Grrl Power #1333 - Predictably predictable
Added 2025-02-24 11:00:19 +0000 UTCThank you for the support! You guys are awesome!
No, she's an Alari P.A! Sciona is an ancient-ish bloodmage who has proven ridiculously hard to kill in the past, and she does look down on nearly everyone. BUT - there's no chance an adult Alari doesn't have a stiletto or a boot knife or one of those switchblade knives that comes out of the toe of their sole or heel or some sort of space derringer on them. Well maybe not alari serfs and peasants. But anyone in a house echelon would probably be armed in some way. That doesn't automatically mean they're especially dangerous. It's a lot like Japanese kids learning martial arts in middle-school. They're probably better equipped to throw a simple punch than the average western citizen, but it hardly guarantees they're an expert.
That said... I would bet Lorlara is above average at some form of self-defense. Or... other-offence. Not "challenge an ancient-ish bloodmage" good, probably, but hardly helpless under normal circumstances.
Telling a woman like Sciona that landing her in your bed is a cinch is a sure fire way to ensure she never goes near you again. Unless she thinks that's what you wanted to happen! The poison is in your cup! My cup! Your cup!
If Deus is as he says and operates 37 steps ahead of everyone else, being surprised is probably genuinely shocking for him. It's got to be like One Punch Man looking for a challenging fight. The only thing someone like that is going to be surprised by is stuff that's so wildly improbable as to be reasonably dismissed as impossible. But then a stoat DOES wind up becoming the King of Tuvalu and invades Madagascar to free all his fellow mustelaids from "bondage" by mutating Sooty Terns into roc-sized bomb payload delivery systems, but not using them to deliver bombs, like everyone prepared and budgeted for, but instead has them clog up major ports to hold the world economy hostage.
There's predictable, and then there's actionable. There are, in fact, not infinite resources and time to prepare for all eventualities.
Comments
It safe to say that Sydney is unpredictable in regards to her predictability, and she may or may not be doing both or neither at the same time! I call it the Halo Effect. Schrodinger and Heisenberg ripped off my observations
Ian Brown
2025-02-27 10:13:36 +0000 UTCSurprised cthilla doesn’t jam to darude.
Aaron Mauthe
2025-02-25 08:50:31 +0000 UTCClearly the pop culture reference!
Aaron Mauthe
2025-02-25 08:49:11 +0000 UTCIf Deus finds the unpredictable interesting, he has to be interested in Sydney. Half the time, she's purely predictable. And half the time, nothing she does is predictable.
Lee T Boswell
2025-02-25 05:46:01 +0000 UTCDeus has her disarmed by his pushy charm.
eddi_TBH
2025-02-25 04:06:32 +0000 UTCVillain courtesy. Also, that would reduce to zero his bedroom chances...
AlpineBob
2025-02-24 19:58:19 +0000 UTCAlso, my brain reads panel breaks in order of increasing thickness, so I keep reading the horizontal panels out of order. Maybe remove, or reduce to virtually gone, the breaks between 4/5 and 7/8?
AlpineBob
2025-02-24 19:56:10 +0000 UTCI recommend you mirror panel 7, so readers get the reference _before_ his reaction...
AlpineBob
2025-02-24 19:45:25 +0000 UTCLove Deus's nerdgasm face...
Hugh Eckert
2025-02-24 19:33:08 +0000 UTCI may be the only person in the world who doesn't love that movie. All the people in it are spoiled brats; I want to slap them all.
MaryAnne Glazar
2025-02-24 18:36:48 +0000 UTCLol. Neat. Though, hmm, I wonder why he won't out her? Fairly sure her goals directly clash with his, don't they?
Reigys
2025-02-24 18:20:46 +0000 UTCNot until he gets the business with his mother taken care of. Right now Dave B just doesn't have the time to do the more labor-intensive art.
Opus the Poet
2025-02-24 18:05:11 +0000 UTCWhat, “Never go in against a Sicilian” or “Get off!”?
Philip Masters
2025-02-24 17:27:17 +0000 UTCToo be fair, Danzig and Rammstein ARE pretty awesome.
Raymond Dannelly
2025-02-24 17:08:15 +0000 UTCThat… is the sexiest thing Sciona has ever said.
Aaron Mauthe
2025-02-24 16:55:10 +0000 UTCOverall, I'd have to class Deus' actions more as "does good things, but frames them in a villainous context". And, of course, he sometimes does bad things for good reasons.
JasonAW3
2025-02-24 16:37:05 +0000 UTCYou may be right, or she may just be leaning forward to get away from the shoulder-patting.
Mark Magagna
2025-02-24 16:31:45 +0000 UTCShe's about as unpredictable as it gets, so, yeah, nothing like a little spice in life!
Michael Obert
2025-02-24 16:26:58 +0000 UTCYeah, it's a lovely view already, but nothing's saying it can't be lovelier!
Michael Obert
2025-02-24 16:26:16 +0000 UTCAfter a certain point, particularly if you are enmeshed in politics (which at his level you have to be), any surprise is generally "Oh, this person isn't narrowly self-interested in his actions! How surprising!" In this case, it has nothing to do with the people's actions - Sciona will still do her thing. But there's a little bit of surprise that an *Alari* is bothering to learn about any human culture to the level of name-dropping. Alari are presented as racial-supremacists. Sciona is currently embedded with humans. She has no way home, and home doesn't really exist any more. But given how humans act in similar circumstances, it would be all too common for her to double down on "Alari-ness", and not bother with humans beyond what she has to.
Mark Magagna
2025-02-24 16:25:45 +0000 UTCHmm. Nobody? Nobody?!? Fine! I'll say it... That's what she said!
Town Crier
2025-02-24 15:56:03 +0000 UTCI know he's spoken about this in the past, but are we ever going back to the higher quality art styles? It was much nicer and it feels like most weeks we keep dropping simpler and simpler
Jack Frost
2025-02-24 15:28:21 +0000 UTCExactly, it's impossible to prepare for everything so it's pointless to try, but it is very possible to be prepared for anything and thus that should be the goal, to have a tool box full of tools and skills that between them leaves you prepared for any possible scenario, not because you planned for specifically whatever may come, but rather because they can be applicable to any given scenario, even ones you never could have conceived of in advance. It shouldn't matter if the enemy action surprises you or not.
Jacob Bissey
2025-02-24 14:55:58 +0000 UTCAnti-villains are common enough that they have a TV Tropes page.
Stephen Gilberg
2025-02-24 14:53:19 +0000 UTCAn anti-villain is actually defined. IIRC the axes on the hero/villain square are motivation and methodology. A hero has good intentions and good methodology, a villain has bad intentions and bad methodology, an anti-hero has good intentions and bad methodology, so by necessity an anti-villain has bad intentions and good methodology. Basically they want to do bad things but they stay firmly within the bounds of the rules of engagement set by the heroes, or even step fully into the realm of "does good things for bad reasons". Which doesn't quite describe Deus since while he goes out of his way to follow the law unless he's certain he won't get caught, this is less about law than it is about imposed constraints and if things like jurisdiction matters with regard to where the lines are, then they aren't really holding themselves strictly to moral lines like the heroes do. This is an oversimplification, of course, as there are lines that can be crossed which invalidate any sort of heroic intentions and push you from anti-hero into villain territory, like collateral damage, and is the reason I object to the claim that Deadpool is an anti-hero since he rarely cares about collateral damage and is willing to kill almost anybody who stands in his way a lot of the time, or at least not consider who might get caught in the crossfire when shooting or setting off bombs or whatever. But for the most part those are the axes of the hero-villain square.
Jacob Bissey
2025-02-24 14:52:25 +0000 UTCThe look on Deus' face in panel 7 made me snort my drink out my nose. Thank you for the laughs.
Slaygor
2025-02-24 14:21:58 +0000 UTCYou know, I know about the anti-hero archetype, but I suspect we've never really seen, or defined the anti-villian... Deus IS that definition... Too darn smarmy and fun to hate...
JasonAW3
2025-02-24 14:04:11 +0000 UTCThere is a shortage of perfect movies in the world...
Richard Riley
2025-02-24 13:34:21 +0000 UTCHe just looks SO happy to be genuinely surprised!
Merle Blue
2025-02-24 13:23:04 +0000 UTCThe rare case of an awesome book and an awesome movie.
A Patreon of the Ahts
2025-02-24 13:09:16 +0000 UTCNo you just set up plans that cover <i>most</i> eventualities and train like crazy to cover the outliers.
Ampws
2025-02-24 13:08:16 +0000 UTCAn improbably joyful coincidence that I only just yesterday rewatched The Princess Bride; my face was almost as ecstatic as Deus' xD
astralFitz
2025-02-24 13:00:16 +0000 UTCThat expression of pure joy certainly is something I did not expect :D
Cley Faye
2025-02-24 12:32:16 +0000 UTCEither that or she popped another button. Or both.
Marc Vun Kannon
2025-02-24 12:27:30 +0000 UTCInconceivable!
Thomas Dorner
2025-02-24 11:37:58 +0000 UTCGood old Vizzini
ciopo
2025-02-24 11:34:56 +0000 UTCPretty sure that's why he likes her so much xD
Cha0sniper
2025-02-24 11:33:22 +0000 UTCAnd yet I'm pretty sure Sydney surprised him at least twice so far.
Just a guy
2025-02-24 11:26:12 +0000 UTCI'm getting some "Make my day" vibes from Cthillia in that second panel.
3of4
2025-02-24 11:19:41 +0000 UTChappy deus is so damn adorable XD
Sharien Radaik
2025-02-24 11:09:39 +0000 UTCGod he is so bloody smarmy, I love him.
Hamish Clarkson
2025-02-24 11:08:16 +0000 UTCHe's so happy in panel 7 😊
Michael Obert
2025-02-24 11:05:37 +0000 UTC
