Final Quest #16 cover revealed (spoilers)

I'm going with the theory that Rayek is subdued and put in wrapstuff, and Ekuar stays behind to watch over him. Ekuar and Two-Edge argue over taking him back to Venka, and Ekuar finally agrees to send to Venka to let her know what's happened.

Lunakat wrote:

I care so little about Daboi and I just can't stand Rayek at this point-- he's so repetitive and nonsensical. If they both die I do t know if I would mind either way.

Personally I care a lot about Daboi. Especially considering that when you think about it, lot's (if not all) of his trouble comes from his desire to do good.
First he wanted to become a surgeon in order to "be a healer to my own people." He knew he'd never truly be able to fit in among the Wolfriders, so he decided to return to his own people in order to use his skills where they would actually be useful.
Then he couldn't help but point out that "those so-called 'monsters' aren't so bad." Of course that was a mistake; he really should just have kept his mouth shut, but I think a lot of us have been in situations where someone talk bad about family or friends, and we just couldn't keep our mouths shut.

You know... Rayek dying would be kinda... bad!

Ohmigosh-- I just realized what the ancient wrong is. PhotoShop. Switching from pen and ink to PhotoShop. Cutter is on a quest to find some water colors and repaint everyone he knows!

Perhaps he also realizes that he and Timain are one because they are all aspects of Wendy Pini's psyche..?

...

I've actually had a sorta crazy theory recently.

You know when Two-Edge spoke about how The sword holds the key, the sword is the key back in OQ?
This was of course meant literally, Newmoon both holds the physical key, and in a way also is the key, at least the pommel is.
But what if it was also meant figuratively, with Newmoon holding/being the key for Two-Edge to solve his identity crisis? Then the "Ancient Wrong" - at least from his PoV - would be the Holt Trolls siding with the elves, thus destroying his hopes for any solution. Or the "Ancient Wrong" could be even earlier; Winnowill splitting his mind in the first place

So, maybe Cutter, for some reason, decides that he has to help Two-Edge fix that? In a way it was his fault that the plan didn't work out, as he was the first to get the idea to help the Holt Trolls. I'd even say that the summary sorta implicates that Cutter's quest may not make a whole lot of sense: "Cutter suddenly decides..." but then again; he does pretty often seem to suddenly decide to do things, and everybody just sorta rolls with it and make sneaky plans behind his back so he won't run off into the wild on his own.

Main problem of course is that I have no clue who that one person would be, other than Winnowill, and she's probably pretty easy to find.

Oh, I'd forgotten about that whole "the sword IS the key" and yes that is seriously interesting!
I wonder what kind of key a sword could be? One named "New Moon" owned by "Cutter"? HmmmmmmMMMM...

Anyway, interesting idea about the war being the ancient wrong. Something doesn't sit quite right with me about it being THE ancient wrong, but I'm betting it's a very big part of the equation. There's something going on between trolls and elves that need resolving in any case, and Two-Edge is pretty much a manifestation of that problem. So in that case, like I think I mentioned earlier, Door would maybe know a thing or two about what happened and why and, despite being nuts, he's still more likely to help than Winny.
If, on the other hand, we're talking the original crash-cause issue trolls have with elves, I'm thinking maybe Maggoty might know a thing or two, she's probably the oldest troll right now still alive. I'm also thinking, with Shenshens dream about Savah turning into her, and Savahs name being all shockworthy, that Maggoty definitively has a big role to play very soon.

Maybe it has to do with the original troll rebellion? Or keeping the trolls as pets sort of?

That's what I was referring to, yeah. What Maggoty might know something about...
I remember from my last read the frozen mountain trolls REALLY needed the elves NOT to find the palace again, and while explained very neatly by the story Timmain told, we never really explore in depth the reason why they rebelled. All we really know is that they wanted to be free of the elves and wanted to stay, we don't know how they were treated or what exactly the trolls wanted, not for sure.

Also Timmain says something strange to Picknose; "None of you came from this house"
Probably referring to the fact that he wasn't born in the palace? But it's a odd choice of words.

To loosely quote Picknose: "Baaah! It's a slave's duty to rebel!"
I'm not sure if the trolls were ever 'slaves'.... but I think the way it's been explained, the elves felt they were doing the 'burrowers'/ trolls a favor by saving them, but also didn't seem to treat them as anything more than pets. Maybe they didn't know the trolls even had any kind of reasoning skills or something. I can't imagine the trolls took too kindly to that - they perhaps felt they'd been looked down upon for a long time and while they were maybe glad to be taken away from a dying planet, they might've also wanted a new beginning of their own, and to not be beholden to the elves.
I don't know.  Maybe they didn't want the elves reclaiming the palace because it was some kind of traumatic reminder of what they used to be, before the made their own way.

I'm not really banking on this being an explanation - it might be something else. But I know it would be awesome to see Maggoty again, maybe talking about the whole thing. Come to think of it, I would pay serious money to see Maggoty having a conversation with Timmain, maybe telling Timmain a thing or two

She seemed to be hiding from Timmain. It'd be awesome to see her tell Timmain a thing or two but I'm not sure it's in the cards

*Sigh* I know....Was she really hiding from Timmain btw? I thought Picknose was, I didn't know she also was.

As I recall, when Timmain was saying "None of you come from this house," Old Maggoty was in a corner, huddling away and looking over her shoulder (back at Timmain) fearfully.

Looked at it again, and yeah, she's looking over her shoulder, uncharacteristically vulnerable and scared.

Oh, it would be so awesome to have Maggoty put all the elves in their place! I talked to a friend of mine about the quality of the newer issues and I was ranting about art and characterbuild and how pacing doesn't fit and all he said was that he thought the elves were kind too... elfy right now. It's all kind of floaty. And if I understand him right I totally agree! It's not necessarily bad, but it's all so spiritual and cerebral right now, it doesn't seem real and relatable. (the art certainly doesn't help!)

Someone putting them in their place and make them focus on one thing at the time would be very welcome. Remember "the way", not the weird concept-way that Strongbow is all weepy about, or the desperate there's no other way that Ember thinks too much about, but the actual way where they deal with what's happening right now and not worry too much about all the other things. (weirdly, the only time I really felt Ember followed the way is when she asked the palace for help!)

An ALIVE kickass Kahvi is kind of what this story really needs, but even she's gone spiritual. But a sensible Maggoty would be very welcome, there is no one more down to earth I can think of right now.

Zadzi wrote:

I'm not sure if the trolls were ever 'slaves'.... but I think the way it's been explained, the elves felt they were doing the 'burrowers'/ trolls a favor by saving them, but also didn't seem to treat them as anything more than pets. Maybe they didn't know the trolls even had any kind of reasoning skills or something. I can't imagine the trolls took too kindly to that - they perhaps felt they'd been looked down upon for a long time and while they were maybe glad to be taken away from a dying planet, they might've also wanted a new beginning of their own, and to not be beholden to the elves.

I'm thinking this might be the "ancient wrong" too. Yes, it was bloody decent of the Coneheads to save the Burrowers, and they were not treated badly during those aeons in the stars. But what is the Burrowers' perception of how that time period went, I wonder?

Have you ever had someone do you a great big solid, but then regard you as less-than, ignoring your own evident skills/abilities/values? The Coneheads are supposed to be all crazy-advanced and knowledgeable and desirous of intimately understanding other lifeforms... they couldn't spare a few highly-evolved brain cells to really get to know their own shipmates?

It's condescension on the d/l, and it'd seriously piss anyone off after a few hundred thousand years or so.

I love this theory. I hope the trolls with come into the story. Maybe Timmain has been some version of an unreliable narrator all along. It would be lovely to see her get her come-uppance.

It's just always read to me as colonialism on the Conehead's part, to be honest

Conolonialism.

Namuhna wrote:

Conolonialism.

I salute you.

That was glorious.

Hey, the preview is up: http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/28-257/ElfQuest-The-Final-Quest-16

*Twitch*
If Two-Edge dies from that while there's preserver nearby...

It might just be me but Ekura's last pose/expression is genuinely horrifying. In a good, competently drawn way.

Also? They're going back to the Homeworld?
The Homeworld that died out? Erh?

And that blonde Go-Back is called Mirff? I like him.

Sorry, are they rewriting canon again and blaming their fall on bad magic? Did the troll rebellion get erased?

I think Rayek is mad because all the hot pink and purple is pissing him off

Can't see Two-Edge dying, would not make sense, especially now. I think he's just got a terrible jaw injury now though, as well as smashed up teeth! As if the guy didn't have enough self-esteem problems

@ Shadowpath .... yeah, I'm a bit unclear on the Palace thing actually, and I thought its energy was neutral without good or bad. I'm pretty confused about that.
Also, the star home thing is weird, unless Timmain means like to travel and find a new star home ?
And wondering what the deal with her floating is...hmmm....

So now it's bad mojo that crashed the Palace? Boy, Timmain has a hard time keeping her stories straight. Next page, we'll see Sunstream going "wait... what about the trolls?" and the entirety of Timmain's millennia-long fraud comes crashing down as everyone realizes she was making it all up as she went along.

...if only.

wingthing wrote:

So now it's bad mojo that crashed the Palace? Boy, Timmain has a hard time keeping her stories straight. Next page, we'll see Sunstream going "wait... what about the trolls?" and the entirety of Timmain's millennia-long fraud comes crashing down as everyone realizes she was making it all up as she went along.

...if only.

PS: Hey, Venka, take it from a school teacher, saying "Show respect!" does nothing for a mouthy 8 year old, so don't expect to see results in a mouthy HoweverMany-year-old. You want Mirff there to watch his mouth, you gotta give that sucker a proper timeout!

...actually, that's exactly what Venka reminds me of in FQ. A harried and largely ineffective grade-school teacher going "now, children..." as her class does whatever the hell it wants.

I just don't understand anything anymore.

Venka is very schoolteacher like isn't she lol. Once in a while a shy Go Back shows up with a macaroni - I mean, troll tooth - necklace he's he's made and clumsily gives it to her.