Grrl Power #979 – Final boss?
Everybody come up with your own Succubus inspired salutations!
- May your next sexual partner have balls like white holes!
- Good lubrication to you!
- Happy Tantric Day!
- Etc.
(Zeromus.MP3) I don’t care if you like JPRGs or not, Nobuo Uematsu is a master composer on par with John Williams and Hanz Zimmer. I actually don’t care for JRPGs these days myself, but I’m glad I got to play FF2(/4) FF6 and Chrono Trigger before I came to that conclusion, because they’re some of my favorite games of all time. That has a ton to do with the music, I grant. FF6 has an opera in it. AN OPERA. With 4 audio channels on the SNES, Uematsu wrote an Opera. “Oh my hero…” I lost interest right at FF7, which kind of killed it for me. I guess I liked the superdeformed sprites sweating it out when they were down to 20% health and all that. Also I didn’t care that Aerith got killed because I hadn’t had her in my party since I got Tifa, so when she died I was like, “Oh, right, that was some chick I met earlier, wasn’t it?” Also the music wasn’t as good IMO.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update:
Finished the chapter which was the last chapter but is no longer the last chapter. Wrote about 2,000 words of the actual last chapter, unless I decide there needs to be a quick wind up after this chapter. I know I’ve been talking about this mythical last chapter since I started these, but I don’t know what to tell you. I just write until it feels done. Well, okay, not so much with the first book. I had a bunch of stuff written after the fade to black it ended on, but didn’t want to get into any of that and leave a bunch of dangling stuff at the end of the book, like “I guess I should get started on making some bows.” The End
That’s not cool.
September’s vote incentive is up! It’s been over a year since Max was featured in one of these, so I figured it was time to revisit.
If you just popped by to see it right when it went up, you might have missed the update. Her nipples were a touch high in the first version, and if you poke through the comments there, you can see the reference I used, only that model’s boobs were about 3 cup sizes smaller. Anyway, I flew her nipples south for the winter and updated the relevant pics.
Nude version is up at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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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.
Gotta say, what I really like about this page is his expression. His “What if I don’t want to stop” isn’t really all that malicious, and is more playful, and you can tell by his amused face in the second last panel. He just seems to really just be enjoying the day and feels comfortable in the situation to joke around.
Yes and that’s why I think he will not fight Halo. Perhaps just a bit of sparring to help her train maybe.
So, he’s going to fight her? Because that’s what sparring is.
This is so clearly part of the heroes’ plans that I’m genuinely doubtful Kevin will get in trouble for this bit of supervillainous scampery. Particularly the fact that a) Max isn’t laying down any threats and b) they’re still throwing just one person at him indicates that everyone’s still just having a good time.
I wonder whether they’re doing this to see whether training vs a boosted Vehemence will net her another level, and making sure he’s fed isn’t actually a high priority for the brass. That would explain, better than “making sure a prisoner isn’t wasting away,” why they’re willing to let him rise to the red zone.
Or Arianna actually put cameras around here and the PPV of all this is covering Archon’s expenses for the next year.
Plus, he already lost to the team when they were unprepared, so it’s very unlikely he’d win when they were properly prepared. Kevin is very intelligent, so I’m sure he came to the same conclusion.
One thing worrying me is that if the orbs upgrade mid-fight, Sydney won’t be able to defend herself, and Vehemence might think she’s bluffing. I don’t believe he’ll actually try to hurt her if he believes she’ll just get smushed, but clever tricks are sort of her thing, so it’s possible he’ll think she’s bluffing.
Although in that scenario, Max will be fast enough to step in the way and break his “battle trance.”
Her orbs have already shown tot have a (very limited) upgrade latency system tot avoid this(squidward fight+sconia boss bot fight).
The rules seem tot be no upgrade during use and upgrade pause with varying length depending on severity of use(this last pause can be overruled with manually spinning the orbs).
Devil’s advocate: I can imagine him thinking HE was unprepared but knows more about them now and has had time to ponder better counter-powers to give himself.
I don’t think it’s a very GOOD devil’s advocacy, mind. He’s probably noticed that Maxima’s fighting him carefully and has room to back off when she wants to, and that the absence of civilians gives his enemies a LOT more leeway to deal with him.
If he really oversteps his bounds, I expect it’ll be more the result of a battler’s high than a tactical decision. He’s got every reason to believe he’s disadvantaged tactically, here.
Just thinking here, wouldn’t the easy answer be to have Dabbler shout ‘Pull!’, Yeet him into the sky, then have Dabbler ping him a few times with her slingshot – say enough times to give him escape velocity.
Eg: If you can’t get the fight out of Kevin, you get Kevin out of the fight.
IIRC he was able to groundlock himself with vehemic energy.
Oh THATS why he is looking at his hand in the middle panel
My colorblind ass was really confused and trying to figure out if his lines are a… like loading bar… maybe a circle forming..
But no… color just tricked me again
SNES JRPG boss themes, eh? A while back I decided the Dark King theme would be fitting for “eldritch” Vale. Has a sort of astral vibe to it.
For Sydney, Fight Against Culex? It’s an arrange of the Final Fantasy IV boss theme, and Culex is a bonus boss that also happens to have a group of multicolored floating things to attack with.
I’m a fan of the FF1 remaster Last Boss theme. I recently discovered the pixel remaster theme and now I have to compare.
Oh please we all know that Sidney’s theme song is sephiroth followed closely by Funny Farm
https://rave.dj/_vvBS1Msd1Ld7Q
You have won all the internetz for today. I suspect this is the version Max has as her ringtone for Sydney.
That was amazing.
Not what I was originally going for but now even better
I think it’s “Yaketty Sax” but performed by an acapella group
Vehement: Why do I hear boss music?
If I were Sydney, I’d be all like “You want a trip to a black hole? I can arrange that.”
I feel like after defeating those space Kaiju, Sydney’s earned the right to have her arrival to the battle field be heralded by the Inception trailer horn.
just
Vehement: What if I don’t want to stop?
Sydney: *grabs shield orb*
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN
Maxima: Then you fight her:
Sydney: *floats down to the battle field*
BUH BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN!
Vehement: *hears the start of boss music and turns around*
Sydney: Hullo
One Winged Angel begins to play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXOnch6yEqg
Ha! One Winged Angel is exactly what I thought when Sydney came down.
I was thinking guiles theme, depending on how much of a memelord shes willing to be :D
Pssh, one winged angel? No. How about an actual boss theme?
Dancing Mad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YNfX1oU2XA
I mean, the first movement alone, drifting down into the battlefield to organ music. Can you get more badass than that?
Buddy, you need help… in the form of the Grissini Project.
Thank me later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFavxCmZbjg :D
Though the Black Mage’s rendition is a good one nevertheless.
Ahh, THAT’s where it was hiding on youtube. I’d heard it before, and forgotten where I’d left it. Thanks!
I feel like Halo’s dramatic musical entrance would go a little more like Megamind’s victory press conference.
“Presentation!”
One of my favorite scenes. :D But this is the one with Minion’s soundtrack mishaps, as he takes control of Metropolis.
Boss music? Fine. *rolls up sleeves*
Escaflowne. Dance of Curse. https://youtu.be/O_49H_N43jQ
When you need violins doing electric guitar ‘meedly meedly’ and tympani drums going full hog.
How is this for a tantric succubus expression…. “and a touch of pepper oil to you”?
Also I just realized this might be her foreshadowed Gwen Stacy moment! She is heading in cocky after all. (I blame the clumsy double entendre on prolonged exposure to… *sigh* myself. Dabbler is innocent for once)
In a proper Gwen Stacy moment, somebody you love has to die despite, or even because of, your best efforts to save them. Sidney likes her co-workers, but I’m not sure she really loves any of them that way, nor do I think anybody present is about to die.
She could, however, be taken down a few pegs.
i don’t know if there is a trope name for it but there is another defining moment version when a hero accidentally takes a life, a less connected version to the Gwen Stacy moment is the innocnent bystander they couldn’t save or their actions killed them by accident; but there is the direct one where they accidentally kill a criminal or villain.
the public may even praise them, but they didn’t meant to take it that far; they just overestimated their opponent or underestimated themselves *usually written off as the hero having a berserk moment* but a fully in control one has a deeper impact as they have no big excuse to fall back on, no berserk, no rock hell on the villain, just a (I hit him and his chest exploded, or I punched him and his head spun all the way around)…they may have a reason like they normally fight much stronger opponents and got carried away but they should have known better.
it works best if the hero was the innocent type like Sydney. Because they will go double trauma and their minds over exaggerate it with thoughts like (that wasn’t a fight, it was more like an execuction), to dig at their guilt.
Then there’s the “Hollywood stupid” moment when a hero is forced to make a choice, and refuses. But nobody dies anyway. (Spidey and the bus on the bridge.)
Refusing to make a choice means someone dies. That’s a tragedy. Saving the hero from his own stupid indecision is cheating.
Leon might count. But yeah, this isn’t all that analogous.
On the Aerith death.
I had zero impact on me as I had played Phantasy Star 4, and you actually lose an important character, the mentor of the main character pretty much the same way,
and there were a few other games and anime where this exact same thing happened; so I just never got the cultural impact aspect it seems to have had.
but at least you lose these characters early enough to not care. Unlike games like La Pucelle Tactics and the first Disgaea where you lose a character that was most likely to have been in your main party since chapter 1 or 2 and been leveled up super high with everyone else and you fricken lose them right before the final boss stages.
I had a friend who was really into FF, when I heard about the Aeris mod years later I immediately went “yep, I can see that.”
And then it turns out Kevin subscribes to “A-Cups Aficionados Quarterly” and even voted for Halo!
Good choice of deterrent.
I would’ve gone fort vehemence trapping the area, but this works too.
My traps would’ve consisted of Sconia kill puppets(tot Rob him of the pretty magic vehemic energy the moment he uses it non-internally), poisoned railgun rounds(for example fully lead ones), anti-teleport wards, being in a really remote area, poisoned gass, distracting decoratieve effects and a pre-build mechanisms to limit his bloodstream like a dottler pump.
The best way to stop someone fueled by Violence is to quietly inflict them with a non lethal toxin that just makes them feel real calm, relaxed and sleepy and basically let them pass out, 0 gain and if they aren’t warned about its existence they won’t really have time to concoct an antidote before they are in dream land.
That, or have him fight an Apathy demon.
Why would anyone fight an apathy demon. what could be important enough…to move…?
Maybe later.
That…. is actually a brilliant strategy.
Well, it works at the clubs…
Nah, best way to beat a tank is levitation. Oh look, can’t touch the ground, can’t move. Maybe they can do the sonic hand clap thing, but stay behind hard cover and you’re fine…
May your organisms be epic and your partners spunk endless!
“Lick long and prosper” while flashing the succubus version of the vulcan salute:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-461-clandestilen/
… damn you…
You know that moment when you roll the die and you land on the snake? That’s what you just did to me. I clicked the comment, read the comment and …clicked next. Just spent the last few hours to get back to where I started… D:.
totally fun though.
Do they think Sydney is unable to supply enough violence (compared to his expenditure) to push him to the next level(s)? That’s the only thing that makes sense.
I’m pretty sure she has more than one hard counter in mind for him. Whether she plays along for sparing/orb levels or not…. dunno.
“May your partners in copulation be as good at it as I am” “WINK WINK”.
What I could never get over about Final Fantasy – the main reason I never convinced myself to buy it, in fact – is the numbering system. What does the existence of Final Fantasy 15 say about the finality of the first through fourteenth?
IOW, if a video game maker is THAT committed to working the same material over and over again, I don’t expect much original or good from them.
yes. Final Fantasy, I think we’re up to 16, now? Whereas, The Neverending Story only made it to 2 and 1/2.
The latest Final Fantasy is 15, not 16. Unless you count all the non-numbered ones (X-2, Revenant Wings, The After Years, Grandmasters, Tactics, Tactics Advance, Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, Tactics S, VII Remake, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, Type-O, XIII-2, Lightning Returns, Agito, AWakening, King’s Knight, A New Empire, Adventure, Mystic Quest, Crystal Chronicles, Crystal Defenders, Dissidia, Unlimited, The 4 Heroes of Light, Dimensions, Theatrhythm, All the Bravest, Pictiogica, Record Keeper, Explorers, Dimensions 2, Brave Exvius, World of Final Fantasy, and War of the Visions, in which case it’s well above 16 :)
I’m starting to feel like the only fantasy in the series was its finality.
+1 internet for you.
Because that was hilarious.
Completely separate universes. They share some themes and some characters have the same name but each Final Fantasy is generally it’s own self contained universe unrelated to the others.
I have never seen Final Fantasy (any version ) played, have only a dim idea of what it’s about, and seen a few screenshots.
But I discovered Nobuo Uematsu when my 20-year-old daughter was 2 or so. Somehow I acquired a set of MP3’s, that turned out to be the soundtrack to FF VIII. Julia and Balamb Garden were among her favorites. I favored the more dramatic ones. I love the wide range of genres, instrumentation, and approaches, and I’ve been a fan ever since.
In recent years, it’s interesting to see all the different groups and individuals covering his pieces.
I have about 20 final fantasy games, including the first 15 numbered ones, but I’ve only fully played the first 6, and mystic quest. And I played about half of 7, played a very tiny bit of remake, and played about 10 minutes of 8.
I like the series, but I just tend to get very focused on completing the game before I move to the next one and I’ve been too busy for that effort for YEARS now. :)
I had to quit buying games when I realized I was really just buying the illusion of having enough free time to play them. :(
Eh, I have probably thousands of games that are just lining my walls on shelves at this point. It’s a collector thing at this point because I’ve only played maybe 20 percent of them.
Given Dabbler, “may birds of a feather, f*ck together”
With the evil grin Max put up, this is a trap.
Give enough rope to hang themselves by.
Kevin Sydney’s a more strategic thinker, Kevin had better do some serious situational observation.
I think it’s kind of in situation of princess Bride and irocaine powder. We are waiting on Kevin to see what he’s going to do fight flight etc.
Sydney could already be down in the pit per se as an illusion. Amount of death it’s been stirred up would give her ample cover for using the teleport ability.
However; I think the situation hss already been accounted for.
Since they did not show how they got to where they are, rock pits look all the same. Just take a look at any alien show it’s always in some kind of a quarry.
And this rock pit could indeed be on Alari
Am I the only one who hears Apoptygma Berzerk’s “Non-Stop Violence” whenever Vehemence is on panel?
“Enter Zero” theme from Megaman X begins playing. Or maybe Guile’s theme…
I’m thinking more like the Intro to ‘Shipping up to Boston’…
I prefer Megalovania, personally.
Sydney boss music seems like given her personality should be either something weirdly creepy like the Nowhere King’s lullaby, or something bouncy yet with an ominous tone
So… Scissor Sisters I Can’t Decide?
checked it out on youtube, that works.
thinking also things like Etna’s boss theme from Disgaea 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfq41t1bfAs&list=RDNfq41t1bfAs&index=1
and Fuka’s theme from Disgaea 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNqCrr8bbVE&list=RDNfq41t1bfAs&index=2
I must confess, like Sydney in the previous page, I too have found the last arc rather dull. I am glad to see our main character finally get something to do (other than Frix). This should be an interesting fight and display of Halo’s powers.
Halo is definitely one of his worst matches.
Her forcefield stops him from getting any Vehemic energy from her or her attacks.
She can slap him around with the energy tentacle, though at this point I’m sure his strength level is higher than it’s.
There’s always her star powered pew pew of doom.
Heck, she can just keep ramming him at max flight speed and pummel him till he gives up, though that’s probably the hardest thing to keep up a real barrage on due to the movement and knockback effects.
So again, she can get as violent as she wants with him, and he gets no juice, but has to spend it to heal. Definitely not a good time for Vehemence.
I don’t think we have seen all that the Shield Upgrade gave her
Only Hint was a Projectile bouncing around the Inside,
Losing Force
And I would Like to Point out She Has Feather Fall When not holding the Flight Orb
Though I hope she finds the Controls for that
It Could be A Real Problem when Diving for Cover….
“It Could be A Real Problem when Diving for Cover….”
Sure but it could be a cool ‘Max Payne Slow Motion Dive for Cover’ thing :)
Please someone tell me they get the reference. I can’t be the only one who played Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne.
Loved 1 and 2 – the storyline was a bit dark for my taste, but the noir storytelling style and bullet-time gameplay was fantastic. Especially coming on the heels of The Matrix.
Also I don’t think she’s upgraded her shield yet. She’s upgraded the orbs 6 times. Three times for the Fly orb, one time for the PPO (I am hip and I can provide cred so I can say PPO), one time for the Comm Orb, and one time towards the central multi-pip circle. She has never upgraded the shield orb, although she considered doing so while on Alari Prime, but decided to go with the original plan since she was pretty sure she’d eventually die if she kept grinding on the kaiju, since they tended to adapt to her fight strategies.
1) Her first upgrade was after the tank demonstration for the press. She upgraded the single pip on the Comm Orb. Which she later found out lets her teleport during the MARS factory stakeout.
2) Her second upgrade was a second pip on her PPO, which let her do rapid fire and an aperture to control how tightly spaced or wide the autofire was. It was a random ‘panic’ buy which she did without thinking.
3) Her third, fourth, and fifth upgrades were when fighting the Kaiju:
(a) The first pip (upgrade #3) was to upgrade Fly to level 5, which gave her a huge speed boost from Mach 4 to Mach 16 (insanely fast, possibly faster than Maxima if you take the foreshadowing into account during the flight testing).
(b) The second pip (upgrade #4) was to upgrade the new Fly path, first pip, which gave her the ability to open Aetherium Causeways.
(c) The third pip (upgrade #5) was in the center square, as ARChon had asked her to do. Which MAY have given her more insight into what the orbs do, which is how she reasoned that she was able to figure out what the ‘browser history’ tab was on the Aetheirum Causeway controls. At least, that was Sydney’s guess since she had no idea how she ‘KNEW’ that about the controls.
4) Her sixth, and most recent, upgrade, was the single pip on the Fly orb, which again she did when she accidentally held the fly orb. That pip gives her a passive power – it cancels out her vertigo even when she isnt holding the fly orb, plus more importantly, it gives her an ‘always on’ (as far as we know for now) featherfall power.
I may have Misread #660
On Review….
On #660, she grapped the blue flight orb first for the upgrade, then the shield
You are a lawyer, that negates all claims of hiptitude (not to mention that other problem you have… )
Pander knows superheroes, cartoons, and video games better than most of the engineer nerds I know – I’d sooner doubt that she’s a lawyer, if not for the extremely well-structured arguments. And if anything, the other problem confirms the sort of nerd cred Sydney respects.
Oh and Pander, thanks for that upgrade recap, I could only place 4 from memory. (all-praise-Deus-amen).
“Oh and Pander, thanks for that upgrade recap, I could only place 4 from memory. (all-praise-Deus-amen).”
No problem :) And all memories are infallible, including mine, compared to that greatness that is Deus, brother. All praise Deus, amen.
I am the only cool and hip lawyer in existence. Not unlike Highlander at any time, there can only be one.
Johnny Cochran was the last one and when he died in honorable super-secret combat, I took the mantle of hipness.
And I’m not sure what other problem you can possibly mean that I have. Now leave me be while I go pray to our lord and savior, Deus.
All praise Deus, amen.
and I will remain every suspicious of what the pips actually give her as the wormhole pathway for the fly orb’s first pip on that chain was the Aetherum Causeway, which makes what most aliens consider the ultimate spacial bypass the creators of the orbs considered the basic wormhole. what that upgrades with is a subject of curiosity.
Also nice recap.
Thanks. :) And yeah I am wondering what the later pips would be on that line. I’m assuming for other interstellar level stuff but I have no idea really.
Is it still not Thursday yet?
Well Max does require a new baseline for Sydney, to figure out how much her powers have changed. A good smack down will do that, plus Kevin doesn’t know that Sydney levels up the orbs.
Not really,
she hasn’t upgraded her shield or the light hook, her PPO upgrade is the rapid fire which has already been seen in action.
her upgrades have been to flight and the comm ball for the most part. While this may affect her speed in battle, she still has to keep the shield up while fighting someone like this so her options are limited.
if anything this will test both Sydney’s training up against a strong opponent one on one, and second how well her powers may stack up against a strong opponent.
Yeah but Kevin does not know any of that.
not really relevant.
He didn’t fight her before, he saw her fight and knows some of her abilities *including hologram projection as he was standing right next to that and saw the edge clipping through a tree*, and what he saw he was pretty sure he could take. So not exactly a calling the bluff moment here, especially as he wants to fight Maxima who he knows is pretty much an S class super.
The thing the person I was responding to said applies to Maxima and the team, which again THEY know what she could do before and what upgrades she has had, and given none of them aside from speed affect combat; a new power baseline not needed, combat training yes but this is a bit off the deep end for that given again, her combat skills aside from speed have not gone up and the people who would be judging her “baseline” know that already.
Her aim, her dealing with other supers, helping out in a crisis, those things would be a relevant examination at this phase in her training. Not fight this glowy Hulk.
Sydney will have come up with New Power Stunt
This should be Educational for the rest of the Team as Well
I Think Only Maxima, and Dabbler have a clear Idea of where Sydney stands on the Team Power Scale
Maxima Saw The Kaiju….
Sydney took on Several Kaiju Class Opponents To Grind For Upgrades
And Won…
Sydney is at least as Prone to Pulling Some New Trick,
As Dabbler or Kevin
Even Without Help,
Eventually Sydney would have found Her way Home,
Though she Might have Started an Interstellar War on The Way
Traditional succubus well wishing
May you never want from orgasm, never lack of partners, and never have to remember their names tomorrow.
Tell me Maxima means “Fight her in Mario Cart?” “Challenge her to a game of Wii bowling?” Not only would that be demoralizing as hell, but I’m sure that despite all his recent practice that Kevin still isn’t going to win. That would be the most epic ‘NO, BAD VILL!’ shutdown is to be forced to end his freedom with an embarrassing video game schooling.
Oh, and also, Sydney is probably like the diet, child’s size coke equivalent of a satisfying fight. She’s got so many deflective abilities, he’s not going to get any power up from her.
If he gets beyond, Max can haul/throw him into space/high orbit.
Im certain he will ‘Chill Out’ quiet qucickly.
given some of the form changing and power adaptions I wouldn’t be surprised if he pulled a move like Prime from Ultraforce and modified himself to be able to survive in space.
Damn, i was close. Can almost say i called it….