#does one’s immortality inherently devalue one’s love?

[adastreia-12]

poseidon’s relationship with percy is something that is so personal to me. love so flawed and complicated, so wary and tentative. your father is here. he’s always been here. he’s not sure what to make of you but he is proud of you. you’re not sure what to make of him either. you’re sally jackson’s son, but you have your father’s eyes. you are the sea as much as he is. trust him. trust yourself. breathe. the sea does not like to be restrained.

[letstalkaboutwebcomics]

Let’s Talk About Novae!

Before we continue, please be sure you’ve read Ye Olde Disclaimer so you know what exactly is going on here!

And beware… SPOILERS AHEAD!

Let me tell you, I had to shorten what I originally wrote by a lot because I couldn’t shut up about it.

I wanted to start off this series with a webcomic very dear to my heart, which is the wonderful Novae by @kaixju, a duo of artists with a solid comics resume behind them. KaiJu have collaborated in the past on The Ring of Saturn, Mahou Josei Chimaka, and Inhabitant of Another Planet, which is the prequel to Novae. All are hosted on Sparkler Monthly, and I highly recommend reading them all. Not just because Sulvain and Raziol cameo in The Ring of Saturn as well as Mahou Josei Chimaka, which I thought was so good.

Novae follows the tale of two men in 17th century France, at the height of the scientific revolution. One is Raziol Qamar, the apprentice of the esteemed scientist Christiaan Huygens. Raziol is the son of a translator, and has a boundless love of astronomy. The other is Sulvain. Yep, just Sulvain, no last name so far. He’s a mysterious traveler that we know very little about yet, other than the fact that he is curious, lonely, and loves the stars just as much as Raziol does. You can see where this is going.

We get a number of strong visual hints as to Sulvain’s past or the truth of his existence, and surely more info will be revealed very soon. Novae has just completed Chapter 4, which very neatly contains the blossoming of a relationship between Sulvain and Raziol. I won’t summarize the story thus far, because I would much rather you go read the comic for yourself! Instead, let’s start looking at some of the key themes Novae gives us:

Loneliness

Belonging

Grief 

The powerful multifaceted-ness of love

In Inhabitant from Another Planet, we are introduced to many of these key themes through a look into Raziol’s past- namely, his last intimate relationship. This, in addition to Sulvain’s flashbacks from Chapter Four, brings me to one of my favorite things about Novae: it is not afraid to be absolutely open with the character’s past loves. Novae is a story primarily about the love between Raziol and Sulvain, but it is just as much about the love that, inevitably, brings them together. Something I see often in the Romance genre is this idea that giving positive and meaningful context to a character’s past relationship(s) is somehow de-valuing their present one. Past relationships are sometimes treated as a stepping stone to get to the ‘one true love’, or a device to create hurt comfort. As if the current relationship needs to be the only good one the characters have ever had, and that’s what makes it meaningful. It’s not. And I’m not saying that stories where that happens are inherently bad, because that’s not true either. It needs to be handled delicately.

What Novae does is provide us with insight into the past relationships that built Raziol and Sulvain into the people they are now. That they have loved before, they love now, and they absolutely can love again. Romance is not devalued by the presence of other loves. And I love the insight into that. It tells us so much about them. Raziol’s relationship with Bevan provided a moment in time where he felt considerably understood and happy- temporarily, yes, but that temporalness led him to reconnect with his father. The feeling of otherness has not left Raziol in Novae, and it’s a pivotal part of why he connects with Sulvain. Raziol gravitates towards people that help relieve that. As for Sulvain, at this point we can only guess. I have my theories about his condition. There are many hints that he practices Necromancy, and even more hints that he’s either undead or immortal or something of that nature. Immortality and loneliness are inseparable from each other, classically. Raziol gives him something he can easily give back: familiarity and nostalgia, and the delight in learning new things.

But with immortality (or whatever it is that plagues him) comes the other classic issue: the fear of intimacy and, you know… getting attached. How many times can one obviously sensitive guy handle burying the people he loves? And yet, intimacy and comfort is all too enticing. Who can blame him? I’m interested in seeing where that goes once we know more.

Side note, I appreciate that this is the first time they see each other. Nothing is better than main couples having an embarrassing first interaction.

And Sulvain is just kinda like [nods] “Yes, understandable. I, too, have that reaction to myself.”

Another one of my favorite aspects of Novae is the attention to detail. So many tiny bits of the world are so carefully researched and considered, it makes my history-loving heart sing. Objects in a room can do so much in developing a character, and it’s so nice to see that so thought out for both Sulvain and Raziol’s father’s apartments. It is believable that a person lives there, and the word feels so tangibly like 17th century France. This makes is so easy to become immersed in the world these characters inhabit. We are not simply following their story on its surface, but becoming part of the environment that drives that story. Not only that, but the comic places such a loving emphasis on tiny, quiet moments.

Every small gesture, every silent look they give each other means something so visceral and signifies a huge step forward. Soft and so often silent, but that’s what forces you to pay attention. The limited color palette deftly assists in this, every single page dominated by either a rich blue or yellow or a mix of the two. Blue, the historical color of divinity, cosmos and magic, and yellow, the historical color of happiness and knowledge.

I want to bookend this with a look at my favorite scene so far, which is related to my earlier point about Sulvain’s past love: the final scene of Chapter Four, in which we see a flashback showing Sulvain burying the mystery woman from his memory (Ohhhoh whooo could she be??). The color palette transforms stunningly. It’s not easy to show flashbacks without being heavy-handed and direct (or alternately, not being clear enough), but this color palette change does it in such a nice way that sits well with the feeling of the rest of the story. The burial shown is a traditional burning-pyre one, and this is the first time we get to see Sulvain displaying extreme emotions. He weeps for her, wailing, but silently due to his inability to speak. And it’s beautiful, not only because of the stunning imagery but also because it handles quick, simply addressed death within a story pretty fantastically.

Sulvain’s relationship with this woman is powerful and meaningful. Her death is not the end of his story, but it does lastingly impact it. And he is allowed to mourn, and feel vivid emotions, and still grieve however many years into the future when these feelings affect the new connections he builds, and that is okay. Sulvain is not shamed for having complicated feelings, or not being completely ready to dive in headfirst into a new romance, but instead go slowly. Don’t forget, in the Novae timeline, Raziol and Sulvain have only known each other a few days (which is just my guess). It just makes me unbelievably happy that that understanding is there in the formative moments of their relationship, and it’s not used as a miscommunication drama fodder (a big pet peeve of mine). Each of them knows that they are both going into this with a lot of baggage, and part of a strong relationship is working through that together, and giving it time.

To briefly address another technical aspect, suffice to say dialogue is one of the most difficult parts of comic writing. There is a fine line between too much dialogue and just enough. Novae stays within this line wonderfully. As a reader, I never feel like the story is unnecessarily being explained to me. It takes advantage of the beauty of a visual medium and allows visuals to tell the story clearly and concisely, and all dialogue serves to enhance the story. It never feels too wordy, and everything is so astoundingly poetic that the dialogue itself works perfectly in tandem with the environment.

In conclusion, Novae deserves serious props for handling a slow, quiet narrative so well. It’s really difficult to manage that, especially in webcomic time when you generally update a page at a time. With longform webcomics, it’s easy to lose the reader’s attention from update to update if it feels like nothing is happening. But here, with every page, something huge is happening. It’s just a quieter, more contemplative something, and I look forward to it every time. I know whenever a Novae page goes up, it’s going to be gorgeous and I’m already completely invested in the complexities of these characters. Reading this comic, you can feel the love and care the creators have put into developing it. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

PLEASE go read Novae, leave many comments, and support KaiJu! You can do so by:

Following them on Twitter

Becoming a Patron

Sharing their Portfolio

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And tell your friends about Novae!