Hey howdy hey here's something different. I made an index of everything that's been revealed via Word of God (also, a list of the Bilingual Bonuses).
Long list... interesting.
Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?
[361
] A burning question is answered.
So if Surma wasn't sending Annie into danger by having her attend Gunnerkrigg, was she unaware of the situation there, or did she know something we don't?
[362] Well, that's different.
So, apparently the Dhoo has jurisdiction over Britain. What's the other guy's territory?
...now that I think about it, why was the boy's body in the Store Room?
Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?
I doubt the Dhoo has jurisdiction over all Britain, seeing as Mallt-y-Nos is from Wales. The according to the other wiki, Gytrash is associated with Lancashire, the Gurt Dog is associated with Somerset, and the Lean Dog is associated with Tring, Hertfordshire.)
I doubt Martin's body was in the store room. I assume he just ran and hid there to get away from Mallt and Dhoo.
What I'm wondering is, why did Annie holding his hand cause it to look burnt, while Annie hugging him during the fire caused his burns to disappear?
I think this means we're going to see Annie start her classes alongside Parley and Smith, or maybe a brief history of Mediums in the Court. Or both!
On the forum and the shoutbox, several people have pointed out the resemblance to the Page of Swords tarot card, or an illustration from one of Hans Thalhofer's (a master swordsman from the Medieval Germany) fighting manuals.
UPDATE: I think we've got a positive ID on the source of the picture. From the Shoutbox:
Maelgrim wrote:
[364] Kat's back in Mad Scientist mode, and something is bothering Annie.
[365] Crap. That's disappointing.
Is Ms. Jones talking to Dr. Disaster?
Is Anne cheating? Tsk. Tsk. (Where's a finger-wagging smiley when you need it?)
Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?
Oh my goodness this is wonderful.
Tangent128 wrote:
On the one hand, Annie has lied and stolen before, so this isn't completely without precedent. As a person, it's disappointing, but as a character, it shows that Annie's in little danger of becoming a Mary Sue.
Meta4 wrote:
Oh wow.Tom's response is sweet, too.
Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?
Meta4 wrote:
]
What do you bet they're both going to walk wherever they're going in complete silence?
EDIT: The issue of whether or not Annie is a Canon Sue came up on the GC forum, and I was inspired to run her through this Mary Sue litmus test. She scored 11. So no, she isn't.
11? I'm calling shenanigans! She's a broody reclusive genius who's naturally awesome at everything she does (well, except maybe at science tests), has lost a parent, has a mysterious family past, is respected by everyone despite not being outgoing, ends up being liked even by people who start of hating her, is psychic, talks to dead people, has a suitably symbolic name, has an incredibly powerful demon for a pet/familiar, has angsty crying scenes, and realised from an early age that she was different. Hell, I just got 62 points for her on that test, and that was without being able to answer any of the questions about the character resembling the writer because I've got no idea what Tom Siddell would answer for them (well apart from the appearance ones, because I'm guessing that Antimony neither looks like him nor looks like how he wishes he looked ).
Well, really, while she may be talented, has a symbolic name and partially lacking in parents, she's respected because she's gained it, liked because she's just helped people, she is most definitely not psychic, everyone can talk to dead people, she only has Reynardine because he was stupid enough to go into a toy someone else owned, her crying scenes aren't really angsty (and she's only had two (I think)), and there's no real evidence to show that she realised that she was different from an early age - it's more likely that her mother's death played a greater role. At least, that's my interpretation (apart from the psychic and dead people parts, which are fairly objective).
Oh I wouldn't go so far as to say that she actually is a Mary Sue (for starters, she's genuinely pretty cool), just that she's got an awful lot of the symptoms. But that's largely thanks to the setting, because if you're a teenage girl in a Hogwarts-esque magical boarding school where bizarre phenomena happen on a daily basis, you're gonna pick up a lot of the Mary Sue traits on that quiz just by surviving three or four chapters.
Mary Sue traits only count if everyone around you doesn't possess them as well. Seeing as Zimmy, Gamma, Mr. and Mrs. Donlan, Parley, and Smith (and if we don't limit ourselves to the humans, then Coyote, Ysengrin, Reynardine, and Mort as well) all have magic powers; Annie's abilities don't seem so unique.
And no, Annie does not succeed at everything she does: Her sending Robot 13 and Shadow 2 across the bridge resulted in Robot getting possessed, deactivated, and melted down to paperclips, besides nearly causing her own death, and earning herself a week's detention. Her visit to Reynardine in chapter 3 nearly freed a dangerous criminal, who would have killed her in the process. Her attempt to patch things up between the Suicide Fairies only technically succeeded (witness her and Kat's looks of horror on the last page of that chapter). She's a poor judge of character (compare her instant trust for Reynardine with her continued distrust of Mr. Eglamore). She's rubbish at running. And if she were a bloody genius, she wouldn't have to cheat on her physics practical.
Respected by everybody? Parley didn't like her much, and last time we saw Reynardine he was making obscene gestures at her. Ysengrin HATES her, and if Coyote really respects Annie, sticking his nose up her skirt sure was an odd way of showing it. And the teachers who respect her all knew her parents, and their liking for her seems to be because she reminds them of Surma. Even Kat wasn't afraid to call Annie out when her Meta Girl act in chapter 10 got annoying.
Flaws? She's lied and stolen before, and now we've seen her cheat.
Now this will be an interesting class.
"Among other things"?
First she called Antimony by her first name (all the other staff have called her Carver in the classroom), now she's insisting "Just Jones will do." Is the student-teacher dynamic that different in Mediation Class, or is Jones just unusual? She doesn't look like she'd be that relaxed.
I wonder if she's not really formally a member of the faculty. She could be more like a counselor or administrator, although in that case, you'd think she'd insist on using titles like Miss Carver, and Ms. Jones.
stm177 wrote:
: The placard on Jones' door (in panel 1) doesn't have a first initial. The placard on Eglamore's door (in panel three) does.
Further Wild Mass Guessing: Jones is from Gillitie Wood. She was not a fairy (she lacks the gray eyes and pointy ears shared by all the former fairies in chapter 15) but a member of the "bunch of different stuff" that Red mentioned. And like the Fairies, Jones didn't get a name until she came to the Court.
Semi-related: Note that, when speaking with Eglamore, Anja refers to the two Mediums-in-training as "Parley and Smith", but when speaking with Ysengrin, she calls them "Parley and Andrew". My tentative conclusions: The Forest-Folk in general prefer to deal with people by their first names (seeing as they themselves only have one name). And Miss Parley dropped her first or last name so she could be more like her teacher.
EDIT: I re-read the meeting between the Court and the Wood, and there isn't enough consistency in first name vs. last name use to support my theory. Bah.
[368] Holy moly.
Those were not the answers I was expecting from Jones. It's great that they're being so upfront with each other. From one Medium to another, I guess.
I didn't expect Jones to say that either. Now, I don't trust her.
Hey, if it means we actually get to see the woods proper, who cares if she's trustworthy?
Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?
I guess there's two ways of reading this:
1. Jones isn't one to deal in BS. She's pointing out that neither Annie nor the Court staff can really trust each other for the time being, seeing as neither party has been completely open with the other.
2. Jones is Coyote's Mole.
I'd prefer if it were the first, but either would be pretty cool.
[360
] I have to agree with Kat on this one. Maybe Annie could have handled the situation better, but her actions were still pretty reasonable. That, and the encounter was less than a minute long.
"...when I thought she had cut me." Is Annie implying that Sword Girl didn't really cut her?