Final Quest #12

It could be one of those things they forgot over time.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, that Leninhumanguywhatshisname explained the deal with reincarnation and the elves were like, That seems strange.


Are you guys talking about the image with Cutter freaking out and Leetah holding him? Maybe he chooses to have his wolf blood somehow removed or it is, and he's having a holy shit moment.

Miss Gillespie wrote:

Lunakat wrote:

When Wendy first showed this image, she asked "what's missing?"

A cohesive storyline?


(Sorry, couldn't resist)

Bwahahaa. I'm glad you couldn't resist! I needed the chuckle.

Hah- yeah, that was a zinger. Personally, though, I think we aren't giving Wendy enough credit with this story. The art is good. It's very solid. Her colors, in the prologue, were (yes, finally- because she had a steep learning curve with Photoshop) not bad at all. In fact, I think they were, for the most part, quite lovely. Not at the same level of gorgeous that her watercolors hit, but lovely for what you see in today's comics and for her embrace of digital medium. And the storyline is actually moving along at a decent pace. One of the problems, I think, might just be that we are getting it in spurts- so it seems slow or disjointed. But a lot has actually happened. And I have a suspicion that, when we read it all together in graphic novel form, it's going to flow a lot more smoothly and events will seem much better connected.

Zadzi wrote:

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, that Leninhumanguywhatshisname explained the deal with reincarnation and the elves were like, That seems strange.

Exactly! Or... Manga is right and the mention of  reincarnation by Leninhumanguywhatshisname is there to introduce the concept so that when the elves learn about it, it's not totally out of the blue for the reader...

But I bet it's more likely to be this:

Quote :

Are you guys talking about the image with Cutter freaking out and Leetah holding him? Maybe he chooses to have his wolf blood somehow removed or it is, and he's having a holy shit moment.

There was only one moon in the background. Maybe he's freaking out because he's being shown what magical terraforming has done on the other moon. He's ok with being a magical, part-wolf critter in the forests of Abode but I think the idea that elfin magic can turn a sterile rock into a living world would blow his furry little mind.

I'm only being slightly snarky here. It's one thing to think "oh, yeah, we used to be space-farers but now we're part wolf and live in the woods of this one world and I'm ok with that" and another thing to think "we can make any world we want into the kind of place we want to live, in which case we don't have to stay on Abode, the place Timmain says our mortal blood gives us special license to."

That's really interesting, Manga! I would never have thought of that...

But what how does that connect to suddenly learning about who you really are?

I thought maybe the moon might be signifying his sword, NewMoon... which seems to be missing, along with his fur vest. But your idea is really cool.

Hmm... maybe they are inside the Palace... and Skywise has finally managed to merge, as he discussed with Ruffel, "the green growing place" with the crystal interior.

Again though... I don't know how that would related to a "soul wrenching truth"... Hmm.

The soul-wrenching truth of it could be how vast the universe is and how tiny and insignificant Abode is. When seen through the eyes of someone like Timmain, I bet planets have a very different meaning. Maybe being connected to that again will freak Cutter out.

Or there's always PCoquilin's idea that the High Ones are conquerors and enslavers.

Didn't he already have that shock, though? At the end of Shards? Or did he... I'm not sure. Maybe it would be just as shocking the second time around-- with a fuller understanding of things.

Maybe the soul-wrenching truth is that he just isn't cut out for this-- and can't lead the elves into the future because of that?

Yeah. I thought there was a moment where Skywise tries to show him the stars and Cutter wigs out and hates being out in space.

manga wrote:

The soul-wrenching truth of it could be how vast the universe is and how tiny and insignificant Abode is.  When seen through the eyes of someone like Timmain, I bet planets have a very different meaning.  Maybe being connected to that again will freak Cutter out.

Or there's always PCoquilin's idea that the High Ones are conquerors and enslavers.

I always thought the high ones were kinda cluelessly dumb. Enslaving trolls and then wondering why the hell they rebelled, and seeing themselves as betrayed. I mean, slavery much? Seriously.

Yeah- I agree. I think it was less that they enslaved the trolls, than that their pets evolved. It would be as if your dog or horse maybe suddenly gained higher cognitive function-- and you just didn't notice and kept treating him/her as a dog or horse... Even though he/she could talk an all.

Cluelessly dumb sounds about right. But then, they never had access to the 'Planet of the Apes' series.

I think that's probably the worst kind of enslavement, though. Because if you can communicate on that level with something, it's your job to notice that.

Tbh, I think the important factor there is that the TROLLS felt enslaved, and as if they had no other recourse. That's what's important here to me.

I wonder... did they at any point, deliberately breed their helper critters? Or did they just let the creatures (pre-trolls and such) infest their biosphere at will?

It's true, it probably wasn't deliberate at all on the high ones' parts. Oh,my little pets are talking and have reasoning skills! That's so cute! Yay pets! Can you look over our precious precious cocoons while we sleep?

They just seem so freakin' NIMBY to me though. High Ones are the type to essentially mean well and basically end up gentrifying an entire neighborhood to the point of bleaching out its roots.
They do say the road to hell is paved with good intentions...

manga wrote:

I wonder... did they at any point, deliberately breed their helper critters?  Or did they just let the creatures (pre-trolls and such) infest their biosphere at will?

If you're saving an endangered species, you generally encourage breeding. I guess the question might be, did they consider them an endangered species?

XD ... burrowers and flitrins were the only surviving species besides the Coneheads on their dying world. What would you think?

The question I was asking, though, was whether they ever said "Oh, that's a pretty coat color. Maybe we can cross this borrower with that one and get more..."

I don't think so, manga. Unless there was some "freak" among the Coneheads who was interested in natural breeding by selection as a hobby. In case they would have longed for golden or pink coats they would have done some magical change.

In general I think that most of them were too absorbed in their magical-mental disciplines and discoveries to care much for the critters at all. Timmain was an exception ... probably some otheres as well. They liked to touch things, experiance them on a more physical level as well.

Embala wrote:

Timmain was an exception ... probably some otheres as well. They liked to touch things, experiance them on a more physical level as well.

That sounds so wrong, and yet so true (at least as far as wolves go.)

wingthing wrote:

Pretty much every blurb for every Final Quest issue could be distilled down to:

A threatening new threat threatens the elves, as the chosen must choose to make a choice! The most game-changing ElfQuest issue for the NEXT TWO MONTHS!

^^^^^

So much of this.

Each issue that comes out, I care less and less about this FINAL QUEST stuff.

I'd much rather read the original, SaBM and KotBW and pretend everything else was my own "bad dream."

Reincarnation: Sorry, late to the party...

Maybe the cases where a "modern elf" looks like a firstcomer it's not because they're descended from them, but because they're their reincarnation.
Could also be - partly - how Recognition works; two souls who were previously tied together react when 'finding each other' again. Except sometimes it gets messed up a little so that for example the reincarnation of Adya (Cutter) ends up recognizing the reincarnation of Aerth (Leetah), maybe because they were both tied to Timmain who for obvious reasons - being alive - couldn't have reincarnated.

But didn't Timmain mention that the souls of other high ones was in the palace in the original quest?

Other High Ones, yes. But ALL other High Ones?

Yes I believe all of them. She says something like: "my friends, you're all here, and many others"

Yes but this would not be the first part of that tale to be contradicted or reinvented. Timmain said that the "little deaths" her people had tried were peaceful and in the end they chose an immortal life seasoned with chance rather than tranquility.

Yet Kahvi didn't look very "tranquil" to me when we saw her spirit. I think that the "life beyond life" is being redefined.