1.7.7
on April 13, 2020
at 5:00 am
man, vash’s design aesthetic is surprisingly minimalist. kendal COULD have been bioluminescent but NOOOOO
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
man, vash’s design aesthetic is surprisingly minimalist. kendal COULD have been bioluminescent but NOOOOO
quick question: does kendal have a soul or is he just a somehow sentient vessel of a god? does he have remnants of vash’s soul? is it a completely new soul?
Yes Red said on Discord that he has a soul, just not Vash’s, Kendal wouldn’t be alive if he didn’t have a soul.
Probably a newborn baby soul that was looking for a body just looked at the body and said, it’s free real state.
Kendal said he remembers things that Vash did, but doesn’t remember them as Vash himself. It’s likely Kendal had a soul the whole time Vash was using the vessel, and Kendal just never got to use it. More of a “mom said it’s my turn on the xbox” situation
*T-posing* Mom said it’s my turn to use the body
Red said in the discord server that he does have a soul.
I don’t believe it’s ever actually been pinned down if Kendall has a soul. If he doesn’t, then by the mechanics of the comic he’s somewhat akin to the sentinel that tried to kill him and Alinua.
I might have an idea for what’s the case though (note that this is hypothetical and not necessarily true). I think that when a god incarnates they have essentially constructed themselves a body to temporarily occupy and gain a different perspective, and they use their godly powers to keep it running. However, if they vacate the incarnated body without destroying it afterwards the body is left behind, and can potentially be animated by remnants of their god’s power. They don’t have a soul, and probably take after their god in terms of personality since their will have been nobody else to make an impression on them. If they survive losing their godly occupant, they can now act and behave like an ordinary being (I say ordinary, certain incarnations are made for certain things and get certain bonuses as we see with Kendall). But in order to sustain themselves they must consume and drink like an ordinary being. Chances are they can probably be repossessed by their god,but they don’t need them to survive on their own. If I’m correct/on the somewhat close lines then Kendall doesn’t have a soul, but still needs to eat and drink and rest every now and then. A question to follow on from this then is how would such a being respond to being subject to potentially corruptive elemental energies.
I’m not sure that’s the case… I think Kendal is like a sentinel, in terms of how he’s alive. He does need nourishment now that he’s mortal, but I don’t think gods can create Kendal-like beings normally like what you described. If they could, then cases like Kendal’s would’ve been far more common instead of completely unheard of.
Regarding Kendal, his soul, and the elements… my two guesses are that either he has tiny fragments of Vash’s soul still left inside him, or he’s completely soulless. If it’s the former, then Kendal would probably be resistant to having his body be altered by non-life magic. If it’s the latter… not so much; a water mage could boil his blood, a lightning mage could fry (or potentially even hijack!) his brain, etc. With elemental corruption, it’s a bit trickier. I don’t think it’s been said yet whether gods are resistant or even immune to elemental corruption, but if Kendal has bits of Vash’s soul left in him, then he might be less prone to corruption. If he’s soulless, then either he’ll be completely immune to corruption (since there’s a chance that it affects the soul in order to affect the mind and body), or he’ll be completely defenseless against it (since the soul acts as a barrier against magic, there’s also a chance that the corruption can affect his mind and body uninhibited).
Sorry for the essay, TL,DR: I think Kendal’s like a sentinel and souls are complicated.
I think the only reason cases like Kendall’s are unheard of is because nobody had tried what the collector did previously, and first she attacked nature spirits so there wouldn’t necessarily be people to see it even if it did happen. Plus I can’t imagine gods would just leave their incarnations and be done with them, throwing them away like trash. They’d destroy them once the body they’d made had no further purpose for the time being. That’s probably why such cases as Kendall’s are not known.
Red has said that he has a soul, just not Vash’s soul
Of course I see this AFTER I finish my essay… in that case, bodily sabotage and elemental corruption work as normal against him
Kendal: Oh fu—
so is that good or bad?
…somebody learned the wrong lesson from Pokémon, didn’t they?
Gotta catch them all
I have this crazy theory that just popped into my mind…maybe she wants to…unite them? Like grab a piece of one soul and then grab another piece and *poof a new god to serve her??
Tbh an eldritch abomination fusion god sounds pretty sick–I was thinking maybe she wants to know how to be a god since she was studying them
It is possible for mortals to become gods, apparently the smith god Tahraim is the only case though, and he’s really cryptic about who he did it
Why am I the only person who’s talking about snek nekk in the second to last panel? I mean, three red eyes, a super long neck, AND hair almost as long as her neck?! That is solid character design for just one panel.
I think that’s her right arm, actually—but yes, what a cool look. I love the visuals of this entire world.
Exactly. I thought that she was the coolest god out of all the ones that were shown.
Mini magma guy looks awesome too. I mean they kind of all do but those two especially.
Wait a second… So, if the collector takes apart Vash does that mean Kendal will fall apart or he just won’t have any way to get back his soul?
Probably the latter
I don’t know if Kendal has a soul or not, but a good theory is that Vash might have reincarnations, and if that’s true, Kendal could be the soul of the the reincarnations, the spirit that was always in the background due to Vash also occupying their body. Food for thought
In this light, I wonder if what she ACTUALLY wants is Kendal’s soul. (My apologies for being mildly serious and not sticking to my incessant use of nicknames.)
Or if she doesn’t want it now, she’ll take an interest in it once Kendal finally gets down there to rescue Vash.
Anyways… I strongly agree with The Mocking Dragon’s theory
By the way…is anyone having problems with their comments being posted? I mean an italic thing appears in my screen saying “your comment is awaiting moderation” which is very bothersome.
Ooh so Chimera Mom is like a magical mad scientist
So THAT’S how Ilia knows about Kendal… still wondering how she knew his location, though
So The Collector has multiple knives, perhaps even one for each soul, and their blades are all a dark purplish-black and inscribed with runes… could all of them be infused with the seventh element, and if so, how did she get all of them while the only known source of the element was trapped in the heart of The Storm?
No purplish- to the black, upon closer inspection
Why aren’t my comments posted!?!?!?!
I posted like three in the morning!
Is anyone else having this problem? On my screen it says “your comments are awaiting moderation” a few days ago and now today again and they had appeared before but now they didn’t appear!
Yup, you might try to comment from the same device/with the same username and email…
But anyway, I had this crazy theory that maybe she wants to collect all the souls of gods to later unite them! Like making a new god because she united to preexisting others? (This is wacky I know, but maybe…)
Ding Ding Ding, we have our winner!
*spoilers ahead*
https://youtu.be/C-cRPmVOtAk?t=870
(I should have checked for new comments before publishing my own ?)
Red stated that Trope Talks aren’t canon, so this is a solid maybe at best.
While that’s true, and probably most of the “panels” in those videos are unrelated/exaggerated for comical purposes, if everything Lady Ilia mentioned is true, there aren’t many potential reasons left to explain what the Collector is doing…
IMHO it’s very probable
Plus stuff in the trope talks has wormed its way into Aurora before, so I am somewhat inclined to agree.
I don’t want to theorize a lot about Kendal right now, any speculations I make becomes rapidly outdated ?
Oh and if you are wondering why the Collector is dissecting every god she can capture, someone posted a link to a trope talk episode some pages ago with a lot of (potential) spoilers… and the Collector herself making the answer really obvious.
Which Trope Talk specifically?
Jaja that happens to me too
Lol that happens to me a lot too
Sorry! It didn’t appear on the screen so I got impatient
And I wanted to reply on the Lolest’ second comment (God I’m making a lot of mistakes today)
Also, thank you for the link, it was very useful
OH NO I’VE MADE IT TO THE MOST RECENT PAGE. NOW I HAVE TO WAAAAAAIIIIIIIIT : O
So I’ve noticed normal people (Kendal included) just have normal white speech bubbles but gods have colored speech bubbles like Deadpool and REALLY big deities like Dark Floof and the life primordial just have big blocky text
Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it
So, I guess that soul collector isn’t gonna be pure evil
Those shadowed figures…
Could this possibly be…
FORESHADOWING?
At least one of them is closer to sideshadowing, if you ask me.
Ooo are we going to see more of that mountain god later on
My guess is probably not, but it would be neat if he showed up as a cryptic minor character at some point
Typical, these minor gods and spirits suffer, not knowing what fate awaits them one day to the next, and the higher up gods don’t bat an eye. Now they might pay for not listening.
I wonder what her endgame is? From her current trend of capturing ever higher gods I’d almost think the Twins would be her final targets, unless she learns about Alinua and Erin. Their unique situations might make her change her plans.
Jeez, Red is so good at making interesting background characters and it’s almost frustrating because I probably won’t be able to hear about the Tales of Broody McOrangeguy over there in panel 4
I’m a thousand years late to the party, but I love the design of the Nightmare Queen in the fifth panel
fourth
Hey look, in the background. It’s Tynan!!!
I was going to comment something about that too, but you beat me to it
Rereading currently, I noticed too!
Looks like Caliban is there too
me too, along with zuurith
Man I was going to mention all of this but you guys beat me to it
THE SCIENCE OF UNDERSTANDING, DECONSTRUCTING AND RECONSTRUCTING-
TL;DR: Ghost goddess doesn’t know why Chimera mum is nerding over souls. In other news, you can’t put gods together like jigsaw puzzles. Also, the god community is learning of how Chimera mum kidnapped Pantene god and illegally demolished his home and, in totally unrelated news, Vashn’t is getting famous.
The god in the back of the 2nd-last panel is suspiciously similar to tynan…
*more foreshadowing in the images of other gods*
Man id love to get a print of that gods frame
I recognize Zuurith, Caliban and Tynan among those gods. Maybe we’ll meet the others, too. I, for one, am intrigued by this ‘nightmare queen’.
alt text: wait take it again I think my third eye blinked
Is that Zurith in the center-back of panel 4?
currently (1.15.18)
we know 3 of these gods
It’s been more than 2 years and we still haven’t identified 4 of the gods (5 if you count that one mountain boi who got booboos from the Collector). Shout outs to Caliban, Tynan and Zuurith though.
Image source: afraid
“So the gods are afraid by the deadliest threat
To their very existence, and YOU, so no sweat.”
I swear to my love of life, Red, if you ever let the collector do something that makes me dislike her, you will Absolutely tear my heart to tiny shreds
She’s doing it FOR SCIENCE !
Then again, maybe not