Besides, nothing good ever came of taking things seriously. ^_^

Of course, don’t take my word for it: you merely need to see all the speculation that has been generated by your comic to see that this is true…

Congrats on a fine comic!

About the Kingship:
I am not certain Alex has fully grasped that he may just be the one who will be the King of Dreamland. He understands he has a role to play in freeing Dreamland from the tyranny of Nicodemus, but has it fully dawned on him? Even Nastajia did not believe it, originally (which is why Arvamas has to specify: “They did not specify who would be the recipient of this armor, nor if they would be king, they simply stated that if a human came to us with the sword… he was to be given this armor.”) I do believe she is starting to believe it, though. It would have less to do with Alex’ lineage and more to do with his heart, his inherent goodness, his bravery when called upon to be brave, and so on… But, as stated above, she doesn’t want him to be king just because he’s “supposed” to be, but that he would want this to be part of who he is.

One thing that I find interesting is this: she is saying he can do anything he desires _in two worlds_ … To me, this seems to imply that they (the Dreamlanders) are prepared to have a human king who disappears every time he wakes up in our world… Given that Dreamland does not seem to be merely part of REM sleep, but a real place people go to, and that yet, they do not suffer fatigue upon waking up, it is quite possible that those who would be king of Dreamland end up living two distinct lives, one in our worlds, one in Dreamland… Of course, that is not the only possibility, and it has been so long since a human king was in Dreamland that they forgot the specifics of it… it may be that somehow Alex will eventually go through some sort of portal to end up in Dreamland permanently. I don’t know. But this comic just provided that it may be possible to live the rest of his life in both worlds. Of course, this could bring about another set of difficulties, as time goes on, such as being already married in Dreamland, and suddenly falling in love in our world as well, and so on… but for now, he could very well use this time to learn in our world stuff that would be useful for him in Dreamland (like was mentioned in previous comments, like “Monarchy 101”…) Things like diplomacy, astronomy, dealing with intercultural differences, and so on…

About Nastajia:
I don’t think she’s pushing too far. She is having an honest discussion, pointing out facts, speaking the truth in love. She may sound like she’s criticizing Alex and, to a point, she is. But, she is doing it to shake him up and out of his current complacency. She, having lived with a royal upbringing, truly understands what is at stake here, and is trying to convey this to Alex. What’s more, she not only wants him to understand the level of responsibilities that will be thrust upon him (as was thrust upon her, when her parents disappeared), but she also mentions the other side of the medal: What does Alex want to do with his life? What are his aspirations, his deepest desires? What will he do in order to achieve those? He can’t simply let life toss him about, and hope to accomplish something, somehow… More than just shoving responsibilities upon him, she wants him to consider the question “Who/what do you want to be when you grow up?” (Seeing as technically, he has not done much growing up emotionally, as opposed to her.) While it may be quite acceptable, in our world, to be at the level/stage that Alex is, it simply won’t cut it in Dreamland. In the end, from what I see from this current comic (which is, BTW, as far as I have reached through the archives… I tend to read the comments, too, so it takes me longer to go through the story…) she doesn’t want Alex to merely be someone who has a lot of stuff to do in order for things to go right, but someone who has goals, dreams, aspirations, and who will strive to achieve them. That way, she can share in those dreams, and therefore share a closer part of his life and be more closely knit to him than she is currently. She already loves him, and is (as far as I can tell) willing to spend the rest of her life with him, but to get closer, she wants to be able to share in his dreams and aspirations, so that they can take that lifelong journey together as full partners. I like the fact that she has known him enough to see through the goofball façade, and can perceive that there is more to Alex than what’s on the surface, and she is now trying to encourage him to dig deeper and find out just what is below that surface.

About Alex:
Regardless of a system that pushes people before they’re ready, regardless of the “typical” college boy who has no clue what he wants, there is more at play, here, with Alex. He not only has no clue, he’s been a loafer for much of his life: just doing the strict minimum to get by. Sure, he’s in college. Does that mean he knows what he wants? I don’t think so. I get the feeling that since conventional wisdom says “to get a good job, you need education”, that was the logical thing to do, but he’s still loafing… In fact, we know he’s been doing _less_ than the strict minimum, since he now has to go to extra lengths to get extra credits, just so he doesn’t fail his school year. He’s still as aimless as ever. In a manner of speaking, one might see his brother Dan as Alex’ security blanket, being in the background, and making sure Alex does not fall too far behind… Until now, Alex has merely been a goofball, having fun whenever possible, and not looking nearly enough to what would come later.

So far, while he enjoyed Dreamland, he did not truly believe it was real (as per his own words). So to him, it was just a nice escape from reality, a fun vacation of sort. Only now, it’s starting to dawn on him that it’s more real than he thought, that the people he cared about in there are indeed in danger, and that he has a role to play in making things better. Discussing things with Nastajia is starting to make it dawn on him that he’s not just there to have fun, but that things may go really wrong if he doesn’t shape up. Up ‘til now, it was more of a “I get a nifty armor? Cool!”, rather than “I got the sword, which may mean I end up King of Dreamland, with all its responsibilities and stuff? Woah!” Alex never had to be mature in his life, so this will take some time, although it does look like it’s starting to happen, some.

It’s certainly not an easy thing for Alex to work towards a direction in his life, but I believe it’s definitely a worthwhile goal, whether he’s “ready” for it or not. Who’s ever really “ready”, anyway? The best way to learn is sometimes by doing, or “trying to do” at least. That said, I see a lot of myself in Alex…and yeah, it’s not an easy thing to tackle.

Also, one thing to keep in mind is Nastajia’s upbringing vs. Alex’s: very different. From the way it seems, Nastajia’s world requires her to act like a grown-up and make tough decisions a lot sooner than our world (and Alex’s, of course) asks us to do, so with that in mind, I’d say her argument is very valid.