Patroclus and Achilles have set up a shadow system to protect as many of the girls as they can. But in many ways, it feels like another small compromise that Patroclus is making. He can’t get angry at Achilles for being part of the raids, and he can’t change the structure of the war, so he’s helping a handful of women instead. That’s not nothing, but it also isn’t a change to the larger structure, and it turns a blind eye to Achilles’s role in the conflict, which the women themselves don’t have the luxury to forget. This is just a prelude to the war, but people are already suffering. Diomedes joke, meanwhile, seems to suggest a willingness among the other powers in the camp to allow Patroclus and Achilles efforts to protect the girls to continue—but such willingness can always be revoked.