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Quick breakdown of a couple panels! First, here's a pair from page 325...

  

 

Swift from page 326!

 

 My normal process-- sketch then line art, flat colors and working from the background forward.

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Comments

Julian Seguin

Is there a reason Swift is acting so aggressive? I mean, obviously there is. But can you tell us or will you keep us guessing until the New Year?

treefiddy

I don't think she's actually being all that aggressive. In her mind, the concept of small prey species working together is a completely foreign concept. She's really not had any major reason to change that belief or come to a different conclusion. The only time she's actually seen them working together was with Baneberry, and she dismissed that as a trick of light. Lichen, Oren, and Rask were all separate on the trail, and while it's easy for us to come to the conclusion that they were working together, I don't think she made that connection. So when she arrived a the lake and witnessed a marten directly communicating with a hare, her entire world is turned upside down. This situation is so far removed from everything she has ever known or experienced, that she is seriously questioning whether or not this is actually a place for her. Basically, I don't think she has a particularly aggressive tone in the middle panel despite how the words might read at face value, she's just trying to figure out what the hell is going on. As for the last sentence, I think it's more misplaced confidence than anything (she also tends to overestimate her abilities quite a bit). I don't think she actually understands what the metal spears are capable of. Her only direct interactions with it were with Baneberry and Rask, both of whom didn't actually injure her with it. Her pups, despite telling the flying rabbit story, never actually said that the weird stick is what killed Seral. They also never referred to it as a tooth, only as a weird stick. We saw a similar situation with Rask and Yarrow, Rask reffered to it as a tooth where Yarrow called it a weird stick, denoting different levels of knowledge of it's use and capabilities. For all Swift knows, the shiny stick is just something that they wave in your face to distract you (like Baneberry did) while they continue the attack in a more traditional manner. In her mind she's prepared for this and isn't going to be tricked again, so repsonds more aggressively to a direct threat from someone she doesn't yet trust. The question that remains though, is why did the pups refer to it as a weird stick and not a tooth when they very clearly saw it "biting" Seral? I think it's becuase the pups are still too young to have actually hunted prey that require teeth. They haven't learned the concept that teeth are for cutting and killing, so they have no reason to call the metal spear a tooth. Something that has big implications despite seeming so minor at first.

LukeOnTheBrightSide

That's a great writeup, but I just love trying to think about how absolutely *insane* everything is from Swift's perspective. Like, okay, she's dealing with the fact that her family just tried to kill her and her kids. She's leaving everything she knew behind, so the world is already pretty upside down and crashing down on her - before she even begins to think about Rask and friends. If it weren't for the idea that the day *literally* couldn't get worse, she probably wouldn't even bother entertaining whatever the hell... *this* is. And just to start, imagine a world where food doesn't want to be eaten. It's just how it is; you don't talk to the food, the food doesn't talk to you, it's just that things don't like being eaten. Fair enough, right? From Swift's perspective: You turn a corner and a ham sandwich is talking to a slice of cheese. Like, having a full conversation. They're not ever friends. Can cheese even talk? Ham sandwiches EAT cheese. A tomato is nearby, looking nervous, somehow also not worried about its natural sandwich predator. The ham sandwich tells you that the tomato and cheese can and will fight and kill you. You recognize that this is the ham sandwich that tried to kill you with... the ground, earlier. It seemed to spare you? You've never spoken to a ham sandwich before. You've never spoken to ANY of your food, but you've eaten plenty of tomatoes and cheese before. None of them acted anything like this. A burrito runs in carrying eggs, apparently offering them to you. Your kids told you that earlier, they were saved by a bag of potato chips that killed someone and protected them. This is rapidly becoming the least weird part of the day. At least Rask got introduced to something that kind of made sense - prey working together, something he'd naturally encounter with some species he hunted. Swift doesn't get that AT ALL. This is in absolute defiance of the natural order of things. This is someone riding to work on a dinosaur that they feed old cars. This is your best friend introducing you to their new girlfriend, who is just a large soup made from Legos. Swift was smart enough to show herself alone - other wolves probably hidden but close by. If anything, the "show you don't mean harm" is her approaching slowly and obviously visible. But a little bit of, "Yo marten, what the f***?" is pretty understandable. And I'm hoping the next panel puts it in context of "Me, hunting? Uh, it really feels like you're the ones that tried to kill me? But thanks for... not? And for... saving my kids? What the f***, marten, seriously."

Teagan Gavet

"Can cheese even talk?" Your food metaphors here gave me a good laugh. ;] Swift is definitely going through it.