Jeanie Bottle 539
Oct15
on October 15, 2019
at 12:00 am
and modified on October 21, 2019. at 11:08 pm
Chapter: Story 12: I Dream of a Promotion
What the heck was Rodge implying in panel 2, anyway?
Also, here’s Araceli, being her usual bitchy self.
Well Jeanie you got Niel on your side to help you through this.
And this is why Neil will never take you as his genie, Araceli.
Rodge and Araceli may be more alike to each other than what I thought…
Come on Robert, you KNOW what he is implying!
Araceli is stating a fact. The human mind is a fragile thing. It’s all to easy to damage.
Regardless between of that medical fact and what Blue had done to Jean, Araceli can be considerably coming off as prejudice with that comment. But I’m not surprised at this point how piss-poor genie and human relations are nor how little effort is made to redress those undercurrents.
Basically, Jean’s hardware has had a nasty downgrade, on top of the trauma that the Blue Genie likely did to her before dumping her. I imagine her software was given an upgrade… and now she’s suffering additional trauma from suffering a sudden downgrade where the hardware can’t keep up with the software anywhere.
I think you mean “What the heck was Rodge implying in panels 1 and 2, anyway?” and i’d answer that question, but Rodge obviously doesn’t know that Jeanie used to be a guy.
The thing is, he knows! it was the very next thing Neil explain to hin after explaining him the deal with Natalie! He even acknow edge male Jean in this chapter!
He also was willing to do it with her back in the NY story, and even ask Neil on phone how to get her out of the bottle so they could start!
oh. sorry for the mix up.
We know Jean used to be a guy, and Rodge knows, and I’m not sure about Araceli. But I’m wondering why Jean isn’t male now, and whether or not the answer to that question might be a clue to defeating The Blue Meanie Jeanie.
Foradain, part of the answer to why Jean is still Jeanie even in human form is because, Jean core being isn’t Jean core being anymore, it has become Jeanie core being. When Jeanie first became a Genie, she was sent to Genie School to Kazom, he told her that her former self no longer exist and her new Genie form is her new eternal existence from this day forward. If this is so, then Jean no longer technically exist, but, is only a memory of who she use to be. She now Jeanie, unless some Genie want to transform Jeanie back into Jean, then it a girl, she going to be.
“She’s heavier THAN she looks.”
Unless you’re saying she gained weight, and subsequently, scanned the area. 😉
Fixed.
CD can we get another page this week? This just got incredibly interesting.
He’s actually away from home this week. He sent me this page several days ago, because he knew he wouldn’t be able to work on it this week.
Forgot how insufferable Rodge & Araceli could be at times.
Araceli, we love you even with foot in mouth.
Of course Neil going to be tired. Even Jeanie being a fairly small girl, we can assuming she weigh maybe 120 to 150 pounds. Neil has been caring Jeanie for eight blocks, which is almost one mile. That a long way to carry someone even a small person.
Araceli doesn’t have any tact at all, does she?
She talking to two human men and telling them that humans have weak feeble minds as a species, but, in reference to Jeanie being still out and supposedly being a human now. Oh, that going to score points for both Neil and Rodge when it comes to Araceli.
Larry: “Of course Neil is going to be tired.”
Yes indeed. He’s a dumpy nerd, and he carried her in his arms, not across his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. Jeanie couldn’t even put her arm around his neck. My guess is, he’s not only exhausted, but his back is screaming bloody murder at him. Or will be in the morning.
Yes, and Jeanie is the only one who’s actually tried to get him in shape, in I Dream of a B-Witch.. BTW, did you notice that the two comics before took place in front of the Cocoa Beach Surf Shop?
Tom Sewell: “Jeanie…tried to get him in shape.” Indeed, and I doubt male Jean ever tried. Neil really needs to pay attention to cues like that if he wants his genie’s respect.
Good eye spotting the Surf Shop. Do you think that’s significant?
The Surf Shop is based on a real business in Cocoa Beach and CD still has the art for it, of course. It looks like it’s closed for the night, so I don’t think it’s important to the plot–except maybe it’s near the restaurant where the guys were almost on the menu–maybe that place is based on another real place in Cocoa Beach.
BTW, the “trolley” mentioned a few comics back is real, sort of. It’s actually a bus which is made up to look like an old-fashioned streetcar or maybe a San Francisco cable car. My old high school class hired one like that for my graduation in 1969.
I’d guess that Araceli doesn’t mean “feeble” in the sense of intelligence. That’s a modern usage, late nineteenth century or so, and Araceli was at the bottom of the ocean then. She means “powerless” in the magical sense. Which makes me wonder, do genies have senses that we humans don’t? Senses that, perhaps, Jeanie wasn’t really aware of until she went blind and deaf in them?
I agree she doesn’t mean “feeble” as in “stupid” she means feeble as in “fragile.”
Nobody: “feeble as in fragile” Possible, yes–but then why not just say “fragile”? It’s a perfectly good word, with a well understood meaning of “easily broken”. However, “feeble” means “lacking strength”, and implies defect.
What’s more important is that she basically said she sees all humans that way and sees no problem with that.
mnmega: “she sees all humans that way” True, but the question being raised is, in what way, exactly, does she see us? Stupid, weak, blind? I think it’s clear that she’s surprised that the humans she’s speaking with are surprised.
If the genies we’ve encountered so far are a representative sampling, I wouldn’t be bragging so much, Araceli…
Araceli may regard humans as something like “ptavvs”–offspring of Larry Niven’s alien thrints who lacked the psychic power to control others. They were either killed by their families or sold as slaves. It’s worth noting that the thrints themselves were rather stupid, and gained mastery over the galaxy only by controlling much smarter species, especially the tnuctipun.The most dire thrint profanity was “powerloss!”
Exactly. Genii can snap their fingers. Thrints had smarter species (the tnuctip were a bit TOO smart).
Neither race really needs intelligence.
Incidentally, I’m puzzled by the “genies can own humans” angle. Humans use genies (when they can) to carry out tasks they can’t do themselves. But what do humans have djinn would want?
Edda: “what do humans have djinn would want?” First, intelligence, like the tnuctip for thrints. But second, and likely more important–a power fetish. Controlling other people is a powerful rush.
I think the converse is true for bottle genies. Many that we’ve seen WANT to serve their masters. It makes them feel needed. It gives them things to do with their power. I’ve long thought that one of the reasons Jeanie is so disrespectful of Neil is that he refuses to lead. Remember that time early on when he needed to make one last wish for her to fulfill the “three wish” deal, and all he wanted was a ham sandwich, something he could have made for himself? She dumped it on his head.
For Blue, owning a human slave wouldn’t just be a fetish, it would be an outright perversion. I shudder to think.
Contrariwise, I think Neil would make a very desirable master for a Jeanie. He can think on cosmic scales….
This “genies owning humans” notion takes the strip in an uncomfortable direction. It has implications CD might not even have thought of.
Traditionally, afreets were trouble-makers who caused mischief. (When you live millennia and can obtain almost anything with an eyeblink, boredom is bound to set in.) But I’m unaware of any tales where they tried to take over the world or enslave humans.
Let’s face it. If there was a war between djinn and human, we’d have lost in a New York minute. We’d be “property” or “pets”. H-bomb vs. spears and swords. We had only one purported victory – and that was because Solomon had a Higher Power in his corner.
Genies MUST be subservient (or have some analogous weakness; I recently read a fantasy in which they totally lack initiative and imagination) or the Present wouldn’t be what it is today. Even within IDoaJB, a single genie could have altered WW2 without unbreakable restrictions on their power. By “unbreakable” I don’t mean being arrested and bottled. I mean automatically evaporating into smoke at the first incantation.
Why does Araceli insist she can’t help a genie’s slave when clearly genie laws have changed and most genies are slaves themselves to their masters? Looks like kind of a big plot hole here.
Speaking of potential plot holes, why haven’t we heard Jeanie speak at all? She hasn’t even said “moo” like the milk genie in Hachimitsu’s current genie story. Has CD taken her voice away so she can’t reveal Blue’s evil plans to Neil, to Rodge, and to us?
Genie law is Haji’s law, he seems to do write it as he goes (do not get involve on world war 2, don’t get involve on the space race, and so on…) but this brand for human slaves seem to be quiet old, maybe older than even Haji. Araceli may not know that Blue is Jeanie’s current master/owner, but just as genies can mess with each other’s magic, she may sense that she must not mess with the “property”of other genies.
As for why Jeanie can’t speak, that seems to be the mystery, but it’s clear that brand made a number on her.
I agree with Carlos here. Way back when, in the distant past of 10,000 years or more when the Genie Realm just getting started, there were no Genie rules or regulations as we know them today. That was when the Human Race was also getting started too. The Genie Race or super natural beings, broke up into two separate groups or factions, under the two most powerful Genie on either side of this Genie Split.
One faction is the Haji group that if I understand it right, make an agreement with the human race of what they can and can’t do, which is overlaid with Haji rules for his group of Genie’s. When most people refer to the Genie rule, this is what most people are talking about.
The other powerful genie is the Blue Djinn, he and his group of genie and they aren’t necessary obligated to honor Haji Genie Rules and generally don’t honor Haji Genie rules either, but, honor the Blue Djinn Rules if he has any.
What Araceli is talking about is before the Blue Djinn and his Genie were put down and put under lock a key, until just recently of course. This is happened according to Araceli, when Genie use to take human slave and do things like that. There isn’t any indication that Araceli was there at the time and she probably came along a long time after the battle was over. She was probably born under the current Genie Realm with most of the Genie Rule that we are familiar with today. So Araceli is giving us second hand information of what was told to her by older Genie’s, which may be accurate or it may not be accurate or it could be something in between.
From the stories that were told to her by the older Genie’s, she probably afraid mess with another Genie Slave.
I think that there are two kinds of “laws” that Genies have to obey: Cosmic Laws and Administrative Laws.
Cosmic Laws are akin to Laws of Nature, and either literally can not be broken under normal circumstances (as with Neil’s wish that Jean “had never found the bottle” would break causality), or else have automatic karmic backlash (as with “may not willfully kill a mortal” and “may not mind-control a mortal”).
Administrative Laws meanwhile are “legislation” or “executive orders” from the Genie Overlord (currently Haji) or the Council of Genie Lords, and punishments for violating them are enforced by the Genie Lords. The commands to avoid interference in world-scale human affairs (e.g. WWII or space programs) are an example of these.
Have I mentioned how much I hate the born genies in this? They’re pretty trash and contradict themselves constantly (basically selective education and sheltered with reinforced beliefs, like a couple nations in the world)
Brands are usually used to identify something’s owner. Did Aracili know the Blue Dijnn’s brand on Jeanie?
By timing, Araceli may have know Blue, but she is still considered a young Genie (even though she has at least 300 years, by her statement of having meet Aladdin!)and according to her, Branding humans is something from the ancient times, is hard to say then if she would know what would Blue’s seal be like.
She seemed concern of seeing a branded human, though, with how all Genies react to anything related to Blue, it doesn’t seem she thought of Blue while looking at the brand.
Also, the Blue Djinn is emphatically NOT ancient history–he was only imprisoned in the 1960s. That would mean that Araceli was in her bottle during his Reign of Terror, so she missed a lot of the details.
Imprisoned in the 60’s. yes, but far older than that, he is the Father of Rouya after all, who expend 60 years on her bottle and was release just in time for the World War 2, and even before that, she was notorious enough to be part of Haji’s harem… even is she decide to serve as a bottle genie instead of live in the palace for some reason. Blue has been around for some time now, on way or the other.
The interesting thing is, we still don’t know how long was his Reign of terror before his fall in the 60’s.
I don’t have any information on the subject, but, I get the impression that the Blue Djinn has had two or more separate times of being freed from confinement or in his prison. Kazom who we know is at least 3,000 years old and he older than that, but, that when he stop counting how old he was. We also know that Haji is also at least 3,000 years old too, because, Haji as always been the head Genie over Kazom too. The Blue Djinn has been fighting Haji most of that time when he not locked up in prison that is. So we can assume that the Blue Djinn is also at least 3,000 years old too.
So we are probably dealing with the three oldest Genies on the Planet here.
You’d think whether or not she know’s of the blue djinn she’d think it worth alerting the genie lords that (a) a djinn has apparently been turned into/back into a human and (b) branded as a genie slave. I mean really either of those should be ringing alarm bells worthy of alerting the higher genies even without the current concerns about the blue Djinn.
Araceli probably still doesn’t know Jeanie used to be human (and male)
Roger is a trash person if he thinks his friend would sex up a unconscious traumatized girl that is his friend.
Also shouldn’t miss uppity be warning the genie council about what big bad blue has been up to?
Rodge seems to be unable to accept that Neil and Jean aren’t in that kind of relationship, and according to him, Neil expend a while alone with an actually still conscious naked Jeanie, on his room. So is not much as trash, and more of him being unable to understand how serious the situation is. He is also in some kind of a crisis, that after losing Natalie again, got Lilly just so she try to eat to him, lose her as well, then Neil, the one reminder that Natalie is no more, gets to have to hot genie girls to himself. Rogde is on third place for people having the worst day so far.
As for Araceli, I already mention this, but there is no indication that she recognize the brand on Jeanie’s arm, as Blue’s seal, she knows is old ancient magic, and it’s clearly uncomfortable with it, but she hasn’t made any mention to indicate she understands Blue’s involvement. At least no yet.
If next page reveals that she is indeed aware, then I will just assume that even now, Neil takes priority for her
Neil carried her for 8 blocks! Roger thought he would have sex with her after that? That is as bad as having sex with a person that is too drunk to stand up on their own or is so drunk they don’t know what is going on. That is why Roger is trash. To even consider such a thing makes him a shitty person.
Again, for everyone, Neil and Jeanie are perceived as a couple, and Jeanie is not unconscious, she just don’t seem to respond, but Rodge himself isn’t even that close to Jeanie to begin with, nor to the magic events happening around She and Neil, they didn’t even tell him that his niece has her own genie. Rodge, Belle, even Araceli and Guano see in them what they want to see, and not being aware of how serious is the situation, for the point of view of Rodge, he is the one who has the worst end on the deal, with the murderous Plant Girlfriend and all, and is starting to get a little bitter towards Neil in recent pages, seeing as he is not only the source of his own misfortune (the first woman he loved turns out to be Neil faking it all, and then “teasing him” ever since, and now the second one turns to be a magic monster going after him because of Neil), but also seemingly more fortunate on everything, with, once again seemingly, two Genie lovers. Is most likely Rodge has been to busy getting over Lilly and now Aracely, to truly realize how serious Jean’s state is, he wasn’t even in the room when they discuss the serious stuff, and seem to be more interest on Araceli in the way back home. And not even Araceli seems to be all that concern, all things consider.
This may not be the answer you want to hear, but this characters aren’t mean to be taken that seriously, some of them are kind of dumb in a cartoonish way, which make them look like assholes sometimes, some in a not intentional way (Rodge and BJ) and others in a very intentional but still kind of cartoonish way (Guano, Kazom, Araceli, Jeanie… I see pattern there). Let’s remember, this is a world where the Dukes of Hazards and all their characters are 100% real, as portrayed in the show.
So now that she’s human can she be transformed back into her original male body, since there’s no problem using magic to permanently change people’s sex or other physical characteristics?
Or rather, presumably you first have to deal with the blue djinn and his brand and you also have to find a genie or someone else with magic to do it. But presumably somehow stopping the blue djinn is where the plot is heading and transforming a human seems to be a relatively minor use of magic for genies, so if you accomplish the first part you should be able to do the second part.
Unless of course, stopping the blue djinn involves jean becoming a genie again as is reasonably possible. Or Haji decides to punish jean for his involvement or even just get rid of all the humans involved because he’s ruthless and that simplifies things, which would be in character, but since it’s fiction probably more of a threat to be averted, not the final ending.
We actually don’t know anything about Haji’s attitude regarding humans or humans turned genies turned human. We only know that Blue, who admittedly hates Haji, hates Haji’s policies. Could it be that all of this is simply Blue throwing an epoch-old tantrum because he isn’t in charge anymore?
At this point almost anything possible. Depending on what kind of magic that the Blue Djinn used to separate himself from Jeanie into two separate bodies. For all we know, both bodies could be Jeanie’s body and Jeanie spirit was put in the weaker of the two bodies. The only thing we know for sure is, that Jeanie has been put out of commission temporarily as a functional Genie. She may even still be a Genie too, but, just locked away and out of the Blue Djinn hair.
@ Dalben I don’t think any Genie can transform Jeanie to any shape as it’s now. In one hand, if Araceli thinks she shouldn’t even be in presence of a Human who belongs to other genie, I doubt they could even cast magic on such human. And in the other hand, this is NOT Jeanie’s body, this is a human body made by Blue’s magic, just like the one Kazom made for ghost Jeanie way back in the day. Her real (heavily changed) body, is the genie body Blue is occupying right now. If it’s near impossible for a normal genie to have any effect on a body which has been already modify by another genie’s magic, I can just assume it must be even worst with a body that was completely made by such magic.
Has anyone else thought that Araceli might be another daughter of the Blue Djinn? If so, then maybe the reason Uncle Guano was able to get the drop on the Blue Djinn was that Guano is Blue’s idiot brother.
Also, Carlos, since the Thousand Nights and One Night stories are all supposed to take place during or before the reign of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, between 786 and 809, Araceli should be more than 1200 years old–Rouyaa’s older sister.
In regards your Theory, I actually had the same theory a while back, even though I don’t believe it as much as before, heck, I think that way back when the Blue Djinn was name dropped in the flashback story, and young Guano didn’t want to talk about it, the readers not familiar with the source material of the original show, thought Araceli may be the supposed Blue Djinn. In retrospective, it may even explain why Guano and Rouyaa were so close of each other back then. Though, if true, there is a chance Araceli isn’t aware of this somehow, granted, Rouyaa wasn’t fond of her father either, but Araceli just seem to be scare of Blue as all the other genies, but nothing more. This may also explain why, even being considered a Hero, and after getting his tittle as a lord, Guano couldn’t get Araceli out of the bottom of the Ocean, without mortal intervention. Maybe Haji didn’t want the last of Blue’s daughter release, as long as it wasn’t necessary.
As for the Thousand and one Nights bit… that was what I originally thought, but as it turns out, neither Aladdin nor Ali Baba are part of the original collection, I try to look it up, and as it turns out, the tales were added to the collection on the 1700, and I fail to find the exact origin, that’s why I leave it on at least 300 years, which may still fit in the fact that Araceli is still a young genie, somehow. Araceli was also familiar with the dark days of the Tower of London, so at the very least I could rise her possible age to 500 hundred years, but again, no idea how much we can rise it and still brand her as a young one.
Is that a frail FEMALE human body? Jean was having some trouble fighting the tendency to act female while a genie. How much harder will it be now that she’s just a frail, nubile, hormone-filled human? Does the male Jean survive or does Neil have a clingy damsel in distress on his hands (and in his arms)?
Neil’s genie manual says that [ ?comic=06222009] “bottle genies are traditionally selfless and care mainly for the welfare of their masters…considered a mothering genie,,,,” My guess is that when her genie nature is not being magically enforced, Jeanie will be even less inclined to show female emotions.
That one possibility that it could go 50srefugee, but, it could also go in the oppose way too.
Jeanie been a Genie for almost year now. Those traditionally selfless and care mainly for the welfare of their masters…considered a mothering genie… are endemic to female bottle Genie’s, which she happens to have been. The only question now is to how much of Jean nature has been transformed into Jeanie’s nature before she was put into a human body. She may still have the instincts of a female genie and was only holding those instincts in check by her genie magic, which she no longer has access to.
Ellie Dauber has a point here. Those female hormone in a female body is going to do a number on Jeanie and she going to be a pile nerves and emotional and crying and everything else that a women does in a situation like this and Jeanie without her Genie magic to stop it too.
So it could go in either direction or in both direction at the same time.
Don’t know!
Larry: “[Jeanie] was only holding those instincts in check by her genie magic.” That might well be possible, but I’m suggesting that Jeanie had two factors working against her: her feminine nature(hormones, etc) , and her bottle-genie nature. Now she only has her female nature. Our in-comic expert, Araceli, has declared that Jeanie’s current emotional state is due to being reduced to a mere human.
You and Ellie may well have a good point, but right now, we don’t know, which is why I qualified my suggestion as “my guess”. I expect we’ll find out in the next strip or two.
And I also see Carlos’ comment that these “characters aren’t mean to be taken that seriously,” Well worth remembering–although the story does seem to have taken a turn for the serious.
I for one can’t wait for Christmas to kick this story into gear it is taking way to long to get through it.
Here’s a good article on Barbara Eden that just came out if you haven’t seen it yet.
https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/i-dream-of-jeannie-star-barbara-eden-a-look-back-at-her-life/