Grrl Power #904 – A fob carrying bad guy
Here’s a cheery page for Xmas eve, eh? Can you just feel the spirit?
So, presumably, Concretia knows where her body is. Like, she can home in on it. Now that she has rock-kinesis, keeping her away from herself would be pretty challenging. Sure, you could build a big plastic room, but that room has to be resting on or in rock of some sort… unless you keep her on a boat. That could work, Fire Nation Earth Bender prison style. That or a dirigible. That might prove to be overly conspicuous though.
I have a really bad habit of introducing new characters, bad guys especially, without them bursting onto a page and announcing that their name is “Dr. Melodramatic Introduction” or whatever. For now I guess we can call this guy “Dr. Has Issues with Women.” It’s a fair assumption.
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How did the villain get there so fast? He got to a random floor of a random building in New York during aliens and a super fight. Traffic would be hell.
Does he have a teleporter on payroll? But then they wouldn’t need the elevator.
Perhaps he has a demon teleporter, who has a psychological limitation (or curse) which limits him to only teleporting between elevators?
Or some kind of flying conveyance, which dropped them off on the top floor?
Or a giant alligator, carrying a pagoda and small tea room, which dropped them off in the sewers?
Demonic teleporters use the hellevator.
Not if you put up pretty wallpaper.
Do your evil dad jokes have no end good sir?
GURPS would define this as:
Teleportation (limited to normal, mundane means available). Considering that it seems to affect his power All The Time, he got a 75% reduction on the point-cost for the power.
Well, we know it is an incorporated group of supers, so presumably they have someone with transportative powers, else how did they all arrive at the scene of the alien landing so fast?
Why do they have to be the same group? Could just as easily be two different groups, both based in New York City
And, if they had transportative powers, why did Dr. Douchestain take the lift?
“How did the villain get there so fast? […] Does he have a teleporter on payroll? But then they wouldn’t need the elevator.” – TempoDiValse
Perhaps he gets his transport solutions from Wonka’s Workshops.
While Concretia is cowering on the floor she can release Halo’s orbs. Once they return to her then the fun can begin.
I suspect that she is too afraid of setting off a dead-man’s switch, or something similar, which would result in her body being killed.
Probably in a slow and extremely painful manner, taking the measure of this bad guy.
Also, there are probably others where her body is that can punish/kill her if they want.
I’m wondering… if Halo put her shield around Concretia’s ghost form/ghost-possessing concrete form, and the guy pressed the fob button to electrocute Concretia’s real body again…..
Would the shield prevent the pain from travelling through the shield to hurt her?
Serious question because I can think of two possible differing answers.
Possibility 1) The shield protects ANYONE inside the shield from stuff that comes from the outside. This would include whatever passes pain from Concretia’s physical body to her astral form. So Concretia releases the orbs, Halo quickly orbs both of them, and the fob does not work. Halo then takes out the three goons with the lighthook.
Possibility 2) The shield protects anyone inside the shield BUT…. as we’ve seen with Harem’s multi-mind quantum entanglement thing, the shield does NOT prevent Harem from being able to sense what’s happening with her other bodies when one body is inside the shield, even if Harem can’t teleport OUT of the shield (or into it – although we don’t yet know if Harem can’t simply un-teleport while inside the shield). If Concretia’s tether between her ghost form and physical form is some sort of quantum entanglement that works like Harem’s multi-body communication does, then there’s again two sub-possibilities:
2a) Electrocuting her body will still hurt Concretia while in the shield.
2b) Electrocuting her body will NOT hurt Concretia while in the shield, because while she’ll know her body is being electrocuted, the harmful pain will be filtered out, in the same way that Halo can see light and sound from outside the shield, but the shield filters it to manageable, non-harmful levels of light and sound.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Mr Buble severs Cree’s connection to her body, killing her instantly
I think Mr. Bubble’s got a lot of safety features to prevent the death of the inhabitants though, while still mainitaining its functions.
given the shield can cut off things like the Aggro aura from Vehemence, it may just cut off the astral projection forcing her back into her body; which does her no good really.
It’s in the shield though, in my scenario – it wouldnt be ABLE to snap back to her own body… assuming her astral form can’t go through the shield, which I’m guessing it can’t.
But if the astral form is just a projection from her body, shielding an area just causes it to reappear outside that area. She’s not really in the room with Halo, after all, she’s tied down on a hospital bed.
In extremely inappropriate clothing unless they let her back “into” her body from time to time to use the toilet, by the way.
If its a projection which we see feed back from her body is most likely. Cut off a projection and all you do is stop it from projecting there. Heck the shield may just push her projection out of its range, forcing a sudden snap to another nearby location *such as outside the shield*,
such as cutting off a holographic projection, you just prevent it from appearing, but don’t harm the projector. No more than blocking a flash light from shining a light on the wall will harm the flash light.
just in this more complicated quantum mechanics manner the projection is cut off from the zone of appearance; but the source should remain unharmed.
*this would be easier to explain if I could provide visuals*, the projection moves through the astral field and appears in its current location; the shield may cut off the projection from the “hole” in the astral field it is emerging from pushing it back…may have an unexpected result of her projection being pushed back rather than cut off from the physical plane to the astral plane.
I’m not sure which idea I agree with, but it’s a fun comic book thought experiment in any case :). It all depends on the nature of the tether. I don’t think it’s like a mere projection, though, since then electrocuting the physical body wouldnt be causing her pain, would it? There’s probably something more substantial in the tether. I’m honestly leaning towards it being more like Harem’s quantum entanglement, if only because it’s the only other case of being two places at the same time that we’ve seen for a super. :)
the projection reflecting the state of her body. Harm the body it shows up in the projection. Which makes it a pretty strong tether and not a numb one like so many dream projections. She is projecting her conscious mind.
the feed back in fact makes sense as a natural defense mechanism. Say for instance she was out using her power and a stray rat came by and started to gnaw on her foot. She’s feel it, and pain being how the body responds to threat she is instantly alerted to the threat and heads back to her body to protect it from the threat.
Okay well in the scenario you’re presenting about how the tether of physical and astral body work for Concretia, wouldn’t it be plausible that, while in the shield, this ‘pain projection’ would not make it past the shield, even if the actual tether is not severed? We’ve already seen multiple times that Halo’s shield allows non-painful levels of different things through the shield (Harem’s quantum entangled knowledge of her other bodies, light, sound, whatever signals are used for Halo’s comms, etc) while simultaneously protecting her from more deadly versions of often the same things (Hex’s lasers, Maxima’s plasma bolt, explosive concussive blasts, sound levels that could rupture eardrums and light levels that should blind Sydney, etc.
In this scenario no, because in this scenario Concretia is the woman in the bed. What we are seeing is not an autonomous entity *even a quantum linked one like Harem, Harem is more of a hive mind*; for Concretia her body has to be unconscious for the astral projection to even exist.
So in this scenario if the projection was cut off from the body and made to exist autonomously then that would likely mean the same as death (or ascension depending on your way of thinking) where the physical body is cast aside completely and dies while the energy form continues on as its own entity. If this were the case then doubtful Concretia would be happy as she clearly wants to be human not an elemental spirit.
It seems more likely as presented that the projection is not an autonomous entity and if cut off would simply vanish and her true self *her body* would have to create a new one.
Although there is another option. I did this with a character with dream projection powers before. Mental Fragmentation. Where the split causes the body to wake up and the spirit form to separate as semi-autonomous beings. But both feel incomplete and wander about in a more dream like state seeking the other out to reform back into one entity.
but back to the original point, it seems unlikely. As it wouldn’t be a “pain projection” but rather a feedback; which cutting that off is…dangerous, as stated above numbing this spirit self to the body is pretty much the same idea as severing mind and body.
Consider that it may be similar to Halo’s telepresence orb. She obviously is still connected to her body, given that she felt the shock. She may not be really leaving her body as a spirit, with or without some kind of tether, even if she perceives it as being like that.
My thought is that given her orbs back, Halo should shield herself and Fob Guy, severing the fob’s connection with Connie’s body, then beat him unconscious with the other orbs. He can press the button fifty times to no effect while Syd knocks him unconstipated.
That’s unlikely to work, given that Halo’s choker, wrist device, and cell phone all function normally within her shield. It doesn’t appear to block most electromagnetic radiation.
Then she’ll just need to render him unconscious that much faster, won’t she? Increase the orb-it-all velocity and concuss him to sleep.
Oboy, the first upcoming villain fatality appears…hopefully…
Halo could do some creative fatalities with her powers.
Heh. I like the sediments. But villain deaths are few and far between in this comic.
Other options are available.
Lava, spikes, tooth plyers, etc.
Perpetual sand in undies.
Making sure their sodas are always room temperature before they drink them….
“May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits.”
~Karnak the Magnificent (aka: Johnny Carson)
“May a nearsighted sand flea suck syrup off your short stack.”
– Also Carnac the Magnificent.
“May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your crotch.”
~ Corporal Klinger
Making sure punsters will pester them in all forum they post on.
Truly you are a sublime torturer, Ro. :)
Only to those who threatens me in terrible and inventive ways.
Perfectly pernicious.
Knife between the teeth, I think you meant.
Braces, without painkillers.
PD is referring to this move by Mathias during the restaurant fight before Vehemence made his appearance:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-210-dental-trauma-fu-or-technically-its-non-lethal/
Yup. I was using IRL example. Man those things can hurt. Also an insane craving for milk and milk products according to mom. She could always tell when they got tightened.
Immortality, Immobility, Insomnia.
It won’t be the first, Deus did take out that dictator. It would be the first time we see one of the good guys put somebody on ice.
Although, calling Deus a good guy is probably dependent on point of view. In my book, Deus sorts under ‘Anti-Hero playing for the good team… for now’
I think Deus is the definition of Lawful Neutral
Eh, more true neutral. Uses law when it suits him. Ignores it when it suits him. What ever he needs to do to get richer and stay in control.
Deus is an A+ rank villain, like Lex Luthor and Xantos. The too smart to get caught, focuses on specific protagonists, works within the law (usually), plans things out well in advance and uses charisma and a fat pocket book to gain the loyalties of their henchmen, minions, and other villains.
This guy is looking like a B rank villain (which I hate so much, cathartic to write about every now and again…because they almost always end up dead by the end of the story); but can be a chore to read though; especially if you were reading a flashy super hero story or a comedic one as they are total downers. The hey, our hero was fighting Omega Monkey the space tyrant who terraforms planets into bannan plantations; and then battled Aussie Assailent who dresses in a kangaroo onsey and steals only Australia themed merchandise….but oh here comes…serial rapist murderer cultists with powers or have forced others to serve them under threat of death to them or their loved ones….yeah B rank villains really kill the vibe sometimes.
*strangely enough there is one team of Super heroes who do get away with switching back and forth and using a number of B rank villains/groups; The X-men. It fits the metaphor to switch from S ranks like Apocalypse to D ranks like Toad; but run into B ranks like the Friends of Humanity.
But like I implied though I have written villains like that myself, fantasy settings though, and it has always ended with them brutally killed. Cathartic writing like I said. So fingers crossed this guy at least gets dropped off a roof or eaten by demons.
Rhuen, how could you say such a thing about the true hero of the webcomic?
Deus being a villain. Not remotely true! Lies. Lies and slander. For shame Rhuen. For shaaaaaaaaaaaaaame.
But seriously, if I had to compare Deus to someone else, you’re close when you said David Xanatos. Deus seems a lot like Xanatos in the latter part of the second and the third season, when Xanatos does a face heel turn and becomes a good guy with a ruthless streak, after the birth of his son and when he and the Gargoyles fought together against Oberon.
I just don’t consider Deus to be a villain – he’s just genre savvy to how villains act and thinks it’s cool. Besides, Deus has had so many opportunities to be evil and he never seems to do something outrightly evil. Even when he had the dictator killed, the guy was a MURDEROUS DICTATOR who was in the process of ordering his men to throw Deus off the roof and murder him because Deus was not going to just give him a blank check, because Deus knew he’d just use the money on himself instaed of on helping his subjects. That seems a very un-evil thing to do. That’s more of a Robin Hood thing to do, in fact, one could easily argue. :)
Also just remember… when Gargoyles ended, Xanatos not only did not die or even LOSE, he was a free man and on the good side. He got everything he wanted in the end – even more wealth, a loving wife who is his intellectual equal, a child to continue his legacy, complete security even from his former ‘enemies’ (who he never really treated as ruthlessly as you’d think you’d treat an enemy), a loyal friend, and respect from the city and the Gargoyles.
Heck, even when Xanatos WAS the ‘villain’ of the show (season 1, part of season 2), he helped the Gargoyles save the city at least TWICE (once against Demona in ‘City of Stone’, who was the actual villain – albeit a tragic villain – of the show), and saved the Gargoyles’ lives multiple times, even if for his own machinations.
Xanatos was awesome. Deus is awesome-er.
I’m usually completely onboard for defending Deus, and Xanatos is awesome as well, but “forced to nobly profit from assassinating an awful dictator and controlling his replacement” is a bit too much of a stretch even for me. :)
You mispronounced a sentence there, my good friend.
It’s not ‘forced to nobly profit from assassinating an awful dictator and controlling his replacement.’
It’s ‘freed millions of people being killed and tortured by a murderous tyrant who kills men, women, and children just to instill fear, and putting the more innocent-of-atrocities son in charge, while simultaneously helping to bring their country into a first world nation status, making lives better for everyone, raising the life expectancies, lowering infant mortality, and providing jobs and futures for people who would otherwise live in abject squalor…. and if he makes a profit while doing so, then that’s just being smart PLUS being noble.’
It’s a common mistake.
All praise Deus, amen.
Deus is just really good at practicing enlightened self interest. There’s nothing wrong with doing good things for others while also benefiting one’s own agenda.
You are one of the wisest people to have posted on the comic forum.
Good point.
Good and evil are not the be-all and end-all that many thing they are.
One of the best quotes I have ever seen about such is-
‘There is nothing wrong with ambition as long as you do not rise on the necks of people.’ – Sister Naomi from the book ‘Criminal Minds’ by Niall Teasedale. Fox Meridian is a very good series by the way if you like sci-fi and/or police stuff. (Just have a strong stomach)
In my opinion? Deus is not a hero, but he is not a villain either. He is, as someone else put it, Lawful Neutral.
While I do think Deus is heroic, I’d be fine with the compromise of him being Lawful Neutral :)
And a god among men.
And the future Mr. Pander, even if he’s fictional. I do not care.
That’s adorifying. I assume his bow tie will be suitably nerdy, like an unobtanium and carbon fiber cravat or some such; curious if you’ll go with a traditional wedding dress or a power suit?
Or maybe something cosmopolitan
AshleyIron Cloth creates for his intergalactic debut?“a traditional wedding dress or a power suit?” – brichins
While it is of course Pander’s own choice, I note that Power Suits have yet to make an appearance on-page. She can lead the way!
I mean, refresh my memory, but have we seen him do anything *truly* villainous yet? Aside from ‘steal’ a few artifacts from a ‘secure’ vault, that had probably been taken from their original owners anyway? Yeah, he had that one tyrant axed, but governments do that all the time anyway. XD He hasn’t demonstrated any Lex Luthor level evil plans yet. Hell, in reality, he’s analogous to any number of savvy ultra-rich business tycoons that are trying to ‘change the world’.
This is what makes him an A(+) villain and not just a regular A.
Despite his ambitions, his tones, the fact he will circumvent international and interstellar law (taking state of the art portal tech he bought at the Fracture station to a 0.5 level world.
(which we can blame Fracture station for lacking the capacity to detect unauthorized portals), smuggling must be a huge problem they turn the other cheek on.
despite his willingness to kill or have his men kill others, and all that flare; he can still be argued if he is a villain or not.
the ranking is based on presence, scope, actions, and capabilities, He has these at an international scale and presents his ambitions and lack of moral limitation upfront; but is so clever about it that he can be taken as joking about it. Just an eccentric businessman who loves classical super villain flare.
Loved your post. Just arguing with one word in it – that you referred to Deus as an A(+) “villain” <— villain is the part I'm arguing against, even though you pretty much admit that he's not a villain in the same post. I'm being pedantic I guess:).
"This is what makes him an A(+) villain and not just a regular A.'
That makes him A+. That doesnt make him remotely a villain.
"Despite his ambitions,"
Being ambitious is not villainous.
"his tones,"
Being a fan of the villain genre does not make you villainous, or everyone who ever thought Darth Vader was cool would be a villain.
"the fact he will circumvent international"
Circumventing international law is not necessarily criminal, let alone villainous, if you're exploiting an open loophole. Also, Deus has not circumvented international law.
"and interstellar law (taking state of the art portal tech he bought at the Fracture station to a 0.5 level world.
(which we can blame Fracture station for lacking the capacity to detect unauthorized portals),"
Earth is not a party to the interstellar law of the Xevoarchy, and Deus is therefore not subject to those laws. The person who sold him the good is. Deus did nothing illegal. Not to mention, Deus specifically has technology that's superior to what he bought, and therefore there's even a legal loophole even if you claim that he was somehow subject to a law to which the Earth is not a party.
Also, it's not being a villain in any case. Breaking a single law, even though Deus did not break any law and was not subject to the laws which you are espousing, does not make you a criminal, because not all laws are based on a notion of good and evil. If you jaywalk, are you a villain? No. If you download a game from an abandonware site, are you a villain since you might be violating a copyright law? No. You are not a villain. If you watched a movie that someone had uploaded on Youtube that was not in the public domain, are YOU a villain? No.
"smuggling must be a huge problem they turn the other cheek on."
They only care about people who do the selling, not people who do the buying, because very often the people who do the buying wouldnt be subject to the laws anyway. Therefore they have no jurisdiction to arrest them. Do you think the space cops have any authorization to arrest a person from Earth before there's any mutual treaties between Earth and the Xevoarchy? No. That's not how international laws work, and that would unlikely be how interstellar laws work either, if we're using the same types of rules.
"Fracture station to a 0.5 level world."
Actually if you're talking about Earth and the Kardashev scale, according to physicists like Michio Kaku and Carl Sagan, Earth was currently a type 0.73 world – it was 0.7 in the late 1970s – and at our current rate of energy consumption, we would reach being a Type 1 civilization in 100-200 years, and a type 2 status in possibly a few thousand years (although that's harder to determine given exponential accelleration of technology).
Carl Sagan even came up with a formula to calculate this – K= (log10 P – 6) / 10, where K is the civilization's Kardashev rating and P is the power it uses, in watts.
* Citation is Sagan, Carl (October 2000) [1973]. Jerome Agel (ed.). Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective. Freeman J. Dyson, David Morrison. Cambridge Press.
"despite his willingness to kill or have his men kill others, and all that flare; he can still be argued if he is a villain or not."
Which is why you can't say he's a villain. A man is innocent until proven guilty. :) So far, everything Deus has done has been for a net good, and he has not done anything that one could claim is evil, let alone criminal. And being under investigation doesn't mean you're guilty. :)
"the ranking is based on presence, scope, actions, and capabilities, He has these at an international scale and presents his ambitions and lack of moral limitation upfront; but is so clever about it that he can be taken as joking about it. Just an eccentric businessman who loves classical super villain flare."
Again though, while this makes him an A+ strategist and player, it doesn't make him a villain at all. He just likes how villains have flair. Heck, Batman does far more illegal things than Deus on a regular basis, but Batman's a hero.
Fanboy stuff aside.
on the interstellar law one.
Yes, he is subject to their laws when visiting their location and moving things from their location that their local laws prohibit. When you travel to China (and not an ambassador or other diplomat) you become subject to China’s laws. Even without treaties they could request to extradite him…or given the Xevoarchy will apparently blow up civilizations that are starting to go into space that are overly hostile to other civilizations and may be more problematic later on back to the pre-industrial age something tells me forcefully confiscating items and individuals isn’t outside their behavior radius. I am seeing less Federation and more interstellar empire using the principalities behavior. So less Star Trek federation and more a slightly more aggressive version of the Jurain Empire from Tenchi Muyo (when you step away from the main cast and regard their treatment of planets like Earth in general).
on the scale thing. I was using a modified scale, one part Kardashev but also taking factors other than “how much energy can we use” which feels like a really primitive way to judge a civilization. Also factor in all forms of tech, communication ranges, fuel types, entertainment, travel, medical, environmental balance, and also the factors of social and mental development and regards to themselves, others of their own kind, and towards of life forms as well as efficiency in all the above.
So yes, I deducted points, not much, and also taking into account human ego in the original scale resulting in a 0.2 potential differential…along with zero comparisons they had to make with.
which lets be honest the exponential difference is astronomical, just going from having the resources to build a dyson swarm around one sun (talking about swarms of ships requiring internal gravitational balances to not collapse into themselves let alone fly around a sun; that are themselves likely having surface areas larger than most planets), the additional technologies required to even get to that point could easily be so fantastic that the idea they could do this to a second star beyond even their capabilities. Same with, okay we control this galaxy but we’d have to have double our astronomically insane resources to control a second one. That scale seems okay up to a point but goes wacky when it gets to those level; heck while not part of the original the add on levels actually jump from control multiple galaxies to control the universe….there are trillions of galaxies, the scale difference is ludicrous to jump like that. But as they often say, up that way it does fall apart because really it is mice trying to imagine a civilization with quantum computers and beyond. It may simply be too far beyond most people to rationalize…which we see in a great deal of science fiction as it feels less like they are getting “bigger” and more like they are shrinking the universe down.
(watching Deathbattle calculate fictional cosmic level characters as if their universe worked like the real one alone shows how much the writers don’t really comprehend or care about this scale; just making things look cool. and most sci-fi treats the galaxy like the sea and planets like islands with one culture, one people, and all too often one environment).
Basically that mental limitation of humanity in general.
A few people can be smart, humanity as a whole is a hoard of shrieking goblins copying each other’s movements to look smart.
*on that note also going by DaveB’s chart which looked to be based on travel tech and civilization size or general technology and influence.
so a hybrid rating system for civilization scale with a rough estimate. (Also note Earth isn’t ONE civilization at all but several hundred if not thousands and while certain technologies have become more common they aren’t exactly the same)
So really Earth should be calculated against its various civilizations and given an average rating anyway.
“Yes, he is subject to their laws when visiting their location and moving things from their location that their local laws prohibit.”
I’m sorry but you’re incorrect. Earth and the Xevoarchy have no type of standing treaty with each other to subject one to a human to the Xevoarchy’s laws. Not to mention, the laws as Cora stated are against GIVING technology, not receiving it.
“When you travel to China (and not an ambassador or other diplomat) you become subject to China’s laws.”
Only because of the international law concept of ‘comity.’ It’s why different nations even allow other people from other nations to enter in the first place. The concept is ‘we will allow you in our nation, but you have to agree to our laws when you do so.’ This is clearly NOT what happened with Deus. He did not enter Fracture by any means that Fracture possessed, and he did not have to have any passport stamped in order to enter Fracture.
“Even without treaties they could request to extradite him…or given the Xevoarchy will apparently blow up civilizations that are starting to go into space that are overly hostile to other civilizations and may be more problematic later on back to the pre-industrial age something tells me forcefully confiscating items and individuals isn’t outside their behavior radius.”
No offense Rhuen. I respect you as a poster, but you’re wrong here on the law. Without treaties, extradition does not happen. Extradition REQUIRES international laws to be in place, with a process already in place that both the requesting state and the outside state would have had to agree on in advance. Otherwise it’s not extradition – it’s just kidnapping and a prelude to war.
The Xevoarchy has no type of agreements with the US, or with Galytin, or with Earth in general, in order to extradite anyone from Earth (well, anyone HUMAN from Earth). And your entire comparison to going into another country being the same as going to Fracture is wrong as well. For one thing, when you enter another country, you do so WITH THE PERMISSION of that nation. That’s the reason for a passport and the stamps you get in your passport. There is firm international law on this. And the way extradition works is one nation must seek permission from the other nation for the surrender of a person who is wanted for prosecution for a criminal offense. The US would not recognize the criminal offense existing in the first place, especially given the precedent of the Fel spaceship deal. And neither would Galytin, obviously.
Now I can see an argument one might make saying ‘Deus illlegally entered Fracture Station without a passport.’ To which I’d say no, he did not.
1) Fracture does not seem to require a passport or its equivalent to enter the station – it just requires one to enter through its ports. Deus did not bother using a Fracture port, just like Sydney did not. Sydney did not break the law. And neither did Deus.
2) As far as a comparison with entering a sovereign nation on Earth without permission of the host country is concerned, there is still international law when dealing with that on Earth. If it’s a recognized sovereign nation, their border laws are to be respected. Earth does not recognize the Fracture as having ‘border laws.’ Mainly because Earth did not even know about Fracture in the first place, so it could not possibly have recognized any border laws of Fracture. It’s a loophole, sure, but it’s a big one that Deus can walk through quite comfortably until it’s closed. If you find an island on Earth that’s not ‘owned’ by anyone and not recognized as a sovereign nation, you haven’t broken the international laws by stepping foot on it.
3) International laws exist as something that people on Earth follow. To date, interstellar laws do not, as far as Earth is concerned, until there’s some sort of agreement, or at the very least, some sort of acknowledgment that there ARE such laws.
“I am seeing less Federation and more interstellar empire using the principalities behavior. So less Star Trek federation and more a slightly more aggressive version of the Jurain Empire from Tenchi Muyo (when you step away from the main cast and regard their treatment of planets like Earth in general).”
With both the Jurain Empire and the Federation, they do not police people OUTSIDE of their federations/empires. They only have jurisdiction of those who belong to those groups. In short, a government derives its power from the governed. Deus is not one of the Xevoarchy’s governed, nor is Earth in general, so the Xevoarchy has no ability to enforce laws on Earthlings unless those Earthlings agree to the supremacy of the Xevoarchy first.
Think about it. Did the space police try to arrest Tenchi? No. They wanted to arrest Ryoko. Ryoko was subject to those laws. Tenchi was not.
When Kirk or Picard or whoever violates the Prime Directive, does the Federation punish the alien civilization that was affected by the violation of the Prime Directive? Heck, does the Federation punish the Romulans if the Romulans interfere with a pre-warp civilization? No. They punish the Starfleet officer that violates the Prime Directive (sometimes). Because the starfleet officer is subject to those laws. Not the Romulan. Not the pre-warp civilization.
“on the scale thing. I was using a modified scale, one part Kardashev but also taking factors other than “how much energy can we use” which feels like a really primitive way to judge a civilization. Also factor in all forms of tech, communication ranges, fuel types, entertainment, travel, medical, environmental balance, and also the factors of social and mental development and regards to themselves, others of their own kind, and towards of life forms as well as efficiency in all the above.”
The Kardashev scale DOES take into account ALL energy used by a civilization. Which includes all forms of tech, communication ranges, fuel types, entertainment, travel, medical, etc. It’s a very generalized definition of ‘energy.’ And Earth is, according to people like Carl Sagan, Michio Kaku, and Freeman J Dyson, approximately a 0.73 Civilization :).
The entire concept is meant to be a very ‘completionist’ concept in science fiction :) Just to give examples of how technologically advanced a civilization is.
Type 1 – planetary civilization – can use and store all the energy available on its planet (and again, when I say ‘all’ I mean ALL….. everything that derives from that energy as well)
Type 2 – stellar civilization – can use and control all the energy available in its solar system (the whole concept of the Dyson Sphere is a theory on how a civilization might be able to do something like that:) )
Type 3 – galactic civilization – can control all teh energy at teh scale of its ENTIRE host galaxy
Type 4 – can utilize the full total of energy of the entire universe – extragalactic energy – well that’s Dr. Who’s Time Masters or Star Trek’s Q Continuum or Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet (or possibly the beings that created Nth level Tech in the grrlpower universe)
There’s also supposedly a level V Kardashev rating, which could control the energy output of entire COLLECTIONS of universes.
There’s also a Barrow scale which goes in the opposite direction, for mastery over increasingly small scales instead of increasingly large ones.
“A few people can be smart, humanity as a whole is a hoard of shrieking goblins copying each other’s movements to look smart.”
I’ve honestly never liked that view of humanity. I think the more people there are, the more intelligent we are. Because even though, yes, there are going to be a lot more stupid people trying to copy each other to ‘look’ smart, there will also be a larger amount of actual geniuses, who will be able to make the entire collective of humanity better. Humans are by far the most social animals on this planet, and in a lot of different sci-fi stories, it tends to be the major advantage humans have, even when other aliens have all sorts of other physical abilities or tech beyond that of humans.
I like how Babylon put it on how humans are unique among the different alien races, as described by Ambassador Delenn:
‘Humans share one unique quality: They build communities. If the Narns or Centauri or any other race built a station like this, it would be used only by their own people. But everywhere humans go, they create communities out of diverse and sometimes hostile populations. It is a great gift, and a terrible responsibility–one that cannot be abandoned.’
“(Also note Earth isn’t ONE civilization at all but several hundred if not thousands and while certain technologies have become more common they aren’t exactly the same)”
Yes but if we’re going to argue that, we can argue it down to the family unit…. or even to the individual. That being said, the debates happening internationally about the technology from the Fel ship trade probably have taken different regional powers on Earth into account, just like with Galytin and the tech they’ve gained from the Alari.
(PS – if I’m wrong about Tenchi Muyo I apologize – I’ve only watched the movies and OAV, I have only seen a few of the tv episodes)
OVA 5 has placed Earth under a government without Earth’s consent or knowledge and when Earth is “ready” will be told about it. It confused me but OVA 5 ties into a Light Novel series called (Paradise Wars) that I had to google the summary and characters of as they are a large focus of episodes 3 and 4 *which is all that is out now of OVA 5, two more episodes will be released in 2021 about three months apart from each other.
this diminished my views of the Jurain empire a bit. More so than GXP did. I try to focus on the “main” timeline. OVA 1.2, GXP, OVA 3, War on Geminar, OVA 4,5
-with notes that a manga or light novel retelling of GXP; which continues past the events of the anime is what is considered canon now (not that different from GXP, Kajishima Masaki just hated NB *which was inserted into the anime because of who made the anime*; so GXP’s big events and characters are the same. ) and Paradise Wars which sets Earth into the government limits of a pirate federation and Earth is basically treated as a colony whose decisions are made by people without the knowledge or consent of the natives.
Which is really what I should have gotten to regarding the laws. My opinion of the Xevoarchy currently with the conscripted forces to their empire and bombing problematic planets isn’t based on current international laws; I muddled that with the China stuff trying to make it simpler. But rather let’s say the British Empire or other colonialists who find a territory with a native population but isn’t able to defend its self effectively, and is not claimed by any imperial force at the same military might.
Basically, I am currently under the impression they view themselves as judge and jury and would have no qualms about stepping over a “primitive” world to get what they want. Its why I expressed the concern some pages back that Earth having supers puts Earth at risk of attack by the Xevoarchy if Earth starts to acquire space traveling advanced tech too quickly as Earth still wars with its self over ideological concerns. Having a world like that with that much power go into space may result in them trying to (cage) the planet.
I won’t argue the Kardashev scale, that’s them. I was trying to think complexity and efficiency not just energy use; but that’s them, make bomb boom bigger human mindset. No concern over finesse. But realistically even over energy use look at 3 and 4 and how much the difference of power between them would have to be. It is ludicrous. That isn’t even exponential. hell logarithmic scale might not even be enough. I argue against it there because you are going to have 3.3 having fifty galaxies or whatever more power than 3.29 or something higher. While 1 and 1.1 are like three more moon bases and a terraforming machine that takes 10,000 years to make a planet livable.
That said I actually like when Sci-fi has more than one level of ascended beings. You get this newly ascended (we are gods now) pure psychic energy beings suddenly finding themselves in a new community of beyond the galaxy of even more advanced beings. I use this myself, the Ahk (pure psychic balls of light) try to pass judgment on “lesser” species only to find out that compared to the Hyper Dorns, Aethera’ions, or Amana they are primitive.
On the humanity thing. Thanks to political history, history in general, working retail for over a decade, and living in an area full of bigots and seeing the state of the world compared to previous time periods which were the same or worse. The toys get shinier but the species seems as violent and stupid as ever. It kind of eschews me towards the negative views of humanity.
on the Babylon 5 thing. I loved that show, but that was one of those things that felt like they were lamp shading an excuse to “keep it simple” and pull a planet of hats trope on every world that wasn’t Earth. Its hard to imagine a species ever getting into space without some strong social behaviors and complex developments.
on the civilizations thing. A collective of norms, taboos, ideas, and recognized social patterns and traditions. Seems not as popular to refer to groups this way today as in the past; as we have more of a mixture thanks to international trade and communications, so “culture”, “nations”, ect…then. Which makes it awkward to say Aztec civilization but not British Civilization when they overlap timeline wise; suspiciously so.
“I try to focus on the “main” timeline. OVA 1.2, GXP, OVA 3, War on Geminar, OVA 4,5”
You clearly know more than me about Tenchi so I’m not even going to try to argue further on Tenchi for this. Just going to consider you to have more expertise than my layman’s knowledge of the anime.
“Which is really what I should have gotten to regarding the laws. My opinion of the Xevoarchy currently with the conscripted forces to their empire and bombing problematic planets isn’t based on current international laws;”
I’m basing what I know of the Xevoarchy on what Cora told Sydney. That they basically have a hands off approach on pre-FTL civilizations, and only have jurisdiction on civilizations that pass that milestone. Earth is pre-FTL (technically they arent because of Halo and Deus, and soon because of the ‘starter FTL ship’ that they are getting in trade for the Fel ship, but what Deus did took place before that).
I’m also basing it on what the police had said about trying to prevent the Fel ship from getting to Earth in the first place, and once they did, they did not just try anything on Earth (even before they saw the Earthling supers down the Fel ship with just a handful of soldiers). The clear inference is the Xevoarchy does not have jurisdiction over Earth at all, and would not bomb Earth into oblivion because their charter would not allow for that. When Dabbler thought that the Xevoarchy bombed Alari Prime to oblivion, she even thought THAT was surprising – so apparently it takes a WHOLE LOT to push the Xevoarchy into acting with that much significance …. definitely not from a human getting better tech than their world currently has.
“I muddled that with the China stuff trying to make it simpler. But rather let’s say the British Empire or other colonialists who find a territory with a native population but isn’t able to defend its self effectively, and is not claimed by any imperial force at the same military might.”
Even with the British empire/other colonies vs native populations, the assumption is not that you are going to be subject to the laws of an outside civilization that you have not agreed to be subject, or have any sort of agreement whatsoever with. That’s why there were wars instead of being able to just have the native population arrest the British, or vice versa. There were no ‘crimes’ committed cross-culturally that one civilization would inflict on its citizenry for breaking the law of a different civilization of which they had no pre-existing agreements about those laws or that nation’s sovereignty over them.
“Having a world like that with that much power go into space may result in them trying to (cage) the planet.”
Clearly, based on the Alari, the Xevoarchy is not that quick to jump to that sort of result. Earth is nowhere remotely close to what the Alari had been doing, apparently for centuries, according to Dabbler elsewhere in the webcomic.
“The toys get shinier but the species seems as violent and stupid as ever. It kind of eschews me towards the negative views of humanity.”
I have the completely other view of humanity, and I think sometimes we’re waaaay too tough on ourselves for the small bad-ish stuff, while we tend to be slow to punish the big REALLY BAD stuff.
I’m definitely of the ‘Humanity is Awesome’ trope, instead of the ‘Humanity sucks’ trope. Or at the very least, ‘Humanity is no worse than most other civilizations’ trope (I don’t care if that’s not a trope – figure a catchier name for it and make it a trope:) ).
“on the Babylon 5 thing. I loved that show, but that was one of those things that felt like they were lamp shading an excuse to “keep it simple” and pull a planet of hats trope on every world that wasn’t Earth.”
I loved the show too. J. Michael Straczynski is an amazing storyteller usually (although Crusade was pretty bad). I admit that most alien species were planet of hats (but that’s a case in many sci fi shows where humans do not have any special abilities compared to most alien species). In the Babylon 5-verse, Humanity had one major thing going for them – they were definitely the most bio-diverse and civilization-diverse species. Considering that other species were stronger, or more techologically advanced, or had longer lifespans, or whatever, it was nice to think that humanity had SOMETHING special about it as well. Otherwise it’s just ‘Yeah, all these alien species have something special about them, or are more advanced, then there’s stupid boring old humanity, who are big nobodies with nothing going for them’ That would sort of suck honestly, plus it’s been done to death in sci-fi anyway with humanity being the backwards children vs the enlightened or advanced alien overlords/mentors.
Plus humanity being good at creating communities also is similar to how humanity differs from many animal species on Earth. Aside from dogs, most higher-level animal species are not NEARLY as community-driven as humans are. Which is actually one of the main reasons that dogs pretty much self-domesticated themselves to be around humans tens of thousands of years ago – we barely had to do anything to get them domesticated at all, unlike with cats and horses and most other species who were domesticated (I learned that from some show on Nat Geo). Because it was very easy for dogs to see humans as part of a pack, and it was very easy and natural for humans to integrate dogs into a human community at the family structure level.
“Its hard to imagine a species ever getting into space without some strong social behaviors and complex developments.”
I think it honestly depends on the biodiversity of a planet. Earth is pretty unique, at least as far as we’ve seen so far from what planets we know of, in having so many different biomes, many of which humans seem to have been able to adapt themselves to live in somehow. And that carries over into Sci-fi very often (as well as carrying over into video games).
“Which makes it awkward to say Aztec civilization but not British Civilization when they overlap timeline wise; suspiciously so.”
Who doesn’t say British civilization? The British definitely have a rather distinct civilization, although in the US we might not always recognize it since we were HEAVILY influenced by the British in our legal structure (ie, Blackstone, the concept of a written constitution being derived from earlier ideas like the Magna Carta, a bicameral legislature of the House of Representatives and the Senate being heavily influenced by the House of Commons and House of Lords, etc). But the British do have a distinct identity, as did the Aztec, as do the French, as did the Mayans, as did the Maoi, as do the Russians, as do etc etc etc
Unless I’m misreading your last paragraph, which I might be. If so could you elaborate? Thanks.
Tenchi and Slayers are two series I kind of became obsessed with LoL. My own writings definitely reflect it LoL.
yeah my own sci-fi stuff definitely downplays humanity having importance (unless modified or evolved by celestial beings or the very rare timeline where through techno-organic singularity events they actually advance….humans from most Earths in the multiverse are regarded more as animals and there is even a pet trade with humans as one of the pet species among some advanced multiverse spanning empires).
but enough on that, its subjective views of humanity from two people who likely have had vastly different life experiences. That is what makes fiction so diverse and sometimes even polarizing.
the Xevoarchy we really havn’t seen much so I am seeing them through a pessimistic lens and you from an optimistic one. I tend towards the Steven Hawkings’ approach of humanity at its state really doesn’t want to be found by another more advanced civilization. Especially if one believes that the drive to invent and expand into space goes hand in hand with a territorial and predatory species.
on the civilizations thing, that was a response to you saying when it comes to calculating technological advancement for a planet to go down to the individual. I was clarifying what I meant by civilizations was more an anthropological approach and noting that we don’t use the term very often for living cultures as much as ones that are gone. We could argue if the concept even applies to some modern nations with how much cultures mix these days. Its less pockets of cultures than it used to be. But that said, that’s why I raise an eyebrow at judging a civilization’s level of advancement on one arbitrary aspect, rather than calling it a specific level of that one aspect rather than the civilization as a whole. Divide up certain aspects and some cultures today are clearly more advanced than others but its not available to everyone on the planet equally; for instance medical technology. It is what I mean by finesse; how hard you can hit something isn’t always the proper way to judge a person’s strength for instance. What else do they bring to the table.
Nope. You are absolutely correct, Sigurther, and you are also very wise and well spoken. Also very cool.
Deus has never done anything truly villainous. He’s just ambitious and a great planner. :)
“Aside from ‘steal’ a few artifacts from a ‘secure’ vault, that had probably been taken from their original owners anyway?”
I love that you accurately put ‘steal’ in quotes, since he didnt actually steal anything. Salvage is not stealing, and taking something from people who have stolen it from their previous owners by murdering them is also not stealing. :) The definition of theft is something I’ve gone over in the past.
The legal definition of theft is the 1) taking of someone else’s property; with 2) the requisite intent to deprive the victim of the property permanently. What Deus did is not theft because it was not the Council’s property. You cannot own something that you stole from someone else, even if you murder the person that you steal from.
I’ve also gone over other elements of theft like larceny and burglary, both of which Deus has not done as well. The closest you can say is he engaged in salvage without doing the requisite paperwork. And who knows. He might have done the requisite paperwork.
“Yeah, he had that one tyrant axed, but governments do that all the time anyway.”
Plus that murderous tyrant who executed men, women, and children in order to instill fear and obedience in the populace was only axed after that aformentioned murderous despotic tyrant had ordered his men to throw Deus off the roof of the building – ie, murder Deus. So even there, it was self defense. All praise Deus, amen.
“He hasn’t demonstrated any Lex Luthor level evil plans yet. Hell, in reality, he’s analogous to any number of savvy ultra-rich business tycoons that are trying to ‘change the world’.”
I have the utmost respect for you sir, for the wisdom and intellectual rigor that you have shown in your brilliant posts. You are a credit to posters everywhere. May you have many children so that your genes may pass along to the future of humanity.
Dictator according to whom, exactly?
Dictator according to the 30+ hours of videotape evidence that Deus showed his own son, who was horrified by what his murderous dictator father did to his own people – men, women, and children, out of sport and a desire to instill fear in the populace. To the point where after the son (who was completely unaware of his father being a monstrous, family-murdering dictator) saw it, he didnt even remotely care that Deus had killed his father in COMPLETE SELF DEFENSE.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-392-one-liner-post-mortem/
See panels 7 and 8.
“Before you execute them, make sure they know the same will happen to their families.”
The guy not only executed people, he executed their families as well – and made sure that, before they die, those people doomed to execution knew their families were also going to die the same way. Just to twist the evil knife a little more to make their final seconds even more horrific.
Also, according to Deus (and backed up by aforementioned videotape evidence), the dictator warlord of Galytin was “quite a horrid individual. A textbook despot. [His] government thrives on corruption, terror squads, abduction, the lot.” and “From top to bottom every official in [his] government is corrupt, [the warlord dictator Indigne Senior] especially.”
Dues is a villain alright. He may have killed the dictator (removed one villain), but he did so for his own gain for more profit & control (through the dictator’s son)…On a nationwide scale. Dues did not remove a dictator & replace him with a patriotic leader, in favor of the people, but instead Dues established control over the newly-appointed leader by threat of similar violence.
“Dues is a villain alright.”
He’s never done anything villainous or evil. Archon’s done far worse than him, and they’re the good guys. At worst, he’s neutral, at best he’s the secret hero of the webcomic. :)
“He may have killed the dictator (removed one villain), but he did so for his own gain for more profit & control (through the dictator’s son)”
He did so to help the beseiged people of Galytin. And if he also makes a profit, that’s a win-win for everyone. That’s not being a villain. That’s being entrepreneurial and knowing how to make a situation where EVERYONE wins. Not sure how that can be considered villainous. Also he asked the dictator’s son if he wanted to rule now that this evil psycho man/woman/child-murdering SOB of a father was dead (after he tried to order his men to have Deus thrown from the roof of the palace), and the son quickly said yes because his eyes were open to what a monster his father truly was from the video tape evidence. The dictator’s son was not prepared to be able to handle the economics of turning Galytin into a first world nation when it was besieged on all sides by warlords, and Deus was able to bring in help in order to prevent Galytin from being taken over by those other warlords, while simultaneously making life better for everyone in that country. He is just in charge of the economy, because Deus knows how to make an economy work, and the son was willing to allow that. Because the son is smart and knows how to delegates responsibilities to people who are experts. Like Deus.
“Dues did not remove a dictator & replace him with a patriotic leader, in favor of the people,”
Actually he did EXACTLY that. The people of Galytin are overjoyed to have a country where they won’t be disappeared in the middle of the night, not having their husbands, wives, and children murdered AFTER they were executed as well, not being tortured, etc. The people of Galytin now have access to high paying jobs, education, and safety from war. They now have the ability to start focusing on things beyond mere survival, because they no longer are on a minimal subsistence existence because of all the job growth and the beginnings of an actual middle class, which is required for a first world nation to exist.
“instead Dues established control over the newly-appointed leader by threat of similar violence.”
Nope. Deus never threatened the son at all. He showed the son what his father was doing, and admitted that he knew that the son had no knowledge of those atrocities, and then ASKED the son if he would want to become the richest man in all of Africa and take his father’s place and allow Deus to help his country become an economic power in the world where his people would have an actual hopeful future free of torture and executions. And the son was very quick to say yes, not because of fear, but because he 1) saw his father was a monster, 2) he wanted to be rich, and 3) he wanted to be king. I wouldnt be surprised if Galytin now was a constitutional monarchy instead of just a dictatorship. When the people have a say in their economic futures, they work harder to make the country a success.
All praise Deus, amen.
Worst villain ever, right? XD
:)
Why be fancy when putting a 5 inch diameter hole through his brain solves the problem?
Creativity is fine and dandy when there’s time to kill and you’ve got all the power. But when there’s stakes, just take the baddie out quickly and then double tap to be sure.
It is a curious aspect of this comic that, in the final panel, my eyes immediately wandered down to the bad guy’s tie knot, to try and determine which type it was. Although his facial features are clear enough that such was not strictly necessary. But still of interest, for associated reasons.
Clip-on, probably.
I mean, he can probably do a perfect full Windsor every time he tries, but he saves that for more formal and ceremonial occasions. This is work, and wearing your own personal garrotte when getting your hands dirty probably isn’t very conducive to a lasting career.
Yeah, I always used a clip on during my previous job, where they thought I should wear a tie due to being an engineer, and thus “office” staff. But I was an engineer spending half my time in a machine shop, and I had no desire to have my face dragged into a machine by a noose around my neck.
We need to have an inverse Darwin award, for people who live long enough to pass on useful survival tips to the rest of society.
*presents Brett Bellmore the Niwrad award.
Brett Bellmore will never get killed in a Final Destination movie in some ridiculous way because of his intelligent foresight.
Pander can rest easy, it’s not a Trinity knot.
I’ll bet those hooded guys are all codenamed “Number #37” or “Number #572” or something.
The guy with the fob will have a pretyty low number, somehwere in the 2-digits, maybe even a single digit, but probably not “Number #1.” In an organisation like that, promotion usually comes through the offing of those further up the line. and “Number #1” won’t have stayed at “Number #1” by taking risks.
The Monarch was a pretty good arch villain and he had that minion numbering style as well :)
And yeah this guy is probably somewhere around the 20s, like 21 and 24 were.
Even remember the Illuminati from gargoyles? There is one 1, two 2’s, three 3’s and so forth all the way to 32. :-) A simple and too the point ranking system, that doubled as forgettable makes.
I wasn’t aware that the Illuminati in Gargoyles did a numbering system. I just remember they identified each other by pins and pendants and whatnot.
The Simpsons version of the Illuminati (the Stonecutters) had a numbering system though. :) Actually so did Family Guy, now that I think of it, but I think that was the Skull and Bones Society.
“I am not a number, I am a free man!”
It was detailed in the comics – Clan Building by Greg Weisman.
Thank you for this info. I never read the Gargoyles comics, only saw the cartoon. I really loved that cartoon. So well written (at least the first 2 seasons were, and most of the Goliath Chronicles, until they brought in the Huntsmen and it got sort of dumb).
season 3 wasn’t made by the same people as season 1 and 2. One reason why some fans don’t even consider it canon. Sort of the Dragon ball GT…if a new series of Gargoyles came out and was helmed by the original creators chances are (if it wasn’t just a reboot) would ignore season 3. The comics did (at least the ones I am familiar with; they were an uncommon comic to find in the shop where I lived at the time).
Yeah I remember seeing something about that on a Youtube channel talking about why Season 3 was so different than season 1 and 2.
I might have to read the comics now. :) Also I forget, was the Gargoyle Chronicles where it’s mainly Eliza, Goliath, and Angela part of season 2 or season 3? Because that still ‘felt’ like Gargoyles, but the Huntsmen part did not.
the world traveling bit was season 2. It was after they got back to New York that the whole fight where Xanatos and the Gargoyles join forces against Oberon happens. Which was really the big climax of the series.
season 3 suffered from X-men syndrome. It basically introduced its own version of The Friends of Humanity *KKK basically* to target a handful of Gargoyles; while the Gargoyles became public knowledge and tried to fit into a society that fears them, ect…and a number of cartoony filler episodes that felt so out of place.
The thing I liked about Gargoyles until season 3 happened is even the villains were not ‘cartoonishly evil’ even for a cartoon. Even definitively evil people like Wolf, Jackal and Hyena, or Dr Zavarius, or Demona, or even Thailog had really interesting and three dimentional aspects to them (well maybe not so much for Jacksl and Hyena- they were just thrill junkies).
But the others….
Wolf lived for the physical challenge.
Dr Zavarius was obsessed with science snd usually tricked into what he was doing by a more competent villain (or by Xanatos, when he was still relatively villainous before fatherhood made him a better man)
Thailog badically had an inferiority complex about wanting to be smarter thdn and independent of Xanatos, and not be seen as just some copy of Goliath.
Demona is an Extremely tragic villain, but still a villain, who never learns because she cant bear to admit that most of the bad things that happen yo her and her clan were partly or even fully herfault and she NEEDS someone else to blame, as seen in “City of Stone.” The one tike she finally does something heroic is to save her daughter Angela from Thailog, to the point where she puts aside her rivalry with Goliath and even her hatred of humanity to do so.
Dingo was never a villain (he was the one member of the pack that was most relatable and good at heart), and Fox did most of what she did because she loved and admired Xanatos, not because of any innate evilness in her heart.
Xanatos was a villain sorta, but did a complete heel turn with the birth of his son, and even before that was pretty honorable and sometimes even heroic before the heel turn. Puck respected him because Xanatos considered simple loyalty more important than even absolute power, and the guy was unendingly brave. He never did something morally gray (or outright bad) without a good reason or twelve to back up his reasoning of what he considered a greater good, and he was never malicious about it.
Meanwhile the Huntsmen were knockoff Friends of Humanity / KKK and crappily written two dimensional cutout characters, unlike the Hunter and his family line, who at least had a reason to hate Gargoyles, even tho that reason got diluted with every passing generation (Demona scarred his face for no good reason because he happened upon hervwhen she was stealing food and he swore vengeance against her and pretty much extraoolated that hated of Demons to all Gargoyles out of ignorance that they are not all the same).
Enter the Belt-buckle Dom. See how big and shiny his imaginary belt-buckle is. That must mean he’s a real man… in his own mind.
Not even that. He’s just a fucked up sadistic sociopath with severe control issues. He’s gone even beyond ‘Fifty Shades’, and that’s a phrase I never thought I’d ever say with respect to this webcomic.
yeah “villains” like this can’t be trusted at all. It is a guarantee if not saved Concretia will never be free again. He will kill her the second he feels she is too much trouble or no longer of any use…or gets someone else and decides he can’t risk controlling two powerful supers by force so offs the one that he’s been torturing the longest.
When you have nothing left to lose all you have is spite and deadly force. The thing stopping Concretia from saying screw it, I’m going to kill you, is that shock collar and the threat to her body. And sometimes you push someone far enough they forget about all the leverage you have and try to smash your head in with a rock anyway. Better watch his back just in case.
So Daddy, I’m going to call him Daddy, tells Concretia she should have secured Halo. Punishes her for not securing the mighty Halo. Then does nothing to actually secure Halo. What an asshole.
Also what the flip is up with his so called ‘fixing’ Concretia? She wasn’t broken? Was the improvement to her powers because of training or did this dude torture experiment her until her powers evolved. What the hell would this dude consider fixing. I’m thinking this cultist dude has some weird obsession with superpowers and figuring out how to improve and gift them to people. Meaning Concretia would be patient 0 for his methods Probably as some form of purity and evolution worship.
Pretty sure the “fixing” is her being obedient to him.
He is clearly a misogynist given the button having “bad girl” written on it like talking to a dog…a “bitch”…in other words is what he is calling her; and the SHOCK COLLAR round her neck. Add his having her address him as “daddy” and referring to her being punished for not obeying him as fixing her.
So yeah, he is a misogynistic asshole who needs torn apart of hungry crabs
Why do that to the crabs?
I think being eaten alive by a tank filled with bedbugs would be a better fate for such.
One nibble times a thousand, times ten thousand.
well if we want to go all out revive the ancient death-torture of “the boats”. Where they are killed by a combination of insects and infections over a period of several days.
(tied up between two rafts and force fed a lot of milk and honey *note lactose intolerance was common in the time and place of this*, the boat fills up with their own bowel movements and their exposes face is subject to unrelenting insects which also get into the rafts and lay eggs. The victim dies slowly from eaten alive by insects living in his own waste that spreads to infect the wounds they make over their body and face) basically death by septic shock.
Oof, that’s a nasty one.
Yes but have you ever had to be on a Carnival Cruise Line?
I don’t know this dude’s name but I want to see him die a horrible death.
Priorities. Secure your friends, THEN kill your enemies. Concretia would certainly be a valuable asset, especially if she owed her life to you.
As far as a horrible death goes, I’d let Concretia figure that out.
I hope it will take not many pages to see Maxina Christmas gift for this piece of shit, Maybe a one way ticket to the heart of Polaris with Sucher Punch Spaceways.
Agreed. I’m into the fantasy of BDSM, but extended not fun torture scenes is a turn off for me. Actually confused why a surprising number of authors think it’s a good idea to have 3 or more chapters of unwelcomed and detailed sadism inflicted onto their characters. :(
I’ll never get the reasons behind that.
I feels like they want to be edgy and darkgrim.
Well it seems we now know why concretia has her distinct hair do her spirit body matches her physical body.. and no ones styling her hair its just stuck up and in a curl above her, so her spirit body has hair that does the same
Props for getting the illustration of the bed and restraints right. I see what appears to be an NG tube and a catheter but it doesn’t appear to be a setup for long term restraint. I guess Achilles would have super resistance to bed sores but we don’t know that about Concretia. She doesn’t appear to be sedated (no IV) and it may be necessary for her to be conscious for her power to work. Usually this level of medical restraint would be used only for some who was actively engaging in self harm such as trying to remove sutures or scratch their own eyes out. You can actually manage a person who is assaultive or attempting escape much more effectively with just a padded room. Assuming she has to maintain consciousness, there is nothing in panel three that you couldn’t do with a padded room except that the restraints would be more consistent with button guy’s MO.
Before this conversation gets really depressing, Merry Christmas, everyone! Appropriate kudos to whatever holiday you celebrate during these long, cold, depressing days of deep winter (at least in the Northern Hemisphere. If you celebrate Christmas in the Southern Hem, I imagine you find different reasons for celebrating in the middle of summer. Do SoHem countries have a late-June holiday to cheer themselves when their days get short?). May it be cheerful and comfortable for you!
I suspect this fob-clicking… man (doesn’t deserve a ‘gentle-‘) represents a group of norms who distrust supers to the point of rationalizing their enslavement. After all, the obvious response to having beings with extraordinary powers publicly walking the earth is to want a check on their power, lest they become tyrants. And having tyrannical power over others is the best way to assure no one has tyrannical power over you.
How much are they involved in the LLC? How many supers do they currently control? What are they going to do with Sydney?
And with one phrase, one he doesn’t even utter himself, we have everything we need to know about this guy, and that the rogue’s gallery just sunk to a new low.
Deus is at least understandable. He’s evil, sure, but he’s intelligent evil. He doesn’t sacrifice minions if he doesn’t have to, he husbands his resources, he sees the potential in diplomacy and compromise. V was just out to see how tough Max really was, and to see if he could find someone he could really flex with and test the limits of his capabilities. Even Sciona managed to be marginally sympathetic, and she is a literal blood mage.
This guy? There is no possibility of casting him as sympathetic after this, and no possibility of a redemption arc. He’s got to be a one-off villain, because there’s no believable way he’s going to survive what happens next. If Max doesn’t incinerate him, or Dabbler doesn’t make him beg and pray for the sweet mercy of death, Concretia is going to hunt him down and gut him.
There is no place he can go once ARC takes notice of him. None of the established villains are going to want to get anywhere near him. Hell, Deus would likely nab him just so he can hand him over to Max, complete with exquisitely designed bow on top. This is a Jessica Jones ‘holy fuck this went Rated R’ level villain, completely and utterly irredeemable and unsympathetic. This goes beyond Silence of the Lambs, even.
Kudos to the webcomic artist for evoking such a strong emotional response right out of the gate. It’s a hell of a reveal, I think perhaps even more dramatic than V’s reveal.
i think “If Max doesn’t incinerate him” needs a bigger IF. think of everything max stands for, imagine her seeing this scene. if it was max in sydney’s chair panel 10 would be the smouldering remains of a building with panel 11 being an alien observer’s eardrums bursting in space.
The need for Intel would be about the only way to prevent his *immediate* demise, but that wouldn’t stop his eventual death.
In a situation like this, if he doesn’t get killed by Arc, there is zero chance Concretia is NOT going to turn this guy into toothpaste once she gets her body back. None. Hell, she might do it anyway, knowing she’s going to get killed for it, just to make it stop, even before she gets her body back. Because that’s what happens when you make people face a fate worse than death… they simply plan on death being part of the revenge package.
Fuck intel, he deserves to die, NOW!!!
Archon has a demon sorceress on the team, killing him and then getting intel after words *which may be more reliable due to spiritual truth compulsion spells* is on the table.
Just how versed is Dabbler in her necromancy, grab his ghost, raise his body with a command parchment placed on its forehead, and so forth; so many options to interrogate him after he is dead and cannot lie…
(granted truth spells exist for the living, but its just more satisfying, and demoralizes their followers to kill the leader and yank their ghost out on the spot to tell you everything right there)
-on that note, never tick off Rhulan, death is no escape from the Architects of Hell.
henchwench made a comment that sounded like some villains had started a corporation, the new guys all have suits on under their robes, and mask on main guy looks like would just cover an X-shaped scar, so i think this is Deus.
he has been shown to have an aggressive attitude towards any one around him. psychologically speaking, his treatment of concretia might just be a control fetish that humiliates her and not necessarily sexual in nature. it might even stem from past issues with her real father.
with sydney’s ability to mentally control the orbs, she might be making them do the superball thing to chip away at their enclosure. if and when they get free, i think this guy is gonna get a machine gun style series of impacts in the “family jewels” part of his body.
as fo “cancelling” her wit, i bet he pulls out some device that cancels sound, or one of his companions can. or maybe he is gonna put shock device on her
Gotta disagree with you on that – Deus has shown himself to not need to bend others to his will, and while he’ll resort to bribery to get his way, he knows the value in having people that exhibit actual LOYALTY to you (see: his interactions with Sciona), and treating others as one-off transactions rather than trying to force them into service.
I could see the potential in his being affiliated with them, but I really don’t get the picture that he’d knowingly do this. He’s a pragmatic villain, so needlessly antagonizing your underlings doesn’t fit his MO.
Deus is a good 20+ cm taller than this guy. also is not an idiot. He know perfectly well that holding super under control with electrified collars or things like that is a stupid thing to do that tend to blow up in your face at the worst possible moment, are we probably going to see in the immediate future, if i am not mistaken.
Deus doesn’t need to resort to blackmail and force to get people to work for him. His supers and other assorted workers are completely voluntary, and loyal to him because he treats them well and with respect (and usually with nice perks like magic swords and whatnot). This makes him better than some villain who rules by fear and intimidation – Deus’s ‘minions’ (if you’d want to call them that, but Deus would not do that), follow Deus because they respect him or are in awe of him, or at the very least because he pays them incredibly well and gives them fulfilling jobs.
We’ve seen this multiple times. Vale follows him out of loyalty (and because she’s treated exceptionally well by him, although she still won’t help him with computer tech issues). His merc all follow him either because he pays them really well and treats them fairly (Cthythllia or however her name is spelled), or the merc who “appreciate his far reaching plans,” or Opal and Vektor who let them have some freedom from their past illegal transgressions (plus he pays them well as well), or Deus’ new assistant, that Alari woman, who follows him because she is simply awed by the majestry that is Deus X Machima. Heavenly Sword also seems to follow him because he not only pays her well, but he lets her get sweet perks, like that awesome sword, as a bonus.
Deus is always 12 steps ahead, he always has multiple reasons why he was not involved in any wrongdoing, and better yet, he almost always is NOT involved in any ‘wrongdoing’ that’s actually illegal per se. Or at least nothing that can be proven because Deus is not some subservient to Big Government.
I know people say Deus is a villain, but honestly…. Deus has never done anything actually villainous. Especially if you compare anything he’s ever done do any other faction who you might consider either good (ie, ARCHON), or at least neutral (ie, the Council).
Seriously, I’ve argued this before on the forum – I’m easily able to defend anything Deus ever seems to do as a either neutral or good, or at the very least ‘not evil.’ And definitely not criminal. Even the stuff like the warlord of Galytin, acquiring goods from the Black Reliquiry, and even helping out Sciona with info. Not once has he actually done anything evil, and on mutiple occasions he’s been very helpful to the ‘good guys.’
Besides, he has the Sword of Thunderra. That not only means he’s good, it also means he’s the leader of the Thundercats, which makes him a paragon of good.
In The List, Sydney has drawn a scene with herself and Wolverine. I wonder if you have done something similar with Deus?
;-)
Don’t be ridiculous Yorpie. I’m awful at drawing. I don’t know what makes you say such things sometimes.
…
I used photoshop instead.
LOL.
Btw, when I say the Sword of Thunderra, I’m of course referring to the Sword of Omens, which gives him sight beyond sight. I just didnt want to brag too much on his behalf.
i looked at several past comics to compare deus with the close up in last panel. seemed to have similar bone structure drawn into face and similar his color and eye color. this comic, tho, is drawn to be in low light conditions and little in it to give a good idea of physical height or size. this character could be a shape shifter, or maybe an illusion caster. he could also be a doppelganger or family member. worst case he could be clone or robot/droid. only time, and the artist, will be able to tell as the storyline progresses.
one main thing i will point out is something i learned in psychology a long time ago, hardly anyone is a villain in their own eyes. most will believe that the end justifies the means. even if their actions benefit themselves along with their beliefs
magneto of x-men fame believes that everything he does is to protect fellow mutants lives and freedom.
doctor doom believes he is doing things to protect his country of latveria, even from them selves
lex luthor, since the 1980’s, believes, specifically, that he is protecting humanity from an invading alien, and from metahumans in general, especially if he makes money off it
maxwell lord of dc comics wants to eliminate everyone with powers, both hero and villain, despite the hypocrisy of him having mind control powers
sinestro, from green lantern comics, wants universal order
thanos, both in marvel comics and mcu, thinks the universe is over populated and needs to be reduced
another comment i saw about why head honchos of the bad guys arrived so fast that teleporter must be involved. but they ask why they had to use elevator to get to same floor as concretia and sydney, most teleporters i have heard about in stories and tv/film that have the power and not machinery, need to know destination in order to go someplace. short range might work with line of sight but not long range. and in building still under construction, most floors will look similar if you trying to visualize it from pic, not to mention might even go to wrong building or city
also, instead of teleporting, could be some one who creates portals, that limited to connecting 2 doorways
Cool post. Some things to add to it:
“lex luthor, since the 1980’s, believes, specifically, that he is protecting humanity from an invading alien, and from metahumans in general, especially if he makes money off it”
Yes, plus usually Lex Luthor believes that the bigger danger of Superman is not that he’s an invader, but that humanity will become dependent on Superman, and look to him like a god to solve all their problems, when they should be looking upon their fellow humans (namely him, the best of all humans) to solve their problems instead. How dare Humanity look at this inhuman alien as their savior. It diminishes all humans to be in the presence of his ‘perfection’ when his powers are not from good hard work and mental fortitude, but instead just from alien biological happenstance.
All Star Superman goes into a bit of detail about that, until Lex Luthor finally sees the world in the same way that Superman does thanks to the Superman formula. The funny thing is Lex Luthor actually says this to CLARK KENT, saying he specifically likes Clark Kent because, despite being bumbling and clumsy, he’s decidedly human. :)
“sinestro, from green lantern comics, wants universal order”
As do the Guardians, actually. The main schism is Sinestro no longer believes that willpower is the emotional spectrum trait which can achieve this order – he instead believes fear is a stronger tool to achieve universal peace and order.
“thanos, both in marvel comics and mcu, thinks the universe is over populated and needs to be reduced”
Actually in the comics, Thanos’s reasoning is significantly different. In the movies, he thinks the universe is overpopulated. But in the comics, Thanos is in love with the universal embodiment of Death itself, and he thinks he is not worthy of her love, then gets the ‘brilliant’ idea that Death will appreciate him if he eliminates half the universe, since it’s not fair to Mistress Death that there are more sentient beings alive today than the ENTIRETY of every being that has died since the creation of this universe.
another comment i saw about why head honchos of the bad guys arrived so fast that teleporter must be involved. but they ask why they had to use elevator to get to same floor as concretia and sydney, most teleporters i have heard about in stories and tv/film that have the power and not machinery, need to know destination in order to go someplace. short range might work with line of sight but not long range. and in building still under construction, most floors will look similar if you trying to visualize it from pic, not to mention might even go to wrong building or city
“also, instead of teleporting, could be some one who creates portals, that limited to connecting 2 doorways”
That would be a cool power. Plus seems a lot like the hat-wearers in the movie ‘The Adjustment Bureau.’ Although it was also done in The Matrix: Reloaded by the Keymaker.
Sinestro and Moff Tarkin would get on very well, much betterer than Takrin and Vader ever did :P
The smartest person on the ‘bad’ side (who wasnt even really all that bad a person imho) in all of Star Wars is Grand Admiral Thrawn, imho. Especially in the books, moreso than the Rebels cartoon. He makes Tarkin and Vader both look like children hitting toy soldiers together when they ‘play war strategy.’
Was going for the ‘bad’, was meaning how Tarkin preferred to rule through Fear: which is why he had the Death Star built, who would dare oppose the Emperor if the Empire could simply blow your planet to rubble?
Yeah, either because of the Tarkin Doctrine or because he knew the Yuuzhan Vong were coming. :)
(sorry I’ve been watching a Youtube channel called Generation Tech and I’ve been learning a lot about Star Wars lore from it – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAtjJcaX9AY )
… I’ve had a lot of free time on my hands this month and not much to do.
Seriously doubt the Vong are considered canon anymore, along with the three Solo-children (or even the fact Solo came from a wealthy well-to-do family)
And… mean “Wasn’t going for the ‘bad’…”, but didn’t spot the mistake until after it had posted, and wasn’t gonna post a single line correcting it
I figured that since the Chis (and Thrawn) were still canon that maybe the Vong were still canon as well since the same guy wrote about both of them. Its a shame if they are not.:( sounded like a very cool enrmy.
Pander, my understanding is that when Disney took over the universe*, they offered Timothy Zahn a choice. They were going to ditch the whole Extended Universe, with only what had actually been seen in the films considered canon. Zahn had a few fan-favourite characters in the SWEU (Thrawn, Mara Jade, the younger Solos, etc.) and would be allowed to carry one over, but only one; he chose Thrawn, and therefore the Chiss to provide the backstory.
I don’t know for sure whether the Vong are or are not now considered canon. I suspect not, at least not in their original form: I’m not familiar with that part of the SWEU, but I think Zahn had them arrive at a time when the ‘main cast’ of Episodes IV-VI were around to be part of the dramatics, and that’s obviously not compatible with the timeline that gave us Episodes VII-IX. I do remember Thrawn referring to the ‘far outsiders’ as an external threat, his motive for serving the Empire being to align them with the Chiss in resisting the invasion. But I’m not sure whether that was in the post-reboot Thrawn series or in the pre-reboot Outbound Flight.
And I would definitely agree with you on Thrawn being one of the best characters in that setting. Not so much for being smart, but for having a bigger picture; whereas most of the rest seem defined by ‘evil for the evils’, either as part of or as opposition to, Thrawn actually has reasons for backing what he sees as a lesser and necessary evil.
*OK, it was just the Star Wars universe. But I wasn’t going to spoil that line!
I believe the X-men used to have a porter that had to use doorways *even car doors* to create portals. They were killed during the Sentinel time traveling purge attempt of the less than 100 or so mutants that existed at the time. Don’t think they were ever revived.
funny enough this power is also common amongst fae in folklore, although for them it is any archway can be made into a portal.
you said ——-
“thanos, both in marvel comics and mcu, thinks the universe is over populated and needs to be reduced”
Actually in the comics, Thanos’s reasoning is significantly different. In the movies, he thinks the universe is overpopulated. But in the comics, Thanos is in love with the universal embodiment of Death itself, and he thinks he is not worthy of her love, then gets the ‘brilliant’ idea that Death will appreciate him if he eliminates half the universe, since it’s not fair to Mistress Death that there are more sentient beings alive today than the ENTIRETY of every being that has died since the creation of this universe.
i knew about thanos being in love with the avatar or incarnation of death, but did not mention it cuz so many only know the mcu storyline.
i remember when thanos was resurrected by death, in silver surfer comics i think, he was brought back, given more power, and given task of killing half the population of the universe to earn her favor. he had tried to use the infinity gems, then known as the soul gems, to make suns go nova. afterwards he found out their true power, especially when combined. at first he wanted to instead of just pleasing her, he wanted to become her equal but made mistake of forcing her to his will and earned her wrath.
since then thanos has gone thru many changes and personalities over the decades. one the storylines that was interesting, was one where it was found out that thanos had spliced his dna with several other marvel characters
‘Nah, Deus would have some sneaky plan to avoid all the mess.
He ALSO knows about revenge and supers. Yes, Mr. ‘I have a Fob’ has the upper hand for the moment but that won’t last.
Yes. This guy is not nearly trope savvy enough to be anywhere in Deus’s intellectual league.
I’m fairly positive that’s not Deus under that mask. Dave is pretty consistent with his characters and Deus is MUCH broader than Creepy Mask. Also, I find Deus to be a perv, but classier than ‘Thank you for shocking me, daddy’
No way is that Deus.
Deus doesn’t need to torture and humiliate someone in order to get them to work for him, and he has access to people far more powerful and versatile than Concretia.
that and the scar is longer then that mask if memory serves. that and this guy scream “rape” and while we know Deus has a long list or well book. I just feel every name on the book was uninflected (read drugged) consenting partner
Deus does not need to resort to torture to get a woman to thank him and call him daddy.
If you know what I mean *wink wink bow chicka wow wow chicka wow chicka wow*
He has had intercourse with very many women, and, in the scene we saw, I can’t recall him using any contraceptives …
Deus has excellent control over all of his subjects, including all of his sperm. They only impregnate when he tells them it’s time to do so.
Well there is always the possibility of a rogue super sperm. ;-)
Or maybe Deus’s super power is that his wrigglers create super children? That would explain why Galten (sp?) has an unusually high super population. Likewise his desire to have so much snu snu. As well as his experimentation with various types of non humans (perhaps, like Varia, the powers granted change depending on his partner). His physique does fit the bill.
Plus it would explain why he does not exhibit any super powers himself. Finally it would make sense for him to practice winning the loyalty of others and ensuring that everybody in his country has a good standard of living. That all would make it that much easier to retain the loyalty of numerous offspring, given that he would not be able to devote much time to bringing up any of them personally.
I love everything about this post.
His “X” scar is much too prominent to be hidden by that mask, not to mention the rest of his visible features not matching. So if it is Deus he is using more than a bit of cloth to conceal his identity.
And I cannot imagine him not using his favourite tie knot! If he really needed to disguise himself, and felt that would be too much of a giveaway, I am sure that he would opt for an outfit with no tie. Rather than lowering his standards to use an inferior knot.
The “X” scar is probably a theatrical prosthetic he adopted decades ago, so that if he ever needed to hide he could simply remove it.
I would have done something like that, if I hadn’t given up my evil super-villain ambitions in my early 20’s. (Attack of conscience, darn it; My plans were rock solid.)
That sounds like something a clever and pragmatic super-villain would say to hide his true self.
Ro, you’re already on a ninja assassin hit list for your puns. Do you really want to also antagonize a supervillain who’s obviously pretending to not be one on the forums by pointing it out? Brett is clearly a higher level of supervillain than average. He’s playing the long game.
(ps – It’s not hypocritical for me to point this out also, because I for one would welcome Brett as our new overlord, so long as his stance on puns involved torture or a lifetime of slave work in the warp mines)
But why do you assume that I am against Brett’s clever plans? Wouldn’t a obviously evil henchman try to avoid suspicion by pretending to be suspicious of the evil genius? Who but the most cruel villain would hire punster scum like me?
Even evil supervillains have standards, Ro.
*shakes fist at you*
I may be a shameless punster but I’m not stupid enough to risk getting on Brett’s shit list.
This is really crappy off brand Deus. He has the funny little fob and the evilness but without the charisma or true intelligence of Deus. This jerkwad doesn’t understand how to earn loyalty. Deus is unobjectionable in a lot of his goals and his methods rarely make me think he’s a gibbering idiot.
This guy revels not in his own ego like Deus but in power and domination over the helpless
I kind of don’t care about anything other than the fact that I can’t read panel 8 and to me that the most villaineus act in this page.
That guy is a no name pleb just a generic *ssh*l* how can everyone get to hate him this much is beyond me.
Mainly because there are few things in the cultural zeitgeist which often make people automatically think of a person as evil. Usually involving hurting someone who can’t fight back, or doing something that’s seen as morally reprehensible. For example:
1) Hurting a child
2) Treating a woman with disdain WHILE hurting them physically
3) Kicking a puppy or kitten or otherwise harming a cute and cuddly animal for reasons other than food in a post apocalyptic world where they are starving to death. And even then sometimes it’s evil.
4) Being cartoonishly racist AND physically hurting a person for those racist reasons.
5) Putting Pineapple on Pizza
6) Eating non deep dish pizza with a knife and fork instead of folding it and shoveling it into your mouth hole.
7) Saying Chicago style pizza is better than Brooklyn style pizza. (note, because of this, a huge number of Chicagoans are generally evil in the cultural zeitgeist, unless they moved to Chicago from Brooklyn and are having to deal with the barbaric mess that they call pizza in that benighted city…. those poor SOBs)
You’ll note that, although the pizza reasons are obviously the worst crimes against humanity and people who display these propensities should be shot, buried, then bury the shovel with which you buried the person, the first 4 are also pretty bad and tend to involve harming someone or something considered to be historically more helpless or besieged. This sometimes is so ingrained in society that even if the person is physically incredibly powerful, people will be more protective of that victimized person, and quickly think of the victimizer as the most evil person ever. It’s a good way for a storyteller to get the point across that ‘this person is a bad person – you should hate him (or her, occasionally).’
I know that people are sexist and racist and never care about many thing it goes like this: “everything that can be call cute cannot be hurt or we will beat you up”. So Man can only be the worst offender because nobody dare think of them has cute…..
But this is 1 guy that is drowning in the abuse of his power and that it. Had it been a women people would be like WOW kinky.
I find that guy absolutely pathetic, evil but pathetic / unworthy of that much ”love” in the comment.
Oh and thank for the pizza history, next time I’m in Boston I will be certain to get Chicago style pizza with extra Pineapple and every know that a Pineapple pizza must be eaten with utensil :P
I don’t even know those style of pizza but I LOVE PINEAPPLE ON PIZZA. In hope that you hate me more the the pathetic guy on the page:P
When I eat pizza, it has Hamburg, Pepperoni, sausage and bacon on it.
These are all acceptable toppings for pizza. You are therefore NOT in the cultural zeitgeist of being hated.
And liking pepperoni and sausage make you very sane and competent.
Liking bacon means we are in the presence of a true connoisseur of food that tastes great.
Hamburger’s good too I guess. :) I tend to go with a nice spicy salami (along with pepperoni and italian sausage) Salami is pepperoni’s older brother.
True bacon, or ‘Canadian Bacon’?
Or, Kevin Bacon?
True bacon, of course.
Canadian bacon is ham, and Kevin Bacon is … also ham. ;)
We literally have already seen a woman do something similiar or worse – ie, Sciona – who has tortured both men and women. And like Sydney says, this guy comes off as a bigger creep because of the whole cultural zeitgeist thing. :)
“Oh and thank for the pizza history, next time I’m in Boston I will be certain to get Chicago style pizza with extra Pineapple and every know that a Pineapple pizza must be eaten with utensil :P”
I will be sending the ninjas out immediately to mercifully end your reign of terror. If the inhabitants of Boston don’t collectively do so first.
“I don’t even know those style of pizza but I LOVE PINEAPPLE ON PIZZA. In hope that you hate me more the the pathetic guy on the page:P”
Truly you are a fiend of the highest magnitude and there is no hope of redemption for you and your wicked wicked ways.
But sciona would never be call cute at that time. He /she… nah! IT was the corpse of a dead male orc.
Sadly I like vege pizza the most with a sweet and sour taste it doesn’t have to be pineapple but it one of the best ingredient in that regard.
Veg pizza is not pizza. It’s salad masquerading as pizza. But I have mercy in my heart.
I will consider calling off the ninja hit squad, since you might simply be deluded and not an outright
pineapple-on-pizza-loving fiend. They probably have their hands full as it is looking for Ro Jaws to end his pun and dad-joke spree of terror, and if there’s one thing I don’t want, it’s overworked ninja assassins on the payroll. It makes them sloppy.
Hm… kinda like egg salad (real mayo) omelets. or the heart stopper.
… with anchovies
Dear god whats the “heart stopper?”
I’m pretty sure Concretia really does say the exact same thing in panel 8 that she does in panel 9. It may be blurry, but the number and length of the individual words matches.
Thank on my cellphone I can’t even tell the number of words
I zoom in, reading on my tablet.
The blur is due to the resolution.
Agreed, except for the last word.
I don’t think she’s saying ‘daddy’.
I would LOVE to think that she’s got enough defiance left in her to whisper something other than “daddy” the first time, but even with the blurring when I zoomed in, it looked like “daddy”. I’m afraid she’s been tortured (psychologically even more than physically) for more than a few days.
Which means that when she does get free of him, her desire to NEVER HAVE THAT HAPPEN AGAIN is going to guarantee his death.
Agreed, except for the last word.
I don’t think she’s saying ‘daddy’.
I zoomed in on that speech bubble. It’s the same thing she says in the next panel.
Okay clearly not Russian mafia, maybe not vampires, looking like evil doctor out to make himself a god using idiotic force moves guaranteed to make anyone he makes work for him turn on him the second they can. Or evil cult with the same issues. A Hellfire Club and House of Owls or whatever type group. A cult is also still likely, with the same issues.
It still could be russian mafia. This guy could be working for Antonin. It would make sense that the russian mafia head would not come down here directly. Or it could be a new faction. It IS clearly not Sciona’s group though.
Konstantin, not Antonin. Sorry.
The build is wrong for Konstantin, isn’t it?
So yeah, either working for Konstantin, or a rival (probably a rival, weren’t ARC-Dark in the process of bringing him down?)
Oh I don’t mean HE is Konstantin. I mean he might be working for Konstantin’s organization.
Or he’s working for the splash villain second panel’s organization. I’m making a guess that this guy is not a ‘boss’ as much as he’s a ‘trusted evil lieutenant’ to a boss.
And according to the webpage talking about Konstantin, they are not really close to bringing him down YET. They are ‘working with several agencies to confirm [their] suspicions, and once [Arc-Light] can prove the involvement of supers, they’ll be able to intercede directly.’
Archon can’t legally bring him down until they know for sure that he’s using Supers apparently, probably because Archon’s main reason for existing is to be used against supers, not just any old criminal enterprise.
Or at least that’s what I’m gleaning from this page:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-367-collar-commandeering/
(panels 1,2,3,4,5)
Umm, weren’t there a few Alpha-Betties in that room with Konny and his Goons?
Different mob boss…
No that was a different mob boss, not Konstantin. Konstantin in particular is apparently too subtle and careful compared to others who “invariably become overconfident” (panel 3 of the above link).
My name is Doctor Misogyny i have the power of the patriarch and i will teach you to behave foul mouthed halo!
Halo: ewwww
He is The Objectifier!
The Doctor Misogyny and the Kato Mask Brigade better hope Concretia doesn’t decide to just release the orbs… cuz Sydney’s basically Space Gandalf, and she’s already fought several balrogs.
I am hoping Sydney pulls a beast mode from anger and the orbs break free, snatches that remote (which has become a priority item).
This guy is a B rank villain (real world *dark* threat. Very likely to kill Concretia once she has “fulfilled her purpose” or he feels he can’t control her any longer…or just because he wants to…a rank full of rapists, murderers, serial killers, and other villains who if they didn’t have powers, access to people with powers, or fancy tech wouldn’t even be considered “villains” but real world sociopathic criminals).
Deus is an A+ rank, and Sydney has already been up against fricken Omega rank (world ending threats). But that’s the back and forth you get. Personally hate B rank villains; even if I do write about them occasionally just to watch them die…not counting horror stories as…does a monster really count as a villain?…
but yeah, B ranks usually end up dead by the end of the stories they show up in, especially in super genre series…even if in some cases the groups live on (see: Friends of Humanity; from the X-men as a reoccurring B rank villain group.
Deus is an A+ type hero and paragon of humanity.
Other than that I’m totally on your side, my good friend.
We have been over this! He is neither a hero nor a villain. He is Deus!
That said? If this scum is anything like the sexists I have seen on various jobs, no matter how smart they may be, they get arrogant, they do stupid stuff, they pay. Targeting Halo is stupid. This is looking quite a bit like this was a trap for her specifically. Concretia had info that few would on Halo’s abilities, so…
Hmmm…
Too many players to have any idea yet who is playing whom. That said? I will make one prediction- ‘Mr Fob is going to have a very bad day. Maybe not today, but if not? Someday soon.’
‘Oh the HUMANITY!’
I am humbled by your wise words, in acknowledging that Deus is too awesome to be reduced to a single word like ‘hero.’ Truly, he is Deus. All praise Deus, amen.
And yes, this villain is making a stupid move, which is yet another reason this could not be Deus or affiliated with Deus, because any plan of Deus is de facto not composed of stupid moves.
And I agree with you about your other paragraph as well – he will be having a bad day. I’ve just been making guesses as a sort of game though. Originally there were three possibilities based on what people were saying (not four, since saying this is Deus or affiliated with Deus is so absurd that I would not deign to acknowledge such mindless ramblings)
1) They’re affiliated with Sciona – This is very improbable – it’s very out of Sciona’s style, and it would involve having an infrastructure that I’m not sure Sciona from her new body within the 53 days or less that she’s been back on Earth, especially considering it took a while to even get her and her two cohorts in the first 3 bodies, and it would take a while to get other Alari in bodies as well. Plus she might have other priorities for now that do not involve picking another fight with Archon. Sciona’s a bit of a ‘long term planner.’
2) The russian mob leader, Konstantin (I don’t know why I was calling him Antonin earlier, brain temporarily was broken I guess) Zaitzev. The tactics that they’ve been using feel very russian mob-like to force Concretia to do what she’s doing.
3) That religious big bad who says ‘The time of cleansing is at hand’ on the splash page. These guys are all wearing those robes and cowls and it gives off a pseudo-religious cult-like feel. So he might be behind these new guys as well, whoever he is.
4) The Super LLC – this seems highly unlikely now, and seems more unlikely with each additional page. I think the geokinetic stuff was a red herring, and they are just a convenient distraction for this kidnapping attempt, just like the alien mercs was a convenient distraction. Alternatively, the Super LLC is working FOR one of the other choices, since Brut did say there were bounties on taking people like Maxima alive (so it serves to figure that maybe there’s one on Halo as well).
“does a monster really count as a villain?…” Monster is a relative state.
a field spirit that consumes pets and a human tied to a post in the middle of a field in exchange for blessing the cornfield with a good harvest, or a field spirit targeting a kid from a house who saw it going about the fields by their house late one night.
sort of the do you count Pennywise or zombies as villains? Or do you reserve the term for beings who SHOULD feel guilt for harming others of their own kind, as opposed to predators that just look human. Although I guess being sapient may be a factor.
I’d agree that sapience is necessary to be a villain.
Ie, Pennywise is a villain but the zombies are just mindless monsters :) Enemies, not villains, any more than a man-eating lion is a villain. Pennywise is not mindless, so he can be villainous when he eats kids. Zombies can’t really be villainous when they have no higher brain functions to know what they’re doing beyond ‘Hungry. Eat people.’
Always knew there was something sus about Bat-boy’s butler…
I just realized why you said that, lol. Forgot that Pennywise is Alfred’s last name and not just the name of the child-eating nightmarish clown from Stephen King’s ‘It.’
Yeah, I completely forgot that myself. How often is his last name ever said in anything?
I just realized… it’s Pennyworth, not Pennywise for Alfred’s last name :)
Yeah, realised that after posting, but… in for a Penny-worth of puns :D
and I didn’t even bother to double check before typing. LoL. Yeah, I can’t remember the last time his full name was said; been watching as part of a viewings rotation the 1990’s Batman the Animated series, most the way through season 2 and I can’t recal the last time Alfred’s full name was invoked on the show.
Yeah I was talking about not writing characters like that myself but then my brain reminded me of the horror stories I write around Halloween time have characters like them in them; just as supernatural ones.
the examples alluded to
The Moonlight Dancer
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3349055/1/The-Moonlight-Dancer
and
The Thing from the Wheatfield
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3348573/1/The-Thing-from-the-Wheat-Field
additional: I think some bots may have attacked this site (Fictionpress) not too long ago, as it looks like it is now asking people to do the “are you human” test just to read anything. Normally you only see that if you have an account and sign in.
I’m beginning to think I’m right about the russian mafia guy being the one involved here.
It’s definitely not Sciona and probably not the Super LLC.
And he would fit the bill of not being ‘… a university, corporation or government’.
Exactly :) Hence why I’m still leaning towards the russian mafia guy, Antonin whateverhisnameis. A little less than I was last strip, since this could be a new enemy, but the russian mob’s still in the running.
*gives a Yorpie Snax*
Ooh, it must be Christmas!
*gobble gobble*
Could you link the comic for the russian mafia guy? I don’t remember him.
He’s mentioned when they’re reviewing the parking lot battle: Grrl Power #367 – Collar commandeering.
You know…. blackmail wouldn’t work, Sydney has seen enough comic/anime/games to know just tell the authorities is the only way to beat that right away. Some kind of mind control effect on Sydney would be the most likely thing to happen now, which Sydney wouldn’t have a defense against. Which means either Sydney is getting mind controlled for a bit, or it might be time for the last orb to have a power.
My personal guess, if its an orb power, would be an orb that “regulates” the operators mind – kind of like a saftey effect built into the Orbs, so they can only be used by an unaffected mind. If its a mind control effect, we might get to hear Sydney use her code word Vermillon.
Laslty…. still wondering about what Arc is doing…
Maybe they know who Halo’s parents are, and where they are, and have the ability to take them out if Halo does not comply.
I mean that’s a non-super, non-magical, mafia-esque thing to do, and so far they seem to be controlling Concretia through a non-super, non-magical, mafia-esque fashion as well.
For that last point: I see many threads speculating about Max being just around the corner, and waiting for good moment to turn this guy into pile of ash…
Last time we saw any other Arc member, they had their hands full with Henchwench and rest of the company. And it didn’t seem like they were winning. Max COULD probably wipe them with some heavy attack, but heavy attack would mean that there would be no city left. Stalemate at best. In the chaos, it’s possible they didn’t even notice that Sydney is in trouble.
On a side note: what I find really hard to believe in this story arc is how perfectly organized everything is. It started with alien attack – something LLC had no means to predict. So, they were able to assemble force to rival Arc Swat, in matter of few minutes, and get them all on site. Even Kevin needed few hours and a teleporter. Then the issue how Concretia was already on site where Sydney landed… I hope there is good explanation coming.
Based on the adress, Max is actually probably 2-3 blocks (and about half a mile) away from here, and preoccupied with Brut and Hench Wench (or was until a few seconds ago when Brut’s junk was geokinetic’ed away from Maxima’s gun.
adress=address
All evil corporations have at least an office in NYC if not the main HQ.
Prime location near Time Square…Down the elevator, into the anonymous black limo off you go.
This is true. New York City is prime evil corporation real estate.
Moreso than D.C.? o_O
Or are the many ticks too much for even SmugD to stomach?
I will ignore your scurrilous attack on our lord and savior Deus, which is undoubtedly out of jealousy for his magnificence. It’s okay. Deus forgives you. You do not have to believe in his greatness – he believes in you, my child.
As for the rest:
No, Washington DC does beat NYC in prime evil real estate, although not by much.:) It only does because NYC is separated into five boroughs, and some of the boroughs are actually nice – it’s only Manhattan that’s a real problem. I would love if Staten Island and Brooklyn both declared independence from NYC and were made into their own cities instead. :) Plus DC is a different type of evil than NYC. NYC is more of a metropolitan business evil, while DC is more of a politician evil, and of course politicians are more evil than businessmen, since some businessmen are paragons of virtue and goodness, like Deus.
Except… Smuggy did go into politics, he is now par of the Galatyn government, so, he is doubly worse since he is a political businessdouche
And thank you for clarifying two types of evil real estate :)
The third, naturally, is religious
Ah but unlike most who go into politics, Deus made sure to limit himself ONLY to economics, of which he is an expert. Poor Deus, he cares so MUCH for everyone, that he’s willing to sully himself with politics at the risk of his pure and benevolent soul, just to help the common man. And he suffers the slings and arrows of insults of people who do not appreciate his greatness. Fortunately Deus is a forgiving paragon, and is only trying to do what’s best for everyone while also making a profit so he can continue his great works.
All praise Deus, amen.
Also you’re welcome for the clarification! :)
Secured AND gagged? Must be an Empowered fan.
So I’m guessing Harem is having a spare body bring her a tranquiler dart gun since there’s no need to send Max on recon and she can deal with this.
Don’t underestimate the evil mastermind and his accompanying minions. Maybe Harem can deal with this (once a taxi drops her off near this location), maybe not. I will wait until we see more of their powers and other capabilities before relying on one hero to take out a team of villains. Especially when Concretia may have to act against her, and way outclasses Harem (if it gets down to an outright fight).
I don’t want to see Concretia in restraints. I wanna see her in quartz.
And I wanna see this bastard who’s got her on a zappy leash stuffed full of short-fuse explosives. Anally-inserted and lubricated with sriracha.
SOL *
* Snort Out Loud.
Dr. Melodramatic Introduction.
You know I am stealing that.
Some people are actually suggesting this guy isn’t a misogynist. Honestly… yes he is, but that’s secondary. He’s an arrogant douchebag who genuinely believes not only in his own intellectual superiority, but in the severe and obvious mental deficiency of everyone else. His issues with women are a mere extension of that – he’s a heterosexual male, he desires women, ergo all women are property waiting to be claimed. Not because men are superior, but because HE is superior, smarter and better than everyone else.
He’s going to go down HARD. Not just because the team are going to kick his ass. Because he’s got the kind of “Dunning-Kruger” effect going on that flat out guarantees incompetence; when you’re arrogant, you don’t think. He’s too arrogant to do any thinking of any consequence.
If nothing else, I love that you used the term ‘Dunning Kruger effect’ so that more people know what that means. :)
What does it mean?
Oh, it’s basically where people have a cognitive bias in which people who are relatively incompetent lack the skills and cognitive abilities to recognize their own inability (people who overestimate their own level of skill, fail to recognize genuine skill in others, fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy, and think they’re a lot smarter or more competent than they actually are). It’s when incompetent people on a given subject are not only poor performers, they are also unable to accurately assess and recognize the quality of their own work. Like when someone argues and cannot actually make a coherent argument but is completely unwilling to accept they are wrong, so they usually just resort to insults while vaaaaaaaaaaaaastly overestimating their own intelligence and ability.
Sort of like when someone watching the Superbowl might act like if they were in charge, they’d have won and not made mistakes, when they have no athletic or strategic ability whatsoever, and the things they are arguing are just dumb, or when someone argues a legal point when they’re inept and completely do not understand the basics of how the law works on a given subject.
For example, have you ever seen any of those comedy man-on-the-street skits where a person asks people ridiculous things, and the people, starts responding as if those ridiculous statements are real, because they are NOT going to admit they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about?
Like where an interviewer asks people on the street what they think about a politician that they HATE doing something which is clearly made up, like “What’s your opinion about how Trump (or Obama or whatever politician a low information voter hates, I’m not actually making this political) on a safari shot and killed an endangered species of Triceratops and were caught trying to cover it up?” and instead of the person knowing that Triceratops are dinosaurs, which have been extinct for 65 million years, respond with “Yeah I heard about that! That’s just disgusting! He should know better and he needs to be arrested for that! There won’t be anymore Tricertops for our children to see in the zoos if idiots shoot them! I believe strongly in protecting endangered species!”
There was one actual scientific study (performed by Dunning in an experiment) where about 90 percent of people claimed that they had at least some knowledge of the made-up terms. Consistent with other findings related to the Dunning-Kruger effect, the more familiar participants claimed that they were with a topic, the more likely they were to also claim they were familiar with the meaningless terms.
People not only do not like admitting when they’re wrong – they often do not even recognize when they might be wrong, and the more ignorant they are, the more like experts they might think they are on a given topic.
Instead, they overestimate their own skill levels, fail to recognize the genuine skill and expertise of other people, and worst – they fail to recognize their own mistakes and lack of skill so they don’t learn when they’re wrong (ie, you can’t learn from your mistakes if you don’t think you’re making any mistakes).
Oh yes, do know that, just wasn’t familiar with the name (and yes, do realize that that make me sound like a ‘Dunning-Krugerite’)
Have actually met a few like that: not only won’t they admit to being wrong, they will attack anyone who tries to point out even simple errors
And they are so smart about everything, that if you try and explain why you made a mistake, they jump all over you, because how dare you try and defend yourself
Much much worse is if they have any kind of power (like, say, a webic author?), you can’t say shit or you are gone and all that remains are sycophants
How to circumvent The Mighty Halo’s wit? How about duct tape across the mouth, but leaving the nose unimpeded? Too bad she does not currently have hot-pepper halitosis (fire-breathing diner style).
The means to circumvent TMH’s wit may be related to the object in Dr. Misogynist’s hand. It’s oblong, with rounded corners and gold trim with a doodad sticking up – could be the catch on a folding picture frame or a purse or maybe the thing you drive a nail through to hang a picture on a wall, only attached to a cellphone showing a live feed of someone that Sydney cares about.
“Say nothing to Maxima, or Joel gets the electricity.”
You know, the longer this goes on, the more I have to wonder why nobody has shown up yet. I can’t imagine Arc Light would ignore a field agent starting to say something on the communicator before being suddenly cut off, and she is still at her “last known coordinates” so it shouldn’t be technically difficult to find.
It’s presumably been several minutes by now, so I would expect them to have attempted to get her to clarify what she was trying to say, realize she’s not responding, and send *someone* to establish what her situation is. Maxima might be distracted with the fight, but I feel like they could probably spare one of the Harems at least.
She’s going to get him monologue-ing.
“Who’s a sly dog? Sydney’s a sly dog. Yes she is!”
::throws a bone to Yorp for old time’s sake::
Whoo hoo!
*snarfs bone*
Concretia: “Don’t by belligerent.”
Sydney: “You’re a super creep.”
considering he has a remote that says, “Bad girl” on it to punish a female subordinate, and while Sydney doesn’t know this, is being shocked via a COLLAR around her neck…yeah just spitting in his face while aiming for his eye would be an equally appropriate response.
Im pretty sure she did not want Sydney to be velligerent because she did not want to get punished for Sydneys belligerence. But that happened anyway.
He has Deus’ sense of humor, but not his fashion sense…
He’s wearing his mask wrong
While this is supposedly a COVID-free universe (plus, it’s still only 2017 there, or something), I respect the good message, and the serious burn. Well done.
2010
I’m with “Dude who stole ‘Fido B-Have’ ” evil clicker”. What kind of Scooby Doo villain underestimates a hero like that? Bad!
I’m almost hoping that”Daddy” survives long enough to try his coercion routine on Vale. He’d be safer jumping into a running wood chipper.
Or Sciona. I bdt she could come up with a few creative methods. Maybe soul-in-a-jar.
Look, it’s batman!
Soooo… How many pages until this guy dies messily?
Too many
I hope Sydney has been holding back on escaping just to get more info out of Concretia while she waits for the Evil jerks to get close. Now that they are, there is no time like Clobberin’ Time!
Pew Pew Laser to the dangly bits for everyone!
thing is now she cant really act till she saves concreteia body BUT she can state the only reason shes not blasting them to next day is cause concretia so they cant really kill concretia cause thats their not get PPO card. really is reason why hostage at a bank dont work to well if your the only hostage then your the only one keeping the police or military from blowing doors and marine their arse.
I have the feeling that Arc has thought of a scenario where a choker is forceably removed, and has something in place to notify other members that the person’s in trouble … I’m even more sure that somehow Arc-Light and Arc-Dark have taken into consideration Sydney’s ability to get pulled into Shenanigans after all the Shenanigan Mangentry that Sydney was pulled into in the last Arc.
And if something happens to Sydney’s collar a failsafe is in place to get to her quickly before she gets in too deep in whatever shenaniganry she ends up in (I mean they have to have a super genius or two in there (including Corra and Dabbler), as well as someone with Super Common Sense, that would know Sydney = Trouble Brewing, and would have something to notify them when a Sydney Level Shenanigan is popping up.
This guy needs to be Aetheral gatewayed by halo to spot on the cosmic map that she didnt know if the thing at the exit killed the prior user of the balls, he actually deserves to be killed socwe can finally see what happened to the user
that thing glitching was Earth. the glitch cleared up when she came back to Earth as evidenced by her interaction with Neil Degras Tyson when she gated from Earth back to Fracture Station to bring back some Gratz,
but yes, opening a gate behind him to some random wilderness planet would be fitting, he’d likely die anywhere from seconds to days depending on the condition of the planet and the numerous fatal survival x-factors.
No, you never leave the fate of douchestains like him to randomness, there is just as much a chance he can convince the locals to join him and he becomes an even bigger douche (still smaller than SmugD though :P )
that’s why you don’t drop them in a village that worships humanoid gods.
you drop him in a swamp to be torn apart by vicious predatory animals, poisoned, or a vast empty desert to just die…of course the portal is more a threat. Die by my hand or chance the wilderness. Maybe they’ll think they will become god of the muppet people; and instead of dying quickly at my hand instead gets to slowly die horribly in a desert while being tracked by small scavengers waiting for him to die that may even attack him and rip him apart while still alive but too weak to resist them…also use a scrying window to observe this just in case some random fluke saves their life like a local god sensing the alien life form and saving them (never drop people to die on planets that have just developed life or a new sapient species some deity level beings are always monitoring them), of course course you could always dump them while still alive into a Hell or dark netherworld where even death won’t be an escape and they’ll just get back up as a soul body from where they died and continue on in endless lost suffering.
Punishing clicker guy is great and all but first they need to think about saving Concretia.
Very easy..concretia pretends to loose control over the concrete cucoon thats holding the orbs, then Sydney uses her sheild orb around him and her FoB cant be used since it blocks all radio transmissions, then Sydney brings her socuba training filles the bubble with a gas that could make him pass out,allthe while concertia has her fun with the other bad guys, then sydney drops the sheild and takes the fob and smashes it just as archon shows up…
@DaveB I don’t want to tell you how to write your comic, but I don’t think it matters if Concretia knows where her body is. In fact, it makes more sense that she knows where it is and knows that it is being held under threat, so she feels even more powerless and is therefore more compliant.
Also, Merry Christmas everyone!