Final Quest #16 cover revealed (spoilers)

http://elfquest.com/cover-art-of-final-quest-16-revealed/

It's 32 pages this time around, too.

So Cutter is apparently better.. but who is the "one being" and what is the "ancient wrong?"

Does he access Timmain's memories? I hope it's not Haken.

My guess is Voll. The ancient wrong could be leading the gliders into stagnation resolving in Winnowill turning bad. Maybe a good talk with his spirit could help. Winnowill used to respect this guy

Wouldn't Voll be in the Palace? Since he's dead? Why would they need a quest for that? It is an nice thought-- getting Winnowill to talk to Voll. Makes you wonder why they haven't tried it yet...

Considering the cover though.. that might not be so far off. I wonder if he's just going to get Winnowil and Two Edge to sit down for mother-son counseling? That's the "wrong" that drove them both crazy in the first place-- right? And at this point, it would be pretty ancient.

Oh look, somebody's finally doing something about the disaster waiting to happen. 
Bet it's too late.
Cover is dull. Poses, colour, dull.
Has Ekuar always been missing the tip of his ear(s)? O_o

@Shadowpath-- yes, I agree. The cover is atrocious. I really can't stand the colors. But maybe the inside is pretty.

I don't like the cover either... It looks so... monochromatic? flat? not quite sure of the correct way to describe it.


I like the speculating, but I also want to have it so I know what happens. Want to know if it's good, bad, ugly or horrible...

faeriegirl wrote:

I don't like the cover either... It looks so... monochromatic? flat? not quite sure of the correct way to describe it.
..

It's oversaturated and yet lacks contrast. It combines some kind of neon pink/purple with green, aqua and a muddy brownish grey. The lighting is bad. The shading is... Is there shading?

Lunakat wrote:

faeriegirl wrote:

I don't like the cover either... It looks so... monochromatic? flat? not quite sure of the correct way to describe it.
..

It's oversaturated and yet lacks contrast. It combines some kind of neon pink/purple with green, aqua and a muddy brownish grey. The lighting is bad. The shading is... Is there shading?

YES mostly the shading thing bothered me! and the others too, thank you for stating it much better than I ever could.

And WTF happened to Ekuar's ear?

This is what Sonny does all the time that drives me nuts and makes the images he colors hard to see on a page. He uses no real contrast. There is a difference between saturation and contrast. He just saturates colors to create focus-- but the entire image lacks a contrast between lights and darks. If you take away the color- if you make the images he colors just monochrome-- you can see they are just grey. That's what's wrong with his coloring. That-- and the fact that he tends not to even use colors half the time. Half the time he does what he did with Ekuar and Two Edge-- see how they are a grayish, muddy brown? And there's no shading. It's almost just flat colors. You can really see it here, because I took the color away. This is a grey image and your eye doesn't know where to go or focus because of the lack of contrast-- and your eye has a hard time differentiating shapes because of the lack of contrast. The only spot with any light/dark contrast is the white of the preserver webbing. The rest is all the same tone. That's why the image is boring. Sonny sucks at coloring because he doesn't understand darks and lights.

YESSS it's all just the same shade of grey!!! Thank you luna for perfectly illustrating this!

It really does a disservice to the line drawings too-- because this should be a dynamic image.

What he really ought to do is color it in using just black, white and shades of grey first-- then do a color layer over it. That way he would guarantee that he got the contrast and shading in. I mean, heck-- if you are using Photoshop-- use photoshop.

"Their most potent weapon, the Palace of the High Ones, will not—cannot—be used, even in self-defense. "

Why on earth not? What silly reason will they have for not using their most potent weapon in self defence? Will this be another of TimTam's arbitrary commands that make no sense?

And yes, that cover is dreadful - really jarring in the way it's coloured.

How could they use it? Repeatedly land it on top of the human war-men, crushing them?
Besides, there are a whole bunch of non-compatants inside the Palace, so my guess is that the non-compatants in the Holt (if there are any) while all the fighters in the Palace (the Go-Backs) will go to the Holt to help defend it.

Yeah, seems like a weapon that cannot be used is not much of a weapon. (ignoring the real world justification for nuclear armorment.) Based on the past final quest, I have a feeling that there will be some kind of reason that the Palace is powered by love, and cannot be used to destroy, only create, or some such reason.

Reading the blurb about the elves pulling together to defend the Wolfrider's ancient home suddenly strikes me as kind of ironic, seeing as how the Wolfriders are pretty much responsible for the destruction of everyone else's home.

Or maybe I'm wrong. If I remember right, the Sunvillage was destroyed by a volcano, right? So they didn't really have anything to do with that. The Go-Back's home was destroyed by Rayek with the power of the Gliders, right after Blue Mountain was destroyed, which only happened because with Rayek Winnowill finally had the power to get Blue Mountain off the ground.

Seems like maybe wrapping up and burying Rayek might be the wisest course of action after all.

I'm assuming the 'the Palace of the High Ones, will not—cannot—be used'- kinda sorta means 'we have to fight the humans soldiers (who likely outnumber us, who will mindlessly, gleefully torture and murder us because they find that sort of thing really fun no matter what age they live in) by fair means!'

It sounds like they're trying to go for a ultimate showdown of some kind.

Rayek is so pink. Everything is pink,purple and green. Like a badly colored Easter Egg:egg:

Nooo, the stompy-stomp pose of Rayek is cute, even his facial expression, he looks like an angry teenager

The blurp is probably misleading as they always were, the humans are going to arrive at some point in all issues until the last one

Wow, you guys weren't kidding about the pink! I couldn't get the link to eq.com to load forever, and I was picturing some sort of too-saturated angry pinkish skintone - not "Barbie Doll fuschia-pink is now narrative shorthand for Winnowill's magic"!!!

I think that's the first EQ cover art I've seen I can honestly is WORLDS BETTER in grayscale.

Redhead Ember wrote:

How could they use it? Repeatedly land it on top of the human war-men, crushing them?

If there is no way it could be used, then why bother mentioning it as a weapon they won't use? The blurb itself calls it 'the elves most potent weapon'.

If it turns out the Palace can only used for love... Then why has Rayek been housing Winnowill this whole time?

Why the hell is everything so pink???


Yeah, the palace is a weapon apparently but I don't know how, asides from shielding or being a safe haven. I've never viewed it as a weapon per se.... except for giving other elves super power. I guess that counts! So what, they all need to be away from it and not draw any power? That's a little contrived. It's like a deliberate way to draw the stakes higher or something.

If Cutter is seeking a being that can right a great wrong, who's to say it's an elf? But then what else would it be? But then...hmm, if it's an elf, then it's probably drawn to the Palace. Or maybe it's already in there in spirit.
I don't know how it would be a troll.
Maybe he goes looking for Shuna or something. I dunno.

Lunakat wrote:

If it turns out the Palace can only used for love... Then why has Rayek been housing Winnowill this whole time?

Rayek: She's miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine

Stargazer wrote:

Redhead Ember wrote:

How could they use it? Repeatedly land it on top of the human war-men, crushing them? 
 

If there is no way it could be used, then why bother mentioning it as a weapon they won't use? The blurb itself calls it 'the elves most potent weapon'.

I kinda assume they could somehow turn the palace into death beam shooting powerhouse.