Jeanie Bottle 785
Mar12
Robert’s busy tonight, so I’m posting the comic. Any corrections will be uploaded later by Robert.
EDIT: Corrections uploaded.
Welcome to
Normally Updates Weekly
Usually Tuesday or Thursday
Robert’s busy tonight, so I’m posting the comic. Any corrections will be uploaded later by Robert.
EDIT: Corrections uploaded.
Natalie doesn’t know about Jean yet and Araceli doesn’t know Neil is now Natalie permantly unless Jean comes up with a plan or Rembers to turn him back. And Araceli isn’t talking about Rodge how dense is Neil.
Neil likely assumes Araceli is talking about Liam. And given how “close” Araceli and Liam were during the arc where Neil got swapped into her body, it’s a pretty reasonable assumption for him to make.
Wait what? Which arc was that?
Story 13: I dream of Separation.
While Jeanie dealt with the fallout of being possessed by the Blue Djinn, Caley had wished for Neil to be at her school field trip to NASA. So Araceli ended up putting his mind into her body.
Yeah, I realize that to now sorry about that and thanks for correcting me.
Well this is going to be an awkward conversation once Natalie realizes just who Araceli is talking about.
Plus the part about balancing jobs and relationships is something that Natalie has experience when dealing with rodge (both before and after her hormones were influenced by Jeanie)
When Araceli learns that Natalie is Neil, and becomes Neil’s Djinn, will she still turn Neil into Natalie every now and then, just for Jeanie’s sake?
If it’s for Jeanie’s sake, then it’s only because Jeanie is now her aunt and Queen-to-be, and not out of any affection for her.
A funnier outcome would be if Araceli gets it into her head that Neil WANTS to be Natalie at least part of the time (i.e. wished for Jeanie to girlify him). Then, she could be transforming him and poofing up clothes and accessories and situations all in an effort to help him “enjoy” his feminine side.
Don’t forget, only Jeanie can turn Natalie back into Neil. Araceli doesn’t have the power to undo Jeanie’s magic. And even if she does, she likely would not do it as it would drain way to much of what she has left to her.
Not quite. It’s difficult for one genie to reverse another genie’s magic, but not impossible.
I thought it took a massive amount of magic and therefore genies tend to not want to use such a large chunk of their reserves to undo other genies’ magic as it would shorten their lifespans too much.
Here’s hoping!
You need to watch your step and check your ‘chute before jumping to conclusions.
To be fair to both of them, they aren’t fully aware of each other’s situation. Neil’s advice doesn’t sound all that bad; having to balance out a lot of different things in one’s life is a common practice these days.
Well, here’s what I think the arc will end with.
Jeanie will find some way to stay on Earth despite her new role, and probably will be Neil’s genie again. Thanks to her talk with Natalie, Araceli decides she can spend a lot more time with Neil while still being Caley’s genie. So now he’ll have both ladies around him a lot.
Or it might go the other way, with Araceli spending time with Caley while being Neil’s genie. It’ll be interesting to see how this ends.
Might be easier with her “man” if Jean is really and truly gone—unless Natalie never gets changed back to Neil…
One of the hallmarks of IDOJ (and pretty much all other sitcoms) is that by the end of the episode, everything returns to “normal” or “neutral” or some sort of recurring jumping off point for the next set of hilarious hijinks. It has only been in the last couple of decades where there have been story arcs that progress across multiple episodes. (An exception to this from way-back-when are shows involving young children, since it is really challenging to show them not aging and growing.)
I had planned on saying that if Jeanie & Co. here follow that formula, then Neil & Jeanie will return to their lives somehow, Araceli will proceed with Caley, and so on. However, we’ve already seen in several story arcs that the basic arrangements do not remain static, so my intended comment is moot.
Nevermind. Forget I said anything. I will slink back to the shadows from whence I came….
I wonder how many story ideas CD gets from the various comments people post?
well it is pretty static. which is kind of sad, it is why American’s can’t write tv series. Their excessive adherence to “status que is god” are ruining the very concept of a narrative. Stories are supposed to reach towards a conclusion, a happy one or a sad one but a conclusion.
Films do this, because they are meant to be a closed narrative, but series are open, they are virtually all meant to go on forever.
They end when they get cancelled, which is a failure of the crew. But they are supposed to end because they have reached the end. They are afraid of conclusions, of change. And because of that characters cannot develop, they don’t grow as people and instead distilled into their purest essence. After a number of seasons every sitcom character can be summarised complete into a single line. They are no longer a person but an idea, a pure concept with no debt or form
Be careful of helping Araceli Natalie, because she may help you and Rodge in return and that can have lasting effects.
Isn’t it like a general rule for genies that that sort of thing is forbidden or something?
Yes, they can’t try to counter human will, such as forcing someone to fall in love. However, she could certainly do something external, like transport them both to a tropical island, if she thinks they both want that. So there’s a lot of potential loopholes.
It may depend on what the wish is? Araceli can’t magically make Natalie and Rodge fall in love, but if Araceli is still able to grant Caley’s wishes despite being reassigned to being Neil’s genie, what would result if the wish (or misheard non-wish) were that Natalie and Rodge get married really soon so that she’d officially be Caley’s Aunt Natalie? Alternatively, what if Neil said to Caley that she wished she could be her aunt very soon and Araceli heard it? Would Araceli be compelled to grant the wish despite not realizing Nat is actually her master, Neil?
Araceli is only compelled to grant wishes for her master/mistress. Neil/Natalie uttering something like that would be ignored. On the flip side, there is no reason for Caley to say something like that to a woman she just met (unless you count the night Natalie spent at Rodge’s apartment (page 288) when she said she didn’t like her).
I will admit I don’t remember all the details from the previous story arcs (and don’t have time to go research them), so no doubt I’ll be corrected here.
I’m a bit confused between panels 3 and 4, where it seems Natalie understands Araceli’s new djinn obligations and some way to balance “work” and “relationships”. (I assume this means Natalie has some generic idea how Araceli can serve her new master and still support Caley from time to time.)
And now I realize how blatantly obvious my comment is. Really, I should just slink back to my shadows….
In a previous arc, Neil learned that Araceli is Caley’s “friend,” of course he already knew that she is a genie.
In a different arc, Araceli stuck Neil in her body (without powers) because she thought Caley wished it. During that arc, Neil learned that Liam seemed to have a thing for Araceli and thought that they might be dating.
Fast forward to this arc and Neil is led to believe that Araceli and Liam are an item by Araceli’s awkward comment about being with her man.
What makes this a classic sitcom scenario is that Araceli doesn’t know that Natalie is Neil, and Neil doesn’t know that Araceli has moved into his bedroom.
At least Neil will retain all his closet space.
Nat probably should have asked Rodge if ” he could swim”, looks like he had a bit of a frighting/ humbling experience.
Nat’s got teeth.
As I implied with a comment I made on a different page, Natalie has more backbone than Neil does and I don’t know why.
I think that’s an optimistic opinion. Neil is a pushover for Jeanie’s antics, only ever confronting her once that I recall (the time Guano put Natalie in a collar which might be considered as Natalie stepping up). Since then, Natalie has confronted Jeanie twice, once when the prom night arc began and just now when she tried to put her foot down about going with Rodge. Each time Jeanie persevered, and Natalie had to make do.
So, if protesting and complaining without following through are considered having backbone, then it’s a weak argument.
Well, she did give him a life preserver.
Only because the anchor was on the other end of the boat, and already deployed.
HAHAHAHAHA! I can just picture her throwing him an anchor…
Y’know, Natalie is just much better at being a human than Neil.
If Nat is better than Neil at being human, I wonder if she is still as good an engineer. If the effect is real, I can’t help thinking that there must be a tradeoff. TANSTAAFL, and all.
Natalie has the same engineering knowledge that Neil does as demonstrated in the I Dream of Las Vegas arc.
The tradeoff you suggest might be physiological rather than mental. Neil is a marshmallow while Natalie falls into the swimsuit model category. By being better at being a human, Natalie seems to listen to people more than Neil.
Knowledge isn’t everything. We don’t know how well Nat is able to function as an engineer when working technical problems, especially under stress. We don’t know how creative she would be.
Note that I’m not saying she wouldn’t be as good an engineer as Neil, and I’m certainly not making generalizations about women who choose to pursue technical careers. I’m only speculating about potential tradeoffs.
I agree with your point about listening, by the way. And I also agree with many here who have said she seems to have more spine than Neil.
“Knowledge isn’t everything. We don’t know how well Nat is able to function as an engineer when working technical problems, especially under stress. We don’t know how creative she would be.”
Fair point. However, we haven’t seen much of Neil’s performance as an engineer, either. During the I Dream of Separation arc Neil was absolutely stuck on the fuel consumption issue until Caley provided the inspiration. And then there’s the photocopier in the I Dream of Three wishes arc which demonstrates that neither Rodge nor Neil are all that sharp. I know it’s probably the sexual attraction, but in the I Dream of Las Vegas arc Natalie did seem to be able to connect with Rodge much better than Neil did, even though both Natalie and Neil possess the same knowledge.
[Aracelli and Natalie realize who Nat really is. Aracelli is flustered, but Nat kicks into problem-solving mode.]
“Aracelli, listen. It’s not a prob–listen to me, Aracelli. Listen. I WISH you would stay with Caley and watch over her. She needs a good woman in her life as a guide and role model.”
That’s not a bad idea.
It’s one way to solve the problem of having Araceli underfoot.
Love the banner. Happy St. Pat’s day.
The St. Patrick’s day banner is nice, and the outfit is cute. But the green lipstick is hideous. Never do that again, please.
Even the Pot’O’Gold is green. Only the bottle smoke is untouched.
But, hey-ho! Neil would like it.
Good point, I should fix that.
green smoke is cool.
Ah ha, I have made my contribution to popular culture!
I can retire and just let the adulation and royalty checks roll in.
Would you like that in bitcoin or seashells?
@Shadowrnnr: Bottle smoke would be fine….
Jeanie goes ALL OUT for St. Patty’s day, even if it results in an affront to fashion.
Green lipstick is part of the theme.
It’s a thing.
I’m mildly surprised. Not very, but I’d have expected her to tell another genie’s work.