Comic for Monday, January 1st
It’s the start of 2018 and Chapter 12! I was sort of planning on drawing a picture for New Years, but here we are and I ran out of time cause New Years stuff to do, least this comic’s on time 😉
Been a bit since we’ve seen Nathan. He’s had a busy night of his own. Nathan represents an older tradition of mages that we see a lot less of in the comic so far, but we will probably see more of in the future. It hasn’t come up much in the comic yet, but magic did exist on Central before the Incursion and before autocasters. While most of the Central mages we see are of the new autocaster variety, we’ve seen snippets of the old guard here and there. They are sort of stuffy, occasionally ridiculous, but tend to be some of the stronger mages out there. There’s a reason for this, and it’s unfortunately not a pretty one.
I have to occasionally think of the various biases we get in the comic based on the parts of the world we’ve seen. One of the biggest misconceptions that the lens I’ve told the story through so far is that autocasters are not a big deal, as we follow a relatively high portion of mages that don’t use them. The significance of boost engines is also something not really shown yet, but is a fairly major factor.
I think this is the first time we’ve had Elizabeth called that. We’ve seen her quite a bit, actually, as she’s usually the grumpy looking person near Sophie. She has some history with the Summers siblings.
Loading ...
Hey guys; page will be late. Page will be up tomorrow evening. I’m sick and not feeling up to getting it up tonight.
I see. I hope you feel better.
Be well.
Take a day off if you want to. We’re patient. We’ll live.
Whoa there! Let’s not get crazy!
Dude said he wasn’t feeling well. He didn’t say he’d been admitted to the ICU ward.
i wonder if Elizabeth has noticed that her spirited defense of the facility has DESTROYED the facility. (Mostly, anyway.) ^^
“What do you mean? It was like that when I got here. Honest.”
Guessing that “Ervon’s Warden” title is actually pretty important. The kind of thing that if someone understands it and takes it seriously should have two questions: “Will running away help me?” and “which direction should I run (to be out of your way)?”
Do like that second to last panel’s “did I seriously just hear that right” expression. Though I think my favorite part is how they both take the “princess or something” and how she’s “fairly important to the locals” so…..nonchalantly. They can’t even seem to bother to remember how important, just that she was supposed to be important.
My guess is it’s more or less equivalent to Muim’s “Mr. Carrier of the Fanciest Stick” title for Nathan, and it matters a great deal to anyone who isn’t Muim. Maybe not quite as much to Peter as most, but even he seems to take the guy a lot more seriously than he takes most people. The less equivalent part of that expression is, of course, that Nathan wouldn’t have gotten into the position of being able to carry the fanciest stick if he didn’t merit it. There’s probably other contenders, and other similarly equipped individuals. Usually one is not named the fifth of something unless there’s at least four others. Whether those others are contemporaries or predecessors doesn’t matter too much – the point is Nathan isn’t completely unique in his particular brand of badassery. So it’s not necessarily that Nathan’s the baddest ass of Central, though he may be a contender. But he does appear to be the baddest ass from Central right here in the story right now, in as much that Muim apparently has some significant heritage from Palindra. Even if that’s only that Peter merely found the resources to extend what he had previously made into becoming MYM and Muim. But it seems like at least the F5 and F8 components were appropriated from Palindra, and I would guess that the computers of Palindra are in some ways significantly different than those of Central, possibly in ways that are ineffable to the readers, but probably matter significantly to Peter and Muim.
There is a role in a lot of fiction/literature/jokes/etc who’s necessity is often greatly underestimated. Sometimes we call them the “straight man” or the “bystander” or “the foil” or the “normal guy on the team of supers”; but whatever their name they have one role: adjusting the broader implications of suspension of disbelief.
Normality in stories is not the same as normality in reality. People fly, have magic, deal with all manor of the supernatural, are important on a global or regional scale and the like. To them it is a typical Tuesday. Suspension of disbelief is a complicated issue because it not only encompasses “this is possible” but also “this is probable”. Who cares if it is technically possible for a person to fall out of an airplane and suffer only minor injuries rather than certain death (actually true in reality, btw), if it is so improbable that the expectation of it happening is unthinkable than that is unbelievable that a character would try it intentionally. Hence we the readers are forced into a situation where, without suspension of disbelief, the result tends to be: “no way, now the story just got stupid. Did the author seriously just pull this junk on us readers? Logical consistency, and any hope of following along with the story as though it isn’t a giant a** pull, have effectively been thrown out the window. And if it can’t be followed, why even try to follow it?” This is why setting up a baseline where suspention of disbelief can happen is important. Those formerly problematic elements stop being reality breaking and the audience accepted reality of the story shifts to encompass them.
The problem becomes that very quickly nothing is amazing anymore. “Of course (fill in generic hero) has the exact skill or tool to deal with every circumstance, it isn’t even surprising or interesting anymore that it is true”. People have essentially chosen to believe in the character (suspention of disbelief) so much that the character’s abilities and actions are just “normal” and no longer, from a consumer’s perspective, push the story along in any sort of interesting direction. Even failure or unexpected setbacks (which some writers try to input to specifically avoid this sort of “god mode” for their characters) becomes nothing more than “author pulled something, it must be a normal type of thing or maybe this is a normal tragedy” type of situation. Everything the character does, no matter how outlandish or otherwise normally “interesting”, becomes normal for their world.
“Of course Nathan is going to show up to talk to Sophie about the magically empowered mass murderer that she just released into a populated area, he is some sort of a zelot who views himself as the protector of order against magical chaos. Not really a big deal.”
Then you add the foil: “Wait, I’m just doing my job but did you just seriously threaten to ‘burn me’ for not just letting you through? Did you really just say that “sanctified providence” would be my peril? Look, we BOTH know that I don’t stand a chance and that I’m not ACTUALLY going to try to physically stop you, so lets just talk like normal SANE human beings for just a minute? All right???”
And suddenly balance is restored. The better the foil is at providing a “normal” point of view the more interesting it makes the other characters. The scene stops being “Of course he threatened to ‘burn’ her for standing in his way, that is just the way he talks” and turns into “he sounds like a crackpot waving around his stick threatening by right and position, except that he isn’t a crackpot and has what he sees as a good reason to spout his titles and he can ABSOLUTELY back up what he says and powerful main characters try to quickly GET OUT OF HIS WAY when he shows up.” Suddenly the character is far more interesting again. His actions may be “normal” for himself, but to everyone else he is the modern day “Don Quiote” blustering about ramming into windmills… except that somehow the windmills up and leave and the sheep stop disappearing.
And this is what Nathan is that ends up being so interesting a character. He sounds like “he who spouts many words” and a guy who is so out of it that he leaves behind his nearly powerless sidekick to protect against an extremely dangerous threat (“no offense, Tom, but what does Nathan expect you to do if Atter shows back up?” -July 24th) except that somehow “providence” happens and everything Nathan does either works or pushes him forward without serious incident. His confrontation with MIUM ends amicably and with a promise of a meeting between him and Peter and after Tom is left behind Atter actually doesn’t show back up. So is he just “lucky”? Is there something more to this “providence” stuff he keeps talking about? Is he just so scary that other people either actively work around his eccentricities to work with him or run from the very thought of him? Regardless of his power, why would Peter see him as a possible threat when his MO has always been to predict and work with given elements rather than confront them (we might assume that Nathan is just powerful enough to bulldoze through carefully prepared plans, but perhaps the truth is that he is unpredictable, unstable, something else)?
And if you really think about it, without the “straight man”/ “common man” point of view being given to adjust things Nathan would be a much less interesting character. Without the asides and answers that show the abnormality of his actions he would be nothing more than a background force of nature who likes big words, but now he is a curious powerhouse who may well be connected to the inner workings of the world more than any other character (or he may just be a powerful crackpot, we can’t be sure yet).
Of course, that isn’t the only thing “the voice of the every-man” brings to the table. He also works as a “pressure valve” for tension in the story (keeping things from building up too much and making other character’s blaze attitudes seem more normal (extra points for people who notices Spider Man playing this role to counter HIMSELF)), the “doctor’s assistant” (allowing explanation to be given to the audience without having a character talk in depth on a subject for no apparent reason), and allows for better audience insertion (sometimes there is a single character for this position, usually the main character, but other times this “inserted normality” can be variably applied to multiple characters allowing easier identification with multiple characters at different times), and even a number of other roles. This one just stood out to me at the moment so I decided I would put out my thoughts on it.
I view Nathan as a consequence, a sign that there is a bigger picture. The lore of the setting, rather than the plot of the comic. Most of the people we see show up to deal with problems are out of their league (Jayce, Nick), but obviously there is someone that deals with the bigger problems. That is Nathan.
He has not really done anything impressive yet, but he understands things. He is one of the few people that seems to know what Mium is basically instantly, and is not all that surprised when Mium nullifies his magic, but is still not that concerned about having to fight him and Naomi (who has just pummeled him) at the same time, and mostly just does not because he realizes that they are probably not his enemy at the moment.
Most people in the comic are baffled by things like a humanoid robot or Naomi’s inhuman abilities. He just catalogs them like “oh, that is one of those.” rare, but clearly not something he has not seen before. He sort of roots the antics of the others in the sense that it is a really big world out there.
What I do agree completely on is that Elizabeth is sort of a grounding agent. Remember that the first time we see her, she points out how ridiculous it is that the Monster Hunter’s decided to attack Kallisto Summers. And she disagreed with Sophie’s plan to send Atter after Arron. Twice. She is on her own right a powerful mage, but frequently is cast in the role of “what the hell are doing?” as the rest of the cast goes about their insanity.
I have to say I am not yet really clear on Sophie’s motives. The Atter plan seems too haphazard. She is willing to go that far, but still prefers not to kill Arron? Just kill literally everyone he knows? Sophie has to know about Kallisto, and as dangerous as Atter is, sending him after Kallisto seems like plan that is just not going to end well.
We call this character, who is as you mentioned something of a “consequence” of a larger world, the “Hero of Another Story” (unless they are the villian, obviously). They can be an interesting addition and open the door for crossovers and the like but beyond that they serve two distinct literary purposes that, at first glance, seem completely opposed. First, it broadens the world. And second, it focuses the world.
Let me try to give an example while avoiding any copyright infringement. 😉
Bubbly the Dhampire slayer has a mostly episodal series where she fights back the forces of the half-demons who want to enslave, kill, or just eat all the native inhabitants of this world. And then that one episode happens where the aliens show up. She fights them back, same as anything else. Perhaps she is loosing; or maybe she is destroying them easily; or maybe, just maybe, she is starting to realize that this whole alien problem is much MUCH bigger than she expected it to be. Suddenly Agent Moldy from the Men in Grey show up (possibly from their series on the “Why Files?”) and with a quick “Thank you for your assistance, Mam. We’ll take it from here,” sweep through and take over the entire situation. Maybe they end up acting as a “Deaus ex Machina” (an outside force who’s only relevance to the story seems to be to clean up an otherwise unsalvageable situation), maybe they take on some other role. Either way it becomes very clear that they have their story and the main character has hers, the newcomers are literally the “hero of another story”.
Suddenly the world becomes much much larger. “Wait, so other stuff is going on outside of the town of CloudyDale? You mean the absurdly high death rate ISN’T enough to empty the town within a year because people are dying for other reasons everywhere else? So this explains why the Counsil of Listeners doesn’t just nuke this one town, set up a fence, salt the ground (with some sort of holy water based radiation), and be proud of ending the threat! The entire rest of the world is just as bad off and the main character is enough to either effectively counter or at least distract the threat!” And in the literary tradition of “show, don’t tell” the author has broadened the scope of the world and added realism to it without having to go too much into what all is going on with everything else. The very fact of their existence and the insinuation of the implications of it are enough.
But at the same time this also narrows the focus of the story. Bubbly doesn’t HAVE to take care of the stuff outside of her home town because aliens have infested it and the Men in Grey are already on the case. That string of mundane murders? Matchlock will solve it! The corporate mafia has decided to build an army? Runner, Texas Wrangler will kick them before they can become a problem! And Bubbly the Dhampire Slayer? She can focus completely on her one job without turning the entire world into an unmanageable mess of side quests and distractions. The author can more completely focus on the core of the story BECAUSE there is a bigger world and because IT CAN TAKE CARE of ITSELF!
While these are the two main uses of The Hero of Another Story (Making the world larger and setting the bounds of the story to contain it) there are other advantages. There is the aforementioned colaborative effort of crossovers, but this also means that many of the issues of “how” and “why” (for example: Why doesn’t her super smart friend create a cure for all viruses including the common cold?) can and is already explained through the other story (Because the Aliens created viruses actively, so it isn’t so simple as just creating a single cure (PS: That’s an actual storyline, btw).). It also allows for controls on other aspects of the story. Why doesn’t Bubbly just set herself up as queen of her town, since she is basically immune to bullets and anything else mundane people might throw at her? Perhaps because if she did she would have to deal with the Flower Rangers, the group of Magical Boys who are empowered by Love and Transforming Mecha! And of course the less physically powerful but far more devious demon shows up as soon as Bubbly takes out the big bad at the end of Season 2? That guy has mostly been lurking in the next region over but never wanted to put himself in between Samarai Jasmine and and the demon Achoo. And just as importantly when the new big bad does show up it isn’t a surprise, rather it is natural progression. At the end of Season 3 when the Big Bad strikes a deal to save his life by letting the Bubbly know that something worse is coming, suddenly this strikes as real rather than a device used by lazy creators who don’t want to throw out their Big Bad after only one season of using him. Etc. Etc.
In this case I wouldn’t be surprised if Nathan’s job as a possible Hero of Another Story is little more than to counter Atter and to bound in the story to Palindra (the current planet) by letting the readers know there is other bad stuff out there and that this is a fight you don’t want to get in between. Nathan fights Atter and we realize just how lucky Malsa (the current country) is to be treated like a backwater nobody of a territory. But at the same time we realize just how big the politics at central are and get some extra sense of how the characters in the story draw their background from someplace just as complex and dangerous as the current setting.
An interesting thing to note is that, while the addition of Nathan and Adder adds depth to the story, at this point they could be completely removed with very little change to the narative of it; completely negating their need to be in the story at all. The Scanner reveal would have still happened, causing the nation’s shutdown of Pact. Martial law and the activation of registered mages could have been caused by something other than Atter, perhaps the refusal of Pact to stand down and their gearing up for military action? The death of Emmi could have been caused by any one of Sophie’s subordinates, priming Arron to decide that he was going to personally take down Sophie even if he had to march over Malsa’s troops to do it. And most of the other extreme measures taken by the Consul’s Office could be quickly reexplained as a reaction to Skyhammer rather than Atter. Perhaps this will change when Nathan talks with Sophie, but even if he outright kills her there is still the chance that she is little more than Ottie’s pawn and that her death simply ends up as an alternative to imprisonment that she would otherwise have been given (imprisonment that may have left her short lived in order to keep her from talking). For him to be a motivating force he has to fundamentally change how things act and react in the story, but even if he isn’t a motivating force he still is an important part of the story on a grander scale.
PS: Nathan has also held other roles in the story, such as background narrator (such as when he positively linked MIUM with a certain project (probably the Shinoji Project)). Just a note to show how characters can change or have multiple roles depending on circumstance.
PPS: I had fun writing that. Don’t judge. 😀
I can see it now, “The Far Side of Utopia Comments, your one stop shop for Physics, Philosophy, and now introducing Literary Theory! A better education than college will ever get you for one low low price of free!”
I hope you’re ready for the test at the end. I seem to have misplaced my notes.
lol 🙂
I was just going to ask Mium for all the answers right before it was due. 😉
Well, you get an A+ on the callback portion at least 😉
> Should “commandant” be either “command” or “commandment?
Probably command, though the more common English usage would be “my word is law”. Another way of saying it that might make more sense is “my word commands”
Nathan frequently uses proto-religious terms, especially when actually casting his spells.
Combined with that he very obviously wears what seems to be some sort of mark or symbol around his neck, and one of the titles Mium named called him was “Disciple of Havoc”, I am assuming this is not entirely a coincidence that he tends to use more religiously associated dialogue when speaking with his formal authority.
While we have seen very little of religion so far in the comic, it makes a lot of sense that “old magic” of Central would be more tied to the concept as that was pre-computerization/auto casters. If you look at the way the more intellectual characters swear, there is also religious roots there (though usually turned somewhat ridiculous or alliterative, they are clearly there “burned books of Bablyon” “ashes of Akkad” “pits of damnation”, or more directly, Arron’s “weeping seraphs of fire and ash”.).
I could see it being ‘commandant’, if his word has some self will. Powerful magic seems to work a bit like that in this universe.
Nathan has clear religious overtones. Atter was described as demonic (not literally), when the red witch was described as a pale imitation of him.
I’m thinking somewhere in this universe there are intelligent creatures of pure Eidos. What might be described as demons and angels in a different universe. I suspect that a religion that can make contact with these can also strike a deal with then.
Nathan inherited a self aware staff? Practices a religion that worships and communicates with some sort of celestial? Atter is perhaps sharing his body with, or is possessed by, a demon?
“Disciple of Havoc” is interesting. Either (A) he was taught directly by Havoc but part of his job is to find & train his successor (!!!) or (B) They/Mium use(s) Disciple differently from our religions, or (C) the author doesn’t quite understand what “Disciple” means.
Akkad and Babylon are real-world locations in the middle east. They apparently also existed on Central and were burnt. They aren’t particularly religiously significant, except that they had early writing or were neighbors of civilizations that had early writing.
“Pits of damnation” seems to be a direct reference to Hell.
And while “weeping seraphs” makes sense, seraph being a category of angel, it’s not clear what “of fire and ash” means.
I think it may be Muim taking a jab at him. Havoc probably refers to the chaos that Nathan brings with him through collateral damages. And the disciple part is likely a jab at his devotion to his position and job that brings said havoc.
Happy New Year.
You too! Here’s to a good one 😉
Why anyone would WANT to protect Atter is beyond me. The psycho deserves a few good HVW to the face.
And yeah, Elizabeth, this is a really, really good time to get out of dodge while the getting’s good.
Because he’s a useful dirty bomb. And by protecting him you get to launch him again.
I mean, Elizabeth basically says she won’t protect Atter from Nathan.
The weird part is that she seems to genuinely view Sophie as a seperate matter, despite that she was there when Sophie sent out Atter, and she has disapproved of this plan every step of the way.
She disagreed openly with the plan to send him after Arron, she was clearly pissed when Rick confronted Sophie, and has repeatedly expressed disdain at the thought of fighting with Kally (when she reprimanded the other guy for his people not just retreating when Kally showed up).
Makes perfect sense to me. He’s very similar to Mium. His orders were to not kill Arron. So he won’t kill Arron. Atter is a powerful weapon that, without direct supervision, is still doing exactly what he was told. So he’s a violent sociopath. That can be worked around and used. If he’s a walking army of destruction that will obey my will in all things, then of course I’m going to want to keep him around.
Of course, Mium outclasses him, but only a few people know about Mium. To the vast majority of the cast, Atter is the ultimate trump card that only Nathan can handle.
Should “commandant” be either “command” or “commandment?
Fixed, thanks 🙂
Elizabeth’s expression at the end – one part “are you fucking kidding me” one part “uh, shit”.
Panel 11 “My business is is” drop the second is. Same bubble “Stand IN its way” missing the in.
Fixed, thanks 🙂
4: guilty conscience
11: my word is commandment
Are Ka’vil (8) and Ca’vil (11) supposed to be different?
It’s great to see someone respond seriously to Nathan’s speech. Clearly there is an organized system behind it, not just his personal preference.
Fixed, thanks 🙂
I think that the only people who haven’t taken Nathan seriously were Naomi and Mium, who, for their own reasons, take pretty much nothing that seriously.
Even Peter sort of took Nathan showing up seriously.