Hey, Digger won the Best Character slot at the 2009 The Webcomics List Awards! Thank you everybody who voted–that’s so awesome!
Digger
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Why do I think that even being injured isn’t going to slow her down too much in the fighting department?
I hope they remove anything breakable in the area before she gets her sword. Delicate things like people, livestock, mountain ranges, that sort of thing.
what about her madness….?
Congrats on the award! ‘Tis well earned.
Votey: http://topwebcomics.com/vote/10180/default.aspx
i am SO excited to see murai kick some ass 😀
I suspect that Murai is going to prod buttock to a quite serious degree!
Who is that next to Ed in the first panel? I see Murai in the last panel, with a sling holding her broken arm…
Loren, that’s the oracle next to Ed in the first panel. (Love the rat in the upper right-hand corner.)
…in fact, I think that rat has tattoos. You go, Ed!
@Loren, that’s one of the temple acolytes. We saw them a long time ago when Digger was first at the temple.
That’s not a rat. That’s Surka!
Beware the Nice Ones is apparently being invoked here…
Um, people.. why are you cheering? Murai knows. This is her destiny. Digger knows too, from her pained look in panel 2. But really.. there is no choice. There never is, when destiny is involved.
Rat with Tatoos? What are you guys talking about? Thier is no…..oh wait…..you the mean the TROLL.
@ Niall, this may not turn out as bad as it looks. Jhalem likes Murai, he’s protected her once before, and might not kill her, though I doubt he would hesitate to hurt digger or a hyeana if he thought they were going to do what they’re going to do. Also Murai’s destiny might not be to die in battle, it coud be to betray her order, which isn’t a great destiny, but could be really useful here.
Is it betraying the order, really? I mean, He-Is may *want* to die, and therefore killing him would be obeying the wishes of a god. Killing He-Is will (probably) kill Sweetgrass Voice, who is responsible for the god’s current state. Again, seems like a goal that the order would support.
Someone observed that Jhalm might have been contacted and/or corrupted by SGV. I don’t care to speculate as to whether that is so or not. However, even though he’s their leader, the rest of the order shouldn’t be conflated with Jhalm. They have minds of their own, don’t they? They could choose to stand back, defying Jhalm’s orders, and allow Digger and company to proceed. They could turn on Jhalm and detain him. They could even decide to actively defend Digger and friends against Jhalm.
Murai is one tough gal; I’m fascinated to see what happens next.
Also, I agree, the rodent in the top panel is likely Surka; all of Ganesh’s rats have wings.
Am I the only one who remembered Surka was still in the temple? I mean, I forgot about her for a few days when Ed first showed up, but really?
Ah yes, thanks. I recall the statue mentioning his blind oracles, and in #787 the oracle mentions foreseeing the veiled’s arrival.
I was trying to reconcile two black-cloaked figures with different disabilities. 🙂
Cue the Kill Bill theme…
I’m actually, despite him being one of the serious antagonists of this, hoping Jhalm has an epiphany. I’m not saying I want him to be all, “Hugs and make up” but Murai described him as having kindness and compassion waaay back after we first met the Dead God, and it would make him more human if he actually DID refuse to fight a one-armed ex-protegee, even to the extent of “tough love;” i.e., knocking her out to keep her out of the conflict. Despite her calling for her sword, I think the showdown is going to be with words, not with weapons.
Hmmm…apparently I’m feeling verbose today. Sorry about the length! 😛
Jhalm and Murai might not have a choice in what happens. Remember who tends to possess Murai at moments of stress.
I reached the most recent page! Huzzah!
@ Tindi I know how you feel. I always think what I’m writing is short until i post it and see an essay appear on screen.
@Hawk, I wouldn’t be so sure. I’m going to invoke one of the most over-used phrases of all time here so forgive me: “The banality of Evil.” Most people are surprisingly slow to question if what they are doing is anything but normal. the problem isn’t getting them to see how what they are doing could be seen as immoral, its getting them to first see that this is not what is expected in the normal course of doing your job. it’s getting past that “i was only following orders” instinct. Or, to use a far better term from our old friend the devourer of spare time TV Tropes, “Clock Punch Villain”. Its not in people nature to question too much what they do in their job when some new and questionable orders come though so long as it does not seem like too much of a stretch from what they were doing for their job before. And lets not forget the Milgram experiment. Normal, everyday people will do some fairly horrific things without questioning them so long as the reason seems logical at the time. And by logical i mean evolutionary logic I.E. it’s logical for you to go along with it because it benefits you in a Darwinian system I.E. if the gains outweigh the risks and/or if the act agrees with their existing point of view, and/or because of per-pressure, and/or they are told to act by an authority they trust OR who is persevered to be able to disadvantage them for non-compliance AND if the activity contains no threat to self beyond that normal accepted as part of the risk of their job.
The peer pressure one can be more dangerous that being told to act by an authority. people don’t mind standing up to the boss if the boss is a jerk as much as they do getting criticized by an entire gorp of their peers. As Ed shows, being rejected by your group is one of the wost things possible: people instinctively feel that. Why do you think we all find Ed such a woobie? its groupthink, any one of the veiled may question if its the right thing to do if asked individual but in a group the chances are if any of them feel its wrong they will want to say but wont because they don’t want to be the FIRST one to say it, not if it means the others might emotionally turn on them.
Well said as usual, BR.
Atre, thanks for picking up the slack for me and posting the vote link; I’ve been unavoidably detained until now …
😉
Plus we have seen two members of the order besides Murai and Jhalm, and they really didn’t seem the type to suddenly turn against Jhalm. They seemed to be just ordinary guys following orders because, well, that’s what you do. Remember that the Veiled are a military order, which makes it considerably less likely that Jhalm’s men will turn against him. Besides, none of them could possibly know that He-Is wants to die. Hell, I’ll bet if Jhalm knew that he’d probably go down there and stop that heart himself. Murai only knows because of what she’s seen, and that gives her a different perspective, which is why she’s willing to stand against the rest of the Veiled, but none of the other Veiled have that perspective. It’s also interesting that Murai really isn’t a part of the Veiled; she already felt isolated from them when we first met her, so she has no fear of being rejected by the group.
Also, somebody PLEASE fulfill BR’s request from yesterday and draw the woobiesplosion. I want to see if the sheer concentrated woobieness reaches critical mass and converts the entire Earth’s surface into an adorable, huggable blob, but I am entirely too terrible at drawing to do it myself.
I didn’t know which side Murai was going to be on when it came down to it. This was a cool moment for her.
Crap. I’m caught up again. Oh well, only a couple more hours till the new one; my timing has been worse. 😛
Ugh, groupthink. “A group is only as smart as its dumbest member.” Can’t remember who all has said it (there have been several people who’ve said it, and better than I), but I couldn’t agree more.
So she can hold her sword with one hand but needs both to draw it?
If the scabbard is not attached to her by a belt or baldric, then yeah, she would need two hands to draw it (one on the hilt, one on the scabbard).
🙂
Actually, since it’s only her arm that’s busted, and not her hand, she could conceivably draw the sword herself regardless.
With her slinged hand, she holds the scabbard to her chest near the hilt of her sheathed sword. Taking the sword handle with her other hand, she extends her good arm as far as her range of motion allows, and if the sword’s blade is shorter than the total length of her arm from shoulder to wrist(and I’ve not yet seen the one-handed sword that isn’t), it should come out fairly smoothly.
And then, even if it doesn’t emerge all the way, it would be a simple matter to drop the scabbard; it would just slide off what little of the blade was still concealed, or else a casual swing of the sword would throw off the scabbard.
…Yeah, I really do take the time to think these things through. lol
Silver Guardian: You probably wouldn’t want to hold the scabbard against the chest, as it would probably be a bit marginal whether or not the sword came cleanly out as you suggest. Using a standard 3-foot fencing blade to test, it’s a bit of a stretch for someone who’s a shade short of six foot tall, but much easier if you swing the splinted arm out from the body to give you more distance. This does, of course, assume a similar blade-length/user-height ratio; a proportionally shorter sword will be easier. Personally, if there was any doubt I’d ask you to get someone else to hold the scabbard, so that you don’t damage it by swinging it out along the (edged) blade, or damage yourself with contortions and/or poor blade control.
Apologies for the long tangential post: that’s what happens when you intrigue an armourer with a weapons-related hypothetical, especially when they have blades at hand to test it out.
Sounds to me like regardless of whether or not Murai *can* draw the blade herself, it’s substantially easier to get the Oracle to do it. xD
Don’t apologize, Procrastinator.
I enjoy debating things with knowledgeable people; it gives me the chance to assimilate ideas from beyond my own perspective. And the fact that you tested the practical applications of my theory just makes your response that much more interesting to read. 🙂
That being said, your words brought to my mind a variable that does not appear to have been accounted for…
The skill of the swordsman in question could change the ultimate result of the equation; until that is established, either one of us could be right.