Gunnerkrigg Court 6: Fire Away

[stsasser]

Coyote will not care for this...nor will Ysengrin.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Yeah, if our fears are confirmed it would mean that Annie's zany adventures got a fellow student killed. And the success of the current mission doesn't look certain either...

[Haruspex_Pariah]

New comic!

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Curse you Tom for scaring me like that. Though things still look dicey. What with the two of them facing an angry stabby ghost.

[Mono Vertigo]

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Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes

[eee]

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THANK SMITTY!

Talk about escaping death by inches. George, blip them outta there, NOW!

I wonder if Jeanne will be rattled enough to want to talk, or if she'll simply continue in killing mode.

[Ibrinar]

The only out would be if what we're seeing isn't what is happening (which is a possibility, illusions and all). It'd be a cheap cop out, but it's possible.

I would argue it isn't since they are already shown like that here: http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1726 So the mismatch is something we could have noticed.

[eschmenk]

The thing that seems cheap to me so far is them living because Jeanne is just standing there wondering how she missed. Jeanne certainly seems like the type to kill first and ask questions about how she missed later, doesn't she? The miss shouldn't even surprise her that much, should it? Some of her attempts at Robot had missed him and merely tore at his illusion, so she should have known that she wasn't perfect. She obviously knew about fae illusions and had already figured out that a fae illusion was in place and it had been fooling her repeatedly up untill now. Why wouldn't she have immediately realized that the fae illusion made her miss her thrust, too? I would have thought that if anything, it should have made her even more angry and more determined to kill the fairy so she can make sure the same thing doesn't happen again.

If it were necessary to make Jeanne pause so the other characters could survive, I could accept Jeanne becoming so angry that she had a breakdown or just having her slash wildly at the air because she no longer trusted her senses much easier than I could accept that she would simply turn all of her anger off and and stop and think about what just happened. Granted, we've seen some very random behavior from her before, but this still seems very weird.

[guttering flame]

The thing that seems cheap to me so far is them living because Jeanne is just standing there wondering how she missed. Jeanne certainly seems like the type to kill first and ask questions about how she missed later, doesn't she? The miss shouldn't even surprise her that much, should it? Some of her attempts at Robot had missed him and merely tore at his illusion, so she should have known that she wasn't perfect. She obviously knew about fae illusions and had already figured out that a fae illusion was in place and it had been fooling her repeatedly up untill now. Why wouldn't she have immediately realized that the fae illusion made her miss her thrust, too? I would have thought that if anything, it should have made her even more angry and more determined to kill the fairy so she can make sure the same thing doesn't happen again.

If it were necessary to make Jeanne pause so the other characters could survive, I could accept Jeanne becoming so angry that she had a breakdown or just having her slash wildly at the air because she no longer trusted her senses much easier than I could accept that she would simply turn all of her anger off and and stop and think about what just happened. Granted, we've seen some very random behavior from her before, but this still seems very weird.

Maybe Annie is making some progress behind the scenes? Or someone is making unlikely things luckily happen.

[eschmenk]

Maybe Annie is making some progress behind the scenes? Or someone is making unlikely things luckily happen.

I don't know. My personal headcanon is that Jeanne is not directly trapped by the device itself, but by her love for the forest guy, who is the one really trapped by the device. That's such a cliche, and it seems to fit here very well. I realize that Jeanne noticed something was wrong when Annie touched the device, but that could have been just random magic given off which might have even affected the fairy magic. To me, it's weird that a device was applied to one person so it could affect someone else. That's a bit too indirect for my tastes. I realize that the characters think Jeanne is trapped by the device itself, but I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around that idea. It would seem weird if toggling switches or whatever in the device stuck in the forest guy would change Jeanne's behavior. Maybe the Court needed the forest guy to power the device, though, I guess.

I think part of the problem for me may be that Tom milked the scene a bit too much. Jeanne had completed her thrust already by the top of the previous page. It's been two full pages since then. That makes it seem as if Jeanne's pause is a long one.

[Alex Knight]

Jeanne is still in the illusion world. She "sees" the fae standing there, with her sword right next to them. She still doesn't recognize that they're kneeling.

[eschmenk]

Jeanne is still in the illusion world. She "sees" the fae standing there, with her sword right next to them. She still doesn't recognize that they're kneeling.

OK, that would make sense. Unfortunately, the ghost doesn't have eyeballs and in the second frame it looks like she is looking downward and is surprised to see the group on the sand. Her head seems to be in a lower position than it was in the first panel, so it certainly looks as if she shifted her gaze significantly downward. It also appears as if the elf isn't putting any effort into keeping the illusion up anymore. I thought the shock of what happened made the elf drop the illusion, which would explain why Jeanne could see them when she looked down. Also, the last panel of the previous page makes it look as if the illusion is breaking given what is happening to the colors on the left-hand side. But Jeanne's head is already down too much on the left-hand side there (her chin is above her arm on the first panel of the next page), so that might mean the head position doesn't meant anything.

That also still leaves a bit of a question about why Jeanne is pausing. Even if she still sees the illusion, I would have thought that she would make additional attempts to kill the elf she thinks she sees rather than stopping to think about it. She should eventually realize the elf isn't there, which would explain why she missed. However, the pause doesn't seem as odd that way, though.

Thanks for the explanation. At first I thought you were right, but after looking at the artwork on the previous page again, I'm not so sure. Jeanne's pause seems much less odd under your interpretation, but the artwork seems to favor my original one. Unfortunately, Tom's artwork, although its very good in some ways has problems in other ways, so I don't know how much to read into that.

[Mith]

I could also see that there is a dissonance between Jeanne in the illusion/ past self, and as a wrath spirit that isn't helping here keep things straight. She isn't sure what is wrong, and to what a horrific degree. So while part of her is trying to figure out what is going on, another part of her is trying to hold onto the illusion as well.

[eschmenk]

I could also see that there is a dissonance between Jeanne in the illusion/ past self, and as a wrath spirit that isn't helping here keep things straight. She isn't sure what is wrong, and to what a horrific degree. So while part of her is trying to figure out what is going on, another part of her is trying to hold onto the illusion as well.

I don't see much of any dissonance between the two forms of Jeanne, but I agree that she isn't sure what's going on. It's just that both forms of Jeanne would probably lash out rather than stop and think when they aren't sure what's going on.

Notice how in the bottom here and the top here how in-tune Jeanne is with her sword. Her automatic response is to get the sword and fight. That comes very natural to her. As soon as she thinks she sees someone with an elvish ear, she tries to attack that person. Both forms of Jeanne seem to have a kill first, ask questions later attitude, at least in the face of an unknown danger. (She didn't even ask, "Are you responsible for this?")

Rey noticed pretty much the same thing about the original Jeanne just from her portrait:

Well, you see how uneasy the girl is in her finery. How she clutches the sword in comfort. A soldier perhaps?

Perhaps you were overly influence by the pleasant appearance of the surroundings? Those aren't consistent with Jeanne; they were chosen by NotNamedBlueYet in order to help calm Jeanne down. I don't think that's something that Jeanne would try to hold onto; it was something pushed onto her by the elf girl.

To be clear, I'm not trying to make the original Jeanne sound like a psycho. It's just that, if she doesn't know what's going on, she automatically goes into a fighting defense mode. If she was confused, she would lash out at any possible threat, not stop and think about it.

[Mith]

I was thinking of it as being more of a "remember happier times" rather than an externally forced state of mind. That was my mistake there. I was adding that to this to get the internal struggle of fighting the illusion, but not wanting to deal with the trauma of what she is now.

That's more from my speculation of the plot holding Jeanne in this state where she never regresses fully back to the mindset of a wrath. The closest I can hope for the character to "die happy", so to speak.

[Alex Knight]

New comic.

Well, that explains why she missed.

[Yuki Akuma]

When your idea of what a character would do and what that character actually does are in conflict, perhaps consider your idea of who the character is is wrong, and not the author.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Wait. Smitty's power is to make things orderly (or boring, as his girlfriend put it) isn't it. How exactly does that play into the current scenario. Did he make her miss? Or was he using his power to augment the illusion? I don't think he can actually control or directly manipulate people, can he?

[Mith]

He makes things turn out the way he wants things to.

[eee]

Uh-oh. She, too, can see Smitty's threads of fate. O_O

He makes things turn out the way he wants things to.

With care. As he said, for example, he wanted George to return early; but he was aware if he tried to bring that about, it might have been bad for George, Eglamore, or both of them and the Court as well. So he has to keep his power under control...

In this case, it's not clear his ability to alter probabilities will be enough to protect himself and the others against Jeanne. Especially if she can cut the threads he's got her entangled with.

[Mith]

With care. As he said, for example, he wanted George to return early; but he was aware if he tried to bring that about, it might have been bad for George, Eglamore, or both of them and the Court as well. So he has to keep his power under control...

I worded that poorly then. He can force probabilities to his perceived desired outcome.

[eschmenk]

That's more from my speculation of the plot holding Jeanne in this state where she never regresses fully back to the mindset of a wrath. The closest I can hope for the character to "die happy", so to speak.

I'm hoping for a happy outcome for Jeanne, too, but I think eventually she will be reunited with the spirit of her green boyfriend (what's chasing Annie) and both of them would be freed and go into the afterlife together. That would be the ultimate happiness for her, I think.

ADDED: As soon as Jeanne is gone, Ysengrin will lead an army across the river and slaughter all of the humans, so he'll be very happy too! Seriously, I think Parley, Smitty and Annie will need to work to keep the peace and make sure that doesn't happen, though. That's probably being set up by resolving the problem with Jeanne being trapped and used as a barrier to any attacks.

Wait. Smitty's power is to make things orderly (or boring, as his girlfriend put it) isn't it. How exactly does that play into the current scenario. Did he make her miss? Or was he using his power to augment the illusion? I don't think he can actually control or directly manipulate people, can he?

I think Jeanne sees the threads and will assume that Smitty made her miss, rather than realizing that the elf's head simply wasn't where she thought it was, so Jeanne will go after Smitty next. Smitty needs to quickly jump into his girlfriend's arms and they need to start blipping around keeping just out of reach while Jeanne chases them around. OK, I don't really expect that. I think it's probably more likely that Parley will try to save Smitty, then Jeanne will turn on her, but Smitty will learn to use the strings and help Parley enough to keep Jeanne from killing her.

Jeanne may say something about the strings which will alert Smitty to the fact it would be possible for him to affect the fight. It could be that Smitty might not have done anything to help Parley fight Jeanne so far because he simply didn't know that he could do it.

[Giggling Ghast]

Wait. Smitty's power is to make things orderly (or boring, as his girlfriend put it) isn't it. How exactly does that play into the current scenario. Did he make her miss? Or was he using his power to augment the illusion? I don't think he can actually control or directly manipulate people, can he?

He altered reality so that whatshername was sitting instead of standing.

[eschmenk]

I would argue it isn't since they are already shown like that here: http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1726 So the mismatch is something we could have noticed.

He altered reality so that whatshername was sitting instead of standing.

No, as Ibrinar pointed out, they were already shown as kneeling the whole time. This page may show the difference even better.

Another difference (not that it mattered): in the illusion the elves seemed to a couple of years older and just as tall as Jeanne. Notice how Jeanne's arm was angled upward for her thrust. Jeanne's sword probably would have gone over the real NotNamedBlueYet's head even if she had been standing up. Jeanne was simply fooled by the illusion.

[Zea mays]

Uh-oh. She, too, can see Smitty's threads of fate. O_O
.

She can see them.
Can she cut them?
I have a feeling that would be very very bad.

[Landis963]

She can see them.
Can she cut them?
I have a feeling that would be very very bad.

Regardless of whether or not she can cut them, I'm a bit more concerned about her attempting to cut him.

[SZbNAhL]

Spoiler: New comic

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She can see them.
Can she cut them?

Mystery solved!

[eschmenk]

Spoiler: New comic

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Mystery solved!

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And even more mysteries created!

Smitty wasn't actually using those strings, despite what she thought, so what difference will cutting the strings actually make? It looked like the strings might have gone from the Court device through Smitty to her. Did she free herself from the arrow device and just doesn't realize that she's free yet? Will Annie or the device be affected?

[guttering flame]

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And even more mysteries created!

Smitty wasn't actually using those strings, despite what she thought, so what difference will cutting the strings actually make? It looked like the strings might have gone from the Court device through Smitty to her. Did she free herself from the arrow device and just doesn't realize that she's free yet? Will Annie or the device be affected?

Why do you say this? Annie saw them a while back as an extension of Andrew's magic and previous page show them emanating from him, not from the river waters.

[eschmenk]

Why do you say this? Annie saw them a while back as an extension of Andrew's magic and previous page show them emanating from him, not from the river waters.

Look closer. There are strings going the other way, too. It's not obvious how to interpret that panel.

[Rodin]

Look closer. There are strings going the other way, too. It's not obvious how to interpret that panel.

My assumption would be that the strings are tied to Annie and/or the Faerie girls/Kat. Jeanne cutting the strings attached to her means that Smitty can't manipulate her directly, but he's still tied into the other people in the area.

What is surprising is that the strings aren't attached to Parley. I guess Smitty is afraid of screwing up her fighting by inadvertently messing with probability in the wrong way?