[1966] Rumble Rattle Rattle

[ffkonoko]

Hmm. Well, that's not good.

Two hands begin to form...


Edit: Actually, on further consideration, while one was formed from a little tree hand, and he has already debuted some impressive giant tree hand abilities, we might not want to jump to conclusions, they could still easily shift to form something else, like a giant arch, or just 2 really big trees. But hands are my main guess. Rude gestures towards the headmaster possible.

[faiiry]

What if this is the formation of a giant new body for Ysengrin? (But he doesn't need it with his new strength. Still - just a theory.)


Semi-related side note: I am starting to feel like Coyote's actions in chapter 54 are more sinister than they appear. I don't think he "knocked over one of their little buildings" to get Annie back simply because he missed her stories.

[madjack]

Yeah it's looking like he does want to go all whomping willow...


DON'T PANIC

[novia]

Kat: "Oh cool, the trees got bigger."

[noone3]

That's right, Kat. It is time to suit up in your Gundam.

[Sky Schemer]

Worst. Katurday. Ever.

[fjodorii]

In other economic news: real estate value of property within giant tree whomping range drops to all-time lows.

[philman]

the court has to have been developing some sort of industrial etheric weed killer somewhere, right?

Or are we just going to see Eglamore hefting a massive axe and spending the next year or so trying to chop one of them down?

[theonethatgotaway]

mega teCHNO MECHA TRANSFORMATION TIME!

[madjack]

Mar 26, 2018 8:06:05 GMT philman said:

the court has to have been developing some sort of industrial etheric weed killer somewhere, right?

Or are we just going to see Eglamore hefting a massive axe and spending the next year or so trying to chop one of them down?

It's not like he hasn't had practice.

[zaferion]

It looks like the trees are growing together to form an arch. For what purpose though? To serve as a reminder to the humans of their new foresty overlords? Seems too pedestrian for someone with the combined rage of Ysengrin and the nonchalant malice of Coyote.

[zaferion]

On a more character related note, what is Tom's plan here? I feel like he values Ysengrin and Annie's relationship too much to suddenly turn Ys into a sparkly, unreasonable aggressor.

[grahamf]

So now kat is going to show off as the Great Mecha God of the Court?

[shadow3]

KAT: "It's Morphin' Time!"

RENARD: "Good luck, Katerina, I look forward to seeing how you handle this as a wizard."

KAT: "I'm not a wizard!"

RENARD: "Your giant magical construct is breathtakingly awe-inspiring."

KAT: "It's not magic! It's science!"

RENARD: "Truly a wonder of supernatural power."

KAT: "...................................................................."

[faiiry]

Mar 26, 2018 8:35:25 GMT zaferion said:

On a more character related note, what is Tom's plan here? I feel like he values Ysengrin and Annie's relationship too much to suddenly turn Ys into a sparkly, unreasonable aggressor.

Except this isn't Ysengrin. Coyote has control of the situation.

[zaferion]

Mar 26, 2018 11:33:32 GMT faiiry said:

Mar 26, 2018 8:35:25 GMT zaferion said:

On a more character related note, what is Tom's plan here? I feel like he values Ysengrin and Annie's relationship too much to suddenly turn Ys into a sparkly, unreasonable aggressor.

Except this isn't Ysengrin. Coyote has control of the situation.

Well, we don't really know who is in control and with what ratio. 100% Coyote? 100% Ys? 70% Ys, 30% Coyote? 100% something completely different? 50/50 split with each fighting for mental dominance? Who knows. Unless Word of Tom has said otherwise

And my main point is that if Sparkle Ys exists, Regular Ys, and particularly his growing relationship with Annie, cannot. But, again, that's based off what we know about Sparkle Dog which is very little.

[saardvark]

Mar 26, 2018 8:35:25 GMT zaferion said:

On a more character related note, what is Tom's plan here? I feel like he values Ysengrin and Annie's relationship too much to suddenly turn Ys into a sparkly, unreasonable aggressor.

Maybe one of Annie's tasks in upcoming chapters will be to "reach" the Ys part of Coysengrin, to get him to engineer an "internal revolt" and kick the (presently dominant) Trickster component out... who will then reconstitute, laughing his spots off, from the giggle knife+Coyote water^TM+goose bone+... all the other bits Coyote has left scattered about. (\end_wild_spec)
(of course, this assumes there is still some Ys "in there", but I think there is, for reasons Zaferion...)

[spritznar]

meanwhile, back at the ranch...

[pyradonis]

This page seems oddly calm compared to the previous ones.

On a discussion-related note, what's will all those posts "Now Kat will go full-scale MechaAngalDestructoGod!!!"? Of course she won't. She does not know how to do that or what it looks like (only Zimmy and Annie have seen this form, and neither could really describe it). When she entered the Ether, she just saw a boring chamber with her, Annie, and Jeanne's boyfriend inside. Probably she also needed Annie as a proxy to even get there.

[todd]

This page does confirm that these events really are happening in the comic and aren't just a "fantasy sequence" of Ysengrin's (as a couple of readers had suggested). Neither Ysengrin nor Coyote have ever met Kat, so they'd be unable to create her point of view of these events so accurately.

[faiiry]

Mar 26, 2018 11:58:11 GMT pyradonis said:

This page seems oddly calm compared to the previous ones.

On a discussion-related note, what's will all those posts "Now Kat will go full-scale MechaAngalDestructoGod!!!"? Of course she won't. She does not know how to do that or what it looks like (only Zimmy and Annie have seen this form, and neither could really describe it). When she entered the Ether, she just saw a boring chamber with her, Annie, and Jeanne's boyfriend inside. Probably she also needed Annie as a proxy to even get there.

This raises an important question though. In my view, it was always the case that Kat saw the "truth" about things in the ether - she saw how to break them down to their smallest parts and make them as simple as possible. (Hence, in chapter 46, why she saw the guy in the corner before everyone else did, and why she saw a single book instead of a huge library.) Whether or not what she was seeing was the actual truth about etheric objects and creatures, however, remains to be seen.

With that being said, we are probably about to see Kat react to witnessing Coyote and Ysengrin in action for the first time. The million-dollar question is, what will she see? Even more relevant, what will Coysengrin see when he looks at her?

[todd]

Mar 26, 2018 11:38:35 GMT zaferion said:

Mar 26, 2018 11:33:32 GMT faiiry said:

Except this isn't Ysengrin. Coyote has control of the situation.

Well, we don't really know who is in control and with what ratio. 100% Coyote? 100% Ys? 70% Ys, 30% Coyote? 100% something completely different? 50/50 split with each fighting for mental dominance? Who knows. Unless Word of Tom has said otherwise

And my main point is that if Sparkle Ys exists, Regular Ys, and particularly his growing relationship with Annie, cannot. But, again, that's based off what we know about Sparkle Dog which is very little.

From a storytelling point of view, I hope that this is more Ysengrin than Coyote. Ysengrin's quarrel with the Court is more heartfelt, more genuinely rooted in the conflict between the two groups, the grievances the forest-folk feel towards Gunnerkrigg. Coyote seems more motivated just by "meddling for the fun of it", treating the clash between the Wood and the Court as all just a game to entertain himself. Ysengrin's anger makes better drama. (Maybe Coyote, deep down, does dread the Court's experiments with the ether and want to destroy them - but with his track record, it's difficult to tell whether it really means anything to him. He feels like the stranger who sauntered into a quarrel and joined in just for fun, without really caring about the issues.)

[faiiry]

My opinion that this is Coyote in control right now rather than wholly or partly Ysengrin is only based on one fact. When we've seen Ysengrin furious and losing control, he seems completely rabid and not in control of his actions, as we saw in The Great Secret. And he behaved that way again before eating Coyote. But as soon as Coyotekebabs were devoured, Coysengrin's actions became much more deliberate and controlled. Once he destroyed the bridge, he had the mental capacity to remember the seeds, think of his plans for them, and utilize them according to his plan. In my view, if it were Ysengrin wholly or partly in control, he would not be able to take such deliberate, controlled actions. He would just be rampaging around.

[keef]

Mar 26, 2018 11:58:11 GMT pyradonis said:

This page seems oddly calm compared to the previous ones.

On a discussion-related note, what's will all those posts "Now Kat will go full-scale MechaAngalDestructoGod!!!"? Of course she won't. She does not know how to do that or what it looks like (only Zimmy and Annie have seen this form, and neither could really describe it). When she entered the Ether, she just saw a boring chamber with her, Annie, and Jeanne's boyfriend inside.

Agreed. Apart from Annie quite insufficient description and Zimmy's "terrifying" she has no idea. Paz saw her ether-form too, but probably never told her (maybe thought she was imagining stuff).

Probably she also needed Annie as a proxy to even get there.

Zimmy suggested she always sees her like this, "The Torn Sea" suggest the robots see her like this at least when she's angry at them. On the other hand, it has been suggested before, Kat and the Mecha Angel are not necessarily  one and the same.

[ctso74]

Mar 26, 2018 8:06:05 GMT philman said:

the court has to have been developing some sort of industrial etheric weed killer somewhere, right?

Or are we just going to see Eglamore hefting a massive axe and spending the next year or so trying to chop one of them down?

Ysengrin: "Have any thing to say, Protector?"
Eglamore: "... Timber." *puts on sunglasses*

It's possible that all this is simply a display of power and dominance. Once it becomes obvious, that the Court can't do anything, Ysengrin(or whom ever he is) may simply leave the trees and return to the Forest. Hopefully, we'll get some answers as to the new Wolf god's mental identity soon.

I do wonder what's going on in Kat's mind, though.
Kat: "Huh. You don't see that every day."

[darlos9d]

"I'll show the humans how powerless they really are!"

*Court inhabitants look at the giant trees for about five seconds before going back to what they were already doing.*

Doing wacky stuff to be impressive seems like it's less likely to work when everyone already lives in wackyland.

[blazingstar]

Which one of us was it that checks in with the comic just to say "oh no!" and then leaves? Was it clover? I'm beginning to feel like that at this point.

The "oh crap" quotient just gets higher and higher.

[keef]

Mar 26, 2018 12:50:31 GMT faiiry said:

My opinion that this is Coyote in control right now rather than wholly or partly Ysengrin is only based on one fact. When we've seen Ysengrin furious and losing control, he seems completely rabid and not in control of his actions, as we saw in The Great Secret. And he behaved that way again before eating Coyote. But as soon as Coyotekebabs were devoured, Coysengrin's actions became much more deliberate and controlled. Once he destroyed the bridge, he had the mental capacity to remember the seeds, think of his plans for them, and utilize them according to his plan. In my view, if it were Ysengrin wholly or partly in control, he would not be able to take such deliberate, controlled actions. He would just be rampaging around.

But then Coyote would be faking his death, and that would mean he broke his word. Coyote is dead (but with quite a large number of hints he will be resurrected). With regaining his memories, Ysengrin seemingly also regained control over his actions (but Coyote may well have helped by leaving some suggestions among those memories).

[todd]

Mar 26, 2018 13:44:36 GMT keef said:

But then Coyote would be faking his death, and that would mean he broke his word. Coyote is dead (but with quite a large number of hints he will be resurrected). With regaining his memories, Ysengrin seemingly also regained control over his actions (but Coyote may well have helped by leaving some suggestions among those memories).

The "it's really Coyote, housed in Ysengrin's body" theory argues that Coyote's bending his word rather than breaking it, because it's technically Ysengrin doing those things (which does seem the kind of scheme that a trickster would pull).

As I mentioned above, from a storytelling perspective, I'm hoping that Tom will make it Ysengrin's will and desires behind this, not Coyote's (there'd even be something satisfying - and also true to the nature of tricksters - in Coyote's scheme backfiring on him), but I don't know as yet which he actually intends. The next few pages may make it clearer which theory is the correct one.

[atteSmythe]

oh god oh god the device