Page 294 – Kidd Commander!

Sage

gotten soft? I wonder what that means exactly. How were they before hand?

Sage

I am extremly happy with each and every update: and love all the information each page gives!

Aria

Thank you very much!

astrocom

I can’t take it anymore! Your story telling is too subtle for me! I WANT TO KNOW ALL THE THINGS

and by “can’t take it anymore” I of course mean I’ll be back for the next update. I’m just confused.

Aria

Hee I’m glad to hear it!

Wereael

I doubt it destroys your soul. Change, maybe. But destroy?

Lex

Aaaa the art in the sixth panel is very pretty

Amaaré

Well…shit.
I mean, great page! But…yeah…those revelations…

Joe ST

HELLLLLL this is amazing <3

caribouchat

“Are those your words or his”: I HATE being told that I’m under the influence of someone else. Even when it’s true. Anyway, when you love/live with someone, there’s no way not to be at least partly under their influence and they under yours…

Sabriel415

After living with an emotionally abusive father for far too long, just reading those words makes me flinch. But it’s well used, here, especially since Aria told us that Hazard was manipulative, a few pages back. And I think you’re right- after a while you can’t NOT be influenced by someone, even if the person isn’t physically there. And if Jo has been trying to make peace with her decision for 14 years, it makes sense that she’d pick up some on Gideon’s arguments, even if she doesn’t fully agree with them.
- Aria
  
  The weird thing about Hazard and Jocasta is their relationship was healthy before everything happened. They’ve fought before but it was never outright hateful like this. With anyone else it would be out of character for either of them to get wound up the way they are, but they’re not used to fielding this from each other so it’s tougher.
  
  Also, even way after you get past something rough, certain things or people can get you right back in the thick of it like you haven’t grown at all. It’s weird what a brain will get itself stuck on haha
Aria

I’ve said it before but comments like these are really reassuring! Jo’s response to that was going to be along the lines of “don’t patronize me,” but while I was editing I thought that she wouldn’t have even bothered because they both know what he’s doing without her needing to label it. They’ve had arguments like this before probably, hah. I try hard to stay accurate to the characters while still getting the right information across to the reader but I worry a lot that more subtle stuff like this might not make it through. Seeing folks discuss it among themselves makes me feel much more confident haha.

Wereael

It’d be cool to have Phin’s target (eye?) jacket as a shirt- and oh nvm just saw your post about it on twitter. ummm… I guess it’d be nice to have a shirt with a focus on sunflowers? I’m not sure what words there’d be on there, you decide. I’m still not entirely sure what the sunflowers mean symbolically yet but they look pretty so there’s that.

Aria

I do want to do those again eventually! Actually I’d like to do some orange hoodies with the target on the back, but it’s surprisingly difficult to find printers that use the color orange, and printing on the backs of things is also apparently a rare thing. I’m keeping my eyes open though!
- Wereael
  
  Thanks! An actual hoodie sounds even better.

Oscar Crooks

Okay so i was wondering if the name Jocasta had any plot significance and it turns out there’s this Greek myth. A queen named Jocasta had this child called Oedipus, who was someday destined to fill his father (and become king) also he would marry his mom. I’ve cut out basically all of the details, this didn’t mean much at the time, but then I noticed one of Phineas symbols is a little crown. Crowns tend to belong to kings; so I’m making the assumption obtaining the sun is a power metaphorically equivalent to being a king and Goddamn do you do this kind of research for every character or what.

Aria

heee, I was an English major so I have quite a few weird little things stockpiled that I plan to reference (shamelessly steal from shhhh). We spent aaaages studying Greek plays and I loved the name Jocasta, and even though Hubris existed as a character way before I read Oedipus Rex I thought the title fit pretty well. Our Jo doesn’t end up marrying her own son, fortunately, but among other things both characters’ lives are pretty thoroughly fucked up by uncaring gods and arrogant men.

The names of Phineas and the rest of her crew, except for a few last names, are all extremely obscure references that probably only make sense to me and don’t have any bearing on the story whatsoever. But Crow and his folks were all chosen carefully! I won’t go on about it too much though because if I start I’ll end up rambling on hah. Good catch~