Final Quest #12

She's so damn dopey at communicating. I think she's still learning how to and has like zero skills.

Wendy just said this on Facebook:

"Wendy here: 30 years is a substantial amount of time to us humans. But what's 30 years to trolls? Maybe the Frozen Mountain trolls noticed the other pit wolves dying off from age or disease and having to be replaced. But not knowing how long wolves live, they wouldn't take particular notice of one pit wolf living 30 years."

So I guess the trolls were collecting wolves for some reason.

Do they eat the wolves or something?

Hmm maybe they kept them as guard dogs lol

Or bet on them fighting. Trolls do like betting.

This is so stupid. Like bad fan-fiction stupid. No way they planned this from the very beginning. This is retconned stuff. I'd say Wendy decided on this sometime in the early to mid nineties as a way to wrap things up. Just awful.

I can almost, almost buy the whole 'trolls didn't think it was weird a wolf they're actively starving living for 30 years'-thing, if the trolls are as ignorant or dumb as that scenario makes them out to be.
But really, it's stupid.

I just don't understand why they were collecting wolves in the first place. That's awfully specific.

"Hey, we are in constant fighting with the elves, aren't we? I suggest we make an opening to our tunnels but with a pit of starved wolves at the bottom of it. No, no; not a little bit starved, they should be so starved they cant actually move. Isn't this a lovely plan?"


I like how Timmain shaped herself into a Cutter with chief's lock. If you cut hers off, it really hurts

*reads link and tosses it back*

I'm done

That panel with Cutter visibly shaken (and shaking!) while Timmain is standing there in his mirror image, smiling, is just so goddamn creepy. And why does she keep referring to herself in the 3rd person ?

Lunakat wrote:

Wendy just said this on Facebook:

"Wendy here: 30 years is a substantial amount of time to us humans. But what's 30 years to trolls? Maybe the Frozen Mountain trolls noticed the other pit wolves dying off from age or disease and having to be replaced. But not knowing how long wolves live, they wouldn't take particular notice of one pit wolf living 30 years."

So I guess the trolls were collecting wolves for some reason.

*headdesk* That's just stupid. Why not go with the "spirits can be in two places at once, even outside of time, so Timmain's soul went back in time to become Cutter" rationale? Yeah, it's o.O-worthy but it uses what they already set up and doesn't make the trolls stupid or require more retconning.

Are they going to change the text of any potential future reprints of the OQ to make it so the trolls were capturing wolves previously? In #17 they say outright they had made sure to starve the wolves they captured, meaning the three in the pit!

*headdesk headdesk headdesk*

I remember a time where OQ was considered to be like the holy bible. Them changing anything in any reprints would be damn near scandalous for some.

I feel it's because there's a whole 'new blood' generation of Elfquest that this is somehow okay. I've seen people on the FB group who were like, Who's Aroree? And had no idea about any events from OQ.

Zadzi wrote:

That panel with Cutter visibly shaken (and shaking!) while Timmain is standing there in his mirror image, smiling, is just so goddamn creepy. And why does she keep referring to herself in the 3rd person ?

Cutter has this calm look on his face before he leaps away that reminds me of how he was before attacking Winnowill in the Original Quest.

Maybe he's leaping away to avoid attacking Timmain? Being told you're not, actually, an individual with likes/dislikes/fears/needs of one's own but merely half of someone else...

Yeah, I'd feel like punching something too.

And yes, that panel is goddamned creepy.

A bit of gallows humor: FQ is shaping up to supply lots of material to filter the story through a horror lens, like those YouTube videos that would recut horror movies ("The Shining") to make them into comedies.

Shadowpath wrote:

I remember a time where OQ was considered to be like the holy bible. Them changing anything in any reprints would be damn near scandalous for some.

They already have. :/

Kureel in the original black and white #15 and in the first few color editions said, **But for you, Lord Voll would live! Die with him! We are through with you!"

Later on, "Die with him!" was edited out.

There's been other editings like that in the newer collections.. which is why I haven't bought them.

Zadzi wrote:

I feel it's because there's a whole 'new blood' generation of Elfquest that this is somehow okay. I've seen people on the FB group who were like, Who's Aroree? And had no idea about any events from OQ.

New Blood?
New Blood by Blair?
New Blood where the elves at one point forgot they could commune telepathically?
*Screams*

Davrille wrote:

Shadowpath wrote:

I remember a time where OQ was considered to be like the holy bible. Them changing anything in any reprints would be damn near scandalous for some.

They already have. :/

Kureel in the original black and white #15 and in the first few color editions said, **But for you, Lord Voll would live! Die with him! We are through with you!"

Later on, "Die with him!" was edited out.

There's been other editings like that in the newer collections.. which is why I haven't bought them.

That's an odd thing to edit. O_o

Sifra's going to have a lot of awesome stuff to work with, I think
I can't wait to see what she does

Oh god, I'm sorry, Shadowpath
I should've realized what I was saying

Zadzi wrote:

That panel with Cutter visibly shaken (and shaking!) while Timmain is standing there in his mirror image, smiling, is just so goddamn creepy.

More fodder for the "Timmain is the Big Bad of EQ" theory!!

That expression of Cutter's - that's the face I make everytime I read new FQ!

Wow, I was finally feeling like the final quest was getting some traction and I was starting to get excited about it. Now...I don't know what to say... I was expecting something...but this wasn't it. I just feel disappointed somehow.

On the other hand, I am absolutely blown away by the drawing of Cutter when he's sitting on the scroll dais looking so forlorn. You may guess that I'm partial to Cutter anyway, but I do feel Wendy's art is improving (and by improving, I mean going back to how it used to be.) Although the way she draws Timmain with those weird lines between her eyes still annoys the hell out of me.

And Shadowpath! The absurdity finally lured you in!

I couldn't help myself. FQ is making some of the the stuff my elves did look just fine and sensible.

Zadzi wrote:

Oh god, I'm sorry, Shadowpath
I should've realized what I was saying

It's ok, I'm just...terrified by the notion there's whole group of people who grew up on New Blood and that the quality they're expecting.

I don't like this, and I'm still convinced this is an elaborate retcon, however...

As to the question of why Timmain and the wolves were in the pit, that's answered in OQ #17. The pit was a trap created by Two-Edge, presumably created to catch....elves? animals? I'm not totally sure, but we know that Two-Edge made it, that the hatch was located near the Go-Back lodge, that wolves were purposefully kept in the pit to kill/maim whatever fell in, and that the trolls were responsible for feeding the wolves and keeping them alive. This all seems like an elaborate way to catch and kill an elf or two, but whatever. It obviously didn't give me too much pause at the time....

But that was before I knew this trap had not caught anyone or anything for 30 years. The troll guards in issue 17 say that Two-Edge's "newest trap" has finally been sprung and that the wolves will "earn their keep." So...Two-Edge's "newest" creation is 30 years old? Wouldn't they rather say something like "Did you even remember that Two-Edge made this old thing?" Are we really to believe that the trolls were feeding the trapped wolves for 30 years in the hopes that an elf or two would someday fall into the pit (because the trap can really only be sprung once. After that all the Go-Backs would know about it.) Sheesh.

The FQ plotline was not a glimmer of a thought during the OQ. The fact the Wendy and Richard expect us to believe otherwise is sort of insulting to our intelligence as fans.

I'm sad

I can kind of buy Leetah not sensing anything - she doesn't seem to have spent much time in the palace or around Timmain, let alone sending to her or touching her. And I think the attraction between Skywise and TimTam was more because his recognition wasn't properly fulfilled, as in there were no cubs for obvious reasons, whereas Leetah's was the full monty.

But yeah...EQ hasn't just jumped the shark, it's jumped all the Sharks that ever have been or ever will be...

Also, I agree with everyone who said Timmain is a total creeper. She's been that way throughout FQ--cold and imperious, smiling at inappropriate moments. Now we have proof that she spent time as a psychic peeping tom. Just...creepy. And I still really really hope she will be a villain, but all signs point to no. (1) that could be an effective storytelling device, and nothing about the storytelling in FQ has been effective so far, (2) the words used to describe her by the narrator are pretty benign ("gently, simply" etc.)