Sorry for the very late update, but Elli’s baby is keeping her very busy at the moment.
Machine Girl 059
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Sorry for the very late update, but Elli’s baby is keeping her very busy at the moment.
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40 thoughts on “Machine Girl 059”
Vicious Sand
Would it really be so bad if the comic switched to black and white?
“Sometimes there were even two women.” Yeah, that’s a regret about not being able to move the camera.
The box is just a standard cube? Not rectangular, no filigree or engravings? That’s so basic that it’ll never be found. Easy to draw, though. Leyh having traveled the world makes him an important source of information over the pool of people that Scarlet has available to talk to, who are stuck in their own province. How many ports, how many different methods of travel, how many thrift stores, how many museums, antique collections, and just garbage dumps has he wandered through? What’s his opinion of the Colony theory?
ME
I would much rather the comic were done correctly, and consistently, and somehow deal with the personal angst caused by waiting a few extra days for pages that I’m not even paying for.
Novil
>>>> Would it really be so bad if the comic switched to black and white?
Elli is a fast colorizer. The clean outlines take the most time.
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>>>> The box is just a standard cube? Not rectangular, no filigree or engravings?
Yes, as simple as it gets.
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>>>> That’s so basic that it’ll never be found.
On the contrary. Such an unusual object should be easier to find than something that looks like a random jewelry box.
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>>>> Leyh having traveled the world makes him an important source of information over the pool of people that Scarlet has available to talk to
That’s true. But there’s no obvious conversational topic. Scarlet is (only) interested in the Machine, not potential adventuring sites or tourist spots.
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>>>> What’s his opinion of the Colony theory?
He may have one. But that seems irrelevant at this point of time in the story.
MegaJar
So did you have to pass a test of your own, to prove to someone else that you were committed to your cause? And if so, was it a…black-box test? BAM, programmer joke!
Nezzy
*Were all dreams the same?
Novil
Fixed.
Friggs
Is it okey to leave grammar notes?
Grammar Tip: “What” vs. “How” with the verb Look
In English, the choice between “What” and “How” changes the meaning of your question. Here is how to use them correctly:
1. Asking for a Physical Description
Use “What… look like?” when you want to know about someone’s physical features (height, hair color, clothing).
Question: “What did they look like?”
Answer: “They were tall, had blond hair, and wore a blue dress.”
2. Asking about a State or Feeling
Use “How… look?” when you are asking about someone’s condition, health, or emotional state.
Question: “How did they look?”
Answer: “They looked sad,” or “They looked very healthy.”
3. The Common Mistake: “How… look like?”
The phrase “How did they look like?” is incorrect in standard English.
The Rule: You use What with like (What… like?), or How on its own. You should never mix the two in a direct question about appearance.
4. Specific Contexts
The only time you might see “How” and “like” together is in a complex sentence where “like” points to another part of the thought.
Example: “How did they look like that after such a long flight?”
Arent
These are the fine nuances Germans get wrong. There are some “unwritten rules”. I myself sometimes ask English natives to proof read, but even then I’m pretty sure there are loads of idioms or “common phrases” that are still wrong.
Novil
Fixed.
It’s not possible to get all of these things right as a non-native speaker.
Nah
Oh, come ON! He dreamt of a black box, with no other information whatsoever (execpt maybe that there were other persons there too), and that is reason enough to see a connection to a girl who believes in a Machine of Eternal Summer?? It sounds much more likely that this guy tries to trick Scarlet to focus on something else instead of holding their speeches. The black box in his display case probably contains only cigars…
Novil
He dreamed of it 1000 times. That’s certainly enough to come to the conclusion that something weird is going on on Lavarel. So he’s more open to Scarlet’s story than most.
Nah
With so little information, can you even consider to start a search? Travelling the whole world, asking people, “Hey, have you seen a Black Box ™ somewhere?” This really does make little sense plot-wise…
Novil
People have travelled Earth for much stupider reasons.
Gordon Tyler
“What did they look like?”
Mikaela
My guess is that this is all a ruse set up to distract Scarlet from her work. They’ve come up with a mystery they think will draw her attention sufficiently to allow her following to dissipate.
Novil
That makes little sense. Why would mentioning a small black box shatter Scarlet’s core beliefs like that?
Arthur
Hmm…is this the first time something supernatural has come up? like there are mysterious things that can be explained by technology. Dream manipulation? This is venturing into the realm of fantasy or “psionics”. Are there any other references to such things existing?
Novil
For example, Scarlet and Julius talked about the ocean disappearing in https://www.sandraandwoo.com/scarlet/comic/a-sky-full-of-stars-037/ and then we have the inscription mentioning someone called “White Witch” in https://www.sandraandwoo.com/scarlet/comic/a-sky-full-of-stars-062/
ME
Novil, fourth panel, you mean “what did they look like” in this context. Thanks for the page!
Crystalgate
I always thought that it was strange that the machine would be in Scarlet’s cellar, so this new information makes me wonder if it was a realistic feeling vision she had rather than physically seeing the machine. She did mention that the roof was higher than it should be able to, although that can be explained by the ground sloping downwards slightly.
There’s also a chance that the vision either comes to people who will believe it or compels people to believe it. Regardless, more mysteries.
SadBeaver
In Machine Girl 015, Scarlet herself says that the door in her cellar must have been a portal.
Vicious Sand
Portals are a bad idea, technologically and for world-building. First, artists tend to boil it down to “just a doorframe”, without any of the technology needed to make it preform it’s function, or the technology needed to create the magic doorframe. Then, that means that anyone can go anywhere, whether they know or expect it or not. Now you’re in Asia. Now you’re in New York. On the moon! Alpha Centauri!, etc. when you’re just in the kitchen cooking a burger. You can’t trust any distance anywhere, be it from between two cities, or the interior of your own house.
It would be a better idea for it to remain a hidden tunnel passageway under the farmhouse, instead of some magical non-science addendum because the writer wanted to do something off-script one moment. Not all flashes of inspiration are good ones.
Poyntre
It’s a narrative device. If you do a subway, with its transportation system, you spend time going to and fro. A portal is the same thing without the transport, so you go from A to B by feet in an instant. If you particularly want to hide where something is, a portal is the (literally) magic solution. For instance, Scarlet finds a door to a transportation system, a tube, some sort of, she uses it and it takes minutes, hours, to arrive to the Machine. If you have an idea about the speed of the device, you have a clear circumference in which the Machine is located, not to say if you even have a compass or the like. With a portal simply you have no idea. If you dislike portals, then you still have “visions” (or dreams) but they are not real, with a portal you go to a real place with real things. I mean, the Machine is real, the SBB maybe or maybe not.
Old Brit
The author can set limits to portals, either by range, or by requiring a portal device at both ends. That deals with your second objection.
Since portals mess around with dimensions, all the technology can be housed ‘inside’ the portal (like a TARDIS) if the artist prefers not to show it.
HKMaly
Portals are much better idea than transporters turning people to energy and back, and you will realize why if you think a bit about if transporter can turn one person to two.
Also, portals commonly need technology on BOTH sides, not necessarily visible one.
Novil
>>>> Then, that means that anyone can go anywhere
No, it doesn’t. The portal maker may not allow anyone else to use the portal. Or the portal maker can only make portals between specific locations.
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>>>> It would be a better idea for it to remain a hidden tunnel passageway under the farmhouse, instead of some magical non-science addendum because the writer wanted to do something off-script one moment. Not all flashes of inspiration are good ones.
You make a bold statement based on minimal information. Why are you so negative?
Novil
>>>> She did mention that the roof was higher than it should be able to, although that can be explained by the ground sloping downwards slightly.
Scarlet would probably have noticed the slope since a slight angle wouldn’t have been enough.
Gonfrask
Well, this conversation is being quite more polite than I expected (anger, frustration, the classic). Seems like Scarlet doesn’t have all the pieces she thought
Lurker
So he’s trying to say that her Machine of Eternal Summer may have been just a childhood fantasy, and that she can spend her whole life chasing it and end up with nothing in the end.
Well OK, maybe a sculpture of the Machine in a display case. 😀
At this point the only conclusion we readers can draw is that it’s just another ploy to draw her away from her quest. It would be an outrage if this story, after all is said and done, turns out to be only a huge shaggy dog story with no real final destination. Plot armor dictates that the Machine must be real, in some shape or form, and we have seen hints that there was a previous advanced civilisation that left behind artifacts of unknown function, that must have been capable of constructing such a Machine.
Novil
The Machine doesn’t have to be the device Scarlet thinks it is. But readers would probably feel cheated if Scarlet were just hunting ghosts the whole time. So there must be something to it.
Poyntre
The woman in the dream was the White Witch? About the lack of information, if the SBB is somewhat a secret, it’s no wonder he found nothing. On the other hand, he stopped the search decades ago (one thousand nights are almost three years, he stopped dreaming when he was ~17). Another point is if Scarlet, like in Gaia, is some kind of active (like Lili) or passive (being by chance that smart) “chosen one”. If it’s the case, her life could be under active manipulation, and the existence of a guy with induced dreams is a piece of evidence.
Nokota
IDK, This world seems to have different months and years than we do. Maybe one year is five hundred days, maybe one day is only 23 hours, maybe they don’t even use hours, who even knows??? What does SBB Stand for, and why do all the other commenters seem to be in on it except for myself?????
SadBeaver
The Glossary page says one year is 360 days.
SBB is “small black box”, though it’s not in the comic – the commenter above invented this acronym.
Novil
Those are some smart observations.
Scarlet herself believed in https://www.sandraandwoo.com/scarlet/comic/machine-girl-001/ that some higher being may be manipulating her life. For the worse, though.
Anonymous Reader
The black box suggested here seems to refer to Pandora’s box.
Nokota
IDK the black box reminded me of the airplane boxes that record and store all info on the flight in case of an incident.
Poyntre
Aircrafts black boxes are actually orange (and even red). I am not sure here, but “black box” as a concept, usually is a device with known input and output, and no clue about how it works (either it is secret, or it is unknown indeed). There is the concept of “white box”, where the device is known about how it works. Possibly has some influence from the thermodynamical concept “black body”, which is entirely another thing except the input/output outcome (i.e., totally predictable, known in advance).
More broadly, black colour usually isn’t used to give an idea of knowledge. The famous Kubrick’s 2001 monolyth isn’t white, or gray, or gold, but black. I am not saying it conveys an idea of mystery, or enigm, but, it fits well with it.
Poyntre
I did a little search. In WW II the RAF used new devices in its military airplanes (avionics, radar, and so on) and, as they were top secret, they were in sealed boxes painted in black. So the crew knows the box, what the box do, but has no clue about how it works (not even what is inside). When the flight recorder box was invented (originally red), it was called “black box” because of a wrong association.
Novil
Given that there are no airplanes on Lavarel, that can’t have been the inspiration.
Novil
I don’t see how you came to that conclusion. The black box could really be anything from the little we know of it.
Characters
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