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Yeah being fair this sequence would probably fit into the earlier takes on Annie's Forest adventures. Though one might argue the problem then is this doesn't really reveal anything we don't already know about her.
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Oct 16, 2023 20:40
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Dog Kisser posted:I do think at this point part of the problem is that a lot of the goodwill the comic has has burned away, so while what's happening now would have been totally fine earlier in the comic (kind of meandering, but knowing GC it'll be worth it once we pay of!) at this point everything the comic does rubs people the wrong way (why are they walking in circles trying to solve a mystery that's not what Gunnerkrigg is about!) Agreed, mostly. But it's like if you used to push a button and a treat popped out every time for a long while, but now you keep getting an electric shock instead, you sort of expect the shock, but maybe you still sort of hope for the treat because you know it's possible. Some people stopped pushing the button, some of us keep pushing because the shock isn't that bad and the treats were pretty good!
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Oct 16, 2023 22:12
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Twenty Four posted:Agreed, mostly. But it's like if you used to push a button and a treat popped out every time for a long while, but now you keep getting an electric shock instead, you sort of expect the shock, but maybe you still sort of hope for the treat because you know it's possible. Some people stopped pushing the button, some of us keep pushing because the shock isn't that bad and the treats were pretty good! You forgot the group that's going "Come on, this machine isn't even giving me a good shock anymore! Make me feel something!"
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Oct 16, 2023 22:20
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There Bias Two posted:You forgot the group that's going "Come on, this machine isn't even giving me a good shock anymore! Make me feel something!" Hah, yeah. For the record lump me in with the "I'm gonna keep pushing this because I wanna know what happens either way" group, for better or worse.
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Oct 16, 2023 22:29
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Interesting tangent fact, the average person can handle roughly 15 minutes of boredom(or some other relatively short period, I don't remember the exact number) before they will intentionally press a button that does nothing but deliver a painful shock, because the painful shock is preferable to spending that long alone with nothing but their thoughts to keep them occupied. Not sure of its relevance, just thought it was interesting.
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Oct 16, 2023 22:37
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I mean, I’d be kinda curious about how the shock feels. It’s not every day you get to be cattle prodded
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Oct 16, 2023 22:40
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GlyphGryph posted:Interesting tangent fact, the average person can handle roughly 15 minutes of boredom(or some other relatively short period, I don't remember the exact number) before they will intentionally press a button that does nothing but deliver a painful shock, because the painful shock is preferable to spending that long alone with nothing but their thoughts to keep them occupied. My favorite part about that study is they had to exclude one dude from their results who basically wouldn't stop pressing the button during the whole time the experiment was being performed.
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Oct 16, 2023 22:43
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Mr.Radar posted:My favorite part about that study is they had to exclude one dude from their results who basically wouldn't stop pressing the button during the whole time the experiment was being performed. "dude, you're done" "no, I wanna keep pressing it!" *presses button, gets shocked* "sir, please come with me, that's enough" "hang on..." *presses button* *physically being dragged out, breaks free, runs back in and pushes it again* (zap) lol
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Oct 17, 2023 00:19
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I agree we would all be mostly fine with what's going on if the comic hadn't already tired us out with ogregriously bad pacing. But IMO the comic has also lost a lot of respect for the intelligence of its audience. There were way less extraneous speech bubbles explaining to the viewer what is happening and how you should feel about it - a lot of wordless action, a lot of lingering glances left open to interpretation. I was trying to figure out why the pages bothered me and, personally speaking, it's largely because of that. In older Gunnerkrigg days, pages like these wouldn't have irritating "Renard/Annie explains what we're supposed to be seeing and feeling" bubbles, but rather leave it up to you, the viewer, to glean the very difficult and obscure message behind "Ysengrin's fantasy mindscape has a super powerful fire spirit for a companion that he trusts to protect the forest". You can speculate aimlessly as to why - maybe he lost faith in his audience to interpret things after the Mind Cage didn't go as planned, or after everyone interpreted his Touching Lana Memorial Page as a terrifying rictus grin. Maybe it's because the comic is supposed to be wrapping up its mysteries so he'd rather leave nothing to the imagination. Maybe it's because the writing has gone downhill overall. The other part of it, of course, is that a lot of this feels unearned. It's the comic doing a victory lap and going over its past components going "haha wasn't that cool and good, look at how our characters have grown and how confidently they can handle situations now" as it nears a climax, when the last however-many chapters have been anywhere from completely baffling to unnecessary to outright angering, and even worse, retroactively souring good parts of the comic (like Ysengrin and Annie's bond). Bringing up good poo poo that happened in the comic once just feels insulting at this point when you've spent so long undermining it. This page would've been completely fine, good even, if you just removed the word bubble in the last panel.
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Oct 17, 2023 07:02
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coolusername posted:I mean, I’d be kinda curious about how the shock feels. It’s not every day you get to be cattle prodded Yeah, I'm fine alone with my thoughts (Hell, I've been lying awake in bed in the dark for 4 hours, only just switched this on since it's time to get up) but I'd be curious about the shock.
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Oct 17, 2023 07:13
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Like, man, you can't have a chapter where Annie goes around being badass and cool when you've spent the last however-many chapters dressing her down and defanging her into a demure servant to the plot's needs, all because Kat said "you can do it!" so now she's very confident and sure of herself. It doesn't feel like earned character growth. Even this page is like "man remember when Annie was really cool before the narrative decided she needed to be punished severely for the crime of being a rebellious teenager while every authority figure in her life profoundly failed her at every turn"
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Oct 17, 2023 07:19
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do you think this is annie being badass and cool???????
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Oct 17, 2023 08:55
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Patware posted:do you think this is annie being badass and cool??????? Do I think so? No. Do I think that is what the narrative is trying to accomplish with all this aborted-tension poo poo like Annie calmly shepherding the New-people through a strange land, punting a Coyoteling, and acting super calm and confident because Kat told her so? Yes. I think this is supposed to be a moment where the author intends the reader to be going "wow, you go, Annie! Look how confident and competent our protagonist is as she navigates something with all the knowledge and powers she has now! These would've been obstacles before, but now Annie is so cool and powerful that she rolls right through them!" Which isn't really working, of course. Largely because it's - as I said - thoroughly unearned, because the comic did spend time building Annie's capabilities and knowledge up, only to strip her of everything that made her what she is while multiple characters browbeat her for poo poo that wasn't even remotely justified.
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Oct 17, 2023 15:18
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Mr.Radar posted:My favorite part about that study is they had to exclude one dude from their results who basically wouldn't stop pressing the button during the whole time the experiment was being performed. I was going to say that I'd keep slamming that button for the hell of it. Nice to know I'm not alone. In college, I had huge gaps between classes so I'd take part in those kinds of studies to fill time. I got banned because I kept breaking the studies by finding gaps in the protocol.
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Oct 17, 2023 16:09
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Random Stranger posted:I was going to say that I'd keep slamming that button for the hell of it. Nice to know I'm not alone. Banned?! They should've given you a raise for pointing out those kinds of issues 
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Oct 17, 2023 16:46
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Mr.Radar posted:My favorite part about that study is they had to exclude one dude from their results who basically wouldn't stop pressing the button during the whole time the experiment was being performed. button georg
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Oct 17, 2023 16:58
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IIRC most people pressed it a couple of times at most. That dude pressed it like 200 times in 15 minutes.
skaianDestiny fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Oct 17, 2023 |
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Oct 17, 2023 18:04
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Nettle Soup posted:Yeah, I'm fine alone with my thoughts (Hell, I've been lying awake in bed in the dark for 4 hours, only just switched this on since it's time to get up) but I'd be curious about the shock. One of the qualifiers to be in the study had to have been answering the pre-study question "I would not press the button myself in that situation" and "I would in fact pay real money to avoid receiving the electric shock such a button would give", so the 15 minute timer is purely for people who do not want that to happen and were willing to pay to prevent it just twenty minutes earlier. In that light, it makes sense why '200 presses' guy was disqualified, because you can tell he probably lied about it. It was specifically about how people's views of pressing the button changed over a fairly brief period of boredom for people who started very opposed to ever pressing the button. This is the study, for what its worth https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1250830 GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Oct 17, 2023 |
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Oct 17, 2023 19:32
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Ysengrin likes order  Next, we'll learn that Coyote is tricksome! Skippy McPants fucked around with this message at 13:49 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 12:56
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The closest thing I have to a feeling about this is we’re in the season 2 recap episode where they go over the premise of the show and basic characters for newcomers. “Last season: a girl died! These are her friends! We are in a mindscape! I have powers and so does he. This is Zimmy, her brain is scary, but I can shoot cool lasers (that is my power). My friend Kat is good with computers. These are elves and they like trees. This is Ysengrim and he likes order.” Except it’s meant to be a cool finale and not a skippable intro episode.
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Oct 18, 2023 13:03
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when do we get to the boss rush
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Oct 18, 2023 13:54
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This is the boss rush.
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Oct 18, 2023 15:10
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Catgirl Al Capone posted:when do we get to the boss rush Right after we get to the fireworks factory.
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Oct 18, 2023 15:17
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I'm not sure if it's new today, or if it was there earlier and I just missed it, but it looks like Tom found a new publisher (Dark Horse) for print editions of Gunnerkrigg Court. The announcement also says he's redoing the art for earlier chapters for the new print editions (with previews on Patreon). I wonder if that's been taking time away from the new pages, since he hasn't changed his web publishing schedule and he said in the past he would not redo the earlier art for exactly that reason.
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Oct 18, 2023 15:22
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 he should not redo the art. they look absolutely cursed
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Oct 18, 2023 15:36
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Kat looks fine but Annie looks squished lol
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Oct 18, 2023 15:52
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coolusername posted:The closest thing I have to a feeling about this is we’re in the season 2 recap episode where they go over the premise of the show and basic characters for newcomers. Or like the finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2, where they find an excuse to reuse a bunch of footage because of the writer's strike. Also I don't understand why Tom would redo the art for the Dark Horse reissues, the early GC art has a ton of charm and I always love seeing how an artist's style has evolved. Football Head Annie is far superior to current Annie anyway!
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Oct 18, 2023 16:25
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Yeah, Kat is fine but Annie's proportions are a bit off in a way that makes her look less like a child and more like a weird chibi. Hopefully it's just that one picture and the rest of it is okay. I wonder if it's just the art he's redoing or if the panel layouts and dialogue will be retooled too.
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Oct 18, 2023 18:31
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I genuinely think the recent pages would be better if there was no dialogue
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Oct 18, 2023 22:00
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I noticed due to people talking about new pages I hadn't seen that I stopped getting RSS updates for this comic a week ago. It looks like the url changed or something. The 11k followers on feedly are on the old RSS and the new one has... 250 or so.
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Oct 18, 2023 23:19
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Rexxed posted:I noticed due to people talking about new pages I hadn't seen that I stopped getting RSS updates for this comic a week ago. It looks like the url changed or something. The 11k followers on feedly are on the old RSS and the new one has... 250 or so. I'm more surprised that 250 actual people still actively update their RSS feeds.
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Oct 18, 2023 23:23
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Wandering around while nothing happens. This would be great after a climax or before for building suspense. But we're too confused and bored to appreciate it now that the story telling has taken a dive.
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Oct 20, 2023 08:55
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Let's see if Annie dies on the bridge this time.
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Oct 20, 2023 12:31
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Haven't checked in this week. *checks in* OK see you guys next Friday
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Oct 20, 2023 12:38
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Oh god please let this issue end with Annie crossing the bridge while reverting to her issue 1 form, and the last page is the first page of the series. Just end the series with a "The End. No Moral" ouroboros ending.
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Oct 20, 2023 12:44
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I kinda miss the Football Head art style tbh
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Oct 20, 2023 12:46
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Wait, why is this "familiar" to the robot people? Prior to Loup closing the canyon, nobody from the court was allowed on the bridge (except by special permission of course). The robots wouldn't have any special memory of this bridge (except for Robot obviously), and most of them would never have even seen it in their natural working lives.
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Oct 20, 2023 13:27
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DontMockMySmock posted:Wait, why is this "familiar" to the robot people? Prior to Loup closing the canyon, nobody from the court was allowed on the bridge (except by special permission of course). The robots wouldn't have any special memory of this bridge (except for Robot obviously), and most of them would never have even seen it in their natural working lives. Their COVID vaccines allowed them to connect to the local 5G tower that only covers the court
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Oct 20, 2023 13:30
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Mr.Radar posted:I wonder if that's been taking time away from the new pages, since he hasn't changed his web publishing schedule and he said in the past he would not redo the earlier art for exactly that reason. I wondered this as well. Anytime someone links a page from a few years or more back, the art is noticeably better imo. The old art is generally more expressive and dynamic. Fecha posted:I genuinely think the recent pages would be better if there was no dialogue Absolutely. With Annie and Renard explaining everything, there's no mystique, which it feels like these pages are trying to convey. Legit shocked one of them didn't say, "The bridge isn't supposed to be here..."
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Oct 20, 2023 22:47
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(She looks nothing like Zimmy)
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Oct 23, 2023 11:30
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