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Post by Per on Aug 10, 2016 18:27:13 GMT
And one more thing bothers me. On that page, Tom wrote "30 chapters worth of exposition later", And it's still missing an apostrophe.  |
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Post by Gulby on Aug 10, 2016 18:51:39 GMT
And one more thing bothers me. On that page, Tom wrote "30 chapters worth of exposition later", And it's still missing an apostrophe. After exposition, right ? "worth of exposition's later" ? But then, wouldn't it be incorrect if there's no hyphen ?... |
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Post by atteSmythe on Aug 10, 2016 19:06:06 GMT
I'd suspected that "all" the arrow does is trap her lover's soul, and that freeing him will allow her to transition as well. In that scenario, there's nothing about the arrow itself that's keeping Jeanne trapped - she has herself trapped, in a way. After foreshadowing in the previous chapter? In Coward Heart, you mean? Yeah, I guess in retrospect it's spelled out more concretely than I remembered, so maybe my "supposition" was more "remembering the story." But that only makes Annie's theory even more puzzling, IMO. |
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Post by Daedalus on Aug 10, 2016 19:32:24 GMT
And it's still missing an apostrophe. After exposition, right ? "worth of exposition's later" ? But then, wouldn't it be incorrect if there's no hyphen ?... I think the missing apostrophe is after "chapters" - it should be "30 chapters' worth..."It's a somewhat obsolete usage of the apostrophe, though. |
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Post by atteSmythe on Aug 10, 2016 19:45:48 GMT
Re-reading those pages, I have noticed a few points that are bothering me : Jeanne's look on that page, what she says here, "The useless shell of my body was ensnared by the green light and discarded over time", and Annie's choice of words here. A whole new world of wild speculations has opened ahead of me. Like, maybe Jeanne was perfectly aware of what she was doing. That her lover will be killed and herself too. Or at least that something was up that was no good at all. Otherwise, why would she get down there with the help of so many people ?... When you're secretly out to go see your lover, aren't you supposed to be alone or with only a close friend ?... And if you're retrieving that loved one, aren't you supposed to be happy, instead of frowning eyebrows ?... And apparently, the green light had the power to freeze her somewhat, that physically blocked her on the shore of the Annan Waters. Why Annie said that "She shouldn't have done that" ?... Well, if Jeanne didn't know about the plan, why SHE shouldn't have done that ?... "That" may stand for something along sacrifice herself and her own true love for the sake of the Court ?... Because she was one of the secret police guard ?... And one more thing bothers me. On that page, Tom wrote "30 chapters worth of exposition later", and it just occured to me that it was in the 30th chapter. So all the story is about that event, really. The main protagonist may be Jeanne. And the resolution of the story will involve Jeanne. So maybe this is the big big final scene of GKC that we're discovering page by page ? I'm not saying this would be the last chapter, but that it could be one of the few last. If you know what I mean. I'm hoping really strongly that everything and everyone will be fine. Antimony, Katerina, George, Andrews, Etheric Jeanne, Jones, and the rest of them. I do hope so very much. My take on S1, Skywatcher, and Coward Heart, responding to your questions: - Jeanne has a love affair with Mr. Green Jeans from the Forest. Diego knows about it, but can't do anything about it yet.
- Coyote divides the Court from the Forest. Travel between the two is either forbidden or restrictive. Jeanne becomes reclusive.
- Diego makes advances toward Jeanne, largely in the form of making tiny robots for her. She rejects his advances, destroying most of the robots.
- Diego, jealous, convinces the Court to imprison Jeanne. Her seclusion becomes involuntary.
- Jeanne confides in Steadman, and he agrees to shoot messages over the river on her behalf. These messages are relayed, but only after the Court reads them.
- The Plan is hatched: Jeanne is to be lowered to the ravine floor and made a sacrifice, to protect the Court.
- Speculation: I suspect that the court banished her, but would not contact the Forest to let her in. "You can't go to the forest, but you can't stay here, either. We will lower you into the ravine, and you are on your own."
- Jeanne sees this as a chance to escape: She will be out of the tower, and as far from the members of the Court as she can be. She arranges for her love to come rescue her.
- The Court anticipated this all along - it is a trap.
- Jeanne is lowered to the ravine floor. She's all serious-face because she's in the middle of being banished, and has no idea if her love got her message, or what will happen once she is on the ravine floor - perhaps there is some plan that she is not aware of.
- There is. Steadman shoots Jeanne's lover with a device that has at least one primary function: Emit a dazzling light that will force Jeanne's attention to the moment of his death, to the exclusion of all else. Jeanne eventually dies of thirst and/or hunger, transfixed the whole time. The light of the device dims.
- Speculation: The device has a second purpose, which is to ensnare the soul of Jeanne's lover, so that he cannot rejoin the ether
- Jeanne, forced to experience nothing but the endless pain of her broken heart as she dies an agonizing death, becomes a vengeful shade. In pain and anger, she kills any who approach.
- Fast forward a hundred and fifty years or so, and some rambunctious kids try to sneak up on Jeanne in the ether. Feeling mocked by the shining, living example of one having true love but being unwilling to act on it (when Jeanne herself had acted on her love and lost everything), she seizes the girls and forces them to experience her love and betrayal.
- That is what she should not have done: suppressed their will, forcing them to experience her life without their consent. Annie's seen this sort of thing before, and it's not proper for a ghost to do.
- Speculation: Jeanne had Annie and Parley transfixed in a manner similar to how she was incapacitated by the arrow-device. If they had not escaped, they would have died even without Jeanne running them through.
- Once Annie and Parley free themselves from Jeanne's snare, they bring Parley and Smitty up to speed.
- 30 chapters is all of Annie's story since coming to the court. It's the author's way of saying that she didn't hold back, and told them everything, regardless of whether it seemed relevant at the time.
I think we have a lot more story left. If the beginning of this story has largely been about how the Court and the Forest were torn apart, the end of the story may well require our protagonists to heal the rift and bring the two back together again. |
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Post by Trillium on Aug 10, 2016 20:26:21 GMT
The Coward Heart was 29 chapters ago. It is time to get some closure and forward movement.
In The Coward Heart when Parley kicks the blinker stone out of Jeanne's hand it looks like Jeanne comments, "A fine strike fille."
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Post by kriskingle on Aug 11, 2016 5:37:18 GMT
Re-reading those pages, I have noticed a few points that are bothering me : Jeanne's look on that page, what she says here, "The useless shell of my body was ensnared by the green light and discarded over time", and Annie's choice of words here. A whole new world of wild speculations has opened ahead of me. Like, maybe Jeanne was perfectly aware of what she was doing. That her lover will be killed and herself too. Or at least that something was up that was no good at all. Otherwise, why would she get down there with the help of so many people ?... When you're secretly out to go see your lover, aren't you supposed to be alone or with only a close friend ?... And if you're retrieving that loved one, aren't you supposed to be happy, instead of frowning eyebrows ?... And apparently, the green light had the power to freeze her somewhat, that physically blocked her on the shore of the Annan Waters. Why Annie said that "She shouldn't have done that" ?... Well, if Jeanne didn't know about the plan, why SHE shouldn't have done that ?... "That" may stand for something along sacrifice herself and her own true love for the sake of the Court ?... Because she was one of the secret police guard ?... And one more thing bothers me. On that page, Tom wrote "30 chapters worth of exposition later", and it just occured to me that it was in the 30th chapter. So all the story is about that event, really. The main protagonist may be Jeanne. And the resolution of the story will involve Jeanne. So maybe this is the big big final scene of GKC that we're discovering page by page ? I'm not saying this would be the last chapter, but that it could be one of the few last. If you know what I mean. I'm hoping really strongly that everything and everyone will be fine. Antimony, Katerina, George, Andrews, Etheric Jeanne, Jones, and the rest of them. I do hope so very much. My take on S1, Skywatcher, and Coward Heart, responding to your questions: - Jeanne has a love affair with Mr. Green Jeans from the Forest. Diego knows about it, but can't do anything about it yet.
- Coyote divides the Court from the Forest. Travel between the two is either forbidden or restrictive. Jeanne becomes reclusive.
- Diego makes advances toward Jeanne, largely in the form of making tiny robots for her. She rejects his advances, destroying most of the robots.
- Diego, jealous, convinces the Court to imprison Jeanne. Her seclusion becomes involuntary.
- Jeanne confides in Steadman, and he agrees to shoot messages over the river on her behalf. These messages are relayed, but only after the Court reads them.
- The Plan is hatched: Jeanne is to be lowered to the ravine floor and made a sacrifice, to protect the Court.
- Speculation: I suspect that the court banished her, but would not contact the Forest to let her in. "You can't go to the forest, but you can't stay here, either. We will lower you into the ravine, and you are on your own."
- Jeanne sees this as a chance to escape: She will be out of the tower, and as far from the members of the Court as she can be. She arranges for her love to come rescue her.
- The Court anticipated this all along - it is a trap.
- Jeanne is lowered to the ravine floor. She's all serious-face because she's in the middle of being banished, and has no idea if her love got her message, or what will happen once she is on the ravine floor - perhaps there is some plan that she is not aware of.
- There is. Steadman shoots Jeanne's lover with a device that has at least one primary function: Emit a dazzling light that will force Jeanne's attention to the moment of his death, to the exclusion of all else. Jeanne eventually dies of thirst and/or hunger, transfixed the whole time. The light of the device dims.
- Speculation: The device has a second purpose, which is to ensnare the soul of Jeanne's lover, so that he cannot rejoin the ether
- Jeanne, forced to experience nothing but the endless pain of her broken heart as she dies an agonizing death, becomes a vengeful shade. In pain and anger, she kills any who approach.
- Fast forward a hundred and fifty years or so, and some rambunctious kids try to sneak up on Jeanne in the ether. Feeling mocked by the shining, living example of one having true love but being unwilling to act on it (when Jeanne herself had acted on her love and lost everything), she seizes the girls and forces them to experience her love and betrayal.
- That is what she should not have done: suppressed their will, forcing them to experience her life without their consent. Annie's seen this sort of thing before, and it's not proper for a ghost to do.
- Speculation: Jeanne had Annie and Parley transfixed in a manner similar to how she was incapacitated by the arrow-device. If they had not escaped, they would have died even without Jeanne running them through.
- Once Annie and Parley free themselves from Jeanne's snare, they bring Parley and Smitty up to speed.
- 30 chapters is all of Annie's story since coming to the court. It's the author's way of saying that she didn't hold back, and told them everything, regardless of whether it seemed relevant at the time.
I think we have a lot more story left. If the beginning of this story has largely been about how the Court and the Forest were torn apart, the end of the story may well require our protagonists to heal the rift and bring the two back together again. Amazing summary and analysis! I remember hearing somewhere that Tom did not plan to bring the court and the forest back together in Annie and Kat's story, though I could be mistaken. It does make sense the it would be impossible to completely reconcile the two sides given that they are total opposites. An interesting point though is that while Annie is supposed to represent the forest and magic, she is also knowledgeable about hard science topics like biology and anatomy. Kat started out not believing in magic, but she has begun opening up to the idea in the recent chapters. Which may mean that a semi-peaceful coexistence is possible. Also, Kat's machine (despite appearing completely mechanical) can interact with/detect etheric objects/forces, which may be hinting that magic and science are more closely connected then as we first thought. |
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Post by TBeholder on Aug 11, 2016 13:56:51 GMT
After foreshadowing in the previous chapter? In Coward Heart, you mean? Yeah, I guess in retrospect it's spelled out more concretely than I remembered, so maybe my "supposition" was more "remembering the story." But that only makes Annie's theory even more puzzling, IMO. No, the previous was Chapter 58: "A Big Day!" I'm not sure it even counts as foreshadowing, if it could be one of the reasons behind Annie's decision. |
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Post by keef on Aug 11, 2016 14:31:09 GMT
Based on the story, I'd reached the conclusion that Jeanne was transfixed by the light, but then trapped only by her anguish. I'd suspected that "all" the arrow does is trap her lover's soul, and that freeing him will allow her to transition as well. In that scenario, there's nothing about the arrow itself that's keeping Jeanne trapped - she has herself trapped, in a way. That's what I thought, but thinking about the word 'ensnared'; could it be that the light keeps both their souls trapped? The end result of destroying or manipulating the arrow would be the same; the lovers will be reunited, Jeanne will no longer feel the urge to chop people's heads off and Annie can bring them in to the ether. |
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Post by arf on Aug 12, 2016 4:42:23 GMT
Another handful of grist for the theory mill: the arrow, as depicted in 'The Coward Heart' and 'See Ya' has a distinct avian aura. Will this have any bearing on Kat's ability to detect and retrieve it? |
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Post by Daedalus on Aug 12, 2016 7:08:00 GMT
Another handful of grist for the theory mill: the arrow, as depicted in 'The Coward Heart' and 'See Ya' has a distinct avian aura. Will this have any bearing on Kat's ability to detect and retrieve it? Avian? How so? I mean, it has feather-like fletchings, but I just thought that was, you know, a general "arrow" thing. Also, we don't get a close-up of the Arrow in The Coward Heart. The only closeups I can find of the Device are here and here. Do you mean Skywatcher and the Angel? |
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Post by arf on Aug 12, 2016 7:31:02 GMT
Another handful of grist for the theory mill: the arrow, as depicted in 'The Coward Heart' and 'See Ya' has a distinct avian aura. Will this have any bearing on Kat's ability to detect and retrieve it? Avian? How so? I mean, it has feather-like fletchings, but I just thought that was, you know, a general "arrow" thing. Also, we don't get a close-up of the Arrow in The Coward Heart. The only closeups I can find of the Device are here and here. Do you mean Skywatcher and the Angel? If you look closely at the image of the arrow in the second link I gave (p 1341), you will see the etheric emanations include a bird. There is also a bird next to the man (Steadman?) in the first link (p 772) that appears to be bound up in the embrace of Jeanne and the Green Man. |
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