Page Commentary No. 178 (Patreon)

Gunwild: Humans do actually chart the passage of time through monitoring atomic cesium. That's how those "atomic clocks" you hear about work!

Psu: Man, it's been a while since I actually read this page. Lemme just kinda absorb it for a second. There's a lot going on and like. But I think it's one of those very "Cassiopeia Quinn" things. The last time we had a Vanaa chapter, it was relatively silly and written as a school field trip. Here, we dove in and gave these colorful jelly bean characters a stately dignity.

Gunwild: Eh, anybody can look important walking with purpose down a huge marble hallway. I bet even I could do it!

Psu: I think the last few times I've walked down huge marble hallways I had my phone out and took photos. Oh some world building notes on these hallways. I think I discussed this with Gunwild when I was designing it, but I meant to say that this particular palace was actually a conquered one. You can see that the windows are set a little too high for a Vanaa sized occupant to see out of. And the zoom tubes, or whatever we called them, were installed AFTER the Vanaa took over.

Gunwild: They're definitely called zoom tubes. Like a cute version of saying "boom tubes."

Psu: I'm a pretty big proponent of subtle world building like that. I think a lot of Cassiopeia Quinn is cool but after a while, I intentionally made a lot of the setting look more like modern life. It fit the mode of the comic a lot, like having suburbs and stuff makes the aliens look more fun. But now and again we can still dive headlong into super sci fi type settings. So here's a Star Wars Naboo type palace filled with regal statues from House Gleb. But it's also a conquered place not originally built for Vanaa.

Gunwild: You see Naboo's giant cities and statues, but I'm thinking about Dinotopia! 

Psu: Heh. We'll have to get to the Vanaa version of Dinotopia fiction at some point. We should talk about Clulu and Krad here. I think we kept implying that the Vanaa were a pretty fearsome galactic presence. But outside of Old Salt, we never really showed their meaner side.

Gunwild: Yeah, that'll happen when you mostly feature Doctors Without Borders types so nice they're about as un-likable as Wes Bentley's character in Mission Impossible: Fallout. Off treating space-smallpox and stuff.

Psu: I hadn't seen Mission Impossible 3-whatever it's on now... I really should.

Gunwild: That's what this commentary is about! Watch the latest Mission Impossible movie!

Psu: Design wise, I actually had designs for Clulu and Krad very early in the process of figuring out the Vanaa. I think, since the Vanaa were so friendly, I wanted to challenge myself to figure out their version of evil. And Krad over there, I was going for a Darth Vader (or more accurately Darth Malak) look. And Clulu got some cultist looking robes. It's also important to note that Vanaa are different colors and sometimes different shapes according to attitude and diets. But these two are actually less... congealed? Would that be the term? Krad lacks any color at all. And Clulu, terrifyingly, abuses salt.

Gunwild: As do I, according to my daily sodium intake!

Psu: It just makes things taste so good. Including starch sticks.

Gunwild: We're villainous!