OK, so this one is another legitimately loose thread that absolutely required closure, not just a frivolous/decorative bit of epilogue.
But, no, I’m not referring to Sir Gianfor. There really wasn’t much of a question how his story would continue after being saved from the influence of the shadow demon. He was a knight errant before, so obviously he’d simply get back to …uh, erranting about the landscape. Seeking for evil monsters to slay and oppressed people to comfort, or outright liberate. You know, the kind of thing people like him are supposed to be doing, whenever they’re not controlled by evil shadow demons, unclean desires, delusions of grandeur or anything else that tends to make these people stray from their path.
And, yes, Sir Gianfor was a Chocobo-Knight all along, it just never came up. But it does make sense, doesn’t it? His serious demeanour and rigid dignity would almost be too much of a good thing, if he was just riding around on a common horse. Riding a chocobo, he needs every shred of dignity he can muster to set off…well, riding on a chocobo. >_> Fast and fun they might be, but they pose serious challenges to riders trying to cultivate the classic chivalric image. >_>
So, no, I wasn’t referring to Sir Gianfor – the loose thread are, clearly, the “Skip-a-bit-,-brother”-monks. Because back when I introduced them, I announced that we would be seeing them again frequently, which, at that point, I really expected to come to pass. But instead, they never showed up again after their debut…so if they hadn’t shown up today, it would have made me a liar. Fortunately, I still control things in this comic strip, so here they are – far too late to be of any kind of use, but just in the knack of time to prevent my original prophecy from going amiss completely. Two appearances might barely qualify as frequently, but that’s at least something of a matter of perspective – it’s not categorically wrong.
More on Monday.