Comic Discussion > ALICE GROVE
Alice Grove MCDLT - December 2016
derech:
Yeah, but. Who (if anyone) from Alice, Sedna, Gavia and Ardent does Pate actually require though? Is it only Alice, because for all his lack of needing sleep and apparently useful violent tendencies, Church is incapable of actually punching through a mass of something like reinforced bunker material? Only Ardent because of his abilities, and Alice is made to do the punching to keep them from knowing Church's true capabilities? None of them, they just happened to be there so got used? Back where they came from Pate certainly acted like he went to the bunker then because he needed something from them and that guess is Alice's strength. Weird immortal strength.
But pretty clearly Pate is not giving them any information he doesn't need to. Like he doesn't really answer Alice about her contention Church could do the punching, just agrees with her sort of. Alice and Sedna didn't seem to be too concerned with where Church was before starting out to destroy that vehicle, but as others have pointed out, Church just ... phase shifted in or something. Like he did pretty much every time we've seen him, not there then bamf whoosh. Clearly Pate thinks that sort of thing can take care of every problem these rather unwilling helpers might cause.
There are a lot of rhetorical questions nobody has the answers to yet.
sitnspin:
I think he just used Alice to prove that he had the power to make her do something she didn't want to do. It was purely a dominance display, putting her in her place. He's a smug little shit.
Also, welcome new person.
brasca:
--- Quote from: Pogopotamus on 18 Dec 2016, 12:42 ---Re Church "choosing" to kill Ellie from a fair is fair perspective we have to remember that Ellie was most definitely trying to kill Church and did not know he was an android. She hit him in the head with a thick metal bar so hard it bent. That blow would have easily fatally crushed the skull of any human being. And why was she trying to kill hiim? For stopping the violent destruction of his bosses property. Ellie was trying to *kill* him for doing his job.
There's more to the moral calculus here than "innocent Ellie got killed by the murder bot". If you are trying to eat the bear and the bear eats you that's what happens sometimes.
Also Sedna hardly seems to be a position to be pontificating about "choice". Recall that just a little bit ago she was peppering human bystanders to Alice with live ammo. If Gavia had not had a shield they would all be dead from bullet wounds.
--- End quote ---
Ellie knows Sedna well enough to conclude she isn't an ordinary human and if Church could do that to her shoulder she'd have to use deadly force just to get him off her so she could get away. Maybe she wouldn't have done that if she truly knew what she was dealing with, but she didn't, however, I think she acted because Sedna helped her out enough times that she was returning the favor. Now while I can agree with your reasoning that Sedna destroyed Church's boss' property and Ellie was interfering consider what glimpse we got of Ellie's corpse in the aftermath and all the blood on Church's clothes he used excessive force. Even if stopping her by deadly force is a part of his programming he could've easily snapped her neck and that would be that. We didn't get to see what happened in between Ellie's ill-fated rescue followed by Alice's. Sedna could've begged him to stop and he just continued to brutally kill her which has shaped the opinion she now holds of Church.
Admittedly when the immortals are in the mood to kill they get those sadistic grins and red eyes, but they can be talked out of it. Alice ceased her beatdown of Gavia when Ardent pleaded with her and while it took the threat of force to stop Sedna she really wasn't serious about killing Ardent and Gavia and just wanted to irritate Alice. That doesn't excuse her recklessness which could've got them killed in the crossfire, but I think being an immortal super soldier altered their moral compasses. Outliving most everyone you know will do that and quite possibly when they or their territory is attacked they go berserk and may not think all that clearly beyond their attack. Perhaps that's what happened with Church because the only one who can control him is Pate and either he wasn't close enough to the scene to stop him or didn't care to intervene. Perhaps we will find that he is the most simple minded of the immortals and is only as bad as the person controlling him.
--- Quote from: Tevildo on 17 Dec 2016, 13:36 ---New here, first post. Whee. I like this comic; it's grown on me a lot since it first started.
I did want to say, I'm glad to see Sedna not severely disabled forever, or incapacitated by feelings of failure. Church's presence has a bit of a Hollywood vibe, so it's nice to see the usual set of cliches not being followed exactly.
Still crossing my fingers that this doesn't turn into "Ardent Single-Handedly Saves The Day And Gets The Girl", though.
(And, err, not sure if this is the place for such comments. Hope I'm not goofing up already...)
--- End quote ---
Welcome to the board Tevildo. I'm hoping that Gavia may save the day since she really hasn't had much to do except cope with her loss. I'm not entirely sure how or even if there is enough time since Pate is eager enough to get to the space habitat, but some of the posters have theorized that Church is programmed to obey Pate. Now if someone intelligent can get close enough to crack the code they could take control. Gavia seems the most likely since Pate could underestimate her. We don't see her with Ardent and Sedna so perhaps Pate is keeping her close in case he needs to fulfill his threat. This could be his undoing if Sedna reveals that immortals like her have a weakness she can exploit if she's close enough to activate it. Moreover, Gavia could further lull Pate into a false sense of security if she pretends to go along with his plans. In addition to her animosity with Ardent she has every reason to want revenge on the Praeses so it might not take too much convincing for Pate to think he has a willing collaborator.
jheartney:
Comic up.
Alice can sense radioactivity by sniffing. If she's a product of the bio-enhancement side, pre-Blink, they've given her capabilities beyond just weaponry. She's like a Pak Protector without the knobby knees.
BenRG:
In the third Terminator movie, the T-X unit could do DNA sequencing by licking blood. So, a multi-purpose air quality sensor mounted in the nasal cavity isn't so unthinkable.
I'm just hoping that whatever Ardent turned that torch into isn't too powerful. I mean, death by sunburn in a cavern is a really, really embarrassing way to go!
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