About the Court

[alexthegreater]

So what is Gunnerkrigg court anyways? We know its a school, and we know its a bit large and Gothic and downright strange but who made it and why?

My theory is that it was created by the British government to raise children with unusual talents and study the paranormal. It also appears to be some sort of containment facility for things man was not meant to know.


Any other theories?

[Aspen d'Grey]

I think that all of our main characters had parents that went to the school- we know this for a fact for at least two of them, Annie & Kat.

[Uglyhead]

Heh, I entertained a similar theory for a while, but it felt a little bit off to me. Probably because it seems to parallel the X-men so much. Intead of teaching mutants how to control their powers, you've got paranormal children being observed and educated. Heck, even Dr. Disaster's holo-class seems reminiscent of Xavier's danger room. Parallels seem to taper off after that, though.

I don't know if I'd pin it on the Bristish Government. For one thing, you really think they'd let a fun fellow like Disaster interrupt classes? Heh! The whole "to raise paranormal children" angle seems possible, though. After all, the current faculty were former students, and at least two of them have demonstrated magical traits; Mrs.Donlan and her binding spell on Rey, plus Eglamore's glowy sword deal on the bridge. For some reason, they decided to stay at/return to the school in adulthood - as if they've dedicated their lives to Gunnerkrigg Court. The faculty seem keen on protecting the school(and whatever else GC is) from some kind of outside force, perhaps while keeping secrets -in-.

Er, should I put Aspen's fancy [spec] tags around that? It would probably be safest to just assume everything I ever post is speculation.

[Aspen d'Grey]

If it's a part of the 'British Government', I get the feeling that it's the same way that Rowlings Ministry of Magic is 'part' of the government. It's almsot certain that Gunnerkrigg Court is much more than jsut a school- when Kat & Annie fly over it, they even say as much. All of our teachers have a lot of hidden background, heck, even most of our students do. I'm going to try and categorize the characters into 'Normal', 'Paranormal', and 'Just Plain Weird' a little later.

[The Contemptible Cat]

Isn't it possible that Gunnerkrigg Court isn't actually strange, and it's the whole world that's mysterious and quirky?

[alexthegreater]

aspengrey said:

If it's a part of the 'British Government', I get the feeling that it's the same way that Rowlings Ministry of Magic is 'part' of the government. It's almsot certain that Gunnerkrigg Court is much more than jsut a school- when Kat & Annie fly over it, they even say as much. All of our teachers have a lot of hidden background, heck, even most of our students do. I'm going to try and categorize the characters into 'Normal', 'Paranormal', and 'Just Plain Weird' a little later.

Well its probably top secret to even the highest levels of the government. Any large nation will discover a few strange things and need a place to keep them. The United States has Area51 and the United Kingdom has The Court.

[freemage]

Contemptible Cat: True--we haven't really seen much of the 'outside world', so we don't know how exceptional GC really is. A few things, though:

Antinomy's ability to see spirits seems to catch people off-guard (including the spirits themselves); this suggests that such abilities, if not unheard of, are at least rare. In addition, it's quite clear that the students here have been actively sought out and 'recruited'--that suggests they are exceptional, at the very least.

It seems reasonable to speculate that the school is, if not the complete enigma it would be in our world, at least a rarity in the setting of GC.

[Aspen d'Grey]

We can only say that for Annie and Gamma/Zimmy, though. Kat is here because her parents are teachers- not to say that if she didn't qualify she would still be here, but I get the feeling that there might be some variance in why everyone is at GC.

[ethyl]

They seem to get taught normal things (excluding Disaster's lesson of course) and a lot of the kids seem pretty normal, Willy Winsbury and Janet both seem like normal 11 year olds to me. And neither seem too smart. Maybe you can pay to go to this school too?(that's just a speculation though) Because a lot of selective UK schools can be paid into or can earn a scholarship.

[La Poire]

I don't think the Court really is under governmental control, although perhaps they co-operate. It does seem to me, though, that the school and whatever else it is has quite a great deal of money and power: it is extremely technically advanced (although we haven't seen much of the outside world to compare), it is very large, and anyway, what would a school want with "large animal holding cells" (from ch. 3) strong enough to hold dragons? (and yes I know it was a Rogat Orjak)

I'm also curious about the Court's surroundings. I mean, why put a school next to an apparently haunted wood, separated only by a also-haunted immensely deep creek?

[arkwright]

ethyl said:

They seem to get taught normal things (excluding Disaster's lesson of course) and a lot of the kids seem pretty normal, Willy Winsbury and Janet both seem like normal 11 year olds to me. And neither seem too smart.

I like this idea, because the students seem to be getting a regular secondary school education (including geography lessons about rock weathering and Ox-bow lakes) but some of the teachers have taken it upon themselves to introduce their own agenda into the curriculum.

The main difference between the structure of gunnerkrigg and a regular school is it's size and architecture resembling a mix between a grammar school for boarders and a university campus. The idea of a university campus is also suggested by the big research areas the staff have on the premises, perhaps their further education academic work is going towards improving the teaching of the younger students.

[shadow314]

Hmm well, I think you may be right about the British government because the school system (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not British) is set up a lot like British school system. Four Houses etc...

And its defiantly more than a school. I mean it looks like its as large as a small city! I believe Gunnerkrigg Court is were they put all the strange and weird. The strange and weird can be people, objects, animals, supernatural things, etc... Also it also might be like a center for people how have experienced supernatural events. For example, Antimony, sees "Death" in all his forms, doing his job, at the hospital. Also we know now that Zimmy, and Gamma are links some how and they go through a lot of strange events together. Anyway thats what I think.

[abel]

It seems like a nice boarding school compared to mine. it is the same in a few aspects tho.

i think gunnerkrigg is like torchwood (doctor who spinoff, anyone heard of it?) not really part of the government...but still official.

[nickgoodway]

Given his apparently lecherous nature Reynardine would fit right in at Torchwood

[Aspen d'Grey]

Hmm, as for that Anyan Waters being a 'creek', they only looked that way because the cavern itself was so immense. My estimate put the river about 100 yards across, doing some fun trigonometry that I can scan in and post if anyone really cares.

[arkwright]

aspengrey said:

Hmm, as for that Anyan Waters being a 'creek', they only looked that way because the cavern itself was so immense. My estimate put the river about 100 yards across, doing some fun trigonometry that I can scan in and post if anyone really cares.

It's alright, we trust you

[todd]

ethyl said:

Willy Winsbury and Janet both seem like normal 11 year olds to me.

Though (as I've mentioned elsewhere) I'm curious about Janet's shouting at Mort in the Epilogue to Chapter Four in a very Shakespearean style ("Would thou wert clean enough to spit on!") Is that a sign that there's something deeper about her below the surface, or had she simply been reading too many pseudo-archaic fantasy novels lately?

[rastarogue]

I feel that the court was originally a center for learning in general but with areas for the paranormal (The animal chambers), but that in recent years it has not been getting enough of the "normal" students to support itself on that. Remeber that the new library had virtually nothing and that the old Library had a ton of books (sorry I dont have chapters for these). Because there have not been enough "Normal" students the "paranormal" events and students have become more open. It also seems that most of the teachers are there because thay are "paranormal" themselves and have stayed because this is probably the only place where they can use their rather "abnormal" powers.
I placed quotes around words that are comparing it to our world. In GC's world it maybe reversed.

[La Poire]

'Creek' was probably the wrong word to use, I meant something closer to 'canyon'. English isn't my first language.

One thing I'm wondering about is something Annie or Kat said at the end of the Broken Glass chapter about how they never see any other kids around – and come to think of it, I can't remember ever seeing anyone much older-looking than Antimony et co, while the British secondary goes up to 17–18 year-olds in the sixth form. Does that mean the school is spread over the whole compound? It would make more sense to me to have the whole school part of the Court fairly close together, but perhaps the students are placed differently around the Court depending on class/age, or on different criteria completely.

[Aspen d'Grey]

It's certainly big enough for that... They see others from the North class of 7th Year Queslet (sp?) but nobody else... Hmm, so there's a lot of segregation between the classes, or, their class is the only one. Tea might be of a higher year, she certainly knows alot about the Court.

Or, just maybe, it doesn't really matter to the story so Tom hasn't shown it.

[todd]

aspengrey said:

Tea might be of a higher year, she certainly knows alot about the Court.

Tea looks the same age as Annie and Co. to me.

[neal]

I thought Tea was sort of a narrator. Not someone in the comic, but a friend of Tom's in comic form, explaining for us things that aren't common knowledge. But who knows, maybe she will show up later as a student, she does have the uniform.

[iMacThere4iAm]

I can't find this Tea you keep mentioning. Can someone post a link?

[alexthegreater]

Well I don't think there are any "normal" kids at the court. If you look into them you would probably find something unusual about all of them.

Janet could be a time traveler. Winsbury could be some kind of imp.

[rastarogue]

Where is this "Tea" you mention?

[missushow]

This gal: www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=16


And I kind of agree with Neal... She seems more of an avatar, rather than an actual character.

[Aspen d'Grey]

Tea is from the first two Bonus Pages, the girl with white hair. Also, in the Art pages there's a drawing of her & Tom. (teaanme.jpg, which is where we go the name (this was posted elsewhere first))

[rastarogue]

I would guess that she is a narrator that will probably turn up to have a minor connection to the plot (other then explaining things).

[Aspen d'Grey]

This is why I suspected Tea being of a higher year- it conveniently takes her out of the story, as it's mentioned that the Years & Houses don't really interact much, and thus, she can be a 'real' student but not really ever feature in the comic.

[tomenglish]

Has anyone else wondered why security around the border of Gunnerkrigg is so tight while inside there seems to be almost no security structure whatsoever? Inside the school, kids rarely seem to be supervised, and the obvious lack of large crowds of students makes me wonder just how many people live at Gunnerkrigg. Outside, there are numerous ticking mechanical birds, a giant bridge with an alarm, and the school itself is apparently set in a very dangerous location. The "Gunner's Cragg" doesn't strike me as the kind of place designed to "nurture," but rather as a place where you put something (or someone) to forget about it.