Gunnerkrigg Court

An attempt was made.

I wonder if the next comic is going to be more along the lines of "Humorous Fire Elemental Temper Tantrum " or "Terrifying Fire Elemental Rampage"

Annie will totally lose it and become Avas Demon.

1633

And, she still gutters it...

Ah, she flamed on...

Thank Rey, I'm sure she did not know that before.

Actually, what he's saying could be legitimate advice to look at it from a different angle. Right now she might be too focused on just the act of throwing the ball and not getting it in the gutter. What she should be doing is imagining the ball as an extension of her hands to push the pins down. You get similar advice in other sports like golf and baseball.

Yeah, It's how I interpret it too, but Rey took some time to get there.

That was my take on it as well.

I dunno. I like the idea that Rey just now realized you need to hit the pins, and that he's absolutely serious in thinking that that's important information to share.

I like it when he's absolutely sincere about something absurd, like when he praised Annie for fooling the robots.

Be the ball, is the gist of things.

If only she had some sort of ability to move objects with her mind.

Yeah, if only...

I must say, very few comics feature the challenges of bowling with a fire elemental. Truly groundbreaking.

I like despite how she was practically holding and guiding the ball, she still only manages to knock over a single pin. That and her happy face are adorable.

It also gives us on her Courtbook status: single.

edited 19th Feb '16 9:20:45 AM by EchoingSilence

@23465 To be fair, they've discussed multiple times that Annie is still learning how to manipulate the physical world with her etheric self. It took her quite a bit to pluck a flower, and she was a bit clumsy at that.

Meanwhile, even if she went with the low end, a bowling alley's balls are a bare minimum of 6 pounds. Even accounting for the fact that a sphere probably is the easiest object to move, the fact that she was able to nudge it to knocking over one pin is impressive on multiple levels.

Not only all that, but any improvement when you're doing badly at bowling feels like a huge step forward.

Look at that dirty cheater. I bet she's proud of what she's done.

I was thinking that myself: she just learned how to cheat at bowling.

That she still fails at it suggests skill on par to my own.

edited 19th Feb '16 10:47:50 AM by Rotpar

It kinda raises the question if Janet was cheating, too. I mean, her aiming powers clearly aren't natural, so it's essentially the same thing.

@23469 I beg to differ. I just reviewed the rules as outlined by the United States Bowling Congress (assuming that England uses pretty much the same rules for tenpin bowling) - there Ain't No Rule about using telekinetic powers of any sort (be they psychic, etheric, or something else) on the ball, as long as no part of the body (and as Rey has proven, the etheric self is not part of the body) passes the foul line. So Annie isn't cheating; she's just taking advantage of things not foreseen by the people who made the rules.

Also, upon review, I found out that the "double strike" earlier in the comic is the official term for getting a strike in two consecutive frames (I always thought it was just commonly used slang). Janet didn't do anything impossible; she just is good at bowling.

Except they clearly said that she got it in one throw. Which is impossible by any conventional understanding of physics and the flow of time. Unless the ball knocked over all the pins in one lane then ricocheted into the next lane to knock down all the pins there. Or the ball knocked over all the pins, then just kinda waited there for the next rack to be placed, then knocked all of them over as well.

edited 19th Feb '16 12:04:42 PM by danime91

Not quite. It's shown that a "double strike" is called after Janet is shown throwing a ball, but it never states anywhere that was the only ball she's thrown at that point. It's much more logical to assume that Janet has rolled at least one frame prior to that.

... what about the time Annie clearly refers to how Janet got two strikes in one throw

in the very next panel

edited 19th Feb '16 12:13:43 PM by Fawriel