Grrl Power #217 – Dabbler, second best at swording
I feel bad putting up a page with only 4 panels. Normally with action pages like this I try and make them doubles, but the way the second half of this page played out, it was better to cut this page here and make the next one a double.
I don’t know anything about swordfighting or fencing, but I suspect the “you’re holding the sword too tight” right before the teacher knocks the sword out of the student’s hand trope is one of those chronically misinformed Hollywood things that everyone does because that’s the only thing that everyone writing screenplays knows about swordfighting, and they learned it from other movies they’ve watched. Heavenly told Dabbler her grip was wrong for the same reason you tell the guy pointing a gun at you that his safety is on. It’s to get them to shift their focus for a split second, which if you’re good enough you take advantage of. I’ve never seen the “your safety’s on” go wrong in a show or movie. I would really like to see someone try that, only instead of looking down at their gun, the gunman just shoots them in the arm. “Guess it wasn’t” Actually I’ll probably stick that in the comic at some point since the thought amuses me, but that page is likely a long way off.
Dabbler’s not an amateur with a sword. On my 5 point scale she’s a 2 which means she’s actually really very good at it, but Heavenly Sword is a 4. Not only good enough to fight and beat Dabbler, but also deflect the Arcane Bolts Dabbler keeps popping off at her at the same time. Normally it’s probably quite difficult to disarm Dabbler with her greater than human strength and extra hands, but on top of her skill advantage, Heavenly can reconfigure the shape of her force blade, and making the top all squiggly gave her the edge she needed.
As always I will be at A-kon this year (June 6-8 in Dallas) and, I’ll be doing a panel on Friday. Humor-Based Webcomics 1: Humor in Story. Be sure to stop by!
In case you missed it, my fifth Gynostar Guest strip is up! The current arc starts here.
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Outclassed and outfought. But not out of the fight. Time to hit a cheat code.
Ah, of course. Jill of all trades, but that means a lack of mastery in any one specific area, while this lady is clearly min-maxed in swordplay. let’s see what Demonia-ex-mechanica our dazzler pulls here..or maybe another ARC hero will tag her out & take this bitch instead
I’m picturing Sydney hitting her in half a second while yelling “SNEAK ATTACK Boo-ya”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18xgq6cVe10
Now is when Dabbler use magic and outplays her.
Or she can simply take a hit, we dont know how resiliant demons are….
“Dab’s takes hit and then grab hilt of sword with two hands stoping Heaven from moving it(she is stronger), then catching Soul reaver with her other two hands…”
Remember that in the last page Heavenly just cut the entire building in half.. I dude her is gonna take it better.
Well, there’s always Dabbler’s standby, the invisible web spell.
Perfect place for a minor cliffhanger. I’m really wondering what is going to happen to save Dabbs now.
Next we may find out that Dabbler is never really disarmed … at least, not after that one time.
…or maybe it’s time for another Sydney moment. What would that be? Lighthook, or Fly and Shield?
…or we could switch back to Math and Jabberwokky.
…or…
Like I said, cliffhanger. Which one is it going to be?
Or maybe it’s time for cyberarm #2?
No, I seriously doubt that.
or Halo could do something since, you know, she’s right there…..
So are some of the non-super ArcSWAT members. The question is can they do something in time.
I never heard a RECONFIGURE sfx in RL.
What would it sound like?
Or is it an actual onomatopoeia?
Sound’s like a lightsaber but due to copyright reasons its better to put “reconfigure”.
This is just one more example of DaveB’s famous unsound effects. (TvTropes link. You have been warned.)
Nooo!
I had so many plans for today!
Must…resist…the urge…to click on link!
I like to think of it as that sound Transformers do.
I would upvote this comment if possible.
Other great examples of this can be found in the webcomic Skullkickers
Mansion of E has the running gag that if a mechanism makes a noise, say “CLUNK”, when it is run in reverse, or closed, the sound accompanying it, will be “UNCLUNK”.
Strawberry Death Cake (original) Had one of my favorites. “IMPALE!”
I’m fond of classic Ninja High School, which apparently takes after Richie Rich.
EAT!
Geist Panik had “Juice!” for the sound of juice shaking in a sippy-box. And “OWL’D” for… uh, well… a guy stepping out of an owl. No, not ‘on,’ ‘out of.’ Hard to explain.
Sounds like L space, but without the monkey.
Careful, you know how the Librarian feels about the m-word.
It is something between a ‘swipsch’ and a ‘swoopsch’
My favorite unsound effects are: “PLOT!”, “4CHAN” and “awkward”
Only time I ever saw 4chan as a sound effect was in Erfworld…..
I’d guess it’s sort of like the sound effect of Dabbler’s “Invisible Grope,” back at Archon HQ.
its got to be a faint on dabblers part
Partly. She has to get out of range and be ready to deflect another ranged strike like that first one. Dabbler is on the defensive for now. A little help might be appreciated this time. In fact being rescued would not be out of the question.
yet you can see dabbler setting something up in the first panel i say she lost the sward onperpus to get HS to charge.
Not set up but got off; she’d cast some sort of projectile spell and HS blocked it in the same move where she blocked Dabbler’s sword strike.
Follow the curving path from her hand. Dabbler fired that spell and HS deflected it with little effort. Dabbler is no doubt preparing something, but I think she is going for something from hammerspace (her lab) for her next attack.
My bet: She has used something akin to her “sticky air” spell on her sword and pretended to be disarmed to distract HS while it makes a triumphant return……from behind. After all: If you can’t beat them, cheat.
Dabbler pulled her sword from Hammerspace… Why doesnt’t she send HS’s sword there?
It would be like using a Portable Hole as a sheild.
Her hammerspace is bound to her workshop. Do you want a cut from HS’s sword near your tools and weapons (explosives, energy sources, etc…)
Ah, but it still hasn’t been established that Dabbler’s hammerspace linked to her lab/workshop is the exact same “hammerspace” from where her sword was. It’s possible that Dabb’s summoned the sword from…the Nether Regions…instead of her lab.
are you saying Dabbler’s been walking around with a giant 3-handed sword in her nether regions?
wow. I guess she wasn’t kidding about her pants having “minimum security”
The safety bit got inverted in the third Die Hard movie when Zeus told the bad guy to surrender or he would shoot. Bad guys says “Do what you gotta do.” then the gun failed to fire, the bad guy took it casually and said. “You left the safety on.” then shoots him in the arm with it. Close enough?
I can’t remember where I saw it, but I have seen in a movie or show where someone tried the ‘you left the safety on’ trick on the bad guy and it back fired, when he shot a hostage (I don’t remember where the hostage got shot, or if the hostage even survived) without checking the safety first. I’ve also seen the bad guy try using it against the good guy and the good guy just flicked his thumb over the safety without looking at it and said ‘now it isn’t’ (I don’t think the safety was on, but it still made the point quite well).
It’s rare to see someone change it up on that trope, but it has happened three times that I’ve seen (I’ve seen the first 4 Die Hard movies, and it wasn’t worth mentioning that one as I’m replying to someone who’d mentioned it).
And thats how Dabbler got her second cybernetic arm
Nooo!
DaveB: One webcomic has subverted the “Your gun’s safety’s on” trope: https://www.kiwiblitz.com/comic/page-348/ But the character who saw through it isn’t a killer, though.
Erratum: “At least one…”
I for one am glad that someone on the Arc-Swat team is having some difficulty, if at least for a short time.
In most if not all comics, the good guys win way too easily, or all the time. Although this is usually good storytelling, it is both boring and not true to life. Shake things up once in a while, and let the good guys lose once in a while.
One of the reasons I like the first Rocky movie is because the main charactor dosn’t in fact win the fight, but is in fact proud that he was able to stay standing to the end of the fight against the heavyweight champion of the world.
Bear in mind that, even when the good guys appear to be having it all their way, it may not be the case. Just look at the various comments about Concretia, under the previous issue. People have realised that she will be very hard to overcome and contain. So, although Math and Peggy taking her down may appear to be one sided, it is actually underscoring that how ever many times you hit her, she can still come back. And keep a cool head whilst doing it.
Think to any Hollywood hero, say Clint Eastwood, who gets beaten badly in a fist fight. It does not matter how bloodied he gets, you know he will be back. The advantage Concretia has is that she can come back instantly and unbloodied.
Plus she comes equipped with super-strength as part of her package. For many intents and purposes she is similar to Achilles. Except she has far stronger strength, can phase through solid matter and has potentially great adaptability, depending on just how many types of material she can animate.
Ergo we have a villain who is considerably more dangerous than her closest hero counterpart. So, whilst you are right that Heavenly Sword is shaping up as being powerful, she is not alone.
I have seen many examples of boring writing, where heroes have no challenge because they way overpower their enemies. A number of people are afraid that this story might follow that bad pattern. But I have no reason to suspect that it will do so. The weak villains are falling by the wayside, and the stronger ones are standing out. More that that, we have barely scratched the surface yet.
Something you said there… “…heroes have no challenge because they way overpower their enemies…”
It strikes me as odd, and as an incorrect way of looking at things- and very possibly, a mindset that could very easily be a problem for the heroes.
The goal of the Villain (most of the time) is not to “Beat the Hero”. It’s to get away with what they wanted to do.
The Flash way ‘overpowers’ all of his villains- He’s got a Batman rogues gallery while he himself has Superman level powers. But if Mirror Master’s goal was to rob a bank and make millions of ill-got dollars, gets into the vault through the highly-polished safe-deposit boxes, empties the place out into a pocket dimension or hidey hole that’s only accessable through mirrors, and only then does the Flash come in, finds MM with the last box in his hand, and beats him up and takes him in to jail… The Mirror Master has still won. As soon as he breaks out or otherwise escapes prison, he’s got all the funds he could want to continue his research, live the high life, and even improve his equipment for next time. He’s won, though it doesn’t look like it.
What is the Hero’s goal? To stop the villain. But, as shown above- often that can’t be done just by beating them up. And often it can’t be stopped at all.
The important thing is to make the story interesting. If the heroes way outclass the villains, then it reduces the challenge they face, making the story boringly predictable. Villain tries something bad. Hero easily stops them. Fortunately that is not the case in this comic.
You are perfectly right in saying that there is more than one way for a villain to win, and if they can do so despite the tremendous advantage of the hero, then it is to their credit. Your empathy with the villain goes up. Sadly your respect for the hero goes correspondingly down.
So in your example, I find that I have less respect for the Flash, because he failed to use his considerable advantage to retrieve the funds. Or to be more pro-active, and prevented the robbery at an earlier stage.
Whereas if the villain has the advantage, but the hero wins, against the odds, then the kudos is going the right way. We hope that writers will allow us to empathise more with the heroes than the villains. Unless there is a weird agenda going on.
But, of course, if the villains always have all the advantage, yet the heroes still manage to consistently overcome them, you get suspicious that it is purely through writer fiat. So, in the long term, it is better to keep their respective power levels comparable (in one way or another), so that the advantage can realistically tip one way, then the other, as my best suit the drama, emotion and comedic potential of each scene.
Which I think Dave is doing a good job of pulling off.
That, imo, is why the 80’s cartoons far surpassed the reboots of the same series in the 00’s: original Deceptacons often got away with Energon cubes, reboots they are constantly falling over each other and losing to human children
but by that same logic, why didn’t a SINGLE bad guy ever die in the G.I.Joe cartoons? they ALWAYS ejected from their tanks and planes that got shot down… without fail…. and of course you can’t have any of the good guys get killed… therefore these guys are throwing around massive amounts of explosives and insane numbers of rounds at each other but nobody EVER dies? nah, just another set of bad writing to me, the same as what you are talking about with the reboots,
The thing that always got me? The guys ejecting from the helicopters, right through the rotary wing. How did those guys survive?
Also, an idea I have for Dabbler to handle this. People are saying things like sticky air spell or whatever. What about having Dabbler use her teleporter to summon something like a kite shield, maybe with a force field generator? We know she’s an inventor, she has quite a lot of potential she can tap.
You mean one of the 5 or 6 named Cobra opperatives? Or the nameless Vipers? Fairly sure some of those got killed
They took lessons from the A-Team.
Most comic book stories I’ve read the first contact between the heroes and the villains will be a sound loss for the heroes. Usually because the bad guys are more powerful than the good guys, but sometimes just because the bad guys use superior tactics or have a game-changing surprise they can pull.
In fact in most comics that I know, the good guys lose more fights than they win. Part of being heroic is when you keep trying even after a crushing defeat.
The good guys will usually win in the end, for some variation of the word “win”. They will keep the bad guys from doing whatever evil it was they were about to unleash. As often as not the bad guys escape.
I can’t think of any comic I have read where the good guys usually win without effort. That would be pretty dull. Not even the Batman does that.
The other point to consider is that the bad guy nearly always gets to choose the time and place of the battle. The good guys don’t just burst in on random people for no reason – they have to be doing something. Which means the bad guys can spend all the time they want preparing before starting their plan, while the good guys have to rush in to possible traps every time.
I like Hack and Slash. They were the best incompetent computer sprite henchmen ever.
Hack and Slash are an elite mercenary organisation in the Mansion of E world. Even low-ranked members are capable of holding their ground against invulnerable demons. Or slaying deadly dungeon monsters, in the blink of an eye. In they find themselves on opposite sides of a fight, that is. If Dabbler knows them, it would give her a considerable advantage, should she be able to convince them to assist her.
Nah, Hack and Slash are Megabyte’s minions in Reboot.
Darn right they are!
sounds like agents Cannon and Fodder
Wait a sec. They are outside now. I focused on the characters and totally missed that until just now.
If the walls of a building collapse, technically there is no inside left. *
What it does remind me of was a really fun GenCon UK game. It was a popular event which had very many attendees sign up to play. Everybody was split into the usual six person groups, paired with a dungeon master (DM). But, rather than the usual set up where they were a self-contained gaming session, it was explained that each DM was simply in charge of one room in a larger dungeon. The one that each particular group happened to start in.
Furthermore the players would be taking the parts of the goblin inhabitants who lived in those areas. The first part of the game was to make any preparations in their home area that they wished. Once that was done, the game proper started, and everybody was free to go where ever they wished. The aim being to become the king of the goblins.
It quickly became apparent that the goblins of this kingdom all spoke with high pitched, squeaky voices. And debated, argued and fought very loudly. With a vast number of players in full-on roleplaying mode, the gaming halls rapidly became deafening. So a number of GMs decided to move themselves, and whatever players happened to be in their area, outside into the car park.
More and more took a similar decision. This convention was being held at the campus of a sports college, so it had vast open grounds, giving plenty of room. However, even with that it eventually reached the point where the memorable line was uttered “Outdoors is getting too noisy, let us see if we can find somewhere quieter, in another building”.
* Just saying that, for the funnies mind, as they are in the car park, rather than rubble. Plus I doubt that it has. Fully. Yet.
You jest, but you could be right. Heavenly Sword took a mighty whack at what was left of the restaurant. Everybody may have had to move outside to avoid being under the roof when it hit the floor.
“If the walls of a building collapse, technically there is no inside left.”
Well, Maxima already told Sydney that the *room* was already a write-off as soon as the villains attacked…During the course of the battle, Max may want to up that to include the whole building.
I hope this will become one of those character growth moments. I like to think that Dabbler is one of those characters that accepts when she doesn’t know something not skilled enough that she corrects the problem. Of course finding a sword-master to train her is something else. Maybe she’ll build one. And maybe she everything on purpose.
This system needs an editing function.
Dabbler knows several ways to fight and decide to fight in the enemy specialty is a mistake. I hope is just an strategy to fool’s HS.
She could just take distance and overwhel her with proyectiles. She prove already that she can dodge HS range attack just standing near her with distance would be much easyer to see and dodge.
Not to be a smartass, but you would be hard pressed to disarm somebody holding a sword with two hands. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s very difficult since you got a pretty firm grip on it.. which is one of the main advantages of a two handed weapon.
Dabbler holding it with four hands (and being stronger than your average human).. I don’t see that happening.
Heavenly Sword’s critique was that Dabbler’s grip was all wrong. It’s not just about strength, its about control when the blade twists and vibrates in your hands.
Plus that psychokinetic blade obviously imparts much more momentum than would a wooden shinai under muscle power alone; and her skill lets her get the best leverage out of that force multiplication.
But Dabbler’s grip isn’t that bad and she has all the leverage in that situation. HS has the far end of her sword up against the close end of Dabbler’s, plus Dabbler’s got a significantly longer grip which allows for even more leverage. HS wouldn’t just have to be a better sword fighter, she’d have to be much, much stronger than Dabbler to pull off that move.
On the other hand, we’re reading a comic about superheroes – realism isn’t exactly the point of it :-)
Grip strength isn’t everything. Any decent martial art will teach you that. A weak person can break a much stronger person’s grip with the proper application of leverage. Dave already stated that HS’s sword skill was 2 points higher than Dabbler’s, and I’m pretty sure that that scale is logarithmic if not exponential. With that big of a difference in sword skills, I can easily see HS disarming Dabbler.
Dabbler’s grip isn’t the problem here, its her weapon choice.
HS is probably correct in saying Dabbler wields the sword like a sledgehammer, because that’s pretty much the only way to wield a sword that big.
Claymores (the giant medieval swords) were great for cracking open armor, but were next to useless against a nimble opponent, due to being too heavy and/or generally unwieldy to use accurately.
Dabbler’s sword is even bigger.
Sure, but Dabbler isn’t in a position to be disarmed at all in that image. The leverage is simply entirely in her favor. Had HS’s sword been further down Dabbler’s blade it would make sense that she could have torqued it out, but as it is there’s just no reasonable way for it to happen. It’s not a question of skill at that point – the skill is in putting the sword exactly where you want it, and HS simply didn’t place it where she could disarm Dabbler, instead it looks like she’s getting Dabbler out of position.
Which is what DaveB indicated was done, so you are right. Specifically though, it was not to do with her stance but in that she was tricked into adjusting/relaxing her grip for the critical moment, at which the sword was disarmed. It matters not how strong you are, if you are fooled into holding the weapon too lightly, even for an instant. Then a weaponsmaster can take your blade out of your hand, like candy from a baby.
Dabbler has 4 point strength. Which puts it on par with countering 4 point martial arts skill (which DaveB confirmed that Heavenly has). So, you are correct in saying that Dabbler was able to use her strength to counter the skill, initially. As confirmed by her overall stance. But Heavenly used her wits, to trick Dabbler into giving up that advantage.
However as it is a matter of how much pressure is being applied in a grip, it is not something that can be drawn. Rather you need to infer it from the results. As corroborated by Dave’s statement.
Gotta interject here.
A two handed sword that would actually be used in combat (as opposed to one meant to be carried around to look good on a parade ground) would almost never weigh more than about 5 pounds, and would be balanced so that the center of gravity would be only maybe a third up the blade from the handle, if not less.
Look up some of the Zweihander techniques that’re even being taught today in the German WMA circles (those are done with swords that are properly weighed and balanced, even if they look odd) and tell me that you can’t use a large sword with speed and skill against even a faster opponent.
In combat, speed is life, even (and especially) with large weapons. They were mass weapons, but the weren’t heavy weapons.
Actually, even two handed swords didn’t fare well in a direct blow on plate armor. which was kind of the point of plate armor. So against armored adversaries, they were wielded very much as finesse weapons, often in very close quarters using half-sword techniques to trip/grapple/unbalance an opponent so the wielder could go for a very precise strike for a joints or seam with the tip. Don’t let RPGs and video games fool you: there was a lot of technique going on with them, and they’re not as heavy as popular fiction depicts them being if you’re in good shape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz1x8gsXg8M&index=35&list=PLE6058E5F6967E5B8
Even claymores were not dull bars of steel.
Even based on the laws of our universe (no magic) it makes sense for an energy blade to be “bouncy”. The sword would be an electromagnetic field, which means that when it hits something it doesn’t immediately cut through, it rebounds in a perfectly elastic collision (like a perfect rubber ball).
I do not think that the intent is for it to be bouncy. Various martial arts weapons are designed to entrap an opponent’s blade. A Sai being one such example, amongst many. Somebody not used to the concept can easily be disarmed with such weapons. Obviously a Sai would not be that useful against a four handed sword. But the weapon that Heavenly has created is a much bigger disarming weapon, far more suited to the task.
Such weapons can either entrap an opponent’s blade or apply leverage on it from an unexpected angle. The latter would be especially effective against an opponent with superior strength, as they can be denied the opportunity to apply it properly.
A skilled opponent however, will use different fighting techniques if they see that their enemy has a disarming weapon. By varying the way blocks and parries, or strikes and counter-strikes, are attempted, they can minimise the opportunity that their enemy has to use the trapping features of their weapon.
In this case though, Dabbler thought she was facing a simple sword-like weapon. So was applying completely the wrong styles to avoid that. We only see each frame in a frozen moment, but there is a lot of movement and subtlety, in a top-level sword fight, that static moments in time may not capture.
But , from the results, we can see that Heavenly Sword has managed to use the combined advantages she gets, from superior skill, trickery and the surprise re-configuration of her weapon, to pull off the disarm, with ease.
Good point, I was just thinking of the energy blade as a force field.
If she can reshape it at will (which definitely appears to be the case) she could actually have hooked the pentagram on Dabbler’s sword, giving HS a massive leverage advantage.
Its pretty impossible to portray actual swordfighting in comic form since you generally lose all the subtlety between panels. Rather than physically beating Dabbler’s sword out of her grip, it is possible that Heavenly is forcing Dabbler to let go of it. Possibly either due to positioning and locking it so that she can pressure where Dabbler’s grip is weak, or by cutting up from underneath and threatening Dabbler’s hands and wrists if she didn’t let go fast. Either could be aided by the spiky bits of the reconfigured blade and would have a similar overall movement to that depicted by the speed lines, and neither would be very easy to show in detail while still keeping the pace of the comic.
Or it could just be that the energy sheath Heavenly creates does impart greater momentum to the blade, and so she could do it by brute force. *Shrugs*
I should have read further, before replying, above. You covered a number of my points, and more.
+1
It just goes to show just how skilled Heavenly is, then. Superior strategy and skill often wins over those with superior numbers (arms, STR, etc.).
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1343
HS has shown an ability to project her weapon’s striking power beyond the blade. Also with effects well beyond normal strength. Her ability to block and disarm Dabbler comes from the same source I think.
I’m guessing Dabbleris going to bring a gun to this sword-fight.
Ever heard of the 21′ Rule? At that distance or less, an attacker armed with a knife can close the distance before a person with a holstered firearm can draw and fire his weapon. The Tueller Drill is the resulting self defense exercise meant to counter that by training a person in quickly drawing their weapon.
HS and Dabbler may be too close for the latter to go for her gun. I say that even considering any superpowers, magic and tech she can employ. Dabbler may have to try something else if she doesn’t want to be skewered (if she hasn’t already).
Well argued. But do not forget that Dabbler can simply teleport a gun, or other device, directly into her hand, from her laboratory. Whether the superior skill of her opponent will give her the opportunity to attempt that, is another matter.
That factor has not been overlooked. We’ve seen her teleport her gun away almost instantaneously (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1077) but we don’t know how quickly teleporting something in takes. Imagine: access teleport controls in her cyber-arm, select particular item, activate. Even if a gun was hot-keyed/on speed dial, it’d well be comparable to a non-metahuman drawing their gun. There’s also the act of raising the weapon, aiming and mechanically firing it.
And that’s without considering the high level of skill HS has. O_O
Whatever she does, it’ll have to be something quicker and something else.
Deathworld had quickdraw weapons. Devices that artificially drew weapons faster than humanly possible. Part of the trick is that you ensure the means of activating it is also the means of using it. You put your hand into the firing position and simultaneously prepare your hand to hold and fire the weapon. The device recognises the distinctive changes in the muscles and launches the weapon into your hand.
It takes a lot of practice and bruised fingers to master.
A sensible teleport to hand system will do something very similar. Whether or not the aliens who originally invented the teleporter thought of doing that remains to be seen. Likewise we know that Dabbler only has limited capacity to customise her capabilities, so you may well be right.
I should point out that those guns had no trigger guard, nor safety. The instant it arrived in your hand, it fired. That society did not fire warning shots. If a gun needed to be drawn, it was because whatever you decide to point it at needed to be destroyed. Instantly.
And their training was such that they responded instinctively to perceived threats. They would be firing at a target before most people would have even noticed a danger. Do not hold surprise birthday parties on Deathworld!
First off, love the comic :D
Well, Dabbler might be good with a sword but, it was a loosing fight non the less, if you can block a swing from a 2+ handed sword comming at you with super human strength, using only 1 arm/hand and showing no super human strength your self. Well I’d put my money on that any day.
That beeing said, the smart move here would be disabeling her hands, and thus Halo and her tentackle might swoop in and disable the day or Peggy could “break” the kendo stick at the hilt, (where the magic seems to be missing), crack marksman and all.
I rate Halo highly, but do not forget that she is an untrained martial artist. If she manages to blindside Heavenly, yes, she may pull off the attack. But we have already seen that Sydney is outclassed by superior martial arts. Be it Math’s 5 or Heavenly’s 4 they are so far above her non-existent skill, that the difference is unimportant.
Further supported by the fact that Heavenly was able to block a surprise knife throw, in mid air. That is a seriously impressive feat. Halo does have good control over her tentacles, but I think she will find that it is way outclassed by Heavenly. And she has been prohibited from unrestrained use of the PPO, in this fight.
Shooting an opponent’s weapon, in hand, certainly is a common Hollywood trick. And Peggy is marksman 4. On the super-human scale. So it is possible. Being comparable to using martial arts 4 to parry a knife throw.
But unrealistic if applying strict real-world sniper limitations on her skill. Whilst hitting a static stick of that size would be possible for a sniper, pulling off the same into a frantic melee fright would ramp up the difficulty to improbable levels. Let alone opening up the very high risk of a fatal accident. Including the possibility of friendly friendly fire.
There is nothing friendly about friendly fire.
Murphy was a grunt.
Murphy got it wrong.
The only friendly fire is your own.
Thats why I shoot from orbif.
It actually wasn’t Murphy who first coined the famous law…It was his twin brother.
Sod’s law is the safer one to plan against:
“If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. At the worst possible time.”
Someone’s having a good time… and someone’s about to get a new cybernetic hand…
I have fenced for 30+ years (foil, epee and sabre), and it is easier to disarm someone if they grip too tight, although with the swap from the French grip (the classic one) to pistol grip it just doesn’t happen much anymore. I can’t really comment on medevial style sword usage, though.
Having fenced myself (epee, foil and saber) for a few years (no where near your 30+) I can tell you even if they are using the pistol grip, a tight grip still makes for poor bladework. The reason you don’t want to squeeze with all your might is simple, it tightens up your wrist. This leaves the joint more vulnerable to the shock of each impact, my sister had to quit fencing when one particularly hard parrying fencer nearly broke her wrist in a tournament (yes she was fencing a woman). Plus if you squeeze, the muscles in your hand get tired faster again leading to easy disarms. I prefer the french grip to the pistol grip for my epee (my prefered style) as it lets me switch between strength(control) and power(reach) mid bout if I so choose. Don’t tell the directors but I have, on many occasions, parried with my hand right up at the bellguard for control then “thrown” my epee forward just barely catching the pommel for that extra reach. Can’t pull nasty underhanded tricks like that with a tight grip.
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Dodge Dabbler honey, DODGE!
Or port in something really cool from your armory, or magic all the air out of the room, or even turn on the come hither charm to maximum. Cheat any way you have to!
Just please, please, PLEASE don’t lose this fight.
Please.
I recommend pulling in a shield, such as a round one with blue, white and red concentric circles with a big white star in the middle.
The pile of C&Ds would absorb an atomic blast.
dabler is strong granted. she knows how to use a sword, more or less she still lost an arm.
at this point in a sword fight the strength is often outbeated by finess and technique because strong it’s like a berserker trying to charge in against a tactician. dabler would have the upper hand with strength if the they end up in a stalemate of swords blocking each others. which with miss blondie here isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
it’s more one of those time that dabler gotta stop playing by the opponent’s rule, for fun reasons probably, and pull out another kind of trick to counter the technique heavenly sword is using.
hell at this point a REAL HAMMER COULD PROBABLY throw her off balance and give her the advantage she needs.
but i am not sure i would be on it.
now the question WILL SYDNEY HAVE TO INTERVENE WITH A FORCE FIELD OR SOMETHING AGAIN? hehe
Lighthook comes in and acts like a sword, or even better, a truncheon to the back of the head. Just make sure you tap her lightly enough to knock her out, not so hard you kill her.
And not so hard that you drive the point of her weapon into Dabbler. (Bad move to take out an enemy and an ally with the same strike.)
How about a perfectly timed and executed Molestorb Kancho? I, for one, would love to see it :P
“BADGERS!”
Dave, you may want to check out videos on various types of sword play on YouTube. A friend of mine who was a history/sword nut, once demonstrated the proper techniques for using a zwiehander. It is nothing like Hollywood likes to portray. In the hands of a master, the great sword is a highly efficient offensive and defensive tool, generally only requiring a light flick of the wrists and forearms to bring devastating power to a very quick blow, with just as quick a return to the defensive. A very nasty weapon indeed, if used correctly.
That’s the thing: Dabbles knows how to use a sword, but she is not very good at it, certainly not against some as proficient with it like Heaven is
I always love dabbler’s natural form facial expressions :)
Hmm interventions: lighthook, item tossed by Math, Anvil throwing something/someone, Peggy’s shot, others out of sight.
Blocking with the shield. Teleporting 4 technoswords in after loosing the summoned 4 handed the magic sword.
I think swords, even several at once are not gonna help here. An area effect weapon is called for. Dabbler mentioned a “sticky air” spell on one of the out of comic strips at the bottom. that would do the job, I think.
Okay, can someone tell me what Dabbler is doing with her ri… with one of her right hands in the first panel? I guess it’s some magic, but… What? She is… deflecting a… speedline?…that came from… under the ground?….
My best guess is that she is deflecting the magic of the sword so she doesn’t get cut in half, but… it could be anything really
Help?
Dabbler throw some kind of proyectil spell at HS and she deflective.
Agreed. As confirmed by DaveB‘s author’s comments above.
See, this is why bards like Dabbler need other classes to help. Surely there’s someone around who will rescue our Jill-of-all trades.
Dabbler is on par with Maxima whose is suppose to be one of the best super worldwide. I doubt this is all Dabbler has to show.
Agreed. Purely to avoid over-stating it though, whilst still agreeing with your sentiment otherwise, it is worth mentioning a distinction. Dabbler has been capable of beating Maxima. In sparring. If you check out their relative rankings though, I doubt that happens often. Maxima is rated at 9, on overall power, to Dabbler’s mere 7. So it is entirely possible for Dabbler to be outclassed here, but without putting Heavenly into world-champion contender status.*
* Note that Maxima is potentially vulnerable to both magic and psionics, both of which Dabbler possesses. Which makes Dabbler significantly more effective against her, than a simple average number rating would indicate. Whereas nothing Heavenly has done yet would appear to be a problem for Maxima.
We can see that Heavenly Sword is capable of deflecting Dabbler’s magically created missiles. If Heavenly has counters for other mystical and mental attacks too, then Dabbler’s options would be narrowing fast.
Or to sum this all up in three words: rock – paper – scissors (/shotgun)
well now would be a good time for Sydney to use the molestorb aka light hook to give heavenly sword a super atomic wedgie!
Everyone has been hoping for that. But I think Sydney may still be inside. Of course that’s the sensible thing to do. Which means I’m wrong and Halo could come out of nowhere. Or at least the hentacle can.
Well, if the other orbs can work outside the force field, then Sydney might be able to pull off a “Badgers!” attack against Heavenly Sword with the “truesight” orb, at least enough to distract her…
The orbs do work through the force field. Here is the strip where she did it. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1331
I wonder how good Heavenly would be trying to use this unwieldy monstrosity: https://i.imgur.com/fD8qxz5.jpg
(Yes, I do own that sword. Bought when I was young and stupid and loved fantasy blades.)
Flamboyant to say the least. Does that have any balance at all? Here’s another flamboyant sword. A two-hander.https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1919.71
TO be fair that a flamberge, (flameblade i think) and the ripples were believed to increase the cutting power of the sword by reducing the size of the contact area. Such swords were Incredibly hard to forge and as such were mostly restricted to the nobility and very wealthy. As such a certain amount of ornamentation is reasonable.
Flamboyant also had a secondary meaning of flame like. It’s use as a way of saying overdone fancy is all that survived.
Except the undulations aren’t forged, but ground. Antique flamberges/flammards/Flammenschwerter look nothing like the keris. Compare this (https://www.heidecksburg.de/cms/media/ueber_uns/sammlungen/waffen/460H_Waffen.jpg) with this (https://www.javakeris.com/files/KKatiban16.jpg). While modern reproductions often make the flamberges with keris-like waves, it’s wrong for most of the cases. Also they are simply a more expensive and flashy variant of the Bidenhander, and most originals are way below the decorations associated with nobles, making them fall into the same category as the other fully evolved two-handers, AKA bodyguard and ceremonial weapons.
…my sword looks lightning-y.
some of those look like they would actually be easier to forge the ripples in than to grind them in a pre-modern shop. A fuller might make it quite a bit easier to do.
At worst, Dabbler should block with her cybernetic arm, letting it take the entire blow while she maneuvers so that the rest of her body is clear. After all, a mechanical prosthetic is easier to replace than your original flesh, blood and bone one.
Problem: Dabbler’s cybernetic arm is covered by her organic arms in panel 4’s block stance.
(Also, I’ve come to expect that any character with prosthetic- thus replaceable- body parts will lose them at some point in their story. The same kind of damage applies to robotic characters and automata.)
Among her “all trades” ability, can she rebuild her cyber arm from scratch? That would be something to consider. She apparently modified it for the teleport device in the hand. I may be way off beam here but that sounds fairly easy. Build or purchase the teleport signaler, install it in an open spot inside the hand and wire it to the power source for the arm.
She definitely has a workshop (if not a ship) to do it in. She definitely also has the knowledge and skill to do so as well. Exotic materials may be a problem since she’s Earth-bound, but who knows?
At worst, losing an arm that can be replaced is better than losing an arm that can’t be replaced.
(Or, in her case, losing a cybernetic arm that can be replaced by another cybernetic arm is better than losing an original organic arm than can only be replaced by a cybernetic one.)
Dabbler has bad powers! Is getting limbs and organs chopped off what she is best at?
It’s the good ol’ Generalist vs. Specialist argument. A generalist will lose to a specialist when in the latter’s arena, but the specialist is less adaptable to situations. Dabbler, being a jack-of-all-trades, has a bit of everything but can’t compete with someone who really focused.
This is why I figured that Dabbler’s best bet in this fight is to not engage HS in what HS is good at but to use her other abilities.
… such as spellcasting. She shoulda cast her Invisible Web spell before things got to this point.
Or she could be pulling a set up, let her self get stabbed, use the lower arms to pull the sword and it’s wielder in (enemies weapon now nutralised) then use the upper arms to snap her neck, seen it done and done it myself (or had characters do it any way) oho so many times in my decades of Role Playing.
The fact Heavenly Sword can reconfigure the blade with a thought makes any sword catching maneuver dangerous. She could lengthen or broaden the blade right into Dabbler. Or just cut loose with another blast like the one that cut through the restaurant.
Also fairly sure the fancy light around Heaven’s blade isn’t just for show, did any of you characters attempt to man-grapple the blade of a lightsaber?
yes and it worked more than once, but it should be said one of those was a Prince of Amber and an other was a Demon using a ectoplasmic prosthetic body.
How about you seduce the heartbroken one, Dabbler? She looks like she needs a hand with that and you have some to spare….
“The Edge she needed”?
Well played, Dave. Well played.
In fairness to the you left the safety line, I mostly remember hearing it after somebody, usually someone inexperienced with firearms, tried to shoot and nothing happens. Then the more experienced person disarms them (or if it was a standoff just keeps pointing their firearm while the other person puts his/her firearm down) and says the line.
Hmm I wonder if Heavenly Sword is about to find out what happens when you make being taken alive ‘difficult’.
It’s a nice and fun page, and I’m not expecting any realism about fights in comics or movies, but as I’m an annoying smartass, I’ll still nitpick a bit.
In a proper fight, HS won at panel 1. She was able to stop D’s strong with her weak for whatever reason, and has the centerline. If she turns her blade around the contact point (changing her hanging guard to an extended Pflug), she can stab D in the groin simply by shifting her balance forward a bit. Now while this is a realistic scenario within the physics of the comic, it’s boring to look at if you aren’t involved in this stuff.
“Give her the edge she needs”? Really? You had to say it, did you?
I think Dabbler is using her glamour in another way and HS just stabbed an illusion (or is about to). The next question is does she jump-scare her or just take her out?
Don’t believe creating illusionary-bodies is part of Dabbles’ abilities
You mean separate from her own? If she can change her looks why can’t she deflect where she appears to be? She’s already changing HOW she’s perceived why not move it 2 feet. Until we get some real info on her powers and limits I don’t assume anything. She put the kibosh on a major Daemon a little sword-girl is gonna take her out?
I think you both have valid points, despite the contradictions. She is a generalist with a whole bunch of techniques we have not seen yet. But, we know from her cast details, she is not that good with most of them. Whereas we can expect Sydney to develop many variations on her basic powers, Dabbler is more likely to try and get some completely new power.
So Dabbler may well have some displacer capability. But, if she does, it could be completely unrelated to her disguise power. Especially as it is referred to (by Deus) as being a Succubus power. Implying that it is a racial ability. So it may be something dedicated in nature, that would be intrinsically hard to adapt to a new use. But which somebody, with a limited range of powers, might be willing to invest the time in overcoming. Whereas Dabbler has better things to spend her time on.
Some of the best fantasy/scifi illusionists I know don’t do illusions when they’re cornered. Rather, they’d already done it so it only seems to their opponent and the audience that they’re cornered.
Given how smart Dabbler is and given all the comments and analyses here, it’s likely wrong that she’d engage HS in a field the latter would be superior in.
Thus, I think you’re right. :-)
When Dabbler was projecting the shield around her human illusion’s left arm, which actual left arm is it? Both of her left arms are covering their right counterpart. If she put up the shield again, how effective would the protection be?
If you’re going to use the “Your safeties on” trope then go with one of the many guns out there that don’t have a manual safety. Movies that pull that shtick almost always use a gun that has a grip safety or no safety at all, drives me crazy when they do it.
“Hah you can’t shoot me”
“And why not”
“You left the safety on…hahaha” …Lunges at gunman
BANG…”Glocks don’t have a manual safety’s dummy”
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2001-03-16 (it’s a sci-fi webcomic)
Kevyn:I’m finished. All the disabled weapons have been repaired.
Tagon:What was wrong? Why wouldn’t they fire?
Kevyn:That A.I. was pretty subtle, using the absolute minimum amount of force necessary to disarm us. All of the sidearms had their ‘fire/safe’ switches fused in the ‘safe’ position.
Tagon:Kevyn, these are not consumer-grade sidearms. If you pull the trigger, they are supposed to fire. Period. Philisophically speaking, there is no ‘safe’ mode for a sidearm. Thus, the weapons I issue my men don’t have any schmansy-pansy ‘fire/safe’ switch.
Kevyn:Oh. Well, they do now.
Tagon:That’s not subtle. That’s showing off.
“and somebody knows ‘distract and sneak-attack'”