Grrl Power #360 – Chalking up
Sydney leveraging possibly one of the most common tropes in sci-fi and fantasy writing – If the hero doesn’t know who one or more of their parents are, it’s bound to be a plot device. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Luke Skywalker, Peter Quill, Raven (of Azarath), Jupiter… Ascending… I could google her last name but I don’t care and you guys know who I’m talking about.
The usual exception to this rule is Disney movies. Not Pixar or Marvel ones, Disney Princess movies. Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, and Pocahontas all have dead mothers, Cinderella and Snow White are orphans (so are the Frozen sisters, but they knew their parents). Tiana (of the Princess and the Frog) has a dead dad, but he lived long enough for her to know him. The rest have both parents living but that’s a weird track record for a company that makes family movies. I know most of those movies are based on fairy tales so you can kind of blame the source material but it’s not like they don’t make changes to the stories and characters, so maybe Walt had a boner for dead moms.
This page was supposed to start with a panel of Sydney and the recruits looking down from the cheap seats at Max, Arianna and Zeph on stage wondering what was taking so long and then Harem tells her that “hurry up and wait” is the real motto of the military, but there wasn’t space so just imagine that exchange happened as a way of subtlety poking fun at my own pacing.
This was an interesting page to draw in that it has nearly every major member of the the team that’s been introduced so far, Arc-SWAT, LIGHT, and SPARQ, and a few that haven’t. The notable exception being the General, who I guess is in DC today.
I tried googling Xtapolapocetl, as well as Ixtapalapacetl, Xtapolapacoatl and some other variants, and I came across one of those situations where google utterly fails, which is I found a jillion twitter, facebook and other social media references to the names, but nearly nothing substantial that wasn’t just a reference to the Simpsons episode where it first entered the public consciousness. One search gave me a spartan reference to a Mayan god, but I couldn’t tell if the article was retrofitting the Simpsons reference into an existing pantheon, so while it may be relatively trivial for someone to dig up some real information about the guy, I’m going with the idea that Varia is in the same boat as me, which is the 10 minutes she spent googling it were inconclusive. (If you’re unfamiliar with the reference, here’s a wiki link. I admit it’s kind of obscure considering it was in the episode for all of 20 seconds, plus a few “hey this thing is still in the basement” cameos in a half dozen other episodes, but for some reason I still remember the name 20 years later.)
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"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.
A lot of new faces!
Math, Dabbles, Anvil & Hiro on the left front
Leon, Gwen(?), new girl, one of the Space Marines & George Lucas to the right of Sydney’s rookie class
Morph, Heatwave ‘Les, female Space Marine & Wart
Shawn (Sean?), Peggy, Duke Gooseman & Sadam Hussain
Some new guy in green & Gadget(? Dabbles’ tinkering engineer friend we saw briefly when Sydney attacked Harem and Varia with shampoo)
Guy in green is the quartermaster.
I wondered if that might be the financial adviser up there next to George Lucas, but that doesn’t quite look like Mister Aurelius Shrapnell.
Or at all.
The woman between Achilles and Stalwart looks like Seneca. The one with the sweettooth.
The one you labelled “Saddam Hussain” is clearly Mohinder Suresh from Heroes.
Only 3 newbs,
Old bearded dude beside space marine #2
Younger bearded guy in front of Seneca,
And crew cut behind Dabbler’s assistant hereby named “Agatha”.
i got 5 new faces
Who is the fifth? o_O
3 to the left of gwen (her pov)
blond guy in the military jumper on the far right
bearded guy just above sydney’s hand
The guy second from Gwen is one of the Space Marines, along with the female SM beside Wart and Duke Gooseman
Nope that’s the quartermaster.
You sure? Thought he was also at the Interrupted Dinner, and one of the Three Space Marine’s (like the Three Amigo’s, but more Space Marine-y :P)
No, he’s the guy above Digit on our right
Ahh, so you are intending to date Harem, I guess?
hell no one mishap and you got 5 bodys naging you
Beats how many Harry Mudd has nagging him by a country mile.
…by a factor of 100, at least!
What about the one beside Gwen?
Maybe it should have just been “A lot of faces!”
Dabblers assistant has already been named “Digit” in the commentary here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1803
However, should her non-hero name be Agatha, I for one won’t be complaining!
Oh, just noticed panel 3 with Max & Adrianna watching from the sidelines as Sydney does her stuff. Sydney is training them well (and surprisingly quckly) :-)
Yeah, noticed Maxi, Ari and Zephan
Maxi is standing there thinking “What is she up to this time?”, but probably feels, as long as she is contained and entertained… plus they have several Supers in the audience who would make a good showing of taking her down if need be (even if it’s just a p… step or three)
lets be completely honest if the only cost of this sydney episode is that the dry eraser needs replacing sooner max thinks they got off easy
The fact that Harem is spending her first weeks pay on setting up a book to go along with her list based on the origin stories of the teammates on her own initiative with no other prodding than “I’m bored” means that Max will think
1) that’s some sweet action to get in on &
2) that girl is gunning for N.C.O. and doesn’t realize it. So adorbs!
3) why hasn’t this happened sooner? Who HAS been doing this the whole time and why are they holding out from Her?
4)DAMMIT most of the betting pools are about her so she cant participate …
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1358
Agatha, as in Hetrodyne? That would be a little scary in this group.
With this group? Who would notice a crazy Spark? :P
Sydney. First off she would be checking how close her cos-play outfits were to the real deal. Then asking Agatha to put her autograph in The List. Then begging to get her own pet spark clockwork assistant!
Guesticus, you ARE kidding, right? I see your comments in about 70% of the stuff I read, so I’m sure you read Girl Genius.
Lesser Sparks are why the Eurasian continent is heavily Balkanized, no one travels out of their town except in armored vehicles or accompanied by a Spark, and chaos reigns supreme. And Agatha Hetrodyne, in addition to being far from a lesser Spark, is also possessed occasionally by The Other (which temporarily makes her the most dangerous thing on the planet).
What, more dangerous than her boyfriend, who is possessed by his father, who, in turn, is possessed by the Other? And, unlike Agatha, does not have a device to suppress the possession. Oh, and who also happens to be the de facto ruler of the Eurasian continent. Anarchy ridden war-torn state though it may be.
It does tickle me that Airman Higgs sometimes slips out of character though, and a different chain of command is followed, temporarily,
Thought Agatha was possessed by The Other?
If this group noticed a crazy spark, they would probably think they were one of their own, ie ‘normal’ :P
A mile-high Agatha did say that “Baron Wolfenbach is the Other. Tell Everyone”.
But, more significantly we actually see him being infected by the spark-affecting slaver wasp. And it is confirmed, by the possessed Agatha, a few pages later. Even to the extent of him obeying her order involuntarily.
thought for a second i recognised crew cut as Sergant Vauxhall, but his guy has blond hair not grey.
Dave has been known to make minor errors or changes especially when he hasn’t drawn the character in years.
Yes, that is the guy, hair may be different, but he is wearing the same top
Wooly pully. Recognizable anywhere.
He is also a lot younger than the QM.
Presumably mostly going by the hair? If that was grey, he would look much older. Perhaps Sergant Vauxhall came to the same conclusion, and has just been one of the first Archon customers to make use of Barbarian’s Hair Salon?
Or just a regular bottle of hair dye…
Can the two new guys with beards be ruled out as supers? Or was the ‘no body hair’ rule waived for above the neck?
There was a strongman with a beard in a scene once. I think Dave agreed to let supers have beards.
It would make sense. The ‘superhero ideal’ seems to have a cultural basis. And some cultures heavily identify with beards. So presumably their ideal templates will be bearded. I could not envisage a clean-shaven Sikh super, for instance.
Wow, impressive convo chain going on here. However, it seems everyone has missed 1 simple option –
How about a blown up version of the pic that’s either labeled with names or labeled with numbers & the numbers & names listed below?
I know Mr DaveB would be most qualified for that, but since I’ve got MSPaint, I though I’d give it a go.
So, anyone wanna give naming everyone a try?
Thought we had named all but three (the two bearded guys and the one beside Gwen in the ‘cheap seats’)
Much hmmm here.
Loving the updated Vote Incentive so far.
From Dave’s comment, I’d say it’s most likely completely done.
I still can’t help but wonder how Sydney did it, though.
My question would be how could it last more than a few seconds?
Faerie dust.
Uknown Orb X, use discovered… :P
That was my thinking as well. At least, the vandalism should dissipate quickly and Max won’t be mad for too long.
One of the animated Star Treks had one of the Aztec gods being aliens (this was also in the 25th anniversary computer game), so technically Sydney would have to pay out twice on that bet. Surprised she didn’t think of the “alien worshipped as a god by primitives” trope there..
good point what if her dad is an alien who invented a android
Or a wizard who was also a robot.
That would be StarGate :D
Thought they only did Egyptian and Norse gods… And the Ancients, of course, but they seem more Ancient Greek
Satan (under one name or another) appeared in at least one episode. The more seasons a TV show has the wider it needs to cast it’s inspirational net.
actually the Goa’uld werein later seasons shown to have formed the basis for lots of pantheons on earth.
Egyptian, Greek, Central American, Asian, Polynesian..
though some of the central American ones may have been an unrelated race, which appeared in the episode “Crystal Skull”
the Asgard of course posed as the Norse pantheon (and i suspect given the similarities, the Finnish pantheon wouldn’t be a big stretch)
Star Trek TOS did the whole “advanced aliens worshiped by primitive humans” thing when the Enterprise encountered the Greek god Apollo. But then Star Trek did tend do repeat plot ideas sometimes detween TOS, Animated and TNG.
There was also Vaal, the machine worshiped by the locals, in “The Apple”.
That’s true, I’d forgotten that one, though as I recall the Apollo episode was based around the whole advanced race/god you gave us a lot/we’ve outgrown you premise, while Vaal was more or less an unexplained “plot device” for a Spock/McCoy “These people are happy, we should leave them be” “but they’re not free, we should free them” dilema so the high tech seen as godly power bit was glossed over.
Vaal was an example of advanced tech resulting in worship though :)
Yeah, that was the episode titled “Who Mourns for Adonis?” I thought the guy that played Apollo Micheal Forest: https://www.facebook.com/Michael-Forest-52922742826/timeline/) in that show acted so much like the Greek gods did act in all of those myths I’ve read…He really achieved “suspension of disbelief” for me.
Not just TOS, but the movies. It’s easy to forget Star Trek V, but they met “god” (again) in that one. Once again, it’s a Sufficiently Advanced Alien, who as far as I can tell was imprisoned at the center of the galaxy by the rest of his race.
Also in TOS was Landru (“The Return of the Archons”), which turned out to be a computer with the personality of its creator. Fortunately, the original Landru neglected to equip it with paradox-absorbing crumple zones, and the landing party was able to defeat it. Though I suppose it might not qualify as a god or a sufficiently advanced alien, since the people’s worship of it was mostly reflexive (even among the resistance, who opposed its will).
We all try to forget Star Trek V, from breaking their own speed rules to get to the center of the universe, the height of the ship being wrong for Spock’s rocket boot scene, and for that tortuous camping/die alone nonsense.
The fan dance was probably the only positive thing to take from the film.
Which is why it’s called “Star Trek V: Never Happened” around here. At least they made up for it with Star Trek VI: The Apology.
You’re probably referring to “How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth,” & the serpent god Kuklakan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Sharper_Than_a_Serpent's_Tooth
Kirk ran into one of the Greek gods once who turns out they were aliens as well.
My favourite ‘aliens have been on Earth before’ scene in Sci Fi was a Babylon 5 one. A court scene where the grandchildren of a human were suing the descendants of the alien who abducted him. Claiming loss of income, emotional distress and knock-on consequences even to their generation. That just had me splitting my sides laughing.
I recall a British TV series called “Star Cops” that evidently ran for a single season. It turned up on PBS here in my part of the US once and that was when I caught it.
The bad guys scheme in one of the stories was that they would take a legitimately ancient Aztec or Mayan artifact and pretend to find it on Mars. The con-men could then make oodles of money off their bogus find while laughing as everyone else endlessly discussed their Ancient Astronauts theories.
I also seem to remember the judge wondering why HE always gets these cases. ;-)
One of my other favorite moments from B5 (let’s face it, I had a lot of favorite moments from B5, but this one stands out) was Vir and Mordin.
Mordin: “What do you want?”
Vir: “I’d like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come at too high a price. I want to look up at your lifeless eyes and wave, like this” *silly wave* “Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Mordin?”
Then, in a later episode…
Londo: “The Vorlons will arrive shortly, and as we both know, they will strike if there is any Shadow influence here, yes? Well, I have removed the last of their influence. Walk into the garden, you’ll see. Consider it a gift. Go. I’ll join you in a moment.” You can guess what happens next.
The scenes in question are here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0n2vurSBIQ
and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47DfQcHMYLY
P.S., Personally, I’d like to know if Londo had a recorder on Vir, or if at some point either Mordin or Vir accidentally let it slip off-camera.
My favourite moments too. Perhaps influenced by the climax first airing live during GenCon UK. Seriously intensifying the experience.
*sigh*
One of the things in life that requires me to stir from my philosophical hermit’s retreat and re-enter the rat-race, in search of money, in the maze. Getting my GenCon fix. Swimming the Atlantic, to the USA, being that much less of a viable alternative, for those who lack the air-fare.
“Swimming across the Atlantic”, hmm? Reminds me of trying to plot a route from here to Hawaii via Google Maps (before they removed most or all of the hidden jokes):
Step #1 (according to Google Maps): Drive to Seattle, Washington (a distance of around 3,665 kilometers).
Step #2: Rent a kayak.
Step #3: KAYAK ACROSS THE OCEAN to Hawaii.
The much easier (and quicker) route:
Step #1: Drive to DFW International Airport (only 322 km)
Step #2: Buy a plane ticket and FLY to Hawaii.
In the real world, her dad would show up as soon as she becomes a wealthy public figure.
In the comic book world, he will either show up as a villain which she’ll have to defeat, or he’ll show up, explain who he is and why he disappeared, only to get killed off so she’ll have a vengeance quest.
Although, this is a comedy, so it is absolutely possible that he’ll show up and just go “Wait…what? You have super powers?” and be just as confused as anyone in the real would would be.
So, what are the odds on Xochitl’s dad being a perfectly ordinary human male of Aztec ancestry?
*blinks*
Inconceivable!
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
“stop the rhyming, i mean it!” “Anybody want a peanut?”
Sorry, only wild speculations allowed in this comments section. Take your reasonable suppositions elsewhere.
SAo how about a regular Human meatsack…
…of some other genetic origin (Asian maybe), who’s heritage got “overwritten” by Varia’s Mother’s DNA…. O_O
:P
Xochitl’s dad being a perfectly ordinary human male of Aztec ancestry? If we take Ma’s word about being of Pure Aztec ancestry, the odds are pretty slim. Pa would have vaguely about 30,000 ancestors in the days of Cortez, and if any of them crossed the line during the 500 years since, Pa by definition would not be pure.
Of course, if we are talking 80%-99.99% Aztec, the odds are much better. Mexico tends to use a cultural definition of race. If you routinely speak Spanish, you are assumed to have some European ancestry somewhere. And if you lived with a tribe of indians, you were assumed to be one. Add in the occasional drifting from tribe to tribe and there may be no pure blood Aztecs despite there being a million who might consider themselves so.
On a related point, she is not Montezuma’s only surviving descendant, if we are going by realism [fat chance of course]. Such may be popular in story, but the number of descendants would either be zero or above 10,000. [If you have no kids, your children won’t either, but if you do, you will average 2, who will have an average of 4, who will have 8, who will have… And royalty tends to have even higher numbers. Keeping the number small is just about impossible.]
Not at all. Your figures only apply to countries with large populations that allow such interbreeding. If you have a small and/or insular community, which either cannot, or will not, interbreed with other communities, then the reverse is true. Provided the population is at least five hundred strong, the gene pool can avoid dangerous inbreeding and remain viable indefinitely.
This is the case, for example, for island tribes. Albeit less isolated in the modern world, than the ancient. Likewise for insular religious sects, which choose to cut themselves off from non-believers. For the descendants of the Aztecs I imagine that there will be some suitably isolated chunks of geography that could serve to keep several communities who would retain their genetic heritage in a relatively pure state.
Clearly, in the modern world, even if there is a highly insular culture in their area to aid that, there would still be a degree of intermarriage outside the community. But, provided the majority of the population keep to their locality and traditions, then the outsider DNA will gradually be watered down, when their children marry others in the local community.
The Aztec gene pools would predominate and it would certainly be fair to describe them as pure. They would be as pure as the historical populations gene pools were, by proportion. They too would have had some degree of genetics from other ethnic groups in the region, at that time. Albeit no Spanish DNA.
Taken at the most severe, that would mean we have 500 descendants of Montezuma, and our girl is pretty ordinary, in that way at least. But it is unlikely on several grounds that there was that much isolation in this case.
Historically, the Spanish were looking everywhere for “workers”, and as losers of the war, the Aztecs had “volunteered” for that role. An isolated village was just “asking” for some Spanish soldier to set himself up as don, with the eventual end of any purity.
But even without the Spanish forcing their way in, isolation is only relative. A merchant brings in a muleload of some delicious crop the locals can’t grow, one of the local girls thinks of a way to get a major discount on the price, and… 9 months later we start with the 2, 4, 8, 16… and in a few centuries, nobody is pure.
But within the story, the expression “pure Aztec” tells us there was not that much isolation. If everybody in the village is a pure Aztec, you barely even call yourself an Aztec. Why bother with such an obvious fact? Only when there is considerable contact with Maya, Olmec, Spanish… do you start calling yourself an Aztec, and there is considerable racial mixing before you start saying “pure Aztec”. Pa might be in the 80-99% bracket, but the odds are high against 100%.
Hence why I used terms such as “relatively pure” and “predominate”. And probably why Varia’s mum did not say “100% pure”.
I am from Cornwall. Even if somebody has lived there fifty years, they are still considered an outsider and not Cornish. Only foreigners (like the English) consider having lived somewhere, for a long time, as sufficient to be classed as a local. Unless you are born in Cornwall it does not count.
And even then you are still viewed with suspicion if you can’t trace your bloodlines back far enough. Ultimately the attitude has sought to preserve the bloodlines of the Celts. So anybody of Celtic blood is welcomed much more warmly than emmets, from beyond the Taymar.
Needless to say the math you stated does overwhelm that. But it does not stop them from trying!
But, aside from that there is the cultural side to it too. Even folks who have quite a diluted genome, but who embrace their cultural roots, and preserve their traditions, are entitled to claim their heritage. Aztec is not just the DNA. It is the culture too. Just as with Cornwall.
In the UK this is formally recognised, in the census. Because people can (and do) have genes from all sorts of sources, they can lay claim to many different heritages. So people are asked what ethnicity they identify themselves as (if they wish to declare it at all). And this is by far and away the most important aspect. If push comes to shove it shapes what they might be willing to die to protect.
Clearly Varia will heavily identify as a Bostonian, having grown up and been educated there. But, even given that, if she, and her father, consider themselves to be Aztec, then they are Aztec!
i cant believe they missed the obvious one that her dad is a super.
or that the mother is the father and some magical timy wimy transformation stuff happened
Eeew, self-cest, genetically speaking that’s like 78% chance of mutations!.
which could be the source of her powers
…Talk about in-breeding…
Yes. do please continue talking about your love life.
well that was rather uncalled for
but funny
There is a dean koontz book about that. A woman is born from her parents who I think were siblings, as a fully functional hermaphrodite. Both sets of sexual organs. She sees this as a sign she is the next virgin mary so she impregnates herself with herself. Giving birth to 4 kids eventually, an older son named Candy. Dont make fun of the name, he is 300 pounds of muscle and can teleport. He also enjoys killing and is somewhat psychic as well as being able to blow stuff up with his mind, but for some reason not people. Twin daughters who are mind linked and can control cats, and one son who can also teleport but sucks at it, that comes into play later.
Ahh, sticking to the old classics I see. Boy meets girl, who turns out to be himself.
Mind you it did make me completely loose my suspension of disbelief at ‘… and can control cats’!
there is no force in this universe that can control cats
cats are the prof that there is no all powerful force controlling everything
The cats thing was a hive mind deal. The twins were liked to each other and a pack of cats.
err linked
I’ve always wanted to meet a true hermaphrodite…That’s the one kind of person you literally could tell to “go f**k yourself” & be perfectly correct to do so.
Also, see Heinlein’s “All you Zombies” ^_^
Name of this dean koontz book?
Isn’t ‘mom is actually the father’ from South Park?
Cartman’s mom actually being a male?
No, the idea is older than that by a good clip. In terms of “modern” literature, Heinlein did a short story involving time travel, “‘-All You Zombies-‘”, wherein the protagonist finds out that he is, inadvertently, both his own mother and his own father.
(And fuck spoiler alerts – the story’s over half a century old.)
Wicked Lasers’ commissioned webcomic had that for the main character as well. Then again, the whole thing was just odd.
cartmans mom was a hermaphrodite, coupled with being a HUGE whore, so really there was no way to tell who cartmans dad is.
Actually, the hermaphrodite-mom had a working penis, but non-working ovaries. The whole joke of that 2-part episode was that she sired Cartman, but never said who gave birth to him.
…
Also, not a whore – a total slut, though…
No the point was that Cartman’s mom was his father. And his mother is unkown
But omg, who killed Kenny?
I kind-of remember a short story of that nature: a baby is dropped off at an orphanage and grows up in a hard life. In her early 20’s, she is raped and becomes pregnant. After the baby is born, the female child is abducted from the hospital. While still in the hospital, she is told that the trauma of birth has wrecked her female parts, but she also has a set of male parts that could be made fully functional with relatively minor surgery. The newly male protagonist starts searching for his child and also want to find out who raped him while he was still a she. He eventually manages to use time travel to go back to the hospital, on the night he had given birth and sees the child.
He suddenly realized what he must do. He takes the child and time travels back 20 years and goes to the orphanage where he had been raised and leaves the baby there. He then travels forward 19 years to find his female former self and end up attacking her. So he ends up being both his own father and mother. I forget what he did after that though. I wish I remembered the same of the story or who wrote it.
Ah, CanuckAmuk got it. Heinlein’s All You Zombies.
Which has recently been re-made into a movie. The one I alluded to the other day.
Looks like I should’ve read further. ^_^
Not to worry. Nice shiny avatars are always welcome in quantity around here.
Seduced, not raped, if my memory is right. Admittedly, seduced by a guy who knows exactly what buttons to press and who then leaves her after the first time, but hey, consensual before the fact if not afterward.
Actually that’s not exactly what happened either :) If anyone is interested here, it’s a good reading even having the twist spoiled.
BTW I will never understand the need some people have to spoil things for no reason (not talking about you Unmaker), is it some kind of weird compulsion?
Daniel the Human here. Both Screwball & I read that story. Screwball’s gonna be out of action for a while, probably gonna come back online tomorrow with a big headache, or processor-ache, whatever Cybertronians get. He is not someone anyone would call smart…
Very interesting read there. I like how it all comes full circle, bit of a mind-rape if you’re not used to it. That said, I’ve got a Original character who’s been not only helping himself out back & forth through time, but also screwing himself over :P. Is is bad mind-rapey stuff like that doesn’t get to me?
As for spoilers, I guess some people want to talk about things, & either don’t realize or just don’t care that others don’t know what they want to talk about & want to find out 1st hand. I personally don’t care about reading spoilers, but I respect others don’t like them so try to hold off spoiling stuff…
I think that “spoiler”-ing is most likely from either-or-both of 2 reasons…
1)__The “I’m clever”-sensation which comes from proving that you know the answer by sharing it.
2)__A sensation which I think of as “needing to fill-in the blanks”. This may-or-may-not be related to OCD, I’m not sure.
Maybe it was midi-chlorians.
Phillip J. Fry had a weird power due to being his own grandfather.
(Ewww!)
Can’t believe no one caught the GhostBusters reference :(
I though you said crossing the streams was bad Egon……
Didn’t miss, just hadn’t yet read the page..
No thank you, my atomic structure needs to stay together & keep working…They don’t need separate vacations with lightspeed travel accomodations.
Sometimes references are so mainstream that they pass uncommented. Other times there is such a rapid flow, in the stream of consciousness, that you move swiftly on to the next dialogue.
Here you get the two aspects combining, crossing the streams … all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light!
I think the Simpsons did make it up. The Simpsons wiki you linked to said the artifact Olmec (which is not Aztec) and in my 10-minute Googling, it doesn’t look like we have names for the Olmec gods. “Their names…have been lost over the ages.” Source
Olmecs were referenced in another webcomic called Wapsi Square, so there’s a chance that the Olmecs ‘could’ have been a real thing?
The Olmec were definitely a ‘real thing’, as are the stone heads.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec
The Olmec civilization was real, but became extinct in about 400BC, so we don’t know much about them.
My theory is that their name was actually the Ol-Mecha, and the giant heads people see sitting out in the jungle are actually the tops of giant robots that have gotten buried over the centuries.
On a side note, I used to have a similar “robot statue” theory about Easter Island.
Don’t be silly. The moai were built to honor the alien that lives under Easter Island. Nice enough guy once you get to know him, if a bit stiff and socially awkward. Goes by the name Nokkar.
hey, someone has to fight the Space Spawn, good thing the Manhattan clan told him they’d help.
Really, the look in panel 5 is perfect.
5:1 odds her father was actually Xolotl. The one.
Did I do that link right? I don’t think I did.
Nah, it’s more the start of the “this isn’t funny anymore” look, which her outburst in the next panel confirms it (although, hat could just be a cover for the truth…)
here is a secret passed on from a user to user.
https://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_links_w3schools
use it well.
and no, i am not about to die.
am i the only one wondering if that’s george lucas on the last panel right next to the black guy?
maybe he is trying to get ideas.
i should have mentioned that don’t suck…
You spotted him as well? Same here :D
I have my claws crossed that he has signed up as a Patreon, so that he gets his cameo now, and is justified in getting one in the live-action movie too. Now that he has sold the Star Wars franchise to Disney, he probably is looking for a new project. And could not have found a better one!
Great fan of your work sir. I have some time on my paws, if you have need of an extra consultant. DaveB has my contact details, if you want to get in touch discreetly. *places claw on side of nose, in a conspiratorial fashion*
*wags tail excitedly*
well sorry but if it HIM i would be SCARED AD FUCK of the results.
i know the coming on star wars is not “his fault” but the way to get money from it and adaptations just PISSES ME OFF. i went TO THE CONVENTIONS in usa while being french. i saw ALL THE MOVIES but already YOUNG VADOR GHOST? move asshole. he should have been kicked in the tender for THAT only. now the rest done after…am LOSING my faith in the franchise. sincerely.
and HIM…haven’t saw him put out a REAL movie in YEARS…just the latest “indiana jones” i will NEVER ADMIT it IS part of the franchise…
sorry but the guy and his “money grabbing hands” just has a WAY to pull out my bad reactions i swear.
Nah, if you want to get someone to do a cameo in a movie, call on Stan Lee.
Naa, what I want is Grrl Power the Movie.
Whilst I enjoy Stan Lee cameos, he is very much the face of Marvel. So I doubt he would promote what would be a competitor to their franchise. Although it would be cool if he ignored the conflict of financial interest and did make an appearance.
The publicity of an official and acknowledged cameo by either George Lucus or Stan Lee would generate a massive boost in readership. Which would, in turn, guarantee the long-term financial viability of the comic. With or without a movie.
But a movie would be coolness incarnate. And I think the market is ripe for it. A few years ago the risqué side of Grrl Power might have precluded it, due to politically-correct fears. But now that Deadpool has broken that ice, in super-genre movies, even that ceases to be any risk.
The setting, that DaveB has created, approaches the genre from an angle that I think contemporary movie audiences will absolutely flock to!
How about both doing a cameo?
Say sitting in Fusion as Sydney and Peggy are coming in for lunch.
They might even be playing chess.
Well, Stan Lee did make cameos in some of the X-Men movies from Fox as well, and supposedly will have another one in the upcoming Apocalypse, in spite of the bad blood between Fox and Marvel.
Also, I think it’s a bit premature to say that Deadpool has “broken that ice” when the movie isn’t even out yet.
I think the biggest problem with Grrl Power as a movie is how to sell the idea that most of it is about the superheroes when they *aren’t* battling the forces of evil, or what have you.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend managed it well enough. The majority of the movie was a relationships film. With the occasional bit of action, to remind folks that one of the principles had the super-girl package.
Plus the trailer made that abundantly clear, so it was not operating under false pretences.
It’s box-office was double it’s budget. So was a financial success. And super hero films have only been growing in popularity since then.
I’ll give you this: It takes guts to use My Super Ex-girlfriend as a positive example for anything. :)
Anyway, it wasn’t such a high budget movie. In Grrl Power, *most* of the main characters have powers, which puts a bigger strain on the SFX budget. However, being so character driven, the casting is really important. I’d hate it for them to get Sydney wrong.
I’m sitting here trying to distill the storyline into the usual three act structure. Almost all movies have a setup that lasts for about 20 minutes. The shop and lunch might serve, but if we were to keep the RPG session, I’m not sure that the rest should be a flashback from that, since it would create the expectation that we would return to that in the end. The bank robbery would kick the middle part going, and the fight would be the climax. I do see a problem with the fact that we haven’t seen Vehemence until then. I think he needs some earlier scenes. The scene with Obama was awesome. Now I fantasise about getting him to play himself. And there the budget went through the roof for a gag that would probably be the end of the movie. :-)
Think of this: Sydney’s orbs would be an effect, maybe not as hard per scene, but it would be necessary to use the effect in *all* of Sydney’s scenes after they were revealed. Maybe they’d wimp out and have her put them back in the tube right after the first demonstration, and we wouldn’t see them again until the press conference.
I sometimes do that cause the tube is easier to draw than laying in all the orbs in 9 panels.
Actually, Stan Lee has a cameo in Disney’s [Big Hero 6].
To find him, just wait until after the last of the end-credits.
Daniel the Human here still, took a while to teach Screwball to stay till the end of a movie’s credits, but as long as he’s not distracted by something “not boring”, I get to watch it without him trying to drag me away…
Nah, he already got his ideas from Paul.
This is going to be immediately followed by, “Scoville! Return to your seat!” and a sheepish, “Yes Colonel Leander.” and a swift flight back to the other recruits before Ariana launches into an exposition page.
I like to think Maxima is just to stunned to say anything.
First she’ll try to think of what she’d put her money on, before realizing she’s supposed to be mad
True she has bet on halo before and lost haha
Twice, in one period :D
i personally expect maxima to laugh badly or chuckle at least, because, IN THE END it’s their fault for taking to long in the presentation preparations. hehe
I love how everyone is playing along!
only 3 of them are joining in leon, dabler and amorphous.
the rest are just watching in an amused silence
Or is it stunned silence. Sydney can have startling effects on people when she gets going.
Give them more time with Sydney & I’d bet that the whole team could eventually develop a resistance to “Mental Stun.” It’s an ability that could come in very handy for a super-powered SWAT team…
No one expects a Scoville!
“sorry mam…your daughter got…SCOVILLED”
HEHE
Eh, given the “Make Maxima Say Bingo” I doubt it’s stunned silence over Sydney’s idea of starting a betting pool on this.
Now, being stunned about her willingness to start this when they’re apparently waiting for Max/Zeph/Arianna to do some sort of meeting on the other hand….
What about Tetzcatlipoca, Xochipilli, Xochiquetzal, Xipe Totec, Huitzilopochli…?
Never mind that one of those is a girl, gods are weird and I wouldn’t rule it out. See: Sleipnir.
Are you just typing characters at random, trying to cover the entire keyboard?
I wouldn’t have hit the letter X that much if it was random :P.
If you check, these guys can all be readily looked up, though I did misspell Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli.
They are, in order: The jaguar god, the god of flowers (and sex), the goddess of flowers (and sex), the god of death and rebirth, and the (a?) god of war.
Huit is actually the god of death. was a particualrly interesting book series called Everworld where you get to watch Vikings under him fight Vikings, the leader of whom has Mjolnir, pretty early in the novels.
Is that your only source for that? Because that’s not what “Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America” says, and that’s not my only source.
Do I see Cobra Bubbles!
Oh hell yes!
Who now? o_O
The social worker from Lilo and Stitch.
Nope he is a space marine
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/385/comment-page-1#comments
Doesn’t mean he’s not Cobra Bubbles.
Next time I’m sure I’ll find Waldo.
Somebody call my name?
I don’t think you’re supposed to make it that easy… :P
Yeah, it seems I know a few people who’ve wanted to ask Waldo…Do you know where in the world Carmen Sandiego is?
She was my neighbor for a short time.
Shouldn’t Dabbler be in human form? It was previously established that the recruits have not been informed about her history.
And “battle form” doesn’t cut it if they are in a secure, but not cleared, area of their HQ.
I would agree that the recruits certainly don’t have the full skinny on Dabbler. You’ll notice in the page linked below, how Max and Sydney were pretty secretive when it came to discussing the succubus in front of them. On the other hand, they do know she can take a normal human form and a battle form and so are probably just wondering why she’s lounging around there in that shape instead of what they think is her real one.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1760
On the other hand, both of her forms are now public knowledge thanks to the press conference and the fight, so Archon probably figures they have nothing to lose by letting her wander around in whatever shape she likes.
She probably prefers being herself whenever she can, I would.
I’d justify it with something like “Why’s she in her battle form to *insert mundane task here*?” “Because it has hooves, and four arms, and horns, and a tail…. all that stuff would seriously throw you off balance if you’re not used to it.. that wold be bad in battle, so she likes to spend a lot of time in that form so that it feels natural to her.”
Daniel the Human here.
Yeah, this sounds pretty plausible to me. Screwball was pretty uncoordinated doing certain things in his Human Formed Armour at first. Bloody good laugh. Landed on a small packet of magnets & totally spazzed out over how it felt… XD
Alternately, DaveB is breaking the 4th wall, and only we, the readers, are seeing her natural form; to everyone else in the room, she could very well be wearing her glamour.
I favour the other explanations, as we usually see the world from Sydney’s point of view (albeit not literally from her eyes). Currently the True-sight orb is above her head, rather than in hand.
Plus there would be no particular benefit to be gained from loosing this convention, in this scene. To the contrary, it would weaken a very useful plot mechanic.
Good call
That is the situation where you want negative search words, possibly combined with site:, such as -site:twitter.com …
His Google-Fu is not high enough to learn that technique!
BTW, DaveB, here’s the Simpsons link you were Googling for, if no one else has found it:
https://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Olmec_head
The “dead mom” thing is specifically quite often “mom died in childbirth”, which is a cheap ‘n’ lazy way of getting some sad backstory and removing parental figures from the character’s life. It gets really tiresome (and doesn’t do good things for actual pregnant women’s state of mind…)
From Dave’s the under-the-page blog:”…so maybe Walt had a boner for dead moms.”
So THAT explains how all of those Disney Princesses got born, even without a mother…
Well most disney movies take place in a pre modern world, where it was quite common for mothers to die in childbirth
Back then, it was far, far more common that the newborn kids would die, than the mother dying during childbirth. But that also left an opening for the “fairy tale plot” that the kid was actually a Changeling.
Oddly enough the newborn mortality rate for whites during the bubonic plague was better than the current rate for blacks in 90%+ Detroit. Despite having hospitals that can not turn them away they still manage to blame white people who died less before doctors started to wash their hands before delivery.
But Disney often changes the original story into the “dead parents” backstory. Aladdin for example was living with his mum, and stole to support her.
The movie takes place after that. The King of Thieves sequel (third in the ‘series’) shows him living with his mom. And his dad is actually alive, too.
that movie also teachs you to never catch an artifact the wrong way.
It’s lazy, but effective. Kurt Vonnegut humorously explains:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ
Try plotting Sydney’s graph. Wibbly wobbly time.
Well considering that Disney ripped off many folktales and collected works (large part the Brothers Grim), and has since subsquently demanded everyone bow down to their perpetual ownership of their particular renderings of those stories and ideas, some of those early dead parents weren’t really thoughtfully constructed parts of the narrative. They were just part of what was being ripped off to begin with. Later movies just continued leaning hard on that narrative device. Why be creative and original when you can co-opt a proven trope established before most societies had wide spread use of writing.
I’ve noticed a slight discrepancy, concerning the page title: Sydney’s not “Chalking up.” She’s “marking up” on the whiteboard! The difference is obvious because the sound effect is “squeak,” not “scree.”
I think that may also related to the under-the-page-comic, as Varia is also “marking up” her cut of the payout…
So, considering just about everyone is there, do we still think this is going to be a discussion on media relations. Perhaps it’s a meeting about something else and Arianna will be explaining to Sydney the right way to deal with the press afterwards. I mean, surely they don’t need to call in everyone just because Sydney mouthed off a little.
A good point, perhaps it’s a general group debrief of yesterdays events and/or a “now we’re in the public eye this is what we’re going to do about it/what’s changed” session.
If you’ve ever been in the military, you might remember that it’s quite common to enact some kind of “unit discipline” on the whole group just because ONE person committed a faux paus…
That went out before men having to wear high heels, and fake pregnancy bellies so they would sympathize with women who avoided combat by getting pregnant.
https://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/04/21/army-cadets-on-campus-forced-to-wear-red-high-heels-and-raise-awareness-of-debunked-rape-culture/
If you want to increase awareness of rape culture read the koran
But I think some men go a little too far…
https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2013/01/men-suffer-pregnancy-pains-in-labor-simulation/
They don’t call it “labor” for nothin’…It’s the hardest physical exertion any human being has to perform.
Doug, if you want “rape culture”, you can read the BIBLE, too. Here’s some little-known Biblical traditions: (1) Women shall always wear a veil in public, lest they be seen as ‘lustful servants of the Morning Star’. (2) Women shall always remain silent in church and in public. (3) Women shall not teach or lead men in any fashion. (4) Women are the property of their husbands.
Sounds like something from the Quran, right? And yet it’s all there, in the Old Testament, along with fathers stoning their daughters to death for losing their virginity prior to marriage.
Oh, by the way, in regards to that article you linked to: Please, please don’t be like the Social Justice Warriors. Get your facts straight first… PJ News did NOT get their facts straight. Here’s a few REAL facts, not the ones made up by PJ News:
(1) The PJ News article refers to cadets at ASU. While they DID participate in the Walk a Mile awareness effort, they were NOT wearing high heels with their ACU’s, because that would be a violation of Army Regulation 670-1 which states, in part, that “wearing a combination of civilian and military clothing is prohibited, unless prescribed in this regulation or directed by the Secretary of the Army.” I will add that they were allowed (individually) to wear either civilian or military outfits.
What I’m saying is this: some of them MIGHT have worn heels with a CIVILIAN outfit, but unless they wanted to be written up for disciplinary action, they would not have worn them with their ACU’s, and some of the “cadets wearing heels with their ACU’s” MIGHT have been civilians who bought a set of ACU’s online (you can get them from any number of surplus stores) and wore heels with them, to try to make the ROTC look bad.
By the way, the photos in the article were from the Temple ROTC (NOT the Phoenix ROTC) where 15 cadets DID wear high heels with their ACU’s. Those cadets are now on disciplinary action.
(2) The commander of the ASU ROTC tried to determine the source of that text message (in the article you linked to). While he was unable to track it to its source, he WAS able to determine that it did not come from any of the cadets. In other words, it was FAKED.
(3) The ASU cadets chose to participate in the Walk A Mile event. They could’ve chosen the ROTC 5K Run instead. (I don’t know if the choice was allowed to be made at the individual level, or if the entire unit had to agree on one or the other.)
Bottom line, you really need to take anything that the far-right OR the far-left says with a grain of skepticism, because of the agendas involved.
P.S., there were no fake pregnancy bellies being worn by the cadets on the march. That’s you making stuff up.
Also, women have not been avoiding combat by getting pregnant. Rather, they have been forced to avoid combat due to the JSoC reassigning them everywhere but the front lines. Despite the fact that the Navy allows women on their ships, despite the fact that the Air Force has had female fighter pilots for years, despite the fact that the Army has female soldiers, none of them have ever been allowed in combat. It’s not the women avoiding it, it’s the JSoC refusing to allow it.
stereotypical Muslim hatred. honestly, it’s fundamentalists of any stripe that do horrible things, then people just try to blanket generalize the whole pile.
hell, the people leading fundamentalists are hardly ever faithful to the religion they claim to be, they’re just using it as a tool to fool the ignorant, infuriated or weak-minded into killing and dying for their own goals.
Hell, a good part of a the Dark ages was caused by King Phillip of Spain not wanting to pay back the Knights Templar money he owed them (they were the economic power of their day, like the US), so he spread the rumor they were heretics and had the Catholic church burn them at the stake.
Not to mention that the Crusades was only partially about “spreading Christianity to the heathens”. The nobles of the time were usurping some of the power that the Church normally reserved for itself. So, the Church started the crusades (partially) in the hopes of killing off some of the nobles, since it was the nobles who funded and led the armies.
More people have died due to religion than any other issue in human history (with the possible exception of the Black Plague). If Jesus hadn’t already risen from the grave, I think he’d be rolling over in his grave because of all the things being done in his name by fundamentalists of any stripe.
I could turn this into a big anti-hypocrite rant a la “Suicide for Hire” (fundamentalists very frequently are hypocrites, conveniently ignoring the scripture that would inconvenience them, while demanding strictest adherence to the scripture that supports their cause of the day). Instead, I’ll just say this:
If you’re killing people in the name of God… you’re missing His message.
And there you go reminding me why I am in my hermitage. Having stumbled upon a way to reduce religious tensions worldwide, even if only to a degree, I really am duty-bound to ensure that the philosophy is fully sound, before unleashing it on the world.
*slowly walks down the drive and swings the gatehouse doors shut*
*walks back up the drive, with leaden feet*
*sighs*
I really am not cut out for solitary confinement. Man, at least I have ya’all to help me from going stir crazy. Plus my Jack Russell Terrier.
They have to cover press relations anyway, its just sydney being very uncooperative has forced them to push it up further. I doubt most of the members have much experience dealing with press so they all need to elarn this. Its just sydney needs to learn it more because she is insane, also because she has a non super life that gets a lot of attention now.
*reads the Paetron ad*
Ah, ‘A Fistful of Yen’. Nice.
Anyone else realize she just interrupted a presentation with this…?
Oh, I’m pretty sure that someone noticed…
I’d be willing to bet that we’ll see Max or Arianna (or both) change Sydney’s Betting Parlor back into a classroom lecture on the very next page. Indeed, it it wasn’t for the humor involved, I would’ve been surprised they didn’t stop Sydney on THIS page.
;)
Presentation has not begun so she preempted it for a little.
The presentation hadn’t actually started yet. See Dave’s comments about “hurry up and wait” above.
@DaveB: A good resource to start looking for gods, if you ever need to find another, is this page:
https://www.godchecker.com
Since nothing even remotely similar to the name you want shows up there, I’m going with: it was made up by the Simpsons….
HOLY SHIT! I have been looking for something like this forever! Thank you!
BTW, DaveB, here’s the Simpsons link you were Googling for, if no one else has found it:
https://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Olmec_head
That is beautiful! /bookmarks/
Daniel here. Looks like I’m gonna add another “thanks” to your collection. Interesting page. I’m kinda glad Screwball’s still brain-fried right now, he’d probably announce himself a God or something…
When Sydney first went up to the board I thought she was going to do the whole “I just figured out super-genetics in 30 seconds” thing.
But then I realized I was not reading HP:MoR.
I calculate good odds that, in the middle of all this, Sydney will belatedly realize that there HAS to be someone both high-ranking and extremely annoyed quietly standing behind her.
“N’YAAA! I totally forgot you guys were there!”
absentee parents are pretty common in anime/manga. Sometimes the parents are significant, sometimes they’re not.
Emiya Shirou (Fate/Stay-Night), Mai (Ghost Hunt), The Tendo Sisters (Ranma 1/2)….
It makes me smile every time I see a character with my name, and the fact that Xochitl actually gets used on occasion instead of her superhero name constantly makes me even happier. Flowers for everyone!
Only if the come in either cake or pie format.
*scampers happily around in the flowers, showering them all over the place*
Back during Air Training Cadet days (similar to ROTC… maybe?), we would often have to stand in formation (fortunately not at attention) while the officers would be standing on the sidelines finishing off their drinks, sometimes for up to fifteen minutes!!
But heaven help you if you didn’t show up on time to “hurry up and wait”. When I went through AFROTC, it was drilled into us: “To be early is to be on time. To be on time is to be late. To be late is to be left behind.” (Or, in this case, to be late is to volunteer for additional physical training.)
They have a different mantra in the French Foreign Legion. “The only reason you do not keep up is if you are dead or have a broken leg.” Then when one soldier could not go any further, on an extreme distance fast trek, the NCO proceeded to break his leg.*
* As relayed to me by a first-hand eye witness of impeccable credibility. Who did manage to complete the exercise, within the time-limit, given that inspiration. And I still have his unit insignia, which he gave to me as a keep-sake, very shortly after that incident.
Weirdly enough, as it may seem to outsiders, he did not speak of that in terms of it being an example of institutional brutality. He was fiercely proud of the unit. That was simply a means of toughening them up, which he was fine with.
Walt Disney did feel responsible for the death of his own mother so can guess he had a hang up on it. mother died of monoxide poisoning in the new house he bought his parents after he sent done if his guys to fix their furnace or radiator (something like that) and they did it wrong.
Almost wondering if my character is in there somewhere.
They could be introducing new recruits. Which would be lovely. But, for public-relations terms, it may still be too early for the general public to accept that.
It will take a little while to get the message across that most of the participants, in the Battle at the Steak House Car Park, were under the influence of Vehemence’s aggro aura. Then they will need convincing that such individuals are justified in being treated as victims, rather than criminals.
A process that will take some time. Rush it too much, and too many people will still be thinking of them as villains. Which will mar any appointments. Even if they are made in good faith and with justifiable legality.
i see mister X to,, he is in the toip right corner,, wehre the coloration of the wall get a bit fuzzy
:)
*Looks at triple-sized version Screwball made to help add names to faces* Daniel here. Good eyes, you can see him there. Not well, but it’s too well formed to be a random discolouration…
Do we have the faintest idea of where they are and why are they there? What is this cinema kind of room? Why is everyone here? What are they waiting for?
General consensus is its a “how to deal with the press” and “this is what we will be doing now” meeting.
Of course we know why they’re in the room: their commanding officer(s) told them to be.
As good an explanation as any. :D
A few things:
https://www.crystalinks.com/aztecgods.html
https://www.ancient.eu/article/415/
[this one is for Mayans].
Enjoy ^_^.
And yay! Future plot device. I’m throwing money down on a split between Space Princess, and father’s an interdimensional traveler from another plane of existence (and the power ability is a natural ability for them that allows them to take on the biology of others for them to interact with other planes sapient creatures.).
I find it a bit incongruous that Dabbler suggested a non-sexual method of reproduction. It seems more in character for her to suggest that Varia’s father is unknown because she was conceived at a huge orgy and it could be any one of the 50 men present at the event.
I am too tired to point out the wrongness of that statement.
Suffice it to say, eew.
I’d agree with your sentiment…In one case, such an orgy gave us Freddy Kruger; “Bastard son of 100 maniacs.”
Why? Because she’s part Succubus? Maybe you should look past her appearance and more in her abilities. She has shown a couple of weapons that she has made herself and referenced her laboratory/ armory with more gadgets. Obviously she is a skilled technician that likes the idea of a female being able to create a complex android that could pass of as human.
IMHO Dabbler isn’t even the most oversexed female in the group. Her vamping is carefully calibrated (remember it’s a food source for her, and she doesn’t want to overeat). Whereas Harem seems to have enough urges for five bodies and barely enough tact for one.
+1
Being mindful of her helping Sydney break the hypnoboob effect. She has limitless capabilities of getting whomever she wants, but carefully limits it. Despite her verbal teasing and banter to the contrary.
I was more talking about the 50 guy orgy, being an eew.
50 guy and 50 gal orgy. It’s just that the women couldn’t be on the list of possible fathers…
And I didn’t say that Dabbler would have believed that this was how Varia was conceived, just that the suggestion seemed to be more in character for her. Because it is more in line with the aforementioned verbal teasing and banter.
Daniel here, Screwball’s still a bird perch… :)
There’s a reason I haven’t introduced Screwball to Southpark. It’s entirely possible you can’t rule out ALL the women from the party either…
Hmmm…Do you always make it a habit to count the male/female ratio of an orgy before you decide to join it?
Randy romping requires ratio!
INFORMATION (Linked dialogue NSFW):
For anybody who needs to ask “What is a Scooby-Doo?” you may wish to start here.
I don’t need to ask “What’s a Scooby Doo?”
It’s that brown lump in your yard after Shaggy takes Scooby for walkies…
(Shaggy doesn’t pick up after Scooby because…well, he’s always got some kind of food in hand and…Let’s just say those two things just don’t go well together)
Do you, and apparently everyone else in this thread, always read an opinion post on what might be more in character for a fictional character to suggest about the parentage of an also fictional teammate and take it as pedantically literately as is possible?
Get a sense of humor or die in a fire, I don’t care which you choose. You dying in a fire would be funny enough to supply me at least with the humor you’ve managed to suck out of the atmosphere.
Sidenote: Aladdin wasn’t acctualy an orphan, it was the Disney adaptation that killed her. She is infact the one that he has going to the Emir to propose for him.
So yeah, Disney does not like mother it would seem…
He liked them fine. Just felt unfairly guilty about indirectly killing his own (botched heating in a house he bought his parents)
Is drawing lines that straight fast needing a superpower???
Straight lines are easy. Even I can do that. Perfect circles are the traditional more challenging test, to measure artistic or technical capability.
yep, i’m not sure how accurate it is, but i heard that DaVinci was asked to make some sort of “art” for someplace, and they kept bugging him about it, until he finally just slapped down a piece of paper and drew a PERFECT circle… FREEHAND… with no holes on the paper from any compasses, or any deformities from wavy lines or other means and ways of making a circle, they left his studio flabbergasted, and didn’t bother him any more…. like i said, not sure how true it is, but… it does illustrate the difficulty in drawing a perfectly round circle without mechanical assistance.
@Cthulhuearring: NOPE, no super powers required (unless they DO exist in the real world and are being covered up, prior to Archon’s reveal…) otherwise how would this guy be able to do what he does?… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l789l6np-qA
X is standing in the back left corner. But being X, nobody can see him, other than Sydney using her truesight orb.
better X is one of the new faces we can see he’s out in the open not wearing his mask but no one knows its him
What if there was no dad? (Midichlorians, or spontaneous self-pregnancy) How would you ever prove it and collect?
spontaneous self pregnancy would be easy to prove. as with Parthenogenesis (the technical term for it) in lizards, fish,etc, the offspring would be a genetically identical copy of the mother.
In the last panel we have the new person above Sydney’s left hand. He is Middle-Eastern looking, has a beard and a scowly face, so according to every media trope on the planet he is obviously a terrorist!
That actually could be a superpower (or a curse). Fear Aura. Everyone who sees you is immediately rendered frozen by terror and can’t move for X seconds (roll 20 sided die to determine).
In an old D&D campaign we had a character who actually got a curse of forgetfulness. Everyone who he met would be able to speak and interact with him normally, but the moment he left the room they would forget him and everything that happened with him. (And this was WAY before the ‘Silence’).
He eventually got tired of trying to live a normal life and became a thief. He could just walk into a place, take anything he wanted and walk out with it. No one would have any idea of what happened.
There is a Sci-Fi book out there with a primary character that is readily forgotten.
Two that I can think of, actually. Piers Anthony’s Mute and Larry Niven’s A Gift From Earth.
WORM gave that power to one of the main characters as well.
I read a story where the main character had a very limited psychic power: he could control the dilation of other people’s pupils. But there’s an interaction there: when you look at something (or find someone) you find interesting, your pupils dilate; when you look at something uninteresting, they contract – and it works both ways. So he could cause everyone to be extremely uninterested in what’s going on, so they don’t bother to do anything about it. Or so totally fascinated by him they can’t turn any part of their attention away. He couldn’t control what SORT of fascination – “wow he’s wonderful” and “I hope he blows up now” both qualify…
(This power would automatically kick in to protect him when he got nervous or frightened. Remember just before the first time you had sex? Yep. The girl would abruptly lose interest in him and wander off.)
I would prefer incorrect but possible science not be included in cartoons. In our grandfathers times kids heroes where people that made/created things. We don’t need things to be dumbed down more. In 50 years the US went from teaching greek/latin in high school to offering remedial English in Harvard.
That was one of the two I mentioned, A Gift From Earth.
I got $20 on Daddy being an ancient evil Aztec high priest who used great magic to come through time and impregnate Xo’s mother, and Daddy’s evil spirit is currently quiescent in some Aztec artifact, just waiting to be rejoined with his daughter so that he can possess her and bring on a new age of evil Aztec power ruling over the modern world. Oh, and the artifact looks remarkably similar to some modern cheap toy, like one of those troll dolls.
If DaveB ever wants to collect, he’ll have to do a reveal. Heh.
As it is right now, Dave could even add up all of the wagers & then plan his “reveal” to be exactly the one instance where he could collect the most…It’s for this very reason, Dave should NOT be able to collect on any wager.
Actually all money goes into the pot.
Winner gets paid according to odds.
The bank (aka DaveB) gets the rest.
All neat, clean and above board.
Supposedly.
Yeah, “supposedly.”
All Dave would have to do is write up some variation that wasn’t even in the list of options; nobody wins, Dave collects the whole pot. I’m not saying Dave WOULD do something like that, but it’s an opening that he COULD exploit.
;)
I think it would be far better to just puts your “wagers” into Dave’s Patreon for Grrl Power & let it go with that…Dave could treat it as a kind of “contest” to write it out the way the largest donor put in.
:D
My work here is done.