[815] He still loves you very much

Wait, WTF? Does the last panel make sense to anyone?

Nightmare? Bad memory? She woke up somewhere horrible? I have no idea what that Skull is.

The way the white turns to black as it hits that panel is ominous. And red panel borders too.

I think the skull is just a nice, unpleasent way of ending the flashback, with a symbol of Surma's impending death.

But why an animal's skull? For that matter, what animal does that belong to?

EDIT: Ninja'd by scatter.

Coyote.

I had a feeling when I first saw it that it was a coyote skull. Can't tell you why. Maybe somewhere in my education it successfully permeated my brain, or maybe I just matched the shape with the head of Coyote as I knew it. Disturbing indeed. If it's still part of her dream (hard to say since the darkness, I assume refers to her waking, or at least passing out of that particular dream), then maybe she just subconsciously recognized Coyote's handiwork.

The way the middle panels are laid out makes it look like it's doing that thing where a single image is split between multiple panels and that Anthony is standing between two Annies. Does that count as a mistake?

Anthony has definitely been crying. And the first thing I saw about the skull was the shriveled uterus. There's the possibility of both of these being what he was trying to convey - I'm thinking Surma got her powers from Coyote with the flaw of dying and passing it on at childbirth?

Yeah, I know, but if you look at both panels at once, he appears to be standing still with two etc.

Somehow, I get the sense that Tony's expression in panel 3 is probably worse than the veritable death glare in panel 2. There must be all sorts of rage, despair, and unpleasant mixed feelings playing across his face as he tries to keep them in control. Probably why he walked out, lest he fails to do so and unloads on a small child--his own daughter--he's already looming over and is likely intimidated as much as she is confused.

Given that, I can understand why Surma wanted to reassure Annie. Even if, in retrospect, the "still" might have caused more uncertainty than reassurance in the long run.

That's because Surma was more or less lying when she said Anthony still loved Antimony.

He's angry, resentful, that this little girl is taking the one bright thing that makes him feel alive.

Of course the above is pure speculation.

The idea that the "fire" is inherited from mother to child has been mentioned before. Tom hasn't really confirmed or denied it. The closest he's ever said anything about it was when he misread a question on form spring (Is Antimony's mother dead instead of Is Surma's mother dead) and replied something along the lines of "Of course, that's the whole point of the story". Later on he realised his mistake and changed the answer to just yes, saying it actually wasn't important. This can go either way in terms of arguing one theory over another.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about the theory. On the one hand, it would give us a good idea where the story is going. On the other, just about everything Tom has revealed either meets or exceeds our expectations for the story, and the theory just feels too easy to fit in, not that I wouldn't mind too much.

Also, while this is just wild spec, I'm starting to wonder if their is a connection between Anthony and Coyote, as they seem to be stark opposites (logic and chaos respectively). Probably just me thinking way to much about Gordon Halloway from The Longest Journey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Longest_Journey). Brilliant game by the way if you can get a copy of it.