Saga: a recap
Jun. 14th, 2019 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraWe read Saga 7 for the Hugos last year, we're reading Saga 9 for the Hugos this year. Behind the cut is a summary of Saga 8, mostly for Chaos but also for anyone else who's playing this game and wants this shortcut.
In Saga 7, the ship had landed on the comet Phang to refuel and ended up staying for six months. Izabel the ghost got killed by a Freelancer hunting Marko, who Marko then killed. Wing operatives pretending to be Horn terrorists destroyed Phang by steering it into a giant space baby, but the ship got away in time, leaving behind Hazel's rodent friend/first kiss Kurti, whose family insisted on staying for religious reasons. While escaping the disaster, Alana was slammed into a wall, causing the death of her unborn baby, and Petrichor had to pick up a super-hot fuel cube, damaging her hands.
The short version of Saga 8 is that the spaceship heads to an outpost planet to get Alana medical help with her stillbirth. While there, she finds herself with the magic that her baby would have had, and inadvertently conjures a magic projection of how she pictured her son as a child. Hazel enjoys playing with her "brother" but he fades when Alana's pregnancy is ended. Meanwhile, Petrichor is attacked by outlaws but rescued by Sir Robot, beginning a relationship with him. When they get back to the planet where Sir Robot's son Squire is waiting with Ghus, Friendo, and the journalist couple, Hazel meets Squire and narrates that he will become her brother. Meanwhile meanwhile, the person who shot The Will in volume 7, Ianthe, is reading his memories and finds out about Hazel. She wants revenge on The Will but says the secret of Hazel will make her rich.
Below, detailed chapter-by-chapter synopsis, which I actually wrote first because it's much easier to do that than actually figure out which parts mattered like I did in the preceding paragraph. But it's long! But I have no idea what will be important in 9. Probably none of this! Oh well!
Chapter 43 opens with an old-westy sign reading "Welcome to Abortion Town". Alana is there with Sir Robot, claiming that she's pregnant with Sir Robot's child and wants an abortion, but is told she's too far along and will have to go to the "Badlands" on the other side of the planet. Apparently going to Abortion Town was Sir Robot's idea and Alana tells him she never wants to see him again now that his idea has failed. There's a flashback to right after they escaped from Phang, in which Sir Robot is impressed with Petrichor's heroism and Petrichor tells Alana that carrying a dead baby makes her a sacred vessel. They can't go to Wing or Horn doctors, so Sir Robot comes up with the idea to go to this "outpost planet". Hazel bandages Petrichor's hands and
they have a conversation about Petrichor being trans and Hazel finding it scary to have both wings and horns. Marko is digging a latrine trench and they get attacked by poop golems, but Alana unexpectedly blasts them with magic.
Chapter 44. Another couple are seeking an abortion, but are attacked by a family of three outlaws: a human man, a centaur woman, and their son, a young man whose torso is growing out of the back of a horse with a skeletal head. Back at the ship, Petrichor suggests that Alana has magic now because the dead baby transferred its magic to her. Alana, Marko, and Hazel jump on top of a moving train to ride to the Badlands. Petrichor burns a picture of her ex and prays for someone to fuck. The outlaw family spot her and plan to kill her. Alana has a dream where she's back in the past having sex with someone, who then suggests that her pregnancy loss was her fault because of her past Fadeaway use. When she wakes up, a boy with horns and wings is with them on the train saying he's her son.
Chapter 45. The outlaws attack Petrichor on the ship and threaten to kill her unless she tells them who else is with her. The boy on the train says his name is Kurti; he's intangible, but Marko and Hazel can see him too. Marko tells Alana that the magic that projects simulations of the future has a risk of cardiac arrest. The outlaws string Petrichor up to kill her but she claims that she came to the planet to get an abortion but couldn't go through with it. The outlaws tell her that the monsters in the Badlands would have killed her. In the Badlands, Hazel plays with Kurti until Alana keels over. The woman outlaw gets close enough to Petrichor for Petrichor to bite her nose off. The other outlaws are about to kill her when Sir Robot stops them. Marko tells Hazel she needs to lightning Alana's heart to restart it because his lightning is too powerful. It works, and a wolf lady with bloody hands arrives and says they're in good hands.
Chapter 46. Sir Robot lets the outlaws leave because they ask him to spare their son. Petrichor is angry and says she didn't want to be saved. The wolf lady says she is Endwife and can help Alana. Petrichor tells Sir Robot that the man she loved is dead and Sir Robot tells her that he knows she's trans and he himself is "fluid". Petrichor magics some alcohol and offers some to Sir Robot. Endwife tells Marko that her previous patient, an elephant woman, had a child with a lethal brain defect, and prepares to treat Alana. Kurti asks Hazel to sing him one of Izabel's lullabies, and as she does he slowly vanishes. Petrichor and Sir Robot argue and then kiss.
Chapter 47 opens with a flashback to when Billy/The Will was a kid with his sister Sophie. Their uncle, a Freelancer, arrives to take them away from their abusive father and ends up killing him. It turns out this flashback is being read from The Will's brain by Ianthe, the crystal-faced Renaissance-dressed person who shot him in volume 7. Ianthe, a diplomat with diplomatic immunity, plans to kill all of The Will's loved ones before killing him in revenge for killing her fiance, but is disgruntled to find out that the Stalk is already dead. Ianthe takes off her crystal mask to reveal a star-nosed mole face. The Will barely remembers the fiance he killed, but he was apparently one of the goons back in the child-prostitution place. In a memory of Gwendolyn, Ianthe learns about Hazel and says that this secret will make her rich.
Chapter 48. The journalist boyfriends, the seal-dude Ghus, and Sir Robot's son Squire are running out of food on the planet where the spaceship team have left them. One of the journalists wants to kill and eat Friendo the walrus-hippo, but Squire says he can see the internal organs of the Dread Naught beasts that are invisible to the rest of them. Ghus and Squire go out to hunt the beast. Squire asks Ghus whether he thinks it's true that his father killed women and Ghus says it's better not to dig into the past. Squire worries that he'll never marry a beautiful princess like his father did. Squire spots the Dread Naught, which looks like a giant humanoid, but lets it get away rather than killing it. When they get back from their failed hunt, the spaceship has returned. We see Alana with a soft, wrinkled, post-pregnancy belly which is the only time I've ever seen *that* in a comic dammit why am I having feelings about Saga again. Sir Robot introduces Squire to Hazel and Hazel's narration says that Squire will become her brother.
In Saga 7, the ship had landed on the comet Phang to refuel and ended up staying for six months. Izabel the ghost got killed by a Freelancer hunting Marko, who Marko then killed. Wing operatives pretending to be Horn terrorists destroyed Phang by steering it into a giant space baby, but the ship got away in time, leaving behind Hazel's rodent friend/first kiss Kurti, whose family insisted on staying for religious reasons. While escaping the disaster, Alana was slammed into a wall, causing the death of her unborn baby, and Petrichor had to pick up a super-hot fuel cube, damaging her hands.
The short version of Saga 8 is that the spaceship heads to an outpost planet to get Alana medical help with her stillbirth. While there, she finds herself with the magic that her baby would have had, and inadvertently conjures a magic projection of how she pictured her son as a child. Hazel enjoys playing with her "brother" but he fades when Alana's pregnancy is ended. Meanwhile, Petrichor is attacked by outlaws but rescued by Sir Robot, beginning a relationship with him. When they get back to the planet where Sir Robot's son Squire is waiting with Ghus, Friendo, and the journalist couple, Hazel meets Squire and narrates that he will become her brother. Meanwhile meanwhile, the person who shot The Will in volume 7, Ianthe, is reading his memories and finds out about Hazel. She wants revenge on The Will but says the secret of Hazel will make her rich.
Below, detailed chapter-by-chapter synopsis, which I actually wrote first because it's much easier to do that than actually figure out which parts mattered like I did in the preceding paragraph. But it's long! But I have no idea what will be important in 9. Probably none of this! Oh well!
Chapter 43 opens with an old-westy sign reading "Welcome to Abortion Town". Alana is there with Sir Robot, claiming that she's pregnant with Sir Robot's child and wants an abortion, but is told she's too far along and will have to go to the "Badlands" on the other side of the planet. Apparently going to Abortion Town was Sir Robot's idea and Alana tells him she never wants to see him again now that his idea has failed. There's a flashback to right after they escaped from Phang, in which Sir Robot is impressed with Petrichor's heroism and Petrichor tells Alana that carrying a dead baby makes her a sacred vessel. They can't go to Wing or Horn doctors, so Sir Robot comes up with the idea to go to this "outpost planet". Hazel bandages Petrichor's hands and
they have a conversation about Petrichor being trans and Hazel finding it scary to have both wings and horns. Marko is digging a latrine trench and they get attacked by poop golems, but Alana unexpectedly blasts them with magic.
Chapter 44. Another couple are seeking an abortion, but are attacked by a family of three outlaws: a human man, a centaur woman, and their son, a young man whose torso is growing out of the back of a horse with a skeletal head. Back at the ship, Petrichor suggests that Alana has magic now because the dead baby transferred its magic to her. Alana, Marko, and Hazel jump on top of a moving train to ride to the Badlands. Petrichor burns a picture of her ex and prays for someone to fuck. The outlaw family spot her and plan to kill her. Alana has a dream where she's back in the past having sex with someone, who then suggests that her pregnancy loss was her fault because of her past Fadeaway use. When she wakes up, a boy with horns and wings is with them on the train saying he's her son.
Chapter 45. The outlaws attack Petrichor on the ship and threaten to kill her unless she tells them who else is with her. The boy on the train says his name is Kurti; he's intangible, but Marko and Hazel can see him too. Marko tells Alana that the magic that projects simulations of the future has a risk of cardiac arrest. The outlaws string Petrichor up to kill her but she claims that she came to the planet to get an abortion but couldn't go through with it. The outlaws tell her that the monsters in the Badlands would have killed her. In the Badlands, Hazel plays with Kurti until Alana keels over. The woman outlaw gets close enough to Petrichor for Petrichor to bite her nose off. The other outlaws are about to kill her when Sir Robot stops them. Marko tells Hazel she needs to lightning Alana's heart to restart it because his lightning is too powerful. It works, and a wolf lady with bloody hands arrives and says they're in good hands.
Chapter 46. Sir Robot lets the outlaws leave because they ask him to spare their son. Petrichor is angry and says she didn't want to be saved. The wolf lady says she is Endwife and can help Alana. Petrichor tells Sir Robot that the man she loved is dead and Sir Robot tells her that he knows she's trans and he himself is "fluid". Petrichor magics some alcohol and offers some to Sir Robot. Endwife tells Marko that her previous patient, an elephant woman, had a child with a lethal brain defect, and prepares to treat Alana. Kurti asks Hazel to sing him one of Izabel's lullabies, and as she does he slowly vanishes. Petrichor and Sir Robot argue and then kiss.
Chapter 47 opens with a flashback to when Billy/The Will was a kid with his sister Sophie. Their uncle, a Freelancer, arrives to take them away from their abusive father and ends up killing him. It turns out this flashback is being read from The Will's brain by Ianthe, the crystal-faced Renaissance-dressed person who shot him in volume 7. Ianthe, a diplomat with diplomatic immunity, plans to kill all of The Will's loved ones before killing him in revenge for killing her fiance, but is disgruntled to find out that the Stalk is already dead. Ianthe takes off her crystal mask to reveal a star-nosed mole face. The Will barely remembers the fiance he killed, but he was apparently one of the goons back in the child-prostitution place. In a memory of Gwendolyn, Ianthe learns about Hazel and says that this secret will make her rich.
Chapter 48. The journalist boyfriends, the seal-dude Ghus, and Sir Robot's son Squire are running out of food on the planet where the spaceship team have left them. One of the journalists wants to kill and eat Friendo the walrus-hippo, but Squire says he can see the internal organs of the Dread Naught beasts that are invisible to the rest of them. Ghus and Squire go out to hunt the beast. Squire asks Ghus whether he thinks it's true that his father killed women and Ghus says it's better not to dig into the past. Squire worries that he'll never marry a beautiful princess like his father did. Squire spots the Dread Naught, which looks like a giant humanoid, but lets it get away rather than killing it. When they get back from their failed hunt, the spaceship has returned. We see Alana with a soft, wrinkled, post-pregnancy belly which is the only time I've ever seen *that* in a comic dammit why am I having feelings about Saga again. Sir Robot introduces Squire to Hazel and Hazel's narration says that Squire will become her brother.
