#143 “A Golden Lion”
Everyone, meet Ruthless; aka, Lady Blackheart – The Lost Mother. Officially. Oh, and the reveals just keep coming! It’s also Ruth & Thomas’ anniversary!
A bonus comic this week, it was originally a part of the last page, but I split it up to give a proper look at Ruth’s reveal. So if you didn’t see the page before this one you might want to check it out!
Honestly, I had no clue Tim’s dad was in the know about it all. There was the part where Shadow had just left in the future, and Tim’s dad didn’t show any signs of understanding, where his mother was pretty….see through.
I mean, he’s married to her (Tim’s mom), so I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise at all, but for some reason, I just had it in my head that she somehow was hiding the fact all this time from him, even though when Moon talked about the ‘other’ one who showed incredible growth, with the black shadow reveal, I just assumed he didn’t know she wasn’t human.
Nah, he’s known just as long as Ruth has known. He makes a joke about in in one of the future pages about Tim having a ‘busy morning’.
should I make accounts how many times “rats” where mentions
You don’t have to: it’s only three.
I’ve made some comments, on earlier pages of the comic, to the effect that per the stuff portrayed in the comic, it was not obvious that Tom knew of Ruth’s true nature. Even if he knew about Shadow, that did not automatically also mean he knew about Ruth. I think the main reason for the doubt was #95, which showed silhouettes of Tom and Ruth –except the silhouette of Ruth was human, not Noxian. The implication was thus that they met while Ruth was in human form, and she might never have seen a need to tell him about an alternate form.
Even the reference in #115 to a “golden lion suit”, which obviously Tom would have seen, didn’t mean that Tom considered that suit to be more than a costume. And pictures of Ruth at various places in the house (like the stairwell in #118), show her ordinary human form.
On this page, of course, there is so little clothing that there is no way that “suit” could be even a highly sophisticated Halloween costume –the possibility that that suit was actually a costume could not be confirmed or denied previously in the story.
But now we know that he knew. I can’t imagine Tom never took any pictures of Ruth in Noxian form, as a golden lion on a prior Halloween that even Tim vaguely remembers (NOT nearly nude, in other words!), so we might wonder why none of them appear to be displayed in frames around the house. Perhaps it is because Ruth (a wanted criminal, eh?) is still hiding from other Nox that might randomly come out from one of the beds…or closets!
Actually, Ruth’s silhouette on Page 95 is in her Noxian form. Look closer. She has pointy ears and you can see her tail curled up, and who says Thomas doesn’t have pictures of Ruth in her true form? I bet he has a photo album filled with pictures of her.
They obviously wouldn’t hang them on their walls in the house though… I mean what if some stranger saw them?
So what if a stranger saw a picture of an ordinary-clothed Ruthless, unless that stranger was deliberately seeking the Noxian. The word “cosplay” covers lots of unusual appearances among humans. And I didn’t assume there were no pictures; I simply asked why none were displayed.
Anyway, about the silhouette, sorry, I can’t see any sign of her tail. And the ear looked to me like the edge of a bang of hair. I won’t doubt your say-so, but I do doubt the obviousness of what you are saying. Thanks for the reply, though!
The proof is in the page: Linky-link
I’m not exactly sure why you think they’d put up pictures of her Noxian form in their house (even with clothes on) if the whole point is to be purposely hiding the fact that she isn’t human from everyone in the world, including their only son. For example, It’s not like an alien in hiding would advertise that they are an alien, right?
I suppose I should clarify that she has never actually dawned her Nox form as a real costume on Halloween to go out, or answer the door. Tim only says that because he vaguely remembers her looking that way at least once back in his early childhood and assumes it was a costume. She probably went around like that more often when he was a baby, because he wouldn’t remember it, but she obviously made some long-lasting subconscious impression.
To quote Iago from Aladdin: “Oh, THERE’S a big surprise! I think I’m gonna have a heart attack and DIE from *NOT SURPRISE*.”
😀
That drawing would bee Brilliant as a Poster !
My theory is that the story isn’t writen but Brandon takes ideas from the comments, I mean how else would liturally everyone see this coming
Well, most probably just read the original story and came here to mouth off trying to be smart, and that just got the ball rolling. I really should have erased those off the internet before I started this. XD
I so far love the original fiction! And it’s neat reading it with the knowledge I have from the comic, vice a versa. Please never get rid of the original fiction… Or at least until I’m done with them. XD
No, Brandon knows his story. He wrote it beforehand and some of us read it. He’s made changes, but the base story is the same. Some minor changes that AREN’T plot killers: Lord Mortis wasn’t introduced until the end of the story. Ruthless wasn’t introduced until after a major plot change that hasn’t happened yet in the rewrite. Nothing was mentioned about Terminus having a human girlfriend.
Minor changes to the base story of Shadow and Tim against two worlds…
Oh, there’ll be more changes coming for certain. Count on it.
It has been a WHILE, but the bit with the door is new as well I think. Don’t quote me.
And now that Ruth has been revealed as Ruthless, I’ll point you back to page 27. In the last panel, it almost looks like her tail is visible… but Brandon said it was only part of the drapes.
It’s not the drapes, it’s the bottom curl of her blonde hair curling up over her butt.
Just wanna point this out and not criticizing u brandon cuz i love yur work but tons of people like me who saw the vague form of LadyBlackheart and saw Tim’s mom put the pieces together quite easily.
well I am glad to know that I figured this out before hand without reading anything but this comic 😀 loved the foreshadowing, and the subtle hints. and thankfully unlike the last jedi this had a payoff to the foreshadowing.
when u can tell the charecter in the robes is the charecter u saw before because of the breast sizes XD
So, they know about shadow, guess that explains why they never did anything about Tim being up and making so much noise.
Question, is midnight gonna get a story line? I kinda wonder what her day to day is like.
Yeah, Midnight will have more to do later.
Well that would explain his belt buckle in one of the earlier pages
Does it though?
What page is it
You see a glimpse of it on page 31 and if you compare it to Shadow’s and the rest of the females they look alike but the males have a different design on theirs.
Alright, so Tim has an aegis that’s *very similar to those that girls of the Bed Bugs have. This has been known and commented on, but WHAT explains how and why he got it?
*similar in appearance at least. Brandon han’t yet explained what physical or magickal changes had to be made for it to work for a human male.
Maybe it doesn’t actually work at all. Maybe it’s just a token piece. 😉
As Shadow’s Mark of Ownership I suppose it’s less permanent (and less painful) than branding with a hot iron.
We do know one thing about it, and it’s not the one that Ruthless has. Take a look at page #96. There’s a gouge in hers. It looks like it was hit with something sharp.
This means what Tim has is an aegis that the females wear. Three possibilities immediately spring to mind.
1) It’s a gift he received from Shadow or somebody else and that’s all it is.
2) It’s a mark specifically to show that Shadow is his owner or that he and she have a bond so it’s hands off to any other Noxian.
3) He’s somehow considered “part of the tribe” as it were and afforded all the rights and privileges that comes with it.
One of these days, I’m going to send this comic to CriTiKcal for him to read so he can make this website moist.
dat right there behind dat one female dats…dats a toilet
Vanoss fan?
guilty as charged
I’m sick… :’-(
Ok i just wanna say that even tho brandon had no idea that the 21 is my birthday but he gave me like the best gift ever! “A new page”!😂😂
dat toilet is dat dat dat datta data good