Annotated 4-18
Classic Phil Kahn subversion. I don’t always feel like I can speak for him, but I do know that he loved pranking the readers like this: here, by getting Best to perform some traditionally heroic (if violent) actions and then, well, doing this. In Guilded Age‘s early days, Phil still self-identified as a troll now and then, though he wanted nothing to do with the misogynist, racist, and generally punching-down factions that were coming to dominate trolling in 2010. (Frigg’s dialogue has a strong 4chan influence.)
On the other hand, the cold abruptness of von Carnaj’s demise feels more like my influence via the outline. Phil tended to resist anticlimactic moments like this as the series went on, but I think anticlimax can often have a purpose and does so here. Like, here’s death, von Carnaj. Was it as glorious as you hoped?
“They may OPEN FIRE, and one lucky cannon shot could DROP THIS THING DOWN LIKE A FLAMING POO-BAG ON GRAIYA’S DOORSTEP!” Again, von Carnaj’s plans? Pretty flawed.
Best is just the kind of hero that Joss Whedon defined in Serenity: someone who gets other people killed.
Anyway, why does that one girl look almost exactly like Bandit?
No, no, you got it backwards. The girl doesn’t look like Bandit. She’s the daughter of a noble family, and of course her clothing choices will set the trends for fashion.
Bandit stole her style!
Ah, they’ll be FINE!
Everybody knows that child NPCs are always flagged as non-killable in these games!
I agree with you T. The anticlimactic moments works for this scene. And I like the way Gravedust appears to just casually release the arrows. Adds to the moment.
It didn’t feel anticlimactic to me. The arrows are enchanted (possessed?) to have von Carnaj as a specific target. And it was already established that Gravedust could do trick shots.
So why/how would his death be delayed?
Two things I love about this page; how casual Gradedust kills ‘the boss’ in the first panel and how casual Best throws the children overboard in the last panel.
The town’s gunners wouldn’t even have to be all that lucky… That balloon is a pretty big target and cannon are far more accurate than they are commonly portrayed as being in the movies.
Whyyyyyyyy? Just why…