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Post by saardvark on Nov 21, 2021 2:20:25 GMT
Ok, fair enough. Let's try some math:
Let A = time after the Renard creepy stalker incident until he is captured Let B = time after Renard capture until Annie is born Let C = time after Annie is born until she starts school (Year 7, which would put her at 11 or 12, as you say)
Time of captivity, is A + B + C, approximately, ignoring smaller chunks of time between big events
What puzzles me is, how long is C? Did Annie really live in the hospital for 11 years or more? I think I remember her telling Kat that before she started at Gunnerkrigg, she lived in the hospital with her mother because they couldn't bear to be parted. That just seems like a long time to be a guest in a hospital, or however that worked. It's implied that she just stayed there from birth, or even before, until GC time.
Poor Renard! That's a long time in solitary! I guess they couldn't really let him out on parole or anything, even with just the one power, as it is such a dangerous power. Also, he was in a body with good fighting capability.
Surma got weaker as Annie grew, so it seems quite possible that for a while after Annie was born, Surma as relatively fine and didn't need to be hospitalized. Since Annie did say she lived in the hospital with her mother, she may have little memory of this earlier time... but early memories are often hazy or forgotten. Annie might have been at home with Surma til age 3 to 5 or so... so 6 to 9 years in the hospital, which is still quite a while!
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Post by saardvark on Nov 11, 2021 19:27:04 GMT
The slightly grimaced-talking mouth Shell has in the last panel (if Im not over interpreting!) suggests that while the Court may be going ahead with its "Plan", Shell's not quite so sure it's a great idea. Or not as great an idea as it used to seem, in light of recent events - less certain of success. And since she notes Annie can better "handle" Loup, maybe Shell will tell Annie a bit about the Plan, get her input, maybe even solicit help? Could be interesting...
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Post by saardvark on Nov 10, 2021 19:39:59 GMT
Last panel possibly interesting.... it seems to imply that the Court's "plan", probably Omega related, is not reliant on the SM scheme here to steal Coyote/Loup's powers. The SM plan might have been part of the overall strategy, might have increased its chances for success, but the "plan" can and will go forward, Loup-y powers in hand or not.....
It also suggests that the Court hierarchy has overall control of the "plan", not the SM (though clearly they play a major role). And note, it's not the plan, or our plan, but their plan...
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Post by saardvark on Nov 8, 2021 16:40:37 GMT
Occurred to me today: Shell might have been a Forest elf or at least Forest denizen before coming to the Court. I think her glance at the elves in today's comic is significant, but I've mostly been casting around for a way to explain her attraction to Aata (although of course he might just be charismatic and kind to her, and a major theme in the comic is that appearances are often irrelevant), and her lack of surprise at the way he used magic to heal her. It wouldn't be out of the way to assume that she sees in the Ether as the fairies in class do. After all we've not seen yet what happens to the former calculator fairies after they get older, except in the single case of Bugsy. Come to think of it, Aata might well be one himself, though personally I think there's more to it with him. Perhaps Shell already knew about Aata's "flower power" ... maybe she'd seen him do it in private on a previous occasion. It could almost read as something compulsive or addictive to Aata - a power/ability he dislikes, but something he has to fight/battle not to use more often.
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Post by saardvark on Oct 26, 2021 12:38:04 GMT
He's tried so hard... to resist/avoid using magic? or is Shell thinking more generally - he tried so hard to capture Coyote's essence, and at other nefarious schemes? Maybe we will learn more as Annie tries to calm her down....
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Post by saardvark on Oct 15, 2021 3:33:41 GMT
No insight on the Aata thing. I'm not even sure he's human, and alive. The "beautiful failure" comment always made me think he was either created/constructed or was given his powers by some sort of experiment or plan. Maybe he started as a flower, or a tree, or just a willing test subject? Dunno.
semi-Wildish-Spec: Aata's maybe the result an earlier attempt to steal or emulate Coyote power(s). Human, willing test subject, convinced of his plan and cause - to make himself a Demi-god to better offset Coyote's power. It was meant to leave him with a "scientific" power the Court could understand and use, but it was "corrupted" somehow (by Coyote? naturally?) and he ended up with an "etheric" flower-power healing ability that the Court doesnt understand and (hence) has forbidden him to use. His violation of that ban to protect and heal Shell is what threatens his ouster from the SM....
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Post by saardvark on Oct 11, 2021 12:17:40 GMT
is Aata trying to provoke Annie here (frame 7), a gambit to get her to reveal something she shouldn't in an angry response? (you can almost see the steam coming out of Annie's ears in frame 8!)
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Post by saardvark on Oct 9, 2021 3:51:20 GMT
there is a certain resignation and defeat to Aata here, like he took a big gamble, and screwed up royally., utterly
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Post by saardvark on Oct 7, 2021 2:34:23 GMT
So did the Shadow Men have some tricks of their own to keep safe, or was Loup losing it entirely performative and the Forest going ham was actually highly controlled chaos, because there's no way everyone is ok otherwise... Not necessarily highly controlled. Just expanding in such a way that the trees are not shattered… and creatures caught in it won't be harmed (thus could cause more chaos, at least). As in, it's supposed to be an invasion rather than large-scale littering. but the "expansion" also fell from great heights onto Cvet and the Shadow gang www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2512without major casualties! (several, at least, have survived) I contend that would take some significant control to arrange this, and since Loup has a poor handle on the Forest, I'm guessing the semi-undead paw of a certain OTHER canine has a hand in managing this.... (see my comments on [2521,2]...)
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Post by saardvark on Oct 6, 2021 2:00:46 GMT
If the old registration building is down here in the tunnel - we can see what appears to be the top of the building here (top of panel 6)... www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2525and its likely more of it is buried below the tunnel floor... then it would seem more reasonable that this tunnel is not one of the old invasion tunnels under the Court (otherwise why would parts of the Court be now under it), but rather a new tunnel that was made as part of the Forest wave. If so, what is going on? These new(?) tunnels (like the old ones) would seem planned, not a random event. Some Coyote scheme behind the scenes? (Maybe Im getting to suspicious in my old age...)
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Post by saardvark on Oct 3, 2021 4:17:26 GMT
And then, of course, Renard raises another question: who exactly is "we," and how exactly are "we" coming to get Annie? Is he referring to just Tony and himself, or is Kat involved too? Anyone else, like Kat's parents, or perhaps an army of concerned androids? Won't Annie object to this, because she's not just worried about herself; she wants all the Forest creatures rescued too? And besides, how are they going to find her, anyway? She knows she's somewhere in the vicinity of the old registration building, I suppose, but it looks like it's been uprooted; how far has it been carried? Other than that, there are no landmarks she can see. And furthermore, she's just allowed James and Parley to leave so she can help the Forest creatures herself. She's probably going to be a bit indignant at Renard for questioning her ability to handle the situation about two seconds later. there might be some minor conflict coming up, since Rey is raising a posse to "rescue" Annie, and probably bring her to safety deep in the Court, and *she* wants to help the Forest folk get safe first, as a reasonable Forest medium might do.
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Post by saardvark on Oct 2, 2021 13:44:55 GMT
Jones has never exactly been Renard's friend. Outside from Annie and Kat, Rey seems closest to Eglamore, the very man who kept him nailed to the ground for decades, so I'm not even sure what qualifies as "weird" for Renard. And on the flipside of that relationship, in spite of all that Rey did (killing Danny and his best bud Sivo), because of his true remorse and perhaps also how well Rey now takes care of Annie, Eggs forgives him and they are friends of sorts. Which is a lot more understanding than the Eggman shows Tony - he who "stole" Surma (by accident), is at least as regretful about her ( un-desired!) passing, and also cares for Annie (in his own odd way)...
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Post by saardvark on Oct 2, 2021 0:58:12 GMT
Annie could have used Coyote's tooth to cut a passage as well, though it would have been very slow going since the blade is short!
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Post by saardvark on Oct 1, 2021 22:15:08 GMT
Hmm. If Renard was only aware of an alert, the forest wave must not have penetrated too far into the Court. So that rules out that this was some scheme to carpet over the Court with the forest (even tho that probably wasn't the most likely scenario)....
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Post by saardvark on Sept 30, 2021 2:02:04 GMT
Annie still doesn't like Eglamore staying past his welcome. Look at that face in the last panel! To me, that's more a determined and confident (or wanting to show that at least) face. She wants Eggs to know that "she's got this", not a "leave soon or I will glower at you some more" look. To my eye, anyway... I think since the "reunion" of the two Annies, she has been more "together" (in all ways) and more self-confident. This factors into how she sees Eggs; he's not treating her like a kid, he is concerned for her safety/welfare.
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Post by saardvark on Sept 28, 2021 11:28:26 GMT
ah, the gumdrop creatures (saying "ah, medium!" in panel 1) and the brushy-haired nasal gnome (front left, panel 2) from www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1193are back with us. Yay!
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Post by saardvark on Sept 22, 2021 18:45:24 GMT
I'm intrigued by the final panel. Whose point of view are we seeing here? Is there another person or entity present, watching Annie & Co. from the recesses of the cave?
Is it anyone we've met before?
Is the last "panel" really two panels? (Is that what you are getting at?) The very last panel being the little triangular wedge with the dim glow? Or is the "panel separator" just a diagonal root or something? It could also be a segue to the next page, where we see Annie et al with the glow in a tunnel... we are seeing that glow from a distance in the wedge here.
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Post by saardvark on Sept 22, 2021 11:31:15 GMT
Parley not even going to check on Cvet? (I suppose if they are "bonded" in some way, she may be able to sense that Cvet is OK?)
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Post by saardvark on Sept 20, 2021 21:33:00 GMT
No casualties so far - lots of survivors, after such a cataclysm! Doesnt make sense - Im thinking most or maybe everyone was MEANT to survive this. I detect a Coyote work in this....
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Post by saardvark on Sept 18, 2021 18:11:54 GMT
I find it a little puzzling, considering the enormity of the Forest Tsunami, that so many people survived intact. Annie, That Guy & Parley, Cvet apparently, and now fairy-ish folks.... all completely undamaged?! (Well, we don't know about Cvet yet...) A bit of wild-ish spec: maybe the Forest wave didn't kill anyone and wasn't MEANT to. Instead it was merely designed to.... invade the Court/smash the shield bubble? Delay/distract/sow chaos in the Court's plans? Maybe Loup isn't as good at killing as he would like, either because like everyone that isn't Coyete, he can't use Coyetes powers perfectly or because Coyete built a level of safety into Loup from the start. With that much earth, rock & wood falling on you from 100 foot heights, www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2512its very difficult not to injure/kill things. Loup would have to work pretty hard to keep everyone safe in that chaos, ... or at least there's someone working hard to to do so. There is something strange going on here....
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Post by saardvark on Sept 17, 2021 17:10:07 GMT
I find it a little puzzling, considering the enormity of the Forest Tsunami, that so many people survived intact. Annie, That Guy & Parley, Cvet apparently, and now fairy-ish folks.... all completely undamaged?! (Well, we don't know about Cvet yet...) A bit of wild-ish spec: maybe the Forest wave didn't kill anyone and wasn't MEANT to. Instead it was merely designed to.... invade the Court/smash the shield bubble? Delay/distract/sow chaos in the Court's plans?
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Post by saardvark on Sept 17, 2021 11:03:53 GMT
What's interesting is that they look like ex fairies... but then they shouldn't have been in the forest in the first place. did the Forest-wave reclaim some of its former residents?
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Post by saardvark on Sept 17, 2021 4:29:48 GMT
The glance between Eggs and Parley in the last frame - is he referring to Tony? Tony was/is a fairly high ranking SM Wait, where was this? Hmm, I had been assuming that since he has significant influence on them www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1987that he must be one of them, and high ranking at that. Goes along with his deep research on the Omega project (probably related to the ether collection stations that Aata is partly in charge of). Though the documents they send him www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1877do not have the shadow men symbol, but rather the Court symbol (bismuth). And Tony never wears the shadow men insignia either. So maybe Ive been misinterpreting things; wouldn't be the first time! Maybe Tony is a special case, a special researcher directed from the Court hierarchy separate from the SM.
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Post by saardvark on Sept 16, 2021 16:17:32 GMT
"The shadow men don't meddle with the supernatural at all...usually." Usually? What instances have we (the readers) seen in which they've meddled in the supernatural? Don't have time to go on a full archive dive right now. Tony did. The whole ether siphon - power plant is arguably meddling in the supernatural (the ether) tho maybe that doesnt count for the SM...
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Post by saardvark on Sept 16, 2021 0:03:10 GMT
Did Coyote really say that Loup's attack was Aata's fault? Seems so. James doesn't know about Aata's ethereal power, assuming he's being honest, which it seems he usually is. Parley said at one point that James had never mentioned anything called an Omega Device to her ... but that was a while ago; has he mentioned it since then? Or have they had more general conversations about such things, not mentioning Omega specifically? Does Eggs know about Omega? He probably didn't see Aata's flower power just now, and not being a SM, they probably never told him. Aata is probably keeping it secret from most SM anyway. Before the Loup attack, Aata was almost directly behind Eggs (short shadow in back of panel 2). www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2502When Loup attacked, Eggs jumped immediately to shield Annie, at which point Aata (and Shell behind and to his right) are almost directly opposite to the way Eggs is looking (panel 4) www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2503Aata does his Shadow-Buddha flower arranging on Shell (panels 1-2) and Eggs is still keeping a sharp eye on Loup from behind his shield (panel 5) www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2505still pointed 180 degrees off of Aata. By the time Annie powers up and Eggs gets back to Aata (panel 1) www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2508Shell has stood up and is brushing healing botanicals off herself, tho this is likely shielded from Eggs view by the vastness of Aata himself. So the Eggman maybe never saw a thing!
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Post by saardvark on Sept 15, 2021 20:39:32 GMT
The glance between Eggs and Parley in the last frame - is he referring to Tony? Tony was/is a fairly high ranking SM, and consorted with various supernatural nasties, with various negative consequences to his general health www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1557Maybe Donny at some point told Eggs how Tony lost his arm?
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Post by saardvark on Sept 13, 2021 19:16:46 GMT
So, if Eggman can punch through Ironwood, what did they need a building squad for earlier? I dunno, why do we think its all ironwood? Frame one looks like Eggs is blasting thru rock/soil chunks mostly. Theres definitely some roots/wood mixed in though (previous pages, and behind Parley in frame 2 here)...
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Post by saardvark on Sept 13, 2021 14:14:39 GMT
We've transitioned from hearing a thudding noise accompanied by a blue glow coming through the wall to seeing Eglamore punch through the wall, some sort of blue glow behind him. Annie sees him, and Parley behind him, and greets them; Annie's posture looks as if she were hiding so as not to be visible to whatever was coming through; that would make sense. Annie's orange werelight is still with her; we still don't see what's making the blue light behind Parley and Eggers. Even in the next frame, when we get a more detailed view of them and their relief at seeing Annie unharmed, we still don't see where the blue light is from. Reunion complete, Parley speculates that Loup lost control of the Forest, and that's what happened – it's unclear how much these characters, all underground, know about what's been going on topside. If they'd seen the wave that broke upon the Court, I suspect they'd consider what happened to seem far more deliberate. And then, as Annie states in her reply, she knows that this was an attack, probably a result of what Coyote said to Loup. How much will Annie reveal about what Coyote said to her? She doesn't know exactly what he said to Loup, but considering he tested that tooth to see whether it was a rock, it's probably safe to assume it was about how Annie has in her possession (though likely not on her person) a weapon that can kill Loup dead. Will she tell Eglamore about it? Parley already knows the dagger exists, of course, but not that Coyote's intent is for Annie to kill Loup with it (something Annie didn't know either, until just recently). Has Parley mentioned it to James? Will it come out that Parley knew about it and didn't tell him? That could get awkward. Parley can probably teleport them all out, but is there anyone else to rescue? Where's Aata? Did all the Shadow Men agents get out of the Forest? What happened to Cvet, Shell, and the Shadow Men who did escape the Forest? Unanswered questions remain, as usual. The blue light is probably from one of those Dragonslayer "spells". When last we saw Aata, Cvet, and the shadow-folk www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2512they were still on the Forest side the border, with the Forest tsunami starting to crest above them. Since it the wood/soil wave crashed well into the Court, onto part of the robot bubble shield brigade www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2514I imagine most of them are buried as well. At best, Cvet might have been able to grab a couple and fly them out just ahead of the green wave crash....
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Post by saardvark on Sept 13, 2021 13:55:10 GMT
I'm not even sure Annie is correct here... Loup could as well have just been reacting to blooming' Aata and the shadow-lilies attack on himself. I kinda doubt someone as volatile as Loup would have let such an attack go without a response...
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Post by saardvark on Sept 13, 2021 13:49:55 GMT
the light already exists though, when she wakes up coughing. tww.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2517To me, this implies someone/something else is making it, or is conjuring it, as Tom's possible reference to LeGuin suggests. Annie's uncertain/wary look at it here, on the right www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2517also suggests she is not the creator. Whoever made it would have to know quite precisely where she was, and the chaos of the Loupian upheaval www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2512would make that difficult, unless it has some sort of seeking spell attached. Eggs can make lights www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2188but seeking spells seem a bit advanced and maybe would require a real magic user like Jenny. Aata might have the power, but the werelight should look more botanical in that case! A floating, glowing lotus maybe. Loup (if still extant) or Coyote (if extant once more) could do it.... The way you read it is equally valid, but as I read it, she woke up with an "Ugh," was in the dark for a moment, figured out how to make a light, then coughed, stood up and looked uncertainly at what the light was revealing. If someone else is making the light, we'll probably find out sooner or later. If Annie did it herself, it may or may not ever be remarked upon. Its looking like you were right!
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