[2510] Carver!

[justhalf]

I'm not sure, what's happening here?

[imaginaryfriend]

Looks like Eggers is calling her back from "Loup." I guess he either wants everyone to withdraw or he needs her out of harm's way so he can launch his own attack.

And Antimony's etheric jumps are fire-enhanced now.

[justhalf]

From Annie's expression seems like it is something urgent, and that it is mutually understood. Both options you mentioned seem plausible, but I'm just confused because it comes as a surprise to me. I was expecting Annie doing something first before being called back. Maybe this scene is to set up the details of what's to come next.

[theonethatgotaway]

Annie's out of her depth here, That Guy knows it, so he calls her back. Like ImaginaryFriend says, I think he just wants to withdraw and assess the situation. All in all, a successful campaign where our heroes advanced valiantly away from the attacker! Very win, much success.

[philman]

Aug 23, 2021 7:05:46 GMT justhalf said:

I'm not sure, what's happening here?

I read it as Eglamore calling Annie to fall back, then in panel 3 she shuts her eyes in a form of pained acceptance that Eglamore is right and she isn't strong enough to take on a mad god, no matter how much she wants to help Coyote/Ysengrin out of their pain.

Looks like a full on retreat by the forces of the Court.

[madjack]

Yep, time to go. I'm not sure if de-powering is the right thing to do yet, given she can choose who and what her fire burns.

[ntmbk]

I'm getting some serious "Transformers time rift" vibes from this scene:



I suspect it's intentional! Insane villain, who is an altered version of a previous one, completely losing their grip as reality unfurls around them...

[shinkaii]

Big fan of how Annie snapped into and back out of fire elemental form instantly by her own will, not by getting angry and then calming down.

[merry76]

I like how more and more inhuman she looks, the more she concentrates on her Fire Form. Afterall, her fire part was very geometric when it was separed back then.

[pyradonis]

Aug 23, 2021 7:15:43 GMT justhalf said:

From Annie's expression seems like it is something urgent, and that it is mutually understood. Both options you mentioned seem plausible, but I'm just confused because it comes as a surprise to me. I was expecting Annie doing something first before being called back. Maybe this scene is to set up the details of what's to come next.

She had agreed with Eglamore that she would hold Loup back while he helped the others. He is done doing this, so now he calls Annie back so they can get out of here, because their chances of defeating a mad God are slim.

Aug 23, 2021 7:22:51 GMT madjack said:

Yep, time to go. I'm not sure if de-powering is the right thing to do yet, given she can choose who and what her fire burns.

I was asking myself for a second if she had deliberately deactivated her fire, or if she had stepped onto an anti-magic trap.

But now my guess is: Eglamore does not know how granular her control of what she burns is, and would prefer if she wasn't on fire in case they have to hug to Dragoon Jump out of this.

[Per]

Aug 23, 2021 7:10:24 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

And Antimony's etheric jumps are fire-enhanced now.

I think the "sonic boom" is just the fire mode dissipating.

[Gemminie]

My impressions: In the previous page, we saw Loup doing ... something. Perhaps he was merging with the Forest or making some kind of vortex around himself. Annie tried to approach him, but stopped, looking concerned. On this page, James calls for her; he's in silhouette in the distance. He successfully gets her attention, and she looks back at him in surprise. Behind Annie we can see Loup continuing to seemingly merge with the ground and become less Loup-like (he looks like a Loupcano, which suggests a potential volcanine eruption soon).

In the third frame she closes her eyes and doesn't look pleased. I suspect she was intending to try to interact with Loup and defuse the situation, something that if successful would probably have altered the progression of Coyote's plan. I doubt it would have been successful, but we won't find out. Instead she knows that events are continuing toward what Coyote wants to see as the conclusion of his plan. She's being railroaded, and she doesn't like it.

Annie leaps away, looking rather grumpy, using a piece of broken ground as a stepping stone. It's a bit odd that we focus on her foot like that; it may be to show how broken the ground is or how nimbly Annie negotiates such obstacles, because that kind of step might hurt another person's ankle. Finally, in the last frame, Annie turns off her flame and joins James. Looks like the humans are leaving the Forest for now. What exactly Loup is building up to is probably pretty dangerous, and getting away seems like the best plan for now.

[aline]

Aug 23, 2021 7:15:57 GMT theonethatgotaway said:

Annie's out of her depth here, That Guy knows it, so he calls her back. Like ImaginaryFriend says, I think he just wants to withdraw and assess the situation. All in all, a successful campaign where our heroes advanced valiantly away from the attacker! Very win, much success.

Given the circumstances, if everyone's still breathing by the time they make it out of the Forest, that'll count as a win. I honestly never expected the body count to be that low.

[imaginaryfriend]

Aug 23, 2021 13:06:00 GMT Per said:

Aug 23, 2021 7:10:24 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

And Antimony's etheric jumps are fire-enhanced now.

I think the "sonic boom" is just the fire mode dissipating.

Maybe, but panel 3 looks to me like she's blasting off a little. She's got twice the firepower now, wouldn't be strange if she can do more than burn stuff with the extra mojo.

[guntherkrieg]

Tom absolutely smashing it out of the park with the art on this page.

[guntherkrieg]

Aug 23, 2021 17:09:32 GMT aline said:

Aug 23, 2021 7:15:57 GMT theonethatgotaway said:

Annie's out of her depth here, That Guy knows it, so he calls her back. Like ImaginaryFriend says, I think he just wants to withdraw and assess the situation. All in all, a successful campaign where our heroes advanced valiantly away from the attacker! Very win, much success.

Given the circumstances, if everyone's still breathing by the time they make it out of the Forest, that'll count as a win. I honestly never expected the body count to be that low.

"Kill your darlings" isn't something Tom really adheres to, sadly. It usually feels as if the stakes are low to medium (at best).

[jda]

Annie about to drop a sick CARVER PUNCH!! to Eggers, or to flip midair and throw a CarverLaser to Coyote.

[saardvark]

Aug 23, 2021 17:31:53 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

Aug 23, 2021 13:06:00 GMT Per said:

I think the "sonic boom" is just the fire mode dissipating.

Maybe, but panel 3 looks to me like she's blasting off a little. She's got twice the firepower now, wouldn't be strange if she can do more than burn stuff with the extra mojo.

maybe she's picked up some of Surma's levitation ability along the way to help the jump?

[lonestarf1]

I suspect part of that closed-eye reflection was her realizing that she doesn't have what she needs. Unless she started carrying around the Tooth suddenly. So even if she wanted to avoid using it, she needs to have her gigglin' backup plan.

[Gulby]

Aug 23, 2021 19:16:04 GMT jda said:

Annie about to drop a sick CARVER PUNCH!! to Eggers, or to flip midair and throw a CarverLaser to Coyote.

Thank you! For a moment there, reading the previous comments, I was starting to wonder if I was the only one that interprets it that way! It seems to me that she was going to fight Loup but his pain is just too much for her and she choose to go back to the Forest's side.

[pyradonis]

Aug 23, 2021 17:31:53 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

Aug 23, 2021 13:06:00 GMT Per said:

I think the "sonic boom" is just the fire mode dissipating.

Maybe, but panel 3 looks to me like she's blasting off a little. She's got twice the firepower now, wouldn't be strange if she can do more than burn stuff with the extra mojo.

Wait until she starts to use repulsor beams to fly.

[shaihulud]

Or she uses firebending to fly with rocket boots like Azula.

[todd]

Aug 23, 2021 19:08:33 GMT guntherkrieg said:

Aug 23, 2021 17:09:32 GMT aline said:

Given the circumstances, if everyone's still breathing by the time they make it out of the Forest, that'll count as a win. I honestly never expected the body count to be that low.

"Kill your darlings" isn't something Tom really adheres to, sadly. It usually feels as if the stakes are low to medium (at best).

I was under the impression that "kill your darlings" meant, not being willing to kill off characters that you (or your readers) like, but being willing to jettisons moments in your story that you like but which don't benefit it.

[Gemminie]

Aug 23, 2021 23:30:14 GMT todd said:

Aug 23, 2021 19:08:33 GMT guntherkrieg said:

"Kill your darlings" isn't something Tom really adheres to, sadly. It usually feels as if the stakes are low to medium (at best).

I was under the impression that "kill your darlings" meant, not being willing to kill off characters that you (or your readers) like, but being willing to jettisons moments in your story that you like but which don't benefit it.

"When darlings must be murdered when your heartbreak overwhelms your heart" -- TMBG, "Erase"

[warrl]

Aug 23, 2021 23:30:14 GMT todd said:

Aug 23, 2021 19:08:33 GMT guntherkrieg said:

"Kill your darlings" isn't something Tom really adheres to, sadly. It usually feels as if the stakes are low to medium (at best).

I was under the impression that "kill your darlings" meant, not being willing to kill off characters that you (or your readers) like, but being willing to jettisons moments in your story that you like but which don't benefit it.

Either or both, depending on circumstances.

But mostly the latter version.

(I once realized that the most perfect single line in the entire story I was working on, was in the middle of a scene that the story didn't need. And it was only perfect in that specific situation - not usable anywhere else in the story.)

[drmemory]

I'm not sure what we're seeing here.

At first, I was assuming the cubes were Loup gathering in more mass, like maybe intending to turn into a much larger Loup. BrickLoup? Something like that. The facial expressions just seemed like he was dropping into instinct, rather than thinking about things, which is in keeping with his personality.

But with the new comic, now I'm not so sure. Is he under attack? Like, being walled in? If so, how and by whom? The only etheric stuff we've seen Aata do so far has been flower-based. It seemed like Tom was using flowers to indicate the use of Aata's flower power.

But if not Aata, who else do we know that could do such a thing? It's not fire-based. Does anyone have earth powers that we've seen?

On the other hand, it still seems more likely to be part of Loup's tantrum. In panel 3 of this, you can see that the bricks merge into Loup and that some of them match his color scheme.  Also, back here and here, we saw floating blocks and little floating colored balls and other geometric shapes.  At that time, Loup was still calm and seemed to be meditating and working on the forest.  So I guess the new ones are being caused by him, probably, but I don't get what they are meant to do and suspect he may not be doing it on purpose.

The rest of this may be a different topic - I'm not sure.

Loup is not good at multi-tasking, nor at perception.

Coyote is (was?) - consider how he happened by and saved Annie from a wisp when she was being introduced to the cranky, monstrous-appearing forest-dwellers.  He always seemed to know what was going on and had plans within plans within plans, some very long-term.

Ysengrin is (was?) a military general.  This really should imply that he is good at strategy - that's pretty much what a general officer does!  If he's bad at planning and logistics and also their best general, it's amazing the court didn't wipe them out with ease.  So if we assume he was good at strategy, and good at tactics as well (we've seen him fight), then he's a pretty good soldier.  Not thoughtless and not an idiot.  On the other hand, we've also seen him act unreasonably and violently.  I wonder how much of that was an effect of having his mind messed with long-term?  Did Coyote WANT him to be like that?

My point is, both Coyote and Ysengrin were mature entities with high-level skills.  They were both at least a few hundred years old as well, so had a lot of experience.  I'm not seeing a lot of evidence of any of that with Loup.  He has some of the knowledge, and some of Ysengrin's prejudice against humans, but none of Coyote's playfullness nor planning skills.

So what really happened when Ysengrin absorbed Coyote's power?  Not only did he not get the wisdom and the planning skills (not to mention the actual plans already in progress), he also lost his own maturity and self-control.  I still think Loup is a new, very young entity, despite what went into him, but perhaps something else is going on here.  Like, even if he is a new individual, why are his inherited knowledge and skills so lacking?  Not to mention his personality!  Sad if his strongest character trait really is bitterness. 

[AluK]

Full elemental Annie is the best Annie. Love the fifth panel.

[rylfrazier]

My guess is that the next page is "here's the tooth, you should probably take it with you".

[rylfrazier]

Aug 23, 2021 19:08:33 GMT guntherkrieg said:

Aug 23, 2021 17:09:32 GMT aline said:

Given the circumstances, if everyone's still breathing by the time they make it out of the Forest, that'll count as a win. I honestly never expected the body count to be that low.

"Kill your darlings" isn't something Tom really adheres to, sadly. It usually feels as if the stakes are low to medium (at best).

I don't really think this comic would benefit from being darker or grittier.

[Polyhymnia]

Aug 23, 2021 23:30:14 GMT todd said:

Aug 23, 2021 19:08:33 GMT guntherkrieg said:

"Kill your darlings" isn't something Tom really adheres to, sadly. It usually feels as if the stakes are low to medium (at best).

I was under the impression that "kill your darlings" meant, not being willing to kill off characters that you (or your readers) like, but being willing to jettisons moments in your story that you like but which don't benefit it.

Indeed, I see it primarily in the context of editing: being willing to cut things that you love that don’t serve the story.

As to whether I think it applies to Gunnerkrigg Court, the story from the beginning has been a slower paced, more episodic mystery-slice of life sort of story, so I personally don’t think that living characters are detracting from that. I
I don’t see a living character that I think needs to have died to better serve the narrative. I don’t think the stakes from near-death scrapes are necessarily generated by fear of someone dying. We’ve got the Annies with water-monster, Ysengrin and Annie during medium training, several real or almost- attacks on Annie in the forest, Annie’s Surma-spirit coma, Annie’s fall from the bridge, and the scene on the boat—all of these happen to the protagonist, so we do have some guarantee that she’ll survive because this isn’t a zombie apocalypse or grimdark fantasy. All of those scenes were meaningful and contributed to character development, themes, or plot, and several of them count as foreshadowing &/or introduced an element of mystery to be solved.

Non-Annie near-death scrapes include Jack’s attack on Reynard, Smitty’s encounter with Jeanne, Ayilu’s encounter with Jeanne, Shadow’s coyote-tooth cut, the other students on the cruise boat, arguably the missing campers during the excursion, arguably Robot’s forest trip, and return + subsequent paper-clipping. Oh, and I guess Jone’s space trio, but we’ve established she’s immortal, so…

It’s worth noting that we have had characters permanently leave, which in many ways is functionally the same as death from a narrative perspective, and characters have died. Key, named, significant characters that we’ve formed emotional attachment to.

Actual deaths or functional deaths include the ?Orjak? Reynard vacates, the doll-demon that Reynard kills, Aly’s bird transformation, Red and Agilu’s exit, Mort’s exit/second death, Ysengrin’s transformation into Loup, Coyote’s “death”/transformation into Loup, and arguably the Annie twins. All of these deaths or exits contributed thematically, emotionally, or plot-wise to the story. (what’s-her-name Hetty? Is more of a character moment, and Aly’s a lot more thematic than anything else, but they both fit in with the episodic pacing that’s characteristic of the story, especially the earlier chapters).

But beyond the actual, literal deaths in the comic, what I think is neat is that Tom is willing to abruptly change the status quo when we’re not expecting it. Yet, there’s almost always significant lead-up supporting it. It’s easy as a reader to assume that this episodic school mystery will keep most things the same, and yet we’ve had some drastic, permanent changes. Consider the revelation about Surma’s death, Tony’s return, Jeanne’s death, or Loup’s birth. Those mark points of no-return in the story, and I can’t personally see Reynard coming back permanently any more than I can see Mort or Jeanne returning. Even if the court re-builds, the Annan Waters will not have the same symbolic representation of separation and relations won’t be the same. Considering how for YEARS the story was premised on school-time shenanigans by a girl allowed to go between the court and forest, that’s a pretty fundamental shift, just like how Jeanne’s presence and care lay underneath many of Annie and Kay’s explorations.