Hey guys! Remember on Monday I said I was enjoying the discussions in the comments? That is still true, but please remember to keep it civil. I don’t want to have to personally step in, so please just know I don’t approve of these discussions getting personal. I enjoy a heated debate as much as anyone, but if you find yourself making it about a person instead of the comic, please think twice before hitting post. Thank you :]
Let’s get heated!
Seriously Julie, just THINK and everything will turn out great for you.
GAH! I couldn’t possible get heated. Not right now. The FEELINGS are BURNING my insides. Burning them to a crisp.
In other news, I’ve noticed that there has been a dramatic increase in the votes for “Abel/Julie”. Still dead last though. XD
Awwww. I know this is supposed to be an emotional moment and Julie’s all upset but something about this is just so sweet.
I’m really wondering whether Nancy is within earshot of Abel and Julie.
I think it would be great of she were because ten she might realise that they are not SHELL.
Somehow, I doubt it. She seems like the kind of person who will stubbornly defend her views as ‘right’ regardless of how much evidence piles up against it.
Awww…. I remember this feeling…
Okay, this will never happen, but I’ll be super-psyched if it does. Twins who both have monster skeletons(or just bones). One monster is named “Blast” and the other “Clast.” I hope somebody besides me gets it…
That is genius! But I shudder to think of those poor little blob-children. ;_;
Aw. We’re all just wrecks aren’t we?
Magnolia, you write these kids SO WELL. I am eating this up; all I can say right now is thank you for writing and making comics.
SUPER upset that Julie/West is only polling at 6% >:[___]
lily knows what’s up.
I’m upset that every pairing that isn’t Bina/Abel is so low. I like more diversity in who people ship.
I do wonder exactly what it is that makes Julie so needy. Her family seems fairly supportive, and it seems that every time she has escaped from Shell before they can do anything too terrible to her. However, she’s still woefully insecure and attention-hungry. Chapter 3 and these last couple pages are both good examples of this.
That’s not to rag on Julie or anything – heck, I tend to be an attention hog myself – but I wonder what underlying issues are causing her to act out. I still love the metaphor of her hair being a “shield” before conversion, symbolizing her tendency to put up walls between herself and other people.
Also…wow 88 posts last time? That’s got to be a record.
I’ll have to go back and re-read, but does her family know about Shell? Because what little I remember, it doesn’t seem like anyone was worried that there’s an organisation out to study the kids and that Julie’s been captured not once, but a few times. Maybe her family thinks she can handle it and she interprets that distance as not caring? Dunno. To the archives!
IIRC her mom doesn’t know anything. She is upset that Julie “cut off” her hair.
I think there’s probably a couple possible angles.
She had West all to herself for a while. He’s been enjoying time with Julie and Abel and she’s adjusting to a larger social circle.
Her primary companionship was West for a while which has left her desiring the companionship of a girl her age, then Bina came.
Her inability to properly express her feelings means that while everybody else has been getting support we all just assume that Julie’s fine. Worth noting that Bina did ask Julie to put on a strong face and act like she knows what she’s doing, which could possibly have exacerbated matters.
She has some sense of inadequacy. Likely Abel isn’t the first to rag on her for being thoughtless, though he’s certainly been coming on pretty heavy during an emotionally fragile time.
She seems to have an overfull and chaotic household. Her mother is generally too tired to really lend full attention to any one kid. It’s worth noting that sisters were her go to example when explaining how Bina just puts up with her despite not caring and viewing her as annoying.
She’s just plain more extroverted and energetic. The people around her have trouble keeping up with her.
All just ideas. I don’t know.
Gorgeous, smart older sister and loud, needy younger brother? Sounds like a perfect recipe for an insecure and under-appreciated middle child.
It makes me think about how, it hasn’t been explored in the comic much, but there are some big social consequences for a bald girl. Julie probably catches a lot of crap from adults and other kids, so that probably contributes to her desperately wanting to be liked.
Another theory!
She could just be the most expressive member of the group. Bina’s pretty subdued, introverted, quiet. Wes bottles everything up. Abel may or may not have trouble with the kind of trust that would allow him to reveal emotional vulnerability.
Are we looking at somebody especially needy despite a supportive family, or are we looking at somebody especially comfortable expressing her needs because of a supportive family?
I have a theory!
But it involves a question I don’t think anyone has asked yet.
Where is her father?
We’ve seen her siblings and mom, but have they mentioned their dad?
Please let me know if they have cuz I honestly don’t remember if it was in the story.
It could be the combination of having a bigger family and a mom who works such a demanding job. Having lots of older siblings helps improve your communication (and snark!) skills because they talk to you like you are the same age as them from a very young age, whereas parents tend to use baby-talk and the like. Still, Julie may have always felt like she had to stand out to get attention amongst her siblings, especially from her mother. Nurses tend to be very tired when they get off their shifts. It’s a very physically draining job. So this all combines into a Julie is who very talkative, snarky, energetic but attention-seeking.
aww, Julie. She just wants her buddy.
Proudly voting for non-shipping.
I feel like all the drama between the two of them has led up to this moment.
Really loving it all.
You’re like, the most amazing webcomic maker ever!
… Julie/Bina/Abel ship maaaaaybe? <3
I really like Abel. For getting punched like that and to still be calm and level headed in this heated debate. He’s a really nice character.
Ditto! Save for “you’re acting crazy!”, he’s just explaining everything to her… patiently hitting her with a clue-by-4.
Oh, thank goodness they’re finally opening up. Look at poor Kera and Rixis.
On a note that isn’t about the psyche behind each character, Rixis’ concern over Abel’s injury is just too adorable.
I gotta say, I love how much character development you’ve put into both of them. Julie may be the sort of person who drives me absolutely bugnuts as an adult, but I’m really starting to empathize with her with this. It’s also nice to see two strong character personalities clash and then work out their differences in some way that doesn’t inevitably lead to shonen hero rivalry or shipping. (Though I wouldn’t mind some of the former. :3)
…But, geez, reading the previous comments, they’re supposed to be twelve? I always thought they were like eight.
Julie was the character I initially found the least compelling, but she’s been growing on me as we find out more about her, and I’m buying every second of it. Dang, she’s gonna make me cry.
Hold on a second, I just realized something; Remember Kera in the last comic, what with the free-will and the fight breaking and the not-dog and all that jazz? If Kera can stop Julie from fighting, then that means that Rixis is every bit at fault for the killed monster as Abel is, and perhaps more.
…your point? Is it so strange that Rixis and Abel would agree on killing the monster while Kera disagrees with Julie beating on Abel who was not fighting back. Especially since Kera did it mostly for her, since she was crying and upset.
I wouldn’t say more at fault, and I might even say less — can’t blame a monster for being loyal to it’s host and obeying purely because the monster doesn’t know what to do itself, and I don’t imagine Rixis is anymore capable of making a sound decision about such a complicated situation in the very short time-span they had, than Abel was.
Fair enough points, both of you. I wasn’t really saying the fact itself was significant anyway, more like this; Isn’t it strange that we haven’t brought that up yet? Both us and the characters included seem to still be considering the monsters, forgive me, limbs of their owners. Shouldn’t we have stopped doing that by now?
I brought it up here: http://www.monster-pulse.com/?webcomic_post=page-19-chapter-8#comment-33507
Didn’t see a lot of discussion, though.
Ah. Quite right. Suppose I haven’t been paying attention then. XD Pay no attention to my inane dribbling, then.
That seems like a fair hint that Rixis and Abel did it before and that it’s a right choice. At least if we go by the reaction Guuzy displayed when West urged him to off the bird. Guuzy did try, but he obviously wasn’t very pleased with West~
Hair can pretty difficult to control. We have pretty much perfect control over our eyes when awake. It would make sense then that Kera is a bit more disobedient.
You could also argue that since Abel has been living alone, a very dangerous thing to do, Rixis obeys him, even the nasty decisions, flawlessly because to falter could mean serious consequences for him and Abel. This is compounded by what Abel mentioned earlier -if Rixis were to die it could mortally wound Abel, but this is not the case with Kera.
Awww, now it’s time for hugs. I kind of doubt that though. Maybe hugs later?
…and cue the flashback montage.
Has no-one else noticed the tears coming out of Rixis on the second panel??? Abel’s CRYING you guys!!
Pretty sure that’s only supposed to be expressive sweat-drops. He’s probably frantic because Abel just got punched.
Bah! Great comic! Terrible ending point for someone who just finished reading through the archives!
Love it though, great job. Please keep it up. I read Bob-white a million years ago, and some how just stumbled onto this a few weeks ago.