Chapter 46 – Page 27
And that’s it for Chapter 46, folks. Only four more after this.
I’m not crying… I’m not crying!
Chapter 47 will begin next Wednesday, stay tuned for a very special announcement this coming Monday!
Annotations Every Day - Written by T Campbell & Flo Kahn - Illustrated by John & Jason Waltrip
R.I.P. Harky, you honorable asshole.
Yup. He was a good villain; you could understand his point of view, even empathize with him, never mind that his version of peace would have meant genocide. And his battle against the gang back in the day will remain a crowning moment of awesome. I’ll miss him.
Yeah, when introduced in Chapter 8, Harky seemed the typical “RRARGH CRUSH DESTROY” type you’d expect from an NPC villain. But in subsequent appearances we got to see him as more of a rounded character, genuinely caring about his race’s welfare (rather than being an “it’s all about me” sort), taking an almost fatherly pride in Penk’s able rise to leadership, and continuing to show it even as their philosophies diverged.
At the same time, there was more of Iver in him than he would have been willing to admit. His reasons for endless war may have been different, but the end result would be much the same. And the hypocrisy of making common cause with the Landsharks, who still consider the Trolls to be prey according to Hammerhead, while refusing to even glance at the Wood Elves, Gnomes, disaffected Humans, and so forth, was just ridiculous. We’ll have to wait and see if Penk does any better, but in the end, Harky really was his own worst enemy.
This got me thinking about a line from another great comic, that to me captures Harky too: “Charitably… I think… sometimes, perhaps, one must change or die. And, in the end, there were, perhaps, limits to how much he could let himself change.”
“The King of Dreams learns he must change or die, and makes his choice”
Perfect Gravatar for that.
You’re not crying, Phil, but I am. This stupid little … awesome, mind-blowing, superbly drawn, supremely imagined … strip has brought me reliable joy the past years. Not to mention I get to unload all the puns that build up in my head here, 3 times a week. Without it, how shall I deal with my punstipation?
It’s time to start celebrating how special GA is while we still have a forum here to do so. By the way, this comment forum is fantastic. Easy to access, great average potatos (common-taters), boldly placed under the strip. I am bowing, curtseying, and clapping simultaneously.
And now I’m faceplanted onto the floor.
This. Times a thousand. A million.
So much for his boyhood crush on Harky.
Oh he put a crush on Harky all right
He gave Harky an Orange Crush.
Why not show the damage? Damn dude. I’ve been waiting for this.
Is it really necessary to show what a humanoid’s head looks like after is has been crushed with a mace? It is an extremely gruesome image and I, for one, am glad it was decided that they wouldn’t focus on it. Best to leave it to the imagination.
Yeah, but did he blow open his head like a balloon or did they just mess up his face a bit, it’s weird to me. He took that hit with the gigadrum without much slowing him down, then got cracked in the head with the same hammer with roughly from one can tell, the same force. It’s inconsistent and weird to me, I’m thinking more ‘if they don’t show him with a “Oh yeah damn, he dead” shot, it might not have been that bad and he’s gonna pull through’. The comic has established people can survive some pretty retarded shit or come back on a regular basis. Sepia world, yeah, no question, but here? A few clumps of hair, a crying birdman and some sad/shocked dudes don’t really cut it, there’s ways to show without showing.
he’s dead. leave it at that.
No, the drum was a sonic and possibly flame attack. It was distributed across his body. This was the same force applied to a much smaller area, one that was already damaged (his skull is dented before Penk delivers the finishing blow. That skull was much less equipped to take a hit at that point)
Yeah, I’m going to just wait for the respawn timer for next Tuesday’s raid. Essentially, he aint dead until he’s cremated, you never know!
There’s only so much that a concavitated skull can show. We saw the impact, we don’t need to see the result. All of us have really (gross, sick, detailed) good imaginations.
There’s nothing left to show. :|
Charred flesh is hard to draw.
-9999
Aww, I was hoping I could get it in red for the full effect.
So I guess it’s the sith rule of two.
This is the best favor Harky could do for Penk. He had to represent the old ways so that those who believed in the old ways could feel represented. He had to unite the tribe under one ruler, and that ruler had to be Penk. He knew that the Trolls most stuck in the past would only follow Penk if Penk killed him.
I’d go so far as to say that Harky actually agreed 100% with Penk and knew the tribe needed to change or die, but if he did it himself, arbitrarily, by fiat, they’d lose more people along the way than if this was fought out, might easily lose the alliance with the Goblins and/or the Savasi, the old guard needed a public representation in the debate if they were going to accept the changes.
so he represented them himself, he said what many needed to hear, and he took the defeat personally that that side of the argument needed to experience if they were going to be able to deal with this new direction. Having done that it was time to die, and he knew that, so that the old guard couldn’t hold onto him as a reason to ignore Penk.
And no, Harky wasn’t pulling his punches — Penk had to earn it. But he’d spent an extended period of time buffing Penk over 9000 and it was obvious that the student had surpassed the master. He knew that going in, knew he’d lose, and I think he WANTED to lose because he liked the new generation Penk proposed to lead the tribe in — but if he ever gave a hint of that Penk’s whole coup would fail and it’s the last thing Harky wanted was to see that happen. The whole thing was masterfully organized by Harky as a way to deliberately strengthen Penk’s position and make sure the Rebellion moved into the future rather than fracturing or falling apart.
The World’s Rebellion is now solidly in Penk’s hands to see what he’ll do with it — exactly what Harky wanted.
I disagree. I think Harky believed in what he said. I think however, he was okay with the idea of losing. First, the religious truth of it might be something Iver had right: If two avatar’s of the same god fight, the winner is somebody that God is at least okay with, if not approving of. Harky might not understand why Tetonicus would allow this, but he’d understand that he did. Though I do agree that he set things up so that if he lost, that’d be okay. But I don’t think he was anything but sincere in what he said. He was willing to die if he was wrong, but in part that was because he didn’t want to live to see it.
I also disagree. I think, though, that this duel worked as a win-win gambit for trollkind and, indeed, the world’s rebellion; either way, unity would emerge from division. Just at the cost of a life.
Better alt text ending: “or you can beat the skin that is pounded to make the beat.”
He’s really grown. Even though he mourns the death of his hero and friend, he understands that it was the price for a change of era.
;n;
Ooh, crazy’s what they think about me
Ain’t gonna stop ’cause Harky told me so
‘Cause I believe in peace baby,
And if you don’t your head will roll.
Can’t keep up with my rhythm
Though we Troll-‘ll keep trying.
Too quick for the wars they throw.
I walk to the sound of my own drum,
We go, they go, we go, hey yeah yeah yeah
Oh, here we go
Feel it in my soul
Really mean it, mean it, so go
Gotta feel it, Techtonicus takes control
Really mean it, mean it
I wake up to the city of Elves
To see my name headlining the Human coast
Gravedust say I’m a walking dreamer, baby
If I stop they would make the show
Can’t keep up with my rhythm
Though they keep trying.
Too quick for the lines they throw.
WE walk to the sound of OUR own drum,
We go, they’ll go, we’ll all go, hey yeah yeah yeah
I hope he cleans his face first. It will be hard for anyone to believe he’s about peace otherwise.
He’s about the best kind of peace. The best kind of peace is the way ‘Murica makes peace. The best peace is when you bomb the enemy flat and force them to unconditionally surrender so no one doubts you won, then you set up the most magnanimous peace you can so the enemy is in no doubt that the next time they try to fight you it could easily go much worse for them. Germany and Japan haven’t been a problem for 70 years, because they had to accept that kind of peace. If we could find a way to do the same to the Islamic radicals, we really would have peace in our times.
(Takes off hat in respect) PEACE! And RIP Harky.
The chief is dead. Long live the chief.
Your gravatar is somehow appropriate.
I really like the visual metaphor of harkey’s spear broken in 4 pieces in panel 2
I’d put money down that Harky actually agreed with Penk and staged the fight so he could lose it. He didn’t throw the fight, that wouldn’t be honorable, but he set the situation up so that he could represent those who might most vehemently disagree with Penk’s position, so that he could take the fall and deprive them of an argument.
The best thing he could possibly do for Penk’s position in the tribe is to fight him and die. Makes me think that he really had no problem with what Penk was doing, but given his position. this was the best contribution he could make to his protegee’s cause.
It’s a bit more complex than that, I think… but then again, isn’t it always?
I’ll take a stab at a more accurate summary: They’ve sacrificed the privilege of that simplicity. Harky really did passionately disagree with Penk, but knew he would rest in peace if Penk proved himself equally passionate instead of naively idealistic. If he proved himself willing to make the kind of sacrifices that a person cannot make, but an avatar must.
Harky had to give his all, even if it meant possibly killing his own herald and successor, to make sure that this nobility he had seen in Penk wasn’t the idealism that he attributed his past disillusionment about humans to. He had to make sure it was determination. If Penk succeeded, Harky could die in peace knowing that his herald had grown and burned with a fire worthy of Tectonicus’s (and his own) pride. If Penk failed… He would die in glory instead of living to see his dreams crushed like Harky’s were.
Who would’ve thought the scrawny little drummer boy would go so far?
And the beat goes on.
Harky thought he would. That’s why he chose him to be his herald, his champion.
His sucessor.
Penk certainly has a knack for this whole inspirational speech thing.
Did anyone notice that Tectonicus is not smiling at all?
Look at the mace.
LOOK AT IT.
It’s not smiling but it is beaming with light
Nah, Disapproving Mace isn’t a mouthpiece for Tectonicus. He just provides the glowy fireshit. The frown is all Mace.
Next chapter, they’re met by the border guard: “Gastonia? Sorry, buddy, you’re in the wrong place. This ain’t Gastonia. This here’s Iwatania.”
Kind of hard to march on a place that doesn’t exist anymore. ;)
And then HAMMERHEAD charges in and annihilates Penk before ordering everyone to kill all of Gastonia and their allies.
Posting to say:
I love the alt text. It really resonates with me.
While not in those particular words, it’s a hard lesson I’ve had to learn in life.
Thank you.
“Boo!! Boo!!! Whaddaya mean, We’ll make PEAS?!?! We want MEAT!!! Forget you, you dirt-grubbing vegan! We’re outta here!”