Annotated 46-14
There are no atheists in foxholes, so to speak. Thunderpeak was totally buying Iver’s anti-mystic propaganda earlier today, but now that he’s had to confront the reality of his own da’s death, he’s singing a different tune. Note he doesn’t beg GD to bring his father back, unlike some others we could mention…he can accept that Bonecrusher is gone, but not the uncertainty about Bonecrusher’s afterlife.
It is amazing how well Gravedust handles this situation. This is the role his people know him for performing—guiding and communicating with the spirits of the dead. And thanks to recent sacrifices, he can no longer do that the way they expect him to. You’d think that would give him pause! Instead, he doesn’t miss a goddamn beat, and his heartfelt eulogy and farewell to his friend are inseparable from his words to inspire the living. He is finally starting to look like the leader he needs to become to achieve his aims. And he ties this chapter’s two major plot threads together, to boot.
FB: You’re never too old to enjoy some Guilded Age action! Or too dead!
No tags for Hammerhead, Don Gobligno, Madam Arfa, or Iver?
TBH, I finished this page in the middle of a family trip and I totally missed them there. Corrected!
Out of curiosity, do you plan on updating the archive page to have a separate section for the annotated versions of the chapters/pages?
To be honest with you, this is a good idea that’s worthy of consideration, but I doubt I’ll make the time. Just doing the annotations is as much looking backward as I really want to do.
That’s understandable. I’d still recommend giving a glance to the achieve page if you have a chance, I think there’s also a few chapters missing from it.
“Note he doesn’t beg GD to bring his father back, unlike some others we could mention”
To be fair, “some others” knew from first-hand experience that it was actually *possible* to bring back the dead; Thunderpeak doesn’t know that, so he has no reason to ask for it.
I mean, possible FOR GRAVEDUST to bring back the dead. Presumably Thunderpeak knows that the Peacemakers were killed by Harky and returned to life, but he doesn’t know that Gravy played any part in that.
Composition in first panel is vaguely reminiscent of Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson, but maybe that’s just me.
Emblem of the World’s Rebellion on the tent deserves a closer examination. I have trouble assigning every sign to the corresponding faction. I’d expect the Troll sign to be the topmost, but it seems to be the lowest placed.
Clockwise starting at 12 o’clock I think we have a Shark tooth, the Avian sign, the Gnoll print, the Troll sign, the Goblin sign, possibly a sign for the Savasi. It’s hard to make out at this resolution.