Grrl Power #503 – Manic loop
This page doesn’t actually explain a whole lot. It was supposed to initially, but Sydney kind of got away from me here. She’s a menace to both sides of the 4th wall.
I’m not sure Sydney has considered what’s involved in actually implementing her checkpoint ‘sploit. It would involve either dying a lot or at least hitting those acute stress levels Krona mentioned over and over. I enjoyed Edge of Tomorrow enough as it was basically the military version of Groundhog Day. I can’t say I’m interested in Before I Fall, which looks to be the high school girl version of Groundhog Day. Anyway, one thing I thought Day of Tomorrow might have done a little differently would have been if they showed the toll of dying over and over and over took on Cruises character. He didn’t need to descend into a quivering mass of overlapping PTSDs, just a line here or there about “I hope we figure this out sooner rather than later. Dying is not… most people don’t have to remember it.” Maybe one or two more traumatic events would make Sydney realize her plan has some significant drawbacks.
Given Pixel’s knowledge of artifacts, telling her your time loop is limited might sound a bit like “it’s just a tiny atomic bomb.” Presumably she’s not a fan.
This page colored by Keith.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like. Share the comic with your friends, then compete with them to see who can contribute the most!
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Until thursday, my headcanon for the next page is this:
Krona: Because I can’t include her in that loop.
Sydney: You mean like… she already knows… how last encounter went while we… are… still… goofing… around…. (grabs shield ball)
Next panel shows Sciona impotently raging behind the barrier.
Alternate version is Sciona with smug smile INSIDE the barrier, and Sydney or someone else will have to pull another trick from their sleeve, really really quick.
Excited…
Captain Obvious says “I think her ADHD meds have ran out.”
((MUGATU INTENSIFIES))
“OBEY MY DOG!!!!!!!!!!”
All the way out. It’s highly likely that we can count Halo as a mental causality for the rest of this operation. Of course she has shown that she can use her ADHD mind for good, but this is going to be rough.
Sydney us off her meds! Bring popcorn. Oh, and salsa. Kendell is taking care of the chips. And somebody make sure we have enough batteries for the camcorder this time.
nah, that’s what one of the greyed-out buttons do on the Telepresense orb does, only it’s one of the ones that she just hasn’t unlocked yet… “instant replay”
In the next comic the first panel starts with hyperactive Sydney hearing about the time loop and then all we will get is a series of panels starting with Sydney saying “It’s a jump to the left. And then a step to the right.” 5 panels later this ends with Pixel saying “I said time LOOP not time warp.”
What? When did I say that?
Are we in the time loop?
AWESOME!!!
Wait, how did you remember that? I thought only Sydney and perhaps Harem remembered what happened…
And as you are way to rational to be Sydney…
Clearly Harem’s sixth body has the pseudonym Mutterguy.
Don’t judge me! It’s the one way I can’t experiment.
Poor Captain Obvious, always being misquoted like that. The Captain is a valued member of our community, I will have you know!
Honestly, what Tom Cruise goes thru in Edge is a cakewalk compared to the endless Trauma Conga Line the main character of the Re:Zero anime gets to experience. Drawbacks to having a checkpoint? Oh, yes.
Have you ever read “Hard Reset” by Eakin? Also has a time loop with major drawbacks. (Psychological, mainly. To the point where the main character ends up repeatedly killing herself if she wasn’t perfect.)
Oh god, I can relate to that too well and it scares me.
Yes that story is awesome.
I don’t think that would happen with Sydney…She’s ADHD, not OCD. She’d just keep doing it until something works, regardless of whether it was “perfect” or not. I also tend to think that her ADHD would also protect her psyche (to some level at least) from major long-term trauma.
Sydney’s mind is already way out there in left field somewhere & I don’t think she would have very far to go before something breaks…She’s very flexible, but that merely means that she’s got more room (than the average) to bend before breaking. While I lack any personal experience with an actual death trauma, I would figure that it’s not easy to live with it; multiple death traumas even less so. Even a mere “near-death” trauma can irrevocably alter a person’s life; Recall Sydney’s reaction to almost getting shot back at the bank, early in the story. I really wouldn’t want to have DaveB forced to treat Sydney that way, because I like her as she is (more entertaining this way).
But then again, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
To which I would add, “But it’s a wonderful thing to taste.”
O.o
A waist is a wonderful thing to taste.
~ Hannibal Lecter
Not really. Just in the mainstream pleasurable manner.r
and for those of us that need to lose a few(+) pounds so the Doc doesn’t yell at us anymore:
A waist is a terrible thing to Mind.
OMC! Yes! I was just thinking about that series this morning. But yeah, I kind of like that power of Krona’s, it even makes a bit of sense since Krona isn’t to far from Kronos in spelling.
I see it as (preemptive) karma for him turning down you-know-who.
I don’t know about you but, personally, I think not dating voldemort is a totally valid choice.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Krona’s Checkpoint does NOT synergize well with either the red or green orbs.
Not quite. Sydney doesn’t synergize well. It’s kind of like giving a two year old matches and gasoline, and telling them to go have fun…
Hm? Why wouldn’t it?
You might like the highly relevant short story “Run,” Bakri Says by Ferrett Steinmetz, which was on the Escape Pod podcast a few years back.
Heh, Syd’s just being herself……….
I saw “Edge of Tomorrow” ,hated it honestly, the manga was MUCH better
of course it was, it didn’t have Tom Cruise in it
But with him…we can make the filk “How many ways can Tom Cruise Die” to “March of Cambreadth”
Still should have been Sean Bean….
Even a stable time loop wreaks havoc on casuality.
“Everything gets reset except people’s memories!”
“Uhh… memories are stored in a physical format. Either no one remembers the events leading up to the reset, therefore creating an infinite loop, or the loop is not as stable as you think it is. I also get that this is localized, but what happens with the air that gets displaced? How about the amount of distance the area traveled along the planet’s rotational axis? Did you account for orbit? Were you able to predict the exact coordinates of where our star system would be in relation to the center of our galaxy? How about the galaxy in relation to the center of the universe?”
I gotta agree with Pixel here. Too many variables to consider in order for any time loop to be stable.
Well it’s a time semi-loop, they only reset if under extreme stress untill disenchanted, so they only loop a few times than continue normall.
Imagine jumping to an alternate timeline with strong deja.vu a few times than continue as normal.
Well, now!
First, Krona managed to hurdle all the barriers you’re trying to put in place against her the first time, so there’s little plot validity for them being an issue a second, third, whatever time. She did it with casual ease, in about 15 seconds time. “There. In case…anything happens.”
Second, Pixel never mentioned any concerns about any hypothetical time loop being “stable.” Whatever that means.
Third, something Pixel actually said (other than whispering “A time loop!” And I know it was probably meant to be a yell, especially given the exclamation point, but the dashed lines on the word balloon are typically used for whispers…) was “Why don’t we do that?” Indicating quite clearly that she has no concerns about time loops if they can be used to her and her team’s benefit, as one just was.
So really, you’re not agreeing with Pixel. You’re agreeing with the Pixel in your mind who you’ve imagined saying and thinking and doing things which she never did.
I read the “Why don’t we do that?” as “Please explain to rookie Sydney here why the idea she’s propsing is a terrible idea while explaining the consequences of messing with time and why what you just did was increadibly foolish.”
The emphasis on the “don’t” definitely implies the word stressing that would convey that particular meaning.
And it could just as easily have been meant to convey something like “Yes, she’s a spaz, but that idea isn’t half bad. So why don’t we do that?”
It’s clearly sarcastic.
She wants Krona to tell Sydney the pitfalls of time travel. She’s angry because TT is friggin dangerous to mess around with
That’s a fair assumption, given the facts. I read it differently, not as sarcasm, and I think my reading is also fair given the facts.
I’ll tip you the weight of 4th wall evidence given that DaveB has said he is going to explain why Krona can’t just “groundhog day that bitch,” and Pixel might be the foil by which he gets Krona to dive into some exposition.
But Pixel is noted for being:
1) “Experienced” with “artifacts,” whatever that means
2) A gigantic were-jaguar
Neither of those necessarily lends her any knowledge at all of time travel. Certainly the second does not, and the first is so vague that it could mean anything at all. Krona is the only person present who can do it and so should be more knowledgeable about any drawbacks and/or limitations.
You are missing the inflection that Dave put on Pixel’s sentence. The emphasis is on the “don’t”, which clearly stresses the sarcastic tone. Trying to read it with your interpretation in mind, it still does not come across that way.
Just as an aside, I think you underestimate Pixel’s implied expertise. Firstly Sydney’s orbs clearly have the potential to make her more powerful than Maxima eventually. Given that Max is the most powerful known super on the planet* clearly Archon would want to assign their most capable individual to head up the investigation.
This means that (possibly for political reasons but reasonably likely for technical ones) they feel that Pixel is more likely to get results than both Dabbler and Zephan. Given the former has extensive working knowledge of both magic and alien super technology and that the latter is a retired adventurer and also an artifact expert, my expectation is that Pixel is extremely talented in her field.
As it is hard to imagine that a human would have more knowledge than Dabbler, I expect the thing that swung it is that Pixel has a broad enough knowledge base to be effective, but equally important applies sensible precautions and protocols to investigating unknown phenomenon.
Which we saw with her using a colleague, to test the blood magic sword fragment, so that she remained unaffected and able to counter any effects on him. A balance of ruthlessness and safety precautions which was appropriate to the circumstances, given the intelligence needs for the ongoing battle.
Whereas Krona has used a time travel ability without sufficient precautions. Evidenced by the unexpected result of Harem remembering things when she should not. Meaning that she has taken risks, without thinking through all the consequences.
Pixel is justifiably miffed, as Krona was risking the entire universe, in her arrogance.
Yes she can tinker with time. That does not make it wise for her to do so though. Nor does she have the moral right to risk everybody else, in such a fashion.
* Although Krona may be able to overcome her easily IF some of the techniques I have speculated on prove viable. But at the moment one of her biggest weapons, the Groundhog Day technique, clearly is not available. So we would need to see more proof, for the other approaches, before Maxima looses her crown.
@Oberon: For the bit on “Artificats”. Think Warehouse 13. That’s the experience they’re probably talking about when talking about artifacts.
And Yorp pretty much hit the whole thing on the nose, for pixel.
As for 5007’s original comment:
Yeah. You got all the data wrong for Krona’s technique, and you are only thinking about 1 of 8 types of Time Loops. (Technically this barely fits a Bootstrap Paradox, not a Casual Loop.).
Even then, what she’s doing is making a consciousness anchor, and having it much like a videogame reset when certain conditions are meant. That being said, there’s really no such thing as an “unstable loop”. It is either a loop, or the loop is broken (much like in programing a Do Loop, or a Nested Loop. You are either doing the loop, or the loop is broken out of. I don’t know where you’re getting ‘stable and unstable’ from. Those are just woefully incorrect words to use for time loops (not that Time Loops can’t be dangerous. Just putting the words stable and unstable are wrong.).
More like ‘Do you really want to spend all of eternity dealing with Sydney’s hyperactive ramblings over and over again? No? I didn’t think so.’
Snicker. I agree – that’s a real downside.
For us, here on this side of the 4th Wall, I’d consider it to be on the upside.
;)
But then again, it would really drag down the overall plotline & get stale pretty fast if we had to sit through it for the next several months of realtime, waiting for the time-threads to get unraveled.
But the real upside, even to that, is that Dave could up to a daily schedule. There would not be much variance mind…
Yep, it’s Pixel letting her inner cynic run free….
Incredibly foolish, except that it saved Halo’s life and kept the orbs out of this murderer’s hands.
The author isn’t about the blow up the universe in a time mishap. Using time powers is fine.
This reminds me of an episode of a late ’80s kids tv programme, Kappatoo, where the main character is bombing it at a party, so he uses his timewatch-thing to reset time so he can repeatedly get another chance with this girl. Only problem is time is only reset locally, and in the original timeline the girl stormed out and was outside the field of influence. You can guess what happens when she eventually calms down and goes back to the party.
Maybe it is a one-time loop only? Resets everything within a small area, tied to the local gravitational framework to prevent drift, and only can loop a small time period (15-30 minutes) once.
Side Track Question of the Week:
If Max has a hard time getting make-up and other products to stay on her skin properly, does she have the same problem with roll-on deodorant?
Is she strictly an aerosol antiperspirant gal, or does that have similar problems?
Maybe part of her new skin doesn’t sweat and the skin acts like a large heat sink to dump her waste heat. Or given that we know her blood has been changed, it’s possible that her metabolism has changed enough that she doesn’t generate waste heat. Or the energy gets stored and that is part of what powers her power pool.
Or maybe no one wants to find out what she’d do to the person who commented on her stinky pits and foul B.O. :P
I think we can assume it was similar to panel six of this page
I know ONE person who would go out of her way to point it out, just for the sake of aggrevating Maxima.
Only one person? Can think of seven (and four of them don’t count :P)
AFAIK most of the unpleasant body odors we use deodorants to mask is caused by bacteria thriving in the warm and moist areas such as our armpits. Given that Max body chemistry probably doesn’t have much in common with ordinary humans, or any other biological on earth, it’s quite possible that those bacteria can’t survive on her body.
Plus her skin is too slick for makeup to stick to, so they would have a hard time establishing themselves on Maxima, even if they could survive on other things (most household dust is made up from dried human skin).
if makeup won’t stick, bacteria that causes BO probably won’t stick either. and since don’t have body hair (recall one of the gratuitous shower scenes?), Maxima probably doesn’t have much problem wiith it.
To sidetrack your sidetrack, I’ve always wondered is there an EASTminster Abbey?
and was Minister Abbey Normal?
Yes, there was.
Get all the mad cow…
Too late in Sydney’s case
All of our mad cow belong to Sydney…
If you read the original manga of Edge of Tomorrow call All You Need Is Kill, you’ll notice that the protagonist there suffers from PTSD, has migraines and doubts his sanity for a long time. I think it takes him 158 loops before he has someone to share those experiences with.
I’m pretty sure there are strict laws about manipulating time and Krona could get in lots of trouble if it came out she can do it.
159 I believe.
Laws? Trouble? If there were TIME COPS they’d have already unhappened her for this stunt. If they aren’t time travellers then they aren’t a threat to a time traveller.
You can sub in ‘immutable laws of the universe’ for Time Cops in the above. Due to time travel weirdness, if there were going to be any Time Consequences it would be super weird if they only happened in her subjective future, since she could evade via time travel.
You see him get a lot more Collateral Tom Cruise than Charismatic Tom Cruise.
Also now that I’ve had to type that name out a few times (Tom CruiseTom CruiseTom CruiseTom CruiseTom Cruise), isn’t that a weird way to spell Cruise. In fact without checking I’m not sure how to spell the journey you take on a leisure boat on the open seas
It’s the same spelling.
Yes, believe Tijay may have been thinking of Penelope Cruz, who co-starred with Cruise in “Vanilla
PieSky”Jesus Christ american politics has infected me. I was more thinking Ted Cruz.
I’m a brit why do I know a failed Replubican nominee?
Because any complete and utter jackass gathers a bit of celebrity?
For those who didn’t catch what Sydney was doing in panel Daffy: here you go
Interestingly, that clip was one of the ‘auto-complete’ searches that showed up after just typing “DAFF”
Hmm, somethin amith here… i’ll run though it. Ho-ho, ha, guard, turn, parry, dodge, spin, ha-ha, thrust? *bill sproings in face* *pulls beak back down* got it!
Me thinks you would enjoy “All you need is to kill” aka the original light novel of what was adapted into “edge of tomorrow”
really rather different but similiar highlight
but both characters have alot of mental stress that built up, and that helps their relationship dynamic progression
Huh, so it really was a time loop – that is a universe wide effect, so I fail to see how that can be localised… except for perhaps, being planet wide, but even then, it would throw off satellite positions (the moon, for instance). Solar system wide could be a possibility.
Also, 10 Sydney’s for the price of 6 panels! ^_^
Sorry, 11 Sydney’s for the price of 7 panels! (oops)
If it helps, the first three times though the loop, it was only 9 Sydneys for the price of 5 panels.
Oh wait, you corporeal life forms wouldn’t be aware of those…. Never mind, as you were.
Darn it Sydney we were supposed to get information today!
To be honest I’m not too happy learning the checkpoint really is a time loop instead of a restore from backup.
To me the restore from backup sounds more interesting from a story telling point of view (since it has more drawbacks that team has to consider before using it (and fits better with my idea that Krona stumbled upon the source code of reality)) and it makes more sense for Harem to remember everything that happened since 4/5th of her is not reset to an earlier version of herself. I’m still not sure how going back in time allowed Harem to remember things.
Also, a true time loop sounds more OP…
By the way, loving how Pixelicious has enough control to scream quietly in panel two :D
We do see the psychological effect of repeatedly dying in Edge of Tomorrow, but it’s the effects of Rita dying, not Cruise. It’s why he tries to persuade her not to go on at the farm, why he eventually ducks out and heads into London and learns about the counter-invasion, and why he finally runs the mission solo (incidentally letting her die again, potentially permanently) to get to the dam, only to find it’s a setup.
Is this one of those ‘temporal loan’ type loops, were you skip forward by the amount of time you spent in-loop when you get out? (E.g. looping through Christmas 364 times would kick you out on Christmas Eve of the next year)
Automatic Time Loop.
Must… not… begin… rant…
Set on Sydney’s emotional state…
Noooo! Stooooop!!!
Has Krona’s shirt not had time to snap back yet in penultimate panel? Time anomaly?
Pixel is still holding Krona’s shirt in the 2nd last panel, but her hand is completely obscured by the fabric and bottom of the panel. That’s why she’s still stooped over; they both just paused what they were doing to watch Sydney’s antics.
In the next panel, Pixel’s regained her composure, stood up straight, and let go of the shirt.
I like the time anomaly explanation better. ;D
I watched Edge of Tomorrow a couple of times, since it was on HBO. The Wikipedia page says that the mechanic is based on video games; you know save and do it over until you don’t die. (Thankfully, I’ve never been so bad at a section I’ve needed to do it more than about 5 times, unless you count hard Mario levels which have taken over 800 tries.)
Very limited I swear with no possibility of collapsing either space-time continuum or suspension of disbelief by Deus Ex Machina.
Dave, hunt down the Manga “All You Need is Kill.” It’s what The Day After Tomorrow is based on and it definitely emphasize how multiple deaths screw with the protagonist and how much grinding it out costs him.
If Sydney’s ADHD meds have indeed wore off-as stated in a prior post-won’t she just be running all over the place with her arms flailing???
She practically is.
Honestly I usually love Sydney antics but this pattern of it taking an extra 5 pages to explain every tiny detail because she HAS to freak out is getting old. The joke is wearing thin extremely thin.
I agree wholeheartedly.
You might have a point here. I even skipped all the text on her combat montage today because I knew it would be cringe inducing. Her goofiness is reaching absurd proportions. Obviously I have never dealt with someone with ADHD, maybe that’s how they normally behave.
Rest of the comic is still enjoyable enough to be waiting with my finger on F5 every monday and thursday 12:00 – only comic where I don’t need to use rss.
That ‘combat montage’ is classic Daffy, you uncultured heathen!
I didn’t know that particular episode, but guessing the toon inspiration was extremely easy. I have seen corresponding youtube links way up the whole thread and I cultured myself already, thank you very much. From Daffy I would expect something like that and even find it funny, it fits with rest of the cartoon. Someone behaving like that in “real” life… And not when they are on a routine “confirm nobody’s there” mission but while being 100% sure there is very dangerous enemy very near… it just feels inapropriate here (and only here). “Terminal stupidity” or “darwin award candidate” come to mind. I’m looking forward to next page anyway.
It was a joke, not meant to offend, and one of the first links to that exact recreated scene was from me :P
Sydney is not behaving like others with AD(HD), Sydney is acting like Sydney who just happens to have, amongst other ‘conditions’, AD(H)D
I took it as a joke and tried to go with it, I’m pretty hard to offend anyway :)
Maybe my command of english is not good enough and my reply looked more serious than I intended, for which I apologize.
I’m always interested to see where a person’s line is drawn. I didn’t comment on it at the time, but the game of cards while a team mate was scouting into potential danger really bothered me. They are a military organization, barring Krona who is part of what appears to be the “combat arms” or “strike force” or whatever for The Council. Playing cards at a time like that is a courts martial offense! They should be arrayed in an over-watch stance and remaining alert for any signs of trouble.
But then, this is a comic, and it might be just a little bit dull to show that for a few pages until Halo decides to send in the hologram to see what is up, so… Daffy Duck impersonations in the midst of potential danger are par for the course.
Except, that warehouse was supposed to be empty, just a routine sweep, or do you really believe Maxi would intentionally send Sydney on a dangerous mission like it turned out?
as well as the fact that NONE of them are actually USED to being “IN” the Military? i mean Pixel, maybe as we don’t know too much of her background yet, and Bodie Harem is just “playing” at being in the military in ONE of her not-present-onscreen bodies, pretty sure about the same thing goes for Krona – No military experience at all, then we have Sydney… who up to 3-4 days ago (not sure of exact dates here, but you get the point) was a FULL-time comic book shop owner/operator… who even NOW is only Part-time Military, the rest of that time is being a Part-time comic shop owner/operator… so i agree with Guesticus above… with “NOTHING” to see, there should have been no problem with them playing cards, though I ALSO see the other side of the coin, in that they didn’t “KNOW” for sure, so they should have been more alert than they were…
Bodie has at least had some (repeated) military training (remember, she had to audit the same orientation class as Sydney, which implies she has sat through it at least once before), but as you pointed out, she’s still mostly just ‘playing’ at soldiering (which is possibly why she had to audit that class, again) so probably didn’t see the reason or point (plus the fact that Pixelicious is the one in charge and should have at least giving instructions)
A point in Sydney’s favour though: after being bored playing cards, she did get back to keeping an eye out and it was Sydney who asked the question: “When does ‘radio silence’ become ‘incapacitated and in need of help’?”
That would depend entirely on your own opinion on how much Looney Toones contributes to “culture level,” doesn’t it?
;)
It’s pretty explicitly not ADHD, it’s comedic wackiness.
I’ve dealt with several people with ADHD and there isn’t really any common way that they “normally behave”. They are all individuals with their own quirks.
Not claiming to be an expert, but it’s just like not everyone Tourette’s syndrome going around and spewing insults like you often see in movies and TV series. Some does just that and some has other ticks.
Agreed in the Tourrettes. My dad worked with a guy who would randomly bark… No cursing, swearing, or threats. Just random barks.
Agreed. Normally I enjoy Sydney being goofy and derailing stuff, but right now I’m anxious to learn more about Krona’s abilities and the checkpoint.
And that’s why Krona has a “DaveB-imposed limit” on the time-looping ability…He has to take his audience’s level of patience & endurance into account while he’s writing the script.
:-D
No no, she is being Daffy!
Yeah, Goofy is a dog… wait a minute!
No Pluto is the
planetdog.Yes, Pluto is the dog-dog, but Goofy is the Anthro-dog, like Mickey is an Anthro-mouse (Goofy started out as “Dippy Dawg” before getting a make-under and becoming Goofy)
Anthro-dog, what a strange concept?
*supports snout, with paw, in a contemplative fashion*
“Snout”? Thought dogs had muzzles :confused:
*hides face underneath paws*
You’re trying to muzzle me, aren’t you?
I think Sydney is dealing with her actual-death experience in her own way. She hasn’t quite gone untouched by it.
So, they looped for (call it an hour) while the rest of the UNIVERSE marched on?!?! Okay, I don’t want Krona on my team or the other team or anywhere NEAR my team! She make it look like Sydney-off-her-meds has GREAT self control!
I bet that if someone HAD actually died that they WOULDN’T have reset. BAD BAD BAD!!
Except, there is high probability that Sydney did die, or at least was mortally injured, which is what triggered the Mulligan in the first place
No, Sydney triggered the effect with her “stress level” reaction to Sciona’s threat of death. Krona mentioned that the trigger was set for death OR certain stress levels.
Well we haven’t had the reveal yet, but Sciona had knife pulled and was getting ready to draw all of Sydney’s blood to see if she could control her orbs. So really the reset point is right in the vicinity of Sydney being killed, regardless of which side it turns out that it was actually on.
but with Sydney’s hands IMMEDIATELY going to her chest, it’s implied that she WAS at least stabbed in that vicinity by Sciona… as for me i think it was a Syringe rather than a blade, that way she can CONTROL the quantity of blood being drawn out rather than WASTING it on the ground, especially when she wanted to use it to control the ORBS… think of all those movies where somebody was out cold due to a heart attack, or getting nerved gassed, and the Doc had to shoot them full of epinephrine or whatever the antidote was and they just “HAD TO” do it via big huge injection right at the heart!!… only in REVERSE!!
“Maxima? Yeah, Sydney’s doing weird shit again.”
Weird but awesome. Shush!:). I like sydney moments
It won’t be long until Maxima is no longer amused by Sydney’s antics! By then she’ll have Sydney confined to the stockade/guard house/brig for long periods of time,followed by a court martial…!
No way! She’ll simply order for more powerful ADHD meds.
Too dangerous! Probably turn Sydney into an obedient zombie-the type who never questions her orders or shirk her duties…
That’s not how the UCMJ works.
First rule of Time Travel Club: Don’t talk about Time Travel Club. Next thing you know Galactic Patrolman Jaco is going to show up and try to arrest Krona for messing with the Space-Time Continuum.
Or ‘Q’…
He would have already shown up and arrested her before she learned to Time Travel, if he’s a time traveller. If he isn’t she’ll just unhappen him.
first rule of time travel club is we never …. wait…. first rule of time travel club is we always … wait… second rule of time travel club is we never break the first rule
what’s the first rule?
um… wait …
Exactly. If you “wait” then you’ve already time traveled…Therefore you can’t break the Second Rule.
:D
Honestly Dave, I mean, the time loop checkpoint is a really neat power for Krona to have but it’s taking way too long to explain why it can’t be used infinitely, an explanation which I’m not 100% sure is even necessary. If Krona says it’s limited, that’s good enough for me. Further explanation would be nice but there’s no need to bog down the flow of the comic by dragging out the point. This is probably my favorite webcomic of them all but sometimes you get caught up explaining nitpicky details, which your average comic book reader probably doesn’t care all that much about, to the detriment of the story. How long did we spend in the bank?
Keep up the absolutely great work, and keep the story moving along. I mean, at this point we still need to figure out how Sydney actually got the orbs, you’ve implied she’s lying about that. What two of them still even do. What other powers she has to “level up” to get. Still waiting for the comic to catch up with the intro where she was role-playing with her buddies and then left for her job like it was no big deal. Not saying all that stuff needs to be answered in the next year but right now we seem ages away from even touching any of it.
Oh, I should have mentioned I do love the 5th panel with all of they Sydney expressions, very well done.
39 pages, which is almost nothing all things considered.
Do keep in mind that you’re reading as the pages come out on a twice weekly schedule, not full issues every month. It’ll seem a bit slow.
IMO an emotion triggered time loop is a good deafoult option, but a word or action triggered one would seem much more usefull
Either she would get bad PTSD, or she would get very, very casual about dying. “Bad haircut day? Stab myself in the eye. Pain is temporary. Let’s try this again.”
Sydney got away from you. But in a good way. I love this aspect of Sydney. Havent seen it since anvils intro :)
Krona “Because I don’t like my coworkers to become vegetables”
Yes, that would be bad, considering that Sydney is a vegetarian.
you are what you eat. right?
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2002-08-04
Vegetarian or not, Sydney is far, far away from being a vegetable…She’s too (hyper)active to be a vegetable.
Personally I only eat from the meattable.
hot dog!
Only in summer
Given the quantity of energy involved in doing the whole universe as a checkpoint – you’d have to move every atomic particle back to where it was before the checkpoint and return it to that energy level – and then nobody and nothing could possibly remember anything about what triggered it – this can’t be a universal checkpoint.
So it’s totally local and just involves moving the happy quartet (plus Harem confusion) forward in time along with anyone or anything they interacted with – presumably Sciona gets moved forward as well, otherwise she knows they’re onto her. Much easier, moving in the normal direction of the time flow, etc. Krona’s glowing whatsis backs up and restores the memories of the events that now didn’t happen because nobody was there when it didn’t happen.
That’s my idea of what’s going on, anyhow. And that would explain why you don’t just keep repeating, your clocks are already off by what, twenty minutes? Get that too far off sync, and bad things could start happening.
Well, it would have to affect the entire solar system, at the very least. Otherwise, the portion of earth they are on would be in deep space seeing as everything is in constant motion.
But let’s not get into how regular physics fit into the superhero universe. Just suspend disbelief.
Any discussion of time travel has to involve Einstein’s concept of time as a dimension, and you’d relocate in all four to get to the desired end point, otherwise you’re just killing yourself in a very expensive way.
Yeah, if you’re going to be a time traveler, you also have to be capable of space travel as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfvm0j0eN0Y
I thought Edge of Tomorrow actually did a pretty good job with making Cage not seeming like death was meaningless.
My memory isn’t perfect, but I as I recall, Cage tries to avoid getting killed, even in circumstances where it’s clear he’s going to have to die if he wants to try again. Take for example the part where tries to stop Rita from shooting him after his back was broken during training. There’s also the scream with which he wakes up in most loops.
While he never reaches (that we see) a point where he’s rocking back and forth in the fetal position, the whole thing does take a marked toll on him. He breaks during one loop (perhaps several since we only see a very small portion of his experience), flees from the fighting, and still dies. He eventually ends up so shell shocked by the repeated deaths (and his inability to save Rita) that most of the characters he meets at the beginning of the loop are visibly unsettled by him. Then he abandons them to their fates and makes a beeline to what he thinks is the loop terminus because he just wants it to stop.
In Hollywood fashion he largely recovers, but it’s clear during the final charge against the Omega, when he has lost the ability to recur, that he has not become desensitized to death. The lives of his companions still matter. He’s not so used to death being easy that he’s gotten careless.
Just my opinion, of course.
To those complaining about Sydney being Sydney, maybe this is not the comic for you, because for the next foreseeable future, the comic will continue to focus on Sydney, and Sydney will continue to do the things that annoy you somuch
To those complaining that it is taking too long to explain what is going, you are the type that would complain in five pages about not understand what is going on, or in two pages about too much exposition in a single page
I am happy with this just the way it is. Sure it takes a while to get to the core story because, duh! Sydney!, but Sydney is the reason I read this!
I am really concerned about what Harem’s multi-presence means for the time loop…
“It’s just a jump to the left!”
(Chorus) “Let’s do the Time Warp again!”
Not meat-loaf again!…
It’s astounding.
That’s the explanation of Krona’s restore-point ability! The time between when she set it and when it was triggered, runs away!
Yeah, time is fleeing.
My favorite line:
Madness takes toll.