Exposition Condensed
I was expecting that this page would need to be broken up into three posts, as what I had originally referred to as “Exposition Week.” However, as I was working on it and refining the dialogue I found a way to make everything fit. Other pages may continue to be broken up as needed for so long as we are in the bedroom, but this one actually fit. ~STH
Hey, Princess P-cups is pretty damn smart!
If she applied this to her adventures, bad guys would fear her rather than Typhan-Kee.
Not only is Peonie smarter than we might expect, she also has detailed knowledge of church rituals.
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I wonder if Urtica and Theresa plan to complete the wedding, given what is revealed here.
this still needs explain statue girl.
Kind of thought that King a Tess are going to provoke a attack from the bad apples of the church in front of everyone important to the alliance.
That will undermine any support they can get. P-cups doesn’t get enough respect. With all the trouble she has gotten in she has to know a lot.
So the wedding is a sham?
And yay, statue Isabel is back! Seriously though, i hope we get an explanation to the whole being turned to statue thing soon.
Also, i wonder what Typhan-Knee is doing.
Yes, Peonie may be expert at political and religious shenanigans, but that seldom translates well unto an adventure or a battlefield. Those are two very unrelated skills. Still, it’s always a good idea to know which way to send troops.
Isabel probly saw /overheard something and it was the easiest way to keep her quiet…
Jake: On the Typhan-Knee front, I imagine she’s putting a small dent in the royal coffers, searching for an outfit that she can stand to wear that won’t turn into something out of Red Sonja’s closet.
@Scott Hicken: “a FALLIBLE man” [I only bother with this nit because I expect this strip will be referred to a lot.]
Is the wedding a sham? I thought so myself at first, but now I think that was a mistake.
They’ve already gone through the civil procedure; they ARE married. Consummation awaits only the religious blessing. It would be a terrible blot on both of them to back out now.
Right off, they are making a moral claim against the leaders of the Church. Back out of the marriage now would put a weapon in the hands of their enemies in the Church. They will not be able to do a total purge. Urtica’s the King, a rival power. In the eyes of the traditionalists, Theresa shouldn’t even be spell singer anymore.
In the eyes of the people, this disrespect for civil law could well destroy Urtica’s legitimacy to rule. Oh, he’d probably fight to retain his crown, but it would be a fight. Civil wars have been fought over less. Even if he avoided that, it would still cause generations of turmoil.
Once married, Theresa might well gain legitimacy in the eyes of the Church. She would have the King’s ear, and the wedding might well be seen as a political bonding, as is traditional with royal weddings.
Finally, Theresa’s the one that said the marriage is “only” a tactical move. In fact, Urtica and Theresa both know who they are marrying, as well as any couple does, and more than most.
They will marry, and they will be as happy a couple as their circumstances allow.
@50srefugee. Maybe he just falls down a lot. Coriander’s last name might be Clouseau.
@50srefugee & @O.B. Juan – Haha, as much fun as that would be I’m afraid I is the way to go there. Fixed!
Well, after learning what we did, I bet there got to be a good idea for Statue girl. Maybe the spell will wear off at a certain point, and allow her to do something. I still think the King may still marry her, he still wants a strong heir and a female spellsinger, which are supposed to be rare, is a good sub for Tiff.
@50srefugee: “Theresa’s the one that said the marriage is “only” a tactical move.”
You purblind idiot. Peonie is the one who said that, not Theresa. And you think yourself fit to pick at Scott’s spelling? HA!
@Bob!: I guess it’s possible Isabel overheard Coriander say something and had her turned to stone.
@TJgalon: That’s also a good theory. It would require them to move the statue though.
To all those people who bad-mouthed Princess P-cups: shame on you! Shame on you all!
She may get distracted (easily) and lose her clothes (a lot) but when she concentrates, she is still her Daddy’s daughter
Wait, dos this mean Kingies marriage to Terry is legit? o_O
Soooo…the material evidence is in what is essentially the Popemobile.
@Guesticus: Yes, I think the marriage is legit, at least legally. And I think personally as well; there seems to be an honest affection between the two, although I can’t cite much evidence.
@Xenau: “Popemobile”
hahahaha
OMG I love Urtica. He’s a scheming manipulative bastard BUT he has the best interest of his country and people at heart. Sort of reminds me of Toturi the third from the legend of the five rings setting
@50srefuge I don’t think there’s affection, so far it seems like it’s a matter of convenience. It also doesn’t seem like the king cares about love. He only wanted to Marry Typhan-Knee to get an heir after all.
@Jake: “so far it seems like it’s a matter of convenience. It also doesn’t seem like the king cares about love.”
Entirely possible–but that also implies that Theresa might also get to experience the joys of motherhood.
I forget–does that make Peonie the backup heir, who would only take the throne if Urtica cannot get a male heir by his new bride?
In any case, I doubt that either Urtica or Theresa are much for being starry eyed. But I also think neither would marry for no other reason than to execute a single, short-acting plan. If they wed, they wed for the long run, and I believe they’d both like that run to be as pleasant as possible.
So: In love? Probably not. Affection? Possibly. Mutual respect? Certainly.
Capable of finding love with each other? I hope so. I truly do. I think Urtica truly loves his daughter, little though he shows it, and I think something of the same will eventually attach to Theresa.
As for Theresa, if she is truly female, she would likely find Urtica irresistibly attractive on a number of counts.
Y’all aren’t seeing the game, are you? A master player of the political game like Urtica is (and I bet Theresa isn’t far behind him in skill), would never play simply to remove someone like Coriander from the board.
At some level it’s about who will lead the church and it’s power. At another, it’s about Theresa’s position in that hierarchy.
But, bottom line? It’s about Peonie. It’s about her future as the leader, and ruler.
Okay, now I am worried about what happened to the messenger.
What if the Bad Church Guy intercepted him and knows of this plan?
The marriage may or may not be based on affection, but do see that it is made with respect, and they make a great couple (from what we have seen so far, and what we know of their personalities)
“You’ve never had difficulty figuring out my other ‘evil’ plans”
That would mean that Peonie had puzzled together what her father does in the past?
Actually, the king is really starting to remind me of Baron Von Wulfenbach from “Girl Genius.” Including going out of his way to train his offspring – we’ve seen her get kidnapped a LOT, and we’ve seen that a lot of that is due to the fact that she’s A: surrounded by a lot of idiots plus a few really competent guys, and B: an obvious target (let’s face it, Faden wasn’t exactly easy to beat). We’ve also seen her learn the basics of swordsmanship in a VERY short period of time.
Hell, even when he seemed to be insulting his daughter, it reminds me of the Baron – he publicly implied the boy had to work his butt off for even a modicum of respect, then privately established that he could burst with the he pride felt in having such a child.
As for the statue, something occurs to me. If she’s frozen as stone… she can’t tell any secrets she might know. Until of course she’s thawed out. A time bomb of sorts…
Archone I can see the resemblance to the Baron BUT Urtica plays the politics game better than the Baron did/does. The Baron constantly faces revolts and insurection because he isn’t great at the political game. I see much more of a resemblance to Toturi the third from legend of the five rings
Archon, that’s a wonderful observation.
Tiffanyhm, the difference between the Radiant Empire and Wulfenbach’s Empire is that Wulfenbach is faced with a substantial minority of Sparks, people with an intuitive grasp of science, engineering, and magic. And who also tend to be violently insane. Their inventions are often at least semi-sentient, and are ludicrously overpowered for the tasks they were built to execute. Wulfenback is the first European leader to be able to pose any kind of order there after the rise of the Sparks. (Something I take to be relatively recent, historically speaking, perhaps no more than a few hundred years ago.)
Urtica’s realm is almost orderly. The Church of Rem plays an important role in training and disciplining magic users, and has for a very long time. Every society we’ve seen has similar traditions for controlling the magic users in their midst. I gather that for them, magic has been around for at least as long as civilization itself.
If Urtica were to trade places with Wulfenbach, he would be overrun in a few hours. Wulfenbach, in turn, would crush the Alliance with the barely controlled, and now unopposed, Sparkian madness he has, barely, learned to harness in his world.
Both leaders are shaped by their worlds, to such a degree that it is not really fair to compare them.
@Bob and Jake, Given this reveal I’d have to say Isabel is a statue for her own protection.
@J, “But, bottom line? It’s about Peonie. It’s about her future as the leader, and ruler.” Agreed this is a little test from her Father, that last panel shows how pleased he is.
50s refugee the baron refuses to work with others he imposes order his way through sheer brute force Urtica does more with cloak and daggers negotations I don’t like the Baron he’s too limited in his thinking too much the grab biggest hammer and crush the problem.
She’s got it! By George, She’s got it!
She’s got it! She’s got it! Pickering, I think She’s got it!
Tiffanyhm: “the baron refuses to work with others he imposes order his way through sheer brute force”
Indeed yes. Why? Because nothing else works. Madboys (and girls) tend to be reclusive megalomaniacs, except the ones born into noble families, and they tend to be horrifically tyrannical. Either way, they’re not open to negotiation.
There’s a strip where young Gil Wulfenbach is facing an invading force and has to kill several of its manned battle clanks just to get them to listen. Afterward, he vents to Agatha about having tried, repeatedly and unsuccessfully, to get his foes to negotiate, and the grim realization that they are stupid and myopic. His stunned comment at the end? “This is how my father feels all the time!”
As I recall, Agatha herself has only limited success dealing with her fellow sparks in positions of power; until she HURTS them, they refuse to take her seriously. She is much more successful dealing with minions and clanks.
The effects on society when creativity, intelligence, and magical abilities are genetically linked to aggressive, violent insanity, including extreme paranoia, is simply a problem Urtica does not have.
@50srefugee Except women do not all have the same taste, so just because Teresa is a woman means that she has to find him attractive.
Heck, she seems to go for the boyish nerdy type.
No, wait, Jake, you are rocking my universe here. Women don’t…all…like…? I’m sorry, I just don’t get the point of your comment. Next you’ll be telling me that some cats like chicken or beef instead of fish in their squooshy noms, which is just crazy!
Yes, there are exceptions. But the hump of the bell curve is the way to bet. Not to mention that private tastes can be radically different from public facades. So, I acknowledge that I am speculating from facts not in evidence.
And of course, Theresa is not a natural woman. She is the target of Tiffany’s curse, which molds her body and mind in accordance with her perception of womanhood–and we don’t know much about that. But she lives in a culture which regards men as dominate to some degree.
But i agree that they do have respect for each other. And hey, Teresa gets to be queen and i’m sure she’s into that.
@50sRefuge By natural, i assume you mean she’s not a cis woman?
Well yeah, she is a trans woman who now has a body that matches her gender identity.
By “natural”, I mean a woman born. Theresa was born male, then changed by magic. She is, in that sense, supernatural.
I do not take account of her preferences in saying that; only her physical anatomy. In the same fashion, I attach the he/she pronouns to the body as a matter of grammar, meaning no discourtesy.
“If you try to build pigeonholes for everybody, you end up with all holes and no building.” — me, elsewhere.
@Tiffany,
As the others noted, the Baron has to rely on force first and foremost – because without it none of his diplomatic efforts will work. But even then, he does utilize diplomacy whenever possible – just because he’s threatening to do something nasty doesn’t change the fact that he’s using words of persuasion. When he’s dealing with less crazy or foolish types he’s shown as being far more civilized in his behavior. Same thing with Urtica – Urtica would clearly rather use words instead of violence. But he also keeps some very large men around to do violence when necessary… and he himself is capable of delivering the deathblow without blinking an eye.
@Jake, it is possible to be interested in more than one “type.” And let’s face it, Urtica IS very handsome, a silver fox. He reminds me of that “most interesting man in the world” fellow. In great shape for his age, educated, charming, and intelligent. Not to mention the whole “oodles of money and power” aspect (he once gave Tiffany an orgasm just by showing her the reward for saving Peonie).
https://dvinewinetime.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/dvinewinetime-the-most-interesting-man-in-the-world.jpg
@Archone What gave Typhan-Knee an orgasm was the money. He didn’t care about Urtica. In fact, Typhan-Knee gave up the money when he found out he had to marry Urtica to keep it.
@50srefuge You may not intended, but misgendering is considered impolite. Since gender identity is a sensitive subject, especially amongst trans men and women.
Whose in a hurry to get out of the bedroom with Princess P-Cup there? Typhanee on the other hand, I think will be going to Church.
@Jake: “misgendering is considered impolite.”
I am aware some feel that way. I stand firm, however, on my linguistic preferences
Anyone meeting Ash, without knowing her history, would refer to her with female pronouns as a matter of course. Unless the person presents as their preferred sex, so that others have some clue as to how they wish to be addressed, grammatical gender should typically match biological sex.
I beg your tolerance for my views; I do not press for agreement.
“Anyone meeting Ash…”
Ahem.
“Anyone meeting Tiffany…”
You might well guess this is not the first time I have had this discussion concerning a comic character.
@Christopher – Nah, the fate of the messenger was revealed here: http://www.exiern.com/2014/08/15/missed-connection/
Thank you Brandi, somehow I missed that page.
@50srefuge Ok.But if they do learn Typhan-Knee’s history, it shouldn’t be that difficult to use a different pronouns.
Just like it wasn’t hard for Urtica to pronounce Typhan’s name as Typhan-Knee when Typhan insisted on it. And to be fair to Typhan-Knee, they did try to present themselves as their preferred sex.
Anyway, i won’t try to change your views, but please understand that it’s a rather sensitive topic. No hard feelings i hope.
Brilliant.
@Jake: “No hard feelings I hope.”
I’m debating a point of grammar in the comments for a fantasy web comic. I believe in “the animating contest of liberty”. I’ve begged tolerance.
It works both ways. If I intend no hard feelings, I can’t take them.
Also, Jake, I have changed my views–to what they are currently, after long study, discussion, and thought. My plea for tolerance is in essence a plea for everyone, including myself, to turn the sensitivity dial way down. Otherwise, chaos.