Jean AKA Jeannie AKA Jeanie is a film, book, and magazine reviewer for a national magazine. Most of Jean’s work is done through email, which means he doesn't have to go into the office.
On a trip to find a gift for his girlfriend, Jean found an empty Genie Bottle. Upon picking up this bottle, Jean became the bottle’s new genie-powered occupant. Not only was Jean turned into a genie, but the bottle turned him into what he believed a genie of the bottle should look like. Which, due to his fascination with a classic 60s TV show, turned him into a busty blonde woman.
An unfortunate run-in with a notorious bottle left a young German girl named Jehane transformed into an genie who looks just like Barbara Eden's famous character.
In her role as Haji's First, Lahab leads Haji's Harem. She is a Jann genie, one of the few elementals left in the world. She and Kazom are "old friends".
I got home late tonight, and had to rush the edit job on this a bit. I fixed a different typo at another place in that bubble, but missed the more obvious one.
If they were real geniuses, they wouldn’t be leaving those bottles/lamps/vessels around for just anyone to be sucked into them. They make it sound like any past tenant’s wrongdoings are inheritable to the new ones.
That aside, shouldn’t they at least put Jehane on trial to verify that it really was her or that someone else had a hand in it or look for more evidence? She could’ve been framed, given her reactions.
The concepts of “Tair trials,” “Everybody is equal under the law and even fair trials until recently had limited jurisdiction in the world and the genie world does not appear to be the most modern of institutions.
Jean enjoying a bit of schadenfreude is at least in character. But I really want to know what’s going on. And part of me hopes that Jean was the one that stole that.
Well, based on Jeanie’s reaction, I have the feeling that she is the one who set up Jehane to take the blame. We know that two of those Hubon Jadid were taken from the vault, so my guess was that Jeanie only needs one but took two to plant one on someone else while she does whatever she’s being controlled to do. Yes I believe Jean’s mind in not the one in control right now.
I don’t believe the eye color issue has been disproven. Both sides have presented evidence for why they believe what they do, but until CD Rudd comments on the issue it will remain open as only he knows for certain which is correct.
As for the mind control itself, Jeanie at times is definitely acting very weird even for her and some of those times she seems to be acting on knowledge that Jean should not have.
With all due respect, this is not a contest of evidence at this point, given that someone actually went and sampled Jeanie’s eye color in the comic you keep referencing and showed that it was a shade of blue. This is in addition to the fact that Jeanie’s eyes were blue in the first several comics (until CD Rudd simplified his designs several years ago). Unless you have something else that shows that there has ever been a time that Jeanie’s eyes have been this “purplish-grey” you described, you don’t have a basis for continuing to argue it. Nor should you piously claim “well, we have to wait for CD Rudd to confirm that I am wrong” when your evidence is shown to not support your assertion in the first place. The proper thing to do when you are shown that something you based an argument on is to admit that you were wrong and reconsider your argument, not attempt to move the goalposts so you can avoid doing so.
Same with your statement that Jeanie is under mind control. “She’s acting weird” is not a very good basis for asserting mind control; in addition, I follow this comic regularly and, in my opinion, this is not significantly out of character behavior for her, nor is she acting on knowledge she shouldn’t have. If you have evidence, from the comic, that shows her acting out of character or on knowledge she shouldn’t have, then link to it.
Also, I went back and looked at comic 445. Based on the two pictures shown, there was only one hubun jadid removed besides the one taken by Lahab. In the first picture, you have six columns of hubun jadid, of which one is being taken down by Lahab; there are three columns on the left and two on the right. In the second picture, from a different angle, we can still see six columns, but this time there are two on the left and three on the right. Of the ones we could see in the previous picture, only two are missing – one taken by Lahab and one (presumably) removed by Jeanie. We don’t know anything about the ones in that third right-hand column because we couldn’t see them before; we certainly shouldn’t be making assumptions about them.
Regarding the Hubun-Jadid in the vault, you are correct in that we could not see the empty holder that is on the bottom shelf all the way to the right. I was making an assumption, something I shouldn’t have done, but I have the feeling that since CD showed us that, it likely has some significance. From my experience with this comic and CD’s other comic SailorSun it is my opinion that CD is not someone to throw out red herrings.
As for Jeanie acting weird, I too have read all 477 comics. It is a feeling I have, I can’t put my finger on anything and say “this is out of character” or she “shouldn’t know that”. To me, something feels wrong about her behavior and I don’t why.
Lastly you say someone went and sampled Jeanie’s eye color from comic 416. I don’t recall anyone claiming that, but I decided to try it. I downloaded that comic, I then enlarged the image of her iris so much in an image viewer so as to remove all other colors from view including the red ring. I have a color corrected monitor and it still looks purplish grey to me. I then decided to take it a step further. I downloaded comic 445 and brought it up in another instance of the same image viewer at the same time I had the image from 416 open and compared them side by side. They are not the same. The image from 445 is mostly medium and deep purple. I also add that Robert has acknowledged that CD has very specific color palettes for each of his regular characters, so why would he make changes like that unless he has something in mind. For grins and giggles, I downloaded a couple of random comics with Jeanie and enlarged her eyes in those and they were both black. Therefore I still feel certain Jeanie’s eye color in this story arc is very significant.
At this point I’m done with this discussion. I feel certain we will eventually find out through the comic a definitive answer one way or another. If I am wrong, I will post on that comic an acknowledgment to that fact. If I’m right, will you?
I was the one who clipped out the iris and stuck it PhotoShop to check the colors. It’s no good trying to estimate colors by sight; PS can tell you exactly what they are.
In Jeannie’s eye from comic #416, the main color is a light sky-blue, (0xA3A3F4) with a shadow of a darker, sort of marine blue, (0x8989C9), and of course, a red ring. No grey. (Greys have very even hex values across the three pigments, to avoid looking tinted. These are definitely well into the blue region.)
I realize that when you put those two colors right beside each other, and then back off a ways, it LOOKS sort of purplish or purple-grey, but it really is just two shades of blue. Which CD has been using in Jeannie’s eyes ever since the first comic.
Of course, whether or not any of this is significant to the story, or is just artistic license, is a different question.
You might want to acknowledge Kattgirl’s post here. This is the second time she’s said this, and I would prefer you to not miss seeing it again.
Also, I have read all 477 comics as well, and I don’t get that feeling that you’re talking about. Given that it was a similar thing that led you to believe that Jeanie’s eyes were purplish grey, you might want to be more careful with letting such feelings determine what you believe to be true.
I’m honestly not sure why the author switches between showing Jeanie’s eyes as blue vs black. I do know they were originally (and obviously) blue, and while it makes some sense to simplify them to dots, I would think it would be easier to simply use blue for the dot color rather than black. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say her eyes change color based on her emotions, such as in comic 416 where she was pissed off enough that a red ring appeared on the inside of her iris. If that’s the case, it suggests that when her eyes become more obviously blue, that she’s feeling some strong emotion at that time.
I don’t expect you to make any public admissions, by the way. There’s nothing wrong with theories, even if they end up being wrong. I was just pointing out that the “purplish grey eyes” thing wasn’t justified by previous comics. I checked several of the early comics using a similar sampling technique (IrfanView rather than PhotoShop), when CD Rudd was showing Jeanie’s pupils as circles rather than dots, and they were pretty consistently blue, though sometimes they were a much lighter blue than other times.
I have decided that the particular shade of eye color is irrelevant and the fact CD showed them blue is them as blue instead of black is the important thing here and I was way over thinking it. I also take back my comment about CD not throwing red herrings. I’m now thinking he has thrown us several in this story arc.
Wild theory time.
In comic 440 Lahab indicates that Haji is granting sanctuary to the young genies. That to me says he didn’t force them to come to his palace but yet Jeanie was forced. I believe the Blue Djinn knew that a genie bonding was going to take place and he also knew that Jeanie was the youngest genie and would therefore be used in the ceremony as Araceli indicates to Jeanie how they have all done it. So he forces Jeanie to became his unwitting agent because he knew she would be taken into the vault to get a Hubun-Jadid. Remember Jeanie tried to question Araceli about being in the harem room but she wasn’t given the time to explain.
The Blue Djinn is launching an attack from within Haji’s palace itself and he’s using Jeanie to do it. From comic 445 we know what the exterior of the vault looks like and we also learn that at least one and maybe two Hubun-Jadid was/were stolen, and it is very likely it was Jeanie who took it or them. We also know from comic 443 that using a Hubun-Jadid a new genie is created from “relations” from two other genies. Alya implies that it is from a blessed union but she is clearly a hopeless romantic so she may be giving us a false idea about things. I now think it was Jeanie in comic 467 who is seducing the male genie guard with the intention of creating a new genie that is serving the Blue Djinn. That guard is clearly not guarding the vault but some other random room in the palace away from everything else. I say the new genie is serving the Blue Djinn now because we have zero info on how long it takes for a genie to reach adulthood from “conception” and I think it is fully active and it is the one that caused the incident at the vault just recently. For what purpose, I have no idea. After all Jeanie and Jehane became genie virtually instantly.
Further I think the Blue Djinn imparted a very strong urge into Jeanie to procreate hence her seducing the guard, but I also think that magic spell was so powerful it spilled over onto Natalie and that is why she is acting the way she is towards Rodge.
I have a few more thoughts to add. What we have here is a classic diversionary tactic, create a big threat on one front getting everybody focused on that threat. Then you sneak a lowly pawn in through the back door since no one is looking for an attack from that direction. By killing the genie lord Shona in comic 431 in a rather gruesome way, he gets the genie council panicked and into a reactionary state of mind and thereby offering sanctuary to all the young genies. The Blue Djinn understands how they think and he expected them to do this. Their reaction then gave him the means of sneaking Jeanie into the palace and the harem room, a place she would never have chosen to go on her own. I suspect Jeanie was unable to leave not because of Haji’s magic but because of the Blu Djinn’s. None of the young genies have said they were summoned to the palace. A summons is very different from an offer of sanctuary.
And this I think explains the funny feeling I’ve been having about Jeanie’s actions here of late. It is like in the show Babylon 5 what Bester did to Garibaldi. Bester messed around with Garibaldi’s mind, but just a teeny bit, just enough to enhance his suspicious attitude about things and a bit more drive to ferret stuff out without changing his basic personality so much that everyone else became suspicious of his behavior, including Garibaldi himself. He also planted one specific directive to do something if certain conditions were to come about. I believe the Blue Djinn has done something very similar to Jeanie.
In comic 432, the genie lords are talking about bringing the young genies to the palace. Given the context of that comic, it’s not likely that it’s optional – given their obvious concern over the blue djinn being able to pretty much strike any of them at will, without them being able to protect themselves.
I also think you made a pretty unsupported leap of logic in thinking that it was Jean who was seducing that guard. As long as you’re throwing around mind-control speculation, why couldn’t it be Jehane who was controlled by the blue djinn? Or both of them? Or why couldn’t someone else have been acting behind the scenes, using the presumed threat of the blue djinn to execute a power play? Or something else entirely, for that matter – there’s a lot we don’t know about all this. Especially with Haji’s sudden retirement announcement, and the subsequent decision to boot everyone back out of the palace.
If you find issues with parts of a speculative theory, such as the ones I already pointed out, the worst thing you can do is try to ad hoc your way back to the conclusion you already drew. This tends to result in contradictions that are hard to notice. Like, for example, your statement that the blue djinn imparted a very strong procreative urge into Jean, and then to compare what you think happened to Jean to what happened to Garibaldi in B5. By the way, the thing with Garibaldi worked as well as it did because it happened over months. This whole thing – from Jean getting poofed into the harem to the young genies being summarily dismissed – happened over the course of a day or two.
I think you’re right that we don’t have enough info, but not just on how long it takes new genies to reach adulthood from ‘conception’. We don’t have enough info on a lot of things. For example, why would the blue djinn go to all this trouble just to get a young genie servant, when he’s already more than powerful enough to kill a genie lord who’s prepared and ready for him? Especially if what you’re saying is true, and he can mind-control existing young genies into serving him in the first place. I mean, the gist of what you’re saying now is that the blue djinn pulled off this convoluted plot of getting a young genie to do his bidding to…get another young genie to do his bidding.
Well I didn’t expect that… scenario 2 then.. the crazier theories which I’m sure are all wrong. 🙂
Jeannie has an incredible ability to adapt and change things around to her advantage which I will have to respect. However I don’t think even she can orchestrate something involving a new cultural system, alien concepts and manipulate/frame a genie who looks like her that she never met or interacted with. If she did all this she’s a genius worthy of Loki.
One must consider motive. Jeannie doesn’t want to be at the palace and might like to be ‘cursed with mortality’ or rather be returned to male form. I don’t see how any of this would get her closer to that but.. Jeannie might have some kind of plan.
It makes me think… there must be three jeanies! Though Jeannie must have taken the huban jadid, put it on Jehane not expecting another crime to be taking place too? I’m so very confused! Is this really Jeannie?
Why would Natalie, Rodge and perhaps Agent A. be rescuing Jahane? And how would they even get to Haji’s Palace? All the genies they know are aready there.
Waiiiiit, doesn’t this mean Jean could get herself “banned” from effing ever dealing with those genie jerks again from doing something similar? And yeah Jean is totally being mind-controlled now (or both of them are)
But in this case, we don’t know which is the evil twin or maybe even that both are. We definitely know Jean can be a real jerk, but really we don’t know anything about Jehane’s personality. We saw how she became a genie, but for all practical purposes, nothing else. We’ve probably only seen maybe 15 minutes of her “on stage” so to speak. A minute here, a minute there, not nearly enough time to really get to know her.
Anyone else notice yet that, in the “Hee” panel, Jean’s eyes are blue again? I’m hoping we get an explanation for the color-changing eyes soon. Also, I can’t be the only one wondering what’s going on with Natalie and “Rodgie”.
Wow, okay, I didn’t know it paid so well to look at this comic in full-screen format. I may have to re-read it from the beginning with details like that.
But they’ve been blue alternating with black dots ever since comic #1. Take a look at the very first comic if you don’t remember. ( First comic ) It doesn’t mean anything.
Except her eyes are darker here than in the earlier comics, and they alternate between black and blue between comics. The fact that Jean’s been acting more . . . supervillainy . . . than we’ve really seen before makes me think that something’s not right with our boygirl at the moment.
If this is what passes for justice under Haji’s rule, maybe the Blue Djinn is right that Haji needs to be taken down. Of course the Blue Djinn could be even worse, we don’t know. All we have gotten is one side of the story, and as they say, the victors write the history books.
Also we have assumed that Jehane was the one that went to the vault and seduced the guard. We do know that Kazom followed Jehane until he got stopped by the wall of force, but there is the possibility that Jehane was following someone else, such as Jeanie and maybe it was her who seduced the guard.
Further, as I had suggested before we even found out about Jehane and brought up again by Guardingdark above, there could be other Jeanies besides Jeanie and Jehane. There is definitely more going on than we the readers know about.
Jehane was in a completely different section of the palace. Compare comic 445 to 467. The vault is in the same general area as the harem, while the other area has completely different walls, and the door was dramatically different. From the context of comics 465 and 466, I’d say that Jehane was at the forbidden library. Whatever happened to the guard at the hubun jadid vault happened offscreen.
In addition, unless this was planned well in advance, there was no opportunity for Jean to plant the hubun jadid on Jehane. Jean was already being held by two genie guards before Jehane ever got back to the harem. Not to mention that it was inside the hat, making it difficult to simply poof it inside without Jehane noticing.
One thing is for sure – this is nowhere near as cut and dried as the genies seem to be assuming.
Technically, Kazom was saying that – Jean but it was actually Jehane – that was heading to the forbidden library when he saw her earlier. Also that scene of the guard by the door where she was seducing him; that doorway was different from the actual doorway to the Genie Vault where Lahab was escorting Jean and Alya to.
From what we’ve seen so far, Jehane may had been elsewhere when the theft happened. Both Kazom and that other guard on Page 467 can be witnesses to verify it. That is if the big dumb heads leading the investigation will listen or consider hearing them.
I don’t think that’s the same guard at all. The hubun jadid are kept in a different area of the palace than where that scene took place. It’s easy to tell the difference by comparing comics 445 and 467.
I see the point you’re making. The backgrounds are different, all right, one is stonework, versus plaster on the other. But that doesn’t tell us how far apart they are. For all we know, they could be only feet away from each other. The stone walls could be the outer corridors, and the plastered ones the inner area.
I have a room in my place that has brick on one wall, and painted wallboard on the opposite. Different materials don’t indicate anything about relative location, right?
That was what I was talking about. They are TWO different guards; the first two by the vault in page 445 don’t look like the later solo guard we saw on page 467, unless they did some shape-changing.
Besides, why would CD Rudd include a scene like that in the story if it wasn’t relevant to the plot? Maybe to tell us that Jehane was busy doing something other than stealing from the vault at the time? Plus, could it be even possible for her to pull off what they believed she did? Even Batman, Sherlock Holmes would make sure that all the puzzle pieces fit together/connected unlike Genie Lord Than DENSE here!
We can conclude that wherever Jehane was, it wasn’t in the harem. It’s true that we don’t know their relative locations, but there are some things we can determine from background details.
The harem, with the gilded walls, is near the exterior of Haji’s castle. We know this because there are windows shown in most of the comics set in the harem; there are also fancy pillars with draperies hanging off their sides between several of the windows. Whereas the area where Jehane was has bare stone walls with torches hanging off of them. In addition, there’s a barrier there which, at the least, keeps witches and familiars out.
So what does that tell us? First, this is clearly an interior area, rather than an exterior one, and probably on a lower level. And second, it’s pretty well defended. Admittedly, only one guard, but with a barrier keeping magic users and their pets out, there isn’t much of a need for a second guard. Whereas the vault with the hubun jadid had two genie guards, and was in the same general area of the palace as the harem, due to the same gilding on the walls.
And that’s another point to consider. We know a guard had his magic drained, and that at least one hubun jadid was found missing. But there were two guards at the vault door previously, one standing on either side. What happened to the second one during that incident? Remember, this is where the most sacred genie treasures are kept, so it’s not likely that the other guard would have left.
Paragraph 2: Windows do not have to necessarily look outwards. You can also have windows into an inner courtyard or an atrium, both of which were common features in such buildings. You can also have windows facing in any direction if the harem is on an upper floor.
Paragraph 2: The barrier was able to keep KAZOM out. Whether or not it works on anyone or anything else is unknown. Kazom simply ASSUMED that it was intended for witches, etc., but we know more than he did, and it might well have been meant to block ANYone from following Jehane (or whoever that was.)
Paragraph 3: Since we don’t actually know where this area is, or how many guards, or whether the barrier was put in by Jehane or anyone else, we really can’t conclude any of this. Similar (or different) wall decorations don’t necessarily indicate physical proximity.
Paragraph 4: There were two guards that we saw at that moment. We have no idea how many more (or less) might be usual. Maybe they were only there as part of the ceremony. Maybe they got poofed away, when guard #3 was nearly killed. Maybe the vault is normally unguarded, just locked. CD has done a good job of not giving away enough information to be able to determine anything about this for sure.
So all we really know is that there were some suspicious goings-on, that got [partly] witnessed by Kazom. One (or more) hubun jadids were stolen, by someone, and Jehane seems to have been set up to take the rap for it. Everything else is unknown.
Don’t get so occupied trying to nitpick my post that you miss the points I made in it, or fail to check on previous parts of the comic.
For example, take a look at the exterior shot of Haji’s castle on page 432. There are a large number of towers, all of which have windows facing the outside of the towers. Given the architecture shown, it’s very likely that the harem is in one of those towers. This can be confirmed with several of the following comics set in the harem, where you can see slight curvatures on the walls, and comic 437 makes this especially clear by showing one of the walls of the harem at a definite angle to the one next to it, exactly as if it were the inside rim of a basically circular building. So I think we can rule out an inner courtyard or an atrium. The harem is probably on a higher floor of whatever tower it’s in, as you mentioned as an aside, but that basically confirms that it is an exterior window.
I’ll give you the second point you made; we don’t know who put up the barrier. But given that Kazom was a genie lord in the past, and is now essentially a witch familiar, I think it’s reasonable that he would know the nature of the barrier itself, even though he doesn’t know who put it in place.
Speaking of putting things in place, it’s pretty clear to me by now that the area where Kazom and Jehane were is not close to the harem. We know that the harem is on the outside of one of the turrets. We also know that the hallway outside the harem has the same design features as the harem itself, and based on comic 443, it also appears to have some curvature to it (in the fourth panel, the wall pattern behind Jeanie is clearly curved). Given that the bare stone area where Kazom and Jehane were is not curved at all (given the stone pattern, it would be very easy to tell if it were), that means that it isn’t in the same part of the building, because they went from curved walls to straight. So there’s no chance of them being only a few feet away from each other.
And we can safely rule out your earlier idea that the stone walls were on the outside of the gilded ones. Given the exterior shot of Haji’s castle and what can be determined from comparing perspectives, the harem is clearly on the outer part of one of the towers, while the stone area clearly is not. Even if they’re in the same tower, the curved areas would have to be on the outside part of the tower. And more to the point, since the hallway that Jeanie and the other two traversed is also curved, and has the same gilding as inside the harem, it is going to be closer to the harem than the stone area, simply by virtue of being inside a cylindrical tower.
There’s also the lighting. I’ve looked pretty closely at the comics involving Haji’s palace, and I haven’t seen any signs of light sources with the sole exception of the torchlit stone area. In fact, the torches on those walls were very conspicuous and obvious. Now, it’s possible that the genies use some sort of magical illumination, or that the light sources have simply been off-camera, every single time. So, why torches, at head height (the genie who refuses entry to Kazom is standing in front of one of them), and pretty regularly spaced ones at that? Why not use whatever’s being used elsewhere?
Oh, and lest I forget, this was also relatively near where the genie lords were meeting, due to what the guard told Kazom. Kazom probably spent a bit of time walking away from the guard at the deliberation chamber before spotting Jehane, and no doubt was following her for a bit as well before bouncing off of the barrier. Point is that they’re in the same general part of the castle, since the walls stayed the same. More to the point, this suggests that the differences in walls and decorations are meaningful – for example, the deliberation chamber and the forbidden library are both in the area with bare stone walls, lit by torches, and the harem and vault are both in the area with fancy gilded walls, with no visible sources of light.
As for the number of guards, it’s true that we only saw them at the specific moments that CD Rudd drew those specific areas. But note the wording of why a genie lord and male genie guards were in the harem: “There has been an incident at the vault. A guard is near death. His magic drained from him…” Meaning, the attack took place at the vault, and one of the guards there was nearly killed, but if there was only one guard there, why not just say “the guard”? If someone told you, “there was an incident at the bank vault, a camera was found wrecked”, would you think that it was the only camera?
There’s a reason that conservation of detail is a trope. These details were not included by accident. CD Rudd spent time drawing them, and obviously wanted people to be able to see them. They’re clues that observant readers can pick up on. You shouldn’t ignore them and say “everything else is unknown”.
So, I think there are things we can safely conclude from those details, like the harem being on the outside of one of those towers. Like the vault having at least two guards in general. Like having the same look means that two places are relatively close to each other (and conversely, places with distinctly different looks are not near each other). Those conclusions might later be shown to be wrong, but the point is that they are conclusions, not assumptions, based primarily on what’s actually shown in the comic itself.
So have I, although I don’t think her hair color matches perfectly with the panels with Jehane as a little girl before she got sucked into the bottle. However, Jeannie’s Evil sister/cousin Jeannie in the series was Barbara Eden with a brunette wig and a costume with a green skirt, not harem pants. And all of Jehane’s appearances after getting out of the bottle are in the pink costume with blonde hair done just like Jean/Jeanie’s. C.D. knows about the series second Jeannie wearing a skirt instead of harem pants. So is why still the harem pants?
But Kazom doesn’t say Hitler here or when he
was talking with Rouyaa in I
Dream of Technicolor. What
Kazom does tell Jean in
#164-which takes place earlier in history than all of Kazom’s conversations with Rouyaa. And Kazom told Jean that Eva and her master died in 1945, but not that they died on the same day in 1945, which Hitler and Eva Braun did.
Interestingly, two days before Hitler and Eva Braun died on the on April 30 1945, Mussolini and his longtime mistress Clara Petacci were executed together and strung up upside down in public for some post-mortem abuse which was filmed and photographed.
And do we really know Jehane’s bottle was Eva’s bottle?
I hope a similar storyline is in the works for Jean. I’d be curious to see how Jean handles being banished from haji’s palace. As well as what the consequences and long term ramifications are.
Minus the makeover, would Jeans powers be stripped or limited. And are the chains a permanent feature or just for the palaces protection.
Only question I have: Is the punishment meant to depower her and make her look closer to her original appearance? Or does it depower her and make her look closer to Eva (As a warning to all who disobey hajj)
I had forgotten that Alya was there as well. Since we didn’t actually see who took those Hubun-Jadids, I suppose it could have been Alya. We just saw Alya and Jeanie standing by the shelves with Lahab while she takes one down. The next panel shows all of them walking away and two additional Hubun-Jadids are missing from their places on the shelf.
My tin-foil hat theory
Alya works for the Blue Djin (the white hair looks very very light blue on my monitor) and was the one who stole the Hubun Jadid. She thought she was framing Jeanie with one of them but accidentally framed Jehane, hence the “oh my”.
One thought: This is actually quite interesting. I think this is the first time we have seen a form imposed by another genie. A genie lord can apparently do this? Why is this form a punishment? I like how we learn little by little about them and the rules of their society.
1) If there can be two genies that look like Barbara Eden’s character, there can be more. We have no idea who cozied up to the guard and knocked him out, it could well be a third “Jeannie” lookalike.
2) Genies can change form, so any other genie could temporarily look like Jehane or Jeanie, long enough to do some dirty work and get them blamed for it.
3) It would be easy enough for any genie to poof a hubun jadid into Jehane’s hat, to divert suspicion. They should search them all.
4) One has to wonder if they are searching the male genies at the same time? Who says there’s only one thief?
I just noticed something else of possible significance a bit ago. The elf eared girl from comic 476, we’ve see her before in comic 432. She’s a member of the genie council. She was wearing a different but similar green outfit at that time. It was she who suggests that they need to find a way to protect the young genies. I’m guessing that she volunteered to pretend to be a member of the harem of young genies so as to keep a watch over them and protect them from the Blue Djinn. If I read the comic correctly her name is Lord Natshir.
Hmm. This may not be important after all. After doing a quick dive through all the comics between 432 and now, she is also in comics 474 and 475. It appears that she showed up with Lahab and the other genie lord.
“in mT hat” methinks there maybe a typo 🙂
I like how her new appearance is like the TV shows evil sister, though I do think she has been setup by someone.
in the 3rd panel: “you will be forbidden from Haji’s Palace, marked as a banished genie, and be the last genie to ever occupy that accursed bottle.”
I got home late tonight, and had to rush the edit job on this a bit. I fixed a different typo at another place in that bubble, but missed the more obvious one.
If they were real geniuses, they wouldn’t be leaving those bottles/lamps/vessels around for just anyone to be sucked into them. They make it sound like any past tenant’s wrongdoings are inheritable to the new ones.
That aside, shouldn’t they at least put Jehane on trial to verify that it really was her or that someone else had a hand in it or look for more evidence? She could’ve been framed, given her reactions.
The genies don’t appear to have any concept of “evidence” or “justice”. Just “punishment for perceived crimes”.
The concepts of “Tair trials,” “Everybody is equal under the law and even fair trials until recently had limited jurisdiction in the world and the genie world does not appear to be the most modern of institutions.
Wow. It’s just like “trial by social media.”
Well I guess that means Natalie’s transformation is likely permanent….
Jean’s new appearance is definitely a nice change of pace.
Whatever happens next will likely change the story for a long time to come.
That’s not Jean, it’s Jehane.
It was Jehane that got punished there, not Jean. LOOK AT THE BELT DESIGNS!
But I guess that doesn’t matter anymore now, given her forced makeover.
that’s Jehane not Jean. And if Jean is not under the influence then his laughing at Jehane just upped his scumbag quotient to a whole new level.
Jean enjoying a bit of schadenfreude is at least in character. But I really want to know what’s going on. And part of me hopes that Jean was the one that stole that.
I don’t think Jean’s exactly herself right now.
Ah but is that really Jean?
I have to ask: Did Jean actually steal it?
I hope so.
I doubt it. I think Jehane is being framed.
Well, based on Jeanie’s reaction, I have the feeling that she is the one who set up Jehane to take the blame. We know that two of those Hubon Jadid were taken from the vault, so my guess was that Jeanie only needs one but took two to plant one on someone else while she does whatever she’s being controlled to do. Yes I believe Jean’s mind in not the one in control right now.
Do you have any basis for this mind control idea besides the changing eye color thing, which was already disproven?
I don’t believe the eye color issue has been disproven. Both sides have presented evidence for why they believe what they do, but until CD Rudd comments on the issue it will remain open as only he knows for certain which is correct.
As for the mind control itself, Jeanie at times is definitely acting very weird even for her and some of those times she seems to be acting on knowledge that Jean should not have.
With all due respect, this is not a contest of evidence at this point, given that someone actually went and sampled Jeanie’s eye color in the comic you keep referencing and showed that it was a shade of blue. This is in addition to the fact that Jeanie’s eyes were blue in the first several comics (until CD Rudd simplified his designs several years ago). Unless you have something else that shows that there has ever been a time that Jeanie’s eyes have been this “purplish-grey” you described, you don’t have a basis for continuing to argue it. Nor should you piously claim “well, we have to wait for CD Rudd to confirm that I am wrong” when your evidence is shown to not support your assertion in the first place. The proper thing to do when you are shown that something you based an argument on is to admit that you were wrong and reconsider your argument, not attempt to move the goalposts so you can avoid doing so.
Same with your statement that Jeanie is under mind control. “She’s acting weird” is not a very good basis for asserting mind control; in addition, I follow this comic regularly and, in my opinion, this is not significantly out of character behavior for her, nor is she acting on knowledge she shouldn’t have. If you have evidence, from the comic, that shows her acting out of character or on knowledge she shouldn’t have, then link to it.
Also, I went back and looked at comic 445. Based on the two pictures shown, there was only one hubun jadid removed besides the one taken by Lahab. In the first picture, you have six columns of hubun jadid, of which one is being taken down by Lahab; there are three columns on the left and two on the right. In the second picture, from a different angle, we can still see six columns, but this time there are two on the left and three on the right. Of the ones we could see in the previous picture, only two are missing – one taken by Lahab and one (presumably) removed by Jeanie. We don’t know anything about the ones in that third right-hand column because we couldn’t see them before; we certainly shouldn’t be making assumptions about them.
Regarding the Hubun-Jadid in the vault, you are correct in that we could not see the empty holder that is on the bottom shelf all the way to the right. I was making an assumption, something I shouldn’t have done, but I have the feeling that since CD showed us that, it likely has some significance. From my experience with this comic and CD’s other comic SailorSun it is my opinion that CD is not someone to throw out red herrings.
As for Jeanie acting weird, I too have read all 477 comics. It is a feeling I have, I can’t put my finger on anything and say “this is out of character” or she “shouldn’t know that”. To me, something feels wrong about her behavior and I don’t why.
Lastly you say someone went and sampled Jeanie’s eye color from comic 416. I don’t recall anyone claiming that, but I decided to try it. I downloaded that comic, I then enlarged the image of her iris so much in an image viewer so as to remove all other colors from view including the red ring. I have a color corrected monitor and it still looks purplish grey to me. I then decided to take it a step further. I downloaded comic 445 and brought it up in another instance of the same image viewer at the same time I had the image from 416 open and compared them side by side. They are not the same. The image from 445 is mostly medium and deep purple. I also add that Robert has acknowledged that CD has very specific color palettes for each of his regular characters, so why would he make changes like that unless he has something in mind. For grins and giggles, I downloaded a couple of random comics with Jeanie and enlarged her eyes in those and they were both black. Therefore I still feel certain Jeanie’s eye color in this story arc is very significant.
At this point I’m done with this discussion. I feel certain we will eventually find out through the comic a definitive answer one way or another. If I am wrong, I will post on that comic an acknowledgment to that fact. If I’m right, will you?
@SaylorA:
I was the one who clipped out the iris and stuck it PhotoShop to check the colors. It’s no good trying to estimate colors by sight; PS can tell you exactly what they are.
In Jeannie’s eye from comic #416, the main color is a light sky-blue, (0xA3A3F4) with a shadow of a darker, sort of marine blue, (0x8989C9), and of course, a red ring. No grey. (Greys have very even hex values across the three pigments, to avoid looking tinted. These are definitely well into the blue region.)
I realize that when you put those two colors right beside each other, and then back off a ways, it LOOKS sort of purplish or purple-grey, but it really is just two shades of blue. Which CD has been using in Jeannie’s eyes ever since the first comic.
Of course, whether or not any of this is significant to the story, or is just artistic license, is a different question.
@SaylorA
You might want to acknowledge Kattgirl’s post here. This is the second time she’s said this, and I would prefer you to not miss seeing it again.
Also, I have read all 477 comics as well, and I don’t get that feeling that you’re talking about. Given that it was a similar thing that led you to believe that Jeanie’s eyes were purplish grey, you might want to be more careful with letting such feelings determine what you believe to be true.
I’m honestly not sure why the author switches between showing Jeanie’s eyes as blue vs black. I do know they were originally (and obviously) blue, and while it makes some sense to simplify them to dots, I would think it would be easier to simply use blue for the dot color rather than black. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say her eyes change color based on her emotions, such as in comic 416 where she was pissed off enough that a red ring appeared on the inside of her iris. If that’s the case, it suggests that when her eyes become more obviously blue, that she’s feeling some strong emotion at that time.
I don’t expect you to make any public admissions, by the way. There’s nothing wrong with theories, even if they end up being wrong. I was just pointing out that the “purplish grey eyes” thing wasn’t justified by previous comics. I checked several of the early comics using a similar sampling technique (IrfanView rather than PhotoShop), when CD Rudd was showing Jeanie’s pupils as circles rather than dots, and they were pretty consistently blue, though sometimes they were a much lighter blue than other times.
I have decided that the particular shade of eye color is irrelevant and the fact CD showed them blue is them as blue instead of black is the important thing here and I was way over thinking it. I also take back my comment about CD not throwing red herrings. I’m now thinking he has thrown us several in this story arc.
Wild theory time.
In comic 440 Lahab indicates that Haji is granting sanctuary to the young genies. That to me says he didn’t force them to come to his palace but yet Jeanie was forced. I believe the Blue Djinn knew that a genie bonding was going to take place and he also knew that Jeanie was the youngest genie and would therefore be used in the ceremony as Araceli indicates to Jeanie how they have all done it. So he forces Jeanie to became his unwitting agent because he knew she would be taken into the vault to get a Hubun-Jadid. Remember Jeanie tried to question Araceli about being in the harem room but she wasn’t given the time to explain.
The Blue Djinn is launching an attack from within Haji’s palace itself and he’s using Jeanie to do it. From comic 445 we know what the exterior of the vault looks like and we also learn that at least one and maybe two Hubun-Jadid was/were stolen, and it is very likely it was Jeanie who took it or them. We also know from comic 443 that using a Hubun-Jadid a new genie is created from “relations” from two other genies. Alya implies that it is from a blessed union but she is clearly a hopeless romantic so she may be giving us a false idea about things. I now think it was Jeanie in comic 467 who is seducing the male genie guard with the intention of creating a new genie that is serving the Blue Djinn. That guard is clearly not guarding the vault but some other random room in the palace away from everything else. I say the new genie is serving the Blue Djinn now because we have zero info on how long it takes for a genie to reach adulthood from “conception” and I think it is fully active and it is the one that caused the incident at the vault just recently. For what purpose, I have no idea. After all Jeanie and Jehane became genie virtually instantly.
Further I think the Blue Djinn imparted a very strong urge into Jeanie to procreate hence her seducing the guard, but I also think that magic spell was so powerful it spilled over onto Natalie and that is why she is acting the way she is towards Rodge.
I have a few more thoughts to add. What we have here is a classic diversionary tactic, create a big threat on one front getting everybody focused on that threat. Then you sneak a lowly pawn in through the back door since no one is looking for an attack from that direction. By killing the genie lord Shona in comic 431 in a rather gruesome way, he gets the genie council panicked and into a reactionary state of mind and thereby offering sanctuary to all the young genies. The Blue Djinn understands how they think and he expected them to do this. Their reaction then gave him the means of sneaking Jeanie into the palace and the harem room, a place she would never have chosen to go on her own. I suspect Jeanie was unable to leave not because of Haji’s magic but because of the Blu Djinn’s. None of the young genies have said they were summoned to the palace. A summons is very different from an offer of sanctuary.
And this I think explains the funny feeling I’ve been having about Jeanie’s actions here of late. It is like in the show Babylon 5 what Bester did to Garibaldi. Bester messed around with Garibaldi’s mind, but just a teeny bit, just enough to enhance his suspicious attitude about things and a bit more drive to ferret stuff out without changing his basic personality so much that everyone else became suspicious of his behavior, including Garibaldi himself. He also planted one specific directive to do something if certain conditions were to come about. I believe the Blue Djinn has done something very similar to Jeanie.
In comic 432, the genie lords are talking about bringing the young genies to the palace. Given the context of that comic, it’s not likely that it’s optional – given their obvious concern over the blue djinn being able to pretty much strike any of them at will, without them being able to protect themselves.
I also think you made a pretty unsupported leap of logic in thinking that it was Jean who was seducing that guard. As long as you’re throwing around mind-control speculation, why couldn’t it be Jehane who was controlled by the blue djinn? Or both of them? Or why couldn’t someone else have been acting behind the scenes, using the presumed threat of the blue djinn to execute a power play? Or something else entirely, for that matter – there’s a lot we don’t know about all this. Especially with Haji’s sudden retirement announcement, and the subsequent decision to boot everyone back out of the palace.
If you find issues with parts of a speculative theory, such as the ones I already pointed out, the worst thing you can do is try to ad hoc your way back to the conclusion you already drew. This tends to result in contradictions that are hard to notice. Like, for example, your statement that the blue djinn imparted a very strong procreative urge into Jean, and then to compare what you think happened to Jean to what happened to Garibaldi in B5. By the way, the thing with Garibaldi worked as well as it did because it happened over months. This whole thing – from Jean getting poofed into the harem to the young genies being summarily dismissed – happened over the course of a day or two.
I think you’re right that we don’t have enough info, but not just on how long it takes new genies to reach adulthood from ‘conception’. We don’t have enough info on a lot of things. For example, why would the blue djinn go to all this trouble just to get a young genie servant, when he’s already more than powerful enough to kill a genie lord who’s prepared and ready for him? Especially if what you’re saying is true, and he can mind-control existing young genies into serving him in the first place. I mean, the gist of what you’re saying now is that the blue djinn pulled off this convoluted plot of getting a young genie to do his bidding to…get another young genie to do his bidding.
Well I didn’t expect that… scenario 2 then.. the crazier theories which I’m sure are all wrong. 🙂
Jeannie has an incredible ability to adapt and change things around to her advantage which I will have to respect. However I don’t think even she can orchestrate something involving a new cultural system, alien concepts and manipulate/frame a genie who looks like her that she never met or interacted with. If she did all this she’s a genius worthy of Loki.
One must consider motive. Jeannie doesn’t want to be at the palace and might like to be ‘cursed with mortality’ or rather be returned to male form. I don’t see how any of this would get her closer to that but.. Jeannie might have some kind of plan.
It makes me think… there must be three jeanies! Though Jeannie must have taken the huban jadid, put it on Jehane not expecting another crime to be taking place too? I’m so very confused! Is this really Jeannie?
Cue Zathras walk-on with a gratuitous “not the one” and mumbling about Zathras and Zathras mourning poor Zathras….
Lol yes. “We live for the one we die for the one” 😀
Well, this rescue look like a job for Natalie, Rodge and perhaps Agent Anderson.
Why would Natalie, Rodge and perhaps Agent A. be rescuing Jahane? And how would they even get to Haji’s Palace? All the genies they know are aready there.
That was too easy! Poor Jehain was set up to take the fall. That poor kid has had a really rough life from the very start! 🙁
Waiiiiit, doesn’t this mean Jean could get herself “banned” from effing ever dealing with those genie jerks again from doing something similar? And yeah Jean is totally being mind-controlled now (or both of them are)
Not sure Jean would like the chains that goes with it.
doing the old Jeanie evil sister bit I see like I dream of jeanie show
But in this case, we don’t know which is the evil twin or maybe even that both are. We definitely know Jean can be a real jerk, but really we don’t know anything about Jehane’s personality. We saw how she became a genie, but for all practical purposes, nothing else. We’ve probably only seen maybe 15 minutes of her “on stage” so to speak. A minute here, a minute there, not nearly enough time to really get to know her.
I’m supposed to be confused, correct?
I hope so, because I’m with you. Confused, verging on baffled and bewildered.
Just to be clear, Jehane is the one being punished, yeah?
Correct. You can always tell them apart by the patterns on their hips. Jehane has circles of white fuzz, while Jeanie has pink lines.
Though now I supposed you can tell them apart by their outfits and hair color.
Anyone else notice yet that, in the “Hee” panel, Jean’s eyes are blue again? I’m hoping we get an explanation for the color-changing eyes soon. Also, I can’t be the only one wondering what’s going on with Natalie and “Rodgie”.
I, too, am wondering what’s going on with Natalie! 🙂
If Natalie has her way, then something is definitely up.
Wow, okay, I didn’t know it paid so well to look at this comic in full-screen format. I may have to re-read it from the beginning with details like that.
I noticed.
But they’ve been blue alternating with black dots ever since comic #1. Take a look at the very first comic if you don’t remember. ( First comic ) It doesn’t mean anything.
Except her eyes are darker here than in the earlier comics, and they alternate between black and blue between comics. The fact that Jean’s been acting more . . . supervillainy . . . than we’ve really seen before makes me think that something’s not right with our boygirl at the moment.
If this is what passes for justice under Haji’s rule, maybe the Blue Djinn is right that Haji needs to be taken down. Of course the Blue Djinn could be even worse, we don’t know. All we have gotten is one side of the story, and as they say, the victors write the history books.
Also we have assumed that Jehane was the one that went to the vault and seduced the guard. We do know that Kazom followed Jehane until he got stopped by the wall of force, but there is the possibility that Jehane was following someone else, such as Jeanie and maybe it was her who seduced the guard.
Further, as I had suggested before we even found out about Jehane and brought up again by Guardingdark above, there could be other Jeanies besides Jeanie and Jehane. There is definitely more going on than we the readers know about.
Jehane was in a completely different section of the palace. Compare comic 445 to 467. The vault is in the same general area as the harem, while the other area has completely different walls, and the door was dramatically different. From the context of comics 465 and 466, I’d say that Jehane was at the forbidden library. Whatever happened to the guard at the hubun jadid vault happened offscreen.
In addition, unless this was planned well in advance, there was no opportunity for Jean to plant the hubun jadid on Jehane. Jean was already being held by two genie guards before Jehane ever got back to the harem. Not to mention that it was inside the hat, making it difficult to simply poof it inside without Jehane noticing.
One thing is for sure – this is nowhere near as cut and dried as the genies seem to be assuming.
Technically, Kazom was saying that – Jean but it was actually Jehane – that was heading to the forbidden library when he saw her earlier. Also that scene of the guard by the door where she was seducing him; that doorway was different from the actual doorway to the Genie Vault where Lahab was escorting Jean and Alya to.
From what we’ve seen so far, Jehane may had been elsewhere when the theft happened. Both Kazom and that other guard on Page 467 can be witnesses to verify it. That is if the big dumb heads leading the investigation will listen or consider hearing them.
Jenny, I think the guard in comic 467 is the same one that’s now in a coma and near death. So he probably isn’t going to make a very good witness.
And I suspect that that same guard was the one guarding the vault that the hubun jadid was stolen from. So that would blow the alibi, anyway.
@Kattgirl
I don’t think that’s the same guard at all. The hubun jadid are kept in a different area of the palace than where that scene took place. It’s easy to tell the difference by comparing comics 445 and 467.
@jaimehlers:
I see the point you’re making. The backgrounds are different, all right, one is stonework, versus plaster on the other. But that doesn’t tell us how far apart they are. For all we know, they could be only feet away from each other. The stone walls could be the outer corridors, and the plastered ones the inner area.
I have a room in my place that has brick on one wall, and painted wallboard on the opposite. Different materials don’t indicate anything about relative location, right?
@jaimehiers
That was what I was talking about. They are TWO different guards; the first two by the vault in page 445 don’t look like the later solo guard we saw on page 467, unless they did some shape-changing.
Besides, why would CD Rudd include a scene like that in the story if it wasn’t relevant to the plot? Maybe to tell us that Jehane was busy doing something other than stealing from the vault at the time? Plus, could it be even possible for her to pull off what they believed she did? Even Batman, Sherlock Holmes would make sure that all the puzzle pieces fit together/connected unlike Genie Lord Than DENSE here!
We can conclude that wherever Jehane was, it wasn’t in the harem. It’s true that we don’t know their relative locations, but there are some things we can determine from background details.
The harem, with the gilded walls, is near the exterior of Haji’s castle. We know this because there are windows shown in most of the comics set in the harem; there are also fancy pillars with draperies hanging off their sides between several of the windows. Whereas the area where Jehane was has bare stone walls with torches hanging off of them. In addition, there’s a barrier there which, at the least, keeps witches and familiars out.
So what does that tell us? First, this is clearly an interior area, rather than an exterior one, and probably on a lower level. And second, it’s pretty well defended. Admittedly, only one guard, but with a barrier keeping magic users and their pets out, there isn’t much of a need for a second guard. Whereas the vault with the hubun jadid had two genie guards, and was in the same general area of the palace as the harem, due to the same gilding on the walls.
And that’s another point to consider. We know a guard had his magic drained, and that at least one hubun jadid was found missing. But there were two guards at the vault door previously, one standing on either side. What happened to the second one during that incident? Remember, this is where the most sacred genie treasures are kept, so it’s not likely that the other guard would have left.
@jaimehlers:
Be careful with some of your assumptions.
Paragraph 2: Windows do not have to necessarily look outwards. You can also have windows into an inner courtyard or an atrium, both of which were common features in such buildings. You can also have windows facing in any direction if the harem is on an upper floor.
Paragraph 2: The barrier was able to keep KAZOM out. Whether or not it works on anyone or anything else is unknown. Kazom simply ASSUMED that it was intended for witches, etc., but we know more than he did, and it might well have been meant to block ANYone from following Jehane (or whoever that was.)
Paragraph 3: Since we don’t actually know where this area is, or how many guards, or whether the barrier was put in by Jehane or anyone else, we really can’t conclude any of this. Similar (or different) wall decorations don’t necessarily indicate physical proximity.
Paragraph 4: There were two guards that we saw at that moment. We have no idea how many more (or less) might be usual. Maybe they were only there as part of the ceremony. Maybe they got poofed away, when guard #3 was nearly killed. Maybe the vault is normally unguarded, just locked. CD has done a good job of not giving away enough information to be able to determine anything about this for sure.
So all we really know is that there were some suspicious goings-on, that got [partly] witnessed by Kazom. One (or more) hubun jadids were stolen, by someone, and Jehane seems to have been set up to take the rap for it. Everything else is unknown.
@Kattgirl:
Don’t get so occupied trying to nitpick my post that you miss the points I made in it, or fail to check on previous parts of the comic.
For example, take a look at the exterior shot of Haji’s castle on page 432. There are a large number of towers, all of which have windows facing the outside of the towers. Given the architecture shown, it’s very likely that the harem is in one of those towers. This can be confirmed with several of the following comics set in the harem, where you can see slight curvatures on the walls, and comic 437 makes this especially clear by showing one of the walls of the harem at a definite angle to the one next to it, exactly as if it were the inside rim of a basically circular building. So I think we can rule out an inner courtyard or an atrium. The harem is probably on a higher floor of whatever tower it’s in, as you mentioned as an aside, but that basically confirms that it is an exterior window.
I’ll give you the second point you made; we don’t know who put up the barrier. But given that Kazom was a genie lord in the past, and is now essentially a witch familiar, I think it’s reasonable that he would know the nature of the barrier itself, even though he doesn’t know who put it in place.
Speaking of putting things in place, it’s pretty clear to me by now that the area where Kazom and Jehane were is not close to the harem. We know that the harem is on the outside of one of the turrets. We also know that the hallway outside the harem has the same design features as the harem itself, and based on comic 443, it also appears to have some curvature to it (in the fourth panel, the wall pattern behind Jeanie is clearly curved). Given that the bare stone area where Kazom and Jehane were is not curved at all (given the stone pattern, it would be very easy to tell if it were), that means that it isn’t in the same part of the building, because they went from curved walls to straight. So there’s no chance of them being only a few feet away from each other.
And we can safely rule out your earlier idea that the stone walls were on the outside of the gilded ones. Given the exterior shot of Haji’s castle and what can be determined from comparing perspectives, the harem is clearly on the outer part of one of the towers, while the stone area clearly is not. Even if they’re in the same tower, the curved areas would have to be on the outside part of the tower. And more to the point, since the hallway that Jeanie and the other two traversed is also curved, and has the same gilding as inside the harem, it is going to be closer to the harem than the stone area, simply by virtue of being inside a cylindrical tower.
There’s also the lighting. I’ve looked pretty closely at the comics involving Haji’s palace, and I haven’t seen any signs of light sources with the sole exception of the torchlit stone area. In fact, the torches on those walls were very conspicuous and obvious. Now, it’s possible that the genies use some sort of magical illumination, or that the light sources have simply been off-camera, every single time. So, why torches, at head height (the genie who refuses entry to Kazom is standing in front of one of them), and pretty regularly spaced ones at that? Why not use whatever’s being used elsewhere?
Oh, and lest I forget, this was also relatively near where the genie lords were meeting, due to what the guard told Kazom. Kazom probably spent a bit of time walking away from the guard at the deliberation chamber before spotting Jehane, and no doubt was following her for a bit as well before bouncing off of the barrier. Point is that they’re in the same general part of the castle, since the walls stayed the same. More to the point, this suggests that the differences in walls and decorations are meaningful – for example, the deliberation chamber and the forbidden library are both in the area with bare stone walls, lit by torches, and the harem and vault are both in the area with fancy gilded walls, with no visible sources of light.
As for the number of guards, it’s true that we only saw them at the specific moments that CD Rudd drew those specific areas. But note the wording of why a genie lord and male genie guards were in the harem: “There has been an incident at the vault. A guard is near death. His magic drained from him…” Meaning, the attack took place at the vault, and one of the guards there was nearly killed, but if there was only one guard there, why not just say “the guard”? If someone told you, “there was an incident at the bank vault, a camera was found wrecked”, would you think that it was the only camera?
There’s a reason that conservation of detail is a trope. These details were not included by accident. CD Rudd spent time drawing them, and obviously wanted people to be able to see them. They’re clues that observant readers can pick up on. You shouldn’t ignore them and say “everything else is unknown”.
So, I think there are things we can safely conclude from those details, like the harem being on the outside of one of those towers. Like the vault having at least two guards in general. Like having the same look means that two places are relatively close to each other (and conversely, places with distinctly different looks are not near each other). Those conclusions might later be shown to be wrong, but the point is that they are conclusions, not assumptions, based primarily on what’s actually shown in the comic itself.
Is that Jehanne’s natural appearance? If Jeanie had been punished, would Jean be back to his normal form, but stuck in a harem girl outfit?
Oh huh, I hadn’t thought of that. Jehane was originally a brunette…
So have I, although I don’t think her hair color matches perfectly with the panels with Jehane as a little girl before she got sucked into the bottle. However, Jeannie’s Evil sister/cousin Jeannie in the series was Barbara Eden with a brunette wig and a costume with a green skirt, not harem pants. And all of Jehane’s appearances after getting out of the bottle are in the pink costume with blonde hair done just like Jean/Jeanie’s. C.D. knows about the series second Jeannie wearing a skirt instead of harem pants. So is why still the harem pants?
The only visualization of Eva/Eevi that’s ever appeared in I Dream of a Jeanie Bottle before Jehane’s first appearance as a little German brunette orphan girl was in I Dream of My Old Bottle as Kazom is telling Jean about “Eva and her master and magic on a global scale”.
But Kazom doesn’t say
Hitler here or when he
was talking with Rouyaa in I
Dream of Technicolor. What
Kazom does tell Jean in
#164-which takes place earlier in history than all of Kazom’s conversations with Rouyaa. And Kazom told Jean that Eva and her master died in 1945, but not that they died on the same day in 1945, which Hitler and Eva Braun did.
Interestingly, two days before Hitler and Eva Braun died on the on April 30 1945, Mussolini and his longtime mistress Clara Petacci were executed together and strung up upside down in public for some post-mortem abuse which was filmed and photographed.
And do we really know Jehane’s bottle was Eva’s bottle?
_My_ guess, FWIW, is that’s how Eva looked. Make her look like Eva to have the form that other genies can easily tell is a banished one…
@Tom:
I think we can answer one question: Yes, Jehane’s bottle is Eva’s. Lahab says so in Panel 2.
Now THAT would be a cute turn of events. Powerless, chained and cross-dressed. 😉
“Hey, where do I go to get banished from Haji’s palace?”
Steal from Haji seems to do it. (Plus you get nice chains to go with the banishment)
I hope a similar storyline is in the works for Jean. I’d be curious to see how Jean handles being banished from haji’s palace. As well as what the consequences and long term ramifications are.
Minus the makeover, would Jeans powers be stripped or limited. And are the chains a permanent feature or just for the palaces protection.
Only question I have: Is the punishment meant to depower her and make her look closer to her original appearance? Or does it depower her and make her look closer to Eva (As a warning to all who disobey hajj)
You want to wear chains and a green harem costume? Why Robert, I never would have guessed! 😉
Hmm, her makeover is quite lovely
So who is white haired djian “oh my” girl and does she fit in here????
That’s Alya, the other young genie who participating in the ceremony which required them to retrieve a Hubun Jadid from the vault.
I had forgotten that Alya was there as well. Since we didn’t actually see who took those Hubun-Jadids, I suppose it could have been Alya. We just saw Alya and Jeanie standing by the shelves with Lahab while she takes one down. The next panel shows all of them walking away and two additional Hubun-Jadids are missing from their places on the shelf.
Alya, look me in the eye and tell me the truth.
what happened to not guilty until proven. It seems they have really jumped the gun here…poor Jehane…i think she was framed.
My tin-foil hat theory
Alya works for the Blue Djin (the white hair looks very very light blue on my monitor) and was the one who stole the Hubun Jadid. She thought she was framing Jeanie with one of them but accidentally framed Jehane, hence the “oh my”.
I’m also suspicious of Luna, the bad-hair-day genie who so conveniently noticed Jeanie and was so quick to accuse her.
One thought: This is actually quite interesting. I think this is the first time we have seen a form imposed by another genie. A genie lord can apparently do this? Why is this form a punishment? I like how we learn little by little about them and the rules of their society.
Several comments on this turn of events:
1) If there can be two genies that look like Barbara Eden’s character, there can be more. We have no idea who cozied up to the guard and knocked him out, it could well be a third “Jeannie” lookalike.
2) Genies can change form, so any other genie could temporarily look like Jehane or Jeanie, long enough to do some dirty work and get them blamed for it.
3) It would be easy enough for any genie to poof a hubun jadid into Jehane’s hat, to divert suspicion. They should search them all.
4) One has to wonder if they are searching the male genies at the same time? Who says there’s only one thief?
Holy attention to detail! I just saw something very important when they went into the vault of the genie!
But.. I… wha? What I’m seeing makes no sense at all!
I just noticed something else of possible significance a bit ago. The elf eared girl from comic 476, we’ve see her before in comic 432. She’s a member of the genie council. She was wearing a different but similar green outfit at that time. It was she who suggests that they need to find a way to protect the young genies. I’m guessing that she volunteered to pretend to be a member of the harem of young genies so as to keep a watch over them and protect them from the Blue Djinn. If I read the comic correctly her name is Lord Natshir.
Hmm. This may not be important after all. After doing a quick dive through all the comics between 432 and now, she is also in comics 474 and 475. It appears that she showed up with Lahab and the other genie lord.