July 19th, 2016
20 Jul 2016 · page 619 of 1306
Knowing when to leave it and when to push it is pretty important.
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Cast: Heinrich Wolfe, Jack O'Malley
Comments (54)
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Wolfe's nailing his colours to the mast there.
At first I wasn't sure whether Wolfe was being consciously manipulative or just being Wolfe... then I realised Mal would be able to tell if it was the former. Oh Wolfe, you are a stand-up dude.
Just because it's not malicious desnt mean it's not manipulation of a sort. Wolfe is a decent man, but he knows Mal is, too, and knows that the best way to have Mal admit to being willing to help is to lead by example and help Mal rise above his fears
However, can you see Wolfe leaving given the circumstances, regardless of what's going on with Mal?
That's the best thing about this--Wolfe deciding to stay is genuinely his own decision. If Mal leaves, Mal's safely out of Widdershins, and given how Mal reacted, Wolfe knows he has good reason to leave. But Wolfe isn't going to run. Especially not with Ben staying as well. No manipulation; he's simply leaving Mal's choice to stay or go entirely with Mal. And telling him, rather than abandoning Mal to his decision to run. A friend doesn't do that; if you have time, you say goodbye.
In my mind, Wolfe is very much like Captain Carrot from the Discworld series. He might seem outwardly simple at times, however it would be a serious mistake to discount his intelligence.
Perhaps a better word for what Wolfe is doing would be "interaction". Though technically the same as manipulation, it doesn't carry the selfish, negative connotations that "manipulation" has.
YOU'RE SO RIGHT HOW HAVE I NEVER MADE THE CONNECTION BEFORE
... although less simple than just "optimistically naive"... so maybe more of a Twoflower?
(and now I feel like I have seen this discussion in the comments before...haha)
Nah, Twoflower didn't seem to have too much sense of his own agency, and much of his naivete was based on cultural differences. But the Carrot that was fresh from the dwarven caves had a deeply-rooted penchant for doing The Right Thing.
We've not seen Wolfe do anything Wrong (i.e., for the wrong reasons), and he did suffer for trying to do the Right Thing (which led to his absconding with O'Malley in the first place)... but we've also seen him continue focusing on things that were out of the ordinary (Sloth-infused lamp oil) even in the face of discouragement. He seems to be much more familiar with fitting into foreign cultures, too.
So, yeah, I think Wolfe is much more of a Carrot than a Twoflower.
Well, in a way, psychotherapy is all about manipulation. For all that the word has negative connotations, manipulation can be used benevolently just as much as it can be used maliciously.
Someone give me a bronze because i'm third.
Ha, so clever! And I agree with Falco, he is just being Wolfe nevertheless. The mood and colors are great and well fitted in this page (I mean, particularly in this page).
Now let's watch Mal try to talk Wolfe into coming away with him. We know by now that if Wolfe has decided to stay, he's immovable.
Hm. Actually, Mal knows this too, better than anyone.
And knowing that Mal is the ultimate tsundere of the whole universe......;)
Yay, Wolfe. And you know you don't want to leave him, Mal.
I expect Herr Wolfe wants to stay because of the new exciting vibrant atmosphere of Widdershins. It's going to be just like Ibiza now all the deadly sins are released there. It has a bright new future as Britain's most popular holiday destination.
He could also want to stay to meet Florrie again.
Well played, sir, well played
Is that a musician pun? Because if it is I swear to the tree-tops...!
Oh Wolfe. You are my most favourite personification of an outsourced moral compass.
And hm! I'd wondered before how much of Mal's dodgy past he'd shared with Wolfe. Apparently there are at least a few pointed holes in whatever tale was spun over the years.
(Panel 4 Mal is a Relatable Feel, and I really like the sky in this scene.)
Yes. And about that sky... What time of day is it now? It's not still dawn, surely (too much has happened), and not yet sunset. The sky was orange even when Mal awoke, but... hey, maybe that was just sunrise. It started to be all stripey and strange once Wrath was released.
I think we should be worried. Those colours may just be visible in Mal-vision.
This has to be in my top 3 favourite pages, if not my favourite page, in this comic.
Actually no, this page is just an example of the many reasons I love this comic to bits.
I think that nearly every time.
All the oddly coloured extras are fighting! The sins are feeding!
And then there's the one sleeping dude in the window who's probably giving sloth a feast.
And the tiny black silhouette in the background stealing something.
I love the details! Well done Ms. Ashwin!
That'd probably be me.
You gotta love that attention to detail!
Yup
Mal, you know what Wolfe's sense of responsibility is like. The only reason you know him at all is that he stayed to take care of you after he accidentally got you shot. He's not leaving without doing everything he can to stop the deadlies. Are you really going to let him do this without you?
No..., no, he's not going to. He's staying.
He probably already knows he's lost this one, but he still has to put up some sort of a fight.
Wolfe may have been affected himself - he appears to have stolen the cord from the first frame to make a fiddle-case sling.
I had not noticed that, but you're right that the cord he's using to carry his violin in frames 2-6 is clearly not in his possession in frame 1.
The cord might have been coiled inside the violin case.
Or, knowing Wolfe... even with the Deadlies on the loose, he could have asked someone nicely as he walked through the streets and had it given to him.
It's hanging on the rail in frame #1
Ah, so it is! What a lucky chance!
O'Malley, Wolfe is a luxury that you're not always going to have. If you're gonna be the Witch of Widdershins, you're gonna need to learn to exercise that backbone of yours.
One step at a time, dude! C'mon. He's only gotten as far as accepting a bare minimum of responsibility one time in his life!
Well, I think the violin is going to be getting some exercise... :)
Wolfe is the bestest friend. not pushing Mal one way or the other here because that would backfire horribly.
Also...heck. It was the place that had him baulk so hard, and thus the cells are relevant. Sad jazz-hands for team conspiracy.
An outright asylum seems a little strong, if only because this is a world where magic is real, and Mal has a genuine, measurable magical talent. Unless his sight was a lot more erratic in his youth, it doesn't take much to realise he does have something going on. (Nicola's police wizards pegged him for magic very quickly, after all, though the mechanics of that are unclear.) But a consultant or doctor, perhaps? A wizard who was supposed to help, but whose methods weren't entirely scrupulous?
Supporting evidence: reference to tests and poking; a bias against wizards and spellery that arguably goes beyond mere headaches (the Lamplighters thought they had a convert in him, after all); stubbornly playing intellectually dead whenever Ben tries to teach him anything magic-related; enough familiarity with Widdershins and its systems to know about duff degrees and bugger-ups.
Uncertain evidence: the faded remnants of an Irish traveller accent, the illiteracy (not necessarily unusual for the times, but unusual among the cast), and whether or not his reaction to being called a witch was as disproportionate as I keep thinking it might just be.
Contradictory evidence: tragically I am still not Ms Ashwin and may be riding a runaway horse into completely the wrong sunset. But it's a nice horse at least.
I think Acedia may have held him there. [http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-24th-2016/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-24th-2016/")
Hmm, good catch...
Ooh. That is an excellent little point. And it would bring the pieces together in such a way as to leave one averse to Widdershins, wizards, and anyone who might throw the word witch at him...by jove you may just have cracked it.
Guess now I'll just have to stare into the distance and attempt to divine, from thin air, whether Acedia mistreated Mal or whether he maybe accidentally tenured as an assistant supervillain this one time. It's good to have hobbies.
She did say something about having a "cleaner"....
I am counting the number of consecutive pages with no tobacco.
Haven't seen a pipe since Harry last tapped her ash on April 26.
Of course, Mal was puffing a cigarette before Wrath burst on May 31.
(Just in case Kate thinks we are only concerned with relationships and stuff.)
hey there was plenty of smoke when that house burned down
Yeah.... It was a Condor moment.
Yes, but that's not tobacco smoke, unless they were storing some bales of tobacco in the attic...
It's the fingerkings.
mmmph... I'dbeshippingthemlikemadatthispointifIwasn'tholdingoutforMalbeingace,justsayin'. Hah. XD;
Further evidence that Wolfe is the Zen Master....with Wrath rampaging around Widdershins, and even our heroes showing their tempers....Wolfe is still the same bright light he always was.
Start playing, my man.
you've got to know when to hold 'em,
know when to fold 'em
know when to walk away
know when to run...
Frame #2 looks like the town from Van Gogh's "Starry Night", except at sunset. Was that intentional?
No, but I'm okay with that!