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Post by Liou on Nov 16, 2021 10:16:33 GMT -5
SLEEPLESS DOMAIN
by Cube aka Mary Cagle
is a WEBCOMIC that has been running since 2015 and updates generally twice a week. (Watch how I linked the first page and not the latest!)
Genre: magical girls
Rating: I've seen it described as PG and YA in separate places.
Neither of those acronyms means much to me so I'd say it's generally forum friendly minus an extremely rare bad word or two used in comedic context.
This webcomic has everything: - magical girls - tension! intrigue! - emotional support - some seriously dark stuff though!
- cool costume designs and transformation sequences for all your faves
- mental health awareness - fun school scenes
- emotional PAIN
- supercute girl stuff - super mysterious worldbuilding - behind the scenes of magical girl life
- monsters that come out every night and a potentially apocalyptic world that can only be kept safe by young girls
- cute dresses and ribbons!
To sum up, magical girls, with some sads to deal with, but the sads are balanced by emotional support and character development!
I have titled this thread the screaming chamber because the latest updates have been especially tense, however, I find that even though the plot itself is very tense, there is still enough emotional support among characters that it feels like a comforting read overall, and I never actually dread opening it.
Welcome to new readers and hello to my fellow long time readers!
How to discuss this comic:
- please avoid spoiling the latest updates! - this can be done using spoilerboxes, please label your spoilerboxes so people know what they're opening or avoiding! - as a rule it might be best to avoid directly discussing the last 5 pages, or the past week's updates, with some flexibility depending just how tense the past updates have been as it's not always whams and reveals.
Before we start discussing recent things, why not start with the basics? How did you discover Sleepless Domain? Favourite things, favourite characters? Theories and expectations?
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Post by Patjade on Nov 16, 2021 12:47:11 GMT -5
I shouldn't be surprised others are reading Mary's webcomic. I followed several, including Kiwi Blitz, and Let's Speak English (a webcomic about when she taught in Japan). Sleepless Domain seems to be the only one regularly updating regularly.
There is lots of backstory exposition that's been going on about each character, and I continue to look forward to each new comic, especially with the developments.
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Post by Kat on Nov 18, 2021 8:53:19 GMT -5
So I uh, decided to start reading when I saw we had a screaming chamber.
Up to chapter 8 as of this post.
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Post by Moni on Nov 18, 2021 19:00:59 GMT -5
funnily enough, i remember trying to start this webcomic and being bored out of my mind in the first 10 pages, and then I never thought of it again for years. I actually would not have picked it up again had I not stumbled across this thread and, being the contrarian I am about people telling me not to spoil stuff, almost instantly looked up what happens in the first few chapters. glad i did that, though, because the spoiler is the core concept and i don't think I would have tried again otherwise
So I read the entire thing in the deadtime between errands today, and I like it. Most qualities I really like (the character-driven stuff is really nice! HP rocks!), and some things.... I actively dislike, like tessa's entire arc.
bud is clearly best girl though, she's so cute!!! ;_;
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Post by Liou on Nov 19, 2021 16:26:59 GMT -5
Patjade reads this too?! Now we're officially the cool kids =D Kat congrats on making it to chapter 16, because that means you've made it through chapter 15, hoo boy! Moni you are such a rebel <3 Glad finding out about the Main Thing worked out well for you! I'm usually one of the "spoilers can't stop me because I can't read" crew, and this comic is one of the only things for which I ever went in 100% blind and am actually glad I did. I just clicked on a banner on Flight Rising like "oh hey, cute girls! Reminds me of W.I.T.C.H!" (Some of Tessa's clothes and accessories even remind me of the W.I.T.C.H characters, but that's probably my nostalgia and not deliberate)
I love Rue, and Bud and Harley, at first glance they reminded me of Su and Motoko from Love Hina, Bud in particular has had really cool and wholesome moments and I await juicy backstory from them too. I love our protagonist's character, and stan HP, I'm weak for that combo of jock heroism and reserved anxiety. Moni Tessa's arc- I am intrigued, I really enjoyed the execution of her emotional scenes in terms of comic panels and layout and graphics, am waiting (this is fine C8)for Further Developments, but I do feel like I'm missing something, some context, a bit more of her personality from before chapter 1, to fully take this in. And kinda questioning her recent personal motivations - or rather, the narrative decision to give her those motivations. But waiting. SO I'm curious to know if you have a take or suggested fixes for it, at this stage anyway! |
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Post by Moni on Nov 19, 2021 23:18:23 GMT -5
Liouspoilers for entire comic (TM), also cw for implied suicidal ideation and a brief mention of it (not from me this time lol)
the fundemental problem with tessa's arc is that team alchemical is extremely underbaked. The team we see in the first two chapters are extremely underdeveloped and treated like mere red herrings for the *real* main characters, which makes it really hard to feel for her loss at all. The dead members of team alchemical are 1-dimensional.
the most developed one is sally, and that's because undine has flashbacks to her when she remembers her (that wasn't already in the first few chapters in the comic--"new" flashbacks); but no such new characterization is present during tessa's segments of the comic. the most poignant moment for her character is when she allows rue to copy off her homework, and even that reuses an older chapter instead of telling us anything new, and tessa is supposed to be the character who's not moving on from team alchemical!
like for an extremely basic example, alchemical wind had two younger siblings! they had families and stuff! the comic never touches on how they're affected, never has tessa inquire about them or meet any of them coincidentally (despite constantly visiting the graves of her dead teammates) because the dead team members aren't real characters, they're just bait for chapter 2's bait-and-switch.
this coincides with the comic's disinterest in developing tessa more than is absolutely necessary. like, yeah, stylistically and visually, you can see panels breaking, you can see that because she's in normieland, all the colors are more muted, etc, but it's all style over substance. tessa essentially becomes a despair robot and we're not really privy to what goes on in her head, so she feels like an edgy non-character.
wowowowow she meets goops even though she thinks goops will kill her??? suicidal ideation??? heavy stuff!!! wish i knew anything about what led to this point beyond "look at this character she's fifteen and wants to KILL HERSELF how edgy ooooh!!"
(yes i hated the new comic developments if you can't tell lmao)
undine is largely untouched by this issue because she has a lot of other things going on, and also this issue actually becomes ameliorated in her segments of the story. but it really ruins tessa imo
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Post by PFA on Nov 20, 2021 0:27:59 GMT -5
Honestly, for as much as I like Tessa and want to know more about her, I'm kind of inclined to agree? Because, like... I really want to know more about Team Alchemical in general, I feel like there's a lot of interesting backstory there that we're not privy to. But since we don't know that much about them, it leaves a feeling like Tessa's actions are missing a lot of context. Like I don't feel the emotional weight of it so much as "I really want to know what's going on."
In any case, definitely curious to see how this pans out!
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Post by Patjade on Nov 20, 2021 2:51:10 GMT -5
Patjade reads this too?! Now we're officially the cool kids =D Ha! I have an eclectic bunch of webcomics in my RSS reader. Many have gone by the wayside. 9/11, pandemic, growing up, or just unable to cope have taken their toll. Sleepless Domain is one of my favorites. I am also a fan of Endtown, Erma, Magefront, Mias and Elle, Tamberlane, Hunters of Salamanstra, Goblins, Lackadaisy Cats, and Star Trip, just to name a very few. There are a couple hundred in my feed, but only a handful update daily, and many update only a coupe times a month. |
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Post by Kat on Nov 20, 2021 8:45:27 GMT -5
Liouspoilers for entire comic (TM), also cw for implied suicidal ideation and a brief mention of it (not from me this time lol)
the fundemental problem with tessa's arc is that team alchemical is extremely underbaked. The team we see in the first two chapters are extremely underdeveloped and treated like mere red herrings for the *real* main characters, which makes it really hard to feel for her loss at all. The dead members of team alchemical are 1-dimensional.
the most developed one is sally, and that's because undine has flashbacks to her when she remembers her (that wasn't already in the first few chapters in the comic--"new" flashbacks); but no such new characterization is present during tessa's segments of the comic. the most poignant moment for her character is when she allows rue to copy off her homework, and even that reuses an older chapter instead of telling us anything new, and tessa is supposed to be the character who's not moving on from team alchemical!
like for an extremely basic example, alchemical wind had two younger siblings! they had families and stuff! the comic never touches on how they're affected, never has tessa inquire about them or meet any of them coincidentally (despite constantly visiting the graves of her dead teammates) because the dead team members aren't real characters, they're just bait for chapter 2's bait-and-switch.
this coincides with the comic's disinterest in developing tessa more than is absolutely necessary. like, yeah, stylistically and visually, you can see panels breaking, you can see that because she's in normieland, all the colors are more muted, etc, but it's all style over substance. tessa essentially becomes a despair robot and we're not really privy to what goes on in her head, so she feels like an edgy non-character.
wowowowow she meets goops even though she thinks goops will kill her??? suicidal ideation??? heavy stuff!!! wish i knew anything about what led to this point beyond "look at this character she's fifteen and wants to KILL HERSELF how edgy ooooh!!"
(yes i hated the new comic developments if you can't tell lmao)
undine is largely untouched by this issue because she has a lot of other things going on, and also this issue actually becomes ameliorated in her segments of the story. but it really ruins tessa imo
Yeah, pretty much all this and now that I'm all caught up - First of all, I had hoped to get attached to Sally, Sylvia and Gwen, only to find out they get killed off because Kat was a good girl and did not read spoilers. Okay, that in itself? Fine. But for me it happened too soon. We didn't build Team Alchemical up apart from one time they did a mission well and then the time Sally decides to question Tessa's leadership and Tessa's reaction is just "go ahead without me, whether or not they succeed or not is a win"
(That's honestly a questionable decision for me, like why didn't Tessa just pretend to stay home and then sneak off after them to make sure things don't go sideways the way they did, but anyway.)
And then Sally, Sylvia and Gwen are killed off. We don't even get to see their dying moments, they're dead by the time Tessa arrives to save Undine. Even in the flashbacks we don't really see much of them again. Heck, we don't even get like a chapter that's almost all flashback even if the only purpose it would serve is to just further Undine's or Tessa's character development.
Tessa's decision in this last chapter is also baffling to me. Okay, sure, she pushed away Rue, didn't answer Undine's calls, and she's still dwelling on the past. But just before she meets Goops, she and Undine literally just had a talk about how Goops is bad news. You'd think she would put up some sort of resistance or stay indoors and then report the new development to Undine or something.
I am okay with Tessa becoming a Dark Goopy Magical Girl but IMO it's too early for it. We could have had more of her and Undine discussing this or whatever. Anyway, I like HP and Undine and aside from what happened in the spoilers I do also like Vedika. |
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Post by Twillie on Nov 20, 2021 14:41:06 GMT -5
I started reading a few months back up to the start of Chapter 12, but I haven't picked it back up in a while and would like to catch up soon. I shall consider this thread my reminder until I actually do so xD
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Post by Liou on Nov 20, 2021 15:22:04 GMT -5
On the Tessa arc, spoilers for everything up to the end of chapter 18, quick mention of suicidal ideation Moni , yep, that's pretty much what I felt was missing! The three deceased members of Team Alchemical are indeed underdeveloped. The concept clearly involved a protagonist bait-and-switch, which has its merits and contributes to the comic's overall catchiness, but I think some character development was definitely sacrificed for this. I do like Sylvia's hinted character in the flashback with the mechanics book she showed Undine. In her case, the little things told us a bit more than for the other two. The subplot with the science guy & rat doing clandestine research hasn't appeared in ages, and if there's some sort of resistance trying to expose dirty secrets of the whole dome/magical girl system, I figure normal humans like magical girls' grieving families could be into that. Part of me is hoping to learn more about Team Alchemical through flashbacks, but, at this point, I'm afraid we're too far ahead in the comic to really fix this gap, and would a flashback chapter even really help? Althoouuugh when more stuff gets unveiled on the Dream(s) and magical girl lore, that might be a good time =o However, when it comes to Tessa's arc, I'm not sure just how much this would have added to her own characterisation. They were friends, they were cared for, she feels crushingly guilty, that is clear enough to me. I don't need to know more about these young girls who died protecting their city to feel the tragedy of their loss. Actually, what helped me most in figuring out Tessa's personality was the echo of her Dream in chapter 18/??, of her wanting to follow her friends and requesting magic from Suspicious Dreamlady. To me, that was the most honest and direct thoughts we've had from Tessa so far. Kat as for her decision to meet Goops, I was a bit baffled too, - of course the foreshadowing with the writing on her window and all the moments of "NOOO DON'T DO IT" was thrilling plot-wise - but her conversation with Undine on how Goops is bad news was what made the most sense to me in this whole thing. After all, Tess is a teenager, who currently believes she is the worst after what she's done. If someone tells her that Goops is the worst thing that could happen to her, well, it makes sense to me that she'd leap to the conclusion that that's what she deserves. As an idea. That she would consider. The suicidal ideation still rang kind of hollow to me due to aforediscussed holes in development, though. And the questionable decision to sulk stay home that night felt pretty natural to me for a dramatic teenager xD |
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Post by Moni on Nov 20, 2021 18:16:26 GMT -5
Liouspoilers for recent pages, entire comic etc.
i think you're right in that you don't necessarily need to know much about team alchemical to logically grasp the tragedy, but the missing link isn't their backstory/lore per say, but that i don't know what they mean to tessa. i really liked the really brief flashes of the team from undyne's perspective because they were from her perspective--undine remembers sally as someone who, for example, told her to have lots of confidence in herself, which she thought of because of heartful punch, very much in the vein of how real world grief works. these flashbacks are not good simply because they give us characterization, but because they also communicate something about what these people meant to undine.
you're definitely correct that tessa's dream flashback does help answer the same question--"what does team alchemical mean to tessa?" but it came *very late* and for a comic that's as character-focused as this one, it really stands out to me. the writer should have actually focused on tessa instead of treating tessa's feelings as a big secret to the audience, only revealing bits of it after the character had already changed. it pales in comparison to the treatment given to other characters in the comic, and if those other arcs weren't so good i don't think i would think tessa's arc was half-ashed, to use the good place-speak.
as to what the author could do to fix it now--it's honestly not my job to provide constructive criticism and i don't think any cool reveals or whatever can make up for it. part of this is the kind of reader i am--secrets about the world/characters don't really do much for me and they're not the reason i read stuff. i read because i'm interested in the characters' journeys, not because i care about what goops vs. the white lady *means* or whatever, that's honestly almost irrelevant to why i found the comic good. this is why it's much more of a sticking point for me than it is to other people imo, and why this probably sounds like a bunch of whinging lmao.
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Post by PFA on Mar 6, 2024 15:29:22 GMT -5
Bumping this thread because there have been developments since last post! (Chapters 18-22) I'm really starting to like Anenome; the reveal that she's been the one responsible for the inner barrier this whole time was pretty cool. And seeing her use her rainbow light powers against Goops and her minions was SUPER satisfying. Especially love the "That hurt, you little brat" page.
It's also interesting to see how much the safety of the city literally hinges on Anenome's mental state specifically. Feels like she's gone through some pretty rigorous mental conditioning just to keep herself aloof, only for it to all come crashing down the instant Goops reveals that she's been lied this whole time. Poor Anenome.
...Speaking of Goops, though, I'm also starting to feel increasingly annoyed by Tessa's lost potential, as discussed above. XD Like they just threw away this interesting character so that the villain could be more bwahaha. Really wish we could have spent more time in Tessa's headspace before she got Gooped.
The way her magic mark reacted when Undine got close is interesting, though. I guess it's reacting to the Aether magic inside of Undine? Maybe because Tessa saved Undine, Undine will have the power to return the favor and save Tessa? I sure hope so. |
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