Eric redemption arc incoming?

on the one hand: "yeah! Redemption arc & character progression"
On the other hand: "No, not the pervy fun, silly joke character. He's fun. And silly."

Going from the mindset of "Soon you two will be back to normal" to "Well gee, maybe slavery isn't such a good thing after all" would probably have taken a bit more time.
Nevertheless, it's good that he might really start thinking about the amount of Keidran women he had subjected to that same fate, regardless of how "well" he may have treated his slaves. The whole "hee hoo, funny pervert guy" thing is a bit less endearing when taking some of his previous actions into consideration.
In any case, with this new information, there's at least one thing that can justify Eric's presence moving forward.

Huh. Is this the first sketch with fully written dialogue?

d-sneetch said:
Going from the mindset of "Soon you two will be back to normal" to "Well gee, maybe slavery isn't such a good thing after all" would probably have taken a bit more time.
Nevertheless, it's good that he might really start thinking about the amount of Keidran women he had subjected to that same fate, regardless of how "well" he may have treated his slaves. The whole "hee hoo, funny pervert guy" thing is a bit less endearing when taking some of his previous actions into consideration.
In any case, with this new information, there's at least one thing that can justify Eric's presence moving forward.

It also makes me think about him being so insistent on treating Kathrin as an exception both as his sister and exempting her from his behavior.

I like to think this is also in general making him view Kat differently

🎵I'm struggling with the man in the mirror,
I'm asking him to change his ways...🎵

Seriously, self-awareness is a bitch...

zakfett92 said:
🎵I'm struggling with the man in the mirror,
I'm asking him to change his ways...🎵

Seriously, self-awareness is a bitch...

Yeah, just ask Megatron from the Transformers Prime run.

"Because I now know the true meaning of oppression... and have thus lost my taste for inflicting it." - TFP Megatron, Predacons Rising

And what happened then? Well, in Edinmire they say
that Eric's character development grew three sizes that day!

To all people who thinks that Eric will change: that's his 3rd redemption arc. Teach him that slavery is bad as much as you want, but this guy will forget everything in like 3 pages after that

abylai said:
To all people who thinks that Eric will change: that's his 3rd redemption arc. Teach him that slavery is bad as much as you want, but this guy will forget everything in like 3 pages after that

I wonder if it's not that he forgets, but rather that he has no choice, because the alternative leads to something much worse for the slaves.

abylai said:
To all people who thinks that Eric will change: that's his 3rd redemption arc. Teach him that slavery is bad as much as you want, but this guy will forget everything in like 3 pages after that

Eric hasn't had a chance to do anything about his redemption arc so far. He's far from home and can't take any actions to free his slaves or do anything else about them as long as he's travelling with the party. This isn't Eric's "third" redemption arc, but a slow-burned continuation of a single one. It's just slow going because the comic's such a slow burner.

d-sneetch said:
Going from the mindset of "Soon you two will be back to normal" to "Well gee, maybe slavery isn't such a good thing after all" would probably have taken a bit more time.

This is kind of shallow and naive thinking. Not to mention not very aligned with human history.
In real life, slavery was a natural consequence of war and an extension of prison system - after every conflict there were prisoners that had to be enslaved (as you couldn't leave defeated enemy combatants alone) and even if you had somebody of ransom, then you had to take away their freedom so they won't escape. Not to mention how labor-intensive everything was pre-mechanization, so extra labor was often one of the reasons to raid other people. (perfect example of this are slave empires of central Africa)
Basically Eric has no power to change the system or even make a dent in it. Even if he stops his family business altogether, another company will rise in his place and there is a big chance that such company will be much worse than him. The best thing he can do is to treat his slaves better and turn such treatment into "industry standard", so other slavers will emulate him.
The only way to "tackle" slavery is once again labor replacement (mechanization? more common magic? magitech?)
I really hope Tom will refuse taking the moral high ground for clout, and instead keep everything grounded in realism. The best fantasy worlds are the ones with deep verisimilitude.

Nevertheless, it's good that he might really start thinking about the amount of Keidran women he had subjected to that same fate, regardless of how "well" he may have treated his slaves.

Don't forget the perverted women owning male slaves. There were many cases of women giving birth to mixed children, whose biological father was a slave of different race. (ancient Rome is a good example)

The whole "hee hoo, funny pervert guy" thing is a bit less endearing when taking some of his previous actions into consideration.

Speak for yourself. Despite everything I still think Eric is a funny pervert and I hope Tom will never remove those traits from him.

pawo69 said:
This is kind of shallow and naive thinking. Not to mention not very aligned with human history.
In real life, slavery was a natural consequence of war and an extension of prison system - after every conflict there were prisoners that had to be enslaved (as you couldn't leave defeated enemy combatants alone) and even if you had somebody of ransom, then you had to take away their freedom so they won't escape. Not to mention how labor-intensive everything was pre-mechanization, so extra labor was often one of the reasons to raid other people. (perfect example of this are slave empires of central Africa)
Basically Eric has no power to change the system or even make a dent in it. Even if he stops his family business altogether, another company will rise in his place and there is a big chance that such company will be much worse than him. The best thing he can do is to treat his slaves better and turn such treatment into "industry standard", so other slavers will emulate him.
The only way to "tackle" slavery is once again labor replacement (mechanization? more common magic? magitech?)
I really hope Tom will refuse taking the moral high ground for clout, and instead keep everything grounded in realism. The best fantasy worlds are the ones with deep verisimilitude.

Don't forget the perverted women owning male slaves. There were many cases of women giving birth to mixed children, whose biological father was a slave of different race. (ancient Rome is a good example)

Speak for yourself. Despite everything I still think Eric is a funny pervert and I hope Tom will never remove those traits from him.

Right, so my initial comment on Eric's change in perspective has basically nothing to do with what you have said. Never said anything about Eric changing the system nor do I think that is at all what was implied. Yes, institutions of slavery have been and continue to be a regrettable part of the history of our species. We aren't talking about human history or times in which slavery had been practiced in the real world, however. We're talking about the development of the character of Eric Vaughan.

Furthermore, what exactly is the deal with your second point? Again, never said anything to imply that men are the only ones to have had less-than-appropriate interactions with slaves. We are talking about Eric here, the character specifically known to have a deep fondness for Keidran women.
Ever make mention of sex abuse cases in the church and somebody immediately rattles off about how school teachers have engaged in similar behavior? I get that same vibe. We aren't talking about which groups of individuals do lewd things or which group does it more than another. We're talking about Eric.

To elaborate, the "endearing pervert" thing can remain a part of Eric's character for all I care. Just keep in mind that he has itted to engaging in "quality" time with his servants. Servants who, unlike Kat, would have bean wearing control collars, making them unable to so much as tell him no. Perhaps that is what Eric is thinking about in this page. When Mike's sex was changed on the ship, he panics thinking about what Eric would do if he saw him in that state, noting his inability to resist. His fears are made valid, at least in part, when Eric mistakenly believes Keith can use sex-changing magic and asks him to use it on Mike.
(Shame on Nora, by the way, for putting him in that situation in the first place. Even if it was in jest.)

Anyway, most of your response is addressing "shallow and naive" points that nobody made.

tenchizero said:
I wonder if it's not that he forgets, but rather that he has no choice, because the alternative leads to something much worse for the slaves.

I mean not being piece of shit and not wearing slave collars on Mike and Evals bc of fire would be pretty fucking nice from his side

iago1 said:
Eric hasn't had a chance to do anything about his redemption arc so far. He's far from home and can't take any actions to free his slaves or do anything else about them as long as he's travelling with the party. This isn't Eric's "third" redemption arc, but a slow-burned continuation of a single one. It's just slow going because the comic's such a slow burner.

Nah bro, considering that he absolutely could (and probably did) use that things to rape his slaves at home I don't trust him at all

abylai said:
I mean not being piece of shit and not wearing slave collars on Mike and Evals bc of fire would be pretty fucking nice from his side

To his credit, Eric does concede later that he shouldn't have done that. Still, "Soon you two will be back to normal" can be quite indicative of his views of the various Keidran races as a whole, even if he makes an exception in Kat's case.

abylai said:
Nah bro, considering that he absolutely could (and probably did) use that things to rape his slaves at home I don't trust him at all

When using Flora as a model for his painting, he does it to having spent what he refers to as "quality" time with his female servants. And they wouldn't have been able to fight back. Yeah, he's still kind of a bastard.