[1623] Swimming in ink

[Daedalus]

It's a shame that Annie can't see, because Rey looks pretty today!

[aquamafia]

Is this a Splatoon reference?
Hahahah.

I'm playing splatoon right now too.

[Lizuka]

[OGRuddawg]

If Annie has less control over her fire powers and emotions, do you think her "special empathy with etheric beings" (as Jones describes it) is similarly affected??

[Daedalus]

Jan 25, 2016 8:24:12 GMT OGRuddawg said:

If Annie has less control over her fire powers and emotions, do you think her "special empathy with etheric beings" (as Jones describes it) is similarly affected??

Maybe? But if it is, it will end up being further strengthened when she learns to communicate with the etheric being inside herself.

[arf]

This is a bit like Lyra Belasque in His Dark Materials when her 'talent' for using the alethiometer is withdrawn and she has to relearn it all *properly*.

[calpal]

Wow, her skills were THAT dependent on the blinker stone?

... On second thought, it is a good thing that Ysengrin destroyed it, because if she had come up against Jeanne, I bet Jeanne would've done the same thing in destroying that blinker stone. Only this time around, it wouldn't have been for Annie's benefit.

[Lightice]

Jan 25, 2016 12:08:47 GMT calpal said:

Wow, her skills were THAT dependent on the blinker stone?

I suspect that being split apart from her fire elemental side is also making things more challenging.

[rinabean]

Jan 25, 2016 12:08:47 GMT calpal said:

Wow, her skills were THAT dependent on the blinker stone?

... On second thought, it is a good thing that Ysengrin destroyed it, because if she had come up against Jeanne, I bet Jeanne would've done the same thing in destroying that blinker stone. Only this time around, it wouldn't have been for Annie's benefit.

Well, she did, and Jeanne trapped her with it. It has been a liability to her for some time so I'm glad she's learning to work without it now!

[tortoise]

Jan 25, 2016 12:23:54 GMT Lightice said:

Jan 25, 2016 12:08:47 GMT calpal said:

Wow, her skills were THAT dependent on the blinker stone?

I suspect that being split apart from her fire elemental side is also making things more challenging.

I don't think the fire elemental side is "split," just "awake." Annie was very much a duality even before her split - at the beginning of the strip, she is very awkward and cold, but as the strip progressed, her temper slowly begins to manifest as another side of her. You'll notice that when she cuts off her fire elemental side, she speaks directly to it! But at that point, she hasn't been properly split yet.

I also recognize many themes of childhood - she literally looks a lot younger compared to Long Hair Annie, and she composes herself in many of the same ways a child would. Not to mention the loss of her blinker stone and direct connection with her elemental side, which were huge crutches for her powers. The return of her father sent her back in time, figuratively, to correct some of the mistakes that she made and get on the path to who she will become. What those mistakes are I cannot say, and I think Tony might want her to basically become a clone of her mother - or he could want her to be a cold and rational creature like him - whereas Ys and Coyote pretty clearly want her to develop into her own person, wild and free.

I am confident that Annie will follow a path somewhere in the middle. While the progress she made in maturity was really significant, it was almost artificial - she is now learning to bring her abilities from within herself which will make her much, much more powerful.

[Jelly Jellybean]

Could be worse Annie, you could be drowning in red ink!

I agree that her father's return, her getting caught cheating, and her isolation from everything she previously had caused Annie to regress. I also think that Annie is using the loss of the blinkerstone as an excuse, one that she needs to get past. The sooner the better because I ran out of patience for this Annie about six months ago.

[Lightice]

Jan 25, 2016 16:30:08 GMT tortoise said:

I don't think the fire elemental side is "split," just "awake." Annie was very much a duality even before her split - at the beginning of the strip, she is very awkward and cold, but as the strip progressed, her temper slowly begins to manifest as another side of her. You'll notice that when she cuts off her fire elemental side, she speaks directly to it! But at that point, she hasn't been properly split yet.

At the moment it does seem that the fire elemental is acting as a distinct entity, exercising a will of its own instead of being a part of Annie's. I'm assuming that the whole point of this exercise is to reconnect and become a whole person once again.

[warrl]

Jan 25, 2016 16:30:08 GMT tortoise said:

I also recognize many themes of childhood - she literally looks a lot younger compared to Long Hair Annie, and she composes herself in many of the same ways a child would.

Indeed. If you compare her etheric figure here to what it was in Totem, she looks younger in other ways where a girl of her approximate age often changes rapidly. Which I interpret as meaning that she feels less mature than she did.

[intotheether]

I'm rather happy with the direction this chapter is heading so far. It seems like Tom used Ysengrin's interference to accomplish a few things in one fell swoop, forcing her to reconcile with her elemental side while removing a crutch that had been introduced rather a while back. It's a shame that it had to be one brought to her by Mort as that was one of the few remaining tangible keepsakes she had of him, but nothing lasts forever (and additionally giving Ys a moment of awesome in having him voluntarily let Annie burn his arm to cinders just to allow her an outlet for all of her pent up rage).

Stylistically, I really like this page. Rey's ethereal form is beautiful as always, but it's actually the way Annie's drawn in this that's really suckering me in. She's still clearly in her mid teens, but the way her expression is drawn, the cut of the hair and even the shadowing have her looking her proper age while also giving off the appearance of what she likely feels like at the moment-a scared little kid that's in way over her head.

(At least, that's how it appears to me. Your mileage may vary, of course)

[OGRuddawg]

Jan 25, 2016 20:28:04 GMT intotheether said:

Rey's ethereal form is beautiful as always, but it's actually the way Annie's drawn in this that's really suckering me in. She's still clearly in her mid teens, but the way her expression is drawn, the cut of the hair and even the shadowing have her looking her proper age while also giving off the appearance of what she likely feels like at the moment-a scared little kid that's in way over her head.

I think she also looks a little guilty and ashamed of her lack of etheric control right now.  She's looking down and to her left when speaking to Renard in the last two images (we can't exactly call them panels or frames without borders...)  I think she also still feels bad about leaving Renard with Anthony. 

She's making progress, but there's still a lot of stuff for Annie to figure out and work through before we see her better side.

[aline]

While Annie does look a bit disappointed at her abilities, what I see is someone who is not set back at all, but going forward. She was used to drive her bicycle with the training wheels on, and everything was easy and it felt good. Now she doesn't have her training wheels so everything is more difficult, but she is in fact already more competent than she used to be when she was still relying entirely on her blinker stone. She can't enjoy the results yet and that's frustrating to her, but that's just a normal part of learning.

She's spending time training herself. She's reflecting on her feelings and behavior. She's being open about it all with someone and accepting guidance. So okay, she's not there yet but I think she's doing GREAT.

[fish]

Observation: So far in this scene Annie's hair is not really swirling and flowing around like it usually does in the ether. When we last saw her in the ether in "Annie and the Fire" she already had short hair but it was swirling around none the less. I assume this is a visual indication of her disability to focus on (into?) the ether after her blinker stone was pulverized.

[Zox Tomana]

Jan 25, 2016 8:24:12 GMT OGRuddawg said:

If Annie has less control over her fire powers and emotions, do you think her "special empathy with etheric beings" (as Jones describes it) is similarly affected??

Annie was able to connect with Mort and interact positively with such unstable people as Zimmy long before she was able to do so much using her blinker stone, so I would suppose the difficulty in interacting in this manner with the Ether isn't necessarily going to have that much of an impact on her "special empathy." That is probably more referring to her other seemingly natural ability as an unwilling afterlife guide.

[Daedalus]

Jan 27, 2016 7:11:27 GMT Zox Tomana said:

Jan 25, 2016 8:24:12 GMT OGRuddawg said:

If Annie has less control over her fire powers and emotions, do you think her "special empathy with etheric beings" (as Jones describes it) is similarly affected??

Annie was able to connect with Mort and interact positively with such unstable people as Zimmy long before she was able to do so much using her blinker stone, so I would suppose the difficulty in interacting in this manner with the Ether isn't necessarily going to have that much of an impact on her "special empathy." That is probably more referring to her other seemingly natural ability as an unwilling afterlife guide.

I've always wondered how much of that "special empathy" is an actual etheric skill/quality, and how much is 'just' a personality trait. After all, she doesn't do anything especially mystical when meeting Rey or Mort or Coyote; she just treats them as if they were normal(-ish) presences in her life.

[OGRuddawg]

Jan 27, 2016 8:04:52 GMT Daedalus said:

Jan 27, 2016 7:11:27 GMT Zox Tomana said:

Annie was able to connect with Mort and interact positively with such unstable people as Zimmy long before she was able to do so much using her blinker stone, so I would suppose the difficulty in interacting in this manner with the Ether isn't necessarily going to have that much of an impact on her "special empathy." That is probably more referring to her other seemingly natural ability as an unwilling afterlife guide.

I've always wondered how much of that "special empathy" is an actual etheric skill/quality, and how much is 'just' a personality trait. After all, she doesn't do anything especially mystical when meeting Rey or Mort or Coyote; she just treats them as if they were normal(-ish) presences in her life.

This makes sense that it's an innate part of her, since she was born with her etheric connection. And when the two are separated, etheric beings notice the change immediately (see Coyote, Ysengrin, and Bunny).