Two-week hiatus

[Aspen d'Grey]

ubiquitousdragon said:

mudmaniac said:

Indeed one of the lesser mysteries of the Court; Who is Basil in a timeshare with?

And also: who else has a timeshare on it?!

Isn't that last one the same question? 0.o

I would suppose though, that it would be someone else who likes labyrinths... maybe the fawn from Pan's Labyrinth? Which was a seriously depressing movie, for what it's worth.

[UbiquitousDragon]

aspengrey said:

ubiquitousdragon said:

And also: who else has a timeshare on it?!

Isn't that last one the same question? 0.o

I would suppose though, that it would be someone else who likes labyrinths... maybe the fawn from Pan's Labyrinth? Which was a seriously depressing movie, for what it's worth.

Oops! Sorry *blushes* And I don't even have the excuse of posting at nighttime ...

Pan? Hm, he's a far bit creepier than most of the Court's inhabitants, which in itself is quite an achievement! And, yea, it's a very depressing, as well as disturbing, movies.

[nikita]

ubiquitousdragon said:

Oops! Sorry *blushes* And I don't even have the excuse of posting at nighttime ...

You could have pretended to live in a different time zone ;D

[todd]

I suspect that the real reason why Basil hasn't shown up again is that Tom hasn't yet found anything else to do with him besides present a comical revisionist take on the Theseus myth.

[Don the Ninja]

ubiquitousdragon said:

mudmaniac said:

Indeed one of the lesser mysteries of the Court; Who is Basil in a timeshare with?

And also: who else has a timeshare on it?!

I freaking hope it's David Bowie; he doesn't even need to be playing The Goblin King from Labyrinth, it could just be Bowie hangin' out.

[Aspen d'Grey]

todd said:

I suspect that the real reason why Basil hasn't shown up again is that Tom hasn't yet found anything else to do with him besides present a comical revisionist take on the Theseus myth.

eh, yeah, that story arc was so early, it's possible that the overarching plot hadn't started to take hold, or, it's even possible that it hadn't been -written- yet! (Wow, that'd be a shocker, though, as far ahead as Tom hints he writes and draws.)

I suspect that it was more on the order of a nice humorous story to draw readers in to the world of Gunner's Krag.

[todd]

Of course, Chapter Two did further the "overarching plot" in two ways. It introduced Kat and had her become friends with Annie, and it revealed Annie's past (especially her mother's death) to us. Both very important moments.

(Not to mention that Tom's indicated that those paintings with the footprints leading into them are going to return.)

[Aspen d'Grey]

Aha, that's a good point. But Basil himself seemed to be a bit of a McGuffin. Take Robot for instance- he was in the first chapter, and although he hasn't been the 'main point' (as I see it, even in the one where Annie goes to rescue him) in any other chapter, he's certainly opened up many new arcs and helped to progress the story. Basil... not so much. Less so than Mort, even.


Edit: Oooooh, I'm a 'Gunner'. Nifteh.

[todd]

It occurred to me earlier today that a big advantage of Basil's account of the true story concerning himself and Theseus was that it helped set things up for Chapter Three. In Basil's story, we have a confrontation between a warrior-hero and a mythical creature, in which it turns out that the warrior-hero wasn't so noble and the mythical creature wasn't a villainous monster but a peaceful, gentle person being wrongfully persecuted. In "Reynardine", Annie initially believes that the "dragon" Reynardine is also being wrongfully imprisoned and mistreated and that the "dragon-slayer" is the villain, which results in her seeking Reynardine out and almost becoming possessed by him. Because we have only recently read about Theseus's bad behavior towards Basil, we are subsequently prepared to believe that the conflict between Reynardine and Sir Eglamore is a similar case, just as Annie does - so that we can side with her as she searches for the holding pen rather than seeing it as a case of foolishly walking into a trap, and share in her shock when Reynardine reveals his true nature and tries to possess her. This time around, in contrast to the revisionist take on Theseus and the Minotaur in the preceding chapter, the warrior-hero facing the mythical creature really is a hero, and saves Annie's life.

I don't know if Tom planned it that way; it might be just a coincidence. But I think that it's worth thinking about.

[Mezzaphor]

That is just too awesome to be a coincidence.

[Aspen d'Grey]

Countdown time: SIX DAYS UNTIL GUNNERKRIGG COURT YEAR TWO START!
woohoo!

[Anon]

I absolutely must jump in at this point and say that this type of storytelling is what I feel is missing from many people's works. Not everything has to be action and drama and suspense and mystery. Sometimes it's nice just to see the quiet moments between friends.

[Mezzaphor]

todd said:

It occurred to me earlier today that a big advantage of Basil's account of the true story concerning himself and Theseus was that it helped set things up for Chapter Three. In Basil's story, we have a confrontation between a warrior-hero and a mythical creature, in which it turns out that the warrior-hero wasn't so noble and the mythical creature wasn't a villainous monster but a peaceful, gentle person being wrongfully persecuted. In "Reynardine", Annie initially believes that the "dragon" Reynardine is also being wrongfully imprisoned and mistreated and that the "dragon-slayer" is the villain, which results in her seeking Reynardine out and almost becoming possessed by him. Because we have only recently read about Theseus's bad behavior towards Basil, we are subsequently prepared to believe that the conflict between Reynardine and Sir Eglamore is a similar case, just as Annie does - so that we can side with her as she searches for the holding pen rather than seeing it as a case of foolishly walking into a trap, and share in her shock when Reynardine reveals his true nature and tries to possess her. This time around, in contrast to the revisionist take on Theseus and the Minotaur in the preceding chapter, the warrior-hero facing the mythical creature really is a hero, and saves Annie's life.

I don't know if Tom planned it that way; it might be just a coincidence. But I think that it's worth thinking about.

I think that also ties in with the flashback in ch 9, where we see Annie talking with Muut and the other Guides. And the staff at Good Hope were completely in the dark about the Guides. In hindsight, we can see that the assumptions behind Annie's actions in the first three chapters (that she should give "monsters" the benefit of the doubt, and that the authority figures around her cannot help her) are both part of a pattern that started when she was six or seven.

And now those assumptions are smashing into a brick wall. It will be interesting to see how Annie ultimately makes sense of all this.

[todd]

Maybe it's a simple matter of learning to judge each mythical creature as a separate individual rather than as a group - in the same way that, say, just because Winsbury's a jerk, that doesn't mean that all boys are jerks. (Though I doubt that Annie holds to the latter opinion - not that she seems to know that many boys other than him.)

I hope that these assumption-challenging experiences will not do too much damage to the core of Annie's character as established from the start, however: the resourceful, unflappable little girl who meets anything bizarre or paranormal that she encounters in an utterly calm manner, and works out a plan for dealing with the situation, aided by a couple of friends (at most). That was probably the aspect of hers that drew us most to her from the start, and I think it would be a blow to the comic if she lost it.