Grrl Power #636 – Promises promises
So we don’t know the details of why Sciona was on Earth in the first place. It might have been for being a jerk. But if you’re exiled, when you come back, it’s good form to bring an offering. Like access to a planet with powerful beings that can kick the shit out of exiled blood mages even if they’re doping on super juice.
There’s probably something to be said for a global government, but it’s probably not ideal when an alien race is offering compulsory administration. And no matter who’s handling the paperwork, it’s probably impossible to do without gradual cultural homogenization. I guess it makes some sense that Klingons are the warrior race, and Ferengi are the capitalism-gone-mad race, because they’ve had a single world government for hundreds of generations. Or maybe they were a bunch of warring tribes/houses who all spoke the same language and had the same culture to begin with, and it was just a question of who bends the knee to whom. Whereas, at least in Star Trek, the Earth still seems to have 200 languages and countries, despite a global government. That or what used to be countries are now like federated states or something. I’m actually not sure what the arrangement is, but in any case, they haven’t had a single government long enough to wash out all the sociological distinctiveness.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
So I’m going to guess tha there’s been a change in management while she’s been gone… and whomever the new boss is, they’re even worse than the old one.
The new boss is always worse than the old boss. Always.
My guess is they’re all dead.
I am with you on this. They are all dead and she is now the last of her kind.
It would explain why Deus wanted her name and SPECIES written. Like the draugr.
So sad.
Maybe Sciona could consult with a succubus fertility clinic? We could get to see a hybrid winged capitalist species!
Kind of up there with a world populated with flying tarantulas, in my list of ‘worlds to avoid’.
Winged capitalists are not necessarily a bad thing. In fact I think a highly mobile capitalist could be mostly good for the world as long as it’s Deus and not Sciona who raise the child.
Capitalists are a fantasy creature, like unicorns, EVA units and honest politicians … okay in fantasy there are honest ones, like David Broadfoot, but in Real Life [tm] they don’t exist.
As for Capitalists we have corporatism, monopolists, oligarchies, hedge fund investors, and all sorts of other fun types that are a cross between parasitic wasps and tent caterpillars.
The closest we will ever get to honesty in business is chartered accountancy …. and who really wants to be around one of those for any length of time?
Unfortunately Deus is a highly idealized version of a pragmatic capitalist that will never exist in the real world.
He is also a murdering arsehole: just because he didn’t kill that ruler himself, he ordered one f his slaves to do it for him, after going there with the intent of killing the ruler if they wouldn’t kowtow to his demands
Spin it all you want, butt that is a fact!
He is not a nice person. Sadly that is actually one of the things which contributes towards being a successful capitalist. So long as you don’t actually get caught, and carry on making people money, you can literally get away with murder.
By definition, anything though, so that doesn’t really mean much about capitalism in particular. There are plenty of huge nonprofits with the leadership making a lot of money while simultaneously doing great things for large populations across the world.
Eh, worked with the Marags.
Why shouldn’t tarantulas fly? I’ve had a couple as pets, and my company logo is a spider on a keyboard because my first Rose-Hair named Djraine liked to sleep on my hand while I was writing code for software engineering class in college. Other spiders are exactly as friendly and fun.
If there are spiders which are learning how to program HTML5, then I want to find accommodation on some other world fast!
I used to be severely arachnophobic, by the way. To the extent that my brother was able to terrify me by just surprising me with a full colour picture of a big hairy spider. We had an encyclopedia, with a double page picture showing a spider, close up to all its mouthparts and eyes. Which were some of the most-thumbed pages in their, thanks to his hobby!
Plus I got close to dying from a tarantula. As a newborn pup, one managed to get up onto my bed, and became agitated by my presence. Whilst they are not dangerous to adults, had it bitten me, I could well have died. A tale much recounted to me, whenever the topic of tarantulas came up.
Fortunately, years ago, a friend and I enjoyed visiting a nearby extensive garden centre. In addition to shopping there, anytime we were too broke, to afford to go anywhere else, we would visit there. The only route out of which was through their pet store, which included a big bug section. Most of which was spiders.
Whilst they had sensibly set things up so you could avoid the latter, I chose not to. So I could gradually acclimatise myself to them. Eventually reaching the point where I could tolerate (if not enjoy) someone holding a large tarantula, whilst standing next to me.
I never felt the urge to take my treatment any further. So it would be wise to avoid surprising me with any of your hairy friends. I suspect my reactions would be much akin to Sydney’s, involving whatever book, or other weighty object, may be to paw!
Good to know about you. Something to know about me, is I have the same stated power as Van (spiders man).
Rose-hair tarantula venom doesn’t affect humans, so even though their fangs are rather thick and long, the chemistry wouldn’t affect you unless you’re allergic and almost no one is. The utricating hairs however, take forever for the human body to break down and are really itchy and like to stay in inaccessible locations.
Someone else I know is arachnophobic, and I liked scaring them with this picture of a German Shepherd wearing a tarantula costume: https://odditymall.com/includes/content/tarantula-spider-dog-costume-0.jpg
Didn’t scare me.
*peering over edge of kennel*
Wasn’t that the twist in the show Angel with Illyria?
This ancient powerful demon from the dawn of time who can fling other supernatural threats around like toys, stop time and who knows what else, returns to her home dimension to bring her army to conquer the Earth…only to find the army died otu and was reduced to dust millennia ago while she she trapped.
Yeeeeep. This has all the markings of a simlair plot for the next panel.
That, or they are reduced back to the iron age, and we get some of those medevil scenes from earlier.
It does fit emotionally. We could see a reveal of the ruins of a cityscape, for example. An instantly recognisable post appocolypse scene.
But why would Sydney need the truesight orb, in hand, to see that?
Although, I guess it may be as simple as Sydney grasping the orb, in order to have a look around. Not needing it though, when she looked beyond their immediate vicinity and spotted the ruins.
Likewise explaining Dabbler’s gaze.
My theory is that it’s not her real world, but an illusion played from the infernal being whom Dabbler banished when she lost her eye.
My guess is that all those glyph’d tiles are gave markers and this is now a cemetery world.
The true sight orb will reveal a literal host of spirits that are none too happy on the return of our planar travel hostess.
Either that or like that scene in Reboot where something came through the looking glass and it sure wasn’t Alice.
Those glyphs, on the ground, look very evenly spaced. Kind of like what we might expect from a holodeck floor.
Or a mausoleum.
The museum twist bit? Heh,
(We have traveled back in time!)…sorry doc your time machine is a teleporter, we’re in the dinosaur exhibit.
Well, the Truesight orb does have a “bird’s eye view” mode, too. Last seen used in the fight with Vehemence which is how Sydney found out about his aggro aura.
I consider that angle to have been for our convenience, as the readers, to see the scope. Along with being a suitably dramatic reveal.
But, considering your take, it is plausible. The orb does allow Sydney to see from her projected image’s point of view. So the mechanism for such is already a part of the orb’s power.
Ooh. Mayhaps Sydney has already deployed her remote viewing mode and is scouting the surroundings. It would explain the pupilless eye look. She’s actually looking from another location.
I am going to assume that spelling of medieval was deliberate.
My Original Thought was that they were dead, but now I want them to all be flower crown wearing hippies going through a peace and love movement.
:-D
Pete Townshend would disagree.
Yeaaaaaah!
I thought the new boss was the same as the old boss.
Not always, I went from a half crazy self promoting micro manager with delusions of grandeur to a laid back guy who didn’t worry about much past getting the job done. Crazy guy left before he was fired, after he’d managed so much employee abuse that upper management started asking why so many people were drawing extended leave medical for nervous breakdowns. Yeah, I’m serious.
Perhaps she’s about to have an “Illyria” moment … (Buffyverse reference)
Damn, I really should have read the comments before posting my own.
Firstly, Humanity in the ST universe was unified in part because they realized they were no longer alone and, as one wise man once said “Gentlemen we either hang together or we will hang alone” and because it had just come through a half century of the Eugenics Wars/WWIII in which they had to deal with supermen like Khan and “better breeding through weeding” from Col Green and the Optimum Movement in which they used Eugenics justified mass murder to try to get rid of the sick, poor, and various minorities. By the time of First Contact its a case of “tried that, didn’t work, and tasted terrible…may we should try giving peas a chance…”
It was also much the same case with the Vulcans who had an extra reason to unify if you consider “Spock’s World” remotely cannon when space fairing versions of the Conqestadors landed and tried taking the planet’s leadership hostage and tried to force the Vulcans to surrender control of the planet to them (the Vulcans were quite aware what would happen next since they’ve been practicing that sort of stuff on each other for millennia and quite happily stomped the aliens into cheeze-flavored dog food; it was the debate on whether to become galactic conquerors afterwards that split the society into the Vulcans that followed peace and logic and the Romulans who decided to leave before fighting threatened the planet once more).
Klingons, well that was a case of stomping down hard on all opposition and rebellion at the slightest sign.
The Ferengi are, at best, a oligarchy of competing trading houses who are unified out of the belief that war is bad for business (unless it is someone else then its an opportunity). They have a common language because have a contract everyone understands is good for business and they have a Grand Nagus to act as a “spiritual head in the church of Greed” because it is sometimes good to have referee and mediator to keep factions from fighting and prevent grit getting into the wheels of industry (and greasing the wheels with bribes doesn’t hurt either).
I consider the works of Diane Duane and John M. Ford to be more canon than any other Trek source.
Pretty sure the real reason star trek has monolithic cultures is that they’re a lot easier to portray.
Yup. Especially for the ‘one episode = one mysterious property to explore’ So ‘this weeks episode = a whole race who think like computers’. Although if you had a whole series to explore their culture, you would probably find some who had artistic leanings. Even if their peers considered that an aberration.
But equally the writers prefer to deal with individuals, or small groups, rather than whole societies. Hence why Data was used to explore those kinds of things (and Spock before him).
However when they eventually get to meet more of the folks who like talking about “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra”, they might find that there is some odd island (or subterranean) sub-species who took a different linguistic path, more akin to offworlder’s patterns. Even if they might have some Yoda-like quirks.
I always found the Federation to be inferior in MANY ways to the Ferengi – made most evident in DS9 by Quark. He pretty effortlessly schooled both humans and vulcans and was what the Ferengi SHOULD have been in TNG (but they were instead clownish little goblins who were just utterly annoying and idiotic). Sure, the Ferengi were incredibly flawed, but so are the Federation.
Armin Shimerman said he wanted to fix the buffoonish way they were presented in TNG when he was picked for the role in DS9, and man did he ever do a good job of it. He pointed out, pretty regularly, the flaws in the Federation’s ‘socialist utopia’ – especially if they had to also deal with the rest of the universe.
Some pretty notable quotes by Quark:
Quark explaining why human civility is often just a surface-level veneer:
youtube.com/watch?v=-D2SHNqkjbY
“Let me tell you something about Hoo-mons, Nephew. They’re a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people… will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don’t believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes.”
Quark schooling Sisko, and actually making him shut up because he Sisko couldn’t make a good comeback to it. Even the Vorta took notice of his points:
youtu.be/W5J_qn93Nkc
“Commander, I think I figured out why humans don’t like Ferengi. The way I see it, humans used to be a lot LIKE Ferengi. Greedy, acquisitive, interested only in profit. We’re a constant reminder of a part of your past you’d like to forget. But you’re overlooking something. Humans used to be a LOT worse than Ferengi. Slavery, concentration camps, interstellar wars. We have nothing in our past that approaches that kind of barbarism. You see, we’re nothing like you. We’re better. Now if you’ll excuse me…. I have a lock to pick.”
Quark schooling a vulcan on logic, and actually winning the argument. With LOGIC:
youtube.com/watch?v=hdQcGzbpN7s
Quark: It all comes down to the Third Rule of Acquisition. You don’t know that one, do you?
Sakonna: I am not well-versed in Ferengi philosophy.
Quark: Remind me to give you a copy of the Rules, you’ll never know when they’ll come in handy. Now, the Third Rule clearly states, “Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to.”
Sakonna: Logical. But I fail to see how that applies to my situation.
Quark: You want to acquire peace. Fine, peace is good. But how much are you willing to pay for it?
Sakonna: Whatever it costs.
Quark: That’s the kind of irresponsible spending that causes so many business ventures to fail. You’re forgetting the Third Rule! Right now, peace could be bought at a bargain price, and you don’t even realize it.
Sakonna: …I find this very confusing.
Quark: [sighs] Then I’ll make it so simple that even a Vulcan can understand: the Central Command has been caught red-handed smuggling weapons to their settlers. So every ship that approaches the de-militarized zone will be searched. Without the support of the Central Command, the Cardassian settlers won’t be so eager to fight.
Sakonna: You forget the weapons they already have.
Quark: They have weapons, you have weapons, everyone has weapons; but right now, no one has a clear advantage. So the price of peace is at an all-time low. This is the perfect time to sit down and hammer out an agreement. Don’t you get it? Attacking the Cardassians now will only escalate the conflict and make peace more expensive in the long run! Now, I ask you: is that logical?
Nog was similarly able to school Sisko’s son, Jake (worst character in the show btw):
youtube.com/watch?v=Wx5I7uEEEYo
Nog: “Jake, if you want to bid at the auction, use your own money.”
Jake: “I’m human! I don’t have any money!”
Nog: “It’s not my fault your species chose to get rid of currency-based economics in favor of some philosophy of self-enhancement.”
Jake: “HEY! Watch it! There’s nothing wrong with our philosophy! We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity!”
Nog: “What does that MEAN exactly?”
Jake: “It means….. uh…. it means…. um…. we don’t need money.”
Nog: “Well, if you don’t need money, then you certainly don’t need MINE.”
You love Deus. You love Batman. You love Quark.
I’m noticing an unmistakable pattern!
Definitely heterosexual!
*wags tail conclusively*
Using books and/or movies to prove a point only works if the discussion is strictly about fiction. If there’s any link to real life, it fails because fictional descriptions are in fact, fictional.
I only said that for the funnies, and then only because I know Pander well enough that I believe it will amuse her. I would be a lot more wary of making a comment, which could be taken badly, with someone who I did not know.
Putting that aside though, your comment has a flaw. Because fiction always has links to real life. A real person created it, based on stuff they have found out during life. It has certain commonalities with real life. What they are may vary, especially with some of the more bizarre fiction. But we would typically have some items, from this example list, work the same way as in real life:
Gravity, conversation, air, emotions, knives, conflict, taste and the works of Shakespeare (miniguns optional).
Plus we can also infer some things about commentators and authors depending on the words they write. We of course must be a lot more careful, when doing so when the subject matter is fictional works, as opposed to factual. So many aspects will be something deliberately created, as an untruth, for entertainment purposes.
Especially we should not hold an author to be villainous, if they have written a villainous character as an antagonist. However there are a number of things which could be inferred, with a large enough body of work (or commentary on it).
So we can, see from this comic, for example, that the author is pro-feminist. Yet feels that sex and sexuality need not conflict with that stance. The comic is full of strong female characters, who run the gamut from highly sexual through to highly repressed.
As substantiated by various blogs and comments. Not to mention being a guest writer for Gyno Star. Another fictional work, but one which we can make similar pro-feminist inferences rather easily.
In Pander‘s case she has oft expressed admiration for various capitalists. Frequently enough that it is highly doubtful that she is, in reality, a communist. And very heavily featured as a theme in the comment I replied to. Making it fair game to draw upon that.
Although I chose to subvert it, in another direction, for comedic purposes. ;-)
“I only said that for the funnies, and then only because I know Pander well enough that I believe it will amuse her. I would be a lot more wary of making a comment, which could be taken badly, with someone who I did not know.”
I’m definitely amused :) And I don’t take anything Yorp says badly. Yorpie is adorable.
Even though currently his avatar looks like it’s been slimed by Slimer from Ghostbusters.
“In Pander‘s case she has oft expressed admiration for various capitalists.”
It’s more that I can’t stand socialists but yes, I am a big admirer of capitalism as the one economic philosophy that has taken more people out of poverty on the entire planet than any other economic theory in the history of the planet. :)
Plus who wouldn’t have the hots for Batman? CMON!
“Frequently enough that it is highly doubtful that she is, in reality, a communist.”
Well observed, Detective.
“So we can, see from this comic, for example, that the author is pro-feminist.”
DaveB strikes me as more of an egalitarian (which I consider more ‘classical’ feminism) than what sometimes passes for a modern feminist, to be honest (although he doesn’t seem to judge, which is nice). That whole debate between Dabbler and Maxima in the restaurant really made me think that :)
Yet another reason to love the comic.
DS9 was good about showing the flaws in the Federation. And the Federation of the Next Gen DS9 era is not the Federation of the Original Series era. Great Civilizations have a life cycle and during the era of Jim Kirk’s Enterprise the Federation was a fairly young and dynamic civilization and was robust and expanding. By Next Gen the Federation had reached a sort of Golden age. It had made peace with the next largest civilization in the neighborhood and hadn’t been in a major conflict in over 70 years. The conflict with the Cardassians ammounted to a border skirmish that only involved a tiny fraction of Starfleet and Starfleet and the Federation had gotten complacent. Ben Sisko’s frustration in being a Commander out on the edge of the Federation while dealing with a Starfleet Command that simply didn’t understand the rest of the universe wasn’t like the Federation is best summed up by his “it’s easy to be a Saint in paradise” speech here. https://youtu.be/crpUHa9_pJ0 There are some indicators that the Federation was actually a civilization in decline when the Dominion came along and forced them to militarize. I wish there had been a follow on series to show how the war affected Starfleet and the Federation as a whole. No civilization goes on onto a total war footing and militarizes without long lasting effects on its culture. The Federation, Klingon and Romulan Empires all came very close to being destroyed and conquered by the Dominion. You don’t just bounce back, demilitarize and put your civilization and culture back the way it was after that.
DS9 was my favourite of the Star Trek series. I would be very happy to see a follow-up setting, which picked up from there. Not necessarily being set on DS9, or even involving it much (or at all).
But I would be disappointed if Jadzia Dax and Kira did not feature. Plus some of the guy characters too, I guess. ;-)
I always found the Federation to be inferior in MANY ways to the Ferengi – made most evident in DS9 by Quark. He pretty effortlessly schooled both humans and vulcans and was what the Ferengi SHOULD have been in TNG (but they were instead clownish little goblins who were just utterly annoying and idiotic). Sure, the Ferengi were incredibly flawed, but so are the Federation.
Armin Shimerman said he wanted to fix the buffoonish way they were presented in TNG when he was picked for the role in DS9, and man did he ever do a good job of it. He pointed out, pretty regularly, the flaws in the Federation’s ‘socialist utopia’ – especially if they had to also deal with the rest of the universe.
Some pretty notable quotes by Quark. I’d post the links but every time I try it won’t let me post.
Quark explaining why human civility is often just a surface-level veneer:
“Let me tell you something about Hoo-mons, Nephew. They’re a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people… will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don’t believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes.”
Quark schooling Sisko, and actually making him shut up because he Sisko couldn’t make a good comeback to it. Even the Vorta took notice of his points:
“Commander, I think I figured out why humans don’t like Ferengi. The way I see it, humans used to be a lot LIKE Ferengi. Greedy, acquisitive, interested only in profit. We’re a constant reminder of a part of your past you’d like to forget. But you’re overlooking something. Humans used to be a LOT worse than Ferengi. Slavery, concentration camps, interstellar wars. We have nothing in our past that approaches that kind of barbarism. You see, we’re nothing like you. We’re better. Now if you’ll excuse me…. I have a lock to pick.”
Quark schooling a vulcan on logic, and actually winning the argument. With LOGIC:
Quark: It all comes down to the Third Rule of Acquisition. You don’t know that one, do you?
Sakonna: I am not well-versed in Ferengi philosophy.
Quark: Remind me to give you a copy of the Rules, you’ll never know when they’ll come in handy. Now, the Third Rule clearly states, “Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to.”
Sakonna: Logical. But I fail to see how that applies to my situation.
Quark: You want to acquire peace. Fine, peace is good. But how much are you willing to pay for it?
Sakonna: Whatever it costs.
Quark: That’s the kind of irresponsible spending that causes so many business ventures to fail. You’re forgetting the Third Rule! Right now, peace could be bought at a bargain price, and you don’t even realize it.
Sakonna: …I find this very confusing.
Quark: [sighs] Then I’ll make it so simple that even a Vulcan can understand: the Central Command has been caught red-handed smuggling weapons to their settlers. So every ship that approaches the de-militarized zone will be searched. Without the support of the Central Command, the Cardassian settlers won’t be so eager to fight.
Sakonna: You forget the weapons they already have.
Quark: They have weapons, you have weapons, everyone has weapons; but right now, no one has a clear advantage. So the price of peace is at an all-time low. This is the perfect time to sit down and hammer out an agreement. Don’t you get it? Attacking the Cardassians now will only escalate the conflict and make peace more expensive in the long run! Now, I ask you: is that logical?
Nog was similarly able to school Sisko’s son, Jake (worst character in the show btw):
Nog: “Jake, if you want to bid at the auction, use your own money.”
Jake: “I’m human! I don’t have any money!”
Nog: “It’s not my fault your species chose to get rid of currency-based economics in favor of some philosophy of self-enhancement.”
Jake: “HEY! Watch it! There’s nothing wrong with our philosophy! We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity!”
Nog: “What does that MEAN exactly?”
Jake: “It means….. uh…. it means…. um…. we don’t need money.”
Nog: “Well, if you don’t need money, then you certainly don’t need MINE.”
Yep, “Planet of Hats”
its a result of space travel epics basically being re-writes of sea travel epics.
The ship, the sea, the captain, the storms that blow them off course, naval battles, the mysterious natives and their islands, the temple gods, the monster islands, ect…
they just put everything in space and turned the islands into planets.
I is wearing a hat. Does that mean I should put my water-wings on? I don’t think I could swim all the way to another planet!
*looks worriedly out of the window*
I always found the Federation to be inferior in MANY ways to the Ferengi – made most evident in DS9 by Quark. He pretty effortlessly schooled both humans and vulcans and was what the Ferengi SHOULD have been in TNG (but they were instead clownish little goblins who were just utterly annoying and idiotic). Sure, the Ferengi were incredibly flawed, but so are the Federation.
Armin Shimerman said he wanted to fix the buffoonish way they were presented in TNG when he was picked for the role in DS9, and man did he ever do a good job of it. He pointed out, pretty regularly, the flaws in the Federation’s ‘socialist utopia’ – especially if they had to also deal with the rest of the universe.
Some pretty notable quotes by Quark:
Quark explaining why human civility is often just a surface-level thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D2SHNqkjbY
“Let me tell you something about Hoo-mons, Nephew. They’re a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people… will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don’t believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes.”
Quark schooling Sisko, and actually making him shut up because he Sisko couldn’t make a good comeback to it. Even the Vorta took notice of his points:
https://youtu.be/W5J_qn93Nkc
“Commander, I think I figured out why humans don’t like Ferengi. The way I see it, humans used to be a lot LIKE Ferengi. Greedy, acquisitive, interested only in profit. We’re a constant reminder of a part of your past you’d like to forget. But you’re overlooking something. Humans used to be a LOT worse than Ferengi. Slavery, concentration camps, interstellar wars. We have nothing in our past that approaches that kind of barbarism. You see, we’re nothing like you. We’re better. Now if you’ll excuse me…. I have a lock to pick.”
Quark schooling a vulcan on logic, and actually winning the argument. With LOGIC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdQcGzbpN7s
Quark: It all comes down to the Third Rule of Acquisition. You don’t know that one, do you?
Sakonna: I am not well-versed in Ferengi philosophy.
Quark: Remind me to give you a copy of the Rules, you’ll never know when they’ll come in handy. Now, the Third Rule clearly states, “Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to.”
Sakonna: Logical. But I fail to see how that applies to my situation.
Quark: You want to acquire peace. Fine, peace is good. But how much are you willing to pay for it?
Sakonna: Whatever it costs.
Quark: That’s the kind of irresponsible spending that causes so many business ventures to fail. You’re forgetting the Third Rule! Right now, peace could be bought at a bargain price, and you don’t even realize it.
Sakonna: …I find this very confusing.
Quark: [sighs] Then I’ll make it so simple that even a Vulcan can understand: the Central Command has been caught red-handed smuggling weapons to their settlers. So every ship that approaches the de-militarized zone will be searched. Without the support of the Central Command, the Cardassian settlers won’t be so eager to fight.
Sakonna: You forget the weapons they already have.
Quark: They have weapons, you have weapons, everyone has weapons; but right now, no one has a clear advantage. So the price of peace is at an all-time low. This is the perfect time to sit down and hammer out an agreement. Don’t you get it? Attacking the Cardassians now will only escalate the conflict and make peace more expensive in the long run! Now, I ask you: is that logical?
Nog was similarly able to school Sisko’s son, Jake (worst character in the show btw):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx5I7uEEEYo
Nog: “Jake, if you want to bid at the auction, use your own money.”
Jake: “I’m human! I don’t have any money!”
Nog: “It’s not my fault your species chose to get rid of currency-based economics in favor of some philosophy of self-enhancement.”
Jake: “HEY! Watch it! There’s nothing wrong with our philosophy! We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity!”
Nog: “What does that MEAN exactly?”
Jake: “It means….. uh…. it means…. um…. we don’t need money.”
Nog: “Well, if you don’t need money, then you certainly don’t need MINE.”
Weird that it posted twice.
It’s how the comments have been acting for the last week, you probably didn’t think the first one went through, so posted it again, saw it didn’t go through again, and noticed the links weren’t working, so fixed the links and posted a third time
considering how empty the place seems I think that Sciona is gonna have a rude awakening
First thing I thought! How does she know if any of her people are still alive or even on this world anymore?
Maybe she has a head for these things? Although she has been away a long time. So maybe she does not have a leg to stand upon?
Drumroll rimshot! She is also drugged out of her mind on WeaponX tm! Blood cocktail and in shock from having her leg blown off. If she starts screaming at Tinkerbell next, we can write her grasp of reality as “nebulous”.
Correction: She only until recently had half a head for these things.
It’s also possible that the Klingons and Ferengi aren’t monocultures either, and we just don’t see their cultural minorities represented. Or the Klingons crushed and exterminated their minority cultures and the Ferengi turned theirs into indebted serfs . . .
Seems likely. I was always annoyed at the writers for having Quark give that lecture about how Ferengi never developed slavery without having anyone call him on the fact that all Ferengi women were slaves.
In his defense, Quark probably didn’t see it that way. To him, Ferengi women = his mother, as well as any potential mates (for actual procreation, not just pleasure). And also to his credit, once he realized that slavery was inherently inferior to free employment he was fully on board with his mother’s scheme to fight for sexual equality alongside the Negis (who, to HIS credit, had realized the advantages the moment he first met her). As he put it (in that admittedly rather atrocious episode full of stereotypes and crossdressing), “It’s time half our species began contributing their fair share.”
Personally, I was always annoyed that nobody else ever called out the Federation for their hypocrisy. “You say you respect the spiritual and social customs of other species… here’s a species whose religious practices are rooted in the capitalist theories you discarded a few centuries prior. And here you are insulting them, looking down your noses at them, treating them as inferior creatures… you get annoyed when they quote the Rules of Acquisition and don’t even care that you’re INSULTING THEIR RELIGION… all because they make you feel uncomfortable about your own history.”
That bugged me, personally. They had plenty of respect for the Klingons – meanwhile, the Klingons talked big about honor and glorious combat, yet most of their actual victories were against inferior opponents (in DS9 we’re reminded that the Klingons LOOOOVE to attack unarmed transports and the like, and doing so gets you an invite to a party with the Emperor with all the bloodwine you can drink), and they were only still intact because the Federation had literally propped them up since the days of Kirk. Ezri Dax even points that out in the final season, when she tells Worf, “the Empire is probably going to fall… and it deserves to. Can you think of even one member of the Klingon High Council you actually respect?”
(and in WORF’s defense, he thought of a high ranking Klingon he respected, and put Martak on the throne as the new Emperor)
Yet “Yesterday’s Enterprise” shows that if the Klingon Empire had gone to war with the Federation, in its early days, it would have won. It was only because they saw the honour of an early Enterprise, fighting a battle they knew to be against impossible odds, that they decided the Federation were worthy.
Their view is: an honourable foe you should meet on equal terms, to get a good fight. Whereas any other foe you dispose of by whatever means is expedient. If they neglect to put weapons on their transports, then that just makes them weak and unworthy of being offered a fair fight.
There is an overlap in the Klingon psyche with Sciona’s. The only person we have seen her show any respect to (and then only barely) is Deus. Even Vale (the one who actually defeated Sciona) was pretty much ignored. Presumably because she is an employee of Deus, so only the boss would be accorded any recognition.
And even then (as with her offer above) she still considers Deus (and Maxima etc) to be inherently inferior to her. So the best they can hope for is whatever form of slavery she may decide they are best suited to.
Actually, Quark, Garrok, and Kira all called the Federation out on things like that fairly regularly.
I love DS9 because it was willing to point out out the hypocrisy and flaws of the Federation.
If the Federation had done what Garak planned to do to the Founder’s home planet, they could have prevented the deaths of billions in the Alpha Quadrant and the enslavement of most of the Gamma Quadrant with the loss of just one ship.
Also… loove Garak. He had the best one-liners and advice.
“It’s just something I picked up while hemming some pants.”
“You know the worst part? I’m actually a very GOOD tailor.”
Bashir: “Out of all the stories that you told me, which ones are true and which ones aren’t?”
Garak: “My dear doctor, they’re all true.”
Bashir: “Even the lies?”
Garak: “ESPECIALLY the lies.”
And lets not forget Section 31.
Garak was awesome!
And the there was the time Quark thanked Sisko for confirming the 98th Rule of Acquisition for him.
“No member of the Corps should ever report for duty in a ginger toupée?”
Well, thank you for reminding me about that regulation, but I can’t see how it is pertinent to our present situation.
It was from “In The Pale Moonlight,” one of Garak’s best performances.
“Every man has his price.”
Also, while Quark wouldn’t see the way Ferendi females are treated as slavery, pretty much every other main character on DS9 should have and someone should have called him on it.
Star Trek Discovery showed the Klingons as being twenty-four different houses that could only unite under a common enemy or threat of annihilation.
Discovery is not canon. I refuse to acknowledge the possibility
That part is true from TNG and DS9 too. Those houses only ever loosely got a long even a century later.
There’s also the point that both the Klingons and Ferengi have been space-faring races for a long time. Humans are really the ‘New Kids’ in the galaxy and the Federation has only been around a few centuries at best. There hasn’t been time for the Humanity to let go of their different cultures and settle around a particular set of social and cultural norms. In fact, you can still see evidence of traces of different cultural traits in both the Klingon and Ferengi in terms of how different Houses and groups act and dress, it’s just as not pronounced as say the difference between someone from 24th Century Japan and France may be.
Good points. In Babylon 5 humans have been out in space for just a century or so. The Centari have been in space to have built an interstellar Empire that has already collapsed when humans find them. And the oldest of the Young Races, the Mimbari, have been in space for millenia and are far and away more technologically advanced than anyone but the Vorlons. Mimbari use gravity drives. Humans are still using fusion thrusters and spin sections of their ships to simulate gravity. Humans are even more diverse than they are in Star Trek, while the Centari and Mimbari are monocultures. I find this kind of interesting because here on Earth colonies almost always diverge from their parent cultures. As space faring races, the Klingons, Retention, Mimbari and Centari should be even more diverse than Johnny come lately humans as each colony world developed separate from the homeworld.
That divergence would only be significant though if there was a significant delay in communications and travel. In the colonial era on Earth it could take weeks or months to get to the colonies. As such the local governors had to be granted significant powers, people had infrequent and delayed contact with friends, family and relatives and any choice to work overseas was a one-way trip for the vast majority of the populace.
Meaning that there was far less chance for the parent country’s culture to dominate. Most people would spend their whole lives in the colony and not get to see the sights of their parent country. They would be heavily exposed to any indigenous populations, nearby nations and find their own local fashion trends (clothing, linguistically or otherwise).
But as soon as you reduce the delays you bring the two cultures closer (or allow less chance for divergence, if the colonies were founded with the relevant technology available). Whereas if you effectively have no delay then you would be able to retain a mono-culture.
For instance being able to hold a conversation in real time, rather than having to wait minutes before hearing any reply. Or travel to or from a colony within a day or so. Even more so if travel times are so fast that you can commute from one to the other, each day. Which would be the case of any culture making extensive use of stargates.
So if the cosmic can opener is able to create a network of stargates, from the Alari homeworld, to Earth, they would be able to exercise easy control and influence throughout the world. Whereas if they only had the one portal, then that choke-point would reduce the flow of personnel, and require a bit more local autonomy. More so if the wormhole turned out to only work for a brief time and then had a long delay in opening up another one,
Sciona looks wonderfully maniacal, but Dabbler and Max are barely recognizable. Cheekbones and chins are off, eyes the wrong shape and angle, foreheads are too flat, noses shaped wrong, etc.
Something looks off about the faces in that last panel. I can’t explain the details, but… they aren’t right.
The eyes of Dabbler are scary. :(
Do you see a yellow orb being held…
I see a yellow orb and no shield orb. Whatever this “new information” is, I don’t think it’s very threatening…..
yep question is that the com clone, or the original and syd sent to clone out for recon and found something..
Orb of Omens, give me sight beyond sight!
Now curious if Unknown Orb is a magic canceller or is a portal generator now. With interplanetary ones being power-hungry, maybe not, but these things handle holding off Maxima (admittedly not at full power) for more than three seconds, so maybe yes. Otherwise yeah book it back through the portal.
Or maybe what everyone thought was a portal actually just ended up giving some kind of vision/hallucination/fake image of the intended destination and they’re all still back in the cavern and the “new information” is that Truesight still sees the cavern. (Though Harem’s reaction makes this seem unlikely. Ooo, maybe Lightbee (or whatever the Telepresence was called) could go back through the portal and saw the inevitable cave in finally happened?)
I always find it a bit disturbing for Sydney being the voice of calm reason in a situation.
Agreed. “Hey superheroes, pull yourselves together!” *Ha – she even has Sydney’s glasses. I have a new theory on a secret identity…*
Although really, Max is doing pretty well with pivoting from full-out attack mode 10 seconds ago to pulling back to regroup.
Epileptic Tree: What Sydney has noticed is that there are no other living things in the area, and lots and lots of Alari corpses.
In other words, Sciona is the last one alive. Though that is about to change, to her detriment.
Troll blood blood mage.
Ground covered in runes. Sydney reading runes with Truesight Orb. Turns out the entire Alari Homeworld is now one massive graveyard for the now (except for Sciona) extinct Alari race. Each rune is the Alari equivalent to a headstone.
Gah, double post – I thought it didn’t go through, so I tried again after making some amendments. Sorry about that.
What’s Dabbler looking at over there?
What Sydney sees, Dabbler can hear, like with X when he was invisible.
I am thinking they are being surrounded by something invisible…also calling it that these aren’t likely the Alari given the statue we saw didn’t look to be in good condition, and if they are approaching invisible, yeah.
Dabbler picked up X with her porno sense. But, adjusting for that, your comment stands.
Although Dabbler could be hearing something approaching now. Her ears do give her a significant advantage over ape descendants.
*starts patting limbs*
Noooo! I am fading away. I don’t want to become invisible like this!
You need to look at me or I will vanish! Here I am, here!
*waves paws frantically*
*Pours a bucket of chartreuse paint over Yorp.
Uuuh …
*wipes paint away from eyes*
… thanks I feel better now. No more assistance required!
None. Thanks. All cured!
Ahh, I was wondering about your avatar. I thought maybe you’d been at a certain kids’ show awards ceremony.
I know art can be tricky and you might have to rush it sometimes, but that maxima looks like it was replaced by the aliens that tired to replace the loony toon villians in a bugs bunny cartoon…
Stiff and a pale comparison.
Fortunately, there is a cure.
Not sure if someone has mentioned it but,
“Planet of Hats”. As much as I don’t care for the term, it isn’t incorrect. In Sci-fi outerspace was treated as a replacement of sea adventure stories, “Planets” replaced “Islands”, so (and to keep it simple for the audience) in those early sci-fi space epics entire planets had one culture, one language, and such for the most part; much as though if a ship came across a small island.
This makes more sense if the planet is a colony of a space bound civilization and remains connected via communication technology and never isolated creating a sort of expanded version of “Internet culture”. However realistically any length of time passing, natural drift, no world; especially not the home world should have just one language, one culture, or even that the one imperial government even is viewed or acts the exact same way across the planet and space *different levels of government and local laws at the lower levels can make a big difference*, such as different states in the USA being so different from one another.
But that is harder for a writer or show or whatever to convey, some do try though with (oh you met the such and such faction of our people, we are the other faction), but usually they stop at two or three factions to keep it simple. Unless the entire series takes place on that alien planet they aren’t likely to devote the time to create a whole slew of governments, history, languages, cultures, ect…
I always have a collar tug moment though when an alien race says they have one religion across their entire planet…given HOW this happens on Earth for countries and continents it paints a pretty dark and grim point in their history for that to happen (unless its a case of an alien or entity actually being there calling its self a God for the most part, like…yep…hard not for everyone to be worshipping that instead of their invisible maybe its there maybe it isn’t..s).
I agree, to a certain extent. But do consider that you are drawing your analogy from history. Much of which, on Earth, was pre-instantaneous communication and globalisation. Since that we have seen English become a very widespread second language. Just as one example of the reverse of the trend that you are describing.
And it is not isolated. There are very many languages dying out, despite the world population increasing. Whilst there are many creoles (English having a lot all by itself), some of which may develop into distinct languages, many of those were formed before the introduction of radio and TV.
In fact, in the present era, it is hard to try and preserve local languages (Welsh and Cornish, as examples) and without active campaigns to do just that, they would likely have become dead languages.
Different cultures and languages develop when populations are in isolation for some reason. In the present day we can see that prisons can develop their own culture, even whilst being a part of a larger one. Yet we still consider prison populations to be a part of our respective countries. Even if voting rights may be withheld in some countries. And that is because prisoners do interact with the rest of society, having come from it and, when their term is spent, return to it.
Even after Britain sent a bunch of them to live on another continent, for hundreds of years, they can still communicate with us just fine!
*waves to our lovely Antipodean readers*
*gets ready to restrain our resident hobbit, if that provokes an incident*
Humanity has only had worldwide communications and culture for a very short time. Whereas if talking about galactic culture, it is likely that some races will have had that for an extremely long time. Some of whom may have genetic predispositions which may favour fragmentation of culture and language (ones which are inherently xenophobic for example).
However others may only find regional dialects and relatively minor cultural differences (those living next to coasts having a different diet and lifestyle to those living inland, for example). And with global trade even the latter differences would be minimised, except amongst poorer populations (as we have found on Earth).
Unless realtime-universal translators are a thing, then it’s possible that no one understands anyone unless they have one (Farscape, Hitchhiker’s Guide). Skype is working on one, I think. Then again, it could be that people know lots of languages- such as a group of friends who speak all of the following languages fluently, but only ever actually use their native:
French
German
Spanish
Someone could speak in German, and the Frenchman and Spaniard could respond in their languages, and everyone understands fine.
A timely point to raise. I hope DaveB spots it, and takes note, if he has not already finished the next comic (if he has been building up a buffer again).
Not that translation difficulties would last longer than it would take Dabbler to cast a translation spell (or act as the translator, from her own linguistic experience). However it would add to the feel of dealing with aliens.
It was not necessary for the Twilight Council scenes mind, as the various delegates they interacted with were both career politicians and living on Earth (and likely in the U.S.A. for various of them), in the guise of humans. So they would either need to have learnt English or be using translator technomagic .
That’s a pretty impassioned speech (monologue) from someone balancing on one leg moments after having the other blown off – especially since she’d delivering it to the group that did the limbing. But when you’ve worked that hard on a speech, you have to give it when the time comes regardless of the circumstances.
Bleeding to death is probably less of a concern for a blood mage, but she must be on one ridiculous adrenaline rush. Probably some accompanying euphoria, and she’ll go into shock any minute and collapse. Oh, except ‘blood mage’ – she’s no quitter.
Bleeding to death is not something that either blood mages or regenerating individuals need to fear. If you look at the previous page, there is not a drop spilt from her leg. Despite her being banged around enough that it would be splattering all over the place, for any normal person with such a wound.
This is like her total non-reaction when Sydney broke her arm, enough for the bone to poke through the skin. She just carried on holding Sydney in the air with the broken arm. This leg wound is probably well on the way to healing up (but we saw on the previous page, still having some way to go).
Plus individuals with magical wings* can cheat. No balancing required, when you can hover in place!
* They are too small to operate any other way. Plus I do not recall seeing them flapping, even when in flight. For instance here the zip lines all convey lateral movement, with no hint of vertical flapping.
Personally I think Sciona didn’t bother watching the press conference…or the footage of the restaurant brawl. both showing some of maxes higher defense and attack capabilities.
Another world, set on world conquest and enslavement sure seems isolated enough for Max to bring a near nuke equivalent episode to there front door… Especially with Sydney’s shielding capabilities on hand, especially with her laser cutter abilities to back Max up.
With what ever Dabbler brings to the table that’s some serious serious world domination stopping power.
Pretty sure it would be Maxima + Sydney, since Dabbler can’t survive the fallout from either, let alone both of those. Harem would have to get in the bubble too (would be interesting to see if the Aetherium Ice Slash would get through it from inside!).
I call it that attack because of Star Ocean The Second Story. The attack that Claude and Dias got was “air slash”, that made air elemental attacks come out of their swords and travel towards the enemy so they could elemental melee at distance. Plus Dabbler said she made it from a material taken from the Aetherian Throne, or something.
They’re surrounded, aren’t they?
That would be consistent with both the tone of Sydney’s message, her keenness to be heard, and Dabbler looking around warily.
Although there may be other options, that one fits very well.
She’s holding the orb of truesight….. she sees something that the others can’t….
Yup. Although Dabbler may be onto something too. Either with her porno-sense or her keen ears.
The conquering government would be in a situation like “The Ransom of Red Chief”. They’d be stuck with having to deal with all of the problems.
Classic story, my brother and I read it many years ago and still occasionally quote it when observing misbehaving kids.
My guess at this point is that something really bad happened to the Alari empire while Sciona was away….
Is it just me, or does Sydney’s glasses seem to have disappeared?
Ooh, thanks for pointing that out. If not just an artistic omission, that could fit in with the pattern of Sydney’s battle fatigues appearing to be missing.
There is clearly a demon disintegrating Sydney’s equipment and clothing!
WHOOOHOOOOO!
We’ve been waitin’ for this.
But it isn’t affecting the orbs, which is what matters most right now. I keep thinking about the orbs- maybe the reason is they’re optical illusions, which is why light couldn’t be detected from them even when they glow. The only part that could be seen, was the glyphs when Sydney presses them.
The sphere shape is just the ‘off mode’ (like a Playstation is red when off, green when on, or stuff is greyed out when unavailable) light from behind the glyphs, including those not yet unlocked. Well, the ‘off mode glow’ but you imagine it’s a sphere, so it is one and Sydney (also Dabbler and Math) can feel it as a hard sphere because of holograms or something.
Like that smartphone app that uses a picture and vibrations to make it look and FEEL like the phone is furry or rough, for an example.
Now we know what Sciona’s plans are. So we can now contemplate how Deus intends to take advantage of Sciona opening this portal.
Maybe he will be offering the Alari empire 10% off all purchases of apocalyptic artefacts?
Or he decided that one small African country is not enough of a platform, for his path of galactic domination?
Sydney is grabbing onto the vision orb, so she’s seeing something. Probably not something good.
New information: “I’m hungry and there’s a Capuchin Concentrate stand over there that looks like an Orange Julius!”
That would certainly match with Deus’s description.
And he has a bunch of mad scientists, working for him, making super gadgets. So an invisibility cloaking device or holographic projector (say to make him look like a statue) would potentially be within his capabilities.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, nobody said he wanted this portal.
My guess? The demolition stuff shown earlier has gone off as per conservation of detail, and Opal and/or Vale’s skills are more than enough to snag the presumed-lost Skybreaker. Heavy lifting accomplished.
I love DS9 because it was willing to point out out the hypocrisy and flaws of the Federation.
If the Federation had done what Garak planned to do to the Founder’s home planet, they could have prevented the deaths of billions in the Alpha Quadrant and the enslavement of most of the Gamma Quadrant with the loss of just one ship.
Also… loove Garak. He had the best one-liners and advice.
“It’s just something I picked up while hemming some pants.”
“You know the worst part? I’m actually a very GOOD tailor.”
Bashir: “Out of all the stories that you told me, which ones are true and which ones aren’t?”
Garak: “My dear doctor, they’re all true.”
Bashir: “Even the lies?”
Garak: “ESPECIALLY the lies.”
LoL!
The end of the world won’t even get one of our governments to get it’s act together and unify, a bunch of psychotic aliens sure as heck won’t be able to get multiples of those fractious blowhards to unify!
Historically an overwhelmingly powerful external force has actually tended to coalesce previously disparate factions. Be it in support of them (anticipating finding favour with the likely victors) or allying to oppose them.
We saw this with (as a few examples):
The Roman invasion of Britain.
The Norman invasion of Britain.
Countries supporting Napoleon.
Countries opposing Napoleon.
Countries supporting Hitler.
Countries opposing Hitler.
Factions supporting the Conquistadors.
Factions opposing the Conquistadors.The formation of the United Nations was actually a direct result of the Nazi invasions in Europe. Necessary because the previous political body, the League of Nations, was too ineffectual a mechanism to deal with that.
One particularly successful policy was that of Alexander the Great. Any country he conquered, the citizens gained full and equal rights to those of Greece. There was no conqueror versus subjugated divide. Previous invaders tended enslave defeated populations. Be it economically or literally.
Whereas Alexander proved to be very popular (by comparison) as many people’s lives were substantively improved. Especially those who were subjugated by their own rulers, and now found themselves in a much more liberal empire. Meaning that he suffered far fewer rebellions, and that substantially contributing to his ability to rule the biggest empire the world had seen to that date.
Somehow I don’t think that Sciona has either studied ancient Earth history, or learnt from it, if she has.
I clearly remember a webcomic that I can no longer find, I think in reference to Watchmen.
The characters are discussing the possibility of aliens causing world leaders to work together. Cut to said world leaders arguing, when something starts to materialize between them. Peace comes to the world through… Alf playing his saxophone.
I remember an episode of The Twilight Zone – A Small Talent for War; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbT1fCHOjfI
THAT was a great episode! too bad for the plot twist at the end though…
I saw no plot twist. Those ambassadors just did not do their job, which should have been to listen to what the emissary said. They went by their own preconceptions, rather than trying to understand the other party’s objectives.
Plus, they only hashed out a plan for peace out of fear of annihilation, and not because they truly wanted it. Also wondered if they bothered to actually ask the people what they wanted, the common people that were probably still bashing each other up over a pound of marijuana on the corner as those spheres showed up
If they had at least attempted to fight back, unified into one army, that might have saved them, or at least given them a chance
Butt really, if those aliens really had been watching mankind fighting, then they would see that the reason they stopped killing off their enemies completely, is because then they wouldn’t have anyone to fight except your ‘own’ kind
Mankind truly has evolved into a fighting race, it gains its greatest achievements during periods of war, both offensive and defensive, in ways both to take and preserve lives
Truly excels at conflict and conflict-resolution
Your style is really coming along but in the last panel…Max’s head looks a little too big for her body. Is that intentional?
Not trying to be rude! I’m just eerily observant.
Ahh! That is what Sydney is trying to bring to everyone’s attention. They are all rapidly turning into Chibi versions of themselves.
So if they have all been transported to Sciona’s toon homeworld, perhaps we will see her doing something like this?
GAH!!! Maxima’s face changed again. She’s now slightly Asian and in her late teens/early twenties.
Dave invested a lot of time in doing all that detail work on Sciona. I suspect that final panel may have been rushed.
Although Sydney is spotting something with her truesight orb.
Maybe she realises that they have not been transported to some other dimension? Rather they have ended up in the internet, on a supervillain forum! It just happened to have an image close enough to Sciona’s memories of her home that the portal linked there, instead of her intended destination (compounded by the ceremony being interrupted, of course).
Or it could be the, recently reactivated, magical world wide web, which had a gallery, entitled “homes of known super villains”. Thus having an actual image (or perfectly recreated virtual simulation) of her home.
The changes they are experiencing are to adapt to the stereotypes present in the forum. So no glasses or battle fatigues for Sydney. Maxima is transitioning to more of an anime look. Dabbler, being a succubus, would already conform to the expectations in that setting.
There is no such thing as perfect government. There is only “good enough” government. Moreover, there is no such thing as static “good enough” government, it must adapt to changes, either social, economic or technological, or it will be replaced.
There is no such thing as the perfect “social contract” for founding a government. All are inherently flawed, because they cannot anticipate all possible conditions in advance. (See Gödel’s incompleteness theorems for details on how this is logically/mathematically impossible.)
IOW, you’d better learn to deal with change, because you deal or you die.
I like what Churchill said: Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government – except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…
Heh. I actually have that quote in my proposal for Democracy 2.0, which fixes two big problems with democracy.
Mmm, not surprisingly, having a look now, I note that said title has been used for other ideas on how to improve it. It may be catchy, but I may be better thinking up something else.
Two things we need for Democracy to work better than it does now:
#1 Make voting MANDATORY for all eligible citizens.
#2 Put “None of the above” on the list of candidates.
“At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper—no amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.” – Also from Churchill
Making voting mandatory is only a treatment for the disease of voter apathy. My improvements will cure it, for those who feel that their vote does not count for anything.
Well my idea is that 1 & 2 must go hand in hand. Imagine what would happen if “none of the above” gets the most votes. But if you don’t like mandatory voting how about issuing tax credits at the polling station exit? Who doesn’t want to reduce their taxes?
It is not a matter that I do not like it, it simply is not necessary. If people know that their votes will have a material effect on their lives, then they will be much more likely to vote. If you are lucky enough to be in a country where there are two parties which tend to alternate rule, then, at least, you have a 50% chance that the one you dislike least will get into power.
Unfortunately many voters know that their personal vote will have little to do with that, unless they live in a swing constituency. So regardless of who they vote for they also have a 50% chance of being ruled by the party they dislike the most.
Then, of course, you have other countries, where a single party has been in power for decades, and look like they will remain like that for decades more. Very little incentive to vote, even if you are a member of a disadvantaged group, who is loosing out in the current power plays.
And, going the other way, if you favour a minority party. Say one that only tends to get 10% of the votes. If you are lucky such a party may get to influence policies by being a minority partner in a coalition government. But then only having the junior partner’s say in matters, which is not a lot.
For such voters, at best they might see their party in power once in a century. Most never do.
Yet in countries where people do not have the cynicism of realising how little their vote matters, you can get quite good turn outs. Especially at times when there is a realistic chance of the balance of power tipping.
But if you can be guaranteed to live under the regime you dislike the least, then there would be far greater incentive to vote. Bribery is unnecessary. What people want is for their voice to matter!
Sciona is kind of channeling Tina Turner with her current look at moment, so maybe Sydney is about to warn them that they are now in the Thunderdome.
*presents you with a silver platter covered in gold bullion as comment appreciation*
Is the comm orb the truesight orb? That could be trouble.
Yes it is!
OK, so you’re standing (hobbling) there with one leg blown off because a mass driver weapon punched right through your fairy wing slicer things, and you confront the very same folks who just kicked your ass with “bow down”?
Oh right. It’s a comic. And she’s a lunatic.
More tricks up her sleeve?
It is consistent with Sciona’s past behaviour. 100%. She has a self-confidence which has reached pathological levels.
We must not forget though that Sciona has had her body chopped off, in a blow which would clearly have severed part of her brain.
So, on one paw, there is a ready clinical explanation for any irrational behaviour. Even in a human brain the lower bits do some important functions. Who knows what bits might be in a corresponding location in an Alari brain? So it is entirely possible that ‘caution’ and ‘self doubt’ were things which got damaged.
When Sciona used the artefact, to restore her body, she may not have stipulated to repair any brain damage at the same time. Especially if she did not consider herself to have been impaired in any way (naturally enough with the resultant self-confidence).
On the other paw, Sciona has survived being reduced to just the top bit of a head. She has quite some reason to be confident about her capabilities!
Question, has anyone brought up how Dabbler’s eyes look compound in both panels, and Maxima’s in the first? Is this intentional?
By compound, I mean like compound eyes. Bug eyes. Dabbler (and Maxima) are bug eyed aliens.
It is the first stage of the metamorphosis. Next they will develop mandibles. Then the wing casings will start to grow out.
Sydney get your shield back up before you catch that too!
Looking at the art critic statements, I don’t think it’s entirely Maxima’s head size. I think it’s on her forearm there’s a muscle bulge that shouldn’t be there.
Arclight, you get 3/10 today.
Stop ignoring Sydney, she very clearly is genera savvy, and you guys keep ignoring her in favor of punching face.
Do you want alien invasions?
Cuz this is how you get alien invasions.
(Except for you Sydney, 8/10 you have a light whip, and dabbler probably wouldn’t mind being manhandled a little bit… TO GET HER ATTENTION. NOT FOR FANSERVICE. THATS CRAZY TALK!)
:-D
… Sciona is Team Rocket!
So she’s celebrating victory while conveniently forgetting that she blew a portal up to get where she is now?
Either she’s extremely lucky in these things or she’s just an idiot, the universe does not like when things rip very large holes in the fabric of reality, and the self repair process usually has nasty side effects…
I would argue it is next-to-impossible (without some seriously drastic measures like cloning-replacements, indoctrination, and/or genocide) to induce and enforce complete homogeneity).
Everyone is a little different. And if there’s one thing humans (and probably all intelligent lifeforms, if we had a n>1 for comparison…) is that we’re really good at discrimination (definition 3). (Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s when we get into negative treatment (definition 2) of discrimination that things aren’t so great.)
Even within a single culture (eg American/Western culture) we have tons of subcultures (MLP, goth, hip hop, biker, bodybuilder, etc etc etc).
Cetaceans seem to have less variation than that though. I have not noticed any with MLP posters, goth haircuts, listening to hip hop, whilst bodybuilding, for instance.
Then we have the various communal insect societies. Clearly we would consider ourselves to be intellectually superior to them. Yet they very efficiently organise numerically far larger societies than our own.
But it is true there is diversity amongst them. For instance most ants are predators, but some take up farming. Yet the big variations are between different species of ants. When you look at a single species, they build very standardised structures, and have pretty consistent behaviours, around the globe.
And they are truly global, in scope. We have found ant super colonies extending around the globe. With such little genetic variance, in some of the biggest, that they are more like a global families than global species!
Those patterns may remain a dominating feature, even should an intelligent insect species evolve.
A ant colony is not really a community. It’s more like a big organism consisting on specialized individual ants.
Yeah, insect colonies are able to function like that due to zero individualism ie literal hive-mind
Sciona’s parents probably consider her the unfavorite kid who will never amount to anything.
“Why couldn’t you be like your big brother Mentis? He’s already the undisputed overlord of a solar system with three habitable planets, and he routinely sends us postcards and sacrificial offerings. You just ran away for a few decades, and all you bring us to beg your way back under our roof is this group of highly threatening enemies, and you don’t even have the foresight to disarm or stun them before bringing them right. Into. Our. House?!”
+3
… I would not take that bet. Dabbler seems the kind of adventurer that has nuclear hand grenades laying around somewhere collecting dust if sticky air and explosive tear gas is any indication. Hell she even mentioned that she needed to make some more non lethal weapons because most were of the lethal variety.
btw i dont think that sword would go through her shield, Though I do not believe it has been tested by anyone trying to get OUT. It could behave very differently, though we know its strong enough to carry several people over large distances.
Sensible bookmaking.
You do make me wonder if Dabbler has access to her hammer space items though? That would require that her cybernetics and laboratory have either a teleportation range in the lightyears (and possibly quite a few of them), or inter-dimensional teleport capability, as the case may be.
Dabbler has her own personal shield, which she could use in conjunction with her sword. She invokes it by spell but it is sized more like a traditional shield, so should not pose a difficulty using it with a sword. That is what they were designed to do.
Although, with your comment about carrying, you would presumably be referring to Halo’s shield. You are right that they have not tried testing it, but I doubt that Dabbler’s shield would be able to penetrate it, even from the inside. That just is not the way that Halo’s shield works.
To give you an example of how it does though, we have seen the PPO manifest outside of the shield. Dave explains that a portal opens and the beam is emitted from that. In other words it does not come from the PPO and pass through a hole in the force field. Rather it starts from the outside, so does not need to bypass it.
Likewise we have seen the tentacle manifest from outside the shield. In fact, in the fight against Vehemence, Halo was unable to make it appear inside the shield.
As to Dabblers hammer-space. I don’t believe that it is really mentioned Where it is at but for some reason I kind of figured it was something similar to a pocket dimension. In which case her cybernetic had is only connecting to it no matter where she herself is. Otherwise she would possibly have to move her lab during her adventuring days. For some reason I can’t see Dabbler using the space equivalent to a U-haul. Pocket dimension solves that issues as it effectively gets rid of range issues.
Yeah I meant Dabblers sword going through Halo’s Shield. For the record I’m betting Halo’s shield is just as strong to get out of as it is to get in. Dabbler’s shields, from what we’ve seen seem to be fairly straight forward and almost Shield like in nature. Not all encompassing like Halo’s. In fact I’ve seen very similar ones in Dr. Strange comic books. His will start out as a circular shield if it breaks he can create a smaller one closer behind the one that broke. They will continue to get smaller and closer until either the attack is stopped or they hit him, usually at diminished power. I’d have to check but I seem to recall something like this when Max was trying to hit Dabbler in the Ballroom, or another time.
But I would not put it past Dabbler to whip out a shield belt or something to create something like Halo’s. Though I doubt Dave will do this as it makes two characters essentially have the same ability.
And while we are talking about the Lighthook. Potentially that is another secondary shield for her. In theory she should be able to spiral it up and hold it in front of her it might be strong enough to block or cushion some blows. Especially if it has a carry capacity of 15 tons. Certainly not ideal but it is maybe a last ditch effort sort of thing.
Perhaps the option to use the Lighthook inside the Bubble is one of the upgradeable options. Though I think it would a VERY bad idea to have the option to use the PPO inside the shield. I think that would be a recipe for instant user death.
Oh and BTW did you get hit with a water balloon full of green paint or do I need to get my gun and do a old yeller moment and put you down for some zombie mutant disease thing? ;)
That is due to a cure for invisibilisphobia.* No gun required, no, none at all. I have no cravings for brains. Look I do not even have any Chianti and fava beans.
Oh, wait, that is for liver. Nope, don’t even have an urge to eat that. In fact I think Sydney’s good example has inspired me to become vegetarian. Yup, yup, I am perfectly safe. You can put your gun away!
* The reverse of scopophobia. It is quite common in Hollywood.
Mmmh Hmmm.. Mmmhh Hmmmm..
Good to know, slips the magazine of Hollow point silver bullets out of the AF2011 clears the chambers and slowly stores it away with a cautious squinty glance your way…
Ok then…
*laughs, nervously*
Phew!
Without doubt. We have seen both Dabbler and Sydney standing on a horizontal platform, just like that. Changing the orientation to vertical would be trivial. It should be proof against physical attacks from anyone without moderate grades of super strength.
We did see it easily deflect an object hurled with super-strength, in the Battle at the Steak House car park™. It may even be good against bullets and weaker energy attacks.
That is covered in her cast list entry:
It now occurs to me that we have seen Sydney use the light hook as a shield. She used it to shield Decollete during the vault guardian incident when Max removed its arm..
For sure she’s snatched or batted stuff away already also. Sydney, when you boil it all down is one seriously well rounded power wise character as is. When we find out what her last orb can do man watch out.
It probably allows her to inflict some zombie mutant disease. :-P
” I doubt that Dabbler’s shield … ” —-> ” I doubt that Dabbler’s sword …”
I have to disagree in part – Dabble is definitely the kind of adventure who would have nuclear hand grenades, but not one to leave them lying around. They’re probably in her loadout somewhere, if not immediately accessible at all times.
Okay, I skimmed, and don’t see anyone else advancing this theory.
Sydney:Maxima! I need to TELL you someth-
Maxima: WHAT! Recruit? Can’t you see I’m busy?
Sydney (whispers): These markings we’re standing on? Some of them look JUST like the ones on my orbs.
…looks like one of my comments was eaten. Trying again.
Also, I suspect half an hour or more of megalomania might have been one of those extreme side effects Sciona had been trying to avoid when she felt forced to use the super hero blood buff.
OMG, they are now really teeny and inside the final mystery orb!
But how did the Alari statue get in there? And why does it look like Sciona’s home?
Maybe it customises the environment for the first person to enter? In this case Sciona.
Oooh, I like this theory.
It would give Sydney some crazy leverage at the moment – “everyone do as I command, or I shake the ball again!”
Also…I think half an hour of megalomania might be one of the extreme side-effects Sciona was trying to avoid when she felt forced to take the super hero blood buff.