Grrl Power #1098 – Operant education
Looking at this page just before I publish it, I realize that I did a poor job of introducing “Lioness.” You can see her in the last panel of the previous page, but the way this page plays out, I could see people thinking that Dabbler had changed into the dark skinned lady in panel 3 and then changed again in panel 6. Panel 7 and 8 should dispel that misconception, but it probably could have been laid out a little more clearly.
I expect there will be some debate in the comments about the blackface question posed in panel 4. Sydney, like many white people, is afflicted with the occasional bout of white guilt, which is why she’s checking in. Even Anvil has to give it a little thought, but as you can see, her litmus is whether or not it’s mocking. My personal thoughts are that yeah, if you’re white, (or at least, not black – the fact that Dabbler isn’t white doesn’t absolve her of anything here) you have to be careful with “cosplaying as a black person” because of many many past wrongs, but I don’t think it’s automatically bad. I think we’re at a point where we might be over-correcting, and any instance of this is instantly decried, but I think that’s as much about reflexive white-guilt than anything.
For instance, Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder was perfectly acceptable (IMO) because it was a self-aware bit about an actor getting way too deep in a role, and it wasn’t about mocking black people nor did it cost an actual black actor a role. The bit wouldn’t have worked if it had been a black actor pretending to be a white actor pretending to be a black character, and then they white face him at the end of the movie for the “de-makeuping.” I guess there could have been some amusing extra level of meta-ness if they had done that, but I think most of the jokes wouldn’t have landed with the same impact then.
Dabbler is simply attempting to come up with a disguise that allows her to blend in with local domestic ethnicities, and Senegal is like 0.3% white. It’s not like she couldn’t do surveillance in white face, but the only way she’d draw more attention would be to go with lavender-with-green-stripes face. Anyway, it’s not like she can’t duck into a restroom and totally change her appearance whenever she wants. By the way, Dabbler can change her eye colors with her glamor if she wants, but she usually doesn’t, especially if she knows she won’t be under intense scrutiny.
The “Lu?” in panel 7 is my attempt at Wolof. Honestly I had never heard of the language before I started writing this page, and the online Wolof translators/dictionaries I found seemed… underdeveloped. Basically I couldn’t find a definitive translation for “What?” into Wolof. I found a few example sentences that had the word “what” in them, but in the Wolof translation, the word was different depending on the sentence. In some cases it was “Lu” and in others it was “Lan” or “Looy.” So basically, Lioness is supposed to be saying “What?” in Wolof, but there’s like a 65% chance she isn’t. Just pretend.
The October Vote Incentive is still up!
The November one is coming along, it shouldn’t be quite the same wait for it as the Blue Babes one. The nude version’s already done, just have to do several layers of clothing. :)
So I have enough “Blue Babes” to do a theme. Eventually I’ll be able to fill in the whole rainbow of my own characters. I did a rainbow lineup previously for those who hadn’t seen it. I’d love to revisit that one of these days.
Enjoy variant outfits and lack thereof over at Patreon.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Anvil in the center panel looks positively gorgeous!
She and Dabs are always gorgeous, as long as they are calm or happy. Like when she was talking Max to dress up for her “NOT a date with Deus”, in that case she used her puppy dog eyes which totally freaked Max out lol.
no, Sydney proposed a side quest. finding the gang hideout is still a side quest. this is a mcguffinless fetch quest. its actually very reasonable- it provides a cover so its not obvious that the locals are getting outside help. the local team gets victory, some ‘rushed’ paperwork gets done, and some nondescript tourists (ok, the nondescript part is sarcastic) get to go shopping while they wait for their plane. just, please stay out of trouble. I’m sure someone will have read the local files on that threesome soon if not already. I’m sure the locals have strict rules on tongue throwing. (not naming any names.)
No, this is a predictable yo-yo. While Dabbler is subtly looking for the gang, Sydney will literally trip over a bale of fabric and fall into the gang hideout, where the gang will already know exactly who she is because they had the police headquarters under surveillance… and also because she’s world famous.
Then after that perfectly obvious and predictable event, Dave will pull his REAL switch and the gang will turn out to be spoiler spoiler spoiler.
that’s the movie version. the one with writers who haven’t had enough experience to do a good job.
Not a perfect disguise, I know for a fact that people of true African descent with blue eyes are very rare, I have spent half my life in Africa and to my knowledge I have only ever met one person who had them, and green eyes are rarer still, and blue-green heterochromia is the rarest form of heterochromia, and thus even rarer in Africa, to the point of probably not existing. A pair of not rare sunglasses may be Dabbler’s friend.
Trust me, If she turns up her lust aura just a tiny bit, the last thing anyone will look at is her eyes! Then again, as beautiful as she always is, the face is always the last thing anyone looks at. But yes to pass for a true local she’s going to need to cover her eyes.
It would seem to be very strange if a power like this didn’t allow you to change eye color, too, but I see she had that problem when she was interrogating the hillbilly, too.
If you didn’t notice, this was in the block of text under the comic: By the way, Dabbler can change her eye colors with her glamor if she wants, but she usually doesn’t, especially if she knows she won’t be under intense scrutiny.
I guess that makes sense, in as much as having different eye colors is a deliberate choice on her part; Remember, one of them is artificial!
Although, not being able to change the color of her artificial eye _would_ be an appropriate limitation.
It’s glamor though, not actual shapeshifting, and it works on her clothes too.
this “quirk” is found in various game systems and LitRPG, optic based powers would require that the eyes remain unchanged as a minor limitation to the power. There was even an Invis power that required your eyes to remain visible in the lowest tier option. Optics go figure ;)
I seem to recall playing in a home brew where the caster of invisibility had to make a choice: do they get to see, or do they make their eyes invisible?
If I’m recalling correctly, our party’s caster specialized in casting invisibility just on the target’s eyes by the end of that game, as invisibility’s cost was proportional to the object affected *and* considered a beneficial spell, so this was a virtually free form of “blind” that didn’t get a savings throw.
Also, by the end of the game, I mean the point at which the GM decided to take their home brew and chuck it in the garbage.
Yeah, have heard of that: sight kinda require light hitting the back of the eyes, and if the eyes are invisible…
I have seen some talk of alternating flashes of bent light to double down, or just use them around the eyes to somehow offset the “frame rate” of human sight…its rather iffy reasoning, but it was used to explain why humans couldn’t see something but various animals could due to the difference in perception speeds of this thing blinking in and out.
Which yeah, that was the other version, bot flashing lights but turning invisible and back again at highspeeds. The user *which had to be non-human, a cyborg, have a special camera mounted to a vision display, or enchanted eyes* would blink in and out of being invisible, that way their eyes could collect light and see, but the rate of the blinking was fast enough that most human sight couldn’t perceive it, except as the occasional movement or shadow *how the brain interprets not seeing something properly to fill in a gap* out of the corner of their eyes (peripheral vision has a higher sensitivity to movement as a defense mechanism, supposedly, I’d have to double check the research on that).
the concept being like how when you look at a light bulb you see constant light, but a dog with its higher frame rate vision sees the lights blinking. Its in that blink off part that the users of the suits are blinking on, so you don’t see them but they can still see. So blinking the camo so fast you only see the camo and their special eyes/gear/magic compensate for them to be able to see.
that rambled a bit.
in simpler terms.
The invisibility blinks off and on just like lightbulbs blink. Doing so, so fast that the human eye can’t catch when they are visible except as the occasional odd shadow out the corner of the eye or using cameras with a high FPS.
the user pf this has a method that records in those fraction of a second frames of being visible and corrects for it as playback to the one currently invisible to let them see. So there may be a fraction of a second to a whole second delay in what they see while using this invisibility.
Interesting concept for digital inputs, if you could sync the timing and weren’t dealing with multiple observers (since they would undoubtedly be out of sync with each other).
The issue with this for the human eyeball is an analog chemical system receiving continuous input, not a digital system taking near-instant samples at a given frequency. There are no large (relatively) gaps in the feed like a camera has, any light coming in affects the vision. For this to work on biological eyes, you’d have to bend the light away enough to achieve say 1% opacity, or 99% of the time, at which point I suspect the frequency is no longer relevant.
There may be a way around that, possibly as simply as making the invisibility suit black, with different shadows of black across it to make the eye ignore it during that fraction of a second the same way the eyes *brain interpreting visual information* ignore the shadows cast by particulates in mid-air. Your shadow on the ground or against a surface would be the bigger issue as the brain focuses on that. With the exception of larger objects casting enough shadow to count as shade, generally small shadows, even as large as your hand are ignored. Shine a light down at a table, and make a shadow puppet, but focus the eyes at the space between your hand and the wall, most of the time the eye can’t detect a notable difference in light level there; even though logically there is. Same with bits of air born debris.
of course that is just to set up that tv screens and animation in general create the illusion of motion by blinking on and off so fast that the brain interprets it as fluid motion without seeing the solid black screen between them. A well trained animator can pick it up, but most people won’t notice, even as low as 20FPS is enough to create the illusion of fluid motion in animation. So its an image flashed between shorter spaces of nothing. There is a trick to it to keep the eye from seeing the blank screen. If its a flip book or something no big deal, but when light is involved it gets a bit more complicated, which may require the suit to not just bend light but be projecting at angles.
https://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/a/a_02/a_02_s/a_02_s_vis/a_02_s_vis.html
the shadow between the projection to quote this article:
So what happens to the intervals of darkness, which account for almost half the projection time? Apparently, retinal persistence has nothing to do with it. We just ignore these intervals, because for the brain they simply constitute an absence of information.
In other words a blinking projection of the surrounding environment using psychological camouflage to be ignored. Which works even better if you simply aren’t looking for it, just blips of nothing in the environment just like the shadows cast by particulates and air movement.
*and now think about how some of these moments of people seeing blips of shadows or movement sound a lot like some ghost sightings LoL*
the end being the use of optical illusions and knowing what the brain ignores when constructing information in the brain.
Probably not the best invisibility in a room full of people, but well enough for distant observing, tracking in visual information dense locations (lots of visual clutter), while allowing the user a means to see while invisible.
I will add though that this concept may work better for something small like a fairy or bug sized drone than a full grown human being as well given there seems to be a space in the visual range consideration in relation to expectations and surrounding light behavior.
Have we ever seen Dabbler with any other eye color? I always just assumed her eyes were a “tell” that she couldn’t change, at least not with a lot more effort than her usual glamour.
I just checked and…. wow no. I dont think she has EVER been shown without the heterochromia.
I was surprised when I couldnt find an example of both eyes looking the same color.
+1 for your service, saved me another fall down the archive rabbit hole
I don’t think it’s just mockery. There’s a long history of things like minstrel shows and cultural appropriation. To this day, we often elevate white people who learned this cool new thing from Black culture while holding the Black artists and so out of sight.
Which is moot in this case because Dabbler isn’t white. She’s not even human. Nor are they in a country where Black people are a suppressed minority. She’s disguising herself as a local, which is what she does wherever she is.
(The fact that she looks attractive is also beside the point.)
Anyway, I guess it’s time for advanced language learning, AKA cunning linguistics.
I knew someone would say it, didn’t think it’d be this early in, tho. I wonder if they’d begin with French or Eskimo kissing?
Eskimo, Inuit proper name.
I believe hypno was not talking about the Inuits per se, but the term ‘eskimo-kissing’ as in ‘the act of pressing the tip of ones nose against another’s nose. It actually predates Western explorers seeing the Inuit do it, among other cultures, including the Maori in New Zealand, many southeast asian cultures (Bengali, Lao, Thai, Vietnamese, Sumba, etc), Mongolians, and Native Hawaiians (called honi).
It was just called eskimo-kissing because the Inuit were the first people Westerners (I think the French) actually saw do it, because at the time, they were referring to the Inuit and the Yupik as Eskimos (a derivation of the French word ‘esquimaux’ which I think means something like ‘one who uses snowshoes’ or ‘snowshoe maker.’) There has never been a term called ‘inuit-kissing’ so hypno is correct in calling it ‘eskimo-kissing.’
The “whe” here is Americans and by extension Britons when blackface was still a regular appearance. The thing that got blackface that bad rep is exactly that use. If Dabbler did it for the same reason, ie putting on blackface so she can pretend to be black while performing in front of a purple audience, [em]also[/em] denying the performance to a black because an actual black performing in front of that same purple audience is somehow not socially acceptable, it’d be just as bad.
But she isn’t keeping a black performer out of a job, she’d wearing a disguise to blend in with the locals. Completely different reasons. The intention behind the use matters, not just what it looks like nor just what any random onlooker might possibly think of it. And nevermind that this is a rather different proposition than donning shoe polish. Come to think of it, should this count as blackface, her introduction counts as whiteface.
As to “cultural appropriation”, well, we all borrow from each other. And again, the way you do it, as well as the intention behind it, matters. Culture gains by sharing.
I imagine it’s somewhat similar to in “Silver Streak” when Gene Wilder is ‘blackfaced’ as a disguise- it’s not being used for mocking purposes, but rather as just that- a disguise. A tool of espionage instead of a method of control or denial-of-purpose
That was hilarious, how bad Gene Wilder pretended to be at pretending to be black.
FWIW, I did not read Dabbler as ‘white’ in her introduction scene. The skin tone was more American Indian or Middle Eastern, I thought, and I thought the pale hair would be more likely the dye or bleach job.
Of course, I also expected the pale hair to be done without dye or bleach, for the same reason as the blue/green eyes. Because supers and odd color schemes are a trope.
The funny thing when people get ‘over-correcting’ is if people take offense to Dabbler changing her skin color and form into a black woman, then Gamora, from Guardians of the Galaxy would receive the same ire if she was to masquerade as a human with brown skin.
However…. the actress who plays Gamora in the movies, Zoe Saldana, DOES have brown skin, and does a fantastic job as Gamora (unlike the awful job done by Titans with Starfire in the TV show), and she was put in green bodypaint, since Gamora IS green. Still not sure why they couldnt just put Anna Diop in orange bodypaint (and a wig that didnt look so awful), since Starfire, like ALL Tamaraneans, is orange-skinned. I feel like they did it just to generate anger among the fanbase because they realized the show itself was going to suck, so they could blame toxic fandom for bad ratings instead of the really bad dialog and ignoring the comics. Same confusion about Beast Boy not being in green bodypaint when Beast Boy is green.
I’m also still salty that Titans didn’t have Cyborg in it, but Cyborg was in The Doom Patrol…. yet Beast Boy was not in the Doom Patrol when that was his original team… not Cyborg.
You… you are the only other person to agree with me about Starfire on Titans
So very sorry about that :(
Most of my friends feel the same thing so you’re not alone. :)
It just doesnt make any sense. It’s not because of the actress’s race that there’s a problem (I have no idea about anything Anna Diop looks like but she is attractive so there’s no problem THERE). If Starfire was played as caucasian, that would be idiotic as well because Starfire. IS. ORANGE. That is the skin color of all Tamaraneans – it’s a skin color that no humans are, regardless of their race. (insert Donald Trump joke here if you wish)
Spend a few dollars to buy some bodypaint like they did for Zoe Soldana playing Gamora, just like any comic convention cosplayer would do. Same as with Beast Boy who has a backstory involving one limitation on his power being NO MATTER WHAT ANIMAL HE TURNS INTO, INCLUDING BEING HUMAN, HE IS ALWAYS GOING TO BE GREEN. :)
Yups
Didn’t have a problem with the casting, had a problem with the writers making Starfire look like a street walker (complete with bad hair and clothes)
Even Blackfire is orange
Can’t remember, but wasn’t the reason for Beastie not being green because the actor was allergic to the green paint (meaning they would have had to use CGI that they couldn’t afford) or simply pulling a JenLaw and refusing to wear a CGI suit?
If that was the case, then simply recast the role, they did that for the Wizard of Oz when Buddy Ebson (the guy who went on to play Jed Clampett) almost died from the silver paint-job
“Can’t remember, but wasn’t the reason for Beastie not being green because the actor was allergic to the green paint (meaning they would have had to use CGI that they couldn’t afford) or simply pulling a JenLaw and refusing to wear a CGI suit?”
From what I’ve read, their costume budge alone was about $500,000 and in interviews they said they were not worried about money. Judging from their costumes used, they clearly were wasting money that they could have used more intelligently.
Also, if the actor was allergic to green paint, then he was probably a bad choice for the role and they should have chosen someone else, like you suggest. If you cannot be in the role as someone who is a different color because you’re allergic to bodypaint, probably should not audition for that role in the first place.
Also yes about the wizard of oz trivia, although anyone would have gotten sick from that particular bodypaint – the bodypaint used was different than modern bodypaint and had instead coated the paint with aluminum dust, which cased all the problems. When Jake Haley replaced Buddy Ebsen, they reformulated the makeup into a paste that was painted on so that Haley would not have the same problem that Ebsen had.
That’s why you rarely saw JenLaw in the Mystique getup, she spent most of the film as herself
Yeah, it was the dust mixed in the paint that almost killed Ebsen
“That’s why you rarely saw JenLaw in the Mystique getup, she spent most of the film as herself”
I thought it was because she did not like how much time it took to get maid up to look like Mystique, and was such a big star by that point that she was able to tell the director that she wanted to be in that makeup as little as possible. I know she had a LOT of interviews, including one saying how even the blue stocking were uncomfortable because she wasnt able to go to the bathroom while wearing them.
Meant ‘sorry that you had to agree with me on something’, no one should ever have to be put in that position
Yeah. Cultural appropriation. Remind us how a plethora of African folktales got ‘appropriated’. Seeing as how hardly anyone know there were any real Kingdoms and Empires in Africa, much less know enough about it to appropriate.
But now adays we just have Western stories race swapped constantly by other cultures. Funny how THAT isn’t cultural appropriation. But if that is fine, then it IS fine to take a bunch of myths and tales from Africa and race swap them. Gender too.
After all, if we can race swap a real historical figure and make a mini-series about a black Anne Boleyn, then it’s JUST as acceptable to remake the Shaka Zulu mini-series. And make him an white man. Or if we really want to tick the swapping boxes. we can make Shaka an albino woman.
Meanwhile, ppl who go on about cultural appropriation, unironically, are almost always the racists themselves. Foisting their issues off on others.
Anyone wants to white guilt me, I’ll just remind them WHO sold the slaves to the slaves, sitting in their ships in harbour. As the ppl who took their enemies captive in the various wars between those forgotten Kingdoms and Empires, and sold them to those slaves. Waiting in their ships. Gotta fund those wars of succession, don’t you know. Cavalry is expensive, and horses aren’t native to Africa. THEN I’ll demand reparations from them for the slaves their ancestors took of mine when Europe was being raided at will by the various oh-so-pure and never committed sins nations of N Africa and the Middle East. Irish slaves were especially prized. What with their pale skin, blue or green eyes and red hair. Very exotic sex slaves that.i
Ain’t no race on this planet that hasn’t enslaved the others. And all the high and mighty ppl going on about what happened centuries ago might want to direct their efforts to dealing with the slavery that STILL goes on today. None of them have any moral high ground. And anyone who tries to act like they do, is a hypocritical shitstain, selectively paying attn to history.
It’s very interesting to read actual academic writings about folktales, when the writings were set down before anyone coined the term “cultural appropriation”.
No culture ever had an original and unique story. They are all riffs.
Regarding the blackface part of your comment:
A DEI professional once told it to me best: “The oppressors do not get to decide if an action is oppressive, that right exclusively belongs to the oppressed.”
Point is, whatever the claimed reason it is that it’s bad, the question is: “Are black people offended or not?” That is THE question to determine if it’s okay or not. In grrlverse, we have Anvil answering that. In real world… well, I’m waiting to hear.
In the real world, in the Netherlands Antilles, we have black people donning blackface to play Black Pete and whiteface to play Saint Nick, and they see no problem with that. That’s just how the story goes. Might as well complain about Santa’s elves being oppressed and a form of “modern slavery”. Have there been any street riots for the benefit of Santa’s elves yet?
Yet a small group of professionally oppressionally injured shouty assholes (black AND white, radical leftist and prone to violence) managed to convince the mostly white population (some parts at least, mostly the urbane leftist upper crust) in the European Netherlands that Black Pete is totes racist, and let’s replace him with some white guy with a smudgy face. And never mind that the precursor of Black Pete was… Krampus. Historic revisionism, much?
That same idiocy makes it a lot harder for girls to play the character, which used to happen quite a lot. Or minorities, for that matter. The loose rich gentleman’s retainer’s clothing and thorough blackface makes it easy. Smudgy pasty face, not so much. So this is a reduction in cultural participation and as such not very inclusive or diverse. More like, the reverse of that, at least in normal people’s meanings of those words. You know, participating together in a culture’s traditions.
As to “oppressed”, they have no rights, they’re being oppressed. You can argue that they should have rights, and I won’t disagree with that. But as long as they’re oppressed, they don’t have rights. That’s the whole thing of being in a state of oppression. Oppressed have their rights DENIED. Only when the oppression goes away they get to have rights again. So that logic where the oppressed get exclusive rights assigned just doesn’t work.
If you think about it a bit more, it gets worse: If you want oppression to go away then you can’t have exclusive rights for one group and not the others. So far from equalising, this trick tries to reverse the situation, make the oppressors the oppressed and the oppressed the oppressors. Well, then we can have another round of exlusive rights, with the erstwhile roles reversed. And on goes the struggle. What it doesn’t do, is make oppression go away. So it improves nothing, it only re-assigns the roles.
Then again, “DEI professional” is really just a career priest of the cult of woke, that is race-based Marxism. I don’t expect their logic to hold, since it’s all about the struggle and the cult consciousness. Do notice that you’ve used this fib to take the reason why it’s done entirely out of the loop and put the judgement entirely in the hands of an enshrined and anointed victim class. That’s class struggle. That’s not about bringing people together. But it is de rigeur among those cultists.
The point was exactly that this not reasonable, that the reason why is important. You’ve done little more than refer to some unnamed authority to give yourself permission to ignore this. You only denied the point, didn’t refute anything. Needless to say, I disagree with your attempt to completely ignore reasons why and reasoning both. You got an example of non-objectionable blackface in the bargain. It’s well outside of the Anglophone sphere, but does exist for all that.
If anyone goes and “educates himself” about this, do notice that the unobjectionality among Antillians was no defense against the racism accusations. Meaning that it wasn’t about actual objectionality, it was all about excuses to throw accusations around and get the willingly bashful pasty faces to bow and scrape and admit their inner racism. As the creed demands.
On a closing note: I don’t expect you to accept this reasoning or even this example, it doesn’t fit the agenda. But since you are clearly eager to storm the barricades for the cause of the oppressed, I eagerly await news coverage of your pride parade for liberating Santa’s elves. They’re little people too, you know.
> A DEI professional once told it to me best: “The oppressors do not get to decide if an action is oppressive, that right exclusively belongs to the oppressed.”
This is a great example for why you should never listen to DEI professionals. It’s circular logic. If you have already decided who’s oppressor and who is oppressed, you have made up your mind on what oppression is happening already.
Even in general, this is a bad and unworkable concept. Whether an action is injustice is an objective question that needs an objective approach, not something you can give anyone the “right” to decide. Humans are notoriously bad at judging justice when they’re involved themselves. Taking offense is cheap and doesn’t mean at all the action is not ok. There’s a reason any justice system that deserves the name uses a neutral court.
If you strike two people with the same amount of force, but one shrugs it off, while the other dies, should the actions be judged equally?
That isn’t really a response to my point.
Whether someone dies is objectively measurable. You don’t let the punched decide whether they died from the punch, you ask a coroner. It’s certainly possible to decide a victim’s background changes the judgment, but you can’t let that person decide that themselves, and certainly not based on race.
Also, this doesn’t capture whether the action is bad at all. If I strike two people, one dies, one lives, but both times it was self defense, they should indeed be judged equally.
Yes, in the absence of actual force and actual malice, you should.
Even in the presence of malice. If harm was intended, the act should be treated as such, regardless of whether harm actually occurred.
And if the same amount of harm occurred – for example if both were slightly bruised – the equanimity of one or the hysteria of the other recipient should not determine acceptability.
In the absence of malice, with no harm intended, the act should be treated as such.
Likewise, if two people each strike different others with equivalent force, with no exigent circumstances, the identity of the person struck should not determine whether or not the act was acceptable.
“It’s okay to punch up” is a vicious lie. If it’s okay to punch, it’s okay to punch. Pick a rule.
Minstrel shows was and IS mockery. It’s where the concept and practice of blackface came from in the first place, and why it is a negative thing socially in modern times.
And cultural appropriation is a dumb concept because other cultures adopting other cultural norms is how cultures spread, period. It’s not cultural appropriation – it’s cultural appreciation.
Bamboozled, one of Spike Lee’s best films, explored the ramifications of this on both sides of the black/white divide. I recommend everyone with an interest in the topic watch it. Be warned – it is deeply uncomfortable to watch. This is NOT a relaxing movie.
Never saw it but I’ll check it out. I like most of the movies I’ve seen of his.
You may need to clarify the difference between Minstrel shows and the Black & White Minstrel shows where this whole ‘blackface’ thing originated
I wasn’t aware there was a distinction.
Is Dabbler about to commit an international incident here? I expect it will be an indecent incident, but this is Dabbler here.
Did you indicate an international indecent incident here?
Urrg. Whenever people start to babble about blackface, its important to yell at them until they go back to their cave and forget about that idiocy.
Because people failed to do so in america we are now forced to deal with it in europe.
The 21st century has even more people trying to impersonate something they are not; and it’s pathological given the way it has cluster outbreaks. So the subject is controversial and people are inconsistent to the point of situational ethics.
/Dabbler’s own genetic makeup is built toward appropriation of other characteristics. So if DaveB is going to go on about “blackface”, he really should just remove shapeshifters from his comic. Just think about it from a Galatic’s perspective of multitudes of races, ethnicities, and fads. Just ask a cultural anthropologist how many “conquered” peoples tried to emulate their conquerors for a laugh.
Speaking of which, what is the equivalent of “blackface” for sex? “drag” has a different meaning.
“Femface”? “Maidface”? “Girlface”?
No, ‘drag’ refers to both males dressing as females and females dressing as males, it’s just considered (by idiots) ‘normal’ for women to wear male clothes and ‘abnormal’ for males to wear female clothes
Often hear about ‘Drag Queens‘, but not as often to hear about ‘Drag Kings‘ anymore (was ‘popular’ up until the 20’s or 40’s for women to pretend to be male, even going so far as getting married and no one realising until their death, including their spouse)
Did you not read the comic page?
I guess we’re at that point, where people comment without even reading or remembering the current page, let alone any of the previous ones.
Does Frix speak Wolfo
He speaks doggo. He is a good doggo speaker.
He speaks Woof.
No need to insert joke about foreign tongues. Just insert foreign tongues.
Dabbler appears to be a cunning linguist
How else did you think she learned so many languages? ;)
In Dakar the capital French is very common because it’s 1,05 million hab. city , in cities French was the second in Wolof speaking part first in the others and in Dakar French is widely spoken perhaps more than Wolof – Senegal is 16,21 million inhabitant Country -d Wolof was one of the lingua franca of Dakar but French also- and Arab in Senegal is more a sing of Mulsim faith and it’s more like latin in France – you had in many cases dabbled at least in theological studies – .
If the gang is a gang of “brouteurs” – internet scammers in an African-French slang the term is originating from Ivory Coast – they speak french because the target French , Belgian, Luxembourgish and Swiss…
Senegal is widely different between cities and countryside…
I’ve been to Dakar and I speak fluently the official langage …
French is sufficient in almost all cases in Dakar.
Countryside it’s about 60% prob. for Wolof and 30 % for French unless you will speak to an official or a graduate – in this case French is compulsory –
I will defer to you then since you’ve actually been there and I’ve just read about it via google a little.
From everything I’ve read, French IS the official language of Senegal, and most people speak it, or a mixture of Wolof and French. But almost anyone in Senegal who speaks Wolof will also speak French. Wolofal is the official SCRIPT though (the language is arabic-based).
Well, I think the meaning in the page is as French were colonizers, while French is the official language, you’re still going to have people not exactly treat you the same as if, say, you actually spoke the local language there that pre-dated them being colonized.
It’s kinda like, say, being able to speak Cree when you passing through a town on a Reservation in Canada. You’ll be treated a lot more nicely than someone just using the “official” language.
Technically speaking, the muslims were also colonizers though. I’m just saying the ‘official’ language of Senegal, the language in which all government forms and signs have to have writing in, is French, as far as I have read. Since Homep has actually been there and would have first hand knowledge, they may know for sure whereas I’m just basing my answers on google and how ‘official’ languages generally work for nations.
First, Dabbler, you lie: you absolutely, positively, can NEVER “blend in” because the lowest you go (by your previous proclamation) is “11”, and that does not “blend in”. (And this one is by no means an exception. O.o)
Second, Dabs has acquired languages this way before. WAY to lazy to chase it down.
Third, I appreciate the dedication of pulling up the Wikipedia entire on the country and _then_ trying to track down a good translator for a single word. Major props, there.
I mean Starfire can do the same thing just doesn’t find it sexual at all.
Unless Dabbler believes all Africans (at a minimum in this city, at a maximum the world) are an 11 and genuinely does think she will blend in with their population of Helen’s and Adonis’s.
And considering how eager she is to get it on with Lioness…
Dabbler is constantly eager to get it on with anyone.
Rare, but do exist!
Here you are – https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1019-rosetta-brain/
Yeah, if Dabbler really wants to blend in a tired, frumpy 40 something would be much more effective. But then Dab’s idea of surveillance is probably seducing her way up the gangland food chain.
it is clear her Doppelganger side is only partially expressed and her Succubus side is dominant. A Doppelganger would want to blend in to the point of being overlooked, a Succubus however wants to look like someone/something attractive to their “prey”, be seen as “local” but get that horniness rising for them.
-don’t stand out enough to be seen as a threat or foreign, but stand out in a way that is seen as a potential sexual partner.
She did it when originally arriving in Galytn.
@dave made an unintentional pun possibly. “Language Exchange” shows up on lots of skanky Tinder profiles. So much so that I’ve equated it to be synonymous with fucking for money.
A surprise could be a Sydney answer
“Je parle français” -I speak French –
“Pourquoi l’a tu appris ?” Dabbler – Why did you learned it ?
“Pour pouvoir lire Métal hurlant .” -To read Heavy Metal in original version –
Parisian French, or Québecois French,Canadian French, I am of some Canadian French Ancestry
Surely you’d need to learn Swedish or Norwegian for that last item.
But would Sydney know that?
No I’ve been in Québec and I’m a French citizen ,living in Paris 19th arrondissement
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Paris_arr_jms-num.gif
Québec French was separated from France French in the 18th century , the difference is about the same as the difference between British and US English they are mutually perfectly intelligible …
“Why does that suddenly involve making out?” First off, why wouldn’t it. Secondly, as a linguist, I wholeheartedly welcome lesbian kisses whenever, especially when it intersects with my passion. Sydney, respect the scientific process (we need testing of uuuh, whether lips are soft. shut up)
The reason why it was asked is because a few pages ago like when they arrived to meet Deus, Dab didn’t have to make out she had a special little tendril that helped her learn the language.
But to be fair… The Lioness is very attractive.
…And I am Bisexual!
I had to triple check what was going on with lioness and who is who on the page. Because in the last page, Lioness didn’t have a necklace, and so I was unsure which person is who. Thanks for the clarification.
Yeah, like DaveB hasn’t ‘forgotten’ chokers on established characters before, and it’s not like Lioness wasn’t wearing the same top in both pages…
Why did Sydney ask Anvil about blackface..?! There was a radio program called Amos and Andy created and performed by two white actors.
If you had ever heard the radio show, or watched the TV show it spawned, you wouldn’t have asked that question. Amos & Andy is one of THE universally held up examples of why blackface (and all related activities) are so heinous. Even the way you phrased your post points directly at why Amos & Andy (and all blackface) is considered so poisonous & depraved. Your complete and utter lack of even the most basic self-awareness is absolutely stunning. It’s so incredible, actually, that it’s like you have to be trolling. It boggles fundamental understanding to imagine that any person walking the face of this planet knows about Amos & Andy without knowing that Amos & Andy is almost single-handedly responsible for making blackface “humor” so toxic.
Honestly, as someone who is black, Dabbler transforming was not even on my radar *until* the explanation/justification that followed it. The creators of Martian Manhunter didn’t feel the need to justify why his chosen form is a black dude. It just feels like a hasty attempt to beat an accusation no one was going to make otherwise.
It should feel like a hast attempt to beat an accusation no one was going to make, because the subject here is Halo’s insecurity. She’s always worried about being racist.
The Martian Manhunter – if we’re talking about a character whose name is Jonn-Johnnz, who is green-ish while hanging around with his team of supers?
My memory is vague, but I’m pretty sure that back in the mid-1970s when he was a side character or crossover character in some of the comics I was reading, his ‘secret identity’ was a white guy.
Honestly? Black would have suited the character better, for the ‘outsider’ perspective on some parts of society. If that’s the same realization that the writers came to, good on them IMO.
It’s strange but changing the race of an established character doesn’t support anywhere near the ‘continuity’ objections when the ‘race’ in question doesn’t exist even for that character outside the context of a disguise.
Yes, MM’s human disguise alter ego (silver age) was originally white.
She’s a shapeshifter so no, also, Sydney shouldn’t ask such a stupid question :p
I thought that it was an illusion.
She still has her third and fourth arms when disguised.
Even if it’s a glamour, it applies just as the glamour aspect and still remains a stupid question. May as well say she can’t look like anything but what she is.
In the end its mimicry, whose purpose is predation.
Aggressive Mimicry *whether by shapeshifting, illusion, or other biology*, is the use of imitating something to draw in prey. Usually done through looking like or part of the body resembling the prey of the target. There is also a version where they may imitate members of another species, including prospective mates…some predatory fireflies will flash the lights of another species to lure them in to eat them.
https://www.britannica.com/science/aggressive-mimicry
Dabbler’s actions may not be fatal, but this same behavior applies to parasitic feeding as well. and heck her backstory even implies a form of brood mimicry so the parent species doesn’t reject them.
The point of that being, one can’t really accuse something like that of mocking or appropriating when the intent is *feed*. Its a survival behavior.
Dabs looks like she’s wearing cosplay ears in the last 2 panels lol. She could do it without the kissing but it takes longer and is uncomfortable for the victim since her “feelers” go into the ears, talk about a “wet-willy”! Actually they attach to the temples it’s how her being in the brain is what feels “ookie” It also can render them semi-comatose so why not distract them with an amazing kiss?
That’s how Starfire learnt English (by snogging a Robin), and at least Dabbles asked permission first
Making out is one thing, but having your ears and brain probed by Dabbler’s tentacles tentacles seems quite adventurous for a first date …
Meeting new life and new civilizations means learning new social rules, and I for one welcome the education.
She has to unstealth her ears to use the doppleganger tentacles? Does the glamour come with some reflexive compulsion not to do anything that would break the illusion?
Unstealthing probably isn’t necessary but it lets us readers know what is going on without a lot of exposition. I suspect that glamour skills come with practice. Dabbler has been around long enough that she can probably stay in character even if injured. A youngster like Tamitha might have difficulty maintaining a consistent over long periods of time.
Considering she was able to grope Maxima with her stealthed extra arms, probably not:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-101-what-else-would-you-do-with-two-invisible-arms/
Most likely she unstealthed her tentacles for Lioness’ benefits so she wouldn’t get blindsided.
I remember the first time I read that strip, I don’t know what was funnier, Max’s face or Dabs! I just started laughing and my wife and son looked over with that look of “ok he’s lost it” until my son looked and HE starting laughing! Then my wife came over and looked, “snerked”, and grumbled “that’s just wrong” sure hunny, sure…
Also when Coot/Wyrmil slammed her into the wall and observation window, the imprint in the wall was four arms instead of two. :)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-584-escape-bear/
(First panel)
Dabbler is quite the cunning linguist.
I don’t think her being beautiful in her disguise should be the hinge to determine if it counts as blackface or not.
To me the intent of mockery or adding features that make it look like a racial caricature are what make something bad / blackface. Non of that is present here, Dabbler is disguising herself as a normal, if beautiful, local woman, and not for fun but just to not look alien. If that’s blackface then any of her disguises where she looks like a regular human are whiteface, yellowface, etc. (humanface?)
(My opinion might be biased though, as I’m Dutch and our Sinterklaas celebration is subject to yearly debate on this topic.)
Odd, Scofield never asked if dabbler was in white face while blond.. oh right I forgot only some colours matter.
You sound like an oversensitive white guy who is upset that his ancestors were not enslaved for being a particular color.
That is a weird thing to be upset about. Can’t you accept that certain populations had it worse than yours and that that has long term consequences for society’s norms and move on? It really isn’t a big deal that minorities get to play the discrimination card more often, it is a low value card with a high price. My advice is that you get over it.
Every colour on this planet has been enslaved at some point
You speak about minorities, when you really mean ‘blacks’ (did you know, there are parts of Africa where whites are the minorities, and treated the same as blacks in other countries?)
None has a point: why is it okay for Dabbles to be one colour while in disguise, but not another, when neither are natural to her?
Not American Indians, we were the subject of genocide.
So, tribes didn’t capture members of other tribes, ever? o_O
All tribes have always lived in harmony with every other tribe?
> Can’t you accept that certain populations had it worse than yours and that that has long term consequences for society’s norms?
Absolutely not. Past injustice can never justify present injustice. Any norm that privileges any population is bad (racist in this case) and the group in question having been historically disadvantaged doesn’t change this. Populations aren’t ethical entities, and discrimination against a group is just discrimination against its members on basis of group membership. It’s only the individuals in the group who can be victims. But in this case, the victims, like the perpetrators, are long dead and there’s nothing we can do anymore. We can’t judge people by their ancestors, much less the ancestors of people who look like them.
And you’re certain that present individuals are in no way harmed by those past injustices? That everyone generation starts with a clean slate, with equal advantages?
I don’t really think we need to specifically consider the past. I think we should help everyone who is disadvantaged now, regardless of the reason. We should try to create equal opportunity, rather than just assume it exists in the absence of people admitting to discriminating against others.
> And you’re certain that present individuals are in no way harmed by those past injustices?
No, but at most this justifies specific retributive measures targeted at specific successors. Not unequal rights, especially not when they don’t fix lingering consequences.
> I don’t really think we need to specifically consider the past. I think we should help everyone who is disadvantaged now, regardless of the reason. We should try to create equal opportunity,
Full agreement so far.
> rather than just assume it exists in the absence of people admitting to discriminating against others.
Equal opportunity has to be the null hypothesis though. If we assume discrimination without proof, attempt to right it, and are wrong, then we are discriminating. And also, if we attempt to right it with a blanket measure we’re guaranteed to fail.
We should assume neither without proof, and should not simply accept assertions one way or the other, but should attempt to measure anything we are going to respond to. But I would say it is certainly one side more than the other that resists attempts to even ask questions.
That by legal definition I am Hispanic and thus my ancestors were enslaved by the moors but to be honest I DO NOT care what happed in 711 A.D. Nor do I care that later those same Spanish ancestors conquered mezzo America Or that my family on the other side was conquered by the English nor that others were conquered by the Hapsburgs and others in the 1600’s.
I do study history and know that every one at some point has been on both sides of the aggressor / victim spectrum.
I care about people NOW being treated EQUALLY not the post modernist equitably (which translates to “from each his abilities and to each his needs)
I would hope to be impartial as much as a person can be to emulate what is said in Acts 10:34
You sound like a nasty scold who missed the obvious accuracy of his point.
You also inferred falsely that he was angry, when he only expressed mild interest.
“You sound like an oversensitive white guy who is upset that his ancestors were not enslaved for being a particular color.”
White people, and other races (asian, polynesian, First Nations/native americans, indians (from India), etc) have been slaves for thousands of years as well.
Jews (of all races).
Christians (of all races).
Romans.
Greeks.
Picts.
Macedonians.
Vikings.
Slavs.
In fact, the Latin root for “slave” also had a direct relation to the “Slavic” peoples.
Moreover, this linkage between the people group and the term for forced servitude is not only related in English but also in Arabic and several other languages.
This derivation came from the fact that for centuries, the Slavic peoples were the most readily available source of slave labor for Easterners and Westerners alike. The western world has a rather limited understanding of history sometimes.
Slavery occurred in virtually every observed society in which it was viable, although the Arabic world was the unequivocal leader in sheer volume of slaves captured and sold. The Arabic world also introduced Africa as a source of slaves to the Dutch, and then the Spanish.
Also, and this is something mist people dont realize, but more Sub-Saharan Africans were sold to the Islamic world than to Europe and the Western Hemisphere combined, and more Europeans were enslaved by North Africans than there were Sub-Saharan Africans enslaved and sent to the Western hemisphere.
It’s odd that the people who actually tried to END slavery worldwide (primarily England, who spent 1/4 of their entire empire’s fortune) although the US did have a civil war during which states rights to allow slavery or not was a central issue) have become viewed as the ONLY society yo ever have slaves.
Also… read up on the Barbary slave trade. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Ottoman slave traders raided coastal Europe from Italy, the Netherlands, the British Isles and as far north as Iceland. They enslaved 1-1.25 million Europeans. All caucasian. European girls and women were particularly prized.
Aside from all this though, you ignored the point of None’s post, which isnt wrong or offensive. He is just pointing out a bit of a hypocritical mindset or tunnel vision by Sydney, and are implying he is not allowed to have an opinion if he(?) is white.
PS – I am an ‘indigenous’ woman (native hawaiian/korean), plus not ‘old’ (I think technically I am a millenial?) so its probably not going to work on ME if you call me an old white man. :)
That being said, Sydney has been shown in comic already to be a genuinely empathetic person who may have a bit of a white guilt mentality so her saying what she said is still in very much character for her. She probably should not be so hard on her own culture and history since she has a much more forgiving and understandable view on demonic culture and history, from her talk with Tamatha. But she is often guilty of her own good fortune, like how , in the restaurant hallway, she had problems with how someone like her could have so much power, as if she felt she was not worthy of it.
W were murdered, instead of enslaved, tho we may have been enslaved, by other American Indian tribes!
This is true. There was a lot of enslaving each other (and murdering each other) among different indigenous tribes (both mainland and pacific islanders). Quite possibly more than by white Europeans by a sizable number, in fact.
This doesnt excuse the Atlantic Slave Trade at all. It does mean it’s not that unique in human history, either for the enslavers or the enslaved. Almost every race has been enslaved, and almost every race has enslaved other races, or their own races. Or both.
It’s one of the main reasons that the Conquistadors were able to defeat the Aztec Empire. The Aztecs were enslaving and murdering and torturing most of the surrounding tribes who all hated them and were very ready to help Cortes and the Conquistadors.
The main point though is slavery and war is not a white European invention by any stretch of the imagination, and African tribes were not the only groups of people who were enslaved throughout history, plus many African tribes engaged in slavery both before and after the introduction of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and even before the Ottoman slave trade. All races, all religions, all cultures have had slavery and indiscriminate killing of the ‘other’ unfortunately. It’s just a particularly awful aspect of human beings.
Actually scratch that. It’s an aspect of a few primates. They’ve seen similar behavior in groups of chimpanzees where one group of chimpanzees will often brutally kill other chimpanzees that are not members of the group/tribe/whatever they call a group of chimpanzees. They also sometimes engage in slavery of other chimpanzees. I think the same behavior has been seen in bonobos.
I think the only other animal species that engages in slavery and ORGANIZED warfare are ants.
And in the Grrlpower Universe, slavery is apparently an aspect of many alien cultures as well, or are part of many alien cultures’ history if they managed to culturally evolve past it.
What’s surprising is that any culture ever actually tried to END slavery worldwide, given how prevalent it has been throughout human history.
So, you admit that American Tribes were enslaved?
Or is it only counted if the slavers are of a different skin colour or nationality?
Oh, even if it only counts if the slavers are of a different skin color or nationality, it would still apply. The human race’s history is just rife with examples of people engaging in slavery all over the place.
The Five Tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Chocktaw, Muscogee, and Seminole Nations) owned black slaves even, even after the 13th Amendment was passed. And of course, many native tribes did enslave each other for centuries before even Spain arrived in the New World. Ironically, the Spanish Crown banned the practice of enslaving ANY of the tribes of the indigenous population of the New World by 1542:
“…so from here on, no Indian can be made into a slave under any circumstance including wars, rebellions, or when ransomed from other Indians.” – New Laws of 1542 – Translated from Spanish on https://www.uv.es/correa/troncal/resources/nuevas1542.pdf
Does Dabbler Translate(tm) only receive or can it also send? As in, could she teach Sydney french like that.
Somehow I don’t think Dabbler would be teaching Sydney much of the French *language*…
The french *tongue*, however …
With Dabs, she can do a french kiss AND an endoscopy at the same time!
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-838-ill-have-the-wedgie-salad/
I would be lion if I said Golden seems to have a bit of cougar style.
I pawsed at your audacity, and I’d feline if I said the repercussions will be anything but clawful.
Ninja hit squads for both of you again!
I’m really tigered of your constant ninja threats. It remanes to see if you’ll ever follow through on them.
You get robot ninjas on motorcycles, just to spice things up a bit.
Motorbikes don’t seem that stealthy but that is of course just what robot ninjas on motorcycles want me to think. In any case its a combination of three things my inner six year old find cool so please send more.
they are illegally modified electric bikes. the safety noisemaker has been removed. for clarity of course.
There’s an anime series called “Blassreiter” that’s all about cyborg-zombie-demon-ninja, several of whom ride motorbikes.
Are they going to chopper me into pieces?
For crying out loud man, you already have 4 ninja hit squads after you. How many more do you want? Are you trying to form a flash mob or something?
I mean, if you’re footing the bill… You’ve become so predictable that you’re exploitable. Don’t economically incentivize people to pun if you want to discourage the behavior.
It’s a matter of principal.
Might just be the difference of a closeup but it looks like Lioness packed on about 50 pounds of muscle between pages. Her neck just looks way thicker.
…And this is why I’m always left feeling unsatisfied with PG-13 ratings…
If Sydney’s Orbs give her the powers of a starship, could the ComBall
also be a Universal Translator?
(I didn’t see her try it at Fracture Station.)
Remember Sydney does have practice translating subtitle display option on her Cora upgraded replacement glasses. No indication on method trying to speak though. Particularly if she is trying to give her orbs a rest.
Dabbler is in disguise as part of the mission. That should be the end of the discussion. If she had to cast that spell on Sydney, it would be a disguise as part of the mission.
Blackface is those three kids that were caught on camera this last Halloween, or minstrel shows, or several other things.
This is not that. It’s good to be aware and concerned, but THIS is not a problem.
Sydney’s still new to all this jet-setting superheroism stuff, and she’s a white nerd. Speaking as a white nerd myself, there’s a LOT of things I’ve had to learn by asking awkward questions of people I trust. Makes sense she’d ask the question in the first place.
↑ This ↑❗
The rules about what imitations are appropriate are totally different anyway if you can actually shapeshift or create illusions that make it seamless.
I’m sure something will happen to Dabbler, and they’ll still have to take out the gang.
As for the “black face” thing, yeah the problem does have to do with past wrongs, and it’s even wrong for Asians to do it despite there not being any real history there… That said, Dabbler isn’t human. She’s not even part human. She’s totally 100% alien. Given past wrongs by aliens against humans (abductions, ancient aliens, or whatever else the comic might have as canon), any human disguise could be considered offensive “human face” by the same logic.
That said, if Dabbler is going to disguise herself as human, literally any race is basically the same to her. She’s so alien it barely matters…
By her own account she’s one-third human.
Yeah, that sort of means the whole system she’s got going isn’t like the human system, but there ya go.
I think you are confusing Dabbler’s lineage with Cora’s.
Cora is fully human.
Dabbler actually is part human. she’s just also part alien, part doppleganger and part succubus.
I wander if that glamor is her own idea or if she used that beauty is in the eye of the beholder on this woman who I am guessing is named Lioness.
Well, let’s see. Dabbler is a persecuted minority who has been enslaved, she has never done anything against black people, and she’s making the disguise for a legitimate purpose, not entertainment.
Seems pretty reasonable.
Regardless, asking Anvil if it’s a problem is probably the correct solution. The rules can be complicated, and it’s always better to make sure you aren’t offending someone. I remember explaining to a person why wearing orange on St. Patrick’s Day is a very bad idea. She didn’t have any idea why some of her friends were deliberately wearing orange. (Think Northern Ireland if you need more details.)
Another example was an episode of Dave the Barbarian entitled “Today I am a barbarian”, based on a line from the Bar Mitzvah: “Today, I am a man”. A person was aghast at the idea of satirizing a religious event. I explained that they weren’t satirizing the Bar Mitzvah, but the parties that people held after the event, which were known for extravagance and a standard topic for Jewish comedians. The one I remember (My wife was a relative.) involved renting a restaurant in Central Park (New York City) and hiring a clarinetist from the local orchestra.
Wearing orange on St Patrick’s Day is not “a bad idea”, it’s a political and/or religious statement by someone who has far more context and nuance than most Americans.
There’s very little Irish context in the US for the Orange and Green thing. Most Americans have no idea that Green is Catholic, and almost none of them would wear green in explicit support for, for example, IRA terrorists.
Most Americans wear green on St Patrick’s days because of cartoon Leprechauns.
There really isn’t much more of it beyond that, St Patrick’s day isn’t a major holiday to most Americans and much like so many others is just an excuse to play dress up and party.
Having a group wearing orange on St. Patrick’s Day was probably originally a religious reference, even if the members of the group don’t know the original reason for the custom. The problem of Orangemen groups and parades is still a problem in parts of Great Britain (not just Northern Ireland), and I read that several members of the “Church of England” hierarchy have essentially said “cut it out”.
Does Lion have a butch teammate named “Hyena”?
No. Her teammate is called Tiger, and they have this burly informant that helps them called Bear.
Oh my.
what…. hmmmm…. sadly this appears to be a more of a joke than a pun. let me paws to consider this further as I scratch at the Bar.
Mine was a joke. Yours is a pun. Mine is high and classy humor. Yours is a crime causing me to have to send to your person a ninja hit squad!
Can… we have a full body shot of lioness… for… science….
Might as well go for full body shot of all 3 of them… (I think Dabs looks hot that way myself ;) )
We had a body shot of Lioness last page, now we have the head to go with it
“insert joke about foreign tongues”
Like inserting foreign tongues?
Don’t forget all the different dialects and sub-tongues…
(anyone know that reference?) gads… I’m so old….
Dabbler is a shapechanger practically. A shapechanger taking the appearance of any kind of person is no stranger than them taking the appearance of anyone else. She’s an alien without our racial history or biases, there’s no reason it would be weird. What makes it weird is drawing attention to it, asking if it’s weird and then coming up with a subjective metric by which to decide whether or not it’s ok that probably would be disagreed with by many. That’s definitely weird and again, a bit uncomfortable. You could have just not done that. It was absolutely an option. I don’t know anybody who would cry racism because the shape that the shapechanging alien took when they were in Africa was that of an African.
Dabbler is not actually a shapechanger. CHIMERA is a shapechanger.
Dabbler glamours herself to look like something else. That’s an illusionist and disguise, not shapechanging. No matter what she looks like, Dabbler still has her four arms, ears, hooves, tail, and other stuff. Her true shape hasn’t changed a whit, she does no bodymorphing.
Dabs is part doppelganger, she has the DNA just takes a lot longer to do and undo, the feelers are from one of her parents, they are used to gain the memories of their victims. Dabs just uses the glamor for the looks and just uses the feelers for languages and basic info.
That’s true, but we have never actually seen her change shape. She only uses illusions.
Also, we don’t know if doppelgangers are shapechangers or illusion users, either. The comic hasn’t conveyed that.
So, until it is demonstrated she’s actually changing shape, and not just extruding some tentacles from her ears, she’s not really a shapechanger, except in the most modern ways. Succubi glamours are just faster and more effective for her, and don’t require her giving up her superior physical form.
I think this was addressed, possibly in a blurb under a comic really early in this comic’s history shortly after Dabbler showed up. Because *back then* this comic would have been closer in time to the end of Wereworld, a comic Dabbler has guest appearances in, and where she also had a tail and four breasts. The word of god handwave if I am remembering correctly was she can partially shapeshift, but it takes time and she can’t do it to any great effect, and never practiced with it much, as her illusions are far more useful and her succubus side is far more dominant so comes easier for her.
And DaveB didn’t like how the tops fitted with four breastseseseses, so he came up for a reason why she didn’t have them here, and the tail became detachable (cybernetic like her eye and hand)
I found the references to Wereworld back in the very early comics, but Wereworld itself is behind a malware-alert firewall, so no reading that. I didn’t find any references to the godwave, but sure, it’s believable that she’s a ‘slow’ bodymorpher, why not? Just that, in THIS comic, it hasn’t been shown.
DaveB has mentioned a few times in his Author Blurbs, which means you would have to read all of them to find them
Read Wereworld before Grrl Power, and haven’t looked it up in years
Her name is actually Chimyriad, I believe?
It was Ariana’s idea.
Arianna IS quite good at naming superheroes. :)
PS – Chimyriad is my favorite non-main character in the comic.