Finally, something I can go off of! Thanks to the deciphered version of this panel here:

Thpoilerth:

First off, this could almost be taken as confirmation that mediums retain their spectral abilities when their spirit leaves, and since this is something that was never really in question to begin with, this is good!
Also, the only reason that he wouldn't be able to talk to Isaac about it until his possession was over other than some sort of initiation process is that the organization is something they don't want spirits to know about. This also means that the other members may know about it already, since they are all tool users and can move their tool away from themselves and avoid letting their spirit hear what is said to them.

Now for the next step of making a speculation thread: long term baseless plot speculation! See the spoiler below.

Bullshit:

I don't know... If they were actually against spirits I doubt they'd have Isaac around. Besides, Spender revealed he's in contact with at least one but possibly more spirits (his mind is in a delicate balance) and he still gets to make sensitive phone calls and get information from the upper echelons without having to distance his tool from him (if he even has a tool - who's to say he isn't possessed?)

At most, I believe the whole secrecy-from-Isaac thing is because of faction-related things, or because Isaac's spirit is pretty dangerous. Spender even suggested Isaac could have simply had Max ask Spender questions in private and later report back to him with the answers, which could indicate Spender would answer Max's questions openly.

Eightfold's sad little speech and reading the archive has alerted me to a persistent theme of "Spirits being seen as inferior to humans".

From Racist Plunger Whale, to Doorman's disappointment as being addressed by his function by Isaac, to Eightfold's cryptic remarks about Isabel to being primed to think that spirits in tools are just being, well, tools.

Considering that Eightfold has eaten Spender's collection of research on spectralogy and spiritology(?), perhaps she has seen for herself the uppity attitude in which Spender regards his specimens of investigations as lesser beings?

We can take Isaac's spirits' furor of Isaac obeying Mr Spender to be animosity towards servitude under humans too, even though we were led to understand that it was originally reluctance towards taking anyone's orders.



From this I think it is possible to extrapolate on the possible factions behind the operations of various major characters.

Boss Leader's organization perhaps is working towards either managing the spirits to prevent them from dominating the human world, or even going as far as to make spirits their power sources/utilities. Isaac's grandpa, with his bigotry about spirits and training spectrals to subdue spirits, is likely a huge proponent of this. Maybe the cousinhood possess the same ideals, but take it to an extreme, attempting to convert all spirits into tools to vanquish their influence over the spirit world.

Racist Plunger Whale's faction is likely the resisting force, indignant of the idea of being the playthings of humans and losing their freedom, and trying to wreck havoc in the human world to fight back. Given the censored panel with Spender not being able to tell Isaac while he's possessed, it's likely that Blowhard is in this faction too? Also the rabbits in the dark did mention a storm god underestimating Spender's organization, and getting defeated in the process of trying to enter the ghost train(?). Perhaps Isaac just happened to be there when it was defeated and possessed him as a result.

Scrapdragon's faction likely possess the same ideals of overthrowing humans, but as as schemers would never take the direct approach and leave the crude, brute destruction to the more violent spirit faction, while they try to bring their vision with more...insidious means? No idea what riddling is about. But naturally this is the scrapdragon conceals this by telling Doorman that the violent faction is what they need to worry about.

Which brings us to the Doorman's and his master's, faction. Them, I think wishes for a peaceful cooperation with humans(?) by regulating consent of posession and tool-making(?). Forge is just a poltegeist who wants to settle a debt with the help of Doorman's master (but seeing that he's in the cast page I feel that he might get shoehorned into a more prominent role and end up on their side anyway)

Mr Spender is in the Consortium but once the kids realise the way the organization oppresses the spirits will make him see their way? He probably just serves the place cause he values the wellbeing of humans over spectrals. Then they will work together to being down the malafactors in the Consortium??? Idk at this point


EDIT: The logical inference based on plot tropes of saying Isaac should be kept under blinds until his possession ends would mean that at some point Isaac demonstrates incredible control over Blowhard's powers effectively negating the weatherbeast's defiance, or having the spirit leave him, and turns into 1)a villain, 2) backup support instead of frontline fighter, or 3)using a tool or being medium to a more agreeable spirit

Snap, man, that's a really great look into all of this. (Would the possibility of another spirit possessing Max change any of that stuff with Scrapdragon? Doorman says his powers are riddles and word games, I think, and the possessor acts like Doorman is trying to protect himself with High Spirit. Could go either way, though, I think.) This is kind of just looking for a pattern that might not be relevant, but maybe spectral energy color has some sort of effect on this? RWF and Stormo have the same color, and Isabel and Doorman seem to kind of have the same ideas... I think Zack said Isaac's spirit came from storm gods somewhere, so maybe spirits are affected by the mind? If Scrapdragon's the schemer, maybe that's why he has black spectral energy? Not sure how spectrals would get theirs, though...

Lucifer addresses people as Young Master just as Doorman does, and are both tall humanoid characters. I'm assuming they come from the same egg group?? Probably can't breed though (I can't decide if they should be genderless cause their design are obviously dabbed with male signifiers).

Is it likely they are in the same faction? It seems that all the current contenders of High Spirit talkers are benign (or in Forge's case, neutral). I'm guessing understanding it does not require the "centurial aged" condition based on Spender's words, which is probably like...some kind of magic thing that makes you unable to remember the words when you try to speak it until the condition comes to pass...or something. Or it could just be Lucifer translating for him.

Given the trope of mythological roles, scrapdragon as a schemer would likely have passed the mark for speaking High Spirit too.

I'm retracting the statement about Spender being aligned with the Consortium, I believe he was promised that his alliance would grant him better resources for protecting Mayview. Maybe he lost something precious and something needs to be done to unseal it. I'm calling that he will go rogue when his own personal goals conflicts with the Consortium's agenda, and there will be a showdown with Grandpa.

These all sound awesome! And Nihtay, I accidentally downvoted your post because I didn't realize what the meter thing on the left right was...Sorry!

On another note, does anyone else get the feeling that this story could turn into a three-way faction vs faction vs faction type thing? It's just this vibe-ish feeling I've been getting lately

At the very least, it seems like we're headed towards Faction vs Faction vs Mr. Splendifferous what with the cousinhood and the consortium and Ricky boy being a traitor of sorts. I think you might be on to something.

So, today's page seems to insinuate that while they may not be particularly against them, the Consortium at least thinks of spirits as a whole as "disposable", which wouldn't wit well with a number of spirits I'm sure. BL seemed to have no qualms about just Killing Max's spirit right there.

What do you think was the test? A test of to see if Max was worthy to be a consortium member? A test honesty? Was it a standardized test that BL performs with all potential consortium member or was what we see just specifically asked of Max?


I find it disturbing how readily Max hands out information like his full name, given his cautious, cynical and suspicious nature when awake throughout the four chapters... and in the wake of (pun intended) Zack promoting a webcomic Demon Street that just happens to mention the importance of names (as well as being a general thing with fantasy fiction these days like Eragon or the webcomic Namesake).

It can be assumed that Boss Leader just has that effect on people, I think. She seems very charismatic.

I assumed the test was about the way he viewed his spirit partner. It makes some sense that a group based around using the powers of spirits would have a certain opinion on how those spirits should be dealt with. Though, thinking on that, it's possible she only offered to kill it so readily to see what Max would say, so I may have jumped the gun on that assumption.

It could also serve to give an idea of his personality. His turning down a better power says a lot about him as a character.