Grrl Power #538 – Katara denied
That’s the first thing most anyone would try, right? Sydney had tried to experiment with the unknown orbs in the shower and she stuck them in the toaster oven and stuff like that. (They didn’t get warm in the over incidentally) But it was all small scale stuff she could do in her apartment.
The second to last panel, the “fizzzz” isn’t the orb trying to do something, it’s just the bubbles from Sydney smashing her arm into the water. Thought I would preemptively clarify that.
Not too much else to say about this page, other than admitting I really chose the wrong color of pink for the top part of Sydney’s wetsuit. It really kind of matches her skin doesn’t it? Oh well. Maybe she was way more tan (unlikely) or way paler when she got it.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Damn this site needs an upvote button! :-)
Me too… :-(
I must add Maxima looks fantastic in that last panel.
Nice Avatar TLA & LOK reference
Anyone else find it weird that there where no lightning benders, I’ll tell you what I mean, but WARNING: THIS WILL BE A LONG, BUT INFOMATIVE, RANT.
This due to the fact that Fire-benders can’t actually bend lightning, they can only generate and redirect it.
With Lightning Generation, the moment the lightning leaves the fingertips the bender has no control over it (a fact Iroh confirms). Also with Lightning Redirection, even the slightest mistake can be potentially fatal to the one redirecting it (again Iroh confirms this). Other reasons for why they can’t bend lightning are: They can only fire it from the fingertips, they can only take lightning from an outside source if it’s fired at them AND they catch it with their fingertips and it usually takes a few seconds to fire a single bolt (imagine how most fights with Lightning Generation would end if their opponent just blasted them instead of standing there, heck Amon didn’t and even though Lightning Bolt Zolt had every advantage Amon was able to effectively dodge).
Plus with unlike every other sub-skill, Lightning Generation it isn’t explained in a way that properly ties it to fire or it’s elemental connection to fire, all it was given was the nickname “The Cold-Blooded Fire”, if you use the same explanation Iroh gave but switch the word ‘fire’ for ‘air’ and change the nickname to the “The Wrath of Air” (clearing the mind of all emotion includes love and compassion) it could just as easily written off as an Air-bending technique (or if there was no named element or nickname, that every bender could make lightning) and given the way it describe very few people would surprised if everybody (even Non-benders) could pull off Lightning Redirection.
Also, consider Sozin’s Comet. Whenever it appears ALL Fire-bender techniques are amplified to their ZENITH, to the point that even basic techniques create GINORMOUS pillars of fire, but at best, the lightning fired was only slightly larger than normal. Even though with the comet around, Iroh was able to blast a giant hole in the near IMPENETRABLE walls of Ba Sing Se and Ozai’s plan to use it to obliterate the near PANGEA SIZED continent that is the Earth Kingdom was considered doable by EVERYBODY. And it’s not a case of the power been condensed either, otherwise Aang would have EXPLODED when he redirected it, because there is no way that the human body could contain that much power (a human would be lucky to survive been struck by a regular lightning bolt, imagine a Super-charged one) and even though he’s the Avatar, that doesn’t make him invulnerable, past Avatars have been killed.
Also without Lightning-benders there is no balance of the elements, for Water would beat Fire which beats Air whom overpowers Earth, but Earth gets eroded by water with only the most durable rocks been able to stand up to it, most rivers rely on flora to keep the waters in check. Plus no Lightning-benders means that if a Water-bender went around claim that Water was the superior element with what was already said in this paragraph as well as pointing out that it has more sub-skills than any other element (Blood, Plant, Healing & Spirit), what response could he get that would be a solid answer?
Even scientifically and mythological speaking fire and light are two completely different things. In classical mythology the only times fire and lightning are associated with each other are with the gods Xolotl (Aztec) and Agni (Rigvedic) and in terms of elements lightning is either viewed as its own thing or is part of quintessence, air or water (usually via rain). In science, even though fire and lightning may both be forms of plasma and give off heat, that’s where the similarities end. Fire is created by a chemical reaction of two gases (usually oxygen and a fuel gas) in which the atoms of the source break their bonds with each other via heat and recombine with available oxygen atoms in the air, lightning occurs when there is enough electrical energy to break molecules apart and then separate electrons from the atoms.
Plus in Iroh’s explanation of Lightning Generation involves the gathering of negative energy i.e. electrons, and positive energy i.e. positrons (the antimatter of electrons) which when they clash with each other would create nothing but gamma ray photons (and maybe W and Z bosons) and even if they were kept separate, dark lightning (yes, that is a real thing, look it up) would be fired at the bender which would again get them hit with gamma rays, meaning that someone who uses Lightning Generation as often as Azula would soon suffer from radiation poisoning, tumors all over the body and cancer. (That ‘might’ of contributed to her insanity at the end of the series)
I have considered many reasons for why proper lightning-bending has been left out of the series and it is easy to debunk every one of them:
First, the case of whether there were Lightning-benders or lightning-bending was a sub-skill of Fire-bending.
In TAS if lightning-bending were used for the Fire Nation the villains could have been seen as too powerful, if against them then not a real threat, but this could have been overcome with some creative story writing.
In LOK it would made those who were Lightning-benders far less vulnerable to the Equalists electric weapons, but then they could just use gas bombs filled with sleeping gas or maybe poison (they did have gas based weaponry which they used for at least smokescreens and wore gas masks)
And for the matter of just having Lightning-benders in the show.
It could have upset the shows Eastern portrayal. But again could have been overcome with some creative story writing or just do what you did with Republic City, create a western city with slight amount of Eastern influence.
Any sub-skills that a Lightning-bender would have would be too similar to other elements sub-skills i.e. Nerve-Bending been similar to Blood-bending or Magnetism been a crude form of Metal-bending. But this would have just enforced Guru Pathik’s point that the separation of the elements was just an illusion (and before you say that there was no lightning chakra, it is quite possible that it was just renamed).
There were no Lightning-benders popping up after Harmonic Convergence. But considering that Harmonic Convergence didn’t cause benders to pop-up before any of the previous times it happened, plus the fact that no-one knew why it caused people to suddenly become Air-Benders, it’s not really a valid argument due to the fact that just too little is known about it.
The Avatar never lightning-bent. This holds very little validation, imagine what would have happened to air-bending if someone killed Aang before he had any kids, it would be highly unlikely that the next Avatar would even learn air-bending (you can’t always expect someone like Zaheer to be around, or that you’d meet them) and after a few generations it wouldn’t be surprising if air-bending stopped showing up in the Avatar state. Also, the Avatar could have easily ended up as just a Fire-bender with some Spirit powers if the Fire Nation won the Hundred Year War (multiple episode throughout TAS clearly showed or even out right stated that the Fire Nation believed themselves to possess the superior element and were content with COMPLETELY wiping out ALL other forms of bending, if not entirely destroying Every. Other. Nation!)
Because Fire-benders can perform Lightning Generation, there couldn’t have been any Lightning-benders. Considering that the world of Avatar does some pretty surprising things for the sake of keeping balance, it could have given Fire-benders a lightning based technique if something happened to all the Lightning-benders i.e. lost their bending or were all killed.
There is no season for Lightning-benders. While it is true that all of the calendar seasons have been taken up, there are still the tropical seasons and most thunderstorms happen during the wet season.
I find it weird that FIRE benders can generate lightning, and not air benders. In many other shows and games, lightning is tied to AIR, this makes sense because real lightning is created by air particles colliding with each other.
Actually it more along the lines of small pieces of ice colliding with each other at high speeds due t strong winds. Not saying your wrong, just wasn’t the whole story
1. It’s a magical/spiritual bloodline power.
(Titan is trying way too hard to sci-fi-explain a fantasy-story concept that could have various hidden rules. e.g. A god could have decided that fire-bending is tied to lightning. That’s how fantasy can work, where as sci-fi tries to stay scientific.)
2. Lightning realistically shouldn’t be tied to either air or fire but well-portrayed lightning on its own is thematically overpowered and tends to over-complicate people’s game designs.
3. If we were to tie it to either in ATLA’s universe, fire works betters because Fire-benders deal with manipulating a form of energy reaction (fire) which is closer to the nature of lightning which is also a reaction to an imbalance of electrical charge.
I like to think of lightning-bending as fire-benders amplifying static electricity around their body.
4. Airbenders could theoretically generate lightning too by creating collisions in the air but they wouldn’t be able to guide it like fire-benders.
“Guide”? It just goes in which ever direction they were pointing at when it was fired, after that… NO CONTROL
Iroh specifically says in his instruction to Zuko, “you do not command it, you are simply its humble guide.” If you don’t accept this, you are in the wrong because you’d be applying your own arbitrary sense of the word “control” or “command” and going against the storytelling.
Again, trying to sci-fi-analyze a fantasy concept is silly. Too many unknown universe physics laws in a world with spirits, reincarnation, and type-specific telekinesis. To pair with your lightning concerns, why are there no pure-metal benders? Toph’s metalbending relies on detecting impurities, so something about metal-refinement makes it no longer bendable.
The answer is the writers weren’t thinking about that, they were more focused on theme, symbolism, etc.. Fantasy worlds get fantasy rules.
It’s funny how people can geek out about power mechanics but I’ve never seen unprompted people sincerely question how the spirits or souls work.
I misunderstood what you meant due to your wording, by your definition an Airbender could guide it with careful control of the air-currents.
Also, spirits are living energy if one can see them then perhaps they’re emitting photons, a soul would be the same thing except it relies on a physical body to sustain itself, spirits do not
If we want to get technical about the weirdness of elemental-bending, there’s much weirder things than lightning being tied to fire or fire-benders not being able to bend the lightning they make.
1. Fire doesn’t need pre-existing material, they can make their own of the element (except presumably underwater or in a vacuum?), but the other 3 do.
– Are they expending life force? or is it a conversion of the oxygen they breath inward? Would that make them a limited form of air-benders?
2. Earth can bend a huge selection of minerals given how broadly they mess with any given dirt, rock, or pile of sand while the other 3 are limited to extreme and arbitrary specifics.
– Waterbenders can’t freely bend any liquid, as shown by needing the full moon or adept talent to bend blood. They only work with H20, which they can freely make into steam or ice, but using steam to manipulate generate winds never really shown as a thing despite sand-benders doing such.
-Earth benders having the potential to bend lava could theoretically manipulate carbon or calcium in the human body. Bone-benders…? There’s a dark nightmare spin-off for readers to think about. While I’m on that note: Could a bloodbender not also just use the liquid around your brain to crush or lobotomize said brain?
3. What exactly constitutes air for an airbender?
– If it’s literally anything in gaseous form, that would make them simply lousy telekinetics who can’t bend liquids or solids.
– Does humidity hinder an airbender if steam doesn’t count?
—-
In my opinion, fantasy worlds gets fantasy universe laws which defy sci-fi style scientific analysis. The best science-y answer anyone can ever guess is some divine intervention or peculiarities in the formation of the universe resulted in phenomenon these arbitrary rules.
Okay lemme give this a shot:
1. I’ve always considered them to just be expelling their own body heat, that’s why they do
such big movements and why Iroh put so much emphasis on breathing exercises
2. See Legend of Korra season 1 for them blood-bending without the moon and many
other benders need adept talent for certain skills, such as metal-bending, lava-bending,
combustion and flying, sure some became more common over time, but that was due to
methods of easily teaching it were discovered as it became more widespread, like with
any subject. Same couldn’t be done for blood-bending cause it was made illegal. Also it’s
possible Water-benders could work with any sort of compound
3. Any gas most likely, stuff like steam however I assume they could only guide it by
bending the air around it
Those were rhetorical, supportive points to my actual point, which you’re missing.
There will always be questions you can’t answer and only speculate (and your attempts at answers really are just unsatisfactory speculation) because the reality is they’re not important questions.
Fantasy storytelling is about enjoying the magical concepts (when well-written, of course) rather than dissecting them. That’s why we’re never actually understand how Dabbler’s powers work and probably never know the true nature of Syndey’s orbs either. That just wouldn’t be as fun as watching Syndey explore her new powers, unlock more new ones, and rise as a superhero.
Well, just let me have my theories. Is that too much to ask. I’m willing to respect your view point (earlier stuff was just debate/attempting to answer your questions, nothing personal)
I wonder if an Air bender could create ball lightning then just launch it with better control using the air currents to guide it to the target.
I’d like to second Part Three of JunWasHere’s comment- though, in a way, ‘over-sciencing’ things actually makes the Bending forms make MORE sense.
Though the Avatar-verse is very much based on Oriental philosophy in terms of spiritualism and culture, the Elemental system in it is pure Occidental, making heavy use of the Ptolemeic and Aristotelian philosophies of matter- Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Quintessence/”Spirit”/Space/Energy.
Thing is, this Occidental philosophy is also tied into the phases of matter- Air is Gas, Water is Liquid, Earth is Solid, Fire is Plasma.
Now, Waterbending and its offshoots all deal with Water and Liquids- though it may seem like Waterbenders can manipulate ice, I’d like to point out that they don’t really manipulate it like Earthbenders- a Waterbender can’t levitate a chunk of ice, or push it around without melting and re-forming it, and all their Earthbender-like ice techniques are actually based around moving liquid water into position then freezing it via pressure. And the Body based techniques (Bloodbending, Healing,) are all about manipulating bodily fluids- I doubt that a Waterbender healer could quickly and easily heal a broken bone; help it heal, yes. But bind it back together? Nope.
Earthbenders manipulate solids. Even when Sandbending, they’re moving individual grains of sand. Metalbending, the same thing- they’re not melting the metal, but rather moving the grains inside it around- and even in such a way that it doesn’t heat up. Heavy chunks of metal can actually heat up through to a glowing heat if you bend or compress them quickly enough. And Lavabending, I’d say, is in a way similar to how Waterbenders make ice, just in a sort of reverse. The Earthbender is taking a solid, and causing all the grains and particles of it to move against each other in such a way that the friction makes them melt. And you can see that Lavabenders move the lava via melting more rock or shoving masses of it around, rather than the flowing, fine manipulation of a Waterbender. This also handily explains why Lavabenders can’t bend Metal, and Metalbenders (probably) can’t bend Lava- Lavabending requires you to manipulate the particles in such a way that they cause excess friction with each other, while Metalbending requires the opposite. In fact, Bolin might be able to melt metal, as opposed to bending it.
Airbending, then, is the manipulation of Gasses- hard to see, of course, but that’s how it is. And Flight is then controlling the Density of gas- flying via directly buoying the body of the flier via pockets of denser and less dense air, as opposed to using mechanical means to provide the lift such as gliders. You can see a lesser version of this technique in Aang’s “The Flash” impression, when he runs at, what, 100 mph in the Yu-Yan archer episode? I’d posit that Airbenders could also manipulate sound with enough fine control over the air pressures.
Which brings us to Firebenders, and their abilities to control PLASMA. Fire is the most common plasma, but lightning is also a plasma- they’re caused by different things, but they’re both occurrences of atoms becoming so highly energized that they fly apart into their component Protons, Neutrons and Electrons. Therefore, Firebenders clearly use their element by providing enough energy that atoms dissociate into particles- for Flame it’s just whatever is where they’re putting their energy, which is why it gouts out and away. You’ll notice that Firebenders don’t really manipulate existing fire either- they either add more energy to a place to create/grow/sustain the plasma of the flame, or they don’t put energy there, letting the flame naturally cool itself back into gas and soot. And you can see the use of this “Adding Energy” component of their abilities via Explosionbending- where the Firebender in question focuses enough energy into a SOLID that a portion of it dissociates into a plasma- which creates pressure and expansion, and thus an explosion.
Lightning, then, is the Firebender dissociating atoms along a path from themselves to their target, and somehow making the dissociation focus more electrons at one point and more protons at another, creating a charge and a path for that charge. It’s not so much that the Firebender has no control over the Lightning, as that it’s Hitscan- the start and end of the path are both determined as soon as you begin the attack, and can’t be changed on the fly like you can do with other elemental attacks.
Because they aren’t elemental benders- none of them- they’re ‘states of matter’ benders:
– Solid (they just might not realize things besides rock/dirt/metal/sand/mud/meteor/coal can be bent. At what point does it go from wood that can’t be bent to coal that can be? Bet no earthbender developed or even thought of bonebending)
– Gas/Wind Current (might only know of air since tech level wasn’t high on the knowledge or availability of other gasses. If they weren’t so peaceful they might have invented suffocation bending)
– Plasma (fire and lightning)
– Liquid/Water (water, ice, steam are all water. Perfume and blood are liquid)
We actually see bending the air out of people in Korra.
both the show’s explanation and this is so full of holes it doesn’t really matter IMHO.
The show has my suspension of disbelief, you have lost it.
Would you point out the holes in my explanation? I’d love to hear it
there were a bunch more then I can realistically list here.
1) you take some things very literally.
For instance Iroh said he creates an unbalance of positive and negative and you go to electrons and positrons, completely ignoring that protons also carry a positive charge and the absence of electrons does indeed create a positively charged imbalance.
Should I add to that that positive and negative here are just placeholder names? it just so happens the first scientist measuring electron flow had the direction of flow wrong, if he would have been right electrons would have been called positively charged.
2) you make a shit-ton of assumptions that you fail to realize or describe you are making
For instance bending is left very undefined and you attempt to define it by what we’ve seen it do and then complain when this does not fit.
What if the spirit turtles are interpreting and controlling everything done with the bending they gave to the humans?
This could therefore be making it unpredictable and changed by whim of the mind of the spirit turtle who’s power is actually being undersized by bending.
Or maybe benders are just all telekinetics, moving things fits nicely with water, earth and wind, vibrating things could explain fire too, depending on how it’s done.
But all of that uses conventional physics and ignore how the spirit realm seems to interact with the world at large, spirit vines, and Varrick’s weapon, etc
if you still persist in needing a si-fi explanation beyond the spirits/god/whatever defined it as such.
you could also define the element not as literally, instead defining it as states of matter that can be affected by your bending.
this gives you:
– control over all that is gaseous.
– control over all that is plasma
– control over all that is in liquid form
– control over all that is in solid form
while we’ve never seen for certain if you could water-bend pure alcohol, etc.
if we define earth bending as literal silicate bending then metal bending would be impossible.
of course lava bending flies in the face of that, but Bolin is decedent from fire and earth benders so who knows?
Dude, I did consider things from a mythological perspective:
Ooops… Sorry made a mistake, first time using the blockquote. I meant to quote:
actually, the entire premise is based on the 4 base elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.
consider Lightning as a 3-pronged element, consisting or Earth Air, and Fire. You’d need all 3 to control it with any accuracy, using Earth as a ‘ground’ (yes, pun intended as well) If you used only Air and Fire, there’d be no control, it would just strike randomly, or be attracted to metal. (and don’t forget, the show DID give us Metal-Bending, even if just in a minor way, which would probably have allowed for a better control for lightning, but was also based on earth bending)
So Bender is an elementalist? Interesting. I guess that explains why he hangs with Dr Zoidberg.
Metal is just purified earth. That made Toph god as she worked with the purified earth first. Don’t tell her this. She can’t read it so lets just keep that a secret from her.
Just FYI, you don’t need positrons for positive energy. If you channel the electrons into one area, the area they have left is now positive, as the neutral is a balance of electrons and protons.
People are making fire and water and air and earth fly around in defiance of gravity… there’s a confirmed spirit realm and nature spirits and ancestor spirits… there are dragons that fly by levitation…
…and its just lightning that has to somehow obey the real-world standards of physics and biology?
Normally I’m the one bringing up technical details, and saying that one magic doesn’t justify all magics… but it’s also important to apply a consistent standard to the entirety of the setting, not just one little aspect.
Your giant post of doom forgets completely that GRRL power already showed why putting two lightning benders is a bad idea in a massive radiation format.
No it showed why mixing Lightning and Darkning are a bad idea
I demand a TL;dr :)
Blah blah. Something about a game I have never played. Blah Blah.
Looked nicely composed and laid out mind.
How about the simple reason that there is no lightning listed amongst the four traditional ‘elements’ of air, earth, fire, and water? Void or ether is also included in both classical Greek and Japanese definitions, but it is set apart from the core four.
They still could have come up with a proper explanation tying lightning to fire, though. Besides, a lot of modern day writers and philosophers add lightning in as its own thing anyway
water bending … because the aliens who created the orbs are always trying to steal our water.
Then they’re clearly not the same race as in Signs.
Or what if that orb just granted those aliens immunity to water? Or immunity to earth-diseases, War of the Worlds style. Something like that would explain why Sydney hasn’t already figured out what the orbs do.
Hey, that’s one orb… The other one could still allow waterbending…
+1
Considering how much NSFW Katara/Korra stuff that’s“allegedly” out there, I’m pretty sure Dabbler, the resident pervo bender, was hoping for it too…
Is the pervo bender Dabbler or Math?
Yes.
Dabbler of course. Math can only absorb pervo power while Dabbler can generate it.
I’m actually starting to get curious if Math actually has a limit to his wish to stare at boobs under orders. It looks like he hasn’t slept since getting that order.
Wouldn’t it be the other way around? Math can probably generate plenty of Pervo power, and Dabbler absorbs and feeds off it.
Correct!
Benders manipulate elements not generate them anyway so Dabbler’s ability to absorb and convert it into a power source for both herself and various abilities makes her the closest thing to a Pervo Bender. (and she’s part robot so pretty close to another type of Bender)
Math doesn’t use his pervo energy very well. It has been shown more likely to be used against him.
Math has trouble keeping a check on it, yes…
“Control! Control! You must learn control!”
~Yoda
On that large phallic-shaped object you must concentrate.
Your eyes you must close.
Your hand you must hold out.
Make it rise!
Only then will you cease to be a youngling.
Well they were found in the water so not too far off to assume one might be attuned to it.
Maybe they were found in water because that how they were disposed of, with a large body of water (preferably salt water) being the safest way of containing them.
I’m thinking it’s more likely the large body of water is how the previous user of the Orbs was “contained”, permanently. As it went down 3 times but only came back up 2 times, blew bubbles too long, forgot to fill the air tanks, forgot to BRING the air tanks, etc…
I’m pretty sure these are Human terms for drowning. I got it right, right?
Oh like they had Shield up but no air scrubber, or even if they did, it can’t work forever. They could have suffocated down there, hiding from something.
Hmmm, fall in water with processors shut down, I think you meatsacks call it “knocked out”, drown like that, or get stuck underwater somehow before you can bubble up…?
I don’t think the previous owner was knocked out, or the orbs would have dispersed. Unless, of course, the orbs are bound to each other, just as they’re bound to Halo.
*nod* I’d be unsurprised to see it was the salt holding it in check.
In the pool is the wrong place to find out that one of the unknowns is a freeze orb.
Wouldn’t make sense. Logically, it would be an ice cube rather than an orb…
Not if it froze in zero gravity…
I don’t know, could be a cool discovery…
okay, I am sorry, but WTF JUST HAPPENED THERE? it fried because of the water and needs a ‘magic repairman’ or something???
As Dave said in the text, that’s the air bubbles rising to the surface after splashing her hand down. It confused me at first too. Very odd choice of sound effect.
I guess Sydney’s hand can contain a LOT MORE AIR than I would have EVER THOUGHT…then.
She smashes her arm into the water. The air that goes down with that doesn’t need to be in her hand.
Daniel here. The way she slashes the orb into the water looks a lot like how I splash water. By cupping my hand just right (or both hands for a much BIGGER effect), then bringing it down much like Sydney does here, it’s easy to create large explosions of water, with skill & technique you can even direct where the blast goes, easily drenching your target. However it also drags a lot of air underwater, which then bubbles up & fizzes away, like when you pour soft drink into a cup. Not only has Mr DaveB used the right sound effect for something like that, but I’ve done it a great many times more than needed to confirm this…
Please remember to read the artist’s blog. That “Fizzz” is the sound of the bubbles popping from when Sydney slapped her hand into the water.
So it wasn’t due to Sydney having beans for lunch?
Wrong placement of the bubbles for it to be that
LOL not quite… :P
It took me a second, but I know exactly what Dave was trying to go for there and I can’t come up with a better sound effect. It’s a really distinct sound but 1) it doesn’t lend it self well to being written, and 2) it seems like a lot of people aren’t familiar with this thing that happens a few seconds *after* you slam your hand into the water.
Daniel here. She’s forced a noticeable amount of air underwater in a way that generates small bubbles, which are now bubbling up like the bubbles from soft drinks. I can understand people not recognizing the sound this way though, usually when people make a large splash, they aren’t looking to wait & see what sounds come after it…
I think it’s a combination of the air bubbles… and the conceptual “fizzle” of her attempt to get the orb to do something.
Yes, and a very cleverly done combination.
One silly question: does Max’s hair also shines? I mean, her skin I get it, it’s gold, but her hair?
Good catch! Yes, it does, especially when wet, but even when dry it seems.
After the council was attacked,Dabbler (at Max’s request) “cleaned up” all the dirt and crud all over Max as a result of Max getting caught in a subterreanen explosion. Max’s skin and hair were very sparkly, and it said there that Dab’s magic (or whatever it was) may take days to wear off. Given the pacing of 2 updates per week, I estimate that occurred just 28 minutes ago. :) So Max is still extra sparkly.
Spot on, except Dabbler is clearly a boner bender.
I hope not, that sounds extremely painful.
It’s seems odd that one part of the male anatomy that doesn’t have any bones, but is called a “boner” when erect, yet it can still be broken like a bone. Counter-intuitive for sure, but it’s happened.
“It’s seems odd that one part of the male anatomy that doesn’t have any bones, but is called a “boner” when erect”
I think you mean the one part of the HUMAN male anatomy :)
Plenty of other species – such as whales – have bones there. Yes, really. However, I agree that it’s ironic that the one species that both doesn’t have a bone in that spot AND invented complex language, wound up labeling it like that :P
Kind of like how Americans park on the driveway and drive on the parkway! ;)
:-D
King kenya is correct. Dabbler is the cause of many boners, but boner bending is a bad idea. It only takes 12 pounds per square inch of pressure to rupture the erectile cylinders, and poof! Erection-B-Gone forever, until reconstructive surgery is done.
I don’t want to know how you came up with that number.
You can look up the term “Broken Penis” & get some ( very disturbing) details on the injury…
I didn’t. The sister of a friend of mine, who is a prison guard, told me. Whenever a prisoner flashes her, she “reminds” him of that little fact. They usually stop flashing her after that, because the implication is quite clear.
12 psi is almost a full atmosphere.
Yeah, but you don’t need to rupture the entire cylinder… which is why all that is needed is some unusually vigorous masturbation. (Also, study of emergency medical records suggests that “woman on top” positions have a higher incidence of fracture…)
To put that in context, 12 psi is roughly equivalent to a normal teenage girl’s punch.
I think. I am a relatively weak teenage boy so I assumed that I would be about on same level as same age girls.
I still want to see the force field and PPO combo used underwater.
Going with another series, perhaps she has the power of LOVE!
Kongo would only get involved if Sydney actually was a boat…
Dabbler likes your thinking…
Ohh, you mean thaaat kind of love.
Too powerful in Sydney’s hands because she is so used to thinking in tropes.
I constantly imagine what would have happened in Captain Planet if the ring combinations were used thusly:
Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Hate: Captain Planet attacks whatever makes pollution with the fury of the worst weather that could ever exist.
Super Radiation, Deforestation, Toxics, Smog, Heart: Self-sacrificing Captain Pollution that absorbs the pollutants then reverts to ring powers.
Ah! Brown Orb Mystery solved. It is the orb of detached retinas as per panel eight.
So, judging by the other posts this water bending thing is something widely known. I, however, live under a rock (apparently). Can someone enlighten me? Obviously it’s water powers, but what is this referencing?
The Avatar Series. Both of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Korra
It’s referencing a show called Avatar: The Last Airbender , that was part of the Nickelodeon lineup.
Ah, thanks. Missed that when my folks moved us out to the sticks back in the late 80’s where we couldn’t get cable. Missed out on a lot of things because of that.
You want to catch up, wife and I love the show and are on a rewatch currently.
Or you could just watch the Avatar live action movie. That will tell you everything you need to know about bending…
(ducks down low and run for cover)
You may want to keep clear as there is a going to be a lot of hurt feelings thrown this way shortly.
Captain, I think we’re going to have to demote you. That is a horrible punishment to inflict upon anyone. From now on, you’re PFC Obvious.
Actually he shouldn’t feel that bad. Since he said “live action Avatar” movie and not “The Last Airbender”, technically all he did was refer to Dances With Wolves But With Blue People And Floating Trees and Stuff. ;)
That Orb is only active while underwater? Or only when it and she are mostly underwater? Aquaman Powers confirmed?
Initially Sydney was just using the tentacle orb (we actually saw her deploying it in the final panel of the previous page). Presently though there is no indicator that the mystery orb only functions underwater.
Maybe she should try summoning some sharks?
okay,. Aquaman. can live underwater. check. can talk to fish. check. basically all the powers of Spongebob.
;P
Has anyone ever seen Aquaman and Spongebob in the same room, at the same time?
If Spongebob is Aquaman, what would Mermaidman say?
THIS IS PATRICK.
First reaction was a Strong Female Protagonist reference, then the correct one…
I like the SFP link better, TBH. :D
No such thing as “mermaid man.” Using the term “maid” denotes female gender, so the male would be “merman.” Overall species would mostly likely be “Merfolk,” or shortened to simply “Mer.”
;)
In fairness, aren’t you assuming things about how the language of Mer-people is gendered/the cultural tendencies?
Maybe they’re like Drow in the Forgotten Realms/Faerun D&D setting, and are matriarchal – meaning their language could work like (especially Victorian and post-Victorian) English, or Spanish etc, but in reverse, with “woman” being the generic term for “people” for example, and “man” being highly specific. E.g. people referring to “Congressmen” and not “Congresspersons”.
That said if we’re going off Aquaman…I started reading Aquaman comics recently (the Rebirth era is actually a pretty good jumping-on point btw), and I don’t think Atlanteans have a language that necessarily functions that way. They very much DO have their own dialect, though, which has some interesting quirks such as:
– a word for “the fish that doesn’t turn with the rest of the school” (the equivalent of English’s “black sheep of the [name a group]”)
– their word for “bottom feeder” is the opposite of an insult, because they recognize the absolute necessity of the literal bottom-feeding marine life to maintaining cleanliness and functionality of the overall oceanic ecosystem. “Bottom feeder” is a valued thing in Atlantean society.
– also they HATE being called “mermaid” or anything like it for the record. Yes, they can breath under water and look awfully “human” but they don’t consider themselves “half fish, half human”, they consider themselves “Atlantean”. They find it annoying when people call them “mermaids”.
(In fairness they’re not terribly off – I’m pretty sure they’re closer to humans than fish. They’ve got legs, after all, and apparently can interbreed with humans but not with any fish species! Arthur Curry himself, aka Aquaman, is half-human on his father’s side. In some continuities, the human sorceress Zatanna Zatara is also descended from Atlanteans, though far, far more distantly as I understand it)
If I had to guess I would assume it’d be like calling a Mexican a [insert other Latino identity here] – “just because I’m ONE type of [water-breathing ocean life], doesn’t make the terms interchangeable” and all. ;)
Please see link to understand the obscure reference – unless you’re deliberately trolling, in which case well done indeed!
Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy
Other things she could try with the two Fuck You Orbs:
-Talking to bees while wearing a monocle
-Watch someone draw a commission
-Play tug of war with a puppy using a rope
-Play chess against Mr. Barkly
-Have a spell cast on her by Xuriel while watching Gwen cast something, while being monitored by Krona
-Accept Dabbler’s offer
-Win at Make Maxima Say Bingo
-Roll around in a pile of spare electronics and alien tech with a vampire nearby
If she does the tug-of-war with the dog, then she should be wearing Louise’s ears and listening to the Hamster Dance, and she can only use her mouth to pull on the rope.
Who knows what combination might work… yeah that’s why.
Using anything but her mouth to doggy tug-o-war would feel out of character IMO.
Summon Bigger Fish!
question. that girl that had some control over time. could she not wright some “code” that allows her to show what happen in the past if they were at the place where it happen. and if so. could they not show what ever that was that allowed her to “upgraded” her orb. if she and dabbler say it. they might be able to figure out what it means, or at least see what she did and have he do the same thing over to have it appear again.
You mean Krona? She couldn’t control time, at least not that we saw. She just had a way of faking time travel, but no actual time travel was involved.
As Xavion said, Krona can’t actually time-travel. More importantly, Krona probably used shortcuts words like “temporal” or “chrono-” in her code, which is why she thought she could time-travel when she couldn’t.
Krona could theoretically still project the past or hack Syndey’s orbs but that would be wildly more complicated. Both because she couldn’t word-shortcut her way through it like with her fake-time-travel and we all saw that the “code” surrounding Syndey’s orbs was overwhelming for her.
As far as I am aware, Krona never thought she could time travel.
She seemed to have some fairly confused or unclear ideas about exactly what her reset point actually did, but she didn’t think it was time travel.
See The Last Airbender. I haven’t, but I think that’s where it all comes from. Bender, I mean, except for the futurama robot that bends things.
In a pool may be an uncomfortable fit for discovering the Ice Orb, but that electrical thing everyone is mentioning could well be fatal.
Yea, clearly the intent, both from the comic scene and from the strapline:
For information, anyone using British slang, to interpret the last, might get very confused, as it would change the implied subject and also cast contradictory aspersions.
:-D
The risk of fatal accidents is probably low.
My flow of thought is Syndey has already established they can’t be activated normally like the others, so Max (maybe along with the others who were analyzing the orbs) probably theorizes that they require a special environment or condition and, given the other orbs are designed for self-empowerment, they’d be safe to use in/under said special environments/conditions.
The ancient mage/scientist who made them probably didn’t design their devices to only activate in situations that would likely result in self-harm. That’s like designing a toaster that only activates in bathtubs or gun that only fires if you pull the trigger with your thumb.
Also, our meta-understanding of “plot armor” suggests that the orbs probably aren’t cursed. If they are, that would be quite a controversial story decision.
He he. Enjoyable let-down.
And work time, not play time. Much is revealed.
The Arc-SWAT team are really dedicated, in all working so hard, when they should be on a scheduled break!
I hope one of the orbs is Requip (Thanks, Erza!) and the other is more like a Character Class Wheel (aka Dressphere change FFX-2)
or thst one of the orbs is a complete user manual, including skill tree for all of them. this would include telepathic freeze-frame timestopping feature with the F1 context-sensitive “help” tunction.
Or maybe it accesses the galactic internet, for help. Sydney would have access to the sum knowledge of every advanced race in the galaxy. All the super-technology, magics and hentai that they deemed fit to be in the public domain.
A galaxy-load of porn. Just think of it.
I’m thinking of multiversal pan-galactic rule 34.
Multiversal pan-galactic rule 34
I think you have strayed off-topic?
Two things. First, I didn’t even realize Sydneys wet suit had a skin colored top part. I thought that was were it ended. Secondly, I would have thought that an orange/red orb would be thematically inappropriate for waterbending which would rather be blue or green. Also, Sydney has scuba diving as a hobby and isn’t ginger, thus she might very well have had a tan, at least on face and hands.
At the end of her diving holiday, she almost certainly would have. But that was ‘several months ago’ so would have long-since faded, due to her habit of avoiding direct sunlight, wherever possible. Present circumstances being the exception to the rule.
The artist acknowledges, in his blog above, that the wetsuit colour was poorly chosen, in being so close to Sydney’s skin tone.
I am sure that Sydney will try the green mystery orb next.. Again though, in his blog, Dave indicates that Sydney has conducted such experiments in her bath already. The larger quantity of water may make a difference. But don’t hold your breath.
Well, if you are under a large body of water, you should, obviously. But not just sitting in front of your monitor.
Is your smartphone waterproof to a decent depth? Are you actually reading this in the aquatic depths? How deep do Dorkasaurus‘usses swim?
“Well, if you are under a large body of water, you should, obviously. But not just sitting in front of your monitor.”
What if I’m sitting in the front of my monitor under a large body of water? (Don’t ask, it’s… complicated) :-)
In that case, don’t stick a fork in the same outlet where the monitor is plugged in.
So how are things in Atlantis?
More importantly, how much water does it take to impede a phone signal to the point where it loses the ability to browse Grrl Power?
Actually, only liquid bodies composed of water would be blue…How do we know that the orbs came from a planet (or dimension) that has water, instead of, say for example…something else?
What kind of power do those orbs contain…….who knows???
Yea, but he cheats, because he can use hindsight.
How do girls swim with all that hair just going everywhere? … hell how do they sleep?
I really don’t get long hair.
I went through a long haired phase, for quite a long time. It does require a lot of inconvenient grooming.
Or you can just not bother.
It turns out that having the freedom to grow your hair, without harming job prospects, actually creates more hassle in day-to-day life!
Long hair phase: me too. s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/17/67/04/176704ccbaeda2ba2ad64c99621ecba6.jpg
In my experience, long hair flows in the opposite way from one’s motion through water, making it quite almost irrelevant in most cases.
I had hair almost down to my ass for a few years. Don’t remember having any problem swimming or sleeping, but it tended to get in the food a lot, and don’t get me started on what a bit of wind could do to it…
It was also a pain to keep clean, took ages to dry, and being a guy I showered and washed my hair several times a day. As I never really thought to use conditioners and all that junk it got pretty worn. The good thing about it was that I don’t think I ever went to a club and didn’t end up with a girl or girls playing with it, sometimes for hours as we flirted.
But being a guy I also have the genes for going bald, so one day I looked in the mirror and realized that it was starting to get rather thin up top…
So now it’s a crew cut instead of long hair blowing in the wind.
You what now? I went through a longhair phase as a teen and into my early twenties, but it never got longer than middle of the back. I took a shower daily as I do even with short hair, the long hair never once made me consider that extra showers and hair washings were in any way necessary.
As far as wind goes I typically secured it with a scrunchie and wore it as a pony tail. Not much issue with wind that way, despite the natural wave it developed. Loose it was more easily disheveled, which is why I resorted to the pony tail in most cases. My little sister used to get a kick out of my borrowing scrunchies from her when mine had all gone missing.
Speaking as someone who had mid-back length hair in my very early 20’s, it’s pretty easy in water.
Wind, on the other hand, was… challenging. Elastic bands are pretty damned awesome for taming wayward hair. Good conditioners helped too (conditioned hair is a bit heavier and less likely to fly about in an unruly fashion). My hair gets wavy when long – straighter hair seems to be more fly-away, as well.
I bet Sydney was in a shop which had one that was all that colour and subconsciously was drawn to it. But got too embarrassed, at the thought of looking naked, so went for the very modest alternative!
Only kidding. Clearly she was browsing the section of wetsuits, that looked like Star Trek uniforms ,and this was the only one in her size.
Hmmm, probably #2…
Oh, the pink part of her wetsuit wasn’t her skin? I admit I hadn’t realized that.
Also instead of Fizzzz I would’ve chosen Blublublub, because Fizzzz sounds like heat evaporating water. Man, I can’t wait to find out what her orbs do. Too bad that apparently Krona wasn’t able to find out, either, because there’s no way they didn’t ask her off-comic, right?
Comedically the fizz was optimal, because it implied a failed power usage. But Dave was just clarifying for folks who take comedic aspects as being literal. So supplied the mundane reason why he could put the fizz in the water.
I wonder if Sydney is actually a soda bender?
Here in the states, we call that a soda jerk…
which puts it clearly in Math’s demesne.
::coughs::
Here, I’ll fix that for you:
Here in the states, a very long time ago, so long that kids these days, well nevermind, we used to call that a soda jerk…
There’s a few still left out there, those old-timey soda fountains.
There used to be one in Princeton, WI, back in 1987 where I had the best milkshake I have ever had in my life. Haven’t been back in so very, very, very long…
It was such a nice place – it had just been re-modeled after something like 50 years of business (possibly more – details are hazy). The interior was immense, and it was situated so that the back of the shop had a porch as big as the interior. The porch looked out over the river / stream that ran through town and had these huge old trees whose branches shaded the porch but didn’t interfere with the breeze.
Felt like stepping back into the 1920’s – so peaceful and relaxed.
Need to see if it still survives (I doubt it…).
This brings a tear to my eye every time I read it.
stand in a pool, slam your arm down under the water and wait for the sound of the big splash to die down. Dave nailed the sound effect here i think.
Daniel the Human agrees with you, going off his entries made higher up the comment page…
thinking about it, doesn’t her current set seem like a Rescue personal toolkit? Cutting tool = PPO, Mobility tool = Flight orb, Emergency protection = Shield orb, Scouting tool = Commball, Lifting tool = Lighthook. it’s possible at least one of the two orbs remaining are designed to produce gases.(air supply for my thematic example thus far.)
Indeed.
Perhaps the reason that it does not do that automatically is because the ‘air’ it produces is not Earth-standard. Perhaps chlorine or methane?
She just recently found out that the shield is airtight, so how would she have known if one of the unknowns was replenishing the atmosphere? Especially since when she’s limited to two and normally holding either the flight orb or the lighthook when she’s shielded.
It clearly is not replenishing the atmosphere as she almost lost consciousness in the car-park fight, because it was not doing that.
However, to run with the speculation that may simply because Sydney has not set the preferences. Currently it might default to chlorine, but not be set to automatically replenish, so would only refresh the air if held and activated, with that intent. But once the passive mode is set, that would work even when the orb is not held.
I would advise Sydney to change it to an Earth-standard mix (or just ‘oxygen’ if complex atmospheres are not possible).
Actually, with that line of thinking, I would imagine that one might have a healing ability. She might never have stumbled upon the trait because she hasn’t grabbed the right one in an instant where she got hurt. I imagine that both of the unknowns are passive at the lower levels. So level one of one orb could increase the speed of healing for the wielder and only upper levels would allow her to heal other people.
I’d be a bit surprised if it is “clean air generation” since so far all the powers that create things are energy constructs. I’m also not sure if I would agree that it would be a search and rescue tool. It fits more to be a soldier toolkit. For rescue, PPO wouldn’t need to generate rapid-fire plasma balls. A soldier would also benefit more often from an ability to fire through her own shield. A healing ability would also work for a warrior since they might get injured (despite the availability of a shield) and they might also want to field treat an ally who got injured. And sometimes warriors do rescue missions, so again, useful if you are pulling someone out of enemy hands who might have been severely hurt or tortured.
Love the art in the central panel, with them looking at the orb.
Definite freaky uncanny valley effect there though. We have never had the two disparate art styles (realistic Maxima versus manga-ish Sydney) in such close proximity before.
Contrast that to the second-to-last panel, where I love the chibi effects. There it works perfectly because it is consistent across the whole panel. We can take that, in the sequence, along the page, and process it without an issue. It conveys emotion superbly.
As does the center panel, but with a disturbing side-effect. “Maxima looks about as good as I have ever seen her… whoa…. there is something seriously wrong with Sydney…”
Asd
Sorry about that. I tried to comment on mobile but for whatever reason the comment box goes over the “submit comment”-button on mobile so I tested it with this and apparently I can comment by tapping where the button is.
Given what Max tends to do to someone who takes liberties, would she also qualify as a pervert bender (in half)?
Lol
I disagree with Maxima a little bit. While the intention was to learn something about the unknown orbs, Sydney was onto something in finding a new way to use the Molestorb (as a flipper for water propulsion). Granted she could move faster using the fly ball in the water, but she was on the right path in general to be creative and consider new, unexpected ways to use her orbs. It should be encouraged.
Its called lighthook now
Only officially
So, no Tentacle of the Lighthawk, then?
I was hoping that would catch on…
Panel 10 with the *Fizzzz* is one of my favorites of all time!
Ok, now for the more organized experiments.
I would personally look to see if any of those floating glyphs appear when either orb is held and try tapping on them to get to different sub-functions.
Now let’s see. What would Jamie and Adam do? They were hosts of a “little cable science show that hardly anybody would watch” at the time.
‘When in doubt, try C4’.
Is this a deadpool reference?
A direct quote from the show, actually.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfxKtroY-6M
XD Loved that show, so did Daniel the Human…
“I reject your reality and substitute my own.”
Krona must be a big fan.
Well, on reflection,l she is quite little. And does not have any rotating mechanical parts.
But she could cure both of those conditions if she chose!
You know it was possible that the orbs dont work in water at all and thats why they were hidden in tge ocean… still possible since that pool is freshwater
No, she first activated the flight orb and rocketed herself out of the ocean.
Maybe the brown orb only functions if submerged in lava?
I would have hoped for waterbending too; waterbending is coolest.
Waterbending is so much more fun and useful than the other elements in day-to-day peaceful times.
– Firebending, needless to say, is a fire hazard and only good for heating stuff.
– Airbending has the most terrifying fighting potential in my opinion but to really enjoy it you have to be a constant daredevil.
– Earthbending… Unless your house is made of stone, use stone tools, or keep rocks in your pockets (pocket sand!), it’s hard to see it being too useful.
Meanwhile, waterbending can be used for cooking, cleaning, and improving your bathing experience. Swimming becomes a million times more fun!
I too find waterbending most enviable, but for terrifying fighting potential, I’d pick earthbending. Nothing’s better for making the attack come straight up from under the enemy. Or behind.
water bending, if applied to any liquid, is just as bad. Imagine Heatwave heating steel to the molten point, then sydney bending it in combat.
Blah blah blah Lighthook blah blah propeller blah blah something something MOTORBOAT
Sooo, despite being so “petite,” Sydney is capable of motorboating herself?…
:P
I admit it took me several close looks to figure out that Sydney wasn’t wearing an odd sort of tube-top wetsuit thing.
While I can agree that it is important to figure out the unknown orbs, I’d think that recent events have shown that even the orbs they thought they knew about have vast unknown potential.
So… if her orb generated air supply that might be a bit overpowered. I noticed a distinct lack of glyphs floating above the orb’s surface similar to the other orbs. Another air supply test would be to just hold her breath and swim around underwater while holding the orb. If she doesn’t feel the need to come up air, then they know some of what the orb can do. (Insert Dabbler making a joke about not needing to come up for air(I wonder if she can breathe through her ears))
I also wonder if Dabbler messes with people who spend a bunch of time on their phone. You know, your typical “Okay google!” troll. Like with sydney pausing to check her phone during a conversation, “Okay google, search for bishonen hentai.”
Sydney’s cute with wet hair…
jus sayin’
I think you’ll find a few people on here would agree with that, if not at all times. Some aren’t even Human…
I thought it was fun that Maxima said, “I admit I was hoping for that, too.” It’s nice to see her on the same wavelength as Sydney in a fun and friendly way. Their dynamic is usually so much more “straight man v. wacky one,” but we know Maxima actually does have a “fun” side.
Technically, it’s like a turbine, not like a propeller.