YANORA: Ipola? What is it?
IPOLA: Tethik’s finally got there, Yanora.
YANORA: I see. Best finish dressing, then. Don’t want to scandalize the children.
Ah, Gudik, my little cherub.
GUDIK: Mother.
YANORA: My how sour you look, sweeting. What, siege engines not up to snuff? I do wish you’d listened to Mummy about that.
YANORA: (Sees Thann) Oh, and just *look* who’s here. So this is the one they chose to murder Gudik?
IPOLA: Indeed, I wonder whose idea it was?
YANORA: How very ironic.
THANN: What does that mean? How do you know who I am?
YANORA: (dismissively) The same way I know a great many things, lamb. But never mind.
GUDIK: Will someone tell me what this whole shit show is about? What’s so important that all three of you have to come here, interrupt my perfectly enjoyable little war -
THERIK: “Holy crusade,” your Majesty …
GUDIK: Damn right! It’s a goddamn holy war with the blessing of the goddamn church! And I need to be getting on with it, so what is this magickal hernia for?
26 thoughts on “What-what-what? Page 1064”
Prairie Son
Yeah, didn’t expect him to keep his patience going for long once Mumsy popped into view.
It’s Elie Wiesel, BTW.
Paddy
Good quote there from Elie Wiesel, a man who properly valued peace, as also seen in his quote: “Peace is our gift to each other.” Among many others: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/elie_wiesel
When our leaders embark on their endless succession of futile wars, and turn a blind eye to acts of oppression by their allies, we must not be silent, must not give in to despair or indifference, but keep striving for a better way forward.
jd.
Seconded, sibling. There’d be controversy to raise, but not here and now. The quote is beautiful and all too true, let’s leave it at that.
Tom Billings
So, Maldik is not the only one whose education got slighted. It seems that Gudik thinks of Kingship as being
defined only in military terms, and wants to “get on with it”. Well, families are like that sometimes. The
Plantagenets were not too far from this. You can see why Tethik’s family had a better opinion of him than
of Kendrik and his brood, even without the family politics. It will be interesting to see how long it takes
Ipola to get these folks to focus on all the nasties comin’ to kill and eat them.
jd.
First off, his comment about “my perfectly enjoyable little war”, like five minutes about complaining up to Heaven that it didn’t go the way he wants, seems strongly ironic to me, and more like a statement of annoyance about having Yanora in his tent. (She does make a show of being annoying at that.)
Not to mention both queens seem to find Thann much more interesting than himself, which has to grate on his ego.
So, I wouldn’t describe him as too warlike right now – though the notion remains quite possible.
SeanR
Haven’t you ever slammed your head against a challenging problem, refusing to give in? The difficulties sometimes only make the victories more delicious.
Other times, they make them merely a relief.
How much less enjoyable a sport would be, if every attempt was guaranteed to be successful.
Of course, for those on the sharp end, this is no game. Especially for those on the receiving end of the sharp end.
Descartes
Six people, seven name tags. Hmmm….
Descartes
Oh, that’s right. The guard is still there.
jd.
Yeah, a pair of queens beats a king every time.
And as a parent, I must admit I chuckled at “I do wish you’d listened…” Show of hands: who else is beginning to think Gudik went along with that whole “holy crusade” horse excrement to have an excuse to be away from Yanora?
Still, in the first panel, he is looking straight at her without showing unease. (Then again, exposition breeds insensitivity.)
Last, holy cow! Yanora’s “how ironic” comment, Gudik’s blond hair, his possible thirst for war… I’m half expecting him now to have been fathered by Zonn. (Which would be another reason for him to dislike her, not to mention for Tethik to have had a claim for the throne.)
Prairie Son
Tethik had a claim because he’s from the elder branch of the family, not a cadet line. Plus, he’s far more competent.
It’s ironic because the boys’ fathers tried to kill each other during the last war. Apparently, they were evenly matched enough to go for hours.
jd.
I’d point out that I doubt competence has ever been a big factor in choosing a king, for various reasons: because the kingmakers may want someone less competent but more pliable, because there are rules and traditions that never test competence, and also because competence doesn’t necessarily show until after you’re in power. I understand Ulysses Grant never amounted to much until he proved himself a worthy general, and thereafter an at least decent president.
But on the rest, I’ll bow to your superior knowledge of the universe. Would you be so kind as to point me to where both facts (Tethik’s claim and the battle of the kings) are stated, please?
Tom Billings
Tethik’s claim comes up during his journey with Boric, he gets into an internal reverie while Boric sleeps, about the claims to the throne and resenting having to pick up after the sins of the sons now that Kendrik has passed away. Remember that there were no 2 Kings. There was Ipola’s champion, Zonn, and King Kendrik, apparently before the alliance was struck between Erogenia and Kivalia. The battle between Zonn and King Kendrik was mentioned by Ipola when talking to Zona during one of their conversations on self-restraint, IIRC.
jd.
I’ve found Tethik’s musings you’re referring to here: https://barbarianprincess.com/comic/cold-lights-cold-comforts/page-753/
Ipola’s talk to Zona I have yet to find. It doesnt happen in the Big Talk after Mentl’s departure ( https://barbarianprincess.com/comic/goodbye-baby/page-397/ ), but there are other talks. I’ll look further, but not now.
Prairie Son
The duel between Zona and Yatta-Ta.
Lora
This will either go very well or very badly. It’s certainly quite the gathering of important people.
SeanR
I’m not sure if the word you were looking for was “eagles”, or harpies. They are seem to be doing more backbiting than the last group.
SeanR
So. Was the decision to have Yanora join this conversation in a state of undress influenced by the earlier comment on the unlikelihood of not catching Ipola on the John or similarly inconvenienced?
jedraft
So many comments, so much speculation. This is one of those instances I hold my piece as there’s a lot of stuff that will be revealed and talking too much tends to spoil things.
I will say that the two ladies appearing as they did was planned, as I know exactly where they both are at this stage, which is important for the coming beats. And having Yanora appear in a state of undress is never anything I need an excuse for. 🙂
Warmest regards,
JED
Archone
Holy crap…
…We saw how much Maldik despises Yanora. Now we’re seeing that the “good son” ALSO can’t stand her. That… that really says a lot about her. About her treatment of her own kids. She really needs to start addressing her boys in a more conciliatory tone, given that she’s trying to convince them to work with her in the defense of their people and it’s important to NOT ANTAGONIZE THEM FURTHER.
(Maldik said point blank, “I can’t stand the very FACT of you.” The fact that she exists is upsetting to her. Tethik seems to feel much the same… for someone who’s supposedly so intelligent, Yanora’s being very foolish by going right back to provoking and needling her sons at the worst possible moments)
AntonLe
“A holy war is a contradiction in terms – Eli Wiesel”… Not to a God of War, it isn’t.
Tgape
I would counter that a God of War is also a contradiction in terms. The power of a God has no need for war. Any entity who claims to be a God of War is lying in regard to one of those words.
jd.
I like your point, but there have been gods of war in real-world pantheons (the Greek even had two!), so, well, I’d say maybe we’d have to agree on the definition of “God” before proceeding with this discussion.
If we’re talking about an entity possessing omniscience, omnipotence and maybe omnipresence, yeah, agreed, “God of war” is too small a domain anyway.
Now if we’re talking about an entity in control of very significant supernatural power and a taste for fighting, though possibly bested by a human in certain conditions (as Ares got his butt kicked by Diomedes in the Trojan war)…
Freelance
Tell that to Belkar, the sexy shoeless god of war.
In any case, there are deities that personify war. Ares/Mars is the most well known in the Western world, but there are others. Athena, goddess of wisdom, also counted battlefield tactics under her purview. Ishtar, Mesopotamian goddess, personified both love and war. Sekhmet is a goddess from Egypt, and once she was off the leash, hoo boy, I hope you have a whole lot of wine on you. Tyr from Nordic mythos was invoked for and during times of war. And besides all that, how many times do you think people have claimed YHWH helped them push through battles? How do you think we get crusades? When you have a deity that encompasses everything, that includes war.
Mace
Ipola – 20 years and change of being in charge of the Erogenians – a job I’d imagine akin to herding cats. Yanora – An at least equal period of dealing with Kivalian politics and keeping herself amused since the death of her husband. Add in the ability to communicate via Ipola’s magic. If those two ladies haven’t planned out every last excruciating detail in exhaustive depth as much as they possibly could have before this particular event….
Those two define the word dangerous in whole new and exciting ways.
Uhl
“Well, there’s a bigger, holier, more-fun war you should be fighting. The Urrts are at it again, mounting a massive invasion, helped by your dearest little brother, Maldik, and lead by an Urrt who worships the Flaming GOD of Evil, he whose name shall not be mentioned, and hurls magic around. Does that sound like a good reason?”
Storel
Haha, love how Yanora needles him about the siege engines. I’m sure she told him they were too puny for those walls, but he had to try it anyway.
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