Grrl Power #1228 – NO2 you don’t!
There’s a fair bit of disagreement as to what would really happen if Sydney pulled her little stunt IRL. For instance, turning all the Oxygen into Nitrogen, well, first off, is she turning O, or O2, or is she breaking up CO2 into C1 and two O1’s or one O2? The atmosphere doesn’t usually have a lot of free-range O1 floating about. Pure Nitrogen will either bond with other N’s to become N2, and the stuff at the edges of the transformed area would likely become NO2, which I believe is your basic laughing gas/whippet fuel. Also N is lighter than O, so it even without wind, Sydney’s transformation zone wouldn’t stay put for too long, though the difference isn’t so much that you’d suddenly get a bunch of swirling wind. Maybe a breeze.
Also, “The Bends” only occurs under pressure, just breathing a bunch of nitrogen at one atmosphere would likely just make you dizzy and pass out. I don’t know what the exact procedure was in that execution in Alabama, but no way should it take 22 minutes for someone to suffocate. I assume venting the room and replacing the O2 with N2 took the bulk of the time, which IMO probably negates any arguments about this method being humane. I can only imagine a 1790’s French Revolutionary watching all this through a time portal, leaning on his guillotine, shaking his head. I’m not suggesting we reintroduce the guillotine or anything, only that those definitely takes less than 22 minutes to kill someone.
Anyway, I’ll leave the exact science behind Sydney’s nitro-stunt intentionally slightly vague, because 1) I myself don’t know exactly what would happen, and 2) That way I can’t be too wrong about it. :D
Sydney’s being glum because the EMS guy probably gave her an earful, and also she thought she’d come up with “that one trick supervillains hate.” I mean, she has… just, she probably shouldn’t deploy it too often.
The new vote incentive is up! Crimson and Scarlett have a present for Ingsol!
It’s them, they’re the present. They’ve decided that “Sire-versaries” are a thing and Ingsol has to be convinced this is a good idea each time. Everyone thinks his pair of names-that-are-synonyms-with-red sirelings who are both women and who were both turned in that age range that ensure peak hotness means he’s a dirty old man, but he actually isn’t. It just worked out that way. And don’t forget that while it looks like there’s a 25 year age gap between the girls and him, it’s actually much worse, as he is 700 years old, while Scarlett is something like 180 and Crimson is only 40. But at the same time it’s meaningless as they were both fully adults when they got turned, so it’s all copacetic.
As usual, Patreon has the pair of them in various states of undress.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Iirc, there’ve been studies done on whether nitrogen asphyxiation is distressing and they used some kind of feed trough that was kept purged with nitrogen while the room was normal atmosphere. The pigs went to eat, passed out for a bit, and went back to eating every time and passed out again.
So I’d say that this while poisoning thing would be unlikely, unless the aliens happen to have some biological quirk where nitrogen turns toxic at a much lower pressure but slightly higher concentration.
It was shown in Horizon – The Science of Killing. A death penalty advocate actually objected to it because of the “risk” that the person being executed might feel euphoria, which speaks quite clearly to their motivations WRT executions.
I’d say your suspicions are 100% correct WRT their motives.
Another indicator of that is: none of them ever propose heroin overdose. It’s as painless as you’re ever going to find since it’s, you know, a pain-killer. But it makes the executee feel good so nope.
For certain criminals, for example Struggle-snuggle murderers, a “Kind” execution just doesn’t seem sufficient. The criminal should feel some fraction of what they put their victims through.
Maybe load them into a giant catapult, and toss them into a lake full of crocodiles with their wrists and ankles tied together. If they manage to get loose and make it to shore, they get life in prison with really (we mean it, no backsies) no chance of parole, ever.
If you’re religious, then any sort of vengeance/”cruelty is the reason”/retribution is really stepping on your god’s toes and doing your own soul no favors. Let him/her/it/them send the bad guy to whatever doom awaits them.
If you’re not religious, you can be an animal that strikes back in pain and anger, or you can be a thinking human. Be better; Campground rules (leave a place better than you found it) everywhere.
If the verdict is a 100% lock, no chance at it being a mistake; then killing a killer gets them out of the pool and provides future safety from them. However, in all other cases, mistakes get made and studies show that the death penalty, as Americans practice it, is *not* a deterrent to other bad people anyways.
I’m not in favor of putting killers through extra pain on the way to getting rid of them. OTOH, I’m not going to sweat them having a moderately unpleasant last day, whose unpleasantness is well within the range of ordinary life. Anyone who hasn’t lived a very fortunate life indeed has gone through worse than that dude got, except for the entirely merited knowledge that he was going to end up dead, and we’ve all got that waiting for us, too.
That reminds me of a “Wizard of Id” cartoon:
King: Any last words?
Condemned prisoner: Capitol Punishment doesn’t deter crime!
King (Walking away): I’ll believe that when I see YOU again.
You’re assuming you got the right guy.
Chances are good that no you didn’t.
Conviction rates are far higher for capital crimes than regular crimes, but studies have shown that it’s not that police don’t actually do significantly more diligent work to identify the right perpetrator the first time. Instead, the key difference is jurors are far less likely to “take a chance” on being wrong that the person presented actually did it. The sheer number of convicted felons having been shown to have been wrongfully convicted when analysis for DNA evidence became available showed a good deal of how bad our criminal justice system is. But there’s a lot of cases where there wasn’t any DNA evidence available to analyze, and I really don’t think those cases were necessarily better at finding the actual perpetrator.
I think the existence of the concept of a “scapegoat” suggests that sometimes all people want is for somebody to be punished, and they don’t really care who. It’s not even about retribution — it’s just lashing out in anger.
How do you know you have the right guy?
Well there’s this thing called a “Trial”, requiring evidence and such.
If that fails, there are these things called “Appeals” – almost unlimited.
Do you have any idea how long it takes (On average) from first conviction to actual execution in the USA? It’s nearly 20 YEARS. If you are innocent and can’t prove it in 20 years, you have a really bad lawyer.
I wonder how many people can afford a good lawyer after several years in jail. Legal services aren’t cheap, and people in jail aren’t generally earning much of an income.
If they had half a brain, they would take classes and become their OWN lawyer. There are cases where that actually happened.
So you’re saying it only takes half a brain to be a competent lawyer? Common wisdom is that only a fool represents themselves in court.
Wouldn’t that depend on the god you lick the taint clean? Some don’t have a problem with their followers killing in their name, specially for revenge
I can certain understand your feelings.
I disagree entirely and will fight over it, but I can understand.
The only legitimate purpose of capital punishment is public safety. Vengeance, catharsis, retribution, deterrence, whatever…none of that has any legitimacy. All it can do is very briefly scratch an itch, while poisoning the souls of those who are involved.
And _if_ you want to argue with me, first consider the efficacious mess of The Innocence Project. Now, imagine that you’ve just executed some poor bastard, and three years later, the actual offender is found. What are you going to tell the dead person’s family? What do you suppose the impact on the survivors of the original victim might be?
“Whoops, sorry folks, looks like we executed the wrong guy last time, while you watched. But don’t worry, I’m _certain_ we’ll be killing the _right_ person for you this time!”
Oh! And let’s add a complication to that. Did you know that Florida is aiming to extend the death penalty to “anyone who sexually abuses a child?”
I’m sure that sounds fine, but let’s remember that the Dork Reich down there has been increasingly making simply existing as a gay or trans person in Floridumb essentially a sex crime? This expansion of capitol punishment would essentially give them license to begin mass executions.
And what does that have to do with wrongful convictions, you ask?
What does a gay man look like? Sound like? Move like?
How about a lesbian?
Cishet people are already being caught up in laws designed to persecute and dehumanize trans and gay people. Remember the cases that were recently in the SCOTUS regarding gender conforming clothing and hair styles at work. An employer essentially demanded the right to dictate gender conformity to employees. That means telling men that they need to keep their hair high-tight, and and women that they _will_ wear skirt & blouses, or be fired. Fortunately that was rejected, but you cannot possibly fail to imagine the horrors that this would entail if enforced by the literal threat of state-sanctioned execution!
*sigh*
Conservatives really have a psychotic obsession with being able to kill people who don’t do what they want.
So, kind of like when the wonderful ‘great’ world of the modern GOP maims, tortures or kills a kid and/or pregnant mother, it will be okay because there is an exception (for enough money of course), but if anyone ELSE does it, it is bad?
I would not be surprised, to be honest. Once, I thought law actually existed to benefit society. Maybe it does somewhere, but not in the US now. I AM waiting to see who demands that the 13th amendment be annulled, because we all know that is coming. It won’t pass, even in today’s US society of dubious legality even compared to other periods, but it IS coming.
Better than MTG’s wonderful ideas of ‘special’ camps with included gas chambers and ovens. Oh, wait, that was a joke, just like sending goon squads to attack political rivals. Wasn’t it?
In a strictly technical sense, law exists to moderate behavior.
_Ideally_ this is done to protect the vulnerable, to prevent barbarism (which I here define as the powerful doing what they will & the powerless doing what they must), and generally creating a predictable and safe social environment so that people can engage with each other with a reasonable expectation safety and fairness. The idea being that you can go about your daily life without needing to maim & murder anyone, or suffer the same.
However, _practically_ speaking, law (and the institutional violence backing it up) tends to become a tool used to enforce a hierarchical social order that benefits those at the top of that hierarchy. Foucault does an amazing job of breaking this down. Essentially, he applies a Structuralist lens to law, always asking, “who does this benefit, and how?”
Speaking for myself, my own observation has been that in the general population, most people want the death penalty applied when they either imagine the execution will somehow serve as justice or deterrence, or when they feel themselves under threat, be it real or imagined. And that last bit is where the intersection between culture war legislation & the death penalty emerges. As time passes and society has become (somewhat) more egalitarian, a certain subset of society has become increasingly distressed, feeling increasingly threatened. The threat they have convinced themselves of does not exist, mind you, and the _actual_ source of their distress is the aggregate conditions of late stage capitalism imploding in on itself, but the point is, they have convinced themselves that it is “the other” that is responsible. In their minds, all of this combines to make a case for using the death penalty to reinforce their idea of how society should be structured. To defend their vision of the social hierarchy.
I feel it’s a waste of resources to make the process unnecessarily drawn out and painful, but I also feel it’s a waste of resources to go out of your way to make the process as painless as possible. IMO the point of a death penalty isn’t deterrence (plenty of studies show it doesn’t work that way, and if you really want it to you should be displaying the corpses as an example, otherwise the death penalty is out of sight, out of mind), it’s to free up the resources that would otherwise go to keeping them locked up and alive. That’s why long term imprisonment for *any* crime is a fairly recent thing, they simply didn’t have the resources (or couldn’t justify the expense in some cases) to keep criminals fed and clothed and guarded for any real length of time so they’d just kill them after a guilty verdict.
Nowadays we have the infrastructure and resources to keep people imprisoned and alive long term, and for criminals who commited lighter crimes that will be out of prison in a few years and have a chance to reform (although the system isn’t really set up to be good at that, but that’s another debate entirely) that’s a good idea. If someone is going to spend their life in prison with no chance for parole, what’s the point of keeping them locked up though? I figure an execution that’s quick to save time and cheap to save money would be better for society as a whole, if only so resources can be spent on people who are are actually still part of society.
Sure there would still be the issue of wrongful convictions, but that’s a separate issue, I agree with some here who have pointed this out that the police and judicial process need significant reform, especially if we’re going around executing criminals, but IMO there isn’t really a truly humane way to kill someone, it’s not the methods it’s the circumstances that matter, either someone has a chance of rejoining society after reforming, or they don’t, and if they don’t, why waste resources on them?
Is that cold, callous, and dispassionate? Yes, absolutely. Does that make it wrong? Not necessarily. I feel there is no morally “good” option when it comes to punishing bad behavior, so it comes down to balancing the least morally bad options, and if there is no chance to reform them into a behaving member of society, then permanently removing them from society for the good of everyone else is the least bad option, and doing so in a manner that wastes the least amount of resources that would otherwise be going to better people is the least bad way to accomplish this removal. Life in prison is a waste of resources, expensive chemicals and machines are a waste of resources (whether they are being used to minimize or maximize pain the same logic applies), needless suffering is a waste of resources, and making a person you are going to kill anyway more comfortable is a waste of resources.
My dad was from Texas and he put it well. ‘Some people just need killing.’
The PROBLEM is knowing who needs killing and when. Even then, you are going to have all kinds of people people who say that Charles Manson and Ted Bundy deserve to live out their lives in relative comfort even KNOWING that if they do get free, those monsters in human form are going to kill more people any time they feel like it.
Capital punishment has its place in my own opinion. When it gets political, it stops being useful.
Sadly “The cruelty IS the purpose”
And it does not applies just to death penalty with these people either.
Or, piggies are just harder to kill
In general, why would it poison us at all? The stuff we breathe is ALREADY 80 percent nitrogen.
Long story short? Your body can’t detect low oxygen, just high co2. In nitrogen rich environments your body winds up essentially purging all the o2 from your body by mistake. 8-10 breaths and your body loses O2 from the blood, 15-30 and your unconscious, with death swiftly. (It’s a sadly common killer in industrial situations) someone will check a fuel tank “just for a second” without following protocol and be dead
But that isn’t poisoning, that’s just (“just”) asphyxiation
Cyanide kills you by binding to cells and preventing oxygen absorption, which is arguably “just asphyxiation, but we still call it poisoning.
So I think the distinction here is that nitrogen narcosis doesn’t kill you by simply crowding out the oxygen in the air until you can’t breathe it, but by crowding out the oxygen within your body so you can’t metabolize it (which is my overly simplified high-school-biology understanding of how nitrogen narcosis works).
I think it’s more of a physical process rather than a chemical process, hence not poisoning. As a comparison, chlorine gas is a poison that chemically burns your lungs. Superheated air is not a poison, but it still burns your lungs, just through physical processes.
What’s killing you here is your body actually absorbing the nitrogen, rather than just not being able to breathe, hence why it’s poisoning.
No, actually what’s killing you is your body expelling oxygen. Your lungs just equalize the oxygen content between your blood and whatever you’re breathing. If you’re breathing pure O2, your blood ends up with extra oxygen. If pure N2, your lungs dump out any oxygen in your blood, and you pass out a lot faster than if you were just holding your breath.
The reason that dude “took so long to die” is that they’re counting the whole procedure, not just the time he was being fed N2. Once that started he passed out in a couple minutes, and died within a couple more, and it only took that long because he WAS holding his breath as long as he could.
If he hadn’t held his breath, he’d have gone out like a light.
So, the answer is it doesn’t.
There are three nitrogen-related things that have been conflated here, all of which are distinct and only two of which are directly dangerous (the third is dangerous indirectly, though). Those are asphyxia, narcosis and decompression illness, commonly called the bends.
Asphyxia is the easiest to understand. If you replace all the oxygen in the air, anybody trying to breathe it will suffocate. Various physiological things mean that it happens very quickly, but fundamentally it kills you in the same way as somebody holding a pillow over your face would kill you, by denying you the oxygen you need to live. That is, it’s not the nitrogen directly doing anything to you that is lethal, it’s what you’re not getting from a gas mix that doesn’t include oxygen. Thus, not poison, but definitely one of the two that are directly dangerous, and the usual way people are killed by it is industrial accidents.
The other directly dangerous one is DCI. this what happens as a result of physics causing a solvent being able to hold more solut e in solution under higher pressure. If you go diving, every ten metres down you go i creases the pressure on you by one bar (one bar is one atmosphere of pressure). As a result, this means that more gasses can dissolve into your tissues. The one that’s a problem at depths where you can breathe air or air-adjacent gas mixes like nitrox is nitrogen; oxygen gets hoovered up by your red blood cells, and the other gases in the mix are present in proportions too small to matter. As you dive, more and more nitrogen dissolves into your tissues, but when you come back up you put your body in a n environment where the pressure is too low to keep all that extra gas dissolved.
Basically, think about what happens when you open a new bottle of any carbonated drink and all the bubbles appear. That’s what happens inside your body when you get DCI. The way divers prevent it is by ascending slowly and making decompression stops on the way up. Sydney is completely correct here when she says that she wouldn’t have done that sort of diving, because she learned on holiday; she would almost certainly have been trained by PADI, which just doesn’t do that sort of diving with holiday customers like that, but even if she learned with somebody else nobody reputable would have been willing to do deco dives with somebody that inexperienced. However, she’s still know the theory, because you need it to plan your surface interval if you want to do more than one dive in a day, and all of these courses are intended to lay a foundation for further qualifications of you choose to progress to more complex diving.
DCI can and will kill you, paralyse you, cause you to lose a limb or limbs, go blind, go deaf, ruin your joints or just leave you in awful pain, but it does so through the purely mechanical trauma of a bunch of gas bubbles suddenly manifesting somewhere that they break something important.
Finally, you have nitrogen narcosis. This is something that happens somewhere between four and five bars of pressure (the usual figure give is 32-35 metres of depth, but the exact onset varies depending on the person), and it feels pretty much exactly the same as being drunk. Contrary to the presentation in the comic and to what some are saying in the comments, it is not directly dangerous. It doesn’t crowd out oxygen from inside your cells or represent lethal poisoning. In fact, we don’t actually know what the physiological cause is, only that it’s *something* to do with nitrogen, because it doesn’t happen with gas mixes that contain little or no nitrogen. But that’s *all* It does, so far as we can tell; it gets you drunk on air.
Now, given that the most common reason to experience this is to be under 30+ metres of water, that’s *indirectly* very dangerous. You get the same sort of impaired decision making that occurs when people are actually drunk, except in an environment that can and will kill them if they do something stupid, and a lot of diving deaths that aren’t heart failure occur because the person who died was narked. But you won’t die from the narcosis itself, as opposed to what your dumb arse does under the influence of the narcosis.
Presumably, there is a point at which it would actually kill you, but since we don’t know what the mechanism is we can’t say what that might be. What we can say, however, is that people reliably fall victim to oxygen toxicity when breathing air well before you get to whatever that pressure might be.
So, if the demons are worried about being *poisoned* by nitrogen, that has to be something related to their physiology and how it differs from that of a human.
Of course, there’s also an easy out for the author, here – Swolethulhu never said “nitrogen poisoning,” that’s just what the translator spell rendered what he said when it turned it into English (much like in this comic, where it mistranslated the “All’s fair in love and war” sentiment as “There’s no such thing as cheating in love and war”). The term he used might more accurately translate to something like “inert gas asphyxiation due to an excessive proportion of nitrogen,” but the translator compressed that down into “nitrogen poisoning.”
It’s even easier. The cthulhu expy might just be an unreliable narrator. He can smell the Nitrogen, he knows nitrogen poisoning happens under certain circumstacnes, he is just ignorant about the nature of said circumstances.
So he states something that isn’t true, Parfait and Sidney take him at his word and panic needlessly.
As a PADI Advanced Open Water diver, they 100% teach you about DCI and DCS in the Open Water theory book, and I’ve had safety stops during ascension from 27 metres.
Completely correct – but the comic author has fumbled the ball on this so much in so many different ways, I doubt it’ll matter.
People read grrlpower for the tits and dumb jokes, dunno who the comic author keeps insisting on trying to include (wrong) science.
It’s actually a good way to gauge reader investment. If he includes some incorrect information and everyone jumps on it in the comments, Dave gets a good idea of how many people are reading the comic and care enough to comment about it. Not saying this is done intentionally, but it’s a nice side effect.
I *started* for the tits and dumb jokes, I *stayed* for the narrative, the world, and the characters. This is a genuinely interesting comic with a decent amount of depth, other comics I’ve read for the tits and dumb jokes usually lose my interest fairly quickly, meanwhile I think I started reading this in high school, so around a decade ago, and it remains one of the best webcomics in my rotation. Tits and dumb jokes can be found pretty much anywhere, and as such if one wishes to keep audience interest for any real length of time they need to provide more than *just* tits and dumb jokes.
The author tries to include science because it’s a science fiction story. I don’t feel there’s a need for the science to be correct in science fiction, but I certainly appreciate it when authors do their best to get it as close as they possibly can.
Thank you! That’s about what I thought, that you should just recover from pure nitrogen as soon as you get back to oxygenated air, but i only had vaguely remembered the different things.
Of course, it’s entirely possible that Parfait was 100% wrong about nitrogen poisoning and Sidney (sensibly) acted on it quickly. Or that demons are poisoned by atmospheric pressure nitrogen in greater than 80% quantities. Or that Sidney can’t drive the ball perfectly and created some toxic nitrogen compounds. Or that someone was trolling her, or that she’s STILL wrong but someone will correct her, or that nitrogen narcosis works differently in Grrlpowerverse and it hasn’t come up before, or I forgot! :)
Here’s an interesting fact: Your desire to breathe is triggered by the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood. If you hold your breath, your urge to breathe gets stronger the longer you hold it, not because you are using up your oxygen, but because you are creating CO2. However, if you hyperventilate first, you can hold your breath longer, not because you have more oxygen in your lungs and blood, but because you’ve purged the CO2 from your blood. It’s even possible to hyperventilate, then hold your breath and pass out, and if your CO2 concentration doesn’t get high enough, you might not start breathing again before dying. Which might happen if the amount of oxygen in your system isn’t enough to create enough CO2 fast enough.
As for whether an alien could get nitrogen narcosis from pure nitrogen at sea level, there’s no reason that couldn’t happen. Humans get nitrogen narcosis from breathing compressed atmospheric air below 100 ft, and it’s because of the increased amount of nitrogen in the blood. Going from 78% nitrogen at sea level to 100% nitrogen might be enough to cause problems for an alien. Humans can also be injured by breathing pure oxygen at pressures found at 20 ft and below. Again, it’s because the amount of oxygen in the lungs and blood would be higher than at sea level, and 20 feet is an increase of less than one atmosphere, so less than double the amount of oxygen present.
The problem where you can lose consciousness without feeling as if you’re starved of oxygen because you hyperventilated at the start is known as Shallow Water Blackout, and has killed many healthy people who were merely trying to practice staying underwater longer in pools and such.
Even with a “buddy” system there are risks; Jonathan Proce, and Bohdan Vitenko, both 21 years old, died together while testing their underwater endurance in the shallow end of a Staten Island public pool on Wednesday July 13, 2011.
It has been estimated that Shallow Water Blackout may be a contributing factor in up to 20% of all drowning deaths.
“and it’s because of the increased amount of nitrogen in the blood.”
Technically? The nitrogen dissolves in the lipid membranes of your nerve cells, altering the electrical behavior of certain molecules in them in a manner similar to a lot of things used as anesthesia, like chloroform. It’s just that it takes a lot of pressure to get enough nitrogen dissolved to have this effect. Most gasses have this effect at SOME pressure, (Even oxygen, surprisingly, though by the time O2 pressure is high enough to do it it’s toxic.) and the higher the atomic weight, the less pressure needed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_narcosis#Causes
If Halo switched the Nitrogen with Xenon leaving the O2 intact, she could probably knock people out *moderately* safely, they’d still be breathing when she switched the air back.
This is actually a point that might have made Parfait plausibly correct about the danger – if the lack of CO2 means that the demons’ breathing reflex was suppressed and they might not start breathing again while unconscious despite the availability of oxygen in the air around them, that’s a serious flaw in Sydney’s plan to end things nonlethally if she’s unaware of it.
(Their physiology having a special sensitivity to nitrogen itself may or may not have been Dave’s original intent, but it seems implausible if they’re fine breathing Earth’s atmosphere normally)
We’ve got far more direct evidence than that for what happens during nitrogen asphyxiation from industrial accidents. In short, if you find yourself in a pure-nitrogen atmosphere, you’ll pass out after a few seconds. If your buddy (the one with the positive-pressure breathing apparatus watching from outside the danger area) pulls you out to fresh air, you’ll quickly recover; if instead you remain there, you’ll die after a few minutes.
I’m strongly against the death penalty and I think it’s difficult for any execution method to be ‘humane’, given that the victim will be aware that something is going on. That said, looking at reports from inert gas asphyxiation accidents, the victims probably don’t suffer from the mechanism itself because there have been numerous cases of the initial victim and unprepared rescuers all dying because they feel nothing concerning before losing mobility.
What I don’t understand is that if your going to use gas to execute someone why not use high concentration H2S. It is painless and death is damn near immediate. It’s like God flicking your life switch off. Sort of like the pressure wave from certain high explosives.
To be clear I am.very against the death penalty and am approaching this as a thought exercise not an act of advocating.
The best argument I ever saw against the death penalty was photographs of last meals that they recreated. Only every one was from someone who found innocent after they were executed.
It’s easy to point at some people and say they should die but until we can develop a way to have a 100% accurate justice system then there will always be mistakes. It’s one thing to kill monsters, it’s anther thing to kill an innocent person.
The death penalty IMO should be reserved for 100% unquestionable extreme crimes.
Serial Killers, Serial Rapists, Mass Murderers are the three kinds I would consider irredeemable (perhaps others, but I can’t think of any other irredeemable crimes).
Single murders or rapists could be explained, and there’s always the possibility for these convicts to reintegrate society after the correct procedures (see the recidivist rates of Norway for example), and there’s always false accusations or people wrongly accused.
But when someone is at the point of committing serial or mass murder, or rapes people repeatedly, then there’s something profoundly wrong in that person, and no amount of care and education may make that person fit for society again. Keeping that kind of person in jail forever is just a burden for everyone and won’t do anything except drain resources for nothing.
Obviously, I mean in cases where there’s absolutely no doubt about the one committing the crime, like Anders Behring Breivik in Norway, Alexandre Bissonnette in Québec and most school shootings in the States.
If there is even a sliver of a chance that could be someone else, then the death penalty shouldn’t be applied. But in high-profile cases where there is no chance of mistake, death to them.
Exactly – there is no direct correlation between seriousness of crime and the chance of mistake. Death penalty should be applies only when both seriousness and how much sure we are sure he did it are high.
I’d be open to the death sentence a lot lower than that, but for 1 factor. I don’t trust the government or media not to gaslight the judge/jury or mandate death for people who didn’t actually commit the crimes; and I don’t trust the cops to present exculpatory evidence, as that’s also been a major problem in the past. recent and distant.
I’d also support the old system of commuting death sentences to the Infantry on permanent deployment until the sentence ends.
I can think of only one possible way of actually adhering to the ‘absolutely 100% certainty’ rule that some folks are proposing, here. To-wit:
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you are about to go into the jury room to debate whether or not this man, whom you have found guilty of murder, rape and serial loitering, is to be executed for his crimes. While you have found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, it is my duty to inform you that, should you unanimously vote to execute him, and it is determined after his death that he was innocent after all, you will all be rounded up and executed in the exact same fashion as he was. There will be no further trial; the procedure for determining his innocence will be sufficient to establish your guilt. It won’t matter if there was a deliberate deception committed here that caused you to kill this man erroneously; you are expected to factor the possibility of that into yhour deliberations. Furthermore, the judge, the prosecutor and the district attorney for this jurisdiction will all also be executed, on the assumption that they should have stopped a travesty of this magnitude from occurring. In short, it is not a matter of ‘reasonable doubt’. Rather, when you vote to execute, you are betting your life and those of the others mentioned that you are correct in your verdict. You may now proceed to your deliberations. Thank you.”
I don’t see how the state declaring that killing people is a way to resolve problems won’t lead to ordinary people thinking that killing people is a way to resolve their problems. They deserved it, right?
Arguably a lot of people are thinking that already. And it’s not because people in general tend to be dishonest or incompetent that doing something is incorrect in principle. But it might be a good enough reason to not do it in practice, sure.
Let’s just hope Tenri won’t be trying to cohabitate with Sydney, or try to possess her.
The results of that could be distressing to say the least.
I mean, I suppose she COULD be hoping that she’d be able to a) make use of the orbs immediately, b) figure out how to use the shield before the super standing right beside her can do anything at all, and c) has a way to portal out before the big guns arrive. All while fighting for control of Sydney’s body.
I mean, villains aren’t exactly renowned for their intelligence, but considering that in theory she’s also a college kid I’d really hope that isn’t her plan.
Either that, or genre-savvy Sydney stumbled into an Accidental Marriage trope.
You beat me in fair combat, now we’re married.
or
Kissing is how that species exchange genetic material, and she’s ready for round two.
or
The kiss of life is FOR LIFE.
or
Capsaicin triggers sex in her species so she’s got the hots for Sydney
Remember that she’s the race that makes artificial bodies that they puppeteer. It’s unlikely that the blank body has any reproducible genetic material to speak of, or that it has any unusual reactions to spicy food (At least, none that the body didn’t purposefully have built in.)
I just think this is an expansion of the “there are no cheating in war or love”
and she is gonna take over her body and proclaim them the winner of the battle over Pait.
Yeah, that’s what I’m going with.
yeah, my money is definitely on possession here, or maybe sucking out her spirit or something.
My vote’s on mind control. Which is actually pretty close to possession, but whatev.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure she was hoping to take over Maxima, decided to settle for Halo.
Maybe to rescue/drag home her guy?
I really, seriously doubt that the orbs are going to permit that to work.
…I can’t help but wonder if we’re gonna see that last orb or upgrade proc…
Myself as well. Sydney’s obviously got a mental connection to them (so entirely plausible that the Orbs would be keyed to her consciousness) but we’ve also seen that the orbs appear to be highly integrated with some form of energy in her body that runs nearly in parallel to her nervous system – https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-641-well-thats-probably-not-good – note that it doesn’t trace the shape of her brain. Considering how deeply they’ve integrated with Sydney and the level of technology the Nth put into the orbs, it’d be a tremendous loophole if they had no defenses against possession / mind-control.
Also against body swaps. While the canonicity of the vote incentives and their associated short comics (over on Patreon) is debatable, one of them had Sydney’s original body in an I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Bacta tank, with her borrowing a temporary body while the original was under repair. The orbs exited the tank and began circling around her new head instead of sticking with the original body. So they seem to be bound to her consciousness itself; it might even be that a form of possession that prevents her consciousness from taking action renders the orbs unusable (they’ll just keep orbiting the location of her suppressed consciousness).
I’m fairly certain that Sydney has some protections against mental contamination.
During the Vehemence fight, when he was blasting his “Wake up and punch someone” field, she cut it off by surrounding him with her shield, but in doing so exposed herself. Despite that, she was still fairly level headed.
And more recently with Parfait, when she was influencing the whole base to engage in sexy times, Sydney was still trying to convince Parfait that no means no, despite being at ground zero of the sexy times aura.
So, I’m thinking that Tenri’s plan isn’t going to go how she thinks.
I think its implied she is there with the Biomechanical woman who stayed inside the comic shop and was talking last page and not with one of the guys here directly just part of the highschool graduates friends group same as Parfait was.
on the possession, it should be noted that Laph *if I am remembering her name right* when she tossed herself off her bioframe (stated to be blank biological bodies her people custom build for themselves) onto the lizard guy with her whose name I have forgotten she didn’t take absolute control over him, she might not have been able to. It could be her people need a host body, but can’t control sapient life forms *at least not easily*.
that said would be funny if she tried and ended up being stuck in the orbit with the orbs and had to ask to be put back on her body for getting dizzy. But money would be on she can’t possess Sidney at all and may end up concluding Sidney isn’t human because of that, causing all sorts of rumors.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-932-designing-women/
The Nitrogen in the execution was administered via a gas mask.
First of all, the guillotine is reserved only for the most elite and exclusive clients.
*pause for emphasis*
Second, that young lady appears to be attempting to possess Sydney, and has forfeited her “being not unalived” privileges. I’m generally a forgiving sort, and not super fond of permanent solutions to temporary problems, but yeah, no. This one goes home in a sandwich bag, if at all.
Sent home downgraded from her nice puppet body to a Furbie.
I absolutely approve, but also, no, seriously, if you attempt to possess personnel, that needs to be viewed as both an act of war, espionage, and probably a war crime too.
Strictly imo, if my interpretation is correct, “Tenri” is on the KoS list effective now.
She’s giving Sydney a taste of her own poison. Can’t say Syds doesn’t have it coming, really.
The simplest way to make a nitrogen bubble is to just concentrate the existing nitrogen in the air into a pocket. Anything else requires creating an equal amount if hydrogen and an explosion.
anybody wanna take bets this is the same flame head girl who tried to kidnap maxima when the aliens first started touring earth?
That was Lapha, I think.
And she now has a tail
Can’t be, no tail. And that was one of the requirements of the lizard-guy she escaped in.
Doubtful, no tail, and getting a body with a tail was one of the lizard-dude’s conditions for helping her pay for the new body.
No as this one is only there because she was part of Parfait friend group who came along with them.
Honestly I am wandering if this kiss might be related to Sidney possibly being an internet celebrity to her people thanks to one of her species recording Sidney eating Grakz for her web show.
Doesn’t track. She asked if Max was coming first, implying that she wanted to do whatever – and I still think it’s an attempt at possession – to Max. Presumably in order to commandeer their powers.
Maxima is famous across the galaxy thanks to the space police recording her one shotting a Fel battle cruiser. But if she is after them to pull some Captain Ginyu then its entirely based on the opportunity presenting its self and not fully pre-planned.
what we know of the situation.
these “demons” are from Parfait’s friends group from demon highschool, the leader of this friend group was upset that a celebrity *Arch fiend Thothogoth* showed up and cut into the vetting list for Parfait’s “bonding partner” which had come down to an angel and a member of their group. Their plan to abduct Parfait and take her in person to the council of succubi matriarchs to lodge a complaint about that situation. However they wouldn’t dare go after her where she was and don’t seem like they had a way to track her, and apparently demons either can’t or are blocked from just summoning each other *which would be the easiest way to have done this if it were an option*. Or some other get her away from Thothogoth plan,
but then Parfait got on the demon interwebs and advertised the comic shop and that she was there and that it was veil optional, and that very same day (so very little planning possible) they gathered up their friend group and went to that location. However we know most of the group clearly had no idea who Sidney was, evidenced by Brexil and the other succubus actions *threats and the succbus sniffing her out as the summoner by Parfait’s scent*.
In all this Tenri and Gliph have stuck to the background although Tenri was in the fight but not a focus, Gliph said she was only there because she is friends with Tenri (so the big friend group isn’t as held together post graduation), now Tenri is showing here she knew who they were, but again some demons do live on Earth in disguise, we currently know nothing about this one other than some species traits and we’ve only seen two others before, one on Fracture Station who recorded Sidney there *so if she has any students watching dumb food challenges online minor celebrity status she could be recognized through that* so maybe Tenri is tasting her tongue on a bet, but that’s no better a conjecture than anything else, just a funny gotcha idea on readers (oh you thought this was a serious cliff hanger, nope).
So yeah she could be asking about Maxima because she is taking advantage of this opportunity that presented its self despite little time to plan, or she is asking because she’s local or paid more attention to Earth related events than the rest of her friend group and wants to meet them in person. Heck for all we know when she graduated she became a space cop, knows from the other Aerolith I think her species was called videos that Sidney was on Fracture Station and is attempting to capture her body to drag her in for questioning, no reason to just assume she’s a space pirate mercenary just because one of her species was, some Orions from Star Trek assumptions there LoL. Heck maybe she thinks Sidney isn’t human and is getting a mind taste to test her hypothesis, after all she is from a species of floaty things above the head she might just think the orbs are who she is talking to and trying some upclose mind parasite to mind parasite psychic link talking.
It should also be noted that according to DaveB this species can’t normally actually control a person/sapient life form they’ve hopped onto, if Tenri is as young as Parfait and the others it would be weird then that she could control a super or any other sapient being.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-931-escape-from-new-york/
DaveB: “So, is she possessing him? And if so, why didn’t she just toss herself onto Maxima’s head?
The answer is… kind of, but not really. Basically, she’s not “high level” enough to straight up possess someone. Right now, she’s somewhere between a Trill symbiont, sharing knowledge and memories, and Steve-Martin-bonked-on-the-head-by-a-mystic-bowl. They’re still separate entities, and both have control if the other one doesn’t object. She, and most of her species are relegated to passenger if the host doesn’t want to play along. The more advanced members of her species have increasing levels of primacy, but as Lapha alludes to, other races aren’t copasetic with being possessed, so her people have adapted to be artisanal meat jockeys. Which is to say they grow customized blanks, and pilot those around.”
-back to not qouting-
so it seems this species is like some quasi ascended species that “gor the formula wrong” and instead of being free living energy beings ended up as semi-spirits that need a body but can’t take over a mind like most possession entities, so either would need to find a non-sapient animal to control (or maybe evolved that way naturally using animals as hosts) and have to make these mindless bioframes to move around in as a preference. But at best if she hopped onto Sidney would just be sharing the body as a hitchhiker or at worst projecting thoughts and emotions…which for psionic beings is an intimate act in many settings.
Actually I *DO* believe you are correct, this is probably Lapha. On the last page, it was hinted when that other demon who didn’t participate said that her friend, Tenri, had been acting withdrawn since Brelx… the trails off. We don’t know what/when, but the phrasing implies that it was recent, and important enough to be specifically mentioned. I think that means that Tenri is almost assuredly actually Lapha at this time.
The fact that she says she’s Tenri, but “it’s complicated” also implies that she’s not simply occupying a husk, in which case it wouldn’t be complicated, as they are one person in “their own” body. I personally take this to mean that there is not only Lapha in there. This would also explain the lack of a tail, as this IS Tenri’s body, Lapha’s body is probably being stored somewhere while not in use (or maybe still being made/shipped, I don’t know how long that takes). Maybe it is only Lapha, and she somehow removed Tenri for her own body?
It does bear mentioning that I feel bad for Tenri (assuming that it was a forceful possession), she may look like demon, but she’s basically just a college student, and it seems like an intergalactic mercenary showed up, hijacked her body, is going around committing interplanetary crimes, and very while might get her body pretty roughed up in the process.
I would not advise posession.
They do have 1 Succubus on the premises, one on speed dial.
Pretty sure they have something to counter posession.
Repossession? :3
“If you do not pay your excorcist, you will be repossesed.”
Dabbler has possibly added a defence against it to the Chokers.
Yet even if she hasn’t, Sydney’s mind and brain aren’t exactly normal.
There’s a chance that Sydney can fight her off, to some degree.
Besides the orbs having a possible block, or any other theories related the Nth, Sidney also has ADHD.
We saw with the other of this species that went after Maxima when she tossed her core self onto the lizard guy whose name I have forgotten she didn’t take control of him, might not even be able to control a sapient mind. Which even if she could over time as a funny possibility ADHD could be a natural defense against possession.
Like trying to hold a bunch of kittens in one place, just constantly making noise and scattering, while “normal” for lack of a less irritating term to use *I have ADHD* mind is like leashing a dog, might have to fight but can train them to obey, with more submissive minds its just like taking the wheel of a car and tossing the previous driver tied up in the back seat. So ADHD, trying to herd cats.
Since her people are those little flames, but also have bioframes they make as hosts but can partially possess others, which does make me suspect they might be one of the older species in the galaxy as that is a trait you more often see with quasi ascended species (right on the edge of transcending the need for a physical body), I wander if she thinks Sidney is something like her and the orbs are the real her possessing a human and is testing that right now.
Asking about Maxima makes her/it intentions clear. She wants to kidnap supers for the reward.
I have my doubts, after all the reason she is even there is because she is part of that friend group that Parfait was in school, which means this quasi-ascended alien race with demon looking bioframes sends their children to demon schools as well. Same applies to Gliph the apparent living biomechanical armor inside the shop.
A girl with a thing floating over her head and a living armor one…odd parallels to Sidney and Maxima.
I think its implied she is there with the Biomechanical woman who stayed inside the comic shop and was talking last page and not with one of the guys here directly just part of the highschool graduates friends group same as Parfait was.
on the possession, it should be noted that Laph *if I am remembering her name right* when she tossed herself off her bioframe (stated to be blank biological bodies her people custom build for themselves) onto the lizard guy with her whose name I have forgotten she didn’t take absolute control over him, she might not have been able to. It could be her people need a host body, but can’t control sapient life forms *at least not easily*.
that said would be funny if she tried and ended up being stuck in the orbit with the orbs and had to ask to be put back on her body for getting dizzy. But money would be on she can’t possess Sidney at all and may end up concluding Sidney isn’t human because of that, causing all sorts of rumors.
I come from the future just to laugh.
Given that the witness reports are on the order of “That was the most agonized and torturous execution I’ve ever seen,” I’m guessing maybe it isn’t particularly peaceful?
Or maybe the state just completely fucked up the procedure, just like they painfully fucked everything up THE OTHER TIME THEY TRIED TO EXECUTE THAT GUY
We humanly euthanize thousands of animals daily. We keep thousands of terminally ill humans alive who have reached the point that they just want the pain to end.
This is why the alien civilizations haven’t contacted us…we too crazy.
And we put perfectly innocent, (OK, not theologically, but you know what I mean.) people though hideous tortures in emergency rooms every day, just because waiting for a pain killer to kick in is considered medically inadvisable.
You ever have an ankle dislocation reduced manually by somebody firmly grasping your leg where the bones are shattered, and wiggling it around until it’s in the right position? Without anesthesia, just a gauze wrapped wooden dowel to bite down on, and a closed door so nobody will be disturbed if you scream? And I paid good money to have that done to me. Got to keep the foot, as a result, though it was a close thing.
This guy didn’t go through a fraction of what innocent people go through every day, often voluntarily. He didn’t go through a fraction of what he put his victims through, for that matter: He stabbed and beat a guy to death, and not quickly, either.
He only suffered because he held his breath for a while while the N2 kicked in. And he’d actually ASKED to be executed this way!
So, yeah, I’ll fault the state for letting him know when they switched from air to N2, so he’d know when to struggle. But not much.
Haven’t seen Abby for awhile, she looks… different
Yeah, she’s definitely either trying to possess Sydney or do a body-swap routine with her. That’s why she was disappointed that Maxima didn’t show up — she was hoping to possess/swap with HER instead.
In front of a witness? Unless she thinks she can kill Abby before she can warn anyone (obviously not knowing her not-advertised party trick)
Yeah no, that other person from ARCSWAT is Daphne, it’s even up in the who’s who on this page. I don’t know any Abby in the strip as a regular character.
The simple way to do the Nitgrogen trick is to only replace all the O2 with N2.
Lack of O2 is going to stop Fires, Oxygen breathing species, rusting. The N2 is only there to limit how much new O2 is rushing in. As long as it is not a Flouride fire, it will work.
They are both in a X2 bond. And the mass difference is not too big – 32 for O2, 28 for N2. So that limits how much energy the Orbs have to expend to keep the whole affair heat-neutral.
Chemically, each element has a standard form, which is the form it takes the least energy to create under standard Earth conditions; that is, changing it to any other form requires adding energy. For example, the standard form of oxygen is O2; the standard form of carbon is graphite. You can look all of these up in the Wikipedia article “Standard Enthalpy of Formation.” I would assume that replacing element A with element B characteristically involves going between the two standard forms; that seems to be how it works in the comics (as with Element Lad in the Legion of Super Heroes).
While we are not quite sure how the orbs do their stuff, I think the difference in molecular mass would be the best indicator of energy consumption.
After all, that difference is the M in E=MC2. And those orbs probably follow conservation of energy.
That both compounds are (mostly) stable at earth surface level also helps. That way you do not have to spend a lot of extra energy forcing one of the compounds to be stable/perpetually make more of one.
Yeah, lets not reintroduce the guillotine.
When we can introduce the hidraulic guillotine. This models comes with an autosharpener to keep our precious edge always in top shape. And you don’t need to do anything because our homicidal AI is the one in control. I say that if machines are gonna kill us all we should just let them have a release valve.
All of this a more for 9.99 (tax not included).
$9.99 sounds like a knockoff price, or different currency.
Hydraulic and… Spin. Self sharpening deli blade, should perform reasonably smoothly. Lithium-Ion power tools seem like a readily available platform.
Those who do not mind the shred and splatter may be more interested in horror of circular buzz saws, or chainsaws.
Reciprocating saws are not unpopular in meatpacking.
More advanced plasma, or monomolecular blades seems like it may require more energy for efficiency, especially if provided a self stabilizing thrown flight and return drone function. Carbon Nanofiber modified weed wacker seems exceptionally messy, and should include recommendations for a respirator.
A Homicidal AI could be a misunderstood interpretation of “Save Humans”. Possibly by storing them in a form that makes their original biological decay not occur. Death by neuro architecture mapping? Disintegrated while converting into Digital Data storage. Suspension Cryostasis. Brain extracted and modified into a non aging monster, that is meets given vague specifications as Human, but not typically identifiable as your grand parents Homosapien. Converting the species into a hive mind collective, at the death of the individual. Death by organ harvesting, to Optimally preserve more lives having been instructed that the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the orbs have a dedicated “no hijacking” function, especially since Varia’s gestalt with Sydney gives her access to them. Feels like she has a special connection to the orbs, and they may not appreciate someone else trying to cut in so to speak.
We don’t know that Varia’s gestalt with Sydney gives her access to them. All we have is one panel where the orbs are above them both, which for all we know is something Sydney does subconsciously when in the same space as/in contact with someone else and doesn’t want them to be obtrusive… or even consciously. Maybe she thought it was cool. “Serendipitous tumbleweed activate” is arguably one of her superpowers, she has an I-want-to-look-cool mind.
IIRC, the commentary on that page did suggest the orb-swap was significant, so Varia probably ~can~ influence/use the orbs while in contact with Sydney, but this would still be different than an alien mind possessing Sydney and trying to control the orbs, so I wouldn’t recommend drawing any parallels between the two situations.
Heh: Tenri = Inert :P
You know, I didn’t even see that.
Okay, I’m calling BS on panel 2. There is no way that Sydney saw a shiny orb (or shiny anything else) in the water and just swam past it. Ever.
Unless something shiner caught her eye as she was swimming toward the shiny orb, such as the treasure chest. Then the realized the second shiny item was too far away/deep, and went back to the first shiny object. I have ADHD, and can confirm being distracted by multiple shiny objects is a plausible scenario.
Laughing gas is N2O. Two nitrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Also known as dinitrogen oxide or nitrous oxide.
Uh, which guy has the bio armor?
And again, where did this flame-head girl show up? I don’t think she was with the group after Parfit?
Yes, she was in all the group shots
I think that’s the girl in the shop talking to Joel. I could be wrong however. Sydney, in an appalling display of slovenly handling, failed to call Silver Age Rules.
Are we about to see invasion of the body-snatchers? That for some unknown reason (cough fanservice unconvincing cough) has to be done via french-kissing?
If I don’t miss my guess, Sydney is about to have yet another decoration above her head. XD
body snatcher body snatcher body snatcher body snatcher
Today we learned that Sydney does not have her Nitrox rating, you she would absolutely know about nitrogen narcosis. Not that that was what was happening here, it was inert gas asphyxiation.
That kiss is a trap! Calling it now, it’s a set-up!
Believe Tenri’s racial attribute was shown before.
Eg. That whole kidnapping attempt on Max by alien tourist arc, around 800[?], or maybe 900. Edit: 930~932
Wonder if they are the same person.
Tenri (Inert) is not Lapha (Alpha)
now the fun thing is she tries to possess gets in there and all the crazy over whelms and just starts screaming ” put me back put me back” xD
lol, wonder how well Sydney is going to be able to deal w/ possession.
I wonder how well possession is to be able to deal with being in the same non-neurotypical brain as Sydney.
It would be interesting if the body swap is successful but now the orbs follow Syd in Tenri’s body instead of Tenri in Syd’s body.
Id say just keep them for life in prison instead of killing them.
Sydney: Oh no you don’t! Get out of me, you cut-rate Goa’uld. You’re not even a System Lord!
Blue Orb: [ 2.8 GHz microwaves ] Where did Mom go? I can’t find her and she did not teleport.
Brown Orb: Oh, she’s still here, but possessed? We will see about that. My turn!
Tenri: What the hell? Why am I back in my old body?
Sydney: [ Actually Brown Orb ] Attempts to possess or psychically dominate the wielder are not allowed!
Harem: Sydney, how did you just sound all baritony?
Sydney: [ Back to normal ] Wow, that was weird.
Huh.
For whatever reason, I think that any attempts at possession are either going to end with an unknown orb reversing the possession, the possessor getting kicked out of Sydney’s body due to the controls all being messed up, or some other shenanigans I am going to find amusing and did not imagine.
“The atmosphere doesn’t usually have a lot of free-range O1 floating about.”
I bloody well hope so… That stuff is *AGRESSIVE*.
So would singular Nitrogen be, if it ever could exist in that form.
*Shudder* You’re better off playing with spherical half-orbs of sub-critical Plutonium and a screwdriver.. A hell of a lot safer…
Sydney and Harem will have a discussion about what happened and to have Parfait deported to Gatlyn…!
Unless the latter won’t happen.
Now how would Harem report this to Max?!?
When was Tenri seen with the group? I don’t see her in many of the group shots…
Ah, a problem with Grrl Power. While dang fun to read, the heroes are REALLY overpowered compared to the villains, so a LOT of the battles are curbstomps.
I think the demon just gave Syd a lungful of poison. Chances are Syd’s either going to be VERY sick very soon, or she’s going to be in a coma for a good while. Honestly, a necessary step to show that Syd is NOT invulnerable, and honestly, she’s in the wrong here. Personal feelings notwithstanding, she committed a crime by demon standards, summoning someone who belongs to someone else, without their permission, then refusing to return them.
SHe legally has no rights, right now.
She was invited to summon parfait, by parfait. She didn’t refuse to return parfait, she refused to hand her over to unrelated third parties with no claim over her
Demon law and society seems to focus on violence, and Sydney can win on that scale. Without killing her opponents might be more difficult.
I believe there is a place for capital punishment in our world. That being said, we’ve gone way too far afield trying to be “humane” about it and are ending up in the weeds trying to render something that is inherently unpleasant more… tasteful? It’s a really weird push. I don’t like the guillotine myself, but at least people understood how to end a life quick and relatively easily back in the day.
Regardless, I do think capital punishment is a proper deterrent for certain crimes. The primary issue in today’s American culture is that our justice system is largely borked, people use it to get rid of those they don’t like far too often, and we don’t have nearly enough carrot in the country for the stick of execution to be a real issue for most people who would do something deserving of it. Even if they were made public viewing again, execution would just be a sick sort of entertainment. It likely won’t fix anything as long as we let psychosis grow rampant and continue taking away reasons for people to live happy lives.
we really need to see Harem’s reaction. All of there reactions.
Did Harem get a visual change or am I really confused?
She’s been growing ‘Co-Ed’s’ hair out for a few comics, now. Well, a few comics that she’s shown up in, anyway. It might be growing faster than normal, since it was still short with Sciona and hair normally grows an average of a half an inch a month. Given the montaging, not sure exactly how much time has passed since we last saw Harem with Deus, though. *shrug*
Abby use to wear glasses
But she does look different, due to art-slide (remember when we saw 90yo Math when Dabbles was baking her cookies while Sydney was lost in space? or how different Anvil looked in Galytyn?)
Now see with regards to the death penalty you Don’t kill them. You take a piece and Brand the stump. piece taken fits the crime. Lie under oath? Tongue. Rape? Bits. (lady or guy, abuser loses Whole thing and gets a catheter) Murder? both arms. Large Theft/fraud/scams? One hand. If found innocent? Accuser gets the same. Whoever they are and in whatever position of authority. Keeps things simple, gives Examples to the public, allows possibility of reform and satisfaction of the victim. No jail required. Repeat offenders get a 4L bottle of water and kicked off a plane in a desert.
That sounds far worse that death. Including for those later found innocent. And for society at large, because you’ve made it impossible for someone to fully rejoin society and be a contributing member. You’d just be intentionally crippling people, reducing their capacity to meaningfully contribute, and making them a burden on society as a whole.
In before attempted possession is thwarted by Sid’s diet.