Hm… so, it seems like the reason the big demon wants Shadowchild to eat their shadows isn’t because he can’t, but in order to break Shadowchild of any conditioning towards goodness he’s been given.
I gotta wonder, though… since demons seem to project themselves as shadows, can Shadowchild eat this guy like a sock?
Poor kid. It’s so painful to watch an innocent being forced to such a life-defining decision so early.
Keep your options open, kiddo…. there’s no going back from turning to Evil– or eating the shadows of those who have been friends to you– and while I know the information that the demon *perhaps* possesses and *perhaps* will share with you is very valuable to you, the price is too high.
If you turn to Evil, all you can ever be is Evil, or tortured (if you later give up Evil). But if you do “the right thing” and turn your face from these sweetgrass lies…. you can be anything you imagine. And have friends. And adventures. And *fun*.
Poor kid. Hope you can see how Evil any being that would do such a thing to you truly is, and hope that you know enough of your own being to be disgusted by that, mistrustful of any ‘rewards’ offered by such a being, and that you have no desire to be in its clutches or under its tutelage.
Saying “yes” to SGV means losing his companions which sum pretty much everything SC has ever had in his existance and a full change of live that be for good or for bad will be *hard* and possibly not get the answers anyway
Saying “no” would seem apropiate, but will be tormented ever after on having lost the ocassion of getting the answers he desperately looks for.
That’s why little kids like SC should be sleeping well before gosh hour.
Some of the recent deep mysteries of the comic may be clarifying. Remember that Murai was listening to the *darkness* when she found the place where the various spirits were. I think Shadowchild is going to wake Digger up — if Sweetgrass Voice could eat the shadows of Digger’s party I think It would have done so already (Why leave the Competition if you can remove it?) and Digger will save Shadowchild’s spirit from Sweetgrass Voice. Hegi got “tired” because he was fighting Sweetgrass Voice Itself. I think Digger is NOT supposed to kill He-Is at all. And Digger’s deep sense of morality is the whole reason that Ganesh brought her to this land in the first place: Shadowchild will eat the shadow of the pain and madness He-is is enduring. And Shadowchild has to be a GOOD spirit not to be destroyed in the process.
One can only hope Shadowchild will wake Digger up first, to get a second opinion. And secondly, I suspect Shadowchild is actually stronger than this other demon, she just doesn’t know it yet… Can a baby demon eat another demon’s shadow?
I think the demon is weaker than Shadowchild knows, which is why he/she hasn’t already eaten everyone’s shadow.
The way to beat Digger’s conditioning of Shadowchild is so obvious. Just do what Shadowchild was doing from the start: Ask “Why?” to everything.
Aces.
(Even if Sweetgrass were weak enough that Shadowchild could hurt it, it’s also stretched out from the site where it is bound, and could snappily retreat there should it feel threatened.)
My favorite line… “She *SAID*!” Reminds me of being 6…. “I can’t take/touch/do that! The lady *said*!”
And thinking of that reminds me of the first time I surprised some kids playing in my backyard, and them running away, crying “The lady! The lady!” Oh, it was a black day, the day that I became “the lady”…. 🙂 .
That poor kid. I just want to slap that demon silly for being so…. evil.
The plot is definately thickening! I’m glad I got to read the last few pages in a glut, since I was in Pittsburgh while they came out. Now, I’m stuck at the current date and I have to wait to see what Shadowchild will do: the torment!
Was great to see you, Ursula! It more than made up for missing Digger for a week and a half. 🙂
Actually, I think Sweetgrass Voice is a little rusty at this whole “temptation” thing… that, or just in a hurry. It’s usually easier to take small steps than to jump right to “EAT YOUR FRIENDS.”
Man, this is interesting. It has about as many reasons to go with Digger’s rules as this new guy’s, only she got to it first. Pure naiviety is awesome.
Being of a nasty, suspicious mind, I am forced to wonder if Sweetgrass intends to eat Shadowchild. I conjecture, as Shadowchild found very old, tasty shadows to eat, there in the same building as Sweetgrass, that Sweetgrass is bound in some fashion, And I suspect those bindings protect everyone else now in the building … except Shadowchild.
To fatuncle: I was reading through the comments to see if anyone else had come to the same horrible idea I had, and I almost thought not until I read yours. You went to exactly the place I did… and I hope it won’t come to pass, especially as I fear that then Sweetgrass could perhaps pose as Shadowchild… not very well, mind you, but perhaps just long enough to draw in a delicious snack or two….
I can only wonder if/when a confrontation between Sweetgrass and Digger does occur…how does one fight a shadow? I think perhaps the shadow stuck in Murai’s head may begin to play a bigger part here than just driving her mad. I hope? *crosses fingers for a shadow fight scene*
1) i also was wondering if being bound to a dying (if not yet dead) got has weakened sweetgrass voice – since his death is linked to the god’s. but he really need digger & co. gone – he’s surely been around listening, and knows they plan to kill the god for real.
2) do demons converse audibly? they can make themselves heard, clearly, since shadowchild has been chattering away with everyone – but do they also have to speak audibly when they talk to each other? ’cause i wonder if digger isn’t already lying awake, trying to figure if she can take this thing out with a pickax, or whether she needs some dynamite.
Huh. For a demon of corruption and subtle manipulation, Sweetgrass sure is taking the direct approach. I guess all the centuries of imprisonment don´t do much for your patience. 😀
Here’s a real kicker. Digger sleeps pretty hard (even when not exhausted). She’s a vegetarian, not a predator type, and she’s got to be pretty dang tired after all the stuff that’s happened before this.
What if Murai or Grimeyes is awake? They don’t know Shadowchild as well as Digger does…what might THEY be thinking of?
Although if the demons are conversing in a way that is inaudible to mortals…
Poor Shadowchild…
Makes me want to slap Sweetgrass Voice too. Harming children of any kind is just wrong.
Something that just occurred to me too: Digger has no shadows on her!! It’s one of the things Shadowchild said when the two of them first met, isn’t it?
Tut. Like you really would do it. Anyone that DOESN’T see what’s coming next gets what they deserve, and I’d lay it out explicitly if this post-method had spoiler tags.
@Hawk… Shadowchild didn’t say Digger had no shadows, it said she had no shadows on her heart (i.e., no taint of evil deeds — remember, right before it ate the shadow of the bandit who shot Digger with the crossbow bolt, it said to him “There is a shadow on your heart. You stink of old regrets.” or something to that effect). Then when Digger killed the cold servants, Shadowchild said she had a small shadow on her heart, but it was fading (probably a shadow of the guilt Digger was feeling about having killed someone/thing — although I wonder if she felt more guilty about the vampire squash dying in the fight with the cold servants — after all, the cold servants were stalking her to kill her, the vampire squash had only tried to gnaw on her leg a bit some weeks before).
My $0.02 worth: Even though this Sweetgrass Voice business is all very ominous, I’m optimistic. After all, the slug said that if Shadowchild didn’t accompany Digger & Co., everyone (not just the adventurers) would be “salted and dipped in beer.” I think Shadowchild has a good (and important) role to play.
What if in Sweetgrass Voice’s mind, it has just “awoken” (and stretched after far too long a sleep) to find a child of its species with its essential knowledge skewed by outside forces? “…they can talk!” “What has that to do with anything?” The confusion evidenced by Sweetgrass Voice seems unfeigned (from what I can tell from a shadow of a demon) and could result in real concern.
A child is learning ridiculous things, and being corrupted by foreign morals! This should not – nay, cannot – stand; the child must be taught what it means to be a true demon. How else will our race keep from chaos and oblivion?
Think of the children! The dark, amorphous children!
Poor Shadowchild!
*holds breath in squeeful anticipation*!
I so love Shadowchild in the top right panel. He’s so adorable, I just want to hug him. 🙂
Hm… so, it seems like the reason the big demon wants Shadowchild to eat their shadows isn’t because he can’t, but in order to break Shadowchild of any conditioning towards goodness he’s been given.
I gotta wonder, though… since demons seem to project themselves as shadows, can Shadowchild eat this guy like a sock?
Go Shadowchild go! Stay strong!
“But it’s….!
But….!”
But it’s *wrong*. *Evil*.
Poor kid. It’s so painful to watch an innocent being forced to such a life-defining decision so early.
Keep your options open, kiddo…. there’s no going back from turning to Evil– or eating the shadows of those who have been friends to you– and while I know the information that the demon *perhaps* possesses and *perhaps* will share with you is very valuable to you, the price is too high.
If you turn to Evil, all you can ever be is Evil, or tortured (if you later give up Evil). But if you do “the right thing” and turn your face from these sweetgrass lies…. you can be anything you imagine. And have friends. And adventures. And *fun*.
Poor kid. Hope you can see how Evil any being that would do such a thing to you truly is, and hope that you know enough of your own being to be disgusted by that, mistrustful of any ‘rewards’ offered by such a being, and that you have no desire to be in its clutches or under its tutelage.
Now, that’s a thought decision as is.
Saying “yes” to SGV means losing his companions which sum pretty much everything SC has ever had in his existance and a full change of live that be for good or for bad will be *hard* and possibly not get the answers anyway
Saying “no” would seem apropiate, but will be tormented ever after on having lost the ocassion of getting the answers he desperately looks for.
That’s why little kids like SC should be sleeping well before gosh hour.
Stay Good, Shadowchild, Stay Good!
Some of the recent deep mysteries of the comic may be clarifying. Remember that Murai was listening to the *darkness* when she found the place where the various spirits were. I think Shadowchild is going to wake Digger up — if Sweetgrass Voice could eat the shadows of Digger’s party I think It would have done so already (Why leave the Competition if you can remove it?) and Digger will save Shadowchild’s spirit from Sweetgrass Voice. Hegi got “tired” because he was fighting Sweetgrass Voice Itself. I think Digger is NOT supposed to kill He-Is at all. And Digger’s deep sense of morality is the whole reason that Ganesh brought her to this land in the first place: Shadowchild will eat the shadow of the pain and madness He-is is enduring. And Shadowchild has to be a GOOD spirit not to be destroyed in the process.
Poor Shadowchild… head is gonna go BOOM!
One can only hope Shadowchild will wake Digger up first, to get a second opinion. And secondly, I suspect Shadowchild is actually stronger than this other demon, she just doesn’t know it yet… Can a baby demon eat another demon’s shadow?
I think the demon is weaker than Shadowchild knows, which is why he/she hasn’t already eaten everyone’s shadow.
Oh god, that’s brilliant.
The way to beat Digger’s conditioning of Shadowchild is so obvious. Just do what Shadowchild was doing from the start: Ask “Why?” to everything.
Aces.
(Even if Sweetgrass were weak enough that Shadowchild could hurt it, it’s also stretched out from the site where it is bound, and could snappily retreat there should it feel threatened.)
Wake up, Digger!
Um. I just want to say that I love Sweetgrass’ midget tyrannosaurus arms. They make me happy.
My favorite line… “She *SAID*!” Reminds me of being 6…. “I can’t take/touch/do that! The lady *said*!”
And thinking of that reminds me of the first time I surprised some kids playing in my backyard, and them running away, crying “The lady! The lady!” Oh, it was a black day, the day that I became “the lady”…. 🙂 .
That poor kid. I just want to slap that demon silly for being so…. evil.
Go go go Shadowchild! Stay good!
Things were so much easier when he just wanted to be a bird. 😛
Next page: THE END
Guilt doesn’t have to last forever for the ex-villian that I know of…
The plot is definately thickening! I’m glad I got to read the last few pages in a glut, since I was in Pittsburgh while they came out. Now, I’m stuck at the current date and I have to wait to see what Shadowchild will do: the torment!
Was great to see you, Ursula! It more than made up for missing Digger for a week and a half. 🙂
poor shadowchild! its consternation is so adorable!!
Hopefully Sweetgrass doesn’t know to pull the “But didn’t *she* eat something that could talk?” ::crosses fingers::
C’mon, Eve! Take a bite out of the tree of knowledge of good and evil!
Actually, I think Sweetgrass Voice is a little rusty at this whole “temptation” thing… that, or just in a hurry. It’s usually easier to take small steps than to jump right to “EAT YOUR FRIENDS.”
Stupid Thursday.
Man, this is interesting. It has about as many reasons to go with Digger’s rules as this new guy’s, only she got to it first. Pure naiviety is awesome.
Shadowchild moral meltdown in 3… 2… 1…
Sweetgrass Voice is possibly going to break Shadowchild, but not in the way it expects to, I don’t think… >:P
does….
not….
compute……
Being of a nasty, suspicious mind, I am forced to wonder if Sweetgrass intends to eat Shadowchild. I conjecture, as Shadowchild found very old, tasty shadows to eat, there in the same building as Sweetgrass, that Sweetgrass is bound in some fashion, And I suspect those bindings protect everyone else now in the building … except Shadowchild.
It looks like poor Shadowchild is getting her first migraine.
.
To fatuncle: I was reading through the comments to see if anyone else had come to the same horrible idea I had, and I almost thought not until I read yours. You went to exactly the place I did… and I hope it won’t come to pass, especially as I fear that then Sweetgrass could perhaps pose as Shadowchild… not very well, mind you, but perhaps just long enough to draw in a delicious snack or two….
I can only wonder if/when a confrontation between Sweetgrass and Digger does occur…how does one fight a shadow? I think perhaps the shadow stuck in Murai’s head may begin to play a bigger part here than just driving her mad. I hope? *crosses fingers for a shadow fight scene*
Shoo, Sweetgrass! Don’t break Shadowchild!
Ohhh! Be good, Shadowchild, be good!
1) i also was wondering if being bound to a dying (if not yet dead) got has weakened sweetgrass voice – since his death is linked to the god’s. but he really need digger & co. gone – he’s surely been around listening, and knows they plan to kill the god for real.
2) do demons converse audibly? they can make themselves heard, clearly, since shadowchild has been chattering away with everyone – but do they also have to speak audibly when they talk to each other? ’cause i wonder if digger isn’t already lying awake, trying to figure if she can take this thing out with a pickax, or whether she needs some dynamite.
Huh. For a demon of corruption and subtle manipulation, Sweetgrass sure is taking the direct approach. I guess all the centuries of imprisonment don´t do much for your patience. 😀
Mouse has a good point. So does fatuncle.
Here’s a real kicker. Digger sleeps pretty hard (even when not exhausted). She’s a vegetarian, not a predator type, and she’s got to be pretty dang tired after all the stuff that’s happened before this.
What if Murai or Grimeyes is awake? They don’t know Shadowchild as well as Digger does…what might THEY be thinking of?
Although if the demons are conversing in a way that is inaudible to mortals…
Poor Shadowchild…
Makes me want to slap Sweetgrass Voice too. Harming children of any kind is just wrong.
Something that just occurred to me too: Digger has no shadows on her!! It’s one of the things Shadowchild said when the two of them first met, isn’t it?
“Man, don’t you know not to mess with a sleeping wombat?” 😉
Shadowchild needs a HUG!!!
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt
Tut. Like you really would do it. Anyone that DOESN’T see what’s coming next gets what they deserve, and I’d lay it out explicitly if this post-method had spoiler tags.
mouse: for killing a shadow, powdered magnesium would be a better choice than dynamite.
Wow. This is truly the biggest conflict he has ever experienced…
Seems to me the other demon is stretched out so far it’s all it can do to communicate with Shadowchild. I don’t bet it has any sort of power there.
“If I can eat things that can talk, then I can eat YOU!”
“No, you can’t!”
“You mean I’m not allowed… which would be just one more shackle…”
Interesting. I wonder why snake-shadow (Sweetgrass Voice?) can’t ‘eat’ them himself?
@Hawk… Shadowchild didn’t say Digger had no shadows, it said she had no shadows on her heart (i.e., no taint of evil deeds — remember, right before it ate the shadow of the bandit who shot Digger with the crossbow bolt, it said to him “There is a shadow on your heart. You stink of old regrets.” or something to that effect). Then when Digger killed the cold servants, Shadowchild said she had a small shadow on her heart, but it was fading (probably a shadow of the guilt Digger was feeling about having killed someone/thing — although I wonder if she felt more guilty about the vampire squash dying in the fight with the cold servants — after all, the cold servants were stalking her to kill her, the vampire squash had only tried to gnaw on her leg a bit some weeks before).
My $0.02 worth: Even though this Sweetgrass Voice business is all very ominous, I’m optimistic. After all, the slug said that if Shadowchild didn’t accompany Digger & Co., everyone (not just the adventurers) would be “salted and dipped in beer.” I think Shadowchild has a good (and important) role to play.
Not that I don’t feel sorry for the little blighter. 🙁
Come on, Shadowchild! Use that stuff! USE THAT STUFF!
From another perspective for a moment….
What if in Sweetgrass Voice’s mind, it has just “awoken” (and stretched after far too long a sleep) to find a child of its species with its essential knowledge skewed by outside forces? “…they can talk!” “What has that to do with anything?” The confusion evidenced by Sweetgrass Voice seems unfeigned (from what I can tell from a shadow of a demon) and could result in real concern.
A child is learning ridiculous things, and being corrupted by foreign morals! This should not – nay, cannot – stand; the child must be taught what it means to be a true demon. How else will our race keep from chaos and oblivion?
Think of the children! The dark, amorphous children!
Light and laughter,
SongCoyote
Arg… forgot to close my italics tag 🙁