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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 27, 2019 8:05:11 GMT
Idra didn't get stuck in the time freeze because she was in the deep Woods when it happened but with that shiner I'd hardly call her untouched. |
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Post by bedinsis on Dec 27, 2019 8:46:04 GMT
"Idra's been enjoying the new clothes available to her." Reminds me of how the prospect of owning her own clothes on this page was exciting to Red. |
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Post by madjack on Dec 27, 2019 8:54:16 GMT
No answer on why Khepi doesn't trust the Court. Is it just the stories passed down about the original conflict and split between them or is there something relatively recent/ongoing that we're not aware of? Sit back and wait it is then. Edit: Panel 2 proves this to be correct: And who is that man in a suit standing next to her? Judging by the viewing angles, it can't be the Court official shown on previous page. They come in pairs. |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 27, 2019 9:06:15 GMT
Trust takes time to build. Could be that they just don't know anything about the Court. If I was Antimonies I'd let the Anwyn and the rest of the forest dudes be for a while, but also extend a personal invitation to Kamlen, Sareed and Irial to come visit their house, maybe stay the night. They can put a blanket over Anthony and Boxbot or something.
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 27, 2019 10:02:24 GMT
Also: Guesstimating by her surname, I think Idra O'Kerrigan is a descendant of the Fir Domnann of the Malahide or possibly of the Dumnonii, or the former by way of the latter. Feel free to pronounce Dumnonii as "dumb!? nani?" my internet friends. |
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Post by csj on Dec 27, 2019 10:07:59 GMT
free food, 99% nanite free
(the 1% is the nanites)
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Post by migrantworker on Dec 27, 2019 10:32:05 GMT
Hmm. Idra's trust in the Court is going to be tested if Kat has her way. And Khepi... diplomatic negotiations are not the best time to let clan hostilities surface. |
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Post by Igniz on Dec 27, 2019 10:45:38 GMT
Well, except for the fact that some creatures are occasionally turned into humans and accepted as student, the forest inhabitants basically know nothing about the Court (even the people and other beings living there are left in the dark about many, many things). If I was Antimonies I'd let the Anwyn and the rest of the forest dudes be for a while Certainly, that would be the best course of action right now. The only downside to this is that the big bad wolf can get [more] impatient in the meantime. |
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Post by coastal on Dec 27, 2019 11:37:23 GMT
I'm just here to say how much I appreciate Idra's new look
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Post by Per on Dec 27, 2019 12:26:22 GMT
Her head size seems to fluctuate relative to her hair though...
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Post by pyradonis on Dec 27, 2019 12:32:33 GMT
Oh, I think Idra has an idea of why she was not affected, but "proper" elves do not go into the deep woods, so she leaves that part out, hmm? If I was Antimonies I'd let the Anwyn and the rest of the forest dudes be for a while They still need the building squad, though. |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 27, 2019 12:36:15 GMT
If I was Antimonies I'd let the Anwyn and the rest of the forest dudes be for a while Certainly, that would be the best course of action right now. The only downside to this is that the big bad wolf can get [more] impatient in the meantime. [edit] What I'm getting at is that there's no need to link the disposition of the forest dudes in general with the negotiations for the building team. [/edit] There's still a need for some dudes to shift some ironwood but the negotiation for and fulfillment of that would be a great chance for people getting to know each other and maybe building a little trust. "We want this done to placate 'Loup' and are willing to offer this or that in exchange" is easy to understand and a great building block to place on top of the general humanitarian aid of food and shelter. There are culture and power dynamics at play here, however. The Court and the forest dudes have fundamentally different ways of looking at the world and of doing things. The forest dudes are in a much weaker position at the moment, but the fact that they have the ironwood moving skills that the Court possibly can't do without is a mitigating factor. There's also the self-interest of the people in charge, which sadly often overtakes the best interests of the people who are not in charge. Socially, the forest dudes are in chaos right now. The forest dude leaders may decide that it is in their (the leaders') best interests to delay or frustrate the negotiations while they assign blame and obfuscate the real issues because doing so is the one real lever they have over the Court right now, and when the only tool you have is a hammer the whole world looks like a nail. A game like that would be perilously close to brinkmanship considering the circumstances but it would be a way of cementing their power base. The Court leadership is probably desperate enough to be reasonable, particularly since the things that the forest dudes are likely to want probably won't be things the Court leadership will care about (they're wealthy and connected enough that essentials and most luxury goods wouldn't be a problem, and they've already got a massive surplus of timber that they're looking to get rid of, for example) but there appears to be a motive for the forest dude leadership to be very unreasonable even considering, or perhaps I should say because their community is (probably) nearly 100% dependent on the Court for food. If the forest dude leaders don't do something to secure their positions as leaders then they may find that the power and control they previously enjoyed is slipping away as the forest dudes interact with the Court people. By saying this I am not saying that Khepi and the rest are bad people even if they do this but they are just people, moreover they are people in stressful circumstances. Let's see what they do and how far they take it. |
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Post by ctso74 on Dec 27, 2019 14:22:09 GMT
Whether or not it pertains to the problem at hand, Khepi has a valid question. Was it merely that Idra was in the "deep forest", or is there another reason for her to remain unfrozen? Did Idra have to go through standard decontamination procedure? Do they have enough HazMat suit for everyone? Man, the confetti will get everywhere. |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 27, 2019 14:37:19 GMT
Whether or not it pertains to the problem at hand, Khepi has a valid question. Was it merely that Idra was in the "deep forest", or is there another reason for her to remain unfrozen? Did Idra have to go through standard decontamination procedure? Do they have enough HazMat suit for everyone? Man, the confetti will get everywhere. She probably had to undergo some sort of exam but I doubt they have enough resources and free personnel to do the whole shebang. It is indeed possible that Idra was in the deep forest because she was up to something, and because of that was deliberately included with the "creeps" who would invade the Court. What counts as "up to something" is debatable; maybe she was just gathering the forbidden mushrooms to make an extra-special batch of achewater, some berries that could sicken her love rival, or psychoactive herb for unauthorized youth-shamaning sessions. It is also possible that she was testing her skills as a hunter and therefore counts as a combatant of the wood in the eyes of "Loup." We don't really have evidence of any of that, though she proved with the wisps that she's a decent hunter. |
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Post by Gemini Jim on Dec 27, 2019 16:16:02 GMT
Half awake and on vacation... I immediately thought of Nancy Kerrigan of “knee capping scandal” fame.
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Post by Gemini Jim on Dec 27, 2019 16:28:21 GMT
Half awake and on vacation... I immediately thought of Nancy Kerrigan of “knee capping scandal” fame. She’s also Worf, wearing a Court Fleet uniform and helping smooth things over with the stubborn elf empire. |
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Post by DonDueed on Dec 27, 2019 19:50:07 GMT
Panel 2 proves this to be correct: Heh. I meant that mostly as a joke, and a bit as a callback to the Shadow Men, e.g. the first panel here:
But I'll have that cookie anyway, thank you very much.  |
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Post by mturtle7 on Dec 27, 2019 22:16:26 GMT
I'm just here to say how much I appreciate Idra's new look Same. She is looking HELLA FINE in that button-down shirt, especially compared to her first appearance. |
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Post by madjack on Dec 27, 2019 23:52:59 GMT
Half awake and on vacation... I immediately thought of Nancy Kerrigan of “knee capping scandal” fame. She’s also Worf, wearing a Court Fleet uniform and helping smooth things over with the stubborn elf empire. Kerrigan is one of the central characters in Starcraft and IdrA was a Starcraft 2 pro with an extremely abrasive personality and a taste for playing the villain. I'm not really sure whether that means anything but. |
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Post by TBeholder on Dec 28, 2019 19:40:02 GMT
No answer on why Khepi doesn't trust the Court. Is it just the stories passed down about the original conflict and split between them or is there something relatively recent/ongoing that we're not aware of? They go by rumours, and lately — well, you have seen how it goes between Ysengrin and Llanwellyn. Jones implied this posturing was more or less typical. But the real problem is not specific to the forest folk at all. The Court appears to suffer from a bad case of organizational schizophrenia. No organization like this can be trusted, indeed. Usually it happens on the late stages of bureaucratic cancer, but the Court outgrew its grasp by other means. Observe the big picture: they are neither able nor willing to have any real coordination and consistent approach to anything, ever. Annie does her thing, Eglamore his own, security their (and there you may run into Aata or into that deepwit in hazmat suit who beclowned himself by unsuccessfully bullying a tiny fairy), Llanwellyn is posturing when he must deal with the Gilitie Wood creatures and can't be arsed the rest of time, Anthony and Donald have some sort of an amateur conspiracy behind his back, Jones is mostly hanging out with them all, but sometimes does something. There are others. Many things are left to the robots, and you have seen how they are acting and how reliable their competence tend to be beyond a narrow area (and then there are the likes of Boxbot and Doorbot). Any subset of those may be aware of the current problem and work on it, or may be temporarily absent. Thus, Paz was even more right than it appears on surface: the Court is not a big entity, indeed. It's a weakly interacting crowd of disagreeable people. It postures (and in some ways acts) as if it was a single entity, but mostly can't function as one. Hence "schizophrenia". Result: even for those who actually know them all (which is not the case for anyone from outside), it's still impossible to predict where anything specific that's not "business as usual" will go. So… unless you know exactly to whom and how apply, how to interact with them when needed? If you can reach the one you know can handle it — things get done; if not — it's a gamble until and unless it turns into a standard procedure. Remember the little problem with Jack and how Annie tried to communicate with security, but was flapping around like a fish out of water until Jones walked in? Like this. |
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Post by mturtle7 on Dec 29, 2019 4:37:55 GMT
Also: I finally just noticed the Annies sharing an awkward glance at each other in Panel 2 when Idra is casually insulting their late friend Ysengrin.
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 29, 2019 6:26:39 GMT
re: fashion Let's take a second to compare what Khepi was wearing when she first met Antimony and what she's wearing now. First, is gold something that the average forest dude would wear on a regular basis? From Annie in the Forest 1-2 we see the occasional earring and an arm band or two, and possibly another example of gold woven into a braid (more on that later) but it looks like the kids don't. Because it's b+w we can't be sure they're gold but I'll assume it is, at least for the purposes of this discussion. We don't have a great look at the crowd when [Snuffle] went to visit the Court but Coyote himself declared that to be a big day and from what we can see, they aren't wearing gold. So, maybe gold adornment for adults can be an everyday thing but it doesn't appear to be common. The earrings could mean anything or nothing (aside from one being prosperous enough to afford them) but that's a nice thick gold arm ring on Khepi's right wrist. The design is simple and has been around since the iron age, traditional rather than ornate. Khepi wears it in both appearances and her husband also wears a bracelet on the same arm. I think we can infer that it's at least a mark of adulthood (though possibly indirectly, since kids wouldn't normally have had a chance to earn or inherit one) and maybe it's a sign of status. Maybe it's rank, signifying a family head or elder, maybe it signifies marriage, maybe both but I'm leaning towards it being a sign of marriage since it seems to be an everyday item for her. If that thing is a hand-me-down it could be very old indeed, maybe a clan relic. Dunno if she's wearing the Anwyn flash patch or the same necklace since she's got a coverup or shawl or something now. Maybe it's more formal, maybe it's because she's got a new(ish) baby. If you don't know what that last bit means ask your mom. I suspect that she's at least wearing the Anwyn logo since her husband's wearing one, which if true would mean the shawl-coverup is more about practical concerns than formal dress since the logo is covered. I think those are thin plates or threads-of-gold (or silk and gold, or something) woven into her hair as semi-permanent braids that serve the same role as a diadem. That's clearly a status symbol indicating wealth and probably power. In low light they'd reflect the light in an impressive fashion, perfect for a chieftain sitting by the fire at night and presiding over meetings. Also: Normally there's be an Anwyn banner inside as well as outside the meeting place but I think that's been omitted because of the recent move. Not sure if that means they were able to take the exterior one from their house but not the interior ones because of the time stop, they're still unpacking, or what. Khepi is also sitting on a stack of cushions while the visitors in front of her are on a rug or blanket. The new baby isn't THAT new so that's clearly a status sign. Not sure what the hubby standing means; maybe it just means that the Anwyn are few enough that he has to act as Serjeant-at-arms. Even if they're in general turmoil from the situation plus the particulars of the arrival and set-up of the aid shipment, and the baby's sorta new, there's no way that Khepi wasn't able to find someone to watch her child for a few minutes to have a meeting. That baby is there as much as a part of her regalia as the gold in her hair and the cushions that she's sitting on. Exactly what that means is debatable but it should at least mean that Khepi is important enough that should her role as mother to the child and her presiding over this meeting come into conflict that the child's needs (as decided by Khepi) can take precedence. There are potential implications to that but Antimonies know Khepi on an informal basis so I am reluctant to read anything into it.
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Post by pyradonis on Dec 31, 2019 10:46:14 GMT
Annie does her thing, Eglamore his own, security their (and there you may run into Aata or into that deepwit in hazmat suit who beclowned himself by unsuccessfully bullying a tiny fairy), Llanwellyn is posturing when he must deal with the Gilitie Wood creatures and can't be arsed the rest of time, Anthony and Donald have some sort of an amateur conspiracy behind his back, Jones is mostly hanging out with them all, but sometimes does something. There are others. Many things are left to the robots, and you have seen how they are acting and how reliable their competence tend to be beyond a narrow area (and then there are the likes of Boxbot and Doorbot). Any subset of those may be aware of the current problem and work on it, or may be temporarily absent. I just want to say... Apart from it being a good analysis, that paragraph might be the piece of text I most enjoyed reading in all of 2019, simply from the way you wrote it. I especially want to thank you for teaching me the new great word "to beclown s.o.". Thank you! |
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