Curse you Viktria >:T
Making such suspensefull comic!

To me this right now appears like the madness of gods.

"The ways of our lords work in mysterious ways"-like.

In any way, no one gets a good light in this comic apparently and it hooks me all the more!

Where's Kratos when you need him. End of Ragnarok Kratos though, i'm like 95% sure if someone could explain to her her failures with all of this she'd have this revelation and end up actually changing for the better. Sadly i don't think there is someone in this universe to explain it too her :(

Dood we do not know nearly enough to say she's wrong. Also it's his own damn fault for being a dumb ass

Sorry to disagree it's not his fault, the blame falls only on the shoulders of his parents.

He is adult and his choices are his own. He's just lashing out at the world cause life didn't go as planned. I get it but he has to grow up.

Ah yes, i'm sure just telling the abused, borderline child soldier raised to be a weapon for a god, abandoned by said abusive parents, with horrible lifelong reoccurring nightmares, AND a heap of insecurity/abandonment issues to just *grow up* will get the result you want good sir~

i mean, who needs empathy and understanding for the guy who is what...19 in this? early twenties at most...he should just fucking get over his parental abuse and abandonment and the weird blue deer god lady who repeatedly told him he was special and then never ever helped him again except to tell him weird vague platitudes that she herself admits KNOWS doesn't work with him.

I'll repeat what i said in another comment. Nigel is an abused animal at this point and is simply lashing out and anyone and everyone he can...

You're correct in a sense: Nigel is an abused creature. However, much of that abuse was self-inflicted. He chose to run away from home. He chose to lash out at Luna. He chose to blame Luna for everything that happened, insisting that she did so on purpose to hurt him. He chose to blind and deafen himself to any reason, any comfort, any support. He demanded things return to the way they were before, which would either require Luna to bend over backward and manipulate his parents in exactly the way you're criticizing her for manipulating him now or otherwise be outright impossible.

More to the point, abused creatures sometimes need tough love, a short leash, and a firm, corrective hand, especially where patience and compassion aren't enough. Nigel here is dedicated to ignoring patience, ignoring compassion, and reciprocating with wrath and anger and rejection. No amount of compassion or support or kindness will break him out of this short of literally rewinding time, which I think is outside of her ability.

I had a really long comment trying to respond to you and I realized I was just rehashing stuff you've probably already read in my various comments. So I have a little short story to explain why I think Nigel is free of a great deal of blame for his overall actions. Switch Doctor around with Guardian and you'll have a basic timeline of Nigel's life.

---

SO imagine you have spent your entire life to become a doctor. Because your parents were doctors and their parents before them. And YOU are going to be a doctor too if they have anything to say about it! So you train to be a doctor because every day your parents drill that message into you and are pretty darn harsh with their training.

During your training your told by a very influential and powerful person (Who is also some sorta deity apparently) who your parents worked for formerly that you are very special and could be the best doctor ever. And then they hang around you occasionally telling you weird and cryptic platitudes that you don't understand. And worst of all, THEY know you don't understand and are very disappointed in you for not understanding.

THEN on the eve of the day you get your doctor's license you show up in your weird square hat to graduate, only to be publicly humiliated by the very same cryptic influential person who was the sole deciding individual on if you became a doctor or not. They tell you “No” and give you MORE vague and cryptic platitudes that you don’t understand and then they just...leave. Going back to their normal day.

You get home and your parent's say your a failure and worthless to them basically just start shunning you and treating like relative trash, so you leave and end up on the streets.
Years later you find out your parents turned around and did the same abusive training shit with your little brother and the influential person then accepts said little brother as a doctor, despite by all accounts YOU being the better doctor in terms of skill.

You finally get up the courage/stupidity to confront and ask WHY said influential person refused you becoming a doctor and all she tells you "you didn't want to genuinely heal people enough"
And then she fucking splashes her boiling hot coffee into your fucking eyes blinding you or something I dunno I can't do spontaneous magical blindness in this metaphor lol.

---

Nigel is a disrespectful loser and criminal in the making. But that doesn't change the fact that a powerful person watched the events of his life and did nothing to help him despite her heavy involvement in it inherently. I'm not saying mind control the parents! But ffs she's a god! Can't she call fantasy CPS? Isn't SHE the fantasy CPS?!

Just...prep the boy to be told no a little or something at least...

It's clear you don't want to understand, but I'll make one last attempt.

You're misunderstanding some basic fundamentals here, even in your analogy, and frankly it sounds like projection. This wouldn't be "a very influential and powerful person," this would be the literal authority on who is and is not a doctor. A Doctor Master, lets say. This would also hardly be the graduation ceremony, but the initiation ceremony, admittance to Doctor School from basic education. And yes, you've spent your entire childhood up until that point studying to be a Doctor. However, if you're, say, terrified of water, no amount of training will let you be an effective Rescue Diver if you can't get over your fear of water. More importantly still, this literal authority is telling you, "Look, you might be very good at certain aspects of Doctoring, but there's a key missing factor here in your motivation. If you can discover that missing factor for yourself, then you will gladly be accepted into Doctoring."

Now, Luna is a goddess, but it is quite clear that she is not omniscient. Like many depictions of future-sight of less-than-omniscient beings, it's plausible to assume that Luna can see the tree of potential futures and maybe which branches are more likely than others, but that's still not a guarantee. She may know that you don't understand today, but she likely doesn't know that you won't understand, nor does she necessarily know that his parents will reject him. It's also not like he gives his parents any time or cause to come around. He doesn't remain diligent in his studies and search for purpose. He doesn't (as far as we see) confront his parents about their treatment of him, or even insist on asking for help. His parents go cold on him, but it isn't shown that they treat him like trash. He is, at least from my reading of the comic, at home for weeks if not months before he reaches his breaking point, being fed and clothed albeit in a loveless and dispassionate manner. He certainly wasn't given the full Cinderella or Harry Potter treatment although there are similarities. However, at no point is it described that he becomes confrontational with his parents. He keeps trying to seek their praise and attention, and they merely ignore him. He quite literally throws a tantrum, breaks a bunch of stuff, and runs away all at once. His anger is entirely justified, but justified anger is not itself a justification for any and all subsequent action. It would be entirely unreasonable for him to go and straight-up murder Luna (or attempt to), for instance, just because his parents turned into distant and dispassionate snobs.

I don't know where you get the first interaction from. From what we see, Nigel and Luna only have three meetings: The "graduation" as you described it, the angry catchup, and now (which is really Angry Catchup 2: Electric Boogaloo). Luna had no direct meeting with Nigel until his Guardian trials and had no direct part in his training except, speculatively, to chide his parents about their method of parenting which, if they are even half as stubborn as Nigel, probably ignored.

Anyway, returning to our analogy, we aren't shown anything about his parents actually ridiculing him or demeaning him. In a way that's almost worse, just giving him the silent treatment, but we're only ever shown dispassionate disappointment, not actual malice or hostility. Furthermore, instead of confronting your parents about their apparent cruelty and demanding they explain themselves or make things right, you stew in your sadness, allow it to fester into anger, let it blossom into rage, throw a tantrum and bust up a bunch of stuff, and run away. You manage to catch up with the Doctor Master not to ask them why, but to "vent all of [your] pain and anger at [them]." Even when they offer a succinct and explicit rationale as to why you weren't chosen, lets say, "missing a heartfelt compassion for the people you have to heal, especially those that can't look after themselves," you ignore it, dismiss it, lash out at the Doctor Master, and run away all of your own accord.

You actually don't find out about how your parents treated your younger sibling because you never bothered to ask or to find out, and every time you see him approach, now grown up and wearing Doctor attire, you run away like a bitter coward rather than confront him.

Years later, you hear that the Doctor Master is choosing new Expert Doctors from the ranks of Doctors, and you decide to sneak in and steal one of the Tokens of Expertise in a misguided and foolish attempt to be seen as an Expert Doctor despite having done nothing even remotely Doctor-like in the intervening years, never having dwelled on the original question of why you wanted to be a Doctor in the first place, nor having even tried to satisfy the original issue of a lack of compassion. The Doctor Master surprises you, rebuffs your attempts at ridicule and reiterates in even simpler language the missing compassion that you still dismiss as "bullshit." And then, sure, splashes hot coffee in your eyes or something.

Luna did not at any point have any obligation to take him in, especially when he held such hostility and enmity toward her. You simply cannot care for someone who expresses such hatred and resentment toward you, no matter how hard you try.

So I'm just gonna say I really think we gotta take a step back. We're both kinda trying to read and interpret what has been pretty much only eluded too and hinted at via story and subtext. I really think we're trying to come from this argument with slightly different angles with different assumptions about all the characters involved.

I think we're just gonna have to wait and see if we get a clearer view of Nigel's history. Because depending on how we interpret subtext/allusions atm with what has happened in the past, we'll just come totally different conclusions each believing ourselves right.

(also i really don't wanna try to go back through the gallery looking for every page Nigel is on to try and refresh the timeline in my brain again i'm so tired right now lol)

This is not self-Inflicted! These are all consequences of past events. Did he tell his parents to ignore his existence, because he wasn't picked? Did he ask to be given vague riddles as to why he wasn't picked? What his parents did was the most damaging form of abuse, “Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike….” He was ignored and treated like he didn't exist. "He chose to run away from home." He didn't choose to run away, He had No home. Point previously stated.
"He chose to lash out at Luna. He chose to blame Luna for everything that happened, insisting that she did so on purpose to hurt him." There was No choice to be made. It was Luna's fault, in his life, his world, his view, He had a good life, a happy life, a future to look too, a loving family. (We can sit here and say it was abuse. but we are outsiders looking in. it's easy to peel back the layers.) Luna says he failed, he was missing something. Yes he could try again. But the damage was done. his future ripped away, he was a failure in his parent's eyes. he didn't exist to them because of her. it was her fault. No one else was to blame. "He chose to blind and deafen himself to any reason, any comfort, any support." This wasn't a choice, He wasn't getting any of this. Not from the ones that mattered His parents, He wouldn't take any of that from Luna who ruined his life.
"He demanded things return to the way they were before, which would either require Luna to bend over backward and manipulate his parents in exactly the way you're criticizing her for manipulating him now or otherwise be outright impossible." Yes he is demanding to have his life back, He is demanding the one who ruined it to fix what they did. Is what he is doing rational No it's not. But the heart never is rational.

[i]" Nigel here is dedicated to ignoring patience, ignoring compassion, and reciprocating with wrath and anger and rejection."[/i] Because it's not coming from his parents! Luna is the wrong one to show him this, But you are half right, fixing this is out of Luna's power. because it's too little too late, the damage has been done. She should have intervened long before he ran away, But it's not her fault. how could she have known? The ultimate blame is on his parents who neglected him. Luna isn't to blame, Nigel isn't to blame, Luna gave Nigel something to think about before he tried again. because it was something he was supposed to figure out on his own. Nigel was a victim of neglect and indifference by his parents. in the form of not existing to them.

Sorry for the long reply, I just had a lot to say.

I am no stranger to long replies, so no worries.

And I have to disagree. It absolutely is self-inflicted. Yes, his parents were pricks. But it was his choice to run away rather than confront them and even try to make them come around (which we aren't shown, nor is it even implied in prior comics). It was his choice to "vent all of [his] pain and anger at [Luna]" rather than to seek her help in making things right. Yes, he had a good life up until that point, but that good life was hollow and based on an expectation that he failed to fulfill, admittedly through no fault of his own. However, he admits quite literally that all he wanted was to be seen as a hero to his parents and failed to understand or even try to understand the basic premise of what it meant to be a Guardian.

Luna's rejection was entirely justified. Guardians are not supposed to be (solely) glory-seekers, but compassionate defenders. If Young Nigel was allowed to become a Guardian, it's entirely possible that he would have only cared for his parents approval and not had the convictions to follow through when things became emotionally-demanding. You say there was no one else to blame, but that is patently false - It was his Parents' method of teaching and his own lack of understanding. In truth, it was Luna who had no choice but to reject him.

When I say a large portion of his abuse is self-inflicted, I am talking about his self-imposed vagrancy, his self-righteous sense of entitlement, and his obstinance that he has done nothing to deserve this. In earnest, he chose the exact course of actions to result in his current state - running from his parents rather than confronting them, blaming and lashing out at Luna rather than asking her for guidance and help, refusing to accept that he had any part in his current state and rejecting that he could even fall short of expectations. It is this obstinance, stubbornness (god that's a weird word), perpetual contemptuousness, lack of introspection, and lack of humility that are his and his fault alone. His anger toward his parents was entirely justified, but the actions he took as a result of that justified anger are all on him. He certainly has no right to be angry with Luna for failing to even try to understand the essence of what it means to be a Guardian.

Luna definitely acknowledges as much that she should have intervened more assertively, albeit in a more circuitous manner, apologizing for her part in his misery.

He was a bird raised from egg in a tiny box, with not even having the concept of flying explained to him. Just that he was going to be great. Then one day he's taken out of the box and without telling him, evaluated on his ability to fly. When he obviously fails, he's not told why he failed. Any hints he might get are cryptic "Are you soar *winkwinknudgenudge* you don't know the answer?". And from then on he's struggling to even get the people closest to him to look at him.

He was unintentionally raised to fail and the person who said he failed is playing mysterious and thinking "Well, I used so many flying puns, I'm sure he'll catch on eventually." when he doesn't even begin to understand what is being said.
There was in no way, shape or form the possibility of him learning what he did wrong and why he was being punished. Morality and ethics are not inherent traits and have to be taught. All he had was a feeling of failure and countless nightmares. Just because he is an adult does not magically mean he could know any better. He will be punished as an adult, but on the metric he is being judged on he might as well be a toddler.

And now as a pièce de résistance, to make him learn to fly, in their infinite wisdom they break his leg so he'll surely have to learn now.

Except she isn't playing mysterious. She wasn't playing mysterious when he confronted her, told him explicitly that he needed to "yearn to protect the weak, to fight for those who cannot protect themselves." She was only "playing mysterious" when she initially rejected him, hoping it would be educational to have him find the right answer on his own. Furthermore, simply telling him what he was lacking at that time and in that context would have been largely self-defeating since any sort of sense of charity would have been more artificial with the ultimate goal of still being seen as a hero to his parents. I think it was in part a "hope he catches on" situation, but Luna asserts that this charitable quality is an essential aspect of a Guardian - if he never came to the answer on his own, then he really wasn't worthy of being a Guardian to begin with irrespective of training, and it was never her obligation to force him along that path.

Of course, even when she did tell him what he was lacking, he didn't care - he didn't approach her to try to learn or to try to correct things. His narration explicitly says so, "And one day, I could finally vent all of my pain and anger at the Tree herself." In his eyes, he had been irrevocably wronged and nothing Luna did short of snapping her fingers and righting all the wrongs, actual or perceived, of the past, even if such a thing is within her power.

And this is less a situation of "breaking his legs to make him learn to fly." This is more a situation of "You don't know how to swim and have fought every attempt to teach you the easy way, and there is a flood coming. It's better if you learn to swim now the hard way than to pull everyone down who tries to help you when the actual flood comes." Luna has seemingly become aware that Nigel will be essential to saving everyone from Chaos and needs to hone his supposed Seer abilities before it is too late, come hell or high water, hence her patent dissatisfaction and sadness in doing things this way.

"You don't know how to swim and have fought every attempt to teach you the easy way, and there is a flood coming. It's better if you learn to swim now the hard way than to pull everyone down who tries to help you when the actual flood comes."

This would be speculating that Luna has been trying to teach Nigel for years when it is just as likely that this is the first time they interacted since that confrontation in the woods, and last we saw she decided to basically ignore the problem that was Nigel’s behavior in the hopes that it would resolve itself because freewill, then she finds out the problem hasn’t resolved itself (unsurprisingly) and decided to break her ‘respect the free-will of others’ principle and blind someone to teach them a lesson. In all honesty Luna problem is that she respects free-will to much, she respected Nigel’s parents free will to willfully emotional neglect their child when she could have intervened with more than words, she chose to respect Nigel’s decision to embrace his self-destructive tendencies stemming from emotional abuse when she could have intervene with more than words, until she decided years later that she couldn’t respect Nigel’s free will and blinded him so he can be of the desired mindset. Luna gravely mishandled the situation (something even she acknowledged by apologizing to Nigel for how she treated him) by not intervening sooner and left too much up to free-will, and because of this Nigel the guy essential to beating chaos is homeless, crippled, emotionally stunted, emotionally scarred, rotting in prison and expecting to be execution by tomorrow.

I'M about to go blind. Why are there nine fifteen page essays here what the hell guys?

This is what happens when you get too passionate about someone’s webcomic, sadly

Glad someone can actually understand this

Mamma deer's sad face is quite moving.

I'd personally like to slap it off her. I hate nothing more then "Good" entities that trample over the rights of others and then act all sad and burdened about it.

Pretty sure if i've been reading this all right she has A, raised a borderline child soldier that she abandons, who an ego problem as a self defense mechanism for the giant insecurities her raising gave him. And B, completely fails to understand in HOW she is as equally to blame for his actions as she is just repeatedly trampling this guy's free will AND BODILY AUTONAMY! He must basically see her as a personal nightmare now without his eyes. I think she is in for a rude surprise now that he can no longer see her pretty face, and starts seeing her more and more as the monster he imagines she is.

(Look I'm just saying if this boy landed in front of Kratos right now and was forced to explain his life story...there'd be one less pretty blue deer lady in this universe after a few hours.)

Not exactly what I meant as I was referring to the expressiveness of the artwork. However it does prompt me to bring up a few flaws in your assessment.

- She didn't raise Nigel. His parents are the ones that did that.

- She didn't abandon him as he was never her charge. He left his family after they shunned him for no longer being a useful tool in their own selfish ambitions. His anger is misplaced.

- As far as I've seen not one of the guardians that have been in battle are children.

- It's still Nigel's choice to commit to his actions. It's not her responsibility in any way.

- She has not once stopped him from exercising his free will and him being held in prison for committing a crime is justified by his criminal acts. It's been his choice the entire time. His choice to leave his family. His choice to become a thief. His choice to want to crash the ceremony. He is now facing what is known as 'consequence'.

We only have a snippet of the information so I won't jump to an emotionally motivated judgement until more is revealed about what's really happening here. Chill out, honey bunny.

-he spent his ENTIRE CHILDHOOD being trained to be a guardian FOR her. And she was around him fairly often AND tried (unsuccessfully and fairly often) to teach and guide him. Remember he's spent his whole life trying to understand her training and words even before her refusing to let him become a guardian. That is an insanely huge role in a child's life! she's practically the center of his whole world, which is a part of the reason she refused him guardianship! (Aka she played a huge role/part in raising him AND she knew his parents were setting him up for failure because she talked to them about it! so even if you wanna say she didn't technically raise him. Then she is still a failure as a god and mentor for watching the train approaching that was Nigel being set up for failure by his parents and her vague platitudes and complete inaction)

-Hard disagree. He was a child, she is a god who was aware of him and his abusive situation and her involvement in it (Which again was centered around raising him as a borderline child soldier so he becomes a guardian like they want FOR HER.). She didn't name him a guardian and did a poor job explaining herself when he of course was devastated. THEN his parents abandon him and she is aware of that fact and does nothing!

He is an abused child, she is a god whose good intentions make his abuse not only worse but tacks on extra spicy blue deer god-flavored abuse! (it's okay though she only BLINDED the ABUSED CHILD. Because Nigel is what...late-teens at most right now?)

-what are you talking about? Why is this a point against what I said? I honestly have no idea what you're trying to say with this one sorry. If you're referencing something about him not being a guardian or the refusal she did for him to become one? Because they just talked about it a few pages ago.

-IT IS. He is a literal borderline child soldier trained for a religion. He was trained his entire childhood to be a weapon/guardian FOR HER by his shitty family AND she was aware of said abuse and only ever asked his parents to stop ONCE. You can't look me in the eyes and tell me she has ZERO responsibility for his actions?

He is an abused child (she literally alludes to his awful life for the past 5 pages!). She is a god. She was aware of the abuse and how it was centered around her. She did literally nothing except ask the parents to stop once and gave the boy weird and vague platitudes that literally did nothing but confuse and hurt Nigel. IF these things are all true then she is HEAVILY to blame for his actions. I hope I haven't miss remembered something, but if I'm right all of those facts are correct there is no way morally you can just say "yea no, even though she's a god and he's an abused child, she's totally free of blame and commitment for this child soldier raised to be one of her highly respected servants."

-BLINDING A CHILD IS A VIOLATION OF THEIR FREE WILL/BODILY AUTONOMY!

sorry didn't wanna use caps but that particular nugget really needed to be put out there.

Nope. Disagree with you on all of this, and I won't apologize for that.

LOL fair enough i guess XD

wait as long as you don't disagree with the last point...you can't disagree with that one >.>

also, there is no chill on the bunny train. I'm a sucker for these sorts of fantasy interactions and they're surprisingly rare so I'm super sucked in at this point XD

really hoping honestly that Nigel gets some justified catharsis for the hole his life has been, and god lady gets punished for blinding an actual child.

Whelp, i just remembered a comic about... victria? S backstory herself and she'd -proven- to be capable of writing VERY big Flaws in Characters.

oh yea loving the all the characters so far. I just feel strongly that some people are really throwing Nigel a lot of the blame when like...dude is 17-18 right? Lived his early life as a golden child trained to be a weapon/agent for a god. Then when he failed he was shunned onto the street by his family and LITERALLY replaced by his younger brother (who was later chosen to be a guardian btw. which not a dig at him but OOF). And now years later apparently after he has, very understandably, not adjusted well and started acting/lashing out. The Goddess he had been trained to serve his whole life BLINDS him!

Like I love the story but holy shit guys I want to see some more sympathy for my baby Nigel...sure he's an annoying disrespectful little criminal in the making but the boy doesn't deserve this! He doesn't deserve a punishment half this bad!

For what it's worth, these are the exact points I have been arguing against this person and people like them. All it seems to do is incense and enrage them further.

It does appear that Nigel's parents' method of teaching appears to have been geared to invoke a soldier-like mentality, at least as far as we've been shown. If anything, it was likely Nigel's semi-sort-of disownment and departure that inspired Tobey to be a much more compassionate person, where Nigel just took the praise and adoration at face value and never questioned anything deeper, resulting in a sense of entitlement to such treatment simply for being diligent and studious.

Good to see Leopold again after his brief introduction as an adult, and he appears to definately be taking his job seriously, so we can put that debate to rest hopefully. I'm going to assume although we haven't seen him interact with Nigel like Miralle and Chilli, like the two of them, it's likely he doesn't hold Nigel in very high regard. Probably even lower than the two of them, since he's definitely not as lenient when it comes to opinions and thoughts from what we can go off of.

In viewing this page, Luna appears to be very self-aware, in that she is aware of her position and role within society and the world as a whole. It is evident that she knows full well how much power she has, but she does not abuse it despite the fact that it may result in better results if she did. I guess this situation forced her hand, through faults on both sides, which is unfortunate, but I'm hoping that Luna comes to learn that things aren't going to turn out better and work out, just because she thinks they will, and she was naive, and ignorant to think nothing bad would come from her decision when she was aware of the issue beforehand. As for Nigel, well, he's got a lot of things to learn, starting with not blaming everyone for his problems, and taking accountability for his actions.

But hey, if he's being sent to prison that means he's going to meet Tristan, which I'm sure will be an interesting interaction, if he's willing to talk to him that is, cause I can totally see Nigel blowing him of, considering it's very likely he'll still be hating the world and everyone in it, especially after his recent arguably deserved, blindness.

it could lead him back to a path of logical thinking, or a path to a servant of Chaos itself

lol Nigel not taking account of his actions is the least of his issues. He's a borderline child soldier with poor coping skills and insecurity issues who was openly abused by his parents and the blue deer lady merely asked them to stop, which of course did nothing. Never clearly explained herself at pretty much any point in his entire life. ALLOWED HIS PARENTS TO ABANDON HIM after she didn't pick him and didn't ya know...grab him off the streets and helping him in some way, like she has a small army of dudes right? So she also abandoned him too so that's great we can add that too the list.

THEN she waltzes back into his life and...FUCKING BLINDS HIM!? after saying some vague shit again she knows he won't understand, AGAIN. The kid is an abused animal at this point screaming in agony and confusion lashing out at anything he possibly can while every adult in his life fails him repeatedly while beating him with the same proverbial training stick that not only doesn't work. It has NEVER worked. The vague platitudes and deep perspective shit does not work on Nigel and nobody fucking cares, they just keep calmy and nobly saying them while punishing him as he screams. No joke, if this ends up working out for her with Nigel I am quitting this comic.

Whelp, big ass character flaws. Victria's a shit good author when it comes to that apparently - you put it so nicely there: nigel is but a kicking animal at this point because EVERYBODY in his life up to this point had failed miserably to aid him into growing to an responsible individual.

That is some emotional height to fall from, i am curious as to how this comic turns toward

I get sucked into plots/characters so easily so I feel like i'm that lady from the meme holding the small dog saying "I've only known X for 15 minutes, but if anything were to happen to him..." when it comes to Nigel. He is an abused woobie, not a bad person, and he deserved help and love and to be taken away from his abusive family and negligent god a long time ago.

He is just far too young for everyone to be being as mean to him as they are considering his raising.

your one of those how reads but only understands bits of what he reads i see

yea and your an extremely helpful and enlightening individual who offers compelling arguments with details and also definitely not the type who mixes up the words *who* and *how*...

thank you for your kind words man. but as for the who and how i just thought that most would be smart enough to know i made a mistake my bad. ill be more careful next time

you do that, you don't wanna insult someone's intelligence saying they don't understand the things they read while mixing basic three letter words that are spelt totally different. On a furry comic where people are discussing the actions of fictional gods and characters that are up to a decent amount of interpretation inherently and therefore could easily be seen and characterized in different ways that some people may see differently on.

especially as you continue to not offer me any even basic details as to why the things I said could be representative of me *not understanding what I read* when you could have simply disagreed with me and offered a few details as to why you disagreed with me in a constructive manner.

you definitely don't wanna do that, that would make you look like an idiot...

I will only critique your assessment in that I have seen Luna as being entirely self-aware throughout the entirety of this interaction. She doesn't like doing this, regrets not being more firm and more assertive early on, but views her current actions as necessary - very much like a Mother might to a bratty, angry child throwing a tantrum with a self-imposed sense of entitlement. It's certainly the mother's fault that this sense of entitlement exists in the first place, but that doesn't mean that corrective action isn't necessary, as uncomfortable and unpleasant as it might be. It also doesn't mean she's completely right or that things will turn out how she expects, as we've seen previously. : )

Oh no no, don't get me wrong, I'm well aware Luna has been self conscious throughout the comic, I was just making a remark that this is the first time were this element has been made very evident by the way she's carrying herself here. It's always been a kind of subtle thing, that slips out here and there, but this the first time were she's done something, that she deems as necessary, that she's shown to really, REALLY, not want to do, and appears to be very regretful that she's allowed things to get to this point, either due to her ignorance/naivety, or not really knowing a way to get through to Nigel. The only other time she's been this upfront about her feelings like this, was when it came to Miralle, and how looking after her/becoming her foster mother would affect her, because of who she is.
Regardless this whole situation is very complicated, both sides have played a part in it, and I'm hoping after this, several characters get a harsh dose of reality, cause yes some of these issue could have been avoided, but were left to become more serious problems later on. It's likely there's other issues similar to this one, but this was one were it got to the point were it couldn't be left alone.

So she'll know he'll escape later... hm, interesting.

or she plans to release him soon

Tomorrow is going to be Nigel's big day. That hasn't changed. He's going to be appointed a knight of Life whether he wants it now, or not.

This is going to be such a train wreck at the end.

This -is- already a train wreck!

And has (to me) currently the effect of a car crash: it is terrible and yet i can not look away.

The madness of gods, of sorts.

This would seem pretty savage out of context, hell even in context it’s not good optics (pun not intended 😂)

I honestly kinda hate (in a good way) our dear blue deer lady now. At first she was mostly a plot device due to necessity, but now we're getting more and more context of how she sees things and how she tries to help and care for other around her (she can't be everywhere so has to delegate and teach and guide). But she is incapable of understanding mortals on a fundamental level and that's creating friction and suffering because she NEEDS mortal agents in order to help the mortals she so loves.

And the most interesting part is she is still a genuinely good entity who is smart and wise and empathic. The flaw of understanding is so background and passive that literally nobody in the room is capable of really seeing it. Nigel is ironically the closest and farthest to seeing and understanding the problem but unfortunately is too close to home for him. He's too angry and hurt, so he just warps the truth internally into a more easily swallowed form where he is freed of 100% of the blame. ATM I am 100% certain he'd rather DIE then take any the blame for anything at this point (and the worst part is can you really blame the kid...his life has been SHIT).

yeah I kind of get you on that, at the risk of sounding basic (because marvel movies being the lowest form of entertainment and all that lol) she kind of reminds me of doctor strange in "infinity war"; what seems like madness to us because we can't see in non-linear space-time was a necessary evil on the part of dr.strange, and also similarly to how right before stark's sacrifice he had to withhold the details of the future or "it wouldn't happen".

Also I wonder if he's just as surprised as we are that she can blind people, she seems like a non-combatant that can only heal, but the way she used that ability here is rather sinister; I can't think of clear examples off the top of my head, but I remember a discussion about how some of the worst villains are those who have a "good power" like healing, but are so maligned they use it to do things like intentionally grow tumors that make people's heads explode or something. I don't think that's her, but I can understand Nigel feeling that way.

She is 100% a genuinely "good" person. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

She has no joke ruined this boy's life in multiple ways, then suddenly shown up again years after he's gone half-feral in the literal streets (After his parents abandoned him BECAUSE OF HER) and proceeds to blind him. Oh and she's being weird and vague AGAIN for like the 500th time in his life, providing no actual help or guidance AGAIn as she rips away his most crucial physical sense that has been key in helping him survive on the streets she helped abandon him on.

I am not joking when i say I hope Nigel goes rogue/evil and gets some VERY deserved vengeance on this b-word. I REALLY need to see this lady to get some comeuppance for this absolute awful treatment of this kid. Otherwise no joke, it may kinda ruin the comic for me. It may just be Kratos whispering in my ear, but i'm feeling some god-slaying urges.

Take him to the refurbished chamber that was once bad!

You can't do this! Lettuce leaf!
XD

*applauds*

*laughs like a mad genius*
Your comment was well played, I just had to follow up!

Gonna be interesting to see what happens next and how he escapes.

There was a lot of ways you could handle his situation before this. XD

I feel he has a very important role to play more than the others seeing as he has more happen to him over the others.

whatever he chooses will determine his fate in the comic

I hope he makes the right choice. She hasn't really been helpful to him.

she tried, she tried telling his parents to stop doing what their doing, they didnt listen, then she tried to tell him he has potential and has something no one else has, but he didnt listen, and when he came in trying to rob one of the badges, he STILL didnt listen, Luna was at the end of her rope here, could she have been able to take him under her wing? no it likely wouldnt have worked either, could have their been another way? yeah possibly, but this is how some stories go in order for a character or two to grow and learn

but in what way? positive or negative.. introspective or self-destructive?

the other ways could have either effect, but mostly more negative, more harm than good because Nigel doesnt trust her and doesnt like her right now, so even if there was another way, it still would have had Nigel still bitter and resentful

It's so weird for me that she now uses direct actions on Nigel but in the past she did just "talk" what people should do in a free will option.

Yea if she had stayed behind the "I must respect free will" defense I would be a LOT more generous with her right now. This bitch be real quick to just to be on hands off while everyone was abusing this kid and building him up for failure RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER and then she just...doesn't pick him...doesn't sit him down and explain why she made this decision FOR him so he could decide for himself to be guardian and not because his parents were forcing him to be one.

Nooooo we get to be vague about it and other things repeatedly to a CHILD who SHE KNOWS doesn't understand. Then the boy is ABANDONED by his parents because of her decision to not pick him AND SHE DOES NOTHING! Why was Nigel abandoned? why wasn't he immediately pseudo-adopted by her and then given slower more introspective training away from his parents!? Nope! free will baby. Also brb the kid is being a mild problem for me so I'm just going to FUCKING BLIND HIM! yea I'm sure that will solve his growing mental instability and violent fantasies of getting revenge on me.

She has literally kicked this kid in the proverbial balls every time he has been at the lowest points in his life. I really genuinely hope Nigel gets his revenge on blue deer lady otherwise this story will be ruined by my vengeance blue balls.

Funny how a lot of people put most of the blame to Nigel, i mean sure there are also many people that say that both sides made mistakes BUT i think the bulk of readers blame Nigel because he is an "unlikable" character. If the comic was just about mortals without the interference of gods i could agree with them but that's not the chase, the gods take an active roll in the life of the morals.
When Chili was poisoning her Elder, Luna gave him an antidote. Luna also took Chili to her home as a friend/playmate/housepet for her adopted daughter Miralle.
Also a thing most people bring up is that Nigel is still "salty" about it since his childhood but he should have grown out of it, it was Nigel parents who abandon him but only after he seemed unworthy since Luna did not take him in, if i remember right she also told Nigel that some of his family members also had "the thing" missing to be a guardian but they later found it. If Luna had taken Nigel in like she did with Chili this would be a whole other story same goes for Tristan, she met the boy in a crutial poin in his life and she also gave him her advise but the peer pressure of the gang was to much for him to make a change.

Luna seems to be to passiv in her actions, thats also a thing mentioned in the comic since the other gods, demigods or nobles do only respect her because of her status as the Tree-of-Life.

She didn't talk to the parents. Didn't you read the backstory pages? He comes from a long line of Guardians his shit parents were even Guardians somehow and put everything on him while ignoring his younger brother then when it came for selection she didn't choose him cuz she wanted the choice to be his own not just for his lineage but she was cryptic about it and not straight and didn't say anything to the parents so his parents saw it as the trees way of saying he was unworthy so they straight up just abandoned him and cut him off and put all their focus on his younger brother instead. He confronted her as a child a little time afterwards about this but she still didn't do anything and was cryptic. Then when it came for selection for his brother she chose his brother cuz she knew she fucked up the first time but still never said anything to the parents. The brother actually makes mention of this in one of those Q&A pages says how his brother was a victim of their families traditions but he didn't fall victim to it because he saw what they did to his brother.

Her excuse on the page where she said he didn't have heart to protect others was actually complete bullshit because yeah he wanted to be a true Guardian protects others the difference between him and the others though was he was doing it just for his family lineage why the others were doing it cuz they wanted to be Guardians.

She could have been more straightforward and helped him and his parents understand but she just let what his parents did to him happen.

Man you can't just skip pages and then make up your own story book0 pg 65 https://www.furaffinity.net/view/42580257 she talked to his parents it is possible she has talked to his whole blood line about this. Luna has standards on who can become a guardian those rules are possibly there to protect the people chosen book 0 page 64 https://www.furaffinity.net/view/42475920.

Huh I misremembered that page. My bad. Makes his parents even worse. Thou she still could have done more for him. Could have taken him under her wing or someone that could have helped him. Plus she could have been more hard on the parents after that and not choose anyone in that family anymore. Also still quite the contradictory his parents had what it took to be Guardians yet they would do something like this. Anyway the cycle has been broken. The parents are dead, the brother saw how terrible the tradition was and he still needs to find his way back to the light which I'm sure he will. With actually help from his soon to be new best friend.

Sorry about the length of reply if I was better at communication in general they would be shorter.

I think folk are getting caught by the feels and hey that means the piece of art is doing well see, as bad as what the parents did they didn't abandon him at the drop of a hat they didn't kick him to the street till he started destroying the house think back to his little brother when Nigel was the main focus was Tobi on deaths door? Nope was he wanting for his parents love and attention yup! and it sucks they do have a on off switch for that but Nigel is the one that took the action that left him homless. Straight up every bad thing thing that has happened to him has been of his own making he can't see that like at all because all he sees is something he thinks is his when that is not how the world works.

On her taking him in I think that the ones she already does personally take care of is pushing it not to mention https://www.furaffinity.net/view/35496673 like the guy says the flak she would get for taking a child from his family for what they see as no reason the utter shit storm I can only imagen.

Nigel can’t catch a break at all can’t he

Nor can he catch a hint apparently :v

Hope that spell is temporary

I don't think it is. Remember the weapons preview page. Nigel has a stick, not even a spear. Could be used as a staff, maybe, but right now, looks perfect for a blind man to use as an aid in navigating.

I sincerely doubt Luna is that harsh. I think it is permanent insofar as long as Nigel's stubborn, blind rage persists. I think if/when he learns a bit of humility and patience and compassion, she will restore his eyesight.

Idk, we will have to see where it all leads. I'm personally leading with the thought that Nigel's not going to miss his eyesight as much as everyone thinks, once he actually starts letting go of his pride and rage he's clung so hard to for so long.

These guys like five pages ago: Yes sir, we know how to do our jobs.

These guys now: How could someone enter without us noticing :(

"I wIsH ThErE wErE aNy OtHeR wAy"

Bitch, talk to him!

Instead of telling no to his parents, do not elaborate on it in the slightest, which is why he became a hobo, he faces you again, steal his vision, again refuse to elaborate why, and now she does nothing as he is thrown into jail to rot for the rest of his life.

Seriously, what a genuinely horrible person.

"The boy is the Chosen One, but he will not be trained as a Jedi."

Why do I have a feeling Nigel's gonna end up the Anakin Skywalker route?

or the path of Darth vader

"You were the Chosen One!

It was said that you would destroy the Chaos, not join them! ...bring balance to Life, not leave it in darkness!"

" I HAATE YOOOOOOU!!!! "

"...You were my Brother Nigel;... I loved you..."

(X3)

XDD

Exactly XD.

But all seriousness that's what makes me worry a bit. Worried that this is how Chaos will win, by the tree of life's own hand in it

so sad we can´t upvote comments on FA XD

(Bows)

X3

She literally did and he didn't want to hear it. She told him exactly what he lacked and he still got angry. Like???

Imagine using the reddit sarcasm font unironically...

She...did. She told him exactly what he did wrong. That's why she's teaching him.

Teaching is not about giving someone the answers, its about giving them the right tools to find their way there on their own by being patient and learning what they did wrong.

Or sometimes, taking away the tools people can use to jump to an answer.. In this case, she took his sight away, like a math teacher might have taken away a calculator to make a student solve math problems by hand. He'll have to feel his way out of this one.

Who knows, once he stops holding onto what he doesn't have, maybe he'll find he can see things in an entirely new way. Maybe he gets his vision back, or maybe he eventually finds he doesn't miss it as much as he thought.

(I am leaning towards his blindness being semi-permanent, since on the Weapons preview page, Nigel's is a basic stick, possibly a staff, but suitable for assisting a blind man in everyday navigation)

Gotta be real. The whole Nigel situation makes me hate the comic.
Zummeng here trying to make him out as the villain somehow when Luna's kicking him in the ribs every time he's down. Instead of, oh I dunno, giving him some form of guidance or guardianship that he was desperately missing. Yeah no wonder he's a delinquent, he never had anyone to teach him any other way to survive.

Poor kid was abused and abandoned by his parents and she's like "Now yer blind teehee~"

I don't know what it is about Luna that makes commenters completely ignore the fact that Nigel has free will and has been his own worse enemy since he was a kid. You are ignoring that he has had guidance his whole life either from what he learned as a kid from his parents to Luna telling him what he lacked twice I might add. He has flipped off said guidance because he can't accept a small flawed part of himself instead he blames everyone but his folks and himself, the folks blaming Luna for every single decision that Nigel makes is about as blind and bull headed as he is.

Insulting me isn't exactly going to change my opinion. Furthermore I'm only on Nigel's side because he was a child when all of this happened and was not yet bereft of innocence. He needed guidance, not to be disowned. And she was clearly aware of his situation for years. No child learns or matures in a vacuum. No clay shapes itself into a work of art without skilled hands.

Either way we clearly aren't going to agree on any points

You can only keep up the he was a child excuse for the time he was a child he has grown older they say it takes a village to raise a kid what happens when that kid runs away and ignores every single bit of advice the village gave to him was the village suppose to torture that info into him? In book 0 page 64 she tells him what he needs to be a guardian he needs to figure out the how she can't do that for him not to mention if the dude can hold a grudge for this long he can think he can learn he can reflect he doesn't want to.

If you say so

That's the problem. When you look at Toby's Story in the Patron Ask, he was already wise to their antics and was more willing to ask questions.

Nigel up until the Rug was yanked out from under him was programmed to follow a Path by his parents... And when he was made to deviate, he didn't have a Clue what to do... And adding to that, The Answer she gave at the time was incredibly vague.

She only gave him the baseline meaning that wasn't stuffed in a bundle of Purple Prose when he was fully grown... Meaning he has none of the training, none of the necessary skills and... Well, he's now Completely Useless now that he has lost his sight!

This will mean that with Nigel Blind, he's only going to drag down the Team when they are stuck with him, and I strongly suspect half the reason that will happen is because he'd rather try to march off at a moment's notice, because he'd much rather try to keep his "Pride" (And the only times I can see it being funny would be if Someone (Like Tristan) would try to warn Nigel, and Nigel instead falling into a (Minor) Hazard i.e, Slipping on a Fruit slice.)... And likely because the only member he'd remotely Tolerate is Tristan, mostly because Tristan is the one character who'd be able to break through to him... Or Toby...

...Matter of fact, The only reason I am still sticking around is so I can see their Reunion. I mean, What the Hell is that Spell that Luna put on him, and how can it be removed?

Because if Luna has to remove the spell... Well, Then Nigel is going to be that One Guy who drags the Party down and makes the Story Unbearable, because The one major Plot point of this story is to find Luna, Stop Rah J'an, and find Alexander once Lilly joins the party... And unless Nigel somehow discovers and slowly advances his "Gift", or is able to find the means to recover his sight (Potientially through understanding what Luna wanted him to comprehend), Having Nigel be completely blind throughout the story, moreso when he is stuck with the Guardians, will make it hard to read as it means Nigel is just a Slot filler that eats up resources, fills space, and makes things harder for the Guardians!

This was a very well-thought comment! Now it will be a thing if your predictions about the story will be correct or not, but the background base of how this point was reached is 100% accurate.

Incorrect. The answer she gave when Nigel confronted her was quite explicit, very clear: "...You need to yearn to protect the weak, to fight for those who cannot protect themselves." Purple Prose my glorious behind. Nigel didn't want to listen and rejected her words out of hand, and his narration admits as much - he was only motivated by rage and revenge against Luna who he blamed for all of his problems. He didn't confront his parents about their cold treatment. He ran away. He didn't confront Luna to help make things right. He confronted her to blame her and hurt her.

"He Ran Away".

He. Was. DIS-OWNED! Thrown Out! For someone who claims to have read the whole story to get all Smug about it, You CLEARLY missed the Part where his Mother Practically threw him out!

Sometimes in prophecies you can't tell the "chosen one" or it'll end badly. I'm guessing this is one of those.

He will not be there for long...


So, she is either a Forecaster, or literally precognitive. Which makes sense. Either way, things are about to REALLY start rolling, aren't they?

She tried talking to him. He didn't listen, heard only what he wanted to hear, and insisted she was the cause of his problems, and ran away from her on his own. She didn't reject him, and if he had wanted to understand his shortcomings, he would have actually tried to. As we've seen repeatedly, he has constantly insisted that there is nothing wrong with him and everything wrong with the rest of the world. What he really wanted was things to return to how they were before, to have the unquestioning love of his parents, which wouldn't happen unless Luna could rewind time or manipulate his parents in exactly the way you're criticizing her for manipulating him now.

He also became a vagabond of his own accord. He was still supposedly being fed and clothed and cared for at home, albeit in a loveless and dispassionate way. I don't blame him for being angry with his parents, they were being stupid. But he didn't confront his parents about it, he ran away. He didn't ask Luna to help him, he blamed Luna for his problems and wanted to hate her for it.

Luna isn't perfect, she admits she's made mistakes in this very interaction, but so many seem to behave as though Nigel is a pure innocent victim who did nothing wrong ever. Also he isn't being thrown into jail forever - she knows quite well that he won't be in prison for more than a day or so and says as much. Don't forget that Tristan is also in prison, and Tristan has been shown to be quite handy with locks.

And now to wait over 3 story arcs to find out the reason for this decision =P

Well yeah... That's generally how narratives play out. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

oh shit.

Each page hooks me up to this comic more and more!

And then he somehow escapes (with Tristan's help maybe?) and goes full: "I am what the Tree have made me! And I will have my revenge!".

Batman!?

Kratos.

KRATOSMAN

Man it's like watching a puppy getting kicked over and over.

If I had a puppy that was as ugly as him, I'd have it euthanized.

Harsh xD

He had it coming one day or another, but he forced her hand and now gets all punishment ass beating at once

I really dislike Luna. She is, in my opinion, the kind of boss you got, with no social skills. All the power, no human management at all.

I honestly have no sympathy for Nigel. Just because his parents were crappy, does not mean he gets to act like an entitled jerk off. He was an arrogant kid and just as arrogant as a young adult. Luna is just using a bit of tough love on Nigel, and hopefully it will change his personality a bit.

Feels like a bit of an understatement. Tough love usually doesn't require destroying the function of a primary sensory organ.

It might be when you are a god, who can also give it back once the lesson's learned.

I dunno.

Omniscience =/= OmniCompetence I find. Any lesson that requires nothing short of physical torture (and yes, this qualifies) *might* need to be taken back to the drawing board.

I mean stuff like this happened all the time in various religious texts, take away someones sight or senses or something else, so one can learn to be humble or some other lesson.

Wait, people who are temporarily blinded, and can typically resolve that by learning their lessons, is...being tortured? Huh. TIL, I guess.

We do not know if the spell is able to be removed by Nigel "Learning his Lesson".

For all we know, the Spell requires Nigel Talking to Luna again... And by the Time the Guardians have to go on the Quest, Luna is gone.

That means Luna may potentially have made the mission Six times more difficult if the Spell is the latter type.

She's not a greek goddess. It wasn't done out of malice. It was done to teach him. Teaching rarely results in the teacher imposing a permanent mutilation in any story or mythohistory I've ever read, which this comic has a lot of inspiration from.

Also, if I'm not allowed to read into the script and draw parallels towards a myriad of stories that have elements present here, then...why did you come to the conclusion that this has additional requirements that it must personally be done by Luna when she's already stated he won't be in the prison long.

One, I say that because Luna is shown to be the one to Cure Ailments and lift curses... And this is a curse she put on Nigel. We do not have the full understanding of what is the exact means to lift the Spell, meaning Luna has potentially caused the exact same problem all over again. Also, while she said "He won't be in the Prison Long", it does NOT mean the Curse will be lifted!

Secondly, Greek Goddesses are portrayed to "do it out of Malice" in parts of the Culture that were in opposition to the Goddesses (Aside from Hera, of course, she was as Bad as Zeus). Much of what they did was to either protect a person (Medusa was one of Athena's priestesses who was sexually violated by Posidon, and in order to ensure it would never happen again, she made Medusa have the ability to defend herself... Of course, by the events of Perseus, she had gone completely mental), or Teach them a lesson they will never forget!

She didn't say that the curse would never be lifted, or would never be able to be resolved by Nigel's change in his ways, it was in fact heavily implied by her in this very comic page that he can fix the problem if he goes through a critical phase of self discovery.

The Greek gods and goddesses are among the most vindictive, vengeful, and easily pissed off of any mythological pantheon...for example;

Aphrodite cursed the king of Crete, Minos' wife Pasiphae to become a zoophile because of Minos' claims of her beauty being greater than hers, and then bred with the bull of Crete, then she gave birth to the Minotaur. To do this, Aphrodite sent her son, Eros, to enchant and thus curse Pasiphae to be inconsolable and unsatisfied with anything except this specific bull. Pasiphae enlisted the king's craftsman, Daedalus, to build her a wooden cow, lifelike in detail and wheeled so that at night, Pasiphae could take it into the fields, and then mate with the white bull of Crete, and then after doing so enough times, became pregnant and birthed the Minotaur. Then, as punishment for building the wooden cow, Minos mandated that Daedalus would build the Labyrinth, and imprisoned the Minotaur, Pasiphae, and Daedalus inside and as a result of those losses and "betrayals," set up by a vindictive, spiteful, and hateful goddess, not in any way being protective of her subjects. This is what a curse looks like to me.

Athena cursed Medusa, one of her own priestesses and a woman of extraordinary beauty that was raped by Poseidon in her temple, in the original myths she did it in fury that she was slighted by the act of someone supposedly worshipping her allowing themselves to be victimized by another god, and then instead of going after that god, turned her into a monster that could never feel warmth of others. Medusa's story was never a woman being protected by a goddess, it was always a goddess overreacting and condemning her priestess to a horrible fate to always be alone, except accompanied by the likewise cursed Stheno and Euralye. Then, Medusa was reduced to absolutely nothing but a means to an end for Perseus in part to rescue Andromeda, who I'll go over next, but severing Medusa's head and then using it to defeat one of his adversaries. Absolutely nowhere in there is Athena protecting Medusa from anything. Absolutely no version of the myth depicts the curse from Athena as anything but a curse, no myth has ever referred to it as a self-defense method from being raped again. I am totally at a loss for where you came up with this.

On Andromeda, we have another victim of the gods. Andromeda did absolutely nothing wrong to deserve this fate, and that is critical to understand, because since her father, the king of Aethiopia, Cepheus, declared that she MIGHT be more beautiful than the Nerieds, Poseidon flooded the city, and then unleashed the creature Cetus. Then, because she's tied to this rock, naked, due to Cepheus consulting the oracle of Ammon, Perseus flies by, then sees her, falls in love, and then immediately goes to Cepheus to ask for his blessing to marry her, and Cepheus says "Sure, kill the monster that's coming for her and then go for it," and thus Perseus did kill Cetus with the enchanted sword he used to kill Medusa, and gets the girl...except she had been promised to her own uncle, Phineus. So what does Perseus do? Holds up Medusa's head and turns Phineus and all his attendants to stone. So then they go to be king and queen elsewhere.

Absolutely nothing in this story, which I've recently re-read, is Luna's curse anywhere remotely close to any of these genuinely fucked up and morbid curses suffered by people who were without exception, totally innocent victims of the gods. In Nigel's case he without any guarantee of the fact, just assumed he'd become a Guardian. His parents missed a few steps here, they are absolutely to blame for some things, but Nigel is entirely responsible for his own actions after Luna refused him the first time. Instead of asking "what did I do wrong" and then seriously starting to inspect himself to find what might be lacking, or seeking out assistance from anyone, he tried to return to his life, was essentially shunned, another critical weakness and wrongdoing on his parent's side that they are responsible for, then he ran, and turned into a spiteful, angry little thief and upon trying to steal from Luna, she tells him straight upfront that this is for his own good and that he needs to learn what he did wrong, and there's only one way she can see that will genuinely humble him in any way, to give him a weakness he must learn to overcome, and must potentially rely on others to help him with. She's doing this to TEACH HIM, not to vindictively curse or punish him. He did wrong. She is teaching him how to become a person who will do right, not to become a Guardian, but to become a better person who will want to do better and to improve himself.

I think that's good enough to be my last word on this.

Wrong for the king of Crete. What actually happened was that he was the Bull that mated his Wife, was a given to him by the Gods for him to raise... So he can sacrifice it later.

It was a Means to show his dedication to them... And he tried to Cheat them by having a different bull sacrificed in its place.

Aphrodite didn't take kindly to being cheated... But you're no better. Seriously, look at that longwinded muck you vomited and say you're any better?

I'm surprised people are claiming that Nigel was cursed, when it hasn't been explicitly stated that he was cursed, or whether that's something that Luna would really do to someone, even if she is forced to act on someone's behalf.

Yes subverting expectations, and all that, I am most certainly not going to rule out that possibility, that said, unless it's stated outright that he's been cursed by Luna, or that Luna can even give people curses, I think it's fair to say, that she literally just used her power to remove his sense of sight, and I don't think Nigel can get it back in the sense, that once he fixes his act he'll magically get it back, I mean she literally removed his pupils, it's like she made it so he never had them to begin with.

Honestly, at this point, either Luna gives Nigel his sight back before they go on their journey, or Nigel figures out how to "see" himself, without his sense of sight, using the ability that he has yet to realise he even has. What would be interesting to see later in the story, is once Nigel figures how to use the ability he has too "see", his eyes will bare some resemblance to Luna's, who doesn't have visible pupils, but can still see her surroundings just fine. Not saying Luna's blind by the way, just want to clarify that.

Let someone arbitrarily blind you for an undisclosed amount of time after you've had sight your whole life and tell me it isn't torture.

If you think its arbitrary, you have paid zero attention to the story.

So what, you're saying torture in service to a good narrative isn't actually torture?

You're telling me you'd let someone semi-permanently take away your sight to let you reach some kind of clarity or deeper enlightenment?

If you're going to straw man me again, I will refuse to engage with you in any way. Respond to what I said, not what you imagined I said to make your argument against me stronger.

Xanatien, I think it's becoming clear that we are dealing with people who have become accustomed to modern (ahem) storytelling, where the people who enter the story are the same as when the story ends, no growth or character development allowed, because that would mean of beloved characters were in fact, flawed in the first place.

I always try to assume that these things I see are obvious but I guess that's my own error. I mean, I miss a lot of details and character details/comment's significance as well, but very rarely to totally misunderstanding the characterization. Static characters do have their use and purpose, and sometimes they can be very compelling, but almost every serious story has strong dynamic traits to the majority of the characters. I wonder if the refusal to acknowledge dynamic characterization here is one's desire to refuse to acknowledge that all of us have our own flaws and that this is not bad, unless we refuse to address them. Its almost like people are objecting to it because they don't understand that teaching sometimes requires a more serious approach.

Dood, if I yank out your eyes with no promise to return them you'd be in tremendous distress

You missed the point. Entirely.

Oh no, I'm just arguing over the definition of torture. Which this is in-fact a textbook definition of.
I'm just being pedantic :p

You can’t blame your parents for your shitty behavior forever.

Yep. There's gonna be a time where he has to pick himself up by the bootstraps

Why is that other reply hidden? I vaguely recall it was about how picking himself up by the bootstraps isn’t “physically possible”? That doesn’t seem like something worth hiding your comment over.

Man, I dislike Luna even more now.

Something tells me the reason Nigel gets free is less to do on his part and more that either a) he ends up in the same cell or cellblock as Tristan and.or b) something real bad is gonna happen that's gonna set the story's leads on the run from this location.

...I feel its going to be a mix of Colomn A and Colomn B...

I can see Tristan helping Nigel figure out how to work around his blindness (Tristan's kind nature would mean he has helped blind people before, and as a Frequent helper, he would have picked up on how some Blind people can 'See' without their eyes... Such as tapping on the bars of his cell in a manner that would 'Train' Nigel's (Temporary?) Blindness, allowing him to 'See' without eyes.

Think of it like how in MGS3, after Naked Snake loses his eye, he trains himself out of his lack of depth perception by tracking a Butterfly fluttering about his cell... And Since Nigel is Completely blind, I can see Tristan trying to help Nigel by 'Training' his ears and sense of Touch, allowing Nigel to have something similar to Toph's Seismic Senses.

huh.... I wonder how long before he meets skull daddy

I really wanted Nigel to grow, but that looks less likely for every page.

Everyone acting like 1 life (Nigel) is more important than the entire society that is at very real risk of being wiped out. Sometimes you have to give tough love/do bad things to a person to get them to be where they need to be. I'm sure there's "better ways" it could be done, but if none lead to genuine growth, then they're not helpful. She didn't pick Nigel as a guardian before because he didn't have the personality for it - why would she risk EVERYONE to please one little kid? She said hey you have more growth, do that and come back. And instead of do that, he became a nasty little thing (though not entirely his fault because his parents). Luna still waited for him to come to terms with what that is, she talked to his parents to come to him. His brother even says he tried to talk to him.

Nigel felt betrayed and angry and blamed everyone for everything and instead of see how to better himself, he shut down and became bitter and nasty. Luna now sees that in trying to let him grow on his own and find out, it didn't work. So she's trying more drastic measures (removing eyesight). She even said he won't be in jail long which probably means 1. either means he'll understand what's going on or 2. he'll escape even without his eyes. Is it drastic and perhaps cruel? Sure...but we've seen time and time again that Luna is not all seeing or all knowing. She has to do what she thinks is best for EVERYONE, not just Nigel.

THANK YOU!

always good to see other people who can see beyond black and white and know there's complexity and shades of gray in story telling. I even remember some people saying Luna was evil or wrong altogether because when the evil overtakes one guardian, he is like omg this is the greatest plan, I see it now - people went "why would he say that if it wasn't true??" Big eye rolls!

I just accept the story for what it is, and how it's offered. I trust Viktria as a storyteller, and I will just sit back and read.

200% feel the same. This is her baby and I doubt she's going to make bad decisions with her own passion project comic.

Jfc finding a reasonable person in these comments who understands story telling is so difficult. Thank you

I see it all the time on web comics haha; we see from only one perspective so people zero in on it and double down. It still always catches me off guard though, that people can't see different POVs (even if they don't agree with them). Comments sections get SUPER nasty towards some characters on comics loaded to FA, and it makes a really nasty cesspool of commentary (I saw it constantly on the Caelum Sky comic for the angel character and Oren's Forge comic for one of the rabbit hunters)

Ah a smart person in the comments. Let me rest here for a while.
Is it really so hard to wait and see where the deer god is going with this before condemning her?

I think people just have an unrealistic view of what kind of goddess Luna is - she's not all powerful or all seeing, she's doing her best for everyone, not just one person.

Her methods to teach these supposed lessons were reprehensible. For all her power and knowledge she could have gone about this with far greater nuance than letting it fester to this point. As an example she was more than eager to adopt 2 orphans. But couldn't muster even a sentence to reprimand or speak with his parents for their utterly disgusting behavior? It's obvious it'll work out somehow in the end. But you can't blame people for feeling empathetic towards Nigel when they know his story and know that his increasingly terrible actions have stemmed from a legitimate injustice.

He has the wrong target, but that's hardly any reason to dismiss people's anger that he's again being tortured

"...she could have gone about this with far greater nuance than letting it fester to this point.

And thus you learn that "gods" are nothing more than ordinary people, with ordinary people failings, who have been created with extraordinary powers. That they are just as fallible as any of us.

Oh for sure - I'm not saying anyone is wrong for having opinions other than me at all - just to the degree which people have it is kinda odd and has gotten t the point of kinda offputting and gross in the last few pages. Just the way people are talking about the comic, the story, the artist, others who think the tree is doing the right thing, it's kinda gotten pretty out of control. I don't think people who think Luna was more in the wrong have a bad point at all. Definitely not my intention to come across as my mindset is the only right one.

Like she did something questionable and arguably messed up, but we can tell as viewers it's clear she's trying it for the right reasons/to help Nigel and to keep people safe. Whether people think it's right is DEFINITELY up for debate. Some people have more sympathy for Nigel than dislike, which makes 100% sense. Nigel had a lot of shit happen to him that wasn't his fault. It's perspective of if you think the ends justify the means, or if you think Nigel is more a victim, or if you believe the Tree is doing the right thing. Not everyone will have the same perspective and I DEFINITELY agree, even as someone on the Tree's side, that I feel bad for Nigel and it's hard to see him deal with so much.

Im very glad someone else has said this! Yes from what this situation is, it could potentially make things 10x worse for Nigel and make him even MORE bitter, or.. something happens in prison to where he lightens up JUUUUST a bit for him to finally open the pathway to change, Nigel is only bitter because his parents technically did cast him out, and no one bothered to help the poor kid when he ran away so he DOES have a justified reason to be angry with the world, any kid would, Luna despite being a deity ISNT perfect as you said, shes a being like any one else, gods arent perfect beings, they have their own flaws too, but people choose to ignore the fact, but he needs to learn that the world isnt the problem and he needs to face his demons head on to truly change his ways

I very much hope that Nigel gets redeemed or finally have justice done for him eventually but I have my worries..

I feel like the people that blame Luna either haven't read the comic or are just remembering their headcanon https://www.furaffinity.net/view/42475920 page 64 She tells him directly why and how this works and why he wasn't chosen https://www.furaffinity.net/view/42580257 page 65 she tells him that she has talked to his family many times about their methods hell she might be talking about generations of her telling them to stop not just his parents and folk in the comments just seem to completely ignore these pages I guess the hate boner for Luna is just that strong.

The hate boner for gods is strong, but people dont seem to grasp that their not perfect like everyone thinks deities are, their flawed just like mortals and thats a good thing, it means they care they have feelings too, Luna has feelings, EVERYONE in her universe does, people dont seem to see that she DOES care and even sometimes she questions herself if what shes doing is right, but it flies over everyones head

That often happens. Not much one can do about.

And you guys have made several good points there.

Sadly yes.. it does

and thanks!

YES, thank you for the reminder/posting that. I feel it shows she didn't just forget about him. She was willing to talk to and guide/help him but he declined. I don't think it's 100% his fault because he's just a kid, but you can tell that Luna needs him to figure it out and she tried to let him find his own way. Now that it's shown he won't do it on his own, she's forcing the matter (albeit in a very cruel seeming way)

Kinda crazy that everything broke down just from one single attempt at being eligible to be a Guardian. Luna highlighted that previous ancestors of his failed too before but eventually succeeded and was explicit that he could strive for it again in another year after he's benefited from some growth.

But that one failure was enough for his parents to ignore him.

But that one failure was enough to put such hate in him that he decided to never accept help.

I'm kinda wondering what Luna could've really done there. Kidnapping a child (that is being fed and sheltered) because they're not being loved isn't usually an acceptable answer....

Riiiiight, You DO realize that if Nigel is Blind when he is forced to Party with the Guardians, that he will only make things harder for them because:

1) By being Blind, Nigel will be useless in Combat, and will require being Protected. This will make having him in the Party be an Escort Mission, only the 'Escort' is stuck with you and is unable to help.

2) If Nigel is Still blind when he parties up, He will end up dragging the Morale of the party down with his negativity. If he was negative before, being rendered blind, unable to feed himself (No Eye-Hand Coordination) and being stuck with a Party where two of the four members (not counting Nigel) hate him, one Distrusts him (not wrong to do so) and the last one... Well, I cannot tell at the moment how things will go with Tristan, but they'd be cordial at best... I can see it getting worse... And it will get super awkward if Toby is with them for the first half.

3) Adding onto the above, Nigel would end up trying to leave the Party multiple times, moreso if Miralle and Chilli get needlessly antagonistic (Yes, they have a right to snark off at him, but one should know when to stop poking the Volatile explosives...), which means that they'd have a Blind, Snarky and extremely negative Rabiceros trying to leave the party in a region full of hostiles, in a Dungeon full of Traps just waiting to be sprung, or in a Town full of uneasy Villagers that would take what some rando bumbling about trying to leave as an "Attack"...

Point is, unless Nigel learns an ability to make him something akin to Marvel's "Daredevil" (Not quite at DD's level right off the bat, of course, more that hefighurd) or the Spell is lifted when Nigel understands what Luna wanted him to comprehend, then Luna has only doomed the "Hero Party" into an Embarrassing end because The Blind Rabiceros party member accidentally triggered an explosive trap because he accidentally triggered the tripwire!

The tree said it "needs to happen," so I assume Nigel is very important to helping the guardians or becoming one, the Tree knows he needed a push. She tried to let him decide gently, she tried again when he came to her after, and he refuses now.

I'm sure if he joins while blind, it'll cause some issues and create conflict and great story points for them to overcome. So I'm going to go with option 4, that he learns to deal with it and understands what the Tree was saying, or the eyesight loss is temporary and is restored once he can see her reasons and finds the truth for himself. I somehow doubt that viktria plans to make this into a negativity dump like the example above where everything is just bad and awful and not fun to read.

That is why I am hoping that Luna made the Spell have a "Key" so that it can be lifted, and Nigel just has to figure out that Key... Or Tristan and (Maybe) Toby helps him figure it out.

I mean, Luna said that Nigel lacks: "The Sincere Desire to protect the Weak"... And Aside from my severe pessimisim about that (Some of the worst people are the weakest, as they use it as a Weapon to guilt people into helping them), I feel Toby and Tristan can help.

Damn, i was hoping zummeng finally stopped wasting their time on this awful comic. Oh well...

this is my favorite comic from her so I hope she doesn't listen to nasty comments like this <3

Considering they've been planning this story for ten years that's highly unlikely. Go back to the porno comics that have nice easy to digest stories :p

Cool, keep it to yourself or get reported, nobody wants to see you taking a dump in the comments, this isn't reddit.

Not cool bro, not cool.

This isn't the place for comments like these.
If you don't like it, then go elsewhere, if you don't have something nice to say, then keep quiet and go about your business.
Nobodies interested in seeing people be rude and disrespectful for no reason, other than for the sake of being rude and disrespectful.

WTF?

Begone, thot!

Get bent

Wow o.=.o
I mean life could be harsh sometimes but it really seems that life itself hates nigel x.=.x
Im really not sure anymore if she knows what she is doing and everything just happens way more
worse then she intends o.=.o

Not much of a change given how little he saw before.

Not gonna lie, i can't STAND this character XD not from a bad writing pov! That i love, just like... In universe... Woof... What a detestable little kid. Still a kid tho, so let's see if he learns a thing or two.

I guess being in prison will give Nigel a chance to reflect on his own actions... even if just a little at least. However, if he's going to be put in a cell, that means he's going to meet Tristan at some point, which would be pretty interesting indeed. And as for what Luna said in the last few panels, it hints that he won't be in his cell for long because by then he will have escaped, with or without help, which makes me even more curious about all of this.

Tomorrow is Nigel's big day, that hasn't changed. I'm pretty sure he's getting named as one of the knights, and is gonna get that sash, whether he wants it or not.

That is if the ceremony is carried out without any inconvenience, although we will have to wait and see what happens later.

Maybe if you did a better job talking to him and those around him things would be different.

You gotta stop blaming Luna for all of Nigel's issues. Guy became a spiteful little shit all on his own despite people canonically trying to help him and reach out to him

Yeah he did but she set him well on the path. He couldn't fully understand what she meant. She didn't talk with her forks so the laid the plan on him and didn't bother with him no more. Cut from all he knows while he watches everything he cares about go to someone else. Feelings trump logic and with not other person to give him any guidance we can't expect him a child to do much better when even full grown adults fail.

Exactly! Moreso when one has to consider that Nigel was raised to be... Well, Empty of what Luna wanted.

Its comparible to Hollow Knight, and How the Pure Vessel was "Raised", only being taught what was necessary to become an Instrument of the Wyrm's Plan...

...And I can see Nigel as being cut from the same Cloth. He was raised to be an Instrument of his Parents, to follow a Stuck up Belief from them that he was making his ancestors proud if he suceeded in being a Guardian.

Sure, Luna did not hit him, but her answer for him to be worthy, was an easily missed line for Nigel... And She did not simply tell her old friend about that Family either. One investigation from him would have enlightened her to what was wrong.

And While Nigel was being Stubborn about it, The whole case with Rah J'an and the miscalculation with Tristian (She failed to consider his "Friends" preying on his emotions) has proven she has a habit of thinking too far ahead at times and misses that one little probability a little ways behind (Luna miscalculated that the very same empathy that makes Tristian a Worthy Guardian could be used against him, and with Nigel, she failed to consider if he could understand the exact message she had tried to give him).

why does every one keep saying nigel didnt understand he did at first his parents were just jerks

Wait, I musta missed the memo, but how do you change people who refuse to listen? Wow.

She gave him a vague message when he was a kid. A KID. All he knows he didn't get pick and everything he knows was taken and given to someone else. A child not going to stop and pounder his motives. He had no one else so he withdrew and kept the negative emotions. You don't change someone with a kick little chat and pectec them to chance their whole world view.

Kids aren't completely clueless and mentally incapable. I've met kids who were smart enough to understand the basics of nuclear physics. I've met kids who could do calculus in fifth grade.

Nigel might not have fractals on lock, but he's not an idiot. Children can understand right and wrong. He chose to avoid making that hard lesson and refused to examine why. He didn't care about the warning, he just wanted what he saw was his right, and that makes someone entitled. Luna literally did this to him so that he WOULD BE FORCED to learn what he was doing wrong, and through blindness, learn how to see a different perspective. This is an insanely common theme in mythohistories and poetic eddas worldwide and has been used for thousands of years.

Yes kids are stupid but we are talking 2 different thing here. Calculus isn't the same as rethinking your whole life. Questioning you notice and all you understand. And doing that with a clear head while you emotion get thrown out the door from those closes to you. Most grown adults can't do that on their own how can we expect a child to do it. He needed more help but got none. Heck maybe if he had some one to talk through it all he could have figured it out but got nothing.

So is it any wonder he thought he had his right stolen? Was brought up thinking that he needed to do this he had to do this. This is what there family have done are doing and will do? And while it's a common theme it usually done by people who havtn met before or it happen by accidentally fate. She could have met with him again before it came to this point.

Yeah...reconsidering your positions after being confronted by and given a trial by a god would be far easier for more people to understand than calculus or physics. Most adults can do that. Some, maybe even many, refuse to for whatever means of sunk cost fallacy they have, its only in sparingly few cases involving things like Narcissistic Personality Disorder, where an adult is absolutely incapable of self-examination and being self critical. He is getting help, that's the entire point of me bringing up mytho-histories in another reply, this is incredibly common for old stories to have divine punishment, merited or not, temporary or not, by removing something that was felt to be a right. Those stories almost universally result in one of two ways; either the person remains that way indefinitely until death, or they change themselves and are cured of the divinity's curse.

He thought he had his right stolen. He thought it was his right, and he would without doubt or self reflection of any kind become a Guardian just because his brothers and other family members always had, but he never was told by his parents, which would have helped that a Guardian must have a desire to protect those who are too weak to protect themselves, to help others, and to serve and protect the gods. That part, his parents absolutely failed on, there's no denying that. By thinking he was always predestined to get there, he never actually tried to act like a guardian in any way, and turned into a spoiled brat the instant he was denied and blamed others instead of taking accountability. He's at fault here. He needs to learn that, and be humbled. This is just fine to me, and he isn't a victim unless he chooses to be one.

I get a strange feeling is if Nigel just had friends he might have grown up a little bit better or might have been able to pass the ceremony. But his parents made him focus so much on becoming a guardian that he missed that benefit.

It makes you just how much Toby was effect by how he was treated before and after Nigel left. Seeing as his parents mostly ignored him while they focused on Nigel, do you think he made friends with others of the main cast sneaking out or something?

Honestly, I think this is the most spot on analysis, and probably really gets to the heart of the issue. Nigel's been alone, rejected by what to him, what seems like absolutely everyone around him. He's alone, and hopefully he meets Tristan, or Chili and they actually manage to get through to him by being an age closer to him and potentially being able to break through the haze he's surrounded himself by.

will thing is nigel did understand his parents just rejected him so the understanding turned to hate and lunas message was never vague. she did tell him what he need to do every time he asked

Initially he did do some self-examination, or at least the start of it. He took what The Tree told him and went to his parents for guidance with her words in mind, but his parents immediately rejected him. With that in mind, it really only makes sense that he even consider self-reflection as an option. The first and only time he attempted it, it was the start of his entire world falling apart, so it's a negative thing for him. He needs to realize that doing so again isn't going to result in more punishment for him.

There is a saying: if there is a person, then he will bring problems, if he does not exist, then the problems will stop.

I'm going to see how this plays out but if this backfires on Luna or if this in no way helps Nigel, yea called it. Luna is incredibly bad at being social and she deserves karma; all the gods do if i'm being honest. So powerful but awful at understanding human empathy and thinking the only solution is removing a very vital and essential part aka like eyesight.

Luna is worst character by far; I really like her design and I know she means well but given Nigel's backstory and Luna's actions- she has done jack all to help the guy. Hate the kid or not, he's been wronged so much and she only made this 10x worse.

Anyone to say he deserves a beating or needs to grow up- imagine being in his shoes, abandoned by your parents, society judging you cause you failed, and a real goddess rejects you as well. No one would handle that well at all, give me a break guys.

Man the comment right under yours XD

im not sure what luna did to get karma. all i know is that this just has to happen most likely because of nigel him self

I don't know why I make myself suffer reading the comments on these comics. It's just full of people who seem to have zero story reading comprehension. Or are like 'I hope the Tree fucked up' like??? Do y'all not understand how narratives work? Zummeng has thought about this story for over 10 years. Maybe trust them to know what the fuck they're doing?

Also Nigel sucks. He's a shitty, spiteful little brat who is so 'woe is me' he can't see the forest for the trees. He absolutely deserved his comeupance for acting like he's the only person in the world who matters while at the same time negatively impacting the community he lives in. Like people have tried to help Nigel but he doesn't want the help. He wants to blame them for his bad life instead of taking literally any responsibility. It's a shame it had to come to this but Nigel's been allowed to wallow in his self pity to the point its become self important wrath for way too long.

People often have difficulties understanding subtlety. Its a fault of the education system not teaching critical thinking anymore.

Just because you put time, effort and passion into something doesn't mean it's not shit. Not saying the comic's shit, just saying that your logic is flawed.

I just want to see the progression of the comic in its entirety.

I've seen one too many comics shift or change drastically because of public pressure.

I also want to point out that its not Luna's job to be Nigel's parent, nor for her to act as a therapist. Shes a nature/creation god that is raising a kid, and dealing with a threat so dangerous it could kill everyone. So pardon her if she doesn't have the time to hand hold a little shit like Nigel, who she TRIED to teach and guide, through his entire life. She's not evil for dealing out this tough love. People today seem to think anything beyond constant doting and platitudes, is bad or cruel parenting. Sometimes you need to be the "Unpopular" parent who dishes out hard truths. She tried the nice way, now shes doing the hard way.

So people stop calling her freaking "evil".

to be fair she needs him to do some thing but he keeps going the opposite direction so then she has to do this

Keep in mind if people aren't enjoying the character(s) and their actions really seem unjust- it is going to leave a bad taste in people's mouths. Not to mention these beautiful comics, well drawn- do take time to draw so people waiting that long only adds the impatience and having our opinions in mind, after so many weeks have passed- Luna has done nothing but continue to hurt Nigel and while Nigel isn't innocent himself, she is a Goddess and has been one of the main reasons he is how he is now.

So unless Luna can prove this was all worth it, and who knows when that'll play out ... I can hold onto my opinion that Luna is really an aweful character. Maybe that's even the author's intention, that despite Luna is beautiful and a Goddess, she is not great at empathy or knowing how to deal with mortals without doing extremes like this. She never even told him what he lacked until she was pressed and her reaction was to blind him in hopes he can see the hatred he has- which, let's be real, only fuels his hatred of her and can backfire very easily.

Luna lacks the common sense to just talk to people and to make good decisions because she doesn't seem to be in touch with how mortals, work. All cryptic in her ways of actions and to us it seems backwards of being progressive. So forgive me if I am very displeased with the events that are unfolding and I will keep to how I feel until I am proven otherwise in the future.

I think Arvanas_sorrat said it best: its not Luna's job to be Nigel's parent, nor for her to act as a therapist.

Just because everyone is crying that Luna didn't do enough doesn't mean she didn't do anything. Also. That's not her kid. She had her own kid. Also maybe if Nigel had come to her after his parents pushed him aside she'd have adopted him too! Luna is not a selfish and horrible person despite what everyone is saying. Just because You Don't Like Her doesn't make her a bad character. Her main personality traits is she is kind and benevolent even if she doesn't always know what to do.

Also as someone who writes a lot of prose. Like literally hundreds of thousands of words of prose: shut up and just wait for the story to unfold. Everyone is throwing huge ass stones in these comments even though from what I understand these comics are TWO MONTHS BEHIND from what is on the patreon. You don't know what's happening. You don't know what's going to happen. You're the one lacking common sense acting like a handful of pages casts a goddess of life and benevolence as a villain. In fact you're comically, hilariously, wrong.

I was respecting your opinion until you began to make it personal and attack the readers lol. Until we see what happens, I will keep regarding Luna in a bad light because of all her actions thus far. You don't judge something based on 'what may happen in the future' but what happened in the present.

fool

He had it coming

You reap what you sow.

Good luck Nigel!

Yeah if only this could've been prevented somehow........

Well... this just uhhh... got really ugly.. wasn't expecting that


I have a feeling this could go two ways, one he does learn something and reflects on himself, and escapes the next morning due to the spell wearing off

two, instead of learning he eventually becomes a servant of chaos due to the ever growing anger in his heart

Hell is paved with good intentions and Luna has just created a highway in front of her to get there!

The sloping road to Perdition is paved with good intentions- Teflon-coated good intentions. Slide, Kelly, slide!

I have a feeling a lot of people in this story are chasing after their losses.

Nigel's off to Purgatory... Or death. She knew what she had to do and that knowedge lies heavy on her sad shoulders. Thus is the bane of a goddess cursed with mortal emotions.

It's unfortunate there are a lot of pages before we see her suffer for her actions.

Damn, that just happened

Damn... Luna REALLY goes through some bad times at the momend. Having to fight the Chaos.

Okay I am pretty disappointed with Luna right now! She puts Nigel in a bad situation for at least six years and when he shows up still suffering from that. What does she do? Take his vision away! I would have put Nigel through dream quest showing the consequences of him and his parents decisions. Luna You Fail!!

It's interesting to see how the story is progressing... As well as the comments about the Tree and Nigel.

I don't think I really blame either of them as much as see them as victims of the circumstances they found themselves in. They both have their faults in this, but more so the parents that just pretended Nigel didn't exsist afterwards.

I would also say the Luna's ending words on this page are interesting. She doesn't confirm Nigel's fears, but she doesn't denie them either. That's rather dark if you stop and think about it.

I doubt Luna would kill Nigel, yet I am sure norms within the Tree point to that verdict.

Well this situation goes from horrifying to even more horrible like god damn ;;

well she needs he soooo no chaos

Personally, I think Leopold is a bigger asshole then Nigel.

I kinda do believe the Luna when she apologizes and wishes their were some other way. But I'm a Nigel fan and am going to cheer his development. I kind hope he might go the wizard or seer route.

I kinda feel the best characters in any story both have some tragedy in their background and go through major character development over the course of the story. I truly feel Nigel has the most potential out of all the knights of life.

What ever happens at the end I hope Luna makes it up to Nigel, and Nigel gets the best ending.

I don't see how that can happen about Luna, but I support your comment.

I really started thinking someone, a witness, would appear to try to defend Nigel. Then Nigel would feel that compassion and will eventually want to repay, making that spark of protecting others to appear.

luna must have see this happen so she did it to help some thing happen in the future

He wont be there long cause he will become a guardian

Why do I feel like it's a suitable punishment

Exciting, I really excited to see how finally this resolves. Thanks for making such an entertaining coming! :D

The comments section to this comic is a complete shitshow. I'm surprised comments haven't been disabled at this point.

It's kinda one of the reasons i've stopped reading it, these comments can be polarizing

That is because this level of discussions brings more attention to the comic, so the author leaving the comments is a good tactic to keep the interest.

I'd say it's a mark of good writing that the characters' decisions have been so controversial. Their struggles are reaching out to people. Whether people think Nigel is deserving of all the cruelty he'll get or whether they wish for the Tree to feel the consequences of her actions means that Viktria's got people hooked on what's going to happen next. Happened with another comic I've enjoyed as well.

that is true

Honestly with the level of vitriol being spewed at Luna for stupid reasons I'm also surprised. I just assume zummeng doesn't read them.

There *are* other ways. For a deity you sure are blind to other options ironically. And are making incredibly stupid decisions

You do remember God flooded the world and drowned most of the human race once. He also helped the Israelites murder everyone in Jericho, Heshbon, Bashan and many more, usually killing women, children and animals at the same time. So compared to the Christian God, she is doing alright.

This is a different deity, and has been shown to clearly make mistakes.

will she did for see this so shes my just giving her and the kid the best odds

She has made wrong calls before. So I get a bad feeling this will blow up in her face. Again.

may be

>blinds
>imprisons
>refuses to elaborate

a bold strategy, Cotton, let's see if it pays off for her

what ever has to be has to be

Yeah, I think everyone sucks here.

I wonder if she’s protecting him in a way? Like maybe the chaos can only taint people by making them SEE something and without his eyesight he simply can’t do that. Either way, excited to see where this story goes!

she just doing what she needs to with out altering the time line

You know, I seem to recall another named character was just put in prison... Who could probably help Nigel out a lot.

That is my hope, because I was thinking Nigel would be put in a position that he'll be helped survive this and then he will want to repay back, maybe protect that person, making that will of protect others that Luna wants, to appear.

If that is the case I do hope the author will not make Nigel to suddenly "I now understand and will blindly follow the deer goddess"

Poor kid.

I'm guessing that he's gonna end up meeting Tristan in the prison which will result in the revelation he needs.

While it is his choice that he became a bitter, pessimistic person that hates everyone, I find it strange that people think Nigel should know better. His entire life up to the guardian test was him listening to what others told him to do. He wholeheartedly believed that in order to succeed in life, that he must follows his parent's orders, their way of life, their guidance. Everyone praised him for that. So when The Tree rightfully refused him (because that's not what makes a guardian) and the consequences of it, why should anyone expect that he listen to any advice he's given? He may not even realize it, but subconsciously he's distrustful of what others say to him for fear of being betrayed once again. Hell, his whole reasoning for stealing the scarf is that he'll prove that The Tree was wrong. It's incredibly petty, but it's a very human thing to do. Doesn't matter how much of a nasty little shit he is, expecting him to be mature because "he's had enough time to grow and find it out on his own" is straight up ignoring all the trauma he has.

It's honestly tragic, because in better times, others would be more equipped to help him deal with it. But they all got a doomsday threat walking up on door, so they have to take more drastic measures. I think that what The Tree did for Nigel is actually the only real option he has, because it's an obstacle and not some basic advice or insults. And what Nigel needs is to have autonomy, to realize he has the ability to make things better for himself. Even if it's not her style, if he can figure out how to reverse the blindness, be it from unlocking his own ability, it'll be a victory for him that'll start the healing.

thing is he did understand but parents denied his existence then he started hate. sad but there was only two things to direct his anger at.

Off with his head?

Someone needs to tell him that he was never ready. Then have one of the guardians 1v1 him to make a point. Then ask him the following?

Do you want to be a Guardian?
Are you willing to shut up and listen?
Are you willing to hear what less fortunate people have to say?

If you can't say yes to these 3 questions then why waste your time here?

Even should this work, he see's "the light", He "understands", he becomes "righteous". He will never forgive her. She is literally torturing him physiologically.

"I wish there were any other way." What if there is? You took all of 30 seconds to come up with this plan. There is always another way, like have you tried, idk, Talking to him? like listening to him? Being the "mother" you claim to be? No? didnt' cross your mind?

Just gonna blind him? Make him figure it out himself instead of being there to guide him, like you could have done if you just made him a guardian when he was young? Oops, well if it isn't the consequences of my actions.

Well considering the pace and sentiment of the author it's likely he'll blame himself for everything and forgive and worship her eventually. Zummeng did say they want the audience to utterly hate him, so regardless of what people's opinions may be he'll always be in the wrong.

" Zummeng did say they want the audience to utterly hate him"

The quote "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" comes to mind.

It's hard to make people utterly hate the character, if you made them feel sorry for him first. First impressions and all that.

Saddly Nigel has my sympathy and pity, shit parents he failed once even the goddess said 'you can try again next year if you find that special thing that makes a guardian a guardian.' then they go 'your no son of mine' then giving his kid brother the love and attention, and ignoring you like your did not exist.

The goddess is well a goddess plans 30 moves ahead but fails to see the plan derailed back at move 5, she has a plan for Nigel but could handle far far far better back from the git go.

There was like a thousand different ways to handle this situation, you fucking sociopath.
You have chosen to be my enemy. So now, I shall join with Chaos, so that I may contend with you on equal footing. I shall bring you to heel and destroy all which you hold dear.

Yeah I really don't know how this is right in any way ^^;

Wow...that's....kinda cruel...I feel worse for Nigel now...

I'm sure he'll have a cell mate.

I really don't wanna jump on any Luna hate train but... she did not say anything about not planning to kill him.... I mean, she obviously won't have him executed but even for teaching him a lesson, no matter how or why it is a wee bit fucked up to blind him and then toss him into a cell with him thinking she will have him killed and not giving him any reassurance that he is not in danger. At this point, if Rah'Jan contacts him and offers to help him out if Nigel joins him, I don't think anyone could really blame Nigel for accepting. At this point, he is blinded, traumatized by said blinding and thinking he's about to die. In that situation he would of course graps for any kind of straw.

She didn't exactly say he was gonna die, otherwise why blind him?

A bit of a contrived reason to force him and Tristan together.

No, not at all.

10/10, top tier contribution to the discussion.

Thanks.

Oh wait a minute!

Tristan is in prison too, hoho~! 83 Can't wait to see the incoming jail break!

Sooo maybe this is just a crazy thought but something occured to me. Luna also doesn't have any pupils, is she also blind? Except because she's a Goddess she can still orientate herself by as of yet unknown means?
I thought it was a design choise at first but after seeing Nigel's pupils disappeared i see a similarity in their eyes, so just wanted to ask.

0.0 Luna... I hope you planned out your actions closely before committing them...

To MephistosCousin, Spintek, Waspz, Kelnich, AdmiralFirmusPiett, Fakeman1943, Crimson_Striker the Loser, Orsonfoe, DeadSpaceBro, Solus-the-lone-wolf, Xurell, yotambc, egis77, Renny-The-Horse-King, FurTshi, Robot_master, FauxPasArts, DigiThing, ReaperManX15 the scumbag, and LoneWolf: You guys are such schmucks.