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A panel from page 597 of 3rd Voice. Gaddek kneels beside a pond holding a broken sword, sharp point at the ready to catch an unseen fish. We see also Spondule looking particularly sweet and attentive, listening to Gaddek's speech. In the background roam some little creatures a bit reminiscent of Leonora Carrington's 'dorgys.'

SWORDS BROKEN

3rd Voice, Gaddek

This the fifth issue of “Swords Broken,” a series of blog posts about broken swords. The first post, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, can be found here.

March 24th, 2025


There’s a broken sword or two in Evan Dahm’s ongoing webcomic of gleaning and searching and being a new person in a fallen engine world. It might be premature to get verbose about my whole read of 3rd Voice at this point in its telling. It may also be in direct contravention of the author’s expressed discomfort with readers identifying and latching onto their pet aspects of his work in ill-advised modes of readership that encourage such fixations. But that’s what I do here on Swords Broken. (The following contains mild spoilers for mostly thematic content of 3rd Voice.)

Gaddek, as described by the rice-boy.org 3rd Voice encyclopedia, is “a Gleaner newly of Shadow-side. They talk of an inevitable war between the Face and Shadow-side.” Gaddek keeps a broken sword sheathed on their chest (see above).

Thus far, we have only seen it used to catch a fish.

Gaddek again, sword sheathed, from where this conversation begins on page 596.

Above: Gaddek again, sword sheathed, from where this conversation begins on page 596.

It’s eight panels, a couple pages, between drawing the blade and catching the fish. Gaddek and Spondule talk about the tension between the two halves of the city, about their place in the world, about death and ruin, while Gaddek is waiting, waiting, waiting, for the right moment to strike. The shard of blade dives into the water, the fish is caught, killed, and eaten, as Gaddek tells Spondule of their experience surviving persecution by the lawkeepers.

When these two characters met, Gaddek immediately knew some things about Spondule. “He is from Zem Renovon,” they tell us. “The once-engine city. I can see it in how he carries himself.” Moments later, they make a remark about the two of them being gleaners, scavengers of the outside world.

“That doesn't mean anything to me,” says Spondule.

“Nonetheless, we are bonded by it.”

Spondule is a boy with some problems, some broken things. Much earlier in the story, there was another broken sword in a very characteristically Spondule-esque moment (page 341, spoilers), and what might have been another in the background a little before that (page 295, spoilers again). I’ll update again if there are more broken swords. It’s a whole world of broken things out there.


[ Read 3rd Voice from page 1. ]



←︎ Previously: “May thy knife chip and shatter” (Dune)



 
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