I wonder what that metaphysically did to duane. Also, it was obvious that the snake wasn't going to kill them quickly. I don't know why people thought that.
i was thinking the same thing! if his hate was all bubbled up on the surface could she have taken a chunk out of it? or, he's still holding mikeala's cloak, i wonder if he'll end up dropping it to show that he suddenly cares less about it now
also it's sad to see her experience yet again her father figure strong arming her
>mortally wounded >still placing duty/his nation above himself >just wanted to do his job and go home and frick his husband
They didn't deserve Ufal. Ufal didn't deserve any of this.
Rapesnake aside, easy to say that as an outside.
And don't forget that Alderode is the (only partial) exception to the rule of twin sacrifice. Gefendur is the de facto religion across the continent.
Website comment: >Toma, that mansnake is gonna dip you in Elka and eat you like a Dorito.
>-Ashley
Patreon comment: >Don't count Ufal out. He's very hurt, but the eels don't care about that so much as they care about how afraid you are, how enraged you are, how hateful you are. Ufal could pull through if he keeps his head about him. Go ahead and worry about Toma and Elka though, Ruckmearkha did not appear to be in a merry mood.
I was gonna remark that one eel seems to be looking at Ufal like "damn, that's rough buddy"
Maybe he can convince it to grab him some neosporin with his stern but personable demeanor
>that one eel seems to be looking at Ufal like "damn, that's rough buddy"
It's probably thinking: "Pour one out for this guy's future eels. They're going to be way more fricked up than I am."
>So he's going to ask Toma and Elka for a threesome?
There's just too much going on for Ruck to really enjoy that meal. It'd be quick, if anything. A shame because Toma and Elka have strong personalities and the rapesnake would savor them.
Whose memory was this? In the past, all of Sette's memories are sepia toned. When Duane was remembering his time in the war in real life and ice skating in the Khert it was in full color. I THINK this is a Sette memory of her being threatened by her Da or seeing him threaten someone. And because Duane is man-handling her that memory of violence is called to the surface. Alternatively, it's Duane's memory from meeting Nary and all memories that take place in Sharte are sepia because it's a miserable and dirty environment.
>smoke eels have caught wind of those tasty morsels
Uh oh. Also I wonder what sort of face Duane has now. Will it be disfigured from that swipe? Peeling away?
Khert Duane isn't real Duane, so it didn't necessarily damage him. The last we saw his face was in stabbed-in-the-eyes-day-of-his-murder mode. I would guess she slapped that off him and he's confused now.
Some autist with a photographic memory on patreon noticed that Sette's memory of Nary on this page is a callback to FRICKING CHAPTER ONE. I mean, Jesus...
Those memories that Sette pulled out of her head aren't completely gone, it seems.
Pretty sure the only memories Sette has fully expunged was her near rape at Starfish's hands (and Starfish in general). Everything else is just good ol fashion denial.
I went back to look for this panel and got distracted by this page. Cope just shit out one of the most beautiful webcomic pages of all time and never did anything in this style again.
She did a lot more "style change" pages in the earlier chapters. I think she got more confident in her "regular" style (which I definitely think has improved since ch. 1) and chose to stay more on model while doing odd things with the medium instead.
>never did anything in this style again.
There were a handful of similar pages later that went all painterly. Mostly full blown horror moments I think.
>never did anything in this style again.
There were a handful of similar pages later that went all painterly. Mostly full blown horror moments I think.
the biggest reason she doesn't do that often is it takes a lot of extra time, the last big one I remember her saying she gave up on her plan on painting was Duane getting his head cut off by Lemuel
I just really love this comic, I usually want all the characters in something to die but I really want everyone to pull through here and then get a hot springs episode
>Ufal mortally wounded and possibly dying, but still doing his best to help people >Toma being a badass and rushing into danger to save the people he cares about >Sette having on-panel character growth and standing up to her abusive father figure in order to use her newfound power to save as many people as possible instead of being a selfish brat >Duane just continuing to be the man he always has been and unable to put his memories behind him
Duane, please stop being the worst boy for a bit.
The motherfricker has barely even mentioned Simon for god's sake, he's not going dad mode on the forcibly adopted daughter until he gets over ghost Mikaila.
Simon didn't get stabbed apparently to death in front of him as he was murdered, and he's mentioned him exactly as much as he's mentioned his wife.
Mikaela was the apple of his eye, and it's her "death" that haunts him.
>I wonder how Simon's doing anyway
Simon is guaranteed to be developing into a shit. It's the way these things go. He's probably a mini lemon now, not like lemon was when he was 9, a mini current lemon.
His wife showed up in at least one fricked up khert dream sequence. I'm just exaggerating though, I'm sure Duane's thought about Simon, but his hangups are still real and not gotten over. Probably get there eventually.
what the frick was the point of duane's arc in chapter 13 and 14 if he's just gonna immediately regress to nationalistic idiocy again.
Right after he's been taunted about how of a selfish coward and pawn he's been too. lmao. unless he's under the influence of something then this will just ruin his character for me.
Ashley basically said a week or two ago that she feels people don't just change cleanly like that, they go back and forth. He got some character development, but that doesn't mean it'll stick. Especially when he's given less than 24 hours to process it before being stuck in another high stress situation involving someone he'd hate even without the "being murdered" wrinkle.
yeah well that's fine and dandy and all but this is a story. Reality doesn't always work with stories. Why the frick are we retreading ground covered two chapters ago and having Duane regress to being unlikable again? What purpose does that serve other than invalidating any previous and future attempts at growing his character, due to reader frustration?
Because we've already through this! Duane always had uncomfortable stains on his character, and Litriya shrine brought that to the forefront and made a previously lovable character hatable. This ended with the payoff of having him have to face that. Now that it's happening again SO SOON, again involving A CHILD, and to top it off right after he's been taunted about how dumb of an ass he's being -- then what was the fricking point? What did "i'll bail no more" really give us?
If this is straight-up as-it-is without anything influencing Duane him or him being willing to immediately rectify what he did, then I will find that as grounds for calling Ashley a hack.
What's worse is that it seems to be setting up some sort of plot point involving a memory wipe. Having Duane go through a dramatic character growth episode, only for him to immediately relapse, just so that he can get instant magic lobotomy correction seems incredibly cheap. Worst of all, it doesn't help anybody sympathize with Duane at all since he 100% had it coming this time. Did the story really need another Quigley?
>instant magic lobotomy correction
If the lobotomy happens, this will be both Sette's and Duane's sword of Damocles. Magic lobotomies made by little girls in distress who don't know the extent and full consequences of their abilities rarely work out.
That's what's bothering me though. Duane could very well have the memories of his precious Mikaila accidentally lost to him forever in the next page. He could even have a gut-wrenching reunion with her further down the line in book 2 where he'd go all "Who are you? I don't seem to remember" and so on. But to me, it would all just feel hollow because >Oh yeah. He lost those memories because he acted like a hypocritical moron that one time. Well deserved
I can only hope that Cope isn't going for this angle.
2 months ago
Anonymous
Some people might justify Duane's situation as deserved, but I doubt Ash would view all of this in with so little nuance.
2 months ago
Anonymous
There's plenty of nuance though. Characters that suffer because of circumstances outside of their control garner sympathy, especially if they make an effort to struggle against the odds, to be better. This was Duane until recently. Then there are characters that suffer because of things they brought on themselves with their own two hands, endlessly wallowing in a mire that they can't get out of because of their own flaws. Characters like that tend to garner scorn, pity at most. This is Quigley. Recently, Duane's been alarmingly drifting into the second category more and more. There's only so much self-pity, empty resolutions and terrible decisions that a character can go through before even the most emotionally invested audience just gives up on them and writes them off as deserving of everything bad that's happening to them. I feel that Duane might just be tip-toeing that threshold right now.
>Duane knows lemon was involved in his murder, probably arranged it, but is in denial >Sette rips out the memories of his murder and the dodgy lemon revelations >Duane 's arc doesn't just go back to chapter 1, it goes back to the invisible chapter -3.
I mean, Cope probably made it a point to reply to a question today confirming that Sette really can't destroy memories. After she rips them they still exist and can presumably be restored, but this chapter is nearly over. Is she really going to leave Duane sat the end of book 1 with no memory of his raison d'etre? A mental zombie to go with his zombie exterior?
What's with all the Smoke Eels?
There's some pretty bad vibes in there right now
They're drawn to pain. And Ufal is in a lot of it right now.
I wonder what that metaphysically did to duane. Also, it was obvious that the snake wasn't going to kill them quickly. I don't know why people thought that.
i was thinking the same thing! if his hate was all bubbled up on the surface could she have taken a chunk out of it? or, he's still holding mikeala's cloak, i wonder if he'll end up dropping it to show that he suddenly cares less about it now
also it's sad to see her experience yet again her father figure strong arming her
GO TOMA GO
FRICK THAT SNAKE
In a way he WON'T enjoy!
>FRICK THAT SNAKE
phrasing!
>mortally wounded
>still placing duty/his nation above himself
>just wanted to do his job and go home and frick his husband
They didn't deserve Ufal. Ufal didn't deserve any of this.
Ufal is, in fact, the best boy
Best boy position is already filled.
anon, I hate to break it to you...
Boo was already dead and back in squish form.
SILLY MURKOPH! YOU CANNOT HURT A SQUISHIE!
Duane isn't being very "best boy" as of late. It's a tight competition and he needs to step the frick up.
Oh frick, you meant Boo.
Well Boo appears to be kinda broken.
Boo is best boy.
Ruffles is best lizard.
The zombie and the brat are the proto...gogonists.
Maybe Ufal shouldn't have hanged out so much with the cannibalistic nation ruled by a b***h-queen making deal with giant rapesnakes.
Just a thought
Your daughter will never call you "Papa" again, Duane.
Rapesnake aside, easy to say that as an outside.
And don't forget that Alderode is the (only partial) exception to the rule of twin sacrifice. Gefendur is the de facto religion across the continent.
>Maybe Ufal shouldn't have hanged out so much with the cannibalistic nation ruled by a b***h-queen making deal with giant rapesnakes.
>Just a thought
I hate this image, but I'm surprised it took me this long to see it.
>hide the pain Duane
Website comment:
>Toma, that mansnake is gonna dip you in Elka and eat you like a Dorito.
>-Ashley
Patreon comment:
>Don't count Ufal out. He's very hurt, but the eels don't care about that so much as they care about how afraid you are, how enraged you are, how hateful you are. Ufal could pull through if he keeps his head about him. Go ahead and worry about Toma and Elka though, Ruckmearkha did not appear to be in a merry mood.
Men like Toma are the reason things like Ruck are a rarity.
They're going to compose epic poems about what Toma does to that fricking snake.
>Ufal could pull through
I was gonna remark that one eel seems to be looking at Ufal like "damn, that's rough buddy"
Maybe he can convince it to grab him some neosporin with his stern but personable demeanor
>that one eel seems to be looking at Ufal like "damn, that's rough buddy"
It's probably thinking: "Pour one out for this guy's future eels. They're going to be way more fricked up than I am."
>that mansnake is gonna dip you in Elka and eat you like a Dorito.
So he's going to ask Toma and Elka for a threesome?
>So he's going to ask Toma and Elka for a threesome?
There's just too much going on for Ruck to really enjoy that meal. It'd be quick, if anything. A shame because Toma and Elka have strong personalities and the rapesnake would savor them.
Did Sette slap some memories off duane?
hopefully she smacked the moronic out of him
Whose memory was this? In the past, all of Sette's memories are sepia toned. When Duane was remembering his time in the war in real life and ice skating in the Khert it was in full color. I THINK this is a Sette memory of her being threatened by her Da or seeing him threaten someone. And because Duane is man-handling her that memory of violence is called to the surface. Alternatively, it's Duane's memory from meeting Nary and all memories that take place in Sharte are sepia because it's a miserable and dirty environment.
It's obviously Duane triggering Sette's abuse flashbacks.
love that one eel that's just one of those worms on a string
>smoke eels have caught wind of those tasty morsels
Uh oh. Also I wonder what sort of face Duane has now. Will it be disfigured from that swipe? Peeling away?
Khert Duane isn't real Duane, so it didn't necessarily damage him. The last we saw his face was in stabbed-in-the-eyes-day-of-his-murder mode. I would guess she slapped that off him and he's confused now.
Some autist with a photographic memory on patreon noticed that Sette's memory of Nary on this page is a callback to FRICKING CHAPTER ONE. I mean, Jesus...
Those memories that Sette pulled out of her head aren't completely gone, it seems.
Pretty sure the only memories Sette has fully expunged was her near rape at Starfish's hands (and Starfish in general). Everything else is just good ol fashion denial.
I went back to look for this panel and got distracted by this page. Cope just shit out one of the most beautiful webcomic pages of all time and never did anything in this style again.
She did a lot more "style change" pages in the earlier chapters. I think she got more confident in her "regular" style (which I definitely think has improved since ch. 1) and chose to stay more on model while doing odd things with the medium instead.
>never did anything in this style again.
There were a handful of similar pages later that went all painterly. Mostly full blown horror moments I think.
the biggest reason she doesn't do that often is it takes a lot of extra time, the last big one I remember her saying she gave up on her plan on painting was Duane getting his head cut off by Lemuel
Aw, the page we got was good but I would have accepted a small delay for a detailed portrait of that. Oh well.
>Duane getting his head cut off by Lemuel
Maybe she'll revisit it for the print version. It was already pretty epic though.
Fricking Nary. Sette really is a stockholm syndrome-y.
I just really love this comic, I usually want all the characters in something to die but I really want everyone to pull through here and then get a hot springs episode
>hot springs episode
Doubt that all that heat and humidity would be very good for Duane's rotting body.
Once he melts down to a nice clean skellyton I think he'll be happier.
He still needs ligaments I'm afraid
Only to hold him together, he doesn't need them to move
well, he really needs to put himself together.
He could kill some dogs and take parts from them.
That's what Murkoph did with his teeth
>Duane giving Sette Nary flashbacks
How much further can we fall boys and girls?
>Ufal mortally wounded and possibly dying, but still doing his best to help people
>Toma being a badass and rushing into danger to save the people he cares about
>Sette having on-panel character growth and standing up to her abusive father figure in order to use her newfound power to save as many people as possible instead of being a selfish brat
>Duane just continuing to be the man he always has been and unable to put his memories behind him
Duane, please stop being the worst boy for a bit.
He's starting to reach Quigley levels, which I never thought was possible.
hey now, those are fighting words
when will sette accept her dad is a piece of shit, and duane is her real dad?
About a year after Duane accepts lemon killed him.
The motherfricker has barely even mentioned Simon for god's sake, he's not going dad mode on the forcibly adopted daughter until he gets over ghost Mikaila.
I wonder how Simon's doing anyway
Simon didn't get stabbed apparently to death in front of him as he was murdered, and he's mentioned him exactly as much as he's mentioned his wife.
Mikaela was the apple of his eye, and it's her "death" that haunts him.
>I wonder how Simon's doing anyway
Simon is guaranteed to be developing into a shit. It's the way these things go. He's probably a mini lemon now, not like lemon was when he was 9, a mini current lemon.
His wife showed up in at least one fricked up khert dream sequence. I'm just exaggerating though, I'm sure Duane's thought about Simon, but his hangups are still real and not gotten over. Probably get there eventually.
when he first meets lem again on top of the litriya shrine he ask about "his little son"
Simon is being signed up for the army and getting dick sucking lessons from Lemon so he can get by.
Or maybe he's a tacit caster too and is being groomed by Shadwe into a Ssaelit Azula.
I don't think there's a good chance of both of his children being tacit casters. If he was one, Duane would have said something.
i wonder how durable eye pyramics are
His eye pymarics are in the real world wit his broken body. This is khert Duane.
Then she should grab him and wring the nationalism out of him.
what the frick was the point of duane's arc in chapter 13 and 14 if he's just gonna immediately regress to nationalistic idiocy again.
Right after he's been taunted about how of a selfish coward and pawn he's been too. lmao. unless he's under the influence of something then this will just ruin his character for me.
Ashley basically said a week or two ago that she feels people don't just change cleanly like that, they go back and forth. He got some character development, but that doesn't mean it'll stick. Especially when he's given less than 24 hours to process it before being stuck in another high stress situation involving someone he'd hate even without the "being murdered" wrinkle.
yeah well that's fine and dandy and all but this is a story. Reality doesn't always work with stories. Why the frick are we retreading ground covered two chapters ago and having Duane regress to being unlikable again? What purpose does that serve other than invalidating any previous and future attempts at growing his character, due to reader frustration?
Because we've already through this! Duane always had uncomfortable stains on his character, and Litriya shrine brought that to the forefront and made a previously lovable character hatable. This ended with the payoff of having him have to face that. Now that it's happening again SO SOON, again involving A CHILD, and to top it off right after he's been taunted about how dumb of an ass he's being -- then what was the fricking point? What did "i'll bail no more" really give us?
If this is straight-up as-it-is without anything influencing Duane him or him being willing to immediately rectify what he did, then I will find that as grounds for calling Ashley a hack.
What's worse is that it seems to be setting up some sort of plot point involving a memory wipe. Having Duane go through a dramatic character growth episode, only for him to immediately relapse, just so that he can get instant magic lobotomy correction seems incredibly cheap. Worst of all, it doesn't help anybody sympathize with Duane at all since he 100% had it coming this time. Did the story really need another Quigley?
> Did the story really need another Quigley?
Definitely not. Especially not as the COPROTAGONIST.
>instant magic lobotomy correction
If the lobotomy happens, this will be both Sette's and Duane's sword of Damocles. Magic lobotomies made by little girls in distress who don't know the extent and full consequences of their abilities rarely work out.
That's what's bothering me though. Duane could very well have the memories of his precious Mikaila accidentally lost to him forever in the next page. He could even have a gut-wrenching reunion with her further down the line in book 2 where he'd go all "Who are you? I don't seem to remember" and so on. But to me, it would all just feel hollow because
>Oh yeah. He lost those memories because he acted like a hypocritical moron that one time. Well deserved
I can only hope that Cope isn't going for this angle.
Some people might justify Duane's situation as deserved, but I doubt Ash would view all of this in with so little nuance.
There's plenty of nuance though. Characters that suffer because of circumstances outside of their control garner sympathy, especially if they make an effort to struggle against the odds, to be better. This was Duane until recently. Then there are characters that suffer because of things they brought on themselves with their own two hands, endlessly wallowing in a mire that they can't get out of because of their own flaws. Characters like that tend to garner scorn, pity at most. This is Quigley. Recently, Duane's been alarmingly drifting into the second category more and more. There's only so much self-pity, empty resolutions and terrible decisions that a character can go through before even the most emotionally invested audience just gives up on them and writes them off as deserving of everything bad that's happening to them. I feel that Duane might just be tip-toeing that threshold right now.
>Duane knows lemon was involved in his murder, probably arranged it, but is in denial
>Sette rips out the memories of his murder and the dodgy lemon revelations
>Duane 's arc doesn't just go back to chapter 1, it goes back to the invisible chapter -3.
I mean, Cope probably made it a point to reply to a question today confirming that Sette really can't destroy memories. After she rips them they still exist and can presumably be restored, but this chapter is nearly over. Is she really going to leave Duane sat the end of book 1 with no memory of his raison d'etre? A mental zombie to go with his zombie exterior?
I don't believe this will happen actually