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Post by crater on Aug 11, 2021 19:22:09 GMT
that looks like it feels good
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Post by saardvark on Aug 11, 2021 19:36:07 GMT
Aata: Sa(ve) it with flowers. I'll just see myself out now. (you can nibble the flowers before you hop away...) |
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Post by pyradonis on Aug 11, 2021 19:53:41 GMT
Second, he did promise not to attack her, but has clearly pointed out that does not extend to anyone else. To be fair at least three roots have been going for her and might have hit her if not for Eglamore's shield. |
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Post by rylfrazier on Aug 11, 2021 20:30:35 GMT
Second, he did promise not to attack her, but has clearly pointed out that does not extend to anyone else. To be fair at least three roots have been going for her and might have hit her if not for Eglamore's shield. Yeah I would say that deal is not in place and that Loup is raging out of control. Yes would regularly promise that he loved and cared for Annie but in his rages I think it's clear he would have killed her if he could have. That said it looks like my prediction that last panel was a transformative moment for the narrative was wrong - it looks like the forest woman will likely be fine, which is probably a good narrative choice if Tom wants to keep the tone closer to the same place it's always been, dark, but not THAT dark. |
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Post by artemis on Aug 11, 2021 23:27:50 GMT
Looks like Shell lives to snark another day. Hmm. Aata's botanical powers seem to reflect what's here and here. I wonder if there is a link. Did Coyote gave the power to Aata? i don't post much but I came here to point that out  At least the Renard page. I was reminded of it immediately. |
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Post by DonDueed on Aug 11, 2021 23:36:11 GMT
If Aata's ability is some etheric healing power and he does have empathy for others as his reaction to the attack on Shell seems to indicate (though many of us have conjectured otherwise), I wonder if Coyote calls him a beautiful failure because his power to help people has driven him to join the Court in its endeavor to become god. That is, he believes the way to stop having to save/heal humans is to make them so powerful they cannot be threatened by etheric creatures and powers. Or as it was put in one fun movie, "to make people … better." I guess every path to despotism begins with a noble idea? Oooh, a Serenity fan...! |
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Post by Bandolute on Aug 11, 2021 23:51:03 GMT
Sorry for this banal observation, but Aata's ability is really pretty and I'm excited to see him do more things solely on the basis he might whip out more ethereal power wreaths
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Post by saardvark on Aug 12, 2021 0:24:40 GMT
what figure is Aata or the current consensus . The bending spoon's a dead giveaway. I am joking. I don't think there's enough information to say if Aata is based on a "real" myth or if he is an OC. The best that can be done is to speculate based on his appearance and the imagery that appears when he uses his etheric abilities. That maybe narrows down to one section of the planet; we can guess that his name means "grain" and then he's probably from the India/Pakistan area. Beyond that, we can guess a minimum age. That's about it. and when he fires up his botanical powers (panel 2), "Spoonman" by Soundgarden starts playing in the background... www.youtube.com/watch?v=myCCWBu6g0o |
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Post by davidm on Aug 12, 2021 0:43:30 GMT
I guess every path to despotism begins with a noble idea? So far court has mostly been self defence from forest attacks. Only example we have otherwise was Surma seducing Renard and we don't know full story for that, possible even then forest acted first. Early renard... killed someone and then was going to kill annie before court stopped him, Renard may have shown other similar "despotism" and court may have been self defense in trying to steal his superpowers. Smash robotic bird and then plant it and blame court... Smuggle seed weapons into court for future attack. Loup first act was a very nasty attack followed by more attacks on court. It is very possible from the damage done and the numerous attacks that he did kill people as result. Loup here was at least very strongly suggesting he was about to kill the people around Annie before they zapped him. So far the idea that Aata is evil, or going to become evil isn't shown by the evidence, it could be true but Aata so far has shown a reluctance to be showing off with superpowers. Coyote and Loup have done way more questionable stuff that we have actually seen. It is possible that Coyote has good reason, but we haven't been shown that good reason yet, we have no idea what the omega device is other than vague uneasiness by people who only see part of the plan. Power can be used for good as well as evil, otherwise we should be getting rid of all scientists today. Eg heal sick people, feed hungry people, running water, sanitation... or on other hand nuclear weapons, bio weapons, chemical weapons, ballistic missiles that at push of button can kill millions on opposite side of world in less than half an hour |
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Post by saardvark on Aug 12, 2021 0:50:46 GMT
Shell seems quite stunned (and her hair is quite literally blown back) by the sheer power and majesty of Aata's floral bouquet design....
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Post by zbeeblebrox on Aug 12, 2021 2:16:14 GMT
Everyone on the defense with an out of control god lashing at at you: that's is usually the cue to run away.
Although unlike in previous circumstances, I don't think Loup is gonna stop pursuing them after they exit the forest. It's likely that we're about to find out how honest Loup was being when he claimed he could shatter their etheric shield
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Post by drmemory on Aug 12, 2021 2:57:53 GMT
You know, I'm not entirely sure that Loup has gone berserk. Think about his actions after Coyote talked to him:
- Looked at Annie to see her reaction to what Coyote told her (Coyote may well have told him what he told her)
- Checked out the tooth to make sure what he was told was at least partially true
- Freaked out very visibly
- Exploded a bunch of branches out of his physical form
- Sent a couple towards Annie, which caused Jimmy Jim Jims to be tied down for the moment
- Sent a bunch towards Aata, but actually bypassed him, and instead hurt Shelly (which distracted Aata)
So now everyone is distracted by the branches and Aata is not only distracted but has had to reveal at least part of his power to heal Shelly.
Aata is busy, Shel is certainly busy, George and Cvet are busy, Annie is probably not thinking strategically. The only one that might not be buying it is James - his expression in the last panel looks more suspicious to me than anything else.
What if this is all the old General making sure Annie completes Coyote's plan?
If it was a real, rage-driven attack, I'd expect to see a lot more ether stuff going on. Not just a bunch of tree branches. But, I've certainly been wrong before.
And yet, Coyote told him that when his plan was revealed, Ysengrin would agree it was a wonderful plan, and then would die. Right here. He also said at that time that there was nothing that could kill him except himself, but of course he didn't know about the tooth at that time. But really, he probably doesn't feel all that threatened by anything that the court people can do to him.
So maybe whatever Coyote said to him convinced him that it was a wonderful plan, and he is now helping it to come to pass.
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Post by csj on Aug 12, 2021 12:54:48 GMT
what figure is Aata or the current consensus iS ThIS elGAMorE |
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Post by quinnr on Aug 12, 2021 13:17:38 GMT
You know, I'm not entirely sure that Loup has gone berserk. Think about his actions after Coyote talked to him:
- Looked at Annie to see her reaction to what Coyote told her (Coyote may well have told him what he told her)
- Checked out the tooth to make sure what he was told was at least partially true
- Freaked out very visibly
- Exploded a bunch of branches out of his physical form
- Sent a couple towards Annie, which caused Jimmy Jim Jims to be tied down for the moment
- Sent a bunch towards Aata, but actually bypassed him, and instead hurt Shelly (which distracted Aata)
So now everyone is distracted by the branches and Aata is not only distracted but has had to reveal at least part of his power to heal Shelly.
Aata is busy, Shel is certainly busy, George and Cvet are busy, Annie is probably not thinking strategically. The only one that might not be buying it is James - his expression in the last panel looks more suspicious to me than anything else.
What if this is all the old General making sure Annie completes Coyote's plan?
If it was a real, rage-driven attack, I'd expect to see a lot more ether stuff going on. Not just a bunch of tree branches. But, I've certainly been wrong before.
And yet, Coyote told him that when his plan was revealed, Ysengrin would agree it was a wonderful plan, and then would die. Right here. He also said at that time that there was nothing that could kill him except himself, but of course he didn't know about the tooth at that time. But really, he probably doesn't feel all that threatened by anything that the court people can do to him.
So maybe whatever Coyote said to him convinced him that it was a wonderful plan, and he is now helping it to come to pass.
This was my thought reading this page. Loup is definitely upset, but he's half Coyote—a straight up brawl doesn't seem very in-character, and I think there's at least some kind of a plan happening here. Not too sure what, though! We don't really know the extent of the Court's knowledge about Aata. Part of me wonders if the roots bypassing Aata to hit Shell was a plan to make the Court suspicious of him or reveal his talents, it feels kind of odd for someone heavily linked to the ether to be so high up in the Court leadership. Or maybe this was a plan to make Aata lower his defenses. We don't know how powerful he is, but he's certainly distracted for the moment. If he could invade into time frozen by Coyote, being able to survive a few impaling roots seems totally plausible. |
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Post by CoyoteReborn on Aug 12, 2021 18:31:33 GMT
Loup is definitely upset, but he's half Coyote—a straight up brawl doesn't seem very in-character, and I think there's at least some kind of a plan happening here. He's half of me, but he's the IDIOT half. You can't expect too much from the poor fellow. He only got half my brain, and none of my charisma... |
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Post by DonDueed on Aug 12, 2021 21:32:12 GMT
One thing this page shows us is that Loup's tentacles/tendrils are not solid wood. They're somewhat soft and meaty. Hence Cvet finds them stretchy when she tries to rip one apart, and Parley can't just chop them off -- they bend and flex when her sword hits them.
What this means (if anything) for the rest of this battle remains to be seen.
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Post by lurkerbot on Aug 13, 2021 0:29:50 GMT
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Post by saardvark on Aug 13, 2021 3:49:30 GMT
In fact, whoa! Aata's botanical blast punches poor Shell so hard her feet are all twisted oddly and unstably beneath her. She may be healed of root punctures, but she's about to topple over in a heap of flowers!
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Post by jda on Aug 13, 2021 5:19:09 GMT
I see now Aata's spell as a stent, life-freezing, not healing, more like Coyote's time freezing.
As a First Aid emergency intent, to keep Shell from bleeding to death, until they can bring her to ER.
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Post by Gulby on Aug 13, 2021 5:35:52 GMT
I came here only to say "by the Power of Great Spoon!!!" but some others pointed it out already that it resemble so very much a spoon, so... well.
Anyway, I've seen interesting interpretations and I am waiting to see what is happening next.
And well, thanks to those who reminded us that Antimony is just a teenage schoolgirl. She is not prepared for that.
And I really don't like Loup.
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Post by rafk on Aug 13, 2021 10:21:53 GMT
We just don't have enough info at this point to know who/what Aata really is. Seeing him reach into the Ether to speak with Annie and Coyote made me wonder if he was a Foley student who was a previous animal (hmm, what animal is short and round?). However, he seems to be on a much higher power level. Coyote knew him and called him "failed cousin" and a "beautiful failure", not something I think he would say to any random former animal. And now he seems to be able to transmute stuff into... flowers? We can see Loup's root -tentacle-spear thingies disintegrating into flowers. That is so freakin' weird and so incredibly specific. It reminds me of the times Annie visited Foley classes and each student had one etheric trait unique to them that they wanted to show. But those only manifested in the ether, not the real world. Even when Ayilu (Red's friend) used her power on Jeanne, it was all in the Ether and didn't effect the real world. In reality, everyone was just standing or kneeling on the ground despite what the saw. Aata's use of power is real. I wonder if he was a Coyote ally on the level of Ysengrin or Renard who switched sides from the Forest to the Court and by now has been at the centre of the Court's anti Forest efforts for a very long time. |
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At least the Renard page. I was reminded of it immediately.
