Final Quest #11

Aww... thankee.

In a way I really do owe FQ a debt of gratitude. Were it not for the sheer magnitude of current EQ's suckiness, the Alternaverse might have languished on hiatus forever. And instead, every two months I get another infusion of inspiration!

Lunakat wrote:

I like Erin's theory. I think I want to stop reading now and just assume that's how it ends.

Time loops within time loops, maaaaan. It's far out. *nods sagely and passes the bong*

omigodsungirlagreeingwithmesquee. yeah i mean come on, with Alternaverse, i'm pleasantly looking forward to the next installation! with FQ it feels like a case of..."okay, how much more are they going to screw things up and hurt their fans brains?"

....gotta admit though, i'm...perversely glad moonshade got her wolfblood removed. absolutely no idea why. plus seriously, it's ABOUT TIME someone aside from skywise had it done! i wonder who else could be a possibility to have their wolfblood removed? Redlance? then he'd be as immortal as his beloved trees.

Zadzi wrote:

Sigh. I miss those moments. Maybe they seem too trivial or something to Wendy now, because she's trying to do 'bigger' or something for FQ. It's just too bad, because those little touches were what made EQ so 'real' while being so alien/fantasy.

I feel like she's trying to cover too much ground in too few pages with (most importantly) too broad of strokes. Like Tenderleaf pointed out a few pages ago, there's a LOT of exposition, and maybe that wouldn't be as much of a problem if it was grounded within more small, down-to-earth moments, like when Cutter asks Leetah to ease Filcher's aches and pains, instead of stuff like Shuna walking on stage and saying, "Welp, as you know, Shenshen, it's been ten years, they call me a shaman now."

I had a similar problem with one of the storyboards for a proposed animated Elfquest movie that's up on the Elfquest.com website. The art is great, but I was shocked by how much I HATED it. It retells the original quest in such broad strokes that it loses all the telling detail that makes it interesting and palpable and memorable. When the Wolfriders discover the Sun Village, it doesn't even feel like that big a deal except insofar as they can get water now, whereas in the comic the fact that there are MORE ELVES is a really big deal. But the storyboard cuts out Savah and doesn't make nearly enough of that whole shared history, and then the Wolfriders just wander on and it doesn't even feel like that big a deal except insofar as it affects Leetah and Cutter. But Leetah and Cutter just don't mean as much when the world around them doesn't live or breathe.

Come to think of it, that's one of the things that infuriates me about the recycled art -- often, throughout Elfquest, it's Wendy's awesome facial expressions more than the writing that have sold me on a particular development, and the little background moments that make it feel like the action spreads beyond the confines of a scene. (We do at least get a few cute background moments in the most recent issue, like Pike sharing his stash with Dre-Ahn and Freetouch putting a wreath on Korafay.) And when you Photoshop in a drawing from a completely different context, it's jarring not only because readers recognize the artwork from elsewhere, but because even if the expression is "close enough," you lose that specificity to the particular brand-new context you're trying to evoke.

Haken and Timmain fight when the palace falls, Haken loses and flees...
Rayek challenges Cutter in the Sun Village, Rayek loses and flees...
Timmain fights Winnowill for the palace, Winnowill is beaten, Rayek takes her spirit...

Rayek and Winnowill meet and she says the are one soul in two bodies...
Timmain tells Cutter there is no us, there is only Tam...

I'm thinking there is only one conflict here, and it's never been settled.

(And there's the copy for the EQ movie trailer.)

Zadzi wrote:

Redhead Ember wrote:

Zadzi wrote:

PS - Why does Auroree look so weird and different now?

A shower.
Some clean clothes.

Heh. No doubt. But I mean her face looks different.
Aurek's as well, actually.

I thought you were talking about Aurek!

Lunakat wrote:

Come on guys. Who cares what the plant is? How can that possibly matter? It's an alien world. It's not an eggplant and it's not prickly pear cactus. It's some alien fruit. It can be whatever it wants.

It's an alien prickly eggplant cactus pear fruit!



As for Moonshade becoming immortal; it's really not so sudden.
In FQ3 Strongbow says that she's been hiding in the Palace more and more. At first, right after Ruffel's death, it was probably pretty temporary, but gradually, during the years between the Special and FQ1 Moonshade starting spending more time in the Palace, and less in the Holt. At this point it's probably been 20+ years since Ruffel died.
About 15 years between the Special and FQ1:
Right after Ikopek's death Shukopek talks about When I take a wife, implying that he hadn't yet married at that point. Besides; if he had, why would he still be travelling with his parents?
When Ruffel dies Shuna and Shukopek are still staying with the elves, and Shuna is clearly still affected by what happened to Ikopek.
We know that no great amount of time can have passed between the beginning of FQ1 and the timeskip during FQ10
In the beginning of FQ10 - before the timeskip - Shukopek's oldest son looks to be in his early teens, and considering that Shukopek first had to meet Hartha before their children could start being born their eldest was probably born a few years after the Special.
As well as the 10-year-skip during FQ10.
Add to that the fact that Moonshade seemed troubled by something all the way back at the birth of Shukopek, 20+ years before Ruffel's death, it's likely she's been struggling with feeling torn for maybe close to 50 years. Not a lot of time for someone who lives as long as an elf, but still not as if she woke up one morning/evening and randomly decided to give up her wolfblood.

I'm down with Moonshade's decision. To me, it felt like there was enough build up for it to make sense.

Just wanted to reply to what Erin said. About faces and expressions, I agree. I loved the subtlety of emotion that used to seem to play across the faces of characters drawn by Wendy in the past. She was just a master of that! And when she drew a body in a panel-- she always posed it in such a way that the figure seemed to be captured in motion. What has bothered me about the art in Final Quest (and, granted, this has been diminishing a lot lately-- since she doesn't have to do the full labor of line art and color and can devote more time and attention to just drawing)... what has bothered me has been the facial expressions and posing of the characters.

It seems Like we are just supposed to intuit, from big eyed, blank faces staring at each other, when some thing important is going on. And this stupid blank looks take the place of dialogue, actual expression that communicates feeling, something happening in the plot, or physical interaction between characters.

The posing too is, off and on, pretty stiff. If you look at the art from the original quest, Wendy, rather brilliantly, drew her characters as if they were in motion. Every single time. Even if they were standing still, there was a turn to the head, a motion of a hand, a twist to the body, etc. Now, they often just stand, lined up, in these stiff poses, like people posing for a camera or positioned onstage. It's awkward and create, in the story, a stiff, awkward feeling for me as a reader.

I thought maybe it was because drawing with a cintiq is different than drawing by hand with a pencil or pen. For me, it's much stiffer. But I think she actually started doing it in Kings of the Broken Wheel-- the weird posing and staring. I think it's supposed to be code for 'something big and profound is happening right now''

For me the problem is not so much that I didn't see it coming, but that I feel it's not satisfactory explained. What exactly does Moonshade do in the palace? (Meaning a practical answer, not vague babble.) Why does she think giving up her wolf blood will free her from the harshness of the life of the planet they're living on now?
I feel like there's not enough place in the story for a lot of storylines.
The same with Mender and Dart: they went from Dart saying he didn't understand Mender and even comparing him to Winnowill to lovemates, with only a glimpse of what happened inbetween.
And then there's Windkin and whatever he's up to with Ahdri and Aroree...
I feel like it all probably makes sense, but I don't get to see all there is to it. That's the way I feel when I read it...
Well, I'll just fill in the blanks with my own imagination and whatever else I find on this forum.

I always had the impression that the wolf loos makes the wolfriders mor earthbound-- more connected t the world in the way animals are to their environment. None of the wolfriders seem fully comfortable in the palace.

I think the need to pack in what is a far-reaching story into 28 pages a month has a lot to do with the pacing and the massive amounts of exposition. The extras in each issue are nice, but I would prefer to have extra pages of story. Having both would be ideal, but that's not likely to happen.

I don't have the "WTF?!" moments some do here with some of the character development, especially Moonshade. I think it would be interesting if Dart was -- to coin a phrase -- emotionally chaste due to Shu-shen's death. Touch his body? Sure. Touch him? Good luck.

I realized last night there's a parallel between Rayek and Winnowill's first sexual encounter, and Skywise and Timmain's. Neither Winnowill nor Timmain tell the full truth, and both Rayek and Skywise are both too overwhelmed in different ways to press for it. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that both Winnowill and Timmain have their own ulterior motives for the sex. And despite the eerie verbal echoing of Winnowill's seduction of Rayek (**We're taking them home, you and me.**) I'm not entirely sure we know what Timmain's ultimate goal is.

Maybe Timmain thinks some elves will have to stay behind to preserve the purity of the timeline...or something.

I don't like this Timmain. I preferred the High One who showed up in the OQ's last issue, and the wrap-stuffed one who argued with Rayek in Siege. The one who disapproved of Rayek trying to make the Palace fly again. The one who saw her son's children as people.

Lunakat and Erin, I couldn't agree more about the difference in the general crafting of the characters and how their fluid and dynamic motion and also *emotions* have diminished.  How many people here could see a panel from the OQ without dialogue or context and pretty easily identify it?  "Oh, that's the scene where [character] felt this way because etc., etc", "that's the panel where Cutter was getting frustrated because Voll wouldn't listen"...this is almost entirely gone from FQ and that has been a detriment to some of the TRUE magic of the series.
Yes, Wendy was a *master* at getting across subtleties of emotion before and so the lack of it here sticks out like a sore, stiff thumb.  

There are a lot of paste-ups, generic blank stares and slightly open mouths, staring off into the distance, and stiff, jerky movements from one panel to the next.  How many times have we seen that same pic of Teir only slightly modified?  There's an awkward panel in this one where Brill looks exactly like another older Brill panel (the one where she's feeding infant Korafay) from the Special - and Sunstream is just weirdly positioned in front of her at something of an angle, looking small, oddly positioned, and recognizable as just from some other panel.  I realize he's supposed to be in front of her, and I know that shortcuts must occasionally be taken when it comes to a lot of characters in one scene, but wow, it just never fails to stand out and be something of an eyesore.  There are so many panels throughout this series that have stood out for the same reason and completely removed me from the action.

One of the weird things story-wise is how 'nothing' happens and then something 'big' happens, but it's portrayed very quickly and broadly and we never see anything about it and are expected to just accept it as this huge and necessary change.  And sure, there are events in FQ that I've thought, "Oh, well....that's a little sudden....but I guess it works, makes sense with the character to me, alright, sure.."  And then other times there's so much - well - WTF going on that I just scratch my head at the characters' behavior, characters I have grown to love as much as any other hardcore EQ fan.  The pacing is just so off.  We used to be so emotionally involved in everything these characters were doing and now I have to explain this stuff away to MYSELF to even keep reading these issues.

Sifra, glad you brought up that scene with Dart telling him why he didn't understand Mender.  I *personally* think the characters have an ok dynamic (especially as far as potentially learning something from one another), might work well as a pairing, but yes, it came sort of out of left field. All we had up to that point was a couple page of:
"exploding hearts is not nice, you might turn out like Winnowill".
"Nah, I won't be her, but I'm not as good as you".
And then "Freetouch, make Dart's outfits show lots of skin".  (Heck, even that barely stood out as Mender seeing Dart as particularly special - Mender seems basically flirty with everyone.)
And now they're talking about potentially 'lifemating'.  Well, ok...I don't mind the pairing myself, but come now.

The Ahdri-Aroree-Windkin thing is just ridiculous and makes no sense based on what we were told of Windkin's feelings in the special.  We used to have intimacy with the characters up to the point of even being able to consider and/or even understand their personal choices because the build-up and storytelling was so artfully done.  That's not the case anymore.

Davrille, yeah, I felt the same way about the "we're taking them home" comment from Skywise. I am not at all fond of 'this' Timmain, either. The 'my beloved' was just a little too perfect. *sigh*

I'm pretty convinced, that Timmain will turn out evil in the end (Why did she and Winnie never get along? I takes a villain to know one!*).
Timmain is even the visual mirror reflection to Winnowil. And she looks so creepy, if this is only incidental then well done Wendy, well done...

After all this talk about wolfblood being so special, why should getting rid of it suddenly become something good?






*and retconning, Timmain used to be different

I was thinking along the same lines with the joining/sex between Skywise/Timmain and Rayek/Winnowill. Skywise and Rayek seemed all dazed and out of it afterward. Rayek said something along the lines of 'she mocked me, even in the midst of joining'. I'm not convinced Wendy will do the same thing with that though because obviously Rayek/Winnowill represent the 'darker' element and misuse of power, while Timmain/Skywise represents all that is white and good  .... though I couldn't help but notice how totally white Skywise looked after that joining, as though the life had gotten leached out of him!
But there's definitely some kind of energy exchange on a deeper level than regular joining. It does feel like some subtle mind control. But how Cutter ties into all of this, I don't understand. I don't know how I feel about this whole Haaken/ Timmain thing, it was such a small snippet of a story in Hidden years. Plus, if Rayek and Cutter already made their peace, shaky as it is, why would this just continue in such a way? How would it still be Haaken vs Timmain?

Is it me, or am I feeling too paranoid about Timmain shape shifting into Cutter's image?

Not only her odd demeanor since FQ started, but lately where her previous creepy comment she made to Skywise that only HE said to Cutter alone... yet Timmain somehow knew. Then her silent and reclusive behavior when Skywise pointed out no one should be left behind, only to then walk off.

Then this sudden in depth discussion she has with Cutter before blowing his mind with her new Cutter appearance.

What crossed my mind last night was the scene when Lord Vol took to the skies with Cutter in tow, and how Cutter demanded the tribe was NOT to follow... But of course the tribe did. We see in this latest issue how everyone credits Cutter so much for bringing all the tribes together and helping to bring everyone where they are now. Just to name a few of the displays of loyalty and what have you credited to Cutter. He's gone far beyond any chief in history. *hands manga a barf bag while continuing*

*But......Timmain also sees this.

What concerns me is that she may get the sense that if it came down to it... The elves will follow Cutter first before ever following her. She lacks "public relations" so to speak. Yes she is a High One, but that doesn't mean she holds every elf loyalty. Especially, and quite possibly, from the elves SHE wants to follow.

Hence her previous comment, "Let them come to me"

So it worried me when seeing her take Cutter's form. If that's what it takes to get every elf she wants to join and follow HER in the Palace. Whatever the reason... Maybe to continue the journey she and her fellow dead coneheads failed to accomplish. Maybe to give some sort of rebirth to her "conehead" kind since technically she is the last. Or maybe now that she's back in the Palace and back to her former glory, she now sees her past decisions as a mistake.

Or perhaps, as far fetched as my paranoia is reaching, Winnowill DID manage freedom, is now possessing Timmain, and Rayek was brain twisted into believing/feeling he still hold her prisoner in his mind when he really isn't

Kindredsoul, all you said just makes perfect sense and it's really scary. I mean the part about Timmain knowing they would follow Cutter and not her, even though she's a High One.

Which is why seeing her shape shift as Cutter NOW terrifies me

The entire scene was just creepy and gave me Glenn Close vibes.

Kindredsoul; that's a brilliant scenario! Very scary. I can totally see it happen.

Personally, I think it will turn out that it doesn't really matter what choices the elves make, because eventually they will always end up in the palace, doing what Timmain always intended. It will probably have something to do with whatever happens after they die and with the fragmented soul thing. I don't know the exact details, because I'm not very good with abstract ideas, but the new age people I know would come up with something like this, I think...

However I like the horror scenario a lot better!

Ok just finished reading #11.

For the most part. It turned out like I thought it would. Then I get to the end with Cutter and Timmain. WTF!!!! I swear after reading that the first thing that popped into my head was...

" When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars. Then Peace will guide the planets, and love will fill the stars. This is the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius."

Yeah, Moonshade's story is resonating with me, and I feel it's been reasonably well crafted.

Lunakat wrote:

The posing too is, off and on, pretty stiff. If you look at the art from the original quest, Wendy, rather brilliantly, drew her characters as if they were in motion. Every single time. Even if they were standing still, there was a turn to the head, a motion of a hand, a twist to the body, etc. Now, they often just stand, lined up, in these stiff poses, like people posing for a camera or positioned onstage. It's awkward and create, in the story, a stiff, awkward feeling for me as a reader.'

Yeah, I agree completely -- compare the naturalistic action depicted in the opening scene of the Go-Back orgy and the dance welcoming the Wolfriders to Sorrow's End to the party celebrating Korafay's birth. The first two look like actual moments from an actual party. The third... doesn't.

And one of the frustrating things is the inconsistency. Granted, not every panel of any given comic is going to be equally awesome (though Book 4 of the OQ came pretty damn close to that standard), but the thing is, at least some of the time she can still do it. Some panels are lovely and then others are generic copypasta. Like, I adore page 15 of #11, all of it, but especially the lovely naturalism of the upper left panel. But then, on the very next page, Leetah's expression does NOT work, because it's barely modified from the scene in Final Quest Special when she was so excited to see Windkin. And in the panel below her everybody's standing stiffly on stage again, facing the camera. Sigh.

Delurking to bitch. Not even gonna apologize for it. XD We all seem to be of a similar mind here, so whatever. I'll try not to repeat too much. I'm just gonna go through the whole issue.

Dre-Ahn. I love him. I think he's adorable and I just adore him.

Copy-pasted bullshit on the first page. Ugh. I'm guessing Skywise and Timmain are just watching and being still, but like...come on. I also don't like how those two are flat while Cutter and Leetah are better-shaded. It makes more sense for Nightfall and Redlance to be flatly colored, being in the background, but Skywise and Timmain are closer to the front.

Page 2. Let's just copy Moonshade into this panel. It looks like everyone's on a poorly executed green screen. And when did the elves become barbies and never let their heels touch the floor?

Trolls! I enjoy seeing the trolls. I feel like they've stayed the same characters for the past 40-ish years. It's refreshing to see them now...but I HATE the way Wendy draws Drub. I don't know why, and I know that was last issue, but no thank you.

And here's the brainwashing sex scene...I mean...what the hell is this. Timmain looks either like a vapid bobblehead, or extremely sinister. And it's just bizarre. And I generally lean towards the idea that Skywise, after all that, is just...high on the experience and wants to share in that, but his comment about everyone needing to be immortal is just creepy. I don't think it was ill-intentioned.

Leetah should have connected Windkin's...arm membranes...to his feet. Then he could at least be a sugar glider.

I love the IDEA of the big tribe gathering scene...but again, so many copy-pastes, so many characters shaded differently, light sources coming from who knows what directions...Teir's the worst, looks basically cover-ready while everyone else is just so flat.

Dart and Mender. Love. Oh, it's so cute. I mean...the Official Gay Couple had to include Dart, naturally, and I am a little disappointed by that...because it was so EXPECTED that Dart would be involved. Mender...it's a bit out of left field. Mender's a slut, and that's fine, but what makes Dart so intriguing to him suddenly? Just because he's had a lifemate? Come on. And I agree with others that Dart and Mender aren't lifemates yet, they're just lovemates, but I feel a bit like the rushing of this relationship means that we won't see them develop, they'll just be OMG LOVEMATES and that's it.

Moonshade losing her wolf blood. Finally. The build up has been insane, which is nice considering the lack of it for everything else. I totally accept that she's spent a lot of time thinking about this and what not, but I'm also like...what on earth is the pull of the Palace all about? Someone on Facebook pointed out that the wolf blood makes it harder for the elves to interact with spirits and see them clearly, so I understand why the wolf blood needed to be taken. I just don't get what's so alluring about the Palace that one would give up something that was so intrinsic to their personality before.

Skywise again...no one should cling to old ways. Well why the hell not? I mean, if things can be done better in a new way, cool, but that doesn't mean the old ways are bad or have no value! Then another gathering scene, and I have the same issues with it as before. That shot of Brill is ABSOLUTELY a copy-past from when Korafay was a baby. Also, why does Korafay look so empty? Ugh. AND! If you look close, you can see Venka's left nipple...but her right one is missing. DUN DUN DUN!!!!!

I thought the exchange between Strongbow and Moonshade was brilliant. I both feel bad and don't feel bad for Strongbow, but I am worried like some others that he's just a hardline conservative now with little else to him.

Cutter has a point about Skywise and Leetah. When will they stop denying what is best for them just to please Cutter? On the other hand, who knows if turning into coneheads is what's best? Has anyone else noticed that Skywise's eyes aren't getting the same glossy treatment as everyone else, most of the time? Maybe Timmain sucked out his free will and now he's her cronie!

Timmain references the lesson of pain again...and now she wants to take that lesson away and take all the elves from the world they're part of? That makes no sense.

The next panel is, I feel, one of the few where everything is freshly drawn. And that's sad.

Okay, I must be one of the only ones on here who likes the Wavedancers. XD But I REALLY like mermaids, so that's probably part of it. I understand that they don't want to flee forever...but they're not stupid, they should have some caves to retreat to to wait out the humans, they should have coral traps...coral traps would really be the best, just sink all the ships, done.

Aaaaaand now it's invasion of the soul-snatchers. I hate this. How the hell are Timmain and Cutter the same soul. I don't like it. It's Mary Sue-ish, and I feel like it almost invalidates all of Cutter's achievements...he's the Chief of Changes, he discovered the existence of other elf tribes and united many of the children of the High Ones, he got the tribe to follow him in cocoons 10,000 years into the future, and who gives a crap now, because just being a wolfrider isn't enough, he's a goddamn High One.

Ugh. I just don't like it. I think it would be SUPER INTERESTING for another franchise, but it doesn't feel like Elfquest at all. I miss the little things. The character development. The focus on relationships...platonic, romantic, interspecies, whatever. Small lessons that illustrate the nature of such large concepts. Love, pain, death, life, one's place in the world. I feel like the Pinis are skipping over all that to rush to this metaphysical oddness that is not explained and very confusing and I just don't like it. And like others, I'm a completionist and I will continue to get the damn issues because I just have to know, but I will gnash my teeth the whole way, damn it. -.-

I feel like a lot of the art issues can be illustrated in that video Wendy made about how she uses her cintiq, for the art book Kickstarter? Watching her do the linework was awesome, but to color, she basically used the Bucket tool. Like, really. Everything feels rushed. And perhaps it should be, they're not getting any younger. But the quality has taken a serious dip in every arena of production.

Tam wrote:

And when did the elves become barbies and never let their heels touch the floor?

It's only the Wavedancers who are walking like that, maybe a result of them spending most of their time "floating" around in the water, therefore not needing to actually touch the ground. In Korafay's case also spending quite a lot of time actually floating.

Tam wrote:

Aaaaaand now it's invasion of the soul-snatchers. I hate this. How the hell are Timmain and Cutter the same soul. I don't like it. It's Mary Sue-ish, and I feel like it almost invalidates all of Cutter's achievements...he's the Chief of Changes, he discovered the existence of other elf tribes and united many of the children of the High Ones, he got the tribe to follow him in cocoons 10,000 years into the future, and who gives a crap now, because just being a wolfrider isn't enough, he's a goddamn High One.

Maybe it's not so much because Cutter is "A High One" - honestly; I don't think he really is - but more because of Tam. The Tam part of Cutter that made him able to do all that, and the Tam part in Timmain that made her able to keep fighting after the crash, leading to the birth of the Wolfriders.
Kinda funny, BTW, to talk about Tam when replying to a quote by someone named Tam.

Tam wrote:

Okay, I must be one of the only ones on here who likes the Wavedancers. XD But I REALLY like mermaids, so that's probably part of it. I understand that they don't want to flee forever...but they're not stupid, they should have some caves to retreat to to wait out the humans, they should have coral traps...coral traps would really be the best, just sink all the ships, done.

I like the Wavedancers too!
And I really hope they survive this, I also hope that Snakeskin goes back to the cove - or whatever where they live is called - before the attack. Simply because it would be a really bad act of a chief to basically go "Oh. My tribe is being attacked. I'll just stay here where it's safe!"
Maybe they could also get some of the Go-Backs to go, think they'd quite like the challenge of a water-fight.

Tam wrote:

Dre-Ahn. I love him. I think he's adorable and I just adore him.

Me too. And Pike already showing him the wonders of dreamberries.

Redhead Ember wrote:

Tam wrote:

And when did the elves become barbies and never let their heels touch the floor?

It's only the Wavedancers who are walking like that, maybe a result of them spending most of their time "floating" around in the water, therefore not needing to actually touch the ground. In Korafay's case also spending quite a lot of time actually floating.

True, but I'd think they'd need to use more of their feet then, if they're not as used to balancing on land! Much harder to walk on your toes than it is to walk using your whole foot.

Redhead Ember wrote:

Tam wrote:

Aaaaaand now it's invasion of the soul-snatchers. I hate this. How the hell are Timmain and Cutter the same soul. I don't like it. It's Mary Sue-ish, and I feel like it almost invalidates all of Cutter's achievements...he's the Chief of Changes, he discovered the existence of other elf tribes and united many of the children of the High Ones, he got the tribe to follow him in cocoons 10,000 years into the future, and who gives a crap now, because just being a wolfrider isn't enough, he's a goddamn High One.

Maybe it's not so much because Cutter is "A High One" - honestly; I don't think he really is - but more because of Tam. The Tam part of Cutter that made him able to do all that, and the Tam part in Timmain that made her able to keep fighting after the crash, leading to the birth of the Wolfriders.
Kinda funny, BTW, to talk about Tam when replying to a quote by someone named Tam.

*grins* I know.

I dunno. It still seems kinda odd. I will be happier if it turns out everyone has a little High One in them, like Skywise being Sefra maybe and Redlance being Kaslen, so on and so forth.

Redhead Ember wrote:

Tam wrote:

Dre-Ahn. I love him. I think he's adorable and I just adore him.

Me too. And Pike already showing him the wonders of dreamberries.

The dude's got priorities!

Tam wrote:

*grins* I know.

Maybe that's the big revelation: Cutter learns that he's a person on an internet forum.

Tam wrote:

I dunno. It still seems kinda odd. I will be happier if it turns out everyone has a little High One in them, like Skywise being Sefra maybe and Redlance being Kaslen, so on and so forth.

It might. And maybe the "shared souls" aren't so obvious.

----

One thing that kinda disturbed me is how Strongbow is being all they're no longer Wolfriders about Skywise and Moonshade giving up their wolf-blood. Uhm... I thought you agreed back during KoBW that wolf-blood didn't really matter, agreed that Suntop was still a Wolfrider despite never having had wolf-blood in the first place.

Someone said Wendy said, that we should look into SaBM for clues for Final Quest.
Well, the most obvious part is the sex scene:
- it starts with him laying in her arms wrapped around him
- then we have her playing with his hair (in her scene, Timmain looks more malicious than Winnie)

what about their intentions?
- both, Timmain and Winnie (T&W), want to leave the world, Rayek and Skywise both want to take the Wolfriders with them, but Skywise requires them to drop their wolfblood first (hah!)
- T&W want a safe place where no one has to suffer, of course, T. respectively W. is going to be the benevolent leader
- T&W actually both refer to the stars quite frequently, both talk of the elves finally becoming what they ought to be

Doppelgänger as well as people, who can assume other people's forms are rarely good; actually, I can't think of even one example, characters with such powers are at least ambivalent.

I bet, the final revelation is going to be "Timmain is evil", only that no one of us is going to be shocked. Is there anyone on this forum, who thinks she is likeable?


And speaking of copy/pasting, Wendy uses same face for Clearbrook in the "gathering panels" two times in one issue, try to top that