Dark Science #157 - Puppet Theater
Added 2024-12-02 09:59:41 +0000 UTCI'm sure this is fine. Definitely. Probably.
Comments
Yeah! Maybe some walls are cracking...
Sen
2024-12-18 03:34:22 +0000 UTCI only just realised something. Vonnie calls Kim "The Cyborg" at the beginning with Volo asking her about it. Then at the end, Volo asks about "The Cyborg" and Vonnie says "KIM can wait".
Charles Wilkinson
2024-12-18 03:29:42 +0000 UTC(looks back to 107 because of this) (reads a few strips forward from there) (freshly traumatised again, dammit Sen!)
Stephen Wells
2024-12-03 15:04:52 +0000 UTCThe way Asmodea's speech bubbles have gone wobbly by the end of page, combined with the way they have dark speech bubbles when they're mask on/in character and light speech bubbles when they're mask off/out of character, is somehow causing me a little bit more psychic damage each time I look at the strip again. I think I need soup.
Stephen Wells
2024-12-03 14:59:24 +0000 UTCThis is the reality/realm of Volo when doing Thematic Extraction. We first see it way back in Dark Science #107, when Asmodea #1 is invading Kim's dream, using Thematic Extraction to isolate the Dark Equation in her mind.
Sen
2024-12-03 01:47:17 +0000 UTCThe short answer is that Thematic Extraction, in the case of Volo, is a Dark Sciency coping mechanism for being cast as Asmodea in the first place.
Sen
2024-12-03 01:44:38 +0000 UTCThis is just one of Volo's powers, presumably the one Asmodea used on herself to split into three people, splitting an individual into different personas. The casting/recasting subjected to Valerie and Hayakawa is, while currently mysterious, just institutional. As for Bogan, I'm afraid he's always been a shitbird. He's introduced as someone tricking and stealing from Kim, and the only instance of him helping Kim was after coercion by Melchior and being backed into a corner. He's also constantly rude and dismissive toward her, and the moment he doesn't think she's useful in attaining his goals, he rats her out. Bogan's not really more shitty now, it's just that someone like that will be more overtly shitty when they're in a position of authority.
Sen
2024-12-03 01:42:48 +0000 UTCIt explains Bogan's face heel turn - it was so abrupt, and so total, he was a caricature afterwards.
James Churchill
2024-12-03 01:28:13 +0000 UTCThe art style changes because of the shift in tone of the conversation - the first half is all business, so no need for anything else but basic shapes and colouring; by the end of it the characters have reconnected to their more human aspects, so the art style shifts back to a more vivid and nuanced approach like the rest of the panels. The art matches the tone of the conversation, and shows how Vonnie and Asmodea start off thinking like Dark Scientists, but end up closer to their human side by the end of the scene. (Which I think has been done very well here, great work Sen 🙌)
Benny Factor
2024-12-03 00:41:43 +0000 UTCThe first half of this page looks slightly different from the usual style: there's black outlines and starker cel-shading. I don't think I've ever seen this before in Dark Science, does it mean anything...?
PLM
2024-12-02 18:43:35 +0000 UTCThis is cute and wholesome and also creepy. I love it.
Hugh Eckert
2024-12-02 18:36:06 +0000 UTCIt's super effective!
Hugh Eckert
2024-12-02 18:35:42 +0000 UTChow is this straight and gay at the same time, are you a witch?
MJ
2024-12-02 17:15:22 +0000 UTCAbsolutely 100% this
It's Lina
2024-12-02 16:18:40 +0000 UTCSoup is *so* much better than violence :)
Orlet Soir
2024-12-02 12:32:36 +0000 UTCAsmodea 1 just got a heck of an influx of epiphanies all at once. I suspect if Vonnie had waited but a moment then it would have been explained to her that Elith (Lilith/Asmodea 3) would also get the memory udpate and know whats going on.
Charles Wilkinson
2024-12-02 12:19:47 +0000 UTCI feel like crying, and I don't even know why. So many subtle, beautiful things just crept up and hit me in the feels, one after another. This was definitely a page worth waiting for.
Torabi
2024-12-02 11:54:59 +0000 UTCStunning revelations to our favourite villains (Melchior doesn't count), and I adore your backgrounds here! A gorgeous nighttime cityscape in particular.
Alex White
2024-12-02 10:24:41 +0000 UTCThe good guys have got as far as Be Gay Do Crimes and the bad guys have now become *literally too gay to do their crimes*, this is amazing :)
Stephen Wells
2024-12-02 10:17:21 +0000 UTCSo *THAT"S* how they do it! I was wondering how people could be "recast." Volo just takes their archetype card and attaches it to someone else, right? And everyone just sees them as whatever the card is instead of themselves? This is getting more interesting by the minute. I wonder if Balthazar is going to be recast or discarded.
Orion Rhine
2024-12-02 10:11:32 +0000 UTCVonnie chose soup :3
Arianod
2024-12-02 10:05:48 +0000 UTC
