as to how Brandi knew about it, well… there have been 56 CM resets, so I’m sure that in at least some of them she wrote the in the book she told herself things about what was going on. the whole thing may have been a bit jumbled due to differences in the various CM Loops, but even so she’d get the jist of it.
I believe that is in response to other ‘widgets’ that can make them human. The 80k Time Forest one was one such item, but the other day a strip revealed there were others, perhaps easier to obtain without as much cost.
And like others have pointed out, Brandi is making me afraid right now. She’s got truth bombs all ready to go explody on everyone. And She has that very calm, cool, I’m going to rock your existance type of composure. DUCK AND COVER!
Brandi might think she has better plans for all sorts of fixing problems–but it’s not necessarily true. Alternate plans might well have unintended consequences–look at the plan that resulted in the calendar machine and the trouble it caused for both Jin and Mayahuel.
Not saying that another plan would have been worse, since the plan that worked (so far) also has consequences, like Shelly’s 81k year exile and multiple deaths, but it’s hard to know if another plan would have been better or worse.
So, Brandi, who would have guarded the vimana cell already placed in the Time Forest from a previous timeline, the beings you made a pact with while alive?
I see what you did there.
Not sure I could remain sane with an 11-dimensional strategic mind. Maybe golems other than Jin can by fiat. But I can only imagine Brandi sitting at home watching HGTV thinking stuff like, “If the Snuggie is being marketed as outerwear, then the immortal politicians must be ready to return the global economy to a. feudal state. Therefore Tina’s coffee shop and Jin’s life are in immediate danger.”
Also, Brandi grew furious for not being told about the vimāna cell which Bud could not have known about because of Brandi’s insistence on remaining oblivious.
I figgure that Brandi blowing up at Bud was her figuring things out and realizing Shelly went in the time forest for no good reason. At least as she saw it. I thought Brandi was being kept out of the loop, I just didn’t realize SHE was the one keeping herself in the dark.
Also, I wonder how much of all we’ve seen is the results of multiple Brandis’ plans interacting with Jin who was aware during all the cycles, May who was working from outside of time and Shelly who was influencing events from downstream (or is it upstream?) with foreknowledge about what had already happened in later cycles when she put her plans in motion.
I think this applies.
That Trope could apply to almost everything that happens in Wapsiverse. There’s always multiple agendas being played against every major event in-comic.
Heck, the driving force of Monica’s character through most of the Calendar Machine arc was raging against all the gambles being made on her actions (Tepoz & Co, May, Jin, Brandi, Phix, Bud & Shelly & CG, Tina & Nudge, all had their own plans for Monica running at the same time).
Brandi’s just a pro at it, since she can not only set pieces to play out over a few thousand years, but also outwit herself, Jin, and a host of demons (Tina’s, Monica’s, Jin’s, and Nudge) in the process.
Is it really a Xanatos Roulette if it involves forewarning or foreknowledge via time repeating loops and such? And are we seeing Brandi realize that her own Xanatos Roulette has actually worked? As for the trope itself, if it’s named after the character i think it’s named after, it’s a bit misleading: he didn’t make plans whose results depended on very particular outcomes, he just had 1,001 contingency plans for the major potential outcomes.
Yeah, there is this attraction to scary-smart women that got me in quite a few unpleasant schlamassles, especially because I am smart, but by no means scary-smart, and they tend to be juuust enough steps in advance, that I can feel stuff go haywire, but cannot do anything about it anymore.
If that makes any sense… 😛
I guess it’s like that self-destructive kind of attraction that some women feel towards abusive men, and keeps them going back, despite the hurt….
I think that’s one of the more shocking revelations one aquires as one is growing up. That there are people out there who are actively trying to manipulate others to achieve a certain outcome. We go along just assuming others are interacting with us like we do. No agenda, just going along day to day and going about our business. It’s disconcerting to think there are those watching us and couching what they do and say to us and others so as to control the situation by underhanded means. Not being straight up with us as to their motives.
The “rude awakening” comes when one puts a bit of thought and time in it, and realizes how the scheme is constructed and worked..often faaaaar too late…
I suspect Brndi’s in a bad place right now. She’s received a whole bunch of shocks all at once (Jin’s human, Shelly’s a Sphinx who spent 80,000 years in a forest (I assume Bud told her that), she can be human too) and has remembered a nightmare from her past. I think she’s lost the control she normally keeps herself under and is speaking without considering the consequences. I imagine once she recovers she’s going to be even more guilt ridden for making Monica feel bad and distressed for showing what’s inside her head…
Our Brandi is not the innocent she seems to be. Especially given the gleam in her eye while talking of someone cutting out their own tongue. I have a feeling she used that “talent” while in the pit. Only this time it resulted in cutting out a whole civilization. Or … a plan which has not yet come to fruition. After this I could never trust her again. All I would be thinking is, “what might she be manipulating me into doing now?” Is whatever happening now a part of one of her plans? How could you ever believe anything she says after this revelation.
Taking into account the book Phix gave her in the library which turned out to be Brandi’s journal of everything that’s happen before. It makes perfect sense that she knows a helluva lot more than she lets on. Plus the fact Brandi is the ultimate passive aggressive.
She’ll never sully her hands directly but she’ll weave a scheme that would even have Machiavelli kneeling before her and calling her “MASTER”.
I wouldn’t lose my trust in her yet…not until I’d seen evidence that she wasn’t on my side or working towards a “good” that I agreed with. Manipulative in and of itself doesn’t make someone not trustworthy. It just means you need to be hyper-aware of their skills in dealing with them (and others) so that you aren’t manipulated in a direction you don’t wish to go.
Then again, if I were friends with Brandi, I’d probably trust her to have a better idea of where I should go than I do. I know I’m smart, but I’m not that great of a planner. I tend to fly by the seat of my pants and hope I’ll land in a good place. Knowing someone who has my back is giving me directions while I’m “driving” would be comforting.
Brandi is going into manipulate mode. The anger she has pushed her into a PLAN. We don’t know what it is but this is the first step. She just triggered a response in Monica. Wonder who she is going to trigger, next.
It MIGHT be okay to tell Shelly, ’cause a) Brandi knew what they were by description, but b) didn’t know the relic was designed to hold one, even after examining it, and c) apparently doesn’t know where one might find a V-Cell today – different if she knew there was a sale on them at Home Depot.
True. I think Shelly would be fine with the news. Though a rough way to find out, she needed the experience to understand her true nature and come to terms with it. After all, she could have gotten Nudge to warn her not to touch the artifact instead of going through all that stuff creating CG. She didn’t, indicating she felt it was something she should do regardless of the consequences to herself or the obtaining of the cell.
Aside from the 80,000 years, let’s not also forget Shelly’s time there resulted in her causing/witnessing (pending on how you view it) 1 to potentially 56 dead Shellys.
So its not just the time issue, but whether she feels any guilt over the 1-56 Shelly deaths, and whether in all honesty any of them had to actually happen. Based on this, Shelly Prime (the first cycle’s Shelly, the 1 we witnessed die) died in vein, since Shellynx didn’t need her to retrieve the Vamina cell at all.
THAT seems more prevalent than just 80k years in a forest (which, admittedly, is pretty big to start)
But it’s also possible that she would view the deaths of her other selves as penance for the stabbing of Monica in the head. *shrugs* To be honest, I don’t feel I understand Shelly’s character well enough to know how she’d react. That said, it does seem she’s been a lot more level headed since her return from the Forest. She could just take a deep breath and accept that she can’t change the past.
Yes, but the Shellys would have come to the TTF regardless. I think she was powerless to stop that. At least she was there as a sphinx to do whatever she could for them. Even if that meant killing them so they didn’t have to suffer there and die a lingering death for nothing. Given the pile of skulls shown at one point, I think they all died there in some way, even if not like the first Shelly by taking out the cell.
Granted, but judging by the way events played out, if Shellynx wasn’t there, Shelly#1-#56 could have survived, and possibly stopped the cycle resets in an earlier loop, creating all sorts of fun Time Paradox headaches.
Old Shelly’d go nuts over all those lingering doubts and unanswerable “What Ifs”. But like you guys have been saying, New-Shelly seems calmer, and may actually take it well. Guess we just need to see which side of her personality takes the front when that blow is delivered.
I don’t think any of the other Shellys could have stopped anything since the cell had to mature over the 80K years to be effective. It was a waiting game, basically. Removing it too early would have been ineffective. I think it had to be matured for Shelly to get a return trip as well. This means none of the other Shellys could have returned to their cycle regardless.
It’s also possible the other Shellys were not sphinxy. That breeding may have only occured in the 57th cycle’s remote past. There were differences in this cycle from all the others. That’s why everything finally worked out. Shelinx could have been one of those differences.
… that’s the whole point though SoWhyMe. The Vamina cell in the forest WAS pointless, per Brandi’s comment here. Meaning neither Shellynx nor the other 1-56 Shelly’s needed to fetch it, which could possible mean Shelly#1 – Shelly#56 died pointlessly, sacrificing their lives for a trinket that wasn’t necessary.
It’s like watching soldier after soldier in your platoon die to obtain a waypoint, only to be radioed the next morning and told you’re relinquishing that waypoint back to the enemy. Sure, the experience changed YOU, but those soldier’s died for nothing, and you witnessed it. It’s just a bit more messed up in Shelly’s case, as those soldiers are all versions of her.
It may have been pointless, but no one knew it was pointless at the time. Also it was unavoidable since no one knew that would happen to Shelly when she held the artifact. If Brandy knew, she said nothing about it. For whatever reason, Phix and Nudge were sworn to secrecy. Once Shelly understood what was going on she was already in the trap. The same for the rest of the Shellys.
Nonetheless, the entire exercize was more tha just getting the cell. The TTF was unwinding time, correcting for the cycles which had occured. Shelly’s presence was necessary for her growth as the creature she was. The other Shellys were mostly collateral casualties caught up in the correction process. While it may not have been necessary for the obtaining of the cell, there was much more going on besides that. At least that’s how I see it.
Shelly is a penitent. She’ll flog herself over that for aeons.
But your also correct. Telly her that she suffered needlessly would really honk her off.
After a bit of ponderous weighin many options, I go for the case in which Brandi could only see the unneccesary banishment of Shelly in hindsight because the vimana-cell found in the sub and Jin’s returning to “flesh&blood person” were the facts missing.
It wasn’t the cell that was discovered in the sub, it was the container/machine to be powered by one of the cells.
Also, Jin did not return to flesh and blood. She is still a clay golem. The difference is her power input has been reduced to a human level by the insertion of the “key” (the relic with the cell inside). This also made her destructable. It seems that the girls are not indestructable simply because they are made of super clay, but also because of the power which could flow through them. Sort of like a force shield. Additonaly, she has been given a finite lifetime by the carving of the new symbol inside her by May. An expiry date, regrdless of the condition of her “body” at the time.
Overall, this makes her esentially human again, in function at least.
Hence the apostrophes” around flesh and blood. She can still ask Alan embarassing things about humping clay Dolls..heheheh..
Of course I meant the container-thingy. Just got used to thinking of the container and the power core as the same thingymabob…
Still, Bud mentioning the vimana-cell must have been the last missing part Brandi needed to string together all…
Maybe a bit of a subject change. As for Shelly’s 80k years, the vimani cell (or however you spell it) was somehow found by a main character in another timeline, probably accidentally. That means that it is fairly close to the main cast in this timeline as well.
I don’t think any of those Shellys placed the artifact in Ireland. They were in a different cycle from ours. Thus anything they did would not show up in the last cycle. Whatever was done in the TTF, OTOH, would continue on from cycle to cycle.
this seems off topic to what she just said?
trying to distract monica perhaps?
and perhaps she DIDN’T need to spend the years in the forest but if she wasn’t going to the forest Creepy would never have been around and Shelly would never have had the inner strength to believe in the plan and stab monica.
It’s Brandi. She jumps around a bit when she’s piecing things together in her head.
2 updates ago = Brandi still thinking.
Yesteday’s update = Brandi detailing the last time she acted directly (an innocent baby died and she was golemized).
Today’s update = Brandi explaining why she no longer acts directly (superior results without having to get her own hands dirty).
It’s a progression in the conversation. “This is what happened last time I intervened. So, now I don’t, and with a little bit of time to think, look how much better my results are?”
Seems like Brandi does her thinking while talking. I tend to do that, often getting some baffled looks, because my logic, wrong or right, isn’t always that of the people around me..
Yep! I know what you mean… I’m the only one who listens to me so if i’m talking out loud (well, muttering really) to myself then i must have something to say that i need to hear, right? so when i say it, then i can actually think on what it was that i just heard, and then decide what needs to be done… if that makes sense?
My guess is that Shelly’s stay in the Time Forest was “needless” because there are other vimana cells that could potentially be accessed without that kind of soul-warping trial.
Orrrr shelly’s “sphinxification” is neccesary for some- even more convoluted, and complex- plan of Brandi’s, but Brandi, while listening to Bud ( I guess Bud filled her in after the rail-gunning of the golf -balls) realized they could have had a Shelly-sphinx-triggering AND a vimana-cell much easier…
It would frustrate ME to tha umpteenth degree, if a result of the suffering of a friend could have been obtained without, said, suffering.
Brandi is , as I see it, even more guilt-ridden than Bud, because, given the right facts as a tool, she probably could have figured-out a way to fix the CS and Jin without all the resets, pain and suffering.
Something like that could weigh SO heavily on someone’s mind, that sanity would be very VERY fragile…..
…aaand Brandy isn’t looking very mentally stable at the moment. I an constantly waiting for some major explosion.
heheheh.. sorry, still have to snicker at Bud’s exasperation with May’s apparent denseness..
But ,yeah, thing is, is a Galaxy-Alternator exactly the same thing as this oopart? I gathered this oopart was more of a multi-purpose power thingus, while the galaxy alternator was made by May specifically to fix Jin…
Although, giving herformer “success” with fixing Jin thru the Calendar-Machine. Well, let’s say I’d rather be in a different galaxy far faaaar away when May switches on her Alternator 😛 .
The oopart/vimanacellwhatchamacallit was not made by May. That sort of made me trust that thing more
Is that why she was upset that no one consulted her about the plutonium thingy. She knew about the artifact though. Seems like she would have mentioned something about obtaining the power source for it without Shelly being exiled for 80K years. I suppose she might not have known that would happen at the time. I think now she may be about to reveal how to get more with less trouble.
But her reaction with the basket of golf balls indicates she knew of the cells. Still it’s possible she didn’t know the artifact would require one to function. We’ll see I guess.
And it’s also possible that she knew what the artifact could hold, but she didn’t know it would suck Shelly into the Time Forest…though that seems less likely since today’s page implies that she knew about the Time Forest and what it held.
And I’m just realizing that Paul is using this strip to demonstrate his familiarity with Korean cinema. Those of you that have seen the film Oldboy will know what I’m talking about. At least I think Paul is referencing that movie. Are you?
What a convoluted piece of crap. And they’re remaking it? Well done crap is still crap. Why wasn’t the hypnotist punished in some way for her part in the crime? Everyone else was. Oh that’s right, that character was female so she gets a pass. Typical. The remake, being American, will have even more pointless slaughter of men in it, guaranteed. Probably involve the mob or the government (or both) as well.
Might I thensuggest that weird korean movie about two women befriending eachother, one a perfect cook, the other a purely living on water-loon, and the meatballs-theme?
One of the women gets eaten, no men harmed, except for 1 small murder that is. LOL
“301-302.” I have it. There are a few South Korean films with female centric victims. “2LDK,” Apt 1303,” “Whispering Corridors”, “Wishing Stairs”, “Voice Letter”, “D-Day” among them. I’m not saying they are all like that, just that the ones which are (i.e. 95%) are so blantant about it. Even more so in the US. If “D-Day” were re-made in the US, for example, I guarantee you it would be about a boys school instead. They often like to switch the genders here. OTOH, some, like “The Uninvited,” the American version of “A Tale of Two Sisters,” stayed pretty much the same, just a different telling.
Let’s be honest here. Most American remakes of Korean, Japanese ,Chinese, even European films ,suck monkey balls HARD!
When one has seen the originals, they always, invariably miss the point, or fiddle around with it to make it either A)Politically correct *baarff!* or B)dumb it down so the average Joe&Jill won’t be to challenged in their thinking.. And I am not even talking about the prudification that goes on.
So, despite having to read sub-tiles, I’d rather see the originals.
I agree 100%. I really hate dubbed dialog too. “Premonition” is a good example. They reversed the genders and had the spouse killed in the American version instead of the one having the visions, totally missing the point. But, it shows my point. In the original, the male (main character) was killed, in the US version, they switched the genders, yet STILL had the male killed. BTW, I liked the original. The US re-make was like a cross between “Groundhog Day,” “Memento,” and a generic satanic forces movie. A mess, but it had a big star so it did ok, moneywise.
Hmmm. Just how/when did Brandi learn that Shelly was in the Time Forest at all? Doesn’t seem to have occurred anywhere we’ve seen it… and if it had, Brandi would have known about the artifact having been powered up and would not have been surprised by Bud’s news about Jin.
Or, did Brandi just deduce it all, working backwards… Jin is human, so somebody must have found a vimana cell, but Monica says it wasn’t from this timeline, so it must have been from the Forest, so someone must have gone there for 80000 years and survived, and that must have been Shelly because … ?
I usually sigh deeply, trying to get the smouldering rage under control, an then start cursing SO eloquently, and in such speed, that it mostly results in collegues looking at me in amazement.. I even got app,ause once with the dry remark of my BFF : ” wow, never knew someone could curse so fast, and yet so utterly intelligible with such careful diction… LOL LOL
I DO hold myself from on-line cursing and name-calling, however attractive some trolls make it fot me to waiste them…
When something angers me on the internet, I usually do something about it. Unfortunately that often results in me getting banned or my posts being deleted, but at least I tried.
Ha…we’re all probably a bunch of people who fume (or fizzle…or smolder) about things beyond our control that frustrate us. It’s probably the norm for people who wander the internets since most of us can’t affect the things that bug us.
Those that can take action are hackers who do 90% of the things that frustrate me online…or are people who say things on forums or comment strings that get them in trouble like SoWhyMe. 🙂
The rest of us are saber-rattlers like Brandi…minus the scary genius planning and manipulative abilities.
Well, we’re all Internet-savvy folks here. I imagine that if we put our heads together we could come up with some really appropriate-in-context way of expressing our Fumarole Natures, if Paul were to be quite exceptionally cruel and hit us with three days of filler in a row at this critical time.
Let’s see… a good server somewhere, a copy of Asterisk running a multi-way MeetMe conference room, a donation of an 800-number toll-free dialup for a day, a dose of the people of Rock Ridge at the end of Blazing Saddles, and a dash of classic Monty Python in the Argument Clinic…
… and we’d have a hundred voices, mixed into unison, doing a group chant of
DON’T GIVE ME THAT, YOU SNOTTY-FACED HEAP OF PARROT DROPPINGS!
I really doubt it’ll come to that, though. Good thing, too. Some tools ought not to be used 🙂 and Paul is much too nice a guy!
I actually kind of love this update. We saw before with Bud just how hurt & infuriated Brandi was over this development. Now Brandi’s getting a bit of revenge by making revelations like this. Just the delivery is so evil, which makes it all the sweeter.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” and such. And Monica thought Jin was the vengeful, manipulative one. (>^_^)>
Perhaps people fall into that belief because Brandi herself encourages it… “I feel safer staying oblivious you see”.
Feels to me as if she has sort of built a psychological “bubble” around herself. She has her own “turf” which she can mostly predict and control… avoiding the unexpected and stressful… and she intentionally limits interaction with and knowledge of things outside of those boundaries (avoiding the unexpected and stressful by refusing to think about these things).
It could certainly look empty-headed and ditzy from outside, if you didn’t know the person well enough to know that it’s actually a deliberately-chosen defensive/coping mechanism.
That, and because Brandi knows if she’s involved in any level of the talks, she’ll overthink the situation and interfere with whatever Bud/Shelly/Monica/Tina/Amanda/Jin/May have in the works, which may or may not place one of them in danger when they finally go to act due to Brandi changing the playing field on them without their knowledge.
Between smashing babies and almost killing Monica and Shelly, we also see why Brandi shouldn’t always be present when potentially bad things are actively happening.
Nah. I think Brandi’s still a bit sore about the entire situation, and the rather flippant mention of something that’ll clearly upset Monica to say the least is her being “catty”.
Bud was right to be ‘viscerally’ scared of Brandi! I didn’t think it was an exaggeration on her part. Bud never struck me as one to make flippant comments.
*slins off to confusion-corner, grasping on to my only certainty, my latte, and even that i am not certain of anymore… Who knows what that wacko demon-barista did to my coffee.. 😀 … :LOL:
This would explain a lot–why Brandi knows she’s not at her best under pressure, why she got so upset when the others didn’t consult her, but she also did not talk more with them about other possible plans, and not least, why she comes across so threatening and eerie here.
Add to that her aversion towards unexpected surprises, her outbust when confronted with unexpected events (the ultimate reason she honed her manipulation-skills is imho to prevent stuff that panics her)
Being already genius-smart, plus scared shitless of the unexpected/uncontrollable ( check DSM IV for that) and thusly hyper- focused intensely on controlling her environment, makes her the chessmaster of chessmasters
And THAT viscerally scares the crap out of me too.
She seems to be in a difficult internal conflict. Uncomfortable with the unexpected and the stress of dealing with it… but even more uncomfortable with knowing too much because of what can happen when she does.
Being honest here: I got asperger diagnosed on a later age.
I sometimes wonder how much easier my childhood would have been when We, my parents, I had known then…
Not whining here, but asperger is treacherous in the sense that it is a ” socially functioning” form of autism. Hence, it takes some digging to find out. Mostly you’re only considerd “weird” and that’s the end of it. It’s not like you’re constantly sitting in a corner, slowly roching back& forth, as the popular image has it( although, heavy autism can do that)
Nowadays, as a grown-up, i happen to like my idiosyncracies.
As a child,not so much. In our community I was accepted as a lovable odd-ball. My school and High-school not so much.
” beating-up the crazy” was the chosen fun after school..no fun..
Hear hear! As a late diagnosed Aspie myself, when I first read Temple Grandin’s books I thought “WHOA, this is FAMILIAR! But I’m not this bad. Is it possible to be a little autistic?” Then I ran across the definition of Asperger’s syndrome and it was “So THAT’S what’s wrong with me!!!”
I likely have Aspergers, but never have been diagnosed as such. But, from my perspective, there’s always plans and possibilities. I can usually get what I want, or a reasonable facsimile.
It’s just that they tend not to include others, or making other people comfortable. Hence the social handicap.
But that’s the point, it is a handicap, so no one would describe someone with Asperger’s that way. The fact that she was described that way indicates that she had an easier time of it than normal, not a harder time of it.
Well, I guess it depends on what we are supposed to take as the most authoritative. I’ve been taking the statement that “she tends to find her way quite easily in almost any situation…” as authoritative, so (for example) Brandi must not have much of problem becoming overwhelmed or freezing, and if she says she does, she must not telling the truth. But if we are supposed to take what the characters say as authoritative, then it’s different.
Maybe she is showing the signs of Asperger’s recently, but I don’t see any signs of it the strips from years ago. For example, this one. If she had Asperger’s, why did she enjoy a place like the Cerberus club so much?
Being an asperger doesn’t mean someone cannot easily find his/her way, it only means it takes a lot more observation skills, planning and care than a “normal” person would need, this encourages the development of an intelligence very focused on “functioning” in a group, or social occasion.
It is a total conscious action this ” functioning” whereas normal people seem to have an instinctual way of functioning in a group, not needing a lot of thought.
It is about as clear as I can explain. Remember though, there are gradations of severity. Some sufferers are capable of f.i. Correctly, instinctuall interpreting other poeples postures, facial expression, and are thusly quite capable of functioning very well socially.
Ps. It also does NOT mean one doesn’t like company. Only that it is a bit harder to get “in” to what other poeple feel, experience. And too busy surroundings, or emotions get one to “zone-out” bad..
Ooh.. I like that description! Indeed, I constantly worry that I am missing some subtle gesture/facial expression, so, I do study others as if they are from another planet.
Aaand to me they are in that I will never be able to fully understand the intricacies of social interaction, but I am pretty damn good at faking it.
One of the more interesting things I’ve seen in neurology research in recent years, is the discovery of “mirror neurons”. They’re a type of brain wiring which “fires” when we go through some form of activity or experience… and *also* fire in a very similar way when we observe another person go through that activity or experience.
They are, in effect, the brain wiring which helps us “feel” other peoples’ experiences as if they were our own. This seems to lead to the experience of empathy, and thus aids immensely in handling group interactions easily… you get along, because you know how the other people in the group are feeling. It’s sort of a hard-wired ability to “walk in their shoes”.
I wonder whether Asperger syndrome, the more severe forms of autism spectrum disorder, and some varieties of sociopathy may arise from (or at least involve) neurological deficiencies of various degree in this “mirror neuron” system.
Chessmaster… feels safer staying oblivious… given time she can make a subtle plan to make someone damage or destroy themselves… made a pact with Something… incredibly good at peicing facts together…
… mix and stir …
Could Brandi have somehow set up the whole situation which led to the Chimera running amok and destroying almost everything? Was she the crucial player?
If so, it’d explain why she might want to stay oblivious and out of the loop now… doesn’t trust herself to know facts that could enable her to manipulate in that way again.
She was disturbed by the fact that (through her diary) she manipulated herself and Bud into the right situation to destroy the Calendar Machine… maybe she’s now remembering more about why she is / should be scared of that tendency in herself…
Good point. Is she so far gone that she is unable to control herself? Once she knows something, she is compelled to act on the information? She can’t help herself to the point she even manipulates herself. Thus her ignorance is bliss policy. The less she knows, the less harm she might do. But once triggered, as seems to be happening now with the knowledge there are cells out there still, she springs into action like a machine executing a plan, or the next part of one. Sort of like a post-hypnotic instruction.
To quote from Larry Niven, “There is little free will among Protectors.”
If you are incredibly brilliant, and can always see the right / best / correct path of action in any given situation and set of facts… then you have little choice available to you. You are almost a slave to what you know …
… and your only path to remaining free would be to remain ignorant.
It gets worse: Brandi is probably capable of pre-thinking every scenario leading to a certain solution, even the bad solutions.
It could get someone stuck in a state of fugue: too many possibilities and their calculated-through -in-extremis outcomes would be quite enough to completely Paralyze a person, phazed-out, like Brandi is now, babbling on about herself, apparently oblivious to Monica’s reactions ( would she be capable of reading Monica’s facial expression an body language..)
Poor, poor Brandy. Being super-smart isn’t always so great.
Interesting theory. That may explain why the brilliant among us are not so often the ones making the more inovative discoveries. All to often these discoveries are made because of taking the wrong path. What is learned by that action culminates in new vistas opening through unexpected, even totally unforseen results.
Brilliant people often lay the ground-work and pose the questions needed, but they are not very often the ones that find an application for brilliant theories.
That is mostly the club of tenacious and practical people with a vision that have the insight of using, said, brilliant theory
My ex once tried explaining ( she was Mensa-scary smart) brilliance.
Being brilliant is like being stuck in traffic because everyone around you suddenly forgot what the accelerator pedal was for…. You could explain it, weren’t it for the fact that they forgot how to talk& listen too.
To her the whole world, including me, was stuck in the slow-lane, blocking all entrances and exits, and she was even more baffled that I didn’t immediately see through her manipulations…
Interesting. Sounds to me like she had the “woe is me” outlook. Everyone was hindering her in some way because they could not keep up. Unable to see she was likely her own worst enemy. There is some truth in the old saw “if you’re so smart, how come you’re not already a multi-millionaire?” It is a good litmus test, regardless of the triteness of it.
SuperSmarts combined with borderline syndrome is a recipe for trouble and failing, combine that with being spoilt rotten because your parents have only respect for brains, and not practicality..aaaand being much smarter than the parents…
Indeed I do. Sounds like my mom. She was brilliant and beautiful (well, still is I guess, I don’t know) but devoid of a conscience. Also quite petite. You wouldn’t suspect anything just looking at her. You also wouldn’t think she could produce a 6′ 1″ son either. I guess all that came from the sperm clinic doner she used. Small wonder she didn’t have any after me.
“Smart and manipulative” can often be a winning short-term solution – you set things up so you successfully achieve what you (think) you want.
I think it can come with a pretty nasty price, though, in that the people you manipulate are (once burned) going to be very reluctant to ever trust you again. They will not have your back, in the future!
Could be darned lonely if you make a habit of it, I suspect. You gain the world (or at least part of it) but you lose your friends and family… in the end you lose your “self”.
Sounds like Adrian Veidt in “Watchmen”; he saw what needed to be done to save the world (he thought), so he did it regardless of the cost. Protectors can sometimes be monsters, because they see horrors worse than they could be…
Very interesting. But we have seen some of the girls acting under assumption before. Shelly’s time in the clockwald wasn’t needed for the cell, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t pick up other things. Can well can Brandi handle others having a plan come together?
It’s begining to look as if Bud is the only one of the GGGs who is straight up about who she is and how she feels. No games. No plans. No manipulation. Even May seems to have her own secret aganda.
Bud also seems to be the only one of the gang whose mentality is running pretty much on-track, too.
Jin – schizophrenic, and (at least briefly) actively suicidal. Not at all her fault (schizophrenia is almost certainly an inborn vulnerability) but it’s definitely a factor in dealing with her (or has been… possibly truly cured now?)
Brandi – Asperger syndrome (also seems to be an innate issue).
May – not certain what the DSM IV would say (I’m not sure we’ve seen enough of her behavior to categorize)… she may have some of the same schizophrenic biology issues as Jin did/does, may possibly have issues with alcohol?
Bud’s clearly carrying around the emotional baggage of having been through horrible trauma and lashback… but I can’t recall seeing indications that she’s got any other issues of the mental-processing sort.
Have you ever had a chronic pain (physical or mental) which you were well versed in suppressing? So much so, that that supression had become a part of your very character? What I see in Brandi’s eye(s) in the first panel, is her reaction to an unexpected wave of that pain washing over her. Her comments thereafter a mental/verbal expulsion she’ll feel remorse for later.
Well shoot. Here I thought motor mouth might have some interesting translation into Dutch. Google, however says it’s just moto rmond. Hardly any difference. Soo I tried German … motor mund. Big deal. French … la bouche du moteur. That’s a bit amusing at least.
“kletskanis” babbelbox, zwamneus, flap-uit, babbelkous, roddelkont, all basically meaning the same i.e. Uninhibited blabbering about stuff one should keep silent about..
A true female affliction.. 😛
But none of them as cool as ” motormouth” It apparently is one of those words one picks up, and stores somewhere in the ” maybe useful later” bit of the brain.
It’s a bit unnerving to see Brandi like this — somewhat like a sweet little kitten suddenly growing huge fangs and claws and going for your leg. Quite interesting though. The moral of the story however is: bloody well ask Brandi first when you have something you don’t know what it is or what it does – or before you run off into some stupid ridiculously complicated scheme.
Shelly spent 80K years in Backward-Time Forest for nothing? How so?
good ol’ Nudge misunderstood our Shelly when she told her to make sure she “stays lost” which she took to mean “Heinz 57 ” therefore she had to wait until Shelly 57 showed up to enact the plan (not too sure what exactly the plan was… but…) but what Shelly actually said was “stays lost”… anyways this probably could have been done in CM Loop #1 for all we know if Nudge had just asked to clarify that sentence.
as to how Brandi knew about it, well… there have been 56 CM resets, so I’m sure that in at least some of them she wrote the in the book she told herself things about what was going on. the whole thing may have been a bit jumbled due to differences in the various CM Loops, but even so she’d get the jist of it.
oops! i guess the quote mark broke the link… it should read “steak sauce” in quotes… the rest should be just regular text…
I believe that is in response to other ‘widgets’ that can make them human. The 80k Time Forest one was one such item, but the other day a strip revealed there were others, perhaps easier to obtain without as much cost.
And like others have pointed out, Brandi is making me afraid right now. She’s got truth bombs all ready to go explody on everyone. And She has that very calm, cool, I’m going to rock your existance type of composure. DUCK AND COVER!
To add to my concern, Brandi has a smile that isn’t exactly right somehow. *shiver*
As I said the other day, that rictus is not a smile – it frees the fighting canines for combat – just like the Czinti.
Buggi- No man if you think it’ll help just run like you never ran before.
I guessif they had pressed Brandi to find a solution, she would have come-up with one, but she didn’twant to get involved somehow…
Question still is : character-trait, trauma-result? Evil-ness. 😛
Brandi might think she has better plans for all sorts of fixing problems–but it’s not necessarily true. Alternate plans might well have unintended consequences–look at the plan that resulted in the calendar machine and the trouble it caused for both Jin and Mayahuel.
Not saying that another plan would have been worse, since the plan that worked (so far) also has consequences, like Shelly’s 81k year exile and multiple deaths, but it’s hard to know if another plan would have been better or worse.
Did she already know about Shelly and the forest or did she work it out?
*shrugs*
But it wasn’t a powercell when they first got it..
it was just an empty container. the cell was in the forest. maturing.
hmm…
we always assumed for 80k years but…maybe not?
So, Brandi, who would have guarded the vimana cell already placed in the Time Forest from a previous timeline, the beings you made a pact with while alive?
I see what you did there.
Not sure I could remain sane with an 11-dimensional strategic mind. Maybe golems other than Jin can by fiat. But I can only imagine Brandi sitting at home watching HGTV thinking stuff like, “If the Snuggie is being marketed as outerwear, then the immortal politicians must be ready to return the global economy to a. feudal state. Therefore Tina’s coffee shop and Jin’s life are in immediate danger.”
Or is that just how I think.
It’s not just you. Some people think like:
1. Global warming, therefore,
2. Increased plant growth, so,
3. Invest in lawnmower companies.
4. Profit!
The underwear gnomes are still missing step 3.
Also, Brandi grew furious for not being told about the vimāna cell which Bud could not have known about because of Brandi’s insistence on remaining oblivious.
WRONG ANSWER
I figgure that Brandi blowing up at Bud was her figuring things out and realizing Shelly went in the time forest for no good reason. At least as she saw it. I thought Brandi was being kept out of the loop, I just didn’t realize SHE was the one keeping herself in the dark.
Also, I wonder how much of all we’ve seen is the results of multiple Brandis’ plans interacting with Jin who was aware during all the cycles, May who was working from outside of time and Shelly who was influencing events from downstream (or is it upstream?) with foreknowledge about what had already happened in later cycles when she put her plans in motion.
I think this applies.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GambitPileup?from=Main.ThirtyXanatosPileup
And mah head hurts.
That Trope could apply to almost everything that happens in Wapsiverse. There’s always multiple agendas being played against every major event in-comic.
Heck, the driving force of Monica’s character through most of the Calendar Machine arc was raging against all the gambles being made on her actions (Tepoz & Co, May, Jin, Brandi, Phix, Bud & Shelly & CG, Tina & Nudge, all had their own plans for Monica running at the same time).
Brandi’s just a pro at it, since she can not only set pieces to play out over a few thousand years, but also outwit herself, Jin, and a host of demons (Tina’s, Monica’s, Jin’s, and Nudge) in the process.
I enjoy a well played Xanatos Roulette. The best in my experience/opinion being Grand Admiral Thrawn
Is it really a Xanatos Roulette if it involves forewarning or foreknowledge via time repeating loops and such? And are we seeing Brandi realize that her own Xanatos Roulette has actually worked? As for the trope itself, if it’s named after the character i think it’s named after, it’s a bit misleading: he didn’t make plans whose results depended on very particular outcomes, he just had 1,001 contingency plans for the major potential outcomes.
Remember in this comic. When Brandy ask Monica how they found the Vimana Cell? And Monica said\
That was all the info Brandy need to figure it out. Bud is right. Brandy is scary “Super-Genius” smart.
I’m with you. She’s scary smart. Of course, this makes me like her more. I actually REALLY like Brandi in the loop. 🙂
Yeah, there is this attraction to scary-smart women that got me in quite a few unpleasant schlamassles, especially because I am smart, but by no means scary-smart, and they tend to be juuust enough steps in advance, that I can feel stuff go haywire, but cannot do anything about it anymore.
If that makes any sense… 😛
I guess it’s like that self-destructive kind of attraction that some women feel towards abusive men, and keeps them going back, despite the hurt….
I think that’s one of the more shocking revelations one aquires as one is growing up. That there are people out there who are actively trying to manipulate others to achieve a certain outcome. We go along just assuming others are interacting with us like we do. No agenda, just going along day to day and going about our business. It’s disconcerting to think there are those watching us and couching what they do and say to us and others so as to control the situation by underhanded means. Not being straight up with us as to their motives.
Exactly!
The “rude awakening” comes when one puts a bit of thought and time in it, and realizes how the scheme is constructed and worked..often faaaaar too late…
Makes sense. Too much sense.
Oh, eerily happy Brandi is creeping me out…
Man you’re GOOD Paul…
she be just confuzzling me 🙁
I suspect Brndi’s in a bad place right now. She’s received a whole bunch of shocks all at once (Jin’s human, Shelly’s a Sphinx who spent 80,000 years in a forest (I assume Bud told her that), she can be human too) and has remembered a nightmare from her past. I think she’s lost the control she normally keeps herself under and is speaking without considering the consequences. I imagine once she recovers she’s going to be even more guilt ridden for making Monica feel bad and distressed for showing what’s inside her head…
Our Brandi is not the innocent she seems to be. Especially given the gleam in her eye while talking of someone cutting out their own tongue. I have a feeling she used that “talent” while in the pit. Only this time it resulted in cutting out a whole civilization. Or … a plan which has not yet come to fruition. After this I could never trust her again. All I would be thinking is, “what might she be manipulating me into doing now?” Is whatever happening now a part of one of her plans? How could you ever believe anything she says after this revelation.
Taking into account the book Phix gave her in the library which turned out to be Brandi’s journal of everything that’s happen before. It makes perfect sense that she knows a helluva lot more than she lets on. Plus the fact Brandi is the ultimate passive aggressive.
She’ll never sully her hands directly but she’ll weave a scheme that would even have Machiavelli kneeling before her and calling her “MASTER”.
I wouldn’t lose my trust in her yet…not until I’d seen evidence that she wasn’t on my side or working towards a “good” that I agreed with. Manipulative in and of itself doesn’t make someone not trustworthy. It just means you need to be hyper-aware of their skills in dealing with them (and others) so that you aren’t manipulated in a direction you don’t wish to go.
Then again, if I were friends with Brandi, I’d probably trust her to have a better idea of where I should go than I do. I know I’m smart, but I’m not that great of a planner. I tend to fly by the seat of my pants and hope I’ll land in a good place. Knowing someone who has my back is giving me directions while I’m “driving” would be comforting.
Yup! Exactly the reason I could never trust my ex again, howevermuch she meant well.
Once bitten…
And Brandi is biting down HARD, with some scary-sharp mental canines..
Brandi is going into manipulate mode. The anger she has pushed her into a PLAN. We don’t know what it is but this is the first step. She just triggered a response in Monica. Wonder who she is going to trigger, next.
Things To Do List:
1) DON’T TELL SHELLY!!
i dunno
shelly would be fine with it
she felt like she needed to be punished for stabbing monica.
she got her punishment (albeit in a nasty way)
then again being told your punishment was for naught….that might miff her off…
It MIGHT be okay to tell Shelly, ’cause a) Brandi knew what they were by description, but b) didn’t know the relic was designed to hold one, even after examining it, and c) apparently doesn’t know where one might find a V-Cell today – different if she knew there was a sale on them at Home Depot.
True. I think Shelly would be fine with the news. Though a rough way to find out, she needed the experience to understand her true nature and come to terms with it. After all, she could have gotten Nudge to warn her not to touch the artifact instead of going through all that stuff creating CG. She didn’t, indicating she felt it was something she should do regardless of the consequences to herself or the obtaining of the cell.
Aside from the 80,000 years, let’s not also forget Shelly’s time there resulted in her causing/witnessing (pending on how you view it) 1 to potentially 56 dead Shellys.
So its not just the time issue, but whether she feels any guilt over the 1-56 Shelly deaths, and whether in all honesty any of them had to actually happen. Based on this, Shelly Prime (the first cycle’s Shelly, the 1 we witnessed die) died in vein, since Shellynx didn’t need her to retrieve the Vamina cell at all.
THAT seems more prevalent than just 80k years in a forest (which, admittedly, is pretty big to start)
But it’s also possible that she would view the deaths of her other selves as penance for the stabbing of Monica in the head. *shrugs* To be honest, I don’t feel I understand Shelly’s character well enough to know how she’d react. That said, it does seem she’s been a lot more level headed since her return from the Forest. She could just take a deep breath and accept that she can’t change the past.
Yes, but the Shellys would have come to the TTF regardless. I think she was powerless to stop that. At least she was there as a sphinx to do whatever she could for them. Even if that meant killing them so they didn’t have to suffer there and die a lingering death for nothing. Given the pile of skulls shown at one point, I think they all died there in some way, even if not like the first Shelly by taking out the cell.
Granted, but judging by the way events played out, if Shellynx wasn’t there, Shelly#1-#56 could have survived, and possibly stopped the cycle resets in an earlier loop, creating all sorts of fun Time Paradox headaches.
Old Shelly’d go nuts over all those lingering doubts and unanswerable “What Ifs”. But like you guys have been saying, New-Shelly seems calmer, and may actually take it well. Guess we just need to see which side of her personality takes the front when that blow is delivered.
I don’t think any of the other Shellys could have stopped anything since the cell had to mature over the 80K years to be effective. It was a waiting game, basically. Removing it too early would have been ineffective. I think it had to be matured for Shelly to get a return trip as well. This means none of the other Shellys could have returned to their cycle regardless.
It’s also possible the other Shellys were not sphinxy. That breeding may have only occured in the 57th cycle’s remote past. There were differences in this cycle from all the others. That’s why everything finally worked out. Shelinx could have been one of those differences.
… that’s the whole point though SoWhyMe. The Vamina cell in the forest WAS pointless, per Brandi’s comment here. Meaning neither Shellynx nor the other 1-56 Shelly’s needed to fetch it, which could possible mean Shelly#1 – Shelly#56 died pointlessly, sacrificing their lives for a trinket that wasn’t necessary.
It’s like watching soldier after soldier in your platoon die to obtain a waypoint, only to be radioed the next morning and told you’re relinquishing that waypoint back to the enemy. Sure, the experience changed YOU, but those soldier’s died for nothing, and you witnessed it. It’s just a bit more messed up in Shelly’s case, as those soldiers are all versions of her.
It may have been pointless, but no one knew it was pointless at the time. Also it was unavoidable since no one knew that would happen to Shelly when she held the artifact. If Brandy knew, she said nothing about it. For whatever reason, Phix and Nudge were sworn to secrecy. Once Shelly understood what was going on she was already in the trap. The same for the rest of the Shellys.
Nonetheless, the entire exercize was more tha just getting the cell. The TTF was unwinding time, correcting for the cycles which had occured. Shelly’s presence was necessary for her growth as the creature she was. The other Shellys were mostly collateral casualties caught up in the correction process. While it may not have been necessary for the obtaining of the cell, there was much more going on besides that. At least that’s how I see it.
Shelly is a penitent. She’ll flog herself over that for aeons.
But your also correct. Telly her that she suffered needlessly would really honk her off.
After a bit of ponderous weighin many options, I go for the case in which Brandi could only see the unneccesary banishment of Shelly in hindsight because the vimana-cell found in the sub and Jin’s returning to “flesh&blood person” were the facts missing.
Without em, Brandi couldn’t shape a tactic.
It wasn’t the cell that was discovered in the sub, it was the container/machine to be powered by one of the cells.
Also, Jin did not return to flesh and blood. She is still a clay golem. The difference is her power input has been reduced to a human level by the insertion of the “key” (the relic with the cell inside). This also made her destructable. It seems that the girls are not indestructable simply because they are made of super clay, but also because of the power which could flow through them. Sort of like a force shield. Additonaly, she has been given a finite lifetime by the carving of the new symbol inside her by May. An expiry date, regrdless of the condition of her “body” at the time.
Overall, this makes her esentially human again, in function at least.
Hence the apostrophes” around flesh and blood. She can still ask Alan embarassing things about humping clay Dolls..heheheh..
Of course I meant the container-thingy. Just got used to thinking of the container and the power core as the same thingymabob…
Still, Bud mentioning the vimana-cell must have been the last missing part Brandi needed to string together all…
Ah, I see. Okay, sorry.
Maybe a bit of a subject change. As for Shelly’s 80k years, the vimani cell (or however you spell it) was somehow found by a main character in another timeline, probably accidentally. That means that it is fairly close to the main cast in this timeline as well.
Shelix told Shelly 1 that the Shellys were the ones that placed Cell, put the sword in the stone and placed the device in Scottland.
I don’t think any of those Shellys placed the artifact in Ireland. They were in a different cycle from ours. Thus anything they did would not show up in the last cycle. Whatever was done in the TTF, OTOH, would continue on from cycle to cycle.
okay so now i am confuzzled
this seems off topic to what she just said?
trying to distract monica perhaps?
and perhaps she DIDN’T need to spend the years in the forest but if she wasn’t going to the forest Creepy would never have been around and Shelly would never have had the inner strength to believe in the plan and stab monica.
It’s Brandi. She jumps around a bit when she’s piecing things together in her head.
2 updates ago = Brandi still thinking.
Yesteday’s update = Brandi detailing the last time she acted directly (an innocent baby died and she was golemized).
Today’s update = Brandi explaining why she no longer acts directly (superior results without having to get her own hands dirty).
It’s a progression in the conversation. “This is what happened last time I intervened. So, now I don’t, and with a little bit of time to think, look how much better my results are?”
Seems like Brandi does her thinking while talking. I tend to do that, often getting some baffled looks, because my logic, wrong or right, isn’t always that of the people around me..
But hey.. The looks are worth it. 😀
That’s also a symptom of Aspergers.
Or so I often remind myself. Out loud.
* having to let out an uncontrollable giggling*
How true, how true… 🙂
Yep! I know what you mean… I’m the only one who listens to me so if i’m talking out loud (well, muttering really) to myself then i must have something to say that i need to hear, right? so when i say it, then i can actually think on what it was that i just heard, and then decide what needs to be done… if that makes sense?
Did Shelly spend that time needlessly in the time forest because Brandi had a plan or because Brandi had information from whatever deal she made?
And if it was from the deal then I’m thinking something Sphinx around here as they seemed to be the main inhabitants of the time forest.
My guess is that Shelly’s stay in the Time Forest was “needless” because there are other vimana cells that could potentially be accessed without that kind of soul-warping trial.
Unless, of course, it was necessary for that vimana to be completed once the process was begun–and Brandi didn’t have her plan in place soon enough.
Orrrr shelly’s “sphinxification” is neccesary for some- even more convoluted, and complex- plan of Brandi’s, but Brandi, while listening to Bud ( I guess Bud filled her in after the rail-gunning of the golf -balls) realized they could have had a Shelly-sphinx-triggering AND a vimana-cell much easier…
It would frustrate ME to tha umpteenth degree, if a result of the suffering of a friend could have been obtained without, said, suffering.
Brandi is , as I see it, even more guilt-ridden than Bud, because, given the right facts as a tool, she probably could have figured-out a way to fix the CS and Jin without all the resets, pain and suffering.
Something like that could weigh SO heavily on someone’s mind, that sanity would be very VERY fragile…..
…aaand Brandy isn’t looking very mentally stable at the moment. I an constantly waiting for some major explosion.
Don’t forget that Maya had already found another one?
heheheh.. sorry, still have to snicker at Bud’s exasperation with May’s apparent denseness..
But ,yeah, thing is, is a Galaxy-Alternator exactly the same thing as this oopart? I gathered this oopart was more of a multi-purpose power thingus, while the galaxy alternator was made by May specifically to fix Jin…
Although, giving herformer “success” with fixing Jin thru the Calendar-Machine. Well, let’s say I’d rather be in a different galaxy far faaaar away when May switches on her Alternator 😛 .
The oopart/vimanacellwhatchamacallit was not made by May. That sort of made me trust that thing more
But didn’t she design it? I can’t remember.
Maybe she dsigned the basic lay-out& function, but someone else built it an improved on it..
Hmmm..brandy was pretty handy in building a multi-faceted, half-mirrired etc. Etc.. 😯 .. ;). Nah..tooo far out…
*trying to repress some nagging doubts*
Is that why she was upset that no one consulted her about the plutonium thingy. She knew about the artifact though. Seems like she would have mentioned something about obtaining the power source for it without Shelly being exiled for 80K years. I suppose she might not have known that would happen at the time. I think now she may be about to reveal how to get more with less trouble.
well
to be fair she knew about the container
no one knew about the cell until shellinx brought it back from the forrest.
Which Shelly had pre-planned with Nudge.
But her reaction with the basket of golf balls indicates she knew of the cells. Still it’s possible she didn’t know the artifact would require one to function. We’ll see I guess.
And it’s also possible that she knew what the artifact could hold, but she didn’t know it would suck Shelly into the Time Forest…though that seems less likely since today’s page implies that she knew about the Time Forest and what it held.
And I’m just realizing that Paul is using this strip to demonstrate his familiarity with Korean cinema. Those of you that have seen the film Oldboy will know what I’m talking about. At least I think Paul is referencing that movie. Are you?
okay 😛
explain 🙂
Oldboy
Via http://www.imdb.com/
This one maybe? It’s being remade with Christian Bale for 2012 release, it seems.
What a convoluted piece of crap. And they’re remaking it? Well done crap is still crap. Why wasn’t the hypnotist punished in some way for her part in the crime? Everyone else was. Oh that’s right, that character was female so she gets a pass. Typical. The remake, being American, will have even more pointless slaughter of men in it, guaranteed. Probably involve the mob or the government (or both) as well.
Might I thensuggest that weird korean movie about two women befriending eachother, one a perfect cook, the other a purely living on water-loon, and the meatballs-theme?
One of the women gets eaten, no men harmed, except for 1 small murder that is. LOL
You’ll love it. Wish I could remember the title…
“301-302.” I have it. There are a few South Korean films with female centric victims. “2LDK,” Apt 1303,” “Whispering Corridors”, “Wishing Stairs”, “Voice Letter”, “D-Day” among them. I’m not saying they are all like that, just that the ones which are (i.e. 95%) are so blantant about it. Even more so in the US. If “D-Day” were re-made in the US, for example, I guarantee you it would be about a boys school instead. They often like to switch the genders here. OTOH, some, like “The Uninvited,” the American version of “A Tale of Two Sisters,” stayed pretty much the same, just a different telling.
Let’s be honest here. Most American remakes of Korean, Japanese ,Chinese, even European films ,suck monkey balls HARD!
When one has seen the originals, they always, invariably miss the point, or fiddle around with it to make it either A)Politically correct *baarff!* or B)dumb it down so the average Joe&Jill won’t be to challenged in their thinking.. And I am not even talking about the prudification that goes on.
So, despite having to read sub-tiles, I’d rather see the originals.
I agree 100%. I really hate dubbed dialog too. “Premonition” is a good example. They reversed the genders and had the spouse killed in the American version instead of the one having the visions, totally missing the point. But, it shows my point. In the original, the male (main character) was killed, in the US version, they switched the genders, yet STILL had the male killed. BTW, I liked the original. The US re-make was like a cross between “Groundhog Day,” “Memento,” and a generic satanic forces movie. A mess, but it had a big star so it did ok, moneywise.
Given your opinion of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, i think i can discount your opinion of this film.
That’s fine. I have no problem with that. We have different views on what is entertaining.
Hmmm. Just how/when did Brandi learn that Shelly was in the Time Forest at all? Doesn’t seem to have occurred anywhere we’ve seen it… and if it had, Brandi would have known about the artifact having been powered up and would not have been surprised by Bud’s news about Jin.
Or, did Brandi just deduce it all, working backwards… Jin is human, so somebody must have found a vimana cell, but Monica says it wasn’t from this timeline, so it must have been from the Forest, so someone must have gone there for 80000 years and survived, and that must have been Shelly because … ?
That would really be stringing facts together!
And it must have been Shelly because she’d already figured out that Shelly was at least part sphinx! 🙂 She’s a deducing savant. *nodsnods*
Shelly used to be the only ‘normal’ human that hung around with em.
Amanda is too new (to all this) really to be considered.
You don’t think Katherine is – relatively – normal? 😉
Or Bud just told her about it last night.
If Paul does filler tomorrow SO HELP ME ZOD I WILL probably just bitch about it here until Brandi’s comment is expanded upon.
C’est la vie.
haha 🙂
thats how i get when i get annoyed with stuff on the internets 🙂
rarrr i am so angry i shall …. do absolutely nothing and fum0e quietly whilst waiting for this to resolve…
kinda deflating that huh 😛
I shall not fume!… smolder maybe… fizzle a bit, or just grumble unintelligibly. But there will be no fuming!
It doesn’t help. :'(
*sniff
I usually sigh deeply, trying to get the smouldering rage under control, an then start cursing SO eloquently, and in such speed, that it mostly results in collegues looking at me in amazement.. I even got app,ause once with the dry remark of my BFF : ” wow, never knew someone could curse so fast, and yet so utterly intelligible with such careful diction… LOL LOL
I DO hold myself from on-line cursing and name-calling, however attractive some trolls make it fot me to waiste them…
Grr *waste them*
Although ” waisting” sounds like some disgusting torture-method, a bit like ” taking someones’ shirt off”
In Sequential Art, Art recently got “waisted” again!
Darn! I didn’t get the italics turned off!
When something angers me on the internet, I usually do something about it. Unfortunately that often results in me getting banned or my posts being deleted, but at least I tried.
Ha…we’re all probably a bunch of people who fume (or fizzle…or smolder) about things beyond our control that frustrate us. It’s probably the norm for people who wander the internets since most of us can’t affect the things that bug us.
Those that can take action are hackers who do 90% of the things that frustrate me online…or are people who say things on forums or comment strings that get them in trouble like SoWhyMe. 🙂
The rest of us are saber-rattlers like Brandi…minus the scary genius planning and manipulative abilities.
Well, we’re all Internet-savvy folks here. I imagine that if we put our heads together we could come up with some really appropriate-in-context way of expressing our Fumarole Natures, if Paul were to be quite exceptionally cruel and hit us with three days of filler in a row at this critical time.
Let’s see… a good server somewhere, a copy of Asterisk running a multi-way MeetMe conference room, a donation of an 800-number toll-free dialup for a day, a dose of the people of Rock Ridge at the end of Blazing Saddles, and a dash of classic Monty Python in the Argument Clinic…
… and we’d have a hundred voices, mixed into unison, doing a group chant of
DON’T GIVE ME THAT, YOU SNOTTY-FACED HEAP OF PARROT DROPPINGS!
I really doubt it’ll come to that, though. Good thing, too. Some tools ought not to be used 🙂 and Paul is much too nice a guy!
I actually kind of love this update. We saw before with Bud just how hurt & infuriated Brandi was over this development. Now Brandi’s getting a bit of revenge by making revelations like this. Just the delivery is so evil, which makes it all the sweeter.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” and such. And Monica thought Jin was the vengeful, manipulative one. (>^_^)>
And to think, a week ago I thought dedicating too much direct time on Brandi would ruin the character for me.
When in truth it’s reminding me why she’s still my favorite.
She’s not yet my favorite, but she’s just made a successful swoop up to number 2. 🙂
Yes indeed! Brandi may be limp under pressure, but deep down, she’s a Chessmaster.
Not someone to get on your enemies list!
Yeah. do not forget: Brandi staged the perfect xanathos roulette to outwit herself in neutralizing the Calendar Machine.
I still cannot fathom why anyone would think Brandy is an emty-headed ditz, running with the works of others…
Perhaps people fall into that belief because Brandi herself encourages it… “I feel safer staying oblivious you see”.
Feels to me as if she has sort of built a psychological “bubble” around herself. She has her own “turf” which she can mostly predict and control… avoiding the unexpected and stressful… and she intentionally limits interaction with and knowledge of things outside of those boundaries (avoiding the unexpected and stressful by refusing to think about these things).
It could certainly look empty-headed and ditzy from outside, if you didn’t know the person well enough to know that it’s actually a deliberately-chosen defensive/coping mechanism.
That, and because Brandi knows if she’s involved in any level of the talks, she’ll overthink the situation and interfere with whatever Bud/Shelly/Monica/Tina/Amanda/Jin/May have in the works, which may or may not place one of them in danger when they finally go to act due to Brandi changing the playing field on them without their knowledge.
Between smashing babies and almost killing Monica and Shelly, we also see why Brandi shouldn’t always be present when potentially bad things are actively happening.
To misquote Venkman: “Brandis’ gone Bye-Bye, Egon.”
“I’ll always have your back but I’m going to stay oblivious of any danger so it won’t do you any good.” 🙄 She’s not even apologetic about it.
She could have helped Jin and kept Shelly from having to waste 80,000 years, but chose not to. Hey, let’s go shopping. 🙄
Maybe that’s her PTSD kicking in.
Nah. I think Brandi’s still a bit sore about the entire situation, and the rather flippant mention of something that’ll clearly upset Monica to say the least is her being “catty”.
*Deposit 25C into pun-jar*
Bud was right to be ‘viscerally’ scared of Brandi! I didn’t think it was an exaggeration on her part. Bud never struck me as one to make flippant comments.
*giant kaboom!!*
Wait! Shelly.. WHAT?!?
*slins off to confusion-corner, grasping on to my only certainty, my latte, and even that i am not certain of anymore… Who knows what that wacko demon-barista did to my coffee.. 😀 … :LOL:
Oh, and by the way, I am absolutely certain now that Brandi suffers from Asperger.
She has one by one, demonstrated about every trait…. (google for details, and look at Brandi again in a new light)
This would explain a lot–why Brandi knows she’s not at her best under pressure, why she got so upset when the others didn’t consult her, but she also did not talk more with them about other possible plans, and not least, why she comes across so threatening and eerie here.
Add to that her aversion towards unexpected surprises, her outbust when confronted with unexpected events (the ultimate reason she honed her manipulation-skills is imho to prevent stuff that panics her)
Being already genius-smart, plus scared shitless of the unexpected/uncontrollable ( check DSM IV for that) and thusly hyper- focused intensely on controlling her environment, makes her the chessmaster of chessmasters
And THAT viscerally scares the crap out of me too.
I think it scares her, too.
She seems to be in a difficult internal conflict. Uncomfortable with the unexpected and the stress of dealing with it… but even more uncomfortable with knowing too much because of what can happen when she does.
Awesome observational skills. 🙂
Thnx! 🙂
Being honest here: I got asperger diagnosed on a later age.
I sometimes wonder how much easier my childhood would have been when We, my parents, I had known then…
Not whining here, but asperger is treacherous in the sense that it is a ” socially functioning” form of autism. Hence, it takes some digging to find out. Mostly you’re only considerd “weird” and that’s the end of it. It’s not like you’re constantly sitting in a corner, slowly roching back& forth, as the popular image has it( although, heavy autism can do that)
Oh..shoot.. I am lecturing again..sorry.. 😛
OTOH, are you satisfied with the person you are now, and would you have become that person without your childhood trials?
@sowhyme
Good question!
Nowadays, as a grown-up, i happen to like my idiosyncracies.
As a child,not so much. In our community I was accepted as a lovable odd-ball. My school and High-school not so much.
” beating-up the crazy” was the chosen fun after school..no fun..
Hear hear! As a late diagnosed Aspie myself, when I first read Temple Grandin’s books I thought “WHOA, this is FAMILIAR! But I’m not this bad. Is it possible to be a little autistic?” Then I ran across the definition of Asperger’s syndrome and it was “So THAT’S what’s wrong with me!!!”
It was actually kind of a relief…
How does, “She tends to find her way quite easily in almost any situation…” describe Asperger’s?
I likely have Aspergers, but never have been diagnosed as such. But, from my perspective, there’s always plans and possibilities. I can usually get what I want, or a reasonable facsimile.
It’s just that they tend not to include others, or making other people comfortable. Hence the social handicap.
But that’s the point, it is a handicap, so no one would describe someone with Asperger’s that way. The fact that she was described that way indicates that she had an easier time of it than normal, not a harder time of it.
Yet, Brandi was described by Bud as a “ditz” so, Bud knows/indicates that there is something “off” with Brandi.
Well, I guess it depends on what we are supposed to take as the most authoritative. I’ve been taking the statement that “she tends to find her way quite easily in almost any situation…” as authoritative, so (for example) Brandi must not have much of problem becoming overwhelmed or freezing, and if she says she does, she must not telling the truth. But if we are supposed to take what the characters say as authoritative, then it’s different.
Maybe she is showing the signs of Asperger’s recently, but I don’t see any signs of it the strips from years ago. For example, this one. If she had Asperger’s, why did she enjoy a place like the Cerberus club so much?
“socially functioning” is the key here.
Being an asperger doesn’t mean someone cannot easily find his/her way, it only means it takes a lot more observation skills, planning and care than a “normal” person would need, this encourages the development of an intelligence very focused on “functioning” in a group, or social occasion.
It is a total conscious action this ” functioning” whereas normal people seem to have an instinctual way of functioning in a group, not needing a lot of thought.
It is about as clear as I can explain. Remember though, there are gradations of severity. Some sufferers are capable of f.i. Correctly, instinctuall interpreting other poeples postures, facial expression, and are thusly quite capable of functioning very well socially.
Wikipedia has a quite decent article on Asperger.
Ps. It also does NOT mean one doesn’t like company. Only that it is a bit harder to get “in” to what other poeple feel, experience. And too busy surroundings, or emotions get one to “zone-out” bad..
It’s like being from Mars, and having to learn how to pass for human to fit in. You can do it; it’s just difficult.
Ooh.. I like that description! Indeed, I constantly worry that I am missing some subtle gesture/facial expression, so, I do study others as if they are from another planet.
Aaand to me they are in that I will never be able to fully understand the intricacies of social interaction, but I am pretty damn good at faking it.
So how does:
can do it, just difficult = quite easily?
That was the question. It doesn’t seem to be the same thing to me.
One of the more interesting things I’ve seen in neurology research in recent years, is the discovery of “mirror neurons”. They’re a type of brain wiring which “fires” when we go through some form of activity or experience… and *also* fire in a very similar way when we observe another person go through that activity or experience.
They are, in effect, the brain wiring which helps us “feel” other peoples’ experiences as if they were our own. This seems to lead to the experience of empathy, and thus aids immensely in handling group interactions easily… you get along, because you know how the other people in the group are feeling. It’s sort of a hard-wired ability to “walk in their shoes”.
I wonder whether Asperger syndrome, the more severe forms of autism spectrum disorder, and some varieties of sociopathy may arise from (or at least involve) neurological deficiencies of various degree in this “mirror neuron” system.
Chessmaster… feels safer staying oblivious… given time she can make a subtle plan to make someone damage or destroy themselves… made a pact with Something… incredibly good at peicing facts together…
… mix and stir …
Could Brandi have somehow set up the whole situation which led to the Chimera running amok and destroying almost everything? Was she the crucial player?
If so, it’d explain why she might want to stay oblivious and out of the loop now… doesn’t trust herself to know facts that could enable her to manipulate in that way again.
She was disturbed by the fact that (through her diary) she manipulated herself and Bud into the right situation to destroy the Calendar Machine… maybe she’s now remembering more about why she is / should be scared of that tendency in herself…
Good point. Is she so far gone that she is unable to control herself? Once she knows something, she is compelled to act on the information? She can’t help herself to the point she even manipulates herself. Thus her ignorance is bliss policy. The less she knows, the less harm she might do. But once triggered, as seems to be happening now with the knowledge there are cells out there still, she springs into action like a machine executing a plan, or the next part of one. Sort of like a post-hypnotic instruction.
To quote from Larry Niven, “There is little free will among Protectors.”
If you are incredibly brilliant, and can always see the right / best / correct path of action in any given situation and set of facts… then you have little choice available to you. You are almost a slave to what you know …
… and your only path to remaining free would be to remain ignorant.
It gets worse: Brandi is probably capable of pre-thinking every scenario leading to a certain solution, even the bad solutions.
It could get someone stuck in a state of fugue: too many possibilities and their calculated-through -in-extremis outcomes would be quite enough to completely Paralyze a person, phazed-out, like Brandi is now, babbling on about herself, apparently oblivious to Monica’s reactions ( would she be capable of reading Monica’s facial expression an body language..)
Poor, poor Brandy. Being super-smart isn’t always so great.
Interesting theory. That may explain why the brilliant among us are not so often the ones making the more inovative discoveries. All to often these discoveries are made because of taking the wrong path. What is learned by that action culminates in new vistas opening through unexpected, even totally unforseen results.
Brilliant people often lay the ground-work and pose the questions needed, but they are not very often the ones that find an application for brilliant theories.
That is mostly the club of tenacious and practical people with a vision that have the insight of using, said, brilliant theory
My ex once tried explaining ( she was Mensa-scary smart) brilliance.
Being brilliant is like being stuck in traffic because everyone around you suddenly forgot what the accelerator pedal was for…. You could explain it, weren’t it for the fact that they forgot how to talk& listen too.
To her the whole world, including me, was stuck in the slow-lane, blocking all entrances and exits, and she was even more baffled that I didn’t immediately see through her manipulations…
Interesting. Sounds to me like she had the “woe is me” outlook. Everyone was hindering her in some way because they could not keep up. Unable to see she was likely her own worst enemy. There is some truth in the old saw “if you’re so smart, how come you’re not already a multi-millionaire?” It is a good litmus test, regardless of the triteness of it.
SuperSmarts combined with borderline syndrome is a recipe for trouble and failing, combine that with being spoilt rotten because your parents have only respect for brains, and not practicality..aaaand being much smarter than the parents…
Well, You get the picture
Indeed I do. Sounds like my mom. She was brilliant and beautiful (well, still is I guess, I don’t know) but devoid of a conscience. Also quite petite. You wouldn’t suspect anything just looking at her. You also wouldn’t think she could produce a 6′ 1″ son either. I guess all that came from the sperm clinic doner she used. Small wonder she didn’t have any after me.
“Smart and manipulative” can often be a winning short-term solution – you set things up so you successfully achieve what you (think) you want.
I think it can come with a pretty nasty price, though, in that the people you manipulate are (once burned) going to be very reluctant to ever trust you again. They will not have your back, in the future!
Could be darned lonely if you make a habit of it, I suspect. You gain the world (or at least part of it) but you lose your friends and family… in the end you lose your “self”.
Sounds like Adrian Veidt in “Watchmen”; he saw what needed to be done to save the world (he thought), so he did it regardless of the cost. Protectors can sometimes be monsters, because they see horrors worse than they could be…
Very interesting. But we have seen some of the girls acting under assumption before. Shelly’s time in the clockwald wasn’t needed for the cell, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t pick up other things. Can well can Brandi handle others having a plan come together?
It’s begining to look as if Bud is the only one of the GGGs who is straight up about who she is and how she feels. No games. No plans. No manipulation. Even May seems to have her own secret aganda.
Yup.. Seems about correct..
And, indeed, what is May up to??
i think she wants to completely smash the “glass ceiling” that this Patriarchal society has, and bring back HER version of the Matriarchal society…
And she’ll hold her breath until it happens. She can hold her breath a really long time too.
Breath? How about holding her margarita glass instead?
Bud also seems to be the only one of the gang whose mentality is running pretty much on-track, too.
Jin – schizophrenic, and (at least briefly) actively suicidal. Not at all her fault (schizophrenia is almost certainly an inborn vulnerability) but it’s definitely a factor in dealing with her (or has been… possibly truly cured now?)
Brandi – Asperger syndrome (also seems to be an innate issue).
May – not certain what the DSM IV would say (I’m not sure we’ve seen enough of her behavior to categorize)… she may have some of the same schizophrenic biology issues as Jin did/does, may possibly have issues with alcohol?
Bud’s clearly carrying around the emotional baggage of having been through horrible trauma and lashback… but I can’t recall seeing indications that she’s got any other issues of the mental-processing sort.
Have you ever had a chronic pain (physical or mental) which you were well versed in suppressing? So much so, that that supression had become a part of your very character? What I see in Brandi’s eye(s) in the first panel, is her reaction to an unexpected wave of that pain washing over her. Her comments thereafter a mental/verbal expulsion she’ll feel remorse for later.
I do not know the american colloquialism for it, but she seems to be ” motormouthing” , unable to stem the flow.
Monica might need some strong whiskey after this… 🙂
“Motormouth” is in our dictionaries, too.
Ah, Ohkay.. Thanks. Looked it up now. Bit late, but better late than never.. 🙂
Well shoot. Here I thought motor mouth might have some interesting translation into Dutch. Google, however says it’s just moto rmond. Hardly any difference. Soo I tried German … motor mund. Big deal. French … la bouche du moteur. That’s a bit amusing at least.
“kletskanis” babbelbox, zwamneus, flap-uit, babbelkous, roddelkont, all basically meaning the same i.e. Uninhibited blabbering about stuff one should keep silent about..
A true female affliction.. 😛
But none of them as cool as ” motormouth” It apparently is one of those words one picks up, and stores somewhere in the ” maybe useful later” bit of the brain.
It’s a bit unnerving to see Brandi like this — somewhat like a sweet little kitten suddenly growing huge fangs and claws and going for your leg. Quite interesting though. The moral of the story however is: bloody well ask Brandi first when you have something you don’t know what it is or what it does – or before you run off into some stupid ridiculously complicated scheme.
As I read this I could hear her talking faster and faster.
Ehhh..wait! Where did the comic go???