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[PA Comic] Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - The Tithe, Part Nine
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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You know what would of been really cool. If that one stray hair on the top of Hanna's head had a leaf pop out
== EDIT ==
You know I just figured this out.
You have the Lookouts who are out to subjugate the forest.
You have the Daughters who are out to strengthen the forest.
You have the Thornwatch who are all "This game is super-dumb, I'm not playing!"
Also, the creature talking reminds me of the talking chimeras in Fullmetal Alchemist. "Ro... se".
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Part of me says yes, the other part wonders if it wouldn't look too Pikmin-ish.
I said something pretty similar. With yours, I would say that "subjugate" isn't entirely true. They have no desire to control the forest. They do want to minimise it's influence on the village in certain areas though.
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I wonder if the cycle of the Tithe is tied to their phases? Or if all Daughters' magic is? Or if it's because they're also children of the Eyrewood?
Gah! So many questions!
I THINK that's a stylized lens flare, from the magic glowing and the rain.
Not sure, though.
"HA!"
"NA, I'm good."
I wish I had even half the talent to draw or write about what I see in this universe...I have all these ideas about the other daughters, the young ones and the ancient ones, the sweet ones and the cruel ones. *happy sigh*
Treehemoth is still adorable.
Really love that last panel. High-rez version?
It may sound a bit cliche, but you should do one of both of those things regardless of "talent". It might look good, it might not, but the only way to get better is to do.
Let's see some fan-works!
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You can't break an oath that you don't take.
It's almost as if the Thornwatch told the Lookouts to do it so that Hanna would be encouraged to embrace her role.
I know that's probably not it, but it still seems like a strange set of coincidences.
He's got bloody Lookout cloaks on his horns, so it seems he gave them a run for their money. They likely left their weapons behind because they felt they had wounded the beast enough for him to eventually die, but they didn't want to lose any more Lookouts hanging out waiting for it to happen. Also, leaving the weapons inside the beast would make it harder for him to recover. They could always come back and retrieve the weapons later if they really wanted.
When the local village-protectors' (Lookouts) decision process on what needs killing is (or seems to be):
1. Is it alive? If yes, proceed to 2.
2. Is it me? If yes, proceed to 8. If no, proceed to 3.
3. Is it a forest creature? If yes, proceed to 7. If no, proceed to 4.
4. Is it a beginner lookout? If yes, proceed to 7. If no, proceed to 5.
5. Is it a daughter? If yes, proceed to 7. If no, proceed to 6.
6. Are you sure it's alive, or at least animated? If yes, proceed to 7. If no, proceed to 8.
7. It needs killing.
8. It doesn't need killing.
you don't put too much faith in their judgment abilities.
The Lookouts and the Watch are in the forest, the Daughters are of the forest. I'm not sure we were ever meant to assume they work toward the same goals.
It's like the different factions in Princess Mononoke. They're all complex and they all have their reasons for doing things, and they don't always treat the other well. But it doesn't mean one side is the good guys and one side is the bad guys.
A touch oversimplified. After all, the "monster" is capable of speech, doesn't attack all humans on sight (otherwise Hanna would be a grease stain about now) and is certainly not a rage-filled killer.
Don't forget that whilst the Daughters are originally from the village, they are no longer part of the village. Their priorities, whether they know it or not, are the balance of the natural order. That's likely why Hanna's powers kicked in of their own accord. The subconscious calling to heal and nurture life.
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Well, the beast may no longer see her as human.
Nah, they have badges for Lookouts who are especially good at communicating with the setting's equivalent of fae creatures and stuff. The Lookouts seem down with forming alliances and having peaceful interactions with stuff that doesn't want to eat them.
I mean, obviously there's something creepy going on with how the young Lookouts are effectively sacrificed, it's cold indifference at best and actively malicious at worst, but I'm still leaning towards Team People on this one. To hell with the Forest.
The thing about "To hell with the Forest" is that the Forest supports the village. If it all swung in the villages direction the Forest would undoubtedly wither and die. Humans tend to overexpand and consume. It is very likely that whilst the village suffers to a certain extent, it's only because every species suffers to a degree in nature. Humans just have the ability to out-engineer a lot of the suffering. But it's at the expense at everything else.
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Actually if you read the previous comic, they say their "Torch" went out and that was due to the rain. It's more than likely that their plan was actually to set the creature on fire and plan B was to just poke him full of swords and then run.
When you realize this creature is made out of wood and what looks to be a grassy back, setting it on fire would be the logical way to deal with the creature.
The concept of the Lookouts is a fun twist on Boy Scouts--instead of the woods, you're in a magical rainforest; instead of learning how to tie knots, you learn how to wield a sword; instead of escorting old people across the street, you guard merchant caravans on their dangerous treks between villages. That aspect of it reminds me a lot of the Mouse Guard series.
Then I guess the creators were asked about a female version, and Gabe drew a girl in an outfit pretty similar to a Lookout (hooded cape, long boots and gloves, utility pouches; I don't remember if there was a sword or dagger but there could have been). It sort of implied that the boy and girl versions would do pretty much the same things. Though to be fair, when your job is protecting people from huge, vicious, bloodthirsty monsters, I'm not sure a female version of a Lookout would be physically all that capable. Maybe if they were really fit or extremely dexterous, or wielded some kind of long range weapon (bow, spear, poisoned blowdarts, etc) that didn't require them to go toe-to-toe, they'd still be fairly effective. But while you might have a few strong female warrior types in a village, you probably don't have enough to make a whole troupe with. Maybe Gabe and Tycho realized that, and decided to take the DotE in a whole other direction.
The next time Gabe draws a picture, we see a Mother with an odd expression on her face (exultant? in a trance?) holding a DotE possessively. My first thought on seeing this was that the mother was drawing power from the girl for some kind of ritual. The girl didn't have any expression that might tell me how she felt about the whole affair--she didn't seem scared (which I might have been in her shoes). It was almost as if she no longer cared; she had given up hope of ever escaping. So now while the DotE had a mysterious and magical aspect to them, there was also something tragic about their story.
Now we jump to The Tithe. Hannah sneaks out of the house and wanders through the forest while singing a song. We have a inkling that what's happening isn't necessarily a good thing, but she doesn't seem to dwell on it. Then she meets the Mother, and then she learns that they were both "called" and that now something called "becoming" is happening and is totally without her consent or control. I can see where the creators might have been trying to make "becoming" a Daughter similar to the process a girl goes through after having her first period. But I get a little disturbed by the concept the creators are trying to create (though perhaps not consciously) that the girls are "property" that can be take from their parents and used as "tithes" to appease the forest. I saw an article on CNN a not so long ago about how villagers in parts of Pakistan have aborted their female fetuses because they bring less value to the family than a male child. The end result was that there were not enough girls for the boys to marry, and they had to "buy" brides from poorer villagers that needed the money and were willing to give up their daughters. The man who was interviewed was a little disgruntled that he'd also have to share his new bride with his brothers because there wasn't enough money to buy them wives. I can't help but compare this situation to the DotE, where it seems girls are taken from their homes to become "mothers" to the forest. It's still not clear what that means--are they also "wives" to the forest? The Mother that greets Hannah is wearing little more than a night shirt, though I assume with her magical powers, she doesn't really need any extra gear. Gabe likes to draw the monsters as fusions of real animals, but is there human DNA in there as well? Are the DotE themselves literally daughters of the forest? And why would the forest go to the trouble of creating them? I can't believe that their job is just to be healers when it would be a whole lot less effort for the forest to just create a healing spring or a fairy or two. Perhaps because they are part human they are also meant to be emissaries of the Wood that can negotiate with the villagers? However whether the emissary is human or not, I can't quite see that having much of an effect if the village has already set its mind to doing something (humans are stupidly stubborn). In fact, it would probably anger the villagers even more that the forest steals their daughters. Or maybe the village is so patriarchal that they couldn't care less what happens to their daughters. Tycho did imply that there were "bad fathers" out there who might deserve whatever wrath the forest might dish out. Maybe becoming a DotE is even a secret wish of most girls as a means of escaping their tortured subservient lives in the village. I can easily see how such girls could be raised to hate the villagers and become vengeful witches that seek to burn the villages down.
Regardless, I can see why Hannah might not be all that eager to join them. I'll give her credit for not just breaking down or giving up when she learned the news--she runs off, true, but then she summons the Thornwatch. But while that might be a brave thing to do, Tycho tells us she wasn't actually aware that she was breaking any rules by calling them. Ok, so now she's looking a little less gutsy. The Warrior and Greenheart give useless advice, not realizing that she's actually looking for an escape. When we reached this panel in the comic, I was really hoping the Blade was going to help her out. With the creators setting up Hannah as a hero and a role model, having her own trading pin, I thought 'ok, here is when she's really gonna shine'. Maybe she was gonna trade snarky comments with the Blade and impress him enough that he would offer to let her join them. I was excited by the concept of a rebel DotE. Tycho implied that the Thornwatch had both men and women members, though I couldn't quite see how the women got involved if Lookouts were always boys, and the Thornwatch seemed to be made up of Lookout runaways. The creators had shown pictures of their Thornwatch cards, and one of them showed a Greenheart with a horned mask, and it got me to thinking maybe there was a renegade DotE behind that mask. Maybe her flowers dropped off and turned into thorns or horns or whatever. I especially thought of this when Gabe released a shot of her pin that was cropped not to reveal the flowers. But then the next comic comes out and all the Blade offers her is advice on how to kill herself, and calls her a 'witch'. Ok, so much for them being heroes. The next comic only furthers my disappointment, with the Lookouts running away and Hannah going to the monster's aid, no doubt to reach some kind of acceptance with her fate in the final episode. No more rebelling, no more running away, no more standing out from the group of DotE that quietly submit to their fate. Hannah's uniqueness disappears.
I can't help but feel a little sad. Like I said, this is a decent introduction story to the world and the concept of DotE. But it doesn't seem to do much service to Hannah herself.