Jean AKA Jeannie AKA Jeanie is a film, book, and magazine reviewer for a national magazine. Most of Jean’s work is done through email, which means he doesn't have to go into the office.
On a trip to find a gift for his girlfriend, Jean found an empty Genie Bottle. Upon picking up this bottle, Jean became the bottle’s new genie-powered occupant. Not only was Jean turned into a genie, but the bottle turned him into what he believed a genie of the bottle should look like. Which, due to his fascination with a classic 60s TV show, turned him into a busty blonde woman.
So now what happened between High School and now got to change prom night bring Neil because he would not want to be discovered than have twin scenarios for Jean, he would never forgive you for that. Also, all Genies obey the master good add in rule.
Aw, I want(ed) Genie Natalie to continue existing in the restored timeline. All the potential. Still, the way time weirdness works, she could always be retroactively saved in future storylines.
Since Jeanie’s gonna have to go to some point in the past before she last left/returned with Neil, it doesn’t really matter that Neil is left behind. That version/timeline will disappear with whatever Jeanie does to (try and) fix things yet again, so say byebye to in-bottle Neil, genie-fied Natalie, and power-addicted jerk and rapist (being kind to him) Jean, along with the Ultimate Fantasy Wish Island.
Exactly. I’ve been saying this for weeks that the only solution is to go back to the point where she ORIGINALLY tried to poof back in time alone for the burger. Telling her everything that went wrong and stopping the Past-Present Jeannie from time traveling is the only way to stop the madness.
Except Jeannie is stuck in a paradox where she both needs to get her past self laid so he doesn’t turn into a loser while making sure he doesn’t turn into this.
Even if Genie Natalie isn’t going with her to do it (darn), she did say she “created… sex fantasies” for Fantasy Island Jean. If Jeanie remembers that, she could perhaps realize she can create an unthinking sexy fantasy simulation of herself to have sex with Prom Jean in the way she remembers. That might close the loop.
Single universe theory: That timeline doesn’t exist anymore. It got wiped out the first time Jeanie changed the past. So it’s impossible for them to simply return to that timeline and warn themselves not to go back in time. They need to fix things before they can return to some semblance of the universe they left.
Multiple universe theory: There’s no need to fix things. Once they poof back to the original timeline, they don’t have to fix the damaged timeline because it exists independently. And in fact could be argued that it has always existed independently.
Outside of Jeannie finally realizing that she needs to go back to the first time she was about to time travel and prevent her past self from setting off all these events…
I have to wonder that since Asshole Jean wants sex with two genies…Will that result in Bottled Neil getting poofed out to become another genie OR will it result in Asshole Jean using Genie Natalie to poof back in time and chasing after Jeannie? That could be a good ‘out’ for the story without completely resetting everything, Jean chases Jeannie back in time thus leaving the island and becoming vulnerable to not just Jeannie’s magic, but Natalie’s as well.
They turn him into the blonde to have sex with Past-Jean and thus eliminates the multiple timelines forever (or seals them off if you’re a believer in established timelines post-branch continue to exist).
There is a way around the “wishing for more wishes” problem: Jean always “gets what he wants” because magic compels him to work hard to earn what he wants. Thus Natalie is only helping by doing subtle things that our Jeanie could do. But she is still stuck acting like she likes sex all the time.
Not just her you saw Jeannie squeeing as well so I think I just got confirmation of him essentially raping a bunch of girls since high school, and given this is a TG comic probably boys as well.
This timeline is Jeannie getting HER comeuppance. Jean is behaving in a manner that we could expect from how Jeannie has behaved up till now. They both think only of themselves, they both treat other people in a capricious manner, and they both let their Id run the show. This situation only occurred because Jeannie refused to override her feelings and do the one thing that would give Jean the memory of prom night that matched what Jeannie remembered of prom night.
Diabolical! The wish has actual power, even over Jeanie.
But consider the charges of rape that have been leveled at Jean: Natalie helped him compose the wish, and all he ever sees and hears is happy enthusiasm. I doubt he has any idea that she’s not willing, and doesn’t enjoy it as much as he does.
No, he’s not innocent, not by a long shot. He’s gone way over the edge. As I said, diabolically so.
But he has arranged things so that he is not confronted with the truth. The genies under his control give every appearance of going along with his desires, and even enjoying his attention.
And yet, push to shove, Jeanie goes right along with it. Again, not defending Jean–what he’s doing is indefensible. And I strongly suspect he’s pretty much smothered his conscience. But it doesn’t–quite–rise to outright rape. More, it’s been suggested early on, when Neil and Jeanie are discussing the genie rules, that this sort of thing was for hundreds of years quite normal for genies. They’re not female humans, with preferences and needs of their own. They’re servants of their masters, period.
Two take-aways for Jeanie:
A) She’s got a very undemanding master, who deserves far more respect and kindness than she gives him.
B) She herself IS Jean. This is rubbing her face in what she would herself have done. And that should properly shake her badly.
He is willing to abuse the power on Jeanie, who is a genie, and thus (in his mind) made to serve. It is still not verified that he would do the same to someone whom he viewed as a “real” human woman. To risk going into inflammatory territory here, it is more or less like the difference in a slaveowner’s mind between a slave and a peer.
@ijuinkun: Exactly, though I think in this matter Jean is correct. Genies just grant wishes, sex or ham sandwich makes no nevermind. What we see in this strip suggests that the genie’s mind just switches off; she plays the role, no more, and doesn’t really remember or care much about it.
Gods, remember Aracelli? What if the way she acted wasn’t by her choice? What if that’s just what her last master expected, and since Neil expressed no other opinion, that’s the way she acted with him?
The thing that frustrates me about this is I think there’s a chance that Neil and Jeanie could have a real friendship, become actual lovers, truly care about each other. But neither of them will get their head out their respective ass to do what that would take.
@50srefugee:“What we see in this strip suggests that the genie’s mind just switches off; she plays the role, no more, and doesn’t really remember or care much about it.”
Except that Genatte obviously does remember what she’d been compelled to do and certainly cared enough to try and warn Neil and Jeanie off.
Counterpoint @Ijuinkun
He’s doing this to Natalie who he know’s full well used to be a male human. I very much doubt there’s any “She’s a genie she does what I want and enjoy’s it” going on in his mind. He has the power and will use it to get what he wants since we’ve seen it used so far on Natalie who he know’s was a former man and Jeanie who flat out told him no only for him to counter “I have a genie” and then “Ladies” forcing her to act giddily excited about something she doesn’t want. Honestly I can’t see him hesitating to do that to a girl or if he know’s about TGing a guy just because they’re human.
Something we should keep in mind is that this is Jean we are talking about.
After crafting the perfect wish he may be totally oblivious of the effect on other people and is unaware of the abuse he is putting on Natalie.
Natalie seems kinda… casual considering the nightmare her existence has become.
Sure, Neil always has been a pushover, but this should be the point where Natalie should start practicing the old genie policy of twisting wishes and driving unkind masters to ruin and death.
As I said upthread: A genie is not a normal human female. She’s a genie, a magical servant of her master. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if, in the moment, Genatte’s trysts with Jean are not as awful as we suspect, as they would be if Natalie were simply forced into having sex like a mechanical puppet. She may not actually enjoy it, despite appearances, but it’s not torture. If it were, I would expect her to find a way out. Instead, it’s just something she does, like breathing, or digesting her food.
Put yourself in her place. You’ve been turned into a girl and forced to spend years? not just having sex with someone who is now magically your master but compelled by your own power to be an eager little companion. Just like if you were slipped a date rape drug making you enjoy it at the time. Afterwards you feel humiliated and possibly even disgusted at yourself for enjoying having that done to you only now instead of being able to at least get away your trapped in a place that ensure’s he gets what he wants and you have to do this over and over and over again as your very body’s reshaped to be whatever he desires at the time blonde, brunette, literal bunny girl. Only its not even just the act itself your forced to cater to every desire he has breakfast in bed you get up, cook and then “gleefully” skip in wearing just an apron as you ask “Would master like breakfast, a bath or me?”.
How long till you just gave up and that constant ripping away of your free will became an accepted part of your existence? Jeanie’s been a genie just as long and while her identity has steadily become more female she still has a lot more free will than Natalie is showing her. Araceli much as I dislike here has been a genie all her life and is willing to go to quite extreme lengths to get what she considers a good master. Natalie’s not going along with this because she’s a bottle genie she’s going along with this because the situation has essentially broken her resistance and she see’s no way out for herself only others.
There are at least three Genie that a Genie isn’t allowed to do and they are:
1. They can’t resurrect people that have already died.
2. They can’t kill people either.
3. They can’t violate a humans will by making them fall in love contrary to there own will.
Here what they can do.
1. After the third wish, they can leave there Master and wait for another Master to get there bottle.
2. Can screw up a Master wish like Jeanie screwed up that Greek Sea Captains withes.
3. If they can get the bottle away from Jean and then cork the bottle for one month and then have somebody else uncork the Genie bottle, then the old Master control over that bottle will be null and void after that.
4. If a Master tries make a wish that violates some other genie rules, then genie isn’t required to honor the wish.
5. There probably a genie loophole for situation like this. We just don’t know what they are.
@Larry: “We just don’t what [the loopholes] are.” Neither does Genatte–but I’m guessing she hasn’t tried all that hard. Being defiant just isn’t as important to her as it is to Jean. Meeting Jean’s demands are just something she has to do that gets in the way of her reading.
Or put another way: To Genatte, granting Jean’s wishes for sex has about as much emotional content as Jeanie granting Neil’s wishes for a sandwich. Irritating (if for different reasons) but not abuse, far from torture. All in a day’s work for a genie, and has been that way for as long as there have been masters and genies. Par for the course. Genatte will live for hundreds of years; Jean is but a mayfly with no imagination.
@50srefugee: Given that a genie is stuck with her master until after the third wish, she obviously has no ability to flee her situation. We simply do not know what Genatte’s mental state is at this point… she was a man, transformed into a woman and promptly forced to have sex with her (formerly) best friend. Her outward appearance might be compliance, but inwardly it’s possible her mind is screaming with revulsion. Also, if she was a compliant counterpart to Jean’s machinations, she probably wouldn’t have warned Jeanie to escape because that would not have pleased her Master.
For Natalie to misconstrue a wish, Jean would have to *make* a wish. We’ve seen no indication that he’s made more than that first “Perfect Wish” — and since it gave him an island where he gets whatever he wants, there’s no *reason* for him to make another wish.
Quickly Jeanie you have to make love to yourself in the past, so that you don’t make love to yourself in the future!
… Fate is a fickle thing.
Also Neil is getting copied more times then a Star Trek character at this point. I kinda hope these universes don’t colapse into themselves… I rather like this setup with original Neil left behind.
More like, “Quickly Jeanie, stop yourself from bringing Neil or Natalie to the prom. OK to bring back the burgers, even OK to pass the $20 bill from the future, because it was an established fact that the joint got shut down, and you don’t want to mess with that. But…NO PROM!”
Here’s a thought: What if Jeannie can use the “whatever Jean wants, Jean gets” wish herself? She is, after all, Jean, just not the same Jean. While I’m not expecting this to go that way, it would be an interesting loophole to exploit. Can a genie take advantage of someone else’s wish granted by another genie in such a way?
I don’t think she is “Jean” any more. She is a genie formed from some human named Jean. (That’s not even getting into the alternate timeline/universe that she ended up creating, which branched off from an even earlier version of that human.)
@JT: “I don’t think she is “Jean” any more. She is a genie formed from some human….”Yes. Nor is Genatte Neil, or even Natallie. Talking about them as if they were the orginal humans, regardless of sex or prior inclinations, misses the point. Rudd’s been doing an excellent job with this timey-wimey story exploring some of the consequences of that.
Panel three..”because on this island whatever he wants… Does this mean it only works on the island and if Jenaie poofs him off the island he will have to use his third wish to get back and then Natalie can lower the boom.
1) Not sure he’s used two wishes yet.
2) My *guess* would be that Natalie is included in the “whatever he wants” Perfect Wish… though I have no evidence either way.
@Senko: “Put yourself in [Genatte’s] place. You’ve been turned into a girl and forced to spend years? not just having sex with someone who is now magically your master but compelled by your own power to be an eager little companion. ”
I can’t put myself in Genatte’s place, because it is not clear to me how well her genie nature protects her, emotionally speaking, from having to carry out her master’s wishes. I suspect there’s quite a lot of cushioning, because this is most likely the fate of most humans, male or female, young or old, who make the terrible blunder of picking up an interesting looking totem, with no idea of the consequences. I bet that for most of history, most genies presenting as attractive female humans who found themselves saddled with male masters, also found themselves granting some seriously carnal wishes. My guess is Jean is likely about average, maybe a little better than some, because he’s expressed a desire to give his genies their best sex EVAH! as opposed to reveling in the shame, degradation, pain and fear he gets to inflict. (Dare I suggest that Genatte has been trying to scare off this intruder trying to horn in on the great hot tub sexy times?)
@mike: “Genatte obviously does remember what she’d been compelled to do and certainly cared enough to try and warn Neil and Jeanie off.” Yes, she remembers what she had to DO; even Jeanie remembers squealling with pleasure at Jean’s summons to the hot tub. What she does NOT remember is how she felt when she did that. And what Genatte seems to object to more than anything else is how much of her time Jean’s demands take.
“one could say that wishing to have sex with someone, even wishing for them to like it is rape”.
Jean – I want to believe that everyone wants to have sex with me.
What he wants he gets
So everyone is forced to behave and say things that support Jeans belief, it is just that Jean has no idea of the abuse he is inflicting.
It is the very purpose of genies to grant their masters’ wishes. You get long life and cosmic power–but you have to do whatever your current master wants, for however long his mastership lasts. it’s been made clear that having sex with your master if he so wishes is absolutely part of the deal, or was for hundreds of years. I think Genatte is not exactly traumatized by Jean’s attentions, and that may be because her genie nature shields her against such effects. I hope so. In any event, I’m not sure that what goes on is exactly rape.
Mind, I think Jean is wasting an incredible opportunity on a relatively trivial matter–but he’s the master, and he gets his wishes granted.
If there is anything like rape, it was committed by whoever, or whatever, set up the genie system so that innocent humans can be trapped in servitude like this.
@50srefugee: I don’t recall female genies being a thing before the 20th century (thank you Barbara). Also, unless I’m mistaken the only instance of a mortal being confined to a totem would be Jafar, and that was because he wished for all a genie’s power.
@mike: Two things I don’t have the time to look up: When Guano was giving the Rules to Jeanie, she objected to certain provisions, and even Guano said they were medieval, and weren’t enforced anymore.
Also, there was incident of a preteen European (German?) girl becoming a bottle genie during WWII, and fortunately getting a kindly U.S. soldier as her first master. She completely missed going through puberty, but presented as a woman of about Jeanie’s age right away.
@50srefugee: Yes, I recall those examples. My thought was based on previous fiction and legends, not CD’s current universe. BTW, the genie in question was Jehane. The one with the soldier was Rouyaa (although Andy wasn’t a soldier at the time).
I wonder about the wording of that failsafe wish that Jean made. If he mentioned himself by name, then the protection that he gets from the wish would apply to Jeanie as soon as she identifies herself as also being Jean Nessman. For that matter, if he mentioned Natalie by name, especially if he said, “My genie, Neil,” then whatever applies to Natalie also applies to Neil.
Either or both of these things should be enough to glitch the wishes.
So I wanted to point out that there’s substantial evidence that original Neil also changed the time line with his castling move. If that led to a more confident Neil then throughout the remainder of the time from prom to coco beach Jean has less of a foil which would allow his worse sides to essentially grow unchecked. I think this little detail may be playing a bigger part then we realize just from what we’ve seen so far.
Looking back on this, I think there would’ve been some poetic justice if Jeannie had been forced to stick around long enough to go through what Genie Natalie has been through at least once. As much as she’s horrified by the idea of being taken advantage of like that, her lack of empathy means she still doesn’t really get it. Even going back and sleeping with her high school self isn’t the same, because she actively chose to do it. Being forced to confront firsthand in the most literal possible way how her callous actions affect others would be extremely poetic. Or maybe I just like sexy bad endings and think that Jeannie being forced to serve her male self alongside Natalie would be incredibly hot.
So now what happened between High School and now got to change prom night bring Neil because he would not want to be discovered than have twin scenarios for Jean, he would never forgive you for that. Also, all Genies obey the master good add in rule.
Nah, that wasn’t a genie rule, rather Jean’s overpowered wish of getting whatever he wants on the Island.
which honestly, is a REALLY well thought out wish.
I’ll bet $40.00 that Jeanie left Neil behind again.
whoo-boy – how much of a paradoxal screw up will that cause?
Aw, I want(ed) Genie Natalie to continue existing in the restored timeline. All the potential. Still, the way time weirdness works, she could always be retroactively saved in future storylines.
Since Jeanie’s gonna have to go to some point in the past before she last left/returned with Neil, it doesn’t really matter that Neil is left behind. That version/timeline will disappear with whatever Jeanie does to (try and) fix things yet again, so say byebye to in-bottle Neil, genie-fied Natalie, and power-addicted jerk and rapist (being kind to him) Jean, along with the Ultimate Fantasy Wish Island.
Exactly. I’ve been saying this for weeks that the only solution is to go back to the point where she ORIGINALLY tried to poof back in time alone for the burger. Telling her everything that went wrong and stopping the Past-Present Jeannie from time traveling is the only way to stop the madness.
Except Jeannie is stuck in a paradox where she both needs to get her past self laid so he doesn’t turn into a loser while making sure he doesn’t turn into this.
Even if Genie Natalie isn’t going with her to do it (darn), she did say she “created… sex fantasies” for Fantasy Island Jean. If Jeanie remembers that, she could perhaps realize she can create an unthinking sexy fantasy simulation of herself to have sex with Prom Jean in the way she remembers. That might close the loop.
Single universe theory: That timeline doesn’t exist anymore. It got wiped out the first time Jeanie changed the past. So it’s impossible for them to simply return to that timeline and warn themselves not to go back in time. They need to fix things before they can return to some semblance of the universe they left.
Multiple universe theory: There’s no need to fix things. Once they poof back to the original timeline, they don’t have to fix the damaged timeline because it exists independently. And in fact could be argued that it has always existed independently.
Outside of Jeannie finally realizing that she needs to go back to the first time she was about to time travel and prevent her past self from setting off all these events…
I have to wonder that since Asshole Jean wants sex with two genies…Will that result in Bottled Neil getting poofed out to become another genie OR will it result in Asshole Jean using Genie Natalie to poof back in time and chasing after Jeannie? That could be a good ‘out’ for the story without completely resetting everything, Jean chases Jeannie back in time thus leaving the island and becoming vulnerable to not just Jeannie’s magic, but Natalie’s as well.
They turn him into the blonde to have sex with Past-Jean and thus eliminates the multiple timelines forever (or seals them off if you’re a believer in established timelines post-branch continue to exist).
So Jean wants to be liked, and doesn’t know that the people around him aren’t really enjoying what he is doing? Now that makes things complicated.
There is a way around the “wishing for more wishes” problem: Jean always “gets what he wants” because magic compels him to work hard to earn what he wants. Thus Natalie is only helping by doing subtle things that our Jeanie could do. But she is still stuck acting like she likes sex all the time.
Not just her you saw Jeannie squeeing as well so I think I just got confirmation of him essentially raping a bunch of girls since high school, and given this is a TG comic probably boys as well.
Half expecting Jeannie to come back after realizing Neil was left behind again only to find 2 genie Natalies
I was hoping Jeanie would find a way to free Natalie and give this Jean some comeuppance. It’s a bummer Jean gets away with this behavior.
He’ll cease to exist once Jeanie changes the timeline again.
This timeline is Jeannie getting HER comeuppance. Jean is behaving in a manner that we could expect from how Jeannie has behaved up till now. They both think only of themselves, they both treat other people in a capricious manner, and they both let their Id run the show. This situation only occurred because Jeannie refused to override her feelings and do the one thing that would give Jean the memory of prom night that matched what Jeannie remembered of prom night.
Diabolical! The wish has actual power, even over Jeanie.
But consider the charges of rape that have been leveled at Jean: Natalie helped him compose the wish, and all he ever sees and hears is happy enthusiasm. I doubt he has any idea that she’s not willing, and doesn’t enjoy it as much as he does.
Counterpoint: No, “i have a bottle and a genie that says otherwise”
He’s perfectly willing to abuse that power on jeanie, so he’s not innocent in that regard.
No, he’s not innocent, not by a long shot. He’s gone way over the edge. As I said, diabolically so.
But he has arranged things so that he is not confronted with the truth. The genies under his control give every appearance of going along with his desires, and even enjoying his attention.
Except they don’t. At least not always. Jeanie flat out told him no, and he basically responded with “then i’ll make you”.
And yet, push to shove, Jeanie goes right along with it. Again, not defending Jean–what he’s doing is indefensible. And I strongly suspect he’s pretty much smothered his conscience. But it doesn’t–quite–rise to outright rape. More, it’s been suggested early on, when Neil and Jeanie are discussing the genie rules, that this sort of thing was for hundreds of years quite normal for genies. They’re not female humans, with preferences and needs of their own. They’re servants of their masters, period.
Two take-aways for Jeanie:
A) She’s got a very undemanding master, who deserves far more respect and kindness than she gives him.
B) She herself IS Jean. This is rubbing her face in what she would herself have done. And that should properly shake her badly.
@GJT:
He is willing to abuse the power on Jeanie, who is a genie, and thus (in his mind) made to serve. It is still not verified that he would do the same to someone whom he viewed as a “real” human woman. To risk going into inflammatory territory here, it is more or less like the difference in a slaveowner’s mind between a slave and a peer.
@ijuinkun: Exactly, though I think in this matter Jean is correct. Genies just grant wishes, sex or ham sandwich makes no nevermind. What we see in this strip suggests that the genie’s mind just switches off; she plays the role, no more, and doesn’t really remember or care much about it.
Gods, remember Aracelli? What if the way she acted wasn’t by her choice? What if that’s just what her last master expected, and since Neil expressed no other opinion, that’s the way she acted with him?
The thing that frustrates me about this is I think there’s a chance that Neil and Jeanie could have a real friendship, become actual lovers, truly care about each other. But neither of them will get their head out their respective ass to do what that would take.
@50srefugee: “What we see in this strip suggests that the genie’s mind just switches off; she plays the role, no more, and doesn’t really remember or care much about it.”
Except that Genatte obviously does remember what she’d been compelled to do and certainly cared enough to try and warn Neil and Jeanie off.
Counterpoint @Ijuinkun
He’s doing this to Natalie who he know’s full well used to be a male human. I very much doubt there’s any “She’s a genie she does what I want and enjoy’s it” going on in his mind. He has the power and will use it to get what he wants since we’ve seen it used so far on Natalie who he know’s was a former man and Jeanie who flat out told him no only for him to counter “I have a genie” and then “Ladies” forcing her to act giddily excited about something she doesn’t want. Honestly I can’t see him hesitating to do that to a girl or if he know’s about TGing a guy just because they’re human.
Something we should keep in mind is that this is Jean we are talking about.
After crafting the perfect wish he may be totally oblivious of the effect on other people and is unaware of the abuse he is putting on Natalie.
Honestly, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen Jeanie actually take some good advice.
Might be the last, though.
Natalie seems kinda… casual considering the nightmare her existence has become.
Sure, Neil always has been a pushover, but this should be the point where Natalie should start practicing the old genie policy of twisting wishes and driving unkind masters to ruin and death.
Like the old saying goes: Even an old dog will bit, if every time you come threw you kick him.
The old saying was in broken English?
As I said upthread: A genie is not a normal human female. She’s a genie, a magical servant of her master. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if, in the moment, Genatte’s trysts with Jean are not as awful as we suspect, as they would be if Natalie were simply forced into having sex like a mechanical puppet. She may not actually enjoy it, despite appearances, but it’s not torture. If it were, I would expect her to find a way out. Instead, it’s just something she does, like breathing, or digesting her food.
Put yourself in her place. You’ve been turned into a girl and forced to spend years? not just having sex with someone who is now magically your master but compelled by your own power to be an eager little companion. Just like if you were slipped a date rape drug making you enjoy it at the time. Afterwards you feel humiliated and possibly even disgusted at yourself for enjoying having that done to you only now instead of being able to at least get away your trapped in a place that ensure’s he gets what he wants and you have to do this over and over and over again as your very body’s reshaped to be whatever he desires at the time blonde, brunette, literal bunny girl. Only its not even just the act itself your forced to cater to every desire he has breakfast in bed you get up, cook and then “gleefully” skip in wearing just an apron as you ask “Would master like breakfast, a bath or me?”.
How long till you just gave up and that constant ripping away of your free will became an accepted part of your existence? Jeanie’s been a genie just as long and while her identity has steadily become more female she still has a lot more free will than Natalie is showing her. Araceli much as I dislike here has been a genie all her life and is willing to go to quite extreme lengths to get what she considers a good master. Natalie’s not going along with this because she’s a bottle genie she’s going along with this because the situation has essentially broken her resistance and she see’s no way out for herself only others.
Remember earlier in the comic when it was stated that Jeanie could be MADE to enjoy being with Guano if it was deemed necessary?
Genies don’t have free will (at least not in the same way humans do), their minds and identities are very malleable
Genatte likes it, she literally doesn’t have a choice otherwise
I’d like to call your attention to panel 2 on page 683… that is not a expression indicating that Genatte likes it.
Well, she could misconstrue some wish of his and have it lead to his violent death…
She can’t. Killing is against the rules, even indirectly.
There are at least three Genie that a Genie isn’t allowed to do and they are:
1. They can’t resurrect people that have already died.
2. They can’t kill people either.
3. They can’t violate a humans will by making them fall in love contrary to there own will.
Here what they can do.
1. After the third wish, they can leave there Master and wait for another Master to get there bottle.
2. Can screw up a Master wish like Jeanie screwed up that Greek Sea Captains withes.
3. If they can get the bottle away from Jean and then cork the bottle for one month and then have somebody else uncork the Genie bottle, then the old Master control over that bottle will be null and void after that.
4. If a Master tries make a wish that violates some other genie rules, then genie isn’t required to honor the wish.
5. There probably a genie loophole for situation like this. We just don’t know what they are.
@Larry: “We just don’t what [the loopholes] are.” Neither does Genatte–but I’m guessing she hasn’t tried all that hard. Being defiant just isn’t as important to her as it is to Jean. Meeting Jean’s demands are just something she has to do that gets in the way of her reading.
Or put another way: To Genatte, granting Jean’s wishes for sex has about as much emotional content as Jeanie granting Neil’s wishes for a sandwich. Irritating (if for different reasons) but not abuse, far from torture. All in a day’s work for a genie, and has been that way for as long as there have been masters and genies. Par for the course. Genatte will live for hundreds of years; Jean is but a mayfly with no imagination.
@50srefugee: Given that a genie is stuck with her master until after the third wish, she obviously has no ability to flee her situation. We simply do not know what Genatte’s mental state is at this point… she was a man, transformed into a woman and promptly forced to have sex with her (formerly) best friend. Her outward appearance might be compliance, but inwardly it’s possible her mind is screaming with revulsion. Also, if she was a compliant counterpart to Jean’s machinations, she probably wouldn’t have warned Jeanie to escape because that would not have pleased her Master.
For Natalie to misconstrue a wish, Jean would have to *make* a wish. We’ve seen no indication that he’s made more than that first “Perfect Wish” — and since it gave him an island where he gets whatever he wants, there’s no *reason* for him to make another wish.
Page 685, panel 3. She specifically states that his second wish had the catch-all phrase.
Oh boy, this is going to end up like a multi verse situation
Quickly Jeanie you have to make love to yourself in the past, so that you don’t make love to yourself in the future!
… Fate is a fickle thing.
Also Neil is getting copied more times then a Star Trek character at this point. I kinda hope these universes don’t colapse into themselves… I rather like this setup with original Neil left behind.
More like, “Quickly Jeanie, stop yourself from bringing Neil or Natalie to the prom. OK to bring back the burgers, even OK to pass the $20 bill from the future, because it was an established fact that the joint got shut down, and you don’t want to mess with that. But…NO PROM!”
Here’s a thought: What if Jeannie can use the “whatever Jean wants, Jean gets” wish herself? She is, after all, Jean, just not the same Jean. While I’m not expecting this to go that way, it would be an interesting loophole to exploit. Can a genie take advantage of someone else’s wish granted by another genie in such a way?
I had this same thought last comic
I don’t think she is “Jean” any more. She is a genie formed from some human named Jean. (That’s not even getting into the alternate timeline/universe that she ended up creating, which branched off from an even earlier version of that human.)
@JT: “I don’t think she is “Jean” any more. She is a genie formed from some human….”Yes. Nor is Genatte Neil, or even Natallie. Talking about them as if they were the orginal humans, regardless of sex or prior inclinations, misses the point.
Rudd’s been doing an excellent job with this timey-wimey story exploring some of the consequences of that.
time for another time trip
Panel three..”because on this island whatever he wants… Does this mean it only works on the island and if Jenaie poofs him off the island he will have to use his third wish to get back and then Natalie can lower the boom.
1) Not sure he’s used two wishes yet.
2) My *guess* would be that Natalie is included in the “whatever he wants” Perfect Wish… though I have no evidence either way.
Also next happentrack around maybe the TV show will be “Dallas.” Who shot Jean R.?
Jeanie, just slip some Dihydrogen Monoxide into jeans water glass. Problem solved. You won’t believe how powerful that stuff is.
Perhaps she can install a Thermidor in his car.
I was actually expecting something from CD today. Well, the sun is up so it is time to go poling for catfish at the lake.
I’m saving my April fools Energy for next years prank.
@Senko: “Put yourself in [Genatte’s] place. You’ve been turned into a girl and forced to spend years? not just having sex with someone who is now magically your master but compelled by your own power to be an eager little companion. ”
I can’t put myself in Genatte’s place, because it is not clear to me how well her genie nature protects her, emotionally speaking, from having to carry out her master’s wishes. I suspect there’s quite a lot of cushioning, because this is most likely the fate of most humans, male or female, young or old, who make the terrible blunder of picking up an interesting looking totem, with no idea of the consequences. I bet that for most of history, most genies presenting as attractive female humans who found themselves saddled with male masters, also found themselves granting some seriously carnal wishes. My guess is Jean is likely about average, maybe a little better than some, because he’s expressed a desire to give his genies their best sex EVAH! as opposed to reveling in the shame, degradation, pain and fear he gets to inflict. (Dare I suggest that Genatte has been trying to scare off this intruder trying to horn in on the great hot tub sexy times?)
@mike: “Genatte obviously does remember what she’d been compelled to do and certainly cared enough to try and warn Neil and Jeanie off.” Yes, she remembers what she had to DO; even Jeanie remembers squealling with pleasure at Jean’s summons to the hot tub. What she does NOT remember is how she felt when she did that. And what Genatte seems to object to more than anything else is how much of her time Jean’s demands take.
thing that bothers me is
is Natalie okay with taking care of her buddy Jean?
one could say that wishing to have sex with someone, even wishing for them to like it is rape
what does that say about Jean/Jeanie?
I doubt that will be touched as it says a lot about the two main characters of the comic
“one could say that wishing to have sex with someone, even wishing for them to like it is rape”.
Jean – I want to believe that everyone wants to have sex with me.
What he wants he gets
So everyone is forced to behave and say things that support Jeans belief, it is just that Jean has no idea of the abuse he is inflicting.
It is the very purpose of genies to grant their masters’ wishes. You get long life and cosmic power–but you have to do whatever your current master wants, for however long his mastership lasts. it’s been made clear that having sex with your master if he so wishes is absolutely part of the deal, or was for hundreds of years. I think Genatte is not exactly traumatized by Jean’s attentions, and that may be because her genie nature shields her against such effects. I hope so. In any event, I’m not sure that what goes on is exactly rape.
Mind, I think Jean is wasting an incredible opportunity on a relatively trivial matter–but he’s the master, and he gets his wishes granted.
If there is anything like rape, it was committed by whoever, or whatever, set up the genie system so that innocent humans can be trapped in servitude like this.
@50srefugee: I don’t recall female genies being a thing before the 20th century (thank you Barbara). Also, unless I’m mistaken the only instance of a mortal being confined to a totem would be Jafar, and that was because he wished for all a genie’s power.
@mike: Two things I don’t have the time to look up: When Guano was giving the Rules to Jeanie, she objected to certain provisions, and even Guano said they were medieval, and weren’t enforced anymore.
Also, there was incident of a preteen European (German?) girl becoming a bottle genie during WWII, and fortunately getting a kindly U.S. soldier as her first master. She completely missed going through puberty, but presented as a woman of about Jeanie’s age right away.
@50srefugee: Yes, I recall those examples. My thought was based on previous fiction and legends, not CD’s current universe. BTW, the genie in question was Jehane. The one with the soldier was Rouyaa (although Andy wasn’t a soldier at the time).
I wonder about the wording of that failsafe wish that Jean made. If he mentioned himself by name, then the protection that he gets from the wish would apply to Jeanie as soon as she identifies herself as also being Jean Nessman. For that matter, if he mentioned Natalie by name, especially if he said, “My genie, Neil,” then whatever applies to Natalie also applies to Neil.
Either or both of these things should be enough to glitch the wishes.
So I wanted to point out that there’s substantial evidence that original Neil also changed the time line with his castling move. If that led to a more confident Neil then throughout the remainder of the time from prom to coco beach Jean has less of a foil which would allow his worse sides to essentially grow unchecked. I think this little detail may be playing a bigger part then we realize just from what we’ve seen so far.
Looking back on this, I think there would’ve been some poetic justice if Jeannie had been forced to stick around long enough to go through what Genie Natalie has been through at least once. As much as she’s horrified by the idea of being taken advantage of like that, her lack of empathy means she still doesn’t really get it. Even going back and sleeping with her high school self isn’t the same, because she actively chose to do it. Being forced to confront firsthand in the most literal possible way how her callous actions affect others would be extremely poetic. Or maybe I just like sexy bad endings and think that Jeannie being forced to serve her male self alongside Natalie would be incredibly hot.