I always enjoy drawing the full-page splash page drawings. I can’t do them too often, or the story would take three times longer to finish, but it’s fun to slip them in occasionally.
This one is a special tribute to the classic scene from James Cameron’s Aliens. I still remember the cheers that rose up from the full-house audience when Ripley emerged from behind the door to confront the alien queen and uttered the famous line. I actually worried about using ‘bitch’ but I decided that it was an essential part of the scene that I was paying tribute to.
Thanks to everyone who has been submitting names for our sword-wielding villainess. If you haven’t submitted your suggestion yet, you have another week or two before I’ll reveal her new name.
Stay tuned!
Remember people: If he thinks your question is stupid, TekSupport will set you on fire.
“Does this child have superpowers” does sound like a stupid question.
As much as I appreciate the Aliens reference, it was foolish of him to shout like that. It gives her a warning that he’s coming and time to prepare. For goodness sakes, she’s got two swords and she probably knows how to use them!
Unwise, this is definitely a shoot first and ask the guys back at the lair questions later situation. She has superspeed,against which the only hope is to shoot first and hope they aren’t paying attention until the bullet gets there. Once she notices you, the fight should be over before you know that she reacted.
where’s the teacher 🙁
Grin.
I knew that humm was ‘daddy’ arriving.
I hope he took time to watch her and figure what she is capable of.
If not, it’ll be up to the newly reactivated android.
Oh… You askes us for a vilainous name, and decided to go with “Bitch“?
Well, keeping a completely cool head when an armed killer has your kid in its hands is not that simple – not to mention the whole bonus emotional morass of just learning he might NOT be his kid, but a (mutant) villain’s one….
It’s not as silly a maneuver as it seems. If Tek simply blasted the woman, her reflexes might well be conditioned enough to off the kid as she died. What he’s doing is giving her another target.
I appreciate the Aliens quote to, however, as a counterpoint, it’s bad parenting to teach your kid/step-kid to refer to women that way. As Liana notes in Demon Hunter Kain: http://www.demonhunterkain.com/comic/dhk-chapter-6-page-28/
Confusing American ethics, deliberate violence against children, and its a ethical dilemma to call the perpetrator ‘bitch’…….in my eyes if you have “deliberate violence against children” then you have a so mature story that say ‘bitch’ is a no issue.
I actually found it to be an interesting conflict that emerged in my writing process. I noted in an earlier post that I was uncomfortable with the ‘violence against children’ aspect, but I went ahead with it in the story because it felt like I was following the natural flow that the tale itself was taking. On the other hand, injecting the ‘bitch’ phrase into the dialog felt more like an intrusion on my part into the story, and I was forcing words that I didn’t really feel comfortable with into the mouth of a character, just to make the ‘shout out’ to the Aliens movie.
If Tek Support had been created as a more profane fellow, I might not have cringed so much at using the word. Or I suppose if he were a more fully-formed character in my head, and it felt like he would have decided to invoke the famous movie phrase on his own, then it would just have been part of the flow of the story as well.
As always, thanks for the feedback.
My first thought was that a person in tech suport postion would toss all possible curses and insults at the “sword ninja” (looks forward to when she gets a name) but then it struck me, if the “sword ninja” realy was truly insulted by all the insults, she might lose here calm and retalieat agenst the boy.
What tech suport realy would have said (if he did not say bitch out of stress/fear/anxiety) “Get awhay from him or die” then you have established a solid threat (your comitment to fight to the death to proctect the boy) but also leave a way out for the “sword ninja” (back awhay and there are no fight to the death)