This week we are discussing Monstress Volume 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, Ch. 5-End.
Content Warning!!! This book contains situations and subjects related to: nudity, violence, rape, cannibalism, war, and body horror/mutilation..
Spoiler Warning!!! This post is full of spoilers for Monstress Volume 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda.
Discussion:
Jacilyn: Hello friends and welcome to our third discussion of Monstress by Marjorie Liu and illustrated by Sana Takeda. Much like we expected, we finished the book and have more questions! But we also got some answers, too. As always, I appreciated Professor Tam Tam’s explanation of the five races and the order in which they appeared. That was something we were just talking about last discussion! Something we also spoke about in the last discussion was whether or not Maika will end up having some sort of symbiotic relationship with who we now know is an old god inside of her. Apparently, he’s been possessing people in her family for generations, but none as actively as Maika in many years. Clearly, she’s incredibly powerful for some reason we don’t fully understand yet.
Michaela: That was a little weird because the Monster said they hadn’t been awake for a thousand years but also said that they knew they had been passed down from generation to generation and knew that Maika had been the most powerful yet. So I wonder if the Monster was “asleep” to the outside world but somewhat “awake” inside the mind of those ancestors. But that helps clear up some mystery but if this monster wasn’t the experiment done on Maika then I’m afraid to know what was.
So we started out these last two chapters with encountering Sir Corvin D’Oro, which felt super ‘convenient’ to me for this Dusk Court to just show up. It turns out it was convenient because it was all a set up to capture Maika and ultimately kill her. And Ren was in on it the whole time, I feel a little betrayed. I get where they’re coming from, clearly Maika is incredibly dangerous, but like damn he didn’t have to hurt me that way. Poor Kippa being caught in the middle of it, just swept up into the action and nowhere else to go.
Speaking of Kippa, can we talk about what a great character she is. I think she has or will become somewhat of a moral compass for both Ren and Maiko, “Monsters are people, too”. She is the cutest thing and her dialogue is my favorite thing. Her line when she says in response to Ren asking what’s wrong with Maika, Kippa says “No I think that's her happy face”, for some reason that killed me. The only time I’ve felt like laughing with this story because it's so dark. I’m glad we have Kippa for just a little bit of light and she sees the good in Maika even when no one else, not even Maika herself, can.
Jacilyn: Kippa has become my favorite, without a doubt. I love that although she’s afraid of Maika, she knows Maika is afraid of herself just as much, if not more, and Kippa wants to help. She was ready to put herself in danger with the Ancients to save Maika from dying! It seems like everyone wants Maika dead - the Ancients, the Cumaea, and the Mother Superior of the Inquisitrix. It was interesting to see Tuya standing with the Ancients who originally attacked Maika. Does she want Maika dead? Will Maika find Tuya somewhere along the way?
Corvin drops the knowledge that comes from an Ancient, aristocratic bloodline and that she is in fact a Lady. From what I understood, Maika’s mother worked with the humans who had access to magic and were doing research on the lilium, but was betrayed by Yvette, presumably because Yvette wanted the power of the mask. I wonder if the mask is what caused the monster/old god to be more active in Maika. Also, the Mother Superior took off her mask and showed the same eyes as the monster inside of Maika, and even spoke to him - I think she’s an old god of some sort herself, because she ate her daughter and left her similarly to the way the monster inside Maika leaves people.
Michaela: Everyone wants Maika dead but also no one seems to know, or at least won’t say, why they want her dead. All anyone says is “she’s dangerous”, okay cool…that's all the reasoning you have? I want to know when Tuya got turned against Maika. Does she know the details of why the Council wants Maika dead or is she a blind follower? Either way I feel bad for Maika, I don’t think she knows what’s happened to her friend.
Maika being a “Lady” was actually shocking to me for some reason, I did not expect her family to be that important, I just thought her mom was crazy smart so she was highly revered. So then with this monster going back in their family for generations, is Maika a daughter of an Ancient or was their Ancient ancestor just really important/powerful? The questions never stop. Then we have Yvette being involved for whatever reason, she clearly went insane after gaining possession of her piece of the mask. She is on some Gollum and the One Ring level shit. The way she speaks it sounds like she’s in love with the spirit or essence that’s in the mask. And she just would not drop when they shot her, multiple times. She is just not going to stop until she gets the mask so I’m sure she pops back up later on in the series.
The Mother Superior reveal scared the crap out of me, I was not ready for it. Super creepy and the illustration for her was amazing for it. This book has gorgeous illustrations, it's truly beautiful, even the scary and creepy stuff. I’m guessing this was a woman possessed by this new monster kind of like Maika is, considering she had grown daughters. I’m a little confused on what the glowing red thing during the battle of Constantine was. Did Maika’s monster feast on all those people, killing everyone within 50 miles? He said he woke up briefly at that point and remembers being hungry. Or was it this new monster that was summoned? Even Maika’s monster was scared of this new one. Ren said the prophets saw things about Maika, so is it said that she is the big bad? Or do the prophets not get too specific and everyone just assumes she’s the big bad? Queessttiioonsss…again!
Jacilyn: Speaking of Yvette, I for some reason was surprised by her daughter and Atena being an item. And even more than that, I was surprised that Atena is trying to save Arcanics like her brother. It seems like she’s infiltrated the top echelons of the political sphere, and isn’t actually a part of the Cumea but has ties. It was awful to see the kind of propaganda she had to spit about the Arcanic children. I am guessing that Atena and Corvin might end up being long-term allies to Maika and Kippa, now that Corvin has helped them escape from the Council.
That’s it for the first volume of Monstress, friends. Thanks for joining us on this journey! Although we leave off with a lot of questions and speculation, we enjoyed this story thoroughly, and hope you did too. Until next time!
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