1.17.31
on July 11, 2022
at 3:00 am
“How are you-?!” is such a classic chunk of dialogue for dramatic confrontations that it’s a real shame my immediate response is always “fine thanks for asking”
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
Hell yeah! Kinda sad that Tynan’s gone tho. We need more dramatic theater kid type villains
Voidy’s having fun
Giant flame attack goes SKRAKKT
Voidy’s not impressed
“How it must pain you to die in ignorance,”
The grinning Void Dragon gloats.
Bright fire flashes around him, blazing-
“Someone’s bold,” he angrily notes.
Managed to do 1.2.14 at long last, the one that cheers “seven panels with dialogue! a new record!!!!” I think chronologically it’s the first one I’ve used 3 stanzas for.
Welp, somebody’s gonna die tonight
Void Dragon went from “Why do I hear boss music” to “JK! I am the boss!”
bro just turned into a fire budget fire deity, bet
I’ve only noticed it now, but ever since Tynan got void-zapped, the rain stopped. Which could mean his storm is getting pretty thin.
As always, the attention to detail in this comic is amazing
Alt text: and you guys thought the PONCHO was hot
[blasts Kakusei over the speakers]
Love Erin’s face in the last panel. Looks like it’s not what he expected…
Okayyyy, the Dainix’ soulfire could’ve put a dent in Tynan, but he’s in over his head with Voidy.
Good thing June appears to have touched the mind of the light dragon.
Of course, what the Paladins do is destroy the tools of the Void Dragon, so now I’m worried for Erin.
Sooo where should I direct my thirst comments about panel 2?
I’m guessing Dainix doesn’t just have any ol’ fire spirit in him.
With the Void Dragon having that reaction, it could be the Primordial Flame.
As a connoisseur of pure evil villains every line out of the Void Dragon’s mouth is ambrosia for me, but “I like that. How must it pain you to die in ignorance” is now my new favorite.
i don’t think Tynan is actually dead yet. just mostly dead. he might still get a few licks in against VD
Well,
That’s interesting.
Erin is hot, but Dainix is absolutely smoking.
Wonder if we’re gonna get slightly less of a curbstomp duel this time.
“Something Vimes had learned as a young guard drifted up from memory. If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you’re going to die. So they’ll talk. They’ll gloat.
They’ll watch you squirm. They’ll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar.
So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.”
― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
Not sure why this quote just popped up in my head, nope, no idea.
FInally up to date! I’ve been reading from the beginning in the last few weeks! What an amazing story! Excelent work Red.
I love how raw the Void Dragon is.
On the one hand: did Dainix transform his entire body!? This is going to be amazing! On the other hand: f*ck. Dainix is fully trying to kill Erin.
*claps and rubs hands* Alright, is this next page going to be the moment we finally see what exactly happened to Dainix’s right eye, or will it still be obfuscated?
So what is even going on. I love it but I’m very confused I am also kind of a In love with VD. No 1 judge or I will murder you!
PS. You should die Tynan
Walter mocks Tynan ’til the end
And Dainix’s boldness does not comprehend
Yeah but why did we start calling him Walter to begin with? Some reference I don’t get?
@5007 nope, he’s just surprised and annoyed I think. There’s been no indication so far that anyone would have woken Fire like the Collector woke Life. Still, interesting thought. Would Dainix then be in the same faze as Alinua before her ”soul exploded” or whatever?
I bet VD was so happy Erin’s clothes got damaged, that way he could pull the full evil look with that cape.
I’m going to say something potentially controversial, normal Erin is hotter than possessed Erin
A villain who just proceeds to kill someone without time wasting dialog to explain why? Red! You are breaking the trope! I love it!
are we going to ignore the fact that voidy just used wind magic?? so voidy can use erin to use magic?
What’s that shield in panel 4? First I thought ice; then I thought glass via stone magic; but from the colors, it looks like the armsleeve runes in use are actually *wind*.
There are so many things I love about this page. Walter’s dialogue and how casually he uses (I think) Wind magic. The fact that Dainix’s solution was apparently to fully turn into a fiery demon-thing and try to tackle him. It’s great.
Erin looks like a snacc
@arrow
We’ve seen him do that in the caves a long time ago. He’s in control of Erin’s body, and Erin’s body is capable of doing magic. The plan would be hilariously stupid if he couldn’t use magic while possessing Erin.
Void is the element of consumption, is it not? So what if Dainix threw a fireball at Voidy and he just ate it? That would be hilarious.
I am totally focusing on the most important things here
@confusedqueer Tosh! you are entitled to your opinion too! It’s just another facet to explore in our conversation here just as our wonderful mistrals show a different face to the panels seen to deepen our community’s understanding of the action seen above (the panels above the comments). I like Erin’s personality better than VD’s . While both are arrogant in my opinion Erin has shown in his and VD argument in the Caves the he (Erin) i s willing to sacrifice himself over letting VD free to destroy all life. VD is only concerned with it’s freedom and desire to eat all stars and destroy all life in the universe. My opinion is that Erin’s boasting comes from a desire to be recognized as person and affirmed for his skills. And Erin won a Metal Caste’s affection and friendship by helping her transform from child dormancy to self aware and motivated adult.
Please comment from your own view point. There are no wrong answers-some are just better explained and reflected over before answering.
The last panel is just perfect. I almost feel sorry for the dragon.
we’ve seen VD use fire and lightning magic before, in the caves. with Erin as his vessel, VD is the true Elemental Magus, with command of all seven magicks. unless Light magic is a thing, and it seems like it is
“Kaiju fight” is right, with the avatars of Void, Light, Life, Lighting and Fire all fighting each other with a demigod and a storm god thrown in there for flavor, this fight is not going to be nice to the city.
@silver ty for posting the alt text!
Interesting… Almost looks like Voidy’s tapping into Erin’s magic there to deflect the incoming flames. Definitely curious now as to what exactly is going on with the possession right now…
I love Walter’s subtle “oh, shit” look there in the last panel. Someone mentioned last page that somewhere in the archives was mention that he’d fought a demon or demon-like entity before and it hadn’t gone well; I wonder if he’s having a flashback or something, because clearly he was not expecting this.
Which brings me to the next thing–it looks like we’re about to get a fully-transformed demon!Dainix reveal! This is going to be interesting, because it’s also our first look at one in general, and see for ourselves just why they’re so feared… This is gonna be fun.
(And, you know, come very close to ending in tragedy, but that’s a different issue.)
Alas, Tynan, we hardly knew ya. Farewell and good riddance.
Question of the Day:
The entire cast is temporarily gender-flipped. Who is most and/or least bothered by the sudden change?
(Not my best, I know, but last week was a long week.)
Tynan: Oh come on! Don’t you want to explain how your powers work to an enemy? You know, psych them out, show how hopeless the situation is, revel in your superiority? Y’know, classic theatrical villainy?
Void Dragon: … I’ll pass.
V.D. said “die”; he’s actually killing Tynan right now. I reckon V.D. can do this readily because most of Tynan’s essence is in that dragon form, a form V.D. has dominion over. Still, with V.D. distracted Tynan might be able to de-incarnate back into his base cloud form and make a run for it, or can’t he do so while V.D. is active and hurting him?
That wasn’t just a fire blast, that fire was Dainix himself moving, fully enveloped in/transformed into fire. and skidding over the wind shield. Those spikes in panel 3 are his claws that we can more clearly see in the final panel, plus a rather … perturbed V.D., going by how wide his eye is.
Art wise I like how you can see some embers in panel 2 just before Dainix makes his move, and that (as @Mr. Wazo pointed out) the rain has stopped, signalling that Tynan has been dethroned as main villain.
The SASS
“Perish, in ign- ok who else wanna be ignorant today??”
Okay but that look tells me that Voidy old boy is scared of whatever is stuffed inside our well toned friend is actually dangerous to him, something powerful certainly, although I’m not sure what yet
OngoingConversationCouplet:
It started with a subreddit poll from before The Void Dragon’s canon name (or title?) was revealed; people were trying to figure out what nickname to call him, the poller threw that in to be random or chaotic, and for some unfathomable reason, the nickname became more popular than his canon name.
@Skye my gut instinct is that Falst would be least bothered and Tess would have a meltdown.
Anyway, as for what’s going on here… It says a lot about VD Walter that he thinks it’s worse to die without understanding what took you down. Really drives home that personality-wise, he actually does have a lot in common with Erin.
To Skye:
I think that’d be Kendal. Confused, but not bothered (much).
Least, I mean. Most I don’t know.
(I haven’t read all of your comment before posting, so it’s somewhat confusing
@Skye
Unless someone can tell us where that (V.D. vs Fire entity) was actually mentioned, I doubt it was ever mentioned. Certainly not in the archive ’cause I went and checked out every time Erin was at the archives (including the time he got kicked out, which was as hilarious to read as it was the first time. Not enlightening tho…). Unless it was written in a book and never mentioned in speech, because I can’t read those, it’s not there.
To Evil Tree:
Ooh, I hadn’t noticed that!I went back and looked–you’re right, and if you tilt your head you can see his (admittedly distorted) shape within the flames–use the yellow patch nestled between the “R” and the”A” in the sound effect as your focus; if you interpret that as his eye, it looks like he has his left arm stretched over the shield–you can see a thumb and two fingers–and the right flung behind him, like he tried to tackle Walter/Erin before he got the shield up. There’s even a gap in the flame on his right side (our left) where his missing eye would have been.
damn i’m caught up still this is amazing work loving everything about this really wish the V.D would End tyran permanently
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I HAVE CAUGHT UP OH NOOOOOOOOO
Oh my goodness, I love the alt text, it’s hilarious.
I think this is the first time where we’ve seen a sorta full idea of the wreckage that is Erin’s clothes after the explosion (there was kind of one in 1.17.27, but the lighting makes it a bit difficult), and as in tatters as they are, I have to say that they are surprisingly sturdy, given that they just went through a literal explosion in close proximity and are still in mostly one piece. I want to know where he gets them lol, they look cool and they evidently aren’t going to tear when you just trip over something.
Also, I think I’m inclined to say that Dainix isn’t a vessel to the Fire Primordial (I think someone put that forth earlier). If demons are just the fire equivalent to Chimeric Plague, it feels like wouldn’t make much sense, since Chimeric Plague seems to have been due to the Collector kinda resurrecting Life, resulting in Life trying to find some sort of vessel, whereas is doesn’t feel like it makes as much sense for that to happen to Fire, since they weren’t literally made of life force? idk, feel free to disagree with me on that.
It also kind of feels like it’d take a bit away from Alinua’s whole thing, if that makes sense? While we also have Erin in the “vessel of a primordial entity” lineup, he feels distinctly different, given that VD is both more active and malicious, whereas we don’t have much background on Fire, and they seem quite dead.
Also to Skye: For most bothered about a gender flip (assuming you mean what people usually do regarding gender flips) I’d probably say Dainix, since I think it was said somewhere that he’s trans, and for least bothered, I’d probably say either Kendal or Alinua. Idk why for the latter, just the vibes they give off ig.
There once was a demon of fire
Who had a burning desire
To see Voidy dead.
So he went for his head
But just made him a little drier.
I know, I know, “burning desire” is a terrible pun, but I just couldn’t resist. Also, it is a limerick, so what did you expect?
Judging by the look in VD’s eye in that last panel, I think he is going to be seriously questioning why so many vessels of primordials (unconfirmed but likely) are just showing up. “ANOTHER one? What am I, a magnet?”
@rai626 it was in a book and not mentioned in speech, but someone posted translations in the comments. This page: https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-13-32/
According to @Stark9865, it says “The dark one seized hold of a grea[t]
[b]east but seemed to struggle with it a[nd]
Before it kould sweep down to atakk
eksploded into a roiling inferno a v(?)
We do not know why the possession fai[led]
But the beast of flame saved us th?
TL;DR: time to fight the big baddie! Don’t you guys know you’re under leveled and sorely in need of some teamwork exercises?
@Aulde in case it wasn’t clear the “potentially controversial” thing was sarcasm not genuine concern
@Skye could you (or anyone else for that matter) please comment what page VD’s encounter with a demon or something similar is mentioned? I looked for it when it was first commented but I couldn’t find it.
Anyone else notice that the rain let up a few pages ago? Now it’s stopped completely.
I am LOVING this chapter
This page came out on my birthday and its so cool!
@Hermit Thrush
Oooh, that’s very interesting, thanks for looking closer than I did
@Swampy711
Happy birthday!
Ok so,
ever since both Tess and Dainix have been introduced, I’ve been wondering which one of them is going to join the main group. I’ve been considering the fact that either neither or both of them will join, however both of those options seem unlikely for various reasons. Now, in Red’s trope talk about time travel, she drew a scene of the current main cast of Aurora plus The Collector, and Dainix is in it (it’s at 9:40 for anyone who wants to find it). This makes me believe that he’s gonna be the one to join the group. He was already the one I considered more likely to join, and he’s the one I personally want to join. If I’m right, that also means that he’s not gonna die in this fight, which is great because I really want to see where his character arc is gonna go. It also means that if Red wants a character death in this fight, Tess is on the chopping block. While that could create some nice drama for Erin (killing his sister while possessed would certainly be rough) I don’t think it’s gonna happen based of of Red’s view on character deaths. I also just like her too much as a character to believe that she’ll die.
I really hope I’m right about this because I love Dainix’s interactions with the characters that he’s met so far, and I really want to see where his character is going to go.
Oh boy,
I was watching more trope talks, this time the one about the rule of three. At 5:34, there’s an image of everyone in my predicted five man band, plus The Collector, plus probably Tess. This is causing me to question my theory above. In my defense it’s during a part where Red is talking about how the more characters there are, the less you care about each individual character, but idk. I still think that Dainix is gonna join, but now I’m slightly less sure that Tess wont.
Also, the fact that The collector is in both of these images is starting to make me think that at some point the gang is going to not only meet her, but actively work with her. I’m not 100% on this yet, but it would be interesting to see play out.
@Sriracha
Two things: One, that seventh character isn’t the Collector, she’s not joining the group. That’s another protagonist we haven’t encountered yet. We call her Sword Lady since she’s often seen wielding a sword. (I believe there’s also a couple sketches with her)
Two: None of the protags are dying in this fight, or at all I don’t think, judging by what Red has said. More likely that whoever’s gonna join is just gonna leave and come back later on (probably Dainix).
Just letting you know ‘-‘)b
More characters doesn’t mean you care less, but it does mean it takes more time. Order of the Stick is up to 11 characters, 3 of which are evil, that I care about deeply. I could name a few others, but that one is Masterclass. Red has used it a few times in Tropes too.
Ooh, a new chapter cover dropped! By the looks of it, Kendal will continue struggling to conjure starfire, and we might get to see how exactly it’s conjured.
@Sriracha There’s a possibility it’s actually the Sword Lady that hasn’t shown up yet.
@Sriracha In reference to the group shot you mentioned earlier, in case that wasn’t clear.
@OngoingConversationCouplet
I went back through the archives because I was curious about the answer to your question as well. The name ‘Walter’ is first brought up in the comments on page 1-7-16 because that page gave the name ‘void dragon’, and those who frequent the subreddit, where the name was used before then, were worried they might have to stop using ‘Walter’.
On page 1-7-25, @TheUnknownGame commented to kindly give context for the name to those of us who do not frequent the subreddit:
“A subreddit poll, before his name was revealed; the person who made the poll randomly put “Walter” as one of the options, alongside other pre-name-reveal nicknames like Golden Eyes. Most of the people voted for the Walter option…”
just enjoying the pure unit that void is
Time to fancast Dainix as either Chris Evans or Michael B. Jordan. $5 to anyone who gets the reference.
How is Erin in the second panel so cute tho?!
Also is it just me or is VD’s personality go perfectly with the artfully torn clothes look?