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catapede posted:Joining the lols that Annie and Co had this plot to capture Loup and then they just let him out. A few people thought I was being too mean in pointing out the aimless stupidity of the whole thing as it developed, and I just want to say: I do not expect an apology, and I hold nothing against you!  Everyone's pals in the Gunnerkrigg Court thread.
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May 26, 2023 14:28
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Tiny Myers posted:Fuckin... newspaper comic rear end writing. he's not even reviewing pages before posting them at this point.
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May 26, 2023 17:28
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Jesus loving christ, I had to do several double takes. Did we go back in time? Did I accidentally click earlier in the series? Did I miss a strip? Nope, it's just really gotten this loving stupid
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May 26, 2023 17:31
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coming out of his cage and they all think he's just fine
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May 26, 2023 17:45
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I have read GC on the toilet each respective morning for the last 400 years or however long it's been going on, and immediately forgotten most of what happened. Never reread it. For example I barely remember what happened to the lady in the river - something bittersweet? But even I know this poo poo is so dumb I had to find a thread to complain about it. What the gently caress.
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May 26, 2023 20:45
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Patware posted:tom was never actually very good at the core of writing is the thing. he had good character interactions but was always doing the thing where someone would be off screen so long and then reappear and be totally different, but before there were so many characters cycling through that it felt like enough time was passing to justify it As an artist, you start to learn to look for tells of people hiding their weaknesses in art. Like, how many superhero comics avoid drawing feet because a lot of comic artists are inexplicably terrible at them. Or how many artists tuck the hands behind the back because they don't want to draw them. But eventually they're forced out of their comfort zone by necessity, and so you have these strange skill gaps where someone who is very competent at one thing is suddenly visibly incompetent at another. I wonder if that's part of what's happening here. There were a few moments of writing that struck me as kind of odd or abrupt behavior at various points much earlier in the story, but I shrugged them off at the time - I'm autistic, so sometimes when things just don't hit right for me, if everyone else seems fine with it then I assume it's a "me" problem and keep going. Now I'm like... okay, so maybe that was actually bad and awkward writing in hindsight? But then, so much of this is things that Tom has shown he's very good at. There are plenty of conversations where characters stand around talking that he's made feel dynamic, tense, and emotional. Characters talking and exchanging ideas has led to some of the most memorable scenes in the story (Kat coming out to Renard, Kat talking to Paz about the Court's motivations, Annie talking to Jones, etc). It truly feels like he has given up or lost interest in some areas of the comic while simultaneously being inappropriately focused on others, like he's very interested in JERREK and Lana but no one else. But even then, it doesn't even manifest in more interesting comic pages - we just get panel after panel of Jerrek's ugly anime expressions. It's so... strange. It feels like watching a comic do a Benjamin Button, where the longer you read it the more the writing and the art deteriorates instead of improving like it's supposed to. I'm more interested in learning what's happening behind the scenes than what's actually happening in the comic at this point. JOHN SKELETON posted:I have read GC on the toilet each respective morning for the last 400 years or however long it's been going on, and immediately forgotten most of what happened. Never reread it. For example I barely remember what happened to the lady in the river - something bittersweet? But even I know this poo poo is so dumb I had to find a thread to complain about it. What the gently caress.
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May 26, 2023 22:21
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Nooooo why is he out of the cage??? Why is he out of the cage without even explaining what he's going to do first? But yeah generally I think it's much easier to set up mysteries than resolve them like the Court's goals were so mysterious for so long that in a lot of ways his writing was never really forced to make a call on what's happening until recently.
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May 27, 2023 02:11
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I think it would have been cute if Jerrek were told to transform and disguise as a little puppy. Loup pup get in the anti-ether kennel. Tell the other robots that this puppy is Paz's parting gift to prove there's no hard feelings. The robots can stop sending Kat gifts now. Kat and Annie should be genuinely terrified about Loup revealing himself to the Court Administration. As an audience we're cheating a little when we sense we're running out of pages, but the Court attempting to harness Loup seems way more dangerous than Jerrek, and I agree with you all that Jerrek is too dangerous to be let out of the cage.
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May 27, 2023 07:07
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Why didn't they demand that bonding thing like they did with Reynard?
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May 27, 2023 11:19
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TDepressionEarl posted:Kat and Annie should be genuinely terrified about Loup revealing himself to the Court Administration. the who? which characters are those now?
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May 27, 2023 11:43
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Patware posted:the who? which characters are those now? Headmaster Llanwellyn? Janet's dad? I had to look that up
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May 27, 2023 12:19
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Loup is a near omnipotent being powered by stories but has no understanding or control of his powers. He's been unconsciously reshaping the narrative to make himself the protagonist, but because he's a dumb emo kid it's a blend of dark'n'tortured power fantasy and stuff his equally immature but much more mainstream girlfriend likes. People acting out of character, wrapping up or retconning storylines he doesn't care about, de-emphasising the original cast in favour of his literal self insert, he's a teenage boy writing fanfic under whatever the zoomer equivalent of xXxSephirothxXx_3 is but instead of an AOOO account he's got reality itself.
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May 27, 2023 12:29
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TDepressionEarl posted:Headmaster Llanwellyn? Janet's dad? I had to look that up Nah, he's not in charge. The whole star ocean scene showed he actually has no real power and was just working for someone/something this whole time. The real authority is probably something lame like Omega, but we just know it's not any of the established court leaders we've seen so far.
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May 27, 2023 13:38
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Splicer posted:Loup is a near omnipotent being powered by stories but has no understanding or control of his powers. He's been unconsciously reshaping the narrative to make himself the protagonist, but because he's a dumb emo kid it's a blend of dark'n'tortured power fantasy and stuff his equally immature but much more mainstream girlfriend likes. People acting out of character, wrapping up or retconning storylines he doesn't care about, de-emphasising the original cast in favour of his literal self insert, he's a teenage boy writing fanfic under whatever the zoomer equivalent of xXxSephirothxXx_3 is but instead of an AOOO account he's got reality itself. Big fan of this tbh
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May 27, 2023 14:29
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(I think Patware was asking about Kat and Annie) As far as Court people, the "make of that what you will" guy (can't even remember his name either) could have been a compelling mid-boss/antagonist and Tom could have wrung one or two good chapters out of a Failed Maitreya but the rug got pulled almost immediately and he became the Bodhisattva of Exposition
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May 27, 2023 14:30
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usenet celeb 1992 posted:(can't even remember his name either) the Bodhisattva of Exposition now thats one you Aata remember
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May 27, 2023 14:34
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usenet celeb 1992 posted:(I think Patware was asking about Kat and Annie) lol nope "the court" is garbage as an antagonistic force and it's too late to fix it
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May 27, 2023 14:50
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usenet celeb 1992 posted:(I think Patware was asking about Kat and Annie) That's the rub, a lot of characters had potential and could have had compelling arcs. But the moment something seems like it might be happening it's undercut and removed from the story asap. So now it's uncertain what the story is even about anymore, or why we should care about anything. It's not even clear that Tom knows what the story should be about anymore for that matter. Despite it likely he probably does have some end goal in mind the comic absolutely does not show it.
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May 27, 2023 14:57
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Patware posted:lol nope Good thing they're all dead then Or have they even left? Just hanging around the dock waiting for Kat/Annie to stop loving around with sidequests and trigger the cutscene?
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May 27, 2023 14:58
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usenet celeb 1992 posted:Good thing they're all dead then I got it. If a character isn't currently on screen they are just placed into some kind of storage away from everything. Then they wait patiently for their time to be brought out and do one thing and then get returned to storage. If they are good, they even get to yell at Annie as a treat, and who doesn't love that. It also solves the problem of how no one actually seems to be impacted by the court just falling apart (both from Loup's attack and leadership abandoning it for the ocean plan). They have food and everything they need in there so it's all very chill. Maybe that's also where Kat keeps her limitless resources to do all the machine god things she's been doing. JuniperCake fucked around with this message at 15:11 on May 27, 2023 |
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May 27, 2023 15:08
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Don't worry, Kat can just put him back in his cage with her mind. Her mind cage.
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May 27, 2023 18:39
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Splicer posted:Loup is a near omnipotent being powered by stories but has no understanding or control of his powers. He's been unconsciously reshaping the narrative to make himself the protagonist, but because he's a dumb emo kid it's a blend of dark'n'tortured power fantasy and stuff his equally immature but much more mainstream girlfriend likes. People acting out of character, wrapping up or retconning storylines he doesn't care about, de-emphasising the original cast in favour of his literal self insert, he's a teenage boy writing fanfic under whatever the zoomer equivalent of xXxSephirothxXx_3 is but instead of an AOOO account he's got reality itself. GunnerJ posted:Big fan of this tbh Hate to say it but Homestuck did this first and arguably did it better. At the very least the quality of the story didn't drop despite a large portion of that part of the story literally being lovely MS Paint scribbles.
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May 27, 2023 21:14
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Splicer posted:Loup is a near omnipotent being powered by stories but has no understanding or control of his powers. He's been unconsciously reshaping the narrative to make himself the protagonist, but because he's a dumb emo kid it's a blend of dark'n'tortured power fantasy and stuff his equally immature but much more mainstream girlfriend likes. People acting out of character, wrapping up or retconning storylines he doesn't care about, de-emphasising the original cast in favour of his literal self insert, he's a teenage boy writing fanfic under whatever the zoomer equivalent of xXxSephirothxXx_3 is but instead of an AOOO account he's got reality itself. Like it would still be miserable to read and a bad idea, but it's better than nothing.
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May 27, 2023 23:05
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Desperately hoping that awful narrative beats are some kind of metaplot is a common canard people fall back on when a previously good story goes downhill. Fond memories of the Indoctrination theories for Mass Effect 3. "It can't be this bad. Surely Shepard's brain is being boiled by Reaper tech!"
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May 28, 2023 06:18
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Tiny Myers posted:This is so funny. I wish this were the real reason, because then it would at least have a point instead of being an inexplicable decay of a once-beloved webcomic. I could honestly see it working if it only lasted for like, a single chapter. Long enough to run its course and then deliver the punchline.
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May 28, 2023 06:38
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Please, this is the last formula of cope I can still stomach, don't take it from me...
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May 28, 2023 11:26
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I feel I need to explicitly state that my weird fanfic was a self indulgent stab at forming an internally consistent narrative, not actual opinions or proposed fixes or something. Even if what I said was the actual intent everything else would need to have been done extremely differently for it to be a good reveal.CodfishCartographer posted:I could honestly see it working if it only lasted for like, a single chapter. Long enough to run its course and then deliver the punchline. E: why do I sound like a robot in this post. Splicer fucked around with this message at 12:13 on May 28, 2023 |
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May 28, 2023 11:53
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Kat electrocuted herself building the tictoc and everything since has been a coma dream that Zimmy and Annie are trying to wake her up from, but Kat's nascent godhood and innate make everything boring powers have limited their options. The shore is the passage to the afterlife which is why they're trying to keep her away from it and Jerrek is a tulpa they created to literally annoy her into consciousness.
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May 28, 2023 12:06
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Previous page, Loup, verbatim: "I know something else I can do to prove my sincerity!" Annie and Kat set him free. No clue what the thing is. Current page, Loup, verbatim: "I hope this will prove my sincerity..." Annie and Kat follow him. No clue what the thing is. Next page, Loup probably: "I want you to see this. It should prove my sincerity." Annie and Kat have a close up with wide eyes of shock while they stare at something off screen. No clue what the thing is.
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May 28, 2023 12:53
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Page after that is a scene transition to them hanging out together as if they are old friends. We are never shown or told what the thing was. At the end of the next chapter Annie delivers a multipage monolog on how good a person loup is despite him occasionally having anger flare ups that cause him to painfully beat them, and how she's glad they gave him a chance and that's he's such a good person now that they understand him
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May 28, 2023 13:12
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Annie looks directly at the reader: "And if you don't like Jerrick for who he is, I think you're the problem." Next panel is Jones' face with no reaction.
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May 28, 2023 13:25
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GlyphGryph posted:Annie delivers a multipage monolog on how good a person loup is despite him occasionally having anger flare ups that cause him to painfully beat them I get you're referencing how Loup threw Lana against a wall when he was getting hosed up by the ocean, but I feel like this is a bit too far as a joke. (Also god, I wish Loup ever demonstrated being anything besides a mercurial, ragey manchild. What an atrociously-written character...)
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May 28, 2023 16:48
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I think it’s pretty fair to point out that Loup literally hit his girlfriend, and she immediately said she’d put up with whatever he did because she loves him so much, and that seems to have been the literal moment he’s depicted as redeemed by love. It’s not quite as bad as the Alley Scene but it’s very bad, and frankly it’s kind of exhibit A in arguing that this comic is getting weirdly bad at romance, even as it’s increasingly romance-centric and referencing romance media (the running Annie page).
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May 28, 2023 17:02
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Nuns with Guns posted:I get you're referencing how Loup threw Lana against a wall when he was getting hosed up by the ocean, but I feel like this is a bit too far as a joke. bit too far as a joke, and way way way too far as the actual story.
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May 28, 2023 17:34
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Dude has a hairpin trigger for erupting into violence that we have seen four different times now, it's one of his defining character qualities. I don't think it's going to get explicitly written into the comic, but it's clearly the sort of character he is, and what I am pretty sure is going to get written into the comic is that we should forgive and understand him and accept him for what he is even if he did end up doing that.
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May 28, 2023 17:46
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it doesn't help that he's approached this romance with the same bug-eyed mania as everything else. it makes it seem less like he's changed as a person and more that he's just on a upswing
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May 28, 2023 17:52
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The quest for the Seed Lithium
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May 28, 2023 18:18
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christmas boots posted:The quest for the Seed Lithium  Loup was holding something over Annie's head that hasn't paid off yet: https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2036, but that was Loup the capricious and vindictive god and not Jerrek the capricious and vindictive whiny teenage boy Annie has had a couple of scenes recently where she gets railroaded into being accused of things; maybe Jerrek finds himself unable to allay suspicions and then re-erupts back into Loup at the sheer unfairness of it all (thus illustrating the difference between a human and a petty trickster god in dealing with a bad hand) ronya fucked around with this message at 18:30 on May 28, 2023 |
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May 28, 2023 18:27
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christmas boots posted:The quest for the Seed Lithium This'd be a great thread title if the comic was still good.
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May 28, 2023 19:25
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christmas boots posted:The quest for the Seed Lithium This is still a great thread title
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May 28, 2023 21:28
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