Sorry I’m late. Did anyone else notice that the Collector hasn’t stopped the mountain-magic yet?
Zuurith’s hand shoots up, grabbing the Collector’s robes. “Stop,” he pleads. Then in a smaller voice, “please.”
“You know my price, Lawbringer,” says the Collector with that small smile, bending down towards him. “Though I admit, it’s very interesting to see a city beg.”
Zuurith trembles on the ground. “Vash’s vessel bears a new soul,” he says in a broken voice.
The Collector’s eyes widen. “Explain,” she says, grabbing Zuurith by the chin. His hand falls away from her. “I-I cannot,” he stammers. “I only know that Vash’s vessel survived your attack, and now walks freely. It is through the vessel that Vash could escape your prison.”
“…no,” the Collector says. “No, no, no.” She shoves Zuurith away from her, spinning around. “No. NOT a new soul. It simply can’t be. Because if amalgams can just form NEW souls after I’ve gone to all the trouble to clean them out, that would mean–” She suddenly stops, standing completely still.
“It means that vessel’s soul must have come from somewhere,” she says, looking back at Zuurith. “And I’m SO excited to figure that out.”
Yeah, I’m going to take the maybe controversial opinion that from the PoV of someone in charge of the city in question, this was probably the right move? Like, it sucks for Kendal but in the moment it’s kinda a trolley problem, esp since Zuurith probably doesn’t know about the Collector’s “wipe out all life” plans, and her talking to him is an extra few seconds for people to escape in the worst case scenario
Are you kidding? Kendal would never let a single person die for him, forget a whole city! Of course Kendal wouldn’t blame him. Falst on the other hand…
Zurith is actually trying a new leaf and trying to protect his people. It is clear that he cannot hope to fight the Collector and win at this point. So the only thing he can do to protect his people is to rat out Kendall, who he has no obligation to protect anyway. Zurith has no reason to believe that the Collector will hesitate even for a moment to kill the hundreds or thousands of people in the city. Kendall’s life is not worth thousands of others and he would rather fight the Collector to death than allow that to happen.
The only thing he can do that doesn’t have the Collector kill people is to cooperate. The only option he has is to lie and even that is not a good option: the Collector would figure it out soon enough and she’ll just come back, with a lot more killing. Zurith could hope to set a trap for her but the other gods won’t help him and hate him.
So yeah, he is doing what is the wisest, most moral choice he has available to him that he can actually do.
The real test of his new moral character is whether he will send a heads-up to Kendal. And the rest of the gods out there.
I don’t think she’ll be “anti” life dragon, she’ll maybe just use this new knowledge to do some experiments and to catch or destroy Kendal. She’d probably be very interested in LD and VD from now on, so the Paladins and Erin are kinda in trouble 😅
“Clean them out” I feel so sickened now.
I mean, amazing character and all! She really makes one feel things! But oughhhh just stop doing horrible things already, lady TnT
Don’t forget that he is responsible for the people of his city. Protecting them is job 1. And the collector killed the people of Vash’s city in order to weaken Vash.
I can already just see the chapter 13 or whatever when the collector finally gets her hands on Kendal and figures out where his soul came from. I’m exited to see her conclusion! Even if that will probably take over a year…
A year is optimistic, given that Kendal and the rest are leaving the continent in the morning. I doubt she can catch them in time.
Granted, that’s not much of an issue. She uses the Singing Caves for travel and they spread across the entire planet. She can easily get to them in Helm. But first she has to work out that they’re going to Helm, and then it’s a bit of a hike under the ocean to get there. It’s going to be some time before the Collector even has a chance to fight the group, let alone capture Kendal and start the dissection.
I give it three years. One year of ocean travel, another year at the Helm Monastery, and then an extra year for ‘hijinks’, because these people can’t even get a full night’s sleep without getting into trouble. Probably more, I can see a bunch of stuff happening between now and the collector’s eventual intersection with the main plot.
Sorry mate, but the answers you seek are still in the distant future :/
I found something! In 1.18.2, VD says Kendal has, and I quote, “something I haven’t tasted in a very long time”. What could this mean?? Maybe it’s some other primordial force that he ate before the primordials we know of? Because if the only thing he’s ever eaten are primordials, then it’d imply some weird stuff about Kendal. I’d like to point out how Erin’s eyes reflect blue when VD says this, so maybe it has something to do with LD? Maybe she personally gave Kendal a soul? Kind of how she gave free will to the elder races? But then how would she even know about Kendal in that moment? None of her vessels or even just a random paladin were anywhere near that area when vash was destroyed. Then maybe it was a stray soul from Vash that made its way into Kendal? But that would be anticlimactic, and invalidate VD’s remark. Maybe it’s thanks to the unique nature of the souls of Vash’s people? So, as long as their connection to Vash hasn’t been broken, Kendal’s soul will be allowed to exist? That’d explain how he was able to talk to the people of Vash in his dreams, and it’d be narratively interesting since freeing the people of Vash would come at the cost of his own life, which directly crashes with a bunch of his recent character development in an interesting way. However, I doubt VD could possibly have tasted something like that before, so that rules it out. It’s frustratingly interesting how many good possibilities Red’s unique worldbuilding gives to this question. I’m exited to see how she will answer it!
I think it’s less that she doesn’t get that she can be wrong, more that she’s actually AFRAID to be wrong in this instance. Since souls are what basically hold living things together, and she’s trying to destroy all current life to free Life. Because if ‘amalgams’ can just grow new souls, even after she’s ‘cleaned them out’… then that means her task of freeing Life might be impossible. And she seems absolutely set on the idea that she’s doing the Right Thing, undoing an abomination, so yeah. Makes sense that she’d react poorly to this news and try to rationalize it away.
(I hope she’s wrong, get wrecked, Collector.)
I mean, it IS an interesting question to pose. It seems that the Collector’s interests might align with the Void Dragon’s, to an extent. I wonder if she was aware of his presence while in the Caves. They’re basically heart neighbors.
It is interesting, they’re both trying to free a primordial in they’re own way, the Collector Life and the void dragon himself but the Collector is trying to save Life and the VD trying to kill Life is what started everything, so I couldn’t say what she thinks about him. Also though I know their connected I don’t how far apart Stone’s hearts are or if the Collector cared enough to explore them.
Damn, I’m genuinley impressed with how often Red get’s pages out, +she’s illustrating and researching OSP vids on top of it. Most other comics usually only update 3-5 times a month, which is fair, because this shit’s TIME CONSUMING.
I wonder how big her buffer is
I’m afraid she might like to make him a test subject. Though, Zuurith’s incarnation wasn’t made to last the same way as Vash’s vessel so the test subject might be extremely short lived.
1) She’s already got a god’s soul in her lab. She doesn’t need another.
2) She did make a deal with him that she’d spare him and his people if he spilled the beans on Kendal.
3) She doesn’t really have any reason to kill him besides secrecy, and word about her is already getting around. It’s why Zuzu killed her pretty much immediately, which means he already knew about her, which means others already do, as well.
4) She’s already said that killing him will take a long time. Every second she spends toying with him is another second Kendal could be getting away.
But do we know that she‘ll honor her deals if they become inconvenient? I mean she has a chance to threaten Zuurith into making a more sturdy body here. So she could theoretically watch a new soul form/arrive firsthand and have a brand new vessel on her hands if she plays this right (ie not telling him she’ll murder his people anyways) , without having to chase Kendal over half the Continent.
Ah, but she doesn’t know that it’ll work. In the time it’d take to get him to make a more sturdy body, his people will have scattered to the four winds. Besides, he might not make a body sturdy enough to withstand his soul leaving it. Also, she doesn’t know that Vash can’t actually escape her lab for more than a couple minutes.
No, better to catch the bird just out of reach rather than try to coax the bird in the bush, which is an entirely different species and might not have functional wings, to fly up into your hand so you can dissect it.
Guys. GUYS.
I had a realisation.
All this time we’ve been wondering how the floof squad will defeat the Collector- what we should be wondering is how the Collector will defeat herself.
I kinda thought that she’d have a face off with either LD or VD (maybe Falst or Erin) or that Tahraim would pop up and “deposit” some soul sealing instruments. But it’s perfectly plausible that she thinks she’s won and destroys herself then everyone comes out from behind a giant rock 😀
I think it’s either going to be her destructive approach towards Life and an utter disbelief when told Life wishes otherwise which dooms her fate. That, or this new issue of souls just popping up in bodies leads her to some dark places. Like a dark dragon.
It would be mean of Red to have Zuurith be god-napped right after Tynan and his redemption arc… but it could really go either way. I’m betting that Collector leaves. I just think it would be too much work for her right now, given that it would take longer and she probably doesn’t want to leave Vash alone for too long right now.
I’ve never given this any thought before it got brought up just now, but the origin of Kendal’s soul is an interesting topic. Obviously he was awake for a little while between Vash being yeeted and Alinua healing him, so it’s unlikely that his soul is made up of Life or part of Alinua’s soul… though that could, of course, still be partly the case. Hmm…
One of the current theories floating around is that a little bit of Vash’s soul got incorporated into his sword by accident, and has been slowly developing into it’s own soul ever since. And when Vash got pulled out of his incarnation, that soul got pulled in…
It could be that the light dragon is the origin of souls. Like where do children get their souls? Kendal could have his from the same place.
An alternate theory is that the sword Kendal had a bit of Vash in it or a sort of “soul” of it’s own and that Kendal the dude is actually a new body for the soul that inhabited the sword.
In the extra lore tab, it says this about Gods and Sentinels:
“Some gods describe older sentinels are having an “echo” – a fragmentary, rudimentary mind. As soul energy has a tendency to collect in old structures over time, it is hypothesized that, as sentinels age and slowly accumulate unformed soul energy, the control of the god leaves a ghostly impression in this unformed soul, an echo of the god’s will to protect their people.”
It would be reasonable to assume that, between the sword and Vash’s sturdy body, this “echo” accumulated enough soul energy to become a full person. Whether that’s correct or not, remains to be seen.
Although it will mean the end of the series, I am SO looking forward to the Collector not just being able to do whatever she wants to everyone, and be actually threatened. I hope that Alinua will be key to it, being a rival Life Mage.
Welp. RIP the secret of Kendal’s existence. In fairness to Zuurith, it’s understandable. He tried, but he was backed into a corner. His entire city was dying. It was either cave and confess or lose his entire people.
I still don’t know if she’s going to spare Zuurith now. On the one hand, yes, she has one god and doesn’t need another, and demolishing the city means expending effort. On the other hand, letting the city survive means that Zuurith could potentially share intel on the Collector with the other gods: what kinds of powers she exhibited, what she knows about Kendal now, etc. (If he can admit to being trounced and get word out to them, anyway.) She might not want that. Their interference could prove a nuisance. Of course, they’ll still know something’s wrong if Zuurith vanishes off the face of the earth, but they’ll know less.
She cares for Life in her own twisted and warped way, but she cares nothing for life. It’s difficult to say what she will do.
It’s interesting to see the Collector brief bit of panic at the idea of Kendal’s existence before regaining her cool. The seeds of a Third-Act Breakdown, perhaps?
I’d love to see that. She’s been so utterly convinced she’s the one who knows what’s best, doing the right thing to save Life. Getting rejected by Life and realise she’s wrong would be so cathartic to see after she killed everyone in Vash.
Collector: I feel like the maid; I just cleaned up this amalgam! Can we keep it clean for … for ten minutes!
Welp, as I thought Zuurith caved in, but also as I hoped, he’s only revealing the bare minimum. All the Collector knows is that Vash’s former vessel has a new soul, is walking on it’s own, and gives Vash a backdoor; she doesn’t know the vessel’s name, where it’s intended destination is, or if it’s traveling alone or in a group. Just as well, the gang needs every advantage it can get.
Ooh, just got a brief glint of the Collector loosing her cool. Throughout this whole comic we’ve mostly seen either smiling or with a neutral expression; centuries of research and commitment to her goal has meant she’s not once been surprised … until now. I’m actually really scared of what may happen if the Collector were to fully loose her cool.
Yep, that’s quite a snag in her grand “remove souls and extract Life” plan if the bodies of what houses the souls can get new ones. Though from what she’s saying this sounds very unexpected and she seems sure that soul didn’t just appear out of nowhere. More fuel for the Kendal is the sword’s soul theory? A strange property of starmetal unknown until now? In any case her interest is piqued so we should be worried.
There once was a giver of law
Who the death of his people saw.
So he gave information
To safeguard his nation
As the Collector grabbed hold of his jaw.
On one hand, that’s what I was hoping against, on the other, I have absolutely nothing against him. Arguably the right choice, actually, and I don’t think anyone can really blame him. He just got his semi-redemtion! His morals are very simple right now, and the Floof Squad holds no place in his newly-discovered heart. Plus, from everything that happened, he probably expects that the Floof Squad can at least hold their own a little. Still, it does give a little, “Wait! Uhm… someone else is a better target! Go be their problem!” vibes, which isn’t all that nice.
well this brings up a rather interesting possibility. the collector and Alinua are already foils. both of them are the most powerful ultimate life mages. the collector now knows that kendal exists and that he has his own soul. this at least gives us a temporary repreve for Vash since she now has a new very interesting project to look into. unfortunately its hunting the protagonists to figure out just how kendal works. once she figures out that Life has picked a champion and it isn’t her she will probably be hurt. that will probably cause her villainous breakdown.
Small round of applause for Zuurith’s character development, because a few chapters ago he wouldn’t have lowered himself to say ‘please’ to anyone even if doing so had meant Tynan was immediately fired out of a cannon back into the sea.
Reposting because I’m not sure anybody saw it: Honestly, I think they’ll be safe because it would be a real dick move writing wise to spend multiple chapters trying to save the city Zuurith from Tynan only for it to be destroyed later in one scene.
I’ve got a theory about this and the repercussions in-universe. Thanks, Miss Evil Genetics Major, for reminding me about Kendal!
In the first few pages of the comic, when the Twins are creating the Elder Races, we see a white flash in their eyes, similar in color to the Paladins’ magic, before they gain sentience and start panicking. This foils the Void Dragon’s plan to escape. What force could have given them sentience? I’d bet someone’s already said this, but my money’s on the Light Dragon. She’s an opposing force to VD, and the magic looks similar.
Most of this is not hard to infer, but from here on it gets a bit funky, and is mostly just speculation.
We also know Kendal to have formed a new soul from… somewhere. My guess is that LD’s element is soul magic. That would explain the plasma-like magic wielded by her “Champion,” as she calls them. LD didn’t just give the first beings created by the Twins sentience; she gave them their souls. I’d guess that she knew Kendal would be important, and created his soul as well. What does this mean in-universe? Well, if Miss Evil Genetics Major (I love this nickname and refuse to call her “The Collector” like the kid from The Owl House even though this came first) finds out about LD, then it’s a three-way conflict between her, LD, and VD. LD and VD are obviously OpFor for each other. Evil Genetics Major Lady would have to defeat or kill LD to free Life, and VD obviously doesn’t want Life to come back. So it’s a three-way conflict that the main cast has to navigate through. I’d guess they’d probably end up siding with LD, but that’s generally just speculation due to how late she was introduced. She still has time to turn on them.
Yeah, I’m gonna have to pop that bubble real quick (again).
First off, soul energy was already omnipresent on Aurora. Mortals already had souls back in the Prologue, what they lacked was a MIND to run the body. Moreover, whereas LD’s powers (be it via the Paladins or her own agency) has very consistently been light blue-white in color. Soul energy, which all the gods are made of and which seeps through from their incarnations, appears in a variety of colors. Blue (Vash, Ilia, Argist), purple (Zuurith), green (Gleicann), yellow (Tynan), orange (Caliban and Tahraim), etc.
Also consider what Light magic is capable of. Namely, telepathy. Linking minds. I am therefore far more confident that Light magic manipulates minds and willpower than the soul.
Together, though, you two have something really, fascinatingly plausible! I love the idea of a three-way, deity-level conflict that’s terrifyingly unpredictable… the Floof Squad would probably argue so much about whose side they were on that the majority of the argument would have to be a noodle incident! Although probably either Kendal or Alinua or both of them would eventually just up and DO something, and the rest would end up reacting/supporting.
Also, while it takes longer to type, I am just loving “Miss Evil Genetics Major.” Maybe “Miss EGM”?
Really hoping she’s not going to just pull a villain credentials move and kill the city outright here. I don’t feel like she’s in it for the unnecessary evil, but can never be certain with villains when they have the upper hand like this.
Nah, she doesn’t care about anyone’s life good or bad. So she will leave Zurrith alone. Plus for her it isn’t sparing Zurrith or his people, they are all going to get reabsorbed back into life when she manages to reconstitute her.
Okay, wow, I’ve been loving the art so far, but…whoa, the expressions on the Collector in this page are crazy good. So simple yet there’s so much expression and subtlety, very well done!
(In my head, the Collector, that creepy mad scientist, sounds like Icklenellie, a.k.a Ellen Rose from Outside Xtra. It’s extra creepy if she’s cheerful!)
I love how Red has limited technological advancement in the Auroraverse by making every single scientist a MAD scientist. In my own fantasy ‘verse, every scientist is simply a BAD scientist, usually in some disturbingly familiar way.
And here I suspect we have the beginning of seeing the “Lie” the collector believes, or the makings of the third act breakdown (thanks red, for teaching me that term!). She believes something about Kendal that is wrong, something about souls not being able to be created, so that if she kills everyone Life reforms as normal and nothing is lost, if new souls can be created then….something about her plan doesn’t work.
Love the little hints, and her not finishing her thought.
So, the main speculation I’m seeing is, the Collector is afraid of naturally manifesting souls because it would prevent her from destroying all souls at once. But, I have to admit, my first reaction after rereading 1.11.11 is a bit scarier – what if the Collector didn’t reawaken Life, but instead created a new consciousness within Life’s body? The Collector’s goal is to free the original primordial Life and let it retake its body, but if Life actually died and never returned, it’d kind of rain on that parade.
I might be mixing up the meaning of ‘soul’ in this universe, though.
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: a desecration of the noble art of the villainous chin-grab
Image source: stop
Tumblr text: probably the smart move tbh
Tumblr text: probably the smart move tbh
Twitter text: I see no way this could go badly
Sorry I’m late. Did anyone else notice that the Collector hasn’t stopped the mountain-magic yet?
Zuurith’s hand shoots up, grabbing the Collector’s robes. “Stop,” he pleads. Then in a smaller voice, “please.”
“You know my price, Lawbringer,” says the Collector with that small smile, bending down towards him. “Though I admit, it’s very interesting to see a city beg.”
Zuurith trembles on the ground. “Vash’s vessel bears a new soul,” he says in a broken voice.
The Collector’s eyes widen. “Explain,” she says, grabbing Zuurith by the chin. His hand falls away from her. “I-I cannot,” he stammers. “I only know that Vash’s vessel survived your attack, and now walks freely. It is through the vessel that Vash could escape your prison.”
“…no,” the Collector says. “No, no, no.” She shoves Zuurith away from her, spinning around. “No. NOT a new soul. It simply can’t be. Because if amalgams can just form NEW souls after I’ve gone to all the trouble to clean them out, that would mean–” She suddenly stops, standing completely still.
“It means that vessel’s soul must have come from somewhere,” she says, looking back at Zuurith. “And I’m SO excited to figure that out.”
At least my boy Zuurith won’t die
Welp, he gave up. Death was too scary for Zuurith.
The collector raises an interesting question: where do children’s souls come from?
To be fair, ‘Death’ for a city god means deeath for hundreds of innocent people.
Hundreds? Try thousands. “Cleaning out” a city god means massacring everyone if Vash’s city is a typical example.
Hundreds; thousands. An unjustifiably huge number of people would die either way.
Yeah, I’m going to take the maybe controversial opinion that from the PoV of someone in charge of the city in question, this was probably the right move? Like, it sucks for Kendal but in the moment it’s kinda a trolley problem, esp since Zuurith probably doesn’t know about the Collector’s “wipe out all life” plans, and her talking to him is an extra few seconds for people to escape in the worst case scenario
I don’t even think Kendal would blame him.
Are you kidding? Kendal would never let a single person die for him, forget a whole city! Of course Kendal wouldn’t blame him. Falst on the other hand…
Now i’m imagining an end of series Falst coming back to Zuurith’s city just to beat him up and that image is beaUtiful
Zurith is actually trying a new leaf and trying to protect his people. It is clear that he cannot hope to fight the Collector and win at this point. So the only thing he can do to protect his people is to rat out Kendall, who he has no obligation to protect anyway. Zurith has no reason to believe that the Collector will hesitate even for a moment to kill the hundreds or thousands of people in the city. Kendall’s life is not worth thousands of others and he would rather fight the Collector to death than allow that to happen.
The only thing he can do that doesn’t have the Collector kill people is to cooperate. The only option he has is to lie and even that is not a good option: the Collector would figure it out soon enough and she’ll just come back, with a lot more killing. Zurith could hope to set a trap for her but the other gods won’t help him and hate him.
So yeah, he is doing what is the wisest, most moral choice he has available to him that he can actually do.
The real test of his new moral character is whether he will send a heads-up to Kendal. And the rest of the gods out there.
So… The Collector is going to be anti-Light Dragon? Oh, okay. Yeah.
I don’t think she’ll be “anti” life dragon, she’ll maybe just use this new knowledge to do some experiments and to catch or destroy Kendal. She’d probably be very interested in LD and VD from now on, so the Paladins and Erin are kinda in trouble 😅
Gonna be honest, can’t blame the guy
“Clean them out” I feel so sickened now.
I mean, amazing character and all! She really makes one feel things! But oughhhh just stop doing horrible things already, lady TnT
on one hand… zuurith. my dude. this is like the one thing we didn’t want her to know about
on the other… yeah the collector’s scary i get it
Don’t forget that he is responsible for the people of his city. Protecting them is job 1. And the collector killed the people of Vash’s city in order to weaken Vash.
I can already just see the chapter 13 or whatever when the collector finally gets her hands on Kendal and figures out where his soul came from. I’m exited to see her conclusion! Even if that will probably take over a year…
Someone’s giving off Collector vibes 🤣
A year is optimistic, given that Kendal and the rest are leaving the continent in the morning. I doubt she can catch them in time.
Granted, that’s not much of an issue. She uses the Singing Caves for travel and they spread across the entire planet. She can easily get to them in Helm. But first she has to work out that they’re going to Helm, and then it’s a bit of a hike under the ocean to get there. It’s going to be some time before the Collector even has a chance to fight the group, let alone capture Kendal and start the dissection.
I give it three years. One year of ocean travel, another year at the Helm Monastery, and then an extra year for ‘hijinks’, because these people can’t even get a full night’s sleep without getting into trouble. Probably more, I can see a bunch of stuff happening between now and the collector’s eventual intersection with the main plot.
Sorry mate, but the answers you seek are still in the distant future :/
I found something! In 1.18.2, VD says Kendal has, and I quote, “something I haven’t tasted in a very long time”. What could this mean?? Maybe it’s some other primordial force that he ate before the primordials we know of? Because if the only thing he’s ever eaten are primordials, then it’d imply some weird stuff about Kendal. I’d like to point out how Erin’s eyes reflect blue when VD says this, so maybe it has something to do with LD? Maybe she personally gave Kendal a soul? Kind of how she gave free will to the elder races? But then how would she even know about Kendal in that moment? None of her vessels or even just a random paladin were anywhere near that area when vash was destroyed. Then maybe it was a stray soul from Vash that made its way into Kendal? But that would be anticlimactic, and invalidate VD’s remark. Maybe it’s thanks to the unique nature of the souls of Vash’s people? So, as long as their connection to Vash hasn’t been broken, Kendal’s soul will be allowed to exist? That’d explain how he was able to talk to the people of Vash in his dreams, and it’d be narratively interesting since freeing the people of Vash would come at the cost of his own life, which directly crashes with a bunch of his recent character development in an interesting way. However, I doubt VD could possibly have tasted something like that before, so that rules it out. It’s frustratingly interesting how many good possibilities Red’s unique worldbuilding gives to this question. I’m exited to see how she will answer it!
First?
Closer to seventh, actually.
I counted, I believe it’s ninth. Unfortunately for you.
Are we counting replies as well? Because that bumps JamToast up to Tenth.
“Vash’s vessels bears a new soul,”
Reveals Zuurith Lawbringer.
“That vessel’s soul must have come from somewhere,”
Excitedly insists the Collector.
Your post tickles my brain with a phrase. Ah yes…
“A New Hand Touched the Beacon!”
I apologize to everyone else who is now hearing that. Share my pain.
I hope those words come back to bite the Collector later.
She still doesn’t get that she can be wrong.
I think it’s less that she doesn’t get that she can be wrong, more that she’s actually AFRAID to be wrong in this instance. Since souls are what basically hold living things together, and she’s trying to destroy all current life to free Life. Because if ‘amalgams’ can just grow new souls, even after she’s ‘cleaned them out’… then that means her task of freeing Life might be impossible. And she seems absolutely set on the idea that she’s doing the Right Thing, undoing an abomination, so yeah. Makes sense that she’d react poorly to this news and try to rationalize it away.
(I hope she’s wrong, get wrecked, Collector.)
This. Also “I figured this out”? Really? Speaking of hubris. She didn’t figure out nothin’: Zuurith told her.
I predict a very very very bad hubristic comeuppance kind of end.
I mean, it IS an interesting question to pose. It seems that the Collector’s interests might align with the Void Dragon’s, to an extent. I wonder if she was aware of his presence while in the Caves. They’re basically heart neighbors.
She’s probably aware of a massive Adamant core in the heart next door, but I doubt they chat much.
It is interesting, they’re both trying to free a primordial in they’re own way, the Collector Life and the void dragon himself but the Collector is trying to save Life and the VD trying to kill Life is what started everything, so I couldn’t say what she thinks about him. Also though I know their connected I don’t how far apart Stone’s hearts are or if the Collector cared enough to explore them.
call that women in STEM
You might say the collector is a biology major
In the early days of the comic, someone in the section referred to her as “evil genetics major”, if I remember correctly
hey wait isn’t that just moira from overwatch….
In begging reveals great Zuurith the new soul
Which of the Collectors balance takes a toll
Damn, I’m genuinley impressed with how often Red get’s pages out, +she’s illustrating and researching OSP vids on top of it. Most other comics usually only update 3-5 times a month, which is fair, because this shit’s TIME CONSUMING.
I wonder how big her buffer is
And She’s been doing this for years
So… What are the odds she captures/kills Zuurith here anyway? I’d say pretty dang high.
I’m afraid she might like to make him a test subject. Though, Zuurith’s incarnation wasn’t made to last the same way as Vash’s vessel so the test subject might be extremely short lived.
1) She’s already got a god’s soul in her lab. She doesn’t need another.
2) She did make a deal with him that she’d spare him and his people if he spilled the beans on Kendal.
3) She doesn’t really have any reason to kill him besides secrecy, and word about her is already getting around. It’s why Zuzu killed her pretty much immediately, which means he already knew about her, which means others already do, as well.
4) She’s already said that killing him will take a long time. Every second she spends toying with him is another second Kendal could be getting away.
But do we know that she‘ll honor her deals if they become inconvenient? I mean she has a chance to threaten Zuurith into making a more sturdy body here. So she could theoretically watch a new soul form/arrive firsthand and have a brand new vessel on her hands if she plays this right (ie not telling him she’ll murder his people anyways) , without having to chase Kendal over half the Continent.
Ah, but she doesn’t know that it’ll work. In the time it’d take to get him to make a more sturdy body, his people will have scattered to the four winds. Besides, he might not make a body sturdy enough to withstand his soul leaving it. Also, she doesn’t know that Vash can’t actually escape her lab for more than a couple minutes.
No, better to catch the bird just out of reach rather than try to coax the bird in the bush, which is an entirely different species and might not have functional wings, to fly up into your hand so you can dissect it.
LOVE how in two frames the Collector immediately calms herself. Iconic villain behaviour
Guys. GUYS.
I had a realisation.
All this time we’ve been wondering how the floof squad will defeat the Collector- what we should be wondering is how the Collector will defeat herself.
“You see, evil always contains the seeds of its own destruction.” -Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet
To be fair, she does know and accept that her mission will require her own death as well as everyone else’s.
You kinda ate that up ngl.
I kinda thought that she’d have a face off with either LD or VD (maybe Falst or Erin) or that Tahraim would pop up and “deposit” some soul sealing instruments. But it’s perfectly plausible that she thinks she’s won and destroys herself then everyone comes out from behind a giant rock 😀
I think it’s either going to be her destructive approach towards Life and an utter disbelief when told Life wishes otherwise which dooms her fate. That, or this new issue of souls just popping up in bodies leads her to some dark places. Like a dark dragon.
Well consider the very entity she is trying to “free” is the one that produced Kendal’s new soul…..
She hasn’t stopped using her powers yet. I have an awful feeling her first test on were the new soul comes from might be Zuurith
I noticed that too… But it’s only been like a minute tho…
Alright everybody, what’s the chance of the collector fulfilling her promise? But your bets in now
Now that she has a new research project and the materials at hand to i.mediatly begin the experiment? Zip.
It would be mean of Red to have Zuurith be god-napped right after Tynan and his redemption arc… but it could really go either way. I’m betting that Collector leaves. I just think it would be too much work for her right now, given that it would take longer and she probably doesn’t want to leave Vash alone for too long right now.
I’ve never given this any thought before it got brought up just now, but the origin of Kendal’s soul is an interesting topic. Obviously he was awake for a little while between Vash being yeeted and Alinua healing him, so it’s unlikely that his soul is made up of Life or part of Alinua’s soul… though that could, of course, still be partly the case. Hmm…
One of the current theories floating around is that a little bit of Vash’s soul got incorporated into his sword by accident, and has been slowly developing into it’s own soul ever since. And when Vash got pulled out of his incarnation, that soul got pulled in…
It could be that the light dragon is the origin of souls. Like where do children get their souls? Kendal could have his from the same place.
An alternate theory is that the sword Kendal had a bit of Vash in it or a sort of “soul” of it’s own and that Kendal the dude is actually a new body for the soul that inhabited the sword.
Damn it, I just posted that theory -_-
In the extra lore tab, it says this about Gods and Sentinels:
“Some gods describe older sentinels are having an “echo” – a fragmentary, rudimentary mind. As soul energy has a tendency to collect in old structures over time, it is hypothesized that, as sentinels age and slowly accumulate unformed soul energy, the control of the god leaves a ghostly impression in this unformed soul, an echo of the god’s will to protect their people.”
It would be reasonable to assume that, between the sword and Vash’s sturdy body, this “echo” accumulated enough soul energy to become a full person. Whether that’s correct or not, remains to be seen.
Although it will mean the end of the series, I am SO looking forward to the Collector not just being able to do whatever she wants to everyone, and be actually threatened. I hope that Alinua will be key to it, being a rival Life Mage.
Oh I think she is a lot more than just a rival life mage.
Welp. RIP the secret of Kendal’s existence. In fairness to Zuurith, it’s understandable. He tried, but he was backed into a corner. His entire city was dying. It was either cave and confess or lose his entire people.
I still don’t know if she’s going to spare Zuurith now. On the one hand, yes, she has one god and doesn’t need another, and demolishing the city means expending effort. On the other hand, letting the city survive means that Zuurith could potentially share intel on the Collector with the other gods: what kinds of powers she exhibited, what she knows about Kendal now, etc. (If he can admit to being trounced and get word out to them, anyway.) She might not want that. Their interference could prove a nuisance. Of course, they’ll still know something’s wrong if Zuurith vanishes off the face of the earth, but they’ll know less.
She cares for Life in her own twisted and warped way, but she cares nothing for life. It’s difficult to say what she will do.
The expressions in this page are killer.
I love how Red has consistently made the Collector one of the most unsettling characters of all time. Kudos, Red!
She finally stopped smiling for a moment, and now we’re all S H O O K
TL;DR: Wait! I have intel for you!
It’s interesting to see the Collector brief bit of panic at the idea of Kendal’s existence before regaining her cool. The seeds of a Third-Act Breakdown, perhaps?
She doesn’t seem willing to even consider the possibility that her mission is impossible. It’s a very human reaction and that’s not normal for her.
I’d love to see that. She’s been so utterly convinced she’s the one who knows what’s best, doing the right thing to save Life. Getting rejected by Life and realise she’s wrong would be so cathartic to see after she killed everyone in Vash.
*The Collector has a new hyperfixation, yay*
damn she is GRIPPING his face
this might be a new crack ship for me
The lure of scientific discovery is what pacified her, of course-
Collector: I feel like the maid; I just cleaned up this amalgam! Can we keep it clean for … for ten minutes!
Welp, as I thought Zuurith caved in, but also as I hoped, he’s only revealing the bare minimum. All the Collector knows is that Vash’s former vessel has a new soul, is walking on it’s own, and gives Vash a backdoor; she doesn’t know the vessel’s name, where it’s intended destination is, or if it’s traveling alone or in a group. Just as well, the gang needs every advantage it can get.
Ooh, just got a brief glint of the Collector loosing her cool. Throughout this whole comic we’ve mostly seen either smiling or with a neutral expression; centuries of research and commitment to her goal has meant she’s not once been surprised … until now. I’m actually really scared of what may happen if the Collector were to fully loose her cool.
Yep, that’s quite a snag in her grand “remove souls and extract Life” plan if the bodies of what houses the souls can get new ones. Though from what she’s saying this sounds very unexpected and she seems sure that soul didn’t just appear out of nowhere. More fuel for the Kendal is the sword’s soul theory? A strange property of starmetal unknown until now? In any case her interest is piqued so we should be worried.
Collector: Explain how.
Zuurith: Money can be exchanged for goods and services.
Collector: Woohoo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A81DYZh6KaQ
idk if I were the collector I would probably be excited too, for the science.
There once was a giver of law
Who the death of his people saw.
So he gave information
To safeguard his nation
As the Collector grabbed hold of his jaw.
On one hand, that’s what I was hoping against, on the other, I have absolutely nothing against him. Arguably the right choice, actually, and I don’t think anyone can really blame him. He just got his semi-redemtion! His morals are very simple right now, and the Floof Squad holds no place in his newly-discovered heart. Plus, from everything that happened, he probably expects that the Floof Squad can at least hold their own a little. Still, it does give a little, “Wait! Uhm… someone else is a better target! Go be their problem!” vibes, which isn’t all that nice.
What would that mean?
What would that mean, Collector??
ohhhh she’s going to try to recreate it with Zuurith isn’t she
well this brings up a rather interesting possibility. the collector and Alinua are already foils. both of them are the most powerful ultimate life mages. the collector now knows that kendal exists and that he has his own soul. this at least gives us a temporary repreve for Vash since she now has a new very interesting project to look into. unfortunately its hunting the protagonists to figure out just how kendal works. once she figures out that Life has picked a champion and it isn’t her she will probably be hurt. that will probably cause her villainous breakdown.
Small round of applause for Zuurith’s character development, because a few chapters ago he wouldn’t have lowered himself to say ‘please’ to anyone even if doing so had meant Tynan was immediately fired out of a cannon back into the sea.
Her dialogue is amusing in GLaDOS’s voice
Reposting because I’m not sure anybody saw it: Honestly, I think they’ll be safe because it would be a real dick move writing wise to spend multiple chapters trying to save the city Zuurith from Tynan only for it to be destroyed later in one scene.
I’ve got a theory about this and the repercussions in-universe. Thanks, Miss Evil Genetics Major, for reminding me about Kendal!
In the first few pages of the comic, when the Twins are creating the Elder Races, we see a white flash in their eyes, similar in color to the Paladins’ magic, before they gain sentience and start panicking. This foils the Void Dragon’s plan to escape. What force could have given them sentience? I’d bet someone’s already said this, but my money’s on the Light Dragon. She’s an opposing force to VD, and the magic looks similar.
Most of this is not hard to infer, but from here on it gets a bit funky, and is mostly just speculation.
We also know Kendal to have formed a new soul from… somewhere. My guess is that LD’s element is soul magic. That would explain the plasma-like magic wielded by her “Champion,” as she calls them. LD didn’t just give the first beings created by the Twins sentience; she gave them their souls. I’d guess that she knew Kendal would be important, and created his soul as well. What does this mean in-universe? Well, if Miss Evil Genetics Major (I love this nickname and refuse to call her “The Collector” like the kid from The Owl House even though this came first) finds out about LD, then it’s a three-way conflict between her, LD, and VD. LD and VD are obviously OpFor for each other. Evil Genetics Major Lady would have to defeat or kill LD to free Life, and VD obviously doesn’t want Life to come back. So it’s a three-way conflict that the main cast has to navigate through. I’d guess they’d probably end up siding with LD, but that’s generally just speculation due to how late she was introduced. She still has time to turn on them.
Yeah, I’m gonna have to pop that bubble real quick (again).
First off, soul energy was already omnipresent on Aurora. Mortals already had souls back in the Prologue, what they lacked was a MIND to run the body. Moreover, whereas LD’s powers (be it via the Paladins or her own agency) has very consistently been light blue-white in color. Soul energy, which all the gods are made of and which seeps through from their incarnations, appears in a variety of colors. Blue (Vash, Ilia, Argist), purple (Zuurith), green (Gleicann), yellow (Tynan), orange (Caliban and Tahraim), etc.
Also consider what Light magic is capable of. Namely, telepathy. Linking minds. I am therefore far more confident that Light magic manipulates minds and willpower than the soul.
Together, though, you two have something really, fascinatingly plausible! I love the idea of a three-way, deity-level conflict that’s terrifyingly unpredictable… the Floof Squad would probably argue so much about whose side they were on that the majority of the argument would have to be a noodle incident! Although probably either Kendal or Alinua or both of them would eventually just up and DO something, and the rest would end up reacting/supporting.
Also, while it takes longer to type, I am just loving “Miss Evil Genetics Major.” Maybe “Miss EGM”?
Really hoping she’s not going to just pull a villain credentials move and kill the city outright here. I don’t feel like she’s in it for the unnecessary evil, but can never be certain with villains when they have the upper hand like this.
Nah, she doesn’t care about anyone’s life good or bad. So she will leave Zurrith alone. Plus for her it isn’t sparing Zurrith or his people, they are all going to get reabsorbed back into life when she manages to reconstitute her.
Okay, wow, I’ve been loving the art so far, but…whoa, the expressions on the Collector in this page are crazy good. So simple yet there’s so much expression and subtlety, very well done!
Yeah, Red has really confirmed the “cheerfully inquisitive and utterly devoid of empathy” headcanon I vibed out of the first chapters
love this because I can’t help but feel they’re gonna end up arguing saying “who are you!?” “figuring that out myself actually”
Well this is exciting
“Naur. Naur, naur, naur…. Naur, NO’ a neur soul.”
(In my head, the Collector, that creepy mad scientist, sounds like Icklenellie, a.k.a Ellen Rose from Outside Xtra. It’s extra creepy if she’s cheerful!)
I love how Red has limited technological advancement in the Auroraverse by making every single scientist a MAD scientist. In my own fantasy ‘verse, every scientist is simply a BAD scientist, usually in some disturbingly familiar way.
And here I suspect we have the beginning of seeing the “Lie” the collector believes, or the makings of the third act breakdown (thanks red, for teaching me that term!). She believes something about Kendal that is wrong, something about souls not being able to be created, so that if she kills everyone Life reforms as normal and nothing is lost, if new souls can be created then….something about her plan doesn’t work.
Love the little hints, and her not finishing her thought.
So, the main speculation I’m seeing is, the Collector is afraid of naturally manifesting souls because it would prevent her from destroying all souls at once. But, I have to admit, my first reaction after rereading 1.11.11 is a bit scarier – what if the Collector didn’t reawaken Life, but instead created a new consciousness within Life’s body? The Collector’s goal is to free the original primordial Life and let it retake its body, but if Life actually died and never returned, it’d kind of rain on that parade.
I might be mixing up the meaning of ‘soul’ in this universe, though.
“I am so excited to figure that out”
Me too man.