I also hope you are right.
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Gunnerkrigg status: Still rad!
- Thread starter SpoonyBard
- Start date
Honestly that's been my read from the beginning. She didn't seem bothered or worried and they didn't seem creepy, to me.
The main rebuttal I have to that is this frame:
And I suppose it comes down to who is reacting with the '?'
My initial read is that it's Lana. She mentioned last chapter that she chose her own body because she 'knows what looks good', but how much she truly understood from the books she occasionally read is up in the air. She knows 'what' boys like, but does she know 'why'? This reads to me as her not knowing where the forest boys intend to take things.
But if it's Loup reacting with the '?', perhaps signifying he's just noticing what's happening, and then that would line up with q 3's theory. Of course, there's no guarantee that shadow in the background is Loup and not another one of the other boys. So I guess we'll see?
And that was me spending too much time on a Monday evening examining hypothetical harrassment by an elf to a robut.
And I suppose it comes down to who is reacting with the '?'
My initial read is that it's Lana. She mentioned last chapter that she chose her own body because she 'knows what looks good', but how much she truly understood from the books she occasionally read is up in the air. She knows 'what' boys like, but does she know 'why'? This reads to me as her not knowing where the forest boys intend to take things.
But if it's Loup reacting with the '?', perhaps signifying he's just noticing what's happening, and then that would line up with q 3's theory. Of course, there's no guarantee that shadow in the background is Loup and not another one of the other boys. So I guess we'll see?
And that was me spending too much time on a Monday evening examining hypothetical harrassment by an elf to a robut.
My read is that it's hers, and she's not really sure where he's going with this, but not alarmed about it. One can assume he'd end up being pushier from there, or assume he'd not. Loup assumes he would be, clearly. That doesn't make his assumption correct, and given that Loup is prone to jumping the gun and acting way beyond what a situation merits, I tend to think it isn't. Overly generous to the green guys? Maybe. But I think the ambiguity is part of the point. They weren't clearly crossing any line or clearly doing anything she didn't want, and Loup leaps straight to violence and threats, and those clearly do alarm her.
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Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Except it started with them fundamentally dismissing her body as "strange" and "not real" which is objectification, and also comments that anyone with breast implants or other surgery gets, typically not in a positive way. They also poked and prodded her and commented on her skin and hair being weird, and boy do non-white women get hair and skin comments about being "exotic" and have people touch their hair without permission a disturbing amount.
Responding with "I'm cute and know what boys like" feels completely unnatural and not how someone would respond, and while maybe it's supposed to show how little understanding she has, for me it's landing horribly. The lines from the boys are not flirty comments in the real world, these are insults.
I assumed the ? was her, but it could be off. The other question is how forcefully he's grabbing her here too. That grab is what set me off the most.
Loup reacting with violence is definitely out of line, but I do think reacting with "hey let my friend go" would have been an acceptable response, this has escalated to me. Lots of weird or unclear things about this situation due to her lines and it being still art though and really, really, hope I'm reading this wrong. Gonna just wait for Wednesday at this point.
Responding with "I'm cute and know what boys like" feels completely unnatural and not how someone would respond, and while maybe it's supposed to show how little understanding she has, for me it's landing horribly. The lines from the boys are not flirty comments in the real world, these are insults.
And I suppose it comes down to who is reacting with the '?'
I assumed the ? was her, but it could be off. The other question is how forcefully he's grabbing her here too. That grab is what set me off the most.
Loup reacting with violence is definitely out of line, but I do think reacting with "hey let my friend go" would have been an acceptable response, this has escalated to me. Lots of weird or unclear things about this situation due to her lines and it being still art though and really, really, hope I'm reading this wrong. Gonna just wait for Wednesday at this point.
I mean, what it comes down to is a scene was written in which a naïve woman is placed in sexual peril in order to characterize a man. The details of that characterization are a bit secondary to me. (Tertiary, possibly, if one were to examine closely the coding of the elves.)
It's a rare misstep in light of the comic's preceding years, but in the last two years there seem to have been more cases where the artist's intentions seem to get away from him.
It's a rare misstep in light of the comic's preceding years, but in the last two years there seem to have been more cases where the artist's intentions seem to get away from him.
Lana seems pretty comfortable with her body and has pointed out her cute body to Loup-as-Jerrek specifically in the past. Loup clearly has a reaction in that scene:
Her actions in both of these scenes don't strike me as naïve or unaware.
The elves who are curious about her are much more troublesome and absolutely objectify her from my perspective. However, they're literally asking the question, "aren't you an object, not a person" at the start of the scene, and seem to have genuine curiosity about this conundrum. They're very different, culturally, than humans, and have clearly not had much experience with robots. Lana has yet to be perturbed by their actions and actually seems to want to engage with their curiosity, including the physical handling of her body (again, the body she worked hard on to "get right" that she takes pride in). It's not clear that anyone's given enthusiastic consent here, but there's also nothing has brought the scene to a clear place of non-consent or witheld consent either. Instead it feels awkward to me, but that might just be because I'm a human projecting my human feelings onto a scene between elves and a humanoid robot.
Then we have another non-human with even less experience with human social norms, or social norms in general, than any of the other two parties (he is, in fact, a godlike being who usually aims to get whatever he wants through violent outbursts disguising himself as a humanoid robot to learn more about the Court) reacting to this scenario. He clearly thinks something is wrong and wants to stop it with violence, but I don't know if I can trust his read on the scene any better than my own yet.
At any rate, I'll wait until I understand more about this scene before I pass judgement. I'm not totally comfortable with what's happening, but in my experience "making me comfortable" is not always a hallmark of a well-told story, and sometimes stories need to have moments that don't sit well with my values.
Her actions in both of these scenes don't strike me as naïve or unaware.
The elves who are curious about her are much more troublesome and absolutely objectify her from my perspective. However, they're literally asking the question, "aren't you an object, not a person" at the start of the scene, and seem to have genuine curiosity about this conundrum. They're very different, culturally, than humans, and have clearly not had much experience with robots. Lana has yet to be perturbed by their actions and actually seems to want to engage with their curiosity, including the physical handling of her body (again, the body she worked hard on to "get right" that she takes pride in). It's not clear that anyone's given enthusiastic consent here, but there's also nothing has brought the scene to a clear place of non-consent or witheld consent either. Instead it feels awkward to me, but that might just be because I'm a human projecting my human feelings onto a scene between elves and a humanoid robot.
Then we have another non-human with even less experience with human social norms, or social norms in general, than any of the other two parties (he is, in fact, a godlike being who usually aims to get whatever he wants through violent outbursts disguising himself as a humanoid robot to learn more about the Court) reacting to this scenario. He clearly thinks something is wrong and wants to stop it with violence, but I don't know if I can trust his read on the scene any better than my own yet.
At any rate, I'll wait until I understand more about this scene before I pass judgement. I'm not totally comfortable with what's happening, but in my experience "making me comfortable" is not always a hallmark of a well-told story, and sometimes stories need to have moments that don't sit well with my values.
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Well, it appears Loup agrees with you.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I'm really wondering how this reveal (if there is one) is going to go? He's certainly not talking like a robot right now so Annie may be picking up on that... or not? And I'm assuming she's already checked him out in the ether and Loup's magic is somehow making him look like a robot there too? As her powers have grown it's not clear to me if she actively she needs to "look" in the ether or if it's just a sense she has at all times.
Oh, she's definitely picking up on something in the last panel of today's.
I also find it interesting that Loup is so un-like Loup when he's being Jerrec. He could just be a very good actor, being half trickster-god, I suppose. But it might also be that taking a form naturally influences his behavior. Didn't Coyote say once that he changed forms and, while he was changed, was so completely that form that he forgot he was Coyote?
I also find it interesting that Loup is so un-like Loup when he's being Jerrec. He could just be a very good actor, being half trickster-god, I suppose. But it might also be that taking a form naturally influences his behavior. Didn't Coyote say once that he changed forms and, while he was changed, was so completely that form that he forgot he was Coyote?
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Yep, when he became the goose.
At the very least, it's strange for a robot to so vehemently disapprove of what is otherwise a very robotic way of looking at the world.
So, I'm wondering if Annie is doing all this on purpose. Getting herself alone, getting Loup/Jerrek to talk and perhaps tip his hand that he's not who he says he is. I mean, you would think Kat would have a decent record of all the conversions and a Jerrek suddenly showing up should throw up some warning signs.
Unless Jerrek was one of the robots and Loup is just hijacking his body? Otherwise yeah, Kat would probably realize something's up.
Loup should probably keep it in his pants re: an underaged girl
I, for one, am very excited for this.
Wish we had a longer side story featuring shockingly masterful Gamer Annie.
Oh hey, Renard is doing things! Been a while.
Don't scare me like that, it's only been... 4 years.
4 years. Jesus Christ. Really?! Jesus Christ!!
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
No it hasn't you are both liars
Ah! Looks like they have everything well in hand. Loup won't see this one coming!
muteKi
Geno Cidecity
Surely Kat would have to know