Comic for February 25th, 2017

[Hayate]

Reading over this page again, I find it odd how boldly Evals is speaking to Eric about slavery. Usually they keep their comments quiet on the subject. Are the technically free yet? I can't remember if the paperwork got done or not.

[Phaing]

Huh, I can't believe I'd forgotten about Rose and Saria's prior relationship. Here I was thinking that Rose was being held as additional leverage over Euchre, but since Rose was in Saria's service before Trace and Saria were even in their courting stage, that's largely out the window.

Now, speaking of their past, it appears that as the chapter continues to move forward The Dragon Masquerade becomes more and more relevant.

Spoiler!

First there was the return of Clovis, but now Rose and Saria's friendship/professional relationship have been cannonised as well. If we're going to take TDM as cannon, it's also going to mean that Kei and Rose were close enough for him to call her "Rosey" in a very friendly manner, so that could be interesting.

There's also a slim chance that Rose is going to recognise Natani, or more likely the other way around. Rose never saw Nat's real face when she was ambushed, only Nat's illusion, but Nat spent a good portion of the night wondering around in Rose's skin, so there's that. Then there's the matter of Nat recognising Saria from her painting. Even if it was an incredibly short interaction, Nat and Saria did speak briefly.

I'll guess we'll have to wait and see what bits and pieces are pulled on from TDM in future before making too many assumptions.

All this TDM stuff is giving me a headache, its actually going past being annoying.

[Cosmacelf]

Reading over this page again, I find it odd how boldly Evals is speaking to Eric about slavery. Usually they keep their comments quiet on the subject. Are the technically free yet? I can't remember if the paperwork got done or not.

I'm pretty sure they aren't legally free yet. Trace has yet to pay Eric for them. That's one reason they are at Trace's Estate. To access his money.

[Cosmacelf]

All this TDM stuff is giving me a headache, its actually going past being annoying.

It would be nice if TDM were available for purchase in the keenspot store....

[Kyrit]

Why are Eval's eyes Amber now? I thought they were supposed to be brown.

That's actually pretty odd, yeah. While the last few pages I've looked through with him have had some minor variation, they're usually between the gray and a dark brown that's leaning toward gray. The more I dig the more his eye color seems to like changing though. A few samples; Gray (this one seems to be the most common eye color choice until more recent chapters, where it's started going toward brown), not the usual brown (honestly this one looks like it's his fur color and Tom forgot to color the eyes their actual color), and brown-ish gray. And then after going through all these pages I did find one where his eyes were amber, but I had to zoom in a lot in order to see it. His eyes are amber here.

You uh.... got something to tell us about your eyes, Evals? Why do they keep changing colors?

I'd really like to see this canonised and explored more...

While I would as well, I feel like it could bring up age problems again. Though more on Saria's end this time than Rose's. While it is known fact that Saria is older than Trace, if she already looked as mature as when Trace met her it'd only cause that age gap to increase even more considering Trace was very much a child when Rose came in to play. Judging by Saria's grave, she was 28 when she died and Trace is listed as being 24. If you take Nora's 'six seasons ago' timing for Saria's death, that'd add another year and a half to their age gap (since at the time of Saria's death Trace would've only been 22-23. So I guess it is plausible that Tom could still fit it in if we're going off a 5-6 year age gap between them, and I'm willing to say it was probably just harder to see that very distinct age gap in the older art pages.
(Actually, I take back the crude age estimate upon moving to this page that dates Saria's death at 6 years ago. Which would put Trace at 18 years old (24-6=18) when she died and thus a 10 year age difference. Dear lord, she wasn't kidding when she comments to Rose "he's much too young, even for me" in TDM. Though the 'even for me' part does tell me she's definitely interested in the younger guys. But yeah. Going off of a 10 year age gap between the two of them, I can see that snippet that Tom didn't add to TDM easily becoming part of the story pretty soon)

Or perhaps he left if out exactly so that he could use it in the main story. After all, Saria is still listed as "Freedom Fighter" under her class in the character bio section. So it very well may be that we'll get Rose's full disclosure of how she came to work for Saria within the upcoming pages. So while I'll remain a tad skeptical, I'll remind hopeful with you that we'll actually get to see the backstory on how they came together/a solid stance on Saria being a Freedom Fighter.

If we're going to take TDM as cannon, it's also going to mean that Kei and Rose were close enough for him to call her "Rosey" in a very friendly manner, so that could be interesting.

Actually, I outlined in this post how it's very unlikely that the blond guard we see in TDM is Kei. Left out the spoiler tag since I don't consider that much to be spoilers for TDM. There's a guard. And he's blond. XD That and we're talking about things that are becoming part of the cannon now anyways, so I see the spoiler tags as a bit useless right now.

Reading over this page again, I find it odd how boldly Evals is speaking to Eric about slavery. Usually they keep their comments quiet on the subject. Are the technically free yet? I can't remember if the paperwork got done or not.

While not technically free until Trace hands Eric the money for them, Eric did already hand over the keys to their shackles which makes it a pretty done deal.

[Hayate]

Reading over this page again, I find it odd how boldly Evals is speaking to Eric about slavery. Usually they keep their comments quiet on the subject. Are the technically free yet? I can't remember if the paperwork got done or not.

I'm pretty sure they aren't legally free yet. Trace has yet to pay Eric for them. That's one reason they are at Trace's Estate. To access his money.

Reading over this page again, I find it odd how boldly Evals is speaking to Eric about slavery. Usually they keep their comments quiet on the subject. Are the technically free yet? I can't remember if the paperwork got done or not.

While not technically free until Trace hands Eric the money for them, Eric did already hand over the keys to their shackles which makes it a pretty done deal.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought. Evals better be careful, that mouth of his could still get him in some trouble.

[Stoneage89]

Oh, and at first I thought Rose was smoking in the fourth panel, but that's just steam coming from the kettle

For a keidran of her age, I think she is.

ayyy

[steelabjur]

I just noticed Rose's glasses are chained to her earrings, interesting choice.

[AndreRhineDavis]

IIIIIIInteresting! I'm a little surprised Trace would allow Saria to continue employing Keidran, especially around his own estate.

Trace didn't go anti-keidran nuts until Saria was killed.

If Rose was very close to Saria, she'd plausibly be an exception.

Yeah, I imagine that Saria showed a lot of affection to Rose, and Trace knew that she was Saria's "favourite Keidran". Remember, at this point, he was just generally racist to Keidran, not "anti-keidran nuts", and he would have had no problem having a Keidran working in his estate, although if it were up to him she'd be a slave and not a servant. Still, I imagine he wouldn't have been too mean to Rose so as to not upset Saria. After Saria died though, I can see Trace valuing Rose as a memory of Saria. Trace wouldn't have cared at all for her *in and of herself*, but I can imagine him wanting to "keep" her due to what she meant to Saria and what she represented. He might even have her well looked after and continued paying her *in honour* of Saria, because that's what she *would have wanted*. Remember, Trace's Keidran hatred came from the fact they "they killed my wife", so irrational as he may be, I doubt he'd extend that hate to a Keidran he knows his wife really cared about.

Also, I wonder at what point Trace might have learned about the relationship between Rose and Euchre. When he first started courting Saria, would he have recognised Rose as "that Keidran on the gallows calling for Euchre"? Probably not... I can see Trace being like "all Keidran look alike to me" and not bothering to notice their differences. But if he did... and Saria *did* actually sneak Rose out as part of her role as a "Freedom Fighter"... that would be interesting. And then after Trace started rising up through the Templar... we know he knew about Euchre's transformation abilities, I'm pretty sure that means he found out Euchre's true form is Keidran... I wonder whether Trace ever put two and two together and realised that his wife's "favourite pet" is Euchre's cousin! I reckon he would be smart enough... maybe Sirus would push him in the right direction .




Also, if you're reading this Tom, typo in the transcript.

Roselyn: I’d like ot think I still am, but thank you.

[NiWo21k]

After Saria died though, I can see Trace valuing Rose as a memory of Saria. Trace wouldn't have cared at all for her *in and of herself*, but I can imagine him wanting to "keep" her due to what she meant to Saria and what she represented. He might even have her well looked after and continued paying her *in honour* of Saria, because that's what she *would have wanted*. Remember, Trace's Keidran hatred came from the fact they "they killed my wife", so irrational as he may be, I doubt he'd extend that hate to a Keidran he knows his wife really cared about.

There is just one thing i cant quite get in my head - the way Rose greeted them at the door. The snarky remark about how she thought he was dead. It looked like this was a normal way to speak with him. So why would he let her do that? Even if we accept that she was very close with Saria, in the state Trace was after her dead, i dont think that he would let her talk with him this way....or am i overlooking something.

[MaverickMopete]

Maybe I'm being nitpicky here, but shouldn't Roselyn's eyes be green in the painting?

[Schrodinger]

Maybe I'm being nitpicky here, but shouldn't Roselyn's eyes be green in the painting?

There are slivers of green at the bottom of her irises. Just not easy to see.

[MuonNeutrino]

It has been brought to my attention that supposedly during the stream of this comic someone asked Tom about the ages of Rose and Euchre and received a response. Does anyone have a log/screenshot/wrote it down/etc? I've been wondering about this for a very long time, and that's only been exacerbated by Rose's reappearance and the recent retcon of the canon lifespan for Keidran possibly increasing. Does anyone know what he said?

[yaytime]

It has been brought to my attention that supposedly during the stream of this comic someone asked Tom about the ages of Rose and Euchre and received a response. Does anyone have a log/screenshot/wrote it down/etc? I've been wondering about this for a very long time, and that's only been exacerbated by Rose's reappearance and the recent retcon of the canon lifespan for Keidran possibly increasing. Does anyone know what he said?

Rose 26, Euchre 28, it was said on the Friday stream and i wrote it down.

[amenon]

True to it's name this chapter is all about Reunions of one kind or another. I think that we may be on the verge of a flashback to Trace and Saria's married life here at the estate.

I don't think this is where they lived, considering this is the Duke's place, and Trace wasn't (presumably) the Duke until he went cuckoo.

It's... not impossible though? Nora did mention that it was unusually big. But it would raise a very big question of 'how the balls was Trace that rich'.

Reading over this page again, I find it odd how boldly Evals is speaking to Eric about slavery. Usually they keep their comments quiet on the subject. Are the technically free yet? I can't remember if the paperwork got done or not.

Evals has been consistently looking for a fight, he just hasn't found it yet.

It's a bit of writing I really like. He's lashing out, even though it isn't at all smart, because of course he is. And meanwhile, Mike just continues to be subservient to Eric... and that fits his character.

(Incidentally, this is why I'm rooting for Evals pushing Eric off a balcony to his death. Could totally happen )

It has been brought to my attention that supposedly during the stream of this comic someone asked Tom about the ages of Rose and Euchre and received a response. Does anyone have a log/screenshot/wrote it down/etc? I've been wondering about this for a very long time, and that's only been exacerbated by Rose's reappearance and the recent retcon of the canon lifespan for Keidran possibly increasing. Does anyone know what he said?

Rose 26, Euchre 28, it was said on the Friday stream and i wrote it down.

Incidentally, not impossible ages. (Though seeing Rose obviously aged makes Euchre more suspicious -- but then, we haven't seen Euchre in a long time. Perhaps he does look equally old, and it's just a matter of Tom's art style changing.)