#blackgaard

Just jumped into the 1000 Episode Fan Art link and grabbed Episode 334, The Final Conflict! I have a solid idea for The Final Conflict fanart entry, and I really hope FotF likes it! I grew up with some of the Odyssey cartoons, but it was the Blackgaard Chronicles that got me into the radio program and made me realize that the world AiO takes place in is much larger than the cartoons suggested. And in my opinion, The Blackgaard Chronicles is about hope and despair: Some of the characters are full of hope (Whit, Jack, Jason, etc), Eugene and Richard are somewhere in the middle given their experiences with forgiveness and redemption, and then there's the arc's namesake, who's full of despair (Blackgaard).

To me, Dr. Blackgaard in The Final Conflict is what you get when despair enters a morally broken soul. He wants eternal life, but without the Jesus part, because that would mean changing himself, and that bothers him more than he lets on. I want my piece to convey that brokenness, not enough to concern FotF and be denied, but just enough to show what despair looks like.

Last year this month, I posted a MerMay piece featuring Connie Kendall from Adventures in Odyssey. Every May, several artists like me will post Mermaid-themed art to celebrate 'MerMay'. It's a great opportunity for us artists to work on our water themed art and characters. I can't recall who, but one fellow fan had mentioned Jules when I posted my Connie piece, so I thought I'd make Jules for MerMay this year. Maybe next year, I'll do Tasha or Jenny Whittaker...or Dr. Blackgaard as a shark, I don't know lol.

Do you think Jason had nightmares about Dr Blackgaard after A Name Not A Number?

Do you think he felt guilty?

Do you think he didn't understand why someone would so willingly offer up their life for his?

Do you think it kept him awake at night, feeling sick to his stomach, because the seemingly extremely kind man was dead and all because of Jason?

Do you think that when he heard Blackgaard on the radio, he wasnt angry, he was hopeful because if Blackgaard wasn't dead, then that weight didn't have to rest on his conscience?

But then Blackgaard turns out to be evil. He turns out to have terrorised his father and friends. Turns out he had been a bad guy the entire time. Evil in fact.

And then

And then

Jack Allen is in the tunnel. And the bomb goes off. And this person that Jason had been having nightmares about. This man that Jason thought died for him. This man killed his friend. Killed his friend right after they reconciled.

And Jason blames himself again. Because he didn't stop him. Because he didn't figure it out sooner. Because he spent months having survivors guilt and wishing Blackgaard back only for him to suddenly want Blackgaard dead. Only to regret everything he had thought and wished and prayed for.

Of course he wanted to fight. Of course he didn't like Jack not doing anything. This man had died for him and he had felt the guilt and now all that guilt was a lie. He had been suffering in silence for months, carrying a guilt he legally couldn't share, and suddenly Blackgaard was there. He was there and hurting people he cared about.

I'm just saying that Jason had to have had serious psychological problems after that. The world was spiralling around him. This is where the spiral started. It really doesn't end until Home Again.

1, Blackgaard (Regis, not Edwin) is a dilf. Gilf? Nah, dilf.

2, Richard is bi. That’s it that’s the bullet point

2.5, just as a clarification those two points aren’t related. At least I don’t think.

…Honestly maybe they are lol

3, if book six of the bloody Blackgaard chronicles doesn’t come out soon I’m gonna cry

@livehorses , @aiorevelations , @elle-eedee , @harlowdoylepi , @odyssey-owl , @odysseymysteryhour , and all my fellow Odyssey fans…