1.8.3
on June 19, 2020
at 4:00 am
For as fancy a name as it is, “soulshaping” mostly has purely mundane utility. The monks are scholars of the practice, but it hasn’t spread outside of Helm because it’s such a niche field of study with such highly specific applications – and the process of large-scale changes like limb management can take months or years. When you can get a living-wood prosthetic or a finely-crafted mechanical one almost anywhere in the world, regaining the feeling is a bit lower on the priorities list.
Last time you said “just the wind”, a sentinel almost crushed Kendal and Alinua… I’m scared ?
At the very least, this silhouette doesn’t look to be building-sized, so they’re safe in the crushing department
I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t actually expect Erin and Alinua to get along so well, idk why????
Perhaps you assumed so because they both have very strong personalities, yet those personalities oppose each other; Alinua is stubborn, she doesn’t easily back down, and she takes no s***, whereas Erin, while also being stubborn, frequently dishes out s*** on account of his Pompous Nitwit-ness. My prediction going forward is that Erin and Alinua will have a sibling-like relationship (at least, sibling-like from my frame of reference); they’ll occasionally butt heads, but when they aren’t arguing, they’ll have each other’s backs till the bitter end
Erin also has a very holier-than-thou attitude, again stemming from his egoistic arrogance, so that could be another contributing factor for emotional conflict
As a person with a sibling, this is an accurate idea of the sibling relationship, I annoy my older brother all the time but when a few girls made fun of me back in elementary my brother asked who they were so he could go and beat them up. He didn’t actually beat them up but it he did turn them into the teacher, I was a wimpy kid who didn’t want to cause trouble by telling a teacher, they had bullied me for a month before I told him about it. I’m doing much better now, and would really love to see this. I’m also binging this so can’t wait to see who shifty shadow is
Does anyone else have any idea what the grey silhouette in the penultimate panel looks like? All I can see is what looks like a face in profile and not much else.
I think a new character is inbound, the one teased by Red for some time now. Which can only mean one thing.
FLOOF FOR THE FLOOF SQUAD!
You mean the thing in the corner? I don’t know but it’s something.
Oh I was looking at the wrong panel. It definitely looks like a profile, and it moves away in the next one. It’s probably a tree demon or a new character. I was looking at those lights in the top-right corner of the last panel that seem like eyes.
The profile looks like it has a fat neck, a big nose, and a very solid brow.
I don’t think it’s a person in profile. I think it’s floofy hair.
I think it might be a head on profile with some very floofy hair
I don’t think it’s in profile. I think it’s the lion-eared character from the sketches.
The Soul-magic panels are awesome X3
I also like how good the three get along – really refreshing :3
Prosthetics? Guess Life magic is either worse at regeneration or rarer/more difficult than I thought. Then again, we have been seeing an avatar (however unwitting) at work so hard to judge. Maybe making entire giant super trees to save a whole town from starvation isn’t something life mages casually do.
why is it that whenever kendel says something i just imagine his voice as shiro’s voice from the new voltron series?
and whenever erin says something i hear pidge’s voice who is also in the new voltron series
Oh gods I can’t unhear it
Cursed! Begone, thought!
(At least I haven’t watched that show in years, so you can’t corrupt my perspective on how they sound)
I understand that so much! Now that I think of it, that’s pretty much how Kendal sounds in my head. Maybe a little more innocent/derpy.
But Erin sounds a little older to me- maybe halfway between Keith and Pidge.
Huh yea. Erin does sound a bit like a halfway between Keith and pidge
And gold lightning lady sounds a bit like Red for some reason in my brain
I have another suggestion: Kendal with Blue’s voice and Alinua and/or Erin with Red’s voice.
Try unhearing that.
Holy hubris…I can’t unhear that, I rlly cant!
Red at one point (in the discord) said that Josh Keaton is the “platonic ideal of the Hero Voice” and that’s what Vash and Kendal sound like, so frankly this is a good read
So, is this paladin dude? Or maybe gold lightning person?
Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z!
Find out next time on… JOURNEY TO THE… um… EAST! East? East.
My guess is a forest spirit / minor god
Perhaps the individual with the eyes from the chapter cover…
I think Erin means to say “discreet”, which means secretive and close-lipped, as opposed to “discrete”, which means separate or distinct.
Sooo, If you can tell what Erin means to say via context clues, why is it important? Clearly it didn’t impact the readability.
Red works very hard to make these comics all by herself, mistakes happen, there’s absolutely no call to point them out.
Please think about how your words might make Red feel when she has poured YEARS of her life into making this story that you get to enjoy for free.
Wasn’t a callout or insult! Just trying to provide friendly help where I can. Big fan of Red AND this story. 🙂
Interesting philosophy on the nature of souls that Red is pitching here…
I’m loving the slow but steady character development for kendal. Also maybe the monks have answers for why he exists….?
Okay but also I just noticed in the 2nd panel the soul half of the body mirrors the life lines that we see with Alinua/ life magic tattoos but it’s straight lines, which is just A Really Cool Touch Red
“My family’s had dealings with them before. They’re reliable and discreet.” Uh are we sure these monk guys aren’t running the magical black market
Hey does that mean if you destroyed someone prosthetic you could kill them a little bit
Also I’m betting the Archangel Michael is about to come crashing in on a dragon and bring about a long and convoluted fight
Either that or Cat Boy will join the party
I’m gonna guess the cat guy. All images I’ve come across suggest he resides in a wooded area, plus even with Mr Blue eyes going full speed I doubt he will go faster than commercial aircraft (which still take ages to cross the sort of distance he was describing). Alternatively it could be some of Blue eyes’ compatriots spying on the group.
Shff? Something’s afoot
Wait, so we’ve previously seen that the nervous system-type thing with colours has something to do with someone’s element. So I’m assuming that the soul monks are using multiple elements at once, or harnessing them. If so, that means they can possibly give someone control of multiple elements. He said that his family has had dealings with them before. I’m assuming that his family is rich or something (his hubris is giving me some kind of rich-dude vibes, although, don’t trust me on this), so it might be possible that his family actually paid for Erin to become the Elemental Magus, since that is a position of power, and since Erin mentioned that the Academy is a place for people searching for power, then they might be annoyed that Erin was able to just attain the power of the Magus (there might be some kind of conspiracy to do with the magus, like the Academy would want them under their control). Also, Erin said something about opening pathways.
So basically, my point is, Erin’s family probably paid for him to become the Magus.
…Holy s***, that’s juicy. It would explain his very strong and emotional reaction on the previous page, too, as well as why he takes so much pride in being an elemental magus, and why there was a much shorter gap than usual between the previous magus’s death* and Erin’s attainment of this status. Of course, it’s still possible that two magi could’ve appeared naturally within that timeframe, it’s just unlikely.
*Unless the previous magus never died…
How do you know that the gap between Erin and the previous magus’ “death” is shorter than is statistically average for said phenomenon?
Also his offended reaction could just be slightly bruised hubris.
One thing about being rich, it would appear that the academy he attends is relatively top notch (probably something like Oxbridge level) for magic in Aurora, which suggests the requirements match (and so they probs have very high tuition fee counterparts). Plus, emissaries would appear to hold significant positions within a city. As such they probably have a decent income from whatever position they hold (with variance depending on the position). I have no ways to estimate how much but I would guess on something approaching if not a decent middle-class income
Erin stated that usually, there’s a gap of a few centuries between one magus’s death and the next one’s birth, whereas Erin was born only about 110 years after the previous magus ‘died’
Plus, it’s likely that his family is rich indeed, due to Galen’s status as the ambassador emissary to Asera. Perhaps Erin was born with the ability to wield four or five elements, and his parents decided to make their son a magus by shipping him off to the monks for a while and covering up any evidence of this power grab with bribery.
I bet Kendall is thinking of possibly getting a Monk to help see why he was seperated from Vash
regaining feeling is pretty high on the list. trust me.
It could possibly depend on the circumstances. I have read a web-comic where one of the characters has found the benefit of having a highly durable and fully functional prosthetic arm that cannot feel pain, and that’s for taking hits.
Every time Red says “probably just the wind” it’s time to panic.
This theory on the monks giving Erin his magus status is very interesting, could all his bravado be an act to try and hide his insecurity of this fact? Also makes me think that V.D. might take advantage of their abilities and create a new, more servile, vessel than Erin for himself.
A bit late but here’s my theory on what Erin said about the monks being discrete. His family paid the monks to somehow allow Erin to connect to all 6 elements, similar to what Bashir’s parents did with his gene therapy in DS9. In both cases the parents had enough power/wealth to provide for the full cost of such a therapy. Just leaving this out here for anyone else binging this.
TL;DR: Exposition Narratorman does his job. Apparently soulshaper monks are soul doctors.
Alternate TL:DR: Possessed Floof expositions the heck out of the peeps, soul monks know how to give people new limbs and cool magic. Shadow man in background eavesdrops on convo, probably Erin’s secret admirer
The wind? Have we learned NOTHING in the last seven chapters?
Also if it gets rid of phantom limb pain that is also a big deal. Its a source of pain that you can do almost nothing about until your body stops panicking about how its not getting any information from that limb. A solution that does not give you any feeling in your limb is unlikely to fix that.
(This is supposed to be a reply to SkinnerTBD, no idea if it going to work.)
(Reply to The Lowlest (for real))
Actually, Red has said, “just the wind” three times before this. The first was the Sentinel, the second was when they first noticed the spooky void energy in the wastes, the third was when Kendal was talking to Lady Ila and heard the sound of VD basting Aliuna.
alt text: probably just the wind
If we ignore the *sniff* , it would seem like Kendal can see speech bubbles. That’s cute.
Image source: monks1
The monks are good, this Erin knows
But something by the trees gets close
?Shiiiffftttyyyy sshhhhaaaaddddooooowwww bbbbboooooooiiiiii, Shiiiffftttyyyy sshhhhaaaaddddooooowwww bbbbboooooooiiiiii, why you spyin, what you tryin, Shiiiffftttyyyy sshhhhaaaaddddooooowwww bbbbboooooooiiiiii?
*minor spoilers for the comic*
General thoughts and analysis:
– If the monks are known for opening links, is it possible to close a link? In theory it is, but there must be something that discourages that (ignoring perhaps the obvious, that most would prefer to be a mage). I can see this becoming an interesting complication when the group gets there.
– Similarly, if soulshaping is niche, it likely can’t be used to open/close brand new links. To me, this points to a variation of the DIY magus theory where Erin was born with malformed links.
Ok, so we’re just full on Doctor Strange-ing this?