On Toonami, we got only one Rurouni Kenshin ending to listen to and we liked it, dammit! This song is badass and GLAM, fitting for one of the best J-rock bands in the world. Now, if it could be attached to a franchise with a less shitty creator...it wouldn't really change shit but it would make it easier to explain where you first heard this song without starting an awkward conversation.
On some level, I think I always understood
That a ship could never really love an anchor
So I did the only thing that I could
And severed the rope to set you sailing from my harbor
This bad boy was started on the third of November, and finished on the seventh. In total, there are thirty panels (all of which were drawn separately).
A good chunk of N's dialogue near the end came to me after I did some improv to figure out what he should say. I have since dubbed it "N's Failure Monologue."
Character concept: kindly old mentor figure who is scouring the land in search of The Chosen One to pull the sword from the stone. They find the kid destined to be king, whisk them away on a magical adventure full of lessons like "be a good sport" and "always see the best in people," and guide them to the stone.
The child pulls the sword out and immediately gets knifed in the ribs by their mentor, who takes the sword, hides the body, and gets declared the rightful king.
Isobel Thorm, icon, godsend, hero, absolute titan, determined to carry the hurt/comfort genre on her STR 12 shoulders. I adore her.
Of course, the catch is that she herself has also Been Through The Horrors but chooses not to acknowledge this in favour of adamantly insisting on being the caretaker (which she is obviously very good at, like... professionally, as a cleric and healer).
And even more than that, caretaker to a person who is a big nigh-unkillable (but very significantly not, as Isobel herself points out, unharmable!) radiant wall of muscle and holy fury so used to being a champion and protector herself, extremely keen to dismiss her own issues as a bit of "paladin's fatigue" and "flights of fancy" and who is on so many levels, some very fundamental to her being, tied into being A Sword.
I guess my point is... fic writer comrades-in-arms, this is what we call a goldmine.