Chapter 3: Page 46
Admittedly it’s hard to attempt diplomacy when you roll in with an army, murder a bunch of people, and then one of the parties gets a foreign object shoved between their shoulder blades. There is, of course, the obvious joke about “ermehn diplomacy,” but I don’t think Kenosh or Ashtor would appreciate that right now.
I’ll be entertaining friend of the comic Elson Wong this weekend (creator of the incredible Western Deep motion comic) as he visits Seattle on a whirlwind tour of the United States. In the interim, I highly recommend you swing by our community Discord and hang out with all our other friends of the comic, who are more than willing to share silly GIFs, react to images with our custom character emotes, and generally participate in all manner of shenanigans.
You can join the Discord here!
For guest art this week, a really cool piece of Hardin by urban-hart that I found on his tumblr! Check it out:
Hardin looks appropriately moody and menacing here, urban-hart! We really love the piece — thank you so much for doing it!
If you’d like to share any Western Deep-themed guest art with the community, you can share it on the artwork channel in our community Discord (link above!), or you can e-mail it to us as thewesterndeep (at) gmail (dot) com. We look forward to seeing what you dream up!
GASP!! ANOTHER TWIST?!! so ** Hardin ** is the one working with Sunsgrove..? Wait, what?? I’m just as confused as Ashtor. Hardin might be all moody and edgy but he’s got a heart. He just needs to learn to express it right, lol
That may be the best piece of fan art we’ve had here since Jerome first dropped by. Awesome pencil work there.
As to this week’s page itself, Kenosh’s Dramatic Gauntlet interposes itself into the proceedings, along with Kenosh himself. And now at least we get the start of an explanation, and the hint of an earlier episode between our crusty old Lutren and the Ermehn. Hopefully this time it won’t get cut short, leaving us hanging yet again for all that crucial exposition and backstory!
And yes, you could joke about “Ermehn diplomacy” – but let’s face it, Canid diplomacy probably works at about the same level, so maybe the two really do deserve each other.
Penultimate panel:
Rathik: ‘What’re you doing working with Sunsgrove?’
The Actual Sun: ‘Oh, hi! Did someone say my name?’
We do appreciate the sun’s willingness to help shed light on the situation!
There’s a joke: “Diplomacy is an art of saying: “Nice doggieee…” until you can find a stone.”
In this case it was “nice doggie” until Kenosh found his two-handed sword.
You know how it is: you spend fifteen minutes looking for your broadsword on every end table and down the side of every sofa cushion in the house only to find it was on your back the whole time!
How embarrassing.
“Admittedly it’s hard to attempt diplomacy when you roll in with an army, murder a bunch of people, and then one of the parties gets a foreign object shoved between their shoulder blades. There is, of course, the obvious joke about “ermehn diplomacy,” but I don’t think Kenosh or Ashtor would appreciate that right now.”
This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in these annotations in a long time. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t stop laughing.
This does explain the “wait” comments very nicely. As things have played out, I don’t think that this argument is going away anytime soon. Unfortunately for Hardin, it looks like Kenosh and the Sratha-Din are both in opposition to him on this one.
Not much for me to add today. But I couldn’t stop laughing at Rachel’s thumbnail. Specifically the last panel with Hardin’s “Did”, “Didn’t”. Hehehehe, I’m easily entertained.
Today’s page was good, I really like the lighting. A few of me artist friends here at OSU struggle with that. So props to Rachel again.
A question. How long ago did the Great War take place? When I first started reading I thought that it occurred a long time ago. But then Quinlan’s grandfather fought in some war. Was it the Oran “berry” rebellion, with Kenosh? I need a timeline.
See you all on the discord!
I wonder how much information Ashtor would have gotten out of Hardin at this point without Kenosh’s presence. The others don’t seem keen on his attacking Hardin, nor do they seem to share his intent curiosity on the matter in question. I imagine Hardin would have been able to have Ashtor removed and restrained if needed without having to divulge much of anything. I’m glad Kenosh is there to force his hand for him; secrets don’t build trust, Hardin.
Arggh. I’m confused. I thought he was good, then killed a general for no apparent reason, now says he didn’t want to do that yet, cause he wanted to do it PEACEFULLY!!? And he is dealing with a coldhearted dude who just wants to use people, by killing warroirs at their weakessed!? I hate him but like him at the same time!!!!!
“No, no, you don’t understand! I was trying to stab him in the back PEACEFULLY.”
Pfhhhh lol. Wow. Welp, I don’t think it worked! ^-^ (Dont know any puns good for this…)
This is why it’s so important to be patient. You can avoid all these awkward rides in boats later.