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Post by edzepp on Feb 25, 2009 8:03:07 GMT
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Post by ferrusdominus on Feb 25, 2009 8:12:02 GMT
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Post by mudmaniac on Feb 25, 2009 8:19:22 GMT
I...... am at a loss for words.
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Post by sue911 on Feb 25, 2009 8:46:37 GMT
Wow.Looks like Annie's come back to her senses....and the weight of guilt over the terrible words she uttered shall haunt her until she finds Mort again.I wonder how she'll find him.
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Post by versasovantare on Feb 25, 2009 9:42:36 GMT
Hmm, I see "Dulce et decorum" written at the bottom there. I remember hearing a longer version of the phrase back when I was in school, it was in a poem. I think the full version was "Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori", or something. As I recall, it was used to more or less mean that it was a good and glorious thing to die for your country, which the author didn't agree with.
I think the author, Wilfred Owen, might have written another poem called Mort, which'd explain why the phrase is written there.
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xux
Junior Member
Posts: 56
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Post by xux on Feb 25, 2009 9:48:31 GMT
Looks like Mort's powers are hitting Annie full force. :/
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Post by penguinfactory on Feb 25, 2009 9:51:32 GMT
ANGST AND DRAMA. I really like Tom's use of character development here. I'm kind of feeling sorry for Annie- she's probably thinking that Mort might have dissapeared for good
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Post by Count Casimir on Feb 25, 2009 9:56:58 GMT
Sad Annie. Poor Mort deserves better.
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Post by Uncle Putte on Feb 25, 2009 11:44:52 GMT
It's a learning experience on a subject that can be taught only by the school of hard knocks.
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Post by todd on Feb 25, 2009 11:55:28 GMT
A thought inspired by the recent remarks that Annie often seems Mary Sue-ish (until the last couple of pages where she jumped to the wrong conclusions about Mort's gift and hurt his feelings).
I think that our impressions of Annie have been shaped by the opening chapters, where she's usually depicted as extremely calm and capable, whether it's needing to help a shadow across a bridge without crossing it herself, meeting the Minotaur, or teaching a ghost how to haunt the school properly. So much so, indeed, that we think of that as the norm, though the story does seem to be increasingly moving away from that (in this chapter alone, not only do we see Annie making that terrible slip-up with Mort, but she also almost drops the Blinker Stone whenever she summons it back).
This is based on earlier comments of mine, but: Annie grew up at Good Hope Hospital where the etheric beings whom she knew were the Guides (who seem to have been friendly to her) and a few confused ghosts like Martin, in situations where, if there was trouble (as in Martin's case) her own etheric abilities could easily handle it. That could lead her to two conclusions: first, that the etheric world was a friendly place, and second, that she could solve any problem she ran into on her own. Hence her approach to the various situations she ran into after just arriving at the Court. And she was fortunate that Shadow2, Basil, and Mort were also friendly.
But she was easily duped by Reynardine in his Rogat Orjak body (granted, I think most of us would have made a similar mistake; he's that cunning), and only Eglamore's timely intervention saved her from being possessed. Her ingenious solution to Shadow2's problem turned out to be a disaster, for both Robot and (almost) the Court (not to mention that Shadow2 decided to move back into the Court, making Annie's act in the first chapter futile). Annie had to be rescued by others from Jeanne and Ysengrin, as well. So far, she hasn't fared well against hostile etheric beings.
Clearly these developments must have come as a shock to her, and I think this could be one reason why the opening chapters depict her as they do. We are led to have the same opinion of Annie as she (subconsciously, I assume) holds of herself, that she's thoroughly capable and can deal with anything strange that comes up. Thus, when things start to go wrong (beginning with her encounter with Reynardine), we can share her shocked astonishment at these developments.
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Post by Yin on Feb 25, 2009 11:56:03 GMT
Hoo boy. Now how do we clear this mess up?
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Post by UbiquitousDragon on Feb 25, 2009 12:55:56 GMT
Sad Annie. Poor Mort deserves better. she still had the right to be angry. If somebody laid claim to *you* (even if they didn't know they had) you'd be angry. And she is, what 12/13? Hormones make angry Annie angry. Todd's mention of Good Hope reminded me of what an RL friend pointed out: Annie's been living with death for forever. She's met guides, ghosts and then her own mother passed on. She needs to draw a line between the living and the dead. The dead, presumably, will eventually move on. Mort *is* a ghost. "Just" was harsh, but when real people are hurt and angry say things like that. I love the writing of GC, it's one of the best written stories around. Now, let's all speculate why Mort knows Mutt, and where Mort came from and how he came to be in the Court.
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Post by todd on Feb 25, 2009 13:14:47 GMT
she still had the right to be angry. If somebody laid claim to *you* (even if they didn't know they had) you'd be angry. And she is, what 12/13? Hormones make angry Annie angry. Annie still jumped to conclusions, assuming that was why Mort had done it without finding out first if that was so. (And the timing of the Blinker Stone's arrival does suggest that it was sent to her more because she needed it than as a proposal.) I have a hard time imagining a hormonal Annie, though.
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Post by warrl on Feb 25, 2009 16:16:31 GMT
Annie still jumped to conclusions, assuming that was why Mort had done it without finding out first if that was so. (And the timing of the Blinker Stone's arrival does suggest that it was sent to her more because she needed it than as a proposal.) I have a hard time imagining a hormonal Annie, though. The conclusion was justified - the confidence in it was not. And if someone's been asked to deliver something to you, them delivering it the next time they see you is hardly coincidental no matter when that might be. A hard time imagining hormonal Annie? Just go back a couple days.
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snes
Full Member
BANNED
Posts: 164
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Post by snes on Feb 25, 2009 16:22:04 GMT
Gosh, this page is just depressing.
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Post by lingus on Feb 25, 2009 19:30:58 GMT
Hmm, I see "Dulce et decorum" written at the bottom there. I remember hearing a longer version of the phrase back when I was in school, it was in a poem. I think the full version was "Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori", or something. As I recall, it was used to more or less mean that it was a good and glorious thing to die for your country, which the author didn't agree with. I think the author, Wilfred Owen, might have written another poem called Mort, which'd explain why the phrase is written there. Apparently it translates to "Sweet and Fitting". Wikipedia is great. Didn't find anything about a poem titled "Mort" though. The full translation of that line is, "How sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country" and was originally from a work by a Greek poet Horace (same guy who coined the phrase "carpe diem" as well as many other commonly used phrases).
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Post by nickgoodway on Feb 25, 2009 20:05:25 GMT
Wilfred Owen calls it "The old Lie", the poem 'Dulce et Decorum Est' is a truly horrific account of young soldiers dying in a gas attack during WW1. To say Owen didn't agree with the sentiment being used to encourage men to enlist would be putting it mildly. '...And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda', about Australian soldiers at Gallipoli in WW1, came up on i Tunes as I was writing this; spooky coincidence.
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Post by Per on Feb 25, 2009 20:12:27 GMT
Kat's strategy to withdraw and let Mort brood and Annie hurt, instead of making every effort to deliver a speedy apology, is a bit odd as well. Or maybe this is just the writer saying "this won't be resolved that easily kthxbye".
Edit: The Pogues' version of "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is one of my favouritest songs.
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Post by sandjosieph on Feb 25, 2009 20:22:46 GMT
I was surprised that Mort has a little payback mentality.
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Post by UbiquitousDragon on Feb 25, 2009 20:39:09 GMT
Hmm, I see "Dulce et decorum" written at the bottom there. I remember hearing a longer version of the phrase back when I was in school, it was in a poem. I think the full version was "Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori", or something. As I recall, it was used to more or less mean that it was a good and glorious thing to die for your country, which the author didn't agree with. I think the author, Wilfred Owen, might have written another poem called Mort, which'd explain why the phrase is written there. Apparently it translates to "Sweet and Fitting". Wikipedia is great. Didn't find anything about a poem titled "Mort" though. The full translation of that line is, "How sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country" and was originally from a work by a Greek poet Horace (same guy who coined the phrase "carpe diem" as well as many other commonly used phrases). Horace is Roman. He wrote in Latin. Carpe diem, and dulce et decorum est are Latin phrases, not Greek Just so you know she still had the right to be angry. If somebody laid claim to *you* (even if they didn't know they had) you'd be angry. And she is, what 12/13? Hormones make angry Annie angry. Annie still jumped to conclusions, assuming that was why Mort had done it without finding out first if that was so. (And the timing of the Blinker Stone's arrival does suggest that it was sent to her more because she needed it than as a proposal.) I have a hard time imagining a hormonal Annie, though. Angry people jump to conclusions and act irrationally. Just because we've rarely seen Annie be emotional doesn't make her emotionless. In fact, relatively early on, Chapter 6, we see her break down because she hasn't yet had the chance to grieve for her mother and her dad's b*ggered off god knows where. I miss my mummy.
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3ken
New Member
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Post by 3ken on Feb 25, 2009 21:04:20 GMT
Sad Annie. Poor Mort deserves better. she still had the right to be angry. If somebody laid claim to *you* (even if they didn't know they had) you'd be angry. And she is, what 12/13? Hormones make angry Annie angry. Now, let's all speculate why Mort knows Mutt, and where Mort came from and how he came to be in the Court. All the earlier chapter are directly connected to her parent's pasts, it seems, and it looks as though their previous adventures are now happening again for annie. Also i believe there's a connection between Mort and Renard.
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Post by todd on Feb 25, 2009 23:23:30 GMT
I might have said this before, but I *hope* that Mort isn't the young man whom Reynardine possessed. The evidence we had in Chapter Twenty suggests that it happened when Surma was in her late teens or thereabouts (at least), so the young man would probably have been the same age - and if he's Mort, that makes Mort's crush on Annie (who's 13 at most) kind of creepy.
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Post by warrl on Feb 25, 2009 23:33:35 GMT
I might have said this before, but I *hope* that Mort isn't the young man whom Reynardine possessed. The evidence we had in Chapter Twenty suggests that it happened when Surma was in her late teens or thereabouts (at least), so the young man would probably have been the same age - and if he's Mort, that makes Mort's crush on Annie (who's 13 at most) kind of creepy. Based on behavior I think Mort is between 10 and 13. Not an unreasonable age to have a crush on Annie, but too young to be a good host for Reynard when Surma was about 17-20. Edit: although if he was trying to escape, and Mortimer (he wasn't Mort yet - ooh, bad pun) was the only set of eyes nearby...
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Post by todd on Feb 25, 2009 23:50:25 GMT
A hard time imagining hormonal Annie? Just go back a couple days. True - though I didn't think that her anger was prompted by chemistry or biology - just a mistaken interpretation of the situation (and all the worse in that it involved someone whom she saw as a friend).
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Post by Azeltir on Feb 25, 2009 23:56:16 GMT
True - though I didn't think that her anger was prompted by chemistry or biology - just a mistaken interpretation of the situation (and all the worse in that it involved someone whom she saw as a friend). Compared to any of her previous instances of negative emotion, her latest outburst was considerably more violent, petty, and strained. Sounds pretty hormonal to me. And the rigors of puberty sting everyone, regardless of their cool-headedness and faculty as ethereal mediums. Ben
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Post by Babble-jargon Bill on Feb 26, 2009 0:04:43 GMT
Hoo boy. This is the last time I ever let my computer get broken ever again. I don't see the comic for a week and come back joyfully to learn that one of my favorite characters in the story may be gone forever.
It looks like people's earlier predictions of Mort not knowing the stones symbolic nature were right. It didn't seem like he knew from the look on his face on page 526. Now I am really curious about Mortimer's relationship with the rest of the pychopomps. And for that matter why his job is to haunt the court for his own amusement. I guess the staff just want to keep the students on their toes.
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Post by Max on Feb 26, 2009 0:52:48 GMT
Wow, I totally misinterpreted this page the first time I read it. I thought the voice in the second panel was coming from the mysteriously floating stone, and thought somehow maybe Reynardine was speaking to her in some creepy sing-song voice. The correct version is a lot less spooky.
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Neats
New Member
Posts: 38
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Post by Neats on Feb 26, 2009 2:35:55 GMT
I might have said this before, but I *hope* that Mort isn't the young man whom Reynardine possessed. The evidence we had in Chapter Twenty suggests that it happened when Surma was in her late teens or thereabouts (at least), so the young man would probably have been the same age - and if he's Mort, that makes Mort's crush on Annie (who's 13 at most) kind of creepy. Also, when Muut went to Annie after she fell off the bridge, he called Mort "new and inexperienced," implying that he has not been a ghost for that long. If he were the young man Reynardine possessed, that would mean that he had been dead for more than 13 years, which is not what I would think of as "new and inexperienced." Tom has also said that Mort was not a student at the Court when he was alive. The evidence all points towards Mort and the young man being different people.
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Post by Babble-jargon Bill on Feb 26, 2009 6:08:43 GMT
Honestly, I think the "Mort being the possessed guy" thing is a non-issue.
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Neats
New Member
Posts: 38
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Post by Neats on Feb 26, 2009 8:06:24 GMT
Kat's strategy to withdraw and let Mort brood and Annie hurt, instead of making every effort to deliver a speedy apology, is a bit odd as well. Or maybe this is just the writer saying "this won't be resolved that easily kthxbye". It seems like a reasonable approach to me, and one that is often necessary, or at least advisable, in real life. Sometimes people need some time and space to cool off before they'll be receptive to an apology, and it doesn't look like Mort is in a receptive frame of mind at the moment. Giving him some time to calm down (and miss Antimony's friendship) might make a later reconciliation more likely.
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