Ophelia’s memory of events might not be exactly what happened.
67 Comments
I’ve really enjoyed the backgrounds in these last few pages, especially these cityscapes here.
Me too! Kory, I really appreciate the work and the result–they turned out great!
Either he died, he cheated on her, life got complicated for him and he left her OR Anthony was born a harpy and he freaked and left.
or ALL OF THE ABOVE!
Died, unlikely, but not impossible to rule out now, due to learning of the extent of Ophelia’s lies.
Cheated on her, possibly.
I’m wondering if something else might have been the case. He was already married.
That is a skeptical face there in panel 2. Very, very skeptical.
I read it as, “How long are you going to be all gooey about the man who I know leaves us at the end of this story?”
Teenage attitude. Love at first sight is completely Disney fairy tale BS. It Does Not Happen In Real Life.
Until of course it does happen to them. ;)
I agree, but people tend to believe that nonsense. In my mind love is an organic thing, growing with the relationship. What she had was naivete, infatuation and a headstrong desire to stick her head in the sand. People want it easy, just having it plonked down into your lap. Not the working to find a person you can trust and care about.
I’m thinking he wanted to return to his life sailing around and wasn’t ready for a omitted relationship?
Apparently an omitted relationship was indeed what he wanted.
Committed*
I wasn’t taunting you… thought it was a great Freudian slip :D
Mrs. Gillis’s expression in panel 4 kinda creeped me out… She was REALLY obsessed…..
Consider that she admittedly spent her whole life to that point stuck on an island in the middle of nowhere. If some swarthy gentleman swept me off my feet and took me on a whirlwind trip of some of the most beautiful places on Earth, I’d have stars in my eyes too!
The overly attached girlfriend of the mythical world.
I took a while trying to pin down what that freaky smile reminded me of. I finally realized it makes me think of some of the facial expressions in Zen Pencils. I guess that’s what an idealized, oversimplified worldview looks like.
Ophelia finds out the hard way that human relationships are no different than magical ones.
“But it didn’t last. He choked to death on his cigarette.” I know birds usually don’t have a sense of smell, but–eyeeeew–smoking is gross!
Also, this all leads to me wondering, why is Anthony such a past white boy? Heheh love how this is like a Disney movie gone bad. Her expression really parallel the mindless happy looks of many a Disney princess–especially Ariel.
^ Bleh. *Pasty* white boy!
Maybe his parents’ tans are natural and he doesnt get out as much? His dad *was* a sailor and his mom did live on an island. Maybe she still spends tons of time outside? She does look to be naturally colored, though.
My guess is that Anthony’s Liverpool-native father is pasty white himself, by nature. Here, we’re seeing him with a tan built up from months under the tropical sun. Just wait til next spring!
This is my bet. His mom’s skin tone is clearly at least /partly/ Grecian olive skin, with the addition of some tan, but his dad looks all-tan to me.
I concur.
Ze wist het… ze wist het vanaf het begin, dat hij er op een dag mee te maken zou krijgen. Wat ik me afvraag, zou het toeval zijn dat Blanche en Anthony vrienden werden?
“She knew … she knew from the beginning that he would have to face one day. Along What I wonder, would it be a coincidence that Blanche and Anthony were friends?” That’s a good question. While it specifically says that Blanche and Tony met in grammar school, that doesn’t mean their mothers didn’t know each other before then;they certainly likely connected via their sons and the school -apparently the Blue Coat School.
Hey, if she visits Madam Wu’s shop, she could go back to her friends and family.
I think that only worked for Anthony because the magic used to make his mother human was strong enough to make her permanently human but it became far weaker when it transferred down. This from human to freaking out harpy.
We have no idea if Ophelia has ever been Tested by Vadona.
If Vadona or Tim still has that Nokk Medallion though, maybe it could break the spell on Ophelia, if Anthony was to give it to her. https://www.skindeepcomic.com/archive/october-reader-question-12/
The reason why I’m thinking this is because Vadona gave it to Anthony to Test him, and it did break the spell keeping him human. So going by what is known about Medallion Magic, that Medallion might not work for anyone else, until Anthony gives it to that person.
Wait, if a Nokk medallion is what worked on him…does that mean that maybe his father was an unturned Nokk (or maybe he did know)? Or is it that ANY medallion would have broken the spell?
Only if it bonds with him. Which only happens if it is the right medallion for him. In this case the medallion magic just broke the original spell, likely by trying but failing to interact with him. My impression of medallion magic is it is pretty potent and complicated stuff.
Who is ‘Madam Wu’, which shop does she operate, and where is it located?
I think they mean Madem U
I figured as much, when I originally saw the post, and did my reply.
But as Ponyhome didn’t do a reply edit to fix things, I figured why not ask.
;)
Makapu Village, Earth Kingdom?
I don’t think so. Harpies do not have medallions. She can never change back from being human. She may be able to visit the island again, if she has not been unofficially banished for becoming human.
i think he’s buying it, just waiting for the inevitable ending…seeing as his mom’s, well, a single mom. (unless i missed some mention of his dad!)
Before this, the only mention of him was page 24 of Heartaches. Tony said, “All I know about him is he was a sailor. He left a long time ago.”
In that second to last panel, ophelia looks like she is holding her tummy the way pregnant ladies seem to, suggesting she is.
Maybe Tony was born a harpy and hia dad freaked, maybe just the sheer thought of a family life made him leave, we won’t know untill kory says so, but I’m still eager to find out why he left such a lovely young lady behind.
I hope Tony wasn’t born a harpy and that’s the reason his dad left. Can you imagine dumping that – the fact that he drove his dad away – on top of everything that’s already happened? I mean, even if he was born human (which I believe), his dad still potentially left because he didn’t want to deal with a family. So Tony might still blame himself :/
That’s all we need; more self loathing
I can’t see how that would be. Particularly because how the hell would she hush it up? Wouldn’t more people know? But I can see her trying to create ties with the local Avalon and her hubby found out. Imagine how that level of freaky would get to him.
I don’t think Tony was born a harpy. After all, the medallion broke an old or weak spell. If he was born a harpy, to become a human he’s have to have a similar spell performed on him, and for something described as “permanent”, sixteen years isn’t a lot of time and unlikely enough to make it “old”. It would make more sense for his mum’s spell to break, losing potency with time and being passed down rather than being the original receiver of the spell.
…the hell is up with that expression in panel 4?
A one word answer, Sorator.
Obsession.
I’m reading that as OH MY GOD LOOK AT THIS. LOOK AT THIS WORLD THAT I AM NOW A PART OF. Not obsession.
I’m going with: he left her because she was pregnant.
I’m with you on that one, mostly…
Your comic popped up on Groovy, Kinda’s list of comics he recommends, and I’ve been reading the archives ever since. I really like your underlying theme that people are people, no matter what they look like–“Skin Deep”, indeed. I also like your sense of humor, and your fine ear for dialog. Count me in. :)
Welcome to the Avalon, Delta-v
Thanks, I’m happy to be here. :)
You might say you’re….
Harpy to be here.
I REGRET NOTHING
Tony certainly inherited his father’s sideburns…
Eh, let’s not UTOMATICALLY assume all guys are ALWAYS assholes. Look on the bright side. Maybe he died? After all, he was just a mortal human…right?
Eh, let’s not AUTOMATICALLY assume all guys are ALWAYS assholes. Look on the bright side. Maybe he died? After all, he was just a mortal human…right?
Well said (Twice)
And then we find out that Tony and Ike are half brothers.
Question: She said she’s never met a human before, but there are no such thing male Harpies? So what Does happen when a Harpie has a male child? Does it take after it’s dad if he’s another beastie, since they’re more then one species on the island or do they only have daughters?
This. This, exactly this.
Must be one H€££ of an inbred little place.
I suspect the females are harpies and the males are, if breed with a human, human. Otherwise the males are whatever critter the harpy breed with to make babies. Of course it could be harpy baby making always ends in females too and thus making a male one extremely valuable to the harpy community.
It seems pretty natural that he’d take on the race of his father. After all, harpies have to mate outside of their breed if there are no male harpies!
Same deal with Satyrs being male only.
Yeah, if you remember. Abbie had a Harpy mother and Satyr father. So naturally, she was born as a harpy. c:
Hey I just thought of something if they go looking for girlfriends would that make Blanche a sweethart and Tony a wingman?
+1
the wait is killing me , i need to know what he did to her
He doesn’t really look like he cares about her at all. He looks possessive at best, but she’s too in love to see it. Everything about that man’s body language says to me he just sees Ophelia as some pretty thing to hang off his arm until she’s too much trouble or something prettier comes along. Considering the last picture we see him in she was pregnant, I think he left because of the pregnancy. She had become more trouble than she was worth to him.
[I’m not saying all men are like that, not by a long shot, but a few are, and I get bad, bad vibes from Tony’s father. Given the strong implication that the relationship didn’t really go the way Ophelia remembers it, I think that’s deliberate on Kory’s part.]
67 Comments
I’ve really enjoyed the backgrounds in these last few pages, especially these cityscapes here.
Me too! Kory, I really appreciate the work and the result–they turned out great!
Either he died, he cheated on her, life got complicated for him and he left her OR Anthony was born a harpy and he freaked and left.
or ALL OF THE ABOVE!
Died, unlikely, but not impossible to rule out now, due to learning of the extent of Ophelia’s lies.
Cheated on her, possibly.
I’m wondering if something else might have been the case. He was already married.
That is a skeptical face there in panel 2. Very, very skeptical.
I read it as, “How long are you going to be all gooey about the man who I know leaves us at the end of this story?”
Teenage attitude. Love at first sight is completely Disney fairy tale BS. It Does Not Happen In Real Life.
Until of course it does happen to them. ;)
I agree, but people tend to believe that nonsense. In my mind love is an organic thing, growing with the relationship. What she had was naivete, infatuation and a headstrong desire to stick her head in the sand. People want it easy, just having it plonked down into your lap. Not the working to find a person you can trust and care about.
I’m thinking he wanted to return to his life sailing around and wasn’t ready for a omitted relationship?
Apparently an omitted relationship was indeed what he wanted.
Committed*
I wasn’t taunting you… thought it was a great Freudian slip :D
Mrs. Gillis’s expression in panel 4 kinda creeped me out… She was REALLY obsessed…..
Consider that she admittedly spent her whole life to that point stuck on an island in the middle of nowhere. If some swarthy gentleman swept me off my feet and took me on a whirlwind trip of some of the most beautiful places on Earth, I’d have stars in my eyes too!
The overly attached girlfriend of the mythical world.
I took a while trying to pin down what that freaky smile reminded me of. I finally realized it makes me think of some of the facial expressions in Zen Pencils. I guess that’s what an idealized, oversimplified worldview looks like.
Ophelia finds out the hard way that human relationships are no different than magical ones.
“But it didn’t last. He choked to death on his cigarette.” I know birds usually don’t have a sense of smell, but–eyeeeew–smoking is gross!
Also, this all leads to me wondering, why is Anthony such a past white boy? Heheh love how this is like a Disney movie gone bad. Her expression really parallel the mindless happy looks of many a Disney princess–especially Ariel.
^ Bleh. *Pasty* white boy!
Maybe his parents’ tans are natural and he doesnt get out as much? His dad *was* a sailor and his mom did live on an island. Maybe she still spends tons of time outside? She does look to be naturally colored, though.
My guess is that Anthony’s Liverpool-native father is pasty white himself, by nature. Here, we’re seeing him with a tan built up from months under the tropical sun. Just wait til next spring!
This is my bet. His mom’s skin tone is clearly at least /partly/ Grecian olive skin, with the addition of some tan, but his dad looks all-tan to me.
I concur.
Ze wist het… ze wist het vanaf het begin, dat hij er op een dag mee te maken zou krijgen. Wat ik me afvraag, zou het toeval zijn dat Blanche en Anthony vrienden werden?
“She knew … she knew from the beginning that he would have to face one day. Along What I wonder, would it be a coincidence that Blanche and Anthony were friends?” That’s a good question. While it specifically says that Blanche and Tony met in grammar school, that doesn’t mean their mothers didn’t know each other before then;they certainly likely connected via their sons and the school -apparently the Blue Coat School.
Hey, if she visits Madam Wu’s shop, she could go back to her friends and family.
I think that only worked for Anthony because the magic used to make his mother human was strong enough to make her permanently human but it became far weaker when it transferred down. This from human to freaking out harpy.
We have no idea if Ophelia has ever been Tested by Vadona.
If Vadona or Tim still has that Nokk Medallion though, maybe it could break the spell on Ophelia, if Anthony was to give it to her.
https://www.skindeepcomic.com/archive/october-reader-question-12/
The reason why I’m thinking this is because Vadona gave it to Anthony to Test him, and it did break the spell keeping him human. So going by what is known about Medallion Magic, that Medallion might not work for anyone else, until Anthony gives it to that person.
Wait, if a Nokk medallion is what worked on him…does that mean that maybe his father was an unturned Nokk (or maybe he did know)? Or is it that ANY medallion would have broken the spell?
Only if it bonds with him. Which only happens if it is the right medallion for him. In this case the medallion magic just broke the original spell, likely by trying but failing to interact with him. My impression of medallion magic is it is pretty potent and complicated stuff.
Who is ‘Madam Wu’, which shop does she operate, and where is it located?
I think they mean Madem U
I figured as much, when I originally saw the post, and did my reply.
But as Ponyhome didn’t do a reply edit to fix things, I figured why not ask.
;)
Makapu Village, Earth Kingdom?
I don’t think so. Harpies do not have medallions. She can never change back from being human. She may be able to visit the island again, if she has not been unofficially banished for becoming human.
i think he’s buying it, just waiting for the inevitable ending…seeing as his mom’s, well, a single mom. (unless i missed some mention of his dad!)
Before this, the only mention of him was page 24 of Heartaches. Tony said, “All I know about him is he was a sailor. He left a long time ago.”
In that second to last panel, ophelia looks like she is holding her tummy the way pregnant ladies seem to, suggesting she is.
Maybe Tony was born a harpy and hia dad freaked, maybe just the sheer thought of a family life made him leave, we won’t know untill kory says so, but I’m still eager to find out why he left such a lovely young lady behind.
I hope Tony wasn’t born a harpy and that’s the reason his dad left. Can you imagine dumping that – the fact that he drove his dad away – on top of everything that’s already happened? I mean, even if he was born human (which I believe), his dad still potentially left because he didn’t want to deal with a family. So Tony might still blame himself :/
That’s all we need; more self loathing
I can’t see how that would be. Particularly because how the hell would she hush it up? Wouldn’t more people know? But I can see her trying to create ties with the local Avalon and her hubby found out. Imagine how that level of freaky would get to him.
I don’t think Tony was born a harpy. After all, the medallion broke an old or weak spell. If he was born a harpy, to become a human he’s have to have a similar spell performed on him, and for something described as “permanent”, sixteen years isn’t a lot of time and unlikely enough to make it “old”. It would make more sense for his mum’s spell to break, losing potency with time and being passed down rather than being the original receiver of the spell.
…the hell is up with that expression in panel 4?
A one word answer, Sorator.
Obsession.
I’m reading that as OH MY GOD LOOK AT THIS. LOOK AT THIS WORLD THAT I AM NOW A PART OF. Not obsession.
I’m going with: he left her because she was pregnant.
I’m with you on that one, mostly…
Your comic popped up on Groovy, Kinda’s list of comics he recommends, and I’ve been reading the archives ever since. I really like your underlying theme that people are people, no matter what they look like–“Skin Deep”, indeed. I also like your sense of humor, and your fine ear for dialog. Count me in. :)
Welcome to the Avalon, Delta-v
Thanks, I’m happy to be here. :)
You might say you’re….
Harpy to be here.
I REGRET NOTHING
Tony certainly inherited his father’s sideburns…
Eh, let’s not UTOMATICALLY assume all guys are ALWAYS assholes. Look on the bright side. Maybe he died? After all, he was just a mortal human…right?
Eh, let’s not AUTOMATICALLY assume all guys are ALWAYS assholes. Look on the bright side. Maybe he died? After all, he was just a mortal human…right?
Well said (Twice)
And then we find out that Tony and Ike are half brothers.
Question: She said she’s never met a human before, but there are no such thing male Harpies? So what Does happen when a Harpie has a male child? Does it take after it’s dad if he’s another beastie, since they’re more then one species on the island or do they only have daughters?
This. This, exactly this.
Must be one H€££ of an inbred little place.
I suspect the females are harpies and the males are, if breed with a human, human. Otherwise the males are whatever critter the harpy breed with to make babies. Of course it could be harpy baby making always ends in females too and thus making a male one extremely valuable to the harpy community.
It seems pretty natural that he’d take on the race of his father. After all, harpies have to mate outside of their breed if there are no male harpies!
Same deal with Satyrs being male only.
Yeah, if you remember. Abbie had a Harpy mother and Satyr father. So naturally, she was born as a harpy. c:
Hey I just thought of something if they go looking for girlfriends would that make Blanche a sweethart and Tony a wingman?
+1
the wait is killing me , i need to know what he did to her
He doesn’t really look like he cares about her at all. He looks possessive at best, but she’s too in love to see it. Everything about that man’s body language says to me he just sees Ophelia as some pretty thing to hang off his arm until she’s too much trouble or something prettier comes along. Considering the last picture we see him in she was pregnant, I think he left because of the pregnancy. She had become more trouble than she was worth to him.
[I’m not saying all men are like that, not by a long shot, but a few are, and I get bad, bad vibes from Tony’s father. Given the strong implication that the relationship didn’t really go the way Ophelia remembers it, I think that’s deliberate on Kory’s part.]