Prog 2139 Sympathy for the Devil (Aneke cover)

[M.I.K.]

Dinnae hink sae. Maybe the real horror of the story is that everyone's turning Scottish? ^*

I initially thought it must be set in Scotland as well, but in Prog 2138 Avril and Seema are referred to as "southerners". Naeb'dy Scottish wid ever ca' thim that if they soond English, (which Seema seems to, as she uses the word "sarnie" in prog 2136). I therefore theorise that Thistlebone is indeed set in England, bit only jist ower the boarder.

[Frank]

Dinnae hink sae. Maybe the real horror of the story is that everyone's turning Scottish? ^*

I initially thought it must be set in Scotland as well, but in Prog 2138 Avril and Seema are referred to as "southerners". Naeb'dy Scottish wid ever ca' thim that if they soond English, (which Seema seems to, as she uses the word "sarnie" in prog 2136). I therefore theorise that Thistlebone is indeed set in England, bit only jist ower the boarder.

I've been to Berwick, but I'd be lying if I said I could remember what dialect they spoke there. Carlisle is as much a mystery to me as the bits on the Mappa Mundi where imaginative cartographers supposed dog-headed men dwell.

Everyone south of Gretna might speak like The Broons, but voddy, Bucky, shite, no' for not, ye've, dinny, nae, aye and a kid called Rab - as well as the aforementioned Malky Kinniburgh and Kirkstow sound too Still Game to denote Likely Lads.

If that turns out not to be the case I'll just be more interested in the story^*, but the most obvious reason for including what appear to be four or five Jock-talking characters in your story is to let readers know it's set in Irn-Bruburgh.


* Eglinton might be deliberately constructing ambiguity because he's interested in liminal spaces where things (and people) aren't one thing or another, or the speech of the kids might be meant to link them to Mairi from the first episode and illustrate how cult members came to Harrowvale from other places. I'm open to all that if something happens next week that makes it clear this all happening in Upper Petewellsland - and the fact the editorial staff think the story's set in England kind of suggests it is. Harrowvale certainly sounds more Anglo than Scots.

[Dandontdare]

Scottish people have been known to escape over the border occasionally

[Frank]

[M.I.K.]

I've been to Berwick, but I'd be lying if I said I could remember what dialect they spoke there.

A mixture of Scots, Romany and Geordie. Don't know about the alcohol side of things but instances of all the other words definitely extend further down than Berwick with the possible exception of "dinnae" which seems to rather abruptly change to "divn't" on the border.

I also know of at least one Rab from Berwick (although that might be due to Scottish relatives), and speaking as both a Malky and a Kirk who's predisposed to notice such things, I can tell you that there are a hell of a lot of Kirk placenames all over the entirety of the North of England.

Incidentally, "Kirkstow" translates as Church (from Old Norse) holy/meeting place (from Old English).

[M.I.K.]

(Didn't even need to look that last fact up, by the way. I have an auntie who stayed at a place called Stow. It's 17 miles away from me, in the Scottish Borders).

[Frank]

Unusually perceptive do-gooder shot down for trying to give everyone free healthcare:





S A T I R E

[Darwock]

Am I the only one that thought 'The Samaritan' kind of pushed the boundary of revealing Dredd's face too far? He's been heavily bandaged before, but in this his right eye was completely uncovered. You could more or less extrapolate his whole face.

I into the forums to see what other's were thinking and not one person even mentioned it. Heh.

[TordelBack]

Heh indeed!  This comes up every now and again, but I think the general consensus is that it doesn't matter - we've seen Dredd's face many times, from child (Blood Cadets) to older man (Dredd Angel), and most of the rest time and again.  Dredd's face is his helmet visor, what's under it is just padding.   

[Woolly]

Dredd's face is his helmet visor, what's under it is just padding.

Couldn't agree more. Whats under the helmet doesn't matter (fnarr)

[Frank]

we've seen Dredd's face many times, from child (Blood Cadets) to older man (Dredd Angel), and most of the rest time and again

Anyone with a decent Case Files collection has seen every single feature of Dredd's face(s) individually



Not sure what difference seeing them all at the same time would make. That doesn't mean I want to see Dredd without his helmet - it's pointless, but it's the kind of trivia that appeals to a certain kind of reader, so why kill their buzz.

This will seem like pointless pedantry, but Dredd doesn't have a face. If you saw how Staz Johnson drew his face, you still wouldn't know how Henry Flint would draw Dredd's face - and Chris Weston would draw Dredd's face differently from both of them.

Besides, we've already seen what happens when the only artist who counts has to draw Dredd. If Dredd had a face (singular), this is what it would look like:

[TordelBack]

...And that Carlos not-Stallone one actually works fine, it's pretty much compatible with all the others, and is instantly forgettable and unimportant.  That could be anyone (much like yer man from Skip Tracer!), it's not a character. Today's Dredd is just some old battered hardass in a helmet, emphasis on the helmet. 

It is however great fun coming up with photo-fits and speculations, so there's no raining on anyone's parade going on here.  As Ron Smith had the honour of first drawing Fargo's face, and he looks a little like the Love Island version of John Wagner, I'm happy to use that for my personal fanwank-fantasies of current Dredd.

[Dandontdare]

It is odd though how every single time Dredd gets seriously injured, and despite 22nd century med-tech, it is always necessary to bandage most of his head to nose level.

[TordelBack]

Wait, I'm not done!

See this guy?



That's a character with a face - shorn of his Snoopy helmet and lurid bondage gear, you'd still know him amywhere, even it was Colin McNeil....



...or Steve Dillon...



...or Simon Harrison...



or even no-longer-canon trapped soul version by Nigel Dobbyn...



... that's a character with a face.

That Carlos Dredd up there, or even all those bandaged versions?  Could be Butcher from The Boys, could be Bill Savage, could be the Punisher.  But stick a helmet on his face, voila, Dredd. 

. 

[JOE SOAP]

There's a misconception that Dredd is hiding something.