Strip 17: Treya’s Promise

You may be feeling some deja vu depending on how recently you’ve read through Part 1. Yes, the last line of this strip is a repetition of Treya’s last lines in Part 1, Strip 16, and that was a very deliberate choice. The repetition of that line suggests a sort of recurring dream, rather than a memory recording. The way this scene jumps in time, contains little “glitches” like the Goddess’s veil, and the overlapping dialogue should imply that everything is not as it seems in these little memory trips. The repetition of the line is also a direct reflection of Part 1, because if we don’t count the first strip of Part 2 (which didn’t take place on Cykta), both lines would be said in Strip 16 of their respective parts. But Part 2 is about reflections, not mirrors, and reflections are often distorted, so while both parts are similar in structure, their content is not. Where the memory in Part 1 ended with Dy-Gar embracing Treya, this strip ends with his trishula buried in her chest. Did he stab her on purpose, as an act of spite, or is it part of his vision, perhaps another glitch?

Then we have Roger meeting his own personal apparition. Hopefully we made his identity clear enough since he’s missing his right arm, and he has an eye on his left hand. Of course, guessing his identity is one thing, and figuring out why he’s appeared to fight off the machine-things descending on Roger while looking like the Goddess (and using her mantra, right down to the font) is quite another.

Oh, and just to step away from the critical analysis for a moment, that last panel is hands down my favorite in the entire comic so far. It’s so freaking good, and most of that is thanks to our new artist, mecha.red. He added the entire cityscape in the background, from the garden pagoda to the pizza hoverbike. And then he lit it all on fire, and it’s amazing.

- J.S. Conner

April 23th 2015