Page Commentary No. 13 (Patreon)

Gunwild: She does come off as fairly sinister on this page, which sets up her relationship with Maddy just fine... until the last panel, where you see how she'd act most of the time from then on. We sure got a lot of complaints about Cassiopeia being unsympathetic while Maddy is an underdog people are into, but I was surprised how many folks thought that was totally unintentional.

Psu: In a way it sorta was, I think we had some sense that Cassiopeia would be seen as a jerk but the issue is we knew her longer than the reader has. And the reader is kind of introduced to her doing a pretty douche thing to a young and honorable captain. And acting pretty smug about it!

Gunwild: Hey, from day one the Hiveworks main page link said she was a butt.

Psu: There were a lot of specific notes about the characters, I'm not sure how many of them were from the script but I remember having to deal with things like how Ison would be leading Kettering who is at this point a very young guy whose role in the military was like a video game. There are some other visual errors too, like Theira is much shorter than she'll end up being on following pages.

Gunwild: Maybe she absorbed some tall DNA.

Psu: She's supposed to be the tallest (until our newly introduced character)! But the biggest wonky thing on the page is the sword in perspective in panel 2. I make up for it with the rest of the page looking pretty swell. Excepting the panel border on the very last insert panel, I'm pretty proud of the bottom half of the page.

Gunwild: I like the subtle tearing up in the second-to-last panel.

Psu: And I think the third to last panel is the one where Cassiopeia earned a lot of enemies among our readers.

Gunwild: I think you mean fourth-to-last...

Psu: The one with Maddy on the ground is the one I mean.

Gunwild: Oh. Yeah, it's hard not to feel bad for her.

Psu: Yeah! What with the dramatic camera lighting and her crew being all worried!

Gunwild: They're a good crew!

(Panel 1: Now Cassiopeia has her gun trained on the crew in another bright hallway as they all pile through an escape hatch – but her finger's off the trigger, just in case of accident. It's helpfully labeled ESCAPE POD. She's got the captain as a shield while the rest of the men and women regretfully prepare to leave, walking in front of them, maybe casting back rueful glances.)

MADDY 1: I would rather they had just shot us BOTH. I hope you understand that you won't get away with this.

CASSIOPEIA 1: You said that with some really nice conviction! But you're wrong.

CASSIOPEIA 2: See, the Vanaa star-fleet are just as proper as you guys. They won't fire on a ship that's surrendering or retreating.

(Panel 2: Cassiopeia has moved the magnetic harpoon to the hilt of the sword, where it has stuck. She is also now marching the captain forward with her gun instead of hugging her from behind. The blue woman's hands are on the sides of her head, where she can't reach for anything.)

CASSIOPEIA 1: So I'm gonna let you get in your pod and stay there for a while. Then I drop you off somewhere out of the way, and fly your ship back to wherever it is I came from.

CASSIOPEIA 2: Even if they figure it out, everyone's too busy fighting to follow me. And by the time the battle's over, they won't be able to track me. There'll be too many other engine trails.

MADDY 1: There's no POINT. You'll never be able to sell my ship. The Admiralty Board's investigators will be looking for it!

(Panel 3: Close of Cassiopeia and the Captain's faces. Cassie is smiling with her eyes closed in a rather friendly way while speaking into the Captain's ear. Cally doesn't look so happy at all, though. It's like being told someone was gonna cut up your beloved car after they stole it from you.)

CASSIOPEIA 1: That's why I'll strip it for parts. WAY harder to trace.

(Panel 3: Cassie has push-kicked Maddy forwards, pulling her sword free with the harpoon to keep it as a souvenir. The woman is tumbling with her hands out to catch herself, her hat falling off before she's ever in the escape pod, barreling forward...)

CAPTAIN: No! NO!

(Panel 4: ... she falls right into the last of her crew in the hatchway, and they all go ass-first into the escape pod.)

KETTLEHEAD 1: WHOA!

CUPCAKE 1: Captain!

(Panel 5: Cassiopeia's got the sword in one hand, has holstered her laser and is firing the 'poon with the other while sticking out her tongue. This time it's in a bit of mockery, but not the hateful kind, more in the 'Don't take this so seriously, sweetie!' kind. The cable from the 'poon has uncoiled so that it's hitting a spot right next to the escape pod door.)

HARPOON SFX: PTONG

(Panel 6: The head of the harpoon is hitting a big ol' button marked CLOSE and activating it.)

BUTTON SFX: CLICK