[439]He's away so often

"'Sides, sometimes I think Donny misses Jim more than I do." They're talking about Eglamore.

Miss Stibnite chose Carver over Eggers because Anthony was there and James wasn't? Rather ironic, considering what we currently know of Mr. Carver.

Beautiful page again! I especially like the morning mist around the buildings. ... Does that mean they pulled an all-nighter back with the robots?
So Eglamore is out to train. For Surma. ... Now we know where his strength came from: simple hard work. But why did he think Surma was in need of a super-strong dragon-slaying knight? And don't forget that a strange being like Coyote knows about all those relationships as well. That's way beyond his normal business with the Court (compared to the current situation at least). So the story of the "parent generation" seems just as complex and thrilling as the life of our little Antimony. I feel like I'm reading a comic where I have missed about 30 chapters.
etc.

I was definitely surprised to see how much more informal Surma's speech patterns are than Antimony's.

If she and Eglamore were still an item that late, I wonder how she wound up marrying Anthony. That's probably a story for another chapter.

"It's so sad. all those figures standing there. like they waiting for something."

Is it meant to say "they"? that's not even informal speech, it's just poor English.

Not meant to be a dig, just asking if it's intentional or just a wee mistake?

I...I...

D'AWWWW.

Okay, sorry. Fanboyism now done.

Really, though, Tom, yet another masterpiece.

I am now quite curious as to Eggers's training! I assume it's either blade training, something to do with his "single bound", or both.

I like how this page sets up for the reader to assume it is about Anthony and then drops small hints (such as the training) as to who it really is until it tells us in panel 7.



My guess is that either Antimony's father was more strict about her speech, or she, herself, prefers to speak more formally (using this as reference)

Well, that's interesting. :3

Oh wow. It must be quite tiring to explain everything.
B^U process is only funny with comics modifications.

I really enjoyed the flashback structure of this last chapter, re-reading as a whole is definitely far better than update-reading. I like how experimental it is in structure flashbacks interspersing the present as a reiteration and new perspective to the past.

It was an Answers chapter! We learnt a lot: about Girl With A Sword--Jeanne. Reynardine was simply adorable, and his mood swings explained. Speculation from BOTH Annie and Shadow2 about mysteries of the Court and surrounding environs. We had ROBOTS (and, unfortunately, a Boxbot ... ugh) and more speculation. And Kat was incredulous, hee. Surma and Anya scene is simply beautiful, and I think that parallels with Annie and Kat are simply wonderful. And Surma has my local accent!! Aha, awesomesauce! Yorkshire rocks. This is my favourite chapter so far.

End gush.

So James Eglamore spent a great deal of time away from Surma training to be just as badass as Batman. Sad. Dark and brooding always attracts the wrong types of girls. Just look at Batman.

Well, technically Anja has an accent and Surma has a dialect. This could cause Anja to sound a little stilted while Surma sounds informal. Since Kat grew up with English as her first language and Annie didn't grow up in Yorkshire, there's no particular reason why they should mirror what we see here.

nooo, my point is that is a reversed mirror,

Surma (informal) where Annie is very formal

Anja (formal, tries) where Kat is informal

The more I think about this page, the sadder it seems. It makes me wonder what could have been if Surma chose Eggers over Carver. I've long thought that she's a smart person, and she must have had reasons for choosing as she did, but this is making me consider that maybe she made the wrong choice.

Of course, if Surma had married Eggers, Annie would be a completely different person.



On that note, it's funny that Annie, with her preference for formal speech, is pretty neutral on the Law vs. Chaos axis, while Kat, with her more informal speech, is closer to Lawful than Annie is.

Getting in there before anyone else calls it... Knocked up much?



(Whatever, when it's revealed in three chapters, you'll be sorry you didn't call it)