Annotated 23-14
I hope you all like the comedy of the normally chill (when not berserking) Byron flying into a rage the instant he sees Sundar, because Phil did not. “He’s letting Syr’Nj down, he’s letting adventurers down!” I mean, I thought he was gonna have a stroke. And we’d just had another fight about the previous page, in which E-Merl created an especially large illusion, and whether or not that fit the limits of his powers.
Even though Phil was backing down and letting me get what I wanted after many of these fights, they were still loud, angry, and emotionally costly, right as my office workload was cresting. He was going through some shit of his own, but I’ll talk about that more next chapter.
Kind of tough for me to be at my funniest when every page was getting me yelled at. E-Merl’s gag looks underdeveloped to me now. I should’ve given him a couple more Marvin-the-Paranoid-Android-type lines before getting someone to put a bow on his depression the way Fr’Nj does here.
But let’s end on a positive note. I like how Phil and I made sure that Sundar and Tamara, respectively, hinted at their histories in panel 2. This would pay off handsomely in the next two chapters, not least by making it clear there was more to Tamara than just “fighter, yet blind.”
it’s probably too late to put Byron‘s speech bubble on the second panel to the side where he is hiding in the bushes.
Fist time I read this page I got Byron would be pissed at Sunder but second read… Byron does seem a little more emotional than when he last confronted Sunder.
http://guildedage.net/comic/chapter-3-page-11/
But hey, Rabbit knew the team was hiding in the bushes the whole time so it’s not like Byron gave anything away.
But didn’t Byron know that Sundar was going to be there? Why the reaction to someone who they were there looking for?
Why would he know that? They knew Rendar was there, but the two brothers haven’t been known to be in each other’s company since (chronologically) before Chapter 1. Henry and Emory may or may not have reported Sundar was the one who stopped them, but his name definitely didn’t make it into Miyamoto’s report to Syr’Nj. Syr’Nj, who met him very briefly, wouldn’t recognize his style of phrasing just from the Fightopians’ official statement. I’m willing to admit to a fair share of issues with the story, but unless I’ve missed something, I think we’re good here.
There was a drawing of Sundar amongst the papers Miyamoto presented to Ardaic and Syr’Nj, which also led me to believe the peacemakers already expected to find Sundar there.
Byron’s advice in the first panel is something I learned from my cat. Being fully comfortable in a scene can let you blend into the foreground. It’s an interesting feeling playing hide and seek when someone’s looking right into your eyes but doesn’t see you.
I have always liked the irony of Byron being all “play it cool, guyz” and then flipping when he finds Sundar participating in another poorly-chosen venture.
I never quite understood why Douglas Adams chose to describe Marvin as paranoid, when in fact his shtick is depression, not paranoia. It’s like he came up with the name for the rhyming value, but then characterized him as depressed instead because it was funnier.