The First Val Should Ask Val

[davidj]

Do you remember travelling forward in time?

[coriolis]

Spoilers! Or, put another way, "Temporal Prime Directive"

Dark-Val doesn't seem to be much interested in small talk, least of all with her former self. Still don't see why original-Val needs to be there, Romeo got the crypt open. "All you have to do is ask."

Fridge Brilliance moment: How is Mr. Bat 2 still around to be used? At 200 years old, it's a fracking antique! Dead wood that old would be very dry and brittle! And she (edit/clarify: original-Val)*never* in her yet-unseen career broke it over the superdense head of some nigh-invulnerable villain (as a way of discovering said villain was nigh-invulnerable...)?! Or met a fire-user? Or any number of other things, up until the day that she elected to go into stasis...?

[davidj]

Dark Val doesn't have a bat.

[coriolis]

Sept 26, 2013 13:55:29 GMT -5 davidj said:

Dark Val doesn't have a bat.

Of course not, original-Val has the "antique" bat. Mender presented it to her. That's what I'm referring to.

And if its Mr. Bat 74 rather than Mr. Bat 2, it still raises questions. Is baseball still a "thing", 200 years from now? Why wood? Why not some more exotic (and superhero-appropriate) material, obtained during Val's "missing years"?

Mr. Bat is something that would be very significant to Val, and it was just a last-panel throwaway line.

HYPOTHETICAL dialog (need to shoehorn in an extra panel or two somewhere to make it fit...):

Mender: We got Mr. Bat out of storage for you.
Val: Why is it completely black?
Mender: It was carved out of meteoric basalt during the invasion of....never mind...

HYPOTHETICAL #2
Mender: Here's Mr. Bat.
Val: Not the one I remember. What is this made of, and why is it patterned like that?!
Mender: Nanotube carbon-fiber. Unbreakable, but flexes with recoil just like wood...
Val (grinning): I think I'm gonna like this...

Hypothetical #3:
Mender: Here's Mr. Bat. We borrowed it from the museum.
Val: Will that be OK?
Mender: Sure, it's unbreakable. We just have to put it back when we're done.
Val: Its....its....transparent!
Mender: Crystallized titanium alloy.

Its really a shame that Val's (likely) reaction to being handed "her" weapon had to be glossed over due to the narrative form. There's only so much "she just rolls with the strangeness" that suspension of disbelief can cover.

That's a conversation that could have taken up a whole strip, and it was too soon; she really didn't need a weapon just then, in the peaceful confines of the Temple of Light.

Hmm, I know what's done is done, but preface each hypothetical with Val saying "I need a weapon," maybe insert a page between Another World XI and Another World XV, man that would have worked so well...

[Erika]

The bat is not an antique. She had it with her on patrol and it came to the future with her. She just dropped it and Mender picked it up. That's all. Nothing nearly so complicated.

[coriolis]

Oh, phooey. Wait, how did Mender know it was Mr. Bat #2 (and not some other in a likely succession of Mr. Bats...)?

Dark Val's "Mr. Bat" definitely needs to be black. Unless she's a full-on rangestriker now. Solidified Darkness Energy?

Fridge Brilliance moment the next: Dark Val is surprised at emergence, although she controls her reaction much better. "You awoke me ahead of schedule...". She doesn't remember this from her younger self's perspective! Which means either 1) original-Val gets a minor mindwipe before getting sent back, 2) this is an alternate/parallel future that original-Val isn't going to actually experience. or 3) Dark-Val isn't really Val, but someone who has duplicated her physical appearance. But is nonetheless (one hopes) a hero.

[Erika]

Sept 30, 2013 0:46:37 GMT -5 coriolis said:

Oh, phooey. Wait, how did Mender know it was Mr. Bat #2 (and not some other in a likely succession of Mr. Bats...)?

The fact that "Mr Bat II" is carved on the side might have been a hint.

[coriolis]

I didn't think it was possible to feel brilliant and like the slowest child in the class at the same time...

[KelFurb]

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