#chrzananswer

tried to do gijinkas! blade fucks me up. hes just like that. i cant imagine him any other way. whatever floats your boat (on the sea of black goop)

organized in order of me drawing them across 4 days. fifties in poland were quite peculiar! very hard to research, people didn't tend to take photos of routine, everyday life. i didnt want lena to strike as particularly wealthy looking, which was mostly what ive been seeing in photos and articles. she still ends up looking very elegant and fashionable, i think. it still suits her, considering noble heritage, but this is Polish People's Republic damn it. No nobility here!! (she really reminds me of my grandma. her mother was a noblewoman, so she cultivated noble traditions as well. she would never go outside without a hat)

blade is just. whatever man. its supposed to make u think, oh, ive seen this before! but in reality its just this:

the fifties mark both the harshest political climate of stalinism, and the end of it with his death. quite the landmark was erected in his name as well! so i obviously doodled some commies to go along. i had to. eike eike eike 🗡️

(General lore guide I made that might make some of the ideas and concepts I present here a bit clearer)

I realized across the span of my three attempts already that i spend way too much explaining the buildup to INQ. Have a handy timeline of what happens on Konrad's planet before In a Queue.

His planet (forever unnamed because I cannot settle on anything,) is shrouded in complete darkness, caused by the Dark Matter invasion. On top of that, Dark Matter is toxic and causes a disease which causes the body to melt, making more Dark Matter. K is immune to it.

His arrival on the planet further divided the already conflicted people, to some he was a beacon of hope, to some he was a symbol of the invasion. There are two distinct factions dividing the planet:

there are those who want to see the light,

and those who cannot imagine life without Dark Matter.

Konrad was a believer of the first idea. His efforts on fending off Dark Matter and restoring the light turn out to be fruitless overtime, and the final nail in the coffin would be his meeting with ZERO.

Zero actually wants K to join the Dark Matter, saying they are "fundamentally the same". It thinks giving him what he wants would convince him. It mentions that, while K's actions were confusing at first, "it saw his real intent", as restoring the light will kill all the people on the planet.

You see, Dark Matter is everywhere. It's in the air, the ground, buildings- and at this point, in everyone's systems. Across generations resistance would build up, but the disease is still deadly, wiping out thousands of people across years. And with Dark Matter, in their systems, which suffers in exposure to light, and themselves, who never seen light in their life, the sudden exposure to sunlight is moreso akin to being burnt alive.

This way everyone will "get what they want", the people will see the light, K would reach his goal, and Zero, would harvest all the substance left from the dead people, to move onto another planet, further building it's Dark Matter empire. Everyone will finally "understand eachother".

Of course that is not, what, K's intent actually was. The Dark Matter have a very concerning communication problem, Zero genuinely doesn't realize they're unwelcome there. It's a play on Dark Matter being sad and lonely, and being very particular in its way of socializing in canon... in a way.

This meeting also makes K realize he actually is part Dark Matter. He's immune to the disease (other orbs aren't, but that's for later) because he lives off of dark matter, the high concentration of it in the planet's atmosphere allows him to function without the need for food. (Again, unlike other orbs, who are very gluttonous, due to their void-related biology.)

This crushes all of his hopes in restoring the light. Whichever he'd choose, to clear the skies or to sulk in the darkness forever, the people will all die out anyway. So he... refuses to choose. He becomes very indifferent to a lot of other things too. But most importantly, he finds another way to "protect the people", and that is, being a conductor.

Working in railway is really just a way to check up on people across the continent. Though it also as a reflection on the people's attitude towards him. He now belongs nowhere, not to light, nor the dark, not to the people, not even to his home planet. But there is no other place for him. He is still strictly tied to this place, for it is his responsibility, his duty.

Since then he'd also catch the attention of certain fanatic, extremist groups, who specifically favor the invasion's leader, who they call the Eminence. While they themselves have not met their idol, they just have a hunch Konrad is the only one who did. He's pestered by this group's leader, who has no name or design, but I call him "Greyscale". He visits K every other day, asking the same similar questions. (Shown here!)

...I know what you're thinking! What is HER place in all this? Or Galacta's, even?

I haven't mentioned it almost at all, sorry, it's just, hard to incorporate in exposition like this. For Lena, the "She" Konrad mentions, who he dedicates his life to, is an elusive remnant of the past, who many tend to not dwell on. K does, however. He has not known light and his knowledge of it comes from books.

Lena is an image of who Konrad wishes he was. A leader, of unbreakable fighting spirit, who'd liberate her planet in a single fight. Or so he believes, because the previous guardian has been long forgotten, and those who remember her feats, only really know of a changed, manipulated story. K's vision of her is of his of imagination, or hallucination, even, for his dedication is but a result of his pointless, hopeless fight. She is what he could've been, but also his last motivation, his only comfort, and his own words of self-deprecation. She haunts his every dream and thought.

And Galacta? He shows up at the very start of INQ, he's on the planet searching for a way to defeat Dark Matter. It's related to the Ancients' discoveries and plans. I won't go into much detail about INQ itself, (the summary is halfway done!), but it's important to note how sickeningly similar Galacta is to her in his eyes, which was sooo intentional on my part. Konrad believes Zero must've read his mind before and now has sent a new "minion" to infiltrate him. K is very ill and paranoid and I really wish he actually killed Galacta with that swiss knife. But the plot must go on, sigh. It's not Konrad who decides anyway.

Thank you for reading! here are some very funny pictures to commemorate me revealing more than vague ideas on this story.

while the main plot sucks, a bit is still necessary to understand Bogdan, of course. He is the husband of Ewa, who in the first episode is having the WORST day of her life. some shitass (Adam) crashes his balloon on her car, she's fired from her job, at which they accuse her of stealing. on top of that, she catches her husband with another woman! Her family, her step mother and half sister are horrible to her as well, her life isn't easy, and it just got way worse for her.

Bogdan is a lawyer. he didnt marry Ewa for well, normal love reasons, it was just for convenience. her father, Kazimierz, is a wealthy, knowledgeable man, also working in law. Bogdan plots so he can sell the priceless tenement their family inherited. Kazimierz is smarter than to simply hand it over to Bogdan, and refuses to negotiate with him if Ewa isn't present. when Ewa phone calls her father, coincidentally Bogdan is already at his place. Kazimierz is old and ill, and Bogdan's threats and yelling cause him to almost have a heart attack. He was sure that would already kill him, but as it turns out, it leaves him in a coma for months. Okay I'm gonna fast forward a bit, he kills him with some weird medicine, which Renata (Ewa's stepmother, Kazimierz's wife) helps him with. She gets a classic Pan Tadeusz-esque catholic redemption arc after that.

later in the show, its shown to the audience (but revealed to the characetrs themselves much later), that Adam (Ewa's love interest, stupid guy who crashed on her car, well known actor within the show) is actually Bogdan's half brother. they shared a father. Bogdan, though, is an orphan, and born from an 'accident'. he never knew his father. i might be misremembering this, but i think he didnt know his mother well either, she was mentally unstable and (within the show) noone knows what really happened to her. The thing is, not knowing his father, he actually meets him in his childhood, but as a egoistic, whealthy man. Bogdan, being raised poor, wants a bit of hit treasure, and tries to break one of the mirrors of his car. the man catches him in the act, which enrages Bogdan, and so he burns him and his wife alive.

Bogdan was raised by his grandfather, a blind, but talented wood sculptor. who he also indirectly kills, he commits suicide because of bogdan. its actually graphically shown in the show. Ewa is the one who discovers his body, and also his sculptures, its a bit of a longer arc in the show. Ewa organizes an art exhibition of his sculptures to honor him. Bogdan feels very uneasy at the exhibition, obviously because he recognizes his grandfather in the photos, and the sculptures. he even hallucinates him in the crowd! but theres another thing that happens after… he discovers a message carved into one of the sculptures: "Nigdy nie wiesz, kogo zabijesz" -> "you never know who you might kill". and then, this, oh this absolutely genious scene happens. i'll show it to you! (and translate too!) (i know its cringe, i watched a streamer watch it, but that's how i found out about it. we all went obsessed about the show!!! it was a whole community effort to get through this show)

tl:

"And they died... because of that?"

"Do you even know what it means to be burnt alive?"

"You're a murderer! A murderer, you hear?!?"

(flashback ends)

"Excuse me, do you have a light?" (lit. in polish, "may i ask for fire?")

"A-a light? No no no, no fire, I don't smoke..."

FOR A SHOW THIS BAD, this scene, it broke me, how did they?!? do something this good?? for a show on such a low budget??? that lighter got INGRAINED in my mind, so much so, that i was READY to read about it in Horrific Demises. the scene of course turned out to be way different lol but I WAS SO READY.

The fire symbolism comes back at the end of the show, when Bogdan meets his mother. (yes i'm gonna skip a LOT. technically he meets her earlier, but this time, she can talk, and he's runnign away from the consequences of his actions, he killed another person, and is having trouble in court. between that and this, he got a lot more badass scenes like that one!) they have a talk, in the shed where his grandfather used to live. the scene is just as powerful, the only thing lighting up the scene is a candle. its framed just so to implicate that he will burn her alive in the shed too, as he locks her in one of the rooms.

but it turns out, he did that just so she didnt have to see him hang down from the ceiling.

but she escapes. and she does.

OKAY ENOUGH OF THE RAMBLE ENOUGH OF THE YAP BLA BLA BLA this doesnt say much about the comparison i'm making, doesnt it? but i hope you liked the rant. no matter how bad the show is i would DIE for this arc its so good

here's a list of things i think Bogdan shares with Arthur:

-is horrible to his wife

-CHEATS on his wife

-highly positioned, dominating

-manipulative, creates a false persona, cold and calculating, steering

-yet emotional and unstable, quick to anger, improvising

-causes the deaths of numerous people just to get his way

-that lighter scene made me flinch

thaaat's pretty much it. now you know way too much about a forgotten polish melodrama. thank you for reading!!! have some Bogdan gifs made by our community:

and this guy who i quickly scribbled up in my sketchbook today, too, i guess.