In Chapter U. Spokes Lucille distracts the Enemy Hurricane while her Galaxy Zephyr’s Wheel is repaired. Long-time readers know Faith is wrapping the Wheel with Beatrice’s wing to subdue the bulge. This means the lightning bolt which killed Faith also caused the bulge which Faith mends. The bolt caused two problems, one of which solves the other. With Faith, every problem is its own solution. Closing doors opens windows.
In the same way, the Enemy Hurricane birthed the tools of its own destruction. Besides frightening Akayama’s Hurricane Planet into following the professor’s every order, it caused the perfect storm to generate its executioner, Commander Lucille, by killing her parents.
Admittedly, the Hurricane Planet which killed Lucille’s parents eventually pledged allegiance to Akayama, but since all Hurricane Planets used to be identical, it’s not a stretch to blame the Hurricane in general. Also admittedly, that Hurricane Planet didn’t actually kill Lucille’s parents: Commander Bojack self-detonated to protect his crew, and Princess Lucia died as a result of over-exertion.
Yet Lucille blames the Enemy Hurricane for the death of her parents, and she’s not totally wrong. The Hurricane created a universe in which robot-pilots had to put themselves in danger to protect the galaxy. In this sense, just like the lightning bolt killed Faith and caused the bulge which Faith repairs, the Hurricane threatened humanity in a way which generated its greatest enemy, Commander Lucille. She doesn’t care about technicalities. She doesn’t even care about Earth. She has nothing to lose or gain by fighting; fighting is its own reward and she relishes every instant.
Lucille demonstrates this by fighting dirty. The Enemy Hurricane fights dirty, too, so really, it had this coming.
When Lucille asks the Enemy Hurricane about her parents, she’s leading it on. She knows it’s lying. She’s playing dumb to invite foul play. She insists only that the Enemy Hurricane return her parents as ‘ordinary, breathing humans’ so she may inspect them.
The Enemy Hurricane makes facsimiles of Bojack and Lucia to lure Lucille close. Both replicas are traps meant to kill Lucille in front of her crew. Lucille preempts the favor by tearing out her parents’ throats, exploiting her insistence that they be ‘breathing.’ The situation is really her own trap. If her parents’ facsimiles were really copies of the Enemy Hurricane, then she kills it in front of itself three times (she kills Bojack in front of the Enemy Hurricane AND Lucia, then kills Lucia in front of the Enemy Hurricane). By baiting the Enemy Hurricane she delivers poetic justice, perhaps to a degree which could be considered overkill.
Is it really fighting dirty if you match your opponent tit-for-tat by predicting their deception? One might argue turnabout is fair play. Lucille, the stand-in for Lucifer, has a knack for exploiting her opponent’s attempted treachery. It’s common to say that super-heroes shouldn’t kill super-villains because then “they’d be just as bad,” but Lucille doesn’t seem to mind being bad as she wipes blood off her jaw.
Lucille also points out “It’s just us and the Hurricane. Legality falls with the chips.” It’s hard to justify, say, adhering to the Geneva Convention after Geneva Switzerland has been vaporized. As the only two entities remaining in the entire universe, the positions of the Enemy Hurricane and the Galaxy Zephyr can only be stated relative to one-another, speaking both physically and morally. Lucille is the equal and opposite reaction to the reality-devouring entity which produced her.
Also notice, the Galaxy Zephyr would have no hope if the Enemy Hurricane didn’t destroy Earth. Without Earth’s destruction the Galaxy Zephyr would have no Wheel. It wouldn’t have Beatrice’s wings or Faith’s assistance. Every step of the way, the Enemy Hurricane’s displays of power only manage to doom itself. It lacks Lucille’s satanic charisma, the quality which allows her to violate battle-decorum.
Keep eating your worms.
Ted Writes 