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…and that’s where Jenny’s advice to learn to swordfight actually becomes useful.
Gotta have party balance, can’t just be nothin but squishy mages
Modest is extra squishy.
She never said Meg wasn’t useful, just not magical. There’s a lot of useful non mage roles a party can use in it.
A lot of my best DnD characters are ones that can’t use even a cantrip
Learning to swordfight competently takes years, and ye olde proper knight with full plate and twenty years of experience would be at a disadvantage against many of the superhumanly strong creatures in Yeld. In contrast, a modern child can be taught in a few weeks to use a weapon capable of killing any animal in the world and penetrating plate armor from far beyond bow range. There are reasons why people don’t use swords for actual fighting these days, and given recent events that would have gone rather differently if someone had had a pistol, that’s something that people in the comic may be thinking about.
I mean marksmanship and safety with firearms is always a good trait to learn. But problem with ranged weapons is that you always run the chance of running out of ammo at a bad time. Tis why any competent style of melee combat is always good to know.
Unless magic can handle resupply, you will run out of ammo soon. Ammo is heavy.
We’ve seen on-panel that magic can handle supplies. The skirt Jenny’s wearing was made with mermaid magic. That’s actually beside the point, though. She’s a young girl with no combat skills. If she spends the next few months training to use an AR-15, she could go with Modest when she returns to Yeld and kill most any opponent she might encounter, including the Prince himself from what we’ve seen. If she spends the next ten years training to sword fight, and then goes to Yeld (Modest waited for her), she would probably be killed by the first enemy soldier she encounters on even terms. Guns are so much better than swords as weapons that supply logistics are barely a consideration in the real world when deciding which to use.
In particular, their effectiveness depends very little on the physical strength of the wielder. There’s a reason why I chose this pseudonym. Before the invention of effective firearms, the massive strength advantage of men meant that women had very little effectiveness in direct fighting. And the soldiers of the evil Prince that Ekans is proposing that she help overthrow have a massive strength advantage vs. human men. Professional pre-modern soldiers wouldn’t be able to beat them on even terms.
As appropriate as your name is for the point you are making, I’d like to point out a few counter-arguments.
#1:
There’s plenty of things in Yeld a gun won’t kill. Fairies have taken bullets without a scratch. Admittedly, those were what appear to be flintlock or matchlocks and don’t have a fraction of the muzzle velocity but Fairies have also taken arrows to the EYEBALL and kept fighting so I wouldn’t count on a bullet either. In addition, slimes, ghosts, and who knows what else wouldn’t be all that susceptible to bullets either. The Gorgon or Kerrigor would both be only annoyed. Carlos shot him just for the sake of getting his attention and it did aught else. Sure, armor piercing rounds might be a bit better, but I don’t see it helping against a serpent that out-masses a main battle tank. You could of course, increase the caliber, but then you increase the weight and the recoil.
#2:
Modern soldiers carry 210 rounds of ammunition. 600 rounds would weigh 9.8 kilos or 21.6 pounds. How much do you really think Meg could carry? Do you think Meg has the trigger discipline to make that last more than a few conflicts. How will she resupply? Will someone buy ammo, flush it down a toilet, and have her fish it out on the other side? Let’s say that would actually work to get ammo into Yeld. Would Meg be able to hold the lake against something trying to cut her off?
#3:
Marah had no training, a fake sword, and sheer audacity and she got closer to defeating the Prince than anyone else has in years. Kiandra (the Oathbreaker in the RPG) can climb cliffs in armor and throw boulders. That’s totally possible for someone taking on the mantle of a hero in Yeld. Meg would be stronger than any ordinary human by a significant margin. Yeld rewards people willing to take on the classic archetypes of its land. The Freelancer, Black Mage, White Mage, Soul Thief, Witch, Oathbreaker, Witch Hunter, and Shepherd. (Not in order of anything except the order in which I remember them.)
Creedy: Bollocks. Whatchya gonna do, huh? We’ve swept this place. You’ve got nothing. Nothing but your bloody knives and your fancy karate gimmicks. We have guns.
V: No, what you have are bullets, and the hope that when your guns are empty I’m no longer be standing, because if I am you’ll all be dead before you’ve reloaded.
“V for Vendetta”
That got a lot deeper than I expected real quick.
If she goes to Yeld, she may be able to use the magic there. Still a really bad idea since there is a good change she can’t go home.
Speaking of, how is Jenny managing the trip? Supposedly Modest has extra special magic on her allowing it.
Slightly related, Jenny + Jake’s brother? Has that gone anywhere?
Jenny knows she probably won’t be able to go back to Yeld. She probably doesn’t want to either. The Hand of Autumn was out to get her. Coming home with Modest was her escape plan.
My brother go married, so I put a nix on that relationship. We’ll find someone else for Jenny.
Cool. Congrats to the guy. I suppose that’s the sort of thing that comes up adapting real life into fiction. How is real-Marah taking her version in the story?
I thought Jenny tangled up in story-Jake’s family would have some interesting twists. I don’t need to see her shipped with anyone.
Marah warms and cools on her comic counterpart.
Heh, I have a real bad habit of dating women by the name of Jenny… I’m at three so far. Or maybe it’s not a bad habit?
This is so incredibly wholesome.
She’s worried about Modest. Oldest child?
She’s a real Big Sister type.
Does she have siblings?
No. Meg is an only child.
Being best dad does not help one prepare for the situation of when his daughter wants to become a mage in order to help her alien medusa friend defeat the evil ruler on a whole other planet.
Best dads should still have some words of wisdom in any case, though.
This makes me happy and sad at the same time
That’s the normal Dad look when interacting with your child.