Annotated 35-29
One thing Flo and I did discuss a lot is how much Rachel’s version of the power could help against the Beast. Frigg was easy to figure: her version of the power had been shrouding her armor and weapons in energy-constructs since its earliest use. But Rachel’s version seems to infuse her own body with extra force, and that body is matter, and the Beast generally destroys what matter it touches.
Rachel’s own knowledge of this issue explains why she hasn’t been just raining punches into the belly of the Beast before now. With a surge of desperation, she has perhaps pushed her abilities to the point where they serve as a “skin” over her glowing extremities.
And maybe there’s also a glow going on under the tentacles in panel 3 as well, keeping her from derezzing. Or maybe the Beast, desperate and confused, is actually suspending its life-absorbing powers just to huck these scary luminescent beings into a wall, the way it suspends its power to keep from falling into the ground. Maybe maybe. If I had it all to do over again, I’d probably ask for Rachel’s whole body to be glowing in this sequence. But these moments have the right emotional force, and that’s the most important part.
She’s glowing all over in panel 4, so I assumed she reacted to panel 3 by covering her whole body briefly.
Would sorta make sense if its skin has two modes which don’t mix:
Solid touch
and
Derezz Touch.
The latter capitalized because it’s a Touch attack, whereas the former is literally touching.
This way, when it tries to poke people it’s usually doing it’s Touch attack, but when it wants to push or throw people, it’s gotta resonate with the physicality of them, negating the anti-real effect.
Just goes to show: All those hours arguing philosophy really come in handy when I want to rationalize something, even when I’m just pulling it out of thin air :p
The ambiguity suits her divine nature and the imminent moment quite gracefully. What really saved her? The Heart of All? Her faith? Her power? The entity’s fear of those things or a combination of them? Is there a difference in the moment?
I just assumed that the power is within her whole body, and thus the beast cannot dissolve her body. Which does not explain why her gown is not dissolved by the tentacle around her waist, but I’m thinking that would very much not fit the mood of this scene, nor Rachel’s character.
If I had to do it over again, I know something completely different that I’d change, though…