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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he’s even great at impersonations, is there ANYTHING Deus cannot do?!
Manage to get Max to actually like him,
Nonsense.
He manages that every time he stops the egomaniacal narcissist act.
And I am 99.99% sure it _is_ an act.
Deus is incredibly smart and incredibly able. He acts as an egomaniacal narcissist because it gets him something he wants. Not only that, but it is the BEST way to get something he wants, to ten significant digits, regardless of what anyone thinks. He is not an egotistical narcissist, he is a super-sociopath. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
When has he ever stopped that?
In his office (briefly – before “his dr jekyll potion ran out”) and outside the restaurant. When he was expkaining that Maxima’s job was actually preserving the status quo.
Also briefly during dinner when Lorlana kept yelling and berating staff and calling him Lord Deus.
Is it possible that being around other, more “Mr. Hyde-y” people makes it easier for Big D to restrain himself? Like…speaking from experience, a big part of my difficulties as a kid stemmed from sheer boredom. There are basically two solutions to this problem. Have entertainment, or be entertaining. Having the entertainment in his entourage probably could relieve a subconscious need to entertain himself with the “Mr. Hyde” shenanigans.
And the more I think about it, the more probable that sounds. I mean, we all know that Big D is a giant nerdy kid. If he really is the Super Intelligence he has insinuated, then life probably looks like a gigantic TTRPG to him. Dollars to donuts, if he walked into Halo’s shop, he’d wind up running a regular weekly game. Hell, I’ll double down, and suggest he’d probably formulate an original campaign setting and rules set more-or-less on the spot, use the shop to play-test it, and then publish it with Halo as a partner to get the free publicity & marketing. Double-Hell, that could easily be what we were seeing in the opening sequence in our flash-forward introduction.
*maniacal cackling*
He’s spinning her up like an autogyro. I got a tawny that says he already knows who she possessed, and how her powers work, and how to counter them, in addition to the countermeasures we already know he has in place to counter actual magic. He’s going to bender in a direction he finds both useful and satisfactory to his relationships with ARCHON personnel, and do in such a way as that she will feel grateful, even as she resents him for meddling in her own plans, and effectively co-opting her autonomy.
And I do not doubt for a second that if he feels she’s getting to be a liability, he’ll let Cthillia feed her to the magic shapshifting murder knife.
I really, really love Big D. Pun intended. ^_^
Yep, I love how he is playing her like a fiddle (in a benign sense). Gradually making her at ease after the bad day she got, working around her Tsundere attitude and their supervillain rivalry and Belligerent Sexual Tension, subtly highlighting what makes them kindred souls (long-lived, geniuses, supervillain masterminds, nerds, attracted to each other, good lays, etc).
I am confident his game here is to influence her to tweak her plans in a way that is convenient and beneficial to both of her plans, beginning with the dungeon deal but potentially going far beyond, and persuade her to be allies and friends with benefits.
Quite possibly all the way to being a Power Couple and Big Bad Duumvirate bound in (open) Unholy Matrimony and dedicated to taking over the world and leading humanity to fulfil its best potential (and the Alari to recover their lost greatness) in non-destructive ways together. For all their competitive bickering and BST, the more they talk, the more I see them potentially highly compatible this way, esp. with this new and improved version of Sciona.
Big D is not that bad. A big softie most of the time.
I see what you did there.
But he can do things the hard way when he needs to.
Only after snorting the Blue V (personally the Black V)
Sciona’s inability to stand afterwards shows he doesnt need that.
My dirty mind wonders what is going to happen when Deus’ sex-god prowess gets further enhanced by Sciorpia’s special touch next time.
You assume that he hadn’t taken anything before, or that wobbly-legs is only from natural sources
That’s quite possible, but take 6xguy as a comparison. The best mundane drugs could do was to upgrade him to 3; Sciona’s touch boosted him to earn his nickname. I expect the same would apply to Deus’ performance.
Is Deus expecting her to fly off?
Only the handle
One of Goldman’s conceits in ‘The Princess Bride’ was that Buttercup was raised in status to the level of princess before she married Humperdick so that the marriage could occur & be considered a union of equals – at least in part because it caused the peasantry to love her more – thus ensuring their united outrage when she would be murdered.
Also, damn man! You are making Deus an extremely likeable rogue!
There is the concept of “morganatic marriage”, where one spouse doesn’t get any of the privileges that would otherwise happen. Usually used when a noble marries a commoner – the commoner *didn’t* become a noble.
I think it may have been an attempt to control the number of nobles.
Florin, being a European country (sounds vaguely Italian), probably had rules about that. So the author likely explained that Buttercup was raised in rank before the marriage to avoid people objecting on that account. IIRC it was only in the book – the moviegoers probably wouldn’t have time or inclination to object.
Buttercup is elevated to Princess early on in the movie. Humperdinck presents her to the people as “Princess Buttercup”. Note that this is not her nightmare, in that, Humperdinck introduces her Queen Buttercup.
Buttercup was ALWAYS a princess to Westley.
My only victory is that I joined team Deus one episode before this one.
Welcome to the winning team!
Interesting definition of ‘victory’…
It’s called The Princess Bride because when William Goldman asked his two daughters what that night’s bedtime story should be about, one said ‘A princess!’ and the other said ‘A bride’, and so he told them the story of Buttercup, The Princess Bride.
Patrick M says:
“But if the bedtime story version is true, then by the logic quoted by Gary J, the daughter that wanted a princess never got one. In fact she had a potential princess dangled before her nose, then taken away!
Goldman favored one daughter over the other, a huge negative in our culture. (Unless Goldman favors a Platonic philosophy such that the the very idea of a princess implies the existence of an ideal achetype of the princess in some higher reality, so that the story features the Platonic ideal of a princess, just not any imperfect realization of the ideal.)
(The issue is being discussed in Jennifer Crusie’s ARGH.INK Blog because I mentioned Dave’s P.B. comments in my “Good Book Thursday” post there.)
Fortunately the truth is that goldman merely abridged the book, which was written by S. Morgenstern, cutting out the long winded passages and political rants, leaving only “the good stuff”. ;)
Indeed, she “breasted boobily”.
its going to boil down to “your body has been here X years and therefor i have been here longer or something
I don’t know; that’s a very physical argument for a mind based super. Will D prove that her “self” is the gestalt of that body and her Alari mind and thus very young?
I figured D given his resources had already gone thru a time compressed full immersion simulator multiple times to test his “future plans.”
There are probably a dozen ways in which what Deus said was true, and several that it was not. Because Deus. He’s making inside jokes with himself.
Supers have been around for a long time. Those scars on his face are the sorts of things duelists used to do to each other centuries ago.
So it could be that he’s just really old and has been avoiding conflict with aliens by focusing on economics. He’s human, so the Council might not notice him, however the veil would still stop normals from noticing his activities.
You can stay out the spotlight by using multiple cut out company names, and just keeping your mouth shut, plus don’t go to restrant’s and clubs that the rich and powerful would go to.
Instead start a restrant in an area with people you can stand, perhaps one in each city you do buisness in.
Mensur scars were typically dealt on the cheeks. The eye guards were designed in such a way that the “X” pattern we see would have been impossible.
Dave, you should have met my wife about 45 years ago. Or maybe not. You might not have been able to handle it.
Interesting times.
Sounds a bit like my wife, she came from a big family, 3 brothers, a half sister and 2 step brothers and a step sister. She knew how to play the game! Once I figured that out, she stopped trying to play me ;) She’d switch styles often, I started to think she was bi-polar, but no, she was trying to figure out how to deal with me, and since I was the middle kid with 2 sisters, I already knew the rules LOL!
For a character that was literally introduced in shadow laughing while lighting cracks across the page, Deus is infinitely more likeable than I would have originally guessed. Perhaps it’s because he’s smart enough to know being a ruthless sociopath has proven downsides, perhaps it’s because he’s just a dork. Either way, funny smart man.
He’s so smart and with such high ambitions for the good of all that he knows being a ruthless psychopath who hides it is far less effective than being a ruthless psychopath who acts like a really smart guy with high ambitions for the good of all who for fun acts like a ruthless psychopath who acts like a good guy who acts… insert hall of mirrors….
If caught being good, he ALWAYS immediately puts it in doubt. People are MUCH easier to manipulate if they are uncertain of your morals and goals than if they had once thought you a good guy and been betrayed. THAT you never get back.
He’s an evil mastermind who has read and internalised the evil overlord list. Which turns you into a benevolant dictator.
Or he’s a genuinely good guy who’s pretending to be an evil mastermind who’s…
Given the current state of the world, that second option is looking mighty effective.
During Marvel’s “Platinum Age” (2002-2011), writers started writing Dr. Doom as a ruthless but benevolent pseudo-hero. He saved the universe as the kickoff to their soft reboot in 2002, gathered and led heroes to beat Thanos, and was given approval to rule the world by the Panther God that gives Black Panther his powers, which can read minds and/or hearts.
The Panther God personally guarded Wakanda’s vibranium reserves and let Doom take it all because it agreed with Doom that his leadership of the world would be necessary to face the dangers coming in the future. The “heroes” stopped him, then only barely managed to stop said dangers, and only after massive collateral damage and and millions of casualties.
All the MCU events have been based on comics from the Platinum Age, though some only in name (looking at you, Secret Invasion).
*low whistle* the things a blood mage could do with samples of hundreds of supes….
Make herself a MCU Super-Skrull and field a small golem army of DC Amazos or Marvel Adaptoids, to begin with. She already has the know-how. Clone the samples to give super bodies to all of their Alari minions. Run of the mill for a master blood mage.
Only this time she would have the means to make it flawlessly (no side effects or limited duration), since the bodies would have an inborn connection to the Superion field. This would make her the equivalent in power base terms of Deus (assuming he did crack the code of manufacturing supers to order).
The only flaw in that plan is that all of the super-powered Alari would then start working toward their own ends and cause her all sorts of problems.
The obvious counter to that is to make herself the Grrlverse Super-Skrull and the most powerful super ever with ALL the useful powers at Archon powerhouse levels, and the other Alari vanilla supers with just one or a few powers. Not to mention she would be able to stack her top-class blood mage abilities on top of that. IIRC DaveB stated she is quite exceptional, the elite of the elite, among the Alari (and beings with similar magic potential), as a blood mage.
SmugD is trying to make that wager, not because he believes he will win, but because he doesn’t care if he loses because he would get something more valuable: Sci’s true age (which he can then use to get her into his bed… again)
The best place to set up shop Is that a crossroad. All paths lead to getting what you want.
technically all he gets is a lower limit on how long she has been on the planet and/or her guess as to his age.
even if she doesn’t think to hold anything back, it’d still only be how long she’s been on the planet, which her age may be much greater than.
The reason it’s called “The Princess Bride” is pretty funny. The author William Goldman was telling his young daughters a story and one wanted a story about a princess and the other wanted a story about a bride. So he combined the two and the rest is history.
The author author, or the in-story author?
The author author, William Goldman.
If Deus has been doing this for a lot longer then he’s got a lot more resources than expected and we were already expecting LexCorp.
The “don’t notice supers” veil would have prevented anyone from noticing. His age doesn’t match, but maybe he’s found the fountain of youth or something similar.
He may also not be entirely human.
Then we would no longer have to wonder why an eldritch horror is listening to a human.
{From the first line of the text section}
So that’s how her phone stays in place!
Pos-tits
Deus being a lot older than he appears would explain a few things, though I’d be a bit sad if it turns out Deus is not a (super)human but instead some alien species.
It seems exceedingly easy to me to explain how and why Deus as a super is as long-lived as Sciona or more. To begin with, given the way super bodies are made, it is quite possible and indeed very likely that Grrlverse supers have biological immortality or a very long lifespan by default. Even if this would not be the case, it would be far from difficult for a genius of his calibre to make himself immortal by super-tech means, magic ones, or a mix of both. For someone who cracked the secret of the Superion field, the Elixir of Youth seems like a walk in the park in comparison.
By the way, the same reasoning applies to Sciona. She might well have enjoyed a long lifespan thanks to Alari biology, and have it again thanks to her current body, but in any case immortality looks trivial to achieve for a master blood mage.
Deus is a Super Intelligence, and his exposition does state that the Superion Field is Nth level technology, if he can unpack and understand that as well as he implies then accessing sub-Nth level tech to make himself immortal shouldn’t be that hard for him. But I think the more interesting question of his age is that if he’s that much older than the sudden appearance of modern supers then WHY are they appearing now? It might imply he’s the first super. If he can make himself immortal, would altering human DNA to acess the Superion Field be entirely unreasonable? It does give humanity major advantages over other races.
Or he’s enough of a nerd to want to cosplay as the god emperor of mankind.
Odd bit of Trivia… the book (from the 1970s) was titled “The Princess Bride” because many of the elements of the story were adapted by William Goldman from bedtime stories he made up for his daughters when they were young. In particular, when he asked them what kind of story they would like for him to create, one said “Princesses!” and the other said “Brides!”
This is also why Humperdink and Buttercup have silly sounding names, because they were fun names for a silly story being created for a couple of young girls.
I don’t know if this actually interests anyone, but this was the actual reason behind the name(s)
Not named after the singer, Engelbert Humperdinck?
Fairly sure the singer predates the book
Even if borrowed instead of randomly generated, still a silly name selected for its giggle factor.
I remember when Englebert Humperdink was at the peak of his fame, and even then people invoked his name for jokes.
And he wasn’t even the first “Engelbert Humpyadick” :P
I put money on the fact the dues is actually Cain, with the mark on him and been around since then steering humanity in a certain direction…..
The grin on Deus’ face in the fourth panel is one of my favorite pictures so far in this comic. And there’s some *stiff* competition.
I’m still a bit worried about what looks like an ID card stapled/pinned/fastened to her right boob in the last few posts. Ow!
That is her phone. She made her boob sticky.
If Deus were thousands of years old, he would have made himself God-Emperor of Earth long ago, because a) he could and 2) it would allow him to indulge his passion for infrastructure.
Quite possibly, he is just a few centuries old, like Sciona, and spent most of that time quietly building up his power base in economic, knowledge, and personal-abilities terms.
JETHRIK!! and yes, besides reading the comic I really am only here to shout out one word Doctor Who references!
sorry, sorry, your entire post there just keeps repeating ‘Exterminate’ over and over
Obviously Deus is a Time Lord. :)
UM ACTUALLY– after he proposed and before she was kidnapped, Humperdink’s people argued he couldn’t marry a commoner, so they made her Princess of Hammersmith, a tiny tract of nearby land.
So…she has TINY tracts of land?
Yes, but it’s a beautiful countryside.
For the record, in “God Emperor of Dune”, Siona does orgasm when Duncan makes it to the top of rock.
Actually it’s Nayla with the slightly odd mountaineering kink.
*sigh* and yet, in that shirt I still wouldn’t do things so boobily. Spare some thoughts for the A-team?
I love it when a plane comes together
No ninjas for that one because it was clever.
Sorry, no luck for you (or Sydney, or Peggy) here. We know Sciona is dedicated to give herself the Most Common Superpower in any incarnation, and Deus apparently has that type, if the sum of Harem, Sciona, and Max is any guide. Heck, he even picked a PA that comes not so short in this regard.
Honestly, I cannot really criticize him here. What use is that kind of wealth, if you can’t even surround yourself with people that fulfil your aesthetic ideal on top of having the other personal qualities you require?
Why would you want to do things boobily though? I assume it means you do things like a booby (blunderer/dunce) would.
Making a clean breast of things and putting your best (foot) forward?
You know what I would love to see? If someone tells Sydney Deus has super Intelligence and Sydney, with all her pop culture knowledge about how an ASI would look like…instantly turns COMPLETELY serious, or maybe even slightly scared of Deus, really hammering home what a threat someone like that actually is.
In defense of Siona… that’s just something Jason Mamoa can DO. It’s why he was such a perfect casting.
Dave, they could be using the popular usage of “princess” meaning “an attractive but aloof woman that men compete over”. In that sense, Buttercup is definitely a princess.
Since when was that ever a usage? Let alone a popular one?
Cthilia: *sigh* The more layers of clothing I put on, and the more gruff and sandpapery I act, the more certain people STILL insist on touching me…
Either Sciona isn’t as old as everybody claims… or Deus is MUCH older than he appears.
Or he really is bluffing, and the whole point of the wager was to alter Sciona’s behavior in a way that’s useful to him. This can be true if she calls his bluff and emerges victorious (maybe she begins to underestimate him, or suspects her reward is less useful than she thought it would be, or something else) or if she plays it safe (she’s now worried about exactly what he is and what resources he truly has).
Nope. There is no need to bluff on this issue. The wager is quite easy and simple for Deus to win if we assume both of them had a very long lifespan with lasting youth, are of similar age, and were born centuries ago. To begin with, Grrlverse supers might well be long-lived or ageless by default (ideal bodies are conductive to that) and for a genius of his caliber, to achieve immortality by super-tech or magic means seems a walk in the park. It is strongly implied Alari are a long-lived species like demons/succubi, and on top of that, biological immortality (and/or body-hopping between cloned bodies) seems trivial to achieve for a blood archmage.
There was a period during norse culture, around the 1100s to 1400s AD, when someone hated, despised, or suspected of magic would get an ‘X’ carved on his face as a warning to others, and be driven out. That culture, despite being known for ‘viking’ raiders, were surprisingly averse to directly applying the death penalty, but this came pretty close. These people, when they survived at all, either wound up living as outcasts, or completely left the area where everybody knew what that scar meant.
I thought of that the first time I saw Deus’ face. Now maybe we will see whether I was right.
Deus is basically what Rick and Morty fans THINK Rick is. He doesn’t just claim to be the smartest person alive (after creating a literal barrier between all the universes where he’s the smartest person around, and all the universes where he isn’t. Because insecure alcoholic d-bag would rather be a big fish in a tiny pond). He doesn’t just make stupid speeches and put others down in order to feel better about his own unhappiness.
He’s manipulating people, leaving them aware that he’s manipulating them AND that they’re benefiting from it, and winning loyalty from half of them and begrudging respect from the other half. And having a grand old time while doing it.
Interesting note. The fact she can make her skin sticky at will in addition to secreting super-crack and super-viagra strongly suggests her superpower is rather versatile and in practice works like drug-like bio/mind manipulation and synthesis of any substance a living being can produce. Well, that unless the glue-like effect is the result of a minor spell.
So, what, is he basically claiming to be Vandal Savage now?
Quite possibly he is one of the eldest ones, but all Superion supers are that way. An ideal body that is vulnerable to aging is not really ideal. And even if that would not be the case, mastering the secret of immortality by tech or magic means is one of most obvious uses of enhanced intelligence.
another nod towards magic for Deus. The Elixir of Eternal Youth is one of those keymark alchemical achievements in days of yore.
“…So they can powerwash the inside of their own pants with their lady nectar.” So, obviously the shtick of laughing in a bathroom stall is a real thing, because I just did.
The last paragraph, I give about 14 months to show up as isekai anime titles. Or light novels? I watched A Sister Is All You Need, but I’m not 100% sure of the story to animation process. Level 1 Peasant Princess Wins the Villain with God’s Miracles.
Damn, that line is a trip in the Wayback Machine. I actually knew a young lady who talked like that. Her favorite superlative was “It made me cream my jeans!”. She seemed to get most of her ideas about sexuality from cheap porn novels. To a 20 year old guy that was fun…for a while. I later learned that her previous boyfriend had ghosted her. I mean he literally moved to another town and changed colleges to get away. 40 years on I have enough experience to realize that her level of hypersexuality came with a boat load of baggage. So people who think like that do exist, I just wouldn’t wish it on anybody.
In moments like these, I am compelled to wonder. Has it been confirmed or denied whether Deus gave HIMSELF that X shaped scar on his face? ‘Cause it really seems like something he would do.
Honestly it’s kind of surprising that Elon Musk hasn’t.
Do you really see two thin-skinned cowards like Elon and moreso his puppet and partner in crime Captain Bonespurs doing what it takes to get that kind of scar?
I mean… Elon’s obsession with “X” being a thing would also put him into the category of “Someone who would do that” but it wouldn’t really work with Elon. It works with Deus because he tells you his name is Deus, and then you see the giant X on his face and without him saying anything, you’ve already thought “Deus Ex” to yourself.
Let’s be honest now. I don’t think any of us really know what his game plan truly is. I wouldn’t actually say he’s untrustworthy ,because he’s never actually anything to actively harm Syd or Max , so what he truly has in mind is a mystery.
One of my pet theories is that he really *is* working for the betterment of humanity. He’s just doing it as an Evil Genius because he’s that big a nerd and he has that much fun doing it.
And it keeps all the other evil geniuses guessing and trying to work with him, so he can steer them into being less evil.
Current scene indeed seems him doing just that with the second best EG, apart from the side benefit of trying to charm her back into his bed.
…That bet actually kinda reminds me of how Zaros got his demon legions in RuneScape’s lore.
Him also being some sort of immortal, or long-lived, being feels like it would be a bit of an asspull.
Currently all the claims about the nature of his powers are part of him bluffing a woman he would like to have sex with.
He can easily lie.
Immortality starts to look like super intelligence after a thousand years of learning.
Super intelligence can look a lot like immortality when given access to a history book.
He is well aware that lies are a subpar means of manipulation that can easily backfire and explode in your face, esp. when dealing with a woman that is the second most successful supervillain (assuming that label fits him instead of anti-status-quo antihero) and the second or third brightest person in the world. He is not just trying to seduce her again. He is trying to adjust her plans to fit his own and win her over as an ally and friend with benefits.
Although there is nothing wrong in him trying to win her over to a rain check for a date or another quality hookup in the near future (their current circumstances do not seem convenient for that, unless his plane has the equivalent of a honeymoon suite, which it just might) on top of everything else. They know they are excellent lays for each other, and it is not like either of them gives chastity the time of day. One could argue that they are highly compatible for an Unholy Matrimony and being a Bad Bad Duumvirate and a Ruling/Power Couple.
Why? It is an obvious consequence of his abilities. In the vast majority of cases, to research the magic or super-tech means of immortality seems what a person with enhanced intelligence would definitely do unless they have personal or ideological reasons to choose mortality. Deus definitely does not seem the Dumbledore kind of person.
You might as well have issue with the fact he is a polymath genius and wealthy. The latter is the natural consequence of the former, unless one is dedicated to austerity. Deus definitely isn’t.
I’m kinda not thinking so, as Deus really does try to avoid unnecessary casualties, and Sciona is perfectly happy to kill if it is expedient and useful to her. A power couple they are not.
True, but her bloodlust (as well as most of the worst flaws) seem considerably lessened in her new incarnation. I am mostly focusing on the new version to regard them as a good match.
The way I see it, a peasant can’t marry a prince, so Buttercup was likely adopted into the Royal family to make her a princess with (no claim of her own to the throne) so she could marry Humperdink. It would also explain why the King was so attached to her before he died, he was her father for at least a while. So she was made a princess to be a bride.
Why not? Markle married a Princess (and got both exiled)
Oh, not to mention a peasant married a King (who also got exiled)
If “Princess” wasn’t just a typo, bravo.
Intentional
So Deus is immortal. That explains a few things. Like how he was going to manage a world empire if he was only going to die in a few years. Or how his black books covers enter book shelves. He didn’t seem to be getting around enough for it to be filled with only a single human lifetimes worth.
Or bluffing.
Or using the technicality that Sciona has only been alive in this body for a short period of time, which I would still consider bluffing (but might be enough for whatever “objective” measure he’d use as a measurement if Sciona accepted his offer).
I don’t consider this proof he’s immortal though, just more evidence that he’s good at bluffing same as when he convinced a vampire to back down from attacking him.
I am exceedingly skeptical he is or was bluffing, now or back then with the Twilight Council. Too much risk of that backfiring or exploding in his face, and compromising too much of his plans. Same reason why he does not even try to blackmail her in his bed. To risk alienating the second most successful supervillain and 2nd or 3rd best genius in the world seems a loser’s gambit, esp. in comparison to winning her over as a bonafide ally and willing lover with facts and benefits. Deus can afford to deal with the latter.
Much the same way, he was not bluffing with the TC, just reminding them why they can hardly afford to pick a fight with him and their inertia about keeping up the same airtight Masquerade as in centuries past is a doomed endeavor in this new world. With the existence of supers and aliens firmly in collective consciousness, to try and keep magic and the supernaturals under wraps is a futile effort and a major waste of resources. Deus is doing the right thing by dragging a kicking and screaming TC into the new Unmasqued World.
If Deus is implying he has lived as long as Sciona has been on Earth, and hence he is more or less as long-lived as her, chances are he is not gaslighting her and hence it is basically true. Exact details are not that important.
I love his smug look in panel 4!
In all honesty deus is my favorite version of ultimate greed. (Unless an actual greed incarnate shows up, I view him as such in universe) he works to get what he wants, without it consuming him and still has fun along the way.
The fact he keeps a reminder of how small earth is in the grand scheme of things, and how much more there is to own, as a method to keep himself humble.(in his mind at least) shows a level of WISDOM rarely seen in such intelligent character types.
Greed does not have to be stupid/short sighted like it’s often depicted, it can play the long game and not burn down the world in the process.
For example deus wants better stuff so he actively improves what he has, like the third world nation he “acquired”, which in the long run helps him get even more.
You know, I actually suspect that Max not only KNOWS what is currently going on, but is actually in league with Deus, for once, to minimize any damage that might occure.
I also suspect that the “life support” orb will likely clean out Sydney’s system of whatever Sciona hit her with, once it figures out that Sydney is not acting her normal ADHD self…
What gave you the idea Max knows? It seems exceedingly unlikely to me. She is many things, but neither a genius of Deus, Xuriel, and Sciona’s caliber nor one of the great American leaders. The chance she could see through the schemes of Deus and Sciona seems vanishingly small to me, and she never did anything of the sort. She resists Deus’ attempts to charm her out of sheer bullheadedness. The chance that Deus told her seems just as unlikely, since it would ruin any chance for him to win Sciona to his side and he did not do it even when she was much more destructive than she is now. I am also quite sceptic Max would be anywhere close to flexible enough to leave Sciona be if she knows about her.
The ‘life support’ orb did not protect Sydney from getting affected by Sciona’s juice just like the two weres and any intervention of this kind seems superfluous since Sciona herself ordered the three to go and take steps to purge themselves from residual effects by natural means. She might indirectly recover these memories if the glasses or the orbs have unknown auto-recording functions she may stumble into later. Otherwise, her memories of the recent events are all but surely erased, not suppressed, and lost forever. Archon and the TC shall need to get aware of Sciona’s schemes by other means.
No, Maxi resists SmugD’s attempts to bed her because she doesn’t like him, not because she is a tsundere (or whatever ‘dere’) and playing ‘hard to get’
Well, part of her (the dominant one so far) resists him b/c she distrusts and dislikes him; another part is attracted and intrigued. Nothing happened so far to change the balance in her heart and mind. The dominant side resists his attempts to charm her out of sheer willpower, not because she is an intellectual giant of his caliber that is able to see through his mind games. Nonetheless, Sydney and Anvil noticing and lampshading or cheerleading for the interested side aren’t reading the room wrong.
Sciona being Tsundere (as opposed to brutally honest when she feels at ease and in charge) and the two of them showing competitive bickering and Belligerent Sexual Tension superposed on mutual attraction and interest in each other’s company seems exactly what is taking place here. That’s the consequence of what they are. Even in the case they do become allies and a couple, I would expect them to behave more or less Like an Old Married Couple for a long, long time.
The main difference in the current situation is, although Sciona became a less troublesome person in her new incarnation, she is more defensive atm b/c Sydney gave her a very bad day and she does not yet know for sure if what Deus wants her to do is acceptable to her. Apart from having another romp in his honeymoon suite, that is. It is plain enough she would not mind that part at all.
They are negotiating another deal in their own way, maybe another short-term one with limited consequences, maybe a much more long-term and comprehensive one, quite possibly the former with an open door to explore the latter.
No, Anvil is cheerleading simply because she wants to see (not see see, like Valyeur likes to do) her bestie get laid, and, so far, SmugD is the only viable candidate (because currently Hiro is off-limits)
Everyone is trying to get Sci back into bed with SmugD because they have drunk the cool-aid Pander has been passing around