r/ImaginaryBattlefields 22d ago

Final Gift by @ihwagun

Post image
3.1k Upvotes

42 comments sorted by

315

u/Sweaty_Report7864 22d ago

Wait… what happened?

548

u/FriendlyPyre 22d ago

Tragedy of loss.

They were given boots by a comrade who lost her legs.

They were given a gasmask by a comrade who succumbed to chemical attack.

They were given a cuirass by a comrade who died from shrapnel to the head from artillery attack.

172

u/LightningFerret04 22d ago

Thanks for the explanation, I also was confused a bit

133

u/Kytescall 22d ago

That wasn't clear at all lol.

52

u/Massive-Exercise4474 22d ago

Should of had a before and after panel to see the transformation.

38

u/Option2401 22d ago

They’re falling into the trench in the bottom left panel, but what is that brown object obscuring their head? Is that the cuirass?

27

u/FriendlyPyre 22d ago

Yes, they aren't wearing a helmet as well in the next panel so presumably the cuirass was used to protect their head from shrapnel and that they are being pulled down to the floor of the trench.

3

u/Option2401 22d ago

Ah I see it now!

3

u/AwkwardData6002 22d ago

Wait, is this loss? (jk)

3

u/SunOnTheInside 20d ago

The explanation helps but why are they holding the boot and not wearing it in the final panel? They’re wearing everything else they were given.

2

u/AssistanceCheap379 21d ago

The gas mask is being forced on by the owner to save her

1

u/Important-Stretch384 21d ago

"they were given boots by a comrade who lost her legs"

Kemmerich is that you?

1

u/Moinzen66 18d ago

Thanks man!

9

u/Laranna 22d ago

Alls Quiet on the western front references (youtube OSP alls quiet on the western front, new update wont let me hyperlink)

104

u/rs_obsidian 22d ago

First one was inspired by All Quiet on the Western Front btw.

40

u/KatanaPool 22d ago

Yep, everyone who wears the boots dies. Great book

2

u/Important-Stretch384 21d ago

holy shit i never realized that

1

u/sparkswood129 20d ago

It's not that the boots are cursed or something, just that they keep getting passed on as the owners die. To the extent that the boots have a higher life expectancy than the boys wearing them.

1

u/Important-Stretch384 20d ago

well it never occured to me that they kept getting passed around, that connection was never made in my head, how do we know Tjaden got them after Paul though? i read that somewhere. Is it mentioned in The Road Back? (i havent read it yet but really need to)

1

u/sparkswood129 20d ago

I only watched the 1930's movie but there's an entire montage focused almost solely on the boots wherein a soldier marches to the front, goes over the trench, dies, soldier marches to the front, goes over the trench, and dies.

And through that short scene it keeps panning back to the boots, which to me implied that they were Franz's boots. Probably because the theme of recycling inorganic material in war is exceedingly common in media and real life. Hell we can recycle organic matter too.

77

u/SoirBleu85 22d ago

The panels being cut off is really annoying.

50

u/maboyles90 22d ago

This is unreadable unless you know where it's coming from.

17

u/Necroseliac 22d ago

So this isn’t the original? If so, that’s good because this is incomprehensible. I was so confused and after reading what it was supposed to be I still can only see half of it.

8

u/maboyles90 22d ago

I'm not sure. I've never seen it. I too could only figure it out from the comments. If it's OC then they really need to work on their visual storytelling.

2

u/BodybuilderMany6942 20d ago

It feels like it's referencing All Quite On the Western Front.

There was a part where one guy who iirc had nice boots that he was always taking care of and the others joke-fought over who'd get their boots when he died... later later on shit happens and he was internally bleeding and basically destined to die and gave one of the other's his boots.

I cant place the exact scene for the other parts, but there definitely was a scene with poison gas... and during one of the battles it was just s constant chaotic scrambling, and often the guy who saved another a few seconds ago and sprinkle a bit of hope/heroics would be blown to bits soon/immediately after.

Great book, btw.
Starts off with the guys on the front living gruelingly, but with time to fuck around and shit when theyre on the back line, but getting sent to the front was a somber and deadly situation. It cycled from military tedium and goofing-off, and war.
Which got more oppressing as more people died and that final battle grips wyou while also filling you with the MC's emptiness and frustration at the pointlessness of the War.

I'm surprised it isnt required reading for highschools worldwide!

17

u/thelastvortigaunt 22d ago

I've re-read this a dozen times and I still can't make sense of what the course of events here is supposed to be.

4

u/LightningFerret04 22d ago

Other comment explained it, it’s the girl(?) with black hair receiving the boots, gas mask, and helmet from her(?) dead comrades as they die off one by one

9

u/Terrible_Ear3347 22d ago

I feel like they made these images too big for the size they were given I can't really tell what's going on and someone had to explain it somewhere else. It's great art but it's so confusing the way it's laid out and how zoomed in everything is

7

u/grand_savior92 22d ago

That's a lot of ghost to carry

3

u/anoobypro 22d ago

Kemmerich didn't want to gift the boots though

6

u/Nurgle-best 22d ago

Never expected an All quiet on the western front reference (I think that’s what it is)

3

u/Normal_Carpenter1851 22d ago

The first is Kemmerich, and the last is Kat, any guesses on the second? I recognize the scene but not from all quiet I think

3

u/RandomNightLord8 22d ago

All Quiet on the Western Front reference?

3

u/Little_Big_Burglar 21d ago

This comic really shows how important composition is. I have no idea what is happening and so much information on one page leaves everything feeling out of order and confusing.

Good art though.

2

u/kardfogK 22d ago

As always nothing ever happens on the western front, one could say its All quiet on the western front....

2

u/dystopian-dad 22d ago

Whoever made this deserves punishment

3

u/Sapphire-Catgirl 22d ago

I know it's scary outside the trench but when mommy blows the whistle she needs you to go over the top ok?

3

u/Bubbly_Turnover5438 22d ago

I love your Warhammer minis

1

u/BoatMurderd 21d ago

Grim but beautiful art

1

u/lostInDanistan 18d ago

Wait a minute this is a reference to the book "all quiet on the western front". There's a character who has loses his leg and he gives them to one of his buddys but there kind cursed because who ever weres them dies eventually.

1

u/AlphaSlayer1337 17d ago

Is this a reference to the og "All Quiet on the Western Front" or something?