Equal

Welcome to a new Las Lindas page! I took the coloring of this one a bit slower and went back to my usual cell shading method too. I tried using a soft brush in the past pages instead but I felt it made them look a bit washed off. I played with highlights instead this time and I like the results better. And NZ Spirits were supposed to be easier to color, eh? This page also marks the end of Era’s lesson, as well as our time with the Spirit girls. We moving to new things next week, so don’t miss it out.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: My work on the bazaar items will continue and in the order that was originally posted in the forums. Due to having many RL things going on (Holiday times are crazy every year!) in the past weeks I took the liberty to picking some of the pictures that would take me less time, but gonna follow the oder for now on. Just bare with me if sometimes I can’t post the on time! They will come, hehe.

RandomRedneck

Hooray for equality!
- EOTW
  
  It makes it so much better to see a comment like that coming from someone who uses the confederate flag as their avatar. XD
  - Gaunt Dusk
    
    Is that an example of irony or awesome?
    - RandomRedneck
      
      Let’s call it ironically awesome.
      - comichero
        
        I’m not stiring the pot or anything nor amy i a raicist but I’m a northen lad and I believe’d in the southren cause and justificaions for going to war in 1860 and just because Mr redneck chooses to wear his southren pride openly doesnt mean he isn’t for equality and to assume he is well just plain wrong, but in the spirit of equality I’m going to qoute Voltaire and say “I may not agree with what you say sir, but I will defend your right to say it to the death “
      - Parry
        
        Amen to that.
      - Idders
        
        Oh dear god please stop you guys…
      - Smartkittykhan
        
        Idders, I believe we both knew this would happen.
      - Idders
        
        I really get tired of people trying to bring up politics whenever they notice Redneck’s confederate flag.
      - RandomRedneck
        
        It’s all cool, Idders. I’m used to it.
      - http://profiles.google.com/chakatfirepaw Rick Pikul
        
        So you believe in slavery? That was the reason given by the people who were running the CSA, (at least until it became clear that they were going to lose). I’m not talking random people here, I’m talking the secession declarations and speeches given by both state governors and the Confederate Vice President.
        
        How about I give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that what you mean is that you would have believed in the cause and justifications from the pack of lies known as the “Lost Cause” had they not been a pack of lies.
      - Jake Pizorno
        
        Slavery really wasn’t the topic in the 1860s at all. It was more the right to govern themselves. They didn’t want their rights encroached upon. It was less about slavery itself and more about dictating what was done about it.
      - http://profiles.google.com/chakatfirepaw Rick Pikul
        
        Do I have to post links to what the Confederates were actually saying? Such as the “Cornerstone speech” by CSA VP Alexander Stephens:
        
        “Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its
        foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that
        the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to
        the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new
        government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this
        great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”
        
        What you are referring to are the “lost cause” lies.
ProjectWarSword

A good lesson is ones point of view. But to see it through someones else’s eyes is means to truly understand them. ^^
- Anomaly
  
  An unstoppable work force.
Stephen Walker

I see that this is as much info for them to learn as it is for us.
Carbuncle

now that was interesting that is there more information about these spirits coming or what
Xch3l

Interesting to see the world as Digit and Phi do
Slasheredge

Wow look like I was kinda right with post on the last page. Also it looks like these spirits were indeed a perfect match for Mora, and Alej. Speeking of the two it would have be great if they had the opportunity to see the world through each others eyes before. Would have saved them a lot of trouble in the long run.
comichero

Hmmmm for some reason that last shot of ther flower reminds me of one of the ME3 endings
Lumnaria

All lies Digit is powered by cowbell.
blaze984

A sacred spirit, well that explains how she can see Din and Jin. Love this page and i hope to see more of Phi and Digit together in the future.
http://Twitter.com/Draven_Long Draven

This is a lesson for ALL of us. And one some people need desperately to learn.
Mystic Monkey

I wonder what it be like if they fused as a single entidy? How they see and feel and such.
Blackwind

This is a very interesting educational episode in which we get to know the category that each spirit Represents Era is a Mending spirit Phi is a warp/calculating spirit and Digit is a rare sacred spirit so now we know how special each one is representing their owners, so we now know which traits they take after their owners which should give some people different opinions on their personalities.
Softsful

I prefer rangers over warriors and wizards……… or maybe she’s a paladin?
EOTW

Now I’ve gotta go catch a super rare sacred type. :p
Confucius Say

Hate to be one of “those” commenters, but this one is bugging me:

Digit being a rare spirit isn’t a problem, but saying Mora has a “compassionate heart”, when her biggest visible flaw throughout this comic has been a lack of empathy for everyone around her. She didn’t even properly empathize with her boyfriend until Digit’s near death rattled her.
I get this is just my opinion, but this is pushing into an example of a mary sue: Claiming virtues that the character doesn’t actually display.
- Winterous
  
  ^
  Agreed, Mora isn’t a nice person, she’s someone who gets shit done.
- Agreed.
  
  Jet Black Jr.
- EOTW
  
  Maybe Mora has the potential for compassion, and Digit feeds on that potential energy? Perhaps Mora provides just enough to keep Digit going, and in turn Digit helps her grow? Then it would make sense for Ambar to give her such a spirit if it was intended to help her grow. So rather than think of it as “Mora is incompassionate, therefore Digit DIES!” Think of it as “Digit will make her compassionate, therefore Digit lives, YAAAAY!”
  - Parry
    
    indeed
- Solemn
  
  She let 2 homeless kids, who attempted to steal from her no less, stay without having to pay room and board, and even gave them JOBS working for her.
  That’s pretty fucking compassionate, I would say.
  - Confucius Say
    
    Except for the part where only one of them is paid, underpaid at that, and she constantly threatens to call child services on them, so she gets cheap labor that they can’t complain about without ending up separated and/or in jail, effectively making this little different than running a sweat shop and threatening to call immigration.
    A highly negative way to look at it, but not exactly untrue either. Compassion is the act of selflessness for the sake of others, she’s made it clear on multiple occasions she hasn’t dumped them because she gets a use out of them.
    Again, not trying to demonize Mora, but you can’t pretend that she was acting out of much kindness.
    - EOTW
      
      Can you point out the page where she threatened to call child services? I don’t remember where that was. Also, if she was going to do that don’t you think she would have done it by now? I mean, the worst thing she did to Rachel was fire her after she kissed Minos, and even that was temporary. My last comment: go ahead and respond if you like but I’m done with this discussion because its getting way too close to Flame War II. :/
      - Confucius Say
        
        well, my last comment disappeared, so shorter version:
        
        My mistake, she threatened to call the cops, not child services, I equated the end result to the actual threat.
        
        Second, worst thing she did to Rachel was fire her? She physically beat her, then fired her, and only rehired her when she risked her life, at reduced pay and with a worse job.
        
        Mora has been fair and reasonable to a point, but most assuredly, not compassionate. Go back to the part of the story we are talking about right now and you’ll see she even had to be talked into being as nice as she was, which wasn’t that nice anyway.
DeltaCrow

Am I the only one thinking about having a relationship with a Spirit right now?
- ChaosGale
  
  Well,we don’t know if they have reproductive organs or not so for those pervert I’d say no. If your all about the emotional feel of a relationship than probably. But tjat may be hard to even start cause the “parent” needs to approv as well, which probably won’t happen so I’d say your pretty alone thier. Unless all the hard workers in relationship.s correct
  - Parry
    
    I believe he means a bond with a spirit, like the one between Mora and Digit.
    - DeltaCrow
      
      I actually meant both, I mean, having a spirit like them but then evolving to something deeper, mostly on an emotional way that just physicial attraction, that pattern of though, I believe, would work excellent with a Sacred Spirit, what bigger expression of a compassionate heart can exist besides love?
      
      I never really meant it for it be all about physical intercourse but… well, you know things may get there eventually just like in any romantic relationship.
Red Robert

Digit is being nasty, saying that Phi’s view of the world is boring. I wouldn’t want to be her friend if I was Phi
- Neku
  
  Right. Because friends exist solely to agree on each other with absolutely everything, and stand zero chance of talking constructively about their differences or potentially learning to overcome them.
  - Red Robert
    
    Overcoming difference is bad, differences must be excepted and fully cherished and preserved. That is what true friends should do, overcoming and doing away with differences is wrong it’s not constructive.
    - Neku
      
      There’s a difference between “overcoming” and “removing”. I do agree that REMOVING differences would be destructive. Overcoming, however, is constructive in almost all aspects.
      
      Take language barriers for example. Construction shows a lot, and I do mean a LOT, of people overcoming the difference of ethnicity to work together. I can’t tell you how common it is to see an English-speaking manager running a crew of almost pure Hispanic (Mexican? I dunno the correct term) workers who know not a lick of English. They learn about each other, they accept, they grow more diverse for it, and when the languages are shared to a point of getting the work done as fluid as hoped, they are better people for knowing more. The difference with that and “removing” the difference is they’re not driving the Spanish culture out of the people and replacing it with English/American/whatever, or vice versa.
- Watcher
  
  That’s not the vibe I got from Digit. I read her as being blunt no malice intended. Basicly being the type to say what comes to mind before/without considering exactly what she is saying. This can overlap when what comes out isn’t exactly polite but intent ( or the lack of) counts for something. Plus its a fittingly childish kneejerk response.
  - Tatsurou
    
    So, in essence, it’s the kind of thing Mora would say?
Karst45

Any one of you ever wondered what kind of Spirit you would get in that universe?
- Neku
  
  Depends on if Warp and Sacred are the only two archetypes of NZ spirit. I’d imagine almost all spirits out there ARE bred from analytic minds, since scientists / medics / leaders have the most use for them and almost all put logic and order over feelings and compassion. But if that’s limited to, say, Phi (business leader) AND Era (medic) being “Warp” spirits, you’d be looking at a lot of the same.
  
  (I’d probably get one that would very greatly reflect Colette Brunel’s persona if she were less clumsy and more prone to blowing raspberries at stupid people.)
Lorialet

When did Mora show strong compassion? I mean, she’s not heartless or anything but if I had to point one of her qualities I’d go for strong, energetic, determined or cheerful but i don’t see how she’s particularly compassionate.
Skadu

I like this one. This is a lesson people actually do, truly see through the eyes of others and get a full perspective of what they see. Something the world needs more of now adays
Blacksoda

Lesson of this page: Love and tolerate. when doesnt work, love and tolerate some more till success
http://www.facebook.com/jack.winberry Jack Winberry

wow, nice to know about the different types of spirits here. especially nice to know that digit here is special, in the good way, of course.
Sly

So one is a technical wonder, and the other is a hippie. I’d chose the technical one.
- Neku
  
  Even though the hippie has done numerous technical wonders for the farm she works on despite not being a technical-themed Spirit?
  - Sly
    
    Yes. The technical one has much more potential.
Gourd

I keep coming back here for the comments. Seeing the ravers trying to convince one another about Mora is hilarious.
http://www.facebook.com/chris.motherway Chris Motherway

So…Phi is left-brained and Digit is scatter-brai…er, RIGHT-brained.
Nexus

Mora? Compassionate? HAHAHA! Oh wow that’s a good one. :’D

In all seriousness, Mora has never been “compassionate”. She’s selfish, vengeful, rude, ungrateful and takes everything for granted, Not only that, she has to be convinced into doing the right thing far more often than not. It’s a wonder anybody tolerates her and a miracle someone as nice as Minos loves her.

Don’t get me wrong. She has improved from the completely selfish, manipulative and spiteful person she started out as. I’d say she’s pretty close to being a decent person but she still needs a lot of work to even be close to “compassionate”. Don’t get me wrong she can be nice, even sympathetic occasionally but to DEFINE Mora as a person with a “strong, compassionate heart” requires WAY more character development.

I mean hell the only reason you could even argue that she was the protagonist at first was because she was the underdog compared to Alej and the fact that she had more nice people on her side of the story. If you switched her place in the story with Alej, changing nothing about the two of their personalities, Mora would be a far more sinister villain than Alej ever was.

In all honesty, I think the whole “my dad is an evil race guy which makes me half evil race guy” is just a ploy to garner sympathy from her without having to, you know, work on character development. It’s really lazy, honestly, as we know for a fact that the writers CAN make convincing character development arcs without resorting to tactics like that. Hell, they do it well too otherwise I wouldn’t be reading it still after all these years.

Anyway that’s just my two cents on the subject.
- ENDG4MER
  
  Have you heard of the term, “Jerk with a Heart of Gold?” Personality and action are not black and white, wholly separate subjects. They affect each other, and more often than not are unseen. I’m sure we’ve all seen rougher people do good things out of the kindness of their hearts, but out of fear of being seen as weak-willed or particularly wary of their reputation, they lash out rather than let themselves seem vulnerable.
  
  Matters of compassion and the heart are never an A = B equation, and trying to justify such sweeping statements only on visible action is shallow and, ironically, lacking in compassion. Not that this is entirely our fault, mind; the weakness of third-person perspectives like the sort that many comics employ means we aren’t regularly inside the protagonist’s head, so we only ever see what she does and says, aside from rare glimpses of thought the authors might make visible.
  
  It is mentioned that her backstory regarding her father is a sympathy plot. The trouble is, this sort of view is inherently biased, as it projects an opinion of the author onto the character. Character and author, save for circumstances such as author filibuster and the like, typically remain separate when the author is decently skilled, which has been admitted. Because of this, it sounds more like the accusation of using backstory for sympathy is little more than a justification for an argument, rather than a true character analysis.
  
  Given the history Mora has had, I can easily see her instinctively protecting herself in any way possible. She’s had a life filled with things being taken away from her, so it’s only natural to be hard on people when you’re learning to open up again. And like it or not, she’s… well, not human in species, but most definitely in character, and human nature is selfish in many aspects. We aren’t always logical, nor do we always react in the best way for every situation, and I feel this trait is portrayed well in this series. Yes, Mora has flaws, and we mustn’t ignore them, but to say she completely lacks compassion is to ignore much of the recent story and her insistence on reaching out to Alej and caring for Digit.
  
  My own two cents, rounded to the nearest five.
  - Nexus
    
    I honestly have no idea what any of this has to do with my post, especially considering that you seem to have forgotten I have mentioned her improvement as a person and that my main problem is her apparently being defined as having a “strong, compassionate heart”. It seems to me that you saw my initial statement, jumped the gun and started rambling before giving my comments a proper look.
    
    My last comment there was a comment on the writing, not the character.
    
    As for the insult at the end there, dude, grow up. You’re calling me dumb over a fictional character who HAS proven time and again that she will blackmail, manipulate(particularly with sex), physically assault and force others to do as she wishes. She is violent, emotionally unstable and generally dangerous not just to others but herself as well.
    
    She has improved, yes, but a “strong, compassionate heart” she is not.
    - Radagast
      
      Well in fairness, while his post does read a bit knee-jerk, I think END might have a decent point buried in there regarding ‘jerk with a heart of gold’. It’s certainly true that as far as describing her on-screen actions, ‘compassionate’ seems a poor descriptor for Mora, or at least the trait couldn’t be considered as unusually strong as a Sacred Spirit’s rarity would suggest it needed to be. However, that analysis may be looking at the issue in the wrong light. Based on what has been said both in the comic and on the forums, Spirits tend to be based on their parent’s inner nature and desires more than their public faces. This was perhaps best expressed in the character section of the forums, where Era was described as essentially being the person that Tiare wished she could be, and that they both grow because they acknowledge as much.
      
      Viewed in a similar light, Digit’s nature makes a bit more sense, especially given that (IIRC) we’ve seen Mora express a desire to be more like her mother, who by all indications was an incredibly compassionate individual. One might view this as less that Mora currently exhibits strong compassionate traits as it is that she has the potential for it and the desire to embody it, and that Digit will help to draw it out (as EOTW suggested), thus allowing them both to thrive. Phrased in a slightly more meta sense, the revelation might be better viewed less as an indication of where Mora’s character arc is now, and more as showing where it’s going.
      At least, that’s the wayI interpret what we’ve seen.
Beta

My only issue with this is, rarity is does imply equality. To say Digit it rarer than Phi is to also say that Digit is of higher value than Phi and thus is not equal…
- Neku
  
  Rarity does not affect anything unless you refer to collector’s items. NZ spirits are effectively tools (practically living beings, yes, but still tools to help) made to reflect the work and life style of their owner/parent. NZ spirits in this comic have always been shown in the hands of leaders, business people, important people… basically anyone high up on the food chain has potential for one. And almost always this kind of person will have an analytic or business oriented mind. Mora is the only person who thus far has shown (and I hope this will not start a war on my use of the following term) leadership by compassion more than logic. The first of many, therefore the first Sacred spirit out of many Warp/other logic bred spirits.
  
  So yes, Digit is rarer. And yes, she is still Phi’s equal. Her role in life is still the same, her approach is just a near 180 from the other two spirits we’ve seen fleshed out.
http://www.facebook.com/fion.fox.9 Fion Fox

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone mention the flower in the bottom right hand corner of the page. I think this is an important picture because it shows that now that they understand each other they share a sort of connected view of the world.
http://www.facebook.com/laura.nungaray.7 Laura Nungaray

and yet neither of them seems to see that it’s a red flower XD
Bundle of Funyuns

Gonna follow the oder? Follow your noseee!