The month between the two Sabah chapters affects reading comprehension.
Just ignore your audience. It's clear you've made up your mind, and preaching doesn't work.
I promise that the best way to make a bad story is to listen too much to your audience. Half the audience here was drooling for Joe to curse her, which would be rampantly out of character for Joe and the story as whole. It's a balancing act, and can go too far one way or the other easily. And in this case? People are split on things, so which way is he supposed to jump anyways?
Secondly, while there's an argument for giving your customers what they want — even if it's bad — we aren't customers, we don't pay for this. It's his writing exercise and his story and judging by the stats on this story
he seems to have a pretty good idea of what readers want.
if we were paying readers, at worst this would just need a bit of editing to clarify a few bits, highlight a few things it seems many readers missed. And even then, I think that's not even necessary because the preceding chapter makes all that clear — some of the confusion is likely just the length of time between reading Sabahs POV and Joe's (and his response).
but the bloodthirsty Joe Needs To Act He's Being a Doormat viewpoint folks are asking for something that goes directly against story themes (its about building and creating and preserving, not destroying — and revenge is destruction, whereas containment and rehabilitation is about building. Joes very good at destruction when he needs to be, but that's not who he OR his powers are about) and against Joe's personal growth — where he started as someone who took all blame and responsibility upon himself, trusted no one, who was a mass of guilt that could not focus on himself, and allowed others to manipulate him using that guilt — that's the whole thing with his family. They used guilt and responsibility to emotionally manipulate him into doing what they wanted)
why should he curse her? Do something about her? Parian is only his problem insofar as she's a potentially unstable cape, as her non-powered actions were neutralized (and even backlashed against her) and he's trusting his team to handle both any fallout and to handle it if she's done it before, and deal with it if she tries it again.
And if he knew she was Sabah, he'd do the same thing even harder because part of Joe's personal growth is realizing some things you can't fix. There's no undoing what happened between them, and trying only makes it worse.
Hell, you want to know the most impressive bit of Joe's growth? one I've seen lots of adults in real life never manage? It happened before the story started, and it kept up through the story — it was the fact that Joe didn't keep seeking Sabah out to apologize, didn't try to 'make things right'. He accepted both his *actual* responsibility that whole issue, that it wasn't fixable, and that however guilty he felt (both correctly and incorrectly), trying to make it right would only be soothing his guilt at the expense of more damage to her.
he didn't go seeking forgiveness. He didn't try to 'prove' he'd atoned to soothe his ego. He stayed away.
I have seen more 20-something's be unable to do that than I can count. who hurt someone and compounded that by relentlessly hounding the person they hurt looking for forgiveness. Solely so they'd feel better about themselves_
and with all the power of the Forge, with all the inhuman powers at his command, he was still able to do so.
For a guy who worried what this was all doing to his humanity, he has shown the work he put into being a better person — a better human — both before and after gaining his powers.
Parian had been dealt with, the metaphorical bomb defused and actions taken to make sure no other bombs were made or will be made. Sabah remains in the past, with a pointed reminder that again — some things can't be fixed, and trying is just making yourself feel better at someone else's expense.
and in the end, for all his power — Joe wishes to be neither tyrant nor avenger, or even a hero.
he wants to be a builder, a healer, a defender. to build, heal, and protect that which needs it. To destroy only that which cannot be fixed and is a danger to remain, and to use only the minimum force required.
honestly, while I felt the Sabah thing was too drawn out (and that was mostly because she was involved in the gala which itself was a long segment), I really think the underlying theme of Sabah is important — that the master builder, fixer, and creator cannot fix everything. Some things can't be fixed. Some pains always linger, some mistakes will never fully go away.
so what do you do with them? You accept them and move on. or if someone else can fix it, you leave it to them.
can you imagine the damage Joe could do relentlessly trying to 'make things right' with Sabah, instead of staying away? What he could do if he let his powers off the leash for vengeance, out of hurt ego or feelings? Or how easily insular and 'I'm always right' he could get?
if you wanted to start Joe's villain arc, you'd start with him cursing Parian or trying to 'fix' his mistakes with Sabah. The road to hell would start there.
