Grrl Power #634 – Have a nice trip, see you next fall
Sydney handles new situations with aplomb. That or she tries to smack someone with a chair. It’s a toss-up really.
Sydney’s shield is so good. Everyone, even Maxima went for a tumble, and there sits Sydney, composed and cracking wise.
Hmm. Not really sure what else to say about this page. Everything I’m coming up with feels spoilery. The fact that it’s one of those rarest of things, a three panel Grrl Power page, doesn’t help. Maybe if there were six panels of Sydney daydreaming about something there’d be more to discuss. She hasn’t done a cutaway sequence in a while. I guess I better get to it!
I know only a few of you have followed the series all the way through, but it’s like my favorite thing in the world now, so I’m going to keep mentioning it when a new one comes out, which is about once a month, because Michael-Scott Earle is the Fred Perry of novels. (He’s prolific, see?) Anyway, Star Justice book 11 is out now (and it has four long awaited weddings in it, squee!)
Here’s also a link to book 10, which one of the best books in an already great series. When it came out, Amazon screwed up and it wasn’t showing up in related searches, like people looking for other space opera novels or sci-fi action didn’t see it until like 4 weeks after it came out. It’s always the way with novels, each book in a series sells less than the previous one. The avid fans scoop everything up, but everyone else has a chance of dropping away from a series, or they just forget to check for new volumes after a while, and no one starts off a series on book seven. Check the reviews of every series on Amazon. Book 2 invariably has half as many reviews as book 1, but the star ratings go up a bit, because everyone who liked book 1 enough to stick around for the second one is probably going to be a fan of the author’s writing style and characters and everything else. But each book in a series always has fewer review that the one before it. It makes me wonder how Piers Anthony managed 41 Xanth novels. I’m sure the first one sold very well, but the 41st book had to sell about 5% of what the first one did.
So anyway, check that link if you didn’t catch it the first time around. Or just look at the “What I’m Reading” widget over on the sidebar for a link to all 11 books. Or just click here.
If space opera isn’t your thing, that same author’s Tamer: King of the Dinosaurs is really good too, IMO. I mean, obviously, it’s my opinion. I like the books. Maybe you will too.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
So she has presence of mind to crack jokes about the situation, but doesn’t consider extending her shield around her downed teammates? Even if she missed the reflex save to protect them from the initial hit, she should be able to provide them cover now instead of allowing them to continue to be at the mercy of whatever is hitting them? Seems a bit uncool, even if they can take the beating.
I’m not sure she can extend her shield without dropping it first, which might toast her instantly.
She definitely can’t.
She mentioned that the change in air pressure should kill her (but it doesn’t because of reasons), so she can change the size without dropping it. Embiggening the shield now would just shove everyone away from her, though (which sounds like something she should do more often, actually), since she can’t choose to let certain things in.
well, air orb is there for reason
Yeah, but the issue here is having to open the shield in the first place because increasing the size alone doesn’t work.
Correct. The most powerful super in the world could not survive in that environment long enough to complete a single sentence. Without her shield Sydney is just a cute lightweight out-of-shape squishy nerd. However she may embiggen her shield, Halo will have to expose herself to that environment, in order to enclose the others.
Then it becomes a matter of will she succumb to the hostile effects, before she can restore the protection and purge any dangerous elements from the bubble.
It has already been established that Sidney has to drop the shield completely and then raise it back up again to change the area of coverage. Sidney cannot do this and survive when crap that is kicking Maxima’s ass is going on. Nothing uncool about not committing suicide.
I don’t remember that being established. She definitely needs to drop the shield to let anyone else in it though.
Looks like when Sydney is using an orb like the flight or force field she is given confidence relating to the orb.
That is a very interesting take! Obviously having a near-impervious force-field would impart a certain amount of confidence to anybody. However it may well be boosted beyond that, just like the Flyball provides vertigo immunity.
I can think of one instance where Sydney was clearly nervous, whilst inside the shield. Namely when she raised the shield around Vehemence, in order to protect everybody else outside, from the aggro aura. Which was an almost suicidally brave thing to do (thus supporting your contention). However she was clearly apprehensive, for her own life, and backing away as far as she could, until she bumped into the shield wall.
But, you only stipulated ‘confidence’, not ‘foolish fearlessness’. And it would be foolish to have confidence in a force field when the aggressor is on the inside of it, with you! So your argument remains good.
This is something well worth bearing in mind on re-reading any scenes. It could well hold up, under scrutiny.
One exception does spring to mind though. Namely the PPO. Halo was not confident when using that, at the firing range demonstration. However Sydney did reveal that it did not behave like the other orbs, and took extra effort to activate it. Which I originally interpreted as a safety feature. It would be logical to prevent overconfidence with a weapon, as that could lead to careless and possibly dangerous use.
However the previous time that Sydney had used the PPO it had caused a forest fire. So we could propose a variety of reasons why the next use of the orb might suppress a confidence effect. Or simply that it would not be so strong as to completely override intense worry.
I am carefully analysing the PPO side here, simply because we do have a new incident, which lends extra credibility to your proposal. Namely Halo casually blasting Super Buster. That showed no hint of effort, yet was obviously done confidently. Under circumstances where Sciona was already uttering warnings about things going wrong. I.e. where more caution would have been the wiser course.
“And it would be foolish to have confidence in a force field when the aggressor is on the inside of it, with you! So your argument remains good.”
She also got spooked by Vehemence when he punched her force field, because he was a lot faster than she expected him to be. Even though he was on the outside and she was on the inside at that point.
I dont think the orbs have anything whatsoever to do with altering confidence – that’s just Sydney’s normal reaction now that she’s used to having the shield up and knowing how good a protection it really is. Vertigo isnt the same – Vertigo isnt an emotion – it’s a physiological reaction, not an emotional reaction.
Sold points. Plus Sydney was nervous both when Maxima was pounding on the force field, in the ballroom and when about to blast it, even with the big block in front of her.
Regarding Sydney’s blasé use of the PPO in annihilating Buster: that was using a different setting, one that she had used during the Wars Wumble with little apprehension (at least, not until she stopped fangirling over it and saw what was happening, namely Not-A-Bot with a shield and the blasts setting fire to the trees*)
*hmm, don’t recall anyone blaming NAB on starting the fires, when they were clearly the ones deflecting the mini-fireballs
I have to agree. Even if there is nothing Sydney can do to help her friends, her total lack of empathy or concern does strike a very weird tone.
Agreed.
Elsewhere I comment that I use humour for stress relief, in dire circumstances. However to transition straight to that, without any signs of concern, Sydney must have been binge-reading Deadpool comics.
You may also want to mention, as you had mentioned before, that the dude you’re promoting writes harem, which is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea.
When you say “harem” is that a proper noun, as in the name of some book, or a genre, or what? Because your sentence doesn’t make much sense to me, and I’m well aware that the Tamer stories have some guy with a mini-harem* of alien women.
.
.
* So, what’s the point at which a collection of women can properly be called a harem? Three? Five? Twenty? Fifty?
I’ll answer, since The DCG has not…
In this case, Harem is a writing genre (sub-genre, really) in which (typically) a man has some kind of pseudo-magical draw upon the women around him that results in his bedding most, if not all, of the female characters. When done well, it adds a somewhat sexist fantasy-wish-fulfillment angle to a story. More often though, it simply gets old very quickly.
I hesitantly present the following link:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HaremGenre
(insert time-sink disclaimer here)
Technically speaking, any amount of women more than 1 woman is a harem.
Harem just means ‘a group of females that share a single mate.’
Hmm, that appears to be technically correct. ‘Group’ is defined as “two or more figures forming a complete unit in a composition. ex: Went there as a group.”
I’d be hard pressed to recall the last time I heard only two persons called a group, though. We have specific words in the language for a group of two: Pair, couple, and the rather obscure ‘dyad.’ But then both pair and couple can have connotations of a romantic attachment, so I guess punting to group is an option. It just seems a bit off to apply it to only two persons, to me at least.
And a harem of two seems to be a rather poor harem, at best.
It’s the poor economy. You gotta make do with less. :)
And a harem of two seems to be a pretty poor harem.
The site is still having problems, and they appear to be getting worse.
I would be ecstatically happy with a harem of two!
Choices, choices …
Sydney and Krona
Sydney and Peggy
Sydney and Susie News
It’s a minimalistic harem for today’s frugal polygamist.
Weird, most of my posts arent going through.
They probably are. We are all experiencing the same problems. It is most likely the result of changes put in to try and comply with GDPR. Whilst that is a European law, it affects every company which has European customers or users (i.e. including browsers and WordPress).
As such many different sites and programs have been altered within the last week, to ensure they comply. Otherwise they could face fines of up to 4% of their worldwide revenues. Some of the problems folks are experiencing here (the user name and email address not being retained any more) have a direct link to that problem.
That is user-specific data, which GDPR requires that companies protect. Or, as seems the solution here, they opt to no longer retain.
What is affecting you though is a delay.* The posts are probably there, you just have to force them to display. The usual technique of F5 and Ctrl F5 are not an ideal solution, as the delay affects them too. So if you refresh the screen, just after posting, the comment is still not there.
Being too impatient to wait before doing that, I usually switch to another page and back (be that comic page or comments page, as may be more convenient).
* Because most programming resources will be focused on GDPR compliance, at the moment, there will be little left to reduce websites/browser lag caused by potentially big changes needed to comply with GDPR (and any regular updates which may have come out at the same time).
I feel like Syd will eventually have to deal with the arrogance she’s bound to get from that shield. Yeah, maxima is tough, and dabbler is an unknown to her in most every way, but this is magic here. They could both be dead, and she’s cracking jokes. I really wanna see her have to deal with this.
The same way she deals with everything. She’s not been trained to be military discipline and until told is fully aware of nothing.
Need at least one death…. Just to crack Sydney’s living in a comic book Dreamworld…. When they get back some asks Sydney “Hey where’s…. ” And she really takes it in the feels…
It would if the comic was in any sort of way dark. It isnt the style, it wouldn’t match, only a severe albeit comical training montage or a minor consequence would be logical for these events.
The problem with being a squishy normal with an impenetrable force field is that there’s very little in the way of degrees allowed. Sydney is either going to shrug off whatever comes at her, or if it drops her shield she is going to be dead. About the only in-between we’ve seen so far is when Sciona’s first robot knocked the roof out from under her and she bumped her ass on her rebreather. And that’s just a “for humor” ‘injury,’ not something that can be treated seriously.
It’s the old Superman dilemma: How do you challenge someone who can’t be hurt? A lot of stories centered around the fact that Superman can’t be in two places at the same time. Sydney might have to figure out how to help an injured team mate (or civilian) while remaining inside the force field. That sort of thing.
Those must be tea kettle runes on the floor, given the position everyone’s assumed over them.
*slow clap* +1
CONGRATULATIONS! You made the 666,666th comment on Grrl Power!
*inspects Iarei for horns, hooves and cloven tail*
*sniffs to check for sulphur smell*
Seems all clear. I’ll skip the tea though. Seems a bit dodgy.
Isn’t that just Dabbler?
Also you’re racist.
Dabbler doesn’t have a sulphur smell and
clovenpointy tail. That is reserved for bad demons.Yep, definitely racist.
Hey, if they pick up the sulphur smell from Hell that is a helpful way of telling that they are not nice demons. And any good demons, who happen to work in sulphur mining (or industries using sulphur), should take care to wash better!
If they are too lazy to do that, then they are not being good.
…. are half of them gonna blow away in infinity war dust now…?
No, we’ve still got 7 years until its release in universe.
We have had reference to a couple of films which should not have occurred yet, in the Grrlverse, if it was exactly mirroring ours. So it seems that at least one super (or supernatural) or mad scientist is influencing that industry’s creative output. Causing some film projects to come about earlier than they might otherwise have been available.
every gamer in existence knows this situation. the scrub, the noob, the spaz, whatever you call them, the one person you have to plan AROUND, makes the save that everyone else fails. that’s when you just sit back, sip your beer/soda/coffee/water, look at the DM and say “be merciful.” even if said DM is already smiling.
(will be posting a comment once I get permission to insert a link)
Even if your GM smiles like this?
»Only a few of you follow the series all way through?«
What do you think!? I have discovered this comic just a week ago. Did binge that whole stuff in a couple of days (completely lost it) and now I’m addicted. “Only a few follow all way through…” You are vastly underestimating the pull of a good story. Is anybody here who has not devoured every fucking panel?!
Eight years of work! How could I have missed that? I tip my hat on that. Very seriously tipping it.
Dave is referring to the Star Justice series he’s been touting, not his own. One can assume everyone who is reading these comments is currently a fan of this comic.
But Dave is right about fall-off over time. Even webcomics like this can lose readers. I’ve dropped many.
Some that I was a fan of I’ve pulled away from, simply due to time constraints. Sometimes I need a break, or I might prefer to read it in chunks, and just never get back to it. I used to lose track of a lot a comics every time a computer died, and I had to refind/reset favorites on a new machine. That doesn’t happen so much now that I have a Comic Rocket account.
Now I find that comics I’m unable to read through the Rocket due to format do tend to fall away pretty quickly.
Don’t know if anyone covered this in the first page of comments (due to time limits, I only ever read the current page), but Piers avoided the reader fall-off problem two ways.
First, is that he wrote every Xanth novel, though set in the same universe, as a stand alone. I think only the first two kept the same protagonist – after that each novel follows someone “new” (often a secondary character in a previous book gets promoted), though established characters show up as cameos, so there is a balance of appeal to new and old.
Second is by being a best-selling author, so every library in the country bought one or two copies so the fans that wanted them would not complain. And new Xanth novels would be prominently displayed in bookstores, so he found new readers to replace lost ones.
And also, Xanth appeals to anyone who loves puns and there is not a lot of choice in reading material for those who like this sort of punishment, so his hardcore fans probably fall off less than some others might…
That said, I only like puns and stopped reading after the 6th or so in the series.
Stopped reading at the Zombie King book, where his dirty old man ideas became too much (this was years before the Twilight rubbish of a hundred year old vamp chasing after an 18 year old)
Have never read Xanth, but the popular Discworld series is much the same in making the books each stand on their own, while also including lots of easter eggs for those who know the characters and other stories.
Awe… no internal monologue including tangents of pop culture, comic culture, anime, cosplay, and pure zanieness? Dancing Batmetal to a polka tune? Search your feelings, Dave… you know something like that would be awesome sauce!
Seems like Maxima and Harem were both going to say “us,” or “the team,” or something. Because if they meant around Sydney herself then I’d expect something more along the lines of “Sydney, get your shield up!” Concise and to the point. The word ‘around’ makes the phrasing awkward and the meaning suspect, to this reader at least.
Sydney already had her shield on herself.
Were Max and Dabbs about to say the same thing or counterdict each other?
Just another instance showcasing the contempt Dabbler has for Maxima, shouting out orders to members of the team when Maxima, the supposed ranking officer and leader of all combat mission, is right there.
It also demonstrates Maxima’s utter lack of leadership skills in that she is completely unable to shut down this sort of insubordinate behavior. And since she fails so hard Maxima then retreats into childish insults about Dabbler’s sex life instead of stepping up and establishing herself as a strong leader.
Some leaders encourage specialists to speak up, when in life-or-death situations which fall within their area of specialist knowledge. And to give orders directly, if there is no time to discuss the matter.
Not all do though, due to the possibility of contradictory orders being given, in a crisis.
I know that Admiral Nelson was of the former variety though. His leadership style proved to be pretty effective.
I feel confident that neither Admiral Nelson nor any other “pretty effective” leader ever stood for a subordinate yelling orders at the same person at which they were yelling orders.
But Maxima just got her objections to the de-legging shot shrugged off as though her statements of policy were just opinions and didn’t do anything about it. So it appears as though the ground has been laid for this interpersonal dynamic.
Yea, Maxima probably should do more to establish her authority with Dabbler. Not that there was really the opportunity there.
question, is Maxima knocked out with her ass in the air like that or is she getting up…. this is very important.
I think it’s Harem’s arse in the air in the last panel rather than Maxima’s (based on a comparison with the previous panel).
Both arses actualy.
…..Dammit… I could be Harem…. and she would just naturally fall like that… is that a kind of super power? like how male protagonists in some animes have the “somehow fall down and end up with your face or hand in a suggestive place” power, maybe Harem has the “collapse in a high sexually suggestive way” power?
Now imagine her “falling all over herself”.
If you insist.
Looks like she is attempting to get up after falling flat on her bumpers, either that or someone or something in the cloud is lifting her up…
So @DaveB , when are you going to fix the Cast Page? I knew there was a scale there to show how strong certain aspects like shields where, so I thought to take a look at it again, only to notice / remember that that page was dead.
It has been dead for a long time now, but I do hope it is possible to bring it back (also because the web-archive also didn’t have a copy available: https://web.archive.org/web/20171019032822/https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/castpage )
While-writing-edit:
I found this archive post that DID show the correct version, so for those interested, you can still see things here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170606160937/https://www.grrlpowercomic.com:80/cast
This is the most up-to-date version I could find.
Awesome archive research!
Presently we are making use of the wiki, as our best substitute. But I have bookmarked the latter link. It will be especially useful to ensure that the wiki has the correct info. Most of it was right, but I found something which appeared to be an omission. Drawing a blank right now mind.
Not going to have time to spare myself sadly. Going to be pretty busy preparing to emigrate back to the UK shortly.
…yea, that Power level on Sydney will definitely need revised as we just saw her shield is tougher than Maxima.
Mmm, not necessarily. There is a big degree of play within each of the rating categories. Super Hiro and Stalwart for instance are both four star strength, but Stalwart can consistently beat Hiro.
So long as Maxima’s force field remains capable of overcoming all four star attacks (super strength, energy blasts, martial arts blows etc), it is right to stay as a five star defence. And it cannot go any higher than that, because the next category (as best we can tell) represents ‘infinite’. Given that Achilles appears to have absolute invulnerability.
Not even sure which side of the portal it’s on, but what is the team going to do with Sciona’s severed foot? She needs to get to a mage working on it quick to have any chance of reattaching it, but she’s probably the only one there who could fix it and I can’t imagine the team wanting to give her the space and resources to do so.
Sciona will just regrow it. She has powerful regeneration (with the troll blood etc that she injected). Not the weak ‘severed bit must be re-attached so that it can heal’ flava.
Doubtful! Wouldn’t his body have regenerated through hers if that was the case, especially over a period of (assumed) years?
No, the troll blood was injected into her ogre body, we don’t know if she thought to add it to the new syringe
Dabbler believes that to be the case. She has numerous ways of telling such things (we saw her using a batch of them to examine Halo’s orbs). If Dabbler calls it that Sciona can regenerate, that is good enough by me.
As per Viirin’s statement though we know that regeneration is not an intrinsic property of the Alari body, otherwise she could have just regrown a new one, when she found herself missing one. So, for Dabbler’s belief to be valid, that multi-blood shot would have had to include either troll or Pixel regeneration blood.
The injection clearly had eight different sorts of blood, of which we could only read the labels for a minority. Beyond that we saw what was likely Cthillia’s death gaze. However there are clearly others we have not discovered yet. Of which regeneration would be a foolish one for Sciona not to have included.
However I do concede that Dabbler may simply be mistaken (we have seen that she is fallible). She is smart though, so I am happy to place my bet on her call.
No, that is Dabbles being dismissive: she has never met Sci before, she was not at the Wars Wumble, and she most certainly did not see Sci inject herself, so unless she has had intimate (of more than just the sexual kind) knowledge of Alari then she don’t know shit!
By the way, doubt that that was Lia’s Death Gaze, as it did not match up with what happened to that warlord (which is the only time we have seen it being used)
You are forgetting that Krona had transcripts of the events which occurred, logged by her power. Which Dabbler has subsequently examined in exhaustive detail, to find out what went wrong with Krona’s checkpoint reset. Included within that was Sciona saying ‘troll blood does you good’. Being smart Dabbler could have inferred what that was boasting about.
Plus I specified that:
With ‘analyse magic’ running Dabbler may be able to tell every effect that Sciona has invoked by her blood magic. So super strength, death beams, regeneration, and others that she has not yet demonstrated.
The fact that Dabbler was so perplexed at her analytic capabilities totally failing, against the orbs, indicates that she is used to them normally being effective. So my reasoning is plausible, as that would be a very sensible capability to deploy when fighting a mage, and it is one that we know Dabbler does have.
Plus we have never seen Dabbler lie before. She knows Sciona can regenerate. So all we need do is figure out how she knows that, not if. The chat logs are a near certainty*, the analyse magic a possibility.
Finally there is simple observation. Sciona was beaten to a pulp, by Maxima’s punch. Then got visibly better. We are only seeing snapshots, so the process should be a lot more obvious to someone witnessing the wounds being regenerated in front of them.
* Even if it only logged things that Krona could hear, Halo did have an open communications channel to Krona.
So the only way it would not appear in the chat logs is if the transcripts did not record events affecting each person from the checkpoint (whereas I got the impression that it did, which was why Krona was checking it to find out what had triggered the recall) and if Sydney had also closed the connection.
As closing the connection is an extra step (which we did not observe) it is more reasonable to take it that the channel was still open.
There was a thread, at the time, discussing this. The consensus reached being that it was likely the same. The key points in favour being:
1) They are both gaze attacks (fairly rare).
2) They are both blue.
3) Cthillia did work for Sciona, and we have seen that Sciona takes blood from employees, whether they agree or not.
4) The differences could be accounted for by Sciona only having access to the basic power. Whereas Cthillia would have developed various power stunts and refinements, with years of use in her career. So would have figured out ways to see her targets.
Likewise Cthillia may have made hers stronger and otherwise tweaked it in ways that would make it look a bit different, as a side effect.
The table top gaming session, at the beginning of the comic, having pointed out that supers who copy powers do not also get any power stunts. They just get the power, not any experience or skill at using it.
Yes, can totally see how they are the same: after all, they are both the same colour (no, they’re not) and function the same way (no, they don’t)
Yes it is blue. Yes it does have a similar effect.
Which is my point. Scthillia has learnt how to use her gaze attack in more than one way, and it has different appearances in each mode.
Huh? Guesticus has you six ways to Sunday here. There is no “similar effect” between ‘blaster beam that knocks a portion of wall away’ and ‘heart attack inducing beam.’ If Cth had used the blue beam on the king all that would have remained would be a greasy smear on the ground and a lot more questions about his demise, not an older, out of shape man dead from a heart attack.
*climbs back up on chair*
Wow, sorry, I fell right off that, what with you agreeing with Guesticus.
My original contention:
Compare this scene with this scene. Ignore the one that Guesticus decided to link, for the moment. Those two blue beams are emitted from the eyes, and appear to have a blast-like power. This is wholly consistent with the claim I made that Sciona probably took some of Scthillia’s blood and replicated that power.
There are differences. However the similarities are striking enough that the logic I laid out previously can account for them.
Now, to turn back to the scene Guesticus linked, we can, separate to the above conclusion, figure out that Cthlia’s death gaze can be used in more than one way. One is to induce heart attacks, the other is as a type of blaster attack.
Following the line of reasoning that Sciona has copied the base power (which would be the way Scthillia first manifested it, before making any refinements) then it was probably a blue blaster-like attack initially. Only later would Scthillia have developed the other version.
Or, it is possible, that she has two distinctly different powers. Both of which happen to be emitted from her eyes. I think it less likely however. Either way though, it makes no difference to the fact that the blue gaze attack was probably copied from Scthillia.
Okay, had forgotten the second beam attack, because they are not the same, and you said “Death Gaze”, which the *ZORCH* is clearly not
And no, we can not ‘figure out that Cthlia’s death gaze can be used in more than one way’, her death gaze clearly simply causes death (probably by inducing a heart attack) whereas the *ZORCH* is clearly a physical attack
Fair enough.
For info I am likely to carry on calling Scthillia’s gaze a ‘death gaze’ as I am not particularly fussed about whether you kill someone by blasting them into little gibbets or if you make them have a heart attack. It is a convenient handle that covers both.
By the way I should point out that it was someone more insightful than me who drew the connection between Sciona’s gaze and Scthillia’s. Which was made with Halo-like clarity and swiftness.
I have merely been paraphrasing the conclusions which we drew in the relevant thread.
Her ‘death gaze’ is merely one aspect of her ability, the other is the *ZORCH* beam
Agreed. However I shall not change my terminology. She can use either version to kill so I shall refer to it as a death gaze. The PPO’s name does not change from “Pew Pew Orb” when it is being used as a tank-melting beam versus a multiple fireball launcher.
Should I feel the need to distinguish between modes I will use ‘heart attack gaze’/’blast attack’ or some similar descriptions.
I know this is going to be difficult for you to understand, but my criticisms of Guesticus are not baseless. I criticize her when she says stupid stuff, because stupid stuff shouldn’t be allowed to stand unchallenged. And because someone was wrong on the Internet. But I don’t allow that to color my reactions to everything she says. And in this case it’s quite clear that Guesticus is right and you are wrong.
Well, in the face of you providing such ‘overwhelming’ evidence, in support of your case, there is little point in me arguing.
*making air quotes with paws*
But I am every so glad you and Guesticus are besties now!
*offers a group hug*
*hangs head*
I feel guilty now. I should have risen above the temptation, and been the better dog. I is weak.
*wheezes and coughs*
I just remembered one. Telling the press conference about her ‘battle form’.
However she was doing that to allow herself to openly use her multiple limbs and other advantages. Which would benefit the unit, in allowing her to operate more freely in public. Plus reduces the risk of the unit being compromised if she had been spotted by paparazzi, at a time when they thought they were in private.
So the lie was not one which should harm her credibility within the unit. That lie was to their benefit (as well as Dabbler’s, of course, in letting her use her normal form freely). Yet she has freely volunteered much information, which she need not have.
For example telling “X” how she was able to detect her presence. Likewise warning Sydney about her hypnoboobs (to prevent her from becoming enamoured and doing something she might later regret). Both of which diminish Dabbler’s options, should she wish to be disreputable.
Plus none of the statements have proven to be exaggerated.
And re-reading it, humorously so. If you check out when Maxima gave the example of banning a school teacher because she could put out a fire with her mind. And someone said ‘I cannot think of any way that could be used to harm anyone’.
To which Dabbler whispered to Sydney “Unless you are a fire elemental”.
At that time Sydney was not privy to classified information. And we, the readers, were likewise unaware that the supernatural were real. So this played as an innocuous joke to a nerd.
Yet that was a statement describing an actual way of using that power as a weapon, against a faction of the Twilight Council!
Sydney has openly stated she’s a gamer, during the initial interview when deciding to invite her to join ARC. And as a gamer and comic-book reader she’s genre-savvy about use of powers in combat. If they ever figure out how to control her ADHD she would make an excellent team leader.
Hit enter too quickly. Sydney said she was a gamer when Dabbler was present so if Dabbs understands that then she knew Sydney would “get” the fire elemental reference.So not revealing information above her pay grade.
Although they were right in front of the world’s press when Dabbler whispered that comment. So there was the possibility of it being picked up by one of their more sensitive microphones.
But even then the remark could have been dismissed, for exactly the same reasons, thanks to Sydney having established her nerd-cred to the press up-front. So Dabbler could get her giggles, knowing that she was violating the most binding law of the Twilight Council and the biggest secret that her employers were concealing. Yet without any risk.
The only way she could top that is if she could find some way to tell the world about this secret society of monsters, living amongst humanity, and yet have everyone think that it was just a story. ;-)
Anyone else slightly concerned that the magic lightning storm that’s strong enough to take down Dabbler, Maxima, a juicing Scionia, and Hiro, all of whom are invulnerable, also hit Harem, who’s a squishy human.
Nah. Nothing gets through Mr Bubble – including magic.
Harem, not Halo. And Korben600 is correct that Harem (normally) lacks special defences. Hiro is pretty tough, but does fall well short of Maxima’s capability (when she focuses on defence). Clearly Maxima was concerned about that though, so it is fair to assume she had her full five star defence up (compared to Hiro’s three).
Dabbler is actually the one I am most worried about. Simply because her primary defensive capability is her shield, and we can see she did not have that manifested (and would have only protected from one direction, so probably would not have helped her here in any event).
Dabbler does have a variety of other capabilities though (such as debuff resistance). So may be able to survive this, if one of her (as yet unused) abilities turns out to help.
Harem has one ability which could have boosted her survival chances here though. Namely that each body she dismisses increases her toughness (we mostly mention her strength, but it actually boosts both, per Dabbler’s Science Corner #2).
So if she was quick enough, whilst Dabbler and Max were trying to get Sydney to shield them, Harem could have been dismissing various bodies, in order to make all the remainder stronger.
Assuming that she still has her quantum link with her other bodies, and has not been cut off from them.
If she has though, then perhaps she will presently be functioning as if she had dismissed all the rest of her bodies? Which would make her sixteen times as tough and strong as normal. Strength wise that places her on a par with Anvil (three star strength). So it is reasonable to assume the same for her toughness.
Taking that as corresponding with the usual defence ratings, Harem may actually be as tough as Super Hiro at the moment!
But she might be in another reality now as Halo suggests, so if she unteleports a body, especially the one present (or the other 4) then she would be stuck in a single universe.
If Daphne had had the presence of mind to dismiss a body, the most sensible body to dismiss is this one, the one in immediate danger of who knows what: no point making it 16 times stronger if the air itself is toxic
Very true.
However it would also be abandoning the team. And she had no idea just how dangerous the situation was, until everyone fell over. So prior to that she may have just wanted to boost her survivability, but without deserting her unit (quite a serious offence, especially in mid-battle).
Viirin also makes good points. However there is no need for her to dismiss all of her other bodies. She could have just dismissed three of them, which would give the remaining two (one in Kansas, one in Oz) eight times the toughness.
All, as I say, requiring that Harem’s connection to her other selves remains intact and is following the usual rules.
Another alternative is that she has permanently been severed from them. And, in this universe, operates as if she had never created duplicates (and thereby gets no benefits, including the one from putting duplicates into storage).
The plus side though is that she may be able to create more duplicates now (if she has survived). Possibly just the one (as previously it took years in between creating each duplicate). Or maybe another four (as she has already unlocked that capability).
With the complication of how that may affect things if she returns to Kansas. Would there be two separate Harem group minds? The original four Harem-Kansas and the new five Harem-Oz.
She can’t help her team if she ends up dead or incapacitated as well!
It’s great that you love Sydney so much, butt it’s not great that it’s okay for her to ‘save herself’ and help the fallen later butt not okay for Harem to basically do the same
Elsewhere I have pointed out that airlines go to lengths, in their safety demonstrations and printed cards, to tell people that they must put on their air masks first, before assisting other people. This is an absolutely vital principle which must be followed, in any emergency where everybody is at risk of falling unconscious or dying.
This has absolutely nothing to do with any bias. If the person capable of rendering aid fails to prioritise their own life support system first, then they will succumb to the hostile environment and everybody will die!
At no point, anywhere to do with this scene, have I made a claim to that effect.
Check out my quote:
This expresses approval at Harem (potentially) doing the same as Sydney is (by dismissing extra bodies to increase her toughness). Prioritising staying conscious and alive is vital in such a situation.
Fleeing the battlefield though gets soldiers shot for desertion, in the face of the enemy, if it is done without orders. Whilst there are circumstances where a tactical withdrawal is acceptable, I was expressing approval at Harem choosing to stay on the battlefield, rather than escaping.
I have been consistently impressed with Harem’s conduct in this engagement, and have expressed that in the prior scene as well (supporting her decision to shoot at Sciona, despite Maxima’s close proximity).
For Harem escaping a battle by dismissing (or teleporting away) the body in question can effectively negate her ability to return in time to help, in any way. If the next closest body would take half an hour to get back to the wilderness base, the engagement could have been long over.
Plus the rift may have closed up (or gone cataclysmically out of control) in the meanwhile.
So Harem was brave to stay, and face the same risks as the rest of the unprotected team, whether or not she was boosting her toughness, at the same time. She had another option available and chose not to take it.
Pertinent quote
However it would also be abandoning the team. And she had no idea just how dangerous the situation was, until everyone fell over.
Point being: it’s okay for Sydney to just watch her colleagues yell for help (and do nothing) butt not okay for Harem to save herself
You call it ‘being brave’? When in fact it was stupidity: again, how can you save others if you allow yourself to succumb as well?
No puppy, you can not have it both ways
I am really failing to see what you are getting at here? Do you think Harem should have deserted her unit?
As for Sydney’s response, all she has done is make a joke in poor taste. Which is not commendable. Talking is a free action though, so no time has been lost by this quip. Therefore you will have to wait until Monday to find out if ‘she does nothing’. We have yet to see what response she takes.
Had she lowered her shield however, and been overcome by the environment, then all we would see Monday is her lying on the ground with everyone else. So not a very interesting page. And one that could potentially result in the whole team dying!
Is that what you are after? Seriously. What do you think Sydney should have done (other than ‘not make a joke in poor taste’)?
She had enough time to watch her friends fall, one attempt to get up, look around at something else and then make the quip
Not talking about what Sydney did, talking about how it’s okay for Sydney to remain safe butt not okay for the other squishy non-durable member to get to safety
The latter aspect is just down to history. Armies operate in areas where death is a common risk. So there are rules which prohibit running away from it, without orders.
In Sydney’s case she was in a place of safety, so that was not an issue. She started to get an order, but it was not completed.
So you are not comparing like to like. Harem’s situation was different to Sydney’s. Harem’s only route out of the dangerous situation would be classed as desertion. Halo was awaiting orders (and assessing the situation and deciding how to act).
Plus, before the orders were completed, Halo got to see that the situation is likely to be too dangerous, for her to be effective, without the protection of the shield. Due to seeing the most powerful super in the world collapsing right in front of her!
On top of which Sydney now appears to be the only member of the team still operational. Meaning Halo is the defacto commander, so can choose what to do next.
Possibly she may decide to risk exposing herself to the environment, in order to rescue them. Or maybe others are right and there is a way for her to expand her shield without that risk.
If not, she could play it safe, and pick everyone up, with the tentacle, and try going back through the portal with them.
We shall have to wait and see.
Mmm, trying to think more on the point you are making, here is a joint thought process which either could have made:
1) This seems to be a dangerous and possibly deadly environment.
2) Can I flee from it? Our unit commander is clearly intending us to stand our ground. Therefore fleeing would be deserting.
3) If I can determine that this is deadly dangerous, I can justify fleeing, even without an order. Sydney probably omitted any thoughts of fleeing, due to her confidence in the shield. I need to assess the situation.
4) I should ensure that my power protects me, whilst I do that.
5) … (Everyone falls over). [Sydney makes her joke in poor taste]
6) Sydney still has the option to take actions, as she is still conscious.
With an edit button, I would have split 2) & 3).
Leaving it is as is for Harem (with evasion* being a justifiable first thought for any teleporter). But having Sydney’s thoughts instead focusing on whether she could comply with what Maxima seemed about to order her to do. Which was covered earlier, being ‘if I lower my shield, to let them in, I will be exposed to that and probably die’.
Just like Harem though, before the assessment and decision can be completed (note Maxima and Dabbler did not even get to finish their sentence), everyone has already fallen over.
* Note normally Harem could evade by teleporting somewhere else in sight. Here though everywhere looks just as dangerous. So the only alternative is fleeing completely.
I can’t figure out why Sydney looks disgusted/angry that they’d suggest she shield them?
I don’t think she’s meant to look angry. The eyelash sticks out in a single line at the end, making it look like it’s bent down in an angry expression. Look at her eyebrows instead.
It’s her mouth that gives that impression, not her eyelash
I think the expression is more a
“Wait… what? I’m not sure what’s going… not processing this fast enough…?”
And to be fair, there’s enough destruction and scene change going on around her where if she dropped shield, she’d likely lose her own life. If she had time to think, she might realize a blast from the air orb could possibly protect her long enough for a quick drop and re-deploy.
It is surprise, at them lunging at her, whilst saying that (per the author’s reply to a similar comment, on the previous comments page).
Plus the fact that, to do so, Sydney would first have to lower her shield (at which point she would die or otherwise be affected by whatever it is that is harming them). As Sydney is a lot more squishy than those two (who are two of the most powerful supers on Earth), without her shield up, it is unlikely that Halo would survive long enough to adjust the size setting, using the embiggener glyph, and then raise the shields. So none of them would be helped by her doing that.
Not sure that she has to first take down a shield then put one up, or if the change in size is instantaneous. From how it looked at the press demonstration, it ‘seems’ to be instantaneous, although that might just have been something we didnt see off-panel.
However, she also had an adjusted size of the shield with Vehemence, which seemed to be instantaneous as well.
We have seen the force field in the process of being gradually lowered (in an upward direction), one row of panels popping out of existence at a time (also at the press demonstration). So we know that aspect is not instantaneous. However it would be a lot faster in an emergency situation, as we know the orb’s powers do respond rapidly, when there is a need.
I detail how I envisage the process works here. Where you will see that it can appear to have been achieved instantaneously, even though it was just done very fast.
However the alternative that you are suggesting is equally valid. But if the shield just teleported into the embiggened size then there are some things to consider:
1. It now becomes an offensive weapon. Set the embiggener to deliberately form where someone is standing and Halo can bisect them.
2. The same thing can also happen accidentally. Although the orbs are pretty responsive to Sydney’s desires, so that is less likely. However they are not infallible. We saw that Math was able to get Sydney’s leg into the path that the orbs were orbiting in, causing them to strike and injure her. As such if someone is bumped out of position, by any means, they could find themselves cut in two.
3. The problem about letting the hostile environment in does not go away, even if the force field does teleport to the bigger configuration position. Because all the purple stuff that was outside of the field, around Maxima, Dabbler, and the others, would now be inside the shield, also affecting Sydney.
Either technique would have worked with the Vehemence scene, exactly as we saw it. I still favour the method I outlined in my link though, simply because it replicates the mechanism we saw at the press conference.
Plus this is the first situation where the distinction between the two techniques would become important. The risks from bringing in a small volume of unknown purple stuff being less than full (if brief) exposure to the entire environment (including the lighting). Sydney’s behaviour is much more in keeping with it being the greater risk.
“We have seen the force field in the process of being gradually lowered (in an upward direction), one row of panels popping out of existence at a time (also at the press demonstration).”
No, we have not. We do not know if that was gradual or instantaneous. In fact, the evidence seems to lend itself more to its being instantaneous, since Maxima wound up being caught IN the shield at first.
“So we know that aspect is not instantaneous.”
We don’t know that. You’re making an assumption. Honestly, unless DaveB says so or someone in the comic says so, there’s no way to show proof of it, in fact, since it’s not animated.
“However it would be a lot faster in an emergency situation, as we know the orb’s powers do respond rapidly, when there is a need.”
In many sci fi shows except for some, like Star Trek (and Star Trek usually doesnt know how to do science), a force field IS instantaneous. In fact, in some Star Trek episodes, ‘extend the shield around the other ship’ is also istantaneous as well. Only time I’ve seen it not be in scifi is where a force field is being used as some sort of death trap where it’s closing in on someone inside. Common trope, actually.
“We saw that Math was able to get Sydney’s leg into the path that the orbs were orbiting in, causing them to strike and injure her. As such if someone is bumped out of position, by any means, they could find themselves cut in two.”
Actually DaveB has specifically mentioned (I’m not sure where but I recall he did mention this) that there are safeguards specifically to prevent someone from being cut in half. Probably the orbs are preprogrammed to prevent stuff like that from happening. Which also lends creedance to the idea of it’s formation (and resizing) being instantaneous as well.
“The problem about letting the hostile environment in does not go away, even if the force field does teleport to the bigger configuration position.”
She literally has an orb which can create a bubble of a safe environment as well.
“Because all the purple stuff that was outside of the field, around Maxima, Dabbler, and the others, would now be inside the shield, also affecting Sydney.”
You’re forgetting her life support orb. Sydney can use two orbs at a time.
The shield being lowered (upwards), slowly … BYOOP … BYOOP … BYOOP.
Ooh. Good point. I had not considered that. With several days to think about it. Sydney had a couple of seconds.
Plus we have no idea whether providing fresh air will clear whatever it is that has zonked everyone out.
Worth a try though.
Although if it does not work then Sydney could die. But she is heroic, so with an option that could be survivable, it is a matter of shouldering the risk.
Quite different to dying for no reason.
Piers Anthony got so many books out of that series because they basically devolved into porn. It hardly mattered if you had read them in order, because the only reason you were reading them at all was for the Magical sex scenes that were typically plot-independent.
Max and Dab got nice round butts!
And you cannot lie.
Which one said ‘Ow!’ ?
Maxima said ‘Oof!’
Dabbler said ‘Ug!’
Hiro didn’t say anything as he was flung around like a rag doll.
Sciona likewise said nothing.
I know that Achilles and the blonde Harem were there, but not sure if the person who said ‘Ow!’ is either of them, or someone else like Heatwave (Brooke). Not sure if that’s red hair or if it’s inside jacket lining.
Anyone know who the ‘Ow!’ person is? I’m assuming it’s a woman because the waist seems slender, but it’s hard to tell from the side, given that Achilles isn’t massively built, unlike Hiro and Stalwart.
My ‘guess’ is it’s Harem and the red is the inside liner of her jacket, but I’m honestly not sure.
Comments?
You got it: Harem with her jacket flipped over her head
Agreed.
For info Dave has stipulated that the only people who are present are those we can see, and also confirmed that Achilles is not one of them.
Given that Harem and Achilles are the only ones similar enough in size that they could be mistaken, that narrows it down to being Harem above. Plus she has a shapelier waistline than him. :)
Also missing, and presumably back in ‘Kansas’, is Mr Amorphous. I don’t recall Stalwart being on the Alpha team, but don’t fancy looking back through to confirm that. Whilst Dave did not specify who had joined it initially, by now we should have seen each member at least once, for it to be credible that they have been with them all the time.
I wonder if a Star Trek style teleporter would even work on Achilles.
Think about it. It requires disassembly and reassembly. Achilles is utterly invulnerable to the subatomic level though. He can’t be ‘disassembled’ in order to be ‘reassembled’ elsewhere.
That could well explain his absence! Mr Amorphous is missing too, but he may just have been too far away to be affected, given we have not seen him for yonks. He could have been playing with manikins, elsewhere.
Your nerd cred is now rated so high that I think you should take your next holiday as a scuba diving trip, off the Florida Keys. I think you would find a bunch of orbs swimming up to you!
We’re still in flashback so be sure to keep in mind who we’ve seen and who we haven’t seen before signing off people as dying from this.
The only people we have seen ‘from the future’, has been Maxi, Anvil and Wart, two of whom are not here (apart from Sydney of course)
I think you mean this page https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/60
Yes, and while Wart is not named, he’s the only one who matches the appearance of the guy in the background
Looks like Lucus to me.
*scratches head with paw*
Oh … the other guy. Gotcha.
We’re supposably still in the Flashback. That flashback only showed like one, maybe two pages of the “current’ world, and we haven’t seen the comic shop staff in awhile. The only clue that this might still be a flashback is that Sydney was wearing a wrist-mount for her cell-phone in the pre-flashback, and she’s not wearing one currently. However, this doesn’t have to be some fancy military gadget. It could simply be she tried using one of these gizmos or one like it to try and remove fears of dropping her cellphone while flying (I use one like it for riding on my motorcycle) until she realized her bubble not only keeps the wind out of her face but also could catch her phone if she dropped it; and then she stopped using it.
It is worth noting in the pre-flashback that she was using the tube, something she doesn’t use anymore, so that time could have easily passed by now.
I take that halfway back.
In the flashback, they call Sydney Corporal. She’s still a private last I heard. Then again, she could have gotten a promotion off-screen. She’s been through enough stuff at this point. Sure it’d be a nice boost for Sydney and possibly a big deal for her (because pay increase and more prestige), but usually the actual promotion ceremonies aren’t that exciting…
… that said, I DO expect a decent display if she ever gets on the officer track and gets promoted to Captain, just because “Captain” and “Superhero” kind of go hand in hand.
Even lower than that! Sydney is still a mere recruit, and will remain that way until she has completed basic training. At which point she could earn accelerated promotion to corporal, for her meritorious conduct to date. That will be her rank, when the comic catches up to that point again.
Although it may turn out to be Sydney reminiscing, with a ‘what if’ scenario, in the holodeck of a passing Succubus tourist ship, visiting the ruins of what used to be Earth.
so the shock wave that can knock down maxima – does not liquidfy the rest of the team. thats weird
Maxi wasn’t ‘braced for impact’, and when she’s not, she’s just as vulnerable to a wind attack as anyone else
Derivative? Hmm.
Let s be the distance of an object from Kansas.
Therefore ds/dt is the instantaneous velocity of the object, moving relative to Kansas.
Oh, wait. There appears to be a jump discontinuity in the position vector, so the derivative can not be determined at the discontinuity.
Also liked the start of the series in Star Justice but became less so when it focused more on the Harem aspects that the author seems to love way way to much
Also his understanding of Tiger Mating habits seem off…
You know Dabbler was worried Maxima was the Chaos Bringer That would be the Herald of some cosmic Demon…. Becouse of her Powers She brings Fire destruction I think it was.But What if its Sydney ??? I am starting to think her Powers Dwarf Maxima’s I mean her Power pips are mostly at level one and She already Rivals her Powers.. And each pip looks like it Integrates and doubles her powers…
Welcome to The Club.
Folks have been asking why something that was capable of taking down Maxima (with all her super defences) did not squish Harem. So here is a possibility.
This place does not look like it has the usual universal laws, which we are used to. What if the thing that allows any super powers to work does not function here? In which case they are all muggles!
Dabbler has the greatest advantage, in that she has such a diverse range of powers. So that, even if super powers are not working, she may be able to use magic, and if that too is non-functional, then hopefully her mental powers are OK.
Of course if magic is working, whilst super powers are not, then Sciona poses a massive risk. Partially offset by Dabbler’s magic. Plus any super powers Sciona gained from that blood transfusion (for instance super strength and a death gaze) should not work. Then of course the fact that Sciona is missing a leg. At which point the question becomes ‘what blood did she inject to give her regeneration?’
If Sciona used Troll blood, as at the Mars factory, then she should get her leg back pretty fast. If though she upgraded to Pixel blood (given she had a girder through the middle of her torso, yet fully recovered, in minutes, that is top quality regeneration), then there may be a problem. Because Pixel is part super, and is only a lycanthrope (and thereby gaining her regeneration) when in her super form. So that regeneration may not work, and Sciona may be legless here.
Although, possibly Pixel was a lycanthrope who developed super powers in her were form only. In which case her regeneration should function, even if her invisibility and laser claws do not. Should she come here, that is.
Halo can set gravity as she likes, with her FlyBall. So it is possible that the orbs are creating her own private universe, within that bubble. Insulating her from any changed laws outside of it.
Which is quite handy if the laws outside are intrinsically inimical to the survival of organic life (from our universe anyhow)!
“Halo can set gravity as she likes, with her FlyBall. So it is possible that the orbs are creating her own private universe, within that bubble. Insulating her from any changed laws outside of it.”
One little comment from your post. I don’t think Halo ‘sets gravity as she likes with her flyball.’
Maybe eventually she could do that as it’s upgraded, but right now we’ve only seen her able to do two things gravity-related with the flyball.
1) She can fly, negating gravity on HERSELF.
2) She has, and this seems to be involuntary and not something that Halo can control (yet), localized gravity to her. Which is why, even when she’s sideways or upside-down, her hair acts the same way as when gravity is normal, unlike Maxima, for whom gravity does react on, even when she’s flying or is upside-down (remember the boot on the ceiling?)
It only takes one exception to show that a universal law is not being complied with. Two and Sydney could get points docked off her licence!
Dave, your “Who’s Here” missed at least two people. Check your middle panel.
The Who’s Who does not list everybody who appears in a scene. Only those who play a significant part. Neither falling over, nor saying “Ow”, is particularly significant, for Who’s Who purposes.
Although, if it is a famous last word, I guess that may be a bit of a harsh judgement.
*gets out the box, containing the black fore-leg band, just in case*
Something tells me something exceptionally powerful is right behind her, while the portal was incomplete, something took advantage of it. Something Sydney will face on her own, but will it be enemy or friend?
Mmm. I had taken it as purely being Sydney talking to the readers/viewers, through the 4th wall.
But yours is an interesting take, which would change the dynamics, of the above scene, in an interesting way.
Heh thanks, wasn’t really trying to make it interesting. But I figured since the portal was incomplete and the result was random, who knows if it might be friendly or hostile that appears behind her. I’m hoping its friendly and very cute and cuddly. :P
Are the comments still working? I can’t see mine when I respond to someone, so this is a test for a comment that isn’t a response.
Yes they are working. But there can be delay in them appearing. Please read this warning, I posted on the previous comic, which is still applicable.
Fortunately, the lag issue (in posts appearing) has been improving, with some of my posts appearing straight away. So somebody has unleashed internet repair monkeys.
I am pretty sure that it was all GDPR related, and that the lag issues have just been due to code changes (browser and/or WordPress, as may be the case) needed to comply with that not having been optimised for performance.
Whether we get back to the site retaining reader’s details is another matter. That depends on the choices made as to how to handle GDPR. Not keeping any user data is a choice that simplifies any coding and avoids any legal issues. At the expense of user quality of life.
Most sites seem to be going down the route of asking ‘is it OK for us to keep your data on cookies?’ Once that is done, then the problem is solved. If the user says “Yes”, they can code it to behave as before. The extra bit though, is that if they say “No”, then it needs to behave as it is at the moment.
So hopefully once they have optimised the ‘No’ option’s performance, they intend to go the extra mile and give us the “yes” option too.
Yeah, I read about your warning already, but I didn’t scroll up one post to read the warning about the lag as well. XD
Aw man, not the stupid GDPR again. -_- Here in Germany lots of people are panicking, because in contrast to Austria there is no 6 month beta phase where you don’t have to pay fees for breaking it. Politicians just could’ve decreed “this applies only to companies with 10.000+ employees”, but nooooo. Apparently they have enough intellect to create a complicated law, but not enough intelligence to apply it in a sensible manner.
The boss of the UK body handling that is taking a much more sensible way of calming panicking companies. He is telling them that they do not need to fear fines. Those will only be used against companies which are persistently and flagrantly violating the rules and making no effort to comply.
So long as the smaller companies are not just ignoring the issue, but can show that they are working towards compliance, within the means at their disposal, they should not be too worried.
The same is probably true elsewhere in Europe, but they may just not be conveying that message effectively.
Well, they certainly failed to convey it in Germany. Here we’re afraid of something that probably translates to admonish-lawyers, i.e. lawyers who use algorithms to browse websites and throw fines at everyone they can find. This already happens for copyright infringements, i.e. if you have a copyrighted picture on your web page, you need to pay hundreds of euros without warning. So we already know about the brutality of greedy lawyers.
There was a law firm in the UK who sent out blanket letters to a bunch of people that they deemed to have been downloading copyright material. Demanding a large amount of money, in compensation, with the threat of legal action, if it was not paid.
This completely failed, for a number of reasons (as such it is pretty complicated and I am only summarising roughly from memory). Because they had just worked from lists of contact details, and had not investigated each case individually, they had a large proportion of errors. So were making false allegations against innocent people.
For instance they all accused the person who paid the bills, whereas the actual user of the computer may have been someone else. Likewise others contested that whilst they had viewed the material (which is not illegal) they had not downloaded it.
As such there were claims that this was just a scam, relying more on people being too embarrassed to contest it (for instance if it involved porn) or simply being afraid of legal action, even though they were being unjustly accused.
To the extent that it looked like there was a good chance that parliament would legislate to prevent such speculative accusations.
It turned out not to be necessary though, as there were enough rulings that the firm had acted inappropriately, in various of the cases, and bad publicity generated in general, that their existing clients dropped them like a hot potato. As such the firm ended up going out of business. And I seem to recall the key lawyer getting into legal difficulties himself, due to these issues.
As such UK law firms have tended to shy well away from such activities. You do find individual cases, of course, but not the mass actions you are describing. Or, if there have been, they have been justified enough to not be newsworthy.
Plus, as regards this new law, it does have provisions to allow reasonable ‘business as normal’. Namely that if the service being provided inherently requires personal data to be provided, and it is just used for that purpose (and no unnecessary data is collected above that), then there is no need to change current procedures.
Of course there is the onus to ensure that personal data is properly protected. But that has been a part of EU law for years now anyhow.
But firms which collect data, ostensibly for one purpose, but who are actually covertly selling it on for other purposes (such as advertising), now have to be much more open about the process to the users. No hiding it away in small print. Either get their explicit permission, or stop doing that. Keep abusing the system though, and fines will be justified.