[2936] "... since you last used your eyes."

[csj]

eye see

[TBeholder]

So, the adorable young lady has Zimmy eyes. Plot thickens, indeed.

May 1, 2024 7:38:46 GMT Corvo said:

Scene cuts to a lightning hitting a tower, an antenna. Inside, the girl lays on a table in what is clearly a medieval laboratory. By her side the guy yells frenetically "She's alive! SHE'S ALIVE!!", all the while the raven striking his head yells "I was already alive, you moron!!".

It’s clearly high voltage equipment (insulator strings), so that’s half a cookie.

[arf]

Cookies to whoever made the "IT'S ALIVE!!" reference. The fellow may not be going full Frankenstein on us yet, but the equipment has been assembled...

[Angry Individual]

I'm now beginning to wonder if this isn't Omega.

*puts on tinfoil hat*

We're seeing the first of many attempts at controlling the ether, and it all starts with this girl, maybe named Alpha? Omega is the final conclusion, Zeta and Gamma were just along the way.

Either that or Zimmy is a straight up clone. The resemblances are too close.

[guntherkrieg]

Neo: why do my eyes hurt?

Morpheus: you've never used them before

[Igniz]

csj :

May 3, 2024 9:16:57 GMT Angry Individual said:

Either that or Zimmy is a straight up clone. The resemblances are too close.

+1, at least physically, anyway. We have yet to see the rest of this girl's abilities, as Zimmy hasn't been shown to be able to use animals as microphones.

Regarding the latter, while Paz doesn't speak through animals, she can talk with them. Could it be that this girl is some sort of "ancestor" to other Ether-using Courtesans on an etheric level, maybe even manipulating who or who doesn't react to it?

[morrahadesigns]

May 3, 2024 10:10:00 GMT Igniz said:

csj :

May 3, 2024 9:16:57 GMT Angry Individual said:

Either that or Zimmy is a straight up clone. The resemblances are too close.

+1, at least physically, anyway. We have yet to see the rest of this girl's abilities, as Zimmy hasn't been shown to be able to use animals as microphones.

Regarding the latter, while Paz doesn't speak through animals, she can talk with them. Could it be that this girl is some sort of "ancestor" to other Ether-using Courtesans on an etheric level, maybe even manipulating who or who doesn't react to it?

That is a really cool theory but I don't think it would work out like that. If the court had control of who could or couldn't react to the ether I think they would have been operating in a very different manner than this. I think they would have been a lot more aggressive against characters fron the forest too. 

[morrahadesigns]

Sepia-toned Scientific Shenanigations have begun. What did they do to get her to "wake up"?

[ctso74]

That subtle color, being only in her eyes, is very striking in this scene. *chefs kiss*

[ctso74]

May 3, 2024 13:21:06 GMT morrahadesigns said:

Sepia-toned Scientific Shenanigations have begun. What did they do to get her to "wake up"?

I'm guessing she was always awake, and had acted through her corvid companions for so long, that her body atrophied.

[pyradonis]

Looks more comfortable than the floor at least.

Now IF WE HAD JUST SEEN ANY OTHER CHARACTER WITH THAT SPECIFIC EYE COLOR, hmmm...

[phantaskippy]

Gamma, Zeta, Omega. . .

I think whoever we are seeing in the flashback might be the start of an experiment that leads to Gamma and Zimmy being who they are.

An experiment that finds it's final form in Omega.

[Corvo]

Pets allowed inside the lab?! I already like the guy!

[lisanela]

What if this woman and Zimmy were split, like Annie? Zimmy says she has seen this happen to "unlucky people" before : www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2258

[Corvo]

Plot twist: This all takes place in early 90's Oregon.

[Gemminie]

The man with the bow tie took the girl away, and then there was an end-of-flashback scrollwork involving an omega symbol. There's another such scrollwork on the upper left of this page; Tom seems to be using these to bracket the start and end of flashback sequences. The first sequence has ended, and now another begins; this is a change of scene, but still a flashback to the past. The man in the bow tie, who (we assume) is from Gunnerkrigg Court (or perhaps some sort of proto-Court) has brought the girl to what seems to be a laboratory, where there appear to be various Kenneth Strickfaden-style electrical fixtures both around and above the bed she lies in. She looks around, not appearing apprehensive or concerned; she agreed to come here.

The man with the bow tie enters the room and asks her whether he's correct in assuming that the girl hasn't used her own eyes for some time. She turns her head to look at him, and we see her eyes; they are dark-rimmed, reminiscent of Zimmy's but not the same. She merely makes a humming sound without opening her mouth. He adds that perhaps she hasn't used her own voice for some time either. He suggests that "we" can bring "one of her crows," if that would make things easier for her. This implies that he's working with other people, that the birds are actually crows, that they're not currently in the room now, and that she has more than one of them. We don't see her response on this page.

I'm assuming that this is either a Court of the past or a precursor to what would become the Court, and that he and perhaps some colleagues are doing experiments to try to discover how her abilities work, possibly using electricity. There's no way to tell where in the world they are; are they in the Court proper, which we now know to be a compressed dimension of sorts, or does that not yet exist, or perhaps it exists but they're not there for some reason? Apparently the girl can not only speak through animals; apparently she sees through their eyes and perhaps lives vicariously through them. This brings up the possibility that the New Person we've been seeing is actually not Omega but merely one of the New People whom she's inhabited and is remotely controlling – or perhaps an unclaimed New Person body that Kat made but hasn't yet transferred a robot CPU into, so it was uninhabited until Omega appropriated it.

Perhaps we'll see the experiment next time!

[bicarbonat]

So...Zimmy 'gets' the brain-breaking, discomfiting nature of the world, but can't do anything about it. The Court is using a person as a prognostication machine because they (like Kat and Anthony) are driven mad by it.

While Kat has been breaking through to the unseen world intuitively (with a bit of angst along the way), the Court has circumvented that angst by having Omega tell them key probabilities/steps in advance, and Anthony inadvertently invited more angst by following the steps prescribed by etheric creatures.

Anthony and Kat both put skin in the game – the difference was their source of info. The Court is using this girl in an effort to avoid the "mess" of life, while reaping maximum reward.

I think that they sacrifice the wild and (sometimes) life-saving x factor in doing so, because they're going to ride that train to the end of its line. And Omega won't be able to do anything about that.

[blazingstar]

May 3, 2024 14:13:34 GMT phantaskippy said:

I think whoever we are seeing in the flashback might be the start of an experiment that leads to Gamma and Zimmy being who they are.

An experiment that finds its final form in Omega.

May 3, 2024 9:16:57 GMT Angry Individual said:

We're seeing the first of many attempts at controlling the ether, and it all starts with this girl, maybe named Alpha? Omega is the final conclusion, Zeta and Gamma were just along the way.

Either that or Zimmy is a straight up clone. The resemblances are too close.

May 3, 2024 15:01:24 GMT lisanela said:

What if this woman and Zimmy were split, like Annie? Zimmy says she has seen this happen to "unlucky people" before : www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2258

I agree, I'm adding +1 vote to parts of both of your theories!

Personally, I'm starting to wonder if this girl (let's call her Alpha? Unclear if she's Omega yet) could be someone that Zimmy and Gamma could have been split from. Alpha's brain is extremely overwhelmed by some kind of etherical input, so much that her mind has gone into shutdown; she can't move, can't bear to open her eyes or speak with her physical voice, and escapes to the body of simpler animals.

We know that Gamma acts as a "heat sink" to Zimmy's overloaded brain. We know that Zimmy's crimson eyes get gunked up if there's been too much noise in her head for too long. So here's my theory: Zimmy and Gamma were attempts at stabilizing Alpha's powers, by splitting them into separate people, but keeping an emotional bond between them. Perhaps Omega is the result after splitting and isolating Alpha's ability most useful to them: her precognition.

This creates even more questions! Are there other greek-letter subjects? (What happened to Beta, Delta, and Epsilon?) What happened to them? What happened to Alpha after the founding of the first Court? We've entered Gunnerkrigg Endgame, so I believe these questions will be answered soon!

[hp]

May 3, 2024 14:13:34 GMT phantaskippy said:

Gamma, Zeta, Omega. . .

I think whoever we are seeing in the flashback might be the start of an experiment that leads to Gamma and Zimmy being who they are.

An experiment that finds it's final form in Omega.

Nice catch.

I'm still curious if Matt Murdock + weird bird in Parley's vision on page 772  have anything to do with the current Blond Dr Frankenstein (henceforth referred as Frank) and bird.

It's the only other instance of a blondie with a bird we've seem in the comic. Maybe Murdock and bird were exactly this blond guy and bird?

Murdock in that page seemed somewhat different and  more comtemporary tho, due to his unruly hair and his shirt/jacket having a Kaneda vibe. 

Maybe he was a descendant of the two people we're following right now— Victorian Zimmyish Girl (whom I'll just call Victoria from now on) and Frank?

I remember in that page's discussion some people mentioned the weirdness of Murdock's black eyes, like they were sunglasses. But maybe he is related to Victoria AND Zimmy, and his eyes are actually obscured by goo in that pic, not just hidden by shadow? Like HE is the one with Zimmy and Victoria's powers and black eyes

[manabi]

May 3, 2024 10:10:00 GMT Igniz said:

May 3, 2024 9:16:57 GMT Angry Individual said:

Either that or Zimmy is a straight up clone. The resemblances are too close.

+1, at least physically, anyway. We have yet to see the rest of this girl's abilities, as Zimmy hasn't been shown to be able to use animals as microphones.

Regarding the latter, while Paz doesn't speak through animals, she can talk with them. Could it be that this girl is some sort of "ancestor" to other Ether-using Courtesans on an etheric level, maybe even manipulating who or who doesn't react to it?

Zimmy as a flawed clone of this woman would explain her inability to talk through animals and possibly her not being able to fully control her abilities. Whoever made her just dumped her on the streets somewhere after she turned out to be an imperfect clone.  That would also suggest there might be others like Zimmy running around in the world outside Gunnkrigg Court.  Probably not every imperfect clone, as some probably failed so badly they died, but at least a few others are likely to have survived.

The question is, in that scenario, who made the clones?  Not the Court, because they had to go find Zimmy and bring her there.  Who could it be?

[pyradonis]

May 3, 2024 20:11:49 GMT manabi said:

May 3, 2024 10:10:00 GMT Igniz said:

+1, at least physically, anyway. We have yet to see the rest of this girl's abilities, as Zimmy hasn't been shown to be able to use animals as microphones.

Regarding the latter, while Paz doesn't speak through animals, she can talk with them. Could it be that this girl is some sort of "ancestor" to other Ether-using Courtesans on an etheric level, maybe even manipulating who or who doesn't react to it?

Zimmy as a flawed clone of this woman would explain her inability to talk through animals and possibly her not being able to fully control her abilities. Whoever made her just dumped her on the streets somewhere after she turned out to be an imperfect clone.  That would also suggest there might be others like Zimmy running around in the world outside Gunnkrigg Court.  Probably not every imperfect clone, as some probably failed so badly they died, but at least a few others are likely to have survived.

The question is, in that scenario, who made the clones?  Not the Court, because they had to go find Zimmy and bring her there.  Who could it be?

Finally someone who realizes that as awesome as these theories are, they need an explanation for why the Court went out to Birmingham to find Zimmy and Gamma.

[Gemini Jim]

May 3, 2024 20:27:05 GMT pyradonis said:

May 3, 2024 20:11:49 GMT manabi said:

Zimmy as a flawed clone of this woman would explain her inability to talk through animals and possibly her not being able to fully control her abilities. Whoever made her just dumped her on the streets somewhere after she turned out to be an imperfect clone.  That would also suggest there might be others like Zimmy running around in the world outside Gunnkrigg Court.  Probably not every imperfect clone, as some probably failed so badly they died, but at least a few others are likely to have survived.

The question is, in that scenario, who made the clones?  Not the Court, because they had to go find Zimmy and bring her there.  Who could it be?

Finally someone who realizes that as awesome as these theories are, they need an explanation for why the Court went out to Birmingham to find Zimmy and Gamma.

Maybe Birmingham is Tatooine? Do we know for certain that Zimmy was born there, or just raised there?

[yellowb]

We know from Word of Tom that "If Zimmy's parents could remember her, they would want nothing to do with her".

We also know that Gamma is from Poland. Edit: And had only been in England a little while before she met Zimmy. Hence her poor English.

[silicondream]

May 3, 2024 15:17:35 GMT Corvo said:

Plot twist: This all takes place in early 90's Oregon.

I would have said Washington.  The Court makes damn fine coffee.

[Hatredman]

May 3, 2024 8:33:47 GMT TBeholder said:

So, the adorable young lady has Zimmy eyes. Plot thickens, indeed.

Indeed! That young Onega has *gray* eyes!

[Hatredman]

May 3, 2024 14:13:34 GMT phantaskippy said:

Gamma, Zeta, Omega. . .

I think whoever we are seeing in the flashback might be the start of an experiment that leads to Gamma and Zimmy being who they are.

An experiment that finds it's final form in Omega.

Who is Omega's Gamma?

[Hatredman]

May 4, 2024 0:47:25 GMT Gemini Jim said:

May 3, 2024 20:27:05 GMT pyradonis said:

Finally someone who realizes that as awesome as these theories are, they need an explanation for why the Court went out to Birmingham to find Zimmy and Gamma.

Maybe Birmingham is Tatooine? Do we know for certain that Zimmy was born there, or just raised there?

I think that both Zimmy and Gamma are leftovers from experiments and cloning (or shifting), as it was already proposed in this very thread. As leftovers they were discarded. Zimmy was adopted by a Birmingham couple and when the Court heard that she was not harmless, they pulled her back. The Court was responsible for her parent's demise but Zimmy blames herself. Gamma is an agent from the Court and we are all being deceived.

OR

Mom and Pop were in reality Court researchers in a field assignment in Birmingham. Zimmy was inadvertently responsible for her paren't demise and the Court tracked her down and brought her back. I can't think of a good backstory for Gamma being much older and from Poland, though.


EDIT: how many Court-like organizations are around the world, anyway? Eglamore's (and Parley's) training involves meeting with other "wizard" people who are not part of the Court. Are all these organizations independent city-states enshrowded in secrecy, or is there a network of ether-using groups around the world? (the Court is unique because it is an Ether-using, Ether-hating organization)

EDIT 2: Gamma is in fact Llanwellyn, The Headmaster. It will be revealed when Fred (Ysengrin), Daphne (Annie), Velma (Kat) Shaggy (Renard) and Scooby (Coyote) all take Gammas mask off.

EDIT 3: Gamma is in fact from another Court-like place in Poland. She was in Birmingham as an intern for Zimmy's parents on an Exchange Program.

[yellowb]

May 4, 2024 16:55:59 GMT Hatredman said:

May 4, 2024 0:47:25 GMT Gemini Jim said:

Maybe Birmingham is Tatooine? Do we know for certain that Zimmy was born there, or just raised there?

I think that both Zimmy and Gamma are leftovers from experiments and cloning (or shifting), as it was already proposed in this very thread. As leftovers they were discarded. Zimmy was adopted by a Birmingham couple and when the Court heard that she was not harmless, they pulled her back. The Court was responsible for her parent's demise but Zimmy blames herself. Gamma is an agent from the Court and we are all being deceived.

OR

Mom and Pop were in reality Court researchers in a field assignment in Birmingham. Zimmy was inadvertently responsible for her paren't demise and the Court tracked her down and brought her back. I can't think of a good backstory for Gamma being much older and from Poland, though.


EDIT: how many Court-like organizations are around the world, anyway? Eglamore's (and Parley's) training involves meeting with other "wizard" people who are not part of the Court. Are all these organizations independent city-states enshrowded in secrecy, or is there a network of ether-using groups around the world? (the Court is unique because it is an Ether-using, Ether-hating organization)

EDIT 2: Gamma is in fact Llanwellyn, The Headmaster. It will be revealed when Fred (Ysengrin), Daphne (Annie), Velma (Kat) Shaggy (Renard) and Scooby (Coyote) all take Gammas mask off.

EDIT 3: Gamma is in fact from another Court-like place in Poland. She was in Birmingham as an intern for Zimmy's parents on an Exchange Program.

Note: Zimmy's parents are not dead, they just don't remember her.

[morrahadesigns]

May 3, 2024 13:26:23 GMT ctso74 said:

May 3, 2024 13:21:06 GMT morrahadesigns said:

Sepia-toned Scientific Shenanigations have begun. What did they do to get her to "wake up"?

I'm guessing she was always awake, and had acted through her corvid companions for so long, that her body atrophied.

That's why I used quotation marks around the words "wake up". I meant what did they do to get her communicating through her own body instead of a bird. 

[Hatredman]

May 4, 2024 17:58:23 GMT yellowb said:

Note: Zimmy's parents are not dead, they just don't remember her.

Yes, but if they'd remembered, they would not want anything to dobwith her. I still say Zimmy did something very awful to them. And she thinks they're dead.