Antimony's evolution

[silvercat]

I suspect everyone on the forum loves Gunnerkrigg Court - why else go through the effort of making an account eh?
I'm certainly no exception, but I also have an inquisitive streak : I keep trying to figure out ~why~ I am drawn to this comic in a way I've never been drawn in my 27 years before...

There's some meta-fictional appeal : the (re)interpretation of folklore such as the Coyote and Reynardine myths, the evolution of Tom's artwork, the exploration of the dichotomy nature-science...

However, I think Antimony's the main reason.

Her character is so fascinating, to me.
It starts with her speeches like "I would like to share with you the strange events that took place while I attended school at Gunnerkrigg Court" to "Thus ended my first year at Gunnerkrigg court, and so did I wait for my father, not knowing that I would not hear from him for another two years"...

But she's not all tragic heroine or a pest of a kid (one of the main turn-offs in Harry Potter, to me, is his "center of the universe" attitude, surpassed only by the disgusting caste system in the magical society) :

• she defies her teachers to hold onto a demon-possessed toy (that's cool, as well as a meta-fictional story driving moment)
  
• she steals a photograph from Kat's parents (that's understandable, but wouldn't Anja and Donald have understood too? They might have given it to Antimony).
  
• she cheats on a test
  

Can you think of more examples that make Antimony more like a real person instead of a heroine ?

One other question remains : this page www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=310
Kat just got back from the summer holiday, and Antimony is crying with joy : finally she's got a true friend.
Tom added the comment "it's your own fault, Carver".

Does he choose Carver instead of Annie because of contempt? Why? What is her own fault anyway ? Not having a friend before ? Her loneliness during the summer? What what what ?

[tetsamaru]

I would Suspect that while Ann inherinted her mother's power and looks, she may have also inherinted her fathers powers, but probably his personality as well. If Coyote, and the rest of the older cast is anything to go off on, it seems Surma and Elg was the main shipping everyone expected to happen. Ofcourse we all know thats not true and instead she seemed to choose the quiet(Maybe anti-social?) Carver.

You can think about it from another point of view (i'm not generalizing). Alot of woman actually dont want "the perfect guy". It seems everybody was Hot for Elg, and Surma was almost the school idol, the "perfect couple". Then She meets Carver and finds his little quirks and "non-perfect" looks and attidude actually attractive. According to Kat's parents, he had a habit of dissapearing, so while that may be a bad trait, Surma was willing to look past that too. And almost didnt seem surprised and maybe expected that Ann wouldnt really be bonding with her husband all that much.

My 2 cents.

[nikita]

Tom also calls her Carver in an interview. I don't think, this has a deeper meaning. This is question is a candidate for the thread formerly knowns as "Questions to Tom".

I think what makes the comic unique is its realism. It's just filled with life and it's believable, because not everything described in the comic will automatically be important later. On the other side, apparently unimportant events can turn out to be highly interesting. Random events lead to unpredictable outcomes - that's adventure.

Every story has adventure, but most of them are using patterns. The Harry Potter books are terribly similar to each other. School begins - something new happens - turns out it's a ruse by Voldemort - Harry unrealistically beats him.
Most other stories use a hero has problem - hero meets woman - hero wins - happy end/romance scheme. This pattern can even be refined more without losing much of it's generality.
GC is not like that. It doesn't follow obvious patterns. (Except the Slapwankles Tetra-Inversion Principle)

It feels like the story isn't written but just happens.

[cenit]

There a lot of reasons I love this comic, but I want to mention one in particular...

I find it incredible hard to predict what's going to happen... in most stories (novels, movies, soap operas, cartoons, manga, anime, etc.) i tend to get so much into the story that i can see where the plot goes

GC makes (for me) a weird spin at least once every week, and yet when I looked back I think "how couldn't I have seen that???"... Tom has really good talent to think the story like this, congrats Tom