2016/12/12 [RE 47.42] How not to convince someone to join you

[Tapewolf]

I can only assume that Mwali is simply not used to dealing with humans because she's not exactly doing a great job of warming Loki to her cause.  Either way, the conversation with Mana could be interesting.

[Merlin]

Mwali would likely be just as terrible if she wasn't a dragon. Probably the only thing that would change if she was human too would be nobody would have to crane their necks to look her in the eye.

[Puyon]

I'm just gonna take a second here to rant about how much I love the portrayal of Loki and Mwali's relationship, so here we go it's gonna get long:

[spoiler]Mwali is an interesting character to me because at the start, we didn't have much of an impression at her. The first thing we know about her is that she and Loki don't see eye-to-eye enough to drive Loki out of her own home. Loki plays it off like no problem, which I'll guess is because Loki didn't want to look too vulnerable to Danni and Saturn, who she barely knew at the time. So, when we actually see Mwali and Loki interact later that volume, Mwali criticizes her off the bat, but as someone who might be a weird sort of mother figure, maybe that's not unusual? Still, it's always struck me as a bit harsh that she calls Loki selfish in such a condescending way...

So. next we hear of Mwali is in Volume 12, where Loki complains that Mwali's presence makes things unpleasant and that she's a horrible dragon lady, but when we see her again later, she's being friendly and seemingly amicable , yet looking back now, I notice how Loki tenses up and stutters around Mwali. In the next half-page, Mwali seems to be acting helpful but is dismissive of Loki when she tries to say she doesn't need the help, and Loki quite clearly just wants Mwali to go away. In Volume 16, Mwali again presents herself as a motherly figure of sorts but it also becomes apparent again that Mwali was being overly friendly to Loki so that she would take Fade to school with her. Loki expresses that she's not a fan of this idea, but Mwali shifts the conversation in her favor and shoves Loki our before she can get a word in about the matter, further adding to Mwali's dismissing of Loki's feelings.

Finally, we see the biggest issue going on with Mwali and Loki. Mwali is extremely disrespectful of Tella, one of the only members of her family that Loki really got to know. The following page almost seems to justify her dislike of Tella since he acts rudely upon seeing her and Tella even defends Mwali a few pages later, insisting that Mwali actually does care and love Loki. When Tella says to Loki that she should be less hard on Mwali, it kinda shifts the blame for the unhealthiness of their relationship to Loki. Making it seem like it's in part Loki's behavior that causes things to be bad between them ends up making it less about them having an unhealthy relationship and more about Loki having anger issues, which I have to give props to Merlin for because I've seen this sort of thing and treatment happen irl so many times and seeing it portrayed like this is awesome.

We don't hear much mention of Mwali after she leaves, except maybe once when Loki mentions throwing Mwali out as part of the reason why things are fine at home. Mwali returns this volume and does something Loki find surprisingly supportive, and tries to see if she can do something about Dark Powers at DHS, only to be told off firmly by Drake.Panels 2-5 on this page are possibly the most positive interaction we'll ever see between Mwali and Loki, in that Loki is appreciative of Mwali's attempt to take care of the issue and comically replies to Mwali's gripes about Drake. It makes things seem okay between them for a sec that maybe Mwali isn't actually the worst she could be.

So, when we get to this part, Loki tries to share her conflict with Mwali, who then doesn't let her finish and proceeds to scold her and guilt her about it. She then blames Tella again for Loki not being a proper Light Power, proving that Mwali did not learn from the last argument they had about this and didn't consider how much she actually upsets Loki whenever she says those things about Tella, which only further shows her lack of respect for Loki. Another telling thing is something Merlin mentioned in the news post for that page...

Anyway, there's Mwali. She doesn't care about the whole light power/dark power thing per se, she just hates that the curse killed Loki's mum and messed up her face.

Which adds a whole new context to Mwali storming out, wanting to get rid of the Dark Powers. Her hatred for them doesn't come from a concern for Loki's safety, but more so personal feelings and issues that she hasn't worked out and instead chooses to take them out on a Dark Power who she knows nothing about; Loki just gave her a better excuse to do it, is all. When Loki tries to break off the argument, Mwali lets her go and refers to her affectionately, acting like the whole conflict is over. Mwali even drives this point home the following morning by, once again, dismissing Loki's feelings and trying to shove the conflict aside. Mwali takes things even further by trying to take Loki away from DHS and her home. Loki desperately tries to explain that it's important to her and that she doesn't want to leave and tries to cut off the conversation, but Mwali presses on, piling more emotional gut punches and driving Loki past her limit. She blows up at Mwali, yelling about how when she needed her to be there, she didn't have anyone at all and was all alone through what was probably the most terrifying moment of her life. How does Mwali respond?

She doesn't apologize. She doesn't sympathize or empathize with Loki, no. She blames her absence on Tella and proceeds to blame Tella for the deaths of Loki's parents, and then she tries to shut down the conversation, immediately after introducing incredibly loaded topics and not allowing Loki a second to say anything about it, so that Loki would feel powerless.

Ultimately, I want to praise Merlin for creating such a good example of a toxic relationship between a guardian and child. Yes, Loki's not exactly the best person but that's because her main motivation stems from her grief and desire to survive and thus sometimes she'll act stubborn and hot-headed... not to mention, she's only 16. Loki has time to change and grow as a person and, since the start of Random Encounter, she definitely has.

Mwali is an adult and should be able to confront the problems she has maturely, and a lot of her anger for Tella I think mainly comes from her grieving for Loki's mother, who she was best friends with. Mwali wants to put all the blame on someone who she already had issues with so nothing to lose, right? She can safely be angry with Tella since it's not like he can defend himself now, and it'd be fine if she blamed Tella on the one thing that's actually his fault and it's not raising Loki as a Light Power. Instead, Mwali blames Tella for absolutely everything, why Loki's parents died, why she wasn't there for Loki when she was all alone, why she didn't take Loki earlier, why Loki is having problems at school. She asserts these feelings so that she doesn't have to blame herself for everything that happened at her own fault.  If she was more supportive of Loki, more considerate of her feelings, and more respectful of her wishes, then Loki would be in a much better place and frame of mind and the two could have a healthy motherish/daughterish relationship and grow and move past the terrible things of the past and move towards best preparing for Loki's future. It's likely that Mwali does, indeed, care for Loki, but because she isn't growing past her own personal issues, isn't capable of being the best figure she could be for Loki and has, as a result, ruined things between them so hard.[/spoiler]

TLDR: good job Merlin for writing the relationship between Mwali and Loki so well because I can honestly understand it and relate to it so well.

I can't wait for Mana to have this talk with Loki because Mana has been a way better role model in comparison to Mwali. Mana should just take Mwali's place as the motherish figure. Mama Mana.

[Merlin]

I'm glad the dynamic came across properly, it was sort of hard to write and pull together over so many years, haha. Tella also feels a bit guilty about how he treated Mwali the last time he saw her when he was alive, but uh... she was pulling this sort of thing at the time, so kinda justified. Which I hope to show in-comic sometime! Got a lot more Loki stuff to do.

I think I was going to say more, but I forgot. Thanks for reading and enjoying the comic