Grrl Power IV: Constantly Expanded Universe

[Traab]

And while we havent had fire demon show up yet we did get to see him in a flashback getting beaten by dabbler. Its actually possible he will make an appearance soon considering they are in space atm. The other reason i thought bandage boy was cthilla was because he also wanted to use the regenerator to heal his messed up face. And maxima was talking about him as a super that she presumes/hopes is dead, therefore its probable he took a lot of damage. Its entirely possible that he is like sciona pre healing. Damaged but still dangerous. Healed up he could be another close match for maxima.

[Narkis]

Not any? at all?

The first is plainly Vehemence, and the last two are different views of Deus, the latter view showing Vale in the background.

Yes, I meant in the current arc that had Sciona as the main villain. I had forgotten all about her allies, though in my defense I had assumed the foreshadowing was about the big bads of the setting.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Since the bandaged man in the montage was speaking Arabic, he's likely the really tough opponent Maxima was hoping was all the way dead.

Cthillia is female, by the way.

[DataNinja]

Cthillia is female, by the way.

Whoops, I'd missed that. Though now I note that it even mentions that in the author's notes below the very strip I'd linked. Mea culpa.

[lord_khaine]

Since the bandaged man in the montage was speaking Arabic, he's likely the really tough opponent Maxima was hoping was all the way dead.

This has more or less been confirmed. Since what he says in Arabic is something along the line of "so im suposed to be dead?"

[Dragonus45]

So Maxima was military at the time and probably doesn’t have the usual super heroic scruples about killing an enemy combatant. She probably threw her best shot at this guy, and here he is still walking around. If nothing else it seems likely that there are more people on her level in the super community than people seem to think. It’s a shame the plot can’t speed up a bit to get to them.

[Rogar Demonblud]

I'd just be happy if the plot sped up in general.

[lord_khaine]

So Maxima was military at the time and probably doesn’t have the usual super heroic scruples about killing an enemy combatant. She probably threw her best shot at this guy, and here he is still walking around. If nothing else it seems likely that there are more people on her level in the super community than people seem to think. It’s a shame the plot can’t speed up a bit to get to them.

Yeah.. i mean she might be the strongest super in America. Depending on where Vehemence comes from, and how you rate his power.
But population wise, the country isnt that big again. Only 4 % of the worlds population.

[Traab]

So Maxima was military at the time and probably doesn’t have the usual super heroic scruples about killing an enemy combatant. She probably threw her best shot at this guy, and here he is still walking around. If nothing else it seems likely that there are more people on her level in the super community than people seem to think. It’s a shame the plot can’t speed up a bit to get to them.

However, she DID win that fight as she is the one who walked away thinking the other had died. But yes, its entirely possible that there are a significant number of unknown heroes on par with maxima. We even hinted at it during the super brawl. Arclight had no idea who like 95% of these supers were. Vehemence somehow managed to locate, brainwash, and teleport 30 or so supers to the restaurant over the course of a few hours prep time, and like 28 of them were utter unknowns. Yes part of it is because most of them never had more than a parking ticket until now, while some more might be how pathetically weak the majority were, but even so, it was a sign that the press conference when they talked about supers was them making their best guess and they missed a lot. Also im pretty sure deus set most of it up and let vehemence think it was all his doing but thats another topic.

With maxima level supers though, that gets tricky as the power sets vary to MHA levels of randomness. If they were all flying bricks like maxima it would be easy to compare and contrast, but think about it like this. Would xavier be on par with maxima? Dude is a cripple hovering around in his magic chair, but he can take control of everyone in the area, and give him cerebro and he could probably mind control an entire city with relative ease. (I think his best feats are well above that but just for reference im leaving it at city) Or the Flash. We dealt with a speedster here sure, but harem was able to take him down with tranqs at the cost of a knife wound to the arm. So the danger level is going to ramp up fast when it STARTS at mach 1 and just accelerates from there. How fast before he becomes a maxima level opponent? And then you have people like dabbler, magic and technology on an absurd scale. The powers are so flexible its hard to pin down what their limits are.

Anyways, todays comic. My money is on sydney being responsible for significant portions of the damage and cora is taking the "blame" to keep her secret.

[Keltest]

Anyways, todays comic. My money is on sydney being responsible for significant portions of the damage and cora is taking the "blame" to keep her secret.

I dunno. Even if she is theoretically capable of it, "melted bones" doesn't really seem like the level of violence Sydney would bring against anybody, ever.

[HandofShadows]

I dunno. Even if she is theoretically capable of it, "melted bones" doesn't really seem like the level of violence Sydney would bring against anybody, ever.

Yeah, while she might hurt people, she isn't that big on killing people. I think that it's mostly, if not all on Cora.

[Traab]

Im not saying she did all of it, im just saying cora is taking the blame for all of it. Im blaming sydney for property damage, and perhaps a few of the guys flung all over the place. Cora likely did the slaughter portion of course.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Considering the author explicitly states that Cora is a DPS-build combat monster, I'm pretty sure she did almost all of it.

[Braininthejar2]

Saved the station twice...

So...

Those idiots basically tried to mug commander Shepard?

[HandofShadows]

Saved the station twice...

So...

Those idiots basically tried to mug commander Shepard?

No, more like they tried to mug Spider-Man and Wolverine.

[lord_khaine]

What the heck is this for a primitive society?
They have warp travel, but still sends people off to mine warp?
Thats kinda the stuff we stopped doing decades ago because it does not work.
As also seen by how thier prior conviction number.

And dont get me started on Cora? Talk about disproportional response.
So far all the morons tried to do were to take your stuff. And since they clearly were utterly harmless i see this little differently from cold blooded murder.

[Traab]

What the heck is this for a primitive society?
They have warp travel, but still sends people off to mine warp?
Thats kinda the stuff we stopped doing decades ago because it does not work.
As also seen by how thier prior conviction number.

And dont get me started on Cora? Talk about disproportional response.
So far all the morons tried to do were to take your stuff. And since they clearly were utterly harmless i see this little differently from cold blooded murder.

They pulled weapons and threatened their lives. They were under no obligation to hold back so as to preserve the life of those who threatened theirs. Live by the blaster, die by the blaster. And they did take SOME prisoners so it wasnt just some mindless slaughter. Ok they took at least ONE prisoner. Hard to tell if they left anyone else alive. And yes, the station security specifically called cora out for her excessive force, but it seems she has some form of diplomatic protection.

As for their system of justice, I see no problem with making criminals work for the government instead of sitting in a box taking up space and costing us money. Its not like they are in a chain gang breaking rocks into smaller rocks for no purpose. And we have yet to find anything to suggest that "warp mining" is some sort of death sentence either. Its most likely an unpleasant job but its not like being sent to the salt mines in pinochio.

[Ibrinar]

Isn't discussion of the acceptability of prison slavery too politic too be allowed on this forum since it is something that still exist and is controversial in the US?

Anyway yeah getting turned into apparently rather mutilated corpses is an unusually extreme outcome for the "strong hero protagonists get ambushed by far inferior street level criminals" trope.

[Keltest]

Isn't discussion of the acceptability of prison slavery too politic too be allowed on this forum since it is something that still exist and is controversial in the US?

Anyway yeah getting turned into apparently rather mutilated corpses is an unusually extreme outcome for the "strong hero protagonists get ambushed by far inferior street level criminals" trope.

Sydney may be seriously freaked out by the level of unnecessary force used. We don't see her in this page, so its hard to judge how the narrative will treat this.

[Forum Explorer]

Isn't discussion of the acceptability of prison slavery too politic too be allowed on this forum since it is something that still exist and is controversial in the US?
.

Not until you bring real world examples into it.

[Dragonus45]

I mean, dropping an AOE on your muggers then arresting whoever lives through the blast isn’t the most proportional response to armed robbery but only because it might include property damage and it’s hardly immoral all its own. We have to assume even if the odds are low of those weapons causing serious harm to the heros, as assumption I don’t agree with in the first place, it’s a non zero number and a swift and decisive response to someone holding a weapon is a fairly standard response that any self defense course is gonna agree on.

[lord_khaine]

Oh gods.. there are western countries that still engage in it?
Though yeah, guess its now to political to talk about directly.
Do think the station should have figured out "this isnt working" when they got the guy in for the 6th time though.

fairly standard response that any self defense course is gonna agree on.

Clearly not any, since it seems like the most certain way to escalate the situation up to the point where someone gets hurt.
Actually, funny enough, a lot of places have laws that says you cant claim self defence if there is so proveable a difference in power that you isnt actually in danger.
That would certainly apply to Cora i think. But as previously noted, then it seems like she has diplomatic immunity from being a local legend.

[Traab]

It may be less immunity and more authorization. "Hey since you saved this place twice so far, you have permission to do what you have to do here without wading through red tape for permission" That sort of thing. I imagine its very much so a shepard scenario where previously she had to waste time dealing with bureaucracy that got in her way making the threat to the station worse so now its like, "in the future, go do what you have to do"

[lord_khaine]

Nahh.. because this was clearly not a case of something needing to be done.
I think its a bit more like Gotham City Police / Batman.

[InvisibleBison]

Do think the station should have figured out "this isnt working" when they got the guy in for the 6th time though.

If the purpose of Fracture Station's criminal justice system is to stop people from committing crimes, then you're right. On the other hand, it could be that the purpose of the criminal justice system is to make up for labor shortages in the warp mines, in which case it's working just fine.

[Traab]

Nahh.. because this was clearly not a case of something needing to be done.
I think its a bit more like Gotham City Police / Batman.

Meh, they were attacked and defended themselves, seems like it needed to be done. Unless they wanted to hand over all their valuables and such. Yes it was done excessively but she has permission to do whatever she does. Kind of a blanket authority to cover all bases so there is none of "Wait, was that included in her permission to act?" style responses whenever she does something. "You are authorized to do as you see fit"

[Dragonus45]

Clearly not any, since it seems like the most certain way to escalate the situation up to the point where someone gets hurt.
Actually, funny enough, a lot of places have laws that says you cant claim self defence if there is so proveable a difference in power that you isnt actually in danger.
That would certainly apply to Cora i think. But as previously noted, then it seems like she has diplomatic immunity from being a local legend.

Well sure give them the wallet and walk away is always the best possible advice, but if you have a need to disarm a person holding a firearm or knife or laser sword then the advice is universal. Move fast and remove the threat your life decisively. Also I have literally never in my life heard that rule, and for self defense applied to anyone holding a gun, or ever really heard of it being used in general during any variety of mugging it makes hilariously no sense.

[lord_khaine]

If the purpose of Fracture Station's criminal justice system is to stop people from committing crimes, then you're right. On the other hand, it could be that the purpose of the criminal justice system is to make up for labor shortages in the warp mines, in which case it's working just fine.

Thats true. Of course, that would be yet another strike against a suposed "advanced" society. If they straight up need to resort to that for labor shortage. Instead of automating stuff.

Meh, they were attacked and defended themselves, seems like it needed to be done. Unless they wanted to hand over all their valuables and such. Yes it was done excessively but she has permission to do whatever she does. Kind of a blanket authority to cover all bases so there is none of "Wait, was that included in her permission to act?" style responses whenever she does something. "You are authorized to do as you see fit"

Except.. they were -not- attacked. They did -not- need to defend themselves.
And all they had to do, do avoid handing stuff over, is Cora going "hey.. do you punks know who i am? here.. have a link to my wiki article.. be carefull.. some of the clips are censored for your protection"

When the murder in self defence loses the self defence bit, then whats left is just the murder.
And after hearing that Cora seems to a peer to Dabbler, then i no longer think she were in any actual danger.

Its like if a 11 year old punk with a dull kitchen knife tries to mug a 2 meter tall MMA champion.
There it isnt self defence to repeatedly stab the brat in the eye with your broad sword.

[Dragonus45]

Except.. they were -not- attacked. They did -not- need to defend themselves.
And all they had to do, do avoid handing stuff over, is Cora going "hey.. do you punks know who i am? here.. have a link to my wiki article.. be carefull.. some of the clips are censored for your protection"

When the murder in self defence loses the self defence bit, then whats left is just the murder.
And after hearing that Cora seems to a peer to Dabbler, then i no longer think she were in any actual danger.

Its like if a 11 year old punk with a dull kitchen knife tries to mug a 2 meter tall MMA champion.
There it isnt self defence to repeatedly stab the brat in the eye with your broad sword.

Or, and here is a thought. Armed people are always dangerous unless your someone like Achilles, a well placed shot before Sydney gets her shields up and she is down. And high tech weapons with that many people means that even Grrl Power Commander Sheperd can’t just laugh them off. Plus and this is hard to over state, if you mug someone while armed your life is forfeit in that situation. Period.

[The Glyphstone]

They're punks, why would they listen or take the time to check her credentials when they already have her at gunpoint? Street thugs like that would be more likely to think she is bluffing and escalate their threat by hurting her or Sydney. The difference between this and your argument is that the 11 year old and his rubber knife can't actually hurt a grown man in any way, but it's entirely possible those guns would be dangerous or even fatal if the muggers were given a chance to fire - thus incapacitating them was necessary. Cue the hilariously excessive force, which is probably Cora's personality rather than some inherent necessity; Cora outright says here that nonlethal attacks mean Dabbler is 'getting soft'.