Grrl Power #315 – The eyes have it
I guess Maxima made her save, which means she’s only 50% affected. It was the double whammy of the puppy dog eyes combined with Sydney asking if she got Max in trouble instead of being defensive or even contrite. Sydney will eventually bring the comic book day issue up again, but right now she’s got that feeling like just scrambled on to the boat after a shark she didn’t know was there brushed against her leg.
The answer to the question I posed under the previous page as to whether you’re a private on the first day of boot camp or the last was a resounding “it depends on what branch you’re in” So I think for Archon, Sydney will remain a recruit until she’s finished basic. Seeing characters advance is always fun.
If you missed it, Maxima makes a cameo in Superbitch. I guess in case the whole Archon thing doesn’t work out.
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Have to give it to super nerd. That was a excellent attempt at the puppy dog eyes. Unfortunately it didn’t pass.
And I guess it’s fitting that if Max finds herself on another comic it’s one called “superbitch.”
I am not entirely surprised by this page. I remember Sydney hiding under the desk from guilt after making one too many peg leg jokes to Peggy, so I expected *something* like this. I just wasn’t sure if Dave was going to do more with Obama first, which he did. However, Dave said on Thursday that the next page (presumably this one) made him laugh, and this wasn’t as Laugh Out Loud as the previous pages. Sure Sydney’s puppy dog eyes are funny, but it seems more in the awww area. :-)
For the record it was Maxima’s wide eyes reaction that made me laugh.
I have a IRL immunity to puppy-dog-eyes. Drove my kids crazy that what worked for Mom was totally ineffective on Dad.
I just noticed that in the current tournament ComicMix is listing the previous years’ winners and GrrPower is not included. They have Paranatural as the last year’s winner instead.
Odd.
I just noticed Sydney has a nice butt
i read your comment and looked again and my brain melted
i second that
Motion carried
It’s well toned from a rigorous spazzing out routine.
I must concur.
Thanks to your comment, I can’t unsee it. Also, I can see the outline of “the List”, so that’s some nice attention to detail there.
So I’m not the only one who’s fallen in love with our adorkable Halo, then?
i think we found one of her innate super powers here.
Innate super powers checklist
1 Supernatural taste-buds
2 Puppy dog eyes of the unyeilding
3 the comic-book Head tilt (tilting the head to discover the unnoticeable in combat and how to beat the unbeatable)
4 Supergenius (and of course with all super-geniuses perhaps a little madness heres hoping the doesnt become one with the darkside though seeing her in a full sith outfit would be devilish and cool)
Since she’s going to the Theiss room, will Halo’s costume draw attention to her amazing hypno-butt ™?
The typical recruit’s uniform swallows them whole. Leaving a shapeless mass of green or camo double-timing everywhere.
Another nitpick.
In panel 5, Sydney’s right eye is drawn above her hair. This is really troubling once you notice it.
Shachar
It’s only really troubling if you consider her hair to be a “solid” opaque object. When you consider that hair is necessarily a nimbus of individual follicles, the idea of drawing all the hairs is ridiculous. It therefore makes more sense to do something like what they do with electrons in the quantum atomic model: highlight the region where 90% of the hair is and ignore the rest. The point of all this is that her hair is at least partially transparent. Since Sydney’s pupils and eyebrows are dark, they contrast with her blonde hair and show through. If you look closely, you’ll even see that her sclera and iris, which are light-colored, don’t show through. Technically, I can’t say for certain that my explanation lines up with DaveB’s intentions, but I hope I have at least shown that his drawing is of a style that can be defended, even if it is a subject of debate in some circles.
Yes, in a significantly less technical way of explaining it, hair isn’t a solid plane and you can sometimes see through it when it shifts right. The legitimate complaint, which I have of myself, is that I’m pretty inconsistent as to whether or not I draw her eye through her hair.
Inconsistent, as in that very panel has the two styles? :-D
Hah, yes, exactly like that.
Well, hair isn’t always opaque. But it can be. We could just say that that particular strand of her hair is too dense to see through.
Yeah. That whole “eye floating above the hair” thing is just plain creepy. Hair should either be opaque (and block the eye), or a few strands should go over the eye, or hair should go around the eye. Opaque hair behind the eye is really weird. I know it’s an anime thing, but it’s still weird.
Only posting this because Dave often mentions his plans to revisit and correct previous pages.
Extra small suggestion: the comic and the blog post also indicates that Maxima “made her saving throw”. Maybe you could (re-)draw the numbers on the d20 to be more indicative of this. Right now it looks like a critical failure… (and I don’t care if saving throws don’t have critical failures)
Either that or have the critical fumble on panel 6, then have a successful reroll on panel 7 (second attempt granted due to her “fight it” reaction to the charm effect… Either that or Maxima has some levels invested in Rogue and has the Slippery Mind feat.)…
That moment when you are a huge geek but then suddenly someone is even geekier. :D
Or you can have it be 2 d12, and put to make a stat save. maybe put it into int maybe
(Obscure refrence i know)
Although it’s true the the side of the die facing us is the one that typically causes a critical failure, I think it should be noted that the die it not drawn with a table under it or a shadow. Based on that, three possibilities present themselves:
1. This is a top-down view of the die as it rests on a table. The light is either to diffuse or too close to overhead to give a definite shadow. Conclusion: She rolled a 1.
2. The view of the die is in a similar perspective to that in which we see Max. It would seem that either the die is still in the air (and not at rest) or that she rolled either a 5 or an 8. Conclusion: She rolled a 5 or an 8 or the result is not shown because the die has not come to rest.
3. This is some other view, and lack of a shadow indicates that the die is still in the air. Conclusion: the die has not come to rest, so the result is not shown.
Of those possibilities, only one results is a roll of 1, so debating whether or not a critical failure is important on a saving throw is not relevant. I’d like to make a comment about a “tangent jar”, but I’m too tired to give the effort to make it work.
Yeah, the die just bounced off her head, it’s still moving. It didn’t occur to me to put the final numbers on it.
if she had said “Pwesident” she would have shattered maxima
Puppy eyes are effective because they can happen naturally. And I think Syd’s are.
Faking a lisp would have been an obvious attempt at manipulation, so Max’s save would have been at +5. Also, Sydney’s punishment detail would be latrine instead of KP.
Non sequitur: I do suggest that Maxima get herself a sturdier chair. If she was ever photographed near it from certain angles, such as panel eight, to some Freudian perspectives it could appear she was being, um, unprofessional…
FINALLY… one of her eyes actually has a lens right in front of it.
Now for the other one…
“Theiss Room”. Named after Mr. William, I assume?
Indeed!
I don’t know if I said this once on a previous readthrough, but it bears repeating if I did.
It speaks really well of Sydney that she’s less concerned about the fact that she’s in trouble than the fact that she might have gotten her friend and boss in trouble.
i love how maxima fails the will save