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[PA Comic] Friday, October 19, 2012 - Thornwatch, Part Two
Geth
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
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Wow. Just.... Wow.
http://penny-arcade.com/2012/10/08
I think you've possibly misread things a bit here. Go back and look at the first comic carefully. What's happened is the monster has killed his friends and he's fleeing from the battle, knowing he would simply die next if he kept going. Does that mean he's broken his oath? No, not necessarily. Because what is he doing? Summoning the Thornwatch, perhaps with Bent Bow for battles he can’t fight alone? Eh, ehhh? The first comic does NOT call the boy an Oathbreaker, it shows an image of a boy losing a battle and running while calling the THORNWATCH Oathbreakers. In the context of using the entire poem over the story, I don't think we're meant to draw your conclusion.
(Also I could be wrong and he could join them in the end after they save him. But I don't think there would be the whole mystique if calling the Thornwatch necessarily meant joining them.)
Looks like a timber hitch, sort of, to pick a real world knot. Might be twainward, because a timber hitch is when you wrap a rope twice (twain) and then drop a loop inside it (ward)? I'm not sure. Bent bow makes the most sense with the last comic.
I'm assuming that he's not necessarily joining the thornwatch, but there will probably be a major price to pay for calling them (maybe joining), as that would be the reason society dictates that it's wrong to call them.
It could be as simple as the fact that the Thornwatch probably know why some of the mores of their society are wrong/silly, and once you communicate with the thornwatch the elders cast you out for fear you might disrupt society.
I imagine that summoning the forbidden assistance of Thornwatch probably makes him an oathbreaker, even if running away did not. If it were known that he did so, he may have no alternative but to join them or die alone in the wilderness.
Edit: I voted for Automata because it's awesome and The Lookouts world just didn't seem very fleshed out at the time. They've really put a lot more into it between then and now and I'm really digging it.
No, I'm quite sure he's broken his oath. I mean, their motto is "May we die in the forest," So I'd assume that running away or seeking help like that is something they shouldn't do.
... My, what a boring Signature.
Well... running away back to town and announcing all your buddies died but you escaped is definitely bad. Coming back victorious and yeah I umm totally did it by myself? He may get away with. In fact, I would guess that unless the Thornwatch gets new recruits this way (they may very well), they would help and then disappear so that the kid isn't punished/killed. The way Gabe originally discussed the Thornwatch made it sound like there were very few of them and they were super extreme. Thus, I'm guessing that using their assistance doesn't draft you into them, then there'd be too many and they wouldn't be as dedicated to doing stuff. I would guess it's more like becoming one of the Batman family, you have to seek it out for yourself in a really extreme way and only then do you have a chance of doing it.
I'm curious how broadly settled this world is. Ex: Are there any villages outside of the council's control that an oathbreaker can call home? One must assume that, if there are more than a handful of Thornwatch members that their is some kind of camp or village where the non-combatant families and children of oathbreakers might live. Or do they also live under the council's rule, their affiliation with Thornwatch a closely guarded secret?
Silver Birch
Yeah, there's red leaves, but note the BIG GREEN CLOAKS near the monster's feet? Also, there's blood (and he wasn't hurt badly enough for that much blood, you can tell by looking at him). Note also that the monster has blood dripping from its mouth. Next look at the second panel (from part 1 still) and note how you can still see the cloaks and how it is even more apparently a scene of violence, not just of threat. Finally and most convincingly, there's a sword there on the ground and the kid still has his. Unless he was dual wielding, that wasn't his (hint: he was not dual wielding).
Peter Ebel said all this already, but I wanted to more explicitly lay it out.
I request that this full series be compiled into one image when completed.
And on a different note, yes, Etrian Odyssey is wonderful. And IV is coming.
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maybe it's not even that kind. more of a, "don't you dare come back an oathbreaker, if you've fucked up, you go tie some branches to a tree and forget about showing your face back home again"
Second comic shows scratches, but scratches in areas that could be obtained by digging around in thorny bushes to get the bramble he needs..
I'm going to say that he chickened out without even engaging the enemy, which is what makes him desperate enough to call the Thornwatch.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
http://www.zeldawiki.org/Groose
Thornwatchers are self-propagating. They remember personally being in that kid's shoes, so they help them out, but full well knowing that doing so means that that kid will be ostracized and forced to live out in the wilds, just like they had been before. It's not a secret guild of the the anti-establishment, it's a cabal of guilt-ridden survivors.