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Post by pyradonis on Mar 23, 2018 14:40:43 GMT
I've had a fairly dark thought. What about all the students that were once Forest creatures? They left the Forest for their own "reasons?" and may have no allegiance to the Forest, but the Court may not see it that way. In the coming panic, could we see forced camps of ex-Forest students and other Forest-leaning creatures? Poor Elsie and Bunny-guy. Knowing human nature (and based on the Court's past track record), I fear you may be right about that. That would be pretty bad for them. In the eyes of Ysengrin, they are traitors. |
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Demonsul
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Seven years a new member
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Post by Demonsul on Mar 23, 2018 15:04:50 GMT
I've had a fairly dark thought. What about all the students that were once Forest creatures? They left the Forest for their own "reasons?" and may have no allegiance to the Forest, but the Court may not see it that way. In the coming panic, could we see forced camps of ex-Forest students and other Forest-leaning creatures? Poor Elsie and Bunny-guy. And what of how the Forest/Ysengrin-Coyote sees them? Are they traitors, or just weak? Either way, this is going to end badly for them. EDIT: Ninja'd! Guess that answers that  |
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Post by Trillium on Mar 23, 2018 16:01:04 GMT
We have yet to see a response from the Court. We are just moments into this incursion.
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Mar 23, 2018 17:40:53 GMT
I like how the branch-fingers are forming into a rising fist for the last panel. Which would be the typical human response.... Too true, I fear. At least, the bridge's destruction would limit the Court's ability to strike back - assuming they don't have air strike capability. (Which isn't necessarily a given. The Court seems primarily a place of scientific research, not a military base. While they've developed a few pieces of weaponry, that's not their primary goal - as I mentioned in another post, we don't even know if the Omega Device is a weapon, or something that can be used as a weapon.) Unfortunately (In My Humble Opinion) big bureaucratic organizations often have large organizational blind spots. I once did some work for a large neighborhood association that had a detailed plan in place on how to respond to a chemical or biological terrorist attack in the area. This building will become a satellite command center for the mayor's office, national guard vehicles can be parked at this nearby lot, decon showers can be placed here, etc. That plan by itself filled binders. What they did not have was the slightest idea of what to do if the fire alarm went off other than, "Oh, I guess we'll all leave the building... maybe meet up at the church down the block?" And one reason that was particularly bad in this case was that there were large classes for special needs people of all ages being held off and on all day in the three story main building. This default "no plan" plan apparently had individual instructors responsible for evacuating all of their students in a given class if need be and alerting first responders themselves if any of their class went missing, and then knowing they were supposed to meet at the church afterwards (not the deli across the street) leaving behind their class in the green between the presumably burning building and a major road with no barriers to foot traffic. After talking to some more people I learned that (if one thinks of it) one could instructor stay behind to manage all 150-350ish special needs people (some without mobility aids, others dressed only in swimsuits) while the rest go to the meeting point to discuss their next move with the administrators. Additional note: "Offsite data backup? Removable hard drive? What's that? That doesn't sound like something we'd need." Though they have fast-response teams and a standard decontamination procedure in place (which I suppose is to contain any plant matter that comes from the Wood until any link to the Wood is broken) the Court appears to have intentionally turned a blind eye to at least some aspects of their defense against the Wood. Initially that was to cover up what happened to Jeanne but in order to keep curious people away from the subject they probably discouraged anyone who would take an honest look at the problems they'd face if the Wood did do something aggressive. Subsequent generations of leadership didn't know why it was important to do so, they probably just knew it wasn't a thing that should be done. And there may be a "no plan" plan in place in case of Coyote attack just because he's really powerful so they don't want to think about it. My guess is the non-plan is "the robots will handle it." If the Court were a real-life organization they should have at least a generic evacuation plan; they study dangerous stuff and there's always a chance of something getting loose. And if the robots are busy elsewhere, or taking heavy casualties, or it's an event they can't do anything about (because of magnetism or what-have-you) there should be a robot-free version of that evacuation plan. But maybe there isn't. There may or may not be a retaliation plan in case of war with the Wood but I'd guess not, for the reason todd mentioned. But there might be something that can be quickly re-purposed into one if the leadership isn't thrown into chaos. What Ysengrin wants exactly isn't clear but his idea of humans knowing their rightful place is probably more like that of a wolf than a terrorist or a soldier. While there may be special exceptions for select individuals that general place would be below the apex predator (previously Coyote, now Ys) but also free from elaborate social hierarchy and its rules. In other words, humans of the Court would be subject to predation in anarchy by powerful individuals human or otherwise, although the "natural" state of things wouldn't be completely without what we might call the trappings of civilization since there would still be families and tribes (as we saw with the forest people). That said, since Ysengrin is not mentally stable a given plan might not work in this instance, particularly one based on mutually assured destruction, but even Ys could probably understand that a triumph over the Court would be a hollow victory if they 1. successfully evacuated the Court and 2. retaliated by turning the Wood into radioactive ash. Ruling over a radioactive pile of bones and rubble would probably be very boring. So we'll see how the Court leadership handles itself in a crisis. (hey look at all the keywords in this wall of text - regards to any spooks tasked with manually reviewing it) |
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Post by keef on Mar 23, 2018 20:28:45 GMT
I like how the branch-fingers are forming into a rising fist for the last panel. Next: A giant wooden arm stretches from Young's park and reaches for... A leathery bag of bones? You're on the watchlist now #569. |
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Post by todd on Mar 24, 2018 0:19:32 GMT
And there may be a "no plan" plan in place in case of Coyote attack just because he's really powerful so they don't want to think about it. That and they might be thinking, "He gave his word to leave us in peace" - maybe not the best approach to take towards the word of a trickster. (At least he'd probably observe the letter of his promise - on a theory of "Anybody can break a promise. It takes real cleverness to come up with a way to bend it or find loopholes.") Indeed, based on what I've seen of Coyote, I wonder whether his promise to leave the Court alone should have set the warning bells ringing - does he want them to stay as part of some scheme (say, the Court's presence next door to Gilltie Wood, with the tensions between the two, mean plenty of "fun" for him to exploit, or maybe the fear - assuming that, as some have speculated here, Coyote sees the Court's experiments with the ether as a threat to him - that if the Court felt it wasn't welcome there, it might relocate to some other location to work on its big projects that Coyote couldn't get at as easily)? |
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Post by Runningflame on Mar 24, 2018 4:06:31 GMT
Auditory response: Moo--OOO?!!
Indeed, based on what I've seen of Coyote, I wonder whether his promise to leave the Court alone should have set the warning bells ringing - does he want them to stay as part of some scheme (say, the Court's presence next door to Gilltie Wood, with the tensions between the two, mean plenty of "fun" for him to exploit, or maybe the fear - assuming that, as some have speculated here, Coyote sees the Court's experiments with the ether as a threat to him - that if the Court felt it wasn't welcome there, it might relocate to some other location to work on its big projects that Coyote couldn't get at as easily)? That's a great point. Anja said Coyote promised to leave them alone right after he did THIS. (Assuming Coyote isn't exaggerating, but Anja doesn't seem to think he is.) Carving the ravine and the Annan Waters is at least as impressive as anything Coysengrin has done in this chapter. I don't think, after such a show of force, that Coyote would have needed to make any concessions--which means that he promised to leave everyone alone because he wanted to make that promise. And when you look at it that way, that IS pretty alarming. Kinda like a chess grandmaster offering to play you blindfolded.
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Post by Runningflame on Mar 24, 2018 5:11:47 GMT
This definitely feels like the beginning of the endgame for the comic, even if we've still got 20 chapters to go. Every McGuffin ever is coming into play. Beginning of the endgame, I'll grant you. (Perhaps.) But "every McGuffin ever" is a bit much, even allowing for hyperbole. I won't believe we're close the endgame until I see at least 2/3 of the following come into play: - The power station
- Coyote's tooth
- Coyote's bone and lake-water
- What happened to the tic-tocs
- Zimmy and Gamma
- Jack
That little scary lady Jones- The Shadow Men
- Robot
- The Seraph robots
- Arthur's new body
- Kat's bird-robot-goddess ether form
- Kat's computer
- Red and Ayilu
- Inhabitants of Fun City
- What the Court is using these jabronis for
- More relationship development between Annie and her dad
- Renard's reaction to the events of this chapter
- Forest inhabitants' reaction to the events of this chapter
- The Omega Device (may not appear till the actual climax, though)
- The identity of the Artilleryman
- Doctor Disaster (?)
- John's death (?)
- Brinnie (?)
- Why there are no rats in the Court
I do expect to see some of these over the next chapter or two, but many of them still feel like they're a ways down the road. |
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Post by Alexandragon on Mar 24, 2018 10:58:30 GMT
Haha) Yeah, and now LASER-cows will be leading massive attack on ARM.   |
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Post by Per on Mar 24, 2018 11:09:25 GMT
But "every McGuffin ever" is a bit much, even allowing for hyperbole. Also, they're "MacGuffins" even less than they are "Chekhov's Guns". |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2018 12:45:26 GMT
Yeah, and now LASER-cows will be leading massive attack on ARM. :D I must have missed the Intel Inside sticker. |
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Post by todd on Mar 24, 2018 13:28:36 GMT
If this is indeed the start of the end, we probably won't see the whole of Annie and Kat's "seven years of school" (or a bit more because of Annie's being set back a year) after all. (All the more so since, by the time this initial attack is over, the way it's proceeding, the Court would barely be recognizable.)
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Post by pyradonis on Mar 24, 2018 20:54:59 GMT
This definitely feels like the beginning of the endgame for the comic, even if we've still got 20 chapters to go. Every McGuffin ever is coming into play. Beginning of the endgame, I'll grant you. (Perhaps.) But "every McGuffin ever" is a bit much, even allowing for hyperbole. I won't believe we're close the endgame until I see at least 2/3 of the following come into play: - The power station
- Coyote's tooth
- Coyote's bone and lake-water
- What happened to the tic-tocs
- Zimmy and Gamma
- Jack
That little scary lady Jones- The Shadow Men
- Robot
- The Seraph robots
- Arthur's new body
- Kat's bird-robot-goddess ether form
- Kat's computer
- Red and Ayilu
- Inhabitants of Fun City
- What the Court is using these jabronis for
- More relationship development between Annie and her dad
- Renard's reaction to the events of this chapter
- Forest inhabitants' reaction to the events of this chapter
- The Omega Device (may not appear till the actual climax, though)
- The identity of the Artilleryman
- Doctor Disaster (?)
- John's death (?)
- Brinnie (?)
- Why there are no rats in the Court
I do expect to see some of these over the next chapter or two, but many of them still feel like they're a ways down the road. I'm still waiting for Renard's reaction to the events of chapters 59 and 60! I would add - the Seed Bismuth - the real power source for the ancient robots - the developing friendship between Renard and Eglamore - those decaying animals (which were definitely not psychopomps) who made Tony cut his own hand off. What are they and why did they do this? - the program Tony speaks of - Man's endeavor to become God - Jack's etheric abilities (the ones not bestowed by Whitelegs) - Renard being set free (?) - a green boyfriend for Annie (j/k, OR AM I?) - EDIT: what Kat finds out when studying Diego's Soul-Binding Arrow |
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Post by todd on Mar 25, 2018 1:03:45 GMT
One ominous note I noticed upon rereading this page: the tree sheds all its leaves as it changes. Raising the question - what price may Gilltie Wood pay for this attack on the Court - by which I mean, not what it might suffer if the Court strikes back, but how this assault might strip it of much of its original nature.
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Post by fia on Mar 25, 2018 12:40:45 GMT
I wish I had something clever to say but all I have in my head is an ominous version of the Kokiri Forest Theme playing. |
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Post by blazingstar on Mar 26, 2018 13:58:59 GMT
Beginning of the endgame, I'll grant you. (Perhaps.) But "every McGuffin ever" is a bit much, even allowing for hyperbole. I won't believe we're close the endgame until I see at least 2/3 of the following come into play: This is the second time I've seen a reference to John's death. Did I miss something? Why do we believe John (as in John and Margo, right?) is dead? |
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Post by madjack on Mar 26, 2018 14:17:46 GMT
Beginning of the endgame, I'll grant you. (Perhaps.) But "every McGuffin ever" is a bit much, even allowing for hyperbole. I won't believe we're close the endgame until I see at least 2/3 of the following come into play: This is the second time I've seen a reference to John's death. Did I miss something? Why do we believe John (as in John and Margo, right?) is dead? |
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Post by mturtle7 on Mar 26, 2018 22:47:58 GMT
This is the second time I've seen a reference to John's death. Did I miss something? Why do we believe John (as in John and Margo, right?) is dead? Because according to the Laws of Flashback Tropes, you're not allowed to wistfully dream about your old high-school boyfriend unless a)you're meeting him again for the first time in years or b) he's dead. |
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Post by saardvark on Mar 27, 2018 2:03:04 GMT
Because according to the Laws of Flashback Tropes, you're not allowed to wistfully dream about your old high-school boyfriend unless a)you're meeting him again for the first time in years or b) he's dead. IIRC the speculation revolved around the ring on her finger. Had they married, and he died tragically young? Or he died first, and she later married someone else but still remembers him? (Actually, maybe he didn't die at all, but she thinks back and wishes she had married him...) |
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