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Guest post by "Ayra"

Is it okay to take a few days to think about giving a more coherent answer? I admit I hadn't thought about all that, and I'm currently too low on time to give out all the feedback you want (and completely deserve).

Here's a few things that come to the top of my head though!

1) It might be because of my uncanny habit of confusing everything, but my understanding and remembering of the characters and their stories is much better than it is for the "main" storyline. I perfectly remember Theresa's storyline about her past, the tension and mixed feelings between Theresa and Chrys, Chrys's determination in saving her mother against all odds, or how she tried to force Theresa out of her shell and the resulting fallout of that. I remembered Mandrake's fun expressions and Dog Boy's competitiveness and the reasons why. I'm feeling attached to all of them, and care what happens to them. I'm especially intrigued by the Chris-Theresa relationship and I'm definitively hoping they'll make up and progress further eventually.

However, I don't actually recall the name of the bad evil robots from the first chapter. I'm not sure (or can't recall) if they've spread across multiple worlds across Arcana or if they were mainly focused on that one. I used to think that those invading robots were the 'main' storyline if you want and thought they were a huge threat to Arcana in general, but I'm not sure of anything right now. I'll have to re-read Chapter 1: That's not a pain at all considering it's interesting and entertaining, and I probably didn't help myself by having it read it all in two days.

But to be honest, it's not too often I've lost sight of the 'main story' or 'point' while reading anything. Chapter 2 was a major disconnect from Chapter 1: It's a wonderful and touching chapter, but beside having Chrys and Theresa in it, there's nearly nothing to link it with Chapter 1. Chapter 3 brings us back to the tavern with our familiar cast, however it's for something entirely different and unrelated to chapter 1 and 2. We have a very grumpy Theresa because of what happened in chapter 2, and we have Melody having her robotic arm because of what happened in chapter 1, but to me it feels disconnected of the world if you will.

Past chapter 1, and especially since chapter 3, I've been treating Mysteries of the Arcana as "Episodic" even though I have the feeling it's not meant to be that way. Blah, I can't really explain what I mean...

Did you ever watch the El Cazador de la Bruja anime? It's 26 episodes long, and beside episode 1, 13 (sorta), 25 and 26, the anime consists of mostly random adventures with Nadie and Ellis heading south to their destination (Alongside a few other important but not as important characters). Each episode has either funny or touching events, mostly (but not completely) unrelated to each other. What persists throughout each episode is the natural sense of growth between Nadie and Ellis relationship as the anime goes by. The world isn't really what is important, neither are the various factions and organizations: The characters are what is important, especially Nadie and Ellis. As a side note, it's my favorite anime ever.

I get the same feeling with Mysteries of the Arcana about where the importance lies... But unlike El Cazador, I have the feeling that I'm simply missing the big "plot" in Mysteries of the Arcana. I'm missing something in the world that actually do exist. I know part of it is in chapter 1, but chapter 2 and 3 are so different in content and it's never been refered to again (so far) which made me half-forget it, half-consider each chapter to be mostly separate entities (or episodes), beside the character growth and their own personal storylines.

I'll be re-reading Mysteries of the Arcana again before posting my next comment: I'll see if the "episode" reasoning seems correct, or if there's a "main plot" and that it's my memory that's horrible (Very likely since I'm not claiming to have a great memory in the first place and it's been roughly a year since chapter 1 has been completed), or that I read it when I was too tired and forgot due to that, or that there is a 'main world plot' and that it has been left aside unreferenced a bit too long considering that this is an ongoing webcomic .

Please don't consider what I'm saying as a negative at all: I read quite a few webcomics, and Mysteries of the Arcana is honestly in my top 5 favorite (I could give my top 5 list but I don't think it'd be proper to "advertise" here ). The writing is great, there's very funny scenes, there's extremely sad moments, the characters and their interactions together are awesome and I'm always looking foward to see what will happen to them every Monday and Thursday. It's just that I haven't felt connected to the whole and the Arcana itself much. It's definitively not a must at all (I enjoy Mysteries of the Arcana very, very much as is, and plus my favorite anime is built that way after all), but I get the nagging feeling that it's not the way you guys envision it (Though I might be wrong of course).

... and I just wrote way more than what I had time for and it's all disorganized due to not thinking things through first... I'm sorry about that! I'm going to re-read chapter 1 when I get the chance and give you better feedback afterward

Tiny bonus comment: I really enjoy that Chrys parents are alive and kicking. That's far too rare in comics/anime/games/books