The Stonekeeper

After the slow, expository nature of Navin and Emily’s meeting with Silas, the action quickly ramps back up in this section as The Stonekeeper heads toward its climax. From this point onward, the novel is almost exclusively action sequences. There are stretches with little to no dialogue for several pages in a row. During these action sequences, the panel shapes become much more dynamic—Kibuishi moves away from perfectly aligned squares and rectangles to slanted, rhombus- and triangle-shaped panels that capture the speed and chaos of the action. He also makes use of several speed lines and onomatopoeic sounds to further amplify this.

A couple of moments break up the relentless pacing. First, when Emily and her companions exit the tunnel and think they’re in control again, the panels shift back to being rectangles. However, this is brief—as soon as Miskit realizes his mistake with the tranquilizers, the panels become slanted again to reflect the disorder and chaos of this improvised attempt to rescue Karen. Second, Miskit’s reaction to his mistake is framed comedically and provides a brief moment of levity.

The plane they travel in is named the Albatross; this bird is historically considered to be a symbol of good luck for travelers. However, in Coleridge’s famous poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the mariner shoots and kills an albatross, bringing bad luck upon his ship; as a punishment, he is forced to wear the bird around his neck. So, the albatross has come to represent the idea of a burden or curse that someone is forced to bear. With this in mind, the plane’s name foreshadows the mistake that Miskit makes by mixing up the tranquilizer darts and nearly dooming their mission. Luckily for him, the combination of Emily’s courage, impulsiveness, and power is enough to overcome the odds despite his mistake.

The Importance of Family and Teamwork becomes increasingly evident throughout this section of the story. Emily quickly takes to her new role as leader and formulates a plan, but she wouldn’t be able to do so without the information and resources provided by Miskit, the technical know-how of Cogsley, or any of the other robots that help prepare them for launch. Since the robots are such an integral part of the mission, they start to feel like Emily and Navin’s extended family. The scene leading up to the Albatross’s launch emphasizes the importance of their ability to work together as well as their growing bond. While most panels in the novel up to this point focused on individuals by usually featuring one character at a time, these panels show multiple characters working together, showing how Emily is no longer alone in her quest.

This section also illustrates the theme of Power and Responsibility in the moment when Emily has to choose between saving her mom or rescuing Navin from the arachnopods. Emily has to let go of her mom’s hand, mirroring the impossible choice Karen had to make in the Prologue—the similarity between these two episodes is highlighted by a multi-panel sequence that is very much like the moment in the Prologue when Karen lets go of David’s hand. Karen didn’t want to let him go, but she made the choice to do so as a responsible adult who knew she had to look after her children; when Emily makes a similar decision, it highlights her growing maturity. The difference between the two incidents is that Emily has the amulet, and therefore she has more control over the situation than her mom did; she also believes that she will be able to come back and save her mom later. The scene that follows is the greatest assertion of power that Emily demonstrates in the novel. She completely annihilates the arachnopods that are attacking Navin and Miskit, leaving them in awe of her power and a little frightened of it. This reveals that Emily gets carried away by her anger and chooses to use her power in a harmful manner rather than being careful with it.