Oren's Forge PG 305
Added 2024-02-05 22:00:04 +0000 UTCNew page out next Monday!
[Click Here to Start Volume Two: Incursion from the beginning!]
~~~
I didn’t expect to feel quite the way I did drawing Seral’s death. While I was working on this page, I kept thinking of the spring in 2015 when I was house-sitting for my mom. I was intent to use that time to revive an idea I’d started in 2013, which eventually became Oren’s Forge. I had to redesign the wolves and I can clearly remember sitting in that sunny room, listening to a particular playlist, and figuring out what color pallet each of the (at the time) nameless wolves would have. I’d have never of guessed that Seral would ever get more than a line or two of dialogue, let alone a name (and then even a name change!) I didn’t know what was in store for him then and it’s bittersweet that it’s over. It's a reminder we never know what will become important and we don’t remember half of what we’ve lost.
Out of nostalgia, I listened to the old playlist I had in 2015 while I worked on this page. If there’s a dirge for Seral, it’s ‘Soft, Grey Rain’ by Kid Sam (which, if you wanted to hear it, it’s a hard song to find now, but it’s on bandcamp, track 9, and you can listen for free.) I think it captures the abstract sadness of killing him, mourning that loss of potential, wondering about if it had all been a little different.
Here’s some of the very first Seral’s I ever drew, which I used as reference up until the very end.
Bye, bud.
Comments
Question, was Hemlock inspired by Rask’s fishing to bait Seral into killing range?
Microgrampup
2024-04-01 21:40:14 +0000 UTCI don't know why I was expecting a more grandiose death for Seral? He never deserved it, but this was so sudden an unexpected! I wonder what Hemlock will do with the pups? I don't take her for a child murderer (not counting her own as a mercy), she'd be just as bad as the predators she so fears, then. The pups are going to have a hard time accepting anything that comes out of her mouth after that, though...
TornTethers
2024-02-08 04:54:24 +0000 UTCI think the first was Ramble and Baneberry
Gale Tazzin
2024-02-07 02:38:45 +0000 UTCGood question...looks to be enough fur for a full rabbit outfit with extra left over
Liyoht
2024-02-07 02:29:27 +0000 UTCCotton wasn’t around to observe that lesson unfortunately. I expect him to be very annoying when Rask gets back to the Hollow.
Microgrampup
2024-02-07 02:15:19 +0000 UTCI am genuinely curious if Hemlock will use Seral's hide to make a new outfit. She hasn't found a replacement for that bobcat skin so far after all.
LabFox
2024-02-06 23:23:04 +0000 UTCYou mean the bobcat skin? She lost that one in the fight against Yarrow. He tore it to shreds (see page 166).
LabFox
2024-02-06 23:20:00 +0000 UTCCan't help but feel a bit sad about Seral's fate. I think he was an excellent supporting character and I'm glad he evolved in your story and his part (as well as the whole plot with the wolves) was expanded. One of signs of a good story is the fact that your characters start to speak to you and get a life of their own. Seral was a conflicted guy, I believe if the circumstances were a bit different he would be able to choose a different path. I wish the little extra story between the volumes you've mentioned was about him but I guess Lichen is the most likely candidade. Now the confrontation between the pups and Hemlock is worring. Will Swift get there on time to save her little ones? I guess Hemlock will see in them a reflection of her own lost children, even if it's going to be only for a short while and may hesitate, at least for a moment.
Pantera
2024-02-06 11:28:41 +0000 UTCGuess she learned her lesson from fighting Rask's dad. No heroics, no dramatic facedown, nothing even close to giving them a fighting chance... you use your smaller frame to stealthily get closet, backstab them and done.
Reseen Dalls
2024-02-06 10:26:28 +0000 UTCand the pups saw their uncle being killed by a rabbit and now Hemlock will see that in their eyes she is a monster that killed their beloved uncle.
MaxyBlack
2024-02-06 08:34:54 +0000 UTCAlso I find the size comparison interesting, as this is our first side to side rabbit/wolf
Liyoht
2024-02-06 03:47:39 +0000 UTCHoly shit!!!
Chipster
2024-02-06 03:38:44 +0000 UTCIs that Hemlock? Had thought she had the pard skin ...
Liyoht
2024-02-06 03:35:51 +0000 UTCC'mon Hemlock, they're just babies. They can learn.
Dinah
2024-02-06 03:22:48 +0000 UTCI love the parallel between Hemlock's line here and Seral's line on page 301
Gale Tazzin
2024-02-06 03:06:54 +0000 UTCRask would recognize Hemlock's work. And he'd absolutely be sympathetic to them. But if Swift gets there first, she's sure to connect Seral's wound to the way Rask ambushed her from a tree. Maybe she'd think he killed Seral? Or maybe she'd also remember that Baneberry had a spear, and realize that Rask might've been the only one of the forest animals to value a wolf's life. Either way, it's gonna be good, and both the main characters are sure to be deeply affected by this.
Gale Tazzin
2024-02-06 03:05:39 +0000 UTCGranted, if Seral had a change of heart and went into the forest to *save* the pups, he still would've been killed
Gale Tazzin
2024-02-06 02:58:59 +0000 UTCIn OEW comic, we saw that a lack of focus on the true goal of survival can be the downfall of an apex predator. Of course this applies to prey animals like Hemlock, she didn’t have her priorities straight and attacked Rask instead of the marten that was truly a threat to the Hollow and she was taken out in a humiliating way.
Microgrampup
2024-02-06 02:27:56 +0000 UTCWell, he also died partially vindicated! The whole time Swift said the forest wasn't dangerous, he kept pushing back... and now he's killed as soon as he returns to the woods by a weapon Swift deemed "not a threat". That's poetic too!
Gale Tazzin
2024-02-06 02:25:49 +0000 UTCoh damn that was fast
Gale Tazzin
2024-02-06 02:21:59 +0000 UTChere is a link to the song on youtube as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-CK_oIr5TE and the time for Hemlock to be conflicted, when she see's the pups and wants to kill them knowing what they will become/are and can she bring herself to kill a baby? will she let them live and reconsider her priorities? will she kill them first and then realize what she just did and be further conflicted? Will something interrupt her just before and save the pups? I of course am all for the pup surviving but i am biased in favor of puppies.
Misha Malamute
2024-02-06 02:10:16 +0000 UTCI still remember and even commented on Rask's fight with his dad and how Hemlock seemed, at best, incompetent. then here I see Seral die MUCH FASTER than I expected. Wow.
Amethysmus
2024-02-06 01:00:22 +0000 UTCI definitely was shocked at his death, because i was feeling like there /was/ in fact so much potential for him as a person, put in a very confusing spot, and i wanted to see what decisions he would finally make, it's bittersweet like you said. It's fascinating to read how you went through the same struggle with killing him. Im not upset at this direction though, not at all. I think the way its executed makes it all the more powerful. Lots of people's stories end before they get to see them finished- seral is one of them. Hopefully this ramble made sense!
Givemeyourmilk
2024-02-06 00:35:44 +0000 UTCSeral had a chance at redemption with his talk with Red, but turned away from it. Now it seems it's Hemlock's turn to make a choice Whatever happens, Swift is in for a shock when she returns
RandomDragon2.0
2024-02-06 00:17:58 +0000 UTCThe poetic justice of Seral dying under the trees as a coward when we know wolves prefer to die under the open sky is so good.
Sync
2024-02-06 00:10:32 +0000 UTCLife sucks and then you die!
Jai611
2024-02-05 23:49:08 +0000 UTCKarma was swift after he finally made up his mind.
Grey
2024-02-05 23:47:48 +0000 UTCChildhood trauma unlocked.
Fixion Shepherd
2024-02-05 22:54:10 +0000 UTCWe either get two more bodies, rask shows up or swift shows up Rask did leave after the encounter with swift so he might wonder on up to find the pups I hope maybe But this comic hasn't pulled punches so we might get some more dead kids
M0N5T3R5
2024-02-05 22:53:40 +0000 UTCLooks like he's become meat faster than Red. Maybe he should have taken that advice.
Aratare
2024-02-05 22:48:45 +0000 UTCI don't know if Swift will get there in time to witness it, but I imagine she's probably the only one who could really understand any of this. Certainly neither Hemlock or the pups would realize just who saved who.
Furlop
2024-02-05 22:36:48 +0000 UTCThis is..... not what I expected.... at all. Shit.....
Kairo
2024-02-05 22:35:34 +0000 UTCMy intention was for Seral and Hemlock to mirror one another so I'm glad that came through!
Teagan Gavet
2024-02-05 22:29:43 +0000 UTCThat hits hard, but he died just like the prey he hunted.
NightEyes DaySpring
2024-02-05 22:27:37 +0000 UTCgoodnight not so sweet prince... that song really DOES seem to fit, as i listen to it. very interested to see where hemlock's story will go now, as i always felt parts of it paralleled seral's--all this talk about a quick, painless snap of the neck for the pups to save them from a supposed worse fate reminds me of hemlock killing her own kit to save them from torture. obviously not a one to one comparison, but the intent is, at least on its face, similar. hemlock isn't so much a twig floating in someone else's stream but a young river in her own right--ruthless and violent as she cuts through old stone. she is, though, very much entrenched in her beliefs, just as seral was--and both their beliefs were in part formed through trauma. fascinating stuff!
cactus bastrop
2024-02-05 22:17:38 +0000 UTCWell. It was fast and he never knew what hit him. I hope Hemlock just see's the pups as innocent rather than prospective predators.
Marcwolf
2024-02-05 22:16:18 +0000 UTCI dunno why, but I kind of like how anticlimactic his death is. With Sprig and Yarrow, it felt like a big deal, but here, it’s like he’s here, then he’s dead.
Maximus Coyotox
2024-02-05 22:15:30 +0000 UTCI’d loved to think that she wouldn’t hurt them, but given what she’s been through I don’t think she has sympathy for any predator, regardless of age
Dhaka Yeena
2024-02-05 22:14:33 +0000 UTC*Presses F* I mean, he was gonna kill the pups, but still, bye bye Seral.
Maximus Coyotox
2024-02-05 22:10:49 +0000 UTCIt actually happened! I am so afraid for the pups. I really hope Hemlock sees them as scared babies like hers and doesn't hurt them.
Emily Grant
2024-02-05 22:08:30 +0000 UTCOpe
Alicia Taylor
2024-02-05 22:05:10 +0000 UTCRIP Seral 😔 What a wild turn of events though!! On the edge of my seat here
Wyn Bird
2024-02-05 22:04:35 +0000 UTCOh snap! And infront of the pups
Dhaka Yeena
2024-02-05 22:01:32 +0000 UTC
