So that explains the lockbox and what the rustlers picked up there. I suppose if Roka and company had been at the top of their game, they would have entertained the thought that weaponry might have been there. But it made sense to me that (a) they were looking at this run at face value and thus weren’t on particularly high alert, and (b) they were distracted by the argument between Roka and Bennesaud at the time.
That was deliberate on my part. I wanted to focus on the lockbox as little as possible in that scene; just enough to plant the seed but not enough to call much attention to it. I thought if I jumped right into a big argument between the main characters, that would be compelling and hopefully distract readers from trying to guess what might be in the box.
And for the record, I just love these little moments between Ril and Cember.
I love these little moments between Ril and Cember too! That expression is priceless!
I think what’s most amusing to me is that Cember doesn’t really seem to have a problem with Ril. It’s not like Cember is picking fights with him or anything. But Ril hates him anyway. Maybe “hate” is the wrong word. Maybe Cember just really annoys him. Nah, let’s go with “hate.”
Really liking the banter between the characters, and the timing. Top class!
Nice job – but regarding the lock-box… nope, sorry, no distraction there.
That as a dead-ringer.
You focussed too much on that light weaponry beforehand to make that highly suspicious (at least to me).
Those jobs NEVER go easy – so if you go “oooh, that poor harmless thieves are nearly unarmed!” and THEN bring up a secret lock-box, the first thing that springs to mind is: “Jep. Now they aren’t, anymore.”
That said – it doesn’t hurt the least bit to have seen it coming.
Enjoyed it all the same.
Hey Sean, great job on the background in panel 2, I love the cutaway in the tree to show how SERIOUSLY the bandits are armed that way.
This is why Cember = awesome! 😀
Great stuff!! I especially like his cheesy grin in the sixth panel. Awesome artwork and lighting!
Tom mirrors some of my reaction. With the (now known to be) unintentional pre-work it was all too obvious. But for me it was annoying at the time, I really don’t like the pointing out of plot devices. Turns out it wasn’t. so it is water under the bridge now…
I also hate when plot devices are pointed out too blatantly for the audience. It’s a definite pet peeve of mine. So whenever I need to drop info, I at least try to do it in a way that is true to the characters’ dialog. It’s hard for me to hold back on giving info sometimes because I also hate when plot devices are pulled out of thin air without any sort of establishment.
The following example has MAJOR plot points from the final season of the TV show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” so stop reading if you want to avoid those spoilers….
I really loved “Buffy” but one thing that always bugged me a bit is how they wrapped up the series. In the end, Willow taps into some magic that allows her to distribute Buffy’s slayer powers to a large group of slayers-in-training, effectively creating an army of equally-powered full slayers. I actually thought that was really cool, but I felt that solution popped up out of nowhere in the finale.
I always thought it would have been much more interesting if they had hinted at that earlier in the season. They could have done a stand-alone episode where, say, Willow accidentally transferred Buffy’s powers to Xander. It could have been a mostly-comedic episode with Xander reveling in the new powers, while at the same time advancing the Xander subplot that season of his feeling useless to the group due to his normal lack of special ability. At the end, obviously, the spell would be reversed. But in the process, the power transferal plot would have been set up for the bigger power transferal in the finale, and I feel that would have packed more punch, with the audience getting an, “Ahh…I see what they did there!” moment.
Basically, I like it when hints and clues are dropped so that the audience can later see that things were being laid out the whole time. While I know it sometimes means readers will figure things out ahead of time, I still like that better than pulling out plot twists that seems to come from nowhere. For some reason, that always kinda feels like a cheat. I suppose the real trick is finding a way to make those hints a bit more subtle.
And what do you call Kendra Young and Faith Lehane? Hm? I call them hints.
If I remember correctly, Kendra and Faith came about as Slayers due to the rule that if a current Slayer dies, a new one will be anointed to replace her. But Willow’s spell in the finale didn’t really have anything to do with that rule. It was its own stand-alone magic to distribute Buffy’s powers to others, and it didn’t seem to have a connection to the Kendra/Faith new-Slayer-through-death rule that had previously been established. I could be remembering that wrong though.
All that being said, I’d amend my earlier post to add that I didn’t hate the Buffy finale. Overall, I loved the series. So hopefully no one will take my comment above as bashing the series. I just think that extra bit of story could have been a very cool bit of foreshadowing had they decided to go that route.
In related news, who knew Kendra and Faith had last names?? I didn’t. Learn something new every day! 🙂
I actually lol’d at Cember’s grin. You drew it just right.
Awesome! At the time, I was worried, given the composition of the panels, that Cember’s face was too small, especially since his facial expression was the point of the gag. I was a little worried it wouldn’t read very well. So it’s good to hear that the grin registered.
I like the tree blowing apart in panel 2 in the background as he’s yelling, “Does this look lightly armed to you!?”
I’m glad that comes across in the art. I actually had a really hard time figuring out where to put Roka’s exclamation word balloon in that panel. Didn’t want it too close to Ril to avoid confusion, didn’t want to cover up Roka’s gesturing hand. So the only place left was covering up some of the blown-apart trees that are the whole point of the panel. Ack. Having to do that killed me. But I’m glad the action is still pretty clear.
Cember for President.