TSH #370 - Alone

[flammifer]

http://pasteldefender.com/to%20save%20her%20370.html

HEY!	Moderator's note: The following replies refer to the original version of strip #370, which has since been replaced with the new version of the strip. Note added for clarification, carry on ~ Mitsukara

[Mitsukara]

CONTEXT PLZ!

Intriguing to see that not even the ascended recognize Un- uhhh Only, although not completely surprising I suppose.

But what is Pho talking about, about remaking time to "be the Khan"?... speaking in tones about how his protection of Kaye was almost in return for something as part of a deal, or, more logically, that it should be validation for some kind of deal currently being debated? What is he asking for?

Is Kaye being locked in some kind of ascended padded-wall room? Her own separate test or treatment of some kind, perhaps parallel to whatever Pho is experiencing?

Ponderous indeed...

[Jennifer Diane Reitz]

Did anyone get the feeling, during the run of To Save Her, that Mr. Pho knew more than he was letting on?

That he was perhaps a little too willing to just up and board a strange alien tower with a bright teal womanoid creature?

That despite being from a culture that still thinks the horse is fast transit, he picked up on holograms and Movers a bit fast?

That he always went along with Kaye, and defended Kaye, and helped Kaye even when she was blatantly dangerous and unstable?

More than a few, over the years, have wondered if Pho had his own agenda.

Some have even suggested that he may have been far more knowledgeable than he portrayed himself to be.

The answer is... yes. And no. Sort of. Not in any way that is a deus ex machina. Not in any way that can change the outcome of events. But he was a little more in on the gag than he was admitting. Those feelings about him were valid, and reasonable, to an extent.

As you will see.

[flammifer]

Did anyone get the feeling, during the run of To Save Her, that Mr. Pho knew more than he was letting on?

I didn't ... so I was pretty surprised by this one, Pho is not as noble as I thought. I knew he had some secrets, but I thought they were more of the "I loved and betrayed the Kay of my splay" kind of dark emotional secret rather than "I was working for the Ascended all along, in exchange for Power! Bwahaha!" kind.

[Monocheres]

I did find it suspicious that Pho allowed Kaye to get her gun back. That seemed to go against every instinct of a soldier and secret agent. Even if you buy the idea that they needed a confident Kaye to pilot the mover for them, otherwise they're toast anyway, why couldn't he have simply disabled the gun? Virtue might have had enough tech expertise to accomplish that without making it evident to Kaye. Pho could have at least proposed the idea. I suspected that Pho was hiding some kind of ulterior motive, but I thought it was simply that he had a soft-spot for Kaye, or guilt over the genocide he committed. I never suspected him to be some kind of double agent for beings unknown.

This agenda of wanting his timeline rearranged to make him Kahn is a total surprise. On first blush, it does sound self-serving ... but I think the jury is out on that one. What better way to undo the jellicidal history of his splay than to have Lymcit Kahn Pho in charge of that history in the first place?. (Or half in charge, at least. "Shining twins on shining thrones.")

And that soft-spot for Kaye, was that all a put-on? Well ... the jury's still out on that one, too, I think ... He does seem a bit more concerned about her than would be, say, a pure mercenary delivering a kidnap victim to an employer.

I wonder about the real motives of the Ascended(?) here ... Somehow I keep going back to that test the Kahns subjected Pho to as a new recruit ... Was this whole thing with Kaye just an elaborate set up so the Ascended could test Pho's character?

To see if he'll try To Save Her from them?

[draque]

Pho's most obvious motivation for wanting to become Khan would be to prevent the destruction of the Jelese people. Whatever was and was not acting, that was so central to his character that I can't imagine it doesn't have at least a kernal of truth to it.

[strange_person]

And, of course, that's why he'd want to be khan retroactively.

[Skatche]

Holy hell. Well played, Madam Reitz.

Okay. If the Ascended Unity not only didn't send but couldn't even see Only, someone else must have sent him. The Krawlni are unlikely: if anything, they would have wanted her to succeed on her mission, as Mrs Reitz once mentioned. Chou is one possibility, if she's operating independently of the Unity; that would explain the fact that this creature looks like Uni. Another, rather interesting possibility is the Ktlikitkak: this whole episode could be one stratagem in the multiversal war.

[Mitsukara]

I quite suspect Only wasn't sent by anybody, or at least, not in a conventional manner... but who knows?

When exactly was this deal made with Pho, I wonder? I, too, was in the "not suspecting or expecting any such thing" crowd.

Monocheres brings up a point of interest. Might the ascended have played some kind of role in Kaye's failure? Would they be able to recognize and respond to such a sweeping act that would've, I would *think*, undone them as well?

Hell, on the note of intervention by higher life forms, wasn't it seemingly the Krawlni that got all the Kays/Kayes/Kais/Kees/etc.etc. together in the meeting that prevented all but this one from going forward with the plan? The Krawlni couldn't care less about the first people and their descendants I wouldn't think, so why would it even bother with doing such a thing? Was the plan going to somehow affect the Krawlni? Did the Krawlni need the humans after all, just so there'd be someone to help patch them up so they could go back home? Or something deeper...?

For another random thought, Vola-B's predicament of living it up in Pho's home splay (how did Kaye manage to pilot to there? I thought splay-to-splay piloting wasn't that precise, from what was said about it in the early pages. Then again, Virtue's father managed to get home a few times, so I dunno, maybe it just calls for better mover understanding that Kaye picked up in her travels, like how the Doctor originally couldn't pilot the Tardis to any specific place, but figured out how to later on) that is grossly lower tech level than her own, with immortality and some other advancements still on her side, makes her not entirely unlike the Krawlni itself, stuck somewhere surrounded by "primitives" and looking for a way to get home!

Also... I know I just said this a week ago, but, there is still one ascended person (Chou. You know, from a narrative standpoint and how closely the late chapters seemed to match up to the splay our Kaye happened to grab Chou from, I feel pretty sure that it just so happens that that was the very same splay that Unicorn Jelly took place in...) who would surely have a unique vantage point and feelings about this whole turn of events, and I have to wonder what role she's going to play (or already is?) in what's going on now...

[Monocheres]

I think Jennifer has stated that it's intrinsic to Only's nature, and his role in the story, that we would never know the ultimate truth of what he is or where he came from.

[Rachel]

It is true, I always had a nagging suspicion that Pho was a bit too willing to go along with Kaye, or too quick to accept all of this new technology, space/time travel, and the very concept of alternate universes. But that is all it was... just something that nagged at me. I never would have suspected that Pho had a concept of anything outside his own world before Kaye's arrival; let alone had any kind of contact with it, with the exception of Only. The indications were there... I just was too swept up in events to really contemplate too deeply on them as a reader.

Ever since Kaye's shocking (well, to me anyways) reveal of evil intentions, it has just been one revelation after another, gaining momentum with Texto and Wai's deaths until... this. I'm surprised that I don't have whiplash by now. XD

[Amber]

And that soft-spot for Kaye, was that all a put-on? Well ... the jury's still out on that one, too, I think ... He does seem a bit more concerned about her than would be, say, a pure mercenary delivering a kidnap victim to an employer.
... Was this whole thing with Kaye just an elaborate set up so the Ascended could test Pho's character?

To see if he'll try To Save Her from them?

Towards the end it definatly looked like he was trying to supress some concerns over the fact that poor Kaye was being left to deal with her problems alone for an indefinite amount of time. I just want to know if that supression was indifference or if he is going to come up with a plan to help her.

[Jennifer Diane Reitz]

In order to speed things along, I have added a new comic for Tuesday. That way I can have another big reveal on Friday.

You might want to check out the new strip, #371 -Prison.