Annotated 1-18
Phil’s sections here were Morbundi, Byron, and (the upcoming) Gravedust: mine were Frigg, Syr’Nj, and Best. And I gotta say, the Best section is my favorite, and a lot of the reason for that is right here.
Best is, at this point, still largely unaffected by the expectations and mythology starting to swirl around him. In an unguarded moment, he tells Groomer Gurd here a few facts that are key to his whole psychology: he never knew his father, his mother treated him with scathing contempt, and no one else has ever felt he was anything remarkable at all. He would’ve probably had some emotional problems regardless of anything that happened after that pattern was established. But the murmurings of the crowd are going to have a lot of influence over the shape of his personality, and the expression his problems take.
Someone pointed this out last page, and it actually perked my interest – is Groomer Gurd supposed to have Winter Elf ears? cause, he kind of does, and that makes this whole section much more INTERESTINK~, Darling~!
On the back hand, I do love the rabble rabble. feels like a good joke/story mechanism
Interesting idea. Considering he’s got a standard gnome name, I think we always intended him as a gnome, but it wouldn’t be entirely out of character for a younger winter elf to insinuate himself into this stable in order to bear witness to and subtly shape this event. He’d have to pass himself off as a gnome to avoid attention, but as long as he’s short that wouldn’t be too hard. Whites on our world don’t generally distinguish between nonwhite races as long as they’re somewhat close to the same color, and in Gastonia, nobody’s seen a real winter elf in ages.
Interesting. It never occurred to me that the winter elves would try to influence events. I guess I always imagined that they were like the Watchers of the Marvel verse.
Rabble Rabble Bitch Bitch
Rebel Rebel Party Party
Sex Sex Sex and don’t forget The Prophesy!
I’ve been thinking about how this setup played out with the whole ‘die unappreciated and be buried in an umarked grave’ thing, and it occurs to me that as a reader I feel for the whole ‘prophecy’ thing. Given what he started with, endgame-Best really seems like he came through all of it alright. Looking forward to the WAV commentary, and of course the drop.
I’ve always wondered if that part of the prophecy wasn’t just for his Sepiaworld counterpart…
“Incest!”
*blank stares*
“…Prophecy incest?”
(Inspired by Funky Cancercancer.)
I like the widely varied rabble, as well as the rabble-rousing.
Best’s mother was eaten by an ogre, but (as far as I can recall) they were never seen or mentioned again. Did you guys change your minds about them, or were they never even meant to have any part in the story?
There was never any formal plan for ogres, although they were mentioned again a time or two: Butterfly is briefly mistaken for one, and Frigg mentions a half-ogre as one of her sexual conquests. Although I think we did a good job planning the basics for each character, there were some details we’d just throw out because they sounded fun and then we’d start making plans around them afterward, or not. The role this bit suggests for the ogres, as surly creatures who’d just eat humans sometimes whether or not they had a World’s Rebellion-like grievance, was taken over pretty quickly by the land sharks, who were more visually interesting and funnier.
Gotta love a good rabble-rabble joke.