[293] Story Discussion - Be quiet

[Mezzaphor]

Mind: boggled.

[Count Casimir]

Oh dear. That is VERY uncharacteristic. What's going on? Did Coyote do something to her?

Time to solve a mystery!

[Mezzaphor]

Maybe it was an honest mistake that Annie never bothered to correct. Or maybe Annie's more morally ambiguous than we previously thought. She's already shown that she won't let a little thing like the rules get in the way of doing what she feels is right; how exactly does she define right?

Rereading chapter 7, I noticed that Tom never showed Annie giving the picture back. So Annie may have had it since then.

And in his current form, it's hard to tell if Rey is curious or just being snarky.

[Myrani]

Hmm... if I were her, I might be pulling out that picture merely as a visual aid to speculate more on past relationships. I'm certain Annie has picked up on all those mostly-inadvertent clues Eglamore's been dropping, and then of course any suspicions she'd have would only get reinforced by that one (mistaken) comment of Coyote's. Also makes me wonder what Anthony's feelings on the subject would be...

Okay, well, besides all that, Coyote knew her mum, at least well enough to toss out assumptions on Annie's parentage. And with Coyote's invitation to come and visit, maybe Annie's wondering just how well Surma and Coyote knew each other.

(wanders off speculating)

[Goatmon]

mezzaphor said:

Rereading chapter 7, I noticed that Tom never showed Annie giving the picture back. So Annie may have had it since then.

That sounds about right. Maybe she just felt an urge to keep it, and decided not to do the honest thing for once. No one's perfect; It's kind of nice to see Annie showing a flaw for a change.

[fjodor]

As long as everybody seems to know more about her mum than Annie, I think she has at least a right to that picture.

I hope she remember to tell Rey when he is allowed to speak again. Last time she forgot, it caused problems.

[Ed130]

Apart from her memories when have we seen Annie with anything from her mother, she doesn't have a picture (or a knife) from Surma or anything. She died two months before the first episode and it is highly likely that Annie still hasn't gotten over it.

[todd]

Since Annie's shown taking the photograph out of a folder that she's just removed from her wardrobe, I'd say that the "held onto it since Chapter Seven" scenario is most likely (more likely, certainly, than "swiped it while at the Donlans earlier in the chapter").

The big question is what she's keeping it for. The last link that she has to her parents, or is she (as people here have suggested) using it to help figure out the connections that they had to the others in the picture?

This ties in with another question: why does it take Eglamore and the Donlans so long to tell Annie that they'd known her parents when they were at school together? Maybe they just never had the opportunity to tell her that before Chapter Seven (it's the first time that we see them sitting down and chatting outside of a classroom) - or maybe there's a darker reason. Possibly even they're trying to keep her from finding out something concerning Surma, involving her friendship with Reynardine - maybe even (given that she was linked to a demon who goes about possessing people and killing them in the process) that she had a serious dark side herself that she'd kept from Annie all these years.

Well, we'll probably have the answers in time.

[Mezzaphor]

Maybe Eggers and the Donlans didn't tell Annie because they felt it wasn't their place to do so. They were thinking that if Anthony hadn't told his daughter about his old friends, then he didn't want her to know. And then upon discovering that Anthony disappeared, they decided Annie needed to know.

[Boksha]

mezzaphor said:

Or maybe Annie's more morally ambiguous than we previously thought.

I never considered Annie to be completely honest in everything she does. She mostly just seems very curious. Meddlesome even.

[Goatmon]

fjodor said:

As long as everybody seems to know more about her mum than Annie, I think she has at least a right to that picture.

I hope she remember to tell Rey when he is allowed to speak again. Last time she forgot, it caused problems.

Last time she forgot it, she had told him not to talk until she gave him permission.

[Mezzaphor]

If Annie is hurting for some connection to her parents, that makes the theft more understandable, but I don't think it justifies it.

Considering how reserved Annie is, a "Be quiet" from her is equivalent to a "Shut up" from someone else. Either that comment really got under her skin, or Annie is in no mood to be accused of stealing by a body-snatching demon.

And the fact that she tells Rey to be quiet rather than explaining it suggests that Annie is well aware that she committed theft. By the way: check out panel three. Cognitive dissonance, anyone?

[todd]

One question that hasn't been brought up here yet (so far as I can tell) is: why is Annie taking the photograph out now? My guess is that it has something to do with the talk about Surma at the meeting earlier - including the part about how she and Eglamore had once been an item. (While we learned about that back in Chapter Seven, it was during the period that Annie was off-stage, after she'd left the Donlans'. This is the first opportunity that she's had to learn about it.) Annie's probably decided to have another look at the photograph after learning that new piece of information.

I find it of interest that Tom should call attention (via Reynardine, and without Annie denying it) that she should have gotten the photograph through such means. Clearly such a revelation is going to affect our perception of the protagonist, and I think it safe to assume that Tom knows that. Maybe informing us that Annie stole the photograph is a way of preparing us for her character taking a darker turn in the chapters to come.

[Mezzaphor]

In the comments section, notheory posted an interesting theory:

If Antimony is as gifted a medium as her mother obviously was (as the Court's liaison to the Gillitie), it could be that Antimony is going to attempt something like trying to find or communicate with her mother. My speculation is that such a desire could be a justification for the theft of such an object.

The fact that Annie's dark side is getting darker, and that Tom's bringing that to the forefront in today's comic, means it's not going to get swept under the rug, I think. Annie will have to confront it.

An odd thought: If Rey hadn't mentioned theft, how long would it have taken us to notice? I guess most of us would have assumed that Annie asked for the picture sometime off-screen.

[todd]

mezzaphor said:

The fact that Annie's dark side is getting darker, and that Tom's bringing that to the forefront in today's comic, means it's not going to get swept under the rug, I think. Annie will have to confront it.

An odd thought: If Rey hadn't mentioned theft, how long would it have taken us to notice? I guess most of us would have assumed that Annie asked for the picture sometime off-screen.

I doubt that Annie stole the photograph for the purpose of communicating with her mother (for one thing, the evidence is that she took it back in Chapter Seven - why would she wait until Chapter Fourteen to try it?). More likely, it's simply for the sentimental value - something for her to look at.

And that's a good point about the "odd thought" - and why I think it's significant that Tom has Reynardine ask that. Not to mention that he frames the question in such a way as to make Annie's act all the more disturbing. He refers to the Donlans in their role as Kat's parents, rather than as faculty members for a mysterious and slightly sinister boarding school. I don't think that it was an accident; Tom's so far shown himself to be too skilled a writer for that. (The one exception being maybe when he underestimated the likely response to the "monster trucks and electric guitars" joke.)

[Monkey Roids]

Damn she puts me to shame. I was never that organised in year 7; I had no folder .

And just as a random piece of information, my house was Stivichall.

[Bobbey]

Maybe we'll finaly find out who exactly is the young woman on the bottom right side of the picture, or was that bit of information already settled?

[Mezzaphor]

Not at all. The two most popular theories (that she's Ms. Jones; that she's related to Gamma) were both shot down by Tom.

[Count Casimir]

Maybe she's somehow related to Parley? Or Janet and Headmaster?

[todd]

Maybe she died during her time at school, and her death is somehow associated with Reynardine (and Surma as well).

I'm not surprised that it turns out that she's not related to Gamma. I don't think that Zimmy and Gamma are likely to be a major part of the "main thread" of "Gunnerkrigg Court"; they seem more like guest stars whose lives might intersect with those of Annie and the people about her on occasion, but whose story is ultimately independent of Gunnerkrigg's. (That's the impression that I got from Chapter Eleven, at any rate.)

[Mezzaphor]

The fact that Zimmy was the one to reveal Reynardine's hiding place, that Rey was terrified of her and her science fair project, and that she was able to see the cut that the sword girl gave to Annie, suggests to me that Zimmy is connected (and, by way of Zimmy, Gamma is also connected). Even if Zimmy's personal story arc is resolved at a different time than Annie's and the Court's (which I agree is likely), she'll probably play an important role in their resolution.

[thekatiest]

Actually, this was one of the most touching things I've seen. I've been in Annie's shoes: I stole my mom's ONLY picture of my father and still take it out from time to time. I wouldn't normally do that, but it was my only connection to him.

Maybe this isn't the first time Annie has looked at the photo - just the first time we've seen it. I don't fault her at all for taking it. She's dealing with a lot of emotional stress over her parents, and doesn't seem to have anyone who will talk to her about it. The "be quiet" could be read: "yes, I feel guilty but justified."

I love how Tom is filling out her character. She seems so much more human and vulnerable.

[todd]

mezzaphor said:

The fact that Zimmy was the one to reveal Reynardine's hiding place, that Rey was terrified of her and her science fair project, and that she was able to see the cut that the sword girl gave to Annie, suggests to me that Zimmy is connected (and, by way of Zimmy, Gamma is also connected). Even if Zimmy's personal story arc is resolved at a different time than Annie's and the Court's (which I agree is likely), she'll probably play an important role in their resolution.

Good points. I was thinking mainly in terms of the fact that "Dobranoc, Gamma" seemed almost independent of the Gunnerkrigg elements (the focus was on how Zimmy and Gamma met in Birmingham, their unusual nature and interaction, and the impact that the rainstorm - which, so far as we can tell, had nothing to do with the strangeness at Gunnerkrigg - had on Zimmy), and of Tom's mention that he'd come up with Zimmy and Gamma before coming up with "Gunnerkrigg Court" (they'd even appeared in a Deviant Art piece that he'd done prior to "Gunnerkrigg Court") - not to mention his intent also of doing a spin-off involving them, at some later date, entitled "Alphabet Soup". That led me to wonder whether their presence in the webcomic might be a bit like, say, Tristram and Iseult's presence in the Arthurian legend (originally, they weren't connected to the stories about Arthur and his knights at all), or like Tom Bombadil's presence in "The Lord of the Rings" (Tolkien came up with Bombadil long before he began writing "The Lord of the Rings", and included him when he needed some adventures for Frodo on the journey to Rivendell). On the other hand, they are indeed (as you pointed out) more fully integrated with the main story in Chapter Five, where they're introduced. It's difficult to be certain when they've only appeared in two chapters so far, just what their overall function is and how much they're connected with the main thread.

Side-note: so far, the Donlans don't seem to have noticed that their photograph's gone missing. Maybe they've had so much on their minds lately that they didn't realize that they never got it back (assuming that Annie stole it in Chapter Seven - as the evidence so far suggests).