Chapter 2: Page 10
With Quinlan being the newest and least-experienced captain in the Western Deep, it makes sense for Kenosh to force him to make his first tough choice. One of the fun things about any form of sequential long-form storytelling is that you can smash forward like this and leave a lot of what just transpired to the reader’s imagination. Another is that decisions like these can come back later in all sorts of ways.
click to enlarge
This doesn’t have to literally mean that the bandits return, though! The result of a binary choice like Quinlan’s can manifest itself in a number of different ways, all very potentially interesting to me and Rachel as storytellers. It’s not just the result of the decision, but the reasoning behind the decision. Obviously, Quinlan weighs the decision of life and death carefully — we also know he was never keen on the idea of being saddled with such heavy choices in the first place.
Do you think he made the right decision?
Oh, man, what to say, what to say. Anticlimax, or narrative genius? I’m leaning toward the latter, although the brilliance of the art on this page – both literally and figuratively – certainly nudges me in that direction. When my eye first took in the graphics, I was like, “Wait, what … but it’s so beautiful!” That overhead perspective of the left panel makes the whole page, but there’s great stuff throughout, both in the dialogue and the expressions. On the whole, I would say a wise choice made, even if it did sort of pull the rug out from under our expectations – or perhaps precisely because of that. Enjoy your Labor Day weekend, guys, because you certainly earned it!
i like the choice to cut to this the way it did. It still allows us to know what happened, but doesn’t take up the one or two pages it would normally require, and now we get to see what may be a pretty important moment- as far as character development goes- between Dakkan and Kenosh.
Frankly I’m disappointed in this resolution, it feels way too sudden. The last panel ended in a tense standoff with neither side having the upper hand, so I’d have expected to see either the bandits struggling before surrendering or some intimidating dialogue being exchanged. Now the climax of that scene happened off-screen which is a huge letdown. Ya blew it, Alex and Rachel.
The colors in this panel are really nice, though!
Tentatively agreeing. I really wanted to see Kenosh doing a move or two, but we had the abrupt cut, and while I understand the purpose for it, I’m also disappointed.
This page does have beautiful coloring, though. And Dakkan is about to get (probably another) verbal smackdown from Kenosh for that Ermehn comment of his. Dear Tesque, Dakkan; think before you speak!
I agree with Altairey and Highwing. The bandit fight (or lack thereof) was not important in terms of learning about the characters. I do not believe that we loose anything by not seeing it.
It is interesting to me that the decision to let the bandits go was made by Quinlain but Dakkan is directing his ire towards his father and not his friend.
Also: Dakkan is so annoyed his speech bubbles are fraying at the bottom.
Also also: SaraaLuna, I’m sure we will get to see Kenosh fight eventually.
It’s kinda hard to see it at this resolution, but Quin is grimacing as Kenosh reminds Dak whose decision it really was, heh. Quin’s definitely not walking right next to him for a reason. X)
As for the abrupt scene cut – we had it jump here because all versions of the bandit fight post-Kenosh dragged pretty badly, and we liked how this worked a little better. But I’m happy to hear everyone’s opinions, and it’ll also be useful to read back over the jump once there’s a scene to continue into. If it still needs help, I’m sure we can polish it up a bit. c:
True, we don’t lose anything by not seeing it, but I feel like we momentarily lost momentum by not even having half a page of struggle, at least every bandits’ realizations that they’re screwed. Then again, whenever any comic I’m reading has made a cut like this, it doesn’t work for me 90% of the time, so those are some of my personal preferences coming out.
Dakkan is probably angry that Kenosh gave Quin a choice to start with after he had control over the situation.
And yes, I bet we will. And I will try not to make any comments about “the old guy busting a move.” *cough*
Actually the fight would important for learning about the characters – for example, the bandits are holding Kenosh’s son at spear point, how he acts would tell a lot about him and the relation between him and Dakkan. Besides, so far we have been shown the setup and the aftermath of the conflict, but we are lacking the actual climax – like a sneeze that doesn’t come. We are being told, not shown what happened and this is an important distinction.
I don’t doubt Rachel when she tells us that post-fight Kenosh scenes dragged, but here’s the thing: we do not need to be told how he reacted, since all we need is to see sulking Dakkan. Based on what we have been shown of Kenosh’s personality it’s easy to imagine how livid he must’ve been!
But we haven’t been shown how competent fighters Kenosh (and Dakkan and Quinlan) are in a real life-and-death situation. We cannot imagine how the fight went down, and that’s why being told that the bandits gave up quickly feels lazy. Did Kenosh intimidate the bandits into surrendering? Did he attack their leader or tried to save his son first? What did Quinlan do when he saw an opportunity to draw his bow? All these actions would tell a very different story about the personalities of the protagonists and the relationships between them.
Seriously, just a couple of panels showing how the situation was resolved would help, tremendously.
I’m guessing Dakkan’s about to get a scolding about how you can’t be racist if you’re a diplomat or something like that.
Notice how Kenosh has taken his staff away. He’s really, really disappointed in his son right now!
Kenosh has also confiscated his XBOX and forbidden him from eating sugary snacks for an entire week.
I just realized Kenosh is carrying Dakkan’s staff. Maybe as punishment for getting captured so easily.
I think Quin made the right choice. And the art on this page is awesome!
The low mist, the morning sky! I get the strong impression that it is absolutely calm. This is my favourite page.
I like the way the grass is disturbed where they’ve stepped in the first panel. It’s just a subtle little detail, but it really anchors the characters to the environment.
I think the abrupt cut was a good decision. Today’s page gets across the character development that would have come from the fight without having to devote a month of pages to it. The fight was already decided at the end of the last page: In the blink of an eye Quinlan could have had another arrow ready, and the only bandit who seemed hardened enough to kill their only hostage was the Felis in no position to do so.
The was also the one with the spear who, by the way, should have stopped pretending to be a ninja and taken the blindfold off. Kenosh wouldn’t have had such an easy time sneaking on them that way.
The detail IS indeed loable!
tbh I really like the abrubt cut. I wasn’t expecting it and I personally think it works much better than showing the fight would have. =D
…as it turns out, we don’t get to see the resolution at all. We just hear it described to us.
I’m very torn over what to think of that. On one paw, I was really surprised when I first saw this page, having never expected that we would cut away from the last scene when the tension was so high. I would’ve liked to see the actual aftermath for myself, and the choice Kenosh let Quinlan make, rather than merely being told about it. Besides, the backstory of the bandits seem like it would’ve been a very intriguing one, and I’m a bit disappointed it was never revealed to us. On the other, I do acknowledge that such a thing might’ve made the scene drag too long and it was better to simply get the plot moving (though in that case, you might ask why the scene with the bandits was even necessary in the first place. Couldn’t the information about Aisling and King Janus have been transmitted to us, say, on these pages directly following the ones with our heroes travelling that opened the chapter?)
Still, this is a beautifully drawn page, where our main characters apparently have left the woodlands of the Western Deep behind for the rolling hills and grasslands of Aisling. We get to see a darker side to Dakkan, who considers it foolish to show any mercy to brigands like Quin just did, and who feel that Ermehn properly belong in the northern wastes and nowhere else – I think this is the angriest we’ve ever seen him. And Kenosh once again reveals himself as surprisingly sympathetic to the Ermehn. It’s very intriguing that the old warrior, who in many stories would be portrayed as cold, harsh and merciless, actually displays more pity and compassion for his old foes than his son does. It’s another facet to his personality that makes him very likeable.
One question, another one that Wing pointed out: it seems that Kenosh is carrying Dak’s staff in this page. Did he take it from him as punishment? If so, for what? For his lack of attention in allowing the bandits to sneak up on them? For having talked back when Quinlan decided to spare them?
Btw, I forgot to comment on your “Pacific Rim” poster last page. That one was really awesome, and even though I haven’t seen the film, that poster alone almost makes me want to!
I can see why you went this way and it makes sense to leave yourself with narrative breathing room. However, it’s not nearly as binary as it seems. The 3 of them could’ve done anything along the continuum of “we surrender to you, oh great and powerful thieves” to “Die die die!”.