Page 415 – Kidd Commander!

Oscar Crooks

Hmmm, if Ulrich is gonna start hanging round Phineas then he’s going to need some upgrades to his arsenal, specifically his spirt, and lack of a star. Seeing as the derelict eye used to be stored in the left eye, and a lot of Ulrichs character symbolism and details come from his left eye, his metaphorical number is two, and the derelict’s eye’s other title is “the second”. And also that Ulrich now possesses a crystal flower ring, and The Second looks like a flower, and even matches the colour of the ring. Then there’s the fact that Raven and Ulrich are dopplegangers, somehow makes me feel like he’s somehow going to inherit The derelicts eye.
Though Ulrich isn’t really derelict (not yet anyway) so maybe “the tellers eye?” would be more appropriate?

Oh as a footnote I probably should have caught this sooner but Ravens and Crows are the same bird and only differ in name.

Aria

Ohhhh yeah, Ulrich’s got some training montages ahead of him for sure.

Ye! Their names are another reason I thought the sibling thing was a giveaway ages ago haha.

Amaaré

The tone here very much sounds as if the fight is over, did Hazard do that on purpose, or did he underestimate what he was messing with?

Aria

Hazard’s right where he wants to be
- caribouchat
  
  Hmmm. But his goal was also to maim or destroy Phineas, and Crow through her. Did he achieve this? Doesn’t look like it just now, should we panic?
  - Amaaré
    
    Phin did say her body had “broken” when this happened, so maybe Hazard thought he had succeeded, but didn’t count on his star fixing it.
    - caribouchat
      
      You may be right, but Aria goes on surprising us at every new page, lately…

A Wild Bird

“If I cannot eat it may I kill it, at least?” Anddddd I love Phineas’s uhhh…inner spirit thingy.

Aria

yay! she’s a brat but she’s real fun to write
- caribouchat
  
  So, Mana’s a “she”, and they speak about the derelict eye as an “it”. Is that out of contempt, or is there an other reason? And does gender even mean anything for a star?
  - Aria
    
    Gender is considered a human construct, so most ethereal stuff doesn’t use it! Mana taking a name and purposefully deciding to be considered a lady is another facet of her sort of trying to have some kind of control over her new vaguely human existence.
    
    That said, “they” is the most commonly used gender neutral pronoun in KC, so Phin and Mana using “it” is absolutely on purpose.
    - Wereael
      
      Interesting!

Amaaré

Oh wait, I just got a joke.
“Mana from heaven”

Aria

OH U

Sandman366

When the page rant links to what you linked to on the previous page.
(•_•) Hmm.
( •_•)>⌐■-■ Think I earned this one…
(⌐■_■) Cuz I feel like a boss now.

That said, Phin trying to do something nice for Raven, despite….um, everything…doesn’t even feel surprising either. (Here’s hoping divine punishment for this comment isn’t getting slammed in the feels in the next couple of pages.) Wonder if “And he…” is going to be followed with “doesn’t want to live anyway”, or something along those lines.

I do find it interesting that Derelict Eye can restore all that, but Mana can’t. Presumably something to do with their differing situations? (Specifically Mana being somehow bound to Phin? And Derelict especially now being freed from Raven?)

I also wonder what the significance is supposed to be for the coloration on Derelict’s speech bubbles. “That’s all you want?!” is pure purple (borderline pink, if not then definitely magenta), but seems like they’re mostly blue, and several are entirely blue. Is it something to do with volume/emphasis?

Aria

Yeah, Mana can’t do a lot of the stuff this other one can because she and Phineas are fused, so she’s not a full deity anymore. That’s why I took the time to have the star talk about how they’re both sort of hybrids on the last page! It does also help that the star is back to its regular form. More wiggle room for Divine Miracles and such
- Sandman366
  
  On the other hand, small-scale asskickery should be much more thorough, no? (For example, the fight that just happened. Considering the experience gap, she probably had pretty crap odds on that fight, and seems to have won.)
  - Aria
    
    Yep yep. Mana’s strength was downgraded, but Phin’s abilities are crazy high compared to regular humans. Commanders are already pretty well in control of their physical self for things like healing and stuff but Mana being there sort of enhances it even further.
    - caribouchat
      
      So, was repairing her body broken “in every conceivable way” still too much for her? Or did she have an other purpose in asking the derelict eye?
    - Aria
      
      Mana’s energy COULD heal up Phineas if she had the time I think. Like, if Phineas was mortally injured but we got her to a somewhat stable condition and somewhere safe to rest she’d be ready to go again a lot sooner than a regular person would. Even that bit a minute ago where she got skewered wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, between her commanding and Mana backing her up. She was able to talk and everything haha.
      
      Frankly, this particular limitation on both the healing and the “you’ll literally explode if Mana possesses your physical body” details are largely for the sake of the story. Phin shirks the rules a lot, being able to stop her own bleeding and status-effect resistance and all that, but a card up her sleeve that lets her instantly heal up whenever she wants or turn into Actual God to destroy everybody would kinda break the game a little bit haha.