Grrl Power #1003 – There’s two of… uh, both of them
Yeah, it’s no surprise that Dad was the larger influence on Sydney. More on that soon.
Lots of talk about genetics under the last page. And yes, I know brunette hair plus blond hair doesn’t necessarily equal dirty blonde, or dark blonde or light brunette or whatever Sydney is, but really, a lot of traits tend to skip generations. My paternal grandfather’s pinkies both tilted slightly inward on the last joint. My dad doesn’t have that, but I do. (It’s fairly slight, it makes no difference when wearing gloves or typing, in case you were thinking I have crazy pinky claws or something.)
The purple uniforms aren’t so weird looking, are they? I know some people were like “Purple dress uniforms? Ehhh…” I just wanted the team to have a unique color from the other branches, and yellow and orange were definitely off the table. Granted, they’re a dark, desaturated purple. English doesn’t have a lot of words to describe desaturated colors, which is a shame, because I think a medium-light desaturated purple is one of my favorite colors. There’s just no word to describe it. There are words for non-primary colors like “gun-metal blue” but even those have a much larger range than “yellow.” What some people call gun-metal blue are straight up violet, so if I google some paint swatches and say “mauve” that could be anything from pale orange to peach to lilac to periwinkle to fuchsia. Honestly I think having only like 9 solidly defined colors is a real failure for English.
Speaking of books, is anyone aware of a series in which the MC get transported to a world/time that’s hugely patriarchal, like 1500’s Europe or another world where women are uneducated baby machines/homemakers, only the MC is a woman who’s an ex-Army Ranger or a Valkyrie or even a bio-weapon super soldier or a cyborg or something? I think that would be fun to read. If it was well written. If it was just a series of “Women can’t drink beer in this bar” -One Fight Scene Later- “We were ignorant men! Thank you for showing us how wrong we were! Please drink all the beer you want!” then that would get boring quick. It would still be gratifying to read probably, but not 400 pages of just that. I’m thinking more of the requisite scenes in Isekai books where the MC invariably shows off some odd advantage they have like being 50% stronger than the typical denizen of the destination world or learns their language in two weeks or whatever. And I don’t mean like a story where a woman does math then gets chased out of town for being a witch, more like a horde of orcs attacks, and the men won’t let the women help defend, and they start getting their asses handed to them, then the ex-Valkyrie grabs a spear and annihilates the orcs like they’re 1 Hit Dice monsters and she’s a Tarrasque. Those scenes are always fun to read. I’ve just never seen it done with a female protagonist.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update: I spent all weekend on the vote incentive. It’ll be done this week, I promise.
This month’s vote incentive guest stars Lana of Spying with Lana. One of my own secret agents, Pixel, is trying to assist, with various levels of success and… nudity. Well, in the Patreon versions. The Vote Incentive will give you a pretty good idea of what might go down. Here’s a dedicated post in case you want to comment.
Check out Spying with Lana. Their current vote incentive features a certain gold-plated glamazon. Also it’s a funny comic with tons of skin.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
Only an absolute mad lad would pick his superpowered daughter and start swinging her in the air without know what her powers are
If he’s even half the uber nerd his daughter his (honestly I would bet he is equal to twice as) he probably picked up everything they put out publicly about her powers if not pried every bit of info out of her himself.
He’s probably deduced most of her classified powers as well, with 70% accuracy.
Maybe even figured out some of her “unknown” powers……..with 40% accuracy.
Look at his eyes. “Absolute” and “mad” come to mind.
Admittedly, my reaction to that panel was actually identical to Sydney’s; “AH!”
Only an absolute mad lad would pick up his superpowered daughter and start swinging her in the air without know what her powers are
and he is that lad! pictures! videos clips! balls in strange/non-painful places.
He may be the reason Syd is Sdy, but he also is the reason she is a courageous and righteous human being.
Eh, her mom has something to do with that too.
Her mom also explains Sydney’s occasional serious moments.
And maybe her mother is the reason both father and daughter are not conpletely insane.
You call that “sane”?
They didn’t call those 2 “sane”, only “not completely insane”. Living with Daniel the Human has taught me the difference…
“sane” and “not insane” are not equivalent. A person who drinks only water may well be “of sound mind”, however that mind is certainly tainted.
Agreed! Alcohol and mankind go together like alcohol and mankind. Just about every culture either discovered or adopted some form of making (or at least locating, for those who only managed to ‘discover’ that some fallen fruit can have a peasant effect on the consumers) alcohol.
Even mankind’s most prevalent mythology has the story of how the patriarch of the small clan who survived a worldwide flood made it his first priority to plant a vineyard, and then get utterly smashed on the wine he made from his first crop. Don’t ask me how the Baptists, Mormons, and Islamists managed to screw up that bit of their mythology, because I’m hard pressed to understand how those sects can keep any adherents when they attempt (yes, attempt, because I know members of all three sects who enjoy their drink) to deny their followers that pleasure.
*a pLeasant effect.
Not even spellcheck can help you when you typo a word into another word…
Oh! Didn’t you know? Spell- and Grammar-checkers are the enemy! Do not use them in live-fire exercises, they are designed to betray you! Use these tools only for post-checks with appropriate restraints! They are alive, I tell you! Alive!
Wholesome father daughter moment.
I am definitely hearing that in the voiceover used in those TikToks for ‘hot mom check’
I notice that it takes a host of military pins to keep Sydneys hair in place.
Is that another area of growth for her? :D
perusing back across the history of DaveB’s comic here, it’s been well-established by the commenting community that Sydney’s hair defies the laws of physics…Particularly her front bangs. She probably has twice as many pins under her hat just to keep her bangs under her hat.
I was noticing that. My cousin said her hair was so hard to get control of she considered a staple gun.
Whatever happened to the enchanted headband Decolette gave her? That was such a nice gift
I doubt it conforms to military formal dress code.
Also a security risk, just like the rebreather supplied by SmugD (complete with tracking device and data collecting)
Genetic parental admixtures aside, Sydney Senior seems… surprisingly tall, given that the last panel has him picking up Sydney like she was a ten year old.
Genetics play an important role in ADHD, which is mostly inherited from the mother.
I am also very interested in an answer to your question… I would read that.
That would depend on the type of ADHD. I get the feeling mine is mostly coming from Dad, but then amplified by environmental factors and mutation.
It’s not sex-linked at all. You can get it from either parent or an older relative. I got mine from my father, who got it from HIS father.
ADHD isn’t sex-linked at all. You can get it from either parent. I got mine from my dad, who got it from HIS dad.
Lots of things can influence height. One of my nieces is always going to be shorter than her parents thanks to early puberty.
DaveB: “a lot of traits tend to skip generations”
This is why we have that phrase, “Talent tends to skip a generation.” It IS related to genetics & epigenetics.
Check out a documentary called: “Epigenetics, the Ghost in Your Genes.” A lot of permutations of genetic heritage are addressed there. There are a lot of other sources out there if you want to look for them but this is a good place to start.
Congratulations, Dave, if you were going for an extremely disturbing fourth panel, you succeeded. Wildly.
Buzzwords, eugh.
there is more where that came from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyV_UG60dD4
shame on you for not immediately thinking lucidchart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edO1ZsxKGDY
So that’s what a “melding of the minds” looks like… I always wondered.
Disturbing is definitely the word. Man has the face of the Joker.
I don’t think Maxima realizes what a well-timed distraction that was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo2X-SkAJMU akira scene it refers to… or really the music?
The whole soundtrack is available to listen to on YouTubeMusic. I’m listening to it right now.
Yeah. Syd’s dad could be one of those “always on” “pep-talker” types.
All “positive energy” and “can do” attitude.
Like… Tony Robbins or that fitness guy who was always going on about “tech-neek!”
ok, sydneys mom is in marketing. this actually makes sense, as mom could get the comic store enough publicity to help it live (for a while). also. that combining is… disturbing.
If that was the case, why was it on the verge of failing prior to Sydney joining Archon?
Probably because comic stores in general are going the way of the dodo, unless they happen to have some other major draw like, for example, being owned by an actual superhero.
> And yes, I know brunette hair plus blond hair doesn’t necessarily equal dirty blonde, or dark blonde or light brunette or whatever Sydney is
I’m told she is a chocolate blond and I am frankly scared to contradict her.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-963-a-memorable-first-date/
that would actually be an really good isekai… but sadly i don’t see many isekai with female protagonist… so i am aways looking for different plots than the usual { (male op protagonist [most certainly human] ) + a bunch of females that for some reason are aways being saved by said (protagonist) }. I love to read different kinds of plots, but so far not many comes to mind… not many in manga, most in manhwa tbh.
“I was reincarnated as a spider, so what” ticks all the boxes.
Transplanted to another world? Check.
Patriarchal? Check.
Female protagonist kicks ass on a level that absolutely terrifies the locals? Check.
But I don’t think it’s what he was thinking of.
I agree, it’s kind of aggravating how most of these isekai rapidly turn into harem comedies. (Though I guess it’s understandable when the target audience is shut in teenage Japanese boys, not married retirement age American guys.) Kind of happy Overload left it at two hilariously squabbling minions. Can’t wait for the next season to be released some time next year.
Probably not what you are looking for but https://potiondanomi-de-ikinobimasu.fandom.com/wiki/Kaoru_Nagase
More along the line of where the woman succeeds by being smarter (though there is some duex ex machine due to her powers).
Oh oh oh, Crimson Karma!
That I think will scratch your itch. Female mercenary/assassin dies and wakes up in the body of a female knight (female knights are mainly tokenism in this world). She uses her prior training to create her own black ops team to help with a revolution.
Well I was hoping for a novel, but that sounds promising.
FUNA = nonsensical comedy.
Seriously all 3 of her series are mean as comedies.
The world of Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? is not as patriarchal as many others.
I mean women get to go to school, and learn to fight.
> that would actually be an really good isekai… but sadly i don’t see many isekai with female protagonist… so i am aways looking for different plots than the usual { (male op protagonist [most certainly human] ) + a bunch of females that for some reason are aways being saved by said (protagonist) }. I love to read different kinds of plots, but so far not many comes to mind… not many in manga, most in manhwa tbh.
[shameless-self-plug] https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/30636/the-patchwork-realms-arrival [/shameless-self-plug]
The protagonist is male, true, but he is a dog who gets isekai’d and then acquires human-level intelligence. The plot does not involve women being saved.
Female MC isekai are not that rare, it is just more targeted at male readers.
Some examples :
Anything by FUNA (she has 3 isekai series with female protagonists)
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bar
Manowa
Black Healer
The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent
In the Land of Leadale
I’ve been killing Slimes for 300 years
Housekeeping Mage in another world
Her mother is a fully ISO Buzzword Compliant C-Suite Professional. Organized. Driven. Focused. Terrifying.
It looks like her parents complement each other like a piece of Japanese joinery.
For everyone who says Sydney’s Mom couldn’t be her biological mother, nonsense. I’ve seen kids who looked even more different from one or both of their parents. Hair color isn’t always a straight Mendelian Recessive, and even if it were her Mom could be heterozygous for the trait. Height can be influenced by a number of things. Just for instance, one of my nieces is significantly shorter than either of her parents and isn’t likely to catch up due to early puberty.
I have as well. My best friend and my wife both look like they “walked off the reservation” but their parents couldn’t be more generic white people.
This also reminds me of several cases of extremely smart people in high power career’s having mild cases of Aspergers. Could Madame Scoville be such a person?
I doubt it. She is much too aware of emotional states and nonverbal cues in other people
Shows how little you know about Aspies, dumbass.
We can actually learn both given time. It’s just not instinctual.
Heh. Ask me how I know. Come on. Ask.
Don’t assume
I don’t think it’s possible to know, given our general inability to directly observe other people’s experiences, but my impression is that there’s a fundamental difference between learning those things, and having the hardware to do it instinctively. Doing it in software is going to be slower, and it’s something that kinda requires real-time processing. For me, at least, it’s hard to capture, store, and process all that information.
For a moment there, I mistook Sydney’s dad for Starlord with a mustache
DaveB, you’ll want to consider watching
*Slime Taoshite 300-nen, Shiranai Uchi ni leve Max ni Nattemashita
aka
“I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level”
It’s about an isekai reincarnated young woman with the gifts of magic and immortality who, like it says on the box, reaches max level by just living a nice slow life, coasting by, killing a couple dozen slimes (lvl 1 monsters) a day at most…for 300 years. She even goes into a bar at one point in the series, and, well…the theme of the bar is hilarious.
(Also, very found family mixed with yuri-harem vibes.)
It’s available over at MyAnimeList, at the moment.
wanderinginn.com is also good.
Will second.
I would also give a shout-out to “That Time I Was Reincarnated As A Slime.” Very good, and past a certain point the main character more-or-less picks a female form and keeps it for the remainder of the manga. Rimiru is still technically a genderless slime and WAS a male in their past life, but doesn’t really conform to gender norms in their reincarnation.
I’m pretty sure Rimiru’s human form is explicitly androgynous.
Sort of, Rimuru’s human form is explicitly sexless, however it is a human female’s form that was borrowed when she died and Rimuru ate the body in a sort of mourning/honoring action.
Eh the uniforms look more black to me. The Air Force blues I wore were actually a purple mixed to get that color. That is why they look strange under certain filters.
This looks quite a bit like the Air Force uniforms I am familiar with.
Maximas face is adorable here, we need more of Maximas chill side, there’s been too much of her short tempered blood knight side recently.
Other than that, I love that we are meeting Syd’s parents and the Arianna-Syd-Mom speech bubble just makes me think of 30 Rock “Don’t make fun of Synergy!”
Typo in panel 1: “I must admit I’ve being curious”. I assume you meant either “I must admit to being curious” or “I must admit I’ve been curious”.
Sydney’s dad may LOOK like a crazy person, but he’s actually… no wait, i think he’s just crazy.
Well he is Sydneys dad. She got his beauty and brains.
Omfg. Calling Bullshit Bingo on the 4th panel.
I’m going to argue that it is completely insane, boring adult talk.
yes, how long before they try to monetize their assets.
My grandmother had brown eyes. All of her relatives had blue or green eyes. Traits don’t have to follow simple dominant and recessive lines.
It’s not a series, just a one-shot … “Shango the Atomic Cowgirl”.
https://viruscomix.com/page503.html
Love VirusComix, especially the one he did for 2020
@DaveB It’s not QUITE what you’re asking for, but the 1632 series is right up there. It’s an entire midwestern town being transported to 17th century Europe in the middle of a huge war and a bunch of the characters doing the stuff are male, but there is the Olympic-level SNIPER who’s a part of the main party, huge societal upheaval, lots of local men who are having NONE of this “equality” thing, and those same men getting a righteous asskicking and/or bullet in the brainpan.
Yeah that one seemed based more in reality than most time travel series and was even an open world for other authors. My first thought was the Cross-time Engineer series but that was without a good female butt-kicker and somewhat unrealistic. They did kill a lot of Mongols though.
Julie Sims was the first character that came to mind when I read that question.
For the folks worrying about the hair color-
-perhaps she dyes her hair-
-simple explanation folks. Especially with the dumb blonde cliche still in effect no matter what folks say.
Neither of my parents were blond but my two brothers are. My dad was 5’10 and my mom was 5’1″ yet my brother was over 6′ (age my have changed that I lost an inch or two by 61). Both my parents had curly hair my taller bro had straight hair and a receding hairline. Genetics can be a lottery with all the recessives involved.
@DaveB Schooled in magic is a series that comes close main character is a girl from our world dragged into a world where women’s rights are not nonexistent just very sparse and she proceeds to use magic to flip the whole world ass over teakettle.
I was thinking of that, but I didn’t think that series had much in the way of gender inequality (at least that is shown). It certainly has some, but I think its mostly involving noble succession laws; though one of the books has this in spades (Infinite Regress).
Well, a valkyrie shouldn’t be not much of a problem. After all half her job is serving mead. The other half is in the name.
I know it is not in the genre you are looking for, I think you would really appreciate David Weber’s Honor Harrington series.
I’m quite sure he’s read some Honor Harrington, as he’s mentioned it before.
That middle panel freaked me the fuck out.
Ms.Scoville should’ve said: “I’m surprised that you didn’t call their ‘G.I.Joe code names’ when calling their names out upon graduation.”
Also,does Sydney have any other siblings or is she an only child?
What’s the hex code for the purple Dave’s referring to?
It is probably one of the codes in the aubergine palette shown at
https://colorswall.com/palette/34780/
Aight, so… mind running hyperdrive now. New novel idea to take over time writing the heist novel now forming…
Damn you, DaveB, and your effing brilliant ideas. I already have one trope/anime inspired story going and now I have TWO (The genderswap idea I had didn’t pan out. Didn’t have a grounded reason or consequence of the change… it’s on the backburner, so it’s not “going” and doesn’t count against the total).
https://cdn.drawception.com/images/panels/2018/1-28/jhGhDs3ZO8-2.png
(just putting this here ’cause I found it)
I think Sidney does have some traits from her mom.
The take-charge attitude and ability to call herself to order she sometimes displays, for instance.
Have you tried “navy purple”? People will hate you, but they will understand you.
Probably not quite what you are looking for in terms of Isekai, but 12 Kingdoms has a lot of what you are talking about.
Light novel series, high school girl sent back to fantasy ancient not-china. For [reasons] she’s very powerful. This version of ancient china is more enlightened than you would expect though, and while gender stereotypes definitely exist, they’re probably not as strong as you would want. There’s an anime adaptation somewhere and a fan translation of the novels at this dudes website http://www.eugenewoodbury.com/downloads.htm
“I’m so proud I could shit!”
Some how, some way, I’m going to figure out how to work that line into something I write. So glad no one else was around because I giggled for a solid minute over that line.
Jane Lindskold’s Firekeeper series might fit your criteria, though the world is very egalitarian (at least when it comes to gender). MC is raised by wolves (giant wolves with human level intelligence), and uses a combination of stealth, cunning, and brutal pragmatism to overcome challenges. That she is constantly underestimated tends to play a big role in this; after all, who expects someone who acts like a wolf and uses as little grammar as possible to speak could ever outwit them.
The Bufori anime/manga/LN might also work; its a VR game though, not a fantasy. MC joins a new VR game and just focuses on defence (damage reduction specifically). Abuses the mechanics (somewhat unintentionally) and tons of random luck gets her a bunch of OP abilities. So much so, that the first major balance update is basically just a nerf to her and to stopping anyone from copying her build.
Good choice with Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense – Maple reminds me of Sydney a lot both in power & how oblivious she is at times.
I never drew that parallel until you pointed it out right there. Maple is more innocent, though. Syd is definitely more world-wise, skewed as it is by her “Comics Brain” and immense fiction knowledge-base.
Now that is weird. Had a dream last night where Akira figured into it. No, I wasn’t dreaming about Akira, was talking to a girl about it. Suppose the weirdest part was I got her number. That kinda shit only happens in dreams :P
Not just in dreams. If your conversation is enjoyed by both sides at a sci-fi or comic convention, such things do happen. Rarely, I admit, but they DO happen.
Now, the question is did you write down the number when you woke up and call it?