Wow, guys! Today Dear Reader Robin became Cool New Studiomate Robin! We still have one desk available for September if any of you are in Toronto and need a cheerful workplace!
I'm confused. I thought this woman was his mother, but this strip makes me wonder if she is his wife...? But I didn't think he was married. Confused...
It might not be just the dog she poisons. It could be a lover or wife scorned, or it could be a mother or stepmother using her son to gain status. Whoever she is, she controls him.
I see empty birdcages... He hasn't kept birds in ages and he named his dog "Without Birds" so he misses them but doesn't dare get more, despite being a grown man with a place of his own. And this woman (who I'm thinking is his socially ambitious mother) sees nothing wrong with going in there and taking whatever she wants for her tea, or tonic, or witches' brew and not even telling him what.
In short, she is really creepy and I wouldn't put anything past her and she probably is a witch. (Or at least something that rhymes with witch.)
Yikes. I love the juxtaposition of the open cages and our lad's own caged state of existence. Perhaps that's why he let them all out? ...Though this woman's tendency to do violence to animals likely has something to do with it too. ::shudders::
I'm sticking to my theory that this is his stepmother and that she's made inappropriate advances on him/has an abusive relationship with him. The way she touches him and gets her face so close to his is so intimate and frankly disturbing - especially because of how he shrinks at it.
I'm pretty sure she also poisoned his dog, since she seems to know how to make potions. Also, the empty birdcages lead weight her being his parent - this is a place from his childhood. If he felt trapped be her here, it's understandable why he would want to let the birds go, to give them the freedom he couldn't have. In any case, her last words to him rather unsettling. If the Beast tried to find lasting happiness with his lover, would this woman intervene? I'm thinking yes.
