Page 122 - Heart

...
I don't really have anything to say on this page. I think it kinda says all it needs to by itself.

Page 121 - You're sick

I own this voice. I know the sound of it, and the texture of it, because I can't recall not hearing it. That critical, insidious, oozing black goo of just...wrongness. I've learned, over the years, that this voice is not actually right. It is not a lingering truth, or a buried secret. I don't know what it is, but I know that it's wrong.

That said, I still look forward to the day when I can deal with it as effortlessly as Brand does.

Strange, to have a character surpass his creator.

Page 120 - Responsibility

I like the warm and cool contrasts between these two in the top panel. Brand coming into his spiritual own is pretty awesome too. Man...such a long, angst-ridden road to get here...

Totally worth it.

Page 119 - Can you face these?

For some reason, a lot of these dream-like portions take on a more mythic/fairy tale rhythm, especially Brand's. I felt the repetition of "I am taking it back" added to this feel.

Page 118 - Taking it back

Originally, I wasn't going to have Beast make a reappearance. Then I realized something: What about Brand's heart? I had such a dramatic series of events for him to lose it (one of the darkest moments in this whole comic, for me) that it seemed incomplete to not return to that act. I started thinking about how he could get it back. Could Hans give him a new one? No, Hans isn't capable of giving a gift of that nature without strings yet (he's trying, poor thing, but he's not ready...) so that option was out. Could David give it to him? Why? That doesn't even make sense. And Grey is right out of the question...

Hey, wait...Beast took Brand's heart...so...Brand should face Beast. Then he could reclaim his heart!

Once I actually put them together, I realized there was a lot more that Brand needed to reclaim. Id is the first. What are the others? Next update, my friends...

Page 117

Little later than usual. Busy night yesterday.

Page 116 - Reclaim it

OMG Brand, you have become such a bad ass. I'm so proud...

Page 115 - Waiting and Rescuing

I've thought about this a lot. Help isn't help if you do it because you don't trust someone else to succeed. If someone asks you, that's one thing, but rescuing someone is only necessary if you think they're too weak to help themselves. OR not able to do things the way YOU would want to do them. Sometimes people really are in need of a hand-up and won't ask for it. It's hard to say that nobody should step in at those times. However, if that person really is strong enough to succeed on there own, it's almost a disservice to them if a rescue attempt is made. It prevents them from achieving something on their own terms.

Bah. I'm not saying it very well, but it's important. At least, in my experience. It was a hard lesson to learn.

Listen to "I'm Standing in the Way" in the Buffy Musical "Once More, with Feeling." He says it much better than me. In song!

Page 114 - Idiot

Ahaha! I love how this page turned out. It says so much about how Hans thinks of himself and Brand.

Also, I never realized how messed up fairy tales are until I made this page. "Hello unconscious person! I will now kiss you without your consent! Why? Because I just know you're my twuu luuuv!"

...Then she wakes up and beats him within an inch of his life.

Oh wait, wrong story. My bad.

What they ACTUALLY do is get married, because everybody knows a person who does things to you in your sleep is trustworthy. Especially if they have lots and lots of money. An a castle.

...

Guh.