Second problem? Gosh almighty, I counted three problems on the boat prior to this page: Voidy, Paladin, and Dainix’s hulk-out. And I’m probably forgetting a couple! 🤣
We’ve also got some kind of lava monster bucking burning rocks at the ship, a really bad storm, and Erin’s unconscious and can’t stop either of those things from endangering the ship.
altering the sea life with life magic would fall directly and creating chimeras something that both life and alinua are very against, she is probably just sensing it
I believe the proper term for this situation is “cooked”.
Do you think this underwater titan is Life-affiliated? That would be very interesting to see, given how any other monsters the gang have encountered have been twisted by Life – they never naturally used the element.
For the Floof Squad:
– “She’s coming”
– Storm
– Fire rocks (Rakhn)
– Crucible Dainix
– Sail on fire
– Erin potential overchannel
– They’re potentially lost
– Erin’s emotional breakdown
– Michael
– The ship potentially sinking
– The Diadem
– Crucible Dainix, for real this time
– Sail cracking and the ship melting
For Michael:
– The Floof Squad refusing to listen to him
– Everybody attacking him, including getting punched by lightning so hard it dented the boat
– Whatever Kendal is
– Crucible Dainix
– Soulfire light->void
– VD
– Broken diadems
So the problems for the flood squad can be summarised as: The storm, the broken ship, Michael, and Dainix.
The problems for Michael can be summarised as: everyone refusing to listen to him and actively attacking him, the group of Exceptions that is the protagonists, and the void.
So it’s not even second problem. We’re waaaaay past second problem. This is more like fourth or fifth problem. (I hope this wasn’t an annoyingly long comment)
I have to diagree with you on one count. The Floof Squad WERE listening to Michael, he just wasn’t listening to them. Kendal’s first instinct was to talk things out, and Michael was the one who struck first, not Tess.
You’re right.
I was counting problems from Michael’s perspective, who made a very large amount of assumptions and while they did listen to him, refused to heed his warnings (“your friend is possessed by the void dragon, there is no hope for him, better kill him”) which… makes sense, it’s just inconvenient for Michael. (Especially since the diadem didn’t work)
Michael’s goals and the Floof Squad’s goals may be somewhat aligned (get rid of VD) but their methods are so different they’re just causing continuous problems for each other
I completely forgot he attacked first. I reread twice and noted things that went inconveniently for each party separately. Since they both attacked each other, they each go in the other’s list of “problems”
Oh, that underwater view is exquisite. I feel like I could hear it…the muffled underwater movements of something huge, cutting through the water.
Damn, Red wasn’t kidding when she said she drew the boat from EVERY angle, huh. Also, it dawns on me that Blue is going to HATE this chapter, when he gets around to Arc 2 eventually.
…And at this point, so many things have hit the fan, gone sideways and straight to hell, I’m just like, “…Welp.” Ah well, maybe their luck will turn and the leviathan will eat Michael.
I’m in pretty much the same spot, hah. So much has gone wrong and it just keeps coming. Now I’m just wondering if that leviathan is on its own, or if, perhaps, the Collector is driving it. The ghosts did say “she’s coming”…
Admit it, this is all to freak out Blue, isn’t it? 😀
Also, either that’s life, or we are about to have a hard time, ahem, collecting ourselves after that boat gets… chimeraed?
They weren’t going to make this trip without filling their thalassophobia quota, were they?
After gushing about the water effects on the surface, it’s time to gush about the water effects under it. The patterns give me a soothing Wind Waker feel to them, but being underwater and grey makes them cold; the whole scene feels eerily calm despite the storm and fighting raging above. The air bubbles flowing from beneath in panel 1 and in Alinua’s face in panel 2 are a nice touch; she isn’t underwater, but you know from those bubbles she’s made a link with what’s down there.
Speaking of, oh boy what is that? From the scales and the way the spines are pointing, I’m thinking that’s a tail rather than a tentacle. A sea-serpent/lindworm type monster rather than a squid-like kraken I bet; hopefully not too dragon-like or else V.D. might get ideas. However, those lighting-like life magic swirls concern me.
Maybe it’s a life influenced dragon-like creature; I see no reason why a life elemental zone can’t exist in the ocean. Or, more concerning, it’s not a natural life-zone mutation but an artificial chimera; has the Collector caught up to them?!
I can’t help but notice on the last page, all those under the diadem’s effect had some kind of reaction to it breaking, except Alinua; she was still holding her head in pain despite the spell ending. Was she making contact with this creature like she did the chimeras in Hilltop? Are those life effects on the creature being caused by it or by her?
Predication for next week: Alinua will try and warn them about what she saw, but with the Champion not listening and most of the gang occupied or incapacitated, she won’t get out much of a warning before that … thing attacks.
Whether that creature is natural or a Collector chimera, any advantage the gang had from the diadem breaking will quickly be used up fighting that thing or trying to get the ship to safety. Maybe Kendal will yeet the Champion soon, simply to get him out of the way because they have bigger things to worry about.
i’m betting on collector chimera but i don’t think she is going to appear personally in this chapter, as far as we know the collector doesn’t know about kendal’s group and she certainly can’t imagine the idea of life’s avatar(and arguably life itself) backing him up so she might be underestimating him and the party, my guess is that she will appear personally in the soulshaper monastery, it feels too fitting for her to show up in a monastery of monks who can manipulate soul energy with what she is trying to do and one of red’s favorite pieces of media is ATLA and we both know how well it goes for the monks in that series
Yeah, this could just be a chimera she sent to sink the ship or capture Kendal to bring him to shore so she can surround him with her army. I also think it’s in the gang’s best interest to keep Alinua’s existence a secret from her for at long as possible; I’m not sure how she’d take the revelation that Life doesn’t want what she thinks she wants.
But your idea of the Collector waiting for them in the monastery conjures this image in my head of her re-creating the Darth Vader at Cloud City reveal. The gang enter the monastery, noting the very nervous monks, and find her at the dinner table.
god there is so much possibilities for the collector in the monastery, depending on where the monastery is located and who reaches it first we might even see the collector not being able to use her ability to heal stone’s body and be forced to make an actual siege against it.
Also i can’t describe how much i’m looking forward to alinua vs collector confrontation they are near perfect foils of each other
wait a second:big aquatic lizard that is mutated by radiation(life magic) to be gigantic and is about to attack the main characters?
oh sh*t alinua just detected godzilla
Oh neat. Gigantic sea monster that could swallow the gang whole in an instant. Now we just have to hope it isn’t the mode of transportation for a certain OP life mage that was last seen heading this direction. This feels like a reverse deus ex machina. A Monster Ex Deep Sea to Fuck you up.
Ohhhhhhh my god what is THAT
That’s TERRIFYING
The muted dark colours compared to earlier? The fact that the bubbles around Alinua makes it feel like she’s drowning? The sheer sense of scale of whatever this THING is?
I understand thalassophobia now I think
Few Things:
1 – How had I not even considered that the Collector can just make beefed-up versions of monsters and send them across the world to hunt Kendal? I wonder what its face looks like…
2 – I had believed that the chapter cover showing Erin falling towards a dark draconic shape was a reference to VD’s line about catching Erin when he fell. I still think it works.
3 – Michael: “Oh good, something else can take over being these guys’s mini-boss fight. Nothing has gone according to plan today.”
I low key want the Collector to ram herself into the ship on water skis pulled by chimera sharks which are going Too Fast and just kind of be too exhausted to get up, despite being completely unharmed by the spike of broken ship digging into her gut, but somehow I doubt that’s going to happen, particularly the “too exhausted to get up” bit.
Oh my god is it “SHE”? The Collector could’ve totally put together a leviathan-chimera for some swift submarine travel. Like the thing pulls up, wrecks the ship, opens its mouth and the collector steps out.
We don’t have any clue who this person is, right? They’re underwater, so not Alinua, but the wide eyes and hair make them look like not the Collector, either.
I don’t know what’s about to happen. As far as I can tell this is one of five things that might happen. this is either a kraken, a mermaid using life magic, Alinua summoning a giant plant tentacle using life magic, the Collector, or some other thing that I haven’t thought of.
Either way I’m exited for what’s to come.
I have also been wondering about his whereabouts. We haven’t seen him since Dain’s transformation, where he was seemingly either thrown backwards or generally shielding his face from the blast. I’m guessing at a panel sometime soon, though, as he’s probably up to something or other
Who the fuck are you? A life-related creature who appears out of nowhere during bad situations and makes them worse, and has a vested interest in our main cast and all their bizarre afflictions? Who could that be?
How could this situation possibly get any worse?
“Good thing we won’t be going down there”
Dainix, in 2.2.10: “Wow, that’s a nice gun hanging on the wall! Oh, looks like an inscription. ‘Chekov’? What’s that?”
For mobile readers.
Alt- text: we’ve had one, yes. what about SECOND problem?
Image source: oh hello
Red really is the master of making a veritable Russian nesting doll of problems for her characters to have to deal with.
Second problem? Gosh almighty, I counted three problems on the boat prior to this page: Voidy, Paladin, and Dainix’s hulk-out. And I’m probably forgetting a couple! 🤣
We’ve also got some kind of lava monster bucking burning rocks at the ship, a really bad storm, and Erin’s unconscious and can’t stop either of those things from endangering the ship.
*Hucking burning rocks
Trouble always comes in threes. It’s probably a literary rule.
tumblr text: danger noodle?
Twitter/Bluesky text: no ocean voyage is complete without one!
Ooh Falst get that air bubble ready
uh oh Life’s doing. something?
Oh, there actually is a sea monster in this chapter.
Anyone else think its eyes look oddly life-magicy?
I think that’s Alinua’s eyes, but also yes I think she’s channeling Life and that’s doing something to the sea life
altering the sea life with life magic would fall directly and creating chimeras something that both life and alinua are very against, she is probably just sensing it
I think that’s Alinua’s eyes in the last panel, bc she sensed the creature.
but there are bubbles in the last panel, and Alinua is on the boat
I think thats rain in stasis from Erin’s spell
Im betting it’s a water chimera from the Collector
My money’s on mer-people, because of Chekhov’s gun. (And the eyes don’t look unfriendly… so if not friend, why friend-shaped?)
Place your bets, folks, and see you Monday!
Those are Alinua’s eyes, she is sensing the thing’s presence
That’s what I think too, the Collector has done something to some sea creature and Alinua is sensing its presence.
Am I silly for thinking that was an undersea vine??
Damn this group is nothing but ticking time bombs and Mikey’s over here triggering ALL of them…
I believe the proper term for this situation is “cooked”.
Do you think this underwater titan is Life-affiliated? That would be very interesting to see, given how any other monsters the gang have encountered have been twisted by Life – they never naturally used the element.
Oooh boy, this is gonna be good
Oh no. Leviathan incoming! The question now is whether it’s some chimera, Michael’s backup, or just a hongry sea serpent.
Let no joyful voice be heard! Let no man look up at the sky with hope! And let this day be cursed by we who ready to wake… the Leviathan!
Serpent swims below
The depths concealing it from
All except for one
Oh! I didn’t realize those might be Alinua’s eyes, but now that you say it…! I thought it was a giant merperson lifemage or something.
There are air bubbles in the last panel, so i think it is not Alinua
I think it’s just drops of water from the storm/waves. Like a super-slo-mo shot.
Oh shit
That ain’t good
Things that have gone wrong on this boat:
For the Floof Squad:
– “She’s coming”
– Storm
– Fire rocks (Rakhn)
– Crucible Dainix
– Sail on fire
– Erin potential overchannel
– They’re potentially lost
– Erin’s emotional breakdown
– Michael
– The ship potentially sinking
– The Diadem
– Crucible Dainix, for real this time
– Sail cracking and the ship melting
For Michael:
– The Floof Squad refusing to listen to him
– Everybody attacking him, including getting punched by lightning so hard it dented the boat
– Whatever Kendal is
– Crucible Dainix
– Soulfire light->void
– VD
– Broken diadems
So the problems for the flood squad can be summarised as: The storm, the broken ship, Michael, and Dainix.
The problems for Michael can be summarised as: everyone refusing to listen to him and actively attacking him, the group of Exceptions that is the protagonists, and the void.
So it’s not even second problem. We’re waaaaay past second problem. This is more like fourth or fifth problem. (I hope this wasn’t an annoyingly long comment)
I have to diagree with you on one count. The Floof Squad WERE listening to Michael, he just wasn’t listening to them. Kendal’s first instinct was to talk things out, and Michael was the one who struck first, not Tess.
You’re right.
I was counting problems from Michael’s perspective, who made a very large amount of assumptions and while they did listen to him, refused to heed his warnings (“your friend is possessed by the void dragon, there is no hope for him, better kill him”) which… makes sense, it’s just inconvenient for Michael. (Especially since the diadem didn’t work)
Michael’s goals and the Floof Squad’s goals may be somewhat aligned (get rid of VD) but their methods are so different they’re just causing continuous problems for each other
I completely forgot he attacked first. I reread twice and noted things that went inconveniently for each party separately. Since they both attacked each other, they each go in the other’s list of “problems”
There’s also a potential Void problem for the protagonists.
Thus, this part is the official biggest kaiju fight yet
👀
What would happen if the Collector got her hands on the Void Dragon?
she would probably die
took her long enough! (if that who I think it is)
In the dark below the storm-tossed waves
There could a tail that glimmers,
And green eyes see the teardrop hull,
Above the shadowy swimmers.
Oh, that underwater view is exquisite. I feel like I could hear it…the muffled underwater movements of something huge, cutting through the water.
Damn, Red wasn’t kidding when she said she drew the boat from EVERY angle, huh. Also, it dawns on me that Blue is going to HATE this chapter, when he gets around to Arc 2 eventually.
…And at this point, so many things have hit the fan, gone sideways and straight to hell, I’m just like, “…Welp.” Ah well, maybe their luck will turn and the leviathan will eat Michael.
Red’s no more a fan of the depths than he is.
And she’s having to draw it. I think I feel worse for her. XD
I’m in pretty much the same spot, hah. So much has gone wrong and it just keeps coming. Now I’m just wondering if that leviathan is on its own, or if, perhaps, the Collector is driving it. The ghosts did say “she’s coming”…
Well, a levia-chimera would absolutely be worse, so that would line up with how everything else has worked out so far XD
that doesn’t look good
alt text we’ve one, yes. what about a SECOND problem?
image source: oh_hello_
oh Life is gonna be MAAAD
WATER CHIMERA??? WHAT THE
Soooo. I am guessing the glowing eyes mean Alinua is *feeling* instead of intentionally summoning that tentacle monster?
In any case:
LET NO JOYFUL VOICE BE HEARD!
Admit it, this is all to freak out Blue, isn’t it? 😀
Also, either that’s life, or we are about to have a hard time, ahem, collecting ourselves after that boat gets… chimeraed?
They weren’t going to make this trip without filling their thalassophobia quota, were they?
After gushing about the water effects on the surface, it’s time to gush about the water effects under it. The patterns give me a soothing Wind Waker feel to them, but being underwater and grey makes them cold; the whole scene feels eerily calm despite the storm and fighting raging above. The air bubbles flowing from beneath in panel 1 and in Alinua’s face in panel 2 are a nice touch; she isn’t underwater, but you know from those bubbles she’s made a link with what’s down there.
Speaking of, oh boy what is that? From the scales and the way the spines are pointing, I’m thinking that’s a tail rather than a tentacle. A sea-serpent/lindworm type monster rather than a squid-like kraken I bet; hopefully not too dragon-like or else V.D. might get ideas. However, those lighting-like life magic swirls concern me.
Maybe it’s a life influenced dragon-like creature; I see no reason why a life elemental zone can’t exist in the ocean. Or, more concerning, it’s not a natural life-zone mutation but an artificial chimera; has the Collector caught up to them?!
I can’t help but notice on the last page, all those under the diadem’s effect had some kind of reaction to it breaking, except Alinua; she was still holding her head in pain despite the spell ending. Was she making contact with this creature like she did the chimeras in Hilltop? Are those life effects on the creature being caused by it or by her?
Predication for next week: Alinua will try and warn them about what she saw, but with the Champion not listening and most of the gang occupied or incapacitated, she won’t get out much of a warning before that … thing attacks.
Whether that creature is natural or a Collector chimera, any advantage the gang had from the diadem breaking will quickly be used up fighting that thing or trying to get the ship to safety. Maybe Kendal will yeet the Champion soon, simply to get him out of the way because they have bigger things to worry about.
i’m betting on collector chimera but i don’t think she is going to appear personally in this chapter, as far as we know the collector doesn’t know about kendal’s group and she certainly can’t imagine the idea of life’s avatar(and arguably life itself) backing him up so she might be underestimating him and the party, my guess is that she will appear personally in the soulshaper monastery, it feels too fitting for her to show up in a monastery of monks who can manipulate soul energy with what she is trying to do and one of red’s favorite pieces of media is ATLA and we both know how well it goes for the monks in that series
Yeah, this could just be a chimera she sent to sink the ship or capture Kendal to bring him to shore so she can surround him with her army. I also think it’s in the gang’s best interest to keep Alinua’s existence a secret from her for at long as possible; I’m not sure how she’d take the revelation that Life doesn’t want what she thinks she wants.
But your idea of the Collector waiting for them in the monastery conjures this image in my head of her re-creating the Darth Vader at Cloud City reveal. The gang enter the monastery, noting the very nervous monks, and find her at the dinner table.
god there is so much possibilities for the collector in the monastery, depending on where the monastery is located and who reaches it first we might even see the collector not being able to use her ability to heal stone’s body and be forced to make an actual siege against it.
Also i can’t describe how much i’m looking forward to alinua vs collector confrontation they are near perfect foils of each other
I don’t think she any reason to go to the monastary.
Yay new problem XD
Release… [i]The Kraken.[/i]
👍
Time to get Kraken!
wait a second:big aquatic lizard that is mutated by radiation(life magic) to be gigantic and is about to attack the main characters?
oh sh*t alinua just detected godzilla
Oh neat. Gigantic sea monster that could swallow the gang whole in an instant. Now we just have to hope it isn’t the mode of transportation for a certain OP life mage that was last seen heading this direction. This feels like a reverse deus ex machina. A Monster Ex Deep Sea to Fuck you up.
I believe the trope you’re thinking of is “Diabolus ex Machina”
We love a good diabolus ex machina
Aurora Question #21: What avenues of magic do you think are yet to be exploited to their full potential?
I guess whatever the collector is doing would be a new application of magic when complete.
Ohhhhhhh my god what is THAT
That’s TERRIFYING
The muted dark colours compared to earlier? The fact that the bubbles around Alinua makes it feel like she’s drowning? The sheer sense of scale of whatever this THING is?
I understand thalassophobia now I think
You say new problem, but all I see is a potential new friend
Few Things:
1 – How had I not even considered that the Collector can just make beefed-up versions of monsters and send them across the world to hunt Kendal? I wonder what its face looks like…
2 – I had believed that the chapter cover showing Erin falling towards a dark draconic shape was a reference to VD’s line about catching Erin when he fell. I still think it works.
3 – Michael: “Oh good, something else can take over being these guys’s mini-boss fight. Nothing has gone according to plan today.”
collector DONT
I low key want the Collector to ram herself into the ship on water skis pulled by chimera sharks which are going Too Fast and just kind of be too exhausted to get up, despite being completely unharmed by the spike of broken ship digging into her gut, but somehow I doubt that’s going to happen, particularly the “too exhausted to get up” bit.
Oh my god is it “SHE”? The Collector could’ve totally put together a leviathan-chimera for some swift submarine travel. Like the thing pulls up, wrecks the ship, opens its mouth and the collector steps out.
That underwater panel is beautiful but also HEY RED WHAT THE FUCK
We don’t have any clue who this person is, right? They’re underwater, so not Alinua, but the wide eyes and hair make them look like not the Collector, either.
i think its just alinua having a vision instead of someone underwater
Good god, being at sea is nothing but trouble
let’s not be hasty, they still could be friendly
[Godzilla roar]
OH COOL IT GETS WORSE
hehehehe can’t wait for next week
…sister?
What?
Actually, with the storm and the paladin, this is the THIRD problem
Green Eyes? Didn’t expect a Pact crossover.
TL;DR: Plant Cthulu is in on this.
Maybe… maybe the tentacle is friendly? Maybe it’s here to help?
I don’t know what’s about to happen. As far as I can tell this is one of five things that might happen. this is either a kraken, a mermaid using life magic, Alinua summoning a giant plant tentacle using life magic, the Collector, or some other thing that I haven’t thought of.
Either way I’m exited for what’s to come.
falst is still MIA i see…
I have also been wondering about his whereabouts. We haven’t seen him since Dain’s transformation, where he was seemingly either thrown backwards or generally shielding his face from the blast. I’m guessing at a panel sometime soon, though, as he’s probably up to something or other
Jeepers Creeper where’d you get those peepers?
WAIT A SECOND THIS IS A CHIMERA ISN’T IT
THAT’S WHY IT’S ALL LIFE MAGIC-Y
IF THAT’S TRUE IT MEANS THE COLLECTOR HAS FOUND THEM ALREADY OH GOSH OH NO
Ah, THERE she is.
Is that life magic?
Who the fuck are you? A life-related creature who appears out of nowhere during bad situations and makes them worse, and has a vested interest in our main cast and all their bizarre afflictions? Who could that be?
Uh oh.