Interesting Character Relationship - Tumblr Posts

you know... this is framed as such a silly moment that i didn't really consider it before but...

...laios was the only one who respected chilchuck in this scene.

and of course we know why senshi and marcille didn't. senshi still thinks that's child age, as dwarves' age of maturity is 40, a good 20 years older than chilchuck is. and senshi doesn't have the kind of worldly socialization marcille does that lets her understand in any way that chilchuck is an adult (and even then, she sees him as more of a child than she should, because elven age of maturity is 80 and, well. her relationship with time and aging is weird, let's put it that way). she treats him more like a grown man than senshi does, but it's not saying much. (this isn't a diss against either of them, their backstories more than explain why they're like this, and chilchuck doesn't seem to generally hold it against them except when senshi very openly treats him like a kid.)

laios, though. laios is a tall-man. his age of maturity (16) is only 2 years higher than a half-foot's (14). when chilchuck said "this year i turn 29," laios realized chilchuck was his senior and tried to adapt to treating him that way. (in the context of this series being written by a japanese person, this concept holds a lot of extra weight.)

of course, that wasn't actually what chilchuck wanted, and laios resumed treating chilchuck like a peer instead. (remember, chilchuck clearly defines his boundaries, and laios will happily abide by a clearly drawn boundary. a distressed and angry "quit" is taken 100% at face value.) and what's notable about that is that "laios treating chilchuck like a peer" was already valuing him as an adult. even if he didn't know the exact number, laios knew chilchuck was at least around his own age.

i imagine traveling with dandan helped him understand half-foots enough that his blunders when he and chilchuck started working together weren't generally disrespectful in nature. laios would have been able to wrap his mind around "half-foots aren't kids unless they actually say they are" because laios likes clearly defined rules. chilchuck is an adult? okay, he gets treated like one.

and i think it's just as much them both being short-lived races; if he can wrap his head around "height ≠ age" then he also understands whatever age chilchuck is has to be roughly comparable to his own.

and i just think that's neat! i think it's cool how much laios respects chilchuck and there's a sort of irony to the fact that moments like this are, in chilchuck's eyes, more of a nuisance than a sign of respect. but i mean... laios already treats him right. he doesn't need to do anything different.

Sometimes my inner Kabru goes out and i go "the dynamics of the Touden party is fastinating"

And in this case I mean the dynamics between Chilchuck and Laios.

Why does union boss chilchuck who is well respected in his comunity work with the Touden siblings and why does he go back for Falin?

Reasons why it's odd.

Chilchuck finds laios to be very anoying.

Chilchuck is closer to retirement and this is very dangerous. Rescuing falin and working with the Touden's party is dangerous.

Chilchuck is really good at what he does and respected in his comunity. We can infer this because you can't start a union without the respect of both your peers. But the toudens have a mixed reputation and lead a good but not great party full of weirdos (Namari is shunned by alot of dwarfs, Shiro is a foreigner, marcille an elf mage working in a dungeon.)

Chilchuck does jobs for the money. But there is no clear source of payment in rescuing falin.

All of these are reasons why chilchuck should have been contracting with a group like the Tansu party who have prestige and high pay with little danger.

But instead chilchuck tims works with the Touden's and I think I figured out part of the reason..... and it's right here:

Even though laios's chilchuck was the first be be eliminated due to the wrong neckwear, look at laios's chilchuck's expression. That chilchuck looks more adult and more pissed off. Because laios sees chilchuck as a pissed off adult half foot rather than a grumpy human child. And we know that chilchuck hates to be treated like a child.

Contrast this with that tansu party. The Tansu party is a family business where members are either family/children or cannon folder. It would be well compensated hell for Chilchuck.

So Chilchuck stays with the Touden, not for money or safety, but for respect, even though the respect comes from a madman.