Mmm. I might come back to this one when it's not half-midnight with beer running low. But you've just reminded me of my major gripe when rereading the thing a few months back, which was that isn't the rediscovery of gunpowder a wee bit deus ex machina? We go through this entire epic trek to try to rediscover the roots of the One Big 1, which is clearly something that has been going on for some time with annual mutant-torturings and god knows what else, and then the charcoal-burner shows up and says "oh, gunpowder? Yeah, we've had the secret of that all along. Here, I'll knock you up a grenade right now, no trubba".
On the other hand, the only reason he can do it is that Salt-4 has finally come back to England, and IIRC he does it at the same time the Prime Mincer's mob are also fatally reinventing gunpowder, so maybe there's a point being made there about how inventions tend to crop up in several places at once when the times and the technology are right. And also a pessimistic point about Riddley's people being predestined to repeat the same damn mistakes. But still, the episode felt a bit glib and contrived in light of what had come before.
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On the other hand, the only reason he can do it is that Salt-4 has finally come back to England, and IIRC he does it at the same time the Prime Mincer's mob are also fatally reinventing gunpowder, so maybe there's a point being made there about how inventions tend to crop up in several places at once when the times and the technology are right. And also a pessimistic point about Riddley's people being predestined to repeat the same damn mistakes. But still, the episode felt a bit glib and contrived in light of what had come before.