I keep misreading it as “oh golly, it’s me dainix” instead of “oh golly me, it’s dainix” which sometimes leads to funny situations where it’s dainix complaining about the situation.
. āThere!ā Recten calls, pointing a sword. āForm up andāā
. Heās cut off by Falst slamming into him, a thunderous lionās roar emerging from his mouth as he knocks the Paladin to the ground. He snarls at the others, tail lashing, looking more wild than heās ever been.
. āRectenā!ā One of the paladins starts in panic.
. āI-is that one of them?!ā
. āIt doesnāt matter!ā Another cries. āNo mercy!ā
. āD-donāt risk castingā!ā Dainix gasps, lying on his side on the ground, arm trembling as he tries to push himself up. A shallow line cuts through his back, the skin around it dark like itās been burnt.
. āGood gods, Dainix!ā Erin cries. āThat attack sheared through a tree!ā
. āThe wyrmsilkā¦ caught most of itā¦ justā¦ stingsā!ā
. āAnd I finally understand why you feel comfortable fighting without a shirt!ā
. Back in the clearing, Falst leaps around, knocking away any Paladins who come close. A couple feet away, one of the Paladins draws a hand over the tip of their spear. A moon-like curve of light emerges from it, leaving two long prongs and the glowing tip of the spear in the middle.
. They lunge forward, thrusting the spear. It catches Falst around the neck and they slam him to the ground. Falstās claws wrap around the ends, trying to rip it apart.
…Wow. Just wow, Paladins.
I’ve come up with a couple new story ideas over the past few days and have been expending my creative energy on those, haha. And then I forgot it was Friday š
Dang it, forgot a line of dialogue, I’m off my… pen? today (off my game today)
A shallow line cuts through his back, the skin around it dark like itās been burnt. āJust wuhā windedā!ā
It’s a mancatcher with a deadly spike right in the middle to pierce Falst’s throat. If he didn’t catch that thing in his hands he’d be in more trouble. More of a trident really.
It’s probably just hecka late at night and I’m a bit sleep deprived, but I don’t think we’ve seen Dainix be even close to this injured before, right? His shoulder got mauled twice but tbh this seems worse to me – I mean, it Did sheer straight through a tree! Have we seen Dainix this injured besides that shoulder time? I can’t remember
Welp,the recten is probably knocked out for good, falst demolishing the paladins is such a treat, didn’t know that regular non-caped guys could cast light magic. I wonder is falst can manage this or gonna need help, (he’ll probably need help). No idea how this fight is gonna end. The paladins seem to be ready to kill erin no questions asked so a surrender by our guys is probably outta option. Losing the fight is basically is erin dying and I don’t think that’s gonna happen, so I guess our gang will win this one. I don’t think red will let our protagonists loose to evil minions even under these circumstances.
*Snerk* Somewhere among figuring out the existential mysteries of the universe, Erin’s brain was also feverishly trying to determine why someone would go into battle shirtless. Never change, Erin Ruunaser. Although I think that’s the strongest exclamation we’ve heard him use.
Falst is Not Happy. But that’s still a lot of folks to deal with…
paladins: okay now we do a light-magic attack andāyep, there we go, the dark vesselās ally is down, thereās nothing to stop us nā
falst, who just went into a fucking volcano to make sure dainix would be safe: HURT MY CO-QUESTER THAT I FEEL TOTALLY NORMAL ABOUT AND IāLL SLAM YOU INTO NEXT SINDAHLAN
I don’t think it’s in the movies? I went to see them for the anniversary re-release, and I don’t remember hearing that line, but there’s a LOT of dialogue across the trilogy (not to mention everything else to pay attention to, especially on the big screen), so I could very easily be misremembering.
Hooray for someone who can quote the books and *not* the movies! (Usually it’s quite the reverse and I find myself explaining things like “It comes in pints?” is cute, but not likely, as the Tooks and Brandybucks were familiar with Bree.) I agree with our friend here: I think that line’s only in the books, not the movies.
I can’t wait to see Falst snap their light-tridents into stardust.
That tracks, I’ve only seen the movies once. For any who don’t know, this is when Aragorn finds Frodo wearing the mithril shirt after leaving Moria (a pretty hobbit-skin to wrap an elven prickling in.)
Dang, it corrected wyrm to warm…. I guess with the fire motif for Dainix it kinda works…
Kind of irrelevant to today’s page, but I’m curious as to how exactly a Paladin’s connection to LD works. I’d think that LD would be able to directly speak in the minds of the Septrenn, since they’re probably the most dedicated and powerful of her followers, but LD felt the need to send the Storm Drake to speak with Lord Stefan in-person, while being able to talk to Tam directly and take over his body for the entirety of Torrent. Maybe she just wanted to get the storm drake to the Snowfast so the Paladins there would have another dragon to help out, but I feel like the urgency of the message would have taken precedent, and she could have spoken to Stefan ahead of the storm drake’s arrival if she was capable of it. She spoke directly to Theia, who’s just an archivist and doesn’t bear any of her pieces like Stefan or Priora, so it’s interesting that LD had to take such a roundabout approach.
You’re so right! Though LD did mention being spread thin with the storm drake, I wonder if that has anything to do with anything. Can’t wait to see the eventual explanation š
Kind of irrelevant to today’s page, but I’m curious as to how exactly a Paladin’s connection to LD works. I’d think that LD would be able to directly speak in the minds of the Septrenn, since they’re probably the most dedicated and powerful of her followers, but LD felt the need to send the Storm Drake to speak with Lord Stefan in-person, while being able to talk to Tam directly and take over his body for the entirety of Torrent. Maybe she just wanted to get the storm drake to the Snowfast so the Paladins there would have another dragon to help out, but I feel like the urgency of the message would have taken precedent, and she could have spoken to Stefan ahead of the storm drake’s arrival if she was capable of it. She spoke directly to Theia, who’s just an archivist and doesn’t bear any of her pieces like Stefan or Priora, so it’s interesting that LD had to take such a roundabout approach.
Very good point, especially when Tam got interrupted with the “Dark Avatar” message, mid flight, whereas LD had to send the stormdrake to the Snowfast. Further, she possessed the stormdrake the moment it saw Erin. I really do wonder what’s going on with this.
Maybe she needs to use a dragon to directly send an image to someone instead of just words? Still weird she didn’t at least tell Stefan the message was coming. She had at least already sent the champion to deal with the problem, so maybe in her mind she didn’t want to cause a panic? We know she can speak directly to basically anyone, including June.
Speaking of, we don’t know exactly how the Septrenn works. June seems a relatively low-ranking paladin member, or at least not one trained to fight. Maybe the paladin archive people get the Eyes of the Sept? (which. accidental reference?)
Anyways running theory as to the Sept
– Stefan, Horns (confirmed) (leader of the paladins, unknown abilities)
– Priora, Heart? (possibly confirmed, but rereading her introduction the phrasing is ambiguous, and Tam could but the Heart instead) (Unknown role, some sort of healing ability? Or maybe just calming as she doesn’t have a connection to life probably)
– Tam, Wings or Heart (technically not confirmed to be part of the Sept, but seems likely) (Some sort of enforcer or emergency dispatch, a whole bunch of light-based combat abilities)
– June and probably her boss as well, Eyes (Semi-confirmed to ‘bear her eyes’ not confirmed to be a Sept member but I’m putting them here anyways) (Collects information for the lady and fellow paladins)
And thats the confirmed parts, and we know there are seven of them. Other possible parts of the Sept:
Claws (some theorize this could be Falst’s dad, which would be cool and seems narratively interesting and possible, but there is no actual evidence for this yet, only that he is a paladin), Tail (significant part of the dragon, no idea what abilities or role in the paladin organization would be), and i have no idea what the last part would be. Tongue? Spines? Legs? None feel quite right.
uhh anyways this comment got really long and the paladins are still really mysterious.
I think what’s going on is that, save for her Champion, who’s basically her Avatar, the Light Dragon doesn’t seem able to initiate contact with her own Paladins. If they want to talk to her, they have to reach out first.
Theia reached out to the Light Dragon when she saw the Void Dragon emerge during the battle against Tynan and showed her what she saw, but when Theia didn’t return to the Paladin Archive, the Light Dragon couldn’t tell any of the Paladins there what happened because none of them directly reached out and asked her.
The Septrenn are also bound by this limitation despite their power and rank, so the Light Dragon had to possess a messenger dragon to tell Stefan, who was probably the closest to the Storm of Magic.
can’t beleive i forgot Theia’s name had been confirmed lol. For anyone confused, Theia was referred to as June in the comments for most of the Zurrith arc because she didn’t have a name in-story yet.
Maybe Scales? Could let the user make armor or give others long-lasting shields that can last with less concentration than normal light constructs would require. The weird thing about theorizing stuff like Falst’s power being the Claws or Tam’s power being the Wings is that they just feel like specialized extensions of the power to make light constructs. Priora seems to have some kind of power that goes beyond just making constructs, like healing or calming like you mentioned. Even if the Septrenn favor certain constructs, the seven parts of LD seem to be actual elements of her being that mean different things; theoretically any Paladin, even Theia, could just make claws or wings with practice because they already have the power to make light constructs. I’m excited to see what they can all do, because Tam really only used light constructs and the Diadem on the boat; if that’s only one parts of the Paladins’ arsenal and Tam isn’t even part of the Septrenn, we’re in for some very fun surprises.
Stefan is the Horns, and he seems able to send wide-range telepathic messages, so I wonder if that is part of his special abilities. Though in the last page, that Paladin did send a telepathic message as well… Maybe Stefan’s range is wider or he can send it to specific people? It’ll be really interesting to find this stuff out!
I think Tam might be the head? The Light Diadem thing seems like a unique ability. āMy Championā does not necessarily imply he is the only champion after all.
Is she? I feel like Kendal and Tess are more likely candidates for the Worf Effect, but even they haven’t been One-Hit-KO’d very much. I’m pretty sure this is Dainix’s first time.
Not according to everything we know about magic and Ferin (Ferin are magically inert 1.9.8), but Falst has had weird interactions with Light magic in the past! 1.22.37 he created Light claws, and 2.3.13 he breaks the Light diadem Tam put on everyone.
I think he roared a few times in the underground ruin or “zombie dungeon”. Off the top of my head: When he scared off the first cave crawler (just after waking up), and later when he killed the crawler that injured him (when he tried to solo a room full of crawlers)
At first I was hearing Falst’s RAAAAAAH! as, like, a human wordlessly yelling, but then I realized it might be Red’s attempt at capturing a big cat snarl in a sound affect (a notoriously difficult feat) and, WOW this page is so much cooler if that’s the case
Guys I was just looking at the cover art for this chapter and I was like “oh weird, the light kinda look like lightning after it goes through Erin’s eye”. And then i realized “wait that looks more like a highlight”. And I was following the trail of the light, and I realized it looks kinda like when you’re in a dark room and someone opens the door, the tiny little crack of light that shines through onto the floor. Which is… odd.
I’m snickering at Erin’s “And I finally understand why you feel comfortable fighting without a shirt!”
At first, looking at Dainix’s back, I thought it was only bruisedā¦ but if I zoom in, it does look like the attack actually managed to cut through and break skin, too, which fits Dainix’s note that it stings (versus merely aching). I believe Dainix when he says the wyrmsilk blocked most of it and he’s only winded, i.e. no structural or deep damage like a cut into bone or muscle, but ooooof. He doesn’t have Falst’s healing factor, and they don’t have Life magic to help repair injuries. That’s going to hurt for a while.
And Falst, unsurprisingly, is not happy! Nope! He’s roaring! Throwing hands! On the warpath! He literally JUST saved Dainix by bringing him into that volcano, and now they hurt him! I have a feeling he’s going to show some Light powers soon to counteract the weapon they caught him with…
Poor Dainix. Poor Falst. Poor Erin. Red just loves sticking all these characters in the torment nexus, huh?
“Red just loves sticking all these characters in the torment nexus, huh?”
*š looks at the character + blender art from the Filler Trope Talk* (13:18 or linked at my username)
Ever since the Paladins were properly introduced back in Zuurith, Iāve wanted to know more about them. Here was this incredibly old, insular religion, culture, & perhaps ethnicity tracing all the way back to the Ancients themselves, who are operating on a field of understanding almost totally divorced from everyone else. That brought up QUESTIONS! āHow authentic is their practice to that of the Ancients? Which era? Is their founder somehow still alive? How have they interacted with other groups throughout history, politically, religiously, philosophically, and in a more grounded way, culturally? Why are they allied with Zuurith of all people, how exclusive is that relationship? To be honest about my biases, why not Vash!? Whatās the truth caught between the Paladinsā knowledge and that of, say, Asera? Where can I get that STYLE!?ā And so on. And I doubt Iām alone. Even then they had very point-out-able flaws; Aurora very likely has printing presses and if you actually cared about disseminating information even in theory, youād USE them, Archivist! But chiefly, I was dying for an opportunity to truly appreciate their culture. And I still am. Now, they still have all those positive qualities (especially their FASHION), and if anything, are only MORE mysterious! And then Tam showed us that when doing battle with their eldritch enemy, and potentially with anything else they perceive as a threat, they completely abandon all possible moral scruples. Ever since theyāve become major drivers of the plot, the Floof Squad has been repeatedly beaten over the head with the absolute worst side of the Paladins, with very little screen time given to them as *people.* Which is aggravating in itself, but I donāt actually have a problem with Redās writing of them, necessarily. This is on us. For my part, I frankly felt betrayed when the Paladins showed their ugly side. Theyāre one of my favorite pieces of worldbuilding in the entire comic! And theyāre justā¦so bone-headed. But thatās the problem. I think whatās happened in this community is that we had an emotional reaction to the Paladins acting kinda evil from the perspective weāre given and went forward headfirst with that without leaving very much room for nuance, which is similarly bone-headed. The Paladinsā reputation has been reduced to that of āAuroraās take on Fantasy Catholicismā which so far doesnāt seem like a terribly accurate comparison. The Paladins have no empire, no missionaries, and for better or worse barely even register world politics (although thereās potential for them to contract such illnesses). If anything, Iād call them historical wish-fulfillment, that Christianity had just minded its own business! But I canāt really come to a firm conclusion either. There might not be much room for nuance at all until the characters get to justā¦absorb an environment where Paladins are simplyā¦living. Until then the *narrative role* the Paladins are fulfilling *is* āAuroraās take on Fantasy Catholicism.ā And yes, I do think thereās light at the end of this tunnel, at least if weāre willing to put down the goddamned pitchforks & torches once that comes (Iām sure Blue will have a *field day* with their architecture). But at the moment, weāre not there. Weāre here. And more now than ever, Iām DYING for an opportunity to truly appreciate the Paladinsā culture.
Yeah, there’s still a lot we don’t know about them, and they do seem bad now, but when we think about the alignments of the elements it makes a bit more sense to me at least. We know the dragon represents Hunger, pure selfish drive to sustain oneself against all things. Possibly Hallucinatory Taihram said as much. And we know that the pure form represents some kind of creative drive and free will, and it looks slightly different from light.
So, if Light is the opposite side of the coin from Void, perhaps it represents blind determination and dedication to a cause. It creates great teamwork, but it can blind you to the possibility that the cause is in any way incorrect, and that any price is worth it to serve that cause. That’s the side of the paladins we’re seeing right now, as our heroes are literally allied with their idea of the Antichrist, and in their mind any sacrifice to stop him, including of ‘corrupted innocents’ is worth it. (and tbh to some extent they’re right, as we do know the void dragon wants to literally eat the sun, so).
And this is too interesting of a worldbuilding thing to leave behind. Right now, my guess is that Falst is gonna get captured by the paladins here and they try to convince him to join them. And so we’ll see the good side of the paladins, and see why many people join it. Also, the paladins are super mysterious and this would be a good way to get a good ol’ fashioned lore dump about their beliefs.
Also, we know at least a little bit in how they differ from the Ancient belief system, as the Ancients saw the dragons as twin figures who worked together, but now they worship the light dragon exclusively. And you can see how that would be a healthier religion, worshiping the manifestation of Dedication (of a cause, of teamwork, of a people) combined with Hunger (to take care of yourself as well), and to balance those desires in you so you don’t destroy others or yourself.
TLDR- uhh dang it this got long but basically Light is the manifestation of Dedication to a Cause, which is why they seem evil to us rn because they can’t care about the heroes, but combined with the Dark dragon the ancient belief system could have been healthy. Also there definitely is a good side to them that we’ll see eventually if someone gets captured.
I think I ought to remind you about Red’s trope talk on paragons. More specifically, the bit toward the end about flawed paragons. The paladins’ major flaw here, so far as I can see, stems from a single false belief, that will no doubt be shown to be false — the one articulated by the Light Dragon herself back on 2.3.6 — the idea that there is nothing a mortal can do to overcome or separate from the power of the Void Dragon. To their minds, it does not matter if Erin isn’t fully consumed by the Void Dragon yet, because “yet” is the operative word. They are absolutely certain that it is only a matter of time, and that the only thing that can prevent the Void Dragon from using his power to unmake the adamant prison at the core of the world is his death. This is all a massive and completely unevidenced assumption, based entirely in the idea that the raw power of a living primordial will overcome any mortal resistance in time. It is an assumption that it makes a certain amount of sense for another primordial to make, biased in favor of their own kind and their own perspective as they must be, but since the situation is completely without precedent, it is nothing more than an assumption. If we were to grant that assumption without any caveats, then their actions would be wholly justified. If we refuse to grant it, that means they are arrogant beyond any semblance of reason, and paints them as being nearly as unambiguous as villains as they would be unambiguous heroes if we did grant it.
And we have no real reason to grant it. That makes the Paladins fascinating. Their overall worldview isn’t a problem in the least. They are almost completely good people with good motives that do good things. This one false belief, though — this certainty that nothing mortal can fight even a fragment of the power of a primordial, purely on the basis that a primordial endures unless actively slain where mortals fade and die — means that they are all but irrevocably the villains of this particular story, despite the fact that this belief is not at all important to maintaining the core of their worldview, and also despite the fact that that core is wholly good. They are so close.
All this to say, they’re not really clean parallels to any singular real-world organization, because no real-world organization has the unique factors that make them what they are. They are a product of the world of Aurora in full, with their structure, their beliefs, their goodness, their rightness, and their crucial failing all stemming from how this particular world is constructed. You point to this as potentially a fantasy Catholicism, but quite frankly, I don’t see the parallels beyond their failing being one of dogmatism — and even there, not all dogmatism is equivalent. The Paladins do not seek to convert all the world to their beliefs or to glorify their idea of the divine; their overriding goal is a purely pragmatic aim to keep the Void Dragon in its prison at the core of the world, and in doing so to preserve the world itself. In fact, if anything, they have not tried to spread understanding of their ideas widely enough, as evidenced by how utterly insular they are, and how widespread misunderstandings of their beliefs are, and how easily those misunderstandings can be dispelled by examining the paladins’ archives directly. They are warriors, not scholars, and they do not seem to grasp how much good could be accomplished by spreading the understanding that they have, rather than merely slaying anything that falls under the power of the Void Dragon.
I don’t think it’s that simple. They believe that Erin will inevitably succumb, yes, but their reasoning isn’t as simple as “primordials aren’t transient the way mortals are, therefore they must be more powerful.” There’s a lot more to it than that. For one thing, primordials are bigger than mortals in a way that goes beyond mere size – look at what happened to the Collector when she made contact with Life. Then there’s the specific nature of the Void Dragon. When Tam attacks Erin on the boat, this is what Light Dragon says to him:
“His power over you will only grow. Your mind and heart will wither against him until nothing but your hunger remains. Your world will shrink into irrelevancy and incomprehension as he erodes you from within. There are no principles a mortal can hold fast in the face of eternal, unending hunger. You will break, and then he will use you to break the world.”
This is a lot more reasonable than “primordials don’t die of age, therefore they’re better than us.” And disturbingly plausible, given everything we know so far. Void Dragon is a being of hunger, and of decay (“I am the withering”), and light/void/etc does seem to have psychic properties, so it’s not far-fetched to believe that his influence, over an extended period of time, can erode the mind of a human, consuming everything that makes you you and replacing it with ever-growing hunger. There’s precedent for this in the form of cave crawlers, people corrupted by void energy, who lose their identities as their entire mind is reduced to an impossibly intense hunger and nothing else. And that’s from a minute fragment of the Void Dragon’s soul. The Collector shows us just how vast a Primordial really is – mere contact with one’s mind was enough to completely destroy her identity. The deliberate and sustained effort of a Primordial whose power seems tailor-made to destroy the human will (along with just about everything else)… well, I think saying “it’s only a matter of time” is pretty reasonable.
Especially since we know Erin was losing his battle against the Void Dragon when he was first possessed – a fact made worse when we consider that Light Dragon seems convinced that Void Dragon’s ability to channel power into Erin will increase with time, as evidenced both by the “His power over you will only grow” line and by her earlier statement to Tam that “The Avatar’s power does not yet rival your own” back in Chapter 7 (emphasis on yet).
I don’t think there’s any chance that Erin could last indefinitely against the Void Dragon’s active attempts to control him. In fact, Void Dragon’s statement back in 1.21.5 (“So you’re no longer willing to die to foil my plans. Good. I knew your selfishness would serve me well”) might look a bit more sinister now. Not that I really believe Erin’s being corrupted at any appreciably pace – Void Dragon has been too quiet for that, and too oblivious to what’s going on around Erin, so I think most of his energy is occupied trying to decide when he should give up on his current strategy and try a different tactic, and figuring out what those new tactics are (and contingency plans for if things go wrong, up to and including ways to acquire other Elemental Maguses). But even as it is, Erin’s position is not sustainable long-term, and he knows it.
The real mistake of the Paladins is believing that there is no possible way of saving Erin from his fate except killing him before Void Dragon has time to pull this off. And even there, it’s a pretty subtle mistake. To their knowledge, there is no way. Even Erin’s plan is little more than “A is similar to B, therefore people who can do B might be able to figure out A1” – a very flimsy hope, which only sounds as good as it does because (to quote another fantasy story I’ve read) “in order to grasp at straws, you need straws.” But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying – and this is the fundamental problem with the idea of the Trolley Problem. There’s always a third option, even if that third option is “try to figure something out,” and while there may come a point when you have to give up on this third option, that point comes a lot further down the road than a lot of people are willing to go.
Are the Paladins wrong because they don’t realize that the soulshaper monks might possibly, maybe, if we’re lucky, have a chance of diffusing this moral dilemma? Or are they wrong because, after millennia of trying and failing to save people from the Void Dragon’s corruption, they are no longer willing to try? The latter is very understandable – trying and failing to help someone hurts more than accepting that there’s nothing you can do, and all available evidence indicates that there really is nothing they can do – but sometimes you have to try anyway, and the Paladins may have lost sight of that. And what a tragedy that would be. If Tam is anything to go by, the Paladins (and Light Dragon) genuinely want to help Void Dragon’s victims; but by the time they actually get a chance to do so, they’re unwilling to even try, not because they don’t want to succeed but because they can’t bear to fail again.
We might get to see some interaction between the Paladins and the Island’s Ignans. I am sure they would search around their settlements and the volcano. It will be an interesting day for the Ignans, first a mythological fire demon shows up, then dragon riders swarm their island.
Paladin is very, very lucky that Falst lost the spear he grabbed somewhere between panel five and panel six, or trying to animal-control the kitty boi would have resulted in a rather pointed reminder that having a long stick does not mean someone else doesn’t have an equally long stickā¦
Tbh, Falst is rather lucky that the gadgeteer magicked the spear into a fork – without those two prongs it looks like Falst would get speared right in his face
oh golly me itās dainix
oh my golly me it’s Falst
Oh golly me it’s Erin
Oh golly me itās cut tree
Oh golly me it’s more blunt-force trauma
what the hell is Erin talking about
I daresay he’s talking about his realization that Dainix is _not_ habitually fighting without armor, Erin just didn’t recognize his armor as _armor_.
I keep misreading it as “oh golly, it’s me dainix” instead of “oh golly me, it’s dainix” which sometimes leads to funny situations where it’s dainix complaining about the situation.
i WISH I was Dainix
oh golly me its falst being destroyed by a spear
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: this page made me realize how infrequently I let Dainix actually get injured
Image source: there
Tumblr text: see you on monday!
Bluesky text: good things are happening!
. āThere!ā Recten calls, pointing a sword. āForm up andāā
. Heās cut off by Falst slamming into him, a thunderous lionās roar emerging from his mouth as he knocks the Paladin to the ground. He snarls at the others, tail lashing, looking more wild than heās ever been.
. āRectenā!ā One of the paladins starts in panic.
. āI-is that one of them?!ā
. āIt doesnāt matter!ā Another cries. āNo mercy!ā
. āD-donāt risk castingā!ā Dainix gasps, lying on his side on the ground, arm trembling as he tries to push himself up. A shallow line cuts through his back, the skin around it dark like itās been burnt.
. āGood gods, Dainix!ā Erin cries. āThat attack sheared through a tree!ā
. āThe wyrmsilkā¦ caught most of itā¦ justā¦ stingsā!ā
. āAnd I finally understand why you feel comfortable fighting without a shirt!ā
. Back in the clearing, Falst leaps around, knocking away any Paladins who come close. A couple feet away, one of the Paladins draws a hand over the tip of their spear. A moon-like curve of light emerges from it, leaving two long prongs and the glowing tip of the spear in the middle.
. They lunge forward, thrusting the spear. It catches Falst around the neck and they slam him to the ground. Falstās claws wrap around the ends, trying to rip it apart.
…Wow. Just wow, Paladins.
I’ve come up with a couple new story ideas over the past few days and have been expending my creative energy on those, haha. And then I forgot it was Friday š
Edit:
He snarls at the others, tail lashing, looking as wild as he was in the Ancientās complex.
Dang it, forgot a line of dialogue, I’m off my… pen? today (off my game today)
A shallow line cuts through his back, the skin around it dark like itās been burnt. āJust wuhā windedā!ā
Oop, Falst’s gonna break that and they’ll freak out.
Oh yeah, I don’t think this is going to go how the Paladins expect at ALL.
Interesting that, despite the “no mercy” orders, that looks like a magical man-catcher instead of a lethal-only weapon…
It’s a mancatcher with a deadly spike right in the middle to pierce Falst’s throat. If he didn’t catch that thing in his hands he’d be in more trouble. More of a trident really.
Comment on Danix’s clothing habits later Erin, there’s a fight to be had!
Priorities, man!
No, don’t catch-pole the kitty!
It’s probably just hecka late at night and I’m a bit sleep deprived, but I don’t think we’ve seen Dainix be even close to this injured before, right? His shoulder got mauled twice but tbh this seems worse to me – I mean, it Did sheer straight through a tree! Have we seen Dainix this injured besides that shoulder time? I can’t remember
Oh right and his eye lol
Does the time his arm went out count? I feel like it counts
hmmm why does this page feel familiarā¦ 1.12.32
Welp,the recten is probably knocked out for good, falst demolishing the paladins is such a treat, didn’t know that regular non-caped guys could cast light magic. I wonder is falst can manage this or gonna need help, (he’ll probably need help). No idea how this fight is gonna end. The paladins seem to be ready to kill erin no questions asked so a surrender by our guys is probably outta option. Losing the fight is basically is erin dying and I don’t think that’s gonna happen, so I guess our gang will win this one. I don’t think red will let our protagonists loose to evil minions even under these circumstances.
Yeh, I feel like conservation of ninjutsu is going to hold here.
“Welp,the recten is probably knocked out for good”
Would you say the Recten just got… rekt?
*Insert CSI YEAAAAAHHHH here*
GET THEIR ASSES FALST
Exciting!
I think we all need to appreciate how badass Falst looks in panel two
Ok so neither Tam nor the Lady notice the Ferin breaking through the paralyzing diadem, or they didn’t tell the Paladins.
Either way that Paladin is going to have a “Nani” moment
*Snerk* Somewhere among figuring out the existential mysteries of the universe, Erin’s brain was also feverishly trying to determine why someone would go into battle shirtless. Never change, Erin Ruunaser. Although I think that’s the strongest exclamation we’ve heard him use.
Falst is Not Happy. But that’s still a lot of folks to deal with…
Oh no, the cat got animal controlled.
Go kitty go! Beat them up! They’re going to be real shocked when Falst probably breaks through their magic.
Any excuses for shirtless scenes =D.
Falst used sneak attack! It was super effective!
This is page #995
paladins: okay now we do a light-magic attack andāyep, there we go, the dark vesselās ally is down, thereās nothing to stop us nā
falst, who just went into a fucking volcano to make sure dainix would be safe: HURT MY CO-QUESTER THAT I FEEL TOTALLY NORMAL ABOUT AND IāLL SLAM YOU INTO NEXT SINDAHLAN
I don’t think that the paladins realize how much Dainix is going ruin their parade yet…
They hurt the boyfriend, now they fucking die.
Really putting the “feral” in ferin, huh, Falst?
Naturally, we’ll probably see the Indomitable Will of Falst kick in again in a page or two.
Poor boy climbed out of a volcano like an hour ago.
Dude, they animal-catcher-ed Falst, I think thatās a hate crime.
Of course Dainix likes fighting without a shirt – he’s proud of those abs.
Dainix worked hard for that physique! It would be a shame to cover it up.
“Look my friends! Here’s a pretty Ignan skin to wrap a warm princeling in!” (LoTR, I don’t know if the actual line is in the movies or just the book.)
I don’t think it’s in the movies? I went to see them for the anniversary re-release, and I don’t remember hearing that line, but there’s a LOT of dialogue across the trilogy (not to mention everything else to pay attention to, especially on the big screen), so I could very easily be misremembering.
Hooray for someone who can quote the books and *not* the movies! (Usually it’s quite the reverse and I find myself explaining things like “It comes in pints?” is cute, but not likely, as the Tooks and Brandybucks were familiar with Bree.) I agree with our friend here: I think that line’s only in the books, not the movies.
I can’t wait to see Falst snap their light-tridents into stardust.
That tracks, I’ve only seen the movies once. For any who don’t know, this is when Aragorn finds Frodo wearing the mithril shirt after leaving Moria (a pretty hobbit-skin to wrap an elven prickling in.)
Dang, it corrected wyrm to warm…. I guess with the fire motif for Dainix it kinda works…
Kind of irrelevant to today’s page, but I’m curious as to how exactly a Paladin’s connection to LD works. I’d think that LD would be able to directly speak in the minds of the Septrenn, since they’re probably the most dedicated and powerful of her followers, but LD felt the need to send the Storm Drake to speak with Lord Stefan in-person, while being able to talk to Tam directly and take over his body for the entirety of Torrent. Maybe she just wanted to get the storm drake to the Snowfast so the Paladins there would have another dragon to help out, but I feel like the urgency of the message would have taken precedent, and she could have spoken to Stefan ahead of the storm drake’s arrival if she was capable of it. She spoke directly to Theia, who’s just an archivist and doesn’t bear any of her pieces like Stefan or Priora, so it’s interesting that LD had to take such a roundabout approach.
You’re so right! Though LD did mention being spread thin with the storm drake, I wonder if that has anything to do with anything. Can’t wait to see the eventual explanation š
The LD says “One who bears my eyes” when talking about knowing Erin’s face, so Theia does bear one of the dragon parts.
Kind of irrelevant to today’s page, but I’m curious as to how exactly a Paladin’s connection to LD works. I’d think that LD would be able to directly speak in the minds of the Septrenn, since they’re probably the most dedicated and powerful of her followers, but LD felt the need to send the Storm Drake to speak with Lord Stefan in-person, while being able to talk to Tam directly and take over his body for the entirety of Torrent. Maybe she just wanted to get the storm drake to the Snowfast so the Paladins there would have another dragon to help out, but I feel like the urgency of the message would have taken precedent, and she could have spoken to Stefan ahead of the storm drake’s arrival if she was capable of it. She spoke directly to Theia, who’s just an archivist and doesn’t bear any of her pieces like Stefan or Priora, so it’s interesting that LD had to take such a roundabout approach.
Very good point, especially when Tam got interrupted with the “Dark Avatar” message, mid flight, whereas LD had to send the stormdrake to the Snowfast. Further, she possessed the stormdrake the moment it saw Erin. I really do wonder what’s going on with this.
Maybe she needs to use a dragon to directly send an image to someone instead of just words? Still weird she didn’t at least tell Stefan the message was coming. She had at least already sent the champion to deal with the problem, so maybe in her mind she didn’t want to cause a panic? We know she can speak directly to basically anyone, including June.
Speaking of, we don’t know exactly how the Septrenn works. June seems a relatively low-ranking paladin member, or at least not one trained to fight. Maybe the paladin archive people get the Eyes of the Sept? (which. accidental reference?)
Anyways running theory as to the Sept
– Stefan, Horns (confirmed) (leader of the paladins, unknown abilities)
– Priora, Heart? (possibly confirmed, but rereading her introduction the phrasing is ambiguous, and Tam could but the Heart instead) (Unknown role, some sort of healing ability? Or maybe just calming as she doesn’t have a connection to life probably)
– Tam, Wings or Heart (technically not confirmed to be part of the Sept, but seems likely) (Some sort of enforcer or emergency dispatch, a whole bunch of light-based combat abilities)
– June and probably her boss as well, Eyes (Semi-confirmed to ‘bear her eyes’ not confirmed to be a Sept member but I’m putting them here anyways) (Collects information for the lady and fellow paladins)
And thats the confirmed parts, and we know there are seven of them. Other possible parts of the Sept:
Claws (some theorize this could be Falst’s dad, which would be cool and seems narratively interesting and possible, but there is no actual evidence for this yet, only that he is a paladin), Tail (significant part of the dragon, no idea what abilities or role in the paladin organization would be), and i have no idea what the last part would be. Tongue? Spines? Legs? None feel quite right.
uhh anyways this comment got really long and the paladins are still really mysterious.
I think what’s going on is that, save for her Champion, who’s basically her Avatar, the Light Dragon doesn’t seem able to initiate contact with her own Paladins. If they want to talk to her, they have to reach out first.
Theia reached out to the Light Dragon when she saw the Void Dragon emerge during the battle against Tynan and showed her what she saw, but when Theia didn’t return to the Paladin Archive, the Light Dragon couldn’t tell any of the Paladins there what happened because none of them directly reached out and asked her.
The Septrenn are also bound by this limitation despite their power and rank, so the Light Dragon had to possess a messenger dragon to tell Stefan, who was probably the closest to the Storm of Magic.
That makes a lot of sense! It would also make the Void Dragon (it consumes you) more of an opposite to the Light Dragon (you give yourself to it)
can’t beleive i forgot Theia’s name had been confirmed lol. For anyone confused, Theia was referred to as June in the comments for most of the Zurrith arc because she didn’t have a name in-story yet.
Maybe Scales? Could let the user make armor or give others long-lasting shields that can last with less concentration than normal light constructs would require. The weird thing about theorizing stuff like Falst’s power being the Claws or Tam’s power being the Wings is that they just feel like specialized extensions of the power to make light constructs. Priora seems to have some kind of power that goes beyond just making constructs, like healing or calming like you mentioned. Even if the Septrenn favor certain constructs, the seven parts of LD seem to be actual elements of her being that mean different things; theoretically any Paladin, even Theia, could just make claws or wings with practice because they already have the power to make light constructs. I’m excited to see what they can all do, because Tam really only used light constructs and the Diadem on the boat; if that’s only one parts of the Paladins’ arsenal and Tam isn’t even part of the Septrenn, we’re in for some very fun surprises.
Stefan is the Horns, and he seems able to send wide-range telepathic messages, so I wonder if that is part of his special abilities. Though in the last page, that Paladin did send a telepathic message as well… Maybe Stefan’s range is wider or he can send it to specific people? It’ll be really interesting to find this stuff out!
I think Tam might be the head? The Light Diadem thing seems like a unique ability. āMy Championā does not necessarily imply he is the only champion after all.
Oh no, not Red finally realizing she’s Worfing Dainix!
Is she? I feel like Kendal and Tess are more likely candidates for the Worf Effect, but even they haven’t been One-Hit-KO’d very much. I’m pretty sure this is Dainix’s first time.
Is Falst supposed to be able to grab the stabby light stick?
Not according to everything we know about magic and Ferin (Ferin are magically inert 1.9.8), but Falst has had weird interactions with Light magic in the past! 1.22.37 he created Light claws, and 2.3.13 he breaks the Light diadem Tam put on everyone.
Guys… Is this the first time we’re seeing Falst actually roar? (Has it happened before and I’ve just missed it?)
I think he roared a few times in the underground ruin or “zombie dungeon”. Off the top of my head: When he scared off the first cave crawler (just after waking up), and later when he killed the crawler that injured him (when he tried to solo a room full of crawlers)
OOHHHHH, FALST IS AN ANGY BOY!
At first I was hearing Falst’s RAAAAAAH! as, like, a human wordlessly yelling, but then I realized it might be Red’s attempt at capturing a big cat snarl in a sound affect (a notoriously difficult feat) and, WOW this page is so much cooler if that’s the case
Guys I was just looking at the cover art for this chapter and I was like “oh weird, the light kinda look like lightning after it goes through Erin’s eye”. And then i realized “wait that looks more like a highlight”. And I was following the trail of the light, and I realized it looks kinda like when you’re in a dark room and someone opens the door, the tiny little crack of light that shines through onto the floor. Which is… odd.
I’m snickering at Erin’s “And I finally understand why you feel comfortable fighting without a shirt!”
At first, looking at Dainix’s back, I thought it was only bruisedā¦ but if I zoom in, it does look like the attack actually managed to cut through and break skin, too, which fits Dainix’s note that it stings (versus merely aching). I believe Dainix when he says the wyrmsilk blocked most of it and he’s only winded, i.e. no structural or deep damage like a cut into bone or muscle, but ooooof. He doesn’t have Falst’s healing factor, and they don’t have Life magic to help repair injuries. That’s going to hurt for a while.
And Falst, unsurprisingly, is not happy! Nope! He’s roaring! Throwing hands! On the warpath! He literally JUST saved Dainix by bringing him into that volcano, and now they hurt him! I have a feeling he’s going to show some Light powers soon to counteract the weapon they caught him with…
Poor Dainix. Poor Falst. Poor Erin. Red just loves sticking all these characters in the torment nexus, huh?
“Red just loves sticking all these characters in the torment nexus, huh?”
*š looks at the character + blender art from the Filler Trope Talk* (13:18 or linked at my username)
I like that Dainix canonically has the less thirsty version of fantasy bikini armor. Happy early Valentine’s indeed!!!
Light Dragon: NO MERCY
Paladins: (showing no mercy)
Falst: (angry cat noises)
Light Dragon: WAIT NOOO THAT’S POOKIE
Ever since the Paladins were properly introduced back in Zuurith, Iāve wanted to know more about them. Here was this incredibly old, insular religion, culture, & perhaps ethnicity tracing all the way back to the Ancients themselves, who are operating on a field of understanding almost totally divorced from everyone else. That brought up QUESTIONS! āHow authentic is their practice to that of the Ancients? Which era? Is their founder somehow still alive? How have they interacted with other groups throughout history, politically, religiously, philosophically, and in a more grounded way, culturally? Why are they allied with Zuurith of all people, how exclusive is that relationship? To be honest about my biases, why not Vash!? Whatās the truth caught between the Paladinsā knowledge and that of, say, Asera? Where can I get that STYLE!?ā And so on. And I doubt Iām alone. Even then they had very point-out-able flaws; Aurora very likely has printing presses and if you actually cared about disseminating information even in theory, youād USE them, Archivist! But chiefly, I was dying for an opportunity to truly appreciate their culture. And I still am. Now, they still have all those positive qualities (especially their FASHION), and if anything, are only MORE mysterious! And then Tam showed us that when doing battle with their eldritch enemy, and potentially with anything else they perceive as a threat, they completely abandon all possible moral scruples. Ever since theyāve become major drivers of the plot, the Floof Squad has been repeatedly beaten over the head with the absolute worst side of the Paladins, with very little screen time given to them as *people.* Which is aggravating in itself, but I donāt actually have a problem with Redās writing of them, necessarily. This is on us. For my part, I frankly felt betrayed when the Paladins showed their ugly side. Theyāre one of my favorite pieces of worldbuilding in the entire comic! And theyāre justā¦so bone-headed. But thatās the problem. I think whatās happened in this community is that we had an emotional reaction to the Paladins acting kinda evil from the perspective weāre given and went forward headfirst with that without leaving very much room for nuance, which is similarly bone-headed. The Paladinsā reputation has been reduced to that of āAuroraās take on Fantasy Catholicismā which so far doesnāt seem like a terribly accurate comparison. The Paladins have no empire, no missionaries, and for better or worse barely even register world politics (although thereās potential for them to contract such illnesses). If anything, Iād call them historical wish-fulfillment, that Christianity had just minded its own business! But I canāt really come to a firm conclusion either. There might not be much room for nuance at all until the characters get to justā¦absorb an environment where Paladins are simplyā¦living. Until then the *narrative role* the Paladins are fulfilling *is* āAuroraās take on Fantasy Catholicism.ā And yes, I do think thereās light at the end of this tunnel, at least if weāre willing to put down the goddamned pitchforks & torches once that comes (Iām sure Blue will have a *field day* with their architecture). But at the moment, weāre not there. Weāre here. And more now than ever, Iām DYING for an opportunity to truly appreciate the Paladinsā culture.
Yeah, there’s still a lot we don’t know about them, and they do seem bad now, but when we think about the alignments of the elements it makes a bit more sense to me at least. We know the dragon represents Hunger, pure selfish drive to sustain oneself against all things. Possibly Hallucinatory Taihram said as much. And we know that the pure form represents some kind of creative drive and free will, and it looks slightly different from light.
So, if Light is the opposite side of the coin from Void, perhaps it represents blind determination and dedication to a cause. It creates great teamwork, but it can blind you to the possibility that the cause is in any way incorrect, and that any price is worth it to serve that cause. That’s the side of the paladins we’re seeing right now, as our heroes are literally allied with their idea of the Antichrist, and in their mind any sacrifice to stop him, including of ‘corrupted innocents’ is worth it. (and tbh to some extent they’re right, as we do know the void dragon wants to literally eat the sun, so).
And this is too interesting of a worldbuilding thing to leave behind. Right now, my guess is that Falst is gonna get captured by the paladins here and they try to convince him to join them. And so we’ll see the good side of the paladins, and see why many people join it. Also, the paladins are super mysterious and this would be a good way to get a good ol’ fashioned lore dump about their beliefs.
Also, we know at least a little bit in how they differ from the Ancient belief system, as the Ancients saw the dragons as twin figures who worked together, but now they worship the light dragon exclusively. And you can see how that would be a healthier religion, worshiping the manifestation of Dedication (of a cause, of teamwork, of a people) combined with Hunger (to take care of yourself as well), and to balance those desires in you so you don’t destroy others or yourself.
TLDR- uhh dang it this got long but basically Light is the manifestation of Dedication to a Cause, which is why they seem evil to us rn because they can’t care about the heroes, but combined with the Dark dragon the ancient belief system could have been healthy. Also there definitely is a good side to them that we’ll see eventually if someone gets captured.
I think I ought to remind you about Red’s trope talk on paragons. More specifically, the bit toward the end about flawed paragons. The paladins’ major flaw here, so far as I can see, stems from a single false belief, that will no doubt be shown to be false — the one articulated by the Light Dragon herself back on 2.3.6 — the idea that there is nothing a mortal can do to overcome or separate from the power of the Void Dragon. To their minds, it does not matter if Erin isn’t fully consumed by the Void Dragon yet, because “yet” is the operative word. They are absolutely certain that it is only a matter of time, and that the only thing that can prevent the Void Dragon from using his power to unmake the adamant prison at the core of the world is his death. This is all a massive and completely unevidenced assumption, based entirely in the idea that the raw power of a living primordial will overcome any mortal resistance in time. It is an assumption that it makes a certain amount of sense for another primordial to make, biased in favor of their own kind and their own perspective as they must be, but since the situation is completely without precedent, it is nothing more than an assumption. If we were to grant that assumption without any caveats, then their actions would be wholly justified. If we refuse to grant it, that means they are arrogant beyond any semblance of reason, and paints them as being nearly as unambiguous as villains as they would be unambiguous heroes if we did grant it.
And we have no real reason to grant it. That makes the Paladins fascinating. Their overall worldview isn’t a problem in the least. They are almost completely good people with good motives that do good things. This one false belief, though — this certainty that nothing mortal can fight even a fragment of the power of a primordial, purely on the basis that a primordial endures unless actively slain where mortals fade and die — means that they are all but irrevocably the villains of this particular story, despite the fact that this belief is not at all important to maintaining the core of their worldview, and also despite the fact that that core is wholly good. They are so close.
All this to say, they’re not really clean parallels to any singular real-world organization, because no real-world organization has the unique factors that make them what they are. They are a product of the world of Aurora in full, with their structure, their beliefs, their goodness, their rightness, and their crucial failing all stemming from how this particular world is constructed. You point to this as potentially a fantasy Catholicism, but quite frankly, I don’t see the parallels beyond their failing being one of dogmatism — and even there, not all dogmatism is equivalent. The Paladins do not seek to convert all the world to their beliefs or to glorify their idea of the divine; their overriding goal is a purely pragmatic aim to keep the Void Dragon in its prison at the core of the world, and in doing so to preserve the world itself. In fact, if anything, they have not tried to spread understanding of their ideas widely enough, as evidenced by how utterly insular they are, and how widespread misunderstandings of their beliefs are, and how easily those misunderstandings can be dispelled by examining the paladins’ archives directly. They are warriors, not scholars, and they do not seem to grasp how much good could be accomplished by spreading the understanding that they have, rather than merely slaying anything that falls under the power of the Void Dragon.
I don’t think it’s that simple. They believe that Erin will inevitably succumb, yes, but their reasoning isn’t as simple as “primordials aren’t transient the way mortals are, therefore they must be more powerful.” There’s a lot more to it than that. For one thing, primordials are bigger than mortals in a way that goes beyond mere size – look at what happened to the Collector when she made contact with Life. Then there’s the specific nature of the Void Dragon. When Tam attacks Erin on the boat, this is what Light Dragon says to him:
“His power over you will only grow. Your mind and heart will wither against him until nothing but your hunger remains. Your world will shrink into irrelevancy and incomprehension as he erodes you from within. There are no principles a mortal can hold fast in the face of eternal, unending hunger. You will break, and then he will use you to break the world.”
This is a lot more reasonable than “primordials don’t die of age, therefore they’re better than us.” And disturbingly plausible, given everything we know so far. Void Dragon is a being of hunger, and of decay (“I am the withering”), and light/void/etc does seem to have psychic properties, so it’s not far-fetched to believe that his influence, over an extended period of time, can erode the mind of a human, consuming everything that makes you you and replacing it with ever-growing hunger. There’s precedent for this in the form of cave crawlers, people corrupted by void energy, who lose their identities as their entire mind is reduced to an impossibly intense hunger and nothing else. And that’s from a minute fragment of the Void Dragon’s soul. The Collector shows us just how vast a Primordial really is – mere contact with one’s mind was enough to completely destroy her identity. The deliberate and sustained effort of a Primordial whose power seems tailor-made to destroy the human will (along with just about everything else)… well, I think saying “it’s only a matter of time” is pretty reasonable.
Especially since we know Erin was losing his battle against the Void Dragon when he was first possessed – a fact made worse when we consider that Light Dragon seems convinced that Void Dragon’s ability to channel power into Erin will increase with time, as evidenced both by the “His power over you will only grow” line and by her earlier statement to Tam that “The Avatar’s power does not yet rival your own” back in Chapter 7 (emphasis on yet).
I don’t think there’s any chance that Erin could last indefinitely against the Void Dragon’s active attempts to control him. In fact, Void Dragon’s statement back in 1.21.5 (“So you’re no longer willing to die to foil my plans. Good. I knew your selfishness would serve me well”) might look a bit more sinister now. Not that I really believe Erin’s being corrupted at any appreciably pace – Void Dragon has been too quiet for that, and too oblivious to what’s going on around Erin, so I think most of his energy is occupied trying to decide when he should give up on his current strategy and try a different tactic, and figuring out what those new tactics are (and contingency plans for if things go wrong, up to and including ways to acquire other Elemental Maguses). But even as it is, Erin’s position is not sustainable long-term, and he knows it.
The real mistake of the Paladins is believing that there is no possible way of saving Erin from his fate except killing him before Void Dragon has time to pull this off. And even there, it’s a pretty subtle mistake. To their knowledge, there is no way. Even Erin’s plan is little more than “A is similar to B, therefore people who can do B might be able to figure out A1” – a very flimsy hope, which only sounds as good as it does because (to quote another fantasy story I’ve read) “in order to grasp at straws, you need straws.” But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying – and this is the fundamental problem with the idea of the Trolley Problem. There’s always a third option, even if that third option is “try to figure something out,” and while there may come a point when you have to give up on this third option, that point comes a lot further down the road than a lot of people are willing to go.
Are the Paladins wrong because they don’t realize that the soulshaper monks might possibly, maybe, if we’re lucky, have a chance of diffusing this moral dilemma? Or are they wrong because, after millennia of trying and failing to save people from the Void Dragon’s corruption, they are no longer willing to try? The latter is very understandable – trying and failing to help someone hurts more than accepting that there’s nothing you can do, and all available evidence indicates that there really is nothing they can do – but sometimes you have to try anyway, and the Paladins may have lost sight of that. And what a tragedy that would be. If Tam is anything to go by, the Paladins (and Light Dragon) genuinely want to help Void Dragon’s victims; but by the time they actually get a chance to do so, they’re unwilling to even try, not because they don’t want to succeed but because they can’t bear to fail again.
We might get to see some interaction between the Paladins and the Island’s Ignans. I am sure they would search around their settlements and the volcano. It will be an interesting day for the Ignans, first a mythological fire demon shows up, then dragon riders swarm their island.
Paladin is very, very lucky that Falst lost the spear he grabbed somewhere between panel five and panel six, or trying to animal-control the kitty boi would have resulted in a rather pointed reminder that having a long stick does not mean someone else doesn’t have an equally long stickā¦
Tbh, Falst is rather lucky that the gadgeteer magicked the spear into a fork – without those two prongs it looks like Falst would get speared right in his face
I’d disagree and say without the prongs limiting his sideways movement, he could have just dodged it
No Mercy! Sweep the Leg!
Falst probably: Catboy powers, GO!!
bro got sandy’d š
erin this is not the time
Falst is GOING. *cheers*
Red absolutely nailed that pose in panel three.