Out from Boneville Ch6: Phoney's Inferno

PREVIOUSLY ...

Phoney isn't the only flaming motif in this chapter as Fone Bone and Thorn return to find her farm on fire.

Synopsis
So it turns out that Gran'ma is all right -- and happy that Thorn and Fone are safe. She addresses the Red Dragon, showing us that they know each other, and that something in their past means Gran'ma wasn't entirely happy to see him.

There's also a lot of history on Fone Bone's side as we finally hear about the horrific events that caused Phoney to be ran out of Boneville (ooh, almost a title drop). Here we see use of the techniques described back in Chapter 3, allowing lots of expositional dialogue to be covered without it standing out or becoming boring, because the characters are just as interested as we are in what is being told (and because Gran'ma and Fone are working with their hands it is believable that they have time to talk).

Meanwhile, Phoney and Smiley plan their Cow Race con as they work off their tabs at the Barrelhaven Tavern. The hooded figure from Chapter 4 appears before Phoney, in case you had forgotten that our villains wanted "the one with the star".

Eventually we meet one of the other Barrelhaven secondary characters, young Jon, and discover that Gran'ma has history with Lucius. But most importantly, Smiley and Fone see each other for the first time in months -- they call out Phoney (who is assaulted by Fone for wandering off, no less) and finally the three cousins are reunited.

But the hooded figure from Phoney's vision is just outside the tavern, watching and waiting ...

Pros
Chapter 6 showcases a return to more storytelling-heavy scenes after the mostly action packed Chapter 5 -- giving us a lot of cool/funny backstory and cathartic release. But the story makes it clear that the Bone cousin's troubles are far from over, while the human characters' storylines remain, growing in importance, in the background. All of this makes for a satisfying end of Volume 1, without dampening the excitement to see where the story goes.

Con
This chapter is fine, I've no big complaints. The only nitpick I could find was at the start. The Red Dragon warns Thorn about rushing out into the open, advice she ignores, and there are no consequences. While it was certainly in-character for the Red Dragon, it lacks an impact on the story and probably could have been cut (there is an alternative interpretation, but it seems rather subtle for a kid's story: that the Red Dragon -- knowing Gran'ma's fighting skills from experience -- didn't want Thorn to find her before he could leave and suffer her stink-eye).

This week's lesson -- pay off and revisiting mystery
Chapter 6 does not reveal important information about the Valley in the way Chapters 3 or 4 did, but there is a lot of pay off from the summary of the events leading up to the Bone cousins stuck in the desert. By using this mini-story as the reward for reaching the final chapter in Out from Boneville, we feel like a certain circle has been closed. This is also a good justification for reuniting the cousins so soon in the story. These circles give the book a feeling of completeness without finality, because the main characters are still in the middle of something huge and dangerous. This is incredibly important for the first part of an epic adventure! More so than in any other volumes in the whole series, these circles foster confidence in Jeff Smith's writing. As the audience, we're happy with his ability to connect motifs and develop themes in a six-chapter story -- so it follows that we're now on board for the remaining fifty-or-so chapters.

The other half of this week's lesson harkens back to the mystery first established with Chapter 1. Why has the Red Dragon been a constant fixture of the comic, and why is he disliked/disbelieved? What does the hooded figure want Phoney's soul for? And why does Thorn feel like the real hero of this story, having crossed a physical and metaphorical threshold by leaving home after a traumatic upset of her normality? Fuel for the engine that drives us into the rest of the adventure.

Without these questions, Out from Boneville wouldn't feel so much like the first step in a bigger story. Mastering this week's lesson means teasing a bigger story with unanswered questions while simultaneously creating circles that strengthen connection with the characters. You can identify these two techniques in pretty much any example of popular fantasy. Star Wars, Avatar: TLA, The Wheel of Time, The Hunger Games, The Lord of the Rings -- and remember, The Fellowship of the Ring isn't strictly the "first part" of LOTR. That would be Book 1, up until the hobbits reach Rivendell.