Grrl Power #104 – Flail-Fu Fail
So. Many. Arms. And. Stripes.
I’ve known how Sydney’s first encounter with Dabbler was going to go down for some time now, but up until quite recently, she actually succeeded in clobbering her. I try not to second guess myself but really the majority of this comic is just me transcribing my daydreams. At some point I thought I should probably try doing some actual writing, and I figured it might start getting a little predictable if Sydney comedically noggin smashes everyone she meets. Besides, she still gets one in at the end.
The original page ended with Dabbler on the floor covered in chair splinters, Arianna looks at Maxima and says “I noticed you didn’t use your super speed to prevent any of that.” Maxima replies with a satisfied grin, “I did not.”
As for the guy in the trenchcoat, we need to get through the immediate fallout of Dabbler’s reveal first. Oh, and in case you only check in on the comic on Mondays (and who can blame you) I put up a bonus tangent comic on Thursday last week.
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
I really love second-to-last panel sydney. she looks amazingly badass right there, even if it is just novelty that she actually has a serious expression for once.
I think she’s thinking: Well, Max DID just give me the “go-ahead.”
I see panels 2-5 and think, if you put them in a row and play them backwards and forward… “I whip my Sidney back and forth, I whip my Sidney back and forth!”
I think new favorite page right here. If only because of Dabbler’s expressions.
I love the wink she is throwing Maxima as she is doing it.
Was it a wink or was she just concentrating really hard on not dropping Sydney during the acrobatics?
hmm. so who’s the first member of the team Sydney isn’t going to hit shortly after they meet?
Anvil, obviously.
She looks 100 % Human, has no powers to freak Syd out at a moments notice, and she is VERY big.
Even Syd might back down there.
Wouldn’t Syd freak at someone she stands eyeball to belt buckle to? Especially if she’s not paying attention and walks right into her.
Valid point, good Sir. Not to mention it’d be a perfect opportunity to display Anvil’s kenetic energy absorbing abilities.
Sydney: “Aaaah! Giant!” *swings chair or other random handy bludgeoning object and it comes to a dead stop on impact”
Anvil: *entirely unphased* “Little jumpy, aren’t we?”
I would assume a chair would break. But I can see the orbs bouncing off Anvil like a rubber wall with her just looking at Syd with a raised eyebrow.
But being Syd she might decide Anvil is a “Big Sis” and curl up like a kitteh in her lap. :D
Out of Anvil, Math, Heatwave, and Peggy, I’d say Anvil and Peggy are the most likely to escape Sydney strike-age.
I don’t know about that, Math’d be expecting to be swung at, since all the girls go after him at one point or another. Peggy’d prob be safe too, since she isn’t scarry.
those aren’t scars… she’s “Tatoo-ey” instead. :D
Boot to the head! LMAO!!!
And yet, Dabbler handles it as smooth as silk. Well, barring the noggin bonking at the end.
I have a feeling the interactions between those two are going to be the most fun in the comic.
Oh yes, I see much fun between those two.
Well she is, among other things, an accomplished martial artist.
…That tongue is cheating. /Six/ studs?!
Probably more likely to be 3 bars rather than 6 separate studs.
I imagine the Succubus Kama Sutra would not be encyclopedic in length. Something much shorter. . .
“OK, I’ve got this terrific idea. You’re really going to like this. First thing we do is put this. . er. . . you’re. . . you’re done already? Oh. . . well, yea. I suppose I am pretty hot, but couldn’t you . . . *sigh* . . . I suppose not. I guess we can try again in a few minutes.”
LMAO!
I don’t assume cubi to be big on premature ejaculation, hell magically control their none-cubi partners to go longer (especially given the whole sex till you die some tend to go for).
I’d say if you got two Succubi into the sack together you’re looking at six hours minimum.
My succubus doesn’t do ‘sex till you die’.
She does ‘vaguely sexual torture until you wish you were dead’…there is never any risk of ejaculation happening; prematurely or otherwise.
But then, she’s a pureblood and takes the whole ‘demon’ thing VERY seriously, whereas Dabbler seems to be a lot less…focused.
Her great-grandmother was famous in the underworld for inventing “personal massages devices” for succubi?
Dave that 8th panel reminds me of Edward from Full Metal Alchemist in both faceal expression and eveyshape/color. Great work as always; Keep it up!
I have not watched much of that. Maybe I should stick it in my instant queue.
I personally prefer Brotherhood to the Cartoon Network version. The story is more satisfying. Still, it’s the same basic premise, just changes some pretty big plot points.
FMA: Brotherhood does stick far closer to the manga than the other series did, so that tends to make me prefer it as well. CN has also been running Brotherhood on Saturday nights lately.
Hey, when did we get a different Azrael here? FWIW I am the Azrael who had the bad experience with a borrowed time machine right before the orb reveal.
This is the reason that Gravatars are so important.
Well, let’s see if this fixes things. Didn’t know we had another Azrael around here, either.
It’s all good man, figures I can’t be the only one who likes the name and/or concept.
OK which of you licks yourself on PixieTrix? That way I know which one to take to the vet. =p
nah, you need to get them to trim their toe-nails, and play the guitar, if one actually sounds GOOD, then you know THAT’S the Gelf Doppelganger.
That would be me. *claws ankles* =P
I may be old but…….
(California valley voice)
O.M.G.
A Red Dwarf reference in this world. What will we talk about next. :)
***Pets plushy….Grin***
If I can’t have mah plushie, Nobody will! *Throws Sydney action figure with “Flail-fu Action” at Bismarck. :P
Flail-fu activates in mid-flight striking his temple. He falls and a large holographic K. O. spins slowly above him.
*Grabs plushie and runs away* BWOOPBWOOPBWOOP!!
Just try to speak out the title of this page aloud, five times in a row… :D
Hmmm… Perhaps it would work as caption on a T-shirt :D
How exactly did the movement between the 2nd and the 3rd panel work? I panel 2, Dabbler support Sydney’s left shoulder with her lower right arm and brings her upper left arm to Sydney’s right side – very good preparation for turning her around – but in the next panel Dabbler’s lower right hand is an inch away from Sydney’s hip/waist area – how did it get there and why is this hand not touching Sydney? And how did Dabbler manage to get a grip on one leg of the chair when Sydney was holding the chair at the backrest?
Dabbler is shifting grips in a fast hand over hand baton twirl, with Sidney as the baton. Sidney drops the chair early in the maneuver, but Dabbler catches it, lower left arm.
Flail-Fu Fail, for some reason that sounds like it’d be an awesome name for a band. Then again, maybe I’m just really bad at discerning good and bad band names. Anyway, my silliness asside, I swear every time I see semi-chibi Sydney waggleing her arms while being flipped through the air I can’t help but think she’s yelling “Blaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggg!” the whole time. And I totaly agree, this is one of my favorite pages yet. Both Sydney’s mid-air freakout and Dabbler’s ammussed expression, and especially Sydney going “What happened? Where am I? Did I win?” altogether cause me to start grinning and chuckling every time I see this page no matter how I try not to (not that anyone should want to not laugh at this). And Sydney’s rare serious/badass “someone-just-called-Edward-Elric-short” face followed by her catching Dabbler of guard like that just makes this page freaking awesome and hilarious!
I have to say, I much prefer that look for Dabbler. Cuter in a way. Her illusion kinda felt like she was trying a little too hard…
Hence Maxima’s demand to “dial it down”. “I never go below a 10” means “I’ll turn off the Magical Glamour if you insist, but I will look perfect no matter what!”
Dabbler’s my favorite now. And she lookes like a little kid with a new toy while she’s manhandling Sydney.
Wouldn’t that be womanhandling?
Still waiting for her to ask what is with the masked guy behind the general
Sydney is my type of hero, never admitting defeat.
Dabbler and Sydney are now two of my favorite characters in the comic.
Dabbler for her ability to keep cool in any situation and move with the Flow, Sydney for her insane antics and ability to turn defeat into victory.
Well for all we know Dabbler’s older then all of ARCswat combined. Maybe she sees Sydney as herself when she was younger. Dabbler mentoring Sydney…ohhhh did it suddenly get cold in here? ;)
Maybe I’m getting ahead of something here, but Dabblers name on the who’s who is listed as also being Xuriel.
Where did that name come from? Did I miss her being introduced somewhere?
I’ve never heard of Dabbler being called Xuriel, but my guess would be her actual name and dabbler being her codename/nickname akin to the rest of the squad have one. Why she is singled out to have both on the who’s who I don’t know.
It’s also very possible that people just couldn’t get their tongues round her full name and prefer to call her by an English alias. Of course, Dabbler has never had any problems getting her tongue round any word in any language – or around anything else she thought would be interesting, for that matter.
IIRC Xuriel is Dabbler’s real name, or at least as close as the human tongue can approximate.
Dabbler is her nickname/codename, and Xuriel is her real name. just like Harem/Daphne, Anvil/Kenya, Heatwave/Brook, and (in the future) Halo/Sydney. They are all mentioned on the cast page and describe them all. Dabbler dabbles in everything, a Jill-of-all-trades and a master of none.
Does Sydney/humans in general have some issues with demons? Did they invade or something? Or is it just another one of Sydney’s quirks?
Wait you’ve read this far and you’re not certain on this one?
I’m quite uncertain whether to admit my feeling that one might be better off being uncertain of anything when Sydney is involved.
As in:
Always.
Expect.
Ninjas.
Sydney is Captain Quirk! Demons probably rank pretty close to Ninja in her “Always expect” list…
Sydney reads a lot of comics – While I can’t name any right off the top of my head, there are plenty of instances where a nefarious creature infiltrates the superhero team disguised as one of the members. If you assume she knows magic is real and the basis for some powers, her jumping to the “Demon” conclusion makes sense. It should be funny when she finds out that 1) aliens are real and 2) Dabbler’s an alien/demon hybrid.
You forgot Cyborg.
so her first reaction to a demon is to use a chair vs using the P.P.O? ……and we’re making her a super hero……………………………………..>< we're doomed
and she was not touching the orb to make it hit dabber on the head.
She demonstrated a few pages back the ability to mentally control the flight path of the orbs, make them follow her in the tube, go to her hand, fly around her like electrons of an atom, so bonking someone on the head is right along with that.
Yep, she realized she could cheat at skeeball too.
You know u could make that a thing later on, her manipulating the orbs themselves to hit people and stuff as well as just how far away she can control them from her and increaseing that range and how hard they can hit peole with practice.
I can’t help but think of Magneto in X-Men 2, busting out of jail with what amounted to three ball-bearings. I wonder how fast Sydney can accelerate those orbs?
I imagine any move is the beginning of something in the Succubus Kama Sutra.
Is anyone here worried that the orbs can eventually be smacked hard enough to break? :-(
In a word: “No.”
In more words: For one thing they were found lying in shallow water just off Florida so you can figure they’ve stood up to the bashing forces of quite a few huricanes. For another thing they generate some very impressive energy levels, that suggests a strong containment structure.
Magic orbs are well known for being nearly indestructable, never heard of the dragon balls breaking *ignoring GT on that one as its not manga canon, and besides that was a magic reason anyway*
Many magic orbs are themselves directly used as weapons,
although, the small ones that are implanted in slimes or golems as cores tend to be breakable, just very hard to do so, and the only real “weak spot” of those structures, in that you have to hit those as the rest of the body can heal, repair, or is invulnerable. But usually it takes a great deal of force to break them or some special condition.
You spin me right ’round, baby
Right ’round like a record, baby
Right ’round, ’round, ’round =P
*Captain Kirks Voice*
Make. The. Music. Stop. NNNNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With the way Kirk (aka Bill Schatner) massacres music he has no reason to complain. :D
It could be worse.. I still have nightmares of Pat Boone singing Metallica! *Shudders*
I just saw “The Complete Works of William Shatner” at the Fringe Festival. Hilarious. And, yes, he “sings” during the performance.
Hey, you should see Shatner RAP.
That only happened on Futurama, thank god. Strangely I like his version of “slim shady” better than Eminem.
My latest favorite version is this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxch-yi14BE
Not trying to get political it’s just funny.
Check out Shatner’s version of “O Canada” on YouTube. Awesome, awesome stuff.
Bwahaha she obviously gotten the hit in even if the chair didn’t get the mark.
Your team is amazing. This is the best strip ever (and that’s coming from a 60 year old man). I have 4 beautiful daughters and 6 gorgeous granddaughters and have tried to teach them that beauty is NOT weakness. I love these kick-ass gals.
Thanks a lot! I’d like there to be a bigger variety of body types on the team but they’re a little like an Olympic swim team. They’re all very good at what they do and their job involves a great deal of physical activity. I’m going to try and make some of the supporting cast a big more varied, but honestly I’m not practiced with that.
I also want to get into some conversations about why Maxima looks the way she does, really why all the supers look the way they do, and Dabbler’s attitude about sexual empowerment, etc, but I have to get past all this set up.
If you’re not already familiar with the online comic Wapsi square, then you need to go over to Wapsisquare.com, and look at Paul’s “Wapsi Girl Project” then… very interesting, to see what makes a strong, proud woman… oh, yeah and the comic is awesome too…
Two things I noticed, Sidney automatically jumps to the conclusion that Dabbler is a demon (and not a monster or something else ‘four-armed draco-letch of doom’) she actually seems pretty astute in over-reaction mode, perhaps her putting ‘blonde teleporter’ and ‘army punk teleporter’ together and getting Harem isn’t too far fetched…
Secondly, so did Dabbler drop the illusion or did Sidney? Because last strip, no one seems phased when Dabbler’s illusion faded (which I’m sure the general would freak at her doing) making me believe that it was only dropped for Sideny and that everyone else is still seeing Dabbler’s sexy-human-form. But then Maxima seems non-plussed by Sidney’s reaction as well… So has the illusion dropped for everyone, or once it dropped for Sidney did her reaction let Maxima (and the rest) realize that Sidney can now see through it?
If I’m correct in this, as soon as Sydney activated the Yellow orb, dabbler’s illusion was cancelled out, but only up to a certain radius (the center of which was the yellow orb), leading me to believe that orb can actually, within a certain radius from it, disable illusions inside its radius. Looking back, however, that is the orb which allows Sydney to project herself somewhere else. And it appears that it isn’t radius-based, as the invisible robotic trenchcoat guy behind the table was also hit (and not the way a circle should have), but must completely cancel out illusions within a radius, as well as providing Sydney with the telescience ability (telescience, not omniscience). If dabbler merely dropped her own illusion, then the trenchcoat guy would not have been seen. Also, I’m pretty sure she still doesn’t realize her illusion has been dropped.
You know what I am most curious about. If the illusion hasn’t been dropped for the bystanders . . . just what did that look like? After all it wouldn’t have worked with only 1 pair of arms, so I imagine it would be bizarre! Of course the human mind can do wonders for filling in missing bits it doesn’t understand(for example maybe they just thought dabbler has quick hands, or maybe the impression that she did both bits one handed somehow?).
i have a feeling that every one but Sidney knew what Dabbler is
I know that. The key term is if the illusion has not been dropped. In other words if to everyone but Sydney still sees only two arms just how did that maneuver look. Did the chair float in the air and to the ground/did Sydney float. Did the chair ‘happen’ to fall into the right place. Did she do both things one handed.
Basically I am interested in how, if at all, the illusion accounted for a four arm maneuver when the illusion is only displaying two arms.
Hiya Guys,
Tsk-Tsk…. Some of you guys are seeming to forget that everybody in the room, with the exception of Sydney, already knew what Dabbler looked like pre-illusion, so they’re not going to bat an eyelid either way if Dab’s spell has worn off & they can see her in her “natural” form…. ;)
The only one freaking out about Dabbler’s current appearance is Sydney, simply because she has never seen Dabbler’s “True form” before….
Oh yeah, one other point if I may… some of you guys wondered why Syd called her a demon, she did that because Dab reminded her of a D&D demon.. you know, cloven hooves, spiked tail, multiple arms, etc…. ;)
Cheers & Thranx
Seeing as that was a minimum security area, Dabbler’s illusion dropping would likely cause some small panic as it means that other people who aren’t supposed to know what Dabbler is (people either not in the room or who aren’t supposed to be) might find out it would likely cause problems, not to mention a lot of heart burn and hair pulling for related commanding officers and PR people (Faulk and Ariana). Also, if I had to guess, The orb probably lets Sydney see through illusions but not every one else. However, when Sydney attacked Dabbler may have dropped her illusion either out of surprise or having to instead focus on not being force-fed splinters. Or perhaps she figured Sydney’s the only one she had to hide it from, and Sydney having figured it out there was no reason to keep up appearances, perhaps forgetting or not caring about the minimum security nature of the area.
Or maybe the illusion doesn’t actually fall until Halo smacks the orb into Dabbler’s head.
Forewarned is forearmed. But in Dabbler’s case, four-armed is just cool.
Ha ha! I gotta admit, that was pretty clever!
THAT’S what here real tongue looks like? Ewwww…
I’m disappointed, I was expecting Sydney to laser blast Dabbler through the wall :(
Hope Dabbler doesn’t bite her tongue.
Yeah, and with those sharp teeth and metal studs she’d probably loose her tongue AND chip a tooth!
Dabbler is very adorable from the neck up. From the neck down…well you know.
Hahahaha. I used the phrase douche-knuckle in an email to a national talk show today. (Adler Online 1pm – 3pm central in Canada) It caught in his ear, so I told him I got it from this comic and he mentioned this comic on national radio. :} I had to laff. Who know, maybe it gets some more readers.
Well now you’re going to make me listen to the whole archive online till I hear it.
The day I posted. I posted right after he mentioned. Within 5 minutes of the post, more or less.
Hmm, I listened to his online show, for the 21st, but I didn’t hear it. I suppose the stuff on his website is trimmed down to the show segments and he doesn’t put up all the call in blocks.
Dunno. Never listened to the archives. It was an email I sent in earlier, in response to a segment on banning stuff. And some self righteous prat saying it was fine cause pop causes all kinds of health problems that “their” taxes were paying for. So I sent in a note saying they should let me in their house so I could look for stuff “they” do that I could justify banning cause it was causing health risks “others’ would have to pay for. (I really hate the self appointed self-righteous justifying banning stuff in a supposedly free society, and using what they pay in taxes as the excuse, as if they are the only ones paying taxes, and as if ‘they’ even pay enough to cover the costs of the services they use int eh first damn place.) Then after that he worked douche-knuckle into many segues, the Cierracil add in particular. Dunno if the archives hold onto that kinda stuff or not. But the part where he mentioned the comic when I told him where I got it was the closing segment where he tells people about his TV show and show times and future shows just before signing off. So I’d suggest trying the last 5 minutes or so of the show. Tho his show gets aired in staggered segments in diff parts of the country. IIRC 2 hours is all at the same time and then a 3rd hour for some others, so maybe try the last 5 or 10 of hourly segments. Dunno how they chop the show up never having used the archives, I just listen live.
Long winded post. Dorks that wanna use bans to tell other people how to live piss me off. All they do is help implement Big Brother by Baby Steps. Building a police state, one ban at a time.
What day? It’d be easier to find if we search the archives by the day!
And for some reason now I think Dabblers theme song would be “Turbo Polka” by Atomik Harmonik…. If she had a theme song…
Huh, I’ll have to look that up. THank you random person with the oddly convenient name.
She attacks someone because of their species? You would think a comic nerd would have more tolerance…
Although, her orb could notified her of the mind affecting lust spell in addition to the illusion.
Granted, but Sydney’s more of an act first analyze later type.
The blond bombshell just changed un-expectadly before her eyes into a four armed purple stripy babe with horns and big ears looming over her. Sydney was surprised, and we all know what happens when someone surprises Sydney.
Plus speciest reasoning doesn’t apply in a world where we assume demons and other none-human humanoids and sentients don’t just go walking down the street to the super-market, and given how generic a term “demon” is, its as easy a go too word as “alien” would have been depending on if one is more supernaturally inclined to think or sci-fi. For Sydney I call toss up and wouldn’t have been surprised if her first go to hadn’t been alien or had Dabbler been green Sydney might have gone straight to “Skrull”.
Give Sydnney a moment to calm down *as much as possible* and she’ll probably not care where Dabbler is from, she just got a little spooked is all.
Also, if Sydney has read the Myth series by Robert Asprin, Demon just means Dimension traveller.
With four arms that must be one hell of a sutra.
Not so much as the one for hermaphrodites (Furanari).
Correcting a typo there, it’s futanari for those trying their google-fu chops. And that comes in several flavors from tranny top-only to clit sized and shaped like a penis to stages in-between and really weird, like penis with no testicles or vagina, various penis-like growths, ad infinitum based on the imagination of the artist.
It is my own opinion that Dabbler is worthy of her own comics.
We already knew that Sydney is more a Fight than Flight response, but wow!
Although i can understand her, Dabbler being seen for the first time is a shock: 4 arms, stripped violet skin, clawed hands, horns and fangs. Her previous “sex aura” didn’t make things alright.
I also like how the orbs managed their own orbits whithout touching Dabbler.
I wonder if Flail-Fu could be trained into an efficient and usable martial art. Hum… no to much like Ranma 1/2.
Too horrible image (especially for Max): Sydney AND Dabbler being good friends and working together.
I agree with the majority of reviewers about the orbs: the capacity to direct their trajectories is a good power. It even exist in Heroes Unlimited. Hum… using Flail-Fu WITH the orbs…? Nah…
I’d like to think a lot of the characters could have their own spin off tales. Some more than others obviously. Dabbler’s Travels, Harem in a High School Comedy/Battle Manga, The Air Force Adventures of Lt. Maxima, Math in Battle Brawl Ultimate!, Heatwave, Mr. Amorphous and Achilles: Vigilantes at Large, Peggy Kessler in: I Will Snipe the Shit Out of You, etc.
oh god… peggy’s… rolling on the floor laughing! hmm… though of some other comic titles for you~ |D
Dabbler’s tips for home experiments….tip #112 No matter how much it seems like a good idea, volatile chemical’s and microwaves DO NOT MIX.
for Harem, The many faces of ME. a comedy about how to deal with four bodies and one mind |D
That’s all I got for good comic names for them. anyone else got a good name for a character shoot off comic?
Dr. Dabbler Interplanetary sex therapist? “You must learn to handle the pseudopod, caress the pseudopod, kiss the pseudopod, make LOVE to the pseudopod.”
Damn it, Adamas. >.<
I heard all of that in Dr. Ruth's voice.
That was point. =P
Sydney’s “How to be a Kickass Nerd with recipes you SHOULD NOT TRY AT HOME!!!”
Sydney’s “How to be a Kickass Nerd with recipes you SHOULD NOT TRY AT HOME!!!”
Please excuse the dups my mouse is spazing.
Huh, I just assumed the title and all things it implied were both so awesome they bared repeating.
Hey, DaveB —
Apropos to the discussions of superhero physiques and how real people actually look, here’s an article that everyone here should look at.
https://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/08/09/olympians-superhero-bodies-and-what-real-athletes-look-like/
Now to me, Dabbler would have to be more red and black for me to instantly conclude “demon”.
Dave, I think you did the right thing in changing the outcome. I’m too lazy to check through 260+ comments to see if anyone else made this point, but Dabbler’s been a member of the team long enough to rate her own necklace. In a situation like that where’s she’s part of a government superteam, Dabbler would most likely be trained in all sorts of martial arts and able to handle a combat newbie like Sydney, even if Sydney is capable of grabbing someone by their tongue and flipping them.
She’s also seen Sydney grabbing someone by their tongue and flipping them so she knows what to expect from her.
In many martial arts, there’s something to be said for beginner’s luck (fencing in particular comes to mind). An expert can pretty reliably predict the actions of someone with a few months of training under the belt, but the chaotic actions of a newbie can be downright dangerous – they don’t know what they’re doing either. New martial artists also rarely have the wherewithal to pull their punches.
The world’s greatest swordsman doesn’t fear the world’s second best. He fears the world’s worst because there’s no telling when he’ll do. (It’s also why some Martial Artists IRL can have trouble with Brawlers and Berserkers. Too unpredictible if they get in close.)
Which is where reality parts company with movies. Because in reality if a Ninja actually faced 10 bar brawlers he’d go down hard. Because they wouldn’t wait politely and attack him 1 by 1 they’d mob him.
You’d be surprised, I have been in larger crowd fights and unless they are organized most people revert to a very primitive mindset and prefer to stand back and watch their friend fight. Send out your “strongest” guy and then mob the other guy if they get the chance.
I have been chased by a very large group before, lets just call it a mob, only one at a time came in close, the rest though were throwing things, and getting too close to the crowd tends to result in someone trying to grab you or trip you. But otherwise most people don’t really know how to cordinate a group attack other than try to knock you down and kick you.
PS: I won that fight, in that I took down their strongest guy easier than they expected apparently and they broke off.
I will say though, the whole best swordsman fears the worst, only applies if the worst is drunk and swinging wildly, any half decent fencer can take loose strike chance to disarm their opponent.
While I’ve faced a black belt and put him down because I just bulled in and choked him into unconsciousness. Although I will admit when my mind reconnected with my body I had a loose tooth and 2 cracked ribs.
sorry, I had to laugh while reading that, because I thought I wrote it for a second; something like that happened to me too. Honestly American taught Karate is total crap, a form of exercise and showing off; I did the exact same thing to a black belt, apparently being grabbed by the throat and pinned to a wall isn’t in their list of fighting moves to counter. Besides most of these Karate class black belts announce their moves way in advance and do them so slow that anyone being serious can counter them.
A charecter in one of my favorite stories had a great line. “This isn’t Buffy the Dojo Ballerina, kid.” :P
I have been in a few similar incidents (I may have had some issues when I was younger), and for the most part I agree with you Rhuen, even in a mob situation, most of the time people will still attack 1, 2, or 3 at a time instead of swarming the target, (which can pretty much take down anyone eventually, assuming a large enough mob). It is an interesting facet of human behavior, as is the fact that we form mobs at times.
Its why zombie movies sell so well (according to psychologists), they work on the fear of mobs and how un-natural it is for us to walk around in a world sorrounded by large numbers of total strangers that feeds on that primal us or them fear of this mass of humanity forming a mob and coming after you and the overwhelming numbers.
*in actual combat this is known as Human Wave Tactics; not something used much anymore in our technological age but could be seen again with robot armies which is right there with the zombies attacking in-mass*
There’s a fun if comically over the top at times anime called Grappler Baki. Very early on… in the first episode I think actually, he faces off against 100 guys, and they say it’s impossible to beat that many at once, and Baki counters “Really? I only see 4 of you.” meaning that at most, only 4 of them can attack him at once. That discounts the idea they could just mob tackle him, but I guess they were all street brawlers that wanted to get a punch in.
Don’t forget some would probably be throwing things. A thrown bottle hitting you in the head HURTS, not to mentioning it usually sets you on your heel for a second.
Could you do the original version of this strip that you talked about as a vote incentive? It sounds really funny, and my imagination of what it looks like can’t quite do it justice, I think.
Hmm, that’s quite a bit of work for a vote incentive. Maybe I could do some roughs. I’d rather do stuff you guys can use as wallpapers, but we’ll see.