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Post by q3 on Nov 22, 2010 14:57:49 GMT
An angry face. The angriest face. One bang = "they loved each other!" Two bangs = "she never loved you." Thee bangs = " what is love???"
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Post by nerdyguy on Nov 22, 2010 15:04:27 GMT
I think it's obvious how the next comic's gonna be:
Reynardine will kill Antimony, and then blow up Gunnerkrigg's Court with him still inside it, and then Tom will go on a two day drinking binge.
Of course I could be wrong.
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Post by exdevlin on Nov 22, 2010 15:20:28 GMT
Oh no, Annie, don't do this. You don't want to go down this path. *covers eyes* nerdyguy Maybe Tom will just go on a drinking binge anyway, he did just get back from a con...
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Post by Aurelia Verity on Nov 22, 2010 15:31:40 GMT
Oh silly Annie, you took Anja's: "It's important that Renard doesn't find out" and did the opposite of what she said.
Poor Annie, i think she always had a bit of hero worship for her dad who was a skilled and serious doctor and probably very respected at Good Hope. this is probably why she doesn't have a lot of love for Eglamore and why she's so mad at Renard. they worshiped Surma blindly and dismiss Anthony completely assuming that it was by "trickery" that he married her. And it was a rather low blow of Renard to accuse Anthony of not curing Surma
the rest of this chapter is going to be interesting I don't think this is the type of fight you can quickly patch up. Renard's protective attitude towards Annie stems at least in part from the fact that he thought Surema loved him. if Annie tells him he was simply used (and she probably will) will Renard want to escape back into the forest where is body remains?
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Post by Mylian on Nov 22, 2010 15:32:36 GMT
Even if Surma had loved Renard, he lost her to Anthony. And he should respect her choice, not drool over her still. Also, you do NOT speak like that about anyones father. I did not think I would ever say this, but I think what Annie does now is completly justified, even if it might not be the right thing to do. I'm impressed. This is not a one-sided argument. Both have points and both are wrong - at the same time. I like it, yessir. I wouldn't personally use the term "justified". "Understandable" is probably a better word. But wow, things are about to be said in this room that cannot be unsaid. It's like watching a bomb drop. The button's been pressed, the thing is falling. We've witnessed the point of no return here.
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percival
Full Member
there's a storm a-brewin'
Posts: 119
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Post by percival on Nov 22, 2010 16:02:21 GMT
Wow. And here I was expecting spikes of fire to shoot from her eyes. Guess I've read too much X-Men.
I'm with those who think Renard deserves this and worse. He's a demon who tried to kill her, hates her father, and verbally rips apart the only family life Annie's ever known. Leave him in his box all summer.
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Post by Elaienar on Nov 22, 2010 16:18:12 GMT
I got up out of my seat, and punched that kid in the face. It didn't matter that I'd never met my dad, he was still my dad, and nobody was gonna talk shit about him while I was around. You rock. Seconded. I'mma play devil's advocate and say that Anthony was a decent guy. You don't get to be a surgeon without at least some passion for human life. Or a passion for cutting things up. ;D Joking aside, it's been suggested that Surma's illness was etheric in nature, which would explain why Anthony couldn't figure out exactly what it was. If that's true, though, it's interesting that he would spend at least twelve years trying to cure an etheric illness he couldn't even properly diagnose when he "never had patience for matters that didn't fall into a scientific category". Tom has said that Anthony was distant, but I'm going to say again that "distant" does not equal "unloving". And I'm going to go with whatthezeik here and say that Anthony is a probably a pretty okay kind of person who has faults and makes mistakes (like many of the other people in this comic and the world).
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aegis
New Member
Above and beyond
Posts: 30
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Post by aegis on Nov 22, 2010 16:26:15 GMT
My prediction for the next page(s):
R: What? A: She- she never really loved you. ... R: I know. A: ?! R: Just because one doesn't return your love is no reason to give it up, just don't let it become sour. R: I'm not angry that she married your father, I'm just sad I couldn't be there if she needed me.
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Post by legion on Nov 22, 2010 16:28:54 GMT
Man, Reynardine really pushed it, I'm surprised Annie didn't snap sooner actually.
Last pannel > scariest cold anger face.
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Post by atteSmythe on Nov 22, 2010 16:48:04 GMT
Renard earned it this time. Pretty much what I came here to say. At the beginning of the page, Antimony blurting that out would've been cruel. By the end of this page, Reynard certainly seems to have it coming. Annie does have a cruel face on, though. The next couple pages definitely have the potential to change her and Rey's relationship...
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Post by hal9000 on Nov 22, 2010 17:12:32 GMT
But wow, things are about to be said in this room that cannot be unsaid. It's like watching a bomb drop. The button's been pressed, the thing is falling. We've witnessed the point of no return here. Hopefully the results of this won't be quite so catastrophic, though certainly the possibility exists. It's interesting how her hair gets messier the angrier she gets. Also, I wonder if Kat is going to show up at an inopportune moment here.
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Post by clementine on Nov 22, 2010 17:36:52 GMT
Oh...oh dear, you guys.
Also hi! If anyone remembers me from the last time I was active, I am now 1000 miles and a diploma away from where I was then. Strange world.
Butttt anyway, I was the one who asked on formspring, "You said [way back in Word of Tom] that Surma's illness wasn't genetic, as far as Anthony could tell. Was Anthony often studying what was wrong with his wife? Did he ever really find anything (important)?" And on Sunday, Tom said, "Remains to be seen."
...Perhaps I should be in Queslett.
In other news, as the daughter of a sick mother, I would still snap at panel 6, and my mom's fine now. Could Reynardine be more dismissive and harsh about Anthony's failure? I know Rey doesn't like the man, but seriously, we're not all trickster demon demi-gods, be a little compassionate.
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monte
Junior Member
Posts: 66
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Post by monte on Nov 22, 2010 18:27:59 GMT
Ya Rey was getting out of line in the sixth panel though i've never had a good feeling of Anthony. We've never really heard anything good about him and all the time he spends away makes it seem like he puts his work before his family. Does he really have a good reason for spending so much time away? And i am still wondering about what the root of Annie's academic troubles are \ I'mma play devil's advocate and say that Anthony was a decent guy. You don't get to be a surgeon without at least some passion for human life. Or a passion for cutting things up. ;D for science
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Post by Eversist on Nov 22, 2010 19:40:12 GMT
Oh geeze. I honestly don't know how Reynard's going to react to this.
Immediate denial? Anger? Sadness?
I hope he's sad, so Annie feels bad. D:<
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ryos
Full Member
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Post by ryos on Nov 22, 2010 19:55:24 GMT
We heard something good today. Two things actually. First that, in Annie's opinion (and children often have an intuition for these things), her parents loved each other. Second, that Anthony dedicated 12 years of his life to curing Surma's illness. That sort of devotion doesn't come from the selfish and self-absorbed.
I feel confident in guessing that he has a very good reason for his time away from his family, or at least believes he does. The trouble is that, when it comes to your family, the set of good reasons for being away is a lot smaller than many people (especially men) believe. It's a common fallacy for a man to believe that doing something that requires him to be away from his family is okay as long as he's doing it for his family. I don't fault Anthony overmuch for falling into a trap that commonly afflicts mankind.
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Post by Elaienar on Nov 22, 2010 20:08:39 GMT
Ya Rey was getting out of line in the sixth panel though i've never had a good feeling of Anthony. We've never really heard anything good about him and all the time he spends away makes it seem like he puts his work before his family. Does he really have a good reason for spending so much time away? And i am still wondering about what the root of Annie's academic troubles are Or a passion for cutting things up. ;D for science But of course. XD As far as Antimony's academic troubles, I was homeschooled myself. I don't know if it's like this for all homeschooled kids, but my parents emphasised things like English, literature, logic, rhetoric, and history (which included masses of mythology, of course). Science and maths kind of fell by the wayside, mostly because I simply wasn't terribly interested in either and they couldn't make me apply myself. Antimony's education may have may have been the same. It would have been much easier for Surma to read her Greek myths than to make her complete a math worksheet, and we don't know that Anthony taught her anything other than a bit of martial arts (and possibly whatever she was proposing in panel three of this page). She might have got to school and found that she was behind her classmates in some subjects, and with all that's been going on never managed to catch up.
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Post by jayne on Nov 22, 2010 20:35:22 GMT
I think since Rey only experienced disdain from Anthony, it was probably due to how Anthony felt about Rey.
Rey doesn't like Anthony. Anthony doesn't like Rey.
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Post by Rex on Nov 22, 2010 21:22:58 GMT
I doubt it was any specific dislike of Renard on his part, jayne. If what Jones said is true, he would approach ALL things that weren't hard science in the same manner. That would already make etheric beings dislike him from the get-go.
With folks like Renard and Eglamore you tack on their bitterness about losing Surma to him to get nasty comments like panel 6.
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Post by Elaienar on Nov 22, 2010 22:11:03 GMT
hmm, did Rey really accuse Anthony of not curing Surma? he said: "what good did it do him? unable to save his own wife." to me that sound as if he is pitying him... am I wrong about this? though, of course we can't really tell what he was going to say next. Yes I know that is driving me crazy. What sort of man would WHAT? Maybe he was just going to say "run off and leave his grieving daughter behind" or something. =/ And saying "and what good did it do him?" like that, it almost sounds like Renard is contemptuous of Anthony's efforts. Because science could never cure Surma's illness? I guess he could just be bitter because Surma died anyway.
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Post by jayne on Nov 22, 2010 22:18:35 GMT
hmm, did Rey really accuse Anthony of not curing Surma? he said: "what good did it do him? unable to save his own wife." to me that sound as if he is pitying him... am I wrong about this? though, of course we can't really tell what he was going to say next. "What sort of man would..." I can't think of a good way to end that sentence. "...let his wife die like that?" He's blaming Anthony for not saving Annie. "He spent 12 years and what did it get him? He couldn't even save her."
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Post by Afalstein on Nov 22, 2010 22:18:48 GMT
Reynard TOTALLY had that coming. Almost regardless of Anthony, disparaging him to his daughter is low. Implying that her father never loved her mother is cruel. And mocking that Anthony couldn't save her in either case is just... evil. Yeah, Annie's revelation is probably going to destroy Reynard's redemption (unless there's more to the story, as some have suggested), but he was going to find out about it sooner or later. The fact that it's ANNIE doing it, in her current mood, probably just means that she's going to slowly pick him apart with the truth and then order him to stay silently in his box. I know that the thought around the water cooler has often been that Anthony was a jerk, but where have we gotten most of the info we have on Anthony? Has it not been Rey and Eglamore, the two people who lost the most to Anthony, namely, Surma herself? I know that Anthony disappears for two years here, and that's a rather selfish thing to do, but I think we also lost some perspective that Annie's comment in this comic brought back: He just lost his wife. So, after working for at least 12 years, Surma still dies on his watch. In the real world, having watched several of my friend's parents die while we were still children, often those children need a great support network because the remaining parent doesn't know how to cope, and essentially abandons their children during their own grief. It's not pretty, it's really sad, but how many of us can say that we really know what the death of a spouse feels like and how we would cope? Especially if Annie's right, and he did spend all that time trying to find a way to save her life? Part of me thinks that two-three years, especially if he knows that Annie will be relatively safe at the court (or so he assumes), is not as horrible as one thinks...though that thought is warring with my father of a new born side. Word of Tom states that Anthony had a good relationship with Antimony and Surma. Beyond that, he hasn't said much about it, except that Antimony truly loves her father. I like to think that when we finally meet Anthony, he won't be the typical "cold heartless father" you so often meet in these things, but actually a rather cool guy. The thing is, we don't really know what Anthony's up to right now. He could be grieving, he could be trying to bring Surma back, he could be watching Annie through the Tic-Tocs, he might even be undermining the Court in some way. Perhaps it's even something of a requirement for a special ability of his, we're told he used to do this all the time. That's my thought. I'm really hoping Anthony will prove to be an awesome man. And I'm looking forward in any case to his interaction with Antimony. Smiles Galore.
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Post by todd on Nov 22, 2010 23:16:15 GMT
And i am still wondering about what the root of Annie's academic troubles are Spending too much time trying to figure out what's going on with the Court's secret purpose, Jeanne, Coyote, Renard, etc., or slipping out and having adventures, when she should be studying?
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monte
Junior Member
Posts: 66
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Post by monte on Nov 23, 2010 1:05:19 GMT
And i am still wondering about what the root of Annie's academic troubles are Spending too much time trying to figure out what's going on with the Court's secret purpose, Jeanne, Coyote, Renard, etc., or slipping out and having adventures, when she should be studying? No, we first noticed evidence of her academic problems back here... its enough to tell us that her problems pre-dates her medium training, and her investigations into the court and jeanne... also her visits to coyote are rare, and reynard isn't really much trouble seeing as she can shut him up if needed... There is still her adventures but most of those don't last more than a day.
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Post by Max on Nov 23, 2010 1:54:30 GMT
And saying "and what good did it do him?" like that, it almost sounds like Renard is contemptuous of Anthony's efforts. Because science could never cure Surma's illness? I guess he could just be bitter because Surma died anyway. Perhaps Surma had an etheric illness, and Anthony, who as we know " never had patience for matters that didn't fall into a scientific category" refused to use any etheric treatments that might have saved her life. Thus the rest of Rey's sentence would be "What sort of man would refuse to use the necessary treatments to save his wife's life simply because he distrusted them?"
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ryos
Full Member
Posts: 175
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Post by ryos on Nov 23, 2010 2:04:36 GMT
And saying "and what good did it do him?" like that, it almost sounds like Renard is contemptuous of Anthony's efforts. Because science could never cure Surma's illness? I guess he could just be bitter because Surma died anyway. Perhaps Surma had an etheric illness, and Anthony, who as we know " never had patience for matters that didn't fall into a scientific category" refused to use any etheric treatments that might have saved her life. Thus the rest of Rey's sentence would be "What sort of man would refuse to use the necessary treatments to save his wife's life simply because he distrusted them?" I find it quite plausible that Surma had an etheric illness. That said, it's too early to say what, if anything, Anthony could have done about it if so. It's also too early to say whether Anthony would be unwilling to even consider the possibility were it presented to him.
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Post by Elaienar on Nov 23, 2010 2:15:03 GMT
Perhaps Surma had an etheric illness, and Anthony, who as we know " never had patience for matters that didn't fall into a scientific category" refused to use any etheric treatments that might have saved her life. Thus the rest of Rey's sentence would be "What sort of man would refuse to use the necessary treatments to save his wife's life simply because he distrusted them?" I find it quite plausible that Surma had an etheric illness. That said, it's too early to say what, if anything, Anthony could have done about it if so. It's also too early to say whether Anthony would be unwilling to even consider the possibility were it presented to him. I concur. It's also far to early to say whether Surma would have stayed with the kind of man who would deny her the treatment that could save her life. So far she doesn't strike me as that type, and even if she was physically incapable of leaving him herself, she had friends who most likely would have willingly come to her aid if she had asked them to.
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Post by Hyru Wachai on Nov 23, 2010 2:58:20 GMT
I was honestly expecting Annie to set Renard on fire, but building up to the last panel this way is a lot better.
I like how Annie's hair becomes disheveled throughout the page, as she loses restraint.
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Post by Max on Nov 23, 2010 3:02:10 GMT
It's also far to early to say whether Surma would have stayed with the kind of man who would deny her the treatment that could save her life. So far she doesn't strike me as that type, and even if she was physically incapable of leaving him herself, she had friends who most likely would have willingly come to her aid if she had asked them to. Maybe she didn't have know Anthony wasn't doing all he could. Maybe Anthony didn't know either; he just didn't bother to look for any etheric cure because he didn't even consider it worthy of his consideration. Also, I am pretty sure Tom said somewhere that Surma broke off all contact after she left the Court.
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Post by evilanagram on Nov 23, 2010 5:46:43 GMT
Wow. That last panel is downright chilling. Great work, Tom. Rey certainly had something coming, and I say that as someone who lost a parent at Annie's age. However, Annie is probably going to end up regretting the next thing she says, regardless of how angry she is at the moment. That said, is anyone else annoyed by the "My poor Surma" bit? Surma was a lot of things, but I have trouble seeing her as an unwitting victim. Renard needs to let it go and quit being such a creeper. Holy SHIT, Renard. Just... just holy shit. He absolutely deserves whatever he gets now. You just don't go around telling young girls their fathers never loved them or their mothers. Edit. Also, just for kicks I'll throw this in for the "but they weren't very close" campers: my father left us when I was about 3 months old and was later murdered. I never met him, and have exactly one picture of him. This is basically as not-close to a parent as you can get. However, one Father's Day in elementary school I overheard another kid in my class say that he heard the reason I didn't have a dad to make a gift for was because my real dad was an alcoholic crackhead. I got up out of my seat, and punched that kid in the face. It didn't matter that I'd never met my dad, he was still my dad, and nobody was gonna talk shit about him while I was around. So I guess what I'm saying is I hope Annie punches Renard in the face. This might be one of my favorite posts ever.
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Post by Snes on Nov 23, 2010 6:12:16 GMT
Word of Tom states that Anthony had a good relationship with Antimony and Surma. Beyond that, he hasn't said much about it, except that Antimony truly loves her father. I like to think that when we finally meet Anthony, he won't be the typical "cold heartless father" you so often meet in these things, but actually a rather cool guy. The thing is, we don't really know what Anthony's up to right now. He could be grieving, he could be trying to bring Surma back, he could be watching Annie through the Tic-Tocs, he might even be undermining the Court in some way. Perhaps it's even something of a requirement for a special ability of his, we're told he used to do this all the time. That's my thought. I'm really hoping Anthony will prove to be an awesome man. And I'm looking forward in any case to his interaction with Antimony. Smiles Galore. I think Anthony is a pretty cool guy. eh abandons daughters and doesnt afraid of anything. But seriously, I don't think calling him a "cool guy" is very apt. Tom has said that, while he was around Surma and Annie whenever he could be, he was pretty distant. I'm guessing he never really connected with Annie emotionally. Still, I look forward to a year from now (comic time) when Annie finally sees him again. My guess is that, regardless of what happens between now and then, the first thing she'll do will be to run up to him, tears in here eyes, and give him a big hug. Definitely a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. ... please, Tom, don't make us hate Anthony by then.
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