April 13th, 2018
13 Apr 2018 · page 786 of 1306
Fastest she's moved in her life.
Cast: Benjamin Thackerey, Heinrich Wolfe, Mr Luxuria, Ms Acedia, Sidney Malik, Verity Cunningham
Comments (79)
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Because "THIS! IS! WIDDERSHINS!" does not roll off the tongue quite as well.
I wish I could upvote this more than once.
Uh oh! Now what? Will Mal start trying to reel him in when Lux is at full strength still? This is why the other witches will be needed, I bet. Same for the two minutes of respite! What Lux is not counting on is Harry.
She doesn't even scream... I love it!
Truly the incarnation of sloth.
And she didn't even make a sound landing. It's like the sound effects don't care enough to happen.
Did she land? Or was that just the sound fading out as she fell out of earshot?
How does that reference go? "Captain. No splash."
"I'LL GIVE YOU A SPLASH!"
It looks to me rather that she doesn't understand what's happening. Maybe her brain is lazy and she doesn't figure such things out quickly.
Either way, SLOTH INCARNATE!
You are repeating yourself, Lux, you already said ["needs must"](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/january-29th-2016/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/january-29th-2016/") after dropping someone into the Anchor. :/
It's difficult for spirits to be creative. Lux has been working at 10/10 capacity for centuries to get around this, and it's been remarkably good at pushing the envelope. I can't see Lux deciding to waste any of that on merely not being dull (it has its natural powers to compensate for that, after all).
Well, "needs must" is actually a saying that tends to get repeated.
"Needs must when the Devil drives..."
He's not repeating himself. He's making a deliberate callback for dramatic effect.
Ding dong, the wizard is...not dead, surely?? Also "fastest she's ever moved" TOO SOON.
Look upon my face. Note that there is no trace of surprise upon it. She might have seen this coming too, but that would have taken too much effort wouldn't it?
Is the Barber blood still relevant somehow?
At this point we're so off script it's not funny. I'm so confused @x@
How are we off script? Things are going differently than they did for binding the other Sins, but it makes sense that dealing with Luxuria, who's the mastermind of the whole plan, wouldn't play out the same way.
And Luxuria is Desire, which is so much more than physical/sexual Lust, and means They have power over all the other Sins, which are each of them specific and therefore limited desires, where Luxuria heads up the whole shebang, as it were...
well, harry is with witch for reason
How did that happen?
Fastest she's moved in her life. But that is OK because it is not taking any effort on her part.
She'll never have to try at anything again, as promised.
Which reminds me:
The Tao of Pratchett.
oh my
Fastest she's moved in her life...
... except when teleporting.
In that case, she stood still and the rest of the world moved around her.
Proper attitude for a diva.
So. Now we find out the purpose of this blood sacrifice.
Will Mal feel Luxuria's influence waning because its most loyal disciple is dead, or because the Anchor has been polluted with the blood of an evil creature?
I'm guessing it's the former - the team weakened the other Sins by breaking their influence over people, and Acedia was being influenced by Luxuria more strongly than anyone else. Mal won't be able to tell from inside that the influence is waning simply because Lux killed its follower off itself.
I wonder if it's possible that Acedia isn't dead actually, just Lux's deed destroyed its influence over her.
I don't say I hope for that... just wonder.
That would be an interesting touch. I was kind of sorry that Mal and/or Harry didn’t get the chance to deal with her personally and get revenge for what she did to Henry and little Mal, and if she’s not dead they still might be able to - except that as a wizard she can’t enter the witch space.
I'm afraid that little asterix bubbling up out of the pit represents a very, very distant "CRUNCH".
So Ms. Acedia won't be helping anyone in the cast where she's gone.
It's such a shame. She was a brilliant wizard and could have been so much better than ... this.
If Lux's influence over her is broken, then it is entirely possible that she will end up helping the others weaken Lux for real, just like Gula did.
She is currently moving with 9,81 kilometres per hour squared.
I don't know about that, but I'm sure that she's approaching terminal velocity.
No need to rush the approach, though. Terminal velocity isn't going anywhere.
"Terminal", forsooth!
Wait, wait... she DIDN'T see this coming? How little you know your husband m'lady.
She never put much effort into the relationship.
I just realized something that's pretty important, but I don't want to spoil Kate's surprise.
No, go ahead! If you were able to realize it from what Kate has given us so far, she's a good enough writer that we should assume she meant readers to be able to realize it. So it's fine to talk about it.
This! I'm less interested in twists and more interested in things making sense :)
OK, then: Wolfe never mentioned Harry to Lux; in fact, he never mentioned that there would be two people at the Anchor.
Yeah, and I wondered if the reason was that Wolfe worried about Mal (and so, he was top-priority in Wolfe's mind) or that Wolfe, even influenced, tried to give the minimum of information, unconsciously.
I think it would be Harry who activate that three-minutes-respite machine as Lux would be busy with Mal. At another hand, Harry might be more vulnerable to lust than Mal... and it may be important given how annoyed was Lux at Wolfe's words about Mal.
And Harry still needs to do something big and important enough for Alexa King to have heard of her almost two centuries later. This might be her chance...
I have been waiting for that since this chapter began. While everything Harry's done so far has been important it has all been the kind of behind the scenes stuff that nobody notices. Even if Alexa is more familiar with Victorian era people than the her peers are (and we have no evidence of that) Harry still needs to do something visible enough that she is remembered by at least some people in Alexa's day. Harry needs to get out in public and be seen saving the day if she's going to generate enough fame to justify Alexa thinking of her as soon as she hears the name Barber.
Fair warning, I won't be answering every question this chapter....
Well, that is to be expected since you have already said that this is not the final chapter of Widdershins (which was very good to hear).
I do want to know why Alexa thought of Harry so quickly when she heard that Nora's maiden name was Barber, and I am kind of expecting that answer to make it seem reasonable for her to assume giving her mobile phone to Nora would be helpful, but if that answer more properly belongs in a later chapter I am perfectly happy to wait for it. Especially if that means we will be seeing more of Harry and Sid in the chapters to come. :)
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We knew that Mal had spoken too soon in saying that Lust wouldn't bother him since he doesn't feel any -- which is true, I suppose, but Mal has a personal history with Ms Acedia which might (read, "I'll be very surprised if it doesn't") affect him very much...
Ah..I see now. He was setting up the rest of the sins to engender confidence in the crew that could give him access to what he wants...the actual anchor's anchor. The common point for ALL the anchors.
The Nexus. The Hub.
OMG WHAT I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING...
...said none of us ever.
Well, that did kind of fall out of the setup. It wasn't like Kate dropped it on us without any foreshadowing.
Don't worry. She'll be arriving at a relaxing remote island off the coast of New Zealand in about 40 minutes. And if she doesn't hang on to something she'll be back in Widdershins in about 80 minutes.
Benji probably knows why Lust is pulling this, that's why he's gagged. My only guess about anything here.
Luxuria gagged Ben in the last strip for trying to talk some sense into/warn Acedia that Lux didn't actually care anything about her.
I bet he's got her infused with enough of his essence and is using her to make O'Malley think it's Lust who's weakened? ahhh but what if it was LOVE that motivated her, and not LUST? We need to know!
Lust comes in many forms, not all of them sexual or to do with relationships. She could have been motivated by love, but she also had a strong desire (read: lust) to never work again in her life, which is why Lust was using that to motivate and manipulate her.
Ah, and after commenting above, I see that you did describe your theory here. I don't know... nothing that we've seen of Acedia suggests that she has ever been particularly capable of love.
I wanna make a prediction about the difference between lust and love, but my theory may be spoilery. zips the lip heehee?
Oh, go ahead, shoot! Say what you think! Only Kate knows what's going to happen. Unless you're laying claim to some special inside knowledge of Kate's plans that the rest of us don't have, you're just speculating, which is half the fun of this comment section.
Whether your theory proves right or wrong in the end, it sounds worth discussing. The difference between lust and love...? Please elaborate!
Well, She could have had a way easier time finding another sugar daddy, rather than bust her rump for decades to be ensured an easy life for, at her age, the last 5-10 years. I think the lust he infused her with to screw with readings and senses is tainted by love, which is why she made the effort instead of finding another way to be at luxury, and that the love may be Lust's downfall. But that's just me. And lust is all about pleasure and the physical. The whats. Love, is for who a person is under that. Damned be to their looks, their abilities, or even their gender. The who's.
Hm. Well, but in this case, there's no there there -- no actual 'who' for her to love. Ben is exactly right. Luxuria is only a spirit, a thing, the embodiment of a single trait, not a person. So she'd have had to be imagining a person that doesn't exist, and loving that. Which is, I grant you, a very human thing to do... We do make that mistake over and over: we project an image of the person we want to love, on someone who isn't like that at all.
Still, I can't help but feel that if the story were heading in that direction, Kate would have laid small clues along the way so that after the fact it would click into making perfect sense. I'm drawing a blank on any reaction from Acedia that hints at her feeling any actual love.
You're right that she could have had a far easier life, but that can be explained as being part of Lux's plan. She was always more strongly under Lux's influence than any of the other humans. He made her his wife, and from the first moment we see them, in the flashback, he is visibly exerting his charm on her. His pattern with all human subjects was to offer them what they most wanted, but unlike the rest, she was doubly in his thrall. And he was never banished. For all these years, he's been lurking in the background somewhere.
It made me think about:
(a) Can an embodied spirit that lived among humans for a long time grow more person-like? Lux's words about humans it said to Henry imply Lux isn't the case, but is it possible in general?
(b) Does love for an embodied spirit necessarily have to be "projecting"? I don't say about Lux there, but take, for example, spirit of Love. Is human love for it, as a spirit, irrational and senseless? Of course, it would be unusual kind of love, more like gratitude, admiration and inspiration, - and it would make its object stronger, so it wouldn't be futile.
As for Lux and Acedia, I don't think she loved "him", if only over her talking about "him" there: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-20th-2016/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-20th-2016/")
Good reference about Lux and Acedia. What she says there really indicates that they were just using each other and didn't mind.
About an embodied spirit becoming more human-like: I doubt it? If they are the essence of a human emotion, they'd always have to be one-sided, or they'd cease only being that emotion. The reason that humans can be complex and not "flat" depends on our ability to experience a complex, even contradictory, range of emotions and ideas. Take Voss -- at first he was filled with envy. Later on, he experience remorse, admiration, and gratitude. But a summoned spirit of envy wouldn't be able to experience remorse, admiration, or gratitude without ceasing to be a spirit of envy.
Oh, of course, Envy can't feel anything of this kind, as well as it can't feel neither friendship nor kindness. (And Lust can't feel love because these feelings are opposites. It is the way I interpreted Ben's warning: "this thing can't love you because it is Lust/a Deadly Sin" rather than "this thing can't love you because it is just a spirit".) It seems Envy can feel anger and amusement, though.
Well, it is certain that the spectrum of "compatible" emotions a spirit can feel is limited one. And if personality is defined by one's free choice between contradictory states of mind then a spirit can't be a person.
About human "complexity", I'm somewhat intrigued by that Lux called it weakness of humans, but Greed told about it as about human strength and advised Harry to use it. Why do these both so differ on this subject?
P.S. Suddenly I recalled "Malforms Guide" and Ben's question there about the Hippo of Happiness: "Are we only now realising their depth, or are Malforms becoming more complex?" Of course, THOH's attachment to the O'Malley isn't a feeling of the same level as love that Acedia might think Lux had for her, but still.
I assume that is Mr. Luxuria's amulet in the last inserted panel. Is he leaving it behind outside so that Mal cannot bind him to it? Mal may not have anything to which he can bind Mr. Luxuria after drawing it in except the amulet. Mal may have a problem here.
Nah, Harry's grandfather and grandmother again had gotten it back after Lust got free when they were younger. Sid's little magpie spirit stole it from them on [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-8th-2015/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-8th-2015/") , and Harry was seen packing it away with the other conduits before they all rolled out ( [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-13th-2016/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-13th-2016/") ). Thus, the last panel is a cutaway to the witchy place. :)
Oh, I hadn't realized that is the jewelry Magpie took. This continues the theme of Magpie taking things that are important, if Sid isn't in immediate need of something else.
I'm still anxious to see what his game is. Avvy said Lux had some kind of nasty gambit set up for if (when?) it came down to it and it alone. And it does seem to want to get to Witchspace. It seemed frustrated before by learning that the Witch of Widdershins is asexual. Does it know Harry's in there with him?
KATE, THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME!
Bye, Felicia Acedia.
As long as we're speculating, I'd like to bring up another idea that's been mentioned in these comments from time to time: that the mysterious Mr. Montfort, Florrie's husband, will turn out to have been Luxuria in disguise, keeping tabs on the Barber family.
I never bought into it because Florrie has not shown the slightest sign of being enthralled by her husband. Her mind seems to be wholly her own: independent, flirtatious, affectionate and bossy with her sisters.
But now that we're starting to realize Lux might be working according to a subtle master plan that includes having all the other spirits banished, just so he can get to the witchy-place... that possibility just got a little more likely. Think about how he dealt with Wolfe. In his Montfort disguise, he may have been keeping his power very much under wraps. Indeed, he'd have to... it would have been a dangerous game, getting that close to Izzy!
If he only ever used his power on Florrie when the two of them were alone... that might explain why she doesn't act much like a married woman. When she's not with him, unless reminded, she doesn't seem to think about him at all.
This is the longest-running crack fan theory that I can think of for the comic. All I can say is, if we don't get any answers about who Florrie's husband is, it's going to be very disappointing.
I admit I am curious about whether this theory is correct or not. And I do want to see Mr. de Montfort at some point. But my understanding of how many Victorian marriages functioned makes it plausible that Mr. de Montfort's detachment is much less interesting.
... since Aceda felt strong Lust for him, after all ...
... Yegads, that's EVIL!