May 9th, 2014
9 May 2014 · page 363 of 1306
Roll for Insight! Oh hm, Wolfe, that was a pretty bad roll.
Cast: Dominik Voss, Heinrich Wolfe, Jack O'Malley
Comments (38)
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Oh, very interesting!
And he never saw Mal again.
Except we know he did. Whew!
I think he'll save Wolfie at the opportune moment. Because drama.
Or he won't, but because of wolfe's uncanny ability to be good at everything, he will talk his way out of it.
He's SUCH a paladin...
Yea, I love paladins and all....but they usually tend to blind themselves to the reality that not everyone is a good person, which usually comes back to haunt them......but then they can just use holy spells and get more experience....so it all sort of works out in the end...except when they're scammed outta their loot by a con man hehe.
Wolfe is being an amazing innocent here. The charge of desertion is open and shut, and harshly punished. Refusal of a command and interfering with the carrying out of a command are also potential death penalty charges. A canny lawyer might advise him to plead guilty to having fired the shot. "Exceeding orders" is a serious charge, but not in comparison to disobeying orders. [Rather amusing that framing him is doing him a favor.]
Nor does listening to someone who has just taken a shot at you really sound like a sensible idea. Of course a soldier is not supposed to consider someone trying to kill you anything personal, but that means he has orders to do you dirt and he should not be trusted when you don't know those orders.
I wish to know where the expression "do you dirt" comes from, if that isn't a typo of some sort. It's amazing. I hope to remember it next time I need something similar.
You will probably have to spend some time goggling it where it comes from, but the idea it came from "rub your face in the dirt" or "put you in the dirt" is probably accurate enough. They at least fit the routine meaning of wishing you ill, preferably by direct action.
Which is why every Paladin can and should invest heavily in Sense Motive. Which most Paladins I've played/played with/GMed for always do, so "blind to the reality that not everyone is good" couldn't be farther from the truth in my experience.
Also, detect evil.
Role Playing Games always make being good so easy. Good and evil are quantifiable characteristics. That must really ruin any philosophical discussions on morality, since everyone knows exactly what's right and what's wrong.
I've never found this to be the case in my experience, there's always been enough grey and enough questioning of what is and isn't the right thing to do in a certain circumstance to suit my tastes.
That said I also like a world slightly less grey-on-grey than reality, so it's not a bad thing IMO.
Okay then, let's say you're not in a character-sheet-D&D world or similar, but just a fantasy world where Good and Evil aren't necessarily quantifiable but are still primal and real. What happens to the philosophical discussions then? I am curious, because in my campaign setting I am trying to mesh objective reality with necessarily subjective morality, and these are the kindsa questions I think need to be asked.
tl;dr What if you wanted to apply philosophical discussion to objective morality?
It is possible that the primal good and evil are still largely unknown to people. Imagine a Good force that rarely interacts with mortals and when it does it is very light touch as if the Good is worried about the evil in your heart.
You could also note that these forces may be incredibly dumb. They don't seem to respond to subjective rules, which can mess with you. You could also go the opposite and take forces that are almost bi-polar in how they interpret the rules subjectively.
The questions can still be asked. They can get really weird if Good or Evil is actually tangible.
There is no such thing as good and evil though. For example, if someone is brought up in a society that thinks that murdering is fun and kicking puppies is a great pass time, that could be good to him, while helping people could be considered the most atrocious act of them all.
There's no such thing as a society in which killing people whenever anyone feels like it is accepted for very obvious reasons: Eventually enough people would either be dead and there would be no society or people would band together into groups agreeing not to kill one another, thus forming new societies. Societies that don't regulate killing (or lying and stealing for that matter) do not survive, making a rather strong case that at the very least a universal "wrong" does exist.
Regardless, the perception one has of one's actions is largely irrelevant to whether they are ethical, or more simply put: Not realizing kicking puppies is bad wouldn't make it right.
"I can see yer bleeding SOULS, and he HATES you!" ...Yeah, even if he could articulate that, there's no way he'd be believed.
Man, Mal really needs to learn Emma's line. "I know when people are lying, and I am NEVER wrong. Try me, I'll prove it to you."
I wish I knew what my soul looked like sigh
No you don't. Just trust me on that, okay.
But wouldn't it allow me to know exactly what needs to be changed within my moral character in order to better myself? Of course I'm not perfect, and I'll never be perfect. But, I do actively strive to be a better person. So, I think it would be useful and illuminating to see the form of my soul.
Give me a harsh reality over blissful ignorance any day.
In fact, go ahead and make it every day.
Looking more like the spirit sight was long term if 'no one else listens'. ...And did he just throw a burning cigarette into the brush? o_o
It's not a lock. There are lots of other ways to not listen on a lot of subjects [Teacher didn't listen when he finked on another student, nor to his excuse for some escapade, or ...] But it does at least support the idea his sight was a long term problem. On the same line, he seems pretty comfortable in knowing what his sight means. That does imply a long learning period. Of course, magic does tend to imply "Kazam!, you are an instant expert.", but the idea of misusing new powers is very common and this also fits better with the idea that O'Malley has been doing this for years.
On the other side, if it is an old skill, we do have a loose thread. How did he get this sight? We are likely going to have to divert for a page or so to explain that.
+100XP DM’s bonus for the RPG reference!
It sure caught me by surprise! Which is silly, considering how long I followed Darken before this started up. Good times.
If the story follows the arc we need to end up with Envy released near the Anchor in Widdershins. It'll be interesting to see how this works, considering Herr Wolfe and Mr O'Malley won't go there until Volume 2. But I guess it'll be Herr Voss who'll be doing the summoning, probably by accident. He does give the impression of being unable to summon the barman in a pub.
I was somewhat confused by Mal’s comment on the last page about someone else being a mess, but after seeing Voss through his eyes on this page, I went back and sure enough, Mal is looking somewhere above Voss’s head when he says that.
(Attention to detail makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.)
I really like Voss's spirit monster thing! Looks sort of like a cross between a dragon and a wolf.
Wolfe what are doing? You made him leave. No.
Voss's spirit looks like it's been sitting out in the sun too long.
Someone's been suffering from Cassandra's curse.
Just a quick tip: Germans don't actually finish questions with "Ja", or "Yes", this is just something that popular culture has come up with.
He's speaking English at this point, it's moreso that his speech uses a lot of tag questions than having the stereotypical "Ja" thing in mind!
I was reading chapter two again, and I just noticed [this](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-19th-2012/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-19th-2012/"):
Mal says he is sorry for not listening to Wolfe, and Wolfe says they are even. At first, I assumed that Wolfe just meant that they are even because Mal saved Wolfe (and Ben et al). However, now I realize that Wolfe may have actually meant "we are even from that time three years ago when I didn't listen to you even though I should have."
This page is so sad... Voss' spirit, Jack's disappointment that once again no one understands him, Wolfe's kindness and trust that are most likely to be betrayed...
I say this in every comment, but I LOVE your work!
ANALYSES TIME!!!
First off green with envy very smart also foreshadowing the different shades could represent all the different things Voss is envious off when it comes to Wolfe yellow is not only a ‘happy’ colour but can also be rather deceptive one much like Voss is being at the moment. As for the wolf/fox motif that could not only represent his sly nature but also the object of all his jealousy. Plus it’s got quite sharp claws. Good for stabbing people in the back! Can’t think of why the head isn’t on the body maybe betrayal? Eh maybe it’ll come to me