Noooo not the hair…especially after that last vote incentive! Great action scene in the third-to-last panel, though. I can almost hear the sounds of the battle.
Cutting her hair seemed to be almost more traumatic than everything else that had happened to her (at least, that’s how it appears to me, but to tend to miss many things and see things that weren’t)
Also: I still can’t believe this guy is a family man. It’s hard enough to imagine a woman who willingly betrothed herself to this cold-hearted monster, let alone understand how he cares so much that his daughter’s birthday was a success. Maybe he made up the story? Hmm… Do they have arranged marriages in this world?
Sadly, the “us vs them” attitude is routinely seen as friendly/caring/etc. for those they put on the “us” side. He sees his daughter as “us”, and thus his actions towards her are neither cold-hearted nor monstrous; his wife doubtless the same. Aray, on the other hand, he decided was guilty, and therefore he sees her as “them”… and what we see here is how he treats “them”.
One trick as a writer is every character sees themself as the hero of their own story. Often that story has a different plot, and sometime it’s in a different genre. So if you accept his twisted assumptions and call him the hero, then what’s the plot? He sees himself as defending the town against criminals and monsters. His “them” category exist to serve this insane notion of justice.
Some little girl is going to be very sad to lose her doting provider, and if you told her what was going on in this dungeon, she’d probably deny it specifically for being out-of-character for him. But what’s the plot of her story?
This is why I’m unhappy about the darkness in this arc. Less victory, more tragedy.
It’s a pretty dark time in my life, so we get dark pages. Also, it’s very possible that Hillarc is a total dick to his children and his daughter will be happy to see him go.
The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity. May you dark days be past you soon. Stay brave and strong. There are people out here who care and will help however they can.
I suppose that makes sense, in a twisted sort of way. It did not help Aray any that she was an outsider, rather than a villager. That automatically put her in the “them” category as she was not an “us.”
Though, in my imagination, when he saw Maeye’s evidence that Arayanna was innocent of the crime she was charged with, he chose to find reasons to keep her guilty – to dispose of her. To even consider that she might be innocent would be admitting that he may have been the villain, rather than the hero, as you put it. And Aray’s tortured state would be found out by the public. I’m guessing the townsfolk wouldn’t take kindly to an innocent receiving that kind of treatment. (Of course, a guilty party is another story.) He has power to hold onto and an image to uphold, after all…
Well, the rabbit hole goes deeper >_< Reread the pages where he first meets her. By “his twisted assumptions”, I meant that he already decided she was guilty in absentia, and without evidence. He ran with the testimony, accepted her guilt as an axiom, and proceeded from there. So his disregarding new testimony doesn’t surprise me much… In his mind, this isn’t her being exonerated, this is her still being guilty but getting away because of legal technicalities. He’s now willing to break the law in order to, in his head, bring comeuppance to a villain who would otherwise escape.
Yea, so this guy just likes to hurt people and uses his office and his power to get away with it. We’ll find out more about his other victims in a bit, but Aray was easy prey. She is an outsider, she has a physical anomally that automatically makes her an outcast (her ears) and she was not around long enough to really make and allies in town. Plus, she had the misforture to come to the town when the people were in fear of the “mist creature” and were looking for a scapegoat. (Yes…this is oozing with social and political commentary.)
This was one of the first examples of the extreme prejudice against magic users that infects the land. The torture makes this an extreme example – that is just Hillarc’s sick twist on it – but there are plenty of places throughout Prentil where a person will instantly be put to death for openly using magic.
Most of the history’s greatest atrocities were done by otherwise ordinary people who thought that they were doing a good thing. If the “other” was supposedly evil, then almost any act can be sanctioned.
So many examples come to mind. The Nazis (of course), Blacks lynched in the deep South (and the perpetrators posing for a photo like they were having a picnic and then going to church), Japanese atrocities during WWII (weren’t they supposed to be Buddhists?), the list goes on.
Of course some of these mofos were brought to justice; it wasn’t like they were going to turn themselves in.
There are lots of twisted people in the world that manage to pull off dual lives. Basically the moral of this story is just because someone puts up a good front and holds a badge of office doesn’t mean they should be given unrestricted reign.
All dressed in uniforms so fine,
They drank and killed to pass the time,….
They carried pictures of their wives,
And numbered tags to prove their lives,
They walked in line,
They walked in line…
Noooo not the hair…especially after that last vote incentive! Great action scene in the third-to-last panel, though. I can almost hear the sounds of the battle.
Sorry about the hair! But hey, it’s a land of magic…maybe we can do something about it. Thank you for the compliment!
New incentive up, too. And it’s a hot one. 😀
Smoking! 😀
Yup, that is the best part (not counting what happens after the show 😉 )
Hehe!
Why do I have a feeling that Arayanna and Kraghen have a history.
Let’s hope it’s a positive one
That is an interesting thought… 🙂
Kill him quick, slowly just gives him a chance to escape!!!!
No no … slowly! give the “mist monster” time to get in *grins*
Don’t worry – he won’t be escaping.
Don’t care if he doesn’t escape, as long as he dies!!!
(also don’t care if that gets me ISP banned, again, from a second webic)
No…that is not even close to getting you banned, my friend.
It has happened before (but then again, the author found posts from me to be “too depressing to read”)
Hoping Aray’s magic wasn’t in her hair, like Samson
LOL. No, no magic in her hair. 🙂
Cutting her hair seemed to be almost more traumatic than everything else that had happened to her (at least, that’s how it appears to me, but to tend to miss many things and see things that weren’t)
You didn’t miss anything this time – you are spot on. 🙂
Okay, so it was something to do with the hair, can wait to find out what it was
He clearly wanted to get between her legs, but… I’m sure that’s not what he had in mind.
I was thinking the same thing when I put that together. If it was me, my last act would be to try to turn around. 🙂
Also: I still can’t believe this guy is a family man. It’s hard enough to imagine a woman who willingly betrothed herself to this cold-hearted monster, let alone understand how he cares so much that his daughter’s birthday was a success. Maybe he made up the story? Hmm… Do they have arranged marriages in this world?
Sadly, the “us vs them” attitude is routinely seen as friendly/caring/etc. for those they put on the “us” side. He sees his daughter as “us”, and thus his actions towards her are neither cold-hearted nor monstrous; his wife doubtless the same. Aray, on the other hand, he decided was guilty, and therefore he sees her as “them”… and what we see here is how he treats “them”.
One trick as a writer is every character sees themself as the hero of their own story. Often that story has a different plot, and sometime it’s in a different genre. So if you accept his twisted assumptions and call him the hero, then what’s the plot? He sees himself as defending the town against criminals and monsters. His “them” category exist to serve this insane notion of justice.
Some little girl is going to be very sad to lose her doting provider, and if you told her what was going on in this dungeon, she’d probably deny it specifically for being out-of-character for him. But what’s the plot of her story?
This is why I’m unhappy about the darkness in this arc. Less victory, more tragedy.
It’s a pretty dark time in my life, so we get dark pages. Also, it’s very possible that Hillarc is a total dick to his children and his daughter will be happy to see him go.
<hugs>
thank you!
The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity. May you dark days be past you soon. Stay brave and strong. There are people out here who care and will help however they can.
<3
I suppose that makes sense, in a twisted sort of way. It did not help Aray any that she was an outsider, rather than a villager. That automatically put her in the “them” category as she was not an “us.”
Though, in my imagination, when he saw Maeye’s evidence that Arayanna was innocent of the crime she was charged with, he chose to find reasons to keep her guilty – to dispose of her. To even consider that she might be innocent would be admitting that he may have been the villain, rather than the hero, as you put it. And Aray’s tortured state would be found out by the public. I’m guessing the townsfolk wouldn’t take kindly to an innocent receiving that kind of treatment. (Of course, a guilty party is another story.) He has power to hold onto and an image to uphold, after all…
Well, the rabbit hole goes deeper >_< Reread the pages where he first meets her. By “his twisted assumptions”, I meant that he already decided she was guilty in absentia, and without evidence. He ran with the testimony, accepted her guilt as an axiom, and proceeded from there. So his disregarding new testimony doesn’t surprise me much… In his mind, this isn’t her being exonerated, this is her still being guilty but getting away because of legal technicalities. He’s now willing to break the law in order to, in his head, bring comeuppance to a villain who would otherwise escape.
Yea, so this guy just likes to hurt people and uses his office and his power to get away with it. We’ll find out more about his other victims in a bit, but Aray was easy prey. She is an outsider, she has a physical anomally that automatically makes her an outcast (her ears) and she was not around long enough to really make and allies in town. Plus, she had the misforture to come to the town when the people were in fear of the “mist creature” and were looking for a scapegoat. (Yes…this is oozing with social and political commentary.)
This was one of the first examples of the extreme prejudice against magic users that infects the land. The torture makes this an extreme example – that is just Hillarc’s sick twist on it – but there are plenty of places throughout Prentil where a person will instantly be put to death for openly using magic.
Most of the history’s greatest atrocities were done by otherwise ordinary people who thought that they were doing a good thing. If the “other” was supposedly evil, then almost any act can be sanctioned.
So many examples come to mind. The Nazis (of course), Blacks lynched in the deep South (and the perpetrators posing for a photo like they were having a picnic and then going to church), Japanese atrocities during WWII (weren’t they supposed to be Buddhists?), the list goes on.
Of course some of these mofos were brought to justice; it wasn’t like they were going to turn themselves in.
Every once in a while, justice prevails.
No, Japanese tended to be Shinto, not Buddhists
You are forgetting the Allied Atrocities, conveniently as they ‘won’ the war
There are lots of twisted people in the world that manage to pull off dual lives. Basically the moral of this story is just because someone puts up a good front and holds a badge of office doesn’t mean they should be given unrestricted reign.
And the moral of this page is don’t turn your back on the woman you just attempted to rape.
Thought the moral of the story was “if you are a dick, keep it in your pants”
LOL
I really hope Aray broke his f-ing neck or that this guy is going to get a serious ass kicking from multiple people.
Hey there! I was starting to worry about you. 🙂
Yeah, that.
All dressed in uniforms so fine,
They drank and killed to pass the time,….
They carried pictures of their wives,
And numbered tags to prove their lives,
They walked in line,
They walked in line…