Charlotte Corday's Birthday Special: Like a Slap to the Face!
"One Death to Save A Hundred Thousand Lives, but why'd he have to be one of them?"
Commentary:
All that king and queen beheading just to put an EMPEROR on the throne through a voting system. You love to see it.
Napoleon's relationship with Corsica and France is almost as complicated as Corsica's was to the rest of Europe. Some thought it of Italy. Others thought it of France. Many agreed it was less than either.
Napoleon's political stance during his teenage years leaned towards the nationalistic with him writing a number of essays about French oppression (under Genoa, Corsica had more autonomy) and the need for Corsican independence, a sharp contrast to his more pragmatic father, Carlo.
The French Revolution not only provided more military opportunities to the young soldier, but opened him up to various political and philosophical influences as the revolutionaries schemed and quarreled among themselves as to what should be done with their country.
I'd like to think that regardless of what they thought of him, any version of Napoleon as a Servant would be crudely appreciative of anyone from his era, seeing them as little assistants who helped give him a chance of a lifetime.
Corday's political affiliation of this time was of the Girondinis, a more moderate pro-revolutionary faction who were opposed to the more radical groups who advocated for extreme enforcement of the revolution to prevent a backslide.
The assassination of Marat by Corday is thought to have been a critical factor in the stacked trial and extermination of the Girondinis (only a few months after Corday's own death), but it must be kept in mind that they were already highly unpopular thanks to Marat's writings being backed and promoted by their various rival groups such as the Montagnards.
Though how it accelerated the eventual downfall of "The Mountain" (as in, emboldening Robespierre to commit further atrocities to perceived enemies within and without) and the rise of Napoleon is disputable, Corday's murder of Marat caused the public to scrutinize the common woman – the average citizen rather than scions of nobility – as figures who would care about French politics deeply enough to martyr themselves for it.
Nothing good came from this in the short term, as the immediate reaction to this notion was to ban women's political clubs and to enact harsher punishment towards female "counter-revolutionaries".
French feminists of the moment rebuked Corday's attack, claiming that it would incite direct reprisal of some form against their movement. Exposed to their jeers and criticisms during her last four days of life, Charlotte shrugged and noted, "As I was truly calm I suffered from the shouts of a few women. But to save your country means not noticing what it costs."
Though Corday exited the world of the living with as much sanguinity and poise as she could, she suffered a posthumous indignity when one of her guillotine's carpenters by the name of Legros picked up her decapitated head and slapped it across the cheek. Some onlookers believed that her disembodied visage reacted in shock to the assault; at the very least, Charles-Henri Sanson was horrified at the insult. Legros was jailed for three months for this affront.
Charlotte Corday died on July 17. Just 10 days before her 25th Birthday.
Charles-Henri Sanson remained a largely neutral figure throughout the French Revolution. While he beheaded royals and supposed traitors to the revolution, he also did the same to the architects of the September Massacres such as Danton and Robespierre. Perhaps, in another time and place, Marat could've been one of the 2,918 executions Sanson performed.
Sanson would eventually pass on in 1806, long enough to see Napoleon's first reign come into play. It bears mentioning that "The Gentleman of Paris" had never been a big fan of monarchy
Despite the tragic – and arguably idiotic – death of Charles-Henri's son Gabriel, the Sanson legacy outlasted Napoleon's thanks to his other son Henri (the one who actually guillotined Marie Antoinette) and Henri-Clément Sanson, bringing the seven generation dynasty of executioners to a close in 1847.
Although Henri-Cléments would cash in on it immediately after his retirement due to gambling debts, tweaking and supplementing an existing apocryphal memoir of Charles-Henri written by Honoré de Balzac for a lucrative rerelease under a different title. Not as well-known a hustle as how he sold one of the original guillotines to Madame Tussauds, but there you go.
Denji & Asa watch and review "Neon Genesis Evangelion"
A comic by me and MilkTea543.
This comic was inspired by the notion that if she were ever to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion, Asa would really get into the weeds regarding the symbolism of the show. Perhaps even going a bit overboard in some respects like believing that Pen Pen was meant to be a “At the Mountains of Madness” reference.
Also, I wanted Denji to monologue at her for a change.
Denji was just down for watching the show for the pretty girls in skintight outfits and giant robots, but starts seeing depressing parallels to his own life (Angel/Devil Fighting aside) the moment Shinji got a belligerent redhead roommate.
It wasn’t until Kaworu (Kaoru?) came in with the meet cute and backstab that Denji glumly realized that whiny, screeching, skinny dweeb Shinji was “just like me. He’s just like me FR.”
Besides being a shoutout to Yoru and one of the themes of Part 2, Denji’s analysis is rooted in both his experiences with Public Safety and the “Ballad of a Soldier” film that he watched with Makima in Part 1, which given what we learn at the end of that arc, ought to have been impossible to see.
A young man who fought battles for a cause he barely cared to understand against enemies that had the potential (however slight) to be befriended.
Funnily enough, for as much as it’s a deconstruction, on paper, Evangelion delivers all the requisite mecha action you’d expect (if not in the quantities some would prefer) in a number of engaging scenarios.
Nayuta's College Fund gets hobbled by battery costs.
Another comic by me and Zey. Set in the same universe as this one.
I considered having Kobeni gift Denji a Game Gear for max clumsy, but i figured, why not throw them a bone? Besides, the GBA’s coming out just three years after, so this is still somewhat quaint.
Until 2022, the “legal adult” age in Japan was 20 years of age. In the grand tradition of stonewalling Denji’s vices, this AU has Kobeni being reluctant to engage with him intimately until he’s a fellow adult, not wanting to emulate the uneven power dynamics he had with Makima.
Though she leaves the door open for them to just remain roommates/friends, and Denji entertains the idea of dating his new classmates or trying to get with Chainsaw Man groupies, he finds himself oddly drawn to the idea that when he turns 20, he’s definitely going to reach second base at least.
On a subconscious level, he views it as kin to how he used to be fine with dying because he assumed Pochita would take him over as a Fiend and his life wouldn’t have been a total wash as a result. It gives him something to look forward to, albeit it’s more hopeful in nature.
He just needs to make sure not to die, that Kobeni survives, that their weirdly chaste yet familiar relationship doesn’t implode, that Nayuta’s at a friend’s house that weekend, and that the world doesn’t end before this particular birthday for some reason.
That’s right. He is going to try to stop the millennium’s apocalypses
because the Sloppy Consummation Devil is waiting for him in the later months of the year 2000.
More on their dynamic later.
The impetus of this strip was to illustrate a very Denji/Kobeni moment, a scenario that has more chutzpah because of the two people involved. Some of the very best Denji/Asa and Denji/Reze stuff tend to do this, after all.
In this case: Money.
Reze and Asa don’t bring it up much, but it’s very important to Denji and Kobeni.
They’re both very frugal. So Kobeni, presumably the household’s primary breadwinner, gifting Denji something he’d love but would be hard pressed to buy for himself, I thought that would be uniquely sweet thanks to the context.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any good shots of Japanese Game Boy Color Boxes (I really wanted one for a nice contrast with the B&W of the comic) so we wound up using this one of the “Tsutaya Edition” released in 2000 instead. Symbolic to Denji’s love goal perhaps, but quite anachronistic.
I get that this contrast is likely an evolution of Kobeni's fear feeding the Eternity Devi in Part 1: a visual and narrative depiction of how internal human sorrow, cowardice, and rage empowers the evil monsters that assault them externally.
But the dissonance between Asa whining about loneliness and this guy getting his tongue ripped out before he���s eaten alive was just kinda funny to me. Certified Shinji Ikari moment almost. Pre-Rebuild.
AsaDen is nice and all, but consider...Freckled Mean Gurl GF. The possibilities.
Commentary
Yes, he’s broke, and gross, but still…but still…
A comic by me and Sha-Y.
I could go on a long explanation about the appeal of this post-Yuko fight pairing, but DiXa07 summed it up best, “Imagine being lonely and bullied your entire life, you find a boy who finally shows a tiny bit of interest, he goes out with you, asks for a second date, ghosts you, and cucks you with your biggest bully.”
And I mean, Satoro Gojo and Hayase Nagatoro show that bullies can have widespread commercial appeal if you depict them just so.
I came up with the premise of this comic back when Chapter 121 came out. I thought it’d be a hilarious coincidence if Asa’s freckled tormentor was living in the same apartment complex it took place in and would get embroiled in all the Devil fighting. Accidentally hits Denji with her metal baseball bat and a couple of her hijacked neighbors, but ultimately comes out blood splattered yet relatively unscathed. A very horrific (second) meet cute.
Granted, she might still show up in this Falling Devil arc. Who can say?
I’d like to think, hope really, that if Denji’s insane identity reveal ploy manages to land, he’ll be up front with the fact that he makes no money off Chainsaw Man merchandise to suss out the gold diggers from the true blue waifus.
Did you figure out how Denji got the marble out of the Ramune bottle?
Crambon made me realize what Chainsaw Man Part Two kind of reminds me of.
I mean no malice, but I'm just going to be very miffed if Denji doesn't get to peek into Hell to check if the Blood Devil is still down there during this Falling Devil arc.
Thank you for making it so that the content farming clickbaiters of the Chainsaw Man fanbase will pipe down about the Death Devil for the next month or so.
Seriously, it was getting exploitative and detestable.
POV: You’re Nayuta in the “Kobeni fell for Denji’s Rizz AU” and you slashed the tires of the Korean Ambassador’s Limo.
Or
“La Chancla Devil”
Commentary:
Another comic by me and Zey.
This was a fun comic to work on. The third panel was inspired by a scene with Kento Nanami from JJK.
I had this idea of Kobeni being the “mean” parent if she and Denji had to raise Nayuta. I thought the pairing itself was cute in of itself, but it’s given an extra tragic dimension with having to take care of a kid: two young people from neglectful homes who are haunted by the specter of outright parental abuse as they try to mete out the right amount of discipline necessary so their surrogate child can know right from wrong.
Kobeni’s outfit is inspired by the colors of the flag of Brazil, which has a strong Chainsaw Man fanbase.
I have a couple other Denji/Kobeni as Nayuta’s parent comic ideas in mind. So watch out for those!