Page 1494…
Happy Friday!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s pages.
We seem to have leveled off on the donations for the last computer.
So I’ll stop posting the link for the donations.
For those that STILL want to help out…just go back a page. You can still donate.
Thank you all!
I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
And see you all on Monday!
Scott
First! Abaddon eh, just killed him in Guild Wars again just yesterday. Curious to see where this leads.
You do notice Abaddon’s image is gone from the Obelisk…… Can’t wait to see what he looks like.
So we just learned of at least two almost-immortal beings in Dreamland: Nicodemus and Lord Abaddon. If Nick is THAT old, I can start understanding how grew to consider humans – and dreamlanders – so little: for him, they have the lifespan (and by extension, the importance) of a butterfly. Dangeous temptation to become a tyrant… even if well-meaning, at least initially
TWC status: #6 with 11,946 votes.
Keep voting! And remember, the counters will be reset when this month is over. Get ready for the Tuesday Voting Frenzy!
Sounds like fish lady thinks more of a big lizard than she does of the king. I still don’t like her and can’t wait for this segment to end and have the gang move on.
I don’t see a word of praise for Nicodemus here. 😛 He’s probably just the only figure (other than Abaddon) whose name is known.
Nice work scott, i like where this story is heading up to! By the way, have you tried looking for deals in newegg? They usually have pretty good deals there for computers
I have a sudden feeling Ramses is the one who first gave humans a bad name in Nick’s eyes.
Nice job with the heiroglyphs. The broken off parts lend it an air of authenticity!
2nd panel “under the tutelage of Nicodemeus” and in the 4th “pleaded to Nicodemus”. I seriously doubt that’s how the pharaohs presented their version of history. Obviously, fish lady is embelishing the contributions of the lizard.
All this talk of Ramses makes me want to watch ‘Prince of Egypt’ again.
I love that little attention to detail, too! Is he going to be truly frightening, or is it going to be one of those situations where he’s really not so bad of a guy, even being cute, like the Teddy Bears?
No wonder Nicodemus began to despise humans. He helped a king before try and obtain peace in our world only to have it backfire, and here comes Arthur replaying history!
Hm. I thought we were just reading the gyphs. I don’t see any quotes around the words. to indicate that someone is reading out loud. But I guess that would make sense since Alex and Nastajia can’t read them. Still, I don’t sense any animosity from Niviene.
Indeed. Ramses was a totally different person than Arthur…I’m curious to see how he reacts if the Dreamlanders basically tell him he has to solve his own problem.
I think it’s worth keeping in mind that Nicodemus was not always an evil tyrant. The historical consensus among the dreamworlders I can remember seems to be that Nicodemus was initially a force for good before he became the manipulative fascist we know from the present world of the comic.
People–and presumably dragons–change.
The fish lady isn’t reading them, she’s interpreting them. I don’t claim to know a lot about ancient Egypt but I do know that the pharaohs weren’t famous for being humble or spreading credit around. Besides that, I doubt any pharaoh or even any politician today would allow some historian to write that he “pleaded” with ANYONE. Fish lady is embellishing the lizard’s contribution for some reason.
What frenzy? Some of us vote every day–which is encouraged!
Looks like Lord Abaddon has tentacles.
Well, maybe some of us who don’t would find it entertaining. Or something.
This month, we lost a lot of momentum in the first few days. Dropped from #5 to #8, IIRC.
Reminds me of a quote “evil isn’t a switch, it’s a journey…”, or at least something to that effect. And you’re right, in fact, if I recall, Nicodemus had misgivings about betraying Arthur initially. That’s the thing though, being a well intentioned (at least originally) tyrant doesn’t change the fact you’ve become a twisted soul.
Speaking of, it’s ironic to note that ‘tyrants’ were originally only seen in a negative light by the establishment, and represented political radicals who usurped their would be leaders and took charge in the name of ‘the people’, which is EXACTLY what Nicodemus claimed he was doing originally, constantly justifying his actions as being ‘for the good of Dreamland’. (Only to become the dictator he claimed to hate so much).
Indeed words and perceptions therein, like people and dragons, change.
I dare say Nicodemus is beyond redemption at this point though, his acts having rendered his history, no matter how noble, a moot point. Besides, he himself seems like the kind of dragon to say ‘if I am to be damned, let me be damned as I am’. And boy, is he damned. 😛
/like this comment ^^
Those could actually be the tips of Nicodemus’ deployed wings…
I’m not betting on it, but it’s a possibility.
It would be extraordinarily unlikely that Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses an ancestor of English King Arthur. The Egyptian Pharaohs were replaced by Greek Pharaohs at the time of Alexander the Great, breaking the line of descent.
Story-wise,this implies that the kingship of Dreamland is not strictly hereditary. This is good news for Alex.
Very good point. THAT’S what I’ve been trying to tell all the “Daniel should be king” people.
That has been established for a while, actually… Arthur is not a descendant of Caesar, nor Caesar a descendant of David through Solomon…
We just don’t know yet exactly what criteria is used to select the next king of Dreamland.
Incidentally, I was thinking about this, recently, and it occurred to me that since no new king is selected until the previous king of dreamland dies, and since no adult human is allowed in Dreamland but the king, that means that each new king becomes king while still a kid! Talk about stress…
Plus, every new king would not know the first thing about being king (unless he was born into a royal family on earth), so there’s no way he could do anything for Dreamland for years, unless he had an advisor…
Another thing that occurred to me is the potential danger to losing the line of kings, should something ever happen to the necklace… like when Alex’ mom confiscated it the moment it showed up in Alex’ possession…
Not only that, but how exactly does it get transferred from one king of Dreamland to the next, if the new king can’t even enter Dreamland while the current king is alive? Wouldn’t the current king have the necklace in their possession, at the time of their death on earth? Does the necklace revert back to being the sword in Dreamland, upon the king’s death on Earth? (But how would it, since it was implied that the person going to sleep was the means by which the sword traveled?) And if it does not revert back to Dreamland, then how does the next person get it? (Especially if they come from such diverse geographical locations? e.g. Pharaoh in Egypt, David and Solomon in Israel, Cesar in Rome, and Arthur in England)
Not only that, but since it’s been established that the next in line for kingship can’t even enter Dreamland until the death of the old one, does that mean that the next king suddenly gets to experience Dreamland upon the death of the previous king, having never been there before, or is the next in line not selected until the previous one dies? And if so, that would mean that only newborns, or whatever age it is that kids start dreaming at, would get selected as the new king? How would that even help Dreamland at all? Don’t they need a king who can manage the land?
So many questions, so few answers…
I have a lot of those questions too. I guess we’re overanalyzing.
Not sure I like this negative portrayal of the Hittites in this war, especially considering it was a Hittite princess who was murdered in the desert which sparked the war, and Ramses was merely a general at the time, not a King until later.
Of course, Ramses was a fantastic fabricator and rewrote the history of the war with the Hittites, so I could see how Nivianne simply is going off Ramses’ self-indulgent lies, with no better evidence since he was King of Dreamland at the time, and no other adult human could pose evidence to the contrary.
In any case, this is a pretty annoyingly negative portrayal of the Hittites, who were the first nation to have an elected voting body equal in power or greater in power to the King, and also especially since the contemporary Hittite ruler was said to be just and have codified law in an extremely ethical manner compared to the far more ruthless and cruel Ramses and their other contemporaries.
Well, that would explain why each ruler in Dreamlands was also a ruler on Earth; they basically led a double life learning to lead since they were a kid, in addition to any training they may have gotten on Earth.
That also demonstrates how important the adviser role is in Dreamlands. Whenever this arrangement was first established, they would have selected the best, long-living individual in Dreamlands for the position. Which makes the Fall of Nicodemus even more tragic, considering that he held that position for at least 4000 years…
I think the sword necklace is just a real world reflection of the Sword of Kings. Remember, Alex didn’t wake up with the sword necklace until after he found the Sword of Kings in Dreamlands. So, once the next king obtains the Sword of Kings (or the sword chooses the next king, still not clear on that), they get the necklace on Earth. This deals with the problem of geographical proximity (or lack there of).
What I find the be the mystery is this notion of Dan as the designated successor and the rightful king. There is something that marked him as the next king, otherwise he would not have been prevented from entering Dreamlands his whole life. But what is it? Or who? Given what we know of Dan, I would assume that the individuals selected have some qualities that set them apart for the role.
The security of the sword necklace is another issue. As you mention, Alex’s mom was able to deprive Dreamlands of its king just by confiscating it. However, if an individual like Dan had the necklace (ignoring for a moment the restrictions), perhaps he would have been clever enough to hold on to it (that being a reason for selection for kingship?).
As for having a kid as the king…that may come back to ‘what is the purpose of Dreamlands?’ Why are human children sent here every night for some of their younger years, and then never again? I have no idea why, but I suspect the tolerance for all these human children may be related to tolerance for child kings, especially if the brightest or most qualified are chosen for the role.
Given that we’ve not seen anyone younger than maybe 6, 6 to 12 (plus/minus a bit) seems to be the age range here.
Perhaps if they’d built their own giant pyramids and not been overrun by the sea peoples, they’d be better remembered.
What happened to Nicodemus’ nose? In the bottom panel of yesterday’s glyph he had a upper/lower “beak” at the front of his muzzle; today he has some sort of curvy thing.
And who built the pyramids? Slaves and people who thought they were going to get a better lot in the afterlife because of it and thus sold their lives into slavery.
He’s been photoshopped. 🙂
Perhaps Abbadon’s last name is Cthulhu?
😉