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Annotations Every Day - Written by T Campbell & Flo Kahn - Illustrated by John & Jason Waltrip

Gondolessa: arbiter of the pecking order.

Chapter 28 – Page 13

on January 2, 2014
Chapter: Chapter 28
└ Tags: Gondolessa, Harky, Iver, Magda
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Discussion (73) ¬

  1. alicemacher
    alicemacher
    January 2, 2014, 2:39 am | # | Reply

    Harky is unimpressed at the gnomes’ appropriation of his culture.

    • alicemacher
      alicemacher
      January 2, 2014, 2:44 am | # | Reply

      Dwarves. I meant Dwarves. v__v “Now who’s being insensitive, Alice?”

      • Jean-Luc
        Jean-Luc
        January 2, 2014, 6:46 am | # | Reply

        It’s gnome problem.

        • JSStryker
          JSStryker
          January 2, 2014, 9:04 am | # | Reply

          Gnomebody knows the trouble they’ve seen…

        • Eric
          Eric
          January 2, 2014, 12:10 pm | # | Reply

          Gnomenclature can be tricky.

        • Denita TwoDragons
          Denita TwoDragons
          January 2, 2014, 2:12 pm | # | Reply

          This is gnome time to be making puns!!

          • Vladimir Zhivanevskaya
            Vladimir Zhivanevskaya
            January 2, 2014, 5:01 pm | # | Reply

            I don’t know why, but you remind me of myself in some small way.

      • Kamino Neko
        Kamino Neko
        January 2, 2014, 11:38 pm | # | Reply

        And you’ve compounded your sin by calling the Savasi that vile human slur!

  2. Bardsdoitbetter
    Bardsdoitbetter
    January 2, 2014, 2:40 am | # | Reply

    The secret to writing good bad guys is that nobody views themselves as a villain, and everyone can justify their motivations.

    • Nonsensicles
      Nonsensicles
      January 2, 2014, 2:54 am | # | Reply

      So, who isn’t a bad guy in this comic then?

      • Téléphone banane
        Téléphone banane
        January 2, 2014, 4:39 am | # | Reply

        Those who don’t attack the civilians, I guess. *rubs chin, thinking stuff*

      • AeonsShadow
        AeonsShadow
        January 2, 2014, 4:43 am | # | Reply

        The loser of the war is usually histories villain. After all, History is decided by the VICTOR.

      • Tsenzei
        Tsenzei
        January 2, 2014, 5:57 am | # | Reply

        Whether they have “reasons” or not doesn’t mean they are or are not villains. However, having “reasons” and “justifications” makes a villain more relate-able, more understandable, and often more tragic. In some cases, it also makes them more terrifying.

        Consider the Cultists. They are evil for the sake of being evil. Yet there aren’t any that could be considered particularly memorable (except maybe as comic relief), not even the leader guy. Iwatani makes a much greater impression.

        Of course, this isn’t always necessary, sometimes other things can carry it through, but it usually adds to it. And also it is very much not necessary to actually justify their “reasons” to the audience. Kefka of FF6 is a great villain, and his motivations (nihilism, wanting to stave off boredom, lust for power) are explored, but his actions to achieve those are not exactly “sane” or reasonable to most people. On the other hand FF5’s Exdeath is hardly memorable at all (in fact I had to look it up to make sure I got the name right)…

        • LockeZ
          LockeZ
          January 2, 2014, 12:49 pm | # | Reply

          Exdeath wasn’t unmemorable because his motivations were unclear or because his actions weren’t explained. He was unmemorable because he didn’t appear until halfway through the game, and had no personality, and then you killed him a few hours later. But he came back to life later because he was SECRETLY A TREEEEEEE and gave you a splinter during the fight.

          He would have probably been okay if he’d had, like, a *single conversation* with one of his henchmen that consisted of anything other than “Henchman, go defeat the Warriors of Light!” or “Henchman, as punishment for your failure, wander for eternity in the X-Zone! Where’s my next henchman? Go defeat the Warriors of Light!”

          The fact that this chapter is shown to the reader instead of the savage champions just showing up in a fight later and calling themselves the savage champions is what makes me pay a little more attention to them. They’re characters instead of obstacles.

          • Nyzer
            Nyzer
            January 2, 2014, 2:09 pm | # | Reply

            Yeah, this. Kefka had a lot of character establishing moments, and a lot of moments where he interacted with several protagonists individually, several antagonists individually, several secondary characters…

            He had lots of screen time, and he did lots of different things during that screen time.

          • Tsenzei
            Tsenzei
            January 2, 2014, 10:24 pm | # | Reply

            Sure, but the point, to me anyway, is that establishing motive, developing it and their reasoning, etc. is one of the better ways to establish character. Someone shows up and says: “I want to blow up the world!” Yeah, they’re a villain, but not a well written one. On the other hand, if some of the reason why they want to blow up the world is shown, it gives screen time, but also makes their character more understandable, even if their reasoning is ultimately flawed/wrong/psychotic or whatever.

            Well developed motivations, even without screen time, can also give insight into a character that’s introduced later, so long as the connections can be made by the audience. If Magda was just as generic as the other three Savasi Tectonicians, she’d be far less interesting and eye-catching… including in-universe, and part of that “interest” is generated from connections set up before the character was introduced as such.

            Basically, it’s the difference of depth. Even a character that gets a lot of screen time, if they aren’t given depth/developed, they end up being unmemorable characters anyway (at the very least, by comparison of other characters).

      • Karishi
        Karishi
        January 2, 2014, 1:01 pm | # | Reply

        Ferris.
        At least, not YET.

        • John
          John
          January 2, 2014, 1:17 pm | # | Reply

          He stole his boss’s keys and entered a restricted area without permission, just to satisfy curiosity. That’s at least a little bit bad.

          • Asterai
            Asterai
            January 2, 2014, 8:55 pm | # | Reply

            Depends on how you view authority and ownership, and how much you value curiosity.

            To me, “just to satisfy curiosity” sounds a lot like “just for the sake of helping people and becoming a more complete person”.

            • Guesticus
              Guesticus
              January 3, 2014, 7:00 am | # | Reply

              No, that could be viewed as “snooping” and “corporate espionage”, specially seeing how he did it at the behest of The Nose

            • John
              John
              January 6, 2014, 8:21 pm | # | Reply

              Personal gain at the expense of institutional integrity, even in noble ways and toward noble ends, is one of those things that sounds like a great idea until it starts to scale up. If, for example, the building had been on fire, and he’d opportunistically appropriated the keys in an explicit rescue effort, that would be different.

      • Jordan
        Jordan
        January 2, 2014, 11:15 pm | # | Reply

        It all depends on your point of view. From Harky and his allies’ perspective, they’re the good guys and Byron is the most evil/dangerous person around. From the Gastonian leadership perspective, humans (meaning humans loyal to Gastonia) are the good guys. To the adventurers and probably to the readers, the adventurers are the good guys.

    • Beige
      Beige
      January 4, 2014, 11:58 am | # | Reply

      The secret of writing a good rebellion is that no one side should be outright evil, even if some members would quallify

  3. Ganurath
    Ganurath
    January 2, 2014, 3:11 am | # | Reply

    So, it seems we’re going to have counterparts to the main cast. What are the odds that our favorite drummer winds up the counterpart to our favorite bard?

    • CorrTerek
      CorrTerek
      January 2, 2014, 10:29 am | # | Reply

      I guess so, in that Penk is alive and Best is dead, and Best got laid all the time and Penk got no game, that they really would be counterparts, wouldn’t they?

      • TBeckett
        TBeckett
        January 2, 2014, 2:17 pm | # | Reply

        Penk’s mother was probably really encouraging and taught him the value of teamwork. Plus he absolutely LOVES basins and keeping them safe.

  4. CorrTerek
    CorrTerek
    January 2, 2014, 3:18 am | # | Reply

    Okay, cool. Guess there’s not a con here after all. And I like Magda. She seems nice.

    • CM
      CM
      January 2, 2014, 4:48 am | # | Reply

      Seconded. And something tells me she won’t be on the side of the Savage Races forever.

    • Messenger
      Messenger
      January 2, 2014, 5:11 am | # | Reply

      Thirded. She’s not in it for herself- she’s doing it for her people. Even if she recognizes how the mystics had “failed” her people, she knows what value they did provide.

      Nice to see the avian dude got Arfa’s lesson as well.

      • Guesticus
        Guesticus
        January 2, 2014, 6:24 am | # | Reply

        They may have failed, but that doesn’t mean what they were preaching/teaching was wrong, just the other side was simply better on the day

        And whos to say this new way is any more ‘guided’ than the Mystics were ‘misguided’? Only Time will tell

        • Chris
          Chris
          January 2, 2014, 8:47 am | # | Reply

          How could a massive fire god of death and destruction be wrong?
          Death… and destruction. Pretty straight forward points.

          • Devin
            Devin
            January 2, 2014, 3:29 pm | # | Reply

            Rules of Death Cult.
            1. Death and destruction is always the best choice.
            2. see rule #1

        • Messenger
          Messenger
          January 3, 2014, 12:23 am | # | Reply

          Your response, sir, is full of insightful win.

  5. mrknifey
    mrknifey
    January 2, 2014, 4:35 am | # | Reply

    i’m liking that the anti-heroes are surprisingly normal;D

    • Messenger
      Messenger
      January 2, 2014, 5:20 am | # | Reply

      I’m guessing that they’re rightfully going to be heroes in their own right, the same way the Peace-Makers/Adventurer’s Guild are heroes. Goblaurence looking at slaves as tools and being willing to blow up a couple of Avians may be red flags, but he’s not needlessly cruel, while Frigg’s pretty rough too.

      I can’t wait to see the rest of the roster.

    • Kamino Neko
      Kamino Neko
      January 2, 2014, 11:45 pm | # | Reply

      Arkherra’s always been rather like World of Warcraft, so it’s hardly surprising that the Horde-equivalent has its good points and its bad, just like the Alliance-equivalent.

  6. TheAnonymousOrc
    TheAnonymousOrc
    January 2, 2014, 4:47 am | # | Reply

    I’m crossing my fingers for an Orc rebellion…

    • Chris
      Chris
      January 2, 2014, 8:47 am | # | Reply

      Work, work, work.

      • JSStryker
        JSStryker
        January 2, 2014, 9:06 am | # | Reply

        Me not that kind of orc…

        • Connie
          Connie
          January 2, 2014, 9:10 am | # | Reply

          Since I know the fellow who recorded those voice parts, I find this post hilarious for reasons totally unrelated.

          • merle
            merle
            January 2, 2014, 11:35 am | # | Reply

            Please tell him he’s awesome!
            “Something need doing?”

      • Snaleking
        Snaleking
        January 2, 2014, 2:04 pm | # | Reply

        I don’t know the reference… :(

        • Ghost
          Ghost
          January 2, 2014, 3:18 pm | # | Reply

          Warcraft 3 the Orc peon’s :)

        • Fantasy Reader
          Fantasy Reader
          January 2, 2014, 4:43 pm | # | Reply

          Warcraft (started in III?) orc peons would say this when you clicked on them. If you clicked on them too much… you got “Me not that kind of orc!”

          • Seggs
            Seggs
            January 3, 2014, 12:08 am | # | Reply

            started with the first one. warcraft orcs and humans

      • mrknifey
        mrknifey
        January 2, 2014, 11:50 pm | # | Reply

        jobs finished!

  7. Strongholm
    Strongholm
    January 2, 2014, 5:13 am | # | Reply

    I seem to recall she was the only one not smiling like a nimrod last strip. Good eye, Birdman.

    • Guesticus
      Guesticus
      January 2, 2014, 6:26 am | # | Reply

      Yeah, noticed that as well, and now we see why she didn’t look like she wanted to be there

  8. Tim
    Tim
    January 2, 2014, 5:59 am | # | Reply

    Gondolessa: also the only general of Harky’s army I like.

    • Torint
      Torint
      January 2, 2014, 1:15 pm | # | Reply

      Notice his shining halo and beatific expression.

      • Tsenzei
        Tsenzei
        January 2, 2014, 10:33 pm | # | Reply

        Clearly, he’ll turn out to be the most ruthless and evil of them all in the end.

  9. Guesticus
    Guesticus
    January 2, 2014, 6:28 am | # | Reply

    Some how, don’t believe Head-beard will like the answer to his question

  10. Mujaki
    Mujaki
    January 2, 2014, 7:02 am | # | Reply

    Technically, Iver is in panel one, in the background. Shouldn’t he have a tag?

    • Phil
      Flo
      January 2, 2014, 8:34 am | # | Reply

      If it please you.

  11. Jean-Luc
    Jean-Luc
    January 2, 2014, 10:41 am | # | Reply

    Iver is like a smarter, more charismatic version of Don Gobligno. Like the Don, Iver is kinda vain, greedy and power hungry but is also much more measured and controlled in his approach. However just as the Don’s “trolling” attempt failed so it seems Iver’s attempt at flattery will also fail to impress Harky or at least won’t have the full desired effect.

    • Loyal
      Loyal
      January 2, 2014, 10:54 am | # | Reply

      I prefer to think of him as like Iwatani, minus a son to act on his behalf, or the resources/connections to back up his ambitions.

    • Nyzer
      Nyzer
      January 2, 2014, 2:03 pm | # | Reply

      I’m not even sure that it’s flat-out flattery. Iver seems really savvy. Yeah, he cherry-picked those four because their chosen deity to worship coincides with Harky’s, but that’s just a smart decision. He picked people he thought his fellow leader(s) would approve of – and he was right.

      No way his choice of Magda was an accident. She’s not only the niece of one of the mystics he killed, but she’s decidedly NOT a yes-woman? Hell, I’d bet those are the reasons he chose her. If the other three candidates had a reason to be fleshed out more, I’d expect them to have some large differences in personality amongst each other, too.

      • Denita TwoDragons
        Denita TwoDragons
        January 2, 2014, 2:16 pm | # | Reply

        Wait…something’s dawning on me…she’s the niece of a Mystic, but where does it way he was actually killed? Could he…oh, I dunno…perhaps…still be alive? I think we know where this is going…

        • Denita TwoDragons
          Denita TwoDragons
          January 2, 2014, 2:17 pm | # | Reply

          Way…say…blegh. Need more caffeine. Anywho, anyone else strongly suspect her Mystic Uncle might be the last surviving one? :-D

          • Ghost
            Ghost
            January 2, 2014, 3:18 pm | # | Reply

            Nahh her uncle looks to be the maker of the best snowpeak’s broiled desert moss!

          • Devin
            Devin
            January 2, 2014, 3:32 pm | # | Reply

            It’s all ready been established that Gravedust was the last surviving Mystic. I think that was spelled out from his encounter with Iver.

            • Nyzer
              Nyzer
              January 2, 2014, 3:37 pm | # | Reply

              The picture she makes when talking about her uncle is that of Cliff Rockside, who’s confirmed dead. Between that and both Gravedust and Iver independently saying “the other mystics are all dead”, I’m assuming Magda’s uncle is pretty dead.

        • Kamino Neko
          Kamino Neko
          January 2, 2014, 11:53 pm | # | Reply

          If her uncle was Gravy, why would she be projecting an image of Cliff?

  12. Ishmael
    Ishmael
    January 2, 2014, 12:51 pm | # | Reply

    Ha. I thought it’d be her.

  13. alicemacher
    alicemacher
    January 2, 2014, 7:05 pm | # | Reply

    LOL at the bearded dwarf in the third panel background juggling his heat stones. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s a faux pas in troll culture.

    • CorrTerek
      CorrTerek
      January 2, 2014, 8:46 pm | # | Reply

      Was wondering about that myself. Kinda feel sorry for the poor guy — if Magda weren’t the one to be picked, I’d almost want to pick him.

  14. CorrTerek
    CorrTerek
    January 2, 2014, 8:45 pm | # | Reply

    The last couple of days I’ve noticed that the comic has been updating pretty late — I think this page went up at 3 AM for me instead of the usual ten minutes or so after midnight. Is the system working okay, or did the holidays get to you guys?

    I’m not complaining, just curious.

  15. Devlerbat
    Devlerbat
    January 2, 2014, 10:33 pm | # | Reply

    Okay, what exactly is sword girl laughing at? I would say it is the juggling but she seems to be facing away from the juggler and towards Magda. Is it something Magda or Gondolessa said or is the mere image of Cliff Rockside somehow humorous to her?

    • My2Cents
      My2Cents
      January 3, 2014, 2:01 am | # | Reply

      She is laughing at Magda because it is obvious to anyone Magda has none of the qualities needed to be a Champion.

  16. My2Cents
    My2Cents
    January 3, 2014, 1:59 am | # | Reply

    They are picking people who are thinkers and dedicated to their people, not personal glory, as their champions.

    Wouldn’t be a riot if they find common ground with the Peacemakers and negotiate a peace treaty that honorable and just, and therefore satisfies none of the leaders on either side.

  17. Yinello
    Yinello
    January 6, 2014, 10:19 am | # | Reply

    Magda has instantly rose to favorite character for me. It’s not because I’m biased towards awesome lady Dwarves, I swear! *whistles*

  18. phyre
    phyre
    January 6, 2014, 3:26 pm | # | Reply

    Wait a minute. The other chiefs dissed old dog lady’s ability to lead in war because she’s female, but now they’ve picked a female champion?

    • Nyzer
      Nyzer
      January 8, 2014, 10:32 pm | # | Reply

      It was only the Don who dissed her for being female.

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Guilded Age is co-written by T Campbell & Flo Kahn, and illustrated by John Waltrip. Site design by Samantha Kyle. Fonts by Blambot.com.
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