It's been six years since @heartless-webcomic by @myrastuff ended. I did a full reread and wrote down my thoughts, mostly stream-of-conciousness. I'm mostly elsewhere on the internet nowadays (you can find me on the fediverse at @[email protected]), but since Heartless is hosted on Tumblr, and since I was using Tumblr as my main social network back when Heartless was current, I figure I ought to put this commentary on Tumblr too.
This post will contain SPOILERS for Heartless.
It was six years ago that I first discovered Heartless, as the comic was part-way through Chapter Six. It's been four years since my last full reread. When I first read the series I was completely enthralled (allured?) by a series that was so unapologetic about the protagonist being AroAce, and I seriously considered picking a name based on one of the characters. When I did my reread four years ago, I didn't make a bunch of mostly-stream-of-conciousness notes, so I'm going to do that now.
Chapter 1: Death
The cover page shows Clara with blood on her neck, yet her teeth show she has clearly been vampirized already. The story opens as a circular narrative, with Clara writing about her journies one year later. She assures us it's true, and wonders if we are ready for "so great a change," before she allures and feasts on a random person in the street.
Now Clara sets the scene: two months after she turns 18, in 1852, the first chapter post-prologue truly begins with Chapter 1: Death.
The first page after the front-matter begins at Daniel's party. I'd forgotton the Baron was mentioned on the first page. More importantly, however, is what's under the page: the artist's snarky one-sentence page-summary! The first one is "In which our intrepid hero is more properly introduced." At this point in the story, Clara is definitely not intrepid. Clara's human teeth look rather uncomfortable: it's little wonder she prefers unlife as a vampire.
Our heroine's first meeting with Daniel is perfect. I can't tell whether Clara is rejecting what she thinks is a romantic advance, or just completely oblivious as I would be at that age. The author summary says she avoided a "romantic encounter," but of course Daniel didn't really have romance in mind, since he's gay.
Then things kick into high gear as we get our first true introduction to both Elizabeth Knight and the Baron. This is my first reread since I picked a name similar to Elizabeth (and my first reread since I picked a middle name similar to Clara), and Elizabeth's introduction is every bit as badass as I remember. Elizabeth considers the humans of London to be her subjects just as much as the vampires. William makes a strong first impression as a villain by killing the protagonist. I love Daniel and Elizabeth's discussion about whether to vampirize Clara. Also, I'd forgotten Daniel calls her "Liz." More important is that Clara sees Elizabeth use her fangs, but faints before she can see Daniel's fangs.
Clara awakens as a vampire with "concerns about her situation," and complete terror of Daniel. I love how her scream carries across three pages. We get introduced to Genevieve, who partially calms Clara down with words, and unsuccessfully attempts to further calm her using the Allure. Clara's new friends look awfully uncomfortable when she says she is hungry, since they haven't yet told her what she is now. As she bathes, Clara reminds me of one key way she is in no way similar to me: her strong sense of smell, heightened by vampirism. Sound and smell don't normally translate to a comic, but the author does a splendid job showing how Clara can sense the heart of a random passer-by on the street. Clara shows her fangs and red eyes as she drinks blood tea, all without realizing what's happened to her. What's in the scones she's eating? I don't recall if we ever find out. And now, even after assurances from Genevieve that Elizabeth is good, we see Clara is still terrified of Elizabeth.
As Elizabeth becomes the latest to fail to Allure our hero, we get one of my favorite humorous clashes of expectations: Clara is ashamed to admit to reading penny dreadful novels, because they aren't "appropriate for a young lady," while Elizabeth is disappointed to find the kids these days learning about vampires from penny dreadful novels instead of whatever the old fashioned way was. And we meet Permelia, the last member of the main cast and the only unabashed acemisic (though we don't know she's heartless-misic yet). Oh goodie, one of my favorite snarky-author-page-summaries: "In which Elizabeth bemoans the state of kids these days."
The chapter closes with Elizabeth and Daniel realizing Clara's orientation, and plotting to use her against William. I love all of these characters, and all except Permelia make a strong first impression. My view of Permelia's first appearance is likely also tainted by how I know she acts later. The author has been very quick to give us a sense of her world and where the story is going, but the characters are what make this comic a joy to read.
Chapter 3: Promenade
I forgot about these cute kids waking Clara up! Clara's "RAAR!!!" to her bedroom mirror is just as sweet as I remember. Daniel is interrupted before he can explain to Clara exactly what they are fighting, which is good for drama because Elizabeth's demonstration later is important. This is the part of the story where I start to suspect old vampires like Elizabeth have a fear aura: Clara quickly overcomes her fear of her new powers and the other vampires, but she's still terrified of the one vampire who's done as much as anyone to help her.
I also appreciate the twist that vampires in the Heartlessverse seem to be the same people they were in life, as it's a change from what other media does. And since it's 1852, I like seeing pre-Stoker vampires who dislike sunlight but aren't actually harmed by it, as Clara and Elizabeth go walking outside in midday. We get the full name of Baron William Lazarus, and Clara still struggles with the behavior she's learned from human society.
Wow, I love Elizabeth's flowery demonstration and description of the Allure, and Clara's shocked reactions when she realizes it takes only "a passing thought," of the sort she doesn't have, to control someone's mind.
Just as Mrs. Pendergast gives us a hint of what will happen in the rest of the story, Clara is distracted by husks. Elizabeth says husks are "things." And the process to create them is what she is fighting against. Clara is willing to join the fight.
Clara is frustrated that she can't be allured, indicating she hasn't yet fully accepted that she's ace. Wow, Permelia really does not like Clara, even before finding out her orientation. Maybe it makes sense, as Permelia has no idea why her leader is treating this new vampire like she's so important.
Clara's first sparring match goes poorly inspite of her immunity to the Allure, but Genevieve's advice turns out to be a lot better than Daniel's. Ah, right, this is when we first explicitly learn that Genevieve Henley (Viv) has a hopeless crush on Liz.
Now we get to the real heart of the chapter, and arguably the heart of the story. Or, the lack of heart, since we finally learn the meaning of the title. Due to her unusual status as a Heartless vampire, Clara has to learn about vampire culture a few decades early. Vampire culture lacks some of the problems of human society in 1852 London: no one questions having a black woman as their leader, for example. But other bigotries are alive and well. Elizabeth's illustrated descriptions still give me chills. Finally, Permelia reveals that she, just like our heroine, can eavesdrop, and finally tells Clara the title of the comic. Oh, and Permelia is the first character to display unreserved acemisia. Fuck her. Not literally.
Ah, now I remember, this is the chapter with a rollercoster of multiple scenes that feel like the "end." Clara asks us to understand her decision, and I think I do, but it's still probably the second-worst decision Clara makes in the entire story. The author summary, "In which our intrepid hero refuses to think things through," is a taste of what's to come in a chapter and a half. As Clara arrives home, I still feel excitement at the cliffhanger despite knowing exactly what will happen next. Come back next time for the final two chapters!
Chapter V: Home
My reread continues with Chapter 5. Having got a taste of how vampire society treats openly heartless vampires, Clara does what many struggling queer creatures before and after her have done: She attempts to get back into the closet. Clara tries pretending once again to be a straight human. Falling right back in with her family, Clara finds her parents still want her to get married ASAP. She also finds that no matter how hard she may try to pretend, she is NOT human anymore, and she still has to eat a vampiric diet. The progression of Clara's body language as she hungers, feeds, and heals her victim provide a rollercoaster of flowing emotions. But none of that compares to Clara finally putting her foot down and telling her mom she doesn't want to get married, only for her mom to make excuses about it. Oh and there's a vampire eavesdropping. Now everything Mrs. Pendergast told us in Chapter 3 comes back, and Clara is the latest "troubled" girl to fall victim to the Baron's scheme. I remembered the seamstress warning Clara about the vampire, but forgot about Clara telling the seamstress how wildly overconfident she is.
Remember last chapter when I said running home was the second-worst decision Clara makes? This is the worst. Clara allows herself to be taken straight into the Baron's shadow prison, without discussing her plan with her allies. For someone who reads so many novels, she should know that failing to communicate with your co-protagonists is always a bad idea. But the author did a good job building up to Clara's poor decision, as the conversation last chapter lead her to lose trust in Elizabeth and Daniel.
Chapter VI: Rescue
This chapter has everything. Comprising nearly a quarter of the length of the entire series, the final chapter of Heartless is by far the longest. It was mid-way through publication when I caught up, though I don't remember exactly what page I caught up on. The author comment under the cover page says that it is "very likely the last chapter of Heartless, at least in this storyline." At the time, I assumed that meant a short break before Book 2, but that didn't happen.
The chapter opens with Clara and two human shadow prisoners drawn by carriage towards the psychiatric shadow prison. Immediately jumping out at me is the fact that Clara looks just as scared and miserable as her companions, in stark contrast to her confidence at the end of last chapter, and in spite of the fact that she could have easily avoided coming here by fleeing to Elizabeth the previous night. Clara's fear turns to terror as she sees her killer for the first time since the night of her death. AndâŠanother vampire tells Baron Lazarus that the girls have "excellent marriage prospects." I totally forgot that: what is William planning on doing with the girls whom he doesn't husk-ify? Does he want his vampire girls to marry into the human nobility, to potentially get more vampires who count as "nobles" among humans, or are they talking about vampire marriage? I don't remember ever finding out, so maybe it isn't addressed.
Ooh, bonus art of Elizabeth reciting a Christmas poem that Daniel is tired of.
Once again, I love the facial expressions from Clara's companions, especially the darker-haired one. Clara's excitement at her successful use of the Allure is topped only by her companions' total confusion as to what happened. I love Clara's deflection, and I wonder if she ever tries contacting her "new friends" again after the events of this chapter, given that we know Elizabeth deals with humans who support her cause. As Clara finds Viv, we get perhaps my favorite snarky-author-summary in the series: "In which it is brought to light that our heroine hasnât really thought this through." The "nurses" remind us that despite Clara's immunity to the Allure, she barely has any practice fighting other vampires. Of course, they assume she's noble, because ace erasure.
The Baron reveals that he is a man of tradition, and that means threatening to kill the hero's friend to get her to talk, before trying to Allure her. Right away, we learn some key information about how the Allure works: A vampire doesn't automatically magically know if their Allurement attempt succeeded, as William clearly thinks he's in control of Clara. Oh, and a snarky-author-summary I'd completely forgot about, "In which our heroine has rather improved her poker face."
A connection I hadn't thought of before (or forgot about) is that both the Baron and Clara's mother assume Clara has the same orientation, though for different reasons. Clara's mom assumes Clara is straight because she assumes all humans are straight, while William assumes Clara is straight because she's apparently not attracted to women.
Right at the midpoint of the chapter, Clara does the most badass thing in the series: come out to William while stabbing him in the eye with a sword. She's done pretending to be straight, she's done pretending to be a meek human. She's the star of the story and the title character, and she wants us to know it.
But the Baron is an elder vampire, so he can survive being stabbed through the head. Our hero and her now-unallured friends are on the run. I forgot Clara is still sort of squeaked out seeing her best friend drink a husk's blood.
Elizabeth's entrance is totally badass and oh yeah Daniel's also here but he's nowhere near as badass as his leader. My first time through, I thought the Baron's line to Elizabeth about how the council will have her head for apparently sending a heartless assassin was supposed to be foreshadowing to set up Book 2. The author-snark-summary reminds us that this was only "light" assassination. Evidence for my elder-vampires-have-fear-aura hypothesis might be accumulating, as Clara is terrified to see Elizabeth transform. Then again, it may just be the overall situation she's afraid of. Either way, I love how the transformed elder vampires look. Elizabeth and Viv must be proud that their protege gave William an injury that persists even as he shapeshifts. I also love seeing the shadow prison burn, just as Elizabeth knocks William out the window.
Ah, the callbacks: Clara is just about to ask how old Elizabeth is when she gets cut off by a moderately angry Vampire Queen. Here's another line that feels like foreshadowing for a future book that never came: Elizabeth says that thus far her methods are the only way to keep power away from people like the Baron. Sounds like the kind of thing our protagonist could eventually solve, given a few more books.
Daniel and Elizabeth's banter as the Vampire Queen falls unconscious still gives me giggles. The Baron is still alive, Clara brings the ending full-circle with her book, and my reread of Heartless is done.
Six years later, I still love these characters and this world. At 146 pages including bonus art, the story is just long enough to get me really attached. While the story did end at the end of an arc, it still feels like a cliffhanger ending: how will William get the Council mobilized against Elizabeth and Clara? How will Clara overcome the acemisia on her own side from people like Permelia? What happens to the human girls Clara rescued? What word do vampires use for nonbinary folks? We may never know. Even so, I love every page of this series and I'm grateful for what we got.
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