Gunnerkrigg Court

> Chapter 61: Page 12
> Oh... yeah.
gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1802

she's gonna go crazy and burn them, right?

YES YES ANNIE BURN THE SCHOOL DOWN!

No, she's going to realize she's a terrible person.

so nice the chapter title reflects how serious this one has gotten

No. We'll probably just learn about whatever Annie's deal with the psychopomps was.

Honestly, Red feels kind of off here.

She has her calm collective moments.

Annie almost got Red's GF killed. Serious time is now.

It's a little weird. It's like reading posts from one of the autists here.

its because this is the first time red called anyone out on their bullshit and wasn't joking about it.

She had a point when she was talking about Ayilu, but Parlee, Andrew, and Kat knew exactly what they were getting into months ahead of time, and Annie didn't really force them into it nor could she stop them from backing out. Plus Red's line about Annie leaving Andrew to die falls flat because we know she had to give up something big in exchange for it.

>Annie is a terrible person

Also, Water is wet!

Yeah, I get that, but aren't Fairies supposed to have their own morality and culture?

Her voice has just kind of reverted to normal character. I don't mean to say she should not be calling Annie out, but she just seems to have dropped her character entirely and is talking like a non fairy.

I mean, I get that she can't be whacky and serious, but it just doesn't sound the same.

When Zimmy gets serious, she still sounds like Zimmy.

*exchange for saving Andrew's life.

Yeah, I like that Annie's getting called out but by Red of all people, it's weird. She ain't talkin' like a fairy no more and dat's weird. She still says ain't and junk but she also usually drops her g's. The sudden clarity is jarring in itself but that stands out a lot to me too.

>Yeah, I like that Annie's getting called out but by Red of all people
I think that's the point. Even someone as dense as Red can see how Annie takes advantage of her friends.

But when have we actually seen her doing that?

My problem isn't that it's Red, but that Red's voice seems off.

It's not bad, but not the same

>Yeah, I get that, but aren't Fairies supposed to have their own morality and culture?

I don't really see how that applies here. They're quirky and foul mouthed but nothing suggests that they'd approve of Annie's actions. Plus they're supposed to be human now.

Parley was just as into saving Jeanne though, and we're gonna be reminded of that later in this very chapter.

This exchange is pointless.

Lol @ Annie's face in the bottom left panel as she realises that instead of this chapter being a bit of comic relief, Tom's gonna dump on her yet again.

Red's always been sort of manner-of-fact, direct and blunt, but usually she's sort of manic and talking about unimportant things.
This time she's not manic, and what she's talking about is serious.

It's really unusual for her, but it's still a pretty logical way for someone with her character to behave

Didn't Kat and Parley want to help free Jeanne on their own?

>Parley was just as into saving Jeanne though
But Red and Blue weren't. That's why Annie had to bribe her "friends" so.

There's nothing pointless about making Annie feel bad. That's an end in itself.

No, I get that but it still feels off. I know Red has been in the court awhile and is technically an "adult" now who can have jobs but I'm willing to bet she's still kept apart from human students. Her social group is fairies and animals, she still probably thinks if her hair went down again that Aliyu wouldn't be her friend anymore. So yeah, I get it, I get the intent, it just makes little to no sense to have this revelation come from Red.
Also like said, Zimmy still sounds like Zimmy when she's being serious. Red just flat out doesn't sound like Red.

> Annie's carefree confidence gradually dissolving into cold foreboding over the last 2 pages.

Beautiful.

That's the subtle hint that this is a dream sequence.

I think the bigger problem is that the revelation doesn't even make sense.

Ok yeah, she's just having a nightmare and beating herself up about everyone almost dying.

Man, that would fuck me up proper

See , it's not supposed to, Annie's just got some more emotional issues to work though.

Yeah, and so did Andrew.

>putting her in danger for something of no value
I can kind of see her point, but it's not like Annie was just "USE THE FAIRIES". As Red says, she knows how important names are to the fairies which is why she offered an important thing to someone who dearly wants one.

That would have everything make sense and completely make everything great.

...

Yeah and on Monday you guys were saying this page would be Red thanking Annie for helping her realise her true feelings.

That would put a bit of a twist on the Red loving her friend thing, wouldn't it? Annie just can't help but see lesbians everywhere.

>She literally just grabs Red's hand and puts a palm up to her face and says "Burn" and annihilates her into ash on the spot

"You don't understand, Red! I just HAD to send Jeanne into the Ether!"

"WHY, Annie??"

"Because those asshole blackmailing psychopomps told me to, of course! Erm, hang on..."

>I never read gunnerkrigg court the post

Fuck, it was all a setup by the psychopomps, wasn't it? They put the idea of helping Jeanne into Annie's head in the first place. They set a trap and caught her with it.

Probably one of those psychos who think doing things out of kindness is 'dumb'

I wonder this too but it's more realistic that they saw an opportunity to press Annie into their service again.

>She literally just grabs Red's hand and puts a palm up to her face and says "Bruh" and annihilates her dignity into ash on the spot

>voice
It's a comic, voices are only in your head.

I honestly can't tell whether you're being sarcastic or not.
Good job I guess?

If Annie's dad shows up on Friday and starts being Very Disappointed with her, we'll know this is a dream sequence. Probably.

Or Kat shows up and slowly turns all HR Giger.

if getting a name is so important why did she give her friend a stupid name just because she was embarrassed?
go on annie, tell her, shut her up

I haven't been this hard at a Gunnerkrigg chapter since the first pazkat

what chapter is the pazkat?

More Annie humiliation porn!
Yesssss.
Tom knows what we really want: Lesbians and Annie being humiliated.

HOLD ON!
What about Tony's return?

end of Catalyst
pic related is the foreshadowing

that you have a name is more important than what the name is. what the name is, is like, the photo on your driver's license.

It's like when Delerium collected herself to call Destiny out

Tom is an alright writer but Im not sure he has the writing ability to pull off the "this is a dream sequence" thing.

Antimony
BTFO
T
F
O

Wow fuck you Red.
The fuck you do to help in any of this?

Finally someone lays it out for her, thought everything was gonna be swept under the rug and happy adventures next chapter.

>lays it out for her
4 out of the 5 people on the team were on board with this without being cajoled by Annie, and everybody was fully aware of the fact that the murderghost is, in fact, murderous and ghostly.

Time to run away to the forest

Yeah, time to go talk to Coyote, so he can explain to her that the consequences of freeing Jeanne.

I wonder just how nuclear Annie will go when she learns that the plan she sacrificed her freedom and her friends for is about to backfire spectacularly.

Annie this is what you get for putting psychopomp dicks before people.

Well 3 out of 5, Red only went along with it to get her ladypal's name too, which as she established isn't a big thing for Annie to arrange.

Parley wanted revenge for getting rekt, Andrew was in because he felt a need to prove himself worthy of being the Court medium (I feel like he may subconsciously feel like Annie should have gotten the role and that he was always second fiddle in the medium-regard). But I guess getting those two involved only faults Annie if she was cognizant of their psychologies and did not reassure them that not facing murderghost shouldn't impact how they respect themselves.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing how Annie and Kat manage after this event, especially since Annie saw what Kat was doing as some sort of abomination and now the psychopomps will undoubtedly be taking up much of Annie's time and energy.

I fucked up and worded that like a moron - I meant 4/5 with the 4 being Annie, Kat, Parley and Smitty. I didn't count Red because as you say, Red's not even on the fucking team, she's just there because.

>Parley wanted revenge for getting rekt, Andrew was in because he felt a need to prove himself worthy of being the Court medium
Andrew is definitely on board because "Shit man, that's fucked up" and I think Parley feels the same, if not stronger because of the whole lover's bond thing. If there's some deeper psychology to it that's neat as fuck, but mostly I think they all just thought the whole situation was pretty boned and needed correcting.

>I'm actually looking forward to seeing how Annie and Kat manage after this event, especially since Annie saw what Kat was doing as some sort of abomination and now the psychopomps will undoubtedly be taking up much of Annie's time and energy.
Me too, especially how Annie reacts to Kat's etheric shenanigans.

That's true! It was a fucked up situation and I think they all felt at some level that only they could have taken care of it (though Parley's dismissal of involving a neutral party like Jones tells me it may be somewhat personal for her). I suppose I'm on some level trying to see how Red could possibly put Andrew's near death on Annie, but they all had their reasons and I doubt Annie manipulated them into it.

I think what Red is getting at is Annie simply didn't care (or think she even needed to care) about why they would be motivated to help with Jeanne. After all, the soul is trapped there for hundreds of years unjustly, who wouldn't want to rescue her? Who wouldn't feel the call to put things right? This might just be more about having Annie try to see the situation from other perspectives instead of being in a protagonist's viewpoint only of everyone being in a supporting role because it's the right thing to do (though there may have been other, less dangerous ways of making it work).

In today's instalment of the "Fuck You, Annie" show...

Maybe she was talking about little before that, where Annie was seeing the murder ghost off while Smitty had the knife in his chest.

But I agree... it is a little unfair to Annie.

If it makes Annie miserable, I'm all for it!

>(though Parley's dismissal of involving a neutral party like Jones tells me it may be somewhat personal for her)
Good point, maybe that's true. Or maybe Parley just wasn't sure how neutral Jones really is. After all, she's kind of an enigma most of the time and I'm pretty certain the kids know she's got some relation to Eglamore, who definitely wouldn't approve.

>This might just be more about having Annie try to see the situation from other perspectives
I suppose, but I guess I just sorta thought (and presumably so did Annie) it was all obvious given the situation, you know? Like the kind of thing that doesn't need to be stated.
Sky's blue, fire's hot, the ghost that tried to murder us will still try to murder us.

This page is for all those cucks who thought they got out of the danger with Jeanne scot-free. Annie gets called out on putting her friends in so much danger

I think that may be the point that Tom is making, we all got wrapped up in the idea that "these are the protagonists, THEY have to solve a centuries-old muderghost problem" that we didn't really stop to see if they should. We assumed that with Annie, Kat and Parley's "powerups" and Andrew's godlike abilities they'd have a scuffle but otherwise take the day. But they're still kids, taking their first steps into the serious paranormal pool of crap (aside from Annie who has been dealing with it since she was a child), so of course mistakes will be made, opponents underestimated and potentially lives lost. I think Tom is just trying to undercut the "victory" fanfare you'd expect at the end of like Harry Potter with a dose of reality and sobering thought.

Doesn't mean it all lands though, Red doesn't know the full story, she's just giving her blunt observations.

Well, it's not like she's entirely wrong, but she's ignoring that she and Ayilu were the only two who were not entirely aware of the danger - Kat wanted to help Jeanne for the same reason Annie did, Parley also wanted to help of her own volition after experiencing some of Jeanne's memories and Smitty was on board because of Parley, his duty as Medium and because Annie and Kat are friends of his, too.

But yeah, Annie did kinda trick Red and Ayilu into this whole thing, not really treating them as people because they act so moronic all the time. That's her fault, clearly. It's just that Red is wrong about everything else - her friends put themselves in danger for her sake because that's what friends do, and Annie put herself in the middle of all that alongside them. Let's also not forget that she gave up something more than the rest of them did in order to protect her friends, too.

Honestly Red is being a total bitch right now. If Kat, Parley or even Smitty were part of that conversation Red would be getting an earful right now.

Really, unless Annie deliberately withheld information of the danger, it's their own fault for not listening.

Yes. Her mother clearly forgot to mention any folklore detailing how asshole gods like to trick you. With this and that asshole librarian thing in mind I actually suspect that Annie's lineage is viewed by the other psychopomps as easily manipulated tools they get to bully. Figuring out that they're assholes gets reset every generation.
Why else would they mock a little girl for not knowing something they should have known that none of them ever told her about?
There's never any sort of crash course on things Annie should know about from their side.

Why are people taking anything Red says seriously. She's an idiot fairy.

>she and Ayilu were the only two who were not entirely aware of the danger
They were KILLED by Jeanne to get their human form. I suppose there's a chance that they thought Jeanne was that nice ghost that listened to their request but I suppose that even they shouldn't be so dense as to not realize she's fucking dangerous when they brought along a freakin dragonslayer as a bodyguard.

There's some fucking essay writers in the thread today. Where's lmaa and his smut when you need him?

They were eaten by Ysengrin when he went down there to investigate the Ticktock infestation. Tho they did see Jeanne attack Annie, so they should know she's dangerous.

>It's a "hero is chewed out for stupid reasons so they can experience doubt and being in the wrong only for the friends to reassure them into one again being free of guilt, reason, and responsibility" episode
Not to mention after she's feeling better and has to pomp some psychos
>it's a "things start looking up for the sad hero before the swift kick to the gut that is the cruel reminder of the unfortunate reality" episode

>Jeanne
I thought it was Ysengrin?

My apologies. It's been so long since i read that part. I got tricked by people saying it was Jeanne the other day.

I'm a little unsure about Red's name argument. Maybe someone can correct me and prove me wrong, since I'm dumb.

The name stuff is important to the fairies, but not to Annie. Sure, a bit sleazy in a way. But it's a very fair deal. It's not like she's withholding something vital to Ayilu's survival in exchange for service - she's offering something that's important and within her realm to give, but something Ayilu can get later regardless.

It's not like the fairies are naive, because they would have known how dangerous Jeanne is. They know they can just get names later anyway.

It's kind of like the psychopomps demanding something in return for saving Andrew. It's not bad just because their reviving him is seemingly meaningless to them, but because Annie can't fully comprehend the situation and was put into a big bind that takes advantage of the situation.

I love when the "wacky" character gets serious and calls a character out on their bullshit.

But they're 10x more bullshit than her.
Red literally just finished giving her best friend a name she didn't intend to give because she couldn't admit she loved the girl.
Annie has some shit to call out on, but nothing compared to Red.

we have never ever before seen Red be serious about anything

I did not need to wake up to this shitty type of plot.

>How dare you ask your friends for help and not be an angsty ball of shit.

Fuck you Red.

it's like going to someone who is dying of cancer, and you have an infinite supply of cancer cure, and because you know how desperately they want it you bribe them into risking their life helping you do your dirty work, and you don't even have the decency to give them the cure until after they crawl back from what was nearly a total party wipe because you weren't fully prepared for the job

it's treating people like pawns and failing to see anything beyond the fastest way to get what you want, damn the consequences

Well serious AND calm
She was serious about getting her friend back.

She's so good at manipulating others she probably doesn't even realize she's doing it.

Apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, I guess. Makes sense for fire elementals.

Give it a page.
Smart money says Annie will call out that bullshit.

>I suppose, but I guess I just sorta thought (and presumably so did Annie) it was all obvious given the situation, you know? Like the kind of thing that doesn't need to be stated.

The obvious thing that they still have not seen is that they didn't just murder 2 people at the bottom of a gorge for no danm reason. They know that they used special tec JUST TO KEEP THEM TRAPPED. So why the fuck didn't they find out what was so danm important that 2 people had to die and be trapped for before setting them free.

Goddamn why is this comic so fucking retarded.

My concern is that her self-esteem is still too low for her to do anything but internalize it.

Yeah.

It just kinda seems like everyone (even Tom) just want to find new ways to shit all over Annie, because, apparently, it's the hip thing to do.

>They were eaten by Ysengrin when he went down there to investigate the Ticktock infestation.

When he went down to START the tictoc infestaion. Red said he killed them after he buried the tictoc.

Not really a fair comparison. Ayilu wasn't dying, she wasn't wholly dependent on Annie's deal. She could have gotten it anyway later on.

Names are important, yes. But this was just Ayilu being impatient and jumping the gun for something she wanted, knowing the consequences and risks.

It's pretty unfortunate. She definitely isn't a perfect character, but she really was trying to do the right thing!

I hope Annie never learns how to not be an autistic, shitty person and gets cast out of the few friend circles she has! :)

They did - all signs point towards the Court wanting a new defense system.