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Stature

Story Wednesday July 19, 2017

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OMG, if the feels weren't real when Pandora was talking to Sarah, they're definitely real now.

5 minutes ago, Illjwamh said:

Panel 5 is the first time I remember seeing Pandora even imply that she knows it's time for her to restart.

Definitely.

1 minute ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Tedd having sympathy for an immortal in the last panel? Last thing I would have expected.

I think Tedd can see that Pandora is being completely genuine right now, when Sarah first told him that she promised to help her awaken if she helped with removing the dam, he was skeptical that she might have a hidden agenda. When she showed up in front of him moments earlier, he was scared that she was going to get trick him or something bad, and he might have felt justified in the fear when she did that speech about him being able to bend worlds to his will, but now she's broken down about how she feels she's failed to be a good mother, Tedd just can help but feel sorry for her.

 

Now would this be a good time for Edward to walk in? Preferably having just listened to all of this?

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25 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Tedd having sympathy for an immortal in the last panel? Last thing I would have expected.

Tedd is a better person than many suspect. It is precisely because of his empathy and his desire to protect those he cares about that he is vulnerable to becoming corrupted. With all the hurt and injury done to him early in his life he withdrew into himself to protect himself. Getting Elliot as a friend was the best thing that could possibly have happened to him; if Colonel Sanders had succeeded in killing Elliot, it would have been the worst -- provoking the kind of anger and hate in Tedd that was precisely what Sanders wanted.

We have time and again seen Tedd step up to the plate when his friends were in danger or someone was trying to harm them. And that is no small thing. He is also the sort of person who would intercede if he sees a perfect stranger in pain. This is Tedd at his purest. Like Elliot, he is a protector and possibly more. Perhaps even a healer.

ETA: I also see the first hint of a possible non-selfish motivation for Noriko to withdraw from Tedd. Maybe she was afraid that her profession would draw dangerous attention to Tedd and potentially make him a target for anyone who wanted to get at her. It is not as if this hasn't precedent. (It is usually also complete codswallop and the idiot doing it ends up doing more harm than good, but there you are.)

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I'm now predicting that by the end of this storyline, once all this business has been taken care of, Pandora will finally reset. Just a crazy hunch I have.

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11 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

Yeah, I've been expecting a reset for Pandora once the current storyline is over for quite a while.  Personally, I'm hoping she ends up the college student from the Mall, and Sarah's dorm roommate. ;)

That wouldn't have anything to do with your avatar, now, would it? ;)

 

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7 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

ETA: I also see the first hint of a possible non-selfish motivation for Noriko to withdraw from Tedd. Maybe she was afraid that her profession would draw dangerous attention to Tedd and potentially make him a target for anyone who wanted to get at her. It is not as if this hasn't precedent. (It is usually also complete codswallop and the idiot doing it ends up doing more harm than good, but there you are.)

I can believe this, the intentions might have been good, but the execution wasn't, then again, it might have been one of those situations that didn't have any good options for dealing with it.

Maybe Noriko voiced her concern with Edward over Tedd's protection, Edward might have insisted they could do it together, Noriko felt that she needed to take a more active role, and Adrian sided with Noriko, which hurt Edward.

That's about the best I can come up with at the moment, I still feel there are holes in the story about what happened but they're slowly being filled. I'm not sure if Pandora would be aware that Noriko may have had other children after Tedd, my guess would be that if Tedd's half sibling is 4-5 year younger than him then it's probably a safe bet that Noriko got pregnant after the divorce. But if it turns out she had an affair, then we may be justified in hating her again.

Another possibility though, What if Tedd's sibling is Edward's and Noriko's as well, not certain of the logistics, but maybe the divorced ended up with her keeping custody of the sibling because they registered on the wand as having magic potential. In this case Edward would have been hurt enough to hide the truth about Noriko because he didn't want Tedd to think that she chose his brother or sister over him.

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Noriko left Moperville to keep her enemies away from Tedd?

Possible.  Perhaps that very thought was part of her rationalization.

But to me it resembles classical Greek tragedies where one can not evade fate forever, and it ends up worse when you try.

...

There once lived a man named Teddipus Rex
You may have heard about his odd complex
His name appears in Freud's index...

 

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8 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Tedd is a better person than many suspect. It is precisely because of his empathy and his desire to protect those he cares about that he is vulnerable to becoming corrupted. With all the hurt and injury done to him early in his life he withdrew into himself to protect himself. Getting Elliot as a friend was the best thing that could possibly have happened to him; if Colonel Sanders had succeeded in killing Elliot, it would have been the worst -- provoking the kind of anger and hate in Tedd that was precisely what Sanders wanted.

We have time and again seen Tedd step up to the plate when his friends were in danger or someone was trying to harm them. And that is no small thing. He is also the sort of person who would intercede if he sees a perfect stranger in pain. This is Tedd at his purest. Like Elliot, he is a protector and possibly more. Perhaps even a healer.

ETA: I also see the first hint of a possible non-selfish motivation for Noriko to withdraw from Tedd. Maybe she was afraid that her profession would draw dangerous attention to Tedd and potentially make him a target for anyone who wanted to get at her. It is not as if this hasn't precedent. (It is usually also complete codswallop and the idiot doing it ends up doing more harm than good, but there you are.)

I did not see that coming.  I thought Tedd would be needing hugs but it looks like Pandora is the one who does.  Tedd reaching out to Pandora doesn't surprise me.  As you said, he is a protector/healer who is at heart a tremendously sensitive soul.  What has surprised me is how much strength Tedd has shown in hearing hard truths about his life.  Really, his parents as well have underestimated him, even Edward who should know him best.  I get it, the desire to protect can blind you, but Tedd, with the help of his friends, especially Elliott and Grace, isn't the bomb waiting to go off that Ellen fears.

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7 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Noriko left Moperville to keep her enemies away from Tedd?

Possible.  Perhaps that very thought was part of her rationalization.

But to me it resembles classical Greek tragedies where one can not evade fate forever, and it ends up worse when you try.

...

There once lived a man named Teddipus Rex
You may have heard about his odd complex
His name appears in Freud's index...

 

I often wonder what would have happened if that guy, Oedipus not Teddipus, had tried suicide instead.

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8 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

ETA: I also see the first hint of a possible non-selfish motivation for Noriko to withdraw from Tedd. Maybe she was afraid that her profession would draw dangerous attention to Tedd and potentially make him a target for anyone who wanted to get at her. It is not as if this hasn't precedent. (It is usually also complete codswallop and the idiot doing it ends up doing more harm than good, but there you are.)

When I think about it, it does not sit right with me. 

If she was leaving because she wanted to protect Tedd, by having anyone who looks on from the outside think she doe snot care for him, but still cared they would have taken steps to help prevent Tedd from developing his abandonment issues, and Edward would have told Tedd the truth once Tedd was aware of Magic. 

If she cared about Tedd they would have done things in a way so in Tedd's mind he knew she loved him and cared, but circumstances were keeping her away. 

Now, people lie to themselves about their reasons for doing things all the time, and this might be the lie Noriko told herself to feel better about leaving, but it does not match with her actions. There is also the coldness between edward and Raven, as well as Raven admitting that there is no chance of reconciliation, if she left for Tedds own good these would not be as bad as they seem. 

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25 minutes ago, animalia said:

I often wonder what would have happened if that guy, Oedipus not Teddipus, had tried suicide instead.

When he found what he had done
He pulled his eyes out one by one

Suicide would have been easier

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10 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

When he found what he had done
He pulled his eyes out one by one

Suicide would have been easier

I meant as SOON as he heard the prophecy. You know before he had a chance to kill or marry anyone. It's kind of hard to kill or marry anyone if you are dead.

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1 hour ago, animalia said:

I meant as SOON as he heard the prophecy. You know before he had a chance to kill or marry anyone. It's kind of hard to kill or marry anyone if you are dead.

But, that assumes he knows he's fated to fail no matter what he tries.  He reasonably took actions to remove himself from the prophecy.  Now, short of suicide, since that seems like the last report, how about taking vows to nevery marry and never kill; chastity and pacifism seem more reasonable than suicide and would have been stronger ways to avoid his fate.  Granted, even being a pacifist, it's possible he might have been responsible for killing someone, but accidentally marrying?  That would take some serious manipulation on the part of the Fates.

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1 hour ago, Sjmcc13 said:

When I think about it, it does not sit right with me. 

If she was leaving because she wanted to protect Tedd, by having anyone who looks on from the outside think she doe snot care for him, but still cared they would have taken steps to help prevent Tedd from developing his abandonment issues, and Edward would have told Tedd the truth once Tedd was aware of Magic. 

If she cared about Tedd they would have done things in a way so in Tedd's mind he knew she loved him and cared, but circumstances were keeping her away. 

Now, people lie to themselves about their reasons for doing things all the time, and this might be the lie Noriko told herself to feel better about leaving, but it does not match with her actions. There is also the coldness between edward and Raven, as well as Raven admitting that there is no chance of reconciliation, if she left for Tedds own good these would not be as bad as they seem. 

Yeah, even if protecting Tedd was the true reason why Noriko left (not saying it was, I can see the lying to herself angle), the implementation was atrocious.  You want your son strong enough to protect himself, then support him and get him teachers who can teach other skills.  As Pandora herself said, any random fool with a gun can still best a wizard.  Get him trained in martial and weapon arts if you are worried.  Removing yourself from your son's life because you are not going to be able to personally teach him how to protect himself sounds specious.

And as a parent myself, the thought of never seeing your child again, never being there when he falls, cries, needs a hug, ARGH!  I understand Pandora so much more than I understand Noriko.  I can understand tearing down the world and reshaping it to protect your child far more than I can understand never again telling him you love him.

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3 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

...'cause he loved his mother.

Oedipus generally gets a bum rap.

In terms of what HE knew, he killed some well-dressed idiot who attacked him on the road for no apparent reason, and agreed to marry the widow of a recently-deceased king because that was one of the conditions under which he was offered the job of being a city's king. Nothing at all about his father or his mother. Not even realizing that the well-dressed idiot and the recently-deceased king were the same person.

The dots got connected later.

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Well, boys and girls, first of all, "Oedipus" is a pun. It sounds like the Attic Greek phrase for "I know".

Second, we don't know what Sophocles was really trying to put across when he wrote the play. It's quite possible it was subtle political satire. A bit earlier, a playwright wrote a play about recent events that mightily offended the men in power in Athens of the day, and he was punished. Thereafter plays were either presented as farces or retellings of legendary times. Writing a play about a legendary know-it-all who didn't know the most important fact of all was a lot safer than writing a play about a contemporary know-it-all such as, say, Pericles.

Third, how about getting back to our Tedd and away from "Teddipus"?

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2 hours ago, Tuscahoma said:

But, that assumes he knows he's fated to fail no matter what he tries.  He reasonably took actions to remove himself from the prophecy.  Now, short of suicide, since that seems like the last report, how about taking vows to nevery marry and never kill; chastity and pacifism seem more reasonable than suicide and would have been stronger ways to avoid his fate.  Granted, even being a pacifist, it's possible he might have been responsible for killing someone, but accidentally marrying?  That would take some serious manipulation on the part of the Fates.

I like this. Much more genre-savy then Oedepus

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On the note of Oedipus, a common trope in the old greek stories is fatalism. You can't fight fate, and trying to fight fate will either amount to nothing or actively make things worse. If Oedipus had attempted to take his life to avoid the prophecy, then he likely would have ended up somehow fulfilling it in the world or the gods would have intervened to prevent his suicide.

Back on the original topic, I wonder how often Pandora has had this argument with herself. She knows she needs to let go, but the emotive part of her psyche won't let her. It hurts too much. It's certainly an excellent example of why the Immortals/fairies lied to their future incarnations about elves being able to procreate. Just imagine this level of mental and emotional strain over an entire lineage, possibly one that winds and spreads over the globe.

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9 minutes ago, Drasvin said:

It's certainly an excellent example of why the Immortals/fairies lied to their future incarnations about elves being able to procreate. Just imagine this level of mental and emotional strain over an entire lineage, possibly one that winds and spreads over the globe.

I dunno, it might be easier to let go if you could see your descendants spreading out across the world, than it would be to say goodbye to your only child, knowing your love for him would be forgotten....and especially if there were hard feelings and misunderstandings between you!

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