I think it only counts as a Deus ex Machina if the situation was unwinnable before the “god” showed up. Since I think Erin, Kendal, and Falst could’ve handled Jolon with the snake gone, it’s not really Deus Ex Machina, it’s just a fortunate turn of events.
Also, the “rest now” and Life gently caring for Alinua while she’s knocked out makes me firmly believe that “Life Mum” (I think Jan coined the term) is definitely the right name for this deity.
its green but less saturated, Life Mum’s is more like VIBRANT and bright but Gleicann’s is sort of a paler green like the green between yellow and normal green
They also have differing accompanying effects. Life Mum has a bright glow around the vines and glowing vine tattoos on Alinua’s body. Gleicann has both sharp and fuzzy Kirby dots, almost like floating spores or pollen in an untamed forest.
1 I bet you Kendal was going to hug Alinua.
2 Gleicann knows life still lives what else are the gods not telling us!
3 I wonder if Gleicann will break the lacrima to mutate jolon in revenge/as punishment
Life Mum would probably understand having friends, or, at least, allies. One of the most widespread survival strategies in plants and animals is communication and community. Plus, ‘she’ (are they a ‘she’, are they beyond gender? all plants and animals also have feminine and masculine attributes, so…) had allies in the other primordials, against the Void Dragon.
I love how Kendal’s first reaction again when Alinua looks like she’s overloading is to do another cooldown hug. Best boi, Kendal.
I don’t know why, but the scene made me chuckle with the whole:
Life to Kendal: Rest now
The vine wrapping Kendal: *Just makes him faceplant to the forest floor*
Yes, he’s resting well, Life.
On the other note, our good ol’ pals, Falst and Erin and not so good pal Jolon, look very shooketh
Hands clasped behind back, politely addressing her as “my lady” and issuing a respectful yet firm request. A quite civilised forest god I must say.
I’m not sure if Gleicann can sense her connection to Life; his vision of the gang in 1.8.8 seemed to view her and Erin as mortals. He may be acting respectful viewing her as an exceptionally powerful mage rather than as a higher being.
Making Alinua’s life magic and Gleicann’s aura different shades of green and with different accompanying effects was a wise move. Setting them distinctly apart is going to be important in the next few pages I feel.
I’m kinda afraid for Gleicann’s safety here, Life is seriously angry and may not take his request well. I would hope she does but I’m just not certain. What could also happen is Jolon tries anything stupid with the lacrima and forces one of their hands regardless.
I feel like Gleicann isn’t so much asking for personal vengeance as much as he’s trying to defuse the situation. Like, he knows that ‘Life Mum’ (because that’s genuinely what we’re calling her now isn’t it? okay, cool) is going to absolutely destroy Jolon, and, whether it be mercy for the doctor or a concern for the surrounding environment, he wants to deal with Jolon in a safer, more discreet manner.
I have a feeling Life Mum isn’t going to grant Gleicann that request, but I doubt that she’ll lash out at him (or maybe I’m just being hopeful; I don’t want Gleicann to die).
That does sound likely. Gleicann strikes me as being less concerned about enacting revenge and more with getting forest back to normal and avoiding any further damage (looking at you lava-throwing elemental magus).
I don’t think Life can kill Gleicann short of destroying the entire forest, something I doubt she’ll do. She could however destroy his current incarnated body, he could make a new incarnation but likely not in time to stop what she’ll do to Jolon.
I hope someone points this out to him at some point. The irony of the mutant being the most normal member of this team is so large that even he can appreciate it 😛
no no no, the reasons are clear, it is only the METHODS that must be civilly discussed. For instane, it would be carmic justice to turn him into a chimera, or a ferin, but both have distinct disadvantages. Firstly, it would be a bit hypocritical of life to do either, but more importantly, there would be negative consequences from leaving him as a chimera to wander the forest causing even more destruction.
actually never mindthe negative consequences for either. turn him into a ferin. takes away his magic, makes him an outcast, and forces him to live with himself. also, forces him to learn what Falst went through.
making him look like a preditor ferin but have no actual powers would probably be best, give him the worst of both worlds.
But what if he was turned into a tree? Then there would be no problem with Jolon doing anything harmful, instead he can provide further benefit to the forest by housing other creatures.
Oh I thought everybody would be looking at panel 6 but I want to point out that Ali is in a mess of vines in the shape of a head so we’ve got almost the whole top half of life mums body.
Isn’t it implied that Gleicann isn’t really ‘with it’? Like he’s not fully aware of what happens in his forest on a small scale, and didn’t realise it was actually Jolon creating the chimerae? He thought it was Falst because everyone else had been lead to believe so. It isn’t like Alinua met Jolon and Life Mum instantly knew he was twisted, anyway—these gods are powerful but they’re far from omniscient.
I wonder how she’d punish him? She’s the embodiment of life, so ending a life or ‘warping it against it’s nature’ seems like something she’d avoid at all costs. So a fate worse than death maybe? Luckily Gleicann‘s here to maybe suggest something reasonable like… oh, who am I kidding, Jolon’s screwed either way.
I guess Life Mum could prescribe to the whole ‘life and death aren’t opposites, they evolve from each other’ philosophy, which would really make sense if Life Mum is the goddess of nature as a whole and not just ‘life’ as a concept. All living things must die—it’s the natural process. Perhaps Life Mum will just accelerate that process in Jolon.
I thought you were gonna suggest she’d turn him into compost for a nice flower bed or something for a sec there, ahaha! But you’re right, death’s a part of life, and sometimes death helps bring on new life. Also, the phrase ‘just accelerate that process in Jolon’ is an excellent way of describing the subject matter.
Um, generally speaking if an entity can be accurately described as a deity it has enough power that seriously pissing it off counts as suicide (at best) regardless of what it’s a deity of.
Aliuna/Essence of Life: “Of course, Master Gleicann.”
A/EoL: *constricts vines around Jolon until his entire body pops like a grape, deposits the gory remnants at Gleicann’s hooves.*
A/EoL: “By all means, impose whatever additional judgement you feel is necessary.”
A/EoL: *dueces out*
When Gleicann shows up as a literal DEUS ex machina…….. get it… because hes a god…. and deus is latin for god…. okay, now that I’ve thoroughly ruined my own joke, ill leave now.
So, Gleicann is aware that life primordial is alive.
And recognizes her authority since he probably knew about Jolon and did nothing relevant, just let it happen but now that she wants to kick his ass he suddenly wants to join.
Is it just me or did Gleicann just come across as “could not care less” before this. Life is pissed at the mere concept of twisting and harming these creatures in such a way, but when Kendal talked to him he was just like “uh, I dunno, what do humans think is scary? There’s been some animals acting strange.” He didn’t have the wrath-born-of-empathy and seeming paternal bond with living creatures associated to him that Life’s been showing.
Is he just trying to avoid losing clout as a deity- as he would if he let someone else strut all over and show dominance on his domain? Heck, does he even know who Life is or is he just trying to be diplomatic towards an unknown, powerful entity? He uses a specific deferential title towards her, which almost makes it seem like they’re associates, but simultaneously, I find it unlikely that anyone knows who she is, even our protags.
The primordials are supposed to be all dead, but narrative structure implies the life primordial tried to create an avatar/champion much like the VD, her failures were chimeric plague kids, and Ali was a success. But in-universe that’s like saying that 2020 obviously has narrative reasons as an apocalypse and the fact we’re getting to Christmas is because the rapture is coming. The characters wouldn’t treat their world like this and recognize long dead deities, right? Even if “living primordials” were a deities-only classified secret, Kendal would know.
Sorry, that tangent may be huge, but to say that TL;DR: Gleicann likely can’t know who this lady is. He didn’t care about Jolon until 3 seconds ago. I wonder what he thinks of the lady and what he wants here. I hope he and Life don’t fight for no reason, it won’t end well for him and I love them both.
I think it’s a matter of subject. Gelicann is god of the forest, as a place. He is a nature god because the place where he is is natural. If all the trees and stuff up and died, he would probably transform into a god suitably representing the inhospitable wasteland. He wouldn’t like that, and wants to maintain the status quo, and therefore his current identity.
Life, on the other hand, is an embodiment of all living things. Her element isn’t a part of the rocks and ground, and doesn’t change with the location. Life Mum is the mum of all the plants and animals, Gelicann just lives there.
a good way to think of it is gelican is a smart house, and Life Mum is the architect. Gelicann tries to keep things ticking along, because that’s his job, and he’d like to fix the bits of himself that are broken, and stop more things from breaking, but he doesn’t understand exactly what’s wrong, only that something is. Life Mum wats to put things back where they are supposed to be, because Jolon fucked with her creation. And, now that Life Mum has kindly pointed out the damage, Gelicann would like to go ahead and send in the syfy robots to zap the pests, patch up the holes, and make sure i never happens again.
Also, I agree with the argument of life being genderless, but now that the hive mind which is the comments has named her Life Mum, that is assigning femininity.
We’re calling them Life Mum, Gleicann calls them “My Lady”, there’s a lot of femininity going around, but I still imagine they’re somewhat ungendered. Philosophically they might be seen as female in that they’re the ‘womb of creation’ or something, the same way feminist theologians might describe the Judeo-Christian God.
Gleicann’s here to deus ex machina-
but Life’s VERY PISSED
Still I *really* want to see Gleicann’s dues ex machina.
How would he even do that tho? We’re talking about LIFE here?!
Poor Falst. The dude has no idea whats happening
That is just the state of the floof squad, confusion forever
Falst being moved to safety with Erin and Kendal just strengthens my surety that he’s going to join the gang. The chances must be at 99.99842% by now.
I think it only counts as a Deus ex Machina if the situation was unwinnable before the “god” showed up. Since I think Erin, Kendal, and Falst could’ve handled Jolon with the snake gone, it’s not really Deus Ex Machina, it’s just a fortunate turn of events.
Also, the “rest now” and Life gently caring for Alinua while she’s knocked out makes me firmly believe that “Life Mum” (I think Jan coined the term) is definitely the right name for this deity.
😀
no, it would be deus ex machina if the god is in a machine.
as he’s in a forest, it must be something else.
Dues Ex Silva/Slivus?
Dues Ex Flora?
Gleicann is so polite, these people are wrecking the place but he still keeps his manners.
A god’s gotta have his standards.
Is Gleican’s colour different, or just less green compared to Alinua?
its green but less saturated, Life Mum’s is more like VIBRANT and bright but Gleicann’s is sort of a paler green like the green between yellow and normal green
Gleicann externally: polite, impassive.
Gleicann internally: LIFE HERSELF!! In MY FOREST! Just wait till the other gods here about THIS!
Aaarggh! This was meant to be a reply to APerson’s comment
They also have differing accompanying effects. Life Mum has a bright glow around the vines and glowing vine tattoos on Alinua’s body. Gleicann has both sharp and fuzzy Kirby dots, almost like floating spores or pollen in an untamed forest.
double god smackdown incoming? all we know for sure is that Jolon is DONE FOR
Jolon: This is too much power!
Life Mum: ITS OVER 9000!
1 I bet you Kendal was going to hug Alinua.
2 Gleicann knows life still lives what else are the gods not telling us!
3 I wonder if Gleicann will break the lacrima to mutate jolon in revenge/as punishment
or it could be the opposite! Jolon might want to use it on them as a way of escape
I’m not sure Life would let that happen to her vessels friends (if she understands the concept that is)
Life Mum would probably understand having friends, or, at least, allies. One of the most widespread survival strategies in plants and animals is communication and community. Plus, ‘she’ (are they a ‘she’, are they beyond gender? all plants and animals also have feminine and masculine attributes, so…) had allies in the other primordials, against the Void Dragon.
Poor Jolon. He didn’t know he is dealing with the source of the power he has been so carelessly toying with and abusing.
I love how Kendal’s first reaction again when Alinua looks like she’s overloading is to do another cooldown hug. Best boi, Kendal.
I don’t know why, but the scene made me chuckle with the whole:
Life to Kendal: Rest now
The vine wrapping Kendal: *Just makes him faceplant to the forest floor*
Yes, he’s resting well, Life.
On the other note, our good ol’ pals, Falst and Erin and not so good pal Jolon, look very shooketh
Life Mum Be Like: “THOU SHALT NOT REPRESS MY POWER AGAIN WITH THE POWER OF A HUG, FLOOF-BOI”
Look, everyone’s here 😀
Why is this reminding me of when my brother and I would fight over who got to use the VHS player?
Falst’s abject confusion is frankly the best part.
Hands clasped behind back, politely addressing her as “my lady” and issuing a respectful yet firm request. A quite civilised forest god I must say.
I’m not sure if Gleicann can sense her connection to Life; his vision of the gang in 1.8.8 seemed to view her and Erin as mortals. He may be acting respectful viewing her as an exceptionally powerful mage rather than as a higher being.
Making Alinua’s life magic and Gleicann’s aura different shades of green and with different accompanying effects was a wise move. Setting them distinctly apart is going to be important in the next few pages I feel.
I’m kinda afraid for Gleicann’s safety here, Life is seriously angry and may not take his request well. I would hope she does but I’m just not certain. What could also happen is Jolon tries anything stupid with the lacrima and forces one of their hands regardless.
I feel like Gleicann isn’t so much asking for personal vengeance as much as he’s trying to defuse the situation. Like, he knows that ‘Life Mum’ (because that’s genuinely what we’re calling her now isn’t it? okay, cool) is going to absolutely destroy Jolon, and, whether it be mercy for the doctor or a concern for the surrounding environment, he wants to deal with Jolon in a safer, more discreet manner.
I have a feeling Life Mum isn’t going to grant Gleicann that request, but I doubt that she’ll lash out at him (or maybe I’m just being hopeful; I don’t want Gleicann to die).
That does sound likely. Gleicann strikes me as being less concerned about enacting revenge and more with getting forest back to normal and avoiding any further damage (looking at you lava-throwing elemental magus).
I don’t think Life can kill Gleicann short of destroying the entire forest, something I doubt she’ll do. She could however destroy his current incarnated body, he could make a new incarnation but likely not in time to stop what she’ll do to Jolon.
Falst is going to quickly realise nobody in the group is ‘normal’.
Falst is going to quickly realise nobody in the group is ‘normal’.
Except maybe himself
I hope someone points this out to him at some point. The irony of the mutant being the most normal member of this team is so large that even he can appreciate it 😛
Yeah, I don’t think Gleicann will be in any danger.
God fight? Life don’t hurt Gleicann I like him XD
I would love it if the rest of the chapter is just a civil debate on why they should torture him.
I think Falst is going to find out he is the most normal one in the group.
no no no, the reasons are clear, it is only the METHODS that must be civilly discussed. For instane, it would be carmic justice to turn him into a chimera, or a ferin, but both have distinct disadvantages. Firstly, it would be a bit hypocritical of life to do either, but more importantly, there would be negative consequences from leaving him as a chimera to wander the forest causing even more destruction.
actually never mindthe negative consequences for either. turn him into a ferin. takes away his magic, makes him an outcast, and forces him to live with himself. also, forces him to learn what Falst went through.
making him look like a preditor ferin but have no actual powers would probably be best, give him the worst of both worlds.
But what if he was turned into a tree? Then there would be no problem with Jolon doing anything harmful, instead he can provide further benefit to the forest by housing other creatures.
well shit then. Things are gettin’ real crazy.
GTFO? maybe.
I KNEW he would show up! He’s very polite for a wilderness god.
Jolon is most definitely reevaluating his life choices right now. And quite possibly wetting his pants.
Oh I thought everybody would be looking at panel 6 but I want to point out that Ali is in a mess of vines in the shape of a head so we’ve got almost the whole top half of life mums body.
Also, it almost looks like Ali is in a seatbelt in the seventh panel, making her a real life mum, clipping in her avatar like that.
“Ali, put your seatbelt on!”
“No!”
“I WILL TURN THIS PLOT AROUND, SO HELP ME—”
So in this scene, we have a god, the shell of a god, two people possessed by a primordial, and a floofy boi.
Deus Ex Machina? No, this is Deus Ex Silva!
Life: I think you’ll find that I own EVERY forest
WELL WHY DIDN’T YOU DO SOMETHING IN THE FIRST PLACE THEN
Isn’t it implied that Gleicann isn’t really ‘with it’? Like he’s not fully aware of what happens in his forest on a small scale, and didn’t realise it was actually Jolon creating the chimerae? He thought it was Falst because everyone else had been lead to believe so. It isn’t like Alinua met Jolon and Life Mum instantly knew he was twisted, anyway—these gods are powerful but they’re far from omniscient.
I wonder how she’d punish him? She’s the embodiment of life, so ending a life or ‘warping it against it’s nature’ seems like something she’d avoid at all costs. So a fate worse than death maybe? Luckily Gleicann‘s here to maybe suggest something reasonable like… oh, who am I kidding, Jolon’s screwed either way.
I guess Life Mum could prescribe to the whole ‘life and death aren’t opposites, they evolve from each other’ philosophy, which would really make sense if Life Mum is the goddess of nature as a whole and not just ‘life’ as a concept. All living things must die—it’s the natural process. Perhaps Life Mum will just accelerate that process in Jolon.
I thought you were gonna suggest she’d turn him into compost for a nice flower bed or something for a sec there, ahaha! But you’re right, death’s a part of life, and sometimes death helps bring on new life. Also, the phrase ‘just accelerate that process in Jolon’ is an excellent way of describing the subject matter.
Not to self:
Never, in any situation, piss off nature deities.
Um, generally speaking if an entity can be accurately described as a deity it has enough power that seriously pissing it off counts as suicide (at best) regardless of what it’s a deity of.
I think Life is already pulling a deus ex machina.
Gleicann is asking if she’ll let him deus ex machina her deus ex machina.
Aliuna/Essence of Life: “Of course, Master Gleicann.”
A/EoL: *constricts vines around Jolon until his entire body pops like a grape, deposits the gory remnants at Gleicann’s hooves.*
A/EoL: “By all means, impose whatever additional judgement you feel is necessary.”
A/EoL: *dueces out*
“Rest now.”
WHAM!
Right of judgement always goes to the host of the party.
That just good manners.
So much G L O W
When Gleicann shows up as a literal DEUS ex machina…….. get it… because hes a god…. and deus is latin for god…. okay, now that I’ve thoroughly ruined my own joke, ill leave now.
So, Gleicann is aware that life primordial is alive.
And recognizes her authority since he probably knew about Jolon and did nothing relevant, just let it happen but now that she wants to kick his ass he suddenly wants to join.
I don’t think he knew about Jolon. He said to Kendal before that he can’t really differ humans or pinpoint what’s the problem going on in the forest.
Why does Gleicann remind me of Viggo Grimborn
Why can’t they BOTH deal judgement?
Falst: Wait, again? What do you mean again? How many times has this happened?!
Is it just me or did Gleicann just come across as “could not care less” before this. Life is pissed at the mere concept of twisting and harming these creatures in such a way, but when Kendal talked to him he was just like “uh, I dunno, what do humans think is scary? There’s been some animals acting strange.” He didn’t have the wrath-born-of-empathy and seeming paternal bond with living creatures associated to him that Life’s been showing.
Is he just trying to avoid losing clout as a deity- as he would if he let someone else strut all over and show dominance on his domain? Heck, does he even know who Life is or is he just trying to be diplomatic towards an unknown, powerful entity? He uses a specific deferential title towards her, which almost makes it seem like they’re associates, but simultaneously, I find it unlikely that anyone knows who she is, even our protags.
The primordials are supposed to be all dead, but narrative structure implies the life primordial tried to create an avatar/champion much like the VD, her failures were chimeric plague kids, and Ali was a success. But in-universe that’s like saying that 2020 obviously has narrative reasons as an apocalypse and the fact we’re getting to Christmas is because the rapture is coming. The characters wouldn’t treat their world like this and recognize long dead deities, right? Even if “living primordials” were a deities-only classified secret, Kendal would know.
Sorry, that tangent may be huge, but to say that TL;DR: Gleicann likely can’t know who this lady is. He didn’t care about Jolon until 3 seconds ago. I wonder what he thinks of the lady and what he wants here. I hope he and Life don’t fight for no reason, it won’t end well for him and I love them both.
I think it’s a matter of subject. Gelicann is god of the forest, as a place. He is a nature god because the place where he is is natural. If all the trees and stuff up and died, he would probably transform into a god suitably representing the inhospitable wasteland. He wouldn’t like that, and wants to maintain the status quo, and therefore his current identity.
Life, on the other hand, is an embodiment of all living things. Her element isn’t a part of the rocks and ground, and doesn’t change with the location. Life Mum is the mum of all the plants and animals, Gelicann just lives there.
a good way to think of it is gelican is a smart house, and Life Mum is the architect. Gelicann tries to keep things ticking along, because that’s his job, and he’d like to fix the bits of himself that are broken, and stop more things from breaking, but he doesn’t understand exactly what’s wrong, only that something is. Life Mum wats to put things back where they are supposed to be, because Jolon fucked with her creation. And, now that Life Mum has kindly pointed out the damage, Gelicann would like to go ahead and send in the syfy robots to zap the pests, patch up the holes, and make sure i never happens again.
Also, I agree with the argument of life being genderless, but now that the hive mind which is the comments has named her Life Mum, that is assigning femininity.
We’re calling them Life Mum, Gleicann calls them “My Lady”, there’s a lot of femininity going around, but I still imagine they’re somewhat ungendered. Philosophically they might be seen as female in that they’re the ‘womb of creation’ or something, the same way feminist theologians might describe the Judeo-Christian God.
I would be interesting, since that would make Gleican’s incarnation chimeric and run wild
Ultra God Sumo Smackdown!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anula isn’t here right now, can Life Mom take a messege?
TL;DR: Cthulhu is being the jury while plant man is being the judge. Chimera dad did not sign up for this, it’s also above his paygrade.
Dead god vs. Uncaring-turned-suddenly-caring god. Who cares more?
Alt text: now THIS might be a deus ex machina
In the 7th frame it kinda looks like Anula is Lifes nose
Also its just hilairios how Kandle stands there calmly and Erin and Falst are completely freaking out
Alinua kinda looks linke lifes nose in the 7th panel
Image source: judgment1
(PL: Rest now. *Slams Kendal into the ground*
Also, again? Was her “soul explosion” at the end of chapter 3 more potent than was lead on?)
When a higher power firmly smacks you into the ground as the sternest ‘let the adults handle this’ in existence