Is it precious? I hope so... I have fun doing researches on these.
It's basically opium diluted in alcohol and it was used as pain killer. Now, of course, it's not like the doctor is giving heavy drugs to the girl... the percentage of opium is very low and he just put a few drops in her drink. Is it bitter? Truth is Cassandra cannot taste a thing and is just being annoying hahahaha.
One thing the doctor does wrong... he let her sleep right after the accident. Of course he is an "old times" doctor... the kinds who bleed you and think that a good nap can cure a lot of things. If she had had a strong concussion there, with some serious damage to her head, she might have died in her sleep and bye bye Cassandra!
He is quoting the Song of Songs here.
This song has been translated in many different ways, most of them wrong, until maybe in 2004 somebody decided to go and read the Hebrew version and compare it to the Bible. In Catholic Bibles that sentence was translated into: do not wake up my beloved. That's how it's supposed to be meant... but the sentence has a double meaning and it needs to be implied. That is why, after a few years, at least in the Italian version the Bible has gone back to a version that could imply "my beloved" and "love" (as in the emotion) at the same time.
If your nose is plugged you cannot taste a thing... I am sure you all know that LOL. I just quoted this image again just to show that in the previous one Cassandra was just nagging. Now... laudanum has worked wonders on her here, she feels better, she is hungry and her love for food takes the best of her... 
Corsets are evil! (the doctor says Bust... probably means to say bustier or bustiere... point is he knows what it is, doesn't have to wear it and did not pick up the name properly. It's a men thing)
Squeezing ribs and moving guts around is not good. No matter what people say... I have a kidney that walks around and falls 7 cm below where it's supposed to be, resting on my colon... and let me tell you, sometimes the pain is a b*atch!
Let me list you some interesting articles on the topic, they mostly refer to hourglass, tight lacing and Elizabethian corsets but we are in the same realm here:
Mostly by 1660 the fashion had moved away from corsets and into stays. Truth be told our girls are so damn poor they cannot really affordo to be completely fashionable and updated, so they might be wearing unfashionable corsets still.
Castalia slapping her brother in law silly... cannot be portrayed fast enough in comic... but I will try it again because I want her to go totally Terence Hill on him before he can even finish sentences.
I need to spend a few words on the doctor because after this release and the next one his set up will be done and he will go back to some pills moments and will not hog entire chapters like he did so far for a while. After spending so much time on his getting involved with Cassandra we need a break. I also need to establish set ups for the things to come and set ups take a very long time.
The reason why I am having a good looking guy have bad luck in love is that I am sick and tired of certain losers' stereotypes.
It is very easy to have people feel for not so good looking guys who admire the girl from afar and get all emo on the girl without even trying: you rely, feel connection, empathize, you are like them and I wonder... is that really the person you want to be? Well, not me! I can only sympathize with people who try and fail because that's how I live my life and having been close to death I cannot think of life as nothing else than an apple. I bite and chew.
So... no matter how good the comic is, after a while, it's just too easy to exploit certain formulas... I had problems even liking Wall-e for the same reasons (ah the droopy eyes, God spare me, what an easy trick to win the audience over!) I had to step away from looks... thinking: no looks are not everything... why do they force sad looks, ugly look and pitiful looks on me every time?
I got fed up... TT__TT
It's 30 over years of the same thing and the past 20 years reading manga has increased the percentage of this stereotype re-occurring in my readings so my tolerance level has gone down a lot. I got fed up a bit... forgive me. Not that I dislike them, I still read plenty, but at one point I felt numb and thought I had been reading the same story for 10 years... just written by different people. Then TV shows started doing the same... and movies... and I feel like Homer Simpson on lobotomy.
It is very easy to have people feel for not so good looking guys who admire the girl from afar and get all emo on the girl without even trying: you rely, feel connection, empathize, you are like them and I wonder... is that really the person you want to be? Well, not me! I can only sympathize with people who try and fail because that's how I live my life and having been close to death I cannot think of life as nothing else than an apple. I bite and chew.
So... no matter how good the comic is, after a while, it's just too easy to exploit certain formulas... I had problems even liking Wall-e for the same reasons (ah the droopy eyes, God spare me, what an easy trick to win the audience over!) I had to step away from looks... thinking: no looks are not everything... why do they force sad looks, ugly look and pitiful looks on me every time?
I got fed up... TT__TT
It's 30 over years of the same thing and the past 20 years reading manga has increased the percentage of this stereotype re-occurring in my readings so my tolerance level has gone down a lot. I got fed up a bit... forgive me. Not that I dislike them, I still read plenty, but at one point I felt numb and thought I had been reading the same story for 10 years... just written by different people. Then TV shows started doing the same... and movies... and I feel like Homer Simpson on lobotomy.
So I wanted to experiment and take a cool guy... destroy his self confidence and have him be the looser. Wanna bet I'll get complaints? LOL
Now, the poor doctor... if he were to be not so good looking and trying... and he if were emoting... people would probably root for him and like him more: go doctor, we cheer for you!
But because he is good looking I get reversed discrimination. It was appalling! LOL
My compliments NOT for doing unto others as you would that they should do unto you. XD
Let me try and break that down! I want a good looking guy suffer the pains of Hell because he is unrequited!
I am tired of rooting for the lesser horse! It's the easy way out!
I don't know if I can make it... but I want to try. Please allow me. I want to think outside of the box as much as I can... I hope you don't feel uncomfortable... I promise I will tie the loose ends in the end. Let me try, please.
And let me me get another thing straight: the guys is a Jew. It's worse than being ugly in 1660.
Jews were not considered humans... and they were not even member of civil society. The guy admits it: the girl would not go for me I'm a pirate and a Jew.
Does he sit around and mope? No, he goes for it anyways... that should be something to admire... but no, he is good looking, that's not a standard thing... he needs to be categorized as obnoxious and snob or cool and prince like he cannot try and fail. Why? I think that could be interesting for a change...
Does he sit around and mope? No, he goes for it anyways... that should be something to admire... but no, he is good looking, that's not a standard thing... he needs to be categorized as obnoxious and snob or cool and prince like he cannot try and fail. Why? I think that could be interesting for a change...
An outcast, who becomes an outcast, no matter how good looking he is... is still someone who does not believe in future and so clings onto his past and what he has lost. (if he were ugly doing what he does you would like him but he is good looking. I wonder why rooting for the loser only applied to storytelling and not to real life!)
Liking a gentile girl and hoping to have a chance at her is merely wishful thinking.
The way he is approaching Cassandra, now that he likes her and has everything to loose, not only is awkward but it's clumsy too. What? You did not see that? Go re read! XD He is nervous and always goes wrong.
So now, let me ask you a question... if he were mediocre and sulking and not taking action you would like him more? Would you really root more for a passive or negative character? If he were ugly or gay would you root for him more? So being a Jew in 1660 is not enough of being a minority... he has to be a minority in our times. Really?
Could you, please, for now, cut him some slack? Discriminating someone for his beauty or liking someone for his beauty is the same as discriminating someone or disliking someone for his ugliness, isn't? Can we just see him as a fella with a crush on a girl?
So please, please, give the Doctor and Quoque and Pifo some chances... there is one thing that Kane will start saying quite often, now that Josh has entered the picture: I keep my promises, it takes me a lot of time, but I do keep them.
I do too but you have to trust me on that.
6 comments:
Aw, Pifo and Wes <3. I'm biased, but hey, there are good reasons to be biased *glomps'em in their chibi forms* XD.
Another insightful post from you to frame on the wall :)
I'm a bit curious now though... I did my own speculations on why some characters seem to be more appealing than others in the census for instance, but there were specific *complains* about the two fellows above from readers? ;_;
---
Of course Kane keeps his promises, he's your son *wink wink* .
I love the fact that I'm getting a history lesson from this comic strip. I'm seriously awed by how much I've learned and I'm actually enjoying it too.
And people complaining about the fellows? Thats just sad...
I was a bit lost on all the explaining at the end of this. I was thinking something like "Discriminated? They were??".
I do not exactly know what brought up what you explained in the comic, but I just felt like saying something.
I like each of your characters for different reasons.
The two things that made me instantly like Wes was the fact that he is a Jew in 1660 (I know enough of history to know how it was to be a jew back then) and the other the fact of having Scandinavian blood! This because I'm from Finland which is right beside Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway etc.). After reading the newest update and after seeing so many faces of him I just can't help but love him. His clumsiness when it comes to dealing with Kes is just precious!
Keep up with the good work!
I really love how your chars have so many different sides to themselves. I can't wait to learn more!
Like I had said on Facebook, if anything, I would have resented Cassandra more, since she is so pretty and from a good family--while they root for the average-joe man to win the beautiful girl, it's a rare situation for the poor, ordinary-looking girl to be rooted for to get a gorgeous guy... I know you had said she doesn't follow the usual beauty standards of the time, and is only gradually filling out to the appreciable shape of the period (although it seemed like he appreciated her endowments from the start), but in this time, she would fit in... even though a big bosom wasn't popular then (I'm not talking the torso, it was important that be ample, and mine might in that regard--the fellas are innovative for their attractions in that period, it seems), even the Rubens ladies had perky ones (I can't remember a time when mine were ever perky), and you talked about a narrow waist (mine is ample), and you don't see hair in odd places on the girls (it might be just the drawing, but if you drew me, mine might be very conspicuous)... it must be tiresome having to hear this all the time from me, but I just wanted to put it out there... I've only just recently gotten interested in comparing, and I hope that I meet someone who will find me beautiful, never mind the standard comparisons!
that's another thing to consider. Cassandra really isn't from a good family.
she's quite the average Jane and she has hopes but no chances to wed.
Dude. It's hard for me to believe that people actually don't like the doctor. Really 0.o
Personally, i prefer him handsome xD There's nothing wrong with him! I at least have been rooting for him the whole way!
I also think you have done a good job making him a deep, multi-faceted character. He's human. And that's really good.
I honestly can't get into my mind how people would dislike him!
Post a Comment