Sb: Hidden Years #15
Fm: Angel Robinson [72102,2165]
To: Richard Pini [72077,12]
(via CompuServe)
Come on, you have tortured us before, be honest and just admit to storytelling sadism, OK?
Actually, though, much as it hurts, the dichotomy between the two groups is just about right - even to Ember taking Leetah with her - but it is painful to behold. I cannot help but feel that the coming war with the humans will result in someone's death - and even Aroree, Skot and Krim are a part of us now. In the final picture of HY15, in the main story that is, the one who it hurts to see is Moonshade - there is terrific pain on her face..... The artwork of the McKinney/Taillefer team is beautiful, fully worthy of being successor to the artwork that caught us all in the first place - large and wondrous laurels to them! I do hope that you will eventually reunite the tribes, if for no other reason than that they are both too small to be genetically viable, in the long run. And because, as a human who underwent what anyone involved in it would tell you was indeed recognition, and is now a human constantly separated from her lifemate, to see these bonds strained cuts to my heart. Always you have given me wisdom in the books, and struck close to home, but this one, is perhaps a little too close.....
Two points about this issue, in my eyes, one a complaint, one another of those bits of wisdom.....
On the first page of the poem, I guess it is Skywise states "there's an angel protecting me" and I take minor exception to that word usage. The elves have never evinced any concept of "Angels" as that would need a concept similar to heaven, which they certainly don't have. They know precisely what happens to the spirit when it is freed of the body, and they do feel that these spirits look over them. So, the term Spirit should have been used, as Nightfall used it in KoBW, issue 6(?), I think, when she said the spirits surrounded her with love.
And the bit of wisdom? Our best friend here has recently had a nervous breakdown, attempted suicide twice, spent about 8 days in hospital. My husband was out of town during all this, and came home to find me a mess, over Larry's problems. Needless to say, the friendship got a little damaged in the process, because I had no idea why Larry was behaving in the way he was, among other reasons. Recently, the day I bought HY 15, Larry was at my house and he was talking about hoping that our friendship (all three of us) would survive, and recover... especially in light of how much he was changing. I picked up the book, and showed him Timmain's sending "Change is growth - Love is never lost".
He cried.
Shade and Sweet Water, Starhawk
Actually, it's not at all that Skywise is say- ing "there's an angel protecting me." He's simply doing and feeling what he's doing and feeling, and the words to the song (a contemporary Earth song) minor that wonderfully in contemporary Earth terms. Now and again the juxtaposition of ELFQUEST and the here-and-now can be a powerful thing, but that doesn't mean that an actual crossover has taken place. - RP
I knew that elves would die in Shards. I
wondered who. I felt Pike and the Go-Backs were the
most expendable (may they forgive me!). I hope the
separation of Strongbow and Moonshade wasn't meant
as foreshadowing. I prayed no one would be so cruel
as to make either Treestump or Clearbrook suffer the
same loss twice. I felt tired of Rayek ex machina, so
I hoped he'd at least get hurt.
Well, since I read the latest issue of ADVANCE COMICS I now know at least one of the elves who is slated to die. Here's to Spoiler Warnings.
Some comments: I'm glad the palace was destroyed. I thought the series would become nothing but the elves using the palace to visit other places/eras. Too much like Count Duckula, or Professor Peabody and the Way-Back Machine.
Was McKinney's depiction of the "airless dungpile" on page 26 or HIDDEN YEARS #15 inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's painting of hell? I'm thinking about the dark, factory-like buildings in the background, behind the hollow giant supporting his front legs in rowboats.
Diana Anderson
<<street address removed from archive>>
Ember said, "Elf spirits go to the Palace of
the High Ones." Now that the Palace is gone, where
are they?
Meghan Mogel
<<street address removed from archive>>
The Palace isn't gone, it's just in pieces, so the spirits are still there. They're just all broken up about it. - RP
From: KYLEEN@delphi.com
Subj: How could you?
(via Delphi)
I am going to hold you personally responsible for breaking up Cutter's family for the second time. I had figured that Mender would be the one to go with Ember. All of the stuff I saw, said she was going to have all "Wolfriders." And then what do you go and do? ::tap, tap, tap::
After last issue where he asks Skywise to stay with Ember, I figured that Cutter would at least have Leetah. <<grumble>> I could see him asking Skywise. That made sense to me. Puckernuts. The part I hate most is that Leetah going makes sense too. That way Ember has her mother - and wise and generous elf lady - to help counsel her. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.
I am looking forward to the return of Two-Edge. He is one of my favorite characters. More needs to be done with him. He is so complicated. I like my villain/heroes to have their good and their bad. Besides, the bad guys are always my favorite. If you have no bad guys, there are no really fun stories. I can't wait to see where this leads.
Thank you for Skywise's "poem" in issue
#15 of HIDDEN YEARS. I haven't pined so much since
Pike lost Vaya to the trolls so long ago. But unlike that
parting, at least there's hope of the two tribes of
Wolfriders crossing paths again.
Ember reminds me so much of Skyfire it's uncanny. I think she'll make a great chieftess. And when - if - she and Mender ever Recognize... Look out!!
J.L. Straley
<<street address removed from archive>>
The first time the ELFQUEST story really
touched me was when the Wolfriders had their first
encounter with Guttlekraw's trolls and One-Eye lost
his life. That was the first time a comic ever affected me
in such a strong way, and it wasn't the last time, either!
I just finished reading #15 of HIDDEN YEARS and that
scene with Tyleet and the daughter of her captor, my
god I almost cried! I thought back to when Leetah had
healed that girl, and I couldn't believe that her father
could be so cruel. Well, I guess that's why he's in the
Djun's service. Will we be seeing any more of the
guard's daughter? Will she take up Tyleet's invitation?
Josh Rosenfeld
<<street address removed from archive>>
I just finished reading HIDDEN YEARS #15
and... (hold it, I have to catch my breath) I am shocked,
dazed, befuddled, vexed?
A split for the tribe was inevitable, not to mention necessary for the Wolfriders' survival. But Cutter and Skywise separating once again... I am beginning to think you guys have a mean streak. Keep this up and Cutter might just need therapy.
All kidding aside though, Cutter is right. Ember couldn't have a more trusty, clever advisor. It should be quite interesting to watch the relationship that develops between everybody's favorite would-be astronomer and "the blood of eleven chiefs."
I feel I should point out a rather glaring inconsistency in HY #15. As Wolfrider tradition has it, when a chief assumes leadership of the tribe, a chief's knot is tied in his or her hair. Treestump performed the honor for Cutter when Bearclaw died. One would think that Cutter or perhaps an elder would've done the same for Ember. I am sure there's an explanation for this.
Tom Capie
<<street address removed from archive>>
Well, if there's an explanation, it can't be an inconsistency, right? And it's a very simple explanation, too. Ember isn't chief at the end of HIDDEN YEARS #15. She's going off, in the company of her "support group," to learn the ways of chieftainship. No one at that moment - not even Ember herself - believes she's ready for the chief's lock. - RP
"Ember, Blood of Eleven Chiefs." Nah, it
doesn't really have that ring to it...
Seriously, though, I am drowning in love of what you're doing. HIDDEN YEARS #15 was another crushingly beautiful experience. I'm finally beginning to feel that Tyleet has as much substance as the original characters. And Mender! How can one not love him? He does look like a reject from a California beach party, but for some reason he also makes a wondrously likable elf. His radical personality has been portrayed so well that every aspect of his presence is powerful.
Ember as chieftess - yay! It's one of those things I've always longed to see, but never thought I would. Sigh. Now that the time has finally come, trust me to be at a loss for words.
Tue Sorensen c/o Waage
<<street address removed from archive>>
The human guards in the HIDDEN YEARS series...
Do they wear a sort of stiff leather breastplate
that looks impressive (to intimidate the poor folk) or do
they all have tighter-than-reality armor over their Acme
chests? Sorry to be a pest, but somebody has to do it.
Jerelyn Parker
<<street address removed from archive>>
I'm surrounded by wiseguys. Keep those comments coming in, and see you in 45! - RP