I kind of went back and forth on if I would update this blog before I split town for Otakon today. I almost didn’t, as I had three articles to write for Damage Control Blog to cover Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Not only that, but the time I’d normally spend writing on Sunday evening/Monday morning was taken up by a nearly nine-hour Twitch livestream, as I really wanted to wrap up Chrono Trigger for the audience. (Sunday livestreams are normally three hours long.) However, one of my co-writers actually prepared an article for Saturday, freeing up some personal time. So I figured, I might as well try my hand at a shorter round up. Depending on how things go, I may write a blog entry on August 18th, but I’ll likely skip the 25th due to spending time at Furrydelphia. It’s convention season for me.
Africa | Page(s): 433| Patreon
I’m actually surprised that given all the flak Mosi gave Mondo, that this teen leopard had it in him to show a spring hare mercy. Especially after the hare is just trying to protect her babies. What this means to me is that Mosi’s “instincts” toward Mondo are a mix of trauma and resentment. It’s not that he can’t control his urge to kill, as demonstrated by said hare, but he sees Sabra in the kitten. So all of his animosity toward the serval that sold him and his sister out have been transferred to her son despite him not being involved in the betrayal. I do believe that if Mosi ever came to terms with those complex feelings, he could likely stand to be around Mondo for more than five seconds without his prey drive and deep resentment being triggered.
As for the hare, Mosi may be showing her mercy, but Bibi is having none of that. Her paw comes in so quickly in the last panel that it’s a bit surprising, and darkly humorous. Yoink!
What Lurks Beneath | Pages(s): 919, 920, 921 | Patreon
Unsurprisingly, Hake has to bring up how Trout couldn’t even protect Tusk when it was needed the most. Needless to say that she’d be more than unwilling up help out the Daisys. That said, I do believe Hake is caught in his feelings when he suggests that his sister should step down. Again, there is no retirement for monarchs. The only thing awaiting them at the end of their reign is death, much like when Thresher walked into the sea at the start of this comic. Trout would have to do the same. Otherwise, she probably would have stepped down months ago.
I’m also not surprised that wanting Trout dead is what drive to Sturgeon’s outburst. She comes off more desperate than angry. Given that her uncle Auklet basically had to step aside to allow his brother to be poisoned for the sake of the island by Sturgeon’s paws, our protagonist isn’t willing to do the same to her sister. Again, violence for the sake of violence has only made things worse, and at the end of the day, Trout isn’t evil, she’s just a people-pleasing coward. I get where both siblings are coming from regarding the queen, and I wouldn’t want to be in Sturgeon’s situation. She wants to help in the most peaceful way possible, and keeps her lashing out to a minimum (though she does try to guilt-trip Hake). I can only hope that she finds another solution beyond taking out Trout’s other advisors, just to have her sister listen to reason. What an untenable situation all around.
The Order of the Black Dog | Issue 29, Page: 18 | Patreon
Idowu is one tough lady. Even with her helmet cracked, she’s able to swing her spear and stab Natasha in the chest, taking out one threat. Unfortunately, Rodney still has his gun and uses it on her. I find it curious that he went for a shot across the shoulder that ripped a new hole in Idowu’s suit, rather than going for the kill. I suspect the aim of the Black Idol is not to kill Idowu and Melissa, but to convert them into pieces of itself. I’m a little worried that Idowu will transform and turn on Melissa, leaving the poor tiger-mix to defend herself– if she can, seeing how destroying the machine effectively disabled her.
Her last line of hope might be activating Kenazil.
In The Lion’s Den: The Scarlet Uproar | Page(s): 55-56 | Patreon
I fully expected the trashcan lid to hit Harzuk, stopping her. What I did not expect was for Kay’s throw to be powerful enough to turn that lid into a possibly deadly projectile. Furthermore, I was not expecting a cop to causally walk into the path of said lid, and them find himself unconscious in a pool of his own blood. If the guy isn’t outright dead. At the moment it is really hard to tell.
I’m going to guess that Harzuk gets away, and the two will probably cross paths in the future. At the moment, Kay is deep in PTSD territory, as she suddenly has a flashback to shortly after escaping the rebellion, and holding a sword drenched with someone else’s blood. I’m guessing in the chaos of the rebellion that day, she was forced to defend herself and either badly wounded or killed a pursuer. It is also likely that event left a strong mark on her psyche. Now the big question is if the patrolling cop had a partner nearby who’s about to come across this scene, or if Kay is about to book it out of there before anything else goes further south.
Lost Scent | Page(s): 93 | Patreon
As I expected, Tulpi had a flashback in the form of a dream. Curious, that dream was also about temporarily traveling with a companion. It is telling how her anxiety bled into her dreams. Poor Tulpi really needs someone to talk to about her life prior to teaming up with Motte. Preferably Motte, or at least a dog who knows both girls. For the time being, they’re still with Morgan’s group, and we’re about to see them crossing the straight. I guess Morgan will have earned her name as the Selkie, because it looks like crossing through that fog will be exceptionally dangerous.
In the meantime, I’m appreciating the comic relief with Danell. His sister as well as us in the audience totally misunderstood what he meant by dirty socks. His expression in the last panel is pure comedy gold. It feels like Tulpi has either taken the classy route of ignoring the conversation completely, or it has gone over her head. Still, I love how the siblings have gone out of their way to make the Akita-mix feel welcome and a part of the group. This girl needs a break from her anxiety and making a few friends during her travels should help immensely.
On a technical note, I just love how the “every night” speech bubble line sort of floats right above Tulpi’s tongue in the first panel. It really puts the emphasis on how these nightmares are a daily occurrence.
Golden Shrike | Page(s): 323| Patreon
After two very somber pages, character dialogue is back. I feel for the March leaders taking note of the deadly aftermath of the freak snowstorm. It must really hurt to have deaths on your watch. I fully expected Antaras to have an outburst or a showdown with the March leader, or for more deer to be angry. Instead, everyone just seems to be shocked into silence, except for one doe who’s expectedly angry.
She’s furious at the March leaders for not listening to Antaras, while also being angry at Antaras for not doing more to stop the March from going forward. While her blaming Antaras feels unfair as he did try to warn them, though he backed down quickly, I don’t think she’s wrong in her emotions. By that I mean she’s lashing out at the two people she perceives as having the power to have done something to avoid this situation. And it’s likely easier for her to angrily yell rather than sit with her own grief. After all, she was just a passenger on this trip, the leaders and God-caller were supposed to make better decisions in her eyes. If I had to dissect her line of thought it would go something like:
My companions are dead! How could this happen?
Is there anything I could have done differently?
The God-caller warned us this would happen!
Why didn’t the March leader listen to him?
Why didn’t he stop us from leaving?
It’s their fault this happened!
As someone pointed out in the ComicFury comments, this particular doe was actually present for the conversation between the leaders and Antaras. She wasn’t shown to be making fun of him. It’s likely, that she put some weight into his words, only to have her worst fears validated when the storm hit.
That said, this would have been a bad situation all around because of the three-week gap between when Antaras saw a spot on the moon, and when the snowstorm actually struck. If he’d successfully made the March stay behind, they would have doubted him after a few days of mild weather, and decided to press on anyway. Doubly so if he couldn’t provide a solid timeline on when the weather would turn deadly. By him going forward, yet the weather saying mild for weeks, no one could really blame the other deer for thinking he was just a weird religious zealot. If he had pushed harder, and the storm didn’t come, the deer would have lost faith in him.
I’m actually surprised more deer aren’t freaking out. After all, people tend to be less than rational when a mass tragedy happens. Anyway, I’m dreading when we find out what exactly Antaras prayed for, and when denial and anger strikes more of the grieving survivors.
Damn, Marduk’s story came to a disappointing end. Fitting for a character who had promise, only to be a vessel for Father’s apologies, and then converted into a villain who committed the sin of wanting the Asmundr pack to like him more. Marduk and his motivations were just poorly written from the day Kique decided the Asmundr pack and Jahla’s plotline needed an antagonist. So rest in peace gray alien dog, or pieces as it seems.
I’m guessing, hoping, that Jahla’s crest will be explained. Additionally, I’d like answers as to why she had sudden immunity to Marduk’s obelisk, and his supernatural strength. Other than Kique got tired of this character and wrote him out the story using one of his classic asspulls. I think Jahla ripping off his head was excessive, especially since her first bite was a fatal one. Maybe one more to end his suffering would have done the job. It would have been a nice juxtaposition between the gray alien dog making his foes suffer with his evil science, and Jahla having some mercy for an enemy. Nah, no quick efficient kills. These “heroes” are just as brutal as the enemies they claim to be better than. In a better written story this might have been brought up to make a point about doing whatever is needed to survive, but no, it just looks cool and badass here. That’s it.
Anyway, glad to see that the rest of Havenreach Tribe followed Jahla only to not help her. It would have been cool if the rest of the pack had helped their Viscountess fell a powerful foe, thus saving the Asmundr pack. Teamwork doesn’t count for much in this comic. When it does happen, it fails because it’s unorganized.
Speaking of unorganized, it feels like the sequence of Jahla killing Marduk should have been unbroken, instead of shifting back and forth to the Asmundr pack or Havenreach. After the deed was done, it would have been more impactful to see their reactions. Especially with the nicely rendered morning sky shining light on the akiulfr as her actions have literally cleared away the dark cloud that was Marduk’s presence in the pack.
At least this terrible plotline is over.
On hiatus:
Nothing! But I personally will be on break.
Home keeps winning the dumbest comic awards
Home is a special kind of comic, that’s for sure. Somehow nothing and everything is happening way too quickly.