Grrl Power #646 – Soultech support
“Hey guys, I have an idea. Instead of building escape pods that can only hold a few people at a time, what about a container that could hold dozens?”
“Sounds great. What’s the catch?”
“Well, it wouldn’t hold our bodies you understand. Just our spirits. Essence. Whatever you want to call it.”
“Uh huh. And how would we, ah, achieve this state of existence?”
“Oh, we’d have to die as our souls were torn from the meat.”
“And… would we just be unconscious until we could be housed in new, uh, meat? Or..”
“Oh no, we would exist in a state of mind shattering horror for the duration.”
“Sounds good! Let’s do it!”
Alien civilizations are weird.
It helps to imagine that the time between panels 2 and 3 on this page is longer than Sciona just getting knocked over, then looking back at the mushroom cloud. The dust storm that would have kicked up would have taken more than a few seconds to pass. I didn’t really think about it while I was laying the page out, but as I’m posting it, this page could have used a few extra panels to make all that stuff a bit clearer.
Oh, and I forgot the blood splatter on Sciona again. I guess she used a cleaning cantrip. :/
This page colored by Keith.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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This should be good.
Uh oh …
a bunch of souls in need of bodies. And none of those to be found on the Alaria world.
did you evolve while i wasnt looking yorp ????
No. My yorpie is eternal and unchanging.
(Ignores the obvious change in avatar steadfastly)
Yeah that’s what I was thinking, this CANT be good.
It happens at times. I had been keeping it under control with certain herbs and meditation. But even that has its limits.
So fluffy! I shall call you Barkley!
A Night in the Lonesome October?
A night with Willow Rosenberg.
So much faux angst, who can watch this crap? I mean I guess the pretty girls is a draw, but if you have to have the sound down and the Tivo/dvr hooked up to skip past all the angsty scenes, what’s the point?
It is for viewers who have empathy and positive feelings for other people. So it is understandable that you do not get it, as you are not in the core demographic.
It’s not that I dislike the genre. I don’t enjoy slasher horror because it’s just stupid beyond belief. But something with a little more depth to it than “teens fucking get murdered by an unstoppable killing machine” will do. I read World War Z, but didn’t go see the movie. I also read Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer and enjoyed it. It was given to me as a replacement when a work colleague I’d loaned my copy of John Steakley’s Armor (she loved The Forever War, and anyone who loves that book will also love Armor in my experience) to let her kid get a hold of it, plus she said it took some damage being stuffed into her purse. Years later I watched the movie on cable. Herbert’s The White Plague might not count as being in the same genre. It has the same world altering plague as in World War Z, but no zombies.
I enjoyed that show with the vampire, werewolf, and ghost all living in one house, although I cannot recall the name. But damn, Google has gotten really good since the 90s. I just put “vampire, werewolf, and ghost all living in one house” into the search bar and the top result was Being Human. I don’t recall that it had quite as much angst as any episode of Buffy or one of it’s spinoffs had. I mean, it obviously had angst, since all of the main characters were trying to overcome something they regarded as a curse, but just not to the degree of Buffy. But I never watched Buffy apart from accidentally or when a friend wanted to watch it, so maybe I just got unlucky and caught all the angst episodes. I’ve never seen True Blood, or any of the Bella and the sparkly vampire movies.
As for empathy and positive feeling for others, I have that for plenty of people. That it isn’t the people you might think I should have empathy or positive feelings about concerns me not at all.
I could not resist the dig, due to your regular barbed comments. But, moving on, it is a shame you never got to try Buffy out.
I had been very sceptical about it, having seen the original movie. I’m a bit of a Rutger Hauer fan (and one of my friends is a huge fan), so had been disappointed at how poorly that turned out. They camped it up far too much, and ruined what could have been a good film.
As such it took me about two or three episodes, to start to realise that the series had real depth. It isn’t a slasher horror, by any stretch, despite the subject matter. However it is not wise to characterise it, as the series plays on many levels, and blends them all in together well.
A big difference to the poorly-implemented film, is that they play it straight. Once you get into it you can feel that it is a living world. The whole cast have great chemistry together, and are talented.
So you can get feelings of great peril, from appropriate scenes. And there are some good romantic arcs. But there is plenty of material which is not driven by that. Whilst the humour is top-notch, and takes many forms, from one-liners, through visual gags or just playing on the absurd.
The story arcs really drew you in, making you want to see where the series was heading. And they had some seriously good villains (along with a nice variety of monster-of-the-week type episodes).
Finally it has aged well. So folks can still get into it even today. If y’all choose.
To be fair most of Buffy was angsty, and there was an episode called The Xander which made fun of that :) where Xander saves the world while everyone else is doing some other world saving stuff with much angst, I think.
But Buffy also frequently had humor as well to break up the angst. It was a good series.
really? You should be able to just press B.
yea, everyone has job interviews. Always feel uncomfortable in a zoot suit, itchy too
See that’s the problem, you go to another planet and you never seem to have the right charger adapter.
Just wait till ya find the three seashells
A cleaning cantrip so the blood mage can get rid of blood?
I would have said she had collected or absorbed it or something…
Right, but to collect it takes blood to power the collection. And there isn’t much blood, so in essence you just use the blood to power the removal of the blood and break even, energy wise.
I see that the new vote incentive has inspired us to get the comic up to the number one position in the top webcomics list. Well done all! Please keep it up.
Although, from the paucity of comments, I suspect many folks missed that there is also a blog and comments page dedicated to it.
Not only that but also with a comfortable 100%+ lead.
The vote incentive pic ignores the laws of physics in a way that makes NO SENSE! How exactly did that girl get her legs up there? The dude’s hand is in completely the wrong spot to support her, and the “action lines” her hair implies have the wrong vectors. AND…. she is somehow calmly aiming a gun? How??
Well, to me, it looks like she was sitting on his leg, and has turned around to respond to whatever situation required them to start firing. Which pretty much resolves the issues you point out, in my mind.
They are falling (jumping?) through a window
Ahh, yes, you are right. I must have been distracted by the ‘fan art’ text, rather than paying proper attention to the shards.
Sciona, so soulful.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust… Let’s all stare at Sciona’s bust.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dusif the Flying Spaghetti Monster can’t have you, the penguins must!
She’s got soul? Blackness confirmed!
:-D
Like the windtalkers, in the Pacific war, unlikely to be cracked by someone outside the culture.
I would have just handed over my hat.
The Alari don’t need it. They are already a planet of hats.
Well I cannot argue. All Alari society behaves exactly the same as Sciona, after all.
Hang on, she IS all of Alari society!
Soul Battery, it just keeps going and going and going (also some hellish screaming but we ignore that)
If you see a rabbit crossing the screen while beating on a drum & trying to sell batteries, you have my permission to kill it.
https://www.gifimage.net/energizer-bunny-gif-3/
“Energizer bunny killed by hit-and-run accident.”
Said one witness, “I told him not to run out in the middle of a busy intersection like that, but the little f**ker just kept going, and going, and going…”
DURACELL BUNNY!!!
(Energiser… really!!!)
FWIW, there is a pink Duracell bunny in Europe and Latin America. They probably couldn’t get away with it in the U.S.
That .Gif is a badly edited scene from an awesome movie Daniel the Human showed me called “Hot Shots 2”. Here’s the full scene…
*dewclaw up*
I enjoyed that movie. Not least because Martin Sheen was also the lead in Apocalypse Now, one of the heaviest war movies made. Showing great character in parodying that role (amongst others). And pulling it off very well, despite the total polarity of the types of film.
I love it when major stars do things like that.
No, the bunny died from sexual exhaustion. Someone put his battery in backwards and he just kept coming and coming…
Lol.
I suppose this would also be a viable alternative…
That is what sound proofing is for…
The Energizer James Brown?
She needs to contact the dead. Good thing she knows neckromancy!
Wait… If they could create a container for souls, then why could they also create a clonint facility on a far away, top secret, off world location that they would automatically sent to in the event of an extinction level event?
If only it had launched, it may have reached there safely.
Guess they should made the container teleport there instead…
“Sciona it is your task to go forth and acquire a device capable of teleporting across the stars. The very survival of our species depends on it!”
“What’s the XP & GP reward for it?”
Maybe… ;)
“Quickly! To the Resurrection Ship!”
Ooh, good connection. That had not sprung to my mind, yet is most apt.
Why not create a “Clonint facility” on a secret of world location?
Simply because this is an arrogant race that could not foresee an eventuality which involved it’s own extinction.
Really though, it’s likely there are a number of other off world scouts like Sciona together with off many managing whatever other worlds they’ve conquered and subjugated over the decades/centuries/millenia… unless that’s a temporary state for a world and complete complete draining of its resources (including populace’s blood and souls) is the final state…
I have to say, I like short haired Sciona. Also the hair looks shorter then previous. in #624 she could make a short ponytail.
As someone mentioned on a previous page, she reminds me of that albino female from “Farscape”
Oh yea. Especially when in that soulful look, as that matches her to a T.
Wow this is got to be something special if the only way they could find to escape certain Doom was to combine their souls into a battery. That’s even worse then the Kryptonian solution of The Phantom Zone.
By your souls combined, I am
Captainthe Entire Planet.That’s actually pretty much the origin of Ego the Living Planet at Marvel revealed in the earlier Thor comics.
Several of the Elders of the Universe in the Marvel Comic Book Universe have the “I am the compilation of a large number of individuals” origin.
Ego’s original origin was like that albeit with the introduction of a sapient being (I wonder if Ego would have become sapient on its own without the “seed crystal” of that scientist).
The Stranger is that way.
I seem to recall Gamesmaster also seemed to have that element (a lot less certain of that – I concede I may have leaped to a conclusion there).
The Overmind also is like that (which I did not know before double checking).
The Possessor is also sort of that way, as his interactions with his talisman sucked the life force of all the other librarians nearby (again, didn’t know that either).
Then, of course, there is Vance.
Vance Astrovik? I’m unfamiliar with either version having that as part of their origin. Must be something new, I suppose…
I think Yorp is referring to Vance, the Spiders-Man.
Yup.
There’s also the Beyonder, who is basically a sentient Universe whose taken human form.
Whilst Way-Beyonder is a sentient Multiverse whose taken canine form.
*wags tail higher*
Entire planet!
It’s a battery!
Gonna take the living down to zero
It’s the living batrified
And it’s residing, on the planet side
Sciona Arjin!
She’s Alarin!
Gonna cut her throat and power
A spell to make the, battery wonder!
Yeah, ok. Those last couple of lines sucked
I was being nice and didnt want to say that:)
Good effort?
Sciona looks strangely beautiful in panels 3 and 4.
She’s less angry there.
What do you mean ‘strangely’? o_O
I think you mean “Scionia used the residual blood on her to heal her wounds”
OR she has hemokinesis and simply ordered the blood to remove itself.
Ynnead incoming?
I’m not sure if what Sciona is about to do is a good idea…!?
I guess sciona’s reaction to the soul battery like it was something common on her world
might give us the start of an explanation on why the alari have been exterminated…
I guess containing alari’s souls is not what those batteries where designed for in the first place… i guess the worlds on the receiving end of alari’s attacks ended up devising a final solution to that :)
Sciona is standing in the first panel with all wings in the air, so I guess her foot has regenerated already.
She looked well on the way, so that is entirely possible. Even if it has not fully formed the foot yet, it could be long enough to stand on, without tilting over.
That said though the art has never shown Sciona’s wings flapping. So whilst they might look like animal’s wings, their function is as dissimilar as a jet aircraft’s. The form looks similar, due to taking advantage of lift effects, but the means of propulsion is totally different.
So Sciona could be hovering there, even in that position.
My only objection to the idea of the wings levitating Sciona is the fact that Dave made a point of drawing her using a wing as a crutch. Just seems like a continuity mistake to me.
Flying expends energy. Be that getting tired by flapping wings or using jet fuel. Sciona’s wings are magical in the way they work (be that literally or in some fashion that is indistinguishable as far as our knowledge goes). However they are the wings of a species, so may draw upon the body’s normal energy reserves to power the magic.
So hovering could be tiring. Or may just be draining some finite magical pool (maybe individuals can only fly for a couple of hours per day, then need to soak up more mana)?
Either way though it makes sense to take a break from flying if it is not necessary and there is a convenient opportunity.
This is entirely in keeping with every natural species (barring swifts, but even though they can stay in the air for months, they do land eventually). Likewise even our most advanced aircraft. So I think it is entirely plausible and not a continuity error.
“Or may just be draining some finite magical pool”
“Magical Pool” = “Blood Pool”
When you consider that Sciona is a Blood Mage, getting the “magical jet fuel” to power her wings can get quite expensive…Especially so for anyone near her.
Anyone else realize that Sciona could claim diplomatic immunity and claim refuge status as a survivor of an act of genocide?
No I had not thought about that. Very well thought through. True.
As the sole survivor she is the defacto leader of her planet. Hence would be eligible for diplomatic immunity. Subject to being officially recognised as such, of course.
Which is unlikely to be forthcoming, given her history. Many a pirate crew, living on a deserted island would have been in the same position, and with the same disinterest, from the world’s nations.
The refugee status though is something she would have automatic right to, by international treaties. Although her non-human status could jeopardise that, if the treaties actually specify ‘human’. Or failing that if they say ‘person’, and courts decide to interpret that as meaning ‘human’.
I think that the bigger thing obstructing an asylum claim is her history of kidnapping and violence.
Not to mention terrorism and, as the effective head of state for her people and planet, declaration of war against the U.S. it’s allies and all of Earth which kind of trumps any diplomatic immunity
Actually declaring war does not loose your diplomatic immunity. To the contrary it is during times of war that the sanctity of diplomatic immunity is at its most important. Without it peace negotiations would be badly impeded.
Plus, at the time, Sciona, and the people she was talking to, were unaware that she was the last survivor. As such she was talking in her capacity as a private citizen.
As regards terrorism and her other crimes, those too do not automatically negate an asylum claim. I chose the following example because it was the first hit I got, I do note that it is an EU case though, and not a US one. However it makes the point well and the treaties which control this are international, so similar considerations are required by every country.
https://www.asylumlawdatabase.eu/en/case-law-search?f%5B0%5D=field_keywords%3A75ad
“… the Board found serious reasons to assume that the applicant had committed a crime against humanity and war crimes during his military service and consequently he was excluded from protection. Nevertheless, the Danish Aliens Act Art. 31, (2) is an obstacle to his expulsion as he would risk persecution covered by the Danish Aliens Act Art. 7 (1) in the case of returning to Syria.”
Applying the same principle to Sciona, she has committed the various crimes you state. Which are actually a lesser charge than the ‘crimes against humanity’, stated in this case. Yet even this individual could not be barred, because of the danger of returning. Sciona is on a planet where systematic extermination has been carried out. Further, from the fact that the fires are still burning, it is clear that this is still an imminent risk.
As such she should be granted asylum.
Which does not mean that she would be at liberty to continue her crimes. Asylum is not the same as a pardon. She, like the individual in the cited case, would still be prosecuted for her crimes.
However the death penalty would clearly be inappropriate for the last of a species. So a prison term would be the more appropriate course of action. Possibly with additional provisions to allow her to try and salvage the remains of her species. And/or allowing conjugal visits, should any other survivors be located.
“Actually declaring war does not loose your diplomatic immunity. To the contrary it is during times of war that the sanctity of diplomatic immunity is at its most important. Without it peace negotiations would be badly impeded.”
‘Tis truth. Even in ancient times, those that carried the sign of the Herald could expect to walk across an active battlefield, right past all enemy soldiers, without being harmed. To hinder the path of the traveling Herald was in itself considered to be an Act of War or a Declaration of War by all governments. At worst, a government could revoke the status of a Herald & have them escorted, still unharmed, back to their nation of origin. the same holds true for modern-day Diplomats.
Safest. Job. Ever. Just the savings on insurance premiums is worth it.
It’s a valid point that current laws may be written in such a way as to only protect Humans, either explicitly or by choice of implication. But there’s a sufficiently large and influential population of non-Human People in the GP universe that I doubt that’d be the case. Any judge at a sufficient level of clearance to know that the Human/Person distinction is an option is also at a sufficient level to know about the various other non-Human groups who will be taking a deep and personal interest in the outcome.
Having said which, it may be a point that still needs official clarification. In which case it probably would come up in the trial, just to get the ‘non-Human Persons’ ruling on the books.
Plus that the superheroes heard her talking abouit world conquest and say that her people must have been rotten to the core for Space cops to do that and shes shown a willingness to murder for kicks
That’s assuming that they were space cops, and not just someone who was really ticked off at the Alari. We have no confirmation that the destroyers had anything to do with the Xevoarchy.
Until that big ship came out of the sky, I had thought MAYBE it was a science experiment gone horribly wrong. :)
Not that I’m going to defend Sciona as if she’s a good person, since she isnt, but….
“Plus that the superheroes heard her talking about world conquest”
That’s sort of part and parcel for many civilizations when they encounter another civilization with inferior technology or numbers, such as on Earth. In literally every time period, every civilization, every continent, and every race. Not sure why aliens wouldn’t be like that as well – it’s a staple of a lot of outer space scifi movies since the creation of the genre. :)
“and say that her people must have been rotten to the core for Space cops to do that”
1) The Space cops (Xevoarchy) probably didnt do it
2) If the Xevoarchy WAS capable of genocide, I think they’re probably the rotten ones. But according to Dabbler, usually the worst they’ll do, even in extreme situations, is to knock a civilization back to the industrial age, where they no longer are a threat to the rest of the galaxy (which is more in line with a police-keeping force). I doubt that even the Alari are evil to the last person. They might just not want to be part of the Xevoarchy or accept being under the Xevoarchy. It’s not like on Earth, ‘global governments’ have done a particularly good job either. They tend to be corrupt – League of Nations, UN, and even more localized versions seem headed that way, like the EU (soon as it stopped being the EEC).
“and shes shown a willingness to murder for kicks”
Actually I don’t recall her ever murdering for kicks. She seems to murder (and even fight at all) for specific reasons that are not ‘for the lulz.’ Whether it’s to get blood for her spells, or to bypass the security of the vault, or to get back the artifact…. these are not ‘for the kicks.’ Even when she attempted to kill Vale, it was for an actual reason beyond ‘she wants to.’ Ultimately, everything she was doing was to get back to her home planet (even if the reason for getting back there was so she could take an army to Earth to conquer it – her opinions might be clouded by how being on Earth tried to decapitate her and kill her).
Again, not saying she’s good. She’s evil. But she’s not chaotic evil. She’s not like Vehemence, who does stuff just because it feels good to do it.
Overall I agree with what you are saying. One point that deserves challenging is the bit about not being ‘chaotic evil’. This deserves a bit of preamble though, because I know you don’t play D&D and other roleplaying games, although you will have picked up quite a bit of peripheral knowledge, for instance through computer games which draw upon those.
D&D (or more specifically Advanced Dungeons and Dragons) formalises morals into a highly simplified concept of good, neutral and evil, on one axis with lawful, neutral and chaotic on another. Which means those of us who are heavily into roleplaying have put considerable thought into how to interpret each. Which does have bearing to the normal linguistic use of the terms, as players are using the normal social understandings of the terms as part of the debate/ mindset played.
A lawful person is someone who respects the laws of the land and, even if in a lawless region, will still honour bargains, despite there being no one to enforce a deal. Likewise they can be expected to generally act in the group’s best interests, where that is possible. For instance, in a survival situation, suggesting that everybody pool their food and supplies, and ration it out equally.
Whilst a chaotic person will do whatever suits their own agenda. Clearly much of the time they may have to obey the law, through fear of punishment for transgressing. Likewise they may choose to keep a deal, if they feel like it.
However whenever there is something that they want, and they think they can get away with it, they will lie, cheat, break deals, and will prioritise their own interests over those of the group.
All of this can separately be modified by whether the person is good or evil. A lawful evil pirate will quite happily rape, murder and pillage, but will obey the pirate’s code to the letter (that is the law of the society he is living in, which does not require respecting the law of other lands) and will not break his word.
That though would not characterise Sciona’s behaviour (when talking about law versus chaos). She has the evil part down pat, of course.
However she lied to Cooter, so that she could use him as a living bomb. As he was a monster hunter though, we can see this as a ploy against an enemy. The rest of her social group found this to be acceptable, so, we can give her a pass on that (much like the pirate code does not require honouring deals with non-pirate authorities).
So we move on to Wyrmil. He was not an enemy, he was an ally, one working against a common enemy (the Twilight Council). Yet she betrayed him too. This is a classic chaotic act. And in a pattern of such. She took the blood of her vampire ally, against his will. Plus when she left the Dark Reliquary she did so alone, leaving her remaining allies to fend for themselves.
Now if you take chaotic to be “mindless” or “random” (which is a legitimate way of interpreting it for some roleplaying characters, despite the above) then your take is perfectly correct. There was a purpose in her actions. However that purpose was, in every instance, a wholly selfish one. Whatever she wanted for herself she did.
In that regard she was exactly the same as Vehemence. He wanted the rush from gaining vehemic energy, and the power associated with that. Plus he enjoyed the destruction. So he acted in a chaotic manner, by prioritising his own interests, over those of the laws of the land. Yet note that he did not murder Sydney, despite the fact that it would have been in his best interests to do so.
And this was down to him liking her, having made the earlier comment ‘nice kid, I hope she survives’. So sparing her was something that he wanted to do. He was following his whims.
Sciona’s whims though just lacked any compassion, for anybody, other than herself. Up until now. And even if she does restore her people, we can bet it is down to the fact that she does not want to be lonely. She will want the things she enjoyed from her youth. Whatever Alari society may have offered. Having conquered slaves fight to the death in arenas, or just seeing her familiar cities rebuilt, as the case may be.
One last thought, and I’ll stop digging this one up. Most of Sciona’s actions do not specifically fall under the category of “War Crimes”, with the exception of her treatment of prisoners. She may be able to point out that her government attempted to officially declare war on the planet, but the fact was concealed by the council. Which would give her case at least some degree of credibility.
Yeah, I don’t play D&D at all. I just figure since Sciona seems to always have a plan about what she’s doing, it’s not chaotic. Also since she’s a ruler, she probably believes in the use of rules. Hence not chaotic, and more likely lawful than neutral.
Sorry, didnt read a lot of what you wrote (still doing pre-trial discovery until the beginning of August) but I’m sure it was well thought out stuff about D&D alignments. :)
Heh. No problems.
One thing to appreciate though is that societies do not have to be as heavily rules-based as ours. Nor as restrictive on personal freedoms. If you have a society with a very low law footprint* and one which emphasises personal freedom over government control, you have (in D&D terms) a chaotic society.
It is much easier for a chaotic individual to rule in a chaotic society.
* Historically one of the Scandiwegan countries specifically had the law that each year all the laws of the land must be recited, in front of the populace, in a single session. Anybody present could challenge if the person reciting them omitted a specific law. If it was neither mentioned nor challenged (and agreed to retain it in law) then the law was thereby repealed.
This had the advantage that nobody was ignorant of the law, as everyone heard it, in full, every year. Plus it also kept the footprint of the law very low.
Somehow I doubt we are looking at a “and they lived happily ever after” type thing…
Well maybe Sciona will cut a deal with Deus? He redevelops a chunk of the planet for her to live on, in exchange for which he gets resource exploitation rights. Plus his technicians can develop a nice weapon, for her to make good use of the power source provided by that battery.
I know it was thirty-odd years ago, but… poor Kilowog.
I imagine that seeing as there is an artifact that can grow a new body (and increase breasts size) there might be a spell to conjure a body to inhabit. Golems as a temp vessel, Digitalization to AI, etc.
Or she’ll go full Flying womb from Parasite Eve or evil Amalgam/Gestalt entity…
…
Deus as a di… nvm.
Manikins seem an obvious stop gap. But that is not going to be an adequate long-term solution for a (formerly) living being.
Maybe they have the same problem as the Eldar (40k) and used the same protection scheme. There is also the soul hunter (Babylon5) concept.
Insane hive mind would be fun but so far she’s only made blood golems so that’s probably what she’s doing.
Also:
Blood super serum
Blood portal
Blood sacrificial trap disablement
Blood sword (which admittedly formed part of the golems)
Blood self destruction of base
Blood power absorption golem
And hemokinesis
Yeah, but most of what she has to work with is souls and her own blood. Some how bonding all of them to herself in a way to absorb their skills, knowledge, and maaaaybe some kind of magnification of their combined racial powers (perhaps) in a hive being would be the most fun thing to do with those ingredients and might still leave her alive. Bonding them to a bunch of golems would fit what she’s done so far but you would think doing that to an entire race would take more blood per golem than she has on hand. Not to mention probably inferior bodies unless she knows of a store of awesome tech drones in a bunker somewhere.
Happy to see her do something totally unexpected though!
But the Alari are pretty obviously Evil and Sciona was likely a forward scout who went to conquer the planet and probably did it to a shit ton of others since a Soul Battery screams,” we murder planets after we get everything good their and use the people to power our cars”
So did Sciona grow a new leg while I wasn’t looking because she’s not using her wing as a crutch anymore on this page.
Check out my reply to the same question here.
Yeah. Noticed the same thing.
And as a surprise plot twist: The soul battery doesn’t hold the souls of her people but instead those of her enemies.
I thought since she uses blood magic all the time, she has the ability to absorb blood that lands on her for healing?
Was I wrong??
Any time Dave has forgotten to put the blood stains on Sciona, he has indicated that it was an omission.
However you are not wrong, in as much as pretty much all readers who have commented on it go with the explanation you cited. Even those knowing the author’s intent. Myself included. :-)
Also, when Sydney injured Sciona’s ogre body & it healed so rapidly, Wciona’s made a comment about using Troll’s blood for regeneration. I would suspect that the massive injection Sciona took not that long ago would have Troll’s Blood as part of the mixture. Even so, I would suspect that Sciona’s healing ability would be normal (for her own species), if she didn’t have the blood to boost her healing.
Is it possible that the shockwave was hot enough to burn/boil the blood marks away? She’s extremely close to ground zero.
Was thinking that as well
Cantrip? She certainly can rip!
If her foot hasn’t finished regrowing, then she can trip.
The number one show on her world?
Soul Train!
Hmmm. Maybe she’d better watch out for Thanos to steal that Soul Gem from her…He just might have an empty slot on his glove for it.
Sciona Buttcrack hurhurhur… /Beavis
There’s something odd about her butt when she’s bent forward though/// almost like DaveB started to draw her belly vs back and then changed his mind mid coloring.. most butts don’t “V” out like that when someone is bent forward while resisting.
Or is that just me seeing things?
and yes I’m aware that her armor is like a body suit…or a thin coat of paint.
Looking at the panel in question, (Panel 2) Sciona is half turned from the waist down, which could accentuate her back muscles.
To any who aren’t convinced yet that Sciona is a total sociopath, I present panel 7. Her entire race and homeworld has been destroyed, and she’s down with that aside from there being no blood left for her to exploit.
Sure, maybe she’s trying a resurrection ritual or something for their benefit (instead of to raise some subservient minions), but I’m really not getting the idea that any of her remorse is for the undead millions (billions?) of her kind.
I’m no Sciona fan, but I think you are doing her an injustice here. The previous two panels show despair in the first and a determination to do something about it, in the second.
The panel you are focusing on does indeed show her callous nature, but only as regards her need to have blood in order to work her magic. It does not indicate that she has ignored the plight of her people.
Although I do concur that she is a sociopath. However that does not require a total lack of empathy and remorse. Take the Wikipedia definition of Psychopathy:
It could also be that she is sort of in shock or just really good at controlling her emotions when her life depends on it. Or really bad and that was gallows humor. Or maybe Dave doesn’t know how to draw shock / fear / sadness / existential angst all at once on a gray-skinned alien action-babe with black-sclera while lit from below with a neon green glow, while also needing to be prepared to slit her own throat. Doesn’t exactly come up very often in art class.
Besides, isn’t that a tear running from her eye down the side of her nose in panel 7?
Mmm, maybe it is a tear? But it is lacking any glistening, if that is the intent, and Dave can convincingly convey liquids. Just look at the blood in the final panel, as a prime example.
On balance, I consider it is more likely just a wrinkle, from her grimace of determination. Just think of Maxima’s “angry face” for a much more prominent example of a similar artistic principle at work.
Plus, even if it is a tear, it is not really helping the overall argument. Given that it comes in the panel where she is lamenting the lack of blood. It would be more convincing if the tear came earlier, when she was talking about her people.
The question, “Why didn’t you launch?” Maybe of more importance than Sciona knows… perhaps, that one wasn’t an escape pod, but a prison, what would her culture consider criminal?
Someone who failed to tithe the requisite annual quantity of loot and slaves?
She is a blood mage, it wouldn’t be too far into left field to assume she naturally absorbs or expels blood splatter.
Otherwise she would spend half the time casting and the other half bathing.
Sounds reasonable to me.
So Sciona is the sole survivor, who is looking after the soul survivors.
*gives the dog a biscuit*
*gobbles it down, tail wagging*
…With a backup soundtrack of Soul music…
I don’t know how many other web comics Dave reads, but this one rang a bell with me.
https://wapsisquare.com/comic/buffers-in-place/
I’m also sure this idea isn’t original to Pablo Wapsi, because I have vague memories of reading something similar in a Superman comic book from the early ’70s of the last century.
Dave lists them in one of the sidebars. Wasabi Square is not amongst them though. But ‘soul batteries’, under various names and descriptions, are indeed an old staple of science fiction.
Was thinking that as well
So the Alari turn out to be the origin story for Scientology?
Somewhat unrelated – but totally made me think of it again – I think it’d be just about the most badass amazing thing if this comic had a discord for it.
Woof. Woof, woof … woof!
Meeeooooow, meow. MEEEOW?
WOOOF WOOOF WOOOF!!!
If that cat brings on so much discord that you feel as if you must defend your honor, throw down the gauntlet.
Gotta be honest… I’m totally confused. XD
Well that is what a conversation between a dog and a kitten would sound like, on Discord.
Ooooooh. Fair. Still, the total anarchy of dogs and cats getting along would be quite enjoyable, I think. :P They are both cute and fluffy, after all. The big difference is that cats tolerate their human slaves, whereas dogs actually have the whole man’s best friend thing going for them.
After the sandblasting she just went through,having Sciona appear freshly scrubbed seems reasonably acceptable to me.