IPOLA: How odd. Hearing you put it like that … Another man like you - in some ways - spoke of the same things to me just days ago. But he wasn’t so full of hate as you are. His way didn’t need for others to die or be destroyed so his people could live and create themselves, owing nothing to Erogenia. He was … a wise man, I think. Even if all the Erogenian nations are destroyed and all of us killed - you would still remember us, no matter how you tried to forget. If we did the same to you - we would still remember you. You can rewrite history all you want, but you are from our seed. We are part of each other, even in our blood. We have been since the beginning, for ill and for good. Perhaps there is another way. A way I couldn’t see when I made that oath twenty years ago. There must be - if we can only find it.
GORSHASH: No.
IPOLA: We could destroy you, as I promised. You have found the dragons, but there is more and greater power in the world than even the dragons - and there always has been. If this war goes forward, it could end in a hollow victory for us all.
GOSHASH: That is your weakness, Ipola Queen. You speak as one who fears destruction. God revels in it, and in all that dies for His glory. That is why we will prevail.
14 thoughts on “Another Way – Page 1175”
Logan_D
Well, he is allowing her to escape. So I suppose she felt the need to extend the offer.
But I have to admire a villain with conviction. Even though he’s wrong. And evil. And in the end he and his kind will HAVE to be destroyed. Because that’s what they WANT. Gorshach in that way reminds me – through a funhouse mirror – of Rorshach – and holy hell – writing that out – I just now realized how SIMILAR their names are! :O
Right – the point is – Gorshach is like Rorshach in one important way.
“Never compromise – even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise.”
Logan_D
I meant “Gorshash” not Gorshach. Even so – the cadence and phonemes are still remarkably similar.
jd.
Brother, thank you for this wonderful piece of insight!
Reservist
“We will prevail”
Like they prevailed twenty years ago or so, eh. 😛
He still hasn’t witnessed Michael’s power, has he?
Of course, he hasn’t.
Evervigilant
Nice touch with the eye in panel 4. Sadly it seems as if Gorshash is a lost cause and his true master is literally in his head or watching his every move. Methinks the queen needs to get the heck out of there pronto.
DMC_Run
@[Evervigilant]:
It took me a while to notice, then I went back to check…
… but that skull-in-the-eye-detail has been a ‘thing’ for at-least 4 years:
[https://barbarianprincess.com/comic/death-is-a-place/page-931]
DMC_Run
OK, I’m back from my “Archive-Dive”, with some stats:
20070107_Pg.92 = Gorshash debuts.
20080418_Pg.193 = he loses an eye.
20080620_Pg.202 = he cauterizes the empty socket.
20090515_Pg.273 = the socket now glows red.
20090619_Pg.283 = 1st sighting (pun intentional) of a glowing white skull-in-the-socket.
20120804_Pg.607 = the socket glows yellowish-white, w/o any “skull”.
20140809_Pg.817 = the “skull” is starting to show again.
20160201_Pg.923 = the socket glows yellowish-white, w/o any “skull”.
20160329_Pg.931 = for the 1st time, the “skull” is colored black, within the yellowish-white socket.
Lora
Well, that was an unsurprising statement from Gorshash. He’s a follower of Shuach after all.
This is going to be one hell of a war before the end comes.
Mysto
This is what is known as an “Implacable foe”. Ipola needs to kill this guy.
Like, right now.
She can try her “co-operative solution” idea with someone else who might actually co-operate.
Reservist
True that, Mysto. True that.
Prairie Son
Gorshash continues to fail to grasp the point. He really is a perfect tool for Shuach.
jd.
As I am not fond of saying (because I most often say it angrily or sadly), it’s tragic foolishness to mistake kindness for weakness.
Thanks for this page, JED. (Even more than usual, that is.) I felt the previous one was ready for a scene change, but it’s beautiful to see Ipola give it a real try. (And get character growth in the process.)
Archone
Wow… this is actually reminding me of both Bleach and Naruto. Especially Bleach. The repeated theme in that anime is “our ancestors did some really horrible stuff and refused to acknowledge it, and now their buried sins are emerging to cause us grief. We need to deal with the festering blight created in the past, while resolving to never again let it be buried or forgotten.” Including the way the more vengeful enemies categorically refused any attempts to reconcile, because they couldn’t let go of injustices that had long since been covered up by the people in charge.
(seriously, almost every single bad thing in the series was caused by the Soul Reapers themselves, when they first started out. It’s why they came to adore Ichigo and claim they owed him so much. Not so much because he killed Aizen, as because he and his friends forced them to reform and stop being hidebound traditionalists who ignored their own misdeeds)
Also, hot DAMN is Ipola sexy. I think that might be part of her current dilemna. She has never before had to engage in diplomacy with someone who possesses literally zero interest in her, sexually. Gorshash’s standards of beauty are completely different (plus he likely doesn’t have that much of a sex drive compared to the younger warrior Urtts), so she’s trying to persuade him while deprived of an edge she never really knew she was so dependent on.
QuillKnight
I always keep an eye out for villains with conviction and good arguments. Gorshash definitely has one, if not the other. His argument that “God revels in [destruction] and in all that dies for his glory. That is why we will prevail,” is inherently flawed, because it means that Shuach would be perfectly satisfied with the death of the Urrts. As much as I tend to shy away from the stark good/evil trope, it seems like the old adage, “Evil contains the seeds of its own destruction,” definitely applies, here.
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