[2679] "I hope you're not too jealous."

[Timberwere]

Jerrek, always the smooth operator. *cough*

[stclair]

But my plan! My brilliant, perfect, flawless plan!

[basser]

Loup operates on the same social framework as the fairies.

[maxptc]

"Curses, my plans are foiled again she isnt jealous at all. I made out with Lana for nothing, I'm furious! I better go desecrate a corpse."

[laaaa]

CALLED IT
I'm so happy for Annie's ace powers!!

I gotta say, it's really refreshing to see the ace "meh" powers as part of the plot in a work of art.

[speedwell]

Loup, edging closer, bit by bit, to becoming something Annie will become fed up enough with to want to stab. 

No, actually kidding about that - while she still thinks he is a New Person, she will have a lot of patience with his fumbling attempts to act like a human being. Sure, he's probably killed just as dead any chance of getting together with Annie. Even worse, if she never thought before of a New Person as a possible partner for herself (there's no sign she did so after Arthur's embodiment), it may occur to her now. Just not with him, haha.

[csj]

1. infiltrate court
2. infiltrate annie's bedroom
3 ? ? ?
4 profit

[mochakimono]

I actually laughed out loud at his grumpy little face in the last panel.

[blahzor]

Jealous? I keep forgetting you exist

[TBeholder]

Oops!
And now Loup faces his greatest challenge: to not let Coyote regain some autonomy again, because right now he is about to roll out of Jerrek, laughing his sides off.

[todd]

So Lana may be genuinely interested in the Star Ocean, rather than just wanting to come along because Jerek is. (Unless she's faking the interest.)

[silicondream]

"Why, Renard and I love to talk about what a good couple you two would make! At night. When we're snuggling."

[speedwell]

Sept 21, 2022 10:17:23 GMT mochakimono said:

I actually laughed out loud at his grumpy little face in the last panel.

Dude should thank his lucky stars Renard isn't around to witness his utter incompetence at even being a Trickster. It's almost as wretched as it is hilarious.

[ctso74]

Seems about right.

[hannibalbarca]

i get what's going on. i do.

the new god formed from two older gods, whos now technically/philosophically about annies age, pulls a renard and takes a human form to get closer to annie. hes a baby basically, hes incredibly possessive and jealous, so it shows up as romantic feelings for annie + jealousy over her mentor/father figure/friend. who knows if either of these feelings are true and not just him trying to rationalize his obsession.

lana is kind of just a collateral as well as a foil imo. collateral because shes definitely getting hurt, but her naiveté is the same as loup/jerrek. she doesn't know how love works, she's also new. hence the weird rushed confession. who knows if shes actually feeling romantic love or if shes learned in her darned books that the only way to keep a boy around you when you're a girl is to get together with him romantically.

right now i hate the vibes though, im sorry. this is just my opinion here, but jerrek is not nearly charismatic/charming enough to warrant the young boy manipulating a young girl plotline as something cute and endearing or even funny. the tone is all off. the alley scene was a severe tonal shift and made things much more serious ? and the renard jealousy could be cute if we hadnt had our fair share of crude jokes about that back in the day. (im glad tom moved away from that, and made their relationship evolve into something much better, but its kinda hard to forget the jokes between an old god and an 11 year old girl, especially when the text is kinda making a reference to that by making someone misinterpret their relationship entirely.)
like... its probably personal sensitivity, but unfortunately right now thinking about the current plotlines just makes me feel a bit of dread. this isnt to say the webcomic is making me miserable or anything, but im mostly writing this to see if im the only one honestly a bit uncomfortable with this whole mess. i feel like it was intended to be more light hearted than it comes out as.

[guntherkrieg]

Sept 21, 2022 7:24:54 GMT laaaa said:

CALLED IT
I'm so happy for Annie's ace powers!!

I gotta say, it's really refreshing to see the ace "meh" powers as part of the plot in a work of art.

... What the hell are you talking about? 

[mturtle7]

Sept 21, 2022 13:49:46 GMT hannibalbarca said:

i get what's going on. i do.

the new god formed from two older gods, whos now technically/philosophically about annies age, pulls a renard and takes a human form to get closer to annie. hes a baby basically, hes incredibly possessive and jealous, so it shows up as romantic feelings for annie + jealousy over her mentor/father figure/friend. who knows if either of these feelings are true and not just him trying to rationalize his obsession.

lana is kind of just a collateral as well as a foil imo. collateral because shes definitely getting hurt, but her naiveté is the same as loup/jerrek. she doesn't know how love works, she's also new. hence the weird rushed confession. who knows if shes actually feeling romantic love or if shes learned in her darned books that the only way to keep a boy around you when you're a girl is to get together with him romantically.

right now i hate the vibes though, im sorry. this is just my opinion here, but jerrek is not nearly charismatic/charming enough to warrant the young boy manipulating a young girl plotline as something cute and endearing or even funny. the tone is all off. the alley scene was a severe tonal shift and made things much more serious ? and the renard jealousy could be cute if we hadnt had our fair share of crude jokes about that back in the day. (im glad tom moved away from that, and made their relationship evolve into something much better, but its kinda hard to forget the jokes between an old god and an 11 year old girl, especially when the text is kinda making a reference to that by making someone misinterpret their relationship entirely.)
like... its probably personal sensitivity, but unfortunately right now thinking about the current plotlines just makes me feel a bit of dread. this isnt to say the webcomic is making me miserable or anything, but im mostly writing this to see if im the only one honestly a bit uncomfortable with this whole mess. i feel like it was intended to be more light hearted than it comes out as.

Yeah...you're, uh, definitely not alone in those feelings, buddy. I'm not gonna go too much into this, but there's a reason I haven't been posting much lately on the new page threads. ...What I will say, is that I look forward to a day when I can genuinely be excited about checking the new GC update again, rather than checking it out of habit, but inwardly dreading another page which makes me cringe so hard I actually physically rear back from my computer screen. Until then, I'm afraid I'm not going to be a very fun forum participant. So...yeah.

[speedwell]

Sept 21, 2022 16:48:29 GMT mturtle7 said:

Sept 21, 2022 13:49:46 GMT hannibalbarca said:

i get what's going on. i do.

the new god formed from two older gods, whos now technically/philosophically about annies age, pulls a renard and takes a human form to get closer to annie. hes a baby basically, hes incredibly possessive and jealous, so it shows up as romantic feelings for annie + jealousy over her mentor/father figure/friend. who knows if either of these feelings are true and not just him trying to rationalize his obsession.

lana is kind of just a collateral as well as a foil imo. collateral because shes definitely getting hurt, but her naiveté is the same as loup/jerrek. she doesn't know how love works, she's also new. hence the weird rushed confession. who knows if shes actually feeling romantic love or if shes learned in her darned books that the only way to keep a boy around you when you're a girl is to get together with him romantically.

right now i hate the vibes though, im sorry. this is just my opinion here, but jerrek is not nearly charismatic/charming enough to warrant the young boy manipulating a young girl plotline as something cute and endearing or even funny. the tone is all off. the alley scene was a severe tonal shift and made things much more serious ? and the renard jealousy could be cute if we hadnt had our fair share of crude jokes about that back in the day. (im glad tom moved away from that, and made their relationship evolve into something much better, but its kinda hard to forget the jokes between an old god and an 11 year old girl, especially when the text is kinda making a reference to that by making someone misinterpret their relationship entirely.)
like... its probably personal sensitivity, but unfortunately right now thinking about the current plotlines just makes me feel a bit of dread. this isnt to say the webcomic is making me miserable or anything, but im mostly writing this to see if im the only one honestly a bit uncomfortable with this whole mess. i feel like it was intended to be more light hearted than it comes out as.

Yeah...you're, uh, definitely not alone in those feelings, buddy. I'm not gonna go too much into this, but there's a reason I haven't been posting much lately on the new page threads. ...What I will say, is that I look forward to a day when I can genuinely be excited about checking the new GC update again, rather than checking it out of habit, but inwardly dreading another page which makes me cringe so hard I actually physically rear back from my computer screen. Until then, I'm afraid I'm not going to be a very fun forum participant. So...yeah.

My husband gets annoyed with me when I'm watching something with him and I express my discomfort aloud. Oftentimes this will take the form of complaining, "eww, that wasn't necessary", or crowing, "train wreck!" or "had it coming, so they did", or moaning, "why do people think that crap is funny?". He will always retort that making you feel those complex negative feelings of disgust or anxiety or pity is the point. And I know that; I used to hang out with animation students twenty years ago and we explored that in depth from the writer's side. But it doesn't make me like a, say, Quentin Tarantino movie or force me to sit and suffer in silence. So I totally understand and agree with both of you while also permitting myself to be uncomfortable for the sake of the depth of the story. When the story is worth that emotional investment, I hasten to add.

I have no bloody patience with Wuthering Heights, come to think of it. I think Heathcliff is as sexy as a packet of out-of-date chicken and I do not understand the violent lust many women feel for him. But I'd far rather read about the pratfalls of deities trying to seduce young women (a trope as old as mythology itself, naturally) than that complete waste of time of a novel (and I did try).

[rylfrazier]

I think Tom is executing this storyline really well - he has had some really weird ideas about Annie's emotions in the past but I think this is just her reacting really reasonably to an awkward new friend.

Now, I also suspect that she knows that he's Loup and maybe that she's playing along with him in some way due to that but as far as the emotions, I feel like Annie has matured quite a bit since some of her early "crushes" on various male characters and at this point whether she's dealing with Loup or just an awkward kid who is also Loup, she's dealing with the situation in a reasonable fashion.

I am curious as to what Tom has planned for this chapter and if we're going to see a substantial resolution in the Loup storyline - this seems like it's building to something but I'm really not sure what at this point.

[maxptc]

Sept 21, 2022 17:54:20 GMT speedwell said:

Sept 21, 2022 16:48:29 GMT mturtle7 said:

Yeah...you're, uh, definitely not alone in those feelings, buddy. I'm not gonna go too much into this, but there's a reason I haven't been posting much lately on the new page threads. ...What I will say, is that I look forward to a day when I can genuinely be excited about checking the new GC update again, rather than checking it out of habit, but inwardly dreading another page which makes me cringe so hard I actually physically rear back from my computer screen. Until then, I'm afraid I'm not going to be a very fun forum participant. So...yeah.

My husband gets annoyed with me when I'm watching something with him and I express my discomfort aloud. Oftentimes this will take the form of complaining, "eww, that wasn't necessary", or crowing, "train wreck!" or "had it coming, so they did", or moaning, "why do people think that crap is funny?". He will always retort that making you feel those complex negative feelings of disgust or anxiety or pity is the point. And I know that; I used to hang out with animation students twenty years ago and we explored that in depth from the writer's side. But it doesn't make me like a, say, Quentin Tarantino movie or force me to sit and suffer in silence. So I totally understand and agree with both of you while also permitting myself to be uncomfortable for the sake of the depth of the story. When the story is worth that emotional investment, I hasten to add.

I have no bloody patience with Wuthering Heights, come to think of it. I think Heathcliff is as sexy as a packet of out-of-date chicken and I do not understand the violent lust many women feel for him. But I'd far rather read about the pratfalls of deities trying to seduce young women (a trope as old as mythology itself, naturally) than that complete waste of time of a novel (and I did try).

I think Speedwell hit the nail on the head in that awkward dread is the point. If you remove the "Jerrek is Loup" aspect the teen romance we've seen hasn't crossed any lines or done anything that isn't just typical cringey teen stuff, which on its own can have that uncomfortable effect. Add that the entire thing is a plot that plays into the main protagonists big blind spot, it changes the entire tone, ups the emotional stakes and eventual fallout to big levels. I say those feeling dread are far from alone. I'd bet that's the general read most people have, be it to different levels of uncomfortable and enjoyable. GK has always been a comic that I enjoyed for the drama and potential trainwrecks, but I recognize this feels different and maybe even more wrong to some then Rey and Annie's big fight or Tony's influence in the comic or the religious uprising of the robots. I enjoy wondering how trainwreck situations are going to resolve or get worse (it leaves lots of good opportunities for jokes) but that's not for everyone.

[manabi]

Sept 21, 2022 12:30:57 GMT todd said:

So Lana may be genuinely interested in the Star Ocean, rather than just wanting to come along because Jerek is. (Unless she's faking the interest.)

Lana's pretty much an open book emotionally, so I'd say she's genuinely interested in it.  She's very child-like in that regard.

Sept 21, 2022 13:49:46 GMT hannibalbarca said:

right now i hate the vibes though, im sorry. this is just my opinion here, but jerrek is not nearly charismatic/charming enough to warrant the young boy manipulating a young girl plotline as something cute and endearing or even funny.

I'm not getting that kind of vibe from it, it seems to be heading for a tragic ending for Lana.  It's uncomfortable to see, but it's clear she's at least going to get her heart broken.  I honestly wouldn't be surprised if she ends up dead.  However, Jerrek/Loup's not been manipulating her prior to accepting her confession between two pages back and the last page.  Lana fell in love with him all on her own, without him manipulating her to do so.

That is probably why it bothers you and others so much: It's very realistic.  Teenage/pre-teen girls (body looks like a teen, but mentally she's pre-teen at best) make bad romantic choices and get hurt all the time.  It's never pleasant to see happening.  I'm willing to see where Tom's going with this before criticizing it.  So far it's done an excellent job of showing how the New People are becoming more like humans in their new bodies and gaining emotions.

[argent]

I’m in the camp of “this whole set of pages is making me cringe,” but I do think it’s because Lana is such a realistic childlike/naive/preteen girl character. That, and Loup is continuously finding new ways to make me dislike him, i.e. using an impressionable NP as fodder for trying to get to Annie. I think I’d hoped this storyline would result in Loup becoming a better perso— uh, coywolf deity, and gaining some depth - but instead it looks like he’s continuing deeper down the road of being a shitheel.

Basically, I’m ready for Annie to shiv this loser with his own tooth already. It’ll be merciful on multiple levels. 😆

[bicarbonat]

Somebody hold the frames open, I'm going in. Let me just finish filling this sock with coins...

[fia]

Sept 21, 2022 17:54:20 GMT speedwell said:

He will always retort that making you feel those complex negative feelings of disgust or anxiety or pity is the point. And I know that; I used to hang out with animation students twenty years ago and we explored that in depth from the writer's side. But it doesn't make me like a, say, Quentin Tarantino movie or force me to sit and suffer in silence. So I totally understand and agree with both of you while also permitting myself to be uncomfortable for the sake of the depth of the story. When the story is worth that emotional investment, I hasten to add.

I have no bloody patience with Wuthering Heights, come to think of it. I think Heathcliff is as sexy as a packet of out-of-date chicken and I do not understand the violent lust many women feel for him. But I'd far rather read about the pratfalls of deities trying to seduce young women (a trope as old as mythology itself, naturally) than that complete waste of time of a novel (and I did try).

Are we the same person? :,D I have exactly the same response to Tarantino AND Wuthering Heights.

[SilverbackRon]

* Insert the sound of a balloon being slowly deflated *

[jda]

Sept 22, 2022 3:54:13 GMT SilverbackRon said:

* Insert the sound of a balloon being slowly deflated *

Pbbbbtttttttttt

[bedinsis]

Sept 21, 2022 10:11:23 GMT csj said:

1. infiltrate court
2. infiltrate annie's bedroom
3 ? ? ?
4 profit

Depending on what the question marks mean that occurs after someone infatuated with Annie has gotten into her bedroom, I suspect they won't consider the step of "profit" important.

[blahzor]

Sept 21, 2022 13:49:46 GMT hannibalbarca said:

i get what's going on. i do.

the new god formed from two older gods, whos now technically/philosophically about annies age, pulls a renard and takes a human form to get closer to annie. hes a baby basically, hes incredibly possessive and jealous, so it shows up as romantic feelings for annie + jealousy over her mentor/father figure/friend. who knows if either of these feelings are true and not just him trying to rationalize his obsession.

lana is kind of just a collateral as well as a foil imo. collateral because shes definitely getting hurt, but her naiveté is the same as loup/jerrek. she doesn't know how love works, she's also new. hence the weird rushed confession. who knows if shes actually feeling romantic love or if shes learned in her darned books that the only way to keep a boy around you when you're a girl is to get together with him romantically.

right now i hate the vibes though, im sorry. this is just my opinion here, but jerrek is not nearly charismatic/charming enough to warrant the young boy manipulating a young girl plotline as something cute and endearing or even funny. the tone is all off. the alley scene was a severe tonal shift and made things much more serious ? and the renard jealousy could be cute if we hadnt had our fair share of crude jokes about that back in the day. (im glad tom moved away from that, and made their relationship evolve into something much better, but its kinda hard to forget the jokes between an old god and an 11 year old girl, especially when the text is kinda making a reference to that by making someone misinterpret their relationship entirely.)
like... its probably personal sensitivity, but unfortunately right now thinking about the current plotlines just makes me feel a bit of dread. this isnt to say the webcomic is making me miserable or anything, but im mostly writing this to see if im the only one honestly a bit uncomfortable with this whole mess. i feel like it was intended to be more light hearted than it comes out as.

There's not been a single part that is implied that Jerrek is doing the charisma or manipulating. He's trying and hasn't been successful once outside of the Rey's body but he wasn't Jerrek then. He's been manipulated by basically everyone else including Lana

[arf]

So this is what it's like when someone's social graces are outmatched by Antimony Carver's...*

* historically, that is.

[mochakimono]

Though this page amused me, I 100% understand and even agree with the your guys's discomfort, too. My amusement personally is more in the vein of how much distaste I have for Loup/Jerrek, and seeing his attempts to scheme and emotionally manipulate anyone so far have just constantly failed, non-stop, from day one. He can't successfully evoke a single emotion he wants from anyone (fear, love, worship, etc.) no matter what guise he's taken. People rarely if ever agree with his statements in conversations. His plans to accomplish tasks large or small are foiled either by his own ignorance or his own hubris. He's a sort of shallow, lesser replacement for two characters I DID enjoy, and his existence is predicated on their absence, yet he's only inherited their worst traits with none of their charm or coolness. I wouldn't enjoy these developments if his plans were succeeding, but I do vengefully enjoy seeing him suck at everything.