[Webcomic] Webcomic Appreciation Jamboree

GasBandit

Staff member
Man, today's XKCD is fail. The light saber is not a laser that mysteriously stops due to a setting, it's pure plasma contained in a force field. To have a blade that doesn't end would mean the hilt projects the force field FOREVER and generates an INFINITE amount of plasma! GEEK CRED DOWN.

 

GasBandit

Staff member
ANOTHER webcomic blunder today!



Scott Dewitt of Fanboys Online, which is stumbling its way back into a semi-regular update schedule, seems to have forgotten that the cone of shame is only to prevent a pet from biting/licking ITSELF. It would be far more likely, and the joke would make more sense, to put a muzzle, not a cone, on a dog who bit a person.
 
Man, today's XKCD is fail. The light saber is not a laser that mysteriously stops due to a setting, it's pure plasma contained in a force field. To have a blade that doesn't end would mean the hilt projects the force field FOREVER and generates an INFINITE amount of plasma! GEEK CRED DOWN.
Wouldn't that mean that the force field is doing the work of cutting?

Why have the plasma?
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Wouldn't that mean that the force field is doing the work of cutting?

Why have the plasma?
The force field only works on plasma, not solids. It just makes the plasma keep its blade shape, which is also why saber blades bounce off each other (the fields repelling the other blade's plasma).
 
Wouldn't that mean that the force field is doing the work of cutting?
Why have the plasma?
I assume the idea is to have the field contain the plasma (keeping it confined/controlled) while the plasma itself is at a high enough temperature that it will melt/burn/cut just about any surrounding object. The "cutting" action is provided by the intense heat burning through whatever the force field contacts rather than by the field itself.

I'm with you, though. It seems like it would be easier to just generate the field by itself, shrink its diameter down to nanometer scale, and then just use the field itself as though it were a finer-than-razor-sharp edge that is still an "edge" for all 360 degrees. It would be much harder to see, though. Also it would not be able to penetrate armor without sufficient force to sink it into the material, no matter how sharp it is.

--Patrick
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Seriously guys it's totally ok to just say "because I said so" when describing the science of Star Wars.
Randall: "It's like those lightsabers, they only come out yea high, how do they know where to stop?"
Dante: "... the force?"
Randall: "Man, that's your answer for everything."
 
This latest arc of Girls With Slingshots reminds me of why I don't like the main characters, especially Jaime. I get that she's not monogamous, and that's fine, it's just that she's not honest with herself about it. She's a virgin... who has had oral sex with at the very least dozens of men; gets in a relationship with an asexual woman then whines about not having her sexual needs fulfilled, to the point of picking up a guy in a bar to orally pleasure her, no strings attached; intrudes on other people's love-lives (her 'romance detective' nonsense); keeps a guy as a platonic friend despite being sexually attracted to him and enjoying going out with him, then gets depressed when he gets a girlfriend; and then says that she wants a second lover so she can have two people catering to her needs. She is supposed to be at least partially sympathetic through all this. She even outright says, "Well, is it more selfish to have multiple lovers, who each fulfill one of my needs, or to have one lover who I want to fulfill ALL my needs?" YES, IT IS MORE SELFISH TO WANT MULTIPLE LOVERS. Having one lover who fulfills most of your needs is the definition of a great relationship. By having multiple lovers, you're telling each one, "Yes, you're good for this purpose for me, but only this purpose, and if I want a different need, I'll go to someone else. But I expect you to remain available to me should I require your purpose again." More than that, she's saying "It's right for US" (meaning her and Erin.) Is it, though? Erin was okay with her hooking up with some guy for sex since it wasn't going to be a relationship, but having a third partner in their relationship is an entirely different matter. And I guess that's what annoys me - she just seems to assume that her partner will be okay with it.
 
I do actually think Erin is ok with it. I think it has been established. I am pretty sure that Danielle is trying to use Jaime to represent poly relationship difficulties.
 
Also, this whole Butts of Halforum thing should have happened before I turned into a slacker of a referee, I'm just sayin.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
This latest arc of Girls With Slingshots reminds me of why I don't like the main characters, especially Jaime. I get that she's not monogamous, and that's fine, it's just that she's not honest with herself about it. She's a virgin... who has had oral sex with at the very least dozens of men; gets in a relationship with an asexual woman then whines about not having her sexual needs fulfilled, to the point of picking up a guy in a bar to orally pleasure her, no strings attached; intrudes on other people's love-lives (her 'romance detective' nonsense); keeps a guy as a platonic friend despite being sexually attracted to him and enjoying going out with him, then gets depressed when he gets a girlfriend; and then says that she wants a second lover so she can have two people catering to her needs. She is supposed to be at least partially sympathetic through all this. She even outright says, "Well, is it more selfish to have multiple lovers, who each fulfill one of my needs, or to have one lover who I want to fulfill ALL my needs?" YES, IT IS MORE SELFISH TO WANT MULTIPLE LOVERS. Having one lover who fulfills most of your needs is the definition of a great relationship. By having multiple lovers, you're telling each one, "Yes, you're good for this purpose for me, but only this purpose, and if I want a different need, I'll go to someone else. But I expect you to remain available to me should I require your purpose again." More than that, she's saying "It's right for US" (meaning her and Erin.) Is it, though? Erin was okay with her hooking up with some guy for sex since it wasn't going to be a relationship, but having a third partner in their relationship is an entirely different matter. And I guess that's what annoys me - she just seems to assume that her partner will be okay with it.
I had a similar reaction. "Yes, it is selfish to assume that you're entitled to all your so-called needs being fulfilled by any and all means necessary." So much of that comic uses juvenile, emotional, poorly-considered decisions coupled with repeated vehement insistence on the normality of abnormality. Most of the main cast are actually terrible people, and the social issues commentary gets downright anvilicious. The only other comic I've ever read so much of that I found so repugnant was "Get a Roomie."
 
I had a similar reaction. "Yes, it is selfish to assume that you're entitled to all your so-called needs being fulfilled by any and all means necessary." So much of that comic uses juvenile, emotional, poorly-considered decisions coupled with repeated vehement insistence on the normality of abnormality. Most of the main cast are actually terrible people, and the social issues commentary gets downright anvilicious. The only other comic I've ever read so much of that I found so repugnant was "Get a Roomie."
I'd like to think that I'm fairly open minded about alternative lifestyles, but this is a case where she quite blatantly wants to use someone to compensate for a missing element in a relationship, and doesn't see why people would have a hard time with it or why people wouldn't be okay with that. It's another case of "If someone else was doing it, it'd be wrong, but it's not wrong for me to do."
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I'd like to think that I'm fairly open minded about alternative lifestyles, but this is a case where she quite blatantly wants to use someone to compensate for a missing element in a relationship, and doesn't see why people would have a hard time with it or why people wouldn't be okay with that. It's another case of "If someone else was doing it, it'd be wrong, but it's not wrong for me to do."
Indeed... and also there's a lot of "breathtakingly rampant promiscuity is absolutely fine because I'm not straight" going in in both comics. I don't think that's a stereotype that should really be reinforced.
 
Top