I bust out laughing when I read your comment – I think one of the best parts about this comment section is that everyone has watched Red’s trope talks and is constantly noticing them and referring to them XD
You can also get clues on what may happen by watching the Trope Talks. Sometimes the little people she draws for examples look suspiciously like the Floof squad
Ah yes, of course, the power of a good Character Development Coma…. Wonder if Red was working on this bit at the same time as that particular Trope Talk…
That’s an interesting take on an immortality flaw.
It’s something of the opposite of what I have done. The longest-lived people tend to be terrifying because the mindset of eternal growth/striving to improve is part of what allows them to find the type of power that transcends normal mortality. That, or they were born immortal due to their race, but even then those that stagnate instead of grow tend to wither away in comparison to their peers, so the oldest ones are once more the ones who continued to learn and improve.
In short, life is in growth and change, stagnation and stillness are death. I mean, this is the lesson that Vash just learned, hmm, but I guess there isn’t exactly a community or network of immortals for him to share notes with. So I guess in the end our worldbuilding agrees here, just most of the immortals in my world have more of a support system to encourage them to maintain this mindset.
I think this is one of the differences between Vash and Kendall. As PaulEnan pointed out, Vash had to grow during his first fight with Tynan before he could learn to use Starfire. On the other hand, Kendall has been pretty focused on his failure to rescue Vash and his people. The fact that Kendall remembers being Vash doesn’t mean he’s automatically learned all the lessons Vash has learned.
Besides, in my experience, some lessons have to kick you in the head more than once before they really stick.
But seriously, I love this page. I love it so much I don’t even know how to explain. I’m gonna pin “I overlooked the greatest gift of being alive. We grow.” on my board so I never, ever forget it.
my single problem with this page is that it’s too big to screenshot the entire thing at once
…Then again, if I could do that, I think I’d have saved a third of the comic and run my photos storage out, so maybe its for the better.
goodness, I’m excited for Wednesday. does anybody else think this means he has control over wacky starmetal starfire stuff now? Either way, I suspect the next page will feature a big ¨FWOOSH!¨ of blue flame 🙂
Kendal!! I HAVE MISSED YOUR POLITE BADASSERY SO!!!!
Also that the last line of that inner monologue is so calm, so quietly comforting, it makes such an impactful contrast/pairing with the building eye glow.
If this were Anime, you know Kendal’s theme song would be playing right now.
I love how he says “Please get clear!”; how polite of him. Tess and Kendal are working well together despite only really knowing one another for less than an hour. I guess Tess knows Kendal from Erin and Alinua talking about how much he means to them, Kendal knows Tess from Erin’s introduction and her impressive show against Tynan, and both are geared to the wandering-warrior-righting-wrongs lifestyle … and saving their friends/family from themselves at least twice a day.
Nice internal monologue going there and worthy of an accompanying power up. I’m reminded of Kendal’s speech to Tynan in 1-17-9, only this time he’s explicitly including himself into that mortal sub-group. He’s realising he is his own mortal who can grow, succeed, fail, try again, and keep on changing.
ah, his skillset is about to expand from “hitting things really hard with a sword” to “hitting things really hard with a starmetal sword and also starfire.” you love to see it!
Presumably it will be the winged paladin we saw talk with the light dragon after fighting cave-crawlers but I’m still holding out hope for Alinua’s sister
I’m pretty sure Erin being VD’s Avatar means that the Champion will be an antagonistic force, trying to kill Erin before VD becomes too powerful. Also, Alinua has a sister?
You might be right about that but the Champion did muse on the fact that the carrion-crawler he was fighting was a victim and used to be a person so he does have compassion. And yeah Alinua has a sister, Red mentioned on tumbler that one of the reasons she left home is that her mother was pregnant and Alinua was scared she’d hurt her before she was born because she couldn’t control her magic. I have no idea how old she would be other than younger than Alinua as I don’t how long ago Alinua left.
“Just because he’s bad guy… does not mean he’s… bad guy?”
I definitely think that the Champion is a ‘good’ character; he protects the vulnerable and, yes, he even has empathy for Cave Crawlers. The problem is: he has empathy for the Cave Crawlers because he knows that they’ve only turned into Cave Crawlers BECAUSE of the Void Dragon’s influence, which actually reinforces the narrative representing him as Erin’s equal and opposite (assuming he’s the Light Dragon’s chosen Avatar, or one of them). In other words, I’m certain he’s going to serve as a foil to Erin, and I pretty sure he’s going to try to kill Erin for the greater good. Maybe they’ll come to terms later, but I don’t see them making friends anytime soon.
Oh, you must mean Alinua’s adoptive sister then? I didn’t know about her. Interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised if we met Alinua’s fmaily eventually, biological or adoptive, but I doubt she’ll join the gang, especially since Erin and Tess already have a sibling dynamic down.
I believe we might be seeing a sort of “Magnificent Seventh Samurai” as I call them. They’ve popped up in Trope Talks here and there, a Warrior Prince that Red added some estrogen to (Strong Female Characters). As such, I think they’ll be a third female character to balance out the Squad a little, as well as to add some more technical, physical strength to the group, much like Kendal or Dainix.
As for what other abilities they might have; I don’t know. I doubt that we’ll see another dedicated Elemental Mage, since we already have Erin, Tess, and Alinua, each with unique styles of casting. But I wonder if they might have some sort of Emmisary-based powers, since Red has thought enough about them to know that Emmisaries of an “abstract god” (for example, Jiya The Crimson, Goddess of War) are sort of like demigod heroes. This would let her play around with a unique powerset and provide Kendal and Dainix another narrative foil to their “made to be a weapon” mindsets.
I’m pretty sure you’re right, since a figure that’s suspiciously similar to her was in that one panel from the “Rule of Three” trope talk alongside a bunch of other Aurora characters before page one was even released. As for who she is, my money’s on someone from the Emerald empire, since she’s depicted wearing green, we know that they’re pretty good at war, and the Emerald Empire is friendlier to visitors than the other Empires.
I’ve also seen a sketch of her sitting next to Kendal comparing swords. I think it was in “We’re Not So Different”. Red was talking about “two disparate characters realising their similarities” so the idea that she might be another Foil or Lancer to Kendal is strong, if the most similar thing about them is that they both use the same weapon type.
If she’s from the Emerald Empire then it makes sense that she would probably be a bit more warlike than the mostly pacifist Floof Squad (ignore Falst and maybe Tess). Plus, if she’s Crystal Caste (and therefore probably also some form of nobility), that would give her a leg up in strength and durability, probably allowing her keep up with Kendal.
I’m so on board with this character theory now. I hadn’t thought of the Emerald connection yet, but it makes a lot of sense. Thanks!
Every so often I update my bookmark to a new page of the comic to land on, so it’s not so far to scroll back and forth from the most recent pages. Only the those most honored pages get to be my landing spot, to read every time before I go to the new content, an honor few and far between. Today, that page is updated. 🙂
It’s starting to become clear that the glort isn’t actually a slime, just an extremely slimy and mutable cave-corrupted… person? Erin certainly seemed to think that it deserved an apology, at least, and it’s been displaying more and more humanoid characteristics in the last few pages: head, actual arms as well as pseudopods, all those eyes turning out to be above its mouth… and it said something, too, even if it was only “HUNGRY!”
AAAAAAAAAAAA
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: dude I think you misheard it, it’s “grow” not “glow”
Image source: gift
Tumblr text: pages that have music. to me
On the hill he monologues of his life
As lightning and blades end the strife
Is he about to use starfire?
Pretty rhyme @Ongoing!
Thank you! Any and all encouragement is always much appreciated 🙂
WOOOOOOOOO KENDAL CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT POWERUP LETS GOOOOO
this boughta add nuances to the term “firepower” isn’t it?
HE GOT HIS SHONEN POWER-UP!!!
Glort: Ah, your eyes glow when you’re about to kill someone too? We’re not so different, you and I…ah shit.
I bust out laughing when I read your comment – I think one of the best parts about this comment section is that everyone has watched Red’s trope talks and is constantly noticing them and referring to them XD
That is definitely part of the charm for me. (smile)
You can also get clues on what may happen by watching the Trope Talks. Sometimes the little people she draws for examples look suspiciously like the Floof squad
Ooooooo – I’ll look out for that 😉
Ah yes, of course, the power of a good Character Development Coma…. Wonder if Red was working on this bit at the same time as that particular Trope Talk…
Bet you a copper she was.
Alinua is going to be so angry about this.
That’s an interesting take on an immortality flaw.
It’s something of the opposite of what I have done. The longest-lived people tend to be terrifying because the mindset of eternal growth/striving to improve is part of what allows them to find the type of power that transcends normal mortality. That, or they were born immortal due to their race, but even then those that stagnate instead of grow tend to wither away in comparison to their peers, so the oldest ones are once more the ones who continued to learn and improve.
In short, life is in growth and change, stagnation and stillness are death. I mean, this is the lesson that Vash just learned, hmm, but I guess there isn’t exactly a community or network of immortals for him to share notes with. So I guess in the end our worldbuilding agrees here, just most of the immortals in my world have more of a support system to encourage them to maintain this mindset.
I think this is one of the differences between Vash and Kendall. As PaulEnan pointed out, Vash had to grow during his first fight with Tynan before he could learn to use Starfire. On the other hand, Kendall has been pretty focused on his failure to rescue Vash and his people. The fact that Kendall remembers being Vash doesn’t mean he’s automatically learned all the lessons Vash has learned.
Besides, in my experience, some lessons have to kick you in the head more than once before they really stick.
Vash who had to grow himself to learn how to deal with Tynan: “Buddy how the hell did you miss that?”
Oh yeah it’s back to the first chapters monologues ^.^
its times like this I really wish this comic had a fastpass
if anyone knows about the unrelated comic series “Linden Roots”, you’ll know why my blood ran cold at that last panel.
Nevertheless, this is excellent.
Never ran across it before but you have sparked my interest!
What a genuinely heartwarming message. Who HASN’T failed at something important to them and then felt like they’ll never be enough?
I was just in the process of doinw just that
Same. Way too often, actually
Kendals face looks like ¦< in panel 6
Shonen anime monologue power-up let’s GOOOO
But seriously, I love this page. I love it so much I don’t even know how to explain. I’m gonna pin “I overlooked the greatest gift of being alive. We grow.” on my board so I never, ever forget it.
my single problem with this page is that it’s too big to screenshot the entire thing at once
…Then again, if I could do that, I think I’d have saved a third of the comic and run my photos storage out, so maybe its for the better.
“PLEASE get clear” he’s so polite
goodness, I’m excited for Wednesday. does anybody else think this means he has control over wacky starmetal starfire stuff now? Either way, I suspect the next page will feature a big ¨FWOOSH!¨ of blue flame 🙂
I think he has access to it but a long way to go.
I think this is his first step rather than insta-perfection, but yes.
Maybe just a little fwoosh. He won’t have grown very much if he expects himself to one-up a god.
Kendal!! I HAVE MISSED YOUR POLITE BADASSERY SO!!!!
Also that the last line of that inner monologue is so calm, so quietly comforting, it makes such an impactful contrast/pairing with the building eye glow.
If this were Anime, you know Kendal’s theme song would be playing right now.
I love how he says “Please get clear!”; how polite of him. Tess and Kendal are working well together despite only really knowing one another for less than an hour. I guess Tess knows Kendal from Erin and Alinua talking about how much he means to them, Kendal knows Tess from Erin’s introduction and her impressive show against Tynan, and both are geared to the wandering-warrior-righting-wrongs lifestyle … and saving their friends/family from themselves at least twice a day.
Nice internal monologue going there and worthy of an accompanying power up. I’m reminded of Kendal’s speech to Tynan in 1-17-9, only this time he’s explicitly including himself into that mortal sub-group. He’s realising he is his own mortal who can grow, succeed, fail, try again, and keep on changing.
I gotta say I love the amount Kendral ‘respect women juice’ he’s seemed to have in his soul! (smile)
I think it’s just respect juice
That’s true! (smile)
ah, his skillset is about to expand from “hitting things really hard with a sword” to “hitting things really hard with a starmetal sword and also starfire.” you love to see it!
TL;DR: That character development coma was what I needed to unlock my TRUE POWER!!!!
Anonymous Aurora Question #30 (I think): Who might the mysterious seventh floof squad member be? I’ve heard there might be one one day.
Presumably it will be the winged paladin we saw talk with the light dragon after fighting cave-crawlers but I’m still holding out hope for Alinua’s sister
I’m pretty sure Erin being VD’s Avatar means that the Champion will be an antagonistic force, trying to kill Erin before VD becomes too powerful. Also, Alinua has a sister?
You might be right about that but the Champion did muse on the fact that the carrion-crawler he was fighting was a victim and used to be a person so he does have compassion. And yeah Alinua has a sister, Red mentioned on tumbler that one of the reasons she left home is that her mother was pregnant and Alinua was scared she’d hurt her before she was born because she couldn’t control her magic. I have no idea how old she would be other than younger than Alinua as I don’t how long ago Alinua left.
Now you make curious about Alinua’s foster parents. Her love and care seem to echo from their love and courage taking in baby Alinua.
“Just because he’s bad guy… does not mean he’s… bad guy?”
I definitely think that the Champion is a ‘good’ character; he protects the vulnerable and, yes, he even has empathy for Cave Crawlers. The problem is: he has empathy for the Cave Crawlers because he knows that they’ve only turned into Cave Crawlers BECAUSE of the Void Dragon’s influence, which actually reinforces the narrative representing him as Erin’s equal and opposite (assuming he’s the Light Dragon’s chosen Avatar, or one of them). In other words, I’m certain he’s going to serve as a foil to Erin, and I pretty sure he’s going to try to kill Erin for the greater good. Maybe they’ll come to terms later, but I don’t see them making friends anytime soon.
Oh, you must mean Alinua’s adoptive sister then? I didn’t know about her. Interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised if we met Alinua’s fmaily eventually, biological or adoptive, but I doubt she’ll join the gang, especially since Erin and Tess already have a sibling dynamic down.
I believe we might be seeing a sort of “Magnificent Seventh Samurai” as I call them. They’ve popped up in Trope Talks here and there, a Warrior Prince that Red added some estrogen to (Strong Female Characters). As such, I think they’ll be a third female character to balance out the Squad a little, as well as to add some more technical, physical strength to the group, much like Kendal or Dainix.
As for what other abilities they might have; I don’t know. I doubt that we’ll see another dedicated Elemental Mage, since we already have Erin, Tess, and Alinua, each with unique styles of casting. But I wonder if they might have some sort of Emmisary-based powers, since Red has thought enough about them to know that Emmisaries of an “abstract god” (for example, Jiya The Crimson, Goddess of War) are sort of like demigod heroes. This would let her play around with a unique powerset and provide Kendal and Dainix another narrative foil to their “made to be a weapon” mindsets.
I’m pretty sure you’re right, since a figure that’s suspiciously similar to her was in that one panel from the “Rule of Three” trope talk alongside a bunch of other Aurora characters before page one was even released. As for who she is, my money’s on someone from the Emerald empire, since she’s depicted wearing green, we know that they’re pretty good at war, and the Emerald Empire is friendlier to visitors than the other Empires.
I’ve also seen a sketch of her sitting next to Kendal comparing swords. I think it was in “We’re Not So Different”. Red was talking about “two disparate characters realising their similarities” so the idea that she might be another Foil or Lancer to Kendal is strong, if the most similar thing about them is that they both use the same weapon type.
If she’s from the Emerald Empire then it makes sense that she would probably be a bit more warlike than the mostly pacifist Floof Squad (ignore Falst and maybe Tess). Plus, if she’s Crystal Caste (and therefore probably also some form of nobility), that would give her a leg up in strength and durability, probably allowing her keep up with Kendal.
I’m so on board with this character theory now. I hadn’t thought of the Emerald connection yet, but it makes a lot of sense. Thanks!
Every so often I update my bookmark to a new page of the comic to land on, so it’s not so far to scroll back and forth from the most recent pages. Only the those most honored pages get to be my landing spot, to read every time before I go to the new content, an honor few and far between. Today, that page is updated. 🙂
I love that Tess just swoops in obliterates the goo and than leaps into the sky, shes so awesome.
So is this Kendal’s glow up?
LESSGO We finally got to this arc’s mandatory Kendal badass moment
How much glort has to remain intact for it to keep sentience? I suspect we’re about to find out.
It’s starting to become clear that the glort isn’t actually a slime, just an extremely slimy and mutable cave-corrupted… person? Erin certainly seemed to think that it deserved an apology, at least, and it’s been displaying more and more humanoid characteristics in the last few pages: head, actual arms as well as pseudopods, all those eyes turning out to be above its mouth… and it said something, too, even if it was only “HUNGRY!”
Oh this is going to be so cool
is there about to be a blue firestorm on screen? If so, then let’s hope jeff/glort doesn’t consume it.
OH yeah its power up time.
AW YEAH