Chapter 4: Page 14
The earliest iterations of Dakkan’s character, going back before he was even a part of Beyond the Western Deep’s main cast, featured his aversion to blood as one of his “fun fact!” character beats. Rachel, who created the Dakkan character in his original incarnation found the idea of a warrior who hated blades and blood to be fundamentally interesting, and even from the earliest concepting days of Western Deep, I agreed.
As far back as 2009, Rachel did a storyboard project that posited one possible theory as to why Dakkan was so afeared of swords and blood–but as the comic’s story and the characters evolved over time, so did the sequence of events that led to this unique character trait.
This storyboard wasn’t canon, despite the Lutra flag emblazoned on Dakkan’s tunic there–his backstory had yet to be completed by 2009, but if anything it helped to solidify the importance of this character trait, and finding interesting ways to integrate it into the story.
It’s funny going back into the “archives” as it were and seeing “hero” images like the one above of Dakkan wielding a sword, but as readers know, even the sight of blood in chapter 2 made the poor lutren queasy to the point of near-collapse. The staff became an integral visual image of the character as well, which was fun–having a main heroic duo where neither character preferred a sword as their main weapon. Kind of like rolling a rogue and a monk in D&D, Quin and Dak have to rely on their unique training AND how the two skillsets play off one another to succeed.
I am think, that I feel the coming next in comic retrospective memory story in next pages, why Dakk fear blood and swords. I hope to know this, it is really interesting. Unfortuaently, such things can be only maked by some trauma from childhood, I guess. Also I need to say, that I literally love disapointment Kenosh face. As he, I also hope that Dakk once in future will defeat his fear and start using sword.
But… hitting people in the face with a stick causes them to bleed…
Lol, still an interesting character trait. If it were in the modern day there would be some kind of support I imagine for people with odd and unusual phobias / mental hurdles.
being the middle ages though I suspect Dakken is just expected to ‘man up’ (or otter up) and be a warrior reguardless of how he reacts to blood.
finally. We all want to know the story of the Dakkan and why he is afraid of blood. But if the kenosh was also afraid of blood, maybe the dakkan inherited it from them. I suppose you can inherit the fear of blood?
Sometimes people are just afraid of blood, there doesn’t need to be a dramatic reason for it. What’s more interesting story is why someone who doesn’t like seeing blood decides to become a warrior!
To be fair, he probably didn’t have a choice in the matter. Clovis mentioned that Kenosh seemed to desire a successor so it sounds like he was pressured into it. Like Quinlan was by his grandfather.
Well, I don’t like blood, I don’t even like the color red, but there’s no trauma,I just don’t like it.
It occurred to me this week that one of the “secrets to success” for an endeavor like “BWD” that plays out over so much time and so many pages is to keep each individual page interesting, so that the readers always have something fun to look at each and every week, even if it takes many months for an individual scene to reach its conclusion. I would deem that Rachel has found that secret, making each page a self-contained little work of art and triumph of character presentation, satisfying the reader and keeping them fulfilled with this shared creative vision until the next page comes along. This current scene is a great example of that; we don’t know where it’s going, any more than we know where the entire story is going, but we’re hanging on every page to find out, while savoring the journey at the same time.
(And Alex’s story notes and behind-the-scenes glimpses add a lot too!)
I totally understand dakken’s blood thing could be from something traumatic or could just be him. I don’t have a problem with my own blood or blood in movies, but if it’s ppl I care about I’m about 3 seconds from fainting.
I have vague memories of that storyboard project.
There was a badger in it? A Bad Badger?
Speaking of which; anyone who is curious to see Rachel’s storyboarding abilities may consider directing their attention to this slick segment from a Redwall novel</a, if you haven’t already seen it.
There is a badger in it. A Good Badger.
Spoilers for “The Taggerung” by Brian Jacques.
Well… messed up that hyperlink, but you get the idea.
How is it I have never seen that before? How is it that I’ve never even *known* of it before now? Wonderful wonderful, wonderful!