2.1.27
on March 25, 2024
at 3:00 am
I have an irrational dislike of that one romantic subplot stock scene where one of them is looking out at a gorgeous vista and goes “It’s so beautiful!” and the other, openly staring at their face, says “Yeah……… beautiful.” What I’m saying is I am extremely ridiculously proud of myself for flipping that sucker inside out and turning it into this instead.
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: “kendal says “she’s beautiful” but I’m the one who has to bust my butt drawing her that way
Image source: beautiful
Twitter Text: damn being alive rules
Tumblr text: Just vibing with the pretty landscapes
Tumblr text:just vibing with the pretty landscapes
Awww 🥰 Kendal thinks Ali is beautiful!!
no?
I think he’s talking about Life.
I politely disagree, even though Alinua IS gorgeous. Kendal is looking at Life and seeing how beautiful all of living is. Alinua is looking at Kendal, hearing him, really *hearing* what he says and appreciating that he can see Life’s potential being realized as a beautiful whole.
Why not both?
I concur with the others here. Kendal means that what matters is Alinua is the window through which LIFE sees the world, and the world, what life has become, is beautiful.
If LIFE can see what Alinua sees, LIFE will be happy with the world (and not dangerous, as was being suggested last Friday).
Comics are a visual medium. If you don’t watch the frames the meaning of the words can get lost. Kendal isn’t on a romantic arc at all, and if Alinua is, I don’t think it ends with her dating kendal.
did you read the author’s note? I’m pretty sure that was the opposite of what Red intended…
I’m just waiting for someone to say death of the author so I can menacingly pull out my knife
Please de not stab the author with a knife.
I have one word for you. No. I would add ‘Politely’ but I believe it does not need any elaboration. But I understand that there are things things that rub me the wrong way too.
Something I’ve come to struggle with is the conflict between “Death Of The Author” and “Media Literacy” and I think this is a good example.
On the one hand, no, the author can’t control how their work is interpreted, and all art is open to interpretation, so if you want to interpret Kendal and Alinua as a romantic pair, that’s completely valid. Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum; meaning is something we project onto art when we experience it. We all come to art, whether that be a comic, a film, or a song, with our own context, so we’ll all come away with our own meaning. And that’s quite a sacrifice for an author to make, to give up something so personal to someone else’s interpretation, knowing that they might see something they never intended.
But that’s just it. Authors DO have intentions when they write their stories. The Chronicles Of Narnia is famously a Christian allegory, because it was written by CS Lewis, who we know was a theologian who wrote multiple Christian apologetics. American Psycho was a critique of toxic masculinity written and directed by two women (Mary Hannon & Guinevere Turner), yet it’s been co-opted by a minority of men who genuinely see Patrick Bateman as an aspirational role model.
I think when you read this comic (and, indeed, when you immerse yourself in any form of art) there’s an element of ‘meta’ where you have to consider the profile of the author/artist themself when drawing your own interpretations because they are intrinsically tied to the art they create. In this specific instance, Red is clearly not intending Kendal’s words to have romantic connotations (which she states in the notes). And on a wider scale, I think Red, as a proud asexual, has written Kendal, her main protagonist, to be asexual as well (for so many reasons that I can’t even get into right now). And while it’s (sort of) okay to ship Kendal and Alinua, I think it should be done with a certain level of awareness for what Red has intended for these characters to represent.
I remember seeing a post about Kendal being ace but I can’t find it anymore. I didn’t know he was Aromantic too though!
Also can everyone please relax a little? Greeny didn’t really do anything to deserve being yelled at by a bunch of people over a comment that hurts no one. It’s okay if their interpretation wasn’t the right one, I don’t think they need to be corrected this way. Just go disagree in peace.
While i do agree with you on what you wrote and the fact that, indeed, Kendal is talking about life and not Ali, the fact that he is assexual does not mean he is aromantic, so it is not impossible for him to be in a relantionship, just that he is not sexually interested in her. But of course, it doesn’t mean he is interested romantically as well, just that one does not negate the other. Nice paragraph as well, that was all very insightful.
(hahaaaaaaaaa… I’m up FAR too late. But I get to see the comic, so that’s a score 🙂
Lmaoooo Red,, (felt)
Kendal’s right, though. Life’s beautiful <3
“She may not be what she thought she’d be,”
Says Kendal, sounding wistful.
“But look at everything she gets to be,”
He says, gazing around. “She’s beautiful.”
Life is people now, and all around them,
She’s grass and shoot and tree.
In every colour and every shade,
She’s flower, bird and bee.
Oooh, I really like that!
Seconded, you did this one really well.
Life is no more what she was before
But beautiful in a way you can’t ignore
♪ Life could be a dream, Life could be a dream ♪
you got the song stuck in my head
Sha boom Shaboom, yaddadddada Sha boom sha boom.
I don’t know how to make the musical bars in emoji.
Here ya go: 🎼
Just type “treble clef” and it should be the emoji that comes up.
woah im early
it’s so great to see that trope turned from “romantic stock scene” to something SO MEANINGFUL.
Excuse me, but I have been deaded and resurrected by this page.
It’s so amazing *sob*
Can I just say that I love how the friendship between the two is characterized? Just two people who met under less than ideal circumstances, who have their clear gripes with each other but are also really happy to spend time together without an obvious “when do they bone” timer in the background.
I see how Kendal at first didn’t want Alinua thinking like she was trapped, and Alinua’s continual concern for Kendal, but where are their gripes with one another? I’d like to understand what you see if you don’t mind.
I think it’s Alinua’s issues with Kendal constantly putting his life in danger because he believes he doesn’t matter? That issue has probably been improved since he spoke with the citizens of Vash, but it might still come up again, most likely the next time they’re in a fight scene.
The most obvious one is how Alinua is very much not okay with the level of self-sacrifice and personal risk Kendal takes.
Life’s new form lets her contain a menagerie
Life in her old form would be quite a tragedy
Wait…so Kendal doesn’t have any of VD in him, but does he have any of Life in him? I mean, he is alive, but not through the traditional methods…
I would assume so if Life magic works on him.
Gods are able to manipulate the elements to varying degrees, as demonstrated by Zuurith forming a body out of fire, earth and air. Most likely Vash formed Kendal’s body from the elements he understood, ie water, fire, earth, lightning and air, but much in the same way of a homunculus, Vash’s inability to work with the void means he had none in him. Hence his not really needing to eat and breathe in the same way a mortal does. That being said, clearly Kendal doesn’t have the issues homunculi have, ie unable to repair himself, etc.
The current explanation for that seems to largely be Alinua’s uncontrolled healing of him at the start, but I think that fact that Kendal apparently does need to breathe in a fight indicates there’s even more weirdness going on. My guess is it involves the Void Dragon’s opposite and the fact that gods are literally just big ol’ balls of soul, with the heavy implication being that the soul is the result of this primordial.
Kendal is a mixture of a god’s leftover pieces, altered in a way nobody understands by the full unleashed power of a living, aware primordial. The rules don’t seem to apply to him, or at least not in the usual way. As a completely unique being, he’s a data set of one, so it’s hard to identify what rules he’s operating under. The discussion of him not needing to eat, sleep, or breathe unless he’s doing something high exertion or healing, and the fact that he has no void in him, suggests that he’s not quite bound by the rules of thermodynamics.
Based on the that that he can heal superficial wounds without assistance, he must contain some sort of Life essence. It’s unclear whether Vash built him with that or Alinua gave it to him after her Chimeric Meltdown.
Why is it always the character who’s been alive less than a month who ends up coming to the “life is beautiful” conclusion—
Anyway yay, another feels page! And we (probably) delay Life trying to kill everything for at least another chapter (probably)!
You say that like children don’t do the same thing.
Well, to be fair, he does vaguely remember being a city god. I feel like Vash would absolutely feel the same way as Kendal about Life
Probably because the rest of us have been inured in it since before we could properly form memories, and it’s just always been there, so we take it for granted? That’s the thing, a lot of those characters are also introduced at a biologically mature or near-mature state (with their mental/emotional facilities generally being about the same, gross naivety generally aside), so they don’t have that pesky “growing up” business filtering their perception.
It might be more believable for a person who is younger to see the world in this way when most people who have been around longer a blinded to that. It could also be “coming to the conclusion” as the thing. Most adults who have this view formed it young. So we could see this view formed in younger characters because that is the time in which views are formed.
I love the kid in panel 4. That is all.
Oh my goodness. This page is beautiful. That was the loveliest response Kendal could have possibly given, and the art is gorgeous. The way the light comes down in buttery beams on the landscape and life-forms, the shades of blue in the sky, those trees in panel four… I wish I could sit under the pink blossom tree for a while and watch the bird.
Anonymous Aurora Question #52: What would a genderbent version of the floof squad look like?
To be honest, I think Kendal would look like Zelda (older game versions).
I personally think he’d look like BotW pre-calamity Zelda
i dont think theyd change much visually (although i would love to see extra floofy erin) but plotwise i think kendal being a girl would add an interesting spin to his conflicted feelings abt being vash’s vessel.
Tess would look the exact same. Possibly with even longer hair.
Honestly, most of the squad are pretty androgynous anyway. I imagine there would be pretty minimal outfit changes, and Alinua might tie his/her hair up, but otherwise I don’t see much difference.
I mean…mostly the same? None of these floofy folks are particularly concerned about adhering to gender norms anyway, not their world’s and certainly not ours.
Dainix, Falst, and Kendall would be slightly less bare-chested all the time, I guess. And Tess would be slightly more bare-chested, for the same reasons! But that’s about it. That’s assuming this is a straightforward “mirror opposite”-style genderbend, anyway, rather than something more convoluted.
There once was a beautiful world
Made by Life’s body unfurled.
Kendal sees it clearly
And loves it dearly
Though into life he’s just been hurled.
Kendal X Giant Multi-Eyed Primordial Life Goddess.
Funny as that is, Kendal being the one to see life itself like this is wonderful. Seeing the gods and even primordials interact with him has been very interesting so far. Also IS Kendal really that shippable? He’s what, some months old by now and still sorting out lots of personhood. Would Life be for that matter?
That’s so nice of Kendal to comfort the millenia year old primordial being 🙂
I agree with Red about that stock romance scene: What she’s done here is a small change, but it’s so much more personal and intimate. Not only is just dropping the stock scene in kinda lazy, it’s leaning too heavily on the tropes that makes high-school-class romantic poetry so unbearably sappy.
this feels thematically like it’s about both Life and Alinua. Alinua originally chose to live in seclusion. she thought she had to to avoid hurting anyone. but now? she gets to see the world and help people. she may have a hard time seeing the beauty in that, but maybe all that matters is she sees someone who can.
For the love of- why is it this comic that always makes me want to go outside and sing with the birds like a Disney Princess? *pulling on shoes* see you guys on Wednesday, gotta go fall in love with nature again.
Remember the thing with the squirrel in early chapters? Kendal is definitely a Disney Princess 😀
Panel 4: “Let me tell you ’bout the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees…”
“And the moons up above, and a thing called Primordial Life.”
…Is it weird that I honestly can’t tell how much Kendall realizes that what he’s saying applies to Alinua just as much as Life?
I doubt I’m going to get a better opportunity to say this, so: I LOVE Kendal and Alinua’s dynamic. They are my favorite type of relationship, which is: These two characters love and care for each other so fully and completely that whether or not it’s romantic is kinda beside the point. Like, Falst and Dainix awkwardly flirting and blushing and stuff is fun, but I’d prefer this any day of the week.
Totally agree! I love the dynamic between Kendal and Alinua so much! (also your name is neat)
Yes – their friendship is the most simply beautiful that I’ve ever had the pleasure to read! I have some characters who I want to interact like this, but Red writes it so well I’ll never be able to match her gorgeous dynamics . . . I guess I’ll have to add a little of my own spices to the mix 😊
Silly pigeon-birb. There’s a perfectly good tree for your nest *right behind you* and you made it on the ground?
So the way I see it. Yes kendel is 100% talking about life. And yes alinua is 100% understanding he is talking about life. However it is worth remembering alinuas own emotional journey throughout the series. She knows he’s talking about life and not her. But it is a conversation that can easily parallel with her own journey thoughts and feelings.
Kendal’s line of “She may not be what she thought she HAD to be” seems 100% intended to be about Alinua (if not by Kendal then by Red)
Y’know, as poetic and beautiful as this page is. If you look at it when remembering Alinua’s fears that she is not herself anymore, it could be seen as life reacting to the compliment instead of Alinua. That would be a very possible reason why she is reacting to strongly.
Thank you Red for taking an old trope and breathing new life into it by resetting the perspective. You make it tender and sweet again after years (even decades) of repeating it to dull and empty significance.
I don’t know if it’s just me but the sun rays in panel 5 make this entire place look underwater
BLUHHH I’m caught up with this comic now! I’m gonna have to “wait” for “updates” like the common SCRUB!
Imagine after you died, your subjective conscious lived experience carried over to that of all the insects and worms that ate your corpse, or the first animals that ate the plants your ashes fertilized. And then all the animals that ate *those* animals. And so on, ad nauseam, over a geologic timespan. Now extend this to the lived experience of every conscious animal on the planet, over that timespan, and into the future until the Sun grows into a red giant and incinerates the Earth.
What I’ve described is Samsara, the neverending hell that is the cycle of (usually brutal, grotesque, violent, traumatizing) death and rebirth. This is what Life, the somehow sapient primordial-element-cum-deity, has experienced since her decomposition into billions, if not trillions of amalgams. The vast majority of whom, thanks to the corrupting influence of the Void Dragon, the Auroraverse’s equivalent to entropy, suffer violent deaths from predation or slow, agonizing deaths from starvation, disease, or aging. And for every trophic degree of removal from solar and chemosynthetic energy sources, 90% is lost. To keep an apex predator alive, at least 110 prey animals have to suffer dismemberment before losing consciousness or be swallowed whole and dissolved in a stomach. And Life with a capital L experiences the subjective experiences of *all* of these animals, at least the sentient and sapient ones, which as far as I can tell includes the feral cave dwellers.
Entropic forces – or in this fantasy setting, the corrupting seventh element, Consumption – impose such Malthusian constraints on organic life that the food chain must necessarily be a negative-sum game, with orders of magnitude more “losers” who suffer nasty, brutish, short lives in chaotic micro-environments than “winners”, those (mostly apex predators and unthreatened large herbivores and vegetarians) who live even remotely tolerable, brief existences in relatively stable and safe macro-environments. Take a sum of the utility functions of all sentient amalgams, and there’s no possibility of it not being negative. Issues with utilitarianism aside, this gives us at least a rough sense of Life’s experience since her dissolution. Life is almost certainly suffering at any given moment, and has been for an inconceivably long times.
The onus is on Alinua and her Floof friends to convince Life to continue to live in hell as scrambled fragments of her old self for potentially billions of years, instead of “waking up” and reconstructing herself from the corpses of all living things. Kendal’s rose-tinted perspective seems to stem from the fact that he is removed entirely from the material conditions imposed on all other living things by Consumption – in a world where not eating or sleeping kills you, nature is not beautiful at all times, but red in tooth and claw. The Void Dragon, just by existing, has tortured Life for anywhere between a few millennia (if Auroraworld is a “young Earth” as in Biblical myth) and several billion years.
I think a necessary, but possibly insufficient, precondition for Life to accept herself in her current state would be not just the suppression of the Dragon but the total and permanent annihilation of Consumption from the world. Eating would no longer be necessary except in cases of injury, and predators would no longer die of starvation or have the need to injure or kill prey. But even in Red’s constructed fantasy setting with its own internal magic system this sounds impossible to the point of being absurd. In the absence of the forces that shape life’s evolution through natural selection, Life would become even more unrecognizable than before and would either go mad, bound by geospatial constraints on one tiny planet surrounded by the infinite void of outer space or expand infinitely into the cosmos, unchecked.
Anyway I find myself having next to no confidence in the Floof gang’s perspective swaying Life away from the Collector’s perspective if they can’t offer a better alternative to the status quo than mass extinction. The one thing they have going for them is the Collector’s case for forcible fusion of extant amalgams into chimeric monstrosities to accelerate the reconstruction of Life into a single awakened being is almost as flimsy – such fusion is itself just as traumatic and horrifying as the experience of being dissolved in a predator’s stomach, except *both* or all animals get to suffer.
Well done, Red. Well done =)
Those bugs are cute as heck
YES! I’ve also had a strange vendetta against this trope because instead of allowing two characters to share the moment of beauty, it actually splits the moment in two halves with two perspectives. If anything I always thought it divided the characters more than brought them together… brilliant subversion here!