Comic for January 17th, 2019: Between a Rock and a Lizard Place

[CrRAR]

I hate to say it, but it's a beautiful page... in spite of the developments. Dat physicality~

Maddie, nuuuu! Holy crap does someone have a black-belt in yoga-fu. Like, seriously that kick a footish higher and we'd be looking at... um... we wouldn't be looking at much. >':

At this point, the best scenario is Zen gets a bunkmate in the infirmary. At least a little company might lighten up the mood for the guy. Now we just need a slip and fall in the Spacube™ and we'll have a patient peanut-gallery to turn to for comic relief.

I do wonder what Keith's comments will be on this... as ambassador it may be a cardinal sin should a member of royalty die under his watch. A saving grace might be her sneaking-exit. Still, King's gonna be piiiiiiisssssed.

Plz be okay, plz be okay, plzbeokay

[IHeartMaeve]

While I’m honestly quite concerned for Maddie’s well-being after seeing this incident, I do have one question in mind that has almost nothing to do with this page.

When’s Maeve showing up? It was more or less confirmed that she’d come back in this chapter, but it seems that Karen and Maddie have pretty much gotten past the animosity they were shown to have on the chapter title page, where our favorite adorable snow leopard would allegedly show up before that point. Tom, if you see this reply at any point, just know that you’ve got some explaining to do!

Sorry if I sounded impatient. I guess that’s just what you get when you’re a sucker for adorable characters.

[Candycat]

Wow, some real action with actual physical consequences! But I'm sure she'll be fine. Don't forget that the captured wolf Templar violently faceplanted into the ground from a high wall after being slammed with a dragon hand. Wasn't there a small dirt crater? And he didn't seem to suffer any lasting injury. Reni just kinda stuffed him into her bag.That powerful blow Maddie just got from the statue seems comparable to the one Reni dished out. Realistically, that wolf should have been pretty messed up. I guess that plot armor has run out for Maddie.

That said, yeah, she'll be fine. The ramifications of her becoming fatally wounded, especially dead, would be huge. The Basitin king would definitely take some action. Not to mention how it would affect the whole group. And the fans On the bright side, this looks like a great opportunity for character development.

Also, the situation is looking pretty grim, but anthro lizard statue/golem is looking really nice. Wow.
Maybe we'll see living versions of what he's based off? Assuming Trace didn't just anthropomorphize a dragon as a two legged golem?

[Warrl]

At this point I'd say Madelyn and Karen are more frenemies than friends - Karen's still her personal-boundary-blind self, and Maddie intended to do some minor mayhem to her. Then this new mystery showed up, and their enmity was overpowered by their curiosity.

But neither ever intended serious harm to the other, and Maddie knows she's a trained warrior and Karen isn't.

Also, the situation is looking pretty grim, but anthro lizard statue/golem is looking really nice.

And he was just there to replace the one burned-out bulb in the rose lamp.

[Eclipse]

i don't think Maddie's actually going to die. In general, it's rare to see an established character get killed off for no reason, there's usually some kind of buildup or character arc leading to it. I think Maddie is just going to get seriously injured. This might be the beginning of a character arc for her in fact, maybe after getting seriously clobbered like this she'll learn to be more careful about where she wanders off to.

[Ddraig]

Nah, she'll be fine, Tom doesn't do character deaths anymore. She might be outta commission for awhile, but anyone thinking this is a death sentence hasn't been reading the comic for the last eight years. My money's on Daddy Lynn coming in to save the day!

Personally, mine's on Trace/Rose crashing open the door and ordering it to stop
I figure the thing has to have a halt/shutdown command of some form, and Rose is the most likely to know it (being entrusted with overseeing the Estate) and Trace is the most likely to have it just obey him no matter what commands it's assigned

[Warrl]

With the amount of magical power Trace has/had on tap, the way I would design things would include that hallway changing directions when an unauthorized intrusion is detected. So going through that door will put them in either the main hall or an adjacent room that Maddie already knew about. Even defeating the statue would not get them into the... um... I'm going to guess it's a laboratory. Whereas an authorized person (Trace, for example) would go through the hall and doorway unmolested and enter the lab.

[trantor]

By the way - the yellow red background in Panel 4 where Maddie was hit by the kick, shows very nice the power of this attack.
We can be happy that maddie survived this and is still conscious. But I think that there is heavy - if not letal damage done to her without fast medical help.

Remember that Zen got a sword through his body/guts and survived to ...........

Yes I remember, that we had already some nearly lethal injuries in the story and they survived. And I think that Maddie will survive this hard attack too. After all we have some mighty magic around. And nobody wants an angry Adelaide
But I hope tom make this a close one, so Maddie will learn from it.

[Hulk10]

I do hope Maddie learns from this.

[aitaituo]

If that blood's coming from where i think it's coming from. I think it's safe to say that Maddie is in very real danger of not making out of this one, unless they get some kind of backup in there ASAP.

The splatter strongly suggests she's coughing blood immediately after getting kicked, which would mean her lungs were lacerated. But basitins are supposed to be unnaturally resilient and strong. If her lung doesn't collapse or fill with blood, there's a pretty high chance of full recovery. Or there would be, if there wasn't a lizard golem about to bash her head in.

[SpottedKitty]

Remember that Zen got a sword through his body/guts and survived to ...........

Perforation (along the dotted line?) supplied by Keith, who'd just been shot by Natani with a poisoned arrow. That might be a better example of Basitin toughness.

[ZeroJinKui]

This is gonna sound pretty bad...but I kinda hope one of them bites it here. Or at least gets injured badly enough that they can't continue on the journey.

It's just, the gravity of the group's situation is increasing as time goes on, but it doesn't always feel like the consequences of things are improving with that. The last time something really permanent thing happened was Zen's leg. And before that it was the Island arc. Which is what, nine years ago?

might wanna be careful... i was warned for hoping for something like that.

apparently hoping for consequences in a somewhat mature fictional story gets you in trouble around here.

anyway, i am glad to see maddie realize she isn't as great as she thought she was, hopefully she learns a serious lesson here, if she survives.

she just always acts so arrogant and as if she knows better than others, let's hope this face-to-face encounter with reality cleared things up for her, at the very least.

[BadJoke]

anyway, i am glad to see maddie realize she isn't as great as she thought she was, hopefully she learns a serious lesson here, if she survives.

she just always acts so arrogant and as if she knows better than others, let's hope this face-to-face encounter with reality cleared things up for her, at the very least.

That's the problem when you decide to over-specialize in infiltration: just one encounter with no stealth option and you're dead.

She'll have to learn to cooperate with her comrades if she wants to be able to handle more risky situations.

[Neptune]

I've been reading the comic for the last 8 years but I never know what Tom is planning. Nor do I presume to know his plans and thus I can't be sure he won't kill off Maddie.

Unless he would have the audacity to Game of Thrones everybody at the end and make the forum, general and the chat all flip their respective [censored], he probably wouldn't. It would be absolutely hilarious to see that tho

[Hulk10]

I've been reading the comic for the last 8 years but I never know what Tom is planning. Nor do I presume to know his plans and thus I can't be sure he won't kill off Maddie.

Unless he would have the audacity to Game of Thrones everybody at the end and make the forum, general and the chat all flip their respective [censored], he probably wouldn't. It would be absolutely hilarious to see that tho

Hmm I suppose it would be interesting to see that sort of thing.