Blindsprings

Yet another new character? I hope I will be able to remember all of those.

It seems we are here to see Harris Daily life now.

Yay, new comic! Without Harris, but with global catastrophe. Reminds me a bit of the real world. Damnit, I thought it was fantasy.

I wonder if this catastrophe is why Harris kidnapped Tammy to begin with? Perhaps he's thinking she can avert it?

My idea is that the reason than the ruler must be of her line is because otherwise the catastrophe will happen.

Maybe the catastrophe is because Harris kidnapped Tammy? Thus upsetting the natural order of things?

I think we have some answers now, and they take the form of a trope. (Don't mouse over it if you don't want to be spoiled.)

The Magic Goes Away.

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

Now that is interesting.

In which Harris admits that he lost the princess.

Regarding the Magic Going Away, that does sound rather disastrous, especially as it seems that their world is built on and powered by Academic magic.

And it does seem likely that the disaster is caused by rejection of the spirits, or the change in rule: after all, "To break [the] Covenent with Them would spell disaster for this land".

My hope, then, is that the protagonists—and I do think that Harris is one of them—will find a compromise, a way of bringing Orphic magic back into their society without losing the gifts of Academic magic. A way that retains the advances of their civilisation while renewing contact with the spirits. (It helps that such a way might very well improve the lot of Orphics in general.)

Will this mean that once again Orphics will rule, or might some other arrangement be made?

Indeed, I suspect that Tammy is already on the way to reawakening the Orphic side of things, given her actions in the Blindsprings.

My Games & Writing

Poor Imogen has to talk to her father. :( Well, at least he seems to consider her more important than earthquakes ... is that a good or a bad thing?

The talking-to begins.

To my mind, in this scene, Imogen's father seems stern, inflexible and disconnected from what's important to Imogen—but also genuinely concerned about her.

My Games & Writing

Concerned about her ... or his reputation? I dunno, to me he looks kinda cold.

If it were solely his reputation that he were concerned with, then I might expect that to bleed into his arguments: I might expect him to talk about how her performance looks, or affects the family, or his position.

Instead, his arguments focus on Imogen—"I'm trying to understand you" and "you fritter away these opportunities", for two examples. He talks to her, and when she gives no useful response, asks for a promise that she will do her best. Indeed, I'm encouraged by the simple fact that he asks her why she's doing poorly in school—if he were concerned solely with himself, I might expect him to simply demand there and then that she do better, or pronounce that her performance isn't good enough.

Of course, my reading could well be completely off—we haven't yet seen much of him, and subsequent pages could very much change my impression.

As to him being cold, I read him more as distant and stern, I think.

My Games & Writing

He's also very strongly racist against orphics—or at least orphic culture. And yet, as the alt text notes, he doesn't seem to realize how hard it would be to be an orphic in an academist school.

I think his racism takes the shape of "orphics are evil witches who enslaved us for their own greed, but you're only an orphic if you insist on acting like one." That's why he was so pissed that his wife was teaching their daughters about their heritage. He sees it like someone teaching a bunch of German kids about how great the Nazis were. Take away the teachings, and they're just German.

Agreed.

And technically he might be right about being "Orphic by teaching, not nature": after all, if an Orphic doesn't know how to address the spirits, or otherwise perform Orphic magics, then they might be little different to any other person.

My Games & Writing

Considering how he and others treat the orphics, I rather get a "You were born as Jew, but I'll forgive you if you convert to Christianity and embrace my nazi ideology" vibe.

Sort of, perhaps—but with the addendum that it seems that the people who became the Academists may well have had a very understandable grievance against the Orphics who they overthrew.

It seems to me to be something like this: "You oppressed us; now we've overthrown you, and will vilify you beyond the truth of your original acts against us. However, if you give up on identifying with those who oppressed us, we're willing to (sort of) accept you."

It's difficult to say at this point to what degree the Orphic rulers really were oppressors, but based on some of the previous flashbacks (the page to which I linked several posts ago, for example) there do seem to have been people who, at the time of Orphic rule, saw the Orphics as oppressors.

My Games & Writing

Without seeing the actual oppression taking place, it is hard to determine whether their grievance was valid, or whether they felt oppressed in the same way a child feels oppressed by parents making sensible decisions like "You don't get to eat only candy". The child comparison comes to mind as the academic rebels don't seem to know much (or anything at all) about the orphic rule and conditions thereof. Just meddling in things they have no understanding of. (On the other hand, one wonders why the orphics never told them about it.)

One of the greatest things about this webcomic is that we don't know a lot of things. Therefore, suspense. I am still not sure whether the fairies are good or evil, or maybe just completely neutral like a force of nature.

Looks like there's other problems at work here.

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

Wow, Imogen's stepmom seems like fun!

Trust you? The only person I can trust is myself.

Oh, the little sister is adowable.

On the other hand, I'm hesitant to entirely dismiss the grievances of the Academists: they may not have known that Orphic rule was important to the stability of the world (or region—I'm not sure that we know how wide-spread the issue is), but as you point out, the Orphics don't seem to have disseminated much knowledge regarding just why it was important that they rule.

But I do agree that there's likely quite a bit that we've yet to see, and which may well change our readings of events significantly.

(As to the spirits, my reading at the moment is "positive to neutral", with a degree of otherness that gives them a perspective quite different to that of humanity.

But then, that's not that far off from the initial image of another set of "spirits" in a webcomic... ;))

As to the most recent comic, I'm inclined to think that this at least lends a bit more support to my reading of Imogen's father: her step-mother seems to imply that he has a habit of easily (if perhaps distantly) forgiving her disobediences.

And yes, that is a very cute and tiny step-sister. ^_^

edited 23rd Jun '15 3:51:01 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

My Games & Writing

Actually, I got the impression that even if the precise details were kept secret, the general "We need to be in charge or the spirits will get mad" was well known. It's just that when you have no proof that spirits exist, it seems like a blatantly obvious lie to keep the Orphics in power.

Ah, looking back, you may well be right.

My Games & Writing

"Wait, you're saying Anthony Carver is going to win the 'Worst Parent in Webcomics' award? Screw him, that prize is mine!"

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)