[392] Subtle

[Mezzaphor]

Linky

Mort is getting better.

[reeds]

Hwaaaah!!!!! ;D

[Count Casimir]

AHAHAHAHA!

Panel 5: I <3 Parley.

Edit: Mezz, grats on Gunnership!

[lorem ipsum]

Subtle.

Annie said "I should have helped her" about the ghost in the woods. That she should have faced her fear as she had with Martin, when helping him find his way through to the other side. We all love Mort, but now that Jones has called him "this boy" I suddenly realize that, scary important work or no -- Mort is a ghost, which means he's dead little boy, which means he may have been missing his family for a very long time.

Would Annie help him pass on to the next place, as she did with Martin? Even though it would mean she'd be losing a friend? Even as angry as she is over the loss of her mother? It's one thing to guide a stranger on... quite another to say goodbye to a friend. Kat knows that, she had to say goodbye to her boyfriend. Gunnerkrigg is full of people (and fairies and birds and foxes) going on to their next story -- Annie's the only one that doesn't accept that, yet.

And Jones arranged his meeting, before she sends Annie to the woods.

Subtle.

(Edited to add: I've been reading for so long, but this question finally just pushed me sign up for an account. Hi!)

[Ed130]

interesting theory Iorem.

[popo]

Let's see how hard smitty is laughing when he finds a pair of eyebrow tweezers on his shoulder.

[edzepp]

Iorem: Your post made me realize how little we actually know about Mort. He's just always been a ghost.

[lorem ipsum]

Haha. Ta, Ed... but I don't think it's a theory so much as... well, it's just something I've been noticing ever since the river. She was still angry with Muut, and she was so against Red and Blue going on to their next story, remember? Annie's smart, but when she was talking to Kat about the last of Martin's story, she called it unfair, and still wasn't sure about the aether, or what realm could come next. There's so much about cycles and circles that Annie still seems behind on... understandably, of course.

[lorem ipsum]

edzepp: "He's just always been a ghost." I know, right? It was when Jones called him a *boy* that I realized... he's always just been a floating sheet with a cute personality to me. Now I have to wonder who he used to be. And if ghosts are the in-between place -- who should he be?

[edzepp]

It's odd. There's always been a hole in Mort's history. It's just something that I don't think has been really questioned yet.

[Mezzaphor]

lorem ipsum, interesting theory.

I had always assumed that Mort had accepted his own death. That he's currently in a personalized Purgatory, so scaring people is his job, and he won't move on until he's finished with it. Tom has said that Mort is in Gunnerkrigg because that's where he's stationed. Hmm...

Also, I assumed that Annie's problem with the Fairies was that she's morally opposed to suicide. ("Annie can't abide someone who would throw their life away.")

[lorem ipsum]

Ah, Thank you for that link to Tom's answer, Mezzaphor!

[digikitty]

Apr 16, 2008 5:46:42 GMT popo said:

Let's see how hard smitty is laughing when he finds a pair of eyebrow tweezers on his shoulder.

heh. Not to sure if that would actually scare him. However, seeing Parley freaking out over a spider makes me laugh. Makes me wonder what Mort would have to do to scare Smitty. But I don't think tweezers would be it.

[headwired]

Mort's facial expressions have been fantastic over the past few panels.

Especially for a guy without much of a face.

[todd]

Maybe Mort was assigned the job of haunting Gunnerkrigg (for whatever reason) after the Guides took him through the Aether - was sent back there for that purpose.

(I still wouldn't be at all surprised if Mort turned out to be Martin, though that would raise the question why he didn't recognize Annie. She looks different enough now than she did in the Chapter Sixteen flashback - a few years older - that he wouldn't immediately know her on sight, but her story about childhood in Good Hope in Chapter Nine ought to have cued him. Unless Martin was unconscious when they brought him to the hospital from smoke inhalation or something like that, and didn't know that he was in a hospital, let alone that one. Or unless he lost many of his earthly memories when going through the Aether. Well, I suppose we'll get our answer in time.)

[wanderer]

I don't know about you folks, but seeing a huge spider on my shoulder would freak me out too.

[cenit]

Well, I think that the general idea is that Mort was at some point a person; but it doesn't mean that he hasn't "move on"; with Martin there was that issue that he couldn't accept his death (and that he had caused his and his family deaths), and that doesn't happen to Mort.

Also, if that was the case, Muut could have asked her to help him, just like they did with Martin.

Now, to scary things; don't you wonder what would Mort have to do... to scare Jones!!!!

[Midnight Meadows]

That Mort is one smooth operator, aye.
(panel 3)

Apr 16, 2008 12:49:06 GMT cenit said:

don't you wonder what would Mort have to do... to scare Jones!!!!

Well now there's an interesting thought. I almost would say that nothing is capable of scaring Jones, although maybe she has one of those really small and abnormal quirks that spooks her out more than anything but bothers no-one else. Like....bent paperclips or something?

[starban]

I kinda have the crack-pot theory that maybe mort isn't dead. I mean he's a ghost- yes, but what if the fact that people thought that ghost were dead human's spirits is misconception in the Gunnerkrigg world? We now know that dead sprits go the the aether so what if ghosts are just another regular etheric (sp?) being like the shadow men?

All though it's more possible that I'm just insane XD

So does anyone think that Mort has any memory of his past life?

[hajo]

Apr 16, 2008 5:55:38 GMT lorem ipsum said:

Now I have to wonder who he used to be.

Yes, some more background would be nice.

[AluK]

Starban, I had thought something along these lines, also, that ghosts in the Gunnerkrigg universe might be entirely different beings than disembodied spirits.

Other than that, I like todd's/cenit's theory, also, that Mort might've been human at some point, but died, passed on and is back from the Aether with a job.

[yinglung]

Apr 16, 2008 12:49:06 GMT cenit said:

Now, to scary things; don't you wonder what would Mort have to do... to scare Jones!!!!

I don't know, but I doubt it would end well. Jones strikes me as the sort who gets violent when they lose control, by reflex. Sorta like war veterans that attack people who touch them while the vet is sleeping.

[cenit]

Finally found it!!!

On October 25th of 2007, aoeniac asked Tom the following:
"Oooh hey Tom! Tooooom! Hey when Mort was alive, was he a cutie?"

and Tom answered:
"I guess Mort was a cutie. He certainly acted the same."

So he WAS alive at some point

Thanks for your index Mezzaphor, that's how I found it

[Mezzaphor]

Glad to be of help, cenit.

Apr 16, 2008 10:46:40 GMT todd said:

(I still wouldn't be at all surprised if Mort turned out to be Martin, though that would raise the question why he didn't recognize Annie. She looks different enough now than she did in the Chapter Sixteen flashback - a few years older - that he wouldn't immediately know her on sight, but her story about childhood in Good Hope in Chapter Nine ought to have cued him. Unless Martin was unconscious when they brought him to the hospital from smoke inhalation or something like that, and didn't know that he was in a hospital, let alone that one. Or unless he lost many of his earthly memories when going through the Aether. Well, I suppose we'll get our answer in time.)

Or maybe Mort does recognize Annie, and that's why he's so infatuated with her. He hasn't mentioned it yet because he's embarrassed about how awkward his passing-on was.

The real question is, how can Mort be a young, inexperienced spirit if he died four years ago?

Apr 16, 2008 16:35:01 GMT yinglung said:

Apr 16, 2008 12:49:06 GMT cenit said:

Now, to scary things; don't you wonder what would Mort have to do... to scare Jones!!!!

I don't know, but I doubt it would end well. Jones strikes me as the sort who gets violent when they lose control, by reflex. Sorta like war veterans that attack people who touch them while the vet is sleeping.

I can definitely see that. She doesn't flinch or scream, she attacks.

[Count Casimir]

Mort couldn't scare her;
Jones runs at 10 meters per second and does not know fear.



(See what I did there? Eh?)

[xux]

Apr 17, 2008 4:34:24 GMT Mezzaphor said:

The real question is, how can Mort be a young, inexperienced spirit if he died four years ago?

Age and experience could be relative to beings of the etherium; maybe he's been doing his job for centuries and Mort's time seems insignificant to him.

...I think people are too desperate to make a connection on this one, though.

[starkruzr]

"Silenti?"

Anyone else see that in the last panel? What's that about?

[nikita]

I think the last panel has a similar meaning to the one on this page: www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=289

none.

[todd]

Tom's used such panels before as a sign that the scene's shifting; it's probably being used for the same purpose here.

[Tenjen]

actually i think that door is a creation of morts, for them to open. Like the circus event

www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=135

A mentioning of mort as new and inexperienced

O ya! the headmaster had mentioned all this a long time ago [aout the lessons]

www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=290