Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everybody!
Happy mid-autumn festival everyone! Hope you did something appropriately Chinese and had plenty of mooncake. Remember, westerners, if you get the bit of the cake with the salted egg yolk in it, it’s a GOOD THING.
It’s at times like these that I miss being with my family. I’m constantly forgetting about mid-autumn festival, and various other festivals, and I don’treally have many Chinese friends around here with whom I might share a Chinese meal on these occaisions. Chinese New Year is something that I always get to celebrate, though, what with the massive celebration that goes on in Chinatown here; It’s one time I truly feel part of a community.
My Chinese heritage has had a huge amount of impact on my work. Sure, you have the more obvious contributions like the ethnicity of characters like Mara, and even her appearance. But the most important things I’ve gained are less tangible, much more difficult to see at first glance. Hong Kong itself was a fantastically interesting place to spend the first few years of my life, and has fuelled my passions for large cities; All you have to do is sit somewhere and watch people for a few minutes to see a thousand different stories pass by, or to walk or take a quick MTR ride to get to a completely different flavour of city. Religion done Chinese style is quite important to me, too. While I’m not religious myself, Buddhism and ancestral worship has formed a basis for what I expect from religion. It’s why, in Elf Blood, you don’t see much in the way of churches for the Alfen religion, which is more in line with shrines and temples á la Buddhism or Taoism. Heck, even the general outlay of the characters and their motivations has been influenced by Taoism. I dislike the concepts of absolute good and absolute evil for my works, and instead try to show two sides taking different approaches to the same goal; balance in all things. Or, as one good friend put it, everybody behaving like twonks 😛
Anyway, three cheers for China and my ancestors, and good fortune to you and your families! Joi gin!
M.
Happy Moon Festival to you too! But we don’t eat the mooncakes – a bit rich, and I need trim too.
You know the paste that’s inside the mooncakes? There are steamed bun variants, you ever try them? I’m sure I remember eating one approximately the size of my head, once… I really must go back to HK next year, I miss the food!
This is something that I have allowed to let slide since I got here (a year ago) but my brain will not stop buging me about it. Why has the council not taken down Ixnay and co? (Beside the fact that it would make the story come to a grinding halt.)
Apart from the fact that it would bring the story to a grinding halt, which is very true 😛 The Council hasn’t yet acted against the Renegades for a number of reasons: Up until recently, the Council did not know the location of their home base; Because of the Renegades’ long history within the council, though many felt betrayed by their actions there exists a certain indifference amongst many soldiers who are just not willing to turn in those who they grew up with; Finally, King allowed the Renegades a certain amount of freedom after he took Mara from them, treating the whole incident as if they had delivered her to them (this was mostly so that he didn’t have to look like a complete asshole in front of his newly-reunited daughter).
So, long story short, The Council has not yet acted against the Renegades because they do not pose an immediate threat to the Council, and because of sentiment due to the fact that Council members are more like family than normal military units. You’ll notice that both sides are backing off and cooling down a bit, after the inital clashes.
Hope that answered it satisfactorily, though I happily admit it’s more to do with keeping the story going and less-than-perfect planning when I started the comic!
M.