I don't understand anything that's happening anymore
Feels like the narrative just about settles into equilibrium, before being radically upended into a new location. First the distortion, now this dream/fantasy(?) I'm finding it difficult to establish a sense of place and instead it just feels like the characters are moving through a void shouting exposition at each other.
What is this mechanical spire? Do the group of witches matter at all to the macro plot? Where is Smitty, Eglamore, Jones and Kat? What is Annie's motivation? Is the Court aware of what's going on and, if so, doing anything about it? Is this the endgame of the story or just a fugue state side plot?
The last time I had a handle on the story, the court was planning to migrate to the star ocean.
I’ve been following the comic for…18 or 19 years now I think? (Oww my soul)
And I will be disappointed when it ends because it’s been part of my life for so long
But god once it’s over maybe I’ll be able to really follow the story for the first time in years.
I I swear, pretty much ever since Coyote “died”, every time I start to kind of understand what’s happening, the story just like, stops making sense again.
Reading back over all that in the multiple re-reads I’ve done, yeah, all makes sense and is good once it’s out, but as it’s coming out it’s just nonsense
And this storyline is the worst about it. The whole Zimmy High School thing reads like fan fiction, and so much is hinging on this minor character that…we kinda know? Who used to be cool and is now a villain? And her boyfriend who’s the character we actually know better but he’s not important, just kinda mentioned? And a bunch of people that show up with the other lady essentially without being introduced, with a bunch of powers we have barely any concept of, who just keep doing…stuff?
Remember when the story was about Annie and Kat and them? I miss that, I don’t care about these witches…
So yeah, I’m right there with you, I can’t follow any of this and am REALLY struggling to care
Tbf the zimmy high school thing IS something like her fanfiction for a life that didn't suck for her. I mean it's more complicated than that, certainly, but it makes sense that it's Zimmy's High School AU.
I think Jenny was always a little villain coded? But maybe that's just how I read her.
The way Jenny came (at lest somewhat) out of left field also fits what we now learned of her. She's super manipulative and takes on personas to further her agenda. That the other witches were rather suddenly introduced was imo a bit unfortunate, but also fitting given that they're literally Jenny's pawns. She doesn't care about their characters, and they are given exactly that much space. I did enjoy the circle glyph backstory though; it's not like giving them a bit of room would have hurt – it just still makes sense, all things considered.
And I'll agree, it DOES make sense, all things considered. People forget how little storytelling you can do in one single comic page. If you look at a book, for example and turn it into a comic, you're talking every few paragraphs could be a single page. Maybe not even that. You have to drastically edit down detail to bare bones or you are stretching that out a lot, and Tom is not the edit down type.
If you were to take a book and read one or two paragraphs every other day for twenty years ... It might seem a little confusing at times, too.
This whole Zimmy High School thing reads like fan fiction.
Well it’s kinda supposed to. This is literally Zimmy’s fantasy. Have you noticed how the comic boarders are now white? It clashes with the design the site has had for two decades. It’s a way the comic is telling us that things don’t make sense here.
It's ironic that the character who works well as a newcomer with immense powers is Omega. Unlike witches cabal, she was hyped up for literal decades. But when she did appear Omega did some stuff and died, and now she isn't relevant to the story at all. She could at least give witches their powers but no, they are just that strong by themselves.
I love this comic and there were a lot of great chapters even after Loup and all that stuff happened, but Omega was such a wasted potential imho
Don't forget, Omega the PERSON, to the extent she ever really was a person, is dead but the Omega Device is still going strong, and Kat has full access to it. Since she doesn't seem to have been incorporated into the Zimmyverse, it's possible that she's been accessing it this entire time that everyone else has been stuck in here.
Yeah, I was also disappointed by the Omega resolution. It seemed so abrupt and anticlimactic. I was even onboard with the Omega-New-Person/Tony direction, but it ended almost as soon as it began.
This is the exact point I feel like I lost the plot. It always felt so tight, like you were aware of each thread but not always the big picture which made it a well paced story. I really don't know what's going on now and I've been reading religiously for over a decade.
Heard. It's especially hardgoing because this is the longest stretch away from the status quo that the comic has ever had. If we just had some breathing room back in court for the gang to decompress, discuss what's happened and how it's affected them, I think it would be landing much better. As it is, it's breathless, breakneck, nonsensical.
I've been following this comic for twenty years, and I've *never* known what was happening. I thought the Jeanne storyline was the endpoint, and then it just kept going. I'm not complaining; I've been loving the ride. I don't try and figure things out, I just enjoy the art and then at the end of the chapter I take in the storyline. Maybe I re-read a previous chapter to better understand the current one.
This is how I read it. In many ways it’s been far more coherent of an effort than it has any right to be. It started off almost flippant towards all the mystical stuff. They found a Minotaur in a library after all. But as Annie has grown up so has her world. It’s been a crazy journey.
The potential power sources are all wrapped up in the distortion. They are probably working on that problem but we don’t have any eyes on that faction.
Omega was the courts big “I win” button but she’s gone and now Kat, demi-god in training, has access to the system left behind.
Kat is prophesied to kill Zimmy.
The witches are their own dumb faction that wants power for themselves. They are the foil to our heroes and the court. This allows the court to remain on the background while still putting faces for our heroes to defeat.
To make the witches mean anything as antagonists we had to spend quite a bit of time learning about them. This is, I think, where it feels like derailment.
Things are breaking now. We don’t know why yet. We probably will soon-ish.
Any characters not appearing may or may not be doing anything relevant to the problem of the distortion. If something is important, they will make an appearance.
I think point 6 is my main issue. We spent such a long time building up the court as the antagonists against our protagonists. Instead, we've infixed a group of witches that we had to spend a lot of time learning about while still not learning anything that causes us to connect with them.
I cared about what happened with Aata because he was a rep for the Shadow Men that have been behind so much. These witches though? Although Jenny was introduced relatively early on, she's never felt particularly important. Jack has, and a lot of what made her feel relevant was really him early on in my opinion. Now I'm supposed to care about her coven, but I'm just not invested. I don't really care a whole lot about what happens to them or whether Jenny gets her comeuppance. Because it's all time taken away from what I do care about.
I just want to see Annie and Kat together again.
All of that said, I fully trust Tom to bring it together. He always has.
I think we’re dealing with the witches now so we can deal with the court later. I would be disappointed if Jenny ended up being the big bad of the comic. The court and its secretive ways have always been the shadowy background antagonist even when the group is fighting something else. With Jeanne it was the court that created her. The witches are a group that the court allowed to flourish despite some of the antics we’ve seen them get up to. They are an interesting look into magic taken too far just as the court is often science taken too far. It does feel a bit hard on the pacing to spend so much time with them, but it’s probably better than just seeing them fight with no explanation or insight into what is going on. Sometimes that works, but depending on how each will be defeated I think it will help us appreciate more what our heroes had to figure out to be successful.
She's definitely not the big bad of the comic, just this arc! But I feel like it's been such a long time since the court has been in focus. And of course, I fully trust this to be amazingly woven as a full read. Like you say, they're basically a shadowy figure anyway and so them being in the background for a good chunk of this makes a lot of sense.
It's just none of that means that I don't wish I was seeing them now because I know we're coming towards the end and I miss seeing the people that I cared more about. The pacing is rough right now.
It's been complicated AF since like year five at least. I go back for rereads constantly. Seriously, I don't even know why I read day to say, week to week except that it's like my most consistent habit after feeding myself as an adult.
The story isn't any worse than it ever was if you ask me. I think the pacing is simply at odds with the scope of the plot over the last few years, unfortunatkey. Admittedly I'm a "new" reader as in I think I only started reading back some time between 2017-2020, but I imagine reading a couple pages of a chapter a week across months probably worked back in the early days when the plot was episodic, simple, and had no solid overarching narrative. Now we're following one grand storyline with an array of plot points and characters to keep track of. It isn't just, "Annie doing things" anymore. The bit-by-bit release format doesn't mesh well with that.
Because we haven't gotten to the point where we can see how Tom wraps things up. The chapter - and the story - aren't over yet. All of your questions simply require time to be addressed. But it feels worse when we're waiting months, sometimes years, for these questions to get answered.
Well again, it's not that the questions you have will get no resolution. The story just hasn't addressed them yet. That's not incoherence. Why exactly would we need to know where Eglamore is, or if the Court knows what's going on, or all those things right now for the story to make sense? Us not knowing the answers is no worse than, idk, someone watching through A New Hope and wondering who Darth Vader is. The plot will get to that point. But like I said, that mystery would feel worse if that movie was released bit-by-bit over the course of 5 years, right? That's what's happening here.
It's not that I don't sympathize with or share your confusion. But I don't think those feelings are a result of the story being poorly written. A story's release schedule can strongly affect how people perceive it. It's why shows with massive gaps in between their seasons are so criticized. By the time the second season comes out, the memories of first one have been drowned out by the information from all the other stories people have read, watched, and played in the meantime.
I mean arcs like Omega and the Witches, which have little to do with each other, the arcs that preceded them or those arcs that are still ongoing (what's coyote up to, what's the court doing, is Kat going off the deep end, what's Loup plotting etc). These are exhaustive years-long diversions from the overarching plot that seem unmoored from anything we've previously cared about.
Kat's potential apotheosis, Coyote's schemes, the Court's nefarious ambitions, Zimmy's power, and the purpose of Omega are foundational to the overarching plot. Not divergent. Everything else we've seen, whether Loup or the Witches or the Robots, are merely accessories to those storylines.
You misunderstand me, that's what I'm saying. That these year-long Omega-and-Witches plots have no connective tissues to the emotional core of the story.
In fact, they take away from the emotional core of the story since we had to spend an awful lot of time learning about all of them and how they benefit Jenny. How she's manipulating all of them.
This is time that, in my opinion, could have been spent on the true antagonist which has been there from the beginning: the court. Or on our beloved protagonists, who we have seen so little of these last few years.
I'm sure it will be a great read in hindsight. But I also have trouble seeing where that catharsis is going to happen or how it's all going to cohere.
I'd argue that we HAVE been spending time on the Court though. That's who both Omega and the witches represent and historically work for.
Broadly, I think just about everything in the story makes way more sense when you view it as being thematically about the conflict/balance between the Court/humanity/technology/order and the forest/magical beings/Ether/chaos. Both sides of that conflict play the role of antagonist and protagonist at times, plus lots of shades of grey in between. The faces and organizations representing those forces might change, but the core conflict is the same.
Viewed through that framework, it becomes clear that the current Coven/Zimmy plotline is actually a fairly direct manifestation of the historic Court and Forest dynamic. A group of humans that spent their lives studying the Ether under Court instruction is now trying to harness a capricious and dangerous source of Etheric power for their own purposes, no matter who it destroys along the way (including themselves). The system was literally Jenny's thesis, so the Court almost certainly knows about and approves of her work. Now that we know her thesis entailed systems designed to siphon away Zimmy's power, we might even go so far as to extrapolate that Jenny's work paved the way for the Star Ocean and those forest kids being drained of their life force. She's no different than anyone else who has done unspeakable things under Court employ.
Meanwhile Zimmy is effectively an Etheric god now, and definitely represents the power of the raw innate magic of the forest even if she's not literally from there. Coyote clearly views her as an equal and ally, and is even helping her cast off her humanity by eating her guilt. And much like Coyote or Ysengrin or Loup, she doesn't seem to care how much destruction or death her power causes outside of the specific people she cares about.
The difference is that dichotomy has stopped being represented by shadowy administrators or ancient gods, and is now embodied in more direct and relatable foils for the protagonists: fellow students we've known for years. But the core conflict is the same as it ever was, even if different actors are playing those parts. Those changing faces might not click for everyone, but I don't think any of it is as random as it appears at face value if you dig a little deeper beyond surface level details. It also makes it a lot more obvious where the story is eventually heading if you think about the two main characters, the forces they represent, and their current trajectories.
Coyote (or some aspects of him) has been notably present in Zimmy’s dream world, so I don’t know that it’s fair to say this is uninvolved with that plot line. Stuff has often been a bit cryptic for the whole life of the comic - something gets introduced but not fully explained, and it’s only much later than it comes back to matter. On that note, Jenny’s presence in the story has been an example of that, going back years. I assume the reason she’s getting so much focus now is exactly to explain why she matters to the plot
I mean... I personally feel that it's plenty coherent. There's some stuff that's still a mystery, but some of these things (like the spire, which is a transformed Sylvie) were were explained mere pages ago. Respectfully, something like that is not something you can blame on the story being incoherent.
That said, some details DID happen a while ago from an archival perspective, but I really do think a reread works wonders! The story does have a LOT in it, but imo it makes plenty of sense when a chapter goes by in minutes rather than months. I've also found that different people have drastically different abilities to recall story details, which isn't a bad thing, but just means sometimes you might need to give yourself a refresher. If I'm ever confused I just reread the chapter or pop back to older ones to try and remind myself how we got here, or read the chapter synopses on the wiki.
I can definitely relate. I’ve been reading the comic since around chapter 10, and at this point I’m just floating along and letting the current take me. I don’t really understand what’s happening or why. I miss the more straightforward and relatable plots and narratives.
Whatever happens, I’ll keep reading until the end!
I admit it's gotten really complicated, but since I did a big re-read recently, everything is sort of fresh in my mind. It DOES make sense when read in a book form.
To me, right now, this storyline about the witches and Zimmy's fanfic collapsing is one of the most fascinating and compelling storylines in all of GC. I have to admit I didn't really care much for Omega, or the whole Loup story. But this? Ooooh gimme this. I'm eating it all up with a SPOON.
1)What is this mechanical spire?
That is Sylvie, who turned into a very very tall monster/negative construct and can now control Zimmy's monsters/negative constructs.
2) Do the group of witches matter at all to the macro plot?
They are apparently very important. Endgame antagonists.
3) Where is Smitty, Eglamore, Jones and Kat?
They are, I assume, hanging out by the shore houses, still rescuing and relocating people. Kat crossed into the fanfiction with the rest but due to her unique nature she didn't get incorporated into the fanfiction. She is somewhere and I'm assuming she will be Chekov's Gun. (I miss her).
4. What is Annie's motivation?
Originally she wanted to help Zimmy because she is just assuming Loup did something to her to make the distortion (the inner and the outer one) happen, and she is also assuming Zimmy is suffering. She is sorely mistaken. Right now, in this exact second, Annie is only thinking of Ysengrim, who is her fake dad in the fanfiction. I think she has all but forgot about the whole "Save Zimmy" reason for going past the white wall.
5. Is the Court aware of what's going on and, if so, doing anything about it? Is this the endgame of the story or just a fugue state side plot?
The Court doesn't care, they're leaving at any moment now. They are leaving anyone who isn't useful to them behind, and they can rot for all the Court cares. Yes, I'm assuming this is the endgame.
They went to the zimmyverse because all the etheric creatures/students are being drained by her and dying (while leaving no ghosts, which horrifies her) and while they could stem the flow they couldn’t stop it. They weren’t going to go to centre until Ayilu asked them for help and they realised the scale of the problem
Indeed, this is also the reason for the urgency. But I think deep down what triggered Annie and co to finally solve the distortion matter was the attempt on Kat's life.
Honestly it's been one crisis after another for these poor characters, and the urgent always takes priority over the important.
Annie was in the middle of trying to get to Zimmy when Omega started kidnapping people.
Your questions are valid, and I wish I could answer them. I love this comic and I have spent almost half of my life as this point reading the updates every MWF... but after the Courtnie/Fannie merger I decided, for my own sanity, to embrace the mst3k mindset as regards this comic: "if you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts (la-lala!) just repeat to yourself it's just a show, I should really just relax."
You have to kinda think about the string of big-picture plot details leading up to this chapter, and filter out the details that are more related to character-development. Annie & co are primarily engaging in character development and moving the plot very little while caught up in the illusion, while the meaningful parts advancing the plot are happening around them, outside of their awareness.
Some important points to consider:
We have had several chapters about being in Zimmy's nightmares, and this one fundamentally upended the trope for the first few dozen pages about being in an ideal world, probably just the normal boring life Zimmy wants... But like chapter 72 (and many other Zimmy chapters), the protagonists are starting to become aware of reality again, and soon the payoff will come into focus. And, if you look at the series in terms of books, this also could imply that we are about to get to the end of another book very soon.
Regarding Kat, it is important to consider that she is fundamentally incompatible with the ether. Us not seeing her means her whereabouts could be revealed soon, and who knows if she's been active and trying to reach them or not, or whether we'll get a chapter containing her perspective of this whole mess. Things we know leading up to this chapter involve Jenny's magic evoking a prophecy from Zimmy that she believes Kat is going to kill her, and Coyote hints that perhaps it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. But the Chapter 77 implied the existence of many timelines, each subtly different, this timeline being the "youngest" she'd ever visited the norns. Perhaps our expectations will get subverted, perhaps not. Also, Zara revealed how Jenny's magic system works, and if Kat is indeed busy behind the scenes, we know she has the means to understand and harness that system herself. But alas, never forget that we had a Kat cliffhanger at the end of Chapter 59, which was also the end of a book arc.
Jack and Jenny's characters have matured with the comic and grown in importance in the plot, so the other previously-unknown witches are primarily ripe for character development more than anything. In the big picture, we know Jenny has an interest in "protecting" Zimmy, we know she's acting because of Omega's manipulation of Jack, and these last few pages have revealed a way that Jenny has wielded the abilities of her coven to grant her great power and control--we don't know if rock-spire Noa and monster-spire Sylvie still have their own free will, but we do know she (and the others) have decieved Jack about his importance, and her life's work breaks down if Zimmy dies. So, we have a major player that wants to kill our beloved missing protagonist and probably use Noa and Sylvie to "protect" Zimmy, probably in some sorta rock+monster prison.
Anyway, I hope that gives a little perspective. If this didn't help one bit, then I apologize for contributing to any spider brains or brain spiders.
I think there is still a lot that we don’t understand about them and that makes it kinda odd since now it seems that they are the main villains. I guess it’ll all link back to Zimmy, with Loup going crazy now. Both of the prophecies will probably come up soon, but will be averted in some way. I think the witches right now are almost just an obstacle to overcome so they can get to Zimmy, unravel the distortion, then go back to stop the Court.
I think a reread after the distortion ends will clear up a lot, we’re getting LOADS of information all at once. It kinda feels like a sudden change to a different anime arc. A plot point that, I think, is going to come up soon is that all etheric creatures seem to be Zimmy’s constructs. Loup started to change as this happened and I fear Rey will be next
This entire section is approaching the climax of Coyote’s schemes. Not to mention Zimmy’s foreshadowing of her own death by Kat. I don’t see how it is going to get there, but it is pretty important to the overall plot.
The Court was looking for an etheric power supply for their star ocean scheme. When they failed to get Loup they tried killing the fairy kids, but Annie and Kat rescued them. Zimmy might be the next target, so the court might be very interested in what is going on here.
The dreamworld is a result of a combination of Coyote’s and Zimmy’s powers. For whatever mystical reason it lets Zimmy lead the normal life she desires at the cost of fucking everything up for everyone else. It’s like her power flipped inside out and now the inside is normal and the outside crazy and weird.
I don’t know what spire you are referring to, I’m guessing it will be made clear latter.
I would say yes the witches obviously matter. What roll they take long term if long term even exists is unknown.
Kat’s location is unknown. My guess is she is in some weird stage like RotD trying to figure things out. Tom isn’t telling us yet because drama. Everyone else is still outside in the distortion, it’s unclear exactly how much time has passed but it’s at most a few hours so they haven’t been missing long enough for people to start worrying.
Annie’s motivation in the dreamworld is all messed up but generally it’s to help, her friends and protect people who she thinks need protecting. Being stuck in the distortion is very very very inconvenient for everyone, and the court is showing no signs of trying to fix anything so she is doing her best to step up and be a leader.
The court wants to leave the Earth behind and doesn’t care what happens to it. They are going on a one way trip and never plan to see the Earth again. They wanted to use Coyote as a battery to power the Star Ocean, Zimmy is the backup battery because good engineering requires redundancy. The court only cares as far as this will affect Zimmy’s power output, which doesn’t appear to be the case. If that does happen you can expect the court to show up real fast to “fix” it.
We are definitely moving towards the end. I think Tom mentioned it a while back. This is not a side plot. Tom doesn’t really do those. Zimmy has always been critical to the story, though why wasn’t clear until recently and it is still murky. See previous paragraph about being backup Coyote
I see you mentioned Omega else where Omega is how the court built the Star Ocean. Her ability to predict the future was likely essential for finding Zimmy and harnessing her power.
The story is about Gunnerkrigg Court and what happens to it is told from Annie and sometimes Kats perspective.
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u/Cyfirius 7d ago edited 7d ago
I’ve been following the comic for…18 or 19 years now I think? (Oww my soul)
And I will be disappointed when it ends because it’s been part of my life for so long
But god once it’s over maybe I’ll be able to really follow the story for the first time in years.
I I swear, pretty much ever since Coyote “died”, every time I start to kind of understand what’s happening, the story just like, stops making sense again.
Reading back over all that in the multiple re-reads I’ve done, yeah, all makes sense and is good once it’s out, but as it’s coming out it’s just nonsense
And this storyline is the worst about it. The whole Zimmy High School thing reads like fan fiction, and so much is hinging on this minor character that…we kinda know? Who used to be cool and is now a villain? And her boyfriend who’s the character we actually know better but he’s not important, just kinda mentioned? And a bunch of people that show up with the other lady essentially without being introduced, with a bunch of powers we have barely any concept of, who just keep doing…stuff?
Remember when the story was about Annie and Kat and them? I miss that, I don’t care about these witches…
So yeah, I’m right there with you, I can’t follow any of this and am REALLY struggling to care