Sizemore versus V

[Moechi_Vill]

I find their actions ironically similar.

Sizemore is only doing what must be done in the war, but he has to hate Parson over it, and he can't help that, even if it is wrong to hate someone else if they're not earning it.
V is doing what must be done, but with a cold heart.

[HamsterOfTheGod]

I find their actions ironically similar.

Sizemore is only doing what must be done in the war, but he has to hate Parson over it, and he can't help that, even if it is wrong to hate someone else if they're not earning it.
V is doing what must be done, but with a cold heart.

The similarity is lost on me. Even war has rules and killing a bound prisoner who has surrendered is murder. V's other killings in war and in adventures could not be considered murder. Partly this is due to the conventions of the genre. For example, the charmed dragon represented a known evil and an imminent danger even though, temporarily, rendered harmless.

Further, the necessity you claim is really nothing more than expediency. There was always, even during the war and adventures, another way.

However, Sizemore really does have less of a choice. He rhetorically asks Parson to release him from a duty which he knows Parson is also bound too. In fact, Sizemore is the only native Erfworlder we have seen over the comic to question the combat that seems so essential to Erf and his role in it.

The necessity Sizemore feels is not a logical one. V acted on what he though was logical. Sizemore admits Parson's plans may work or fail but it is beyond him to know how it will work out. Sizemore necessity is his allegiance which he feels obligated to follow, however much he may dislike his orders.

Sizemore regret is yet another difference. V is never one to feel regret or even compassion. But in this case, as we can judge by Elan's reaction, by killing Kabuto in cold blood, V has overstepped a bound of the genre and our, the readers, own real life conventions. We are not surprised that V expresses no regret. We are surprised by the murder and the fact that he shows no regret and that we know he would show no regret makes the act all the more cold blooded.

However, we are surprised by Sizemore's regret and hesitation over killing because, other than Parson who has some of the sensibilities of the "real world", no other Erfworlder has shown a similar emotion. So Sizemore's regret serves for Parson and us, the readers, as another way to see the cost of the combat, that it is "real" to Sizemore and not just a "game".

Only in this way do I see a parallel between V's cold blooded murder and Sizemore's regret, that they both serve to engage the reader emotionally into the story.