Annotated 50-32
(circling motions with my finger) Okay…okay…wrap it up, Gravedust…wrap it uuuuup…
Yep, this is the third speech Flo added to the text that I could personally do without. Everything on this page and one transitional line on the final page were inserted per her request. I still remember pausing to take her call while campaigning for my local representative and thinking, Well, she let me do the rest of the chapter my way except for those little tweaks on Bandit’s arc, I can let her have this one.
Thinking it over, I do enjoy the visuals we’re getting here: one last glimpse at the farmers, at Hammerhead, and at Faerekshch’Nj’s family dinner. One little bit with E-Merl and Frigg trying to automate one of Rendar’s training dummies. One more Guilditization sneaking in there (hi, Rendermaw). And maybe you really wanted some assurance that Annunziata did not live happily ever after despite his escape from custody, as chronicled in one of our Ask an Adventurers. If so, enjoy.
I have picked on Flo a fair bit in these annotations. Acknowledging our conflicts was the only honest way to do the annotations at all…and the only interesting way, really. But the texture of this story’s universe, the discipline to keep pushing for better, the protestor’s energy at its heart…are just three of the many, many things I still love about this completed work that came directly from her. Thanks, old friend.
FB: Time really flies when you update a webcomic three times a week for nearly ten years.
Is HAMMERHEAD seeing something of his old allies and foes in the musical land sharks, or is that just normal land shark culture?
Every panel shows the progression of Best & Co’s airship through the sky. The background farmers, Hammerhead, and Ardaic are taking notice of it
Yes, noted, but not the question.
Have Landsharks always been able to play music and wear shoes, or are these signs of an emerging culture?
Oh dang I actually hadn’t noticed that the airship was over the landsharks, though. So that does at least partially answer my question, but I would still like to know if the land sharks are evolving here or if it’s just HAMMERHEAD seeing one last sight of Payet Best…
I think it’s mainly the sign of someone paid for a character cameo and chose “race: land shark, class: musician, equipment: xylo-bone (and a couple other less relevant things).”
Given the juxtaposition of the land sharks on the left tearing each other apart and the land sharks on the right dancing, I would say the latter.
Funny that the Bial Vezk vignette is the only one where the airship is not noticed. “What do your elf eyes see?” well nothing, they’re distracted by the guests!
We showed a land shark capable of joining the Cultists. Though I grumbled about it at the time, I’d say Rendermaw here is a similar outlier…not a sign that everyone’s started doing what he’s doing.
Gralor not tagged. It’s really only tagged in its appearance in Ask An Adventure, though.
Quick math says that we’ve spent with Guilded Age for about fourteen years. Time flies like an arrow, really…
I feel like Annunziata, if pressed, would still call this living his best life under the circumstances. He went on the lam in his own warship; presumably he envisioned fighting battles in some capacity.
I suspect you give him credit for a level of sincerity he doesn’t actually possess.
Honestly, I really don’t mind the thought of Annunziata having escaped Gastonia. Once Syr’Nj had been betrayed, I’d say it was 50-50 the Heads of Houses would have brought him back in some capacity anyway. And the thought of this small part of the past mess still being around to cause trouble or whatever makes the comic-world feel a bit more alive to me.
Of course, that particular ambition of Annunziata’s seems to have met a sudden end here courtesy of Gralor, so I guess it’s all been wrapped up anyway.
For what it’s worth, this monologue gave me some closure as this story was ending. I dunno, it just felt right.
What’s the story behind Frigg and E-Merl’s reactions in the 4th panel?
Frigg’s giving a thumbs-down, indicating that this practice dummy doesn’t meet the standards she has for honing her students’ skills. E-Merl puzzles over it and wonders if it can be fixed. Both of them are too focused on the business of the moment to pay much attention to the artifact of wonder in the sky.