As Marty McFly would say, “This is heavy.”
The Secret of the Beaufort Sea, at its heart, is about the unintended consequences and misunderstandings that can happen when two cultures come into contact. All the adventure and zaniness up to this point (and after) is built on a foundation of tragedy. Joe has now witnessed the root of the conflict between Armstrong and the Shaman, and has made the choice to forgive, despite the tragedy.
However, some Daredevilers may still have questions…“Was it sickness that killed the Inuit people or was it angry gods? Who is the good guy and who is the bad guy? Or is this all just a horrible misunderstanding?” Well, I’m hoping that you guys will hash that out (and more) in the comments this week. By design, we’ve left a lot up to reader interpretation, so have at it!
And, yeah, this page is about as serious as the Deep Dive Daredevils is ever going to get, so wipe your eyes, blow your nose, and put away the hanky because NEXT WEEK we resume SHENANIGANS in that indelible Daredevils style! Now, Joe has experienced the challenge and made his decision, but WHAT COMES NEXT? Well, the action gets BIGGER, and the stakes get HIGHER as we sprint to the finish line! Make sure to RSS, Like, or Follow like your life depends on it!
Before I go, I’d like to point you guys to a fantastic, in-depth examination of the Deep Dive Daredevils by Seth Andrew Jacob. In his write-up, Seth coins the phrase “Digital Pulp” to describe the Daredevils’ genre and makes an extremely compelling case for why our little web-strip is worth a look. So, make sure to check it out and pass it along to any friends who wonder why you spend your precious time reading our freaky submarine comic. Thanks, Seth!
As always, please vote early and often for the Daredevils at topwebcomics.com, and make sure to visit the blog for your weekly dose of semi-insane ramblings, which Evin calls the Sunday Bonus Lunch.
Anyways, till next week!
-Matt-
Not the twist I expected, well done.
Looks like the typical white man curse, probably TB or influenza to which the Inuit tribe has no resistance. Hope for the resolution to see how they deal with it realtime with a boat that swims with the whales instead of murdering them!
I think it’s the Flu or Pneumonia, those spread as fast as depicted above. Both can manifest on a ship even in the arctic, especially in ships like the gardener which are perpetually wet.
TB generally tends to manifest in warm places since the natural bacterium need warm and wet to survive. Think bogs riverbanks stagnant pools.
In a world with gods and magic I guess it’s impossible to know for sure if a disease is divine punishment or not. Not unless you can communicate with the gods and rely on your interpretation of their answer.
And unfortunately the spirit-interpreter in this case is heavily biased, so it’s likewise impossible to tell if he’s right about the reasons for all those deaths, or if he just chose to interpret it that way because it suited his animosity towards Armstrong.
Though if it’s just between “sickness” or “angry gods”, then I’d go with “sickness”, because that seems more likely. But “sickness due to angry gods” seems just as reasonable as just “angry gods”, though I think it would be pretty mean of the gods to use such a severe punishment against the Inuits. So in the end I guess that I lean towards just “sickness”, with the “angry gods” being the shaman’s interpretation. (Not that I doubt that the gods were angry. They certainly seemed to have reason to be.)