Chapter 3: Page 65
TWIST!
Sorry, you probably all saw this coming, didn’t you? That canid guard was way too helpful, wasn’t he? That big scary guy with a crossbow was probably just a bit too threatening, huh? You know, what? That’s okay! We’re in this together, week by week!
Can I just say I feel kinda bad for random ostrich-handler vulpin, by the way? He’s just trying to get by, hanging out with his ostrich pals, and then you get this entourage of armed-to-the-teeth-including-their-teeth canid ready to get their assassination on? He didn’t ask to be party to that!
Random aside: I was on this week’s Guild Chat stream to chat about the work I did on the Deepstone Fractal for Guild Wars 2! You can check out my interview here:
See you all next week!
Oh, no! First I’m worried about Janik, now I’m worried about Mitra!!
Oh no, tiny blood droplets D:
OH, NO!
Gosh, Alex and Rachel, I didn’t know you made me care so much!
And you’re correct; we saw it coming but I can’t be the only one who really hoped it wasn’t. Apparently Mitra also saw it coming and just like Mitra it hurts to be right, though admittedly in a much less literal way.
Thanks, Trees! Also, edited your comment down—please remember to watch your language here.
Will do neighborino.
Somehow, I think Mitra can take care of herself and Janik. I may be wrong and influenced because I have my own white fox (sorry, “vulpine”) character who can kick tail. But I believe in you Mitra. She’s certainly seems to know what she’s doing.
WELP!
I wanted to respond to all the comments from last page that were like, “Oh no, Mitra’s going to die!” with something like, “Nah, the Canid aren’t going to do something too brazen like slaughter them in broad daylight!”
… well then.
Although I gotta say, I love the scary-guy-with-crossbow’s face in the 3rd panel, he’s like, “Oh, we’re doing this NOW? Okay…”
Yep, saw that coming. But the intressting stuff is about to happen.
How will the get out of this sticky situation? How badly is poor Mitra hurt?
Are the Canine realy thinking killing Vulpin Ambassators in Vulpine Citys is a good idea?
And random Ostrich-Handler guy – poor fellow, not much of a chance for him. Hope he doesnt end dead in an alleyway :(
I cant wait for more :D
I have to echo Fruitso’s welp.
Those droplets of blood give me a bad feeling about Mitria’s continued survival.
Mentor characters have a high death rate, which is unfortunate. I mean just look what happend to Kanan is Star wars Rebels. Mentor characters sacrifice themselves for their pupils all the time.
Hey! Spoilers much! Some of us can’t watch Rebels until we get it on dvd.
Would a Portal 2 reference be out of place here? “Surprise, we’re doing it now!”
(I apologize for letting this comment sprawl out of control but bear with me for a minute.)
I’m not a fan of gore, but I feel like this is a bit too restrained. Are.. Are we supposed to notice that Mitra just took a crossbow bolt to the head? Is it supposed to be ambiguous? I mean, maybe it won’t be as big a deal in an archive binge or the print edition when the next page is right there but it just feels weird to me that this moment has so little impact (at least by “Oh no she’s dead!” standards) and we’re sort of forced to puzzle it out from the details on the page (namely the blood droplets and the bolt’s pronounced motion lines that don’t continue past Mitra’s head).
Also, kinda stinks to lose her so early on. I feel like we just barely got to know her. I liked her, but I wasn’t really attached to her yet. Sure, she’s Janik’s mentor, and she’s nice, but she hasn’t really done anything other than… Well, other than be instantly suspicious of the canid’s intentions but let them lead her and her young protege down a blind alley anyway.
So that means if Mitra is really dying here, it’s a bummer, and I’m not really thrilled with the exe…. er, make that “implementation.” *cough*
But that leads me to think this is a fake-out. The more I look at it, the more I think Mitra’s head really isn’t in the right place, not to mention the lack of disgusting chunky exit wound (though seriously thanks for that; I meant it when I said I don’t like gore). But you know what else is completely obscured along with the bolt, right about in line with the bolt’s motion lines, and full of blood? Janik’s left forearm.
Which, frankly, would work better for me. It would mean we get to keep Mitra around a little longer and she has a chance to earn her place in our hearts. It would mean that Janik isn’t now on her own, at a dead end, surrounded by…what was it, three?…canid soldiers, in an unfamiliar city. Which means I like her odds of surviving (without a narrative convenience) a lot better now. On the other ha… er, make that “conversely,” the pair still have a serious challenge ahead of them with Janik, presumably the more physically capable of the two, handicapped by her injury. Which would mean that Mitra and Janik would have to work together much more closely and learn to think on the same page, which frankly I would find much more interesting than Janik either making an impossible escape or being rescued at the last minute by the Sand Spiders or some newcomer.
Incidentally, was I the only one who held out a little hope at the beginning of this scene that the canid hadn’t yet gotten the message about Clovis and were being sincere in their desire to help?
“I wasn’t really attached to her yet”
Funnily enough I would have thought the same thing before I saw this page but the anger I felt towards Mitra’s attackers truly suprised me. Mitra’s willingness to risk death without hesitation to save Janik speaks of a very brave person and I’m 100% with you in hoping she lives.
“But you know what else is completely obscured along with the bolt, right about in line with the bolt’s motion lines, and full of blood? Janik’s left forearm.”
Ha! If this turns out to be true Janik and Quinlan can found their own chapter of the Tamiens-Who-Were-Sent-On-A-Diplomatic-Mission-To-A-Foreign-Land-Only-To-Be-Betrayed-And-Then-Shot-In-The-Arm-By-A-Crossbow Club.
Truly, the most specific and exclusive of clubs
Oh, dang! I hadn’t even thought about that connection! That’s…Oddly specific!
“So how’d your diplomatic mission go?”
“Oh you know, got betrayed by the canid and shot in the arm with a crossbow. Same as always.”
Yes, more prestigious than the stupid hat club.
Another possibility, as it seems to me: the bolt *did* hit Mitra, but in the shoulder, not the head. But yes, good observation that it might be Janik’s blood droplets we’re seeing, and not Mitra’s, as might seem evident on a first reading.
Figures the week we get a page like THIS is the weekend I’m away at Anthrocon and don’t even get around to looking at the new page until Monday evening. Quite the development, and on the edge of my seat to see how this all plays out. (Oh, and speaking of AC, a dealer there had softcover copies of “BWD Chapter Two” for sale at his table, and I always like seeing that!)
Welp. Hope the Sand Spiders arrive soon to help Janik and a hopefully still living Mitra skedaddle back to Sunsgrove or at least to their hideout relatively unharmed.
Dark clouds of war are now very much on the horizon in Dunia. Thanks for that, Hardin and Clovis.
And King Janus, please control your general, he’s starting to make a bad situation worse. Like “near uncontrolled spiral into WW1” worse.
And Kenosh, don’t forget him…
Well, it’s a little fuzzy to know that Tosch is just doing this because of what happened to his dear only brother Clovis. Perhaps as far as he was concerned, (and as far as we know) his brother was everything, so now, everything (Sunsgrovian) must die.
You know – Drive down to the ghetto, get shot at a couple of times, have some fun.
When are people gonna finally get the memo that wolves = nazis? There are like…no exceptions to this rule. Just come together and genocide these mofos already. Geez.
I think it’s not canid per se so much as just Aisling. Cain and Theo seem decent. I mean, Theo’s a small-time criminal mastermind, but that’s a far cry from being a murdery fascist. Besides, “Just kill them all” is pretty much Aisling’s attitude toward the Ermehn, which is why we’re in this mess in the first place.
Hang on, aren’t they interwar France, with their very own Treaty of Versailles? The analogy doesn’t totally map on in that Hardin isn’t THAT bad. Or maybe the Canid are something like the British empire what with the “unequal treaties” and all. But I’ve been getting WWI-victors vibes from the Canids for a while, in very broad apolitical strokes.
Apparently wolves or beings like that only equal ‘bad’ to people nowadays, nothing else…
Well, because it’s true? Wolves are the representation of terrible people. Always have been, always will be. This is an unwritten rule of fiction in general. It wouldn’t make literary sense to have a wolf represent anything but evil.
What a lot of nonsense.
Wolves do tend to have a negative image in European nations and nations founded by them (the US and Canada). I took a Environmental psychology class where we talked about this very topic; thankfuly its changing, but not everyone can be forced from their homocentric ideals. Also it feels me with joy to see so many comments on this page, I was worried that there wasn’t many people left who commented any more. Very happy indeed.
well yeah, nobody has to be forced for anything like that. Though I won’t hold my breath.
(In reply to you, DaCrazyCatz, because it just placed the reply here)
My major (Environmental Management) is centered around changing peoples behavior. Don’t build your house in a flood zone, or in the WUI (wildland urban interface), and to change peoples opinions on animals that are important to an ecosystem. You would be shocked how easy it is to change some people too. Ranchers are a hard group to get to accept wolves, while city folk are much more accepting.
I know people can change, with evidence and facts. Others just outright ignore it even if it’s in their faces.
Even in different topics, you can still see that same pattern of ignorance, it’s so easy for many to hate something/someone rather than to try and understand.
Guys, guys! After much consideration of hidden clues scattered throughout previous pages it has become obvious that this whole page is actually just Mitra imagining a worst case scenario where she and Janic are horribly murdered!
Ho, ho, no that clearly can’t happen!
Next week we will surely be graced with a much happier page that I’m pretty certain will look almost exactly like this!
Okay, that made me laugh out loud, literally. Marvelous work X)
Omg that’s perfect!
Too funny!
Thanks!
If I wasn’t just a name and text box I would clap at the glory of that work. Rachel we need an intermission page based of this!