[2851] "I think they're watching out for the tree elves"

[arf]

Elvenkind watched over by psychopomps of loving grace...

[imaginaryfriend]

Whoever's conceptions they may be, they seem to have some agency here in the distortion.

[arf]

... but what is this bluesky that lures them onward?

[imaginaryfriend]

Took a minute for it to sink in, but isn't the Antimony's fire petting the Ysengrin in the first panel?

[blahzor]

Oct 18, 2023 7:12:53 GMT arf said:

... but what is this bluesky that lures them onward?

My guess, the day Zimmy got to the court

[drmemory]

An intuitive leap:

We just saw where the elves are hanging out, and that Ysengrin and Annie roles are protecting them. Now we see a happily startled NP girl and a patch of blue sky.

Could the next scene be robots being protected by Kat? Possibly in her true mechagoddess form?

If that's the case, then I can't wait to see it! Also to learn what the threat to them would be! Court drones? Like the ones in generic suits?

[Gemini Jim]

First off, congratulations to Tom for Dark Horse Comics.



I'm probably doing that face perception psychology thing where humans see faces in random patterns, but Mr. Blue Sky in the next-to-last panel looks sort of like an eye to me.
(The hole in the woods is the eye, there's an eyebrow or eyeshadow above it, and the NPC girl is standing right where a creature's mouth or muzzle would be.)


But it's probably just a "way out" or some such.

[Gemminie]

So after we established that fire-Annie wasn't real Annie, who was watching the confrontation unfold with Renard, we now see big-Ysengrin and fire-Annie standing in the distance, watching back. Annie herself surmises that they're watching over the Tree Elves, because they aren't the only former Forest denizens who might come to this area of the distortion and find it appealing, and not all of them get along particularly well with each other. Some Tree Elves are shown standing about in the background. Then it seems Annie and Renard head back toward the main group of people, Annie remarking that Ysengrin would want to keep things in order.

Then, presumably somewhere nearby, the New Person with the long black hair has seemingly found a gap in the forest foliage and looks through it with an "Oh!" What they see will have to wait until the next page.

So ... this means that this fire-Annie somehow has an independent existence? Then, the distortion just spontaneously generated this Forest region complete with its own Ysengrin and fire-Annie, and Annie brought her group there by reminiscing? Or did Annie bring it into existence via reminiscing? (I don't think so; it seems as if the Tree Elves had already found it before Annie & party arrived.) Perhaps it was generated from the thoughts of the Ysengrin portion of Loup, or from the thoughts of all the former Forest denizens who are now in the distortion area.

Then what has the New Person found? Perhaps something familiar to them? What would that be? Some kind of techno-utopia, generated by the thoughts of all the New People who are now in the distortion area, complete with its benevolent Angel? Or maybe nothing quite so outrageous; perhaps they've simply found a way to get to Kat's lab, whatever it looks like inside the distortion?

[Gemminie]

Oct 18, 2023 15:47:46 GMT Gemini Jim said:

First off, congratulations to Tom for Dark Horse Comics.

Yes! I'm so happy to hear this! I have four of the volumes but not all of them, so maybe I can collect the early ones – I won't have the original editions, but it sounds as if these editions will have extra bonus content of some sort anyway.

[blazingstar]

Oct 18, 2023 7:32:55 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

Took a minute for it to sink in, but isn't the Antimony's fire petting the Ysengrin in the first panel?

Yes, imaginary Elemental!Annie is giving Ysengrin headpats. Something that Annie did a lot when she was with him (I think that's one reason for her fond smile as she looks back), but never while she was on fire.

Although she can somewhat control what she burns and what she doesn't, it seems the Annie in Ys' memory has even more control than Annie did at that time irl.

[drmemory]

As I suggested earlier, this scene is clearly taken from Ysengrin's memories. Sorta. So we have a very idealized-looking hot Annie, because that's how he views her. She is also strong, which is what he respects. I'm kinda wondering if we aren't seeing her as a full fire elemental rather than her hybrid form, which is mostly human but with the mask with a line in the center? We know that full fire elementals have been seen before in the forest, due to a comment one of the ugly forest dwellers made a while back.

The reason I'm commenting is to point out that we're also seeing an idealized Ysengrin! I didn't get it at first, but the relative size of the Annie and Ysengrin actors is about the same as in the past, but this Ysengrin isn't wearing a tree suit. Instead, he's a huge wolf. As large as Ysengrin + tree suit was before.

Not a deep comment, just an observation. Maybe this tells us something about how things work here - like when a scene is largely based on memories from one person, it takes on attributes of that person's viewpoint?

If that's the case, then even if the next scene is an NP scene, if it's taken from Kat she probably won't look like her mechagoddess form, as that is not how she sees herself. So if she does indeed look like that, it would be a sign that someone else is the basis for the memories - perhaps Robot or an NP.