Grrl Power #1333 – Predictably predictable
No, she’s an Alari P.A! Sciona is an ancient-ish bloodmage who has proven ridiculously hard to kill in the past, and she does look down on nearly everyone. BUT – there’s no chance an adult Alari doesn’t have a stiletto or a boot knife or one of those switchblade knives that comes out of the toe of their sole or heel or some sort of space derringer on them. Well maybe not alari serfs and peasants. But anyone in a house echelon would probably be armed in some way. That doesn’t automatically mean they’re especially dangerous. It’s a lot like Japanese kids learning martial arts in middle-school. They’re probably better equipped to throw a simple punch than the average western citizen, but it hardly guarantees they’re an expert.
That said… I would bet Lorlara is above average at some form of self-defense. Or… other-offence. Not “challenge an ancient-ish bloodmage” good, probably, but hardly helpless under normal circumstances.
Telling a woman like Sciona that landing her in your bed is a cinch is a sure fire way to ensure she never goes near you again. Unless she thinks that’s what you wanted to happen! The poison is in your cup! My cup! Your cup!
If Deus is as he says and operates 37 steps ahead of everyone else, being surprised is probably genuinely shocking for him. It’s got to be like One Punch Man looking for a challenging fight. The only thing someone like that is going to be surprised by is stuff that’s so wildly improbable as to be reasonably dismissed as impossible. But then a stoat DOES wind up becoming the King of Tuvalu and invades Madagascar to free all his fellow mustelaids from “bondage” by mutating Sooty Terns into roc-sized bomb payload delivery systems, but not using them to deliver bombs, like everyone prepared and budgeted for, but instead has them clog up major ports to hold the world economy hostage.
There’s predictable, and then there’s actionable. There are, in fact, not infinite resources and time to prepare for all eventualities.
The new vote incentive is up! (Finally.)
I’m revisiting a panel from a recent page, but I included some comic reactions and a few outfit swaps, so hopefully you all enjoy it. I also plussed up the art from the comic version a bit, though I suspect that despite the time I spent on that, not a whole lot of people would immediately notice that, so I’m gratuitously pointing it out here.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Deus is as nerdy as Sydney. They are also both very genre savvy.
Well, Deus is a Super-Nerd (sort of) (while Sydney is only a non-Super super nerd).
Dues reads like someone is playing a TTRPG character in the middle of everyone else just living their lives, and I mean that in the best possible way: The information bordering on meta-knowledge, the wild swings between grandiose speeches and amusingly petty nerd-shitery, the sheer joy at someone making a reference to princess bride. QED.
Good points. Deus source of power may be super nerdiness.
He’s treating life like it’s a game, and you know how some gamers act when they play a game.
Now if they treat their body and the norms of how to behave as part of the game?
A highly succesful business man.
All I know is he continues to be comedy gold.
This is an intriguing take, considering this comic opened with a TTRPG session all those years ago.
Which hasn’t happened yet, still. Sydney hasn’t been promoted beyond Recruit as far as I’ve seen.
She’s still technically in training.
Wasn’t there a graduation ceremony? I feel like there was a graduation ceremony. What’s her rank after she graduates?
Looking back to her in a Uniform she seems to have a single chevron which in the army is a E-2 or a Private.
She’s no longer a recruit – she’s a private now, as well as Varia (and I will only say her codename because her real name is impossible to pronounce and only slightly less impossible to spell), Jiggawatt, Jabberwokky, Ren (aka Blulk as far as I’m concerned), and Vance.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1000-graduation/
(bottom 2 panels)
Sydles is currently a Private. Assuming Dave follows the normal pattern for rank structure, that makes her an E-1. (Enlisted Grade 1)
At the time of the comic’s starting flashback, she was explicitly referred to as Corporal, or and E-4.
I don’t know what ARCHON will be calling the intermediate ranks, but in the Marines (the non-Navy structure I know best) It goes Private, Private First Class, Lance-Corporal, and then Corporal. The Air Chair Force, Army, and Navy have the same structure with different names.
So, we can assume that The Mighty Halo still has quite a lot of adventure to get through before she earns those next two promotions.
The thought of Sydney as a member of the E-4 Mafia is a little worrying.
She has her stripe tho which would make her a E-2, Still a private but none of the branches have insignia for a E-1. But this is Dave’s world so that would be his choice.
I must say I loooooooooove Deus surprised expression, well done
He is just SO HAPPY that she surprised him, it’s kinda adorable. I’d imagine it gets boring being a super intelligence and predicting people so effectively. I wonder if Max tends to defy his expectations regularly, and that’s a big part of why he’s so interested in her? I’d imagine the unpredictable nature of Sydney is a treat as well.
For me, personally, villains who always win because they’re 12 steps ahead of everybody wear out their welcome pretty quick, but then we get panels like that, or the dramatic lightning button, and I wind up liking the big bastard again.
Writing someone who is super-intelligent is often one of the most difficult things to show in fiction. Largely because RL authors are not superhumanly intelligent (not a dig at DaveB – being massively more intelligent than Steven Hawkings or Einstein isnt something MOST people are), but you must somehow show that they are superhumanly intelligent in the story.
When they tried it on The Boys with Sister Sage, it fails horribly because she does not come off as super intelligent at all. She comes out as ‘the entire world is being stupid and doing things that they normally would not do in order to make her look intelligent in comparison and force her plans to work out.’ Same with someone like Superman where apparently he claims to do super mathematics but can’t even do simple multiplication.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9gcy-dIcAAXTXe?format=jpg&name=small
Just so people in the audience understand, 20 times 16 times 10 is not 32,000 – it’s 3,200. Super-mathematics apparently does not work as well as regular mathematics, or the author did not have a calculator handy.
DaveB, on the other hand, has done shown characters with superhuman intelligence twice, both with Dabbler and Deus, and he does an excellent job of it.
Seriously, it’s a much more impressive feat than most people think. Xanatos on Disney’s Gargoyles was such a good character because he was also one of the rare examples of a well-written, super-intelligent person in fiction.
And so are both Deus and Dabbler. Btw I don’t include Digit because her powers seem to be focused mostly on being super-intelligent for INVENTING stuff ONLY (like Forge from X-Men or Herschel Clay from PS238) – in most other areas Digit seems like a sterotypical ‘dumb blonde.’
Writers often give super intelligent one major flaw to make them more interresting. Lex Luthor is jealous, Palpatine is proud, Skynet is paranoid, etc… Deus lack any major flaw but he works anyway because he is more of a joke character and I mean that in a positive way.
Deus might be one of the few cases of an effective, benign and enlightened Dictator as we might get.
He likes to show of, and he defenitely likes to win.
But his Win conditions seem to greatly benefit people working under and with him as well.
Another great example of a smart villain was Elans Dad in the Order of the Stick.
That’s only because he hasn’t been shown to fail, that’s when the true test of character happens
any man can overcome or endure hardship and failure. If you want a true test of a man’s character, give him power over others and see what he does with it.
It’s how they overcome or endure that is the test
“But his Win conditions seem to greatly benefit people working under and with him as well.”
In the real world, that’s actually the most reliable way to keep winning, because it makes the people around you want you to win, too.
Deus’ big flaw? He apparently doesnt seem to understand the impact of religion in his plans!
He has a WARBAND OF DEMONS openly in his employ and laying whoopazz on mere mortals where the news and internet can see it. -All when Space Drow and manufactured supers are already quite up to the task of pacification!
Sure the trains will run on time, packages will arrive without fail and the electricity grid will function under his reign, but He is going to run into resistance with everyone who has a smidgeon of religion in them.
6 to 10 thousand years of everyone at least hearing of “Demons R Bad, mmmkay! Ennywon who uses demons is bad, mmmkay!” at some point in their lives is going to create mass hysteria.
Even mild agnostics are going to freak at demons existing and get some religion PDQ and if he LITERALLY CANNOT SEE THIS and continues to use demons, he is in for a rude shock at how strongly western culture people will resist his growing power base even if he benefits them with paradise on Earth.
That’s because SmugD is Super-Arrogant and believes he can either charm anyone or… we saw what happened to the former King of that country he is the Prime Minister of (or whatever bullshit title he uses)
I suspect you radically overestimate the grip religious fanaticism alone based on the lingering legacy of Iron Age fables can have on the vast majority of people in the face of everything else in their lives turning for the better. Ok, so a few thousands here and there are going to embrace religious hysteria and a Inquisition/ISIS-style mindset for the sake of it. Every time in history religious extremism and intolerance got the upper hand, there were important and noticeable social factors that supported their success. Anything of that sort is going to be absent here.
Guess what, the Bible/Koran-thumping zealots shall stay an extremist fringe and never come anything close to the critical mass necessary and sufficient to threaten or destabilize Deus’ new order. At the likely worst, they shall turn to terrorism, alienate almost everyone else, and be crushed like their lot deserves.
In the Grrlverse, the disdain toward demons is something of a form of bigotry. I believe part of Deus’ grand plan is to get rid of that as much as possible. Using demons while remaining benevolent, and indeed integrating demons into working side-by-side with humans without issues, is going to make it a lot harder for people to continue holding on to their fear and hatred (some certainly will, of course – we’re still dealing with humans, after all). He’s probably also going to play things from the perspective of “They’re just aliens, but some bad early experiences humans had with them caused us to describe demons as looking just like them.” The fact they call themselves demons is a quirk of translation. Besides, Biblical demons aren’t physical constructs anyway – they’re fallen angels, and are spiritual in nature (I think the only cases where they show up in the Bible are when they’re possessing people).
Note he’s made it quite clear that a big part of him recruiting and utilizing the demons was to speed up the revelation humans aren’t alone (beyond just the existence of aliens) beyond what the Council wanted.
I’d like to say Herschel Clay is very clever past robotics, I’d say he just isn’t superhumanly people-smart. He’s good at predicting things, making sense of more than invention, understanding the universe etc… honestly it’s just that the PS238 story is not “his show,” and he seems less of a “Xanatos gambit” and more of a “practical guy” type of genius – but I don’t think I can remember him making a mistake, in general.
What did Herschel Clay really do other than inventing stuff to solve problems? I don’t recall any examples of him predicting the future.
Predicting the future directly is mostly predicting people, which falls into “people-smart” IMO. Inventing stuff or… tinkering extremely well, is more constrained by rules. That’s not his deal, but he’s good at readiness and preventive countermeasures. That said, he still elected to sway public opinion by overriding the news reports about the PS238 establishment hearings with their own stuff, convince the feds it’s easier than prohibiting journalists from coming in the first place, and zap the journalists’ ability to make backups of their recordings. He also was the first one to dismiss Prospero as a threat by applying logic to the “alien invader” trope that is apparently not common even in-universe. He’s got plenty practical smarts, but he’s not manipulative or into politicking.
What I mean is his power is super intelligence for inventing things. Could you just let me know where his power was about super-predictive ability? What you were describing doesnt seem like a power, unlike his inventions.
For all I know you’re right – it’s been a while since I’ve read PS238, but the main predictive stuff I saw in that webcomic was the time traveler kid, who’s name I forget.
He has shown immense joy dealing with Sydney in the past. And not in the same way he leers at Max, but more giddy and wholesome. They’d probably be great (only) friends if he had gotten to her first.
I’d bet he would love to be the DM in a D&D session with her – so much unbridled chaos.
Imagine Deus, Sydney, Tom and Dabbler playing DnD.
Do they switch of being DM, because I can’t imagine anybody else wanting to DM that ..
Tom and Deus would both claim to be the best DM ever and take turns to prove it.
I suspect Max is actually very predictable to him, so he sees her as a challenge vs an interest. He likes the bantering, but she is not exactly a top intelligence.
It could go both ways, since Deus shows enough interest in Harem to cultivate a long-term relationship with Harem despite her not being in his intellectual league. However, yes, I tend to assume a big part of what makes Max so attractive to him is the challenge of wooing her and her unicorn status. Once he wins her, chances are he is eventually going to get bored by her less than outstanding intellect and not so appealing personality.
Admittedly, however, my judgement about this could be seriously biased by the fact I find Max one of the most unpleasant and unsympathetic characters among the ‘good guys’. Her prudery and paranoid, militant feminism, her subservience to a flawed status quo, and the way she spares no opportunity to shove them down the throat of the rest of the world alienate and annoy me deeply. My ideal of an admirable and sympathetic ‘strong female character’ aligns much more with the likes of Dabbler. Having said that, I acknowledge Max has her good sides, such as her sincere dedication to be valiant protector and good leader to her people according to how she understands those ideals.
I think he greatly enjoys slowly unwrapping her public persona to poke at the more vulnerable bits that she tries to hide (heh).
She’s less of a misandrist than she is very aware of how the public perceives her, and hates that she has to balance her position as military, super, and woman all at once.
We see bits and pieces of it around times like when Sydney was missing or when she went out incognito for drinks (and later to visit her boyfriend.)
‘Her prudery’? Because she’s the ranking officer and thus has the responsibility to tell Dabbler, “You can’t grope people without their consent, and even with their consent don’t do it in public”?
Max’s first meeting with Rowan involved him commenting on the feel of her skin. The next date we saw involved her changing into a sports top and strutting into the firehouse in order to ‘defend her man.’ She has shown a history of respecting her subordinates’ private lives and decisions on who they sleep with, from Dabbler bringing back that hair stylist from the first brawl to Sydney’s forays into polyamory and open relationships.
Max isn’t a prude; Max is prudent. She lives by the rules as they are established. Even the time she confronted Harem about sleeping with Deus, Max didn’t press the relationship as an issue; she just needed assurance that Harem wasn’t sharing classified data or using the relationship as leverage.
It was also not to sex with teammates because there is no way of knowing when they might be needed, and, as shown with Barberian, it can take days to recover
Max once withheld the quickest, easiest, most effective treatment (sex with a succubus) to remove a succubus charm from Jabberwokky that had gotten stuck. This despite Jabberwokky enthusiastically agreeing with the idea. Although Jabs was not of sound mind at the time, everything we know about her personality and mindset and their comrades should know or could easily research indicates she would almost surely make the same choice in normal circumstances, and hence her opinion should be deemed valid.
Therefore, Max abused her authority to deprive an impaired subordinate of the best treatment according to expert opinion for a supernatural medical issue, which the subject was enthusiastically consenting to, in order to fulfil her personal anti-sex foibles. Call it prudery, call it militant sex-negative feminism, that’s a serious strike against her.
Even if she did not trust Dabbler’s expert opinion due to the potential conflict of interest (hers was the charm that had gotten accidentally stuck), Decolette was just a phone call away to provide a second expert opinion and someone else that could help Jabberwokky.
If Max was instead concerned that sex with a succubus would leave Jabs unfit for duty for some time, that would have been a different form of abuse of authority.
As it concerns her reaction to the relationship between Harem and Deus, when she got the news, she launched in a feminist tirade of hers about female spies being forced to take part in sexpionage, and Harem basically answered: “Cut the crap, Max. I am dating him willingly and it’s nothing of your business, CO or not. I have the libido of five healthy young women and he’s a charming genius billionaire that is exceedingly good at sex”.
Her behavior with Roman indeed is evidence she is making an effort to listen to her friends and work out her issues concerning men and sex. Because deep down she acknowledges she is a straight young woman with romantic and sexual needs that dedication to her duties and comradeship with her friends can’t fulfil, and unhappiness and frustration are in store for her if she keeps indulging her misandrist and sex-negative prejudices and the resulting habits to the bitter end. That’s character development for her.
Eh, no, as far as Jabberwocky goes.
Jabber was NOT IN HER RIGHT MIND.
You do not make sexual decisions for someone else who is quite literally suffering from mind control.
Jabber could have taken the succubus path, and then sued Max for basically allowing her to be raped while she was under mind control, even if she enjoyed the whole process.
You are injecting a bias into what is a very sensitive situation involving mind control that Max CANNOT agree with. Jabber’s problem is exactly the kind of shit a succubus’ lust aura can stir up, and why she does NOT want that stuff happening. If things go wrong, people will want someone to blame and point fingers at, and mind control is not a thing you take chances on.
So, disagreeing with you on a lot of this. Remove all mind control aspects, and Max has proven she just looks the other way. Once it’s there? She’s FEROCIOUS about acting against it.
Do not make it about sex or even mind control being a special case like the likes of Max would do. That’s the wrong way to address the issue. Focus on the medical issue. Jabberwokky was not in her right mind, sure, and she did not provide any pre-emptive explicit statement to define her will for this specific contingency.
This kind of stuff happens in medicine pretty much all the time. When someone is unable to express a valid consent or dissent to a medical procedure, and in the lack of standing directives by them covering the contingency, the best and proper thing to do is to try your best to puzzle out what the likely will of the subject in their right mind would have been in this contingency, gathering all the available info about their personality, mindset, ideals, values, and opinion on anything adjacent to the issue. The wrong thing to do is to project your personal or institutional ideological bias on the topic.
I feel entirely confident that according to anything we know about Jabberwokky, the result of this inquiry would be something like “Heck, yes, restore me to my right mind ASAP by the easiest, quickest, most effective means possible. I could not care less if it involves me being engaged in sex with a succubus. I am probably going to enjoy it a lot, and if so, all the better. I hope I’ll remember it in that case. Anyway, I am not going to regret or resent it”.
That this would also align with the ‘intoxicated’ Jabberwokky was vocally claiming at the time was not the deciding factor – because indeed she was not in her right mind – but it would be a important factor to confirm this would indeed be what the ‘sober’ Jabs would choose for herself.
Max did not even try anything of the sort. She just projected her own values and priorities on Jabberwokky and summarily made the decision for her, despite the two of them being people with radically different mindsets.
Institution (n): an established law, practice, or custom.
The ONLY thing to do is to act according to institutional ‘bias.’ That’s why it’s called a LAW. Any decision that disregards the law as ordained by the country and military would be ILLEGAL, personal or expert opinions notwithstanding.
If lawmakers evaluate the decision later and decide there should be a change in the law, fine. Until then, this was the rule and Max acted in accordance.
I am doubtful that in the situation at hand, a US legal standard existed and applied that basically stated “in a medical situation that may have sexual implications, and the subject is not currently able to provide consent or dissent in a sound mind, always act to give priority to preservation of subject’s chastity, notwithstanding their best interest and likely wishes”. This especially in the light of the Terry Schiavo precedent that seems the most relevant precedent to me in this kind of situation and what I am mindful of.
Admittedly, I am no US lawyer, so my reasoning might be somehow flawed. In such a case, I concede Max’s choices, although still quite wrong according to my libertarian and sex-positive ethics, would be much more justifiable in a narrative sense, given her role and her super by-the-book mindset.
I would still find her choices wrong and desplicable, but then I would shift the blame from the prude/sex-negative feminist part of her personality to the Lawful Stupid part. Did I mention I loathe “the law, right or wrong” paladin/boyscout types?
If Deus enjoys being surprised, I’m sure he’s a big fan of The Mighty Halo
Well, they seemed to enjoy each other’s company last couple of times she visited.
They are both nerdy fans of supers so they have that in common.
Nerdy fans of fantasy and scifi as well. Do you remember when she admired his collection of famous weapon artifacts? Although he was somehow hurt she thought they were replicas and he would settle for anything less than the real deal.
I don’t think he was offended by her thinking they were replicas – he was more “Replicas. Yesss…” as though he was just going with her assumption to avoid having to talk about where he ACTUALLY acquired them, since this was pre-Alien reveal.
And then they hummed suspiciously at each other. One of the funnier pages.
I do not think he was offended, rarher more like disappointed. Conflicted between his ‘nerd genius billionaire pride’ urge to clarify that he was not so cheap as to settle for replicas, and the rational realization that the least troublesome option atm was to cover his tracks as you point out. The compromise in his head was to leave the issue ambiguous, trusting her ADHD brain to forget it in short order.
Also, he just likes the supervillain act-that-maybe-isn’t-an-act. “Replicas, yeeeesss…” is what I would say as an evil mastermind too.
If keeping Deus safe is Cthillias job now, I wonder what happened to Vale.
In all likelihood, Vale is currently busy dealing with some other area of Deus’ vast operation where superhuman muscle is useful but she is more suited to the task than Chtillia, and they swapped jobs for a while. Or who knows, maybe maintainance of Vale’s flesh suit requires she collects mountain dewdrops once in a while, and she is busy doing that.
Oh, right. I completely forgot about the mountain dewdrops.
She could also be nearby, remaining hidden for this meeting. I would suspect a man like him to have multiple layers of security around him, most not-visible till needed.
I suspect that Vale has a greater capacity for subtlety and initiative and her tasks are assigned accordingly.
She’s on the plane watching 80’s cartoons.
Scared of Sydney and wants to stay out of her sight :D
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-409-elevator-predicate/
Gonna be honest here. After so many years of beautiful, professional-looking artwork with complex shading and highlights and specularity and all that jazz, these flat colors with virtually no shading are really not doing it for me. The characters don’t “pop” like they used to, there’s no sense of depth or mass, and the whole thing just looks…unfinished. I understand you wanted to speed up your process and reduce the effort needed to create a comic page, but there must be a middle ground somewhere.
This.
Gonna have to deal with it. From a few weeks back, right now Dave is dealing with, “… we’re at the stage of taking care of my mom that we’ve all concluded that she’s going to move in with me and my wife. Which involves selling her house, buying a new house that can better accommodate all of us, moving nearly everything in her house to the new one, then fixing up our house, selling it, and moving nearly everything from it to the new house. And that is an absolute ass rogering amount of work.”
I’m confident the art style will revert back to it’s normal high level once life settles down, but it could take a while. In the mean time, just enjoy the story. Or go back and re-read the first few chapters if you want to see how much the artwork has improved over the years. Or move on.
Agreed. The art will be at it’s usual level once his schedule allows for it, and he might even go back and render these pages properly if we’re lucky. I doubt this is permanent, and I think we’re lucky to still be getting it *at all* rather than to have the comic placed on hiatus.
Ahhh, right. I forgot the drop in art quality was due to a family crisis situation. Totally understandable, in that case. I retract my prior criticism.
While I absolutely love the more-polished style of most of the comic, for pages like this that could just as easily be talking heads, I think I’m fine with the flat version. I certainly prefer it to the chibi pages, which feel like they’re non-canon extras more than real pages.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have the high detail we see elsewhere in the comic, but if the choice is between flats and only getting a page a week or so, I’d rather have flats, at least for scenes like this. I’d prefer full detail for more high-action scenes, however.
What will Sciona do to keep Deus at bay?!?
Tell Maxi he has photo’s of her underwear draw… and provide proof?
Got to admit Deus would be a lot more terrifying if he wasn’t a fan of being such a nerd. How many other super villains would stop their evil monologue showing how superior they are… Just to geek out and have fun knowing that a rival knew an old earth line like that?
I mean look at how he even enjoys that more than any of his other evil plot schemes… And how his minions are practically rolling their eyes as this might not be the first time he dropped everything just to laugh and enjoy a moment like that.
This is the same guy who has given Vale the remote for his Dramatic Lightning Flash window…
I like how Deus leans into it. He wants to do good and change the world for the better. He realizes that attempting to make any sort of change will have him labeled a villain because the current powers that be will try to maintain the status quo and label him thus in an attempt to do so. So he…leans into it and has fun with it.
This. The difference between someone being called a hero or a villain isn’t that a hero does good and a villain does evil. The difference is that a hero works to maintain the existing power structure, and a villain works to change it. Deus is working to replace the corrupt and inefficient power structures in Africa, vastly improving the lives of the populace, but he is called a villain because those corrupt systems benefit the rich and powerful, and they feel threatened by his current actions, and especially his potential future actions, since eventually his gaze will turn to them.
Part of that difference is the methods used. Most “villains” employ methods that typically result in a lot of pain and suffering for a lot of people, which, of course, puts them at odds with most hero types.
Deus is skirting the line, playing the politics game, and being very careful to keep any blatantly illegal actions hidden, thus avoiding coming into direct conflict with the world’s ‘heroes’ so far. Sure, his end goal of maybe wanting to rule the world is typical Vilian motivation, but his methods are a lot tamer than most. I think what Deus has that most big villains lack, is patience. Most don’t have the patience to play the long game, and so go for the quick win, which requires a lot of heavy-handed brute force.
Eh, he’s killed a lot of people, just not people that live in the rich western countries, so those people don’t object. To the new widows and orphans of Mozambique soldiers, he’s still going to be a villain. Sure, he tried to keep the death toll to a minimum with shock and awe tactics, but that just means he buys into the ‘corrupt system’s acceptance of collateral damage.
Memes, tropes, and stereoypes usually exist b/c they have a solid factual basis. This definitely includes the inevitability of ‘collateral damage’ to some degree. Even for someone with Deus’ exceptional resources, to stage a revolution or conquest with absolute zero casualties would be close to impossible or at least far too inconvenient for his overall goals.
To name but one issue, a minimum but still meaningful degree of lethal force sends an important deterrence message and avoids an equivalent or worse amount of trouble down the line. To show you have an absolute taboo about the use of lethal force no matter how appropriate tells your enemies you have a serious weakness that is easy to exploit.
To name another, a no-kill taboo would mean he cannot put the Epimorph to good use. That means he has much more trouble winning and keeping the loyalty of someone like Chtillia on top of the hassle of keeping many more war criminals imprisoned indefinitely.
Deus is simply too smart and genre savvy not to be mindful of the obvious pitfalls of acting like a Silver Age superhero. Joker Immunity, anyone?
Who said ‘no killing’? Not me. However, there’s a difference between offing the Joker and wiping out a squadron of soldiers–and that assumes that no civilians are caught in the blast fire, which is a thing that hasn’t been part of warfare since humanity created, um, warfare.
And all of these people are the ones who will have loved ones who will regard Deus as a villain, and someone to be resisted. DaveB’s written around this, but it’s an inevitable part of his embrace of warfare as part of his tactics to gain what he wants.
Looking at Mozambique’ geography, demography, and socio-economic situation, the likelihood of the fighting happening in or close to major urban centers with significant civilian casualties seems far from high.
The friends and loved ones of those fallen soldiers are gonna be a few thousands tops, amid ca. 35 millions people that are going to cheer for the good life assimilation in Gailtyn is gonna being to them. Hardly a meaningful threat for Deus’ rule of the region. Such a tiny fringe is going to be silenced by a contrary national mood and driven to make their peace with what happened one way or another.
You might be my new best friend on here.
And… your true colours shine brighter than a thousand burning villages
I don’t get what you just said.
That you are okay with the large loss of life, as long as it is SmugD who is doing it (correction, his colleagues who are doing it, totally not on his behalf or his request)
“That you are okay with the large loss of life,”
It’s not a large loss of life. And in war, people do die. It’s surprising how few died during the Galytn/Mozambique conflict in fact, and how short the conflict was. Over 80 percent of the entire military surrendered after the first skirmish in fact. Within the first DAY. Probably very few actual deaths occurred, in fact.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1015-shock-and-brimstone/
(panel 7)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1023-one-nation-under-new-administration/
(pretty much every panel)
The few lives that were lost were from soldiers during a military conflict, and Deus did everything to try to minimize that loss of life, both before the conflict and DURING the conflict. He doesnt want casualties if at all possible. He was also begged to come into Mozambique by the people who are oppressed by the EXTREMELY corrupt government in Mozambique, which does involve soldiers disappearing people and them living in poverty without clean water or food.
In fact, the primary cause of Mozambique’s problems IS the corruption of the military and government officials. On a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being the most corrupt possible and 100 being clean, the country scored between 22 and 25 continuously between 1999 and 2024 according to the Transparency International Corruption Index. As a result, its economic index is NEGATIVE 7.8 percent, and out of 180 countries, Mozambique is the 22nd most corrupt in the world.
Now with Deus taking charge, the people are going to go from being a third world nation under the control of a corrupt government to a first world nation with wealth, peace, and prosperity where they no longer have to fear their own government.
“his colleagues who are doing it, totally not on his behalf or his request)”
Actually, it was on the request of the people of the area in Mozambique where the conflict happened, less of 1% of whom have access to clean water or electricity). Deus’s preference on how to take over the world is through win-win economic deals and cooperation, rather than by bloodshed.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1014-the-zambezi-high-club/
Pander, you could at least TRY to keep to the facts in evidence. There is no statement in any of the Mozambique strips that anyone requested Deus’ intervention. Some may quickly come around to the idea, especially with the ‘negotiated terms’ of their peace treaty. But the initial slaughter was, indeed, a slaughter (it’s clear that literally every tank and jet in the conflict was completely wiped out).
Sure, once he’s in an area, he immediately sets about his reforms. But again, in the interim, he fills body bags.
Not to forget, he claimed land by having one of his Super lackey’s literally land on it
During a military conflict that he instigated!!
He didn’t go there to make peace, he went there to conquer
I thought there was a more direct claim that people in Mozambique were “begging” Deus to come liberate them, but the closest thing I can find is on page 840, where he says “I will be absorbing cities near my border that have been privately begging me to bring Galytn’s infrastructure and jobs to their cities.”
Going to minor correct that.
We’re going to ignore matters of perspective. But ‘the hero’ wanting to preserve the existing power structure completely destroys all the rebel heroes that have ever existed ever. While the Empire might consider them villains, in Star Wars they are definitely the heroes of the story, and the government and Emperor on top are the villains.
Thus, heroes are the ones trying to change the existing power structure for the better, and not just for themselves.
A villain is someone who is trying to change the existing power structure to benefit THEMSELVES, and they typically do so without any regard for the well-being of others.
People trying to change the power structure for themselves, but not going overboard about it, are ambitious Neutrals.
Someone trying to change the existing power structure for the benefit of others, but using horrible methods to do it, falls under the onus of being an anti-hero.
Thanks you put this way better than I was going to
ok, ‘using horrible methods’ lets go back to star wars where the heros have:
performed mass murder of potentially sentient beings multiple times.
sent armies of organic beings out to do a distraction that likely caused massive deaths of said army.
directly killed sentient beings organic and otherwise
killed large numbers of organic beings.
I’m sure people more familir with the lore can add to the list. though I’d ask who you think the hero of KOTOR II was because that one has all kinds of fun things.
if you think heroes can’t kill and don’t know the meaning of sacrifice, then you aren’t talking about heroes at all. Being heroic does not mean being Stupid Good. Good people have no obligation to be NICE when defending their own or trying to make a better world in the face of hostile people totally willing to kill them for their own benefits.
Evil bastards actually count on Heroes being Stupid Good, and the general unwashed population agreeing with the EeeBees (look how quickly the UnPop’s turn on the Heroes and actually start supporting the EeeBees)
The only reason the Heroes keep fighting and not just go “Fuck you! you are on your own, you ungrateful shits!” is because they are Heroes
This is why I say there two main types of hero.
The ones that do their best to stop things getting worse for everyone, and the ones that do their best to make things better for everyone.
I bet he would pay through the nose for an elite minion that is as reliable and useful as superhuman muscle as Vale or Chtillia and can share his appreciation of nerd stuff and his Evil Overlord roleplaying. Ofc, someone that is the real deal and is not just brown-nosing him, he can tell the difference a mile away and has no use for sycophants.
I think that, too, is part of the reason for his joy at Sciona making that reference. He just found a rival (and potential ally and lover if the variables align) that is close to a peer for him and could also get in tune with his nerd side.
Well, ofc an ancient-ish blood archmage that landed in a super body with mind manipulation powers and once run circles around the entire Twilight Council is orders of magnitude more dangerous than a run-of-the-mill Alari P.A.
That Sciona in her former ‘troll body’ life-stage would fill the empty hours watching/reading Earthly pop-culture does not look so surprising to me. After all, she likely spent decades trapped in that state and she is neither the workaholic type that would spend every waking hour on the job nor one that would discard something useful because of her prejudices. So it would not be something that is so unlikely as to surprise a genius schemer.
What is odd, unless faking surprise is just one more step in Deus’ manipulation scheme. But lying does not usually seem part of his bag of tricks, he prefers to build Xanatos Gambit situations where any option you have somehow comes to his advantage. And unlikely events that surprise him likely are such a rare joy for him that he would not care to lie about them. Arrgh, my head is gonna explode if I try to analyze him any more deeply.
No surprise instead that the pop-culture reference goes over Lorlara and Chtillia’s heads. The former has not been on Earth that long and the latter does seem the aloof type that would care about such things.
I hope nobody is going to take Sciona’s comment here as evidence she was coerced into Deus’ bed last time. She was not, she went willingly and past a point participated enthusiastically and had a great time. However, she is negotiating survival of her power base and lifestyle with Deus and she does not want to show weakness. Moreover, she Sydney and Deus’ discovery of her identity rattled her, she is feeling defensive, and being Tsundere and contrarian with him is a natural consequence. She does not yet know what price, if any, he is gonna ask for his silence, although I bet it won’t be anything she would find intolerable and quite possibly it might be something that aligns with her interests.
Deus obviously enjoys a battle of wits with someone that, although not at his level, certainly is in his league. I bet Sciona, for all her Tsundere-ness, would like it as well, if she were reassured everything she built for herself in her second life is not on the line.
All in all, I assume these two would greatly enjoy each other’s company in more relaxed circumstances, such as say a ‘date’ or two just after they got done settling the issue at hand here to mutual satisfaction. Just continuing their battle of wits about anything and everything except vital interests as well as comparing notes about the supervillain lifestyle.
In slightly different circumstances, I can picture Deus and Dabbler doing something similar (they had a good day speculating about magic and the Superion field together), and quite possibly Sciona and Dabbler having a nice frenemy chat in different circumstances. In the first two cases, I can certainly see that as the prelude to a glorious bedroom romp. No idea if Sciona is bi-curious enough for that or not.
Loved the reference and the expression, was “chefs kiss”
I wonder what exactly dues gains with revealing himself here. A few manipulation points that deviate Sciona’s plan in ways he intends or just a way to get a better read on her and revine his predictions?
But he does confirm for us reading that its the dungeon Sciona has plans for.
I don’t think its necessarily unusual for Sciona to know Earth pop-culture references. She had been on Earth for a reasonable period of time, plotting and getting her head chopped off… Most of her head.
Yep. Moreover, Earthly pop-culture would have been a good way to relieve the stress and boredom in R&R moments when she found herself bound to a monstrous orc/troll body to survive for quite some time. It is not like she could go looking for hookups with hot guys or just hang around with humans at the time, and she was on the run from TC-affiliated supernaturals. In all evidence she deemed the few other supernaturals that were allied to her disposable pawns and cannon fodder. Other Alari were far away at interstellar distances.
Desu just looks… so happy!
Another rule is: if you encounter a pop culture reference that you can’t allocate immediately, then there’s a good chance it’s from “The Princess Bride”.
Eh, I can usually spot those right away. Now, Monty Python is an endless well of potential references.
I call that Deus found it more important to counterpunch Sciona’s rape allegation than to keep his chances of bedding her high. Also, since he doesn’t seem the type who’s ever had problems finding hot women to sleep with in a long time, he can be fierce about it.
Chances of Deus bedding her would be high (but she would play Tsundere about it) in any case if she would not feel defensive about him possibly threatening her power base and lifestyle. And that occurring on top of Sydney recently doing the same out of the blue to rattle her further.
Moreover, both of them are megalomaniac supervillains, so they are bound to feel and act competitive to some degree when they meet. Although they are also kindred souls in a similar calling and intellectual near-peers, so I bet they enjoy each other’s company (not just in the bedroom) if their interests do not clash. Heck, now they can even share an appreciation of nerd stuff.
In the end, I assume she is going to welcome the opportunity of another hookup with him if other concerns do not go in the way and he shows interest since she remembers him fondly as the best lay she ever got (6xguy is very good, just not that good), and she cares about such things. As it concerns him, yep he can sample the dating & hookup best Earth and connected worlds have to offer. and he is busy filling that Little Black Book library among many other things. However, I bet she is special enough in her own way he would not mind having the same relationship with her he has with Harem.
Her implying a false rape allegation is half an exchange in their ongoing battle of wits (the Princess Bride reference is deliciously metatextual in this regard, since it concerns another famous contest of the same kind), half her venting anger at a very bad day when almost everything she had got threatened twice in short succession, at least once out of the blue.
Although, if she genuinely did not expect Deus would not show up at the dungeon site or he would not see through her facade with ease, I would deem it a significant strike against her foresight. Both things were fairly predictable.
It’s to my faked regret that I must inform you all I am officially signing up with team Deus.
Deus is the perfect enemy for a comic where the main character is also a turbo-nerd. You’d think the obvious choice would be a dumb jock, but where’s the fun in that? It’s way more fun when they can have moments of nerding out to each other while knowing they’re on opposite sides.
Welcome to the club. I will get the paperwork started and provide you your ‘All praise Deus, amen’ T-shirt and big foam hand which says Deus #1. Meetings are on Tuesdays (Deusday) and I will send you the secret handshake via private correspondence.
All praise Deus, amen.
+1
Don’t forget to drink the cherry cool-aid
Are any of the other supers wandering/working at this site going to notice Escorpia/Sciona/Ms. Garza (or whatever her current name is?) in a secretive huddle with Deus and his top associates? The most likely to notice would be ADHD Sydney, because one of the evolutionarily benefits of ADHD is quickly noticing things out of the ordinary. But she’s still under the effects of Sciona’s drug.
Sydney in her normal state might get curious since she knows Deus is an endless source of interesting stuff. But Sciona’s cover identity and Deus having a chat is far from unusual or surprising. He is who he is, her cover is Chief of Staff of a prominent Senator. They are both engaged in the dungeon project and they both participated in a meeting between several US, Gaitlyn, Archon, and Twilight Council power players to finalize it. Anyone in the know (as people working on or supervising the site would be) seeing them chatting is going to assume it is just more deal-making and/or comparing notes.
“Deus is talking with the Senator’s aid. They seem quite agitated.”
“The Senator probably wants something for his support, or they’re working out some other deal. We could intervene, but that likely involves politics, and we could step on Archon support. Leave that to Max and the general.”
Yep. All but surely, it is going to look like two power players negotiating some political deal in the making. It is not the business of Archon and Twilight Council field operatives to be concerned with such dealings, and the ones we know of have not shown any personal interest in those things. Well, except Sydney who might get curious about anything and everything according to the whims of her ADHD brain, but she was neutered for the time being courtesy of Sciona. The troops better stick to and carry on with their construction duties. To deal with the political stuff is one of the tasks of their higher-ups.
lmao, he looks so happy
Deus’s delight in being surprised by a pop-culture reference is hilarious. There does come a point where being enough moves ahead of everyone else turns life into a game of solitaire. Deus is not at that point, but he must feel it sometimes. I gotta say, it is nice that he shows no signs of falling prey to that most horrific of all philosophies, solipsism.
Also Sciona is REALLY not firing on all cylinders here. Taking Deus up on his offer of a roll in the hay is the best possible chance she could have to addict him to her new powers.
Well, just how many people does Deus have in his circle of acquaintances (that we know of, otherwise the known universe is the limit) and that come close to his level intellectually and resourcewise? Sciona, Dabbler, who else? Max is in his league powerswise, is a dating unicorn of his, and even has a geek side but even she is far from being his intellectual peer.
>Also Sciona is REALLY not firing on all cylinders here. Taking Deus up on his offer of a roll in the hay is the best possible chance she could have to addict him to her new powers.
Sciona not firing on all cylinders today is a plain fact. She stumbled thrice with Sydney in quick succession, although she admittedly could hardly predict her snooping on her texts from afar. That no doubt rattled them considerably and is evidence she is not at her best game. She also dislikes not bein in control of the situation a lot. All of this surely makes her more biting and less thoughtful than her recent usual.
To agree on sleeping with him again would be far from a bad option for her. It costs her nothing, she would have the chance you mention (even if all but surely he has half a dozen countermeasures vs. mental manipulation in place) and she is gonna have a good time.
Drugging Deus is a very risky game. How do you know he does not employ a super or has a technology to permanently monitor his body chemistry?
We can expect he has a super with the right powers AND magical countermeasures AND super-tech ones. His agency is that valuable and he has the resources to employ all of that. Even so, for her to get in the position to try would be far from a bad bet. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. At worst, she would lose nothing valuable to her, quite possibly get more in his good graces, and she would have a very good time. He would not even likely resent her trying so, if she does not try too hard, since he would totally expect her trying it at some point.
Also, the resources to hire someone like that are great–IF the desired person even exists. If there was a gun that could punch through Sydney’s shield, he could buy it, yes, but that does him no good if the gun doesn’t exist.
An often ignored limitation of characters who’s sole source of power is just money.
True to a degree, but let’s also be mindful Deus’ bag of tricks goes far beyond mere money. His enhanced intelligence, genre savviness, and resources give him potential access to super-tech and magic. We saw him using a wormhole portal powered by Gaitlyn’s power grid to go on a shopping trip for galactic tech. It is all but sure he can tap extensive access to magic by similar means. E.g. by trading for it with his demonic allies; moreover, if he has the means to get in touch with all kinds of aliens and supernaturals for playboy fun, he can certainly use them to shop for magic. That assuming he is not able and willing to use his super-smarts to make himself the equivalent of Dabbler or Dr. Doom. It is heavily implied he has the know-how to create artificial supers.
As I’ve mentioned before, the odds Deus doesn’t know magic are slim to none.
He knew how to use the Branecrusher to open a wormhole to the space station, which means he knew it existed AND that he has coordinates.
His alien entity/bodyguard Vale respects him and puts up with all kinds of crap from him. It can’t just be because he’s SMART.
Magic is the skill that caters to the super-intelligent, and is power that you carry around with you. Deus is likely the most skilled spellcaster on the planet, and unlike tech, that power can’t be taken away from him and goes where he goes.
It also explains his great interest in the Dungeon, too, and his in-depth knowledge of and immunity to the Veil.
You have a point, but we also have to be mindful that chances are one or a few supers with the right kind of power for this task (versatile bio and/or mind manipulation) do exist out there (Escorpia did) and Deus would among the best suited agents to find and recruit them. Alternatively, if Deus is so good at creating artificial supers as he implied he is, to manufacture a super with right power set would be just as manageable or somewhat easier in its own way.
I’m not saying he doesn’t have this ability, but it’s definitely not been demonstrated in the comic. There’s three possibilities:
1: Giving someone superpowers is a crapshoot. You might get Molecule Man, you might get Cypher.
2: You can pre-determine which powers someone will get, IF you upgrade them, but you still have no control over it. This seems the most likely approach to me, given that it’s tied to genetics, sorta. Lot of variability in this one–maybe he can tell, “this person gets energy powers”, or “this person gets fire powers”, or even, “this person gets the ability to generate a 20′ long cone of fire commeasurate in heat to a house fire, with a controlled spread of between 15 and 45 degrees, and a corresponding ability to resist fire.”
3: Dealer’s choice, Deus can more or less pick the powers he bestows. This is the most OP mode possible–if this is the case, then the options are either Shoot Him Now, or Bend the Knee, because he’s only getting more powerful. Again, there’s some variability here–maybe he can determine the type of power, but not the overall strength level or precise manifestation, or maybe he’s got total control.
Option 3 does have one interesting possibility, though. Suppose he creates another Super-Intellect on par with his own. It would be interesting to see if the two of them would agree on things, or if they would draw on different life experiences and thus start from differing premises, and thus reach different conclusions.
Too much variability seems ruled out by the fact advanced blood magic with the right kind of genetic samples can bestow specific kinds of superpowers with good replicability. Imperfectly but reliabily in a lifeform that has no inborn link to the Superion field like the Alari. Almost perfectly in an android/bioroid that was custom-built for that.
Sciona already has more or less cracked the code of creating the Grrlverse equivalent of the Super-Skrulls by using the thaumion field as a loophole to the Superion one. Chances are what she did, Deus can do just as well or better by genegineering beings that do have an inborn link to the Superion field.
That seems to imply 1) and low-end 2) are not in the cards, at least for the likes of Deus and Sciona, and what they can do lies somewhere between high-end 2) and 3).
Admittedly, we have seen the rough equivalent of the lesser alternative happening in the setting, and it was at the hands of the Ascenders. They were far from the brightest bulbs in the supervillain business, and orders of magnitude less competent than Deus.
Supers in Grrlverse seem to have some fairly sharp limits on power spread. There is the default physical package of being highly pleasing for the artist to draw, above average toughness and strength seem very common, past that they (with the notable exception of Max, who may have cheated) seem to have a single power that they can then power stunt off of.
There are supers with broad powers (Varia, ForWhomTheNameSucks) but in both cases they are reactive, requiring an external key to activate their powers. No wait, there is another exception, Vehmence, but his power is to tap into a different and more flexible power source.
So while Deus can probably create super somewhat to order, I doubt he can create SwissArmyMan. We also see no signs that he has enhanced his own powers, although admittedly, he would be a fool to tip that hand early, and as playful and boastful as he is, he is not a fool.
Achilles at least is most likely immune. After all, he has already “eaten a vial of super-Ebola” to keep it from being released. That sure sounds like externally-applied biochemicals wouldn’t work.
I’m not sure how he would transfer that ability to Deus though. And he may be unique.
Um, are we forgetting that he cracked the mystery of where super powers come from, and *maybe* is able to manufacture supers to order, or at least generate absurd numbers of random supers?
Exactly. Moreover, Sciona already proved it is possible to manufacture supers to order with magic means (advanced blood magic).
Given the way supernatural abilities work in this setting, and the high affinities between the three ‘power’ fields (Thaumion, Superion, Psion) on one hand and between magic and tech on the other hand, this makes it very likely you can do the same with tech means (advanced genetic engineering), the right kind of superpowers (supers with power manipulation abilities), and quite possibly advanced psionics as well (godlike Astral beings doing it for you).
Proof positive that the princess bride is a perfect movie.
plus, it’s cool that the title looks the same right-side-up as it does upside-down
I wonder if they’ll ever make the sequel by just playing it backwards
well done “Isabella”
The partial teeth in panel 6 is hard to accept, given all the toothy examples of Deus we’ve already seen.
But the “Happy / Surprised Look” of Deus in panel 7 positively ROCKS with excellent effect!
As others have mentioned, I wish you the best possible outcomes in your personal life struggles. And only part of those wishes are based in missing the old sheen and glint of excellence earlier drawings held.
The genuine look of surprise and joy on Deus’ face when she makes a Princess Bride reference is just too much ;D
I love how nobody – not even much of the comic’s reader base – realizes that Deus knows exactly what he’s doing by allowing powerful and influential people to see him being a total doofer. He’s using the exact same methods Sydney does to disarm people and make himself seem affable and goofy and a fun dude to know, and sure – some or even most of that is probably genuine. But unlike Sydney, Deus knows full well what he’s doing and is absolutely factoring his doofiness into his plans. He’s not trying to hide his ‘villainy’ or that he’s a goof – he’s using the goodiness to help him condition the rest of the world into going along with his work. “I don’t need to hide my motives if no one ever bothers truly questioning them because they think I’m silly.” Whether it’s intentional or not, the guy is a magnificent villain.
that reminds me of another being who is almost always playing the fool. when the being stops playing the fool… run. running is good.
Just like there was no coercion the first (and only) time, right Pander?
Correct. there was no coercion. He gave her a choice, and the choice to not sleep with him had no punishment for her. It was ‘sleep with me and I’ll help you out. Don’t sleep with me and nothing happens’ All carrot, no stick.
Please remember the difference between mere persuasion and coercion
Coercion is the act of persuasion, true, but it’s the act of persuasion using FORCE or THREATS (seriously, that’s the actual definition, feel free to look it up). Deus used no force nor threats.
What Deus said was that 1) he is astonishingly good at sex and 2) she hasnt had sex in a long, long time. That’s persuasion – not coercion. Pretty good persuasion too, since it’s based on truth and nothing negative towards Sciona.
What you might be referring to is where Sciona decided to show off her naked body to Deus then say how she would not sully her perfect body with a mere mortal like Deus, and Vale said ‘be careful with that word – you are long lived, but only slightly harder to kill than a human.’ Vale’s statement was not about forcing Sciona to do anything – it was about her referring to Deus as a mortal as if she was NOT mortal also (since she had in the past already tried to kill Deus anyway and doesnt think much of humans at all, except as tools to be conquered or killed). Vale was being a bodyguard. Which she is.
The only reason Vale was even there was because, as Deus says in the blurb below, “she is my bodyguard, and you are tempermental.” Which is a nice way of saying that Sciona tends to kill humans, and Deus is a human.
Exactly. Moreover, everything that happened since his offer and her acceptance confirmed it was a consensual, win-win deal. He was true to his word about the amazing sex and his part of the bargain. She got the clues she needed to seize the artifact with minimum effort and a very good time, enough to make her weak in the knees and eager for a second round. They parted on amicable terms to the highest degree possible for the murder machine Sciona was back then.
Since then, character development, on top of mellowing her somewhat, showed quality hookups are something she actively and eagerly pursues in appropriate circumstances and hence her acceptance of Deus’ offer was absolutely in-character for her.
Chtillia plays the same role in this scene that Vale did back then. The superpowered bodyguard that deters Sciona from resorting to violence, threats, or supernatural coercion as her rash default solution, and encourages her to consider Deus’ offer with an open mind.
Heck, this time she is the first to imply in a roundabout way they could have the same kind of bargain and throw pop-culture references. That when she is super pissed off from a very bad day and not going to improve until she knows whether Deus’ deal is liveable or not.
Indeed there was nothing of that sort. If anything, further plot developments only stressed the fact that it was a consensual win-win deal, they had a good time, and parted on good terms, and the event fit their mindset and way of life.
Sciona is acting defensively b/c she is unsure of what price Deus may ask for his silence, she sees her new life threatened (twice in a day and in short order), and this happened on top of the very bad day and serious scare Sydney already gave her. Nonetheless, I tend to assume her mentioning that precedent on her own initiative may well be her Tsundere way of signaling she would be up to making the same kind of deal.
Deus, in turn, stresses the point that he is no Weinstein. If anything of that sort is going to happen, and he is far from averse to the idea, it’s gonna be b/c they make another deal to mutual satisfaction, and for the fun of it once they have settled their issues.
Broadly speaking, I tend and like to assume in the rest of the scene, once they settle down to serious deal-making, Deus shall offer her a deal about tweaking her involvement on the dungeon project in a way that is convenient for both of them. Assuming this is enough to calm her nerves and establish the right mood, they are going to settle on that to mutual satisfaction. In this context, they may well agree on a rain check (current circumstances surely aren’t conductive to sexy fun) for another hookup or even their first date.
SmugD isn’t this world’s Xanatos, he’s this world’s Billy Batson!
Well at least you’re finally admitting Deus’s heroic qualities, G. :)
Of course you missed the implication: Billy is a child playing at being a Hero, and when things get real tough, or too ‘real’, he can just “SHAZAM!” into the background and hide amongst the crowd
Billy IS the hero. He doesnt hide. The wizard chose him because of Billy’s good soul and heroic qualities.
I’m guessing you havent read many Shazam comics.
Oh you should probably check out the DC animated short on Billy Batson.
Guessing you didn’t watch the movie
And he is still a child, easily amused by things that amuse children… just like SmugD
The new movie of Shazam (written by people who don’t understand the superheroes they’re writing) vs how he’s been depicted in 85 years of his comic book history plus 50 years of him in cartoons. :)
Recent live action movies have stuff like Batman gunning down people, Superman snapping necks, Wonder Woman having relations with Steve Trevor while he’s possessing the body of some innocent guy who has no way to consent or have any control over what’s happening to him. So I tend to not think of the recent movies as being particularly definitive of how the superheroes/heroines act. And they made Shazam goofy in the movie because Zach Levy is good at comedy acting, so they play up the slapstick in the movie instead of just depicting him as the wholesome hero he is in the comics and cartoons. Gee willikers, gosh.
Billy Batson/Shazam/Captain Marvel is a boy scout even compared to boy scouts like Superman, and the entire reason why he was chosen by the wizard was because he had a good and heroic heart. Heck he doesn’t even swear, gosh darn it! :)
And yes, I did watch the first movie, which was ‘mid’ – it was okay but not particularly memorable for a superhero movie. Funny in some places but overall ‘meh.’ DC animated movies and animated TV have always been much better than the live action versions.
If you mean the second movie, no – I didnt bother with the second movie (which I believe made about $133 million US and worldwide combined, while it cost $125 million to make and another $100 million to market – ie, it was a box office flop).
“And he is still a child, easily amused by things that amuse children”
He’s a child with the wisdom of Solomon who, instead of doing things that JUST amuse himself (as a child might), goes out to risk his life to protect others as a hero and sacrifices for others, willingly putting himself in harm’s way to protect those who can’t protect themselves.
So yeah I guess he is like Deus :)
All praise Deus, amen.
PS – seriously you would probably enjoy the DC Showcase animated shorts. I highly recommend them. Five stars for most of them IMHO. They have a bunch of other shorts in addition to Superman/Captain Marvel – The Return of Black Adam. They’ve had ones with Death (of the Endless), Catwoman, Green Lantern – Emerald Knights (which is about various other Green Lanterns actually, like Kilowog, Arisia, Laira before she became a Red Lantern, Mogo, and Abin Sur), Sergeant Rock, Phantom Stranger, Adam Strange, The Losers, Blue Beetle, Constantine, Green Arrow and Black Canary (really really good short), The Spectre, and Jonah Hex (Spectre and Hex are not as good as the other ones).
It is Inconceivable, that no one made this reference by now…
Well now we know Deus isn’t a moron, he’s got excellent tastes in movies. he’s still a massive dork though
What if Deus, sniffs air, then Sciona, looks at her skin. Smiles and congratulates her. The realization on what he’s congratulating her for would be primo comedy. The facial changes on Sciona would be amazing.
Then the awkward call to 6 time guy.
Then Vale being told she’s planning the baby shower party for Sciona. Comedy.
That would be good Knocked Up comedy, but in practice the chance of a top-class blood mage with a taste for hookups and creampies not having a 100% contraception spell at her fingertips is close to zero.
She had her blonde moments when she was upset or in a hurry, but not this much. And when she was with 6xguy she was at ease and in total control of the situation.
I can’t help but feel Deus is so good at predicting people he’s genuinely happy when someone manages to surprise him.
You’ve probably hit the nail right on the head. :)
Plus this time when he was surprised, he didn’t ruin a $3000 suit in the process.
I don’t know if Dave mentioned it before, but I’ve noticed that the last 3 pages seem a bit devoid of shading?
That’s what the comments about ‘flat art’ are about. Dave is spending a lot of time getting ready to move and take care of his mother, so he’s not putting as much detail into the art so it still gets out on time.
Yes I mentioned it 2 pages ago. It’s most likely because Deus is wanting to speed up his artwork because he has a lot of other stuff going on that he is needing to deal with, so it’s either remove shading for the time being and get the artwork out on his existing schedule, or slow down the artwork since there’s only 24 hours in the day until the rest of his life is more freed up.
Nnnnnnneeeeeerrrrd!
you say that with pride!
The reference was inconceivable!
Hopefully we’ll be back to Sydney in the next installment.
Sydney: “Wait a minute…. Am I ditching work? Max will {something something}!!”
Hopefully we won’t part from this scene for good w/o Sciona and Deus finalizing a deal, which shall give us some meaningful hint about their plans for the dungeon at long last. We might get some cloture for Sydney showing her dealing with the aftermath of intoxication and being back to her usual self, letting her memory erasure lie for the time being. I do not think she did anything recently that is meaningful enough to let her unlock another skill point, unless being on the receiving end of mind control qualifies for that.
Then I would not mind some meaningful development about some other open subplot, such as say Sciona’s golem ‘son’ building up his little empire, or Dabbler and Parfait’s Mom visiting her daughters to check on them (and driving Max nuts), or Vehemence getting his parole leave in Tom’s army, or the Xevoarchy pressing for more clarification about Earth having Nth-level tech, or something else that atm I am not mindful of.
I don’t care much if DaveB’s current RL constraints keep anything of that bound to the current minimalist art style, but I’d greatly prefer anything of the above rather than more Sydney-centered filler comedy and slice-of-life that spins the story wheels.
Peggy getting her leg back had some story value, esp. since it reflects galactic tech gradually worming its way into Archon and by extension human society. However IMO it overstayed its welcome with the long flashback and Peggy wallowing in survivor’s guilt and self-pity Wangst.
Does Sciona gain the memories of the bodies she inhabits? It’s possible that’s where she got the Earth pop culture from. I’m not sure Scorpia or whatever-her-name-was would be into that sort of thing, but we didn’t get to know her very well before she was killed, so who knows? I did kind of get the impression she probably spoke Spanish exclusively, so that line would be a bit different in the Spanish translation of the movie, but I don’t know.
It seems disproved by the fact Escorpia’s native language was Spanish. When Sciona possessed her body, she kept her previous fluency in English but knew no Spanish. She had to grab a pocket dictionary to communicate with a Mexican clerk.
And it is further confirmed by the behavior of the two Alari souls she put in the bodies of Escorpia’s killers, as well as explicitly affirmed by Word of Dave in #745. Consequently, everything Sciona knows about Earthly culture, she learnt the usual way during her two stays on Dirt.
Well, except for the very real possibility spells exist to copy or rip knowledge from the minds of people and add it to your own, and she used them at some point. Lapha’s people’s racial abilities indicate indicate it should be possible, although they require mind-to-mind connection through possession to work.
Having an alien organically throw your own pop culture references in your face during a conversation IN CONTEXT must be a wonderful feeling.
I LOVED Deus’s expression of pure joy at a Princess Bride reference. Just that made it all worthwhile. :)
Deus: Wanna go see a movie together? I hear the new Captain America movie’s out! I won’t even try to seduce you, it’d just be nice to see it with a fellow nerd.
Sciona: I’m NOT a nerd! *carefully conceals disappointment behind anger* YOU’RE the nerd! I’m just…
D: *sees it anyway, grins* That’s not a no…
S: UUUUGH… fine
*Lorlala offers Cthilia another high-five. Cthilia growls*
You know, this might not be a bad idea at all for their first date, if they want to have fun and get in tune thanks to their geek nerd side. Alternatively, if they want to do it the “the couple that does X together, stays together” kindred souls way, they could have a nice chat about the supervillain business and how to take over the world together as a power couple. Yet another idea might be to indulge their academic merd side and chat about the wonders and mysteries of magic, superpowers, and the Universe at large.
Sydney: Cute, likable, not scheming every five seconds, killed several of the monsters that destroyed Sciona’s homeworld, helped a ton of refugees for no reason beyond that they needed help, didn’t force them to stay with her.
Deus: Scheming monster whom she knows is up to something and has not only managed to bed her once but potentially might do so again all while blatantly up to something evil.
Come on Sciona. This isn’t hard. Your mug said you were the #1 Blood Mage, so figuring out who you should be siding with shouldn’t be difficult.
Sciona hardly has reason to regard Sydney as likable. To her, she is a known enemy and an insufferable snoop that keeps messing with her plans, recently intruded in her intimate moment with 6xguy for no good reason, and threatened to destroy everything she built for herself, again. Sydney outing her to Archon and the TC would mean being put in the same situation as Vehemence or Lapha, and potentially facing a death sentence.
It is way questionable that Sciona knows what Sdyney did once the warp gate to Alari Prime closed. The only way for her to know would be if she checked Archon records on the issue. She might well have the clearance for it, but a need to know? And would she be interested in how exactly Sydney returned to Earth (clearly thanks to the alien allies of Archon)? For what she knows, Alari Prime is an empty wasteland and Deus’ faction and hers are the only survivors.
Deus did not force his faction of Alari refugees to stay in Gaitlyn. He offered them a place to settle in comfortable terms, and they accepted. Besides this being his usual M.O., it is confirmed by the fact one of them was able to rise high in Deus’ organization (PA to the supreme leader) in short order and speaks enthusiastically of her boss. Ambition, scheming, and pragmatic evil are no vice in the Alari’s eyes, they are rightful living. Deus’ supervillain and benevolent dictator behavior are how a good leader should behave, as indicated by Lorlara’s fangirling.
Deus and Sciona are rivals for world domination and leadership of the Alari survivors, yes, but the Alari are accustomed to run their society with a mix of cooperation, competition, and deal-making between rival factions, so their relationship is nothing bad or new for her. Their frenemy with benefits relationship in all likelihood is normal for Alari of similar status that regard each other as interesting company and date material.
The notion of Deus seducing Sciona in casual sex and quite possibly doing so again being a bad or disliked thing for her is absurd, on top of being a very questionable notion to begin with (prudes, begone). Chastity has no value for Sciona. She is a liberated gal that actively and eagerly pursues sexual fulfillment and quality hookups with hot guys in her R&R moments. He probably gave her the best sex of her life as part of a win-win deal. Chances are the Tsundere attitude and Belligerent Sexual Tension she shows with Deus is normal courtship behavior for Alari of similar status and in any case seems standard for this supervillain couple.
In all evidence, even if they end up having the same relationship Deus has with Harem, it would be an open one and standard behavior for them. She would have 6xguy (and possibly a whole seraglio if she has her way) on the side, him Harem and his whole Little Black Book library.
Atm she is behaving a bit more defensive with him than their usual frenemy with benefits standard, but this is b/c she feels her power base and lifestyle threatened (twice in short succession due to the scare Sdyney gave her) until she knows he has an acceptable price for his silence.
The gate to Alari Prime was a (instable and out of control) wormhole. You can never check a comment enough times w/o an edit function.
On second thoughts, Sciona might be interested to check what Archon knows about the destruction of Alari Prime and its authors, but they do not know anything that the other Alari survivors could not already tell her, and she may have reason to suspect it.
The only important exception is evidence that Halo’s orbs are an effective weapon against the Calamarians in the case they show up to finish the job. That would be quite a valuable piece of info. However, Sciona already acknowledged that to bring Halo under her control would be too difficult and risky as things stand. To reconcile with or make herself unassailable to Archon at this stage of her master plan would be even more troublesome, and would entail changing a lot of her plans. Moreover, in the contingency the Calamarians do show up, chances are Earth is going to be in the line of fire as it happened with the Fell, and hence Archon would fight them anyway.
Alari are coded as “space drow”, as in the D&D species.
The D&D species act the way they do at least partly because of their worship of Lolth, a demon god. Which informs their customs and morality. I’m not going to say that if they ceased to worship Lolth they would become nice people, but if they had never started perhaps the culture wouldn’t be quite so obsessed with cruelty and betrayal as qualities worthy of emulation.
The Alari on the other hand seem to consider strength as an unqualified positive. This is rather closer to the usual human reaction – we’re odd (look up WEIRD as an acronym).
I don’t know if Alari have the same definition of “evil”. It may be more like “you’ve done bad things to my fellow House mates” than our reactions.
Sciona’s reaction to Sydney helping the refugees may be familiar. On the other hand, she may be puzzled by it: “They’re not of your House. What are you hoping to get out of it? Nothing?! Ok, now I’m *really* suspicious of you – you’re crazy.”
Sciona has been on earth long enough that I would expect a baseline understanding of human values and motives. She surely has seen more than one human acting out of charity for none other reason than that that person would no longer be able to look at themself in the mirror if they didn’t act that way.
She surely has also seen that many humans have values closer to the Alari way of doing things.
Both of you have a point. I would just add that the Alari (and the Grrlverse demons) do seem to embody that kind of mindset a bit more than D&D Drow. They seem a tad less inclined to Stupid Evil and more prone to pragmatic villainy and enlightened selfishness, at least as an ideal (reality can still fall short for various reasons, as the shortsighted screw-ups of ‘old’ Sciona can attest). This seems confirmed by the fact Sciona did not hesitate to sacrifice her original enhanced body, which she had toiled long and hard to recover, to rescue a bunch of her own kindred.
In this context, I could see her regarding Sydney’s act of charity approvingly according to her people’s ethos. Something like “Well, these humans aren’t so stupid after all. To save a bunch of us ensures access to our tech and magic, and gets those refugees in their debt. Nonetheless, more of us coming through this catastrophe alive is a net gain for us”.
Broadly speaking, I tend to assume that Alari and Grrlverse demons during their biological and cultural evolution developed a lesser average level of affective empathy than humans because they were individually more powerful. Therefore, they were less in need of close cooperation than humans, and too much empathy would have been much less useful or even detrimental to them.
In all evidence, both species hit that point where high-functioning levels of sociopathy, an urge for conditional care of their in-group, and the cultural norms that sprung from that were more than good enough for them to build and sustain successful interstellar civilizations.
Speaking from a broadly similar PoV and abundant lived experience, I cannot really criticize them for this. I always regarded my borderline, high-functioning sociopathic traits as a blessing and an asset since I got aware of them, and the alternative as a burden and liability I am thankful nature and destiny spared me from.
Now I have to wonder if Professor Farnsworth lives rent free in Deus’ head. “No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it!”