|
|
Post by Daedalus on Sept 11, 2013 7:14:36 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by kreiri on Sept 11, 2013 7:17:03 GMT
Anyone else feels overcome by urge to have a bismuth crystal necklace?
|
|
|
|
Post by Daedalus on Sept 11, 2013 7:18:19 GMT
Anyone else feels overcome by urge to have a bismuth crystal necklace? Yes, many times over, yes. A t-shirt of this page would also be snazzy. |
|
|
|
Post by Ophel on Sept 11, 2013 7:18:31 GMT
So the entire court is made of bismuth. Hm, why did no one try to make an analysis of the buildings in the Court?
...Okay, so it isn't the first thing that would come to mind.
Who knew that the seed bismuth is literal? I bet a few of you guys.
|
|
|
|
Post by Nnelg on Sept 11, 2013 7:31:05 GMT
I'd say I didn't expect so much exposition so soon, but...  It's been clear since chapter 41 that the very nature of the story has changed, and quite dramatically at that. Nearly every mystery from before has been explained or elaborated upon... Going back, this trend actually started as far back as page 1000. I feel like someone should make a list of all the big mysteries which remain, so we don't lose sight of them -I get the feeling that there's more then enough left to go around. Anyways, we'll see where things go from here. (Hopefully not all downhill...) |
|
panther
Junior Member
Made out of spoons
Posts: 52
|
Post by panther on Sept 11, 2013 7:47:19 GMT
This page was beautifully drawn (well, they all are, but it really stands out). Bismuth crystals are amazing, I have one of my own and it's my favorite rock :3
|
|
yarksie
Full Member
veggetible
Posts: 100
|
Post by yarksie on Sept 11, 2013 8:03:07 GMT
I gonna spend all day staring at this page. ... so pretty.
|
|
|
|
Post by GK Sierra on Sept 11, 2013 8:39:38 GMT
So we've got some kind of collaboration between Court and Forest. I think we can now safely assume we know how the Court began, the Seed Bismuth created it, or at least expanded it to its present, monstrous proportions. That, actually, explains a whole lot. So this is where the growing Court comes from, and why the Court may not need the seed anymore to continue growing. And once it does, it forms nice, neat squares with vertices at 90 degrees. Almost like buildings.  Swish! Man it's been a while since I got a point. Like, way too long. At least I picked the winning side of the Great Paz Debate. This page was beautifully drawn (well, they all are, but it really stands out). Bismuth crystals are amazing, I have one of my own and it's my favorite rock :3 I know, right? There's something cool about the idea that the thing you're holding will stay chemically unchanged longer than anything else you have ever touched. |
|
pasko
Full Member
Objection!
Posts: 224
|
Post by pasko on Sept 11, 2013 8:54:10 GMT
(Makes image search) -> (shouts) I WANT ONE!
|
|
|
|
Post by arf on Sept 11, 2013 10:01:36 GMT
Definitely pretty epic!
I also wonder, with the angelic reference: does this help explain why Kat is 'Bi'?
|
|
|
|
Post by ninchilla on Sept 11, 2013 10:25:16 GMT
Clearly-stated information regarding a long-running mystery?
...seems too easy, Carver.
|
|
|
|
Post by TBeholder on Sept 11, 2013 10:48:14 GMT
So we've got some kind of collaboration between Court and Forest. This was narrated back in the sim. I think we can now safely assume we know how the Court began, the Seed Bismuth created it, or at least expanded it to its present, monstrous proportions. In other words, yet another "I'm very smart and can cut all the corners" user error. Hey, they're still ahead of those guys in Chernobyl powerplant, the last watch engineer of House Phica and the Slylandro. Not that this says much. |
|
|
|
Post by Jordan on Sept 11, 2013 11:06:02 GMT
Anyone else feels overcome by urge to have a bismuth crystal necklace? Oh, heck yes! You can actually grow your own crystals if you have access to some bismuth powder and a bunsen burner. (Educational opportunity: if anyone here is still at high school and has a good chemistry/science teacher, maybe you could convince them to help you with this as an extracurricular activity!) Personally, I'm pretty tempted to just buy a ready-made bismuth necklace; they sell some reasonably cheap stuff at Jeannie's Jewelry, and some more expensive (but stunning) ones at Element83's Etsy shop… |
|
|
|
Post by exdevlin on Sept 11, 2013 13:52:07 GMT
So we've got some kind of collaboration between Court and Forest. I think we can now safely assume we know how the Court began, the Seed Bismuth created it, or at least expanded it to its present, monstrous proportions. And once it does, it forms nice, neat squares with vertices at 90 degrees. Almost like buildings. Swish! Man it's been a while since I got a point. Like, way too long. Gunnercookies for you! Anyone else feels overcome by urge to have a bismuth crystal necklace? Meeeeee! *waves arm frantically* I mean look at this beaut! Quite affordable, considering what you're getting will long outlast you. I wonder if the book this page appears in will come with a tiny little SB. |
|
Fen
Junior Member
Posts: 85
|
Post by Fen on Sept 11, 2013 14:10:07 GMT
Also I'm probably the last person in the world to Wikipedia 'Bismuth'... but it's apparently chemically similar to Antimony.
|
|
|
|
Post by ctso74 on Sept 11, 2013 14:25:49 GMT
...seems too easy, Carver. I know. I don't want to be pessimistic, but I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. |
|
|
|
Post by lavkian on Sept 11, 2013 14:54:35 GMT
Also I'm probably the last person in the world to Wikipedia 'Bismuth'... but it's apparently chemically similar to Antimony. you're... not, actually. did you notice that the common name for antimony, from the latin, is "stibnite"? curious. i'm kinda disappointed that i didn't notice that earlier. |
|
|
|
Post by warrl on Sept 11, 2013 15:24:41 GMT
Anyone else feels overcome by urge to have a bismuth crystal necklace? DW says yes. And she makes & sells jewelry. So I figure we'll be looking for a source soon. |
|
|
|
Post by Eversist on Sept 11, 2013 15:35:37 GMT
I feel like someone should make a list of all the big mysteries which remain, so we don't lose sight of them -I get the feeling that there's more then enough left to go around. Surprised you don't know about this (as I kinda consider you a "regular"  ). I started to update it here, but I found a job and have less free time, (and to be honest, got tired of working on it). Anyone can feel free to take it on. I can send you a text file of everything formatted. If not, maybe I'll pick it up again at some point. There just seemed to be limited interest at the time. |
|
Ender
Junior Member
Posts: 89
|
Post by Ender on Sept 11, 2013 16:31:54 GMT
So I think Ysengrin dropping the seed on the floor during the meeting at the beginning has a meaning now. It was a message to the court that they're taking their land back.
|
|
Søren
Junior Member
Pursuing Authenticity
Posts: 78
|
Post by Søren on Sept 11, 2013 16:56:33 GMT
Anyone else feels overcome by urge to have a bismuth crystal necklace? YES I'd say I didn't expect so much exposition so soon, but... It's been clear since chapter 41 that the very nature of the story has changed, and quite dramatically at that. Nearly every mystery from before has been explained or elaborated upon... Going back, this trend actually started as far back as page 1000. I feel like someone should make a list of all the big mysteries which remain, so we don't lose sight of them -I get the feeling that there's more then enough left to go around. Anyways, we'll see where things go from here. (Hopefully not all downhill...) I seem to recall a master list of unsolved plot threads on the wiki. I know, right? There's something cool about the idea that the thing you're holding will stay chemically unchanged longer than anything else you have ever touched. What happened to that Gunnerkriggium stuff you made? Do you still have it? |
|
|
|
Post by cannister on Sept 11, 2013 17:14:43 GMT
So the entire court is made of bismuth. Hm, why did no one try to make an analysis of the buildings in the Court? ...Okay, so it isn't the first thing that would come to mind. Who knew that the seed bismuth is literal? I bet a few of you guys. I'd be surprised if the court buildings are physically made of bismuth. I expect that the bismuth is a semi-actualized metaphor for what took place. Alchemy and so on. Also, I like how on this page, the bismuth crystals extend beyond the border of the frame where it says "I began to overtake the forest." |
|
|
|
Post by stephen on Sept 11, 2013 17:29:35 GMT
Wow. Exposition Fairy out of nowhere.
In the middle of Ysengrin getting his fight on with a bunch of Fun Monsters, Annie suddenly gets called over by THE MYSTERY ITSELF to be EXPLAINED EVERYTHING. In retrospect, it looks like this whole "you must get stronger" thing was just Tom's contrived excuse to get Annie to the ruins, with her companion busy, so she could have a chat with the seed bismuth.
Honestly, I'm disappointed: This is a thing you can point at and say "Plot Device" – very unlike the usual way everything feels natural and consequential. I've always pointed to GC as an example of Excellent Plotting, but this chapter so far is... an exception.
At this point, I'm half-expecitng a robot to fall out of a tree on the next page and start monologuing on the nature of Tic-Tocs. And then Ysengrin and his monsters start stampeding for some reason, and chase Annie right into contact with some exiled ex-president of the court, who'll proceed to detail the political structure of the court in great detail.
EDIT:
Also, this creature seems to be violating show-don't-tell a bit. "It saddens me", huh? (You can't just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!)
Honestly, I'm hoping I can interpret this as suspicious behavior, and that the Exposition Fairy isn't actually the Seed Bismuth, but some spirit that is trying to deceive Annie with easy answers.
EDIT AGAIN:
Upon glancing over the comments section, and rereading this thread more carefully, I'm noticing that I'm the only person who finds this sudden, contextless monologue to be out-of-place. I guess I'll just see myself out? Sorry to barge in being all grumpy-pants.
|
|
|
|
Post by Stately Buff Cookie on Sept 11, 2013 18:15:24 GMT
I expect that the bismuth is a semi-actualized metaphor for what took place. The scary part is that I understand what you mean by this. |
|
|
|
Post by Eversist on Sept 11, 2013 19:28:26 GMT
Honestly, I'm disappointed: This is a thing you can point at and say "Plot Device" – very unlike the usual way everything feels natural and consequential. I've always pointed to GC as an example of Excellent Plotting, but this chapter so far is... an exception. Why you make a valid observation (I think a lot of us are happy to getting an answer to a long-standing question so these kinds of things aren't occurring to us), I think that we need to wait for the chapter to be over to make these kinds of judgements. |
|
|
|
Post by GK Sierra on Sept 11, 2013 22:41:10 GMT
What happened to that Gunnerkriggium stuff you made? Do you still have it? No, sorry, I melted it down a while ago. Ran out of metal for reloading, and there was like, 25 bucks worth of lead bound up in the brick along with the bismuth and antimony. So... yeah. Into the fire it went, another casualty of the economy. It was probably toxic anyway, with that much lead. Couldn't even use it as a paperweight, which is the only thing it was really good for. At least now I can get my money's worth.  Honestly, I'm disappointed: This is a thing you can point at and say "Plot Device" – very unlike the usual way everything feels natural and consequential. I've always pointed to GC as an example of Excellent Plotting, but this chapter so far is... an exception. At this point, I'm half-expecitng a robot to fall out of a tree on the next page and start monologuing on the nature of Tic-Tocs. And then Ysengrin and his monsters start stampeding for some reason, and chase Annie right into contact with some exiled ex-president of the court, who'll proceed to detail the political structure of the court in great detail. Rules were made to be broken, especially in writing. You play some tropes straight, and some you subvert. Show and tell is not a hard and fast rule, there are great authors on either end of that spectrum. Since the Court is a great mystery, there is obviously only so much you can show. At some point you have to interrogate a witness. If you don't have any plot devices, you have no plot, just a bunch of impressions. A story needs something to revolve around. And don't worry about monologing, that's what this forum is for. |
|
|
|
Post by stephen on Sept 11, 2013 23:23:59 GMT
Rules were made to be broken, especially in writing. You play some tropes straight, and some you subvert. Show and tell is not a hard and fast rule, there are great authors on either end of that spectrum. Since the Court is a great mystery, there is obviously only so much you can show. At some point you have to interrogate a witness. If you don't have any plot devices, you have no plot, just a bunch of impressions. A story needs something to revolve around. And don't worry about monologing, that's what this forum is for. I don't mind exposition, I just think that this exposition has come from nowhere. GC has had plenty of monologuing explanations before, and usually it's felt magical, fascinating and relevant... partially because of the buildup to the encounter with the monologue. In this case, there was no buildup, no chain of events leading to a revelatory climax – Annie's taking yet-another trip to the forest, working out some Ysengrin-related drama, and then when he starts fighting some dudes, suddenly the exposition fairy pops up and whispers "psst! Hey! Wanna hear answers for one of the central mysteries that's been sitting just out of reach throughout several years?" Annie has previously lived in the forest for months at a time. Why is Sentient Seed Spirit only encountering her now? Apparently it's because she had to encounter it in this specific ruin? Why is she only going to this specific ruin now? Because Ysengrin decided she needed to be "stronger"? Because Tom decided now was as good a time as any to answer all our questions? I'm not upset we're getting answers, I'm confused that the answers seem to have been dropped on us from above as a non-sequitor. "Interrogate a witness", sure, but in stories it usually helps to know that a witness exists before it starts wrapping up all the loose ends of the mystery for us. Two pages ago, most of us thought the Seed Bismuth was an object or spell of some kind, not a sentient being with wings and a voice. Compare it to the drama leading up to Annie's chat with Jones, or the arc that revealed some Court history via some drama with robots. Those stories put weight behind the backstory, and reminded you why you cared about the mystery just as it was disclosed. In essence: Right now we're finally learning the origin and nature of the Court itself. That's a mystery that's been building slowly across every story arc since GC began. Having the answer unveiled THIS way feels like a pretty big anticlimax. "Oh hey. It was me. I did that. Nice to meet you! Mystery solved!" EDIT: Maybe something will happen in the second half of this chapter that will take Ysengrin's silly monster-dudes fight and thematically tie it perfectly to Annie's Encounter With The Seed Bismuth. Maybe it'll feel like " of course Annie encounters Seed this way, it's relevant because X Y Z". Maybe this mood whiplash will turn out to have been purposeful, to trick the reader for some bigger revelation later. In which case, I'll gladly eat my words. EDIT AGAIN: This is a lot of words for what's actually a pretty mild complaint in the long run. I don't suddenly feel like "JEEZ MAN GC SUCKS NAO". The main reason I'm putting so much effort into explaining why I have (a minor feeling of) disappointment here, is because it's new for me. All the good things I might say about GC every week usually are already said by other people – I'd just be more voice chiming in "I, also, think this is awesome!". |
|
|
|
Post by Stately Buff Cookie on Sept 12, 2013 0:15:46 GMT
It's really early in the chapter.
It also won't look random on a reread. The story flows together better when you read a bunch of it at once.
|
|
|
|
Post by zbeeblebrox on Sept 12, 2013 0:17:15 GMT
Oooo, Bismuth crystals!
Tom, I humbly request that you have your art turned into candy so I can eat it.
|
|
zirka
Full Member
I have become one with my anime and appear in backgrounds looking confused
Posts: 101
|
Post by zirka on Sept 12, 2013 0:57:42 GMT
I googled Bismuth and found this fanart. It looks like it would be right at home in the Gunnerkrigg universe. I really love it's design and colors and how well it matches up with the inspiration.  |
|
). I started to update it 
