Jeanie Bottle 489
Awww, man. I feel bad for Rodge. His long-time crush finally decides to reciprocate his feelings, and then suddenly shuts him down again. That’s gotta be hard.
Awww, man. I feel bad for Rodge. His long-time crush finally decides to reciprocate his feelings, and then suddenly shuts him down again. That’s gotta be hard.
Aww, i wanted Natalie to stay. And who changed him back anyway? Jean only changed the mental changes.
Neil did likely had to asked Jean to change him back to his birth gender in order to go to work.
Except that Jean is AWOL, having been possessed by the Blue Djinn. Maybe it had a limited time?
Except we never saw Jean return home.
I imagine afterwards when the Blue Djinn revealed his plans to us (the audience), he did had to let Jean (or he did it himself) change Neil back to normal eventually in-between the last and current story arcs.
@Ran-san Jeanie is still in control of her body for most of the time, there are plenty of examples, but the biggest one is how she just refuse to be part of Haji´s harem even when Blue suggest it, so he cannot control her all the time , is just that she is not aware of the times Blue takes control of her body or what are his true intentions.
That night Jean was in a hurry and with no intentions of giving Neil any real explanations, she just fix his brain and run to have a chat with Blue as soon as she hear Rodge arrive, she most likely turn him back to normal the next day or after Rodge left with a broken heart.
If Jeanie magic had a limmited time, neither Anderson, Red or the sailor girl would be as they are (the Greek captain may be a lost cause, after all she “whised” for her change)
To bad Natalie is gone, but theres always hope that she will make another appearance in the future…
Especially if Guano is the new head genie. ^^;;
Dam, I was expecting things to get awkward between this two, and I was already feeling bad for Rodge some weeks ago, knowing how disappointed would he be and all, but didn´t expect to actually see him this devastated, that is really sad.
Also, I feel ya Rogde, I was missing Natalie already the moment that chapter ended.
Neil is surprisingly nonchalant about what happened to him.
Awkward mess but no lasting issues. The emotional stuff should heal. Rodge might not want to stick around though. But hey! Neil gets the job then. … yay?
Yeah, I wanted to say something about Neil’s attitude in the post comment, but I couldn’t think of the right words. Yours match my sentiment quite well.
Why is Neil being this nonchalant about Rodge’s despondence? It’s not like he doesn’t know what’s causing it. I thought he was a better friend than that.
Well.. I think we can be forgiving of Neil. He’s in a very unfortunate position being both the friend and the obstacle, manipulator and the manipulated in this situation. Nat can not exist without his consent or more accurately.. magic being applied to him when he might want it or not. What can he say to Rodge that wouldn’t be messed up? It would sum up to ‘sorry nats gone but I’m here’ and Rodge would just feel angry that ‘he’ kept her away from him.
Messy situation. Rodge I suspect never felt such.. happiness. He knows that Neil has Jeannie too.
I am actually curious about how much Neil´s remember about that day, I assume he may remember something by now, but as far as we know for the page 482 there is also the chance he doesn´t remember anything.
If I have to guess, Neil may be able to remember everything that happen that day that do not involve Rodge, after all he was acting very much as usual Natalie as long as Rodge wasn´t on his mind, even the shopping trip may has been “normal” if we compare it to Anderson whose brain was not altered.
But considering how Natalie became a tween in love every time Rodge was close or in her mind, Neil may has problems remembering those parts, and I doubt that Rodge was able to tell him everything if that is the case.
Rodge needs to come to grips with the fact that he can never have a long-term relationship with Natalie, nor a guilt-free carnal one, unless she is given independent existence from Neil and starts liking him of her own accord, rather than a jerkass genie playing hackeysack with her brain chemistry.
I agree, that’s likely what’s bugging Rodge. Nothing worse than having what you want, be tantalizingly just out of reach.
The tortures of Tantalus…
Rodge kind of reminds me of Kim on Star Trek Voyager. Tom Paris kind of chided him once. He fell in love with a holographic projection once, an alien girl, a dead girl, etc. Kim said, at least I am consistent.
This is something this comic havn’t done yet, doing a person fission, that is splitting Neil in two, with one being Natalie with her own concious and desire.
Considering that genies can’t futz with free will, is it even possible to create a new consciousness with a will of its own? That seems unlikely to me.
Although… Big Blue is breaking a whole lot of rules that we thought were impossible to break…
Robert, unless you’re a robot, you’re a new consciousness with a will of your own unless we’re all part of some universal soul or free will is an illusion. Kazom warned Jeanie about the human will, but does the same rule apply to the will of genies? Why are most genies essentially slaves? It’s something CD hasn’t made explicit; it’s something IDOJ never made explicit. But Kazom did tell Jeanie that new genies are either born as genies, created by magic, or turned into genies by empty totems. I wonder which categories are eligible to become genie lords.
@Robert:
Maybe if someone (i.e., a master) wished to be spilt in two? Of course, I can’t imagine a good reason for wishing such a thing, but apparently wishes are, at least partially, exempt from some of the rules.
Kattgirl, There are some people that suffer from multiple personality syndrome, that where two or more personalities reside within the same mind. You can have either male body or female with both male and female personalities in them. I can see a possibility of there developing a possibility of there being a Dr. Jekyll and Ms Hide complex between Neil and Natalie and them wanting there own body all to themselves and not having to shire it with the other person might come and they make the decision to be separated from each other and go there own ways.
Now Neil and Natalie haven’t sufficiently separated into two being inhabiting the same body yet and that side of the equation hasn’t been sufficiently created yet. Even in Dr. Jekyll and Mr./Miss Hide, the first time they separated they had all the same memories. The second time they separate into there alternating characters, they only had there memories and not the other persons memories.
Up until the last time that Neil turned into Natalie, it was Neil turn into Natalie and he retained all the memories of being Natalie and Neil. What if Neil didn’t remember the last time the he was Natalie and these memories are the sole ownership of Natalie’s mind and current things are the current ownership or Neil mind only. We would have two separate personalities developing independently of each other. This would create a terrible problem that needs to be solved in the future.
They did something similar on Sailor Sun with Bay, where she has a male clone of herself made and given her memories as Brad. It sparked a debate on whether or not either of them was really themselves anymore, and in that vein I think it would be a bad idea to do it here. Why? Because Natalie doesn’t really exist. She’s never been more than, effectively, Neil in a girl suit, so there’s really nothing out of which to create a life for her; recall that the government had her arrested for just such a reason. She’s not “real”, in fact she’s never been “real”, and creating her just to be Rodge’s love interest would be even crueler than the Hell that Neil got put through in the last story. Just my two cents, anyway. I know this view is going to be unpopular, but it’s how I look at it.
Given the limitation of genies wishing the be ‘split in two’ could only end… badly.
I’m not sure why people are obsessed with giving Natalie her own life- she’s quite happy being Neil. Why should she sacrifice living that life?
I’m sure glad us guys don’t need to cry on each other’s shoulders over lunch or cocktails, otherwise Rodge might have provided some enlightening exposition. As it is, I’m still rather lost, yay.
See what happens when you toy with someone’s love life?
Wait a sec…
Isn’t the Harem the place Neil was turned into Stripper-Natalie?
Neil gets sent to the Hiram. And he really doesn’t seem the type to go to a strip club for lunch, even to cheer up Rodge. That just seems a little off for Neil.
Neil might be trying to bolster up his masculinity
Neil’s probably feels guilty and is trying to cheer Rodge up.
Vimmy, Neil has been turned into Natalie and sent to the Harem Place about two or three time by Jeannie, because, she got pissed off at Neil because, he said something that she didn’t like and that how she responded to him by sending his there.
So, yes, that the place.
I am in agreement with He Who Abides, that Neil would not go there normally. But, who to say that Neil is normal or is acting normally the way he usually does.
Neil as Natalie, he has had plenty of time at the Harem Place as a girl, maybe, just maybe, he might have even a little of interest in what it like as a Guy.
Actually it’s called “the HIRAM”. This is the only place the full name is shown.
Wonder if there will be a flashback to that night?
Interesting question. I would guess not, since we can pretty well assume how the conversation went, at least in broad strokes. But it would be nice to see, none the less.
Since CD already borrowed Tedd’s TG gun from El Goonish Shive, maybe he could borrow a Dewitchery diamond. It’s in EGS canon that the Dewitchery Diamond exists in more than one universe. The Really Happy Ending would be for both Neil and Jean to have their alter egos split off so Rodge and Belle can get reasonable approximations of the people they are in love with.
Would be nice. Never happen…would it?
Convient plot resolution takes away drama and makes an unfulfilling story. Everything has a price. Making 2 from 1 soul is.. not as fun and goes into some weird existential questions- which are rarely if ever addressed.
In that vein, they could get Anne Nonymous to magically split guy-Jean and Natalie off of Jeannie and Neil, if we just want to shout those random ideas out. Or get What’s-‘is-Face from Misfile to use his screw-up angel powers for good. No shortage of options.
It’s been a continuing question as to exactly why Neil got Nat-ified by Jeannie, this time around.
I think the Blue Djinn was conducting an experiment.
He was trying to see if he could successfully control humans by messing with their brain chemistry. But Jeannie’s body got snatched away to the palace, at the wrong moment, before he could finish what he was doing. That’s why Neal was left female and had no idea of why. And why Jeannie didn’t seen to care – because she wasn’t in control at that moment, nor probably even realized what had been done.
No doubt the incident in Shanghai is the next move in his plan.
I wonder why Blue had to go all the way to China to find a genie to murder. That’s the only murder we’ve seen since Blue killed Lord Shona. But maybe there are some we haven’t seen?
@Tom:
(shrug) To a genie, China is as close as any other place. One poof and he’s there.
I suspect he’s selecting victims on the basis of some criterion other than location, though – picking off genies who are weak, perhaps, or vulnerable for some reason, or ones that won’t be missed right away? Or even just ones that he dislikes particularly, maybe because they are more loyal to Haji?
He seems to be taking care to try and stay hidden, though, at least for the moment. Which says that he may have something to be worried about should Haji & Co. become aware of what he’s up to.
Oh, that’s sad for rodge. I thought Natalie just thought that they were in love but Rodge was still trying to protect her/him like before.
Here’s an idea, Could Jeanie make a person?
Ok, I see a lot of people suggesting the idea of Jeannie making a whole new person, either a new Neil or a new Natalie, but unless Jeannie gets in fact more powerfull somehow that doesn’t seems posible, she already state in “I dream of green eyes” that she can only make mindless dumies, so for now the idea of creating a funtional person seems out of her reach.
Yes, Jeannie can only make mindless dummies from scratch. Yes, Jeannie can’t make living soles or being, that why she can make only mindless dummies. But, Jeannie hasn’t tried to separating Neil into two from his core. Like one half of Neil will retain the image and person of Neil and the other half of Neil or Natalie will retain the image and person of Natalie.
But, for that to happen, Natalie going to have to develop into a full person within the mind and body of Neil and Neil developing int his own full person independent of Natalie. That hasn’t happened yet, so that impossible right now. You basically have to have two people being separated from each, which is the opposite of two people being joined into one person, which Jeannie could probably do, if that was the wish that was being granted.