5 April 2018 22:00
Final Quest #24
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nonesensedSo. Here we are. Final comic.
I know I'm late to this, but I honestly forgot the comic had come out. That's how not engaged I am in the final issues of a comic I've followed and loved since I was a child. Ugh, I just made myself sad.
Let's get on with it, shall we?
The terror attack on the Father Tree is going down with a big boom, the tree set ablaze and falling. This should have more emotional impact, but it's just so out of left field and so poorly executed (seriously, why did the elves take enemies into their holt????) by a character we barely know and don't care about.
The human commander, this new villain in a long line of new villains, dies happy knowing he's destroyed the demon tree and murdered Shuna (at least he thinks so). Redlance does his best to save the surrounding trees, Rayek and two other elves (they're in shadow and I'm too tired to remember who were in this scene in the last issue) carry off Shuna, Ember grabs New Moon and... you know how Leetah was So Totally In Danger in the last issue? Yeah, Windkin saves her on page 3, no sweat *urgh*.
A falling tree branch almost smashes Cutter, but Rayek saves him. The distant army of elves and humans native to these lands see the Father Tree burning and send, finding out that Kimo is dead (RIP character killed for no reason - at least Dart gets to gasp "Kimo! No!" *sigh*) and that Shuna is mortally wounded. The native humans threaten to kill all future people who come to their lands if Shuna dies, as Rayek does a flyby carrying Cutter because...some reason? Treestump is also traumatized that Morninghowl, the first sword he ever made, was used against its wielder (Shuna). Whatever.
Yun faints from some strain, though I can't remember what magic she was doing to strain her so. Dre-Ahn shows up to help Leetah with his song magic. Rayek flies around with Cutter a while longer, crossing through a lot of preserver web and landing them on a hill where they can watch what's going on in the holt. Rayek and Cutter talk about how they totally didn't predict the humans self-destructing like that, and Cutter talks about how one day humans will have overrun their lands, shrinking their hunting grounds. But hey, Ember is the new chief now and she knows they need to live by the Way like it was before Cutter stretched it. Cutter justifies this by going "Sometimes going back is going forward".
...yeah. Sure. Fine.
To highlight this, Pike just happens to say: "You know, our shared dream-stories made us ready for this. The wolves and we will have to be as we were in the before-time - few, shy, secret... taking little... prowling in the night-shadows."
Can we just...not? Do we really need to hard re-set the entire elfin species, minus the ones that have gone to the space based mind-hive? Must we?
Yeah, I'm definitely relegating Final Quest to weird-AU-fanfic-ending now.
An attempt to create tension is made with Cutter telling everyone that unless Leetah can heal Shuna, the native humans will kill all other humans who come here, catching the elves in-between that. The tension...eh, I'm not feeling it.
Now, Rayek and Cutter sort of have a bonding moment. Cutter mentions Rayek having taught him time, in response to Rayek's question of how long Shuna's healing will take, but Cutter also mentions that with Rayek now carrying Winnowill inside of him they're even. This somehow wakes up Winnowill and, for absolutely no other reason than The Plot Demands It, Winnowill now can see that Cutter is Timmain (she justifies it with Rayek having "let Cutter into his heart" or some such nonsense, but since seeing someone's "true spirit" previously has been limited to Recognized couples and people who know each other's soul names, this is yet another case of giving characters powers as the plot demands it. Urgh).
Long story short, Winnowill now justifies all the times she and Rayek lost to Cutter or felt such loathing for him, retroactively affecting yet more plot by making all character decisions All About Cutter's High One Soul. Because of course. Free will is dead, am I right?
While Rayek is silently freaking out about these news and Ekuar is confused by said freaking out, Cutter has an itch at the back of his neck, scratches it, looks at his hand, says "Perfect!", and curls up with his wolf-friend. Rayek goes to check on him and...finds a spirit-maker spider in Cutter's hand.
Yup. That's how Cutter, Blood of Ten Chiefs dies - random spider bite.
He doesn't die right away of course. Since Mender isn't there and Leetah is occupied with healing Shuna (and she must save her, of course, or there will be Forever War, right?) Rayek and Ekuar sit by Cutter as he dies. Rayek begs Winnowill to lend her healing power to him, but she only offers anti-healing. Rayek asks Cutter what he sees as he dies, and Cutter sends something about "a place where there is no time, just all time. Skywise...and the High Ones send the empty Palace into the dead star home's heart! It's a good hunt up there. And a good hunt down here. The "wheel" is mended!"
I'm feeling too tired and defeated to analyze that.
Shuna is healed, and sends, the first human to ever do so. A heartbeat later Leetah realizes what's happened to Cutter, runs to him, and embraces him just a second too late. All the elves in the Palace sense this and seem rather chill with it. Timmain says "So my wild Wolfrider self, happiest of spirits! Able to be here, with me and everywhere!"; Sunstream says "Yes, father! Do you see the star home?"; Savah says "Little fighting cockerel! You embrace your end just as my beloved Yurek embraced his. Leetah is my true successor!".
Only Skywise seems upset by Cutter dying, leaving High One shape and sending/thinking "No! I should be there!" He insta-teleports with a piece of the Palace to where Cutter lies dying, because he can do that now.
The native humans see Shuna alive and Cutter dying, and assume Cutter gave his life to the land to save her (sure, why not).
Everyone is crying, due to Cutter being no more. Skywise brings up that he killed a spirit-maker spider that could have gotten to Cutter as a cub, just making me roll by eyes harder at the forced irony of it all. In other clunky dialogue, Leetah brings up that Skywise chose immortality to be able to wait for Cutter during the events of "Kings of the Broken Wheel", to have more time with him - Skywise comments on how they didn't have enough time together (...dude, you left in a flying space ship to never return again and now Cutter is a spirit that can go anywhere. Also, Cutter is 50% of your girlfriend's soul. Just...ah, whatever).
Aaaand I would be more upset about this if death actually was some sort of end in this series. Instead, we know now that the only "downside" of death is that elves can't physically touch each other any more and that spirits have a messed up sense of time and space. Yeah, forced forever long-distance relationships suck, but hardly true death, is it?
After revealing that Cutter's final spoken word was "Perfect", Rayek takes off with Ekuar and Winnowill's spirit; Winnowill and Rayek arguing about Cutter and freedom and blah. Kimo's body is taken by Scouter to his mother so she can decide what to do with it.
At dawn, Cutter's "funeral" is held. All say their goodbyes, Leetah promising to one day join Cutter when the time is right. Then Redlance uses the Little Palace to insta-grow a new Father Tree over Cutter's body. Yup, he's that OP now.
Oh, and all of a sudden Strongbow, the most Wolfridery of all Wolfriders, decides he's had enough now and chooses to join Skywise in space. Sure. Of course. Whatever the plot says, I suppose. Skywise accepts this and says that maybe one day the two of them will find that one thing that makes them say "Perfect", like Cutter did. We get a look at the newly revived Star Home, with both elves and trolls hanging out in familiar looking crystal buildings, some elves having taken Cone Head Shape, many able to fly.
For the final panel, we jump to "two eights of years later". We see Shuna, looking no older than last time, standing in the holt surrounded by humans and elves (most of them familiar faces) saying: "Oh great 'All That Is' behold! As we, the many and different of this world, go forth to treat each other as well as we can - let learning ever conquer fear. May we always see the wonder and the beauty. And, as we change, may it always be for the better!
And that's it. That's how Final Quest ends. Yes.
...
I'm going to give myself some time to process all this, then settle down for an actual reaction post. Because...yeah, this is all too much weird and dis-continuity to handle in one sitting
I know I'm late to this, but I honestly forgot the comic had come out. That's how not engaged I am in the final issues of a comic I've followed and loved since I was a child. Ugh, I just made myself sad.
Let's get on with it, shall we?
The terror attack on the Father Tree is going down with a big boom, the tree set ablaze and falling. This should have more emotional impact, but it's just so out of left field and so poorly executed (seriously, why did the elves take enemies into their holt????) by a character we barely know and don't care about.
The human commander, this new villain in a long line of new villains, dies happy knowing he's destroyed the demon tree and murdered Shuna (at least he thinks so). Redlance does his best to save the surrounding trees, Rayek and two other elves (they're in shadow and I'm too tired to remember who were in this scene in the last issue) carry off Shuna, Ember grabs New Moon and... you know how Leetah was So Totally In Danger in the last issue? Yeah, Windkin saves her on page 3, no sweat *urgh*.
A falling tree branch almost smashes Cutter, but Rayek saves him. The distant army of elves and humans native to these lands see the Father Tree burning and send, finding out that Kimo is dead (RIP character killed for no reason - at least Dart gets to gasp "Kimo! No!" *sigh*) and that Shuna is mortally wounded. The native humans threaten to kill all future people who come to their lands if Shuna dies, as Rayek does a flyby carrying Cutter because...some reason? Treestump is also traumatized that Morninghowl, the first sword he ever made, was used against its wielder (Shuna). Whatever.
Yun faints from some strain, though I can't remember what magic she was doing to strain her so. Dre-Ahn shows up to help Leetah with his song magic. Rayek flies around with Cutter a while longer, crossing through a lot of preserver web and landing them on a hill where they can watch what's going on in the holt. Rayek and Cutter talk about how they totally didn't predict the humans self-destructing like that, and Cutter talks about how one day humans will have overrun their lands, shrinking their hunting grounds. But hey, Ember is the new chief now and she knows they need to live by the Way like it was before Cutter stretched it. Cutter justifies this by going "Sometimes going back is going forward".
...yeah. Sure. Fine.
To highlight this, Pike just happens to say: "You know, our shared dream-stories made us ready for this. The wolves and we will have to be as we were in the before-time - few, shy, secret... taking little... prowling in the night-shadows."
Can we just...not? Do we really need to hard re-set the entire elfin species, minus the ones that have gone to the space based mind-hive? Must we?
Yeah, I'm definitely relegating Final Quest to weird-AU-fanfic-ending now.
An attempt to create tension is made with Cutter telling everyone that unless Leetah can heal Shuna, the native humans will kill all other humans who come here, catching the elves in-between that. The tension...eh, I'm not feeling it.
Now, Rayek and Cutter sort of have a bonding moment. Cutter mentions Rayek having taught him time, in response to Rayek's question of how long Shuna's healing will take, but Cutter also mentions that with Rayek now carrying Winnowill inside of him they're even. This somehow wakes up Winnowill and, for absolutely no other reason than The Plot Demands It, Winnowill now can see that Cutter is Timmain (she justifies it with Rayek having "let Cutter into his heart" or some such nonsense, but since seeing someone's "true spirit" previously has been limited to Recognized couples and people who know each other's soul names, this is yet another case of giving characters powers as the plot demands it. Urgh).
Long story short, Winnowill now justifies all the times she and Rayek lost to Cutter or felt such loathing for him, retroactively affecting yet more plot by making all character decisions All About Cutter's High One Soul. Because of course. Free will is dead, am I right?
While Rayek is silently freaking out about these news and Ekuar is confused by said freaking out, Cutter has an itch at the back of his neck, scratches it, looks at his hand, says "Perfect!", and curls up with his wolf-friend. Rayek goes to check on him and...finds a spirit-maker spider in Cutter's hand.
Yup. That's how Cutter, Blood of Ten Chiefs dies - random spider bite.
He doesn't die right away of course. Since Mender isn't there and Leetah is occupied with healing Shuna (and she must save her, of course, or there will be Forever War, right?) Rayek and Ekuar sit by Cutter as he dies. Rayek begs Winnowill to lend her healing power to him, but she only offers anti-healing. Rayek asks Cutter what he sees as he dies, and Cutter sends something about "a place where there is no time, just all time. Skywise...and the High Ones send the empty Palace into the dead star home's heart! It's a good hunt up there. And a good hunt down here. The "wheel" is mended!"
I'm feeling too tired and defeated to analyze that.
Shuna is healed, and sends, the first human to ever do so. A heartbeat later Leetah realizes what's happened to Cutter, runs to him, and embraces him just a second too late. All the elves in the Palace sense this and seem rather chill with it. Timmain says "So my wild Wolfrider self, happiest of spirits! Able to be here, with me and everywhere!"; Sunstream says "Yes, father! Do you see the star home?"; Savah says "Little fighting cockerel! You embrace your end just as my beloved Yurek embraced his. Leetah is my true successor!".
Only Skywise seems upset by Cutter dying, leaving High One shape and sending/thinking "No! I should be there!" He insta-teleports with a piece of the Palace to where Cutter lies dying, because he can do that now.
The native humans see Shuna alive and Cutter dying, and assume Cutter gave his life to the land to save her (sure, why not).
Everyone is crying, due to Cutter being no more. Skywise brings up that he killed a spirit-maker spider that could have gotten to Cutter as a cub, just making me roll by eyes harder at the forced irony of it all. In other clunky dialogue, Leetah brings up that Skywise chose immortality to be able to wait for Cutter during the events of "Kings of the Broken Wheel", to have more time with him - Skywise comments on how they didn't have enough time together (...dude, you left in a flying space ship to never return again and now Cutter is a spirit that can go anywhere. Also, Cutter is 50% of your girlfriend's soul. Just...ah, whatever).
Aaaand I would be more upset about this if death actually was some sort of end in this series. Instead, we know now that the only "downside" of death is that elves can't physically touch each other any more and that spirits have a messed up sense of time and space. Yeah, forced forever long-distance relationships suck, but hardly true death, is it?
After revealing that Cutter's final spoken word was "Perfect", Rayek takes off with Ekuar and Winnowill's spirit; Winnowill and Rayek arguing about Cutter and freedom and blah. Kimo's body is taken by Scouter to his mother so she can decide what to do with it.
At dawn, Cutter's "funeral" is held. All say their goodbyes, Leetah promising to one day join Cutter when the time is right. Then Redlance uses the Little Palace to insta-grow a new Father Tree over Cutter's body. Yup, he's that OP now.
Oh, and all of a sudden Strongbow, the most Wolfridery of all Wolfriders, decides he's had enough now and chooses to join Skywise in space. Sure. Of course. Whatever the plot says, I suppose. Skywise accepts this and says that maybe one day the two of them will find that one thing that makes them say "Perfect", like Cutter did. We get a look at the newly revived Star Home, with both elves and trolls hanging out in familiar looking crystal buildings, some elves having taken Cone Head Shape, many able to fly.
For the final panel, we jump to "two eights of years later". We see Shuna, looking no older than last time, standing in the holt surrounded by humans and elves (most of them familiar faces) saying: "Oh great 'All That Is' behold! As we, the many and different of this world, go forth to treat each other as well as we can - let learning ever conquer fear. May we always see the wonder and the beauty. And, as we change, may it always be for the better!
And that's it. That's how Final Quest ends. Yes.
...
I'm going to give myself some time to process all this, then settle down for an actual reaction post. Because...yeah, this is all too much weird and dis-continuity to handle in one sitting
Tags:
