Monday's comic: No, no, this is fine

[bunsen_h]

Martellus thinks he's solved a problem.

Comments

[bunsen_h]

Instead, he's putting his life in the paws of a cat. Who does not like him.

Not respecting him is a given.

Krosp was surprised, confused, and upset because he found himself able to take a stand against Vapnoople. Martellus was Vapnoople's student but probably lacks his skill. I don't think Martellus will do well with ordering the cat around.

[kelkyag]

The cat was sitting on Seffie's luggage and presumably planning to go with her. Seffie's the one who coos over her and has been taking care of her. This is going to go badly for Martellus whichever way each of them goes. (I'll hazard a guess on Seffie going to Europa and the cat staying in England, because the political marriage plots are more ridiculous if both Trelawney and Seffie are with Gil, whereas the cat is more interesting interacting with Krosp, but both the cat and Krosp going to Europa is plausible.)

And Krosp witnessed that exchange. That'll be an interesting info dump for Agatha & company.

[bunsen_h]

Further thought: Krosp is supposedly able to get other cats to follow his orders, to the limits of their comprehension and memory.

[kelkyag]

Krosp has met her before and didn't think much of her then -- but that was before Martellus modified her. Agatha didn't give her wasp-eater human intelligence and language, though, and the cat didn't speak in this scene, so Krosp may assume she's still more like the wasp-eater and less like himself.

(Apparently she didn't originally have the white markings on her head -- possibly those are scars from the process?)

[bunsen_h]

The marking in panel 4 looks like a little lightning bolt. Perhaps he means that to be a kind of insignia.

A lightning-shaped scar on the forehead could be a Harry Potter joke, of course. :-)

[madfilkentist]

The way Martellus holds the cat shows he still has no clue about them.

[bunsen_h]

It's not a particularly good way of holding any animal of that size. Perhaps his hands are so enormous that he's able to provide lower-body support with his little fingers.

[turbobeholder]

He's more used to dogs… and "little bear things that sang".

[madfilkentist]

This feels disappointing. I'd thought Martellus had something more devious in mind with this cat than just an equivalent of Agatha's weasel.

He still could, of course.

[kelkyag]

Martellus gave the cat voice & human language, and may have tried to give her high intelligence and/or Krosp's "Emperor of All Cats" status. The weasel has none of those, and had attached itself to Agatha before she modified it. (FWIW, the page where Martellus introduced Seffie to the cat is "Introducing the Empress" in storyline selector -- I have assumptions, which may be wrong.)

[madfilkentist]

Here's the page in question. Martellus mentions using the cat as an equivalent to Agatha's weasel, but yes, he must have had something more in mind in giving the cat speaking abilities.

[skybreak]

The new cat doesn't appear to have seen Krosp yet. Will she continue to adore him like she did when they first met? Will she see herself as Krosp's equal, or as a rival?