Jeanie Bottle 366
Apr11
on April 11, 2016
at 10:43 pm
and modified on November 26, 2022. at 9:20 pm
Chapter: Story 08: I Dream of a General
For those who might not recall Page 326, when Araceli kissed Neil on her way out of his apartment, a bit of the moonshine that made Jeanie so ill spilled onto her. Apparently whatever was in that moonshine is so toxic to genies that mere skin contact with it is dangerous. Scary stuff…
Also, this page ends the “I Dream of a General” chapter. The next one is going to be pretty unique, I think.
Aww poor araceli
Yeah, she must be miserable. :-[
Serves her right. She’s an evil, conniving *bleep*….
agree with that.
Damn son, if that isn’t some fine detective work right there. I wonder if Araceli’s genie cold would alter the events of the Melvin chronicles as we saw from Jeanie’s cold. That said, Jeanie had a direct connection to all of those guys.
Remember that going into Jeanie’s bottle caused her random magic to stop affecting the outside world. It seems likely that Araceli went into her bottle immediately after her symptoms took hold, so they wouldn’t have had much affect upon the world.
Also remember Neil took Jean to Hazzard to find a cure for her, and she was cured when Boss opened the bottle. Could it be that getting a new master is the cure? Some kind of genie reset?
I suppose Araceli has more experience and information about genies and illness and would know what to do quicker than a more recent convert.
But is she really more experienced? This is the same venue that went a least a a few centuries without interaction with another sentient being.
Wah-wah-waaaaah….all the speculation and buildup to why her hat was still white.
CD, this should have been timed for April 1st. Hah!
Actually, this isn’t just a joke answer about Jeanie’s white hat. It finally explains why her hat is always visible in her various costumes. She forgets it exists, so she forgets to remove it.
Hm. Rats. That kills my idea about it being indicative of her current master.
Damn. There’s nothing sadder than a deceased hypothesis.
I had a feeling this was the case. If you look way back near the start when Jeanie was playing around with outfits she made sure to remove the hat, but later on seemed to always forget to remove it.
“I keep forgetting about this thing”
Which may explain why she wears the hat regardless of whatever other clothes she wears.
Yay! Keep that … witch … in that bottle forever!
Agreed! She deserves this karmic justice.
I dunno. I kind of like Araceli – she’s got a cute, upbeat manner, and really, all she wants is a nice master to love and serve. She got a taste of that with Neil, then had it taken away again; I can’t really blame her for wanting to get him back, especially since Jean is so unappreciative and such a self-centered, rhymes-with-Hitch most of the time.
And she DID give helpful advice when Jeannie got the sneezing fit – she could have just said nothing and let Jean self-destruct.
So she’s really not a bad sort. Unlike her Uncle Shithead.
Jean deserves it more.
> So she’s really not a bad sort.
You did read the page where she threatened to lock Jeanie inside her bottle for ETERNITY out of nothing but PETTY ENVY, right? Or did you somehow miss that one?
Robert:
Sure. But I’ve heard just as bad out of Jeannie – and far more often. Not to mention that Jean has upset or totally screwed up several people’s lives, more or less permanently, either thoughtlessly or deliberately. Actions count for more than words, wouldn’t you agree? One [unfulfilled] snarky threat seems pretty minor by comparison. And kind of out of character, I might add – it seemed like much more the sort of thing that I would expect Guano to say.
> I’ve heard just as bad out of Jeannie – and far more often
Please give 2 examples of Jeanie threatening something as bad as eternal psychological torture. Hell, I strongly doubt you can actually find 1.
Jeanie’s a frequently thoughtless dick, but she’s not a empathy-less psycho bitch like Araceli.
I’m also not sure why you think Araceli’s threat was out of character. She’s shown multiple times how desperately she wants Neil to be her master again. Love and desperation have been the source of countless monstrous acts throughout history.
TO be frank, Araceli is a lot more fun character to me than Jean is.
Araceli and Jean both fall into “endearing comedic sociopathy bitches” category. Its pointless to argue which one puts less value in human life, since by being fan of either one, we had accepted the premise that girl can be cute and worthy fawning over despite doing objectively horrible things. Araceli is entertaining to watch, which why many of us though “Look! She imprisoned someone for eternity to be with a guy she loves! D’aaaw!” about her, even if we still felt sorry for Jeanie.
On more serious note, Araceli was imprisoned for centuries in bottle all alone. So, its either not that big deal for a genie unlike normal humans, or it is quite horrible, in which case its hard to blame her for lacking in sanity department, AND being willing to do everything to not go back. In words of Dr McCoy: “She would do anything to prevent that life of loneliness. She would lie. She would cheat. She would even murder me, the captain, the entire crew of the Enterprise to keep you here with her.”
>Please give 2 examples of Jeanie threatening something as bad as eternal psychological torture. Hell, I strongly doubt you can actually find 1.
@Robert: Deliberately threatening might be hard to find, but transforming and forgetting /is/ a bad thing: Red, the Greeks (especially the one who’s been compelled to have lots of different one-night stands), etc. It’s no laughing matter to have a mind/body mismatch, and forcing it upon others is very morally suspect.
Araceli might be willfully evil, but Jean is neglectfully so: their intentions may differ, but the outcomes are much the same….
> their intentions may differ, but the outcomes are much the same….
I disagree here. The outcomes suffered by those Jeanie has abused include involuntary TG and compulsion toward sex. That’s pretty awful, to be sure, but if asked to do so, I imagine that Jeanie would be willing to undo those effects. She’s criminally neglectful, but she’s not sadistic.
If Araceli has her way and Jeanie is imprisoned in her bottle, she will definitely not release Jeanie if asked. I highly doubt she’d even obey an order from Neil to do it, since she probably wouldn’t have the power to do so, as it would be Lord Batpoop who would have implemented the actual imprisonment. And if she were able to obey said order, she knows she’d be dooming herself to losing Neil as her master. So yeah, not gonna happen.
So what’s worse: gender dysphoria that might last for the rest of 2 human lives, or an eternity of claustrophobic imprisonment and almost certain madness? I don’t think these things even remotely compare.
Don’t be so hard on witches.
As Robert said what Jean’s done to people is because she’s self centred enough to not think about the long term consequences in part probably because she’s not used to having this kind of power. Araceli is deliberately setting out to sabotage and hurt someone who has helped her (got her bottle out of the ocean) and has no experince. Given she’s now had contact with uncle Guano she KNOW’S this is a new inexperienced genie who already choose to stay with her first master, her response lies, deception and threats to the new girl of what her family contacts will do if she speaks to anyone.
Its the difference between getting a new employee and not thinking they will need help vs deliberately setting them up to look bad and possibly suffer severe consequences.
Also bear in mind that with regard to the greeks that one who’s compelled towards sex with cute boy’s is doing so because he tried to use magic to make Jeanie his loving wife who’d give him a kid so its fairly justified and she’s not from my understanding compelled to having lots of one night stands so much as finding a nice guy to marry and have a family with.
As for Araceli being imprisoned in a bottle for centuries (a) we know it is fairly traumatic given her reactions and (b) perhaps you should be asking just why she was not only imprisoned like that in the first place but her uncle LORD Guano never tried to let her out?
That’s a darling blanket Araceli’s got. At least she’s got good taste in household goods.
I would have figured that Jean reverts to the pink costume either from force of habit or because of some conscious or subconscious desire to emulate IDOJ.
That’s what I originally assumed, too. But her reaction to Neil’s question makes me think she had a choice to take on a new default outfit when reverting back to being Neil’s genie, but failed to realize it until right then. But now it’s too late for her to change her default.
Oh, so that poisonous moonshine spill I spotted on her earlier was transferable by contact of skin! I was right!
Even if Araceli might’ve had it coming to her with how she behaved towards Jean (like poking fun with “her” bottle fear), it isn’t very good on anyone’s behalf to mock a sick person. Hopefully Araceli will learn some compassion in how to treat her peers with more respect afterwards.
I just hope the next chapter doesn’t involve The Melvin Chronicles. That comic is a mess.
Well, that’s just a mean thing to say.
No, it’s not. It’s the truth. Their plot, such as it is, is all over the place. It’s a mess.
Yeah – i stopped reading it way back. Not only is it incoherent, but the guy needs to understand that comics are done in a standard format for a reason.
Like being readable.
@Fairportfan: Yeah, he didn’t like covering up the backgrounds with text bubbles. I can sympathize as he spends a lot of time drawing them, but it also makes it harder to tell who is saying what.
I’m reading that one too, I have no problems following it and find it quite enjoyable.
@Fearless Ferret: Then you are one of the 12 people who do.
Mean, perhaps, but…
*shrug* There’s some seriously good art skills there (if they get away from the fascination with drawing toilets, piss, and toilet humor), but the storytelling seems rather amateurish, to me: it jumps around, constantly shifts focus, adds in new, unrelated characters for a strip or two before jumping elsewhere. It /seems/ as if they are operating without a script or an idea of where they want arcs to go, and instead are just writing out whatever comes to mind – perhaps even drawing panels before deciding dialog.
I gave up on the comic quite some time ago. Poked back in a week or so ago to see if anything had really changed and didn’t come away with a changed opinion.
I think, also, that part of the problem the spin-off comic has is that it came preloaded with reader expectations. Some, perhaps many or most, readers that came from here did so because they wanted to see more of Red, not because they wanted to see more of Melvin. Red, when she’s be there, has pretty much just been a bit/supporting character (which, given that the comic is called the /Melvin/ Chronicles, expecting the focus to be on someone other than Red is/was perhaps not fair to them).
Aside from needing some work on dialogue flow between, I would like it if it would be updated by the schedule it says on the site. Or at least a notice for the delay.
I also gave up reading it regularly. I do still pop by to try and figure out where I left off but it is hard to do because there are no memorable story points.
As pointed out the real failings are readability due to missing text tails, but mostly it is the incoherent story structure. The creator really needs to at least hash out some story arcs and try and follow through with them. It is fine to drop in sub plots and mini-arcs but has out a story and tell it. This is way too seat of the pants writing. Maybe they need someone to hash out the arc and story for them and stick with the pretty decent art and work on polishing it to a higher level.
I also like the blanket. Is that a self design or store bought?
White symbolizes good and purity and innocence. It’s a wonder the universe let Jean keep even just a white hat..
I dunno. In Asian cultures, it symbolizes death. Maybe in Arabic it stands for selfishness. 😉
Didn’t think any of them were Arabs, but we’ve only met, what, Jean (a convert), Araceli, Lord Guano, and Kazom…any others?
Also in European cultures as well untill Queen Victoria put everything on its head.
It was white for death and mourning – we still have white ghosts as a holdover – Boys wore pink since it was leass strong a colour as red, a mans colour – Blue was for girls which added to hiding the male heirs with the expendable females, Boys in blue and having long locks of hair was a disguise against assasins.
Typo: You’ve got “willing” rather than “willingly” in panel three
Whoops, thanks for catching that! I’ll go fix it.
aw poor thing
Aw…if I could, I definitely give Araceli a bowl of chicken noodle soup…
Then again, I need one as I got one bad case of allergies and need rest…
I know how you feel, Araceli!
What Araceli needs is not chicken noodle soup. What she needs is arsenic noodle soup. :p
New Poll for those to weigh in on. Araceli? Good or Bad Guy?
Hmm. Didn’t know Aracelli was a guy. No surprise on this comic. 🙂
Good Guy/Bad Guy is a unisex term.
108 percent a villainess.
As Mermaid Man is wont to say – Eeeeeeevil!!!!!
Person of occasionally questionable methods, and of understandable, even sympathetic motives.
Once she was no longer at risk of going back to bottle stuck at bottom of the ocean, she seemed to mellow out. I’d say not evil, no more than average person. Sympathetic antagonist.
To me? Neither. She is just someone taking action without all the needed facts. If she knew Jean was actually Neil’s friend who was turned into a genie she wouldn’t feel the need to replace her.
I’m fairly sure she does know Jeanie is at least fairly new and she has shown a sever lack of concern for others see here https://jeaniebottle.com/?comic=jeanie-bottle-264 where she’s still leaving Roger as stone. Here https://jeaniebottle.com/?comic=jeanie-bottle-280 where she’s gloating that when Jeanie screws up her master will be given to Araceli. Here https://jeaniebottle.com/?comic=jb281 where she threatens Jeanie with her family connections if she meantions her threats to Neil. Here https://jeaniebottle.com/?comic=jb281 where she’s still referring to Neil as her master even though she DOES have another one. Here https://jeaniebottle.com/?comic=jeanie-bottle-320 where she not only refer’s to Neil as master but Jeanie as “Master’s former genie.” The great huge smile here at the thought of putting Jeanie in a chasm somewhere https://jeaniebottle.com/?comic=jeanie-bottle-321. Here https://jeaniebottle.com/?comic=jeanie-bottle-322 where while giving her “word” she’s crossing her fingers so it doesn’t count as far as she’s concerned.
There’s plenty more she is not a nice person she’s one of those girls who’s learnt how to act all sweet, cute and inncocent around those in authority or who have something she wants but enjoy’s hurting everyone else.
Well, I wonder if Neil still has the one bottle of moonshine or if he has gotten rid of it?
I wonder why Araceli still Achooing? Jeanie stop doing that after she went into her bottle.
Actually, Jeanie was still really sick while in her bottle. She only stopped suffering symptoms after she came out of her bottle to discover that Boss Hogg had become her master.
Wait, if Jeanie made her clothes pink intentionally…
I don’t get the impression that it was intentional. I think she simply decided, unconsciously, to “go back to normal”, or something like that. And then only when Neil asked about it did she realize that she could have chosen other colors if she’d thought to do so.
The eyebrow raise is, of course, that Jean now considers this “normal”, rather than the horrific abomination Jean considered it at the beginning. More proof that she’s starting to naturalise.
Yes, I kind of agree with you on this. Jeanie has been a Genie for maybe six months or year or longer by now. She starting to get conferable or at ease with her current image in the mirror of who she is and her female identity. There still plenty of jean left in Jeanie to cause plenty of problem in the future to keep all amused at her antics. But, she is definitely acting like girl now with strong Genie nature mex inside her.
But, that what we would expect that to happen over time.
That, was a very well done chapter. The hard part for anyone to do a Dukes of Hazzard story: writing the character correctly. It’s so easy to get the personalities of people like Hogg and Bo wrong, to accidentally write them into stereotypes accidentally the way the reboot movie did.
Well done on that front, by chance did you grow up watching the Dukes?
Careful – a number of us have never grown up, just older.
What in blue blazers did poor aracelli do that was evil do deserve this??? jean deserve it more than her
Hmm… Evil? Probably not but she hasn’t always showed a benevolent behaviour.
1) She’d allowed an obnoxious but new genie to obliviously switched bottles to prevent having to return to her long capsulation. She also tried to hide this from Neil so she could stay with him for her own reasons.
2) She caused Jean to developed a fear of imprisonment with her own bottle and rudely laughed in her face about it upon discovering this, especially when Jean was sick.
3) She’d threaten to have that same genie thrown in the deepest pit of earth by her Uncle Lord Guano, as if spying and tattling on Jean to hopefully get “her” imprisoned forever for just her own benefit wasn’t enough.
4) And she did turned Rodge into stone for an overnight (maybe because Caley wished she wouldn’t have to eat his mac ‘n’ cheese and Araceli granted it that way or Rodge almost discovered her and that’s how she dealt with it; either way that wasn’t a good thing to do to someone’s relative).
Seems more likely she just fancies Neil like an obsession rather than being in love with Neil and she doesn’t care who will be hurt as long as she gets to be with him. Luckily she didn’t tried anything like that to “Natalie”. I was honestly surprised back when they first met that she could go about attempting torture on Neil over a misunderstanding with a TV Show; I imagine that was a “ungenie-like” thing to do to one’s master.
While true, I think we have to keep in mind that since her place in the story, in terms of alignment, hasn’t been decided until the poll just now; we might need to ignore some actions she’s done in the past. AKA a retcon.
A retcon? Nah, CD Rudd has been pretty deliberate with his characterization of Araceli, right from the start.
Here’s the thing about Jean and Araceli…
Both of the characters and the exact same for the exact opposite reasons.
Both Jean and Araceli are characters you hate to love, and love to hate. But at different times for exactly opposite reasons.
Both have there moments of endearment, they do things that make people love them, or feel sorry for them, while also doing things that the audience are not fans of.
That’s the thing about these characters. Jean and Araceli are BOTH good and bad guys depending on how you see them.
That’s one of the things I think makes this comic so unique.
And we can all agree Lord Guano is a Dush!
I’m rather torn on your poll to be honest I want to vote for the first two options that Araceli is a bad guy who’s only nice to those she’s likes and is taking advantage of Jeanie to get to Neil.
I’m amazed at the number who think she’s a good guy who just doesn’t like Jeanie. Especially given Jeanie is directly responsible for her being freed from her captivity in the first place and her immediate reaction is to try and steal Jeanie’s master AND get Jeanie imprisoned forever to do so.
Hey Boss, I think you meant “Lord Guano is a douche.” 😉
@Senko: Agreed, the results of this poll are rather unexpected, though perhaps not all that surprising, considering the number of people who defend Araceli in the comments.
I think the other thing to consider is that Araceli is filling the role of Jeannie’s sister from the original show. To some of us, we see the cute girl in the blue genie costume and immediately assume that she’s as wicked as Jeannie’s sister was. In fact, she seems thus far to be of similar temperament, though less mischievous and a little more deliberately wicked in her treatment of Jean.
I would be curious to see if the people who like Araceli trend towards those who aren’t as familiar with the old show, and those that see her as evil trend towards those who remember Jeannie’s sister.
Very nice update as usual. Now if only we could convince you to focus singularly on this comic instead of others…
Mwahaha.
Here’s Jean’s chance to get on Araceli’s good side so she stops seeing Jean as an enemy. If she comes to her rescue and helps her get better, Araceli will not be able to help but like Jean.
I don’t think that tiny spill was a matter of being “recalled”. I am doubtful many (if any) people noticed that tiny detail in the first place.
The kiss kind of steals the scene. 😛