Ugh why is this not WORKING
I guess I’ll put the writing in now and try the link in a separate comment
. “Surrender!” The Champion cries, lifting them through the ash and into the sky.
. “My Champion. Time is running out.” The Champion twists around at the Light Dragon’s words, watching the boat from on high. Nearly the whole boat is ablaze now, only the back third spared from the fire. Flames lick up high into the air.
. “Do you see?” The Champion growls, turning back to face Kendal, holding him up only by the throat. “The ship will burn and founder, and the innocents on board will die in defense of an evil that would gladly devour us all! Are you willing to pay that price?!”
. “Are you?”
This was a surprisingly quick write. There’s not a lot of stuff going on compared to the recent pages.
Well. This is bad. I don’t remember when I made my prediction for how long the boat would last, but I think I can now confidently say it won’t last another week.
Also, I had this ready at like 8:30 and I tried it twice with the link to my doc in but… not working. So. I might need some help?
…Okay, what the actual Hades WHY ARE MY COMMENTS NOT GOING THROUGH!! THIS IS LIKE THE FOURTH TIME IVE TRIED!!
PLEASE work
. “Surrender!” The Champion cries, lifting them through the ash and into the sky.
. “My Champion. Time is running out.” The Champion twists around at the Light Dragon’s words, watching the boat from on high. Nearly the whole boat is ablaze now, only the back third spared from the fire. Flames lick up high into the air.
. “Do you see?” The Champion growls, turning back to face Kendal, holding him up only by the throat. “The ship will burn and founder, and the innocents on board will die in defense of an evil that would gladly devour us all! Are you willing to pay that price?!”
. “Are you?”
Ugh
I had this ready at like 8:30 but it’s not working!
Maybe cause I’ve been trying to put my link in? I have no idea (crying emoji)
Given that the rain is accounted for with the streaks of grey lines in the background, and that Micheal seems to be quite far away in Panel 3, I think we can safely conclude that they’re ash/smoke of some kind.
“Surrender!” the Champion commands,
Holding the Vessel by the throat.
“Time is running out,” his Lady warns,
The fire is consuming the boat.
“The innocents on board will die,” he threatens,
“Are you willing to pay that price?”
“Are you?” asks Kendal, gripping his wrist,
As tight as an iron-boned vice.
Only if Micheal blows off Kendal’s question and just gives an excuse to Kendal would I be in total agreement with you @Ongoing. If Micheal admits that Kendal has valid counter argument then room for dramatic tension and deeper storytelling I think. Shades of grey have more interesting play then stark black and white. (smile)
Uh oh, looks like our friend Kendal is in a bit of a sticky wicket. Whatever should he do?
The Starfire? Power of friendship? All good ideas! But none are as good as this!
As far as we know, Primordial Water is dead. Like, really dead. Life seems to be the sole survivor of the Primordials, and as she’s the literal embodiment of survival that makes sense to me. Unless you mean the Leviathan, in which case, I doubt it, based on her reaction to chimeras. And Alinua is a very limited vessel for Life. She’s got no soil, nor plants, nothign but a bag of seeds. I wouldn’t place her as a hard-hitter on the water. Under it might be a different story though.
life is morbidly afraid of helping alinua because she thinks that if she helps her alinua will die of life overdose and mutate everything around her wich is something that life hates, its why life doesn’t speak to alinua unless she is spoken to first unlike lucy who is in constant contact with michael, we also never saw lucy and walter speak to anyone when they aren’t in controll of the host so no life isn’t doing anything because she literally can’t
Life’s domain is everywhere that there is life, unlike Vash whose domain was his city. There is no reason to think that Alinua is Life’s only avatar, or that avatars have to be humanoids.
I do believe it’s been made clear that Life has been trying to find a vessel for centuries now, and every attempt before Alinua has resulted in a chimeric plague. Alinua is the first vessel that survived. Considering Life hates causing chimeric plagues, I don’t think she’s trying again anytime soon.
Oh…oh wow, now he’s gonna pretend he cares about innocents? I’m…really hoping this guy doesn’t get a redemption, because this is the kind of hypocritical bs that I really have trouble forgiving.
Oh good, Kendal isn’t gonna get all angsty when he’s not the one at fault. Because the only correct response to “Ha! See? Your actions are endangering innocents!” is “No, your actions are endangering them. I’m doing what I can to make you stop.”
That’s a good point, the VD doesn’t seem to really care one way or another about killing people, if the planet weren’t his prison he probably wouldn’t be bothered to destroy it. He would still eat the sun mind you , seemingly out of habit as apposed to some need to survive which is evil, but he seems far more casually villainous than the paladins seem to regard him.
Erin voices the opinion, when reading about the destruction of the Ancient’s city, that is was just a side effect of damaging the pedestal and creating the storm. He didn’t care one way or another about the city, so it’s destruction wasn’t a deliberate choice.
While Michael says “Countless have suffered and died at his whim”, he’s not necessarily referring to Cave Crawlers, but in general. He destroyed the Ancient City on a whim, and is apparently capable of possessing dragons.
Why?
VD’s plan is to destroy and, by the nature of his element, consume the planet. He WOULD gladly devour them all. This statement is entirely accurate to everything we know, as far as I can tell.
I think we have different ideas of what “would gladly devour us all” means. I think it’s mainly a succinct way of the champion expressing that the Dragon would happily kill every last being on the planet if it meant getting an inch closer to his freedom. That he does not care one bit about a single one of them. This is undeniably true. He didn’t help them in this fight out of the goodness of his heart, but because Erin has him convinced that the group is more valuable alive. If they weren’t he would be happy to sit back and watch them drown.
If they were a hindrance, or even so much as not useful, he would gladly devour them all. That is what I get from the champion here, and none of that is even a little inaccurate.
But also, yes, he primarily wants to eat stars, but his current goal is to eat the planet because it keeps him from eating stars. The destruction of the planet isn’t some random, incidental side-effect of his plan, it is the core, fundamental aspect of his plan to break free. The planet is his prison, to break free he must destroy it. Besides, even if there were somehow a way for a moon-sized dragon to break out of a planet without annihilating it, I would absolutely see him turning around halfway to the sun and blasting it to bits just for the extra revenge against the primordials’ legacy.
(Also, I accidentally misspelled my username on a reply to your other comment, so you get that here: VD is literally the embodiment of his element. He is nothing at all more than his element with a brain made of his element. Where did you get anything else from?)
You know I’m curious just how long this has been taking, I lost track of time a while ago, it’s still daytime right. I remember the clouds letting some sunlight through before Erin punched a hole through them, which I’m pretty sure was only a few minutes ago but now it seems the clouds are thicker. I’m mostly noting it because mer-folk are supposed to be nocturnal I think, so I wonder if any would be awake at this point for the crew to run into.
Me: no no he very obviously does not want everyone else to die! Also I highly doubt he’d wait till the others were dead just because Kendal was stubborn (there’s a reason Kendal is asking, the paladin is nigh certainly bluffing). the paladin is only attempting to murder non-innocents (according to his beliefs and Erin shares a body with void dragon so while you can argue that Erin himself is innocent the void dragon is not so it’s something of a moot point) and highly unlikely to simply allow innocents to die! To a certain point. It has yet to be definitively proven that he has reached that point (this statement shall be retracted if he does something that indicates full willingness of death of innocents). Also I could argue that the paladin doesn’t want to directly murder anyone but could be willing to allow indirect (even if directly caused by him) measures take them out. If he had a clear cut line between direct and indirect he would not technically be a hypocrite so long as he stuck to whatever he defines as indirect.
i’m really suprised how everyone seems to be acting like he’s a villain instead of just an antogonist. he’s been rash yes, but not without reason. He thinks the void dragon is a world-ending threat and he isn’t even wrong about that. It makes sense that he’d want to see that goal to completion and “not be delayed”. its understandable that he would think killing a single innocent person (erin) or perhaps more would be worth it. i mean this is obviously more of a morally grey area than *he* seems to think, but killing 6 people to save the entirety of the world makes sense. If anyone else was in that possition and did decide to do it i don’t think i could blame them for it.
The main thing is that the whole void dragon possesion is unfixable and the only known way to fix it is to kill erin. sure there’s erins soulshaper thing and supposedly several backups, but no one even knows if those will work. also the soulshaper thing isn’t 100% certain to even actually fix it or fix it permenantly. The light dragon and their sect probably wouldn’t even know about the soulshapers.
also another slight tangent but i know a lot of people have been talking about how suprisingly little the light dragon and paladin know, but i feel like thats kind of unfair. i mean they already know way more about void and the void dragon than basically anyone else in this world. The only reason WE know anything more is because erin has been lucky enough to ACTUALLY speak with the guy. the paladins would’ve never had that.
THIS, seriously this feels like the whole spiderverse miguel debate again, most people don’t seem to get that even erin isn’t sure that there is a way to free himself from the dragon that isn’t killing him(he expressed this concern to tess in petrichor) and that currently its only a matter of time until the void dragon gets an oportunity to escape and if he does he is killing the entire world, KEEPING ERIN ALIVE IS A SELFISH DECISION, is it a selfish decision that i agree with? absolutely but that doesn’t change the fact that he is a ticking time bomb that is going to take out the entire world and from michael’s PoV is even worse as he doesn’t know that 3 people in the floof squad could restrain the VD, its clear that michael doesn’t want to kill anyone in the group(the whole diadem thing was literally to stop them from fighting him and force him into killing them) and both michael and lucy show remorse about killing the floof squad in this page
Gotta be honest, I don’t think Kendal bears any of the blame for that fire. There’s some fun philosophy to be had arguing whether Dainix is responsible, but Mr. Paladin definitely at least earned an assist when he suppressed Dainix’s ability to control the fire.
Seeing Kendall dangling so high above the water but the boar burning and sinking is reminding me Strongly and Concerningly that his bones are made of metal and he is canonically Very Heavy
Oof. This turned into a bit of an essay. Apologies.
This is interesting. I’ve been trying to figure out why Kendal would ask this; he isn’t one to ask a question for no reason, and up to this point, Michael’s made it pretty clear he’s resolved himself to do whatever it takes if it means ending the threat of the Void Dragon. I feel like this is his last chance: stop this, or Kendal is going to stop holding back.
Kendal doesn’t want to hurt Michael, but he’s prepared to break him if that’s the choice he’s presented: Michael, or his friends. There’s no question what he’ll choose, but it’s his decision.
It’s another parallel to Erin as well. Erin left Kendal to Zuurith’s mercy and has thrown his friends into danger because he feels he has to do whatever it takes to try and sever the link to the Dragon. But it’s still his decision, and his conscience reflects this. And ironically, he thinks it’s ALL his decision that he’s placed them in danger, despite being shown various points that they’re choosing to stay.
Michael doesn’t want to kill these people, not even Erin, who he sees as a victim (Kendal may be a grey area). But even seeing the danger of Dainix’s power, he refused to drop the diadem unless he was given free rein to kill Erin. He’s asking Kendal to let him get on with his duty. To him, it isn’t a choice.
Kendal’s giving him one last chance to make it one.
(…Buuuuut I still want to see him get his ass kicked a little bit. What? I’m not a saint.)
I worry that Kendal is ALREADY trying and Michael is just that dangerous. His powers allegedly surpass Erin’s, and Falst is concerned. To be fair, Kendal’s only major ‘Done Playing Around’ moment so far was against Falst, who is not nearly as dangerous as the Champion. Narratively, it wouldn’t make sense for Kendal to dramatically outclass everyone they butt heads with. I think the Champion is on a new level, perhaps even rivalling Tynan.
This is true, and I don’t think Kendal is hiding a super power level or anything (he’s not Goku XD). What I think may be happening (and I could be wrong!) is that Kendal isn’t fighting with lethal intent. Most of what we’ve seen so far, he was trying to negociate or break the diadem, and he was asking Michael *not* to push him into having to fight to kill. To be fair, Michael might not be either, and his attention is split between fighting Kendal and looking for an opening to kill his target.
And I agree it’s an important narrative choice NOT to make Kendal OP, and he IS injured right now. I just also think there’s a difference between Kendal fighting lethally, and Kendal fighting to end a fight.
That’s true. I don’t see Kendal ever fighting with lethal intent against a human/elf/ferin/being. But within the confines of his principles, I suspect he’s already at his physical breaking point.
I read it as one last attempt to get through to Michael–to ask if he’s truly willing to sacrifice these people’s lives for his ends, and to point out that that, effectively, what he’s doing. Exactly what you said. Kendal’s trying to point out that Michael has choices.
…Wait, wasn’t that a thing with Dainix, too? Kendal wasn’t giving him chances back in the arena, he was showing him he had choices? Yes! 1.19.22, here: https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-19-22/
But anyway. You’re right, Michael has a very clear and strong motivation (from his blinkered perspective) for pushing onward. Perhaps Kendal thinks there’s a chance to get through to him here because Michael is, at the very least, claiming to care about the fate of the “innocents” on board. It is strange to me that Michael has deigned to try reasoning with a being he called an “it” though… I also think Kendal is already fighting hard, here. Kendal’s recovering from an injury, and Michael’s powers, while not limitless, seem formidable. Unfortunately.
(I also still want to see Kendal kick his butt. I’m no saint, either.)
I think the only times we’ve seen Kendal fight with lethal intent were against the chimeras in Gleicann’s forest, and against Tynan. Against Falst, against Dainix, against most mortal opponants…I don’t think he does. This doesn’t mean he’s certain to win, and it might not even be something he does on purpose. And Michael is certainly no slouch. He’s dangerous, and Kendal is hurt.
But I’m still holding out hope that, should Michael continue this course, Kendal can regain the upper hand (and use it to break Michael’s nose <3)
What does the Champion think Kendal is? At first he seemed to assume Erin had crafted him like a golem, but now he’s talking to him like he has more volition than that and could choose to give Erin up. Does the Champion now think Kendal is some sort of hired sword? But how does that jive with Kendal having no soul-light substance that the Light Dragon can bind? Or is he just judging by Kendal’s words and nevermind what he is?
Ah, thank you. I thought there was an as yet unproven theory that light = soul, or at least that the light dragon had some way created the soul process that prevented the Twins from creating the perfect embodiment for the dragon. That’s not expressed clearly but I am too tired to do better tonight.
And yes, Michael seems to just… reach out in desperation when thwarted.
*mutters in frustration*
Making a new comment so the first one doesn’t get super long
Anyone want to help me with posting my link? It doesn’t seem to be working… Idk why…
Is there anything different I’m supposed to do other than copy and pasting the link into the comment? Maybe put it in both the comment and the URL thing at the bottom?
Idk I’ve never done this before
I know some of you guys have though
Michael has no clue what Kendal even IS, except that he’s defending Erin, seems indestructible, and is some weird new kind of supernatural entity.
Compared to the Void Dragon, who’s using Erin as a human shield, and about whom Michael has probably been taught everything the Order knows, Kendal is an UNKNOWN threat, which makes him the priority at the moment.
Kendal can’t yet justify killing Michael, and doesn’t know how hard he can hit or cut Michael without killing him.
Michael has already classified Kendal as the Void Dragon’s ally, supernatural, extremely hard to kill, and spookily unclassifiable.
Michael is basically operating Weapons Free on Kendal, while Kendal is trying to keep to his personal rules of engagement, and still trying to figure out how hostile Michael actually is.
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: am I? ARE YOU??
Image source: price
tumblr text: everyone is very shouty today
Twitter text: smoooooke on the water
Can’t wait for red to cover that.
Ugh why is this not WORKING
I guess I’ll put the writing in now and try the link in a separate comment
. “Surrender!” The Champion cries, lifting them through the ash and into the sky.
. “My Champion. Time is running out.” The Champion twists around at the Light Dragon’s words, watching the boat from on high. Nearly the whole boat is ablaze now, only the back third spared from the fire. Flames lick up high into the air.
. “Do you see?” The Champion growls, turning back to face Kendal, holding him up only by the throat. “The ship will burn and founder, and the innocents on board will die in defense of an evil that would gladly devour us all! Are you willing to pay that price?!”
. “Are you?”
This was a surprisingly quick write. There’s not a lot of stuff going on compared to the recent pages.
Well. This is bad. I don’t remember when I made my prediction for how long the boat would last, but I think I can now confidently say it won’t last another week.
Also, I had this ready at like 8:30 and I tried it twice with the link to my doc in but… not working. So. I might need some help?
…Okay, what the actual Hades WHY ARE MY COMMENTS NOT GOING THROUGH!! THIS IS LIKE THE FOURTH TIME IVE TRIED!!
PLEASE work
. “Surrender!” The Champion cries, lifting them through the ash and into the sky.
. “My Champion. Time is running out.” The Champion twists around at the Light Dragon’s words, watching the boat from on high. Nearly the whole boat is ablaze now, only the back third spared from the fire. Flames lick up high into the air.
. “Do you see?” The Champion growls, turning back to face Kendal, holding him up only by the throat. “The ship will burn and founder, and the innocents on board will die in defense of an evil that would gladly devour us all! Are you willing to pay that price?!”
. “Are you?”
Ugh
I had this ready at like 8:30 but it’s not working!
Maybe cause I’ve been trying to put my link in? I have no idea (crying emoji)
“My Champion. This is a solvable problem. Fly out a couple hundred meters, chuck this guy into the ocean, then come back and deal with everyone else.”
Kendal is grabbing the Champion right back; I don’t think Michael can shake him off.
sure but he has a sword and kendal has very cuttable arms
*the capacity to make a light-based cutting implement
I mean, Kendal DOES have starfire bones. Those are probably not very cuttable.
Erm actually it’s starmetal, which can help create starfire.
As for starfire… is it even a plasma?
Are the grey circles flecks of light in the first panel, or are they bits of the boat/ash?
I think they might be rain
Given that the rain is accounted for with the streaks of grey lines in the background, and that Micheal seems to be quite far away in Panel 3, I think we can safely conclude that they’re ash/smoke of some kind.
Pretty sure it’s water on mochael’s hair.
They are droplets of water bouncing off hair, skin, and clothing. Due to the rain, ash would not reach that far, and probably not smoke either.
I don’t know why but the first time I read your comment I thought you had said bits of smoke/flesh :/
Hypocrite, you are
To pin all the blame on him
When you could save them
How could he save them? He could have prevented this situation but how can he fix it now?
Fair honestly, it’s not like Michael can put out a boat on his own. He could at least stop fighting them though.
“Surrender!” the Champion commands,
Holding the Vessel by the throat.
“Time is running out,” his Lady warns,
The fire is consuming the boat.
“The innocents on board will die,” he threatens,
“Are you willing to pay that price?”
“Are you?” asks Kendal, gripping his wrist,
As tight as an iron-boned vice.
Oh My Goodness! The breathing thing! Whatever will happen next?
I love your Gravatar. Is that Achilles and Patroclus?
PATROCHILLIES?!
yes
If it weren’t for the Yeetening not having happened yet, I’d be sure Kendal would be getting dropped soon
The innocents suffer, and time’s running out
But Ani here just throws the blame about
Wow. Up until this point Anakin Lightwalker at least seemed tentatively understandable. But this level of hypocrisy … F*ck this guy.
Only if Micheal blows off Kendal’s question and just gives an excuse to Kendal would I be in total agreement with you @Ongoing. If Micheal admits that Kendal has valid counter argument then room for dramatic tension and deeper storytelling I think. Shades of grey have more interesting play then stark black and white. (smile)
Uh oh, looks like our friend Kendal is in a bit of a sticky wicket. Whatever should he do?
The Starfire? Power of friendship? All good ideas! But none are as good as this!
A fantasy glock 17.
So you don’t think Primordial Life might be able ask for aid from a large and distressed looking watery friend? Or Alinua?
As far as we know, Primordial Water is dead. Like, really dead. Life seems to be the sole survivor of the Primordials, and as she’s the literal embodiment of survival that makes sense to me. Unless you mean the Leviathan, in which case, I doubt it, based on her reaction to chimeras. And Alinua is a very limited vessel for Life. She’s got no soil, nor plants, nothign but a bag of seeds. I wouldn’t place her as a hard-hitter on the water. Under it might be a different story though.
life is morbidly afraid of helping alinua because she thinks that if she helps her alinua will die of life overdose and mutate everything around her wich is something that life hates, its why life doesn’t speak to alinua unless she is spoken to first unlike lucy who is in constant contact with michael, we also never saw lucy and walter speak to anyone when they aren’t in controll of the host so no life isn’t doing anything because she literally can’t
Life’s domain is everywhere that there is life, unlike Vash whose domain was his city. There is no reason to think that Alinua is Life’s only avatar, or that avatars have to be humanoids.
There’s only one chimeric carrier at a time.
And humans and elfs are the only species with a direct connection to the elements, which limits her options for vessels
I do believe it’s been made clear that Life has been trying to find a vessel for centuries now, and every attempt before Alinua has resulted in a chimeric plague. Alinua is the first vessel that survived. Considering Life hates causing chimeric plagues, I don’t think she’s trying again anytime soon.
Always love a good armor-piercing question “no u”
Oooooo I was correct to immediately nab this one as my favorite
oh he is DELICIOUS. we love an antgaonist that is not just complex, but conflicted, arrogant, AND hypocritical all at once
Michael and bad life choice, name a more icônico duo
Erin and bad life choices?
Damn, being a dragon’s avatar does not do great things for your ability to make good life choices
Oh…oh wow, now he’s gonna pretend he cares about innocents? I’m…really hoping this guy doesn’t get a redemption, because this is the kind of hypocritical bs that I really have trouble forgiving.
Uh…. Dainix is getting more purple and void-y, that’s probably not good.
Oh good, Kendal isn’t gonna get all angsty when he’s not the one at fault. Because the only correct response to “Ha! See? Your actions are endangering innocents!” is “No, your actions are endangering them. I’m doing what I can to make you stop.”
Last chance fly boy.
Uno reverse
Another statement that calls into question how much the paladins actually know about the void dragon
That’s a good point, the VD doesn’t seem to really care one way or another about killing people, if the planet weren’t his prison he probably wouldn’t be bothered to destroy it. He would still eat the sun mind you , seemingly out of habit as apposed to some need to survive which is evil, but he seems far more casually villainous than the paladins seem to regard him.
And they seem to think he causes cave corruption on purpose, based on what the champion said. Anyone got some more examples of this?
Erin voices the opinion, when reading about the destruction of the Ancient’s city, that is was just a side effect of damaging the pedestal and creating the storm. He didn’t care one way or another about the city, so it’s destruction wasn’t a deliberate choice.
While Michael says “Countless have suffered and died at his whim”, he’s not necessarily referring to Cave Crawlers, but in general. He destroyed the Ancient City on a whim, and is apparently capable of possessing dragons.
Did you see the word bubble just above that?
And the destruction of The Great City was not on a whim, it was part very well thought out plan
Or maybe just decently thought out
Why?
VD’s plan is to destroy and, by the nature of his element, consume the planet. He WOULD gladly devour them all. This statement is entirely accurate to everything we know, as far as I can tell.
He only wants to eat stars and the destruction of the planet will be incidental to him breaking free
Vd is more than is element
*His
He is literally the embodiment of his element. He is nothing at all more than his element with a brain.
I think we have different ideas of what “would gladly devour us all” means. I think it’s mainly a succinct way of the champion expressing that the Dragon would happily kill every last being on the planet if it meant getting an inch closer to his freedom. That he does not care one bit about a single one of them. This is undeniably true. He didn’t help them in this fight out of the goodness of his heart, but because Erin has him convinced that the group is more valuable alive. If they weren’t he would be happy to sit back and watch them drown.
If they were a hindrance, or even so much as not useful, he would gladly devour them all. That is what I get from the champion here, and none of that is even a little inaccurate.
But also, yes, he primarily wants to eat stars, but his current goal is to eat the planet because it keeps him from eating stars. The destruction of the planet isn’t some random, incidental side-effect of his plan, it is the core, fundamental aspect of his plan to break free. The planet is his prison, to break free he must destroy it. Besides, even if there were somehow a way for a moon-sized dragon to break out of a planet without annihilating it, I would absolutely see him turning around halfway to the sun and blasting it to bits just for the extra revenge against the primordials’ legacy.
(Also, I accidentally misspelled my username on a reply to your other comment, so you get that here: VD is literally the embodiment of his element. He is nothing at all more than his element with a brain made of his element. Where did you get anything else from?)
I’m just going to keep thinking the paladins are missing some facts.
K then, I guess
Yelling at Kendal as if it’s his fault
I wonder if the fish people & big water snek will come out soon.
You know I’m curious just how long this has been taking, I lost track of time a while ago, it’s still daytime right. I remember the clouds letting some sunlight through before Erin punched a hole through them, which I’m pretty sure was only a few minutes ago but now it seems the clouds are thicker. I’m mostly noting it because mer-folk are supposed to be nocturnal I think, so I wonder if any would be awake at this point for the crew to run into.
Interesting how widespread dainix’s fire has become. In the past it’s been mostly humanoid, but I’m not really seeing any human shape in there
Everyone else: Hypocrite
Me: no no he very obviously does not want everyone else to die! Also I highly doubt he’d wait till the others were dead just because Kendal was stubborn (there’s a reason Kendal is asking, the paladin is nigh certainly bluffing). the paladin is only attempting to murder non-innocents (according to his beliefs and Erin shares a body with void dragon so while you can argue that Erin himself is innocent the void dragon is not so it’s something of a moot point) and highly unlikely to simply allow innocents to die! To a certain point. It has yet to be definitively proven that he has reached that point (this statement shall be retracted if he does something that indicates full willingness of death of innocents). Also I could argue that the paladin doesn’t want to directly murder anyone but could be willing to allow indirect (even if directly caused by him) measures take them out. If he had a clear cut line between direct and indirect he would not technically be a hypocrite so long as he stuck to whatever he defines as indirect.
i’m really suprised how everyone seems to be acting like he’s a villain instead of just an antogonist. he’s been rash yes, but not without reason. He thinks the void dragon is a world-ending threat and he isn’t even wrong about that. It makes sense that he’d want to see that goal to completion and “not be delayed”. its understandable that he would think killing a single innocent person (erin) or perhaps more would be worth it. i mean this is obviously more of a morally grey area than *he* seems to think, but killing 6 people to save the entirety of the world makes sense. If anyone else was in that possition and did decide to do it i don’t think i could blame them for it.
The main thing is that the whole void dragon possesion is unfixable and the only known way to fix it is to kill erin. sure there’s erins soulshaper thing and supposedly several backups, but no one even knows if those will work. also the soulshaper thing isn’t 100% certain to even actually fix it or fix it permenantly. The light dragon and their sect probably wouldn’t even know about the soulshapers.
also another slight tangent but i know a lot of people have been talking about how suprisingly little the light dragon and paladin know, but i feel like thats kind of unfair. i mean they already know way more about void and the void dragon than basically anyone else in this world. The only reason WE know anything more is because erin has been lucky enough to ACTUALLY speak with the guy. the paladins would’ve never had that.
Its been only me and maybe two other people talking about what the paladins know, as far as I know
Its been only me and maybe two other people talking about what the paladins know, as far as I know
THIS, seriously this feels like the whole spiderverse miguel debate again, most people don’t seem to get that even erin isn’t sure that there is a way to free himself from the dragon that isn’t killing him(he expressed this concern to tess in petrichor) and that currently its only a matter of time until the void dragon gets an oportunity to escape and if he does he is killing the entire world, KEEPING ERIN ALIVE IS A SELFISH DECISION, is it a selfish decision that i agree with? absolutely but that doesn’t change the fact that he is a ticking time bomb that is going to take out the entire world and from michael’s PoV is even worse as he doesn’t know that 3 people in the floof squad could restrain the VD, its clear that michael doesn’t want to kill anyone in the group(the whole diadem thing was literally to stop them from fighting him and force him into killing them) and both michael and lucy show remorse about killing the floof squad in this page
OMG I THOUGHT THIS WAS THE NEXT PAGE XDDDDD
“The innocents,the innocents!” Says the guy attacking the innocents
Hypocrites are like that.
Gotta be honest, I don’t think Kendal bears any of the blame for that fire. There’s some fun philosophy to be had arguing whether Dainix is responsible, but Mr. Paladin definitely at least earned an assist when he suppressed Dainix’s ability to control the fire.
Seeing Kendall dangling so high above the water but the boar burning and sinking is reminding me Strongly and Concerningly that his bones are made of metal and he is canonically Very Heavy
TL;DR: I’m gonna turn that last one back on you.
Oof. This turned into a bit of an essay. Apologies.
This is interesting. I’ve been trying to figure out why Kendal would ask this; he isn’t one to ask a question for no reason, and up to this point, Michael’s made it pretty clear he’s resolved himself to do whatever it takes if it means ending the threat of the Void Dragon. I feel like this is his last chance: stop this, or Kendal is going to stop holding back.
Kendal doesn’t want to hurt Michael, but he’s prepared to break him if that’s the choice he’s presented: Michael, or his friends. There’s no question what he’ll choose, but it’s his decision.
It’s another parallel to Erin as well. Erin left Kendal to Zuurith’s mercy and has thrown his friends into danger because he feels he has to do whatever it takes to try and sever the link to the Dragon. But it’s still his decision, and his conscience reflects this. And ironically, he thinks it’s ALL his decision that he’s placed them in danger, despite being shown various points that they’re choosing to stay.
Michael doesn’t want to kill these people, not even Erin, who he sees as a victim (Kendal may be a grey area). But even seeing the danger of Dainix’s power, he refused to drop the diadem unless he was given free rein to kill Erin. He’s asking Kendal to let him get on with his duty. To him, it isn’t a choice.
Kendal’s giving him one last chance to make it one.
(…Buuuuut I still want to see him get his ass kicked a little bit. What? I’m not a saint.)
I worry that Kendal is ALREADY trying and Michael is just that dangerous. His powers allegedly surpass Erin’s, and Falst is concerned. To be fair, Kendal’s only major ‘Done Playing Around’ moment so far was against Falst, who is not nearly as dangerous as the Champion. Narratively, it wouldn’t make sense for Kendal to dramatically outclass everyone they butt heads with. I think the Champion is on a new level, perhaps even rivalling Tynan.
This is true, and I don’t think Kendal is hiding a super power level or anything (he’s not Goku XD). What I think may be happening (and I could be wrong!) is that Kendal isn’t fighting with lethal intent. Most of what we’ve seen so far, he was trying to negociate or break the diadem, and he was asking Michael *not* to push him into having to fight to kill. To be fair, Michael might not be either, and his attention is split between fighting Kendal and looking for an opening to kill his target.
And I agree it’s an important narrative choice NOT to make Kendal OP, and he IS injured right now. I just also think there’s a difference between Kendal fighting lethally, and Kendal fighting to end a fight.
I look forward to finding out 🙂
That’s true. I don’t see Kendal ever fighting with lethal intent against a human/elf/ferin/being. But within the confines of his principles, I suspect he’s already at his physical breaking point.
I read it as one last attempt to get through to Michael–to ask if he’s truly willing to sacrifice these people’s lives for his ends, and to point out that that, effectively, what he’s doing. Exactly what you said. Kendal’s trying to point out that Michael has choices.
…Wait, wasn’t that a thing with Dainix, too? Kendal wasn’t giving him chances back in the arena, he was showing him he had choices? Yes! 1.19.22, here:
https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-19-22/
But anyway. You’re right, Michael has a very clear and strong motivation (from his blinkered perspective) for pushing onward. Perhaps Kendal thinks there’s a chance to get through to him here because Michael is, at the very least, claiming to care about the fate of the “innocents” on board. It is strange to me that Michael has deigned to try reasoning with a being he called an “it” though… I also think Kendal is already fighting hard, here. Kendal’s recovering from an injury, and Michael’s powers, while not limitless, seem formidable. Unfortunately.
(I also still want to see Kendal kick his butt. I’m no saint, either.)
Nice point about the fight with Dainix!
I think the only times we’ve seen Kendal fight with lethal intent were against the chimeras in Gleicann’s forest, and against Tynan. Against Falst, against Dainix, against most mortal opponants…I don’t think he does. This doesn’t mean he’s certain to win, and it might not even be something he does on purpose. And Michael is certainly no slouch. He’s dangerous, and Kendal is hurt.
But I’m still holding out hope that, should Michael continue this course, Kendal can regain the upper hand (and use it to break Michael’s nose <3)
What does the Champion think Kendal is? At first he seemed to assume Erin had crafted him like a golem, but now he’s talking to him like he has more volition than that and could choose to give Erin up. Does the Champion now think Kendal is some sort of hired sword? But how does that jive with Kendal having no soul-light substance that the Light Dragon can bind? Or is he just judging by Kendal’s words and nevermind what he is?
Light is different than soul. Kendal has a soul, but no light
I think homunculi are known fully autonomus in this world and the Champ thinks in weird ways
Ah, thank you. I thought there was an as yet unproven theory that light = soul, or at least that the light dragon had some way created the soul process that prevented the Twins from creating the perfect embodiment for the dragon. That’s not expressed clearly but I am too tired to do better tonight.
And yes, Michael seems to just… reach out in desperation when thwarted.
*mutters in frustration*
Making a new comment so the first one doesn’t get super long
Anyone want to help me with posting my link? It doesn’t seem to be working… Idk why…
Is there anything different I’m supposed to do other than copy and pasting the link into the comment? Maybe put it in both the comment and the URL thing at the bottom?
Idk I’ve never done this before
I know some of you guys have though
Why is Michael still arguing with Kendal? I thought he had decided Kendal was some kind of unliving automaton.
Michael has no clue what Kendal even IS, except that he’s defending Erin, seems indestructible, and is some weird new kind of supernatural entity.
Compared to the Void Dragon, who’s using Erin as a human shield, and about whom Michael has probably been taught everything the Order knows, Kendal is an UNKNOWN threat, which makes him the priority at the moment.
It’s just tactical.
ngl I thought that kendal would have had a better chance against michael
Kendal can’t yet justify killing Michael, and doesn’t know how hard he can hit or cut Michael without killing him.
Michael has already classified Kendal as the Void Dragon’s ally, supernatural, extremely hard to kill, and spookily unclassifiable.
Michael is basically operating Weapons Free on Kendal, while Kendal is trying to keep to his personal rules of engagement, and still trying to figure out how hostile Michael actually is.
Who do you think you are? I am!
“Are you?”
Are you, Frollo?
Are you Frollo, Michael? Or are you a true servant of Good?
I’m so proud of Kendal right now, he’s so self-aware right now he’s not just genre-savvy, he’s METAGAMING.
Isn’t it the ship will burn and flounder? not founder? or do i just not see the l in flounder
Nevermind, didn’t know it was founder
This is a really bad time but Kendal has such pretty hair and I wish my hair looked like that
I reckon he’s going to think about it for 2 panels and then say “yes”