Okay, Batman is kinda shady so I accept that I can’t always trust him, but are you really telling me that both Mabel Pines and Webbigail Vanderquack would lie?
Of course they are real.  They’ve been around for better than a century, and played major roles in scaling the cliffs at La Pointe du Hoc on D-Day during WWII.  They’re just not very portable is all, although since Amazi-Girl’s jumpsuit apparently has a way to access “hammer-space” to carry such things as a grappling hook, caltrops, and suction cups (and condoms and Transformer figures) that shouldn’t matter.
They exist but are much much slower than superhero/video game versions and not really for going from building top to building top. They’d help Amazi-girl climb straight up a building carrying a lot more weight.
The really weird thing about superheroes and grappling hooks is their swinging momentum (or rather, the moment it disappears into thin air where everyday physics would have them ram the wall).
Wouldn’t swinging between buildings require something even taller than said buildings to grapple-hook onto in the middle?
It would have to be a bridge or horizontal flagpole, too. If it was another building, wouldn’t she just splat into the side of it like Wile E. Coyote into a cliff? (Including the subsequent spread-eagle fall to the ground, complete with whistle sound effect, cloud of dust, and Amazi-Girl shaped crater.)
More upsetting realism is that the forces felt at the bottom of the swing are enough to at the very least rip your arm out of your socket. It’s unlikely you’d be able to hang on at that point, though.
Yeah, there was a circus acrobat in the early 20th Century whose aerial act dislocated and reinserted her shoulder joint repeatedly on every performance. Eventually it killed her.
Wouldn’t swinging between buildings require something even taller than said buildings to grapple-hook onto in the middle?
Only if your intent is to land directly on the second building’s roof. (Actually, in that case, you’d really want the grapple point to be directly above the destination building. Between can work but would be less reliable. Even on the other side would be better than between.)
Just to swing between buildings, even if the distance between them is greater than the height of the destination building, you’d just need to take in the slack while en route (so you don’t hit the ground), and climb whatever distance is left (which is what Batman and Spider-Man usually do, if they’re trying to go from rooftop to rooftop, instead of in a window), probably, in the case of a grapple gun, with the help of the same motor that takes up the slack.
And THAT is where the hand-held grapple gun falls flat – the requisite motor will not fit in a man-portable device.
Needfuldoer
Maybe Carla can build her an Amazi-Drone to grapple off of, or ride around like Green Goblin.
thejeff
Wouldn’t you want the grapple point to be between the two so that you reached the destination just about the top of your swing, rather than at the bottom where your speed is highest?
It would need to be higher than your target, of course.
Mostly it’s comic book physics, don’t think about it too much. 🙂
No, you want your destination to be about the middle of the swing to reduce the chances of missing and having to do the whole goddamn thing over again. (Assuming you don’t plummet to your death, which is also a much higher likelihood when swinging over, not to.)
Needfuldoer
The grapple point has to be high enough that the bottom of your swing doesn’t painfully intersect with the ground. If it’s the center point of a circle, your start and end points can be anywhere on the bottom half of that circle (minus a few feet to make room so you don’t go splat on the bottom).
The grapple point has to be high enough that the bottom of your swing doesn’t painfully intersect with the ground.
Which most building to building swings means ‘at or near the roof’.
I’m honestly not sure of the scenarios y’all are imagining…
Needfuldoer
If you’re on a 20 foot tall roof, and you grapple off something 30 feet away from you but less than 30 feet off the ground, you’re gonna have a bad time.
And that’s so far outside of the standard ‘superhero swinging between buildings’ scenario as to be a non sequitur.
thejeff
That approach leads to smacking into your target at full speed. You also have to be much higher to start with, while if you’re aiming near the end of the arc, you just have to be enough higher to account for wind resistance.
We’re assuming here that you’re a superhero with the requisite parkour style skills and ability not to screw or otherwise plummet to your death. Because, if you’re not – don’t do this. 🙂
Theoretically you could grapple straight to something, Batman/Just Cause style, but the forces required would be enough to instantly pulverize your bones.
There are real grappling guns, as well as guns that do the same thing as grappling guns and are the basis for the comic version of them but are used in an entirely different way….
The US Navy and other navies use special guns that fire a line to a target on another ship that connects the two ships together so people and equipment can go between the two, for decades it’s been how ships got refueled and replenished before helicopters.
Amber. Without even realising it, she’s split into two separate personas – Amazigirl, and Amber who dresses up as Amazigirl. No, three; also regular Amber who still has feelings for Walky. 😛
Maybe, but I don’t think Blaine recruited him just to make some fake posts on social media. He wouldn’t need someone with actual access to campus for that, there has to be more to his involvement.
Also, I think Blain Recruited Asher mainly to mess with *amber*; and his dialogue suggested he either doesn’t know they’re same person; or at the very least his plan was a bit longer term.
Skater Girl
It might not be Asher specifically, but it’s definitely a set-up
Hmm, I was hoping that Roller-Derby was a sufficient outlet but obviously that isn’t the case. What is going to happen if this continues and her dad finally figures out who Amazi-girl is?
My guess is, someone is going to get hurt playing around in a cape, and it won’t be Amber.
She’ll blame herself, however.
Basically, she has someone running needed, but unasked for, interference. She could go walk into a lab building or the student center right now, (after changing, of course), and have dozens of witnesses that Amber and Amazi-Girl both exist at the same time in different places.
Despite how good Amber looks in her AG outfit, and I have to admit she looks great, it was nice to think she was gone. But we should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.
My DC Comics pitch: Damage Control knockoff, but they solely clean up grappling hook debris. There must be gargoyles in Gotham City that are just totally wrapped in cables.
The Wayne Foundation provides a surprisingly generous endowment for gargoyle maintenance and repair in Gotham City. Though technically it has to incorporate a waterspout to be a gargoyle, otherwise it’s a grotesque.
142 thoughts on “Sighting”
Doctor_Who
Wait, grapple guns aren’t real?
Okay, Batman is kinda shady so I accept that I can’t always trust him, but are you really telling me that both Mabel Pines and Webbigail Vanderquack would lie?
EvilMidnightLurker
Your logic is impeccable.
Madock345
Mabel Is magic all on her own, that grapplehook was probably a toy before she touched it 😉
Doctor_Who
You think Grunkle Stan would give fake weaponry to children?
The man’s a crook, but he has standards.
BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
A grapple gun is not technically a weapon (unless you’re Rorschach).
Bicycle Bill
Of course they are real.  They’ve been around for better than a century, and played major roles in scaling the cliffs at La Pointe du Hoc on D-Day during WWII.  They’re just not very portable is all, although since Amazi-Girl’s jumpsuit apparently has a way to access “hammer-space” to carry such things as a grappling hook, caltrops, and suction cups (and condoms and Transformer figures) that shouldn’t matter.
Questionor
They exist but are much much slower than superhero/video game versions and not really for going from building top to building top. They’d help Amazi-girl climb straight up a building carrying a lot more weight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y45wj0-lgjg
Plasma Mongoose
Not handheld ones at least
CJ
The really weird thing about superheroes and grappling hooks is their swinging momentum (or rather, the moment it disappears into thin air where everyday physics would have them ram the wall).
Needfuldoer
Wouldn’t swinging between buildings require something even taller than said buildings to grapple-hook onto in the middle?
It would have to be a bridge or horizontal flagpole, too. If it was another building, wouldn’t she just splat into the side of it like Wile E. Coyote into a cliff? (Including the subsequent spread-eagle fall to the ground, complete with whistle sound effect, cloud of dust, and Amazi-Girl shaped crater.)
WeirderThanWeird
More upsetting realism is that the forces felt at the bottom of the swing are enough to at the very least rip your arm out of your socket. It’s unlikely you’d be able to hang on at that point, though.
Stephen Bierce
Yeah, there was a circus acrobat in the early 20th Century whose aerial act dislocated and reinserted her shoulder joint repeatedly on every performance. Eventually it killed her.
Kamino Neko
Only if your intent is to land directly on the second building’s roof. (Actually, in that case, you’d really want the grapple point to be directly above the destination building. Between can work but would be less reliable. Even on the other side would be better than between.)
Just to swing between buildings, even if the distance between them is greater than the height of the destination building, you’d just need to take in the slack while en route (so you don’t hit the ground), and climb whatever distance is left (which is what Batman and Spider-Man usually do, if they’re trying to go from rooftop to rooftop, instead of in a window), probably, in the case of a grapple gun, with the help of the same motor that takes up the slack.
And THAT is where the hand-held grapple gun falls flat – the requisite motor will not fit in a man-portable device.
Needfuldoer
Maybe Carla can build her an Amazi-Drone to grapple off of, or ride around like Green Goblin.
thejeff
Wouldn’t you want the grapple point to be between the two so that you reached the destination just about the top of your swing, rather than at the bottom where your speed is highest?
It would need to be higher than your target, of course.
Mostly it’s comic book physics, don’t think about it too much. 🙂
Kamino Neko
No, you want your destination to be about the middle of the swing to reduce the chances of missing and having to do the whole goddamn thing over again. (Assuming you don’t plummet to your death, which is also a much higher likelihood when swinging over, not to.)
Needfuldoer
The grapple point has to be high enough that the bottom of your swing doesn’t painfully intersect with the ground. If it’s the center point of a circle, your start and end points can be anywhere on the bottom half of that circle (minus a few feet to make room so you don’t go splat on the bottom).
Kamino Neko
Which most building to building swings means ‘at or near the roof’.
I’m honestly not sure of the scenarios y’all are imagining…
Needfuldoer
If you’re on a 20 foot tall roof, and you grapple off something 30 feet away from you but less than 30 feet off the ground, you’re gonna have a bad time.
Kamino Neko
And that’s so far outside of the standard ‘superhero swinging between buildings’ scenario as to be a non sequitur.
thejeff
That approach leads to smacking into your target at full speed. You also have to be much higher to start with, while if you’re aiming near the end of the arc, you just have to be enough higher to account for wind resistance.
We’re assuming here that you’re a superhero with the requisite parkour style skills and ability not to screw or otherwise plummet to your death. Because, if you’re not – don’t do this. 🙂
Kamino Neko
Which, in the most likely scenarios, is about the speed of a good jog.
If you’ve got the skills to have a good chance of not overshooting nor undershooting, you more than have the skills to break that hit.
Rartorata
Theoretically you could grapple straight to something, Batman/Just Cause style, but the forces required would be enough to instantly pulverize your bones.
LookingIn
There are real grappling guns, as well as guns that do the same thing as grappling guns and are the basis for the comic version of them but are used in an entirely different way….
The US Navy and other navies use special guns that fire a line to a target on another ship that connects the two ships together so people and equipment can go between the two, for decades it’s been how ships got refueled and replenished before helicopters.
Ana Chronistic
my dreams of being Darkwing Duck rapidly disintegrating
Nono
Alright kids, place your bets. Who is it?
nobodybasically
At least one of them is Faz.
butts
ultra carla
Doctor_Who
Impossible. Being a superhero makes you cooler, and Carla is at maximum cool already.
And I know she’s aware of what an arithmetic overflow is, so she wouldn’t risk becoming the female Urkel.
GollyGamma
It could be Schtickshift.
Kyrik Michalowski
Asher.
Marsh Maryrose
Lucy.
etherealdesiign
asher
ditrysia
yep, asher
BarerMender
It’s the league of evil dads. It’s a trap.
Keulen
Blaine, possibly with Asher’s help.
Needfuldoer
Lucy.
BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
Ronald Reagan
AbelUndercity
Bizarro Amazi-Girl
Deadjolras
The real Amazi-girl: Sal.
Deanatay
Amber? It’s possible AG simply doesn’t _remember_ being at the library.
someone
Amber, but the one from the Shortpacked! universe.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Amber. Without even realising it, she’s split into two separate personas – Amazigirl, and Amber who dresses up as Amazigirl. No, three; also regular Amber who still has feelings for Walky. 😛
BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
Blue Mask Amazigirl, Yellow Mask Amazigirl, Amber dressed up as Amazigirl, Amber, and Amazigirl dressed up as Amber.
tim gueguen
Amazi-girl’s being silly. Carla could supply her with grapple guns.
Something tells me dear old Blaine has found himself an Amazi-poster.
Skater Girl
It’s a set up. Asher is posting fake sightings to lure her out.
Doctor_Who
Maybe, but I don’t think Blaine recruited him just to make some fake posts on social media. He wouldn’t need someone with actual access to campus for that, there has to be more to his involvement.
Diner Kinetic
Also, I think Blain Recruited Asher mainly to mess with *amber*; and his dialogue suggested he either doesn’t know they’re same person; or at the very least his plan was a bit longer term.
Skater Girl
It might not be Asher specifically, but it’s definitely a set-up
Stephen Bierce
(Alt Text) I’m reminded of a poem about fishing line somebody read on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED many years ago.
I dunno…get a flare pistol from a nautical supplies store and custom make your own shells for it?
Marsh Maryrose
Was it Sandra Beasly’s poem “Ukelele”?
“If there is to be one instrument of love, not love vanished or imagined, but love, it’s this one.
Fit a melody in the crook of your arm and STRUM.”
Marsh Maryrose
Wait, that was Morning Edition, never mind. Still a wonderful poem.
Geneseepaws
Agreed, wonderful poem. … Not Dorothy Parker, but wonderful. Not everything needs to be sarcastic…. Sometimes it helps, but not always.
Kyrik Michalowski
Hmm, I was hoping that Roller-Derby was a sufficient outlet but obviously that isn’t the case. What is going to happen if this continues and her dad finally figures out who Amazi-girl is?
Zach
He will be oddly proud, and resentful.
Then he will try to turn that into not needing to pay for school costs.
Which will turn into him having to cover psychological costs.
SeanR
My guess is, someone is going to get hurt playing around in a cape, and it won’t be Amber.
She’ll blame herself, however.
Basically, she has someone running needed, but unasked for, interference. She could go walk into a lab building or the student center right now, (after changing, of course), and have dozens of witnesses that Amber and Amazi-Girl both exist at the same time in different places.
Instead, she’ll try to put a stop to it.
JohnnyO
Is this going to be the “I’m not wearing hockey pads” scene from The Dark Knight?
BBCC
Hoo boy.
Well, it’s nice to see AG again. Eh? Ehhhh?
Nono
We haven’t seen actual Amazi-Girl in 9 months.
BBCC
I feel like there’s a baby joke there, but I can’t think of it.
tyersome
Maybe you should have just left a pregnant pause?
BBCC
*badumtsh*
Clif
Bravo!
Kyrik Michalowski
Despite how good Amber looks in her AG outfit, and I have to admit she looks great, it was nice to think she was gone. But we should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.
BBCC
I never thought AG was gone for good. I’m just glad it’s not immediately gone to shit with her looking for her ‘sidekick’.
thejeff
Though I am really looking forward to the confusion of the next Sal/Amazi-Girl meeting.
BBCC
Oh, so am I! With equal amounts of interest, excitement, and dread.
Bathymetheus
I see she replaced the blue mask.
Cattleprod
My DC Comics pitch: Damage Control knockoff, but they solely clean up grappling hook debris. There must be gargoyles in Gotham City that are just totally wrapped in cables.
Dean
The Wayne Foundation provides a surprisingly generous endowment for gargoyle maintenance and repair in Gotham City. Though technically it has to incorporate a waterspout to be a gargoyle, otherwise it’s a grotesque.
BarerMender
Thank you. It needed to be said.
Jeff K!,