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Post by foxurus on Apr 28, 2021 7:53:31 GMT
Ahh, so this is even worse now. Now she's potentially three people, or two people no matter which way you look at it. Well, at least Annie got to see a glimpse of what her father is like on the inside, even if she never gets to again. Oh no. :( I hadn't even thought of that. I think, by the end of it, it wasn't about Forest!Annie not being his daughter, but the plausibility of her not having Surma's spirit (because she may have materialized from thin air) letting him trick himself past the mental block. Being his daughter doesn't mean she's Surma's daughter, after all. I suppose it's hard to shake the feeling that Surma is inside Annie. Still, "two people even when one of them is a non-sentient dead spirit who can't possibly hear or observe anything happening" seems a bit outlandish as a trigger for his fear-of-multiple-people thing. Perhaps another forum user will chime in and correct me, but that sounds like Not A Real Thing. I continue to believe his problem is a magical curse, though where it came from or why he's afflicted with it is a mystery. He's had it since he was twelve, likely before, and I have a hard time imagining anything a kid could do to deserve something like that. I wonder, when he changed the subject away from his parents, was that a voluntary thing, or is he unable to talk about them? Maybe someone had it out for his parents and he got caught in the collateral damage. (Note, he wouldn't have this problem if he thought of Annie as Surma. The problem is that he thinks of her as Annie, but also Surma is there in a weird way.) Maybe Anja and Donny have had those moments of deja vu, and they're just a lot better at masking it than James is, and a lot better at dealing with it than Tony?
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Post by foxurus on Apr 28, 2021 4:17:45 GMT
Ysengrin is, literally, the Big Bad Wolf. He has no regard for human life--in fact, he actively wants to wipe out humanity. He tried to kill Annie five minutes after he met her, threatened to kill her again when she saw him undressed, and even after they’d become near-family, a careless sentence made him snap and hunt her down through the forest like...well, like the predatory monster that he is. He crushed one of her most prized possessions, temporarily crippling her psychic abilities, and caused her to break down and try to incinerate him in revenge. Most horrifyingly of all, he agreed with Tony about her. And currently he’s all hopped up on Coyote juice--having murdered and eaten his, sort of, best friend and idol?--and has become Annie’s creepiest and most explicitly sexual stalker. Objectively, and barring her own biology, Ysengrin is the most serious threat to Annie’s survival in the entire story. Subjectively, he has directly caused Annie immense amounts of panic, grief and anxiety. And we can’t even blame his issues on Coyote, because Ysengrin knows that Coyote’s distorting his mind and body and he accepts that in return for, well, power. He’s a textbook villain. This is incredibly unfair and lets Coyote off the hook far too much. Loup is equally Coyote and Ysengrin ( if not more Coyote), and his sexual advances are certainly inherited from Coyote. Coyote was not Ysengrin's "best" friend, nor his friend at all. Yes, his idol. But also his abuser and tormenter. He didn't know Coyote was taking his memories or filling his mind with holes. Coyote is objectively the most villainous character, more than anyone else in the comic could possibly be, and has also orchestrated events which put Annie (and others!) in extreme physical danger (also seen here and here) and caused emotional anguish. The one who throws you into a cage with a rabid dog is at fault for your injuries. And he was with Coyote for strength, not power. There is no power in being someone's tool. One could also quite easily argue he stayed with Coyote due to the emotional abuse Coyote inflicted upon him. I understand your point. But you could make it with less exaggeration, especially since you're against the uncharitable takes other people have of Mr. Carver. Im a pretty big believer that people here are notorious for allowing the magic animals to get away with attempted murder and other moral failings towards Annie while judging the humans super harshly for less, like Paz gossiping. Everyone in-universe is pretty solid about how much Renard, Coyote, and Ysengrin (and Tony) have fucked up. I don't see the same in-universe reaction to Paz; her resulting conversation with Kat was extremely underwhelming. If the characters had laid out why her behavior was problematic, I wouldn't feel the need to do it myself. Yeah, "not the worst solution" was an understatement. It was a decent solution. I am not holding him responsible for that, but for the decision to not go with her. He would still have been a rather distant dad, but it would have been an environment where he could have learned better how to parent, with her making friends and him being able to talk with Donald or Jones. Even if he had to see Surma again, it would have been better if he waited longer than a month before going away. As people have pointed out in the threads of Annie and the Fire he would have known more about psychopomps if he had been able to communicate with her. I agree with that! Leaving Annie because he felt she was better off without him was extremely short-sighted, and damaged Annie's psyche at an already incredibly tumultuous and difficult time in her life. She'll probably carry that scar for the rest of her life. He should have at least asked Surma (who knew Annie better) if she thought Annie would like him to be there instead of trusting his self-loathing, even if he wasn't able to ask Annie herself. (Also, on the topic of terrible things he's done, he handled his first day back atrociously and definitely didn't need to. Like drmemory says, that's entirely on him, not his mind cage.) There's part of me that wonders if the Court twisted his arm and forced him to go immediately, but I think that's me giving him too much slack. His Court research probably could have waited a while. Even Surma felt the need to reassure Annie of that love, after Tony shot his one and only child a look of complete and utter loathing back, back at the hospital. That shit is formative. She is confident of nothing. Yes, that was damaging for Annie, and she's certainly insecure about whether he loves her. No, it was not a look of "complete and utter loathing", it was just Tony's face. He has the same facial expression literally all the time when he's with Annie. This and this is how Tony looks when he's flipping out; his face does not change. He wasn't even angry when he walked past her; he was sad because he knew he couldn't save Surma. Surma was trying to reassure Annie that Tony didn't hold her responsible for Surma's death. (Yeah, even though Annie didn't know the context at all. Surma wasn't a very good mom either.) I am no longer sure why anyone who does relate to him would want to continue to do so. One person had an opinion and suddenly you stop being able to understand anyone else who relates to him, even if they do not have that particular opinion?
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Post by foxurus on Apr 27, 2021 7:03:42 GMT
I started reading in July 2010. Think I finished the backlog during around this part of Chapter 29. Eleven years. Almost half my life! Semi-relatedly, I had a couple month long hiatus for a while, coincidentally starting from right before The Tree until... I think The Breakout? So I got to speed through the whole drawn-out Annie-is-sad section when I came back! Made it much more enjoyable. :)
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Post by foxurus on Apr 27, 2021 1:33:59 GMT
Choose trying to resurrect your dead wife. If we're gonna start hating people for trying to resurrect their loved ones, I should remind you that Kat time traveled to bring Annie back from the dead. [...] So while it is not the worst solution he could have found, it is still a form of abandonment which probably caused her being so shut-in at the start of the comic. Because he couldn't prioritize his parenting above still finding a answer. (Though to be fair, he might have intended to help her with an answer as well later on) And he paid a heavy price for it. And it could have been worse with it having involuntarily killed his daughter. Annie had no way of interacting with other children (who weren't dying) until she went to the Court because Surma forced the family to live in a hospital far away from anyone they knew so that her friends wouldn't see her dying. Being emotionally stunted at the beginning of the comic was far more because of Surma and her inability to put Annie's needs (like social interaction, or knowing she's a fire elemental) beyond her own desires (like avoiding difficult conversations) than anything Tony did, even given that he was barely a father to Annie. (In contrast, Surma likely did learn about her heritage from her mother.) And it was not Tony who wanted Annie to go back to Gunnerkrigg Court -- Tony only decided to not go with her. I don't think we should assume that easy loopholes like just writing letters would work. Yes, he can talk to other people, and they can talk to her. (Which they've already done some; Anja told Annie about her father being unable to talk to more than one person, and Donny shared a conversation between them with her.) But asking them to tell her something would likely lock him up just the same as telling her himself, as would writing a letter. Knowing that what he says will get back to her may very well make it impossible to say. Also, part of the change in Anthony's design is that he seems to have been extremely underweight when he returned to the Court.
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Post by foxurus on Apr 26, 2021 8:41:48 GMT
I sympathize with the yearning to take part in life very much, but Tony has to seek help if he wants to accomplish that. He can't open this cage at his own. And that sucks, it really is hard to swallow that you need help for something so many people do seemingly effortlessly. But there are worser ways to start (much worse like going off on a journey at your own to find a mystic solution, to name an example) taking part in life by depending on others to handle life. Of course, the Court is hardly the most sympathetic place to find such help, to be fair. I find it likely his mind cage is much more literal than most people's; a standard therapist may not be any help. He might not have had the chance to ever visit one either way, since we don't know how long he's been with the Court. He doesn't talk about his parents, and the Court trusted him with important secrets when he was still a student. Like you say, the Court does not strike me as a good place to get therapy.
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Post by foxurus on Apr 19, 2021 19:37:27 GMT
Also, this is only partly relevant, but it's been percolating in my head: feels crummy that Court Annie standing up to her dad about the make up issue (off panel during the 6 month time skip) has been recently reframed as a childish action since putting the makeup away for good is apparently a mark of maturity and personal growth. I remember being proud of her for that, but the story's moral framework seems to be saying it was a bad move on her part, possibly damaging her relationship with her dad further, just to cling to her mother's memory in an unhealthy way. I don't think the two things are really related to each other, actually. Anthony said, "You will not wear makeup because I said so and it reminds me of your mother." Court!Annie said, "I will wear my makeup because it makes me feel closer to my mother and your inability to separate it from your grief isn't my responsibility." And Fused!Annie said, "I will not wear makeup because I want to move on from my grief and there's less obtrusive ways to feel close to my mother." (Thinking about her mom every morning as she puts it on is a lot, and likely sets the tone for the rest of her day.) Anthony's complaints weren't about how Annie was remembering her mother. They were about him and how it affected his grief. Court!Annie standing up to him was brave and mature because it showed that she was pushing back against letting her father's grief control her. And Fused!Annie putting the makeup away is brave and mature because she's pushing back against letting her guilt about her mother's death control her. Both events show her moving away from her parents' negative influences so that she can be a healthier and more independent person. (Even if I wish she felt differently about the makeup because I miss it aesthetically.) (I notice he can interact with Jones.) Well of course. He's quite capable of talking to one person at a time, and Jones isn't even a person at all!
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Post by foxurus on Apr 9, 2021 17:04:36 GMT
Eglamore's words in the second half of panel 3 speaking to a lot of people right now. And I can't help but note that Tony has in fact been providing some structure to Annies' life at a time the Court has been unable to. Ah, I was coming here to say that! Jones likely won't talk to Kat, but it is interesting to me that Annie's closest friend would likely be the only person who doesn't mention Mr. Carver when asked how Annie's doing with the rejoining.
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Post by foxurus on Mar 31, 2021 10:27:15 GMT
Oh boy, are we about to have some more scenes with Paz that make me dislike her?
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Post by foxurus on Mar 19, 2021 14:52:39 GMT
Yeah, the strange wild eyed grins Annie's had on panel 1 of Monday's page and panel 4 of Wednesday's page made me think something similar. She doesn't seem ok. As you said, "manic" is a good way to describe it Either that, or we're just not used to seeing Annie be happy. When was the last time she was truly happy? And not just fleeting happy. I mean, happy about life in general. Page 1940? I'd say 1999 and 2132, too. Arguably 2167 and 2214, which make it look like she's generally in a positive mood during downtime.
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Post by foxurus on Mar 19, 2021 14:16:39 GMT
I'm guessing this comic is just a slow pan taking place over only a few moments, showing that Tony has been standing there for the last two pages.
In which case, yeah, Jones. What did you think she was gonna say when you asked her about her mental state right in front of her dad? The awkward glance between Annie and Kat is them both thinking, "Why is she asking me/you about this RIGHT HERE??"
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Post by foxurus on Mar 18, 2021 8:49:22 GMT
"People who definitely, absolutely are not me want to make sure you're doing okay. These people (who are not me) are concerned because they, unlike I, are able to care about others. Which I cannot do. Hence why I am only asking on behalf of them, and certainly not for my own benefit, because I (of course) don't care about the answer."
I'm excited for Single Annie to be back. There's something so refreshing about her getting to talk to someone without having to take turns saying sentences.
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Post by foxurus on Mar 13, 2021 2:36:25 GMT
Sigh. I'm sad about this. I know the forum's been pretty anti-makeup since that page in Divine, but I always liked it and I was bummed out when Divine showed it as a negative thing. Now it's permanently gone and I'm sad. Oh well. I'm seeing it as maybe in the future she can find makeup that matches herself. I kind of get it, if my mom were to pass suddenly, I might want to try to wear her jewelry or her perfume to remember her, and it would be hard to feel like I could wear anything else. Given that it is makeup, that's even harder. Maybe one day when she's a little older she can pick colors she likes (purple eyeshadow and yellowish lip color, very distinctive! very hard to wear!) and not just ones she likes because they were her mother's. I don't think the comic as a whole is "anti-makeup" –– if anything, it acknowledges all the meaning such a thing has, and that people have different thoughts about it. Tony definitely liked it on Surma, and she liked it on herself. P.S. I'm kind of hoping Annie will grow her hair long again now, and maybe one way of distinguishing older re-fused Annie from younger Annie visually would be to let older fused Annie wear a different color of makeup................. New makeup would be nice! I thought Annie's makeup was worn to protect her in some way - something she wore because her mother taught her to, not a security blanket (and her father disapproved because it is etheric/reminds him painfully of Surma too much). It has never come across to me in all the years reading this story that Annie's makeup was nothing more than a security blanket or reminder of her mother. I think that's a major reason why I'm sad about the makeup going away for good. I was a fan of the makeup-is-a-spell-of-protection theory, as well. I'm not exactly sad about it, but it does feel pretty...ambiguous, to me, and I really get why others would feel sad about it! After all, when we first met Annie, the makeup didn't have a ton of emotional significance, it was just...well, in Kat's words, it was her thing. Actually, that page is a good way of demonstrating that it wasn't just us, as an audience...all her friends have always been super accepting of it, even when she was just this weird 12-year-old wearing ridiculous amounts of purple eyeshadow. Even as a kid, she OWNED that look, and it only got awesomer and awesomer as she grew up. So now I think everyone just naturally associates it with all of her most badass, iconic, moments...and now, that's leaving. And she's obviously cool with it, but it still feels a little reminiscent of the hair incident. The more I think about it, the more I realize how complex the makeup has really been, as a story element. I mean, plot-wise, it's actually rather ridiculously straightforward: as Annie has mentioned multiple times, the makeup is something she wears to remember her mom, and all of the ways she's interacted with it have been perfectly realistic (in the sense that I could totally believe a real person acting this way) and consistent with that characterization. And yet, it's just SO AT ODDS with both the way modern media tends to portray both makeup AND grief itself, that it becomes super difficult for me (and, I think, lots of other readers on this forum) to wrap our heads around. We're used to makeup being portrayed as, like...this ultimate expression of shallow and/or sexy and/or deceptive femininity, we just can't handle it when it's treated as just another ornament someone can wear, which can have whatever significance the wearer feels like assigning to it. Exactly like, say, a fancy hat, or a little necklace. Phew...I kind of went off the rails there, huh. I didn't mean for this post to be this long. Um...the point is, I get why you feel this way about the makeup, foxurus , but I also think Tom put more nuance into it than they're giving him credit for. And I like it. So, yeah. And you touched on part of it too, that when makeup is drawn attention to in media it's usually negatively, and Annie's mostly just existed and that was nice. And sure it's not, like, unrealistic that she's decided to stop, of course. I'm just disappointed about it.
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Post by foxurus on Mar 11, 2021 9:34:50 GMT
Sigh. I'm sad about this. I know the forum's been pretty anti-makeup since that page in Divine, but I always liked it and I was bummed out when Divine showed it as a negative thing. Now it's permanently gone and I'm sad. Oh well.
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Post by foxurus on Mar 10, 2021 3:41:02 GMT
From a psychological standpoint, it all makes sense. My theory is that, in this comic, usually internal - i.e. psychological - phenomena are happening externally. Annie has shown signs of dissociation: When her father came back, she dissociated from her fire elemental. When Y died, she dissociated from Court Annie. Something like this is known to happen due to severe childhood trauma. It's called dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personalities. Traumatic events usually lead to some degree of dissociation. Then, the brain works on re-integration. The different parts start to communicate and to cooperate. Then, suddenly, the brain rewires and there is only one combined personality. A dramatic account of this can be found in: The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality by Joan Frances Casey. Ah, a great post! Earlier this chapter I pointed out that Zimmy's "abilities" look like exaggerated and externalized symptoms of PTSD: I don't think it's fair to assume that Zimmy did something to make her feel like she deserves it. She very likely has PTSD from being on the streets and dealing with her reality distortion for her whole life. PTSD often includes guilt, shame, self-hatred, and suicidal ideation. When you've been harmed/unsafe/in pain for as long as you can remember, it's hard to believe that you're not supposed to be hurting. (She's actually displayed a lot of the symptoms of PTSD, even stuff like trouble sleeping or concentrating. Hell, Zimmingham and her other hallucinations might have started, initially, as flashbacks and dissociation that were amplified by her etherical connection.) That in mind, Annie having DID and it also being externalized makes sense. Zimmy's experience with materialized-mental-health-issues makes her better equipped to understand and help resolve them than probably anyone else Annie knows. Peer support can be immensely helpful. Don't forget "30 chapters of exposition later."
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Post by foxurus on Mar 8, 2021 8:29:28 GMT
well at least she's pleased.
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Post by foxurus on Mar 4, 2021 10:23:13 GMT
I didn't expect the comic to end with two Annies, so I'm not upset. This is odd timing though, and her reaction is very non-chalant which is weird. My first reaction is that this is not just them being combined, some other shoe will drop within a few pages.
I think the fact that the last thing they did before being spliced was get in a fight means that Annie's conflict is decidedly Not solved, she's just gonna be attacking herself directly inside her head now. She had self-loathing before, but it was pretty well compartmentalized, I think; it will not be so easy to ignore this time.
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Post by foxurus on Feb 3, 2021 22:40:52 GMT
Gamma seeming to 'admit' Zimmy might not deserve happiness does feel weirdly out of character, and has me mulling options: 1. Gamma is ensnaring Rey into an emotional/ logical defense of Zimmy that challenges his long-standing characterization of Zimmy as a demon, even up to this very chapter, so that he sees he's treated her unfairly 2. Gamma's closeness w/ Zimmy has been strained by their absolute dependence over the years, and is starting to consider if Zimmy needs to seek her own guidance in finding her own happiness, as Gamma has only managed to soothe the issues Zimmy constantly swims within 3. THIS Gamma and Rey are ALSO false, and are only one additional layer within the Zimmyverse *starts wheeling out the conspiracy whiteboard* 4. I'm misunderstanding what Gamma is saying in this context 2 or 3 are my suspicion. If Zimmy and Gamma are on the road to a breakup, Zimmy's subsequent breakdown would have a pretty major impact on Gunnerkrigg Court, so I can't really see Tom going that route unless it ties in with the Omega Project or is part of the final conflict some other way. Maybe the "find yourself" title is referring to gamma understanding why she does what she does for zimmy. Her question of what if its true that some people are just so irredeemable they dont deserve happiness comes off to me as questioning herself. She is the only thing that makes zimmy happy. She loves zimmy. Zimmy loves her. I dont think she has any mind to leave zimmy but may have lost the reason why. I don't know about that, exactly. Playing in the rain, chasing rats and spiders, talking with Annies, and solving people's problems all make Zimmy happy. (Admittedly, two of those also decrease her static, but she seems to enjoy them beyond the relief they give her.) Gamma's presence is required for Zimmy to be high-functioning enough to be able to enjoy those things, but when you're on anti-depressants and you have fun gardening again, it's not only the anti-depressants that are making you happy.
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Post by foxurus on Feb 3, 2021 9:02:12 GMT
Jeez Gamma. You think she might deserve to not be happy? That seems like a detached way to talk about someone you love. Is Gamma getting into philosophy or sommin?
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Post by foxurus on Jan 20, 2021 19:04:39 GMT
I don't think it's fair to assume that Zimmy did something to make her feel like she deserves it. She very likely has PTSD from being on the streets and dealing with her reality distortion for her whole life. PTSD often includes guilt, shame, self-hatred, and suicidal ideation. When you've been harmed/unsafe/in pain for as long as you can remember, it's hard to believe that you're not supposed to be hurting. (She's actually displayed a lot of the symptoms of PTSD, even stuff like trouble sleeping or concentrating. Hell, Zimmingham and her other hallucinations might have started, initially, as flashbacks and dissociation that were amplified by her etherical connection.)
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Post by foxurus on Jan 19, 2021 1:32:26 GMT
So where are gamma and rey? (Gamma ray??? Hmmmmm) We are seeing ether-Rey so where are they physically? Unless gamma is going to say rey is under that tree in the forest and plushie rey was just a part of annie this whole time and that's how rey "finds himself" Indeed... where? Based on the speech bubbles, Rey is speaking normally, but Gamma is neither speaking nor communicating telepathically - at least not in the "normal" way (no zig-zag connector to star on her head like you typically see). It's like she is thinking to herself, but Rey is thinking it too? Maybe Gamma is everyone too - so her thoughts are Rey's thoughts? Judging by the color of the boxes, I think it's still Gamma speaking telepathically. Which would imply that Gamma has that ability innately, and it's not just a side-effect of her and Zimmy's close relationship. Perhaps Zimmy interferes with her abilities in such a way that Gamma can't use it to communicate with anyone else when she's nearby? One consequence of this is that Zimms can pass through characters like the elf kids. But apparently, only the Annies are really *there* - the elf kids here are not "real", but instead maybe are Annie's memories of them, made "real" by the Zimmingham reality-distortion-field, similar to the memory of Jack in Spring-Heeled This Jack was "not a real boy, just a memory of someone". But... whose memory was he? It was Jack's memory of himself when he went to Zimmingham the first time.
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Post by foxurus on Jan 8, 2021 21:11:24 GMT
This flashback with Surma and Anja is pretty likely in winter. There's no snow, but they're bundled up and you can constantly see their breath. www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=436Edit: sorry I didn't notice OP already mentioned this page in the post! My bad Due to the parallels between the pages, it's probably winter here as well? www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1652
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Post by foxurus on Jan 3, 2021 11:19:22 GMT
I don't know that Zimmy has always seen Kat that way, actually. Her etheric form may have changed at some point. I dunno if "big nose" is what I'd call someone if that's what I saw them as. Ah so that's the page I missed. One second. Here. The relevant lines are: "The first time I saw [Kat] I knew [her breaking through to the unseen world and grinding her gears] would happen." "I can't stand even lookin' at her! She terrifies me, man, haha!" Unfortunately I can't credit however posted this because it's a damn good observation. Zimmy's comment ... even conveys new information to the readers (Zimmy was perhaps not terrified because of Kat's appearance being inexplicably alien, but rather because she understands very well what it represents). And thanks for pointing out Todd's text - I forget to read those. And that observation fits because - well if it's from the first that Zimmy knew... Then that Angel form, or at least what it represents Zimmy knew from the first because it makes no sense narratively for it to be anything else. Thereby if Zimmy was always afraid of Kat - its for the same reason she was afraid of Kat during Divine. Thereby Zimmy was completely ignoring that to let Gamma get some sleep in Dobranac, Gamma. Fair enough. I suppose it's unlikely that she's lying/posturing in that page about having always known, but it still doesn't seem to fit with how she reacted the very first time she saw Kat. I agree that her behavior in Dobranac, Gamma still makes sense if she could see the Angel. (Though I will admit, her leaving in Two Strange Girls is a bit odd -- Gamma was in the middle of a nap and they just up and left.)
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Post by foxurus on Jan 3, 2021 3:37:03 GMT
Based on the last panel of today's page, I think it's a pretty good bet that that wasn't something Kellin would naturally say.
That being said, I can't believe it never occurred to me that Gamma might have just, like...LEFT Zimmy, voluntarily. I was assuming that she's been kidnapped by the Court or something, but there's not REALLY any reason to suspect that, is there? Occam's Razor, after all. We already know that Zimmy and Gamma's relationship has a history of being pretty damn crazy and toxic in so many ways. I just recently got my printed copy of GC Volume 7, and reading that all again got me thinking a lot about the way GC depicts a lot of different kinds of weird and toxic relationships - Tony and Annie, Coyote and Ysengrin, Red and Ayilu, Surma and Renard, and certainly Zimmy - so that it's clear that despite how horribly everything is going wrong, there are still real feelings of love here, and neither person is completely "evil" or unchanging. In Zimmy and Gamma's case, while there are plenty of times when we've seen diabetes-worhty levels of sweetness from them, a lot of their relationship seems to boil down to, "Gamma shoulders literally all of Zimmy's burdens 24/7, while Zimmy desperately tries to keep Gamma totally isolated from the rest of the world out of sheer jealousy and avarice". They actually seem to have been working on that, in their last few appearances - in The Torn Sea, for instance, Gamma seems to have been slowly approaching a point where she might actually have a life outside of solving Zimmy's problems! ... Very slowly. But it's entirely possible that things finally broke down there, as either Zimmy or Gamma could have reached the point where they understood how awful their whole situation was, but weren't willing to keep slowly working on it like they seem to have been. Which could have lead to a big argument, like you say Gemminie , and Zimmy wandering off, completely lost and in pain...until we get to this scene. Great. Just great. Hmm - I have to agree that the response in Spring Heeled Part 2 definitely falls squarely in the toxic category - and by the same token the whole mistranslating thing very much is suspicious at least to actively toxic. And the only reason I'm even considering it only being suspicious is that Chester does have a reputation and Zimmy is very socially maladjusted so that her translations of other conversations may have been much more accurate. But really I'm including that that possibility for completeness' sake. Tom clears that up in the author's note. "Zimmy is straight up lying. She knows the best way to keep a friend is to make them think everyone else hates them." I think that her mistranslations are much more egregious than her possessiveness in Spring Heeled 2, actually. While her reaction in Spring Heeled isn't okay, it's at least a gut reaction (during a etheric-psychotic break, mind). The translations are calculated and cruel. She's trying to eat away Gamma's self-confidence so that Gamma doesn't feel like she can leave Zimmy without being completely alone. I think Gamma knows that she's mistranslating things, but I don't think Zimmy knows that Gamma knows. (Zimmy doesn't need to manipulate Gamma to make her stay, of course. She's been pretty obviously devoted to Zimmy. Perhaps Zimmy has finally driven her off, or will at some point, but I expect that instead Zimmy will start to loosen her possessiveness as she slowly realizes that Gamma really does like her.) Actually given that Zimmy has always been able to see Kat like... well Angel Kat. This page has a lot more meaning. (Which I guess in hindsight makes me wonder if the main cause of why we don't see Zimmy doing such things as dealing with severe sea sickness for Gamma is largely due to lack of opportunity) After all, when Annie was dying because of Anthony (though no one knew it at the time) Gamma had to convince Zimmy to go see her because she was so scared of Kat. In Dobranac, Gamma... Zimmy came because Gamma needed to sleep. And never mind that Annie was probably next to Kat Donlan, the scary angel person. Gamma needed to sleep. The concern was not Zimmy going critical while Gamma slept but that Gamma desperately needed to rest. Which, given that Gamma chose to stay with Zimmy makes me think that Zimmy couldn't convince Gamma to sleep without Annie standing in. I don't know that Zimmy has always seen Kat that way, actually. Her etheric form may have changed at some point. I dunno if "big nose" is what I'd call someone if that's what I saw them as.
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Post by foxurus on Jan 2, 2021 3:29:23 GMT
Last time, when she became Annie, she expressed an insecurity that she didn't deserve Gamma as well. Was that not more like jealousy aimed at Annie? Here is the (milder) insecurity: www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=729Why are some people calling her Zeta on the forums now?
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Post by foxurus on Dec 18, 2020 19:58:02 GMT
How to deal with demons: jump on them.
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Post by foxurus on Dec 16, 2020 22:51:03 GMT
Zimmy can't control her powers, and she's pretty awful in a fight. Annie's not trying to hurt Zimmy there, but if these guys wanted to, they could beat her up real bad. My read is that she's running from them because she's genuinely afraid of them.
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Post by foxurus on Dec 9, 2020 19:47:39 GMT
I can't ever get the Zimmy = Alt Annie thing over the idea that Zimmy = Alt Kat Just off some sort of parallel with Gamma and Zimmy interaction and Kat and Annie interaction. Or Kat sees the ether in the simplest/basic/structured form and Zimmy in it's most chaotic Zimmy and Annie have very similar facial features, and Zimmy has gotten confused between herself and Annie a couple times. Tom is usually pretty good at avoiding Same Face Syndrome as far as I've noticed, so it's probably intentional that they look similar (allowing that one has stunted growth, ratty hair, and pointy teeth). The visual of Zimmy being an "ember", like how her eyes are black like soot and how she steams when she gets rained on, is enticing, though probably coincidental. "Yeah they had parents." (that's in response to a question about Gamma and Zimmy). Had parents? He uses the present tense for Zimmy's parents in other questions, so I think maybe he just means they're not filling the role of being parents any more? My best guess. Gamma's parents might be dead, too; neither she or Tom seem to care about them.
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Post by foxurus on Dec 9, 2020 19:34:58 GMT
think that's more she doesn't understand how they do the stuff as she can't control what she does I mean for one, she stopped calling it magic. And she seems to have some philosophical opinions on it now that she didn't have before.
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Post by foxurus on Dec 9, 2020 9:15:08 GMT
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Post by foxurus on Dec 9, 2020 9:06:45 GMT
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