July 12th, 2019
12 Jul 2019 · page 912 of 1306
Guilty! Of the crime of Shoving.
Cast: Dr Esther Flack, George Knott, Robert Hackett, Vincent Knott, Will Sharpe
Comments (62)
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i hope everything in her handbag is getting absolutely drenched. her foam capsule dinos are RUINED
Been a while since anyone's made me spit-take at work. Bravo. <3
Sharpe is eying Flack's bag.
Sharpe eyes note the win condition to save both himself AND the guy that likes him.
Foam capsule dinos? That's the first thing you think of?! I love it! Let me pick your brain!
I'm now picturing an alternate (?) ending where they burst out of her purse and attack her in a rage at their imprisonment!
Don't listen to her! Once it's revealed that it's not you on the end of the rope, you'll be a wanted fugitive for crimes against magic and murdering Vincent.
Although, swapping places with the hangman so he is hanged while you escape will make you a folk-hero for ever. Will Sharpe, the man they couldn't hang.
Honestly it might make future hangmen afraid to work on him because they'll probably think he did it with magic and how can the average hangman fight that?
Fairport Convention will do a concept album about you! Mel Gibson will play you in the film! I'm starting to like the sound of this!
Except for the tortured conscience part. Remember that's his crush up there (or a mate, at the very least).
Tortured conscience and being played by Mel Gibson, in particular. :shudder:
Too bad he can't punch her with his free arm in a sling. This would be a perfect time for it.
You can punch someone when you have a broken arm, just be ready for it to hurt you too.
Ooh! Punch anyone! Just start a riot!
He could also kick her.
A Glasgow kiss? His skull is thick enough.
I mean, I get that she's just trying to get him to run off without turning her in but as dumb as he is he must know they will undress the body at some point and they'll figure out it's not him. Tho I guess depending on how long that took he'd just have the chance for a head start out of town.
I hope that's his ticket to stop all this that he spotted in her handbag!
It looks like papers - probably the paper he wrote. The "crimes" have been announced and the big one is the Loss of a Magical Paper. But if it's now Found, could that interfere with events? Maybe he should just yell Quiescete - that whole crowd behaves as though they were Flacked.
"that whole crowd behaves as though they were Flacked."
Someone has a great deal of faith in humanity, to assume such bloodthirstiness in a crowd must be the result of some external compulsion.
Historically, mobs have been that bad without magical compulsion, but have they been that way in the context of this story?
She has Flacked groups before, just on the chance that they might encounter Will. We saw it with the students and with the cleaning staff. Once unFlacked, the students forgot all about the people they had been attacking. I begin to wonder how long ago Flack chose Will as her scapegoat.
George puts the knot at the back of the neck so; despite the high platform and the trapdoor, this is the older style short drop where, instead of snapping the neck, the victim strangles.
Unpleasant and usually messy.
But more chances for a dramatic last-second rope-cut rescue
If execution-craft is the same in this universe as our own, he should be using the side-of-the-neck positioning.
My best guess is that Kate didn't know this was a thing until all of us said things.
Yes, Kate, the position of the knot, the length of the rope, and some other factors all gravely affect how hanging works. I can explain if you want.
It does take a while to get the hang of it.
Why are you still hanging around?
Haven't reached the end of my rope yet.
Rope, like a good plot, has a good twist.
i know, i read an entire biography of billington before i wrote this one. what fits into the panel's composition is more important than accuracy though :)
As a trained historian, I am obligated to say: BLASPHEMY! XD
That said, it's your comic, M'lady. <3
Never let inconvenient facts get in the way of a good story.
The rope is imbued with the spirit of "making it a better idea to tie it this way".
"gravely"
Oh zark, I didn't realize. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa everyone. Pun not intended.
Snapping the neck normally produces paralysis (and stops breathing); the victim strangles either way, but doesn't struggle with a broken neck. Also a broken neck really hurts, so it's really about making it look cleaner for the crowd. The hood was so no one could see the agonized faces the victim was making.
I wonder if Eliza's gun is in Flack's bag, too...
How about we put HER in that noose?
Oh, flack you, you first grade rotten villain >:(
Start yelling, Will! You're close enough to the front now that George might actually hear you. (And Knotty might hear you, too - he needs all the hope he can get, especially since he doesn't know that you and Eliza survived the fall.)
Don't count on it. Executions were public entertainment back in the day, and crowds got rowdy.
Yes, the rowdiness of the crowd has been evident on this page and the last one. My point was that there’s only one row of people between Will and the platform, so he’d have a better chance of being heard than Eliza did at the back of the crowd.
You definitely got a hand with cliffhangers!
Man, I know this isn't the point of this page, but Flack is STRONG. She's been shown easily overpowering both Knotty and Sharpe now. I almost wonder if it's magic, but imbuings are emotion-based, and I don't think "totally ripped" is an emotion... she must have some serious muscles hiding under those sleeves.
I mean, to be fair, I don't think you need to be very strong to overpower Knotty. Sharpe on the other hand, a bit more so.
Well, at least right now Sharpe is down a hand.
So was Knotty.
Also she really screwed that up, attempting to handle him with one arm while also doing other things.
Well, if you can imbue a train with "impatience" to make it go faster, why not imbue your arms with "stubbornness" to make your grip stronger?
I think "possessiveness" might be more suited to a stronger, more controlling grip.
She really is! That move she's doing in the fourth panel is kind of scary.
Yes... she completely flips her hand around between panel 3 and 4, then flips it around again in the last panel... That's some fast hands lol.
No! He has to get up there, or Knotty's name might never appear in the chapter tags again!!
Except in flashbacks.
What a fate, to be eternally confined to flashbacks.
The eventual fate of us all
Please don't say it like that.
She's just so delightfully evil.
I see he's focused on the right thing (not her distraction).
For a change, Flack doesn't hold her "fan".
She learned her lesson about dual-wielding weapons while also grappling.
Ma'am, you are literally holding the documents which, if produced, would clear his name in a much cleaner (morally speaking) fashion.
Ugh! Just... stop being so evil!
Can somebody please just punch her already?
Wow, saying she underestimated him and then continuing to underestimate him in the same villainous monologue
Yoink!