Drago: Sela's Father and What Happened in Germany

Drago: Sela's Father and What Happened in Germany With Drago, I want to go back through the actual history we get in Grimm Fairy Tales #50, because his connection to Sela adds a lot to what she's dealing with in that issue. He's introduced as a father traveling with his children, but the conversation he has away from them makes it clear that he has a life they don't fully understand. Spoilers for Grimm Fairy Tales #50, “Hard Choices.” The flashback takes place in Germany in 1801. Drago leaves the children at their wagon while he goes to meet someone at a set of ruins. The Dark One confronts him there, using the name Drago rather than the name Freidrich that appears in the conversation. He wants him back in the fold. Drago says he left the Horde when he left Myst, and he wants to be left alone to raise his family. There is a lot packed into that exchange. Drago has crossed from Myst into a life on Earth, married, and had children. He has also tried to leave an organization whose leader doesn't accept that decision. The threat involves exposing him to the council, and the children are described as falseblood offspring who belong to the Horde. His past gives the Dark One something to threaten him with, while his family gives him people to threaten. Drago protests that the children are innocent. The Dark One mocks him for caring, saying the Drago he knew in Myst cared only about himself. Drago's explanation is that his wife, his children, and the place he now lives have changed him. I think it's worth keeping that conversation in mind, because the rest of the flashback gives us something to judge that claim against. We aren't given a complete account of what he did for the Horde. We don't see every decision that led him to leave, either. There is enough to establish that he has a past he wants to get away from, but I wouldn't fill in a military rank or a list of crimes that this issue doesn't supply. His refusal is happening in the present, with his children close by and the threat to them very real. After he leaves the meeting, an armored attacker strikes the wagon on the road. It goes toward a cliff. The boy is thrown clear, while Drago catches Sela as they go over the edge. He manages to secure a strap to a ring in a tree stump, leaving Sela climbing toward safety with him hanging below her. The rescue starts to fail at the anchor. That's an important detail if we're looking at what he physically accomplishes here. He reacts quickly enough to catch his daughter, finds a way to stop their fall, and holds on while she climbs. Those are substantial actions under pressure. But the support above them is giving way, so his ability to keep gripping the strap can't solve the entire problem. The basic physics is understandable even without assigning him a strength rating. A hanging load pulls on the thing supporting it. OpenStax's explanation of tension describes how a rope or another flexible connector carries that pulling force along its length. In a simple stationary example, the support has to balance the weight hanging from it. In this scene, both Drago and Sela are relying on the same damaged arrangement. The initial catch is more demanding than simply hanging still. A falling body has to be slowed down, which adds a problem of acceleration to the weight being supported. The force depends on how quickly the fall is stopped and how the strap and attachment respond. We aren't given the distance, their masses, the material properties, or enough information about the ring to calculate a credible number. I can explain why the catch and the anchor are under stress without pretending a panel gives us a laboratory measurement. That also makes me cautious about inventing powers for Drago. His background in Myst is relevant to who he is, but this sequence doesn't demonstrate regeneration, flight, or a magical way to repair the anchor. What it shows is a father attempting a physical rescue and running out of time as the support fails. A later story might provide more information about him; this scene needs to be understood on the evidence it actually gives us. When the issue comes back to the cliff, Drago realizes what his weight is doing to their chance of getting Sela up. He gives her a message for her mother, tells her he loves both children, and asks her to try to do the right thing. He releases his hold, and her brother helps her the rest of the way to safety. The comic presents this as his sacrifice to save her. I wouldn't treat the sequence as a practical rescue procedure, but within the story the choice is clear. Earlier, the Dark One described him as someone who only cared about himself. Here, he gives up his own chance to make sure his daughter has one. We get to see why his claim that he has changed should be taken seriously. The placement of that memory is what makes it particularly relevant to adult Sela. In the present-day battle, Nissa is corrupted and forced to open the portal for the Dark One's army. She tells Sela she cannot stop and asks Sela to kill her. Sela has to make that decision with her friend in front of her, and the consequences stay with her afterward. I don't think those situations are identical, and I wouldn't say her father's last words automatically explain every choice she makes. But putting them in the same issue gives the words a painful context. Sela learned about doing the right thing from someone whose decision cost him his life. Now she's in a situation where stopping the invasion means losing someone else she cares about. There is also a family detail I wouldn't skip over: her brother is part of the rescue. He is thrown clear of the wagon, then helps Sela when she reaches the top. The flashback ends with the children together after losing their father. That leaves Sela with a memory involving both the parent who saved her and the sibling who was there afterward, which is considerably more personal than a general explanation of her family’s connection to Myst.