Jeanie Bottle 548
Robert has a family thing happening tonight, so I’m posting the comic tonight.
Robert will correct any issues when he is able.
EDIT: Robert has made the corrections.
Robert has a family thing happening tonight, so I’m posting the comic tonight.
Robert will correct any issues when he is able.
EDIT: Robert has made the corrections.
The Blue Djinn ultimate punishment his worst fear. And living with it this is why you don’t make a devils deal the drawback.
To be fair, this page confirms that Jeanie didn’t make any “deal with the devil”. She had no idea what Big Blue even was. She mentioned a while back that she just thought he was an aspect of her own magic.
I am going to disagree with you Robert. Jeanie may not have consciously made a deal with the Devil. But, she did make a deal with him, consciously or unconsciously, she still let the Blue Djinn gained entry into her Totem or Bottle and ultimately into her own body too. The Blue Djinn tricked Jeanie. Once Jeanie finally figured out what the Blue Djinn was doing, it was “GAME OVER”!!
What I meant Jean agreed to let the Blue Djinn his body for greater power but Blue didn’t say who is in control of the body that’s the devil deal that I meant should have explained it better sorry for that.
> Jean agreed to let the Blue Djinn his body
That *isn’t true*, though. She didn’t even know the Blue Djinn was a separate entity until he took explicit control of her.
I wanna give Jean a comfort hug.
Well, Jean, probably not a good time, but you’ve kind of inflicted the same punishment on at least three people…
Jean’s actions are *very* different from Blue’s, though. Jean did those things out negligent carelessness, while Blue did it with intentional maliciousness.
Anderson wasn’t carelessness. That in no way condones anything Blue has done, but Jean isn’t off the hook.
Sorry, but I am constantly bemused by the nonsensical, but seemingly irradicatable belief that one’s intentions somehow matter to one’s victims. Be it negligence or evil the damage is the same.
Damage done by carelessness or negligence can be corrected and maybe forgiven, how do you forgive malice?
If intentions truly don’t matter, then we should just toss out all of the degrees of homicide and make them equal to First-degree Murder, since failing to see a kid crossing the street and subsequently running over him in your car is thus the same as pulling out your gun and putting a bullet in him.
You miss my point. I’m not arguing that intentions do not matter to others or society as a whole, I merely point out that intentions do not matter to the victim who suffers the damage regardless. To replay ijuinkun’s example from the victim’s perspective that kid is no less dead in either scenario, so how could his killer’s intentions matter to him? Negligence doesn’t make him any less dead.
So now imagine that you are in the place of that kid and somehow you survive.
The person who did this to you begs you to forgive them. Would it be equally hard to forgive someone who almost killed you by accident and someone who almost killed you on purpose?
If you say yes, then I consider you either Jesus or soulless monster.
If you say no, you can see the point of intentions to the victim.
Still, Jeanie messed up some people for good, so I hope she will fix two of them, when she understands it. (I’m sorry Red, but I don’t want to Melvin series end with you that way xD)
> Anderson wasn’t carelessness.
But it was. Jeanie turned him into a woman as an altruistic distraction tactic, to save her friend and master. Leaving Anderson as a woman after they’d escaped DHS custody was Jeanie’s characteristic carelessness.
If she were ever made aware of that mistake, she’d likely fix it. The same goes for Clarence and the Greek Captain. That’s the relevant difference between her actions and Blue’s.
It is true that Jeanie has different motive than the Blue Djinn here.
The Blue Djinn is vicious calculating back biting, hold grudges and completely heartless and he will destroy anybody that get in his ways too and with absolutely no regret or remorse either. He a really bad dude to mess with!!
Jeanie is doesn’t think things threw and if forgetful to change things back to what they should be.
But, we have three separate situation here that may demand two or three different responses.
1. Clearance being turned into a girl. This needs to be reverse immediately unless Mary Thornton has pushed Tiffany down the rails of being women too much and now Tiffany Thornton want to stay Tiffany or otherwise it needs to be reverse.
2. Anderson being turned into a girl. After all, he was just doing his job, so I have sympathy for him. But, I would put condition on it, like leave us alone.
3. The Greek Captain, I have absolutely no sympathy for him and leave him as he is. I don’t like people that try to force or push people into something they don’t want to do and the person that trying to force them has ulterior motive and they won’t back down.
Robert. I have to disagree with you about the Greek Captain, he worded his wish poorly and Jeanie fulfilled it in a manner that could honestly be interpreted the way Jeanie granted it. We know what he really wanted but he said “make ME a dutiful wife”, so Jeanie did. This is probably the only way that a genie can use their magic to influence a human’s mind since he wished it on himself.
It was clearly a case of you have to be very careful in how you phrase a wish, otherwise your DM will have some fun at your character’s expense.
I have to say, I kind of agree with Xiren.
Yes, I wont deny that Jean’s been through a pretty unpleasant ordeal (both with the whole mess regarding the Blue Djinn and the transformation in general), but given how profoundly thoughtless and irresponsible Jean usually is, my ability to sympathize is somewhat limited.
I mean, even aside from casually screwing over other people both with her powers (Neil, Anderson, Red, the Greek Sailors, and who knows how many other side characters) and with her day-to-day actions (continuing to string Belle along), Jean is a primarily self-centered person who rarely bothers to help other people, either with her powers or even mundane effort.
I can’t say I’m all that sorry to see her stripped of her powers.
This could be a humbling arc for Jean, least we can hope.
I am kind of with Xiren, Pilgrim, Inkwell V on this one. Especially if somebody dies and now we are talking to the parents of the son or daughter that died. You say to them at least it wasn’t a heartless cold blooded murder with malice. It was manslaughter and it was completely unintentional, as though that should make them feel better about it.
Boy that really make me feel better about it! “OR DID IT”??
On the plus side Jean looks adorable with her hair down like that.
Jean, as you can see now, Karma’s a… well, you know…
not to mention poor old Clarence aka red
Not entirely powerless, Jean. You probably won’t have to pay for drinks ever…
Well, at least not until she’s 35 or 40.
Barbara Eden is about 80. Check her out…
Well, that answers a few questions that I have had up to now.
1. The Blue Djinn did know that Jeanie use to be a guy and not a girl.
2. For all intense and purposes, Jeanie is in a human female body now.
3. Jeanie being turned into a human female girl is just another turn of the dial when it comes to getting Jeanie to think and act like a female, especially a Genie Female Girl.
Other question to be answered are:
1. How much impact did being a female Genie have on Jean after being a Genie for one year?
2. Female Genies have a mother spirit about them. Is that characteristic present in Jeanie?
3. Does Jeanie like being a Genie more than she like being a guy? She human now, and she can be turned into a guy now, but, she won’t be a Genie anymore.
4. Jean was selfish, self centered and self absorbed with himself who thinks more highly of himself than he should and he carried that into being Jeanie the Genie. How much of Jeanie is going to be carried over into being the human girl Jeanie or back to being the male Jean guy?
5. Does Jeanie really want to be a guy now? The issue hasn’t come up before now as an option.
6. If Jeanie choose to go male and/or not being a Genie, which way will she choose to go?
Jeanie definitely would rather be a man than a mortal-human female, but there’s a good chance that (s)he would prefer to be a female Genie again over either of those.
Roger’s question about why Jeanie didn’t “magic away” the Blue Djinn is kind of stupid–Blue was obviously too powerful for it to be that easy if he was already forcing Jeanie to do stuff.
Neil, you’ve got a lot to answer for.
Neil? I hear you shriek. NEIL’S got a lot to answer for?
That’s right. Neil is Jeanie’s Master (as she agrees). If Master-talk makes you uncomfortable, put it in military terms: Neil is Jeanie’s commanding officer, and he has been woefully negligent in his duties towards her. He has failed to train her at all, failed to discipline her, and worst of all, let her, a selfish, short-sighted, headstrong, impulsive being (a stereotypical flighty young woman) of no small power, fall into idleness and boredom.
SHAME ON YOU, NEIL!
You have failed to earn your genie’s obedience, affection, and most of all, respect. As a result, you can’t even comfort her properly, since so much of the fault is yours.
Good grief, Neil, you nebbish wuss! You haven’t even quit your job to study the Genie Manual and practice with your genie! What, you think you need the money? With a genie at your command, you’re worried about MONEY? About the mundanities of food, clothing, and shelter?
You have a genie, Neil, who would delight in taking care of her Master–little though she knows it.
You should now be on the path to become a powerful wizard of sorts. Fate paired you with Jeanie PRECISELY to fight abominations like Blue, and neither you nor your genie are remotely ready for battle. Your genie, in fact is a genie no longer. You’ve cast your shot into solder, mangled your gun barrel into plumbing, and dumped your powder into a pond because you thought it was dangerous.
So it was, dangerous, and now you need to be dangerous, but you’ve ruined the weapon that made you and Jeanie dangerous enough to face Blue.
SHAME.
There are people who has other reason for work than just money. Like responsibility, or they like the work. But yes Neil was not responsible as Jeanie’s master. Even without quitting work, he DID had options. Instead, he let Jeanie transform him to girl as punishment …
I suspect Neil is an engineer by avocation, not just trade, yes. But he’s got access to a whole new level of technology, physics even, currently framed in medieval terms.
He can personally visit every planet in the solar system–even if he cannot share the adventure with others.
For all we know, he can go star-hopping.
For all we know, there’s a galaxy-wide trade federation using genies as space drives. And if there’s not, there should be, maybe.
That’s three big incentives right off the top of my head that ought to be right up Neil’s alley. And Neil’s turned a blind eye to it.
Neil hasn’t just dropped his duties towards Jeanie, and genies generally. He’s dropped his duties as an engineer and a man of science.
===
And again, at the very least, there’s magical enemies like Blue out there (raise your hand everyone who thinks Blue is the only one, or even the worst), and Neil’s thrown his weapon away.
Sure, it’s always fun to use your friend’s lifespan to travel trough stars!
BUT AT LEAST IT’S FOR SCIENCE!
No. He would still be an awful friend.
@Matiss: Remember, Jeanie’s already magicked herself to Mars and back. We don’t really know how much magic that used, or how much Engineer Neil could make the process even more efficient after some study.
And for all we know, Jeanie herself might decide that star travel is worth losing a few hundred years of life as a genie.
(But I agree that Neil just wishing his genie would be a space drive, regardless of its effect on her, would inhumanly cruel. )
Yes, we don’t know how the magic-energy consumption works for teleporting to various destinations. Is it a flat cost such that teleporting to the next room is equal to teleporting across galaxies? Or does it scale with distance? Or with the depth of the gravity wells that have to be climbed out of to reach the other place (i.e. minimum delta-v)?
(Also note that Jeannie, in the IDOJ television series, thought nothing of teleporting herself to the Moon and back when Tony was on a mission there.)
@ijuinkun: nod-nod. Plus, teleportation may not even be the most efficient use of genie-power. There may be ways to amplify it (a sort of psychic exoskeleton), or to use it in other ways (confinement for your fusion drive, for instance, or even to directly lower the barriers to fusion). Even for interplanetary travel, or earth orbit, genies may help with things like life support, gravity control, nav and comm–
I’m really ashamed for Neil not to have a whole list of things to try.
(And that doesn’t even touch on not trying to figure out how genie-power actually works. It’s like Edison missing the significance of why his lamp filaments kept failing–thermionic emission. Fleming used the effect to invent amplifying vacuum tubes or valves.)
“That…is cutting sir.” DBZ abridged reference
“He made me do so much…Evil things!”
Has Jeanie been doing things she remembers, but which we never saw?
Killing and/or attempting to kill more than a few Genies and Humans isn’t enough?
Well, we SAW Rodge get gnawed on by a giant flower, and doesn’t seem much the worse for the wear. It may be an artifact of how she’s drawn, and the words CD put in her mouth, but to me she looks like she’s reacting to not just killing, but outright atrocities.
I also wonder if anything was done TO Jeanie, herself.
I get the feeling that if Blue HAD given Jean their male body after making them human again, Jean would just go “what’s happening with the Djinn is not my problem” and gone back to the way things were before
I get that this is a turning point in Jean’s character arc, and that they will become a better person as a result of this, but it’s hard to be fully sympathetic when Jean is still an inherently selfish person
If this is a turning point, perhaps that inherent selfishness is about to get redeveloped for the greater good.
@Mike: ‘Jean would just go “what’s happening with the Djinn is not my problem” and gone back to the way things were before’
Yes. That’s why I’m pushing so hard on Neil. He knows better, or should.
Yes. Sadistically leaving Jean as a woman makes for a “Nice Job Fixing It, Villain” moment, since it gives Jean, Neil, and Rodge motivation for fighting back.
ijuinkun: ” it gives Jean, Neil, and Rodge motivation for fighting back.”
Jeanie and Neil, yes, certainly. Rodge I’m not sure understands the situation well enough.
In years of reading this comic, I’ve seen little evidence that Neil has any ‘fight’ in him, Rodge is kind of a doofus, and Jeannie without her powers – and male self-image – seems to be a broken shell. Any ‘fighting back’ like that will be playing against type.
@Chelsea: “Any ‘fighting back’ like that will be playing against type.”
Indeed yes. Neil is in a situation where being a “nice guy”, refusing to assert himself or to be dominant in any way led to disaster. Being the nice guy worked for most situations, but Jean becoming Jeanie was not “most situations”, and now, in the Blue crisis, being a nice guy is positively crippling.This kind of thing does happen, and it’s tragic. (The worst thing is, he’s capable of being dominant, and the one time he did assert himself, early on, Jeanie accepted his leadership. But rule of funny required that he return to his normal, nebbish type–and that has not served him, or Jeanie, well.)
Indeed, Neil isn’t a strong leader even if he has the capability for it, he generally chooses the easy way out with the minimum amount of tress. Which causes problems in situation like this. That the primary reason why Neil has a problem developing a relationship with a women, he too wimpy and won’t make decision or lay down the rules or laws of the house. As much as women like to fight against stuff like that, they still like to know what the rules of the house are.
That the difference between Jean and Neil, when Jean was still a guy. Jean was a very selfish guy and self-centered, but, he would make the choices when they needed to be made, usually Neil won’t make those decision that need to be made. As long as Jean was Jeanie a female Genie, that was the way she wanted it too, because, she could do almost anything thing she wanted to do with Neil in charge of everything. Now Jeanie is paying the price for not training Neil to be her master and embrace her new roll of being a female Genie.
The dark house here, would be Jeanie training Neil to be the man in this situation, because, he needs to be the man in this situation and Jeanie gruelingly choosing to be the woman in this situation and it would be gruelingly too, because, she definitely doesn’t want that position.
Be happy in the knowledge that, though you may not have the things you once had, the Blue Djinn, having taken your form, does not have those things either.
But I think the Blue Djinn is not so attached to his physical form. To him it’s an inconvenience, not a challenge to his core identity.
My take on why he interested in continuing to want to maintain his possession of Jeanie body is that he a disembodied Genie spirit now and maybe he doesn’t even have a totem now either. If either one or those or both those are true, then the Blue Djinn will die just like the female Genie in China died when he broke her totem.
It probably the reason that he was forced to Jeanie as a spirit into another body so that he could continue what he want to do without any interference or nagging from Jeanie all the time.
be interesting to see what happens to our trio of stars now that Jean is a normal woman
Jeanie won’t be human for long. Aracelli will bring in the Haji’s cavalry.
(Or, my preference, Neil will find something in the thousand-page genie manual that will give him the clue he needs to debug the situation.)
Otherwise, we have a hilarioius comic about a spineless nerd and his delusional, suicidally depressed
girlfriendroomate. Woo-hoo. I can hardly wait.In the end 50srefugee is right that Jeanie is going to go back to by what ever process that CD Rudd chooses to take this Jeanie Bottle Comic, but, for a little while, I would like to see Jeanie having to act and behave like a female girl for awhile. I think it would be an interesting twist in the Jeanie Bottle Series.
Everybody seems to be assuming that the blue djinn could have made jeanie male. No proof of that. And in fact, if at the beginning, Jean could have becoem male again by giving up being a genie, he probably would have done it. So maybe it isn’t that easy.
That not what Kazom told Jeanie when she went to Genie School. He said that her old Core male Mortal self no longer exist.
He also said that Jeanie new Magical Female Genie Core is permanent and can never be changed.
He also said that over like maybe in a 100 years or so, when she becomes an experienced Genie, that she might be able to superficially in the outer part of herself, remake herself to look like a man outwardly, but, her inner core will still be a female Genie.
She can’t even choose to stop being a Genie even, because, she tried that by having Neil wish that Jean never picked up that bottle that transformed Jean into Jeanie the Genie. Got a bunch of smoke and a letter that said that this can’t happen.
Basically, The Blue Djinn took over Jeanie place as a Genie and was then able to create a female human body to put Jeanie spirit in. He probably could have created a male human body in, if he choose to do that.
Oh boo hoo. You deserve as much compassion as you had for “red”, doing the same thing to him with complete indifference despite him being a complete innocent. An innocent you are not. Even the greek sailors you also did the same thing to deserved it less than you, and you also made one of them into a nympho. You should have to be a nympho too. I’ll bet your salty tears are tasty, cry some more for us.
So at the end of the day it’s confirmed that the blue djinn is flat out a jerk (instead of purely evil – purely evil I can respect, but jerks have a special place in hell awaiting them)
So, breaking off from the paragraphs and paragraphs of analysis, am I the only one who would have been interested in seeing a female Jean instead of humanized Jeanie? You guys know what I mean by this. Technically we saw it once when Jean tried to turn herself back into a guy early on, but I think this would have been an interesting opportunity to see a properly girlified Jean.
CD, there’s a suggestion for your casual one-off drawings I see on DeviantArt!
> female Jean instead of humanized Jeanie?
So like, Jean as he would have appeared had he been born a girl? That’s an intriguing idea!
Robert: “Jean as he would have appeared had he been born a girl?”
You mean self-centered, selfish, and impulsive PLUS wiling to use her sexual attractiveness to get friend-zoned guys like engineering nerds to do things for her, while punishing them if they say or do anything that overtly notices her sexuality?
Um, let me think about that….
You may have a point there 50srefugee. I ran into a girl that I considered to be almost like a female copy of me and I ran away to get away from. She also had a good looking female body and new how to use it too.