You go Bud.
On another note, I knew that’s how Bud felt. Jin and her have always been at odds. You can’t feel close to someone that you don’t think cares about you at all.
Bud cares about her, I think. But as she’s said here, she doesn’t think it’s mutual.
Jin got herself killed for these girls.
Not entirely sure what else she could have done to show she cared for them…
And sure they didn’t know her them but from Jins standpoint – she had shown them.
oooh then again – lightbulb (and im really hoping i am not bathing in someone elses glow again today!)
maybe thats why…
she has already SEEN jin kill herself. When she was still human. She went through the betrayal of being left alone.. now she gets to see it again.
yay!
We’ve heard Jin, Bud, and Brandi’s account of their original deaths.
In Bud’s version, she clearly resents Jin killing herself, going so far as to state that Jin gave up and/or abandoned them.
Since their time as the Chimera, Bud and Jin have almost never gotten along. Before the Calendar Machine arc began (and the revelation of the past cycles Jin remembered), the two constantly fought, even coming to blows more than once. Based on all 3 GGGs, Jin and Bud have done this throughout history (which was probably the primary way they caused trouble for Tepoz), with Brandi usually being forced to play peacekeeper.
Despite all their past troubles and conflicts, the GGG are, for all intents and stuff, sisters. They’re family, and Jin trying to kill herself is, like the first time, a major betrayal in Bud’s eyes, and shows how little Jin cares for Bud and Brandi.
Not to mention Bud’s dealing with the reality of her entire existence being rocked by May. Bud, far moreso than Jin or Brandi, has found comfort in defining just what the she is, bouncing back and forth between a girl, a monster, or a mindless machine. Bud finally has found comfort with accepting herself for what she is, and May just changed everything.
Whether we see it in-comic or not, Bud needs to get away from May and talk herself down with Monica, Shelly, or Brandi (I figure Brandi would be her first choice, but she may be afraid of upsetting Brandi, so she may run to Monica or Shelly, definitely not Tina).
besides showing someone you care for them, it does help to say it once in a while. Reminds me of the old, taciturn farmer whose wife complains after 30 or 40 years, “You never say you love me!”
He responds, “When we got married, I told you I loved you.
^ Paula, yeah, I hear you. I just think the fellow is deluded: he may love her, but he does need to say it every so often. Once a month? Once a week? If he practices, and adds why he loves her, or how, it may get to be more natural–and he’ll find new things to love about her.
What went unaddressed in comments yesterday was that Bud’s issues with Jin’s suicidal efforts long predate that scene with Alan.
Jin could have gotten herself and all of them out of the Pit in the first place. Instead she went for a tactical self-destruction at the feet of Bud and Brandi. Bud has never been told why.
So she must be less than shit to the Timekeeper’s daughter. To Bud, she has completed her duty, and her mysterious betters can now go f*ck themselves.
Though I think we may be in for a Big Answer out of Jin very shortly.
I saw the episode as her killing the priest in an effort to free the others. Problem was she hung around too long, reveling in her kill and was discovered by the guards. Not that she purposly sought to have herself put in there with them.
That playing with the guts thing, however, makes me wonder about Jin’s true basic nature. No matter how you look at it, that’s far from normal (the time shift thing notwithstanding). She may have other issues that are yet to surface again.
No, she committed suicide in the pit (somehow) so that the priests couldn’t fully carry out their plans, which required the sacrifice of all three at once.
I always thought Bud had been told why she did it.
Her and Brandi walked in when Monica and Tepoz confronted Jin. I had always assumed they had heard the whole conversation but it was perhaps the tail-ending they heard.
Yes, she committed suicide when finally thrown into the pit, but I’m not so sure that was her original plan. I see it as a last ditch measure to thwart the priests efforts. If she planned to be cast in with the others, why did she try to run when guards showed up?
It also seems like the priests had a strange lapse in judgement. They knew they needed broken subjects for the chimera to be under their control, yet they used Jin knowing she wasn’t broken first. I guess they figured 2 out of 3 is good enough, and it was. Then again, it could be a large part of process is that the subjects must be burned alive (May was). That may have put a bigger wrench into the gears than the fact she wasn’t broken. If she could have killed Bud and Brandi first, as well, it may have failed entirely. Not that it would have mattered much. They would have just found someone else to use.
As I understand it, even though Jin took on the priests, she realized that they’d simply kidnap more girls and carry on with the Chimera project. Her solution was suicide in the hope of corrupting the Chimera, so destroying it.
In the end, the Chimera was created using their bodies, but was unstable (as Jin had hoped). Bud, now an incarnate fury, took control of the Chimera and used it’s powers to destroy those who created it, and much of mankind and the civilization that existed at the time.
Each of the GGs had their own personality while part of the Chimera. Brandi later commented that trying to stop Bud’s rampage was “like wrestling the sun.” Jin’s essence may simply have stood by while Bud wreaked havoc, as this fit with her goal — vengeance on those who made the Chimera weapon.
So, in the end, Bud’s anger is not only had Jin getting her Life back, but at Jin for knowingly setting her up in the Chimera to destroy millions of lives.
Guilt, outrage, and envy. And still she has the presence of mind to call Alan. Salt for the wounds? Impotent rage?
I’m pretty sure it was Jin that said the part about wrestling the Chimara. And from the way that Brandi tells the story of Jin coming, its more likly she was the one standing by and letting Bud destroy the world. Even so, the parts where Brandi has had ones she loved threatend she shows are very hostile change of mood.
I think the parts of the Chimara go more like;
Attacking the priests was a tactical move to get into the pit and put an end to the killing of eighteen year olds. But her plan could not save the last two: she couldn’t afford to have them see through her strategy. This is the source of Bud’s eternal anger with Jin.
How do you ask a girl to be the last girl to die for a mistake?
Considering Bud is the most grounded of the three. She’s the defacto mother figure and has watched over Brandi and Jin doing here best to hold it all together so she has every right to feel the way she does.
You’re totally right about that, but I think Brandi is more of the mother figure of the three. Bud is more of the older sister figure from my point of view.
No clue what Jin’s family role is. She’s doesn’t have to do it anymore, but she’s spent eons just manipulating others to get a job done. She’s even had to remind herself in a comic that she wasn’t supposed to get attached like she had in a different loop (she was specifically referring to Shelly that time).
And Jin’s behavior, odd as this statement may seem, is pretty classic middle-child: fight up and fight down to make a space for yourself, and learn how to manipulate the hell out of everybody in the process.
Except, instead of calling it “manipulation” (such an ugly word!), I call it “diplomacy.”
And I actually didn’t fight too much. The bigger kids can hurt when you fight, and the little kids can get protection from any handy adult, so fighting gets to be counterproductive.
Or she’s calling a pinch-hitter. Monica would show sympathy to Jin, and Shelly’s mind is a thousand miles away at present. Alan will give Jin ‘almost’ as much grief as Bud (ala the Knife incident) and let Bud get far, far away from Jin and May so she can talk herself down.
Yes, Jin needs a real, compelling and highly personal reason to continue to live for now, and I think Alan is it. I’m betting the term “goober” enters the conversation at some point too.
Finding out your loved one whom you have been trying to help stabalize just tried to off herself the first chance she got might be a tad annoying to him.
I doubt he would walk away from her but I am unsure if he would want to continue to date her..
Not sure there. It’s not uncommon territory for the two. Just before the Calendar Machine was fixed/destroyed (breaking = one way of fixing it) Jin expressed to Allan her hopes that she could finally die and stay dead.
Granted, Allan was rather irritated by the sentiment, but at least its been addressed, meaning Allan will not be as blindsided by Jin’s attempt to do so (well, as much as anyone can be when your immortal lover suddenly turns mortal and immediately attempts suicide while you were away for 5 minutes) and quicker to understand just how serious the situation is.
Right, if it were as simple as carving a symbol in Jin, I would think she would have done that long ago. It seems as if the power boost of the key, or something like it, is needed to make it happen. I’m wondering if there is still something in Stonehenge.
I reckon May had Jin as backup should her experiment with distroying the calender machine failed (like it did)
After all – Jin describes how May vanished and at that point (i think though could be getting my timelines crossed) Jin WAS part of the Chimera and under slight control (though seems like Jin was never controlled really…) so how did she get away from her ‘guardians’ to meet up with her mom?
I don’t think May thought of Jin as a backup. Jin was hiding when May was dragged into the demon world. She wasn’t supposed to be involved. I’m pretty sure May didn’t plan to be whisked away at that time either. It all just went wrong and Jin was left holding the bag. Though one wonders how she didn’t know about that trap since she was it’s architect. At that time, Jin was made immortal but could still die. She did what she could but wound up as part of the chimera. The rest, as they say, is (faux) history.
Also Jin was rendered inert at some point in the far distant past (somehow) and placed under the care of tepoz. So, how was she manipulating everyone all that time if Tepoz didn’t “unfreeze” her until recently? As I see it, that’s a bit of a plot hole. Jin was supposed to be doing things independently, guiding all the players into position through all those resets (which rewound to before the chimera rampage), yet she was part of the trio when materialized by Tepoz and seemed quite unaware of that role. That just doesn’t jive.
Jin had enough control over herself that Tepoz did not know about when he amended the girls in his care. She was running situations behind Tepoz’s back. She had to play dumb on the “first” meeting with Monica.
Submitted without prejudice, Paul, make sure that jibes with this statement of Jin’s, which is presumably not a deliberate lie, as it is made to Monica:
You know, I’d forgotten about that. All that would indicate the girls were not inert until Tepoz recently summoned them as I had thought. The details are foggy as to when this happened or where they were and what they were doing (hanging around the house for thousands of years?). Anyway, that would allow Jin to poit away from time to time to do her manipulating thing. For that matter, she could be doing it much earlier since she was still human for some time before even the chimera rampage. I guess she would remember the previous cycle(s) from the moment the CM started up. So why didn’t she stop the priests, knowing what was to happen? Surely she could have devised a plan by the final cycle to do that and end all future problems?
The time loop only went as far back as AD 562; the Chimera was unleashed around 10500 BC. Jin only had the one shot at stopping the priests, and that was before she even knew time loops would happen.
Since Bud mentioned bothering Amenhotep IV (c. 1350 BC) the Golem Girls must have been separated and semiautonomous by that time.
So Jin is clearly able to handle stuff behind Tepoz’s back during the time loops. Tepoz is even inert from AD 1600 on, making it even easier.
Historiography is your friend. It’s why the chronology page on the wiki gets so granular; comparative dating is how historians fill the plot holes of mankind.
As far as I can tell the only problem Bud has with her form of immortality is the fact that she is unchanging. She hates her straw hair and noodle arms after all.
Bud lays it out as it is! I like it, and can understand her point to it!
As for Jin’s mortality, I get it, but personally, if I was tortured, brutalized and abused in a pit for god knows how long, Id damn sure keep wheat I became instead of letting it go and that agony all being for nothing.
I think tha tthe torture of her death is not so much a problem to Jin as the fact that she has relived the same set of years 57 times and each time she felt more and more helpless to do anything as she gained and lost everything each of the 57 resets. She even fell in love with Monica’s grandfather until she discovered that Mon was a key to stopping the calender and had to let him go to find his future wife for who knows how many resets. 80,000 years is bad enough, but living that long while living through Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day all of those times during it. That to me is a hell far worse than anything Dante saw.
Oh I forgot, she also made mention that for the last several resets she has distanced herself from the others to increase the chances for the missions final success. She might have tried to fix the damage she caused but the absence of the calendar brought back her schizophrenia and made her useless to fix anything. Then she finds that she has humanity as she regains control of her mind for the first time in a while and her first thought is ‘now or never’.
Hmmm… I think that Bud suddenly realized what she actually wanted too.
She probably cannot understand why someone would waste a chance for a complete life.
She illustrates quite well how some people that are left behind after a suicide, feel.
Odd though, despite Bud and Jin constantly being at each other’s throat, and despite the fact that Jin gave all to save Bud&Brandy, Bud doesn’t seem to realize how much Jin must have been suffering.
Losing her Mom over some contraption to help her get her marbles back. Killing herself to prevent the priests from having power over the golems, unable to stop the chimera, fueled by Bud’s hatred and anger etc. etc.
I don’t know if Bud wants exactly what Jin has gotten, but she’s definatly feeling left behind and left out. There’s a feeling of “I did all of this for you and you wanted to just throw it away”. I think she’s also scared of what thier freindship is going to evolve into. Bud really needs to go talk to Shelly.
Think we may be missing something, May said the artifact “fixed” Jin; she gave Jin mortality by inscribing the glyph inside Jin. Presumably, that could be done to any of the girls. or am i missing something?
Yep. That’s been my point above and in yesterday’s comments. Bud, far moreso than Jin and Brandi, feels it necessary to define just who and what she is. We’ve only recently seen her finally become comfortable with the nature of her existence. Now, May’s just offhandedly shattered Bud’s entire perception of self, something Bud had no preparation for going into this venture.
I think that’s the primary reason Bud’s enraged at May and needs to leave. Not because Bud hurt Jin, Jin’s vulnerable now, or Jin attempted suicide (partly, but not mainly), but because Bud’s panicking on the inside and needs to talk herself down before she lashes out and does something she’ll regret.
If she wasn’t, Bud would have no problem giving Jin grief until she died of old age. (>^_^)>
It’s possible Maya needed the extra energy the Relic provided to be able to change Jin’s parameters. If so, she’d need something similar to be able to do the same for Bud and Brandi, and there may not be more Relics around.
Of course, since Jin has a limited lifetime now, after she dies it might be possible to remove the Relic from her and put it in Bud or Brandi and change them. Then, when that one dies of old age, do the same for the other. Maya, on the other hand, would seem to be out of luck, since you’d need someone with both her knowledge and her golem abilities to make the change for her…
Regarding May: She could always teach one of the other immortal/long-lived beings to do it. Creatures like Shelly and Phix, or even Tepoz, would still be around. Just leave detailed instructions, preferably when your not stumbling over a few pitchers of martinis.
This also requires that Bud or Brandi even ‘want’ to die. Bud still seems to struggle with the nature of her existence, but Brandi seems perfectly comfortable with what she is. And there are plenty of other immortal beings out there (Phix & The Sphinxes, Nudge, Tepoz) so the pair will still have company after humanity and/or the Earth’s chapter comes to a close.
I’m thinking that Jin had to be turned back to clay before May could inscribe the symbol inside of her. Bud & Brandi would have to “die” by becoming clay again, in order to have that done to them, in order to become human again with new parameters. (Then the clay reanimates.)
Jin’s calling Bud by her real name, “Acacia,” is sort of like Professor Jones Senior addressing his son as “Indiana” instead of “Junior.” It’s about as serious as it gets. Prelude to a heartfelt exposition, I would think. Glad there’s one more episode before the weekend. 😀
Right, but up until that point, his dad kept calling him by his given name, or by “junior”, and that sorta pissed him off… but when his dad called him by his “chosen” name, that’s when Indiana had a momentary brain fart as he realized WHAT his DAD just called him… so goes the same here i think. all this time from the time they got separated to now, Jin has been calling her Bud, and now all of a sudden she’s calling her by her real name… she’s gonna have the same brain fart in a few seconds and stand there speechless while Jin monologs about whatever she’s gonna talk about on our Cliffhanger Friday ™…
I know I’ve posted a lot already, but I got one more before heading to bed.
I kinda hope Paul doesn’t have this resolved right away. I kinda want to Bud to walk out of there right now, all in a huff, and let both of them ruminate on what’s happened.
Then come in and fix it later (perhaps after visiting some other characters).
Do you seriously think that our Pablo will NOT take two or three weeks to resolve this? Or more! This is a candy store of issues that canwill be examined, played with and hung on cliffs! If nothing else, Paul is a master of emotions, motivations and personal interactions and I expect nothing less than deep insights and revelations in the upcoming weeks.
I’m possibly reading into this abit too much but well..
could Bud have known why she was one of the girls chosen? Similar to a Joseph scenario with her family betraying her?
The golem girls are the only ones she has been with and cared about for so long but she did have a family once right?
It’s just her pain .. it seems deeper than Jin trying to kill herself. She actually thinks Jin really doesn’t care about Bud despite all the evidence to the contrary.
It’s possible. Bud also seems like the type to naturally feel defensive. Even if her family didn’t betray her, she may have, during her torture, convinced herself that they must have.
I think this is more a sibling love/hate thing though. Bud, Brandi, and Jin have been together for eons, endured more hardships than most people can imagine, and are 3 pieces of a single entity. They’re sisters. Bud and Brandi are beyond close, but Jin’s always kept her distance, possibly even before the cycles began. Regardless how much they clash and fight, they’re still sisters, and Bud can’t bear the thought of Jin just offing herself.
I mean, look how crazy Brandi went when she thought she had lost Bud to the Demon Realm. She had no problem outright murdering Shelly and Monica, her two closest friends, if there was a ‘slim’ chance it would bring Bud back. And Brandi’s the loving pacifist of the trio. Just imagine the pain Bud’s facing over this (coupled with all the other ways this event has affected her, as others have commented).
There is one more factor to consider.
Bud realizes that Jin’s mortality means she will be leaving soon, relatively speaking.
Bud is already in mourning.
Cliffhanger possibilities abound. Alan could be badly hurt trying to rush to the hospital. He could blow up and leave Jin. He could even propose marriage, though I hope not. Marriages seem to often kill the story line.
Well, would it mean that a guy in this story could be more than a prop? Because these guys are usually just around when the girls either need sex or just to grow a little. I wouldn’t mind Alan having a bigger role since he’s pretty cool. Marriage might make him a bigger part of the story. Who knows? Maybe a wedding could cause drama. (She says mostly thinking about Xander and Anya in Buffy.)
While a lesser writer might not be able to handle the story once a couple ties the knot, I have enough faith in Paul’s storytelling abilities to write Jin and Allen as a married couple and make it interesting. Think Rick and Evy O’Connell from the Mummy franchise.
If it is anything like the clip of a python eating an alligator in Florida I don’t blame you. It was a mindbleaching event, Never saw a snake explode while trying to digest a meal before.
I actually know several people like Jin. They want to throw it away on a whim or for selfish, misguided reasons. I don’t blame Bud for going postal, I did the same for those people trying to talk some sense into them…. Problem is when your dealing with someone willing to jump off a cliff despite all logic and reason saying not too, there is only so much that can be done….
Of course the worse part about the whole affair is when they try to sound mature and logical about their decisions…
If you add the fact that in Jin’s case she’s been given the world…. she has her mortality back, she has her mother back, and she has the love of a caring guy… all the things Bud doesn’t have. So yeah, Bud has every right to be seriously pissed off….
That’s the LAST time I go to bed before the turnover in the name of “Rest” or “Health” or whatever….
I can no longer add to the debate since so many interesting things have been raised…but I am really looking forward to what comes next because whatever Jin says after today will establish a new paradigm for her relationship with Bud…
Just a morbid question – If Jin had succeeded in whacking herself, what would have been left? Kurt Cobain, or a headless clay statue? The nature of this new Jin remains in limbo – if she goes on to age and die, what will be left then? There are issues here that are not at all clear.
I’m probably in a minority for not agreeing or cheering Bud on at this point. (Eh, I’m used to it.) But there is a time and place for everything. I’ve seen what Bud’s approach will net when a person is still emotionally fragile. In RL, it can make them try again (and that might be the time they succeed). So while I do see Bud’s PoV, her timing is way off. Listen to Jin, try and understand her feelings (including how long she’s been going through all the time resets alone), then when she’s emotionally stronger, have a good whack at her with the tough love approach. Part of this now is Bud’s anger, and I think while she has a right to feel it, she needs to aim it somewhere else for a bit.
From a psychiatric position that actually depends on the person. Bud is using the “Ones you leave behind” method. This one works well on people that have people that they actually care about. That is why she threw Alan into the mix. Bud knows that Jin loves him with all of her heart. Her reaction to the snowmobile jump is proof of that. Her tossing the I guess you don’t give a shit about me line is also well placed. These are things you use to a person that should be rational except for a moment of weakness. Jin should be rational now that the walls stopped talking to her after all. She only tried to end herself when she thought “Ok I’m mortal right now, but this may change in an instant, time to use it or lose it.” That is a split second decision and not a rational one but this may also be part of the reboot process.
Also I hate to say this but if a person is making a real attempt at suicide and not the cry for help attempt not much can stop them from doing it. A truly suicidal person will not let something as silly as rationality of the people that love them stop them from ending it. in that case it tends to be a complete lack of believing that they have people that want them around so they have no self worth in them.
I don’t think Bud is following any kind of strategy here. She’s just hurt and angry and feeling abandoned. She’s lashing out. Jin, on the other hand, is realizing what she almost threw away, is regreting it and feels guilty as hell. This hits hard enough that I still tear up a little at the last panel, even though I’ve looked at the comic several times since it was posted.
In that regard, Jin used the right procedure, just not the right time.
People that really try to off themselves do not announce that publicly, they do it quietly “in the own back yard” so to speak.
Jin in that regard was a bit stupid because there were still people around.
Not saying of course that I agree with what she did, quite the opposite, but if no people would have been around, it would have worked.
I’m going to raise a point that I don’t think has been mentioned yet. I don’t think back when the girls were in the pit, they spoke the same language as Jin (or each other for that matter) and could be communicated with to tell them what was happening. Also the subject of why Jin did what she did in the Pit never came up until comparatively recently. So Bud spent a loong time resenting and not liking Jin for those events.
Now she knows and probably feels a tad guilty for all those years disliking Jin. She has injured a vulnerable Jin and is really not knowing how to deal with the concept of a human-like Jin and all that that represents. Also, she can’t deck her with a world-shattering right hook any more.
You go Bud.
On another note, I knew that’s how Bud felt. Jin and her have always been at odds. You can’t feel close to someone that you don’t think cares about you at all.
Bud cares about her, I think. But as she’s said here, she doesn’t think it’s mutual.
You go indeed, Bud. And the GG do care about each other, that much is obvious.
Yeah, I think Jin does care about Bud.
But the thing is you still have to someone you care about them, or they won’t ever know.
I’m sorry, “SHOW someone you care about them”.
Jin got herself killed for these girls.
Not entirely sure what else she could have done to show she cared for them…
And sure they didn’t know her them but from Jins standpoint – she had shown them.
oooh then again – lightbulb (and im really hoping i am not bathing in someone elses glow again today!)
maybe thats why…
she has already SEEN jin kill herself. When she was still human. She went through the betrayal of being left alone.. now she gets to see it again.
yay!
Pretty much what you said at the end there.
Be sure to read Yamara’s post below.
That’s not how Bud views it though.
We’ve heard Jin, Bud, and Brandi’s account of their original deaths.
In Bud’s version, she clearly resents Jin killing herself, going so far as to state that Jin gave up and/or abandoned them.
Since their time as the Chimera, Bud and Jin have almost never gotten along. Before the Calendar Machine arc began (and the revelation of the past cycles Jin remembered), the two constantly fought, even coming to blows more than once. Based on all 3 GGGs, Jin and Bud have done this throughout history (which was probably the primary way they caused trouble for Tepoz), with Brandi usually being forced to play peacekeeper.
Despite all their past troubles and conflicts, the GGG are, for all intents and stuff, sisters. They’re family, and Jin trying to kill herself is, like the first time, a major betrayal in Bud’s eyes, and shows how little Jin cares for Bud and Brandi.
Not to mention Bud’s dealing with the reality of her entire existence being rocked by May. Bud, far moreso than Jin or Brandi, has found comfort in defining just what the she is, bouncing back and forth between a girl, a monster, or a mindless machine. Bud finally has found comfort with accepting herself for what she is, and May just changed everything.
Whether we see it in-comic or not, Bud needs to get away from May and talk herself down with Monica, Shelly, or Brandi (I figure Brandi would be her first choice, but she may be afraid of upsetting Brandi, so she may run to Monica or Shelly, definitely not Tina).
Paula,
besides showing someone you care for them, it does help to say it once in a while. Reminds me of the old, taciturn farmer whose wife complains after 30 or 40 years, “You never say you love me!”
He responds, “When we got married, I told you I loved you.
“If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”
But that’s not really good enough, is it?
@bmonk
i quoted that farmer quote today at work
two women found it funny and sweet (like myself)
the third found it horrible
so mixed reactions 🙂
^ Paula, yeah, I hear you. I just think the fellow is deluded: he may love her, but he does need to say it every so often. Once a month? Once a week? If he practices, and adds why he loves her, or how, it may get to be more natural–and he’ll find new things to love about her.
What went unaddressed in comments yesterday was that Bud’s issues with Jin’s suicidal efforts long predate that scene with Alan.
Jin could have gotten herself and all of them out of the Pit in the first place. Instead she went for a tactical self-destruction at the feet of Bud and Brandi. Bud has never been told why.
So she must be less than shit to the Timekeeper’s daughter. To Bud, she has completed her duty, and her mysterious betters can now go f*ck themselves.
Though I think we may be in for a Big Answer out of Jin very shortly.
You hit the nail on the head.
I saw the episode as her killing the priest in an effort to free the others. Problem was she hung around too long, reveling in her kill and was discovered by the guards. Not that she purposly sought to have herself put in there with them.
That playing with the guts thing, however, makes me wonder about Jin’s true basic nature. No matter how you look at it, that’s far from normal (the time shift thing notwithstanding). She may have other issues that are yet to surface again.
No, she committed suicide in the pit (somehow) so that the priests couldn’t fully carry out their plans, which required the sacrifice of all three at once.
I always thought Bud had been told why she did it.
Her and Brandi walked in when Monica and Tepoz confronted Jin. I had always assumed they had heard the whole conversation but it was perhaps the tail-ending they heard.
Yes, she committed suicide when finally thrown into the pit, but I’m not so sure that was her original plan. I see it as a last ditch measure to thwart the priests efforts. If she planned to be cast in with the others, why did she try to run when guards showed up?
It also seems like the priests had a strange lapse in judgement. They knew they needed broken subjects for the chimera to be under their control, yet they used Jin knowing she wasn’t broken first. I guess they figured 2 out of 3 is good enough, and it was. Then again, it could be a large part of process is that the subjects must be burned alive (May was). That may have put a bigger wrench into the gears than the fact she wasn’t broken. If she could have killed Bud and Brandi first, as well, it may have failed entirely. Not that it would have mattered much. They would have just found someone else to use.
As I understand it, even though Jin took on the priests, she realized that they’d simply kidnap more girls and carry on with the Chimera project. Her solution was suicide in the hope of corrupting the Chimera, so destroying it.
In the end, the Chimera was created using their bodies, but was unstable (as Jin had hoped). Bud, now an incarnate fury, took control of the Chimera and used it’s powers to destroy those who created it, and much of mankind and the civilization that existed at the time.
Each of the GGs had their own personality while part of the Chimera. Brandi later commented that trying to stop Bud’s rampage was “like wrestling the sun.” Jin’s essence may simply have stood by while Bud wreaked havoc, as this fit with her goal — vengeance on those who made the Chimera weapon.
So, in the end, Bud’s anger is not only had Jin getting her Life back, but at Jin for knowingly setting her up in the Chimera to destroy millions of lives.
Guilt, outrage, and envy. And still she has the presence of mind to call Alan. Salt for the wounds? Impotent rage?
To be determined…..
I’m pretty sure it was Jin that said the part about wrestling the Chimara. And from the way that Brandi tells the story of Jin coming, its more likly she was the one standing by and letting Bud destroy the world. Even so, the parts where Brandi has had ones she loved threatend she shows are very hostile change of mood.
I think the parts of the Chimara go more like;
Bud-Fury/Rage
Brandi-Protector/Guardian
Jin-Control
“She could have gotten out of that pit any time she wanted.” And therefore, she could have taken Acacia and Brandi out of there, too.
Attacking the priests was a tactical move to get into the pit and put an end to the killing of eighteen year olds. But her plan could not save the last two: she couldn’t afford to have them see through her strategy. This is the source of Bud’s eternal anger with Jin.
How do you ask a girl to be the last girl to die for a mistake?
Considering Bud is the most grounded of the three. She’s the defacto mother figure and has watched over Brandi and Jin doing here best to hold it all together so she has every right to feel the way she does.
It’s not nice to scare mom that way.
You’re totally right about that, but I think Brandi is more of the mother figure of the three. Bud is more of the older sister figure from my point of view.
No clue what Jin’s family role is. She’s doesn’t have to do it anymore, but she’s spent eons just manipulating others to get a job done. She’s even had to remind herself in a comic that she wasn’t supposed to get attached like she had in a different loop (she was specifically referring to Shelly that time).
Yeah. That.
And Jin’s behavior, odd as this statement may seem, is pretty classic middle-child: fight up and fight down to make a space for yourself, and learn how to manipulate the hell out of everybody in the process.
Hey! I resemble that remark!
Except, instead of calling it “manipulation” (such an ugly word!), I call it “diplomacy.”
And I actually didn’t fight too much. The bigger kids can hurt when you fight, and the little kids can get protection from any handy adult, so fighting gets to be counterproductive.
Bud cares about her, I think.
I don’t think Bud would be leaking tears if she didn’t.
Or getting so angry and upset. It’s those we love who can really tick us off–when we don’t care, we can just shrug and walk away.
So she called Alan in. I guess even though she’s pissed off, she is still thinking somewhat clearly. Not everyone can do that.
maybe
or maybe its akin to ‘im calling your mother as you did something dumb!’
Or she’s calling a pinch-hitter. Monica would show sympathy to Jin, and Shelly’s mind is a thousand miles away at present. Alan will give Jin ‘almost’ as much grief as Bud (ala the Knife incident) and let Bud get far, far away from Jin and May so she can talk herself down.
Yes, Jin needs a real, compelling and highly personal reason to continue to live for now, and I think Alan is it. I’m betting the term “goober” enters the conversation at some point too.
I’m just hoping he thinks the same way.
Finding out your loved one whom you have been trying to help stabalize just tried to off herself the first chance she got might be a tad annoying to him.
I doubt he would walk away from her but I am unsure if he would want to continue to date her..
Not sure there. It’s not uncommon territory for the two. Just before the Calendar Machine was fixed/destroyed (breaking = one way of fixing it) Jin expressed to Allan her hopes that she could finally die and stay dead.
Granted, Allan was rather irritated by the sentiment, but at least its been addressed, meaning Allan will not be as blindsided by Jin’s attempt to do so (well, as much as anyone can be when your immortal lover suddenly turns mortal and immediately attempts suicide while you were away for 5 minutes) and quicker to understand just how serious the situation is.
If he didn’t run off after watching her roll a stainless steel carving knife against her wrist, being generally nonchalant/joking during some of her not quite lucid moments, while also knowing exactly what she is and what is going on
I doubt he’s going to walk out on her now 😀
^ Amethyst Shadow, true–but he will have to learn that she’s no longer indestructible that way.
I’m hoping the term “goober” comes up in that conversation. 🙂
I am also praying for the term “goober”. That would be wonderful. XD
There’s something else as well.
Jin has her mortality now. Bud doesn’t, and there’s no guarantee that she ever will again.
I don’t think for a moment that Bud is taking this knowledge gracefully.
Well she’d probably have taken it better if Jin had taken her mortality and lived happily with it instead of trying to waste it an kill herself.
It sucks to see someone you don’t get along with get the thing you’ve always wanted.
It sucks more to see someone you don’t get along with get the thing you’ve always wanted, and then watch them try to throw it away.
why wouldn’t Bud not have the capability of normal life again?
Jin’s mother has shown that she is capable of giving it back to them in a form.
Yeah, but she did it with a particular relic, and there’s nothing that tells us that there are any other such relics out there.
There COULD be. But that’s only speculation.
Just as long as nobody asks Shelly to go sit in a forrest out side of time for another 80,000 years.
Right, if it were as simple as carving a symbol in Jin, I would think she would have done that long ago. It seems as if the power boost of the key, or something like it, is needed to make it happen. I’m wondering if there is still something in Stonehenge.
Hmm
Would she have?
I reckon May had Jin as backup should her experiment with distroying the calender machine failed (like it did)
After all – Jin describes how May vanished and at that point (i think though could be getting my timelines crossed) Jin WAS part of the Chimera and under slight control (though seems like Jin was never controlled really…) so how did she get away from her ‘guardians’ to meet up with her mom?
I don’t think May thought of Jin as a backup. Jin was hiding when May was dragged into the demon world. She wasn’t supposed to be involved. I’m pretty sure May didn’t plan to be whisked away at that time either. It all just went wrong and Jin was left holding the bag. Though one wonders how she didn’t know about that trap since she was it’s architect. At that time, Jin was made immortal but could still die. She did what she could but wound up as part of the chimera. The rest, as they say, is (faux) history.
Also Jin was rendered inert at some point in the far distant past (somehow) and placed under the care of tepoz. So, how was she manipulating everyone all that time if Tepoz didn’t “unfreeze” her until recently? As I see it, that’s a bit of a plot hole. Jin was supposed to be doing things independently, guiding all the players into position through all those resets (which rewound to before the chimera rampage), yet she was part of the trio when materialized by Tepoz and seemed quite unaware of that role. That just doesn’t jive.
Jin had enough control over herself that Tepoz did not know about when he amended the girls in his care. She was running situations behind Tepoz’s back. She had to play dumb on the “first” meeting with Monica.
Submitted without prejudice, Paul, make sure that jibes with this statement of Jin’s, which is presumably not a deliberate lie, as it is made to Monica:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/verydangerous/
Perfectly happy to let it all play out in the narrative.
You know, I’d forgotten about that. All that would indicate the girls were not inert until Tepoz recently summoned them as I had thought. The details are foggy as to when this happened or where they were and what they were doing (hanging around the house for thousands of years?). Anyway, that would allow Jin to poit away from time to time to do her manipulating thing. For that matter, she could be doing it much earlier since she was still human for some time before even the chimera rampage. I guess she would remember the previous cycle(s) from the moment the CM started up. So why didn’t she stop the priests, knowing what was to happen? Surely she could have devised a plan by the final cycle to do that and end all future problems?
The time loop only went as far back as AD 562; the Chimera was unleashed around 10500 BC. Jin only had the one shot at stopping the priests, and that was before she even knew time loops would happen.
Since Bud mentioned bothering Amenhotep IV (c. 1350 BC) the Golem Girls must have been separated and semiautonomous by that time.
So Jin is clearly able to handle stuff behind Tepoz’s back during the time loops. Tepoz is even inert from AD 1600 on, making it even easier.
Historiography is your friend. It’s why the chronology page on the wiki gets so granular; comparative dating is how historians fill the plot holes of mankind.
(Yeah, yeah. That’s what she said. Rimshot.)
Well, they still have the ‘galactic alternator’ dingus that May found…
Forgot about that. So I guess she has been looking to some degree.
Do we really know Bud has a problem with immortality? She may be quite content with things as they are for her in that regard.
As far as I can tell the only problem Bud has with her form of immortality is the fact that she is unchanging. She hates her straw hair and noodle arms after all.
Yea I was wondering earlier.
Bud – the one who wants to be able to change found the relic.
So far it has changed two people.
Shelly and Jin.
That would kinda grate 😛
Bud lays it out as it is! I like it, and can understand her point to it!
As for Jin’s mortality, I get it, but personally, if I was tortured, brutalized and abused in a pit for god knows how long, Id damn sure keep wheat I became instead of letting it go and that agony all being for nothing.
Thats my view on it more or less.
Ciao! 😀
I think tha tthe torture of her death is not so much a problem to Jin as the fact that she has relived the same set of years 57 times and each time she felt more and more helpless to do anything as she gained and lost everything each of the 57 resets. She even fell in love with Monica’s grandfather until she discovered that Mon was a key to stopping the calender and had to let him go to find his future wife for who knows how many resets. 80,000 years is bad enough, but living that long while living through Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day all of those times during it. That to me is a hell far worse than anything Dante saw.
Oh I forgot, she also made mention that for the last several resets she has distanced herself from the others to increase the chances for the missions final success. She might have tried to fix the damage she caused but the absence of the calendar brought back her schizophrenia and made her useless to fix anything. Then she finds that she has humanity as she regains control of her mind for the first time in a while and her first thought is ‘now or never’.
Hmmm… I think that Bud suddenly realized what she actually wanted too.
She probably cannot understand why someone would waste a chance for a complete life.
She illustrates quite well how some people that are left behind after a suicide, feel.
Odd though, despite Bud and Jin constantly being at each other’s throat, and despite the fact that Jin gave all to save Bud&Brandy, Bud doesn’t seem to realize how much Jin must have been suffering.
Losing her Mom over some contraption to help her get her marbles back. Killing herself to prevent the priests from having power over the golems, unable to stop the chimera, fueled by Bud’s hatred and anger etc. etc.
I don’t know if Bud wants exactly what Jin has gotten, but she’s definatly feeling left behind and left out. There’s a feeling of “I did all of this for you and you wanted to just throw it away”. I think she’s also scared of what thier freindship is going to evolve into. Bud really needs to go talk to Shelly.
Bud has spoken with Shelly, and doubtless will again.
Jin could use this conversation with Shelly, though. Let alone bonding with someone her own age.
Think we may be missing something, May said the artifact “fixed” Jin; she gave Jin mortality by inscribing the glyph inside Jin. Presumably, that could be done to any of the girls. or am i missing something?
now, just like “real” ppl, they have a choice.
You could be right. It’s quite possible to miss something in a comic this complicated.
Yep. That’s been my point above and in yesterday’s comments. Bud, far moreso than Jin and Brandi, feels it necessary to define just who and what she is. We’ve only recently seen her finally become comfortable with the nature of her existence. Now, May’s just offhandedly shattered Bud’s entire perception of self, something Bud had no preparation for going into this venture.
I think that’s the primary reason Bud’s enraged at May and needs to leave. Not because Bud hurt Jin, Jin’s vulnerable now, or Jin attempted suicide (partly, but not mainly), but because Bud’s panicking on the inside and needs to talk herself down before she lashes out and does something she’ll regret.
If she wasn’t, Bud would have no problem giving Jin grief until she died of old age. (>^_^)>
It’s possible Maya needed the extra energy the Relic provided to be able to change Jin’s parameters. If so, she’d need something similar to be able to do the same for Bud and Brandi, and there may not be more Relics around.
Of course, since Jin has a limited lifetime now, after she dies it might be possible to remove the Relic from her and put it in Bud or Brandi and change them. Then, when that one dies of old age, do the same for the other. Maya, on the other hand, would seem to be out of luck, since you’d need someone with both her knowledge and her golem abilities to make the change for her…
Regarding May: She could always teach one of the other immortal/long-lived beings to do it. Creatures like Shelly and Phix, or even Tepoz, would still be around. Just leave detailed instructions, preferably when your not stumbling over a few pitchers of martinis.
This also requires that Bud or Brandi even ‘want’ to die. Bud still seems to struggle with the nature of her existence, but Brandi seems perfectly comfortable with what she is. And there are plenty of other immortal beings out there (Phix & The Sphinxes, Nudge, Tepoz) so the pair will still have company after humanity and/or the Earth’s chapter comes to a close.
Actually, Shelly has a normal human lifespan. As I recall it, she only lived 80K years because she was in a timeless place at that time.
I wonder, though, if the short life would still be true if she reverted to her sphinx form and stayed that way.
Or even just took short excursions back to humanity from time to time.
You could take a long time to use up a normal human lifespan two or three days at a time.
Late on this reply, but meant Shelly if she were to go back to Sphinx-land, aka Shellynx. Sorry.
I’m thinking that Jin had to be turned back to clay before May could inscribe the symbol inside of her. Bud & Brandi would have to “die” by becoming clay again, in order to have that done to them, in order to become human again with new parameters. (Then the clay reanimates.)
Stjen- I agree everyone else seemed to ignore the reset, which if I’m right is when the re-programing of the parameters happened.
Jin’s calling Bud by her real name, “Acacia,” is sort of like Professor Jones Senior addressing his son as “Indiana” instead of “Junior.” It’s about as serious as it gets. Prelude to a heartfelt exposition, I would think. Glad there’s one more episode before the weekend. 😀
I’m still betting on a cliffhanger.
Oh, for sure – Paul wouldn’t want to give us a tidy weekend… 9_9
Bud didn’t even notice she called her “Acacia”.
I bet she did … just isn’t ready to accept peace overtures yet – she wants to tmake Jin sweat a little (now that she can).
Except that Indy’s real name is “Henry Jones Junior”.
“Indiana” was a name he chose for himself … just like my eldest nephew, Evan, has decided that his name is “Liberty Valance”
Right, but up until that point, his dad kept calling him by his given name, or by “junior”, and that sorta pissed him off… but when his dad called him by his “chosen” name, that’s when Indiana had a momentary brain fart as he realized WHAT his DAD just called him… so goes the same here i think. all this time from the time they got separated to now, Jin has been calling her Bud, and now all of a sudden she’s calling her by her real name… she’s gonna have the same brain fart in a few seconds and stand there speechless while Jin monologs about whatever she’s gonna talk about on our Cliffhanger Friday ™…
“Indiana was the dog!”
he loved that dog
I know I’ve posted a lot already, but I got one more before heading to bed.
I kinda hope Paul doesn’t have this resolved right away. I kinda want to Bud to walk out of there right now, all in a huff, and let both of them ruminate on what’s happened.
Then come in and fix it later (perhaps after visiting some other characters).
You’ve got to be kidding!
Do you seriously think that our Pablo will NOT take two or three weeks to resolve this? Or more! This is a candy store of issues that
canwill be examined, played with and hung on cliffs! If nothing else, Paul is a master of emotions, motivations and personal interactions and I expect nothing less than deep insights and revelations in the upcoming weeks.Hey, you never know!!
Hahahaha!! But you have a point. It IS Paul we’re talking about.
Be glad it’s not Chris Hasleton we’re talking about…
Bud might be pushing that one just a little too far.
I thought Allan spelt his name with an “a”?
Just hit refresh. Darn auto correct got me when I wasn’t looking.
“Dew knot trussed spill chick two ketch awl miss steaks.”
Already did, earlier. (Refresh, that is.)
It threw a wrench into your plans?
I’m possibly reading into this abit too much but well..
could Bud have known why she was one of the girls chosen? Similar to a Joseph scenario with her family betraying her?
The golem girls are the only ones she has been with and cared about for so long but she did have a family once right?
It’s just her pain .. it seems deeper than Jin trying to kill herself. She actually thinks Jin really doesn’t care about Bud despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Like I said prolly reading into it.
It’s possible. Bud also seems like the type to naturally feel defensive. Even if her family didn’t betray her, she may have, during her torture, convinced herself that they must have.
I think this is more a sibling love/hate thing though. Bud, Brandi, and Jin have been together for eons, endured more hardships than most people can imagine, and are 3 pieces of a single entity. They’re sisters. Bud and Brandi are beyond close, but Jin’s always kept her distance, possibly even before the cycles began. Regardless how much they clash and fight, they’re still sisters, and Bud can’t bear the thought of Jin just offing herself.
I mean, look how crazy Brandi went when she thought she had lost Bud to the Demon Realm. She had no problem outright murdering Shelly and Monica, her two closest friends, if there was a ‘slim’ chance it would bring Bud back. And Brandi’s the loving pacifist of the trio. Just imagine the pain Bud’s facing over this (coupled with all the other ways this event has affected her, as others have commented).
There is one more factor to consider.
Bud realizes that Jin’s mortality means she will be leaving soon, relatively speaking.
Bud is already in mourning.
Good point. In golem terms, it’s akin to Jin having a fatal disease.
Exactly. When you’ve known someone for thousands of years, a few decades doesn’t seem like very much.
Cliffhanger possibilities abound. Alan could be badly hurt trying to rush to the hospital. He could blow up and leave Jin. He could even propose marriage, though I hope not. Marriages seem to often kill the story line.
Well, would it mean that a guy in this story could be more than a prop? Because these guys are usually just around when the girls either need sex or just to grow a little. I wouldn’t mind Alan having a bigger role since he’s pretty cool. Marriage might make him a bigger part of the story. Who knows? Maybe a wedding could cause drama. (She says mostly thinking about Xander and Anya in Buffy.)
In this world…. yeah a wedding would actually be an adventure in itself…. sounds like fun. 🙂
While a lesser writer might not be able to handle the story once a couple ties the knot, I have enough faith in Paul’s storytelling abilities to write Jin and Allen as a married couple and make it interesting. Think Rick and Evy O’Connell from the Mummy franchise.
yeah, which they murdered with the last flick that included Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh… also, replacing Rachel Weisz with Maria Bello wasn’t smart.
Hmmm…this reminds me of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade…but it apparently didn’t work on Bud like it did on Indy…
And in this case, Jin is a snake. She’s not afraid of snakes. Let’s just hope that the nazis don’t show up
Goats eat snakes.
And vice versa. I was going to post a link, but it can’t be unseen.
Good call.
If it is anything like the clip of a python eating an alligator in Florida I don’t blame you. It was a mindbleaching event, Never saw a snake explode while trying to digest a meal before.
I actually know several people like Jin. They want to throw it away on a whim or for selfish, misguided reasons. I don’t blame Bud for going postal, I did the same for those people trying to talk some sense into them…. Problem is when your dealing with someone willing to jump off a cliff despite all logic and reason saying not too, there is only so much that can be done….
Of course the worse part about the whole affair is when they try to sound mature and logical about their decisions…
If you add the fact that in Jin’s case she’s been given the world…. she has her mortality back, she has her mother back, and she has the love of a caring guy… all the things Bud doesn’t have. So yeah, Bud has every right to be seriously pissed off….
That’s the LAST time I go to bed before the turnover in the name of “Rest” or “Health” or whatever….
I can no longer add to the debate since so many interesting things have been raised…but I am really looking forward to what comes next because whatever Jin says after today will establish a new paradigm for her relationship with Bud…
Just a morbid question – If Jin had succeeded in whacking herself, what would have been left? Kurt Cobain, or a headless clay statue? The nature of this new Jin remains in limbo – if she goes on to age and die, what will be left then? There are issues here that are not at all clear.
This is kinda a cliffhanger-cliffhanger! I’m anxious to be anxious.
I’m probably in a minority for not agreeing or cheering Bud on at this point. (Eh, I’m used to it.) But there is a time and place for everything. I’ve seen what Bud’s approach will net when a person is still emotionally fragile. In RL, it can make them try again (and that might be the time they succeed). So while I do see Bud’s PoV, her timing is way off. Listen to Jin, try and understand her feelings (including how long she’s been going through all the time resets alone), then when she’s emotionally stronger, have a good whack at her with the tough love approach. Part of this now is Bud’s anger, and I think while she has a right to feel it, she needs to aim it somewhere else for a bit.
From a psychiatric position that actually depends on the person. Bud is using the “Ones you leave behind” method. This one works well on people that have people that they actually care about. That is why she threw Alan into the mix. Bud knows that Jin loves him with all of her heart. Her reaction to the snowmobile jump is proof of that. Her tossing the I guess you don’t give a shit about me line is also well placed. These are things you use to a person that should be rational except for a moment of weakness. Jin should be rational now that the walls stopped talking to her after all. She only tried to end herself when she thought “Ok I’m mortal right now, but this may change in an instant, time to use it or lose it.” That is a split second decision and not a rational one but this may also be part of the reboot process.
Also I hate to say this but if a person is making a real attempt at suicide and not the cry for help attempt not much can stop them from doing it. A truly suicidal person will not let something as silly as rationality of the people that love them stop them from ending it. in that case it tends to be a complete lack of believing that they have people that want them around so they have no self worth in them.
I don’t think Bud is following any kind of strategy here. She’s just hurt and angry and feeling abandoned. She’s lashing out. Jin, on the other hand, is realizing what she almost threw away, is regreting it and feels guilty as hell. This hits hard enough that I still tear up a little at the last panel, even though I’ve looked at the comic several times since it was posted.
In that regard, Jin used the right procedure, just not the right time.
People that really try to off themselves do not announce that publicly, they do it quietly “in the own back yard” so to speak.
Jin in that regard was a bit stupid because there were still people around.
Not saying of course that I agree with what she did, quite the opposite, but if no people would have been around, it would have worked.
ALL of those girls need another night at the bar.
Yup, a good old fashion get drunk and wake up “purring” on Monica’s legs night out.
Thank goodness the tattoo portal is useless…we wouldn’t want Tina to get stuck inside Shelly again.
Well now that CG is not in the boiler room anymore it might have been more roomie. ;-p
I’m going to raise a point that I don’t think has been mentioned yet. I don’t think back when the girls were in the pit, they spoke the same language as Jin (or each other for that matter) and could be communicated with to tell them what was happening. Also the subject of why Jin did what she did in the Pit never came up until comparatively recently. So Bud spent a loong time resenting and not liking Jin for those events.
Now she knows and probably feels a tad guilty for all those years disliking Jin. She has injured a vulnerable Jin and is really not knowing how to deal with the concept of a human-like Jin and all that that represents. Also, she can’t deck her with a world-shattering right hook any more.
I’m sure others have mentioned it, too, but Jin’s “Acacia…” just breaks your heart.