That said, Kat sans Annie ending up on a dark path is something we've heard before, and we have seen. Also I think Kat only started talking to Paz post Divine - partly due to a don't run away from what scares you message she got during.
Ooh, good catch! It really is all Zimmy all the way down, isn't it?
Zimmy is absurdly well threaded with the Star Ocean plotline.
@silicone
Alright let me see if I can get across my thoughts.
There's three major threads that storyline is threading, and honestly I think this has been built up to for an extremely long time.
First thread:
A not small part of this is that Zimmy's smack dab in the middle of an information gap where the audience knows more than Annie and Kat. This by itself is not entirely unusual - plenty of last pages take place without their awareness. But what is unusual is that it's happened repeatedly without her being even nominally antagonistic towards our MCs. (Calling Kat Big Nose doesn't compare to Robot or Loup who are the other individuals in this grouping.)
This is a rather big deal because of how the story has been structured with Zimmy and Gamma. The first time it happened it fell into a "Annie isn't a mind reader" category. Zimmz remembering seeing a future vision of Renard before even coming to court.
Annie's cut courtesy of Jeanne, Mecha Kat and Zimmy punching Anthony though... They are treated much differently.
And these three of these elements show up in Divine. And this is where the whole not antagonistic thing is import story structure wise.
Because it's actually incredibly weird that this happens. The entire chapter is basically a showing of what Zimmy can do when things are in hand and giving the audience information that Kat and Annie don't have. Kat and Annie never learn it was more than a dream. It takes ages for Annie to find out that her father put her at risk, and frankly she doesn't care.
I'm not even sure that the rest of the cast does because they find out Anthony was involved after the matter resolved.
Not much changed from every other character's perspective if Anthony does his reveal to the audience when Annie finds out about it.
The audience, Zimmz and Gamma know that Zimmy punched Anthony. Anthony I presume world recognize Zimmy if he saw her. I know Annie doesn't know because she hasn't gone after Zimmy for hurting her father.
Mecha Kat - yeah that is a shot that haunted the forums ever since. It was to inform the audience because it took years for Paz and then Annie to see Mecha Kat and only now has anyone ever actually talked about it.
The cut Annie got from Jeanne - Annie never actually found out about it. This actually confused me structurally until this arc.
It was never a marker for Annie, a mystery or anything. It was always intended for the audience, to mark when etheric stuff was happening and who could see it.
It was especially important because that cut was one of the first indicators that Zimmy really actually did know stuff she shouldn't.
These three things together do a lot of the heavy lifting for the audience that when Zimmy knows stuff she really rather knows it. Because we see the elements come back when she's not around. Be it Mecha Kat with Paz and Annie, Anthony bringing him being hit enough to scar his lip, or Jeanne and the cut being given, seen repeatedly by Coyote and then wiped away.
Very very importantly Kat and Annie don't know about these things. And given that these are some of the heaviest markers of Zimmy knowing stuff when she shouldn't and being proven right that's impacting the plot here because the characters are a lot less foolish for not taking Zimmy's warning as a more accurate/interpretation of vision wrong, but something bad coming when they have someone that they don't have half as much evidence as the audience to take seriously.
Thread two story structure.
Gamma and Zimmy are actually introduced fairly early on.
Chapter 5, before Jones, Jeanne, Coyote, even Mr. Donlan. That first späte of stories stands out in hindsight because it's the start of Annie getting kicked off the Bridge in getting Shadow and Robot across, making friends with Kat, Reynard trying to kill Annie, Mort and then Chapter five. Following is Annie's parental drama of missing her mom and not able to talk to her Dad and then her falling off the bridge.
Now here's the thing - Zimmy's introduced extremely antagonistic.
Like rival school bully antagonistic - immediately picking a fight Kat and
suspected of sabotaging the science fair bad.
She's also the person to reveal Reynard to Annie. Which given that he had in fact tried to kill her is actually quite a big thing.
After so many years there's also the fact that
Zimmy recognized Kat by proximity to Annie instead of the other way around. When Annie is the new kid, not Kat. Given what we know about Zimmy around Kat, and Gamma snoozing yeah. Zimmy wasn't antagonistic for no reason. (Especially as Annie hadn't been saved yet).
The two pop up unusually quickly for them after that.
Chapter 11 - Annie pulling Gamma duty. Which is where we really get the Zimmy knows stuff and also the more involved in plot then one would guess set up.
1.
Annie's mysterious cut from Jeanne front and center. Which Zimmy is not able to tell Annie about. 2.
Tic TOC sighting -> Kat storyline and we don't actually know why Tic TOCs kept following Zimmy still. Also one of the Zimmy knows stuff because Gamma IDed the Tic TOC as a singular entity.
3.
We also get I think the first details about the Court studying etheric stuff with Zimmy and Gamma being recruited to the Court in the flashback. 4.
Past Reynard -> More stuff that sets Zimmy up for knowing things to the audience, and very specifically that Annie is not let in on because it is flashbacks.
5.
Zimmy being distrustful of Kat -> Mecha Angel setup/foreshadowing in hindsight.
Now the catch with all of this is that Zimmy is very very good at being a source of information for the audience. In need of some interpretation, but her information is typically good. The Tic TOC? Actually one of the first big hints that it's a time related thing, both in how Zimmy has to deal with time shenanigans - Renard vision + past hallucinations, but with how its referred to.
Annie's cut? The audience sees it again and again to mark when Annie is doing etheric stuff until Jeanne wipes it away.
The Court... that we now know is leadup to the Star Ocean shebang that is going down. Which is... well not exactly a small thing in comic is it?
This is also the last time that Kat and Zimmy actually interact excepting Divine which so far I think is seen as a dream by Kat and Annie still.
Zimmy is hostile but she moderates and just avoids Kat after this.
Power Station Something that stands out in hindsight is that Zimmy appears in non flashback/thoughts in the comic in one of two things will happen at some point in the chapter. Setup for the Star Ocean stuff will occur or Kat Mecha omnious foreshadowing occurs. Power Station is the first one that does the Star Ocean stuff as opposed to Kat fear and time shenanigans.
1.
Welcome to Zimmyham - The problems of Zimmy's powers set up in 11 are expanded and we get the correct sense of scale of things. Which given that Zimmy is the other possible candidate besides Loup to fuel the trip to a new world... Yes very much Star Ocean setup.
2. Also Court ether manipulation experiments continued - the Power Station in general.
This is also where Jack gets spidered. Now here is one of the points where narratively Annie assumes she knows more than she does happens.
Like the whole thing with not Real Kat. It continues this narrative throughput of Zimmy being a fairly accurate source of information, at least when she's including her own limitations.
In hindsight especially Zimmy's plan of "
Find Gamma - then search for the others" is actually rather reasonable especially if she wasn't sure how deep in he situation they were.
Find Gamma - because that will stabilize the situation, which as shown could actually be the ticket out. THEN prioritize finding the other's by proximity. "Might" is how Zimmy describes it. The others "Might be closer" - doesn't say that Kat will be last. Just that it might be quicker to find the others and work their way out. Which given things like Whitelegs - it is really important to get people together first.
Knowing what we do it's kinda obvious that Zimmy was avoiding Kat. But for that same token - yeah find Gamma before finding Kat is kinda important to stop possible active danger from Zimmyham being itself.
Also just to point out because this is the last time we see Zimmy interact with Kat/"Kat" that she isn't antagonistic beyond sudden surprise at people where she didn't expect any. And really just ignores her.
Spring Heeled 2This is a BIG Star Ocean chapter setup in hindsight. We're introduced to
Atta and some of the
other Shadow Men who come back later. We have more Power Station shenanigans. We actually don't get a lot of new information through Zimmy this time -
but about Zimmy like the analogy of her being an etheretic generator with no proper heat sink. Also that her power is hard to control and dangerous so please don't be stupid with it. (Star Ocean points to the Court being stupid with it). Also the start of Zimmy Coyote comparisons.
Besides Saving Jack and that setup the thing this chapter does is both emphasize how Zimmy can be wrong and how she can be effective.
This is the first time the audience has a very visceral showing of Zimmy's perception of reality being outright wrong - with her seeing herself as Annie. Note however that this is after multiple chapters of Zimmy being an information source. And even then - there is still an underplay of logic - especially with Zimmy actually knowing the danger Jack was in the persona of Annie trying rather hard to stop it. We are not set up to take Zimmy as being wrong more often than not.
T
he effectiveness in actually stopping the Spider (given an Ether shower) sets up Divine.I called
Divine Zimmy's chance to show off and I stand by that. Everything ahead of the reveal of the bone fingers is stuff the audience already knows to cement that Zimmy knows stuff (
Coyote's Band/
Annie copying Kat's homework/
The Tree) - but she can misinterpret. This builds up to the
bone fingers because the idea that Anthony would actually be involved in trying to kill or harm his daughter is not something that actually has that much support. A lot of it initially comes down to Zimmy's word on the matter until Anthony himself confirms.
This in turn comes around and supports the Divining of Mecha Kat. And oh boy - Zimmy facing what scares her is actually super emphasized now that we know it's not just that she can see Kat as Mecha Kat - but that she thinks that Mecha Kat will be what eventually kills her.
Especially given how we see Zimmy end up bodily thrown by Annie during all of this. It's real enough that it can cause serious harm. Purposefully removing from Gamma to mess with etheric stuff with Kat in the room?
Super risky move by Zimmy there.
And the reveal of the chapter and how Mecha Kat is seemingly hinted at with things like
the massive Realm of The Dead Librarian being scared off, and the
showings of Mecha Kat over the years since... Divine depends on the audience seeing Zimmy as a source of mostly accurate information, and basically everything that that Zimmy sees (though not her interpretation) is proven to be correct.
This is also the chapter that given that Annie has never ever freaked out on Zimmy for hitting her father we know that Kat and Annie are just utterly in the dark about actually happening. Which given that again this is the Zimmy shows off chapter for the audience,
the fact the two thought it was just a dream is kinda important.
Smaller side note but given the parallels with Kat and Diego, and how Paz is currently being one of Kat's anchors and how this entire sequence of events wouldn't have happened if Annie was dead from falling -
Gamma grabs Kat's hairband of +2 Straightness on her way out. Torn Sea - which is actually the climax of bigger and bigger Zimmyham stunts.
This brings both the Star Sea and Mecha Kat things into focus. Because the Seraphim ripped so much from the Star Ocean schemes.
Probably stealing the Court's (backup) plans for the etheretic generator,
the equipment for it,
which students had etheric powers (and wouldn't be invited and are possibly fuel source for the plan).
We actually had a call back to Zimmy being sea sick on the ship with the Star Ocean briefing which turned out to not be Zimmy being sea sick. (Really no reason to invite people you know are going to be sick except out of sheer spite.)
Mecha Kat - well that was what was revealed to Paz and in general this is where the Robot's Angel Cult actually makes waves of not even "
No Longer Cute but Omnious - but did something that could have gotten a lot of people hurtNext time we see Gamma and Zimmy is actually
Moving. And
her getting in the middle of the Paz Annies fight. No Zimmy shenanigans, just her going back to her role of confusing source of information.
1. Honestly this is the first hints we get to the leadup of the Star Ocean Plot coming online.
The Power Station is taken down and
Chester is abandoned. Explicitly with Zimmy - the Court is done with research.
2. Court versus Ether causing hangups mentally is brought up. 3. Kat is specifically labelled as someone that Annie needs to keep an eye on. (Mecha Angel Plot) 4.
The Loup and Zimmy parallels are strengthened here, with Zimmy thinking that Loup makes sense. That's the thing with Zimmy she can be wrong about things but narratively she's treated as being typically correct. Her being outright wrong is a rarity.
Which is what happens in
Find Yourself with the kids yes.
Though I would like to note that even then something like that had happened at one time. And Zimmy has a tricky relationship with time. So her coming up with Kat as a threat isn't even then set up as something that would never happen and Zimmy being paranoid. It's something that could happen, probably was actually actively likely given that we meet Zimmy prior to the time shenanigans saving Annie succeeding, that is coming back up.
Find Yourself and
Behind It All are both very much reactions against the Star Ocean Plotline. And even with Zimmy being wrong in chapter about the teens...
She's not wrong with the suspecting the Court of stuff. Which leads into the
Reconfiguration Plotline which puts a lot of hindsight into Zimmy being afraid of Kat.
Even here Zimmy is a source of information and the Omega/Mecha Kat/Star Ocean things seem to be revealed to have always been separate threads of a major plot. Which as my long break down shows Zimmy has always been correlated with.
Thread 3:
Character dynamics:
One of the things that if you follow Zimmy's reactions to Kat specifically is that she stops being outright hostile in 11. She doesn't like Kat but she's not hostile ever since and just avoids Kat except for Divine. Which Kat thinks was a dream.
Frankly I think this has Zimmy switch from seeing Kat as maliciously hurting her for "Possible Future/Accident" interpretation. Up until Antimony Brings up Omega in Reconfiguration.
But "Find Yourself" was all about how Zimmy seeing trouble
doesn't usually mean trouble. She was afraid the elf kids were chasing her down, and her powers generated a scenario where they were doing that….but it wasn't real. The real kids were
no threat to her in any way. Same deal in the "Zim Grim" comic, where she's seeing the entire crowd of people on the street as out to capture her and set her up for execution, but in reality they're either indifferent or
genuinely concerned for her.
Zimmy has a good grip on reality in many ways, and in some ways has a better grip than any baseline human. But people being out to get her is precisely the area where she tends to go off the rails. And since she's currently next to the Star Ocean--which screws with the heads of the etheric beings it drains--and Gamma is
looking very exhausted, there's a good chance that Zimmy is suffering from exceptionally intense paranoia at the moment.
…of course, given how her powers work, that paranoia could itself be the thing that ends up involving Kat in her death or injury. If a reflection of the Machine Angel appears in Zimmingham, it may harm Zimmy simply because she believes so intensely that it
should harm her.
The thing with the kids is that it fits into the loosy goosey nature of time Zimmy has. It happened elsewhen so her powers/brain messed up. But it did happen so her coming up with things straight out of nowhere isn't actually something that happens that we've seen. And we don't see Zimmy hallucinate the same person over and over will be the one to harm her. I personally think she is misinterpreting the information and that it will be an accident or Robot Cult action. The thing is that Zimmy while being capable of being wrong is honestly not wrong often, and this thread has been bearing down for way too long narratively speaking with Zimmy being mostly accurate but with wrong context. This has been incoming for over a decade.
Zimmy being incorrect in the details fits. Her own paranoia being what causes the harm less so - because she actively put in small touches of "Hey keep an eye on her" versus actual self fulfilling prophecy actions and mostly just avoided Kat.
This is where the long setup of this plot line over time comes in. And the fact that Zimmy stopped being actively hostile. She was giving Kat the benefit of the doubt. Or narratively this is treated rather like a seer having a reoccuring vision and unlike Anakin Skywalker not obsessing over it besides not liking the person in it until years later when signs point to it actually becoming true.
Kat thinks that Divine is a dream it seems. Though it is also unjustified with the fact that it's been years in story since Zimmy was actively aggressive with Kat and I don't think it ever actually escalated past school yard verbal shoving.
So this is actually something that I find a little surprising. I never thought that Kat would need to stop researching. This goes back to how Zimmy typically has good information but reinterprets it. In her paranoia she's jumping to Kat murdering her. Versus something a lot more mundane. A tragic accident, or say someone (Robot) doing devastation with her equipment. That's what stands out to me, Kat takes it on faith that absolutely nothing will go wrong. No checks to make sure that it's not a tragic mechanical failure.
