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Post by saardvark on Apr 10, 2019 8:31:14 GMT
Hmm. The way Kat is side-glancing Frannie is interesting. I think one possibility is that Kat is glancing at her because this is 'her' quest and she's the one most familiar with its giver in Loup. Her reaction might be a good gauge of how he would take an "errr, sorry but we kinda umm..." response. I actually find it more interesting that both Annies reacted the same way. yes, suggesting this is new information to both of them. side thought: I wonder what happens to a Mega-tree when it is watered by Coyote sauce? (Its hard to imagine the vial surviving intact after the Mega-growth...)
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Post by saardvark on Apr 10, 2019 7:57:45 GMT
Hmm. The way Kat is side-glancing Frannie is interesting. She is clearly looking for her reaction to this news.... But why has it taken this long to tell Frannie where the objects were? I suppose the Court may not have told Andrew where the objects were stored until recently, but this raises another question: is Andrew's reply here actually factual? Did the Court lie to him about the objects' whereabouts? It's quite possible that the Court would want to "study" these objects, and the Mega-tree growth would be a convenient excuse to both hold onto the objects and relieve the Court ever having to return them (and thus risk Loup's further empowerment). An even more troublesome thought: does Andrew know that this is a lie, and this is some sort of "Frannie-test" of "who are you loyal to"? (I don't think this is as likely, but it is possible....)
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Post by saardvark on Apr 8, 2019 21:12:28 GMT
Paz's half-frowning, one-eyebrow-raised, rather grim, half-hearted "OK" in panel 6 suggests maybe there is some jealousy there; the Annies in some ways have a certain closeness to Kat that she has not yet, and may never be able to achieve. And it may grate a bit on her heart.... Why would that have to be the case? I think Paz just indicated her huffy approval of the Annies' improvement. I mean, put it in context in a heterosexual relationship: Why should my fiancee be jealous of my decades-long friendship with my best friend? Were he a woman, should he be jealous, even though as a man he is currently not? Friendship and romance are different sorts of relationships altogether, and as much as we make a big deal in modern Western culture about "marrying our best friend," we don't literally mean that friendship and romantic relationships are the same. (FWIW I do think of my fiancee as one of my best friends, but it's not the same as my relationship with my girl BFFs or my other boy BFFs). I mean you can be jealous of someone's time with someone else, but recognizing for real that someone is friends with someone else should let you be OK with a friendship-like emotional closeness. No? It doesn't have to be the case, and you might be right about Paz. I agree with you 100% on relationships. But these are teenagers we are talking about, and may not yet have the emotional maturity you have suggested. I read Paz' expression differently than you, I guess, and thought she might be a bit jealous, not of Annie as a romantic rival, of course, but of the emotional closeness of Kat and Annie, perhaps something she feels she doesnt have as deeply yet. Of course, with maturity, she would understand that this is natural - Kat and Annie have been thru a lot together, both time and experiences - and it may well come in time for her and Kat as well. But Paz is young....
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Post by saardvark on Apr 8, 2019 10:25:37 GMT
Paz's half-frowning, one-eyebrow-raised, rather grim, half-hearted "OK" in panel 6 suggests maybe there is some jealousy there; the Annies in some ways have a certain closeness to Kat that she has not yet, and may never be able to achieve. And it may grate a bit on her heart....
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Post by saardvark on Apr 5, 2019 9:29:57 GMT
Does that imply Annie's crush is not a human? No, Cvet's an Orjack, she's saying that she thinks Smitty is attractive even if he is a different species than she is. The Annies didn't say the name of their crush out loud, so it's unlikely Cvet knows who their crush is. Its unlikely Cvet knows (unless telepathic), but the mere mention of "for a human" perhaps reminds the Annie's of "They Who Were Not Named, Are NON-Human, But Caused Much Blushing", which induces a repeat performance of extreme embarrassment and capillary dilation. EDIT: (Likely green, me-thinks)
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Post by saardvark on Apr 4, 2019 23:07:10 GMT
aah, thanks. Unfamiliar with that album.
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Post by saardvark on Apr 4, 2019 21:44:06 GMT
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Post by saardvark on Apr 3, 2019 19:53:51 GMT
Kvass! Two points for the reference! I love kvass (lightly fermented beer-like drink made from rye bread)....
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Post by saardvark on Apr 3, 2019 19:24:19 GMT
Or more likely cvet wasnt going to provoke them to an attack. She was going to appear, be all cryptic, misdirect them with illusions or something... Parley did say "I hope Cvet didn't give you too much of a runaround!" That doesn't sound like a straight-up attack plan. Yes! I suspect that strangebloke1 is correct, and Cvet hid, was surprised as it watched the Annie's fall thru the floor, but knowing the plan was to get the Annies to work together against a common puzzle/foe, decided the Ashray was a better "test", carefully monitored the situation, saw that they were dealing with the Ashray tolerably well, and left things as they were (would have intervened to help if the Ashray had got the upper hand).
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Post by saardvark on Apr 1, 2019 18:17:51 GMT
Cvet is clearly the speaker. The speaker is in on whatever Parley and the others were planning. Cvet was part of the plan. Presumably, Cvet was how they planned on keeping the Annies stuck in the bunk for a long time, when everyone knew that courtnie could cut her way out of a steel box without too much difficulty. So, then, what is Cvet? She is not the ashray. If she was, there would have been no change of plan, since the ashray pretty much worked perfectly, and Parley/Kat wouldn't be shocked by the mention of an Ashray. She is probably very large, given the perspective in the last panel. She would presumably be able to safely keep the Annies restrained. Courtnie doesn't know who Cvet is, since she seems to think here that Parley is referring to the Ashray. She addresses Parley first, indicating that she sees Parley as the one in charge here. (she doesn't address Kat first, so she's not a robot.) She is likely Slavic. My guess is that this is some kinda giant magical dragon creature, although not necessarily an Orjak. Hmmm, but it does make sense for Cvet to be an Orjak, since the Orjaks are an European dragon species originally found in Slovenia, that are intelligent and can speak: www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=58Eglamore paid his last respects to Sivo, in Slovenian (Slavic language!): www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=56
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Post by saardvark on Apr 1, 2019 9:51:48 GMT
Wait, was Paz telling the ashray what to do? No, I think Kat & Paz planted a Cvet in the bunker for the "Annies challenge". In the bunker, the Cvet met Monky the Ashray and they decided to trade roles as the "challenge" for some reason...
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Post by saardvark on Apr 1, 2019 7:17:35 GMT
Kind of ironic that the monster's name is Cvet (meaning Flower in many Slavic languages) and that the Annies troubles began with a Loup flower. hmm, Russian at least (a Slavic language) lacks articles, just like the rooftop speaker. Can a Cvet talk (and it is on the roof now, but met Monky after being placed in the bunker by Kat [probably with Paz' help]- then it and Monky decided to swap places as the Annie's "challenge creature" a joke)? I cant think of anyone else Slavic in the comic, other than Gamma, and she doesnt speak English... edit: clarified the imagined sequence of events a bit...
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Post by saardvark on Mar 29, 2019 11:11:20 GMT
Return of the Hairclips !
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Post by saardvark on Mar 28, 2019 13:04:05 GMT
Well, that's settled then. 50 more chapters confirmed! ...when a re-formed and penitent fan-fish Monky returns the hairclip to Annie on the end of one of his scorpion paws...
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Post by saardvark on Mar 28, 2019 6:48:35 GMT
For what it's worth, last time she went elemental mode (during her time with Loup), the clip disappeared then as well just to reappear as soon as she went back to normal. E: further thoughts... Frannie's hair in the linked Neither page shows signs of raggedness, while her hair on today's page looks like it all comes to natural-looking ends. I wonder what's up with that, if it's anything more than the drawn level of detail being lower. ragged, maaaaybe, but no embers or separated tongues of fire. Id say its a bit ragged only because she is swirling around quickly due to Loup dragging her "fire crown" around. I still contend that the fully separated fire shards, tongues, and embers are seen associated only with Courtney. (Though Im happy to retract that if its proven otherwise! )
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Post by saardvark on Mar 27, 2019 15:16:44 GMT
scorpius.tiff (673.55 KB) I think Scorpius is a better fit, star-wise. Starting with the triangular stinger-tail, youve got Shaula+Lesath (lambda + nu) [bright], kappa+iota [bright], unnamed (dim, at edge), theta (dim, just above the red surface), mu [brigt, a bit displaced to the left], epsilon (at end of chain), Antares (behind Kat's head, about at her nose, with rays projecting from it), then to the right of Kat, pincers pi (at bottom, bright), and beta (at top, above her head, dim) and scorp head delta (a bit displaced down, below head, dim). This perhaps makes Kat herself Antares = Anti-Ares, preventer of war. She stops Loup's attacks? She heads off a robot civil war peacefully?
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Post by saardvark on Mar 27, 2019 14:06:05 GMT
Zimmy's going to wonder why the next rain feels a bit weird. thick gloppy drops that fall up? and instead of relieving stress, it makes the Zimm-ster want to bite things, flail around and do belly flops?
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Post by saardvark on Mar 27, 2019 12:20:19 GMT
poor fan-fish Monky..... a Paleozoic paragon of piscine pulchritude, he was....
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Post by saardvark on Mar 27, 2019 12:17:51 GMT
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Post by saardvark on Mar 27, 2019 2:35:06 GMT
This page (last panel... the soft "oh") www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1446could be taken to imply that Annie suddenly realizes that she didn't have to pull secret Anwyn trick of feigning disinterest (which backfired badly!), she could have just asked Jack for a date directly. So maybe there was still some interest lingering at this point? (Of course, with Jack still in love with the Zim-ster, it was probably doomed to failure...)
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Post by saardvark on Mar 27, 2019 2:10:14 GMT
To be honest, the fact that no one made this connection is half the reason I've joined this forum. Those pointy hypodermic needle-like pillars in the background? We've seen something like those before: It's also present as a design element on Kat's etheric form on the next page and even on the original reveal in Divine. I also found the same imagery in the background of Robot's imaginings in New Data. They've also been noted to look like the shafts of feathers before, so they might be dual symbolism there since Kat's associated with birds so much? I've got no idea what's up with the one bone-like needle outside of what other people have said though, perhaps representing the transition into organic? and here's more Kat-Angel-needles... www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1443
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Post by saardvark on Mar 25, 2019 18:08:58 GMT
And Kat doesn't even know about the robot religion. Though the remark about Kat to the Headmaster as Moses to Pharaoh reminds me of the notion I'd sometimes imagined of the Court leadership, once it finds out about the robot religion and seeing it as a threat (or even an inconvenience - say, too many robots neglecting their duty to hear Robot's sermons or go on pilgrimages to Jeanne's "shrine"), decide to discipline Kat in front of the robots, in the hopes that it will discredit that religion and get them to see her as just a schoolgirl rather than an angel or goddess. (And then having it go disastrously wrong - maybe, have the Court leadership become the equivalent of the Devil in the robots' theology.) "... but the Creator hardened the heart of the Headmaster, so he would not let the robots go." though that would make Kat a bit schizophrenic, since as Moses she is fighting for them to be able to go, but as Creator....
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Post by saardvark on Mar 25, 2019 12:58:26 GMT
Though not the question of whether the Ashray really was hostile or whether both Annies jumped to the conclusion that it was. In a few pages we'll see her complaining to Lindsey about this job they gave her but despite not being able to even talk to them and being lased in the face ... and almost fried into something suitable for a Filet-o-(Monky)fish [c] sandwich...
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Post by saardvark on Mar 24, 2019 23:56:42 GMT
the Moses parallels are intriguing. I was poking around with them earlier as well.... Would not rather Robot be Moses, being their prophet and all? Kat must be an angel of the Creator himself, having his powers. Actually, it has been a while since I read the OT.You are right; Kat isn't just leading them to the "promised land" of organics and feelings and a touch of "human-ness" (ie, a Moses figure),she is actually creating that promised land - more than even an Angel, she is the Creator! But vis-a-vis the Headmaster she is Moses to his Pharaoh. So Kat is a bit of both - Moses and the Creator (as the robots, the seraphs, specifically, themselves have deemed her).
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Post by saardvark on Mar 22, 2019 15:02:14 GMT
I guess that's what happens when you break the atomic bonds of dihydrogen monoxide. At first it goes "kaboom" and if you keep heating it it goes "blam-whoosh-vrooom" while interesting things happens on the atomic level. That dihydrogen monoxide is some nasty stuff.....
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Post by saardvark on Mar 22, 2019 13:32:51 GMT
Apparently, you were wrong! Monky just hung there waiting for them to talk a whole 3 panels, that's like 20 seconds or so... Plenty of time to do a lot of attacking. The theory of the Therapist Ashray still holds or obsessed fan-fish Monky.....
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Post by saardvark on Mar 22, 2019 11:51:02 GMT
more sensible would be to vaporize the Ashray goop holding the door closed and escape... that would take minimal energy and reduce risk of poaching themselves. (Still, magic fire, so maybe they can make it burn just the Ashray?)
I suppose that heating the walls might vaporize Monky's attachment point to the ceiling, and he'd come crashing down(?)
also: Monky doesnt seem to be attacking, actually... just hanging there. Maybe waving his scorpion paws a bit. Is it really as much of a threat as they think?
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Post by saardvark on Mar 21, 2019 13:35:27 GMT
Remember that Annie was the one that started it all when she gave Robot something nobody had: a choice. So, was Annie the snake equivalent on that theory? nice. and to extend the religious allegory, perhaps robots "corrupted" by the ability to choose (knowledge of good and evil) now become sentient/human(ish)? and "fall" from the "purity" (or simplicity at least) of robot-hood into something... more? on a religious tangent, Kat-angel strikes me as a Moses figure for the robots, potentially bringing them into the "promised land" of organics, real feeling, ether contact, becoming more human-like. It makes me sad that this plot seems to have been abandoned for the moment. Don't worry, Kat is still fiercely protective of her robot worshipers friends. She just needs time to perfect her plan to free them from the shield generation program and the headcrabs. Soon we'll see her marching into the throne room of Jonathan Llanwellyn, shouting, "Let my people go!" the Moses parallels are intriguing. I was poking around with them earlier as well....
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Post by saardvark on Mar 20, 2019 17:18:54 GMT
Based on that "Boys I Know" page from Annie in the Forest, here are my thoughts: - Jack: Annie threw out Jack's name on the next panel because they had that whole hullabaloo before, but that was definitely not an admission of a crush.
- Kamlen: There's a good chance that Annie is still crushing on Kamlen, but then why would Annie not want to admit it? She's admitted before (in a roundabout way) that she liked him so it doesn't make sense that she would suddenly be averse to saying it out loud.
There are two options: it's a boy we haven't met yet or it's a girl we already know. The boys I know panel seems like the standard Siddellâ„¢ brand misdirection we get from this comic; get us focused on one thing while sneakily omitting the truth. Personally, I think it might be a girl, but that's pretty much just wildspec from me. So all of this to say I have no idea. Jack: There was the discomfort at seeing him again in Torn Sea.... tho you are probably right. I think she did crush on him a bit at one point, perhaps gone now. Kamlen: Hmm, well, now still crushing on him would be a bit taboo, since he has a steady girlfriend. That might lead to the embarrassment(?)... I dunno.. a boy we havent met seems unlikely, but a girl we know seems quite possible. ditto your last thought!
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Post by saardvark on Mar 20, 2019 17:07:04 GMT
So does this mean the Ashray has some level of sentience? It seems savvy enough to realize an Annie-escape-hatch was available and shut it. Was this action intentional, or just an accidental nudge by a blue-goo pseudopod? If it has some intelligence, and is ether sensitive, maybe Annie's ether attractiveness will come into play (as suggested above). Or, ironically, could it be Annie's ether attractiveness is driving Monky's behavior? What if the Scorpodunklemonkfish isn't attacking, but wants to keep the Annies there due to their ether attractiveness? Like Monky is an obsessive fan-fish, or something? edit: (a little like geminijim's idea just above!)
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