Grrl Power #438 – Umbrageous rendezvous
Just a quick meal and on to the meeting that Max mentioned. Well, muppet Max. I guess it was Gwen who actually said it. Obviously a secret meeting, which is harder to do once you’re world famous, so steps have to be taken.
Shakira floating down the street spraying everyone with that neon goo in glo-sticks would be less conspicuous than the pair of them. Well, no, that’s about on par I guess. Sydney’s light trails make covert flight slightly challenging. I’m not sure how long they are… Actually it depends on how fast she’s flying. The trails linger about 3 seconds, which only makes sense if the orbs glow a lot brighter when she’s flying, cause otherwise they’d leave trails all over the place when she’s just walking around, or heck, even just orbiting her head. I never really thought about how long they take to orbit her head when they’re in standby mode. I usually advance them one position per panel, so ignoring the fact that their speed would be variable depending on how many panels on each page, they’re supposed to have a fairly lazy orbital period. I dunno, 15-20 seconds.
Those guys were supposed to be playing chess but I forgot to draw the pieces so I guess it’s checkers now.
Edit: Updated “where as” to “whereas” because that’s just how it goes and my spell checker doesn’t do grammar.
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No reading the cards with the eye ball…..
Or using super speed to zip behind people and read their cards and then be back in their seat before anyone notices.
Or magic. Which can do anything at all as long as the rules aren’t well defined.
In Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy series, it’s socially understood that magicians can freely refuse to play cards with non-magicians without giving offense, mostly because there’s too high a risk that someone will accuse the magician of cheating. And that card games *among* magicians are epic battles of surreptitious magic, which isn’t actually cheating because everybody involved knows going in that that’s going to happen.
Which reminds me to search harder for the rest. From the few I know, it’s a lovely series, the concept alone is great and it’s greatly written, too.
They have a 2002 edition that contains all ten short stories and the one novel, Too Many Magicians according to Wikipedia. According to the Amazon synopsis:
Does it even include the story about how Lord Darcy and Sean o’Lochlainn [spelling?] first met, during their world’s equivalent of WW2? I read that in an anthology of war-themed SF a long time ago, but have been unable to find it anywhere since then…
There were two “authorised” sequel novels, written by Michael Kurland, which (in my opinion) aren’t quite as good as the originals but are still entertaining… although, because of various details included, I’d say that they must really be set in a parallel reality rather than in the one of the original series..
The story you are looking for is “Spell of War,” and it is included as an appendix in the 2002 Baen omnibus, Lord Darcy (ISBN Trade: 0743435486, Mass: 0743471849). Ten Little Wizards (ISBN: 1434435008) and A Study in Sorcery (ISBN: 1434435237) are the Kurland novels.
All can be found at Amazon in hardcopy by searching the ISBN (for some reason the omnibus doesn’t appear in a standard search). The Kurland novels are available on the kindle; the omnibus used to be downloadable from Baen.com, but apparently is no longer available. :(
I seem to recall reading the back cover of the lone copy of a book, putting it down on the shelf of the store, going back for it 10 minutes later, and being disappointed it was gone. Couldn’t remember the author or any of the character names, just a sort of vague Victorian mages premise.
Does this sound reasonably close to the premise?
And if so, thank you for bringing it up – that’s been a tiny nagging thought in the back of my mind for years.
Sounds like it to me. Although it could be you’d run across one of Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters series.
Either way, the lesson is, once you pick it up, don’t put it down unless you really mean it. ^_^
More Early 20th Century mages (Agatha Christie vintage) than Victorian.
Are you implying that Hercule Poirot, was concealing spell-casting, when he twirled his moustache?
No, I suspect he was more the Lord Darcy deductive type and probably disdained magic. Although, come to think of it, wasn’t there a Poirot analogue in Too Many Magicians? Maybe he was a mage after all. *shrugs*
I always suspected Miss Marple of using a bit o’ the witchcraft, though, and the less said of The Mysterious Mr. Quinn, the better.
A common spiel in various frontier stories, too. “Now now boys, he cheated me fair and square.” Scrooge McDuck’s history and Brisco County Jr come to mind.
It would be very hard to play, if not allowed to do that. Unless the cards were printed in braille.
What about reading it with a Snow Ball? o_O
Not a hope in Hell.
Huh, now I’m wondering if Halo could paint/spray her orbs black.
…Of course, now I’m wondering what would happen if a prankster painted one black while she was asleep, and she became excited with her ‘evolved orb’.
Although Sydney can hold them, I suspect they’re slippery because they’re more like tiny force bubbles than glowing billiard balls.
Paint won’t stick to them.
(Probably)
They’re probably not that slippery or she wouldn’t be able to stop herself mid fall using the flight orb. They are, however, clearly depicted as glossy, which is enough to stop most paint adhering properly.
She can control their movement, which should be sufficient to avoid dropping them and catch them easily regardless of slipperiness.
Is holding it in her hand via mental connection the same as gripping it though?
Coating the orbs might stop Sydney from using them. Since she can’t use them when wearing gloves, skin contact might be required.
Nooo!
*adds paint spray gun to Halo’s list of weaknesses*
Only after it dried. So maybe less a weakness than it may appear on first sight.
Yay!
*rubs out entry*
Thank goodness it did not have time to dry!
My suspicion is that they are directly linked to her ADD power. Thus her medication kicking in might make the orbs… power down.
So what if an Illusionist/mentalist enemy made all the orbs look black or any other type of non-standard orb colour…..one very confused Halo and quite possibly a LOT of collateral damage^^
Couldn’t that be counteracted by using the true sight orb?
Furthermore, she might only have to know which power she wants to use, rather than having to know which orbs she needs to use. For example, if she’s hurtling to her death, she might only need to think “Flight might come in hand just about now”, rather than swap orbs out until she finally gets the blue ball (thankfully, she can’t have more than one of these),
We have consistently seen Sydney using the orbs as instinctively as her own limbs. See her sucker-punching Math, by having the orb come up right behind her punch (thus being concealed behind it).
I do not believe that Halo will think of the orbs by colour, or necessarily individually at all. She will just desire to fly and the Fly-Ball will drop into her hand. “I might need to raise the shield” and the Forb comes to hand.
Concealing the colours of the orbs is no more likely to be a problem than painting “Left” on her right shoe, and vice versa.
Pretty much what I meant, but thanks for the confirmation.
Wow, somehow, when reading your comment, I contracted the speech mark sentence to include “blue ball”, from the line below. Rather than re-reading it, which would have made your intent clear, I just thought “no pretty sure she is not thinking ‘blue ball'”, and launched into my reply. Sorry ’bout that
The connection to her is alhhvuchia zhovaleh. Obviously.
Or maybe it’s all in her head
I suppose if that’s the case then hand lotion may cause a bit of a problem too.
Makes me wonder what might happen if she tried to use her powers when she had some lotion on her hands and the orbs were only getting intermittent contact with Sydney’s skin. I can just see her trying to fly and falling on her butt when the contact faded, or her energy tentacle flickering in and out of existence, or whatever.
I wonder if the orbs use haptic controls…
At least one of them does. The shield orb has an “embiggener” control.
Guess I needed to reread what haptic controls meant. I gave it more meaningful than it had. Most haptic screens use the natural conductivity/resistance to register commands. With that said, regular mittens/gloves would interfere but lotions/wet paint/liquids wouldn’t because they can still conduct.
So it might be possible to have gloves with carbon/metallic weave incorporated that would allow users of the orbs.
If it turns out that your idea doesn’t work, then Sydney will continue to have trouble if she’s using them in a cold environment…If she can’t wear gloves to keep her hands warm, then her hands would quickly go numb & she couldn’t tell if she’s even holding an orb or not!
Haptic (controls) is a form of feedback, where in using a control, key, slider, etc; Gives some sort of response, a sound, vibration, the works; to help the user ‘know’ it worked. I believe you are thinking of capacitive / resistive touch controls, which is the two more common ways for visually interactive controls. Resistive is the older one, where pressure was required, and Capacitive is where the electric diferential is measured (the one in modern smartphones).
In my professional opinion ( :P ), the orbs are Soulicitive, they require a Mind/Soul/Pattern connected to them. As soon as the mind/soul disconnects, they go dormant. (When Sydney sleeps, or when she dies)
Only thing about that theory is that it shouldn’t be affected by mittens. Capacitive touch controls sounds apt in this situation. That would allow sweat/water/etc to be on her hands while still allowing them to function.
You could argue that, according to atomic theory, she is never touching the orbs.
Maybe the orbs rely on fingerprint recognition. Maybe they rely on hand warmth. Maybe they rely on skin static. Maybe they simply rely on extreme physical proximity. All would allow for use with hand lotion and all but the last would allow for use with specialized gloves.
Point is probably moot though because Sydney does not seem like the sort of person to use hand lotion.
Ah…for beauty purposes, probably not, but cashiering (like she does at her shop) dries hands out VERY quickly. She probably has some generic lotion on hand for when it gets too bad; when the webbing between the thumb and forefinger dries out too much, it gets rather sore, and can crack and bleed.
Interesting. I’ve never experienced that in my own retail work but I’m sure it happens.
Really? What’s your secret? EVERYONE where I work tends to have it happen if they don’t keep lotion on hand.
2:1 odds – due to being a lotion salesperson.
I think it is more than fingerprint recognition, I would have to say that it would have to be biometric recognition.
I agree. Simple fingerprint recognition would be too easy to fool, anywhere from making faux prints out of latex or similar material to… well, think Demolition Man, except with fingers instead of eyes (although IIRC Avengers used the same method).
The orbs operate according to telepathic command by Halo. As such I doubt they use primitive recognition methods. The holding requirement is probably just to allow a greater bandwidth, for the more complex control necessary for activating primary powers (see Halo writing the advert with her tentacle, as an example).
Plumbing the depth of the user’s subconsciousness, to determine their exact intent, even without training in how to use the complex functions, must require a huge exchange of information. And it is two-way. Think of Halo touching the star.
Refusing to operate, without a full connection, would be wise, to avoid friendly-fire and other similar disasters.
Mind you summoning them also acts as a safeguard, in itself. The slight delay in summoning an orb gives the user a moment to reflect “do I really want to spank Harem with the tentacle”? As opposed to instantly carrying out any momentary whim.
Coming from Chad’s haptic/capacitive/resistive theory. I postulate they are “Soulicitive”, they require a Mind/Soul/Pattern connected to them. As soon as the mind/soul disconnects, they go dormant. (For example when Sydney sleeps, or if/when she dies)
Yorp said: “Do I really want to spank Harem with the tentacle?”
Yes! YES!
^_^
…with up to 16 tons or so of force behind each slap, that would be a spanking that no one could ever forget…
Unless it were possible that a mind with more computative capacity were able to control them without contact, either singly or together.
Trying to fly while ding the wet-bar-of-soap-juggling bit.
Well, It rubs the lotion on its skin or else …
…it gets the lighthook again.
Dang it! Now you’ve reminded me of Evan’s Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion!!!
(shudder)
At least it wasn’t the Bag-of-Holding that contains an entire hordes worth of goblin poop… wait for it… NOW.
And even if she could still use them, she wouldn’t know right away which was which.
I thought that too, but it isn’t clear how she identifies them when controlling their movement. If she can think “flight orb: my hand” and doesn’t have to visually identify the actual one to move, then it wouldn’t be a problem.
Remember, these orbs are probably high tech, and possibly high magic, so that would be a simple defensive option to change the surface of the orb to prevent malicious coating, and/or dispose of same.
Remember when she tryed to use them with gloves or mittens? and they didnt work? same principle aplies here i think, if she could paint them she’d have to scrape off the paint to use them again. be much easier to keep them in some soft of thing to hide them.. a mail tube could- wait a minute
I think that mine is a safe assumption, considering how the orbs acted waaaaay back to just before, during, and after the bank robbery, by preventing Sydney from straying too far from them, or by preventing Max from taking them too far from Sydney.
I am also assuming that the creator(s) of the orbs were smart enough to take into account that weather may be a factor, such as it being so cold that Sydney has to wear mittens or gloves, but as the need hasn’t come up, the mod has not been activated.
I don’t think the orbs can be painted. They basically don’t exist in many ways. I mean, these things give off no magic signature, no radiation, no light, no infrared or ultraviolet. They have no gravity, they simultaneously have no force/inertia and seemingly infinite force/inertia. How they interact physically with anything is still quite a mystery.
Quite a few assumptions there. Rather the most logical explanation is that there were instrument (or other) failures, in the detection methods, rather than a whole host of universal laws do not apply to them. And the simplest hypothesis, for such consistent failure, is that it is the orbs themselves causing it. The orb makers simply do not want their devices analysed.
Although I do concede that they do seemingly overcome certain laws, such as gravity and inertia, in operation. But that does not necessarily mean that they do not possess such properties themselves.
To the contrary, in fact. Math demonstrated that they are subject to them. In his fight with Sydney, he deployed our normal assumptions in how self-propelled objects behave, whilst in the Earth’s gravitational field. And the results were so easily predictable that a gentle nudge resulted in Sydney being bowled over by the orbs themselves!
Had they truly been inertial-less, the impact would not have had any effect on Sydney (much like Nose-Boop Guy trying to punch Anvil), and had their behaviour been significantly different, in any aspect, then they would have defied predictions, and Math’s move would have not had the result he anticipated.
Mind you none of that necessarily negates your conclusion that they cannot be painted.
:-D
Given what we currently know about the orbs I’d be interested in knowing how they would behave if they were to be wrapped in cling film, food wrap, plastic wrap or what ever you choose to call it. While the film might not be able to adhere to the orbs it can still stick to itself and seal the orb.
Another possible problem substance might be liquid latex, or a latex sheet formed to wrap an orb with overlap at the opening, or just a latex condom for that matter. While liquid latex could be applied with a heavy spray it does take some time to cure and that would make it relatively easy for Sydney to just wipe it off if she’s not distracted or otherwise neutralized. Nor is wringing a latex condom over the orbs something that’s likely to be done without Sydney noticing, but it would still be an interesting experiment.
Hmm. I like this idea. What if the orbs don’t actually exist, but are mental structures created from Sydney’s mind? What if her undersea discovery was more of an alien invasion of her mind, expanding her mental powers, and the orbs are the aliens’ way of educating and guiding her in the use of Sydney’s new powers. This would prevent the need of direct communication, and reduce the “freak out” factor for Sydney.
Except, three people have had direct physical contact with Sydney’s balls
I don’t know. With Max, enormously conspicuous is pretty much all the time for her. I can’t think of when it wouldn’t be an understatement for her. Halo on the other hand could have put the orbs in a case and taken a car with the others.
I agree. She’s famous now, of course, but they all are. She kept the orbs in her tube for three months, already. People were wondering when they realized that she was *always* carrying it, but it’s not something that would be particularly conspicuous during a chance meeting on the street.
She could, indeed, keep her orbs in a tube and take a cab…if she brought the tube with her. Do you see a strap on her? It seems since she’s “out” now she’s less worried about hiding it.
We have not seen much if anything of the tube since the Fashion Ninjas…
But ya, if she put the orbs in the tube, or better yet a purse, she could be one of the least conspicuous members of the team.
But ladies in the Grrlverse apparently don’t carry purses. :-)
Have you seen girls dancing around their handbags, at a club? The Grrlverse is like that. The only difference is that the ladies pop them through the 4th wall, where they can keep a careful eye on them, yet grab them, when required.
To be fair, as a tomboy Sydney doesn’t seem the type to carry a purse to begin with and the others are trained military operatives who may not like having a dangly thing on their shoulder.
The other two can disguise themself using magic. They entered but were never seen leaving. Or they are just naturally undernoticed.
With Halo and Max – they have no such power and are obvious. People will notice if the orbs suddenly vanish or if that golden superheroine is not around.
It is about both “vanishing from plain sight” and “being easy to follow”.
Actually, motion blur is something that happens on the retina. An effect similar to the one you’re painting will happen with any light emitting moving object (but, of course, much less than 3 seconds).
Maybe Sydney can warp the globes with a dark cloth (with one that covers her own hands for the two she’s operating).
Shachar
an easy example is kids “drawing” in the air with sparklers
That would be true if they were giving off light. Except they’re not according to Dabbler.
So far as a brain is concerned, seeming to see something and actually seeing something is a distinction the brain generally deems unworthy of quibbling over. :D
It is on this basis that my hope for total immersion into virtual worlds is founded.
The orbs “look” cool – pay no attention to the paradox behind the curtain. :D
No paradox. They simply have immunity to any form of artificial detection, that they do not approve of. The physical orbs can be seen on television, but otherwise resist everything.
This is a similar principle to how they will allow light, sound and radio communications to pass through the shield, but not harmful lasers.
Except, there orbs don’t emit real light, they just look like it. (“Psychic light” as Dabbler hastily improvised) so some sort of “metaphysical echo” is entirely possible.
The trick would be to have Halo fly an orb in front of someone with their eyes closed, have them open as soon as it’s out of sight, and find out if they can still see the lingering trail.
All considered I think the trail is more of a metaphysical effect so I’d say they would see the trail. These orbs are not afraid to be seen. I’ll do you one better though. As far as I’ve seen, noone has tried to use an orb other than Sydney. What if she can allow others to use orbs by holding one of the “dormant” ones? She could team up with Harem to form Team Halo and use all the orbs at once!
…
… they must have tried that, right?
Not yet no.
You may recall that Sydney had a pathological fear of being “whisked away” for her orbs to be studied. Only Dabbler has touched the orbs (excluding Math being whacked by one). I surmise that, when Maxima took Peggy to one side to “give her some orders”, one of her instructions was to spread the word that nobody was to touch, or even to ask to touch, any of the orbs.
But, in order to know the truth, of what will allow someone else to use Halo’s orbs, one should re-read the earlier arc, with Varia, very carefully/.
What happened with Varia is speculation only
Varah informed speculation though :)
Very strongly supported speculation. The orbs started orbiting both of them while they were in contact.
They also orbited Maxi’s hips when Sydney was literally clinging to her arse (with her teeth)
Naa. Panel 3 (not counting the insert in panel 2), of the linked page, clearly shows the orbs orbiting Halo’s head only. And in panel 4, below that, every orb is still visible above Halo’s head. Ie none had gone the other side of Maxima’s body.
Throughout the orbs retain a close relationship to Sydney alone. Whereas if you look at the scene with Varia, there the orbs rise up, because Varia is taller, in addition to making an orbit big enough to encompass both of them.
Contrast that to the vertigo incident, with Maxima, and the orbs remain all the way down by Maxima’s butt. None attempt to rise up to her head height, let alone going above that, halo style.
Don’t forget that when Varia touches Sydney, the orbs orbit both of them, so the chances are very high that Varia can use the orbs even if no one else can.
It looks to me like the orbs changed their orbit in response to Syd’s desire that they NOT collide with Varia’s head. This is consistent with them previously changing orbit (including flying into Tubey) in response to her will.
So no, there’s no indication that there’s anything special about Varia that caused the changed orbit.
The ability to control (within rather low limits) the action of a few magically-flying fist-size spheres is pretty neat, but it’s hardly a superpower. And Syd wasn’t holding any of the orbs. So at the moment Varia tried to copy/paraphrase Syd’s superpowers, there were none to copy – and, sure enough, she got nothing.
Everyone is entitled to their own explanation. The majority view on that though is Sydney is saying “No whammy, no whammy, no whammy” to ward off something weird or unpleasant happening to herself. Which is corroborated in the fact that she is looking at her own body, rather than Varia’s head, or the orbs.
With the coincidental result that Sydney has her gaze completely averted from the orbs. Any time she has previously shown off with her orbs (making them form an atomic structure shape, for example) she has made a comment or proudly gestured. Whereas in the linked scene we have had no indication that Halo is in the slightest bit concerned about an orb impacting Varia.
And why would she be? We have hundreds of pages of the orbs rotating around Halo’s head. Many of those in crowds. Likewise she has been in close contact with people before, such as when the doctor was treating her, or Peggy was helping her to stand up.
Clearly, we can conclude that the orbs have collision-avoidance built into them. Especially given that half of them are always out of her sight, behind her head. Yet we have never seen them bumping anybody or anything (unless directed to do so by her, or via sabotage by Math).
This leaves the question that if Sydney was not bothered about the orbs, why did their path change? The only time they move away from her (other than at her command) is if falling behind when she is moving fast. Which is obviously not the case here. And every other time that they have an object intruding in their path, their adjusted trajectories result in narrowed orbits around Halo, rather than expanded ones.
The jump many made was that, like Varia’s ability to share Harem’s teleport, Varia has the potential to utilise Halo’s orbs. They appear to have accepted Varia as a joint user, by their behaviour, in orbiting the both of them. It is just that nobody present noticed that.
I want to remind everyone of the two instances where the orbs deactivated and reactivated once Sidney touched them, once before the interview, and once when she was asleep/zonked out. I theorize that, after they had deactivated the orbs will bond with whomever touches them next.
Unlikely.
Mainly I’m basing this on the fact that outside the bank Sydney had the orbs in the tube and yet they were still bound to her preventing her from forgetting the tube in the car, moving too far from the van while the strap was caught under a wheel, or Max from walking away with the tube. Only an hour or so later during the interview she says they appear to be “sleeping” while in the tube. So it appears that even when powered down they are still bonded to Sydney.
Agreed.
Plus we have seen Maxima in Halo’s nap room, which would have been an ideal opportunity to test that theory, if Maxima herself concurred with it. Yet Sydney did not wake up to find Maxima fondling her balls.
“So to speak,” Ignoble chuckled with a smirk.
If it was Dabbles, she would be juggling them :P
If we are going into the wide realm of speculisationing, then we could also speculate that the semi-sentient Orbs took Sydney’s “No whammy! No whammy! No whammy!” command to include them not whamming Varia’s noggin
Possibly. but if that is her concern, why is she examining her own body, instead of looking at Varia’s head?
It simply does not fit the emotional resonance of the scene. Sydney is worried about being turned into living fire, or having everything Varia touches turn into a spider. There is no reason for Sydney to suddenly to be alarmed that her orbs might hit someone now, when she has never expressed such a concern before.
Also Sydney is very clued-up on the pop-culture references she uses. “No Whammy” originated from a TV show. Where the contestant could get unlucky and end up with a whammy result, that would disadvantage them.
This is wholly consistent with her being worried about the gamble she is taking with whatever random gestalt power she might grant Vaira. Who knows what strange side-effects that might cause? As opposed to the every day non-issue of hitting someone accidentally with an orb.
I am inclined to agree with our good doggy friend Yorp.
Remember that Varia’s power is gesult, meaning that she has no actual powers of her own. All of her powers come from the people that she touches. She even gets smaller powers from non-supers that she touches, remember her stating that she is creating a list of powers based on all of the people that work at Archon. Since she got no powers (visibly) from Halo, it is a good bet that something changed about Sydney when she acquired the orbs, and the power that she now shares is the control of the orbs.
If they works it doesn’t really add anything, IIRC Varia has to maintain contact with the person, so unless you’re strapping Syd to Varia’s back with a hole in their shirts for skin contact, at most you get one extra orb.
Two heads are wiser than one. Ie they can be working on disparate tasks, or looking in two different directions at once. And three orbs are more powerful than two. For instance Halo could raise the shield and opt to pilot the Halomobile, using the Fly Ball. Whilst Varia could operate the PPO and act as a tail gunner. Something that Halo could not replicate alone.
Or they could link arms and use 4 orbs. Remember the flight and shield orbs don’t require pointing. I don’t think most of them do, but those 2 especially would be easy to hold with their linked arms leaving their other arms open to manuver with the PPO and light hook, just as an example.
No, they don’t emit a detectable light, remember they also scan as not even being there (when Gwen did a scan of Mr Tubey, she said she couldn’t detect anything, that he was too empty)
Be that as it may, I think Weatherheight & Shachar have it right. Motion blur, or persistence of vision; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_of_vision , is an optical illusion whereby multiple discrete images blend into a single image in the human mind. Even if we only think we are seeing the light we can still “see” those light trails.
And thank god for persistence of vision, or we would never have movies or video games! I think persistence of vision overall starts to peter out at less than 20 hertz, which is why games start to look bad and choppy when framerates get that low, but above that, things look fine if not perfect, and probably around 60 hz or so, it gets to be that any increase in framerate or hertz no longer truly registers, or may even start being stuttery again for some people, like myself, I can’t play games when framerates are much above 60-75 hz.
I can’t remember if it scanned as “less than nothing” or “TOO Empty” inside. Either way it was a sign of something in there that did NOT want to be seen.
I’ve never noticed a glow trail when she flies before.
[Rainbow Dash reference here.]
It’s been there since the first time we saw her fly at some speed: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1034
Except this time, it’s a fully enclosed bubble
It likely was before too.
No, you saw the back and it was open, at least during their trip to the Grand Canyon
I’ve never seen any sign that she can have an opening in the bubble.
The bulk of my reply here accidentally ended up under Moridain below.
Don’t feel bad, meant for the post two places above to have been a reply to Ashen Shugar below :P
Not sure which example you may have picked that up on. But in panel.2 above the grand canyon the shield was very clearly fully enclosed. Notably being whilst streamlined, rather than ovoid.
Okay, maybe it was heading to the soon-to-be-opened portal to hell (could also simply be mis-remembering things)
I think I recall what may have prompted that. A discussion about whether Halo could keep her shield open at the rear. Which concluded that it would be entirely possible for her to do that and still fly, at speed (but not at an altitude where the cold thin air would be a problem). Provided of course that the shield was capable of creating an open hemisphere.
On the ground we have certainly seen what could be a hemisphere, rather than a full sphere. Unless the orb phases through matter. Whether that was the case, or the examples were open or closed hemispheres though, I think is still up for debate.
No, you can see the back in panel 2; https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1034 and it is closed.
Thank you, had to scroll the panel to the top of the screen to see that (it blended in with the cloud behind them)
Now I want to see her make a sonic rainboom. Which won’t happen in canon, because that’s more fantastical than Dave likes to include.
Well the fan calculated speed of Rainbow Dash right before the sonic rain boom, based on Dash’s Mach cone, is Mach 5 and Halo currently pegs out at Mach 4. Maybe after she spends a point on flight
It possible I spend too much time reading MLP fandom stuff.
You could seek broney counselling. Or join a Ponyholics Anonymous self-help group? One prance at a time.
Did Sydney figure out a way to shape her bubble? Turning it from a sphere into a body shape?
If so, neat? :)
She did the same thing the first time we saw her fly at some speed:
I’ve never seen any sign that she can have an opening in the bubble. It was an inconvenience several times during the fight that she couldn’t. It’s just common for “speed lines” to have a colour scheme that reflects whatever they’re trailing, particularly if it is something that glows. It’s just an artistic way to show motion in a static drawing, partly based on the real blur we “see” when something passes very fast. And as far as anyone who sees them can tell, the orbs *do* glow, even if the glow is something peculiar that doesn’t show in cameras.
Damn. I meant for this to be a reply to Guesticus above, and there’s still no “delete” option.
It appears that the shield will automatically become more aerodynamic if she’s flying at high speeds. It also did it when Max tested how fast she she could fly
@Dave: you’re off by an order of magnitude, at least, on how long the glowy effect lasts, 3 seconds is too long… it’s more like 1/30th of a second… take a look at the term “Persistence of Vision“to see what i mean.
You are working on the assumption that there is light being emitted and picked up by eyes, which the brain processes in the normal manner.
The orbs don’t work like that. Their glow is … lazy. If the orbs moved on two seconds ago, the glow will still feel the urge to hang around a while longer.
Chill man. No rush…
Well, light does travel more slowly in an intense magical field…so a wizard did it?
so exactly what IS the speed of light when it’s just sitting on the couch eating potato chip shadows? ;P
E= omnnomnomc(2)?
+1
Well, to calculate that, you’d need to factor in the fact that the couch itself is moving with the Earth’s surface as it spins on its axis…Also, the speed of the Earth itself in motion around the solar orbital path…and then our sun is also orbiting around the core of the galaxy…And even then, our galaxy is also on the move…roughly speaking, even if light is just sitting on the couch, it’s still traveling about 1826 miles per second.
Remember this: Next time someone tells you to get up off the couch & get your @$$ moving, you can honestly say that it already is & always has been moving.
Lesson from Math: Think three steps ahead.
Lesson from Maxima: Play your cards close to your chest.
Sydney could have an easier job of this, than most.
I’m not sure Sydney would appreciate that shot at her lack of the Most Common Super Power. Careful, or she might put something hot and spicy into your kibble.
:)
I’d have to agree with Ignoble on this point, Yorp. Sydney did seem to be a bit annoyed when Peggy welcomed her to the A Team…
;)
Well I consider that to be a major asset of both Peggy and Sydney. No need to hide them away, as if ashamed of them. There are advantages to the smaller bust, and we should not be afraid to extol the virtues of such.
The big boobs camp get way too much vocal publicity! Whilst petite girls need someone to let them know they are more desirable, to those with suitably discerning tastes.
So, minor assets are a major asset?
:P
…I’m a bit confused…When did this topic turn from “boobset” toward “asset?”
;)
Sydney would put something she considers bland, near tasteless into your kibble, probably. If she put something she actually considered spicy into your food, A: it would probably kill you and 2: it would be a waste of the good stuff.
Besides, it can’t be easy to purify capsaicin to that degree.
My brother’s dog loves hot peppers–I don’t know about Sydney-hot though.
My stepfather’s dog, OTOH, doesn’t like hot foods, but will dig under the garden fence to eat the asparagus.
Okay, here’s my guess as to what the meeting is about and who the two oldsters are.
The meeting is about all of the aliens on Earth and the two guys are the disguised leaders of the ETs . . . or at least the ambassadors of the ETs, anyway.
Im picturing it similar to the entrance to MIB. A single guard in a very unimportant location. Only here its two guys playing checkers all day in the middle of nowhere. Say the pass phrase and they unlock the entrance.
Well “the pass phrase” might be said by someone in general conversation. Perhaps it also requires beating them at a game?
They are in the middle of the woods telling two old men they are here for the poker game. Thats not something likely to come up by accident.
Heh, I was not trying to dispute your cunning vision. Rather I was just running with it and playing with an alternative means of verification, that was even more absurdly funny.
Mind you, although the implementation of the MIB concealed base was played for its bizarrely unusual nature, in the films, it does replicate how some top-secret installations do hide in plain sight, as innocuous buildings, in perfectly normal civilian settings.
By the way, I should point out that they are in New York City, so this is a park, not a woods.* A significant difference given that millions of people will consider it part of their communal recreational area. And New York never sleeps. So isolation is only relative to how crowded it will be in daytime, it is not a protection on its own.
However this is apparently just a meeting (and/or poker game) so visual recognition and a password should be more than adequate, as you say.
* It could be interpreted as them leaving the city completely granted, but that would seem less likely given that Dabbler, and company, have to make their way there by mundane means. Too far away and the time delay makes that option loose credibility. The presence of a chess-table does strongly support the park take though, as such are (if movies are to be believed) a feature of New York parks.
I wonder who is bringing the kittens?
Ah ha, ALF reference. He never did get to eat that cat…
I thought Buffy.
“You play for kittens?!”
“They’re delicious!”
Where do you think Buffy got the idea
By the way, RIP Alf, may you find all the cats you want to eat where you have gone now :(
On completely unrelated note: Cat disappearances in the locale of Area 51 recently spiked over 1000% U.S. Military denies any involvement, but suggests dogs as more suitable future pets.
Or Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere
He actually did get the chance once the cat was dead, but at that point, he didn’t feel like it.
I don’t foresee Sidney as having a very good poker face.
Then again, she may have far too many tells to read. :D
don’t forget: she bluffed her way right through the muppet maxima ploy last page; perhaps part of the side effects of her adderall is stonefaced emotional disconnect.
That’s not a side effect of Adderall in my experience. The reverse is true if anything.
I doubt very much there is any poker going on. This has secret base and pass phrase written all over it.
If she’d brought tubey she could have hidden most of them while flying. Maybe if she had special gloves to contain the ones she held…
Actually, with a hat and tubey she’d be one of the teams stealth people.
Is… is Maxima Supermanning?
Why is Maxima Supermanning?
Is Maxima secretly a little bit geek too?
Secretly? She admitted to being “a bit of a nerd” just after the reveal of the orbs, and regularly uses comic book references when talking with Sydney.
If you mean with her hands in panels one and two, you fly without having at least one hand out forming a mini-windbreak (just because Maxi is golden, does not mean she wants a face full of bugs!!)
And, by extension, does not want to eat them. Or have bits of bugs stuck in her teeth when she goes to talk to someone important.
Good points both. One other thing strikes me is that they are trying to be unobtrusive. A more streamlined body will create less turbulence, in their wake.
+1
“How do you know a motorcyclist is happy? He has bugs in his teeth.”
Max should have a motorcycle helmet for when she wants to fly inconspicuosly.
I think she should fly around in a Grim Reaper costume, scythe and all.
She is aiming for “inconspicuous” not “so terrifying as to cause half a dozen fatal heart attacks in senior citizens”.
A Grim Reaper outfit, being worn by someone walking down the street could be taken as someone going to a party. Flying around though, and its supernatural nature is confirmed. Flying through the city, at night, just increases the number of potential victims, to make the above numbers credible.
And the new neurosis’ developed. No one wishes to see the reaper so I doubt very few would if she did. On another note, imagine if she decided to strip and ride a gold plated surfboard…
I am proud that Maxima used to be a geek, so may well have tried that. I could see her developing a power stunt to hold the board in place with her force-field. Maxima clearly enjoyed kegger parties, and surfing is a wholly-compatible pastime.
You do realise though, that to properly emulate the Silver Surfer look, she would have to be naked?
…Which would answer a question I have burning in my mind: Does the carpet match the drapes?
O.o
Yorp: Random Guy did say “imagine is she decided to strip” :P
MidnightDStroyer: going by what others have already mentioned in-world: no carpet, gold-plated tiles (she doesn’t have any hard wood, not even in the morning :p)
I suspect it might have gone something like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB8D2QZ9lA4
Don’t Fear the Reaper.
And don’t use too much cowbell.
No cowbells!!
MOAR COWBELL!!!
*clips a pair of highland cowbells to Random Guy‘s… ears*
If that’s the reason, maybe it would be better to put her hands ON her face.
That does not look cool. Max wears a biker jacket and shades. She has too much style to make such a fashion faux pas!
I don’t have a personal forcefield. Max does.
Doesn’t stop the bugs getting caught in her teeth (or swallow a bee at Mach 1!)
Maybe they’re playing Chinese Checkers! Or Go!
Sydney’s ponytail just disappear on panel 4
and what is Sydney holding in the same panel?
and why are there no pieces on a chessboard?
and why is there only one chess table in a park?
Her hair is down – band in right hand.
Her hairband. She may be a tad windswept?
Stealth-chess, the game of spies.
The two you see are not very good – the other players are (in)visibly superior at stealth-chess
The truly amazingingly good chess players don’t bother with such mundane things as chess boards. :D
It’s all in the mind, it’s all in the mind, it’s all in the mind…
Yes, well, whenever you see something like that a wizard did it.
*examines Sydney’s hand in final panel*
Ooh, is that a Yorpie Snack™?
*sits upright and begs*
It’s a coupon for the vet, half-off neutering? No, that can’t be right. It’s a hairband!
Meep!
Oh, don’t scare me like that!
*curls up into a ball, and looks warily around*
Only half off of neutering? Seems pretty cheap to me…I don’t like doing anything by going off half-cocked.
You might want to look up how lambs and calves are neutered in some places. The right kind of hairband could be used. Sorry Yorp, you’re not out of the woods yet.
That’s exactly how we neutered the goats on the farm where I grew up.
Got to ask, is there a particular reason why Maxima is flying like that(one or both arms in front, “lying down”), or just because it’s traditional?
Going under the docks is excused on account of space concerns, incidentally.
Maxima does’t have a force-bubble, so it may help with either aerodynamics or just keeping the wind out of her face.
I wonder if Sydney can reshape her shield to be more aerodynamic? It can certainly go from a sphere to an ellipsoid.
What sort of a moron flies with their arms outstretched from their sides in a “Flying T” position? o_O
I’ve often felt that there traditionally is a difference between how male and female fliers are portrayed. Generally, males are shown in the “Superman pose” with one or both hands in front. Females, on the other hand, are far more often shown with their arms out in a kind of “wing” pose. You can even see it in things like the Disney version of Peter Pan, where Peter flies with hands in front, while Wendy has her hands out.
Clearly, there are exceptions both ways, as Maxima tends to use the typically “male” pose. Sydney is a bit special since she has to hold something in her hand while flying. Anyway, I’m wondering if it can depend on what the flying represents. Arms in front makes it a display of power. Arms out makes it more about freedom.
Arms outstretched is like a phalus. Arms to the side shows off cleavage. Maxima does not hold with doing things for sexist reasons.
You’re not suggesting that young Wendy Darling likes to show her cleavage, do you? :-D
With a stripper name like Wendy Darling, she may very well..
Ruining childhood memories since 1983.
::does a four-footed tap dance with a flourish of his tail::
considering the author of peter pan was a bit of a pedo, its entirely likely.
And the author of Alice in Wonderland was on drugs (you shouldn’t believe everything the preacher tells you when he asks you to stay behind and meet him in his private confessional after choir practice)
Well, after all, Peter Pan & the Lost Boys WERE in fact pedophiles in the LITERAL sense of the word (that is, without the sexual [predator«?»] connotation, that now has).
I think you hit the nail on the head with that comment about it being a subtle display of the difference in the power’s origin.
Fist first definitely represents either the force of your punch carrying you or pushing the air out of your way. Arms out shows floating or gliding, a weightless/effortless form of flight.
Another thought, is arms out to the sides, like a pair of wings.
Ever been a kid pretending to be an airplane or seen a kid running around pretending to be an airplane, where are their arms? Out to the sides like the wings of a plane.
And then you have Halo, who has her arms down her sides doing neither out front or out to the sides.
There is definitely some association with wings, but that just goes together with what I said. If you’re just enjoying flying for its own sake, I could imagine emulating birds’ wings while doing it, even if it’s not really necessary.
As I said, Sydney/Halo is a special case since she needs to hold on to her orbs. It makes sense that she’d hold them in a way that makes her least likely to accidentally drop one. I figure that once she gets some custom made utilities, it’d be useful to get some clamps or something that would hold them in place while needed, but which could quickly release them when they weren’t. Better than that cumbersome use of duct tape earlier.
If she’s getting clamps, why not clamp one to each finger of her left hand and ignore the two at a time limit? As long as there’s skin contact it should work, right?
Nope. Sydney explained she tried everything. We even saw her recalling trying to grasp one in her butt cheek!
Lots of folks try to figure ways for Halo to bypass the two-orb limit. With Varia, the author has shown us a way that it can be done, should he wish to explore that option. Barring that though, the limit is there for a good reason. It makes the story more interesting. Sydney will have to think up clever ways to get around her limitations.
Loose the restrictions however, and she will find very few situations to hold any challenge. Given how powerful and wide-ranging her power-set already is.
Indeed, unrestricted use of her powers would not be good for the comic and we know that the powers are limited to during hand contact but can we really be sure that actual grasping is required?
IF she were to clamp the orbs to herself, which I’m not expecting to happen, this feels like it should be explored I feel.
So we have three flying metaphors: arms forward for punching/leaping into the air, arms out for gliding/floating like a bird, and arms back for diving like a skydiver. Skydiving is much more invigorating that leaping or gliding. I’d say the Sydney pose is for the extreme adrenaline addict. Go Sydney!
Well, in Sydney’s case, she has her personal windshield to deal with anything that gets in the way
One who likes Peter Pan.
Seeing that these are the docks, there also might be surveillance cameras around, which going under thm might help them avoid. Furthermore, if there were something following them, going under the docks would make it harder for whatever it is to do so.
wait, are these Robert Freeman and Uncle Ruckus, no relation, playing checkers?
Ooo ooo-oo, ooo!! *holds arm up to request permission to speak*
Those guys are special guards, like that guy in the entrance to the MIB HQ, Maxi just gave them the code-phrase, and one of them will move either the cup or bottle (or something else) which opens up a secret facility
The two guys are named Vladimir and Estragon, and Max’s code name for this mission is Godot.
(bonus points for getting the reference)
Now we are just waiting for mr Godot to show up. It may take some time.
Enjoy passing the time
Ooh, I didn’t know that Jean-Luc Picard and Gandalf did a double-act!
Or is it Professor X and Magneto?
You are right. Incidentally, have a look at that clip. In the background there are a couple of guys playing chess. Mentally, age the guy on the right, a couple of decades, and then look at the comic again.
Oddly enough I thought of MIB too.* But rather the scene with the pop-up auto-pilot.
Although it seems that a pair of inflatable dummies might not be the best card players. Although they will have smashing poker faces!
* And Prof X playing chess with Magnito. But that seemed less relevant.
You say “pop-up auto-pilot”, I think Airplane. Yay, Otto Pilot.
With his suspiciously placed nozzle used for manual inflation :D
For a poker game I’m not seeing any cards around…
Maybe it hasn’t started yet.
That is the point of a code phrase. It is something that would not normally be said in the context of the situation. Hence, ‘Vermilion’. If tonight’s password was ‘Why the hell are you playing chess out here in the middle of the night?’ then about everyone who walked by would have been shown in to the secret meeting.
Don’t know why this waited until now to dawn on me. “Vermilion” also happens to be the highest level of clearance in the Imperium (Warhammer 40k), according to the Gaunt’s Ghosts novels. Strange coincidence.
Not so much, if you remember Maxi is (or was) a closeted nerd, at least until Sydney ‘outed’ her
Obviously, they are such chess masters they don’t need no steenkin chess pieces, they just picture where they are on the board!
It’s the next step of blindfold chess. Next step is “There is no spoon. I mean board.”
They are actually playing Holo-Chess like in the Millennium Falcon. The pieces are displayed mapped onto the board through specific contact lenses the players are wearing. They had the option of wearing the Google Glass headpieces, but decided they would rather stick something in their own eye than be seen wearing one of those.
Yeah, a lot of people apparently felt the same way about Google Glass:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2014/04/21/how-google-screwed-up-google-glass/#3921899519c3
Oh please please please have an actual poker game for them getting under way in the next page. :P
Sounds good to me.
So, is this where Archon gets it’s money from? If they are really there justt o play Poker, I’m going to wonder why they just didn’t fly to Atlantic City.
1) They’re conspicuous.
2) Even if they weren’t, do you- let me rephrase that- would the military really want Halo anywhere near Atlantic City?
Is this a “speakeasy” situation and Max is giving the pass phrase? I’m getting a Dr. Strange type vibe from the low-key rendezvous, the two gentlemen blocking a path through the woods,the last panel’s setting in general.
They are in a woods and are standing in the light of what may be a streetlamp. This could be the road to Narnia.
It’s not the middle of winter though
Next thing you know, here comes Dabbler in a strategically wrapped “Mr. Tumnus” scarf.
They’re playing double blind chess. It’s like Blind Chess (where a player doesn’t get to look at the pieces), but in this case neither player gets to look at any pieces and must play exclusively from memory.
It’s a mental exercise meant to teach… er… keep the memory sharp… ya.
“How about you have a pepsi!”
Dabbler “never goes below a 10” and has “hypnotic boobs” even when glamoured. Give Sydney a purse/bag for her orbs and a hat and she’d be pretty forgettable (assuming she doesn’t do anything too crazy), while passerby will remember Dabbler until the day they die. If you don’t want to attract attention, don’t send dabbler.
If they are out in New York at night they need to keep a lookout for juvenile genetically altered stealth reptiles.
And albino alligators…
and the wise old ROUS as well.
If the fastest ship in the land has docked nearby, sure. But wouldn’t they would be invincible without the fire swamps?
Those two guys have been playing chess. They just play real slow, plus the park has a policy of putting away the pieces at dusk. When the park opens tomorrow, the groundsman will get out his note of what positions the pieces were in, and will set the board up again. The two old codgers probably will not even notice that they have been to bed in between moves!
No it’s the other way around. They move the pieces so insanely fast that we don’t even see it!
I feel like the ethos Maxima is trying to enforce would be a very bad thing to have in an organization that employs supers, particularly for individuals as powerful as Halo.
When a normal person is told to blindly follow orders, a few things are true: First, they’re relatively replaceable. That is, one soldier can, roughly, do the same things as another and they’ll both be within the bounds of human norm. With supers, on the other hand, you might be the only person on the planet that can produce the effects you can. Second, there is a difference to scales of effect. Supers are simply capable of doing more individually.
Taken together, this means the potential for abuse, via malice or ignorance, is a lot higher with supers and the responsibility on the individual is, similarly, higher. Someone who has the power to devastate a city should not be comfortable with not knowing why they are acting and “My superior ordered me to” is not a valid answer.
IMO, a good CO should explain the reasoning behind their orders whenever possible. This builds team trust, and means that in situations where it isn’t possible to explain (usually due to time constraints, like in the middle of a battle) that the team is less likely to question what’s going on.
Perhaps, but what do you expect? Maxima herself is military (and not ex-military either; she is still active military, or she probably wouldn’t have worn in her Air Force dress uniform when she was in that meeting with the President.) Arc-SWAT itself is a military organization, just more lenient (by necessity) than normal.
For the record, even in the real military, if your superior officer gives you a clearly illegal order, you are obligated to refuse that order. “I was just following orders” is not an acceptable excuse at a military tribunal.
The battle of the Nile was specifically won because one captain chose to follow his initiative. He saw a gap in the enemy’s formation, abandoned the overall plan, and maneuvered to exploit it. The nearby captains then adjusted their own position in the fleet, to support him, rather than sticking rigidly to the plan.
None of this was down to personal initiative over following orders blindly though. Nelson had specifically briefed all of his captains as to the master-plan, and (as always) encouraged them to use their own initiative, if they saw an opening that would not be visible from the flagship.
None-the-less all captains were very heavily drilled in explicitly following the precise formation, and any orders given, at all other times. Even when they could not see why a particular instruction was given. For an effective unit to function, at maximum efficiency, the members must assume that their leader knows what they are doing, given that the leader is the one who has access to the most information.
Only if the individual realises that they have spotted something, that the leader is not aware of, should they prioritise acting under their own reconnaissance. And it was this aspect of the training, that he gave them, which allowed Nelson to win at the battle of Trafalgar. The enemy fleet was larger, and would win in any traditional engagement.
However, by sacrificing a precise proportion of his fleet, to disrupt the enemy formation, he could use the remainder of his fleet to destroy the two separate parts, with weight of numbers on his side, each time. Modern simulations show that he chose the mathematically perfect number of ships to do this.
Bear in mind that he (and every captain and man onboard) knew that the sacrificed ships would be lost in such a vastly outnumbered engagement. Yet they had the discipline to keep to the plan, and fight on, despite that. Had any ships baulked, at following the command, or decided to try something different, the battle would have been lost.
“To be a good soldier, you must love the army. To be a good commander, you must be willing to order the death of the thing you love.” – Robert E. Lee
“To be successful, a commander must . . . love his troops truly, dearly, or they will not follow him. But ultimately, no matter how much he loves them, he must love the mission a little more. He must be prepared to sacrifice his men for the success of the mission.” – paraphrased from “Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine”, by Tyler E. Boudreau.
I felt those two quotes were particularly relevant to what you were talking about.
Using Admiral Nelson as an even better example, at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, Admiral Parker(who was in charge of the Royal Navy in the Channel at the time) had advocated a blockade of the Danish fleet to prevent them from linking up with Russian and other European powers’ navies to force an end to the British blockade of France. Nelson, the second in command, advocated for a frontal assault so passionately that Parker was unable to deny him. Nelson took the bulk of the navy forward to assault the harbor despite the enemy being roughly equal in size, having the advantage of harbor defenses, and sandbars in the harbor slowing their advance. When it looked as though the British were taking the worst of the punishment, Parker ordered the signal for retreat, knowing that the aggressive Nelson never would. Nelson, despite being informed by his lieutenants that the order for retreat was given, chose to ignore it. He even stated to one man that “I only have one eye. I have a right to be blind sometimes.” (He lost vision in his right eye several years before.) He then lifted a spyglass to his right eye and stated that “I really do not see the signal.” Ultimately, the battle was bloody and costly on both sides, but the Danish commander, Crown Prince Frederick, agreed to a truce and a 14 week armistice in the face of such aggression. Nelson disobeyed orders, but only because he knew that waiting for the Danish and Russian navies to combine would be a much harder battle than simply eliminating one now, despite their strong defensive position. The other threat(Russian and allied ships) never even manifested following the defeat.
Correction above: You’re referring to Captain Foley of the Goliath noticing the gap between the Gurrier and the shoals near Aboukir Bay, thus leading the vanguard of the British fleet to attack the French on their ill-prepared port side as opposed to the fully manned starboard side. Normally that would have had less of an impact, but more than a third of the sailors were absent from their ships, being ashore to gather supplies(and protect one another from Bedouin raiders), thus they were severely undermanned, with several smaller ships even giving up all but a skeleton crew to man the larger ones.
The Battle of the Nile was won, in my opinion, because Counter-Admiral Villeneuve held his portion of the French fleet out of combat until after the Orient(the French flagship) had exploded, at which time he began a retreat with the few remaining ships. Had he moved forward and engaged, the British may have lost several important ships, especially since their biggest ship, the Culloden, was grounded far from battle and unable to be involved and another ship, the Bellerophon, was completely incapacitated and drifiting out of control away to the east. Other ships suffered heavy damage as well and several of the British ships had even missed their mark on approach, anchoring further south than intended, spreading them out more than planned.
Also, at Trafalgar, the original plan called for isolating the flagship from the vanguard and cutting the rearguard off from the center, throwing the French/Spanish into confusion due to lack of flag signals from the flagship and eliminating the center in a crossfire to mitigate the numerical advantage the Allies had with more/bigger ships. The plan didn’t work as intended, as Villeneuve was so disorganized and conflicted in his commands that the Allies were spread out in a broken line with little cohesion. Still, a slight adjustment by Nelson and Collingwood succeeded in eliminating both flagships early, though Nelson also died in the fighting. Also helped that Rear Admiral Le Pelley fled with four ships without giving more than a cursory pass at fighting.
First post here, and it’s not even about the comic. Classic me.
Anybody, who makes such a strongly analytical first post, is most welcome out of the shadows. Long may you stay.
Actually, I doubt I would have said anything at all, except I had literally just read a short synopsis on the Battle of Copenhagen two days prior, so it was fresh in my mind. Been reading the comic for a long time now though, just never felt the need to comment until I saw that.
Destiny? Kismet? Coincidence? CONSPIRACY?!!! Not sure, but I think I will hide my bathroom reading material all the same…..stalkers.
The causal link is the comic. Dave writes thought-provoking material, which attracts an interesting crowd of well-read individuals. The wonderful community spirit of the commentators is what helps people to come out of their shells and contribute.
He he. I love that I was able to post that comment, from my PC, despite being in a power cut.
*wags tail happily*
At Copenhagen, do you know who the one ship’s captain in a position to see both Hyde-Parker’s signal and Nelson’s clearly enough, and so who could have thwarted Nelson’s actions by leading a group of ships off according to HP’s order but chose to follow Nelson’s lead instead, was?
Captain Bligh.
He was there in command of a ship with an experimental all-carronade armament, which apparently he commanded bravely and well.
Very well worth noting that William Bligh was NOT the crazed sadistic monster that popular fiction portrays him as. In point of fact, he was always deeply concerned with the welfare of his crew, and was notably reluctant to use flogging to enforce discipline (quite in contrast to many other RN officers of the time).
After the mutiny, he successfully captained a crowded open boat to safe harbor over 3,500 miles away – and that by itself says a great deal about what kind of man he was.
Probably Bligh’s biggest faults (evidenced by the Mutiny and the later ‘Rum Rebellion’) is that he was an especially un-diplomatic individual who had immense bad luck with his subordinates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bligh
From the sounds of it, Parker issued that order to retreat (counting on Nelson ignoring it) to cause confusion amongst the Danes: they would possibly also have seen the order and rallied hoping to catch Nelson as he fled, either that or causing them to relax believing Nelson would flee
Not a bad theory, but in reality he issued it as a means to conserve Nelson’s ego and his own career. He believed Nelson was too proud to order the retreat himself, so as his superior he ordered it as a means to cover Nelson’s dignity. If Nelson followed orders and retreated, Parker would be the one facing criticism from those(Nelson among them) who thought he should have pressed on, though on the other hand he also would appear to be the wise Admiral, allowing his subordinate the opportunity to follow a doomed personal strategy to prove a point; that Parker was superior in strategy to Nelson, thus quieting Nelson for the remainder of the campaign. If Nelson believed he could win and ignored orders, Parker could then blame any loss on insubordination on Nelson’s part and have him court martialled, which Parker was known to be critical of Nelson in the past, lending credibility to the notion he did not wish Nelson would succeed. And if he was successful? This was Parker’s command. He would get credit regardless, even if Nelson won greater honors.
Honestly, in theory, it was win-win-win for Parker, who could claim credit for any success and blame any failure on Nelson. Unfortunately, his call to retreat was in fact used against him by political opponents to paint him as a cautionary and timid man, resulting in his forced retirement and replacement by Nelson after the battle. Parker was well-versed in the traditional policies of naval warfare, while Nelson was a creative thinker and innovator. Nelson’s aggressive nature at a time when the French under Napoleon seemed nigh-unbeatable on land was a rallying cry for the emerging dominance of the Royal Navy in the seas. Parker underestimated Nelson.
*puts paw over right eye*
I see no signal.
*puts paws over both eyes*
I see no enemy. We won! Yay!
Ah yes, the Caboose(RvB) strategem.
“Caboose, get down! They can see you!”
*Facing the wrong direction*
“They can’t see me. I can’t see them.”
I kinda figured that the orbs moved according to her subconscious or some such when not in active use, basically like how your fingers move relative to your hand when you’re walking down the street. Like, they kinda just… hang there, maybe orbit a bit or reshuffle their positions once in a while. The orbs, I mean, not the fingers.
Does anyone else think that Sydney looks better with her hair down, I wish she didn’t have the hairband at all.
Not gonna lie. I never noticed that her orbs rotate. Now that I know, I’m extremely interested and impressed. I always thought they would just move around randomly with her or maybe even stay stationary. Goodness it would be distracting to talk with her while they are floating lazily around her head…
I figured they rotated based of what Maxima said when they saw them for the first time. She called them Ioun Stones. In D&D an Ioun Stone is an enhancing stone or orb that rotates around the user’s head.
They always rotate gradually. One of the prettiest examples though is when Halo is falling asleep, at the end of her first day. They slowly, lazily rotate, as they come down to nap beside the sleeping Sydney.
Technically, the orbs do not rotate around Syd’s head – they revolve around it.
Whether they also rotate (spin, each on its own axis) is not known and would be hard to determine unless at least one of them has a mark visible in a fixed location.
ro·tate (verb)
Move or cause to move in a circle around an axis or center.
Whist things can rotate around their own axis, the definition of the word does allow them to rotate around another point instead. “Rotating around Halo’s head” is a perfectly acceptable term to use.
In fact it is the word “revolve” which carries the greater implication of turning on its own axis. Think of revolving doors or revolver pistols as examples. You do not conjure up images of them moving around some external point of rotation.
Aren’t those the 2 old men from the boondocks?
With a rotation of less than 21 second and a glow linger of 3 seconds Halo would literally have a halo over her head.
Hence the name :D
Another older detail I’d like to comment on but is way older than my introduction to the comic: Yes, coming up with names is hard and I can certainly see why Sydney was dubbed Halo but it does feel a tad generic IMO.
I feel as though Seven Star would have been a more interesting take on describing the orbiting spheres and it also happens to be the chilli used in most chinese restaurants (niche trivia). Plus its alliterative, which is nice.
Not that I mean to criticize, what you have is fine and I’m thoroughly enjoying your work.
DC has a superheroine called Halo, too…
… although I think she might not have been seen since before the ‘Flashpoint’ event.
That second panel is totally me.
Checkers is a more “old men under the bridge” type of game than chess anyway.
Wonder if they are considering trying to summon the Skill Tree? Is it even possible to do it?
Sydney commented, when asked that, at the whiteboard session, that she does not know what mental muscles to flex, to do that.
Sydney has shown the ability to mentally control the path of one or more orbs to fly around on their own. Since they leave a lingering trail she can use them to do temporary sky writing at night.
I can see Sydney getting bored on a night mission when waiting around for a rendezvous or something. She pulls two of the orbs out of the ring and starts racing them against each other like the light cycles from Tron. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3ODe9mqoDE