[1562] A Comic

[arf]

There was nothing else said for the rest of the day.

[gunnerwf]

I'm guessing it will take a while for this conflict to resolve.

[The Anarch]

[edzepp]

"Oh fuck this shit. If you want to have an actual conversation about this, you know where I am."

[imaginaryfriend]

I guess Ys' advice didn't take into account that some people's inner demon could get annoyed with them and try to (ahem) split.

[arf]

What next?
I think we'll have a chapter where the focus shifts elsewhere (New kid?)
Then find that Annie's lapsed into another coma because Anniemental is still in a sulk.

(For the extra page, I still like the thought of Tony clutching a stuffed toy wolf as he sleeps it off, and an exasperated, resigned sigh rising from said wolf.)

[aline]

Annie is still rejecting her own emotions. She doesn't want to deal with it.
I wonder what would happen if someone did the reverse of what just happened, and gave her dad a way to see what she has done to herself. But for now, no one even knows what she's done.

[keef]

I agree with fire-Annie here. Annie is as stubborn/stupid as her father.

[Daedalus]

I'm getting the sense that Fire!Annie is more of the Annie that we're used to than the personality currently wearing the body of our protagonist. That being said, the 'real' Annie is a fusion of both, and we're never going to get resolution until they regain their emotional balance and re-fuse.

[imaginaryfriend]

Sept 4, 2015 7:22:21 GMT Daedalus said:

I'm getting the sense that Fire!Annie is more of the Annie that we're used to than the personality currently wearing the body of our protagonist. That being said, the 'real' Annie is a fusion of both, and we're never going to get resolution until they regain their emotional balance and re-fuse.

Like I said before, the longer this goes on the harder that will be. Panel #3 makes it look like the fire is trying to go farther but can't. That might mean we've already reached something like a conjoined-twin territory and reunification will require something beyond just mutual acquiescence and the stress of it.

[hellohello]

Or that one cannot dance the Fusion Dance alone.

[CoyoteReborn]

Sept 4, 2015 7:21:16 GMT lisanela said:

Brainwash McCoyote

*offended tone* Excuse me, it's Lord Coyote. "Lord Coyote, the Eternally Omnipotent and Sexy", if you're feeling particularly obsequious today (it is my full title, after all)!!

Calling me McCoyote makes me sound like a fast food item.

[Daedalus]

Sept 4, 2015 8:00:24 GMT CoyoteReborn said:

Calling me McCoyote makes me sound like a fast food item.

Excuse me, cashier, I ordered my McCoyote extra cheesy.

But it appears that it came with extra snark instead!


I demand a refund.

[Gotolei]

Sept 4, 2015 7:29:47 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

Sept 4, 2015 7:22:21 GMT Daedalus said:

I'm getting the sense that Fire!Annie is more of the Annie that we're used to than the personality currently wearing the body of our protagonist. That being said, the 'real' Annie is a fusion of both, and we're never going to get resolution until they regain their emotional balance and re-fuse.

Like I said before, the longer this goes on the harder that will be. Panel #3 makes it look like the fire is trying to go farther but can't. That might mean we've already reached something like a conjoined-twin territory and reunification will require something beyond just mutual acquiescence and the stress of it.

Unless Fire follows Annie to class, it doesn't seem like distance is a problem. Though yeah, it doesn't look like this'll be worked out until they get back on the same page again.
Which at this rate will indeed require outside influence/interference. Hoping for surprise Zimmy next chapter..?

[rafk]

And so we roll on to another chapter without a resolution. This might be only days in Annie's life, but to us readers it has become The Year of (Annie) Living Dangerously.

[imaginaryfriend]

Sept 4, 2015 8:09:27 GMT Gotolei said:

Sept 4, 2015 7:29:47 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

Like I said before, the longer this goes on the harder that will be. Panel #3 makes it look like the fire is trying to go farther but can't. That might mean we've already reached something like a conjoined-twin territory and reunification will require something beyond just mutual acquiescence and the stress of it.

Unless Fire follows Annie to class, it doesn't seem like distance is a problem. Though yeah, it doesn't look like this'll be worked out until they get back on the same page again.
Which at this rate will indeed require outside influence/interference. Hoping for surprise Zimmy next chapter..?

I think at this point Antimony can still fix this... but yeah if it gets bad Zeta is the only one who could probably fix this... except possibly Coyote, and Coyote would probably do something unexpected. Which would make it expected. And somewhat boring.

But once the fire is seen by someone else it will be in their stories, so in addition to starting to have its own memories and a different will...

[psybershadow]

Sept 4, 2015 7:11:03 GMT arf said:

>snip<

(For the extra page, I still like the thought of Tony clutching a stuffed toy wolf as he sleeps it off, and an exasperated, resigned sigh rising from said wolf.)

If someone makes fanart of this, please post it here because Goddamn that would be the cutest thing ever.  Please.  I want it to happen so bad.  It'd be even cuter if Donlan gave him Reynardine.  And can you imagine how Reynard would react?  What does Reynard even think of all of this explanation?

[aline]

Sept 4, 2015 8:22:04 GMT rafk said:

And so we roll on to another chapter without a resolution.

I think it's a bit unfair to see it that way. Annie's current situation is still unresolved, but this chapter has answered many, many questions that were lingering since forever. Some of those have been there since chapter 1 of the comic.

Compare the content of the last 3 chapters (75 pages) with the content of, say, The Torn Sea (about 80 pages). The Torn Sea could just as well not have been there and it wouldn't have made that much of a difference for the overall comic. There was a lot of fun action, but not much else.

While in the last chapter alone, we've had so many explanations that brought closure to open plot threads. There is only so much content one can fit in 25 pages.

I also think it would belittle what Annie went through to repair it all in one evening, like the fairy godmother just passed through and fixed it. She needs to find the path back to herself and it's not going to be easy. And she has to process what she just heard before she can do that.

[rinabean]

Sept 4, 2015 9:07:01 GMT lisanela said:

Unrelated to this particular page but now that the chapter has ended I'm surprised Kat didn't bug Tony's house to know "what he was up to". It would have been interesting to see her reaction to the story - would probably have involved a lot of "?" and "!!!!!!!!!".

She may have done it (or something else related) without us seeing. We don't know what Kat's up to but she's surely up to something. Annie fell to her death and she made a bloody flying machine on the offchance she was still alive. And as the years have gone by she's only got both more skilful and more furious at Annie's dad/more protective of Annie. I would guess we're changing perspective next chapter so I reckon we'll see Kat and how she's coping

[Trillium]

Sept 4, 2015 9:26:04 GMT rinabean said:

Sept 4, 2015 9:07:01 GMT lisanela said:

Unrelated to this particular page but now that the chapter has ended I'm surprised Kat didn't bug Tony's house to know "what he was up to". It would have been interesting to see her reaction to the story - would probably have involved a lot of "?" and "!!!!!!!!!".

She may have done it (or something else related) without us seeing. We don't know what Kat's up to but she's surely up to something. Annie fell to her death and she made a bloody flying machine on the offchance she was still alive. And as the years have gone by she's only got both more skilful and more furious at Annie's dad/more protective of Annie. I would guess we're changing perspective next chapter so I reckon we'll see Kat and how she's coping

If Kat had bugged the place wouldn't her dad have found and rendered them useless along with the Court listening devices? 

Edited:
Opps, my mistake Tony was the one who fiddled with the surveillance of the Court. 

[mordekai]

I think at some point the Fire Ragelemental will manage to split from Annie and she will start to wither and die.

[Jelly Jellybean]

Sept 4, 2015 8:56:53 GMT aline said:

Sept 4, 2015 8:22:04 GMT rafk said:

And so we roll on to another chapter without a resolution.

I think it's a bit unfair to see it that way. Annie's current situation is still unresolved, but this chapter has answered many, many questions that were lingering since forever. Some of those have been there since chapter 1 of the comic.

Compare the content of the last 3 chapters (75 pages) with the content of, say, The Torn Sea (about 80 pages). The Torn Sea could just as well not have been there and it wouldn't have made that much of a difference for the overall comic. There was a lot of fun action, but not much else.

While in the last chapter alone, we've had so many explanations that brought closure to open plot threads. There is only so much content one can fit in 25 pages.

I also think it would belittle what Annie went through to repair it all in one evening, like the fairy godmother just passed through and fixed it. She needs to find the path back to herself and it's not going to be easy. And she has to process what she just heard before she can do that.

I'm not sure we're reading the same comic...

The major events/results of The Torn Sea were Robot's obsession reaching dangerous levels, the Seraphs getting banished, and Paz seeing a glimpse of Kat in her angelic form.  If you don't care for the robot storyline, then I can see why you would think the chapter was superfluous.

Pardon the diversion from today's page.  Both the Fire Elemental and I seem to be tired of Annie's s#!t.

[aline]

Sept 4, 2015 10:58:06 GMT Jelly Jellybean said:

The major events/results of The Torn Sea were Robot's obsession reaching dangerous levels, the Seraphs getting banished, and Paz seeing a glimpse of Kat in her angelic form.  If you don't care for the robot storyline, then I can see why you would think the chapter was superfluous.

I said "most of it". What you're talking about is maybe 3 pages out of the 80. The rest was kaboom / running around / young people looking cool (which admittedly was fun, but not bringing much to the comcic's long running plot threads. That chapter could have been A LOT shorter without making any difference plotwise).

I totally understand why people are a lot more eager for resolution now than during more easy-going events. I'm impatient too. But the fact is that events are already pretty tightly packed. A lot more than in almost every other chapters of GC.

[corruptuser]

"Unrelated to this particular page but now that the chapter has ended I'm surprised Kat didn't bug Tony's house to know "what he was up to". It would have been interesting to see her reaction to the story - would probably have involved a lot of "?" and "!!!!!!!!!"."

Or perhaps she left a spy in the house? Maybe disguised as a harmless stuffed animal?

Anyway, I get the feeling that we won't get a resolution to this whole thing until the end of this book, even though it makes the first chapter of the book, where children are mass produced in vats, to seem out of place. I mean, it's great that we have multi-chapter story arcs (in addition to the overall plot arc), just wish it wasn't such a dark one. The only others we've had were the headspiders and Mort's death, and those were only two chapters, but also pretty dark.

Incidentally, there were two chapters that made me tear up when reading them, Mort's death being one of them.

[todd]

Sept 4, 2015 7:11:03 GMT arf said:

What next?
I think we'll have a chapter where the focus shifts elsewhere (New kid?)
Then find that Annie's lapsed into another coma because Anniemental is still in a sulk.

I've wondered myself if Tom might shift the focus away from Annie to "substitute protagonists" for a while, to handle this problem (a passive main character - whose passivity is the result of an act that can't easily be reversed and would most likely take a long time to resolve - isn't good for the story) - whether Kat, or someone else. It might make a good temporary solution - though I'm not sure that most of the readers would be able to focus on anything other than Annie's situation at the moment. (Plus, Annie's about the only character seriously interested in investigating what's going on at the Court. A new character just arrived at the Court could develop that trait, but he or she wouldn't have had the experiences that Annie has had - the encounters with Jeanne, Coyote, Jones, etc..)

At least, since Tom's already mentioned that he's planned this part of the story a long time ago, he must have worked out a solution for the potential problem above.

[TBeholder]

Sept 4, 2015 7:10:18 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

I guess Ys' advice didn't take into account that some people's inner demon could get annoyed with them and try to (ahem) split.

Given the previous page, it's very equivocal.

Sept 4, 2015 7:20:42 GMT keef said:

I agree with fire-Annie here. Annie is as stubborn/stupid as her father.

Annie isn't playing with the full matchbox right now.

Sept 4, 2015 8:22:04 GMT rafk said:

And so we roll on to another chapter without a resolution.

It's a story, not a Regional Party Congress.

Sept 4, 2015 9:43:04 GMT Trillium said:

If Kat had bugged the place wouldn't her dad have found and rendered them useless along with the Court listening devices?

Not blipping likely.

[Bill]

That was... the last thing I expected. One of the least desirable outcomes. And end of chapter = another time skip/scene change = Annie stays like this for some time longer.
She received everything she needed to come to a healthy conclusion. Effectively nothing changed. Body Annie still wearing the mask; opinions she admits to herself unchanged. Fire Annie still frustrated (among other things) and apparently unable to speak. Pain continues for all parties that were in pain.

I'm heartbroken again. Tom has finally succeeded in bringing tears to my eyes. Edit: I acknowledge that other pages likely would have done the same had I read them at this pace, or even stopped to think and absorb. The Coward Heart hit me much harder on reread, for example.

[Sky Schemer]

I have to be honest. I am still not sure what we are seeing here. Annie and Fire-Annie are, as far as we know, still the same person, just two aspects of her personality. Fire-Annie may come from her fire elemental lineage and may be the piece of her personality that is responsible for her emotions, but she is still Annie.

So. What exactly is this? A very literal disassociative state, where Annie-with-no-emotions and Annie-that's-all-emotions are two distinct personalities? If so, then what just happened is...completely expected. Emotional-Annie is pissed because that's what emotional-Annie does. Non-emotional-Annie shrugs everything off and makes excuses because she has no emotions...at all.

[eyemyself]

Sept 4, 2015 14:01:22 GMT Sky Schemer said:

I have to be honest. I am still not sure what we are seeing here. Annie and Fire-Annie are, as far as we know, still the same person, just two aspects of her personality. Fire-Annie may come from her fire elemental lineage and may be the piece of her personality that is responsible for her emotions, but she is still Annie.

So. What exactly is this? A very literal disassociative state, where Annie-with-no-emotions and Annie-that's-all-emotions are two distinct personalities? If so, then what just happened is...completely expected. Emotional-Annie is pissed because that's what emotional-Annie does. Non-emotional-Annie shrugs everything off and makes excuses because she has no emotions...at all.

I think it's a bit more complicated then that, but essentially, yes. We know Annie split herself because she couldn't deal with her feelings. We also know she has deeply ingrained defensive instincts when it comes to her father and we can speculated that this has left her "of two minds" about the way he has treated her since his return. I don't so much see fire!Annie as purely emotional as I do the part of Annie that is capable of being critical of her dad. She literally cut out the inner voice telling her "this isn't right, I don't deserve to be treated this way" when it turned on her father leaving body!Annie an empty shell who basically exists to re-establish/maintain her relationship with dear old dad the only way she understands how - become the perfect, passive, obedient child she believes he wants her to be. In that, I suspect Daedalus is right, fire!Annie is much more the Annie we've come to know - containing everything about her she thinks might be offensive to Tony.

Both Tony and Annie tend to assume the worst about how other people will respond to their screw-ups and short comings. Given the extreme measures we've seen Annie go to when she's afraid she's damaged her relationship with Kat (shenanigans after the summer in the forest, withdrawing when she discovered Paz/Kat, etc...) I don't find it surprising that she would go even further if she felt like her relationship with her father was at stake. There's plenty of in-story evidence to imply that, at least since her mother's death, Annie values her relationship with her father above just about anything else. I think what we are seeing is the physical manifestation of the lengths she will go to to defend and protect that relationship, to the extent of cutting out most of what we think of as her core self.

Incidentally, I find it an apt metaphor for how real life victims of abusive relationships often modify their own behavior.

[darththulhu]

Sept 4, 2015 7:11:03 GMT arf said:

What next?
I think we'll have a chapter where the focus shifts elsewhere (New kid?)
Then find that Annie's lapsed into another coma because Anniemental is still in a sulk.

(For the extra page, I still like the thought of Tony clutching a stuffed toy wolf as he sleeps it off, and an exasperated, resigned sigh rising from said wolf.)

PUPPY RENARD!!!