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Post by storyteller on Jan 2, 2021 23:58:18 GMT
Kellin now has a name. And she's standing up on her own now, so whatever happened to her prior to the Annies seeing the treens can't have been too bad. I think the theory that she's Zimmy is interesting. It could be true. We'll see. But for now, face value has it that Kellin met Gamma and fell for her, and can't believe that she has any affection for a whatever-they-see-Zimmy-as. This is also a return to the question of where Gamma is – could she and Zimmy have had an argument? Could she have left Zimmy, at least temporarily? Could Zimmy have driven her off with her own feelings that she doesn't deserve Gamma? There's clearly a backstory here that we don't know. And considering that not even 05 and Pink Hoodie seem to know the score, and since they're in a place of relative shelter for now, we might see some of that backstory soon. Annie might ask Kellin where Gamma is, and Kellin might explain some relevant events. Based on the last panel of today's page, I think it's a pretty good bet that that wasn't something Kellin would naturally say.
That being said, I can't believe it never occurred to me that Gamma might have just, like...LEFT Zimmy, voluntarily. I was assuming that she's been kidnapped by the Court or something, but there's not REALLY any reason to suspect that, is there? Occam's Razor, after all. We already know that Zimmy and Gamma's relationship has a history of being pretty damn crazy and toxic in so many ways. I just recently got my printed copy of GC Volume 7, and reading that all again got me thinking a lot about the way GC depicts a lot of different kinds of weird and toxic relationships - Tony and Annie, Coyote and Ysengrin, Red and Ayilu, Surma and Renard, and certainly Zimmy - so that it's clear that despite how horribly everything is going wrong, there are still real feelings of love here, and neither person is completely "evil" or unchanging.
In Zimmy and Gamma's case, while there are plenty of times when we've seen diabetes-worhty levels of sweetness from them, a lot of their relationship seems to boil down to, "Gamma shoulders literally all of Zimmy's burdens 24/7, while Zimmy desperately tries to keep Gamma totally isolated from the rest of the world out of sheer jealousy and avarice". They actually seem to have been working on that, in their last few appearances - in The Torn Sea, for instance, Gamma seems to have been slowly approaching a point where she might actually have a life outside of solving Zimmy's problems! ... Very slowly. But it's entirely possible that things finally broke down there, as either Zimmy or Gamma could have reached the point where they understood how awful their whole situation was, but weren't willing to keep slowly working on it like they seem to have been. Which could have lead to a big argument, like you say Gemminie , and Zimmy wandering off, completely lost and in pain...until we get to this scene. Great. Just great. Hmm - I have to agree that the response in Spring Heeled Part 2 definitely falls squarely in the toxic category - and by the same token the whole mistranslating thing very much is suspicious at least to actively toxic. And the only reason I'm even considering it only being suspicious is that Chester does have a reputation and Zimmy is very socially maladjusted so that her translations of other conversations may have been much more accurate. But really I'm including that that possibility for completeness' sake. Zimmy's "I'd kill everyone for Gamma" thing though - She knows the relationship is unbalanced. And looking back it looks like she tries to give back to Gamma and does not like it being unbalanced. Going back to Dobranac, Gamma Zimmy tries to help take care of Gamma like Gamma takes care of her. Zimmy seems to have a different response pattern to potential threats when she's with Gamma then by herself. By herself Zimmy will run, (also here), cower and essentially be bound by fear. (Which actually makes me wonder about this page here where Zimmy is begging Gamma to wake up. On one hand - if Gamma wakes up then the bug monster goes away. On the other - Zimmy isn't running. And she survived without Gamma prior to this so I think she probably could escape - just you know it would require abandoning Gamma) Look at Zimmy's pattern when it comes to trying to protect Gamma in comparison. She essentially always moves in front of her and essentially puff up like a bird to look scarier. It's just we don't see Zimmy's bluffs working... except for this one time with Paz. Actually given that Zimmy has always been able to see Kat like... well Angel Kat. This page has a lot more meaning. (Which I guess in hindsight makes me wonder if the main cause of why we don't see Zimmy doing such things as dealing with severe sea sickness for Gamma is largely due to lack of opportunity) After all, when Annie was dying because of Anthony (though no one knew it at the time) Gamma had to convince Zimmy to go see her because she was so scared of Kat. In Dobranac, Gamma... Zimmy came because Gamma needed to sleep. And never mind that Annie was probably next to Kat Donlan, the scary angel person. Gamma needed to sleep. The concern was not Zimmy going critical while Gamma slept but that Gamma desperately needed to rest. Which, given that Gamma chose to stay with Zimmy makes me think that Zimmy couldn't convince Gamma to sleep without Annie standing in. Which fits, given that Dobranac, Gamma also puts Zimmy coming to the Court in the first place as probably for Gamma's sake given the framing of this scene here. Just from how you have Zimmy standing in front of Gamma (which she usually does when she thinks there's a threat when Gamma is around) with the words "[Gamma] will be safe there" at the bottom of the panel. And Gamma did not speak English then, and probably still doesn't. The Court Officials were not trying to convince Gamma. They were trying to convince Zimmy and part of that was Gamma's safety. Power Station - look at what Zimmy is actually saying when she starts threatening the group. "Ger off don' touch 'er what are you doin' I -I'll bust you up real bad!" Emphasis mine. "Don't touch her." Three guesses to who Zimmy meant and the first two don't count. And again Zimmy is in front of Gamma. Which is something that knowing how Gamma nullifies Zimmy's power in hindsight makes it even more of a bluff. Zimmy can do stuff with her power - ask Anthony how he got his scar. But she can't with Gamma. It's a small thing that we don't see happen in later chapters- largely I think due to two factors. One) Gamma is tall and either Zimmy is not growing or she's a shrimp. It makes the whole stand in front of someone to protect them fairly ridiculous which is not optimal when you are trying to bluff someone off. (I also think Zimmy's technique has evolved considering how she helped drive Paz off for the Annies). Two) Well, the audience knows Zimmy now and so does the cast. And she and Gamma typically know their environment so they're not surprised. Which you know makes sense given the reason Zimmy came to the court - to keep Gamma safe. By and large Gamma is safe in the court. The outside dangers of two girls on the street were made no longer an issue - and the issues that remain are Zimmy's. pyradonis has an excellent point as to there not being seeds to Gamma suddenly walking away from Zimmy. The last time we saw Gamma was here: With all implications being that Zimmy being extremely happy because Gamma was able to sleep - and can be happy without her abilities affecting her mood in the same way that one can go to a sibling's award ceremony and be happy for them but be minorly grumpy due to a migraine. After all, Zimmy asks essentially if Gamma needs more sleep. There's essentially no indicators previously that point to Gamma leaving. Now I can see Zimmy running away if she thought something had tipped the balance between them. But - well last chapter looked a lot like Zimmy was looking for Gamma/not expecting Gamma to not be there. (Which would also explain the Elves thinking she's sneaking around. This is Zimmy we're talking about here after all. She avoids people, and the Elves were avoiding the Chester kids. Her suddenly changing her movement patterns to look for Gamma - well she's going to be suspicious of the new comers in the area first because she and Gamma have been in the court for years without Gamma being abducted.) |
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Post by Runningflame on Jan 3, 2021 2:32:27 GMT
Compare today's panel 3 with panel 5 here. Seems pretty clear to me. (Unless it's another fake-out, of course.) An optimistic prediction: Annie, remembering the sort of shenanigans that happen in Zimmingham, will realize what's going on and say, "Zimmy, is that you?" Actually I never saw any indication in Spring Heeled pt. 2 that Annie saw what Zimmy saw. We saw the Birminghell part of the chapter completely from Zimmy's POV, and the real Annie acted like the real Annie would, neither believing she was Zimmy, nor wondering why there was another Annie running around, or getting angry Gamma would call "Annie" by "her" name. All Annie knows with certainty is that not all Nobodies are faceless and mute. Well... you're right. Ah well. Maybe Annie will learn something this time, then. |
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Post by jda on Jan 3, 2021 3:20:29 GMT
Oh no! Has Zimmy killed Gamma already?
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Post by foxurus on Jan 3, 2021 3:37:03 GMT
Based on the last panel of today's page, I think it's a pretty good bet that that wasn't something Kellin would naturally say.
That being said, I can't believe it never occurred to me that Gamma might have just, like...LEFT Zimmy, voluntarily. I was assuming that she's been kidnapped by the Court or something, but there's not REALLY any reason to suspect that, is there? Occam's Razor, after all. We already know that Zimmy and Gamma's relationship has a history of being pretty damn crazy and toxic in so many ways. I just recently got my printed copy of GC Volume 7, and reading that all again got me thinking a lot about the way GC depicts a lot of different kinds of weird and toxic relationships - Tony and Annie, Coyote and Ysengrin, Red and Ayilu, Surma and Renard, and certainly Zimmy - so that it's clear that despite how horribly everything is going wrong, there are still real feelings of love here, and neither person is completely "evil" or unchanging. In Zimmy and Gamma's case, while there are plenty of times when we've seen diabetes-worhty levels of sweetness from them, a lot of their relationship seems to boil down to, "Gamma shoulders literally all of Zimmy's burdens 24/7, while Zimmy desperately tries to keep Gamma totally isolated from the rest of the world out of sheer jealousy and avarice". They actually seem to have been working on that, in their last few appearances - in The Torn Sea, for instance, Gamma seems to have been slowly approaching a point where she might actually have a life outside of solving Zimmy's problems! ... Very slowly. But it's entirely possible that things finally broke down there, as either Zimmy or Gamma could have reached the point where they understood how awful their whole situation was, but weren't willing to keep slowly working on it like they seem to have been. Which could have lead to a big argument, like you say Gemminie , and Zimmy wandering off, completely lost and in pain...until we get to this scene. Great. Just great. Hmm - I have to agree that the response in Spring Heeled Part 2 definitely falls squarely in the toxic category - and by the same token the whole mistranslating thing very much is suspicious at least to actively toxic. And the only reason I'm even considering it only being suspicious is that Chester does have a reputation and Zimmy is very socially maladjusted so that her translations of other conversations may have been much more accurate. But really I'm including that that possibility for completeness' sake. Tom clears that up in the author's note. "Zimmy is straight up lying. She knows the best way to keep a friend is to make them think everyone else hates them." I think that her mistranslations are much more egregious than her possessiveness in Spring Heeled 2, actually. While her reaction in Spring Heeled isn't okay, it's at least a gut reaction (during a etheric-psychotic break, mind). The translations are calculated and cruel. She's trying to eat away Gamma's self-confidence so that Gamma doesn't feel like she can leave Zimmy without being completely alone. I think Gamma knows that she's mistranslating things, but I don't think Zimmy knows that Gamma knows. (Zimmy doesn't need to manipulate Gamma to make her stay, of course. She's been pretty obviously devoted to Zimmy. Perhaps Zimmy has finally driven her off, or will at some point, but I expect that instead Zimmy will start to loosen her possessiveness as she slowly realizes that Gamma really does like her.) Actually given that Zimmy has always been able to see Kat like... well Angel Kat. This page has a lot more meaning. (Which I guess in hindsight makes me wonder if the main cause of why we don't see Zimmy doing such things as dealing with severe sea sickness for Gamma is largely due to lack of opportunity) After all, when Annie was dying because of Anthony (though no one knew it at the time) Gamma had to convince Zimmy to go see her because she was so scared of Kat. In Dobranac, Gamma... Zimmy came because Gamma needed to sleep. And never mind that Annie was probably next to Kat Donlan, the scary angel person. Gamma needed to sleep. The concern was not Zimmy going critical while Gamma slept but that Gamma desperately needed to rest. Which, given that Gamma chose to stay with Zimmy makes me think that Zimmy couldn't convince Gamma to sleep without Annie standing in. I don't know that Zimmy has always seen Kat that way, actually. Her etheric form may have changed at some point. I dunno if "big nose" is what I'd call someone if that's what I saw them as. |
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Post by storyteller on Jan 3, 2021 6:30:38 GMT
Actually given that Zimmy has always been able to see Kat like... well Angel Kat. This page has a lot more meaning. (Which I guess in hindsight makes me wonder if the main cause of why we don't see Zimmy doing such things as dealing with severe sea sickness for Gamma is largely due to lack of opportunity) After all, when Annie was dying because of Anthony (though no one knew it at the time) Gamma had to convince Zimmy to go see her because she was so scared of Kat. In Dobranac, Gamma... Zimmy came because Gamma needed to sleep. And never mind that Annie was probably next to Kat Donlan, the scary angel person. Gamma needed to sleep. The concern was not Zimmy going critical while Gamma slept but that Gamma desperately needed to rest. Which, given that Gamma chose to stay with Zimmy makes me think that Zimmy couldn't convince Gamma to sleep without Annie standing in. I don't know that Zimmy has always seen Kat that way, actually. Her etheric form may have changed at some point. I dunno if "big nose" is what I'd call someone if that's what I saw them as. Ah so that's the page I missed. One second. Here. The relevant lines are: "The first time I saw [Kat] I knew [her breaking through to the unseen world and grinding her gears] would happen." "I can't stand even lookin' at her! She terrifies me, man, haha!" Unfortunately I can't credit however posted this because it's a damn good observation. Zimmy's comment ... even conveys new information to the readers (Zimmy was perhaps not terrified because of Kat's appearance being inexplicably alien, but rather because she understands very well what it represents). And thanks for pointing out Todd's text - I forget to read those. And that observation fits because - well if it's from the first that Zimmy knew... Then that Angel form, or at least what it represents Zimmy knew from the first because it makes no sense narratively for it to be anything else. Thereby if Zimmy was always afraid of Kat - its for the same reason she was afraid of Kat during Divine. Thereby Zimmy was completely ignoring that to let Gamma get some sleep in Dobranac, Gamma. |
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Post by blahzor on Jan 3, 2021 10:44:36 GMT
Oh no! Has Zimmy killed Gamma already? She just put her in a Bly manor |
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Post by foxurus on Jan 3, 2021 11:19:22 GMT
I don't know that Zimmy has always seen Kat that way, actually. Her etheric form may have changed at some point. I dunno if "big nose" is what I'd call someone if that's what I saw them as. Ah so that's the page I missed. One second. Here. The relevant lines are: "The first time I saw [Kat] I knew [her breaking through to the unseen world and grinding her gears] would happen." "I can't stand even lookin' at her! She terrifies me, man, haha!" Unfortunately I can't credit however posted this because it's a damn good observation. Zimmy's comment ... even conveys new information to the readers (Zimmy was perhaps not terrified because of Kat's appearance being inexplicably alien, but rather because she understands very well what it represents). And thanks for pointing out Todd's text - I forget to read those. And that observation fits because - well if it's from the first that Zimmy knew... Then that Angel form, or at least what it represents Zimmy knew from the first because it makes no sense narratively for it to be anything else. Thereby if Zimmy was always afraid of Kat - its for the same reason she was afraid of Kat during Divine. Thereby Zimmy was completely ignoring that to let Gamma get some sleep in Dobranac, Gamma. Fair enough. I suppose it's unlikely that she's lying/posturing in that page about having always known, but it still doesn't seem to fit with how she reacted the very first time she saw Kat. I agree that her behavior in Dobranac, Gamma still makes sense if she could see the Angel. (Though I will admit, her leaving in Two Strange Girls is a bit odd -- Gamma was in the middle of a nap and they just up and left.) |
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Post by davidm on Jan 3, 2021 18:43:49 GMT
I have a terrible feeling that Gamma is really boxbot.
While everyone else stared at Zimmy and looked down on her and caused her distress, Boxbot would have just said "hello.... awwwww" which touched her heart.
"Nobody likes Boxbot 1 either; he's terrible."
Loveboat proves that Zimmy was able to warp reality to turn boxbot into Gamma after realising Boxbot was like her "terrible, no one likes".
In end story will be showing that the terrible power of boxbot love is stronger than all the old men running the court, Coyotes and Loops and MechGod Kats and Firegirl triplets stirring up trouble in Gunnergrigg court.
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Post by storyteller on Jan 3, 2021 19:03:35 GMT
Ah so that's the page I missed. One second. Here. The relevant lines are: "The first time I saw [Kat] I knew [her breaking through to the unseen world and grinding her gears] would happen." "I can't stand even lookin' at her! She terrifies me, man, haha!" Unfortunately I can't credit however posted this because it's a damn good observation. And thanks for pointing out Todd's text - I forget to read those. And that observation fits because - well if it's from the first that Zimmy knew... Then that Angel form, or at least what it represents Zimmy knew from the first because it makes no sense narratively for it to be anything else. Thereby if Zimmy was always afraid of Kat - its for the same reason she was afraid of Kat during Divine. Thereby Zimmy was completely ignoring that to let Gamma get some sleep in Dobranac, Gamma. Fair enough. I suppose it's unlikely that she's lying/posturing in that page about having always known, but it still doesn't seem to fit with how she reacted the very first time she saw Kat. I think the behavior fits once you add in another behavior - Zimmy bluffs. The trick is that the audience knows she does now, so even when she does a good one the audience knows it's mostly bluster. Like when her response to the Seraphs saying in Torn Sea that: "Subject Zeta will perform a Level 6 Etheric Distortion upon request," was "Like hell I will! I'll kill you!" While fighting and trying to get loose. The audience knows she's bluffing as in she's not very good at actually marshalling her abilities. And the only way for her probably get the capability to do that - includes said Etheric Distortion by necessity due to how her ability works. But if that was the first time we'd met Zimmy and we did have the Seraphs inform us that the newly introduced Zeta could distort reality well enough for Kat to make the Cruise Ship a body... I think we would have taken her bluster a lot more seriously. We also saw her bluff with Kat in Divine. If the chapter had started here then the audience would have been very clueless as to Zimmy being terrified by Kat. After all this page has Zimmy essentially needling Kat knowing that Gamma is leaving soon so that Zeta can stretch out her abilities to try and help Annie. And the aftermath of Gamma leaving has Zimmy stutter very slightly but cover it up: ""L-Let's have a look at you then, Carver." Indeed, it's only after the Angel Kat reveal that audience figured out that it was Kat Zimmy was frightened of. There is precedent for Zimmy being Zimmy at Kat even when she has to know about the Angel Kat thing as she was scared of Kat already. Also in Two Strange Girls it was the first time the audience met Zimmy... It's actually possible for Zimmy to have already seen Kat around before so she'd not be surprised at the existence of Angel Kat. (And the only way out of the area Gamma and Zimmy were in were past Kat so avoiding her actually was not a possibility that time. Especially But instead just moved to "Bluff and try to convince the scary thing to leave". Especially as looking at the page, look at panel 4 and consider what the emotional impact of say Slender Man as that shadowy figure at the end of the row.) |
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Post by Dvandaemon on Jan 4, 2021 19:05:09 GMT
Yeah this was the specific page I was referring to. It gives the impression that Zimmy is reasonably insecure about their relationship, which makes sense given that she tends to exploit the language barrier to alienate Gamma from others. Zimmy knows what's right but she has so little going for her that she's more than a little selfish. |
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Post by stclair on Jan 4, 2021 20:48:25 GMT
"I am Zimmy's self-loathing."
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