Barbarous (netcomic) SPOILERS

[Jitter]

Whoopsie back to the question of Hale’s continued survival 😨

[Opaque]

Haha! Called it. I knew Hale will live on to do more crazy shenanigans. He's definitely going to cause more mischief for poor Leeds. And Percy too.

[Jitter]

Recalling the Girl with a skeleton hand short story about the ghost mice, Hale seems to be in a bit of tight spot just now.

Although Calbraith seemed to take Cecilia’s announcement of Hale already having been dealt with no alarm. We don’t know much about the Pillars, but surely they would at least show some interest, if a student of their academy was presumed dead? Even a delinquent student? Right? So Calbraith perhaps knows a tiny bit more about Cecilia and her ways than the readers. That, or the world is pretty bleak in this onw.

[thorny]

OK, who's this kid with the sword?

Is he the same blond with the sword as in the first couple of pages of this book? Artwork aside, I'm partly faceblind, and not good at identifying people in or out of comics. The one in the most recent page looks a lot younger to me.

[Jitter]

I think the one in the beginning is Pillar Calbraith? So this (Cameron?) is someone else. He is the one getting a Bind with a familiar, I think the dog-like one, in the beginning of this chapter. I wonder if he’s Perrcy’s ex from the Academy, we don’t see his (the ex’s) face or hair, but body type seems similar.

As an asside, does Cecilia (Celia? I always forget) call Leeds and Percy her toys?

[thorny]

I'm pretty sure that's Cameron with the sword cutting up the whatever-that-was earlier in this book; he's got the familiar with him that Cameron was given just before that.

But the boy in the most recent panel looks like somebody else to me; and looks considerably younger than Cameron does. Maybe that's just me, though.

-- Cecilia calls them her people right before that. She might just be using a figure of speech; or she might actually be thinking of them as her toys; hard to tell. But she's at least distinguishing "people" from "artifact." Whether they can really trust her I don't know; I'm dubious about what she's up to.

As an aside of my own: I wonder whether Cameron's familiar Fortuna is really as blank in mind as of eyes.

[Jitter]

He’s got the same clothes and hair - I’m sure it’s Cameron. There are some other occasions in the comic where expressions of emotion are drawn in a different chibi-like style (in this and other comics, I found it very alienating at first but I’m used to it now).

Fortuna is horrifying! I know it’s not a dog, but a thing in the shape of dog, but the blank eyes 😢 It’s clearly alert, but especially the final panel on p 3/6 seems to indicate more than that. What if they are sentient, just unable to communicate the fact in any way? I shudder to think of an existence like that.

Also, the woman-shaped familiar… doesn’t feel right at all. I’m not sure the wizards in this world are a benevolent elite at all.

[Jitter]

More Fortuna not looking exactly empty 😨

[thorny]

Okay, apparently that is Cameron. But did he chase Cecilia off, or was she leaving anyway? And who's busted, Hale? Must be, if Cameron didn't see anybody else to say that to; and Hale seems to be being taken off in custody -- but if Cameron's supposed to be the one who's busting Hale, how are they explaining Hale being tied to the chair when Cameron gets there?

And yes to Fortuna not looking exactly empty.

And yes, to not being at all certain the Academy wizards are benevolent. It looks kind of mixed. On the one hand, they're right, people shouldn't be making conscious creatures who can be commanded. On the other, if it happens anyway, their response is to destroy them?

[Jitter]

I didn't really get a very favorable impression of Cameron to begin with, but this settles it. I don't like Cameron.

[thorny]

Me neither. But I do wonder what he's been handed.

I also wonder whether it's what he's been handed that's the test, or whether it isn't actually anything that matters and they just want to find out whether he's discreet about it.

And is he immediately calling somebody up to grumble about it? Or is he either not calling anybody, or calling about something else entirely and possibly innocuous?

[Jitter]

In either case, he's being a brat. Room for character development right there!

[Jitter]

Hey, some interesting information about the magic system. AND Leeds. Not bad!

[thorny]

Anybody else think Leeds looks sort of threatening in that last panel?

[thorny]

Now that's interesting. I'd been thinking of Leeds as knowing what he wants, but as having his wants very often overriden by the desires of whoever's closest. But this makes it seem as if he has trouble telling what he wants himself from what those around him want; or at least, that's what his creator (if that's who that is) thinks is going on. I'd think that would give a very disturbed sense of self.

But then, we ourselves sometimes have trouble telling what we want, or what we would want if we hadn't been taught otherwise, from what we've been taught that we ought to want --