June 5th, 2018
5 Jun 2018 · page 800 of 1306
Cast: Harriet Barber, Jack O'Malley, Mr Luxuria, Sidney Malik, Verity Cunningham
Comments (85)
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So, bets on how Harry gets Mal over this.
1. Inspirational words
2. Inspirational smoking
3. Just shooting Luxuria
4. The Bright Noah Special
The second would be more fitting to them. XD
Swift kick in the seat of the pants, and a shove in the right direction.
And, maybe a little "my Sid" slip along the way.
A half-cup of water in the face would not go amiss, here. Or a clip around the ear, but the goal is to use a physical shock to break Mal's indecision loop and get him thinking again.
Not familiar with no. 4, lol, what is that?
Harry is an up and coming Granny Weatherwax, I swear.
He needs a hug :≤
Or possibly a kick up the backside
Both? Both is good?
Not at the same time, I hope. That might be difficult.
But what tune is it playing?
Presumably the theme music, whatever that is
We could try to guess it from the image in panel 1: The teeth on the left are longer than the ones on the right, so it goes from low pitch to high. I can't tell which way the drum would rotate, but we could look at it both forwards and backwards and see which way sounds more familiar. Unfortunately I'm not confident in my ability to line up the pins just from that image...
I think usually the pins would push the teeth upwards, so the drum would be rotating away from us - the pins we can see are the ones we've just heard rather than those about to play, and that sequence of 5 notes close together would be rising.
Choosing a tune, working out what the pattern the pins on the musical box will be and then drawing it would be obsession to the point of insanity - a state of mind for which I have the greatest respect and admiration.
I don't know if I hope that the music box is actually set up to play a real tune or not.
Indeed. Or, she just had the right music box for reference :P
But... that's cheating!
So? Good authors cheat all the time.
I'm sure Ms Ashwin never cheats ;-)
Someone else suggested the Song of Time from Ocarina, but I like the idea that it's this time-twisting melody by ViHart: [https://www.youtube.com/wat...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iMI_uOM_fY "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iMI_uOM_fY")
Doors are opening! Island Witch and Mountain Witch better make an appearance soon, our poor dear City Witch is having a bad time :(
And the doors aren't frozen by the respite, which seems promising!
No, they seem to be alerted by it, I hope the other witches are paying attention!
After some careful review and reconstruction of the music and it's notes, I've identified the song as a popular folk melody that originated in Japan, then spread to America and subsequently the rest of the world. You can listen to it here! [https://www.youtube.com/wat...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nad5AJaIcBI "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nad5AJaIcBI")
It's the ocarina of time!
============
Incidentally, it took me a while to realise that the instrumental break in "Wild Thing" is a fuzz ocarina...
And the theme from Legends of Tomorrow is clearly a slightly up-tempo instrumental of Can't Help Falling in Love
And the Tortoise theme from Carnival of the Animals is the CanCan played in a minor key at roughly 1/32 speed.
god i was like 99% sure this was going to be a rickroll
Be careful with that meme, it's an antique!
An antique that never loses its quality, though. : )
I always preferred "All Your Base" and "The Hamster Dance" myself.
Ah, the nostalgia! 😁 (I actually do genuinely enjoy the rickroll song, due to my love of cheesy 80s dance music I suppose. I actually tried to learn all the lyrics to it at one point so that I could rickroll people in real life...)
Well, now I feel like I missed an opportunity...
Oh, but it was. As long as Never Gonna Give You Up appears in your head, it doesn't matter where the link really leads. It's a rickroll. Damn that Pavlov guy.
No, no, no, it's clearly this one!
[https://youtu.be/_RkZBjsgLTw](https://youtu.be/_RkZBjsgLTw "https://youtu.be/_RkZBjsgLTw")
I was thinking it sounds like this.
[https://youtu.be/0JPnR7C8mZ...](https://youtu.be/0JPnR7C8mZQ?t=37s "https://youtu.be/0JPnR7C8mZQ?t=37s")
I'm expecting the mysterious fourth witch to turn up with a second box at the crucial moment.
Damn, music boxes were loud back in the day. Guess they just don't make 'em like they used to.
There were so many young people playing this awful modern Mendelssohn and Schubert at full blast at all times of the day and night, that in the end they passed the Music Box Act of 1841, that limited the volume of music boxes and banned them from being played in built up areas during the hours of darkness.
Eventually I'm going to try to decipher it by looking at the music box
and approximating on a keyboard. However, I am not a competent musician
by any stretch, and I don't know which direction the drum is turning, so
I'm really hoping for an answer before I descend too deep into the
madness ^^
What about the fourth door?
Will we ever see an appearance of Deep Sea Anglerfish Witch?
I'm not sure what I expected "two minutes' respite in a box" to look like, but a music box is a really clever idea! The respite lasts as long as the tune plays.
Is Mal crying in panel eight?
Yes, he is. Poor guy. :(
He need a motivational song, not a respite song that freezes stuff ;3; Harry do something for the witch child
Time for the other witches to show Mal how to return the others to their bodies?
Oh Mal honeybunch. The only music that would cheer you right now is Wolfe freely playing his violin. You have to try!
Mal has grown so, so much. Can you imagine the character we got to know in Chapter two being reduced to tears by needing to fix things and not knowing how to do so? He's gone from caring too little to, perhaps, caring too much.
Kate, why are you so cruel to your characters?
Oh I love this. I was thinking before how much more moving it seems to me to see this breakdown compared to the one in the Sloth-induced flashback, and I was wondering why. This is why, it's because he's breaking down over his care for others, rather than pity for himself.
I think, maybe, it is what he was afraid of all along as he didn't want to admit he is a witch and with "I want to be nobody" under Sloth's influence. Maybe, subconsciously he was afraid of his powers and that he can make a dangerous mistake with them, hurting others.
And Lux pressed him into feeling "it is all my fault".
I would also say it has to do with the fact that in the past being different because of his powers hasn't worked out well for him, so he denies them in order to keep bad things from continuing to happen.
I'm rather interested in a little more specific information about what you mean here? Which things not working out well are you referring to?
At the very least, he wound up in Ms. Acedia's hands because of his powers.
That's true, and that (very specific, very bad thing) happened in Widdershins. I'd actually say from what we've seen of Mal previously, he had a greater aversion to being in Widdershins than to his powers. But I wonder if he's more paranoid about his powers due to being in Widdershins.
I had the impression that the orphanage directors had brought him to Widdershins because his powers were upsetting the other children and that Acedia called him a witch..and he did not like that at all.
On the other hand, the way he saw Enid O'Malley must have made him enjoy his powers, since she loved him very much and he got to see that.
Agreeing with everything JWLM is saying. I'd also point out that during the Wolfe and Mal meet backstory ( https://www.widdershinscomi... "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-16th-2014/)") Mal says he doesn't want to talk about his powers because that hasn't worked out well for him in the past.
Actually, the orphanage directors brought him to Acedia, who brought him to Widdershins. So there you have the train of bad: he tells other children about his powers (as non canon mentioned), which made the others afraid of him, which led to the orphanage directors bringing him to Acedia, who brought him to Widdershins and abused him for his powers as a witch. No wonder he's avoided both telling people about his powers and avoided Widdershins since then.
Part of the reason he’s crying has to be that he desperately wants Wolfe and Ben back and he’s terrified of doing something that would make Lust hurt them. He’s always cared deeply about his friends, but now he’s also come to care about doing his job as the witch, and having to choose between them is tearing him in two.
Well, now, after Harry has made a respite, these two carings don't really contradict each to other, because binding Lux is his job as the witch and will save their friends.
But he doubts his powers and is afraid of risking his friends' lives, obviously.
You’re right, but I don’t think Mal has quite grasped that implication of the respite. He’s still stuck on “If I try anythin’ it’ll -”
This is why more experienced witches are on the way.
OT: we've met Mountain Witch. Have we ever met Island Witch?
I think we have not met Island Witch yet. I believe the only thing we have heard in relation to that anchor is that all of the expeditions that have gone to attempt to locate tat anchor have failed to return. I presume this means that Island Witch's people have no formal contact with the outside world, although Mountain Witch's note to Mal implies that there is at least enough contact between the two witches that they can meet with each other when it is necessary for them to work together.
Well, Mal can't be sure that he can put the souls back without Lux's help. So, I can see where even if he was thinking clearly, he might still hesitate to bind Lux.
Incidentally, has anyone else imagined what might happen if the souls get put back in the wrong bodies?
Body swap would be hilarious to see.
It also doesn't help that those are the two he tends to turn to in times of crisis.
He has grown. Yet the seed was there. He has always cared too much. [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-5th-2012/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-5th-2012/")
One of my absolute favorite novelists has repeatedly stated that the way she gets past any writer's block, and in fact how she comes up with a significant amount of her storylines, is by thinking "okay, what is the absolute worst thing I can do to my main characters now?"
Two minutes? That's plenty of time for me to dart in, give him a big effin' hug, and scoot back out of continuity.
For the same reason one records shattering a stained-glass window. Sure it might look pretty beforehand, but imagine how the light reflects off the shards in that brief moment of destruction. Now imagine it at 1/100th speed.
There is a special quality that shines through when you break a character that you've spent building up; Drama. To which I say:
DRAMA FOR THE DRAMA GOD!!!
The fourth panel keep cracking me up because between Lux's stance and the music notes in the air it looks like Lux is dancing.
I am now picturing a modern (or perhaps by now decade-or-two out of style) dance club beat with him raising his hands in the air as though he, in fact, does not care.
How appropriate. Beautiful XD
you're right XDD
Now is really not the time for a mental breakdown
I think we're about to see some other Witches.
I love everything about this, but weirdly, my most prominent thought right now is "Oh hey, we know the colors of the other two witches/Anchors now!"
Oh, hey, you're right! The music notes are all yellow and red/pink, just like the frames of the other two doors. There seems to be a primary-colors theme going on for the witches.
Which is interesting, since there's a strong implication of a fourth anchor, and yet only three primary colors. Though that red color is pretty Magenta... maybe it's a CYMK thing, with the fourth anchor being "key" (I.E., black)?
Lux, did you just get caught mid-spooky arms? How gauche!
Mal, do the binding and it will get you more than 2 minutes respite. Then you can figure out what the next steps are.
What if its not the box that's magic and giving the respite, but the melody itself? I'm just wondering if when the 2 minutes are nearly up, that Wolfe's spirit carries on playing the tune :D after all, we're not seeing Wolfe's spirit since she opened the music box.
Either that or the melody will rouse Wolfe's spirit enough to give a heartfelt motivational talk ala Wolfe-style to Mal to get the job done :D
As much as I love this theory, I can't help but feel that the sound of Mal in distress would be enough to rouse him. Although I could definitely see him playing it later and not quite knowing where he knows it from.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Mal, honey.....
For those like me who might need a reference:
[https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-28th-2016/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-28th-2016/")