[1120] For the rest of his life

Except for one key difference: Jones doesn't take all their money when they die.

I dunno, she looked awfully emotionally attached to Egalmore in earlier pages of this chapter, although maybe that just shows how good at acting she has become over the years!

I'd like to think that one of the reasons Surma left him is, because, well, an unstoppable human-shaped mineral has been following him - and decided to pick him as companion - for the rest of his life. It's a really huge relationship baggage I've seen in someone.

And also that opposites attract stuff.

Also, hilarious Blingee!

I find it interesting that Jones explains herself here in future/present tense. This is something that she does not plan to stop doing.

This whole thing about Jones with no emotions just feels like it opens the Vulcan trap for me.

You claim you no longer have/are over base desires and emotion. You claim to not express them or be altered by them in any fashion. Yet they still do things or partake in affairs driven by a desire. You also cannot go without some kind of drive and stil be able to interact with the world on any level(even if it's just scratching your ass or bothering to get a goofy bowl haircut). Something that moves you from the spot to actually do things. Quite literally in Jones' situation because she isn't even forced by biology to eat or drink. There's a lot of things she's done that don't quite hash out if she were truly the passive, emotionless, and observing stone she said.

I'm not saying she experiences the kind of thing humans do, but she's hardly emotionless. There is some kind of drive or reason to act wrapped up in her somewhere.

To put it simply, I don't buy it. Though I suspect part of the point is this is just, "As told by the one claiming they are passive as the stone." Jones wouldn't be the first with the ability to have an objective perspective on anything in the world other than themselves. It's actually quite common to not be able to do that.

The thing is, Jones doesn't have to have actual emotions to imitate the actions around her. If "to do" and "not to do" are of equal value to her, she may as well default to the emotional values of those around her, which tend to lean towards "to do". As I've theorized earlier, and the comic has supported, I think that Jones simply mirrors the desires of the people she comes in contact with and through them possesses a semblance of emotion at times.

Incidentally, I think that Jones may know what the Seed Bismuth is, after all. She did mention that she's only teaching things that have been discovered by the contemporary science, so she wouldn't talk of the Seed even if she knew, if everybody else had forgotten what it was.

To be stabbed by Coyote's tooth, obviously.

Also, as far as the Seed of Bismuth goes, wouldn't doubt it if Jones actually did know and just wasn't saying anything not because everyone forgot about it, but because nobody thought twice about writing down what that seed was.

Or maybe there are records of the Seed of Bismuth, in the same place the records of Jeanne are. ;D

Surma disliked Jones... opposites didn't attract. But this didn't prevent her from courting James.
And it's not like there weren't other possible reasons.

Also of interest: Zimmy can't stand the presence of TicTocs or otherwise being watched. She evidently almost loves Jones -the-perfect-observer.

I don't think she does know what the Seed Bismuth is. How could she know something she wasn't around to observe, and we established in the prolonged flashback that she wasn't even in the country when the court was founded.

She doesn't know EVERYTHING, she just happened to be around for the EARTH'S WHOLE LIFE, so she knows A LOT. It's not like she's omnicient.

Hmm, so obvious I didn't give her name a second thought, but you're right. Good catch! That would have been an interesting story to see also. I like the friendship between Anja and Surma, and also between Zimmy and Gamma. It would have been neat to see how Tom would have written a friendship between Jones and another female character. There are so many ways he could go with that backstory to make it cool and interesting. Perhaps some day we'll get bonus content or something?

Speaking of which, another thought: maybe this chapter's bonus page will be more pictures from Jones' photo album? Given her likely inability to have an artistic taste of her own, I imagine the subjects themselves might also provide a picture or two to her for her collection. Hmm.........

Honestly guys, I think Tom's little "No capacity for emotional connection" tidbit at the end there should clue us in to the fact that she does in fact have capacity for emotional connection.

That was my first thought, but we'll just have to wait and see before we can know for sure I guess.


Ah, but why does she have those instinct? Where do they come from? We have the instincts we do because they're keeping us alive, right? Since she's not alive, Jones' instincts would have to be for some other reasons.

Jones clearly has intelligence, but intelligence does not negate instincts, nor does it necessarily require emotional capacity.



Clearly? Do we know that for certain? What do you base this on? But either way, free will does not directly relate to emotional capacity, either.



As some people have already tried to explain, complete absence of emotional capacity would result in a creature with no active sense of self-orientation, who is wholly controlled by the emotions and desires of other beings. I.e. emotionless Jones encounters a caveman who wants to hunt buffalo. Jones has no input either way, so she goes along with hunting buffalo. Eglamore needs someone to reassure his sense of self-worth. Jones acts as a mirror to his desire, and does just that.

This ofcourse isn't a confirmation in any way, but so far there has been nothing that would actually disprove Jones's allegations of her nature, either.

Then there was the time that Jones chose as her companion The Doctor. They spent most of their time arguing about which of them was actually the companion. She never took his name.