Grrl Power #707 – A fickle modesty
Sydney is entirely too fit on this page. I got distracted trying to do a decent looking back, but she’s supposed to really be a bit more nerd soft, and like ~15 lbs overweight.
This page has one of those sci-fi show situations that we’re all supposed to politely ignore when it comes up, and it’s the selective universal translator. It happens all the time. Worf says qapla’, and the UT doesn’t change it to “success”? Well, fine, it’s an easy argument that Worf is in fact a native English speaker, so the UT isn’t watching for it, but are we supposed to believe that every Klingon captain and crew member they meet also speaks English, or that there’s some translation going on? If that’s the case, why does the UT translate everything they say, except qapla’?
Presumably Frix doesn’t natively speak modern English, so he’s using a universal translator, but then “human” and “flurbleblox” and “zipoo” all mean things in his native language. So why isn’t it translating them? When Frix says “human,” Sydney should hear “nose cheese” or whatever human means in his native language.
The solution is kind of built into the science behind a really good UT. You can’t just do a word for word translation of what’s being said. Language has context. Any good UT would have to have a massively sophisticated VI that is constantly monitoring for context. When an English speaker uses the word “you,” context determines if the “you” is singular or plural, but many languages have separate words for a singular “you” and a plural “you.” (Actually English does as well, but only if you count “y’all.”) This is a big part of the reason that translating text from one language to another then back again can result in a bunch of crazy results. Meaning is lost. A really good UT would not only have to have comprehensive dictionaries of all languages involved, including slang, but also be able to tag words and sentences with context metadata that wouldn’t be lost even if something was translated through 29 different languages.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
*Draws two ripe potatoes pointing away from her.
“Context metadata”
Mmh… that is the good sci-fi shit. More.
As voiced by at least a couple of others, I’m disappointed by this post-shenanigans shyness, a trope facilitated by a combination of American television (oh noes, people who have just had sex need to cover up because there’s a camera in the room with them) and typical American “nudity is something to be ashamed of” attitude.
I can understand it if one is caught unawares (such as being pantsed in public, or having the door to a changing room pulled wide open whilst in the midst of even partial nudity… but in a situation of shared intimacy (and Syd has already gotten quite the eyeful of Frix without him evidencing any discomfort), it just seems exceptionally forced.
If you must avoid the nudity because it’s not that kind of comic or TV show or movie or whatever, I’m fine with the frequent convenient cover ups like strategically placed objects and bodies positioned to avoid direct exposure of the naughty bits. If done well, can show off the artistic merits of the scene. But all I can say is, Syd (and everyone else in art and life) needs grow up and to stow the “don’t look at me attitude.” Those who can’t should just avoid that kind of contact with other people… and aliens.
I’m fine with it simply because it is Sydney’s character (as opposed to being a comic censoring issue). Think of Dabbler, Deus and others to realise that the comic does not bow to that trope. Rather we have seen several examples of Sydney being extremely body self-conscious. Starting from the basic description of the comic!
Then we have the mummy Sydney, in the showers. In fact in most shower scenes this shyness is emphasised. Then we have Sydney going into an extreme meltdown, complete with nosebleed, at even a joking suggestion that she may have to disrobe in front of others.
So it is intrinsic to Sydney’s personality and not something we should expect to vanish at the first instance of intimacy.
Seconded.
Yeah, but she didn’t have sex with those people.
And that makes a difference… why?
Agreed. Also, in my experience: a gentleman should allow a lady’s post-coital little quirks to occur without comment, or indeed official notice (I assume that this rule of etiquette will also work for other combinations, but that would be none of my business anyway).
Yeah, that’s a reasonable summation.
Pretty sure it’s just embarrassment over the rainbow dash print.
I like it, I’m kinda sick of the trope where someone gets laid and suddenly becomes perfectly confident and suave.
Ditto!
We don’t know the exact nature of the shenanigans, so we don’t know how much he was able to see prior to just now. Plus, as others have said, we know Sydney’s self-conscious about her body. She might be willing to show it for the sake of shenanigans, but not necessarily outside of that (to a stranger, anyway). I don’t see anything incongruous or weird about this.
My wife and I have been together a long time . . . but she still gets a little self-conscious sometimes if I catch her coming out of the shower. Or if I too-obviously ogle her at other times, even, or maybe especially, post-shenanigans.
Not just an “American body consciousness” thing – she was raised outside the US, but in a one-bathroom apartment shared with several siblings.
And even a nudist might get a bit defensive if they’re caught doing something embarrassing such as, say, slipping and nearly falling on their bottom.
You’re the one pushing your beliefs on others, not the other way around.
A lot of women get shy after sex. when that happens i give them a soft look, gently say “no, I find the sight of your body quite pleasurable, please let me look at you. “
Wow, possibly the most fedora tippy thing I’ve read on this website.
You are obviously, not a woman.
So Sydney strikes you as a sexually open character? You’ve not been paying attention. But (and here comes some sarcasm, just in case you don’t get it) I’m glad you think you can push your unrealistic, everyone-should-be-the-same ideology onto a fictional character that you did not create and don’t get an opinion on.
No, everyone gets to have an opinion, that’s why there is a comment section
*nods*
Differences of opinion are good to hear. Whilst we may disagree on points it is important to know what others think.
As long as they are polite about it, which, in most cases, has been the case with differing opinions, including potentially heated disagreements (namely anything to do with Maxi :P )
Fabulous cats.
Skills
Many cats have ranks in Bluff, but their primary use of the skill differs somewhat from the standard. Also, felines have developed a skill called Handle Humanoid, which allows them to manage the humanoids they keep as servants and pets. Both the new skill and the specific new use of the Bluff skill can be used only by felines with ranks in the skill.
Bluff (Cha; Trained Only; Felines Only)
New Use: “I Meant to Do That!”
Wheres we canines do not need to bluff, we are simply fabulous.
[This comment written with two cute kitties laying on my lap.]
So…two kittens curled up on yer lap, using you as their self-warming bed…. I’ve got it! Your real name is Marc Antony, isn’t it?? https://looneytunes.fandom.com/wiki/Marc_Anthony_and_Pussyfoot
Nope, it’s Furnst Blofeld.
Sydney – super cute. Love this page.
Todays comment breakdown:
30% Universal Translator Theory
40% If anything Sydney was on the scrawny side but is now shaping up nicely.
15% They already did it.
15% Other.+
Allow me to invoke Godwin’s Law and point out that 40% seemed to be Grammar Nazis arguing over whether you was singular or plural or pointing out alternatives, like ye and thee and tu and du. That isn’t exceeding 100% – it overlaps some of the above.
Obviously I don’t mean to tell you what’s what in your own comic, but Sydney has been training fairly regularly on a military regimen. maybe she started off a little overweight and scrawny, but I could totally see her current physique being legit.
i will agree fully there, especially if she started out as scrawny, and slightly overweight, she would have definitely got leaner and more defined, on a daily routine. i think she looks just perfect there
Quite possible, she got some real excersize when grinding out levels for her Amaze-balls? If nothing else, simple tension might have given her a static workout.
“When an English speaker uses the word “you,” context determines if the “you” is singular or plural, but many languages have separate words for a singular “you” and a plural “you.” ”
Well, it gets even better – some languages even use dual besides singular and plural (with different word for you in all three) so it stands to reason there would also be alien languages with entirely different grammatical numbers or grammar concepts all together…
Better yet, some languages do not have “she”/”he” split for referring 3rd person.
The refection in panel ten seems to be reflecting her left side instead of her right. And you could right her fitness up to the orbs, since she has just started keeping them out most of the time, maybe a side effect is making her more perfect.
If the unknown orb is some kind of neural interface, responsible for tethering the orbs to their user, providing subconscious intuition of function, and facilitating the summoning of orbs to the hand, it could also be having a subtle physical effect on the host, so your theory has merit.
If you meant the reflection, then no, it looks perfectly fine to me: her head is turned to the left, so the reflection will show her right ear more clearly, which it does
I think the issue is that the reflection doesn’t appear to show Sydney’s arm behind her back, as it should. But if it did, it would also have to show her chest, so a deliberate lack of clarity has been applied to cover the contradiction.
Considering she is side-on to the wall, showing her arm behind her back would be awkward (if not downright wrong)
An oddity, that could be a translation anomaly when dealing with aliens…or cultures with no experience with certain things that make sounds.
Words that represent sounds are an odd one for translating, on the one hand they shouldn’t translate at all as they are literally meant to convey the sound something is making. Now on Earth however different cultures with exposure to the same thing, like a cat; have different words representing the sound it makes. So would a translator automatically translate the word to its equivalent?
However take this concept to an alien who has no word for the sound a cat makes, the translator should then just keep whatever word the human used; which could cause some confusion if the alien meets people from two different enough languages using their own word for the sound a cat makes and the translator keeps both words in tact.
On the other hand another type of sound word are the ones that are just sound effect words like Skreonk, Vroom, Kaboom, Frakoom, Zoomp, ect… as they are basically just noises the translator shouldn’t even try to translate them anymore than it would an actual purr or roar.
-sometimes a roar is just a roar
*Ben Ten, Kevin.
Shazuul!
omigosh, those undies are super cute and I want them.
Actually there’s no good reason to expect Sydney be overweight given that she’s still young and is actually unusually kinetic. People who are incapable of sitting still rarely pack on the pounds.
1. I’ve always figured Universal Translators cease to function in three cases:
A. If the speaker doesn’t want it to translate.
B. If the UT (maybe coordinating with other UTs) decides it doesn’t need to translate it. (Listen, everybody on this ship knows what “Cinco de Mayo” is, we’re NOT going to translate that one as it will just lose some of the vibe if we do.)
C. If there’s some gesture or tonal control system, and when excited, it’s not used right (or, body language/tone has a tendency to activate the ‘off’ option or only a calm voice will let it run when on. Notice how often people will take on a monotone voice when speaking to an automated phone system so it understands better.)
As for Sydney looking more fit from the back, my headcanon for it (despite Dave saying otherwise) is that it’s already canon that supers get more fit with time. Further, she’s started military training. Sydney’s a super and in a pseudo-military lifestyle, and it’s starting to affect her physique. (Just as long as it isn’t that long before we get to where the comic started, and it shouldn’t be a problem as she was wearing a slightly baggy shirt in all those scenes.)
Besides, getting stranded in enemy territory by your allies and making it back in one piece after taking out multiple hostile nuke-boomers is definitely grounds for the promotion to the ranks in the comic-start preview (and then some, honestly, although you’re only allowed so many ranks per year, so it just means she’ll be queued up a bit for regular promotions.)
I thought her back looked a bit more fit than I’d expected, but I hand waved it in my head as her body adapting to being a super.
She can be completely out of shape and still look exactly like that. Some people are naturally thin. I always assumed Sid had a super high metabolism. Also, she takes ADHD medication and that really helps keep the weight off.
Daaannnng, what the heck was Sydney complaining about back at HQ? [reads commentary] Oh, she’s supposed to be 15 pounds overweight? No problem, all her weight’s in those thicc legs. ;P
Also, are those Rainbow Dash boyshorts? Nice.
Btw, why does she feel the need to dash out of the pool/tub upon learning they haven’t left yet?
Lastly, what do you mean by “VI”? Neither Wikipedia nor Wiktionary nor Oxford dictionary yielded any results that would make sense in this context.
VI usually meaning Virtual Intelligence.
Like an AI, but a step down.
Think an automated secretary that can give pre-canned responses, by analyzing what and how was said to her, but can’t actually think for herself.
“Btw, why does she feel the need to dash out of the pool/tub upon learning they haven’t left yet?”
I assume she wants to watch while the ship leaves the dock or when they go into warp. This is her first time in a starship.
That slide looked cool, fun, and adorable. Trifecta!
My thoughts exactly – followed closely by “Seriously, Sydney just pulled off an impromptu 30+ foot skid and is probably running for a macguffin, and everyone just wants to talk about grammar?”
Love how she’s a pegasister.
Actually, “you” is plural; “thou” is singular.
“Shut up, you grammar Nazi!” is singular.
“Shut up, you grammar Nazis!” is plural.
Except “you” is a misspelling of “thou” because the “th” was actually “Þ” (pronounced “thorn” like we would say “tee-haych” for “th”). It got introduced when the “i grec” (greek ee sound) aka the letter “y” was introduced to the British Isles…at a time when the general population were still struggling with the whole learning to read themselves things, instead of leaving it up to professional scribes, clergy, nobles, and other elites. So thou plural and thou singular were both the same word…but you would use thou for important formal occasions to make the person sound so important, it’s clear you consider them to be twice as important as others (or more).
Further complicating it is that vous and tu in french formal versus informal, and thou was seen as an analog to vous (Norman Conquest repercussions, y’all), so of course those filthy Anglo-Sason peasants must speak super-politely to their French-speaking Normal superiors (subjugators/conquerors), so “thou” became the default form of address…and their supposed superiors decided to mould and shape the language so that the Old English Futhark writing system (based more on Norse runes than anything) should be replaced with their very continental Latin-based alphabet (with Greek influences).
Thou has been both plural and singular. It’s simply because of the French influence linking thou = vous (plural you) that we think of thou as being a plural and never a singular. If anything it’s “merely” been a formal word, which can include delusions of grandeur via the emphatic importance of plurality. (aka my vote counts more than yours in all subject matters, because I am both a man and your liege lord, nyah!) (*eyeroll*)
…Both my English teacher and my French teacher in my senior year of high school explained how to correlate modern English & French to older variations of English, in relations to formal versus informal, and plural versus singular. (Sweartagod they must’ve discussed it in the teacher’s lounge over lunch or something…but at least they were willing to try to get their students interested in the history of how languages evolve!)
Don’t know if it’s been said, but supposedly one of the first translator programs translated,” The flesh is willing, but the spirit is weak.” in English to ,”The vodka is good, but the meat is rotten.” in Russian.
that sounds like an accurate enough translation.
I’m not sure if its been said yet (or something like this) but there is an additional with a UT especially if it works on audible sounds, unless you don’t use u’s sitting under yews.
I can’t believe that it’s been three pages of comments and I’M the FIRST to give a link to ” Google Translate Sings ” by Malinda Kathleen Reese… which deals with EXACTLY the problems we’re discussing here, in that a UT would encounter with multiple languages being translated multiple times and ways…
Oh, those are excellent.
She runs her texts through 6-7 different languages though, and a UT should only ever be doing either a single translation (speaker’s to each listener’s) or at most two (speaker’s to universal meta to listener’s). It would be far simpler, more accurate, and more effective to build a dictionary from a new language to meta than to each existing language, and nuance would be far easier to maintain (which your example illustrates very effectively).
Yeah, yeah, i know that she translates the same lyrics through multiple languages… :( Details DO Count!…
BUT!…
I think it was a good example of some of the hilarity that could occur with the first few times a new language is heard by whatever makes up the CPU of the UT before they get all the kinks worked out…
and before you say it, yes i know that English (at least) is NOT a “new” language for the UT to have learned of…
I’m 50/50 on Sydney having sex there. Only because I’d like to think if I just got lucky with one of my fantasies…..I don’t think I’d wanna do anything for about a hour.
She did say “Turn around” before losing the shirt. Could be she’s less comfortable getting dressed/undressed with an audience than being unclothed with them. Personal tabus and phobias don’t have to be rational.
I’m officially not speculating on whether the panties imply limits on what happened, if she was just more comfortable putting them back on, or are just an obligatory concession to pg13 rating…. Though I’m reminded of a sequence in the webcomic Freefall where a bunch of robots just happen to be carrying black rectangles through the room in appropriate orientations to maintain decorum or something resembling it.
If remember that set of pages, it was their job to carry the black rectangles to cover up any naughty bits (been years since read that part, so a little hazy on the details :( )
True. At very least, should have a muffin-top. She *is* a comic book vendor, after all.
As someone pointed out she is in basic, not Boot camp she isn’t a Marine. After about three weeks of training you don’t have a muffin top they sweat it out of you with lots of running and pushups. There are other evils that they use but those are the big ones.
The best UT in SCI-FI that I have read is found in the David Weber, John Ringo books March to The Stars, the UT learns the language and then when you go to speak it replaces what you say in that language. Granted this is all done through a head computer that can take over the functions it needs to. Ringo also uses this tech in the book Hot Gate and David Webber uses it in Mutineer’s Moon. The computer just translates it as if you are a native speaker and what you hear is the language you learned to speak in.
Neither of them have actually taken the head computer to the next step which is full on telepathy between folks with the same or similar systems. The silent world spoken language is only done when someone isn’t linked in to the system.
Honestly, I kinda like the idea of Sydney being skinny and comparatively fit for a nerd, simply because you HAVE shown that she is:
A) Hyperactive and prone to bouts of high-energy activity,
B) A bit of, if not a thrillseeker, then at least an adventurous person (I mean, diving.)
C) Smart enough to take care of herself despite her (seeming) immaturity at times
D) Vegetarian.
In all of that context, how fit she is on this page doesn’t seem off to me at all.
My initial thought: Wait, wasn’t it somewhat implied that Frix is kinda monster-sized on account of his species’ size? And Sydney was fine with this?
Follow-up thought: If Sydney isn’t the kind of person to know what Bad Dragon is, I don’t know who is.
Have finally done it. Fell in love with a comic book character. Thought it would never happen…
Yup, Frix is a cutie ;)
Firstly Sydney has been trying Batman up so her being fit isn’t too unlikely (even if it’s only been a few days) and secondly we don’t know how many Klingon words have been adopted by the federation, it could be simpler to teach people what they mean rather than deal with the UT giving the wrong word for the context.
A proper UT is telepathic in that it can examine minds in the medical sense, combine that with whatever utterances are made, figure out intent, and translate or not accordingly. It’s likely an AI whose goal is enabling communication. Being a technological entity, once it’s grown and trained, it’s shackled such that it can no longer learn and then its state is replicated. This is the sort of thing that happens at the god-like end of the technology spectrum.
But the ship’s security recorders will already have recorded everything – in ultra-high-definition 3D – and Dabbler will have already remote-backdoored the system.
Dabbler: Vessel comms in range… open sesame! Hehe, now, let’s see what you’ve been up to… and Sydney’s been up to… and you and Sydney, perhaps? ^ω^ …What’s this? “You have 100+ titles rated XXXXXXXX+ unwatched.” Let’s have a quick look through… Xhofacchhhi Tentacle Xstacy 32 – I haven’t seen that one… and there’s 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39… oh, forget about Sydney, let’s have some of the good stuff! *starts downloading frantically*
>:=)>
For what it’s worth, the word “ye” IS the plural form of “you.” I don’t know exactly when people stopped using what we call “Olde English,” but “Olde English” has a few singular/plural forms which we just ignore in modern English. I think “thou” is singular and “thee” is plural, but I’m not sure on that one.
Also, Sydney has Rainbow Dash underwear. Because of course she does.
…The same English teacher mentioned in a reply to a different comment above had us practicing conjucating older english pronouns & other words…so here’s a quick lesson.
Thou is the subject pronoun, thee is the object pronoun, and thy is the possessive pronoun.
You are entering the house.
The house now protects you.
Thou art entering the house.
The house now protects thee.
The translation isn’t straightforward one to one, either, but rather, you have to know which words would be used in the archaic versions versus how it would be expressed in modern language, too.
You’re entering your house soon, yes?
Thou’rt entering thy house anon, aye?
This house feels lonely without all of you inside its walls.
This dwelling feels lonely without all of thee within its bounds.
But then that’s because English is a living language, which grows and changes. Sometimes swiftly, sometimes slowly…but always changing. But don’t feel bad, it’s all part of the plan: After all, the Good Language Yoinketh and the Good Language Yeeteth away–verily!
Noooo, “you” was the subjective plural and “ye” was the objective plural. The parts of speech – the subject and objects of a sentence – are one of things that they try to teach at school, but you can get along without. And most of English doesn’t inflect this way at all – it’s really just the pronouns. So here they all are: first, second and third person pronouns, subjective (nominative) case / objective case, as they used to appear in olden times:
Singular: I/me, thou/thee, he-she-they/him-her-them
Plural: we/us, you/ye, they/them
Other: who/whom
Now, second person singular (thou/thee) was also the informal form, as in French and German, and second person plural (you/ye) the polite form. But we moved over to using the polite form all the time, and thou/thee was dropped except as an archaisism. “Ye” might have been neglected (and/or used interchangeably with “you”) even earlier – we didn’t have a strict system of inflection to make it compulsory. So there you have it. >8=)>
1- even with a UT- as mentioned, there is a slight delay and close quarters do allow you to hear speaker then translation
2- shyness is Normal- passion and curiosity override than till the moment is over- such as”oh- shiny new WEAPONS”
3- normal physique for a hyperactive,OCD/AADHD,high metabolisilm GEEK
Why are certain words not translated? Because they can not be unambigiously translated.
If you just translate from german to english, there is a bunch of english words that have 4+ different meaninings in german. Just ask google translate about “economic” or “relationship”.
Relationship in particular could mean “having a affair” or being “part of the same family group”. Wich are two things you really do not want to mix up.
Few things are quite as dumb, as a programm that tries to be smart. If you remember Clippy, that was a help function that tried to be smart. And we all agree it was dumb.
Context would help, but to understand context a programm needs to be smart. And “few things are as dumb as a programm that tries to be smart”.
Hey look it’s shrill demanding Sydney again. I don’t mind the modesty/insecurity as a character trait but as usual it’s expressed in a thoroughly childish way.
ohhh Raimbow Dash
Yup, Sydney’s definitely a Rainbow Dash type.
Hyperactive Adhd established….. Ok head on out and find me a boy or girl with that mental/physical setup with more then 15% bodyfat… (120lb Sydney 5%=hyperfit physical/semi starved cause they forgot to eat person) then add 15 lbs…. 15lb should be spare tire, chubby thighs, chubby arms, muffin top. Ect. Wait still haven’t found a fat hyperactive adhd? Keep looking. Btw most hyperactive tend to have crap endurance due to a preponderance of fast twitch muscles vs long strand…. It’s that whole vibrate in place thing. Lawrence Dahners wrote a series of books about a girl with almost all fast twitch muscles…
As a female nerd who is approximately 15-20lbs overweight and as a youth had a very similar built to Sydney here (I suddenly got more boobs and hips after I turned 18, it was weird) I can tell you that, on most girls, you don’t see excess weight that much on the back anyway. It looks like her butt and thighs have a decent amount of fat on them for a slender built girl, from the front you would probably see a soft lower stomach and a little more “love handle” pudge.
I should also note, from personal experience, that if all the extra exercise is going to slim Sydney down some, it would likely show in her face first. The few times I have managed to motivate myself in to exercising, the chub in my cheeks was always the first thing to go. Now, admittedly, I am not built exactly like Sydney, I’m taller, for one, and I’m a mesomorphic body type (builds muscle easily) which means that my body slims down more easily with just straight up exercise than most women. Endomorphic and Ectomorphic (< I believe this one would be Sydney) body types would probably need to have some dietary changes as well in order to have a really visible difference to their fat levels. Of course, you can always build muscle under fat. If I'm correct about her being an ectomorphic body type, though, that would mean that she would never really "bulk up" muscle wise. She'd always be really lean, no matter how much she worked out. This fact is the bane of some of my male ectomorph friends' existences.
excellent expression of why Sydney is JUST RIGHT in the panel as drawn.