Gunnerkrigg Court 5: Bismuth as Usual

[eee]

Nope, nope, Mr. Siddell will have to work a LOT harder to get me to have any sympathy or pity for Tony. These revelations don't even register.

Interesting insight into Surma's character, though; and hints at problems with Eglamore. I suspect Surma revealed to him her nature and that their union would result in her eventual death; and Jimmy-Jims had difficulties with that...

[eschmenk]

Eglamore was in love with Surma. He had a knife that was signed, "Love, Surma." Coyote assumed that Eglamore would have been Annie's father. All of that indicates that they had some sort of a relationship, but Surma apparently broke up with him and married Tony, instead. Egamore wouldn't have been happy about that. I'm pretty sure that was what Tony meant.

[TheEmerged]

I don't know why, but I'm suddenly more concerned that the Court has an "Omega Device" than I am about Tony's parenting skills.

Oh, you mean THAT Omega Device, perhaps?

[Lizard Lord]

Nope, nope, Mr. Siddell will have to work a LOT harder to get me to have any sympathy or pity for Tony.

Well this storyline is no where near complete. I also think it is going to be like how I've always interpreted the reveal of Snape's story where its "Here is the full story of this still deeply flawed character. You may continue judging as you see fit, but now you know the rest of the story."

[Mith]

Personally, I do not know if I will find Tony redeemed in my eyes, but at least I will understand him better. That's why I am happy with this current story line.

[Astrella]

Well none of the stuff revealed so far even touches on why he's a complete **** to Annie, so...

[lord_khaine]

Well.. that did certainly suddenly turn Tony into a human being all of a sudden.
And i can begin to understand his threatment of Annie now.
If we look at his actions impartially, making his daughter redo a year because she had been cheating on her school work, and stopping her from assosiating with a murderer, then they seems reasonable enough.

The problem is that there are most likely only 1 living person who he can remove his emotionless mask before.

[Marcelinari]

Khaine, you're very forgiving. None of this has really justified Tony's treatment of Annie. This entire thing has been about Tony's failure to save Surma and his distaste for the Court. None of it excuses him sending Annie to the Court (with no preparation, information, or friends) and then leaving her - without contact - for what, 3 years? His disappearance forced Annie to move on, and then he comes back into her life and overrules all her autonomy, without a word of apology, explanation, or remorse. Sure, his backstory is tragic... but it's actually nothing we didn't know before, I think. He left the Court with Surma. He disappeared after her death. The only real revelations were that a) he was perfectly capable of contacting Annie the entire time (which we were peripherally aware of via the phone call) and b) that it was Surma's decision to remain away from the Court, which has no real bearing on Tony's treatment of Annie.

I'm not prepared to forgive Tony. However, I'm now convinced he's not a robot. Tom has successfully humanized him, and he's also really funny, in the Dry British way I grew up with. I appreciate that.

[lord_khaine]

Well i dont know, we were just told that he had been working on the courts Omega device those last 3 years, thats clearly not a place he could have been taking a little girl along.
Not to mention we dont know how hard it actually hit him when Surma died, but by the sounds of it "after i proved to be a massive failure" then it were a massive blow for him.

Else, there is an equally large part of the problem that Annie has not been able to stand up for herself on the places where Tony were crossing the line, like regarding the lenth of her hair or her use of makeup.
I kinda feel like it is something a farther is excused for being worried about in regard to his teenage daughter, but at the same time a place for her to show that she is not a kid any longer.

Unfortunately Annie has a bad habbit of regressing whenever her father is involved.

[Lizard Lord]

Else, there is an equally large part of the problem that Annie has not been able to stand up for herself on the places where Tony were crossing the line, like regarding the lenth of her hair [snip]

In case you forgot Annie did that to herself on her own initiative as part of...whatever it is she had done with that fire elemental.

[Emperordaniel]

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I don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to get all squinty-eyed toward the psychopomps all of a sudden.

[Shadow of the Sun]

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I am coming to feel more and more inclined to liking Tony. It doesn't exonerate him, but because he's...well, human when he's with Donald I can't hate him any more.

[Astrella]

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The living with the man that killed Surma line... is... does this mean that Anthony is not Annie's biological father?

[wingnutx]

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The living with the man that killed Surma line... is... does this mean that Anthony is not Annie's biological father?

I think he's referring to himself.

[Yuki Akuma]

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The living with the man that killed Surma line... is... does this mean that Anthony is not Annie's biological father?

...No.

It means he feels guilty for causing Surma's death. Nothing else.

[eee]

Nope, still no sympathy for Tony. His egocentric myopia and lack of understanding of others, combined with his drive to figure problems out no matter what the cost, might explain WHY he has inflicted so much harm on Annie. It doesn't excuse it, especially when he SHOULD have learned more about others by now.

[Chromascope3D]

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I am coming to feel more and more inclined to liking Tony. It doesn't exonerate him, but because he's...well, human when he's with Donald I can't hate him any more.

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I agree. While he is still a major ****, I can at least understand where he's coming from, and can't bring myself to hate him.

Actually, I never really hated him per se, so much as simply disliking him, mainly since I knew that Tom would make us empathize with him eventually anyway, since that is his way. No point in wasting my energy on it.

[Ibrinar]

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I am coming to feel more and more inclined to liking Tony. It doesn't exonerate him, but because he's...well, human when he's with Donald I can't hate him any more.

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Quite the opposite for me. Before he barely was a person so I wanted him gone but I didn't have particularly strong feelings about him. Now I recognize him as more of a person that should be able to be less ****ty and put more blame for being ****ty on him.

[Lissou]

I'm glad he's being fleshed out into a completely realistic human being (in my opinion). Doesn't make him flawless (quite the opposite, it makes him neither completely flawed nor completely without flaw) and doesn't mean we should excuse his actions or anything, but I would have been disappointed if he had been some kind of "evil for no reason" kind of guy, or someone without any qualities or something.

[eschmenk]

...No.

It means he feels guilty for causing Surma's death. Nothing else.

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I think he also means that he expects Annie to hate him for killing Surma and that's why he has been minimizing his contact with her.

[Landis963]

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I think he also means that he expects Annie to hate him for killing Surma and that's why he has been minimizing his contact with her.

Spoiler: There's always the same problem with prophecy...

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It's honestly astounding that that particular self-fulfilling prophecy hasn't engendered a bit more resentment in Antimony thus far. Or maybe it did, and that's why her fire elemental self is sporting an odd rift in her hairstyle. Of course, he's still not excused for humiliating her in front of her friends.

[BannedInSchool]

Spoiler: There's always the same problem with prophecy...

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Of course, he's still not excused for humiliating her in front of her friends.

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Oh, the makeup thing? Let's see. He promised Surma he'd fix it so she could have a child and not die, but was a complete failure at that. He expects Annie to not think much of him because of killing her mother, and comes back to find her looking even more like Surma in that makeup. I might suppose he didn't mean to humiliate her, but that was his reaction to not being able to look at Annie looking like Surma.

[Landis963]

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Oh, the makeup thing? Let's see. He promised Surma he'd fix it so she could have a child and not die, but was a complete failure at that. He expects Annie to not think much of him because of killing her mother, and comes back to find her looking even more like Surma in that makeup. I might suppose he didn't mean to humiliate her, but that was his reaction to not being able to look at Annie looking like Surma.

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Oh please. What kind of moron would you have to be to think that "We will sit in silence until your return" is acceptable in that circumstance? Especially if she wasn't going to be part of the class in the first place? Not to mention the fact that he deliberately shrugged off her concerns about the textbook, leaving her the only person in the room without a textbook to work off of. His behavior in that classroom, no matter how emotionally charged, was humiliating and denigrating to a degree that is unconscionable for any teacher, let alone one who is teaching their child.

And why the hell did he have a child with Surma in the first place if he couldn't face the consequences of failure?

[Mith]

And why the hell did he have a child with Surma in the first place if he couldn't face the consequences of failure?

Because he figured he would be able to deal with the problem, and that there would be no consequence? He was entirely convinced that he could find a medical solution to the etheric condition.

[lord_khaine]

Of course, he's still not excused for humiliating her in front of her friends.

Well.. who is to say though that he is able to figure out that he were humiliating her?
His people skills are honestly atrocious.

[Lissou]

Honestly, with the makeup thing, I didn't find any of it shocking because I've known teachers like that. I saw it as him treating her like a regular student and not playing favorites. Later he was obviously cold even when it was just the two of them, but I think that incident on its own wouldn't mean much.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Honestly, with the makeup thing, I didn't find any of it shocking because I've known teachers like that. I saw it as him treating her like a regular student and not playing favorites.

I'm 99% certain that she wasn't the only one wearing makeup.

[Emperordaniel]

I'm 99% certain that she wasn't the only one wearing makeup.

Yeah, there was also this girl in the second panel - and possibly others in the background.

Antimony was definitely singled out there.

[Lissou]

Yeah, there was also this girl in the second panel - and possibly others in the background.

Antimony was definitely singled out there.

Huh. I don't say any make-up on either girl in panel 2. Antimony on the other hand very obviously wear eye shadow. Although it's possible Anthony noticed it more easily on her because he's her father and knows what she looks like without makeup. Still, I think her makeup is obvious, and if any of the girls in panel 2 wear some, it's not obvious since I can't see it.

[Yuki Akuma]

Huh. I don't say any make-up on either girl in panel 2. Antimony on the other hand very obviously wear eye shadow. Although it's possible Anthony noticed it more easily on her because he's her father and knows what she looks like without makeup. Still, I think her makeup is obvious, and if any of the girls in panel 2 wear some, it's not obvious since I can't see it.

The only characters with visible lips are the ones wearing lipstick.