Let’s talk about Blindsprings and why you should read it!

Right, so let’s talk about Blindsprings. I’m going to be upfront and say that this review will have some spoilers up to the present point, which around 250 or so chapters. I’ll cover the premise, the characters, and what I like about it. If you’re still interested after that, go read it. The only thing it will cost you is a time, because it’s free and better than anything Marvel’s put out in the last few years.

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Premise

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Blindsprings tells the story a young girl named Tamaura that lived in the forest alone for three hundred years without aging due to a contract with the spirits that inhabited it. One day, a young boy named Harris finds her and they get along well. However, he leaves to go study magic only to return several years later, as an adult, and frees her from the spirits against her will. Thus she learns that the world around her has changed drastically and ends up being the cornerstone in a conflict between two factions: the Orphics, the spirit-allied former rulers of the city who are now an oppressed minority; and the Academist, “scientific” wizards who have instituted a dystopian police state in their zeal to wipe them out.’

We see early on that the Orphics are seen as second-class citizens and can be seen as treated horribly, not unlike Germany during a certain time that history will not let us forget. Worse, flashes to the past show that the Academist uprising began because Orphics treated those who weren’t like them as second-class citizens, meaning that they became as bad as the very order they were rebelling against. Not to mention things get more complex when the spirits get involved, and we find out they’ve been pulling a lot of strings as the story continues… And I mean that literally.

 

Characters

The story primarily focuses on Tammy, a proper and sweet princess who is three-hundred years behind on the times and fears elevators, but will put her duties above her personal desires, and Harris, a well-meaning Academist who is working to solve the magic crisis his home is currently facing and wants equality for everyone. They bonded as children, but fast-forward a couple of years and we see that they are forced down different roads due to his aspirations to help her involving joining the very descendants of the people who killed her family, and you can see how guilty they both feel since she drove him to it and he could think of nothing else. Then we learn that the spirits had a hand in it too, ultimately manipulating him for their own good.

The story also goes into the lives of the side-characters, such as Imogen and Street. They all have rich development, and even the antagonists like Asher Thorne appear to have both layers of growth, evident in both the past and the present. Another thing Kadi does well is the exploration of same-sex couples or non-binary characters, such as Harris with Evan and Ember with Irelia. If that’s your cup of tea, you’ll like this part of the comic.

Other Things to note
The world-building itself is amazing, with a detailed insight into things like how the Academist came into power and how there was an early attempt at assimilation between Orphics and non-Orphics. The art is gorgeous, with some panels being downright breathtaking. Tell me this doesn’t look amazing.

And it updates three times a week, with very few interruptions. You can read it: Here