Annotated 6-17
At some point after the outline phase and before we started actually drafting pages, we wrote down some extra ideas that occurred to us. It was around that point that Phil realized the political awkwardness of these guys meeting one of their kinda-sorta employers on the battlefield. This gave Syr’Nj something to do that got her to a midpoint between “why doesn’t anyone ever listen to meee” and “here’s why you’re our allies now, sky elves; beep me when you realize I’m right.” (We’ll see another step in that journey when she confronts Frigg at the end of this chapter.) Plus, it established that Gigundus has certain “authoritarian instincts” that would be important much, much later. It was certainly a lot more interesting than “syringe needles vs. armor.”
That face on Frigg is still a bit of a gut punch for me. Her faith in herself is wavering and her muscles are barely responding. This is pretty much as dark as we wanted things to be for her: it all gets better from here.
Byron’s original punchline here would’ve been something like “nice shoulder armor there,” which wasn’t bad and foreshadowed who’d end up wearing it. But it would’ve stepped on Bandit’s later big line about hats, which we’d led up to more effectively. I mean, I still side-eye Syr’Nj’s “she stole my hat” bit, but one thing I’ve learned from writing serial comics is that even if you dislike the planting, you still need to deliver the payoff.
Love the look on Frigg’s face in the last panel. It’s magnificently comical in her expression of surprise that it’s Byron who steps in at her darkest hour, yet at the same time the shadowing keeps it from undermining the grim mood of the scene. Kudos to Erika for that!
You know, I’ve never noticed her in that panel before. I had to examine it carefully for a few moments before I saw her.
You have to look at exactly the right angle to see her.
Related: When I was little, two of my biggest fears were mummies and empty suits of armor coming to life. The latter occurred in an otherwise kid-friendly comic I used to read. My memory is hazy, but I may have been too scared to even open that particular issue for years afterwards. Pretty sure it was just something like a cat that got into the armor, too.
(BTW, I loved Full Metal Alchemist, so my childhood trauma doesn’t seem to have left any scars.)
Byron, thirsting for blood is not very threatening to something made of metal.
I don’t think we’ve been given any reason to think he’s *made* of metal; we just see an armored figure.
All this time and I never even realized Byron wears this guy’s shoulders later.
I think there’s something to be said for subtlety, but change blindness is real, guys.
I think we put a bow on it here, though!
Not exactly lampshading, but it does give him more swag when he throws shade.