Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat

[Jitter]

This is not really about the page but the sketchbook video (which is lovely as always). Is there a thread I should be writing in instead?

On the opening page my first impression was that Lalli has shot Reynir!  It’s not (Minna mentions Reynir being “sad for some reason”) but still it looks like that to me.

But almost at the end on a page of pose practice there is a sweet sketch of Mikkel and Sigrun sitting back to back. Mikkel is reading a book and Sigrun is leaning on him and looking like she’s simply enjoying being close to Mikkel

[thegreyarea]

On the opening page my first impression was that Lalli has shot Reynir!  It’s not (Minna mentions Reynir being “sad for some reason”) but still it looks like that to me.

But almost at the end on a page of pose practice there is a sweet sketch of Mikkel and Sigrun sitting back to back. Mikkel is reading a book and Sigrun is leaning on him and looking like she’s simply enjoying being close to Mikkel

Well, that link to the video is in the latest page... I checked and my first impression was the same! "Oh no! Lalli shot Reynir!" but it seems that it (thank gods) never crossed Minna's mind! The whole book is fantastic, and Mikkel+Sigrun work great (even they already realized that!). There's also a very menacing bear, an even more menacing big eye and... lot's of food!!!

[Vulpes]

...
On the opening page my first impression was that Lalli has shot Reynir!  It’s not (Minna mentions Reynir being “sad for some reason”) but still it looks like that to me.
...

... I checked and my first impression was the same! "Oh no! Lalli shot Reynir!" but it seems that it (thank gods) never crossed Minna's mind! ...

Oh good, it's not just me!  :'D

The bear is fabulous... lots of lovely things. And the covers are really elegant.

[Alkia]

[quote author=Jitter link=topic=6.msg171724#msg171724 date=1588702721
But almost at the end on a page of pose practice there is a sweet sketch of Mikkel and Sigrun sitting back to back. Mikkel is reading a book and Sigrun is leaning on him and looking like she’s simply enjoying being close to Mikkel
[/quote]
ooh yes, I loved that one as well!!! Minna's youtube videos are always so calming and, simultaneously, inspiring.
Also, yess, Vulpes, the bear was awesome!! I liked the final page of the sketchbook too, with all the flowers and whatnot.
Should there be a new thread made discussing Minna's youtube videos? does that exist already? Since it is a relatively new thing and they are multiplying so rapidly (and are such lovely topics of oohing and aahing)

[Jitter]

It could be good to have a thread, could also link the videos there.

[Vulpes]

It could be good to have a thread, could also link the videos there.

I second (or third or whatever) this - not only for oohing and aahing but perhaps some of the folks with artistic skills might also have comments on technique or media.

[thorny]

Suddenly larger and different shape!

-- yes, that'll freak a canine out --

(I once seriously upset my parents' new dog by walking into the house wearing a backpack. She didn't know what I was, and she didn't like it.)

[LooNEY_DAC]

Ah, but still more important is that Reynir's mask managed to avoid disappearing!

[LilG]

I know this probably isn’t the board where I should ask this, but I don’t really know another board more suited for this.

I was wondering if anyone knows if the Dusklings from the last chapters of the first adventure were supposed to be trollified children/babies (if Minna has stated this)?
Because, there seems to be a lot of evidence pointing towards that: the fact that they can speak and the way they do it, their ability to recognize a weapon (“GuN!”), their stature (tiny) and Minna calling them trolls.

I think it’s quite depressing if they’re truly rash children, more so if they’re babies (from a hospital’s maternity wing or something like that), considering that the way Minna described their painful transformation was them huddling alone (as in probably no adults around them ‘cuz they were dead or a troll), perhaps abandoned, in a basement with a small window to stimulate their “shell” growth (mentioned here under “trolls” section).
I haven’t really given the Notoros much thought up until today, because I always thought of them as beasts, not trolls (perhaps rash bunnies or hedgehogs, as per Minna’s design). But, after looking again through the “Key posts” some days ago and rereading those last chapters (I somehow always remembered all the Notoro’s speech bubbles as being black, not just the “manipulative” ones, hence me thinking they were beasts) the evidence just started started piling up and I couldn’t really think of them like cute hedgehog abominations anymore. I suppose the silver lining to this would be that they don’t really seem to care (they don’t beg for mercy or scream, just “FoOd?”). Maybe the rash has a different effect on children’s minds, or maybe they’re just so broken mentally that they just don’t care anymore, I dunno...

[LilG]

Also, I couldn’t quite put my finger on what animal they reminded of before, except in form (bunnies, rats, hedgehogs), but it finally clicked with me what their behavior reminded me of... CATS (“FoOd? YeS FoOd”).

[JoB]

I was wondering if anyone knows if the Dusklings from the last chapters of the first adventure were supposed to be trollified children/babies (if Minna has stated this)?
Because, there seems to be a lot of evidence pointing towards that: the fact that they can speak and the way they do it, their ability to recognize a weapon (“GuN!”), their stature (tiny) and Minna calling them trolls.

They are trolls, thus by definition former humans, as evidenced by their possession of speech. Even more striking, because it's so highly unusual even for trolls, was their capability to have a sorta meaningful dialogue with Emil - normally, a troll noticing a human nearby will come screaming and tearing at him, a stance that beasts can reproduce.

I'm not aware of any Word of God confirming that the pre-Rashification humans resulting in the Notoros had any special trait to earmark them for that, much less being any specific variant of underage. Though a fair number of Minnions theorize along the latter lines.

[wavewright62]

I echo what JoB said.  Every troll is sad, and the haunting cries of loss and loneliness coming over the airwaves distress me too.  Are the Notoros children?  Maybe, but the same hand-waving fantasy physics that gives rise to grossly elongated bodies can give rise to shrunken ones, or shapeless blobs, just as easily. 
Minna has verified that similar conditions may give rise to a cluster of trolls. 
We've seen with the Covid-19 pandemic that epidemiologists have been sequencing the various strains of the virus in order to establish a timeline for mutations and therefore trace the path of spread of specific strains of the virus.  Here in NZ that's being used to tie cases to clusters.
It's always bothered me to have clusters of similar trolls (like notoros or bladderbarbies) if only 0.5% of the infected population trollifies, but perhaps this technique gives science to it - it's possible that specific strains of Rash have mutated to trollify a greater percentage of its victims than the overall average.

[lumilaulu]

We don't know much about the science of trollification. Perhaps there's some genetic component (of a Rash strain  and/or the people exposed to it), or specific circumstances, or a combination of several factors, that could mean a specific group of people sheltering together, f.ex. a family, would have a higher than average chance of completing trollification and turning into similar trolls.

[thorny]

We don't know much about the science of trollification.

I suspect there's a really good reason for that.

It's story-magic, not science; and I don't think Minna has actually tried to work out anything remotely resembling a coherent quasi-scientific basis for it. I think she writes what she wants to put in the story, and then sometimes works out a partial explanation to fit, but mostly just handwaves it.

[thegreyarea]

I echo what JoB said.  Every troll is sad, and the haunting cries of loss and loneliness coming over the airwaves distress me too.  Are the Notoros children?  Maybe, but the same hand-waving fantasy physics that gives rise to grossly elongated bodies can give rise to shrunken ones, or shapeless blobs, just as easily. 
Minna has verified that similar conditions may give rise to a cluster of trolls. 
We've seen with the Covid-19 pandemic that epidemiologists have been sequencing the various strains of the virus in order to establish a timeline for mutations and therefore trace the path of spread of specific strains of the virus.  Here in NZ that's being used to tie cases to clusters.
It's always bothered me to have clusters of similar trolls (like notoros or bladderbarbies) if only 0.5% of the infected population trollifies, but perhaps this technique gives science to it - it's possible that specific strains of Rash have mutated to trollify a greater percentage of its victims than the overall average.

My headcanon (with nothing to support it) is that when a group of infected people develop the Rash simultaneously and are kept (for some reason) at close distance of each other, there's a higher chance of a magical "resonance" or "tuning". This connection between infected persons, or animals, reduces mortality and makes their mutations "align", creating those groups that we saw.