October 18th, 2019
18 Oct 2019 · page 937 of 1306
Ah yes the ultimate team up that we were all waiting for
Cast: Benjamin Thackerey, Gren, Heinrich Wolfe, Sidney Malik
Comments (59)
Events
ThoughtBubble
14 Nov 2026 – 15 Nov 2026
Harrogate Convention Centre
Manchester Megacon
31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
Manchester Central
All of Ben's expressions are priceless... And Wolfe is getting close to angry??
From his face in the first two panels, I'd say there is more pain than anger (or something close to grow into it) in him. His open hand in the second panel and "who are we" doesn't look like antagonizing to Ben as well.
But I think there was enough of tenseness between them for Sid and Gren reacting at that.
I still can't get over the identical expressions in the last panel.
"nothing is larger than choice" WOLFE I LOVE YOU
also, awww ben, showing he cares by worrying that mal's been kidnapped lol
Bad choices can be devastating to the chooser. And even deadly to the innocent.
Let's find out what Mal is running away from.
"Choice is an illusion, created between those with power and those without." --The Merovingian.
Discuss. ;)
While fair and... mostly true, lack of choice is not universal. You know the saying "knowledge is power"? That's not entirely accurate, because it is choice that is power. Knowledge simply makes available choice one may previously have not known they had.
To remove a free thinking person's choice is no more than a sleight of hand. All that is needed to see past it is to know how the trick is done, to see what factors are attempting to force you one way or another, much like a stage magician. Once you can see the force, you can choose differently.
Granted, not every option is viable. Occasionally a situation will arise wherein all available options save one are so poor as to not warrant consideration. Again, this is an illusion of lack of choice. While they may not be good, you can choose the bad option, and live with the consequences.
In conclusion, if you have the ability to choose, you have the right to choose, and anyone that says otherwise is attempting to control you. Break their control and become truly yourself through understanding of the tricks and methods of suppression they bring to bear.
There is one exception to this. Death is the end of all choices, so the ability to cause the death of another is also the ability to truly control their choices. Hence the say "Power grows out of the barrel of a gun". Whilst Mao Tse Tung's original line was about political power, this funny comic illustrates its more general application: [http://www.existentialcomic...](http://www.existentialcomics.com/comic/307 "http://www.existentialcomics.com/comic/307")
Holy crap, I didn't expect anyone to take me up on that. You're all awesome. Also, thanks for that comic, Chris. I'd honestly never thought about things from that point of view before. Very interesting.
Free will is important! (Wait, this isn't even Galebound...)
Oh, Sid and your diplomacy of 80th level! :)
But shouldn't you take Gren with yourself as you are going for Mal's things? Of course not, because you'd have to take "Mr. Thackerey" as well. ;)
Why has Mr Malik taken the person who doesn't want to find Mr O'Malley?
Because he secretly agrees with that person and wants that person to be making the decisions if the sympathetic magic finding spell works.
Sympathetic magic finding spell? That one Acedia used on Izzy and Henry? Oh. No use for Gren, then.
Would be fun if these things can't work on witches... for given value of "fun". :/
When in doubt, take the more gorgeous person with you. Duh.
I've thought of another reason for Sid taking Wolfe but not Ben. He and Wolfe are going through a similar experience with their Special Person being missing, and he was there when Wolfe got out of the mirror by admitting that he was afraid Mal didn't need him anymore. Maybe he wants to gently sound out how Wolfe really feels about searching for Mal without Ben starting the same argument again.
Ah yes, the old "duty and responsibility" versus "personal freedom" argument. No surprises who is on which side.
No surprises, but quite a bit of irony, given that Wolfe got O'Malley into Widdershins seemingly against his will. Of course, it didn't look like a life-defining act then, but he could just trust his friend's wish to not go there, couldn't he?
[I remember that Wolfe hoped to heal Mal's "condition" there and I don't think it was done really against his will.]
Still, he admitted that at the beginning of "Curtain Call" and told Mal had his choice.
On this page, I tend to think that Ben's words are correct de-facto (in the sense "O'Malley's choice isn't just his personal choice"), and Wolfe's words sound like some universal (and idealistic) maxim (like his "Most people are good inside").
Factually, though, even if we don't know much about witches, we know that Widdershins was OK without a witch for a few centuries... and I suspect that a reluctant witch would hardly be much better than none.
Emergency calls, like in CC, is somewhat different matter. In Harry's words, "Sometimes... there's things that need done. And... it isn't what you want to do. You never chose it." But then the problem was caused by O'Malley (though he didn't know about that) and... his friends were involved.
Whatever our duties, nothing can happen apart from our choices.
True, but there is saying also, "Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt." :)
Or to put it another way, Fate rules both gods and men.
"You cannot escape your destiny, because whatever you do becomes your destiny" Reginald Iolanthe Perrin
SMELLY MAN MAKE NICE MAN UPSET, ACTIVATE BORK
More like "they're not letting Mommy's mate talk; I should explain how rude they're being."
Oh, you made me notice that Sid suddenly vanished from his chair in the second panel...
I bet he noticed Gren getting ready to bark and jumped up to grab her.
That, or he went to her, pointed at Wolfe and Ben, and said: "Crowd control."
I think a big piece of the puzzle we are missing is whether Gren's opinion of Sid has improved in the intervening time.
Well. He's allowed to walk and hold her now without her growling at him. So there's that.
I suspect the name Gren has given Sid is That Man.
That's it, Sid. You do NOT get to seat guests at the next dinner party.
OK, so who's going to come through that door next?
Presuming, perhaps rashly, that all the deadlies and their cohort really are securely out of the picture...
Does Ben need to guard that globe?
Yeah... it looks like everyone's a bit stressed... : P
Here I was thinking that Wolfe & Sid would be the ultimate nice-guy team-up...
But now, apparently, we're presented with the ultimate ultimate team-up: large magic-sniffing dog and short fussy wizard! At least their names rhyme.
Oh God, I didn't realize that. I can't stop giggling now. Thanks, OB. <3
I spent way too long trying to figure out how "dog" and "wizard" rhymed ;)
I can hardly wait to see who the expected client is!
Eliza, perhaps??
I was wondering about that, but Sid is expecting the client to ask for Harry. Eliza knows Harry is missing, so it doesn’t seem like she would come here looking for her.
I'm imagining Eliza coming in under the premise of being a client, and besetting Ben with piercing questions about Harry as part of her investigation. ("what's her schedule like these days?" "Has she ever seemed... 'witchy' to you?"). Poor Ben would be so unprepared XD
"Oh, and are you using that globe for anything?"
Thank you, Grendel.
Psst... Cast of characters says it's Greenwitch (pronounced " Gren-nich"),
Oh! I just... assumed. Because she's fierce and all.
Easy mistake to make! :)
I'm curious why it is that Ben believes Mal ought to have come forward publicly as the new witch of Widdershins, or what it is that he believes he ought to be doing as witch that requires his presence in town?
Based on Ben and Wolfe's present occupations, the Malform Busters no longer seems to be a going concern, so it doesn't appear to be the case that Mal is shirking any of those duties.
Not to say that I agree entirely with Wolfe, but it's hard to see what, exactly, makes Mal's absence a problem in and of itself, save for sentiment.
I guess it'll come out over the rest of the story.
Heck yes I have been waiting for a Ben & Gren team up!
'Tis a shame we can't upvote the author comments. :)
Sidney! How assertive of you! And you've mastered some Gren-fu, too. ^_^ How delightful.
“Leave 50 guineas in a bag under the Wych Elm in Anchor Park at midnight on Tuesday, and you’ll never see O’Malley alive again”
thank you gren. thank you sid. we do not need wolfe and ben to get into an argument. this is interesting because wolfe had always been the diplomat between mal and ben. but because he's gone, wolfe who is usually the middle ground has become the other hand.
I think the comments here are too focused on the first panel and missing the second: What if he didn't choose to disappear at all, but rather, he was captured and his captor forged the note?
I doubt it, given that the first page of this chapter showed Mal leaving town (accompanied by, presumably, the Purple Hippo) because he needed "a bit of time t' think".
Yeah, Mal left on his own - but there is some chance that he got into trouble AFTERWARD.
I am with Ben here.
Mal has a lot of magic, but when far from the Anchor, he perhaps can't use it properly. Let alone he doesn't know how to earn money.
He seems to have been on his own a while before he met Wolfe so he probably can get by, my guess would be he still plays cards just has less starting money. (They should still go make sure nothing happens to him though!)
Ok, I don't know how I missed that page, but somehow I did. Even still, although we, the readers, know that, the characters having the argument do not. ...Also there's what Maria pointed out.
Ben and Gren: I didn't agree to this!
I love that pair of reactions in the last panel.
-- also, smart Sidney!
Sid why would you leave Ben alone with the wizardivorous dog...