#pollysim

Okay, a bit heavy in places this episode admittedly, but necessary. Poor Polly - she’s not having a good day.

There’s been a horrible echo with recent real world events in the last two chapters, but the Glendonnach stuff had been planned years back (both Blazaxx and Moryrie had mentioned Glendonnach briefly during the Moonlight Falls part of the story).

Sadly, some things in history have a habit of reoccuring, not least of all yesterday’s terrorists becoming today’s political leaders when expediency strikes. Once again, those who command people to slaughter and be slaughtered get the rewards of victory, but only the poor footsloggers suffer the consequences of defeat. The Nuremberg trials were an aberration: Napoleon was exiled in Elba and - after breaking the terms of his exile - St Helena. Kaiser Wilhelm II lived out his life in the Netherlands, Idi Amin in Saudi Arabia ... and so on. It’s only when the ringleaders of chaos come from ‘the lower orders’ there appears to be the appetite for ‘justice’. Murder a family while robbing the bank, the world will make an example of you. Murder millions while plundering whole countries, the world will make a deal with you.

So it goes here with Sarriaka, KapnKate and Mmm Toast! seeking no paradox in suggesting that xxMaddi, Siminthesun and Jaden will have to face consequences of their actions as a ‘death squad’ while they themselves are striving to give that ‘death squad’s titular leader and followers a safe homeland. All because someone higher up tells them what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

The friendly interrogation scenes were a good laugh to do - xxMaddi falling hook, line and sinker for the Taffers questioning while kidding herself she knew what she was doing, Kirry and Voirrey being about as friendly as a cat at the vets, while Mindy and Jaden simply take the piss.

Oh, and Gregorina just being Gregorina.

The Taffers - or at least Tygercat - have missed the obvious implication of the renegade Jazz-Handers failing to discover Vigmed in the yacht vault ... that is they never went into it, contrary to Tygercat’s own cynicism back in Part 76 that you couldn’t trust them with a fortune in treasure, and, even more ironically given the events this episode, that ‘I know you lot too well, and you ain’t changed!’ (with agreement from Unsecretcrush). Her riposte to Pollysim is the first time however she’s admitted out loud that three of them aren’t behaving according to type.

Vigmed’s the first bombshell of the episode - some of you may have been wondering what had happened to him after Cororon’s you ought to have guessed by Part 72. The final one we’re hoping was more of a surprise, as the final significant brickbat of Polly’s life returns to haunt her.

Oh, before any of the pedants start saying that a hand of glory has to be a right hand, it doesn’t. It has to be the hand the hanged criminal used predominantly.

Sadly, there is only one example of these left in existance, on display in Whitby Museum. It was discovered by chance walled up in a thatched cottage in Castleton, Derbyshire, in 1935, possibly put there by a thief hiding the tools of their trade, possibly by a householder as a counter measure to anyone using a hand of glory to break into their property.

Part One Hundred - yay!

A few notes regarding the parts which may have escaped your notice - yes, this chapter did have quite a lot in it. Sorry about that.

The observant will have noticed that the personal banner of PollySim is a white hand skewered with a sword (symbolising her killing off her Jazz-Hands past) which just happens to resemble the letter P, and together with the crossed swords formed a Chi Rho - a Greek Pagan symbol later adopted by Christianity as shorthand for ‘Christ’. Polly made a point of ending many of her online posts (and emails to us) with ‘Px’.

It should also be noted that a white hand in heraldry - apart from the obvious connotations with the villanous Saruman in ‘Lord of the Rings’ - means justice, and therefore a skewered hand means ‘justice denied’. We’ll leave it for you to wonder whether Polly’s selfsim’s hinting possibly a feeling that she was denied/escaped justice, or that the Jazzers were denied/escaped justice, or that justice itself has become skewered ...

There’s also one final subtle reference. The P in the shape of a sword (the two swords are simply the same one with the guards removed) is taken from the original logo of the Dusseldorf synth pop Propaganda, the self-styled ‘Abba from Hell’. PollySim’s old EA Forum banner had read ‘Too Emo For Abba’ ...

Some may have noticed this has not been the first fishing related lines in Raiders where the topic of PollySim came up. In real life, she came originally from a small fishing village in Scotland, and spoke once on the old EA forum about the devestating effect on all in a local community when a fishing boat was lost at sea in a storm. Everyone knew someone who was on the trawlers, everyone knew the risks involved, where even the best crew on the best ship may be sailing off into the path of the one freak wave that would sink them.

Polly actually gets Wonton4Life’s name wrong, it’s actually Leon Pan. No, really. We couldn’t believe our luck that one of the Taffers’ simselves had Pan in their name.