Grrl Power #667 – The hubris inversion
Yeah, I know, it’s only a 3 panel comic, but I hadn’t planned on doing two doubles in a row. I will say page 666 was one of my favorite in a while, but that’s the sort of stuff I always wanted the comic to focus on. But you know, fights happen in superhero comics. I didn’t really want to show the entire blow by blow fight, and it really was death by a thousand cuts. Sydney’s cutting beam is super powerful, but doesn’t have the same collateral effect as Maxima’s big booms. That thing is so big she had to whittle it down, and that would have been boring to watch.
You know how in games like God of War, they pit you against a miniboss like a minotaur, and then as soon as you beat it, they immediately pit you against two more? That’s basically what Sydney’s got going on here. Beating the first one feels epic cause it’s the hardest thing you’ve fought so far, but as soon as the two others show up, you’re like “You’ve got to be kidding me” but after a moment you realize it’s not really that big a deal because you’ve got them figured out. Now you have to apply it with the twist of dealing with two at once. Sydney must be playing on hard mode, because she’s jumped from 1 to 3. Don’t worry though, this leg of the battle will be much shorter than the first.
Really the only question is why the ship waited for Sydney to wreck the first one before sending backup. The answer is simple. That first guy was a real jerk. He eats everyone’s lunch from the fridge, even has the balls to complain when they don’t bring food he likes. He plays his music in his (gigantic) cubicle without headphones, invites himself to the after work karaoke sessions. Stuff like that.
Everyone on the alien screw ship was technically rooting for him, simply as a matter of racial solidarity or whatever, but… really they were hoping he’d at least be limping back with a slightly subdued attitude. When Sydney actually took him out they were like, “Oh, shit! Uh… I guess, you three, suit up!”
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The pride that comes before the fall…..
Also – Let’s hear it for our next contestant(s)!
Your overconfidence was your weakness…
Sydney’s tactics can still work against each of the other three aliens. Once she’s inside the shield of one of them, what are the other two going to do, blast their own buddy & hope to get Sydney through his shield?
Well, that same tactic will still work unless Sydeny’s target notices the little Orb-Blip coiming towards hum & makes his sheild opaque…But that would effectively blind himself to do it.
Even so, Sydney can always fly around to keep the bulk of one of her enemies in between herself & the other two as much as possible. In effect, the more enemies that Sydney faces the better the odds are that they’ll wind up blasting each other, whereas Sydney can still target-of-opportunity against any of them. The biggest risk is that Sydney might accidently zig when she should have zagged. She might still manage to get inside somebody’s shield along the way.
One was damn hard, 3 at once is cubed in trouble and they won’t be exactly the same either as the first mook boss. So no it won’t be easier. Also the others must have seen all her moves by now. I know I would. She will have to fight them all in three dimensions as they will gang up on her. Each send in a wave of small attackers to wear her down then take a super earth shaking smash to finish her off. She needs to bugger out now. Probably too late. If they are also trained to fight in groups Syndey’s little ass is cooked. She would get lost and they would smash her time and again till her bubble bursts.
They would move to continually surround her and attack till she is confused then WHAM! Again and again. How long can her shield bubble last? They may not sleep and she has to. In the end they would still win. Though she had taken down one of their continent killers all by her lonesome.
“So no it won’t be easier.”
So where did I say it was going to be any easier?
The tactics she’s already used will be useful, but she’s still going to have to be moving swiftly & stay highly aware of relative positioning between herself & all three of them. Sydney has found out already how fast they can move when taking a physical swing at her, so if she plans her movements better at somewhat higher speed she should be able to avoid most of that kind of attacking.
I didn’t say anything about this being any easier…What I was saying that her basic tactic is sound, but will still need to be changed somewhat & remain adaptable with that basic tactic in mind.
Your faith in your friends is yours.
Now is time to check the effects of that speed upgrade.
didn’t she end up picking the shield upgrade?
Nope. She went for the mach 5 boost.
Yes though it was only the last point on the existing row so assumption is it’ll only be a further speed boost.
She’s attempting to grind out a further point to spend on the unlocked line to find out if it unlocks a ‘warp’ style option.
I can’t believe that a thousand greys got her a point but a blue got her nothing. I mean, just going on mass alone the big guy should have counted for more…
I’d bet she got at least 1 point for the blue, she just hasn’t had a chance to stop using the orbs yet so the skill tree can activate.
I almost expect her to get several points at once after taking on these 3 (possibly without taking down all 3, one side or the other may find it prudent to withdraw) and being able to spend several points at once. That would be a good lead into a proper arc on supervised experimentation on the firing range (the one in the Nevada desert) since there would be lots of unexplored new toys.
She has to leave immediate combat to secure the point. Aka “and survive.”
Wait. Her upgrade gave her a white race car with a big M on the hood?
When the odds are against her she’s a dangerous worker.
As well as an annoying brat and his monkey that always hide in the trunk?
Sydney you keep falling into the same trap over and over again. This is like your second match against math once again but this time the results could be fatal. (yes I know she survives this is her telling her story in the back ) even so the point stands that mistakes like this can get not just you but everyone you’re trying to protect killed.
Like I said last time: Her Luck stat is completely maxed out! ;)
What exactly did she do wrong here?
She tempted fate.
She tempted fate
When she starts acting / boasting like this about being Invincible or prideful and stuff like that she tends to get a cream Humble Pie or is it humble cream pie to the face
It’s kinda like the cop who is about to retire always saying how much he’s going to enjoy his retirement. Or the cop who isn’t about to retire saying “I’m getting too old for this shit.” Or wearing a red shirt. Or the only black guy in a movie being the only black guy in a movie. It’s certain death!
The Foolish Mortal TEMPTED Fate with her Arrogance.
Wow – I was right – there is more then one in this ship. Makes sense as you can cover much more sites at once if that is an invasion / anihilation fleet carrier. Interesting that they all differ at least at the eyes. Either they are specialized on different things or they are biological. If artificial why bother with different designs if there is no difference in ability.
Who says they are not different? They may be different configurations of the same system.
As i said i belive they differ in function or they are biological and therefore different. The drones all looked similar – that would suggest their technology/building strategy is to develope one design and copy it like we do. It looks like more then just a custom paintjob. If you would build weapons you would not needlessly change the building process… That´s all just guesswork based on the little information we have.
They could still be both biological and naturally evolved even though they have significant variations in eye count and other physiological aspects. From what little we’ve seen of succubi other than Xuriel, their species seems to allow for significant variation. So why not a lot of variation in the squidbilly race?
Remember, Dabbles is only a third Succubae
1/2 succubus, 1/3 doppelganger and 1/6 alien. A jill of all trades, even genetically.
what in itself is interesting because I believe it was stated that while Succubae can breed with any species the result will be a Succubus. How Dabbler became a mix like she is one can only guess.
Little ukezi, it’s time we had a talk. When a mommy and a daddy and a T’cothian and a UmGoeaptoid love each other very much…
LOL! But it’s a legitimate question, Dabbler or Decolette did say that. Never made the connection myself, but now I’m wondering if perhaps Dabbler’s mom used some genetic engineering?
One of the other species involved also results in an offspring being of that particular species. The genetics and magic battled it out, Dabbler was the result.
Magic, genetics, and possibly also technology as well. I’d add supernatural, because she claims to be a demon*, but that might fall under the auspices of magic.
* Or is it just that succubuses (succubi?) are just a species of demon?
Demons are simply visitors from other dimensions
At the worst it’s a case of Unreliable Narrator (in Dabbler); at best, it’s advertising Since it’s Dabbler herself who stated what she was, we’re operating off that information; she also has made the observation that demons are by definition ‘aliens’. Similar to the asari in Mass Effect, a succubus is apparently going to give birth to a succubus, but probably with elements of the paternal racial traits — whatever those happen to be in Dabbler’s case.
It’s usually not that simple. Typically there are ‘lower’ dimensions, and you call the things that live there demons, and ‘higher’ dimensions, and you call the things that live there ‘angels.’ For example the D&D cosmology is quite complex, with extra-dimensional being from elemental planes, a whole spectrum of aligned planes, and several ‘travel’ planes that are in between them all.
Multiple reasons why to have different eyes, really.
First one would be one with three words: collect. them. all.
When you have the capability of sending out cannon fodder drones by the kilotons, then you can also modify your collection of squiddy mecha bosses to show your superior firepower.
It could also indicate that these mechas are steered by a pilot from afar.
Also… it helps to identify the unit visually.
But yes, there are differences in “eye” count, size and color with each of them, so we will expect different versions of those eye beams. The white one may have a variation in wavelength and beam width, so he could be a priority target (do not let them get the best laser to hit you with).
I used to work on F4 Phantoms – and our wiring schematics had extra lines, inset boxes, even a few extra pages that were tagged with plane tail number ranges or lists. Some variations applied to as few as two or three planes only. And by “planes”, I don’t mean “models of” like the F4b, F4c, F4d – I mean individual planes with tail numbers.
Seems the engineers were never satisfied. Or sometimes planes wrre kitted out for specific abilities/ addon equipment needed for a specfic op or theater. Like (I think) Michealangelo supposedly once said – Masterpieces are never finished, they’re abandoned.
THank you for your your service, Airman. *Salutes*
Tinkerers tinker, and perfectionists are continually working toward the maximum optimum. But one can over do it too. Tinker too much and you miss your high mark. That is when it crashes or blows up or burns out. The best ones know when to stop before that happens. Didn’t know that went on in battle theaters and such. Very interesting.
It’s also a result of specific field-modifications on-site. Every change from the “standard model” that rolls off the original assembly line has to be well-documented for anybody else assigned to the equipment after the field-mods were done.
While I was in the service, I worked on various mainframe & microframe computer systems, not planes…But the procedures for documenting every single modification made on any “standard model” is still the same.
The jagers are coming! Can’t wait to see the one Maximia is piloting. And by piloting I mean literally asking why the hell they put all this restrictive metal around her.
What’s the point?
The Screwship had the opportunity to leave while The Mighty Halo was occupied.
Speaking of leaving….
Dabbler isn’t piloting it is she?
Shit, meet fan
When Sydney originally turned from the ship to fight the ground unit I honestly thought she was going to trick the “jerk” into firing on his ship so she could take that out before mopping him up.
Maybe she could do that with these 3 new opponents, whilst also trying to get the remains of their ship to fall on them and squish ’em flat?
Even getting into the middle of those three could work to her advantage. If she keeps moving while they attack she could dodge their fire and they’d be missing her and hitting each other.
WWII General Anthony McAuliffe said it best: “We are surrounded by the enemy. We have the greatest opportunity ever presented an army. We can attack in any direction.”
Now Syd shall unleash … the “Death-Blossom Attack”!!!
–
( … there’s no way she wouldn’t have seen “The Last Starfighter” … )
Sydney: You fools! You fallen for my trap.
also supposedly heard in that battle: “They got us surrounded. The poor bastards.”
“Now that we have them right where they want us.
~Adm. Kirk, Star Trek The Movie; after the Enterprise has gotten inside of the “Cloud”
I think she would do that as a call moment to Maxima teaching Syd.
I don’t know that she wants to. The entire point of this is to grind skill points by, as someone said the other day, “Beating on Squidward’s hit dice until a skill point falls out.” Eliminating the enemy spawn point works against her — or, at least, eliminating it too early.
She also gets exp from operating in a team, so I’d assume that anything that happens from using tactics like this would carry its own type of bonus.
“If artificial why bother with different designs if there is no difference in ability.”
This is of course why each and every single human female looks exactly like every other without the slightest variation. Because each has the same ability to birth young.
Absolutely no other consideration. Not style, desire or comfort, nope just “ability”.
(/rant)
Poor Sydles, wasn’t even able to gloat for 10 full seconds. It sure is a good thing those orbs don’t have Ultraman’s energy depletion time.
Humans are artificial? No. And that’s why all humans look different.
Many cars with the same essential abilities have different designs,
And maybe different arrangements of disconcerting eyes, horns, and so forth are their equivalent of biomecha nose art.
I think the intent was that if the aliens are biological, that explains why they look different. If they are artificial (robots / drones / vehicle / power armor…) then the fact that they look different suggests that they have different design goals, and therefore different abilities.
an observation, the big walker was exactly the wrong thing to use. A big strong shield that only works at long range? a single slow firing devastating weapon? It was a weirdly oversized artillery platform. Not really the right thing to use against a target as fast as sydny.
Maybe it was just the only tool they had? it’s possible they don’t have anything else on hand that can crack her shield. just because they can recognize the orbs does not mean they would carry a counter force for it after all.
Well, she shot the heck out of their little ship swarm.
The biggest problem with Sydney is her shield. These guys are likely the only things with guns big enough to crack it. And even then it’s only their biggest, slowest gun which can manage.
The only alternative would be something that can bypass her shield, similarly to how she bypassed Squidwad’s. Beyond that you realise her human limitations and just continuously, but cheaply, hound her until she tires out from regular exhaustion and lack of sleep.
Yeah, if they all manage to get a shot in with their main guns, Sydney’s toast. Squidward alone nearly got through it with that first shot. So, I’m thinking that’s not going to happen.
Well, they have already tried using massed interceptor analogues, which Sydney promptly re-classed as scrub mobs/anime fireworks display. As you suggest it’s possible that they have decided that the only weapons they have that are powerful enough to breach Sydney’s shield are those of the walkers, while the walkers are tough enough to stand up to her in turn.
Of course, it could simply be that the walkers have killed everything they have faced in the past, up to and including a planet of Scionas. It’s a common trend in a lot of RTS games – once you get the high-tier unit that can wipe the floor with everything else, you just spam that & stop worrying about strategy.
A final thought though – maybe the Walkers are the aliens, and they are fighting her the way they are because they are soldiers and those are their tools of the trade.
I had the thought that these were the aliens and not a giant mecha analogue when she mentioned that the ship was the size of every city on Earth combined.
re “big shield that only works at long distance”: lotsa true real life war stories of ships that closed so close that the big one couldn’t depress guns far enough to hit the little, enabling the little one to deliver a world of hurt.
back then I kinda saw it as a singular, ‘big bang’ long range artillery piece. I also sorta saw it as the only article of it’s kind. Eg lots of armor/shield to survive it’s own weapons and fairly mobile.
Now it may be that it’s a general bit of ‘hardware’, most likely now that it was the one that had a large bit of firepower that could be deployed in a short hurry that was immediately ready. have a feeling the first ground scanner type misdiagnosed what Syd could do.
I also think the first one was a ‘gut’ reaction to ‘hit it hard right now!’ I am now not so sure it was even aiming at Syd at first, but at the portal to keep the fight on the planet.
after a second shot and the utter lack of the main ship and fighter combo doing any real damage, maybe the idea was ‘maybe it is damaged/weak – try to finish it off’
The new ones may have been selected after a bit of strategy after watching Syd.
There may be a huge cost to getting these up and going, or getting them from a staging area. Maybe they have a huge portal IN the ship. why would you send all your top tier fighters at the beginning?
Not sure they were intentionally using it as such. Remember Sydney decided to attack it after surmising that the swarm was all ‘greys’ and so not worth much do.
Squidward was already on the ground doing artillery style things to the landscape.
Meanwhile in the giant spaceship: “I need more popcorn. This is getting good.”
You know, one of my favorite things about Sydney is that while she makes some comically stupid blunders, and falls prey to the tropes and cliches she mocks others about, she has the self-awareness to realize it and admit it.
I think she’s the type to write NOOB on her own forehead in sharpie for making a mistake like that. And is clearly able to (eventually) laugh at her own mistakes and antics. Its refreshing.
You know, now would be another of those inconvenient moments to get a new level.
The level up only seems to activate after a period of orb inactivity, which seems like a good safety feature to prevent upgrades at inconvenient moments.
I think the level up only happens when she isn’t holding any of the orbs. It seems like that may be a safety feature.
Yeah, its nice to have a bit of slice of life in this slice of life comic. But it is kind of amusing to slip back and forth between them sort of like “meanwhile, back at the ranch… ” for kind of sublimely ridiculous contrast of the best sort. Though I noticed some of the other commenters specifically didn’t like it (breaking up the fight).
I actually keep hoping there will literally be a “meanwhile, back at the… ” slipped in somewhere.
Well, I like it! One of the things I love about GrrlPower is exactly that, while fights do happen, there is other stuff, like Dabbler cooking, or Zeph suddenly realizing they have to tell Sydney stuff way above her pay grade. Found another superhero webcomic; some interesting characters; a big fight’s been raging for a long long time now and the supervillains just busted open a super-jail sooo . . . I left.
And Dave’s fights are more than just showcasing powers. The phrase, “Stay on the bus, it’s goin’ somewhere!” applies.
I have room in my heart to love other types of comics but in this case I was promised slice of life as a focus so I’m always hoping for mostly that with juuuust enough action and powers play to make their unique viewpoints make sense.
I’m still pretty sad that the testing phase of Super Hero recruit life was mostly glossed over. There was HUGE potential for non actiony slice of life there that still was inherently of the super hero genre. And if such random powers existed and were put into government use there would be tons of testing and classifying.
I’m with you, I like seeing the multiple perspectives. It may be her story/comic, but there are others in this world, and it’s nice to see them worrying about her and making plans to get her back.
Next cut away to earth, it’d be nice to see Arianna’s reaction to being told of Sydney being stranded so far away. I can imagine her switching from genuine concern and fear for her, to worried that Sydney will, somehow, manage to cause a massive PR nightmare from over 700 light years away, to frustrated and annoyed because she now has to reschedule all these live appearances. And all the while she is privately buying up all of “The Mighty Halo’s” action figures and comics, just on the off chance there is never another run made.
Actually, the fear that Sydney may do something that brings Earth to the attention
of aliens (not just the tourists) (Mostly harmless)
is not completely unjustified.
It could be that earth might get a mention with the squidscrew aliens.
“Earth/earth inhabitants log entry: Stay away, extremely dangerous, 1 (one! out of estimated 7 billion! (holy crapbaskets)) of the smaller earth sapient specimens took down Gary, Wilbur, Hugh and Freddo within half an hour, and that was only because this one had to figure out how to do it, now they know how… Weapons grade vocabulary, hull cutters, destructo-beam/physical/crush/stomp invulnerability and great spead. And our weaponsystems can’t lock on to due to speed and size.”
That’s a pretty good idea. We haven’t seen her in a while and since she has to always be prepared to get out in front of these things BEFORE the public finds out about them (if possible) then she should be working on a plan to deal with any negativity from loosing the relatable spunky new recruit who was so new the public may want to know what happened to all the training she was supposed to get before going on missions as mentioned in the big press conference.
And then somehow Sydney’s House Mother Maxima finds out that Arianna is planning for Sydney never coming back and takes it the wrong way.
Lot of great potential slice of life here.
Going straight from a mid level boss to a three boss battle with no break? That’s just poor level design!
Well, if you want the player to survive, yes. If you are trying to kill someone before you get killed, not so much.
True, it’s poor level design. If you’re going for TPK, make sure the extra bosses arrive before the first is dead.
What makes you think they didn’t? They would have had to fire through the first guy’s shields to get at her, and they may not be able to do that.
The 3 “Boom”s behind Halo’s back seem to suggest they just arrived.
Good point on the shield, though.
Halo’s PPO beam attack must be incredily powerful to damage beings whose idea of a safe landing is ‘shoot me down from orbit, I’ll be fine!’
THe large Adimantium Golem is only there so that the Wizard trio has time to cast their pre-combat spels and arrive in a flashy fashion. OH and now that the healer has gone near omm keeping the tank up, they can pick of the party with leisure.
*Round one they all cast fingure of death, twinned*
“You sly dog! You got me monologuing.” – Syndrome
Hahahahahahahahaha, perfect…
Definitely the winning post for this page…except Sydney is the hero, so…no cape for her!
(Capes are not allowed in the miiltary anymore for all the reasons Edna listed! Closest you’ll get is a weather poncho, and if the sides are (properly) kept snapped, it won’t flutter and get sucked into a jet engine.)
Yep… Kinda figured there would be more. Good time to run and hide.
Might be to late for that.
They know she is on the planet, so they will keep looking for her.
Not seeming to have any issues with planet wide destruction, they may just use a bunch of other methods to flush her out… Even if it makes the planet uninhabitable for a while. Sidney does need to let go of the shield orb eventually – and poison or other lingering dangers can get her when the shield is down.
Now that I think about it… if Deus uses “giant straws” to create a pressure change based wind turbine why not use one that goes out into space to tap on the pressure changes between the earth near atmosphere and the vacuum of space to generate even more energy… this would explain the “screw” shape and also a possible other function of it: accumulate carbon (dioxide) from the atmosphere to turn into graphene for automatic production of their arsenal – using the energy from the updraft… effectively pumping away a lot of breathable(?!) air. Wow. Now this gives completely different issues.. Good thing that Sciona’s home is an oxygen / carbon dioxide based planet.. Which is probably the reason why she and her kind want to take over earth…
FYI, the reason the air flows up the tube is that it is heated down at ground level and becomes lighter than the surrounding air. Without that, gravity just does its thing and keeps stuff from floating off into space.
…you mean that’s NOT a huge warboss, that’s the race of aliens flying the ship? Damn.
Yes, that’s why I’m wondering how Sydney is going to react when she finally gets to unwind and begins to realize that she has literally cut another living being to pieces while it was still alive. Sure, it was a him-or-me situation, but unless my impression of Sydney is completely wrong, that’s going to hit her hard. When Max cut off Vehemence’s arm, Sydney was shocked and somewhat sickened that she had helped her do that. With Squidward, Sydney doesn’t seem the kind of person to think: ‘He’s not human, it’s okay.’
At the “Pre-Vehemence” dinner, Syd demonstrated a double-standard in her eating-choices, based on perceived ‘cuteness’. Perhaps the same logic applies here, & a cuter, more relate-able appearance of “boss” would’ve been harder for her to justify dissecting … ?
If this is so, then perhaps her view will change over time, as increased experience with “less-than-cute” sophont races allows her to expand her horizons, so that she’ll define a wider variety of species as “Not A Cool Candidate For Casual Dismemberment”.
Good point! Now I’m wondering how that talk will go:
Max: ‘Sydney, you should have a talk with the base shrink now that you have killed someone for the first time.’
Sydney: ‘Nah, I’m fine he was ugly as f*ck.’
Max: ….
If the Squidlings are there to collect their fallen comrade’s eggs *maybe* Sydney will feel something.
I guess Dabbler is wrong about Sydney not attacking those things…..!?
dabbler also doesn’t seem to understand these monsters came there for the express purpose of killing Sydney and her orbs. not fighting them was nerve really an option that she had…
Dave’s comments aside, I was imagining the squaliens (squid aliens) coming up to Sydney and do nothing but stare at Squidward. Then they would look at each other, turn around, and walk back to the ship. As they do so, Sydney sees two of them handing the other something that looks like currency. All that is heard is laughing before they board the ship and leave. I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen, but that would be one crazy twist to a hectic day.
Like.
(There should be a ‘like’ feature.)
(And editing)
Might still happen ;)
That would only work if one went over, checked the ‘pulse’ of the first one, and shook it’s head sadly to the the yellow eyed one. Bonus points if it then tossed a red shirt over it too
‘Squaliens’ reminds me too much of ‘squabies’, which was ‘squirrel rabies’. So, ‘squirrel aliens’?
I wonder if one of the “Comm-ball’s” hidden powers is an ability to record and playback Sydney’s experiences. Like a 3D go-pro camera.
“You took down 4 of those behemoths by yourself? Pics or it didn’t happen girl!”
A translator function would be nice.
The translation function has been speculation for the level up grid/skill tree.
Soon Sydney will have figured out the EXP cost multipler to getting one more skill point.
This is where an army of monsters to exploit the teleport-in-shield trick repeateldy (until they adapt or run out) gets useful, yet comic readers yearn for better drama than “and she grinded 4 more levels” unless it can be done in a single page.
Did the eye patterns come from Hollow Knight? https://hollowknight.wikia.com/wiki/Dreamers
@DaveB: If the kind of stuff you want the comic to focus on is things like the previous page… I’m afraid I’d find that rather off-putting. I don’t inherently object to slice-of-life type stuff, but the previous comic seemed both like too drastic a departure from the storyline, and to hinge far too much around the sole joke of Dabbler doing the “naked apron” thing. The fanservice scenes in this comic have never worked for me: I just find them awkward. I’m here for the comedy, the character interactions, and the story of a comic-book geek becoming a superhero on an official government-run superhero team. And the fights: the fights are awesome. And I’m kind of hoping to see more of the supervillains from page 186.
ANYway… I wonder if Sydney’s going to try to take these three as well, or just cut and run.
I rather like the slice of life pages, and the action pages. Part of what keeps this web comic so interesting is that there is a bit of everything for everybody. I don’t mind the switching back and forth between two or more story tracks. This is a good mechanism for lining up concurrent activities in the reader’s mind. This is DaveB’s story to tell, and to my mind he’s doing a pretty damned good job of it.
+1
Well, DaveB was saying he might combine the last episode with an earlier ‘back on Earth’ episode. While I have no problem with the fanservice, I think you’re right that switching back and forth several times does interrupt the flow of the comic. (I’m a big fan of the slice-of-life pages myself).
Ah Sydney, Sydney, Sydney. What have you been told about monologuing to a “defeated” foe before checking your surroundings? That is the slippery slope to the Dark side!……….
Come on in, we haz cookies! You know you wanna!
Her meds must be low, because they were not at all silent as they approached.
Actually Sydney, that wasn’t even a Boss fight (and it would have been your first: Kevin doesn’t count seeing how you didn’t actually fight him, neither does Not-a-Bot as they were clearly a Minion)
True. Though maybe she was referring to all the games she has played? I get the impression she’s currently pretending to be in a game or something, maybe to keep herself from panicking?
Some us are incapable of paniking, I just get calm.
Huh, she actually killed it? That’s her first kill ever, right? I wonder how she’ll react when she gets time to reflect on the fact she killed a living being? Still disappointed though, that Squidward turned out to be so easy to take down. I mean, the only damage it did to Sydney was accidental!
Anyway, now there’s three more to fight – will she run or is she hyped up enough to take them on as well? CAN she even run at this point? One tactic she could try is slipping inside the shield of one of them hoping the others will hit it with everything they’ve got, but I doubt they will fall for that. Not after seeing her literally cutting Squidward to pieces. Plus, if they are able to translate what she was yelling to Squidward’s remains, she just told them exactly what to avoid.
(Do these things even feel pain? Squidward just kept going, even though Sydney was turning him into chopped liver! Didn’t even try to run!)
Hmm. Maybe the first thing these new guys will do is call for ‘PARLAY!’? Or even try to surrender? If they all shoot their main guns at her, her shield doesn’t stand a chance, unless she runs like the devil.
One last thought: the eye colour seems to indicate their mood or something – the first drone that scanned them started out with blue eyes, and didn’t go to red until it scanned Halo’s orbs. Squidward started out red and hostile. I notice the middle one has pale greenish eyes. Perhaps it’s the leader? It’s also the only one not making that hostile ‘Raoooo’ sound.
She didn’t kill it – ’tis but a scratch.
One of the Squidlings may have a method of keeping her from leaving.
If you recall what happened when the ship hits Cthulhu in “Call of Cthulhu” it reintegrated itself after. Such a anamorphic propensity would make sense. If so then Giant Black Squiboss will eventually reassemble. And what she fought so hard to do will be just a delaying actions. (I approve of it.) If they are smart and advanced enough to construct such leviathonic behemoths, they would give them that ability.
But then I am nasty fellow playing with world wrecking thoughts here.
“that hostile ‘Raoooo’ sound” = the “mournful hooting” of HG Wells’s Martians?.
As someone whos late teen years were influenced by Jeff Wayne’s musical version of the book, the mournful hooting of the Martians will always sound like “Ulla!” to me. :-)
*whose, not whos. Can’t even blame autocorrect for that one..
After a few minutes of the new arrivals just sitting there, Sydney lands and swaps the PPO for the Comm Ball, in case they’re a really big distraction for something even worse sneaking up on her cloaked.
“–r name.” There’s a blast of shrieky static which, judging by the way a slew of symbols and diagrams start appearing on the inside of the shield, is a galactic-standard compressed syntax/morphology/core vocabulary package that the comm orb is unpacking. Next time around, it provides the translation.
“You have defeated our best warrior in single combat, and therefore we gift to you the Alari homeworld as spoil. Please do us the honor of telling us your homeworld and your name.”
“Er, Sy– um, I am the Mighty Halo, of Earth.”
The outside of the shield lights up in a flashing pattern of symbols, accompanied by a modulated “RAOOO” sound that makes Syd’s teeth feel like they might rattle loose.
“Mighty Halo of Earth! We leave you to savor your justly earned glory! We shall tell of the prowess, from the core to the rim, of the conquerers who dwell upon the Earth, and of their champion, the Mighty Halo! May your victories be many, and may the blood of the challengers who will come to face you and the people of Earth flow as a sea at your feet!”
The Council vanishes, and moments later the capital ship shimmers and vanishes.
“Oh, fuck me.”
THAT would be a great scene! It would give an even better explanation why Squidward fought Sydney alone an why he didn’t try to run!
Love this scene, would be really fun to do any filler pages with ideas like this and have the last panel be one of the characters waking up gasping from a nightmare. I think this would be Arianna’s.
Hah – yes, this! Can you imagine maxima’s reaction? Deus would be happy though – new customer base. He’d probably sell tickets, and galactic viewing rights.
“You have defeated our best warrior in single combat, and therefore we gift to you the Alari homeworld as spoil. Please do us the honor of telling us your homeworld and your name.”
“Er, Sy– um, I am the Mighty Halo, of Earth.”
“Wait. … No shit, you named your planet Dirt? Why?”
The guy she just took out was named Keh-Nee. The translations of the two aliens in the last panel are “Oh my god, they killed Keh-Nee!” and “You bastards!”
Would it go to far as to say he took a Halo to the Keh-Nee?
So, DaveB kinda hints in his accompanying blog post that these three minibosses have the same pattern as the first, and the twist is only that you have to fight 3 at once.
… but they LOOK different, so I’m wondering if maybe they don’t have the same patterns after all. And if not, Sydney’s best bet is probably to hide, get them to split up, and take them on one at a time.
…. also, if they were monitoring from the ship, they might have figured out HER pattern too.
He probably farts in airlocks, too.
Max: Sydney..
Sydney: Yes, Max?
Max: What did you do?
Syd: I wasted that *bleeeeeeeep bleepity bleep*
Max, rubbing her temples: No, ‘Recruit’, you escalated the situation
Syd: He shot first!
Max: And you said you had disengaged. Then you came back. Shooting.
Syd: But I won!
Max: And when they show up in Earth orbit, with a wanted poster with YOUR picture on it, will it still be a win?
Syd: ….
Yeah there is that but I don’t think it would happen. Standing orders out there don’t go near the planet with the homicidal xenophobic monkeys on it. They have enough problems within their own species imagine what would happen if you were the Alien that decide to simple not play drop he rock on them.
That standing order was only as long as the hairless monkeys staid on their mudball…
And once you leave Pluto’s orbit all bets are off. Just remember the “Dark Forest Scenario” where paranoid genocidal aliens are hunting down any possible enemies and any survivors hiding from them.
Which one will we be the genocidal one that fears genocide of themselves, or the ones hiding from such paranoid genocidal species?
Think of it this way Syds, the ones after the Boss Mook are always slightly weaker then the originals!
Kind of reminds me of the Tutorial Boss of Metal Gear: REVENGEANCE (I think that was Metal Gear Ray?) It obviously was really not designed to take on cyborg super ninjas but rather entire armies or very weak singular opponents it didn’t need to worry about missing when those opponents can’t pick up and fling five story tall laser sword weilding Mecha chickens like a particularly heavy two-by-four, jump on its missiles like crossing a river, or just straight cutting everything it flings at the opponent like a highly sharpened hot knife through paper before slicing the thing in half.
Sidney, you may call me old fashioned but I prefer to monologue in the presence of an audience. Otherwise it’s just wasted effort. Even (security)cameras rate only a wave and a grin (or smile) or just a simple hand gesture.
New strategy. If she flies between two of them, they can’t shoot her without risking hitting each other. But then she herself risks coming within fly-swatter range.
That’s the problem with fighting in groups, there is a limit to how many can effectively engage a single hostile at once. Ask any martial artist about that.
Uber-Squids engaged and re-engaged her first 3 separate times. Only bit of advice I would give them… Don’t look into the PPO with your remaining eyes.
These kinda look like the reaming 3 of the 4 Squids of war.
Still kinda makes you wonder they are so steadfast in their hostility toward Syd, Why are they only throwing some of the weaponry at Syd at a time.
There was a street fighting anime I saw that put that limit at 4. You only have to fight 4 at a time no matter how many of them there are.
Nah, the rules of martial arts fighting are well documented. When 20 guys approach one guy with the intent of kicking his ass they will only engage one at a time. The rest will dance around in the background, looking menacing but taking no real action until the current single fighter of the 20 has his ass handed to him.
Alien karaoke probably sounds like Earth karaoke.
Aoooooooooo, oaoooooooooo!
“Aoooo, werewolves of London!”
So, are they playing by “Chronicles of Riddick” rules, where now she’s in command?
“What you KILL, you KEEP!”
I’d hate to field dress that thing.
Sydney has already done the job.
News at 11: Bob T. Squidward was kill by a laser weilding bug that got inside his shield. Planet Annihilators Daily has learned this is an invasive species to this world and there is likely a only one. PAD also has sources close to the victim who indicate Bob wasn’t wearing his point defense harness because “it itched.” We at PAD would like to remind our fellow Squiddywards that just because we are stopping on inferior races doesn’t mean we should ignore basic safety kit. At little armor rash is less painful than being slowly chopped to bits by hot energy beams. Safety while Annihilating.
I admit I lol’d a bit.
I think this is the best comment of this page.
She’s still in pretty good shape, actually. Whatever powers those orbs, they clearly aren’t taking their energy from her. She can recharge the atmosphere without dropping the shield, and once she’s inside their shields, it is basically one on one, unless they start going Three Stooges and risk hitting each other while trying to swat a fly.
I was waiting for a 3 Stooges reference.
She’s certain to make one Thursday.
I demand a scene with one of them jabbing another in the eyes. It’s okay if it happens while Halo lands on his face and he freezes in terror.
That’s what I’m afraid of: Sydney gets into the shield of one of them, and the other two immediately fire their strongest attack on her. It’s not like these guys seem overly worried about their own safety or even survival if Squidward’s any indication.
Eh, the problem with that is that she’s already tanked what Squidward 1.0 could dish out. And anything coming from the other two would need to get through both the third one’s shield, and her shield to damage her. Now, a combo of both creatures’ strongest attacks might work. If Sydney is still there to take it. Teleporting is a good way of getting out of dodge, as is flying really fucking fast.
I’ve got this feeling if she got into the shield of one of them, it would immediately shut down its shield to give the others a free field of fire. Sacrificing one more Squiddy seems a smal price to pay for getting Halo. These things DON’T like her and her orbs!
Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it gets worse!
Officer training 101: Don’t taunt Murphy.