People who sensibly accept that institutional dress codes exist for a reason are pro-Tony.
But wasn't Anne only called out on it because of her resemblance to Surma?
If it's class policy overall the he'd be in the right sure.
It's definitely policy in
Tony's classes. Whether it's school-wide is unclear--like so many things about the Court--but Tom has mentioned that he
deliberately drew all of Annie's classmates without makeup, and that they do find Annie's use of it a little ridiculous. Just one of her oddities that they've gotten used to.
Policy or not, I think it's a Queslett House norm. Some other female students do wear makeup: Gamma and Jenny now, and Surma and Brinnie back in the day. But they're all "freaks and weirdos" from Chester House (probably--Jenny's not been confirmed). Lastly,
Parley's friends don't seem to follow much of any dress code, but they're a few years older and also in Thornhill.
When Anne is being praised for being so mature about forgiving him is it merely cause she has the patience of a saint or perhaps cause the only mature option is forgiveness to some people?
If her over response was say less loving would readers give her some understanding or call her a brat, wench, witch or some colorful phrases for it I wonder.
I'm sure some readers would say anything, and there are probably a few young evangelicals out there who think Annie
owes her father forgiveness. Never met one, though. I think the
entire rest of the comic probably filters out most readers who'd have that attitude...
Institutional dress codes can be pretty misogynistic
Misogyny my bum, girls got the choice of skirts or pants while boys were forced,
forced into trousers. If that's not clear pro-female bias I don't know what is.
At the risk of being utterly humorless, misandry and misogyny are not incompatible. Unless you manage to tick every privilege box at once, the patriarchy has a special flavor of oppression just for you!
E.g., girls get to wear skirts or pants, but here's a thirty-page manual on how to wear each one
properly, and if you don't switch between them at
just the right times you're a tramp or a tomboy and deserve whatever you get.
Meanwhile boys get to wear anything they want!!!as long as it's pants, and as long as it isn't "queer" or "thuggish" or "emo" or whatever the local countercultures are. But don't worry, you don't need even to bother reading the dress code; if you get it wrong we'll just let you know by arresting you or knocking your teeth out.
And enbys are Boxbot. We just can't believe you'd be so rude as to exist in the first place, let alone make us have to worry about how you should
dress.
Opinions will vary on which of these situations sucks more; I find it a fairly meaningless question.
That's 100% true. I would add just a couple of caveats:
First, the enforcement pattern is
heavily moderated by race. White girls are usually far more likely to get coded than white boys, but black and Latinx boys and girls are coded at roughly equal rates, and the boys are usually
disciplined on dress code violations more than the girls are. (Some states and districts are
exceptions to this, of course; it often depends on which civil rights lawsuits they've lost most recently.)
Second, in my experience, boys' dress codes are more likely than girls' to be enforced via other rules. For example, by citing the boy for "gang-related behavior" when they wear anything dangerously ethnic, or by telling them to change their clothes and then citing them for "defiance" when they bristle, or just by looking the other way when other students beat the crap out of them. Girls kind of
have to be controlled via a dress code, because they're usually better at avoiding the cruder tools of discipline, and because it's currently politically incorrect to charge them with Being A Filthy Strumpet. In public schools, at least.
Again, I fully agree that dress codes are driven by misogyny. They're just
also driven by a seething stew of other prejudices.
Sebastian, yeah, IMO he really is a bad father. If I emotionally devastate my child and repeatedly humiliate her in front of all of her friends and peers, then never apologize but just gradually stop doing the bad stuff a little, I'm not a good father.
Repeteadly? I remember three times. One , in front of the class, which I already mentioned, a second at the
Donlan's home and a last
at the labPersonally, I don't see the lab scene as any flavor of humiliation. I can see how it might be read differently, but I think Tony was just agreeing that Kat's initial designs needed work, hence Annie's contribution was genuinely useful. Annie herself seemed
entirely validated by the whole thing. Kat didn't really get that, since she's used to Anja's
effusive if slightly superficial style of praise, but a sober "good work" is exactly what Annie wants to hear.
Do you think he wanted to ask her? Seems to me he was agonizing because he couldn't figure out a kind way to explicitly
reject her.
That leaves Donny. Donny knows Tonny well, is mature enough not to be bitter and judgmental, and has a lot of incentive to encourage Tony to improve. Until now he has refrained from pointing fingers or excusing... But I would like to point out that he doesn't hang out with Tony, either. Didn't they use to be close friends? You'd think they hang out more... But it appears not.
I'm not sure if that is a hint that Donny feels angry or not. I suppose we'll have to wait and see.
Hm...I thought it was pretty clear that Don is massively
angry and
disappointed with him. We've only seen two conversations between them since Tony got back, and I don't think Don uttered a single word of approval, sympathy or affection in either of them. He's not throwing F-bombs or punches, because he's
Don, but he's alternately scolding and incredulous.
As for Anthony, by his own admission, he acted as harshly as he did because of his inner torment over Surma, and Annie reminding him of her. Thus, for example, his ban on her wearing make-up wasn't because it was inappropriate for the classroom, but because seeing her wearing make-up brought back troubling memories of his late wife.
I agree on the makeup specifically, which is why I say that that's one of the two times Tony lapsed even by his own standards. And that too is familiar to me; I know lots of adults who fail to distinguish between "you need to present your sexuality appropriately" and "stop
having a sexuality, child!" That said, makeup
does appear to be inappropriate under Queslett norms; I just don't think the Court leadership cares much about that, nor does Tony have a good internal justification for attacking her over it. He was just angry, frightened and dissociating, and
his "Fire" chose to lash out over that instead of, y'know, torching a volleyball.
I
don't think the rest of his harshness was outside the Court's idea of "reasonable discipline," but yes, almost certainly his anguish gave it an extra edge.
But of course the cast doesn't know what Tony knows--and the cast here is also a short list of the most independent-minded folks in the Court. We don't get to see what, for instance, Llewellyn thought of the whole thing. (Nor do we get to see what
Eglamore thinks of it, interestingly. He's conspicuously absent from Annie's next couple of forest visits, and when he argues with Tony in "Evac" and "Loup's Trick," he's mainly complaining that Tony isn't
stricter on the Annies.)
It would actually be better for Annie if the Court's self-interest
was cold, but I think her public humiliation as carried out by Llewellyn shows that emotions were running hot behind the scenes. "Pissed them off", as Tony said. If the leadership are anything like Young, they're true believers, and to them Annie's behavior was not just inexpedient but
wrong. She deserved
punishment, not just rehabilitation.
I'm not 100% sure if that was Tony's reasoning, though. Surma didn't like the Court, Tony didn't have much against it.
www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1548I would argue the reverse. Surma didn't want the Court involved with her childbirth and death, but we've never seen her condemn or even criticize it. She's always been good at shrugging off any anxiety about the Court's
darker side, she was willing to trap Renard for it, and she asked Annie to return to it.
Tony's the one who tried to run away for good, and expresses bitterness about Omega Device research, and won't even talk about anything sensitive without sweeping for Court bugs first.
Only if the Court allows. Think of it like any other powerful "secret society" in fiction: it has no formal sovereignty, but if any individual on Earth offends it, it has the means to track them down and make them pay. Look at Tony. Veteran secret agent,
expert vanisher, dropped off the radar and hiked all over the world, ended up comatose in the wilderness somewhere. The Court
still found him.And recall that Jones, the oldest, best-connected, and most unstoppable investigator on Earth, didn't even learn about the Court's existence until
circa WWII. They are very, very good at staying hidden, and that means they're willing to take drastic measures.
So far, there are only two ways we've seen humans leave the Court for good. Take The Test, like Aly Kershaw's family, and abandon your humanity; or be sacrificed, like Jeanne.
All three of them were Court members in good standing, on temporary leave. (For Surma that lasted till death, but she sent back Annie in her place.) All three were also financially beholden to the Court: Paz via her family's housing, the Carvers via Surma's medical expenses. They knew better than to talk.
Annie not only has a reputation for
extreme indiscretion, she has the flashiest powerset you can imagine. You don't let a delinquent Jean Grey just walk away.
Forgive the snark, but how
is life in the Forest at the moment?
Annie's status in the Forest is entirely dependent on the slender reed of Coyote's favor. As for the other communities, they all seem very small and very isolated. Even if the Court let Annie move out there without retribution, it would be a hard life for her. I'm sure Tony would support her if she chose it, though.
Definitely true. But I don't think Tony ever intended to make Annie
actually obey the Court; he came back to teach her how to
appear obedient. At this point she's basically doing everything she was doing before Tony arrived, but now she's officially operating under her father's guidance and control.
See, Jones and Tony are actually the two most subversive adults at the Court that we've met so far. They encourage, support, and conceal all kinds of civil disobedience. (Look at them
here, instantly agreeing that Court leadership doesn't need to know about the Jeanne thing.) But they are
extremely discreet about it, to avoid retaliation against the people they care about. Eglamore learned the same tactic, probably from Jones herself, and he tried to teach it to Annie
a long time ago.
From the Court's perspective, it's living in near constant danger of being torn apart by "nature red in tooth and claw", unless they take drastic measures (like murdering Jeanne, entrapping Reynardine, etc.).
Oh, yes. And it
is living in that danger, as are the people of the Forest. If not for Coyote's semi-benevolent dictatorship, even semi-humans like the tree elves wouldn't be welcome there. Ysengrin and his fellow "monsters" follow the
will to power; all Forest residents are part of a food chain, and humanoids are not at the top.
There isn't a good side and a bad side here. The Court is colonialist; the Forest is
anarcho-egoist. Oppression exists in both cultures.
And this is doubly true because the Ether is shaped by story. Stories can only be controlled by censorship and disinformation (as Kieron Gillen's
Once & Future explores.) The Court, by design, includes many individuals who would be
legendary if they were known to the outside world (or who are already tamed legends themselves: Eglamore, possibly
Steadman, possibly the
Artilleryman.) But if they were eclipsed by their own legends, the Court would be the pawn of the Ether rather than its master.
Cue Coyote chuckling over whether this is already the case.
I think if you decide to imagine that "the court would have done something horrific to Annie if Tony didn't stop them by breaking her spirit and for some reason escape is not an option, so the only choice is abuse" you can justify almost anything Tony is doing.
That's precisely the dilemma, yes. Of course, it doesn't just apply to Tony. Is Ysengrin justified in destroying Annie's blinker stone, or taking her to fight gangs of homicidal Etherics? Is Coyote justified in putting the bind on Annie's wrist, or letting her get attacked by Ysengrin? Was the Headmaster justified in humiliating Annie, forbidding her from visiting the Forest, and demanding Renard? Is Annie justified in freeing Jeanne?
Everyone
thinks they have a good reason for what they do. Figuring out who's actually justified in what is a worthwhile challenge, IMO.
Many robots have tried to escape; all are
dead or mindwiped. Tony tried to escape; the Court tracked him to the ends of the Earth. Jeanne
thought she was escaping; then
this happened. That's what the characters have told or shown us.
If any character
has told the Court to screw off and then walked away unscathed, I'd love to be reminded of them!
The Court's no more or less evil than the country I live in. Horrible injustices are perpetrated here, but it's not because the average American is going "hurray for injustice." Like Paz says, it's a collection of people, not a giant monster.
Think of it like training your child to instantly comply with the police. It
might not be necessary, if the officer they meet is reasonable. And it might not
help, if the officer they meet is particularly malicious. But often they meet officers who are just reasonable enough to appreciate a show of compliance and restrain themselves in return, and then you've saved your kid from a world of hurt. For most parents, that potential benefit can't be ignored.
so I doubt Tony's done anything drastic like cut off his other hand to make an etheric antenna to talk to Annie with (What? He certainly still knows how to do it. I don't know why he'd just forget.)
I like to imagine he's still keeping the first one around, or that it's still connected to him as some sort of astral claw. I think he'll be very cautious about revealing that technology where the Court could see it, though. Wouldn't want to hand them the blueprints for an anti-Annie gun.
Honestly, I'd be surprised if Tony hasn't idly fantasized about this. When you're high-anxiety and hyperempathic, it can be very seductive to imagine someone doing your job better than you can, so you can just die and
rest.
The cruel irony there is that, even if this world has an afterlife, Surma's soul probably isn't there to reunite with him. "Nothing to take," as Renard said.
That would be comically horrifying.
ANNIE: "Look, father, I've figured out how to slip past all your mental defenses! Now you can see and hear me. ALLall OFof MEme."
TONY: *achieving levels of dissociation never before experienced by man*
Well, I don't think he's
generically paranoid. It's Court surveillance he's worried about, and the Court probably can't hack the FamiliarPhone.
I have to correct you about one point though; there are other examples besides Basil. Martha (the Dryad), Lindsey and Bud are all nonhuman Etheric beings living in the Court, and they all seem to be Court employees as well (unless Basil who seems to live in the labyrinth but have nothing to do with the rest of the Court).
Oh, thanks for the correction on Marcia. I was assuming that she's half-Etheric like Annie, hence her default human form and extremely-English bearing, but
apparently she's a full dryad. Not from the Forest, though; maybe it's just
Forest Etherics that the Court is super-suspicious of.
Lindsey and Bud aren't Etherics at all; they're just an
animal species with their own civilization and natural etheric abilities. I think of them as the Court's "model minority;" they're not from the Forest, they're already friendly to humanity but (presumably) used to staying hidden, and they're super-committed to fitting in. They're also old friends of Tony and Surma, which may have helped their status.
Yeah, I don't think the Court has much power over (or awareness of) the ROTD; they may not even know that Jeanne was able to kill psychopomps.
Likewise for Jones. She goes where she wants and does what she wants, so the Court doesn't really have an option but to play nice with her.