Grrl Power Thread #2: The Most Common Super Power

[Emperordaniel]

Maybe not technically powers, but these pages are canon:

http://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/185

http://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/192

http://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/194

There is another strip where she gets some in her eye.

So that's four pages about Sydney eating very hot food, then her surname is Scoville? That's naming by characteristics.

She was hospitalized (briefly) after getting that stuff in her eye, though.

[Discus-Spinner]

I think the massive amount of money she just got handed may have broken her already weak levels of self control. Not that I blame her. If I got my annual salary handed to me in a single check and was told I will get these twice a month, I would likely be bouncing off the walls as well.

Sydney was given to deranged free association and bouncing off walls long before she was handed that cheque.

[Yuki Akuma]

She was hospitalized (briefly) after getting that stuff in her eye, though.

It's not about her having superpowers that let her resist spiciness because her surname is Scoville. It's just about her having a suspiciously appropriate name for an attribute of hers (that is, tolerance for incredibly spicy food) that makes the author's stated dislike of the same thing in superhero comics ring slightly hollow.

[Traab]

Sydney was given to deranged free association and bouncing off walls long before she was handed that cheque.

Yeah I know, but its been cranked up a bit in this last comic. It was a bit much of a reaction even for her and im blaming it on the endorphins and adrenaline from seeing that monster check. Im also curious to see if dave will go into the adviser actually explaining things to her or if that will be done off panel. I admit I have always been curious about how people with enough money they need an adviser actually end up setting up their financial situation. What happens when your bank account is too big for a standard webster checking account?

[Discus-Spinner]

What happens when your bank account is too big for a standard webster checking account?

You get more than one account, shunt some money into investment accounts, and start looking at other investment options.

Honestly, this stuff is important, and if you've got enough money to invest some long-term you should get advice, but it's not terribly exciting to describe the details. Especially as an adviser recommended by Archon isn't likely to be the sort of dubious type to go recommending weird high-risk options.

[Kantaki]

New comic.

Sydney scares me. If she considers this a well handled (by her standards) situation I don't want to see what a overreaction looks like.

Poor Aurelius, he has no idea what he is dealing with. I think after this he will need a long Holiday.

[Traab]

Man he has his work cut out for him. Sydney is insanely impulsive at the best of times. Add that to a new fortune and things are going to be scary. She needs one of those zap collars with a remote he can hold. Every time she starts to get tempted ot buy random stuff, /ZAAAP!

[AvatarVecna]

Oh dear. I was hoping that beneath the spastic nerd was somebody with a little bit of common sense (as has been shown on occasion), but apparently that common sense only comes out to play if superpowers and their governing tropes are involved. Oh well...

[Kantaki]

I think Sydney has plenty common sense. It's just that she is a bit overwhelmed right now, with makes her mind jump more than usual. Once she has calmed down a bit she should be more reasonable.

[AvatarVecna]

Overreacting is one thing, declaring yourself the queen of salt is quite another. Something that ridiculously out there is either a deliberately exaggerated response by Sydney for comedic purposes (which would be indicative of severe self-esteem issues) or it's a legitimate reaction, which is concerning for very different reasons (*cough* psychotic breakdown *cough*).

[Kantaki]

We are talking about Sydney. What normal people would call a overreaction is her normal. And what she calls a (relative well handled) overreaction makes normal people worry what happens if she doesn't handle a overreaction "well".

I'm pretty sure Mr. Shrapnell will take some SAN-damage while dealing with her but sooner or later she should go back to "Sydney" normal and be easier to keep on track.

[tomandtish]

We are talking about Sydney. What normal people would call a overreaction is her normal. And what she calls a (relative well handled) overreaction makes normal people worry what happens if she doesn't handle a overreaction "well".

I'm pretty sure Mr. Shrapnell will take some SAN-damage while dealing with her but sooner or later she should go back to "Sydney" normal and be easier to keep on track.

Exactly, and remember, we have the advantage of foresight (since we are still in flashback) of knowing that 3 months from now or so Sydney seems to be doing OK in a new comic book shop. Anything bad that does happen is (apparently) short-term.

[Traab]

Overreacting is one thing, declaring yourself the queen of salt is quite another. Something that ridiculously out there is either a deliberately exaggerated response by Sydney for comedic purposes (which would be indicative of severe self-esteem issues) or it's a legitimate reaction, which is concerning for very different reasons (*cough* psychotic breakdown *cough*).

Honestly, I agree. It fails the fridge logic test. It was an amusing scene, and it works due to the historic connection between salt and salary, but when you take 5 seconds to think about it, she had a mental breakdown, even if it only lasted a few minutes. Thats really not a good thing considering they are training her to be a military type person and eventually trusting her with real authority. They were already worried about her being a spazz and her odd reactions, and now they have seen another thing that makes her go nuts.

[Ibrinar]

Or she is part of the time a comic relieve character and thus doesn't always has to make sense in terms of normal behaviour.

[Calemyr]

I picture the Queen of Salt frame to be more of an "imagine shot", a la Scrubs. As in "All I did was foam at the mouth a little, I could've gone waaaaayyyy further."

Sydney, despite being the protagonist, is definitely a comic relief character. On both sides of the fourth wall, in fact. Her unusual perspective on things amuse and entertain her peers, whether it's her odd comments on super-hero body hair or being chased around the firing range by her own spheres, she's as much a tension breaker for the cast as she can be for the audience.

[AvatarVecna]

Or she is part of the time a comic relieve character and thus doesn't always has to make sense in terms of normal behaviour.

Being a comic relief character doesn't require you to throw logic out the window. It would be one thing if she jumped to her feet and declared herself the queen of salt in a loud, over-the-top manner, because that would indicate she's doing it specifically for comedic purposes in a way that isn't going too far. But no: she's in a fetal position under the table, with a death grip on the salt, a glazed look in her eyes, and her various coworkers huddled outside the doorway as if they're watching a bomb being defused. This is concerning, whether she's trying to weird for comedic purposes, or if she's legitimately going crazy.

[AvatarVecna]

What I like about today's comic: the financial advice stuff seems pretty sound, and also how Sydney's pupils slowly start dilating as she zones out. Alas, I don't know the "look at my horse, my horse is amazing" reference was intentional or accidental, though.

What I don't like about this comic: how slim the chances seem on this just being Sydney's vibrant imagination, as opposed to a mental psychosis or something. I mean, by the Nine, I do stuff like this when I'm trying to get into character for an RPG, where I'll craft elaborate contrived scenarios in my head for the characters to go through...but at least I have the presence of mind and willpower to not do so when I'm in the middle of a conversation.

Oh, I'm sorry, I mean isn't this just so wacky and not crazy? I'm sure there's a totally not concerning explanation for all of this.

[Kantaki]

I still think that Sydney's behaviour is relative normal - if exaggerateted for comedic purposes - for someone with a overly active imagination. Considering this is Sydney telling the story I wouldn't be surprised if the events are shown in a slightly inaccurate manner.

I'm missing a Karl May reference in the footnote.

[Traab]

If they could let zach braff on Scrubs be a doctor with his odd tendency to zone out and stare at nothing till he is done daydreaming, im sure sydney can be a superhero. But yeah, i do agree that this is a bit extreme and there should be meetings with the brass worrying over this. Because its kind of dangerous how crazy she gets. I know its done for comedic value, but its hard to ignore that any military seeing her act like this would have given her a section 8 discharge in short order. (Or whatever the current version is of a discharge because you are batspit crazy)

[AvatarVecna]

I have an overly active imagination. I go out of my way to not spend time around other people so that I can spend more time in imagination land. I create entire worlds in my imagination for countless original characters to explore, most of which I never get to play in a game or write for a book. I imagine my countless original characters jumping into fictional universe after fictional universe, purely to figure out how the two would interact. I am speaking as somebody whose imagination is powerful enough to hinder my ability to interact with people in a normal fashion, as someone who's been spinning elaborate plots in highly detailed worlds for countless characters of varying capabilities since I was 5, and Sydney is going even further than I do, simply by not having the self-control to keep it under control when she's around other people.

I am telling you this is ****ed up from an insider's perspective. Even I'm not this bad, and I may not be crazy, but my parents had me tested. Multiple times.

[Kantaki]

Let me rephrase: Sydney’s behaviour is extremely exaggerated. And yes, It makes her look a little bit crazy.

But I’m not entirely convinced that we really see everything as it really happens. For one Syd has a very active imagination - at least the salt-queen-incident could be a imagineshot - and since she is the one telling the story I wouldn't be surprised if she is exaggerating her own behaviour for amusement purposes.

[Forum Explorer]

It's a highly comedic comic that is a quasi serious parody of superhero stories. I don't understand why people are taking the over reaction so seriously.

[Traab]

It's a highly comedic comic that is a quasi serious parody of superhero stories. I don't understand why people are taking the over reaction so seriously.

Because quoting sagat and picking a fight with math isnt as disturbing as going into a mental breakdown and calling yourself the queen of salt in a fugue state. It was a bit too much crazy to fit in with her normal crazy. Normal crazy is her modesty mummy getup, dragging three of her new female friends away with her lighthook so she can have a quiet chat with them about her being a vegetarian. Even the foaming at the mouth/drooling thing upon seeing her first paycheck wasnt too much out of the ordinary for her. Creating a table fort and a candle lit altar for her paycheck while making a power cord salt shaker crown and having silverware between your fingers like wolverine claws while hollering about being the queen of salt is way past the boundaries of acceptable crazy.

[AvatarVecna]

One additional point: my concerns are less warranted if this is, in fact, a story being told by Sydney from her perspective. That said, when you take into account the general flashback nature the rest of the strip has taken, as well as the number of things that happen outside her personal perspective that are depicted in the comic, it doesn't come across (to me, anyway) that it's Sydney telling a story from the first-person perspective, but that a story mostly centered around Sydney is being told from a third-person omniscient perspective. In the first case (where the storyteller is Sydney), the possibility of an Unreliable Narrator is certainly present, but such a thing is far less likely in the second case, which has a lot more evidence. My concern is based on my understanding of the comic being that this is a story with a reliable narrator, and that the events depicted are to be taken seriously.

Sydney, for the most part, has been zany and off-the-wall and even a little bit kooky at times, such as her freaking out when the reporter snuck up on her ("Always. Expect. Ninjas."), or the previously mentioned "picking a fight with Math after declaring herself unbeatable", or her clocking Achilles upside the head for saying "mouth feel" over and over. Traab summed up why the queen of salt scene is disturbing far better than I could, though.

It's kinda the same thing that happened to Math: he went from about a 5/10 on the "creepy pervert" scale, with his losing to the kung-fu chick when her wardrobe malfunctioned, to a full blown 9/10 when asking other guys for wank material in the shower. It's taking a character trait that's solid but realistic, and turning it up to 11, to the point that it's more concerning than comedic.

[Kantaki]

Because quoting sagat and picking a fight with math isnt as disturbing as going into a mental breakdown and calling yourself the queen of salt in a fugue state. It was a bit too much crazy to fit in with her normal crazy. Normal crazy is her modesty mummy getup, dragging three of her new female friends away with her lighthook so she can have a quiet chat with them about her being a vegetarian. Even the foaming at the mouth/drooling thing upon seeing her first paycheck wasnt too much out of the ordinary for her. Creating a table fort and a candle lit altar for her paycheck while making a power cord salt shaker crown and having silverware between your fingers like wolverine claws while hollering about being the queen of salt is way past the boundaries of acceptable crazy.

Wait, did Sydney really pull the salt-queen-stunt? I was starting to assume that she imagined it.

I still think that Sydney is narrating the flashback and exaggerates her own craziness (and that of the others) for... whatever reason she has.

[Traab]

All that being said, if that is the norm for math, and the other supers have their own "too far" style quirks, like say dabbler and how she was acting when sydney first showed up after sleeping with the barberian, then it might be understandable why sydney acting the way she did wouldnt get her locked up fast. They are USED to supers being batspit crazy in different ways. Heck, there may even be scientific explanations for why it happens.

[Qwertystop]

I don't think this is an unreliable narrator situation - other than the first couple of pages framing it as a narration of how Sydney got started, nothing has hinted at any embellishment, or even that it was actually Sydney telling the story. There's even been a few moments with Sydney not present, right? When they were deciding whether or not to hire her?

[Hiro Protagonest]

There's even been a few moments with Sydney not present, right? When they were deciding whether or not to hire her?

Or when Math was trying to burn a hole through the wall. Or basically any time Sydney's talking to Harem and the next panel is about another Harem.

[Kantaki]

I don't think the fact that we get to see things that happen in Sydney’s absence disproves the idea that she „narrates” the events of the flashback. It might not be common to have a narrating protagonist describe events they aren't present for but it does exist.

Admittedly it isn't very likely, but it would explain the exaggerated oddness of some of the heroes.

[Traab]

And now the financial advice arc is over. And Sydney is abusing the heck out of genre savvy. Seriously, that perk should be expensive as hell in any rpg.