Grrl Power #1014 – The Zambezi high club
An odd page, admittedly, but things are happening on the other side of the Earth.
I didn’t write this page intending to dump on Mozambique, but I had to decide where Galytn actually was, and based on other higher altitude maps I’ve drawn, it’s at the southern tip of Malawai and overlaps into Mozambique slightly. The country started off about a quarter the size of Rhode Island, but has expanded considerably. Mostly directly south so Deus can connect it to the Zambezi, and then to the ocean.
I did a little research on Mozambique and it’s supposedly one of the poorer African nations, is rife with corruption, and according to wikipedia, their air force is comprised of 8 jets (mostly old Russian castoffs), 2 attack helicopters, and a number of cargo transports and training planes. Presumably one of the jets was down for maintenance when they tried to stop Deus last time. And as Deus states, less than 1% of Marromeu’s (a city along the Zambezi) population has electricity. So it seems to me, or at least Deus, that some of the population might appreciate a little industrialization. The endemic corruption is probably why the country is languishing as it is. I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on the geopolitics of the area, but I am going to assume that’s the case, which is why Deus has decided that a change of administration is required before he starts putting down infrastructure there.
In Mozambique’s favor, they do have quite a few tanks, so we’ll see how Deus’s campaign goes.
Tamer: Enhancer 2 – Progress Update: Getting Proofed!
Proofing’s back on. One last set of notes left to go through. I should be able to do that this week. At that point, it should be done. I want to do some more work on the cover, but I also want to get it out to you guys, cause honestly I think it’s pretty entertaining. So… maybe I’ll release it with a mostly finished cover. You guys will definitely find a few extra typos if the first book was any indication, so I can fold those in as I noodle the cover for the final final version.
January’s vote incentive is titled “The Origin of The Might Halo.” Hopefully the reason is evident.
Nude versions available over at Patreon. Along with a bonus comic page.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Two thoughts after reading this page –
#1 – There is a GoFundMe page dedicated to collecting money to have Deus killed.
#2 – The page is run by Deus himself.
Honestly that wouldn’t surprise me. It would fit his sense of humor, and collecting free money from the idiot masses is always good business.
That is maximum supervillain thinking, there. It’s got to be true, whatever they /want/ you to think.
I love how Deus embraces all the cliche supervillain tropes and manages to do so without becomming a caricature…I guess, he has no twirl-worthy mustache to prevent exactly that, since that would put him into the slapstick house…
You don’t call that Thunder and Lightning clicker ‘cliché supervillain’?
Extremely cliché, and he’s definitely legitimately enjoying it while also having fun lampshading himself.
Of course it is. He is doing a ton of cliche super-villain tropes…I couldn’t possibly list them all.
This,this is a man who is not only READ the evil overlord list but truly studied it, critiqued it,
and probably added pages to it.
Despite being a fan of supervillain tropes, Deus is not, in fact, a supervillain. Or any villain at all. He’s arguably more ‘good’ (and DOES more good for the world) than most of the heroes even. :)
@Pander
I see Deus’s PR team has worked its wonders on you.
Hell if there was an actual Deus’s PR team, I’d be running it.
I love the idea of having a job as EASY as making Deus look good. It would barely be a job at all.
He is definitely a caricature, but the caricature is of himself and he is proud to own it.
I think you’re wrong. There’s at least 5 different GoFundMe pages for collecting money to have Deus killed, and a variety of others dedicated to collecting money to stop him in other ways.
Most of them are run by Deus himself or his minions operating under his instruction. He has people working on acquiring the rest.
well there is at least one gofundme by Dues
https://www.gofundme.com/f/5jkhvp-Deus-Bushfire-Relief-Appeal
I.. don’t know how to respond to this, but have to.
I find myself in that position all the time. At a loss for words, but *something* should be said….
this silence is too loud. please say something.
All praise Deus amen.
Have been waiting since this page went up for you to recover from your joy-induced coma and spread the good word to the unbelievers. :D
And spread the good word I shall, brother!
Don’t think you can evade the paintball pirates!
have they been to Boston in the fall?
My esteem for you just went up several internet points.
I swear, the people on this forum are the best.
Have some Ginja!
IIRC there’s a character like that in Discworld.
Colonial expansion, people thinking they are doing what is best by “uplifting” but this is always tainted by cultural and personally bias, the one sided resistance is futile,
ect… there is a lot that can be unpacked and so much real history, ideology, and how it is expressed and reflected in adventure stories, sci-fi, and other media through the years ranging from set pieces to propaganda.
i mean, there is a reason why deus is the villain
Im not sure Dues is a villian, I’m thinking he is more of an Anti-Hero. Yes he enjoys the power and people bending to his will, but he may actually be doing good in the long run.
Funny thing-
Victor Von Doom, Doctor Doom of Marvel Comics infamy, is probably one of the best known super villains in the world. His goal has always been to conquer the world. And why? To make things better for humanity in the long run because no one can do it right except Doom! (This is not ego, it has been proven over and over!)
His goal is noble, but his methods… ick.
Deus is not ‘quite’ as blatant as Victor. Yet, anyway.
Because Doom is evil. Whereas Deus is good. A paragon even.
Actually, if you’ve read most stuff with Victor Von Doom, he’s actually a decent guy most of the time, as long as you don’t have something he wants, or if you’re Reed Richards “RICCCCCHHHHAAAARDDDSSSSSS!!!”
It should be noted he’s actually Franklin and Valeria Richards’ Godfather as well.
That, and Silver Sable, the Queen of Symkaria (a country in Marvel bordering Latveria) is friends with Victor as well, and she’s nominally always been on the side of good, albeit as a Mercenary (which is how she mainly supports her country).
“Actually, if you’ve read most stuff with Victor Von Doom, he’s actually a decent guy most of the time”
No, I’ve read most stuff with Doom. And even when he’s coming off as a good guy, it’s usually not genuine. The only genuine good that Doom has is that he genuinely cares about his people. But he doesnt care about any other people, and he’s willing to still use his people to save himself. We have NEVER seen that with Deus. Deus does NOT throw his people under the bus, and has actually scolded Sciona about that because Sciona does not understand that you get more loyalty from your followers by being respectful to them.
Doom does not get loyalty from his followers because he respects the peasants. He gets it by fear and awe inspired in the peasants.
Deus gets loyalty from showing respect for even the peasants. AND awe. Awe’s good whether you’re dealing with fear or respect as your way to be in charge.
Doom will fall back on respect sometimes, if fear does not work.
Deus will fall back on fear sometimes, if respect does not work.
This shows the priority each man puts towards leadership. A person who sees fear as paramount importance is a bad person. A person who sees respect as paramount importance may be a good person.
And realizing that fear still has its place does not suddenly undo the respect part. Otherwise Batman is a villain.
That’s why Deus is not like Doom. One uses fear as his first option, the other uses respect as his first option.
“It should be noted he’s actually Franklin and Valeria Richards’ Godfather as well.”
Yes. And he tried to brainwash Valeria Richards mainly to screw with Sue Richards and knew that it would hurt Reed Richards, who does not think nearly on the same psychological level as Doom.
Darkseid did the same thing with Supergirl although Darkseid waited until AFTER Supergirl was thoroughly brainwashed to give her the option to ‘leave… if she wants to.’
“That, and Silver Sable, the Queen of Symkaria (a country in Marvel bordering Latveria) is friends with Victor as well, and she’s nominally always been on the side of good,”
Silver Sable is on the side of whoever can pay her. She’s tried to kill or capture Spider-Man quite a few times. She is, at best, an antihero who just happens to not hate Doom, because he finds value in her abilities, and she’s willing to work for or with him. That doesnt reall make them friends – it makes them acquaintanes with a shared goal of peace between their two nations, because that would distract from outside enemies and goals. If Silver Sable showed weakness or incompetence, but still was good to her people, Doom would likely take her nation over whether she liked it or not. Deus would not.
He is a by-the-book villain, unironically embracing several cliche villain tropes (having a scheduled quarter hour of “imperiously starring out of the window” every day). And he is able to pull it off without being a carricature, unlike every other “evil for the sake of evil, villany for the sake of villany” villain (Gru, Talboc, Megamind, the entire staff of Evil Inc., the majority of the members of the Guild of Callamitous Intent, etc…).
Deus is a self-proclaimed Megalomaniac (he prefers that term over the label “Sociopath”). The reason why he seems to be doing good for the people he oppresses is because he has a different approach and philosophy when it comes to being evil…The dictionary entry about “The difference between Chaotic Evil and Chaotic Stupid” has his picture.
Not quite. He is by-the-book in that he knows all the villain tropes. But he uses them in a decidedly heroic way for the side of good. All praise Deus amen.
“Deus is a self-proclaimed Megalomaniac”
Nothing villainous about being a megalomaniac. Maxima’s got some megalomaniacal tendencies as well with how she constantly brags about her powers. Sydney is the only one who tends to call her on it. :)
“(he prefers that term over the label “Sociopath”).”
He’s clearly NOT a sociopath. He actively does care about people and has the ability to feel empathy towards others. Almost everything he does shows that he does have this capacity to show a lot more empathy than even a highly functioning sociopath would be capable of doing. He treasures that ashtray the little girl gave him for ‘freeing them from the evil tyrant so that they can all have a better life’ because he CARES. He gives people a chance to switch sides not because he just wants power, but because he wants power while causing as little harm as possible – because he cares even about the people he might have to defeat. He cares about his underlings. When Lorlana threatens the owner of the restaurant, he makes a note that he’ll need to send him something extravagant to apologize for Lorlana’s behavior. Because he actively CARES about his workers.
All praise Deus, the very much not a sociopath, amen.
he is a villain, his objective is quite literaly to take over the world
he is pragmatic and efficient but that doesnt make him a good guy that makes him an efficient and dangerous foe
“he is a villain, his objective is quite literaly to take over the world”
Wanting to rule the world is not villainous. Villainous is about behavior, and Deus’s behavior is NOT villainous, even though he ‘goes through the motions’ to project that sort of air, mostly because he’s very genre-savvy and loves tropes. I mean cmon, he has the Sword of Omens. And Excalibur. He is therefore obviously worthy.
He could probably pick up Mjolnir without a second thought.
“he is pragmatic and efficient”
That does not make him a villain.
“but that doesnt make him a good guy”
It makes him intelligent. It has nothing to do with being a villain or a hero. What he does WITH his efficiency is what makes him not a villain, and instead makes him a paragon of virtue. Even when he chooses his enemies, he seems to go out of his way to find the most vile or corrupt people to overthrow, so as to not cause harm to good people in his pursuits.
“that makes him an efficient and dangerous foe”
He is indeed an efficient and dangerous foe. To villains who would harm the innocent.
All praise Deus the totally not a villain and definitely a hero, amen.
Except he is not a supervillain. Or any villain. He is just a fan of evil overlord tropes, and makes them work for him, even though he’s the paragon of humanity and savior of Earth, working for a brighter tomorrow for us all, including the poorest and weakest among us.
All praise Deus amen.
Does he own a villa? If so, he is a villain, whether or not he has despotic tendencies.
I commend your etymological argument.
But villa is not the root of villain. Villanus is the root of villain.
Villanus is the root of villa and villager.
Mainly because villager used to mean ‘a person of uncouth mind and manners’ probably because rich people had a low opinion of country-dwelling bumpkins.
A villa, however, has nothing to do with ‘uncouth mind and manners.’ Villas just ended to be in rural areas near or in villages. :)
That being said… no idea if Deus owns a villa. He probably owns a lot of villas. But does he live in them? Probably actually rents them out at a very affordable rate as orphanages or something.
You are mixing your old latin, middle latin, and old english suffixes up. It is near as bad as trying to untangle a TVtropes link. That said, I disagree.
To be fair, English tends to be a hodgepodge of many different languages.
If Deus has, in fact, done as he said with Galtyn then its a little hard to argue with the results and only slightly easier to doubt his stated intent for the river lands.
Method matters, however.
To borrow from Stephen Brust, speaking through one of his characters, “Ends that can only be achieved through dishonorable means are, themselves, inherently dishonorable.”
Further, one is obliged to consider one’s actual desired end state. It’s like the bit about killing Baby Hitler.
The fact is, it is always wrong to murder a human infant. Period.
“But we’re preventing WWII & the Holocaust,” replies our time-hopping baby-killer.
But there better – much better – methods.
At the low end of the scale, simply ensure that young Herr Hitler travels to America to be permanently employed as a landscape painter. He never winds up in the German Army, because he is getting recognition & appreciation, and a very comfortable living, as an artist. He is never wounded in action, never spends time convalescing in the company of reactionaries, never gets inoculated with the “Stab in the Back” rhetoric, never gets involved with politics…you see the cascade.
Or, as another alternative, convince Taft not to oppose Teddy Roosevelt in 1912. This guarantees that TR is in command at the start of WWI, and leads to earlier US entry, and thus a _shorter_ war. Less overall death & destruction, less trauma to the Central Powers, and a far less punitive & destabilizing situation for Germany, afterward. Thusly, the conditions that lead to the rise of Adolf & the Nazis never manifest, and WWII doesn’t either.
Coincidentally, it also likely leads to the Russian Revolution not resulting in the rise of the Bolsheviks, meaning a less confrontational USSR, and likely no Cold War.
And all without murdering a baby in the cradle.
Point being, ‘the ends justifies the means’ is a weak argument.
Could also prevent the rise of the nazis by preventing the economic collapse of the Weimar Republic, or just preventing the French insisting that Germany get the sole blame for WW1
“… it also likely leads to the Russian Revolution not resulting in the rise of the Bolsheviks …”
Certainly I agree a much more merciful Versailles treaty would have (more than) minimised Germay’s post-war truama, leading to a more robust Weimar Republic.
However, there is little evidence the Bosheviks would have ignored the Russian Revolution. We don’t want to offend too many (nice) people, but Alexander’s efforts to erase the Vodka Economy were too bloody little, way too bloody late. It is almost certain the Russian involvement in WWI was the last straw on this camels’ back, and the Bosheviks had been… plotting… for a looong time.
It is ironic, that one of Lenin’s first targets post revolution was… the Vodka Economy. As did Stalin, and (I believe) Kruschev. Al three of them just bounced.
Your focus is too narrow.
That the Russian Revolution comes is likely a given. The question is, what occurred between the initial Revolution, which resulted in an interim government, and the successful power grab b6 Lenin & his Bolsheviks?
Remember that they were only one of the many factions involved. Further remember that the interim government remained involved in the war, and it wasn’t until _after_ they failed to secure victory, that Lenin & Co were able to assume control.
If the war ends earlier, and likely with at least a few modest victories, thanks to the American presence arriving earlier & fighting more aggressively at TR’s command, then there’s nothing for the Bolsheviks to exploit, in order to take over leadership of the Revolution. They remain a largely unpopular militant minority.
No Lenin, means no Stalin. No Stalin, and more importantly no WWII, means no paranoia-driven foreign policy & antagonism with the Allied nations. No Cold War. No Korea, no Vietnam, no Operation Condor.
No WWII, means nothing to distract from or derail FDR’s New Deal Policies (I’m not prepared to say the Great Depression & Prohibition wouldn’t have happened), which means we probably never reach the insanity that is modern neoliberalism.
Wallace probably stays on the ticket in ‘44, and so we might even see a convergence of the capitalist & socialist economies, and the emergence of a roughly even partnership between labor & capital.
And if I may engage in some shameless wishful thinking, no goddamn coronavirus pandemic in the here & now, because we’d have had a proper health system in place, and not have to orient policy decisions around keeping the wheels of profit grinding along, greased by human blood.
…and still without murdering an Austrian infant in the cradle.
I like to give the people who ask that question fits, because I tell them, “Of course I wouldn’t murder Hitler as a baby. I’d just kidnap him and send him to a nice Jewish orphanage.”
At the other end of the spectrum, however, are those who argue that killing or otherwise diverting Hitler wouldn’t do all that much to prevent a War of some kind. The charismatic figurehead that we recognise from our history wouldn’t be there; that doesn’t remove the underlying factors for which he was figurehead, and it doesn’t preclude a different figurehead rising in his place. I recall one setting which actually made reference to a time-travel-policing operation which actively prevented attempts to kill Hitler, on grounds that it invariably led to an alternative who was more competent! Bharda does touch on some more systemic potential alternatives though, so full credit there.
As it happens, yes. People tend to forget (or never learn) that Poland was in a very des res. Quite apart from the nationalistic Danzig Question, both Germany and Russia wanted access to Poland’s extensive croplands. We must note that the Weimar Republic wanted a slice of Poland, in that it wanted Danzig back.
Poland would not have increased Germany’s maritime access to any great degree, but the Polish littoral was the stuff of wet dreams for Russia which has for centuries desired an all-season access to the world’s maritime environment. Russia has never considered Denmark or Sweden to be problematic in this regard.
So, one way or another a major war was imminent, but whether Britain would have been prepared to take on Stalin’s Russia is moot. My own opinion is that Russia would have reorganised Europe while sidelining Britain.
It sounds like you’re saying “I don’t think these particular ends justify these particular means” and concluding “therefore, ends do not justify means,” with a tangent into “here are some other means that I think would be justified by those ends.” Which is an even weaker argument.
Put another way: I don’t think a banana is worth $10, but that doesn’t mean I’m opposed to the practice of spending money on bananas.
Also, “honor” is a dumb concept at best, and entirely irrelevant here. Deus is offering to solve a massive, systemic problem that is causing ongoing suffering and which nobody else is likely to solve (at least not in any kind of timely fashion).
Fun fact: by the modern interpretation of “Genocide”, as stated somewhere in the 1960s or so, (forced) cultural integration with the norms of a greater power are considered genocidal activity.
So basically, all colonial expansions are a form of genocide. Except, ironically, the type which segregates and apartheids…
Hm, that IS a good question to ask a soldier: what’s more important, your oath to the people, or the people themselves?
lets start with defining the difference. it will only take 25 posts with at least 2 posts over 3 paragraphs.
warning this post contains sarcasm. please read responsibly.
No, I believe, in this case, he’s asking what loyalty the Colonel has to a government that has, despite many years of opportunity, only invested in providing electricity to 1% of his hometown.
When Deus is ready to supply everyone within a decade. Like he’s done with Galtyn.
All the Colonel has to do is do nothing and he gets what his current Government has not been able to … or willing to … provide.
For others.
The colonel had electricity. He is a part of the elite. The elite typically do not like change, because they profit from the status quo. The colonel probably makes a tidy living, plus whatever he might get on the side by selling military equipment, shaking down town leaders for ‘protection,’ looking the other way for crime bosses, and assorted other graft.
What’s more important, your oath to the government, or the people themselves?
An oath to a government, all of which heard or know of your oath will be dead by the end of the week, or to the people themselves who will all be healthier, stronger, and with better resources by the end of the day?
So, you would rather be an oathbreaker who helps annex your country and puts your people under someone elses control?
Good to know
You can be loyal to people, a group, an organization, or you can be loyal to principles. If you’re loyal to people, they’ll eventually expect you to sacrifice your principles for their benefit. If you’re loyal to principles, you can never betray anyone who hasn’t already betrayed you first.
Behold, the conflict between virtue ethics and consequentialism. In my opinion, the root cause of much of real-world America’s issues.
I respectfully disagree. here are some other roots.
1. refusal to teach common logical fallacies in school (the sooner the better)
2. the inability/unwillingness to force opinion media to be as clearly labeled as poisons vs news.
3. the inability to figure out how to hold entertainers responsible for using fear as an entertainment tool.
4. the inability to remind people that 40 year old political rhetoric is not new and has been debunked already.
For most of the people in the colonel’s position, you offer up a nonsense binary. What is more important is remaining wealthy and alive. Catering to the desires of his upstream patrons is his status quo.
Deus is hinting, via the mention of the ex-airforce, that survival may involve finding a new patron, or at least risking the ire of his current patrons by finding some justification to be somewhat less than effective as a leader of troops.
I think your question is too US-centered; most armies in the world (even democratic ones) doesn’t ask for an oath at all, or if it is asked, it’s to the State, not the People (whatever you put in that generic term)
plus you forget the three thought that Frederic the Great said that had to be constantly in a soldier mind
-God
-the King
-Nothing
I think we’re about to find out what happens when there’s a supers arms race. Or if Mozambique is an undisclosed nuclear power.
Not likely. They have no missiles, and their sole jet platforms are old MiG-21s.
They’re Fighter / Interceptors, not nuclear bomb delivery.
Any airframe with enough lift can be a nuclear bomb delivery system, if your pilots are desperate enough. Or just use handheld nukes.
There are invariably technological requirements as well, although these vary depending on the warhead system you’re using. I’m not read into the details of exactly what’s entailed, and I wouldn’t post them here if I was, but I suspect the list involves things like power supplies, temperature control, fusing datalinks,,,
They no longer have an air force, so planning to deliver a nuke via plane seems … ambitious.
However, there are tactical nukes which can be launched via a mortar, and the colonel almost certainly has access to mortars. The nuclear shells are a different matter, but if we’re speculating, we’re speculating.
never underestimate an engineer on a timeframe
while it might not look pretty, and the plane may have to fly slower to accommodate, you can bolt a delivery system onto the wing or fuselage in a day or two given the right parts, hell maybe a few hours depending on how jank it is
it only has to work once. if the plane comes back, we can do it all over again.
Is that a German WWII Panzer IV Mark/ausförung D you drew there? XD
Surely Mozambique can muster something more modern than THAT?! :)
Very well drawn also – kudos!
Sample: https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/germany/panzer_iv_ausfd (better photos and images available online)
wikipidia lists 16 PT-76 and an unconfirmed number of t-54s and t-55s about or less than 170 in total
They should paint one pink. Then they would have a Pink Panzer!
That particular color on a tank actually creates some ecological issues, the reflected wavelengths can decimate the local insect populations. Everywhere you look – dead ant, dead ant…
I bow to this joke. thank you.
That is the most amazing joke I have read in a long time.
Took me a moment to get, but I fell in love once I did.
Bravo.
“panzer” actually comes from “armor for the belly”, like the English word “paunch”; it has nothing to do with panthers, pink or otherwise
Thus, it’s a pun. A multilingual pun.
they already do, it’s Pixel!
A 500% increase in median income is a pretty meaningless promise. That number has to be compared to inflation among other factors. Earning 5 times the amount of your local currency isn’t exactly good if that currency has been devalued to be worth 10x less in the meantime.
Of course Deus is probably being a good politician and banking on his audience not having a clue about economics.
Nah, SmugD don’t care what the answer is: he’s taking that land one way or another, he just likes to make it seem like he was a good guy who got rebuffed, and then provoke then into attacking so his minions can kill without remorse (and he can then throw said minions under a bus if anyone notices)
Yeah. I remember hearing about when Russian currency was so worthless, wives would carry their husbands money in a wheelbarrow but it was so worthless that it was cheaper to burn it than try to spend it on firewood.
Ive seen this “anecdote” used for multiple different countries over the years with no real proof of its reality
plenty of anecdotal versions of it (Russia, Venezuela, Argentina, the Zimbabwe 100 trillion dollar bill), but there are photos of a pre-WW2 German using paper money as actual wallpaper so hyperinflation has caused such. Bringing up WW2 the land grabs of Poland were for a “path to the sea” which is a disturbing parallel to Dues’s line.
Anecdotes are not evidence.
The only instance of this ever actually happening that are supported by actual evidence, are in Weimar Germany. It was one of the factors that contributed to the rise of the Nazis, actually.
You saying that what happened in the former Rhodesia didn’t happen?
Yes, Fenrir mentioned anecdotes. But he also mentioned photos. Attacking half his statement is unworthy.
This took me about 1 full minute to locate:
https://historydaily.org/germany-hyperinflation
Plenty of photos, including paper money so worthless it is used to make kites, dresses, as fuel, and other photos of paper money being so inflated that massive amounts were needed for common transactions such as payroll payments.
I had an uncle who collected paper currency. I’ve actually held a couple of million mark notes from the 1920’s.
Robert Heinlein, I believe, said, “The best form of government is a benevolent dictatorship.” The problem is that they have a hard time lasting more than a generation. That might not be a problem for Deux. You can bet he is not going to let a little thing like the natural order stop him from using Alien tech to extend his life a few millenium.
Heinlein was a smart person who said many very, very stupid things, was a horrible racist, and wrote entire books based on the ideas that death is the appropriate punishment for girls growing up and that we have to keep the Black people down or they will oppress and eat whites. I don’t treat him as an authority on anything except how to write saleable fiction and 1940s aircraft engineering
You have not read Heinlein or you wouldn’t be spewing these criticisms.
I have been reading him since the early 70s and have read every word of fiction he wrote under his own name and every word I said was true. Farnham’s Freehold and Podkayne of Mars were pure evil just for starters
“Farnham’s Freehold” and “Podkayne of Mars” both had racist CHARACTERS in them. They were not racist in of themselves.
“Sixth Collumn,” on the other hand, had some VERY questionable underlying concepts.
That being said, Heinlein wrote a LOT, and UNLIKE way too many other writers (including contemporary authors – notice the whitewashing in Hollywood?), he didn’t hesitate to throw in POCs as characters. Or even as protagonists – you’re about two thirds of the way through “The Cat Who Walked Through Walls” before you find out the protagonist is a black man. “Starship Troopers” waits until the very end before letting the reader know that Rico’s first name is Juan, and he’s Fillipino. “Stranger in a Strange Land” has a benevolent and likeable Muslim as one of the protagonist’s mentors and friends.
Sometimes he missed the mark… but he did better than a lot of authors today.
They. Farking. Were. Racist. The whole point of FF was that if Black people weren’t kept under the thumbs of whites the form of government they would create would be a racist theocracy run by cannibals, and the whites would be slaves. Full stop. The only book he wrote where Black people got center stage. And the “Good Negro” showed his true character by being even worse.
PoM? The publisher had to say “Don’t kill her.” And he later allowed as how death was “too harsh a punishment for loss of innocence”. Supposed protagonist, and she never achieved anything like growth let alone agency. Just a token carrier around by others.
He elided past a good bit of this later, particularly by positing post-racial and more woman-friendly futures. But there was still a lot of badness there. It might be most accurate to say he adopted the views of whomever he was married to at the time and explored them thoroughly
He did have some good ideas. For instance, he got Keynes and Samuelson when they were cutting edge economists but later reverted to Randism and gold fever. MiiHM was brilliant in many ways as we’re ITGO and a few others.
He was a smart, complex man and an excellent writer. But a lot of his more popular ideas bounce their reality checks. And poseking him (Jewish term) on areas outside his expertise is fraught, particularly where he expressed bad ideas eloquently
Saying. Things. With. Periods. Between. Each. Word. Does. Not. Make. Them. True.
You. Are. Factually. Incorrect.
The whole point of FF was “nuclear war is a horrible, horrible thing.” The black guys don’t show up until halfway through the book, after a young woman dies horrible in childbirth because there’s no more doctors or hospitals. Then when they DO show up, they’re not “Negros” or “South Africans,” they’re a foreign empire that sprouted up over THOUSANDS OF YEARS, because the FF family’s bomb shelter got sent into the future when they took a direct hit. The “Good Negro” doesn’t “show his true colors,” he simply can’t resist taking the opportunity to get a little payback against the two who had made his life miserable, after becoming wealthy by introducing “ancient board games” to the future. His only real offense was bragging about it to the father and husband of the two.
PoM? The fact that the protagonist dies is not indication of racism, sexism, or anything else. It just means that a brilliant but sheltered girl became a bystander of the machinations of others.
And yes, I’m aware that a lot of his ideas have been proven wrong (like his claims about housebreaking puppies and corporal punishment). But science fiction is about speculation. About exploration of ideas. Sometimes that’s going to lead places that we might not like. Sometimes the result is a cautionary tale, or a thought experiment that turns out badly. But – again – this is a guy who regularly slipped POCs into his works despite the censorship of the time. This is a guy who had readers cheering for protagonists for most of the book before they realized they were cheering for someone that looked just like the people getting beaten by Southern cops for wanting to end Jim Crow. And the fact is: the majority of Heinlein’s works have aged astonishingly well, considering that most of them literally predate microchips.
(also, I’m Jewish too. This isn’t poseking. This is debate. Argument. Which is a Jewish sacrament, an integral part of practicing the religion)
>The black guys don’t show up until halfway through the book
I don’t see how that makes the apparent representation any less racist.
Presenting black people as a cannibalistic race of savages that must be oppressed is pretty bad.
They weren’t a “cannibalistic race that must be oppressed.” They weren’t even “black people” as we presently think of them. They were an entirely different culture from millenia in the future. They were explicitly compared to European imperial cultures such as the British – complete with the propaganda about being superior to those they subjugated.
You can’t be serious.
If they were a race of people with brown/dark skin and hair, then we all know who the author was basing them off of.
I’ve heard that after his stroke he was very much not the same person. Thus FF has the issues you mention but it’s the work of dementia.
I’m also working hard to avoid Presentism and judge him in historical context. He was a man of early 20th century Missouri which comes with its own context and is not us today. But even by the standards of people writing at the time his treatment of young women in a book ostensibly for young women fails by comparison to other books of the time marketed to young women.
FF is simply inexcusable by any decent criterion, even mid C20 California whee he lived and wrote it.
OTOH I give credit in the same period for Magic Incorporated. And later, yes, he changed some of his views
considering the rest of “stranger in a strange land” (at least if I’m thinking about the one about the naked mars sex cult) I don’t think one mentor character helps all that much
Your hero worship is infantile
I will grant that he improved more on these issues than most of his generation. But that’s no reason to treat him like a paragon of virtue and wisdom
I have read Heinlein, and these criticisms are mostly valid. The Admiral was laden with fascistic tendencies and while he may have been ahead of his time, he is well behind the current era, and he didn’t do a great job of resolving conflicts with his contemporary sense of what was or was not “icky.”
See: I Will Fear No Evil
Most of his work was intended as pulp adventure fantasies for young men & teenage boys, and at shows.
See: Glory Road, and anything involving his character Lazarus Long, and yes, that includes The Number of the Beast.
And yes, that also includes a _generous_ reading of Starship Troopers. A very slightly less generous reading instantly exposes his romanticizing a weird hybrid of Jeffersonian delusion about the ‘yoeman farmer’ and the Roman theory that only people who own land are trustworthy regarding the National interest.
His repeated objectification of woman as reproductive units to be guarded at all costs, regardless of our will as individual human beings, and his fascination with spanking, demonstrates that in spite of everything else, he still retained his cultural view that we are, fundamentally, _children_, and need big, strong, rational men to manage us.
…look, do not get me wrong, I like his books, but it is well past time people stopped putting him, or anyone else for that matter, on a damn pedestal. Critique & criticism of an author one likes, does not equate to an attack on one’s self.
Uh… I don’t see “Starship Troopers” as having anything to do with property owners being “trustworthy regarding the National interest.” It wasn’t “owning property guarantees citizenship,” it was “national service guarantees citizenship.” Not even solely military service; any kind of difficult and/or dangerous service on behalf of society for would suffice.
I do agree with you about how a lot of his characters (including way too many of his protagonists) were guilty of paternalistic sexism. But he also pioneered the concept of the “scifi action heroine,” and a lot of times his females were presented with sexism as an obstacle to overcome.
I DO agree with you wholeheartedly that he deserves plenty of critique (I could write entire essays about the many points he was wrong about). My only real objection is to the claim that a guy who was EXTREMELY progressive for his time is being described as sexist or racist. Society marches on, our morality progresses, and it’s difficult to see how an author who regularly had heroic black men shooting and manhandling white assailants (during the same time period that MLK and Malcom X were battling the likes of George Wallace and the KKK), or where a centuries old woman wields unlimited political power and risks her own neck to stop a terrorist group, should be painted with the same brush as the guys in the white hooded robes seething about women finding employment outside the home.
I had to comment on these slurs upon the author of some of my favorite fiction and non-fictional writings.
I agree with Fred. You must never have actually read anything Heinlein wrote. You need to give us some citations of these things you are mentioning. I am a bit of a Heinlein aficionado. I have read everything I could get ahold of that he wrote: short stories, novels, and non-fiction. He had many well written and thought-out commentaries on various subjects, both in his fiction and in his commentaries on the social issues of his day. But nowhere have I run across anything approaching what you say he said.
Did he have some warped views in his later life? According to my own personal views, I would say – yes. However, none of them come CLOSE to what you are espousing. Anyone who knows anything about sci-fi will not believe your rhetoric. Well, unless somehow, I missed something. Which I will admit, though unlikely, is possible. So, if you have sources for this info, please let us know. If not, please stop trying to denigrate the name of a great author.
Read Sixth Column. Hooooly cow that is some atrocious racism there – rolling everything from Japan to India into ‘the Asians’ and then having them talk, act, and think like WWII propaganda movies about the Japanese. He wrote plenty of good stuff, but that one is really seriously offensive.
I mentioned this one while defending Heinlein. And… yeah. That’s about the only one I can think of that was genuinely offensive. And not just the racism, either – the whole plot was about the underground U.S. military demanding their scientists come up with some super science, then using it to create a false religion to build their underground resistance.
When they revealed the truth to their followers, many were genuinely angry and upset at having been deceived. But others had never REALLY believed, they just said, “okay, these guys claim to worship six gods they claim are real. Also, they have magic staves that can heal any wound, cure any disease, and create infinite amounts of food. But even though those are bona fide miracles, we’ll be skeptics anyway, because that’s the rational thing to do.”
I found it quite offensive that the latter were portrayed as more rational than the former. There’s a website that makes fun of superheroes, where Robin points out to Batman that of COURSE he believes in the Easter Bunny. “Your best friend is an alien. I lead a team of kids with superpowers, and we just fought a guy made of clay. If someone tells me a giant bunny is bringing me chocolate every year, why would I NOT believe that?”
The thing about long running authors is they often change their personal POV over the course of their lives, just like everyone else.
So when you have someone who has a fifty year career, it’s entirely possible for their politics to do a complete 180. The man who wrote “Starship Troopers” was, IMO, a lot more authoritarian than the man who wrote “Friday”.
Then when you throw in the fact he deliberately picked extreme points of view for his characters and stories, to provoke the audience, and this debate can go on forever, with neither side convincing the other. It’s just a question of picking which books you want to use as evidence.
Congrats, he succeeded. You have been provoked.
IMO< if he was still with us, he'd have a secret identity as an internet troll ;)
Unfortunately, many people seem to believe that other people never change or grow. I would guess this is so they don’t feel obligated to either reexamine their own opinions of other people, or do any growing themselves.
None of us are perfect. We all make mistakes. We can all improve, if given the chance. Some people never will, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give them the opportunity. If they refuse to take it, then they’re due the blame. If we never give them the opportunity, then we’re collectively at fault.
Well… I stopped believing that authors have a clue about real life after being called a Nazi by one in a grocery store. I will never buy anything by written by him again again, no matter how well reviewed because the man is a piece of shit who I refuse to support.
As to why I was called that? I asked about a plot hole and if it was addressed in later chapters of that book. Silly me.
That cuts both sides of these arguments, really.
Many fans (especially of deceased authors) will refuse to believe that the author DID grow or evolve in their views–rather, they will insist that all of their works be read as if written by the author’s ‘best self’. This denies the author their own agency as a person as much as a refusal to acknowledge their later course corrections does.
Yeah, that bothers me too, when people pretend that things have always been how they are now, even if they were present for the change. People have such short memories.
And again, I suspect similar motives. If things have always been the same, then there’s no motivation to think about whether they could or should be different. It’s a coping strategy, an attempt to simplify the world, to reduce the amount of data that you have to process in order to make decisions.
I can understand how the present is more relevant than the past, and the future in unknown. But that’s not a reason to discard them entirely. But people want to sort things into buckets and move on as quickly as possible, because we’re all overwhelmed by the enormity and complexity of our lives and history.
Heinlein’s main issues, to me, was his depiction of women as alternately infantile people who need men to run their lives, or on the other hand goddesses who can do anything men can do, only better. “Stranger In A Strange Land” is disturbing on that level, Jill is a potato-head who gets lectured to for half the novel, then becomes a goddess later- only till weirdly subservient to other characters. And his main character, Jubal Harshaw, is just a wish-fulfillment author avatar.
And yet he makes some very cogent criticisms of Christian who don’t actually read their Bible, and he foresaw televangelists by a decade or more.
Heinlein alternates between genius and creep. The best one can say is, he was a product of his times who managed to move out ahead of them as well.
“*still” weirdly subservient. I hate my keyboard.
Just an addendum. Netflix has a Japanese version of “The Door Into Summer” coming up. At least on the Canadian version.
I think, the best we can do with Heinlein is to put him on the same shelf as Rudyard Kipling.
Not that they are in any way doubles, but both have a POV unique to their times, and both are considered as being top shelf literary material. Heinlein has 4 Hugos, and Kipling has a Nobel Prize in Literature (1907).
In fact, the only danger I can think of here is their proximity on one shelf would… generate… sooo many new works, we might have to add a new shelf.
Deus has gone to the trouble to look up the colonel’s home town. I like to see that sort of diligence in a villain.
Just as Cthillia so eloquently stated back in the Black Reliquary: “He just has an annoying knack of KNOWING stuff he shouldn’t”. I’d say that it’s just one of those things…
“I like to see that sort of diligence in a villain.”
Unfortunately we have yet to see such diligence in a villain, since Deus is not a villain.
But we have seen here an example of diligence in a paragon of humanity.
All praise Deus, amen.
Specifying one town somewhat exaggerates the backwardness of Mozambique as a whole: over a quarter of the population of Mozambique has access to electricity, although that’s mostly in urban areas, which account for about 32% of the population (70+ % have access in urban areas, 5-6% in rural: there has been something of a dip lately due to severe cyclone damage (most of the population lives on or near the coast)
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.ELC.ACCS.UR.ZS?locations=MZ
But it’s effective in that Deus is not appealing to the Colonel’s loyalty to Mozambique. He’s appealing to the loyalty of the Colonel to his hometown OVER his loyalty to Mozambique.
We may want to look at Cuba. Under Batista, it was an American playground with virtually no redeeming social graces. Aand… Along comes Castro…
Castro could never have won the nation except for one thing: in Cuba, the Church was prominent in the cities and larger towns. In Cuba, the Church was not evident in the (especially) rural villages and farmlands. Had the Church been doing its job, Castro wouuld have discovered what Guevara found: where there is a sympathetic ear able to provide some relief, the People do not normally revolt. (Which is why the French Revolution succeeded BTW.)
Castro was never an angel, but he despised the Batista regime, and understood that the People needed relief from the social misery. It is true that he was familiar with the Russian Communist government, but he really wanted a more wholesome relationship with the USA. Who spat in his face.
One thing. It is not possible to impoverish an aready impoverished economy. It’s rather like emptying an empty jug.
It’s always possible to impoverish people further, as long as they start out still alive. Surely Pol Pot demonstrated that.
No, the jug was not yet empty when Pol Pot took over… It was when he was removed. And I will forever curse the day when the USA was formed, for disallowing the Vietnamese government from going in and doing a proper cleansing of Cambodia. That was an act of hypocrisy to make Benedict Arnold look like a piker.
If you were a military man who grew up in Las Vegas, New Mexico (poverty rate roughly 36%) and a foreign warlord offered to make it as rich per capita as San Jose, California, would you betray your oath and allow him to have unimpeded control of the Mississippi?
Depends. How bad do the local politicians in Las Vegas, New Mexico suck?
It also depends on how much the person identifies with their country as opposed to their locality. Former colonial nations outside of the Americas are usually formed around the whims of some random mapmakers and not the people there (whereas in the Americas most of the natives died due to disease and invasion and so they’re pretty overwhelmingly descendants of settlers or immigrants, and the settlers were brought in largely according to those lines drawn on the map). So there’s often a lot of regionalism, which isn’t present to nearly the same extent in the US.
Large parts of Africa are definitely tribal over country, although Mozambique specifically seems pretty unified.
Which is the better measure of a country? How well off the richest are, or the poorest?
*applauds wildly in response to that question*
Okay, I am officially done with Deus. Not only is he playing the man behind the man, he’s leading their armies from the front in a war of conquest and issuing surrender demands. This is absolute bullshit in blatant violation of so many international laws that they’ll need to write new laws just to streamline the conviction process.
Not only that, but his “justifications” for the conquest reek of White Man’s Burden, and after five centuries of European Colonialism, there shouldn’t be a single soul on the African Continent who’d give that garbage pile of an excuse more than a second’s consideration.
If the following pages don’t consist of Arc SWAT and an international coalition intervening under the authority of the UNSC to stop his army cold and inform him that his US citizenship has been revoked, all his on-shore assets are being raided and seized, and that’s he’s officially barred entry to every North American, South American, European, Asian, and Oceanic Country, I may actually just stop following this comic.
Don’t get me wrong, I do like the rest of the comic. The other characters are unique and well fleshed out, the gags are hilarious, and there are some quite frankly genius implementations of certain power sets, but if there’s just going to be a massive Villain Sue running around Africa LARPing Lawrence of Arabia without a single ounce of true repercussions, I can’t see a reason to keep invested in it because it’s obvious the over-arching story simply is never going to go anywhere.
If Dabbler continues with him or Maxima gets cozier I will be very disappointed
Dabbles doesn’t have anything to do with SmugD, and Maxi has NEVER be ‘cosy’ with him (being friendly with a large arms dealer is not being ‘cosy’, it’s keeping an eye on a dirtbag until you have enough dirt to bury the shit ten feet deep)
I… don’t really agree. I think it’s time for me to unsubscribe.
What you’re seeing is character development to the max you can’t have a hated super villain that’s believable if you don’t know why he’s a bad guy and Deus is a super villain you don’t need super powers to be one. This is a story arc that may take a year or more to resolve and in true super hero stories the bad guy does get away to start over. I could sit here and list off so many examples just starting with batman and joker etc…
there is a glaring difference between how deus is written to normal “supper villains”
if Lex luthor took over a third world country he wouldn’t do it from the front lines. because even he has to publicly follow the rules. and in the event he did take power the story would go out of its way to show the readers that any promise of making peoples lives better was a lie.
Deus can openly take a country by force, use the stupidest of legal non sense while outright threatening the UN and get away with it. he can then go and threaten the country to Max’s face then it laugh by saying he would just bribe his way out of it. all the while the writer has character after character gush about how great at sex he is. crazy blood witch looking to kill Deus, she’s going to have sex with him instead. barely legal under cover agent? she’s not only going to have sex with him she’s going to have the most cringe conversation with max while on duty about how great it was.
the list go on
nothing Deus does is shown to be wrong, he’s the most obvious bad guy but none of the hero’s truly act like he’s the bad guy
“if Lex luthor took over a third world country”
Lex Luthor became President instead.
But while Luthor became President mainly to tick off Superman, Deus took over Galytin to free them from an evil, bloodthirsty, murderous psychopath tyrant, with no desire to harm anyone who did not first try to kill him. He even tried to work with him first until the tyrant tried to order his guards to throw him off the roof when he called out the tyrant on how he (the tyrant) would never spend any money he gave him on his people, just on himself.
“Deus can openly take a country by force”
Technically he’s the minister of industry or something, not the ruler. That’s the Prince, who realizes that letting Deus handle things will make him the richest man in Africa (aside from Deus).
“while outright threatening the UN and get away with it.”
I don’t consider the UN to be particularly virtuous (and is massively corrupt) in the first place. I could go into why but I’m trying to not be political.
Plus he didnt actually threaten the UN anyway. He made a legal argument. For which the UN is free to disagree and remake their rules, should they see fit. But since it wasn’t affecting one of the ‘important countries,’ he knows they’ll drag their feet on it anyway.
That’s not threatening. That’s making a plan based on taking advantage of another group’s inherent flaws.
IE, that’s business.
“he can then go and threaten the country to Max’s face”
He did not threaten the US. He sells a lot of stuff to the US, and he is offering to sell a lot more stuff to the US exclusively because he likes the US.
“he would just bribe his way out of it.”
He wouldnt have to bribe his way out of it, since he hasnt done anything illegal. And if you mean lobbying senators? That’s not illegal. He’s just a realist. He even mentioned to Maxima that she could do the same with the money he was offering her as a spokeswoman, for the totally evil goal of “battered womens shelters” and “solving that whole climate kerfuffle.” Wow, so evil. This is my sarcastic sentence. :)
“after character gush about how great at sex he is”
Hey, if you’re good at something, there’s no crime in letting people know. It’s not like he’s taking out a billboard to advertise it. It’s a pickup line, based on the truth apparently from how wobbly Sciona was afterwards, and wanting a second go afterwards.
“crazy blood witch looking to kill Deus, she’s going to have sex with him instead”
Deus is such a good person that even people who come to him wanting to murder him, he gives options that do not involve fighting, even though he’s clearly in the advantage in a fight with Vale working for him. She wants something which does not belong to her (Deus’s ledger), she does not have the money to pay for it apparently, so he offers a counterproposal which she might WANT to do, rather than it being something forced, which Deus would not do because he’s not a criminal thug.
“barely legal under cover agent?”
19 is still of legal age. Don’t be a hater just because Deus can get all the fly honeys. Harem’s doing everything she’s doing completely of her own free will, and Deus asks permission. And when she looks distracted he says they can stop, and Harem insists on him continuing and ‘doing the bra trick’ which she seems to love.
“have the most cringe conversation with max while on duty about how great it was.”
She did not have a conversation with Max about how great it was. She told Max it was not her place to ask anything about it, in fact, which it isn’t, and Max realized she went too far out of line when she asked ‘where does Harem find the time to have sex.’
Maxima just inferred that she’s sleeping with Deus, although Harem did tell her they havent actually slept together yet, because Maxima was going to start in about female espionage and honeypot stuff, which Harem did not want to hear about in another of Maxima’s ‘feminist shpiels.’
“the list go on”
It only goes on about Deus being awesome. :) Not evil.
“nothing Deus does is shown to be wrong,”
That’s called being accurate. Since nothing Deus has done is actually evil.
“he’s the most obvious bad guy”
Only thing obvious is he likes using evil overlord tropes and pointing them out in order to have that persona. He hasnt actually been a villain though, and actively has helped ARCHON, the United States, the nation of Galytin, the surrounding nations which their people seem to actively WANT him to take over, and Earth itself.
“but none of the hero’s truly act like he’s the bad guy”
Because he’s not a bad guy and a lot of the time, the heroes do things that are legitimately more ‘bad’ without acknowledging it.
All praise Deus amen.
Let’s clear one shit up right now! SmugD didn’t take over Galytin to free them from evil, he killed the ruler because it was the easiest proto-country in the region to do so, the fact it also freed the people was secondary to his goal of being a ruler himself (and claiming that he isn’t the ruler-in-all-but-name is bullshit, everything that has been happening has been at his bidding)
Sure, Deus wants to rule the whole world, perhaps the whole universe. But what does he want it to look like? Does he want to rule over a trash heap, or a thriving civilization? My guess is that he honestly thinks the world would be best off with him in charge, and that he just might be right.
Doom thinks, and does, the same thing, and yet no one doubts that he is a supervillain
Doom is way more into getting his own hands dirty than Deus is. Active combat with the heroes spells out supervillain a lot more easily than legal business deals and supplying the heroes with gear, even if the end goal is the same. Neither ends nor means justify each other, but means are a lot easier to read and judge.
“SmugD didn’t take over Galytin to free them from evil,”
His initial plan wasn’t to take over Galytin at all. He just wanted to invest and be the czar of industry. Not his fault that the bloodthirsty and actually villainous murderous tyrant of a king tried to murder him, which required his bodyguards to defend Deus, which resulted in the king’s VERY justified death – pure self defense.
“he killed the ruler”
*ahem* self defense
“because it was the easiest proto-country in the region to do so,”
Yes, it’s very easy for the people of a nation to forgive you for having to defense yourself from a murderous tyrant trying to kill you, when that murderous tyrant also regularly murdered, tortured, and impoverished almost all of the people of that nation including not only men, but women and helpless children too, sometimes just to invoke fear. Something that disgusted even the tyrant’s own son when he saw what his evil monster of a father did to helpless peasantry.
“the fact it also freed the people was secondary”
It isnt secondary to being ruler. It’s secondary to forming a burgeoning middle class, which means he’ll be able to make a lot of money in the long run. Deus is all about having a win-win situation for both sides. He does not believe in a zero sum game, and neither should you, because the world does not work as a zero sum game.
“to his goal of being a ruler himself”
Deus does not care about politics as his primary goal. He cares about finances, because that’s where the real influence is. It’s VERY MUCH secondary to wealth and his vision, which seems to be a very good vision for everyone who isnt an evil murderous tyrant who impoverishes, starves, tortures and/or kills their own population.
“(and claiming that he isn’t the ruler-in-all-but-name is bullshit,”
Except it’s not. He offered King Indigne to be in charge of the politics, while he would be in charge of industry. Which seems VERY FAIR since under King Indigne, Galytin was not even a recognized country and wasnt even able to get help from the World Bank. Under King Indigne, Galytin was already at war with ALL of its neighbors, except for Zaire which just ignored it because Zaire was in its own civil war. It was a messed up nation, a failed state, even worse than Mozambique, and the people were very happy that Deus spend billions to turn their former trash heap, as Torabi VERY aptly describes it, into a thriving civilization with an actual future for its people. That is a LOT more than just for HIM. There are soooo many ways he could have made a lot more money, FOR JUST HIMSELF…. by being actually evil instead of how he’s acted.
“everything that has been happening has been at his bidding)”
I think Deus would be very happy to take credit for making millions of lives better and allowing children to be able to grow up not in fear of some murderous tyrant killing them, disappearing them, having the troops rape them or force them to become slaves or child soldiers, and actually give those children a chance to make a positive impact on the world through education and skills that they can use to better themselves, their families, their communities, their nation, and maybe even the world and beyond.
All praise Deus amen.
everything that has been happening has been at his bidding)
Deus… is a supervillain.
Supervillains do villainous things. And frankly, this isn’t very villainous compared to some of the other things that supervillains do in comics. Or that CEOs do in RL.
see thats the problem.
the things Deus has done WOULD be worse then what most villain has done in other comics. but Dave bends over backwards to play it off as not as bad is not outright good.
Deus is a villain sue
imo he is building Deus to be a future threat, is obvious that at some point deus will have build a huge and advanced military and try to take over the world and it will be arcswat mission alongside the US military and its many allies to stop him, maybe he will be the final villain of the story
so this is just build up, deus is building his military and power base preparing for his attempt at taking over the world, and yeah a little suspension of disbelieve is needed because there is no way that the US would not realize what is going on
“the things Deus has done WOULD be worse then what most villain has done in other comics.”
I’m confused about your reasoning, since Deus does not have people killed who have not tried to kill him first, and even then after trying to do business with them instead in a non-violent manner. Each person he’s been at odds with politically have been the most corrupt possible choice of people, who abuse their own people and are generally awful people in general. I’d call the people who Deus has gone up against VILLAINS, in fact.
And what do you call someone who only seems to fight against villains? Well in Deus’s case I’d call him the paragon of humanity, savior of the weak and downtrodden. All praise Deus amen.
“Dave bends over backwards to play it off as not as bad is not outright good.”
Dave is literally just pointing out that the people Deus has come into conflict with are not themselves REMOTELY good people. The former king of Galytin would murder and torture men, women, and children, embezzle money so his people would starve in abject poverty, and had them constantly in fear of death at his army’s hands. Not to mention he was at war with EVERY nation around him and his country produced NOTHING but famine and war. Now they produce textiles and the beginnings of a middle class. And if you want a country to go from a third world nation to a first world nation, having a strong middle class is the best way to get that done.
“Deus is a villain sue”
He is hardly a villain sue. He’s just more a smarter and more noble version of David Xanatos from Disney’s Gargoyles, who is also not a villain sue, even though Xanatos at least WAS a villain who made a face heel turn in season 2 after the gargoyles helped defend his baby from Oberon. Deus is like an end of season 2, full season 3 Xanatos instead.
(all praise deus amen)
“Deus… is a supervillain.”
You misspelled ‘paragon of virtue and humanity.’ :)
“Supervillains do villainous things”
Then Deus very clearly is not a supervillain, since he has not done villainous things.
“this isn’t very villainous compared to some of the other things that supervillains do in comics. Or that CEOs do in RL.”
Exactly. :) Deus is, especially compared to some CEOs in RL, and politicians both in RL and in fiction, and even compared to some members of ARCHON itself, let alone the Council, clearly on the side of the angels. :)
All praise Deus amen.
Well he’s a schemer, so I dont know what you were expecting him to do.
You can certainly object to him annexing bits of other peoples countries, but you’ll have some difficulty showing which laws he’s breaking by leading from the front or issuing demands. Countries issue demands frequently, and I assume he feels he has his personal security covered with his supers and possibly aquired alien tech.
Its not a matter of White Mans’ Burden if the results of the local government is clearly inferior to that of other countries, especially if corruption is a significant factor in that. As to five centuries of Colonialism? Go watch Empire of Dust sometime and get back to me. There’s more than one ex-colony out there whose people think it was better under colonial rule, now they’ve had a taste of independance. Hardly most of them, but more than zero.
As for repercussions- thats a political game. Thats a whole different animal and bribery and influence peddling are a thing, even in the UN. Some would say particularly in the UN. If you think their stated purpose cant be subverted you havent been paying attention.
So, well, bye in advance, because I’d bet money you arent going to get what you demand.
It’s more that the UN wouldn’t allow Deus to even try to get in on this.
The UN?
Seriously?
They can’t impose sanctions he’d care about and thinks less of their individual opinions than of the dirt under his shoes. No one both capable of obstructing him and allowed to do anything, let alone ‘stop him’, is in play and Max has already stated where Arc Swat’s authority to act ends.
There are 5 member nations with permanent seats on the UN security council. Until one of them decides its worth their money and political capitol to go after Duex then there is no ‘stopping hm’. Somebody might decide to play shadow war but only if they have something to gain out it.
And honestly my money is on the supervillain that already went on a shopping trip through a star gate than on politicians. Lets be brutally real here; Duex may be a supervillain but he’s demonstrated a willingness to deliver on everything people want as long as they don’t get in his way. Not serve him, not swear allegiance, just not get in his way.
Duex is getting his path to the ocean.
It’s funny how some people think the UN is utterly toothless, while others think it’s some all-powerful global government.
I also suspect that there’s substantial overlap between the people who think the UN should step in, and people who think the UN is too powerful and needs to be cut down.
As with most things, the truth is really somewhere in between but there is a reason I mention the 5 permanent members of the UN security council. It’s because the 5 members individually have veto power over any resolution in the UN Security Council ergo nothing can be done that would affect one of the 5 permanent members (or one of their allies) as the resolution will never pass. As an aside; its often been suggested that restricting or removing this veto power would make for a more robust organization better able to enforce the UN mandate of peace and stability. That’s unlikely to happen as the 5 permanent members would have to to allow it to pass.
So is it toothless? No, but nothing meaningful can happen so long as one of the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council wants nothing to happen. Whether that’s because they’re complicit with what’s going on, want to use it as leverage over Deus to get something they want, or just because they want a favored trade deal for Galtyn’s advance technology exports. And that’s why nothing meaningful happens with Galtyn until those 5 nations decide something needs to be done about Deus.
Short and sweet; those that think the UN is too powerful aren’t one of the 5 permanent members nations sitting on the UN Security Council. It never sucks to make the rules, only to have the rules applied to you.
He’s an American billionaire stepping all over a place they have active interest in resource wise.
Morality doesn’t even factor in. They’d make his business life hell as a matter of course here to make an example of him.
If you say so.
I didn’t say morality factored in btw. Quite the opposite. I made a point about the UN, why it is impotent depending on the desires of the people that control the UN by ensuring it doesn’t get involve in where they don’t want the UN involved.
“He’s an American billionaire”
American self-made billionaire. Mustn’t forget that. :)
“stepping all over a place”
They actually want him there… at least the -people- do. It’s just corrupt governments that don’t. That’s why he even bothers to talk to his military opposition. The PEOPLE love him because he not only makes promises – he follow through on those promises. To the people (patriotic salute to Deus)
He’s promising to increase people’s median salaries by 500%! To give them electricity that EVERYONE cn access. To end mass starvation and govrenment corruption. And his track record actually shows that he has done that elsewhere.
He stopped a tyrant who murdered his own people, including women and children, while making others watch as a lesson to them.
He chose Mozambique as the nation to go through in order to get water access to Galytin, one of the most corrupt governments in lower Africa ACROSS THE BOARD and a legitimately failed state.
https://www.ganintegrity.com/portal/country-profiles/mozambique/
And…. then Deus tries to negotiate with them and the opposition does not say that what he’s offering is bad. They just don’t believe him that he will make good on it. Despite that he’s made good on those promises everywhere else he’s come into, often at the INVITATION of the people who wanted to be freed of dictators.
It feels like Deus could have taken MUCH easier routes to victory that don’t involve all the decisions he makes on who his enemies are, while just becoming a tyrant as well But he doesnt because that’s what an evil overlord would do, and Deus has read the evil overlord list and knows what not to do. And if you don’t do all the things that evil overlords do… well…. you’re not exactly evil then :)
“Morality doesn’t even factor in.”
I think morality does play a part on Deus’s metrics. It’s not the ONLY metric, because Deus is pragmatic, but his enemies seem to be continually people who are just…. awful awful people who do awful awful things. And when he has to fight people who are not objectively awful, he tries very hard to get them to just side with him instead AGAINST the awful awful people.
That being said Morality is probably down a bit on the list of ‘things to get done’ in his business. But it’s still on the list at least, which is a lot more than I can say for a lot of RL CEOs. :)
All praise Deus amen.
> He’s promising to increase people’s median salaries by 500%! To give them electricity that EVERYONE cn access. To end mass starvation and govrenment corruption.
If he had made that pitch to the UN, then maybe my opinion would be different, but he didn’t.
As such, what the people wants isn’t really relevant to how I think the UN would respond.
>I think morality does play a part on Deus’s metrics.
Was talking about the UN, not Deus.
“If he had made that pitch to the UN, then maybe my opinion would be different, but he didn’t.”
The UN does not exactly have a great record for either nation-building, corruption, making nations better for their inhabitants, or hypocrisy. Plus that’s not even the stated goal of the UN – the UN can’t even achieve or even come in the margins of their stated goal, in fact.
“As such, what the people wants isn’t really relevant to how I think the UN would respond.”
The UN likely would not respond. Like I said, look at their track record on responding to ACTUAL atrocities. What Deus is doing is not an atrocity by any stretch of the imagination.
“Was talking about the UN, not Deus.”
Oh okay. Yes, then I agree. The UN tends to be pretty devoid of morality, except to use it as a buzzword for PR purposes.
It’s not an atrocity but Deus is moving in on a place they have some economic investment in.
They wouldn’t be interfering to stop his atrocities, they’d be doing so to secure their power.
Just to mention a few things: Mosambique has large reserves of natural gas. Its biggest trade partner and best friend is South Africa, Africas greatest economy. Things might get complicated politically. And No, UN will not interviene military. But they might chuck some economic sanctions in the way. And that is money right out of Deus pocket. The sanctions vs Russia has reduced their economic GDP by 1.5%. Doesn’t sound much? That is 570 billion. Pocket money for some, maybe.
“Mosambique has large reserves of natural gas.”
Having large reserves and being able to access those reserves efficiently are two different things, unfortunately.
“Its biggest trade partner and best friend is South Africa, Africas greatest economy.”
South Africa…. has its own problems at that moment which would likely preclude it from wanting to get involved in anything in Mozambique, even if they were capable of doing so. And definitely had its problems at the point in time where Grrlpower takes place (during the Obama administration, so probably between 2009 and 2015).
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2009/country-chapters/south-africa
By 2020, it had lowered to third highest economy in Africa, after Nigeria and Egypt, with a GDP of $301 billion. Even though South Africa is higher ranking on the world GDP ranks than Deus as a single individual (South Africa = 35th, Deus by himself = 98th), his company is probably worth significantly more than $301 billion (ie, Jeff Bezos is worth $201 billion but his company is over $1 trillion). Plus knowing Deus, he’d probably make a deal with the government of South Africa for resources that would benefit Galytin and the areas where Mozambique is going to be under Galytin, AND South Africa.
“But they might chuck some economic sanctions in the way.”
Deus does not think they will, as long as he’s not inconveniencing any of the major players. So far the UN’s history suggests he’s probably right about this. Plus they’d probably want to remain on Deus’s good side. They’d want to be one of Deus’s ‘trusted trading partners’ instead of ‘the people trying to war with him.’ Especially when the other side is a failed state with a GDP of only about $14 billion (130th in the world out of 196, when Deus by himself is 98th).
“And that is money right out of Deus pocket.”
Even assuming that did happen, which is probably wouldn’t, it’s still in line with Deus’s plan. Plus Deus plans on selling directly to the US anyway with all the new manufacturing he’s putting into Galytin. Operation: Cha-Ching.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-840-loopholio/
The contracts he can get with the US amount to $300 billion in miltary manufacturing contracts alone. That doesnt take into account the textile industry he’s started up in Galytin.
He figures it’s easier to sell to the United States than borrow money from China.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-841-the-ultimate-shopping-list/
Oh and as a reminder, that $300 billion in US contracts is EQUAL to the entire GDP of South Africa. :)
Shathak, who grew up in East Africa, looked at the comic, and her eyes narrowed.
Then she read the comments and started sharpening a big knife.
No s**t, an actual big curved knife.
Not much love for the Colonial White Savior Taking Up the White Man’s Burden there.
I’m not a Swahili speaker, but I think what she muttered was along the lines of….
(five points to the first reader who can identify this quote without looking it up)
If I am sent to bring in the head of any enemy and I fail to do so, may this oath kill me.
If I fail to steal anything I can from the European, may this oath kill me.
If I know of any enemy to our organisation and I fail to report him to my leader, may this oath kill me.
If I ever receive any money from a European as a bribe for information, may this oath kill me.
If I am ever sent by a leader to do something big for the house of Kikuyu, and I refuse, may this oath kill me.
If I refuse to help in driving the Europeans from this country, may this oath kill me.
If I worship any leader but lomo, may this oath kill me.
Mau-Mau, I think, with apologies on memory of spelling of name being 60 years out of date.
Close enough
Yep. And it’s interesting that a woman raised in Tanzania with no Kikuyu ancestry would go there. The symbol has power. To be fair, we were in the kitchen, and she needed to sharpen knives anyway.
If we go with Mau Mau, then we must remember:
* They were a Kikuyu sect, and I’ll leave it like that.
* They killed at least several hundred Kikuyu.
* They killed only one white family, a British farmer, his wife and (IIRC) two young sons.
* They killed 4 or 5 other white people.
Even — especially? — the Kikuyu people wanted them gone. and yes, they died mostly, the ones the oath failed on went to prison.
British reports at the time greatly exaggerated the number of deaths then. As did other world press. If they only killed one British family, then their campaign was an amazingly effective ine.
While Shathak was growing up not too many years afterwards they were far from hated and reviled all over that part of the world. Even in other countries they were held up as vital to liberation from colonial rule. Unpleasant. Often did bad things, but examples of what sometimes had to be done to get the damned British out when they didn’t want to go. In Kenya, yeah, Kenyatta was President, so you might not want to say certain things, but Kenyans her family knew including non-Kikuyu thought of them as important forces for national freedom.
Compare and contrast to the vast numbers who were dispossessed and murdered when actual British Citizens took up terrorism and banditry rather than wait even a few years before inciting war with foreign powers over non-British land. No more than a third of the people in those colonies wanted to have anything to do with bloody-handed traitors and terrorists like Hancock, Washington, Adams, and Madison.
Umm. I’m not particularly brainy, probably not too intelligent, and my memory might well be fading —
But what the hell are you rambling about? Get it together cobber.
I have no idea either.
Also I love gorblimey’s post here.
The OP of this chain *literally* starts with racist nonsense.
What part of that made you think anything from that username would be anything *but* rambling?
The history of colonization in the region you’re working in is important, and your story will only work if you respect this history. Specifically, you need to know that not only was Mozambique a Portuguese colony, but that their western neighbor Zimbabwe used to be Rhodesia, a white supremacist colony. Folks in this region are still extremely sore when it comes to white businesspeople promising wealth and comfort in exchange for military meekness.
To be more pointed, you’re painting Deus as a modern Cecil Rhodes. If you do this, you need to critique his actions explicitly, because the mere implication of white supremacy is not enough to dissuade folks from imitating him.
Which was pretty much said by the previous leader of Galtyn, before Deus observed his most untimely heart attack.
Talk about not knowing your fucking history
Prior to Rhodes moving up, Rhodesia was literally nothing! It was worthless scrub that the king just gave because he had no use for it
Rhodes helped make that region the fucking bread basket of the entire continent, and within a year of it being hand to Mugabe by the Americans (after he lost the fucking war), it reverted back to being worthless scrub
+1
That is fact.
Facts have little place in today’s world, my friend. Only propaganda and righteous outrage propelled by propaganda seem to matter now. Then again, did anything other that that ever matter?
I think the story would be better if the actual location of Galtyn and whatever other states that may be taken over by him other than Galtyn were never specified. It’s not like this comic has a plot, ’tis all about the slice of life.
The issue of exports was already addressed in comments way way back when Deus was doing his manifesto on TV, and Dave the author said that Deus had a mass-teleporter on-hire for Galtyn.
Therefore access to a corridor to the sea is totally irrelevant, and nobody in the Grrlpowerverse believes it.
Actually, they would. A mass teleporter super would still need to rest and sleep. Also, what’s their range? How much can they teleport in a single go? Are there things they cannot teleport? How much do they charge for the service?
Opal isn’t a teleporter, she’s a portaler, as in, she opens a portal and that’s it, all she has to worry about is keeping it open
Portals, mhm.
Now consider the multiple sources of raw materials needed to run a country and economy. Add in foodstuffs and exports.
How big of a portal can she make? Remember, we’re talking literal tons of stuff here. How long can she keep it open? how long would it take for an entire warehouse to be emptied, moved through the portal, and stored on the other side?
Opal would also need to eat and sleep. That means all material transfers halt.
IIRC she can move her portals around objects too. Just lump it all in a big pile / row of pallets and pass the portal over the whole thing, no load/unload cycle required. Or better yet, leave everything in railcars and make sure your rail gauges match, and just ‘port them out of one loading yard and into the other. If she can just pass a portal over even a few hundreds railcars a day (or let them drive through it at speed), she’d be able to move a lot of stuff even with a relatively small maximum portal size.
But yeah, ultimately countries need to ship a ridiculous amount of stuff, and she can’t be there all the time. A single human point of failure (even an inexhaustible super-powered one) is a terrible form of infrastructure. Deus needs rail and waterway shipping routes.
Don’t forget Deus already has his own “stargate” who’s to say what else he’s acquired since then. The most likely scenario is he has a device to do that not a super. Deus seems to be setting himself up as a “savior of earth” while gaining great power and money the guy is the worst megalomaniac I ever read so far lol.
I wonder if he needs a Mr. Glass. I’m for hire!
Jesus, not this guy again.
Have you read John Campbell?
… I’m just going to start calling this guy Douche.
Also, props on writing a more competent megalomaniac than Marvel or DC comics have written in years. Douche is clearly doing some imperialist #### right here but not only is he confident that he is the one in the right but that no one can stop him anyway.
That’s what the ‘D’ in ‘SmugD’ stands for :D
I dont think its so much that he thinks he’s in the right, but rather that he thinks enough other nations, politicians and media groups wont think he’s so much in the wrong as to generate effective resistance to him, especially since he’s already basically stated he has blackmail information on many politicians and other political figures. Think of Germany reclaiming bits of lost territory prior to WW2- clearly against WW! armistice terms, but not so obviously wrong that effective resistance formed against him, even after Germany started finessing land that was never theirs before.
Oh boy. This is not time for mighty whithy conquer country in Africa and bring industrialization/prosper/better goverment. Im afraid comment section can get nasty with that topic
Too late…
do people need a reminder that deus is the villain of the story, what he is doing is supposed to be bad and yeah taking over a country is pretty evil even if he is charismatic
the guy has straight up confesed that his ultimate plan is to take over the world
Well, at least he has ambitions! Obviously his Da successfully advised him to aim high to ensure you get the best result!
“do people need a reminder that deus is the villain of the story,”
Yes I need a reminder, because so far he hasn’t been villainous and his goals always seem to involve helping the downtrodden. While still making a very good profit for himself.
“what he is doing is supposed to be bad”
It doesn’t really seem all that bad. He’s trying to negotiate with the enemy commander, based entirely on trying to do something GOOD for others who are downtrodden, instead of the enemy commander’s bosses, who are corrupt leaders of a failed state, based on the latest Mozambique Corruption Reports.
“taking over a country is pretty evil”
The country still belongs to the Prince of Galytin. Deus is in charge of the economics of the country. He was fine to leave the politics to the king, and now the Prince.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-388-delicate-negotiations/
just turned it from a hellhole to a burgeoning, soon-to-be first world nation where there was only rampant poverty, famine, murder, and death before.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-387-a-noble-investment-embiggens-the-smallest-wallet/
“the guy has straight up confesed that his ultimate plan is to take over the world”
Mere puffery. Besides, he seems to still value people who are independent minded and isnt trying to ‘take over.’ He’s trying to build. Even in Galytin, the only things his company owns are what his company built FOR the country. It’s not like he doesnt deserve to own what he builds, right?
Also he can leave a lot of Earth free and still own more elsewhere if he wants. :)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-417-gravitas-check/
Uh, Galtyn ring a bell?
He literally had the previous ruler have a heart attack and ‘convinced’ the son to let him effectively rule.
He already assassinated a violent and highly-corrupt native despot, and greatly improved the lives of much (all?) of the population, and apparently he’s about to do it again. Color and moral implications aside, he’s making the world a better place, and money is just an unavoidable side effect. All-praise-Deus-amen.
Color and moral implications re-included… yeah Deus is definitely carrying on a long tradition of white savior narratives in entertainment, and more than happy to shoulder the burden if it advances his goals.
I’m of two minds on the “white savior” discussions.
On the one hand I understand that’s what it appears to be. White person coming into a predominantly non-white area and taking action to improve the people based on cultural ideals not native to the area with no input from those people. It certainly has the trappings of the white savior trope.
On the other hand, Deux’s skin color and that of the population of these nations is likely irrelevant. What he is doing serves his goals. Any improvement is likely an incidental side effect of his true plans. He is definitely not a ‘good’ person but how bad he is remains to be seen.
I am aware he killed the king of Galtyn. I am simply unclear on whether the king deserved to die. He appears to have been a real piece of work in his own right.
Stalin and Hitler should both have been assassinated, and a few others as well. But it wasn’t for lack of trying…
Hitler WAS assassinated, by his own hand, if the history records speak true; best thing he ever did
Not to be overly semantic, but technically if you kill yourself, it’s not an assassination. So Gorblimey’s correct.
Also Stalin was not assassinated either, although his underlings feared him so much that when he had a stroke, they made no attempt to do ANYTHING until it was definitely too late. Especially since Stalin had rounded up several Kremlin doctors who he claimed, in a paranoid delusion, had killed various officials (when they just died during operations), and none of those doctors wanted to even TRY anything with Stalin because, if they did and he still died, they’d be blamed. So no one did anything.
Wanna know who Stalin feared above all else?
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria.
Stalin could not even trust Beria to keep his hands off Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva in social settings.
Interesting info to read up on, thanks.
I’m of one mind myself: Stop making race relevant.
Deus could be polka-dotted for all I care, and in the Grrlverse, that’s a distinct possibility. Actions speak for themselves. Race is a physical descriptor, not a moral one, and people need to stop bringing it up if they want it to lose it’s power.
The man is a megalomaniac bent on having the biggest hoard this side of myself, and he’ll ruthlessly improve the lives of everyone in-between him in that goal, not out of any sense of decency, but because it’s the strongest shield he can muster: That of unwavering, overwhelming personal gain. Gatlyians will likely die for him because of how much he’s improved their home, and I bet you diamonds to donuts, they don’t give a rats ass about his skin color when they have food on their plates instead of dirt on their dirt.
Besides, you’re all inferior humans anyways, why squabble about what color you come in. Can’t even fly (most of you.)
As ex-territory of Zaire, Galtyn seems a bit mobile for a universe using real geography.
Er, were you not informed of the Portal to Galytn? You can’t just go there you know. You need to find who to ask how. Or is that how to ask who?
Do you know where Zaire/DRC, Malawi, Mozambique and the Zambezi river are in the really World?
Er… Somewhere south of Nigeria and north of South Africa? What do *you* think?
#387
What is that idiot doing? The river is navigable. He already has access to the ocean.
From Wikipedia (OK, that makes it doubtable already!):
“The lower Zambezi’s 650 km from Cahora Bassa to the Indian Ocean is navigable, although the river is shallow in many places during the dry season.”
Fortunately, Marromeu is close to the Indain Ocean, so, yeah. But the Cahora Bassa is the absolute limit, and it appears there is a hard limit on the size of any shipping.
If you don’t want to move military ships in and out you just need to bring goods which can easily be done without having ships with an heavy draught. So what is Deus really doing here? If nothing else he could get access to the sea by signing a trade deal that would allow his companies to bring goods to the sea and ship from there. It is not the 1800s anymore, invading to get access to the sea makes sense only if you want to establish military bases.
Ah but. When you need 6 meters of water to float the boat, then a river cruiser won’t do the cargo job. Warships often don’t have that draught, but cargo ships do. Even in the Real World, in 2008++, this was (is) fact.
The 6 meters is not there to accept a 6 meter waterline, it’s there to accommodate oopsies, and provide for anchoring if necessary. (Anchoring requires more water than the vessel’s Plimsoll Line.)
i’m reminded of the Ever Green getting stuck in the Suez Canal…
Yes. A hard lesson for the Egyptian Government.
The funny thing is, if the moneys raised from the canal fees had been reinvested into the canal (which is what most responsible governments do) then the canal would now be 50% wider and — more importantly — 50% deeper.
Now that ship-builders are looking to even bigger behemoths, how will they go through the Suez Canal as it is now? And please don’t say “Carefully!” All you need is another sand-storm, especially with two giga-carriers passing each other, and the canal is blocked again. And again. And again.
Someone has to have a Big Think about maritime transport up the Zambezi. Mayhap water-borne transport would be restricted to light goods only which could be carried by local river-steamers.
He has access to the ocean provided the Zambezi transit treaties hold, but as long as that supply line runs through Mozambique’s territory it is entirely vulnerable to disruption at Mozambique’s whim. The Malawi of our world is apparently having difficulties of that sort even now. Deus is simply looking to bring the security of Galytn’s principal trade route under its own direct supervision, to prevent it being held hostage by an outside power.
I think it’s especially funny that readers who are so upset by the author daring to place Gaitlyn in a real world location that is fraught with “historic difficulties”, that they are demanding the author acquiesce to their suggestions of how the supervillain in the comic should suffer for his misdeeds, or else they’re going to quit reading the comic.
“A supervillain is supervillaining? How absolutely dreadful, change it immediately.”
The ones that are demanding the author read up more on these “historic difficulties” so his portrayal of them is both 100% historically accurate and socially respectful are slightly more amusing.
Please just quit reading the free comic already, it will certainly be better for your mental health.
I think some of that is a product of a desire to believe that in the real world, such villains would be caught and punished, before they made an impact, coupled with the vague but unsettling notion that historically, in the real world, they haven’t.
So they want the flavor and texture of reality, but the substance of fiction.
Only a vague notion? Oddly enough, in many scenarios you can absolutely rely on the veracity of the gutter press reports of scoundrels going unpunished!
If DaveB’s work confronts these people, he’s doing a marvellous service to literature and needs to be rewarded!
Oh, ha ha. Access to electricity “currently”. Deus’ sense of humor rivals my own love of playing around with words. (But I only ever get “ha ha” as a response, so… Nobody appreciates word humor these days.)
One of us, one of us!
The superpower ‘eliminate corruption’ sounds absolutely astonishingly powerful, much more so than 1950s Superboy, who only pushed stars around as needed. How will Deus do this?
Quite simple! You see, when you rule everything yourself, you no longer have to worry about corruption!
After all, corruption is defined by the people, and if the people that deem you corrupt (the few that would, due to your uplifting) start to disappear under completely and perfectly reasonable, and not at all mysterious circumstances, then clearly, you’re not corrupt!
Yeah… I could see Deus attempting this. I could even see his attack succeeding. But he would then be spending the rest of his life dealing with the insurgency to follow. Because a lot of white men like him promised the exact same things as him and even when they actually delivered, which was rare, the results were endless cycles of reprisals. His strip of trade will be choked with corruption inside and harassed endlessly from without.
Africa isn’t a land of nations or states. It’s a nation of tribes. Tribal lands were fluid and did not conform to the whims of geography, but of climate. In wet seasons and dry seasons, people shifted locations and this worked fine until while european nations did EXACTLY what Deus is doing right now. Tribal territory was usurped and cut into pieces by white men with grand visions of what Africa should be. And it never worked, because Africa has never been what white men thought it was. Deus’s promise to bring electricity to the Colonel’s city was the greatest fuck you to the colonel Deus could have made, because it implies that the Colonel’s own people are incapable of ever doing it themselves.
Some African nations may be a mess, but it’s THEIR mess, thank you very much.
“… this worked fine until while european nations did EXACTLY what Deus is doing right now…”
Knowing a little about world history, Africa was as divided and war-torn as any other continent, particularly North Africa, where Egypt, Libya, Nubia and invaders from the Middle East all fought for control of the Nile Valley. City walls have been found dating to 1,000 BC, and walls mean warfare.
There was also an internal slave trade, not only in Egypt but from Sudan to the North African states. There has also always been endemic warfare between pastoral nomads and settled farmers over territory and grazing rights (not unlike the Americas before Columbus). The Zulu, to pick one example, formed an advanced military system and conquered their neighbors left and right.
I’m not denying in any way the horrible record of colonization, but the historical behavior of indigenous Africans was also not as rosy as you paint it.
You read something else than I did. What I read is them stating that Africa is and was a mess, but that conquering it will not clear the mess, it will just transfer ownership of the mess to you.
An example of why I read this is them proclaiming that there will be corruption even when he conquers and that Africa is a nation of tribes.
Conquering will not clear the mess per se, but it doesn’t preclude the change of ownership bringing the resources and outside perspective to start clearing it up. In many cases the ‘mess’ arises when the tribal loyalty and behaviour patterns that suited previous social structures – relatively small and loose power blocks, with relatively low resources each – are misapplied to larger scale modern structures. An outside ‘owner’ can constitute an extra ‘top level’ under which the ‘tribal-level’ groups remain comparable, whereas elevating a local to that ‘top level’ would imply elevating their ‘tribe’ above the others as well.
The instant you open your spiel with racism, you prove it should be ignored.
Also, for all the ‘let us handle our own messes!’ I hear, I hear even louder cries asking why countries like America aren’t, to use a current example, stepping in to stop Russia from harassing Ukraine.
People don’t want help until they do, and you’re wrong no matter which option you take.
As others have pointed out, Deus has gone into Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne levels of silly money here. To the point where it’s actually, financially impossible for him to do this without effectively becoming an open fugitive/his venture failing from the outset.
But this is a comic book and I trust Dave as an author, so I’m sticking around to see where this goes.
…
Those curious why I included Bruce Wayne along side Lex:
Wayne Industries is canonically worth almost half the GDP of America.
To anyone knowledgeable of economics: that is as literally impossible as Superman hearing people from space.
I’d like to agree. But in teh real world we’ve already seen a bored dilettante attempt the take over of the political and legislative branches of a preeminent superpower only to fail at the final hour because he really was just a bored dilettante with no real ambition for power. Questionable whether he could have counted the military on his side or not, that would have been critical to pull it off, but I don’t think we will ever really know how close that one was.
Anyway, the point is I think this particular scenario is not as far fetched as some would believe given the existence of the ‘powered’.
Sorry.. the above posted as a reply to the wrong message.
Nothing to see here…
Well, there you go.
It’s a funny, self solving kind of “problem” IRL.
Because people like Deus don’t exist in real life.
Someone rich *and* self centered enough to even try something like this aren’t disciplined enough to get it right or go all the way.
Actually Monet Inc did an article on this.
Lex Luthor’s net worth is only about $75 billion (slightly less than that of Tony Stark’s $80 billion)
Bruce Wayne is a paltry $11 billion. :)
In comparison to RL:
Jeff Bezos – $201 billion
Elon Musk – $190.5 billion (was higher than Bezos but he had to sell a lot of his stock and paid $13 billion in taxes)
Bernard Arnault – $189.9 billion
Mark Zuckerberg – $134.5 billion (but he has to share some of this with lizard people to keep his skinsuit intact)
Bill Gates – $134 billion
Larry Page – $123 billion
Sergey Brin – $118.5 billion
Larry Ellison – $117.3 billion
Warren Buffett – $102 billion
Steve Ballmer – $96.5 billion
Mukesh Ambani – $84.5 billion
Lex Luthor IS richer than fellow supervillain Michael Bloomberg, though, who has a paltry $70 billion and probably hasn’t even come CLOSE to killing Superman unless Superman’s weakness is not being allowed to have 32 oz sodas from 7-Eleven.
Of course, they all pale in comparison to the richest person in fiction or real life.
Scrooge McDuck – $500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.16 (five hundred quattuorvigintillion dollars and sixteen cents)
Not including his Number One dime. Seriously, this was the amount listed teh one time they gave a REAL number for how much money the scottish fowl has – in “The Menehune Mystery.” Which is more money than … yknow… exists. On the planet. Or has ever existed. Or could be stored on the planet. Or could be stored in the solar system.
So seriously speaking (as seriously as I can be about this) they did calculate Scrooge McDuck’s net worth based on the rest of the comics and cartoons and came out with an actual number that would not collapse the spacetime continuum into a supermassive black hole.
Scrooge McDuck’s net private worth is approximately $72 quadrillion, including his investments. Which still is more money than exists in the world ($241 trillion) but at least it can be stored on the planet. The vault only has a paltry $65.1 billion in it. Pocket change.
Money, not Monet. Sorry.
> Lex Luthor’s net worth is
Whatever amount is needed.
Sometimes he’s “just” a billionaire, other times he can buy out entire nations(alien and otherwise). Same with Bruce and his inventions.
Like I said; They have silly amounts of money.
Lex Luthor is always a billionaire. You can buy out entire nations and be a billionaire.
Burundi, for example, has a GDP of only about 3.2 billion. 20 years ago, their GDP wasnt even a billion dollars. It was only $748 million dollars. So yes, an individual can buy an entire nation. It’s not only conceivable – it’s HAPPENED in the past. It’ll require recognition if want to be able to keep other nations from invading, but it’s conceivable.
Heck, it’s even happened in the relative present. :)
Google Sealand in 1967. It was for sale a few years ago for $900 million.
It’s technically possible but wildly impractical because of the actual way a lot of billionaires are as wealthy as they are.
They can’t just shell out that kind of cash all at once. But Luthor does so all damn day.
Compared to US my country was underarmed
Only 253 figther jets in 2021
98 Rafale and 113 Mirage 2000 for air force
42 Rafale for Naval aviation
But they are at least domesticaly produced..
Compared to the USA, just about anyone else is underarmed. Each of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps would count in the top twelve worldwide defence budgets in their own right; top ten, if only separating out one at a time.
At its height, the British Navy would base their requirements on the ‘two-power rule’ – being able to confidently take on the Navies of any two other Great Powers. On that basis, the USA is running on the ten-power rule.
And yet some people still think the USA doesn’t spend enough on its military.
Might help if that military spending was spent more efficiently.
Course, compared to other countries, the US also has the most incompetent soldiers per capita too. It’s why Friendly fire incidents are so common. Better Tech doesn’t mean a damn thing if the guy firing the weapon has shit for brains.
Not exactly : I’ll rank South Korean , U.K and French above US for average infantry trooper.
And the 3 nation cited had a sizeable amount of veterans like US.
But in Russia it was a huge gap Between conscripts – best described as canon fooder – and Спецназ .
In north africa ranks in army are more an indicator of political support than real competence…
US soldiers are not the best but not the worst…
Anyone else get confused, and think that Deus meant to *literally* cut the land?
I understood Deus expected Mozambique to try and squeeze him down the road so he’s taking care of the problem preemptively.
He probably also wants to literally cut the land to improve the passage into a canal capable of handling ocean-going vessels. Such a massive investment logically necessitates total control of the land for any foreign entity to even consider it, similar to how ownership of the Panama Canal territory and operating rights for the Suez canal were secured before their construction.
I’m not so sure Deus wants the bother of 650 Kilometer canal leading to Cahora Bassa, which would necessitate a system of locks like the Panama Canal. The problem with a canal is that it needs dredging and widening, which inevitably impacts fishing and allied riverine industries, not to mention residential suburbs in those towns up and down the river.
This is one place better served by a decent railway system, both sides of the river if you can get it, but one side will do the job. Such a rail system does not need to be glued to the river, it can wander around up to several kilometers from the river, so long as it points in the right direction mostly.
Maybe Deus just wants to run a Electric Utility company?
just ask the guys from Enron how profitable that can be.
As fun as Deus is he’s punching down and destabilising the region since there is now a regional superpower that everyone else needs to prepare for war against. On top of that if the country he’s invaded claims his company has committed this act of war it could demand every other country exile or incarcerate everyone who works for it or be considered to have joined the war on their side (not a great move military wise but politically it would be a huge problem for Deus.)
This remind me fate of Umbrella corporation from resident evil 4 gov Simply froze their assets similar situation have Kaddafi even Swiss bank stop cooperating
“You can get more with a kind word and a gun than a kind word alone.”
-Al Capone
“You can get more with a kind word and a gun than a gun alone.”
-Deus
Head canon accepted.
I love this post.
On the one hand, white people rolling into an African nation telling them they’ll fix their “corruption” problems and boost their economy is SUUPER problematic, historically. On the other hand… supervillain. Fair.
However, from what I can tell Deus is usually the power behind the throne, and the Galtyn military and government as seen in the gentleman in military uniform are all locals, so it will be locals rolling into a neighboring nation.
At the behest of a white prick
I sincerely doubt that Deus cares about race. Deus cares about results and keeping his promises.
The Africans who he freed from a murderous tyrant are happy at having a life that wont involve being murdered or disappeared and tortured or starved by a monsteously bloodthirsty and corrupt tyrant, and dont care that he is white.
Ashtray gift girl who is overjoyed to have”food and houses and television” doesnt care that he is white.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-413-green-herring/
The Africans “privately begging him to come in” seem like they want this as well and dont care that he is white.
You shouldn’t either.:)
He’s still a prick, who only removed their previously overlord because he was the easiest and his son was easier to control
“He’s still a prick,”
You misspelled ‘paragon’ again, G.
“who only removed their previously overlord”
The overlord who was about to order his men to throw Deus off the roof for pointing out that the aforementioned overlord is an embezzling tyrant who does not care at all about his people and would squander any money he was given if Deus was to give it to him and trust him to spend it for the people instead of for himself.
“because he was the easiest”
It is admittedly easier to be morally virtuous when you kill someone who is a murderer who tortures men, women, and children, especially when that murder is about to try to murder you as well. Especially when everyone in the nation hates that murderer because of all the murdering he does to their friends, family, and loved ones. Not to mention all the torture, impoverishment, and general misery he causes.
So yeah it was easy to kill (in self defense, mustn’t forget that) King Indigne without negative consequences.
“his son was easier to control”
His son was not a murderous tyrant, and was completely ignorant of the atrocities that his father was committing. When he saw evidence of what his father would do to men, women, and children, he was disgusted, and VERY quickly was okay with becoming king and letting Deus be the czar of industry. In addition to the prince becoming the wealthiest person in Africa, he was easier to deal with in general because he was NOT a monster, unlike his father.
How does race even remotely factor into this? If Deus was black or yellow or green, his actions would be the same, his motivations would be the same, and most important of all: The result would be the same.
Not everything a rich man does in Africa is evil, solely because he is white. How about we judge a man’s actions by their inherent merit/villainy, rather than the colour of his skin, wasn’t that the general idea, not so long ago…?
Deus reminds me of Putin more and more. Both are taking whatever they can and painting themselves as virtuous.
Well, that and they’re both Competent, dangerous people.
As opposed to Vicious Idiots like Joffrey and a certain Orange-faced Defeated US President.
I was wondering where Vale was. Looks like that might be her leg in the top right corner of panel 5.
I think you might have spotted her.
She appears to be standing on one of the two cannon of the tanklike machine Deus is using as a platform. I think. Well, perhaps more than two.
One thing people have kinda missed in SmugD’s threat: he plans on absorbing those lands into his own territory
This is nothing more than a hidden expansionist plan: he’s already shown his willingness to take what he wants, ignoring any opposition by stating that any of his forces on the ground are on his land, een if five seconds ago that land was someone elses
Also note how he said his territory, not Galytin’s
I feel like Deus is not clever enough to get away with all he gets away with. It may be an unfortunate consequence of it being narratively necessary for the audience to understand what he’s doing, but I can’t help but feel like if he’s as blatant as he is, we wouldn’t have him being in a “tense political position where they can’t prove he’s the mastermind” we would have him being in a “Tense political position where the entire world wants him dead”
Yeah, this is oversimplification for the sake of a goofy super hero comic.
Far stupider people have been getting away with blatant evil forever, and people defend them saying that they were only joking, or taken out of context, or just misinterpreted by biased sources, or that it didn’t really happen.
I gotta say, after reading the comment section of this one, I’m ashamed of you all. I thought the Grrlverse fans to be some of the best and brightest of (webcomic reading) humans, but every fourth post I see is racist nonsense about how Deus is a bad man because of his skin color. I didn’t expect racism here, and I further didn’t expect it to *stay* here.
Deus is a man. His morals are based off his actions, not the color of his hilariously weak skin. The same goes for monsters of the past, bad people are bad people, no matter what color the wrapping paper, as there are countless examples for every shade.
Besides, all humans are shades of the same dull colors. Until you start showing some truly wonderous colorations, don’t even talk to me.
You’ve set your expectations awfully high for humans. But nobody here is saying he’s a bad man because of his skin color. Some people are saying that elements of the story parallel other stories that were intended to portray non-white humans as inherently uncivilized savages, and white humans as inherently superior, and that parallel is discomforting, because even if it wasn’t intended to carry that same message, some people will read it as such.
It’s also about representation. If a certain pattern is prevalent in stories, it normalizes it, suggests that it is natural, inherent, or the most likely outcome. If certain roles within a story are always assigned to certain races, it suggests an underlying belief that those relationships aren’t random. That race matters.
It’s not racist to point out those patterns, or to ask creators to consider breaking them.
Question I have is this: Is Deus’ country completely land-locked or do the have access to the river in question?