The previous part of our read through was huge, and it was huge because I actually had a lot to say. Fortunately we covered three more pages, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to pick up the pace before plunging headfirst into the slime that’s going to be the Meteor Tribe. Ready? Lets go!
http://home-comic.thecomicseries.com/comics/64/
We open this page with Kargo telling Ferah that he got Roamer back for her, and Ferah, who had been thinking about killing Roamer and freaked out when Kargo released him, is totally cool with it and is not even angry at all. Lets not forget Kargo didn’t tell her anything about basically anything. He didn’t tell her he had released Roamer and he didn’t tell her he planned to bring him back. They are on the run. They’re fugitives being pursued by the Meteor Tribe, or so we have been told as the MT doesn’t seem to give three fucks about them. I think these are the kind of things you should tell your friend before you do them because I’m guessing she might have something to say about it. Of course Ferah isn’t angry, because the characters from this book are divided between lawful good and chaotic evil, there is no middle ground and they’re completely accepting, except for Ronja who is a bitch for telling Roamer the truth.
Ferah then says she won’t be fooled into thinking bringing Roamer was just for her, and she does so with a knowing, sensual pose that is as subtle as a sledgehammer. Ferah has just made it seem as if Kargo’s intention to go get Roamer was because he found him cute and was looking for a sexual partner, which makes that whole whispering in his ear scene way creepier than it was before. Remember, guys, Kargo does not love Roamer. You might feel infatuated, or you might physically like someone but you don’t love someone you’ve just met because love implies knowing the other person. The fact Kargo might have liked Roamer is fine, but when he takes it as far as to stalk him and actually separate him from his pack with the intention of mating with him at some point, that’s very, very creepy. I still don’t know why the author didn’t look for a different way to make things so the relationship bloomed slowly and naturally.
Moving on. Ferah approaches Roamer and sort of hugs him. Roamer is obviously stunned that this mistrusting stranger would just approach him invading his personal sphere. I quiet liked his reaction here because it’s more realistic than most things we’ve seen so far, although I’m unsure if the author actually realizes these characters have only known each other for a very short time. The sad part about this scene is that Ferah reuniting with Roamer deserved several panels, one of which tries to be a touching scene of her hugging him as if he was a long lost friend. Lets remember that reuniting with his family, who were worried sick about him, didn’t deserve a single panel.
“Why did you want me back?”
Good question. They don’t know him. They kept him captive. Why did they want him back?
“(…), of course we would hold onto someone like you.”
A selfish, arrogant, self centered, bastard? Well, each to their own. I wouldn’t want Roamer around even if he was the last person on Earth. Ferah also mentions that they’ve been through a lot, which makes me remember yet again that these two are fugitives. The Meteors are after them. These two have just shown they’re as selfish as Roamer as they have dragged him along, and they haven’t even told him what he was getting into.
“How did your pack react?”
We don’t know. We never really see the pack receiving the news that he was leaving. We only saw three members. Three out of fifteen. His parents don’t count because we never see their reaction either. We only saw them saying good bye, nothing else. Ferah is yet again worried about the Asmundr pack trying to follow them, but she doesn’t seem worried enough to actually argue with Kargo for bringing this stranger who might make his pack go after him. She’s also not worried enough about the Meteor tribe to actually get the fuck out of there and go as far away from them as possible. For rebels on the run they sure are stupid.
“I’m an adult and I was raised well,”
Pffffffhahahahahaha!
“they know not to question my judgment.”
Or else what? Because that’s how it sounds, like a threat. It also shows the arrogant little bastard Roamer is. Just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean you’re infallible or free from being wrong. That’s why us, humans, form tight bonds all our lives with our families, and why the elder, most experienced members of our families can give valuable input about experiences they’ve already gone through. That doesn’t mean forcing their opinions on us, but it is always good to receive a different point of view for us to consider. Right now, Roamer, you sound like a young adult saying that you’re an adult now so you know more than the world. That’s the kind of stupidity I had back when I was 20 and I thought myself smarter than everyone. Now, past my thirties, I’m well aware of how stupid and ignorant I was back then. If this was presented as a flaw it would be fantastic, because it shows how much Roamer has yet to mature and learn. It is not. It is there to tell the readers Roamer knows what he’s doing because he’s smarter than the world itself.
Basically, the reason why the Asmundr pack don’t question his judgment or seem to care at all is because Roamer is a huge Gary Stu, not because he’s ever made a sound choice in his life. He followed Kargo around. He got tied to a rock and later he was stalked by one of his captors, and after all that he still decides to go live with this pair of thugs. How is that a good choice? The other reason why they don’t question his judgment is because the Asmundr pack are totally irrelevant to the story. Only Ronja will have greater protagonism, and after her Jahla and Rovhanion, followed by Keirr who also gets a bit of screen time. The rest are nonexistent, even Roamer’s parents.
“How can you be so sure about us?”
He can’t. He’s an idiot.
“Because you trust me.”
See what I was telling you? He’s an idiot. He continues saying that they let him go despite the risks. There was never any risk for Kargo and Ferah. Keeping you captive or killing you would have been a greater risk, and anyone with half a brain would have known that. They could have spied on the Asmundr pack and they would have quickly seen they were not a threat like the Meteors, but killing Roamer might have actually put them on a path of vengeance. I already pointed out they had dozens of other alternatives to minimize the risk if they were actually so afraid. That whole line was incredibly stupid and served no purpose at all. Roamer getting lost and being nursed back to health by Kargo, and then having them seek out his family is still the best option to bring them all together. All this “I trust you not, now I trust you and I trust you because you trust me.” is so contrived, illogical and stupid. What an awful way of complicating something that is really easy to pull off.
Let us not forget that he got knocked out, tied to a rock, threatened, starved and he knows Ferah has killed in cold blood. He is trusting a murderer who had kept him captive and joked about eating him before threatening to hurt him with a smile on her lips. The fact he got released is no reason at all to trust them. Trust comes from sharing experiences together, not from being hurt and kept captive and then later released. I would accept if Roamer was a bit more open to actually establish communication with them after he got released, but not trust them so openly as to actually go live with them. Trust should have been developed slowly, specially after that. The author had written himself into a corner the moment he made these two so mistrusting and the moment they captured Roamer. Any normal relationship is ruined from that moment on, so to bring them together and not make it seem like he just pulled this out of his ass he needed to give a good explanation. The thing is, the more you complicate the story, the better that explanation will have to be and, in this case, it didn’t work. Like I said, the comic is a huge Idiot Plot where things just happen because characters behave like imbeciles.
http://home-comic.thecomicseries.com/comics/65/
This page is a jewel. I tell you. The first thing we notice is Kargo circling him like a shark, because having a predator circling you is soothing. The fact Ferah mentioned he actually thinks about Roamer in a sexual manner is not making me feel comfortable at all. Roamer might be three years old but he behaves and looks much younger, and Kargo looks like a mature adult man. The same as with Ronja, I’m not comfortable with this romance and the way it is being played out. Maybe if Roamer didn’t have such an obvious teenager personality and Kargo an adult personality, if both were teenagers or adults, and if Kargo didn’t behave like a creepy stalker, I wouldn’t be getting that vibe.
“Snowbutt proved to be stronger than I expected(…)”
Lets have the characters in the story praise our Gary Stu protagonist, because it wasn’t already obvious he was a Gary Stu.
“I am the son of Grayson and Niita who fought in he great battle against the Shield wolves.”
And I am the descendant of a nation of warriors, voyagers and conquerors who fought for their land against the invader and had heroes that inspired their own stories. That does not make me any of those things. Just because you’re the son of two war heroes does not make you a war hero and it does not make you a fighter. Do you know who actually fought in the war? Ronja. The very same Ronja you didn’t let come with you because she would be safer inside the shield. Also, your whole pack made it out of there alive because they were protected by plot armor, and by the fact this author has a really hard time killing off characters. Stop romanticizing war. War is horrible. First line war veterans are plagued by nightmares derived from the horrors they’ve experienced. There is a reason some of the people most affected by post traumatic stress disorder are, precisely, those soldiers that have been to war.
Not only is Roamer appropriating his parents successes, but he’s going so far as to say he knows how to fight when the only situation we’ve seen him in which he had to fight, it was against a 4kg cat, and the stupid idiot had to be rescued by Kargo because he was incapable of fighting back. You’re telling me you know how to fight. I’ve seen you fight, Roamer, and my grandmother would be a better fighter than you, which is sad since she’s crippled by arthritis.
When Roamer so arrogantly claims he knows how to fight, Kargo taunts him by stating he’s not convinced. The two of them share a self sufficient smile and look at each other straight in the eye. Showing their tails high up in this situation would have been a much better effect since, well, these are dogs and that’s a good sign of a dog about to strike in a dick measurement competition, which is what this is. I’m going to rant about about gender roles again, in this case about male gender roles. This author seems to believe women are passive and weak, and he also seems to believe males are aggressive and violent by nature, which I find very, very insulting.
It is true that a baffling 90% of blood crimes are committed by males, and while testosterone might have something to do there where females have natural behavior inhibitors in estrogen (it means we’re more in control of our impulses), you can’t just take a social specie and eliminate the whole nurture out of the process. Research has shown males are not typically more aggressive than females, not in our specie (where we are as prone to aggression as males, only we are socially inhibited from engaging in aggressive activities while males are shown aggression to be masculine and desirable) and not in many other species studied. We, humans, are a result of nature and nurture. Men are not free from social pressure. Men are expected to regard their masculinity as high as possible because that’s the defining trait of success. A man has to be successful at work, successful with women, successful as a father, be dominant and not let and insult pass, be strong and powerful and show an absolute control of every situation. Faced with those pressures those men that might feel inferior are going to try to fight it off. The same as the frightened dog barks and bristles to look large and threatening, it is not the masculine, strong, powerful men the ones with high aggression. It’s the insecure ones who engage in such activities, and the higher the aggression, the more insecure the male is. A secure, sure of himself male has nothing to demonstrate, and specially not to little runts.
So right now Kargo is showing more and more that he’s very insecure, and Roamer is a teenager punching his chest to show the big male he’s also big and strong. Both are a pair of insecure idiots who are about to engage into a fight because they need to measure their dicks. I think the idea of men liking to fight because that’s what men are is offensive to males. The fact that most men actually go about their everyday lives without fighting other males, the fact most solve their issues with dialogue and diplomacy instead of punches, and the fact most males are actually pretty nice, sensitive and can remain cool in tense situations, should be enough proof that albeit testosterone and the culture they’ve grown in, they are naturally not more aggressive than females and they have complete control of their impulses. What the author is portraying here is the typical trope that basically reduces men to mindless beasts who love fighting because men are natural brutes that need to go about hurting things.
I also really dislike the way this author romanticizes fighting, something we will see later on gets even worse with Kargo. I’m the first person who loves martial arts, but a martial art is a tool for defense and a game nowadays. There are rules you have to respect, and when you play you know you might get hurt, which is no different than playing football, but that’s not the idea of the sport. You don’t feel yourself in danger at any moment when you’re fighting. I have a dog who is a bit insecure around people, but when he’s out on the field he feels relaxed and confident, because he knows this is a game and he knows he is not going to get hurt. He knows the rules of the game, which makes it no different than a martial art in a sport context.
This is not sport. Street fighting has no rules. It is dirty, it’s nasty, anything can happen and usually the winner is the one who is the most aggressive and the craziest, the one who seems to lack any sort of self preservation instinct and scores the most hits while the other tries to defend himself. Basically, the survivor of a street fight is the mindless beast that behaves like a monster with no control of his or her impulses and that reacts exaggeratedly to situations. That’s not masculine. That’s not cool. When you’re on the receiving end that’s terrifying, and people have actually died in street fights, something that the author seems to forget. Fighting exists to cause harm, and people like Kargo and now Roamer who snap into aggression and go for the kill the moment they’re startled are terrifying. To say that masculine men love fighting because that’s so masculine, when so many people have been injured or even killed by “masculine men” showing how masculine they were, that’s insulting to all men. That’s telling reasonable, in control, sensible men that they are not masculine enough because they’re not aggressive.
In my field of work as a dog trainer we praise dogs who are in control of their impulses. A peaceful dog that will not actively seek a fight, not react exaggeratedly to impulses and that will know how to respond appropriately to another dog’s aggression by always trying to avoid the fight and resorting to defensive aggression as they very last resort, is considered to be an emotionally stable dog. To manage this we try to socialize dogs, to teach them how to behave appropriately in social contexts. A non aggressive dog is desirable because it means having a reliable animal around that won’t snap or harm others at the smallest provocation. Yet when it comes to humans some people believe that these traits, being in control of emotions, avoiding fights, looking for a diplomatic solution and using fighting as the very last resort and only for real potentially harmful threats, are the signs of a weak man. The signs of a masculine man is being aggressive, impulsive, being out of control of their emotions and reacting by hurting things at the least provocation or smallest threat.
Also, by emotions let me add I’m talking about rage and anger. Men are allowed to express rage and anger because that makes them strong and masculine, but they are forbidden from showing grief or sadness because that’s feminine and it makes them weak. So culturally men shouldn’t show grief but it’s cool for them to show rage and anger. We really should revise how we’re educating our children.
It makes sense to want a dog around that makes you feel safe, and to want to be around 80kg or more hominids that make you feel uneasy, that forces you to walk on your tiptoes to avoid provoking him because otherwise his response could harm you, because that’s how people who live with aggressive men have to behave, be it their partners or their own children. They live in constant fear of triggering them and that ultimately shapes their personality to avoid precisely that. They become submissive, complacent and silent, in many cases entering a state of learned helplessness because it doesn’t matter what you do, there is always something that will trigger him (or her) and they will focus their rage towards that which is closest to them, which is usually family. The people around them, their family, their children and partners are never free to express themselves, they are never free to do what they want because if that person doesn’t like something they won’t have a sensible, peaceful talk about it. They respond going from zero to a hundred in a second, not even giving you the chance to answer, and if you so much as try to face them their response might be even worse. This is what living with a “masculine man” like Kargo is. This is what the desirable traits of masculinity like aggression and dominance do to the innocents around them.
On a final note about this topic, I want to add that I am aware high aggression can be caused by trauma, stress, fear or other factors. However, I wanted to focus on competitive aggression and the idea the author has that fighting is masculine and cool and why I reject that idea of what I consider toxic masculinity.
Ferah seems to be ten times more sensible than these two assholes put together and intervenes by telling Roamer she wants to know about this fight and that Kargo has to go tend the hare they caught. Kargo shows again that expression about being out of fucks to give, and rather annoyed he retreats so we never get to see them fight. Before I go onto the next thing I want to talk about I want to make a quick mention about Kargo’s eagerness to fight. Kargo has been brutally abused by his tribe. I would assume he viewed fighting as a means to an end, as a weapon, not as something to actually enjoy. I already said there is a difference between fighting as a game and real fighting. Kargo has not done game fighting. All he knows is the real deal, and the real deal is not the sport. I’m at a loss of why he would consider “fun” something he has had to use in the past to take lives, or why he would want to use it against someone he hypothetically cares about.
“I don’t want him to cause more wounds to your head.”
While being hurt in a contact sport or martial art can happen and does happen, the point is not getting hurt, but displaying ones’ skills in a situation with strict rules. If there is a real risk that Kargo’s sparring can end in injury for the other person, that dog is really fucked up. I yet don’t get how Roamer has been attacked by this dog and yet would want to fight him. I also don’t get how, after knowing Ferah is a cold blooded murderer and Kargo can injure a dog during a friendly fight, he’s not running in the opposite direction and back to his pack. I would have never gone back, but after that I would have gotten the fuck out of there. I don’t know what the author was thinking when he wrote this but being harmed by your friend or lover is not endearing, or funny. It seems like he was going for that, for a funny joke about how Kargo is such a strong and manly man he can hurt Roamer. I’m sure all those victims (male or female) from abusive couples that still have the scars on their skins must be cracking right now.
Roamer asks if they’re a couple, which I admit is a reasonable question to ask, and Ferah answers jokingly that she can barely stand him as a friend. I’m guessing that’s a joke, although I would not be able to stand Kargo myself.
We jump to a different scene, one where we see Ronja on top of a rock, and I know she’s crying because the next panel shows her tears, but she’s suffering yet again from expressionless face. This is supposed to be a strong, emotional scene, where she’s mourning loosing the man she loves, but it just comes out as flat because I can’t really appreciate any emotion there. I’m also bothered by the fact Ronja is defined by Roamer’s existence. Everything she does, the way she behaves every time she’s on screen, is defined by Roamer. Remove Roamer from the comic, as if he never existed. Suddenly Ronja doesn’t make any sense in any of the scenes we’ve seen her. This will not be like that all the time, but for most of the comic this character’s existence will be defined by the males around her.
The last panel shows our favorite comical villain, Ranach, who just happens to be walking around and hasn’t noticed the dog that’s a few meters away from him. Honestly, these dogs are so blind, deaf and have such an impaired sense of smell I still don’t know how the ghouls haven’t wiped them out.
http://home-comic.thecomicseries.com/comics/66/
Lets recap Ronja. Ronja was born to rape and abuse. Her mother perished shortly after Kainan had dealt with Rhaas pack. She fought against the shield wolves. She knows nothing about this world. She saw Ferah kill another dog in cold blood. What does she do when she sees a stranger strolling by?
You guessed it. She jumps down the rock where she was mourning and goes meet Ranach. When I say these characters are stupid, I really, really mean it. I’m not going to say we get the plot moving through their stupidity because we don’t have a plot, but things happen throughout the comic because nobody is capable of getting two neurons to make contact. I don’t know what’s wrong with these people, but they’re so trusting it’s starting to get ridiculous. You can’t just tell me it’s because Earth dogs are so much better than the corrupted natives from Aedra because there were some fucked up dogs in Asmundr and we will see normal people in Aedra later on. Ronja is simply acting like this because, like every other character, she’s an idiot and this was plot convenient. That’s it. I know she’s been eager to meet other dogs for whatever reason, since I still don’t get her obsession, but that doesn’t mean being a total idiot and actually intercepting a stranger when you’re by yourself and nobody knows you’re there.
Both dogs look at each other and Ronja is so inexpressive I’m really not sure what I’m supposed to be feeling here. The fact that I already know Ranach is evil isn’t helping this scene, which I’m finding mostly dull. They share a rather polite greeting and then Ranach starts circling Ronja like a shark. Hey, do you guys remember who else did this? You guessed it; Kargo, the good guy. Actually, throughout the comic we will find more pararelisms between both characters that will be addressed when they appear. For now lets concentrate on Ranach Jaws while he looks at Ronja as if she was a particularly good looking cake. Ronja is intimidated by the way he’s looking at her, and while I think that’s reasonable, I would like if women weren’t always portrayed as frightened and timid does that go into submission the moment a man so much as lays their eyes on them.
It turns out Ranach is curious about her breed, which he has never seen before because apparently the Skygods favor Jaros and Rifles leaving the short haired Gazal hounds to rot on Earth. The only other Gazals are Ronja’s aunt, Raela and his cousin Keirr, who despite being half Rifle looks like a perfectly good Gazal, which is no different from Ronja to be honest. I know writers don’t need to have genetic knowledge to write, but this is a perfect example of a Patchwork Kid trope. There is such a thing as dominant and recessive alleles and, considering Ralea is piebald which is a recessive trait as well as long hair, Keirr being totally white and Rovhanion looking like a clone of his father is impossible. Things get a lot more complicated if we talk about gene expression and how traits, like ears, are linked to several genes, but I think we all know that mixing two different purebreds together does not give you purebreds. It gives you mutts.
Ranach asks Ronja if she’s alone, to which she responds that she isn’t since her pack territory is nearby. Good, Ronja, why don’t you and Roamer go hang some neon signs pointing at pack territory and giving all info of interest for potential invaders? Gosh, how can these people be so stupid? I also would like to know what is going on in this panel. Why is Ranach looking away from her and looking at the ground as if he was a dog signaling to a specially proactive dog that he didn’t want to interact? Because that’s what that means in dog language. In this case Ranach would be telling Ronja he considered her too nervous or intense for his liking, and he wished to be left alone, which considering Ronja is pretty much just standing there it doesn’t make any sense. Even in human language this is a sign of disinterest. These two are supposed to be interacting and yet Ronja is like three or four meters away while Ranach looks in another direction. These two are supposed to be talking, interacting, and yet they look like two completely separate characters just plastered on that background.
“I see..”
Evil smile is evil. I’m really bothered by how much we’re beaten over the head about how Ranach is evil. It completely breaks any surprise. In this case I’m going to cite Dragon Age 2 as an example, and be ready for spoilers because this is about the ending of the game. Throughout the game you meet Anders, who is a mage that originally appeared in Dragon Age Awakening, an expansion for Dragon Age; Origins. Anders tells you that he’s merged with a spirit of justice called, well, Justice, a character that also appeared in Awakening. He says he wants to free the spirit as it has turned into a spirit for vengeance and, for that, he asks for your help. During those missions there are a few subtle hints that maybe he’s not being as sincere as you think and, by the end, the Chantry blows up killing the Grand Cleric. When that happened I, the player, looked at Anders mouth gaping and a single thought crossed my mind; “what have you done?”.
Throughout the game the tension between the templars and the mages had been getting worse and worse, and that was the last straw. War broke out as a consequence to that. What is interesting is to see how Anders, at least in my game, managed to betray my protagonist without me realizing it. To be honest he’s more of a gray than a truly evil character, but it was still a surprise that he would do this when he knew I was fighting to maintain the peace in Kirkwall. I think this is a good example because it shows how much more interesting Ranach and the whole Ranach plotline would have been if he had not been shown as such an obviously evil character.
http://home-comic.thecomicseries.com/comics/67/
I know this entry is turning out rather long as well but I don’t want to just stop in the middle of a scene. There is not that much content to be analyzed so lets just push forward for two more pages before we stop. Ranach and Ronja introduce each other. Ronja is looking sideways which is usually a sign that a dog is anxious or worried. I don’t know if this was the author’s intention, and I’m not even sure what Ronja is supposed to be feeling since her ears are forward which is not the sign of a worried dog. Mostly she looks distracted or even bored, which I truly don’t think was the authors original idea.
Ranach then plays the Casanova by telling Ronja that it is a rare name for a rare beauty. If Ranach had not been already established as an evil character this would have been nice. It is ambiguous enough that it’s not really obvious whether the guy is a manipulating bastard or a womanizer. However, since we know he’s evil, all this sweet talk is there only to manipulate Ronja. What is funny is that Ronja, who was just crying about Roamer leaving, promptly forgets about him. It’s awesome that these people just forget about their loved ones as soon as a pretty face appear.
Ronja points out at the two yellow comets painted on Ranach’s shoulder and tells him that she has seen it before. Ranach responds with a bit of information about the tribe, which while unnecessary, since we’re already aware that these dogs are marked with yellow paint, I think it was a decent exposition and the response made sense in the context of the conversation. I do not like the panel, however. I know the author was trying to make the two yellow marks the main focus, but they’re not truly centered making them not that central at all, and the way the two characters are partially cut off contributes to make it even worse. It looks like a bad photograph which was shot before the photographer could get a clear focus and angle.
Ranach is obviously intrigued by how Ronja knows about the yellow markings and she tells him about Ferah killing a member of his pack. It doesn’t take him long to guess it was likely Ferah the one who did it, and also informs Ronja about them being dangerous. We discover they were former members of the Meteor Tribe who rebelled and caused a lot of bloodshed. I don’t know why Ranach is just leaving while he talks, which is another interaction issue in two consecutive pages. The way I would have done this is focusing on his face and trying to make him show an expression of contained anger. Ranach is not lying here. He is being completely sincere about Kargo and Ferah being dangerous and about them causing unnecessary bloodshed. It is actually a decent conversation and it doesn’t seem to come out of the blue like the one Ronja had with Roamer. The two yellow paintings are clearly visible on his shoulder so I think it’s natural for Ronja to mention them, considering she had seen them before.
http://home-comic.thecomicseries.com/comics/68/
Someone calls Ronja from afar. I’ve got two problems with this. Yet again a sound effect or maybe a star shaped bubble with words a bit larger and bolded would have helped to give us the sensation that it was a yell. When you call someone who is far away you don’t just say it exclaiming. You yell to make your voice louder and clearer, specially if you don’t know where this person is or you can’t see them. By making it larger the yelling effect would have been more evident. However, the logical option would have been howling. Wolves recognize the howl of a pack mate the same way we recognize the voice of someone we know. Haven’t you seen actors that, the moment they spoke you knew you had heard that voice in a cartoon or a videogame? This is the same with wolves, and I see no reason why dogs wouldn’t do it. It bothers me that sometimes they switch to howling and others the switch to saying the name. It is very inconsistent.
Ronja says she has to go and Ranach says he has to inform his leader, adding that the two killers shall be found soon. I don’t know why he’s so sure he will find them soon, considering Ronja hasn’t told him anything. The only thing she’s told him is she had seen one of them killing a dog from the Meteor Tribe. She never said where, when or in which direction Ferah had left. Just knowing Ferah had killed one of them is useless information if he doesn’t even know where to start the search.
“One of ours is with them, he thought they could be trusted.”
I’m not sure how I feel about this. I can understand Ronja is worried sick about Roamer, and thinks the Meteor dogs will pounce of the rebels fangs out and kill anyone on sight, and also that Roamer might try to protect Ferah and Kargo getting killed in the process. The Meteor can’t possibly know Roamer is part of Asmundr pack. Not like the would give three shits, but still. I think Ronja is being very trusting and very naive, which is ok character wise, but I can also understand that she’s trying to protect her friend.
“Don’t you worry, my tribe will take care of it. It’s best if you don’t tell your pack, this isn’t their fight.”
That was actually good. Ranach is acting serious and his words make a lot of sense. I’m not saying this is what Ronja should do, but I can understand Ranach not wanting the Asmundr pack to get involved and wording it in a way it would make sense to Ronja. Telling them that this is not their fight is also a stratagem to get Ronja to trust him because he’s showing concern for the pack. These two are dangerous killers and they have Roamer as a hostage. Maybe getting involved might not be a good idea. If we hadn’t had the ridiculously evil Ranach at the beginning of this chapter these two pages would have been a fantastic introduction of our villain. He seems friendly enough that we could actually feel relaxed around him, and he brings some interesting information that, out of context, would have made us wonder whether Roamer had gotten himself in a problem. It wouldn’t be good guys vs bad guys, but two groups with confronting views; the rebels and the tribe, chaos and order. While I still long for my survival horror adventure and I care very little about dogs vs dogs, this is what we have and there were better ways to do it.
While I already pointed out Ranach was being logical in his words, I do not think that’s what Ronja should do. I think she should run to Kainan and tell him what she had learned from this stranger. Roamer could be in danger in this very moment, or he could get caught in the crossfire between the rebels and the Meteor dogs. As much as I would love to see her do an Ellen Ripley and head out to find Roamer, this would be impulsive and stupid, and would likely get her killed. They need to make a plan, get ready, get their weapons honed and go as a pack to talk with the rebels and see what the fuck is going on. If the rebels are really that dangerous they wouldn’t have any problem to take them on because they’re fifteen hardened warriors vs two abused dogs. If they’re actually good people they wouldn’t have any problem telling them the whole truth, and they would have a group of 15 dogs who are seasoned fighters as allies.
Obviously this is not what we get because then we wouldn’t have the plot that is yet to come. Ronja is, once again, an example of plot convenient stupidity. She was angry that Roamer was leaving because she was in love with him, but the moment someone calls her “pretty” she forgets about Roamer and is not worried sick that he’s in the company of confirmed dangerous murderers. She cares so little about him she doesn’t even inform the pack about what she has learned. Before departing, Ranach wants to know if they can meet again and Ronja tells him she’ll be there in the morning. I’m astounded by how quickly these people forget they have friends and family. Roamer is lost somewhere with a pair of killers and Ronja is all smiles about meeting Ranach again.
Ranach leaves and he has yet again this evil expression on his face, which is completely unnecessary. Yes, he managed to make Ronja trust him, which isn’t that big of a success considering these people are natural born idiots. Now he’ll be able to get valuable info about the Asmundr pack. I really don’t need to be told yet again that he’s evil. I got it the first three hundred times, thank you. I would also like to know why Ronja is just standing there instead of running towards her group. As a panel it looks really odd but hey, at least Ranach looks more natural while he runs and not as stiff as other running dogs I’ve seen throughout the comic.
Overall, and ignoring the whole stupidity of Ronja intercepting a stranger by herself, which makes her as stupid as Roamer, this is way more realistic and natural than what Roamer and Kargo have, and that’s sad because we know this bastard is manipulating Ronja. They actually had a nice, fluid conversation, with Ranach telling her stuff about his tribe and Ronja doing the same about her pack. She told him about what she had seen and, in exchange, he told her about the rebels. The conversation flowed naturally and in the end I can truly believe if she thought he was actually a nice guy and wanted to know more about him. In three pages these two have bonded way more than Kargo and Roamer in all the pages they spent together. Their relationship looks more believable so far than our protagonists’ relationship, even when it is as rushed as everything else going on in this comic.
To finish this page we see two long panels showing the night landscape. There is a creature walking over something that looks like a lake which I’m guessing is frozen, although it is not very clear. I can see that the moon is out, not full but large enough, and not many trees, so the ghouls are not afraid of the moonlight and they seem to have no problem coming out of the trees. Suddenly, something that looks like a tree stump turns its head to look at us and we see a pair of glowing yellow eyes, the eyes of a ghoul. This was creepy. The atmosphere is so well done. Sadly, this is also completely useless since, from now on, the ghouls with be totally irrelevant for the rest of the story up until page 286, which is what has been posted so far. This scene was the ghouls saying goodbye from the story since we’ve already got a new plotline running; Ronja and Ranach. The most interesting element of the story gets pushed aside in favor of Rhaas’ pack 2.0, and all because this story can’t keep its focus on one place and actually develop it.
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