Annotated 44-5
(No FB text today.)
I like the varying states of battle-readiness here, and how they’re not necessarily what you’d expect. Penk and Magda are the most peace-minded of the group, and yet they’re alert and primed to respond if their enemies answer this appeal with violence. Rana’s the most trigger-happy of the bunch, unwilling and perhaps unable to see any path to dealing with our heroes that doesn’t end in blood. But Auraugu’s just happy to not be pedaling any more, and Goblaurence, while he doesn’t like it, can see the immediate future of this “parley” as clearly as a winter elf could.
If there WERE a fight, our heroes would be unlikely to win it. Syr’Nj is fresh and ready, but Gravedust is nearly finished, Byron’s recovering, and Frigg and Best are nowhere near their peak effectiveness in this cold. Not to mention that the Champions are much better adapted to this terrain, on average, thanks to their fur, feathers, and Tectonican warmth.
I vetoed the shedding of tears in the last panel here. They seemed a little over the top and also incompatible with the well-below-freezing environs.
In Panel 1, it looks as if the ship’s propeller was mounted to Magda’s hammer. That could be a really frightening weapon if the propeller was mounted to the tip, not the center — although the hammer might be a bit hard to handle with the additional gyroscopic forces:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession#Torque-induced
From the (ex-)Peacemakers, Best would have undoubtedly been the one least likely to accept the truce, and indeed, he’d might be already attacking. So it is fortunate that his current state of mind makes his aggression uneffevectively democratic.
Magda drops her weapon in genuine concern and Syr’Nj lowers her weapon accordingly.
Best was never a Peacemaker. Even Goblaurence called him out: The Peacemakers and, separately, the chunce what burned the Don’s mansion down. Whatever his state of mind, his aggression would have had an immediate result of the Peacemakers…making him peaceful forcefully.
You know it’s peace season when even Frigg is diplomatic enough to call Best just a “dingus” rather than a fucktard or something.
Ah, I see you brought a Savasiwarmer, that’s wonderful, we forgot to bring one of our own.