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Post by arf on Jun 1, 2016 7:06:01 GMT
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Post by noone3 on Jun 1, 2016 7:52:41 GMT
Sooo... Every day is weekend in the Ether. Which technically mean it is their retirement.  |
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Post by rafk on Jun 1, 2016 9:13:18 GMT
This all falls apart when they find out they could get their own names like THAT. And when we find out what "great things" the graduates are really doing.
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Post by Jelly Jellybean on Jun 1, 2016 11:20:53 GMT
The Foley students doing what they want in the ether gives me a Star Trek holodeck vibe. A vibe reinforced by the Court's simulation chamber(s) with haptic feedback.
If you had a programmable holodeck, would you go out and risk your life in the real world?
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Post by calpal on Jun 1, 2016 11:39:59 GMT
Now everyone's probably still gonna go around saying "BUT THE COURT IS MYSTERIOUS AND EVIL!", which, yes, but I'll just add my two cents here:
Bugsy is still right; no matter how devious a system they've built over at the Court, nor how malicious and evil its people are, at the end of the day, I don't want to get eaten by Coyote. That's basically the best argument you could make for WANTING to go to the Court.
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Post by TBeholder on Jun 1, 2016 11:51:20 GMT
The mystery is solved! They are here because the forest fairies ran out of pronounceable names. The Foley students doing what they want in the ether gives me a Star Trek holodeck vibe. A vibe reinforced by the Court's simulation chamber(s) with haptic feedback. If you had a programmable holodeck, would you go out and risk your life in the real world? Given that the collectivist utopia in question seems to have safety and security protocols devised by the same suicidal chipmunks as most of their hardware, and that those are used in holodecks too, the "risk" part doesn't seem to be a matter of choice. Now, as to the other aspects... they did mention having a lot of "holodicts", IIRC. at the end of the day, I don't want to get eaten by Coyote. That's basically the best argument you could make for WANTING to go to the Court. But... uh... that's how they go to the Court. |
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Post by youwiththeface on Jun 1, 2016 12:42:07 GMT
Now everyone's probably still gonna go around saying "BUT THE COURT IS MYSTERIOUS AND EVIL!", which, yes, but I'll just add my two cents here: Bugsy is still right; no matter how devious a system they've built over at the Court, nor how malicious and evil its people are, at the end of the day, I don't want to get eaten by Coyote. That's basically the best argument you could make for WANTING to go to the Court. The problem is there are a lot of shades of white people 'saving' darker hued people from themselves by putting them to work for them in this. And the fairies seem to think they're doing more important work than they would get to do in the forest, but if that's not true... And that's without getting into any body dysphoria the male students might have from having once been female, or what Coyote seemed to be implying when he said 'he Court wants what it wants' when he was telling Annie about the fairies not having their souls. You can make an argument that the bunny kid was free to chose...but if the fairies can only gain their minds and souls by making the switch, they would be stuck with the choice of either doing so, or living on without their souls. And if the court had a hand in that, it's basically holding their souls hostage, which they can only get back in exchange for free labor. That's pretty twisted. |
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Post by lordofpotatoes on Jun 1, 2016 12:47:13 GMT
Now everyone's probably still gonna go around saying "BUT THE COURT IS MYSTERIOUS AND EVIL!", which, yes, but I'll just add my two cents here: Bugsy is still right; no matter how devious a system they've built over at the Court, nor how malicious and evil its people are, at the end of the day, I don't want to get eaten by Coyote. That's basically the best argument you could make for WANTING to go to the Court. The problem is there are a lot of shades of white people 'saving' darker hued people from themselves by putting them to work for them in this. And the fairies seem to think they're doing more important work than they would get to do in the forest, but if that's not true... And that's without getting into any body dysphoria the male students might have from having once been female, or what Coyote seemed to be implying when he said 'he Court wants what it wants' when he was telling Annie about the fairies not having their souls. You can make an argument that the bunny kid was free to chose...but if the fairies can only gain their minds and souls by making the switch, they would be stuck with the choice of either doing so, or living on without their souls. And if the court had a hand in that, it's basically holding their souls hostage, which they can only get back in exchange for free labor. That's pretty twisted. Personally I think the gender doesn't come with the soul in Gunnerkrigg, unless they bring it up in the comic, I'm gonna assume that dysphoria is biological/neurological and that they wouldn't have it unless the court made a body that included it. |
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Post by ctso74 on Jun 1, 2016 13:19:55 GMT
safety and security protocols devised by the same suicidal chipmunks as most of their hardware When I first read that, I thought you meant actual chipmunks, and wondered, "Coyote subcontracts?" The problem is there are a lot of shades of white people 'saving' darker hued people from themselves by putting them to work for them in this. And the fairies seem to think they're doing more important work than they would get to do in the forest, but if that's not true... And that's without getting into any body dysphoria the male students might have from having once been female, or what Coyote seemed to be implying when he said 'he Court wants what it wants' when he was telling Annie about the fairies not having their souls. You can make an argument that the bunny kid was free to chose...but if the fairies can only gain their minds and souls by making the switch, they would be stuck with the choice of either doing so, or living on without their souls. And if the court had a hand in that, it's basically holding their souls hostage, which they can only get back in exchange for free labor. That's pretty twisted. Personally I think the gender doesn't come with the soul in Gunnerkrigg, unless they bring it up in the comic, I'm gonna assume that dysphoria is biological/neurological and that they wouldn't have it unless the court made a body that included it. Perhaps, it's the Court's past experiments with the Ether, that caused some Fairies to be born with their souls separated? Maybe this "exchange" program is more like a Native American reservation, and the Court is trying to make up for damage done? The story says, all animals become male and all fairies become female, despite of original sex. That is a little weird (no, a lot weird). Something to do with how the Court has the fairies souls? There are probably a cou[ple of story points we're missing here. |
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Post by wynne on Jun 1, 2016 14:12:19 GMT
The problem is there are a lot of shades of white people 'saving' darker hued people from themselves by putting them to work for them in this. And the fairies seem to think they're doing more important work than they would get to do in the forest, but if that's not true... I was getting a definite House Elves vibe from this page. Like yeah, maybe they do want to work all day and live mostly in the ether and think time off is pointless, but that doesn't mean it's okay to take advantage of that. We might be imposing human values on them, but cutting out weekends and holidays is still ethically dubious at best. Even if their jobs really are great, they still deserve the chance to, like, travel. Or make weird gardens. Or make that "Pthbthbthbthbt" face at each other in real life for half a day. At least the "talk about things we've seen at the Court" line a couple pages back and Red's haircut chapter imply that they do have some non-ether free time, so hopefully it isn't 16 hours a day of this. Even former Forest residents turned human need to eat and sleep (and go to the haircut robot). |
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yhbc
Junior Member
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Post by yhbc on Jun 1, 2016 16:46:59 GMT
The "important jobs" line suddenly made me wonder - what has Red been doing since she got her name?
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Post by jda on Jun 1, 2016 17:06:40 GMT
So, it's all about a Matrix first version uthopia?
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Jun 1, 2016 19:29:48 GMT
This comic reminded me of a discussion I had years and years ago in college. We were talking about free will, if a mind was the same thing as a sophisticated detector or not. My friend was championing the position of free will being illusory and I agreed with all of his arguments but not his conclusion for the simple fact that circumstances might compel someone to act in their best interests as opposed to doing whatever they wanted, but the mind allows an individual to enjoy imagining doing whatever they want whenever they want.
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Post by fish on Jun 1, 2016 22:17:51 GMT
The "important jobs" line suddenly made me wonder - what has Red been doing since she got her name? Quantum physics experients I bet. |
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Earin
Full Member
Posts: 115
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Post by Earin on Jun 2, 2016 0:11:39 GMT
The "important jobs" line suddenly made me wonder - what has Red been doing since she got her name? Quantum physics experients I bet. Hair-raising ones. |
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Post by fish on Jun 2, 2016 0:45:04 GMT
Quantum physics experients I bet. Hair-raising ones. Hah! Or she became a hair stylist! |
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Post by bedinsis on Jun 2, 2016 8:24:10 GMT
The line about "important job" reminds me of this page. |
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Post by Sauzels on Jun 2, 2016 11:38:46 GMT
safety and security protocols devised by the same suicidal chipmunks as most of their hardware When I first read that, I thought you meant actual chipmunks, and wondered, "Coyote subcontracts?" Personally I think the gender doesn't come with the soul in Gunnerkrigg, unless they bring it up in the comic, I'm gonna assume that dysphoria is biological/neurological and that they wouldn't have it unless the court made a body that included it. Perhaps, it's the Court's past experiments with the Ether, that caused some Fairies to be born with their souls separated? Maybe this "exchange" program is more like a Native American reservation, and the Court is trying to make up for damage done? The story says, all animals become male and all fairies become female, despite of original sex. That is a little weird (no, a lot weird). Something to do with how the Court has the fairies souls? There are probably a cou[ple of story points we're missing here. |
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Post by zbeeblebrox on Jun 3, 2016 5:17:13 GMT
So, it's all about a Matrix first version uthopia? Haha, that's exactly what I was thinking |
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Post by Daedalus on Jun 3, 2016 16:28:32 GMT
And that's without getting into any body dysphoria the male students might have from having once been female, or what Coyote seemed to be implying when he said 'he Court wants what it wants' when he was telling Annie about the fairies not having their souls. You can make an argument that the bunny kid was free to chose...but if the fairies can only gain their minds and souls by making the switch, they would be stuck with the choice of either doing so, or living on without their souls. And if the court had a hand in that, it's basically holding their souls hostage, which they can only get back in exchange for free labor. That's pretty twisted. To be fair, the Court's been shown to be very accepting with regards to alternate sexual orientations (re:Kat). It's not unlikely that they'd fully accept any student as transgender, though they may not be willing to make any kind of medical treatment available because "balance". What I find more interesting is that the Court has dictated how the fairies will be born, even in the Forest's own domain. How do they have that kind of influence? |
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