Grrl Power #543 – Elimination speculation
That’s Harem’s butt in the last panel in case you forgot she was wearing the ‘ol glory bikini.
It seems from last page’s comments, you guys beat Max and Sydney to this discussion, and came up with a lot of similar ideas. This still assumes they’re even right about the orb, though it does seem to line up so far.
Over these last few pages I’ve gotten a bit better at drawing bare feet, but I’m a long way from foot fetish levels of competence, which is of course the goal of all art. Maxima on the other hand looks kind of mannequinish to me. I’ve been having trouble with her eyes lately, I think I’m getting in my own head over them. And for some reason it’s been taking me longer and longer to do the penciling overall. I don’t know if I need to take to take a few days off of drawing, which I basically haven’t done since I started the comic, or if I need to get ahead on the comic a little so I can spend a day or two just doing art basics and experimenting with stuff. Honestly I probably would benefit from doing both, but it’s not going to happen if it’s taking me 4 days to pencil 2 pages. I could definitely save some time if I did a page or two of everyone standing in front of the same background that I can draw once then paste paste paste.
Speaking of backgrounds, the blue bit behind them on the couch isn’t sky, it’s, the nearly mirrored surface of the Archon building reflecting the sky. I have to imagine the pool was built on a side of the building that never receives direct sunlight. Otherwise, you’d might get a tan twice as fast, but also the pool would evaporate and you’d need new retinas.
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Hey, is the cast page blank for everyone else?
As for testing it near the firing range: Maybe they should just get a group of some of the more invulnerable heroes to go to a deserted island and test it there.
Yes. It is currently ‘under maintenance’, and likely to remain so for some time. It needs to be updated to be compatible with the latest version of HTML, but Dave has other priorities right now.
Good idea on the island testing. I have a similar one for genetic crop testing. I find it insane that governments allow such adjacent to things that can be affected, like related crops.
But that just goes to show that Dave has been portraying their choices realistically up until now. People can do some pretty risky things at times, and Archon are proving to be no exception.
You can only dodge the bullet so many times.
Unless you happen to be Maxima, of course, then you can dodge it, move it, turn it into a little lead figure of a general on a horse, and still disarm the shooter before he has a chance to blink.
Yorp, I’m pretty sure that putting crops on an island isn’t going help much, unless you make sure
The prevailing winds don’t blow the pollen where you don’t want it..
I envisaged a very remote island. Not one on a river in the middle of farmland.
But, yes, it is only limiting the risk. Compare that to the routine spreading of genetically modified crops before they have even finished trials. They are routinely shown to have propagated not just to adjacent fields but up and down roads, throughout the region.
The biggest vector is by accidentally contaminaed human transportation, rather than airbourne pollen.
I figure the solution is to engineer them so far that they can’t interbreed with non-GMOs.
That’s tricky to work out, though, I must admit.
Genetic diversity is actually a good thing. But only once it has been established that the crop will not get up on its roots, and start chasing down and eating passing pedestrians.
That just makes things interesting, specially for vegetarians and vegans :P
Johnson Atoll was used for biological weapons for a reason. Same principle.
Well if you really want a safe place to test that, how about on the moon or in deep space?
However; if it is a ‘cryopod/prison’ you could also kill the current inhabitants. Don’t think it’s the AI/power source though I think Sydney still has to find that bit.
The woefully out of date cast page is temporarily disabled. An update to WordPress added a WYSIWYG editor into a text widget I used to construct a lot of the page elements (I really had no idea what I was doing when I originally put this thing together. Well, I did, I just had zero experience with WordPress)
Anyway, the update now injects line breaks and other formatting nonsense into whatever you put into it, and if you used the text widget to make little HTML code applets, it obviously totally breaks all that stuff. There’s a way around that, I found a Classic Text Widget, but something is still broken about the cast page. For about 20 minutes it was appearing below the comic and I couldn’t figure out why, so I just turned it off for now.
I would like a small number on the images to show from which comic it came from.
Not all the images came from the actual comic (specially at least one Harem promotional image)
The firing range comment was so that they could have a very secure and secluded place to test it and also so that if it is a big they can shoot whatever comes out without worrying about misses
I can see what Dave is talking about when he references Max’s eyes… Not in all panels, but a few for sure. I’m not so sure that Max’s look is all that badly received… I’m kind of liking the look lately. Maybe it’s that Max is taking a much more personal approach to Sydney… Mentor-ish rather than Commanding Officer-ish. It makes her more personable and to be honest, more attractive. I think Max might have a problem understanding that she doesn’t have to be naked to be sexy… which makes me wonder… What happened to Max to make her feel the way she does? What happened to turn that spindly, inquisitive kid into such a hard ass? I’m not sure that being golden and indestructible is the reason.
Sexual harassment is so prevalent, in our society, that I have little difficulty picturing a series of mundane events which gradually hardened Maxima’s attitudes.
I hung with a black friend, when I worked in London, and it was depressing how he continually suffered slights and casual racism. Along with the more overt stuff. It had me fed up, and I was only exposed to it when with him (admittedly that was a lot mind).
But he never had the opportunity to get away from that. The never-ending harassment gradually made him more and more touchy. Which he worked incredibly well at concealing and keeping under control. He was far too professional to let it harm his career prospects, by rising to the bait or kicking up a fuss.
Maxima though chose not to allow such (of the flavour of harassment directed her way, that is) to oppress her, and to let it carry on unchecked and uncommented. She champions the right not to be oppressed and harassed.
I suspect a large percent of US women feel very similarly to Maxima, just keep it repressed cuz their experience has been that expressing it does no good and might even make it worse. But I also feel that the US has been gradually improving in this area (until the last election, anyway).
you are referring to the effect of “you’re over reacting”, “it’s just a joke”, “don’t be so sensitive” I have heard my sister told when a guy made an inappropriate comment and she asked them to not repeat it in her presence. followed by further such comments being scowled at while she fought to hold her temper that I was told “she ain’t saying anything she don’t mind”. I always responded in one way, I told sis “gloves off”. I am glad none of the fools ended up permanently crippled but that some needed to be carried away from the soothed 14 year old girl who got it out of her system.
note the people in question varied in age from a guessed 14 to 20 (technically I should have just reported him as a pedo to the police) and groups of 1 to 4.
There is no second guessing history. You do what appears to be best in you and yours interests at the time.
Sometimes it is right to decide ‘this is not important enough to raise’. Other times it may be ‘I must speak out, but keep it informal, to stop them having the illusion that this is OK’. Other times it may become necessary to say ‘I have to report this’.
If you go down the latter route do not do it by half measures. State the previous incidents that have occurred, including those involved and the dates (as best you may be able to recall them). In particular if you have previously spoken, informally, make sure to indicate what was said previously.. If you told them that their behaviour was unacceptable, repeat that verbatim.
Make sure that you report it to all relevant bodies. Do not assume that they will pass it on. So separate reports may be necessary for: employers(/schools), local authorities, police, social services and so on. And demand to have copies of the completed reports. Making sure that any field that includes the name of who will be dealing with the complaint is filled in. If it is not say you will wait until it is.
Basically doing a formal report may not always be in your best interests. But if you decide that it is, make sure that it cannot be brushed under the carpet. If they know that you have copies of the report, they cannot conveniently loose it or forget it.
Plus take the effort to chase it up, in due course. If it is ever flagged as ‘no action to be taken’ or some such, be sure to insist on having the name of the person who made that call.
That is a good way for them to suddenly reconsider, if they realise that they will be held to account and that your complaint does have merit. If they consider that it does not, find out why. If you agree, fine. If not go through the appeals process.
At some point you may decide that getting on with life is more important than pursuing the issue. In which case, do not waste any more of your time. Hopefully things will carry on, on their own, and eventually you may get justice.
Or, at a later date, you may choose to prioritise the issue again. So keep all the copies, just in case. Anyone who decided to loose your complaint will be held to account, because you have kept your copy.
And even if you decide not to waste any more sleep over it, by ensuring that the authorities have had to investigate the issue, at least the fu**er who caused the problem, in the first place, will have lost sleep, knowing that they are under investigation. Plus if they are moral, but misguided, people, hopefully they will realise they were in the wrong, and the issue was considered to be serious by everyone involved.
And if they are not, you have a paper trail to ensure that if they ever try anything again, you will have a much stronger case against them and will hopefully get the support of the authorities.
Only couple could have been reported and the events happened over 15 years ago when I was 17, I am late 30s now but you give good advice for people who see similar now days. Besides it was punishment enough for the guy to be left curled on the floor by his target. I think my sis is more dangerous than me as she doesn’t mind hurting people who she thinks wrong her.
Heh, I find no flaw with a girl acting in self-defence.
Yeah, it’s mostly the cumulative effect of the onslaught of slights women face in daily life more than some guy trying to assault her, because, like how could that even happen, unless he got her to drink a pint of rohypnol or something. Also the whole male centric nature of society. Like, why was Tom Cruise in The Edge of Tomorrow? Why couldn’t that movie have been about Emily Blunt’s character? Cause action movies/video game/comic books are by males for males, except they aren’t, but good luck convincing executives of that.
They’ve already been convinced. Just look at Marvel Comics, soooooo much of it nowadays is just SJW pandering
One company does not a rule make. Even if you just look at the big players that is one out of the fortune five hundred.
Then you have to consider that Marvel are the ones who signed off on turning the Ancient One white. So they are not really on-board with the SJW cause yet.
Mind you they did make him female and chose a good actor. But they still show themselves to be lacking. Their decisions are driven by their anticipation of box office takings. They expected a famous white actress to make them more money than a relatively unknown (to Western audiences) Asian (male or female).
Once they consistently behave in a moral fashion because it is right, rather than because it is profitable, then we can say they have been convinced.
Every woman friend I’ve ever had has her stories of being sexually harassed, assaulted or discriminated against. At least half were assaulted at one time or another. I’m no sjw, not a feminist, but I wouldn’t dismiss or marginalize anyone being a bit irritable on the subject.
I have less of a problem with the ideals, and more a problem with the execution by some people and factions. Feminism, like pretty much every ideology, has competeing camps and factions, and some of them can give the others a bad name. Like the ones who dox people over disagreements, for instance. Or the ones who fault others for insults, only to use them themselves when someone disagrees with them. Or the ones who turn on someone just for being willing to talk to people who have different points-of-view.
The current problem Feminism faces is that the loudest and most visible people in the movement right now are often the most extreme.
Why rely on other people to make your moral decisions? Judge the issues using your own moral compass. if some idiot is messing up championing an otherwise merit worthy cause ignore them. You have identified that their arguments fall short.
The fact that they are not good at their role does not change something from being morally right to wrong, or vice versa. Once you have decided what is correct and what is not, live by the just values.
Much of the time your isolated voice will have no effect on society and how others live their lives.. That is their concern though. Yours is how you live your life. Sooner or later you may face a moral choice. Probably a minor one. But decide it using the fair moral principles that you have identified.
Never though choose the opposite choice, because some idiot was championing the correct route, but doing so badly. That falls under the category of ‘cutting off your nose, to spite your face’. They are idiots, so do not let their stupid decisions change how you resolve moral issues yourself.
Not saying I am. I’m simply a dictionary feminist. Or, better yet, an individual. I’m not super fond of labels, groups, or ideologies, because people have tried to use my membership in a group to take advantage of me before, or demonize me, and frankly, f*ck that noise. I am myself, I rely on my own judgement, and I speak for no one but myself. That is how I like it.
I my problem is that I’ve been seeing first hand for some time how some aspects of ‘SJW’ ideology has made a friend intolerant. Not to any racial or ethnic group, but to people who simply disagree with him. Because their thinking is wrong, or they say something wrong, they’re bad, and should not ever be listened to. It’s not so much that he sees the world in black-and-white, as that the grey doesn’t matter to him, because his emotions are engaged. This is to the point where he thinks no one in power should ever compromise with the other side, that it’s being a ‘traitor’ in some way, when it’s the basis of how politics works.
Me, though? Well, my scientific upbringing means I question EVERYTHING. My first thought is to research stuff, and often I find it’s not so cut-and-dry, not so black-and-white, as many people want to think. Life is complicated, society is complicated, people are complicated.
There are…other, more private factors in my viewpoint. I guess the best way to put it is that I’ve been given a deep grounding in how to find humor in very dark situations, and have had to become somewhat jaded as a result, for my own sanity. On the one hand, I’m kinda glad people are unaware of how much worse their life could be…on the other, it can be grating to hear minor things being made larger, sometimes.
Actually, if ‘grey’ doesn’t even matter to your friend, then yes, they do see the world only in black-or-white
Oh, he acknowledges that it’s a thing. But it’s purely intellectual, and his emotions often override it.
I will, however, point out that ideologies and movements get bad names for the actions of those who follow them. It’s not fair, but it’s why ‘Communist’ is a slur, despite the idea sounding very good on paper, and being quite noble in a lot of ways. Unfortunately, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and it’s pretty hard to actually clear the name of your ideology when it goes wrong enough. Feminism hasn’t quite hit that level, but it is something of a growing problem. Bad people ruin and pervert good things, sometimes, and people stop wanting to be associated with them.
It is not the only reason why communism has a bad name. It is because it has flaws. Not least of which is that it assumes that if you give everyone a level playing field then people will live by that and everything will be peachy.
Except the reality is that people will still be out to get whatever they can, for themselves. But because the system does not allow this, it creates a thriving black market and systemic corruption.
Contrast that to the strength of a democratic capitalist model, which actually works on the assumption that people will behave in that way.
Which is where it gets frustrating for SJWs. Seeing the injustices being perpetrated, having the laws in place to try and prevent them, and yet still seeing people carrying on in their own self-centred ways and not caring about the welfare of others.
But that is actually a right that people have. They are allowed to be selfish and to stand by doing nothing. The better the job that SJWs do, to allow people the right to live life the way they choose to, the more people there will be who choose to do that.
It is a sad irony.
Yorp, not everyone who calls themselves an ‘SJW’ is the same. And not everything people think is a problem is equally bad. I agree about a lot of the more important issues brought up, but some of the things said are wrong, or not as simple as implied, once you investigate them. I’ve found that’s true of every ideology. Sometimes wrong things get repeated so much that people just accept them as fact, and people can react badly when the flaws are pointed out.
A lot of people in the social justice sphere are empathetic people who care a lot about others, but the other side of that coin is that their emotions are very much engaged, and that can make it easy for people with an agenda to manipulate them and their sympathy. And, to be honest, it can lead to people acting without thinking, or getting angry without considering what is being said. And that can be a bad thing.
One major difference between corruption in a Communist society and a Capitalist one, is that those under communism and not corrupt are not any worse of than they were: there is still enough for everyone to at least survive at a decent level (okay yes, there will still be ones who ‘fall through the cracks’, but not near as many as in a capitalist society)
Under Communism, everyone is equal, but you have ones who want to be more than equal
Under Capitalism, everyone is not equal and those who have more want to make the gap even greater
Not unreasonable generalisations, Guesticus.
Heck, you don’t even have to be a woman.
No, I’m not talking about men being sexually harassed, that happens too, but no where near as often.
Go onto an online game that allows different gender characters, World of Warcraft for instance. Do not indicate that you are actually male. It won’t be long before some creeps starts stalking you and trying to cyber with you, and trying to hook up in real life with you. Some of them are so freaking creepy my skin still crawls a decade later just remembering some of them. Mind you I’m the guy over 6′ that finds most horror movies boring and some of the really good ones an ok action film.
A bit of a sad aside but worth reading to get an idea of the scope of “every woman has a story”. If you read the top voted comment on this article: https://www.cracked.com/blog/how-men-are-trained-to-think-sexual-assault-no-big-deal/ there are a lot of very disturbing stories shared. Not for what happened (most of the stories are no “worse” than groping) but how casual and common it is.
Marvel is admittedly killing itself with the SJW bull though. They’ve bern ruining their brand for a while now, and it has shown in their sales and how the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which keeps out of the SJW pandering, has been doing extremely well.
Yorp, turning the ancient one into a celtic woman instead of an asian male actually was sjw kool aid also (female tends to trump asian male when it comes to virtue signalling and thats coming from an mixed asian woman who did like the movie) but most really cares about the ancient one’s sex/race all that much. He is a minor supporting character from the comics, and Marvel’s MCU tends to be alot less sjw than the comics have been, since they want to make money in the movies.:). They seem to not care as much about making a profit on the comics (especially since Disney bought them) as long as they retain rights to the intellectual property.
Most DONT really care I mean
I must admit that I only have the trailer to go by, as my finances do not generally extend to seeing a movie until the studio finds it unprofitable to police it on YouTube.
You do a good job of championing it though, so I think I better reserve judgement until I see it. And am confident that I will enjoy it, as I both trust your judgement and like the principles, and the franchise in general.
It did get my hackles up mind because I really liked the Tibetan vibe. And I am irked as I can see that there was a political reason behind avoiding having a Tibetan character (regardless of how well they implemented it in the script). Namely because the studios are competing to dominate the emerging Chinese market.
The Ancient One though had too much of a symbolic connection to Tibetan monks for that to be acceptable to the Chinese authorities. So there would be a big risk of the studio’s movies being blocked in China.
It is only a small thing, but I dislike bowing down to accommodate the oppression of a nation. Even if it was done of the studio’s own volition, they are subtly aiding that.
But there are things to be said for keeping politics out of entertainment, so… *shrugs*
My one quibble is that I do not agree that the Ancient One should be characterised as ‘a minor supporting character’. The person who teaches the protagonist their esoteric art (be that cinematic martial arts, magic, psionics, super power or whatnot) will be profoundly important to that character, no matter how much screen time or page space they are given.
They help to shape their morals, their powers and help set the character’s place in the universe.
Apparently Stephen Strange’s place is not to oppose the occupation of Tibet.
“My one quibble is that I do not agree that the Ancient One should be characterised as ‘a minor supporting character’”
I’m sorry, but he (or she in cinematic version) really IS a minor supporting character. The main point of the character is for him (or her in the MCU) to basically die after teaching Dr. Strange before Strange takes up the mantle of Sorceror Supreme. It’s almost a staple in comics, video games, etc.
Abin Sur was a minor supporting character in Green Lantern.
Kirigi was a minor supporting character in Batman.
Shazam (the wizard) is a minor supporitng character in Captain Marvel
Had Al Mualim not become a villain, he would have been a minor supporting character to Altair in Assassin’s Creed.
Etc.
They might have a significant role, but most people don’t really care much about their backstory – just how they relate to the main character. It’s not like Nightwing or Damian Wayne or even a relatively lesser knowns (to the mass public) like Spider-Man’s Michael Morbius or Thor’s Valkyrie, who at least have enough interest in them to have people wanting to know their backstories for their own characters.
No one ever said ‘wow I really want a story about The Ancient One.’ Would you even know the Ancient One’s name? Even though it was probably mentioned in the movie?
:) Course not. He (she, whatever) is just meant to take the supporting role of ‘the teacher who dies.’ It’s really a minor character overall… definitely not enough of a character for people to be long-term bent out of shape over a gender swap and ethnic swap (even if the swap WAS for, at least in part, SJW reasons). I’m sure that most people also don’t care that Baron Mordo is black, when he’s white in the comics. Many people probably didn’t even notice because most people aren’t familiar with the Dr. Strange storyline beyond ‘he’s a guy that does magic and sorcery in Marvel comics.’
In short, even though the character is, as you say ‘profoundly important to that character’ … it’s not important in the long term to the audience beyond teaching Strange what he needs to know before dying.
I did really like the movie by the way. Definitely recommend it. Cumberbatch did an incredibly good job. Btw, the Tibetian/China thing didn’t prevent Wong from being in it, as a significant (albeit also supporting) character :)
*grumble*
Deistic comic knowledge. Who do you think you are, Sydney?
I can only aspire to be at her level one day.
*double grumble*
Effing spellchecker does not even have the right word!
Deistic = Eidetic
Sydney’s comic knowledge is both eidetic and deistic, since it’s godlike. :)
If you expect companies to do anything just because it’s ‘moral’, you’re going to be VERY disappointed. They’ll do it for PR reasons, nothing more, nothing less. That’s how companies operate. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect that to change within our lifetimes.
That’s not even getting into how many aspects of morality are relative. A company might act in accordance with it’s morals, while not matching your own. It happens. Also, grey areas.
Honestly, though, I think the Ancient One’s casting is actually a genuinely good thing. Directors should cast people they think are good for the role, and not worry about gender or race, IMO. Making such things irrelevant is the goal, is it not?
I have to agree I was surprised with their choice for the Ancient Ones, but it helped on several sides.
First, it created the contrast of the name, “Ancient”, with a character rather young (a point which is used later, in addition).
Second, it also create a dissonance with the stereotype of the old Asian male Grand Master of Ye Arts. Dr Strange has always been heavily immersed in Asian(/Tibetan) mythology in the comics. The fact that the MCU version sent him to Shangri-La was keeping with the trend. So, using a white woman as their master was an interesting twist, in my opinion.
With a movie that deals a lot with the question of reality, illusion and expectations, I found those changes rather adequate.
They could have used a black female, of course, but since they already changed Mordo this way, well…
The SJW squad was more present with Thor (not to disparage the actor, he has the correct noble bearing, but a black Scandinavian god is rather strange…), and then, there’s the catastrophic latest FF movie (not Marvel’s decision, as far as I know, since they don’t control this movie franchise – yet). The justification of Johnny Storm being black while his “sister” is white is completely pointless (whereas we can find reasons for the Ancient One not being an Asian male). I would have liked it (not even “much more”, since I disliked it) if either both Storms or Reed himself had been black. But the “progressive” minds behind the movie could push for more black people in the movie, but not to the point of having an interracial romantic interest (this is probably why I disliked the stunt so much: it pretended to be progressive, but it only showed how close minded they actually were).
Re: Heimdall: the Asgard in Thor is not in 100% accordance with the myths, for obvious reasons. They’re actually aliens from a distant planet. The Bifrost may have permanently tanned him, or it’s a relic of his…unusual mythological birth. Heimdall had nine mothers in the original myths.
The point I’m making is that I don’t find the casting all that odd, and only really noticed the discrepancy when you pointed it out.
I think I would have accepted it more easily if there had been more black Asgardians as supporting characters (I don’t notice the purely figurative roles… I’m really bad with details), which would have shown that Asgard was indeed mixed and only the fact it had been kept in memory through Scandinavians justified them being depicted only as white people. But, as far as I remember, all the other Asgardians we see, at least in the first movie, are white.
But it’s also true that it can be justified the way you are mentioning (and, as I said, I liked the actor himself).
The thing with the Fant4stic crapvie, is that was based on The Ultimates(?) Universe’s version, and in those books, Johnny was adopted (like they said in the movie)
The reason the movie crapped out was because the majority of the potential viewers didn’t know that, and were expecting the same characters and history as the first movies and the comics they are more familiar with, so finding out that not only was Johnny black and Sue white, but Victor von Doom was some basement-dwelling hacker and Thing looking like calcified shit really turned them away
It was not the Ultimate FF’s Johnny Storm…
And note that, in the movie, it was Sue that was adopted. She was Bosnian or Croat, not sure (and I will not suffer through the movie a second time to make sure ;-) ).
No, the reason the movie was such a failure was because it was full of fail. The origin part was not that bad, even though too long, but the accident was really far fetched (they tried to find a way to justify every character’s connection to his/her element, and it showed). The second part (which corresponded to the change in director at the time of corporate meddling, if what I read is correct) was just really badly written and with a completely obscure message.
Okay, did put a question mark after Ultimates as wasn’t sure which alternate universe it was, just that it wasn’t the ‘Main’ one, and knew that one of them was adopted
I noticed the question mark. I just wanted to confirm that it was not from “Ultimate FF”. :-)
But I can’t help in identifying the other alternate reality it may be in, I’ve abandoned Marvel’s classic universe for too long to have any info about that.
While the point about using again a male main character is right, please note that it is not an American issue here, since Edge of Tomorrow is based on a Japanese novel (All You Need Is Kill).
It probably made a little bit more sense in the novel, since I’m not sure the Japanese have female soldiers in their defense forces (Emily Blunt’s character is an American, if I remember correctly the manga), but it still reflects a bad habit of mainly depicting male heroes with female supporting characters.
Eh. It’s often a Catch-22. No matter who is the lead, someone, somewhere, will almost certainly have a problem with it. Casting and lead choice thus becomes a game of minimizing the overall outrage, or director’s preference. And sometimes, females leads can lead to even more kvetching, depending on if people object what they do with the character, so…yeah. It’s a complicated issue, one not suited to sweeping solutions. Most of life is like that, honestly.
Also, Hollywood’s iterative, sequel/reboot/remake/borrowing-a-property fetish makes this even more aggravating, since any change to any of the characters risks fan backlash.
LoL, that’s true. I’m surprised I haven’t seen a complaint about Wonder Woman being played by a caucasian female.
I really shouldn’t have mentioned that. I bet if I googled enough I’d find them. :(
Brief rant. Forgive me please.
There already are feminists and sjws complaining about wonder woman for a variety of idiotic reasons. Because she shaves her armpits. Because Gal Gadot is israeli (and a total badass who knows krav maga and was in the IDF and is proud of being ex israeli military as she should be). Because she is fit and extremely attractive (yes there are feminists that are angry that wonder woman isnt plain looking, ugly, or fat, just like they complained about wonder woman as a fictional un goodwill ambassador). Because she likes babies in the movie. Because she is white. These are some of the many idiotic complaints that have been made by third wave feminists/sjws/serial complainers when they are not making gendrrexclusive showings of the movie which they dont seem to realize is textbook discrimination hypocrisy.
I was sad that I could not see Wonder Woman on Imax, as my friend remained too poorly until it was downgraded to regular movie showings only. It was one of the few Imax trailers that seriously tempted me to watch it.
Hopefully I will be able to catch that when I next visit a friend with a decent home-entertainment system. And, thanks to avoiding the cinema cost, I will have the money to spare to buy the snax. :-D
Excuse me… They consider Gal Gadot to be a white woman? As in “Caucasian”? Diana is supposed to be Greek. Gal Gadot has the perfect Mediterranean type to play the role!
And if they complain she is indeed really nice looking, do they complain also about Chris Pine playing Steve Trevor and not being exactly an ugly, unfit man either? They should remember that Hollywood is not exactly starring plain looking male actors for the main roles… (true, a little bit more can indeed play on their acting ability more than on their look, where women are more limited, but not by much anyway)
Honestly, I found Gal Gadot to be far more convincing as Princess Diana and Wonder Woman than many would have: she has managed to look both fierce and strong, while maintaining a soft, caring side, and also being naive, notably when she was in London.
(the only thing I regretted was her leather skirt… it was indeed too short, even though it had the right look)
Pander was listing the silly extremes, so yea, we would not expect them to make sense.
Alliteratively I think Gal Gadot should wear a G-skirt and a G-string. :-)
To Alexis:
Yeah, I’m just listing the complaints that a frightening amount of third wave feminists and SJWs have had about Wonder Woman. They’re almost universally stupid arguments that rarely even have any basis in fact, let alone logic.
And yes, Gal Gadot was a PERFECT Wonder Woman. And Chris Pine is a perfect Steve Trevor. They were able to make Diana badass without making Steve incompetent, which often happens in movies with a strong female protagonist (and I can’t stand when that happens since it detracts from the competence of the female lead if she’s only competent because everyone else is incompetent).
Great casting in that movie, and Gal did a great job of being both fearsome AND caring, like you said. It helps that the actress herself is both a badass and beautiful – it really carried over well into the movie, especially the scene in London where she runs over to see the baby :)
I actually liked the outfit – it had a very ‘greek’ feel to it imho.
To Yorp:
Yeah, I was listing the silly extremes…. which unfortunately tend to be a LOT of things in SJW culture (mainly because the loudest, most insane people tend to get the most air-time). Honestly, the only thing at all that annoyed me at all about Wonder Woman was that it was set in World War 1, and I was all prepared to expect it to be set in World War 2 instead, but that’s just me being a nitpicky fangirl and I guess that was already being consistent in the cinematic universe with the picture from the Batman vs Superman movie with the photo.
I understand you were listing extremes, but I find the one about her being white so absurd I had to react… Amazons were Greek women, she is clearly of Mediterranean ascent, like the Greeks, so she fits perfectly. It is like protesting that a Samurai was Japanese, or a Zulu warrior was black.
Her outfit had a really good “Greek” feel, and I appreciated that. But the skirt was definitely too short, even for Greeks. It is supposed to protect the thighs and should thus go below at least half of them. :-)
(that’s me being nitpicky on logic :-) )
About the setting, well, honestly, I was not really sure about the original period. However, now that you mention it, I would say there may have been three factors.
1/ With WWI, they could set the big villain the fake one as being a fictional general in the field. With WWII, they would have to use either Hitler or Himmler, or someone really close to them, and thus hidden in Berlin (or Berchtesgaden), which would have been more difficult to manage.
2/ The horrors of war shown on screen would have been difficult to stage during WWII, since most of them happened far away from the battlefield. The gas attack on the village would not work that well, while it would have been, here again, more difficult to justify her and Trevor moving to Auschwitz or Birkenau. It would also probably have given the movie a far too sinister tone. It is not a light movie as is, so imagine with a visit to a concentration camp…
3/ What better way to hint that she did not actually kill Ares than by letting him set up World War II and the Final Solution? or (alternative or complementary possibility) They did not want to give any justification to the Nazis’ crimes by even hinting that a demented god was manipulating them.
Sometimes it is acceptable to skip a movie from canon. That one I have seen and it sucks donkey hooves .
But hasn’t Wonder Woman always been a fit, attractive, olive/white female warrior with hairless armpits? If they’re complaining about that, they must have been expecting a different character completely. ‘Cause in 70 years Diana’s never been anything else, and there’s no reason to start now.
Gabot was perfect for the role. Full stop.
No, a big reason why they moved Wonder Bewbs to The Great War was to prevent any claims of her simply being a female Captain America
To Alexis:
I don’t really want to give away any spoilers to anyone who hasnt seen Wonder Woman yet (hint – SEE WONDER WOMAN, it’s a really good movie for a non-animated DC movie), and I do agree about the first two reasons you give (although Wonder Woman did, in the comics, meet Steve Trevor during WW2, not 1, which was also a focus of the 1970s TV show), but as for the third reason, if you recall, the twist was… okay I don’t want to say because I don’t know how to do the ‘spoiler’ thing that you did with the blackout of words. If you could let me know I can respond better to your post :).
Still, good reasons I guess. Plus I also am assuming that there is going to be a sequel that might take place during WW2.
PS – if you have Gal Gadot, and don’t show off her legs as Wonder Woman, I’m pretty sure that’s a crime against humanity. Because that woman is gorgeous and perfect, with incredible feminine muscle tone. And I say that as a straight woman. :)
For spoilers, you create spoiler tags in your text with brackets : [ spoiler ] to open them and [ /spoiler ] to close them (of course, without the spaces).
About the twist: That’s why I mentioned the fake one. You could change the British MP for any WWII character, it’s true, but the German scapegoat/distraction/tool would be harder to separate from the Nazi leaders, whereas it could easily be done in WWI.
You are right that it could allow a sequel set in WWII. And Guesticus might not be wrong: ensuring there could be no attack against the movie as a “DC version of Captain America” can definitely have been another reason.
Finally, your PS made me laugh. Her legs are worthy of being shown. I’m not completely convinced it is enough of a reason, but I can accept the idea… :-)
Officially stated that the use of WW1 was to coincide with feminist movement as Diana was the ultimate liberated female. As per film company and director.
@Shenron: Oh, interesting. I did not think about that one.
It makes sense, I admit, even though the feminist movements were already achieving their goals in the UK by the time of the movie. It’s too bad, however, that nothing in the movie hinted at it. They could have taken a page from Marvel’s book and make an intra-generic sequence with Diana discussing in London with some suffragettes, or maybe move her to New York or Washington, where their American counterparts still had some work to do.
Thank you for the information.
A movie based on Emily Blunt’s character most likely would have been very different. The question is whether that story would have been as compelling or would have even been acceptable.
Cruise starts off as a narcissistic,cowardly, a@@hole that the audience can’t like. He’s done over by a more powerful narcissist and is sent off to die. Then we get to watch him be killed over and over again. Then he finally redeems himself. Just a variation of the classic hero’s journey.
https://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm
In the movie we find that Blunt’s character had gone through a similar series of deaths, but we don’t have to see it on screen. We see her post transformation. I’d really be curious as to the reception of a female character who starts off as unlikable as Cruise’s and gets observably destroyed so many times. My expectation is most audiences do not like watching females be severely physically injured repeatedly.
Also the idea of swapping the characters positions makes me think of the times Blunt’s character shot Cruise’s in the head. That would likely take on a far more sinister appearance even if the acting were the same.
see, i was under the impression that the movie was a good excuse to watch tom cruise die repeatedly. which is always a fun time.
LOL.
I enjoyed it. I am heavily into science fiction, so I lapped it up. Neither let their performance get in the way of me enjoying the story. So they did a good job.
It would be interesting to see the roles reversed mind.
Domestic violence is a huge category of violent crime, worldwide. Most of it directed against women. So you are right it may sit poorly with audiences.
But the Bride, in Kill Bill, showed that, uncomfortable though it will feel, the actress can carry the film just as well as a male lead, despite such violence being involved. I think we would actually empathise more with the female than with the male. Partly because its rarity makes it that much more a powerful image. And partly because of deep-ingrained instincts to shield women from such violence.
Which, from a story telling point of view, is a powerful hook to draw the audience in deeper than they are used to going.
My one caveat is to avoid other kinds of scripts which stray from this into the more exploitative type roles. When the woman is being beaten up for its own sake. Personally I dislike the trend of movies that do that (to any character). Graphic dismemberment, torture and the like, all in the name of entertainment.
That is just ick.
Tarantino’s willingness to depict women in violent, physical rolls that are usually reserved for males is quite impressive. The Bride from Kill Bill is pretty a good example, but I was astounded by Daisy Domergue from The Hateful 8. Bad male characters get beaten up like that quite frequently, but that was almost a novelty. And IIRC Tarantino got quite a bit of flack for depicting her that way. It’s also one of the reasons I really liked Dredd with Ma-Ma and Anderson. I love Ripley and Sarah Connor and want to see more rolls like that.
Um…the numbers on domestic abuse are actually pretty murky. Guys tend to under-report, at least partially due to not considering many more minor forms of abuse to be abuse. Asking about more specific scenarios (throwing things, slapping, pushing, etc.) yields higher results. Women are much more likely to suffer serious injury, which might also skew the numbers, and probably leads to the idea that the guy can take it, while the girl can’t. There’s some truth to that, but it’s still kinda f*cked up.
https://www.domesticviolenceresearch.org/
Is a meta analysis of 1700 DV studies if you are interested.
Thanks.
Also, guys tend to not report it at all due to the stigma of being beaten up by a woman, plus, society siding with the woman even if they do, by stating that she must have simply been fighting back after years of his abuse towards her
That’s true. I’ve seen a study a couple of years ago that quantified some of it, but their estimates on suspected under reporting actually placed it higher than the abuse of women, but due to the EXTREMELY closed nature and nearly total lack of forthcoming discussions on the subject, was unable to be verified.
After all, if a female is known to have been abused, she mostly gets sympathy. If a male is known to have been abused, he instead garners almost nothing but more ridicule and emotional/verbal abuse as some additional physical abuse.
Abuse is awful, and our culture is seriously screwed up on pretty much all of it.
One thing many people don’t realise: “Kill Bill” is based on a Japanese movie, called “Lady Snowblood”, including the fact it was two parts
I liked the movie alot – rare for a Tom Cruise movie. And I liked Blunt’s role being the mentor who was a hero already who knew wtf she was doing compared to Cruise:)
o.O Yeah but…Maxima has the luxury of having super powers, your friend in London doesn’t. Easier to champion those things when you’re literally bullet proof and can take on most, if not all, people who make comments your way.
True. Maxima can always fly up to the glass ceiling and punch a hole through it.
Unless she does that literally, then it is coming out of her pay cheque.
Yes, but Maxima’s powerset, her ethics and her legal role curiously add up to a rather frustrating paradox–her powers protect her from direct sexual harassment, for the most part, but they can’t really be used to put down societal issues. She becomes an exception, which separates her own experience from other women, but she still has to observe that (much as Yorp was witnessing his friend’s constant struggles with casual racism).
But you can’t punch sexism, much as it would be nice to do so.
see comment higher in thread for yes, yes you can. admitted not optimal response in all situations.
try being a red head.
it starts as soon as you clear the birth canal and just gets worse. eventually either you accept it and go along or you become snarky on whole new levels.
What probably happened:
‘hmm. A woman in gold body paint and dyed hair. Must be some event going on nearby. Well, even with the ugly paint-job she is one hot model…’ “Hey sexy…”
– Repeat 50x/year over 10 years.
Talk about under-reported violence. No one will ever find THOSE bodies (unless they look on the moon).
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1754
Maybe they’re not a spacesuit or a ship. Maybe they’re Ioun Stones.
Nah. Most Ioun Stones grant passive buffs.
Those are Lesser Ioun Stones. These are the artifact version, namely Greater Ioun Stones.
The lesser known loun stones?
SHHHH!
Don’t tell folks about those. The more people who know about them, the weaker they become!
I am going to ruin my nerd cred by admitting that I dont know what an ioun stone is, beyond guessing that it is something from DnD.
I dont really play DnD and never have … only have played some Abberant and WoD in the past.
Please dont shun me for my heresy.
Calculating proper sarcastic nerd response. Please stand by…
3…2…1…
https://lmgtfy.com/?q=Iuon+stone
To increase your nerdcred please go to the next gencon and enjoy yourself for the entire con.
And you must also buy WAYYYYYY to much stuff.
Yes sir! Do I need to also cosplay?
Optional but the nerdcred goes up exponentially inversely proportionally to the skin coverage of the outfit.
At a certain point you will reach the nosebleed threshold, from any anime fans attending.
Do sign up for as much tabletop gaming as you can though, I am sure you will love it. Novice players are welcome (but avoid the hard-core tournaments until you have a bit of experience under your belt). Just let the games master know you are new to gaming and you will be accommodated.
In fact some of the best fun is to be had sitting down to a game you have never played. Then you can just flow with the roleplaying. Get into the mindset of the character you are playing and the gamesmaster will handle all the mechanics.
Sounds like my time and Reading Chilli Fest…
Heh. That is fine. You know way more comic lore than I do, we all have our own passions. Ioun stones are actually similar to Halo’s orbs in some regards.
They are magical items, in a variety of shapes and colours. Each grants a bonus to the person using it, for instance making their armour tougher, or improving their chance to avoid detrimental effects. Some of the powers being quite significant such as absorbing (and thereby negating) any incoming spell attacks or (depending on the version of the game) granting a bonus to psionic powers.
What power is granted can be told by the stone’s shape and colour (of course sneaky games masters can change the standard table, for their game, if they do not want this done). Plus they are activated by launching them into the air, where they will circle the user’s head.
Having a large set of Ioun stones could therefore make a character noticeably more powerful. And even an isolated one could give a significant edge, for instance by granting a (modest) regenerative ability or negating the need for food and drink.
Ahhhh that explains why Maxima had made the guess of Ioun stones, with the ‘circling around the head’ thing :)
That…the whole point of Ioun Stones is to grant effects while not using up magic item slots. The requirement of holding the Orbs erases the point of them being Ioun Stones.
Do you not notice the balance issue, when saying that? If you have things which create a variety of minor passive effects, but which do not impact on the limit of magical items, then that is a significantly powerful advantage.
But make each of those items profoundly powerful, and you are breaking the whole system. The character gains god-like power. If other characters (be they those of other players or any enemies) do not have correspondingly strong capabilities then the game will very rapidly become one-sided and incredibly boring. Watching one person dominating at everything is not fun.
However ensuring that there is an inherent limit on their use can prevent this imbalance from occurring.
Why do you think they cost way, WAY more than the alternatives? Custom magic item creation has rules in 3.5, and one to the most costly things to do is to mod things to not require a Magic Item slot. This is applied to Ioun Stones, as well.
It matters not how much it costs to create ultra-powerful items, with no limitations if a player gets their paws on them. Then all that matters is how much they can abuse them.
Not that it would even be abuse. They have been granted the game-breaking items, so can just use them normally, to ruin the fun for everyone.
Dave, I think you’d have almost zero complaints if you took a week or two off and provided either guest strips or another round of chibi characters (Dabbler’s Science Corner, exploring maybe how other team members’ powers work… or Arianna’s PR Corner, explaining how government treaties around the world govern superpowered humans…)
Interesting ideas.
Seconded.
Thirded (err… ;-) )
Dabbler’s Science Corner could be fun, really interesting and actually informative while giving you some time off, and so would Alex Vincent’s idea about the PR Corner, which would also be a good opportunity to address some rarely explored aspects of a super world (relations between Archon and other US agencies; special carreers for some superhumans…).
just don’t use the word “hiatus”. That’s for whom the death tolls in webcomics.
Sydney’s Corner! I literally can not imagine her not spending every free moment going through Archon’s database of every super on record and learning about them. A hyperactive ubergeek would blow through Archon’s Who’s Who in a day if not less!
:-D
True.
If the military give her the time. They have not yet.
Yeah, she’ll have to get through Basic Training first, before they can upgrade her security clearance for something like that. Even then, there will probably also be subjects in those files that will have higher-rated clearance to access them.
well i mean he has a great defense, except all at once
Yeah Dave deserve some time off this comic he generously share with us.
I would likely die of Grrlpower comic withdrawal. Then I would need my next of kin to get a seance going to fill me in on the comic after DaveB is back.
Archives Pander, archive trawling! We can keep you alive, I am sure. Just join us here, in the forums, any time you feel yourself weakening. We can supply fan art, Yorpie Snax™ and soothing paw massages!
I’ve gone thru ARChives enough times I’ve had to quarantine myself for a few months, except for looking exact specific details.
You are a good doggo.
How about Arianna producing a commercial with the “orbs” as the, low tech, product(s).
Light Hook: Silly String dispenser;
Telepresence: Flashlight or View-Master projector (have adventures with Sydney & friends!);
Aero ball (green orb): night light / Febreze air freshener;
Forcefield orb: Bubble Ball;
Flight orb: High-density Rubber Ball;
PPO: Easy to fill squirt ball, water balloons, talk to people who make Nerf;
Unknown(brown orb): copper accessories or lamé bags, call it sophisticated Geek Chic
Except some of the orb functions are classified
Good Point.
There was an episode of Star Trek where Scotty was in a ship with failed life support. He did his best to make sure the ship’s computer would survive unattended for decades and then uploaded himself to the Transporter buffer system. He eventually got found by the Next Generation crew.
Entirely possible the creator of the Orbs is in there somewhere – or at least a copy of them.
Probably a bit old to be a romantic interest for Sydney. But otherwise a pretty good idea.
What if it turns out that it was a necromancer, and the orbs are the animated corpses of it and its companions?
Obviously this works on the assumption that not all sentient species have two arms, two legs and a head.
The two-orb limit would therefore be something unrelated to hands, but rather being a fundamental limit on how much power can be drawn from that necromantic enchantment, at once.
So the red orb was the unit’s weapon’s master. The shield the defender, and so on. Doubtless the brown orb is the body of the necromancer.
Sydney, why have you not tried raising the dead, with that orb, yet?
Just how many dead people do you believe Sydney has had contact with within the last couple months? o_O
That is why I have faith in her.
*wags tail loyally*
That she has or hasn’t? o_O
Yes.
:P
*cough* graveyards are a thing *cough*
Yeah? When was the last time you went to one (that wasn’t personal)?
And you are suggesting that Sydney rob graves and disturb the dead? o_O
Off topic question. How old does a corpse have to be for it to go from graverobbing to archaeology?
Really would depend on where they find the corpse: if it’s a well maintained cemetery (even several hundred years old), then it’s graverobbing
What about the pyramids and mummies?
Like said: a well maintained cemetery would be one that is still in use, or part of a still-active church, whereas a pyramid with mummies would not
It’s about time we used this forum for these hard hitting important questions. :)
It can be both, simultaneously. It is not an either or issue. But it is very cleverly posing it as such.
WWII provides us easy examples. A crashed fighter or bomber (with crew) is both a historically important artifact and is their defacto grave Both have merit. But the latter must take precedence if there are any surviving relatives who express a preference. If they do not want the grave disturbed, even for purposes of providing a reburial, then that must be respected.
That said though their rights do not override those of society. Archaeologists should still be allowed sufficient access to determine that it is indeed the wreckage that has been proposed (presumably from surviving historical records). Likewise recording such information as may be obtained without disturbing the grave unduly.
The saddest example I have come across was from the Inuit. However it is far too much of a downer to raise here. Suffice it to say relatives rights must always have the higher priority. Significantly higher. And ensuring a proper burial, according to their traditions, must be honoured.
If an archaeologist feels that societies needs should actually be weighed higher than the family’s (or their culture’s) needs then they should feel free to volunteer themselves to be buried as temporary substitutes..
OK, legally, that ain’t going to happen. But it should give a good way for the archaeologists to judge the merit of their own claims. If the remains are so important, to the world, that they would willingly die to keep them available for science, then they have a good case to argue. If not, then they should respect the rights of the living, on how they wish to honour their dead.
Just how many dead people …
…can you fit in one of Halo’s orbs?
sounds like the setup for a joke …
How can you tell Halo is hiding in your refrigerator?
The salsa’s been opened and there’s a force field around the pickles…
:-D
The episode was Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Relics”.
So, I’ve decided that it wouldn’t make sense for the orbs to be a spaceship. Now, a few reasons for this are debatable ones, like finding it odd that a spaceship would involve the universe’s base-code, or that a spaceship would be designed so you can only use two pieces of it at once. But, as I said, those are debatable.
The most compelling piece of evidence is the existence of a talent tree. It seems like a really bad idea to restrict important functions of a spaceship until the pilot has xp-grinded. The mere existence of the leveling up mechanic suggests a far more involved and unusual system than the simple explanation of a spaceship. Why would anyone design a weapon, a life support system, et cetera, to grant new powers based on a seemingly arbitrary sense of personal progression?
The orbs continue to interest me, just like Maxima’s power interests me, though for opposite reasons. The orbs really do read like a video game, and I would love to meet the outer god that thought that was a good idea. Kind of reminds me of Worm, actually.
I agree with your observations. But you seem to have missed an obvious counter, leading you to dismiss the possibility prematurely. It is only Sydney’s presumption that it is an xp-based levelling system. We have seen nothing which actually supports her hypothesis.
Rather it could be a certification of competence. As Sydney demonstrates adequate skill (at the various starship crew functions) she is gradually allowed to practice with the more advanced equipment.
This explains why so many nodes were already filled in. Including the green mystery orb. Sydney has activated the air creation, in the course of her experimenting, but just failed to realise that she had done so, as she did so whilst in air.
Perhaps the brown orb is the line-officer certification? Sydney has already successfully commanded a major engagement (when Maxima was about to die, and only Sydney’s cunning plans saved the day, twice). Which would explain why a couple of that one’s nodes have been filled in too.
Here are some of the unlocks, on that orb, she may be awarded, once Halo has shown competence with her remaining certifications:
• Summon reinforcements
• Upgrade
minionscrew• Summon the Grand Imperial Armada
• Become the Queen of Salt (and the rest of the Galaxy)
Fair. I did consider that for a few minutes, then forgot it and didn’t mention it. My thought process: it could be a form of training where the user has to prove their skill to unlock greater versions, but then why the choice? Sydney’s unlocks have had seemingly nothing to do with how she attained a new skill point, and all her previous nodes came in automatically, with no sign of a similar skill point system.
I would love to see her gain an armada power though. Or an orbital laser.
Any sailor who comes aboard a ship, and can demonstrate that they ‘know the ropes’ will be accepted as an able seaman, with the perks, responsibilities and pay that comes with it. Sydney was able to figure out many of the basic functions of the orb, by simple experimentation and practice.
But an advanced star-ship is a lot more complicated than a sailing ship. There are many things that a new crew member should not have access to, until they have reached a minimum level of competence. At that point it is reasonable to offer them the choice of which piece of equipment to be trained on next.
Of course the designers may not have counted on a user who picks randomly, but heck, who could plan for Halo?
Definitely not the designers of NCC 1701. 5 or 6 generations of starship design, and they haven’t figured out how to put passwords on turbolifts or transporters. Hell, they can’t even put a lock on the shuttlepod’s doors.
My theory is that Starfleet ship designers are all jumped-up shopping mall designers.
What? Why should there be passwords on turbolifts or transporters in a starship? (can never remember if they are a military or something else)
military or not, even cruise ships have “crew only” doors. as many times over the centuries that a single visitor has gained access to dangerous parts of the ship and caused mayhem and even death, it’s pretty obvious that access controls are needed. Controls that can be turned on the crew and circumvented by any alien that wiggled, hopped or transported on board.
Especially the bipeds that wiggle. Starfleet seems to pick only degenerate samples of human males.
be turned on BY the crew and NOT circumvented …
sigh.
Wasn’t it James T. Kirk’s job to get turned on and to circumvent Star Fleet directives?
Dr. Sigmund, call yer office.
was thinking ahead to the “wiggly alien” part while typing.
@Garbler: Yorp’s answer still stands. Kirk’s job was indeed to circumvent Star Fleet directives and get turned on by wiggly aliens, or at least female aliens wiggling their assets…
Did you note how there was usually at least one security guard in or near the transporter bay? Or other sensitive areas? Or did you believe they were just shipcrew loitering? o_O
The ones who were invariably overcome by surprise attacks? Yea, I remember them. :-)
The prime failing of the imagination of Starfleet ship designers? Two words: ‘Seat Belts’.
There is also the issue that no starship of Constitution class or before appeared to have any bathrooms. Leaving them no place to go, boldly or otherwise.
Referring to the blueprints for NCC-1701, it appears that the closest bathroom to the bridge is in sickbay, six decks down by turbolift, then down a corridor, through sickbay, and then to the right. Other people have joked that it is behind the status panel to the left of the turbolift, and a light that says ‘occupied’ will activate when it is entered.
*looks around for a tree, and shakes head*
*tugs on uniform*
Ahh, that is better.
*gives leg a shake*
My vote is for the talent tree to be a type of training system. Full functions unlocked once you pass the tutorial.
+1
*presents an ‘A Great Mind’ award*
The more I see of the orbs and the talent trees, it looks like some alien family vacationing on earth disciplined their child by discarding their equivalent of an XBox 3600.
Which would explain why they resonated an attractive aura, to lure an addicted gamer to them.
Don’t enter prestige mode.
Given how level ups appear to trigger on usage of new features, rather than repeat usage of known ones, this theory holds a lot of metaphorical water.
my suggestion would be along the lines of schedule a number of updates to be “Chibi-dates” be it filler, or even the comic got hijacked and the whole crew got turned to chibi. build yourself a buffer and come back later and re-make the chibi-dates if you want(should you decide to continue the comic in chibi instead of do filler).
having super powers is alot of screwing around till you find tricks that work
Yes, having a fit and (fairly) attractive body, plus hanging around wish succubi and groupies, would tend to have that result.
I doubt any of these heroines will end up having to do tricks mind. Well Dabbler might enjoy being paid for eating.
Has Harem tried synchronized swimming? Or is that cheating? Yeah, it’s probably cheating…
:-D
A bit like Dabbler entering any kind of quiz. What with her having access to the internet via her cyber enhancements. And knowing stuff that humanity does not.
“Sorry… uh… miss…. I have to go by the answer on this card.”
“I don’t care what your stupid monkey-brain question-writer wrote, he is wrong!”
Plus she can access the internet in her head for any pop culture questions.
Achilles would have rather an unfair advantage in boxing.
So would Morph
One punch and he would be squashed flat!
Mind you he was an Aardman, so he would probably pull himself back together and just dust himself off. Nice to make that connection, with the benefit of hindsight.
I assume others have guessed at this, but I call the Final orb is stealth.
The little orphaned node on the level up screen indicates a passive “always on” buff, which IS why the orbs appear indistinct to all forms of observation.
I just refreshed myself on the upgrade grid.
The double line single nodes exist on all the orbs, and only is upgraded on the remaining unknown, only one additional point is spent
Sorry, typing this on my phone and accidentally hit the submit button. As I was saying.
And one additional point is spent on the orb. I’m guessing that one point is what makes the orbs seem indistinct, and the double line node is what makes the ability active on the orbs even though she’s not holding it.
Hm. I think stealth would fit more in the shield tree bits.
Mmm, I thought Jordan made a good supporting arguments. Plus there are a whole host of potential stealth upgrades which would justify a stand-alone orb. Whereas competing with defensive ones, for the shield orb, would diminish its potential, in the long run.
Beyond the fact that shields and invisibility are both generally defensive, the only other link is through the Invisible Girl. As she is a character from a different setting and the powers are actually bizarrely mismatched, it would not feel right to me.
Which is not to say Dave may not have made a nod to the Invisible Girl, but it just seems unlikely.
Honestly, for me, the Com Ball would be more appropriate for stealth, since it deals with sensory issues. But I agree it can be justified to separate a defensive power suite (invisibility) and a communication/detection power suite.
However, I disagree when you are saying “a whole host of upgrades”… I can count around ten of them: the basic visual stealth (aka invisibility [which should cover the full light spectrum from the get-go, since it would make no sense otherwise: you cannot be sure in what wavelength those you encounter can see), radar [maybe… it is a light wavelength, after all], sound [see Dabbler and X], gravitic [pressure and gravitic pull], thermal, psychic, emotions [if it is considered different from psychic; and, again, see Dabbler and X], chemical [scent], area of effect, then full intangibility… what else?
Okay… my demonstration is actually blowing in my face. While I still maintain that this is not “a whole host”, it just so happens that the brown orb has exactly ten specific nodes in the skill tree… :-D
On the other hand, I just realised something that should indicate that it could not be a Stealth Orb: Sydney tried vainly to activate it on several occasions and, by definition, it already had three active nodes. And she did not do her tests only while being by herself.
One last thing: Yorp, there is a reason why the Invisible Girl has forcefields and invisibility: she is Air, and air is an invisible force. Mr Fantastic is Water, the Thing is Earth and, surprisingly, the Human Torch is Fire. Honestly, I never made the connection until the 1602 comics (where it is spelled out for those like me ;-) ). This is probably why the first FF movies had Dr Doom as a magnetic/electricity monster: magnetism is one of the fundamental energies, a kind of elemental force like the other four (well, as far as aether is going, I would have chosen gravity, personally…).
I am adept at getting mismatched power sets to have a good rationale. It does not stop them from being non-mixy.
My favourite was when I wanted to have a robot minion mastermind with necromancy powers. I ended up with a really good origin story, that received many compliments, from fellow City of Heroes players.
I think that stealth is probably on the comm orb honestly. Either as the other ‘single’ dot, or that ‘5th’ dot on the telepresence line that has 4 dots available then a ladder to a fifth, separate dot. That’s just my guess though. There’s also that 2 dot line that also veers off into another 4 part line, and THAT could be stealth as well, like ‘stealth’ then different types of ways to hide other aspects on the first dot (the 4 dot line – sound, visual, lifesigns, etc), and maybe the second dot is illusions.
Or the first dot is stealth, then those 4 dots are levels OF stealth.
You know, “farts like a faintly lavender scented Jacuzzi” doesn’t really sound too bad. Of course without the water supporting harem via displacement forces she’s going to plummet right onto Sydney’s noggin.
I’d go look back on some of the earlier pages. Maxima used to be both a) much more reflective and b) much more expressive. Right now, I’d call her skin tone closer to honey mustard than gold.
Honey mustard badger don’t give a s**t!
Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits…
Yeah, less shiny and more, umm, ‘Asian’ (at least, that is how the eyes are looking to me now)
DaveB? Are you trying to make Maxi look like someone in particular? She kinda looks familiar, this page and the last, before, she looked like Maxi, She of the Shiny Gold and harsh bone structure
Oooo, that’s who she looks a little like: Lindsey Lohan, in the first panel, specially the lips
Wait… She’s holding the hentorb in her left hand, and resting her left elbow on the lighthook?
Does that count as bootstrapping? Could she use the lighthook as a platform and swap the flight-orb for something else to ‘hover’?
(Alternatively, and less awesomely, the lighthook might just be going down to the floor out-of-panel as a support.)
Probably. The tentacle is not actually a limb it is a telekinetic effect. Just like Maxima can fly with her telekinesis, Sydney can probably do as you suggest.
Note that it certainly is not using Sydney as an anchor point, when lifting things. If you recall it lifted three of Sydney’s teammates, whilst she ran off to confide in them about her veganism (sorta). Plus she has lifted up cars and whatnot too.
So if it was behaving like a limb, Sydney would have been crushed or suffered broken legs by now.
Hence it must be either anchored in hammerspace or some alternative like that.
Sydney could probably use the tentacle to throw herself up into the air, catch herself and throw her onwards again, like a bucket brigade, but with her as the bucket!
Similarly she should be able to lower the tentacle down, like a rope, to climb down it. And when she gets to the bottom, she can just get it to bend back down to her, so she can grasp the top, and then lower the rest of it down.
Fortunately no cutting involved. I suspect that Baron Munchousen trick might not work on the tentacle.
Tentacle can’t possibly use Sydney as part of its structure. Testing with Maxima showed her pushing ~15 tons of effort against Max’s hand while Sydney “struggled” to lift her. It’s a fly-by-wire interface, multiplying her muscular effort and giving feedback thru the orb itself as an effector (think aircraft control yoke).
So you are saying the yoke’s on Sydney?
I should know better than to egg you on.
Hopyfully this pun war will be over easy before my brain gets scrambled.
If not, at least I can say that I fried to end it.
I never sausage a collection of eggspertly delivered puns. The pun war may expand into a regional breakfast conflict.
Lets stop waffling about this and start hashing it out.
Before we become cereal killers.
I ate you so much.
keep milking this and we may have to dodge the orbital laser
Good point. Lets take a break from these puns. Fast.
@Pander
Yes let us break fast from the puns
@DR.REVENGE
*snaps you with a rubber band for using my pun back at me*
Vegetarianism, please. She takes her baked potatoes with butter like the rest of us.
Butter is vegetarian. It’s not vegan but it’s vegetarian.
I did indicate that Sydney’s is non-standard. For instance, her exception (for anything ugly) would allow her to eat this.
I think they need to try the last orb in an actual vacuum.
Or against an actual cannibal.
If the orb makes Daphne fall deeper into the water then I hope she doesn’t hit her chin on the way down.
Buoyancy levels would make that very unlikely. The rim of a pool is usually too high to do so. And Sydney has wisely lowered the water level in this pool, to make even more of a gap.
Hmm, most pools have a pump that keeps the water at an even level, which means that the amount Sydney displaced would have been replaced almost as quickly
Possibly. Don’t forget that they are on the top of a skyscraper though. Sydney would have exceeded design specs with her antics, so even good pumps would be challenged to draw up that volume of water, from ground-level mains, to replace it fast.
Sydney didn’t displace that much, and they wouldn’t need to draw it from the ground-level, most of the replacement actually comes from the spill-over itself
Sydney died when she found the orbs, they scanned her and the last orb is generating a energy to matter copy of her. that’s why she can only go a set distance from them and the woman who get a new power by coming into contact with a person gets nothing from Sydney.
*sobbing heart out*
Waaaaaaaahhh!
please return to the box of safety and happy thoughts you have wandered to far ;p but really that is an interesting and new idea brovo
That’s a new one, I like it. it might explain why the time look acted weird as well. I doubt that that’s what it actually does but still…
Actually, she remembered it because the one who triggered the reset was meant to be the only one who remembered it.
My prediction: the orbs are an alien symbiote, like Maxima’s “Gold”, but will bond to any sentient being. The final orb, I think, either gives “comprehension”, allowing her to understand supers’ powers, or gives her the ability to copy a power, like Varia, which would be pretty neat, if somewhat more OP.
Looking at Max after your comments….I feel like I should lead with stating that none of these is anything I noticed in actually reading the comic, just my efforts to analyze after what you said was bothering you.
The wetsuit probably contributes a good bit to your sensation that Max is a bit mannequin, because it simplifies the lines of her body into a single color and takes away some of the definition of her figure. The material shading also is a bit bright, lending a little more plastic look. Are you going for a wet look or a dry look there? If it’s dry, might need a little more light-absorbing to the shading. Wet would probably be more complicated to keep subtle while reacting to light.
However, in panels 1 and 4, I think you’ve also squared off her face a bit and made it less angular than usual in the frontal view. I feel like the forehead may be the issue with that specific perspective and the way the light is shining. It makes the corner lines a bit squared off while the front of the forehead is a bit washed out by the light source. That makes me think the shading regarding light source with Max’s reflective skin combined with the viewing angle may be the part you’re having trouble capturing quite like you want it.
Looking at the eyes, they look good in 4 with the more forward facing and that makes me think the pupils are the issue in 1 and 5. If you compare those to 4, her pupils occupy too much of her eye in 1 and 5 by comparison, though I think it’s because you’re trying hard to make it where her gaze can be followed. It makes it look slightly cross-eyed in 1 because both pupils are so far in towards her nose.
I wanna say again that none of this is anything that stood out to me in actually viewing the page; only efforts to analyze excessively after your comments. I also completely lack any drawing skill of my own, so take that into account as well. :D
2 possibly important issues with the conversations so far.
1) do remember Dabbler is a well traveled (and easily distractable by anything interesting to herself) space alien. IF a race of people existed, even without anyone seeing the Orbs themselves there would be stories about them if they were currently alive or historically had lived. No one has asked Dabbler about any story yet, so its still possible, but otherwise it would tend to make these Orbs a unique set of items.
2) Don’t get too invested in the Spaceship idea yet, anyone who has read comics will probably agree that its use will like be the a cause /solution = to a dramtic problem >.>
Well made points. There was not a need to ask Dabbler mind, as she was on the team specifically investigating the orbs (with Pixel heading it up). As such we can take it that she is unaware of any race likely to have created the orbs. Had she revealed that to the team, it would have been noteworthy enough to have been remarked upon by now.
Unless, of course, the exchange was rated as being above Sydney’s (rather high) pay grade (and, more importantly her clearance level). As Maxima and Zephan suspect that Sydney is concealing things about her origin story, they may not completely trust her, even with information about her own orbs.
Plus, of course, the orb makers (assuming they were created, in such a way) know how to alter reality at a fundamental level. If they do not want anyone to be aware of them, they just turn the flag ‘known by other races’ to 0.
That way one of them could stand in the middle of a crowd, observing Halo, and be completely unremarkable. Even if they had blue skin, everyone would just take him to be another tourist, and get back to admiring the view. Say the Grand Canyon, or any passing super heroes.
I would think that it might be a “this doesn’t stand out” flag. The human mind looks for patterns and has a higher chance of ignoring things that blend in.
Well put.
Apparently not, the upwards force that the bubbles impart is enough to counteract the buoyancy difference.
A stationary bubble of course, would be a different situation.
Well, we can infer a bit from the Skill Tree. Unknown Orange has three branches off the main mandela. There’s an ‘orphan’ node, and then there’s two side bits, zig-zagging off it. All the other side branches are loops and curves*. But Unknown orange has a zig-zag? Whatever it does, it does two things, each incrementally powerful, but as.. sidegrades? I dunno.
*PPO has weapon-type selector, and I’m guessing power upgrade for the interior dots.
You missed two significant aspects to the zig-zag paths. One is that they are not identical. Whilst they both have five nodes, one of them has to have each taken in sequence. We can see that, from the lines connecting them. You cannot get to the greater powers, without taking the lesser grades first.
But if you look at the other path, it only has four that are in such a state. The exception being a power that could be optionally taken once the initial grade of the zig-zag path had been unlocked. Yet taking that would not unlock the next item in the main path, that has already been done.
Which is the second point of note, being that both the prerequisite starting power has been unlocked, as well as that optional one.
I suspect that the zig-zag path is to indicate two different types of upgrade. Let us assume that the brown orb is the Mother Earth Orb. One zig-zag path indicating earth creation powers, the other trees. Let us say that the one with the optional power is the earth creator.
Clearly the default power would simply be ‘create soil’. Until you can do this basic nutrition creating function (to plant your air and fruit giving trees in), you would not be worthy of moving on to more advanced star ship replicator needs.
The optional power is to create something that is only circumstantially useful. Clearly this would be gold. Pawey if wanting beads to trade with natives, on a primitive world. Other than that not really useful until you get to ones advanced enough to need noble metals for more advanced industrial needs.
This though informs us that that side of the zig-zag is to do with the hardness of the material. Gold being relatively soft. So the user could choose to skip gold, if it is useless to them presently, and instead unlock the next hardness increase. Just to keep with the theme, let us say that it grants rock creation (of any non-metallic sort, including ones that are harder than gold).
So we can deduce that the other side, of the zig-zag, would be quantity. The air orb created enough air to surround one person. We can argue that the basic soil creation does the same. Upgrading that would give a significant increase mind, as there is only the one improvement on that side, so it could be an almost incalculable increase.
*discreetly taps paws in turns*
.. a four-fold increase in volume!
The final node allowing the creation of things from really hard metals like adamantium and realyhardium.
The users skill mind would indicate what could be created. An unskilled crewman could only create a lump of material. Whereas a talented user could create a suit of armour.
Whist the tree path would similarly indicate size of tree (starting out with bush and ending up with redwood) and numbers of trees (one through to an orchard full).
Running with the theme, the other zig-zag path on the green orb could be liquid creation. But instead of hardness improvements, it might be corrosives.
Starship skill certification restricting the creation of redwoods and highly corrosive acids to the more skilled and trusted crew members.
Has anyone made note of the skill tree that it is two unconnected graphs? the main graph, with all the orbs and paths, etc. The second, unconnected to the main graph, is the center heptagon, with single lines to 7 circles; the circles have double lines between them. two “pie” sections of center heptagon are filled in, rest of the second graph is not filled in.
The second graph appears to be overlaid and not actually connecting to the larger main graph at all. I’ve seen no mention of this in comments, and wonder if it means something.
correction: center two slices of heptagon, and two singly-connected circles are filled in, and nothing else.
Yea, I have seen no comments about that recently (but missed a bunch, so that is not definitive). But it certainly has raised a lot of speculation over the years. With many diverse theories.
Most of which indicate that when all the slices of the heptagon are filled in… something BIG happens.
Personally I like:
Let us just hope that Halo is on the easy setting, and that does not trigger the end-of-level boss to spawn!
My theory isn’t that they’re not a ‘space ship’, but rather a probe system. Want to learn about a new place? Send in orbs. They require a sentient being to activate, and make themselves useful. Since the creators don’t know what the target species will need, they load the orbs with a wide variety of useful powers – the upgrade system.
That said, I really like the ‘cargo storage’ idea.
They already tried the brown orb in the ballroom when they were questioning Sydney.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/515
No portal to a brig. I suspect it’s for dealing with food and potty problems. Not at the same time, mind you.
Well spotted. We can, of course, see the green one making air there. But only the observant will notice what the brown orb is doing.
Granted that is not a brig, but that is just the basic function.we know from the trusight orb that they can have other functions too. And the brown orb has two symbols activated on the ‘skill tree’.
Two symbols = two extra symbols
(Three glowing in all, when we saw the opened skill tree).
Why has nobody commented on the observation portal, in the swimming pool? Have none of y’all got any natural urges?
Yeah, had noticed that as well, before noticing Sydney lurking below, butt kept getting distracted by the Harem Butt
I would also use the Breath Orb to make someone look like they farted.
Puerile!
I would not be able to resist either, mind. ;-)
But poetic justice when Sydney gets a face full of teleporter butt, when Harem falls on her. Air does not have enough buoyancy, to keep Harem floating.
Good point. There is about to be a large *BLOOSH* followed by Harem dropping down into the bubble pocket.
However, two things. First, she is probably leaning on the side of the pool. While she may still drop, she might also be able to cling on. Second, she’s a skilled teleporter, and will likely vanish at the first tickle of something odd.
Although Guesticus disagrees that it is likely, do not forget that the level of the pool may still be still lower than its normal level, until the pumps have topped up the pool, after the Halo incident. So Harem may not have the convenient elbow rest.
Even a skilled person needs to either 1) think about what to do (and thereby can be taken by surprise) or 2) have pre-programmed instinctive response to a threat. This too can be circumvented by being blindsided.
Years after I last did martial arts, I had a serious fall (slipping on icy steps) and would almost certainly had broken limbs, were it not for my falling training kicking in. No thought required.
There is a limit to this though. Firstly it needs to be a very specific response to a particular stimulus. It will not work on ‘something odd’. If you ever did that you would be responding inappropriately every time someone brushed up against you, or a breeze made something flutter on your clothing or a floorboard creaked.
So unexpected stimuli can only realistically be handled by 1), which means Harem would be affected by the air bubble and fall. She has been blindsided and there is no way she could have programmed a response to being attacked by an air bubble. She will never have faced that before, unless she takes jacuzzis with Godzilla (and we know that giant monsters don’t exist in the Grrlverse).
We have seen Harem use phenomenal teleporting skill in slowing Krona’s fall though. So when she is not blindsided she certainly does have the skill you suggest for the much simpler escaping from a fall.
Here though there is a slight difference to a programmed martial arts fall response, versus hers. Namely Harem’s power limitations. She can only teleport where she can see (in this case being places above her, which will actually increase her fall distance) or back to a familiar place.
So if her programmed response is to ‘teleport to a safe place I can see’, that may not kick in (depending on how she has practiced falling). Maybe she would have set up a contingency response to just keep going up, until she has had time to think things through. Circumstantially that can be bad sometimes, meaning we cannot be certain she will have opted for that.
The other version has a problem too though. If she is on a mission away from her few ‘known places’ (like her quarters here in the HQ) then it would take a long time for her to make her way back to the mission location if she teleported away.
Think about how many times you might stumble, say in an unseen pothole or ditch, if wandering around an unfamiliar area, in the dark. Something we saw Harem having to do, with all her bodies, in the last mission. If she had that programmed response, at least one of those teams would have been Harem-less until an osprey could take her close enough for her to see them, for her to be able to teleport back.
In conclusion neither version of a programmed teleport response might kick in autonomously, under these circumstances. She may need a moment to decide which to do, when caught totally by surprise (especially when completely relaxed). By which time we have butt-in-face.
Which is why had the wonderful idea of a caught-with-her-bikini-down Blondini *VORP*ing somewhere (possibly) random (Deus’ office during a meeting with some ‘more-than-shady’ types wearing just her bikini and a puddle, for fun times)
Mmm, good point. I had never contemplated that Deus’s office must be one of her familiar places. The very fact that Harem left her choker behind indicates that she is paranoid that Archon would trace her activities. So she likewise would have had to avoid any means of remotely seeing the location (say by using Skype on her smartphone), to target her teleport.
Given that it takes a long time for Harem to establish such a new teleport location (such as living in a new home, for some time), that indicates a much longer sustained relationship with Deus than I had previously envisaged. Her behaviour is not a casual new whim, from a bored girl. She has been up to this for a long time.
And, yea, if her true loyalties lie with Deus, then she would indeed consider that to be the safe place to escape to, in a surprise emergency (but only should she program such a response in, of course).
Wasn’t considering it as being one of her “Safe Spaces” (that would be her family farm), but more simply as a funny random location
The doggy’s insight is good tho – harem is very familiar with Deus’s office, and whether it’s a “safe place” in her view would tell us whose side she’s really on.
Also, being 5 places at once makes being a double or triple agent much easier logistically.
When I went back to check the skill tree after we found out what the green orb did, I noticed that only the green orb had the double line double circle one filled in and that each orb had one of those. I think it might be an “emergency summons” thing, where, if you’re in a situation where you need that orb, it comes into your hand, like the Green Orb did in the pool.
Also, since the PPO and the Flyball have a connection, she needs to use those together more often to try to figure out what that does.
That is an extremely astute deduction. I do not recall it being suggested before (in that format, there have been things with a similar result, but not such an elegant solution). Plus it does match the observed facts.
Of course the same could have been achieved by Sydney (consciously or subconsciously) summoning the orb. But that may not be the case, so your idea remains a good one.
Re. your last the common speculation is that it creates the tank-melting beam. Which, like your suggestion, may be the correct answer. But you have indicated the correct route to go to confirm or refute that hypothesis. Compare the basic mode, to when flying. Likewise see if pressing the ‘multiple small fireballs’ glyph has a different result in the air.
Perhaps it will create multiple whirling cutting beams!
Max might be wise about suggesting heading out to the firing range.
My thought was possibly an autonomous mode. Do a thing with orb. Flick a glyph. Now you can let go of it and it will continue thing-ing.
That is certainly the way the embiggener works,* provided you are talking about letting go of the glyph, rather than the orb.
But frightening to envisage the same thing happening with the glyphs that provide alternate firing modes for the PPO! Extended cutting mode can be good, if using it as a cutting or welding tool. But I hope that is optional, rather than the default mode. And a never ending stream of fireballs sounds … bad.
* Although do note that the shield orb still has been held, for this to continue. And we have now seen that the shield will collapse if Halo releases the orb.
So it is akin to pushing the ‘caps-lock’ on your keyboard but with a program that will time-out if you do not keep some kind of active input going, elsewhere on the keyboard, or with the mouse.
The major facial structural change I notice in Max is her jaw. It’s considerably more ‘feminine’ than early max; less angular and pronounced. Her lower lip also used to be a bit more… more.
The lower specularity here could be attributed to something like sunscreen. I think that was a thing.
YES! It’s not as ‘square’, and it’s slightly narrower, but certainly more ’rounded’
Ok, this may just be me, but what if the light hook is actually a way to link all the balls together?
Has she ever used the light hook on any of the other Orbs? Can you see some type of advanced (magical/technological) maker making it so it can only use 2 at a time? Unless its some kink of multi limb creature? Just a thought.
Cunning thought.
Are you the Truesight Orb’s evil twin?
The two orb limit is probably just a safety feature, to prevent a user trying to do too many diverse things at once. Or reflects the power limitations of the orb. Do more than two things and it simply does not have the energy to work properly.
Story wise though it is absolutely vital, as it makes Halo an interesting character. Without that nothing could realistically challenge her and the comic would become boring fast.
We can see above that Sydney uses the tentacle casually, like it is one of her own limbs. So it would surprise me if she had not tried to do as you suggest. Even though I have not thought of doing that, it is a different matter if you actually have the thing to play with, on demand.
Either way though I seriously doubt it will work. The author implemented Halo’s restriction with a sound purpose.
not multilimbed, multi-nostriled. I’m still pushing my theory that the aliens who created the orbs have huge, 7-nostriled noses. How do they smell? Amazing.
theory about last orb; time travel orb! It all fits-nobody knows who made them because they haven’t yet!
So Sydney is actually the orb-maker.
That… explains a lot.
Actually my $ is on Dabbler making them.
Argh! Everyone forgets the sick bay! A spaceship needs an infirmary, a place to heal up, so that last orb is indeed the papercut-healing orb!
…Of course, she didn’t get the thing to swoop into her hands to heal her of the peppernoodle doomsmack to her eyeball, nor the other cuts and bruises…but then they weren’t life-threatening, either, so she’d probably have to summon it to her hand deliberately in those cases…
Don’t think she would have at least pondered the ponderable after the Restaurant Rumble and tried to see if one really was the MedKit?
It has been suggested a number of times. I am with Guesticus on this though.
We have seen no instances of the orbs ignoring even trivial orders by Halo, so I do not see them suddenly deciding that ‘sorry you are not hurt badly enough, we are not going to comply’. Not if they are willing to be used for something as whimsical as creating an elbow-rest for Sydney (see above).
The exception being if it literally provides a place to heal up (accessing an extra-dimensional hospital, for example). Or summons an emergency medical hologram. Those are pretty specific things that Sydney may simply not have gotten around to testing yet.
Whereas trying to use it for direct healing is a no-brainer. Every time she felt the pain or saw the bruise she would want to cure it. Clearly that never worked. Plus we have no hint that the orbs have limited energy, so there is no good reason to restrict healing to life-threatening injuries only. All that does is puts off users from activating their healing capability.
“Oh, the girder missed my heart, this is probably not serious enough….” would be the ‘famous last words’ on her tombstone.
Hey, don’t forget what Kurtz said about drawin’ comics:
First you get good.
Then you get fast.
Then you get goodfast.
If you’re going to take a couple days off to hone your craft, maybe you should spend it trying to power through as many sketches as you can as fast as possible. By nature, they’ll look worse. Until they gradually and mysteriously stop looking worse. Then you’re in “Look and draw” country!
Dave has done stuff like that, in the past. Here is one example. Dave has pretty much managed goodfast. He just keeps upping the bar, as he is always seeking to develop his talent further.
Which is a good thing.
The only trouble is that he is so dedicated to his craft that he crams in every bit of those developed skills in maintaining the standards of the comic at the highest levels possible. Only reining himself in when there literally is no more time left, to meet the deadline.
Which invariably means that he cannot have time for other matters (e.g. updating the cast list). Or, in this case, practicing new techniques that he wishes to try out.
Dave does try to find ways to cut down the time spent on the comic, but I suspect most of those time savings then get spent pushing the quality up, in other areas. This is something he can carry on trying to find a solution to, in due course.
At the moment though I think he needs to prioritise freeing up some time, at the earliest possible opportunity. Burning out is a serious risk in this industry. If Dave feels the need to take time out to explore techniques, it serves the dual purpose of achieving that aim and giving him a vital change of pace.
Sometimes a change is as good as a break.
hovering in the pool under harem thinking “sulphur hydroxide and methane” while using the enviro-orb?
All she really needs to do is think “Rotten egg smell” and the orb should do the rest
Best prank, 10/10
She also forgot Medical Bay in that list, if its the case she can heal herself or others.
time to update the who’s who
“Super power powered pranks. Sure to go well.”
Who else but Sydney would dare to do a super fart in the swimming pool?
:D
Dabbles?
Hmmm…I’d think Dabbler would be more inclined to do a super powered f**k in the pool than a quper powered fart.
ergh! Typo!
super, not quper.
Knowing Dabbles, both :D
But Dabbles likes to ‘mess’ with Maxi, so, both :P (may or may not at the same time)
I myself the healing, but truthfully I think that she would have tried this already.
I mean, come on….. She already knows that she can tank, but not think she may be set as the healer? I find that hard to believe. The writer is probable cackling at these comments…If they only knew….muhhhhhhahahaha!
As someone who once dabbled in art, let me tell you that feet are a pain-in-the-arse to draw. I don’t know exactly why, but a lot of people seem to struggle with them. I’ve seen near professional-level drawings and then right around the ankle-level it looks like the artist handed the pencil over to their infant toddler to finish up.
I’ve got 2 main theories about this- first, people don’t spend a lot of time practicing them. When I took art classes, we spent hours and hours drawing hands. Feet? Not a single minute. Partly I think that’s because they are seen so much less often. You could probably get through 90# of comics and never actually have to show a foot and not diminish any scene much. Maybe less for superhero comics where dynamic action poses show up a lot, but for most other genres it’s probably not a big deal.
Second, feet tend to be scene from weird angles. Unless you’re actually attempting some kind of foot-fetish page, most drawings tend to focus on a character’s face and torso. That means when/if you occasionally show feet, then tend to be at the edge of the drawing and at maximum distortion. So that takes yet more practice to get right, too.
Anyone else with artistic experience want to weight in?
You think I don’t know harems butt? I make a study of all butts.
’cause it’s all about da bass, ’bout da bass (no treble), and all de’re bass are belong to us?
I don’t care about bass, bass or bases. I just like butts.
He likes em big and he can not lie……. Turning off oldies station now.