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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 6, 2023 8:08:41 GMT
...Annnd there's the chapter icon first panel. This is what it's like for Kat to look into the ether. Or maybe I should say, this is what Antimony sees when she's looking at Kat looking into the ether. Your mileage may vary. |
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Post by madjack on Dec 6, 2023 8:17:16 GMT
So that is the answer to the mecha-angel? A cocoon symbolising the limitations of Kat's technologically-driven worldview?
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 6, 2023 8:27:46 GMT
So that is the answer to the mecha-angel? A cocoon symbolising the limitations of Kat's technologically-driven worldview? Her limitations, sure, but also strengths and abilities. |
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Post by jaybird on Dec 6, 2023 8:54:21 GMT
Ahhhh I love the slightly foreboding visuals/symbolism of the prongs of Kat's mecha form still surrounding her in the last panel. An indicator that she could quickly resume that form?
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Post by justhalf on Dec 6, 2023 8:54:37 GMT
I hope we can at least get a description of what Kat saw in the coming pages...
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Post by jda on Dec 6, 2023 8:59:44 GMT
So that is the answer to the mecha-angel? A cocoon symbolising the limitations of Kat's technologically-driven worldview? I would not put it past Tom that the mecha Angel is solved, used to kill Zimmy, and discarded in this chapter, just like happened to the Ornithonics or TicTocs on the Norns chapter... |
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Post by arf on Dec 6, 2023 10:19:44 GMT
Are we now to see Kat reacting to the ether in the same way we saw Annie and Mort react to the craziness that was the RoTD and the arrow trap?
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Post by Per on Dec 6, 2023 12:48:23 GMT
"OK, but if you'd told me the ether looks like a TRS-80 screen I'd probably have understood. Hold on, I'll delete the other ugly blocks around here to give us some space."
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Post by ctso74 on Dec 6, 2023 14:17:55 GMT
"OK, but if you'd told me the ether looks like a TRS-80 screen I'd probably have understood. Hold on, I'll delete the other ugly blocks around here to give us some space." Due to the flames, I'm imagining a CoCo rather than the OG black and white. Honestly though, it would be interesting to see Tom do a page in ASCII art. |
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Post by fia on Dec 6, 2023 14:24:30 GMT
I like my theory that Annie was using herself as a human Blinker stone.
But I wonder if Kat "looking into the ether" alongside the other more ether-attuned creatures and thereby looking like herself isn't just bridging an epistemic or perspective gap, rather than transforming herself or something. The MechaAngel is how the robots see her when she's an 'angry' god, someone who rejects or doesn't understand what she could be seeing, or who actively distorts it. (Unlike in the RotD chapter, the other times MechaAngel has appeared, she has been genuinely angry or actively confused, as opposed to bemused or over-logical). (In the Jeanne arc, Kat "sees" the ether lock with the help of a Diego-inspired device, not through her own 'eyes').
In other comic pages, the MechaAngel has been called her "potential". This is who Kat could become, and maybe has become in an alternate universe. She is connected to that angry-technogod Kat. Maybe part of that angry-technogod existence is a frustration and hatred for the ether itself??? What if Kat in the alternate universe is who got the Court going to leave the etherverse across the star ocean? But in this universe, she will help preserve it?
But I wonder if because of the robots and New People, who can now die in this universe, Kat's form has ether energy even if Kat doesn't acknowledge it? So Annie will help her find this direct connection? I dunno. Lots of questions.
But either way, just like Annie's dad, who can or cannot talk to people in specific situations, Kat is both people. She is both human Kat and Mecha Angel Kat. Around Annie, she is human Kat. Around the New People, she is either a beautiful angel goddess (who I guess we haven't seen??) or the terrifying Mecha Angel destroyer thing.
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Post by blahzor on Dec 6, 2023 14:38:29 GMT
So you saw the ether for the first time. Yep it's a sight to be hold..oh yeah these guys are here to take you to jail or ask you a question or something.
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Post by blahzor on Dec 6, 2023 14:39:58 GMT
also I assume Kat saw the actual breaking of the glass view/panels and that's what she was saying everything going crazy
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Post by Gemini Jim on Dec 6, 2023 16:54:03 GMT
I hope we can at least get a description of what Kat saw in the coming pages... I certainly hope so, but Tom has a bad habit of keeping things unresolved. In other words, no recaps to Kat's POV, no discussion of whether Kat saw herself as a monster, etc. For one thing, we have this dead NPC 'pomp circumstance to take care of, and maybe Salami Mel isn't willing to wait around while Annie catches Kat up. Of course, it seems to me the amazing Ether and Mecha Angel Kat are the first things I would ask about if I were in Kat's position, assuming that Kat is actually able to see herself as the Mecha Godzilla Kat. We haven't gotten any proof that Kat was able to see herself in her Mecha form, even if she's not seeing the Ether as rubber bats and old computer terminals anymore. (Part of me is expecting Kat to say, "you don't need a 'pomp, you just do this ..." *Kat magic, Phoenix Down, etc.* |
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Post by rabbit on Dec 6, 2023 16:57:49 GMT
Today's episode brings to mind a quote from Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception:
"...I had returned to that reassuring but profoundly unsatisfactory state known as 'being in one's right mind'.”
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 6, 2023 18:06:29 GMT
It occurred to me over lunch that MechaAngelKat's appearance probably isn't just driven by how her own mind works, her gift(s) and how others perceive them and her... but also by her own self-image. I suspect part of that stems from an understanding of how her body works in mechanical terms, through the lens of a mechanically-minded person, but also there's the armor and I think that reflects how her self-image developed before she met Antimony and later Paz. Maybe she was just going through the motions.
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Post by atteSmythe on Dec 6, 2023 19:22:33 GMT
I hope we can at least get a description of what Kat saw in the coming pages... I certainly hope so, but Tom has a bad habit of keeping things unresolved. In other words, no recaps to Kat's POV, no discussion of whether Kat saw herself as a monster, etc. I agree with this, we probably won’t see what Kat saw. However, the way the page is laid out and ends, it does set us up for a potential full page spread of what Kat is seeing now. |
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Post by Gemminie on Dec 6, 2023 20:55:59 GMT
Apparently from Kat's point of view, we see a distant fireball with a faraway human figure at its center – just like the chapter icon. Then, emerging from the Machine Angel as if it were some kind of suit, Kat says Annie's name and moves toward her. And then Annie's right there, a hand on Kat's shoulder, clearly happy to see her after all they've been through lately. Kat is quite confused, but Annie explains that what she's experiencing is looking into the Ether.
Does Kat move toward Annie, or vice versa? Annie seems a long way away in the first panel. Then Kat's efforts mostly seem to be emerging from the MA, but as soon as she does, Annie's right there, so it seems as if Annie closed most of the distance. But the background in the final panel looks a lot like the corridor backgrounds that have been behind Annie.
So the MA is some kind of barrier that Kat's been behind, or a shell she's been inside, like an Ether mecha? Not that she consciously created it, but perhaps it's the Ether's way of instantiating or metaphorizing how Kat works. It's still unclear where the MA comes from.
But now that Kat's here, maybe she can interact with the Arbiter/Interpreter and straighten out this business of what happens to Sam's soul now that he's dead. It's hard to say exactly what place he'd end up haunting.
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Post by blahzor on Dec 6, 2023 22:03:57 GMT
So that is the answer to the mecha-angel? A cocoon symbolising the limitations of Kat's technologically-driven worldview? I would not put it past Tom that the mecha Angel is solved, used to kill Zimmy, and discarded in this chapter, just like happened to the Ornithonics or TicTocs on the Norns chapter... the Mecha Angel suit was just there to protect her from the glass shattering when she breaks through the ether. ha |
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Post by hp on Dec 7, 2023 2:54:38 GMT
another ethereal step on mechagodess ascension. she've seen psychopomps, jeanne, the RotD and now has peered and travelled through ether. When she gets the hang of it she'll be unstoppable LAUGHING ON LINE
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Post by drmemory on Dec 7, 2023 2:55:15 GMT
It's armor, right? Or at least something that she wears, whether she knows about it or not.
That's probably a good thing. Compared to her actually being some sort of monstrous creature, that is. She's probably more of a "human with powers" than an "avatar of the machines". Or not. Annie is part human and part something else, why not Kat?
A thought - if it's armor, rather than something innate to Kat, maybe she created it. In the future. We already know there are timey wimey shenanigans going on. It seems likely that Coyote is playing Groundhog Day with everyone, and it wouldn't be surprising at all at this point if Robot were doing something along those lines too.
We've seen that Kat is willing to modify herself to get more power, and we've seen her mess with time (with the help of the Norns at least). Is it a stretch to think future Kat may have come up with next generation armor that protects her and helps her interface with all nearby tech, then modified past Kat with it? If you're thinking "But wait, Coyote destroyed her birb!", I would counter with "But not her remote control unit, which a Norn modified to have time capabilities!".
Anyway, that theory would explain why we saw her tech armor long before she got as powerful as she is. It might also explain why it freaks out Zimmy so badly - she's really good at sensing certain things, and seems extra-sensitive to Kat-related things. Let's hope she isn't accurately predicting her own murder.
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Post by hp on Dec 7, 2023 3:24:23 GMT
It's armor, right? Or at least something that she wears, whether she knows about it or not. That's probably a good thing. Compared to her actually being some sort of monstrous creature, that is. She's probably more of a "human with powers" than an "avatar of the machines". Or not. Annie is part human and part something else, why not Kat? A thought - if it's armor, rather than something innate to Kat, maybe she created it. In the future. We already know there are timey wimey shenanigans going on. It seems likely that Coyote is playing Groundhog Day with everyone, and it wouldn't be surprising at all at this point if Robot were doing something along those lines too. We've seen that Kat is willing to modify herself to get more power, and we've seen her mess with time (with the help of the Norns at least). Is it a stretch to think future Kat may have come up with next generation armor that protects her and helps her interface with all nearby tech, then modified past Kat with it? If you're thinking "But wait, Coyote destroyed her birb!", I would counter with "But not her remote control unit, which a Norn modified to have time capabilities!". Anyway, that theory would explain why we saw her tech armor long before she got as powerful as she is. It might also explain why it freaks out Zimmy so badly - she's really good at sensing certain things, and seems extra-sensitive to Kat-related things. Let's hope she isn't accurately predicting her own murder. It will be disappointing if it is armor. I think mechagodess is just an ethereal representation of her personality, intellect, reach and powers. Just like annie is fully fire in the ether, ysengrim was kingly and noble, coyote an inscrutable and innefable mess, Smits has his threads, Tony's hold on Annie was shown as bone cords shooting into the sky, etc.
Ether is symbolic, kat is technological power and reach. Notice the wiring going out of her eye region. I think Kat has tentacles and strings everywhere in her etheric version because she has sensors everywhere, a production facility on readiness, ability to teleport etc. Now her mind is also online with access to the colective of human knowledge and all those functionalities are a thought away of being used. IMO, the "shedding" in last page is not actually the removal of armor or something like that, but one of 2 options: a) if Annie and Kat's meeting in the last panel means Kat arriving wherever Annie an Rey are after a teleport... Then the "shedding" is just a way to show the perceptual change as Annie and Kat leave the ether and go back to the material world
b) if that meeting is still happening in the ether... Then it's a way of representing Annie reaching through Kat's vastness and touching Kat's "core", the part of her soul that she identifies as her friend amid all that overspread
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Post by blahzor on Dec 7, 2023 5:25:51 GMT
It's armor, right? Or at least something that she wears, whether she knows about it or not. That's probably a good thing. Compared to her actually being some sort of monstrous creature, that is. She's probably more of a "human with powers" than an "avatar of the machines". Or not. Annie is part human and part something else, why not Kat? A thought - if it's armor, rather than something innate to Kat, maybe she created it. In the future. We already know there are timey wimey shenanigans going on. It seems likely that Coyote is playing Groundhog Day with everyone, and it wouldn't be surprising at all at this point if Robot were doing something along those lines too. We've seen that Kat is willing to modify herself to get more power, and we've seen her mess with time (with the help of the Norns at least). Is it a stretch to think future Kat may have come up with next generation armor that protects her and helps her interface with all nearby tech, then modified past Kat with it? If you're thinking "But wait, Coyote destroyed her birb!", I would counter with "But not her remote control unit, which a Norn modified to have time capabilities!". Anyway, that theory would explain why we saw her tech armor long before she got as powerful as she is. It might also explain why it freaks out Zimmy so badly - she's really good at sensing certain things, and seems extra-sensitive to Kat-related things. Let's hope she isn't accurately predicting her own murder. It will be disappointing if it is armor. I think mechagodess is just an ethereal representation of her personality, intellect, reach and powers. Just like annie is fully fire in the ether, ysengrim was kingly and noble, coyote an inscrutable and innefable mess, Smits has his threads, Tony's hold on Annie was shown as bone cords shooting into the sky, etc. Ether is symbolic, kat is technological power and reach. Notice the wiring going out of her eye region. I think Kat has tentacles and strings everywhere in her etheric version because she has sensors everywhere, a production facility on readiness, ability to teleport etc. Now her mind is also online with access to the colective of human knowledge and all those functionalities are a thought away of being used. IMO, the "shedding" in last page is not actually the removal of armor or something like that, but one of 2 options: a) if Annie and Kat's meeting in the last panel means Kat arriving wherever Annie an Rey are after a teleport... Then the "shedding" is just a way to show the perceptual change as Annie and Kat leave the ether and go back to the material world b) if that meeting is still happening in the ether... Then it's a way of representing Annie reaching through Kat's vastness and touching Kat's "core", the part of her soul that she identifies as her friend amid all that overspread
I mean at the very least it'd be living armor and all living material she creates is a extension of her. She seems to get to dictate what even happens to the NP's |
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Post by drmemory on Dec 7, 2023 5:36:40 GMT
It's armor, right? Or at least something that she wears, whether she knows about it or not. That's probably a good thing. Compared to her actually being some sort of monstrous creature, that is. She's probably more of a "human with powers" than an "avatar of the machines". Or not. Annie is part human and part something else, why not Kat? A thought - if it's armor, rather than something innate to Kat, maybe she created it. In the future. We already know there are timey wimey shenanigans going on. It seems likely that Coyote is playing Groundhog Day with everyone, and it wouldn't be surprising at all at this point if Robot were doing something along those lines too. We've seen that Kat is willing to modify herself to get more power, and we've seen her mess with time (with the help of the Norns at least). Is it a stretch to think future Kat may have come up with next generation armor that protects her and helps her interface with all nearby tech, then modified past Kat with it? If you're thinking "But wait, Coyote destroyed her birb!", I would counter with "But not her remote control unit, which a Norn modified to have time capabilities!". Anyway, that theory would explain why we saw her tech armor long before she got as powerful as she is. It might also explain why it freaks out Zimmy so badly - she's really good at sensing certain things, and seems extra-sensitive to Kat-related things. Let's hope she isn't accurately predicting her own murder. It will be disappointing if it is armor. I think mechagodess is just an ethereal representation of her personality, intellect, reach and powers. Just like annie is fully fire in the ether, ysengrim was kingly and noble, coyote an inscrutable and innefable mess, Smits has his threads, Tony's hold on Annie was shown as bone cords shooting into the sky, etc.
Ether is symbolic, kat is technological power and reach. Notice the wiring going out of her eye region. I think Kat has tentacles and strings everywhere in her etheric version because she has sensors everywhere, a production facility on readiness, ability to teleport etc. Now her mind is also online with access to the colective of human knowledge and all those functionalities are a thought away of being used. IMO, the "shedding" in last page is not actually the removal of armor or something like that, but one of 2 options: a) if Annie and Kat's meeting in the last panel means Kat arriving wherever Annie an Rey are after a teleport... Then the "shedding" is just a way to show the perceptual change as Annie and Kat leave the ether and go back to the material world
b) if that meeting is still happening in the ether... Then it's a way of representing Annie reaching through Kat's vastness and touching Kat's "core", the part of her soul that she identifies as her friend amid all that overspread
Would you be happier if it were techo-organic armor or something along those lines? 
I have no secret knowledge, just trying to put it all together. Consider:
1. Multiple people have seen her look like that. Annie, Zimmy, Paz to name a few. Most recently, a freaked-out Interpreter.
2. Kat has no idea she sometimes looks like that. I mean, Annie told her, but her drawing skills weren't really up to the job...
3. It REALLY looks like it's got wires and conduits coming out of it, connecting her to all kinds of stuff. Given her NP and her abilities to control tech, this seems related to the armor (or whatever it is). I think part of this is her contract with her NP, but who knows?
Given recent events, where she actually had Annie surgically implant a better interface, it seems possible that her techskin or armor or whatever it is might be a later version of that, created and installed by a Kat further down the timeline. Or by someone or something else, but I'd like to think it's something Kat did voluntarily. I guess it COULD be ether-based, and still have others see it but not her, but it looks very functional and her thing is tech, so I went there.
This is the first time we've seen a transition - usually she looks either mecha or human. It sorta looked like she was emerging from her mecha-suit, but that scene certainly could have some other meaning. It does seem like she always has her powers, but she doesn't always look like that... except to Zimmy.
On a completely different topic, I wonder if the Interpreter might not be a dead human, assigned to that job by the ROTD? That could explain why his perceptual abilities aren't that good compared to the Arbiter. In other words, he sees what a human would see. It almost seems like an intern relationship, except one that has been going on for a very long time (based on the language thing). Or maybe he was a linguist of dead languages when alive, who knows? I found it interesting that Annie remembered the Arbiter by name but not the Interpreter, and also that she called him a ghost. Psychopomps can tell that sorta thing, I bet. |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 7, 2023 7:28:31 GMT
I think the core problem is how people perceive other people. Antimony and Paz aren't particularly manipulative, Zeta may be insensitive and hurtful at times but if she is manipulative she probably isn't good at it in a conventional sense. Skippy the translator may be manipulative from what we've seen but we don't know exactly what he's seeing. Antimony, Paz, and Zeta are all girls of about the same age as Kat so they probably wouldn't perceive any particular vulnerability in Kat if it was one that they'd share. As a contrast some people, particularly some of those with personality disorders who can't have healthy relationships, aren't capable of seeing other's vulnerabilities as anything other than weaknesses to be exploited; I figure that if one of those people saw Kat they might see soft organic tissue under the armor, or perhaps more cracks or some other sort of flaw representing something they might be able to take advantage of if they were pushy or preyed on her emotions. Kat's mind and technological expertise are more generally intimidating and she also represents a future where technology changes culture, economics and lives in unpredictable ways so it's not surprising that her appearance has an ill aspect instead of being bright and shiny... however, the robots may see her as something uplifting and promising.
Anther problem is limited sample size. We don't really know what Saslamel and the translator are seeing, just that the translator isn't seeing the Kat he saw before and he isn't pleased. Antimony, Paz, and Zeta are all etherically enabled, they know at least a bit about technology, and they know Kat personally so they're almost certainly seeing more than someone who wasn't and doesn't. Maybe they'd see something more impressive, or maybe they'd see nothing at all. On the other hand someone who was Kat's equal or better in tech and gift and did know Kat might more clearly see whatever Kat's destined role in the GKU is.
A third problem is that the ether allows, maybe enables, contradiction and retroactive causality. Kat's MechaAngel appearance can be a cocoon, an opinion, and what Kat really is now and will be in the future all at once. There may also be an aspect of regalia in Kat's appearance. A god is powerful and well-defended therefore armor and weapons, though I still think Kat's suit represents something about how her self-image developed.
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Post by pyradonis on Dec 7, 2023 10:34:26 GMT
I hope we can at least get a description of what Kat saw in the coming pages... "I can try to describe what I saw..." "No... I understand." Seriously though, have we ever seen someone's view of the Ether besides Annie and Surma? I think all the other times someone was depicted in the Ether, it was in the company of either Annie or Surma? Zeta may be insensitive and hurtful at times but if she is manipulative she probably isn't good at it in a conventional sense. Well, she did successfully keep Gamma from making any meaningful connections to other people in order to have her all to herself. |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Dec 7, 2023 11:16:33 GMT
Zeta may be insensitive and hurtful at times but if she is manipulative she probably isn't good at it in a conventional sense. Well, she did successfully keep Gamma from making any meaningful connections to other people in order to have her all to herself. Not wrong but I wouldn't call their situation conventional. |
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Post by blazingstar on Dec 7, 2023 21:01:09 GMT
Seriously though, have we ever seen someone's view of the Ether besides Annie and Surma? I think all the other times someone was depicted in the Ether, it was in the company of either Annie or Surma? Annie is the main character of this comic, so it makes sense that most views of the ether will be through her eyes. The only other person I can think of whose perspective we've seen is Tony, who may or may not have been shown a glimpse into the other side. |
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Post by mturtle7 on Dec 7, 2023 21:41:54 GMT
I hope we can at least get a description of what Kat saw in the coming pages... "I can try to describe what I saw..." "No... I understand." Seriously though, have we ever seen someone's view of the Ether besides Annie and Surma? I think all the other times someone was depicted in the Ether, it was in the company of either Annie or Surma? But yeah, we don't often get other characters' direct perspective on this kinda stuff when Annie isn't seeing the same thing. Kat's adventure in the world of the Arrow was exceptional both in-universe and narratively. Hence why everyone's so curious what her perspective is like now!
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Post by drmemory on Dec 8, 2023 4:06:06 GMT
Seriously though, have we ever seen someone's view of the Ether besides Annie and Surma? I think all the other times someone was depicted in the Ether, it was in the company of either Annie or Surma? I think there are a couple of maybes.
Zimmy and Gamma. Most of the time they see the distortion, which may or not be the ether.
That time that Renard hung out with Gamma, was that the ether? It was pretty black there, but didn't seem to be a distortion or reality. They even had a window into the distortion. Others have seen the distortions as well, like Jack and the students on the boat.
I'm not sure if we've seen the POV of Renard. Maybe when he was training Annie after Ysengrin destroyed her blinker stone?
I think we've seen the POV of Loup, when Zimmy stumbled onto him when he was meditating. That was also another maybe for Zimmy. Usually her visions seem to be part of one of her distortions, but that time she and Loup were in a common space. Sort of.
We saw flower boy (Aata) in the ether, right? But maybe not his POV.
The ex-animal and ex-fairy students? Or have we only seen Annie's POV with them?
Zimmy again - when she entered Annie's dreams or whatever that was, before she punched Tony and saved Annie... Was that the ether? Also, in the room with Kat and her head-pigeon - that didn't look like a distortion, nor did it look like reality. Zimmy certainly sees things an unusual way, but I'm not sure if any of her POV is actually the ether.
I'm leaning towards the illusions created by the wisps not being the ether, but who knows?
When the witch found Zimmy and brought her to talk to Annie, that sure looked weird, and Jack and Jenny were able to see that... or at least hear it. But do Jenny's spells do anything with the ether, or are they something entirely different?
Jack was able to see Annie speed up the boat when they were heading for the power station. That was only visible in the ether. BUT, I'm not sure we saw his POV.
In summary... not sure. It does seem like at least some of these are instances where someone saw into the ether when Annie was present but not via her POV. I'm sure I missed some, also. I did try to avoid mentioning incidents where someone clearly did something with the aid of the ether but we didn't see from their POV... |
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Post by mturtle7 on Dec 8, 2023 22:37:51 GMT
Seriously though, have we ever seen someone's view of the Ether besides Annie and Surma? I think all the other times someone was depicted in the Ether, it was in the company of either Annie or Surma? I think there are a couple of maybes.
Zimmy and Gamma. Most of the time they see the distortion, which may or not be the ether.
That time that Renard hung out with Gamma, was that the ether? It was pretty black there, but didn't seem to be a distortion or reality. They even had a window into the distortion. Others have seen the distortions as well, like Jack and the students on the boat.
I'm not sure if we've seen the POV of Renard. Maybe when he was training Annie after Ysengrin destroyed her blinker stone?
I think we've seen the POV of Loup, when Zimmy stumbled onto him when he was meditating. That was also another maybe for Zimmy. Usually her visions seem to be part of one of her distortions, but that time she and Loup were in a common space. Sort of.
We saw flower boy (Aata) in the ether, right? But maybe not his POV.
The ex-animal and ex-fairy students? Or have we only seen Annie's POV with them?
Zimmy again - when she entered Annie's dreams or whatever that was, before she punched Tony and saved Annie... Was that the ether? Also, in the room with Kat and her head-pigeon - that didn't look like a distortion, nor did it look like reality. Zimmy certainly sees things an unusual way, but I'm not sure if any of her POV is actually the ether.
I'm leaning towards the illusions created by the wisps not being the ether, but who knows?
When the witch found Zimmy and brought her to talk to Annie, that sure looked weird, and Jack and Jenny were able to see that... or at least hear it. But do Jenny's spells do anything with the ether, or are they something entirely different?
Jack was able to see Annie speed up the boat when they were heading for the power station. That was only visible in the ether. BUT, I'm not sure we saw his POV.
In summary... not sure. It does seem like at least some of these are instances where someone saw into the ether when Annie was present but not via her POV. I'm sure I missed some, also. I did try to avoid mentioning incidents where someone clearly did something with the aid of the ether but we didn't see from their POV... One thing I feel like I should point out here as a caveat is that it's a comic, and not actually presented as a first-person view, so the entire notion of a "POV" isn't usually something that applies. Like, by default, our assumption as an audience is that the visuals we see are objective truth, not just one characters' perspective. It's only really on special occasions that what one character sees isn't the same as what another character sees when they look at the same thing!
Zimmy, of course, is a walking embodiment of one of those "special occasions." What she sees is very often different from what other characters see, something which is clearly demonstrated to us when we switch between her POV and the POV of others. As to whether her distortions are technically in the ether or not - well, the most objective explanation we've had on Zimmy's powers comes from Jones, who said that "her brain is in tune with the ether" and that stress "can lead to distortions which present themselves in the physical world". Also, Renard (or something very like him) once said she "distorts reality and the ether alike". And Zimmy, of course, has her own weird ideas about her powers, reality, and the ether - what Annie calls the Ether, she considers just one part of "the unseen world". My theory, based on all this, and the scenes you mentioned, is that Zimmy can see a distorted version of the ether (so anything she sees may or may not line up with what a magician like Annie or Anja might see by peering into the Ether) pretty much all the time, and she can also see more stuff that way if she really tries and Gamma isn't negating her too much. And then when visions get "real", it not only affects both the etheric and physical worlds, but actually mixes them together. Hence why Jack's Whiteleg was only visible in the Ether to other people, and why Renard's etheric form was floating around in space alongside Gamma and Zimmy in "Find Yourself". Which would also handily explain the current funkiness around Kat's angel form, maybe!
I actually thought about that training sequence with Renard and Annie when I was making my last post in this thread, but then I realized that the way Renard is slowly revealed clearly marks that scene as being Annie's POV and not his!
I have no idea what was going on in that one sequence with Loup and Zimmy. That might have represented looking into the Ether, just on a grander scale than Annie usually does, or it might represent a more abstract peering into his own omniscience. And Zimmy may have been directly involved in his thing, or maybe she was just in a parallel scene where she had a revelation about Omega around the same time as him, or whatever. It's all weird.
I'm pretty sure we've never seen Aata or the Foley folks' etheric forms when Annie wasn't also there looking at them.
The first time we see a Wisp, it looks entirely physical, but then we see more and more signs that this is all in the Ether, and then everything snaps back to the physical world when Annie wakes up. This strikes me as very similar to Blue's illusions, where she seems to pull people's perspective into the Ether and then shapes the appearance of that at will. That explanation also lines up with what happened in the Wisp nest, when everyone was in a shared illusion, but the wisps changed how people saw others in their group and where they thought they were in space, while all along they were actually just standing in place with their eyes closed in reality. It's a little weird, because Annie's link with Renard kinda looks like an ethereal plane of it's own, but my interpretation is that nobody's really looking into the ether when that happens, they're just sharing info directly mind-to-mind, and what we see is more of a metaphorical representation of that.
The ether, as far as I can tell, is the fundamental source of all things which would usually be considered "magic", so I'm sure Jenny's spells are "doing something with the ether" in that sense. However, that spell she did in Chapter 87 was supposedly just to pinpoint her location, so I always assumed that when Zimmy showed up to talk with them it was entirely under her own power, not Jenny's.
Man, I miss Annie's scar. It used to be such a convenient way for us to tell when unreliable-narrator stuff was going down, and events in the comic had shifted out of reality and into something etheric. Oh well!
EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot about one more important scene relevant to all of this: when Snuffle talked with Annie about Smitty's strings. Back then, Snuffle specifically tried to see what Annie was looking at, but couldn't. She noted this as unusual, but not unheard of, and said that "Some people can look at the ether in just the right way. They can see someone's effect on it even if they aren't doing anything." Thus implying that most people see the same kind of stuff when they look into the ether: active & intentional magical effects. And then there's just a scant few people who have a knack for seeing more passive, background effects. Food for thought! |
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