User blog comment:SaynaSLuke/The Ocean's Echoes/@comment-2142396-20160605202545

Finished chapter 21, so it’s time for another comment from me. :) Clecky isn’t my favourite among the gang, but you can always bet on him raising the mood with his ‘jolly calamities’. :D Like, when he commenting that being an oar slave is ‘a bally awful occupation’, I couldn’t help but imagine him saying something like that in front of somebeast who had actually been an oar slave, like Indigo, and get a death glare in response. By the way, do you plan to draw Indigo? I got an idea of how she looks from the story and that one ‘humanized’ drawing you did, but it would’ve been great to see a proper picture of her. :) As time goes, I love Hood more and more. I admit I wasn’t impressed with his character in ‘Stolen Tears’, but now he shows himself as one of the few experienced members of the crew that actually know what they are doing, and he is a capable fighter and competent leader, so I’m growing pretty attached to him.

Lask and the monitors were creepy as it is, but if he is really developing a free will… I wonder if it’s the power of pearls turning out to be stronger than Ublaz’s hex, or maybe the hex is just ‘wearing out’ due to the distance and time. Also, it raises an interesting question as of whether Lask actually knows that Ublaz can see through his eyes – I suppose he would’ve been more careful about what he was saying if he indeed knew. But it was really satisfying to see Zurgat go down. One moment she was standing there all full of herself, and the next she is getting a blade in her stomach. I thought that having one of her minions killed by Xzaris will make her more careful and more dangerous, but apparently some never learn… and some are not as smart as Lask.

Inbar is here at last! In the book, he had almost shot Grath at their first meeting. There, he had almost drowned her. Makes me remember good old Jerome K. Jerome and a similar episode from ‘Three men in a boat’: ‘Sorry, I mistook you for a friend.’ ‘Good thing you didn’t mistook me for a relative, you would’ve drowned me in that case.’ :D Well, Inbar is a warrior after all, so it stands that he would be more decisive, even though he seems to overstep himself when it comes to actually talking with people. I don’t know how Inbar manages to be both confident and awkward in his interaction with the crew, but he certainly does. Very little fox with painfully flexible tail, indeed! There again, when Sig from ‘For Freedom’ first saw a squirrel, he did say she looked like a mix of a rat and a fox. ;) Though even if Inbar had never seen any beasts but otters and vermin before, he did read a lot and study history, so I suppose he at least should’ve had better knowledge of the other species. :)

Wallyum trying to keep Grath and the crew on his island was an unexpected twist, though I can really understand where he is coming from. Still, I can’t help noticing the similarities between his ‘We are doing what is right’ and Romsca’s ‘It had to be done’. The two species are not so different after all… though even then, Wallyum and the otters would never consider killing innocents as an option.

It’s interesting to see how viewpoints of Sayna and Durral differ, even though they both talk about the same things. But it’s somewhat sad to see how harsh Sayna became – I mean, she had always been straightforward and not willing to sugarcoat her words, but now she is judgmental to the point of saying Durral is not a true follower and insulting those who does not follow her way of life. That ‘my way is the only way’ approach is pretty unsettling to me. Though keep in mind that this is my opinion on the character and story aspect, not the author and your ideals, and I mean to share an opinion and don’t seek to offend you or anyone else. I tend to step carefully in the area of faith, since it’s a very personal thing, but I hope it’s still okay to discuss these topics there. ^^;

It’s ironic that Cheng’s assassination attempt actually helped Romsca to resolve her problem with the Monitors and spared her the choice between the prisoners and her crew. If only Cheng had waited one more day, Romsca would’ve been forced to give Sayna and Durral to Lask. Then again, Cheng knew that he wasn’t Romsca’s favourite person, and with her behaving more and more on edge, he had every right to be afraid that she would choose him to feed the Monitors. Still, that outcome… Dang it, Romsca, maybe Cheng deserved death, but at least have the decency to finish him off before throwing him to the Monitors! :o Being freaking eaten alive is too much even for him.