OHHH MY GOD
here we have slightly pissed erin, Tess tm, la criatura, spear boy, oh god alinua’s not having a fun time the healer’s gonna need to be healed and OH WOW UH THOSE ARE HANDS. UH. UH
Panel 1: Late night 1am sibling vent fest
Panel 2: God damn it Falst, just be yourself and tell him you think he’s pretty
Panel 3: Pain
Panel 4: more pain but it’s magic coma edition and the void be giving him a nice hug, awww
Can we just take a moment and address Tess’s scale compared to Erin in the first panel. She’s sitting on the ground, and her head is only about 5 inches lower than his!!!
Does she have a canonical height? Did I just forget? I’m guessing at least 6”5
A ferin perches, from a ruined wall watching,
A brother and sister discuss their plans;
A one-eyed man stands guard, a healer works with blazing power,
A blue soul drifts amongst dark hands.
I’m working on chapter two, and hoo boy it takes forever for Kendal to pick his name. Like, I think it happens some time in chapter 3, after the big robot fight. So I just have to call him “Vash’s body” “that guy, you know the one” “the blond one” etc.
Listening. Watching. Pleading. Falling.
Tess is getting the V.D. exposition, and potentially the Alinua and Kendal exposition too. She’ll definitely join the gang, but what will she tell Al and/or Mrs. Ruunaser? They specifically asked her to find Erin, so they’ll be expecting a reply.
Meanwhile Falst is still suspicious of Dainix, but isn’t going to do anything beyond observing. While he has his doubts about the Ignan, he can’t deny he saved them from V.D. and he and Kendal seemingly get along, despite the fight Dainix mentioned.
Kendal still seems no better; maybe his aliment is of the soul and/or mind rather than body, so Alinua is struggling to help. I reckon Kendal needs to pick himself up from that dark place for Alinua’s magic to really work.
Prediction for next week: Focus on Kendal in that dark place, struggling to get up, questioning what those hands are, maybe even faintly hearing Alinua’s calls.
okay, the fact that Red is showing us where all the protagonists are (and in convenient pairs, too) is a major red flag to me that something is about to happen that splits them up for a little while. maybe after some Kendal exposition, maybe not. maybe the Champion is finally gonna appear, if only to do some recon on the group. i don’t know, i just have that uncomfortable “horror movie” feeling
Well the good news is that we know that the blue gradient at the beginning of the chapter was definitely hands!
And I agree with veggiesnake this whole “calm after the storm, split up group in the middle of the night, chilling in a bunch of abandoned ruins” thing definitely has horror movie vibes. Plus, the mute-ness of it all despite the Erin-Tess conversation feels like it’s building up suspense for something big
Okay, not sure at all what next page will be, but my predictions so far are that we’ll either
a) cut to Kendal, get some info on his situation, then cut back to the ruins for the thing that’s gonna happen there
or b) this is just another tantalizing glimpse of Kendal, and the thing in the ruins starts happening straightaway.
As to what it might be- given the fact it’s in abandoned ruins, if it were a creature of some sort we would’ve noticed it by now, and Red isn’t going to introduce another antag out of the blue, it has to be some kind of ancient curse/cursed artifact.
Of course, I could be totally wrong, but given the chapter title, I think it lends itself well to that idea. So far, Red has been pretty literal with her chapter covers and titles- so I don’t think she’d draw them frozen in stone if they never actually end up that way.
Yep. Not much for me to say for this pa- …Wait. Um… why does Kendal’s soul(?) have pants, but no boots, even though his body is wearing both? (I know the real reason is because Red obviously and understandably doesn’t want to draw anyone nude, but the inconsistency between the two panels is a bit odd to me.)
Falst, whispering: “Omae wa mou shindeiru.”
Dainix: “What?? What was that? Erin, these ruins aren’t as abandoned as you think they are-”
Falst: *second panel*
There once was a floof squad resting,
Taking a break from questing.
But it’s too calm.
Readers, have a qualm–
Something’s coming, their rest molesting.
Does anyone else feel like Dainix is about to get jump scared by Falst? It would be fitting if that happened on the next page, since it’ll come out on Halloween.
@TheUnknownGame trousers are an integral part of the soul, obviously! but seriously, now that i think about it, Vash incarnated those clothes as well, right? he didn’t appear to his people bare, and Kendal hasn’t changed since. do they have a bit of Vash’s soul in them? surely not enough to be significant, but they were manifested by his power (this is my CRACK!theory)
@LilacSpiral the more i think about it, the less i think something ‘big’ is going to happen, and the more i think we’re gonna be building suspense and unease this chapter through Kendal’s out-of-body experience plus character interactions in these “abandoned ruins”. still big horror movie vibes, i’m just not sure how real the danger will be. it could be anything from “let’s see how the team manages in a fight without kendal” to “the real enemy was post-boss-battle-wind-down nerves”
KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENDAAAAAAAAAAALLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
in other words I am very excited for next week >:)
@veggiesnake are you implying that the clothes are part of kendal, and the reason they get fixed so quickly is because they heal like any other part of his body?
@TheUnknownGame makes a good point against this argument. this doesn’t make much sense, especially considering when we see Kendal in 1.18.22 we can clearly see that he is wearing shoes. I’d also like to note as another inconsistency that Kendal’s soul-pants are ripped while his real pants look perfectly fine. considering the state of his pants in the panel mentioned earlier, perhaps his clothes are slowly disintegrating? if they are part of his soul, is this a sign his soul as a whole is slowly doing so as well?
@Eldritch V. i don’t know what i’m implying! all i wanted when i started this line of reasoning was to make a one-note joke to TheUnknownGame, and now i’ve discovered more than i ever wanted to. i don’t think they’re a part of Kendal’s body, but they are a part of Vash’s construct of Kendal, i guess? i’m unsure of what this means, if it means anything at all, but my understanding of our floof-haired paragon has changed… forever
Thought: the hands aren’t the souls of Vash. They could be symbolism for Kendal being dragged under into death. We don’t know about how people die in this world yet. This could be some cool underworld lore. Of course, Kendal will probably somehow get out of the grasp of the hands, signifying not death.
Unfortunately there is no cool underwould lore. When people die their souls disperse into the general field of soul energy. This is 100% the souls of Vash. Who’s to say there isnt a god of death though? Their probably cool if there is one.
Thought on why falst is so angry-
When he was looking at the gladiator arena when Danica was fighting the Ferin, he wasn’t on the wall long enough to see that Danix didn’t kill the other guy.
Bluefire:
Kendal gets the most hugs here! Who doesn’t love cuddling with hundreds of eldritch arms?
veggiesnake and Eldritch V.:
It seems my overanalyzing of this page has confounded more than I.
First off: I agree with Eldritch V. in that I don’t think Kendal’s clothes are a part of his body, because we get definitive proof all the way back in chapter 2, when he’s sitting shirtless in Alinua’s tree with a blanket in his lap. Yes, it’s possible that Vash manifested the clothes during the incarnation process, but only his semi-biological body had the capacity to heal, and once his soul got shclormped out of him, both body and clothes became inert material; Kendal’s soul likely doesn’t inhabit the clothes because there was so little of Vash’s soul in them that Kendal’s soul ignored them entirely and went for the meat suit that could actually keep him alive.
Secondly: I have no explanation yet as to what, exactly, is going on with the inconsistencies between the last two panels. Maybe one will come when we find out what’s happening to Kendal here, or if we don’t find out, maybe we’ll have to leave this School-of-Athens-ass discussion of boot and pant inconsistencies with nothing more than a handwave and a confused shrug in the end and move on.
Third: I find it hilarious in good fun that my hobby of picking apart little details in this comic led to an entire debate about clothes.
ignoring the important parts of this page and interesting conversations above that I could potentially engage in I’m just going to say what first came to my mind when reading this page:
activate Falst murder eyes!
Well… that’s not good.
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: gee kendal, why does red let you have TWO angsty splash panels?
Image source: split
OHHH MY GOD
here we have slightly pissed erin, Tess tm, la criatura, spear boy, oh god alinua’s not having a fun time the healer’s gonna need to be healed and OH WOW UH THOSE ARE HANDS. UH. UH
Excuse me, alt-text, one of those is Alinua’s angsty splash panel, thank you very much!
I can hear the healing magic sfx in my brain.
I’m sure those shadowy hands are of no import
Panel 1: Late night 1am sibling vent fest
Panel 2: God damn it Falst, just be yourself and tell him you think he’s pretty
Panel 3: Pain
Panel 4: more pain but it’s magic coma edition and the void be giving him a nice hug, awww
Can we just take a moment and address Tess’s scale compared to Erin in the first panel. She’s sitting on the ground, and her head is only about 5 inches lower than his!!!
Does she have a canonical height? Did I just forget? I’m guessing at least 6”5
A ferin perches, from a ruined wall watching,
A brother and sister discuss their plans;
A one-eyed man stands guard, a healer works with blazing power,
A blue soul drifts amongst dark hands.
I’m working on chapter two, and hoo boy it takes forever for Kendal to pick his name. Like, I think it happens some time in chapter 3, after the big robot fight. So I just have to call him “Vash’s body” “that guy, you know the one” “the blond one” etc.
The panel with the hands just gives me shivers like uuuuuuh imagine being touched by inky black hands as I sleep.
Oh.
Oh no.
No sleep for me tonight.
Listening. Watching. Pleading. Falling.
Tess is getting the V.D. exposition, and potentially the Alinua and Kendal exposition too. She’ll definitely join the gang, but what will she tell Al and/or Mrs. Ruunaser? They specifically asked her to find Erin, so they’ll be expecting a reply.
Meanwhile Falst is still suspicious of Dainix, but isn’t going to do anything beyond observing. While he has his doubts about the Ignan, he can’t deny he saved them from V.D. and he and Kendal seemingly get along, despite the fight Dainix mentioned.
Kendal still seems no better; maybe his aliment is of the soul and/or mind rather than body, so Alinua is struggling to help. I reckon Kendal needs to pick himself up from that dark place for Alinua’s magic to really work.
Prediction for next week: Focus on Kendal in that dark place, struggling to get up, questioning what those hands are, maybe even faintly hearing Alinua’s calls.
Falst, whispering: so you have chosen death.
Dainix: who was that?!
Falst:
Dainix:
Falst:
Dainix: huh, must’ve been the wind.
Falst be peakin
okay, the fact that Red is showing us where all the protagonists are (and in convenient pairs, too) is a major red flag to me that something is about to happen that splits them up for a little while. maybe after some Kendal exposition, maybe not. maybe the Champion is finally gonna appear, if only to do some recon on the group. i don’t know, i just have that uncomfortable “horror movie” feeling
Alas, my sole lament is still how the only barefoot lass in the whole realm, is clad in metal from head to toe. You’re a crafty one, Red.
Ah yes, our friends the hands again.
Will the previous theories be proven right, or are we all wrong…?
Kendal is dying, and striving to not
While the heros are doing nought
Falst in the corner really proving that he can angst with the best of them, even when out of focus and out of the foreground.
Buddy. Buddy, are you okay? Falst. Buddy, you really need to say something. You’re making me nervous. Falst, remember that murder is wrong. Buddy?
OH SHI- Guess who just saw the chapter art?
Well the good news is that we know that the blue gradient at the beginning of the chapter was definitely hands!
And I agree with veggiesnake this whole “calm after the storm, split up group in the middle of the night, chilling in a bunch of abandoned ruins” thing definitely has horror movie vibes. Plus, the mute-ness of it all despite the Erin-Tess conversation feels like it’s building up suspense for something big
Hands! Not cool! Personal space for Kendal!
Okay, not sure at all what next page will be, but my predictions so far are that we’ll either
a) cut to Kendal, get some info on his situation, then cut back to the ruins for the thing that’s gonna happen there
or b) this is just another tantalizing glimpse of Kendal, and the thing in the ruins starts happening straightaway.
As to what it might be- given the fact it’s in abandoned ruins, if it were a creature of some sort we would’ve noticed it by now, and Red isn’t going to introduce another antag out of the blue, it has to be some kind of ancient curse/cursed artifact.
Of course, I could be totally wrong, but given the chapter title, I think it lends itself well to that idea. So far, Red has been pretty literal with her chapter covers and titles- so I don’t think she’d draw them frozen in stone if they never actually end up that way.
Those hands are totes the city of Vash’s souls.
Yep. Not much for me to say for this pa- …Wait. Um… why does Kendal’s soul(?) have pants, but no boots, even though his body is wearing both? (I know the real reason is because Red obviously and understandably doesn’t want to draw anyone nude, but the inconsistency between the two panels is a bit odd to me.)
Falst, whispering: “Omae wa mou shindeiru.”
Dainix: “What?? What was that? Erin, these ruins aren’t as abandoned as you think they are-”
Falst: *second panel*
Maybe Kendall is just in shock at the complete and ultimate destruction of his shirt. If they get him a new one, he’ll wake up again.
Also, do you think those hands are holding him down or possibly lifting him up? Some of them almost look like they’re supporting/cradling him.
There once was a floof squad resting,
Taking a break from questing.
But it’s too calm.
Readers, have a qualm–
Something’s coming, their rest molesting.
just the opening notes to “New Mutation” from HXH
Does anyone else feel like Dainix is about to get jump scared by Falst? It would be fitting if that happened on the next page, since it’ll come out on Halloween.
@TheUnknownGame trousers are an integral part of the soul, obviously! but seriously, now that i think about it, Vash incarnated those clothes as well, right? he didn’t appear to his people bare, and Kendal hasn’t changed since. do they have a bit of Vash’s soul in them? surely not enough to be significant, but they were manifested by his power (this is my CRACK!theory)
@LilacSpiral the more i think about it, the less i think something ‘big’ is going to happen, and the more i think we’re gonna be building suspense and unease this chapter through Kendal’s out-of-body experience plus character interactions in these “abandoned ruins”. still big horror movie vibes, i’m just not sure how real the danger will be. it could be anything from “let’s see how the team manages in a fight without kendal” to “the real enemy was post-boss-battle-wind-down nerves”
KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENDAAAAAAAAAAALLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
in other words I am very excited for next week >:)
Tess: Finding out her brother has been possessed by the Eater of Worlds
Falst: Two seconds and a clumsy lovecraftian math reference away from murder
Dainix: Bout to get got
Alinua: Three (3) gallons of stress in a half-quart saucepan in an infinite boiling over loop
Kendal: Possibly being subsumed by ominous hands that may or may not represent the souls of the unsanctified dead
Red: …This is fine.
Soundtrack! 😀 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUJuwNxNUWQ
TL;DR: Everyone’s got something troubling them. Prescription: hugs.
Continue?
The bottom panel would be a really great wallpaper
Panel 3 would too.
SO!GOOD!
@veggiesnake are you implying that the clothes are part of kendal, and the reason they get fixed so quickly is because they heal like any other part of his body?
@TheUnknownGame makes a good point against this argument. this doesn’t make much sense, especially considering when we see Kendal in 1.18.22 we can clearly see that he is wearing shoes. I’d also like to note as another inconsistency that Kendal’s soul-pants are ripped while his real pants look perfectly fine. considering the state of his pants in the panel mentioned earlier, perhaps his clothes are slowly disintegrating? if they are part of his soul, is this a sign his soul as a whole is slowly doing so as well?
@Eldritch V. i don’t know what i’m implying! all i wanted when i started this line of reasoning was to make a one-note joke to TheUnknownGame, and now i’ve discovered more than i ever wanted to. i don’t think they’re a part of Kendal’s body, but they are a part of Vash’s construct of Kendal, i guess? i’m unsure of what this means, if it means anything at all, but my understanding of our floof-haired paragon has changed… forever
Thought: the hands aren’t the souls of Vash. They could be symbolism for Kendal being dragged under into death. We don’t know about how people die in this world yet. This could be some cool underworld lore. Of course, Kendal will probably somehow get out of the grasp of the hands, signifying not death.
@storylineobessed
Unfortunately there is no cool underwould lore. When people die their souls disperse into the general field of soul energy. This is 100% the souls of Vash. Who’s to say there isnt a god of death though? Their probably cool if there is one.
Thought on why falst is so angry-
When he was looking at the gladiator arena when Danica was fighting the Ferin, he wasn’t on the wall long enough to see that Danix didn’t kill the other guy.
OH the bottom panels are so pretty! I am Worried for Kendal, however.
@storylineobsessed Red’s said that people’s souls just unravel after death, I’m afraid. No cool afterlife.
(I assume Vash’s people will do so as soon as he releases them.)
Bluefire:
Kendal gets the most hugs here! Who doesn’t love cuddling with hundreds of eldritch arms?
veggiesnake and Eldritch V.:
It seems my overanalyzing of this page has confounded more than I.
First off: I agree with Eldritch V. in that I don’t think Kendal’s clothes are a part of his body, because we get definitive proof all the way back in chapter 2, when he’s sitting shirtless in Alinua’s tree with a blanket in his lap. Yes, it’s possible that Vash manifested the clothes during the incarnation process, but only his semi-biological body had the capacity to heal, and once his soul got shclormped out of him, both body and clothes became inert material; Kendal’s soul likely doesn’t inhabit the clothes because there was so little of Vash’s soul in them that Kendal’s soul ignored them entirely and went for the meat suit that could actually keep him alive.
Secondly: I have no explanation yet as to what, exactly, is going on with the inconsistencies between the last two panels. Maybe one will come when we find out what’s happening to Kendal here, or if we don’t find out, maybe we’ll have to leave this School-of-Athens-ass discussion of boot and pant inconsistencies with nothing more than a handwave and a confused shrug in the end and move on.
Third: I find it hilarious in good fun that my hobby of picking apart little details in this comic led to an entire debate about clothes.
Falst is a horror monster and Dainix is living in the horror movie.
Happy Halloween to those celebrate it and see you Monday! Go Red!
@KittenyKat That is indeed a kicking soundtrack! Fits really well too!
I am surprised that I got all the way through this in one go; it felt so well knit together that I didn’t even pause between chapters.
ignoring the important parts of this page and interesting conversations above that I could potentially engage in I’m just going to say what first came to my mind when reading this page:
activate Falst murder eyes!
Glad to see that everyone is having a great time