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Post by rabbit on Oct 7, 2022 14:53:42 GMT
It was awful when it all began
Loupy really had the Court on the run
But it was over when he had the plan
To take the A-train to the Star Ocean
But when he got off at the station
He discovered his first real relation
Rose tints his world, keep him safe from his trouble and paaaaaaain...
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Post by ctso74 on Oct 7, 2022 14:57:43 GMT
Well, okay.
Did anyone else's imagination have the next page be Lana cry/screaming, while shoving glowing hearts into a twitching Loup. Lana: "Ahhh! How?! Why?! Ahhhhhh!"
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Post by speedwell on Oct 7, 2022 15:48:10 GMT
Bato, Loup, yama-gonta. Lana lom tooka-tooka unk-owa. Maka unk-owa.
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Post by Gemminie on Oct 7, 2022 16:14:04 GMT
I've got two pages to catch up on, it seems.
Previous page: Loup seems to be struggling to keep his Jerrek form, due probably both to his frustration and his difficulty being so near the star ocean. He's looking rather animalistic. Lana realizes that he's that Loup that everyone's been talking about – does it seem to you that she realizes this rather quickly, though? It may be that she partially suspected it already, however.
But then, confusing Loup, she stomps determinedly right up to him and tells him she meant what she said: she loves everything about him. Check: her operating system is the entire published corpus of romance manga. Got it. She's picked the "I've got a super-powered boyfriend!" option. Loup is absolutely gobsmacked by this.
Today's page: Loup's entire internal storehouse of pink hearts explodes out of his chest, mouth, and brain. Even his eyes have hearts in them. I'm not sure how much of this is figurative and how much is literal (and thus visible to Lana), nor am I sure precisely what it means or what Loup will do now. But this final confession is clearly vastly more than he expected.
This is the end of the chapter, so we can see the arc of its events a bit more clearly: the Court confesses what it's been doing, Aata confesses that Annie's survival of the fall from the bridge is what's been throwing the Omega Device off, Lana confesses her love for Jerrek, Jerrek confesses that his name isn't Jerrek, and Lana re-confesses her love. In true GC fashion, the chapter started with one plot arc and ended with a completely different one.
So ... does this mean that Loup actually feels affection for a mortal creature? Is this relationship actually going to happen? Will Loup remain Jerrek in order to be close to Lana more often? Will this distract him from his mission of trying to figure out what Coyote wanted him to figure out? How far will this relationship go? Marriage? Half-New-Person, half-deity demigod children? Will Lana swear eternal vengeance upon Annie someday, after she kills Loup?
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Post by davidm on Oct 7, 2022 16:31:52 GMT
If this were a japanese anime... Loup would more likely be a girl demon/dragon/monster/vampire/succubus with very strong powers and Lana an ordinary boy with the power of love and understanding (and *maybe* some superpowers later) and things will probably work out, though potentially get some yandere and/or romantic rival drama in future episodes.
...
It's possible that Lana is not naive, just very extroverted/risk taker, sort of like heroine in "My dress up darling" anime, who is well aware of risks would rather risk dying or problems than having regrets about not giving it her all. Younger Annie at start of story made things happen by taking risks.
Real life there is story about a guy who walks down street, sees girl of his dreams for first time, love at first sight, walks up to her and tells her he wants to be boyfriend and end up married to her, she says "I already have boyfriend", he suggests drop the other guy and they end up married happily ever after. He may have been very aware of risks. Not something most of us would do. Love can start for seemingly shallow reasons and yet last years or decades or lifetime even in people who aren't naive. Some choose risk it all right away, most choose middle ground, some choose "make sure you can properly look after girl and make her happy ever after before you even start (and not risk her possibly falling in love in return if may end in failure)".
...
A mom sees her newborn baby for first time and that baby becomes the most beautiful baby of them all. Similarly a guy or girl can be motivated by love so that the one they love becomes "most beautiful" and others are judged by how close they are to that ideal... eg Jack falls in love for zimmy and then dates the girl most similar to her.
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Post by maxptc on Oct 7, 2022 16:37:13 GMT
Huh, this is unexpected. Changes alot for my theories.
My new guess is Coyetes plan for Loup isn't related to the Court's escape at all, but the evolution of the New People.
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Post by bedinsis on Oct 7, 2022 16:37:32 GMT
My prediction two pages ago was proven wrong on last page. My prediction on the last page was proven wrong on this page. Hm. I predict that next page Mr. Siddell will announce that the webcomic is over. Or that Annie will walk in on this scene, Lana going: "Annie, I can explain!" with Antimony answering: "No, I understand." Oh, For (City) Face's Sake, in the corresponding myths both Coyote and Isengrim have had wives. As themselves, I mean, not as geese or whatever. Even Reynard had a wife. It seems uncontroversial and even pedestrian to think of any of them having loved and/or been loved before, even if Loup is thought of as a new-ish (recycled?) being. The only way this makes mythological sense at all is if the transformative power derives from Lana. Just because they were married does not mean they have experienced love. Loup has Ysengrin who desperately wanted to be loved (probably?) ...Really? That is not at all the image I have gotten. If anything, I'd say his primary need has been to be respected, hence why he lashed out on the suggestion that his being was a construction of human minds. And when he consoled Annie after she ran away to the forest and said that she didn't take her mother's life, her mother gave it to her, I read that as genuine maturity on his end, no looking for being loved present. Bato, Loup, yama-gonta. Lana lom tooka-tooka unk-owa. Maka unk-owa. I don't follow. Is that some sort of Greedo from Star Wars speech? |
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Post by Dvandaemon on Oct 7, 2022 16:42:07 GMT
Having a wife does not mean that you cannot fall head over heels in love with another person, as many affairs and divorces would attest I think that's exactly speedwell's point. That today's comic seems to send a message that Loup is unused to love (and so becomes so lovestruck when someone actually loves him and meant it), and speedwell is saying that Coyote and Ysengrin in the actual lore have wives, which means they should be used to love and be loved, and somehow today's comic kinda paints Loup as "I've never felt this kind of love before", not just "I love you". (but I guess this is also your point? that being used to love and be loved shouldn't make this strange? I dunno I still feel today's comic is an exaggerated expression of love/being loved. Don't you?) I mean, none of the stories about them are too accurate tho. Like they might have them in lore but who knows how accurate it is? It could just be someone they hung out with a lot that sparked rumors |
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Post by Corvo on Oct 7, 2022 16:50:47 GMT
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Post by davidm on Oct 7, 2022 16:58:02 GMT
In beginning of this story, Annie after falling off bridge meets two fairies who want her to pick up a rock and crush/kill them so they can become human. After she refuses, Y does the job. They live happily ever after as crazy human kids.
Then we have coyote telling Annie that she will have to kill Loup (using coyotes tooth sword).
Then we have Jerrek who when first meeting Lana blushes and later is very protective of her with the elf boys.
We have lots of foreshadowing on one way this story may go.
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Post by speedwell on Oct 7, 2022 17:21:39 GMT
Bato, Loup, yama-gonta. Lana lom tooka-tooka unk-owa. Maka unk-owa. I don't follow. Is that some sort of Greedo from Star Wars speech? No, it's from the same fictional language Tom got "Loup alunda Lana" from. |
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Post by bedinsis on Oct 7, 2022 17:27:25 GMT
I don't follow. Is that some sort of Greedo from Star Wars speech? No, it's from the same fictional language Tom got "Loup alunda Lana" from. Swedish is not a fictional language. It is my native language. Which also means that when I try to search for "alunda" I only get hits related to Alunda, Östhammar. |
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Post by speedwell on Oct 7, 2022 17:39:25 GMT
No, it's from the same fictional language Tom got "Loup alunda Lana" from. Swedish is not a fictional language. It is my native language. Which also means that when I try to search for "alunda" I only get hits related to Alunda, Östhammar. The fictional language in question is not Swedish, and I did not say that it was. |
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Post by bedinsis on Oct 7, 2022 17:45:49 GMT
Swedish is not a fictional language. It is my native language. Which also means that when I try to search for "alunda" I only get hits related to Alunda, Östhammar. The fictional language in question is not Swedish, and I did not say that it was. You said "hint: it's in Sweden". I was trying to point to that cheekily. But for clarity's sake: no, I did not know what Mr. Siddell meant with "alunda", but since you seem to know and I cannot use google could you say where it's from, please? |
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Post by hp on Oct 7, 2022 18:57:50 GMT
Cue sick intro from Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News followed by a montage of loving couple moments during the song duration
(such as Lana and Loup eating ice cream. She offers him a taste of her ice cream, but when he goes for it, she shoves it in his nose)
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Post by hp on Oct 7, 2022 19:21:30 GMT
The fictional language in question is not Swedish, and I did not say that it was. You said "hint: it's in Sweden". I was trying to point to that cheekily. But for clarity's sake: no, I did not know what Mr. Siddell meant with "alunda", but since you seem to know and I cannot use google could you say where it's from, please? According to google Tom was quoting the film Caveman with Ringo Starr:
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Post by speedwell on Oct 7, 2022 22:40:34 GMT
The fictional language in question is not Swedish, and I did not say that it was. You said "hint: it's in Sweden". I was trying to point to that cheekily. But for clarity's sake: no, I did not know what Mr. Siddell meant with "alunda", but since you seem to know and I cannot use google could you say where it's from, please? I'm sorry, bedinsis. Yeah, I was feeling cheeky today; I've just come down with a dose of something less awful than the flu and does not seem to be COVID but that is definitely one of the "many respiratory things" my GP said was going around, and I slipped the leash, haha. HP is right; it's the "cave speak" from that movie. Coincidentally, Alunda is also a place in Sweden that Google insists is the thing you want even when you don't. Reminds me of when I tried to Google a date named Tom Young and wound up with everything ranging from an Irish politician to a Vietnamese soup. The translation of the passage I constructed is something like (cave speak being crude and imprecise by design), "Watch out, Loup, you're going to need to get out of there fast. When that Lana girl wants to make boom-boom with you, BOOM is exactly what it's going to be. And I mean a massive boom, at that". |
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Post by hannibalbarca on Oct 7, 2022 22:53:05 GMT
Having a wife does not mean that you cannot fall head over heels in love with another person, as many affairs and divorces would attest I think that's exactly speedwell's point. That today's comic seems to send a message that Loup is unused to love (and so becomes so lovestruck when someone actually loves him and meant it), and speedwell is saying that Coyote and Ysengrin in the actual lore have wives, which means they should be used to love and be loved, and somehow today's comic kinda paints Loup as "I've never felt this kind of love before", not just "I love you". (but I guess this is also your point? that being used to love and be loved shouldn't make this strange? I dunno I still feel today's comic is an exaggerated expression of love/being loved. Don't you?)
i think there is a massive difference between remembering the love ysengrin and coyote could have felt, and knowing you, as an individual, are worthy of that love.
here's what happened : loup has been undercover for a little bit now. he's the bad guy. he's a new god, and he's evil, and everyone wants him dead. the court wants him dead, annie is going to kill him, everyone around him is basically just "ugh, loup ! why, if i saw loup, i'd simply give him a piece of my mind with this gun i found !" or something like that. and rightfully so, right ? he's been doing nothing but messed up things. attacked the court, generally been a nuisance, a manipulative, evil nuisance. loup is the Bad Guy. loup is also a tiny baby god.
coyote and ysengrin felt love and had wives, probably. but to me, that's not what matters here, the love part isn't what matters : if coyote and ysengrin had wives, it would be reasonable to assume they didn't know they were gods. or maybe they did know. either way, it wouldn't matter much. coyote and ysengrin had the confidence that comes with being a being older than dirt swimming in the ether and capable of beautiful things. (the fact ysengrin's confidence is up to debate does not matter here, because in loup's mind, coyote and ysengrin are beings kind of external to him, and they're gods. if anyone married to ysengrin knew the true nature of ysengrin, how could they react with disgust or fear ? they could because they're a stupid human, but it'd 100% be unwarranted and unreasonable in loup's mind, because they're gods and they're all very cool.)
but here's the thing. loup isn't coyote and ysengrin. he doesn't even HAVE coyote and ysengrin on his side. first of all because they're dead, or as dead as they can get. second of all because coyote, who has apparently planned for his entire existence, has also planned for his termination. loup has done no great deeds whatsoever. he hasn't done anything godlike. he hasn't got the time to. he doesn't even know how to manage the forest properly. loup can pretend he has all the confidence in the world but it is objectively impossible for him to feel any amount of confidence about his worth as a godling, that with being so young and so doomed to fail from the start.
especially because everyone loup knows, who are so conveniently mortal, all hate him and can't relate to him. if loup knew literally any other god or ether creature he could hang out with, surely he'd realise all of this is puny mortal stuff and he'd move on from all this and go do God Things. but he does not.
that's why lana's reaction is so damn important to him. it doesn't matter that coyote or ysengrin were loved, genuinely loved in the past, by mortals. they knew their worth, and loup is confused, insecure and lost. loup is not them. loup is in love with annie and she would kill him if she knew who he truly was. anyone with their right mind in the court would kill him if they knew. it'd be the right thing to do.
it was easy to brush off lana's affections. she doesn't know him, she doesn't know he's a godling who attacked the court and split annie into two, she doesn't know who he IS. she's just in love with jerrek, this disguise loup has made - this persona. the jerrek disguise here is a double edged sword. loup loses himself into it, but not enough to forget what he has done as loup. jerrek is a nice little robot and not the Bad Guy.
so lana learns that jerrek is, indeed, the bad guy.
and she doesn't care.
and loup, for the first time, is actually seen in his entirety, with all the uncomfortable implications of it, and the assurance that when lana said i love you, she really meant it, (that good hearted idiot, my god,) and he's really loved and safe with her. not coyote, not ysengrin, not jerrek. loup is.
(so i'm pretty sure it will precipitate loup falling into his own disguise.)
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Post by warrl on Oct 8, 2022 0:22:07 GMT
Oh, ffs, in the corresponding myths both Coyote and Isengrim have had wives. As themselves, I mean, not as geese or whatever. Even Reynard had a wife. It seems uncontroversial and even pedestrian to think of any of them having loved and/or been loved before, even if Loup is thought of as a new-ish (recycled?) being. The only way this makes mythological sense at all is if the transformative power derives from Lana. Having a wife does not mean that you cannot fall head over heels in love with another person, as many affairs and divorces would attest Having a wife also does not mean you fell in love. Isengrim in particular was presented in the original mythology as being a somewhat dull-witted, worldly and corrupt churchman - one who entered the clergy in pursuit of power over the townsfolk. So thinking he married for power or wealth would fit perfectly. So would thinking that he had wives... plural... mostly other men's. (And yes, he would have been Catholic... but the mythology originated in the 10th century, if not earlier as oral traditions, and the Catholic requirement that the clergy be celibate began in the 11th.) |
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Post by warrl on Oct 8, 2022 0:26:09 GMT
Bato, Loup, yama-gonta. Lana lom tooka-tooka unk-owa. Maka unk-owa. Google Translate can't make any sense at all of that bit of Japanese. DeepL - a better translator - can't make any sense at all of that bit of Indonesian. |
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Post by silicondream on Oct 8, 2022 2:33:32 GMT
Having a wife does not mean that you cannot fall head over heels in love with another person, as many affairs and divorces would attest Having a wife also does not mean you fell in love. Isengrim in particular was presented in the original mythology as being a somewhat dull-witted, worldly and corrupt churchman - one who entered the clergy in pursuit of power over the townsfolk. So thinking he married for power or wealth would fit perfectly. So would thinking that he had wives... plural... mostly other men's. And as for Reynard, he (while already married, I believe) tricked and assaulted Isengrim's wife, in order to cuckold him. So it's similarly plausible that he married for the fun of the conquest or to outdo his wife's other suitors. Isengrim was far from the only target of his, uh, "pranks." |
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Post by argent on Oct 8, 2022 3:33:26 GMT
I’m confused and bemused. Possibly a tad bamboozled. We’re witnessing Loup ugly-exploding into neon pink hearts because a hopelessly romantic former robot is convinced she’s in love with him. End chapter, and so this is the image we’re left with for a week. Bloody Marys? Bloody Marys.
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Post by fwip on Oct 8, 2022 4:26:37 GMT
Maybe we should have seen this coming. "'Monster' turns out to be surprisingly human" is a big recurring theme in the comic. See Shadow 2, Zimmy, Lindsey, Renard, Jeanne, Coyote, Ysengrin, Basil the minotaur, Mort, and probably at least a few others.
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Post by Igniz on Oct 8, 2022 6:31:59 GMT
つづく
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Post by arf on Oct 8, 2022 7:08:00 GMT
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Post by speedwell on Oct 8, 2022 7:21:20 GMT
My goodness. All of you insisting vehemently that being married does not mean ever having been in love. I've been married three times myself - I'm old enough, heh - and though the ups and downs have ranged from magical to grim, I would hardly go as far as that. Maybe you curmudgeons need a group hug and a spoonful of Nutella in a mug of hot milk apiece. (Try that recipe if you never have; trust me.)
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Post by stef1987 on Oct 8, 2022 7:41:17 GMT
wait what
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Post by Tenjen on Oct 8, 2022 7:45:50 GMT
external acknowledgement of your self, warts and all, is a profound feeling, especially so for those in his position.
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Post by bedinsis on Oct 8, 2022 8:03:46 GMT
My goodness. All of you insisting vehemently that being married does not mean ever having been in love. I've been married three times myself - I'm old enough, heh - and though the ups and downs have ranged from magical to grim, I would hardly go as far as that. And you live in the modern day, where marriage no longer is an arrangement of convenience and/or politics by the parents of the married, but an arrangement between the married due to a mutual attraction and/or interest in each other. Going back to your earlier point that in the myths Ysengrim was married: that might be, but this is a comic where it turns out the Minotaur of the Labyrinth is not some monster set to kill anyone who enters his lair only to be slain by the brave Thesues, this is a comic where it turns out that those were party guests and Theseus got drunk and ruined the whole party. |
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Post by blahzor on Oct 8, 2022 9:00:55 GMT
Loup: Is there something wrong with me?
Robot:....yes
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