[386]Hello, George

[edzepp]

Very sharp, Smitty.

One up for eyebrow man.

Clue to Parley's first name? Probably not.

[fr4tbrn]

Why comic page no load?

[edzepp]

It works fine for me. It was being a bit screwy earlier though.

[fr4tbrn]

Huh. I've opened and closed my browser twice and it ain't working. Probably because my computer likes to be mean. Ah well.

[yinglung]

ah, poor parley.

[popo]

this is where we find out that she's a cross dresser.

[Mezzaphor]

Any idea if Eugene Gould is a reference to a real person? Google was no help for me. Though the Psychic Challenge sounds like a reference to James Randi's Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge.

Poor Parley. That's gotta be frustrating.

[zingbat]

Is there actually such a thing as "the Eugene Gould psychic challenge"? I know that someone (James Randi?) or some group offers a prize for being able to demonstrate psychic or otherwise supernatural abilities. Is Eugene Gould just the Gunnerkrigg version of that? Or do he and his challenge exist in our universe too?


EDIT: Well. I guess I need to type faster, since Mezzaphor just asked that.

[reeds]

Poor, poor Parley.

[Ed130]

My quick google search didn't bring up any results about the challenge, has anyone else found anything about a psychic study that DOESN'T involve a TV show.

Also note the emphasis Jones puts on Officially when she explains Parleys "situation"

I would bet that Parleys first name would either, be close to Georgina, Or something completely different.

[yinglung]

My guess is that parley lacks any super-natural power, but excels in the practical application of medium-training. like how she wins at the german sword fight.

[AluK]

My bet is that he named her George even after he found out that she, obviously, was a girl. That's why she introduces herself only by her last name.

That or, as already pointed out, something very close to it, as Georgina, Georgia etc.

[monkeybucks]

Eugene Gould is the man credited with first encountering the Rogat Orjak (Reynardine dragon thing). He seems to be some kind of expert on them. He's credited on the bonus page Rogat Orjak, chapter three. I'm assuming he's a GC creation, not real.

[hajo]

mezzaphor said:

Poor Parley. That's gotta be frustrating.

No obvious psychic ability does not mean that Parley really has no abilities,
but perhaps hers is just so subtle that is only shows in special situations.

E.g. immunity to mind reading would be hard to detect, without
having a certified telepath around

[todd]

Parley must have some unusual feature, to be admitted to this class. They can't have placed her in it just because her father was a psychic (and one who couldn't even successfully predict the future, at that).

Unless maybe Jones placed her in it because she thought that Parley's gleeful anarchy was healthy for the class's balance.

[starban]

Do you think they would let her in because she was the best at Liechtenauer?

[hajo]

starban said:

Do you think they would let her in because she was the best at Liechtenauer?

Most of the kids at GKC appear quite normal, so that's not the point.

But what is the point of having Parley in the medium-training,
if she had not shown some ability ? Trying to 'wake' her ?

[cenit]

This is the Smithrevenge!!!!

Poor Parley, I think that we'll find out that Parley senior got the sex wrong on his prediction, LAUGHING ON LINE

[pulvissolaris]

In the second pannel, Antimony calls Parley "Parely". I guess that is just a typo, but who knows...

[Boksha]

So... George Parley. (this forum needs a laughing smiley)

[La Poire]

It seems to me Parley was probably accepted or medium training simply because of her father. Even if he was wrong about her gender, he must have been right about a lot of other things, so perhaps the staff still see some hope she'd a psyhic. If not, perhaps she was just selected for being good with people/deities/whatever, both as in talking with them and killing them with swords. Also, my money is on her being named before they even knew her gender, and her father being to stubborn to change it.

[reeds]

Smit's remark "at least I can do something" seems to indicate that Parley does not possess any special ability as far as he's concerned. He had not realised her personal-space-breaching ability yet, you see. Alternately, she may have this power to tie her hair back in one go! That's superpower for ya. Well of course, Jones didn't say one is required to have any extra-normal ability to be a medium, did she? My opinion is that Parley is just Parley, with a secret identity named George.



Edit: Actually, Parley might have a brother named George!!

[Boksha]

If she does, what's he doing not taking medium classes?
(maybe he's as psychic as a wooden plank and his sister actually IS psychic?)

[todd]

I think the theory that "Parley's taking medium classes because her father hopes that it might bring out some latent abilities in her that have been dormant until now" is the most likely one (it reminds me of a similar concept in the webcomic "P.S. 238").

Jones certainly seems tolerant of Parley's disruptiveness, incidentally - though I don't know if that's supposed to be significant or not.

[fr4tbrn]

Or maybe her brother is too young to go to Gunnerkrigg, or a baby that Mrs. Parley will have in the future.

[gdwarf]

ed130 said:

My quick google search didn't bring up any results about the challenge, has anyone else found anything about a psychic study that DOESN'T involve a TV show.

The James Randi Educational Foundation offers a $1 million (US) prize to any person who can show that they have paranormal abilities.

They changed the rules not long ago, so that you have to be at least locally famous before you can apply though, so I guess it isn't "any" person.

[Tenjen]

My god smith can really bring it when he wants to. A counter to all that incessant talk and lack of personal space.

SO we know her dads big and got her into being part of the medium team. She has great [?] combat abilities and possibly has a complex about not being a boy from her patty.

and that theres moe awesome in Smith than those eyebrows. Infact it must actually be just like having big hair gives you super strength [read your bible! Samson is one of hte best stories there] then big eyebrows must increase your intelligence and wise assery

[hajo]

reeds said:

Smit's remark "at least I can do something" seems to indicate that Parley does not possess any special ability

It also indicates that he doesn't think his ability is worth much, except for show.
That explains part of his shy nature and lack of self-confidence, as contrasted
to Parley. After all, she was carrying the cards, not him...

Yes, his ability might be very useful, but many people don't see the real value
of good things (while they still have them).

[todd]

I'm still bewildered as to why there are all these theories about Parley being really a boy in disguise, or having a brother whom we haven't met yet.

Smith's remark seemed simple to me: Parley's father got all three of his predictions wrong. Instead of having a son named George who would be a psychic, he had a daughter named Parley who wasn't a psychic. I don't think we need to come up with convoluted alternate explanations for the last panel.

[cenit]

...what's the third prediction todd?

I think that the most important quality of being a medium is to be "neutral" which is really hard.

I don't think Parley is a boy; however she might be named George or Georgia

Maybe she does have some psych powers, and I'm thinking here about her fighting style... maybe she get's a couple seconds of future events... not much for fortune-telling, but a great advantage to have in a fight