Sorry about the delay - apparently I've been indulging in Charlotte's barrier a little too much as of late, and had to go get a root canal due to a massive cavity that formed underneath a filling. As you might guess, this was not a particularly fun time for me, and worse, I'm now having jaw issues which may or may not be TMJ. So I've not been having a great past few weeks, all told.
That said, the chapter is still coming along, and will hopefully be out soon. May or may not end up splitting it in two; we'll see.
But with Flairina doing the art for the witches, how is there a conflict here?
You make me want to post the next witch in advance... no! I must resist! I'll not fall for these honeyed words! 😣
(But thank you. Seriously.)
Unless they are wearing the same clothes they wore a day or two ago, probably not their original bodies. Then again, PMMM kids prefer to wear their school uniforms almost all the time for some reason, so this might not be a good clue.
I recall someone saying in an interview somewhere that they regret that Sayaka never got to wear casual clothes in the show. They forgot to work it in anywhere, so she's seemingly just permanently in uniform.
...this may or may not have influenced my decision to do something similar here. ^_^;
As forgiving as Madoka, maybe even more, if that is possible. At least if forgiveness is the Right word, which it might not be, Witches generally run on fundamental instincs, and her nature is "mercy". It may well be literally impossible to be more merciful than Kriemhild Gretchen, although her take on what "mercy" is may be pretty twisted. Its debatable, however, if "mercy" is the same as "forgiveness" in this case.
Based on the description, Kreimhild Gretchen's Mercy is a Lotus Eater machine.
If true salvation is impossible, let the world shelter beneath her skirts, free from any suffering and any purpose.
Well, Gretchen draws everything around her into her barrier, which is her "heaven". According to Magia Record however, anything drawn into this heaven is then consumed and taken control of by her, which...
...huh. This is, strikingly, not a parallel I was
intending to make. The fan translation I read previously states that everything becomes enveloped in the substance Gretchen creates and is thereby rendered helpless (possibly in said Lotus Eater trance as noted), but the "official" English translation is apparently... well. I don't know how to feel about that.
Great faux-quest. Witch MCs in PMMM are very interesting to explore.
Here's html with all main threadmarks for offline readers (rename to txt to read on Kindle).
Thanks, and that was very cool of you! But, uh... I think those are locked behind a password no one has. Just saying.
<You're in my world now, not your world...>
<And I've got friends on my book's inside...>
Are there any inspirations and references we totally missed so far?
A few, mostly related to Ashtaroth herself, but I wouldn't expect all of them to be noticed right now anyways. I expect the "missed references" to happen a lot more for other original witches planned later down the line.
Is Charlotte Ashy's
Sitcom Arch-Nemesis?
Not really - Charlotte is more like the random encounter monster that a DnD party takes an inexplicable liking to, and decides to "adopt" and cart around with them. Shemesh would actually be closer to filling this role, albeit entirely one-sidedly... at least if he weren't, ya know, exploded.
Is Rashmisreya's hair actually a tangle of wires? Are they derived from Candeloro's ribbons?
Candeloro is not part of Rashmisreya, I'll say that much.
