Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Incarcerated Zero

Commentary:

• You can thank Sha-Y again for the illustration.
• The chains are there as a formality. Mash is there as a threat.
• This entire comic, and perhaps those that follow, was all borne out of a desire for someone to notice in-universe that Innocent Zero and his "children" (sans Doom for obvious reasons) all share very stoic, dull, and awkward gazes. Like if you just looked them in the eye, you could very well assume that there's nothing really going on between their ears and they're hardly paying attention to the world around them.
• Mistress Meliadoul sees this moment of synchronized stoicism as the closest the two will ever have to a father/son moment and takes her shot.
• That was pretty cute at the end of the manga that she and Wahlberg seemed to bear no bad feelings to Innocent Zero despite how he beat them up, but they still make sure he and most of his "kids" go to jail.
• The idea of this series stems from Mash having various encounters and interactions with his fellow cast members after the main conflict of MASHLE: Magic & Muscles has been concluded. Most will be funny, some will be a bit more downbeat, but they'll all try to share the theme of how to move on from a near miss with total calamity.

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Domina tried the "bow" method instead, and eventually got it to happen.

Commentary:

• Another comic by me and Sha-Y.
• Mash has such a big backpack to carry around both training gear and some extra luxuries that he typically does without as he's quite experienced roughing it in the woods.
• He's just playing it safe so that Domina can have a pleasant camping trip with him. Because he thinks he deserves it, and because he's well aware of just how temperamental his brother is.
• Somewhat for naught, I'm afraid. Old habits die hard.
• The Devil's Quintuplets are one of the big contributors to how stout and credible MASHLE is. As his "older brothers" each of them reflects an aspect of Mash himself.

Delisaster: His Boorishness
Epidemic: His Food Fixation
Famin: His Trickery
Doom: His Arrogance

• However, Mash only fights two of them, with his friends and semi-allies having to fight the rest. In effect, they have to prove their might and wit against warped, villainous reflections of the book's overpowered main character.
• These are not fodder fights to give them something to do. Rather they are indirect tests that validate their place in the story and their status as Mash's peers.
• It's a neat trick, and one that only a story of considerable yet intimate scale as MASHLE: Magic & Muscles could pull off.
• Domina embodies both a more traditional protagonist reaction to learning that the big villain is their father and Mash's rage.
• In the midst of battle, Mash can be wrathful, intense, belligerent, boastful, and even snide. These vices are easy to miss given his subdued way of expressing himself. Contrast how he'll throw back something a villain said back in their face when he turns the table to how he (usually) tries to have a civil post-fight talk with them afterwards. Explosively angry, though, he's never that.
• Domina does get angry. Terrifically so. There's an interesting parallel between the quiet, stoic, undereducated guy who can't use magic and his sibling who has the opposite of all those traits. Talkative, sensitive, and magical. It must be said that they are similarly determined, formidable, and clever in a fight despite their differences. Also their hair stands up when they get serious. Very anime.
• Cain & Abel dynamics can be rather tired, but MASHLE doesn't beleaguer the point. It delivers richly and then exits within the span of a brisk arc that has that as a major theme (Lance with Anna, Lévis and his brother, etc).
• Mash and Domina growing up as prisoners, one unwittingly in the forest to hide him from authorities and one aware in a dungeon to be used against the same? Tragic.
• The implication that Mash was such a surprisingly strong and agile baby because Domina kept trying to murder him all the time and he had to learn how to dodge or die? Hilarious.
• While it's debatable if it's the best fight in the manga, it's certainly the loudest. Domina screams and uses Mash as a sounding board for his fraternal and paternal frustrations throughout it. Mash, in turn, just bluntly voices Domina's rather obvious fears; that the years doing Innocent Zero's bidding and trying to gain his favor were for nothing and while it would be "wasteful" given all the time and energy he's devoted to withstanding the villain's abuse, he'd be better off parting ways and starting over.
• As their clash concludes, rather than lectures, insults, or worse, pity like Domina expects, Mash instead provides him with an alternative way of dealing with offenses and faults. He offers a solution rather than a diatribe.
• "Pops would get upset with me when I made a mistake. But I was allowed to be upset with him if he made one…Pops wouldn't hesitate to tell me when I was wrong. Then he'd accept and forgive me. So here. Let's make up."
• Regro trained Mash to defend himself. Which worked. Regro wanted Mash to be fearful of the magical world that would execute him for being unmarked. Which didn't. But he never encouraged Mash to hate or resent that same world, which barring some resentment over how they can do some chores faster, had the intended effect on Mash which is how his mercy so often overpowers his anger.
• Mash tries to pay this kindness forward when he can, and it similarly takes with Domina, who ultimately saves his life twice out of gratitude. Maybe that's why in his final letter that closes the book, Mash doesn't have anything implicitly negative to say about him. Poor Dot.
• I hope the anime does well enough to get to this conflict at least. I think it's a wonderful feud that viewers would like.
• Also, I'm not kidding, the bow method is a more reliable way to make campfires with sticks. Look it up if you don't know. I didn't until recently.

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Lévis kept the one Lance made for him though.

Commentary:

• SibCons Unite!?
• I like to think the best of Lance. While his obsession with deifying and protecting Anna is played for laughs, his actual fraternal instincts when it comes to watching out for his friends (even Dot sometimes) is depicted as a laudable trait however subtly.
• Especially when it comes to Mash. Despite being "defeated" and (mostly) insulted by him, rather than resent the odd "mage" for it, Lance recognized that Mash was going to flunk out of Easton if left to his own devices. So whether out of honor as a former opponent or out of sympathy, he decided to help him out whenever he could. A mostly frustrating if not thankless endeavor.
• Honestly, I view Lance's siscon tendencies as an awkward, desperate reaction to how his parents disowned and tried to euthanize Anna. More of a survival mechanism to give him the mental - however obtuse - fortitude to press on with his sister's life in the balance.
• By the series end, with Anna free to pursue her own future and more stable income from his being a Divine Visionary, I believe that aspect of Lance's character will mellow out over time.
• Besides, that gag hit a wonderful apex during the Epidem battle, so because of that, I can't fully lambast it.
• I'm glad MASHLE is getting a Season 3. The quality of Season 2 was very up and down, but I hope the Lévis and Domina fights are reached and are depicted well!
• Sorry about the weird, mirrored positions in the last panel. Just imagine that they were so alarmed that Domina and Malta criss-crossed to get out of there.