Grrl Power #572 – Sciona revealed! (Cause she’s nude, see?)
So yeah, Sciona isn’t actually a dark elf (or a drow or a shadow elf etc.) I haven’t quite come up with a name for what she is yet, but I’m sure Sydney will ask someone about it sooner or later. And no, Sciona isn’t mannequin smooth, just pretend the lighting is at exactly the right angle so you can’t see her bits. I considered putting Deus’s “Neat.” bubble over her boob but I thought that would be even more distracting.
This is one of those pages I had to split into two, which is why it trails off in the middle of a sentence. I do try and make each page it’s own semi contained… clause, I guess, but sometimes there’s just no way to make it all fit on one page. I think 17 panels is my record, which is pretty crazy. That should be 3 pages in a regular turn-the-next-page comic. I just really wanted to draw a nice big splash panel of Sciona in her ‘final form’ so to speak, and the next page has too many panels to try and squish ’em all in on this one.
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Uh oh…
She’s just going to smash something and trigger an alarm isn’t she.
They still don’t transmit
She’s gonna just smash the pillars probably
i agree. lets see if she can do it w/o breaking any artifacts <3
Or she has in fact obtained sufficient access codes and blood samples to shut down the whole system. Although that might make you wonder why she didn’t do that before.
She likes to make excuses to be increasingly murderously violent?
Because she didn’t have the biometrics until she used the knife?
I think her comment “I. Am. Whole.” means she’s regained some ability that allows her to finesse the whole lot of them with no explody bloodgore.
also, new word: Guinesse. means a “hold my beer” stunt that goes down so smoothly that everyone who sees it gets totally pissed.
from typos made while typing this comment.
Or, and this is a stretch, butt bare with me, she is being literal, she has spent the last several decades as a head on someone elses shoulders butt now she is whole again
yeah, I undersfood that to be the main gist of what she said; I should have said that her “wholeness” included regaining a lost ability to guinesse the loot.
Oh, okay, but Guinness tastes like liquefied burnt toast
Feel free to put it back into the horse.
Horsies make toast? Internally???
Well, cows make milk, chickens make eggs, pigs make bacon, so you have to get your toast from somewhere to make your complete breakfast.
Neigh. That is bullocks.
Sciona needs to get something to eat. You can count her ribs.
Being able to count ribs is not a sign on being malnourished
It’s ugly and she needs some meat on those bones.
Not everyone agrees
Actually, being able to see ribs on an active individual means that their body fat is balanced and properly distributed. Many modern Americans aren’t taught this partially because annorexia and other eating disorders *can* stem from misunderstanding this simple fact.
You want to eat her?
In a way yes.
Not true! There’s PLENTY of nice, healthy fat on her body. It’s just been… concentrated… in a region just south of her collarbone.
agreed. I can count ribs even after a second or even third plateful.
Being able to count ribs from the side of the chest is not that unusual.
Oh. Transparent field = vulnerable to light. Forgot about it.
oh, right, a variation on the Brick Joke/Chekhov’s Gun at this point, isn’t it? Damn, I forgot that was a thing way back in the beginning of the comic, too
Yeah, Sydney’s RPG game at the beginning of this comic & phoning Dabbler to ask if her FOrb should or shouldn’t block lasers has already considered this issue, so I think it would qualify as a Chekov’s Gun incident.
Chekov’s lLaser Moth Wing.
I was thinking this during the bamboo page,
final defense, can be easily overcome by a solid hologram or one the Crystal Gems for a more current reference.
Such a shame that the newly reformed Sciona is already going to have to lose some limbs…
light. a being made of light could enter?
Light is passing through those fields. Sounds like a good call.
If the theory of using light-based limbs is correct, it sounds like the Council could use some pointers from Halo’s Shield Orb…
the lighthook too.
Transitions Lenses
A little hard to figure out whats going on here. Scione asks Deus a question, to distract him as she attacks with her laser wings?
“There is another way to get at these artefacts. See… I could knock them out with these pointy energy-based limbs … which pointedly can do all sorts of other things too. Shall I demonstrate the point?”
Also revealing Dues’ weakness for monologues. (He has a condition.)
and here I thought it was called a “Syndrome” LoL
https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/image_7b7a8d9b.jpeg
‘Deus has a Syndrome’
*remembers Kerrigan doing that*
Nancy Kerrigan? o_O
Sarah Kerrigan. Sarah is based on Nancy though.
Have you heard? They are making a movie about that, starring some Aussie trash
The author’s blog helps to explain why this page ends on an ambiguous cliffhanger, it is because it is the first page of a double-page spread. So the reason will not become apparent until the next update, when we get to see the second part.
A number of folks have suggested that Sciona is attacking Deus. However I agree with Greyman that she is more likely demonstrating another way to get an artefact. Sciona needs to counter loosing face to Deus. Getting an artefact stylishly, rather than brutally, should help her team’s morale (not wishing to be killed by having their faces pushed into a death field).
Mind you killing Deus would also solve the problem. But at a considerable risk as Sciona is clearly uninformed about the opposing team’s capabilities. However distracting him, and his bodyguards, by engaging in conversation, then striking in a surprising manner (with wings) might work. So I would not discount the possibility.
Sciona’s fingers look… Off
A little to long.
Almost Elfish…. Drowish?
Druish princess.
…she had a nose job.
But when she got the Epimorph, she also had a boob-job.
They’ll look even more “off” once Maxima meets her again.
Again? When did Maxima meet her first? It was the council that cut off most of her head.
“We meet again, for the first time”
People have mentioned light though if her natural survival stats are excellent then pure speed might work.
Vale is preparing to fight.
Evil vs. evil, perfect. You don’t need to worry about the heroes, just lean back and enjoy the carnage.
I’m so excited. I wanna see how Deus reacts to this, if it is her attacking him. He brought backup in the vein of Heavenly and Vale, and possibly others given Opal’s portals which also could give him a quick exit, but there’s always a chance for a miscalculation that needs to be fixed….
Doesn’t seem like attack, she already said she doesn’t care as long as their shopping lists are different. She’s just showing off her new power (and lack of shame). Speed and light-based limbs/telekinesis if I had to guess (and seems I was right about three pages back, her upgraded power will let her access other artifacts without need for new sacrifices).
Yeah, doesn’t seem like an attack. Since the light-wing-thingys (that’s a technical term) are now shown over his suit it seems to me as though she just turned on a heel. While flying. Which is a neat trick, but not to be considered an attack unless she’s just eaten at taco bell.
It is worth noting that Sciona is not flying here, well not in the ‘flapping her wings’ kind of sense. Rather she is hovering. Which is important, in this context, as the faster you are travelling the harder it is to do a sharp turn.
And, of course, normal winged flight requires constant forward motion* at a high enough speed to avoid stalling. Which means that Sciona would have had to exit the room already, if she were not holding her position with magical levitation.
Thus freeing up her ‘wings’ for other purposes.
Incidentally, other than when I envisage myself as a flying dragon, this is precisely the kind of flight I favour. Even to having prominent and distinctive wings (mine tend to be darker and nebulous) which can be used to manipulate and lift.
Mind you that tends to be reserved more for an urban environment. I also love leaping from hilltop to hilltop. Not in the violent and fast way the Hulk does, in the movies, but in gentle bounds and almost floating with the breeze. Pretty much requiring an anti-gravity type effect too mind.
* Helicopters cheat by having just the wings (blades) moving and that in a circular motion. Which is why they can hover despite using winged flight.
Superman early on was a leaper like the Hulk still is. He didn’t fly nor hover. He “leaped tall building in a single bound” as you can see in the Max Fleischer cartoons of him in 1942.
Helicopters or roto-wings have to counter balance to torque induced rotation by either a smaller spinning propeller perpendicular to the central rotor or have dual counter-rotating sets of blades as the Russians and Eastern Europeans have used.
Humming birds, dragon flies, bees and some others can not only hover but even fly backwards for a bit. Takes tremendous energy to do that the larger they are. Aircraft like the V-22 use oversized rotor blades and the ability to move the wings from a 45 to a 90 angle to make use of both modes of flight. The technolgy to make it work ws difficult and dangeous. Since such experimentation started in 1950 right after the end of World War II.
Those stories of U.F.O.s performing right angled “turns” is puzzling since you must stop then redirect your angle of flight and the G forces would be tremendous.Which suggests that if reports on what happened during those sightings were valid then something else must have been happening. What it was I can only speculate. And you know how much that is worth.
It is worth a Nobel physics prize, if you speculate right and find a way to prove it.
Not to mention a Nobel peace prize if you also manage to establish first contact with aliens. Even if they invade, as the Nobel committee are not that fussy about giving peace prizes to warmongers or their ilk.
The right-hand turns can be explained by inertia-dampeners
What can’t be explained though is inertia dampeners. Not within conventional real world physics anyhow. Albeit popular in space opera.
There are ways of dampening the effects caused by rapid turns. For instance flight suits which constrict blood flow, to stop it all draining away from the head, and causing a black out.
Maxima’s cellular force fields should be pretty good too. Kind of like having individual seat belts, for each cell, to keep it in position (relative to other cells/ where it needs to be to function properly), likewise to help it resist rupturing, by holding the cell walls in place.
Although neither would be up to helping enough for UFO type turns, Maxima’s would be the better of the two, due to the precisely controlled nature of the force fields.
But, of course, humans are not designed for such maneuvers. Whereas robots or drones can be made to withstand forces far in excess of any that human can survive. Especially if made out of exotic materials made specifically for such a purpose.
Heh, love the way Vale is cracking her knuckles :D
So… are we about to see if Vale is indeed still a match for post-Epimorph Sciona?
Other way around: are we about to see if Sci-fright is now a match for Vale
Well, this should be interesting. Are we finally going to get to see Vale’s skill set/powers? Tune in next week for the next episode of, “who’s got Sciona’s pants?!”
TBH, as long as they can manage to keep her pants, I don’t rightly care…
:P
Why is she so angry?
Probably because an arrogant prick is disrupting her plans.
To be fair, Deus isn’t disrupting Sciona’s plans…He’s simply there. Granted, Sciona has a right to feel be irritated about that, but no one is getting getting in the way of the other…so far.
Her moment of triumph, which she had planned for so long, possibly even prepared an evil speech; is being stepped on the line light stolen by a mortal swimming in the slip stream of her plan to pick off the other artifacts like a hungry pilot fish that thinks its a shark.
People wanting Sci-fright nipples? You got one in the first panel
When you create the new “Who’s Who” entry for Sci-fright, please use either the head shot from panel two on this page or panel six or seven from the previous page, and not panel one of this page (personally find panel seven from last page to be the most beautiful)
Totally called it on those light-tendrils not being on her skin :D
I will laugh uproariously if Vale turns out to be some kind of power sapper and all this was to kick her up a few notches in power. Instead of draining an artifact or two, she just intercepts Sciona’s attack and drains her back to –well not quite Orc bodied– reasonable villain levels. Cue the heroes!
For Sciona I’m now thinking “Dark Angel” kind of thing. Maybe not a full-blown one of the Fallen, but something in that same category.
I was thinking she looked a lot like one of the angels from Diablo, myself. They are known to go bad from time to time due to an excess of zeal.
Tyriel? Yeah, I thought their wings were similar, too. Plus Sciona = Scion = Holy Servant = Angel.
But of course the standard Christian imagery for angels isn’t (some are) biblically accurate. Horrifying nightmares that don’t make sense and can’t be drawn or imagined, yes, that’s what angels are. They aren’t meant to be relatable to humans, only to Yahweh. They’re usually just adult-versions of Greek cherubs. Cthulu and the other R’yleih? Angels.
So with that in mind I’d say Sciona doesn’t look like an angel, but then again… some of the ranks I think do look like humans, but they’re all lessers. Right?
Aldaris the betrayer – betrayed. Ulrezaj lives on, we feel his rage.
Crowley, an angel who didn’t fall so much as he sauntered vaguely downwards.
Wasn’t Crowley simply a human who got big ideas (and serious mother-issues)?
Yes. I worked with someone who went to school with him (albeit in a lower year). He told me that even at that age he was evil.
Butt, he made such a wonderful King of Hell, he even played nicely with those Winchester boys, Moose and NotMoose, lovely boys, a credit to their mother
Or maybe a very nasty one of the Fae.
… I’m +1 with you -a dark fae/elf with BlackFire’s main drawback to fuel her evil compounded by decades in a even less flightworthy form(since “cured” by the epiblade)…
I’m still thinking immortal ancestor of the elves, though I haven’t yet worked out the specifics of my head canon with regards to the JRPG spirit wings.
Agreed. My first thought when I saw her complete form was that she was some sort of Dark Fae
Someone suggested earlier she might be a Banshee, or a Siren. Fey, but with a few more extra tricks (and weaknesses, perhaps?) than your standard elf.
I suggested that (perhaps with others). Sticking with it for now, although DaveB pretty much says she’s a “GM Special”. You are probably right.
Possibly a “GM Special” (if those are racial wings, rather than magically created ones). However Sciona may well pretty much match the characteristics of drow, or simply generic evil elves, but not wish to use terminology associated with previous settings.
Especially if he does not want associations with Lolth or other specific entities that are connected with specific versions. His ‘dark elves’ may be extra-terrestrial in origin, or perhaps have lived alongside the dinosaurs in the hollow Earth?
Drow may have been made more familiar to people via the D&D settings (assuming of course that is what you allude to) but those settings were simply borrowing from folklore just as they did with dwarves, elves, gnomes, etc.
Your statement is somewhat misleading, in that “Drow” did not exist until Gary Gygax created them. Both the name and their appearance is distinct (in particular the white hair, contrasting with the dark body). As such there was no ‘making them more familiar’.
However you are spot on that he was inspired by ‘evil subterranean-dwelling dark(/black) elves’ from Norse legends (Svartálfar and Dökkálfar). As was Tolkien before him. Similarly the name he chose was inspired by legend, but a different race again.
Whilst the rest of their setting was unique, and became very richly detailed. In particular being characterised by being in a distinct fantasy setting, and having been spawned by the goddess Lolth. A unique creation, being the demonic queen of the spiders.
In turn all of these sources (but, as you say, probably most prominently D&D thanks to their popularity in both games and books) have inspired other races (such as in Warhammer and the Elder Scrolls).
Hollywood does much the same mind, with all the usual suspects such as vampires, trolls, mummies and werewolves. Likewise in comics and novels and, of course, our very own popular comic.
Wait does Sciona have nipples right now? cause the closest I can see to them is a white dot
Nevermind, I read the description part
MY guesses:
Magic tendrils – unkillable and also tehnically part of a living sciona
Light beam – passes trought the field, but for it to have enough force might destroy fragile artifacts
Just break the pillars – they are probably tough though
Magic drain – if she’s a vampire, maybe she can disenchant the forcefields (maybe she can feed on magic, and the fields look magic
Undead vampire hands – kinda alive and immune to Harm type spells
Remember that last we saw them, the council was discussing that they should try to destroy some artefacts, if at all possible.
Last time we saw the present council members they mentioned it would be cheaper to figure out how to destroy the artifacts one by one than updating the current vault or building a new vault to protect against powerful supers.
They didn’t discuss destroying the artifacts as a course of action but as an indication just how much it would cost to make a better vault.
Right, but the fact that they were discussing how they might destroy artefacts indicates it’s not possible by simple crushing.
if she is like anime and the number of wings is equal to her power. we might be about to see something epic
Is that actually a thing? I knew size mattered and less visible meant more powerful but never anything about number. Not with wings, anyway.
Still, she’s one hell of a JRPG boss either way.
i know its a thing in some anime tenchi moe and the light hawk wings jump to mind. i think its brought over from Kitsune legend’s where the more tails a fox “spirit” has the more powerful it is
Had to look that up but it seems as if it was, indeed, a plot point that I had forgotten. If it doesn’t derive from kitsune/kyubei, I would be most surprised.
One could argue that it is the spirit’s age that determines its power level but, since they grow more tails with time, one is simply a discrete marker for the other.
The whole “number of wings = amount of power” started with christian mythology and their mythological beasts (angels and demons). The more powerful a creature was, the more wings and/or heads it had.
Eh, I’m a Christian, and I can say with a fair amount of certainty that’s not actually stated anywhere in the Bible.
Whether it grew somewhere along the line from Catholic tradition I don’t know, but given the Japanese influence in popular nerd culture and the Grrl-verse especially, I think the Kitsune theory is more likely.
The cherabim or seraphim (not sure which anymore, but it was one of the highest ranks of angels) are actually stated to have six pairs of wings. And one or both of those ranks are depicted with multiple heads. But this is not really an indication of their power level, and may not even be their “true form” if such a thing existed (it doesn’t. Spiritual beings don’t have physical form.)
Actually, all angels are probably pretty close in strength, their real power comes from God, and will always be exactly as much as they need.
how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
if you translate angels into atoms, and consider electrical/magnetic properties, there’s a specific answer. atoms move through things, affect things, change things. and exist everywhere.
Hmmm, no. Angels were dealt with in inconsistent ways throughout the bible, since of course there were numerous contributing authors and their imaginations varied greatly. And none of them felt any need to write a sequel to anyone else’s original work, preferring to provide their own original works of fantasy.
Jacob wrestled the angel, or with God depending on how metaphorical you wish to believe the account was, and won.
Ignoring theist/atheist divide for the moment, nothing about that really conflicts with what I said.
Since they don’t have a true form, all depictions are equally accurate, whether it be the three men who visited Abraham, the flaming mult-eyed wheels, the six winged seraphim, or the four-faced cherubim. The same individual entity could presumably take any of those forms or any other.
Jacob’s fight with God, or an angel thereof, has many interpretations. Probably the theologically simplest is that was not a physical fight at all, but either a vision, or a bit of allegory representing spiritual struggle. Not everything’s meant to be literal.
Except having a vision doesn’t typically leave one with a limp for the remainder of their life. Unless of course that particular peyote trip aka religious experience included some attempts to fly or the like.
Alternatively they were faithfully recounting actual events.
Fortunately I have a philosophy which allows both to be true, simultaneously. As such please do not get the impression that I am trying to contradict your faith. You clearly have a deeply-held conviction on the matter. So will hopefully be pleased that I can agree with you, as regards your personal world-view.
You cannot possibly contradict my faith, since I have none in any of the ~2000 deities invented by mankind.
But your “philosophy” smacks of the kind kind of weak-willed, namby pamby “accept all beliefs despite the utter lack of evidence” that could be expected from you. You refuse to think , and therefor you’re more than willing to accept the bullshit that others try to convince you of under the guise of religion.
I suspect that your “philosophy” would take a sharp U-turn if it were to come face to face with some harsh realities.
Yet you have faith that your atheism (or whichever label you prefer) is correct. That there are no gods. That there is no afterlife. That when you die you will be gone forever. You are correct.
Of course you could change your mind. But that is up to you. I would not want to dissuade you from the world view which makes you content.
Just be sure to make the most of whatever life is remaining to you. May I suggest that you seek to leave some positive legacy? That might serve to give you some comfort, when you near your end.
There is plenty of evidence as to the existence of beliefs. Just check out census results for every country which asks their populace what religion they follow. Of course we should use common sense, to weed out any frivolous declarations, such as “Jedi”, unless there is something more substantive behind that, than just checking a box.
However if people are willing to donate time and resources to actively worshipping or otherwise supporting their faith then we can have a reasonable confidence that they are are telling the truth. And we can see plenty of evidence of that, for the majority of faiths, in the shape of churches and congregations around the world. They exist.
As to proving anything beyond that,may I ask, is your faith that weak? Is the only way to validate your own convictions to gain proof that other people’s faith is misplaced? If so, good luck with that. There is no more way to prove them wrong, than there is to prove you right.
However I am willing to accept your faith on the basis of your testimony. Of course if you can offer any proof that you are right and everyone else is wrong, I would listen with interest.
Although it would be rather arrogant of you to believe that your particular belief is the correct one. Pretty much like most of the other faiths in the world.
Quite interesting that so many people, including yourself, are convinced that other people’s sincere faiths are wrong. And they of you.
Except me (and a few other folks who may have stumbled across the same basic tenants as myself, plus, of course, those who don’t care one way or the other).
This is the typical weak argument of the weak willed. I need prove nothing, for I am claiming nothing. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. I is not I who needs to prove that you do not have an invisible friend in the sky who you talk to and ask for favors from, it is you who needs to prove that you do.
As for citing the existence of religion, or the large number of people who profess to practice some religion, I never claimed religion does not exist. The delusions of many do not make those delusions truths. Religion in one form or another has plagued mankind since before recorded history, and will probably continue to plague us until we destroy the environment in which we live and cease to exist as a species.
Another way twisted people attempt to twist the argument. Calling me arrogant because I do not believe in your invented deities is laughable at best and pathetic at worst. And attempting to equate disbelief with belief is a weaksauce argument. It is not “my particular belief” that fables are not reality any more than it is “my particular belief” that there isn’t a teacup orbiting Mars, or that no human can run as fast as a car, or any number of other fanciful things you might care to try to convince me are factual. Not believing in unbelievable things isn’t a belief system, it is what people used to call common sense.
Incorrect you made a specific assertion:
You are specifically claiming that the works are fraudulent.
Actually, as the one making the definitive statement that God does not exist, the burden of proof lies with yourself. Plus I did not ask you to prove anything. I accepted your view and specifically stated that “You are correct”, as I was willing to accept your belief without the need to prove it to me.
I did not claim that it did. Any more than I claimed that your own ‘delusions’ (or faith as I prefer to call it, to avoid offence) were truths. However I am willing to accept that both are truths.
There is a subtle distinction here. As QI shows us many of the ‘facts’ which we know to be ‘truth’ can turn out to be false, once we have more data. So we have to make a judgement call, when we hear a ‘fact’. Neither you nor religious people can offer definitive proof, either way. However I have no particular reason to disbelieve either your world view or theirs. So I am content to accept both as truths, simultaneously.
Someday we may see direct proof of one camp or the other. Such as a host of heavenly angels appearing. Should you still assert that ‘proof of the existence of angels is not proof of the existence of God’ then I would be happy to carry on recognising your world view as a valid one.
By choosing to use the word “fable” you yet again indicates that you are of a definite position that they are not reality. Your own sentence contradicts itself.
To successfully pretend to us that you are objectively weighing the evidence, you would need to use a neutral term instead. And would need to come to a neutral conclusion too, for that matter. Unless you are able to offer some logic which has eluded such debates for centuries.
And the word ‘belief’ is wholly correct. You are unable to disprove the existence of God. Yet you repeatedly call the beliefs of others ‘delusional’ and their written testimony to be ‘works of fantasy’ and ‘fables’. As you are not able to provide definitive proof, to back these statements, you are basing this on your opinion. Another word for which is ‘belief’.
Having absolute certainty, in something which (as you alluded to in one part of your reply) cannot be proven, means you are acting on faith alone. This makes it a belief system, rather than a quantifiable provable fact.
No, you utter tool. You fucking moron. You complete imbecile. I have said this before but you are so dim witted that I must repeat myself for your benefit. I am only claiming that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If you are claiming that fables are facts, it is you who need to do the proving, not me. Fuck you, you ignoramus.
Believe in all the fake accounts of deities changing water into wine, or rising from the dead, or bringing berries and salmon to the hungry, or healing the lepers, or inventing writing, or feeding the masses with seven loaves and a fish, or rolling around in the clouds in their chariots making the scary noise we call thunder, or world encompassing floods, or invisible friends in the sky who smite your enemies and bless your friends that you wish to believe in without any evidence to support these claims. But do not attempt to convince anyone else that these fables are facts unless you can provide this evidence.
Because without this evidence, you lackwit, you are no more than a conman with a story to sell. Or you are the tool who the conman convinced to buy their vaporware product. And sell is the most appropriate term, given that most religions derive their revenues from the deluded who pay into this fake news.
No, you are doing more than that. You are also coming to an absolute conclusion. You are not saying “there is insufficient evidence to prove the existence of God, therefore I do not believe”. Rather you are saying that “God(/gods) does not exist and everyone who believes in that is wrong and everyone who propagates that is a liar and a fraud”.
Not only is that exceeding the conclusions that can be drawn from the evidence available, it is libeling a huge number of people. Any one of whom could choose to prosecute you for such.
Do note that you would have to defend your claim that God does not exist and that each and every claim to have witnessed a miracle is fraudulent. Which you are insisting repeatedly and more and more insultingly.
Incidentally you are doing this on the internet, in a forum which is publicly accessible everywhere in the world. Meaning that you could potentially be extradited to a country where blasphemy carries severe penalties.
Although I doubt that any country which supports freedom of speech would permit such, it is worth bearing in mind in case you ever take any international flights. You may find one of your stopovers lasts a lot longer than you think!
Not that this is a threat mind. It is just to remind you that it is you who has been making these claims. So it is you who needs to provide the evidence, not I, should it ever go to trial.
At no point have I claimed that God exists. Simply that I am willing to accept the claims of those who believe that he does.
This does not require me to provide extraordinary evidence. My opinion is mine to make how I choose. You do not get to dictate that to me. Being offensive about it does not strengthen your argument, it only weakens it. Considerably.
I am not seeking to promote religion. To the contrary I equally champion your right to be an atheist. However I do not extend that to you being rude and insulting to those who have differing beliefs.
Plus I should point out that, with respect, it is you who is being rather dimwitted as you keep failing to understand that (even though you offer no proof) I accept your assertion that there is no God, as a fact. That it is a truth.
How you can persist in claiming that I am promoting religion, with me making that statement, is ludicrous!
Although I do appreciate that you lack the wits to understand that I can simultaneously give credence to religious people’s view. Clearly you think that that must take precedence over yours. It does not. They are both true, in every respect, simultaneously.
There is both a mechanical universe which started in the Big Bang, where dinosaurs evolved over hundreds of millions of years, and which is governed by the laws of physics and quantum physics. One in which there is no God (or gods). And when you die you go to dust and have no future existence.
Simultaneously to that the universe was created as laid out in Genesis, by God, who is omniscient and omnipresent. Where the faithful will go to heaven, and the unworthy to Hell.
Oh, and the same is also true of Ganesh and the rest of his pantheon, plus their creation explanations. And of all the other pantheons throughout history.
So whilst you are on a path to nonexistence, others will be toodling off to Heaven, Hell or reincarnating as a higher or lower form, depending on their karma.
None of you can provide a level of evidence which proves that any of the others are wrong. Fortunately, thanks to my philosophy, I do not have to pick amongst them to decide which is correct. I accept that they all are. Even if promoted by rude people, or those who would use capital punishment on people who blaspheme their faith.
I have bought nothing. neither from them nor from you. Although I am willing to buy into your world views. On my own terms.
Thank you for confirming for all to see you cowardice.
You are indeed so touchy-feely that you propose that every religion is as accurate as science. How all these utterly contradictory “truths” manage to live side by side in your brain is a mystery which will never be solved. I expect it has a lot to do with mental illness, and very little to do with what you are proudly laying out as being your “philosophy.” Your philosophy is just as brave as the college freshman who decides not to take their maths exam. If they don’t make a choice then they can always claim that they know the answers, after all.
Oh, you thought that your stance was science-based? For that to be true it would have to be:
Sorry, your belief that God does not exist is an act of faith on your part.
Your faith has no greater claim over science than any of the others. They offer explanations for how the world has come to be, in its present state, therefore including the presence of science.
There are many people of faith who are also scientists. Religion and science are not mutually exclusive, as you would have us believe.
Hardly. Many of people of faith are extremists. Yourself for example. But there are also others who would kill those of differing faiths. By granting equal credence to all faiths I am exposing myself to hatred from extremists of every faith. Which you demonstrate quite clearly.
Standing up to ignorance, rudeness and hatred takes courage not cowardice.
However there are advantages to my philosophy too. It offers a path by which moderate people, of all beliefs, can come to accept others’ world-views. Not to merely tolerate them, for the sake of expediency. Saying “I respect your world views” but hypocritically thinking “however I know that you are wrong, because my faith is the correct one”.
Rather, for those who can come to grips with something being in two (or more) states at once, this can allow for totally contradictory faiths to both (all) be true. No longer does the other man have to be wrong, in order for you to be right. Which would allow for greater harmony in the world and less religious animosity (from moderates).
This is actually a lot easier for those of a scientific mind-set. We have gotten used to quantum theories which allow for things to be in two different states simultaneously.
Why not open your mind to the possibility that this applies on the grand scale as well as the minute?
Or you can close your mind to new ideas and declare me a heretic to your faith.
“just pretend the lighting is at exactly the right angle so you can’t see her bits”
:D
Mkay, fine :)
The problem with thinking you’re the most evil badass there is, might be finding out that you aren’t.
notice the mask of Loki and the lament configuration are into the holding pods behind them oh and Stormbreaker beta ray bill’s hammer
Never noticed BRB’s hammer before, but the Mask and Cube have been commented on before :D
The Mask from the motion picture of the same name was the only item I recognized.
I’m guessing at least one other item is a gag.
That cube?
… is the box from the movie Hellraiser. https://cenobite.wikia.com/wiki/Lament_Configuration
I’m hoping the red item next to Vale is the Eye of Thundera.
The up/down arrows control the ELEVATOR of DOOM! that releases the minions of Hell. (but you still have to listen to the annoying music on the trip. It is Hell after all.)
The two black items look like a pair of bracelets at my screen resolution.
The other cube is the MacGuffin from “Dude, Where’s My Car?”
If you have seen “The Frighteners” you know what that “elevator” is a giant worm of worms. Takes you on an express bus to Hell no waiting.
Question:Should Sciona keep her current form?
If what Deus said about Vale’s power is true, I doubt she will.
After all, Vale is not alone, and I doubt Sciona’s ‘partners’ are lining up to fight for her after her stunt.
Why would they fight? They are not Heroes who have to prove their Heroics and fight every Hero the first time they meet
I was talking about Vale and Heavenly Blade, who both work for Deus, who Sciona seems to be threatening right now.
That’s what was talking about: Sci-fright and Deus have no reason to fight
Those light beam-things pointed at his chest seem to indicate Sciona doesn’t agree.
Some people thought the light beams were part of her skin as well, they are not pointed at his chest, they are passing in front of him
Why shouldn’t she? She waited decades to get her real body back
…With a +2 “enhancement” to her…Charisma, I guess we could call it.
:P
I can see how Sciona is more powerful in her natural form than the frankenstein’s monster/orc body. I thought it would be a case of the difficulty and resources spend on controlling a different kind of body and size of internal magic reserves, but those energy(?) tendrils look like they have some serious power behind them, not to mention how she appears to be flying/floating.
I feel like what I am seeing is Sciona reaching out to grab Deus with the intent to use him as a human shield, destroying him, in a similar method to what she just did with the Wyrm guy. This, from her now being much more powerful in her new form, and Deus not fully realizing the true extent of her abilities. Deus may have a counter occur, but then tactfully retreat when he realizes that Sciona is much more powerful than he surmised.
“…and then it’s a whole thing.” It’s entertaining to see how Deus has managed to backend his greed-centric working philosophy into something that, if you squint and blur your vision a bit, looks kind of like an actual functional ethical system.
It… actually is a functional ethical system, and it works more than people realise who only focus on the greed part
(Psst: That “functional ethical system” is called “Absolute Monarchy” or the steps thereto. It’s not a functional ethical system so much as it is more than willing to abuse functional ethical systems and incorporate and corrupt functional ethical systems if it helps it get what it wants.)
I know full well it will never, ever happen. But just once, JUST ONCE, I would love to see a Deus-style guy get straight-up decapitated, no coming back, just plain dead, in a situation like this. “Oh, damn, guess you stuck your neck out too far, har de dar de har. Your bodyguard’s probably pissed, but that doesn’t matter to you much, does it, since you are DEAD.”
Not exactly sure what you mean by “Deus-style”, but there are quite a few examples of that.
Examples include:
Nale from OOTS, an intelligent-but-physically-unimpressive villain who got stabbed to death and then disintegrated with almost no fanfare. Bonus points for dying while both his devoted devil girlfriend and Orc barbarian friend were still alive.
Kung Fu Hustle unceremoniously kills off its main villain. He escapes death several times during the movie, but when he berates a hired killer for being no good at murder, he gets his neck broken so bad his face ends up 180 degrees the wrong direction. Just bam, dead, out of the movie, shouldn’t have mouthed off to unrepentant murderer. Dozens of his underlings are right there, but they first don’t have time to intervene, and after that they are terrified into obeying the killer.
Girl Genius will suddenly just kill off a whole mess of characters, often killing named powerful characters in just a panel or two.
In Borderlands the person we thought of as the villain gets immediately stabbed to death from behind the moment we meet her, when the audience probably expected her to be a boss fight.
The Phantom comic book would often have ambitious and unscrupulous villains releasing some sealed ancient evil, only to be immediately killed by the same evil as a build-up to the Phantom having to deal with it himself, though it was so long since I read that I can’t give any names for those story lines.
Damn, messed up the tags somehow. sorry about that.
Not a problem.
The spoiler tag has an odd peculiarity, in that it only works on the one paragraph of text. So even though I imagine you correctly placed the ‘finish spoiler’ tag at the end of your comment, it will have terminated the effect after the first block of text.
So sadly it requires separate opening and closing spoiler tags for each paragraph, when you have several.
Thog was offscreen, presumably dead under that rubble. Essentially dead until Sabine escapes hell and grabs him for a revenge plot.
There was also Lord Kubota. Killed, disintegrated, ashes tossed overboard.
I’m assuming by Deus-style he means “smug planner villain that has everything ever that happens be according to keikaku and walks up to gloat at other characters more powerful than him, which he has no consequences for”. So I’m guessing Potatomoto just wants to see one of these undefeatable smugs NOT be coddled by the narrative, and just make a miscalculation and get simply stabbed.
Yes, precisely this Drascin. I mean, for a writer it’s got to be a lot of fun to watch all the pieces of an elaborate Xanatos (or Batman) Gambit fall into place, and I actually don’t hate those kinds of characters, but for the sake of sheer novelty I’d love to see one just straight-up murdered at their most smug.
Hell, at this moment, if Sciona had Syndey’s narrative-savvy she’d recognize Deus for what he is and realize that stopping whatever threat he has planned for the future is more than worth the trouble that ripping his head off would cause now.
Points to APersonAmI & Soranic, though, for pointing out Nale and Kubota. Those are both PRETTY close to what I’m talking about. (And both from the same source, go figure) But I’d really want it to happen to a full-on Deus, or Xanatos, or Handsome Jack. Someone who obviously has a AAA+ villain rating, someone that experience tells you is going to be smugly untouchable until their unbelievably intricate plan comes to fruition and they become the Ultimate Threat. Only this time, nope, ha ha, you got your heart ripped out.
No issue with the spoiler tags. These forums do not allow for any editing of posting errors. And spoiler tags are almost universally misused in any case. People often use them to hide their random speculations, as if those are in any way spoilers. Protip to the clueless: Your random speculations are not spoiler materiel.
In the case of Nale, he didn’t just get killed off trivially. He was a long time recurring villain who was killed by his father after loudly and publicly renouncing all ties to his father. The fact that it only took a single stab to the heart to kill him was not terribly significant, despite all the fanfare over the event. It only takes a single stab to the heart to kill most of us, after all.
Psst.
The following is visible even with spoiler text enabled.
It’s happened in comics before too. Maverick (mercenary) killed the crime boss by throwing him through & out of a penthouse window, right in front of his bodyguards. The bodyguards were pissed, certainly, but Maverick pointed out that as soon as their boss hit the ground, they were off his payroll. They just let him walk out.
She looks like a silver devil. Whatever that is. :P
If you don’t count her as a Dark elf… Another could be a Fallen Aasimar.
I love the quotes are “Deus”. Those aren’t mere finger quotes. She is pronouncing them.
She clearly has little respect for a man who named himself ‘God’.
And in a touch of irony from the last page, we find out that having larger boobs has altered her center of balance and she can no longer fly as efficiently as she could before.
Not quite as bad as it appears in the the Macho Women With Guns series of RPG. One of the Disadvantadges that can be bought is called Top Heavy. For flying characters (such as a Bat-Winged Bimbo From Hell), they’re a bit off balance & take maneuvering penalties, plus they can only fly facing down towards the ground (can’t do stunts like barrel-rolls).
Sciona’s going to take control of his body isn’t she?
So is she planning to mimic Deus’s solution by swatting her laser wings to knock loose the remaining prizes or to murder him like those wings are giant raptor claws?
I believe the answer is YES.
Heeeeere we go. :)
She is obviously a full sized Fey creature. And Fey as we know are as varied as there are monsters in Fantasy.
Some of them are actors and get parts in ’30 Rock’.