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Post by Ulysses on Jan 25, 2010 23:37:02 GMT
It's interesting to compare her reaction here verses her reaction when she first met Basil the Minotaur. I think it shows how Tom has grown as a writer. Annie has transformed from an archetype into a multifaceted character. It could be that Annie is good at reading a person's character. She could tell that Basil wasn't really violent and so treated him like any other person. However she knows that Ysengrin is capable of real harm, and so is scared of him and the situation she finds herself in. The first thing she said to Muut when she met him, rather than freaking out at his having a giant owl head, was "I like your face!" She knows that he means no harm because she's a good judge of character, just like how she knew she could get away with smacking Coyote on the rump. There's examples of this all over the place.
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Post by xanbcoo on Jan 25, 2010 23:54:38 GMT
Yeah, I agree that that could be the case, but it wasn't really what I was getting at. I just meant on the surface level Annie has become much more expressive and "human" than she was in the first part of the comic. At the very least we've seen many more facial expressions from her in the last few chapters than we ever have before.
Edit: But in response to what you're arguing, I'd still say that's inferring a lot. We don't properly know what's going through Ysengrin's head (yet), so you could easily say that he either means no harm to Annie and is just posturing, or that Annie should know she will be safe because Coyote is watching. Within the next few pages her and Ysengrin could be palling around for all we know. I get what you mean about Annie being good at reading people, but I wouldn't say outright that that's the case here.
I think the simpler answer is slightly more likely. That Tom is just getting better at writing his characters into believable situations.
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Post by todd on Jan 26, 2010 0:24:36 GMT
I think that part of it might also be (as I mentioned above): when Annie met Basil, all the etheric beings whom she'd encountered before him (the Guides and Shadow2) had been friendly. So it didn't occur to her to be afraid of Basil; she was assuming that he was like her other etheric acquaintances - and fortunately, she was right.
By this page, however, Annie's met several etheric beings who were *not* friendly, and who had endangered her life. So she no longer has reason to assume that she has nothing to fear from them, which would make a considerable difference.
(Also, whenever Annie ran into etheric trouble at Good Hope, such as with Martin's fires, her own talents were able to dispel it. But those same talents weren't able to protect her from Reynardine's attempt to possess her, from Jeanne, or from Ysengrin's first attack on her, in Chapter Fourteen. In each case, she had to be rescued by someone else. That would also be likely to have an effect upon her response to such situations; she's not as invulnerable as she might have once assumed.)
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Post by fjodor on Jan 26, 2010 9:14:43 GMT
Part of being a medium is empathy, and I think Annie realises that she is dealing with a highly unstable personality here, no matter what sort of protection Coyote promised earlier. She felt sorry for Ysengrin in his own body, and she is scared of him now he's back in his debilitating shape (too much power will corrupt anyone).
Having said that, Annie misjudged the situation when Robot returned, and possibly also Rey's intentions (although I am in the he-did-not-want-to-take-her-body-at-all camp).
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Post by todd on Jan 26, 2010 11:48:46 GMT
I might add that I don't think that Annie's scared of Ysengrin in the way that most of us would be scared of something like him. We're scared of monsters (and I suppose that most of us would classify a wolf with the ability to speak, housed in a wooden suit of armor shaped like a tree with etheric attributes, as a monster in the sense of "fantastic creature") not just because of whatever harm they could do to us, but because they're monsters, things that should be mythical, the unknown. I think that Annie's classmates were scared of Basil, for example, when he visited the classroom, in that sense. Annie's scared of Ysengrin more in the way that we'd be scared of a mugger - the physical danger she's in from him. I don't think she'd be so terrified if he was in a much friendlier mood towards her.
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Post by xanbcoo on Jan 26, 2010 18:33:01 GMT
I don't think she'd be so terrified if he was in a much friendlier mood towards her. That is true
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Post by Aris Katsaris on Jan 26, 2010 18:40:49 GMT
Aye - it's not fear of the strange, of the unknown, or of the bizarre, it's fear of something *known* to be dangerous. Ysengrin needs only lose what small restrain on his temper he has in order to kill her. And she knows him to have a pretty big temper.
Also Basil was housed in Gunnerkrigg Court, where Surma sent her to. I think she believes her mom's assurance that she won't ever send her into danger, and that therefore everything she encounters inside Gunnerkrigg is safe enough. That rule doesn't apply to the forest -- where she goes by her own choice, not Surma's desire.
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Post by Mr Pitchfork on Jan 26, 2010 20:41:01 GMT
? So is Gillitie Coyote's or Yssie's? I think it's just Yssy being protective. Batman often refers to Gotham as "my city", but he doesn't think he owns it. (yes I just used Batman as an analogy) I tried hard not to, but I just giggled. I don't ever giggle, I usually chuckle, guffaw, or plain old laugh.
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Post by the bandit on Jan 26, 2010 21:32:43 GMT
Annie has become much more expressive and "human" than she was in the first part of the comic. At the very least we've seen many more facial expressions from her in the last few chapters than we ever have before. Don't forget that at the beginning of the comic she was freshly grieving.
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Post by TBeholder on Jan 27, 2010 8:47:50 GMT
So is Gillitie Coyote's or Yssie's? IMHO, the forest as such is Ysengrin's (he sets the laws, e.g. about migrants), but either he's considered Coyote's vassal or he just "can't refuse" Coyote's "offers".
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