The Final Quest

I'm afraid the healing simply won't happen. Winnowill wouldn't allow it to.

And I agree, Ember. Strongbow and Moonshade are very deeply entwined. My theory is they both go so deep in intimacy that they're the only ones who could match each other, so they keep forgetting what it's like to be apart.

manga wrote:

Whoa, try this on for size:

Haken's comments about creating new shells for themselves.

+
Star Child having an air of age and wisdom and also innocence

=
Star Child is a "reincarnated" (and healed/mindwiped) Winnowill. Hence the unconscious Rayek and his apparently out - of -character remarks last issue about getting Winnowill healed.

Interesting idea, but where does the Starjumper part of the dream come into it?

You're right, Stargazer. It doesn't fit as well as the idea Star Child is a shape-shifted/uplifted wolf.

And I really doubt Winnowill will be healed. But I can hope.

Ugh, this is frustrating having to wait to find out! I hope it turns out to be something none of us saw coming! But...we come back to that picture that doesn't look like Timmain, and Rayek lying on the ground. The older costumes are puzzling...that picture was painted in '02, long past the time of OQ outfits. Also, Cutter, Leetah and Skywise look shocked rather than awed or amazed. Rayeks situation looks really ominous. Something very weird is going on...maybe Winnowill sends the palace back in time for some nefarious reason of her own. Where Star Child fits into this, I have no idea.

Weighing in...

First of all, I don't think that Venka was disparaging Two Edge. Cutter called him a "misfit"-- but Venka said he was "a shining one." She seems to admire him. But she's also calling him out on his behavior-- he did throw a childish temper tantrum, and according to her, this must not be the first time. She's right in saying that he's brilliant, but a slave to his emotions. He doesn't have himself under his own control. It makes sense that she would point this out, because self control is the defining characteristic of her personality. She clearly, however, admires him.

I think her comment about how lucky the misfit trolls would be if he were their chief is part an expression of her appreciation/respect for Two Edge, and part foreshadowing. Some blurb somewhere, possibly the spoiler for issue 10? said that Two Edge would make a surprising alliance. It sounds as if he is going to ally himself with the misfit trolls.

I wonder if he will lead them or prompt them to attack the Wolfriders? The last thing he did before running away was to express his anger at Cutter for always spoiling his plans. He blames Cutter for stealing away Venka and seems to still hold a grudge about the palace war. If the trolls were to, say, steal Treestump's weapons and attack the elves with them, that would be one way for Treestump's dream to come true.

Skywise's fight with Timmain doesn't make a lot of sense. She's never acted that way toward him before (though, granted, most of the time we saw them together, she was a wolf-- so who knows).. and secondly, I just don't follow her reasoning. An elf like Savah would have never been able to make that kind of journey. I think this is just a set up to keep Skywise away from the palace, so that he can be suddenly surprised by the star-blanket-girl from his dreams.

The scene with Cutter at the end... yeah, it's a little distant. I guess Cutter knows that the only reason Skywise is staying behind is because he's miffed at Timmain. Every other time, it was so he could be close to Cutter and it was a very emotional decision-- but this time, no. Still, it's nice that Cutter recognizes he is upset and quietly cheers him up with dreamberries. That's a role reversal. Usually it's Skywise who discerns Cutter's moods and tries to lighten them. Things seem to have flipped since the original quest.

Rayek... that's going to be trouble. I don't know how or why he thinks the elves would be able to help him with Winnowil this time when they couldn't do it before. This seems like the worst possible moment to bring her spirit back to the Palace... but I guess we will find out.

Stargazer wrote:

Ugh, this is frustrating having to wait to find out! I hope it turns out to be something none of us saw coming! But...we come back to that picture that doesn't look like Timmain, and Rayek lying on the ground. The older costumes are puzzling...that picture was painted in '02, long past the time of OQ outfits. Also, Cutter, Leetah and Skywise look shocked rather than awed or amazed. Rayeks situation looks really ominous. Something very weird is going on...maybe Winnowill sends the palace back in time for some nefarious reason of her own. Where Star Child fits into this, I have no idea.

Maybe Wendy just drew them in those outfits because that's what they she had mostly been drawing them in when she created the picture. That image is a modification of an older scene from the end of Final Quest, right? So the outfits may not indicate anything at all. If she recycled Timmain's pose, she probably also recycled Cutter and Leetah and Skywise-- and just changed their expressions.

All the recycling and cutting and pasting is getting to me. I do want to like this stuff, but I'm very close to the point of giving up on it. #9, people, I hope you liked it, but I just can't get over how uneven the art is, and how the story is still not making any kind of sense.

Also, suggestion? Maybe it is an idea to start a new topic on each issue when it arrives, as a way for people who don't have it yet to avoid spoilers?

Just a thought; maybe we'll get to see the death of Serrin.
She must be pretty old by now, and even though she was much more long-lived than her father and grandparents she's still mortal and is eventually going to die from old age. Unless she had her wolfblood removed.

Honestly, I don't think so. If she were going to die, we'd have five full pages of her, her life mate, her kid(or flashbacks, if he's dead). Then she'd be killed off so we could all cry about how unfair it was.

That's not a given. Sometimes background characters just die. We didn't get to see Woodlock, Rainsong and Wings deaths either.

Actually... this might result in some fan-fic.

Redhead Ember wrote:

That's not a given. Sometimes background characters just die. We didn't get to see Woodlock, Rainsong and Wings deaths either.

As someone who has not read all of the issues past OQ, SaBM and KotBW, how did those three perish? I assume during some Shard war thing or something?

Pretty shocking not to see those three get their death scene, since they were a part of the Wolfriders from the start...

(They happen to be the three I care the least about too - somewhere I mentioned my lack of connection to them - they lacked Urmph or something... don't remember what thread it was in now)...

Old age.

kathleen3.0 wrote:

Honestly, I don't think so. If she were going to die, we'd have five full pages of her, her life mate, her kid(or flashbacks, if he's dead). Then she'd be killed off so we could all cry about how unfair it was.

Unless what they're doing is giving the audience the natural death of a Wolfrider (or at least a wolf-blooded elf) without it being one we've loved for 40 years already.

manga wrote:

kathleen3.0 wrote:

Honestly, I don't think so. If she were going to die, we'd have five full pages of her, her life mate, her kid(or flashbacks, if he's dead). Then she'd be killed off so we could all cry about how unfair it was.

Unless what they're doing is giving the audience the natural death of a Wolfrider (or at least a wolf-blooded elf) without it being one we've loved for 40 years already.

None of the Wolfriders are old enough to die of old age. Even Treestump is just a young cub of 1000ish. Bearclaw was several thousand years old.
Then again; the "natural death" of a Wolfrider is decidedly not dying from old age.

That's actually a little of my point, Redhead Ember. I didn't make it clear, though.

However, if the bit from JtSE, where Clearbrook said she felt a stillness in her body, can be counted for anything, then Clearbrook may be much older than anyone thinks. That or the Wolfriders experience menopause in their 30s. (None of them had even seen 1000 yet. Maybe Clearbrook experienced early menopause for some reason? They'd just lost much of their tribe and Rainsong was in the midst of being a one-woman baby boom. Elf population control makes no sense.)

Redhead Ember wrote:

None of the Wolfriders are old enough to die of old age. Even Treestump is just a young cub of 1000ish. Bearclaw was several thousand years old.
Then again; the "natural death" of a Wolfrider is decidedly not dying from old age.

Doesn't it say in Wolfrider that Bearclaw had seen 1200 years, or something like that? I think a lot of current Wolfriders would be older than that at this point. It would be interesting to know when "old age" is. I wonder if the elves get wrinkly.

Treestump was about 700 at the start of "Elfquest." Add the 500 or so years since then and he's somewhere around 1200 or 1300 now. And it's been stated (not sure where) that they live about 3000 years. So he shouldn't be wrinkly yet - he's only in his 40s or 50's, essentially.

.....or 8400 or 9100 in wolf years >__>

manga wrote:

Treestump was about 700 at the start of "Elfquest."  Add the 500 or so years since then and he's somewhere around 1200 or 1300 now.  And it's been stated (not sure where) that they live about 3000 years.  So he shouldn't be wrinkly yet - he's only in his 40s or 50's, essentially.

I thought he was about 500 at the start of Elfquest.

I think the "Wolfrider's Guide" says he was 700. He wasn't just an elder: he'd been an elder for awhile. The EQ.com bio and the Wikia don't say, though, and Heaven only knows where my "Guide" has gotten to.

Okay, well, I don't know how much we should take from the novel. It contradicts several things that are clearly shown in the comics and, as has been stated previously, not everyone has access to them.

I've been thinking about the mixed response to "Final Quest" and here's what I've concluded:

Many of us were expecting this to be Wendy's Master Work. In part it's an effect of the things you anticipate (especially for a long time, as in this case) never quite living up to what you imagined. Also much has changed in the meantime - she's done other projects and basically just lived years that weren't full of "Elfquest" and she's using a medium that didn't even exist when she started all this.

I'm still disappointed that it's not as awesome as I want it to be... but I recognize that the cause lies in my expectations.

I'll still enjoy it a lot more if she somehow frees Rayek instead of leaving him there... I think I'd rather she just have left him out of the story completely than give me new Rayek stuff only to leave his story in the same place it's been for the last decade or so.

NOD.

I can relate to this ... the other way round. I've never had *HIGH* expectations in FQ. I wanted my Elves back. Wanted to see them again and learn her story. Their fate. I wanted this story told completely. I'm not the person to get especially exited or passionate about things ... well, not in this passionate-fan-kind way.

30 years of developement - for Wendy, for techniques and for me. For each of us ... I kind of expected that FQ would be different from the art (and story maybe) I fell in love with. It's comparably easy for me to like it. To accept changes or turns I do not like.

I like the old familiar ways BETTER ... but I has never felt that disappointment that is expressed often. It has advantages to be this way.


And  disadvantages. Whether you are enthusiastic or disappointed - you are passionate. I'm mostly indefferent at the moment ... not too exited to get the next and next bit. But I realized that it is not the art or story that almost turns me off - it is this *yapyapyapidiyap!!!!!* advertisement.

I don't mind spoilers. Actually I LIKE to know (more or less) what I can expect in the next issue. But I hardly had a chance to gather my paper issue and study when the after next cover and teaser/spoiler shows and is discussed. Sometimes I feel like I do not know anymore what I have read, what was a preview/spoiler and what was speculated about.
I miss the times when all we got to guess and fancy and discuss about was the next cover.
This "permanent exitement" does not trigger my curiosity ... or my expectations.

Hello - I am lurking for some time. I want to say my harangues with Final Quest. Please to bear with me.

- I HATE what is done to Teir. He was mysterious strong loner. Good for hunting and making babies. Now whiny, needy baby. He is baby man with too many tears. Person who in the 90's (not Wendi) must be pissed. I see that he is bit of"Larry Stu" as you Americans to call it but he was sexy like woodsman who will find you food and shelter and not say much. I HATE that he is baby of two boss characters. What are odds? None I say. Much better when mystery and was just baby of nobody Go-Back's wandering the plains after Rayak GRRRRRAARRRRR!!! pushed them from Frozen Mountains. Everyone related to everyone else?! Like royal family. His power is changed. Always was never trusting ones? Now he makes frogs to commit suicide. And his power just look like circles. No more to make his shape magic to look like animal. Blergh.

-Ember stops off the recognition?! No elf can do this! Never even Leetha she make quiet with her power only. Ember no!

-The Wavedancers I hate them. They are more baby whiny like Teir. I wish them to be eaten with potatos and butter. Remember sea elves book from 80s. These elfes they were real sea elfes. True to elfquest. Real to elfquest world and story. New wavedancers could have been these elfes. Instead weaklings we get with fins and blue hair. Look like sad teenagers. They are imitation of Austrailian wavedancers who are copies of Little Mermaids Disney. No!

-Timeline is big mess.

-Palace ball. No! Was never truth before. Now elf spirits can go both wolf riders and ageless ones everywhere. So now all spirits can go anywhere? What is this ????

-Why does Sunstream still look so young? He looked like a man in his vision in Siege. Here he still looks like boy but he is grown. Ember looks like woman but Suntop still is child-looking.

-Why to not use palace to save Ember? Cutter I know would take palace and slice Junn to pieces! His child and he leaves her with Junn for torture.Who is this Cutter? I wish for kicking him!

This is all for now. I am tired and must sleep. Please for sorries for my english.

HI, welcome to the pack, glad to have you here! ^^

Paranthropus wrote:

-Why does Sunstream still look so young? He looked like a man in his vision in Siege. Here he still looks like boy but he is grown. Ember looks like woman but Suntop still is child-looking.

THIS! Exactly this. This bothers me so much. And he looks like a sodding ice skater in the 1984 Winter Olympics.