[1906] I know better...

[chrisjenl]

Is that not your work as a mom?

[Nepycros]

Poor Annie, she's gonna have trouble figuring out how to deal with her father if her own best friend is on better terms with him.

But after all they've been through, trying to create an organic robo-body isn't considered a dangerous project? The torn sea, Robot, even the Seraphim are a pretty unpredictable (if comical) bunch. Plus Annie's gotta juggle her whole "Kinda maybe goddess" thing, which will only get exacerbated the more she throws herself into the role of Angel for robotkind.

[kefka]

It's weird how they let Kat work unsupervised when they know what she can do after the anti-gravity stuff. And it's like the Torn Sea chapter never happened.

[zirka]

Not dangerous? What does Kat think danger IS? She's creating living bodies from scratch and already has shady organizations interested in her work, as well as robot stalkers.

On another note: did anyone else have trouble figuring out that person with their back to us was Kat? Just me?

[theonethatgotaway]

Nov 6, 2017 8:14:55 GMT zirka said:

Not dangerous? What does Kat think danger IS? She's creating living bodies from scratch and already has shady organizations interested in her work, as well as robot stalkers.

On another note: did anyone else have trouble figuring out that person with their back to us was Kat? Just me?

Nah, I also didn't see it at first. The body looks too long, almost adultsized, but it's just imagination, because in the next panel, she's chibisized...

[noone3]

“It better not be anything world-threatening, young lady. Or you're grounded for a week!”

[Zox Tomana]

Nov 6, 2017 8:08:25 GMT Nepycros said:

Poor Annie, she's gonna have trouble figuring out how to deal with her father if her own best friend is on better terms with him.

But after all they've been through, trying to create an organic robo-body isn't considered a dangerous project? The torn sea, Robot, even the Seraphim are a pretty unpredictable (if comical) bunch. Plus Annie's gotta juggle her whole "Kinda maybe goddess" thing, which will only get exacerbated the more she throws herself into the role of Angel for robotkind.

The Seraphim seemed to have taken the command that Kat never wanted to see them again pretty seriously. And I have a distinct feeling Robot won't act to harm her. But there's a big degree to which Kat isn't aware, I have a feeling somewhat willfully, of the way the robots see her. She's heard them call her "the Angel" but she's never really asked why, or seen or heard the way Robot addresses her work to the other robots. Given her reaction and the results of The Torn Sea, I bet Kat is assuming the robots won't try anything like that again, and that they especially won't while on Court grounds.

[Jelly Jellybean]

So Anja knows better than to get involved in Anthony's affairs, and her reaction to her daughter being involved in Anthony's affairs to not get involved?

This is clearly brain washing on a massive scale.  The only apparent limit to Tony's power is that he can only use it when he is alone with his victim.

[aline]

Nov 6, 2017 11:09:42 GMT Jelly Jellybean said:

So Anja knows better than to get involved in Anthony's affairs, and her reaction to her daughter being involved in Anthony's affairs to not get involved?

The problem when you write a story where the heroes are teens is that you need to keep the parents out of the way. There'd be no adventures if their folks knew how they spend their free time. That's why teen heroes are frequently orphans, or have irresponsible and oblivious parents/guardians. I wouldn't read too much into it.

[youwiththeface]

@Anja said:

You're working with Anthony!? On what? Ah, never mind, never mind. I know better than to get involved in Anthony's affairs.

*stares* *opens mouth* *closes it*

There's....kind of a lot wrong with that statement.

[imaginaryfriend]

I'm hoping that Anja just wants to wait until they're somewhere the Court is less likely to be eavesdropping to ask Kat (or Antimony) about what Kat is working on with Anthony... but I suspect I will be disappointed.

[edit] Doesn't "it better not be" indicate that Anja does know it might be dangerous? [/edit]

[phantaskippy]

"The beans are still cool Mom, things are fine."

"Oh, well if they start to warm up let me know."

[yinglung]

Nov 6, 2017 11:52:51 GMT youwiththeface said:

@Anja said:

You're working with Anthony!? On what? Ah, never mind, never mind. I know better than to get involved in Anthony's affairs.

*stares* *opens mouth* *closes it*

There's....kind of a lot wrong with that statement.

Yeah, even I can't defend that. Maaaybe he tends to work on projects that are tedious and highly technical, yet not dangerous. Even so, it's baffling why she wouldn't want to know what her daughter is researching.
I'm also confused why Kat is hesitant to say "a really good prosthetic hand".

[todd]

Nov 6, 2017 11:39:05 GMT aline said:

The problem when you write a story where the heroes are teens is that you need to keep the parents out of the way. There'd be no adventures if their folks knew how they spend their free time. That's why teen heroes are frequently orphans, or have irresponsible and oblivious parents/guardians. I wouldn't read too much into it.

I think it's the same principle at work. What might be exciting the readers' concern is that we've seen so much evidence earlier that a lot of the adults (Anja, Donald, Eglamore, Jones) are highly competent (to the point where people kept asking why Annie doesn't go to them for answers or help - and seeing her failure to do so as one of her major weaknesses, that she's convinced she can handle things on her own from her upbringing in Good Hope) that their staying out of this business now seems strange. (And, since we'd brought up "The Torn Sea" earlier - there's the whole question of why none of those same adults noticed that the Seraphs were stealing or making those patches, buoys, etc. and took action; even if the conspiracy theory that the Court's inner circle was allowing it to happen is true, I cannot imagine the Donlans, Eglamore, and Jones agreeing to it. I can only assume that it was "plot-necessitated inattentiveness" again.)

[faiiry]

First of all, I think it's pretty hypocritical of Anja to spend several years not monitoring (and even enabling) her daughter's insane mad science experiments, and then suddenly get all righteous about "It better not be, young lady!" Second of all, I am still not buying this whole thing. I want to know exactly what Tony's jokes were. They must have been incredibly awesome jokes, since they managed to get Kat, who has spent several years hating on Tony every time the subject came up, to be totally cool with him within a few days.

[faiiry]

THIRD of all, I know Tony is known to be cool when he is alone, but it has been 20+ traumatizing years since he was a kid in the earlier pages of Get Lost. He's been through a lot, and plus, he's like 40 now. Is it realistic that he'd still be THAT cool?

[ctso74]

Nov 6, 2017 13:42:27 GMT faiiry said:

THIRD of all, I know Tony is known to be cool when he is alone, but it has been 20+ traumatizing years since he was a kid in the earlier pages of Get Lost. He's been through a lot, and plus, he's like 40 now. Is it realistic that he'd still be THAT cool?

If I had met Gary Gygax or Marvin Minsky as a teen, I would have thought they were the bee's knees. Not just from reputation, but from what they could add to a conversation. It all depends on what you think is cool. I imagine with Kat, that's Cyberorganics.

I have to admit, I'd think it was pretty cool, as well.

[erunion]

I see Anja’s ‘I know better than to get involved’ as ‘I know, I know - it’s top secret and you can’t say anything’. Hence her second question is about how dangerous it is - a question that Kat can answer without breaching secrecy.

While I don’t do anything this serious, I do work with NDA’s and have gone ‘I can’t really tell you that’ more than a few times.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s used to that answer from Donny when she asked about the work he does with Tony on the Omega device - it’s likely also that they suspect their home is bugged but haven’t removed all the bugs.

[jda]

- Where mother's irresponsibility is shown.

[jda]

-It better not be something dangerous, young lady! Or if it IS dangerous, don't ever let me know, understood?

[ohthatone]

This page kind of mashed my gears. I DO think what Kat is playing with could be on the dangerous side in the long term, but as far as she's concerned, she's just helping out a couple crazy kids in love. I don't think she's looking terribly far ahead. That's Anja and Donny's job, to guide her with these things and say, "hey kid, this is cool, but let's think about what this could lead to". Are they trusting Tony to do it? The Court?
This page kind of ranks up there with Anja's decision to tell Annie the story of Surma's fake love for Renard...so she wouldn't tell Renard something she...didn't know to begin with? That page still makes my head hurt.

[todd]

A further thought I had about Anja's response to Kat's activities, linked to some earlier thoughts I'd shared about the Court's seeming laxness towards the kids' activities.

As aline pointed out above, much of this is probably a necessity for the genre; if the adults kept a closer eye on the children at school, the comic would probably consist of little more than Annie and Kat listening to exposition speeches from Anja, Jones, and the rest. But there may also be an in-story reason.

These students are the next generation of scientists at the Court, who'll be embarking on potentially dangerous experiments (whatever the Court's doing with the ether at the power plant, the Omega Project, etc.) when they grow up and take their places in its work-force. If the grown-ups stop them from carrying out these enterprises while they're still students, with a tone of "It's far too dangerous, young lady. You are not going to work any more on robotics in that workshop, and that's final!", they could encourage the students to take a similar "far too dangerous" approach towards the Court's official projects. Then the Court would have no successors for the work as the current generation of adults dies off. They have to have heirs who'll be willing to brave the danger, toss caution aside, and continue the Court's work (and I doubt that things like the Omega Project are any less dangerous than what Kat's been doing). And that means, not stopping them from living dangerously - even if it creates its own problems.

So, while it might make better sense from a parenting point of view for Anja to delve into Kat's work, find out just what she's up to, and exercise parental authority to put a stop to it if it does indeed seem dangerous. it'd also be against the Court's interests. They won't want Kat to say when she grows up, "All these experiments the Court's working on are way too hazardous. I'm not working on any of them. I'm transferring to a regular science lab in the outside world, to work on regular science projects that don't steer into the areas that things like the Omega Project are doing." And then all her skills would be lost to the Court.

Tom's mentioned in the past that he kept out of the cast anyone who'd say about the dangerous situations Annie and Kat keep getting into "I don't think that's a good idea." I think that the Court is trying to discourage a similar attitude among its students, and that's why it doesn't try steering them away from such activities (only punishing them if they get caught - and for getting caught, to ensure they'll be better at handling cover-ups, rather than for rule-breaking).

[vankersabra17]

God. You know what this comic needs? An antagonist. A real, interesting one. Not a character that makes us think "he's not that bad". But one that will truly make the readers shake everytime he/she shows up in a page.

But again not someone that is a bad Guy doing bad guy things just for the sake of being bad. It'll be Nice seeing someone with depth, with real motives that almost - ALMOST - justify their actions but is not sorry or feels remorse, even enjoying their deeds. This comic had a lot of characters that would be great for this position.

Jenny was never bad to begin with, but okay... If Coyote end up being the main antagonist, that would be awesome, but só far he has been oscillating between manipulative bastard and comic relief and we all know he has some good villian's qualities in him. Even Reynardine in the beginning made us gasp when he tried to kill Annie. Robot is also another great contestant to the spot and his Very well written, Very well paced story of fanatic group of religious machines. Annie's father was another one, but ended up being another non undestood individual and that's great to have someone that is not as bad as we thought It would be, but If you use the same formula over and over again, It gets boring. (Like with Ysengrin, Jenny, Reynardine, Jack).

In my opinion, It should be someone new. A carismatic person that would shake the foundations of Gunnerkrigg Court. Or someone that nobody suspects. Well, only time will Tell.

[ohthatone]

Nov 6, 2017 8:14:55 GMT zirka said:

Not dangerous? What does Kat think danger IS? She's creating living bodies from scratch and already has shady organizations interested in her work, as well as robot stalkers.

On another note: did anyone else have trouble figuring out that person with their back to us was Kat? Just me?

For a split second I thought it was Court!Tony vs Jungle!Tony

[jda]

Nov 6, 2017 16:29:51 GMT vankersabra17 said:

God. You know what this comic needs? An antagonist. 

I am secretly harboring the hope that the Court rulers get up one day and execute Order 66 on Kat, and have her being THE Antagonist faction leader:

TechnoGoddess Kat, Tony, Donnie, Anja, Robot & his cult

VS

Annie, Rey, Parley, Smithy, Coyote & the forest.

[speedwell]

Nov 6, 2017 16:29:51 GMT vankersabra17 said:

God. You know what this comic needs? An antagonist. A real, interesting one. Not a character that makes us think "he's not that bad". But one that will truly make the readers shake everytime he/she shows up in a page.

But again not someone that is a bad Guy doing bad guy things just for the sake of being bad. It'll be Nice seeing someone with depth, with real motives that almost - ALMOST - justify their actions but is not sorry or feels remorse, even enjoying their deeds. This comic had a lot of characters that would be great for this position.

Jenny was never bad to begin with, but okay... If Coyote end up being the main antagonist, that would be awesome, but só far he has been oscillating between manipulative bastard and comic relief and we all know he has some good villian's qualities in him. Even Reynardine in the beginning made us gasp when he tried to kill Annie. Robot is also another great contestant to the spot and his Very well written, Very well paced story of fanatic group of religious machines. Annie's father was another one, but ended up being another non undestood individual and that's great to have someone that is not as bad as we thought It would be, but If you use the same formula over and over again, It gets boring. (Like with Ysengrin, Jenny, Reynardine, Jack).

In my opinion, It should be someone new. A carismatic person that would shake the foundations of Gunnerkrigg Court. Or someone that nobody suspects. Well, only time will Tell.

I'm almost on the same page. I don't think it will be exactly an antagonist, but I think it will be close to that. Say, perhaps, a new character who is interesting, smart, serious, kind, and just the sort of guy that Annie would fall wildly for and make everyone crazy over.

[somebunny]

Nov 6, 2017 15:28:11 GMT jda said:

- Where mother's irresponsibility is shown.

I think we've learned by now that Anja can be an extremely subtle person who knows when it is and isn't appropriate to go into detail.

[imaginaryfriend]

Nov 6, 2017 13:42:27 GMT faiiry said:

...I know Tony is known to be cool when he is alone, but it has been 20+ traumatizing years since he was a kid in the earlier pages of Get Lost. He's been through a lot, and plus, he's like 40 now. Is it realistic that he'd still be THAT cool?

I assume that Kat means Anthony gets what she's working on and is helpful in a light-hearted sort of way which Kat may never have experienced before since so many of her own projects are so far ahead of her age cohort. I doubt Anthony is "cool" in the conventional sense Kat's classmates would use, not even "dad" cool.

Fun Fact: When in college I used to like to hide jokes and double-entendre in presentations and papers, partly to see if anyone is listening/reading, partly out of boredom with tedious classwork, but mostly just because I could. I never got a single acknowledgement of one being funny in writing but I did better as a speaker, particularly with deadpan delivery. Once when delivering a group project (that I did the heavy lifting on) I managed to get some random girl from another department (maybe maths) to laugh out loud twice. The first time she woke the rest of the room up and people started listening to the presentation (which was otherwise unavoidably boring af) and wondering what the hell she was laughing/grinning at. The second time they also missed the joke so they started staring at her, not looking at me, wondering what the hell was up with her.

[imany]

Honestly, I think some of what's being said here is modern parenting theory, and GK doesn't fit modern parenting theory for a lot of reasons. GK is a boarding school with a lot of parentless children. Many of GK's students are there because their parents are on staff, but probably most of them aren't. I'm not from the UK so I don't have firsthand knowledge of this, but it's very common for children to attend boarding schools in the UK, and while a child is there, they're out of a parent's effective helicopter radius. It's normal for kids growing up in this type of environment for their parents to not know where they are at all times.

A lot of things changed when smartphones came into existence, but GK appears to be written about kids growing up in a period right before that when helicopter parents weren't quite so helicopter. My guess based on hairstyles and clothes is that Anja's generation went to school at GK in the 70s and Annie is there in the 2000s.

Yes, it's part of the genre for adults to be a little detached from their children, but it's also a result of the time frame and the place they are. It's also a testament to Anja's faith in Kat: she'll solve her own problems, or she'll come to her parents when she really needs to talk. Anja knows Kat and she also knows Tony. She might not like Tony, but she knows he isn't going to harm Kat and that Kat can take care of herself.

[antiyonder]

Honestly, how hard is it to say that Mr. Carver needed an extra hand?