May 4th, 2018
4 May 2018 · page 792 of 1306
(sorry)
Cast: Benjamin Thackerey, Heinrich Wolfe, Jack O'Malley, Mr Luxuria, Sidney Malik, Verity Cunningham
Comments (94)
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I'm a little curious why Verity has feet but Wolfe has a spirit tail. I'm also if the no wizards allowed rule is making this more painful on the souls of Ben and Sidney.
Vee is a more precise person.
Oh man she's a blueprint, this rules
Admittedly, my first thought was that it had to do with Wolfe being one of those Very There people, though, really, we've never seen Harry's spirit with legs either, have we?
I love how the spirits show those little details about them!
The spirit designs are so amazingly suited to their people.
And Wolfe's spirit-tail is reaching down towards Mal.
I thought maybe there is no difference between bodiless spirits of wizards and non-wizards in Witch Space, but Ben and Sid's spirits keep their "wizard halos", so there is, it seems.
I wonder about the reasons of this rule... does wizards' potential for contact with the world of spirits become dangerous for them (wizards) in Space Between? Maybe, Other World can pull them (their spirits) away? Then, if spirits of Ben and Sid are captured there is no (this) danger to them...
Ben and Sid's spirits kind of are their wizard halos - the spirit has been pulled from the body, so all you have is the glow surrounding the person-shaped hole where the body was.
I wonder what is it about wizards that allow their spirits to go into that space but not their bodies, then.
Wolfe's spirit seems to be trying to reach out to Mal.
Random detail: I just noticed that Vee’s spirit has its hair in the bun she was wearing earlier, even though the physical Vee changed her hairstyle at the end of the Sloth section.
I'm really interested in the way the wizard spirits manifest, are they just invisible patches within the aura, or an actual gap in the aura itself?
I think you may have it with the gap, and that it's why wizards can't go into the anchor in their psychical bodies. The anchor is a conduit between the spirit world and our world. A witch is on the same frequency as the anchor so it acknowledges them as part of itself, and regular people are their own solid entities and thus are allowed to pass through, but a wizard has the power to summon spirits and are thus a conduit themselves. Having two different conduits in the same place messes with the anchor, and thus it rejects them.
If any of that makes any sense.
No yeah, I had a similar theory based on the way both wizards and the anchor gave Mal a headache
The Anchor didn't gave Mal a headache, though he expected it would and was surprised: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/august-31st-2016/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/august-31st-2016/")
OH NO
:(
I have long pondered whether the spirit can exist outside of the body and how much of self resides in the spirit and how much in the body. Looks like we’re about to get some answers. I’ve my own head canon on the subject which will be, of course, completely wrong.
Well, Wolfe's spirit doesn't play his violin anymore. :/ It may mean just how bad his spirit feels now, though.
Have we seen his spirit playing the violin when he wasn't physically playing/about to play?
Yeah, there: [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/april-28th-2014/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/april-28th-2014/") (and some pages later, with Voss), there (again): [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-22nd-2016/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-22nd-2016/") ... and in
(out of the comics). I mention the last one because I like it and it makes me less sad about this page. :)
Aw, that picture is awesome! Is that one you got?
Really looking forward to see how this resolves, I wonder what the state of everyone's bodies are?? Are they in a coma or what?
No, I never have been a backer of Kate's kickstarters yet, alas. :/ Kate posted a few of these in her Tumblr, and I enjoy them. :)
You're totally right - thank you for the links!
OK, I now declare it time to start panicking.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! :runs off into the night:
I was thinking about that violin!
Oh, poor Mal. :( Poor everyone (except Lux), of course, but Mal...
well, crud, the comment section was right.
Now I wonder if Mal shakes with shock or rage, in the last panel.
Judging by his face in the previous panel, I'd say shock, combined with OH GOD WHAT DID I DO I WAS RIGHT WITCHES ARE EVIL.
Given he fell to his knees, I would say so, yes. :/
What an dramatic irony, with echoing Wolfe's words "Very scary, for children". ( [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-22nd-2016/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-22nd-2016/") ) Now scary stories for children come true. :/ So, it is the time for Mal to prove the stories are wrong, and he is all right.
Put those things back where they came from or so help me
You win the Internet for today. =)
oopsy?
I think we need Mrs O'Maley spirit here to help Mal.Or at least its memory. You're a good person, Mal. You can do it. Don't believe him.
Thoughtfully. You know, I never hated any of Deadlies before because "it's only their nature" and all... but now I feel a sudden regret about that one can't kill a Deadly. Though... maybe, Lux's return to "home" will destroy its personality it grows in these 400 years?
The fact is I'm afraid its personality is its natural personality; what's it's developed over 400 years is its understanding of others (i.e. humans), rather than any change within itself. : P
Sigh. Shame. :( With hope. But, maybe, embodied Lux can sense physical pain, at least? I guess not. :/
It's unfortunate...
1. AAAAAAA I WAS RIGHT AND I HATE IT
2. Huh. Sydney's pose here... It's not exactly the same as in the fantasy sequence with Harry, but it's pretty close, isn't It? He looks entirely too relaxed for this, anyway. I think that may actually be him in there, or he's being used to power it somehow. The others, though, look miserable and uncomfortable... is Sid the only one getting fantasyland, then?
Miserable and uncomfortable is Mr Thackerey's normal state of mind.
It's remarkable that only his spirit has a distinct yellow outline of fear. Though it seems Wolfe's spirit has a slight shade of yellow, too.
I wonder if that's because his spirit is the only one...conscious, for lack of a better term. Verity and Sidney seemed to be slumped/sprawled, and Wolfe seems to have his eyes closed and be slumped as well, but Ben is holding the bars of the cage.
Verity is holding them, too. Can they see each other, Mal and Lux, just now and in general, I wonder?
Also, I wonder how much their being captives (in addition to their "homelessness") increase their distress.
But she seems to be slumped over while (to me at least) he seems to be sitting up. Although I could be influenced by the discussions over the last few pages about Ben's reactions, so we'll have to see in the coming pages.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if both cousins’ spirits turned out to be at least semi-conscious; as we’ve seen, they have the stubbornness to hold out against the influence of a Deadly Sin when Wolfe and Sidney can't.
Actually, we've seen the exact look that's in Ben's aura before (Hint: it's the one in Heylir's avatar). I think the emotions there are not misery, but rather worry and frustration.
Sid's spirit also looks like it might be unconscious (although I'm not sure how that would work with spirits).
RE: No. 1 -- It's not shocking, but it is still horrifying.
Hm, I was thinking Sid looked sort of gangly and discombobulated.
So just like normal Sid then
Fascinating.
How DARE you do that to Wolfe's spirit, Lux. Look at the poor thing!
I take it verity is the dark blue one?
Luxuria looks super chill on this page and it's just, ugh.
Mal's face in that second to last panel.... Like, he doesn't need Lux to spell out what happened, he knows, he just doesn't want to believe. There's a lot going on there. Realizing that he's seriously harmed, maybe even outright killed his closest friends; suddenly coming face-to-face with the knowledge that one of the more horrific stories about witches is, in fact, real and having one of those moments where he starts to think witches are monsters and that he's one just like the rest....
This might be when Mal needs the respite, and the help from the other witches.
Interesting...I still think that there's another way out of this for them.
Although I would like to see Mal try to put their souls back and end up with a body-swap situation.
"Body-swap situation" is something I didn't know I wanted to see until I read this comment.
Huh. Sid's spirit looks awfully relaxed, so maybe he is in the illusion with Harry? Or unconscious?
In the words of renowned philosopher Taako Tahko (I hope I'm spelling his name right):
Ah shit.
That... was very clever.
And very cruel.
I wonder... does Luxuria want to end all the other spirits, to create the singular order it desires?
HAPPIER THOUGHTS:
It's neat how Vee's more realistic figure kind of makes it look like the wizards are negative space outlines and the non-wizards are positive space figures.
I wonder what the spirit of someone only barely magically talented like Lei looks like to Mal. Would she just be a very faint, glowing outline? And then of course there's Mal's lack of aura, which is just neither (though it seems it looks different inside the Witchspace itself...)
Apropos of nothing, it just occurred to me both these fellows have scars on their necks.
I'm not sure this is that much of a problem. Can't he just banish Lust and then usher the spirits back through his door?
Who knows! This type of situation hasn't exactly come up before. What happens to their bodies? Can they be put back? I assume they can just because I don't think this story is THAT dark, but there's no reason that Mal would know for sure that that would work. Plus, Luxuria has them caged right now - can Mal banish and bind him without him taking his friends' souls with him? He already has a tight enough grasp on them that their spirits were ripped from their bodies before Lux's hold on them broke when pulled by Mal. I hope and believe that it'll be okay, but Mal's got every reason to BSOD right now.
This might be a good time for the more experienced witches to show up!
So Lux is trying to make Mal feel responsible for something Lux did? C'mon, Mal, you can see through their lies!
Standard operating procedure. :/
That angle of the spirits hanging over Mal and Lux is beautiful. Truly invokes the "unveiled" feeling, and makes me imagine dark choral music.
I keep hearing either
[https://www.youtube.com/wat...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpAbJCzmDBk "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpAbJCzmDBk")
or
[https://www.youtube.com/wat...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjTl3qa07Lw "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjTl3qa07Lw")
I suspected as much. :(
Oh no...
Sounds like somebody could use 2 minutes respite to figure out what to do next. [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-28th-2016/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-28th-2016/")
Something to cheer us all up a bit: I just watched the Pixar movie Coco (which is well worth seeing if you haven't yet), and in the flashback showing Hector when he was alive, he looks startlingly like Sidney! [https://vignette.wikia.noco...](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/f/fb/Coco_Hector_flashback.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180228194236 "https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/f/fb/Coco_Hector_flashback.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180228194236")
...
WAIT.
Luxuria is special because long ago, the girl who summoned him gave him an actual body. It's not explained at all how this is possible. Or why this was done. But something has JUST struck me.
We've just learned that witches can rip spirits from bodies. So...what is a spiritless body? It's not technically dead. But it's definitely empty.
And the body that Lux has MUST have been empty too.
So I'm thinking, and this makes too much sense not to be true, that this girl gave Lux her lover's body, in this really messed-up, misguided attempt to get her lover back, because some witch had ripped this body's spirit away. "OH god, he's empty, oh god, he's gone!" "It's alright, give me the body, I'll bring your lover back, I promise." Or even, "Hey, no, I am your lover, I'm here, put me back." "Yes, oh god, please, do it!"
And that is how Lux knows intrinsically about all of this. In fact, he might have even machinated getting his own body emptied in the first place.
Hmmmm.... I'm not sure. We've seen that the Sketch Drawing seems to be its actual body, and the various human-looking guises are just things it made using the Liar's Heart.
I think the art from the storytelling bit is probably accurate in that it was something that was purpose built for Lux.
That said, this opens up an interesting possibility: now that Mal knows how the "rip the spirit out of the body" thing works, guess what spirit is just begging karma for a forcible separation from its body?
That would be the perfect ending for Lux.
I really want to learn exactly what happened with the girl and Lux's original summoning though. I have a gut feeling that it's tied to the spirit-ripping revelation. My theory might not be perfect, but I'm sticking to it until we get more concrete information.
=== that this girl gave Lux her lover's body, in this really messed-up, misguided attempt to get her lover back, because some witch had ripped this body's spirit away. ===
It couldn't be.
Just because there was no another witch in immediate proximity then. There were one in the Himalayas, other in some island, it's all.
Ed. And - perhaps - one "under da see", a siren? :)
I'm kinda thinking this is not really as bad as it seems.
Pretty sure quite a lot of this plan is riding on the fact that our witch knows Jack sh*t of his trade and is thus more prone to Mal-practice without knowing there's a way for him to fix things as well... I'm thinking there's more Leyway in the situation than Luxuria would want him to imagine...
Wonder if the plan is counting on few extra witches, who'll pop in to mention a thing or two about witchy business...
"Sure this happens when you don't know what you're doing. But you can also fix it, if you do know what you're doing. But lets fix this big ol' bugger up here first."
Oh, I agree. This thing actually being permanent and lethal would be a very abrupt dark turn for this particular story. So not impossible, but unlikely given what I've learned of Ms. Ashwin as a storyteller over the years.
Likely the stakes are there, like a hero defusing a bomb. Don't know what you're doing and it will go off. Then someone tells them to cut the red wire and it was just as simple as that.
Same here, he probably just needs to send their souls(?) back to their bodies and for a witch in their place of business that might be even less troublesome than pulling four essences and one sin in full flare in in the first place. But Jack being knowledgeable of his art as the proverbial pig of silverspoons (although even they probably put them in their mouths, so...), he could untrained fling the spirits to who knows where...
You guys.
YOU GUYS!
Three known witches in the world at any given time. What's the stereotypical size of a witches' coven?
IT'S A MINOR DETAIL BUT IT'S A THING THAT LINES UP!
The stereotypical witches' coven is the maiden, the mother, and ... the other one.
Do you see Mal as the maiden or the crone?
I'd say maiden, since he's not interested in what Lust has to offer. The witch we saw at the Himalayan anchor looked like she could fill the crone role.
I dunno. In most depictions I've come across, the maiden would arguably the MOST vulnerable to Lust. She's not, in my experience a child, but a teenager or early-twenty-something. All youthful passion and, most important from Lux's perspective, the most prone to infatuations, crushes, love-is-blind, and other states of reckless emotion centered on someone. Contrast the Mother, for whom responsibility to her family as well as the tempering effects of experience have made her wise up to the perils and pitfalls of the Maiden's more reckless love life. (The Crone, in most depictions, just fulfills the stereotype that at a certain age a person's sex drive just shrivels up and blows away in the wind like a fallen leaf.)
(The other Feminine Archetype Triptych, the Three Faces of Eve has the Child, the Seductress, and the Wife, and in THAT model, the child is probably outright asexual. At most, she's operationg at the "Won't you be my Valentine?/I choo-choo-choose you!" level of things.)
So, to answer John's question, I say Mal is arguably the Crone (hard to gauge without seeing the other witches in any detail), but sharp-witted, acerbic, and generally done with your BS ("Ye do like to talk, don't ya?") are some of the Archetypal Crone Traits.
== The witch we saw at the Himalayan anchor looked like she could fill the crone role. ==
I'd say rather Mother... With her knitting the scarf - "to keep you warm".
Actually, the stereotypical number in a coven is 13. You're thinking of the triple Goddess, which is a way of conceptualizing the female aspect of the universe as the stages of a woman's life and also the cycles of the moon; The Maid (waxing moon/youth/new beginnings/innocence), The Mother (full/nurturing/gaining of knowledge/fulfillment), and The Crone (waning/old age and the wisdom that comes with it/death as transformation).
Huh. I guess that line's been a bit blurred in my experience. I was thinking of things like Macbeth or Discworld, where it's 3.
Actually, I'm genuinely having trouble thinking of an example of a coven of thirteen. Is that a thing out of Wiccan practice or historical druidic stuff? I'm mostly thinking of the fictional stuff, obviously, which I guess goes with 3 because 13 is unwieldy?
I couldn't find any stand out examples in fiction, but from what I can tell it was something cropped up in literature several times as The Way To Do Things and now it's one of these things that some people who practice take as This Is How It's Done and others disregard. I think three people sometimes comes up in fiction due to the triad symbolism.
Interesting that the triad doesn’t include a fourth for the New Moon. Particularly comes to mind considering the current comic storyline and the surprise fourth there.
Why do Benji and Syd appear to be hollow inside their spirits, and Heinrich and Verity appear to be full spirits?
Wizards.
Mal sees wizards spirits as auras, and everybody else’s spirit as a distinct shape hovering over or near them.