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Post by pyradonis on May 26, 2020 14:35:02 GMT
You know, I just noticed that Eglamore should have seen the tic-tocs save Annie. Did he actually look away so quickly that he did not notice them? Should Mr. "Protector of the Court" not look where his pupil that just fell off the bridge lands? You know, to see if she perhaps lands in the water and can be saved? But no, he slowly walks back and apparently tells everyone she's dead.
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Post by arcuna on May 26, 2020 15:36:01 GMT
You know, I just noticed that Eglamore should have seen the tic-tocs save Annie. Did he actually look away so quickly that he did not notice them? Should Mr. "Protector of the Court" not look where his pupil that just fell off the bridge lands? You know, to see if she perhaps lands in the water and can be saved? But no, he slowly walks back and apparently tells everyone she's dead. Tom has mentioned before that he had trouble drawing the perspective of the Annan waters because of just how huge they are. I suspect that Annie was supposed to be far away enough that Kat couldn't easily see what happened, and that without any light sources besides those on top of the bridge, Eglamore may have just seen Annie falling off into darkness. As for the Tic Tocs, if they're just some mystery birds that like to hang out sometimes ( as seems to be the Court's opinion), maybe he didn't think much of them all flying down into the dark after he caused a commotion when he launched his sword thing at the possessed Robot.
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Post by pyradonis on May 26, 2020 16:34:49 GMT
You know, I just noticed that Eglamore should have seen the tic-tocs save Annie. Did he actually look away so quickly that he did not notice them? Should Mr. "Protector of the Court" not look where his pupil that just fell off the bridge lands? You know, to see if she perhaps lands in the water and can be saved? But no, he slowly walks back and apparently tells everyone she's dead. Tom has mentioned before that he had trouble drawing the perspective of the Annan waters because of just how huge they are. I suspect that Annie was supposed to be far away enough that Kat couldn't easily see what happened, and that without any light sources besides those on top of the bridge, Eglamore may have just seen Annie falling off into darkness. As for the Tic Tocs, if they're just some mystery birds that like to hang out sometimes ( as seems to be the Court's opinion), maybe he didn't think much of them all flying down into the dark after he caused a commotion when he launched his sword thing at the possessed Robot. Yes, that makes sense.
(What doesn't, however, is Anja and Donald allowing Kat to go down into the ravine alone. They must even have deactivated the alarm that should have gone off when she left school grounds. (The alarm was active when Annie left them earlier.))
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Post by wies on May 27, 2020 7:23:30 GMT
Perhaps the Donlans know more than we think?
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Post by arcuna on May 27, 2020 8:52:36 GMT
Perhaps the Donlans know more than we think? I was wondering that as well. I can imagine a scenario where the Court was convinced Annie died (who could ever survive a fall like that?), but that the Tic Toc relayed a message to Anja and Donald to convince them to let Kat go down and investigate. I have no evidence to back this up, but it would make their reason for allowing Kat's rescue more plausible.
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Post by speedwell on May 27, 2020 10:28:50 GMT
Cookies for everybody!
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Post by pyradonis on May 27, 2020 15:46:28 GMT
Perhaps the Donlans know more than we think? I was wondering that as well. I can imagine a scenario where the Court was convinced Annie died (who could ever survive a fall like that?), but that the Tic Toc relayed a message to Anja and Donald to convince them to let Kat go down and investigate. I have no evidence to back this up, but it would make their reason for allowing Kat's rescue more plausible. I always thought " Let them figure it out." referred only to the ancient robots. Who knows what else is there that those two let Kat and Annie figure out...
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Post by warrl on May 28, 2020 3:15:08 GMT
Yes, that makes sense. (What doesn't, however, is Anja and Donald allowing Kat to go down into the ravine alone. They must even have deactivated the alarm that should have gone off when she left school grounds. (The alarm was active when Annie left them earlier.))
Partial disagreement. Anja and Donald allowing Kat to go into the ravine alone makes sense IF (a) they were aware that Annie was alive - which they should have been because of Reynard still being bound, but that may have not occurred to them yet - and (b) Kat's antigravity device wasn't powerful enough to carry the vehicle, two kids, and an adult (or, alternatively, a sufficiently large vehicle for that load couldn't be made stable enough for all three to ride with just the one antigravity device and making another would take too long). An alternative explanation, of course, is that Kat simply didn't tell her parents what she planned to do once she had an antigravity vehicle. As for the alarm, it appeared to have been triggered when Annie stepped off the steps onto the ground. Kat on her antigravity vehicle did not do that, in fact she probably didn't step onto the steps at all. To use those steps she would have had to carry the vehicle through the Court, which would be fairly conspicuous; note that after she rescued Annie, the two of them flew over the Court to wherever they eventually landed - which is probably the same place Kat originally launched from. Thus, no need to disable the alarm.
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Post by Runningflame on May 28, 2020 3:51:51 GMT
Anja and Donald allowing Kat to go into the ravine alone makes sense IF (a) they were aware that Annie was alive - which they should have been because of Reynard still being bound, but that may have not occurred to them yet - and (b) Kat's antigravity device wasn't powerful enough to carry the vehicle, two kids, and an adult (or, alternatively, a sufficiently large vehicle for that load couldn't be made stable enough for all three to ride with just the one antigravity device and making another would take too long). Indeed, it seems that Kat made it too small for adults on purpose. If it was possible to make a larger one, then it seems foolish and dangerous to want to rescue Annie by herself rather than e.g. getting Eglamore to do it (travelling across the ravine at night, who knows what you'll encounter). Kat, being young and in the midst of strong emotions at the time, gets a pass for not thinking clearly. But again, that brings it back around to her parents. Maybe it's just another case where Tom forgot to include a character that says "Uh, I don't think that's such a good idea," at every juncture. Seems like she probably did. Her dad helped a little, and her mom made her take a scarf.
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Post by saardvark on May 28, 2020 9:30:15 GMT
Yes, that makes sense. (What doesn't, however, is Anja and Donald allowing Kat to go down into the ravine alone. They must even have deactivated the alarm that should have gone off when she left school grounds. (The alarm was active when Annie left them earlier.))
Partial disagreement. Anja and Donald allowing Kat to go into the ravine alone makes sense IF (a) they were aware that Annie was alive - which they should have been because of Reynard still being bound, but that may have not occurred to them yet - and (b) Kat's antigravity device wasn't powerful enough to carry the vehicle, two kids, and an adult (or, alternatively, a sufficiently large vehicle for that load couldn't be made stable enough for all three to ride with just the one antigravity device and making another would take too long). An alternative explanation, of course, is that Kat simply didn't tell her parents what she planned to do once she had an antigravity vehicle. As for the alarm, it appeared to have been triggered when Annie stepped off the steps onto the ground. Kat on her antigravity vehicle did not do that, in fact she probably didn't step onto the steps at all. To use those steps she would have had to carry the vehicle through the Court, which would be fairly conspicuous; note that after she rescued Annie, the two of them flew over the Court to wherever they eventually landed - which is probably the same place Kat originally launched from. Thus, no need to disable the alarm. a reasonable explanation. Though it would be surprising if the Court didn't also monitor its airspace as well; there are flying forest creatures after all, and its even noted somewhere that the Court dislikes arial surviellance, and thus limits overflights. Found it: www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1016Maybe the Court, for whatever reason, was curious if Kat could actually *do* it, and so let it happen....
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Post by pyradonis on May 28, 2020 9:44:58 GMT
Furthermore, the Court itself is not dependent on Kat's vehicle to get someone down into the ravine and back up together with Annie. Eglamore can make mad jumps and breakfalls. Jumping down into the ravine and getting back up with Annie wouldn't have been a problem. Between themselves, Anja and Donald have access to a whole array of magitech which would have helped them.
The only problem I can think of is that she was on the Forest's side, and letting Eglamore go there might have lead to escalating hostilities. It's easier to explain that a kid has run away. Wait, there might be another reason yet. The Court leadership might not have known exactly what was up with Jeanne, but they knew something deadly was down there, and they didn't want to risk any of their valuable assets. Which would of course leave open the question why Anja and Donald would let Kat go alone. And Anja was not willing to lend any further support to a rescue mission for her best friend's daughter than making Kat take a scarf? Hard to believe, especially considering the stuff those two were up to as children. Or that Donald had no problem breaking into a medical facility and stealing supplies as soon as he got a message from his friend that he needed the stuff.
On the other hand, they seemingly did not have a problem letting Kat stay in a destroyed war zone after Loup's attack either. Those two must know more about Kat's abilities than they let on. Or they were secretly watching, ready to help anytime.
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Post by Jelly Jellybean on May 28, 2020 11:00:15 GMT
Maybe the Court wanted to stop Kat, but a mysterious multi-dimensional entity made it clear that they should not interfere. Time travel shenanigans provide plausible solutions to contradictions in a story.
I am kind of sad because time travel shenanigans often are where a story goes off the rails / jumps the shark / insert preferred metaphor. I think Tom is well aware of this problem and would avoid revealing the time travel shenanigans until the final climax of the story. The end of the story follow its climax.
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Post by pyradonis on May 28, 2020 12:02:36 GMT
Maybe the Court wanted to stop Kat, but a mysterious multi-dimensional entity made it clear that they should not interfere. Time travel shenanigans provide plausible solutions to contradictions in a story.
I am kind of sad because time travel shenanigans often are where a story goes off the rails / jumps the shark / insert preferred metaphor. I think Tom is well aware of this problem and would avoid revealing the time travel shenanigans until the final climax of the story. The end of the story follow its climax. Agree, I like the time travel aspect so far, because it feels organic and built up from the start, but authors in the past have all too often fallen into the trap of just using it to lazily explain every mystery away (why am I suddenly thinking of the second season of Star Trek: Discovery...?). Why did A, B and C happen? I made it happen via time travel. Why did you do it? Because I had seen it happen, so I made sure it had to happen. Buh... However I trust Tom to know better.
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Post by todd on May 28, 2020 12:55:54 GMT
I think it was simply a matter of "Tom wanted Kat to come to Annie's rescue on her own, and never mind how realistic that would have been".
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Post by pyradonis on May 28, 2020 14:28:48 GMT
I think it was simply a matter of "Tom wanted Kat to come to Annie's rescue on her own, and never mind how realistic that would have been". Then why have her (highly competent) parents help her at all? Why not just have Kat do it in secret (because she did not want to wait for the Court bureaucrats to finally greenlight a rescue mission, for example)?
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Post by jda on May 30, 2020 2:44:12 GMT
Resuming Kat's goddes power over time, on Vonnegut's words:
"“It was a movie about American bombers in World War II and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this: American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.
The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers , and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans though and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.
When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
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Post by saardvark on May 30, 2020 14:18:05 GMT
Resuming Kat's goddes power over time, on Vonnegut's words: "“It was a movie about American bombers in World War II and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this: American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation. The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers , and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans though and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new. When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five great book
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Post by wies on May 30, 2020 14:34:21 GMT
Reminds me of what Benjamin's Angel of History would like to do.
“This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.”
- Walter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History"
Looks like Kat will have it easier than this angel, at least.
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Post by warrl on May 31, 2020 18:55:52 GMT
An alternative explanation, of course, is that Kat simply didn't tell her parents what she planned to do once she had an antigravity vehicle. Seems like she probably did. Her dad helped a little, and her mom made her take a scarf. Anja would provide the scarf for Kat to wear while flying around - which is the only sensible thing to expect her to do with a newly-built flying vehicle. And doesn't indicate whether Anja knew *where* Kat intended to fly it. And come to think of it, building a flying vehicle is a perfectly reasonable thing to expect a kid to do with an anti-gravity device. (Even if the kid is in their 80s...) And frenetically diving into a complex project is a common way of trying to control strong emotions. (I hope they did some light testing indoors before taking that flying vehicle outside - enough to verify that it could come *down* in a controlled manner. And maybe to check how long its power supply was good for.)
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Post by pyradonis on Jun 1, 2020 10:39:32 GMT
Seems like she probably did. Her dad helped a little, and her mom made her take a scarf. Anja would provide the scarf for Kat to wear while flying around - which is the only sensible thing to expect her to do with a newly-built flying vehicle. And doesn't indicate whether Anja knew *where* Kat intended to fly it. And come to think of it, building a flying vehicle is a perfectly reasonable thing to expect a kid to do with an anti-gravity device. (Even if the kid is in their 80s...) And frenetically diving into a complex project is a common way of trying to control strong emotions. (I hope they did some light testing indoors before taking that flying vehicle outside - enough to verify that it could come *down* in a controlled manner. And maybe to check how long its power supply was good for.) "I told them I was going to go down there and find you." Right on the panel where she is shown building the vehicle.
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Post by gpvos on Jun 4, 2020 17:37:27 GMT
This comic definitely adheres to maxim 14.
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Post by Runningflame on Jun 4, 2020 21:00:23 GMT
This comic definitely adheres to maxim 14. Indeed! That's one of several passing ideas for panel edits I've had over the past week or two. (Hm, looks like chapter 8 serves to illustrate maxims 4 and 11.)
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Post by Daedalus on Aug 19, 2023 10:34:50 GMT
Man, this thread is a blast from the past. Ten years ago...
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Post by Señor Goose on Sept 17, 2023 19:48:49 GMT
Man, this thread is a blast from the past. Ten years ago... Feels weird seeing all the stuff we speculated about back then come into the story one way or another
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Post by TBeholder on Sept 19, 2023 6:42:15 GMT
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