@Hiii
I changed my name for 2 reasons:
1. Indigo is my OC and not a persona so changing my name to ImuyanMangoCat seemed more appropriate
2. ImuyanMangoCat is my Deviant Art name.
And I’m a she, I noticed u all used they so just to clarify I am a she
Also, when I hit the random button I landed on a page with the caption “so it wasn’t spam omniscient narrator after all”
And I think I saw lady huracan in the last panel. Same hair, clothes, and staff.
Aaahh!!!! Shrike and Tusk are so close! Erin, what’s taking you so long????
In all seriousness, I love the touches of Shrike’s beliefs we’re getting. Tusk has gained her respect despite their different viewpoints, which gives her a chance to talk honestly about her motivations. I’m fascinated by the mix of trauma and pride that inform her character. She’s a villain because she wants power, which is not unusual, but much of that desire stems from the powerlessness she and Tusk faced as gladiators.
All this character development makes her a great foil. Dainix and Tess have both discussed pointing anger towards the perpetrators and not the people around them, while Shrike points it away from the perpetrators so she can benefit from their power. Hey! The theme!
Also, all of shrikes dialogue is giving me potential redemption arc vibes. Depending on how convincing her arc is I might forgive her for injuring Falst
Little does Shrike know that those people are only giving Trusk funny looks because they can’t understand how his glasses are staying on his face.
To be honest, I can’t tell whether Shrike is saying this because she wants his muscle and skills on her team, or whether she genuinely cares about Trusk. Their friendship doesn’t look as hot as it was in the past, trying to rekindle it maybe?
I’m seeing some interesting parallels between Shrike and Kendal. His desire to serve is genuine, hers isn’t and only does it for personal gain. He seeks to avoid conflict where possible, she would capture a person with no evidence of doing wrong i.e. Falst for more kudos. He’s already sacrificed his freedom to ensure the freedom of others, she does the opposite. Even if Shrike wasn’t hunting the other members of the gang, I think Kendal would take an immediate disliking of her.
Ok, Shrike’s bois are leading the charge and not Trusk. Not ideal, but if the gang manages to get a few words in they might get Trusk’s attention, even likelier if Erin arrives too and flashes his credentials. Shrike also seems to genuinely like and respect Trusk so his word and judgement of them might carry some definite weight.
Also, when I hit the random button I landed on a page with the caption “so it wasn’t spam omniscient narrator after all”
And I think I saw lady huracan in the last panel. Same hair, clothes, and staff.
Sorry for being oblivious all the time, but; What random button? and I you saw lady huracan in two places? One on the random button page and the other..? I didn’t see her on the last page or panel (not sure what you mean)?
I do this in real life all the time, (“what?! What are you talking about?”) I hope its not as annoying on line. Heh.
@I havea squirrel named floofy
The random button is the cube with element symbols on it that appears down the center of the screen just above and below the comic page/s and between the turn page buttons
Remains to be seen whether or not Trusk is faking them out.
In this city, “If you can’t beat them, (tangentially) join them” is definitely not a healthy sentiment to harbor, Shrike.
I have a squirrel named Floofy:
To answer your second question, the two places Imuyan is referring to are likely both in Erin’s initial exposition dump about The Storm: once in a sketch of some kind, as the blind Ancient gesturing to The Storm with a human and an elf at her side; and another time in full color, her back to the viewing angle, carrying a staff, with what seems to be her first disciple Umatz at her side. In case you’re asking about a different appearance, she also narrated the section of the sacred text of the Paladins that Erin read.
Somebody:
Trusk: “Is there anything better than systemic exploitation? Yes, a really good book.”
Trusk seems like a pacifist, which makes me wonder how/ why they got involved with Shrike after the arena; very interesting dynamic I look forward to seeing more of in the future. Also they both look awesome.
ImuyanMangoCat:
Neat! (I have no name backstory whatsoever, I’m just really positive and friendly, and I needed a quick name idea to comment) Also, sorry, I will refer to you as she from now on! I really don’t want to misgender someone, (it’s happened before irl and i was so embarrassed and upset) but I had no idea what gender any of you go by, and I don’t know how personal a question it would be to ask (and personally I kinda keep my gender quiet on here, because none of you know much about my looks, age, gender, etc. and it is EXTREMELY NICE to have a place to go where I can be myself and I don’t get judged or looked at differently because of that stuff. I feel like if you guys knew a couple of things like gender it would be fine, but other things I keep silent. (And if I say something embarrassing, I could just choose another name or stop commenting! (JK I probably won’t do that tho, I’ve gotten to far and enjoy this to much to stop, you guys are a lot of fun and I really like doing this!)) So if I don’t know someone’s gender, I typically call them “them”. Sorry about that!
There is only one thing that makes Trusk standout in this setting, and it is not being blue or having horns. It’s that he looks like he is 8 and a half feet tall and likely weighs more than the person they are following who is literally made of metal.
You know you’re close when your friend starts psychoanalyzing you in the middle of the street.
I really like how Shrike is set up here- as someone who was beaten down by the system and has adopted the strategy “If you can’t beat em, join em,” In direct contrast to our heroes who refuse to accept the system and hope to escape it. I feel like Shrike might be on her way to a third-act breakdown since it seems like she’s repressing her trauma from the arena and even telling herself it was a good thing. I really didn’t like Shrike that much before this chapter, when we started seeing more of her backstory, and now I’m genuinely interested in what she’s going to do next. Kudos to Red for her writing. I wonder if she reads the comments section. Does anyone know?
Also, I love how Shrike cheerfully refers to bounty hunting as a hobby. Some people bake, some people read books, and some people hunt criminals to stick into a wildly unfair prison system.
Also, I love when shadows are used not just for angle of the light sources, but also to convey expressions and similar details within a panel. Red should do these more often.
I will personally find it hilarious if Red somehow finds a way to get Shrike and Trusk arrested again, or at least shows Shrike that the city is in charge. Real third-act breakdown stuff. Goldfinch was right.
Goldfinch:
DANG! I thought Shrike was an interesting character, (in a badass way) but I didn’t know it would get this deep! I agree! She’s starting to get really interesting, and I agree with the third act breakdown idea. I feel really bad for her… Even if she agrees to the systems horrid method, in a way, she’s just another slave of the system, and she was put through so much trauma, and while she talks about it casually, I think that she still hurts about it and keeps a lot of those emotions deep down and she knows it. She kinda reminds me of Tess when it comes to speaking about horrible occurrences nonchalantly and keeping emotions deep down… She probably thinks about Trusk as very special, an older sibling/parent figure, and I’m wondering if him dying could be the thing that breaks her. (That’s just my theory) I’m also curious what age you guys peg her at and the age she was while in the arena.
Goldfinch:
I was also wondering if they read our comments… That would be fun, because I want to personallly thank red for creating this comic! I really enjoy reading and talking to the awesome people here! (Once again, nice to have a place where I wont be judged based on ethnicity, race, gender, age, looks, etc.!!) So thanks Red, if you’re reading this, and please keep up the awesome content!
PLEASE get a redemption arc for these two. I know it’s not gonnna happen, but I somehow managed to get attached to them even though I’m still angry she hurt Falst. Having been in the arena yourself doesn’t justify anything you do, but trying to keep yourself safe and free does at least explain some of it. Also these two have such an interesting dynamic.
I know a lot of people are finding Shrike easier to relate to as we learn more about her, and I feel the same way… but at the same time we really do know so little about the things she has done in this position of hers, or exactly what “winning” means to her in this context. In fact, if I had to wager, I’d say it seems like she barely has an end goal here and is instead indulging in power for its own sake.
And that’s really one of the things I find kinda disturbing about her character so far. The way she talks about her own power is almost childlike, irreverent. Now I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop for her… third act breakdown indeed.
Y’know, I’m really liking Shrike. She might be one of my favorite characters so far, along with the Void Dragon. Her writing is very fun and it contrasts well with a lot of the more serious characters.
I know everyone really utterly loves Shrike, or utterly hates her. I think that’s kinda silly, because just seeing her as black or white is odd and in no way applies to anyone in real life, (and all of characters in this comic, you can disagree with me on that, I personally don’t view them that way, though some of them are really evil, I don’t think Shrike is entirely like that) and I personally feel like Red created Shrike as an Azulaish character, who everyone hates, and wants to help at the same time. She is obviously a horrible character in the antagonist section, she talks about power in a flippant way, and casually indulges in it with little to no qualms about it and the horrible system she helps. She is not upset at killing or maiming, and appears to be pretty racist. However, you can tell she’s also a really conflicted person, struggling with her own pain and horrid backstory of being forced to be in the arena at a presumably young age. She had almost no one to help her and she was in serious danger of dying each day, forced to live in a world of kill or be killed. She obviously cares about Trusk in a younger sibling, daughter way, and she keeps telling herself that what she’s doing is somehow fine, and that she’s perfectly fine even though deep down she knows that it hurts and life is crap for her. The character is meant to play with our brains and as flippant as the comment about theme was, I think that this comic has A LOT of important themes about social class, power, and racism that Shrike knows and has experienced firsthand. Keep up the amazing work Red!
@I have a squirrel named floofy
If you click on the link that I posted it’ll take you to the page I was talking about. Lady Huracan is in the first panel of that page.
Sorry about the confusion I said “last panel” because I thought the panel she was in was at the bottom of the page and turns out she was at the first panel
Im calling it, either shrikes going to die and trusks gonna start hunting down the gang/ become a main antagonist, trusks gonna die and shrikes gonna continue hunting them down, but more personal, not just as a job, or their both going to die.
Kendal and Alliuna shipper and Erin x Falst shipper
Wow that’s deep guys . You know i agree with Y’alls that Shrike and possibly Trusk are truamatized. Shrike more so. Yes I think she Parralles
Azula . If you’ve watched Avatar: The Last Airbender you know who I’m talking about. Also I think Shrike is going to have a third act breakdown simillar to Azula’s. Shrike and Trusk hands down need therapy
@Hiii- On the topic of Shrike’s age, I’d peg her as late teens-early twenties. I’d guess that she was in the arena as a teenager because of how immature she acts sometimes, since I feel like she might act like she’s still a teen as some sort of response to her trauma. I kind of feel like she’d be a teenage delinquent who got in enough trouble to get sent to the scream dome, where she was sort-of adopted by Trusk because of her youth which helped her survive. It would also make sense that if she was young in the arena she could see it a as a good thing or at least “better than the alternative” she would’ve had otherwise. This is all speculation, of course, without a lot of evidence, but it’ll be interesting if that’s the way it goes.
I love the irony here of someone being hurt enough by a system that they wind up thinking that serving it in a way that increases the abusiveness/corruption of the system is a personal victory, when it’s in fact basically the biggest loss an individual can suffer in a battle against a system possible.
Congrats to TheUnknownGame for the in-depth answer to Monday’s Pastrivia, and congrats to everyone else who got C!
@everentropy, so what you’re saying is, to her, if she directs her rage, she’s no longer a rat in a cage?
(This is a reference, in case people don’t get it.)
That is all, I am busy with life stuff, I’ll see you tomorrow.
How do you think, are Shirke&Thrask intended as a dark mirror for Ruunasers or as an illustration how their relationship used to work before Tess got sparked?
@Hiii
I changed my name for 2 reasons:
1. Indigo is my OC and not a persona so changing my name to ImuyanMangoCat seemed more appropriate
2. ImuyanMangoCat is my Deviant Art name.
And I’m a she, I noticed u all used they so just to clarify I am a she
Also, when I hit the random button I landed on a page with the caption “so it wasn’t spam omniscient narrator after all”
And I think I saw lady huracan in the last panel. Same hair, clothes, and staff.
I’m gonna go double check
this page is a fucking STATEMENT
https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-4-3/ Yup, in this page I think that’s lady huracan
Oh my god, I think you’re right. That is brilliant by Red
Aaahh!!!! Shrike and Tusk are so close! Erin, what’s taking you so long????
In all seriousness, I love the touches of Shrike’s beliefs we’re getting. Tusk has gained her respect despite their different viewpoints, which gives her a chance to talk honestly about her motivations. I’m fascinated by the mix of trauma and pride that inform her character. She’s a villain because she wants power, which is not unusual, but much of that desire stems from the powerlessness she and Tusk faced as gladiators.
All this character development makes her a great foil. Dainix and Tess have both discussed pointing anger towards the perpetrators and not the people around them, while Shrike points it away from the perpetrators so she can benefit from their power. Hey! The theme!
Poor Trusk looks like he needs a nap
I wonder what their
relationship was like back
in the arena
Shrike has convinced herself that if she is the captor she cannot be in a cage
i like the gold cap on trusk’s broken horn
@Hello Haiku
I feel like it’s an older sibling turned parent situation
@Harmless_Spider
Yeah I like it to. It’s a nice accent to his over all design
Also, all of shrikes dialogue is giving me potential redemption arc vibes. Depending on how convincing her arc is I might forgive her for injuring Falst
Little does Shrike know that those people are only giving Trusk funny looks because they can’t understand how his glasses are staying on his face.
To be honest, I can’t tell whether Shrike is saying this because she wants his muscle and skills on her team, or whether she genuinely cares about Trusk. Their friendship doesn’t look as hot as it was in the past, trying to rekindle it maybe?
I’m seeing some interesting parallels between Shrike and Kendal. His desire to serve is genuine, hers isn’t and only does it for personal gain. He seeks to avoid conflict where possible, she would capture a person with no evidence of doing wrong i.e. Falst for more kudos. He’s already sacrificed his freedom to ensure the freedom of others, she does the opposite. Even if Shrike wasn’t hunting the other members of the gang, I think Kendal would take an immediate disliking of her.
Ok, Shrike’s bois are leading the charge and not Trusk. Not ideal, but if the gang manages to get a few words in they might get Trusk’s attention, even likelier if Erin arrives too and flashes his credentials. Shrike also seems to genuinely like and respect Trusk so his word and judgement of them might carry some definite weight.
@
ImuyanMangoCat
Also, when I hit the random button I landed on a page with the caption “so it wasn’t spam omniscient narrator after all”
And I think I saw lady huracan in the last panel. Same hair, clothes, and staff.
Sorry for being oblivious all the time, but; What random button? and I you saw lady huracan in two places? One on the random button page and the other..? I didn’t see her on the last page or panel (not sure what you mean)?
I do this in real life all the time, (“what?! What are you talking about?”) I hope its not as annoying on line. Heh.
@I havea squirrel named floofy
The random button is the cube with element symbols on it that appears down the center of the screen just above and below the comic page/s and between the turn page buttons
…Well now I want to see Zuurith get his ass handed to him by the super storm.
TL;DR: The prey is nearby, let’s go
Wait, first, may I convince you to play the system with me?
I like her motivation lol
Nother question, how can I ask red a question on her aurora Tumblr? Do I do a #comicaurora or something?
“they hate to see a girlboss winning”
– shrike, basically
Remains to be seen whether or not Trusk is faking them out.
In this city, “If you can’t beat them, (tangentially) join them” is definitely not a healthy sentiment to harbor, Shrike.
I have a squirrel named Floofy:
To answer your second question, the two places Imuyan is referring to are likely both in Erin’s initial exposition dump about The Storm: once in a sketch of some kind, as the blind Ancient gesturing to The Storm with a human and an elf at her side; and another time in full color, her back to the viewing angle, carrying a staff, with what seems to be her first disciple Umatz at her side. In case you’re asking about a different appearance, she also narrated the section of the sacred text of the Paladins that Erin read.
Somebody:
Trusk: “Is there anything better than systemic exploitation? Yes, a really good book.”
Trusk seems like a pacifist, which makes me wonder how/ why they got involved with Shrike after the arena; very interesting dynamic I look forward to seeing more of in the future. Also they both look awesome.
ImuyanMangoCat:
Neat! (I have no name backstory whatsoever, I’m just really positive and friendly, and I needed a quick name idea to comment) Also, sorry, I will refer to you as she from now on! I really don’t want to misgender someone, (it’s happened before irl and i was so embarrassed and upset) but I had no idea what gender any of you go by, and I don’t know how personal a question it would be to ask (and personally I kinda keep my gender quiet on here, because none of you know much about my looks, age, gender, etc. and it is EXTREMELY NICE to have a place to go where I can be myself and I don’t get judged or looked at differently because of that stuff. I feel like if you guys knew a couple of things like gender it would be fine, but other things I keep silent. (And if I say something embarrassing, I could just choose another name or stop commenting! (JK I probably won’t do that tho, I’ve gotten to far and enjoy this to much to stop, you guys are a lot of fun and I really like doing this!)) So if I don’t know someone’s gender, I typically call them “them”. Sorry about that!
There is only one thing that makes Trusk standout in this setting, and it is not being blue or having horns. It’s that he looks like he is 8 and a half feet tall and likely weighs more than the person they are following who is literally made of metal.
You know you’re close when your friend starts psychoanalyzing you in the middle of the street.
I really like how Shrike is set up here- as someone who was beaten down by the system and has adopted the strategy “If you can’t beat em, join em,” In direct contrast to our heroes who refuse to accept the system and hope to escape it. I feel like Shrike might be on her way to a third-act breakdown since it seems like she’s repressing her trauma from the arena and even telling herself it was a good thing. I really didn’t like Shrike that much before this chapter, when we started seeing more of her backstory, and now I’m genuinely interested in what she’s going to do next. Kudos to Red for her writing. I wonder if she reads the comments section. Does anyone know?
Also, I love how Shrike cheerfully refers to bounty hunting as a hobby. Some people bake, some people read books, and some people hunt criminals to stick into a wildly unfair prison system.
alt text: this is what winning looks like
Shrike is inverse Doctor Manhattan, can see the strings but pretends to be their puppet anyway.
Also, I love when shadows are used not just for angle of the light sources, but also to convey expressions and similar details within a panel. Red should do these more often.
I will personally find it hilarious if Red somehow finds a way to get Shrike and Trusk arrested again, or at least shows Shrike that the city is in charge. Real third-act breakdown stuff. Goldfinch was right.
Love the comic keep it up 🙂
pretty sure i smell some repressed trauma in this one
Can Shrike please become a protagonist? I get that the party is kind of starting to fill up but she’s so cool.
Goldfinch:
DANG! I thought Shrike was an interesting character, (in a badass way) but I didn’t know it would get this deep! I agree! She’s starting to get really interesting, and I agree with the third act breakdown idea. I feel really bad for her… Even if she agrees to the systems horrid method, in a way, she’s just another slave of the system, and she was put through so much trauma, and while she talks about it casually, I think that she still hurts about it and keeps a lot of those emotions deep down and she knows it. She kinda reminds me of Tess when it comes to speaking about horrible occurrences nonchalantly and keeping emotions deep down… She probably thinks about Trusk as very special, an older sibling/parent figure, and I’m wondering if him dying could be the thing that breaks her. (That’s just my theory) I’m also curious what age you guys peg her at and the age she was while in the arena.
Goldfinch:
I was also wondering if they read our comments… That would be fun, because I want to personallly thank red for creating this comic! I really enjoy reading and talking to the awesome people here! (Once again, nice to have a place where I wont be judged based on ethnicity, race, gender, age, looks, etc.!!) So thanks Red, if you’re reading this, and please keep up the awesome content!
PLEASE get a redemption arc for these two. I know it’s not gonnna happen, but I somehow managed to get attached to them even though I’m still angry she hurt Falst. Having been in the arena yourself doesn’t justify anything you do, but trying to keep yourself safe and free does at least explain some of it. Also these two have such an interesting dynamic.
I know a lot of people are finding Shrike easier to relate to as we learn more about her, and I feel the same way… but at the same time we really do know so little about the things she has done in this position of hers, or exactly what “winning” means to her in this context. In fact, if I had to wager, I’d say it seems like she barely has an end goal here and is instead indulging in power for its own sake.
And that’s really one of the things I find kinda disturbing about her character so far. The way she talks about her own power is almost childlike, irreverent. Now I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop for her… third act breakdown indeed.
Y’know, I’m really liking Shrike. She might be one of my favorite characters so far, along with the Void Dragon. Her writing is very fun and it contrasts well with a lot of the more serious characters.
Heh, gives me sympathetic villain soon^tm sorta vibes
Ohhh boy, why does that sound like a big dose of denial? “Oh they think they control me, I’m totally free.”
Sounds more like a different prison with different shackles.
I know everyone really utterly loves Shrike, or utterly hates her. I think that’s kinda silly, because just seeing her as black or white is odd and in no way applies to anyone in real life, (and all of characters in this comic, you can disagree with me on that, I personally don’t view them that way, though some of them are really evil, I don’t think Shrike is entirely like that) and I personally feel like Red created Shrike as an Azulaish character, who everyone hates, and wants to help at the same time. She is obviously a horrible character in the antagonist section, she talks about power in a flippant way, and casually indulges in it with little to no qualms about it and the horrible system she helps. She is not upset at killing or maiming, and appears to be pretty racist. However, you can tell she’s also a really conflicted person, struggling with her own pain and horrid backstory of being forced to be in the arena at a presumably young age. She had almost no one to help her and she was in serious danger of dying each day, forced to live in a world of kill or be killed. She obviously cares about Trusk in a younger sibling, daughter way, and she keeps telling herself that what she’s doing is somehow fine, and that she’s perfectly fine even though deep down she knows that it hurts and life is crap for her. The character is meant to play with our brains and as flippant as the comment about theme was, I think that this comic has A LOT of important themes about social class, power, and racism that Shrike knows and has experienced firsthand. Keep up the amazing work Red!
@Hiii
Nah it’s fine, I just said that to clarify
@I have a squirrel named floofy
If you click on the link that I posted it’ll take you to the page I was talking about. Lady Huracan is in the first panel of that page.
Sorry about the confusion I said “last panel” because I thought the panel she was in was at the bottom of the page and turns out she was at the first panel
Forget the mystery of shrikes bangs, how do trusks glasses stay on his face??????
Im calling it, either shrikes going to die and trusks gonna start hunting down the gang/ become a main antagonist, trusks gonna die and shrikes gonna continue hunting them down, but more personal, not just as a job, or their both going to die.
Wow that’s deep guys . You know i agree with Y’alls that Shrike and possibly Trusk are truamatized. Shrike more so. Yes I think she Parralles
Azula . If you’ve watched Avatar: The Last Airbender you know who I’m talking about. Also I think Shrike is going to have a third act breakdown simillar to Azula’s. Shrike and Trusk hands down need therapy
@Hiii- On the topic of Shrike’s age, I’d peg her as late teens-early twenties. I’d guess that she was in the arena as a teenager because of how immature she acts sometimes, since I feel like she might act like she’s still a teen as some sort of response to her trauma. I kind of feel like she’d be a teenage delinquent who got in enough trouble to get sent to the scream dome, where she was sort-of adopted by Trusk because of her youth which helped her survive. It would also make sense that if she was young in the arena she could see it a as a good thing or at least “better than the alternative” she would’ve had otherwise. This is all speculation, of course, without a lot of evidence, but it’ll be interesting if that’s the way it goes.
I love the irony here of someone being hurt enough by a system that they wind up thinking that serving it in a way that increases the abusiveness/corruption of the system is a personal victory, when it’s in fact basically the biggest loss an individual can suffer in a battle against a system possible.
Dainix Simp:
For an example of how that type of eyeglass stays on someone’s face, I will direct you to Morpheus from The Matrix.
I’ve got a feeling shrike might get a villainous breakdown when she’s inevitably forced to face her denial.
Isn’t Trusk grey???? How is he blue????
And the internalized trauma award goes to…
Congrats to TheUnknownGame for the in-depth answer to Monday’s Pastrivia, and congrats to everyone else who got C!
@everentropy, so what you’re saying is, to her, if she directs her rage, she’s no longer a rat in a cage?
(This is a reference, in case people don’t get it.)
That is all, I am busy with life stuff, I’ll see you tomorrow.
How do you think, are Shirke&Thrask intended as a dark mirror for Ruunasers or as an illustration how their relationship used to work before Tess got sparked?
The image source for this page dubs it: Dream