YMMV / Chasing Butterflies

• Awesome Moments:
  • Croque knowingly sacrifices his life against Hive to save Feyf and the core group, allowing them to flee Hive's chronoegine.
  • Sal killing the duplicitous Papa Sugar to rescue his friends, showing a drive and fire when they're involved, especially after vile Papa Sugar has revealed himself to be.
  • Ramus firing off a javelin that goes right in Kindly's skull, killing the wicked Gentleman instantly after all he's done.
  • After being on the run, the team starts fighting back heavily against Hive's forces, and completely shred them before deciding to finish off Hive himself in chapter 11.
  • Quine sends Rudely on a one-way ticket to a giant eel's maw, giving him only a single one-liner before finishing him: Mincemeat.
  • The heroes are able to fight back against Mr. Hives and even bring him down in his Skycavity. And then Feyf is able to subdue him and send them both to a fiery demise in an epic Heroic Sacrifice that takes the rotting bastard with her.
• Complete Monster:
  • Mr. Hive is the sadistic operator of the looming Skycavity, traveling the endless time stream known as the Kinematic Envelope seeking those endowed with Steam. When Mr. Hive finds a lost xeno roaming the Kinematic Envelope, he offers them "deals" for one of the antiques onboard his Vanity Rail, tricking them into giving up their Steam while leaving out the fact that it will kill them and trap their essences in his Steam cane, powering himself up in the process. Taking the xenos Feyf and Croque as abused slaves, Mr. Hive treats them like property and kills Croque when he rebels, later breaking Feyf's legs when she escapes from him, promising her that she'll never leave his side again. When his attempts to steal the Steam of the young xeno Sal fail, Mr. Hive goes on a hunt across the Kinematic Envelope for him, wiping out a ship of sailors and torturing the survivor for information before recruiting the murderous "Gentlemen" to his side and giving them free rein to go on a massacre of Xemidas. As Sal continues to evade him, Mr. Hive, killing his own minions and promising to murder Sal's friends in front of him, threatens to drop the Skycavity on top of Xemidas and wipe out thousands of innocents, refusing to let anything stop him from cowardly sacrificing as many people as it takes to escape the Kinematic Envelope himself for good.
  • The Kind and Rude Gentlemen, nicknamed Kindly and Rudely, are a pair of reptilian xenos. Despite their differing personalities, the two share an intense sadism, manifesting in their operation in the slave trade while also enjoying murder for hire and fun, sometimes being paid in captives they can torture to death. Allying with the wicked Mr. Hive, Kindly and Rudely lead an attack on the peaceful city of Xemidas, crashing their chronofreighter into the gardens and playing a game of who can slaughter the most innocents before the other. Even after Kindly's death, Rudely kidnaps Ransa to salvage a payday, mocking the other xeno how he will deliver him to a chef who enjoys cooking his victims alive.
• Funny Moments:
  • In a word from Ransa? "Fuck mushrooms."
  • Sal dryly commenting that after all he's been through, when the butterflies are pointed out to him? "I want to kill the butterflies. With something acidic."
  • Xemidas is hilarious. It's a religious society that holds snails as religiously venerated creatures, leading to moments such as discovering they make burgers from holy snails that offer their lives so others may eat of their flesh and be cleansed.
  • Fitch badly wants a snail plushy, but Xemidas' economic system runs on the confession of sins to receive a snail item to purify you. Upon learning that Fitch refused to eat a snail burger because it was disgusting, she is instructed to take all the stuffed snails. She's delighted.
  • The ruler of Xemidas is an enormous slug in holy robes called the Gastropope and nobody is quite sure if it's sapient or if the Xemidas cultists are just really in sync with 'interpreting' its wishes. Even the dialogue notes when someone says something to it, "it was a slug and thus incapable of speech."
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • The Vitriolic Best Buds relationship between Fitch and Sal can be adorable. Fitch threatens him constantly, in increasingly inventive ways all while making it clear how much they worry about one another and the care underneath it.
  • Chapter 6 contain a moment between Ransa and Fitch, who have a quiet period to reflect and affirm how much they means to one another as friends, as well as how much they love Quine and Sal.
  • The heroes are given a ceremony in chapter 12 with the people of Xemidas lavishing praise on them for saving their city, complete with the Gastropope sliming them in gratitude.
  • From the above, Fitch asks to keep her visitor snail, which the Gastropope allows. Fitch has a Cuteness Overload that results in her flying into the air, hugging her little snail pal.
• Moral Event Horizon: The Gentlemen cross it in the attack on Xemidas, slaughtering hundreds of peaceful xenos and then making a game to see who can butcher the most innocents between them.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Mr. Hive is a horrific cross between Beelzebub and Dr. Facilier. A vicious, ruthless slaver who takes others for their Steam into horrid conditions about his great Skycavity, Hive resembles a rotting corpse surrounded by flies. Oh, and any hint of becoming a problem? You're fed to his rot-flies.
  • The attack on Xemidas where the peaceful snail cultists are slaughtered en masse by Hive's 'Gentlemen' allies is written to be as harrowing as possible.
• Tear Jerker: Feyf, former slave who has grown incredibly close to the group, sacrifices her life to destroy Hive for good with the heroes somberly honoring her end.
• Ugly Cute: Snails are not typically held as cuties....until you get to Xemidas and you see how adorable the little slugs in shells can be.