Grrl Power #771 – The Ledhceb test
It’s a fair bet Frix doesn’t know what the Bechdel test is. I’m not sure if he knows what high fives are, but I figure there are some galaxy-wide standards for expressing bro-ish approval. As usual, I spent too much time thinking about it. For a while I was thinking that maybe high-fives (or handshakes for that matter) would be frowned upon because intergalactic disease transmission might be a significant issue, but then I’ve already established in the comic that their medical technology is pretty dope.
Then again, Cora’s crew has access to the latest and greatest med-tech, but every species/empire/collective handles healthcare however they handle it, so not everyone necessarily has access to the good stuff. Still, fist bumps and elbow bumps would generally be safer than high-fives… assuming the race you’re elbow bumping doesn’t have Baoh blades on their arms. I meant germ wise. Even if the arm rests on space taxis are biohazard level 5 petri dishes, it’s not like most races can wipe their mouth with their own elbows. There are probably some that can, but as Dabbler pointed out a few pages ago, humanoid morphology represents!
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This is new. Also, aliens gonna stick around much?
It’s only been a day (or slightly less than one) so far I think.
Well, they were originally just a taxi service. But then other aliens landed in Deusonia, and I guess Archon decided for some reason to allow this group of completely unknown aliens be the voice that informs the world that yes, there is a whole galaxy of aliens out there.
Cora seems like she wants to hang out for a while, screwing and jogging (slithering) and being deputized to speak to the entire world about her alienness and catching up with Dabbler. And she’s the captain of the harem-crew, so the rest of the crew is stuck here while she indulges whatever reasons are keeping her here for the present.
“Decided for some reason to allow” was more like “got busted because Cora thought it would be OK to land in front of the building since aliens were on the news.” Arianna’s carefully laid PR plans rarely survive contact with reality and/or Sydney.
And “completely unknown aliens” would be translatable to “old friend of Dabbler’s whom she trusts to go rescue Sydney and who is willing to do so without knowing how much danger she’s risking in the process.” A civilian willing to risk life and limb to rescue (or return the body of) a soldier that you had to leave behind . . . that would probably earn a good bit of credibility pretty quickly with a military-minded organization.
Didn’t mean to be drip about your hip flip rip, but needs must.
Sure, but the military doesn’t typically make people it has known for less than a day their spokesperson, regardless of what they’ve done for it and how highly recommended they are by yet another civilian contractor (Dabbler).
It’s fine to brush this away because this is a comic, but it’s not fine to try to justify it in canon, because that just makes Archon look stupid. No company or governmental agency is going to allow some fandom person or alien speak for them. Not unless they know exactly what they are going to say and are in complete agreement with the message. And yes, setting up an Archon sponsored press conference in front of the Archon HQ is placing Cora in the position of an Archon spokesperson, even if the intent is just to allow her to break the news that yes, Virginia, aliens do exist. Another thing Archon would never allow in the real world.
I have to wonder how much of it is also “So this is Earth, eh? Home-planet of my genome, surrounded by 99.999% people who I share DNA with…”
Kinda like if an American got dropped off in the location of their ancestral home, they’d probably want to stick around for a while and see what’s what.
Might even be a little bit of genetic comfort going on as well- ‘exact right’ atmosphere and gravity and stuff.
By “decided” do you mean “were powerless to prevent” because Archon is an USAnian governmental military branch, while Deus’s happy little Randian Utopia is actually a different country and the entire world would find it an act of war if the USA sent its people uninvited into other countries to interfere with their contact with aliens?
No, that’s not what I mean, because I never once even hinted about any Archon or USA interference with Deusonia. Aside from briefly mentioning that nation and those aliens the context of my post was very clearly all about Cora and this press conference.
It’s probably been more than a day. The first panel implied it was later. “One afternoon …” which could mean anywhere from a couple days to possible weeks or longer. We don’t know for sure how long its been since they arrived.
Personally doubt it would be weeks, depends on when the attack happened, it’s probably the same day (late afternoon or evening)
Doubt they would use Sydney for a ‘normal’ forest fire, remember, the Fel Cruiser crashed and burnt into the nearby forest
I’d read it as “One afternoon later (after helping to put out forest fires)”. In other words, acknowledging that there was a significant bit of damage-control and clean-up needed after the Fel non-invasion, that Archon contributed to those efforts, and that nothing interesting enough to make it onto the page happened while doing so. They’ve not just walked away from a burning forest to have a chat about their domestic/romantic complications!
I think that this is the most self-referential comic I’ve ever read. Congrats! And done so as a comedy bit with the test is gold gold and electrum.
Sidney’s mouth in panel 5 looks like a bellybutton
Now I can’t unsee that!
Not a bellybutton, think (butt not too hard, you may never eat again) ‘colostomy’
Yaarrrrr!!!! me favorite booty!!
I bet if Sydney ever figures out how to use the custom-illusion function on lightbee orb, she will totally start using it for meta-reaction gif-equivalents (like that solid snake ! )
There is no “figuring out”.
There is “spending experience and unlocking nodes”.
So for Sydney to get that ability she would have to be expending experience points on the com orb.
There is definitely figuring out.
Okay, I stand corrected.
Even after she pays experience for a new node she does have to figure out how to activate it.
Come to think of it, she had the teleport node for a while before she accidentally figured out how to work it.
Well she has the light wings she picked up at station so a little tinkering by dabbs would …. uh maybe not dabbs … someone technically knowledgeable but without a pervy streak, or in Dabbs case, Pervy Highway 401.
Congratulations…
I am now picturing Dabbler adjusting the lightbee to put out a naked image screaming badgers on arrival.
do not think about “naked, screaming, badgers”.
you are welcome.
There’s always Clover, isn’t there?
How ’bout this instead?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGlyFc79BUE
Hmmmm… Dabbler and streak in the same sentence. What mischief could she inflict on Sydney if Sydney asked for help with the wings?
I could see Dabbler tweaking the wings to cause a random costume malfunction any time Sydney runs with the wings on.
Wait.
Using the holographic wings to change her appearance and then appearing as naked screaming badgers…that means Sydney would also be naked screaming badgers. And then you could have two of those space cops. And Cora with her serpent treads.
Badgers badgers, badgers badgers, mushroom, mushroom, snake. Its a snake.
I’ll just show myself out.
Actually, a more appropriate Reverse-Bechdel Test would go more like this:
1) The Males in the Film must not be treated as disposable, or act for Women’s benefit
2) Father must not be portrayed as stupid, useless or incompetent
3) The Movie must not relate everything Negative to Males, and Positive to Females
So, your saying this won’t be on the Oxygen channel?
The bechdel test isn’t that though. It’s just two women. Who talk to each other about something other than a man. Some variants require a name for each character, and others require a length of conversation. Because the “joke” of the test (it literally comes from a comic strip) is that it’s such a low bar, you’d think it wouldn’t be that hard to pass.
The reverse Bechdel Test is just two men. Who talk to each other about something other than a woman.
The Bechdel Test was made to give an idea of what not to do, to turn away from clichés and give a more respectful depiction of women, a reverse-Bechdel Test should aim to do the same with guys
Yeah, but what you listed isn’t criteria for the original/current test.
But it’s the trope that way too many movies and TV shows and other media use to portray males, since it’s difficult to think of many shows/movies/etc that do not fail that sort of test. So it’s a good ‘reverse’ Bechdel test.
Nah, sorry. The Test/joke is about flimsy female stereotypes in shallow male-oriented movies. Reverse Bechdel would not be men “talking” about women. Because ‘trophy boyfriend’, ‘reverse harem’ isn’t a stereotype.
Two men not hitting on a woman, might be a viable Reverse Bechdel. Titan’s ‘competent dad’ , probably. ‘buff dude doesn’t take shirt off’ maybe.
That’s why they failed it.
Eh, depends what sort of reversal you’re looking for.
If you want something to contrast with the Bechdel Test as a sort of control or side-by-side comparison that reveals whether there’s a double-standard, then the test should be two men talking about something other than a woman.
If you want to highlight widespread and problematic cliches, stereotypes, and misrepresentation of men in ways that are different from the ones women experience, then yeah, what you propose might be a way to do that. (MIGHT. To identify one problem, it’s not a great test since a lot of it can hinge on subjective judgement creating a lot of argument around borderline movies over whether a given condition has been met or not. The Bechdel Test, in comparison, is usually pretty easy for everyone to objectively agree whether its conditions have been met.)
Both could be valid goals. But since “Reverse Bechdel Test” is already a phrase in widespread use to describe the first option, it’d be better just to pick a new name for the second. Since the link calls it “The Kuku Test”, I’d go with that, and you could then have a control/contrast of a “Reverse Kuku Test” that asks whether the film’s women are treated as disposable etc.
My idea for Reverse Bechdel: Two men, talking to each other about something other than a woman AND not talking about something stereotypically manly. No sexual conquest talk, no battle plans, discussion of fighting, sports, or how much their wife is cramping their style, etc.
Today’s “Terrible writing advice” seems strangely appropriate to this topic:
https://youtu.be/BrqY9NiqHAI
My problem is when there is just one female for every 3 to 7 males. One of the many reasons I like this. Because it is so easy to make it male heavy as if that is the way things normally go. Just like making them all white. Though they may have a token that dies part of the way through…
You are right, the Bechtel test is set to the lowest bar and yet how often does it fail more than succeed? Some things have improved. But then the blow back from it etc…
I actually agree with that as a good reverse Bechdel test, Titan :).
Also like the deviantart comic.
Sydney being serious? Isn’t that like the 8th sign of the apocalypse?
A tiny part of me wants being serious to be the super power that the seventh orb gives her.
Command and control orb; once she unlocks enough power levels (and overall understanding) of the other orbs, that one will unlock the ability to control all the others by holding only it. Other orbs will only require direct interface for upgrades and precision controlling.
So, I guess it could be the orb of being serious. XD
9th, 8 is Sydney Paying attention through a entire 20+ minute lecture.
Sydney’s already done that (albeit with a hiccup or two) to get scuba certification.
The instructor shouldn’t have had that speargun there anyway.
The hiccups make it a failure she got distracted
Any particular apocalypse in mind, ai_vin? So many before so many ahead.
I appreciate the BAOH ref, best short, high action anime ever to end with a sequel setup that never came to be.
Sure it came with a sequel, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure!
I’ halfway through the first episode of that and I already want Dio to diediedie…
I just realized…is there a term for that? Sequel setups whose sequels never materialized?
“The Mario Effect”? (That was a joke. Anyone in Hollywood reading this, DO NOT make another Super Mario Bros. Movie!!!)
I still think you could make a marvelous Mario movie…
If you make it Donkey Kong first.
TVTropes.com refers to them as “Trapped in Development Hell”.
True, though Guyver might have been a better choice as it’s better known
and now I’m imagining a crossover anime/live action:
MacGuyver. (where the hero not only gains an alien suit, but builds it from gum wrappers, paper clips and nuclear waste…
Original Mac only, Son of Mac is shit, just like Son of Magnum (Son of McGarrett {aka Hawaii 5-0} is good though) is complete trash (making Higgins a kick-arse female ex-special service is complete bullshit)
Dating someone her own height… So that would be either be Peggy or Krona…… Actually I could see her and Krona getting together. At least for bowling, dinner and movie… Okay those three things would be in different parts of the world. Heck the bowling could be for giant aliens bowling pins on another planet. But I’m sure whatever date those two would have would be amazing!
Peggy is taller, even if only by what looks to be 3-4 inches. Pixel would be a better height match, at least in her human form. And Sydney has shown the same overwhelming desire to pet/groom Pixel as she has done with Frix and the werewolf on The Council whose name I forget. George, his name is George. Well, sorta…
Crap, I forgot to link the example:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-493-misidentification/
Wow. This is the cutest I think we’ve seen Sydney be in the comic.
“2 or 3 boyfriends from now and she’ll be dating someone her own height.”
So that’s how long we have to wait for Sydney x Krona?
@DaveB: FYI – Your PayPal logo appears to have gone missing.
Yeah, I need to spend a saturday morning on page maintenance.
And cast page expansion. Actually, you might have to take a week off to do that right.
I think it would be worth it.
Leon thinks she’s cute!
I would have liked to see Sydney trying to stop a chaotic and dangerous situation from spreading, though. Not exactly her skill set.
Brings to mind the sequence in Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer where Rudolph almost exploded after the little doe said he was cute.
Seeing the size difference between Frix and Sydney, I wonder and wish to know what kind of shenanigans exactly were going on between them. (And how they did whatever they did…)
My mother is fond of quoting her high school English teacher who was 5′, and her husband over 6’4″. The class teased her about needing a stepladder for a kiss and asked much the question you did, “We’re all the same height horizontally.”
This page is probably too obscure for me. Bechdel test – this I could at least look up, it’s somewhat amusing in the context, though the need for lookup dilutes it. “Check your hog at the door” – wut?? Even google is silent on this one – “How to Build a Guillotine-Style Trap Door for Wild Pigs …”, “Corral Traps for Capturing Feral Hogs”… not very helpful.
Sydney offered fist-bump, Leon accepted after short hesitation (or tried to), Sydney withdrew the offer (is the withdrawal offensive? I think it would be at least a little, but I have little experience with this kind of personal contact). And then this. Something about gender? “Men are pigs”, I won’t associate with pigs? Such attitude seems wildly out of character for her.
What, Sydney did not call men “pigs” in this comic?
“Hog”, short for “Hogleg”= Revolver, later any side-arm, alleged Wild West slang term.
But yes, where _is_ Sydney going with this?
And you didn’t then make the connection between a long, hard rod that shoots something out at a high velocity and a pistol?
Er, no… Spearguns are usually used underwater, for fishing…
Yeah, midwest Canadian here… I missed ALL the references.
I figured from context that “hog” referred to male genitalia.
“Leave your hog at door” in this context means “You have a penis, you don’t get to participate”. Similar to the old “Member’s Only” club motto (i.e. “If you don’t have a male member, you don’t get to participate”.) She’s making an ironic sexist joke.
Much as I like Sydney as a character, it does get a teensy bit irritating when she treats Leon so unfairly poorly (like when she threw a shoe at him when he asked, quite understandably given the context, if she was suggesting a threesome). Especially since for the most part Grrlpower seems to avoid the whole ‘treating men badly or like idiots or like wimps in order to strengthen the women’ trap that a lot of other fiction with strong female protagonists fall into. Usually in the comic, women are powerful because the women are simply powerful, not needing to diminish the guys to show that.
Luckily… he thinks she’s cute. :)
No, in this case, it’s simply Sydney being ‘buddy-buddy’ with Leon
Along the same lines as someone saying “High Five!” followed with “Down low” and pulling away before the other person can connect and saying “Too slow!”
That entire exchange during the “Welcome Back Party” was complete bullshit (which most readers felt was justified on Sydney’s side of things, and they couldn’t understand why Leon left in a huff) butt this is friends messing with each other (ignoring the words Sydney used, butt even then it was said in jest)
Yeaaaaah…. I still think she treats Leon pretty shoddily, and gets away with it mainly because Leon thinks she’s cute and apparently girls like her as physically his ‘type’ judging from how he’s now in a relationship with Krona (plus we’ve already seen that Leon gets very nervous around other bodytypes, stated outright by Anvil to Harem near the beginning of the comic.
Considering Harem has an annoying habit of deliberately pressing herself against him as a joke, it’s more likely he simply finds that uncomfortable, he doesn’t say anything so as not to trigger a femi-rant
Given who Harem’s commanding officer is, I’m pretty sure he could quietly mention the shoulder-boobing incidents as making him uncomfortable and she’d arrange for one of Harem to be doing McMurdo Sound Patrol in August. “Femi-rant” … what precisely do you mean by that? It makes no sense whatsoever in the context of Leon’s situation nor his personality as shown so far.
I disagree with you that it’s “buddy-buddy” — since Sidney’s been shown to be attracted to Leon. I think it’s much more likely that she’s just that awkward around males she likes and hasn’t learned social cues past third or fourth grade. She’s already got that whole ‘somewhere on the spectrum’ thing going on with the ADHD which can go along with it.
It’s not that he finds it ‘uncomfortable.’ Leon gets VERY nervous around ‘hot’ women. This was outright stated by Anvil. Shoulderboobing alone makes him unable to speak coherently anymore.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-64-someone-skipped-the-harassment-video/
It’s not because of a fem-rant that he doesn’t speak. He’s been assertive enough to speak up before.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-73-operation-lets-get-this-story-moving/
It’s just with Sydney, he thinks she’s cute and isnt flustered into incoherence by her.
And how is “gets VERY nervous around ‘hot’ women.” different from being “uncomfortable”? o_O
As for the second link, Leon was assertive because outsiders dares intrude into his domain (and look at how quickly he changed back: a single panel was all it took)
Well… I just think the reason for why he’s uncomfortable/nervous is different than the reason you’re suggesting :) I think it’s because of physical contact with women he considers waaaay out of his league – he seems fine with working around them though. And a glance from Maxima could make even the most hardened men crumble – I give Leon props for even that single panel of chutzpah. :)
Yaarrrrr!!!! me favorite booty!!
you learn so much reading comments… I know a lot of bikers so I figured Hog was short for Harley Davidson. I have also been to Biker joints where they can just ride in so, “Check your hog at the door” meant park that bike outside in my head. The entire bit went over my head with this line of thought.
Yes “check your hog at the door” is not an English phrase.
Is it something in the American language?
it’s sort of a wraparound phrase, as a great deal of sausages are made of pork, you can guess the inference, I’m sure
Let’s see… topics… hmm… no women? You sure? Not even sex? *sigh*… Weather is out as both tend to hang out in climate controlled environments. Movie trivia is out, for now. So, how about those sports, beer, video games?
Sports and video games would have the same problems as movie trivia. Beer/food would work but that wouldn’t have much more over-lap of experience since Frix has only been eating human food for a day.
One big topic they could talk about is that they’re both in technical support roles on their teams.
That’s one of the problems with the Bechdel and reverse-Bechdel tests: the assumption that a conversation about a person of the opposite sex will automatically be in a romantic, rather than functional, context. A conversation between Doctors Chevy and Frost about a shared patient could pass or fail Bechdel, purely depending on whether they were talking about Heatwave or Hiro, even if the conversations were functionally identical!
I’m actually curious as to what Sydney thinks she’s doing here
Thinking and Sydney…
HAS this comic ever passed a Reverse Bechdel test? I don’t remember. (Obviously conversations with a large number of mixed-gender participants don’t count.)
I reverse Bachdel test would be one where guys are in a room with no girls present and nobody is talking about or looking at a girl… Cause the Bachdel test is the opposite. A Reverse Bachdel is actually extremely common and yet – No. This comic has never done it now that I check the logs. Every time it looks like a reverse Bachdel is gonna happen, Harem, Dabbler or Maxima happen.
Huh. Does battlefield banter between Stalwart and the villain who fed off violence count? (“Right now I weigh as much as the space shuttle”)? Or the discussions at the Council?
Link to Stalwart: Vehemence chat here https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-254-sydneys-auditing-a-class-at-acme-looniversity/
I don’t think that counts as they were in the middle of a fight with the girls present and actually outside.
A quip is not a conversation. There have been plenty of times that a female character had one plot-related back-and-forth with another female character, and the movie did not pass the Bechdel test.
Were the characters named in those examples though? Because that’s all you’d need to pass the terms of the Bechdel test.
I’d agree that very short conversations may not quite fit with the spirit of the Bechdel test, but they do fit with the letter of it.
To evidence the letter of it here:
1) This comic features at least 2 male characters
2) 2 of them have at least one conversation (Stalwart and Vehemence; later Stalwart and Hiro)
3) That’s not about a woman.
I…. GUESS the apology session between Hiro and Stalwart post-Vehemence counts?
On pages #387 – #392 Deus is talking to General Indinge about the future of Galytn, so that counts.
Awkward smile Syd is a cute Syd.
You: 6 foot skinny tech nerd virgin
The guy she tells you not to worry about: 6’4 ripped furry alien chad
Is chad a technical term for definition, gen(i)us, Maximas Charming Kanine Hunkulus
Chad is an incel term for guys who have sex with beautiful women.
‘Virgin vs Chad’ is part of a popular meme. Chad usually means a stereotypical ‘jock-type alpha male who is very successful with the ladies and with life in general.’ Basically short for ANOTHER meme – Chad Thunderc*ck. I kid you not. There’s also a female version of a Chad, called a ‘Stacy.’
Virgin means… well… basically a virgin. Who is also a loser and extreme introvert or, at the least, unsuccessful in life, especially with ladies.
Usually with a variety of this type of picture, symbolizing the two people, one which does the ‘virgin walk’ and the other which does the ‘Chad stride.’
https://www.dailydot.com/wp-content/uploads/e36/9e/69fed38143bbb886-2048×1024.jpg
Dude’s currently being sort of gently contested over by two superheroines. One is currently cementing her position of Goddess-Empress of the Geeks*, and the other is a no-fooling reality hacker. I doubt that he’s having self-image issues right now.
*I cannot think of anybody who could could rank her on that.
I’m not sure Leon qualifies as the virgin part of “6 foot skinny tech nerd virgin.” I recall a mention of him being flustered or something around the superladies, but we also saw Harem deliberately rubbing her (clothed) tits on his back while leaning over him to look at his comp screen. So a part of his awkwardness might be because he is being teased by women who, in a normal world, are completely out of his league.
We don’t know who initiated it, but given that Krona isn’t even an Archon member and thus their opportunities for interaction should be far fewer than those of the Archon ladies, Leon appears to either have moved fast or to have avoided all of the typical for the genre obliviousness about someone being attracted to him.
Also Krona might not be anywhere near as intimidating, since for some reason she doesn’t have the perfect super body type.
I would think Leon might be intimidated the first time his underwear gave him a wedgie.
Krona being Krona, and Leon tending to say things without first considering how it might come across to a girlfriend.
…she has had barely any interaction with either of them. What’s there to talk about?
Seriously. She was interesting in a guy she barely knew, had an adventure, hooked up with another guy, came back and declared a relationship with the first guy only to discover that it doesn’t actually work like that.
It doesn’t revolve around her. Why drag them into her bizarre drama? That’s one way to kill interest. Especially since the first guy is now in a relationship, and the second guy was just a hookup and has his own thing going on.
They have literally nothing to talk about in regards to her. There isn’t a thing.
She can talk to Frix about their hookup. She can talk to Leon about whatever she thinks they have, even though that’s kinda skeevy with him having a girlfriend. But why would the two guys need to talk with her together? They can’t even compare relationship notes, since she had nothing with Leon besides a talk and low level attraction that didn’t stop her drooling for other guys or hooking up with Frix. There’s literally no relationship to talk about! It’s exasperating.
“Hi there ‘two guys I’m attracted to but have no long term or tangible relationship with’, let’s discuss my relationship issues together!”
She can apologize to Leon for being a hypocrite in regards to her reaction to him and Krona being an item, given that she had hooked up with Frix and given that she hadn’t told him she was interested in a relationship. Then she can apologize to Frix for being insulting about imagined Space Herpes or Abyssal Syphilis (Abyssyphilis?) or whatever she implied she had caught from Dabbler by way of Frix.
That would be a huge sign of increasing maturity and character development for Sydney, and would create an opportunity for new developments in either relationship. And it wouldn’t be out of character, either. Stressful, life-threatening situations have been known to make people reexamine their priorities, after all.
She has had a discussion, however brief, with Leon and Krona about the possibility of dating him. So this isn’t completely out of left field. How about withholding judgement until you see what this goes? I mean, it’ll probably go in a fairly lousy direction, but it isn’t a given.
Not to state the obvious but you completely missed the obvious. She asked Leon if they could talk, as in she CAN talk with him about her embarrassing herself when she declared her intention to date him. She CAN talk about wanting to be friends despite her obvious issues with dealing with others. She CAN ask him about tech that she believes she may need but does not know if he can provide. She CAN talk with him about the wings she got and ask if he can mass produce them for her… She can talk with him about a dozen things that don’t involve Frix. She was talking directly to Leon so the request of “Can we talk?” and his, not their, reply was indicating that he understood it was a request of him alone. But hey, go off and make assumptions any time you want and have fun talking about them, gives me something to laugh about.
Krona should enter at this point and ask if Syd is okay with her dating Frix. Then we can see where it all leads.
Bottom-Border-Blurb: “2 or 3 boyfriends from now and she’ll be dating someone her own height.”
Is that to say that Sydney is gradually lowering her standards?
o.0
Interesting how Sydney gets shorter between frame 4 and frame 9. Does the realization that you’re being call upon to do something you might not be able to accomplish have that effect on her?
I was going to say “perhaps Frix has that double kneed leg thing that a lot of werewolves have, and just stood up a bit”
Then I went searching for shots of his lower half…
#702 1st box shows us most of his lower leg but still leaves it open.
Then #721 4th box has him walking out of the ship on legs like all the rest of us Humans…
So you are right either she shrank half a foot or Frix was rocking up on his toes for that shot…
How will Anvil feel being surrounded by alien beings taller than her???
Very well, apparently. :https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-737-succubus-couture/, fifth panel.
She will now have people she can look up to in a non-figurative way.
This is a pretty neat reversal of what happened early in the comic.
I think that Sydney’s adorability is about to collapse in on itself.
“I can promise I can try”
That was one of the best lines in the whole series, lol.
Just behind “You made me take a step back…”
Yay!
Contfirmation Sydney will unlock the Kyodai node!
Maybe she will date someone like Ron Wilson, bus driver.
Since no one has said otherwise I declare that the universal sign of Barnes’s is the no touching hand wave thing they do in the movie Demolition Man.
Broness not Barne’s. I actively hate auto correct. Feh!
Given that Frlx is an engineer and Leon deals with computer security they actually do have quite a few topics to talk about.
Unless of course you’re high fiving this guy. Then you might exit a couple fingers fewer…
Which reference, by the way, I found in the April, 2014 archives… Damn, that fight was 5.5 years ago!
the shadow fighter Sydney KOd in the dinner hall for her first group fight… the one that was in her bubble when she put it up, and she had to hit his family jewels after pretending to be Velma looking for her glasses.
PG#205 is the link
Do you even click?
sorry didn’t notice poster names and thought your reply was someone else asking where your High five link went. it wasn’t till I hit enter that i noticed it was all you…
and then I read the pip boy thing and the text says “warning you are being punched” XD
“I can’t promise I’ll try, but I’ll try to try.” – Bart Simpson
Why does Leon raise his right hand after lowering his left hand?
Hah hah, whoops!
I would figure to go in for the point after dropping the high five…
High five drops as Sydney is saying “Check you hog at the door” and he brings up right to point saying “lucky you’re cute”
But hey what do I know… ^_^
For the Marvel No-Prize version I’m going to suggest that every time he thinks about how cute Sydney is he has an urge to brush her bangs back from in front of her eyes.
Having said that, though, I’d imagine Sydney might be easily spooked by Sudden Hand From Above approaches, though. :-)
I hope Sydney doesn’t dump Frix. It’ll just leave him feeling . . . blue.
Ow. That hurt my internet.
She’s just going to give him the what fur.
Oh cmon, I’m sure he won’t take it that ruff.
Oh cmon, I’m sure he won’t take it that ruff.
He’s likely used to very open friends-with-benefits arrangements, as part of Cora’s reverse harem – I’m sure it won’t rub him the wrong way
Are we doing massage puns or dog alien puns, brichins? I don’t think it’s both though – that sounds a little far fetched.
That was pawful, I don’t even feel the pressure to stroke your ego about it
Ah okay. Dog AND massage puns combined. Going the whole ca-nine yards I see. I’m going to knead a few minutes to step up my pun game now.
Hey, this comic definitely is NOT a mere “dog & pony” show, ya’ know. Twice per week scheduling with this quality of story & art is probably a lot of acu-pressure on DaveB already.
That mutt be the best combinational dog/massage pun yet, except ‘dog&pony show is knot a pun, per se.
Takes a rare breed to squeeze in something that far-fetch-ed, but I’m gratefur they’re not rubbing it in.
Okay I’m drowning in puns now from you fur’real. So I’m going to just say you win but don’t pressure luck.
With any gesture of respect or whatnot, most of the time, if you have an analogous limb configuration, simple mirroring is adequate. Salutes, high fives, handshakes, fist bumps… initiator assumes position, you copy, they boop, grin, and it’s successful.
If it crosses a line, you back off, try an alternate. Germophobe doesn’t do handshake, so maybe salute or bow. If you can’t physically do the thing, again, do one of your own. Or invent one. Tentacle guy holds up an arm in cursive, you look up some sign language.
Great comment.
The only real thing to keep an eye out for is cultural differences. Such as how a smile is a sign of friendliness (or at least false sincerity) in most of our worlds cultures, but a fair few consider a smile aggressive, like an animal showing you it’s teeth.
Can’t do much about those but be careful, and the Japanese thing about handshakes and preference for bowing comes to mind, but overall I think your point is excellent. I can’t remember the author nor name of the story, but in my youth I read an excellent short work of science fiction in which a tale of first contact and the drama surrounding the very question of whether or not our races would be culturally compatible at all was resolved when it became clear after 30 hours of stalemate in close proximity in the depths pf deep space, it was discovered by the human ships captain that the two vessels comms officers had been secretly translating and then passing dirty jokes back and forth to one another.
ok i will point out the stupid in most of the modern bro greeting things.
fist bump for example is not a non threatening gesture. despite the stupid today around germs most of the worlds methods of greetings are to covey that i wont cut your head off or stab you in the back. most of the bromance greetings are; i am giving you a “friendly” threat. sorry folks they dont fly with me, try and fist bump me and i will break your jaw. i dont do submission to aggression or faux aggression. either you are non aggressive or you are a threat.
todays pathetic excuses for men think that they can be aggressive and get away with it. most of the greeting rituals i see in the streets among younger folks would have gotten a young man beaten to a pulp not to many years ago.
Wow, aren’t you just a friendly bowl of party favors.
Not to start a VR dick-wagging contest, but it’s been my experience that the faster someone posts about how aggressive and manly they are, the more likely it is that it’s a fantasy that they wish they could live, but in reality they have to kiss a bunch of ass all day long at their job like say, being a server in a restaurant.
So, here’s some aggression for you Ernie, bite me, and bring it on. I’m not afraid of you or your unnatural hatred of modern greetings between private friends.
I’ll be aggressive, and get away with it, because there isn’t shit you can do about it, here or in person. GTFO of here with your brand of stupid.
No offense, have a great day.
Holding a fist out for a fist bump is no more aggressive than holding out a vertical palm to shake or a horizontal palm to “give 5” or a high palm to “high 5.”
If you think that it is aggressive despite all social norms screaming that it is not and decide to (try) to break someone’s jaw because of your own fucked-in-the-headness, you’ll end up in jail or with your own jaw broken, and the person you just assaulted won’t even be arrested for putting you in your place. So good luck with that.
Please tell me you’re not one of those people who does jazz hands because clapping and applause is too ‘problematic?’
Guys in general (and tomboys I guess, and anyone who’s ever watched Youtube videos with Pewdiepie, so at least 100 million people) regularly do bro fists. It’s not aggressive. It’s friendly betwen them, with a minimum of physical contact compared to a handshake, which I’m thinking might be the point. And it wouldnt have gotten a beating years ago. Years ago the greetings were a lot more ‘manly.’ Firmer handshakes between guys, punching the shoulder, etc.
I think we need to understand the difference between meeting and greeting.
It’s OK to greet a person you’ve never met, as in a convivial group when somebody expresses an opinion (verbally or otherwise) which meets your approval, so a fist-bump is as in order as a high|low|mid 5. Then you might go the next step of actually “meeting” the other bloke (sheila) and swapping names & etc.
But rocking on up to a person you don’t know? There’s a Kiwi word of wisdom here: “Don’t bro me if you don’t know me.” So we’d settle for something along the lines of a handshake with “G’day cob, the Esky’s just out here on the porch. I’m Ernie by the way.”
You’re an idiot.
If you want to go for long past historical norms, handshakes are passive aggressive, being conducted to prove or fake peacefull intent (not bearing arms). In some eras and cultures, the handshake was not grabbing each other’s hand but forearms, to prove/check that there is no knife hidden in the sleeve. There isn’t a greet or gesture involving physical contact that did not have aggressive origins…except maybe those that had sexual origins, but even those can be quite aggressive, if done between two guys (establishing hirachy of dominance).
Other than that, if you are willing to floor somebody because they in a jovial friendly manner make a gesture YOU perceive as aggressive, then at the very least, you are socially inept and incapable of reading context, body language and local/contemporary societal norms…and that is giving you the benefit of the doubt that you are not a total psychopath.
Last 2 panels – sincere Sydney is just a little heartbreaking. In spite of all the crazy the last couple weeks, she’s done very well with developing her skillset, handling her ADD, and just surviving (including in a literal sense) having her world upside down. But she still knows she’s got some maturity issues and is self-conscious about them, and being called out be one of the two guys she is starting to build relationships with (and in front of the other) appears to sting a little.
But she’s tough enough to own it and continue the discussion even when she’s feeling vulnerable. Way to go, Sydney! I think this is one of the more humanizing moments we’ve seen so far.
Dave, did you seriously just say that high fives are avoided by space fairing civilizations because they’re a dangerous means of transmitting dangerous disease… right after telling us that inter-stellar, inter-species sex is a thing because their medical advancements makes curing STDs a trivial matter?
Consistency much?
No, no he did not – you didn’t follow the rest of the sentence accurately.
He said he was thinking about possibilities for a universal cross-species bro-greeting, and was thinking that maybe high-fives would be frowned upon because intergalactic disease transmission might be a significant issue, but then abandoned that train of thought because I’ve already established in the comic that their medical technology is pretty dope.
Read what came *immediately* after that. Basically “not every species has access to the good stuff”. Which means according to his theory of the origins of prudish behavior, the prudishness of the Earth-bound human should be a bit less out of the ordinary than has been portrayed.
Pretty sure Frix knows what high five is, since Sydney and Max did one not long after Sydney returned, with Frix right there. When they all made fun of Dabbler. Remember?
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-731-heres-the-windup-and-its-a-triple/
His quizzical expression might be less about the high five and more about who this Bechdel his and what she (or he or they or it) is/are testing.
Yeah probably. :)
you talked about elbow blades and didn’t mention the Hork-Bajir. i feel so betrayed right now.
elbow blades sound like a fun weapon for a Quickling (think the Flash)
I’m putting the theory that Adderall is a brain _straightener_, not a sleep substitute. Sydney should not be vertical at this time, she needs Dr Torpor.