Final Quest #12

I was just re-reading this morning, and I got the impression that both Rayek and Ekuar got new clothes. Ekuar certainly seems to be checking out his new gear in the picture.

I've always had the same suspicion as Trollhammer about the choppiness of the story. That has always been my biggest gripe that it feels really hurried and there's a lot that is just skimmed over that we aren't shown and just have fill in for ourselves. I get the feeling that either Wendy just wanted to get this story done before calling it quits, or this opportunity with Dark Horse came along before they were quite ready and she's been piecing together a lot of scattered ideas, trying to make it work.

I also like that Cutter's fighting this cray cray soul sharing stuff. Oh you're just a sliver of me, you're like my own personal ch-ch-chia elf! He damn well should run like hell. I don't blame him.

I still don't understand why Leetah and Skywise don't 'get' or seem at all conscious of Timmain's being part of Cutter and vice versa. I realize maybe they get something in a roundabout way (well, Skywise does) but Leetah just.... not having any kind of inner thought about it at all? My lifemate is shattered from the inside-out and he just came out of the Palace, where Timmain was? Timmain is acting weird and fainting? I used to love those moments where Leetah would have one of her royal little fits, like when she lashed out at Rayek or slapped Skot. Even when she turned on Teir that time. I would've loved to see her claws come out and that protective streak: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY LIFEMATE? I know Timmain's a high one and everything, but seriously, seeing Leetah act so passive in this situation is surprising. Skywise I can understand since he's so smitten and just got the **** of his life, and has always been googley-eyed about Timmain.

Zadzi wrote:

I would've loved to see her claws come out and that protective streak: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY LIFEMATE? .

THAT would have been awesome!

Yes it would have. Completely agreed.

Embala wrote:

Now that's HARD.
Non of us is a doctor and non of us has proved to be able to read the truth from a crystal sphere.

We can tell our opinion about the art About the story. We know what we like and what we hoped for. We can easily compare old and new art and discuss the differencies and weaknesses. We have fan artists and writers and professional artists and passionate readers - people who know enough about storytelling, drawing and coloring to point out failures.

But such a remote diagnosis on health is damn too personal and ungrounded in my opinion! Hurtful ... for Wendy and Richard Pini. And for everyone who actually suffers from dementia because it was used comes across as an insult.

The reason I say it is because of my grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer's.

In the span of a decade she went from producing well done, intricate, colour coordinated afghans, to barely being able to knit. And even that's failing her now.

TSATS may have been a racist piece of drek, but I can't fault it in terms of storyline togetherness and coherency. Even the art was good. Or, well, decent.

Discovery was okay. Again, we had a coherent storyline and semi-decent Art.

Now we have this. The storyline is incoherent and contradictory, the art is ... Frankly, I think it's terrible. And it has its moments where it briefly improves, then it falters again. Like my grandmother's afghans, like Pterry's books.

I think Wendy might be failing and is trying to get this story out. It's not an insult, it's an observation. I think her health is failing, and her art is suffering as a result.

I also think she and her husband aren't particularly nice people, and that they're both racist, but that's not related to their health, or their art, just an opinion based on observations of their social media. EG, their total disregard of the young lady a couple of years ago who tried to bring their attention to the use of brownface in cosplay, Wendy's comments on Asian people, and Richard's treatment of Lunakat and I before shutting the SOC down. And while I wouldn't necessarily ask Wendy if she had neurological health issues to her face, I would tell her exactly what I thought of her and her husband with a smile. I mean, if it came down to it.

The pony has actually been the best part of FQ for me, art wise. It looks like the przewalski horses at my local zoo, and like the early European horses in general. Today we think of horses in terms of sleekness and grace, the reality is that early in the use of horses, you would have wanted a strong, sturdy creature that could walk a long way, carrying a heavy load. In fact, a medieval knight would have ridden a small, sturdy horse like Dre Ahn's, rather than a frothy concoction with a swayback and fragile hooves. The only surprise is that it's supposedly on the equivalent to the North American continent, where, in our world, horses went extinct around the same time other ice age megafauna did, and were reintroduced by Spanish invaders in the fifteenth century.

The horse is my favourite new character.

I disagree, Kathleen, about Discovery. I thought that was drek.
I actually liked SATS even with its clumsy racist character 'study'. The story sort of redeemed itself.

She may be going for an Icelander here, but it still looks like it's daddy was a rhinoceros or something...

Don't make me challenge you to a duel, Zadzi.

I think she meant it for a primitive wild horse. They were out competed in Europe thanks to humans their horses.

Nah, wild horses like Przewalki's tend to have stiff, short manes. And nothing on Earth is built like that. But then again this is not earth, and there is a long line of animals that are not quite right and it helps to sell the idea of an alien world. It would have been better if they had stuck to "no-hump". Pony sounds so...Human bred.

Actually, Skywise did call it a no-hump back in issue 10. It was just the (I assume) human narrator who called it a pony.

Leetah is totes acting weird.

I don't know what "drek" means-- but Discovery was both good and bad. I think the art vacillated between being great and awkward. But I don't really mind. I agree that the story was coherent. It held together, had a specific direction-- people acted in character-- and there was a solid beginning, middle and end-- and it fit well within the larger world of Elfquest and where the collective story was headed.

However, it wasn't the greatest story ever told. Not the greatest story in Elfquest. But not sucky either. Some of the art was steller-- and then there were  some panels that seemed as if they were blocked in but never drawn over-- like they got overlooked or something in the finish. I could see how some people really liked it and maybe some people didn't. I think it was a good inclusion to the overall mythos.

kathleen3.0 wrote:

Don't make me challenge you to a duel, Zadzi.

Bwahaha. Nah, I am far too depleted from the confusion of the past issue.

I hated Discovery because of the colors. I don't even really pay that much attention to coloring in EQ like some people here who have a far better concept and know what they're talking about. But the colors made me twitch, they were really annoying to my eyes.

I also for the first time really disliked the palace. I started seeing it as this kind of fruitcake kumbaya plot device and the insipid cliches of love and comfort etc. made me actually angry. Like all the elves' problems would somehow melt away through the palace's loving embrace. It just seemed kind of sappy.
Plus it was the introduction of Brill, who is on my irrational hate list. I don't mind the other Wave Dancers at all, even though I still feel they're not as well developed as characters as they could be.

Now we're going to have to fight because Brill is awesome. She's sweet, and gentle and completely insensitive, what's not to love?

They're all out of character.

Zadzi wrote:

I used to love those moments where Leetah would have one of her royal little fits, like when she lashed out at Rayek or slapped Skot. Even when she turned on Teir that time. I would've loved to see her claws come out and that protective streak: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY LIFEMATE?

Yes! I adore her sometimes, like in Blue Mountain in the OQ, when she was looking for Winowill and Dewshine on her own. When she is being independent and facing her fears. The rest of the time, I don't get her

Idea:

Leetah's LACK of reaction to Timmain after Cutter flees the Palace is a clue to her connection to the High One. Timmain referred to her as "our beloved lifemate," which would seem to indicate she has feelings towards Leetah (insert snark from Wingthing here ) and maybe, on a subconscious level, Leetah feels the same.

After all, when it's a case of someone you love hurting someone else you love, you don't go to quite the same DEFCON level, at least to start, as you would if it were anyone else.

Zadzi did say it was an irrational hate. But I'm afraid I agree about Brill, I think she's just kind of lacking in personality.

HDU ALL? (ง’̀-‘́)ง

Is it wrong that this:


makes me think of this?

Cheese and crackers, Outlier!

I guess it is irrational, as Sun girl says....
Yes, she's very sweet, but I have found her rather milquetoast. Tyleet is very sweet, even naive, but I didn't find her bland. It's true though, she is lacking in personality, really the way several of the Wavedancers are. It's so weird to think how even the most peripheral Go Backs (before FQ) really stood out, like Yif, Vok, Mardu, Chot, etc... Wavedancers never really got that treatment from Wendy. I do like Snakeskin, though. And I even liked Surge, even though he was a stubborn jerk.

Sorry Kathleen, we all love and hate different peeps, so it goes