Grrl Power #1334 – J’accuse, boobily
For those wondering, Sciona’s boobs can become selectively sticky. Not THAT way, you pervs. Okay, also THAT way, but it’s certainly not how she’s doing it on these recent pages.
This page went through some editing, originally Sciona said something along the lines of knowing how manipulative Deus is so why would she put stock in any claim he makes, that was before he doubles down with the wager. But then I figured she wouldn’t actually admit he was good at manipulation, which would essentially be her admitting that she didn’t know how to respond and that he was indeed manipulating her. The thing with writing smart people is that I usually have to do several edits because I’m not nearly as smart as them. So my first draft usually has them acting and reacting to things on “our level.”
So my juvenile solution was to basically include some version of everything I was going to put on the page, only now Deus is saying out loud most of the stuff Sciona was going to say or think… in a slightly condescending way. There is a place for falsetto… mostly while reading female dialog while recording an audio book. But beyond that, it’s almost always slightly mocking, isn’t it? Especially when a guy, or heck, even a girl is doing it among a group of friends or to a woman’s face even.
To anyone unfamiliar with the “boobily” thing, it’s a reference to r/MenWritingWomen which features real quotes from books where male authors (and a few female ones) write women with a bizarre and/or creepy level of sexuality, like a young woman eating a sandwich while her nipples raged against the injustice of their confinement in the bra, or an actual passage from God Emperor of Dune where a character named Siona (who I just learned about this instant) wonders if she will experience an orgasm from watching Idaho climb something. As we all know, women are constantly on the brink of ecstasy, waiting for any man to do something vaguely manly so they can powerwash the inside of their own pants with their lady nectar.
Anyway, a seemingly endless stream of examples like this have led to sarcastic versions like “She breasted boobily down the stairs.” It’s possible Deus is simply testing the depth of Sciona’s pop-culture chops, as being familiar with The Princess Bride is a far cry from lurking on a particular subreddit.
And on a total derailment of my thought train, why is it called “The Princess Bride?” Buttercup is not a princess. If she married Humperdink, she would have become one, but spoiler, she doesn’t say “I do.” Sure, it’s a catchier title than “The Peasant Bride” or “The Serf Who Might Marry into the Nobility, Thereby Becoming a Princess” or “Level Up! The other Peasant Wenches Hate this One Trick!” I actually thought the title of the movie was “The Prince’s Bride” for a while, which would make more sense. Or “The Prince’s Fiancee,” really, but that’s kind of spoilery.
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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"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Honestly for purposes of pop culture references, the only priority claim that matters is “I lived on this planet when the reference was current.”
Someone who’d been here a thousand years in fact would be more likely to MISS a pop-culture reference than someone who was about fifteen to twenty when it was current.
Admittedly I am biased on the issue since I wholeheartedly belong to the Living Forever is Awesome faction. However, I tend to assume the insatiable curiosity and enhanced memory that can be expected to come with the combo of genius and immortality can be an easy counter to ennui, apathy, and obliviousness about cultural developments. It’s not like the last few centuries of human history have been scarce of interesting stuff. And this before you throw in the opportunities given by magic, aliens, and supernaturals in the typical superhero kitchen-sink setting.
Regarding the “men writing women,” there was a “female” author, Carmen Mola, who won a million-Euro prize for “her” writing who turned out to be three men writing under one pseudonym. One of “Carmen’s” most-lauded traits was how well she wrote her female characters, to the point her work was recommended by women’s institutes and clubs as “feminist reading.”
The prize “Carmen” won is the biggest literary prize in the world.
Even more proof that the identity fanatics’ notion that “only authors of X identity are entitled and able to write good stories about characters of X identity” is sheer idiocy. Kudos to those writers for reminding us talent knows no identity barrier and culture is the common treasure of humanity.
It just takes empathy and a willingness to learn.
In a serial I am writing, I have a teen who developed as being asexual. I did not plan her to be ace, she just developed that way. I have received a few compliments about her development. As a guy who is definitely not ace, I take this as a fairly solid compliment.
I have found that I really like writing from women’s PoV, but, well, I really like women. I have to check myself when looking to introduce a new character, because without any self restraint most new characters will be women, just because.
To be fair, it was three men working together with the deliberate goal of passing themselves off as a single female author.
Which, to the support of your point, simply means that authors should put in the effort to writing their characters and be willing to acknowledge their own shortcomings and listen to feedback.
I can almost guarantee these three guys probably had debates about if one or the other of them had ever even talked to a woman based on something that was obvious to one of them but not the others.
You need to chill, man. “Identity fanatics”? Who the fuck are those lol. People want women to write women because they’re more likely to write them well, and because women writers are still far and few between. Don’t be a weirdo.
“How do you write women so well?”
“I think of a man, and I take away reason, and accountability.”
She’s a princess bride because she would become a princess when she is married. That’s why the two words conjugate together- she is a ‘princess bride’ not a princess.
Buttercup was elevated to princesshood when she became betrothed to Prince Humperdinck.
You can imagine her running some mental math on that book of conquests, like, “Wait, if we assume those have to be at least x days apart in order to not start an interdimensional incident, times number of pages in the book…”
Not to mention him having to do everything else in his busy schedule and Tony Stark/Dr. Doom act.
I hope this strip marks the end of no-shading-february and we soon go back to 3D boobs
You… did read the reason why DaveB reverted to this art style, right?
Sounds like my theory that Deus is an alien being transplanted into a convenient human or super human is spot on, at least for the transplant…
(multiple franchises spoilers below)
he has this go’a’uld parasite entry scar shaped X on his head!!!
Go’a’uld are part of the Stargate series, and are basically like _Alien_ or _Aliens_ movie face hugger type worms that mindcontrol people when they mature instead of burst out as a larger being when they mature.
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/9752/what-happens-to-a-jaffas-goauld-once-it-matures
and like the creature that controls the “Shredder” in the ninja turtle series, it has long term machinations.
Alternatively Deus could be into cloning himself (hence the lack of heir since he can backup himself), or has stolen some DNA off a convenient super to implant his old super brain into.
…but anyhow, it appears Deus had the opportunity to combine the blood of hundreds of supers into a super weapon, and is smart enough to use that ONLY when necessary. If it’s possible he’s already done it, if it’s not quite possible yet he’s been working on it and benefiting from a “perfect body” to put his super brain into in the meantime.
P.S.: does Deus switch bodies whenever a super powered body is more convenient than another, if he can’t combine all super traits into one body?
Sciona already proved you can add all your preferred superpowers to your current body if you have the right samples (and build a golem that can imitate any superpower if it can sample the owner’s DNA). Only she was able to do it in a flawed way b/c her Alari body back then lacked a natural connection to the Superion field, and she wasn’t wise enough to use her abilities in an optimal way.
Deus’ body, and her current body if he gives her the samples, won’t have this problem. The golem, being custom-built for this, could also do it flawlessly. He was much wiser in appropriate use of force than her to begin with, and she seems to have improved her act since then, even if she still has work to do.
Both of them have the know-how to make themselves the Grrlverse equivalents of MCU Super-Skrulls with all the good powers or close to. At the least in her case, all the powers anyone anywhere anytime manifested and whose samples could be collected. Deus may well have gone beyond that and cracked the code of manufacturing superpowers to order. She knows how to build a small army of DC Amazos or MU Adaptoids, and chances are Deus knows it too.
Huh, I was not aware the Go’a’uld were brain parasites. I only knew about the Yeerks from Animorphs, literal brain slugs that take over host bodies and have used this ability to conquer an empire.
Technically, the Go’a’uld were stomach parasites (enter via the navel, unless that’s a different species)
Weren’t the Trill (in Star Trek) brain worms?
So I can’t tell if Deus is implying that he’s immortal i.e. Vandal Savage (and maybe faking the super-smart thing just by virtue of being very VERY experienced), or he’s just going all-in on the BS.
And I kinda like that about him, even though the character normally annoys me.
William Goldman asked his daughters what sorta story they wanted. One wanted a Princess story, the other a story about a bride.
Hence, The Princess Bride.
“In” could very well be argued as inaccurate there…
NOT meaning to step on anyone’s toes, but:
I’ve been cogitating/wondering, for some time now, that INSTEAD of being a super-INTELLIGENCE/WISDOM/etc., that Big D is instead something MUCH more encompassing, to wit: a super-COMPETENCY, with ALL that that entails. E.g. wisdom/intelligence/etc. Basically, ALL ‘D&D’-type stats maxed out, plus ANY other number of other abilities/profundities. Name/choose your pick/poison. Add ‘Vandal Savage’-level of longevity, and that just makes him all that much more extent, in all that he does.
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Thought, please??
Thought(s)… d’oh!
New invotive! Can’t tell who the lovely ladies are yet, seeing how it’s just pencils (but going by the hair, guessing one is Jabs and… maybe one of the Daphne’s?)
I mean for some of us, it’s waiting for some girl to do something vaguely sexily before I can powerwash the inside of my own pants with my lady nectar. It’s also slightly possible I have too much progesterone in my system… >_>