Annotated Raven's Children - Issue #1: Page 22

[layla]

[<-- Previous page] | [Next page -->]

Yeahhhhh, there are trigger-happy idiots on both sides.

Tai (the bald guy) is the head of the security garrison at the Tolshay Kahn fort. He served under Ronin Kheheli's predecessor (Gundasan), and now nominally serves under Ronin, but in reality, he mostly does his own thing. Since Jained has been around -- in and out of the fort -- for awhile, he knows Tai and is aware that Tai is something of a loose cannon, the sort of person who was assigned to the middle of nowhere largely because he couldn't be trusted anywhere else.

In case it's not entirely clear what's happening here: Deneko attacked Jained (held a knife at his throat) but wasn't actually hurting him (yet?); Tai stabbed Deneko; and now Deneko's son (with the spear), understandably enough, is freaking out about it. In other words, things just went from zero to "OH SHIT" in about five seconds.

Two specific things on this page make me wince now (other than the lettering). One is the speed lines, which are kind of a mess. Not really having a clear idea of how to do action scenes, I was borrowing visual conventions from all over the place and not doing a fantastic job of it. The other thing I wouldn't do now is use the word "psychopath" -- it definitely feels anachronistic. The concept is simply too modern to sound natural in that context.