sitl- you get that feeling too? There’s some characters that are so similar that you can’t be sure until there are a few more panels to confirm their identity. I feel like a bird sitting on a windvane waiting for the breezes to point me in the right direction… most of the time its a turbulent ride.
Yet her hair, her headband and her dress are unscathed!!!
This does not make sense. If this is Jin she is no longer invulnerable. She hurt her shin when she walked into a table. She was probably not going to survive the gun shot and certainly was not invulnerable to Bud’s tackle that broke her ribs and nose.
Unless, of course, this is all in her imagination.
I think it’s a bit more than a flashback. Bud’s recurring dream of Lost Girl is a flashback. This is something much more. Look at the reverse shadow on the ground. It’s the inverse of what happened after the atomic explosions on Hiroshima and Nagasaka in 1945. People near ground zero were vaporized instantly by the heat flash. And the blast wave embedded their carbon remains as shadows on surviving walls behind them.
The wall of plasma destroys evertyhing in it’s path, and anything that remains is carbon scored, except for Lost Girl. She survives and her outline is on the scorched ground of where she blocked the plasma.
I think Lost Girl somehow survived. Possibly as a “ghost” (start reading here here leading up to Bud talking about her nightmares of Lost Girl). This is a psycho-drama of her own making cause by the environment she’s in. (Well it’s my pet theory. I’m sure that Paul will have something even more esoteric and unexpected as he usually does.)
But is it just the spirit? So far there are no clues to show that. There are beings who are immune to fire and these forces. Rather I would say filled with terror and fear at being burned and the realizing hey that didn’t hurt. What’s going on here! The look over her shoulder may have seen the scary monster again and she looks forwarde thinking, No this is not real. Not real at all! Please be not real.
Maybe she’s caught in a time loop?
A bit like a story I once read about someone that died só quick, that he only realized that he was dead when no-one saw him, and that he just walked out of a blazing car-fire.
When he realized he might be dead, and he had lost all his earthly connectins, friends, family, a form of mourning set-in.
I think this is the first time she is noticing that her flesh is gone and she is a spirit. The real questions are, what will it take to get her loose of her limbo and will she be friend or foe.
If she is a spirit entity, why would she leave a Reverse Shadow? She would need a solid, indestructible body to do that, wouldn’t she? Besides, if she is a spirit, she wouldn’t be smoking/steaming. Whoever, whatever she is, she’s solid.
What I was thinking of – the one of the bank steps in particular. However, the girl seems to have more of the properties (ie incombustible) of the railings that left a shadow on the asphalt.
Her look of pure shock and terror in the first three frames, with that look over the shoulder for – the Chimera? – is heartbreaking. The steam(?) rising off her adds to the intensity.
Paul, your ability to capture sheer gut-spirit-soul-wrenching emotion is absolutely incredible.
That last frame though. Just want to hold her, comfort her 😛
Some even speculate it’s Jin. Who was dead at the time of the Chimera atatck.
I can’t wait for how this plays out.
Paul is really teasing us these days. First two weeks of Monica exercising, now the third day of a gripping and ominous, yet totally what-the-heck scene, and not much hope for explanations…
It can’t be Jin. Jin IS the Chimera. Or more correctly one third of the Chimera. Jin was killed (suicide) even before Bud and Brandy and Jin were burned into ashes to make them into clay golems and hence into the Chimera.
Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.
But we know why the bowl of petunias thought that (look away if you don’t want to see the SPOILERS!) — it was yet another incarnation of Agrajag — and that “insight” was not exactly helpful in unravelling the nature of the universe. So yah-boo-sucks to the speculators.
Seconded. Though I’m just as impressed with the top panels. How far can an artist push a style of facial expression into abject terror and not break disbelief by pushing into caricature?
Continuing my thread from yesterday, I’m guessing the second wall of flame was the astral death. This being now exists on the mental plane (esoterically speaking), and whatever she now sees around her might lend some insight to the nature of some of the other supernatural characters…I hope!
’til then, I’m parked in the confusion corner with strong coffee…
Mebbe’ we are going to see Crispy-Girls “adventures” and get some kind of info ast what Crispy wants from Bud and Jin, if she’s vengeful, or wants to connect and tell them shehas forgiven them?
The scene after the Skidoo-shenanigans, did not make her look evil. She looked more like “please, like me?” despite her gorey looks…..
Jin flipped, but I wonder if that was Jin interpreting the ghosty and her own guilt the wrong way (this is Jin, after all, themost guilt-ridden of the GG, despite her tough attitude in the beginning)
Whatever else her state of being is, she is not simply reliving the event, as this “second” wave has hit her from behind. She has some kind if autonomy, but this might only be exercisable by her alone. Quantum immortality suggests such a state of superposition is only possible in isolation. Which would be one definition for Hell.
Or maybe, she’ll collect all the hordes of souls wrenched from existence by the Chimera, and lead them in a long march to confront the Golem Girls in the distant future year of A.D. 2012, when they become vulnerable once again.
This is just so incredibly forlorn. Great job yanking on the heartstrings there, Paul! See, guys/gals, you have to enjoy the lighthearted stuff when you can, cause you have to pay for it eventually. Her eyes tearing up in the last panel, really gets to me.
Ahhhhh this is even better then my weirdness. The creation of a sphinx seed? By a monster that has created the need for a new kind of anti-monster monster/protector… Kind of a long incubation sequence for a protector though… But still I like it!
Except that Connie was the merging of all of Shelly’s demons into one entity, and Paul has already verified that this girl is someone who was there when the chimera destroyed everything way back when…so it can’t be Connie.
Unless demons are wayward and/or shattered souls themselves, in which case Shelly’s demons would be reconstituted souls, possibly including our Lost Lanthian Lass.
This does not seem to be operable in the Wapsi cosmology, as demons were declared to be of different, alien make. But people like Tina, Connie and even Nudge may not remember enough to know, so there’s a nonzero chance that Chimeric reality-rending is the origin of demonic timelessness, and thus all part of a grand karmic loop.
but, ya’ know… if who we are seeing right now is “just” a soul, with no body, nor personal demons… then in the future (now) she could possibly end up “moving in” to TINA! who as far as we have been told, is the BODY and Personal Demons of a person… but who has NO SOUL!
… NOOOO!… I Like Tina the way she IS right NOW… don’t change!…
Looks like a birth of a Super ____ insert hero/villian vignette to me… And soon we will see an all too familiar shadow on one GG’s door… the return of the almost burned to death but instead given immortality and the ability to help/hurt the GG Girls/Monica… whew say that fast 5 times.
Well, I doubt “crispy” here is capable of destruction, seeing as how the GGG’s were the one destroying her world… so she is probably having Survivor’s guilt, and or a mental break down..
My guess? She is dead. This is her spirit as it remembers itself before it was ripped from her body. That is why she still has clothes and hair. The reason she is smoldering is because her spirit is very slowly deteriorating without a body to occupy. That’s why, when she finds Jin however many years later, she appears to be rotting.
Nice thought, but I think that the apparition that appeared to Jin that fine winter day was her mental issues dredging an image from her mental guilt file for self torture.
Whuuu? I am genuinely at a loss for guessing where this is going.
sitl- you get that feeling too? There’s some characters that are so similar that you can’t be sure until there are a few more panels to confirm their identity. I feel like a bird sitting on a windvane waiting for the breezes to point me in the right direction… most of the time its a turbulent ride.
Isn’t this the joy/pain of webcomics tho.
We get to see these pages as they are made, and that means a story which might take seconds to read takes weeks to read.
Hot enough to vapourise a a skeletal entity and a large rock, and leave her unbaked shadow on the glassy plain…..
Spooky!
Yet her hair, her headband and her dress are unscathed!!!
This does not make sense. If this is Jin she is no longer invulnerable. She hurt her shin when she walked into a table. She was probably not going to survive the gun shot and certainly was not invulnerable to Bud’s tackle that broke her ribs and nose.
Unless, of course, this is all in her imagination.
well I guess she was the daughter of one of the high priests, so had good protection..
Her body my have been incinerated, but her soul goes on..
she is in aftershock, and then realization..
This is all a flashback – Paul post a link (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/dontwanttoremember/) on Friday.
I think it’s a bit more than a flashback. Bud’s recurring dream of Lost Girl is a flashback. This is something much more. Look at the reverse shadow on the ground. It’s the inverse of what happened after the atomic explosions on Hiroshima and Nagasaka in 1945. People near ground zero were vaporized instantly by the heat flash. And the blast wave embedded their carbon remains as shadows on surviving walls behind them.
The wall of plasma destroys evertyhing in it’s path, and anything that remains is carbon scored, except for Lost Girl. She survives and her outline is on the scorched ground of where she blocked the plasma.
I think Lost Girl somehow survived. Possibly as a “ghost” (start reading here here leading up to Bud talking about her nightmares of Lost Girl). This is a psycho-drama of her own making cause by the environment she’s in. (Well it’s my pet theory. I’m sure that Paul will have something even more esoteric and unexpected as he usually does.)
I meant it’s a flashback to what happened to her.
This is nót Jin, this is “crispy-girl”, Jin and Bud’s haunted P.A.
We are looking here at the moment she realizes something is not right with her existence. Perhaps even realizes her physical body is gone.
Realization that the flesh is burned away leaving only the spirit….?
But is it just the spirit? So far there are no clues to show that. There are beings who are immune to fire and these forces. Rather I would say filled with terror and fear at being burned and the realizing hey that didn’t hurt. What’s going on here! The look over her shoulder may have seen the scary monster again and she looks forwarde thinking, No this is not real. Not real at all! Please be not real.
Maybe she’s caught in a time loop?
Looks like it.
A bit like a story I once read about someone that died só quick, that he only realized that he was dead when no-one saw him, and that he just walked out of a blazing car-fire.
When he realized he might be dead, and he had lost all his earthly connectins, friends, family, a form of mourning set-in.
I think she’d forgotten that she’s an indestructible golem till just this moment
Nope: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/dontwanttoremember/
I think this is the first time she is noticing that her flesh is gone and she is a spirit. The real questions are, what will it take to get her loose of her limbo and will she be friend or foe.
With all the talk of shadows left behind, I wonder if our new little shade Tsillah might be important in fixing this loose end.
Oooo. Good call.
Was wondering about her as well.
If she is a spirit entity, why would she leave a Reverse Shadow? She would need a solid, indestructible body to do that, wouldn’t she? Besides, if she is a spirit, she wouldn’t be smoking/steaming. Whoever, whatever she is, she’s solid.
have you seen pictures of Hiroshima after the event?? same kind of shadows…
What I was thinking of – the one of the bank steps in particular. However, the girl seems to have more of the properties (ie incombustible) of the railings that left a shadow on the asphalt.
I’m with Hroth on this one – spooky indeed!
Her look of pure shock and terror in the first three frames, with that look over the shoulder for – the Chimera? – is heartbreaking. The steam(?) rising off her adds to the intensity.
Paul, your ability to capture sheer gut-spirit-soul-wrenching emotion is absolutely incredible.
That last frame though. Just want to hold her, comfort her 😛
I’m wondering too if that circlet has something to do with her – survival? transition?
Or the horror setting in that everything else is gone.
Welcome to the confusion club
Welcome back, I think you mean. Then again, some of us have never left.
The only thing I know for sure, is that this girl is smoking hot. *drops walet into the pun jar*
She’s got steam heat.
Pulls up a chair and takes money out of pun jug for pizza!
Do they make pizza with smoked pork?
Why does everyone think this is Jin? It’s the girl that Bud dreams about…
Yep. Even after Paul himself said so, they STILL persist in thinking it’s someone else?!
Some even speculate it’s Jin. Who was dead at the time of the Chimera atatck.
I can’t wait for how this plays out.
Paul is really teasing us these days. First two weeks of Monica exercising, now the third day of a gripping and ominous, yet totally what-the-heck scene, and not much hope for explanations…
It can’t be Jin. Jin IS the Chimera. Or more correctly one third of the Chimera. Jin was killed (suicide) even before Bud and Brandy and Jin were burned into ashes to make them into clay golems and hence into the Chimera.
Holy run on sentence, Batman!
Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.
True. The petunias may be the key to Paul’s thinking!
But we know why the bowl of petunias thought that (look away if you don’t want to see the SPOILERS!) — it was yet another incarnation of Agrajag — and that “insight” was not exactly helpful in unravelling the nature of the universe. So yah-boo-sucks to the speculators.
“Oh no, not again” is a general rumination of dread, and the Agrajag story mainly just tells us “who”. Exactly why is a little more esoteric.
For those unaware, the Bowl of Petunias (long version):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsK6aRuSBIc
All I could think of while reading this was the Ace Ventura spear scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfSoUYr4lmQ
I think that she’s just realized that with a reverse shadow, she can make a very cute reverse rabbit, and is trying to remember how to do the ears.
Oh, the expressions in the bottom panels – just heartbreaking. Lovely, lovely, lovely job, Paul!
Seconded. Though I’m just as impressed with the top panels. How far can an artist push a style of facial expression into abject terror and not break disbelief by pushing into caricature?
Panel 2.
Wow.
Poor kid.
Continuing my thread from yesterday, I’m guessing the second wall of flame was the astral death. This being now exists on the mental plane (esoterically speaking), and whatever she now sees around her might lend some insight to the nature of some of the other supernatural characters…I hope!
’til then, I’m parked in the confusion corner with strong coffee…
That…..sounds pretty plausible.
Mebbe’ we are going to see Crispy-Girls “adventures” and get some kind of info ast what Crispy wants from Bud and Jin, if she’s vengeful, or wants to connect and tell them shehas forgiven them?
The scene after the Skidoo-shenanigans, did not make her look evil. She looked more like “please, like me?” despite her gorey looks…..
Jin flipped, but I wonder if that was Jin interpreting the ghosty and her own guilt the wrong way (this is Jin, after all, themost guilt-ridden of the GG, despite her tough attitude in the beginning)
One wonders what Brandi sees of her.
Whatever else her state of being is, she is not simply reliving the event, as this “second” wave has hit her from behind. She has some kind if autonomy, but this might only be exercisable by her alone. Quantum immortality suggests such a state of superposition is only possible in isolation. Which would be one definition for Hell.
Or maybe, she’ll collect all the hordes of souls wrenched from existence by the Chimera, and lead them in a long march to confront the Golem Girls in the distant future year of A.D. 2012, when they become vulnerable once again.
just a thought
This is just so incredibly forlorn. Great job yanking on the heartstrings there, Paul! See, guys/gals, you have to enjoy the lighthearted stuff when you can, cause you have to pay for it eventually. Her eyes tearing up in the last panel, really gets to me.
Ooohh. I’d hug her and try to make her feel better… except I think that might result in my incineration… 🙁
DUDES!
I think it’s a big flashback! I think we’re witnessing the “birth” of CONNIE! Shelly’s companion!
Ahhhhh this is even better then my weirdness. The creation of a sphinx seed? By a monster that has created the need for a new kind of anti-monster monster/protector… Kind of a long incubation sequence for a protector though… But still I like it!
Except that Connie was the merging of all of Shelly’s demons into one entity, and Paul has already verified that this girl is someone who was there when the chimera destroyed everything way back when…so it can’t be Connie.
Cogent point!
Unless demons are wayward and/or shattered souls themselves, in which case Shelly’s demons would be reconstituted souls, possibly including our Lost Lanthian Lass.
This does not seem to be operable in the Wapsi cosmology, as demons were declared to be of different, alien make. But people like Tina, Connie and even Nudge may not remember enough to know, so there’s a nonzero chance that Chimeric reality-rending is the origin of demonic timelessness, and thus all part of a grand karmic loop.
but, ya’ know… if who we are seeing right now is “just” a soul, with no body, nor personal demons… then in the future (now) she could possibly end up “moving in” to TINA! who as far as we have been told, is the BODY and Personal Demons of a person… but who has NO SOUL!
… NOOOO!… I Like Tina the way she IS right NOW… don’t change!…
If I were to guess, it looks like the onset of survivor’s guilt.
Looks like a birth of a Super ____ insert hero/villian vignette to me… And soon we will see an all too familiar shadow on one GG’s door… the return of the almost burned to death but instead given immortality and the ability to help/hurt the GG Girls/Monica… whew say that fast 5 times.
I’m still trying to figure out where the tear in her eye is coming from after he body is vaporised.
I’m wondering if it made her recall her first “destruction” – and perhaps that of her family, friends, entire world… ???
Well, I doubt “crispy” here is capable of destruction, seeing as how the GGG’s were the one destroying her world… so she is probably having Survivor’s guilt, and or a mental break down..
butbutbut… Isn’t “crispy” some random little girl? Why is she immune to destruction?
Perhaps Jin’s and Monica’s recent volcano escape has triggered some memories?
Jin! Jin?
no. Its the crispy girl from Jin’s hallucinations, and the girl from Bud’s nightmares.
My guess? She is dead. This is her spirit as it remembers itself before it was ripped from her body. That is why she still has clothes and hair. The reason she is smoldering is because her spirit is very slowly deteriorating without a body to occupy. That’s why, when she finds Jin however many years later, she appears to be rotting.
Nice thought, but I think that the apparition that appeared to Jin that fine winter day was her mental issues dredging an image from her mental guilt file for self torture.