CURRENT STORY DISCUSSION

Fiona looks absolutely gorgeous in this page. And her dress is pretty as well. I'm glad that she decided to revert everything to how it was before, though.

Wow! Fi definitely looks Queenlike in this weeks comic.

Um... A thought occured to me. Can the size of the royal eye be an indicator of how much the ruler is in control of theirself? Because I remember when Sadako was freshly "crowned", the eye was just the average eye size, then it started growing and took up half of her face. Now Fi became Queen, and her eye looks like a regular eye, only swirly. Or is it drawn this way by pure accident and the fandom [e.g. me] is reading too much into it all, as usual? XD

I wonder how she's going to make Lucy balance out what she's done - even though for some of it,she had little choice backed into the corner as she was.

Oh my god, Lucy's new appearance is adorable. This makes me so happy >w<

maymay wrote:Um... A thought occured to me. Can the size of the royal eye be an indicator of how much the ruler is in control of theirself? Because I remember when Sadako was freshly "crowned", the eye was just the average eye size, then it started growing and took up half of her face. Now Fi became Queen, and her eye looks like a regular eye, only swirly. Or is it drawn this way by pure accident and the fandom [e.g. me] is reading too much into it all, as usual? XD

I wonder the same exact thing!

I love Fi's dress, and the contented expression Fi has when she places the new head on Lucy, I can't assume it's contentment, but it comes off that way to me, like she understands the power that Nod has, with her new eye and the power she has, and maybe understands a little bit why Lucy did what she done in the first place... I'm reaaaaaallllly itching to know more about this eye and the power Nod has itself

after all wrote:Oh my god, Lucy's new appearance is adorable. This makes me so happy >w<

It is! I love her hair ^^

[quote="Katisanse"]

RD wrote:
Clandy says centuries of dream co have made him forget. I am just not sure if he is descended from dreamers and has forgotten, or if all dream world dwellers have that power, and if so, Boy that is one hell of a place.
How did it make him forget anyway? I am just bothered by that whole thing. I need more facts! Delicious, delicious, facts.

Well, it is clear that there are many different species in Nod, human-like and not human-like. If you have people who can change heads, maybe there were a few people who had the power of creation, or at least a limited power for that. Don could be one of those, and i like to think his constant hair changes are a trace of that power that he had forgotten he could use.
Maybe Sadako prohibited these Nod people from creating things, making them slowly forget over the years that they could.

OOOOOO

This looks like it could be interesting

Hmmmmmmmmmm.............


Could Don be Ba?

Kugai wrote:OOOOOO
This looks like it could be interesting
Hmmmmmmmmmm.............
Could Don be Ba?

I was just thinking the saaaaame thing! A thought though, since we haven't seen him with a conscience, could it really be him? Maybe it could be, like Sadako banished hers, but Don was strong enough to overcome the isolation and be different and let Nod become part of him and renamed himself? Another thing, if it was the case, don't you think he'd know or remember and considering Fi's experiences he'd have brought up such a thing? --- Just some curiosities!

I'm excited, I love libraries, I can't wait to hear more ... so short but I was so excited to click on my bookmark just now knowing a new one would be up ^_^

I don't think Don is Ba. But maybe he's Ba's conscience? Do consciences have creative power? They can certainly change their appearance... like Clandy did when she was insane.

Maybe the old king of Nod was Ba. Which would make him a very old king of Nod...

Edit: need a spell checker, dammit!

This strip implies to me that Don is a native Dreamworlder who's never had a conscience, so I don't think he's Ba. Can't see him being Ba's conscience either - Ba would have to still be alive in Nod for his conscience to also be alive there, and that's a incredibly long time to be around for. Also we've never seen Don with anyone who could be Ba, implying that if Don is Ba's conscience, they're separated - but then you'd expect Don to be insane like Clandy, which he clearly isn't.

I'm interested to see where this Ba thing goes though.

It's pretty clear to me that Ba is the first human king of Nod. The rest of it simply indicates that consciences are part of the person, and they're externalized in Nod.

The ancient Egyptian religion said that everybody has a ka or invisible twin. I wonder if Nod is going to end up being part of the Egyptian afterlife.

http://www.egyptianmyths.net/ka.htm

The "ka" is a very complex part of the symbolism in ancient Egyptian mythology and represents several things: the ka is a symbol of the reception of the life powers from each man from the gods, it is the source of these powers, and it is the spiritual double that resides with every man.

The ka as a spiritual double was born with every man and lived on after he died as long as it had a place to live. The ka lived within the body of the individual and therefore needed that body after death...

The ka was more than that though. When the ka acted, all was well, both spiritually and materially. Sin was called "an abomination of the ka". The ka could also be seen as the conscience or guide of each individual, urging kindness, quietude, honor and compassion.

I'm really enjoying the tie-in to ancient Egyptian mythology here! I wonder where this is going to go... I wonder if the consciences are supposed to be just a part of their people, not individual beings, and if the story's going to fix that? (Not that I WANT that to happen-- I like Mary just the way she is!)

I don't think that Don is related to Ba in any way. For me this is just to confirm (what i had already said) that the consciences are not another species and don't come from dreamland at all. They are integral part of the humans that get "forcefully separated" when they get to Nod.

Megan said that since people have been asking a lot about the consciences, she would explain some more about them on the epilogue, and here it is!

We can get many conclusions from this, for one, Sadako have created a bureaucratic institution to control the consciences, since they (like their dreamers) where "outsiders" and she wanted to keep track of their movements.
It also means that Mary being fired by her boss means nothing really, since she IS Fi, nothing can change that. But the bureaucracy was so established that being fired was a great pain for her and was sure to bring consequences (becoming a fugitive from the system, for one).

(also that would explain why she used to be a messed up conscience, considering Fi's traumas also affected Mary in some level, since they are one)


that is why i really liked the last update! =D
(Also, bringing in Egyptian mythology always makes things more awesome!)


Ps: Also it reinforces my point of view that Lia is not Mara, Mara is "half a person" so to speak. We all have light and darkness inside of us, if you take out all light, anyone will become evil, each one in a different way.

In Egyptian mythology, the Ba is kind of a bird with the face of the person who has died.

The Ba is the soul (or close to it), but also included everything that made a person individual. The Ka was the actual essence or spirit.

The reason for mummies and tomb statues with the face of the deceased was so that the Ka would have a place to reside after death.

Keep in mind that the Egyptian is named Ba (the bird-like soul creature), and his representation in Nod is basically the spirit essence. The feeling of being bird-like is referring to his bird-ness. The being he woke up next to is his physical self, which it seems doesn't seem to be very connected to his spirit (he doesn't recognize himself).

All this makes me wonder if, to be ruler of Nod, one has to be in some way disconnected from oneself...to disassociate the mind from the spirit from the body (which is what dreaming kind of is).

I know this makes little sense...I'm still learning.

So if consciences are just another part of a person, they're other half, then how come they are hired and fired according to Mary's arc? It contradicts since the epilogue says that consciences are split from people, but Mary's chapter says that she can be replaced... which means that the connection between her and Fiona is not that big of a deal. This is confusing.. Maybe it'll be explained?

I think someone upthread talked about that, but basically, Sadako likely took Nodians and forced them into the role of Consciences when she 'fired' the existing ones. It wouldn't work very well, and Mary never really left Fiona's side unless she was physically forced away, as I understand it.

I wonder why this devastates Lia so much? Didn't she kind of already know this?

And on another note, her poor wrists!

First of all, I am really, really glad to see that Lia is doing something about her potential to become Mara. An immature little bit of me wonders how Lia has sex or goes to the bathroom while handcuffed to her conscience, but overall this page makes me feel loads better about the ending.

Second of all, still predicting that consciences can go back inside and become part of their person. In the case of Lia and her conscience, it would probably be the best solution to merge permanently if they could, but it would still be a really sad thing and I hope that doesn't have to happen to all the consciences. Mary's chapter really stressed that even though she and Fiona were connected, Mary was her own person as well. I would miss Mary if she lost her individuality and went back into Fiona-- although now that I think about it, Mary herself would probably be okay with that.

Interesting stuff to think about, all in all.

I don't think it's Lia doing something about not becoming Mara. From the looks on her face and her wrists and the overall haggardness of her. I am pretty sure the Queen mandated the handcuffing. It breaks my heart, but I get it. I really get it.
and as sad as that idea makes me, it sort of suddenly makes the ending loads better. It wasn't too easy, they don't truly live super easily happy ever after. That just isn't fully possible.
I feel like that's why the ending pre epilogue felt off and sudden to so many of us. It conveyed a far too happily ever after that just didn't make so much sense.
I am in love with the epilogue. The bottom of this page breaks my heart, but it's so perfect. Megan, you continually amaze me.

Don's eye is weirding me out. It's always closed or shadowed. Unless Megan is just attempting to mess with us, I no longer count it as a coincidence.

Also, I feel bad for Lia. She looks so distraught, like she hasn't had any sleep or peace of mind for a good while now. It's like she's a prisoner now for something she couldn't control. Even Fiona got a little pissy when she was separated from Mary for a while, so it's not like she couldn't have done the same thing. And what's worse, Fiona chose to ignore Mary for the longest time, so I personally think Fiona may be even more capable of mass destruction than Lia.

I mean, I understand she's dangerous, but good lord she probably feels bad enough as it is. Now she's got a constant reminder of how horrible she was when she wasn't in her right mind. I hope that the only reason she looks distressed is because of what Don said and not because of something else.

Ah, well, the whole "humans need outside influence to be good but not bad" thing isn't as cynical as I'd thought it was, then. Well done.