Strong Female Protagonist II

[Sapphire Guard]

The Professor's facial scars are interesting... what backstory is he going to reveal?

[Traab]

Probably a survivor of another super fight. Except he doesnt hate allison, he just realizes she has no concept of various bits of reality nonpowered human society has to deal with. Like a non angry version of her first professor. So instead of just flunking her for being a mutie freak of inhuman nature, he will try to teach her instead.

[Sapphire Guard]

Very coincidental if true. Does the college recruit its Professors based on their ability to survive superhero attacks?

[Traab]

Very coincidental if true. Does the college recruit its Professors based on their ability to survive superhero attacks?

No, but if he is a local then he almost HAS to be a survivor of some battle or another. Remember, there was apparently a lot of super battles all over the place for awhile. Imagine this was metropolis. Dont you think that by now it would be a majority of its citizens who have gotten caught up in a superfight or another? Heck, it would likely be MORE unusual for some random citizen to say, "Superman? Nope, never seen so much as a glimpse of the guys cape" You can almost hear some guy moaning and complaining that he has had to deal with being at the bank when its been robbed THREE FREAKING TIMES! So he must be some sorta super villain magnet or something. "Seriously joe, its getting to the point where I dont even flinch when metallo tears a vault door off. I just sigh, get into a corner out of the way, and try not to get caught in the crossfire."

[Lethologica]

I thought being prepared was Batman's superpower. We can't just keep giving Alison superpowers as the plot demands! I object to this flagrant Sue-ification!

[Kantaki]

Alison's "we have to work together"-attitude...
Maybe she should talk to Taylor Hebert about that one.

It would certainly be a interesting meeting. I just doubt Al would approve.
But she seems awfully close to saying "I will make them cooperate". I wonder how she would react if someone pointed this out.

I just wonder what reactions the Prof will get if he tells them that this was just a thought experiment. I guess it depends how many of them know what a thought experiment is. I expect at least a few of them to need a explanation.

[Traab]

Honestly, im not sure I like this. It feels forced somewhat to make allison react this way to prove the professors point. I dunno, it probably works better if I wasnt reading the comic every update and instead coming back once every month or so to do a quick dash. I get the feeling next comic is either him pointing out how she sounds, or her realizing it. In either case we will then have another mini arc of angsting.

[Frozen_Feet]

Where did that "we" go, Ms. Green?

[Kantaki]

Where did that "we" go, Ms. Green?

There is no we in tyranny.
That rhymes.*And what rhymes is good. Or something like that.

Where was I going with this again?
Oh right, Everyone cooperating is nice, but to make it possible someone has be in charge. And obviously this should be the person with the most experience with power. Someone who has already proven she can hold a great amount of power without being corrupted by it.
Obviously that's Alison.
Now I'm not saying she thinks this, not consciously at least, but she certainly has a strong instinct to take charge - for the greater good, to fix things of course.

That might be a bit „unfair”- it certainly exaggerates things, but Alison’s thought process regarding society’s problems is „how can I make things right?”. From a outside perspective she can look like a tyrant in the making. Especially in a moment like now.

Okay... Originally I just wanted to make the quip in the first paragraph.
I have no idea where the rest of the post came from.

*Possibly because I'm doing terrible things to the english language

[Ronnoc]

Honestly, im not sure I like this. It feels forced somewhat to make allison react this way to prove the professors point. I dunno, it probably works better if I wasnt reading the comic every update and instead coming back once every month or so to do a quick dash. I get the feeling next comic is either him pointing out how she sounds, or her realizing it. In either case we will then have another mini arc of angsting.

Honestly one of the things that has consistently bugged me about this comic is that despite her interest in ethics and the humanities Allison has a very naive black and white worldview. Seeing her learn about shades of gray is nice.

[Traab]

Thats the thing though, it doesnt seem to be in her character. I mean, she wasnt the leader of her little super team, this whole big domestic violence network or whatever it was she has setup was a big committee effort, she isnt the big kahuna as far as im aware, so if she starts moving in the tyranny direction, it just seems odd to me.

[Ronnoc]

Thats the thing though, it doesnt seem to be in her character. I mean, she wasnt the leader of her little super team, this whole big domestic violence network or whatever it was she has setup was a big committee effort, she isnt the big kahuna as far as im aware, so if she starts moving in the tyranny direction, it just seems odd to me.

Allison is obsessed with having the perfect outcome, an endgame scenario that fixes everything wrong with the world. That's been the core of her ethos throughout this entire story. While you're right in that she wasn't the leader of her team and that her current project is a collaboration you'l notice that she left the team as soon as it didn't further her goals and that she established the mission statement of her collaboration.
She's never been confronted with the fact that not everyone is going to agree on what a perfect world is, that there isn't always a right answer.

[Traab]

Allison is obsessed with having the perfect outcome, an endgame scenario that fixes everything wrong with the world. That's been the core of her ethos throughout this entire story. While you're right in that she wasn't the leader of her team and that her current project is a collaboration you'l notice that she left the team as soon as it didn't further her goals and that she established the mission statement of her collaboration.
She's never been confronted with the fact that not everyone is going to agree on what a perfect world is, that there isn't always a right answer.

Sure she has, she has run into feral who had her own very different idea on how to make things better, the rapist killer, im blanking on her name and HER solution to dealing with bad people, etc etc etc. I will agree she always seems stunned though when other people disagree or have their own ideas on how to fix things or to do their own part. Im just saying, she never has been one to really put herself forward as a leader. She has these ideas, and people either agree with them and work WITH her, not FOR her, or they dont and they dont. So the idea of her slipping into a tyrannical mindset still seems off for her character.

But yeah, her never ending search for a perfect solution is pretty central to her. so I can see her being upset when there really really IS a perfect solution, that leaves everyone happy and noone took it. Its bad enough she constantly had to deal with there just not being a perfect solution in the first place, but to see it happen when there is one? Yeah, I can see that upsetting her. But not to the point of tyranny.

[Lethologica]

"I'll be ready" <> "Pass me the ball"

Alison does have a bit of a take-charge streak under pressure, especially when other people aren't living up to her expectations.

[Dromuthra]

Hoo boy, THAT's gonna cause a shouting match. Probably a discussion of the consequence of choice too.

[Traab]

So he wont fail the guy who he took the white stone from (but no A) and is claiming he will still pass everyone else with an A and fail Allison for her choice. Yeah, this is pretty clearly a test of common sense. I figure he will use anyone who doesnt show up as a further example of whatever point he is trying to make about character and axioms and whatever. I also think he is going to enjoy poking the hornets nest that is allison hoping for more reactions.

[Kantaki]

So he wont fail the guy who he took the white stone from (but no A) and is claiming he will still pass everyone else with an A and fail Allison for her choice. Yeah, this is pretty clearly a test of common sense. I figure he will use anyone who doesnt show up as a further example of whatever point he is trying to make about character and axioms and whatever. I also think he is going to enjoy poking the hornets nest that is allison hoping for more reactions.

I think this is more or less right. He wants to know with students are smart enough to realize this is unlikely (impossible) to be real or are interested enough in the stuff he is teaching to show up anyway and who is a idiot that is only there for the grade.
As a bonus he gets to troll Alison. Who says a Professor can't have fun while teaching his class?

Not that I think "fun" is his primary motivation for this. I guess Gurwara thinks Al might need this kind of lesson/test.

[Nettlekid]

So he wont fail the guy who he took the white stone from (but no A) and is claiming he will still pass everyone else with an A and fail Allison for her choice. Yeah, this is pretty clearly a test of common sense. I figure he will use anyone who doesnt show up as a further example of whatever point he is trying to make about character and axioms and whatever. I also think he is going to enjoy poking the hornets nest that is allison hoping for more reactions.

He's obviously not actually passing or failing anyone based on the stones. He's a teacher, and this was a lesson. As a number of people in this thread have been asserting, he doesn't actually have the authority to do anything like that. And of course he's playing devil's advocate and hoping to provoke reactions, as it's his job to encourage open thought. Allison has a lot of strong convictions that she hasn't thoroughly been evaluating, and this class proved that well. She was quick to label anyone who put down a white stone as selfish, and when the professor brought up the case of the student who had acted to save herself for the sake of her family as a way of criticizing Allison's close-minded labeling of the action as selfish, Allison's only reply was profanity. She lost that argument. This guy is honestly a very good teacher for getting such a rise out of her, without resorting to anything that's actually immoral or unprofessional.

[Traab]

Well of COURSE she lost the argument. She would have lost the argument if stance was that water is wet. You arent going to out argue a philosophy professor in your intro to philosophy class no matter what your stance is. They have way too many years of training experience and learning about how to do exactly that. Im not saying she wasnt actually wrong, she was. Iim just saying that her losing was always going to happen no matter what.

And you may say its obvious he wont pass or fail everyone based on a stone, but the students clearly dont realize that or else they wouldnt have jumped so quickly into his little game. I give green a pass here as she is still riled up and its very easy to jump to conclusions when you are already upset. But yeah, if most of the class doesnt show up tomorrow im going to be pissed.

[Nettlekid]

Well of COURSE she lost the argument. She would have lost the argument if stance was that water is wet. You arent going to out argue a philosophy professor in your intro to philosophy class no matter what your stance is. They have way too many years of training experience and learning about how to do exactly that. Im not saying she wasnt actually wrong, she was. Iim just saying that her losing was always going to happen no matter what.

And you may say its obvious he wont pass or fail everyone based on a stone, but the students clearly dont realize that or else they wouldnt have jumped so quickly into his little game. I give green a pass here as she is still riled up and its very easy to jump to conclusions when you are already upset. But yeah, if most of the class doesnt show up tomorrow im going to be pissed.

Have you been in a philosophy class? If her stance was "water is wet" she wouldn't have "lost" an argument, though it might have derailed into being a useless argument to make. A philosophy professor isn't going to try to make your argument wrong no matter what it is, especially if it's either true or logically sound and not relying on any fallacious reasoning. What a philosophy professor would do is pick apart the threads of an argument to expose that fallacious reasoning and attack the part of the argument that didn't hold. Now, in this case, the professor is making a point about the fallacy of holding a rigid and unyielding belief like an axiom, subtly suggesting that any one philosophy held in all circumstances isn't going to hold up to close inspection. It's not because he's better at arguing, it's because Allison's argument was weak. If it had been strong, he wouldn't have "won," and he would have known that.

[Kantaki]

New Comic

Okay, now I really want to see Alison's face when Gurwara tells the class that the whole rock thing doesn't determinate their grades. Or how she follows Daniel's "advise" if it turns out that he was serious.

But it is nice to see that Megagirl and Cleaver are still meeting. Having friends is good for her. And playing chess? Good choice. It's a great game.

And it fits her Axiom. After all chess is the game of kings.(Tyrants)

[Lethologica]

Can someone confirm that Alison is up queen for rook, please, I don't trust my interpretation of the image for the white pieces.

[Kantaki]

Can someone confirm that Alison is up queen for rook, please, I don't trust my interpretation of the image for the white pieces.

Doesn't Alison play black?
I can't really help with that question, I don't really know chess notation... language stuff. Especially not in english. I'm happy I can move the pieces correctly.

Is it symbolic that Alison choose the black game pieces again?
Because of the philosophy class I mean.
That the ex-villain plays the side that opens the battle while the former heroine took the „defensive”, „reacting” one is certainly is certainly fitting, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is connected to Al’s school problems as well.

Daniel’s complaint about the pawns and Alison’s reaction are telling too. Makes me doubt that she would force the other students to agree with her. Not violently at least.

[Lethologica]

The current position, with Alison's aggressive pawn structure and Daniel not having moved any except to trade them, mirrors their dialogue about the uses of pawns. But I can't tell for certain that the piece on d1 (fourth from the left, bottom row) is a rook rather than a queen, and I'm not sure whether the piece on h2 (far right, second row from the bottom) is a pawn or something else.

One thing I can say is that both players have been making atrocious use of their knights, considering Alison's knight is terrible on a6 and Daniel only just developed his kingside knight.

[Kantaki]

To be honest, I identified C1 as the queen and D1 as the king.
The first looks kinda like Alison’s queen(C6) and the other one seems to have a crown thingy.

But yeah, keeping the knight away from the field’s edge is one of the few things I remember from my chess lessons (unless it can do something useful there).
And getting the knight (and bishop) out of the way and to the frontline is usually the first thing I do.
That is unlikely to be better, but it helps with the defense.

[Traab]

The knights have always been my favorite piece in chess. They are the only ones that can bypass the enemies pieces and get behind them. My preferred strat has always been to get my knights out and moving asap while leaving a solid screen of pawns around my king to keep him safe. With my knights skipping all over the board it keeps my opponent busy blocking me from reaching his back line. I find its harder to predict the knights movement than the other pieces as they are all straight lines of various types so its more likely to find a gap you can exploit. But I never played past high school/college chess club level, so im no expert. I dont even know most of the terms listed, even the letter/number combo, while I know its board position, im unclear on because the only time it ever came up was decades ago when I played against an electronic chess board. And once I played a chess master who was paralyzed so I had to move his pieces for him. But like I said, it was so long ago I cant even picture the grid properly anymore.

[Kantaki]

New comic

That is very touching. It's nice that the two have at least someone who cares. Even if in both cases it is someone just as messed up.

And Daniel worries about Alison because the world is so bad and she is to good. That is a interesting perception.
I think he has point. The philosophy lesson (and previous chapters) showed that Al's ideals and the world... clash a bit. Who knows how that will affect her in the future.

[Traab]

New comic

That is very touching. It's nice that the two have at least someone who cares. Even if in both cases it is someone just as messed up.

And Daniel worries about Alison because the world is so bad and she is to good. That is a interesting perception.
I think he has point. The philosophy lesson (and previous chapters) showed that Al's ideals and the world... clash a bit. Who knows how that will affect her in the future.

Its like she was raised a hero in a vacuum. She is trying to embody all those heroic ideals you see people like superman come out with, you know, truth justice and moms apple pie and all that. But she keeps running face first into a wall when the rest of the world doesnt act the way that its so obvious to her that they should. On the other hand, its easy to "do the right thing" when you are basically an omnipotent being. There is no real danger in standing up for others, because you cant be hurt or threatened. It honestly makes me think the old hate filled professor had a point. How can she really understand the human condition when so little of it applies to her? Its like trying to understand what it means to be a dog. Yeah you can observe dogs for years on end, even try to live like one if you want, but in the end... you ARENT a dog, and you cant truly understand because your entire base of perception is too far removed from them.

[Kantaki]

Well yeah, he had a point with what he said, but that he used it as a excuse to punish her for his husbands death makes it easy to overlook it. Doesn't mean what he said is wrong

I mean didn't Mary say something similar when Alison confronted her?
And we did see how she and Patrick were affected by their powers.

So yes, Alison's powers make her perspective utterly different from other humans, and if she wants to save the world she has to understand that and include the fact in her plans.
Maybe it would help her to broaden her horizon like Feral did with journey through the world.
That's what she is supposed to do at Collage, I know, but so far she seems mostly puzzled that people disagree with her.

[RCgothic]

I'm loving this scene.