Comic for Thursday March 21, 2013

[CrRAR]

---------------------------- Click Comic for Large ----------------------------

Alt text: Euchre's Origin - Part 4

Is that a little book of Basitin Black Magic I see?

[Schrodinger]

For those with money on Mary saving Rose's hide, congratulations. Nice to see where the black magic book Mike used came from.

[DariusL]

Note to self: Do not mess with Mary Silverlock.

Basitin Black Magic FTW!

[SirSlaughter]

Well damn, now I wonder how Euchre went from Keidran to Marys lover, to marys most hated person on the planet, back to being master strategist and marys "friend" again. OH THE SUSPENSE! Time to go back to Maddy on the ship.

[anonfox123]

Hate to be Devil's advocate here, but Rose could easily have been hanged after Mary found out what she needed to know.

Also, I cannot tell if she's mad because of of Euchre's deception or because she also realizes that he was willing to abandon his cousin to maintain that deception.

[JohnTheWysard]

Whew...

Well, no noose is good noose!

[Tendo]

Ok, definitely did not see Mary saving Rose coming, nor did I see her knowing the truth about Euchre in this way. I wonder if she knew before or just realized it now, that "I have ways of communicating without words" was pretty ominous...

[LuckyMudman]

An interesting twist of events.

Now to learn Euchre's motives, or at least what he would've told Mary. Something tells me he'll be truthfull now.

[Tendo]

Then again now that I think about it, I also wonder if we are just led to believe that and Mary got it completely wrong, like assuming Euchre was cheating on her with Rose from the way he acted rather than them being related.

[anonfox123]

Then again now that I think about it, I also wonder if we are just led to believe that and Mary got it completely wrong, like assuming Euchre was cheating on her with Rose from the way he acted rather than them being related.

This is all I have to say about that potential assumtion.

And again, we don't know if Rose is truly saved. All we've seen is a brief reprieve.

[MuonNeutrino]

Heh, I guessed right. Couldn't decide if Tom was going to let Rose die or not, but if she was to be saved, I figured Mary would be pretty much the only one who could do it. And *man* am I glad to see it, that was getting unbearable. Now maybe I can stop cringing in anticipation of disaster every time I load the page.

I didn't expect Mary to figure out what was going on so quickly, though. Now the question is exactly *how much* she knows. I suppose it's possible she knows everything, but I'd guess not - we haven't had any indication that anyone else has ever so much as heard of shapeshifting. However, pretty obviously she's figured out that Rose is someone important to Euchre. He *really* didn't keep a very good poker face during that whole scene, after all, and his reaction when she came into the room just now only adds to that. So the question is, what exactly does she think is going on? Is she assuming that Euchre is working with the keidran as a spy/etc? What *does* she think Rose's relationship to Euchre is?

The *real* interesting thing, though, is going to be the emotional fallout, on all sides. I can see several different components that could be included in Mary's anger. One, anger at him because she feels he's betrayed her, if she thinks that he's working for the keidran. Two, anger at him because she feels used and lied to by someone she loved, and who she thought loved her, if she thinks he never actually cared for her. Three, anger at him because she realizes that he just betrayed someone important to him and was willing to let her die rather than try to help, if she guesses that his relationship to Rose was a more personal one. And lastly, if she guesses that, anger at him over possible infidelity, if she jumps to 'certain' conclusions about just *how* personal of a relationship. Any way you look at it, she has a lot of reasons to be one PISSED OFF lady right now.

And there's Euchre too. As negative a reaction as Mary and us had to his actions, it's not like *he's* going to be any more comfortable with them than we are. He didn't *want* her to die, as is obvious from the last comic, but he still has to come to terms with the fact that he just betrayed *his own cousin* to a horrible death in order to protect his own secret. No matter what argument could be made that it was the only thing he could do, that's the sort of thing that could *destroy* someone inside. Note that from a certain point of view it can even be argued that it's his fault she was there in the first place, since she almost certainly was there looking for him. I can guarantee you that if she had died he would have been asking himself for the rest of his life if there had actually been some way to save her - and even worse, if he was honest with himself he would have eventually had to come to the conclusion that there might have been, if he had been willing to sacrifice his life with the templar and his relationship with Mary. I can *definitely* see echoes of this whole event in his later protectiveness towards Flora. The fact that she *didn't* die isn't going to change the fact that he still made the choice to abandon her, and it isn't going to make it any easier to deal with.

And lastly, there's poor Rose. Dear god. I don't even want to *begin* to think about how horrifyingly traumatic this whole thing would be for her. Just... ugh. Not only did she come literally within seconds of a horrible and agonizing death, she just got to see *her own cousin* turn his back on her and just *walk away* instead of trying to help. Whether or not that was the most rational thing for him to do, emotionally that cannot be anything less than utterly *shattering*. Frankly, if they both get out of this, Euchre probably ought to stay *far away* from his old home, because not only is he not likely to be welcome there anymore, he's quite possibly not going to be *safe* there anymore! At the very least she's likely never going to trust him again, and there is going to be some *serious* psychological trauma there overall. You just don't get betrayed by someone you thought loved you and come *that* close to a horrible death as a result and come out of it without some serious scars.

On the plus side, at least it looks like Euchre is about to get the verbal and/or physical thrashing he so richly earned!

[Josh.C]

Depending on her skills, I'm thinking she figured quite a bit.

Let's see, Euchre did not help a friend in need, turned his back on a loving relative even as she cried out for her life, there's also the matter he isn't human and has been lying to Mary about who and what he really is.

Any one of those might get her pissed like this. Be fitting if she figured out all of it.

[BadFoMo]

So she lives (or, as some others have pointed out, at least escapes the gallows for now). And here I was fully expecting to see a silhouette of her hanging. Does anyone else think that Tom might have changed it to this because of how much we didn't want her to die? Or is this how it's supposed to be? Either way, as MuonNeutrino has pointed out, we have Euchre who had to leave a member of his family to die. Almost parallel to how he could've redeemed himself even if she did die by trying to save her just as the trap door was released. Either way, her purpose has been fulfilled. I'm not technically criticizing here, but something tells me that we are not going to see her again either way.


P.S. So that's why all of the magical hijinks stories weren't in canon! That little book (assuming there's only one copy of it) was in the Templars possession this whole time! It all makes sense now!

[Rexnano]

All I have to say is Mary kick his butt!!

[thisisntchris87]

Heh that was close, Rose. So happy she's ok, for now......

I'm suddenly scared of Mary.