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gunnerkriggcritical · 10 months

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Annie's Recklessness, Annie's Responsibility

More recently in Gunnerkrigg Court, the overall opinion of the supporting cast is that Annie is reckless, impetuous, and self-serving, endangering herself and others with her carelessness. This has increasingly become taken as fact by the overall narrative.

Annie is reckless, with little respect for authority, and a tendency to take on risks far beyond her capabilities. What few people acknowledge are the reasons why she behaves this way. It isn't as simple as, "Annie is selfish, Annie is a spoiled brat."

Annie has been put into environments where she was left unsupervised, often with etheric beings, exposed to horror and death, from a young age. Beyond even the psychopomps, Annie grew up using lockpicks to get into places she shouldn't have been, presumably to satisfy her own curiosity. This behavior could only have arisen in circumstances where Annie wasn't been adequately supervised (and likely fairly bored and lonely to boot).

She wandered the halls of Good Hope visiting the dying with the psychopomps before she even realized what she was doing. One of the most extended flashbacks we have to that period of her life is her being sent to guide a boy who died of fire. She was terrified of the monstrous manifestation of the fire; it was her mother's promise that she would not send Antimony into danger that led her to brave the fire, and comfort the boy.

Importantly, Annie notes in her framing of the memory that this was "something I have always kept in mind," which I take to inform her reaction to the Court. This is where Surma sent her after her death, after all- and it would explain much of Annie's blasé response to danger and peril soon after her arrival to the Court.

What's also very important to take from this is the responsibility Surma and the psychopomps placed on her; Annie was the one in charge of approaching and calming the boy. This sense of personal responsibility is also notable in "Broken Glass and Other Things"; in a brief flashback to Annie dropping a glass, we see Surma telling Annie she shouldn't be cleaning it up. Annie replies that it was her fault, and she should clean it up. Surma: "You might hurt yourself." Annie, her finger bleeding from the glass: "I'll be just fine."

It's a pretty straightforward summation of Annie's approach to danger. If she feels personally responsible for the problem, she feels she has to resolve it, whatever the cost to herself- and downplay said cost. We see this over and over with Jeanne- Annie insisting she should have tried to help her, and was a fool to get scared. "I should have faced my fear as I did with Martin". The source of this overblown sense of responsibility, and her fixation on helping Jeanne, becomes obvious as we see her interact with the psychopomps. They insist she should have known to give Surma a chance to make a last record, and Annie agrees with them- adding that she has to "do it right next time... with Jeanne". Annie is transferring her guilt over not doing enough for her mother onto Jeanne's predicament.

And the psychopomps have always treated her as essentially a variation on Surma, fully capable of taking on as much responsibility and risk. Of course, they're inhuman entities- it can be discussed that they have a flawed perception of human age. We see another etheric being, Reynardine, call Anja a child as often as Antimony. But it's has a noticeable impact on Annie's conception of herself, her own culpability and capability.

This of course often clashes with how others treat her: Eglamore scolds her for breaking the rules (while at the same time encouraging her to be more like her mother, and not get caught), Jones both encourages her for having initiative, but reminds her that she doesn't need to do everything herself, and that she should tell others (in this case, about Jack's condition in Spring Heeled). Important to note, this happens directly after Annie confesses "I feel like this is all my fault..."- again highlighting her tendency to both try to handle situations herself, and then blame herself when it goes wrong.

Of course Annie tries to solve problems on her own. It's not like many people were solving problems for her when she was little. Surma encouraged her to go work with the psychopomps, the psychopomps treated her as fully capable of entering stressful situations, and her father was emotionally and often physically absent. Eglamore and Jones both give conflicting messages: don't break the rules, but don't get caught when you do. Keep investigating the Court on your own, but also ask for help.

Eglamore, Donnie, and Anja's attempt to confiscate Reynardine from her is maybe the closest any of them got to directly intervening for her safety; but of course Annie objected on moral grounds, and the nature of her possession of Reynard made it unsafe for them to take him from her. And while it was dangerous, it's not like Annie was incorrect: what they were doing was inhumane.

Of course Annie acts without informing authority figures of her plans, and neglects to ask for help much of the time. She grew up with very little outside support. I would point most obviously to her father, who had no patience to etheric sciences- something that would have of course impacted his ability to support Annie while she was working with the psychopomps. Did he even know she was doing so? We have no record of him even showing physical affection to her, nevermind words of approval or love. One of Annie's fondest memories of him is him binding her feet during martial arts training, and her taking the opportunity of his distraction to furtively, lovingly hold onto the seam of his shirt.

Beyond Tony, the Court itself it an incredibly hostile, corrupt entity! They prove their willingness to toy with her during the decision of whom will be Court Medium- and their apathy and potential desire to have leverage over Annie is also displayed by their knowledge and allowance of her cheating off of Kat. Over and over again, the Court has displayed its unreliability to Annie- past and present. One of Annie's first mysteries was that of Jeanne, whose murder was intentionally covered up by the Court.

Annie accidentally highlights this very power and apathy: when explaining that she's supposed to be in detention, she says, "I don't care. They know where I am if they want to find me. What are they going to do, tell my parents?"

This last could come off as very conceited, but perfectly highlights Annie's distrust and alienation from authority in her life. It's not that there's 'no one to hold her in check' until Annie's dad returns; it's that no one has actually acted in her best wishes, while treating her as a full person. There's a reason she gets so attached to Ysengrim; he protects her, and encourages her take on challenges. There's a reason she trusts Jones more than most people in the Court: Jones isn't part of the Court, and Jones isn't trying to take away her freedoms. Of course Annie wants to keep her independence; when she's been denied true emotional support, she's going to learn to become self-reliant.

Of course, this does have consequences! For Antimony, and other people around her! But it's ridiculous when everyone constantly blames Annie for taking initiative, for being blasé about the supernatural- the supernatural has been there for her in a way the Court has not. Ysengrim, Reynardine, were there for her when Eglamore, Tony, the whole Court, was not. People expect Annie to take on enormous risks and act like an adult, and then punish her for failing by treating her like a child.

Reynardine and Jones are the closest anyone has come to providing reliable emotional and practical support. Reynardine of course tried to kill her when they first met (and was generally a creep for most of their acquaintance, but that's another can of worms), and Jones by her own admittance has a detached awareness of human relationships (see her dynamic with Eglamore). But they both show up when Annie needs help, and try to both instill in her an awareness of the danger, and their respect for her.

Annie does not need her dad to show up and being a rigid authority figure, to reign in her wild behavior. She needs someone who is present, who respects her autonomy and skills, and makes sure she knows she can rely on them when things are tough- so that she feels she can go to them for help.

Annie is not spoiled. Annie is carrying around the guilt of her mother's death and amateur ferrying to the afterlife with her constantly, transferring that guilt onto other lost souls. Annie is not spoiled. Annie has been abandoned and neglected by both individuals and systems that should have protected and guided her. Annie is not spoiled. Annie has been continually placed into dangerous situations, and developed means of dealing with them, leading to her having a warped sense of what is an acceptable level of risk.

Annie is not spoiled. She is displacing her own need for a parental figure onto magical beings that have variable motives, grasps on reality, and understanding of human development and relationships, because the humans around her refuse to step up to the task. Annie is not spoiled. Annie has learned to repress her emotions, from her father, Ysengrim, and Jones, further causing her to hide her own fear and pain, and so come across as flippant or emotionless in the face of danger. Annie is not spoiled. She is the main character of a comic, and the narrative treats her as such, putting the weight of the world on her shoulders, which she continully tries to carry on her own because there are so few people she can trust to carry it for her.

Annie is not spoiled.

#submission #gunnerkrigg #gunnerkrigg court #gunnerkrigg court critical #thank you for the submission @kestrelknight!

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gunnerkriggcritical · 10 months

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A Personal Reflection On Gunnerkrigg Court (by @kestrelknight)

I started reading Gunnerkrigg Court at least by the time of Chapter 20. I was in elementary school, and obsessed with a number of webcomics. Gunnerkrigg Court was among the two that I persisted in reading up into college. It has been a foundational piece of media for me; it was one of my models for good visual storytelling, for pacing, for mystery and atmosphere, for kitchen-sink fantasy. I even made a single page of a comic in middle school, heavily based on the "spooky magic girl in abandoned industrial setting" concept. I loved it.

I wouldn't care about Gunnerkrigg Court so much if I hadn't loved it for so long. I wouldn't be this frustrated, and hurt by the comic, if I hadn't loved it for so long, so much.

There were always a few little bits that made me uncomfortable in the comic, though I had difficulty articulating it- mostly the way young girls wound up being sexualized, or having romantic teases with older men (humans or magic wolves). None of it ever really impacted my enjoyment of the comic; I tried not to dwell on it. While I was frustrated by Annie's perpetual tolerance for her father's neglect, I assumed this was just the beginning of her character arc- that the point would be her coming to process and reckon with the fact that he had not treated her well, and that she was allowed to be angry about it.

The point at which I started having misgivings came at the same place as for many people: The Tree. This chapter hit me very hard, and very personally. I've never been in a situation similar to Annie's. I have been in situations similar to Kat. I was so affected by each individual update, I read more than the top comments- and was deeply disturbed by how many people tried to justify Tony's behavior, especially as comeuppance for Annie for cheating. From that point on, the comic was a source of stress and worry for me. I bore with it, because I loved it, and had faith that Tom would deliver catharsis at some point- that there was a point to all this, that he had something to say about the nature of neglectful and abusive parental relationships. He was writing one, after all.

Annie and the Fire meant so much to me, as someone who's struggled with anger, and a desire to please and placate others, to the point of struggling deeply with dissociation for years. It resonated with me to the point of being hard to read; but I kept with it, and accepted that Annie's journey wasn't done yet. Tony's remorse did very little for me, but it didn't kill my hope in Annie's development. Just because Tony feels bad doesn't negate what he's done, and what he's failed to do. That's obvious. I waited longer.

The moment where Kat suddenly turned face and decided Tony wasn't so bad a guy after all caught me completely off-guard. It felt like a betrayal- and I thought that was the point, that Annie's astonishment at this character change was the point. That now, Annie couldn't offload her own resentment onto Kat- she could no longer rely on someone else to get mad on her behalf. I hoped she would try to convince Kat, even indirectly, of why she should still be mad at Tony, and so come to realize she herself was still angry at him. Something. It didn't happen- but I was willing to wait. Tom had unfolded an incredible, dynamic slow-burn of a story for years and years. I had faith in him.

The second point came with Loup's arrival. Ysengrim and Coyote were some of the best characters in the comic, characters that had defined the dually humorous and sinister tone of the world. To have them both killed off, and replaced by a worse-designed, boring, Chaotic Stupid deviantart wolf without even the honesty of a glitter and rainbow color scheme? Yeah, hated it. The way the plot bucked and heaved, gaining and shedding momentum just as fast did not do it any favors.

I think I stopped reading during the Two Annies arc. I've never been a fan of stories that introduce time-travel or multiple universes late in the story, so it was never going to be to my taste. Combined with Loup, it just felt like the comic was off the rails. And since the plot was all over the place, there was little motivation for me to keep. waiting. To keep putting myself through this constant anxiety, reading every individual update- waiting to see if Annie's relationship with her dad would ever have the pay-off I wanted.

I was nervous it wouldn't come. I really couldn't tell, at this point, what Tom's intent was. But I didn't want to make assumptions prematurely. This was a story told a page at a time; it would be silly to get upset over a narrative resolution that wasn't even going to happen! But I realized that it was doing me no good to keep waiting around for the story to end, one way or another. I stopped reading sometime around 2019, having read for maybe a decade.

There was another layer to my discomfort with the comic, one more related to real life events and relationships. To put it bluntly, the main other GC reader I knew IRL agreed with Tom's framing: Annie was immature, headstrong, and was facing the just repercussions for her actions. Not in those exact words, but close enough in sentiment. I didn't have anyone else in my life to discuss the comic with. I was getting old enough that while I could see how Annie had made mistakes, and was a flawed, messy person- she was also a child, surrounded by uncaring or passive adults, in an uncaring system, constantly reprimanded for taking matters into her own hands while also burdened with immense responsibility. She was treated like a kid while being expected to act like an adult. There were very few adults in Gunnerkrigg Court that I could even like anymore. Even the kind ones frustrated me by their inaction. Obviously, you don't need to like the characters in a story to enjoy the story, but it did stop me from enjoying GC. I realize now that it was because the framing was leaning more and more into Annie being the problem, not the system and adults around her. Which, is horsepiss.

Every now and then I came back, and read several chapters in one go. It was a disappointment pretty much every time. Something felt off, and the parts of the comic I cared about weren't really the main focus. I dropped it again, picked it up, dropped it. There are still whole chapters of the comic I've not read, or only skimmed through. My family owns the first four volumes of the comic, some of which are coming loose at the binding for being handled so often. I've barely reread anything past The Tree.

Some point a few months ago, I was stewing over the comic again, and wanted to see if people on tumblr were talking about it at all. I found some fanart, and one or two critical posts that validated my feelings. I kept coming back to the tag, looking for more of both- and eventually came across gunnerkriggcourtcritical. I've gone through the backlog of this blog multiple times- every time my memories of the comic frustrate and upset me. It's comforting to know that other people feel the same way, underwent the same disappointment, even betrayal, reading this comic.

And finally, it was closure for Tony and Annie's arc. Not the closure I wanted- but at least I know now what Tom was planning. I don't regret giving him the benefit of the doubt. Now I know for certain what the point of it all was. I was disgusted by The Mind Cage.

I've been in Kat's situation: watching my best friend be ridiculed in a public place by their parent, helpless to do anything to help them. Listening to another friend make constant excuses for their parent, idolizing their worst aspects, wanting to be more like them, so they can feel in control. I've been like Annie, so horrified by my own anger, so unable to process my emotions, that I just cut them out and sent them to another country. I've washed my face in that mirror, the restroom unrecognizable around me.

Annie deserved better. There are no heroes or villains in Gunnerkrigg Court; there are abusive parents, and neglected children. There are no readers who keep up with the comic, just to complain and hate it for the sake of hating; there are readers who saw themselves in Annie, in Kat, and who are still trying to process what the hell happened.

Authorial intent does matter- but a good author understands that readers will always get the last word. Stories are a reciprocal process, especially episodic ones like webcomics. Tom had all the opportunities in the world to observe reader responses, and adapt his story to be both consistent with what he had already written, and sensitive to what dynamic he was portraying.

I still love Gunnerkrigg Court. I'll probably reread those volumes again, sometime. It's still what I point to, when I want to give an example of how simplified style can be more effective in comics. It was my model of a beautiful, effective webcomic, both in story and artwork. I'll never forget how Gunnerkrigg Court shaped my art and my stories.

I'll also keep thinking about how it ultimately failed to recognize the story it was telling, and turned to mean digs at its audience rather than reflect on its own content. I'll keep thinking about what a wretched message it is, to imply that being neurodivergence is the cause of child neglect, to point at Annie doing all the work in her relationship with her father and say: that's fine, and you're stupid for thinking that isn't fine. I'll keep dunking on Loup/Jerrek, because he sucks.

I'll never forget how Gunnerkrigg Court let me down.

#submission #gunnerkrigg court critical #gunnerkrigg #gunnerkrigg court

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