Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat

[Róisín]

I think you might be right there.

[wavewright62]

Minna has been keeping the nature of the Rash illness pretty close to her chest - she may have more surprises in store for us as the story unfolds.
<totallyblueskyspeculation>We may be seeing something different.  We have seen:
-- grosslings who lose themselves in both physical and dream space, scattering mind and body with random malice regardless of the danger to themselves,
-- trolls who maintain the ability to focus their malice and communication toward those who can comprehend the dreamspace,
-- immune humans who are unaffected on either plane,
-- immune and non-immune mages both with the ability to traipse around the dreamspace,
-- trolls who have kept the ability to vocally communicate with ordinary humans (notoros), and
-- at least one troll who was able to stay coherent enough in her mind to keep the semblence of her (very likely mage) personality intact despite her body's affliction. 

We may now be seeing a person with her body unaffected by the affliction, though her magical mind is.  Her grip on this plane comes and goes, mimicking the effects of dementia; she may have developed the malice toward uninfected humans that we see in many trolls.   Her body may not even be infectious according to the 'known' vectors of infection, but she may be able to spread the spiritual side.  </totallyblueskyspeculation>
(Now that I've written that, it will totally NOT come to pass.  Relieved?)

What's in the bundle?  Her mother Helmi's best cooking gear, rescued from Mikkeli?  Probably not.

[Oripoke]

Don't forget: spirits are a thing in this world, too. Although on that page both Lalli and Reynir were in agreement that the Omen (in this case) couldn't harm them, that doesn't rule out the possibility that there are other beings besides the Rash-infected that might wish ill on humanity.

Also, according to the man tending the graveyard, it was not a troll attack that destroyed Lalli's home village -- which makes me think it was something else altogether.

Either way... Hilja's practicing some black magic, definitely.

[yung_chrysanthemum]

the suspense in these last few pages is killing me -- something big is obviously about to go down. what was in hilja's bundle?!

i forget if the comic has talked about kades anywhere other than that 1 info page where they are briefly referenced. but it seems fairly likely that we're about to see one first-hand. (and i like that theory about a kade potentially being somebody whose mind is infected in dreamspace, while their body is still intact)

[wavewright62]

Repeated from the Disqus comments (because I like the sound of my own voice):
I find myself wondering about Onni & Lalli & Tuuri referring to Grandma's 'one mistake.' I don't think any of them, as kids, would come up with a singular action to peg as her mistake (unless maybe she gives an overly-powerful Power Blast in the fight?). That sort of hindsight is normally the realm of adults, and Tuuri and Lalli are only barely that - their usage of the term seems more long-standing and understood.
Which adult would pin a mistake on Ensi? Ensi herself, I reckon, and I doubt she would tell the young'uns that while she was trying to hunt them down. Sounds like a deathbed comment to me, after the confrontation is over. So (with impeccable logic which will likely be jossed first thing Monday morning) Ensi cannot be our implacable Hotakainen-hunting It.  It looks like Hilja's being set up for it.

[thorny]

Lalli very likely at some point between the disaster and that conversation had told Onni about Lalli's having reported something wrong with the bag and Ensi allowing herself to be hypnotized, or whatever, into letting it go. I still think that might have been the mistake referenced; and Onni might just know about it because Lalli told him.

[yung_chrysanthemum]

something i'm not seeing in the disqus discussion on the latest page -- what on earth is in those jars on the first panel???

[Grade E cat]

Both honey and jam seem plausible to me.

Otherwise, something tells me Lalli isn't going to join his cousins to escape quite yet. If only because he has yet to acquire Ensi's rifle.

[midwestmutt]

The jars could also be pickled vegetables and potted meats.

[Róisín]

Many farming communities use up the last of last year’s stored supplies at or around the harvest feast, in part to use things up before they go off in storage, also for celebration and thanksgiving and to free up the storage containers, Fowler jars or equivalent for preserving this year’s produce. Same tended to be done with granaries, using up the last of the old grain in fancy breads and cakes, plus physically and ritually cleansing the granaries before filling them again with the new harvest.

[Vulpes]

[...] something tells me Lalli isn't going to join his cousins to escape quite yet. If only because he has yet to acquire Ensi's rifle.

Oh... good point! Also if we're to find out what happened via this dream, I think he has to have seen it... maybe...?

[yung_chrysanthemum]

i was under the impression that the jars were in hilja's home (so i was thinking it might be like... water from a troll nest) but now that i read through the last few comics again, i realize that i'm probably wrong. thank you all for the explanation :>

[Solokov]

That way of saying "we have a problem" so subtly with the suggestion of a "yearly weapons inspection".... magnificent.

[thorny]

This would have been nasty even if it had come out as they're probably expecting at this point.

Hilja's their friend, of many years. Her daughter's sitting at the festival tables waiting for them to bring her down to join the party -- the use of code words was probably so as not to alert the daughter. And 'you all know the protocol' -- and there are the rifles. We all know what the protocol has to be.

 -- I don't know that I'd put too much into Lalli having to get Ensi's rifle. He may get it at some point during the incident, of course, either directly from Ensi or by picking it up on the battlefield; but remember the cemetery? Somebody came along after this was all over and buried the bodies. Whoever did that very likely also salvaged anything as important as rifles; and even if the burial group didn't include Lalli, they might have given it to him later; he's the obvious heir, and as even a half-trained scout has a use for it.

[Grade E cat]

Interesting scenario, but I have a few doubts about the likeliness of the chain of events of: finding the rifle > probably putting it through decon > figuring out if it belonged to anyone (my Ensi headcanons kind of work against her being nearby, or recognizable, if the rifle gets found after the fact) > finding if anyone entitled to it is among the survivors of whatever happened > tracking down Lalli for the sole purpose of getting it back to him.
On one hand, it looks like too much trouble to do do, at least fairly fast and right after a disaster that likely put a spotlight on a protocol problem. On the other, the earliest point at which Lalli is seen with the rifle is eleven years after the fact (no sign of it in the 84 flashback), so it could have taken months to years for him to get it back, and we wouldn't know.