Grrl Power #1442 – Something, something, chicken dinner
Under normal circumstances, blowing up the thing that’s obviously the power source is a terrible idea. Under a severe time limit? Blowing it up may be the best option. It still might be a terrible idea, I’m just saying a time limit might eliminate other paths all together. Blowing it up might be the only option.
Maxima’s blue word bubble and slightly squareish text represents that her voice is disguised. I’m thinking Sovereign, but somehow feminine. Like, 1 octave higher, and her “I’s” have little hearts instead of dots. You can totally hear it in her voice!
If Bluce and Gail didn’t know Ixah can talk, I have to wonder what the sign up process for the tournament is. Like, presumably, the competitor or a representative has to fill out some kind of form, even if you don’t necessarily need to put your real information on it. They don’t care who’s competing, whether you’re the heir to a powerful dynasty or a secret science project or a member of an unknown species, but they still need to know what name to call you. I guess Cora taught Max to write “Ixah” in galactic standard, then she just stared menacingly while they tried to ask her questions, and eventually, they were like, “Fine, you’re entering late, so you’ll need to show you can hang in the Elimination Battle Royales, so go qualify for that by fighting a bunch of battle mechs with laser halberds and oh, you’ve already broken all of them. Okay, you’re good to go! Be at the transit pad at this time.”
Ah! I thought I had more time till March. I’m bad at looking at dates apparently. The new one is underway.
Here is Gaxgy’s painting Maxima promised him. Weird how he draws almost exactly like me.
I did try and do an oil painting version of this, by actually re-painting over the whole thing with brush-strokey brushes, but what I figured out is that most brushy oil paintings are kind of low detail. Sure, a skilled painter like Bob Ross or whoever can dab a brush down a canvas and make a great looking tree or a shed with shingles, but in trying to preserve the detail of my picture (eyelashes, reflections, etc) was that I had to keep making the brush smaller and smaller, and the end result was that honestly, it didn’t really look all that oil-painted. I’ll post that version over at Patreon, just for fun, but I kind of quit on it after getting mostly done with re-painting Max.
Patreon has a no-dragon-bikini version of of the picture as well, naturally.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
MMMMMM. Space Bacon. yummy.
It seems like Ixah made an enemy
at least it’s one who has a long road before becoming and kind of threat again.
Maxima chose the Lina Inverse solution to magical puzzles.
An always reliable solution
well that’s another series I have to re-watch
It is a rather quick way to deal with an obstacle when you’re very short on time and have starship-level artillery energy at your disposal.
and a great inspiration for my own sorceress character in her early days. Vampire castle, we don’t know anyone inside, we don’t care about the treasure, its just full of traps and minions, and the job is to stop this new evil from infecting the land; well…unleash high level spells from the outside and bring it and everyone inside down.
Also riddle goblins…just stab them, especially after seeing Lina’s most cruel and sadistic move (which she only did once that i know of), where she had a reverse spell on troll regeneration and then inflicted minor injuries which caused the inverted regeneration to make them implode. Quick, logical, takes care of the problem, and kind of sociopathic LoL.
i do believe Megumin in KonoSuba did the “unleash high spells from the outside” tactic, and ended up angering the otherwise inoffensive inhabitant
Don’t knock it till you fry it!
Cheating can be fun!
Blowing up their power dumps
Will put them on the run!
Maxima got no time for Gordian knots.
Then you’d be a fool to send an opponent who you have already recognized as powerful to them.
As Digimedes already spotted: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and united we are stronger than when we stand apart.”
Please ignore the above; I was replying to someone and things went wrong.
It happens :)
And the quote is (paraphrased from the evil overlord’s handbook) The enemy of my enemy is not my friend. But it can be a temporary ally.
You are entirely right about the ‘together we are stronger’ part (if you can cut back on the backstabbery)
“United we stand / Divided YOU fall”
__ “Bucky O’Hare”: Tri-Bot
I like how the 70 Maxims of Schlock Mercenary fame says it. Not quite the same in meaning and far more paranoid but. “The Enemy of my Enemy is my Enemy’s Enemy. No more. No less.”
That is the US military standard: don’t try to respond to the problem, remove it.
It can’t stand in your way if it’s in pieces.
That’s every military standard, at least, the ones that want to be successful
Sometimes, the only response is to remove it
Funny how it didn’t work in Afghanistan, or Vietnam.
Those both had the same problem, leaders (at all levels: military and civilian) limited our ability to execute… smh lol I have about 4 pages of opinions on my time in that armpit country… being afraid of a repeat of the Marshal plan is annoying yeah it was expensive in time and resources but Japan and Germany are great places now… the Marshal plan worked…
So Ixah can talk. I wonder what else she’ll say.
Perhaps : “To any who would turn people into weapons: Don’t.”
Suitably cryptic, doesn’t point back at Earth, memorable, and suitable to be interpreted as anything from a cautionary to a warning to a threat. Delivering a line like that after winning the tournament might alter the course of galactic society for centuries. Or not. Or maybe just for a few days.
Also suitable for nerds and philosphers to debate for decades and speculate about and wonder, among other things, whether it reveals anything about her or where she came from. That effect would probably last longer than the effect of any cautionary, warning, or threat.
“Fuck yo’ couch, and all points between.”
Take 2:
“Domain Expansion: Unlimited Military Budget”
“Domain Expansion: I Am The Military Budget.”
So… How much did Deus win?
Given that he (and “Isabella”) didn’t appreciably move between seeing “Ixah” and her being set to the Fae Realm, probably nothing. At least yet, but the odds will shift after this performance.
I shall seal this indescribably powerful enemy in with all my valuables and things I care about.
Yup that was certainly a brilliant plan on her part. Apparently, she was the Fey Lord in charge of that realm.
Or was, depends on how much is left and in what condition
Honestly, there’s a reason they hold these events on barren rocks with nothing important anywhere near them. Any single one of the competitors we’ve seen could have just as easily started wrecking the realm, and may have caused even more damage than the one who went straight for the castle. This is what those in military strategy circles call “a really dumb move.”
I am actually feel sad for the faerie. She had a clever tactic that theorethically could work in very powerful individuals.
Lol no. This plan was stupid as hell. Sure it wins her the round but risks her domain. She should have made the gate throw the enemy into a *rivals* domain.
Its only clever against normal opponents, trapping the knight or wizard who wandered into your forest un-invited to come slay you or get in the way of your plans, sure your minions, puzzle masters, and realm could stop them. But this was a high level combatants battle royal tournament round. Against opponents of unknown origin that have expressed power capable of knocking down kaiju and war machines. This would be like Calypso trying to trap Vegeta on her island and being surprised he blew up the island.
Two of the combatants would’ve accidentally stepped on the castle and got sent back immediately upon arrival. The rest have some means to flatten the castle. Anyone it could work on would’ve been speed blitzed right at the beginning.
It never was going to work.
Ya this Fairy Lord has no right to be upset about trying to win this by banishing someone to the place she keeps her stuff. That’s like stealing a bomb and throwing it into your house set to explode. Of course your house if going up in flames.
Just had a thought.
The sign of a good book is one you plan to read again someday.
The sign of a great book is one you immediately start rereading as soon as you finish.
Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. The entire series is great, but the first she put her heart and soul into.
Magics Pawn by Mercedes Lackey is another I would recommend.
So that’s why she couldn’t win by default. Also a really stupid tactic. She deserved that for thinking that was ever a viable means of dealing with anyone in this arena.
I mean, while the fact that blowing up the power source resulted in the gate reopening rather than ceasing ability to function completely was dumb…
(and the fact that Max didn’t worry about what would happen to the realm while she was in it/herself if the portal didn’t reopen/what might happen to any innocent creatures living there– because she had no way of knowing if it was powering a puppy orphanage or something –as a result of her actions, was questionable at best)
the tactic is hardly stupid considering the level of the other participants. UMBRage or Gray Anatomy clearly couldn’t field the power Max can. meaning they’d be too slow and would Kill-Seven recognise the power lines or be able target them fast enough? At later levels, it might be a risk, but at this one, only Max was likely strong enough(not that Nightwing knew that), fast enough, and apparently capable of detecting lines of power enough(her magic eating sword, maybe?) to devise and attempt the strategy in time(and that’s before considering whether time was faster or slower in that realm).
Not to mention, clearly Nightwing couldn’t deal with Max normally, so it was also intelligent by that perspective. A trap which might fail is smarter than a fight that won’t succeed.
Let’s be fair here – even if the gate hadn’t reopened with the castle destroyed… her castle, with “centuries of trophies and artifacts” would have been destroyed either way, and her realm apparently destabilized to the point of potentially collapsing into de facto nothingness.
So, in that scenario… yeah, it might have finished “Ixah”, but it would have been a very, VERY pyrrhic victory.
I’m wondering how long it will be, before Maxima realizes “hey, I’m an immensely-powerful being. Why am I taking orders from these losers?” and just become Empress of Earth.
Maxima seems to be in this weird position where, by the standards of space-faring civilisations with super advanced tech and multitudinous powerful magics and powers, she is among the cream of the crop, but of Earthlings, without abusing her flight and scarring the planet or something, 2-3 people have shown themselves to be capable of being some kind of threat to her.
While it may take some teamwork/effort, it seems humanity, though the use of superpowers, have the means to rally and beat her unless she starts nuking cities.
Also, she seems to really believe in the system and have some level of empathy, so there’s that.
So, now, in addition to the title of “Destroyer of Mosques”, Maxima upped it to “Eradicator of the Fey Realms”
I feel a little like Maxima should have ‘marble shot ‘ the fairy back to her realm….
Oh good, the pixie gets to live… And gets to spend the next 5 centuries rebuilding.