Journey Into Darkness – Chapter 8, Act 1, Strip 50

Alright, I’m back! I’m back…don’t really know what happened, but I’m back. Just feeling a little bit more undead than before…but I don’t really know what happened…no…

Whatever it was that happened, I didn’t want it to happen again, so I held back on depicting Mopey’s face in the context of this strip. Her expression would probably have not been quite as bad as it would have been in the last one, but still…better not risk anything. I might only feel a little bit more undead than before, but I’ve actually not got too much wiggling room left in that regard, since the base level is already pretty elevated…

And Mopey is still in a heightened state of emotional turmoil today, at least during the first half of the strip…so much so that she almost clobbers Latho! Which would really be taking things a step too far. It’s not the same as literally kicking a puppy, but clobbering a plush animal gets very close…and, as you probably know, kicking a puppy is the archetypal act of irredeemable evil, something an audience just can’t forgive a character for. Mass-murder, torture, nuclear strikes…are all things a character can recover from, especially if they’re beautiful or handsome. But puppies are just cute, unlike the average victim of a nuclear strike (especially afterwards), so that’s were audiences have to draw the line. And Latho has a pretty similar thing to a puppy going, in terms of proportions and softness, and might even beat it in terms of cheery coloring…

Fortunately, Mopey ultimately resigns herself to that realization, and the situation in general. Latho is safe, and on top of that we get an exclusive look at what the inside of Mopey’s soul looks like! As the more cynical members of the audience might have suspected, it’s color scheme trends toward the sober – it’s mostly pitch-black, although a very keen eye might discern certain parts of it that are only very, very dark grey. >_>

More on Thursday.

2 Replies to “Journey Into Darkness – Chapter 8, Act 1, Strip 50”

  1. The cute fuzzy mascot vs. puppy thing is actually kinda interesting. The cute fuzzy mascot, on paper, should be cuter than a puppy: Big eyes, fuzzy, gentle color palette, etc.. But it’s sorta like putting a sirloin steak and an ice cream sundae together in a blender and mixing them up. On paper, that combination should be delicious; but when you actually go through with it the end result is a bunch of conflicting flavors (and textures) that just don’t mix well together.
    It’s probably why cute mascots tend to be hit-or-miss. Either you find them adorable or you find them unsettling.

    Also I thought I found one of those very dark grey areas, but then I realized my monitor needs cleaning. :\

    1. Yeah, that thing about the grey areas was just a joke – the backgrounds are actually solid black. XD

      And you’re right about that sort of ‘uncanny valley’ effect – theoretically, artistic freedom should enable you to create something to outcute even the cutest creature existing in real life, by just combining and exaggerating all of the known elements of cuteness. But getting that to actually work out seems to be pretty hard, and there’s a considerable subjective element in individual people’s reaction to the result. (After all, there are people who like steak-and-icecream smoothies – Ben Tennyson, for example XD) And it seems that the most successful attempts do involve a considerable amount of restraint on the part of the artist…which not all of the artists working in the magical-girl-genre are necessarily noted for. XD

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