Grrl Power #768 – Late to the party
I done goofed.
I have to own it. The very first draft of this page had Sydney saying something slightly more innocuous like “When did this happen!?” or whatever. Then at some point while I was drawing it I decided to do the change up gag where someone overreacts to the wrong thing. I don’t know the name of the trope off the top of my head.
Here’s the problem. This whole scene started with Sydney watching the press conference from the firing range. She’s a flake, but that’s just too flaky, even for her. But I just forgot about that page while I was writing/drawing this one.
I realized this sometime Wednesday and I could have fixed it, but I thought just to mix it up, it’d be fun if you guys wanted to pitch some lines for Sydney that hopefully make more sense. I’ll update the comic with the best one.
Whatever else happens with this page, I’m positive I drew either the Interdictor or Archon HQ at the wrong scale. I think the building is way too small. Cora said the ship was 160 meters long, but that seems super small now, even if she meant the body of the ship and not including the gun/gravity sled nacelles at the front.
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Sydney has her priorities….
Now the space cops should show up.
Cora: I swear this time I didn’t do anything at all. Seriously… I didn’t even get to use my newest toy…
Spacecop: So just another littering ticket?
Maxima: Oh don’t worry. I’ll clean it up.
Spacecop2: How is the earthling flying? When did they start showing up in gold? Can I have one?
We’ll see if they’re “good job with those invaders” cops, or “you engaged in self-defense instead of waiting for the proper authorities, that’s a serious offense” cops.
If the latter, they’re landing in an area where half the people present can break their ship. Really, if self-defense is criminalized, it means you’re a slave and need to violently overthrow the system.
Self-defense. Not “and once he was down, I kept kicking.”
I think sidney just has a skewed idea of what a press conference looks like.
I was thinking the same.
Also, an intentional goof (saying that despite knowing that it was going on) seems in character for Syd. Either for effect, or she straight up forgot with the shooting.
Peggy’s facepalm says volumes, and the fact she did not strangle Sydney says more.
The fact that she didn’t strangle Syd marks her as a professional……
Someone who WASN’T, would have given in to the desire.
The fact that she didn’t strangle Sydney marks her as somebody a couple thousand feet up in a force bubble that would pop if Sydney opened her hand…
Bingo!
There was cake!
– my entry for Sydney overreacting to the wring thing.
Not that she could see cake from that altitude.
She’s just saying that because she knows that if anyone mentions the second spaceship then a third will show up.
The Joke is, she IS the third spaceship to show up.
my thinking the line should be like “Aww, max should have told me there was a spaceship to wreck” or something along the lines of “they started without me”
or even something referencing the car frame she was trying to cut in half compared to the spaceship
“But I’m the protagonist! “
Max gets to cut a spaceship in half and all i get is a stinkin’ car?!
@Aza, i like that one better than mine
I think that she is more likelly to complaing about the non invitation to a mad rave or something
VOTE
“They put the A on the bottom?!”
It has position friendly psiquic reading spells.
…
…
Maeby.
I blame Nintendo controllers.
DO NOT CHANGE THAT LINE!
It just is so Sydney.
Really. I don’t comment often here, but this is important. That line is inspired, and quintessential Sydney. Change the earlier strip if you have to.
Could have the early strip modified to have Sydney with her ear protection on, walking back the TV without noticing what was on.
I don’t know. It’s very Sydney, but not the best side of her. Like way back when they were searching Sciona’s base and Syd was using Achilles as a tool (holding him upside down with the tentacle orb) to test for traps. Max pointed out that he is quite capable of doing that by himself whereupon Sydney said: ‘Yeah, but then how am I involved?’ Makes her sound like a prima donna. I’m admiring Peggy’s self control here. Her expression is perfect!
Meh, it’s a whole lot easier to change the text in an already drawn text bubble than to recreate an entire comic strip. I mean, if it is trivial, then sure. But I’d rather not miss a comic because an old one is being re-done for no really good reason.
Yea, don’t change it. MAYBE have her let slip that she was being silly.
Potentially followup:
Peggy: “You were watching the press conference earlier.”
Sydney: “Yea, but then it was on TV. I thought it may just be part of when I showed up played back from when I first showed up after I headed inside.”
Peggy: “It said ‘LIVE'”
Sydney: “Yea, but you can’t trust media honesty these days.”
As far as the scale goes you could just say Cora had her ship raised in altitude so it’s shields covered a greater area. Therefore putting it closer to our point of view and making it seem larger in relation to the Archon building than it actually is.
Yeah, but then the shadows don’t fit…
The important part is that DaveB is telling/drawing a good story
and hasn’t written and/or drawn himself in a corner (yet).
“Who knew drawing comics was so hard” : )
I wouldn’t worry ’bout the ship/building scale. Even in the Sydney universe a spaceship is BI-I-I-IG, and it’s surprising what you can pack into a relatively modest office block.
We note that the Interdictor seems to be a modified cargo-carrier so most of that would indeed be empty space looking for a new contract.
I wouldn’t worry ’bout the ship/building scale. Even in the Sydney universe, spaceships are BI-I-I-I-I-IG, and you would be surprised how much you can pack into even a modest office block.
Besides, the Interdictor seems to be a converted cargo-carrier, so most of the ship is empty space looking for the next contract.
Please remind me to NEVER EVER EVER EVERtry for SFX in these posts :[
I forgot too for a moment that she had already watched the start of the press conference from the gun range.
As for alternate lines in the last comment:
“They managed to win without me!?”
“It is over already!?”
“Why is the B helipad above the A helipad!?” Or if the underside of the letter is which edge is closer. “Why is the B helipad reversed!?”
Don’t worry. I bet Sydney also forgot that she watched the start of the conference…
“They thwarted a Space Invasion without me?!’
I am far from the best at comedy oneliners, or in general.
But I tend to use a rule of thumb with windows. There is no need to have extra large windows that ocupy multiple soties. [Some exceptions exist, I know.] So I feel that the ships windows are a bit large. Up until I compare them with people. [A big ass window wil tend to be 3/2’s of the predominant species.]
Soooooo the building is VERY small.
I would say that, with this angle, we could only see A landing zone and a bit of the Skylight. [Funny, didn’t remember the word for skylight. In spanish the literal translation to english would be lightswallower.] And maeby the base could be wider to. That’s like… 20 meters wide at the penthose? [A bit les than 20 yards.] Maeby is that side. I cannot be sure right now.
Anycase. Love the first real Interdictor vew.
There’s really no need for a spaceship to have windows at all – any blank space of hull can be covered with a flat monitor output, at near zero weight,cost. Also won’t compromise hull strength at all. Windows have all those problems and more. Bad guys can see in windows when ship is docked, and learn precise targeting details of whatever’s visible inside (I’m looking at the bridge of the Enterprise! incredibly, they perched it on the very top of the ship where we can just zap the entire command staff in one shot!)
I really hope those things aren’t windows. …. if they are made out of glass.
Future tech. Maeby they have some kind of treatment that makes armour plates one way windows. XD
That presumes a window of glass rather than a really hard material of unknown provenance.
Chopping a car in half with a .50 cal.
Sounds more like therapy than serious practice.
One would think that at the gun expertise level Sidney is at,
Peggy would be more concerned with proper safety and accuracy.
It was, explicitly, a reward for improving her firearms skills. To the point where she was hitting the target over 50% of the time.
Incentives stop working if you don’t pay off on them.
Yep, you’re right!
just reread some earlier stories,
over 50%, fire an l.m.g, cut car in half.
Rereading this episode, Sidney wants to use a .50 cal.
since “that 7,62 crap wasn’t cutting it”.
Funny how fast you can put your own interpretation on a recently read story.
I think this is the point that we need to come to grips with how jaded Sydney is becoming. Smoke and fire and mass destruction? “Eh, whatever: Been there, done that. ”
Kinda daunting, actually. Maybe even healthy? I dunno.
THEY GAINED XP WITHOUT ME!?
That totally would have been worth a Ding! Dammit!
Replace “press conference” with “party” or “big fight”. Not particularly imaginative, but gets the point across. Or… we already had “I’m mister not-appearing-in-comic” in one page, so maybe something similar to make that into a running joke.
“Wait, Max got to chop a ALIEN SPACESHIP in half?!?! I wanna chop a Alien spaceship in half…”
Why was that a reply? Should have been it’s own post…
link for that page
Though that was the chibi extra. I think it’s too fourth wall breaking for the main comic, even for Sydney.
Halo will still be useful. The ship might be disabled, but there’s still a need for sending a team in to ensure that what survives of the crew complement and any artefacts are disabled properly, where her shield and teleport will be utterly invaluable.
Dave can work around his blooper by having the next frame reveal that she was just saying it for effect.
Though that was the chibi extra. I think it’s too fourth wall breaking for the main comic, even for Sydney.
Huh! This became a reply to the wrong post.
How about “They got rid of the pool on the roof?!?” or “When did they get rid of the pool on the roof?” Or “Where’s the roof pool?!?”
That sounds like something Sydney would comment on.
“What did the pool on the roof go?!?” That’s worded better.
Good line
“Where did the pool on the roof go?!?”
Um, it’s on the lower deck behind the building from this point of view.
Loss of the pool is a great tragedy, although as Archon should expect incidents like what just happened to become passe mainting it on the roof instead of in a sub basement would be an engineering headache.
The pool was not on the top roof, it was on one of the side structures. This is for the safety of the pilots. WAAAAAY too many distractions hanging out at the pool.
Watching something on TV does not always equate being as aware of it in person, depending on how invested when they were watching it on tv. She only was aware Cora was on tv, not the scope of the event.
Ie, now that she sees all the press there, she realizes it wasn’t just a camera but a full press conference.
Wrong reaction: They let the press park their vans on the lawn!
I did not want to nitpick but, is there an in-universe reason for the building and Cora’s ship to be illuminated bu two different light sources? It seems the shadows and bright surfaces (e.g reflective surfaces) are in almost opposite sides for both.
I hadn’t noticed it until you mentioned it, but, yes, you can see from the shadows cast by the building where the Sun is, and the wrong side of Cora’s ship is illuminated. And it’s casting its own shadows in a different direction from the building.
Probably the burning wreck of the large Fel ship.
Aye, the burning wreckage should provide some illumination on that side, but I guess to be able to cast shadows against sun it would need some really high amount of lux, whereas the section of the wreckage that has the largest fire is away from Cora’s ship. At best, both sides of the ship should be bright, perhaps with slightly different coloration due to color of the light striking those surfaces and the shadow from fire should be elongated as it is not from top, but from side. Plus, the most striking example is starboard top wing of Cora’s ship. It definitely receives light from sun, as the ship should block any light from wreckage at that position.
The shadow from the building is pointed toward the ship, and the shadow from the ship is pointed toward the building. This is because the miniature black hole from the Fel singularity drive fell onto the patio. The light is being drawn into it from both directions. The rest of Earth should follow shortly.
But check out the shadow of the center whatsit with the cutout in the circle at the front of the ship…
“Wait, Max got to chop a ALIEN SPACESHIP in half?!?! I wanna chop a Alien spaceship in half…”
Hrm. I like it “Why does she always one up me?!”
Yeah, I was thinking “THAT’S WAY BIGGER THAN A CAR!”
But I like the line as is as well
+1
“I MISSED EARTH’S FIRST STARSHIP BATTLE?!” (Or something to that effect.)
+1 That would indeed be a Sydney. ;-)
I like this suggestion – all I could come up with was along the lines of “Not again! That’s the 2nd spaceship we’ve had to blow up this week!* How are we supposed to reverse engineer anything if we keep having to blow it up?!”
Not nearly as pithy.
* In her personal timeline
“Someone beat my alien destruction record already!”
I personally like Sydney’s “… conference without me” line. Difficult to find something better.
Maybe one could try something along the line of:
1. “They had a party and only invited me now” ?
2. “I totally missed the finale”.
3. “When did they redecorate ?”
4. “They had a blast without me !”
5. “Looks like we need more parking space.”
… u know ?
6. Hey! Is that Richard Dean Anderson?
7. Dude! Where’s my car?
Yaeh, the building is a bit small / ship a bit too large for the scale, but Meh… MY nitpick is that for Archon Tower being both a Military facility AND a MALL… there is not nearly enough PARKING LOT!!! i mean please tell/show me even an “ordinary” mall that does NOT have a HUGE parking lot spread out in a 360 degree fashion from the building itself, in order to provide for the most/easiest access to all portions of said Mall…
as depicted here there is virtually ZERO parking, even if it WAS off-camera, as the access roads wouldn’t make sense to be on only the one side they’re shown on otherwise….
as for the one-liner how about something about “how easy it must have been to draw from THIS angle?”
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScifiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale
He’s in good company.
It was already stated that the building has underground parking; Max was telling the press to get in there for protection just a few pages ago. I can think of a few office towers in Toronto and New York that have malls on the first floor or two and multiple stories of parking under that. I am sure that was part of the architecture of this location. Mind you, those buildings don’t have a two-storey swimming pool on a roof either.
“I missed out on all that XP?”
Something to this effect is my vote also.
“I could have leveled!”
How long will it be before Peggy mangles Sydney (the same way that Sarge mangles Beetle Bailey?)
Something is seriously screwy with the forum. Posts keep getting attached to posts other than the one they’re a reply to.
“EVERYONE is trying to steal my space boyfriend!”
That is one of the most unique suggestions so far, good job.
Slightly different approach, but Sydney could complain about them starting the boss fight without her.
My vote for a replacement line is “they totally stole all stole all the XP”
Sydney would complain about that even when there was no one kill-stealing against her back on the Alari homeworld?
“WE HAVE LANDING PADS ON THE ROOF?!”
Except she already saw them the first time she was flown over the building.
Incidentally, that scene also shows the pool in a spot that is indeed hidden on this page, as well as lots of green space behind the building where the ships are, so bonus points for consistency and planning ahead there.
(It also shows a standard ‘H’ pattern on the roof instead of the A/B shown here, but they’ve had 2 months to repaint per any suggestions from the team’s flyers, so not implausible and certainly not as bad as a missing pool or a vanishing business park would’ve been.)
Ah, dangit!
Peggy seems to missing her nose scar.
“We can fix it in post.”
The B is upsidedown.
The A should be right side up when approaching from the East and
the B should be right side up when approaching from the West.
Shouldn’t both of those letters be H?
Yes, both should be a H.
I was just thinking, one should be an H for most flight use, the other should be a red + to show what side of the building the doctors are on.
Well, there should be three pads. A regular H, and red H, and a red S… because supers are not helicopters. Instead of supplied gas tank, it would be supplied with chips and dip or something. Maybe some water if flying makes ’em thirsty.)
“Where were the news vans when I blew a huge fucking hole in an alien spaceship?”
“The one day I drove to work instead of flying, and now traffic is going to be terrible!”
I like the first one. Or alternately, “[Sydney-expletive], now Max is going to get credited as the first human to kill a spaceship barehanded!”
A simple way to mitigate it – next page starts with Sydney going “…oh, yeah, they were”.
With underlying narrative being: she saw the translation on the range, but only now registered what exactly she saw, being too entranced with the prospect of sawing a car in half with a machinegun.
I mean, we already have a precedent of her behaving in similar way – during the interview, when she saw The X through the glamour, and then spent quite a chunk of time trying to recall the thing she saw mere moments ago, so…
that works.
“The battle’s over? What, are we the cavary?” (Reffering to the “The Cavalry Arrives Late”)
Or something similar. Dunno, not very happy with my suggestion, but maybe someone can build off of it.
I do like the line that’s already there though.
“They lit the forrest on fire! That’s MY thing!!”
“Holy shitsnacks, who s-ranked ‘Independance Day’ without me?!”
They stole all the kills! Is what I was expecting.
I was not expecting her to focus on the conference.
1- OMG! All that wasted XP! They better let me in on the loot! I mean they sent us a party/group invite! (not our fault we were a zone away)
2- I don’t see the boss! These fights always have at least one boss mob!
3- THey did a Raid without me?
4 – OMG! Cora’s ship looks like an elephant dog!