just by continuing to exist. It hurt the story, and it continues to hurt the story.
Part of that is that he is such a terrible villain. He started off okay, your standard-issue evil military commander. But by the time Inna rolled around he was already way past pathetic. He just. Kept. Killing people. Left, right and center, and for no good reason. Nobody reacted to his insane, Zapp Brannigan tactics with appropriate horror and disbelief. Nobody stood up to him, even when it was obvious that they could, and that given their characters and capabilities, they should. They just stood there and died. Shell did not fit into the story, the story bent itself around him, breaking itself in half just to accommodate his continued existence. Textbook Villain-Sue.
The result is this. Shell's dead, and we don't feel particularly gratified by it. It isn't the culmination of many chapters of effort, done in a satisfying way. It's an eye rolling "took him bloody long enough". We don't love to hate him, we just hate him. Hopefully his death will stick this time (as off-camera as it may be), and we can move on to a better villain. Not the villain this story deserves, the one it NEEDS.
4004717
I wholeheartedly agree with you. I like Shell as a villain, but he's been around so long its almost a running gag how he manages to survive all the shit he's been through.
And while I'd hate to lose characters, I would have been fine with it if Belle, Pilate and Kera stayed in Lerris, never to be heard from again. SS&E does love his bittersweet endings after all...
4004739
Only fools and madmen praise the "glory of battle."
I don't see why this has to be the death of Lerris. Why can't this be a place of rebirth? Surely there are hundreds of refugees and prisoners from the war that have no home to return to? Why can't Lerris be this new home? Will it ever be the same again? No, of course not, but all this destruction in Lerris should be for something greater than Shell's death. He deserved his fate many times over, but him dying doesn't suddenly bring back the hundreds or thousands of lives he has taken.
Well, if there were ever a textbook example of "pyrrhic victory", this would be it.
About damn time Shell is finally dead. And I believe it this time.
Still, there's no joy to be found here. He burned Lerris to the ground, mentally scarred Kera, injured Bellesmith, blinded Pilate (again) by destroying O.A.S.I.S. (as well as leaving him in agony from breaking it). And the worst part about this is, I think in a manner of speaking, he's still not gone. There's no way that they aren't going to remember this for quite some time, or bring him and what he did up at some point in the next books. The family has been forced back into the Jury after trying to find peace. They are not going to forget what he did. Even at his end, he left a deep mark on all of them.
I'm not sure whether to be angry or just sad.
I hate it. Don't use literary balance on me. I don't care about that. This is worse than FOE.
It's not consistent. It's a plot designed to break our hearts. I expected differently from this fic.
I expected hope. You've gone too far, Colon. Pray I don't find you.
In fact. I'm done with all of your fics. Effective immediately.
4004966 In almost all cases it does - unless you get hate for your writing. That's just getting hate for your writing. I will agree with the majority: this last sequence has been one big slip. It's well beneath His niveau forwards and backwards, but from our current position that's actually a wonderful thing: I am confident that we can all just forget this sequence ever happened and things will be as wonderful and literarily delicious as they have been before the next time. And with the Frozen Sea coming up, I'm actually very certain that the next arc is going to be one of the best thus far.
Whelp, I know I'm breaking a promise here, but let's be honest - no one, least of all the author, is going to care about that eulogy I had been wanting to do with the current climate. Perhaps one day. Right now, I think all of us actually need to see to their feelings, meditate and get their heads clear again.
4005949
This is only book 4 of 12, bit early to be giving up don't you think? Especially when you know for a fact that there will be catastrophic instances like this in the future, possibly to an even greater degree. This is hardly the end of the Noble Jury, to any extent. We knew Shell was coming back, and we knew it was going to happen:
1) At an inopportune time.
2) Before the end of this book.
The Jury will pick it's ass up and keep pushing forward, just as they always have. Not to mention there's still five more chapters until the Lerris Arc concludes. It's best to wait until things wrap up.
Well, guys, don't forget who this is. It's obviously Shortskirtsandexplosions, right down to the identical writing style. And by identical writing style, I mean he doesn't know how -or refuses- to end any sort of story arc on anything remotely close to a positive note. Not that his writing is anything short of fantastic, for the most part, he's definitely one of the best and most ambitious authors on this site. And that's okay, not every story is perfect.
Maybe now with Shell dead he can try not relying on contrived plot devices, villain sues, status quo and any combination of the three to carry the story forward. It was almost looking like the best conclusion to one of the books yet, a new beginning... Guess not. It comes across as a really messy excuse to keep the group together. If you ask me, Shell should have died with the Steel Wing. It would have been a fitting death; while he failed to catch the target, he would have died every bit the obsessed fanatic he used to be. Seriously... I let it slide back then, but now I gotta explode: This story has established that horn injuries are permanent. So how the fuck is it okay that Shell can just jam another pony's horn in his head and be perfectly fine?! Good grief! It's blatant asspull. I really hope I can expect better in the future.
I might hold off on reading the next story for a little while, just to take a breather. I don't know if I'm ready for another 30 chapters of brooding self-pity. Skirts almost comes across as obsessed with torturing his characters, and while he often milks some spectacular character development out of that, here I fear we're just going to retread the same old story again.
4005686 Funny you should mention that, actually. I just finished re-reading Harry Potter for the first time and I noticed the exact same thing. From the first to the last, those books got really messed up, and because of the yearly-or-so releases, no one really noticed. It does seem like the exact same thing I has been happening here for a while, but especially in the last six chapters or so...
Odrsjot has been very different from what I expected when it began. Eljunbyro and especially Innavedr didn't really deliver much on their tagline, "Rainbow dash continues flying east". The first chapters of Odrsjot made it seem like we're going back to the Austraeoh style, with distinct and mostly separate story arcs in different lands. In the first chapter I thought they were far from Ledomare already. By the end however, we are still in Ledomare-ish. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, since this has given opportunities for fleshing out the Ledomare continent more thoroughly, but the slowness of the journey in the last three books makes you think how they're ever gonna reach the edge of the world.
Anyway, I'm saddened that the Jury never got a longer period of mostly peaceful and trauma-free time adventuring together. I really would've liked to see that kind of story.
Shell seems to be intentionally written as a crusher of readers' hopeful expectations. First he causes the splitting of the group in Foxtaur, which causes them to be stuck in Ledomare all of Innavedr. Then, after Innavedr has a happy-ish ending with the Jury flying away, he catches up to them quite early in Odrsjot, kidnaps Belle and shoots the Jury down, causing further delay. And now this, of course. I don't like it at the moment, but I guess it's too early to form an opinion yet before we see how this story concludes.
So, I wonder where we can go on from here. A solution that comes to mind would have the Jury settle with Belle, Pilate and Kera in Archer Point as moral support, with Rainbow leaving alone. Then we could continue without having to focus on the characters' grief and trauma for the entire next book - perhaps there could even be a timeskip of a few months to allow Rainbow to recover. Then again, this might be a quite unsatisfying farewell to the entire cast of characters we've been so long with. And of course Ebon Mane's mystery is still unsolved. Also I'm unsure if Kera would be able to live so close to Lerris now.
By the way, I think the story didn't explain well how Shell was able to kill everyone in Lerris single-handedly. His previous massacres were done with a squadron of soliders, after all. At first I thought he used Imre's horn to cause some sort of mini-nuke blast (the fact that some ponies died in their bed supports that), but this contradicts with the claim that he killed ponies individually in front of Kera. Also if Imre's horn gave him superpowers, this should've been demonstrated in the battle with Rainbow, and while he's really powerful I can't see how the Lerringtons were unable to overnumber him or at least escape the town and hide themselves. (By the way, Hap's body hasn't been seen, so there's not a small possibility that he got away.)
Anyway, I eagerly wait how the story continues. Also I hope Colon isn't discouraged by some strong criticism in those comments, including mine :)
I suggest retconning the last six chapters.
How? Time-travel!
Lerris could be saved, and we could still get an epic Dash-Shell climactic battle-royale.
Not that I feel I have any business telling the author what to do with their own story. Readers are, however, quite dissatisfied.
For all the lows to which everyone has sunk.
I'm glad Rainbow Dash didn't take off her pendant and went full chaos on Shell.
...
That's all I have to say, I'm gonna lay down for a while.
The hunt may be over, but no peace was made.
What a wonderful tragedy.
Onwards and Eastwards.
You know, I was actually happy to see them go. The Lerris arc had concluded on a surprising and bittersweet note, which honestly was a breath of fresh air. It was like Austraeoh's glorious spirit of adventure, the breathtaking solo sojourns that we all moved on from. Eljunbryo, Innavedr and Ordsjot's unison and friendship focus was going to be parted with just the same. We had closure.
I'm not against grim events. Some of the things you've written up to this point? The Mane Six? Imre? They were freakin' world class.
This? This feels wrong. It feels unnecessary. It broke the atmosphere, the suspension of disbelief and the story for no seemingly good reason.
Lets review the events here. Shell is an old villain that has lost all credibility, went completely mental and survived for so long over impossible odds. He had outlasted himself. Most of us disliked him more for the fact he was still around than for his character, and were just waiting for him to die already. When your people begin to stop hating your character and just get bored of him, that's gotta be a hint.
But no, he came back inexplicably and ruined all that. He murders a load of innocent ponies again, he mentally tortures the Eljun trio again, there's a big final battle and he dies. It feels unnecessary. He could have tripped on a rock and we wouldn't have given a damn. Hell, you could have left an empty plothole and we wouldn't have given a damn. But we got a load of brooding and depression from the main characters, and a lot of disappointment in the progress department.
I think we can let the story's Noble Jury speak for this one - we just went backwards to the things we'd let go because somebody we no longer cared about suddenly showed up and killed everybody.
Of all the times you have created a tragedy, of all the times there was no hope in the situation, of all the times you made me shake with rage and sadness, this is the worst. I didn't expect this to happen, honestly. I thought Shell could have seen the error in his actions. To think any fictional sentient creature could do something so horrid and feel no remorse is bad enough, but when you take it out of fiction there is a voice in the back of my head that reminds me that humans can be just as heartless; that is what disturbs me the most.
media.cleveland.com/plain-dealer/photo/2009/11/8147675-standard.jpg
This just came to mind...
Anywho... this level of darkness was necessary. we keep hearing about how awful both sides are to each-other through Josho and Eagle Eye, but never see what kind of shit they are willing to do to civilians. While Shell was certifiably insane, no one person just methodically go through a village of a few hundred people and slaughters everyone without skill and training. Leaving the war front, it is good to know just how awful this war was, even if it was on such devastating terms. My 2 cents.
4005949 4/12... that is all you could muster?