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[PA Comic] Friday, September 20, 2013 - The Tithe, Part Seven
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Lookouts: protect the village from the things in the forest.
Daughters: protect the forest from everything. Sometimes that means the people in the village.
Thornwatch: protect the vulnerable from the village and the forest.
So sometimes their goals align, sometimes they are opposed.
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While it's possible the above posters are correct that he doesn't want her chewed poisonberries to get into the river, but just having a corpse rotting in your water supply is bad ju-ju aplenty.
My interpretation is that the hooded guy is using reverse psychology on her, to help her accept her fate.
He's saying "If you don't like the lot you've been given, go kill yourself." He's telling her that there's no other escape other than death. She needs to buck up and accept who she is now.
*edit* and the "don't die near the river" remark is part of his snarky, sarcastic reverse psychology. He's saying "if you're going to off yourself, don't make a mess for the rest of us to have to deal with".
I agree with you this is a definite possibility, and I think I said so in my post above. I don't think this and him sincerely wanting her to die, or at least not caring if she does, are mutually exclusive though. "You want a way out? Here's a way out. Choice is yours, I couldn't care less what happens to your kind, just don't poison the river."
Perhaps Indifferent Cop is just Beaurocrat Cop.
She filled/tied out the I'm Lost form/knot.
She is not lost: problem solved.
Does she need help? Well that's a different form, and he doesn't have it with him.
He's the Walter to Greenheart's Dude: he's the only one who gives a shit about the rules.
Beard: Abstract Thinker, not really that helpful in the real world.
Greenheart: Tries to be super-supportive but can get annoying, and is not actually that helpful.
Steve: Not really specified, but sounds like just evil/mean.
So my read on this was that he genuinely scorns the girl and/or Daughters in general, and is telling her to go FOAD.
I get the impression Thornwatch is sort of a last resort?
When no one else is capable of helping you, you gotta wonder what your last resort is really going to do?
The Thornwatch aren't loved by the Lookouts because as far as we know they're made up entirely of Lookouts who've broken their oaths and other people who've abandoned the (seemingly somewhat arcane and arbitrary) codes of the society the Lookouts protect. The Thornwatch are seen as a threat to the order of things.
Or, like cats, their definition of "help" is often wrong.
How do you kill someone that's both a person and a plant? Fire or axes.
Don't ask an elf for advice, for they will say both yes and no.
Sorry that just made me think of that.
You turn around, the three Thornwatch dudes are somehow under the fitted sheet you already put on.
"Eat as many as you can, witch." with an extremely unfriendly look on his face. Dude's telling her to kill herself.
i have to say that the comic where the Thornwatch shows up after she ties the knot...it gave me chills!
so well done!
"Lookouts: protect the village from the things in the forest.
Daughters: protect the forest from everything. Sometimes that means the people in the village.
Thornwatch: protect the vulnerable from the village and the forest.
So sometimes their goals align, sometimes they are opposed."
You can have many different interactions with a Daughter. They could be positive and they could be very negative. The Warrior is saying "we can't help you" he's not making a judgment call or offering advice. He was called to solve a problem. There is no problem he can solve. end of story.
The Greenheart is a sort of druid. he has a (compared to a Daughter of the Eyrewood) limited connection to the forest. To him what she is about to go through is probably beautiful. In a way he might even be jealous of the power she's coming into? He knows he cannot "solve" her problem in the way she wants but he (in a condescending way?) is at least trying to comfort her.
The Blade has probably had bad experiences with Daughters, Mothers or maybe even crones in the past. Imagine if the only Jedi you ever met was Darth Vader. In his opinion she is a witch and he knows better than to interfere but he can't help but offer up his own "advice".
I love this world so much and I hope that passion comes through in the artwork. Seeing how into it you all are is a real inspiration so thank you.
Plus she probably weighs about as much as A duck! and is therefore a witch.
Or on the other hand, how her parents will feel when they wake up to find their daughter tithed to the forest so that they can continue to exist peacefully within it. I'd imagine reactions and perceptions about that vary from person to person and town to town, but it can't be one many parents would be happy about. Hell, I know I might say "screw your rules, I'm not gonna be a part of this" and join up with a bunch of renegades if I had a child taken, even if I knew it's probably for the greater good and all that.
And even then, there's the bittersweet knowledge that your daughter's out there, alive and doing who knows how well? But there's a chance that she's become something wonderful and is perfectly happy too, even though you'll likely never see her again. Emotional stuff, man.
Goddammit, I want to play in this world now more than ever.
This sounds awesome. I think one of these 'crones' may have been the woman who showed up in Lookouts #06 - she certainly wasn't the type to give good impressions.
Nah, it just means he doesn't want her body fouling up a potable source of water.
I'm picturing MMO-style concept art.
Really, can we all just sit down and talk it out?
Main thing seems to be, she summoned them for help, each of them is providing some way put, be it acceptance or death. The Eyrewood does not seem like a place rich on mercy and kindness. The trees probably have specially adapted root networks to draw that stuff away.
I know you guys don't read the forums for very good reasons, but thanks for dropping in here. I wanted to say that my young daughter is just starting school, and every day I have pulled up a new Tithe comic I've seen her, struggling to understand the world and her new role in it. Terrifying to be pulled out of the nest, but with tantalizing personal fulfillment if the course is stayed.
The feels are strong enough to make me want to throw a curse in your general direction, for making the feels so strong. Instead I'll say well done and keep re-reading the story because something new keeps popping out every time I look at them. And also, the art. Wow. You mentioned getting some help with the hands, and that was what popped out to me in the first few parts. The hands are incredibly emotive in the first few panels, suggesting to me both purposeful intent and fearful anticipation. Not sure if that's what you were going for but if so, you nailed it. Every panel, every part. Thx.
Well, the same goes in the political world a lot of the time in real life. How many big, complex issues deserving of deep, involved discussion end up, in practice, getting boiled down to a catchy little slogan, often rhyming, that can get repeatedly shouted into a camera? (Just off the top of my head: "Flip-flop!" "Bush lied, people died!" "Hey-hey, ho-ho, X has got to go!") It's just that here the slogans are four lines instead of four words, and they sound a lot deeper and wiser because they're in poetry form, even if they're not wise at all.
Imagine if half the shit said on cable-news programs right now were said in the form of four-line poems, without changing the sentiment of the statements.
I'm very excited to see how these kinds of interactions continue to develop. I need more of this world. It needs to exist, in all possible forms, ASAP.
I wrote a little piece of fanfic (a children's rhyme actually, like the others we've seen about the Daughters) and sent it to Mike and Jerry. Mike was kind enough to reply with a "totally awesome" so I thought I'd share it here.
Fires in the forest
one, two, three
Fires in the forest
one, two, three
Daughter leads the dancing
four, five, six
Daughter leads the dancing
four, five, six
Mother calls the steps
seven, eight, nine,
Mother calls the steps
seven, eight, nine
Bones in the ashes, midnight's wife
Count to ten and run for your life
(In the reference to "midnight's wife" I was kind of trying to suggest the existence of a Crone, since we've seen maidens and Mothers. I'm pretty thrilled to see Mike basically confirm that in his comment above.)
Second, I think we all might have missed a specific plot point dealing with what the Thornwatch can do. Hanna tied the Crow's Loop, which according to the ritual, is for Travelers far from home. The Warrior explains it plainly, "You are a Daughter of the Eyrewood in the Heart of the Forest, You are home". Hanna ran away from the older daughter after she saw her own blooms, and invoked the "forbidden" ritual trying to get home as fast as she could. The Thornwatch are not going to mess with a called, becoming daughter, that's not their purview. Hanna will have to deal with her calling.
Hanna is also young, and saw her calling as an advetnure, but as we all do when we are young, did not think it through all the way. She seems quite happy to be running away at the beginning, doing so without much hesitation, singing a light hearted travelling song, but then things got real.
I do feel like The Blade does not have a high opinion of the Daughters (it could be that he lost his daughter to the Eyrewood, or just hates the idea of children being taken from their families, or that he just hates the organization as a whole), and that he is telling Hanna to commit suicide, but that he is fulfilling his duty (maliciously) by doing so. He knows she cannot fight her calling, and he is telling her the only way to get out. Harsh, but possibly true.
So glad so many other people love this storyline. Can't wait for Monday.
I had actually assumed that that comic was a subtle way of showing us where the Thornwatch came from--if not their specific members, certainly their ideals. I think you're right on the money.
The rhymes probably exist to teach lessons much the same way that old fairy stories did. You teach lessons through stories, songs, and rhymes because they frankly work better that way.
It's not so much about believing what rhymes as it is the rhymes existing to teach what is.
This is awesome, but one thing I would change is to remove the repetition. It comes off more ominous that way, IMO:
Fires in the forest
one, two, three
Daughter leads the dancing
four, five, six
Mother calls the steps
seven, eight, nine,
Bones in the ashes, midnight's wife
Count to ten and run for your life
Either way, great writing skills you have there.
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
more goin' on here than at first glance...
Agreed, I also get the feeling he is telling her basically "You don't like it? Tough. Take a long walk off a short pier if you can't deal."
As for the "witch" slur... I feel like his anger is probably much more personal, or the others may have been less accommodating to her despair as well. One thing about the Daughters is that for each one called, a number of people lose a loved one/friend. (One meaning I see in the phrase "killed her father") So it is entirely possible that he lost a daughter/sister/close friend at some point from the Calling, and has a personal resentment of the cost that the daughters bring to the people they've left.
He may have even encountered her during his current "occupation" ...and it may not have been everything he'd hoped for.
+++ End of Line +++
"Yeah, one involves a lot of physical and psychological pain, and the other one's war."
Really cool. As I read it I could hear drum beats going along with the rhythm of each line.
Edit: Oh The Greenheart! He's my favorite.
See, this is why Jerry needs to write the books, or at least a pretty fucking extensive Wikipedia on the Eyrewood. Mentally stepping into the Eyrewood is simple. And the names of some of the things just fit perfectly. Greenheart says a deep connection with nature. Thornwatch evokes the sharp, hard, painful task of defending something fragile.
I'm waiting to see what the game looks like once the mechanics are finalised and the archetypes have had their names Jerry-fied. What about the creatures that inhabit the forest? I already made suggestions to Mike in the Pin FAQ that I hope get taken up.
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