Well THAT escalated quickly! I've seen Beasts who are by nature kind and good. I've seen Beasts who are (initially) vicious like Disney's. But here's a Beast who seems good for the most part, and here he is, snapping. Is it because he feels anguish over the fact that she seems to be getting closer to understanding him, yet still so distant from doing what needs to be done? Is it because he is insulted? Is it because there's a part of him that is animalistic due to his form, and it's slipping out? (Once more, I think about how he warned Beauty to be careful wandering around at night.)
I hate getting only two pages a week. There's still so much to learn! But then again, if you gave us more, the series would be over that much sooner. You have no idea how much comfort I receive in the fact that it's just Act One after all these months. So many more mysteries, and answers to them, await!
Oh my... I got literal shivers when I read/saw these panels. A perfect panel for Friday the 13th! Very well done. You truly make the beast look terrifying in these and it got me to thinking. I realized I like the fact that he doesn't usually look this monstrous. I feel like it gives us a false sense of security so when something like this happens it's much more of a surprise. Poor Beauty. As always I'm on the edge of my seat to see what happens next. I like the Beast's emotions here of, "So you think you've figured everything out?" Because I'm sure his backstory is very complex and a solution might not be so simple.
Echoing a lot of the sentiments above--Beast suddenly became a beast, and it's incredibly frightening to see that sudden shift.
It does leave me curious as to what caused the 'snap', it leaves me deeply concerned for what comes next, and despite not knowing the cause, it still seems to fit in here perfectly.
Uh-oh. I don't think that's where she was going at all. But she's certainly backed herself right into it.
AHH THE ARTWORK HE'S SUDDENLY SO MONSTROUS I LOVE IT
Beast's shift caught me off guard - wasn't expecting him to suddenly look so aggressive!
Also - you get cookies for not only having the Beast ask Beauty to marry him, but for having him ask her to "share his bed"! A lovely nod to Villeneuve's original text!
My heart has literally just stopped. I had an incling that maybe this wasn't too fr around the corner, and you have portrayed this in the most exquisite manner. The amount of detail, especially in his eyes. Those fangs too, very malicious and terrifying! But knowing him, he will regret acting like this... I CANNOT BE CONTENT WITH TWO PAGES A WEEK!
Eeek! After reading Beauty and Rose Daughter, I should have known this was coming, but I loved how you surprised us and Beauty with Beast's sudden change.
So much suspense! What will Beauty say? I wouldn't want to be in her shoes right now...
Oh god, this is so terrifying and utterly gorgeous! What skill an artist must have to make a creature that looks normally kind and friendly so dangerous! I love this comic so much.
YES! HE FINALLY SNAPS! (Is inappropriately gleeful at seeing the Beast take this dark turn in temper.) In all seriousness, though, this is a frightening page. The Beast has up until now been perfectly cordial, but now we get to see him act "beastly," which gives us a hint as to how he got this way.
And...well, I think what set him off was her talking about monsters not being as evil as they appear. The Beast - and admittedly I'm inferring this from the trailer - is a self-hating mess, and self-hating messes have a hard time accepting sympathy from other people. Especially when that sympathy implicitly paints the Beast as pure or as having done nothing wrong or to deserve his current form. He clearly did /something/ wrong - something he loathes himself for - and this curse is both his reminder and, in a way, his penance for it.
And at this point, I don't think he believes that curse can - or maybe even /should/ - be broken. He doesn't believe he deserves her love. He may not be purely dark, but he is not all good either, and he doesn't want her making any mistake about that. So he questions her rather derisively. Will she marry him? (This is a good callback to the original story - though asking her that is not a requirement in his contract in this case, I think.) Does she want to share his bed? (Good, good, we're touching on this again!) Will she try to change him into something "better" - or in this case, back to what he once was? If this weren't "Beauty and the Beast," I'd say don't even try it, Beauty. You can't change someone who doesn't want to be changed. And the Beast is clearly going to have a hard time crawling out of the pit of despair he's in, even if you do lend him a hand, you beautiful, sweet, naive thing. But we'll have to see what your continued warmth does for him. I suspect he'll find it rather ambivalent - because he craves it, finds hope in it, but probably doesn't think he is worthy of it or deserves to have that hope.
Anyway, this could go two ways, I think. Either he'll register her fear, catch himself, and try to apologize and retreat, OR he'll lose it completely and drive her away - and then feel horrible about it afterwards. I guess we'll see which way it goes on Tuesday! Either way, without the context we readers sort of have, this outburst comes out of nowhere and would be very alarming. No wonder Beauty is trembling! Poor girl....
...Also, I must be hilariously inappropriate and just...okay, the bed thing? So if that were to happen (which it won't, because only in dark fanfiction based on this webcomic would this story go /there/), I'm just thinking...it's just...the Beast has /horns/, Megan. So Beauty would have /handles/ and asdfghjkl; I need to stop this train of thought right now. Right now. Yes. So not appropriate.
Ahem, anyway, I've caught up to the current page! As always, I'm looking forward to your next update.
...Asdfghjkl;?! What - what are you referring to right there? And here I do all of this potential character analysis and /that's/ what you seem to be focusing on?! (Furious blushing.) Kickstarter bonus...asdfghjk;...(small voice whispers: "Maybe?").
You left yourself open for it, missy! Now, don't mind me just noting down "sexy non-canon doujin" for a $10,000 stretch goal.... haha.
But OK, yes, let me pay some attention to your lovely, very thoughtful analysis. Much like The Beast, I can't fully confirm or deny much of anything here without giving too much away (and I don't think anyone really wants that!). But you make some very astute observations about The Beast's character in general. We'll be seeing and learning a lot more about him soon!
(Chuckles.) Well, if you ever did something like that, I probably would buy it, not going to lie. But anyway, I am definitely looking forward to learning more about our Beast!
Oh my god, Megan, XD. (Dies a little on the inside.) I meant he'd be easy to drag into a kiss, not - though given the shape of their mouths, would that even...? You know what, I need to stop responding to your bait. I'm digging myself deeper into this hole!
These are things I have contemplated for fanfiction writing, actually. My answer in this case would be no, no they could not kiss like this, since the shape of the mouths wouldn't match up. However, I'm not as familiar with his anatomy as you are; therefor, it's still a possibility, despite my own opinion on the subject.
And I'm a masochist, so I say things that get me into more trouble even when I know I should shut up.
(And hopefully I'm making you laugh with this kind of thing, rather than ruining your discussion page.)
(Chuckles.) Oh no, definitely no nuzzling quite yet. That's going to take awhile, I would think. I mean, even if it's been a year for us, as you said, they've only had a few weeks to get to know each other. I'm really liking the fact that we're going to see them slowly getting closer and having arguments and so forth. It's really nice to not have that skimmed over, because as much as I joke about the above subject, seeing how they get there is far more interesting to me.
You're writing is so fluid and moving, and the images are just as good, the eye especially demonstrates the anger and revulsion he has for himself, probably because he knows that Beauty will not accept, though no wonder since she hardly knows him yet.
Here's where that darn update schedule hamstrings me....we, the readers, have had a year to get to know the characters... storywise, they've had only a few weeks to deal with the idea of each other, and only a few encounters to cement it. They really don't know each other well, yet.
Ahahaha somehow I missed this last bit of the conversation in the comments. Yes to warp-speed kickstarter support, with or without smut. Though I have to admit, I actually pondered the morality of Beauty/Beast as a pairing a while back... I think I came to the conclusion that it was *not* bestiality because he's sentient, the way Spock's parents don't count as wrong even though Sarek is definitely not human. (The things I think about, I need help.)
A sore spot indeed. So is the Beast bothered by Beauty's making him something he's not, or has she simply pushed too far about a situation he finds intolerable? ...To be answered in the coming pages, I hope!
In any case, I love this page. The use of shadow in the top panel, the Beast's body language in the close-ups, Beauty's posture and expression, the Beast's words (I swear I could hear a growl in them)---all of it, just superb.
(A question, though: as far as I can tell, you've used the Greek names for every mythical character except for "Proserpine"---is that because she's known as Proserpine instead of Persephone in Ovid?)
That makes sense. I know there is Greek art of Eros and Psyche, but I suppose our current understanding of her is much more likely to come from the written Latin tale than ambiguous, ancient art. :)
I'm loving the story so far, though I've always been more of a lurker than a commenter. However, I noticed a small typo on this page - "ar" instead of "far" in the third speech bubble - that I thought you might want to fix sometime, if I pointed it out. :)
