Monster 054
└ posted on Tuesday, 25 October 2016, by Novil
- Faye Galitas: What do you think of San’s plan?
- Ryn: I can’t say that I’m fond of her “Midwinter wish list.”
- Alissa: I like it. If just a few of these schemes work out, it’ll drive Eldor into a corner.
- Alissa: It’s San who I don’t like. There was no reason to punish Aolilatse like that.
- Leon Barden: Haha, yes, a diplomat, San is not, rather a force of nature.
- Alissa: You know San?
- Leon Barden: Saying that I “know” her would go too far. But I’ve talked to her several times. Back in Osterath.
- Leon Barden: Four months ago, San appeared in the palace, announced her intentions, and then forced everyone to follow her orders.
- Alissa: Sounds awfully familiar.
- Alissa: We certainly shouldn’t trust her!
- Leon Barden: Oh, I don’t know…
- Leon Barden: Without her help, we’d never have been able to capture Isahara the Mad(*).
- Caption: (*) = Lunatic redmage who burnt down several villages in Golnar.
Nice scattering of varying opinions on San.
I’m still convinced that San was planted by Eldor, whether she knows it or not.
Isahara the Mad, who may well turn out to a stooge of San, sent to create havoc so that San could come in and save the day.
Yeah… Called it.
Fred wrote:
Most probably
The Scariest thing about a dictator is when they are right.
Yeah, I’m pretty much done giving San the benefit of the doubt. I would not be surprised if the whole Isahara thing was planned out, just like the others are saying.
At BEST, she wasn’t directly involved with his rampage but she has no problem milking the situation as much as possible.
Burning down villiages? Sounds somewhat familliar … (hello Violet et alt.) and don’t forget there was I fire just a few weeks before our group was trapped in Oakdale …
BTW: I don’t know if it’s been mentioned before … but it seems that San’s specialty are attack spells while Lili’s (and before her Violet’s) specialty is shields.
Well, this is interesting… I wonder who this dude is. We’ve seen him before, but he hasn’t spoken up before this, and is not even in the cast list. Which makes me wonder if he’s a shill. It’s certainly an interesting moment that he picked to insert himself into the conversation.
Ryn is starting to look like the more insightful one here. One wonders if that will continue.
Traveller wrote:
Comic says he’s Leon Barden: Chairman of the Council of Golnar. Or did you mean something else?
Stop skipping plot important pages! …or at least doing this jumps that make it seem as such, please.
am i only one wondering how old Faye Gallitas is? (rude much?)
aparajeet wrote:
She’s a bit older then our main characters, I’d place her somewhere around … 30?
She looks a bit older then … say … Lilith but way younger then … Hel or Ilias’ parents.
She had an important position at the academy (important enough to become director after Hel’s death).
I think I might have taken her a few years as a teacher to get were she is now.
San’s an autocrat who thinks she has a Gaia-given right to rule the world. As such, it’s natural she’d want to take down any Redmages, threats to Life As They Know It™and, if she did gain ultimate power, any threats to that power.
While at the moment, she may be convenient for Eldor’s plans, if they ever met there’d be one Bhaal of a showdown. If such an event were to occur, having Lili around might be useful to erect shields to limit the inevitable collateral damage that would result…
I don’t think anyone is doubting she’s a super strong mage. Strong enough to cast a world-ending spell, say.
Knight Templar, anyone? Maybe over-enthusiastic paladin?
Osterath? Sounds like one of Eldor’s goals was just reached. After he killed Elea Calisto and her two companions, he said she was San’s best friend and said the cult in Osterath would be the first on her list of suspects.
The fact that they ‘needed’ her help means to me that their forces are either incompetent or San set it up. Maybe both.
Ore wrote:
Would be probable only in a simple all black and white story where the main villains must be responsible for all evil. Such as the bad Star Wars prequels. There are authors that do base their villains more on real life persons sometimes and I think Novil is one of them. There are red mages in this universe and they have been using red magic (as in: destructive, demonic magic) long before anyone thought of San. It is perfectly in character for even a powerhungry high priestess who is secretly after world domination to fight a redmage and it is not that odd that she will occasionally find such an enemy without having to plant him herself. I find it rather unlikely that she as a priestess even has red mage minions that would be ready to be sacrificed as pawns. However evil and selfish her true intentions might be, I doubt that she is secretly on “Team Bhaal” and recognized as a leader there.
It might be a quite likely opportunity, I admit, that Eldor planted that redmage as a test for San to develop her skills, quite similar as he set up hardships for Lilith to make her develop her magic.
Wait! Why does.Alyssa say that San coming in 4 months ago and taking over sounds familiar? I don’t recall anything like that happening in the comic.
Also, I doubt that San planted the mad mage. She does not show much subtlety in her actions.
@ ktrimbach:
No, of course she didn’t. Eldor did. For two reasons: one, as he himself told us, he thinks challenges are necessary for the “touched ones”; two, to build San’s credibility, so as to mislead his opponents.
@ clickbait:
It’s very hard to tell how old Faye actually is, because Novil mostly doesn’t bother to draw wrinkles even in the faces of clearly very old people like e.g. Hel and we don’t know if she is platinum blond or if her hair is already white from age. Her rather soft features and her often casual, sometimes mocking tone (see e.g. the speach scene in Red Hall) may hint at a rather young age, her position as well reputed teacher, examiner and follower to Hel as headmistress of the academy on the other hand suggest that she is at least middle aged (not too old, because she is still a masterful close combat fighter and apparently in good shape physically). You don’t get to be headmaster of prestigeous school if you just started there few years ago.
She could be anything between 25 and well aged 60, but in the light of the above reasons I think she is most likely in her late thirties or early fourties.
I feel like the pages with San and the king could’ve come after this debate over whether or not to trust her. It would’ve given the readers more time to ride along with the suspense of “Should we trust her? Is she bad? She’s kinda mean but… oh, ok, she does actually help accomplish some good things. Maybe she’s just really iron-fisted? But then again, is this iron-fisted control a good thing?” And then we see San and the king and BAM she’s not so innocent! And then DOUBLE BAM she could be another Eldor Weapon!
I feel like, now that we already got the BAM’s, the suspense isn’t quite as effective.
Bless you Alissa, for proposing an ethical treatment of dragonkind. 😀
#dragonlivesmatter #neverforget
Joking aside, the girl is indeed on a power trip, and these things end bad. I guess she might be the one to cast “Eldor’s Earth-shattering Kaboom” once she realizes she can’t rule the planet.
ktrimbach wrote:
She’s referring to this meeting. Relating on how San just forced her plan through.
@csomeguy: Powree draws the comic, not Novil.
@ Tadrix:
Sort of: I meant that:
(a) He’s not in the cast list, which seems odd. And even given the description you mentioned, above, that really doesn’t tell us anything about him.
And,
(b) I am very curious as to just why he chose to inject himself into this particular conversation. I’m wondering what his angle is. Seems suspiciously casual.
@ Lurker:
Check: TTitS 20
Eldor seems to be guiding touched ones (San, Lili and Vivi), developing their skills with creating troubles on their path.
And I think his ultimate goal is yet to be discovered
Two dictator against Each other!
Deamon wrote:
I doubt that he (or anyone for that matter) knows about Viviana. He uses the word form “San and her sister”, that is two people. And Viviana’s troubles were created by Delvor who wanted to cover up a murder.
Isn’t that basically how the Melos became head of the Mafia? Basically, walked in through the door carrying the head of their most hated enemy. He then proceeded to use them all as pawns. Just shows that ability should not be confused for trustworthiness.
@ SlugFiller:
People are always trustworthy right up until they’re not. Unless you can read minds, you never know.
*sees 3rd panel* The innuendo is strong, with this one.
@ Ridiculicious:
Ignore that one, or better yet, delete these.
(Ugh, you dirty old mind.)