3307 Revenge And Justice
on February 10, 2020
Chapter: Gathering Storm
Characters: Lady Vivay of the Duchy of Pentine, Runtherd "Runt"
Location: Castle Elegrost
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Well, yeah, Runt, that’s the easy part. The tricky bit is, "against whom?"
So many choices, so many repercussions…
So easy to manipulate…
‘The tricky bit is, "against whom?"’
If he DOES go for it, he’ll probably want to start with Turg.
"Against whom?" Pfft. That’s easy. Everyone.
This doesn’t look good.
About time the usurper got his comeuppance, time to put the true king on the throne and let him solve everything!
Wait, are you talking about FANG?
…Come to think of it, he would solve everything, wouldn’t he?
…another one bites the dust?
A way out! The WRONG way, but a way!
The Rannites ability to do the bad thing is almost perfect….
Now… is he thinking what they want him to be thinking? Or is he thinking about how Turg got revenge against him, how a just king should never have endangered an innocent youth for his own selfish purposes, and that the proper targets for his vengeance ought to be the Rannites who have slaughtered and oppressed his people?
That’s what I’m hoping for, that Runtherd realizes he made a terrible mistake, and he should direct his anger all toward the Rannites.
After that, he’s going take off his crown, and go as a commoner, and apologize to Turg and his son. In the same way King Eric III apologized to Clover.
I can’t believe you typed that with straight fingers 🙂
Alas.
These techniques have endured for centuries, maybe millennia, because they are so darn reliable.
But I do like your version of the future.
t!
That’s the future I’m hoping for. Thank you.
Although my heart hopes for T-Chall’s future, unfortunately my head thinks he’s no longer on the side of the good guys 🙁 Brainwashing via torture is used because it works, and everyone can be broken. I don’t- and won’t- blame Runt at all- I wouldn’t have held out nearly as long and I doubt most would be able to handle what he has endured for so long. We’ve only seen brief glimpses, but my heart aches for him.
Eddie laid the groundwork all those years ago, when he magically altered Runt’s mind
NotRichard- i disgree with what you seem to be attributing to the cause. Torture and brainwashing the person into being desperate to end the torture can break anybody’s will. I realize you don’t care for Runt and Eddy, but i don’t think magic that altered a quick memory had any part in making him want to escape what he is trying to endure. I believe that he has held out this long shows he is trying to be a good person, regardless to the very human mistakes he has made.
Didn’t say any of what you believe I said
All I said was, that Eddy laid the groundwork (for the brainwashing) all those years ago
We have no idea how that magic affected him
And agree, that the fact he has held out this long is a testament to his innate strength of will
Don’t see why pointing out a characters’ actions means that I ‘don’t care for them’
NotRichard- my apologies- i must’ve mixed up my reactions about you caring for them. I completely agree that discussion does not imply criticism of a person 🙂
The problem with that approach, Lady Vivay, is that Runtherd was abandoned because he was a liability…
She knows he was abandoned, she was there when Turg stormed in, she probably doesn’t know _why_ (what with being slammed against a wall by Turg)
So easy to corrupt.
So disposable, at the end, when his usefulness is, in their eyes, fully cashed out.
This will end in tears, Your Majesty. Yours included. Who else’s, and how many, remains to be seen. But it will be a tragedy, indeed.
Ranna’s an artist, every with so cooperative and simple a "happy little tree" as Runtherd. I just can’t say that I like her admittedly impressive workrate.
Ranna has succeeded in pissing everybody off, resulting in a very impressive alliance.
But, as we saw a mere two strips ago, in some cases their desire to stop her is the *only* thing holding them together.
t!
But as we saw in "A Glimpse into the Future," https://www.yafgc.net/comic/2915-a-glimpse-into-the-future/, particularly panel four, a lot had changed in the future in regards to the relationships with the "evil" beings. It may well be that this was the alliance where the attitudes started to change.
I hear you, t!. Though I admit, I’m thinking more of the wounds on a personal scale. So many of my friends burned by this massive pyroclastic flow. Some beyond recognition. Some merely horribly.
Rich has seen the face of evil in my stories, and now, I think, I have well and truly seen the face of evil in his. We who understand…share what I can only describe as a sort of silent Oppenheimer moment, I think, staring into it.
Staring into Jone’s eyes was an encounter with Michael Myers of Haddonfield. Staring into Ranna’s wake is…something else entirely. Never have I been more aware of, and more grateful for, Jone’s blessed, welcome *finitude* as a being.
Personally, I’d take my revenge and justice out on the Rannites 🙂
So, will his conversion be genuine or a ploy? Time will tell.
Turg was a fool; His son wanted go with the King, no one forced him.
Part of me hopes that Runt will spit at her in the next comic.
Calling it now. Runt betrays the "good guys" and he is the one who kills Eddie. I’m going to miss that wizard.
I’m not. He’s a twit.
Hmm, I don’t know which way Runtherd will tip, but just in case… the question is, how much did he hear, and what does he remember (he was pugnaciously distracted) when the plan was coming together among those in the hidden air-temple of Ch-Thier?
Ooo, had forgotten that, thank you
I really hope things wont go TOO bad.
Went back and re-read the archives from 0001 and am currently at the start of the Force of Hobbits chapter. Runtherd has had an interesting journey since his first appearance. In some ways, he seems to follow a similar path to a lot of child actors who grow up in the spotlight. Everything is great until it’s not.
I think he’ll eventually go completely off the rails, spend some time in a manic phase and come out the other end changed in a drastic way. How that change manifests has yet to be seen, but he can take several paths. Overall, I don’t see him as a main character, there’s not much that bonds him with me, but as a driving force for story, there isn’t much better in the whole cast.
Just remember: he’s been manipulated from the start, plus, Eddie altered his memory so that he forgot who _really_ pulled the axe from the stump
Let’s just hope he doesn’t go Anakin Skywalker pre-Vader
That’s just it. Runtherd has been a part of the YAFGC ‘cast’ for a while now, with no real purpose, and not much personality moving him along. He’s not going to be the same person when this is all done.
On one hand, it would be sad to see another character fall to evil.
On the other hand, Turg’s choice to carry out a petty, selfish, pointless, worthless "revenge" (and at the worst possible time to do so) coming back to bite him where it hurts would be kind of poetic.
Rich- have to commend you on yet another excellent drwaing of Runt’s pain, exhaustion, and everything else in the last panel. The shadows, hollows, and lines… just wow
"Yes, your friends left you behind to be tortured (by us) so go take your revenge (on them, not on us, the ones torturing you)"
Seems like he is snapping, I just hope that if he is he'll go more Jone's kind of "kill *everything*" rather than straightforwardly joining the Rannites, though that does seem to be the way it usually goes.