FaD: glutton for punishment
Added 2017-11-01 13:31:52 +0000 UTCgray: how are they
dupe: if you see a bird statue around later, take the comics and get out of the house
i considered just saving this one for the 30th filler to have some breathing room, but i'd really like to do something else for that one, since i have been waiting to draw the idea since comic 20.
Comments
this is a really interesting comic, i like the double meaning within the phrase "you were my first" - how it could refer to one's first kiss or first intimate encounter, or (in this case) the first person that trist/liron punished and, in doing so, made better (i hope this isn't overstepping a line but i thought the use of that line was interesting, pun intended) also dupe was in my dream the night before this was posted it's not relevant but i thought it was cool
malphym
2017-11-02 22:32:20 +0000 UTCPanel 1: Liron impassively contemplates their hands and groin. The ‘camera angle’ from their lap reinforces this intimate focus. They aren’t dissociating, as their alertness to Dupe’s approach shows. What are they thinking? This remains ambiguous, but as “smoldering love” showed, it always comes back to the Trauma. 2 and 3: Dupe is uncharacteristically hesitant in their approach and posture, reminding us that they’ve learned to respect (or at least fear) Trist after the events of the earlier Folie a Dupe. 4: Dupe is still prepared to flee, craning their head into the room tentatively. Their words are Classic Dupe: “I didn’t do anything wrong, so they must be confused. I’m going to help them understand.” Trist’s unsettling response evokes both ophidian tongue scenting and sexual acts. 5 and 6: It’s tempting to mock Dupe for awkwardly employing the word ‘feeling’ like they were holding a dead rat in a pair of tongs. But they really have evolved since we last saw them (a change mirrored by their dragon hormones). Dupe is attempting empathy, with rather limited success, but it shows a self-awareness they previously lacked. 7 and 8: Trist starts to show their teeth, metaphorically and literally. In calling Dupe out by the name of their early sexualized incarnation, Trist is denying Dupe’s attempt to establish empathy and denying that Dupe has truly changed, instead reminding them of their unhappy origin, and reminding us that Trist now fulfills a role that was once held by Dupe. 9, 10 and 11: Dupe is no longer hesitant in their posture- responding to aggression with aggression is something they’re more comfortable with. “It’s just ‘Dupe’ nowadays” recalls the Dupe/dude confusion with Gray, but Dupe credits Liron with more intelligence here. Dupe lashes back at Liron with an artfully passive-aggressive volley, implying that Liron is only responding the way they are because they can’t help but pay their trauma forward. 12, 13 and 14: Liron drops pretenses and speaks to the real reason behind their conversation, and their controlled posture gives way to their real feelings: angry, scattered, and bent under the weight of their pain. 15 and 16: Note the ambiguity in Trist’s “I know it’s… unhealthy,” which can be seen to refer to the “bad kind of love” that Dupe speaks of, or the simple concept of “love” that Dupe is accused of not knowing. The two are essentially treated as one and the same, revealing Trist’s limited worldview. Despite their claims to the contrary, Trist only partially knows of love, and it’s not the good kind. 17, 18, and 19: Liron’s earlier posture, bent over from the pain they’re experiencing, has now progressed into the twistiness of psychosis. They are vengeful and self-sacrificing in equal measure, seeking to consume themselves and their surrogate abuser through a destructive spiral of love and death. 20 and 21: It’s ambiguous whether Liron’s “eye contact” really catalyzed a change for the better in Dupe, but it’s unsettlingly plausible. 22, 23, 24, and 25: In the face of incomprehensible horror, Dupe locks down their emotions and returns to their baseline state of calm contempt, which is paralleled by locking Trist in their room. Whatever changes Trist has imparted upon Dupe, whether good or bad, are now being suppressed. The monstrous incongruity between Trist’s words and the cute chibi style of their depiction in panel 24 is a suitably disturbing note to end on. 26: Yikes indeed.
Calph
2017-11-01 22:11:50 +0000 UTCI wrote up a panel-by-panel analysis, since there's a lot going on here:
Calph
2017-11-01 22:11:40 +0000 UTC
