|
|
Post by madjack on Jan 14, 2022 8:08:01 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by philman on Jan 14, 2022 8:16:01 GMT
Ok now I am just confused about what their plan is. I had assumed that this was a metaphorical ocean that they were travelling to, but it is actually a physical place that some will be allowed in and some won't? It seems like they're hobbling themselves for the sake of "rightness". I was giving the Court the benefit of the doubt before, that their plan had some merits and was just being conducted badly, but now it just seems silly?
|
|
|
|
Post by jda on Jan 14, 2022 8:20:35 GMT
Where Kat receives a job offer.
|
|
|
|
Post by madjack on Jan 14, 2022 8:24:17 GMT
I was giving the Court the benefit of the doubt before, that their plan had some merits and was just being conducted badly, but now it just seems silly? It's not just silly, it's completely callous. Kat is being targeted(?) for this plan as a valuable asset, but almost everyone she's closest to has some form of etheric talent or doesn't fit the dictionary definition of 'human'. Her mother can't go, so her father won't. The two others she's closest to, Annie and Paz, are ruled out. Renard, Robot, Shadow, Parley, Smitty? Nope. Is this what Gamma meant by ' putting the Court on a better path?' One that isn't exclusionary? |
|
|
|
Post by dawolf on Jan 14, 2022 8:34:40 GMT
If they really just want a lot of the non-etherics to leave and go someplace else, then who cares.
But that's clearly not the plan, they weren't trying to trap coyote just so they could go someplace else. Their plan is far more than Shel is saying.
|
|
|
|
Post by theonethatgotaway on Jan 14, 2022 8:41:16 GMT
Can't Arthur go because they'd have to admit he's a robot that illegaly got a New People body? Or because of the etheric process used to transfer his mind? Because in the second case, what are they gonna do with Kat across their ocean? "Hey Kat, do some fun stuff, BUT NO ETHER MANIPULATION!... Why did you make another Boxbot, this one is even worse, somehow!?"
|
|
|
|
Post by imaginaryfriend on Jan 14, 2022 8:48:34 GMT
Ok now I am just confused about what their plan is. I had assumed that this was a metaphorical ocean that they were travelling to, but it is actually a physical place that some will be allowed in and some won't? In the Gunnerkrigg Universe the distinction blurs. It seems like they're hobbling themselves for the sake of "rightness". I was giving the Court the benefit of the doubt before, that their plan had some merits and was just being conducted badly, but now it just seems silly? If they can't be gods maybe they can hide in a corner, put blinders on, and pretend there aren't any. ...and if that's the case then the question becomes why they need a big source of ether. They should be able to make Etheric Counter-Measures using their existing extraction/purification tech that should keep most entities off their backs. Maybe they want to bubble themselves, like a cloaking device, from normal humans, or maybe they're gonna try to create a reverse Court that's even farther removed from the ether than normie space, maybe even completely isolated from the ether. |
|
|
|
Post by blahzor on Jan 14, 2022 9:05:19 GMT
Ha wait til they find she's a angel creating a entirely new species
|
|
|
|
Post by arf on Jan 14, 2022 9:30:54 GMT
Still inclined to think Shell is giving a jaundiced account of things, but Kat's looking worried.
Where do animal whisperers fit in the new order?
|
|
|
|
Post by csj on Jan 14, 2022 9:33:42 GMT
So they're transhumanist exclusionary radical technocrats
no wonder they want an island
|
|
|
|
Post by ghostiet on Jan 14, 2022 10:00:14 GMT
if this is the sales pitch of a person who only knows the jist of it, the full plan is gonna sound like total shit
|
|
|
|
Post by silicondream on Jan 14, 2022 10:06:53 GMT
Her mother can't go, so her father won't. The two others she's closest to, Annie and Paz, are ruled out. Renard, Robot, Shadow, Parley, Smitty? Nope. Yeah, literally everyone we've met with any degree of authority in the Court--except Llewellyn--is either etherically talented themselves, or has etherically talented and/or non-human family and friends. And it's always been that way, to judge by the Court founders. If this migration is going to be something more than just the Shadow Men bailing with Omega, there must be a massive baseline human population that we've never seen. I wonder if they've already emigrated, and formerly occupied all those empty districts the students evacuated to? |
|
|
|
Post by blahzor on Jan 14, 2022 10:09:43 GMT
Will this be when we'll know for certain if Annie ever tell her how she saw her in the ether during the arrow retrieval?
|
|
|
|
Post by philman on Jan 14, 2022 10:11:07 GMT
I was giving the Court the benefit of the doubt before, that their plan had some merits and was just being conducted badly, but now it just seems silly? It's not just silly, it's completely callous. Kat is being targeted(?) for this plan as a valuable asset, but almost everyone she's closest to has some form of etheric talent or doesn't fit the dictionary definition of 'human'. Her mother can't go, so her father won't. The two others she's closest to, Annie and Paz, are ruled out. Renard, Robot, Shadow, Parley, Smitty? Nope. Is this what Gamma meant by ' putting the Court on a better path?' One that isn't exclusionary? Yes on a personal level it is callous, but on a scientific level it also seems pointless? I had assumed the goal was to remove the ether from the world altogether, to put every individual on an equal footing from birth, rather than some being born to powers and some not. It is not necessarily a goal many of us would agree with but it is one I can understand. But if the goal is to just go somewhere else and leave the etheric beings behind, despite the great advances that working with them has brought, solely based on the fact that they are touched by the ether, then it just seems so arbitrary and so weird. Almost religious, rather than scientific. |
|
laaaa
Full Member
Posts: 249
|
Post by laaaa on Jan 14, 2022 11:05:37 GMT
This plan is insane. Probably 1/3 of people living in the court have etheric loved ones they wouldn't leave behind AND they have the know-how to keep doing research by themselves.
This CAN'T be the whole plan.
|
|
|
|
Post by Alkazar on Jan 14, 2022 11:07:33 GMT
It sounds to me that the Court is trying to make a new divide between ether and technology that's even deeper than the old river. The envisioned result would be two worlds that can't interact in any way. That is in direct opposite to nearly all characters of the main cast which are all in their own ways crossing borders. Annie is switching between fire spirit and human. Renard is a creature of the forest that befriended humans. Juliette and Arthur found love across borders. Shell and Aata are the same, but slightly different. Tony's field is technology, but he has also no problem dealing with the ether if it's necessary. Kat is really the odd one in the way that her use of advanced technology is advancing her as a mighty ether being, even while she doesn't cross the border. The policy of the Court to divide can't stand up to this collective display of connection.
|
|
|
|
Post by Druplesnubb on Jan 14, 2022 11:27:53 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by TBeholder on Jan 14, 2022 11:32:46 GMT
And Kat is unwilling to go anywhere and leave behind her mom, Annie and Paz. And so on… Yeah, literally everyone we've met with any degree of authority in the Court--except Llewellyn--is either etherically talented themselves, or has etherically talented and/or non-human family and friends. And it's always been that way, to judge by the Court founders. If this migration is going to be something more than just the Shadow Men bailing with Omega, there must be a massive baseline human population that we've never seen. I wonder if they've already emigrated, and formerly occupied all those empty districts the students evacuated to? There may be. But… This plan is insane. Probably 1/3 of people living in the court have etheric loved ones they wouldn't leave behind AND they have the know-how to keep doing research by themselves. This CAN'T be the whole plan. More. The school's main purpose, obviously, is to train future personnel of the Court. Thus for a rough estimation the composition can be assumed somewhat close. Look at the school: Foleys (one big etheric cuddle pile), Chester ("full of weirdos": Zimmy, Gamma, Brinnie, Surma, Anja) and a good chunk of Queslett (Anja and Surma, Annie and Paz, Andrew). Plus all the connections, indeed. This is likely to add up to far more than 1/3, unless Thornhill is disproportionately huge (which is still possible, of course), and completely mundane (which isn't, because isn't Parley in Thornhill?). This starts looking like there would be enough of them left behind that if and when the incident with Loup is resolved, they could just replace the broken windows and go on without significant disruption beyond the damage done by Loup. The next question: would it all not be obvious for anyone who tries to think this plan through? Hmm. So, upon a cursory examination, the story that Shell is re-selling does indeed stink higher than the "Realistic Doggie Doodle with Lifelike Aroma that Actually Sticks to Your Hands". Oh, and Kat in the penultimate panel looks like her mental processes already ran into a cloud of this curious smell. |
|
|
|
Post by Polyhymnia on Jan 14, 2022 12:45:43 GMT
Kat oddly reminds me of this song: m.youtube.com/watch?v=1cC3uXGn1f4She’s had a series of revelations that her home can be pretty crappy, and this one may take the cake. Nothing like being told *you’re* fine, but you have to leave behind or betray half the people you care about for the good of the Court (insert relevant nationalist/autocratic word here). Meanwhile, Annie’s pretty chill because this isn’t even a surprise. |
|
|
|
Post by aline on Jan 14, 2022 12:49:19 GMT
Shell obviously doesn't know the whole plan.
So what she's giving us is a lie by omission at best.
The truth is probably either somewhat sinister or dangerous because else, why keep loyal members of the shadow men like her out of the loop?
|
|
|
|
Post by todd on Jan 14, 2022 13:01:10 GMT
It's possible that the Court fears that anyone with etheric abilities would oppose its plans for the ether, now that it's reaching the point where this goal may become more transparent, and want to avoid trouble - the notion of "If they're outside the new Court, they'll be less dangerous than if they're inside".
Or it may be that the Court just hasn't thought this through carefully enough; a lot of their plans have wound up backfiring ("Lie to Reynardine because you're afraid that he might accept Coyote's offer. The lie wound up giving him the motivation to accept Coyote's offer, which he'd otherwise have gone on refusing."), and maybe this is another of them - motivated more by prejudice than by reason.
Not that it matters since, as I mentioned in another thread, I don't think the Court's plan will work; it would be almost impossible to continue the story in a recognizable form if it was carried out. More likely Loup will re-appear, demolish it, and by the time that the Loup problem's been resolved, the Court's policies will change in the process (maybe the Court leadership finally having an epiphany and realizing how misguided they've been all these years, or getting overthrown and replaced by more reasonable people).
|
|
|
|
Post by Bo No Bo on Jan 14, 2022 13:01:45 GMT
I was giving the Court the benefit of the doubt before, that their plan had some merits and was just being conducted badly, but now it just seems silly? It's not just silly, it's completely callous. Kat is being targeted(?) for this plan as a valuable asset, but almost everyone she's closest to has some form of etheric talent or doesn't fit the dictionary definition of 'human'. Her mother can't go, so her father won't. The two others she's closest to, Annie and Paz, are ruled out. Renard, Robot, Shadow, Parley, Smitty? Nope. Is this what Gamma meant by ' putting the Court on a better path?' One that isn't exclusionary? The Court would be removing Kat from her loved ones– her parents, her girlfriend, almost ALL her friends, ANYONE with etheric 'differences'–, and thus the cult-like Court becomes even more cult-like... |
|
|
|
Post by Jelly Jellybean on Jan 14, 2022 13:02:23 GMT
Maybe the original Plan was for an amicable split. Select non-etherical people leave the Court while everyone else stays behind and (unwittingly) keeps Coyote focused on the old Court. Loup's attack may have forced the Plan to become much more desperate.
|
|
|
|
Post by maxptc on Jan 14, 2022 14:55:16 GMT
Pretty dumb reason to move honestly. I get wanting to understand systems, something with the implications of ether especially, but packing your ball and leaving because you can't break it down to a mechanical function seems like abandoning hope of future progress. Also way to over complicate a move out. Just pack a bag and go. Given how many people have important ties to ether in the Court, I don't think a lot of others are going to want to leave, even in there own organization we see this, so its going to have a population of mostly Shadowmen, unless they plan to force people to move, which is unacceptable. They shouldn't be forced to live near magic if they don't want of course and are free to go, but are they really worried Coyete would follow them to Wyoming? Would he even care all that much about them if they aren't in the Court? Seems like escaping magic would just cut off the legs of like half the projects that make the Court a semi utopia.
|
|
|
|
Post by mordekai on Jan 14, 2022 15:10:16 GMT
So they're transhumanist exclusionary radical technocrats no wonder they want an island Are you taking a jab at Krakoa? ;P |
|
|
|
Post by pyradonis on Jan 14, 2022 16:15:16 GMT
Typo in panel 3, as well: 'Arther'. Not sure if typo or Shell's accent. EDIT: Obviously a typo that has been fixed now.
Will this be when we'll know for certain if Annie ever tell her how she saw her in the ether during the arrow retrieval? She tried to tell her and drew a picture of it.
Who knows what they told Tony the "program" is... Or maybe Tony actually knows more than Shell, who, honestly, does not seem to know very much. |
|
|
|
Post by blahzor on Jan 14, 2022 16:32:38 GMT
Typo in panel 3, as well: 'Arther'. Not sure if typo or Shell's accent. Will this be when we'll know for certain if Annie ever tell her how she saw her in the ether during the arrow retrieval? She tried to tell her and drew a picture of it. Who knows what they told Tony the "program" is... Or maybe Tony actually knows more than Shell, who, honestly, does not seem to know very much. kinda lazy of Annie if she only tried to explain it once or at least try and get Rey to describe it |
|
|
|
Post by pyradonis on Jan 14, 2022 18:59:32 GMT
Not sure if typo or Shell's accent. She tried to tell her and drew a picture of it. Who knows what they told Tony the "program" is... Or maybe Tony actually knows more than Shell, who, honestly, does not seem to know very much.
kinda lazy of Annie if she only tried to explain it once or at least try and get Rey to describe it When did Rey ever see Kat as the Angel? |
|
|
|
Post by coastal on Jan 14, 2022 19:30:30 GMT
The real question is, does the Court know that Kat has found a way to hack into the ether?
|
|
|
|
Post by csj on Jan 14, 2022 20:21:48 GMT
This is likely to add up to far more than 1/3, unless Thornhill is disproportionately huge (which is still possible, of course), and completely mundane (which isn't, because isn't Parley in Thornhill?). In fairness, she was before she started bipping. Transfers between houses exist so the Court probably doesn't get it 'right' every time (assuming that's how it works). |
|
