Grrl Power #531 – The gang’s all here
I wanted to quickly establish that Cooter is fundamentally dislikable, and the easiest way to do that is to hit up those stereotypes, but I have to admit, he’s kind of fun to write. Maybe I should write more jerks. Grrl Power tends to lack a lot of interpersonal antagonism among the main characters certainly. It’s usually good if there’s some friction there. McCoy sparring with Spock all the time for example. Or even Ron Swanson trying to stonewall one of Leslie Knope’s initiatives. Yeah, Dabbler and Maxima occasionally get into it, but it’s pretty lightweight stuff most of the time.
Cthillia would be easy to impersonate if you had a pair of lizard gloves and risers in your boots. And gargled with a cup full of broken safety glass. You know, cause she never takes her head wrap off. The Evil Overlord’s Top 100 List says henchmen shouldn’t have masks that cover their face, because the good guys can klonk them on the head and walk around the Death Star with impunity. That rule should extend to the main bad guys as well – not that the good guy get a drop on Vader usually, but it happens to mini bosses like Phasma occasionally.
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Ah finally, my adolescence spent learning Anglo-Saxon runes (and Tolkien’s adaptation of them) comes in handy.
You have good taste in anime.
The third character < is Elder Futhork, not Anglo-Frisian, but most A-F runes are the same.
A more accurate translation would be to use the runes to replace the letters “jævla óþokkuligr”.
Norse have no word for the devil, though, “jævla” wasn’t a thing until Scandinavia was Christianized. In which case it would be fendinn, he who tempts.
“Fanden” likely comes from “fjandi” which means “enemy”. Fendinn (not sure about the accurate spelling) is Frisian. Might appear in late Old Norse as a borrowed word though. Most likely, I think, is that it’s a little bit of both.
Also: “Fanden” appears in traditional Norwegian (and I assume SE, DK and IS) folk tales looong before Christianity sidled up to our cultural heritage and started groping it :p “Fanden” is simply one of the bad guys in a story. It represents an adversary – usually one of our version of the Fair Folk – that you wouldn’t want to name, because that could draw their attention when telling the story. Turning this character into the Devil, was an obvious – and rather clever – propaganda move by the church. Makes it easier to accept that part of what they were selling. “Of course the Devil is real, he’s right there in all your/our old stories.” What’s interesting (to me, at least) is that “Satan”, ostensibly a name for the Devil has a similar background. It comes from a hebrew word that simply means “adversary”, or “enemy”.
Interesting insight, thanks.
Not sure why the discussion about the Christian Devil for the phrase “Fucking Gross” (which is all the runes translate as, actually, they spell out fuckiq gross) Unfortunately, this chat won’t accept the futhark runes to put the proper look to show helvitis brutto, which is the closest translation for fucking gross I can find for Norse. Specifically, Icelandic is considered the closest to old Norse.
Heh, way back in the 80’s, started to translate “Slaine” into futhark (or was it futhorc?), or maybe some other runic alphabet…
Wasn’t it ogham runes in Slaine?
That was them! Actually, believe it was the words to “Careless Whisper” was translating…
Anybody else getting the urge to play medieval Tetris, when looking at the background?
if you press the right brick, just so, a secret door will open
Press another cube just wrong, and the whole place implodes into a giant stone cube.
Great way to discourage random cube pressing!
It looks like it’s one of those places where everything is a trap that will kill you.
Remove the right brick, and a frog will jump out singing ragtime tunes.
He originally came from Michigan…
And then after finishing the song, the frog will kill you.
Maybe Michigan Frog wouldn’t do that, but this isn’t Michigan Frog. It’s just a reference, which is part of a trap that will kill you.
Not sure how it is with Old Norse, but at least in the Swedish the words we have for “Fuck” aren’t really curse words. Our curses are usually more literal:
Satan
Jävlar (devils)
Helvette (hell)
Fan (satan again)
Herrejävlar (a humorous contraction of Lord (as in God) and Devils. LordSatan?) :D
or less interesting stuff like:
Skit (means “dirt” or depending on context, “shit”)
Skräp (junk/garbage)
The blunt word which corresponds to “Fuck” in Swedish (Knulla) sounds odd, almost like if someone would stub their toe and shout “Sexual Intercourse!”.
May have to do with sex not really being a taboo in itself in the Scandinavian countries, unlike how it is in the US. It is still usually a “private” topic though.
“Knulla” Sounds odd to be used as a swear word I mean.
Is Knulla pronounced “noo-la”? Because if so that’s an Irish name and that’s hilarious.
The “K” isn’t silent, but otherwise that’s pretty close. In some dialects it would be pronounced like you wrote.
Was thinking more ‘knu(ckle)’
Actualy you sometimes hear someone (not me) screaming “knulla” in frustration at my job. A combination of weirdoes and stress have that effect. Good money though.
We haz so many Scandiwegian readers. Awesome!
*wags tail*
No, wait! Bad stereotype. Historically inaccurate!
Ahh, fixed it!
That second one woulda been funner if the bull had said ‘balls’ instead of ‘ears’ (seriously? ears as castanets? o_O)
i think it’s kinda funny how the fire-and-brimstone Christians don’t even realize that the word hell isn’t even from the Bible; it comes from Hel, the Norse goddess of the unvalorous dead and also the name of her kingdom, which was their final destination; ofc, you may already know this hehe
That has been postulated, but it is very unlikely. I say this from an interest in the study of ents, rather than from a theological perspective. But, as we do not have any treents, outside of New Zealand, I have to contend myself with entomology.
When considering the theological entomology of “Hell” it is worth noting that the Old English term derived from the proto-Germanic “haljō”.
As such the Norse ‘Hel’ and the Middle English “Hell” both derived from a common source which referred to “the underworld”.
This can be proven from the fact that examples of “Hel” can be found in Old English, prior to the first Viking invasion. Before that the vikings were not known to hang around chatting, in England.* Other than comments like
“Isn’t that church burning nicely?”
* i.e. Christianity was already well established (c.600 AD) prior to this point in history (800 AD).
Etymology. Entomology is the study of insects.
I did originally link it to this comic, to continue my punnage. But then found I had exceeded the three link limit, which would force my comment into arbitration. So decided that was the best to loose, as it was not pertinent to the core arguments.
Sadly I forgot to revert the spelling from its pun form.
People who mix those up bug me in ways I don’t have words for.
You guys should copy some quality profanity from your eastern neighbors, us Finns! Perkele(old way of saying Saatana(Satan)) rolls off your tongue so nicely when you are angry.
I, personally, am rather amused by how curse-like our (meaning Scandinavian, specifically Norwegian) ‘curses’ are.
Most have been shortened, of course, but still generally involve/imply either invoking satan by his name, or outright requesting that he do something bad to you.
Like, our equivalent of ‘fucking hell’ translates to ‘satan in hell’ (in case you were confused on which satan, I guess? As mentioned elsewhere in the comments, it might not have been the Christian ‘fanden’ initially) and the closest we’ve got to ‘fuck you’ is probably the one that translates to ‘satan take you’ (presumably a shorter version of ‘may Satan take you to hell’ or some such)
Still not as curse-like as we COULD be though; Would be even greater if it varied with dialect, so that we’d have some cities invoking Satan’s name, while other towns blaspheme against Jesus, or such :P
Maybe a few obscure dialects could refer to Norse mythology in their curses.
Alas, we live in a world where language generally evolves to have only a few widely-recognized curses per language :P
Not if Sydney has her way!
She will make sure curses are interesting and varied.
Your [source of DNA] was [randomly combined] in [an unlicensed] [laboratory]!
But Captain Caveman there is not wearing a tie. He has a couple of loaded bandolears, but not a tie.
I just think it’s amazing that she can speak English in Norse Runes.
Sometimes I speak english using only silent letters.
Shush! I want to hear what Qoheleth is talking about.
;)
Kpgh.
Most of the bad guy roundup appear to be derived from Earth lore. Wyrmil may be the token alien in the bunch. Are the anti-sigil society ‘Earth First’ by choice? Are there fewer aliens willing to drop their cover here on Earth because of the difficulty of getting off planet on short notice once outed?
As for Cooter, he has a remarkably complete set of dentition for someone based on that stereotype.
Who’s the white-dressed “spy-vs-spy” looking dude in the background of panel 3?
All will be revealed, in time
X’s..Ex?
Or his evil twin?
While I really like the idea that this hillbilly idiot is secretly super intelligent or insanely powerful, or anything that might justify his being part of the group, I think I know what’s really happening here.
The logic seems to be that he’s way too calm to be around all these monsters, So he must have some monstrous power of his own, right? Not if the veil is working properly. Yeah for all we know he sees several ordinary looking people.
In fact look at these people specifically and imagine how the veil probably disguises them: a Norse woman, a very pale vampire, one light skinned wrym guy, sciona is rather pale as well, the only one we can’t tell the skin pigmentation of is wearing a freakin’ hood! Under the veil they might look like the kinds of people that would like this guys antics!
Now I really hope I’m wrong, I hope he’s more than he appears and I actually hope he sticks around and not just because I want to see Max deal with him later, okay mostly because of that.
Forgot to add just because they happen to be pale doesn’t automatically mean that they’ll appear white (Greenie was green!) nor am I implying that white people in general like or even tolerate this kind of behavior, I’m just saying if you want a human sacrifice that no one will miss…
You see this is where people get things wrong. Sacrifice implies a loss, that you’re giving up something important. I… I don’t see that applying here.
At all.
Loss, yes. Something important? That’s debatable
Maybe he parked in a really good spot.
or has a nice truck.
i love the sort of side commentary on this really make it feel real
It certainly was a timely reminder, to ensure that readers could understand reality, as he perceives it. Realising that continuity is being maintained would also thereby allow us to sustain our sense of disbelief.
You had to pick that image for his Profile Mugshot? o_O
Panel five would have been better :P
10 / 10 on this one, lost my shit
Sanitary products are available from your local pharmacist.
I knew them vampires were up to something, but the red neck guy.. is he a were creature of sorts? He sorta has the look of one like he would be a giant weregator or something.
Leatherhead as a human?
Makes sense.
Nah, he’s be a were-opossum or were-coon
You know, it’s hard not to love a fan community that sometimes breaks out into long discussions of Norwegian word origins and the proper transliteration of English words into Elder Futhark runes. I love you guys. And I ain’t even been drinkin’.
Drinking’s not required, but it does ‘enhance’ the experience sometimes :D
This was the first time I’ve considered cancelling my Patreon. I really do NOT want to see a double res version of Mr Cunnilingus.
No one is forcing you to actually look, ya’ know. If you don’t want to see it, just skim your eyes on by.
;)
I’m thinking about Sydney’s shield again.
So, maybe the shield IS opaque.
Check this:
It is opaque but also acts like a video camera and projector on both sides, so it’s kind of like a double-sided two-way mirror. That’s why laser damage doesn’t work.
Cameras would show the laser, it just wouldn’t transmit enough of its power to harm. So basically the shield just dampens the radiation that passes through.
I get that he’s supposed to be unlikable, but what has he done so far that’s worse than anything Dabbler has done?
Dabbler is outrageously flirtatious, but that guy is just offensive, both socially and in his attitude towards sexuality. Dabs doesn’t objectify those she interacts with, but that guy just pops out the sexual commentary in a rude and socially unacceptable way.
…Your opinion depends on which society you come from…
Social behavior informs that the person follows rules of physical behavior, ie, polite manners imply the person won’t hit you without warning or reason. Dabbler’s flirtations almost fit into social norms as they are methods of seduction, ie, persuasion, and imply she is attempting to gain mutual consent, or is humourously playing against that expectation. (humor itself is a form of social -and socially acceptable- behavior.).
The redneck’s behavior deliberately violates the rules of social behavior/communication, and deliberately demonstrates the redneck can not be relied upon to follow rules of physical behavior, thus uses social norms to threaten those present. Hence, his behavior, translated into whatever breaks the rules or the cultural expectations of another society, would still be unacceptable.
At this point he has only made one sexual boast, and only moderately more bluntly than dabbler. Yes, gross and not an ideal part of an introduction, but still not on the whole worse than dabbler.
actually much worse. Dabbler actually understands the concept of tact.
Who are those others in the background besides those we’ve just met?
By appearance, vampires from the Council. Blondy looking like the one that Krona played the prank on, by messing with her underwear.
Matching their likenesses, so closely, that you would not suspect that they are actually both different individuals!
A bit late, but how do we know those were not the same vampires that were at the Council and they were warning the evil one who was draining Pixel’s blood… and makes me wonder if the time loop was local, even though Pixel was pulled back… was the container her blood was being sent to far enough away to still be full?
Oh they probably are the same ones. But this is within the super genre. So evil twins, robot doubles, alternate earth lookalikes, illusions, shapeshifting and so on must all be considered. And especially animated manikin look-alikes.
Assuming they are the same ones, then they will almost certainly have reported the events to Sciona, as they appear to be in cahoots with her. As she had her animated minions there, they would be fools to try and withhold any information. It is all too likely that she might have been monitoring events and would pick up any deviation from the actual things that happened.
The time loop blood problem is a worry. It is worth noting that the big manikin did not have Pixel’s powers, until it attacked and sampled her. Whereas it appeared to be in a close location to where Pixel was being held (unless Sciona was whizzing around all over the place in her complex).
So if the blood had not reset, it should have been able to sample it directly, before engaging in the fight. At the very least Sciona knew that Pixel had invisibility, as she had been scouting using that. But the battle wounds she took looked like she was aware of Pixel’s claws too. Both of which would have been worth granting to her minion. before it attacked.
Or she may play a deep game and have denied it access to the blood so that the heroes would have no confirmation that she had gained a bucket of Pixel blood.
As it appears she sent it as a delaying tactic, whilst she and her vampire minion made their escape, this would be sensible.
They could have very well led her minions to the Council meeting themselves. And with the blood, looking back at Pixel’s “shanking” there is a bucket under her head that the tubes to her chest and back are feeding to.. so that probably vanished
There are arguments for and against the reset having affected the blood. With various options involved, including the possibility that the reset just created clones of the characters, at their checkpoint.
Meaning that Sciona may have escaped with the original Pixel and is will be able to carry on draining her indefinitely (providing Sciona keeps her fed and cared for enough to survive).
Not to mention a Sydney corpse (or similar blood draining victim).
Krona remained at the checkpoint, so was not cloned. Harem – could go either way.
Or the reset took everything back and restored it. Dead, alive, separated from bodies or otherwise.
Or it only reset the bodies, but not blood removed from it.
Cool thing about Norse rune-writing: they spelled words phonetically based off of how each individual thought it should be written. So one person’s way of writing ‘summer’ might be spelled S-U-M-M-E-R (in runes of course) while another person might write it as S-O-M-E-R because of how they pronounce it.
WAIT. Isn’t “Cthillia” the… daughter… of… Cthulhooooooh-boy. That’s gonna be trouble.
That would follow naming conventions. Plus would explain why she is unique. And her death-gaze for that matter.
But if she were that profound you would expect to find her surrounded by all sorts of monstrous… mmm… OK… maybe.
Yet if she were the offspring of a dark elder god, why has all hell not yet broken out on Earth? All it would take is summoning him with a.. big… bloody… cir… cle… OK .. OK… but… but..
Mere nuclear blasts would not even be pin-pricks to Cthulhu, so would not deter the return of the dark old ones!
We know that Cthilia has been on Earth at least long enough for Deus to turn a third world country into a successful industrial one. She could have summoned him forth at any time! Unless there was something with such cosmic powers that even he, with the aid of all the elder Gods, would not contemplate opposing…
until it was eliminated… as their highest priority…
I haven’t seen an explanation that Cthillia is unique. I read a rhetorical question that suggested it, then Cthillia’s immediate response to that.
The raised eyebrow from the vampire in the last panel! XD
it is however fucking gross spelled in norse runes
I thought he was being ironic, and that Wyrm approved because he got the same impression. Grun’s revulsion just made it funnier.
So is that his real face, too?