[373]The heart of Gillitie.

[edzepp]

You're blowing my mind, Tom.

[Mezzaphor]

A-frickin-mazing.

Do the crossed blades imply that there was violence between the two sides? They don't look like the blades that Parley and the other boy are using.

[popo]

Is that a dang ol' winged horse?

[rc5]

This page has the coolest panelling ever!
I love it. =D

[edzepp]

This new info has got me thinking about Aly and his parents. Now, we've all heard of this test that you have to complete to get a new body. In that case, Aly and his parents all turned into birds and went to live in Gillitie. (Aly, of course not necessarily of his own will.) Does anyone think that that Human-to-animal transformation is a grudging concession by Gillitie wood to that old relationship that Humans and the creatures of Gillitie used to share? Like, if you want to live in Gillitie, you have to complete the test and become an animal first before they let you in?

That doesn't quite explain Fairies turning into humans and what not, and obviously we don't know the scope of possible transformation combinations, or even how widespread this practice is, but it's an interesting proposition.

[Ed130]

So the quest for knowledge created the gulf between the court and wood.

Isn't the figure beside the human wearing the conical hat Coyote?

[Tenjen]

This often occurs in real life. You'll often find certain schools punishing students who question the very foundations of the subjects they teach.

The inhabitants of the woods must have found it very insulting that the humans questioned what they themselves accepted totally. Not to mention dare to harness this knowledge into [what the inhabitants would have seen as] abberations. Mockings of nature.

I think coyote is the fellow with his back facing us.

Those wolf life spirits with their tendrils interest me greatly.

Do you think miss valkyrie "cut your face open" sunshine was one of the early humans there?

[zingbat]

This history of the court/forest separation reminds me just a bit of the banishment-from-eden story, complete with off-limits knowledge and transition into a world separated from nature. Although I guess that the Bible isn't the only place you see stories of unfortunate consequences resulting from people investigating things that other people (or gods, I suppose) don't want them to investigate, so maybe I'm jumping to conclusions in thinking immediately of the bible. You could even make a case for this being analogous to the moves made by our ancestors from hunting & gathering to living in centralized civilizations.

So, I guess what this comment boils down to is "Hey! There might be a theme or metaphor here! Maybe there's more to this page than meets the eye!"
Which, given the way this comic is written, isn't much of a surprise. I suppose it's sort of like picking up a book and going, "I say! There are *words* in here!"

Oh well.

[edzepp]

Happens. I like your metaphor, though. There's nothing to suggest that humans weren't allowed to investigate, in this case, but those investigations probably went too far for comfort.

[nikita]

So "medium" just means something like "ambassador" and not some cool psycho stuff?

[todd]

The word "medium" is derived from the Latin word "medius", meaning "middle" - so a medium (such as Annie) would indeed be an appropriate person to stand between Gunnerkrigg and Gillitie Wood, helping to resolve their conflicts. (And it ties in with Jones stating that she teaches "mediation".) A new interpretation of an old concept, from an etymological perspective.

I'd also thought that might be a winged horse in the picture, but the "wings" might actually be other inhabitants of the wood. It's difficult to tell.

[Boksha]

I like how the final panel of this comic also takes us back to the very first panel of Gunnerkrigg Court. Nifty.

[Yin]

I think the 'winged horse' is actually a horse and what appears to be someone with Black Orchid-style hair (if you've ever read it) and goat-ish legs, or at least hoofed legs.

[penguinfactory]

Artwork-wise, I think this is m favourite age so far.

Some interesting bits of information were dropped here:

- The Court "took root"? That makes it sound as if the entire school is growing pretty much at random, rather than being planned, which would explain why there are robot parrots running around the place that even the staff don't understand.

- What were the humans seeking refuge from?

- Jones might say that the rift between the forest and the humans grew because of the human's skepticism, but I wonder if that's true (Coyote did tell Annies not to trust anyone). I wouldn't be surprised if Coyote tells her a different story- maybe the Court began to grow out of control, or maybe the humans started to take more than their share of the forest.

[tonie]

Mmmh, beautiful page design, and some very satisfying explanations! Agree with shovel18 on biblical references to original sin/tree of knowledge... though there is a history before this situation, as "a group of humans were offered refuge by the creatures of the forest"... refuge from what?

[Count Casimir]

penguinfactory: Sounds like the TicTocs were the ones who "took root" to me.

On another note, today's page is AMAZING.

Also, between the horse and canine-who-could-be-Coyote, I think I see some faeries!

[mudmaniac]

So it's true then, the court expanding outwards from a point in the wood. the question now, did the court stop expanding when it reached the annan waters, or were the waters created to stop the court.

[nikita]

penguinfactory said:

That makes it sound as if the entire school is growing pretty much at random, rather than being planned, which would explain why there are robot parrots running around the place that even the staff don't understand.

At least here in the "old world", citys have never been planned. The cities we have in Europe were founded in the middle ages and grew quite organically from the centre outwards. There was some planning, but it can be called organic growth - at least compared with the US or Canada where streets and farmland are aligned with the lines of longitude.


I think this one would have been the better cover for the book. It's really cool.

[AluK]

Yeah, there are certainly a few fae. And some kind of imp on the horse's back, also.

The page brought to mind mind the Court's name. I mean, court is usually used to describe decision-making assembly, but it also means a few other things. Wiki defines a noble court as an extended household centered on a patron whose rule may govern law or be governed by it. Court is also a sort of open-air gardens, enclosed by a building, which were used for meetings (from which derives the more usual meaning, btw).

[dragonmage06]

hmm, does this mean that the Court "assimilated" some of the forest or did they just split it up? If it's the former, have they continued to expand into the forest and if it's the latter, how big is Gillite Forest? I love the way you've presented this, though. It's very dynamic and interesting.

[starkruzr]

This is an AWESOME update.

Note that all of this has been hinted at or implied before, but now it's being made plain to us.

Also, apropos of nothing, screw Gillitie's anti-rational BS.

[pulvissolaris]

starkruzr said:

Also, apropos of nothing, screw Gillitie's anti-rational BS.

Seconded. In the eternal war of science vs. nature, I am firmly on science's side, swinging my nuclear-powered chainsaw.

[gdwarf]

penguinfactory said:

- What were the humans seeking refuge from?

Indeed, I'm wondering that myself.

- Jones might say that the rift between the forest and the humans grew because of the human's skepticism, but I wonder if that's true (Coyote did tell Annies not to trust anyone). I wouldn't be surprised if Coyote tells her a different story- maybe the Court began to grow out of control, or maybe the humans started to take more than their share of the forest.

Not skepticism, curiosity. It is very hard to live somewhere and not try and figure out how everything around you works, so I empathize with the inquisitive humans.

[Mezzaphor]

It would appear that, in the tech vs. nature divide, Gunnerkrigg itself is the middle ground between two extremes.

On the one hand, you have the so-called scientific view of the world at large (the view that Jones accused Anthony Carver of holding to), which denies the existence of those facts that its worldview cannot accommodate. On the other hand, there's the Ethereal Tenet of the forest folk, which accepts the mysterious and makes no effort to understand it.

In between is the Court, which accepts the existence of the unknown, while actively plumbing its depths and seeking to understand it.

[Boksha]

mezzaphor said:

On the other hand, there's the Ethereal Tenet of the forest folk, which accepts the mysterious and makes no effort to understand it.

Or, more accurately, loathes any attempt to do so, or at least any technological progress. (we've as far as I remember not got a clear answer as to whether for example the Donlan's "magic" belongs in that category)

[todd]

boksha said:

I like how the final panel of this comic also takes us back to the very first panel of Gunnerkrigg Court. Nifty.

Looking at the first page of "Gunnerkrigg Court" after looking at this page showed me just how much better Tom's become at drawing Annie. That's real progress.

[zingbat]

I wouldn't say that science "denies facts that it can't accommodate" so much as it offers worldly explanations of phenomena that can seem otherworldly or supernatural. If scientists completely refused to acknowledge facts that didn't seem to fit a hypothesis, there would never be any progress made or knowledge gained. The catch is that any fresh hypotheses or ideas have to be based on solid evidence, observation and reasoning. And while it would be a lot more interesting if unidentified flying lights in the sky were actually alien spaceships, it's much more likely that they're caused by something a little closer to home.

pulvissolaris said:

Seconded. In the eternal war of science vs. nature, I am firmly on science's side, swinging my nuclear-powered chainsaw.

You know, it's people like you who provide the best argument against scientific progress
(I'm just kidding. My giant mutant tortoises with shell-mounted rockets and I fully support scientific chainsaws, nuclear or otherwise. Rock.

[Mezzaphor]

shovel18 said:

I wouldn't say that science "denies facts that it can't accommodate" so much as it offers worldly explanations of phenomena that can seem otherworldly or supernatural.

That's why I specified the "so-called scientific view". Members of the staff at Gunnerkrigg are engaging in science, while members of the public are either ignorant or burying their head in the sand.

[Tenjen]

What mezz refers to is that there are extreme values on both sides, that arent supported and present as a whole but still quite present amongst certain members.

Gunnerkrigg has taken the middle ground with its mediums who uphold peace or at least stability between them.

[Goatmon]

Ohhh I'm loving the new page, Tom.

The art is simply amazing. <3