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The indescribable, Here, is done. Woman, eternal, Beckons us on. -Faust, Part Two by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Commentary In the legend of Faust, Helen of Troy is typically summoned by the titular magician (or Mephistopheles). The reasons and context vary, but Helen is consistently portrayed as an icon of the goodness and beauty of the Classical era who inspires Faust to action and sometimes plays a major role in his ruin. The “face who launched a thousand ships” epithet for Helen comes from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. As u/Alaric323 observed, the panel where Mephistopheles tells Kadoc what the last “Faust-class feature” is flipped (as you can see with both the house in the background and the position of Mephistopheles’ bombs). So instead of being ■■■■ ■■ ■■■■■, he was actually saying ■■■■■ ■■ ■■■■. Which can be filled in with Helen of Troy. A bit sneaky, perhaps. But it’s not like I hid it behind a cipher or put some esoteric clues in the data of the image file. I hope you’re not too mad! The P1 Crypter Kadoc Russian Lostbelt plays out a little differently from the regular story’s version. Ivan is a more active antagonist, as he’s been manipulated by the Crypters (and the Foreign God through Kirei/Rasputin) to test Lostbelt “boundaries”; he conscripts Yaga citizenry (even as he is, he’s still oddly charismatic, and the wolves don’t have anything else going on) to march alongside him and his mammoth to the storm wall borders of the Lostbelt in an attempt to break through them. When he fails, the mammoth and his Yaga militia are wiped out and he begins a long pilgrimage back to the capital as his Phantasmal Beast slowly regenerates so that he can wage his hopeless campaign anew with fresh recruits. With each failed attempt, Ivan gets stronger, even as his subjects continue to die, so there’s the slim possibility that he may just succeed, but Chaldea doesn’t want to find out what will happen to reality if it does. Salieri is a guerrilla fighter who tries to slow down Ivan’s advance with his music, but putting him to sleep just brings out the Oprichniki, and his tunes don’t work on Ivan’s top lieutenant, Minotauros whose loyalty Ivan won by defeating him in a duel. Anastasia is reluctant to join in the assassination of a tsar, and even sees a bit of her father in him: a royal in an unenviable position of leadership in a time of desperate warfare. But she ultimately agrees to help, and is of great assistance due to the Fame/Territory boost. It is she, rather than the Priestess, who fells the First Lostbelt Tree. Kadoc himself makes it a point to be the one to destroy the Trees if he can help it to shoulder a majority of the guilt of eradicating the Lostbelts so that Fujimaru and Mash won’t have to, but it still gets to them. With Kadoc as an ally rather than antagonist, the protagonists have an easier time summoning Adam, and Avicebron manages to live to see the chapter’s conclusion. As for other Part 2 Romanov highlights: Anastasia jobs pretty hard in Scandinavia to show how much better at ice stuff Skadi is. Like Spartacus, she’s seduced by the tranquility of Qin Shi Huang’s kingdom until he goes orbital drop culture police. She routinely blasts the party with cold air in the Indian Lostbelt, much to Pepe’s gratitude, during the more arid Yugas. Her elemental affinity allows her to incorporate one of Poseidon’s cores into Viy, allowing the group to sneak into Olympus to compensate for how they won't have help from an inside man during it. And in Lostbelt 6, she “disguises” herself and Kadoc by claiming that they’re Viy’s “vassals” as they interact with the Fae, although no one besides the fairies or Anastasia can hear what he’s saying, but they’re some rather outrageous lies, let me tell you. In events, she and Kadoc typically play “the rival couple” role to Fujimaru and Mash, though of the four, only Anastasia takes it seriously (Kadoc goes along with it because if his kouhais aren’t taking it seriously, he might be able to eke out an easy “win”). Anastasia’s interest in photography is given more emphasis with her as a party member, as she frequently takes photos of the people and places they go to, so even though she and the Lostbelts will fade at the conclusion of the mission, there will be some record of them left behind, however occasionally blurry and plagued with redeye. Of note, instead of being an idol during the Grail Live event, she has a photographer outfit, and ropes Kadoc into being her lighting guy; she doesn’t help out in any of its fights ("KEEP IT NATURAL!!!"), but the flash from her camera has a chance to stun a random enemy each turn. While Anastasia is a lot nicer than Mephistopheles, she’s still a bit of a prankster, so Kadoc will continue to get razzed on by his Servant. Kadoc and Mephistopheles were very fun to write for. It was a nice challenge trying to incorporate all of Mephistopheles’ various parts (the spiders, the time bombs, the clown thing, the Faust reference) into an abbreviated narrative for Kadoc’s character development and his own quirks (the self-esteem, the rock and roll, the secretly tactical mind, and being Polish). I think something that worked in my favor is that the jester isn’t straightforwardly strong, so he was never an untouchable nuisance or jokester, other Servants could and did beat him up along with his Master. And Kadoc’s magecraft is not very flashy either, so I didn’t have to tiptoe through his skillset. Writing for powerful characters isn’t impossible or boring, but doing so comes with its own set of challenges, so I had a bit more leeway with these two than I do, say, Ophelia & Altera, and I could concentrate on ways to creatively punk some grandpa-haired emo guy for fifty or so chapters. Oh, and lest I forget. While I made fun of his name very early in this set, the name Kadoc has phonetic similarities with the Polish word “Kaduk”. That is to say “Devil” in Polish. I didn’t know that starting out. Funny coincidence, that. This is a pretty tidy ending. A nice wrap up. A good note to conclude on. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, if you want a little more from this series, then click on the spoiler below. Don’t blame me if it ruins the whole shebang. I did warn you.
do you have any form or coherent idea of how to write daybit and did you believe personally could kadoc connect to any other servant in part one besides meph which also leads me to did he in this comic? also do you have any idea of after the whole saving humanity what would do you think kadoc do afterwards this is all hypothetical if part 2 didn't happen lastly have you ever thought about writing a fanfic about this cause damn this is good When P1 Crypters was just going to be a much, much, much smaller series of gimmick comics (Ophelia's was going to be the most any one specific Crypter would get), Daybit's characterization was in line with how he briefly appeared in Lostbelt 4: stoic, enigmatic, brilliant, but with a bit of a whimsical edge to him. His planned strips would reflect that. Although, since this personality is very similar to what Wodime's turned out being, they may require some adjustment.
He probably could've, but Mephy's antics in the Interlude chapter put the kibosh to that until his death. Afterwards, you can see that he can warm up to other Servants like Sanzang, who sympathizes with him for being "unpopular".
He'd probably try to leverage what he did in Chaldea to get him a cushy, mid-level Clock Tower administrative job that could coast him through the rest of his life apart from the rat race oligarchy politics of mage society.
How well did interactions with the First Hassan went with Kadoc and Caster present?
In Camelot, Kadoc is almost brought to his knees when they encounter First Hassan, as he's the capstone of the parade of ultra mighty "kings" in the Camelot Singularity, a group that's terribly daunting to the tier-based, status-obsessed Kadoc. As mentioned before, the Camelot Singularity is kind of a low point for Kadoc & Caster due to the power levels and Mash's evolution sort of leaving them in the dust.
Mephistopheles has a bit of a lark with Cursed Arm Hassan, saying that it's better to leave his devilish self alone in case the assassin wanted to make for himself a matching set of demonic limbs as his left arm "is only good for wedgies and wet willies". He also mockingly cheers at CA's arm with "Shayāṭīn, fight! You can break out of there! You just need to believe you can!" CA Hassan humors him, but he warns the clown that he will not abide him making evil look "fun" to the impressionable youngsters among the refugees.
In Babylonia, Kadoc didn't trust First Hassan in his "beggar" disguise since it seemed rather anachronistic for Babylonia, but he was unable to stop Fujimaru from giving him some of that good bread. Later on, First Hassan notes that Kadoc's wariness was warranted and prudent, devoid of actual cruelty. But such an attitude can lead to callousness and closing oneself off from potentially beneficial opportunities if they're not careful.
My current suspicion is only:
Pepe with Arjuna, where they would argue about Fate (him as a tengu vs human against Arjuna being a half God and assigned to fight in the Kandava Wars), cosmic duty (Bhagavad Gita. Also the whole mission of Pepe's clan.), and what it means to be human.
Kirsch and Scathath would look like the classic strong pair, but the dynamics have to be pushed carefully. Most likely along the lines of nurturing and uplifting humanity, the assoicated costs, and the personal impact + costs it inflicts on them to accomplish their mission. And if Kirsch will become a Crypter again once confronted with LB5, will this Servant dynamic change? (Kirsch wanted to push humanity to become as Gods, but Scathath could have a different opinion after becoming a solitary limbo existence.)