Tom Sewell

This amazing crackpot plot theory deserves a separate entry, I think. If Helena and Demetrius really are brother and sister as Tara and Andrea thought they might be, who is their mother? Pandora knows how important Elliot is to Tedd. Could Pandora be the reason Helena and Demetrius have been watching over Elliot all this time?

You mean like Susan? Well, unless the female makes puppy dog eyes. I can't see Susan's mom doing that any more than I can see Susan doing that. Unless maybe Diane teaches Susan how... Yes, we do know. Sirleck complained about not being able to "take a break" because his host would die as soon as he left his body. To clarify, I'm not married to Francine being possessed. But it does seem to be a good guess for the reasons I've mentioned so far. Another guess is maybe "Francine" is really Pandora today, keeping an eye on Diane while Jerry 2.0 keeps an eye on Susan. Take a look back at Pandora arguing with herself after sending Tedd back to bed. In the next to last panel of this page two of the Pandoras have the exactly the same Sam the Sheepdog eye-hiding bangs as Francine.

Once again, something new occured to me. Ellen and Elliot's parents are going to be out tonight. Has anyone else wondered how much magic potential one or both have? Maybe even that certain gift that might get them targeted? Thanks to Pandora, we now know for certain Nanase's mom has at least very high magic potential. What about Susan's mom? If she is Susan's biological mother, then the likelyhood is high that she has potential. And if Adrian Raven is Susan's biological father, and Mrs. Pompoms knows about his true nature, and maybe about the mess with Nanase's mom too, it could help explain any of: Why Susan goes to Moperville North instead of South. Why Mrs. Pompoms doesn't seem to have a clue about Susan's magic, even though Susan's fairy has been flying around her house since the last spring break. Why Mrs. Pompoms doesn't seem to have noticed that Susan turned blonde twice, once after Ellen FV-5'd her on her first visit, and again when she came home from Grace's birthday party. Why Principal Verrucht was so terrified by Mrs. Pompoms when she bullied him into letting Susan go on that trip to France. How Mrs. Pompoms is able to maintain an enormous mansion without any staff that we've ever seen or even heard mentioned. That improbable couch with the adjustable-height back. To work without magic as it was drawn, it would have to retract beneath the floor. Mexican radio on the Pompoms' intercom. Possibly a spell backfire, or maybe a curse by another witch?

I think that unlikely. Sirleck used the old man for a long time, and acting like someone who has empathy would be difficult and distasteful to Sirleck. Any man that rich would have lots of important people watching him, and even if none of them figured out what was really going on, he could have lots and lots of trouble with his businesses if his behavior changed radically. Trouble like loans being called in, credit ratings downgraded, stock prices falling, unwelcome investigation from the authorities, hostile takeover atempts, etc. On the other hand, if the old man was already well established as a selfish jerk and still got and stayed rich, the people who worked with him before to some mutual profit would go on holding their noses to make even more money and/or avoid making him angry enough to crush them.

We know that Sirleck enjoyed having a good-looking young secretary. This suggests he's able to enjoy the pleasurable sensations of the host body. Conversely, he would be stuck with the unpleasant sensations of the host body, of which the brain-dead nasty old guy would have had many. The only reason Sirleck would have kept that host so long would be to suck as much of his host's wealth away before abandoning ship. Perhaps the nicer the host, the worse the host will feel after Sirleck moves on? An inner struggle between Francine's mind/soul and Sirleck's would fit in with classic possession lore, but it would likely also mean that Francine would remember Sirleck was in her mind. Except for eavesdropping, we don't know if Francine has done anything really troubling. For all we know, Francine listens in on students and other staff all the time. And the only thing that we've heard our Moperville South crew say this Friday that had any hint of real weirdness was Ellen telling Nanase about an inhuman-looking voyeur. I wonder if Dan has considered whether or not Francine has been working at Moperville South long enough to catch Nanase floating or even hear rumors about it? As far as we know Nanase hasn't done that in school since before the fight with Abraham in Sister II last spring. Or if Francine knows about Ellen and Nanase solving mysteries like the Mall Goblin and the Ghost of the Locker Room.

Come to think of it, if Francine was possessed, would she know about it? Dan has never explained exactly what happens to Sirleck's hosts. I think that Sirleck's eventually killing a host if he uses them for two long is a given, but is the host aware of being possessed after all? I don't think so; Sirleck really would have a lot of trouble re-acquiring the same host if they could remember his presence while they were possessed. But do they remember anything at all? Having a big memory gap would be a pretty good excuse for hiding out in the toilet for awhile. Uncomfortably close to twenty years ago I created a monster for my first Sailor Moon fanfic that possessed already evil people and amplified their evilness (it actually brought back a dead serial killer.) From the first time I saw Sirleck, I thought he was something like that monster because it seemed the nasty old man he was keeping alive was probably a nasty old man before Sirleck (and a nasty younger man before that.) But Francine doesn't seem to be that nasty from Brad's concern for her. So maybe she would be feeling worse than a host like that a host like the nasty old rich guy after being "ridden" by Sirleck. Another question is how long it takes Sirleck to learn to play the part of his new host convincingly. Does he use those tendrils to burrow into the minds of his victims and read memories? If so, how quickly? Choosing a janitor, a type that a lot of people don't pay attention to, would be a good choice for a temporary host. They also work in empty rooms a lot, and even in otherwise vacant buildings before or after regular hours. It's canon that body snatcher aberrations like Sirleck are only visible on the spirit plane when they are using a host. But Sirleck was visible on the mortal plane when he was about to possess the butler, which happened in a room with only the butler and the dead body of the former host. This would seem to tie into the requirement that aberrations always have to assume a monstrous form when attacking even if they can pose as normal people. Which is kind of puzzling because the butler in that scene sees the old man standing up before falling down. Was the brain-dead old guy able to stand up for just a few moments before collapsing? Or was Sirleck able to stay invisible until a few seconds before he made his attack? If Sirleck was able to flit around invisibly as long as he wasn't making an attack, he wouldn't need to "be" the butler or Francine the janitor or anyone to spy on people. In fact, it seems he's usually invisible to Immortals, which could explain why body snatchers like himself are Number One on the Immortal hit list: One must not miss any opportunity to take out such a hard-to-detect pest. So the backstory I have in mind for Francine as Sirleck's latest host choice is that Sirleck couldn't really hang out as the butler at any place Ellen would be guaranteed to spend time at on this crucial Friday, so he finessed a time and place to possess Francine when and where there wouldn't be witnesses. Incidentally, I wonder if aberrations are visible on security cameras? Or for that matter, in mirrors?

Could Francine be Sirleck's latest host? Sirleck would be quite interested in where Ellen will be tonight.

Actually the floating woman with a large striped tail I have in mind is Nioi. There aren't a lot of characters in canon who can fly. Another one, who definitely looks inhuman, is Sirleck without a host. It doesn't seem like his style to expose himself, but it might be a ploy to lure Ellen and set up the Magus-gets-a-body thing that Sirleck is very interested in.

I think this scene is set could be set at the end of the school day. There's the previous scene with Arthur and Sybil which breaks up the alternation between Moperville North and South, and when and how did Ellen check out Charlotte's forum? As for the change in Elliot and Ashley's plan, I bet has it has to do with that darn overdue library book. Maybe it's from the college library or something, not a library conveniently located close to wherever Ashley's home is. If it's from the college where Charlotte and Rhea go, it gives Elliot an excuse to be close to whatever's going down there when it goes down. And how unhuman a voyeur? Maybe a floating woman with a large striped tail? Sirleck taking a break from his latest host? Certainly he has enough eyes for peeping.

Dan is being cute here. He isn't giving us a clear idea of what Arthur is really trying to achieve. If Arthur is talking about the Will of Magic as a thinking being, he might have a justification for what he's doing. That is, he's working toward what he thinks is the best interest for the most people, or at least the best interests of the agency. If so, he's not a jerk, just terribly mistaken. Why? If magic changes for humans, Immortals will still have magic, and Immortals can be big trouble. Now there are human mages like Edward who can actually overpower at least some immortals. After a Change, there will be few or none. In other words, unilateral disarmament. It would be like trying to get North Korea to give up nukes by destroying all of ours. But if Arthur does see the folly of forcing a Change, he's really turned to the Dark Side. One other thing: I don't think there's any proof in canon about Arthur actually having magic. He's never done any magic in front of us, and no one has said he has powers. All we really know is that he knows a lot about magic. Dressing up like Gandolf doesn't make him a wizard. This could be the reason he hates Adrian so much. It could be that Arthur, who trained Edward, felt that Adrian had stolen away his protege. Kind of like a dad who pushes his kid into becoming a sports hero and then losing the child's affection to some hotshot coach or trainer.

Arthur may know about the Will of Magic, but I think his most likely Immortal contact is Voltaire. By setting up a mass vampire attack Voltaire is creating the kind of incident that could trigger a change in magic--and probably planning on influencing what that change will be like. By the way, if Arthur is the one who ratted out Adrian to Voltaire, there's going to be a job vacancy in the Paranormal department by the end of Sister III.

Arthur and Sybil are talking about dealing directly with an Immortal with godlike power. Unless Dan is going to bring in a dark horse candidate, that means either Voltaire or Pandora.

True enough, but I don't believe Dan has put a school janitor character in the series before Diane rushed into the locker room past the lounging janitor. The same janitor shows up in this latest page. I'd say odds are pretty good the janitor could be important.

No problem now. I guess Elliot went back to Swedekea for that giant bean bag chair. Jerry 2.0 also stated he would check on Diane later. It's later. On the other hand, the "janitor" isn't wearing a vest and is wearing shoes. Also, in the first appearance of that "janitor" she looks female. Her butt certainly looks female to me. Still if Pandora can look like Agent Wolf when she wants to, maybe Jerry 2.0 can manage a female version of himself, with Sam Sheepdog bangs. Another plausible candidate for the "janitor" could be Abner the detective. I kind of think Dan may be saving him for the resolution of this story, and a detective character is a wonderful plot device for filling in the other characters and the readers at some critical point in the plot.

Oh please, please, PLEASE, Dan, don't make Ashley's hair look like she's hiding a pet tarantula again. Thin thingies look more like hair; thick ones look like arthropod legs.

You're right, Pandora said so. But I still think it's more plausible that Felix is more about wanting Kitty to accept him/her than a pre-Kitty identification with the opposite gender.

Well, that depends on how you define "transgender." If it means what Grace told Tedd it means in Squirrel Prophet, then Sam is the only transgender person we know of in or around Moperville. I don't think any of the gay characters have shown any signs of wanting to be the opposite sex; both Justin and Luke have demonstrated distaste for changing sex to be acceptable to the men they are attracted to. Tedd and maybe now Elliot are gender fluid, but neither feels trapped in the wrong physical gender. Sam would really be my first bet. Conservation of effort. When Dan creates a character, even a minor one, he's shown a tendency to bring them back and expand them. The biggest example of this is, of course, Susan herself. I think it's a fair bet that Sam's cover will be completely blown before the end of Sister III. This could set up a triangle between Sam, Sarah, and Cecil. Remember Cecil? Neither did I; he appears in Identity. Or perhaps a pentagon with the addition of Tedd and of course Grace. Maybe it will be all resolved in Sister IV: A New Mope.

I think not. Non-exploding fairies wouldn't be as entertaining. It would like putting seat belts on the bridge chairs in Star Trek and fixing them to the deck. When asked why that wasn't done, Gene Roddenberry replied that if he did that, the actors wouldn't fall out of their chairs.

So who could be a "guilty party' interesting enough to rate an actual depiction of such a scene? Not some new character, but someone who's involved with Elliot in some prior way. I have some candidates: Tony has been shown as an ass in so many ways, and yet he was Elliot's bud once upon a time. I immediately thought of him as a suspect, and so I think would Elliot. But what if Elliot discovers Tony actually doing exactly the right thing for a change? "Ronin", Tony's sidekick. Either trying to clean up Tony's mess or his own would be very believable behavior, and Ronin would be nervous, especially encountering an angry Elliot alone. Sam would be a most interesting choice. We'd get the chance to see Sam as a girl. As far as we know Elliot has never met Sam-the-Friday-night "guy" and with several thousand students at Moperville North (like Dan's real high school in Naperville), there's no particular reason Elliot would remember him/her. It would also bring a wonderful opportunity for Sarah to show up wanting to talk with Elliot and either sort of recognizing or not having a clue that Sam the girl is the "guy" she has a not-date with tonight. Plus, Sam is the number-one suspect as the allegedly transgender individual who sent that request for help that so affected Elliot earlier in the week.

I think New Jerry is acting on more than Old Jerry's vow. Did someone have a little talk with him recently? Speaking of the "who", who is Jerry chewing out in the last panel? The person who dropped the soda? Or himself for somehow making that person drop the soda?

Possi Have you considered these possibilities? Susan could use a larger purse. Susan could use her backpack Remember that her fairies explode if she unsummons them instead of waiting for them to unsummon on their own, and it kind of seems that, like her sword, she summons them unconsciously sometimes. Also, how long to they persist now? Quite possibly they persist longer now. Taking them with her in some kind of bag strikes me as a better solution than leaving them at home where her mom could find them while she's gone, in her van in a parking lot, etc. This isn't actually relevant to your comment, but I wonder if Rhoda's magic could shrink fairies? A Barbie-sized fairie shrunk to 1/7 its normal height would be something like 4 cm or an inch-and-a-half tall.

I'm also wondering how many fairies Susan will have in her purse.

I'm thinking Susan might want to use the watch that allows her to change her hair color to its original blonde.

Lest it not be forgotten, Elliot used puppy dog eyes at least once.

By Jove, you're right, I missed that head-pat, and a bad mistake it was, because it's one of my favorite comics. It's also the maybe the only comic that suggests Lucy's attitude toward Rhoda is really jealously because Rhoda gets fondly touched and Lucy doesn't. Hmmm. Kind of on the edge, that one. One could group it with all the times Susan has used hammers (not that many; I think, at least "on screen.") On the other, it's distinctly less painful than the hammers. I did think of including this instance of Diane touching a humanoid, but it was more sluggy than touchy.