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jwhouk
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Questions

Post by jwhouk »

I mentioned briefly in the Comic Discussion for 2014-01-22 about some "questions" we still have that haven't been answered yet in the comic. So, after doing a re-read of the archives, here's my "Top Ten" list of questions we've never really had answered about Wapsi Square and its characters:
  1. What is the deal, exactly, with Monica's parents? Pablo has alluded to the fact that M has had a pretty decent childhood - the words "spoiled princess" has come out several times in storylines. But, do they hold some sort of concern for her - or maybe even fear? - because of what they perceive as her "mental issues"? Dad sounded a bit resentful over Grandpa Sullivan; was there a reason (other than possible cultural issues)?
  2. Looking back: which version of Brandi was the one that "wrote" the Calendar Fix-it book: Sweet Innocent Brandi, under duress from the Nu Gui influenced version; or did "Senior Directory Oduya" write it? Though there were some parts of the book that sounded like Brandi, some of them sounded like the work of the Chessmaster. What was the ulterior motive for either of them (besides "saving the world" and "fixing Jin")?
  3. What exactly is The Prophecy that we've heard mentioned by SDO, Bia, Charon, and Tina? Is this going to be one of those "Harry Potter"-esque moments where we never actually hear the prophecy, except indirectly - or have we already heard it, but we didn't know it at the time? What we do know at the moment is that it's about Bia having "a descendent who will set the powers right" - after her conversation with Charon back in 2012. Is that Shelly, or is it a combination of factors? Is Monica involved - or not at all?
  4. Was the goal of the Nu Gui just to completely eradicate all Lanthians and Lanthian refugees? Did even Brandi know who exactly she was dealing with? Is there some consequence, now that Brandi is no longer carting around "SDO" in her head/whatever?
  5. Then there's the issue of some of the other parental units in Wapsi Square: Amanda's bitter mom and absent father were only mentioned in passing; Jin's dad apparently left after Jin was diagnosed with her schizophasia; we only know that Tina's dad was a Miami-based drug lord (and may still be out there!). Will we get anything more of their stories - especially that of Tina, or Jin?
  6. As to the Lanthians: what exactly was their primary purpose in creating all of their "sci-fi steampunk tech"? Was it just to try to create their own demigod-like beings, to combat all the Titans who were terrorizing humankind? Or was it an attempt to divorce demons from humans? Or, was it simply a case of "Big Boom Reset Button"?
  7. Why was Tepoz "out of commission" for 500 years, and who was responsible? Euryale had no idea why it happened; a lot of things could have gone down during that time frame - not the least of which would be Jin getting out and causing trouble.
  8. When, exactly, did Monica "become" the Jaguar Girl? The Library bestowed her sub-Titan status upon her at the end of 2012; there are several other points in time when it really could have happened: Back when May taught her the glyph language (disguised as her great-grandma); Jin at the time she was "rescued" (which was "deemed a sacrifice); sometime during her time at the mental hospital; when she first met Shelly; when she "freed" Tepoz; the appearance of the Golem Girls; the second the "blade" from the knife hit her skull; or - perhaps - the third time she "died", when Euryale froze her on the beach.
  9. What exactly is in Tina's diaries? This is the throwaway plot point to end all throwaways. It seemed like a huge thing to Monica when Tina first told her about it - to the point where it caused a flashback to her bus accident, and led M to believe it was in Glyph Language (which could be a whole question set in and of itself - what each glyph means and how it's "pronounced"). It apparently got "neutered" when Monica told her it was just shorthand - but we never were told definitively what was in those diaries. Were they just former-life Tina's case notes for her clients, or was it something else? Were there any clues to some future event that Tina knew about - but knew wouldn't survive her "termination?
  10. WHO THE HECK IS ROY????? (Reference: "Rag Dolls?" "They look like Shelly!" It was a cute way of introducing Shelly to the cast - but Roy was never mentioned again.
---
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"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Fairportfan
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Re: Questions

Post by Fairportfan »

#2 - note that the part of the book Bud read specifically said not to let Brandi know what she was reading.

Brandi didn't know the book existed until Phix handed it to her.

Also - Paul would have to clarify this, but do we know the nu gui existed in previous cycles?

If not, then Sneior Director Oduya may not have existed in those cycles, either.
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shadowinthelight
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Re: Questions

Post by shadowinthelight »

#2 - I thought the book was a team effort with each Brandi adding to the work of the previous ones. Similar but not identical individuals could give different tones. Brandi #56 finally connected the dots and Bud #57 put it into motion.

#7 - Why not steampunk tech? It's awesome. :D
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Catawampus
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Re: Questions

Post by Catawampus »

Fairportfan wrote:Also - Paul would have to clarify this, but do we know the nu gui existed in previous cycles?
The Nu Gui was created twelve thousand years ago, and was active five thousand years ago (when Lily died). The time loop started much later. So the Nu Gui would have been along for the ride every time, because it predated the looping by a long margin.

Whether it remained in Brandi for the duration of every past cycle is another matter. It could have been exorcised out of her a few times in alternate histories.

I've had a few idle questions of my own in the back of my mind. Some have already been brought up by others, but here are a few more that I can think of offhand:

1) What's the significance of this comic?

2) How does Dietzel open doors without thumbs? Also, just Dietzel in general. He's certainly more than your average dog.

3) Euryale's hair-snakes. Are they autonomous, or can she control them individually? Do they have their own digestive systems for if they happen to swallow something, or would they just have to spit it back up? Can Euryale see out of their eyes, and if so can she see out of all of them simultaneously (which would mean that she must have one heck of a visual cortex. . .perhaps that's what all of that extra bodymass on her chest really is)? Is it just the hair on top of her head that is snakeified, or is it all hair?

4) The golems are indestructible. We see them eating often. What would happen if one wasn't given any food, aside from us ending up with a very grumpy golem? And is the food that they eat somehow metabolised?

5) Would it be considered a major faux pas to serve poultry to Atsali for dinner?

6) Is Shelly's internalised “boiler room” her version of the space we saw in Georgette where the demons stay, or is it a different type of space? And seeing as how Connie apparently stays there sometimes, and Connie is a hybrid of soul and demon, does that mean that souls share the same space as demons?

7) Has Bud kept up her roller-skating?

8) Could this be a sign of Sibyl's prophecy, where we see Shelly's nature is to try to set things right?

9) Who are the people in the paintings that Phix has on her walls?

10) Does Bud's compartment have some sort of organisational system, or does everything just get thrown in there together in one big jumble? And if she moves around, does it all tumble about inside of her?

11) Does Minneapolis just happen to have a disproportionate number of paranormals hanging around, or do paranormals actually make up a significant percentage of the world's population?

12) Titans and humans look alike, as do many other paranormals. Why?

13) Euryale can thaw frozen people by kissing them. If she kisses a person who isn't frozen, would that person then turn into steam? And if an ursamorph took on her form, would the freezing ability also transfer over?

14) Plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Animals take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. Does Castela even need to breathe, then?

15) I am assuming that in the US there are government agencies who are charged with inspecting various aspects of schools, even private schools. What agencies would the paranormal school have to deal with, then, and how do they handle that? Presumably the MIB have arranged things somehow. I suppose that they could just keep the school a complete secret, but not only would that be a very difficult thing to do, but it would mean that the students would have a hard time when they want to provide their credentials to colleges or whatever in the future. “Yes, I graduated with a 4.0 GPA, but I can't provide you with any official documentation to prove it or any contact information for the school. But here's an anonymous piece of paper declaring that I graduated! Standardised tests? What standardised tests?”
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Dave
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Re: Questions

Post by Dave »

Catawampus wrote:1) What's the significance of this comic?
Never could figure that one out myself. The portion of the sky being shown seems to include Orion (I see the "belt" and "sword") but what it has to do with the Glyph comment Monica made isn't clear to me.

She's just had a sort of flirtation which didn't work out (the kid was under-age). Maybe this is her doing a wistful "wish upon a star" musing, and since she's "wishing" in Glyph, the stars are responding by lighting up?
2) How does Dietzel open doors without thumbs? Also, just Dietzel in general. He's certainly more than your average dog.
Do we know for sure that all of the doors in question have knobs? Doorhandle sets with levers would be pretty easy to operate by a dog with sufficient intelligence - thumbs aren't required, if the doors aren't actually locked.

But, yeah, he seems more than the average canine. Although, there are some well-documented cases of dogs which have been shown to understand a spoken-English vocabulary of hundreds of words... his canny may not be all that uncanny, in that respect.

His ability to open bottles of cold water and dump them over Monica's head... that's definitely unusual. :lol:
5) Would it be considered a major faux pas to serve poultry to Atsali for dinner?
Best to ask first, I imagine. Some humans have no qualms about eating monkeys, or even chimps. Others consider such close relatives to be entirely taboo.
8) Could this be a sign of Sibyl's prophecy, where we see Shelly's nature is to try to set things right?
Hmmm... she's unnaturally strong, she's died a bunch of times, she tries to set things right... OMG, Shelly isn't just a part-titan and a part-sphinx. She's also a Crow!
10) Does Bud's compartment have some sort of organisational system, or does everything just get thrown in there together in one big jumble? And if she moves around, does it all tumble about inside of her?
I imagine it's rather like any woman's purse... an idiosyncratic blend of utter organization, frequent chaos, and an occasional "God, I thought I lost this years ago!"
14) Plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Animals take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. Does Castela even need to breathe, then?
Plants actually do both. In the dark, they take in oxygen and release CO2. They can only do the reverse when exposed to sufficient sunlight. I expect the same is true of Castela.
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jwhouk
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Re: Questions

Post by jwhouk »

In Re the star comic: I'd wonder what Monica was saying more than the stars in the sky (which looks, to me, to be somewhat akin to a Kokopelli drawing).


EDIT: Holy cow. That IS Orion.

And holy crap... consider what happened on the next few strips... and then take a look here...
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"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Re: Questions

Post by NOTDilbert »

Fairportfan wrote:#2 - note that the part of the book Bud read specifically said not to let Brandi know what she was reading.

Brandi didn't know the book existed until Phix handed it to her.

Also - Paul would have to clarify this, but do we know the nu gui existed in previous cycles?

If not, then Sneior Director Oduya may not have existed in those cycles, either.
The Nu Gui must have existed in all cycles - it was created when Brandi was still human, when the soldiers came to collect her....

*edit* oops, 'swhat I get for not reading all the posts before replying...
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