Issue 20, Page 11
Transcript
1: The panel is black.
2: Julia’s eye opens. It is her normal green, unbroken pupil, not mutated.
3: Julia’s body, whole and naked, is suspended in worm-like tentacles in a seemingly endless void of roots, tentacles and red darkness. Unlike her emaciated and mutated form, she bears more similarity to the softer form she had before becoming trapped beyond the gate. Julia lacks nipples or obvious sexual organs, similar to Rhoda’s astral form.
4: She looks up at a canopy of brown soil-like surface, dotted with brown roots, a red light on the horizon.
5: From above, she looks small and far away, lowering her head and closing her eyes in defeat.
Not gonna lie I would be freaking out if I woke up in a place like this, but for her to be so depressed instead in the last panel has me worried now.
So her mind *is* still intact after the Idol consumed her body. If she can keep it that way, she still has a chance of returning.
she looks kindof… pregnant?
Um, respectfully, she was getting a little… bigger before this whole mess happened. So this is probably her mental image of herself.
I feel like this page represents Julia’s mind being just below the surface. Ie, she’s not completely gone as a person, and could be pushed to awaken and control her Black Idol form.
Sure she said the anthropods of Earth are really just a part of the Black Idol in a dream, trapped in false forms. That said, was it really her talking or was it the influence of the BI? This page combined with page 26 of issue 18 makes me wonder who’s really awake and who’s really in trapped in a dream.
When the dust settles and the darkness clears, I’m sure Julia’s body will be the one to have absorbed Sedjet.
Reminds me of a bit from an old Lovecraftian story I read ages ago.
When a being is advanced enough, it’s mental model of you is just as complex as the real thing.
This could be the memory of being Julia, and Julia herself, at the same time.
You wouldn’t happen to remember the name of that story, would you?
Alright. I’ve got lots to say, so I’ll start with my gut feeling theory, which… Just happens to be about a gut.
Julia definitely looks a little larger than before, not a lot, yet noticeable. Extreme optomist me wants to say that her and Mel will get to have a kid after all. Less optimist me thinks it’s just a sign that she’s about to split open into an octopus and never be seen as herself again, aside from hallucinations. And further still, maybe she’s pregnant, but with something less benevolent than a deer kid. Maybe TOWC is just putting small thoughts of having a kid into her head, preparing her for… Something. It seems odd though, that she would be pregnant. TOWC seems to believe in the idea that everyone on Earth is it. So where does that leave room for it to have given her a kid? The closest thing to a guy being near her was the changed “sedjet” just now, but even still that only appeared to be to convert her so she could supposedly “ease the pain”.
Regardless, I won’t lie, I’m relieved to see her… Here. She looks more like the canine we know, belly aside. And while her usual physical body appears to have been transformed in those last panels, this one, what I can guess is her soul, still seems to be mostly, maybe okay. Well, aside from some emotional, psychological damage.
Julia seems… Important, more than even before. In the beginning, she helped discover TOWC with Mel. Formed a group with both her and Rhoda. Got possessed, just for a bit, at that haunted house. Rediscovered the remnants of some dino people. Fell for a friend, fell onto the moon, fell onto what appeared to be an alien world, although who knows how real that experience was. She started to turn, but not fully, not like others have. Is it because of something that has been done to her, before or during, something that happened on the moon or planet we never saw, something she was born with? She still seems strong and independent, and while just now she was helping get herself turned, she still seemed to, to a certain extent, refer to herself as an individual. In the mirror, despite the supposed truth TOWC claims, she sees a canine, not a pile of tentacles, eyes, and claws. It’s significant, but still mysterious. For all I know, she was just partially okay because there was way less Shankar radiation there, not an absence of it.
Maybe it was the soul that possessed her in the beginning? Rhoda could resist in the astral world and she’s eaten a few souls, so maybe Julia does something similar because of what happened there.
Not sure if Julia will stay or go, be herself, be TOWC, or something else. It would certainly affect how the Rhoda, Mel, Julia group dynamic would work…
I have just a bit of hope. When Julia returned from the portal, the look in her eyes was dark, changed. And when she claimed the whole of Earth belonged as part of TOWC, there was a different light to them. Now though, her eyes seem… Well, like hers. Maybe.
Perhaps Rhoda could get her out. “Sedjet” still seems confused, almost like he’s having a sugar rush, so maybe this would be a good time to pull Julia or what’s left of him out.
What would that mean though? Do they reform from black idol goo, into what the shankar radiation made them? Does Rhoda make them some new bodies? For all we know, ripping them out of TOWC, if they are capable of being individuals again, would just mix them together like when Mel and Sedjet were starting to swap brains or something. And how would they feel and think after coming back?…
Julia can see, wherever she is. So if Rhoda came to see her, the pangolin would have some talking to do. Hey, maybe they could be magic buddies! Or maybe they’d end up being enemies. Julia could very well become an antagonist, or the one to help them, which would be… Too bad.
TOWC and Rhoda seem to have some things in common, which has had me thinking. What if it started out like her? Wanting to avoid death and getting a rush from eating the souls of the living or dead. Maybe it started out, so much more like any of them.
And if that were the case, what does that mean for Rhoda? Will she find that, to avoid the fate she has seen, she’d need to turn into something else?
I don’t think “Sedjet” is Sedjet. The text is red for a reason. He’s acting like TOWC, not himself, and while there is the argument that he’s never been more “himself” I think that the line between them all as individuals is way more confusing than previously thought. It could very well be him. He’s acted different though. No caution, scientific thought, unless if you count the logical, single minded pursuit to help your own species, no acknowelgment to a martian friend, only viewing a certain cheetah as a means to get rid of the hunger and pain… Yet he seems excited, surprised. It could be a trick though, to drag Julia further in. He just… Can’t seem to focus on anything other than that hunger and pain, so calling them “Sedjet” is certainly a 50/50 thing, at least to me.
While I don’t like the events he caused, turning himself like this, I get the motivation, the need to understand, figure out what to do, especially with those visions he had before. How many did we never see?
I wonder where the line between TOWC and one who is consumed, begins and ends. Does it copy and paste the info from their minds and souls. Are they still in there, drowned out by that voice telling them to eat and escape the pain? Do each of them drown out one another as more voices are added? I kind of like to see it as elements and compounds. We all know that it seems to change back those around it, into it. So, I guess I’m kind of seeing TOWC as a strange sort of atom. Let’s say, oxygen. Add another atom, in this case, Shankar radiation, and you get a compound. In its base form, oxygen is toxic. Add another atom of it though, and you have air. Add two hydrogen to oxygen, and you get water! The properties and everything are all switched around, so it made me think of the relationship between TOWC, everyone on Earth, and the bugs that visited awhile back.
Does the black idol keep souls? Julia looks to be a single being, even if she’s resting against TOWC. On the other hand though, if they’re really all it, what happens to a soul in it? Does it ever die, or is it in there, forever?
Where does the Black Idols connection to its own begin and end? “Sedjet” was surprised, but outside of the Shankar radiation, does the whole mass of the stuff constantly share info?
Another thought: It’s stated that, the black idol can “hear itself” without shankar radiation in the way. What if it isn’t the body changing itself back into it though, but another voice? Perhaps some other unseen energy or matter, something that affects the universe, goes around and through us, unseen, kind of like dark energy or dark matter, even if they’re theoretical. Perhaps “hearing itself” doesn’t mean hearing the body, but just another signal around them.
Julia seemed smart when she was “hacking” with her parts of the black idol. Why is it on Earth though, trapped? It seems like it may not always be so smart.
Something else: A particular men in black styled cat stated that it was his job to hunt the black idol, like it’s an infection. How would he have viewed Julia? Is there so much of it out there that he couldn’t get to her to get it out, before she got converted?
Does the cat know about shankar radiation? For all we know, it could make him just as blind and deaf as TOWC. If everyone really is it, maybe that’s why he hasn’t sent his dog to eat the entirety of the population on the planet.
Perhaps the radiation isn’t as random as previously thought? This could just be an artistic choice, probably is. Just saying, the beings of Mars, Earth, the bugs, they’re all quite humanoid. What if Shankar radiation does lean toward specific changes over time?
If there’s extra shankar radiation on/around Earth, sorry if this was already stated but, does that mean there was even more in the past? TOWC is turned into just about anything from the radiation, but when it walks around without a large dose of the stuff aimed at it now, it only acts uncomfortable and complains a lot about pain, like “Sedjet” did. Was Earth blasted with more of the stuff in its history?
One of my ideas was that it came from the sun. We always see TOWC underground, in a shelter, etc. Mars doesn’t have any though, so it seems less likely.
Finally, big thought:
If everything on Earth is destined to be TOWC, why are they still there? Why was a cage of Shankar radiation put around them, instead of just burning them long ago, to remove the threat altogether?
Perhaps someone or something just wants TOWC to escape at a later time.
Or perhaps someone wants them to be individual people, sheltered from the cosmic horrors above.
Perhaps not every monster will team up to kill them. Rhodas imaginary friend, while malevolent, comes to mind. They may mean harm, eventually, but… If all the beings of Earth become the black idol, that leaves no more mortals to torment, hunt, play with. So maybe, a few monsters or demons or spirits, might just help keep them all as individual flesh bags. Maybe.
Anywho. My brain is fried.
Sorry for this enormous text wall. To be honest, this story has been making me think far too much. I worry, I theorize, and I definitely dread what is to come. I hope too.
I think I might step away from reading this for a bit though.
To everyone who’s thinking she’s pregnant, I doubt it. I think she’s just um, big. Look at her appearance in the suit on issue 17 page 1, and her civilian outfit on issue 15 page 15. Her shirt seems pretty tight around the stomach there.
Add to that that it’s probably her mental image of herself… if she’s had issues with her body weight, or someone has told her about her size, it’s possible she’s just thinking of herself that badly. I dunno.
You bet. 🙂
Also- if you look in the archives, at the cover of issue number 5, there is an…um…nude Julia sitting on a chair.
To me, she looks very, very pretty, and so does her figure. This is a healthy shape + weight for her to have.
But, as far as I can tell, she’s not as thin as a very thin…pro acrobat- like the 1970s Barbie dolls are.
Many people like [some women], and [some men], and [some adults], in different shapes. Good for them.
Fictional people, I know, but- if Julia is happy with her shape, and with her looks, then good for her. 😀
Well now… this is different~