Page Commentary No. 199

Gunwild: Well, at least the nape of Maddy's neck is cute.

Psu: Sometimes I forget exactly how far down I should draw Maddy's hair, and that's doubly so on this page! Anyway, we're both in agreement that Maddy's old captain was a dumb dumb?

Gunwild: He was probably an upstanding and decent man who had absorbed some really unhelpful and destructive societal ideals about, like, pride and stuff.

Psu: Speaking of, you got on my case on this page originally for making him look too heroic. And Maddy looking too much like a classic damsel seeing their hero off to war. You made the right call there, comparing the original art to this... do we still have that somewhere?

Psu: Apparently we talked about that already back in the Patreon archive! That must've been around when we started the patreon. We're catching up...

Gunwild: I like Captain Alberic's design on his sword's basket handle, there. It's synergy!

Psu: I'm not quite sure how we decided Maddy's sword would be more like these Chinese blades but we've kept that up throughout the comic. I'm sure there would be some actual dueling masters who would criticize our technique here. I know Alberic could've used a few... pointers.

Gunwild: I'm not going to acknowledge that like it's a statement you made because I need to respect you, for professional reasons. Anyway probably I pushed you to make Maddy have a cut-and-thrust blade like that because the first reference I gave you for her doing sword-stuff was a very pretty kung fu image. No complicated reason.

Psu: I think I just watched a lot of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Well... before we get to the heart of discussing this heavy page, I just wanted to point out a few more things on the art side. Farring and Russ look exactly the same. The crewman you don't recognize is actually a fan character, Milki-wa, by my friend Rumrusher who they insist is actually still on the ship's crew but just never shown on panel. On the visual side of things, I needed extra details to remind everyone that they're looking at a flashback so I did the really classic cinematic trick of just covering everything in the past in a fuzzy sepia tone. I also got to draw everyone in black and white which, I won't lie, made things a little bit easier. But it also made Feti's blade pop beautifully. And for extra kicks, I got to draw long haired Maddy which I think is in the top two of Maddy hairstyles.

Gunwild: And as for me, uhhh... I think dueling doesn't determine who is right, only who is dead. That's not really adding anything to the page though, that's sort of what it's already about.

Psu: I think the crux of this for me is that we setup the tragedy that death, and execution, leaves behind for the people who do it. I know there are stories of folks who don't feel bad about their role in this. But well, we definitely reveal what Feti thinks about this in the next few pages. At least here, we get to show Maddy's had a lot on her mind since joining the tourney.

Gunwild: Wonder if when it's not on tournament settings if that red sword is super-heated. Well, I'll decide sometime!