[585] that man is Diego.

Annie 's technique for changing the subject:

Ahahaha, Yes of course noOHLOOKSOMETHINGELSE.

That seems most likely. There's no direct correlation between the two at this point.

Well that puts to rest the questions of whether Bull-bot represents a specific person.

Tom showed us this in this way so that there was no question that Annie made the connection. However, I would never have made the connection if it hadn't been spelled out. We've been looking right at Sir Young for days now, and no one suspected he was whom Bull-bot represented? Subtle, very subtle.

By the same token, I should mention that I also never made the connection between Robot's (or the Seraph model in general) eyes, and Diego's bespectacled eyes. Now that is one that I should have seen, and never did. Now I'll have to go back and re-read S1 again with the new information in mind.

Ponder: When S1 said "...and we did nothing", could this be Diego referring to both himself and Young, as opposed to the generic "we" in place of "I"? This opens up the possibility that Young did not kill Jeanne, but rather, failed to save her...

...just as Eglamore failed to save Annie from falling off the bridge, may I just point out. I just realized that.

I had a feeling that the bull-bot would turn out to be a dragon-slayer. New speculation: Sir Young refused Jeanne's application into the dragon-slayers, dismissing her as a nothing more than a silly girl with unrealistic fantasies. The slayers later go off to war with the forest, and Jeanne decides to get her revenge by siding with the forest and fighting on their side. Sir Young slays her during the battle, and she falls off the bridge into the Annan waters.

Holy crap that gave me an even better thought... Jeanne wanted to be a dragon slayer but Young turned her down as not being ready, so Jeanne set out across the bridge by herself to prove herself worthy, which no one took her seriously that she would do it, but she did and she got herself tossed off the bridge by a Forest denizen.

Or another similar idea: In an effort to prove herself she tried to ride Young's rogat orjak and fell off.

Or a third idea: Jeanne had left for the Forest to prove herself and was just leaving the Court grounds when Coyote, unaware that she was there, opened up the earth underneath her and she fell to her death.

Yo, Diego maps to Anthony, Young to Eglamore, Jeanne to Surma. Jeanne fell for Young instead of Diego, but she died! Maybe Diego would have built her a nice hospital. Alas, it wouldn't have made any difference.

</not serious>

I do wonder if the robots are just on the page or if the simulation is actually showing them?

Diego doesn't strike (¬_¬) me as the brawling type...

Jeanne's portrait looks like an official one, though. Heavy finery and a beautiful sword. I bet she was already a soldier for the court by when she died. She was probably famous for her work or had an important official position in order to merit a painting.

If Sir Young/Bullbot was in charge of protecting the court, maybe she worked for him, and she died while carrying out his orders or something. That's why Diego blames him. Maybe there was a horrible accident or she was killed by a member of the Forest. If "she died and we did nothing," they either never fixed what caused the accident or never retaliated against her killer.

So, like Casey said, she got swept under the rug. Her painting was removed so no one would ask awkward questions and Diego took it to build his own shrine to her.

If all the robots had contemporaries with Diego, you know what that means as far as boxbot is concerned, right?

Or a third idea: Jeanne had left for the Forest to prove herself and was just leaving the Court grounds when Coyote, unaware that she was there, opened up the earth underneath her and she fell to her death.

***

That above gives me an interesting thought. This would not paint Young as any more of an adversary as someone who simply didn't fully realize what was going on. He might've tried to stop Diego from going out there and warning her that Coyote was going to do his own thing. The Court might've been just arrogant enough to assume the Forest wasn't going to try something that drastic.

Young might even have approved of her as a student, but had no idea of what was going to happen. He'd probably try to stop anyone who'd interfere with a rite of succession if Jeanne were to suceed him as Protector of the Court. That certainly would make for the Bullbot vs. Seraph fight, and how it plays out.

In which case "We did nothing" really would be more damning of the Court than any one person, but would still allow Young to be depicted by the bull-bot Seraph, as Diego's parallel, has to fight through to get to Jeanne's picture.

I like all the other ideas, but I have a feeling Tom will make it much more epic, and more an "act of nature" that killed Jeanne, and something that will involve the entire Court and its history.

As for Jeanne not being known, that might be easier than we think. Could go like this: The Court and Diego rather angrily part their ways in some massive verbal battle which winds up with him being blackballed, his designs changed so that a) the Court doesn't have to rely on him to maintain them, and b) they lose most of that fixation with Jeanne, as they would be going on about "We did nothing" which kinda kaputs the conspiracy. There's a good chance not all the reprogramming was that effective, given the box-hauling bots have an odd fixation with that painting.

I don't think the Court would appreciate being reminded of their mistake, nor would Coyote if the word got back to him. Hell, there's a good chance both sides blame the other for what happened, and that might be part of the existing rift between them today.

Who wants to bet that Surma was probably *this* close to repairing that old rift with her charm and wit before she got sick, and then died?

Jeanne (and the portrait) were alive before the court was founded. Given the way Diego treats her (like a romance) she was probably about his age.

Given that the portrait could also predate the court. And while she probably didn't die until after the canyon was made (though it is possible the spirit came to haunt the canyon afterwards) she certainly needn't have lived long past that. Maybe even standing over it when it opened.

I bet if they put Boxbot's CPU inside of the ancient Boxbot robot, it would take the personality of Diego. Runty, pathetic, terrible. Diego probably styled Boxbot after himself in a fit of self-shame after Jeanne's death.

It's established in todays comic that sereph was diegos depiction of himself, but perhaps sereph is what he wants to be and box bot is how he sees himself.

They do have similar eyes and boxbot is essentially serephs head minus the body, so that would make sense.

Ultrabluesky: You presented the theory that "we did nothing" could mean "we did nothing to avenge her" rather than "we did nothing to save her". That is interesting and it's the first time I have heard that theory proposed... good job.

King Mir: Just after Jeanne cut Annie's face, she lowered her sword for a killing thrust and was coming for Annie when Annie was "woken up" from the ethereal realm by Kat's hovercraft. I'm pretty confident it was Jeanne's intention to kill Annie. For that matter, the cutting of her face might just have been to test whether she was a real person. I don't know. Maybe she's just ornery.