The rift speculation

[pendell]

Asked in main thread :



I just wonder why this never happened with the rift above Azure city.


I suspect it is because Redcloak wasn't doing what Laurin was doing, which is using a mind-scan to probe what was on the other side.

So what do we know?

1) Yes, Virginia, there IS a snarl. And it is dangerous.
2) Nonetheless, Blackwing has seen a world beyond the rift, and there is an ocean that all the characters have seen.
3) This ocean is devoid of life, as far as Laurin can tell.

Question I have:
Why do Laurin's eyes in second-to-last panel of strip 945 turn purple? I'll wager many quatloos that is NOT an art error. Her normal eye color is black, and when she's casting her eyes turn gold. Why purple -- the color of the snarl?

Did the snarl somehow take control of her , and use her power to manifest itself?

Or is she merely the first victim, being destroyed in mind before the tentacles physically appeared?

What is the nature of the world within the rift? Is it simply an illusion to bait and entice people to do what Laurin did? Or is there REALLY a world there? If so, why has the Snarl not destroyed it if it is a creature of pure chaos?

Why should such a blue planet even EXiST, if there is no life on it? I'm no biologist, but I suspect the reason our planet is the way it is is due in no small measure to the plants and animals that make up the biosphere. No trees, no oxygen, etc. So I suspect an earthlike planet totally devoid of life would not be physically possible.

Glad for correction on that last point if I'm wrong.

Thoughts? I find this fascinating!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[SpacemanSpif]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0659.html

Blackwing's eyes also turn purple when looking into the rift. Needless to say, that instance didn't seem to precede a snarl attack.

It might also be significant that we can't see the eyes of the Order when they're looking into the rift: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0900.html

Additionally, notice that Laurin's eyes don't turn a solid purple, but include multiple shades of purple and blue, just as this manifestation of the snarl does. By contrast, Blackwing's eyes seem to just turn the same solid purple as the rift. This last part may simply be a consequence of the smaller art, but we can't say for sure.

Edit: Regarding your question about a lifeless planet, we're currently under the impression that the snarl is composed of the forces of creation the gods use when creating worlds. With that in mind, it makes some sense that the Snarl could have the ability to create worlds from whole cloth. Since this world wouldn't be coming to it's current state procedurally, there's nothing that should prevent it from having whatever attributes the snarl wanted it to have.

That said, all we know is that Laurin couldn't sense any life. There might possible be a form a life Laurin doesn't have the ability to sense, or he senses might be blocked in some way, or the entire planet might be an illusion of some kind.

[NerdyKris]

This exact topic is already being discussed here:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=331525

[ScrapperTBP]

I do have a theory as to why there a world within the rift or a ocean for that matter.

If we remember all the back to the wonderful crayon drawings it was explained to us that the snarl was formed out of pure threads of reality which had become snagged. The snarl is literally made of the same thing as the world itself so maybe people cannot perceive the snarl directly. They merely see what it is made of and their brains assume it is a world or something else made my the gods.

However this poses a few problems. Firstly why did Laurin's general scans do nothing to see a snarl and secondly why would everyone see the same thing and not different things.

Now the answer to the first question could be that the snarl is simply not there. Because the rift isn't a gateway to it but to the world that Blackwing saw. Simple but I will develop this more later.

Now for the second question. One thing that has always confused me is the fact that we see the snarl materialized on the old world killing everyone and everything. Now if the snarl was made of a part of that world, surely it would have destroyed it from within? Otherwise it standing on itself is it not?

So maybe the snarl didn't unmake everything. The snarl lives in isolation on that world. He just committed mass genocide of everything and everyone but the world. Because it is my understanding that if the snarl destroys everything it would destroy itself. He is made from snags in the threads that make up the world, not separate from it. Destroying whichever threads it is attached to would destroy it would it not?

And for the snarl to do this it doesn't have to have suddenly gained intelligence of order and law that it lacked before, it just needs to have some sort of self preservation which all creatures have, even those with the lowest intelligence will not die for absolutely no reason let alone kill themselves.

So where does this leave us? The snarl destroyed/unmade (whatever you want to call it) everyone and everything apart from the world itself. It couldn't destroy that without destroying itself. It is anchored to that world. Perhaps that is why it didn't stop the gods imprisoning it. It couldn't get away from the world. It wasn't stupid as Shojo suggested.

Now why did what is happening now not happen at azure city. Azure city's rift showed the world from space. A creature anchored to that world could not get into space. The valley rift we have now is a portal to the world directly, something the snarl can reach out from.

Now for the last point. Why does the planet look the way it does? Well this one is simple too if you think about it. We are still looking at a planet that gods created. It looks that way because they created it that way. It has stayed that way because the snarl can't destroy it and has destroyed everything that could. (Side note: this poses the question: did the snarl destroy everyone because they had the power to destroy the world and therefore it? That is a bit far-fetched though).

[Jaxzan Proditor]

Laurin's eyes are not the only ones to turn purple. Blackwing's did the same here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0659.html). Also, if it is an illusion, it is a very good one, as water can be seen splashing out of the rift along with the snarl thing. So it probably is real.

As for what it actually is, and why it's there, we can only speculate. I think that it is the remnants of the first world, possibly having reformed itself. Until we know more, nothing can be proven.

[SlashDash]

As others mentioned in another thread, when Blackwing looked at Haley's gold, his eye turned gold as well. Making it most likely that the color is simply a reflection, than a magical effect.


As for the "who" "why" "how" and "what the bloody heck just happened" I think Roy's statement pretty much spelled it out: We don't know everything yet.

I'd say we can't guess with insufficient information.

[Kariccia]

Why do Laurin's eyes in second-to-last panel of strip 945 turn purple?

Depends upon if this is suppose to be the same thing that happened to Blackwing. Blackwing's eyes changed too, but he wasn't trying to mentally probe the rift. Personally, I hope it is just what happened to Blackwing, but there's enough room for the Giant to do something else.


What is the nature of the world within the rift? Is it simply an illusion to bait and entice people to do what Laurin did? Or is there REALLY a world there? If so, why has the Snarl not destroyed it if it is a creature of pure chaos?

Why should such a blue planet even EXiST, if there is no life on it? I'm no biologist, but I suspect the reason our planet is the way it is is due in no small measure to the plants and animals that make up the biosphere. No trees, no oxygen, etc. So I suspect an earthlike planet totally devoid of life would not be physically possible.

There's water coming out of the rift. I don't think it's an illusion.

Blue though is often just a way of saying "water here." The planet having oceans isn't a big deal. The problem is the continents appear green (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0672.html). So there's life there... somehow? I'm not sure what to make of that. Maybe the snarl only attacks animals or similar? Maybe the Snarl only attacks when there is sufficient movement? Or maybe it's not plants, but some type of rock giving the green hue?

On a different note, the Snarl is trying to get as much of itself as possible through the rift instead of a single "claw." I'm starting to think the reason we never knew about the planet was the Scribble never got the chance to look through the rifts like the order has. The Snarl was already coming out of the gates after all, and if it was anything like this, how could they have seen a thing?

[malloyd]

The Snarl was already coming out of the gates after all, and if it was anything like this, how could they have seen a thing?

Was it? The open rifts seem to have been a longstanding feature - old enough for a cult to have evolved around one for example, and harmless enough not to have destroyed said cultists. I actually think the story so far is reasonably consistent with the Snarl just wants to be left alone. If you don't actually try to investigate the rifts, it ignores them. If something pokes through, it destroys it and goes back to ignoring them.

[Kariccia]

If you don't actually try to investigate the rifts

That's what the Scribble was doing, weren't they? It's possible that it was out enough that the Scribble either never got a good chance to gaze into the rift like the Order and Blackwing did or never felt safe about doing so.

We also don't know how long it takes for the Snarl, once agitated, to return to the other planet or if it will.

[Ramien]

Depends upon if this is suppose to be the same thing that happened to Blackwing. Blackwing's eyes changed too, but he wasn't trying to mentally probe the rift. Personally, I hope it is just what happened to Blackwing, but there's enough room for the Giant to do something else.



There's water coming out of the rift. I don't think it's an illusion.

Blue though is often just a way of saying "water here." The planet having oceans isn't a big deal. The problem is the continents appear green (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0672.html). So there's life there... somehow? I'm not sure what to make of that. Maybe the snarl only attacks animals or similar? Maybe the Snarl only attacks when there is sufficient movement? Or maybe it's not plants, but some type of rock giving the green hue?

It just means the planet isn't finished yet, and the Snarl has just laid down the plants in the planet it's building. Animals come later, I believe.

[Peelee]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0659.html

Blackwing's eyes also turn purple when looking into the rift. Needless to say, that instance didn't seem to precede a snarl attack.

It might also be significant that we can't see the eyes of the Order when they're looking into the rift:

It wasn't just Blackwings eyes that turned purple. Look at the strip in question. EVERYTHING turns purple. Compare Xykon's crown neat the rift to his crown away from the rift. Everything is slightly discolored. I'm rather amazed nobody else has brought this up yet.

[hamishspence]

Everything is slightly discolored. I'm rather amazed nobody else has brought this up yet.

That was brought up when the same effect was noted in the O-Chul interrogation scene:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0547.html
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0548.html

Regarding Blackwing's eyes - they are normal-colored when we see him looking through the rift in close-up flashback:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0672.html

So it's possible that the purple tint here:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0659.html

is due to him being "lit up" by the light of the rift. Xykon's eyes are also very slightly purplish rather than their normal red.

[Griffincat]

I had a wild thought about the Snarl and world within the rift the other day, but it's predicated on something that I don't know: what does the afterlife for black dragons look like?

The snarl is the color of all the black dragons we've seen, and an aquatic world would be an ideal place for aquatic dragons. Eating isn't essential in the afterlife, so the lack of fish isn't a problem either.

Could rift world be the dragon afterlife?

[Keltest]

I had a wild thought about the Snarl and world within the rift the other day, but it's predicated on something that I don't know: what does the afterlife for black dragons look like?

The snarl is the color of all the black dragons we've seen, and an aquatic world would be an ideal place for aquatic dragons. Eating isn't essential in the afterlife, so the lack of fish isn't a problem either.

Could rift world be the dragon afterlife?

Its possible, but not any more likely than any other "its X plane" theory. And of course that doesn't take into account the snarl.