*Eeep!*
On that note…time for a one week break 😀 It’s been 5 updates in a row, so next Friday will not have a new page.
Please return on Friday 31st of March, to see if Áine can get her way out of this!
Bata Neart
Irish Magical Girls!
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I see a Wedding Peach figure. =3
Hey, it’s Asuka! So Aoife’s into tsunderes, huh? ^_^
I love the horror movie feel here – poor Aine looks absolutely terrified.
And now I feel even more like Sharon knew exactly whose window was left suspiciously open.
And guys, remember to vote for Bata Neart at TWC:
http://topwebcomics.com/vote/14911/default.aspx
You can help out Rawr with just a couple of clicks.
Shona Lá Fhéile Pádraig, Rawr!
I agree with @Kessy, this is a great page. It really builds the suspense, and that third panel still makes me think Sharon is a Terminator. And I think Sharon has spotted our wayward “student”. That, or she has a suspicion of where the naughty girl is.
Have a good vacation. I look forward to what’s next.
‘Ello, Poppet. >:D
Hopefully Áine knows about parley. 😛
Hey guys, here’s a funny scenario to consider. Aine tells Sharon the complete truth about her story, not realizing that talking about magic makes you sound crazy in today’s society. Sharon of course thinks she’s making it up and says something to the effect of, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Aine obliges. Once Sharon’s brain finishes rebooting she goes all mother hen and more or less adopts Aine – in an annoyingly over-protective way.
Sharon may be a really tough and demanding, but my impression is that it comes from being protective of the girls in her care. Including trying to protect them from themselves.
@Kalea: Ah ha! I was wondering if anyone would spot her (I was a little afraid that I ‘misdrew’ the character.)
Yes it’s Wedding Peach, aka Momo, who is on Aoife’s shelf beside Asuka from Evangelion. Both of which stand beside some cosplay artifacts for each character that Aoife has in her collection.
I included Wedding Peach in particular because the manga-ka who drew her (Nao Yazawa) is a friend and mentor to me. Lately I have been helping her out with English language content at Manga School Nakano, and excitingly later this year I may actually be co-writing part of the next Coffee Party book with her 🙂
Needless to say, this might not be the last Wedding Peach or Nao Yazawa reference you’ll see in Bata Neart 🙂
@Kessy: Thank you for the vote push Kessy, you are too kind 😀 The ranking does get a surprising amount of readers in compared to other channels, so I really do appreciate it.
Aoife’s into tsunderes? I suppose she is, which makes me wonder if Ashling is a tsundere….and that I’m not sure. I think maybe no, since it doesn’t really take all that much to get past Ashling’s relatively tough exterior. If you are nice to her, she’ll probably like you back. However maybe she’s picky…and only opens up to a chosen few….hard to decide 🙂
Glad you liked the horror feel, it was kind of what I was going for 🙂
@Farren: Go raibh maith agat Farren 😀 That reminds me that I really should do more ‘Patties Day’ stuff on this comic. Given that this is Irish comic with a 90% US-based readership, it kind of makes sense 😀
@Azreal: Áine has probably only had a limited view of the ‘moving picture stories’ on Aoife’s ‘magical box’ 🙂 So she likely doesn’t know about Parley just yet….(besides you know well Aoife probably has a huge back-catalog of anime to offload on her first :D)
I don’t think Ashling is a Tsundere, since those are usually unclear on what their own feelings are, while Ashling has her own opinion of Aoife settled.
I agree with Henry that Ashling isn’t a tsundere. My theory is that being a tsundere comes from feeling conflicted about being attracted to someone – the tsundere feels they aren’t supposed to be attracted to this person for some reason and therefore the tsundere feels ashamed and annoyed with themselves and winds up taking it out on the person they’re attracted to.
Asuka actually provides a really good example of this. When she first meets Shinji she finds him annoying both because he doesn’t stand up for himself and because she feels that the only reason he’s an Eva pilot is because of his father – he’s a whiny wimp who didn’t earn his position but just got it because daddy made it happen. So when she starts to feel attracted to him she gets mad at herself for being attracted to such a loser.
There are of course exceptions to this, but I think it applies to most tsunderes. There are many variations and many reasons why a tsundere might feel conflicted over being attracted to someone, but that conflict seems to me to be the real root of the behavior in almost all cases.
So Ashling doesn’t fit for two reasons: she’s not mean to Aoife in any way, and she’s not attracted to her. Unless, of course, Rawr has some plot twists / character development in store that he’s not shared with us yet. 😉
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@Rawr: personally I’m not big on St Paddies day. I liked it more when I was little, but once I found out “driving the snakes out of Ireland” is a euphemism for celebrating St Patrick suddenly seemed a lot less appealing.
Besides, it’s mostly just an excuse to go drinking for people who are as likely to be Italian as Irish.
@Kessy: I’m afraid that a more probable outcome is: Sharon bursts into the room and finds herself facing the business end of the Bata Draiochta, which is being wielded by someone who knows how to use it, and feels threatened.
I don’t think Aine would KILL her, but Grievous Bodily Harm is not out of the question.
@Delta: LOL That’s certainly a possibility, however I think that Aine has probably picked up from Ashling and Aoife that this is a pretty safe environment where physical threats are not the norm. Sharon may be intimidating as hell and give tongue lashings regularly, but I’m sure she’d never lay a hand on any of the girls. Think about it – the body language and non verbals of someone approaching you as an authority figure intent on dressing you down is completely different from that of someone approaching you as an enemy about to attack you. And although I’m sure Sharon will start off trying to interrogate Aine in English, as soon as Aine tries to say something she’ll switch to Irish and they should be able to communicate pretty well.
@Kessy: That assumes that Aine waits long enough to assess threat levels. Remember, she turned the light off, and she’s gripping a fully materialized Bata Draiochta. A door slamming open is a door slamming open regardless of intent, and Sharon would be an unmissable silhouette in the doorway .
It has been less than 24 hours since we saw Aine looking lost and homesick in the dining area, and although Aoife has the (pardon the expression) “magic touch” in making her feel welcome she IS from a warrior culture, where “Kill first and NEVER ask questions” is the order of the day.
More even than WHAT happens next, I’m eager to see HOW @Rawr: handles this situation (no pressure here, right, @Rawr:, old boy?). ^^
@Delta: I don’t think Aine’s a killer, and I really don’t see her launching a deadly attack preemptively. Several of the flashbacks have pretty strongly implied that Aine hasn’t been in a battle and doesn’t want to fight anyone.
Even in a “warrior culture” (and I’m not at all convinced that’s a fair description of pre-Christian Ireland) people don’t go around killing each other casually. Violence is usually directed at people outside your social group, at enemies. So Aine only reacted violently after waking up once she saw Aoife’s bandeau which identified her as an enemy. I think that Aine wants very much to be a part of Ashling and Aoife’s “tribe” even if she’s not sure what exactly that means. And I’d think that uncertainty would make her very cautious about being confrontational with anyone, much less attacking someone. She doesn’t want to make the wrong person mad at her.
There’s also a big difference between being scared as in, “Oh crap, I think I’m in trouble and I don’t know what’s going to happen,” and being scared as in, “My life is in danger.” I think that if Aine had felt that she was in serious physical danger she would have run, not hidden. If you think you’re going to have to fight for your life the last thing you want to do is corner yourself in a closet.
Also remember that warriors have almost always been male, simply because males are typically larger and stronger. Even in a culture like the Norse where the women were expected to be able to defend themselves, they wouldn’t have typically been acting as soldiers.
And the last thing is that I wouldn’t assume that the Bata Draiochta only has offensive powers. I can see maybe Sharon getting knocked on her butt or something, but I don’t think there’d be any more than that.
BTW, Rawr, how do you pronounce Draiochta?
@Kessy: Draiocht (Magic) is usually pronounced “Drey-ock’t” or “Dry-ock’t” So you could say Bata “Dry-ock’ta”.
I do love reading these conversations trying to guess what I’ve got planned 😀 Makes me feel like I’m doing something right.
Ohhh, is that related to “dryad”? The online Etymology Dictionary says that dryad is derived from the Proto-Indo-European “deru-” meaning “tree, wood, oak” so it seems like there might be a connection since my understanding is that magic tends to be associated with trees in Celtic cultures.
@Kessy: I was referring to her culture, not to Aine herself, but as for women warriors, http://rawrtacular.com/bataneart/comic/ch01pg09/.
I’m sure Sharon will survive–a bit brused, perhaps–but alive, ^^
@Kessy: I don’t know if the words are related, but the root language of Gaelige (i think) was supposed to be Indo-European, so there may be a chance.
Trees had a significant place in the old religions of Pagan Ireland. From what I have heard, they were regarded a symbol of the connection between the 3 main worlds that co-exist on top of each other. The trunk represented the Living World the place we are now, the branches upward represented the World of the Dead, a world which was superimposed on the Living World (resulting in ghosts), and finally the branches down, which pointed to a Spirit World which was another superimposed world that contained various monsters and other aggressive magical creatures (Banshees, Caorthannach etc…) The tree was what anchored these together.
That’s also part of the reason why I have chosen trees as the source for Bata Draiochta(i), and the reason why the Bata Neart is designed to look like the tree (/spoiler). ;D
@Delta: Áine is a fighter when she needs to be, but female warriors apparently were not all that unusual on the Celtic battlefield, and would sometimes be known to be more aggressive & effective fighters than their male counterparts.