Post by todd on Aug 28, 2007 11:15:09 GMT
Much of this is speculation, but based on the events in this chapter (and a couple of the chapters preceding this one). Succeeding chapters may disprove parts of it, but I think that I'm probably on the right track overall.
As I've said before, I think that Coyote's real goal is to bring Reynardine back to Gillitie Wood. Why he wants his cousin back, I won't even try to guess. But I'd say that that appears to be his ends.
I find it likely that Coyote's first move was the meeting between Ysengrin and Robot that took place between Chapters One and Seven (and which was narrated in Chapter Twelve), leading to the fight at the bridge. (Though Ysengrin and the shadow-man did the actual work, I suspect that Coyote was behind it. Ysengrin doesn't seem subtle enough to have come up with the plan of duping Robot on his own. We know that he works for Coyote, and since the shadow-men were Coyote's creations, the one that possessed Robot could easily have been acting on Coyote's orders.) We know that Reynardine was Robot's target, and Reynardine's remarks in Chapter Fourteen indicate that the goal was to kidnap him.
With that scheme having failed, Coyote goes to Plan B. We don't know why it took him so long to put it into operation (Mr. Eglamore and the other members of the faculty are astonished that the forest-folk waited so long after the incident at the bridge); perhaps he had to wait until Ysengrin discovered the Tic-Toc Bird's remains and had more of a grievance to present to the school. But, despite the suspicions of both the teachers and Reynardine (see the ending of Chapter Twelve, where Reynardine thinks that the forest-folk are going to be angry about Annie sending Robot into Gillitie Wood), it seems that the "wrongs" done to the Wood by the Court (more accurately, by Annie, without the teaching staff's knowledge, and without her realizing the consequences) are just the cover for Coyte's real goal: to investigate Reynardine's situation further and find another means of getting him back to the forest.
I believe that Ysengrin was kept in the dark about Coyote's real plan, thinking that they had come to the school to protest. (As I said, he doesn't seem that subtle and cunning.) His stating the forest-folk's grievances does have a certain awkwardness about it, as if Coyote had given him instructions without going into the why's (note how he speaks when the teachers ask him why it took him so long to protest the shadow-man's death on the bridge). One thing that stands out is his accusation of Anthony Carver being the one behind the Tic-Toc Bird's death, based on the sweater found at the site. Naming a specific name, in fact, would be unnecessary; the sweater matches the school uniforms, meaning that who it actually belongs to is immaterial. But I think it likely that Coyote convinced Ysengrin that it was Anthony's sweater, while knowing somehow that it was really Annie's, in the hopes that it would prompt Annie to speak up and explain that it was hers. (And maybe also he thought that it'd be entertaining to have Ysengrin make himself look ridiculous in front of the Court; the General is a faithful servant of Coyote's, yes, but he has precisely the kind of qualities - such as a lack of a sense of humor - that make someone an irresistible target to a trickster.)
Reynardine comes out once Annie explains about it being her sweater, showing himself for the first time. Why? I think (as I've mentioned before) that he believes that the forest-folk are here to protest the consequences of her actions, particularly in light of his remarks at the end of Chapter Twelve. (He can't lie to Annie, so he must believe that the people of Gillitie Wood have been angered by Robot's intrusion.) Now that Annie's come to the attention of the emissaries, he'd want to distract them from her quickly; I think that his plan was to use his past history with Coyote and Ysengrin to draw their attention away from Annie, based on the loyalty that he's developed towards her.
But in so doing (again, according to my theory), Reynardine falls into Coyote's trap. I think that Coyote already suspects, correctly, that there's a link between Annie and Reynardine (such as the fact that she was at the bridge holding him in his doll form), and was planning on using it to flush him out of hiding. (It's noteworthy that Ysengrin does *not* include Robot's presence in the forest among his accusations. But I wonder whether, if Reynardine had not entered the room when he did, Ysengrin would have probably brought that up next. Coyote could easily have figured out from the incident at the bridge, if he'd been observing it, that Annie had past connections with Robot as well - and it would be like her to openly announce that she was the one who'd built him and sent him out across the bridge if Ysengrin claimed that Robot was sent out by the teachers as a deliberate act of war, to make certain that other people don't get blamed for her actions.)
If Reynardine's intention was to protect Annie, it backfired, for Coyote, of course, suspects that Annie is a major factor in Reynardine's refusal to leave the school. He proceeds to provoke the incident by sticking his nose up Annie's skirt, leading to her slapping him, Ysengrin flying into a rage at the sight of it (I doubt that he was coached here; Coyote knows Ysengrin well enough to know how he'd automatically respond to such a deed), and Reynardine coming to Annie's rescue. (Coyote's scheme could probably have also been fulfilled in another way - Reynardine immediately ploughing into Coyote for his impertinence. Coyote was probably expecting both possibilities.) Coyote knows now that Reynardine's connected to Annie, enough so that he'll come to her aid when she's in danger. Having learned what he needed to, he calls off Ysengrin's attack (doing so in a way to, again, publicly humiliate the General - meaning that he once more has the bonus of poking fun at a guy who's an obvious "trickster target").
Next, he whispers to Annie about how the people at the school can't be trusted and that she should meet him in the forest. Annie is, correctly, suspicious, but Coyote is probably still counting on her eventually coming out into the woods, particularly since there's a grain of truth in what he says about the Court. Why does he want her out there? My guess is that he sees her as the key to getting Reynardine out of the school; she needs to be somehow neutralized, for his ultimate goal to succeed.
Coyote then announces that he's going back to the forest, and asks Eglamore to escort him and Ysengrin back. (Is Coyote planning to, during the walk back, subtly influence Eglamore into doing things that could maneuver Annie into eventually forgetting her distrust of Coyote and accepting his offer?) He leaves behind the seeds that Ysengrin dropped in the fight, seeds that the teachers found very easily. I think that those seeds are a red herring on Coyote's part, to keep them focused on Ysengrin's mad hostility towards the school. Also, the fact that the ambassadors did such a seemingly poor job of stating their grievances (being easily sidetracked by Reynardine's presence, on the surface level), would lead many people to suspect that this was not the real purpose of their visit. Coyote doesn't want them realizing that he's after Reynardine, obviously. I think that he instructed Ysengrin to drop the seeds (probably telling him that it was for the purpose of infecting the school), so as to deceive the faculty into thinking that the embassy's true goal.
Succeeding pages and chapters may disprove much of this speculation. "Gunnerkrigg Court" is always full of surprises. But this is my current theory as to what's going on here, and I think that it does match the known facts.
As I've said before, I think that Coyote's real goal is to bring Reynardine back to Gillitie Wood. Why he wants his cousin back, I won't even try to guess. But I'd say that that appears to be his ends.
I find it likely that Coyote's first move was the meeting between Ysengrin and Robot that took place between Chapters One and Seven (and which was narrated in Chapter Twelve), leading to the fight at the bridge. (Though Ysengrin and the shadow-man did the actual work, I suspect that Coyote was behind it. Ysengrin doesn't seem subtle enough to have come up with the plan of duping Robot on his own. We know that he works for Coyote, and since the shadow-men were Coyote's creations, the one that possessed Robot could easily have been acting on Coyote's orders.) We know that Reynardine was Robot's target, and Reynardine's remarks in Chapter Fourteen indicate that the goal was to kidnap him.
With that scheme having failed, Coyote goes to Plan B. We don't know why it took him so long to put it into operation (Mr. Eglamore and the other members of the faculty are astonished that the forest-folk waited so long after the incident at the bridge); perhaps he had to wait until Ysengrin discovered the Tic-Toc Bird's remains and had more of a grievance to present to the school. But, despite the suspicions of both the teachers and Reynardine (see the ending of Chapter Twelve, where Reynardine thinks that the forest-folk are going to be angry about Annie sending Robot into Gillitie Wood), it seems that the "wrongs" done to the Wood by the Court (more accurately, by Annie, without the teaching staff's knowledge, and without her realizing the consequences) are just the cover for Coyte's real goal: to investigate Reynardine's situation further and find another means of getting him back to the forest.
I believe that Ysengrin was kept in the dark about Coyote's real plan, thinking that they had come to the school to protest. (As I said, he doesn't seem that subtle and cunning.) His stating the forest-folk's grievances does have a certain awkwardness about it, as if Coyote had given him instructions without going into the why's (note how he speaks when the teachers ask him why it took him so long to protest the shadow-man's death on the bridge). One thing that stands out is his accusation of Anthony Carver being the one behind the Tic-Toc Bird's death, based on the sweater found at the site. Naming a specific name, in fact, would be unnecessary; the sweater matches the school uniforms, meaning that who it actually belongs to is immaterial. But I think it likely that Coyote convinced Ysengrin that it was Anthony's sweater, while knowing somehow that it was really Annie's, in the hopes that it would prompt Annie to speak up and explain that it was hers. (And maybe also he thought that it'd be entertaining to have Ysengrin make himself look ridiculous in front of the Court; the General is a faithful servant of Coyote's, yes, but he has precisely the kind of qualities - such as a lack of a sense of humor - that make someone an irresistible target to a trickster.)
Reynardine comes out once Annie explains about it being her sweater, showing himself for the first time. Why? I think (as I've mentioned before) that he believes that the forest-folk are here to protest the consequences of her actions, particularly in light of his remarks at the end of Chapter Twelve. (He can't lie to Annie, so he must believe that the people of Gillitie Wood have been angered by Robot's intrusion.) Now that Annie's come to the attention of the emissaries, he'd want to distract them from her quickly; I think that his plan was to use his past history with Coyote and Ysengrin to draw their attention away from Annie, based on the loyalty that he's developed towards her.
But in so doing (again, according to my theory), Reynardine falls into Coyote's trap. I think that Coyote already suspects, correctly, that there's a link between Annie and Reynardine (such as the fact that she was at the bridge holding him in his doll form), and was planning on using it to flush him out of hiding. (It's noteworthy that Ysengrin does *not* include Robot's presence in the forest among his accusations. But I wonder whether, if Reynardine had not entered the room when he did, Ysengrin would have probably brought that up next. Coyote could easily have figured out from the incident at the bridge, if he'd been observing it, that Annie had past connections with Robot as well - and it would be like her to openly announce that she was the one who'd built him and sent him out across the bridge if Ysengrin claimed that Robot was sent out by the teachers as a deliberate act of war, to make certain that other people don't get blamed for her actions.)
If Reynardine's intention was to protect Annie, it backfired, for Coyote, of course, suspects that Annie is a major factor in Reynardine's refusal to leave the school. He proceeds to provoke the incident by sticking his nose up Annie's skirt, leading to her slapping him, Ysengrin flying into a rage at the sight of it (I doubt that he was coached here; Coyote knows Ysengrin well enough to know how he'd automatically respond to such a deed), and Reynardine coming to Annie's rescue. (Coyote's scheme could probably have also been fulfilled in another way - Reynardine immediately ploughing into Coyote for his impertinence. Coyote was probably expecting both possibilities.) Coyote knows now that Reynardine's connected to Annie, enough so that he'll come to her aid when she's in danger. Having learned what he needed to, he calls off Ysengrin's attack (doing so in a way to, again, publicly humiliate the General - meaning that he once more has the bonus of poking fun at a guy who's an obvious "trickster target").
Next, he whispers to Annie about how the people at the school can't be trusted and that she should meet him in the forest. Annie is, correctly, suspicious, but Coyote is probably still counting on her eventually coming out into the woods, particularly since there's a grain of truth in what he says about the Court. Why does he want her out there? My guess is that he sees her as the key to getting Reynardine out of the school; she needs to be somehow neutralized, for his ultimate goal to succeed.
Coyote then announces that he's going back to the forest, and asks Eglamore to escort him and Ysengrin back. (Is Coyote planning to, during the walk back, subtly influence Eglamore into doing things that could maneuver Annie into eventually forgetting her distrust of Coyote and accepting his offer?) He leaves behind the seeds that Ysengrin dropped in the fight, seeds that the teachers found very easily. I think that those seeds are a red herring on Coyote's part, to keep them focused on Ysengrin's mad hostility towards the school. Also, the fact that the ambassadors did such a seemingly poor job of stating their grievances (being easily sidetracked by Reynardine's presence, on the surface level), would lead many people to suspect that this was not the real purpose of their visit. Coyote doesn't want them realizing that he's after Reynardine, obviously. I think that he instructed Ysengrin to drop the seeds (probably telling him that it was for the purpose of infecting the school), so as to deceive the faculty into thinking that the embassy's true goal.
Succeeding pages and chapters may disprove much of this speculation. "Gunnerkrigg Court" is always full of surprises. But this is my current theory as to what's going on here, and I think that it does match the known facts.
