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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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Post by saardvark on Sept 11, 2021 16:58:18 GMT
This edit came into my head this morning after seeing the page and my immediate reaction was "oh no", so of course I had to make it. welcome to the Forum, beakers! I must confess, Im a bit lost on what you are referencing tho.... (probably showing my age!). Minecraft related?
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Post by saardvark on Sept 11, 2021 14:16:00 GMT
She's managed to use her fire powers to create a floating orb of light -- "werelight," Tom called it in his comment, perhaps following Ursula K. LeGuin's lead from A Wizard of Earthsea. And now she's exploring, perhaps looking for other people or a way out. A repeated percussive sound appears to be approaching. My guess is that it's James. But whoever or whatever is doing the thudding appears to be on the verge of breaking through one of the walls, and there appears to be a blue light coming through the cracks. Again, it could be James, using one of the various powers he's got, granted by the many magical wards on his body. 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....
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Post by saardvark on Sept 10, 2021 13:58:14 GMT
Jones could punch thru rock, but whatever is doing this seems to be making the rock glow as well. Unless that is light coming through fissures in the rock.... Yeah, Im taking a wild guess that it is Jones punching through, and Annie is near to where Jones is about to punch through; were are seeing some light from the surface, or maybe some lighting to help the excavation here.
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Post by saardvark on Sept 8, 2021 16:31:48 GMT
However, could it not also be a creature of some kind, instead of having been conjured? I must say, I am not familiar with the term "werelight". could be a creature. Tom seems to be hinting in that direction (tho maybe its just a joke...): werelight, I think, is concocted from the same source as e.g., werewolf. Implying, I guess, that it is a creature that, under certain circumstances (a full moon? being buried under a ton of Forest?) becomes a altered, luminous creature.
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Post by saardvark on Sept 8, 2021 14:12:44 GMT
Pretty sure Annie is not the source of the light. She wakes up coughing and the light is already illuminating her face - and while coughing, she's unlikely to be concentrating on making a light. And she looks up at it warily, like she's not quite sure of it - which she wouldn't do if she'd made it herself. Whoever conjured it knows where Annie is, which, after all that tumbling/ascending chaos www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2512would be difficult for Aata of Eggs to guess (unless its some sort of seeking spell?). I think its more likely to by conjured by Loup or our old friend Coyote.... EDIT: Whoops, sorry madjack, you already said some of this!
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Post by saardvark on Sept 6, 2021 12:05:13 GMT
I think Aata made a protective super-shrubbery to encase and shelter the Shadowmen who couldn't be flown (Cvet), zipped (Mr Eggs), or 'ported (sir George of Parley) out quickly...
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Post by saardvark on Sept 2, 2021 0:30:36 GMT
You know, I suspect the Court's leadership (if it survives in any form) is going to be more pissed for Aata's plan causing the Court's destruction than for his use of distasteful etheric powers... If the Court finds out about Kat's robot project, they might try blaming her on the argument that it removed enough robots from the "force-field generating function" to weaken its defenses against Loup's attack. Of course, if they don't know about that, they could use Aata as the scapegoat. (In all likelihood, the rest of the Court leadership probably agreed with his plan, but in such a way so that if it went wrong, they'd pretend it was all his fault and escape the blame.) Except the Court itself removed the robots to allow the Forest elves in: www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2240www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2241Oddly though, once the elves were in the Court, the Court didn't put the robots back onto the shield line by "de-greening" them and replacing their CPUs. Its unclear what happened, but apparently they reshuffled the other robots so that fewer of them could still maintain the shield. No-one appears to have complained about the missing CPUs though (that we know of), so apparently the Court felt it was safe to maintain the shield with fewer bots. They probably enjoyed having a few more useable "greened" slave-bots around to do chores. So they cant blame Kat, it was their decision to maintain the shield with fewer bots....
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Post by saardvark on Sept 1, 2021 18:56:13 GMT
aside from the robots, the shadow troop + Cvet would seem to be at most immediate risk here... www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2512Maybe Aata can make a floral shield to protect them all? Only Cvet could probably fly fast enough to avoid the Forest-tsunami, and she can probably only carry one person...
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Post by saardvark on Sept 1, 2021 18:50:34 GMT
I, for one, prefer a bloomin' onion. welcome to the forum at this dramatic moment, arreffgee (RFG?)!
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Post by saardvark on Sept 1, 2021 12:09:08 GMT
The previous times we were treated to this onomatopoeia it only had two "o"s. Good way to end the chapter. and the Blooom! is quite literally botanical in nature...
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Post by saardvark on Aug 27, 2021 13:40:50 GMT
Is Annie falling, or floating up, in panel 3? I'm thinking she was interrupted mid-stride in panel 2 by unexpected buoyancy/gravity shortage which worsens in panel 3 to upward momentum. the background colors support this idea, I think. Panel 2, Annie is near the bottom of the warped ground chasm near the erupting Loup-mountian. Panel 3, she is floating up, as is her hair, towards the sky (heavily filtered through Forest growth), so the background lightens. Lighter blocks and spheres are joining her. Panel 4, she's floated up out of frame, and now even heavier chunks and (buried?) Loup-acles, tendrils, and roots are rising as well. Background lightens further, as our POV continues to look further upwards, but apparently not fast enough to keep up with Annie.
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Post by saardvark on Aug 27, 2021 11:23:52 GMT
Is Annie falling, or floating up, in panel 3?
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Post by saardvark on Aug 27, 2021 11:11:17 GMT
It shouldn't be the machine since that was actually pretty small and svelte compared to the humans carrying it. Also it was placed on the court/green part of the grass, not the forest/green part of the grass. I'd think it's Shell, but that doesn't explain the small form next to it, since I assume Aata also didn't make it out yet (short legs and all that). I figured the small figure to be Aata, short legs notwithstanding. He does have powers that might have permitted him to get out fast enough, I guess. What is that blue ball in the bottom left corner of the third panel, though? Simply a rock? Seems a bit too round for that... Shell and Aata seems a good guess, tho Aata might have had to go into levitating/flying suit-Buddah mode to get there... The blue ball might just be one of those elemental shapes that Loup was playing with before. [edit: ninja-ed above!] Annie has some flying ability as a fire elemental, so hopefully she can just revert to fire mode and zip out of there....
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Post by saardvark on Aug 26, 2021 1:09:39 GMT
I choose to belive Shell is Loups primary target because she is the most magically talented person in the Court, not even secretly. It's just taboo to talk about that stuff and she is completely unwilling to use any of her power and risk her postion. I doubt the comic will portray anything that will prove my perfectly reasonable belief wrong. what a conveniently unprovable theory!
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Post by saardvark on Aug 25, 2021 17:18:43 GMT
Judging from the color of the ground, the wall has been raised on the Court side of the divide, or on the boundary at least. How long or high the wall is is unclear. Its possible the whole forest was raised onto a plateau (though I doubt it). Within the forest, it is also not clear how extensive the warping around the Loup-volcano is, and so how extensive the damage.
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Post by saardvark on Aug 23, 2021 19:20:49 GMT
I think the "sonic boom" is just the fire mode dissipating. Maybe, but panel 3 looks to me like she's blasting off a little. She's got twice the firepower now, wouldn't be strange if she can do more than burn stuff with the extra mojo. maybe she's picked up some of Surma's levitation ability along the way to help the jump?
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Post by saardvark on Aug 20, 2021 11:43:42 GMT
As Loup falls apart, so does the Forest? Seems like both are breaking up into elemental units, while Loup writhes and stretches up and cries out in existential pain....
I don't think this will happen, but.... what if the Loup cube mountain eventually collapses, and in the wreckage, in the glow of fire-Annie's light, she finds a baby Coyote and Ys, reborn. (Short circuits Annie having to kill Loup, so its unlikely, but I kinda liked the image...)
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Post by saardvark on Aug 20, 2021 3:35:20 GMT
I always assumed Shell was male, and I was surprisingly disappointed to find out that wasn't the case. Not for any shipping reasons, but if this had been a moment between two male characters, I think it would have been the most emotionally intimate moment between two humanoid male characters in the whole comic so far. I hadn't really noticed it until now but there's just not a lot of male relationships. I'm not talking about romantic, specifically, the male characters just don't seem to be very close to each other. Kat's father and Tony are maybe an exception but I hesitate there because Tony is so...Tony. Shadow and Robot I am kind of hesitant about including at this point too, because they're both non-human entities and Robot's imagined body looks extremely female so I'm not sure if that means something about their identity (forgive me if this was addressed somewhere off-site too.) I dunno, there's a lot of really emotionally intimate male-female and female-female relationships, I just wish there were equally emotional relationships with the male characters. Again, not necessarily romantic, though that would be nice too, just... really caring about each other. its likely because the story is mostly seen from a female perspective (Annie, and to a lesser extent, her best bud Kat), so naturally there is a bias towards more female-male and female-female interactions. Agree with you though, it would be nice, for balance.
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Post by saardvark on Aug 20, 2021 3:28:23 GMT
re: Tom's twitter Oh Brinnie. still carries a Valkyrie powered torch for the guy....
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Post by saardvark on Aug 19, 2021 13:25:05 GMT
Hmm, Aata apparently orders the withdrawal of the Shadowmen, but isn't joining the retreat yet(?). Maybe he will stay behind to help with the battle, observe, and/or collect roottacles in the aftermath?
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Post by saardvark on Aug 19, 2021 13:06:27 GMT
Meanwhile, Loup has so little focus, only one of his root/tendrils even strikes at Annie, despite how close she is. Other roots seem to be thrashing about almost randomly, and Loup himself seems twisted up in existential pain.... Does he now? On the previous pages Loop looked like he was madly flailing, but the whole picture seem to have some meaningful tactics. Feint at Aata, hit his minion, keep the rest occupied. Then Aata clucked over Shell a bit and slipped to the background, letting Annie hold Loop back. And now tries to retreat as supposedly useless, despite the context of being Loup's primary opponent. Now Loop keeps Annie occupied by minimal amount of roottacles necessary, and the rest of his effort goes… somewhere else. Of course, it's possible Parley successfully evaded him by teleporting around and taunted some, so he throws a whole net at her. But if Jeanne could predict her, Loup probably can too. Agreed, on previous pages there was more strategy in the roottacle (love that word!) attack, especially at the beginning. Im just saying there seems less of it here, and perhaps recently. If Aata is a major opponent, why not stab him in the back when he is beflowering Shell? [panel one] www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2507[Maybe he realizes it wouldn't work, due to Aata autohealing, or something....?] Or. do the same to Eggs, when his back is turned while he's running up to check on Shell? [panel one, today] Why stab so many roottacles into the ground, and have some even pop back up again? [Seems pointless... panel 6] Why only one roottacle at Annie, when she is clearly the largest threat at the moment? [panel 6] It seems there's less tactical planning than at the start. I suppose there may be some cunning plan or subtle reasons behind it all, but I'm not seeing it.... roottacle roottacle roottacle... favorite new word....
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Post by saardvark on Aug 18, 2021 13:19:17 GMT
Like two pages ago, Loup doesn't look particularly healthy. More like close to unraveling while in tremendous pain. I'm going to disagree, it's probably still with Renard. Annie hasn't taken it with her into the Forest since she got it. So the only way she's going to get it ASAP is if Renard's familiar link includes acting as an item bag that she can access anywhere as a perk (which it might). Or if it's stored in Kat's or Anja's computer and Annie got a user account in the meantime. yeah, at this point its not even clear Loup is *aiming* his attacks - its more like he's flailing randomly in pain while falling apart. it might be hard for Annie to pull up a holographic terminal screen while fending off the random root stabs though....
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Post by saardvark on Aug 18, 2021 12:20:50 GMT
... the answer is "yes, both." Chemistry is just applied physics. (Them's probably fightin' words in some circles....)
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Post by saardvark on Aug 18, 2021 7:19:09 GMT
Hmm, Shell is so completely healed that she can break into a full run! Meanwhile, Loup has so little focus, only one of his root/tendrils even strikes at Annie, despite how close she is. Other roots seem to be thrashing about almost randomly, and Loup himself seems twisted up in existential pain....
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Post by saardvark on Aug 17, 2021 22:19:36 GMT
I think that's deflowered you were thinking of... Be- or or De-, all that flowering is going to require a lot of stamen-a ugh, bad punny rabbit! ye should be pistil-whipped! (not really, I'm totally non-violent... )
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Post by saardvark on Aug 17, 2021 21:50:32 GMT
As for whether fluorescence is physics or chemistry ... the answer is "yes, both." it's often different things fluorescing in each subject - bioluminescence is perhaps more chemistry, and a nebula's plasma fluorescing in the light of a hot star is more physics. But there's a lot of overlap and the division is pretty blurry!
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Post by saardvark on Aug 17, 2021 21:45:09 GMT
If nothing else, this page does seem to close down one line of speculation.
At least a few commenters have suggested that Aata is himself the Big Bad, the Top Banana, the Big Cheese... i.e. the highest authority figure in the Court.
Not so, it would seem, since there exists some unspecified person or persons who can kick Aata out of the Program for whatever his transgression was. So he's definitely not the Head Honcho.
But then... maybe he can be the Big bad banana-cheese top head honcho??? Dare you to depict that. I don't even want to think about banana-cheese!
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Post by saardvark on Aug 17, 2021 17:51:38 GMT
Just now on Tom's twitter. It's actually.. kinda cute? I was actually wondering about the gentle face touch and Shell's blushing on today's page, but mistook it for checking on the patient and having just recovered from almost certain death, but this image makes it look like there may be some unspoken love of sorts between the two. The picture implies a one sided crush. I know the face touching says otherwise but the picture makes me think he acknowledges her admiration but doesn't return the feelings? At least, not in the romantic way. Or maybe I just want it to be like that. Either way, now I want to learn what it is about Aata that makes Shell get blushy. He's really good at flower arranging?
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Post by saardvark on Aug 17, 2021 2:14:48 GMT
Aata appears to be "de-charging" or "un-Buddah-fying" in the final frame, as his head spoon starts to lose its white glow....
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