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Post by Gemminie on May 26, 2021 13:05:35 GMT
So, on the final page of this chapter, we start with an establishing shot of the skyline of another part of the Court. The buildings are taller and look like three-story commercial or administrative structures. All the windows appear dark.
But as the camera moves toward the action, we go inside one of the buildings. We're establishing the appearance of the hallways within; they have tiled floors, and although some of the lights are on, some parts of the hallways are darkened. We don't see any lights on inside any of the rooms on this hallway, but there is a flight of stairs going up, and there seems to be more light coming from upstairs. That's most likely where we're going for the next panel. There's a bit of a tilt in this panel, which is a bit odd, as that's usually a technique to show something emotionally off, but there are no characters in this panel. Perhaps it's to show movement.
Then we're in what appears to be Aata's office, so perhaps this is the headquarters of the Shadow Men. He's thanking Jones for her report, implying that he's the one who sent Jones on the errand she's been pursuing in this chapter. The Court's bismuth symbol is apparent on the wall behind him, as are shelves full of books.
Finally, Aata tells Jones that they can now continue. With what? Well, last time we saw Aata, he was taking the lake water from Annie after the tree elves had retrieved it from inside the ironwood tree. Perhaps this means that they're going to proceed with the project of returning that gift to Loup under the Court's terms. Presumably that would begin with communicating those terms to Loup, but I guess we'll see.
I'd been predicting that before this chapter was over we'd see something change about how Tony and Annie communicated. I guess I was wrong, unless something happens in the bonus page. That makes this chapter seem rather underwhelming, not having really advanced any story arc much at all. It's turned out to be more or less a day in the life of Jones, although it didn't begin with her. I'd argue that we really haven't seen anything from the point of view of Annie, the protagonist of the comic, since somewhere in chapter 79*, and because Tom's still keeping a lid on how exactly Zimmy recombined Annie, that means he can't really show us much of her inner experience. That's making the comic lately seem ... sterile, personally uninvolving, third-person, outside-looking-in. It's like we're Jones. Now that's probably the intent, but I don't think this can be kept up much longer, narratively speaking. The reason why I think that is that the comic has always been at its core a series of personally transformative events for Annie, and we can't really have one of those without seeing things from her point of view.
*What I mean here is that we haven't really gotten a sense of what life is like for Annie since she was in the Zimmingham experience, perhaps when she was fighting with herself after discovering the illusion of her mother. Annie talks (a lot) about herself and her relationship with her father in this chapter, but we don't see her actually relating to him.
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Post by todd on May 26, 2021 13:37:41 GMT
*What I mean here is that we haven't really gotten a sense of what life is like for Annie since she was in the Zimmingham experience, perhaps when she was fighting with herself after discovering the illusion of her mother. Annie talks (a lot) about herself and her relationship with her father in this chapter, but we don't see her actually relating to him. I wonder whether Annie's point of view after this might be too different from a normal human's to make her the point-of-view character (though this is just one chapter after the "recombining"). It reminds me of the shift away from Frodo's perspective in "The Lord of the Rings", switching increasingly to telling the story through Sam's eyes, because Frodo has become increasingly so broken down by the Ring (to the point where he can no longer even remember what anything else looked like or felt like) that he could no longer function well as a point-of-view character, switching over to the less broken Sam. |
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Post by ohthatone on May 26, 2021 13:53:45 GMT
I dont know how telling it is that jones appears to be quite far away from aata while giving her report. Maybe that was just an artistic composition choice, but it does kind of say to me she isn't totally on board with this guy.
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Post by lisanela on May 26, 2021 14:01:16 GMT
Jones this whole chapter:
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Post by maxptc on May 26, 2021 14:29:53 GMT
Right, but did that qualify as a overall mental health check and a specific one in regards to the two Annies becoming one? Like, I get Jones followed the thread that everyone thought was the main issue, Tony, but I feel like the potential ramifications of recombination were written off based on Annie saying she's fine and everyone else saying Tony is a bigger issue, and then her talking about the Tony issue. Are we sure about that fine level, at least in a clear and present danger sense? Even if we are, that was enough to convince the Court's? Is the Court really cool not knowing any details of the recombination? Like from what I can see, they know less then us, and it was pretty ambiguous on our end. I mean its good that she's not unbalanced because of her Dad, but that being enough for the Court seems a little....lax might be the word I want? Lax compared to what? If anything it's very unusual for them to be concerned about how anybody is feeling about anything. If they are worried about Annie it's probably because they fear she might blow up and interfere with whatever they are about to do next, whatever it is. I mean to be fair she is the interfering kind of person. And I haven't forgotten that they were the one who collected Tony from the brink of death in the desert just because they wanted Annie under control. Her behavior checks out. The Court hasn't showed any interest in the details of her split beyond "Oh God more etherical shenanigans, is that a trick that will blow in our faces yes/no." So I don't see why they should have any curiosity in her recombination beyond "well yet more shenanigans, new assessment about likeliness to blow up in our faces needed." They trust Jones about that I suppose (she has seen a lot, so it makes sense). Just seems like if they were worried enough to finally worry about someone's mental health, worry that is baaed on a magical event, they should want more information before calling it all good. Like I understand that they trust Jones, I just don't know how Annie saying she is fine and talking about her Dad in the way she did eased the Court if there worry was about what spliting did to her. If that's all they needed to hear to ease there minds and get back on with the plan, why did they stall in the first place? It seems like they overreacted/played it safe when they first heared Annie unsplit, then decided that it wasn't worth giving detailed thought to it as long as she wasn't blatantly out of her mind. |
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Post by Gemminie on May 26, 2021 15:39:10 GMT
That was before Loup attacked. It's possible the Shadow Men have had to relocate to buildings farther from the Forest along with everyone else. It's also possible (likely, even) that the Shadow Men use more than one building. Then, since Juliette and Arthur are also involved in various research, it's also possible that the building they were in back in chapter 56 wasn't a Shadow Men building at all but something connected with their research. |
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Post by Gemminie on May 26, 2021 16:20:14 GMT
Omigoo I get a cookie! I dont know how to quote myself from other threads on a mobile, darnit. So. She is reporting to aata who, if he isn't the head of the shadow men, is very high ranking. They have been painted as very sketchy in an organization that is already very sketchy. Are they the ones actually running things? Is llanwellyn just a sleepy figurehead? I am curious why Jones is willing to help them. Well, we've been told that the Shadow Men are a different branch of the Court, not connected to the branch that contains the school (which is the education/research branch, perhaps), so although Llanwellyn is either head of the school, head of the education/research branch, or at least part of the steering committee that runs the education/research branch, he's not in the same org chart as the SM. Aata does seem rather important within the SM, though we can't be sure exactly how high up he is. Jones has helped the SM in the past, but why she does this is a valid question. Perhaps it's part of her agreement with the Court, which gives her a place to stay in a world that could detect a person who doesn't seem to age, eat, etc. with increasing ease. She handles certain things for the Court by request that no one else can. Does she get to choose which tasks to do? Probably, as the Court knows it can't really force her to do anything. But presumably providing her observations doesn't go against her goals. |
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Post by rylfrazier on May 26, 2021 16:36:28 GMT
Clearly Jones (who has generally been presented as cold but benevolent) is willing to work with the court as far as this last "report" goes, so we can hope that this isn't utterly evil and that the ultimate goals of the court aren't completely evil, but I suppose we'll see.
If the court is making some kind of "big push" to expand their understanding of the world of magic and/or control it, it's clear that Annie was a variable they were worried about. It seems unlikely that they'd be planning to rely on her to help them considering how strongly she has opposed them in the past, so my guess is more that they were just trying to get the lay of the land - is there one annie or two, how predictable will annie be, etc. Now that they know Annie is "back to normal" they can probably figure out how to use her or keep her out of the way for their next round of planning.
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Post by maxptc on May 26, 2021 16:40:24 GMT
Clearly Jones (who has generally been presented as cold but benevolent) is willing to work with the court as far as this last "report" goes, so we can hope that this isn't utterly evil and that the ultimate goals of the court aren't completely evil, but I suppose we'll see. If the court is making some kind of "big push" to expand their understanding of the world of magic and/or control it, it's clear that Annie was a variable they were worried about. It seems unlikely that they'd be planning to rely on her to help them considering how strongly she has opposed them in the past, so my guess is more that they were just trying to get the lay of the land - is there one annie or two, how predictable will annie be, etc. Now that they know Annie is "back to normal" they can probably figure out how to use her or keep her out of the way for their next round of planning. This makes sense. They don't really care about the details, just that Annie won't cause any issues they didn't think she might already cause. |
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Post by rylfrazier on May 26, 2021 16:57:50 GMT
Another possibility is that what they're really interested in isn't Annie, it's Annie as the subject of Zimmy's powers. They studied Annie extensively after her return and had some degree of understanding of the "two Annies" situation. Zimmy has just basically edited reality to "fix" that. Having some degree of understanding of what the outcome was might help them get a better understanding of Zimmy. Just sort of on a basic level if Zimmy can "undo" something Loup did, well, maybe Zimmy is somewhere near his level?
The stuff with Annie talking about her feelings regarding Tony really might just be what Annie is interested in talking about more than what Jones' actual mission was - find out if after being massively effected by Zimmy's powers Annie was permanently altered in some way other than the obvious (going from 2 to 1).
A third possibility is that they are planning to "use" Tony again - he was working on the Omega Project for them for years and maybe their big question was more related to how stable he was and if he could be trusted to go back to that work after his prior breakdown.
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Post by ctso74 on May 26, 2021 17:23:10 GMT
Hmm. Once again, I get the feeling Suit Buddha(Vigucci? Dolce & Gautama?) isn't trustworthy. If the bonus page is him feeding hungry kittens, I'd guess he was fattening them up for supper. Perhaps, their plans wouldn't work with two Annies. Another possibility is that what they're really interested in isn't Annie, it's Annie as the subject of Zimmy's powers. They studied Annie extensively after her return and had some degree of understanding of the "two Annies" situation. Zimmy has just basically edited reality to "fix" that. Having some degree of understanding of what the outcome was might help them get a better understanding of Zimmy. Just sort of on a basic level if Zimmy can "undo" something Loup did, well, maybe Zimmy is somewhere near his level? The stuff with Annie talking about her feelings regarding Tony really might just be what Annie is interested in talking about more than what Jones' actual mission was - find out if after being massively effected by Zimmy's powers Annie was permanently altered in some way other than the obvious (going from 2 to 1). A third possibility is that they are planning to "use" Tony again - he was working on the Omega Project for them for years and maybe their big question was more related to how stable he was and if he could be trusted to go back to that work after his prior breakdown. If Annie's abilities are of use to the Omega Project, her having twice the power level surely helps. I doubt the Court planned on it, but they'll certainly take advantage of it. |
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Post by mitten on May 26, 2021 17:34:18 GMT
It really feels as if Aata ought to be stroking a white Persian cat as he speaks, I think. I hope whatever the Court is planning isn't too evil, mostly because I hate to think that Jones would take part in something like that. I doubt the Court particularly cares if Annie is happy or not, or how she feels about the Tony, but I do think they care about whether she is likely to have some sort of mental breakdown that could harm their plans.
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Post by mturtle7 on May 26, 2021 17:38:43 GMT
Huh. You know, this might be just me, but it kinda seems like this page is being played off as a "big reveal" even though there's...absolutely nothing surprising in it? I mean, sure, it's Aata who asked her to "assess Annie's mental state". Big whoop. Based on the way Jones phrased it alone, it seemed pretty obvious that she was on some sort of mission from the Court, and this just confirms that. Although...I guess it IS pretty weird, if you think about it, that they used such an messy, indirect, method of assessment. I mean, isn't the Court supposed to be relatively committed to science? And don't they have all the authority they need to just tell Annie to do what they want? So why all this subterfuge? Why didn't they just ask her to go see a licensed Court psychologist, who would put her through a standard, proven, battery of tests? I'm not saying that would be better than Jones' methods, of course, but it does seem like it would be far more in character for the Court's administration.
EDIT: Btw, where in the world is all this "Jones would never go along with something so evil" talk coming from? I mean, Jones is neutral. She is the most neutral of neutrals on the face of the goddamn planet. That's literally her whole Thing. She's been moderately helpful to our protagonist in the past, but I hardly see how that makes her a paragon of virtue. As far as I can tell, her established motivations are basically as follows: 1) Her single designated Life Companion of the present moment 2) Curiosity 3) Non-interference. None of those would seem to prevent her from taking a peripheral, advisory, role in some shady Shadow Men plans, unless maybe they're plotting to use Annie to assassinate Eglamore or something.
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Post by alevice on May 26, 2021 18:13:06 GMT
"Now that we know she loves her Dad, we can continue with our plans." I seriously don't see how what Jones learnt today helps the shadow men. Are they worried about her mental state because of the upcoming meeting or the situation with her being one person again? Both? I assumed they wanted to know what the heck was going with the split, not just a mental health check. Seems kinda out of character for the Court, but I'm probably missing something due to the weekly format. It might be the case that they actually were looking for some other info under the guise of checking on her mental state. Kinda like researchers sometimes do to prveent some bias from the subject |
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Post by alevice on May 26, 2021 18:18:18 GMT
Huh. You know, this might be just me, but it kinda seems like this page is being played off as a "big reveal" even though there's...absolutely nothing surprising in it? I mean, sure, it's Aata who asked her to "assess Annie's mental state". Big whoop. Based on the way Jones phrased it alone, it seemed pretty obvious that she was on some sort of mission from the Court, and this just confirms that. Although...I guess it IS pretty weird, if you think about it, that they used such an messy, indirect, method of assessment. I mean, isn't the Court supposed to be relatively committed to science? And don't they have all the authority they need to just tell Annie to do what they want? So why all this subterfuge? Why didn't they just ask her to go see a licensed Court psychologist, who would put her through a standard, proven, battery of tests? I'm not saying that would be better than Jones' methods, of course, but it does seem like it would be far more in character for the Court's administration.
EDIT: Btw, where in the world is all this "Jones would never go along with something so evil" talk coming from? I mean, Jones is neutral. She is the most neutral of neutrals on the face of the goddamn planet. That's literally her whole Thing. She's been moderately helpful to our protagonist in the past, but I hardly see how that makes her a paragon of virtue. As far as I can tell, her established motivations are basically as follows: 1) Her single designated Life Companion of the present moment 2) Curiosity 3) Non-interference. None of those would seem to prevent her from taking a peripheral, advisory, role in some shady Shadow Men plans, unless maybe they're plotting to use Annie to assassinate Eglamore or something.
Jones has taken responsibility prior in deaths caused by her, either directly or indirectly, as it was the case with Mort, and she has stated as much to Annie, so I do not expect she provides this information under the risk of Annie coming to harm. I am not sure she holds the court or the forest in any particular regard tho. She has berated others for disacknowledging her advice, and has even threatened Coyote (althought coyote would have cheated and flung her to space perhaps) |
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Post by flowsthead on May 26, 2021 20:53:40 GMT
EDIT: Btw, where in the world is all this "Jones would never go along with something so evil" talk coming from? I mean, Jones is neutral. She is the most neutral of neutrals on the face of the goddamn planet. That's literally her whole Thing. She's been moderately helpful to our protagonist in the past, but I hardly see how that makes her a paragon of virtue. As far as I can tell, her established motivations are basically as follows: 1) Her single designated Life Companion of the present moment 2) Curiosity 3) Non-interference. None of those would seem to prevent her from taking a peripheral, advisory, role in some shady Shadow Men plans, unless maybe they're plotting to use Annie to assassinate Eglamore or something.
Even if Jones's only allegiance is to Eglamore, because Eglamore cares about Annie and he is generally on the side of what we the readers would deem "good", then that means Jones is the same. Going into the Forest to argue with Coyote for Annie is not something a purely neutral party would do. Arguing with the headmaster that Annie should have been chosen medium and not backing him up when he asks for her help also doesn't seem particularly neutral. Another comment mentioned making Mort a ghost as taking responsibility, but I think it's her general attitude towards all kinds of creatures. Hell, Zimmy seems somewhat comfortable with Jones. That in itself is not only impressive, but an indication of something special about her. What I'm saying is that Jones is a pretty big deal, and she has shown at least a minimum amount of support for Annie over the Court. While she can pretend to be neutral, in reality neutrality isn't really possible. Not telling the Court something is not a neutral choice, it is precisely a choice that helps Annie. Even if Jones frames it as neutral because she doesn't actively help Annie, that's not really true. |
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Post by sebastian on May 26, 2021 21:26:31 GMT
Lax compared to what? If anything it's very unusual for them to be concerned about how anybody is feeling about anything. If they are worried about Annie it's probably because they fear she might blow up and interfere with whatever they are about to do next, whatever it is. I mean to be fair she is the interfering kind of person. And I haven't forgotten that they were the one who collected Tony from the brink of death in the desert just because they wanted Annie under control. Her behavior checks out. The Court hasn't showed any interest in the details of her split beyond "Oh God more etherical shenanigans, is that a trick that will blow in our faces yes/no." So I don't see why they should have any curiosity in her recombination beyond "well yet more shenanigans, new assessment about likeliness to blow up in our faces needed." They trust Jones about that I suppose (she has seen a lot, so it makes sense). Just seems like if they were worried enough to finally worry about someone's mental health, worry that is baaed on a magical event, they should want more information before calling it all good. Like I understand that they trust Jones, I just don't know how Annie saying she is fine and talking about her Dad in the way she did eased the Court if there worry was about what spliting did to her. If that's all they needed to hear to ease there minds and get back on with the plan, why did they stall in the first place? It seems like they overreacted/played it safe when they first heared Annie unsplit, then decided that it wasn't worth giving detailed thought to it as long as she wasn't blatantly out of her mind. That they talked about her dad is irrelevant, even what Annie specifically said don't really matter. Jones had to evaluate Annie's mental state, so he collected informations from people that was around Annie and talked with her. Jones have a lot of millennia of experience dealing with humans, even without emotions of her own (or so she say) I think at this point she can see the signs when someone is going to snap. That the conversations were all about Tony and his relation with his daughter was not because she went there. |
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Post by todd on May 26, 2021 23:50:09 GMT
I suspect that the real problem for the meeting with Loup might not be Annie, but the Court's goals - which are non-negotiable from both sides' perspective. The Court's goal of understanding how the ether works from a scientific standpoint is its whole purpose, its "raison d'etre". It's also endangering the Forest (and I suspect that this is the kind of problem that can't be resolved by installing "etheric pollution controls"). Thus, from Loup's point of view, anything other than the Court halting its projects is unacceptable, while from the Court's point of view, shutting down its projects (especially with the Omega Device apparently so close to completion) is unacceptable. Even the best medium in the world would have a hard time resolving that one.
(Even informing the Court about the harm that its work is causing the Forest probably wouldn't change its mind; if anything, after all the trouble from Loup, the Court might see this information as all the more incentive to proceed, with the side-bonus of wiping out those difficult neighbors for good.)
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Post by todd on May 27, 2021 0:12:43 GMT
I might add (this is a repeat of my past comments) that while the Court has done a lot of bad things, I would hesitate to apply the label of "evil" to the Court itself (as opposed to, say, its murder of Jeanne, where the word definitely applies). The evidence we've had so far is that the Court's goal is to translate the ether into scientific terms (Zimmy's remark in "Moving" provide a particularly good analysis of that, comparing it to Anthony and Kat's own independent attempts to comprehend the etheric phenomena that they've encountered). There's no sign that they plan to exploit the ether, just understand it. (I don't think it would match the tone of the story for the Court to be plotting to put the ether, once they've finally converted it into a scientific equation or something like that, to nefarious ends like world domination.)
The big problem is something that the Court is apparently ignorant of: their experiments are damaging the ether. (I've mentioned this before, but I wonder if the problem stems from the ether being something you simply can't scientifically analyze, at least not without destroying it, that analyzing it leads to the realization "It's only the manifestation of the beliefs of long-dead people whose imaginations weren't in line with modern physics, producing things that by normal scientific standards are impossible, like talking animals or producing fire from nothing", and thus, because etheric phenomena logically shouldn't exist, somehow canceling them out - a bit like the Babel Fish Paradox in the "Hitchhiker's Guide" series.) Which led, in turn, to their quarrel with the Forest, and with a lot of angry forest creatures wanting to get in and shut the Court down, through physical force. Which led, in turn, to the Court desperately coming up with various schemes to protect themselves, and deciding that wasting time on examining the morality of those schemes was a luxury it couldn't afford. Without the quarrel with Gilltie Wood, I doubt that the Court would have taken such a dark road. (I can now imagine the Headmaster and Aata shouting at Ysengrin/Loup's army, and at Loup himself, "Look what you turned us into! It's your fault we degenerated from scientists to machiavellian plotters!")
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Post by Runningflame on May 27, 2021 0:36:57 GMT
Suit Buddha(Vi gucci? Dolce & Gautama?) I love this nickname.  Does that make him the Head of the Zen Hit Squad? |
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Post by saardvark on May 27, 2021 2:16:21 GMT
oooh, extra points for that one - ha! |
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Post by silicondream on May 27, 2021 3:46:44 GMT
Well! I was thinking the chapter might just stick with outlining Annie's psychology for the readers, but this page really does recontextualize things. "Now that we know she loves her Dad, we can continue with our plans." I seriously don't see how what Jones learnt today helps the shadow men. Are they worried about her mental state because of the upcoming meeting or the situation with her being one person again? What has the Court always been worried about with Annie? Defiance, unruliness, disloyalty. That’s why it was monitoring her activities, and that’s why it was going to banish her. Whether the Court wants Annie to be a good-faith diplomat, a secret agent like her Mum, or the Pyro on their anti-monster squad, she needs to be sane, stable and obedient. (In fact, this being the Court, the first two are probably negotiable.) Proof that Annie loves her Dad...and will stand by her Dad’s side forever...and listen to all her Dad’s advice...and specifically will not get seduced by Loup and then help him screw over her Dad and the rest of the Court...is exactly what they’ve been hoping for. Ahh, Aata. That "Terminator-esque ethic juxtaposed with a perpetually serene mien" thing makes my skin itch. I figure we’ll eventually discover that Aata is the Court’s Number Two. Number One is of course Bob Sutton. I wonder whether Annie's point of view after this might be too different from a normal human's to make her the point-of-view character (though this is just one chapter after the "recombining"). Interesting idea. Tom hasn’t shied away from depicting inhuman points of view before, I can’t imagine him turning that chance down with a newly multiplex Annie...but as you say, maybe that comes in future chapters. I mean, isn't the Court supposed to be relatively committed to science? And don't they have all the authority they need to just tell Annie to do what they want? Sure, and she’ll just tell them to sod off, like she did with Llewellyn. I think it’s well established that Annie can’t be bullied into compliance, at least not without breaking her to the point of uselessness. They wouldn’t be the first “scientific” organization to avoid applied psychology like the plague. Businesses, universities, and governments are generally terrible at implementing high-quality psych evaluations, mostly because the people in charge would fail them harder than anyone else. Can you imagine putting Diego through a standard battery of tests? Q5. How do you spend your leisure time?
A. Plotting the deaths of women who reject me; populating robotic bullfighting plays with bestialized effigies of men I hate
Q10. Do you have any other questions or comments?
A. Je! Je! Jejeje!She says that’s her whole Thing, but it’s pretty obviously her second-favorite piece of BS after “I have no emotions.” If she’s honestly neutral at all, it’s in a Druidish True Neutral way, and she’s happy to interfere to restore balance. (And possibly also for fun, sometimes.) I will harp on this forever: Jones and Tony are the two most subversive people we’ve met at the Court. Nobody else (except maybe Eglamore, when he’s safely off in the wilderness) is as critical of its policies, and as disdainful of its leadership. Nobody else acts to obstruct its policies nearly as often. They can get away with this partly because they’re both in vital positions, and because trying to do away with either of them would be a very bad idea, but also because they’re very good at keeping secrets. We’ve seen Jones harbor Shadow 2, rescue Renard from the Shadow Men, route Tony’s coded message to Don without informing the Court first, lobby to make Annie Court Medium, subtly feed the kids all kinds of info about the Court’s secret activities and moral and intellectual flaws, and cover for them re: Jeanne. We’ve seen Tony sabotage Court surveillance, shelter Juliette and Arthur, protect Kat’s lab and the entire robot liberation project, talk the Court out of detaining Sylvannie, pretend to take possession of Renard, and also cover for the kids re: Jeanne. We also know that he’s involved in the Omega Device project, but clearly disapproves of it and has tried to resign. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s sabotaging it in subtler ways. So, yeah...I think they’re allied dissidents, with Jones advancing the interests of magical beings and Tony advancing the interests of biological/techological beings. What we saw in this chapter could be Annie joining them in deep cover, so to speak. Publicly she’s moved on from her Forest ties--didn’t mention Coyote or Ysengrin or the elves once, you’ll notice--and is ever so well-behaved and devoted to Daddy. Privately...well, she’s Annie, of course she’s not about to conform. But it’s time to stop playing the rebel and start getting some actual revolution done. Or so I’d like to believe. |
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Post by maxptc on May 27, 2021 3:50:28 GMT
What has the Court always been worried about with Annie? Defiance, unruliness, disloyalty. That’s why it was monitoring her activities, and that’s why it was going to banish her. Whether the Court wants Annie to be a good-faith diplomat, a secret agent like her Mum, or the Pyro on their anti-monster squad, she needs to be sane, stable and obedient. (In fact, this being the Court, the first two are probably negotiable.) Proof that Annie loves her Dad...and will stand by her Dad’s side forever...and listen to all her Dad’s advice...and specifically will not get seduced by Loup and then help him screw over her Dad and the rest of the Court...is exactly what they’ve been hoping for. Very insightful, and we know how Annie is with Court plans, and Tony isn't exactly the loyal agent they think he is. |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on May 27, 2021 4:13:58 GMT
Somebody's gotta carry the N2 bomb lake water back to "Loup."
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Post by 0o0f on May 27, 2021 7:56:10 GMT
yesss, way to end this chapter on an ominous note. that's the gunnerkrigg I know and love.
edit: I have been ambivalent about this chapter as I found it interesting overall but a little heavy-handed. I don't know if it really is Tom using the characters as mouthpieces to speak to the audience as much as showing THEIR perspective as it seems in character enough that Annie would at some point hold a speech to Jones about how even if everyone else hates her father she will stand by his side. even so it felt drawn out after a while but I think that is exacerbated by the webcomic format of reading this over several weeks, instead of being able to read through the chapter in one day. and I think the final "punchline" of the chapter adds a nice tone of ominousness to the rest. but I can only guess at where that is going.
(also I still see some theory about Tony's mind cage being inflicted by something etheric or some kind of outside force. now... while that could potentially be an interesting story, I think that might take away the character's agency more than explaining his strange behaviour with a disability. as a disability is still a part of him that he chooses how to deal with -- if someone or something else put the mind cage on him it would give him less control and seem more like an excuse.)
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Post by pyradonis on May 27, 2021 14:04:37 GMT
Hmm. Once again, I get the feeling Suit Buddha(Vigucci? Dolce & Gautama?) isn't trustworthy. If the bonus page is him feeding hungry kittens, I'd guess he was fattening them up for supper. Perhaps, their plans wouldn't work with two Annies.  |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on May 27, 2021 15:24:41 GMT
If Antimony was unstable they'd probably have to use Smitface to take the N2 bomb lake water to "Loup." But Smitty's usually compliant and his power makes disorderly things orderly so the higher-ups probably like him.
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Post by silicondream on May 27, 2021 17:31:40 GMT
And would a bomb even go off next to Smitty? I wouldn't trust chemistry (including nuclear and etheric varieties) around a probability distorter.
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Post by frogspawned on May 27, 2021 21:17:56 GMT
People have been putting certain characters' voices in Tom's mouth, claiming that their tolerance of Tony is his endorsement of Tony. Personally i'd sooner suspect the cheerful chubby fellow of being the Voice of God.
We can now continue.
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Post by imaginaryfriend on May 27, 2021 22:53:03 GMT
And would a bomb even go off next to Smitty? I wouldn't trust chemistry (including nuclear and etheric varieties) around a probability distorter. The Court knows Andrew's ability. The trick is to make what they want to happen the result that is supposed to happen from a narrative standpoint. For example, they could wrap up the bomb up in pretty paper with a big bow and a tag that says, "What used to howl at the moon and now needs to be scraped off of it?" |
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Does that make him the Head of the 
