[THE COLLECTED LAUDS & VESPERS]
Here's an updated catalog of my Arknights comics because Twitter ended support for Moments:
New comics will be collected here alongside the Pixiv page. Thanks for reading!
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#アークナイツ
LONE TRAIL is a very good example to point to when asked about the quality of gacha storytelling. It's a denigration of the military-industrial complex and a paean to dreams even as it suffers from occasional moments of odd writing decisions. 1/11
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#アークナイツ
[SO LONG, ADELE] is a summer event that doesn't feel like a summer event. Lacking strong comedy or sexiness, it's a warm, comfortable adventure for Eyjafjalla, even as the cracks to AK's world-building are becoming too evident.
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#アークナイツ
(1/9)
[COME CATASTROPHES OR WAKES OF VULTURES] is currently the best event ever written for an Arknights alter. Not saddled with other gacha goals, Jessica's event is a Western that deals with purpose, sense of worth, and the price of clarity. [1/10]
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#アークナイツ
Meta units and enemies will come and go. Tactics will change and adapt. But who remains now and forevermore is the most powerful operator in all of Arknights. And the ghost she calls her friend.
Congrats!
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#アークナイツ #明日方舟
A theme that runs through much of Arknights' events are non-revolutionary, moderate stances to societal reform. Il Siracusano is cloaked in this, while also being baby's first noir/ crime drama. 1/9
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[Amiya and the Discothèque Juliet] Part 1 of 5
Thanks for your patience!
This one is about Amiya trying to cheer up The Doctor.
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#明日方舟
#명일방주
[NEWS REPORT] The Rhodes Island Central Leadership Caucus ended in a brawl when Speaker Amiya expressed hot takes on cute men and women. The representatives fought to grab the microphone as The Doctor and the newly-resurrected Theresa protected Amiya.
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#アークナイツ
[I.R.] Kjera
Kjera felt the pain made her as vulnerable as humans and had her love them as much. Behind the door, Enya was safe. She wasn't the first Saintess, but she was content Enya was the last.
She will live through her now.
And it was Good.
#Arknights
#アークナイツ
Nian Productions presents [THE DOCTOR]!
Join the father of Originium as he races to construct the Inner World using Originium as a consciousness transfer medium while The Priestess uses the Terra Dyson Sphere as a test-bed dump site!
Tickets on sale now!
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#Oppenheimer
[I.R.] FINALE: Saga
Saga sought to show people the Way as a proper Bodhisattva; to find joy in every grain of rice gifted.
But as the last living person on Terra, enlightenment could no longer be shared, so she did the next best thing: demonstration.
#Arknights
#アークナイツ
[I.R.] Cliffheart
Ensia knew Originium is rare in Kjerag. To save others from becoming infected, she left for one unconquered mountain. On reaching the summit, she crossed out the final entry on her bucket list, closed her eyes, and slept forever.
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#アークナイツ
A major forum blocked discussion of
#GamerGate
. Gamergate blows up.
A major forum blocks discussion of
#ComicsGate
. [YOU ARE CURRENTLY HERE]
Good luck.
[I.R.] Blaze
When the last living human became infected… Blaze asked herself, "Was it ever about Oripathy?"
She looked at the people she surrounded herself with and got her answer: Only the people she loved, protected, and cared about.
#Arknights
#アークナイツ #明日方舟
"Kal'tsit isn't Doctor's wife and actively hates him."
"Amiya or Kal'tsit abusing Doctor is the most trite and boring punchline you can make."
"You'll make another meme of 'Lazy Dokutahs use Młynar, Chalter, Surtr, Pozëmka', etc."
#Arknights
#アークナイツ
[I.R.] Kal'tsit
"Take the sword, you coward."
"Long have you hidden behind those whose power is dwarfed by yours."
"There is no hope for me, but plenty for you and Amiya."
"I pass on my name without regret or fear, held aloft by a deep, eternal hope."
#Arknights
#アークナイツ
[I.R.] Lappland
Zaaro was disgusted at Lappland. Not for her madness or ambitions but her too-human desire to say goodbye to her father. And as if to spite the god, with her last breath, she infected Zaaro with a new emotion he cannot escape:
Grief.
#Arknights
#アークナイツ
You are only as good as your previous work, and [HORTUS DE ESCAPISMO] provides a serviceable event to follow LONE TRAIL. Executor plays Judge Dredd as he is elevated to Saint, with greater legal power but an unknown remit in service to his country. 1/6
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[Mizuki and the Lazuline Solitaire]
"I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing."
— T.S. Eliot
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[Kal'tsit and the Ascension]
“Who is this who darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me."
#Arknights
#アークナイツ #明日方舟
[I.R] Gnosis
As Gnosis sat dying, his memories fluttered, not to scientific discoveries, but to his time with people. His lab stood empty, all others gone. He clasp a decorative knife, once given as a gift and before fading away, he thought of her.
#Arknights
#アークナイツ
[I.R] Emperor's Blade
As the Demon shard started rejecting his Originium infection, the Pursuer understood: There was no Oprichnina nor Zemshchina. Infected or not, they are all faithful subjects of Ursus, deserving of the Emperor's compassion.
#Arknights
#アークナイツ #明日方舟
To close, we're once again getting anti-Meganekko propaganda from HG that started with Silence when they didn't even give Eyjafjalla glasses, someone who has canonically poor eyesight.
Do I need to shop eyeglasses onto her?!
Do I need to repost the copypasta?! 🌋
(9/9)
[I.R.] W
"Future of the Sarkaz."
Words of someone near death.
After Londonium, news spread of what the Sarkaz had done. Fires smelt of human flesh in every nation until snuffed by black crystal. As it grew silent, W became queen to an empire of dirt.
#Arknights
#アークナイツ
Kal'tsit: Why do you help the infected?
Doctor: Around 10,000 years ago, when we left our home planet from Collapsal invasion and I was still conceptualizing the Sea of Solaris to escape this plane of reality they have access to...
Kal'tsit: ffs
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#アークナイツ
It's a great event, up there with Near Light and Twilight of Wolumonde. It's even more telling amidst AAA Gaming. Unfortunately, its literary reach is hampered in that it will always be trapped in a gacha game and will be lost when the server closes someday.
10/11
[I.R.] Margaret Nearl
To Kazimierz, she is the paragon, her Originium burned white by honor and virtue. And as the Ultimate Enemy arrives from beyond the fake sky, as her sickness saps her, there would be no rage— only glory— at the dying of the light.
#Arknights
#アークナイツ
[Tomimi and the Invincible]
I wanna ruin our friendship
We should be lovers instead
I don't know how to say this
'Cause you're really my dearest friend
#Arknights
#アークナイツ
[Sensei and the Azure Repository] 01 of 02
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x
#BlueArchive
Bad news like a sucker punch, what do you say?
Air knocked out of my lungs, your cue to stay.
#アークナイツ #明日方舟
#ブルアカ
LT continues from DOROTHY'S VISION as Olivia Silence investigates a missing batch of Transmitter as she stumbles upon her boss Kristen Wright's plans. All the while the federal government, department of defence, NGOs, and corporate interests clash over her dream... 2/11
[The Ancestral Quadruple Bill!] 01/04
Four
#Arknights
comics to finish off the year. Thank you all for the views, comments, follows, and friendship.
>Friston and the Punishment
This one is about Friston being annoyed by one of the wildlife.
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#明日方舟
#명일방주
[I.R.]
ARTIST CHOICE
#2
: Firewatch
The Doctor visited the forest to return the harmonica. With dry lips, Firewatch played a song welcoming the long winter and deep sleep. Grateful, she became as trees in winter: hoping something new grows from her body.
#Arknights
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[Muelsyse and the Discothèque Juliet] Part 5 of 5 EX
TFW when your descendants are making the same mistakes as your people and that we're all doomed to repeat history.
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#明日方舟
#명일방주
[I.R.] Exusiai
When The Law broke down, when the runaway experiment ended, Lemuel was worried. Never again will she be psychically linked to people. Now all she had for her bonds were love and memory.
Then she laughed: Hasn't that always been the case?
#Arknights
#アークナイツ
And if you want a clearer example of Hypergryph's writing excesses, then consider Poncirus. Appearing only twice, saying lines other characters could have said and disappearing partway, she shows that AK's stories with bloated word counts are of concern than celebration.
(7/9)
It's all about arrested development.
With levels named after children's songs, we have kids making peace with the past (Adele, Ceylon, Costa), kids who make their own way in the world (Swire, Bison), and kids who never got to be kids (Enis). (3/9)
[Młynar and the Measure of a Man]
Not--"How did he die?" But--"How did he live?"
Not--"What did he gain?" But--"What did he give?"
These are the units to measure the worth
Of a man as a man, regardless of birth.
#Arknights
#アークナイツ
Which turned out to be rather simple but nevertheless reveals the stuff dreams are made of: That in chasing after our own, we carry the dreams of other people into the future. The people Kristen surrounded herself with all have strong dreams, even horrid ones.
3/11
Adele is invited to Siesta to help with research, and comes face to face with her parents' past. Winning the interest of a "supernatural" creature, Adele explores New Siesta alongside themes of maturity and reconnecting with our lives through other people, alive or dead. (2/9)
Still, there's a cloudy gentleness to the story. The best scene in the event is Costa reuniting with Keller over coffee. Their lives fundamentally changed, but the meeting gives new meaning to their life decisions as they make peace with their choices marred by guilt.
(8/9)
[Closure and the Abominable Intelligence]
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”
― Frank Herbert
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The messaging of Adele's story is strange. Dolly says to Adele, "it's okay to be vulnerable" by sending her on an adventure. But all throughout she's never hidden anything, never stopped loving herself and others. Adele's more a static character and a bridge to the story. (4/9)
At the same time, LT comments on the government's hunger for power, grabbing every scientific discovery, and directing it towards means that kill and dominate.
It doesn't have a dream so much as a remit to grow ever larger and crush the very people that gave it power.
4/11
But it's not just the government: Kal'tsit will stop any attempt for a nation to grow in power for balance and withheld info about the Doc's past for her benefit.
Everywhere, good and bad intentions choke achievement and limit ambition, forcing Kristen to desperate means.
5/11
[Noir Corne and the G-Rank Hunt] 01 of 03
Wherein The Doctor and Noir Corne talk while Rhodes Island is on fire.
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#明日方舟
#MonsterHunter
Swire thankfully justifies her place in the story and not just to dilute a limited banner. Whereas Adele works on a personal scale, she and Bison expand the metaphor of maturity through their businesses, partnership, and of national sovereignty.
(5/9)
Finally, apart from lore dumps, I never understood pulling along Doctor for the ride. Kal'tsit said he is her only hope, showing a shocking degree of vulnerability, but both end up getting distracted as Friston started talking. It was even lampshaded that they failed.
9/11
Like previous events, LT is pushing for confusing values. The idea of science being neutral and progress being accessible to a few were put in the mouths of genuinely horrible people yet Kristen was the sole individual who managed a breakthrough that moved humanity forward.
6/11
In addition, the idea that "Science is a clear, incisive look at every one of us" is fluff that implies we are what we explore, which is not only ridiculous, but is an accusation of projection Silence levelled at Parvis (himself a reference to Operation Paperclip).
8/11
However much Silence wants scientific discoveries for the benefit of the "masses" how would the masses even know what they want? Even Kal admits their greatest concern was just living for the next day.
If you wanted science outside of market forces, you'd need to break out.
7/11