Gunnerkrigg Court 8: Thrown for a Loup

[Rodin]

If the Court's running away, they're not interested in fighting him anymore?

That's how I read it. If the Court is trapped they need to fight Loup for survival, and while Loup is powerful he's also extremely naive and not terribly smart. The Court could almost certainly outmaneuver and defeat him if they were motivated enough. Even if they don't win, the cost to Loup is likely to be extreme.

The star ocean gives the Court a way out without looking like they're running away. They always planned to do this, Loup isn't important enough for them to respond. The confrontation doesn't happen, and everyone is better for it.

[WanderingMist]

M, V, U? Mercury or Mars, Venus, but what the bleep is U??? Uranus? In the inner Solar System?

No, just a 2-D model of a 3-D system. This isn't a top-down view of the solar system, it's a side view from very far away.

[Pax1138]

That's how I read it. If the Court is trapped they need to fight Loup for survival, and while Loup is powerful he's also extremely naive and not terribly smart. The Court could almost certainly outmaneuver and defeat him if they were motivated enough. Even if they don't win, the cost to Loup is likely to be extreme.

The star ocean gives the Court a way out without looking like they're running away. They always planned to do this, Loup isn't important enough for them to respond. The confrontation doesn't happen, and everyone is better for it.

Not even fight. Remember they wanted to steal his power to help make this escape function. I think what Kat's saying is they're beyond needing his power to make this word, thus, he's off the hook.

[Kornaki]

Not even fight. Remember they wanted to steal his power to help make this escape function. I think what Kat's saying is they're beyond needing his power to make this word, thus, he's off the hook.

For what it's worth, I don't think any view of the solar system can cause the orbits to appear to change convexity like that, so there are artistic liberties being taken, or perhaps their solar system doesn't work the same way.

[Clertar]

This whole star ocean reveal seems rushed, but oh well.

Kat's question about another being with a Coyote-like ether is pretty sinister. It's not just me, right?

[sihnfahl]

Kat's question about another being with a Coyote-like ether is pretty sinister. It's not just me, right?

There's the Psychopomps...

[eee]

Gosh, RENARD, can you, RENARD, think of any other being, RENARD, who might have power even close to Coyote, RENARD?

[sihnfahl]

Gosh, RENARD, can you, RENARD, think of any other being, RENARD, who might have power even close to Coyote, RENARD?

If that were the case, and the Star Ocean has existed this long, my thought is that they'd never had been needing to capture Coyote in the first place.

They had Reynard. They could have used him a long time ago. How many times have the Shadow Men been near Reynard.

[Manga Shoggoth]

I think it's more likley to be Zimmy. Reynard is powerful, but I don't think he's anywhere near Coyote's level.

[JavaScribe]

Some things I've been wondering:

* What is the Court's legal status, is it a Protectorate of the UK or an independent citystate?
* How does it's economy work? Even if the Court is fully self-sufficient, they must have some system for exchanging favors, both internally and with the outside world. Do they have wealthy sponsors, or subordinate companies?

[Shadow of the Sun]

I honestly immediately assumed it was Kat, due to the worship of the robots.

[WanderingMist]

I think it's more likley to be Zimmy. Reynard is powerful, but I don't think he's anywhere near Coyote's level.

Plus we have the beginning of this chapter with Zimmy noticing something changed and being very distraught about it.

[137beth]

Spoiler: Today's page

Show

Yep. It's Zimmy.

[WanderingMist]

Renard, Zimmy does not look like that.

[WanderingMist]

Actually, is it just me, or does Renard's version of Zimmy kind of look like Gamma? Jack said way back that they were "way more than that" when Annie called them "an item" (or something along those lines). Could they have been two halves of the same person this whole time? It would also make sense of why Zimmy knew how to put Annie back together again.

[Willie the Duck]

Other than maybe having very full lips (and Zimmy usually having just a line), I don't really see Gamma in the depiction either.

I'm not at all sure what is supposed to be going on with this. I'm not getting it at all. The off-the-shoulder shirt makes it look vaguely like this is a crush-worthy mental image, but we haven't really seen Rey think that way about school children (aside from a side comment about not minding if Annie and Kat made out in a very early strip which might have been early-installment weirdness). The pose is more like he's picturing her dancing. The 'we're friends now' bit doesn't clear it up any for me (anyone have a link to where that happens, btw?). It could be anything.

[WanderingMist]

Other than maybe having very full lips (and Zimmy usually having just a line), I don't really see Gamma in the depiction either.

I'm not at all sure what is supposed to be going on with this. I'm not getting it at all. The off-the-shoulder shirt makes it look vaguely like this is a crush-worthy mental image, but we haven't really seen Rey think that way about school children (aside from a side comment about not minding if Annie and Kat made out in a very early strip which might have been early-installment weirdness). The pose is more like he's picturing her dancing. The 'we're friends now' bit doesn't clear it up any for me (anyone have a link to where that happens, btw?). It could be anything.

Tom's comment below today's comic makes this kind of hilarious. Like, he's probably just trolling, but there's always the possibility he isn't.

[Vinyadan]

Reynard's image of Zimmy looks like a mix between a flapper and some pictures of women during the neoclassical Macedonian Renaissance in Byzantine art.

[eee]

Dang, he's good.

[wingnutx]

Zimmy looks so happy to see her.

[WanderingMist]

What do you mean worse things, Zimmy? What do you mean?

[eee]

For Zimmy to say that, and immediately break into a sweat, makes me very uneasy. And worried for her.

[Vinyadan]

What do you mean worse things, Zimmy? What do you mean?

Spoiler

Show

She's scared of Kate, who looks like a massive iron god to her, and who has lately successfully turned the robots into people -- robots who have built a cult around her.

And then a forest god also turned into a robot and has problems separating himself from the part of a teenage robot, so he might end up also joining the cult, unless being a teenager drives him in the opposite direction.

It's just speculation, but it looks worrysome.

[WanderingMist]

Zimmy...Zimmy thinks Kat's with the Court, doesn't she? And the way she refers to Omega as if it were a person is...worrying, considering, if I recall correctly, that Zimmy's real name is Zeta. But if Omega predicts things with near-100% accuracy, what if Omega planned on Kat using itself to find Zimmy in order to locate her for the Court without Kat knowing that's what she was doing?

[Vinyadan]

Zimmy...Zimmy thinks Kat's with the Court, doesn't she? And the way she refers to Omega as if it were a person is...worrying, considering, if I recall correctly, that Zimmy's real name is Zeta. But if Omega predicts things with near-100% accuracy, what if Omega planned on Kat using itself to find Zimmy in order to locate her for the Court without Kat knowing that's what she was doing?

This sort of predictive activity reminds me of a couple of things: one is how Kat had a glance at another time where she lost Annie, and had the foresight to send back a bird to save her. The bird was not destroyed, and instead built itself inside the Annan riverbank into what looked to me like a station meant to collect information.

But also of how Coyote interrogated Ysengrim to know what he would do when the time came.

[Devlerbat]

Zimmy...Zimmy thinks Kat's with the Court, doesn't she? And the way she refers to Omega as if it were a person is...worrying, considering, if I recall correctly, that Zimmy's real name is Zeta. But if Omega predicts things with near-100% accuracy, what if Omega planned on Kat using itself to find Zimmy in order to locate her for the Court without Kat knowing that's what she was doing?

Did anyone make mention of the Zeta, Gamma, Omega thing before now? I am starting to feel like this was I think we should have noticed before, but I suppose we had no reason to really think of Zimmy in regard to the Omega device plot until this chapter.

[Vinyadan]

Did anyone make mention of the Zeta, Gamma, Omega thing before now? I am starting to feel like this was I think we should have noticed before, but I suppose we had no reason to really think of Zimmy in regard to the Omega device plot until this chapter.

Zeta is also the final letter of the Latin alphabet (it's actually an import from Greek, in Latin it's known both as ze and zeta), and omega is the final letter of the Greek alphabet (in the Greek alphabet zeta is around the various e sounds, in the first half).

[WanderingMist]

Wait. Is Annie herself Omega and the Court's just spying on her?

[eee]

O...kay. Things just went really... bad.

[wingnutx]

Omega is Zimmy herself, or is somehow powered by her already?