Those Who Walk Away From Halo Head
Aug. 27th, 2023 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
utilitymonstergirlBatty's comic Hello from Halo Head does a lot that I love: arguments between different facets of the self, thematic foils falling in love, matter-of-factly mixing cute and gruesome tones, and buffer-overflowing divine grace purely because you can. We open with an angel, Clair, presenting her devil counterpart Chloe with a bespoke paradise as an escape from trauma. Chloe refuses to engage with any of it as Clair intended. Clair gradually introduces more residents to counterbalance the world, whose origins are unspecified but whom she has apparently "calibrated".
Like in Foreach, the metaphysics are (so far) kept vague, running on metaphor and resonance rather than getting bogged down in technical details. More questions are raised by the bottomless stack of other realms, whose origin and role become central mysteries of the plot.
The realms that Achilles explores are empty, overgrown iterations of Halo Head, all unpopulated until he meets Ares, a fellow cat living in an abandoned lighthouse just like Clair's. She recognizes Achilles as "one of us," and scorns "the old way" of using money and "playing her way."
This sequence crystallizes much of the story's plot and themes - though the mechanisms remain unclear, Clair has rebooted her world countless times, either for Chloe's sake or other reasons. The residents are either pulled from some existing population or created wholesale, but either way they have recurring motifs (classical names, notched ears, strong personalities.) Yet Clair's demiurge-powers don't include omniscience, and she doesn't yet know that the residents are starting to piece this history together. As they question her motives and conspire to keep secrets from her, they strain their coordination and moral compasses alarmingly far.
That's all we have so far at time of writing, but it's plenty to chew on. Clair struggles every day with the residents' obstinate spite, clashing tempers, self-destructive desires, and her own urge to railroad people into what she considers best for them. Even if she did craft a utopia this time, the residents would eventually find the previous realms and have a lot of pointed questions. (And if they got sealed off, well, is it still heaven if you can't leave?)
Some speculation about where the story might go from here:
-At least some of the previous realms have included Chloe; Ares says "you still call it that?" when Achilles refers to his layer as Halo Head. Chloe grapples with having her memory wiped until she fits Clair's idea of healing. The others grapple with the horror of existing solely as supporting characters in someone else's therapy-heaven. Shit gets bad, weird, and dark.
-Clair realizes the inherent futility of saving people from themselves, makes peace with their flaws, and refuses to abandon this world even when she sees it at its worst. Life goes on, the cycle of creation ends, and everyone has the space to genuinely grow and heal.
-Clair abandons the world again, but few to none of the current residents come with her. The new world is either empty or full of sycophants, and she sinks further into her worst tendencies while the others both build a new life and mourn her absence.
I have no idea of what path the story will take, but even if it follows one I predicted, I'd still be hooked the whole time. The gorgeous colors, smear frames, and character designs show Batty's experience in professional storyboarding. The comedic timing is sharp, the story teases and reveals without overexplaining, and the metaphorical meanings only multiply with time. I highly recommend it to anyone with any interest in psychodrama, dense comedy, or cozy worlds with cosmic horror on the horizon.
It's that last one I want to focus on today, and the story's broader theme of the horror and futility of trying to build utopia. (Bear in mind, I am making no claims about this being a definitive analysis; Batty has written about wanting to keep her work thematically open-ended, which I respect and admire.) However, this essay will spoil the whole story up to now, so I'd recommend getting caught up before proceeding.
Like in Foreach, the metaphysics are (so far) kept vague, running on metaphor and resonance rather than getting bogged down in technical details. More questions are raised by the bottomless stack of other realms, whose origin and role become central mysteries of the plot.
The realms that Achilles explores are empty, overgrown iterations of Halo Head, all unpopulated until he meets Ares, a fellow cat living in an abandoned lighthouse just like Clair's. She recognizes Achilles as "one of us," and scorns "the old way" of using money and "playing her way."
This sequence crystallizes much of the story's plot and themes - though the mechanisms remain unclear, Clair has rebooted her world countless times, either for Chloe's sake or other reasons. The residents are either pulled from some existing population or created wholesale, but either way they have recurring motifs (classical names, notched ears, strong personalities.) Yet Clair's demiurge-powers don't include omniscience, and she doesn't yet know that the residents are starting to piece this history together. As they question her motives and conspire to keep secrets from her, they strain their coordination and moral compasses alarmingly far.
That's all we have so far at time of writing, but it's plenty to chew on. Clair struggles every day with the residents' obstinate spite, clashing tempers, self-destructive desires, and her own urge to railroad people into what she considers best for them. Even if she did craft a utopia this time, the residents would eventually find the previous realms and have a lot of pointed questions. (And if they got sealed off, well, is it still heaven if you can't leave?)
Some speculation about where the story might go from here:
-At least some of the previous realms have included Chloe; Ares says "you still call it that?" when Achilles refers to his layer as Halo Head. Chloe grapples with having her memory wiped until she fits Clair's idea of healing. The others grapple with the horror of existing solely as supporting characters in someone else's therapy-heaven. Shit gets bad, weird, and dark.
-Clair realizes the inherent futility of saving people from themselves, makes peace with their flaws, and refuses to abandon this world even when she sees it at its worst. Life goes on, the cycle of creation ends, and everyone has the space to genuinely grow and heal.
-Clair abandons the world again, but few to none of the current residents come with her. The new world is either empty or full of sycophants, and she sinks further into her worst tendencies while the others both build a new life and mourn her absence.
I have no idea of what path the story will take, but even if it follows one I predicted, I'd still be hooked the whole time. The gorgeous colors, smear frames, and character designs show Batty's experience in professional storyboarding. The comedic timing is sharp, the story teases and reveals without overexplaining, and the metaphorical meanings only multiply with time. I highly recommend it to anyone with any interest in psychodrama, dense comedy, or cozy worlds with cosmic horror on the horizon.
no subject
Date: 2023-09-02 06:56 pm (UTC)Honestly I'm kind of thinking your first prediction is going to be the one that happens, Clair really doesn't seem like the type of person to just give up even if it is for everyone's good.