Grrl Power #925 – Star crossed mercs
In an mixed alien/fantasy race situation, one could probably get a lot of mileage out of “It’s instinctive for my people.” or “It’s how my people do things.” or “My gods require…” It’s also an easy way to get busted doing something obnoxious when the party encounters a second member of your race and you don’t have the opportunity to flash him the “Bro, be cool” eyes.
This next sequence will probably illuminate my lack of editorial rigor. I’m trying to wrap up this whole Aliens in Times Square kerfuffle, and I thought, “Why not do a romance subplot between two aliens whose names you guys don’t know?”
Actually, that’s not true, Garamm was named just before he tackled Ray Cosmos. Dabbler called the flame eye demoness “Torchy,” but her name is Lapha. I don’t think she was called out by name in the comic though, but I’m going to cheat and add her to the Who’s Who, cause it’s my comic and I can do what I want.
Anyway, my bar for putting stuff in the comic is “does it amuse me?” and it seems to have been a viable strategy so far.
I pimped the release of the audiobook for Aether’s Revival 2 a few weeks ago, and hopefully a few of you have checked the series out. Well, Aether’s Revival 3 is out (just the book – the audiobook is pending.)
The new vote incentive is up! Maxima won (or lost) the draw this time. There are several clothing/non-clothing variants over at Patreon, including a special version with guest art direction from JJ Abrams. (Yes, there’s a ton of lens flares, hah hah. I amuse myself.) The a-cups will return next month, so please enjoy this offering in the meantime.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!
LATER:
Sydney: “Why didn’t you use your porno sense to detect those alien lovers?”
Dabbler: “Do you have any idea how many people get off on watching supers battle? Don’t tell me you haven’t ever …”
Sydney: “Maaaaaaaaaaybe.”
Especially considering Maxima’s wardrobe malfunctions.
Although Dabbler did actively contribute to it, considering she denuded Brüt.
What are the odds someone in the crowd is *already* casting the pr0n version of this battle, with a radically different outcome to the Nude Bomb/Nude Virus combo?
No doubt the rule 34 ARCHON sites are quickly rising in numbers and popularity in this universe.
And then Maxima poked him in the dick, which was only covered by boxers at the time, with her pistol.
Which just turned him on more
Well there is a fine line between threatening and arousing, after all.
amongst some super powered beings combat and foreplay are one and the same.
Scaroused.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5lEbWLhsiU
Rather convenient that 2 different races of aliens have the same sort of methods of reproduction and can be in any possible way compatible. Just saying, this should really be like a bird trying to mate with a fish…I can’t even imagine how
Eeeh, thing is they are both basically the same shape. Its basic biological simplicity that humans are designed the way they are, and it would make sense for other humanoids to be mostly similar, enough to at least fit tab A into slot B. Doesnt take into account scales vs flesh, or DNA allergies or incompatible fluids/bacteria, but it makes sense for the genitals to be structurally similar.
Agreed, it’s a definite case of pre-emptive anthropic principle (or whatever the recognised TVTropes name is). There are reasonable-sounding arguments for having similar body chemistry, size, and general layout, but reproductive details are rather less driven by external chemical/physical factors.
If it helps to make the biology feel a bit less hand-wavy, consider that Succubi and their like have probably been around for a very long time. They would certainly have had an interest in having the widest intercompatibility possible, and it’s a small step from that to taking a more active hand (or other body parts) in promoting it. Compatibility between species X and species Y may not have been their aim, compared to both being compatible with species S, but it’s a probable side-effect.
i ship them. i want them to switch to the good side so we can see their developing relationship and romance.
Maybe they can join Cora’s crew and be frenemies with Archon.
they are slavers.
maybe we should see the conditions and treatments of the people they have kidnapped and put into forced labor before we decide they deserve to be treated well just because they have a libido.
I mean if its the alien pet trade and super advanced aliens regarding other species as just animals, that I can understand. But that’s clearly not the case here.
So what have they done? Do they kidnap people to sell to various galactic militaries like a forced conscription, forced labor in the gravity ore mines, sold to be hunted for sport, dissected and studied by Greys,
we don’t know but given their attempted abduction and several attempts by their crew to kill anyone in their way, swords, blades, acid bath.
I am still on the fence between, arrested and questioned to get their contacts and buyers to go after them, and flayed alive.
So you want to see at least one page of sexy slaves before you make up your mind?
Slavers mostly go for numbers. These are not slavers, or at least not ordinary slavers. Also, I suspect at least in the case of Earth supers, it would be more about the studying than forced labor. Hopefully, dissecting is supposed to be LAST part of study, not first.
Well going by what they said at the start they are poachers at the very least out to make money off rare specimens they can sell to military, crime syndicates, or curious scientists who don’t care where the specimens come from.
It is still trafficking in sapient life forms. If this was their first ever go at a sapient life form because the price was just too good to pass up (not a very good excuse), but also paints a picture of who else is out there waiting till the amateurs (even if relatively) who don’t normally do this have had their go to see where they fail.
They’re not exactly slavers. They’re ‘intergalactic acquisitioners.’ Could mean a lot of things OTHER than slavers. Think of it like this….
A relatively backwards planet has a sub-set of that race capable of destroying any ship in the Xevoarchy WITH EASE and only a handful of them, or even just one of them, and beings capable of destroying entire cities or countries on their own potentially in minutes. And now they are going to have access to FTL technology that they did not develop on their own to pass one of the great filters required for intergalactic societies. This… could be dangerous to every other planet.
They might have even been hired BY elements of the xevoarchy to capture a super (preferably the most powerful super they can) in order to find out how supers can do what they do, in order to find ways to defend AGAINST them.
Yes, these guys could be bad. But again…. I don’t think they’re slavers. I think they’re hired guns. Bounty hunters. Mercenaries. And the ones hiring them or offering the bounty could be well meaning OR villainous – we don’t know yet.
You could think of scenarios where it’s understandable why they’d have been hired. While it might be to a crime syndicate, it could just as easily be to the intergalactic government to some up with some sort of strategy for defending against humans, who have a history of having significant portions of their planet being just as conquering as the worst Alari.
Xevoarchy Government Member: “Oh god, we did some summary research on this species and were looking up a few of their historical leaders. There’ve been some good ones, but there’s also some like Hitler. Mao. Stalin. Genghis Khan. Napoleon. And this goes back thousands of years of continuous war among each other! They even warn about the idea of giving other species advanced technology in their own stories like this ‘Star Trek’ thing…. A few of their kind like this Roddenberry guy know how psychotic is would be to let them have FTL tech and they just got it without figuring it out for themselves first! They’re going to be a bigger threat than the Alari if even 0.1% of their population have these abilities! Oh god and they breed SO MUCH! There’s like almost 8 billion of them and HALF of that population is just from the past 50 years! The only thing at all keeping them in check population-wise is they’re STUCK ON THAT PLANET! We really need to research these guys because if they decide to take over the galaxy we need a way to counter these powers of theirs! I don’t know… hire some mercenaries to capture a few of them!”
It’s not like humans haven’t done similar in sci fi fiction. Usually because we either know the alien species are a threat to humanity (like Starship Troopers), because we mistakenly or foolishly want to figure a way to use them for the benefit of humanity (Aliens/Aliens 3) or because we simply don’t understand the other species and how they think (Enders Game or Enemy Mine). I’m pretty sure humans probably captured a Na’Vi or two in Avatar as well in order to figure out how to create those puppets.
But the Na’Vi were into animal sex domination who themselves were always warring with each other so whatever. :) Screw ’em. (Please no one get angry about this – it’s a joke … I’m just channeling a hilarious Youtube channel called Generation Tech)
But honestly I just want these two to get away because this does make them sort of adorable, despite them having done some really not-good-stuff. :) Except for Garamm, who hasnt actually done anything bad to anyone so far except trying to protect his leader and heal her up.
Your point about the Na’avi was well taken until you started hedging. The “happy savage” and “white savior” mythos bullshit drips from that story like a tentacle closet with a hydraulic malfunction.
What all the commentators miss is that in that Pandoran environment, assuming the ecology were real, the Na’Vi children would mostly not survive to adulthood.
Environments can be deadly, or not, If they are deadly, they are deadly. I’ve forgotten all the details, of which there were many, but blaming the death of a predator on the fact that a guy walks loud is nonsense of the highest order.
Yeah but I wasnt trying to get all political, I was just trying to keep it humorous. So I hedged a bit. But yeah, the Na’vi are into bestiality and animal abuse and artificially culled their own to keep their population as low as it was. :) But in the movie they’re the good guys.
Technically speaking, the humans were incredibly self-restrained because they could have very easily bombed them into extinction from orbit instead, then strip mined the area. Lets see one of the Na’vi sexslave birddragonthings reach ships in orbit. :)
to be honest Pandora only had one organism living on it, a mega organism that was self evolving and truncating its own evolutionary sub-divisions. Which were all connected and when made aware of the scope of the threat was able to over-ride individuality to direct every “animal” to attack at once.
why there is a fan theory Jake Sully was brainwashed by the eldritch horror inside the planet after connecting that one time, as right after which he turned on the other humans…
among other rants about both sides being stupid; the whole movie comes down to
This is Blue Jacket with aliens that are blue….if not for looking pretty on a big screen in 3-D probably would have bombed.
“to be honest Pandora only had one organism living on it, a mega organism that was self evolving and truncating its own evolutionary sub-divisions. ”
Essentially saying that Pandora and all of its inhabitants are the Zerg doesnt really redeem the Na’Vi :)
Here. Generation Films says it better than I ever could! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnqPMtoL7Ng
So in short, the human invaders were the good guys because they were taking up the White Man’s Burden?
Pander and Brichins each getting the opposite impression of what I said from each other is the embodiment of why I don’t start a religion LoL.
I didn’t say either was good, in truth everyone in that movie is an asshole in some way, just like life.
that said I had a laugh at the guy who said, “they’re just trees” as the first thing to come to mind was a scene from Star Gate SG-1 pointing out that the singing “plants” where an alien organism on an alien planet….shame no one in Avatar thought to say that about the scene.
on Pander’s link, yeah pretty much; the movie did the laziest form of alien creation (take a real culture, use its broad stroke stereotypes, make them aliens).
as I said if not for being in 3-D and looking really nice this is a movie that would have with lesser effects been swept under the rug; or possibly shot down.
I want to add I don’t completly agree with the video in the link. But it does make some good points on plot holes in the backstory to the movie.
Although I always find it funny how when its an alien civilization out of resources who comes to Earth they’re the bad guys and 100% evil, no middle ground, have to be wiped out, but when humans do it its a social commentary and there has to be a middle ground, compromise, and both sides have good and bad…not just Avatar but that weird animated film Battle for Terra did it as well.
“Although I always find it funny how when its an alien civilization out of resources who comes to Earth they’re the bad guys and 100% evil, no middle ground, have to be wiped out, but when humans do it its a social commentary and there has to be a middle ground, compromise, and both sides have good and bad”
That’s not entirely true either. The aliens who run out of resources and come here to take ours are the bad guys mainly because they’re ALSO trying to wipe us, the humans, out in the process of doing so.
Independence Day.
Mars Attacks.
The Faculty.
Kronos.
Oblivion.
It Came From Outer Space.
Lifeforce.
Invaders from Mars.
Slither.
Edge of Tomorrow (Life, Die, Repeat)
Village of the Damned.
The Predator. (horrible movie but still)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
What’s the reason the aliens are all bad in these movies? Because they want our resources AND want to destroy humanity to get them, or want our resources AND humans are some of those resources (as food or slave labor).
In Avatar…. the humans do NOT want to harm the Na’vi. They do not WANT to destroy the Na’vi…. and if they wanted to, they could have done so, easily, from orbit. They just want the unobtainium, in order to save humanity from overpopulation and mass starvation and death.
In fact, in Avatar, all the violence was initiated by the Na’vi, rather than by the humans, until the human developed the Avatars in an effort to communicate with them in a way where the Na’vi would not instantly start attacking them first as outsiders. :)
So yes, in most movies of alien invaders, the aliens are the bad guys and 100% evil, no middle ground, have to be wiped out, because they’re actively trying to wipe humanity out or enslave humanity.
That’s not the case if the aliens arent trying to wipe out humanity though. Alien Nation, for example. They came as refugees. They were not wiped out – instead, humanity tried to integrate them into human society with human rights and freedoms, which the Newcomers were NOT used to, since they were slaves in their own culture. True, there was still racism of some humans to Newcomers, but the same was true in reverse. Also, it was something the majority of humanity felt, and even for those who did have racist views towards the newcomers, most still didnt take it out on them, like Detective Matthew Sykes and how he did not immediately befriend Detective Sam Francisco, but eventually they did become friends and almost like family to one another.
When humans go to other planets in most sci-fi movies, they are not going to intentionally murder the alien population or enslave them. If they are, then they are the bad guys. Usually if they go to war with another alien species, it’s because they were attacked first (Ender’s Game, Independence Day, Starship Troopers), or there was a misunderstanding (Babylon 5), or both sides were afraid of each other at the same time (Alien Mine).
Occasionally, when humans ARE the bad guys (E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, Paul), it’s usually only a small group who even know about the alien and another small group who are trying to help the alien. And we usually do NOT feel bad for the bad humans in those movies, because they’re the bad guys. 100% evil. No middle ground. Especially the bad guys in Paul, who are real jerks.
Pander:
That’s my point. Looking at it from a story telling perspective. We rarely have more advanced aliens coming to Earth looking for resources because their own world is dying or because they are a space faring people and have to restock; without ALSO depicting them as pure evil space locusts.
yet despite history to the contrary humans finding less advanced cultures in space even in the same circumstances are seldom depicted engaging in the same behavior.
the point being we need more ambiguously good or bad aliens in this situation movies and series.
Rhuen:
“We rarely have more advanced aliens coming to Earth looking for resources because their own world is dying or because they are a space faring people and have to restock;”
There IS still Alien Nation and District 9, both of whom were … more advanced aliens…. coming to Earth as refugees because their world was dying/had died (District 9)…. or because they are a space-faring race that needed to restock (in the case of Alien Nation, where the reason they had come to Earth was the overseers had all died/been overthrown and executed, leaving only the non-evil slaves on the ship left, who did not know how to keep the ship going).
“yet despite history to the contrary humans finding less advanced cultures in space even in the same circumstances are seldom depicted engaging in the same behavior.”
That wasnt always the case even for Earth. Our history is a mix of conquering less advanced cultures OR trying to help them advance (sometimes with unintentional consequences). Cortez, for example, with his Conquistadors, while still pretty bad, were not actually looking to exterminate the Aztecs, although he was looking to claim the land – he did not even know they existed at first.
Nor would he have been able to with only 500 Conquistadors – the reason he was successful was the Aztecs had a LOT of enemies in the New World, because the Aztecs were pretty brutal people in their own rights nad had a lot of tribes who were very eager to help topple the Aztecs. The story could easily be spun from:
“Cortez comes to the New World to kill the Aztecs with superior firepower and weaponized smallpox and steal all their gold and resources.”
to
“Cortez comes to the New World to liberate all the enslaved and repeatedly conquered tribes that the Aztecs were slaughtering and using for human sacrifice to their flying snake god. As for the smallpox, the Conquistadors had no idea what that even was because they did not understand germ theory any more than the Aztecs did. If not for the smallpox, even with the help of all the other tribes, Cortez and his men would have been killed down to the last man and the blood sacrifices would continue.”
All it takes is a good spin doctor. :) No offense to Varia. :)
“the point being we need more ambiguously good or bad aliens in this situation movies and series.”
I agree there. I like the idea of more moral ambiguity among both humans and aliens. Which does make me think of movies like Alien Mine, where the warfare was more because each side was ignroant about the other rather than either side being the good or bad side. Heck, even with Babylon 5, it was more a series of mistakes on BOTH sides that caused the Earth-Minbari war than either side being good or evil. When humans met the Centauri, prior to the disasterous Earth-Minbari first encounter, it was actually rather friendly and mutually beneficial to both humans and Centauri.
Moral ambiguity can make for some really good story ideas, although I do understand why a lot of sci fi invasion/space battles do put humans as the good guys.
Because we are humans. All the self-hate of making your own people the villains can be a real downer, man. :)
Pander:
“Because we are humans. All the self-hate of making your own people the villains can be a real downer, man. :)”
Loyalty to groups over loyalty to principles is perhaps the worst trait common in humanity. If you are loyal to people first, they’ll eventually ask you to betray your principles. If you’re loyal to principles first, you can never betray anyone who hasn’t already betrayed you.
I fucking love that movie, but yeah its literally just pocahontas and john smith in space
The question of whether or not they are slavers falls to one question.
If they kidnap someone and reach their destination does the client go “Thank you, here is your payment.”
Or “OH BY GRABTHAR’S HAMMER, I TOLD YOU (alien expiative deleted) TO ASK FOR PEOPLE I CAN HIRE!!”
Would the captured person be allowed to leave immediately, or would they be required to stay?
I could just imagine the shit-storm if the US tried to kidnap a Chinese citizen to gain more information about the people. (I chose China because we are not at war with them and kidnapping people is an act of war.)
“Kidnapping people is an act of war”?
Sorry, what dimension are you from? Theoretically, that could occasionally be the case if the person kidnapped was a government official of some sort. However, as a general case, it’s just a crime.
A random person kidnapping another random person is a crime. A government kidnapping a citizen of another government to hold hostage or interrogate for secrets of the other government is an act of war.
“A government” is not doing the kidnapping, so that’s not relevant.
“secrets of the other government” are not at stake here, so your claim is doubly irrelevant.
Read about the events leading up to the War of 1812, specifically regarding the impression (kidnapping and essential slavery) of US sailors by the British.
Yes, one nation doing this to another is an act of war.
Your formulation “one nation…another nation… war” is a tautology.
These guys are not a “nation”, so it fails utterly to match the tautology.
So, you’re assuming that the Na’vi “mind connection” thing is immediately “sex” rather than being akin to something tangentially related, like hand-holding or kissing. Because, plenty of people kiss their pets (or children) without that that being bestiality.
Well… one of the characters in the movie made a joke implying that it was sexual, so I think the audience can be excused for thinking the same thing.
well they are using the same orifice apparently used for sex and view it as “bonding” soooo.
As the Na’Vi shoves it’s … probe… into their … probe and there’s a very visible shock as the Na’Vi successfully …… bonds…. probes.
They’re ‘bonding’ all right. Bonding his thang into that alien horse’s thang. Yeah it’s definitely bestiality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH6xk5cl1YE
Pretty sure when a jockey rode Sea Biscuit he wasn’t shoving any of his parts into the horse’s parts. :)
It’s also rape in many or most cases wrt bestiality.
No no … they should be like Jessie and James from Team Rocket, repeatedly attacking the good side and failing but instead of them blasting off, we will always see a bit of their romance.
This proposal has my vote.
The Bumbling Villians has my vote as well.
‘blasting off’
Something about a flaming redhead …
“Make with the space lobster”
And what came to mind from that?
“Cross my heart, smack me dead, stick a lobster on my head!”
I miss Farscape.
first thing I thought of was the emergency rations from Iria Zeiram the animation, and the space walrus episode from Cowboy Bebop
…we all do.
Find a penny, pick it up…
I liked it the way it started, before the human went insane. It’s too bad that relatively optimistic viewpoint science fiction, such as Farscape started out, always gets turned to shlock. (I’m lookin’ at YOU, Sliders…)
you can blame the way American television is set up on that. Very seldom is a show given an absolute on how long it will last. If it gets cancelled or not renewed too early the story drops off (Silver Surfer, Pirates of Dark Water), or if the show gets renewed past the point where the show runners thought it would and are under legal contract to continue it gets sloppy as they don’t know what to do so can become frequent shark jumping (Supernatural, Farscape, Sliders); they get told you can’t end there, so have to change the final episode so its not final or do something after to undo the ending, ect….
One reason I am drawn to anime so much is because they buy a block of the schedule they know how long it will go for so can plan accordingly to get a complete story out and done in the time they have *with notable exceptions of course from series where they ran out of material but were contracted to not make stuff up to fill it (this became a major battle between manga artists and anime producers) or get an extension because of popularity so someone has to make something new (Dragon Ball).
In the case of sliders, it was the move to California from Canada, swapping out the heart of the show for a porn actress, and a bunch of other bad writing decisions. (…rant continues until he runs out of electrons…)
Oh Sliders was already on a downward slide as soon as Professor Arturo was killed off. :)
Ugh, another great canadian show that american producers effed up.
Hollywood is pure garbage these days, indie directors are our only hope.
Dragonball Z Abridged is so much better than Dragonball Z :)
to be fair to DBZ (especially if you watched Dragon Ball first), alot of the repeating themes, especially post Namek were because Akira Toriyama was writing and illustrating the manga by himself and had to meet very short deadlines; not exactly the best situation for being creative, but the repeating theme still sold so what the hell.
Also fun fact he has stated he doesn’t care about physics its about looking cool, and isn’t comfortable/doesn’t think he’d do a good job writing slice of life stories which is why we seldom get to see too many characters’ home lives too often.
I’ve watched both and seriously, Abridged is not only hilarious, it’s just in general a better story. :) Not only the main show – the movies too.
And then there’s the glory that is Hellsing Abridged. The scene where Alucard releases Level Zero is magnificent.
I havent heard of Hellsing Abridged. If it’s also made by Team Four Star, I’ll definitely give it a looksee.
have you seen Dragon Ball Shortz. It is by Team Four Star, CGI animated shorts that continue their timeline after the Cell saga.
I might have seen some clips of it but not any sort of ‘entire story’ after Perfect Cell was finally beaten.
I also love the Krillin Lets Plays (Krilling being FORCED by Vegeta to play survival horror games) and the Renegade for Life (Vegeta Lets Plays).
Here are a couple of the funniest ones
Vegeta being introduced to ‘The Stanley Parable.’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPgv6IVoUkI
and
Vegeta Makes Krillin Play Slender
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Nfeniqeow
The one where he makes Krillin play Outlast was hilarious too.
Oh I almost forgot the best one.
Krillin AND Nappa play P.T.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCwYfueZA-s
You kidding? Unhinged Crichton is fucking hilarious, and probably pretty close to what would really happen to someone in his situation. If he hadn’t gone wacko the show wouldn’t have been half as good.
I’d also like to know where exactly you thought the show was from an optimistic viewpoint? Even in the openings themselves, it starts off pretty stressful and dismal and only gets more so until season 4 where the opening actually starts sounding somewhat hopeful.
Can we get some pin up of Lapha next?
A thought occurred to me today…
Is there any reason why Concretia can’t fly?
I mean, after all, she is geokenetic, which should mean she could send her stone golem form flying anywhere – especially since HenchWench demonstrated so *ahem* concretely how you can send stone flying with geokenesis…
Probably because she’s never thought of it
And Henchie didn’t send the concrete flying, it was still connected to the ground, just like that thing that ate Sydney’s balls
I’m sorry. I am having a terminal giggle fit over here regarding “that thing that ate Sydney’s balls” now….
Plus those words of wisdom were said by someone who has named themselves ‘Guesticules.’
You will never stop laughing. Ever. :)
I’m so happy that this forum is full of people who share my stupid and crude sense of humor.
not all geokinetics have stone levitation, we havn’t seen her or Henchwench use stone levitation, even the big stone worm column Henchwench made and the concrete snake thing Concretia made to the grab the balls still had a connection point to their original surface, granted the movement was in defiance of the material and weight distribution, but some geokinetic powers require contact with the source maintained to operate.
Although it does feel like in anime, comics, and other media stone levitation has become more common than not.
I don’t think she can levitate concrete. In every case where we’ve seen her manipulate concrete, it’s always still connected to something – a floor, the ground, etc. It’s never detached from the ground EXCEPT when she makes a body, during which her astral self is IN the concrete, and she doesnt seem able to fly once she’s IN the concerte, only when she’s out of it.
Or when she’s been used as a weapon, against herself :P
Granted. :)
So more of a super-jump concrete propulsion a la earthbenders, then.
If Avatar and Korra are any indication, that should work. :)
Can we get a confirmation on whether Lapha was the one Sydney met on Fracture?
False. DaveB, on introducing her, mentioned that we had seen “another of her species” on the Fracture.
Aside from word of god saying its not I kind of got the impression the one on fracture was shorter than this one. Although we haven’t had Sydney stand near this one, just an impression I got.
Thank you, then we did get confirmation (just forgot :( )
Awww, they’re so adorable when they’re awkward. She could do worse.
I love your stories. Simply so. Nuff said.
Please write a system, rpg status story.
I love them.
” it’s my comic and I can do what I want ” Never a truer word spoken. Do. Not. Stop.
I think Dave should do a weekly livestream where he draws one of the characters.
Space lobster? Do I want to know what this might be?
Agreed–the reference eludes me. Anyone care to enlighten us?
the old trope that if you want to get a girl to put out you buy her something expensive like a pearl necklace or a lobster dinner.
they just put the word space in front of me; which is a really old b-movie sci-fi trope (that DBZ abridged mocked alot) where these old shows would put the word space in front of everything, basically following the trend of saying space plane or space ship, so we ended up with space phones, space monitors, space boots, space gloves, and then all sci-fi as every planet had Earth stuff on it via stock footage, space bunny, space cat, space burgers, space pasta, space pigs, ect…
even aliens in these shows and cartoons and such were calling it that. You could even get the dumbest of them “Welcome to Space Earth”,
Ah, so they are going to eat Dr Zoidberg then.
Why not Zoidberg?
It’s also a regular trope in Grrlpower that’s been used before. :)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-697-space-high/
Notice the dance that Cora’s limb suit is being hacked and forced to do. The Space Tango. Which is the tango…. in space.
And Sydney does not just suspect that Dabbler is a princess. No. She’s a space princess. Which is a princess…. from space.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-379-dont-forget-the-alien-sex-tourism/
Her clothing/skin is confusing me. Anyone know what’s up? I refer to weird lines on skin(?) in panel 4 and 8.
It looks like her “skin” is really a kind of Chitin, like the outer shell of insects or crustaceans. Maybe more leathery than hard and brittle like a crab, though.
Not that I’d bet on it but it could be artificial. Wouldn’t even want to guess as the reason behind it but potentially its ceremonial, religious or even a technological enhancement worn when traveling. Both members of the species have been ‘elsewhere’ when we met them.
Yeah, that was just wrong. Carnivorous teeth before a row of molars, and on a species that does not usually have lips. And then told those are tusks. You have failed biology!
Seriously, what kind of diet would evolve teeth like that? Super Omnivore that hides with packs of carnivores? :p
Must be a Super Space Omnivore.
you are aware that aside from the lip tusks that sharp predatory teeth before molars is a common trait of omnivores…like yourself (in a diminished capacity with smaller teeth), but common among primates;
baboon skull
http://www.thetaxidermystore.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/2/2/22067_-_3_of_6.jpg
lets also never mind its an alien life form.
as for the tusks, not every trait that evolves in a species does so for survival of the individual, those could be sexually selective traits, like the long tail on a bird of paradise or *theoretically* the long head hair on a human that seems to serve no survival purpose and is unique among primates.
but considering the tusks look to interlock they very well could be a defensive trait, protecting the mouth when closed.
“Ve-gan shark, doo doo…”
I don’t remember the exact species but I do recall an article once about a dinosaur that was thought to be a predator due to its sharp teeth but closer examination of the kind of markings on the teeth implied it may have primarily eaten vegetations, also maybe a fossilized stomach remains or coprolites. The ideas being this dinosaur primarily ate very tough vegetation so its teeth were for shearing.
of course there are also the how and why examples like the Giant Panda which by any logical look at its body, claws, teeth, and jaw structure you’d think should be primarily a predator and not gnawing on bamboo of all things.
Yeah, sharp teeth plus molars for crushing is pretty standard. (One of the things you can crush with them is bones. Juicy, juicy bones with marrow.)
The “lip tusks” are probably osteoderms of some kind, and may have functions in supporting underwater activity, although they may also have some function in sexual display.
I don’t blame him for making his move like that, as to grind against that booty at the moment is a bold risk but hey, at least she knows now.
The thing that throws me off most is that he has molars…And molars are for grinding plant matter, carnivores don’t chew…And I’m not totally sold on those front teeth being for tearing meat. Could be for cutting wood-like materials. All I’m saying is we might be looking at the terrifying, reptilian, space version of a beaver.
all mammals have molars, just some are specialized for slicing meat, other for crushing, omnivores have both kinds of teeth including ones that lean towards being carnivores.
for instance the bear, they wear down more with age, but their molars combine sharpness with being thick to crunch up bone.
https://th.bing.com/th/id/Re70831acd15c55a801efebd8292fa143?rik=InCCkPlJGmME7A&riu=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chichestercanada.com%2fgallery%2fGrizzyBearSkulls%2f15-216-G03-Lg.jpg&ehk=H6G486CJZEQb8EiDI5mk8wCF55zJb3MTQfZy5uX5m4w%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw
even better, the Hyena, which crushes up bones to eat them completly.
https://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large-5/1-hyena-skull-sinclair-stammersscience-photo-library.jpg
“Candygram.”
//obscure?
No, not obscure, just old :D
Mongo likes candy.
Where I work there is an employee who goes by the name Mongo. Yes really. I don’t know why. one year the younger workers did a candygram delivery as a fundraiser. We could not get them to understand that there really was a person going by Mongo in the company. so we were unable to send a candygram to Mongo. so sadly we could not get someone to walk into that production area and say ‘candygram for mongo’. so this is a sad tale of the joke that never was.
I too mourn this lost opportunity. Can hardly blame them though for presuming it was just the same prank call they must get several times a month.
Clearly his parents were a fan of the movie Blazing Saddles.
The idea of the two of them getting caught because Garamm’s horniness attracts Dabbler’s attention amuses me.
I said it before, but I still think Garamm is super cute. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing more of these two. They’ve got quite the dynamic.
These two have had a chance to scope out the situation with a clearer idea of the local state of things. They’ve also had a chance to note that their other crew members are trapped in Alari childcare devices (***shudder***). So…why aren’t they running for their lives and sanity?
well the last point goes back to what we’ve been saying for a while.
they had no exit strategy, other than maybe steal the tour bus they came in on. If they run, there are no space ports, they have no local contacts, and no back up get away car. They need back on the tour bus or they will be stranded *well they might have a communicator but like Dabbler may need to get some power for it* but I doubt it given how unprepared they were. Seriously, why even come down in a tour bus, not like the planet could detect a stealth drop ship. Land somewhere, gather intel, then sneakily nab their target.
they came in like…imagine a tour bus dropping people off and one group shows back up with some random local tied up like..yeah we uh…grabbed a souvinour…sure…just drive us back to our car and…
Could be that they did land a ship remotely, or with a driver. The tour bus was a cover to get the supers to show up if I recall. While the supers weren’t guaranteed to show up just because aliens showed up, the tour rocket probably promised all sorts of interesting earth things, of which, supers would be the primary.
If THAT is his happy / horny face, I’m not sure I want to see his hungry / angry / hangry face O.o
I uh.
Wow.
Ehem.
Ehum.
That- uh, that second panel is…………..
hot.
I may or may not greatly envy her right now.