Grrl Power #545 – Tit for tit
Technically Sydney only exposed one fifth of Harem’s boobs, so she could argue that wearing an aggressive V-neck would be commensurate reparation.
When Harem said “everyone,” Sydney pictured having to be on stage in the auditorium with the whole team there, select members of the press, and everyone who ever bullied her or she ever had a crush on. Cause that’s just how her brain works. Also, probably no one actually saw Harem’s boobs anyway. She was on the edge of the pool and the splash covered everything up. Doesn’t mean Harem won’t sneak a whoopie cushion under Sydney at some point.
Maxima officially has good hearing, but nothing approaching super human. She can’t hear outside of the normal human range, though her hearing hasn’t worsened over time since she got her powers, so she has the hearing of a ~15 year old. But if people want to think she has super hearing, she won’t dissuade them.
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
OK, ‘fess up….which of you did this: (note the pic of harem’s bikini)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini
it may have been DaveB, now I think if it…in tribute, sorta
unfortunately, I don’t see what it is you’re referring to
Guess it got edited out.
(note the pic of harem’s bikini)
in the picture, there is a store window, with several mannikins wearing bikinis. Look for one that is red,white and blue. the stripes on the bottom go up/down, not left/right, but it’s Harem’s bikini otherwise.
you have to look REALLY REALLY close because it’s in the middle of the fricken picture and the most colorful, noticeable part of the picture.
Also, much like with Harem, there are five models in the window.
The most disturbing thing being that Harem has an ant-like (or egg-like) head!
That picture has been the page picture on Wikipedia at least since June (didn’t bother going back more), and the image of the US Flag Bikini is a trope by itself (almost said “almost a trope”, but sure enough: TV tropes – Flag Bikini)
After reading that TV Tropes link, I now want to wear a Brazillian flag bikini.
(Apparently it’s illegal in Brazil to wear their flag on a bikini.)
Actually quite a few countries, around the world, have laws in place to protect their flag from disrespect. Do be very careful where you practice your acts of ‘freedom of expression’. On account of, if you are lucky, you will just find yourself deported. Do it in the wrong country though and you will be going to jail.
Even getting put on remand for, say wearing Indian flag sandals, would not be a pleasant experience. It can take up to twenty years for a case to come to court. As for wearing the underwear variants, that could just get you lynched on the spot!
…. you spent an awwwwful long time scrutinizing Harems bikini there, hmmmmmm
Is that blood coming out of her nose and mouth? I wanted to call it a “manga nosebleed”, but this seems more of a (negative) stress-induced phenomenon. I’m also getting a concerned big sister vibe from Maxima in the last panel.
It is ‘defensive bleeding’ an extreme form of ‘manga nosebleed’.
It works. Each panel is ‘ooh, pretty face… pretty face’ until the final panel…
EEEEK!
It’s certainly clear that it’s an extension of embarrassment, given the situation and reddening in build up to it.
That or she just had a stress induced hemorrhage. Ether way, you don’t want to know how hard it is to get blood out of pool tile and grout.
Try using cola.
Supposdly, road cops in America carry canisters of the stuff to spray onto crash sites where blood has been spilt to help clean it away.
In reality they use hydrogen peroxide solution.
Ahh, but in an apocalypse that may be in short supply, so apocalypse cola is the only way to go!
Nuka cola. Quenches thirst, powers nuclear reactors, glows in the dark AND cleans blood stains.
https://www.themebeta.com/media/cache/400×225/files/chrome/images/201607/15/11d7a0f540631fed714e26b26a45fc9e.jpeg
I don’t know why everyone makes a fuss about blood being hard to clean up. everything works on it. I have never ended up with a blood stain on any of my clothing or any hard surface, but have had plenty of blood on them over the years. (martial arts, military training, and a completely clumsy family and friend group who use me as their EMT… I’m not a serial killer or anything) The only time I would even worry about a blood stain is if it was on something absorbent like a couch or mattress that could soak it up, and even those aren’t terrible if you are quick to clean it up.
Fresh blood is easy to take care of, but once it’s well baked in things change.
If you’re just trying to make the red spots disappear, sure. But cops have ways of detecting it, even after it’s been cleaned. Getting rid of ALL TRACES of blood is what’s difficult.
Juptiter has been trying to get rid of the evidence, on Saturn, for centuries.
Easy replace the tile and grout lol
At first, I thought she bit her tongue for some reason.
I don’t know if I’m amused or scared by Sydney’s gusto face
I take it Dabbler’s returned with an “upgrade” to her wetsuit.
That’s not Dabbler, that’s one of Harem’s clones vanishing topless from the pool to get dressed while another of her who is already dressed appears next to Sydney.
Oh god, how did I not get that? >_< I know there's 5 of them and I saw the change in hair color, but… somehow my brain thought instead:
"Oh, so she can sort of reset during teleport and her hair has a different color when it's out of the water, what with chlorine being able to bleach hair."
And I didn't notice her change in clothing. Talk about change-blindness. I just learned about it in El Goonish Shive NP and until today I thought I’m totally not that bad a case of change-blind. Now I’m sad.
(Good to see a fellow EGS fan.)
Don’t worry, it’s tricky to keep track of all of Harlem’s forms. Seeing as each one is kinda it’s on personality, it can be annoying to remember that she’s can be fighting in two places but it’s the same person.
psst, ‘Harem’; ‘Harlem’ is a COMPLETELY different kettle of fish :P
Useful bit of trivia. If you hear a Dutch person saying they are from “Harlem”, that is just their accent, combined with your brain finding the nearest world to it match it with. What they are actually saying is “Arnhem”.
Unless, of course, they happened to be Dutch American, but then they would probably either tweak their accent, or clarify which they meant, once they became aware that it confuses English speakers.
Dear Yorp, I love you very much, but i’m going to have to “well-actually” you here. My apologies!
Phonetically, I can see how “Arnhem” also sounds like “Harlem”.
The short “a” of Arnhem is closer to “Harlem” than the long “aa” of Haarlem.
the “em”s at the end also really draw together if you’re as lazy in articulating as I am.
However, that Dutch person is probably saying they are from wonderful city of “Haarlem”, Noord-Holland.
Haarlem is the city that gave Harlem its name, back when Manhattan Island was still the Colony of “Nieuw Nederland” and New York was still called “Nieuw Amsterdam”.
Source: Dutchman myself, grew up 20km from Arnhem, had relatives in Haarlem.
Also, wikipedia..
The distinction would be obvious to you, as a native speaker. I spoke from the experience of taking down a customer’s name and address, onto an official form. But when I queried ‘like in New York’, he clarified by spelling out ‘Arnhem’.
Further corroborated by me starting to tell the anecdote to my dad, that evening, only to have him interrupt me, before I even got to say what was actually meant. Having lived in South Africa for many years, he had come across the confusion before and correctly anticipated that I was about to say ‘Arnhem’.
As a family we knew very many Boers, and had several Dutch friends, due to the close historical links between the two groups. So my dad had come across that particular problem a number of times.
This is an issue of English people misunderstanding Dutch people, so I am actually the right side of the equation. Your native fluency puts you at a disadvantage, on this point. Where I, and my dad, may be different to average English speakers (meaning my sole sources of information may be biased and thereby incorrect when speaking generally) is that I grew up fluent in Afrikaans and my dad learnt it well.
So what we hear we may actually have interpreted slightly differently to folks who speak English as a sole language. So if your experience is actually of English people consistently understanding ‘Arnhem’, then I bow to your experience.
Although I would then wonder if the difference may come from my dad and I having been exposed to someone from a different dialect or streektaal to yourself?
Oh wow, I’ll take your Dad pre-empting funny mishearings over my historical-accurateness :-)
If multiple people are having the same problem often enough that it becomes an in-joke, then that’s definitely more significant than obscure etymology!
I’ll accept that as a native Dutch speaker I’m on the wrong side of the “in”-crowd, and will add this amusing tidbit to my repertoire of fun facts. It’s always cool to learn more fun facts about my own language! :-)
I usually don’t have trouble explaining “Arnhem” to the English, but my circles are predominantly British English, where I expect that “Harlem, New York” isn’t as much at the forefront of their brains as for American English.
I also have a (nasty?) habit of pre-mangling names (including my own) to conform more to the listeners expected (but wrong) pronunciation given the correct spelling, rather than have correct pronunciation leading to wrong expected spelling.
Also, Arnhem played an important role in WWII (operation Market Garden), so I think Brits are actually more primed for our “Arnhem” then for the USA’s “Harlem”, given how much WWII documentaries the BBC keeps repeating.
As for Afrikaans vs Dutch:
Phonetically, I believe that puts you at basically native level of parsing the Dutch sounds. It’s “just” word choice and grammar after that :-P
Should we ever meet, I’m betting we could have a wonderful evening being comically amused by each others turns-of-phrase!
Heh, I always did get on very well with Dutch folks, having a thick Afrikaans accent and fluency. I never did buy into those who said that they would have no problems communicating in the Netherlands though. They usually came back saying ‘I could understand about one word in three’. :-D
Even worse for me now though, I have long lost all the languages I used to speak as a pup. But it has left me with a good ear for accents, and am able to communicate well enough even without a common language. I think I have built up quite a few skill points in ‘gesture’ and ‘mime’, instead of doing the correct thing and gaining fluency in ‘Bulgarian’.
But the former two are handier if trying to communicate elsewhere, they are useful supplements to a phrase book.
I don’t think I would need that with you though.
*wags tail in amusement*
Wow, quite the globetrotter you are!
I’ve only made it from the Netherlands to neighbouring Germany.
Speaking of Phrasebooks : “I have forgotten to iron the dishes this evening!”
*Scratches Yorp behind the ears with a smile*
(I’d definitely say that “Gesture” translates better, as evidenced by the above :-P)
exactly how does a kettle of fish taste, anyway?
Like herring, but redder.
Tbh for the longest time I thought that Peggy was a Harem, too. XD
Also the cast page isn’t working. I wanted to look up the Harem forms, but nooooo, nothing loads. :-( Tried FF and Chrome.
And yes, EGS is awesome, though I refuse to remember what each of the numerous transformation abilities can or can’t do. That guy totally should create a spreadsheet where the rows list the abilities (including users) and the columns list what they can do and then he should mark the cells with crosses or remarks as they apply.
Not a bad idea. But what would he do for Ellen at this point? Create a three-dimensional spreadsheet so we can have combinations and “not-rays” abilities?
Honestly, I’ve decided to let it flow. I don’t bother tracking everyone’s transformation powers, except as their global effect (Rhoda, size [well… I have to remember to update this in my mind ;-) ]; Grace, herself; Elliot, himself/herself; etc.), and let Dan Shive keep things straight.
(by the way, I think I discovered EGS through GrrlPower)
I mean, there’s really no reason to keep track at home beyond their ‘bent’ anyways. I think the NP arc is, right now, more for Dan’s benefit than ours. He’s just also using it as an excuse to draw silly transformy stuff, as he do.
NP is just a way for him to explore interesting things that (usually) do not fit into the canon story. So explaining the transformation variants does fit the bill. And the writer’s block idea was a clever way of overcoming said difficulty.
But even though I too am not that fussed about the transformations either, having such a free scope in NP does allow for some very interesting ideas to be shown. For instance I liked where Grace went with her video gaming morals. Plus the demonic distraction duck was fun.
I don’t think Anvildude was commenting on NP’s overall value, just the current arc on Ellen’s powers. I’m not sure it’s that much for Dan Shive’s benefit, however. While I (and, apparently, others) don’t care in trying to remember everyone’s transformation powers, the arc setting how her powers work will serve as a reference for later events in the comics itself. This way, he won’t have to explain how they work when he actually has Ellen shooting a combined ray with scout fingers, he’ll just have to point readers who have forgotten about it to the correct NP comic.
As for NP as a whole, I like it. The silliness is cranked up since he does not need to bother with canon, unless he uses it for light stories that would slow down the main narrative, which means we have very different things in it that do not impact the continuity, and this is really clever.
And the fact he managed to create a story with the writer’s block as the hero? Yeah, that was brilliant.
Yeah, that spreadsheet is gonna be complicated. You don’t need to add another dimension if you’re willing to blow up one of your existing ones. E.g. it’s possible to display a 3x3x3 cube in a 3×9 spreadsheet, but the 9 columns will have more complicated names, as they’re combinations of two colums each.
It’s complicated because he has aparently contradicted himself in that arc at least once. And Magic’s tweaked itself anyway so Dan can Basicaly do whatever he needs it to do now that he has all of the older Ye Auld Magic System, “Default Magic System” for humans, whatever systems the Gryphones uses, and whatever system Elliot-Magus uses.
The cast page has a technical incompatibility with some change in WordPresss so is offline until Dave gets time to sort it. He has other pressing priorities for now though, so that may take some tome.
I see, good to know, thx.
No, I was referring to what/who all three of them are looking at in the last panel. but from comments, I gather that Sydney is just imagining (not looking at anything in particular), and Max and Harem are looking at Sydney hemorraghing inexplicably. I know it’s a common meme – sudden sex equals massive nosebleed. But I’ve never seen a connection or humor in this. Like a game of baseball resulting in a train wreck – it makes no sense at all.
Yea, I got it straight away, but YouTube has loads of manga/anime*, and I have watched a fair amount, so am very used to that convention.
I think one thing that will have contributed to the effect is that Maxima’s eye-line does not lead to Sydney, so would give the impression she is looking at something else (barring for those of us who are immersed in the manga nosebleed convention). But from her perspective, Maxima could not directly see Sydney’s face, so it is reasonable that she is not focused on it. Harem’s does though correctly lead to Sydney.
I do love their expressions and reactions there mind, ignoring that very slight issue, with the eye-line.
And throughout the page actually. Very nicely done.
Still frightening however, looking at Sydney’s last depiction.
* I tend to use the two interchangeably, even though they are not synonymous. But conventions do cross over from one to the other, and each feeds back to affect the other in various ways. So much of the time either works. Except if stipulating the particular medium. At which point my fuzziness may cause confusion.
Just remember: Manga is the magazines or books, and Anime is the animated or cartoons
If it is a distinction that I do not need to make often enough, then my brain tends to adopt the Sherlock Holmes solution to such matters. As it made little practical difference to his day-to-day life it was not necessary for Holmes to know whether the Earth went around the Sun or vice versa.
Now if he actually realised that it was carried on the back of a chariot, and thereby potentially subject to theft, he would have made a point to memorise the details.
Although it is not common, there is actually a genuine medical basis to this.
I genuinely clicked to see what the medical connection between train wrecks and baseball was… *facepalm*
Heh. There is one mind.
Blunt impact trauma.
Look up the movie Brewster’s Millions.
Oh poor Sydney!
*hugs… reconsiders… stands back and turns around*
Uhh, nothing to see here folks! Move along.
*gets hankie out*
You might want this Sydney.
Thank you for helping her, Yorp. I was too emotionally disturbed from Dave crushing our dreams.
I guess this will have to do: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/153
aw poor sydney I just want to cuddle her and tell her it will be alright
Not Sydney’s best look, by far. Not her best moment, either. Poor girl has some serious body image issues.
It’s easy to have body image issues working at Archon.- especially in Arc-swat and every super other than her having a pretty much idealized human bodytype.
I would agree, somewhat; however, Sydney appears to have serious issues from before joining with Archon.
Body issues? Yes. Serious body issues? No. Not until she works alongside literally the sexiest women on the planet who have the ability to make her feel both fat and scrawny at the same time.
No, just issue. Many, many issues
Normally, I would say someone has more issues than Newsweek, but in Sydney’s case, I’ll say she has more issues than Action Comics.
She has as many issues as a Diamond distributor can have,
Pretty much anyone would develop body image issues if they suddenly had to start working at Archon and being surrounded by literal idealized men and women who’s physical appearances put them to shame.
That goes for men and women.
I’m still waiting to see if Leon is there with everyone.
There is sunshine. I think there is some kind of rule about IT staff not being allowed out of the basement unless working, nor out of the building until after dark.
Not in Archon, just talking generally.
I don’t get the bleeding. I mean, I know in anime guys have nose bleeds when they are sexually aroused, but why would the fear of exposing herself cause Sydney to bleed like a punch in the mouth?
Embarrassment?
Yep, you can see her reddening in previous panels.
Actually I think it is just the volume of blood, from the nose. It is running along her mouth and dripping off of it, rather than being emitted from her mouth too.
I don’t get the (humor of/thinking behind) anime/manga nosebleed thing anyway. I realize that’s probably some Japanese meme, but I think it’s just nasty, not funny.
Having had a friend who used to get nosebleeds for the littlest reasons, I can see the idea behind it. Basically, the character gets aroused, blood pressure goes up, and it busts a capillary in the nose causing it to bleed. The excessiveness of the bleeding is, of course, comedic license/indication of how affected the character is by things. (Such as Kouta Tsuchiya appearing to nearly bleed to death on multiple occasions in the series Baka and Test)
Though the manga trope is exaggerated, I also used to have a nose like that. It got better after some treatment from an ear-nose-throat specialist, though a severe cold might still provoke it.
Chemicals can do it too. I had a terrible nosebleed in the shower after a few days exposure to perchlorethylene.
I get nosebleeds pretty easily as well. They _might_ coincide with arousal… Though I am aroused almost all the time.
In real life, I’ve never heard of anyone thinking themselves into bleeding who didn’t need immediate medical care.
Emotionally induced nosebleeds are pretty rare. So unless you worked in a role that gave you particular exposure to such sufferers it would be unlikely that you would have a broad enough experience of such for it to be a balanced observation.
I do wonder if Japanese people are more prone to such mind. Not that I think such is likely, of course, but it appears so frequently that the thought has crossed my mind in the past. It may be rare for western patients, but if it happens relatively more frequently in Japan then that may explain it.
But there is a more likely reason, and that it is simply a striking phenomenon if you do observe it. Or if people you feel to be reliable report having seen or experienced it first hand. And interesting things are what inspires writers. Plus, of course, once it becomes a cultural shorthand, then it becomes self-perpetuating.
Nosebleeds from arousal is a really old japanese wives tale. Kinda the equivalent of the western saying that you sneeze when someone talks about you, or shiver when someone walks over your grave.
The “sneeze when people talk about you” is something I’ve only seen in anime, too.
But yes, the nosebleed-when-aroused is a Japanese myth. I don’t think it’s being used right, here, unless something’s going on that I’m not aware of.
You are both correct. But there is something so close to it that it could be indistinguishable, under the appropriate circumstances. And that is nose-bleeding through anxiety. So if aroused but anxious (a fairly normal situation for teens, who are the usual subjects of manga/anime) then the nosebleed is possible. Unlikely as it is a rare phenomenon, but possible.
They do give a misleading impression that it is the norm though, rather than being uncommon.
Nosebleeds can be caused by blood rushing to the head and weak membranes in the nasal cavity. As a result, they can be induced by any strong ‘face reddening’ emotion (anger, embarrassment, arousal, etc.) It’s an actual thing, although uncommon. Anime and Manga picked up for it as being an easy cue for arousal, especially in characters who hide their emotions (and from there became a trope to be more over-done with characters that don’t hide their emotions, although in reality, a character who experiences “hot” emotions more would be more immune due to constantly rebuilding those same membranes.)
Sydney is experiencing it for embarrassment (unless she’s secretly a forced exhibitionist fetishist, which hasn’t been implied), which means she’s actually -not- reenacting the manga/anime trope, but seriously just has weak sinus membranes (which -is- a little surprising considering she’s a woman who owns a comic book store; unless her patrons -really- don’t hit on her often, which even with her tomboyish tendencies, would be surprising… although it could be men flirting with her doesn’t embarrass her -because she can play tough-guy to counteract it-, but Harem does because she’s not hit on by women often, which would bring things back full circle to making sense.)
Technically, the nosebleed from anime / manga occur from the blood pressure going up from some kind of stimulus. (Normally sexual, but excitement or stress can cause them too) The effect can occur normally, but its a more common thing to have happen in japan. (Still not often, but occurs enough statistically that people living there do see it a few times in their school life)
Although it seems like a lot of blood…. your right, that is more blood then a regular person would put out if it were completely “real life” so its a bit artistic license there. I will grant it is possible to spill that much blood yourself, but sydney outta be fainting any second because of it.
I happen to know a guy who used to get a nose bleed from just about anything, including but not limited to hotly spiced food, bungee jumping or just getting exited. So spontaneous nose bleeds from excitement as depicted in manga and anime doesn’t strike me as implausible, though it’s surely less common than what the mangaka would have you think.
I also have to disagree about the volume of blood shown on Syney’s face being excessive. My friend could easily match that amount. The first time he did a bungee jump the guys below wanted to call an ambulance as they were certain he was dying. To him it was just a normal nosebleed…
I am unsure if Sydney’s actually gonna do it
She obviously thought she would have to. Slipping into one of her worst nightmares. But she has drawn her bathrobe across so, no, I do not think Sydney is about to. And I am sure Maxima would intervene, even if she did.
Yorp, I gotta ask. You always answer fan comments with such certainty of what going on in the comic, do you work with DaveB in any way?
No, Yorpie has been around long enough to get an idea on what will or will not happen, specially regarding Sydney…
How do you know?
Because some of us have been here for just as long :P
Because we’ve been around just as long and Yorp’s a very focal fan on the forums :)
Vocal.
And focal too I guess :)
*wags tail, appreciatively*
Yes. You are a very appreciated forum friend to the point we worry when you go quiet for long periods. You are sometimes treated as a forum moderator for your skill understanding Dave and the respect most here have for you. The yorpy snacks are on the treat table in thanks.
Om nom nom!
Yorp and Dave B are actualy the same person. Think about it, have you ever seen them at the same place and time?
I’ve seen them on the same website.
Yes. Right here!
You joke, but that’s always been my assumption. In my headcanon, Yorp is DaveB’s “player” avatar so that he can keep some separation between his “official / word of god” persona and his “just hanging out” persona.
If I was going to do that with my own webcomic, I’d use an unregistered email and have a pawn avatar. Just sayin’.
Your headcannon……. Of REALITY??????????? Is that a thing?
I may be joking. Or am I in fact trying to hide the fact that I am Yorp?
You would not be the first to speculate on that. The single biggest pointer against that though is nobody would have the ability to both produce the comic and comment as much as I do.
*wags tail authoritatively*
There are a couple of things which do reinforce the misapprehension though. In that if something has occurred in the comic, I look for reasonable justifications for why such has happened.
The best example having only just happened. I speculated that the bubble of air would cause Harem to fall. When it did not, then I explored the reasons why. Much of the time it is easy to find a fair explanation because Dave does put a lot of thought into what he depicts and writes.
So if somebody takes the stance of ‘the comic is wrong because’, you will invariably find me playing Devil’s advocate and pointing out the reasons why it can be right.
The other is that Dave and I actually have fairly (but not exactly) similar morals. There are differences mind (such as my obsession with data privacy). But, on the whole, knowing someone’s moral stance can give powerful insights into their story-writing.
Likewise I draw upon my roleplaying experience, and can see that Dave keeps each character’s morals and personalities distinct. So, again, their individual behaviours become easier to anticipate. Any time I call it right meaning that it will reinforce such suspicions.
Although Sydney does have the ability to easily surprise, but that is part of her nature.
But I can assure you I am a completely separate doggy.
*wags tail reassuringly*
I wonder why no one thought I am Dave…
My real name is Dave B., and the writer here is Dave B.
Dave writes a webcomic (as we’re reading and commenting on it) and so do I.
Dave’s hero has powers related to nerd knowledge. Mine is similar.
(Of course, Sydney more brings up tropes and strategically manages the powers of others)
Dave works on his comic daily, has great art, and is immensely popular, and… oh I see the differences. (starts crying)
Some things come with time and practice. And you are popular, amongst those of us who know you well. You speak from your heart, so it is easy to tell what a nice person you are.
No! I’m Spartacus!
You honor me, Ubu!
Actually, the amount of commenting you make, could be used as an indicator why “DaveB” isn’t able to produce pages faster, or get the Cast page back online, or produce “GP:AD”…
Just joshing ya :D
Nope, no official connection. But having read most of Dave’s comments and insights he gives to his thought process, there are a number of things that can be stated with certainty. That ‘certainty’ though is based on those prior statements. Sometimes Dave’s own opinions might change over the years, and so the path the comic actually takes might diverge from what I anticipate.
Likewise, as with this thread, I lay out my thought process, and the evidence. If I think that it is compelling then I state my conclusion accordingly. Which you can see above. Alternatively, if I think that it is debatable I do try to cover the alternative argument (or state that ‘others may disagree’).
In this particular case I have greater insight than most (barring my fellow old-timers) as I campaigned for the comic to not to be censored, for instance when Sydney is in the shower. Dave though gave a very persuasive reason for why he does. Namely because Sydney would not like it otherwise.
Which is a very interesting angle, as she is fictitious But it respects the portrayal of the character. As a lifelong roleplayer that is something I very much respect. As we can see above if Sydney were real, she would be mortified to find herself being depicted in the nude. So choosing specifically not to do that is showing respect to both the character and the principles that the comic stands for.
Now once Sydney has overcome her body-image issues, that may change. Certainly we see different behaviour from Dabbler and Harem. Mind you that is always within the scope of the self-imposed certification limit that Dave has for the comic. Plus Sydney may always remain fairly shy, even if she does loosen up her inhibitions, through .. ahem… exposure therapy.
No, don’t break the cutie, Harem!
(Although, at least we have an answer to what happens when you vorp out of water.)
I dunno, maybe my prayers are finally being answered and Sydney is ODing? That or she’s just fucking weird or it has something to do with that orb.
It is a traditional manga thing, for a character exposed to an overly sexual situation. Just like, in the previous comic we see a stylized sweat drop, when she realises Harem’s predicament. Plus, at other times, we have seen Sydney in a simplified ‘chibi’ look.
Unlike most of the rest of the cast (barring Krona and Pixel), Sydney is drawn in an anime style. And apparently follows some of the other conventions.
Which can include the occasional nudity. But gratuitous nudity is unlikely in her case.
Maybe justifiable nudity, someday, when Sydney is ready for it. Which looks to be some way away!
….do we/I even want to know about why you’ve been praying for Sydney to OD? That generally leads to death unless one is very, very lucky
She is an annoying marysue.
Then perhaps this is not the comic for you? If you are in to poorly written fan fiction, you have come to the wrong website. This is a popular website, with tens of thousands of fans and enough patrons that the author works on it as a full time professional.
So your insulting term fails on even the fan fiction character definition. Let alone the other drivel it is meant to convey. Being so poor at conveying anything useful it is a term only fit for trolls.
Not to mention he couldn’t even use the term Mary Sue properly… not just a weak troll, or misinformed one. More like a troll using words like the “big kids do” because they think it sounds cool & grown up
Redguard:
While there is no consensus on a precise definition, the prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment. She’s exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye color, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She’s exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her “flaws” are obviously meant to be endearing.
Let’s take this in order:
Sydney? Exotically beautiful? Oh, please. I wouldn’t say she’s exotically beautiful.
Cool or exotic name? Only in the sense that Sydney is one of those unisex names that fits a male or female equally well.
Exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas? Well, not counting her orbs, her only “exceptional talent” is pop culture (sci-fi, comics, video games) and re-boxing inventory in such a way that nobody would even know it’s ever been opened.
Lacks any character flaws? Um, no, she has quite a few character flaws. And most of them are not particularly endearing (IMO). Cute, maybe, but not endearing.
Explicit self-insert? Are you saying that DaveB is a woman, or a pre-op transgender?
You obviously haven’t a clue what “Mary Sue” even means.
This seemed pretty obvious. Much more interesting is the question of Vorping *into* water. If it’s possible at all.
What boobs?
Sydney does have boobs, she is an official member of the A-Team. And we have had a glimpse, via Sydney picturing herself exposing herself to the guy she fancied, in the shop. That would likely be an accurate image, as it is of herself.
Not that it would matter if she were flat-chested mind. She is just as attractive, either way.
As the current vote incentive shows she has more than what she imagined.
Halo has issues about being “flatchested” so her self image is less endowed than the real her. This is being reinforced by exposure to multiple over developed chests in arc.
Very true points, both of you.
I actually find her more attractive for her small ness than the other char with thier ballons. Then again, im partial to As and Bs when it comes to breast size in general.
Compaired to 99% of the women she works with, no.
This would be a good time for the last orb to manifest its’ attribute.
Not sure how.
Omega 13?
Omega 3? Not so good at undoing the last 13 seconds, but can replenish nutrients lost to the nosebleed.
Well, it doesn’t appear to be a healing orb, or else the nosebleed would have been stopped immediately.
Given she has to be holding the orb to use its power, it still could be.
Watch Galaxy Quest
Never give up, never surrender!
DANE: You’re just going to have to figure out what it wants. What is its motivation?
NESMITH: It’s a rock monster. It doesn’t have motivation!
DANE: See, that’s your problem, Jason. You were never serious about the craft.
++ about a kabillion.
best Start Wreck spoof ever. Some of Rick Allen’s best, also.
You mean “Tim Allen” Other than that, I agree 100%
One of my favorite “making of” interviews for that movie involves Sigourney Weaver declaring her IQ dropped about 20 points every time she put on the blonde wig.
Aside: NEVER go on a stroll through quotes from a movie you really like – you’ll be trapped for hours!
I took it as a contraction of ‘Allan Rickman and Tim Allen’.
I loved that they got one of the biggest A-list sci fi actors to play a dizty supporting role. And she owned it. Mind you all the cast did a magnificent job. Along with all the rest of the team.
Personally I rate it as one of the best science fiction movies ever made. It was so well done that it broke out of its spoof role, and stands on its own merits.
When leaving Earth, I will make sure that is amongst the entertainment I pack.
*looks around*
Probably not for a while yet. Hopefully we can keep it habitable.
That last panel is basically what happens when your brain blue screens.
The Windows Blue Screen is usually related to hardware failure, most likely a communications problem rather than a true physical fault, but that can still, happen. Even seen her BSOD before but this particular reaction.
Personally I’d say this isn’t a BSOD situation but a locked state caused by RAM overflow. She over imagined the number of people seeing her bare-chested, plus the amount of embarrassment, and it over flowed its buffer into the rest of her brian, and is continuing to write.
End result. System hardlock. She needs a reboot.
although, hardware failure could be a her primary processor suddenly overheating as a result of aformentioned software image overload. also possibly melting her ram too.
original blue screen was any fatal s/w or h/w fault, because the os kernel wasn’t preemptive, it was cooperative. meaning the kernel was on sort of equal footing with every Joe Boner’s application code out there. And there was tons of flaky code. Windoze was no paragon of quality code itself, but MS got tons of s**t for other’s companies’ blue screens.
An embarrassing amount of BSOD’s are driver related. Badly written drivers can bring down Windows in a heartbeat. It’s also probably the most important reason the driver signing was introduced. To most users a BSOD means that windows crashed, so it has to be Microsoft that sucks at QA. By requiring that all drivers are signed MS ensures that the worst drivers never makes it onto the users machines, and anyone that knows how to bypass the driver signing requirement should know that they are using untested and potentially unstable software.
Another common problem is memory that either is ran out of spec, or it’s just ever so slightly flaky. This is something that can plague a computer for years with the user blaming MS for every BSOD they experience. Memory errors can be surprisingly hard to detect, and even dedicated memory test software often fails at this. I’ve used a lot of these programs ranging from free to use software such as memtest86+ to software retailing for thousands of dollar and none of them has been able to detect all memory problems. In fact memtest86+ is in my experience at least as good as the most expensive programs I’ve used. However the program that’s exposed more memory problems than any other is Prime95.
Prime95 isn’t primarily a memory tester, but it includes a self test feature that’s used to make sure the computer it’s running on is working correctly. I wrote a script that started one self test instance for each core and made sure they used just about all available memory and let that run for at least 12 hours while logging all errors. By adding an instance of BurnCPU for each core running at a low priority the processors were kept at close to max temperature for the entire time the test ran.
Most machines I worked with used ECC memory so looking through the system log could help exposing any memory errors corrected by ECC. In general you do not want to see any such corrections as that means there is a problem with the memory sub system. In practice if there was a single error correction made you noted it down and put the machine on a watch list. Multiple errors meant you replaced the memory and ran the test again.
Now it’s important to understand that ECC is not a catch all solution. Basic ECC can correct single bit errors and detect most multibit errors. So even though more than 90% of the machines I worked on had ECC memory I found many where the memory would cause errors when stressed. And registered ECC memory is the high end solution. The common PC most people has is using simple un-registerd, un-buffered, non-ECC memory. There is NO mechanism to detect memory errors in these. So unless the computer either crashes regularly, like several times every day, or even fails to boot, most dodgy memory is never discovered as the few crashes will be blamed on MS.
Well said. However, may I ask why you would intentionally keep the CPU at close to max temperature? (I assume you mean the chip spec) While that does expose hardware faults by virtue of thermal expansion, it also drastically lowers the lifespan of PCB components.
Additionally, the vastly accelerated rate of metal creep combined with extremely rote algorithms is virtually guaranteed to introduce hardware faults. I’ve ruined several video cards, two processors, and at least one memory stick that way. The point heating caused by repetitive algorithms can even break a well-cooled device due to thermal resistance and capacitance. It’s never made sense to me why someone would want to “bake” their PC components.
OK that’s it I am never buying a car with a computer in it. Not if it crashes, but I still get the blame, as the driver!
*looks innocent*
I don’t blame you. I don’t mind having an ECU (Engine Control Unit) – that’s what most people are really thinking of when they talk about the car’s computer. Its job is to make sure that the engine runs as efficiently (and as cleanly) as possible.
What I don’t like are all these other doodads going into cars. Collision detection radars, remote start, self-drive… the more systems you add to a vehicle, the more possible points of failure you’re going to have, and the more expensive it’s going to be to get it fixed.
Add remote start and self drive with a nav system and you have a hackable vehicle that can drive itself to the thief. Not the level of property security I look for in what I buy. Testers have demonstrated the potential to take the driver of a self drive car with a standard map system for a joy ride using just a wifi laptop.
To be fair, that little demonstration proved to the car manufacturers that they need to add more security to the car’s computer systems.
In the rush to connect everything to the Internet, a lot of companies… not just car manufacturers… fell victim to that. “We don’t need to secure our Internet-connected baby monitors. No one would bother to hack a baby monitor!” – yeah, and we know how THAT went, don’t we, after a bunch of hacked baby monitors were used as part of a DDoS attack.
Proved to them? Yes. Likewise we have seen baby monitor incidents which also provided warnings. Plus other hacks, such as with unsecured wi-fis and other home equipment.
Doing something about it though? Many are not.
Most alarmingly of all are the lack of even rudimentary defenses on medical implants.
Fortunately we have seen a recent successful prosecution for corporate manslaughter, in the UK. So when patients start getting killed by hackers, I hope they start sending a bunch of manufacturers and surgeons to jail for long terms.
That will then shake up the rest of the medical industry (and others). Once management types realise that their complacency can find them going to jail, then we are more likely to see wider uptake of good precautions.
Kind of sucks that our society relies on people dying before doing that though.
Personally I would love to see a system of randomly executing board members (and major shareholders, for private sector companies) until they made their product range safe. If someone has to die, to expedite change, I would prefer it to be those responsible, rather than patients or customers.
Wow! They tied the dogs leash to the tire!! o_O
That is a sensible precaution, post-accident. They have an emergency situation to deal with, and are clearly blocking the road, by virtue of their own presence in it, so the dog is in no particular danger.
Obviously if they have to move out of the road to allow traffic to pass, or for emergency or recovery vehicles to gain access, then they will need to undo that.
Notably there is a lot of paint that has been spilt, around the back. So the dog could not stay anywhere near that, limiting the normal preferred choices, such as keeping it in the passenger compartment.
I cannot spot anything sturdy enough amongst the undergrowth, to tie it to, instead. So given the ‘immediate fix’ need of an emergency. and freeing themselves up to render aid, call for help and/or warn oncoming traffic, it is not an unreasonable solution.
Safer that side than the other mind, in case the car does shift. It does not look like it could go far, so would not pose a choke hazard. But even a small shift could squish a doggy next to the wheel, on the far side.
OH GOD! Major Sydney malfunction! Shut Down Everything! SHUT DOWN EVERYTHING!! But, seriously her face looks terrifying. WTF?
Sydney is clearly experiencing a fatal exception error. Time for a quick reboot!
Reboot you say? https://i.imgur.com/JwLSA4V.gif
No! But seriously, did Sydney get sexually assaulted by a cheerleader in high school or something that made her freak out like this?
No, but she is in her early twenties yet is still single and insecure. Not that the former is a bad thing, but it will be aggravated by the latter. We saw her eyeing up the hunky guy in her shop for instance, but was too shy to approach him directly.
Sydney is exhibiting a profound behaviour above, which may have shaped other aspects of her personality, and thereby affecting her situation in life.
Comedy is often used to cover up insecurities. So many of Sydney’s wacky behaviours may have been initially developed to distract attention (hers or others) from situations where she could be unfavourably compared, to more ‘glamorous’ body types.
We know that Sydney lives in a sunny part of the USA (from observation and knowing it is ‘somewhere in the middle, and maybe Dallas). Yet she has several times play-acted about sunlight harming her. Giving the impression that this is habitual behaviour, given the prevailing sunny conditions.
If you consider that modern American life counters hot sunny days with pool-side sunbathing, we can get a clue as to why Sydney might affect such a defensive behaviour, which would keep her from ending up side-by-side with California beach-babe type figures. (Amongst more normal body shapes, but those are not her concern.)
Whilst there could have been an incident that is particularly memorable to Sydney, as you imply, it may not actually have appeared that profound to a casual observer. It could just be “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.
Or it may have just been the normal unending social pressure piled on young girls, in modern society, all reinforcing that “big boobs and hourglass bodies are best”. Along with the usual peer pressure and bullying that everyone is exposed to. It all adds up, and can affect the insecure profoundly.
Gotta correct you on one thing there, Yorp. I’m originally from Los Angeles, and have been to various beaches a lot. There uh.. you know the super hot chicks you imagine wandering around on the beach in their bikinis?
It’s rare.
Now, if you go to Plantation, Florida…
Heh, it is not a matter of how common it is. It is the image that Hollywood projects, and thereby the term that is used. The fact that they are actually rare is not a surprise, given that the body type is unobtainable to most women. But it is nice to receive confirmation.
As for good beaches, Bulgarian women are often voted as being in the top three most beautiful, in the world. Plus it is the poorest country in Europe, which has two effects, obesity is uncommon and any free leisure activity is disproportionately more common.
Plus culturally they are not that bothered about inhibitions about going topless. On the beaches I doggy-paddle on, they average about 20% of the women there.
*pads off to pack beach towel*
Umm…. I may be a bit late catching tomorrow’s comic….
I feel like a swim.
What’s that coming out of Sydney’s mouth???
As others have said, it’s almost certainly a nosebleed. It just passes her lips before dripping to the ground.
Where’s Krona so she can “reboot” Sydney???
Currently locked up in the Arc-Jail, awaiting further ‘tests’
No disinformation please. Krona has already been cleared as being no longer a threat. Although she has hinted that she would like to be invited to join the team, we have not had any indicators that an offer has been formally made. So it is entirely possible that she has returned to her normal situation, wherever that is.
However, as even the first time she spoke to Sydney she implied she would join Archon, if asked, I do not think that is likely. Unless she was shown the door, I would expect Krona to make the most of being in the Archon HQ. As the defacto head of a Twilight Council faction, it would benefit her to learn more about them, looking at it from a professional point of view.
But, she did seem to be unhappy living in the dark. We saw her taking that out on elder vampires, with her practical joke. Disrespecting fellow senior diplomats, in such a fashion, is something we would not expect to see other than in two broad circumstances.
The first being if there is a culture of mutual teasing and friendship. We see this in Archon, but what teasing we saw was much more low key (like the vampire and werewolf teasing each other about their respective ages), but mostly they were stuffy and reserved. Which is clearly at odds with Krona’s preferences.
The second way that she might behave as we saw is due to dissatisfaction with her life there. Supporting the other clues we have.
So we may well find Krona hanging around Archon, but she never was locked up, and has been free to leave, ever since she was determined to not pose a clear and present danger to the universe.
That was more of a mockage towards those who believed Kronachrome was forcibly ‘invited’ to go back with Maxi to The Arc
Kool. :-)
Oh dear, Sydney has crashed.
Sound actually carries well over water, combine that with good hearing and Maxima and just about everyone else around the pool could hear what was said.
Given that Harem is either a double or tripple agent (as in, she’s definitively working for a bad guy while pretending to work for the good guys, but whether she’s doing it with the intent to later betray the bad guys in favor of the good guys is unknown) this might have been a DELIBERATE test of Maxima’s hearing.
Yaknow, a ‘we don’t know if she has super-hearing; Let’s test it’ kind of thing; She can now report back that she can at least hear normal speech from across a rather large pool.
I’m not so sure that Deus is actually a bad guy, per see, but is more of an anti-inflammatory.
His actions, while extreme, not only were meant to benefit the locals, but in fact DID benefit them in both the short and long term.
Of course, this COULD be simply a case of,”every villan is the hero in his own story
It was suggested a while ago that, just as there can be anti-heroes, Deus is very arguably an anti-villain.
It’s also worth pointing out that not every villain is an antagonist to the heroes (in fact, a villain could be an ally to heroes, just they’re villainous to someone else).
For example, I have head canon that while Lex Luthor is Superman’s arch nemesis, he’s probably one of Bruce Wayne’s best friends, and Batman is using him as part of his “Have a plan to take down every member of the Justice League if the need arises.” list.
IIRC, Bruce has fought Lex a few times in both his personas, and they pretty much hate each other.
Which doesn’t mean they aren’t part of each other’s various Xanatos Gambits, but friends? Unlikely.
Or a not-deliberate observation. Not every act of an enemy agent is necessarily intended or planned. In any situation involving multiple players and independent elements, more often than not, whatever happens or is done is usually more “taking advantage of the situation that pops up” rather than carefully planned action.
Then again it sounds like the overcomplicated plan Deus would do just for fun.
So, according to TV Tropes, is Sydney having a Blue Screen of Death or a Red Ring of Death? It can’t just be emotional and mental (the former) but it’s not because of physical overexertion (the latter). It’s like she’s so emotionally traumatized that it’s manifesting physically. So… BSOD leading to RROD?
If you combine them, you get a Purple Ring of Death Screen?
That’s on Ubuntu when it crashes during loading.
Eating some of the food Sydney enjoys would leave you with a red ring of death.
I wish to challenge Sydney to a spicy-food eating contest.
I have literally used her line in restaurants before, the, “Let’s skip the whole thing where you bring out something, act like I’ll think it’s hot, I tell you I can’t taste the heat, you take it back, and we repeat five times. Just skip straight to the hottest thing you have, and if I have to sign a f@#%ing waiver, I’ll do it, I already have to do it all the time, at home I use a pure California reaper extract concentrate that costs me two bucks an f’ing drop to get that kind of heat. Try your hardest, you won’t be able to faze me, but I’m hoping at the very least you can make some food that I’ll at least be able to notice it exists.”
And even after that spiel the plate will usually go back once or twice. Once left a Thai restaurant with the waitress literally flipping out over my heat tolerance (I still hear her screams of disbelief echoing in the back of my head). Only local place that could ever get me to notice their food’s heat was a cajun cooking place, and when they asked what heat I wanted on a scale of 1-to-5 (a linear scale based on amount of cajun spice they added), I’d request at 16, and they could deliver.
So, I want to sit down and enjoy a meal with Scoville, both push our limits, and tell her I appreciate her last name.
I went with a coworker one time to a Thai food place. My buddy said to the waiter “Tell the cook he can’t make it hot enough for me”.(!!!!). When the guy put the food in front of my friend, my eyes started to water (I was sitting across the table from him). Both the waiter and the cook came out to watch him eat it. Sweat was pouring off his head and face while he chowed down. He loved it. The cook shook his head and said “How you eat so hot? THAI PEOPLE not eat so hot! You Number One hot!”.
I would need a full environmental suit complete with breathing aparatus. I do not do spicy food myself.
I just realized it would be both funny and awesome if Sydney was related to/a descendant of Wilbur Scoville, the guy who came up with the Scoville scale. :-)
She hasn’t stopped operation though. Imagination.EXE is still writing to memory and overflowing it’s buffer into the rest of her brain.
Or maybe your hearing just doesn’t need to be all that good in order to figure out what Harem’s going to say next…
Emphasis on “leaving”.
Aww man, I was hoping Sydney’s orbs would go all wonky when she freaked out.
Not like, power-wonky, but just flitting about her in weird, asymmetrical ways.
That would be tricky to depict in stillness.
The orbs track lines like we see when halo flies, shield line swings around max and almost back to proper orbit, unknown crosses direct over syd’s head to other side of the halo leaving an ordinary group at halo’s head but showing odd behavior.
People saying OW! with lumps on their heads, or successfully ducking, holes appearing in walls, squrrils getting knocked out of trees (again!), traffic accidents spontaneously occurring, etc.
So, what exactly is Sydney wearing? First panel looks like it’s just a towel, and second panel shows that it doesn’t go down to cover her legs; but the last panel definitely makes it look like a full length robe.
It’s a bath/beach/pool robe.
Think of the size of your average “Beach Towel”. Now, remember how short Sydney is. Is it any wonder it would envelope her like that?
I figure it’s a white towel, cause in the last panel, Sydney is holding it shut in her terror
I’m with maxima. Five hundred pushups for Harem.
Each, consecutively, and the next one can’t start until the previous one has finished
Just make all 5 Harems do their pushups at the same time, don’t forget that Harem gets stronger for every body she doesn’t have ‘active’ (for lack of a better word), having all 5 present at once would make for a better punishment.
Yes, they are all present, but they have to wait, makes the punishment last five times as long
Is panel three a Harem shaped air-pocket in the pool? Can see the shape of her arms and torso below the water, but the ‘pocket’ looks filled with bubbles
Bad net today, I JUST got on – ok, this looks bad – Sydney isn’t having stroke or anything is she?
This might be an opportunity to see if the last orb has healing powers?
I’m assuming between panels six and seven, Max flew across the pool?
Geeze, you may as well have slapped her in the eye with a spicy noodle!
This is more than just embarrassment. It may be a response to some traumatic incident in Sydney’s past that we have yet to hear. Max may have to play big sister again and sit down with Sydney to try and get her to explain the reason.
Which brings up the question, does Archon have an in-house psychologist or counselor? In this line of work team members can be exposed to some pretty intense situations. PTSD is a definite possibility.
Indeed, people with super powers and a dark past need therapists on hand.
Read a satire piece once long ago where the superheores were faced with extinction (that is, no new supers coming along) because their efforts had brought about a true, peaceful, well adjusted society before discovering that trauma was what created supers in the first place.
The Super hero council was trying to decide how to create just enough tragic circumstances to keep their numbers replenished for the future with themselves becoming super villians.
Turn away from the dark side!
When true tragedy comes a new hero will be born. No need to contrive one!
*paces up and down anxiously, awaiting the results of the vote*
Thinking that an inhouse therapist, or maybe an entire platoon of same, would be an essential part of the Archon organization. Question being, would that be enough to cope with Sydney?
This is foreshadowing to a future “Defeat by Modesty” incident for Sydney. If she overcomes it, it will be even cooler.
Just a question, is Sydney’s Who’s Who splash going to be updated?
Yes. The author has confirmed that.
But he is trying to get in some specific art practice, so technical matters will have to wait for now.
Forget the bleeding, look at her EYES man! She has one eye dilated like a concussion or something. This went beyond the realm of amusing anime and into full blown brain hemorrhage. Seriously, I hope that next comic shows the last mystery orb flying down to her and auto activating because im pretty sure she is literally dying from embarrassment.
Naa, although this slides over into macabre territory, Sydney has always been portrayed with more toon-like characteristics than the other characters. They all have chibi’s from time to time (for instance angry Maxima or Dabbler), but Sydney unleashes her inner cartoon more often.
Principally they are used either for comedic purposes, or as a short-hand to express important emotions. Such as when we saw Sydney looking incredibly cute, when she was very hungry. But look up into the banner of rotating cast images, and you will sometimes see a demonic-looking Sydney too. When that hunger was being satisfied.
Plus Sydney does have a deliberate anime style, along with the usual trimmings. One of which would be a tendency for nose-bleeding, if faced by an overly-sexual situation.
Here it has just been super-sized to indicate that it is not just the normal anime-youth angst. Rather it is indicating how profoundly this is affecting Sydney, on an emotional level (as opposed to a medical one).
Someone else has pointed out, insightfully, that the characters are getting too realistically portrayed now. So it is entirely understandable why you are going to the medical conclusions, rather than the anime ones. This is something that DaveB should take note of.
If a character is shown, with cartoon-like characteristics, in a stand-alone panel, then the readership can potentially make the connection, even despite the realistic characteristics also present. But put them along side much more realistic characters, and people will naturally interpret the scene as a homogeneous whole. Rather than applying separate interpretations for each component.
I think the developing art style has reached a tipping point where consideration needs to be given as to transitioning to a fully-realistic style (in situations like this) or whether to retain the original feel, in which case merging the realistic feel with the cartoon-like aspects will suffer from a massive uncanny valley effect.
Keeping on the current trend I fear that it will magnify the creepy aspect (as the majority of people are taking the final panel above) whilst loosing the cartoon-like feel (which is necessary for the laughs). Whilst we have had one or two people with the latter reaction, I suspect the ratio will worsen more, if the present course is maintained.
People are discussing Sydney’s reaction face in the last panel buy my eyes end up going to Maxima’s. There’s something so endearing about seeing Maxima slip and lose her kind of “Drill Sargent” facade and show real worry. I can\t help but wonder if she’s thinking “Oh God! What do I do? I can’t fix this with a punch!!!”
Good point. Max has military command experience, but having a (sort of) little sister to look out for has to be extremely new territory for her.
And yet she’s taken to it so quickly and so naturally. I wonder if Maxima has taken other new supers under her wing as much as she has with Sydney.
Possibly. Maxima does have several additional factors to consider with Sydney though, which may not have been present in other new team members.
1) Sydney has numerous child-like behaviours which make her appear younger than her actual years (she is in her twenties).
2) Maxima is a former nerd, and Sydney’s strong nerd behaviour actually resonates with her.
3) Sydney has exhibited erratic behaviour from the outset. The way she chose to intervene, in the bank robbery, having set the tone from the outset. As such Maxima’s maternal instincts would be triggered, as Sydney clearly needs guidance, to prevent her from posing a risk to herself.
4) Halo is an Apex Superhero, in training. Normally you would not find the unit commander focusing so much attention on a single recruit. Taking this aspect into account though her time and effort is clearly justified.
Ensuring that Halo develops into a stable, self-secure, hero, is in Archon’s best interests. And, given her insecurities and eccentricities, normal boot-camp procedures would be doomed to failure. Maxima is a wise commander in allowing her maternal instincts to guide her here.
About nr.2… I don’t think the “former nerd” is entire correct. It’s probably more of a closet nerd thing with Max.
And to add to nr.3 the risk she might pose isn’t confined to herself, but to anyone near her. Having a momentary laps of reason is something that happens to most of us now and then, but for Sydney the consequences can be really terrible.
Yea, your last is why I went on to point 4). If any super goes off the rails it is bad. But Sydney could become the most powerful super in the world, in due course. Currently Maxima’s nuke-like attack is the greater public risk. But Halo has the greater part of her skill tree yet to explore.
So I raise your present ‘terrible’ to a potential ‘catastrophic’, in the future.
How Maxima handles this nosebleed could shape world history. I feel confident she will do well.
Not cool Harem.
Sydney’s face in panel 5 though…
Suitably adapted, if creepy, avatar.
Sydney.exe has failed. Abort, Retry, Ignore?
Abort retry, ignore abort, retry ignore…………. Key program fault attempt hard reboot.
(A)bort, (Re)try, (F)ail, (I)gnore for the classic DOS prompt.
To which Harem seems to be valiantly trying to choose Abort. Often it was about this effective in DOS as well.
This would be a prime time for Dabbler to show either her more protective side or her more salacious side.
I feel the former to be far far more likely. We have had no hint that Dabbler is a sadist, or that she can feed off emotional distress or physical pain. I do not think she would act in a manner which could only cause greater distress to Sydney.
Whereas we have seen Dabbler protecting her, as you imply, by averting Sydney’s gaze, when she got captivated by Dabberl’s hypnoboobs. Plus we have observed that any teasing, which she directs towards Sydney, is far more gentle than the overt behaviour she shows towards the much more resilient Maxima.
And THAT’S the LAST time Harem will EVER suggest ANY thing like that to Sydney. The line has been drawn.
If you look closer at poor Sydney in the last panel not only is her nose bleeding there are “shaking marks” around her as well. Full brain meltdown. Full mental lockdown. Sydney stack buffer overload. ABORT ABORT ABORT. Reset Sydney OS.
Agreed on all points.
Barring the very last. Sydney usually does that by slamming her head against a desk. That would be risky in her current condition!
Maxima looks like a different person today…
It is rare to see Maxima worried, I admit. Plus both she and Sydney looked very different in the pastel tones they had, when in the ‘room'(/covered area) with the couch.
Beyond those two points however, I cannot determine what may be triggering that impression in you?
No, Maxi physically looks different, even the difference between panels seven and nine
All I can make out is different expressions on her face. Unless you are referring to her breasts? But we are seeing her in different poses and at varying angles, so we would not expect to see exactly the same shape.
So if it is not that, then I would still need some clues as to what the issue may be?
Panel nine face looks like someone else entirely, with gold skin
It is not often we see Maxima doing something other than angry, stern or business-like.
I think she should do a photo-shoot with Sydney.
Max’s angular cheekbones do appear to have been replaced with more padded ones there. But the image is not that big, so the details can easily be lost. Plus it is reasonable that some expressions might soften such anyhow. Concern seems to be an appropriate one to result in a softer appearance. Maybe the hidden paw of evolution playing its part?