Broken Frontier

A couple months ago, I raised an eyebrow to The Phoenix Requiem creator Sarah Ellerton commenting the playful duel between characters Robyn and Petria wasn't period-appropiate. Who cares if it's not historically accurate, I thought, it's your world/your rules after all. But upon reading the last few updates, I'm glad Ellerton played close to the times just this once.

The last few pages have depicted the awakening of previously comatose Jonas Faulkner, who first stumbled into the village bloody and injured in the strip's beginning. Though the crux of the script goes towards setting up what seems to be Jonas' rather sudden attraction to the life-saving doctor Anya Katsukova, the updates also don't mess around, quickly introducing Jonas to other leads like the aforementioned Robyn and Petria. Jonas' reaction to tomboy-ish Petria is actually pretty hilarious, and Ellerton does an extremely good highlighting of the difference in social attitudes and physical appearances between genders towards the end of the chapter.

I'm on the fence about the appearance of an Archeron doll in the beginning of the next chapter. The Phoenix Requiem has already shown similarities with its predecessor, the traditional fantasy webcomic Inverloch. There, the main character is a da'kor named Archeron. Da'kors have already been mentioned in The Phoenix Requiem, but why does the doll share the same name as the previous webcomic's protagonist. I'm mostly ambivalent about this latest development because I honestly don't know if it's meant as a simple reference to Ellerton's past work or something more. While I usually value webcomics which place a greater premium on characters than plot, The Phoenix Requiem has taken this to the extreme, with so little actually known about the woodwork behind the world.

Ultimately, I think there's more to Archeron's "cameo" than meets the eye, but with so little details on the world view of The Phoenix Requiem, the appearance seems one more on a list of many cryptic hints and riddles instead of a concrete and definite plot point. However, the webcomic is making leaps and bounds at cementing its place at the peak of Top Webcomics - shaking things up by the introduction of a new dynamic into the pre-existing relationships of its characters. If you're looking for a good fantasy webcomic to read these days, The Phoenix Requiem should be at the top of your list.