Jeanie Bottle 502
Sep04
on September 4, 2018
at 12:00 am
and modified on November 27, 2022. at 2:17 am
Chapter: Story 12: I Dream of a Promotion
Huh. Apparently Jeanie’s “poofs” are audible. I had no idea. Admittedly, I haven’t watched I Dream of Jeannie.
Well, poof are audible, but whatever Blue’s does isn’t, also, Robert, for what I remember, in both I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched, thing just appear out of nowhere with a musical tone or something like that… “poofs” were a Fairy Godparents thing, though in that show Genies make “Gong”!
Neil’s apologising to JEAN!?!?!? Why the fecking shite is he doing that!? He didn’t do anything wrong, until just now. Neil, GROW A PAIR, GODDAMMIT!!!
Okay, rant over. Geez, though, this is the first time Neil’s beta male personality has actively pissed me off.
FYI, Robert, I believe Neil can hear them, despite not being magic, because he is “Master”. IIRC, Sam (witch) could hear poofs in I Dream of a B’Witch but Derrick (mortal) could not.
Well, banishment for who knows how long, something we know Jean is horrified with the mere idea, is not a threat you give lightly.
Even if Jean deserves it.
Yeah, pretty sure this is Neil’s thought process, here.
Well, Jeanie called his bluff. No sense in him being a sorehead about it; Neil was just doing it to try to yank Jeannie’s chain, anyway. Once that failed, there’s no point in continuing to pretend to be authoritarian, so now he’s switching to Plan B.
@ilikepie and Kattgirl – now that I’ve cooled down a little, I recognize that you’re making good points. What bothers me is that, 4-or-5-ish pages ago, Neil lists 4 reasons he’s “considering” dismissing Jean, and they’re all good. The fact that Jean laughs in his face afterwards bothered me, and him just rolling over now makes it worse. I honestly see no reason he should think of Jean as a friend at this point, especially after the brain-rape Jean committed in the last story, and it kinda bothers me that he’s crawling back to Jean right now.
@He Who Abides:
I’m sort of half with you on this one.
On the one hand, it was fun to see Jean squirm. (Schadenfreude, anyone?) On the other hand, Neil was really just messing with her because he could: he clearly doesn’t bear Jean any permanent ill will for past actions. So he tried to intimidate her, but didn’t do a good enough job at it, and she saw through it. Now he’s going for the sincerity route.
See, I think, the thing is that Neil doesn’t really see himself as Jean’s “master”. He still thinks of Jean as his goofball friend, who needs his help, and so sees no need to behave in a superior manner. They’re much more equals in status than a normal master-genie relationship would have created. So Neil has no real qualms about saying sorry to a friend about [what is essentially at this point] a failed joke.
All that said, I have a sneaky hunch that the Jean-clone just might do some things that really WOULD annoy Neil enough to send “her” back to Haji! Now that would be an interesting plot twist! Especially if somehow the BD got dragged along…
Except he listed those things as part of a bluff.
Actually, Robert, in previous strips, several times it’s been noted that apparently poofs are (slightly) audible. Don’t ask me to quote specific scenes, but I think the adventure with Samantha was one example.
Now the question is: Who, exactly, is it we’re seeing in Panel 3? Jeanie? The BD in Jeanie-clothing? Or the mimic-based Jeanie-clone?
I have a feeling Jean’s next words may offer a clue.
BD, I’m fairly certain. If you look close enough, the eyes are still blue.
Also, the placid response, “You called?”, doesn’t sound at all like Jeannie.
Although it could also be the clone, which likely would react the way the BD would imagine a bottle genie would treat her master. Rather than the way Jean actually does.
It’s most likely Blue, look closer to “her” eyes, plus the effect of his magic, the now confirm silent spyral “waves” instead of the “Poof”.
Well, I was thinking that Blue could have poofed out, leaving the mimic-clone behind.
Amazing; that mimic looks so much like a huge onion – suppose Neil chops it up and throws it on a pizza?
I believe that magical beings can hear the “Poof”, as can a genie’s current master, but other mortals cannot. Just how it looks to me, anyway.
@He Who Abides: “Neil’s apologising to JEAN!?!?!? GROW A PAIR, GODDAMMIT!!!”
No surprise, I most heartily concur.
Of course, he’s not really apologizing to Jeanie herself, still, he thinks he is. I take back everything I’ve ever said about Neil learning to be a good master. He’s a doormat.
And I’ll be honest, I disappointed. Whatever humor value there might be in Jeanie leveraging Jean’s wimpiness to become not only her own master, but Neil’s as well….No. Please, No.
He’s a doormat for not treating his friend like a slave?
He’s a doormat for allowing said friend to start treating him like a slave.
Roughly speaking, Jeanie’s bluffing him as well. And he keeps folding.
@50srefugee – we agree? That explains why the pig just flew past my window . . .
Well… Neil wasn’t actually threatening Jeannie; he was essentially pulling a joke on her. Except that Jean saw through it and called the bluff.
Neil’s mistake here was that he didn’t go far ENOUGH. Had he been absolutely towering mad at Jean, yelling at her and getting into her face, she might have believed him that he was going to ship her back to Haji. (Both of the other two times that he’s gotten her to back down, it was because he was just that pissed.) But this time, the slight threat that he did make was too little, and it didn’t come off as real. He’s not a good actor, and it showed.
Personally, I think it would have been much funnier if Jean had panicked, and started scraping and bowing, waiting on Neil hand and foot – but maybe that’s exactly the reaction that the presumed Jean-clone will have. Which will undoubtedly be puzzling as hell to Neil!
Neil should apologize, Jean called his bluff after all.
I am going with this being the clone of Jeanie and not either The Blue Djinn or Jeanie themselves, because, we see the smoke coming out of the Venus Fly trap just before Neil summons Jeanie. So we aren’t going to have our regular “Pink Poof”, that Jeanie make when she appears out of nowhere.
We also know that the Blue Djinn used some kind of potion or incantation to create the Clone and Blue Djinn didn’t use Genie Magic to create the Clone and so this is now set to blow up in the not to distant future too.
I have one question: Did the Blue Djinn use a potion or incantation to over rule Neil desire or free will here, to make him apologies to the Clone of Jeanie here, to satisfy the Blue Djinn desire to control Neil and remove the perceived threat that Neil will send them away. Here is an example where the Blue Djinn over played his hand and should have let Jeanie handle the mater, because Jeanie had already called out Neil bluff, but, now the Blue Djinn can’t stay hidden now from either Jeanie or Neil now, because, he now in the open.
This Neil apologizing to Jeanie could still be out side of Neil own personal control. Remember the two hair and Venus Fly Trap, this could be the Blue Djinn doing and not Neil action on his own.
This is probably the Clone, because, we don’t have our regular “Pink Poof” that Jeanie make when she appears. So it probably not either Jeanie or the Blue Djinn that Neil is talking to right now. This is either the potion or incantation that the Blue Djinn mex up with the two hair and Venus Fly Trap, we see it smoking in the first panel, while Neil is summoning her in the second panel.
We are still not sure if Neil is operation on his own will, because, of what the Blue Djinn did in the last episode. We know this isn’t Genie magic that he using and so everything ready to blow up in the Blue Djinn face. Hear is where the Blue Djinn made his first mistake, he should have stayed in the background and let Jeanie handle it, because, she called him out of his bluff and defused it all by herself.
But, now the Blue Djinn in the open and Jeanie knows he there and even being a mortal, Neil will soon know he there too.
The thing is Blues doesn’t poof, look back to the previos page and Blue appear on Neil’s room without a poof and surrounded by the same waves on this page, same with his blue clothes, that appear without poofs, but with waves, I think that Neil’s comment about not hearing the poof it’s to show case the diference between Blue’s magic and regular genie magic.
That is my own theory about Blue’s unique cloudy rings, as well.
The very first Star Trek episode that aired was Man Trap. The monster-of-the-week was a salt vampire, one whose actual form would have fit right into Lost in Space and other shows in the 1960s Irwin Allen TV cheesefest. But the interesting parts about this monster was that it was actually female, apparently the last of its species, at least on the planet where it was found, and that it could use mental illusions to appear differently to different people at the same time, choosing a form that was most appealing to each viewer. Maybe CD designed his mimic something like this. It might not really be talking; Neil may be seeing and hearing what he subconsciously wants to.
Huh, that’s actually a really cool concept for a Monster-of-the-Week.
And “salt vampire” also reminded me of those special kind of Asari from Mass Effect, whose mutated biochemistry kills their bed partners after sex. And if you’re really gung ho about it, you can get yourself a Game Over via that method. lol
Yep. It was actually the sixth episode filmed, but the first to be broadcast. In retrospect, it was a pretty cheesy episode, and not a great choice to lead off with.
Here’s the creature: The Incredible Salt Vampire
I realise we are all talking about Neil’s level of fortitude here, but can we talk about his mug for a second.
It looks kinda like a zodiac symbol on that mug, but I’m not sure which one. Maybe virgo?
To be honest… I just decided to draw something on the mug. As I doubt 20-something-year-olds will have a lot of matching dishes.
What’s that symbol on the coffee cup?
does it mean courage or soup?
Big Bang Theory fan, are we?
However CD designed the mimic, its purpose is to keep Neil from banishing Jean on Haji Day. Exactly why the Blue Meanie didn’t just make Neil sleep through Haji day is a question that comes to mind since Jean herself has done many things to Neil that were clearly against his will. But this is what BM went for. So, what exactly is BM going to do in Jean’s real body in the meantime? Whatever it is, it’s going to be somewhere else.
So, while BM is somewhere else, what could go wrong with this Fiendish Plan? Well, Neil thinks Jean is with him. I wonder what someone else would think?
I have one crazy thought. What if Neil also wants the old Jean back? The plant if it creates a clone could result in male jean returning and acting perfectly normal .. which would further push Jeannie out of her old life…
That was my thought, too. That the miimic might generate a Jean-clone in Jean’s ORIGINAL form, rather than the magically-induced female one. Which would be terribly funny if the clone didn’t realize that anything was amiss.
Any number of things could happen here, Like.
1. The Jeanie clone could stay Jeanie and even think she Jeanie.
2. The Jeanie clone could still have Jean desire to be a man again along with Neil desire to have jean back too.
3. This Jeanie clone or a Jean clone, could farther decouple the real Jeanie from the old Jean, because of what the clone of Jean does in the old Jean place or what he would do. Jeanie is more girl now than a guy now and some of the things that the guy Jean may offend Jeanie now.
4. The Jeanie clone may have the hot for Neil either in Jeanie form or even in Jean form, which the Blue Djinn couldn’t calculate or foresee,
This thing could bust out in almost any direction. It basically a wait and see what happens or which way this disaster unfolds. I like a slow motion train wreck in the process of happening.
“He Who Abides”–Guilty as charged. If fact that episode is my favorite. If C.D. ever gets the chance to make a Jeanie Bottle movie I would recommend giving Kaley the chance to be Jeanie. But who should be cast as the other characters in the comic.
You just want to see Kaley in the skimpy Genie outfit. 😀
For a minute there, I thought you were talking about Rodge’s niece, Caley.
@Kattgirl – that Caley would be a little disturbing in that costume, seeing as she’s eleven.
You know, I was firmly in the “Neil is bluffing” camp, but now . . . I dunno. When you think about it, so much of his life has gotten screwed up by Jean’s genieness. She’s put his job at risk at least thrice (poofing into work to see/bang/get favors from him, nearly making him miss a security clearance interview, and leaving him stuck as Natalie to go gambling), gotten him arrested, forced him to move, sent him on-stage at a strip club (probably more times than we’ve seen), used him as a servant whenever she wants to enforce her role as the “alpha”, and, oh yeah, MIND-RAPED HIM all for, as far as Neil knows, shits and giggles. And when he calls her on it, she basically calls him a sackless wuss. Also, recall that the title of the story is I Dream of an Escape. I’m thinking now that the escape will be from Haji’s palace after Neil sends Jean away. I mean, doesn’t Neil seem like the type to apologize for sending away his best friend, likely forever?
I think it was just the similarities between the two names that was confusing. I admit I wouldn’t mind seeing her in Jean’s outfit. I will also bet that Robert wouldn’t mind either. Sorry Robert, I didn’t intend to pick on you. Please send my love to Katy.
To be honest, I’m not all that fond of the whole harem outfit deal. I’m much more into modern “sexy” attire. 🙂
The Blue Djin has cast a love a love spell from I dream of Jeanie season 2 There goes the bride so Nate will fall madly in love with Jean so he wont send her away. Its a forbidden spell the Haji can take your powers from you personally its in the episode watch it
R.I.P. Bill Daily
https://ktla.com/2018/09/08/actor-bill-daily-witty-sidekick-on-i-dream-of-jeannie-dies-at-91
Oh dang, that sucks. 🙁
Good-bye, Rodge. You’ll be missed.
Yeah read that too, a sad day….Bill and Burt……my childhood……sad
It’s sad to see when the greats go.