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Post by Snes on Dec 21, 2009 8:00:50 GMT
[659]Robot children? "Father?" Creepy... I guess the obvious explanation is that he's in denial about what really happened. Either that or his memory is severely damaged in his old age.
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Post by Naamah on Dec 21, 2009 8:02:46 GMT
Zimmy eyes!
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Post by yazzydream on Dec 21, 2009 8:03:06 GMT
Calling them his children, I actually think that's sweet and makes a lot of sense.
Doesn't change the fact that he's a hypocrite. So he lived to ripe old age did he? That's more than he deserves in my humble opinion.
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Post by edzepp on Dec 21, 2009 8:03:17 GMT
This is one of the darker pages in a while, to be sure.
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Post by silvardepoch on Dec 21, 2009 8:03:22 GMT
He looks a little like Zimmy there, doesn't he.
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Post by Seth Thresher on Dec 21, 2009 8:03:36 GMT
Curses! Just missed out! Oh well, maybe later.
This one seemed pretty powerful right there. At the end of a man's life...
So much denial over what he had done in anger before, wondering what went wrong while surrounded by the ones that he did love. And finally, we get that line.
*thinks*
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Post by kastia on Dec 21, 2009 8:03:50 GMT
Well, very sad as that was... I know there's gonna be a lot to discuss about this page.
Like how Diego had eyes kind of like Zimmy's or has no eyes to begin with!
And are those plans on his bed important or relevant in any way?
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Post by Seth Thresher on Dec 21, 2009 8:10:15 GMT
Oh! I wonder if Reynard will have snuck in behind the crew and be there with an "I told you so" when this clicks shut...
We are winding down to a close for this chapter (nearing page 30, after all), I'm anxious to see how Tom surprises us with the ending this time =)
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Post by strainofthought on Dec 21, 2009 8:13:12 GMT
So "She died and we did nothing." is apparently a reflection made later, not a reaction at the time of Jeanne's death. I think Diego is saying things went exactly as he intended, but that all these years later he's confused why he didn't change his mind at the last moment. His own admitted lack of second thoughts is doubly damning.
Damn it Tom, I liked Diego before this recording.
Any speculation on what is depicted in Diego's diagram? Looks like an iconic flower or a flame to me. Or possibly a baby wrapped in a blanket.
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Post by hal9000 on Dec 21, 2009 8:16:37 GMT
Ah, the lies we tell ourselves to avoid thinking about the awful things we've done.
In the end I guess he must have had a conscience, since probably the only reason he'd try to rationalize and cast his actions in a more positive light for posterity is if he felt horribly guilty about them. In a way, I think that long life might have worked against him, since that guilt and remorse must have been gnawing away at him the whole time.
Edit:
Also, based on Diego's general worldview in the last few comics, I'd guess he was an Atheist (or at least a Deist or something). I'm wondering what sort of afterlife he went to when he died (or if he just ceased to exist).
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Post by yazzydream on Dec 21, 2009 8:21:48 GMT
Also, that's probably the most human looking robot hand we've seen. The arm looks a lot like muscles. Whose do you think it belongs to? The color also seems to be closer to aqua then the grey we're used to seeing. Do you think it has any significance, or is it unimportant?
Could it be the skeletal structure of Jones? (Haha, I am joking here.)
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Post by Sir Culatory on Dec 21, 2009 8:32:23 GMT
Tom is so very good at this. Despite what we have seen of Diego at late I was moved by this ending (rare for a comic). I wonder if his eyes (or lack of them is significant)... And now I wonder - was this a deathbed confession for a (weak) man forced to do something he has regretted and felt guiltly of for all these years? Or is it a (weak) man in his final moments giving in to denial in front of the last (only?) beings that care about him? The former doesn't seem to be supported by what Cambot has shown (especially his insistence it had to be Jeanne and then telling her it needn't have ended like this). Or a third option - did he think Jeanne might survive it? We don't see his response to Young telling them Jeanne would be a non-person from that moment on. And the poor robots ("father?"  ) - I can see how they could be so divided. Those that believe Diego on his death bed/forgive him and those who don't. Oh, always more questions raised so skillfully. Again this is a great page Tom, from a great chapter. |
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mariposa
Full Member
Hi, I'm Elise!
Posts: 149
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Post by mariposa on Dec 21, 2009 8:32:52 GMT
How heartbreaking. Even as horrible as he was, he regreted it until his death. This page is a bit creepy, with his darkened eyes and the robot's "Father?" I just realized that we've never seen him without glasses before.
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jon77
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Post by jon77 on Dec 21, 2009 8:40:13 GMT
Ah, the lies we tell ourselves to avoid thinking about the awful things we've done. So true. |
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Post by centzontotochtin on Dec 21, 2009 8:43:42 GMT
Is this really denial and blame-shifting, or was Diego actually pressed into coming up with a scheme by the protector of the Court? I mean, he seems like the passive-aggressive type, and he did have cambot with him to record the super-secret sneaky atrocity that was supposed to be stricken from all records.
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Post by fjodor on Dec 21, 2009 9:14:15 GMT
...and good riddance...
That was the first thing that sprang to mind when I read this page, but I guess Diego spent the rest of his days trying to live with a big gnawing heap of guilt on his soul.
The drawing on the table next to him _could_ represent the chasm between GC and Gillitie. If so, it looks like there is a chamber beneath it.
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guyy
Full Member
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Post by guyy on Dec 21, 2009 9:40:58 GMT
I'm don't see how the "father" thing is creepy...it seems appropriate, as the robots are his (brain)children. Also, it's a pretty obvious reference to Robot. Anyway, I guess this is probably the end of the recording; brace yourselves for Annie and Kat looking at least as shocked as us.  |
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Post by Sir Culatory on Dec 21, 2009 9:44:48 GMT
Hmmm, poor Kat as well. Now that her and Annie have seen this the robots will be expecting help to put things right, somehow.
I wonder how they respond to it? And will technologically minded Kat and Annie with her etherical abilities both come to the same conclusion?
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Post by Ulysses on Dec 21, 2009 10:45:22 GMT
Such a great page, and yet my first thought was "Has his nose got even bigger?!" I'm a terrible person.
Ah Tom, your characters are so realistic. Here is a man desperately trying to reach a compromise with his conscience. "I didn't want to, he made me, it wasn't my choice". He knows deep down that he could have refused like the man who stormed out of the meeting but didn't, so he's created this story of coercion. Poor, sad man.
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Post by Yin on Dec 21, 2009 11:25:17 GMT
Thy nose never stops growing throughout thy life, actually.
Can't make out what the heck's that thing in the drawing on his table though.
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Post by digikitty on Dec 21, 2009 11:34:34 GMT
another possibility on the whole "she died, and we did nothing" it could possibly be that Diego didn't start building all those larger models until after Jeanne's death, hence the apparent belief that Young is the one responsible, and Diego is not, having nothing but this death bed confession of sorts to go on. And the confusion comes from the fact that Cambot's recording proves otherwise?
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Post by todd on Dec 21, 2009 11:45:07 GMT
We are winding down to a close for this chapter (nearing page 30, after all), I'm anxious to see how Tom surprises us with the ending this time =) Except there's still the question of what exactly the robots want Kat to do for them. That can't be hurried into a couple of last pages, unless this will be a sort of two-chapter story, like Chapters Seven and Eight, and the details of the robots' request for help after the flashback movie, and Kat's carrying it out, will be in the next chapter. |
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Post by cherubiel on Dec 21, 2009 12:09:09 GMT
"she was...all alone, waiting...when she died"
Muut said something very similar about Jeanne. Sounds as if she's still waiting for something or someone. Diego knew what she was waiting for, but sadly didn't include it into his recorded confession/apology/whatever.
Go Anni, find out and give Jeanne what she needs.
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Post by Sir Culatory on Dec 21, 2009 12:38:19 GMT
The drawing on the table next to him _could_ represent the chasm between GC and Gillitie. If so, it looks like there is a chamber beneath it. I see what you are saying. That would be interesting. I thought it might be the design of the robot arena, but I doubt it. I also notice the pocket watch on the table - I wonder if it is the one they were looking at before deciding to have the Archer fire the device on the previous page. |
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Post by Rgemini on Dec 21, 2009 12:46:47 GMT
This is without doubt the strongest and most adult storyline yet. As the comic has gone on and Annie and Kat are getting more grown up the events are being shown from a more adult POV. When you compare the earlier comics, the earlier stories are much more playful in the way Tom tells them than these more recent ones, although the events themselves are dramatic. Very cleverly done, Mr Siddell!
The black eyes make me wonder where Diego came from in the first place.
Annie and Kat are going to be stretched by this one - where can they turn? Who can they trust? I wonder if Coyote could help - perhaps to locate whoever it was that Jeanne loved; then Annie might be able to reunite them and allow Jeanne to move on at long last.
Gunnerkrigg Court has become a superb piece of storytelling and I find myself totally bereft on the days when it doesn't publish!
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Post by Yin on Dec 21, 2009 13:10:28 GMT
Hey, hooold on a minute. We've seen that Anja's eyes are so small Tom stylizes them into thickened lines.
Could Diego be Anja's ancestor? We've always guessed that if Kat were his descendant, it would be through Donald, but...
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Post by idonotlikepeas on Dec 21, 2009 13:15:46 GMT
The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.
This didn't feel like remorse or repentance to me. Guilt, yes, but to repent for something you have to accept that guilt. He went to his death blaming Young for his own crime because he couldn't bear the truth: that he was responsible for the death of the woman he loved out of his own petty jealousy and his desire for revenge for his broken heart.
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Post by Casey on Dec 21, 2009 14:01:46 GMT
I'm sure the eyes are just meant to represent how tiny and recessed his old eyes are. Little squinty bugger.
P.S.: Jones is a robot.
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Post by romangoro on Dec 21, 2009 14:13:53 GMT
I think that this is the first time we see someone die "on camera", right?
We've seen Annie take Surma and the boy from chapter 16, but they where already dead.
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Post by idonotlikepeas on Dec 21, 2009 14:52:33 GMT
Poor Kat. The robots expect her to make sense of all this for them.
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) - I can see how they could be so divided. Those that believe Diego on his death bed/forgive him and those who don't.
