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Post by aline on May 22, 2015 9:24:44 GMT
I surely do think it is a courteous thing for friends who are trying to help to LISTEN to the supposed victim. Annie flat says her father didn't make her cut her hair. Gosh, am I the only one interested in hearing why she did? I think that although her reasons are certainly complex they are not all that mysterious. Why does Annie smile eagerly while handing her homework? Why does she wear blue and grey dresses? Frankly we have enough of an idea of how Annie is feeling from the last 20 pages, I don't need more about that right this minute. What I want to see are answers to the questions that Annie ISN'T asking. The heck with Annie's abusive father, let's try not having her " they think they're being helpful" friends commit crimes in her name when she's specifically asked them not to. She said "please". I'm sorry but I'm with Kat on this one. There are too many questions, very big and obvious questions, that Annie isn't asking about her dad. Someone who cares about her needs to do the asking for her. Kat is not forcing Annie to do something she doesn't want to. She's taking it on herself to find out more information, without involving Annie. I think given the circumstances it's justified.
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Post by aline on May 22, 2015 8:02:01 GMT
Would it be correct to assume that the cold place where Antimony lives in not inside Anthony's house? And has Anthony had a house in the Court the whole time or did he just get it when he became a teacher? And why is Antimony not living there - not enough space for her, would be too far from her classes or Mr. Grumpy does not want her there because she could discover the secret shrine dedicated to Surma Because all other kids are in a dormitory, even those who have parents living at the Court. Kat doesn't live in her parent's house either, although she goes there to visit. Annie's room is supposed to be close to the year 9 dormitory.
Of course there might also be things there that he doesn't want her to see.
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Post by aline on May 22, 2015 7:16:26 GMT
Yay, breaking and entering time ^^
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Post by aline on May 20, 2015 14:27:02 GMT
1. Parley and Smitty are also wearing clothing that indicates cool weather (Parley's turtleneck sweater at least). But we still don't know how much time has passed since Anthony's reappearance.
I can't imagine that more than a few days have passed, because: the card makes more sense a short time after the event of Annie cutting her hair Anthony wouldn't wait weeks to test Rey's "cooperation" and start asking questions about it Kat is totally burning to DO something and I don't think she'd wait long to call the cavalry and let Smitty and Parley know about the situation and try to bring her parents in.
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Post by aline on May 20, 2015 7:22:08 GMT
I get the very sinister feeling that the thing Kat is "up to" will be the thing they've been up to all along, solving the mystery of divide. However, all too conspicuously, Annie suddenly thinks it's a bad idea to get involved. I find it very unlikely that Kat would worry about Jeanne and the divide when several of her best friends are in that much trouble (let's not forget Renard). No, she is planning something that is going to make that chapter earn its title and I'm really happy about that.
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Post by aline on May 18, 2015 8:35:56 GMT
I shouldn't think the Donlans can knock any sense at all in Anthony... but maybe they can get more answers. I'm really glad that Renard can resist Tony's orders, regardless of why :-)
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Post by aline on May 15, 2015 21:34:09 GMT
3. The transfer of ownership "doesn't work that way". Meaning, you can't be coerced into doing this. Or it can't be transferred at all. One thing I've been wondering about is: didn't the nature of the bond between Annie and Rey change? I mean sure, in the beginning it was about ownership. But now Renard is more bound by the love he has for her than any technicalities about plush toy ownership. Shouldn't that count for something? Create interferences?
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Post by aline on May 15, 2015 9:17:22 GMT
To me it doesn't look like Anthony expected Kat to be there, or that the three had a meeting. He doesn't have any reason to want to involve Kat in this. Neither did Annie seem to expect the Renard topic to be brought up. I may be wrong, but I think she was only expecting the homework part. She looks embarrassed too. Did she take steps to protect Renard? Where is he anyway? Sulking in a drawer? Is he already under Anthony's control? Kat asked on the last page when Anthony was supposed to get there. To me that sounded like a meeting had been arranged. Plus Anthony didn't look surprised to see Kat there; he didn't ask her what she was doing there or anything. Yeah, you may be right. I just don't understand why they would...
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Post by aline on May 15, 2015 7:31:25 GMT
The lack of trust towards Annie is a little sickening. The fact that it only took a glance suggests that Antimony is used to this... I take it as a positive that he simply accepted Annie's word when she said she wasn't helped. To me it doesn't look like Anthony expected Kat to be there, or that the three had a meeting. He doesn't have any reason to want to involve Kat in this. Neither did Annie seem to expect the Renard topic to be brought up. I may be wrong, but I think she was only expecting the homework part. She looks embarrassed too. Did she take steps to protect Renard? Where is he anyway? Sulking in a drawer? Is he already under Anthony's control?
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Post by aline on May 13, 2015 19:13:21 GMT
I don't think anything like new cheating accusations will happen. Up to now, Anthony has never attacked Annie about something she hadn't been doing. A great deal of his influence on her relies on that. She feels ashamed and justly punished and that is one big reason why she respects his decisions and agrees with everything. Why would he break all that fine manipulative work by making false accusations? What would be the point for Annie to be on her best behavior, if her father just makes up accusations as he goes along?
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Post by aline on May 13, 2015 12:28:35 GMT
He will comment negatively on the one error in Annie's school work and not say a thing about the rest of the homework that is perfect. And then he will declare the visitation over because Annie has to redo her school work. If after that Kat starts stalking him and uncovering his secrets, I can live with that. Go for it, Kat!
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Post by aline on May 13, 2015 8:27:51 GMT
I wouldn't be surprised if this meeting is about Reynard. Whatever the subject, it will probably end with Kat being officially banned from having contact with Annie. You think? Why would Kat be there if it was about Renard? To me it looks like he's coming to check on her homework. Also, I think Kat is too clever to give him a reason to ban her. She thinks there is more going on than meets the eye and she knows better than to charge head on without gathering ammunition first.
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Post by aline on May 12, 2015 19:39:14 GMT
I just started reading Blindsprings. Something I found funny when reading comments for some of the more recent pages (involving jerk fathers) is that even the people over there are talking about how much they hate Anthony Carver. It's like, "Oh, sure, Thorne may have imprisoned his wife and disfigured his daughter, but at least he's not TONY!" I just read all of the archives and added it to my 'must follow' list. Look what you've done XD I read it too. Thanks for the tip! I really like how hard it is to pinpoint who is actually doing the right thing. I'm feeling defiant of about nearly every character. Oh, sure, most of them are good people. And they all look like they'd blow up the world trying to do the right thing.
And yeah, it was hilarious how as soon as horrible fathers were mentioned, suddenly people started commenting about GC instead ^^
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Post by aline on May 12, 2015 4:19:15 GMT
We have no reason to think that she skipped any more detentions after that. Even Anthony never mentioned it. Although maybe there wasn't any opportunity since then? I think they realized that Annie was just shrugging the detentions off, and stopped handing them out. Bu then, there's a lot of stuff about Annie we've never seen. Do we even know where or what she routinely eats? . The point I'm trying to make is that if this was relevant to Annie's current punishment, it would probably have been mentioned by then, if only in passing. Annie has cheated for two years. The court has ignored the behaviour long before Annie started skipping detentions. Besides, as Annie herself put it, if they wanted to stop her (from skipping them) they would have. Every school has procedures to deal with skipped detentions such as suspension, disciplinary board and so on. How many schools do you know where they simply stop handing out detentions when students don't show up? And most of them manage to deal with such situations without tracking their students' location or having them in a 100% controlled environment. It can't possibly have been this difficult for the court to deal with a vaguely rebellious teenager. It's simply wrong to say that there was no other way to discipline her.
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Post by aline on May 11, 2015 18:35:05 GMT
Support for the "Anthony acting in conjunction with/compelled by the Court" sector: While this is pretty overkill, depending on just how many detentions were skipped, it does seem as though this might be (or seem, to the higher-ups) to be the only way to actually discipline her. Annie got a talk on her defiant behavior from Jones AND Eglamore AND Coyote (in his own sweet nearly-killed-you-how-fun way). She promised to be more careful to everyone. Just after that, she had a serious set back when she wasn't made the Court Medium. Even if Coyote gave her a way out, it was far from a vote of confidence from the Court to her. We have no reason to think that she skipped any more detentions after that. Even Anthony never mentioned it. Although maybe there wasn't any opportunity since then?
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Post by aline on May 11, 2015 16:42:49 GMT
Annie calling herself dumb is already sounding like her excuse for not getting on with recovering from this set back in her life. An excuse that she seems to be clinging to like a life raft. Nah, unhealthy self-image isn't a life raft, it's an anchor. You gotta work hard to unhitch it from your ankle before you can even start to safe yourself from drowning. I think it's more like a mask (another one). She'll play the big dumb giant and smile rather than sit and cry. That's what she thinks people now expect to see, so that's what she'll be. Annie is someone who endures. Which isn't a weakness, not at all, because there are times in life where it's the only way to get through. But sometimes it's time to stop enduring and start fighting back, and that's something she needs to remember now.
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Post by aline on May 11, 2015 15:27:08 GMT
So, hey, on the plus side, the room isn't as bare as we thought it was! She's got a wardrobe, a desk, and a bookshelf! ...Ok that's just me trying to distract myself from how depressing this page is. Poor Annie. I want an adult to step in, but I don't think that's very likely. Hopefully some of Annie's friends will. I think if they could just step in and end it they already would have.
Edit: oh, and by the way, I love your avatar.
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Post by aline on May 11, 2015 9:59:45 GMT
Two: I keep hoping for the Donlans. They might not be accomplices of the court - as it has been pointed out, they may not be Annie's teachers (they haven't been seen teaching the class, and they haven't been informed that Annie won't show up in their classes). Maybe they don't want to teach the classes their daughter is in (or can't - the only time we saw a parent teach in one if his kid's classes, it was Anthony and that was a whole different story). No, Ms. Donlan taught Kat and Annie. but they were in year 7 and Annie only started cheating in year 8. Oh hell, I hope not. Didn't even think of that - and let's hope it isn't meant like that, because the stuff Anthony does in the open is pretty bad. How horrible must things be that he feels he has to hide? I've said this before, but I think a lot of his agressivity and dominance IS about hiding things. When you're a magician you know to wave hands that way so people won't look *this* way. I first got that feeling in this page: www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1492I mean look at how... dramatic all of this was. Appearing as a biology teacher from one day to another, and completely rearranging Annie's life, without any students, and apparently most of the teachers, finding out before? That must have taken some effort. And the whole classroom scene felt very calculated to make not just Annie but everyone in the room angry, confused and subdued. I think there's a lot of waving around involved here... a lot of distraction tactic.
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Post by aline on May 11, 2015 8:16:49 GMT
And the depressingness continues... I'm still waiting for adventure time when we go to see that chair. Please make it a happy chair! It does look like a happy chair. It's in the sunlight, it looks comfortable, it's in warm, comforting colors so far away from all the whiteness we're getting lately. It's pretty much the only nice thing we've got to look forward to right now. I really hope it *is* a happy chair.
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Post by aline on May 9, 2015 19:03:28 GMT
I see no indication that Janet and William have broken up. Just that the other students, particularly Kat, still don't know or believe they are in a relationship. It seems improbably for a teenage couple to keep this secret this well, but the threat from Janet's father is a reasonable explanation for their exceptional behavior. And plot armor, never under estimate the strength of plot armor! They don't believe it. Remember Faraway Morning? Janet and Winsbury told their friends they were going out, but then added so much... hum... color to the story that none of them believed it. I suppose it helps that they're a bit improbable as a couple. It's hard to say if Janet's dad would be a threat to the relationship, my feelings is that they were too embarassed to talk about it at first, and are now hiding it out of habit (and also because no one apparently wants to see it).
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Post by aline on May 9, 2015 12:35:52 GMT
People who are aware of the legal definitions of abuse have certified that Anthony's behavior legally qualifies as abuse. "There are too many definitions of abuse for anyone to really say it's abuse" doesn't seem like much of an argument against that. There are many countries out there, and each one of them has a different legal definition of abuse, which in each one of them changes over time (For example spanking became illegal in France a couple of years ago. From one day to the next it went from normal education practice to punishable abuse. Most people in France still do not consider it abuse and many still spank their kids in the privacy of their homes. Tell a turc about spanking young kids and you'll get horrified looks). I'm not trying to say that you can't call this or that abuse, I just say that arguing about that in this forum until everyone agrees is kinda pointless.
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Post by aline on May 8, 2015 19:03:06 GMT
Kat's statement about Winsbury is kinda weird. Thinking back though, it could be possible he sorta like Annie back when she flipped him over in gym class. And in the Torn Sea it was nice seeing Winsbury and Janet stay close to her side. It made me think back to those same aged friends I had in middle school who took care of me as if they were parents, good parents. I don't think Kat's comment was meant to be serious. It was probably just her way of saying that Winsbury really does care, more than his jerk facade would let anyone expect. And maybe she wanted to tell Annie something to smile about. Well, no luck...
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Post by aline on May 8, 2015 18:23:39 GMT
Can we please get on with the story instead of being beaten over the head with how terrible Anthony is making Annie's life? I feel that way too. I'm eager to see some development on all that, and it's not coming. On the other side, Tom has said several times that this is an important part of the story, that he's waited for a long time to get there, etc. I'm not going to judge the pace until I've seen more. Storywise, down times don't mean useless times. You can't sacrifice everything to the episode format. Sometimes you have to take your time. Details might get to be important later on.
So I tell myself all that. But still every time I load a new page, I cringe and think, come on, are we getting to the action yet? -_-
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Post by aline on May 8, 2015 12:53:46 GMT
People sling the word "abuse" all too easily. What Tony is doing borders on abuse, it's cold, and it feels terrible. But try to look outside the emotional bubble created by the recent chapter. I think it would be easier on the discussion to stop attempting to define the word "abuse". There are simply too many ways to define the concept, with high cultural influence and a lot of individual emotional baggage involved. It's impossible to come to an agreement to what is abuse and what isn't if you have more than three people in the room.
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Post by aline on May 8, 2015 12:15:49 GMT
As much as I've been trying to sympathize with Anthony, that room he's having Annie stay in is dangerously close to child abuse. If he keeps pushing her like this, him losing legal guardianship over Annie in the end would be a real option. It's a strange, huge room but I don't think it's abuse. It's a feature of the Court, lots of unused space. Coupled together with all the rest Annie's been dealing with, it's yet another distant and cold thing for her to shoulder, so I do empathize too. But the first dorms we saw seemed more dangerous to me, especially for such young children. Yeah, all dorms so far have been fairly strange. That room is fairly unpractical, and seems to be missing windows, but we've seen worse at the Court. I think this is yet another reminiscence of Annie's childhood in Good Hope ("endless corridors", white, and so on). Whether there is an in-story purpose to this, or this is more a meta-reference introduced by Tom for the sake of atmosphere, hard to say. Combined with the hair, clothing, no-make-up policy and so on, might be the first one. The card has only few words and it's fairly easy to (mis)interpret a short sentence like this. I think the whole point here is the constrat between Annie's perception and Kat's perception. Kat knows that the card is a rather sweet try to express sympathy, from Winsbury no less, and it never occured to her that Annie could see it as anything else. Otherwise she wouldn't have given it to her. Annie tells her they're making fun of her as if she were explaining the order of the universe. She doesn't even consider the possiblity that Kat might be right. She's not even trying to discuss the matter, just putting the card away. That's because in her own eyes, she is publicly and rightfully disgraced. She's in a very dark place right now, all the white notwithstanding.
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Post by aline on May 8, 2015 7:12:36 GMT
Her reaction to the card breaks my heart more than the state of her room.
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Post by aline on May 5, 2015 21:12:02 GMT
I've been assuming that Annie's teachers didn't know about her cheating, but that the Court did. Much like I doubt the teachers are involved with tracking the students using nanites. If homework and test results are stored in the students' files, the Court could do a separate statistical analysis to figure out who's cheating, and that wouldn't have to involve the teachers beyond the initial data entry. It's likely they'd be the first ones to notice, though.They're the ones who correct all the student's work, and believe me it'd be hard for a teacher to miss the strange coincidence of Annie always making the same mistakes as her best friend and table neighbor. In real life, teachers tend to see these things a mile away.
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Post by aline on May 5, 2015 6:35:00 GMT
Also, they're responsible for classes in which Annie cheated, and they knew (apparently), so why the hell didn't they say anything before? We don't know that. Mrs. Donlan taught Annie and Kat's class in their first year, but Annie wasn't cheating yet, back then. She started in year 2. At that point Mrs. Donlan no longer appeared as her teacher. Mr. Donlan teaches Math to the higher years, we never saw him teach Kat's and Annie's class. Of course it doesn't mean they didn't know, since the Court knew it's likely they were told at some point. I want to believe that if they had known for a long time, they would have tried to talk to Annie about it, though.
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Post by aline on Apr 30, 2015 12:50:11 GMT
He's one of those who puts women on pedestals so he can worship them.* He can't imagine being worthy to approach one to so much as ask her out on a date. That is obviously pure speculation here, but my impression of the whole Brinnie episode was more that he couldn't decide how he felt. He was supposed to "just know" if he liked Brinnie enough to date her and was pretty desperate that he couldn't find out. Someone who tries to rationalize everything, who wants to understand the world with logic alone and refuses to listen to his own feelings will have a hard time managing the concept of being attracted or in love. I didn't see it as a "she's too good for me" situation.
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Post by aline on Apr 30, 2015 11:16:51 GMT
I kinda feel like this chapter was too short- like it had conflict with no resolution. Annie's dad shows up, he acts like an ass, Annie folds like a wet paper towel. Roll credits. I realize it's obviously setting up the next bit, but somehow I feel like it just doesn't stand well on it's own. it was extremely short page-wise as well, if the next chapter were to continue on this I would expect it to just be combined into 1 chapter, I can only deduce from this that next chapter will be about something completely different. (hence the need to stop the chapter here) I also expected that chapter to be much longer and offer some kind of resolution (if only partially), like we've been used to for the past years. To be honest, it feels like a prologue. I can only guess, but I think this means this arc will be bigger and more complex than anything we've seen so far in Gunnerkrigg. And this chapter was only there to get things started. I can't wait ^^
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