The Final Quest

Well, we all know he likes what maidens have!

late to the conversation cause i just now checked facebook and saw the picture....

BUT AHHH IT'S STARCHILD, IT'S STARCHILD!!!*claps hands excitedly* we may finally get a recognition for Fahr! and for some reason, her name is firmly rooted as Starchild to me. that will not change until she is introduced! but she looks lovely...and jeez Cutter seems apprehensive. get over it dude, you recognized, maybe now it's Skywise's turn!

edit:..oh jeez, i read back through and realize the name is not original, someone else already thought of it...but it popped into my head anyway. WE MUST BE LEARNING TO SEND TO EACH OTHER GUYS!!! :p

Gosh, I really hope this is a new character.

Blackbird wrote:

Yeah, I thought so too Luna. The lodestone could symbolize recognizion, him being drawn to her, or something..the candle could be about something fading out...djuns life or safety for the elves/wavedancers?  

Oh gosh- I have such a terrible mind.

Whoever she is...why is she sparkly?

Edit...I just read Mangas explanation. Yep, that's totally what's happening here!

Lunakat wrote:

Blackbird wrote:

Yeah, I thought so too Luna. The lodestone could symbolize recognizion, him being drawn to her, or something..the candle could be about something fading out...djuns life or safety for the elves/wavedancers?  

Oh gosh- I have such a terrible mind.

Oh?

You know, I don't think this is recognition. I think we're supposed to think it is. Why is she all sparkly like magic, and why does she have the exact same colouring as Skywise? And I don't think Cutter would freak out about Skywise recognising. Also, Timmain is drawn quite consistently, and apart from the fact she has silver hair, this chicky doesn't look like her. Something else - something weird but not unpleasant (we're both very happy to find each other) is going on...

All I have to say is, that it has been a long time ago since I last ''fangirled''! High ones, I'm so happy right now.

I really wouldn't mind if it is Timmain. Though, I really would love it if it is a new character, that one from his dream!

Manga and Stargazer ... thank you two, now I can not get this *Skywise, the first transgender elf* theorie out of my head!! XD

Stargazer wrote:

You know, I don't think this is recognition. I think we're supposed to think it is. Why is she all sparkly like magic, and why does she have the exact same colouring as Skywise? And I don't think Cutter would freak out about Skywise recognising. Also, Timmain is drawn quite consistently, and apart from the fact she has silver hair, this chicky doesn't look like her. Something else - something weird but not unpleasant (we're both very happy to find each other) is going on...

If not recognition- what could it be? Do you agree with Manga's theory- that Skywise turns into a girl?

tuns into a girl, and gets and nose and chin job along with that?

Another long-lost daughter... sister of Yun? Bred with some Sun Villager - but taking after daddy? Nah... we'd have heard of it by now, I think. True, Yun came out as a bit of a surprise too...

Her eyes also remind me of that flashback in "Hidden Years" with Eyes High sending to unborn Skywise, looking out to the horizon. The same dreamy smile... but the hair and features all different. Maybe... an elf medium? Don't see what the use would be since most elves (and surely Skywise as Master of the Palace) can communicate with spirits and even "make them out" like Cutter said to Snakeskin - but really, who knows?

Maybe Sunstream's sending reached beyond the WoTM....

Maybe... but then why does she look like an elf? The High Ones only shaped themselves into elves to land on the WoTM. Do you think another conehead ship showed up- and one of the residents shaped herself to look like the elves they were trying to contact?

Timmain's a shapeshifer; I think she shifted down to Skywise's size and changed her appearance some in order to remove herself from the position of "High One" to become "Skywise's Recognized".

Multi-Facets wrote:

Timmain's a shapeshifer; I think she shifted down to Skywise's size and changed her appearance some in order to remove herself from the position of "High One" to become "Skywise's Recognized".

Why? So he would be less nervous about the Recognition and all? But he still DOES look lost... I'd have rather expected that the Palace would go ahead and make *him* more High One-ish (even against his will to stay Cutter's size), much like it did with Sunstream...

Less nervous, more accepting, yes. Timmain is basically the equivalent of a goddess to them, their All-Mother, so taking herself off a pedestal would be a particularly nice gesture on her part.

Could be a possibility... I'm thinking about SKywise's words in "Full Circle"; "Timmain... puckernuts, how dare I even dream? But she's so... so..." Mayhaps she somehow perceives that if they Recognized while she was in "High One" form his awe would be too strong... maybe even spring a rejection (like Strongbow when their minds first touched). And she changes accordingly. If Mender could sense that Ember and Teir's Rec was "on the cliff's edge" I think an all-powerful elf like Timmain might just as easily sense what is about to happen. And she can morph at outstanding speed.... see her recent transformation in wolf-form, which took even Skywise and Sunstream aback.

Lunakat wrote:

Stargazer wrote:

You know, I don't think this is recognition. I think we're supposed to think it is. Why is she all sparkly like magic, and why does she have the exact same colouring as Skywise? And I don't think Cutter would freak out about Skywise recognising. Also, Timmain is drawn quite consistently, and apart from the fact she has silver hair, this chicky doesn't look like her. Something else - something weird but not unpleasant (we're both very happy to find each other) is going on...

If not recognition- what could it be? Do you agree with Manga's theory- that Skywise turns into a girl?

I've been thinking about this all night, and I'm a bit baffled. I don't think he'll turn into a girl - I can't imagine any scenario where that would be necessary. Also he looks kind of shocked. I dunno...maybe the idea about recognition with Timmain, but her reshaping herself is right.

And thinking about it some more now I've read Multi-facets' suggestion...Skywises dream was about a star turning into something ordinary - an old blanket - and then Star Girl, and then they were very pleased to find each other. Okay, I've changed my mind. Maybe he is about to recognise Timmain. Gah, and we have to wait till July to find out!

Blackbird wrote:

Lunakat wrote:

Blackbird wrote:

Yeah, I thought so too Luna. The lodestone could symbolize recognizion, him being drawn to her, or something..the candle could be about something fading out...djuns life or safety for the elves/wavedancers?  

Oh gosh- I have such a terrible mind.

Oh?

I think Luna's metaphors were a little more...corporeal?

I agree with whoever said that it looks like the female has just shape-changed or somehow manifested right in front of Skywise. I think his lodestone is flying up because he's jerking back in shock. I think they do find some other kind of creatures that they are not sure whether they represent a threat or not, and this is the moment when the creatures take the form of elves to not scare them. First contact, maybe with other travelers from the home planet.

It also makes me think of another book I read where stars really were beings. Or like the face that comes out of the water in The Abyss.

Outlier wrote:

I think Luna's metaphors were a little more...corporeal?

I agree with whoever said that it looks like the female has just shape-changed or somehow manifested right in front of Skywise. I think his lodestone is flying up because he's jerking back in shock. I think they do find some other kind of creatures that they are not sure whether they represent a threat or not, and this is the moment when the creatures take the form of elves to not scare them. First contact, maybe with other travelers from the home planet.

It also makes me think of another book I read where stars really were beings. Or like the face that comes out of the water in The Abyss.

Yes! see? Outlier explained it better than I could  

Kindredsoul wrote:

Maybe Sunstream's sending reached beyond the WoTM....

Can I just jump back to issue 8 and time-skips here for a moment?
Shenshen's comment about how Shuna frequently stops at Shukopek's lodge on her travels made me think/realise that maybe longer time passed between the Special and issue 1 than I initially though.
My reason for thinking that not that long time had passed was that I basically thought Moonshade went into the Palace after Ruffel died, and didn't come out until Strongbow went to get her at the beginning of issue 3, and I somehow had a hard time believing Strongbow waiting that long before trying to get her out. But of course; he did say "You've been hiding in the Palace more and more." not "You've been hiding in the Palace all the time since Ruffel died."

Right, back to issue 10 (but I'll - sorta - stay with the time-skips for a moment)
Gotta say that part of me hopes that the 10-year time-skip will mean that Ember and Teir will have had their child in the meantime. But not too long ago, I hope we'll see a baby and actually have said baby be a baby for some time.
Can't remember who it was that complained over at the old Scroll about how after a child was born there was (almost) always some sort of time-skip.

Kindredsoul wrote:

Maybe Sunstream's sending reached beyond the WoTM....

Nice try, Kin, but Wendy herself had already stated that..

But didn't she also state that the influence of the palace extended well beyond the planet, even past the moons or the sun?

I do believe that there will be another group, either space-travelers, or, as you have postulated, an isolated group, and this group will not be friendly. Now, I think that there will be a Romeo and Juliet component, where Skywise will Recognize one of this group, but instead of all the elves coming together as with the Sun-Villagers or the Wavedancers, the new group will be so hostile to the joining that the Wolfriders will have to hide the product of that union. Or the product of that union will have to hide the Wolfriders (Jink).

Thanks to all your theories I think I know what is going to happen.
Actually, it's a logical outcome of putting all the spoilers together. I am pretty sure I am right (although I may be horribly wrong of cause ), so if you don't want me to spoil the surprise don't read any further!

So we got three facts:
1. Starchild showing up and doing something to Skywise, obviously magic is involved in the way she is appearing to him.
2. The picture of Cutter freaking out.
3. Cutter being the master of the palace in the future and speaking of his family and loved ones being taken away from him (taken that this is cannon).

1. So you guys came with several options about Starchilds identity. I don't think she is (a younger looking) Timmain because, as said before, she doesn't have the same facial features. The option about her being feminine version of Skywise is fun, but I don't see that happening.
For me there are two options left: either she is one of a group of space-travelers, shaping herself into an elf for Skywise (probably recognition), or another possibility: she is one of the wood elfs recognising Skywise, which makes him see her as she really is (I think the woodelfs must be shapechangers). I really hope for the second option, although I fear it will be the first.

2. no.... 3. first

3. If, in the future, Cutter is the master of the Palace and most of the others have gone. Where did they go? How did they leave? Did they use the palace as a kind of shuttle bus, to bring them to an other world and then come back to Abode? This wouldn't make sense because it would mean the other ones aren't out of reach for Cutter.

Brings me back to 2.
The 'who stays who goes' matter has been a fact for some time now. Imagine that some space travelers did hear Sunstreams call and came to Abode.

Space Travelers:"Hey guys, THERE you are, we sure missed you over the last 20.000 years, you coming back with us? We will leave tomorrow."

Cutter: "What the heck? Mommy told me never to go with strangers."

Space Travelers: "We are not strangers" *recognise Skywise*  

Skywise: "Oh... eh... I see, I DO know you, I guess I'll come with you then."

THAT sure would freak Cutter out, wouldn't it?

Of cause they won't leave the next day because that would make Final Quest end very brutally. So maybe they'll give the rest of the elves a week to think about it. Oh no, Jink needs to be born first... Ok, lets say two years.

Those who choose to stay on Abode may keep the palace. We saw that for some reason Cutter will be able to move the palace in the future, maybe in the far future he will master it further and be able to go to the stars again to reunite with his loved ones.
Ah..... a happy ending!

*edit*
Oh, puckernuts. I couldn't find the issue in which we see future Cutter being the master of the palace when I was writing this post. I just did find it (Metamorphosis) , and see that I was mistaken about two things: from what Cutter (if is IS him) says it seems that his 'friends ans kin' are dead. And it looks like the ARE traveling the universe. So far my super theory