Gunnerkrigg Court 8: Thrown for a Loup

[WanderingMist]

Oh no, he's pulled himself back together...for now.

[Rodin]

Oh no, he's pulled himself back together...for now.

Key word: for now.

I think he's going to find "Jerrek" far harder to go against than he believes.

[hungrycrow]

Man, has Loup's plan devolved into making Annie jealous? This is great!

[Ionathus]

My hope is that it fails miserably, because Annie was never interested in him romantically.

Honestly I give it 50/50 odds: we haven't seen Annie blush or react to Jerrek at all as anything but a friend. But then, Annie is very good at hiding her feelings, so she could definitely have them.

Either way, I doubt that she'd react outwardly, at least to start with. So hopefully we get at least a panel of Jerrek going "Oh no what have I doneeeee" no matter what happens after that.

[Willie the Duck]

I agree, she hasn't shown an interest.
She could, upon hearing that he was interested in her and then suddenly he's seeing this other person, pull the old 'I didn't know I wanted this, but since I was told I could have it and now I can't, it feels like a loss' trope. That's not something we've seen her do before, but it is a teen drama now, so maybe she'll fall into it. I realize that we haven't seen a lot of romantic interest from Annie. Or strong emotions over most things on the interpersonal* scale not related to her family. She's not Jones-like in emotionlessness, but she doesn't usually show much emotion.
*She obviously has strong feelings on going-berserk Ysengrin or Loup burning up Renard's body or the like

From where it looks at the moment, it feels more like Loup misplaying his hand (admittedly reasonable, since self-involved just-born entity with knowledge of two ancient beings but no practical experience ought not be great at understanding the mindsets of others).

[WanderingMist]

Man, has Loup's plan devolved into making Annie jealous? This is great!

Given that this is part of Coyote's plan, it probably started out as nothing more than that in the first place

I agree, she hasn't shown an interest.
I realize that we haven't seen a lot of romantic interest from Annie. Or strong emotions over most things on the interpersonal* scale not related to her family. She's not Jones-like in emotionlessness, but she doesn't usually show much emotion.

Annie doesn't show much emotion in general. She gets that from Tony.

[hungrycrow]

Given that this is part of Coyote's plan, it probably started out as nothing more than that in the first place


Annie doesn't show much emotion in general. She gets that from Tony.

It's been a while but I feel like she showed some emotion over her not boyfriend Jack?

[Pax1138]

I'd say she tends not to show emotion, but she might explode into tears over something when no one else (or only Kat maybe) is around, as we've seen before. But given what the pace has become, we may not have time for a emotional slowdown with Kat any more. Or it could be an entire chapter while important things happen in the background and there's a time skip.

[Vinyadan]

Oh yes, a robo-human with a thousand-yard stare, girlfriend edition. Loup is outdoing himself here in his nefarious plan.

[DaFlipp]

I just had an odd theory pop into my head. This is not especially well-reasoned or even something that I actually *believe*, more of a "Well this might fit the data, wouldn't that be interesting" scenario.

We've taken as given that Loup is the amalgam of two characters, Ysengrin and Coyote. But hear me out: What if there was a fragment of Renard in the mix, too? What if the incineration of Renard's body was a Coyote-ish illusion, a ruse to throw off the fact that, at some point offscreen, the portion of Renard still in Coyote's care was added into the mix in some fashion?

It would certainly shed some new light on the Loup-has-a-cruuuuush aspect of things, in any event, considering that at the time Renard abandoned that body, he was in full-on I WILL WIN SURMA'S LOVE mode.

(I also want to point out I have no idea *when* Renard would've been assimilated. Did Coyote absorb him before granting Ysengrin his power? Did Loup absorb him after the Court's recent assault on him in hopes of getting a power boost, only to be "tainted" by Renard's residual affection for Antimony/Surma?)

[WanderingMist]

Ah, it's day 4 now. Loup is becoming a dead goose.

[eee]

Loup's disguise taking on a life of its own is a possibility. On the other hand, they are getting closer to the Ocean of Stars. It is possible that might be having a massive effect on an Etheric being like Loup.

Lana is so happy.

[DaFlipp]

Ah, it's day 4 now. Loup is becoming a dead goose.

...oh man, I'd forgotten that story! Yeah that's a much simpler explanation for these shenanigans than my theory.

[hungrycrow]

Could Loup's disguise work so well it "convinces" the star ocean he isn't etheric?

[eee]

Normally you have to scratch a canine on the right spot on their back to get leg tapping like that.

Maybe Lana could try that.

[SirSoliloquy]

Well, so much for not hurting the new people. Wonder where this will lead?

[WanderingMist]

Well, so much for not hurting the new people. Wonder where this will lead?

To his death. Annie will have to kill Loup to prevent Robot from doing something even worse to him for harming one of the New People.

[SirSoliloquy]

To his death. Annie will have to kill Loup to prevent Robot from doing something even worse to him for harming one of the New People.

Well, I mean, his death is already preordained.

[eee]

THAT'S unexpected depth of feeling!

Let's see how the idiot (Loup) handles that.

[WanderingMist]

That sure was a turn.

Some of the comments on the page seem to be incapable of understanding that this is a totally irrational decision and are claiming that this page somehow normalizes abuse.

[tyckspoon]

That sure was a turn.

Some of the comments on the page seem to be incapable of understanding that this is a totally irrational decision and are claiming that this page somehow normalizes abuse.

My interpretation is Lana 'knows how to act' based mainly on reading a lot of probably kind of terrible books. So this is just snapping into a different script from the romance sections. Which of course is a horribly unhealthy model for relationships, because.. romance books.

[Gez]

Shot through with hearts, and she's to blame...

[WanderingMist]

Can't imagine what anyone who decided to start reading Gunnerkrigg Court today would think upon seeing that as their first panel.

[eee]

“And what happened, then? Well, in Whoville they say – that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day."

[Kornaki]

What does alunda mean?

[Neoriceisgood]

Loup is my favorite character, I'm glad he's become a co-protagonist for this story. Deuteragonist?

Anyway, I hope we follow his hijinx for a long time to come! He's so funny.

[WanderingMist]

Also, just putting this together now, Loup is etheric, the ether is shaped by belief, the star ocean is already messing with his control and Lana really, really believes in the books she's read.

[Gez]

What does alunda mean?

The best result I got was this quaint little town, whose name apparently means "trident grove".

I don't think this is the intended meaning, however.

[geoduck]

Alunda is a reference to the Ringo Starr comedy movie "Caveman"; it's the word for "love" in the film's intentionally dopey caveman-language.

[eee]

RE Treatise 10: That's lovely. I especially like Jerrek and Lana,

Tony wearing a dress just doesn't work.