Annotated 28-32
I’m pretty sure that this was the most commented-upon page we ran up until the series finale. Can’t imagine why…
(TBH, I expected shippers to guess at this development some pages earlier, if not at “I am spry yet”/”Oh, I know,” then at “the only one whose opinion I consider as much as my own.” I’m glad we were able to fly under the radar this time!)
Almost as soon as we knew this relationship was a thing, we knew that Iver would discover it at some point and start plotting to use it to his advantage. The look of revulsion we get here, though, was Phil’s idea. I thought Iver might’ve been pleased to find an exploitable weakness, and I’m sure he’s a little happy about that, but apparently he is enough of a tradition-bound desert survivalist so that homosexuality offends him on a deep level. Bad news for Harky and the Rebellion either way, but the real-world prejudice does make Iver a bit more complex.
Is that a look of revulsion? I thought it was just “hmm, I can probably find a way to exploit this”
Yeah, same.
I mean, I don’t want to be that guy, but take a close look at the frowny part of his mouth you can see. If it were just “aaah, a weakness at last!,” then I’d expect a smile, if it were a poker face, I’d expect, well, more of a neutral line.
I guess that’s a problem with a character like Iver: he spends so much time lying for his own benefit that it’s hard to communicate when he has any real emotions not directly related to the desire for power. But yeah, Phil was pretty gung ho about making Iver a “total f—ing homophobe,” and I was happy to follow suit. It definitely fits the sort of evangelical politics that Iver seems to channel.
I thought so, too. His mouth looked pretty clearly shocked and furious to me.
I was never sure whether he was being homophobic until he actually came out and said it, but he was clearly bothered by what he was seeing, to me. (One of my comments on the original posting posits that he might also be upset about Gondy’s getting higher status than him due to his relationship with Harky, though obviously I wasn’t discounting being a homophobe.)
I too thought it was a frown for sudden and very obvious shift on power dynamics. Sure he knew Gondy and Harky to think alike a lot, but to him it was probably just on the same level as him and the two other tweeps, agree until benefits run dry.
Now seeing how their friendly benefits are likelier to run more wet than ever to dry up… Now that’s a problem. That level of agreement within a whole third of their supreme command echelon is not a thing you get to ignore.
So he frowns, deep in thought and conspiracy. More bothered that he has to deal with two leaders on such level of alliance that he could not and would not ever try to achieve with his.
That they are filthy brownhole munchers is probably an element there too, but I’d fancy Iver for a practical dwarf who first deals with problems of court first and if he gets to slap couple of courting butt-divers in a way they won’t actually like while at it, then all the better.
No. Nothing against gays, but you nowadays get so few opportunities to really throw down with namecalling, you take every chance you get. Talking from the view point of Iver is all. To me it goes the same as to one Catholic priest once put it (paraphrasing): “With two people of sound of mind… I don’t see it to be my business what happens between you in the bedroom.”
Yes. There are even Catholic people like that. Heck, even had a very traditional Muslim run to my hope-to-be-mate-one-day’s friends aid when hecklers tried to harass them. XD
Best was when the friends themselves started questioning why a Muslim was helping them. “Aren’t you supposed to be against this too?” XD
But he was understanding to that too and explained that to him it made no real difference. Might have been about the “If both of you know what you’re doing, you know what you’re doing.” -lines, but I was just delighted about the idea of a man in thawb running to berate hecklers and telling them to be nice to gays. The details have began to fade a bit. Need to ask for them again some day.
Also there was this another Muslim guy who was absolutely delighted when he found out my “htmsd”‘s another friend’s father had found a man for himself. Buuuut… It was the same same city, in both cases it was indeed a Muslim man in a very traditional garb, so even though I hope there are more of them out there, there is a good likelihood it was just the same guy…
Oh, somehow I kept seeing his mouth as going up instead of down? Now that I look at it I don’t know why. That’s on me
Tricked by the ironically-named smile lines?
Well this is another case where my habit of just reading the word balloons and not paying close attention to the art causes me to miss some details. To be fair, the cup is hiding most of his mouth, the “frown” doesn’t seem unnatural to me on a more neutral expression, and likewise his eyes seem fairly neutral (I would have expected more of a squint and furrowed eyebrows for disgust). Also to be fair, it seems a lot of the original commenters were also unsure of his expression. But if he’s smart, he’s trying to hide his disgust anyway.
I think it’s pretty well conveyed, even if I wouldn’t assume everything from that one look.
Iver has legitimate reason to be angry; he just discovered that one of his ostensible co-workers is sleeping with their shared boss. That’s the sort of thing it takes a moment to process the implications of though, and there’s probably the first hints of that happening in Iver’s raised eyebrow.
But that grimace? On the face of such a practiced politician? So sudden and difficult to control that he’s forced to raise his cup to hide it? What would that be if not a disgust so deeply seated as to be reflexive?
to me, his eyes look like he is glad he found and exploit, but his mouth conveys his disgust
Revulsion or finding a weakness? Why not both?
Given later revelation of Iver’s interest in repopulating the Dwarf race, I would expect him to have strong negative views about any perceived “miscegenation”. Even in other races. Especially in-between other races.
Further evidence to him people from these other races are “weak” and unworthy of leading.
How is Iver pronounced? I always imagine it pronounced the European way, like ee-VEHR.
I’ve been reading it as “Eye Vehr” this whole time.
sam here
i mean, same
I live in Seattle, home of the Ivar’s seafood restaurant chain, so guess how I pronounce it in my mind. XD
did Iver actually ever exploit this? I remember being disappointed that he didn’t.
he tried (poorly)
He did, beginning at the bottom of http://guildedage.net/comic/chapter-46-page-16/
Yeah, I have trouble telling whether Iver is disgusted or gleeful. The lines make a smile-frown.
I also thought GondolessA was female, and that Iver would be reacting to the interspecies relationship rather than to homosexuality.
Yeah, I did get the revulsion, but I also thought Gondolessa was a woman and Iver disapproved of interspecies romance.
To me his lips are clearly expressing dissaproval/disgust.
On fifth or sixth read, his frown is more obvious when compared with his expression in panel one (even if he were putting it on for Goblino and Arfa)
I can’t believe I totally missed that panel the first time. I’d always suspected Harky and Gondolessa, but I never recalled it being depicted explicitly.
It always looked to me like he just got a surprise that didn’t set well with him. There’s definitely a little bit of anger and disapproval in there.
So … I got a bit confused eventually because I can’t not read “Gondolessa” as a female name. I wasn’t quite sure if it was meant so during the first read but took this strip as confirmation… Sure, the character looks kind of male, but who knows with birds?