The ending is designed to make sense if you experience a reveal, but the reveal is wordless. The king calls the ranger to “come kill the beast,” implying that he wants the ranger to kill the girl.
However, the ranger has the following information about the beast:
It has 10-pointed yellow horns.
It hunts children for fun.
It jealously guards the resources of the forest.
It doesn’t look like an animal.
The ranger looks at the king and notices that:
The king wears black gloves.
He wears a gold crown with points.
Further, through the story we understand:¥
He has beaten up a fairly small child.
Her job description is to guard the resources on the king’s behalf.
The beast can take a unexpected form.
It is monstrous (beastly) to ask your employee to execute a child.
Her boss is the real bad guy!!
She replies “I will (kill the beast)” and fires the arrow. We don’t see who she is firing at, but it is implied that she has realized that the king is the beast.
The creator has framed the reveal so that the reader and the ranger come to the same conclusion at the same time. They have deliberately chosen to leave the ending ambiguous - they are not showing the result of the choice. This creates tension. It also means that readers who didn’t get the reveal might be confused and try again, experiencing understanding and satisfaction when they trip the mechanism. Readers like the feelings they get from activating a reveal. Creators like it when people pay attention (the closer the better) to their work.
The note of tension at the end is a deliberate choice. It’s common to seek & consume content as a stimulant. (Many people scroll social media in search of various forms of activation and stimulation. Tension is a good stimulant; finding it is rewarding, and the emotion itself can make people feel perked up.) This ending will be considered perfectly sufficient & enjoyable, and the comic will resonate with people.
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