Gunnerkrigg Court 8: Thrown for a Loup

[Neoriceisgood]

I'm having similar issues as some other readers already posted really quite grasping what's going on, whatever is happening is really abstract, making it hard to connect to it, personally speaking.

[Lizard Lord]

Oh. Right. I somehow forgot Annie is a guide for the dead.

[Typewriter]

Oh. Right. I somehow forgot Annie is a guide for the dead.

Thank you. I had no idea what was going on here.

[137beth]

Spoiler: New page

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Lana might be alive. Guess that shouldn't be much of a surprise.

[hajo]

Kat getting officially declared as godess of robots / 'new people', in 3 .. 2 .. 1 ..

[Errorname]

Kat getting officially declared as godess of robots / 'new people', in 3 .. 2 .. 1 ..

sure looks that way

[wingnutx]

Go kat go!

[Ionathus]

Oh. Oh boy. Oh dear.

I know people have been calling it too early for awhile now but…is anyone else getting very strong “beginning of the series climax” vibes from this chapter end?

For whatever reason, I just feel like things are about to pick up speed and just not stop until we’re in the endgame.

[Yuki Akuma]

For whatever reason, I just feel like things are about to pick up speed and just not stop until we’re in the endgame.

I'm pretty sure this is the endgame.

There will be a denoument, but this is the climax, I'm positive.

[Rodin]

I'm pretty sure this is the endgame.

There will be a denoument, but this is the climax, I'm positive.

Agreed. The appearance of Loup was the event that set the final arc in motion. The re-appearance of Coyote kicked off the endgame.

I hesitate to guess at how long a webcomic has left, but it really feels like we're being set up for the comic to finish sometime in 2024.

[Ionathus]

I, uh…

I don’t like that chapter title.

[WanderingMist]

Oh, Kat, do you finally get to see all the weird stuff in the ether you usually miss out on?

[Errorname]

Agreed. The appearance of Loup was the event that set the final arc in motion. The re-appearance of Coyote kicked off the endgame.

I hesitate to guess at how long a webcomic has left, but it really feels like we're being set up for the comic to finish sometime in 2024.

I've been assuming he's going for 100 chapters.

[WanderingMist]

Hmmm, the psychopomps manipulating Annie into working for them may have backfired on them now that Kat's one of them.

[137beth]

So Annie can seemingly pull Kat through the aether? That seems like a new Annie power.

[Mobius Twist]

Kat's "rusty robot mommy" appearances is already etheric to everyone else, she's just blind to it. This does feel like a plot-convenience give that we've never seen anything like this before. Even when trapped in the wasp illusions Annie needed help.

[WanderingMist]

Kat's "rusty robot mommy" appearances is already etheric to everyone else, she's just blind to it. This does feel like a plot-convenience give that we've never seen anything like this before. Even when trapped in the wasp illusions Annie needed help.

We have seen Annie do almost exactly this. The boy who moved on with her help and clued her in as to why all the people she talked to with the psychopomps were gone the next day. The kid was terrified of an etheric monster that grew and grew and grew and Annie realized its true form was ordinary fire. I think the first time she saw Kat's etheric form she didn't have time to process that it really was Kat, but it's been a while, so she's gotten used to the idea that Kat's etheric form is a mechanical angel so now she's able to see Kat as she is in reality.

[137beth]

I feel like this scene is providing information very slowly about stuff we mostly already know.

Maybe I should just be reading it in an archive binge instead of every update day.

[JavaScribe]

So, the Court's plan to escape the ether, will it suppress their souls or destroy them completely?

[137beth]

I thought Annie was already fated to become an afterlife guide as part of the deal she made with them to save Smitty?

[Ionathus]

So, the Court's plan to escape the ether, will it suppress their souls or destroy them completely?

I got the impression that the Court is misguided in their belief that the ether is escapable at all. Like, they’re excluding everyone etheric from their journey, but that’s not going to outright sever them from the ether, because human life and death is fundamentally entwined with it.

That’s just a guess, though.

I thought Annie was already fated to become an afterlife guide as part of the deal she made with them to save Smitty?

Fated yes, but the timing is up for debate. I think they were all hoping she had a bit more time than this — perhaps even close to the end of her lifespan.

I’m curious how this will interact, if at all, with her fire elemental nature and the death sentence of her ever having a child. Not like Annie’s love life has been a central theme of the story — it more informs her relationship with her mother — but if she becomes a psychopomp and is still alive, could she still have a child somehow?

[Manga Shoggoth]

I got the impression that the Court is misguided in their belief that the ether is escapable at all. Like, they’re excluding everyone etheric from their journey, but that’s not going to outright sever them from the ether, because human life and death is fundamentally entwined with it.

They are supposedly taking a whole load of etheric energy (They've been trying to steal Coyote's, after all).

I’m curious how this will interact, if at all, with her fire elemental nature and the death sentence of her ever having a child. Not like Annie’s love life has been a central theme of the story — it more informs her relationship with her mother — but if she becomes a psychopomp and is still alive, could she still have a child somehow?

Her mother managed it. We don't see how long she was a psychopomp for, but she was presumably one before Annie was born.

[Ionathus]

Her mother managed it. We don't see how long she was a psychopomp for, but she was presumably one before Annie was born.

I thought Surma was also never a full psychopomp — just that she’d done it here and there like Annie has.

[Manga Shoggoth]

I thought Surma was also never a full psychopomp — just that she’d done it here and there like Annie has.

You might have a point - I had a quick look back at the main chapter for that - Surma acts (or rather, was asked to act) as an arbiter in a dispute (Here and following page) rather than directly as a psychopomp.

[137beth]

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So, the resolution is "yeah, eventually I'll fully be a psychopomp, but not yet," which is what we already had?

[Rodin]

I don't see how they get around the proviso that a psychopomp is separate from the world of humans. Either it's Kat or its Annie, how is kicking the can down the road allowed?

I'm hoping this "however" is a big one.

[Pax1138]

Annie has done psychopomp work before without being a full one, so it seems like a valid tactic. Not sure why she can't just do it temporarily for this one too, really. And that "however" might revolve around what they said originally, that conflicts from the other psychopomps can arise from an improperly selected representative. Or maybe it'll be hard for Annie to stake her claim there later if someone else has moved in.

[Errorname]

Oh, bald robot was meant to be the actual pipes inspector? Neat to see that brought back around.

[137beth]

I get that it's supposed to be a big deal for the characters that one of the robots just died, but they were a character we barely know anything about so it's hard for me to care.

[Pax1138]

I think it's less that that guy in particular died, but more that one of the robots died, and the metaphysical results of that.

I get yeah, that if a more promenient robot had died that would've probably had much more of an impact, though, in addition to the mechanical table setting.