[286] Story Discussion - Easily Riled These Days

[Aspen d'Grey]

Har, I thought Coyote was probably going to call him off. But, big, pissy Coyote?
Giant, pissy, swatting Coyote injuring Ysengrin? THAT was unexpected. It's interesting how he broke so quickly... I'm wondering if he's really as happy-go-lucky as he would normally appear? Although, BAP is a seriously cool sound effect.

Anywase, early update is at Drunk Duck, check the sig for the link.

Kay, gonna go back and read it again. Mmmm GC...


ps: Back! First week of college is a and then I sprained my wrist and my ankle and locked my keys in the car and argggg just, lots of drama this week.

pps: it was ammusing to watch the Drunk Duck site take such a hit right at 11.

[starkruzr]

"Bap?"

Holy crap.

Coyote is ENORMOUSLY powerful.

[Myrani]

Whoa now.

So another pondering brought on by this: has Coyote already been feeling a little fed up with Ysengrin's modus operandi and created this situation not only to push Reynardine into a spotlight of sorts (among other things, probably), but also to provide a good opportunity to rebuke Ysengrin? This page definitely expands on the impression of what the dynamics are between them. In any case, I really doubt Coyote's just been simply winging it this entire time for the fun of it. He's a trickster and likes his spontaneous fun, certainly, but he's also very old and experienced with his wiles. For all of the wonderfully obnoxious loudness he's stirring up, his intelligence shouldn't be underestimated.

[Count Casimir]

Man, this just keeps getting more and more badass. I have a feeling it's good that Coyote doesn't want to attack the court.

Ysengrin's showing a little blood! I'd feel bad for him if he wasn't a complete dick.

Coyote has finally shown his wise side; he knows it wouldn't do any good to have an all out battle raging in the Court. His silliness made pretty much everyone (myself included!) misjudge him a bit.

[fjodor]

I say whoa. Not a god to messed with. Just when you think the story can't get any better.

The adult audience must know what powers Coyote has, and still they - the headmaster in particular - seem not too troubled about it. That must mean they have some pretty impressive powers themselves.

[owl]

HOLY CRAP.

Just...


Holy Crap.

Coyote = <3

[UbiquitousDragon]

Go go Giant Coyote! (Sorry been playing pokemon ...)

Most unexpected. I had thought the Coyote would intervene but not in such a badass way! ;D

aspengrey said:

Kay, gonna go back and read it again. Mmmm GC...

Mmph-mm! I love going back over the page. Also: hope your luck changes

EDIT: Christ, I try to be clever and just end up being stoopid.

[La Goon]

Heh, that "BAP" made me think of the "BOP!" in "ZAP!"

[todd]

I thought that Coyote might intervene as well (though not on the level that he just did). He likes chaos and mischief, but I doubt that he'd want an all-out war - especially because, the more people who would get killed in it, the fewer people whom he can pull pranks on.

[Goatmon]

BAM!

[La Poire]

I think this shows a bit more about Coyote's personality, we knew he was a trickster, but he is a god, after all, and as cunning and powerful as you'd expect one to be. I doubt it would take very much for anyone to become fed up with Ysengrin. As for why he did it, the Forest and the Court have, if not peace, then at least a truce, and Coyote wouldn't want to upset it. It is also a display of power to the Court; just look at the last frame, where he's prancing around still giant-sized, looking down on the others.

[Boksha]

countcasimir said:

Man, this just keeps getting more and more badass. I have a feeling it's good that Coyote doesn't want to attack the court.

He's probably rather have the entire court cower under his power.

[rastarogue]

I feel that he set up this whole situation to give him a chance to show off his powers.
However, considering that Eglamore took on Rey when he Rey had control of a Rogat Orjak body, I don't thing anybody is going to be that impressed.

Awesomessss

[asheram]

I don't find it too surprising that Coyote hit him like that.
As I see it, Ysengrin has been overstepping his boundaries from the start, seeing himself as the one who should... Who must protect coyote and his lands from whatever enemy that threatens them. Even if Coyote himself is turning a blind eye to it.
Coyote made the appropriate diciplinary action and showed Ysengrin he's perfectly capable of defending himself And showing him not to attack without prior consent.

I quite agree with Myrani. This situation were orchestrated by Coyote.

[todd]

Indeed, this ties in with my earlier suspicion that Coyote's real reason for visiting the Court wasn't about the issues that had so angered Ysengrin (such as the Tic-Toc bird damaging the cliff). He barely takes part in the discussion over those same issues (as a side-line, it's also worth noting that neither he nor Ysengrin mention Robot's "intrusion" in the forest or Shadow2's "abduction" - the events that Reynardine mentioned at the end of Chapter Twelve as likely to anger the people of Gillitie Wood), but takes far more interest in Reynardine once he shows himself. Perhaps his real reason for visiting was Reynardine (and maybe, as the other posters suggested here, needing to take Ysengrin down a notch or two), and he merely duped Ysengrin into believing that it was about the troubled relations with the school.

[asheram]

Though this makes me a bit worried about Ysengrin.
As I see it, he's not the person that'd back down from a thing like this very easily, despite the actions from Coyote. And I'm afraid he'll work even harder now to try to convince Coyote that the school is trouble, one way or the other... even taking matters into his own hands/claws.

I've got a feeling even more trouble's coming Annies' way.

[Mezzaphor]

Hmm... There's so many possible plans that this turn of events could tie into. This makes me wonder how much Coyote could have planned for this meeting. How could he have known that Reynardine would be present? I bet he's been improvising ever since he mistook Annie for Surma. Whatever his plan was, I suspect this fight wasn't part of it: The way Coyote shouts and scowls at Ysengrin after beech-slapping him, it almost seems like Coyote lost his cool.

In any case, Coyote is definitely interested in getting Reynardine back, and now he knows that Annie is somehow tied up with Rey. That is definitely Not A Good Thing for our hero.

[ceezedby]

Coyote's excursion to the Court was probably an information-gathering exercise. The tick-tock bird incident...etc just provided him with a convenient cover story to visit and check things out for himself. Why else let Ysengrim do the talking? Coyote is too smart to give away anything he really wants to find out about.

Did Coyote know Reynardine would be present at the meeting? If he'd sent Robot to abduct Reynardine, he must have suspected Reynardine now inhabited a new body, but not neccessarily what that body was. The fight on the rooftops must have been visible from Gillitie! And no way is Robot kidnapping a Rogat Orjak all by his little self Actually, that would be a classic Coyote prank, wouldn't it

And since nobody in the court would have sent a robot into the Wood in the first place, that initial event would have piqued Coyote's curiosity to begin with.

But meeting Annie (Surma v.2?) will certainly have changed whatever plans Coyote had. No wonder he's calling off Ysengrim. He now has some very interesting information to mull over.

Now, where's Annie and Reynardine at this point?

[todd]

ceezedby said:

Now, where's Annie and Reynardine at this point?

Off-camera, since the focus in the panels was on Coyote and Ysengrin, who were standing further away from those two.

[rallan]

Y'know, this could be all Reynardine's fault. Up until he turned up, things were looking good for Coyote. Ysengrin was doing his thing, pretty much everyone was paying attention to him, and Coyote could get down to the serious business of talking to someone interesting and making a new friend (oh and possibly finding out a whole lot of relevant information on the side, but Coyote strikes me as the kind of guy who always likes to make sure something other than politics is on top of his Things To Do list).

Then all of a sudden Reynardine comes along and immediately gets to work taking the wind out of Ysengrin's sails and drawing attention to Coyote. Obviously the only way to salvage things is to provoke someone into doing something incredibly stupid, and the quickest way to provoke someone is to commit a monumental faux pas. I'm not sure he really cared whether Reynardine or Ysengrin exploded first as long as someone exploded.

[todd]

As I mentioned before, I have the suspicion that Reynardine's intervention was based on loyalty to Annie. He makes his entrance just after Annie's explanation about the sweater found by the "dead" Tic-Toc bird being hers - which means that she could have then been in for a lot of questions about her actions in the forest and on the bridge, and both the forest-folk and the school faculty could have found out that she was the one who sent Robot across the bridge in the first place. I think that Reynardine decided to show up when he did in order to distract Coyote and Ysengrin from Annie and the recent events (he seems to have already suspected that they were behind the possessed Robot's attack upon him) - without realizing that Coyote was clever enough to put two and two together, realize that Reynardine had an attachment of some sort to her, and put his theory to the test, thus leading to Annie getting endangered in a different way.

(It probably sounds complex, but that's what comes of two tricksters scheming against each other.)

[papaya]

If Coyote is capable of being that rough with his henchman...that's a chilling side of the trickster that we haven't seen before. I think he's gonna get creepy again very soon, probably on the next page.

Nice people just don't smack their lackeys into stone pillars and leave them lying on the floor bleeding.

[Count Casimir]

Well, I'm fairly sure Ysengrin can take it. He seems pretty tough. And he WAS being a bit of a jerk.

[La Goon]

Reading this chapter again, I noticed, that the same sound effect is used twice:

Parley BAP's Smith

Coyote BAP's Ysengrin

That made me chuckle.

[nickgoodway]

So either the 'BAP' shows a minimal level blow by the perpetrator, which would make Coyote extremely strong, or two blows of equal power which would mean Ysengrim is taking a dive (or Smith is astonishingly resiliant).

[La Goon]

I would put my money on the first option

[nickgoodway]

It also makes me think of the 'PAF' in the Asterix books, which is usually a legionaire being backhanded half-way to Rome or crushed beneath a menhir.

[Count Casimir]

Zomg, another Asterix reader! High fives!

[nickgoodway]

I love the early Asterix books, but Uderzo really should have hung it up after Goscinny died. A fine artist (especially considering he's colourblind), but an uninspired writer.

[todd]

Incidentally, Goscinny and Uderzo originally planned on doing a comic-strip series about Reynard the Fox, but changed their minds when they found out that someone else was already doing it, and created Asterix instead. (Something that seems appropriate to bring up in light of two particular characters in this webcomic....)