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Post by alexscott on Jul 26, 2010 16:17:09 GMT
I can vouch personally that handling a bird won't necessarily cause the mother to abandon it. At my old house, we used to get chimney swifts building nests every summer, and almost inevitably their nests would fall out and their chicks would fall into the fireplace. On two occasions we tried and failed to nurse some back to health. Finally, a lady at the humane society told me the handling-abandonment thing was a myth. The next time it happened, I put them in a bowl with some paper towels, wedged it into the fireplace, and by the end of the summer they had apparently grown up and flown away.
This arc is bringing back some uncomfortable memories, actually.
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Kuraru
Junior Member
The mind is just a plaything of the body, is it not?
Posts: 75
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Post by Kuraru on Jul 26, 2010 16:42:46 GMT
Also, second to last panel, Paz stares into your soul. Aw, I think she looks really cute in the penultimate panel.
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Post by tearlach on Jul 26, 2010 17:58:35 GMT
I can vouch personally that handling a bird won't necessarily cause the mother to abandon it. At my old house, we used to get chimney swifts building nests every summer, and almost inevitably their nests would fall out and their chicks would fall into the fireplace. On two occasions we tried and failed to nurse some back to health. Finally, a lady at the humane society told me the handling-abandonment thing was a myth. The next time it happened, I put them in a bowl with some paper towels, wedged it into the fireplace, and by the end of the summer they had apparently grown up and flown away. This arc is bringing back some uncomfortable memories, actually. This is pretty sad, as I've heard it, the myth was invented to prevent people from picking up fallen birds so the parents would be able to continue to care for them. But, I think that as long as you tried your best and did it to save the poor little critters that you should be praised for your attempts, misaimed as they were.
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Post by dietcokeslamma on Jul 26, 2010 20:14:54 GMT
The big question in this chapter (for now): why did the baby pigeon's parents abandon it? Since its appearance is normal for baby pigeons, Kat's speculation that they turned their backs on it because of its ugliness can be ruled out. The most likely explanation I can think of is that they were powerless to help it - but they didn't even seem to be trying. (I also thought of the possibility of some fatal accident happening to them while Kat was in the workshop - say, Winsbury happening by with a new BB gun that he wanted to try out - but we haven't seen the bodies.) The big question in this chapter (for now): why did the baby pigeon's parents abandon it? They're probably either: - ex-humans who want their child to grow up in the human world,
- frat pigeons involved in a bizarre hazing ritual,
- transpigeonists who want Kat to add some robot bits to their baby,
- a metaphor for the cold harshness of reality. And also pigeons.
Although I'm not sure whether the parents can really do anything airlifting-wise if a chick falls out of the nest, in general. Wild birds will abandon any chick that gets interfered with by humans. Plus, pigeons aren't great at lifting, so they wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway. Also, I really think that place looks like a veterinary clinic. It makes sense, what with Paz's abilities. This was posted a few comics back: www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/guideto.htmIt talks about how you can tell whether or not birds (among other animals) have been abandoned. Judging from the fact that the bird has the beginnings of feathers, I'd say the parents are letting it learn to fly and would continue taking care of it on the ground (maybe they flew off to find some food for it). It also states why the "handling animals will make the mother not take it back" myth is wrong. On an unrelated note: "everything starts out ugly" HMM THIS SOUNDS LIKE IT MIGHT BE A METAPHOR FOR KAT'S ROBOT DESIGN (since no one else has mentioned it so far ;D )
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Earin
Full Member
Posts: 115
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Post by Earin on Jul 26, 2010 20:27:02 GMT
What I've noticed about this comic is that Paz seems pretty comfy is where ever she is (I agree it looks like a Vet clinic place) And we have yet to see any adults. Kat has her shop, Paz has her clinic, looks like some of the students are finding places where they fit in the court. Very insightful, Squidlet. They students started out as a bunch of kids living together in questionably unsafe bunkbed dorms and going to classes. Now they are steadily becoming young people getting a feel for their own identities and feeling out what they want to grow up to do. Have you noticed that excepting the mention of detention, we haven't seen much in the way of classes for some time now? Since it's still full daylight after a while of Kat-work, and Antimony is in detention (and it's not been transitioned into or mentioned) it's probably not a holiday, so I'm guessing Paz helps out at the clinic on weekends, assuming that is actually a veterinary clinic. (Certainly the features of the building suggests that it's not a domestic kitchen, and I think the folding table thingy suggests that it's a veterinary clinic, e.g. this. Also I think veterinary aprons are a marketed category of apron.) I'm not going to assume on this one, but it's possible one or more of Paz's parents are also Courtiers (or alumni) and talked to whoever runs the clinic, or even that one of Paz's parents is a full-time vet there.
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Queue
New Member
Posts: 2
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Post by Queue on Jul 26, 2010 21:20:15 GMT
Kat, you need a haircut.
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Post by todd on Jul 26, 2010 22:07:23 GMT
Have you noticed that excepting the mention of detention, we haven't seen much in the way of classes for some time now? And we hardly ever see the school uniforms any more, either.
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Post by todd on Jul 26, 2010 22:12:24 GMT
I'm wondering about Annie's detention. Presumably it's of the form that she must sit and study for a long time. Yuck, book learning only. Surely she gets to go free at some point in the day. I think that the detention might be preventative as well as punitive - the object being to keep her so busy in the detention room that she no longer has the opportunity to go sneaking around the Court, exploring, investigating, getting into trouble, and causing troubles that could endanger the entire Court. (A bit like why, in Greek mythology, Sisyphus was set to roll that boulder up the hill for eternity - the gods condemned him to that fate since he kept on coming up with clever schemes to get out of staying dead - including locking up Thanatos, the god of death, at one point, which mean that nobody could die during that time; at last Ares got fed up with how ridiculous battles had become when nobody could be killed in them and freed Thanatos - and the boulder would keep him too busy to come up with more escape attempts.) Maybe that's part of the point of Paz's role in this chapter; with Annie out of the story for a while, Kat needs another girl with some etheric talent to team up with, as a foil to her.
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Post by Gemini Jim on Jul 27, 2010 7:46:44 GMT
I'm wondering about Annie's detention. Presumably it's of the form that she must sit and study for a long time. Yuck, book learning only. Surely she gets to go free at some point in the day. I think that the detention might be preventative as well as punitive - the object being to keep her so busy in the detention room that she no longer has the opportunity to go sneaking around the Court, exploring, investigating, getting into trouble, and causing troubles that could endanger the entire Court. an interesting theory, unless the Court has left the matter up to Jones to handle. remember, she flew in and saved Annie's butt by claiming this was all part of the master plan. step two: the Court goons leave, convinced that Annie isn't actually in trouble because she was working for Jones, and Jones takes Annie to Wonderland. then, at the end of that little misadventure, the last we see of Annie is here: with Jones laying down the law in the last panel.if I'm Jones, do I let Annie sit around in the detention hall and just study? Nah. I suspect there's some intensive Jedi-style etheric medium training going on behind the scenes (compared to which, detention might be fun). Kat's "million detentions" comment could mean that she doesn't know the full story as to why Annie isn't able to hang out while she fiddles with Robot, OR she's just giving Paz the potted version, rather than ramble on for a full page's worth of exposition (which the reader doesn't need and which for Paz would be meaningless.)
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Post by Max on Jul 27, 2010 9:10:28 GMT
Somehow I don't think Annie would find being forced to sit by herself and read much of a punishment.
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Post by idonotlikepeas on Jul 27, 2010 14:50:41 GMT
I think we've seen enough class already that Tom probably doesn't need to go back there unless something happens that's important to the story. (We are unlikely to forget that they are at school at this point.)
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Post by GK Sierra on Jul 28, 2010 3:37:15 GMT
I think wherever Annie is, she is certainly not in detention.
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Post by judgedeadd on Jul 28, 2010 6:12:08 GMT
they are keeping her in a lab and doing cruel experiments on her
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Post by tyler on Jul 28, 2010 10:19:00 GMT
Jones sent her to Paris for a little R&R. And Shopping! Annie will come back with a skull she stole from the catacombs.
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Post by todd on Jul 28, 2010 10:43:51 GMT
Another possible reason why we don't see the children in a school environment that often now:
Tom once said that if he'd read the Harry Potter series before starting "Gunnerkrigg Court", he'd have done the webcomic differently, because of all the comparisons people made between the two. Maybe he's moving Gunnerkrigg away from a boarding school tone to invite fewer comparisons to Hogwarts.
Also, a thought about Annie's absence:
Annie started off the webcomic with a strong characterization as a calm, matter-of-fact, unflappable girl who could face the weird and bizarre without fear but with much common sense (if occasionally fallible). But she's increasingly become more emotional, and even, at times, far more vulnerable to crises (not surprisingly, since - as I've mentioned before - I suspect that a lot of her calmness in the face of the etheric was due to her experiences with the Guides and her belief that all etheric beings were friendly; then she has a series of close calls with etheric beings like Reynardine, Jeanne, and Ysengrin in which she was helpless, and that could have eroded her self-confidence). That's worn away her most distinguishing character trait, and maybe Tom decided to give her some time off-stage to develop a new characterization for her (during which time, Paz might serve as a temporary foil for Kat - perhaps part of the point of the baby bird is to form Kat and Paz into a new duo).
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Post by Per on Jul 30, 2010 20:00:00 GMT
No! THAT HAIR Tom once said that if he'd read the Harry Potter series before starting "Gunnerkrigg Court", he'd have done the webcomic differently, because of all the comparisons people made between the two. Maybe he's moving Gunnerkrigg away from a boarding school tone to invite fewer comparisons to Hogwarts. One of my objections to the HP books I read (the first four) was that there was so little class that a lot of the time you lost all sense that they were actually in a school. For the same reason I certainly wouldn't mind more reminders that Annie & gang are going to school as well.
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Post by tyler on Jul 31, 2010 1:20:18 GMT
One of my objections to the HP books I read (the first four) was that there was so little class that a lot of the time you lost all sense that they were actually in a school. For the same reason I certainly wouldn't mind more reminders that Annie & gang are going to school as well. On the other hand, we don't have to hear every time they have double potions or a paper to write.
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Post by Gemini Jim on Aug 1, 2010 5:32:24 GMT
One of my objections to the HP books I read (the first four) was that there was so little class that a lot of the time you lost all sense that they were actually in a school. For the same reason I certainly wouldn't mind more reminders that Annie & gang are going to school as well. On the other hand, we don't have to hear every time they have double potions or a paper to write. I can see both sides of this argument. I mean, Tea-San did create a scenario where school is very much any important part of the situation, with characters who should, by all means, still be learning. There's nothing wrong or cliche about that. That's perfectly normal. However, recent chapters have shown that class study is clearly not all that they do, and school has become more and more of a background activity, which is all the more for the better, IMHO. (it reminds me a bit of a chapter from "So Long And Thanks For All The Fish," where Douglas Adams describes in excruciatingly painful detail his protagonist brushing his teeth, getting dressed, walking down stairs, eating... all of the mundane stuff that authors leave out with good reason). Still, it would be nice to get an occasional reminder that these are still school girls — girls who are still growing up, still training, still learning, who might one day (gasp) graduate. Maybe Paz is getting biology credit for helping out at the veterinary laboratory or something.
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Post by todd on Aug 1, 2010 10:45:59 GMT
Another thought on why we don't see regular school hours much any more and all the stories take place outside of that period:
Tom once described the colors of the school uniforms as "ugly" (I can't remember the URL for that interview, unfortunately) and said that he used them when drawing and coloring the initial picture of Annie that started it all because they were the only ones he had. Judging from the color scheme more recently, he must have been able to have a wider selection of hues, and maybe decided to stop using the school uniforms so often now that he was no longer confined to their colors.
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Post by atteSmythe on Aug 2, 2010 3:52:40 GMT
I like how it was handled at the beginning of Spring Heeled - obviously a school day, seemingly between classes in the hallway. It's a nod to them being in school without making us all sit through class.
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Post by todd on Aug 2, 2010 10:46:44 GMT
Jumping back to my speculation above on why Tom hardly ever shows the school uniforms any more - in the hallway scene in "Spring-Heeled", the children were wearing heavy jackets over their clothes. A way for Tom to get out of drawing and coloring the uniforms during a scene where they'd be wearing them?
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Post by Gemini Jim on Aug 3, 2010 9:35:02 GMT
Another thought on why we don't see regular school hours much any more and all the stories take place outside of that period: Tom once described the colors of the school uniforms as "ugly" (I can't remember the URL for that interview, unfortunately) and said that he used them when drawing and coloring the initial picture of Annie that started it all because they were the only ones he had. Judging from the color scheme more recently, he must have been able to have a wider selection of hues, and maybe decided to stop using the school uniforms so often now that he was no longer confined to their colors. You know, it's funny, I never really saw the uniforms as ugly. I mean, it is a school, and an obviously exclusive one at that. What else is Tea-San going to do? 1) Make the Harry Potter comparisons bloody obvious 2) St. Spears Catholic school girl 3) Sailor Antimony, with Rey as Luna* * Sailor Annie vs. mind-control spiders from the Negaverse FTW.
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Post by todd on Aug 3, 2010 11:05:06 GMT
"Ugly" was the word that Tom used for the school colors; I'm simply saying that he called them that.
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Post by the bandit on Aug 3, 2010 20:16:44 GMT
I don't dispute it. All school colors are ugly.
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Post by judgedeadd on Aug 3, 2010 21:40:45 GMT
I like the uniforms and their colors.
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Post by Gemini Jim on Aug 3, 2010 22:07:45 GMT
The school uniform colors do match up well with the bland, conservative and gender-neutral colors that schools tend to prefer. Shades of brown, beige, gray, navy blue, royal blue.
A nice, boring corporate beige is exactly what I would expect Gunnerkrigg students to wear. Green is a bit unusual, but it is the right shade of dark to go with the beige.
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