Final Quest #14

The "death of a beloved blah-blah"-part was stupid... And I didn't like the "high one" form of Moonshade*, seriously, that long hair looks terrible! Can't have "High Ones" have short hair (or at least normal length)?
The rest was fine

I think the tree fungi are trying to absorb him. Maybe that happens to dead elves that are given to the wolves/ left in the woods?




*the one, we see in the 'preview'

Miss Gillespie. You're right. What's going on with that hair. It looks like a carpet... I think they're going to absorb him too. I wonder if they're souls of old wolfriders

And a lot of dream talk in this issue. I guess some of the Dreamtime stories will play a key role very soon

The tree/fungus people are my favourite part of FQ so far. They are deliciously creepy.

I've decided the whole of Elfquest might really be about how Skywise can't have a girlfriend without drama.

I can't believe all drama was for Filcher dying. Lame! I mean it's sad but we already knew he would.
Fungues elves are awesome. So basically they're waiting for him to die.

Cutter's rhyming thing just sounds like he's snapped. Now he and TwoEdge can totally hang out.

Lunakat wrote:

The greens are nice. Venka's blindingly yellow outfit is not.

Yeah, it's still flickering on my retinas. Also, Venka is rivaling Leetah and Savah for always being the same drawing.

[quote="Lunakat"] I just want to take Photoshop away from them. Just take it away!

I honestly think that would be the one thing that would improve the art more than anything else. Just go back to doing it by hand. Even if we had to wait three times as long between issues.

That said, I genuinely liked this issue, too. More thoughts later. RIP Filcher. ;__; Everything with Filcher has to be so familiar to anyone who's owned a dog.

I guess Filcher was, literally, an old friend. Doh! In all fairness, I found his death extremely touching. He died as he lived, with his face buried in Cutter's old socks. <sniff>

Got to say, this is probably my favorite issue of FQ so far! I think the line art is 80%+ very good, and like Lunakat said, the annoying coloring wasn't quite so obvious (although there was one panel of sadface Strongbow where he had the same complexion as a body on a slab. Awful, putty gray. And Venka's new outfit is garish and terrible.

Speaking of costume changes, I guess when an elf reaches the palace they automatically get a generic silk gown in "their" color. Ahdri and Moonshade are essentially wearing the same dress. This makes it feel even more cultlike ("Accept these robes, initiate...") I also had a hard eyeroll when Moonshade started preaching to the Go-backs ("There are no limits. Here, drink this.")

I really liked the sequence where Leetah almost fell into the sinkhole. She's always been a bit feline to Cutter's canine, and in the panel where Dr Dre holds her up, she looks like a cat being held by its scruff. Made me chuckle!

I think Wendy's in top form with her drawing throughout the Cutter sequences. You can really feel how he's drifting mentally and emotionally. All these disturbing, surreal images jumbled up--Filcher's skeleton and Joyleaf's skull--that's dark!

We all deserve a gold-star for guessing the direction they're going with the fungus elves. It is very original. As far as I can figure, they feed on decomposing flesh that lands in their dell, and they're just waiting for Cutter to expire so they can consume him. The "linked" sending circles strongly suggest a communal mind. I could pick out 2 females and 4 males. The most prominent female still looks pregnant to me, but I think that's just a "bole" on her abdomen. I wouldn't be surprised if these elves are extremely ancient, perhaps even High Ones. It would make sense for High Ones or 1st generation elves to revile the elvish form that got most of their friends killed. I love both the concept and the execution of this new tribe.

I had to laugh when Aroree showed up in the Holt. Girl gets around! I almost think she (and Treestump and Clearbrook) where there so that it looked like Ember had more elves to manage. Otherwise, she ditched her tribe to hang out with Yun, Pike, Newstar, and Ohler. I do think it's sweet that Ohler is 100% on-board with Newstar's mortality. Their relationship is just a bit of background color, but it's quite nice to see. Newstar's wolfrider duds are very her.

While the art was great, I really didn't care for the rhyming poetry in the text. The meter wasn't too great, and...rhyming doesn't seem very "delirious" to me. It takes a little too much mental coordination.

The only part of the story that really didn't work for me was Venka's confrontation with Two-Edge. I do agree that she needed to confront him in some way about his decision to give the humans firearms, however I don't understand the point of the conversation we saw. She basically just railed at him while he had an emotional breakdown in front of her. There was nothing constructive in the exchange, and she came off as a bit cruel. I realize she had a traumatic experience, but it still feels out-of-character. Venka is cool, calm, and collected. I feel like she would show him the ramifications of his actions in a gentle, yet unflinching manner. There was also a lot of plot exposition packed into her rant about Rayek and Winnowill, blah, blah, blah. I'm am so bored of Winnowill. I wish they're tie her to a piece of the palace and launch her into the void of space, never to be seen again. She is a terrible antagonist, and the humans are even worse than she is. The prospect of having her and Rayek and the humans taking up more space in a future issue is very discouraging.

Finally, I have to register my strong dislike for the cover of #15. Moonshade looks horrible. Why is her hair so long? It looks like a complete nightmare to deal with. Is she levitating her gown to cover her bits? What's wrong with Strongbow's hand? Also, if she completely shape-changes into High One form, she's really giving the lie to the still-the-same-Moonshade talk in #13. She's really changed everything about herself, inside and out, which is absolutely her prerogative, but it's no wonder Strongbow's distraught.

So much for the asinine 'Guys we might not ever meet this group!'-comment.

I don't mind her hair. I also liked Filcher's death scene-- the only people blowing it out of proportion were us. The story handled it in a very understated manner. It was nice.

The new elves-- yes, they make sense. Doesn't fungus feed on decay? I like the group think as well. Did you guys notice that some part of Redlance's dream was tacked onto the end of the issue? It was all about how the forest is one big living entity-- what one knows and feels all know and feel and whatnot-- and how the spirits of dead elves are absorbed by the trees, etc..

Shadowpath wrote:

So much for the asinine 'Guys we might not ever meet this group!'-comment.

Who made that comment? Of course we were gonna meet this group. They were the only other elves shown when Suntop sent out his big message-- except Dr. Dre (who we also met). I don't know where the idea that the Pinis do red herrings came from-- but I've never noticed that they do. They tell you what's going to happen a mile away -- and then it happens. It would have been nice to see more elves respond to that call, but I guess we only got the ones that are directly pertinent to the story.

When it comes to the cover for 1: Meh, I might feel more sorry for Strongbow, but he doesn't look sad enough. Too Shatner.
I love the plant elves.
Honestly Moonshade looks fine. I can see why her hair looks bad to most, but the cover for 14 is hell of lot worse.

Also Venka, for fucks sake.
Break Rayek's back in 6 places, have him wrapstuffed and bury the idiot underneath an active volcano.
Or, incapacity him and destroy Winnowill's goddamn soul.
Seriously, they're now a weapon of destruction.
Heck just destroy Rayek along with her, might make him happy.

Lunakat wrote:

Did you guys notice that some part of Redlance's dream was tacked onto the end of the issue? It was all about how the forest is one big living entity-- what one knows and feels all know and feel and whatnot-- and how the spirits of dead elves are absorbed by the trees, etc..

Yes! I speculated on the same thing in a comment a few pages back. I think Redlance is going to be key when they eventually meet the fungal elves. Also in his dream, the Father Tree burns in the fire, but the roots of the forest persist out of sight, waiting for the time to reemerge. This also seems like a loose analogy for the fungus elves' existence. Pike even says "the trees are like High Ones." Maybe the plants are High Ones, heh!

Lunakat wrote:

Who made that comment?

I saw it on facebook and I remember it being either by Wendy or whoever behind the official fb page.
So I'm assuming it's either Wendy, Richard or their police happy minions.(I don't think it's their minions tho?)

Lunakat wrote:

I don't know where the idea that the Pinis do red herrings came from-- but I've never noticed that they do.

It's form that one dude from the old frozen scroll who's post always mentioned how masterful the pini's are a using red herrings.
And he kept escalating it.

Lunakat wrote:

It would have been nice to see more elves respond to that call, but I guess we only got the ones that are directly pertinent to the story.

They're all dead. The humans did the only thing they're good at. Killing.

I kinda want to call the plant elves Kaslen's Children, (or Saplings) for some reason.

Shadowpath wrote:

When it comes to the cover for 1: Meh, I might feel more sorry for Strongbow, but he doesn't look sad enough. Too Shatner.

Very true.  I don't think Strongbow looks too good, but I find his depiction less irritating than Moonshade.  I'm honestly getting pretty tired of their durm and strang too.  Moonshade's made her choice, and I think it's time for them to move on separately.  We can see them coping (well, Strongbow; Moonshade doesn't seem very bothered since she gets to look at ghosts on the walls and a sparkly spinning magic vortex,) but I think they need to go their own ways for a while.

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Honestly Moonshade looks fine. I can see why her hair looks bad to most, but the cover for 14 is hell of lot worse.

I actual like the cover of #14 quite a bit!  I think I'm just having a bad reaction to Moonshade because she was one of my favorites as a kid, mostly because I thought she was so beautiful (I was 9 and shallow, what can I say?) But on principle, I don't like "clothing" that defies the laws of physics.  Nor do I appreciate the unprovoked eradication of nipples. If you don't want mammalian breasts on the cover, don't put a for-all-intents-and-purposes nude on the cover.

Shadowpath wrote:

@Lunakat wrote:
I don't know where the idea that the Pinis do red herrings came from-- but I've never noticed that they do.


It's form that one dude from the old frozen scroll who's post always mentioned how masterful the pini's are a using red herrings.
And he kept escalating it.

I think the Pinis actively encourage the "red herring" idea on the facebook page too. There's a lot of "we might be lying...," evil smiling, and I might even remember seeing a red herring icon floating around on there. But it's true, their stories are usually sweetly straightforward. I don't think they even know how to hide the ball. Cutter actually refers to Timmain as his "higher self" in this issue!

Wisp wrote:

 Moonshade's made her choice, and I think it's time for them to move on separately.

Yup. Agree!

Wisp wrote:

I actual like the cover of #14 quite a bit!  I think I'm just having a bad reaction to Moonshade because she was one of my favorites as a kid, mostly because I thought she was so beautiful (I was 9 and shallow, what can I say?) But on principle, I don't like "clothing" that defies the laws of physics.  Nor do I appreciate the unprovoked eradication of nipples. If you don't want mammalian breasts on the cover, don't put a for-all-intents-and-purposes nude on the cover.

14's cover could have been better if it didn't look like somebody just scribbled on it.


I can see why the clothing annoys you tho! It just seems so lazy to give her that.
I mean, look at the original High Ones' clothes!

I didn't like the first couple of pages of artwork with Ember and the tribe, it looked really weird to me. Maybe it's the cut and paste. Clearbrook looked odd. The whole thing looked posed, awkward.

I was sort of shocked at Venka's outburst as well... what, she like threw her shield at TwoEdge and totally went off on him. I kind of thought she would be more cold and centered when she spoke, which in a way would kind of be scarier...this was a strange hissy fit, unworthy of Venka...or, I should say, unfitting.


Wisp, I laughed about the part where you said Leetah looked like a cat being held up by the scruff of her neck....it's true! That scene was good. I didn't mean to gloss over Filcher's death either, but I was just annoyed that we were taking bets on it being ANYTHING or ANYONE but the most obvious, which is kind of hilarious.

Don't get me started on Moonshade.

The pony can still bite the dust. There's still time.

Zadzi wrote:

I didn't like the first couple of pages of artwork with Ember and the tribe, it looked really weird to me. Maybe it's the cut and paste. Clearbrook looked odd. The whole thing looked posed, awkward.

What makes it awkward is the coloring. In the Holt-- why is everyone a grey pink? That makes no sense. Why is Dr. Dre a consistent pink when everyone else has yellow skin tone or is blue in shadow? Speaking of yellow-- why are Venak and Leetah yellow? Except for a handful of consecutive panels where Leetah switches colors. What's going on with shading? I don't know because the artist doesn't!

The coloring is killing the art because it drowns out the line work and has logic to the lighting, and the person doing it has no understanding of the difference between, hue, tone, saturation and contrast. If you desaturated any page that wasn't monochromatic, you'd probably discover that there is no real contrast. And that makes it hard to look at. Because your eye can't really differentiate the forms. It's annoying. He over saturates erratically-- and doesn't think about how different colors in different panels are going to interact on the same page.

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I was sort of shocked at Venka's outburst as well... what, she like threw her shield at TwoEdge and totally went off on him. I kind of thought she would be more cold and centered when she spoke, which in a way would kind of be scarier...this was a strange hissy fit, unworthy of Venka...or, I should...

I think it made sense. He gave human beings weapons of mass destruction and she wanted him to understand how bad that was. He still didn't get it and just worried about whether she liked him still or not. She was like 'This thing you created is going to destroy our world!' And he responded with 'She doesn't like me anymore!'

That's not really Venka's bad. I mean-- how cool and calm does she need to be?

Hmmm, I'm not from the 'go for immortal elves' camp, but this talk about wolfblood was really annoying. As if the special thing about Moonshade (for Strongbow) was her Wolf blood scent..

Zadzi wrote:

I didn't like the first couple of pages of artwork with Ember and the tribe, it looked really weird to me. Maybe it's the cut and paste. Clearbrook looked odd. The whole thing looked posed, awkward.

Yeah, those scenes were definitely in the 20% not-so-good art for me. A lot of the faces looked....off in some panels. Ultimately it's just another, inert crowd scene. The caption said "As they prepare for that night's hunt...." or something like that, but it didn't look like anyone was planning on going hunting. No one was getting their weapon or their wolf ready. They were just sitting around in a neat row pounding dreamberries. I'm sure that's not safe operating procedure, Ember!

Miss Gillespie wrote:

Hmmm, I'm not from the 'go for immortal elves' camp, but this talk about wolfblood was really annoying. As if the special thing about Moonshade (for Strongbow) was her Wolf blood scent..

That's a good point. Strongbow is being really stubborn here. If he loves her, it shouldn't make that much of a difference. I think he is angry that they are not choosing the same lifestyle anymore. She made a decision that means she will never and can never go back to the way it was-- and he doesn't handle change well. She is still herself, but who she is has changed. He doesn't like that.

The Ember scene really drove home how few Wolfriders are left with Cutter's group. If Clearbrook and Treestump were still in the forge, if Aroree wasn't there, and if Yun and Pike and Ember were back with their crew-- it would literally just be Newstar and Strongbow.

A dying way of life?

I guess if the younguns were still around, watching their parents get divorced-- rather than having taken off to have their own lives-- it would be different. I kind of feel bad for Yun and Pike. Yun came to get to know her dad better and hang out with her Go Back crew-- and they all took off on her. Pike came to be near the spirits of his loved ones in the Palace-- but the Palace instantly relocated. What's the point?