Grrl Power #534 – It’s not a glitch, it’s a feature!
So we jump from the curiously gloomy comic shop (one day when I magically have all the time, I may brighten up that page a bit) to the thankfully better lit Archon lounge, featuring Dabbler’s latest Sexual Detritus. Which would be a good name for a band I guess.
So… I guess I didn’t quite think this page through entirely when I drew it, but it’s been several days in comic time, and Krona is still there and wearing the same clothes. I guess her and Dabbler were very thorough when going over her code. Presumably Krona got a “I saved several Archon agents but got hauled in anyway but everything’s okay now and all I got was this shirt” shirt in the meantime, and not the same shirt the Barberian got. The real reason is I’m just used to drawing everything moment to moment and I didn’t quite think it through. So yeah, Krona was under observation for a few days but treated as a guest otherwise. I’m sure Maxima had a very measured exchange with Ingsol about it too.
A-kon is this weekend, I will be there. No I don’t have a table as I yet again don’t have anything to sell, but I’ll be hanging around the Antarctic Press table and Artist Alley webcomic people and occasional panel.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
Still best girl, even if she can only muck around in three dimensions instead of all 7.
*peers into the seventh dimension, through the keyhole, from the octarine dimension*
Mmmmm, octarines, eight times better than nectarines…
*sadface* RIP Terry, you got me back into reading
What is nice though is to be able to carry on entertaining, even having passed on. That is a good legacy.
Give her time.
Wonder how long Archon are going to tolerate that Dabbler leaves her takeaway leftovers on the couch like that, I mean it is violating several security measures, sure they are out for the count after the night with her but still, just leaving them there unsupervised is going to be the cause of trouble sooner or later.
I have no idea how this comment ended up here as I wrote it at the bottom of the page O.o
the living area probably has no sensitive material or documents (at least, probably shouldn’t). also, they may be in the dormitory’s lobby area, which would be open to the public like any lobby.
I agree on the former. We saw Super Hiro showing a couple of groupies around here. If invited guests are permitted here, then they would need sensible precautions for classified material.
I doubt it, on the latter though. Other than that scene, we have not seen any members of the public, in this area. Contrast that to Sydney’s shop, and the instant-crowd that appeared, when they went to the restaurant, in New York, and you can tell that if they had access, the public would be swamping the place!
Plus we did see that there are manned security points between here and the food court (and the main entrance, but that is standard in any office building). Dave has indicated that it is not a token divide. There is strong security between the public areas of the building and the Archon facilities.
I feel that it is especially important for this room, as it is the principle relaxation and socialisation area for the team. They have to be ‘on call’ for much longer hours than regular cops, for example, so need to be able to let their hair down, without having to worry about maintaining their public image, or being on the lookout for rabid fans or assassins!
And it’s probably easier for Dabbler to keep a snack handy here than building some sort of “pantry” (or harem) just for her.
No, no. Max has already warned Dabbler not to snack on her team mates, like Harem.
Firehouse++, as it were.
Still, I could definitely see being Dabbler food as the first step in someone’s break-in plan. Calling it now.
Perhaps, but with all Dabbler’s….extra muscles…………, how capable do you think her partners will be of moving to step 2? For that matter, I recon Surveillance keep an eye on them too, not just cause of their location, but I can see a re-occurring “how long till Dabbler’s meal wakes up” betting system being set up… :P
That could happen, but it would require that the individual knew of Dabbler’s habits. Deus probably does, with Harem feeding him information. Very few others might though, in the normal world (including any supers without powers that might give them such information).
But there is a very big category which makes your suggestion plausible. Those behind the Veil. Certainly all those who were in the Council chamber are aware of Dabbler’s race and feeding habits. And we know that includes key villainous types too.
There are actually at least 11 dimensions, not 7.
7 dimensions is my own theory that is probably wrong.
There’s a really good Youtube video that simplifies how there’s at least 11 dimensions (10 + 1) (although some physicists have postulated as many as 25). It explained thing in a way that was easy enough for my little cousin to understand. REALLY well done teaching video series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkxieS-6WuA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySBaYMESb8o
Sorry, that’s a load of crock. The analogy breaks down by the narrator’s version of the 5th dimension whereby seemingly random constraints on time become the point of delineation.
Case in point: why does time travel become 6th dimensional if you replace the “you” in an extrinsic timeline with the version of “you” in your current timeline? This presupposes that time is a linear flow, which contradicts the narrator’s own explanation using the Möbius strip. You can easily (and mathematically) show that the linearity of time is an artifact of our own observational bias just as you can show (also mathematically) the opposite. We lack the observational basis for proving either such claim, therefore building additional dimensions upon the initial claim is already spurious.
… you’re asking for an observational basis for theoretical physics?
It’s theoretical. That’s why it’s called theoretical physics instead of experimental physics. However, 11 dimensions is a basis for all of M-Theory. The author explains it the way he does because he’s trying to simplify it for the masses who will not understand the work involved for the mathematical proofs. Everything he said in the videos, however, do make sense.
Alternatively, if you believe in bosonic string theory there are 25 +1 dimensions instead.
I am, yes. Since when does a theory not require substantive, demonstrated evidence? String theory and M-Theory should correctly be known as a hypotheses.
Let’s not forget why we have this scientific standard! A mathematical model may be predictive, but only if the basis is correct. I already identified a problem with the basis at step 1 (the first step past classical physics), yet somehow we get to step 21? O rly. Please explain how these do not cease to be theories right then and there?!
The first rule of sane science is that you do not attempt to disprove every crackpot’s idea. You start with a solid foundation, work out your predictions, and demonstrate feasibility with real-world observation. Just because these so-called theories sound pretty does not good science make.
I guess you just completely debunked all forms of theoretical physics related to dimensions, which is run by hundreds of people with twice our intelligence.
The thing with theoretical physics is that it’s more like thought-experimental physics, except with far more math. There’s a reason there’s new ‘theories’ popping up all the time.
We’re talking about a difference between speculative science and factual/experimental science. The latter is the reliable one that can be verified with data. The former is literally a bunch of super-intelligent math-nerds arguing about how the universe works.
I didn’t debunk anything except the explanation in that video. The explanation is flawed so I said it was a load of crock, and I then went on to explain that a theory requires substantive evidence, which math does not provide. If you can’t follow a basic conversation then you don’t have the right to tell me what “we’re talking about.”
Actually it’s theoretical because of repeatable math formulae for these types of thought experiments, but not on actual physical experiments, since the basic requirement to make the math proof work is basically a thought experiment (like the mass effect in the game “Mass Effect”, but where the tthought experinent is based on quantum foam, quantum fluctuations, strange and other particles too small to see but able to be guessed at vased on existinv knowledge, and planck constants instead) .
Btw, Formulae that are a lot more complicated than what you or I are likely capable of understanding. At least for now. Remember, Einsteins theory of relativity was also a theory unable to be experimented upon, and when he came up with it, there were literally only eight scientists on the planet who understood the mathematical proofs for it. Now it can be taught in physics classes
I do teach some of Special Relativity to my senior-year (grade 12) physics students, at the end of the school year, which is now, but I seem to be teaching grade 12 chemistry instead this semester.
But, a thought experiment is a hypothesis. I honestly don’t understand.
…& nobody said how many (if any) of those 3 dimensions were SPATIAL…
…or if any of them were related to OUR 3 spatial dimensions…
The first, second, and third dimensions are always length,width and height. X, Y, and Z planes. Special theory of relativity states that time would be the fourth dimension, which can be represented in shapes like a tesseract. Beyond that, you need to use string theory or M-theory (for 7 more dimensions) that we do not see in our regular life. We obviously can’t see these dimensions, because we’re third dimensional beings living on a fourth dimensional plane. We can comprehend the fourth dimension, and we can see the first three. There was a book called Flatland which describes a world of two dimensional beings living in a third dimensional plane. They could see the first and second dimensions, and eventually some of the inhabitants are able to at least comprehend the third dimension, like Square does when Sphere visits him.
The Flatlander, Square, goes to the Pointland, which is composed of ONE inhabitant, Point, who is incapable of perceiving any communication with the Flatlander as being more than a thought coming from Point’s own mind, because Point is only capable of seeing the first dimension, even though he was on a second dimensional plane, and Point is unwilling to comprehend that there are more dimensions than just Pointland.
Just because you can’t SEE higher dimensions than the third, and can’t easily comprehend (without mathematics) higher dimensions than the fourth), it doesn’t mean there aren’t more. It also doesn’t mean there are. It’s theoretical, after all. That’s the point. Theoretical physics. M-‘THEORY.’ String THEORY. :)
I have personal problems with time being touted by just about everyone as the fourth dimension.
Zeroth dimension: a single immeasurable point
First dimension: a line, often described as the path of a point through time
Second dimension: a plane, often described as the path of a line through time
Third dimension: 3-d space, often described as the path of a plane through time
Fourth dimension: Time?
Fifth dimension: The path of time through time? Alternate possible futures/pasts, but that’s what the sixth dimension is often described as.
The fifth dimension is where the description breaks the consistency of the pattern, because it’s turning the dimension in on itself, or adding an additional partition that wasn’t previously, and looses the consistent delineation, especially when a description of additional dimensions means they are literally coiled in on each other and become “smaller.”
The simplest fourth dimension “visual” I agree is the tesseract of 3-d through time, but changing that “path” doesn’t seem like it should result in a higher dimension, like bending a bar doesn’t suddenly move it out of the third dimension, just puts it in a different configuration.
It seems to me that the less common description of time as a model of entropy/energy makes a ton more sense, with a genuinely fourth dimensional object “intersecting” three-dimensional space in ways that three-dimensional movement cannot duplicate, as happens if you look at a sequence of MRIs or single lines of an image verses “simple” time-forward movement, and any consistent level of such can change over time, especially if watching a living thing.
Not saying that higher dimensions don’t exist, just that I don’t agree with the descriptions I most commonly see.
Notice how what you refer to as the first dimension is just zeroth + time, second is first + time and 3rd is 2nd + time. Why does it not logically follow, then, that the fourth dimensional world would be that of the first 3 dimensions plus time?
In fact, what even is time if not simply our journey through a plane of existence that we cannot properly comprehend? It seems to me that “time” is not so much a dimension as the name we give to the next one up.
Yes, it could be represented as 3rd plus time, but that focuses only on the single dimension and that single portion of my comment. If the fourth dimension truly is time, then the universe is truly a deterministic fate system, requiring a fourth dimensional impact/effort to change the (literal) path of life, the universe, and everything.
Yes I used that description, for the simplest visualization, but I also said that a moving three-dimensional object moves in ways inconceivable for the second dimension, as any higher dimension would. Watching a higher-dimension being move would likely break your mind in ways that Lovecraft worked to describe, not like a simple ball bouncing.
Yes, we are likely moving through higher-dimensional space, at least somewhat. But, what two-dimensional object(s) is/are “moving” to make you? That extension of that last sentence of yours is what makes me most question “time” as one dimension up. A collection of two-dimensional objects moving to make a person would have every atom simply appear out of truly nowhere, and then the entire “history” continues to move at the pace of the electrons. There is also the fact that Science has yet to uncover (to my knowledge) anything that can truly be described as one- or two-dimensional in our universe. That gets me thinking that any smaller-dimensional “objects” that may exist need to be infinitely large, and impossibly tangled in order to actually form a genuinely three-dimensional atom/electron/quark/anything, or simply not interact with the third dimension in any currently observable way.
Then why aren’t they called HYPOTHETICAL if they aren’t proven since if you hypothesis gets proven it then becomes a theory. This seems to mess that all up which has been a problem. The nomenclature is useless if people continue to misuse it. Then if they are still just hypotheticals then they are not theories. And if the words are inadequate then make new ones not twist and deform the old ones.
Because they are things which we will be able to test. A hypothetical is something which may or may not occur and (depending on how it is constructed) may be improbable. Whereas these theories are being proposed as probable models. It is fair that, if peer review agrees with this opinion, it be accorded the status of a theory, rather than a hypothesis.
The key difference being if a path can be seen as to how the theory could be proved. When it can be stated as ‘if we can show x, then the theory has been proven’.
However there is a more nebulous area beyond this where we do not know exactly how to prove something. Yet still be able to see that there are a range of tests which are expected to include the definitive one. Whilst we might not know exactly which, we would know that someday we should be able to narrow it down and be able to declare which is the definitive one.
We could probably do with nomenclature to describe this area. But, lacking that, it is fairer to default to ‘theory’ rather than ‘hypothesis’, when informed opinion holds that it is plausible enough to do so.
Time is our 4th dimension so to speak. I heard tell from a total of 11 to 16 possible other dimensions that have been labeled as folded and squared away. Too tiny to enter as the math tells it. However to me time is the medium in which all things flow. Without it we would be static and nothing at all would happen not even Brownian motion. At least as far as I can understand it.
I also heard tell that time travel isn’t ruled out by their equations but that it would take such power that it is beyond us and maybe not worth it. Cost benefit is poor unless there is another way.
You know, this is such a better argument to read than what I normally see on here. I am happy for this argument.
I like the slight changes in colouring for this comic! The colours are more even and gradual and Sydney looks more natural. :)
I agree. Results wise, anyhow, when compared to the previous page. I am not getting why mind, just that I prefer Sydney’s look here, and I think it is complimenting Krona too.
Well, I wonder if she can state refresh her clothing? Auto reset every hour, so its always clean? Then she only NEEDS one outfit!
I wish I had that. Would make life so much easier when I didn’t have to periodically buy ten black t-shirts.
…I have a funny feeling that if she tried to “state refresh” her clothing only, it would disappear back to the clothing drawers. Sort of an instant NSFW button.
That just-cleaned feel and smell, every hour, on the hour.
In fact anytime Krona wanted to rip her clothes off and have sex in a mudbath, she could just reset and everything will be as fresh as new. In fact, if she applied it to herself too, she would not even need contraceptives, as she would have neither pregnancy nor disease risks!
I feel that this should be tested… for Science!
be a cheating cheats way to enjoy a night with xurial and still go to work awake in the morning. plus refreshed every couple hours makes for one overcharged tantalius when they decide to quit playing.
That would be a rather novel and useful minor use of her power.
Sounds to me, like no matter what Kronachrome and Dabbles (and possibly other Arc-lighters) talked about and discussed, this little chat with Sydney possibly helped her the most
At least Dabbler’s friend wore protection…
It doesn’t have a crest on it so it probably isn’t a Trojan.
Dabbler is apparently not a cuddler. Maybe she rolls over/flops around/stretches out while sleeping and is being courteous by tucking her empties in elsewhere so they can sleep/recover soundly? Or she has no tolerance for other people snoring. Yeah, that’s probably it.
Who says she is sleeping alone? o_O
I get the feeling that sleep is not something Dabbler needs since she is sustained by tantric energy. Basically a good round of sex is the equivalent of both a meal and a good night’s sleep for her.
Wait a sec, I’ll go check. Yup, her bed is unslept in.
Bout the only that bed is NOT used for is sleeping.
Sydney and Dabs discussed this once over the phone.
Thank you for the Aladdin reference by the way :3
The Bangs are back, yes! Sadly, Dave’s still using this “realism” or whatever style and it’s so disappointing.
Given https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2447 , I think we’re seeing the formation of a stronger bond between Krona and Halo than Halo and Maxima had at the bank a “week” ago.
I’m serious. These two junior people might be working very closely together for the next several years.
I know you have a to do a lot to update these pages but the “Cast” page is getting a bit long in the tooth. We could really use page that covers the other characters (and where they appear, etc.) and factions beyond just ArcSwat. Krona here is a perfect example.
A reader has set up a Grrl Pwer Wiki. It is far better that we, the community, update this. At least until we can get enough extra patrons that Dave can hire full-time help.
Currently Dave only has Keith to help, occasionally, on colouring. Whereas Girl Genius has a team of three working full-time on theirs. Separating out the writing, art and colouration roles. Not to mention having more flexibility on how to deal with the other jobs running a webcomic involves, such as the technical side of things.
As it is, we know that he works constantly, and even takes his tablet with him, to work if he manages to take a holiday! So the cast list is likely to stay as is, for some time. Unless the comic gets some big-time publicity. Which may well happen.
Yeah, I know how that goes. I was starting to work on a project with Dave a while back but I’ve been caught up on a larger project and another job and even had the computer stolen with all the stuff I had done. Been meaning on at least doing the animations again for him.
Same shirt?
Not a problem since it’s been a few days – there’s bound to be a laundry around there somewhere…
If she even needs a laundry to clean clothes.
[Krona display mode]
Item short description:
Empty coke canBallroom gown, made of cloth of gold, with real diamond sequins, to fit [Krona vital statistics]Carefully choosing a brand of soda other than what ArcSwat’s fridge is normally stocked with, just in case any wierd attribute transmogrification occurs as it becomes fabric.
Examples:
grrlpowercomic.com/archives/413
grrlpowercomic.com/archives/524
Then there is the one here (in the mini-comic, at the bottom). That might end up with this result!
Giving how often a Super Hero is likely to go through clothes they probably had spares for Krona to ware and have her back her originals before she got ready to leave, after washing them.
Krona can probably hack her t-shirt clean.
SEXUAL DETRITUS! Yeah that’s Dabbler in the trailer…there’s a reason they all look like Spinal Tap after a two year bender…
I feel like her hair would be getting all sweaty and matted under those goggles.
They are not perma-bonded to her, she can remove them when she wants, as she did when looking at that reversed math board with Dabbles
Alrighty, I’m going to preface this with the admission that I don’t tend to read every single comment, so it’s possible this is old news or that Dave debunked it already… but
I need to get this rant off my processor…
Krona is fugging terrifying!
Because Dave has been pretty careful not to classify her as this, it took me a while for it to click, but Krona is a reality-bender. She seems to have a couple limits (I’ll get to that), but this puts her in the same category as Mr. Mxyzptlk (DC comics), Franklin Richards (if you prefer Marvel), Q (Next Generation) or Discord (MLP).
If you didn’t get any of those references, I’ll break this down. If Krona can transform a set of panties into a thong, why can’t she transform a mountain into a volcano? Or instantly terraform a planet? Or if she can turn a bullet into a dud, why can’t she turn a person into a dud? (brain-dead vegetable) Or just hack them to dead status. There are any number of tiny chemical changes you could make in a human body that would kill somebody. And that’s just scratching the surface of what she could potentially do.
What I’m saying is that her abilities automatically put her into an entirely new category of power, one way above Maxima or any of the other supers we’ve seen so far.
Alright, let’s talk limits. The reasons why Krona isn’t the god-king of the universe right now.
1. She can’t create things, only augment already existing things. This one seems pretty well established in the comic, I’m moderately confident here.
2. She can only augment matter, her powers don’t give her access to changing the laws of physics or causality. Now… just because we haven’t seen her turn the dimmer switch down on friction or turn up the power of gravity doesn’t mean she can’t. But let’s assume she can’t until we see that she can.
3. Juice or energy capacity. There seems to be a limiter on the scale of things that Krona can do. Maybe she can’t turn a mountain into a volcano because that change is bigger and requires more power than she has at her disposal. This one seems to be implied more by authorial intent than backed up directly by any real evidence. But if Dave is looking for a good excuse to limit the kinds of things we’ve already seen her do, this is probably the go-to.
4. Speed. Krona seems to use her hands to activate the changes. So she can’t change anything faster than she can push the button to do so, which is slower than, say, a bullet aimed at her head.
5. Mental blocks. Krona doesn’t hack someone to dead for the same reason the average person would have a hard time shooting someone. Empathy functions as a mental block and just makes it hard for a normal person to deliberately kill. (I can back this one up with IRL evidence if anybody needs me to)
6. Creative limits. Krona doesn’t hack someone dead because it hasn’t occurred to her that she can. Maybe she thinks of a person as a whole unit, not a sum of parts, any one of which she could change at will and said change would kill the person. Or maybe she’s just not much of an outside-the-box-thinker.
7. Because Dave says she can’t. Bottom line, this is the big one… Dave is the ultimate reality-bender in this comic.
Even assuming the first six limits are all accurate, Krona is still way more powerful than people seem to realize. Yeah, we’ve only seen her warp reality in some really small ways (except for her checkpoint which seems to have just been a lot of small changes stacked up and preformed at once), but even utilizing small changes she could manage to be pretty OP. (just look at her save-point) But, I don’t think any of this is Dave’s intended function for her inside of the comic. So, limit number seven applies.
Tl;dr
Krona OP, pls nerf.
NOOooooo!!! Don’t nerf the Krona! The lower power level and lack of armour are balancing factors!
That’s … mostly wrong. Sorry.
First, the power to kill is unremarkable. Humans can be killed with a pillow.
In order:
1: Dave has flat out stated she can conjure, just not as easily as a normal mage.
2: Pretty sure we saw friction/tension control when she hacked a wedgie in Gunnhildas undies.
3: Seems legit, as this very page indicates her failure to hack time is related to power, not ability.
4: Yes, although she hacked a thrown grenade in flight so her speed is pretty impressive, really.
5: Also legit. She seems like a nice person (although she works as a monster cop, so…) plus she admits to being mentally a non-combatant.
6: She created a checkpoint system in reality. She hacked Sydney’s bladder. Krona hasn’t killed anyone (that we know of) because she’s not a casually murderous psychopath.
7: Well yeah.
Frankly, given the existence of Mages, Aliens and Supernatural Whatnots, Krona is respectable (enough that the Council gave her her own sigil) but hardly a world shaking terror like Q or Bill Cypher.
Krona can change only little things at a time, but she can script. She could write scripts that change little things, such as atoms, and then use tons of them at once to, say, change every singe atom in the universe to some different atoms.
She would still hit her power limitation, unless she did that very slowly (and it would take a very very long time, with the limits implied from the above page).
for (thisatom=0; thisatom < ??? ; thisatom++)
umm…. gonna need to use an integer size greater "long long" I think.
last limit is range while she seems to be able to reach far activating the checkpoint, all the other events of her power where at a very limited range and even the reset seemed to not work fully beyond a distance.
Suggestion for the author.
Considering that you have now switched to this ‘borderless’ style, I would recommend not placing speech bubbles close enough to the edge to be cut off as happens in panel 4.
If/when you convert your work to a physical medium (comic books) things like this may begin to matter significantly more. A personal pet peeve is when I need tug the pages of new comics further apart so that I can read what got written right next to the spine. The stress on the spine causes the comic to open to a specific page more often and kind of wrecks that ‘never been opened’ look.
Wow that sounds snobby now that I write it down. :P
Anyway, its a small quality of life thing that is invisible when done right, and annoying when not.
A very good point. Hopefully DaveB has set the dimensions of the page to allow for such a gap, but if he has not thought to allow for the borderless version, that is extremely important.
This. So much this. My manga shelf is full of manga that have huge creases in their spines.
Is it just me, or has Sydney gotten cuter? Are they drawing her differently now?
I think Dave has gone a little into the ‘chibi’ style for today and is drawing the dynamic duo of disruption looking younger than usual. Sydney has always had a more Anime style than the other characters with larger proportion eyes.
And speaking of style, Hey Dave. Sydney is officially on duty. She should be wearing her collar.
Sydney has always been the chibi-style character
Who said Sydney was ‘officially on duty’? Because she is visiting her new friend on her day off?
I was under the impression that on some days she worked half days at the shop and then spent the afternoons at the Hall of Just…. er, Archon headquarters.
Yup. One part of the day being ‘off duty’ and the other ‘on duty’/ With a transitional period, in between, whilst travelling to, or from, her place of duty. When any good judge err… cop.. would be expected to behave according to ‘on-duty’ standards, where this might affect public perceptions of their official role.
Looking like a relaxed civilian is fine when off-duty. But care must be taken, in situations where the public may assume an officer is on-duty, even if not.
We should hope that standing behind the checkout counter, in a shop, should not be perceived as a cop being on-duty, by an average member of the public.
Sydney is always cute.
Laundry. It’s called “doing laundry”, DaveB. That’s why you get to wear clothing multiple times. Heh.
Then the Scooby Crew must have a washer/dryer in the back of the Mystery Machine, because we always see them wearing the same outfits. Every. Single. Day.
Maybe they do the same as Jeff Goldblum in The Fly and each has a half dozen copies of the same outfit to wear between laundry days.
>Maybe they do the same as Jeff Goldblum in The Fly and each has a half dozen copies of the same outfit to wear between laundry days.
That’s literally any cartoon character though.
Also the real life military for every country. And a helluva lotta mismanaged schools.
Are you seriously saying that wearing a uniform is bad? o_O
I don’t know if this has been addressed yet, but one thing that keeps bugging me (even more than Krona breaking the universe) is why wasn’t Halo affected by the memory loss? She did not have any of the orbs grasped (so no shield blocked the magic affect shenanigans). Would it be because it was her state that triggered the reset?
It is a specific function of the power that Krona programmed. At the time she thought that she was creating a real loop in time. Without the person who triggered the recall (herself in previous uses, but Sydney this time) being able to remember what happened, then they would be destined to repeat the same mistakes they made the first time, not knowing any different.
As it turned out the power was not actually affecting time hence why it did not work as predicted on Harem. Three of her bodes remained unaffected, by the reset, but one was reverted to a version ten minutes earlier. Which must have created havoc, in her brain, as one of the four was suddenly out of synch.
We can only speculate on how it corrected itself (if it did), but, whatever process occurred, left Harem with ‘deja vous’ memories.
Their is another reason why she has a memory of the events and the others don’t, at least that I noticed. They were offed or made dead without warning so they weren’t snapped back. However in the case of Sydney, She saw the blow coming and reacted to it. That could also be part of the reason that she has her memory intact. She tripped the code for the reset, which the others didn’t get when they were offed, but it activated their resets because her reset was activated. At least that’s what I think happened.
I can see why you would get that impression, with Pixel, as she was hanging upside down. However we can tell that she was actually still alive, as corpses cannot be bled, like that. It relies on the heart keeping pumping the blood around. Once someone dies that stops and the blood starts to coagulate.
Hence a different technique is used with corpses, which informed readers would have been able to spot.
The key reason though, that we can disprove this alternative proposal, is because we saw that Krona was absolutely fine, up until moments before Sydney died. Besides which, if any of the team had died, prior to Sydney having her crisis, then the reset should have been triggered by them.*
So we know Krona did not die, yet she did loose her memories of the events. Hence the facts match the explanations provided in-comic.
* I appreciate that Krona might have been killed, by surprise, in those last moments. But it would also require Harem to have been taken unawares too. Given the narrow window of opportunity for the former, and requiring that both happen without a moment’s warning, it reduces this option to ‘possible but unlikely’, in my opinion.
If there was a super-assassin hanging around, there is no explanation for why they did not carry on wiping out the team, in the same manner. I expect ninjas, of course, but they never made an attack, after the reset.
Never piss off someone that can hack your bladder.(Hehe pun)
Example: You go to the bathroom to make sure that you don’t have to go during important board meeting. The tank “seems” to be on empty. Thirty-five minutes later, when you’re standing there pointing at a chart and all eyes are on you, the dam breaks.
:-D
Unethical, but funny.
Or she could wire the bladder into the sneeze reflex and give the victim an itchy nose.
*puts black foreleg-band on*
R.I.P. Batman (Adam West).
Holy Grim Reaper Bat Fans!
He will be missed.
He is one of those actors forever linked to a role (or a character forever linked to an actor)
Lone Ranger? Clayton Moore
Superman? George and Christopher Reeves
Batman? Adam West
Wolverine? Hugh Jackman
Krona and Sydney seem to have missed the actual point that Sydney raised re: relative positions. Even if they aren’t traveling back in time, a state reset to EXACTLY where they were at checkpoint would run into the problem that the earth would have moved on.
Even ignoring that, what happens to anyone who happens to have been occupying the space they got restored to?
Even ignoring that, the checkpoint system raises some troubling questions re: what happened (spiritually speaking) to anyone who happened to have died before the checkpoint activated? The presence of a demon on the cast would seemingly confirm that this is not a baseless concern.
And so on.
The ability is interesting (and in my opinion incredibly overpowered, and it suggests that Krona should be able to do a large number of other incredibly overpowered things) but it does not bear any sort of rational investigation. It simply raises too many problems. Either it’s a black box that just works and we never talk about it or its consequences again (and hopefully put some pretty hefty limitations on its use for dramatic tension reasons) or Krona should simply label it as too dangerous to use.
I’m sure Krona is limited to how many things she can manipulate at once–plus she’s not infallible, since her knowledge is limited and she can’t think of everything. (It’s a good thing she doesn’t have Star Trek’s Data’s mental processing speed!
I wonder if Krona knows she’s effectively ageless? Keep a save state of your body from now, and reset every 5 years or so, or in case of major illness.
Yup. Provided she made sure that only her body and not her mind was reset. Otherwise she would always loose her memory. But we have seen that Krona can program such features in.
Plus she has the alternative option of simply altering reality to make her body younger, even without a reset. In just the same way as she changed her hair colour, on a whim, she could change ‘old tissue’ to ‘young tissue’.
So Krona does have two paths to immortality.; And her regular use of the checkpoints makes her (mostly) immune to death by misadventure.
Hah! She’s her own personal Roguelite game :D
Sexual Detritus, actually back when I was in High School during the Battle of the bands production our school put on their was an acid rock band with that name. To this day I’m still not sure you can call that music though…
I am sure it will cum to you.
I’m still not sure what happened, and how it isn’t time travel.
And I’m not sure if it’s entirely legal of Archon to force Krona to come with them.
All I know is that Krona (and Halo, kinda) are both really cute and the big guy on the couch is taking up too much panel space.
It isn’t time travel because they never traveled through time: Krona just reset the involved people’s bodies to states that they were in when she set up the checkpoint.
Succinctly summed up.
As for the legal side, Krona came voluntarily so there was no forcing involved.
A Gray Phantom is not alone in his doubts mind, as there was an American lawyer with the same opinion, initially. The crux of my counter-argument is that Pixel is an Archon-appointed expert (on related matters) and has advised Maxima that Krona’s actions were endangering life.
Whilst this can be contested in court (and Pander would probably lead the defense team, if she could step through the 4th wall), this is sufficient grounds for police to arrest someone, if it proved necessary. It did not though, so this is for information only.
Pander may be able to find a way to get Pixel to walk free mind, but I cannot see that any complaint directed at Maxima would be upheld. She did her job.
I wonder if the reference to compensating for spatial realignment means that senpai noticed me? ¦D
Whos the dude on the soffa?
Dabbler’s leftovers. We haven’t got a name yet & we might not get a name.
I presumed he was from the Odyssian faction of the Twilight Council, originally to serve as Krona’s escort from the Archon building. While waiting for Krona, he caught Dabbler’s eye. LSS, he’s recovering from fun times.
Since she was probably waiting on her escort’s “debriefing”, she could talk to Leon at any point. He might give Krona an idea or two from a (non-reality) hacker’s viewpoint.
“I presumed he was from the Odyssian faction of the Twilight Council”
Correct. We saw him there, initially in their delegate box, and subsequently mingling on the floor. I can’t recall if he was at the leader’s table after that, or not, though. I seem to recall that a silhouette matching his was on the aura-vision panel. But some of that was guess-work.
Most recently we saw him serving on one of the other teams, which were looking for Sciona, and the other baddies.
He is: An Odysian, plus a Council faction leader, and a Semper Vigilantis, and thereby a Federal Agent (of some type). Plus a Dabbler snack, in recovery, as MidnightDStroyer says.
He’s Ajax! And no, he still couldn’t get Dabbler off.
Heh, over here, ‘Ajax’ was a brand of floor cleaner, with the power of Liquid Lightning! :D
I just realized that Krona’s powers weren’t as much a checkpoint as a save-state that only applied to the 3 of them.
Four: Pixelicious, Sydney, Kronachrome & Bodie
anyone have a link to the new page yet?
Also why isn’t the website updating at the original time anymore?
I love the red pill on her shirt. As in the red/blue pill from the matrix. (That’s what it looks like to me.)
Yup, all signs point to that being the correct conclusion.
It is a nice touch too.
Nice to see Sydney continuing her super-shirt rotation. Even if this one is likely to vanish, into the rotation, much quicker than the Wonder-Woman one.
Ironic given the massive success of the new Wonder Woman movie! In our timeline anyhow. Halo has a few years to go before she catches up.
Huh. Given the following points:
* Krona is distinctly limited in her power source — but not her flexibility.
* Krona was able to distinctly see the full code behind Sydney’s “sphere grid.”
* Sydney described accessing the power behind the PPO as “like touching a star.”
Are Sydney’s orbs simply physical representations of/anchors for extraordinarily complex “programs” written in the code that Krona uses, and fueled by said star (or other phenomenal cosmic power source)? Could Krona, with sufficient investigation, learn to draw on such a power source directly?
I interpreted Sydney’s ‘touching a star’ was more metaphorical, to convey the feeling of being imbued with inhuman power. However, in drawing that analogy, Sydney may well have been drawing on a subconscious awareness of the power source. So your arguments have merit.
There is though one detail that you have omitted, which would impact on your conclusions. Namely that whilst Krona could get a feel for what she was seeing, she did not properly understand it. Because the Orbs are in a programming language that is more fundamental than the one that Krona uses.
So if they are anchors they are in a code of a related language. Plus Krona would first have to learn how to understand and program in that language. Which may or may not be possible. Her interface might not support aspects of it, for example.
But there is the potential that she could reprogram it and modify its hardware to do so. Therefore your final question could have an affirmative answer. Just with significantly more work than you might have anticipated.
Incidentally Krona’s power pretty much started out sounding like she had god-like abilities. With the capability of programming in the source code of reality, and access to a power source to fuel use of that, I don’t think the ‘like’ would be necessary any more. From the perspective of mere mortals Krona would have divine power.
If anyone doubts that just bear in mind that even with her more limited current powers she can already raise the dead!
As a programmer, I just want to say that unless I’m misremembering that scene, we have zero proof she couldn’t understand the language of the Orbs. Look at it like this: you’re a bit of a hacker, you know enough C or C++ to hum along and dance a few steps, and you’ve been playing around with writing… something. A quick-and-dirty game engine, maybe you want to write the next Counter-Strike.
And then someone dangles a printout of all the code to Doom 3 in front of you. You recognize it as C++ code, and you can tell from that broad code structure that it’s the most beautiful code you’ve ever seen, but you’re still going to need to study it, probably for a while, in order to actually understand it fully.
Yea, that makes sense.
If there is a localized “time bubble” and a missile is shot from outside this bubble and there’s a reset before the explosion, what happens to the missile?
If the missile has not yet reached the area affected by the reset, then it will be unaffected and so come in and kill everyone, at their reset position (using Sod’s Law).
Whereas if it is within the reset area there are various possibilities. One is that it simply vanishes. If Krona’s power is not vast in scope, but can only work with what is in its ‘reset radius’, and the missile was not within that area, at the time the checkpoint was made, then the power does not know where it originally was, nor what state it was in.
For example the power could not know how much fuel it had at the time of the checkpoint. And, if it was a two-stage missile, even at the time of doing the reset, the remains of the first stage would not be in scanning range.
So the only thing the power could do, to replicate the original condition of the reset area is to disintegrate the missile, as it was not there originally. It would however not be back in its original launcher, nor in flight, as the power had no way to restore it to that position, not knowing where it was.
Another alternative is that the power is not constrained by mundane things like scanning. It just extrapolates back to the conditions that the missile must have been in, at the time of the checkpoint, and restores it there. Even though it was outside of the area.
This option is a lot less complicated. Especially when you replace ‘missile’ with ‘hero’. It would be rather unfortunate if the reinforcements rushing to help the team were all disintegrated by the power!
Which, might I say, is a very important reason why Krona needed to have her power analysed. So that such mishaps could be avoided. With her not knowing the fundamental principles that the power was operating under, such calamitous deaths could easily happen!
I understand the reference where that title came from! https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0860.html
I see Dabbler filled her batteries