Grrl Power #1018 – The troll under the extol bridge
Should that be “abject exemplification?” Honestly it works either way. Object = a tangible thing. Abject = the lowest example of. Oh, English.
The “he’s a supervillain because he mercilessly crushed his opposition” joke doesn’t… quite ring true for me, because mostly he’s going after all the corrupt officials that try and pocket 25% of everything that flows through their office and makes creating and maintaining infrastructure or an honest police force basically impossible. Removing those sorts of people, or “mercilessly crushing” them probably isn’t going to put Deus on any nation’s supervillain list. If I saw that all the bankers and traders involved in the 2008 banking crisis were stripped of all their assets and publicly flogged – well, I’d be fucking shocked that there might indeed be some accountability for rich criminals in America, but I also wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep at their treatment.
But in some poor-ass sub-Saharan country, while there would be a few “rich” assholes taking advantage of everyone else, a lot of the people scamming funds from the local highway project are probably doing it because they kind of have to. So while Lorlara is correct in that some of the most parasitic scum were indeed given the “just heel,” there was also a broad amnesty announced, saying something along the lines of “Real money is going to start coming into the country and salaries will be increasing. That said, from this point on, if you’re caught with your hand in the cookie jar, you will be in deep fucking trouble.”
Yes, Sydney is supposed to mention that she’s white twice in that second panel. This probably isn’t the first time she’s been in the extreme minority, racially, but it’s on her mind. I wish I’d had more time to draw people walking around in the background, showing the city as sort of a business park/college campus feel, but I was literally working on these pages when I was sick, so my productivity suffered a bit.
Oh, and I forgot to add “Watertowers” to the Hydro Tech Tree.
Covid Update: I got covid (probably omicron) as previously mentioned. I’m vaccinated, so it was like 4 days of barely being sick, no fever or anything, just a slight tickle in my throat and light sinus congestion, then it ramped up Sunday, and by the time I was working on posting the previous page, I was starting to feel pretty crappy, but it seemed like most of it was from insomnia. Then I got a good night of sleep Sunday night, and Monday I felt basically 90% better. The symptoms have continued to attenuate, and now I feel basically like I did on the first or second day. At this rate I assume I’ll be 100% by the weekend. Or maybe I’ll be 5% sick for the next six weeks. The symptoms seem to be all over the place, so we’ll see. But I’m definitely getting that booster the first chance I get.
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How he treated his opponents will not make him a villain. What his long term goals are will not make him so either.
What matters is the edge fringe cases. Did he offer a surrender? Did he honor the terms? What becomes of the sick, the aged, and the feeble? Do the punishments for mental and social crimes (speaking out against the government, not holding a full time job, failure to cut the lawn, etc … as opposed to rape, murder, robbery, etc) have lesser, reasonable punishments designed to serve as corrective actions?
Compassion and Empathy when needed, and is neither convenient or expedient.
To expand on DaveB’s point for an example:
“If I saw that all the bankers and traders involved in the 2008 banking crisis were stripped of all their assets and publicly flogged”
This wouldn’t be a villain action.
“If I saw that everyone who had an account at an institution involved in the 2008 banking crisis were stripped of all their assets and publicly flogged”
Now we’re getting into villain territory.
“If I saw that all the bankers and traders involved in the 2008 banking crisis were stripped of all their flesh and left to hang by their toes until dead.”
Solid villain territory.
I challenge that last one.
If you’re going to make examples, then you owe it to everybody to make those examples so visceral that it causes the probability of repeat cases to be what mathematicians term, “approaching zero.”
The idea for the invention of the machine gun was to make war so horrible that no one would ever want to start one. I’m glad that worked out.
Unfortunately, seeing people do horrible things makes the idea of doing more horrible things socially acceptable.
It did, however, work for the Atomic Bomb.
The difference being, with MAD, whoever pulled the trigger is likely to die as well as killing everyone they care about.
Interesting how a “What you do to others will be done to you” works as a very effective deterrent to horribleness.
It only worked for the Atomic Bomb because Atomic weapons made skipping escalation steps a lot easier.
Imagine the two following scenarios and then decide in which case Alice would be willing to continue:
1. Alice mocked Bob. The next day Bob pushed Alice.
2. Alice mocked Bob. The next day Alice woke up to her pet dog pinned to her wall with what will turn out to be Alice’s own leg bones.
You see, people are incredible adaptable, or at least we think we are. Humans will always believe they can overcome any hardship if the hardship is presented gradually. The only way to force them to realize their limitations is to not just go beyond the comfort zone. You have to skip discomfort, pain, horror, and despair: Jump straight to massive insurmountable trauma.
That is what the use of nukes did. If Fat Man and Little Boy had not been used at that time we would have slowly escalated and escalated until we normalized the use of nuclear weapons, leading to actual mutual destruction. Governments are not rational enough to not use nukes, they had to be traumatized to learn that lesson.
Am I a horrible person that my go to response starts off at scenario 2 and just goes from there?
Nope
You learnt, to stop a fight you need to make sure there is no one left willing to fight you after the last fight (although, there will always be someone stupid enough who thinks they can beat you)
The real question is: do you stop after step 2? or just continue even if no one is opposing you… any more
Do only as much as you need to prevent a repeat, and no more
Nah, I stop when the opposition stops.
“… until we normalized the use of nuclear weapons, leading to actual mutual destruction.”
And that is the ONLY good thing I can take from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is my firm — and with God’s gift to humanity — belief that Japan could have been invaded and subdued as was done to Germany.
But what was done was done.
Yeah, nah, the Japanese showed they would not have been subdued by an occupation (well, not one prior to Hirosaki)
They would have surrendered one way or another. Russia gearing up to enter Japan at that point, and the nuke was more about expediating victory and sending a message to Russia about any expansionist ideas they may have had(and didn’t THAT turn out well?).
Nuking a city and dropping thousands of bombs on it have more or less the same effect on the city and the military infrastructure. The only difference is the shock factor: a SINGLE BOMB did this, and they didn’t know how many we had. As far as Russia, Japan, and the rest of the world knew, that was the tip of the iceberg.
For the sake of the discussion, being the Villain doesn’t necessarily mean you doing something that doesn’t need doing, it means that what you are doing(or how you are doing it) is offensive to people’s morality.
Flensing Wall Street or nailing someone’s dog to their wall with their own legbones is 500% villain territory. Whether those people deserve those fates is another question entirely.
There is also the issue of escalation. If you go nuclear…who’s to say this is going to develop into a MAD situation? What if going nuclear doesn’t stop your enemies, and now that level of behavior is on the table?
There’s a good reason the doctrine of Proportional Retribution exists: it only punishes bad behavior with similar behavior. AKA “have a taste of your own medicine”. Likewise, the winning strategy in the iterative variation of the Prisoner’s Dilemma is to always copy your opponent’s last movement, but to open with cooperation.
I want to see Deus fail because he’s a smug dickhead, but he does always open with diplomacy, seems to make good on his promises to help out common folk, and in practice seems to always do “the right thing.” He’s the perfect Benevolent Dictator…which is the problem.
He’s a bit TOO perfect, and I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop. He’s open about caring more about the money/power than actually helping people for humanitarian reasons, and doesn’t give a fuck who he hurts in getting more money/power. He just understands that happy, educated people provide much more money and power to the people who rule them than impoverished, illiterate, villagers.
So…yeah, waiting for the other shoe to drop. For him to see something he wants and can’t find a way to NOT kick the metaphorical dog on his way to the top. Because I wanna see his teeth kicked in when he can’t keep it in his pants. He’s an annoying rules-lawyer villain-sue who constantly walks the tightrope of Benevolently Selfish Villainy.
So, Japanese military records demonstrate that the “shock factor” was nil.
The reason the Japanese finally surrendered, is that they didn’t, actually, “surrender.”
Or rather, not “unconditionally,” which was what Truman demanded, because Truman was a weak idiot suffering from a Napoleon complex.
Fact: The Japanese were prepared to surrender, on the singular condition that the Emperor was to be left alone.
Fact: Truman demanded unconditional surrender, because that was what he boasted about at h9me, and he was afraid to “lose face.” (Oh, the fucking irony there…)
Fact: The Japanese continued to hold out, believing they would get the deal they wanted from the Russians, not understanding that the Soviets were very different from the Tzar’s government. The Japanese Envoy in Moscow had to send repeated, increasingly blunt messages that it wasn’t going to happen.
Fact: War Department _wanted_ to demonstrate their new atomic dock on the world stage, and so we’re not interested in any real negotiations.
Ultimately, the whole debacle resulted in two atomic bombs being dropped on civilian population centers (yes, they were, look up the actual numbers), and a last second agreement that the US would accept the Japanese non-surrender surrender, while not making a fuss about either the Emperor, or the fact that the Japanese never described what happened as a “surrender,” or admitted defeat.
Shaun, on YouTube, does a fantastic job of recounting the entire idiotic, inhumane mess.
I am confused as to what the expected response to scenario 2 is. The obvious response to me is to kill bob, because anyone who would do something that horrible will probably do it again, provoked or not, to you, or someone else, and the only moral response is to guarantee that it absolutely won’t happen again.
Agreed. That’s the behavior of someone who smugly declares in a condescending tone how their actions were entirely logical… and then they die at the hands of someone going John Wick over the dog.
“How he treated his opponents will not make him a villain. What his long term goals are will not make him so either.”
Plus you have to generally take what Lorlana says with a grain of salt since it’s being translated from normal english into enthusiastic Alari. When Deus wanted a table for a restaurant… that he owned… Lorlana’s first thing to say was that she would threaten them into capitulation. Then when he said he’d have to send the maitre’d a bottle of wine as an apology for Lorlana’s aggressive speech, she translated it as being ‘Yes! His mewling capitulation should be rewarded!’
“Did he offer a surrender?”
It’s almost a certainty that Deus did offer them the ability to surrender, since:
1) He even offered it before the fighting began; and
2) The news said that over 80% of the Mozambique army surrendered, which means he let them surrender instead of engaging in victory by attrition. Deus’s goals, as someone who wishes to make life better for everyone WHILE making a profit, is a lot easier if he’s trying to make sure the minimum amount of people die, since Deus is a hero of the people, a paragon of humanity, and a virtuous example for us all to live up to, all praise Deus amen.
“What becomes of the sick, the aged, and the feeble?”
This has also been mentioned in the comic that he’s advanced their medical infrastructure to a first world nation status, caused a massive decrease in infant mortality rates, probably raised the average lifespan, and Lorlana states above in panel 5, provided access to medical care to the citizens. Praise be to that wonderful man.
“Do the punishments for mental and social crimes (speaking out against the government, not holding a full time job, failure to cut the lawn, etc … as opposed to rape, murder, robbery, etc) have lesser, reasonable punishments designed to serve as corrective actions?”
Deus has been shown to have a great deal of loyalty to those beneath him, and believes in the ‘catching more flies with sugar than with vinegar’ approach. Even if for no other reason than that it’s good business to have the population not being terrified, like they were under Indinge, that definitely implies that there are not draconian measures in effect.
As Boba Fett said, “Jabba ruled through fear, I will rule through respect.”
It occurs to me you are trying to portray Deus as being like Rimaru Tempest, who tried to improve everyone’s lives human and monster alike, but push come to shove amassed power, became a demon Lord, and slaughtered those that threatened and harmed his people giving a massive show of force to go along with his olive branches.
I’d say a more apt comparison would be Doctor Viktor Von Doom and Latveria, yes he wants to take over the world, yes he’s willing to employ supervillain measures to accomplish this goal, but he ultimately wants to make the world a legitimately better place, and his experience as dictator of Latveria clearly demonstrates that life under his rule *is* better (depending on the continuity, in case someone brings up examples I’m not aware of that dispute this claim).
Rimuru doesn’t *want* to be in charge, he keeps finding himself with more and more political power, and he has decided he wants to use that power to help his friends, he just happens to have a country’s worth of friends and they all collectively decided they want him in charge. That massive show of force A, brought his friends back to life after they were slaughtered in the streets of his territory for the crime of simply existing as non-human, and B, removed an invading army from his territory. Rimuru has shown no desire to expand his territory (at least so far in the anime or manga, I have not read the light novels or web novel), is only in charge because he was *put* in charge, and is only retaliating with measures lesser in scale than his enemies are trying to do to him and his friends (it isn’t his fault he’s more successful at it than they are).
Deus and Doctor Doom both embody the idea of wanting to rule the world because they honestly believe they would do a better job than the world has done of ruling itself, and they appear to not be wrong about that. Rimuru embodies the idea of “don’t want none, don’t start none”.
yeah, you are right. Deus is somewhere between Xanatos and Dr. Doom, with a leaning more towards Doom but just off that center point.
More pointing out Pander’s bit he does looks like he is painting Deus personality wise closer to the likes of Rimaru than a classic wealthy supervillain who thinks he is doing right and should be in charge as a bonus. But for all the reasons you pointed out very well Deus is not Rimaru.
I would like to supplement (for the people who haven’t read “The time I was reincarnated as a slime”) that the people he slaughtered weren’t civilians but an army that was marching towards his country’s capital, and that since he killed everyone instaneously, the soliders never surrender, so legally it was not a war crime either. Also, the term “demon lord” does not imply any evil alignment in the story’s setting. It is simply a job.
“It occurs to me you are trying to portray Deus as being like Rimaru Tempest”
I am not actually trying to portray Deus like Rimaru Tempest, largely because I have no idea who Rimaru Tempest is. :)
I wouldnt be portraying Deus as any type of villain though, because he is not a villain. He doesnt engage in actually villainous acts, despite his attempt to mimic the tropes on a very surface level. He continually does things which help people. And not just any ‘people’ but continually helps the most downtrodden people possible. He tries as hard as possible to minimize any sort of death, not only of his underlings, but of his opponents. He skips over far easier ways to make money which would be ACTUALLY evil in favor of ways that are more difficult, sometimes a LOT more difficult, and take a lot more time, in favor of more difficult ways to make money which are absolutely good.
His one true vice, greed, is couched in such a way that it is NOT a vice – basically a Gordon Gecko method of showing how greed can be a virtue instead. He is very focused on doing something which will leave a positive legacy for himself and (possibly) his future family, while also making sure that there’s a win-win scenario…. and make a profit while doing so.
If he fits any antagonist role, it would be that of David Xanatos, but not just David Xanatos in general, but SPECIFICALLY David Xanatos after he did a heel turn and became a good guy who still schemes – but this time on the side of the heroes.
He is NOTHING like Dr. Doom though. Dr. Doom is only a little like him, in that Dr. Doom cares about the well-being of his people. But Dr. Doom still winds up subjugating his people, instead of doing things which would allow them to free themselves if they so wished.
Deus’s entire business model is radically different than Dr. Doom. Deus’s ‘control’ over Galytn is such that, even if he is not in control, he still profits when Galytn is doing well, because Deus’s deal is that he gets a percentage of the nation’s GDP in exhange for his company pumping billions of dollars to build the nation’s infrastructure, which his company will own and run. The people are free to build their own infrastructure in the future though.
They won’t, because why should they when Deus has already provided a perfectly good infrastructure, but they COULD if they wanted to. Doom’s actual control over Latveria is such at he HAS to be in control for Latveria to prosper. In Latveria, all things are only allowed through Doom. Deus is also, a least a little, like Lex Luthor except without the same level of ego and without the hatred of superman (instead, he loves the ‘superman’ expy in the comic). And there’s not the same ego because Deus seems comfortable with people making fun of him or cracking jokes at him. Because he lives very well and living very well is the best revenge, not using orbital moon lasers.
I might think differently if Deus ever did anything that was actually villainous, or at least more villainous than what the heroes do. If anything, Deus acts more heroic than the heroes on a regular basis, except possibly Sydney, who is EXTREMELY heroic and pure in her mindset. The only person who Deus has ever had killed directly was a monster of a man who murders, tortures, and terrorizes men, women, and CHILDREN for his own pleasure, who happened to be in the process at the time of ordering his guards to throw Deus off the roof of his palace, simply because Deus said he would not be giving him a check, because he knew that this piece of crap tyrant would never use it to help his people – just to build a new summer palace or something instead. Even the warlord’s son was very willing to throw his father under the bus once he was shown video of the atrocities his father regularly perpetrated on innocent people, and the prince was rightly disgusted by it. Deus knew from the get-go that the Prince was unaware of this, and at no time was even threatening to murder the prince – he just wanted to show the prince the truth about the monster that fathered him.
I can’t see another point where Deus has done anything that could even be argued as being evil, and what I just described was itself not evil in the first place. At worst, Deus is sometimes an antihero, but most of the times he acts downright heroic. He never does the ‘shoot first and ask questions later’ method, unlike Maxima who has at least a couple of times. He tries to always reason with his enemies or opposition, and even when they betray or do something not in his interest him, he does not go to ‘kill them’ – it’s usually just a ‘sigh – oh well, I tried, let me get on with my plan now’ or sometimes even ‘I respect your business tenacity’ (Sciona like three times, the alien shopkeeper who thought he might be swindling Deus, the Mozambique general, etc)
You have never heard of the great Rimaru Tempest?! The most wonderful, benevolent, uplifting ruler of monster kind? For shame. For shame indeed. The mighty and brilliant Rimaru Tempest who brought all the monster tribes together, who became besties for resties with both powerful demon Lords and ancient dragons. Who in their genius brought peace and prosperity to a land of chaos and violence. Shame, shame again indeed. Seriously recommend, one of the best Isekai series out there.
Well now I -have- to do research on this for you have piqued my interest.
I may very well be shamed.
as a side note, I will recommend the dub over the sub, I prefer…well all but one of the voices in the dubbed version (the one off voice is Veldora but mainly a season 2 issue), and the emotional inflections in the voice seem to match up better for Rimuru in the dub in my opinion.
*can be found legit on Funimation.
-or just hunt down and read the manga of course, which naturally goes beyond the current seasons.
Could you let me know the exact name of the series so I know what to look for? And yes, I’ll be checking out the dub. I prefer dubbed anime to sub. The only exception to this has been Saber Marionette J and J-X, where in my opinion, the subbed was better.
(That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime)
Just backing up that it is a great series. It also has a couple of spin off Manga.
The Anime and the Manga are currently at about the same spot, I think the Mange is a little ahead. Both are basically following the path set forth by the Light Novels (which are not complete but are very far ahead).
There is also the Web Novel, which is complete, but the light novels has a serious split in the time line, so it is a different story effectively.
Backing up that backing up.
Slime Incarnation is just _fun_.
I should also add that on Funimation after season 1’s episodes it has a few OVA episodes right after..that is still season 1 for all intents and purposes; season 2 follows up after the events of the OVA and references them as well.
Thanks. :) I will definitely check it out on Funination as soon as I have a little free time to binge it.
Personally, I’m a sub person. Been watching Japanese animation since the only thing available was fourth hand VHS copies, (Not counting a few subbed cartoons that went mainstream, like Robotech, or Kimba the White Lion.) and I’m a speed reader.
I’ve long since learned to read the subtitles without even noticing that I’m doing it, and picked up enough Japanese that I notice when the subtitles are wrong.
Dubs probably are better for somebody who hasn’t been watching subtitled video a lot.
On the subject of “catch more flies with sugar than vinegar”…
You know that I’m with you on the “Deus is generally a good guy” train, but even for me the “all praise Deus amen” thing gets annoying as heck. You might pick up more supporters by dropping that particular verbal tic. If you aren’t willing to, then for the love of God at least punctuate it correctly: all praise Deus, amen.
I find that a mix of vinegar, honey, water and washing liquid (for reducing the surface tension so they drown) is good for catching fruit flies if you happen to get an infestation of them.
It’s sort of become my mantra/catch phrase when Deus (praise be his name) is being discussed, in opposition to G’s nickname for Deus. In any case, I rely on my arguments to convince people that Deus is not only not a villain but is a downright good guy… but I will rely on my catch phrase to amuse myself. :). That, and sending out ninja hit squads for terrible pun usage.
I will start punctuating, though. Deus deserves nothing less than proper punctuation when uttering the mantra. You are correct., good sir.
I would argue that good/bad guy is about goals/results and hero/villain is about methodology. Deus is a good guy because he makes the world a better place, and actively pursues that as a goal. He’s a villain because he steals, kills, and employs evil artefacts/underlings. Using more commonly used parlance, I believe this makes him an anti-villain, but I could be wrong about that since that’s the one corner of that morality graph that I’m not especially familiar with.
Also, it has been pretty clear that Deus himself seems to identify as a super villain, or at the very least thoroughly enjoys the aesthetic of super villainy and thus deliberately cloaks himself in what could effectively amount to super villain cosplay, but given the handful of glimpses behind the curtain at his methodology I’d argue it goes deeper than mere aesthetic.
Granted, all of this is kinda built on the supposition that his end goal is, in fact, to rule the world to prove he could do it better and not that he wants to *subjugate* the world and is using altruistic endeavors to build his powerbase until he has amassed sufficient power to get away with tyranny (I honestly doubt it, but not impossible from what little we know, since all we know of his motivations are what he has told us, and he has clearly demonstrated at least once that he is not the most reliable narrator on the subject).
“But if your question is why I told them that, Mr. Potter, the answer is that you will find ambiguity a great ally on your road to power. Give a sign of Slytherin on one day, and contradict it with a sign of Gryffindor the next; and the Slytherins will be enabled to believe what they wish, while the Gryffindors argue themselves into supporting you as well. So long as there is uncertainty, people can believe whatever seems to be to their own advantage. And so long as you appear strong, so long as you appear to be winning, their instincts will tell them that their advantage lies with you. Walk always in the shadow, and light and darkness both will follow.” -Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality chapter 60.
Deus does not want to just take over a country, he does not want to just acquire world.
Why pay more for your acquisition than you need to?
The Light
Deus can find bargains if those he would acquire, Among those willing to sell out for the promises of following in the footsteps of the examples of prosperity of those who have already surrendered themselves to Deus. Rewarding capitulation and loyalty, improving lifestyles of those who will bring profit.
Providing refuge for Refugees.
The Darkness
The persona of a villain also allows Deus to employ an expanded talent pools of more competitive supers, and Tools who would be resistant to being restrained by bureaucracy, customs and other rules that would restrain or bleed away profit from his greed without greater benefit advantages. (Like Crushing Opposition with other worldly might, Stealing Artifacts, and Dealing with contraband, and Selling under false pretenses)
The Grey.
Expect Deus also to officially be writing off his infrastructure contributions from his other tax obligations. Finding systematic fraud waste and abuse inefficiencies and eliminating them with efficient lack of due process.
I’d argue he’s not a villain at all
“He’s a villain because he steals,”
The only people he’s stolen from is the Council, who stole the items that Deus stole. Not only did the Council steal all the items in the Black Reliquiry, they killed many of the people who they stole the items from. Most likely because the people were trying to do very bad things with those items but why give the Council the automatic benefit of the doubt? Is it really stealing when you steal from a thief who stole the items that you’re stealing? Remember the legal definition of stealing, aka larceny – the taking of another person’s personal property with the intent of depriving that person of the use of their property.
1) The property did not legally belong to the Council in the first place, since they stole it from others who they killed.
2) The Council was not using that property – they were actively making sure it would NEVER be used, or even viewed.
3) It wasn’t even on land owned by the Council if it was in international waters which, judging from the depth, it would have been.
Soooo Deus salvaged property, which was actively being hidden from ever being seen, let alone used, which had been stolen from its original owners, from within international waters. In fact… many of the same arguments that I’d use for Sydney’s orbs, I’d use for Deus.
“kills,”
I notice that you wisely did not say murders, because Deus has never murdered anyone. You said kills, which he has done, albeit via his bodyguards or soldiers, and always either in self-defense or during a war.
You know who else has killed?
Maxima. And most likely Hiro. In war. We know for a fact that Maxima HAS killed other supers, by her own admission. That was literally her job before ARCHON. But she’s a hero because she’s a ‘designated hero’ so the audience does not even question it. Now… I agree she is a hero, but she acts less heroic than Deus does.
Most likely Hiro has also killed in war, btw.
Sydney. Sydney killed two of the Squidwards and about ‘a thousand of their ships’ according to her own statement. It was in self-defense though, and of aliens so not murder. And if you remove the ‘human’ part of the definition of murder, it was still in self defense. Still, Sydney has killed. She’s also taken part in fights which result in killing, like on the Fracture with Cora, even if Sydney was very uncomfortable with what happened afterwards. Sydney is probably the most heroic person in the comic with the noblest intentions, but if killing alone is villainous, then by that definition, if Deus is a villain, then Sydney is a villain. Sydney is not a villain, and neither is Deus.
“and employs evil artefacts/underlings.”
Artefacts are not evil. Artefacts can be used FOR evil. Just like a gun or a car can be used for good or evil. Deus has not used the sky ripper for evil – he used it for good.
As for underlings, he hires people, some of whom have had criminal backgrounds. You know who else has done that? ARCHON. Heatwave, Digit, Amorphous, Achilles, and Jabberwokky all were criminals. The fact that ARCHON is the ‘designated hero group’ does not mean anything. If they’ve done the same thing as Deus, they are villains if Deus is being judged to be villainous as well. Neither of them are villains btw.
IF anything, Deus is employing villains in a way for them to use their powers for good INSTEAD of for evil. That’s not villainy, that’s reforming. :) And as for employing Tom… Tom hasnt been shown to do anything evil except one sentence, he made a puffery threat which was quickly silenced by a body slam, then he was a perfect gentleman. And Dabbler seems fine with his job, so if Tom is evil, then Dabbler supports and approves of evil. And Archon is hiring someone who approves of evil.
“Using more commonly used parlance, I believe this makes him an anti-villain,”
I’d more argue he is, at worst, an anti-hero (although I’d probably argue he’s not that either because he DOES have many heroic qualities), because his methods have honestly not been villainous at all. An anti-villain has good goals but goes about them in an evil way. Deus has good goals and has gone about them in a mostly good way, but liked the villainous tropes so he uses them as a surface level veneer.
I can see someone arguing anti-villain though. Although they’d be wrong, it’s a better argument than calling him a villain. But at the end of the day, Deus is just a hero who like villain tropes.
““kills,”
I notice that you wisely did not say murders, because Deus has never murdered anyone. You said kills, which he has done, albeit via his bodyguards or soldiers, and always either in self-defense or during a war.”
I’m only going to argue on the “during a war” bit. That war seems to be one he started himself. That just makes him a mass murderer in my eyes, wether he used soldiers as tools to commit the murder, or his own hands.
“I’m only going to argue on the “during a war” bit. That war seems to be one he started himself.”
1) Actually, Galytn was already at war with all of its neighbors, according to Indinge.
2) Mozambique is one of most corrupt failed states in Sub-Saharan Africa and the inhabitants of the region were privately BEGGING Deus to come in to make them part of his infrastructure.
3) The act of war on its own is not mass murder. This is an accepted definition by almost every recognized nation on the planet. Anything you say about war being mass murder means Maxima is a mass murderer. He has also tried, unlike the wars that Maxima was involved in (where she literally did use her own hands to kill), to minimize any possible deaths, before, during, and after the hostilities.
Look up some of the human rights atrocities committed by Mozambique btw. IT includes unlawful and arbitrary killing by government security forces, arbitrary detention, widespread acts of official corruption, state-sanctioned rape and other violence against women, murder of people with disabilities, and forced child soldiers. And that’s just a few of the delightful things which Mozambique is guilty of doing. It’s basically Galytn pre-Deus, but on a larger scale. Despite having abundant natural resources and a coastal location for a maritime economy, it fractured shortly after gaining its independece during the Mozambican Civil War, during which 5 million people became homeless and driving the poverty rate to one of the highest levels on the planet. I’m assuming DaveB picked it because of how incredibly awful the fractured government is makes it very plausible that the people living along the Zambezi WOULD be begging Deus to come in to improve their lives and create the same infrastructure he made in the rest of Galytn.
I will concede on the first two points and the stuff about Mozambique in general. In the long run, the people will probably do better under Deus’ rule.
I can’t really agree on the third point though. Or rather, i don’t agree on it being a good argument. Not just for this situation, but in general. I am aware that war is widely accepted by nations. But i would mostly attribute that to the fact that war is sometimes in the interest of nations and they don’t want to call themselves the bad guy. It is convenient for them to sell war as something less bad than common murder, when the only actual difference is that it’s on an industrial scale. And that doesn’t exactly make war look better in my book.
The difference between Deus and Maxima for me is their power in decision making. Deus rules the nation and has a lot of power to decide if a war of expansion (like this one, he said he wants coast access) is being fought or not. Maxima, while influential is not nearly as high up the chain of command. I am not saying following orders completely frees soldiers of guilt and resposibility, but i see more of that with the ones giving the oders. Again, not saying this makes Maxima innocent.
On the point of trying to minimize deaths, i can’t really say much either way because i don’t think it has been shown how Maxima operated there and if she tried. Or i just don’t remember, it’s a long comic.
The point about Maxima using her own hands to kill…. i never really understood that kind of argument. I don’t see how using your own hands, or someone else as intermediary makes killing someone any more, or less bad. You make a decision to end someones life and go through with it. That life ended because of YOU (the general “you”, of course). What does it matter which exact tool you use for it? And yes, *in this context* i do count people as tools.
“I will concede on the first two points and the stuff about Mozambique in general. In the long run, the people will probably do better under Deus’ rule.”
I always love a response which starts with an agreement to the majority of my post. :)
” Or rather, i don’t agree on it being a good argument.”
It’s an accurate argument. Deaths during war is not mass murder. It’s not murder at all. Murder is different than killing. There has to be an element of illegality for it to be murder. In short – All murder is killing, but not all killing is murder.
“It is convenient for them to sell war as something less bad than common murder”
I think you’re making a common misconception of what is the definiton of murder. Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. In almsot every way except ‘killing of a human being’ – war is not murder. It’s usually not unlawful, and it’s sometimes having nothing to do with malice aforethought. In the case with Deus, he has NO malice aforethought about the war with Mozambique. He doesnt even WANT a war with Mozambique. He tried to talk them out of it. The residents of the area want him there. The residents of the area do not want to be part of Mozambique. And it’s not unlawful. There was a formally declared war for one of the most common reasons for war – acquisition of land, disputed or otherwise.
“And that doesn’t exactly make war look better in my book.”
Would you not agree that it was a good thing for us to go to war against Hitler and the Nazis, for example? Would you agree that it was a good thing to have the Civil War in order to finally end slavery as a significant part of the rationale behind it? Would you agree that the Revolutionary War turned out to be a good thing? War can be for good purposes. Even if bad things happen during war. Was it not a good thing that the Rebels fought a war against the Empire? :)
“The difference between Deus and Maxima for me is their power in decision making.”
Maxima is powerful enough that her compliance with the chain of command is her own personal decision, when you come right down to it.
“On the point of trying to minimize deaths, i can’t really say much either way because i don’t think it has been shown how Maxima operated there and if she tried. ”
Maxima has been admonished by her superiors multiple times for going overboard on her use of violence, including by General Faulk (“o destroyer of mosques”). She’s also been shown to go way overboard on her attacks multiple times, including almost destroying a bridge with civilians on it, destroying a construction site (despite what she had JUST told Sydney an hour earlier), and her spar with Vehemence later on.
“The point about Maxima using her own hands to kill…. i never really understood that kind of argument.”
You know the old ‘trolly scenario’ right? For whether it’s more moral to flip a switch and let one person die or let 5 people die? There’s a corollary to that scenario where you are on a bridge OVER the trolley, and a fat person is on the bridge as well. If you physically push the fat person over the bridge in the path of the trolley, 5 people who are tied on the track will not die.
Most people, including people who WOULD flip the switch and let one person die instead of five, will NOT push the fat person off the bridge to get the same result. Even though both scenarios are you killing one person to save five people.
The reason? The closer you are to the action of killing, the more difficult it is to do it. The more morally culpable you are in most people’s eyes if they are not complete psychopaths.
Deus setting something into motion which might result in people dying, while he’s trying to still mitigate deaths, is FAR less morally culpable than Maxima personally killing people with her own hands because she was ordered to eliminate the enemy.
Also people are not tools. People are capable of independent thought. Tools are not.
The way people tie culpability to proximity… is not a good intuition, particularly as our interactions with other people become less direct. That’s what enables a lot of the horrible things people do to each other now, whether it be on the internet, or running a business.
Deus has worked hard to gain the title of supervillain and I consider it disrespectful to dismiss that effort just because he has brought an overall positive impact to the world
Nah, he just likes the tropes.
And on the off chance that he actually does want to have the title of supervillain, then I think we’ve found the one thing that Deus, paragon of humanity, savior of the downtrodden, peace be unto him, the world’s most perfect man, is actually bad at doing. He’s bad at actually being a supervillain because he keeps doing good things and treasures ashtrays made by little girls who can live in a paradise that he helped to build, instead of that same little girl having a terror-filled short life that would have been punctuated by a most likely gruesome death.
It’s also easier to make a profit when you don’t kill a bunch of people because dead bodies don’t contribute to the economy.
I don’t think Deus’ goals are pedestrian as making money… Which sounds weird for a character who is literally Greed incarnate. Certainly, money is useful, but really all it does it let you own things or people. Money is a construct of certain cultures and is not needed to own something. You can build a house yourself (or could have in days past) or steal a house through force (again, could have). Money is merely the most legal way to do these things. Pay someone to build it or pay someone for a house… Or even use money in some way to take a home from someone. Money is one of the purer forms of power. Not the purest, especially in a world where Superheroes, Aliens and Magic exist but certainly up there. Money is also far more versatile in a lot of ways. It might not protect you from a super… But Deus has clearly demonstrated the ability to purchase defenses enough to impress Maxima.
Deus doesn’t want money. He wants EVERYTHING. And as a smart man, he knows one of the easiest ways to get it for a non-powered individual is money. Having and spending it. He also understands a lot of socialist policies that would make a social-economic state still using money function. He understands that regulation is actually useful for a number of reasons, that corruption is dangerous for a number of reasons, and that all of that stuff undercuts long term profit in the name of short term profit, which means it undercuts long term power in the name of short term power.
Beyond that, by spending money to make a utopia that will make him money, he is also creating another sort of power. Loyalty. A King rules at the behest of the people and all that.
He’s been to space. He knows how useless on an intergalactic scale cash will inevitably be. On Earth it means he can buy all the things he wants to trade intergalactically but there will be a tipping point where cash won’t mean anything. He’s using the profit he has now to seed for a future where he won’t need the money to hold the keys to power. He’ll have a loyal nation filled with the greatest technology and be at the forefront of any modernization or even scifi-ization that Earth will see. And that won’t be the end, that’s just the start. He wants to be leading things on an intergalactic and inter-planar level.
Tom is a good friend right now. He’ll probably make a great subordinate one day, if Deus can manage that shift in the power balance without pissing off someone with that much ego. Considering how many super powered individuals he has in his employ, I think he’ll manage to either do that or have a backup plan where Tom isn’t an issue anymore.
For an evil conqueror, Tom himself seems kinda benign. It’s like DaveB loves turning evil tropes on thei heads. To me, Deus is one of the most interesting characters in the whole comic because he’s playing the role of the Bad Guy, yet he constantly acts very differently from the standard Bad Guy.
He’s been compared to Doom, but Doom mostly acted like a standard megalomaniac villain. I remember an old story which started with Doom listening to a group of musicians playing and it was made clear that if their performance wasn’t up to his exacting standards he would have them killed. It’s hard to imagine Deus acting like that. Unlike Doom, Deus actually seems to be confident in his own superiority so he doesn’t have to prove it constantly. (Which was one of Doom’s main weaknesses and often cost him victory.)
You find him interesting? I don’t. His METHODS and the RESULTS are fascinating but the man himself is an oversized arrogant dullard. Also, someone who always wins fights becomes boring precisely because of that. I got tired of Sun Wukong always winning his battles in “Journey to the West”. But then a supercharged scorpion-turned-demoness kicked his furry butt and put him out of action. So he’s not indestructible, all-powerful or undefeatable. I’m interested again!
“You find him interesting?”
I do too, and VGer’s explanation of how Deus is nothing like Doom was so well written that I didn’t have to write anything after reading his post.
“but the man himself is an oversized”
That’s body shaming.
But seriously…. being large isn’t indicative of not being fascinating. If anything, his size makes him all the more fascinating. I met Shaquille O’Neill once at a Staples in Manhattan and he seemed like a very down-to-earth guy, which I found fascinating as well. :)
“arrogant”
He’s no more arrogant than Maxima, and actually a lot less so. And some people, like Sydney, get a bit irritating on how self-flaggelating she can be about her skin color and ethnic origin. It’s all part of how she’s actually a rather well-intentioned person though. But even Sydney’s had flashes of arrogance before, like during her spar with Vehemence, or when Maxima was testing her shield in the interview room. The thing is… in both cases, Sydney’s arrogance was pretty much justified. Sydney was also arrogant during the fight against the Squidward after she killed the first one. Sydney’s still a hero and a fascinating character though.
Deus likewise is arrogant a lot of the time, but his arrogance is pretty much justified. He has good reason to BE arrogant. He always thinks dozens of steps ahead of everyone else, he is a SELF MADE multi-billionaire according to Maxima (who has no reason to lie since she’s not exactly in the Deus fan club), he’s got the most amazing little black book of sexual encounters known to man, and his employees and followers not only obey him, they RESPECT him. Even when he says things that are cringy or gets annoying (ie, Cthilla, Vale). He’s just a really decent person to chat with. Even Sydney thinks he’s pretty neat (or at least he has a nice *cough* replica *cough* sword collection). Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
“dullard.”
There is absolutely NO way in which Deus is anything even remotely resembling a dullard. Calling him a dullard is the same as Sydney calling Maxima a hippie. It’s ridiculous. He is neither slow to act nor is he stupid. He is actually almost impossibly forward thinking to an extent that would make Batman impressed. And he’s incredibly intelligent as well, being able to both micromanage when necessary OR delegate responsibility when more appropriate for his business, which is high tech-dependent.
“Also, someone who always wins fights becomes boring precisely because of that.”
It’s not that he ‘always wins’ fight insomuch as he ‘does not enter into fights where he knows losing is a significant possibility.’ While I agree that someone who always wins can become boring, Deus’s victories are not simply because of overwhelming power or contrivances, it’s because he plans ahead. And sometimes real life gets in the way of his plans, which forces him to have to update the plans. Very rarely admittedly, although I personally think he has tips from the future via a time traveller (like David Xanatos) or is one himself/gets information from one (like Layla from X Factor Investigations). Still, everything he does has this air of believability to me, in that, for someone who’s rich and connected enough, finding out things is a lot simpler if you’re also very intelligent. Which Deus himself has mentioned to Sciona. You even see examples of how he’s thought up multiple scenarios for getting into the Vault had Sciona not done so already, but since she already did so, he saw no point in doing anything messier and more morally suspect.
“So he’s not indestructible, all-powerful or undefeatable. I’m interested again!”
Most of the comic has been about Sydney, not Deus. Deus’s story has not progressed nearly as far as Sydney’s has, so there could always be stuff in the future with challenges for Deus to overcome to keep you interested. It’s just important to keep in mind that Deus is not the main character (more’s the pity). Sydney is.
You totally need that last panel Lorlara as your profile pic, Pander (just teasing, of course)
Now I have a vision of Lorlara and Pander meeting, and talking about how awesome Deus is. I think they would really get along! Or am I wrong, Pander?
Like Arianna meeting Sydney’s mom.
except they would not merge. Pander is not as enthusiastic as Lorlana. she may also be less sadistic.
I’m at least 12 percent less sadistic than Lorlana.
But 0% less enthusiastic about Deus’s awesomeness, you just haven’t had the chance to abandon your heritage and career for him yet.
This is true.
Lorlara is not sadistic. Or at least not normally. It’s behaviour she’s been steeped in since birth, that her lessers are completely used to and would be worried if she didn’t. Now, if someone was to REALLY fuck up, THEN Lorlara would show some sadism. Her idea of the “Just Heel” is a 7-inch stiletto driven through the shoulder joint. Slowly.
Eh, much as I like Lorlana as a character I’m a bit less enthusiastic about my worship of Deus. Which is impressive of Lorlana. Plus I’m a little more subtle in my thoughts on different subjects.
Plus, much as I would like to get along with Lorlana, she might see me as a threat to her position as Deus’s assistant and try to have me assassinated. Unfortunately, my ninja hit squads seem to suck, given how Ro Jaws and many others are still alive and kicking with the puns, so I doubt they will be much good as a defense to whatever assassination techniques Lorlana is to employ.
People also wanted me to have Sydney’s mom as my profile pic.
Much as I adore Lorlana as a character, I don’t think we have much in common beyond our admiration for that pinnacle of manliness, the paragon of humanity, savior of the downtrodden and hope for a brighter tomorrow that is Deus. All praise Deus, amen. (happy now eaglejarl? :) )
For one thing, I tend to be a lot more polite than Lorlana and don’t flay my opposition nearly as much. Like maybe every other weekend, maximum. Also I don’t smoke cigars, although I am quite fond of bacon.
The big issue with Deus is more than anything else a real world political one. I don’t mind it too much as it is a story, but there is a case of the ‘white saviour’-trope and that in the real world neither capitalism nor dictatorships are as efficient or developing as implied here – in some ways they’re often anything but efficient.
The character of Deus from a story point of view is an anti-villain of sorts – kind of villain, but mostly by opposing to the heroes and not caring too much about the path to his goals rather than actually having evil goals. If Ayn Rand wrote the story, I assume he would have been the hero.
If Ayn Rand wrote the story, he’d be blowing up infrastructure while evacuating all the rich people, then blaming the subsequent poverty on the lack of infrastructure (that he’d just blown up)
He’s waaay to concerned with long-term thinking to be an Ayn Rand hero.
You’re not wrong about Deus and the white saviour trope. But truth be told, that’s a lot of what third world countries are right now.
Also, Deus’ rise to power is sort of proof positive that Capitalism is insane. I think even Deus understands that, hence the whole socialist-capitalist split he’s got going here. He’s just also insane enough to take advantage of it. He might have good results but we never did find out exactly how he got that much money to begin with. Most billionaires that exist these days are little better then dictators, getting their wealth by sucking dry the impoverished beneath their heels.
Some made it to multi-millionaire on good ideas but once you get to that point it takes a LOT more to keep going without somehow being involved in taking advantage of the lower class. The question isn’t so much ‘what are his methods now’ I think but more ‘what were his methods to reach this point of wealth prior to the comic’.
Deus claims to have “made $7 billion shorting the banks during the financial crash“. If you make your fortune stealing from thieves, then do you inherit the sin of their original theft?
Wondermark has a fantastic 4-strip arc on the nature of money and whether it bears the taint of its bearers deeds.
Also did anyone notice that Deus planned on GIVING AWAY $500 million in stock to a handful of the poorest Americans … just to see what happens.
Seriously, this does not seem like a particularly evil guy. He specifically seeks out the most downtrodden people to help in the most direct ways. There isnt even a cost-benefit to giving away $500 million in stock. To his company that will be skyrocketing in the near future. He just wants to see what will happen. It’s philanthropic.
And like Deus says, he doesnt have an ego – he is just realistic about his accomplishments. He is not a megalomaniac – that would require unwarranted feelings of self-importance and his feelings of self-importance are TOTALLY warranted. Fitness-wise he definitely is no slouch. And his hair is quite astonishing.
$500 million (out of $7 billion) that was not his to start with
Do you know how much chaos and ruin that much given to the very poor will do? Have you not heard of what happens to those same poor people who win big in lotteries? They end up even worse off (if they survive) than they were before winning
What do you mean, it wasn’t his to start with? I mean, that’s all money that anyone has.
And your certainty that the poor will misuse any money they receive says a lot about you.
No, didn’t say that that happens to every winner, just that it has happened to enough winners for it to be a warning about getting too much (of anything) too quickly
Another analogy is with a dried up river bed. One day, it starts to rain, and it doesn’t stop, and it’s quite a substantial amount of rain. Sounds good, right? Except the ground is too dry and there is more water than it can absorb, so what happens to all that excess water? You end up with a flash flood that not only washes away much of the top soil but causes destruction down river
Now, take the same amount of water but spread it out over a couple days changes everything! The ground has been given time to slowly absorb the water, nourishing and revitalizing the river bed, which creates a positive flow-on effect not only down river but to the surrounding area
So… You’d be in support of a universal basic income?
Guesticules is right on the mark here. Do a search on “lottery winners life after winning”.
It is a sad fact of life that no education system ever gives even a thought about managing money — arguably the most important training you’ll need. And most people do not have the necessary skills and knowlege to give the training. Maybe a consult with Donald Trump would be of benefit. More seriously, there are many many folks out there who deal with money as part of their lives every day. Find one and sit at that person’s feet for a while.
The first result I get states that “about 70 percent of lotto winners lose or spend all that money in five years or less.” While many people are atrociously bad with money, that is not necessarily why the very poor are poor, nor is it only the very poor who mismanage their money. And the suggestion that giving the very poor money will cause “chaos and ruin”? That suggests that not only will they themselves be worse off for receiving money, but that it would actually damage society somehow.
The implication is that the poor deserve to be poor, that any money they receive will be worse than wasted, that it’s impossible to help them. Everybody wants to believe that their own wealth is a product of hard work and that their own problems are bad luck or someone else’s fault, while also believing it’s the reverse for everyone else.
Okay there’s a lot to correct in G’s post here. I love ya, G, never change (except for your blasphemous slander about Deus (praise be his name) but this post is very, very wrong.
“$500 million (out of $7 billion)”
Deus did not just have $7 billion at the time of the Macroeconomics interview. He became a self-made billionaire by MAKING $7 billion during the financial crash. Well before that interview. He was giving her a list of his many, many accomplishments to show why it was not ego that he had – just an awareness of his significant accomplishments. Before that he may have been a mere millionaire. Practically a pauper.
“that was not his to start with”
It’s stock from HIS company. Which means one of two things. Either 1) He is giving $500 million in stock from his personal stock, or 2) asking the board to release an additional $500 million in stock to give to the poorest Americans – he might have explained it as part of a PR expenditure, and his Board goes along with what he says because Deus is a financial genius who understands good publicity and has a track record of success.
So either way, it is HIS money. It is his to start with, and he can do with it what he wants.
Also, it’s not $500 million in cash. it’s $500 million in stock. There’s a difference.
“Do you know how much chaos and ruin that much given to the very poor will do?”
You’re sounding a bit like Michael Bloomberg or the Sheriff of Nottingham or Cave Johnson from Portal 2 with the concept of ‘Don’t let the poor have money, those simpletons would not know what to do with it and probably would spend it all on… McDonalds or Beard Dirt or newspapers to sleep on.
Cave Johnson (Portal 2): “”For many of you, I realize 60 dollars is an unprecedented windfall, so don’t go spending it all on… I don’t know. Caroline, what do these people buy? Tattered hats? Beard dirt?”
Part of giving them a collective total of $500 million in stock is explaining how derivatives work and how it could become a steady income for them. A lot of people don’t understand how stocks work though. Again – it’s different than just plopping down a million dollars to a person with no explanation or anything.
Then again, he might just want to see how people react to getting that much money, in order to know how best to help the poorest among us – which might mean learning that, for sure, ‘the best way to help someone who is desperately poor is not to just give them a fish, but to teach them how to fish.’
Either way, it definitely shows that he’s good and has a charitable nature despite greed being one of his core philosophies.
“They end up even worse off (if they survive) than they were before winning”
This has been discussed in Grrlpower before. It’s why ARCHON, for example, hires Aurelius Shrapnell to help Sydney with how to handle her newfound wealth – so she doesnt become like some Lottery winners (a significant number of whom DID wind up spending it all unreasonably fast instead of investing it to make their money MAKE money), or the Three Stooges or Laurel and Hardy, each of whom died penniless.
Aurelius Shrapnell, as a financial advisor, generally “works with people who come into large amounts of money. Lotteries, inheritnace, game show winnings, et cetera, to help understand how having a lot of money is quite different than living from paycheck to paycheck. [He] also helps them invest the money wisely and not go on wild spending sprees.”
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-347-you-could-buy-that-of-course-of-course/
(panel 1)
It’s quite possible that Deus would do the same. The better off his stockholders are, the better off his company will be, as well as the PR would be.
Okay, so how does one make money by ‘shorting the banks’?
As for that crack about SmugD being ‘practically a pauper’ for being a ‘mere millionaire’ says bad things about you Pander, by putting that on the same level as someone who barely sees a thousand dollars a month!
Not everyone has access to a financial adviser, and even if the lottery commission does recommend one to the newly rich, is no guarantee that the adviser is actually a good one
You are a lawyer, maybe not a ‘proper’ one, so even you have to have heard of advisers who fleece the ignorant and the ones who most desperately need one
“Okay, so how does one make money by ‘shorting the banks’?”
Shorting refers to short-selling. The US Banking System has stocks, just like companies have stocks. Bank stocks and ETFs can be shorted just like any other stock can be shorted.
Which make me realize that my description of shorting might still be confusing, so I’ll elaborate. Shorting is a strategy used when an investor anticipates the price of a security will fall in the short term. In common practice, short sellers borrow shares of stock from an investment bank or other financial institution, paying a fee to borrow the shares while the short position is in place.
“As for that crack about SmugD being ‘practically a pauper’ for being a ‘mere millionaire’ says bad things about you Pander”
I was obviously joking. Being a millionaire is nothing to sneeze at. I’ve been both well off and I’ve been extremely poor and I’m aware of the difference.
“Not everyone has access to a financial adviser, and even if the lottery commission does recommend one to the newly rich, is no guarantee that the adviser is actually a good one”
Deus is better than the lottery commission though.
“You are a lawyer, maybe not a ‘proper’ one,”
I think I’m a pretty proper lawyer. What is an improper lawyer? Document Reviewers? I was a document reviewr for the first couple of years before I worked for the ADA and then worked for the Juvenile Court system, before I went into IP Law so that I could work for myself and not have to deal with the courts as often. Plus I still do a lot of per diem court appearances anyway for a variety of different cases.
“so even you have to have heard of advisers who fleece the ignorant and the ones who most desperately need one”
There are going to be people who will fleece you in almost any scenario. It’s not unique to financial advisors. Somehow I don’t think Deus would be sending the poor people he gives stocks financial advisors who would fleece them though. If for no other reason than it’s a bad idea to mess with Deus.
“
Ummmm. Nearly there Pander.
“Short selling (also known as “shorting,” “selling short” or “going short”) refers to the sale of a security or financial instrument that the seller has borrowed to make the short sale. The short seller believes that the borrowed security’s price will decline, enabling it to be bought back at a lower price for a profit. The difference between the price at which the security was sold short and the price at which it was purchased represents the short seller’s profit (or loss, as the case may be).”
There’s a good overview on https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/100913/basics-short-selling.asp .
I personally don’t like the practice as it can and has been seriously abused, but it seems the market is okay with it.
The main problem with shorting is when analysts go on the news to try to intentionally tank a stock so they can personally profit from tanking it. Personally I think there should be some sort of law about that in the same vein as how insider trading is illegal. Intentionally using your position as an analyst in the news to tank stock in order to profit it should likewise be illegal.
That’s what was happening notably with Gamestop until a bunch of people who suddenly had $2000 burning holes in their pockets decided to screw over the hedge funds that were heavily trying to tank Gamestop. And instead the stock went through the roof because they started buying Gamestop stock, which caused anyone who was trying to short Gamestop stock to lose billions of dollars.
Which is sort of hilarious when you think about it.
Moot point as it refers to Deus though.
I was watching… It wasn’t “sort of” hilarous, it was ROFLMAO hilarious :>
When someone says they “Short” a business, it means they are borrowing stock – usually from the exchange – paying some interest on the loan, and selling the stock. When the loan comes due, they have to buy that much stock and pay it back to the lender.
So if you borrow stock and sell it for a whole lot of money, then by the time you have to give it back to the lender you can buy it back for a tiny bit of money, you walk away with the difference (minus whatever interest you paid on the loan) in your pocket.
Conversely, if you borrow stock and sell it for a whole lot of money, then by the time you have to give it back to the lender it’s worth a whole lot of even more money, then you have to buy stock at a loss to pay the lender back and it sucks to be you.
It has the reputation of being insanely profitable because it’s so fast. Somebody who gets an early weather forecast can short $200M of a business’s stock on Tuesday, watch a hurricane destroy its assets on Thursday, and then buy the stock for $1M to pay off the loan on Friday and walk away with $199M profit. If you can do that kind of thing consistently you’ll own the world in a few months.
But in order to do that he had to convince somebody he was a good risk for the loan and would be able to pay out if the stock went higher instead of lower, so he probably couldn’t do that unless he had at least $50M in cash and other assets to start with. You’re not allowed to start from zero unless you can find a crazy person to loan you the stock.
Anybody who made $7B shorting banks in the 2008 crash, even if they called every one of them correctly and in sequence, probably started with at least $500M to invest.
“Anybody who made $7B shorting banks in the 2008 crash, even if they called every one of them correctly and in sequence, probably started with at least $500M to invest.”
I’m telling you all, my time travelling advice from the future theory is making more and more sense, as far as I’m concerned. :)
“… of knowing things that he shouldn’t …”
Right. Like Layla from X-Factor Invesigations or David Xanatos, both of whom knew things they definitely should not have known (especially Layla) because of time travel shenanigans. :)
More common efficiency applications of Capitalism and Dictatorship applications aren’t including regularly exploiting opportunities of superpowers, subverted contraband laws, grand theft magical artifacts from a deniable non governmental organization facility that officially does not exist, and that is just what’s been happening in the last 3 months in the story. Expanding the nation is likely a launching pad front for many other opportunities that also are opportunities for additional long term gains. Interlaced plots. Not to mention specific investments not expecting a direct return, may be used as a tax write off for Deus’ other on the books enterprises.
Yes, the “edge fringe cases”.
What happens post-intervention? Start in 1918.
* Germany especially was devastated, economically ruined and politically destabilised for what, twenty years? And produced Hitler as a result. We cannot say WWII would never have happened, the world as a whole was growing up like a lad with no carers and a lot of attitude.
* 1945/46. Lessons have been learnt. The Axis nations have been taught how to be nice to themselves, and Evil is recognised where ever it appears… McCarthyism happens in the USA.
* /FYI/ 1946. France returns to Viet Nam, and begins the First Indochina War, losing their position in 1954, resulting in partition in 1956. Vietnam remained a civil war area with brief outbreaks of peace. /FYI/
* 1950. Korea is partitioned, and civil war breaks out, supported on each side by the CCCP and the USA. An armistice happened in July 1953, with 3,000,000 dead. There has been no peace treaty.
* 1964. The USA intervenes militarily in Viet Nam. The CCP and CCCP assist North Viet Nam, while the NATO and ANZUS pacts “assist” South Viet Nam. There were exactly NO fair and honest governments in Saigon. North Viet Nam prevailed in 1976, with between 966,000 to 3,800,000 million dead (depending on who you ask).
…
Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan.
Not one of Korea, Viet Nam, Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan ever attacked or declared war on the USA. But 2 of them will be economic basket cases for the forseeable future thanks to US interventions. Viet Nam is doing quite well, mostly thanks to Australia having the brains to get out as quick as, and thus being in a prime position to offer fair trade terms. Korea will forever be a stark reminder that “democracy” is not a substitute for a really powerful AND committed ally. The gap between North and South is a testament to the truth that “Freedom means nothing left to lose.” Sadly, Afghanistan is just a community of like-minded folks in exactly the wrong place at all periods of history. Everybody wants it, and the Afghanis are prepared to make them regret it. At a huge cost to civil “life, liberty and freedom”.
I am very sure that any conflict of ideals between Deus and his offendees (read:established nations with civil voting apparatus) will end sadly for the offendees.
I dont understand the “white saviour” attacks on Deus. If Deus was black instead of white and EVERY OTHER ASPECT of Deus remained the same, would he still be a”white saviour?” No. He would still be what he is now. Deus, paragon of humanity, SAVIOUR OF THE DOWNTRODDEN, the world’s most perfect man, the hope for a brighter tomorrow. All praise Deus, amen. He is a saviour who happens to be white, but his skin color has mothing to do with his actions or intentions. The people he is helping happen to be black, but its because it was a corrupt regime that was easier to create infrastructure for in order to compete with the Chinese in textiles, not because he thought ‘man, as a white civilized man, I need to help those black people so they can see how civilized people run things.’ He thought ‘these people would be easier for me to help and make a profit at the same time, because it’s a small fledgeling country, run by an evil man who, if he has to be taken out (if he was to try to murder me), the people would rejoice over being freed from, and I can do this without having the G-8 countries start actively trying to stop me from doing this good thing.’
Whether Deus is white or black or asian, whether the nation he was helping is white, black, asian, or mixed demographics, its not factoring into Deus’s good intentions in the story from what I have seen. You could change his race, his religion, his ethnic background, etc, and his actions would be the same. Deus’s intent seem based on need, not race. The whole ‘white saviour’ criticism winds up making the criticism itself seem racist, which I dont think is Vink’s or other peoples’ intent.
I don’t think the “white savior criticism” is levied at Deus, but instead at the author, DaveB. And while I don’t think that Deus’ portrayal is problematic on its own, I can see how it looks in the greater context of all human fiction. If race doesn’t matter, then why do certain races always seem to be assigned certain roles in stories? They’re certainly not assigned at random.
I think it’s unfair to level the ‘white savior’ criticism at DaveB as well. It’s not problematic that Deus is white, either on its own OR in greater context of all human fiction. In fact, if Deus had been black, it’s just as likely that people would have said ‘oh, the black man has to be the designated villain – he can’t just be a good black man who happens to be a billionaire?’ and I’d probably get a few additional supporters of the Deus fan club who currently are looking at Deus through the lens of race instead of character concept. :)
“If race doesn’t matter, then why do certain races always seem to be assigned certain roles in stories?”
A few reasons.
1) Certain races are more likely to be billionaires in different countries because of population demographics. Of the 724 billionaires in the United States, about 87% are white (while 76% of millionaires in the US are white). This actually makes sense in context with the racial makeup of the United States. If you were in China, the majority of the 1,058 billionaires in China are…. Chinese. Almost all of them, actually. I haven’t been able to find an example of a billionaire in China who is not asian and, specifically, Chinese or from Hong Kong (which is now part of China). In India, of the 140 billionaires there, 139 of them are Indian. So if you’re going to have a billionaire as a character who is originally from the United States, it’s not unusual that the billionaire would be caucasian. It WOULD be unusual for the billionaire to be caucasian if he (or she) was in China or India though. The only country with a disproportionate amount of white billionaires compared to the amount of billionaires total in a non-white nation is South Africa, where four of its five billionaires are white. Obvious reasons given South Africa’s history until relatively recently.
2) It’s probably going to be even more problematic to have a character who likes to give off villainous tropes as being a minority character, like black/native american/middle eastern/pacific islander/hispanic. The same people who would be pushing the ‘white savior’ criticism would then be likely to push the ‘why does the minority character have to be evil’ criticism instead.
3) If not for the fact that we know DaveB is white, there are only a few bits of evidence from reading the comic that he is white. Mostly based on how Sydney sometimes uses a ‘suburban white politically correct’ terminology in an apologetic way a bit frequently. But other than that why would that be the assumption? If DaveB was black or pacific islander or asian, etc, but still chose to have Deus be white, would the charges of ‘white savior complex’ still be levied at him? It seem unfair to judge the author by his skin color like that.
4) Now I’m actually not white and I dislike using terms like ‘diverse’ as some sort of requirement quota …. but Grrlpower’s cast is actually rather diverse. Zephan is asian and in charge of intelligence. Anvil is black and is pretty much third highest rank (1st Lt, like Peggy, while Maxima is Lt. Colonel and Hiro is Major) after General Faulk and one of the heaviest hitters in ARCHON after Maxima, Hiro, and possibly Stalwart and Sydney. Hiro is second highest rank after Maxima (under General Faulk) and is asian as well (I’m assuming Japanese-American, Korean-American, or Chinese-American). Xotchitl is Aztec. Ren is black. Jiggawatt is black as well. Jabberwokky is half-Tiawanese according to DaveB on #546. The majority of the white people on the team with powers are there because they were formerly vigilantes (Heatwave, Digit, Amorphous, and Achilles). You also have one person who is purple (Dabbler), and a new ‘recruit’ who is blue (Detla). I’m not sure how anyone could ever say that DaveB is doing things with undue favor to caucasian skin tones. It seems very unfair to levy that sort of accusation at him.
“They’re certainly not assigned at random.”
Sometimes they are assigned at random. Sometimes it’s just based on where they’re from and what seems most likely given demographics. But I sincerely don’t think it was assigned for any sort of racist reasons with Deus.
Yeah, I agree it’s extremely hard to assign race to characters in a way that someone is not going to see it as problematic. It sure would be nice to get past all the race-based nonsense in the world, but I don’t think that’s going to happen if people just stop talking about it, or stop making a conscious effort to change it.
Real-world population statistics are only tangentially relevant to representation in stories, particularly since stories are usually about exceptions. Stories are as much about what we want to be true as they are about what’s actually true — and that’s where the criticism comes from. In many “white savior” narratives, it’s pretty clear that the author wants to believe, and wants their audience to believe, that certain races have immutable traits, and should occupy certain places in society.
I don’t believe DaveB is pushing such a narrative, but I can see why the similarity can make some people uncomfortable. The comic does indeed have a very diverse cast, with a focus on female characters as actual characters, and not just eye-candy. I don’t think any particular author needs to fight any particular narrative battles, and that the problem is mostly with trends, and not particular stories. But there is a problem when “random” assignment isn’t. There’s plenty of bias in our society, both unconscious and covert. Telling people to stop looking, measuring, or talking about it isn’t going to make it go away, and many of the people complaining about such discussions just want their biases to go uncontested.
his long term plans definetly matter, since you know take over the world and everything
Sadly, it would probably require super-villian tactics to salvage the populations of most deeply impoverished nations…
It would take super-villain tactics to salvage the majority of first world countries too, at this point.
No water towers? Has the Civilization series taught you nothing?
I think Dues has been making her practice her ‘friendly’ smile, that mid panel one is almost non-terrifying.
Reminds me a little of Florence from Freefall comic practicing smiling to put others at ease…. but winds up looking terrifying since she is an anthropomorphic wolf with a lot of very sharp, vicious looking teeth, despite Florence being incredibly polite and kind and sweet.
I read it differently. Florence only puts the teeth on display… You know the smile on the face of the tiger? That says “We can still be friends if…”?
Most times her smile is what you’d expect of the mutt in your home — “I’m HAPPYYYYYY”!
Oh, I read it in the way that Florence herself narrated her thought process, actually. It’s a little harder to pinpoint those comics than it is to pinpoint comics on Grrlpower, but there were a few comics with thought processes said by either Florence or Sam Starfall about how her attempts to smile ‘to be polite and friendly’ wind up looking extremely terrifying since she has a lot of razor sharp teeth that she’s suddenly baring at people, which actually looks like she’s threatening them. And since no one says anything to Florence about it, she still thinks that they’re doing what she wants because she’s being polite and friendly and they appreciate her friendly demeanor. Instead of it being ‘Okay if I say the wrong thing this Bowman’s Wolf is going to rip my throat out with those teeth.’ Which is ironically something Florence would NEVER do given how peaceful and kind she is. At one point, she scared the heck out of even her future boyfriend by appearing at his front door during the storm, thinking she should smile when he opens the door in order to show that she’s not a threat.
God, I live Lorlara. I wish I was that fucking enthusiastic about something.
It is like every second is the culmination of a villainous monologue. Not just any monologue, but one which she has bled, fought and stifled urges with the aim of making for many years. Intoxicated with pride.
Ask Pander for tips :P
im starting to think this Alari might have .. issues?
I think she’s discovered cocaine.
“A lovely relaxant, it’s been helping me stay awake for days!”
Still wondering about how much she enjoyed that bacon..
Like what’s their diet?
Now imagine her using Marijuana.
Because I can’t.
Nah, something much worse: caffeinated sugar!
Some of the comments are about 1 step from cheering on the French Terror at this point.
Oh well.
The French Revolution had a lot of good intentions.
“Eat the Rich”
Interesting thought point: The proxy war of 1765 and 1791 against England in the 13 Colonies didn’t actually on its own bankrupt France. But it was a very large part of why the French Crown ran out of cash, and thus laid the grounds for the French Revolution. And we must remember there had been two massive volcanic eruptions in 1783 — Laki and Grímsvötn — which screwed over the global weather climate and ruining the French harvests.
I’m not saying there would not have been a revolution in France, but it would have been a slower more political movement with probably far fewer casualties.
And, just for the hell of it :
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Bulawayo_CBD.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Lusaka%2C_Zambia_at_Night.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/LILONGWE_CITY_AT_NIGHT.jpg
All three of those are cities in Africa, south of the equator by quite a bit.
People have funny ideas about what Africa and the Mideast look like. At least most Americans that haven’t traveled seem to have odd notions about all that.
Hmm, to put it another way, if we separated the US into fifty states and treated them as countries, Kentucky in the 1950’s would be very much regarded as like central Africa today, developed urban areas and undeveloped countryside to the point that we’d not have been a “first world” nation.
And, FYI, I was born on a tenant farm, a thing that doesn’t really exist any more. One thing about that, you have nowhere to go but up the social scale, there is no “down” from that start.
The world as a whole is much more developed than we tend to think, yet still has massive disparity within even ‘developed’ countries. I really like this tool for visualizing what daily life is really like around the world – https://www.gapminder.org/dollar-street
Actually we would since First world second world and third world dealt with sides in a war.
Sides in the Cold War, at least. The ‘First World’ was the USA and its allies/clients, the ‘Second World’ the USSR and its allies/clients, and the ‘Third World’ those not aligned to either of the major blocs.
The association of ‘Third World = poverty’ came from the amount of investment each of the major players used in attempts to win over the undecided – the implication being that a country that didn’t see that sort of bidding was wasn’t worth the effort for either its resources, strategic location, or even just its UN seat. It’s somewhat thrown off by a few well-off countries which deliberately and pointedly stayed unaligned: dodgy stereotypes aside, Ireland actually is/was a Third World country.
That can’t be Africa! There’s not a single picture of mostly-barren scrubland inhabited by semi-naked tribals waving spears and dancing around a fire as their witch doctor tries to cook some innocent caucasian travelers!
…(In case it wasn’t obvious, the above statement was sarcasm deliberately playing on the ignorant American stereotype)
That picture of Bulawayo (name means ‘Place of killing’ by the way), when was that taken?
If it was after the US interfered then it will look like a shithole like the rest of the country became
She is just like Doctor Dinosaur from Atomic Robo, her expression gets crazier the more bat shit she gets!
Next few pages, her eyes are going to be bugging out in two different direction and licking the scenery while talking about how crystals are intricate to the Douche’s plans.
She doesnt use crystals though.
Not to deflect from the comic here but what is up with Atomic Robo? Are they on hiatus?
I think they are. The last comic was back in November, but they’re listed as still ongoing.
Weird how the colors are flipped on Maxima’s choker in the 2nd to last panel. I’m surprised nobody has commented on that yet.
Yep, a clear error. The M was consistently pink on recent pages.
I bet sh has a fantastic O-face.
I really need to use the word exemplification more in general conversation.
huh you know given the colors, angles and lighting effects involved I honestly can’t tell in the last panel if she is doing the forward menacing look or the upward rapture/fanatic expression. i suspect that might be intentional.
So Deus is some kind of 21st Century Hitler? Or is he just taking Notes from the playbook? or perhaps Deus watched that STAR TREK episode about “The Nazi Planet”.
What comic are you reading? We know in Grrl Power there are some that feel Deus is Evil Incarnate, but they have yet to show hard evidence.
Granted, I would lay very good odds that Deus has the Evil Overlord List on a poster in his bedroom.
Nah, he memorized that long ago and is now studying the 70 maxims.
On his ceiling so he can read it while… ‘entertaining’ women who didn’t want to be ‘entertained’ while Valyeur watches everything while eating popcorn (probably joined by Lor, who is glaring at the poor woman)
I doubt any woman lucky enough to be in bed with Deus would consider herself a ‘poor woman.’ The only reason Vale was there was because Sciona was quite likely to murder Deus, before Sciona realized what an amazing lover the Adonis which is Deus was, had Vale not been there to make sure that did not happen. Sciona did not seem remotely concerned about being naked in front of others, though. She was pretty proud of new body, actually, and flaunted how perfect it was to Deus.
And the idea that these women ‘did not want to be entertained’ by Deus is not shown to be true in the comic at all. Instead, they seem to be lining up for the chance of being so entertained. Even Maxima, who is pretty prudish, winds up admitting that Deus is actually quite good looking and has a lot of great qualities, despite her not WANTING to think that, during her ‘dress up’ meeting with Anvil.
Maxima: “Granted he IS a self-made billionaire, in REALLY good shape, and is,.. kind of… I guess… HANDSOME… in a mo’ai sort of way…”
Maxima says this while trying to look any direction other than at Anvil and Dabbler, while Anvil and Dabbler look at each other with a ‘Oh yeah, Maxima totally would sleep with Deus in a second if she wasn’t so prideful and prudish due to her her militant feminism stance, she definitely wants him’
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-837-wheel-of-girlfriend/
(panel 3)
Do we really need to bring up that whole scene with Sci-fright, again?
It doesn’t matter how she felt afterwards, it doesn’t change the fact that she. didn’t. want. to! And repeatedly said so. But SmugD set it up in such a way that even though she did consent, she did it under protest (and, again, don’t forget Vale was going to be there, watching, the whole thing. so please, tell me how you would feel in a situation like that. and don’t forget, Sci has literally seen the real Vale, something SmugD probably hasn’t seen, and it scared the proverbial shit out of her, and we are talking about someone who hangs people up like juice-boxes and survived having most of her own head being separated from her body)
“It doesn’t matter how she felt afterwards, it doesn’t change the fact that she. didn’t. want. to!”
She clearly did want to. She agreed to it. She wasnt threatened into doing it. She wanted the manifest. She didnt HAVE to have sex for it. She could have just paid for the manifest. Maybe it would have taken a while to get the money together but she could have done so. Having sex was just a quick way to do so, and it was not only based on her wanting the manifest, but based on Deus’ second argument – he’s REALLY good at sex and it’s been a long time since she’s had sex and maybe she really would want to have sex. She agreed about that.
She wanted to have sex. Deus being a greek god at the act of making a woman’s legs weak with sexual orgasmic pleasure was just icing on the cake.
“And repeatedly said so.”
Not once did she say she did not want to. Deus has never forced himself on any woman. He does not need to. His sexual encounters are always QUITE willing ones.
“But SmugD set it up in such a way that even though she did consent, she did it under protest ”
Not only was she NOT protesting about it, she wanted a second go afterwards and told him to finish his drink so he’d be hydrated enough to handle a second romp of the horizontal mambo with her.
“(and, again, don’t forget Vale was going to be there, watching, the whole thing.”
She’s Deus’s bodyguard and Sciona was not exactly trustworthy enough to trust that she wouldnt just try to murder him before, during, or after sex. Plus Sciona’s a bit of a show-off where her body is concerned. She was quite fine at showing off her naked body to Deus more than once BEFORE sex, including once in the Black Reliquiry with a bunch of other people present.
“tell me how you would feel in a situation like that.”
I’m not embarrassed about my physique but I admit I’m not an exhibitionist like Sciona is. Although for the chance to be with Deus in the biblical sense? Hmmm.
“and don’t forget, Sci has literally seen the real Vale,”
She’s only seen a hint of the real Vale. Not sure what that has to do with anything though. Sciona’s probably seen a lot worse.
” something SmugD probably hasn’t seen”
Um… not only has Deus seen the same thing. Maxima has seen it as well as multiple agents from different government agencies. Deus probably has seen her completely outside of her shell. Deus probably is the one that DESIGNED her shell in the first place.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-849-diplomatic-resistance/
(panel 9)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-850-puni-of-the-titans/
(panel 4 and 5 and 6)
“and it scared the proverbial shit out of her”
No, it just caught her by surprise because, until that point, she assumed Vale was just another Super. Vale is not just another Super though. It made Sciona realize that maybe Deus is someone worth talking to instead of just treating like a peon to be ordered about.
Chaykin maintains a collection of background NDs, nondescripts that he can drop in. Thus he can recycle them into future work. It’s an enormous timesaver.
Just how many extra teeth do the Alari have in their mouth than humans, because Lorlara has a very full smile. Just saying dentists must be very happy in her culture.
My Halo Cast thumbnail shows Syddles with a set of dentures a Salt Water Crocodile would envy.
I think DaveB just does what all humorous comic writers do, for Rule of Comic.
Lorlara is giving off some serious “Joker” vibes with that grin of hers.
If I remember my history correctly, every time some culture south of the Sahara got big enough to become a kingdom or civilization, it got wiped out by malaria. Even today malaria is a problem in southern Africa. So what has Deus done about it?
I mean in our world there are right medicines to cure it and all parasites causing it be removed from the body. Though the right drug can be wrong depending on the person.sometimes there’ll be a variant immune to a particular one. so it’s all “Well let’s hope this that always works works on this person too. ” “We do have other versions” “Yeah. but it takes time/treatment to see if one works” “Damnit” And Deus looks like he has the infrastructure to keep the medicine readily available
it would be necessary for deus to provide a better quality of healthcare for the people too. if only to be seen as benevolent by the ones he’s *helping*. so he’d make sure not to run out and even focus on developing better cures if only because that’s good global “that guy’s a good business man look at the medicine he’s giving out. let’s buy his stuff”
Consider modern applications of supers, and alien tech.
Also the effects on mosquitos of Well planned out planting mosquito repelling plant choices, digging, drainage, practical tech tree of:
Aquafers ♦♦♦, Irrigation ♦♦, River Management ♦, Flood Management ♦
Not just malaria — which BTW is a world-wide problem and has been that way for a VERY long time, even in medieval England, known as “ague”, pronounced “aygyoo”. And Italy, the Po Valley, it’s where we get the name from.
There’s another little charmer, sleeping sickness (T. b. gambiense and T. b. rhodesiense), spread by the ubiquitous TseTse fly (Glossina spp).
And sickle-cell anemia. This genetic goblin is common in sub-Saharan Western Africa, and completely debilitating.
We’re not sure it was only sickness “wiping out” these cultures, although certainly they would have had a deleterious effect. OTOH, continued states of warfare would definitely depress a nation’s disease resistance.
What can Deus do about it?
* African trypanosomiasis, remove the Tsetse fly. There is currently no vaccine.
* Malaria, remove the mosquito vector: NO STANDING WATER. Eternal prophylaxis also works, sort of. And mosquito nets.
* Sickle-cell, oh, youse are gonna luuuuuurve this: eugenics. Youse cannot fix genetic disorders with drugs and immunisations.
For sickle-cell, Deus really needs to get gene therapy under way, starting yesterday. In the meantime, sorry girls, if you have the disease, DON”T. get. pregnant.
Which raises the question. I figure Syddles is the only non-Super in the group. Syddles is at risk of Sleeping Sickness, starting the moment she dropped the Bubble. She should also be taking prophylactics against Malaria. We hope all the Supers are — in fact — unbiteable.
There have been some recent promising developments for malaria vaccines. There’s currently one approved for children to offer decent protection from symptoms (RTS,S) and a couple others in trials with 75%+ efficacy.
I have heard about those. We live in hope.
About that last bit.
Sydney is technically not a Super.
Does she or doesn’t she possess the DNA unique to the Grrlieverse?
(Being >in< The Grrlieverse she'd have to.)
It's obviously not active or she'd have Super Power #1.
That’s what gorblimey said?
“Does she or doesn’t she possess the DNA unique to the Grrlieverse?”
What exactly IS the bog-standard DNA ration in the Grrlverse? We can figure the Supers either don’t have it, or whatever painted them has modified it (Maxima). So (for example), Arianna. How does her DNA vary from Syddles’? Or General Faulk? I say “Not by very much.” But Hiro? Mr Amorphous? Achilles? I say “Totally.”
I’m not convinced the yellow brick DNA road is not the best highway to heaven*, UNLESS DaveB touches it in the comic.
* AH come ONNNNNNN! Do I HAVE to explain it??????????
DAMMNATION.
Sorry, I got a double negative in the last sentence. I was paying attention to the bloody mutt, bless her black little heart. She’s already had dinner, but was denying it.
Take out either of the “not”s, will restore the proper sense.
Aquifer was misspelled in the 4th panel. “Aquafer”
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/c/c6/Aquaduck_001.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100513174329
You’ve been AquaDucked
your image link has been aquaborked
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/c/c6/Aquaduck_001.jpg
hope that fixes it
yep that did it
Well, her English has definitely improved. Didn’t realize Deus had been there ten years – time really does fly, I guess. XD
Have we seen Jagannath mentioned before? That’s not a term I’ve seen since the old Star Wars EU novels, what with trandoshans and their bounty Scorekeeper worship.
Great, now my headcanon Lorlara is a giant-grinning lizard person.
“Jagannath is a deity worshipped in regional Hindu traditions in India and Bangladesh as part of a triad along with his brother Balabhadra and sister, devi Subhadra. Jagannath within Odia Hinduism is the supreme god, Purushottama, Para Brahman.” (Wikipedia)
(He)’s a Big Deal, aka Jagan meaning world and Nath meaning Lord. Thus Jagannath is the Lord of the Universe.
Lorlara is batshit crazy… even compared to other Drow.
Yes, I consider the Allarri to be Space Drow.
If we can whip up a vaccine and booster-series for COVID in the real world in “no time flat” I’m sure the pretend world has even more amazing turnaround on cures for illnesses that have been vexing humanity forever.
I mean come on, if we do COVID in less than a year’s time we should have one for AIDS by this time next month. And if we can pull THAT off there’s no excuse for any further viral infections at all ever.
Then… we punish BACTERIA. *sinister music*
begin sarcasm
yeah but its all experimental like F=MA. you don’t know if any of it works. I herd the Aids vaccine makes people change from Man to Woman and back over a 90 day period. you know all this messing around with DNA is gonna give us cancer. I hear heartworm medication is good for Aids.
end sarcasm
I’m sorry my brain cells were rebelling. not to mention my bowels wanted to move.
Aaaaas it happens… “A” heartworm medication (ivermectin) has shown enormous beneficial effects against Covid-19 in 3rd-world countries who “don’t know how to perform randomised double-blind testing” (Big PHARMA words, not mine).
Ivermectin HAS been approved (sort of, more or less) in the USA by some affabet agencies for non-general use against Covid-19.
https://edubirdie.com/blog/why-you-should-not-use-ivermectin-treat-or-prevent-covid-19
It hasn’t. It really hasn’t…
begin sarcasm
I’m sorry I got this wrong. children born to people vaccinated against aids will have a fluid gender, not people who take the vaccine.
end sarcasm
wow… ivermectin is what we give dogs for heartworm. my irony detector just went nuts. I apologize for the earlier sarcasm, I was under the impression ivermectin was for horses.
Ivermectin is for horses, and for Darwin Nominees (great for clearing out the genepool)
Ivermectin is for dogs, as it’s the only heartwormer which does NOT kill the adult worms. Ivermectin kills the juvenile worms, which leaves the adults to die of old age in a reasonably controlled manner, which the canine immuno-system can handle gracefully.
You should always give the mutt a full once-over before treatment, just in case it has a life-threatenig infection which will require surgical intervention.
I’ve used it exclusively on my animals and it works brilliantly. I am so sorry you cannot get Ivermectin for dogs in the Shaky Isles.
As noted above ivermectin is for horses… and dogs… and just about any other mammal that has an infestation of invertebrate parasites. We started using it on beef cattle on the family farm as soon as it hit the market back in the 70’s. Apparently there is even a version that is sold for use on domesticated reptiles. It is also marketed under a variety of names according to usage. It is approved for use in humans as a treatment for a variety of parasitic conditions. It functions by disrupting a nerve pathway that is common in invertebrates. This nerve pathway also exists in vertebrates including us, ( I realize I am being generous in including all of humanity in the category of things with spines.) but this pathway is primarily only in the brain and spinal chord of vertebrates. Ivermectin doesn’t cross the brain-blood barrier when used in normal therapeutic amounts. It is possible to overdose to the point where it will cross the brain-blood barrier and some medications exacerbate this condition. I have to wonder how many of the people claiming to have been treated with ivermectin were just experiencing relief from that tapeworm they have been dragging around for years. I’m still waiting for someone to explain the biochemistry of how Ivermectin is supposed to work against a virus.
From https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapies/antiviral-therapy/ivermectin/ :
“Reports from in vitro studies suggest that ivermectin acts by inhibiting the host importin alpha/beta-1 nuclear transport proteins, which are part of a key intracellular transport process that viruses hijack to enhance infection by suppressing the host’s antiviral response.”
And if you understand that you’re a better person than I, Gunga Din.
I’m not the only one who wants to see the rest of those tech trees, right?
factorio player here
the tech tree must grow.
civilization player
I need the whole tree so I can optimize my path to the wonders
XCOM player
Can I Please hit the unprintable thing before it kills another soldier? (86% chance of hit)
@DaveB – Thank you for putting a notice of pending moderation. At the very least, it gives us a sense of security knowing the system is not just binning a post just for the lulz. Well we hope not anyway.
God, I love Lorlara’s psychotic, aggressive smile/sneer! It’s like she’s begging one of them to try and take a swing at her so she can throw down FOR GLORY!
your just inviting a link to ‘take me out in a blaze of glory’.
is there a bardcore version?
This is a perfect first step to global domination. After he consolidates power and uplifts the economy of the countries under his rule, he can destabilize the more developed countries in the world, perhaps by introducing a virus that makes the world lock down. Then, after the inevitable mismanagement of the pandemic leads to hyperinflation, a drastically higher costs of living, supply chain disruptions, degradation of basic human rights, and finally domestic unrest, Deus can swoop in with a proven track record of properly correcting failed economies and governments. He may not even need to use his military; the people would be clamoring for a savior!
I know this sounds far fetched, and nothing at all like reality, but I can totally see the story move in this direction.
Lorlana is just being a go-getter. Contrary to popular opinion, it actually takes more muscles to smile than to frown. It takes about 12 muscles to smile, but anywhere between 6 to 11 muscles to frown.
Lorlana is just showing that she’s not lazy, being the alpha mentality that she is.
I swear there’s an i in aquifer. Not sure, though.
It occurs to me that a series of separated clusters would be more resistant to orbital bombardment or nuclear war. Because you can use the green space between inhabited areas to make each blast less effective.