What I Bought 10/23/2020

It snowed here on Monday. Was not ready for that. At least it waited until my dad got safely through all his home repair monkeyshines on the roof last weekend. I offer to go up there myself, but he still refuses. Not that I want to be on the roof, but I don't want him up there, either.

Sera and the Royal Stars #8, by Jon Tsuei (writer), Audrey Mok (artist), Raul Angulo (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Far be it from me to question my elders, but I think the cloak will work better if you wear it over your shoulders.

Starting to wonder if I'd ever see this comic again. Sera and Antares are trying to catch up with the other Royal Stars as they trek across a desert. Antares is trying to help the princess access the power placed inside her, but it doesn't seem to be happening. The majority of the issue is spent with Tara and Roya, Sera's presumed lost mother and her little sister. They're busted out of prison by Tara's presumed-dead aunt, Leilyn.

While Sera's busy trying to get the Royal Stars up and running, Leilyn's been trying to protect the Tree of All Seeds, which was poisoned 30 years ago. By drawing the poison into herself. Her sister tried to summon the Stars to heal the Tree, but failed and died. Then Tara got tapped, and she got captured and imprisoned, after abandoning the quest to return home when she heard it was under attack. 

I would say these dragon siblings aren't very creative, seeing as they pulled the same maneuver on Sera, but it also keeps working. I guess you can get away with being a one-hit wonder with the right audience.

To protect the Tree, Leilyn sealed the way, and to get back in, one of them has to confront the King of Serpents, to use some of his blood as an offering. Not sure at all why it has to be his blood. He's sealed up, so at least they know where he is, and Roya goes in after him. I was expecting someone who looked more snakelike, but he looks like the Mandarin, but controls snakes. As designs go, kind of a letdown. The design for Simurgh is a lot more interesting, with the multicolored wings and a bird of prey's talons on a dog's body. Kind of like if you dressed up a dog for Carnival?

So I'm assuming the dragon siblings poisoned the Tree, which is the source of all the world's plant life. I can't quite see the point. They want to be the big shots, rather than the Royal Stars. OK fine, pecking order squabble. What does poisoning the tree get them, other than maybe giving them a place they know the Stars have to arrive at to attack them? If it dies, and the world's plants follow, they get to rule over a barren wasteland. Great if you want to be Immortan Joe, or a member of the GOP, but kind of pointless for anyone who isn't a fucking dumbass.

Unless someone else did the poisoning. Leilyn just says the Tree was poisoned 30 years ago. She doesn't specifically point the finger. Antares tells Sera the Dracos definitely put a binding spell on the Stars so they couldn't help Sera's grandmother, but that could have been in the works already. Happy coincidence. There could be another threat out there beyond the Dracos and the King of All Serpents. Perhaps the Emperor of All Moose.

It's kind of a exposition heavy, backstory issue. Not really the best one for getting some momentum in the story after a 6 month absence. But presumably all this will be important eventually, so it was going to have to be dealt with at some point.