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Post by Jelly Jellybean on Jul 31, 2015 11:16:14 GMT
For Tony, saying "their blasted Omega device" is probably as close to an emotional as Tony can get.
My guess is the Omega device is the bone laser thing we saw in Divine. An etheric device meant to end, cut, or drain etheric connections. Further speculating that Tony hates it because it didn't save Surma and his attempt to use it on Annie cost him his hand and future as a surgeon. An etheric device that is beyond Tony's control. The "foolishness" he referred to during the dinner at the Donlans.
I also think the Omega device is not some grand thing meant to create a god. Mostly because I can't see the Court letting Tony take such a grand thing out of the Court to Good Hope Hospital. And what ever the etheric power stations are powering, it needs the ether that exists in the Court and probably won't work outside the Court.
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Post by Reynaerde on Jul 31, 2015 11:27:14 GMT
Leaving off the topic of Tony's parenting skills.. "They had me out there..." Good Hope? "Their blasted Omega device..." The arrow that was used to make the sacrifice and keeps Jeanne trapped? "So the Court knew you were there the whole time?" The Court knew? Did that include any of Annie's teachers? Things a getting very interesting. Good Hope yeah, or somewhere else. He left Good Hope same time as Annie, didn't he? We have no clue where he was in the past 3 years. I don't think Omega is the arrow. Not sure if the current court researches the arrow at all, it's more Annie's little project. More likely related to Surma's pregnancy, or to capturing the aether, or both. And I'm not sure any of the teachers knew. We have hardly met anyone from the courts inner circle. It certainly doesn't include the Donlans. I do wonder were Jones fits into all this. Not related to the topic at hand, but I seriously wonder about her position at the court. Would she know more about the Omega device? |
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Post by gwydion on Jul 31, 2015 11:44:57 GMT
Well this is getting interesting.... I think that Tony isn't the villain, he might be, I know I'm going to get hate for this, a good guy. After rereading the chapters since Annie came back from the Forest, the court seems to manipulating her in staying with the Court area. Annie may have pushed her luck with going to the forest too many times, and so they brought in Tony to keep her under thumb. However. Since tony has mentioned the court being involved or at least have a vested interest in monitoring Surma's pregnancy (This is slight speculation) then his attempts to experiment with Annie could be simply fighting back against the court. I can't really explain his actions towards his daughter, but it might be a form of social detachment and therefore he would have difficulty in knowing the social graces of telling her to play along because he is being watched, or just not knowing how to deal with other people well. In short he might be fighting sabotage with sabotage. I think you're giving him a bit too much credit here. The court was keeping him busy sure, but that still doesn't explain his actions since he came back. I assume we'll find out more soon though. Yeah your right there is a lot of unexplained territory, and his actions do need to be explained in my view. I'm just trying to take an alternate view on him just because I think there is something more then just bad guy going on with him. Anyway it going to be a good reveal to say the least. |
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Post by Daedalus on Jul 31, 2015 12:44:10 GMT
Hmmmm. So we've gotten a Siddell Special: confirming that one of the innumerable fan theories is right, but getting no info about which one. We shall see what and how exactly research was done soon enough...I hope.
Is the answer to another major question within sight?
I find it entertaining that Tony is getting all cocky about having scanned for all of the bugs, yet Annie can watch just fine. This may be because he didn't expect Donnie to bring a spying device with him, but I prefer to think that he's just totally blind to Etheric spying tools, and that the Court has been watching him this whole time.
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Post by justcurious on Jul 31, 2015 13:19:02 GMT
"Their blasted Omega device..." The arrow that was used to make the sacrifice and keeps Jeanne trapped? The court has deliberately forgotten about Jeanne and what they did to her. |
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Post by rafk on Jul 31, 2015 13:45:11 GMT
Annie, don't you DARE interrupt. I don't care if he mentions your mother, her pregnancy, your birth, anything - we NEED this exposition.
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Post by calpal on Jul 31, 2015 13:46:31 GMT
Well, it appears Mr Carver is a little more complex than we thought. Even if he was trying to save Annie, though, he's still approaching this entirely the wrong way. I'm sorry, but that kind of behaviour towards one's own offspring is unacceptable. Couldn't he have let her know that he was going to be away for a long time? Couldn't he have told her before he came back? And that scene in the classroom - totally unnecessary. Might I point out that Margo also appeared to be wearing some kind of make-up? He singled Annie out on purpose. If severing the fire spirit requires this - emotional abuse, isolation from her peers, dissociation so bad she literally cuts her soul out - then this method isn't a good one and a new one needs to be found. If the Court was involved in this it should've been blocked on ethical grounds. Of course, the Court doesn't care much for that. And if those actions were all Anthony? Well, he needs to have Annie taken away from him. (Can wolf-trees or fox demons legally adopt part-human children?) Also. Omega Device? We can assume it's something etheric. And something important. Tony refers to it as "blasted", meaning he doesn't like it for some reason. My guess is he went along with what the Court was doing to save Surma, which while noble still doesn't improve my opinion of him. The Court doesn't want Anthony talking about it to anyone, even to people who know what it is. My guess? Omega means end. It's the Court's "end-game" - the completion of their attempt to become god. And at some point, Annie and Kat are going to take a closer look at it - which could have an interesting effect on Kat. Well, as we all famously remember from Fallout 3, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." Definitely an end-game device. Beyond all that, though, I wouldn't be able to speculate how it will make them achieve their endeavour to become Gods, though my only prediction thus far: Kat is NOT, nor will ever be involved, in the Court plans because, other than Paz, no one else is aware that Kat has any etheric capacities or, at the very least / more importantly, doesn't believe that she does (which actually may have more of an impact on Kat's powers than anything else, if we are to believe what Coyote says about man in the Great Secret. Robots still have no means of connecting with the ether, at least none that I have seen yet). Kat will be the wild card that no one sees coming from a mile away. |
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Post by ctso74 on Jul 31, 2015 13:48:32 GMT
For Tony, saying "their blasted Omega device" is probably as close to an emotional as Tony can get. My guess is the Omega device is the bone laser thing we saw in Divine. An etheric device meant to end, cut, or drain etheric connections. Further speculating that Tony hates it because it didn't save Surma and his attempt to use it on Annie cost him his hand and future as a surgeon. An etheric device that is beyond Tony's control. The "foolishness" he referred to during the dinner at the Donlans. I also think the Omega device is not some grand thing meant to create a god. Mostly because I can't see the Court letting Tony take such a grand thing out of the Court to Good Hope Hospital. And what ever the etheric power stations are powering, it needs the ether that exists in the Court and probably won't work outside the Court. This, and a little wildspec along the same path. What if the Seed Bismuth is still going? What if they don't know how to stop it, and the Omega Device is their bid to do so? Instead of collecting of Etheric energy to help the Court grow, they could be collecting energy to keep it contained, making them quasi-"good guys". Their interest in Zimmy could be about having a place (Zimmyverse) for it to grow into. What if it already has, and that's part of Zimmy's problem? Coyote making the river may not have been aggressive or manipulative, but an attempt to stop it from pushing into the Forest. The cooler question is whether Omega was made by the Court or is a discovered device. I'm hoping for the later. Whether "evil-in-a-can" or a Precursor device, I like how Tom spins World Mythology into his story. |
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Post by calpal on Jul 31, 2015 13:53:10 GMT
For Tony, saying "their blasted Omega device" is probably as close to an emotional as Tony can get. My guess is the Omega device is the bone laser thing we saw in Divine. An etheric device meant to end, cut, or drain etheric connections. Further speculating that Tony hates it because it didn't save Surma and his attempt to use it on Annie cost him his hand and future as a surgeon. An etheric device that is beyond Tony's control. The "foolishness" he referred to during the dinner at the Donlans. I also think the Omega device is not some grand thing meant to create a god. Mostly because I can't see the Court letting Tony take such a grand thing out of the Court to Good Hope Hospital. And what ever the etheric power stations are powering, it needs the ether that exists in the Court and probably won't work outside the Court. This, and a little wildspec along the same path. What if the Seed Bismuth is still going? What if they don't know how to stop it, and the Omega Device is their bid to do so? Instead of collecting of Etheric energy to help the Court grow, they could be collecting energy to keep it contained, making them quasi-"good guys". Their interest in Zimmy could be about having a place (Zimmyverse) for it to grow into. What if it already has, and that's part of Zimmy's problem? Coyote making the river may not have been aggressive or manipulative, but an attempt to stop it from pushing into the Forest. The cooler question is whether Omega was made by the Court or is a discovered device. I'm hoping for the later. Whether "evil-in-a-can" or a Precursor device, I like how Tom spins World Mythology into his story. I wonder if it could be another Diego construct? Beyond the Arrow and the Robots, we know he's a very brilliant man; surely he'd be interested in a device that aligns with the Court's plans to become Gods. Wouldn't hurt to see a little more about what this Diego fellow was like outside of his obsession with Jeanne - unless that was all there really ever was with him, but as just proven by this chapter alone, there's more to a character than just the first few chapters we see of them. |
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Post by crater on Jul 31, 2015 13:57:24 GMT
Omega is probably code for the end of something. It can only either be a superweapon against the Wood or the "attempt to become god" connected with the aether station research. Either way, probably something unpleasant that will either go horribly wrong or horribly right and have to be stopped. As perhaps expected, Tony is revealed to be very important to the Court, but clearly not somebody of the inner circle. Still probably able to pull strings and call in favours, perhaps more influential than the Donlans. One wonders increasingly about the governance structures of the Court. A democracy it isn't. Finally, Annie finding out something that she really should not have heard unfiltered in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ... knowing the court it could also be something kind of goofy, like Omelet Making Ether Gathering Appliance what more do you need than a device that makes perfect omelets...... out of THIN AIR? |
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Post by davidm on Jul 31, 2015 14:18:10 GMT
Coyote... Court wants to be gods. To me seems kind of obvious, we have already had for example the boat that wanted to be a fish, and the head master is getting old, and omega is last letter in greek alphabet. They probably want to become "homo superior", like coyote, powerful, not dying of old age after 80 years... collect all the ether, use it to modify themselves just like the love boat.
Anthony is probably in it to save his "wife" then "daughter" rather than carrying about "godhood". (Yes of course he is approaching things wrong)
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Post by Nnelg on Jul 31, 2015 14:24:33 GMT
Well, this explains everything. He didn't abandon Annie by choice, he was forbidden contact by the Court faction which supplied him with resources when he was trying to preserve Surma's life. I don't think the "Omega Device" is Diego's Arrow, though; all notes on the latter were probably burned or buried immediately after its deployment. I think you're giving him a bit too much credit here. The court was keeping him busy sure, but that still doesn't explain his actions since he came back. I assume we'll find out more soon though. His actions since he returned can be easily explained by a genuine concern for Annie's well-being. It may seem harsh from the child's point of view, but sometimes one has to be strict to be a good parent. As far as I am concerned, being held back a grade is 100% the proper consequence of having been getting through school almost entirely by cheating. It sends the right message: that academic dishonesty is wrong and will not be tolerated. Only once this has been internalized can the possibility of commuting the sentence be broached. As for Renard... Would you want your daughter to be anywhere near your wife's former stalker? Even if you knew for a fact said person harbored no ill will, how could you be sure he could control himself? At the very least he'd be a horrible influence. It probably doesn't help that Renard assumed/usurped the role of father in Tony's absence: that must have been painful news for him to hear. Tony obviously wasn't forbidden to talk to his daughter, it was the Court who tracked Annie for him and transfered the call to Jones' phone in Microsat 5. I'm pretty sure that Tony's handlers from the Court (or whomever he reported to therein) weren't aware of the call. The call seems likely to have been facilitated by external professional contacts of Tony and/or factions within the Court opposed to the one Tony has been working for. Even if that was just a one time thing, I don't see what prevented him to add "By the way, hope you're well, take care". Also, it's likely he had to keep his message as short as possible for security reasons. And why not warn his girl that he was going to be busy for a while before disappearing for years? There was no need to get into detail, but that would have prevented her from spending a whole summer waiting for him. Perhaps he didn't know he'd be forbidden from contacting her at all until it was too late. Or maybe whatever he was doing was dangerous, and didn't want Annie to worry for his safety (people make this mistake a lot it seems). Perhaps Surma's recent death had hit him so hard he simply didn't want to deal with Annie for a while, or anything at all outside work. He may even have considered suicide at one point, and thought a missing father better than a dead one. |
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Post by hnau on Jul 31, 2015 14:42:31 GMT
The Omega Device might also be of etheric origin, like Coyote and Jones.
It might be the one machine we all fear: the doomsday device.
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emmau
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Post by emmau on Jul 31, 2015 14:49:26 GMT
The plot! IT GOES UP AGAIN!
Why's everyone assuming that just because he said 'device' means that it's some sort of machinery? I'm not saying it's not, because it does make sense for it to be, but... We've got Zimmy (Zeta) and Gamma, so it could be another person. Tony's cold, man - I could see him referring to some artificially created humanoid or etheric creature as a 'device'.
Also, love that Fallout 3 reference, calpal. 
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Post by Sky Schemer on Jul 31, 2015 14:52:00 GMT
I think I have this figured out. Tony's pronouncing it wrong: it's the O Mega device, see, and what it does is create giant O's. Everywhere. By manipulating causality. And, it's working. |
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Post by hnau on Jul 31, 2015 14:58:57 GMT
Or it's just a plot device, to move the story forward.
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Post by chrisjenl on Jul 31, 2015 15:19:06 GMT
I think that he is not her dad and do it for summa and she ask to keep Annie safe and now Annie her selve do all kind of stupid thins that will make the court look at here and maybe get her deep in the danser like be an guinea pig. So he came to stop that and get here safe.
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Sadie
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I eat food and sleep in a horizontal position.
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Post by Sadie on Jul 31, 2015 15:46:21 GMT
Donald "I have made a mistake" Donlan
Nice to get something of a reveal, even though it opens up even more questions. Given the semi-recent story in "Totem" and Tony bringing up Surma (and associated pregnancy) in relation to what the Court provided for him with regards to his research, I'm leaning toward the Omega Device being something related to soul removal. Though the Surma deal could have just been his own side project and the Court only provided the tools in exchange for him working on the Omega Device.
How much control the Court has over Tony and how far they're dictating his actions toward Annie is still up in the air. BUT NOTE: Anthony clearly has both the ability to create a 'safe space' where he can talk freely, and the will to act contrary to the Court's wishes.
Personally, I'd rather this didn't turn out to be a Severus Snape/Uchiha Itachi situation. I don't mean to say that I disagree with the idea that Tony may be acting in (what he think is) Annie's best interest, or that he is being controlled by the Court. I'm totally on-board with either situation. I'm just pre-preemptively cringing at the prospect of "he was a good, kind, brave person who was doing the right thing all along!"
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Post by GK Sierra on Jul 31, 2015 15:57:22 GMT
Omega/Zeta/Gamma? Sounds important to have the name Omega .It's confirmed he was working for the court then. He's a Surgeon so it's possible this is like Zimmy. Researching the device, sounds like they have an artifact they don't know what it is. Also the pregnancy is starting to raise questions what exactly he means. Equipment bonelasers? It's a new version of Zimmy that shoots bonelasers from her eyes and she is more polite and has table manners. Or it's just a plot device, to move the story forward. I must admit, I had not pegged Tom as the type to indulge in McGuffins, but then again at some point it is probably impossible to avoid them. |
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Post by atteSmythe on Jul 31, 2015 15:59:01 GMT
It'll only let them go back in time a few seconds
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Anthony
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No, not THAT guy.
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Post by Anthony on Jul 31, 2015 16:12:07 GMT
Omega is probably code for the end of something. It can only either be a superweapon against the Wood or the "attempt to become god" Maybe something related to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's ideas? |
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Post by tulicloure on Jul 31, 2015 16:18:49 GMT
So, Rey is not on the desk, huh.
Of note: Surma and Tony have their arms around each other in the last panel.
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Post by nero on Jul 31, 2015 16:26:38 GMT
So researching the omega device gave him the materials needed to help Surma and Annie. Did he return because he finished his research or is he still stuck on something?
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Post by ih8pkmn on Jul 31, 2015 16:38:53 GMT
I am honestly disappointed by the name of the new plot device. "Omega Device" just sounds like a generic doomsday weapon. Why not, I dunno, "The Jupiter Construct"? It'd fit in with the alchemical symbolism of the comic (Jupiter is representative of Tin), and wouldn't sound so... bland. Am I the only one who feels this way?
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Post by justcurious on Jul 31, 2015 16:41:33 GMT
Well, this explains everything. He didn't abandon Annie by choice, he was forbidden contact by the Court faction which supplied him with resources when he was trying to preserve Surma's life. Nothing he has said so far indicates this though it does raise the possibility. But I think you are making contrived excuses for Tony's behaviour. There have been several other posters who have tried to interpret his actions as "tough but fair" because they seem to be in love with the idea of this. I doubt that Tom will go down this route. Tough but fair is no more interesting than simple villain. I'm sure he is going to turn out more interesting than either. |
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Post by sherni on Jul 31, 2015 17:00:25 GMT
Look at that. Tony's finally talking. But we won't know what he's going to say until next week. Does Mr. Siddell give correspondence courses in cliffhangers?
The Omega device could literally be anything. It could be THE missing jigsaw piece that solves all the Gunnerkrigg mysteries, it could be a giant deathlaser, it could be a fancy name for a new variety of cheese.
looks like Anthony doesn't trust the Court or even care much for them (speculation?). I wonder whether we'll find out more bout his past and how he ended up there.
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Post by jda on Jul 31, 2015 17:04:32 GMT
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Post by justcurious on Jul 31, 2015 17:10:15 GMT
His actions since he returned can be easily explained by a genuine concern for Annie's well-being. It may seem harsh from the child's point of view, but sometimes one has to be strict to be a good parent. As far as I am concerned, being held back a grade is 100% the proper consequence of having been getting through school almost entirely by cheating. It sends the right message: that academic dishonesty is wrong and will not be tolerated. Only once this has been internalized can the possibility of commuting the sentence be broached. His humiliating her in the class over her makeup is not excusable especially since apparently she was not the only person wearing makeup. "Remove that ridiculous makeup." could not be said by anyone trying to be fair. Nor could "You have kept the class waiting." He did, not her. You only make someone repeat a year if you believe that they cannot handle the next year yet, not as punishment. |
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Post by Refugee on Jul 31, 2015 17:34:13 GMT
Annie is hearing that it was the Court that kept her Father from contacting her, not that he just chose to neglect her. Not sure that is in the comic. No, it's speculation, to be sure. But I think, given Annie's past behaviour, it's not far fetched. My point was, though, that what Annie sees may be somewhat different than what we see. She may well see what she wants to see. |
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Post by Refugee on Jul 31, 2015 17:39:16 GMT
"Oh! Ahem...."
This is not something Don expected Tony to say, nor did he intend for Annie to hear about it.
And clearly, Tony did not expect his old friend Don to bring a bug in to let someone else, especially Annie, eavesdrop.
Don's committed a major breach here. Hope it was worth it.
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