Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid has a similar complication with the relationship between the two main characters, since Tohru is immortal and Kobayashi is human.
Come to think of it, I have come across a couple of other fantasy works with a similar scenario, dating back to Tolkein if I recall properly. Hmm, this is just occurring to Arayanna NOW, after she has already gotten into a relationship? Seems to me, it would be something she would have reflected on long ago.
Now, if Maeye can get someone to shapeshift her to male form for a few hours, the problem of a sperm donor for Arayanna would be solved. That would still leave the aging problem.
In MKDM, Tohru decides she would rather be with Kobayashi temporarily than not at all. I’m curious to see how Arayanna works it out in her head here.
The aging issue is definitely a classic storyline. Once that I have been fond of since I first watched Highlander. 🙂
As far as the shapeshifting donation – interesting idea! But then we need to explore the whole problem with weather or not Elvian and Human can reproduce together. Luckily, the exploring will be the fun part. 🙂
Mention of those themes in Highlander reminds me of a story idea I kinda started to write up…
An Immortal and a pre-Immortal, dating. The Immortal tries to tell her love a sliver at a time, to avoid endangering the secret if the pre-Immortal reacts badly. So… she pretends to be a vampire, OurVampiresAreDifferent and all that :3 “It’s really not like the movies. Daylight, crosses, all wrong. Beheading, that’s real, but if somebody stakes me I’ll be back on my feet in under a minute.” She offers to turn her love into a vampire, thinking if she gets a “yes” she’ll explain more and ask again. This is, of course, a terrible idea, and therein lies the plot…
I have an idea(and it might not be too hard to have it written in somehow).When those two were so into each other when Maeye was healing her,it gave a bit of Arayanna into Maeyes body,which would help make her age more slowly.And as many times as she has healed her(and you know she’s going to do that many more times),it may help her live as long as an Elf does.And then there might be someone she heals,or something she eats,drinks or just touches her that could give her,if not both of them immortality.Just saying.
Yeah. When Maeye dies, Aray will follow 5 minutes later.
I imagine that Maeye plans to die at the age of 90, while banging Aray, who will look young enough to be Maeye’s great-granddaughter.
She’s probably already written her own funeral ballad, extolling her prowess in accomplishing such a feat. She likely has several versions ready, with minor differences, based on the actual cause of death… heart attack, stroke, multiple organ failure due to self-inflicted blunt force trauma (her personal favorite)…
“…When finally came time for Maeye to pass,
She did it while bonking Aray’s fine a–”
“Maeye! Stop composing your explicit funeral aria with the kids in the room!”
“But, I’m just getting to the best part! … What rhymes with ‘Aray’s huge melons?'”
Aray and Maeye started a relationship together because they are deeply in love with each other. Aray thought more about being with her than how the relationship will be and what can happen in the future. I understand that she wants to have childeren of her own, who doesn’t, but nothing is as easy as it looks, just like in real life.
The future isn’t written yet (drawn in this case 🙂 ) so anything can happen, even somehow still get pregnant one way or another.
It is good that Maeye took a few steps aside to be able to take the shock on her own in open space. And so to avoid unwillingly hurt Aray, and herself.
I find it smart that Feori also added a family part in the story. It makes it more complete and shows how the personal life of Aray and Maeye goes, between the battles and other things. It almost looks like a visual (auto-)biography.
@Xander37
Actually, you’d be surprised at the number of people who do not want to (or would rather not) have children, especially these days. Some countries like Japan have low or even negative birthrates. Granted, in some places, fewer people than ever are dating or getting married. And part if it is a worldwide decline in human fertility. But some try to avoid having children.
You’re right, I haven’t thought about it. There are people who can have childeren and raise them but also the opposite. People who aren unable the have kids (unfertile, rules of the country, …) or doesn’t want to. I myself am uncertain if I really want kids and that bites me but we will see.
Still, I wonder how Aray and Maeye thinks themselfs about this. Maybe Aray will realize that some promises can’t always be kept because of unfortunate situations or differences of opinions.
My wife and I adopted our two sons, so the whole adoption and orphan angle is very important to me.
I think Aray is thinking that maybe she could be the last of her kind so her promise could mean much much more at this point. But yes, this may be a promise she cannot keep.
It is a very interesting thing – this decline in the desire for folks to have kids. I think it is nature’s way of ensuring we don’t overpopulate the planet any more than we already have. One of these days, I need to get more into the Elvian religion, which is based on my own belief in a creator. My Creator is more of a lonely mad scientist than a benevolent god like dude. We’ll get that in the story one of these days. So many things to talk about and so few panels!
[i]RE: On it being nature’s way of ensuring we don’t overpopulate the planet[/i]
Thing is, there is research that links atrazine to reproductive issues. Even Wikipedia say, “As of 2001, atrazine was the most commonly detected pesticide contaminating drinking water in the United States.”
That doesn’t even include the prevalence of other residues that end up in our water (and food), such as pharmaceuticals that waste treatment plants are unable to filter out. Stuff like synthetic estrogen.
Myself, I find such news alarming. And I don’t even plan to have kids.
Well, regardless of any reductions to reproductive capability, people are choosing sex-not-reproduction at a rate that outstrips the rate of infertility. Even couples that do want to have kids often have only one; one kid per two adults is well under replacement levels, but it’s enough to reliably have a kid who outlives you. We have, after all, basically defeated with technology the dangers that ruled childhood for most of humanity’s history.
Anecdotally, I can’t bear children, my girlfriend can, but neither of us wants to raise an infant. We both like cats, maybe that has something to do with it :3
I hear ya, Darekun. You can always borrow a friend’s kid if you get the urge. My wife and I are coming to the end of the whole child raising thing. We are finally starting to get our lives back. Don’t get me wrong, love both the boys and was very happy as a parent, but man that shit goes on for a lot longer than you think.
It seems to correlate with better healthcare, and feeling more secure economically, socially and in general. In areas where children are more likely to die then people have more to make sure some make it to adulthood. There may be other societal and psychological factors at play.
If life is generally good, safe for everyone, you can plan for the future, the technology exists to give you the choice about whether to start a family and the Government (and loved ones) will allow you to, having children stops being a necessity.
Yup – if you know your kids are most likely going to survive childhood and make it to an age where they can help around the farm, then you don’t need to have 10 of them.
Hopefully they will have time to talk and work things out, because, well, that’s what a lasting relationship is about: working things out
Who says they have to give each other a child? They could just as easily get a donor father (that will not be interested in either lady longterm) for both, plus, even if that is not acceptable to either, there is no real time limit on when Aray has to continue the family bloodline, is there?
Just hoping that someone, probably Maeye, will make Aray realise a forced oath is not a binding one
There is definitely room for donor father’s if that is really what is important to them. I am sure either Nihklas or Krag would do just fine, but again, there’s no gaurantee that would even work for Aray. But, it would definitely make for some fun rendering. 😀
If Aray is set on fulfilling her promise to her father, has she even considered the possibility of a ‘donor’? Granted, she should clear it by Maeye. But I don’t think Maeye would leave Aray merely for asking.
For that matter, do we even know what happened to Aray’s tribe or her or world? Did they win or lose their battle with the demonic invaders? Are there any survivors? Are they fighting to this day?
I’m also curious about whether Aray (and Maeye) will eventually travel to other worlds.
We do not know what happened to Aray’s world. That is one of the things that is troubling her.
If the storyline goes the way i currently have it in my head (and there is no gaurantee of that) they will eventually travel to different worlds. Eventually.
We may not know exactly (‘we’, being the readers), but Aray’s people were at least able to push the invaders back and follow them, what happened after that remains to be seen
I don’t want to give away too much of the future storyline, but the basic plan is for this to go off world sometime in the next couple of years, and become a multi-world adventure.
Yeah, figured early on that Aray was the real main character, or at least the recurring character that connected others (as in, she would travel between worlds and there would be a ‘new’ Protagonist that Aray would spend time with {not necessarily in the same way as with Maeye, depending on the time frame})
JFD actually made a good point. If Arayanna is really worried about continuing the family line, she needs to retire from adventuring. Seems like she and Maeye are in fights to the death, with this baddie or that, every other week.
In fact, Arayanna was clinically dead after one such recent combat, and Maeye revived her. It would have been a bit ironic, in view of her current state of mind, if she HAD died 50 years before Maeye.
Hmm, could that near death experience be what is making her go through these thought processes?
Why yes, almost dying (or maybe actually dying) has made Aray sit down and wonder what she is doing with her life. It’s a very troubling time for our poor Elven friend. Luckily, she has her little fireball to protect and cheer her (and bring her back from the dead when necessary).
That brings another interesting question. If she did die and assuming that it took a serious toll from Aray’s body as the white strand of hair indicates, can she even HAVE children anymore ?
Was actually wondering just how much damage that blade did to her innards, and if, even after Maeye’s healing, it hadn’t done something similar to Aray’s sister
Many insightful comments and thoughts on the subject of having children. I too wondered if Aray’s body has been through too much trauma to permit her to have children. I suppose we will find out as this intriguing tale progresses…
On a completely different note, did Korin spit out her whiskey drink because she did not care for it or because she was startled by the word “devil’? 🙂
I rather think that Korin spit out the whiskey because it is the first time she drink it, I suppose. And maybe her body can’t tolerate alcohol but, she could also be surprised by hearing the word “devil” because she asks “what is this devil ?” or the 2 kids suddenly running to Maeye. (or a mix of both)
Excellent page and very well done, but … 🙁
Thank you and yes… 🙁
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid has a similar complication with the relationship between the two main characters, since Tohru is immortal and Kobayashi is human.
Come to think of it, I have come across a couple of other fantasy works with a similar scenario, dating back to Tolkein if I recall properly. Hmm, this is just occurring to Arayanna NOW, after she has already gotten into a relationship? Seems to me, it would be something she would have reflected on long ago.
Now, if Maeye can get someone to shapeshift her to male form for a few hours, the problem of a sperm donor for Arayanna would be solved. That would still leave the aging problem.
In MKDM, Tohru decides she would rather be with Kobayashi temporarily than not at all. I’m curious to see how Arayanna works it out in her head here.
She probably had reflected on it, but she wasn’t sure until fairly recently just how serious things had gotten
I think the seriousness of the relationship and the depth of her love definitely snuck up on Aray. We will learn about this soon(ish).
The aging issue is definitely a classic storyline. Once that I have been fond of since I first watched Highlander. 🙂
As far as the shapeshifting donation – interesting idea! But then we need to explore the whole problem with weather or not Elvian and Human can reproduce together. Luckily, the exploring will be the fun part. 🙂
Mention of those themes in Highlander reminds me of a story idea I kinda started to write up…
An Immortal and a pre-Immortal, dating. The Immortal tries to tell her love a sliver at a time, to avoid endangering the secret if the pre-Immortal reacts badly. So… she pretends to be a vampire, OurVampiresAreDifferent and all that :3 “It’s really not like the movies. Daylight, crosses, all wrong. Beheading, that’s real, but if somebody stakes me I’ll be back on my feet in under a minute.” She offers to turn her love into a vampire, thinking if she gets a “yes” she’ll explain more and ask again. This is, of course, a terrible idea, and therein lies the plot…
Ah…relationships that are established on lies. An oldie but a goodie as far as love story plots go. It sounds interesting for sure.
I have an idea(and it might not be too hard to have it written in somehow).When those two were so into each other when Maeye was healing her,it gave a bit of Arayanna into Maeyes body,which would help make her age more slowly.And as many times as she has healed her(and you know she’s going to do that many more times),it may help her live as long as an Elf does.And then there might be someone she heals,or something she eats,drinks or just touches her that could give her,if not both of them immortality.Just saying.
That is a very cool idea! Maeye’s quest for immortality will become a major plot line fairly soon. We will learn some more then.
Who cares about aging? Aray nearly gets killed every 5 minutes lately, anyway ;D
Joking asides, great page as always 🙂 I see they’re at the “I’m having concerns about our relationship” stage.
That seriously cracked me up!
Then my work here is complete! 😀
Yeah. When Maeye dies, Aray will follow 5 minutes later.
I imagine that Maeye plans to die at the age of 90, while banging Aray, who will look young enough to be Maeye’s great-granddaughter.
She’s probably already written her own funeral ballad, extolling her prowess in accomplishing such a feat. She likely has several versions ready, with minor differences, based on the actual cause of death… heart attack, stroke, multiple organ failure due to self-inflicted blunt force trauma (her personal favorite)…
“…When finally came time for Maeye to pass,
She did it while bonking Aray’s fine a–”
“Maeye! Stop composing your explicit funeral aria with the kids in the room!”
“But, I’m just getting to the best part! … What rhymes with ‘Aray’s huge melons?'”
Aray and Maeye started a relationship together because they are deeply in love with each other. Aray thought more about being with her than how the relationship will be and what can happen in the future. I understand that she wants to have childeren of her own, who doesn’t, but nothing is as easy as it looks, just like in real life.
The future isn’t written yet (drawn in this case 🙂 ) so anything can happen, even somehow still get pregnant one way or another.
It is good that Maeye took a few steps aside to be able to take the shock on her own in open space. And so to avoid unwillingly hurt Aray, and herself.
I find it smart that Feori also added a family part in the story. It makes it more complete and shows how the personal life of Aray and Maeye goes, between the battles and other things. It almost looks like a visual (auto-)biography.
@Xander37
Actually, you’d be surprised at the number of people who do not want to (or would rather not) have children, especially these days. Some countries like Japan have low or even negative birthrates. Granted, in some places, fewer people than ever are dating or getting married. And part if it is a worldwide decline in human fertility. But some try to avoid having children.
You’re right, I haven’t thought about it. There are people who can have childeren and raise them but also the opposite. People who aren unable the have kids (unfertile, rules of the country, …) or doesn’t want to. I myself am uncertain if I really want kids and that bites me but we will see.
Still, I wonder how Aray and Maeye thinks themselfs about this. Maybe Aray will realize that some promises can’t always be kept because of unfortunate situations or differences of opinions.
Anyhow, we will see how it progresses.
My wife and I adopted our two sons, so the whole adoption and orphan angle is very important to me.
I think Aray is thinking that maybe she could be the last of her kind so her promise could mean much much more at this point. But yes, this may be a promise she cannot keep.
It is a very interesting thing – this decline in the desire for folks to have kids. I think it is nature’s way of ensuring we don’t overpopulate the planet any more than we already have. One of these days, I need to get more into the Elvian religion, which is based on my own belief in a creator. My Creator is more of a lonely mad scientist than a benevolent god like dude. We’ll get that in the story one of these days. So many things to talk about and so few panels!
[i]RE: On it being nature’s way of ensuring we don’t overpopulate the planet[/i]
Thing is, there is research that links atrazine to reproductive issues. Even Wikipedia say, “As of 2001, atrazine was the most commonly detected pesticide contaminating drinking water in the United States.”
That doesn’t even include the prevalence of other residues that end up in our water (and food), such as pharmaceuticals that waste treatment plants are unable to filter out. Stuff like synthetic estrogen.
Myself, I find such news alarming. And I don’t even plan to have kids.
Well, regardless of any reductions to reproductive capability, people are choosing sex-not-reproduction at a rate that outstrips the rate of infertility. Even couples that do want to have kids often have only one; one kid per two adults is well under replacement levels, but it’s enough to reliably have a kid who outlives you. We have, after all, basically defeated with technology the dangers that ruled childhood for most of humanity’s history.
Anecdotally, I can’t bear children, my girlfriend can, but neither of us wants to raise an infant. We both like cats, maybe that has something to do with it :3
Scary stuff for sure, but hey…if it means less assholes on my planet, I’m all for it. 🙂
I hear ya, Darekun. You can always borrow a friend’s kid if you get the urge. My wife and I are coming to the end of the whole child raising thing. We are finally starting to get our lives back. Don’t get me wrong, love both the boys and was very happy as a parent, but man that shit goes on for a lot longer than you think.
It seems to correlate with better healthcare, and feeling more secure economically, socially and in general. In areas where children are more likely to die then people have more to make sure some make it to adulthood. There may be other societal and psychological factors at play.
If life is generally good, safe for everyone, you can plan for the future, the technology exists to give you the choice about whether to start a family and the Government (and loved ones) will allow you to, having children stops being a necessity.
Yup – if you know your kids are most likely going to survive childhood and make it to an age where they can help around the farm, then you don’t need to have 10 of them.
Great insights, and thanks for thinking I was smart. 🙂
Definitely wise of Maeye to walk away and cool off. Her hot temper mixed with Aray’s inability to express her feelings well is a recipe for disaster.
Arayanna be glad you’re not a man. That’s how we feel 3/4s of the time.
LOL!
Yup.
“You never tell me how you feel.”
“Ok, this is how i feel.”
“YOU BASTARD!!”
wtf
lol
Hopefully they will have time to talk and work things out, because, well, that’s what a lasting relationship is about: working things out
Who says they have to give each other a child? They could just as easily get a donor father (that will not be interested in either lady longterm) for both, plus, even if that is not acceptable to either, there is no real time limit on when Aray has to continue the family bloodline, is there?
Just hoping that someone, probably Maeye, will make Aray realise a forced oath is not a binding one
Yea…lots of good points in here.
There is definitely room for donor father’s if that is really what is important to them. I am sure either Nihklas or Krag would do just fine, but again, there’s no gaurantee that would even work for Aray. But, it would definitely make for some fun rendering. 😀
Just because someone is good with children, does not mean they want to push one out of themselves
Absolutely!!! I am great with kids. Zero interest in giving birth.
If Aray is set on fulfilling her promise to her father, has she even considered the possibility of a ‘donor’? Granted, she should clear it by Maeye. But I don’t think Maeye would leave Aray merely for asking.
For that matter, do we even know what happened to Aray’s tribe or her or world? Did they win or lose their battle with the demonic invaders? Are there any survivors? Are they fighting to this day?
I’m also curious about whether Aray (and Maeye) will eventually travel to other worlds.
How long-live are Aray’s people anyway? Perhaps even after Maeye died of old age Aray could still have a child?
We do not know what happened to Aray’s world. That is one of the things that is troubling her.
If the storyline goes the way i currently have it in my head (and there is no gaurantee of that) they will eventually travel to different worlds. Eventually.
Both of them? Or just Aray?
We may not know exactly (‘we’, being the readers), but Aray’s people were at least able to push the invaders back and follow them, what happened after that remains to be seen
I don’t want to give away too much of the future storyline, but the basic plan is for this to go off world sometime in the next couple of years, and become a multi-world adventure.
Yeah, figured early on that Aray was the real main character, or at least the recurring character that connected others (as in, she would travel between worlds and there would be a ‘new’ Protagonist that Aray would spend time with {not necessarily in the same way as with Maeye, depending on the time frame})
JFD actually made a good point. If Arayanna is really worried about continuing the family line, she needs to retire from adventuring. Seems like she and Maeye are in fights to the death, with this baddie or that, every other week.
In fact, Arayanna was clinically dead after one such recent combat, and Maeye revived her. It would have been a bit ironic, in view of her current state of mind, if she HAD died 50 years before Maeye.
Hmm, could that near death experience be what is making her go through these thought processes?
Why yes, almost dying (or maybe actually dying) has made Aray sit down and wonder what she is doing with her life. It’s a very troubling time for our poor Elven friend. Luckily, she has her little fireball to protect and cheer her (and bring her back from the dead when necessary).
That brings another interesting question. If she did die and assuming that it took a serious toll from Aray’s body as the white strand of hair indicates, can she even HAVE children anymore ?
Was actually wondering just how much damage that blade did to her innards, and if, even after Maeye’s healing, it hadn’t done something similar to Aray’s sister
We will have to wait to find out about that. 🙂
Many insightful comments and thoughts on the subject of having children. I too wondered if Aray’s body has been through too much trauma to permit her to have children. I suppose we will find out as this intriguing tale progresses…
On a completely different note, did Korin spit out her whiskey drink because she did not care for it or because she was startled by the word “devil’? 🙂
I rather think that Korin spit out the whiskey because it is the first time she drink it, I suppose. And maybe her body can’t tolerate alcohol but, she could also be surprised by hearing the word “devil” because she asks “what is this devil ?” or the 2 kids suddenly running to Maeye. (or a mix of both)
That was Korin’s first taste of whiskey. Someone should have warned her. For some reason, the spitting out of the drink gag just cracks me up. 🙂
It certainly cracked me up! Some comic relief on this page was a nice touch.
New invotive is sad, obviously at least Bekha survives, but what about her girlfriend? And just how ‘friendly’ is the Beast?
Is this the lifespan talk again? I am not having the lifespan talk!
LOL!