War
They offered to make me a green beret, but I liked my regular one. Although it gets kind of squashed under my helmet.
They offered to make me a green beret, but I liked my regular one. Although it gets kind of squashed under my helmet.
This comic seems to be a parable about the perils of love during wartime. Our protagonist is seen here leaning against his pack behind a low wall, surely a good hiding spot for any gentleman with a rifle and scope. Judging by the letter he's in the midst of writing, he has a complex relationship with Cordelia. On the one hand, she's attractive. On the other hand, she's a hostile combatant, as evidenced by the shots fired mid-missive. Cordelia's fire works against her, though, as her volley of shots has revealed her own position atop the maintenance shed. We can presume that in a matter of minutes, this love affair will go sour as the love letter is wrapped around a live grenade and "delivered," so to speak. War is indeed hell.
As to the title text, the green berets are worn only by Special Forces soldiers. It takes a lot of training to become a green beret, and as evidenced by our protagonist's clever use of decoys to outwit a sniper, he may be qualified for the honor. However, evidence for his naiveté is given immediately thereafter, as he confesses that he wears a beret under his helmet — thus revealing our protagonist's true identity as Beret Guy and explaining how he fell in love with an enemy soldier actively trying to kill him.[citation needed] Then again, he does not have a choice, since he has stapled the beret on his head.
"Cordelia" is possibly a reference to Cordelia Rosalind—the sniper from the miniature game Anima: Tactics. Alternatively, it may be a reference to Cordelia Naismith from Lois McMaster Bujold's Shards of Honor. In the book, Cordelia Naismith and Lord Aral Vorkosigan are on opposite sides of the Beta-Barrayar war, and fall in love while forced to spend a week in each other's company on an unpopulated planet. This may be further corroborated by the green color of Beret Guy's uniform, which is very similar to the color used for the uniforms of the Barrayan Imperial Service.
It is also possible that Beret Guy and Cordelia are playing a video game, in a virtual reality, or in some similar context in which being blown up by grenades would not actually kill Cordelia, which would explain why Beret Guy would write such a missive.