Q&A: November 2022

Hello again, dear readers! Time to ANSWER some QUESTIONS. 

It feels like I've been saying this every other month, but unfortunately the tier rewards are going to come in a little bit late again due to me being afflicted by the worst cold known to humankind for one week and a half or so (don't worry, it wasn't the 'rona). I was out of commission for a good chunk of the month, so... them's the breaks sometimes. I'm hoping to get the commentary out at some point during the next week, so be on the lookout for that.

As always, thank you so much to all the patrons that took their time to ask a question!

1. What was the main inspiration behind Edolon?

AUSTIN: The main inspiration behind Edolon is actually present in the comic itself! 

EDDIE: How's that for a plot twist?

AUSTIN: The character "Figment" that's featured in the comic as one of Laivan's dog OCs is where Edolon originally spawned from, believe it or not - basically as a troll gijinka of him. Ditto for Laivan and the mentioned "Abel", both of whom started as old animal characters Heather made growing up and then got transposed into VE and referenced through Laivan. I think this also clears up why his name is Edolon pretty succinctly: eidolon, phantoms and visions, idealization, all that.

Originally, Edolon and Laivan had more connective tissue as characters, with Edolon being much younger, but obviously that didn't pan out as the comic evolved. Even Figment is now more of a stand-in for... Well, you'll just have to see.

As far as current Edolon goes? Highly recommend taking a look at my old essay about Edolon as a character archetype to see the characters I associate with him and used as inspiration.

2. What is Arcjec’s favorite Weezer song?

AUSTIN: It changes based on his mood. Much like me, I can only imagine he has a long-term toxic relationship to the band that he can never quite break from. That said, if there's any one song, I think it might be something a little unexpected from the sea of Blue and Pinkerton. Maybe a Maladroit cut like Burndt Jamb or something from Everything Will Be Alright In The End like Go Away.

EDDIE: Oh my god. The only good Weezer song I like to listen to, Burndt Jamb. Arcjec my brother-in-arms.

3. What were Arcjec's old comics about? We see him drawing one in Ellsee's flashback and I wanna know what was going on inside that soda filled think pan.

AUSTIN: They were tales about the exploits of his and his friends' superhero personas! The same ones they portray in the video game they used to play together.

4. What's the nicest thing Murrit did for Dismas besides reuniting him with Jentha or saving his soul from a bet?

EDDIE: Murrit didn't save Dismas' soul from a bet, actually. If you go back to check their introduction page, the exact wording goes like this: 

You have been the proud OWNER OF HIS SOUL — now in more ways than one — since that fateful poker game, about two sweeps back or so.

This is pretty much just a grandstanding, overly opaque way of saying that Murrit beat Dismas' ass in a poker game, leading to him being indebted to her and thus the start of their working relationship as Dismas paid off his debt. They're also being cheeky here, alluding to the fact that they're now dating, as the concept of a "soul" has deeply romantic connotations on Repiton. Whew, possessive much?

That aside, this is a very tough one to answer! Firstly, because it's hard to pass judgment calls on this kinda stuff - I don't think relationships usually have a big, clearly defined Nicest Thing You've Ever Done for the other person. Secondly, in order to really get at it, we'd have to go into things that are canon but not text yet. But hey, let's consider this a 'sclusy scoop into the big 'ole Dismurrit conundrum that will get expanded on in the comic in the future!

I would say the "nicest" thing Murrit's done for Dismas is helping him get his life back on track after they met. Dismas was in a rough place, with no way to support himself due to his living situation and being marked as dead in the Corporate system, just kind of aimlessly toiling in the literal mines. But then! A chance meeting through a poorly thought-out poker game, several twists and turns later, and the rest is history. 

There's a reason Murrit calls him their "partner in crime", because that's the origin of their relationship and also what they are at their best - a cohesive unit willingly working together for their mutual benefit, pushing each other in tough but necessary ways. And also, y'know, they do care about each other despite everything. If you wanted to get tropey with it, you could maybe say they had an "enemies to lovers" things going on, as is befitting of a traditional kismesissitude. So romantic!

Anyway, that's all to say that you can't very well be proper partners in crime if your so-called partner is not standing on equal footing with you, especially after you got your entire world rocked so hard you decided to put your crime dad in jail and have a dramatic makeover. Murrit might try to hide their more caring impulses behind an abrasive or transactional veneer, but they ARE still there. 

And hey, if Murrit hadn't gone out of his way to get Dismas more solidly on his feet, he wouldn't have been able to extend that same help to Jentha later on.

5. Whose classpect (out of the main 12) was the hardest to pin down and whose was the easiest?

AUSTIN: No comment on cast smells because I don't want to start another round of fandom discourse, but I think the classpect question is funny because they're tied to parallels, much like everything else in this comic tends to be. 

Everyone's classpect has changed at least once over the nearly twelve years this comic has existed, but Arcjec's role and the ideas behind it have always been consistent, even if the methods of showing it changed. He started as a Prince of Breath, but I shifted him to a Bard soon after some reconsideration of how he was being handled. He hasn't been touched since.

On the flipside, Calder never had a permanent classpect until near the time the comic started up again. He bounced between Doom and I think even Life at one point before we finally decided on Void, and his class was always a debate. He feels like an ideal candidate for a "destroyer" class, but he really isn't one? He's a conduit, an orchestrator of his own darkness. So we just said fuck it and assigned him Maid because not only did it fit, but even though gendered classes are stupid and don't matter, the title was also fittingly karmic paired with his ties to old world systems and his misogyny. I think we came to the right conclusion there.

6. We've seen two members of the Mirthamaniacs with non-purple blood relationships. Is it fair to assume that this is a common (if unspoken) practice amongst the majority of the mirthies, as a bit of an communal open secret? Or do most members drink the blood hierarchy kool-aid?

EDDIE: While I'm sure Taz and Vilcus are far from the only mirthies who've ever had partners/romantic interest in trolls of warmer blood shades (that would be very silly as a blanket statement), I definitely wouldn't go as far as to say that it's either common or a communal "open secret".

From what we've seen in the comic, the fact that Vilcus had a partner that was so far "below" them on the hemospectrum was a GIANT deal that ended with the death of that loved one. If this was a matter more in the vein of "you can do it, just keep it behind closed doors", Pozzol wouldn't have gone out of his way to do what he did - Vilcus' actions were extremely against the Mirthamaniacs' tenets, she definitely wasn't supposed to be going around bonding with redbloods.

Would the creed have been more lenient if he'd picked someone closer to the purple shade? Maybe so! Either way, this is a kind of personal matter that any self-preserving mirthamaniac would try to take to their grave, knowing full well the probable consequences of such a "betrayal" being made public.

Aaaand that's all, folks. Hope you're having a great Thursday, and we'll be seeing you next week for the comic commentary!

- Eddie and Austin