I'm still happy to be able to read the comic because it is a great masterpiece, but I miss the "party" feeling a bit, and the story arc, albeit interesting, is somehow too shattered at the moment to give a good feeling.
QFT.

Yes, I understand the Giant needs to show that the party is belly up without Roy. I get it. We've seen it for more than a hundred strips.

And for those comparing this to "The Empire Strikes Back" -- ESB only lasted two hours. This arc has been going on for months of real time.

And for those comparing to Tolkien -- TBH, I don't think splitting the party into four or more pieces and following everyone's adventures for hundreds of pages was such a good idea then, either.

Let's be truthful; Tolkien wrote some of the best fantasy literature of the 20th century. But it's still not in the First Rank of general literature the way, say, Paradise Lost is. A big part of that is his decision to split the party and add hundreds of pages of exposition, songs, and plot irrelevancies such as Tom Bombadil.



Respectfully,

Brian P.