Has she not lost her memories or has she been told this since then… she didn’t recognize Phix yet she knew what she was but this is a bit too specific.
So most of the Collective has their memories and only the ones directly involved in the event lost them? or Nudge came from outside to get Tina moving along?
What sorts of “liberties” are we talking about here? And is this implying that writing would not have been developed by humans without demonic intervention?
I suppose it could be looked at like that… It could also just mean that suddenly something insignificant finally warranted attention. It’s all fun and games until someone starts recording history?
Now wait. If Nudge remembers all this, does that mean she is actually an outsider? A demon not part of the original Tina group who have forgotten everything? And if so, does that make her a rogue demon?
Also, why kill the human host to get to the demon. Once identified, why not just go right into the demon realm and get the demon in question?
Well, see, that’s what is still unclear to me. Is that actually the case? Does the demon inhabit the body in the traditional sense of “possession?” Is that what rogue demons actually are? The demons priests try to exorcize? Those have been around forever, and not just since Monica was a child.
Besides. Even if they did, would not the sphinxes have a method to exorcize the demon without murdering the host? They appear to be advanced beings. Surely they would have developed some technique to do that (or the beings who dispatched them would have). Heck, we lowly humans have been able to do it. Or are they just that amoral? Kill everyone and let God sort it out? And, does that mean Phix DID murder the hosts in this latest round of rogue demon purge.
Re your first comment: This strip hinted that Nudge was not one of Tina’s original demons. Perhaps Nudge is a rogue or perhaps Nudge is on an authorized special assignment.
I think the personal demons are part of a person’s psychological makeup and therefore are essentially part of the person. I think the last batch of rogue demons were handled differently. The were supposedly delivered to Phix somehow.
I can’t explain how the demons went rogue in the past, however the rogue “queen” demon said that a few people in addition to Monica were portholes. Just being a “porthole” allowed Tina’s demons to mess with Monica, so maybe there have always been some people who were especially easy for rogue demons to mess with.
Aw man … did you have to make me look at that great drawing of a pizza with all it’s yummy bubble gum cheese!? The last time I saw it, I craved one and it was forever before someone brought me some. What were we talking about?
Maybe if the demon is in possession of the host at the time the host is killed the demon dies too. If they are being chased in the demon realm, they can flee to the host. If they are attacked while in the host they can flee to the demon realm. However, if they are surprised they can be taken out by killing the host.
Which may be why Phix exiled herself to the Library. It was a necessary thing to do (maybe/maybe not— we don’t know all the facts yet), but like sniping it can weigh heavy on some people. She couldn’t take it any more and took some time off.
I’m not sure Nudge is “rogue”, because I believe all the rogue demons have been punished, and Nudge was not singled out by Phix…I also notice that it is only the collective speaking in the times she’s talked with Phix, so clearly Nudge has reason to deliberately NOT stand out in Phix’s presence…
Phix has not taken any notice of Nudge, at least not directly. She’s only addressed Tina as a whole. We don’t know (either way) if Phix is aware of nudge.
Has anybody considered the possibility that Nudge is not a demon?
Well, she says she’s not an angel. She looks rather demonic to me. However, she doesn’t seem to act like a personal demon, unless she would be “impulsivity”. Then again, I haven’t noticed the rest of them acting like personal demons, either.
We might look at fairy tales and other myths for ideas. But, yes, I’d say it’s beyond the scope of this series. :3 A fun thing to ponder, but no essential to the plot.
Apparently by whoever’s behind the Library. Phix is just the librarian, after all, I don’t think she set it up. Which would suggest there might be some extremely powerful other dimensional players in the game who we haven’t met yet…
Although this talk of multiple sphinexes does make me wonder. I don’t recall off-hand how often Time reset before the Calendar Machine was destroyed, but I see a possible problem regarding Phix *IF* sphinxes aren’t pan dimensional beings just as demons are, but instead native to this dimension. Namely, Phix Prime is born sometime after the Time Loop starts, does normal sphinx things until she gets recruited to run the Library, and is then taken out of the time stream. Time resets, things go forward along the same lines, Phix 2 is born and does normal sphinex things until she reaches the Librarian point, whereupon Phix Prime shows up with a different offer and both wind up leaving the time stream. Reset, Phix 3, Phix Prime and 2 show up and say “Wanna join the club?”, and on and on until there was an Army of Phix out there dealing with rogue demons. I don’t THINK that’s what’s happened, but I thought I would throw the idea out there just for the LOLs. On the other hand, several dozen Phixes (Phixs? Phixi?) all under the command of Phix Prime WOULD be a pretty impressive sight…
I believe it was 56 times, and the library Phix kept was out of the time loop. The same Phix (and the same library) was around to see the whole thing reset over and over again, just like Jin.
Well, we already know demons are a large part of Monica’s life, at least*. I think the key point is, is the human or the demon in control? If the latter…
Although I’m not sure how a riddle would tell a sphinx that. Especially since both innocent human and demon infected human might be terrified to find themself in the presence of a sphinx, although for different reasons. Maybe there’s some etheric sign not visible to mortal eyes that asking the riddle reveals.
(* It’d be interesting to see Katherine’s demons! I bet those suckers are STRANGE!)
I don’t think Katherine would torment her demons at all. She seems like she’s balanced enough (although, yes, socially inept) either not to have been colonized by them, or to not be aware of them.
She said that she was just trying to keep adventurers out at that point, so she probably was asking a different riddle. I can’t see how the one she asked Monica and Shelly would help weed out rogue demons.
Wait…so if asking riddles was a way to find rogue demons, did that mean that demons are bad at riddles? Because I thought Sphinxes only killed the people who got the answers wrong.
I’m also going to have to run back to the comics where Tina and Phix first meet. I’m curious as to whether or not Nudge made any appearances while Phix was around. If not, I wonder if she’s been hiding in the mass of the Tina Collective and hasn’t been noticed by Phix.
It does seem that the Collective is a tad more pro-Phix than Nudge is based on this most recent series of comics…though that could just be my reading of it.
No, I agree with you. I have noticed Nudge seems very much absent when Phix is around…I wonder if the rest of the collective resents Nudge due to the possibility of guilt by association (or proximity)?
I don’t remember which strip it was, but I thought that some time ago it was implied that most demons weren’t all that creative. There are exceptions, of course, but aren’t there always…?
Someone conjectured the infected person would get it wrong because the demon was never a human and, therefore, would not understand the question. It could be it wasn’t just a wrong answer (or folks bad at riddles would be murdered too), but a specific answer only a demon would give to the question. This would assume the demon could not help but give that specific answer. Otherwise, one of them could just check out the answers others gave and know what (and what not) to say. The word would then spread quickly around the demon water cooler (or heater).
I think Nudge in this instance is the Rogue Demon, since it was the driving force to get “Tina” up and running again. Hell, the other entities didn’t even know about Nudge until that moment in the morgue when it took over.
Perhaps back in the old days, more demons were able to take control of the dead bodies of their hosts?
And I think the nature of the riddles were important. Remember that Sphix’s riddle doesn’t really have a ‘wrong’ answer, but is used to survey people? I’m thinking riddles like that were meant to weed out the demons since their realm is devoid of anything other than themselves. (no time, dirt, sunshine or wind)
But Phix knows that Tina died and she seems to be OK with Tina being run by demons. Also Tina said yesterday “No more rogue demons.” They could be making an exception for Tina, but I don’t think Nudge is really a rogue. She might be a on a special assignment, though.
That’s an interesting thought. Perhaps the rogue demons take over the bodies of the reccently departed, making them a sort of zombie, but not a dumb, rotting away, brain tartare consuming zombie. Instead, more of a “host shell” being used by the demon for it’s own purposes. That would remove the “murderous” aspect of things since they are already dead. Killing them (again) would not be murder as such, therefore not an immoral act.
That said, Tina must be a special case, in that the demons in control (except Nudge) are not aware of their actions being a transgression (at least not at the time) and they had/have no malicious intent whatsoever.
With all the works collected, it’s amazing they would notice new stuff anyway. Perhaps they have an etheral in-box somewhere. Sucker must be always full.
I hope I am going to make sense here – I have a cold and fever and my head isn’t working too well.
The riddle of the sphinx might be a tool to place the person asked under duress, so that the sphinx can look for certain tell-tale signs, something like a technician observing the displays on a polygraph.
A person infected by a rogue demon, rather than influenced by their personal demons, might be so damaged that killing them might be a kindness. What was it Tina just said? Something about shredding a soul for amusement? Or maybe the sphinxes just don’t care, and subscribe to the “destroy the village to save it” meme. Perhaps they are so focused on the demons that they don’t even think of humans as of any consequence. They are not human, and their values are not ours.
Perhaps I should say, didn’t care. Was this what happened to Phix? That she begin to realize that humans weren’t just meat being worn by her prey? And became horrified over what she had done to innocents?
We are at the disadvantage of being centuries away from the events at Thebes; historical record is distorted by time, and the viewpoint of the humans telling the story. They may have utterly misunderstood what they were seeing.
The Library as a tripwire for emerging species is an elegant concept. Having writing appear on its shelves would be a pretty solid indicator – though the bar is a little high. An entirely new meaning to publish or perish.
The Sphinxes appear to answer to the Library. Is Library a title for a collection of entities, much like the title Congress?
Is the Library of which Phix is mistress merely a subset of a much larger Library? Are its contents mostly concerned with Earth, as the portal-libraries Phix is establishing on Earth are specialized subsets of her complex?
When Phix exiled herself, did she withdraw only from Earth itself, while still retaining access to the society which had sent her to Earth? She may not have been anywhere near as isolated as we have thought, if that’s true.
Is Nudge a demon at all? As has been demonstrated, Tina 2 is ignorant of many things, and wrong about others. Is she a cat’s-paw seized upon by an agent of the Library, who needed a body to influence events?
That made a lot of sense. I’ve been thinking some of the same things.
In addition, I’m wondering how broadly to take what Tina said in the second panel: “Demons took liberty with each new sentient creature they discovered.” Is that some (rogue) demons took liberties with whatever humans they came across, or does it mean across the various planes of existence? It seems that many creatures other than humans have been plagued by personal demons.
Also what of the legitimate personal demons who weren’t going rogue, but were inside hosts infested by rogue demons? Would they have a chance to say, “No! Wait! We belonged there!” How would the sphinxes tell the difference between someone with legitimate personal demons and someone with rogue ones?
What happened to the other sphinxes? Why does Phix seem to be the only one guarding the library? Once things were under control was she left behind while the others took off for other worlds?
How would the sphinxes tell the difference between someone with legitimate personal demons and someone with rogue ones?
Possibly the riddles, used as filters?
What happened to the other sphinxes? Why does Phix seem to be the only one guarding the library?
I’ve been wondering if Earth isn’t Phix’s jurisdiction, the area of her authority, the Library one of the tools she uses to police it. If the whole earth was cycling through a repeating loop of time, wouldn’t any intervention by other Powers be totally useless, until the loop terminated?
I am also wondering if Bud’s idea of Phix’s status is almost completely wrong; if she simply doesn’t understand just what part Phix has played.
Looks to me like Nudge is up to something. I believe Nudge is a rogue demon in hiding (or if all the rogue demons are supposedly taken care of, a demon that wishes to go rogue), as is Monica’s Doubt. It may be possible that Nudge knows that Doubt inhabits/troubles Monica. I think Nudge is trying to use Monica and make her afraid/distrustful of Phix or otherwise turn her against Phix somehow. It might be that Nudge knows something that she (it?) doesn’t want Monica to find out from Phix. In any event, it’s pretty obvious to me that Nudge is trying to set Monica up for something.
…and I guess she wouldn’t be “Nudge” otherwise, if she wasn’t trying, furthermore. That is obviously her (its) nature. Besides that, look at the almost gleefully evil expression on Tina’s face. It’s as if Nudge can barely contain herself (itself?).
Ya know – in Marvel’s “X-Men” books, there’s a psychic entity called Malice (i think) who exists by possessing people’s minds.
The only identifiable sign of Malice’s possession is that a black velvet choker appears around the neck of the current host, as it jumps from body to body…
I’d like tomorrow’s comic to tell us just one thing (so I won’t have to wait until next week, or longer, to find out … if ever). Were the people infected with rogue demons alive or already dead when the demon(s) took over the body?
Well. Someone was right yesterday
Yep. Bingo.
Wow… Phix was apparently phenomenal at her job….
Has she not lost her memories or has she been told this since then… she didn’t recognize Phix yet she knew what she was but this is a bit too specific.
Look who’s talking at the moment in the comic. 🙂
Yeah – i saw what you did there.
Indeed. A nice history lesson courtesy of Nudge…
So most of the Collective has their memories and only the ones directly involved in the event lost them? or Nudge came from outside to get Tina moving along?
That’s a good question, and it’s confusing me to pieces. =/
What sorts of “liberties” are we talking about here? And is this implying that writing would not have been developed by humans without demonic intervention?
The mind boggles at such a late hour…
I suppose it could be looked at like that… It could also just mean that suddenly something insignificant finally warranted attention. It’s all fun and games until someone starts recording history?
I’m betting on Rule 23.
What rule would that be? Googling turns up nothing obviously relevant.
http://dis.4chan.org/read/lounge/1171597138
Yep. It’s all fun and games until someone puts an “I” out.
You spell Red Ryder with a “y” not an “eye”! 😉
Now wait. If Nudge remembers all this, does that mean she is actually an outsider? A demon not part of the original Tina group who have forgotten everything? And if so, does that make her a rogue demon?
Also, why kill the human host to get to the demon. Once identified, why not just go right into the demon realm and get the demon in question?
Or that she was clever enough to escape getting punished?
Because a demon inhabiting a human host isn’t in the demon realm?
Well, see, that’s what is still unclear to me. Is that actually the case? Does the demon inhabit the body in the traditional sense of “possession?” Is that what rogue demons actually are? The demons priests try to exorcize? Those have been around forever, and not just since Monica was a child.
Besides. Even if they did, would not the sphinxes have a method to exorcize the demon without murdering the host? They appear to be advanced beings. Surely they would have developed some technique to do that (or the beings who dispatched them would have). Heck, we lowly humans have been able to do it. Or are they just that amoral? Kill everyone and let God sort it out? And, does that mean Phix DID murder the hosts in this latest round of rogue demon purge.
Re your first comment: This strip hinted that Nudge was not one of Tina’s original demons. Perhaps Nudge is a rogue or perhaps Nudge is on an authorized special assignment.
I think the personal demons are part of a person’s psychological makeup and therefore are essentially part of the person. I think the last batch of rogue demons were handled differently. The were supposedly delivered to Phix somehow.
I can’t explain how the demons went rogue in the past, however the rogue “queen” demon said that a few people in addition to Monica were portholes. Just being a “porthole” allowed Tina’s demons to mess with Monica, so maybe there have always been some people who were especially easy for rogue demons to mess with.
Aw man … did you have to make me look at that great drawing of a pizza with all it’s yummy bubble gum cheese!? The last time I saw it, I craved one and it was forever before someone brought me some. What were we talking about?
Maybe if the demon is in possession of the host at the time the host is killed the demon dies too. If they are being chased in the demon realm, they can flee to the host. If they are attacked while in the host they can flee to the demon realm. However, if they are surprised they can be taken out by killing the host.
That’s still a heckovan immoral thing to do.
Which may be why Phix exiled herself to the Library. It was a necessary thing to do (maybe/maybe not— we don’t know all the facts yet), but like sniping it can weigh heavy on some people. She couldn’t take it any more and took some time off.
I’m not sure Nudge is “rogue”, because I believe all the rogue demons have been punished, and Nudge was not singled out by Phix…I also notice that it is only the collective speaking in the times she’s talked with Phix, so clearly Nudge has reason to deliberately NOT stand out in Phix’s presence…
Phix has not taken any notice of Nudge, at least not directly. She’s only addressed Tina as a whole. We don’t know (either way) if Phix is aware of nudge.
Has anybody considered the possibility that Nudge is not a demon?
Well, she says she’s not an angel. She looks rather demonic to me. However, she doesn’t seem to act like a personal demon, unless she would be “impulsivity”. Then again, I haven’t noticed the rest of them acting like personal demons, either.
Sentient creatureS?
Sphinxes were dispatched? By who?
I doubt we will get the answers to those questions any time soon, if ever. I figure that’s beyond the scope of this series.
We might look at fairy tales and other myths for ideas. But, yes, I’d say it’s beyond the scope of this series. :3 A fun thing to ponder, but no essential to the plot.
…yet.
Awww, why’d you have to go and say that????
Maybe Sphinxes are ordered about by Roy?
Apparently by whoever’s behind the Library. Phix is just the librarian, after all, I don’t think she set it up. Which would suggest there might be some extremely powerful other dimensional players in the game who we haven’t met yet…
Although this talk of multiple sphinexes does make me wonder. I don’t recall off-hand how often Time reset before the Calendar Machine was destroyed, but I see a possible problem regarding Phix *IF* sphinxes aren’t pan dimensional beings just as demons are, but instead native to this dimension. Namely, Phix Prime is born sometime after the Time Loop starts, does normal sphinx things until she gets recruited to run the Library, and is then taken out of the time stream. Time resets, things go forward along the same lines, Phix 2 is born and does normal sphinex things until she reaches the Librarian point, whereupon Phix Prime shows up with a different offer and both wind up leaving the time stream. Reset, Phix 3, Phix Prime and 2 show up and say “Wanna join the club?”, and on and on until there was an Army of Phix out there dealing with rogue demons. I don’t THINK that’s what’s happened, but I thought I would throw the idea out there just for the LOLs. On the other hand, several dozen Phixes (Phixs? Phixi?) all under the command of Phix Prime WOULD be a pretty impressive sight…
I believe it was 56 times, and the library Phix kept was out of the time loop. The same Phix (and the same library) was around to see the whole thing reset over and over again, just like Jin.
Wonder if Tina got the memo on nose flicks? It will take more than nose flicks to fix Phix……(ow I think I hurt myself)
Well, if you didn’t, i’m sure there are several people here who’d be happy to do it for you, after that one.
Yes… There’s now the quirk to hurt NOTDilbert. >_<
Hmmm … maybe if a phantastically phorceful phlicker physically phlicked Phix. Could be phrightening. Phly Phix, phly!
And, I hand off the torch to you.
Is that why Phix asked both Monica and Shelley the same riddle? To determine if demons were a part of their make up?
I just figured that after all the millennia, Phix just settled on a stock riddle that got optimal results…
Naw. I think she was just fooling around, giving them a hard time for the fun of it.
Establishing if they had the necessary resolve, whatever, for the task ahead of them…
Well, we already know demons are a large part of Monica’s life, at least*. I think the key point is, is the human or the demon in control? If the latter…
Although I’m not sure how a riddle would tell a sphinx that. Especially since both innocent human and demon infected human might be terrified to find themself in the presence of a sphinx, although for different reasons. Maybe there’s some etheric sign not visible to mortal eyes that asking the riddle reveals.
(* It’d be interesting to see Katherine’s demons! I bet those suckers are STRANGE!)
More likely Katherine’s demons are cowering in some corner, scared to death of that girl. She probably tormets them.
I don’t think Katherine would torment her demons at all. She seems like she’s balanced enough (although, yes, socially inept) either not to have been colonized by them, or to not be aware of them.
Now don’t be giving the artist any more ideas, he has enough weird ones on his own…
She said that she was just trying to keep adventurers out at that point, so she probably was asking a different riddle. I can’t see how the one she asked Monica and Shelly would help weed out rogue demons.
That’s both fascinating, and creepy as hell.
I like that explanation of Sphinx(‘s).
Tina’s expression just gets scarier and scarier as the panels progress. I don’t think I’d want to be in the same room with that last look…
Yeah, the last look seems to be a bit dreamy. As if she is imagining the bloody slaughter she is describing and getting off on the vision.
Agreed, J2p2! I got a “Those were FUN times” from her (or Nudges’???) expression – holy horrific horripulation, batman!
Im wondering who could give orders to a sphinx.
meh
stjason already voiced that query. didnt read the comments as thoroughly as i had assumed 🙂
Wait…so if asking riddles was a way to find rogue demons, did that mean that demons are bad at riddles? Because I thought Sphinxes only killed the people who got the answers wrong.
I’m also going to have to run back to the comics where Tina and Phix first meet. I’m curious as to whether or not Nudge made any appearances while Phix was around. If not, I wonder if she’s been hiding in the mass of the Tina Collective and hasn’t been noticed by Phix.
It does seem that the Collective is a tad more pro-Phix than Nudge is based on this most recent series of comics…though that could just be my reading of it.
No, I agree with you. I have noticed Nudge seems very much absent when Phix is around…I wonder if the rest of the collective resents Nudge due to the possibility of guilt by association (or proximity)?
I don’t remember which strip it was, but I thought that some time ago it was implied that most demons weren’t all that creative. There are exceptions, of course, but aren’t there always…?
Someone conjectured the infected person would get it wrong because the demon was never a human and, therefore, would not understand the question. It could be it wasn’t just a wrong answer (or folks bad at riddles would be murdered too), but a specific answer only a demon would give to the question. This would assume the demon could not help but give that specific answer. Otherwise, one of them could just check out the answers others gave and know what (and what not) to say. The word would then spread quickly around the demon water cooler (or heater).
I think Nudge in this instance is the Rogue Demon, since it was the driving force to get “Tina” up and running again. Hell, the other entities didn’t even know about Nudge until that moment in the morgue when it took over.
Perhaps back in the old days, more demons were able to take control of the dead bodies of their hosts?
And I think the nature of the riddles were important. Remember that Sphix’s riddle doesn’t really have a ‘wrong’ answer, but is used to survey people? I’m thinking riddles like that were meant to weed out the demons since their realm is devoid of anything other than themselves. (no time, dirt, sunshine or wind)
anyways I’m just ramblin…
But Phix knows that Tina died and she seems to be OK with Tina being run by demons. Also Tina said yesterday “No more rogue demons.” They could be making an exception for Tina, but I don’t think Nudge is really a rogue. She might be a on a special assignment, though.
That’s an interesting thought. Perhaps the rogue demons take over the bodies of the reccently departed, making them a sort of zombie, but not a dumb, rotting away, brain tartare consuming zombie. Instead, more of a “host shell” being used by the demon for it’s own purposes. That would remove the “murderous” aspect of things since they are already dead. Killing them (again) would not be murder as such, therefore not an immoral act.
That said, Tina must be a special case, in that the demons in control (except Nudge) are not aware of their actions being a transgression (at least not at the time) and they had/have no malicious intent whatsoever.
Ah, but then, if that’s the case, why did Phix eventually feel remorseful about her part and lock herself away?
Remember – the vampires in “Buffy” were dead people whose souls had been replaced by demons.
This confirms that the library is older than human writing. OMG! It probably has Vogon poetry!
I forgot that it’s not on the Earth. Just the portals were.
Worse yet, it would contain a copy of every Congressional Record ever. And [shudder] a copy of the lyrics to “My Humps.”
Here’s a question: It has every text that WAS and IS written.
does it contain everything that WILL be written, also?
Nope, just the writing that has been.
It could be worse: it could contain all possible books…a Universal Library: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Library_of_Babel
What Tina says in the first panel wouldn’t make much sense if the library had books not yet written. How would anyone notice new writing?
With all the works collected, it’s amazing they would notice new stuff anyway. Perhaps they have an etheral in-box somewhere. Sucker must be always full.
You complained about me making you hungry for pizza, but you got me to listen to “My Humps” (part of it, anyway). We’re even, now. LOL!
BTW, I also replied to you in yesterday’s comments an hour or so ago.
Payback … it is a rogue demon.
Oh…that is just not right…why did you have to get something yucky like “My Humps” stuck in my head??
Oh, wow. If Phix ever asks me a riddle, I had better not answer “Hope and Change!”
So, Phix knows why a raven is like a writing desk?
Because both have feather quills, silly!
“Because they produce only a few notes, and those are flat,” was an answer Carroll himself supplied later.
I liked the negative logic answer I saw; “because neither is made of aluminum.”
I hope I am going to make sense here – I have a cold and fever and my head isn’t working too well.
The riddle of the sphinx might be a tool to place the person asked under duress, so that the sphinx can look for certain tell-tale signs, something like a technician observing the displays on a polygraph.
A person infected by a rogue demon, rather than influenced by their personal demons, might be so damaged that killing them might be a kindness. What was it Tina just said? Something about shredding a soul for amusement? Or maybe the sphinxes just don’t care, and subscribe to the “destroy the village to save it” meme. Perhaps they are so focused on the demons that they don’t even think of humans as of any consequence. They are not human, and their values are not ours.
Perhaps I should say, didn’t care. Was this what happened to Phix? That she begin to realize that humans weren’t just meat being worn by her prey? And became horrified over what she had done to innocents?
We are at the disadvantage of being centuries away from the events at Thebes; historical record is distorted by time, and the viewpoint of the humans telling the story. They may have utterly misunderstood what they were seeing.
The Library as a tripwire for emerging species is an elegant concept. Having writing appear on its shelves would be a pretty solid indicator – though the bar is a little high. An entirely new meaning to publish or perish.
The Sphinxes appear to answer to the Library. Is Library a title for a collection of entities, much like the title Congress?
Is the Library of which Phix is mistress merely a subset of a much larger Library? Are its contents mostly concerned with Earth, as the portal-libraries Phix is establishing on Earth are specialized subsets of her complex?
When Phix exiled herself, did she withdraw only from Earth itself, while still retaining access to the society which had sent her to Earth? She may not have been anywhere near as isolated as we have thought, if that’s true.
Is Nudge a demon at all? As has been demonstrated, Tina 2 is ignorant of many things, and wrong about others. Is she a cat’s-paw seized upon by an agent of the Library, who needed a body to influence events?
And the answer is?
That made a lot of sense. I’ve been thinking some of the same things.
In addition, I’m wondering how broadly to take what Tina said in the second panel: “Demons took liberty with each new sentient creature they discovered.” Is that some (rogue) demons took liberties with whatever humans they came across, or does it mean across the various planes of existence? It seems that many creatures other than humans have been plagued by personal demons.
Also what of the legitimate personal demons who weren’t going rogue, but were inside hosts infested by rogue demons? Would they have a chance to say, “No! Wait! We belonged there!” How would the sphinxes tell the difference between someone with legitimate personal demons and someone with rogue ones?
What happened to the other sphinxes? Why does Phix seem to be the only one guarding the library? Once things were under control was she left behind while the others took off for other worlds?
How would the sphinxes tell the difference between someone with legitimate personal demons and someone with rogue ones?
Possibly the riddles, used as filters?
What happened to the other sphinxes? Why does Phix seem to be the only one guarding the library?
I’ve been wondering if Earth isn’t Phix’s jurisdiction, the area of her authority, the Library one of the tools she uses to police it. If the whole earth was cycling through a repeating loop of time, wouldn’t any intervention by other Powers be totally useless, until the loop terminated?
I am also wondering if Bud’s idea of Phix’s status is almost completely wrong; if she simply doesn’t understand just what part Phix has played.
Perhaps souls aren’t all that rogue demons shred – perhaps they destroy (or devour) the legitimate demons assigned to their hosts?
Now there’s one that never crossed my mind.
I’m also curious, on a side note, if the GG’s were created in an effort to oppose the sphinxes. Perhaps, say, by a rogue infected body, etc, etc.
Body hopping may be a convenient means of continuing to hide. :/
Hope you’re feeling better, colds suck. Lots of points to ponder in that post.
Looks to me like Nudge is up to something. I believe Nudge is a rogue demon in hiding (or if all the rogue demons are supposedly taken care of, a demon that wishes to go rogue), as is Monica’s Doubt. It may be possible that Nudge knows that Doubt inhabits/troubles Monica. I think Nudge is trying to use Monica and make her afraid/distrustful of Phix or otherwise turn her against Phix somehow. It might be that Nudge knows something that she (it?) doesn’t want Monica to find out from Phix. In any event, it’s pretty obvious to me that Nudge is trying to set Monica up for something.
…and I guess she wouldn’t be “Nudge” otherwise, if she wasn’t trying, furthermore. That is obviously her (its) nature. Besides that, look at the almost gleefully evil expression on Tina’s face. It’s as if Nudge can barely contain herself (itself?).
Hmmm. Just noticed – does anyone else get the impression that Tina’s eyes become more and more like regular eyes from panel to panel?
Ya know – in Marvel’s “X-Men” books, there’s a psychic entity called Malice (i think) who exists by possessing people’s minds.
The only identifiable sign of Malice’s possession is that a black velvet choker appears around the neck of the current host, as it jumps from body to body…
Now since Tina’s choker isn’t black but white, could it/she be Malice’s good twin….?
I’d like tomorrow’s comic to tell us just one thing (so I won’t have to wait until next week, or longer, to find out … if ever). Were the people infected with rogue demons alive or already dead when the demon(s) took over the body?
Tina, your expression is really worrying.
Seems like a biased test, I wouldn’t have lasted long. My first reaction to a riddle is: wtf, ask me something make sense.
Do your demons; do they ever let you go? -Ronnie James Dio