Grrl Power #693 – Someone forgot to file a flight plan
Sydney is one of those heroes who will probably wind up saving the world on the reg, but there is a price to be paid among the inhabitants. In the form of general collateral damage and surviving groan inducing puns.
Do starships have horns? Like, if they’re in the atmosphere, do they have some kind of airhorn for tooting at smaller ships? Or a bell? Or maybe they all have an open comm channel and the only thing that anyone can transmit on it is honks. That would work in space. That makes more sense.
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Total idiot pilot – that move was like running a bus into a ditch to avoid running over a squirrel…..
not necessary. unknown fast flying object can be harder than your ships hull and could potentially wreck quite havoc if hit
A ship on a pre-plotted approach vector has the right of way, presumably. Panicked hitting of the lateral thrusters to suddenly change vectors is not only a bad idea, it’s the worst thing you could possibly do in a crowded spacelane. A small fast moving object flying into the flight paths of traffic is responsible for avoiding collision, precisely because it is faster and presumably more maneuverable.
hitting the breaks would have been a better choice and they so would not have been flying fast enough that would not help
Well either flight control was not paying attention or the pilots. for airplanes the separation of planes is 1min behind (same path vertical and horizontal), 10 KM apart if on same altitude or 1000 ft vertical altitude apart.
If those ships were that close, they deserved getting the full Syd experience.
Wretched space hive of scum and villainy indeed :)
Whoops that’s 10min apart on teh same path.
They were going in opposite directions
perhaps they were computer guided and the pilot overrode the computer in his panic? Computers can calculate pretty narrow safety margins if they know the capabilities of the ships.
Of course, now that one (or two) ships are off the preprogrammed flight plan this might cause a chain reaction.
What happened to automatic anti-collision deflectors? That can react far faster than any life-form to keep collisions at a minimum or none at all.
Can they design a system fast enough to deal with Sydney having a Sydney moment
No. The Maxima (who can catch bullets) couldn’t dodge a Sydney Moment.
Nobody expects teh Sydney Vomit!
Ni! I demand that she vomit in teh shrubbery!
Sydney’s even faster than Maxima… but Only When It’s Funny!
“Might”??? Take a look at that last panel again.”Careen” “Boom” “Rumble” “Skreee” “Splat” Sounds like a chain reaction to me. ;)
Sounds like Traffic Control came down with a bad case of Kessler Syndrome.
We can safely infer this was pure rule of funny. No starships were harmed in the making of this joke.
Well said. Comedy trumps logic (and can be reasonably ignored for the purposes of consequences, even if that does tend to irk the more serious readers).
if comedy trumps logic, what does Trump do?
He comidies logic?
Sorry, that’s the best I got.
its the orville and the protector passing in the same space lane. if syd hadnt caused shenanigans, a malfunction would have.
From earlier… Sydney, putting the thug in some kind of painful joint lock: SWEAR IT BY GRABTHAR’S HAMMER!
or perform tongue-fu move: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/241
Is Sydney not the bigger idiot for jumping in front of the ship?
Nooo Sydney, don’t run. That will make it obvious who caused the SNAFU.
Please remind me – Why doesn’t Sydney’s hair flip when she is upside down? The flying orb keeps it there or a really lot of hair spray?
If I remember correctly it’s because the orb basically makes it’s own gravity field. Maxima’s does not.
History linkage: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1689
Hair does not obey laws of physics when using flight orb.
Welcome to the comments, you must be new
@Guesticus – Nah, I’m not new – Just forgetful.
Just a slightly friendly sarcastic comment about that very same question being asked (and answered) three times on the previous page (at least twice answered by me) :)
Aim for the evil squirrel, but avoid Halo!
Because her shield is tough enough that it may leave a very big hole in your ship!
And she is really cute and nice, so should not be squished if that isn’t the case.
Sure, the shield is tough enough, BUT: A – no one would know that, and B – She and the shield are very low mass and would bounce off harmlessly.
Forces applied to the shield do not transfer to Sydney at all. She would not bounce off. Otherwise Maxima’s test punches on the shield would have knocked Syd across the room.
She wasn’t in motion then, or in the air
She was also standing on a floor with less resistance than her shield the “you can’t move me” paradox of super strength. So since the floor wasn’t destroyed by the impact, we can infer that Sydney’s shield is a kinetic displacer against forces against on it.
A similar power we have to assume for every super powered character who stands on the ground and receives a mountain shattering blow or catches something really heavy flying at them and manages to stay in exactly one spot, despite standing on soil, sand, or other surfaces that pounds per square inch with the receiver’s feet really should give way a little. Its like you are strong enough to lift the car, but that soft soil you are standing on isn’t so the force you exhibit on the car *equal and opposite reaction* is also being exerted against the ground, so you end up sinking into the soul and digging a hole with your feet as you move the car.
However, it is possible Sydney’s shield and flight orb together cancel this out and we get a move about, the only example we have unfortunately comes from a building sized army smashing space kaiju who either is showing Sydney can be moved in flight *palm smash and beam bouncing* or was just that strong to move her.
The way I tend to view it, for Halo, is that her bubble creates its own reality within its area. Hence her gravity being totally independent of the external conditions, albeit that it is possible to overload it with an extreme attack (she got close to that happening with some of the attacks on the Alari world).
The question being how that relates to the outside world. Whilst we have had a number of clues I don’t think we can definitively say how it does work. Making a hole through a starship, with her shield is a possibility. But not one that I particularly think to be likely.
We have seen the shield damaging a sign post (when Sydney was flying home after her first day. However that was clearly done for comedic effect, hence we should not consider that to be an unshakeable precedent.
So, setting that aside, we have the fact that the shield is defensive in nature. Plus that the orbs powers tend to work very well to their given themes. Hence using the shield to damage seems to be something that their safeties would prevent, if only to stop that happening accidentally. Possibly the deliberate attempt of the user to ram an enemy might cause them to turn off those safeties.
So I think all options are still open to speculation, even if I have a bias in how I think it would play out.
:-D
I have it on replay, if you want to see it again?
You can start it at a certain time using the ‘share’ button below the video and click the ‘start at’ so a time is included in the link.
Yea normally I do. In this case though I felt that setting the scene (for those souls who may not have seen it) was good. Plus it was enjoyable enough that I wanted to see it from the beginning myself, and figured others would do too.
Hm. Why is the crew of that spaceship human?
Cause it’s the Orville.
It fits with what’s in space so far. One of the ships was Lexx (thanks again for that Dave) and in Lexx, humans evolved on most planets. There are basically 3 races- humans, exceedingly oversized soul possessing insects, and psychic plants with the form of your wet dreams.
Some planets that humans evolved on:
Earth
Brunnen 2
Potatoho
plus a bunch of others. Chigoratta the Wicked looked pure human, but had a super extendo leech/lasso tongue. Zev/Xev was a super strength half human half clusterlizard, but that was because of the reshaping device that condensed her extremely fat lady self with a decapitated clusterlizard until it was a single person shaped like a porn star. Pretty obvious, right?
Actually the Brunan G (one of the human races in the Lexxverse) evolved on Brunis. Brunis 2 was a colony.
Best Lexx episode ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n7iIYhjiSQ
Original Zev is Best Xev! :P
Can remember seeing a ‘Behind the Scenes: Making Of’ of the Final Battle of the Brunnen G on DWTV a couple months before it aired over here. Don’t recall ever seeing the second or later seasons though, just the first
I marathoned Lexx last summer (whole series DVD set),
yeah the show ended up with a premise that was pretty limiting (every where they went and everyone they met that part of the main crew died)….as in whole planets too even if the Lexx didn’t blow them up there were these robot arms that could somehow take planets apart *they clearly lived in a very small universe/the writers didn’t care about physics it was soft core sci-fi porn for the time period basically*.
Even if someone can make it through the death of the Light Zone…after that the show does a nose dive *rather than explore the dark zone, like they did for a very short time waaay back, now the lexx was trapped in orbit above heaven and hell *water and fire*, and then the final season is just them hanging around Earth….you can tell the budget took a nose dive too, so they used more mundane shooting locations and even cheaper sets than before.
I liked the ending. I thought the thing with the Time Prophet made the whole show make sense-
“Time has a beginning. And time has an end. And then time will begin again, and we will each live our lives again, exactly as before. I can see into the old cycles of time, not very clearly mind you, but in the future-past…”
You’re right, it was Brunnen, and Brunnen 2 was a colony after Brunnen was destroyed. But the Brunnen-G are eternal, at least their culture. Evolve on Brunnen in the Dark Zone, then travel to the Light Universe and establish Brunnen 2.
I’d say Stan and Zev are both Brunnen-G now. They sang the song, they are already eons old, and heroes (if you ignore everything except that they killed Mantrid). Are they immortal though? No, they didn’t discover “how to live forever by altering their innermost cell structure” but by being friends with Death/Satan (Prince). He knows he’s death so he’ll just go wander off somewhere else. If he doesn’t see them again, they can’t die.
If he does see them again, they’ll die or someone near them will (which is what got Lexx).
So I’d say those idiots count as Brunnen-G now, so the culture will continue. Universes may end and the timelines in them restart over and over, but the Brunnen are linear beyond that. Kinda like the traveling theatre.
but yeah, it was porn. The whole show was porn. I ignored that and paid attention to the theoretical science. And giant bugs because everyone likes giant bugs! (Pets tarantula, imagines riding an elephant-sized black widow to the grocery store cuz that’s how you pick up chicks)
Yes, that is the best episode.
The first episode is hilarious- the justice system lol
But yeah I watch that musical episode often.
Lexx did it first. Farscape did it properly.
Why not?
WHY is no one reacting to the fact that there are HUMANS piloting that ship? Is this a stargate situation where human populations exist off of earth due to alien shenanigans, or is is a star treck case of aliens just looking too much like humans because that is easier on the creator to portray them?
Either way that could explain why their ships look like ones from scifi stories, either they are humans that felt like immitating the works of their homeworld, or they are like the galaxy quest aliens and saw some value in the designs shown on the shows… I need to go back and read more comments, because now I remember that the alien podcasting about Sydney’s eating knew what aliens were, and the other had english in their translator, is it just because they visit earth like MIB or are there more humans out in space then we know?
Yeah, that’s right.
Humanocentric universe… I am really disappointed, there are no chakats. Isn’t it discriminations? And i am very sure, Dabbler and Chakats can found something in common. As far as i know, chakats have much more endurance than humans.
You forget – this is a cameo of human starships – ‘Galaxy Quest’ and ‘The Oroville’.
Don’t assume that they’re human.
At-most, they’re humanoid, due to “parallel evolution.”
( … aka: “Convenient Plot-Point” / “Lazy Script-Writers”)
;)
:)
You forgot the other reasons
Fanservice species
Uses various anatomically correct/accurate/best guesses in/from reference models/art/photography prohibiting anything too unearthly.
In sci-fi in general, while live action has the excuse of *costume and special effects limitations* even when you go to animation and lit only, you have to consider the audience.
Sure you could try to write an entire sci-fi series centering around something like this
“Barnacles”
https://www.deviantart.com/rhuen1/art/Alien-Race-Barnacles-617615002
“Living tongue”
https://www.deviantart.com/rhuen1/art/Alien-Race-Living-Tongue-644345803
“Radio Head”
https://www.deviantart.com/rhuen1/art/Alien-Race-Radio-Head-644568595
But drawing or described, they are a tad “too exotic” for a common place race, why Andromeda only once had the pyroformers, and Star Trek only introduced blobs and nebulas and other odd races as a “creature of the week”…kudos though to Deep Space Nine for trying to make a Changeling a regular crew member…but he still kept a human like appearance.
So even extremely exotic, audiences tend to respond better to a humanoid or common animal like in appearance like
Kik
https://www.deviantart.com/rhuen1/art/Alien-Race-Kik-647829776
Which if made into a movie would be a CGI or puppet, while having an easy to recognize body shape, postures, and behaviors for a common audience.
Huh, probably should have put those three “exotic” aliens in reverse order, Radio Head is really short, Living Tongue gets to the point, but Barnacles has a whole history lesson in it…but speaking of which,
re-reading that old thing, it raises another thought on the squiddles, A reconfiguration crew (inspired by the Celestials from marvel)
Not an invasion, or even as “innocent” as builder type aliens who just don’t consider other races as equals so just demolish and build over them like humans chopping down a forest lot without care or concern for birds, squirrels, and other animals…
but rather, a “We are the cosmic judges of life for this sector and we find your world failing our expectations and/or designs, prepare for annihilation and planetary reconfiguration” so…builders but also full of themselves on ideology in a way. Or rather let’s say “Gardeners” they have a certain sort of idea they want to aim for and “tend the garden” as it were to get rid of “weeds and pests” and cultivate only what they want.
That’s because one of those ships is from “Galaxy Quest”, the other is The Orville
Yup, they are human because the panel is running with a parody of human science fiction.
Although contextually we can infer that this section of the Dyson sphere is the one associated with Earth trade/tourism. So it is entirely appropriate that an alien crew, setting off for Earth, would be testing their holographic disguises, as part of their space trials, before it gets too costly to turn around for any required fixes.
And, appropriately enough, the Galaxy Quest ship was mostly crewed by squid-like aliens, with holographic human disguises. Albeit that the command crew were human. As none of the above are recognisable as cast members though it is not unreasonable to assume that they are actually aliens in disguise.
Or a lot of the shows we get on Earth are actually made by aliens, who make them based on real life ships in order to get humans to eventually be used to aliens if the majority of humans ever learn about alien life, so they won’t be QUITE as freaked out and see some stuff they can latch onto.
I’m not entirely convinced the Seth MacFarlane is a human being. There’s something weird about one of his eyes like it’s a disguise with a minor flaw in it. Also he obviously paid for a very good vocal synthesizer, which he employs to do a bunch of different voices.
In universe, this whole section is from Sydney’s debriefing. Cora would probably have handed over a few seconds of bridge logs and maybe some sensor readings of the planet killers, but, if she verbally reported at all, she would have summarised severely (or complained :-) ). So it’s a perfect spot for cameos.
I can see that, would be an alternate explination for the cameos.
Like she gives detailed descriptions of aliens she is directly talking to but could be like, “yeah a crowd was forming behind me, sure, like one looked like M’ress from that Star Trek animated series, there was a big Zeiram looking guy, and I think one sort of looked like…do you guys check out a lot of alien space nympho hentai…okay glossing over”
and later,
“so I swerved, like, between these two ships…they sorta looked like the Protector from Galaxy Quest, and the other was sort of like the Orville…did you see that show?”
Oh look space dominoes.
Spacecom uses the cold hydrogen line frequency for all “unicom” communications between vessels.
For all you nerds, that’s 1240 MHz or the 21-centimeter band.
Hey, nobody else is using it…
Hahahaha *awesome* That’s totally the ship from Galaxy Quest. *Wonderful* I don’t recognize the other tho. And awwww. I just got sad because Alan Rickman is no longer with us. Rest in Peace, you magnificent, British bastard.
It’s the USS Orville, from the Fox TV series “The Orville”.
The ship marked NTE-3120 is from Galaxy Quest. The other ship, the one with the internal view, is the Orville. If you look closely, you can see the Galaxy Quest in the Orville’s view screen.
Noting that the Galaxy Quest ship is named “Protector’.
The rule for colorist-spelling is “I” before “e” except in words like neighbor, weigh, and Keith.
“I before E except when your weird neighbor Kieth runs a feisty heist on a counterfeit beige sleigh received from eight caffeinated foreign weightlifters.”
For Science
IIRC “I before E except after C” only works for Latin decent words, Germanic descent words don’t work that way.
English is of Indo-Germanic roots.
It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure that out. :)
Ah yes, I before E – that’s a hard rule, right up there with pluralization.
Thank goodness that silly rule finally got officially dumped. Especially when you consider that there are (literally and proven) to be more exceptions to the rule than words which comply!
“I before E except after C or when the letters say AY as in neighbor and weigh, with 8 exceptions: Neither foreign leisured sovereign seized their weird heights.”
That’s how they taught it in my grade school, but I think they missed a few exceptions. :>
Believe it or not, that’s one of two common misspellings of my name that come up. I’ve mostly gone on to let it pass, because it’s become so common.
“Honking frequencies open, Captain Sugar!”
I’m a little confused by this page. Sydney flew in front of the Orville and it swerved and hit the Protector which was beneath it. But in panel 4, it looks like the Protector is in front of the Orville. Or is that not the Protector out the front viewport but another ship?
They were going in opposite directions, Protector obviously dived to miss the blip
Oh! Thanks. I missed that they were going opposite directions.
I’m sure both of the following have been said downthread but I’m too lazy to look:
• Those ships in panel 6 look like the Protector from GalaxyQuest.
• Ummm…sharing that name with your color artist, I’m pretty sure it is spelled “Keith”, not “Kieth”.
Two of my favorite ships! Don’t worry, they can take the abuse, they’re tough.
Seriously–Sydney deserves serious comeuppance for acting like a reckless, super-powered lunatic all the time. Maxima lets her get away with stuff she punishes others for, etc etc, all too much as is.
The double standard is glaring to the point of being blinding.
That’s something I agree wholeheartedly with. She got to go to the press conference when they announced Archon to the world even though none of the other recruits went – and this was when they already knew she was impuslive, aggressive and remarkably foul-mouthed. She is treated for the most part not like the newest recruit but like a veteran member of the team. And I don’t think it will get any better after this – everybody will be too overawed by her adventures to try to rein her in.
What Sydney did, by choosing to intervene when the bank robbery occurred, made her a hero to the media. Which in turn, once she agreed to sign up, then made her a prime poster-girl for Archon. Her very flaws actually helping to humanise her. Something absolutely vital for Archon’s agenda.
If the public are thinking of her as a ditzy girl who has gained super powers, they are recognising her as human and thinking of her as ‘one of us’, rather than as a separate category of beings.
So she is not like the other recruits. They did not get themselves on the evening news, around the world, for days on end. Sydney is thereby an ‘A-lister’ celebrity first (as far as public relations are concerned), which is why she is being treated differently. Just as other world-famous celebrities have done in the real world, when serving their country. They still have to do their duty, but they also get treated differently, because of the glare of publicity on them.
Of course the basic point that Maxima needs to keep her disciplined is also true. But we have seen that Sydney is also emotionally extremely fragile, if handled the wrong way, such as when she melted down at the pool-side. So Max is wise to sound out the safest way to discipline her, without pushing her irretrievably over the edge.
As a result of which Halo will never be turn out like a normal basic recruit. But, with those orbs, she is one of the most powerful individuals in the galaxy, so the effort of finding the best way of handling her is well worth it! Along with a degree of collateral damage in the process.
My only sad feeling for Sydney is that she may never get to have her own saitama action figure of herself, what with the orbs floating and glowing. But Max will, and Hiro, and…well… everyone else on the team.
Eh, the orbs will just be this extra plastic ring in the package with the orbs held together in a clear plastic cup like thing that hooks onto her head. Unfortunately as a first run toy the orbs can’t disconnect so her figure can hold them as they would be too small of parts.
Except the later figure that does that, and like oh so many ninja turtle toys those tiny throwing star sized objects will be quickly lost in children’s floor boards, carpets, edge of the wall and so on.
But the larger 9inch figure will have them and pin to her hands, as well as the Sydney Lamp will have a rotating light up display over her head. and of course Arianna’s dream, power orb balls…ranging from novely rubber balls with a flashing light inside, to large glowing glass balls *with a disclaimer not to try and wear them over your head in any sort of rig, they are too heavy and awkward to balance on your neck, may cause neck injury*.
the Halloween costumes have potential with LED light balls on an angel halo.
I was not going mad. My replies have been consistently being set up as new comments instead! Sorry if this is old news, as I am doing 12 hour shifts, with over 2 hours of commuting on top. So have not had a chance to keep up with the majority of posts.
Still I have figured out that attempting the reply a second time forces the site to reply to the correct post, rather than have it appear at the end of the comments.
But, that observation aside, allow me to return to my original intent…
C͏̘͇̗̠͟O͈̼̣̙̜̱͞L̶͈̬̮̠̞̱̫̣Ĺ̹͖E̛̻̝̯̖̙͔C̨̖̜̖̦̜̲T̝̫̬̬̮̭̬̫̲.̖̠͎͚͜ ̫̼̲ ͇͖̩̙̹̩̘͠Ţ͍̠̠͜͡H̫̘̯̹͇̬̫̕͡E҉̨̦̯̤Ṃ̗̯́͠.͕̳̞̹͉̘̹͍̀ ̣̤̯̦̫̙̗ ͏̣̹͚̀͘A̸̶̗͖̻͖̼̤͖͍L̦̝̘̖͝Ĺ̴̥͈̩̣͢!̷̨͍̠̥̼̼
This could be explained in rational, Yorp-detailed ways. However, two other explanations come to mind:
1. Sydney is the “main character”, and this means that nothing the heroes do can get done without her being present, as is the case for… take your pick of a thousand RPGs.
2. This is a flashback, told from Sydney’s perspective. She’s probably a bit fuzzy on the details. Heck, my ADHD is nowhere near her levels of distraction, and many details slip my mind. Not even, “what did I have for breakfast”, but more, “did I have breakfast?”
Try “What day is it?”
Ha, ha, ha. You sure you want to let her onto YOUR ship?
Yes. Most definitely.
*flutters away on imaginary heavenly wings*
To answer the author’s question:
https://freefall.purrsia.com/ff400/fv00304.htm
The Orville, swiping into the Protector…
Dave Barrack, you sir, are doing God’s work.
I would think, on any station as advanced as the Fracture, local traffic control would be akin to cars moving though an automated car wash – that is, you get in position and kick back and relax as forces external to you move you through the line.
It’s physically impossible for two cars to collide in a car wash, unless there is a catastrophic failure of some sort or you do something monumentally stupid like put your car into gear and floor it. I would think something similar would be the case here.
So the fault is really with the pilot of the Orville, who panicked did something really stupid.
No, actually the fault is with Sydney, who did something monumentally stupid, and it’s only through luck that she didn’t cause any deaths. (Asfar as we know.) Honestly, I love Sydney, but I don’t think I would dare to be around her if she were real. She acts like a toon among real people.
Also, if the sounds in the last panel are any indication, she may have caused a fortune in damages, even if there are no casualties. Frankly, I hope she doesn’t get away with this. Too serious. But she probably will. It’s like she’s made of Teflopn: nothing sticks to her.
Cue the horde of alien lawyers! *bzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*
Also, what kind of ship goes splat? Organic ones?
You just hope they have the concept of lawyers or you will be put away fast. Remember that alternate 2015 in BTTF? “Justice is swift since they abolished all lawyers.”
The concept of “lawyer” isn’t always a good thing, a concept of “fair trial” is especially the “innocent until proven guilty”…which while a nice thought I am not really seeing in any actual justice system. People are just wired I guess to jump to “assume guilt”.
As for a “lawyer” but not a fair trial I will point at the anime (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime) and the dwarf trial which had a “proxy” who spoke for the defense. But there were no questioning witnesses DURING the trial, and the defendants couldn’t speak before the king and judge. So the proxy being paid off was a major problem as he wasn’t trying to defend them, but recite events based on what he was paid off to say.
-just one proper eye witness would have made the trial go completely differently, heck there were nearly a dozen eye witnesses; but this wasn’t a fair trial set up, but it did have a lawyer.
You’re referencing a fictional story.
No shit. considering this is a fictional story it was only fitting to reference another fiction.
Okay, let’s reference the real world.
Guilty until proven innocent,
the Inquisition,
Witch trials,
well look at those, they ALSO had lawyers and representatives of the court preceding, and assumed guilt with the accused having very little rights and little to no chance to defend themselves.
The idea of innocent until proven guilty is not only a NEW concept to history its not even universal. Hell its not even really practiced where people claim to practice it.
Most court systems have that “representative” however a prosecutor, accuser, that sort of thing is historically far more common to encounter than a defender. Witch trial wise they just tortured them till there was a confession, presented the confession, and that was it.
So I chose to use something a little less (real world atrocity) yet showed the same concept, in relation to another fictional series.
So yes…this FICTIONAL comic strip could have SPACE ALIEN lawyers…but if those lawyers are anything like the ones from the FICTIONAL anime they’d be useless now wouldn’t they.
Just to be clear on this,
Night gaunt mentioned the concept of lawyers or she would be put away fast in regards to aliens in this fictional series.
So I referenced another work of fiction whose fantastical setting did have the concept of lawyers but lacked the concept of a fair trial.
So in THIS work of fiction, a parallel could be the space aliens having lawyers, but not believing in fair trials so not really going in Sydney’s favor.
also knee jerk reaction, this is like trying to explain how phasers and zats work as weapons and trying to use other sci-fi they might be familiar with for comparison and having someone point out (you’re referencing fiction, that’s now how physics works)…like they expect the weapons in every sci-fi show to function in a way explainable by real world physics…like the show creators wouldn’t be allowed to put anything on screen if it didn’t pass a rigorous criteria of known physics and reality.
-conversations I have been in before, its not fun.
Sure I could look up actual case files of historical precedence of lawyers being present in a court system and not doing the accused any favors, but it felt more prudent to use a very recent example from another fictional source from a currently popular series that more people were likely to be familiar with than centuries old witch trial records.
Let’s hope that ‘splat’ sound isn’t one or more crewmembers or innocent bystanders meeting a grisly end…
Fair comments. Don’t get too wound up about the problems Halo causes though. Remember that this is primarily a comedy comic. Whilst Mr Bean does face consequences for his actions, they are never so severe (such as going to prison) as to stop him from being able to continue his antics in the next episode.
Plus Halo does have a realistic edge in getting away with things, if you remain concerned about such, in that she has cosmically strong powers. Those who want to earn her favour, or seek her as an ally, or keep her services (in the case of Archon), will be willing to use diplomacy, cash in favours or write a cheque, or whatever else it takes, to smooth over political incidents.
So Sydney will be able to carry on amusing us with her antics, even if it can get irksome that she gets away with it when others cannot. But for a consistently good reasons.
Like I said, I love Sydney, but I think it would be good for her to face the consequences of her erratic behaviour at least once, because not only is she already powerful, she is likely to get MUCH more so over the next few months as she unlocks more and more of her skill tree. If she doesn’t get serious about learning to control herself, she is likely to cause a major catastrophe somewhere down the line. Better she gets that ‘sobering, formative superhero moment’ as Maxima put it, over with NOW, before she gets so powerful a screwup is likely to cause a huge number of casualties. I’m sure Syd knows the whole ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ thing, but she clearly doesn’t realize how much it applies to herself!
Yeah, she has to have a ‘Parker Moment’ soon, where someone dies through her actions (or inactions), it won’t completely change her (don’t believe anyone wants that), butt it will help ‘maturify’ her in much the same way Gwen’s death helped Peter
Maxima had the talk with her about this before.
I take it her meds are wearing off so she is becoming a tad more reckless with her powers.
That’s my point, actually. Maxima did talk to her about that, but it obviously hasn’t really sunk in yet. And her becoming ‘a tad more reckless with her powers’ is already causing what in real life would be a serious accident. Imagine she had done that on Earth, causing two passenger planes to collide. Can you imagine the consequences? And right now she is at only about one-third of her ultimate power level, or even less if they all scale up like the flight orb! I don’t want her to change completely, but in a comic where the consequences of superpowers are treated as realistically as Grrlpower, I don’t see how she can keep acting like she does with the powers she has and NOT cause a major accident! If she can’t learn to control herself, I don’t see how Maxima can justify letting her run loose in the future!
Sorry I keep returning to this, but one thing I like about this comic is the realistic way it treats the effects and consequences of real superpowers, and in real life, Halo would be a disater wating to be happen – LITERALLY!
Well two drifting spaceshifts is more like two large slow moving cruise ships colliding than two passenger planes *still pretty bad just not, we are all going to die bad*.
Also, given her expression before she zipped off, I am convinced her meds are wearing off. as someone with ADHD, not as bad as hers mind you, I can tell you how hard/impossible it is to control impulses and “silly behavior” when it fully kicks in.
Also, I will add we can add this to pool of things that are in part the Fracture’s fault/really bad security.
Seriously who has vehicles of that size, moving in opposite directions towards each other, at the same time, even if slow, not on tracks or tractor beams, coming or going as part of their air traffic? You wouldn’t find boats that big moving through a crowded area under their own power on Earth. nor even planes on a runway. The Fracture has some dangerously lax air traffic control.
I KNEW that would happen, Sydney is getting predictable. Maybe getting her back to earth SOONER will prevent her from causing a major incident.
By Grabthar’s hammer . . . what a reference,
BY GRABTHAR’S HAMMER!!
I am excited that I got the Galaxy Quest reference. I am bad with names, so I recognized it by its profile. Still, a beautiful design.
Is that the andromada?
No, one is from Galaxy Quest, and the other is the Orville. However, as parodies of science fiction, it is likely that the similarity to the Andromeda is not co-incidental. Whilst Galaxy Quest (and judging by the trailer the Orville) primarily take the wee out of Star Trek, I am sure they poke fun at other classics too.
The Orville wasn’t supposed to take the wee out of Trek, it was supposed to be a fan-made homage to the original ideals of Star Trek, which far surpasses the tripe that is the latter official incarnations (namely ST:D that is rewriting everything, and have you seen their version of the Klingons? o_O )
If you mean the Klingons who look like their heads got crapped out of some orifice, then yea. The story was OK (not great) but at no point did I ever see a Klingon and think ‘that is a ferocious Klingon’. Rather every scene was ‘here comes a poo-head’.
I think some special effects person took the cling-on interpretation of their name far too literally!
Lol. It seems they are trying to make the Klingons more alien, which is something they have done before of course. Makes me wonder what they will look like when Star Trek is remade entirely in CG in a decade or two.
No, the crab-heads were TNG, the STD Klingons are smooth-headed (smoother, and rounder, than Picard) and jet black
I chose not to watch Star Trek Discovery after the disappointment’s of Enterprise and the two new movies *going backwards is tricky in a franchise, and a reboot of one going on this long is usually a pretty bad idea…*
so had to google search the new Klingons….its not a bad design…I wouldn’t look at and think Klingon though…look more like Klingons had children with the Scarans from Farscape.
Yeah, that’s the thing: they are not a bad generic alien design, they are just not Klingon
I know there is little chance of them ever returning, but I actually miss the horrible racial stereotype Klingons of the original 1960’s series. They were my first alien baddie as a kid, so I get nostalgic for them.
Yup, the Space Porto Rican’s with their gold lamé clothes :D
“¡for grabthar’s hammer! ¿what the hell is that?”
I LOVE the fact that people on board the spaceship are Shatnering across the deck.
Look up another series that ran from 1964-1969 called Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea and you will see some parallels including moving the camera from side to side and everyone is being tossed around. They also have guys who end up being killed dressed in red or blue or purple jumpsuits. They did it first.
Yup, that’s pretty much why, event though we easily have the technology, there is no flying cars in real life.
The Protector? Niiiiiice. I’m loving how this whole part of the series is turning into a cavalcade of references.
Whenever I read/watch a fantasy/sci fi thing, I will usually unconsciously create a character whose powers are op and pure bullshit and then put that in the story.
For this series the overpowered character is a super with the most bullshit powers behind reality warping, power copying/power parasite. Specifically his powers are semi sapient and obsessed with self preservation and can copy powers as forms that he can express his powers as, but the power capacity of the powers is limited to his own scale. He technically needs contact with the person to copy/absorb them, but that has ceased to be a major limiter with the additional powers he has gained. The limited power scale also ceases to be a problem if he just straight up absorbs somebody, in which case he fully absorbs them (mind, soul, body, powers) and adds their scale of powers to his own. That and the extreme vagueness of what his powers consider to be a copyable/absorbable power (they would consider a laser gun to be copyable).
Previously to the restaurant fight, the only powers/people he had absorbed were Lyrissa (lil 8 year old girl with mind control powers on a massive scale who had made most of the western half of north america into a more or less utopia but when her powers were expanding sphere of influence and tried to mind control the bullshit power character his powers freaked the fuck out and went into exterminate mode, took over the body, traveled the thousand or so miles to where Lyrissa was, and absorbed her) and Jacques (straight up sociopath with pretty beefy physical powers that came with a black energy thing costume).
Then the restaurant fight happened and he became fully op with Achilles invulnerability and Maxima’s stat dumping (he could already more or less do that, but Maxima’s version is much more efficient). He also went into exterminate mode again when he realized that kevin was mind controlling him so he absorbed him. The only powers he didn’t copy from that fight was Sydney’s (his powers can’t figure out how to copy her thing with any reasonable efficiency) and death toll (his powers too cautious about death toll’s powers pulling a judo flip and absorbing them).
Then he got drafted into Archon because due to absorbing Lyrissa and Jacques he had a not quite record but admitting to more or less combined kidnapping/murder (even in theoretical self defense) pretty blatantly is pretty damn sketchy.
Then when Sciona’s portal malfunctioned he got blasted into several different narrative universes (he has a few dozen bodies from harem’s powers) and the only thing keeping him from trickster godhood is trying to reconcile several different outside context magics and physics.
I have no idea why I keep unconsciously creating overpowered characters. It seems to just be a facet of my mind at this point.
Im pretty sure it is maladaptive daydreaming at this point
Though trying to self diagnose mental conditions never goes well.
Heh. I tend to do the same thing. My Grrrlpower character was someone who discovered he had the power to perfectly copy the powers, skills, experience and knowledge (but not personal memories etc)
of five people. Only limitations: he couldn’t erase anything so, he would be stuck with the same five for the rest of his life; it only worked with supers and beings like that – which is why he never found out his powers until he came to work for Archon; and everytime he copied someone, he would begin to look like them, and even copy some of their personality traits. Nothing special, but it was fun trying to come up with the best combination of powers and abilities, and imagining ways to get them.
I think my final version had the abilities of Achilles, Math, Dabbler, Maxima and Chrona. Talking about overpowered!
She looks insane in the second panel. I think that might have been deliberate.
Syd is WAAAY off her meds right now…
Not that I’m not enjoying the antics, but does anyone else think this arc’s dragging on a bit now?
I mean, Sidney’s got her way home, unless there’s going to be drama at the airlock to Cora’s ship, there shouldn’t be any issues with just jumping to the voyage home.
Naa, well speaking from my point of view anyhow. This comic is very much about exploring the journey, rather than getting to a destination. So whilst there is comedy, character development (and Cora is clearly a major character, rather than a bit player) and interesting stuff to explore (DYSON SPHERE!) then there is still much more scope.
Sure, if Dave wants each book to be a comparable size, once they eventually get published, then he needs to consider such issues. But that has never seemed to be a big concern to him. So we get to see a lot of the small things which occur in between the big action scenes. One of the core mandates of the comic!
I agree with the following opinions:
>> Two ships that size should not be anywhere near each other unless they are exchanging goods or personnel.
>> Such exchange would be conducted by shuttles, presuming material teleportation technology is not in play. Direct docking doesn’t happen between large craft unless matching direct docking technology is integrated into the design of both craft. Given the diversity demonstrated thus far, two ships with matching anything seems unlikely.
>> Two ships that size which are that close together should be either completely stationary or as close to it as they can manage.
>> This means the pilot basically pulled an emergency swerve from a dead stop. Unless he thought Sydney was a proximity explosive, that’s just plain stupid. And if he did think the ship was under attack, the reflex response should have been to pull away from the nearest obstacles.
>> So either the pilot is a complete moron, or he was trying to swing around behind the nearby ship and use it as cover, and even then he botched the maneuver.
I also think it’s safe to say that, whatever the reason may be (ran out or just forgot to take them), Sydney’s meds have worn off.
LOL!! Galaxy Quest meets The Oreville – PRICELESS!!
Your post sounds like you have never heard of Hellenic Reconstructionists.
Never seen a starship with an external com system,
yet, come to think of it…almost every Mech-suit does have an external speaker. Like, you see two Gundams talking, and its not just radio chatter, the people on the ground and surrounding area can hear this (relatively must be extremely loud) conversation blaring between the two giant mechs.
this includes mechs which practically are star ships, to the point its kind of confusing at time who can hear them, and if their speaker and radio transmitters are just linked up, like…talk in space or on the ground and either way EVERYONE hears the conversation. Like are the speakers trying to work in space, while transmitting and on the ground is it transmitting to the cockpits of all the other mechs and nearby vehicles as well as being broadcast so those people standing on that hill over there can comment on the conversation?
Ah, the Orville and the Protector… I would pay so much to see those together in a crossover movie. It would almost totally erase that Disco STD.
Please keep the details of how you got STD in a Disco to yoruself.
I liked watching Star Trek Discovery.
I think Dave may have delivered a subtle Easter Egg in this comic.
The page date is December 17th, and on December 17th, 1903 ORVILLE Wright made the first powered flight in Kitty Hawk NC. He and Wilbur got in a few more flights that day. It is also fitting for this week’s comic to note that during their tests an unexpected gust of wind manged to roll the plane and crash it.
Maybe. :-)
I would not bet a bowl full of Yorpie Snax on it mind, but possibly. ;-)
Wouldn’t put it past him though. Dave puts so many details, hidden jokes and easter eggs in his comics, this sounds very plausible.
There was a farmer in Canterbury who flew a few months (or a year) before the Wrong Sisters
Er was that the ship from Galaxy Quest meeting the Orville?
Yar.
If part of The Fracture isn’t on fire when they leave, Imma be a bit disappointed.