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Post by imaginaryfriend on Feb 20, 2023 13:38:37 GMT
Was it the chip or the activator that exploded? Kat isn't holding anything in her right hand anymore, which might suggest the latter. If that's the case, the question of whether the chip actually was implanted is still open, even though given these events, it probably was. After pondering for a while, I think what most likely happened is that when the chip activated the nearby coil received enough load to cause the power source (probably a battery) in the hand-held magnetic coil device to explosively combust. That would explain the debris we see flying past Kat's right ear at the 2:00 position relative to the explosion. Leaving aside intentional sabotage I can think of maybe 3-4 other ways that an explosion could happen, depending on what the coil was delivering and if space-bending tech is involved in the hard-link, but they are things that Kat wouldn't have overlooked. I think she just forgot the coil would still be physically present near the chip after activation. We're looking at a painful ouchie from the heat and fragments of the magnetic coil's case, particularly to Kat's hand, but not a tragic injury to her head, neck, or spine. There's a very good chance the chip is physically fine, though this may have a bad impact on the link's setup sequence. |
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Post by blahzor on Feb 20, 2023 13:39:48 GMT
Sorry, pals, but This was it. This is how Kat gets fatally injured and there is no other way to save her than uploading her mind into a NewPerson... and voila, MechaKat Deification and Apotheosis. New wild spec. Her computer is a NP this way no one would ever expect it nor find it and know it was one. If she's hurt she has to then use the NP body until her's heal |
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Post by pyradonis on Feb 20, 2023 14:03:48 GMT
Just when I thought this chapter couldn't confuse me any further...
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Post by theonethatgotaway on Feb 20, 2023 14:09:29 GMT
Ah, beans.
Who could've guessed powering the chip by a super-packed critical amount of nuclear material (properly shielded against radiation, of course!) could have side-effects!?
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Post by ohthatone on Feb 20, 2023 14:28:16 GMT
Could someone please insert Mort screaming here? It feels appropriate right now.
Low key expecting kat to give a thumbs up next page because it was totally suppose to do that. Just not as powerfully?
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Post by maxptc on Feb 20, 2023 14:52:23 GMT
I'm personally looking forward to Kat facing the consequences head on!
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Post by foresterr on Feb 20, 2023 15:19:49 GMT
Meh, the sudden transition on last 2 pages from serious/crying to all smiles on behalf of Annie and Paz really makes me think they sabotaged this thing somehow.
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Post by philman on Feb 20, 2023 15:41:55 GMT
I am wondering if this isn't a physical explosion, but something extremely etheric that we are seeing from Annie/Paz's point of view. We know that Kat cannot see etheric weirdness, seeing through it to the boring or mundane explannations instead. What if the explosion is simply an explosion of etheric activity, which is seen as an explosion of etheric activity by those with etheric visions, but just a mundane technological telepathy or something by someone such as Kat.
alternately, the explosion is the expansion of etheric vision caused by Kat turning on some sort of mechanical etheric viewer via the chip in her neck, allowing her to finally see into the ether.
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Post by novia on Feb 20, 2023 15:49:22 GMT
Annie! That's not the right way to take off gloves!
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Post by bicarbonat on Feb 20, 2023 16:08:18 GMT
1. My first instinct was to type "stares in fourth wall," but realized that's just this message board. 2. A far smaller, but more explosive appearance than the " I don't ever want to see you again" clouds, 5/10. |
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laaaa
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Post by laaaa on Feb 20, 2023 16:54:53 GMT
Man, I can NOT stop thinking about today's page. Even the second panel of this page www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1800 now hits differently, since we've now basically experienced it from Annie's perspective. I felt it like a physical blow. I honestly thought Kat had plot armor, at least in a tanglible sense. No one I know has ever been in danger of turning into a mecha angel, but having your neck broken is a very, very real danger. I remember thinking in the past that no important character really dies in this comic (I don't think Kat is dead, but bear with me). Sure, there's Annie's mum and Jeanne and Mort, but these were already dead. Coyote and Ysegrin died, but I honestly used to think that when Annie inevitably killed Loup, he'd get separated back into his original components (this changed for me when he fell in love with Lana). Even Arizona didn't die, which at the time I felt like a cop-out. We've had these progressively ominous intermission pages but I honestly felt like whatever disaster was incoming would be mild, or that the worst-case scenario would be averted thanks to Annie's influence, despite the intermission pages becoming increasingly disturbing. The sense of... not necessarily death,specifically, but the sense of LOSS, of regreting one action so very much because it cost you something invaluable, was not something I expected to experience in GC. There are many times this comic has subverted and exceeded my expectations in the most clever and unpredictable way, but this is the first time it hit me up close and personal. I honestly felt this as a personal loss. Well done, Tom! |
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Post by atteSmythe on Feb 20, 2023 16:59:33 GMT
Westworld confirmed.
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Post by bedinsis on Feb 20, 2023 17:22:40 GMT
Well that most certainly was a surprise.
I doubt Kat will die, but she might get a cybernetic neck.
Is it possible that it was not the chip that exploded but the activation device?
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Post by Gemminie on Feb 20, 2023 17:23:01 GMT
The procedure is over, and Annie tells Kat (who seems to have a bandage on the back of her neck in the first frame) that she'll want to look at the site tomorrow – probably to make sure the skin's healing, not getting infected, etc. Kat happily agrees and grabs her activator gadget. Paz watches her turn the gadget on with a "click," and this time Paz has no sign of the tears she was showing last time we saw her. In the distance, Annie is removing her latex gloves. Then Kat applies the gadget to the back of her neck ... and it apparently explodes.
Now, I don't think it's "Kat blows her head off, the end," because I believe her activator gadget is what exploded. She had it in her right hand, and in the final frame here, we can clearly see that there's nothing in her right hand, nor does it appear that she's dropped it. We see Annie's face in the final frame, and she looks surprised. Paz looks surprised as well, but she's facing away from us, so we can't see her expression. Kat is also facing away from us, but her head is obscured by the explosion.
So did Paz or Annie (or both of them acting together) sabotage the gadget? Did someone else sabotage it (the Court, maybe, informed by Omega about Kat's activities and their possible outcome)? Was there a design flaw? Or is this the device working as intended? "Testing revealed a 97% chance of the battery overheating, but by that time its work would already be done, so I didn't do anything about it." Who knows? I guess we'll find out ...
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Post by drmemory on Feb 20, 2023 17:25:21 GMT
Oh shit. That can't be good.
Is it time for a psychopomp to enter the story? Or perhaps for Annie to start her new job?
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Post by drmemory on Feb 20, 2023 17:27:52 GMT
I stand by my previous prediction. Annie will get blamed for whatever went wrong. Seems to be a trend these days...
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Post by fia on Feb 20, 2023 17:47:16 GMT
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Post by Angry Individual on Feb 20, 2023 18:17:03 GMT
I'm in agreement that this feels like Annie and Paz maybe set it up for failure.... but perhaps their failure was too successful.
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cognizanita
New Member
Where do you think you're going? Because I don't think you're going where you think you're going.
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Post by cognizanita on Feb 20, 2023 18:28:39 GMT
Annie! That's not the right way to take off gloves! She's doing it right two panels earlier!! AHHH |
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Post by rabbit on Feb 20, 2023 19:10:08 GMT
Noooooooooo. No. No. No. This was not the storm I was expecting after the calm of the previous episode.
Kids, C-4 and your C4 don't (or at least shouldn't) mix.
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Post by csj on Feb 20, 2023 20:03:02 GMT
'it was worth it'
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Post by hannibalbarca on Feb 20, 2023 20:05:09 GMT
good thing nothing feels real in this whole chapter, eh fellas ?
jokes aside, this was 100% planned by kat and it's going to be very anticlimactically solved by having kat die, become a mecha goddess or whatever, and then go "that was all planned ! thank you annie, thank you paz." and horrible things will happen (the robots will come out of their graves). if the chapter had felt, well, real, it would have been very impactful to see the second most important character in the webcomic explode. anyway, the chip had to be in her neck, and then exploded using the activator ("activated", get it ?) to kill her the "correct" way to become a mecha goddess (sorry, to "activate the neuronal pathways" in a way that will fit her "new interface" better, or whatever jargon kat has made up to explain to herself her literal ascension to godhood).
but that's just my 2 cents on the situation of course.
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Post by blazingstar on Feb 20, 2023 20:15:37 GMT
Annie! That's not the right way to take off gloves! Finally! I'm not the only one who noticed this! Between performing surgery on a conscious patient's neck without stabilizing their head (even leaning her forehead on a table would have been better!), and this complete ignorance of proper glove protocol (never touch used gloves with your bare hands, Annie, that defeats the purpose of protective gloves!!), it's almost like Annie's never had any kind of medical training at all. Oh wait. She hasn't. Being raised in a hospital with a sick mother and a surgeon father does not actually make you a trained physician. Why did Kat call her to do this again? Programming these skills into a mindless robotic arm, even as an assistant, would decrease Kat's chances of infection and complications by at least 200%, from what I can see. For now, I'm ignoring the most obvious post-surgery complication of Kat's NECK EXPLODING, due to not knowing its cause yet. Surgeon (Annie) error? Nurse (Paz) error? Equipment (magnetic activator) malfunction? Surgeon/nurse *gasp* deliberate action? I can't wait for Wednesday! |
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laaaa
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Post by laaaa on Feb 20, 2023 20:18:55 GMT
good thing nothing feels real in this whole chapter, eh fellas ?
jokes aside, this was 100% planned by kat and it's going to be very anticlimactically solved by having kat die, become a mecha goddess or whatever, and then go "that was all planned ! thank you annie, thank you paz." and horrible things will happen (the robots will come out of their graves). if the chapter had felt, well, real, it would have been very impactful to see the second most important character in the webcomic explode. anyway, the chip had to be in her neck, and then exploded using the activator ("activated", get it ?) to kill her the "correct" way to become a mecha goddess (sorry, to "activate the neuronal pathways" in a way that will fit her "new interface" better, or whatever jargon kat has made up to explain to herself her literal ascension to godhood).
but that's just my 2 cents on the situation of course.
Everything in this chapter feels very real and horrifying to me... |
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Post by blazingstar on Feb 20, 2023 20:26:18 GMT
Anyone else wondering whether the crack on the Mecha Angel's face is part of the chip that ran through Kat's brain and came out the other side? Y'all might be onto something. This blast almost certainly had a permanent effect... the crack is even on the right side of The Angel's head. |
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Post by Corvo on Feb 20, 2023 20:57:17 GMT
Could someone please insert Mort screaming here? It feels appropriate right now.  |
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Post by Sky Schemer on Feb 20, 2023 21:54:32 GMT
Was it the chip or the activator that exploded? Kat isn't holding anything in her right hand anymore, which might suggest the latter. I am assuming the activator for the same reasons as you. And also, because a tiny, passive chip that, presumably, does not contain any explosives does not have enough energy in it to explode like that. The activator, on the other, presumably has batteries or some other power source. Which can. |
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Post by atteSmythe on Feb 20, 2023 22:58:05 GMT
Thank you for reading this comic about girls’ necks exploding
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Post by mordekai on Feb 20, 2023 23:07:59 GMT
Paz: Is this safe?
Kat: Totally safe, I assure you!
Kat: Now I will activate it...
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!
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Post by pyradonis on Feb 20, 2023 23:15:39 GMT
Paz watches her turn the gadget on with a "click," and this time Paz has no sign of the tears she was showing last time we saw her. Actually, the last time we saw Paz, she was smiling at Annie. But since the end of the previous chapter everything has felt so weird that I wouldn't be completely surprised to find out the actual last time we saw Paz was on page 2635. Annie! That's not the right way to take off gloves! Finally! I'm not the only one who noticed this! Between performing surgery on a conscious patient's neck without stabilizing their head (even leaning her forehead on a table would have been better!), and this complete ignorance of proper glove protocol (never touch used gloves with your bare hands, Annie, that defeats the purpose of protective gloves!!), it's almost like Annie's never had any kind of medical training at all. Oh wait. She hasn't. Being raised in a hospital with a sick mother and a surgeon father does not actually make you a trained physician. Why did Kat call her to do this again? Programming these skills into a mindless robotic arm, even as an assistant, would decrease Kat's chances of infection and complications by at least 200%, from what I can see. For now, I'm ignoring the most obvious post-surgery complication of Kat's NECK EXPLODING, due to not knowing its cause yet. Surgeon (Annie) error? Nurse (Paz) error? Equipment (magnetic activator) malfunction? Surgeon/nurse *gasp* deliberate action? I can't wait for Wednesday! Haha, oh God, I didn't notice the gloves thing, even though I have used protective gloves at work myself countless times. I'm giving Annie the benefit of the doubt here and assume that in her mind she only wore the gloves to protect Kat from infection, but yes, everyone who wears those for work should be completely used to not taking them off like this! Regarding the explosion, it was most certainly the activator that exploded. Even disregarding that Kat's hand is empty, there's just no reason anything explosive should have been part of or attached to the chip. |
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