Fabula Fantasia - Vol. 1 Ch. 2 - The Tower, the Princess, and the Dragon - Part 2 -

[MangaDex]

 

[alacaelum]

Ha... haha... HAHAHAHAHAHA... right in our faces... "Patrem" Inquisitor... so fucking appropriated.

Right there... oh Bard... if you could know what they made of you... but no, I hope you don't know, I hope that in your last breath you had the peace of knowing you lived a life for the good, that you never have to see what in the far future they made of your name.

But again... if there is someone with an eidolon strong enough to survive in the Sidh ages later... that would be you, and still I hope that even then you are not aware of what happens.

Tony dumped all the possibilities in my brain with one single reveal, all the talk about "damsels" and "heroes" right in my face, and I didn't catch up.

 

[alacaelum]

I feel I need to chop up my comment because... BOY, DO I HAVE THOUGHTS TO WRITE.

So... I think this chapter just revealed how thaumaturges get their powers, but let me savor this realisation by being verborhagic a little before I say my conclusion.

We were shown in the last chapter that the "images" of people of notoriety are reflected into the Sidh, the abilities, power, and personality of those "images" depend on the beliefs of people in the real world, it defines, limits, but at the same time elevates those "images".

But in this one we just discovered that those "images" are actually the Eidolons of the subjects of fame... we still don't know what eidolon really are in the context of this story... is it the "proper" soul of people, or just an aspect of it... personally, I lean to the latter, I have the impression that they are not the complete "essence" of a person, but a spiritual footprint, however complex, that a person leaves in the Sidh.

Now we discovered too that Bard gets her power from potion, and lo and behold... they ARE the same powers we have seen thaumaturges use... but they aren't natural powers Bard has, like I mentioned before.

The topic of who is the one that makes them, how, and why they provide Bard with them, I will leave to when we meet the person... don't want to deplete all my ideas to gush over this story so soon .

But now, the reveal... how do thaumaturges get their powers, drums please....

Well... I kinda said it last chapter... they are DnD clerics... they are connecting to Bard's eidolon in the Sidh, they are channeling a fraction of the powers people believed Bard to have at the end of her journey, but in reality, she never had them, they were from potions she used.

But at some point, her legend became so big that her eidolon came to embody all the powers she used, maybe some where invented by people too, considering we know that is possible.



How they do that... well, the details I can't exactly come out and say, but her pitchfork may have turned into some sort of relic, or it doesn't really have power, but because of the connection it has with her eidolon, it still works as a tether to access her eidolon in the Sidh.

So, yeah... thaumaturges ARE using magic , just another "form", so deliciously devilish of Tony.[/MEDIA]

 

[alacaelum]

NameTheFame, Gauwal, Asterisk, again and as always, thanks a lot for doing this.

I can only imagine what faces you were making when you first read this chapter, and the reveal came.

Man... I hope this manga gets all the recognition it deserves.

 

[CuppoClout]

Thank you Tony Valente!

I love his artwork and storytelling and this manga has proved that he is capable of refining it even more. I can imagine every fable onwards having its own independent theme and relic that bard will have to destroy in order to liberate the world from overbearing power, greed and other social issues.

The current fable's theme is that of gender inequality, starring the princess locked up in a tower with the sheath of fealty. The relic allows the user to subjugate anyone they want, and during this era women are viewed as "goods" by some of the men with influence, meaning that if she were to be saved by a hero she would inevitably lose her freedom. Realistically this can't be resolved because the feudal system allows for this inequality, therefore the Princess turns to fantasy (the tower's magic) to protect herself in a fable, and Bard also uses fantasy (Daemo and potions) to seize and destroy relics where she can't in reality.

It is refreshing to see how Tony implements fantasy both visually and linguistically into the story through the imagery of the other side and the conversations that alter its atmosphere. I rated Radiant 10/10 however I might favour this manga more than it.

tl;dr: Theming is fantastic, major potential, bard isn't a boy!

 

[NameTheFamed]

I feel I need to chop up my comment because... BOY, DO I HAVE THOUGHTS TO WRITE.

Your theory is interesting! That very well might be the case! Hopefully we learn more about Eidolons and the sidh soon after Bome ends. Like with how Fantasia evolved over time, I wonder if Eidolons have as well. Considering Triton transferred his essence. I need to know now!! Though I guess It's the same as Bard going in and out of the Sidh. If she can just come and go, I wonder why Triton can't return back. I have some ideas but I need to re read

 

[NameTheFamed]

Thank you Tony Valente!

I love his artwork and storytelling and this manga has proved that he is capable of refining it even more. I can imagine every fable onwards having its own independent theme and relic that bard will have to destroy in order to liberate the world from overbearing power, greed and other social issues.

The current fable's theme is that of gender inequality, starring the princess locked up in a tower with the sheath of fealty. The relic allows the user to subjugate anyone they want, and during this era women are viewed as "goods" by some of the men with influence, meaning that if she were to be saved by a hero she would inevitably lose her freedom. Realistically this can't be resolved because the feudal system allows for this inequality, therefore the Princess turns to fantasy (the tower's magic) to protect herself in a fable, and Bard also uses fantasy (Daemo and potions) to seize and destroy relics where she can't in reality.

It is refreshing to see how Tony implements fantasy both visually and linguistically into the story through the imagery of the other side and the conversations that alter its atmosphere. I rated Radiant 10/10 however I might favour this manga more than it.

tl;dr: Theming is fantastic, major potential, bard isn't a boy!

Just wait for chapter 3! It wraps up this first Fable wonderfully. This first volume is certainly some of Tony Valente's finest work

 

[alacaelum]

Just wait for chapter 3! It wraps up this first Fable wonderfully. This first volume is certainly some of Tony Valente's finest work

I have no doubts.

Tony must have been planning this story for years... considering this is a sort of "prequel", this level of refinement can only be achieved after MANY considerations.

The storyboarding of this series is IMPECABLE, not a single panel wasted, not one line of dialogue out of place, everything like a well-crafted symphony.

 

[Enlawed74]

I feel I need to chop up my comment because... BOY, DO I HAVE THOUGHTS TO WRITE.

So... I think this chapter just revealed how thaumaturges get their powers, but let me savor this realisation by being verborhagic a little before I say my conclusion.

We were shown in the last chapter that the "images" of people of notoriety are reflected into the Sidh, the abilities, power, and personality of those "images" depend on the beliefs of people in the real world, it defines, limits, but at the same time elevates those "images".

But in this one we just discovered that those "images" are actually the Eidolons of the subjects of fame... we still don't know what eidolon really are in the context of this story... is it the "proper" soul of people, or just an aspect of it... personally, I lean to the latter, I have the impression that they are not the complete "essence" of a person, but a spiritual footprint, however complex, that a person leaves in the Sidh.

Now we discovered too that Bard gets her power from potion, and lo and behold... they ARE the same powers we have seen thaumaturges use... but they aren't natural powers Bard has, like I mentioned before.

The topic of who is the one that makes them, how, and why they provide Bard with them, I will leave to when we meet the person... don't want to deplete all my ideas to gush over this story so soon .

But now, the reveal... how do thaumaturges get their powers, drums please....

Well... I kinda said it last chapter... they are DnD clerics... they are connecting to Bard's eidolon in the Sidh, they are channeling a fraction of the powers people believed Bard to have at the end of her journey, but in reality, she never had them, they were from potions she used.

But at some point, her legend became so big that her eidolon came to embody all the powers she used, maybe some where invented by people too, considering we know that is possible.



How they do that... well, the details I can't exactly come out and say, but her pitchfork may have turned into some sort of relic, or it doesn't really have power, but because of the connection it has with her eidolon, it still works as a tether to access her eidolon in the Sidh.

So, yeah... thaumaturges ARE using magic , just another "form", so deliciously devilish of Tony.[/MEDIA]

Exactly. Yet another example of the hypocrisy and ignorance of the Inquisition.

Ignorance because thaumaturges believe their powers are divine. In volume 9, Santori tells Seth, "You abandoned your humanity when you touched the Nemesis, kid. If not for that, you would have died like every good human. And look at us thaumaturges: non-infected gaining an almighty and incredible power. That is true human purity !"

The fact that Santori considers miracles to be the pinnacle of purity, even though he is a lunatic, proves that the Inquisition never thought their powers were a form of magic.

And hypocrisy, because Bard was a woman, yet when Dragunov receives his miracle, he does so in front of a giant statue of the Patrem Inquisitor: an elderly, bearded man. And Torque declares that it is the most accurate representation to date.
In addition to that, there is also Bard's broken pitchfork.

Either the Inquisition has, as it usually does (notably by indoctrinating young inquisitors with the history of the Below), falsified history, or someone followed Bard, wrote about her adventures, and was confused with her, voluntarily or not.

In any case, the revelation that the Patrem Inquisitor was a woman took me completely by surprise. And I LOVE IT !

 

[KidStarLife]

Exactly. Yet another example of the hypocrisy and ignorance of the Inquisition.

Ignorance because thaumaturges believe their powers are divine. In volume 9, Santori tells Seth, "You abandoned your humanity when you touched the Nemesis, kid. If not for that, you would have died like every good human. And look at us thaumaturges: non-infected gaining an almighty and incredible power. That is true human purity !"

The fact that Santori considers miracles to be the pinnacle of purity, even though he is a lunatic, proves that the Inquisition never thought their powers were a form of magic.

And hypocrisy, because Bard was a woman, yet when Dragunov receives his miracle, he does so in front of a giant statue of the Patrem Inquisitor: an elderly, bearded man. And Torque declares that it is the most accurate representation to date.
In addition to that, there is also Bard's broken pitchfork.

Either the Inquisition has, as it usually does (notably by indoctrinating young inquisitors with the history of the Below), falsified history, or someone followed Bard, wrote about her adventures, and was confused with her, voluntarily or not.

In any case, the revelation that the Patrem Inquisitor was a woman took me completely by surprise. And I LOVE IT !

Yeah, he twist on Bard's gender (since they love insisting on the Patrem word), her life and her abilities (she even used Dragunov's miracle due to a potion if im not wrong) really cement the hypocrisy and endroctinement of the Thaumaturges and the inquision. I really want to see Torque's face if he ever discovers it's all fake and that he has been using the same magic he hates all this time.

At this point Bard might have been friendly with infected (edit: do the infected even exist in Bard's time?)