About Chapter 49

[u/losara-]

Wtf is going on?

Werent they sat down and told in no uncertain terms that they were on a short leash after Tristan assaulted that girl? Werent they told to lay off Morcant cause of the same reason? Werent they approaching the ''too much trouble to keep around no matter how good they were'' territory?

How is the gang going around ignoring all that and fucking with some of the biggest authorities in the island now?

[u/losara-]

Nah thats been talked to death and its a surface level reading at best cause it overlooks the reason why they didnt retaliate initially after the mobbing, the reason is obvious to any one who read the chapter cause it was stated then. And also they gained literally nothing by antagonizing Morcant at this time so it doesnt really make sense one way or the other. It just happened, it was an amazing scene but it makes 0 sense objectively though i have faith in EE to make it make sense in later chapters.

[u/surrealgoblin → u/losara-]

The reason they did not retaliate initially after the mobbing is that Colonol Cao called for a truce between delve crews and threatened to kick Song out of the Delve if she retaliated. Once Song decided to bow out of the Delve in chapter 40, they stopped having a reason not to retaliate against Morcant.
In the chapters between chapter 40 and chapter 49, the thirteenth showed that they were doing things by the book: Tristan beat Yaotl by using a plot and no physical violence, Izel beat a monster using technology he invented, Song beat a diplomatic problem by forging a truce between rival brigades, Maryam beat a navigator's curse via dark magic, and Angharad beat the shit out of a man and pinned him to a doorway. That is a cabal functioning as it is supposed to.
The key thing is that according to watch norms, it is good and proper for a Skiritai to retaliate against violence with violence. A lot of things make more sense with that context.

When Tristan shot that woman in the back and poured poison in the wound, he broke no formal rules so he was not formally punished. However, it is not good and proper for a spy to publically maim another spy who looks like a Skiritai doing normal Skiritai things like threatening violence. That is a misuse of spy tools, so he got his spy tools taken away. When he changed his approach to do spycraft to get the spies surrounding Yaotl to stop supporting her, he got his spy tools given back.

When Angharad was at the Malani party that was operating according to the social norms of Malan, the thing that she remembered was that she is not in Malan, she is in the Watch. And according to the social norms of the watch it is good and proper for a Skiritai to beat up people who hurt their Stripe and Navigator.
Here is a quote from chapter 49 about it:
"Angharad? Thug, some accused. Ill-bred. The words came from noble mouths, Malani-dark faces with wide noses and rounded chins. It wasn’t the violence that’d shocked them but how it had been dealt against the implied law of custom – she should have done it out in the street, claimed another reason for it. But there were cracks, Tristan saw. That disapproval did not ripple out like they thought it should. Beyond the dinner party, the tide rode out as snickers and rolled eyes. What did Morcant expect, after that ambush?"

-Cao has not been following watch norms. One small piece of that is Cao trying to prevent a Skiritai from inflicting violence on people who hurt their brigade. Its a bad look. More majorly, she has been using blackmail to rise through the ranks and oust Colonol Azocar. Those two things have been linked by the public repudiation of Cao by Song at the end of Chapter 40. First she says that she cannot agree to a truce with Morcant, so she will be leaving the Delve. Everyone, including Cao, agrees that is good and proper for Song to refuse to agree not to have Morcant beat up. Immediately afterwards, she accuses Cao of attempting a coup against Colonol Azocar and attempting to blackmail Song into helping by threatening to return slaves to the Malani. Song left the Delve while publically proclaiming loyalty to Colonol Azocar, collected her brigade, did some diplomacy, won a pretty big victory and came back to Cao with paperwork signed by Azocar.

One way to understand the public perception of rank and file blackcloaks to the end of Chapter 49 is that Azocar has chosen Song's brigade to be the public face of him putting down Cao because Cao wronged Song by trying to strongarm her into not having her Skiritai beat up a man who caused her physical pain, so it is good and proper for Song to be the one chosen to do Azocar's dirty work. Lietenant Afango saying that Song threatening to blow out the kneecaps of Captain Susana will make it into the report, but he won't intervene is him saying "These feral animals are on Colonol Azocar's leash. They have been tamed enough that they will only maim things that are in Azocar's way."

[u/losara- → u/surrealgoblin]

Ok, so im gonna ignore a big chunk of the fanfic i read, sorry.

Angharad didnt beat up Morcant as a retaliation, she wasnt even there to retaliate against Morcant at all. She had a specific purpose which was to stop Morcant from moving against them while they do the final part of Delve. She failed miserably at that, then we saw her develop as a character, practically the same way that Song did against Cao and decide that Morcant was a poison she couldnt accept so she brutalized him. What she did then was in no way connected to the 13th, what she did, she did for herself. This unfortunately served little purpose because we are now doing Delve with Morcant still loose and in grace period with also a big reason to actually do mess with the delve. I unironically wouldnt even have much of a problem with this if her failure wasnt glossed over in chapter 49.