[2719] "Jack, I need to ask you about Zimmy."

[imaginaryfriend]

Aata's had enough screen time and he might be under surveillance anyway, so let's hit up Jack.

[madjack]

Well, he took Renard's advice.

Also 'a while' is nearly 8 years to the day since he last appeared.

[Timberwere]

But where is Annie's other leg in panel 3?

[arf]

Last seen nearly half the comic ago.*

So, who's this 'we', shaved man?
Basil?

*Jack, not Annie's other leg!

[rafk]

I have missed Jack.

8 years huh? Wow.

[basser]

My favorite thing about Jack is now he's got such intense main character energy that every time he shows up I low-key hope we'll switch over to his perspective and follow the adventures of Spooky Spider Squad or whatever his comic would be called.

[hnau]

Dec 14, 2022 8:13:56 GMT Timberwere said:

But where is Annie's other leg in panel 3?

She followed in her father's footsteps, but decided to amputate a leg instead. Clever plot to make Zimmy show up and give her a black eye.

[stef1987]

That does not look like Jack at all.

But then again, neither did he last time we saw him, but I guess I just forgot, huh

[Per]

Jack clearly has his own comic but agrees to show up in this one occasionally.

[philman]

Annie really needs to talk to and share information with people other than Kat.

[blahzor]

Everyone is always ahead of Annie

[guntherkrieg]

"You didn't think you were the protagonist, did you?"

[guntherkrieg]

Dec 14, 2022 8:13:56 GMT Timberwere said:

But where is Annie's other leg in panel 3?

The Ether.

[guntherkrieg]

Dec 14, 2022 8:27:34 GMT rafk said:

I have missed Jack.

8 years huh? Wow.

That's wild. I'd literally only moved cities at that point. I've dumped a lot of comics on the way but GC always stays in the roster.

[ohthatone]

Dec 14, 2022 8:40:21 GMT basser said:

My favorite thing about Jack is now he's got such intense main character energy that every time he shows up I low-key hope we'll switch over to his perspective and follow the adventures of Spooky Spider Squad or whatever his comic would be called.

I also feel like he's got such an MC vibe it feels like he's doing a cameo. But I don't understand why. As an amateur writer trying to understand this kind of stuff, can you expand on this a bit?

[ctso74]

Dec 14, 2022 11:05:09 GMT philman said:

Annie really needs to talk to and share information with people other than Kat.

Unfortunately, "talking to people" actually involves talking with people. I don't know about Annie, but I try to avoid that when possible.
Emails. She should email and text people. Often enough to keep up an adequate rapport. That's much more manageable. Tony probably has a spreadsheet exactly for that.

[Sky Schemer]

Dec 14, 2022 11:05:09 GMT philman said:

Annie really needs to talk to and share information with people other than Kat.

Isn't she doing that right now?

[Gemminie]

It seems as if we're somewhere near the shore, next to a building that I don't recognize, and there's Jack! He greets Annie as she walks up and thanks him for meeting with her – she knew how to contact him, but it appears she didn't tell him what she wanted to talk with him about, just that she needed to meet with him about something.

When she says she wants to talk about Zimmy, though, it seems that he immediately knows why. This surprises Annie, but Jack says that "we" figured out the same thing that Annie and Kat did. I'm assuming that "we" is still Jack and Jenny, though Jenny isn't present, so maybe not.

It's kind of cool that there's this parallel adventuring party that's been doing things off-camera in the background. I wonder if they'll compare notes beyond just this matter involving Zimmy and the star ocean. Maybe Jenny and Jack have learned things that Annie and Kat haven't.

Or maybe they'll finally explain something about Annie -> Annies -> Annie. That would be cool too.

[Corvo]

Eglamore looks weird in this page.

[maxptc]

But why was Jack so easy for Annie to find or set up a meeting with compared to Zimmy? What makes someone hard or easy to find in the court? Atta was found pretty simply it seems. Does everyone but Zimmy text or somthing?

[foresterr]

for Goddess' sake, Hyland, either shave more often or stop trying

[bedinsis]

Dec 14, 2022 13:00:03 GMT ohthatone said:

Dec 14, 2022 8:40:21 GMT basser said:

My favorite thing about Jack is now he's got such intense main character energy that every time he shows up I low-key hope we'll switch over to his perspective and follow the adventures of Spooky Spider Squad or whatever his comic would be called.

I also feel like he's got such an MC vibe it feels like he's doing a cameo. But I don't understand why. As an amateur writer trying to understand this kind of stuff, can you expand on this a bit?

I gave it some thought, and tried to think of alternative scenarios to see if he'd get main character vibes in those scenarios. What I think it boils down to is:

1) He is trying to accomplish the same goal as the protagonist. If he was doing something else, albeit something interesting, it would come across as "the characters of the comic not focussed on also have interesting adventures" ala Faraway Morning. This also shows initiative on his part, a key trait of protagonists.

2) He is good at it, since he figured out details on his own in a way that surprised out protagonist. This further gives the impression that he is in control of the situation

3) Despite having a similar goal to our protagonist he seems rather independent of her.

These points have a certain degree of overlap. It probably also helps that the things he reveals are not any revelations but things we already know, meaning he is on the same wavelength as the reader, which ideally the protagonist should be.

[liminal]

Annie in panel 3 be like

 

[drmemory]

Dec 14, 2022 8:13:56 GMT Timberwere said:

But where is Annie's other leg in panel 3?

Oh no, she has become a karakasa!

 

[rabbit]

Dec 14, 2022 8:13:56 GMT Timberwere said:

But where is Annie's other leg in panel 3?

The body is but a plaything of the artist. 

[mturtle7]

Dec 14, 2022 17:46:20 GMT bedinsis said:

Dec 14, 2022 13:00:03 GMT ohthatone said:

I also feel like he's got such an MC vibe it feels like he's doing a cameo. But I don't understand why. As an amateur writer trying to understand this kind of stuff, can you expand on this a bit?

I gave it some thought, and tried to think of alternative scenarios to see if he'd get main character vibes in those scenarios. What I think it boils down to is:

1) He is trying to accomplish the same goal as the protagonist. If he was doing something else, albeit something interesting, it would come across as "the characters of the comic not focussed on also have interesting adventures" ala Faraway Morning. This also shows initiative on his part, a key trait of protagonists.

2) He is good at it, since he figured out details on his own in a way that surprised out protagonist. This further gives the impression that he is in control of the situation

3) Despite having a similar goal to our protagonist he seems rather independent of her.

These points have a certain degree of overlap. It probably also helps that the things he reveals are not any revelations but things we already know, meaning he is on the same wavelength as the reader, which ideally the protagonist should be.

Yeah, I think he's always kinda had a tendency to go off on adventuresome, rougish, quests on his own, which somewhat parallel the adventures of our own protagonists without overlapping much. Plus, there's the fact that being in the Queslett North instead of the
Queslett South class means his social circles don't overlap with Annie's
all that much. He's just distant enough to have "room" enough, so to
speak, for his own supporting cast, without poaching from Annie's
supporting cast. And finally, there's the interesting fact that when Annie *does* cross paths with him, he's always the one with the plan, and she just ends up either supporting him or standing aside and letting his plan play out.

Going through his history -

Literally his first appearance was when found something plot-significant on his own, then invited Annie (and the others) to tag along, and he just happened to do the exact same thing as Kat in order to sneak out of his dorm. Then, when Annie got zapped into Zimmingham, it turned out that he was there too - having his own spooky traumatic adventure, without actually crossing paths or even being seen by Annie.

Residential is a bit of an exception to the rule, but not really. Annie's implied to be the one coming up with the plan in that scenario - but then, the part where Jack gets his big reveal with the laser cows feels rather eerily similar to Annie's big reveal with the fire just before. He's technically supporting her plan there, but still comes across as being the one in control. And he never asks her for help or anything, plus he demonstrates his ability to know stuff she doesn't.

Then of course there's the whole Spring Heeled arc, which immediately makes it clear that he's been on the run from the law for some unspecified period of time, acting like a cool outlaw protagonist sticking it to the man in a way that has nothing to do with Annie whatsoever. Then, just like the last time they went to the Power Station, he invites her to tag along to someplace he already knows about and has already prepared for. All she does in that chapter is ask some expository questions of him, help him past obstacles, and finally refuse to keep supporting him so they go their own separate ways. And hilariously, in Spring Heeled Part 2, she turns out to be almost completely irrelevant to his adventure. Zimmy comes to him just like he planned, Zimmy confronts him, and finally Zimmy takes care of his nasty little hitchhiker while Jones activates the rain which dispels Zimmingham. Annie's only role there is talking to Jones, explaining what happened, and standing in the background a little while Zimmy does the important stuff (though we the audience don't know that until the big reveal).

In Faraway Morning...well it's not that he's "the one with the plan", exactly, but Annie does accidentally end up "supporting" him again by being the catalyst for his own personal revelation that he's in love with Zimmy. And he just kinda gives the impression that he's the one in control of their long conversation in that chapter - he acts very secure in his understanding of himself, and expresses sympathy for how Annie is honestly kind of a huge mess at that point in her life.

And the Torn Sea, of course, is where he *really* starts to really go full protagonist mode. With the introduction of Jenny, he's got his own supporting cast member who's super cute and interesting while having nothing to do with Annie & co., and then he notices something wrong while everyone else is in blissful ignorance and comes up with a plan to get help - again, Annie just supports him in that. He's also the one who gets to dramatically mansplain tell everybody what they need to do to get out of Zimmingham. He even gets to be the one who dramatically leads the way into the final room during the climax!

To be clear, I'm not saying he makes Annie any *less* of a protagonist, herself - she just kinda always has her own stuff that she's dealing with in her own protagonist-y way, while he has a separate bunch of stuff that he's dealing with in a slightly different, but still parallel, protagonist-y way. It's a really interesting dynamic, honestly.

EDIT: also, her left leg is obviously just hidden by the skirt you guys, come on.

[Per]

Someone start up a "Gunnerkrigg Court but Annie has just one leg" edits thread.

[fia]

Oh shit, he got hot!*

* Speaking as someone who used to find him repulsive, not unlike Annie
* Speaking as someone who is mostly straight but who finds other characters way hotter on average

He is almost the only boy Annie's age who Annie is around more than once and who was briefly single. So if he's overtly hot......

[pyradonis]

Dec 14, 2022 19:40:19 GMT mturtle7 said:

To be clear, I'm not saying he makes Annie any *less* of a protagonist, herself - she just kinda always has her own stuff that she's dealing with in her own protagonist-y way, while he has a separate bunch of stuff that he's dealing with in a slightly different, but still parallel, protagonist-y way. It's a really interesting dynamic, honestly.

Yeah, if he was a more regular character I guess it might become problematic, storytelling-wise. I think with his big MC energy and tendency to taking the spotlight in the chapters he's in, it is good to give him only rare appearances. Then whenever he turns up it's like a long awaited crossover between two series. I imagine how in the unseen parallel running comic telling Jack's adventures, there are also about five chapters in which Annie appears and plays important roles in each.

Dec 14, 2022 8:13:56 GMT Timberwere said:

But where is Annie's other leg in panel 3?

Damnit, now I can't help imagining her to be bouncing around on one leg the whole time.

Dec 14, 2022 11:05:09 GMT philman said:

Annie really needs to talk to and share information with people other than Kat.

Like Jerrek, for example! He was always willing to listen!

Dec 14, 2022 17:03:02 GMT Gemminie said:

It's kind of cool that there's this parallel adventuring party that's been doing things off-camera in the background.

Oooh. Now I'm imagining a full on crossover event, Jack turning up with his adventuring party with Jenny as a full witch, a rogue Court computer engineer, some paranoid Chester weirdo who randomly peers into alternative timelines, and a Bound Dog which became sentient on its own.

[saardvark]

Could "we" be Jack and the *Zimmster*?? That would be a surprise..... Or maybe Jack and Gamma? Just thinking of other possibilities.....