October 24th, 2017
24 Oct 2017 · page 742 of 1306
Cast: Enid O'Malley, Harriet Barber, Jack O'Malley, Ms Acedia
Comments (96)
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MOMMA O'MALLEY. IT HAS A NICE RING TO IT
Who knew the cleaner was going to be such an interesting person? Her spirit is super cool-looking! Is that a flame she's holding?
I think that flame is her heart.
That would be so awesome! And I love how the colors of her spirit look like sunlight on a clear lake right now.
Blue.
Is this why Mal likes the color blue?
One of the reasons, yes. :)
Haha of course Acedia wouldn't clean by herself. Which will appearentelly lead to the downfall of her plan in O'Malley's escape. Defeated by her own sin. Poetic.
It's rather appropriate isn't it? Each of the Sins' fatal mistakes are based in their very nature. Due to their particular emotion/sin/vice being the defining part of their nature, they're incapable of avoiding the obvious mistakes that a more balanced human psyche would avoid.
Too lazy to clean, too evil to consider that the people you hire wouldn't just happily accept that you keep a child locked up.
I don't agree with that "too evil"-part necesarily, sloth is also closely linked with apathy and the sins major flaws so far is that they don't get that people can be motivated by other things then that emotion
so it isn't that she's too evil but that she thinks that people simply wouldn't bother about a child that they have no connection towards
But she is evil.
Kinda the definition of a sin, innit?
She's worse than a Sin in some ways. As a human, she has choices and a complex spirit. She subjugates all aspects to the drumbeat of one extremely negative part of her, and chooses to do wrong.
The seven deadlies at least act as they do because they are incapable of being better. This woman refuses to even acknowledge she could do better.
yes I think so, but I think she's evil because of what she does, she doesn't do things because she's evil
her character makes her evil, it also makes her not likely to clean by herself or think that people simply wouldn't bother about a child with which they have no connection
the evil part comes as an outcome of her character, it doesn't influence her character (also it's highly subjective, you and I (and most others here probably) see her as evil while somebody else could have a whole other moral opinion on her)
Of course, if she’d been a lazy man, it would never have occurred to her that the place needed cleaning at all. :-)
my 2 favourite of these sayings
"men are bears with furniture"
"men will notice dust only when it's viable to conduct commercial agriculture"
Hi Kate, greeting from Down Under. I've been following this for a while now after binge reading the first 4 or so chapters, love it! I particularly love the expression on Mal's face in the first panel, the smile at seeing a beloved old friend again.
Hi, so glad you've enjoyed it :D
I know, I noticed that on my second look at the page, what a heartwarming expression. : )
Huh. I guess that's what professionalism looks like.
indeed,
initially blue heart = indifference I guess, still just a job to do
later yellow heart = warmer, probably compassion at the sight of jack
and yellow finally with a red outline = mainly still compassion for jack and anger at acedia
and all the while leaving a neutral expression on her face and only a slight change in tone
I'm getting initially purple, but yeah, I agree with your analysis
you are of course correct, it's purple, not blue
Oh, okay! Lol. So often different people perceive colors quite differently.
So I'm told...
Well, I guess we're all taking each other's word for it, for the most part.
While it's not a perfect translation, I tend to use the sins to interpret what the colors mean, at least in broad strokes. Like, when I see her walk in with a purple fire, I imagine her coming in with a sort of deep pride in who she is, in spite of a rather dehumanizing job. A belief in her own power and worth.
What becomes a yellow, or green, doesn't really fit. If we assume that envy is desire, and yellow is hunger, neither quite fit. But it does remind me of the roaring yellow Wolfe's aura, which is kindly to an extreme. It makes me wonder if green can reflect not just envy of what else a person has, but, in more muted colors, appreciation and acknowledgment of another persons' worth?
If envy is 'you have what I want,' perhaps there is room in greens of less deep color for an appreciation of another person without the gnawing want to take what that person has for oneself?
And we can compare that lighter green with the deeper green and red in the last panel. That deep green is an envy color, and it would be easy to see why it'd be there. Acedia is exerting control over her and brushing her off, even forgetting her name, and still Enid will feel compelled to work with her despite the brushoff. The easy living which Enid perceives here for Acedia may come off like 'you don't deserve me' or 'you don't deserve what you have.' And those are probably true thoughts, but they likely still fall under envy's domain.
Meanwhile, of course there's some red in there. Because she's being ignored and brushed off, so she's mad, and that tinges everything else.
As with the blue of her aura . . . I imagine she's a very passive person. Not in that she's a doormat or endures everything that's thrown at here, but that she is a survivor. She ENDURES. Stands still and lets the world move around her, rather than interacting with it at every turn. Perhaps saving her energy for things she deems important.
. . . Like little O'mally here.
Or perhaps the green IS envy, and she's wanted a child or someone to take care of, and sees little Mal in this state is making her think 'she's not taking care of you right, I could do a better job!' Which would likely still be envy-green even though it is totally correct.
I know I drew some strong colour associations with the sins, but there are lots of emotions and limited colours! My fault for forcing the comparison, I guess.
Aww, I read too deeply.
Come to think of it though, that lighter blue that makes up much of her stuff . . . Is the color we saw as Bravery's primary colors, no?
I was thinking that honestly
I hardly thought that even an artist with an eye for detail and a talent for introducing guns and firing them right in the audience's faces would have a sort of table were-upon all emotions and links between them and what hue would be with the primary colours and that sort of thing because that's just madness
I mean I'd make such a list which is one (others are my complete lack of drawing ability and storytelling originality) of the reasons that I'd never make such a story because I'd simply lose the forest for the trees
Except for the Sins (since their chapter is tinted to their colours), I tend to think up the colour associations on the fly based on what feels right. Seems to generally do the trick, can't overthink some stuff.
that's what I suspected
and most of the deadlies were already pretty colour coded in other works of fiction, you don't invent the hot water every time :D
but yeah it definitly works
Well, you know, there are actually millions of colors. It's the fault of language and culture for making us think of them in just a few categories. I think you've been pretty consistent with giving each Deadly a specific hue & shade. For example, people could call both Envy and Gluttony "green". But Gluttony was always a gross vomit-y light yellow-green, while Envy was a darkish jade green. I'd call these two very different colors. : )
Haha, yes, I know there are a lot of colours! But people are gonna generalise because I've drawn the associations between blue = sloth, even if I'm using a more saturated teal-y blue, it seems, which is the downside.
Yeah, I guess I'm just trying to say, people thinking this way is not your fault! Blame society! XD
Oh, I've recalled just now! There: [http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-10th-2016/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/may-10th-2016/")
"Heh... I had a cleaner". And it didn't end well, Acedia, did it?
Also this means O'mallys age is two decades plus whatever he is in this comic (6-9 I think?)
So wait... does this mean that Mal is about to be taken to the cleaner's?
It appears Harry is catching on regarding the auras/spirits.
Also, does Mrs. O'Malley's spirit there resemble our dear Herr Wolfe's (in tone/feel, that is, they aren't otherwise alike)? Or is it just me?
Certainly she is "very there", as Wolfe is (Ben used these words about him: [http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/october-13th-2014/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/october-13th-2014/") ).
Only she's not a violonist.
She is a bird. A blue bird. And for a bird the very thought of a cage, of captivity is unbearable.
Good point re: the cage.
To me it looks like Mrs O'Malley's heart warms up. And that she has a great, strong spirit. It's somehow very moving, especially seeing adult Jack's smile.
Yes and yes and yes. And her aura lifts upwards, where Acedia's drags down. snif
You know, when she mentioned she had a cleaner once I didn't think it would come back as a plot point. I love this comic.
Ms. Ashwin is a masterful storyteller. :)
Well now I'm bright red, thanks, both :)
My pleasure. ^_^
She has to have helped him if she made a favorable enough impression for Jack to chose to take her last name. Although I am worried that the fact that we have not heard of her before may mean that she did not survive.
Look at present-Mal smiling at his memory of her : )
>Although I am worried that the fact that we have not heard of her before may mean that she did not survive.
She's an old woman here, and this is twenty years before the present timeline of the comic; it makes sense she wouldn't be around anymore. Not to mention that Mal doesn't talk about his past to anyone, even Wolfe.
It's just that I have a feeling that if Enid was still around Mal would "have a bode" as he says here [http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/march-14th-2012/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/march-14th-2012/")
True, but at least the twenty-year gap means there's no reason not to think that she died in her bed at a ripe old age.
She is also simply an impressive person.
"Mrs...uh...."
"O'MALLEY."
Acedia backs out of the room a bit hurriedly, fumbling for the prison door ring she already had her hand on......
She's reminding me a little of Granny Weatherwax from the Discworld books in her appearance and force of personality.
...and the thing to remember about Granny is her attitude, and what she considered important.
In [an overview of the Discworld books up to that point](Â1Â "Â2Â"), i once said
{The wolf in Witches Abroad comes to mind here.}
And Granny always knows exactly who and where she is (Witches Abroad again), which might very well translate to being "very there".
Or possibly she rescues and adopts him, presumably before dying only a few years later just to hammer home the Dickensian awfulness of Mal's childhood.
I am very worried that her fate is part of the reason Jack is so terrified of this place.
That is a disturbingly plausible hypothesis.
I had a thought about that, but I'm somewhat reassured by Kate's words that Mal has never seen people dying.
I missed that comment. Hopefully that means Enid will be OK.
I choose to believe she eventually perished of old age happily in her bed, with Mal at her side.
Oh.
I'm seeing that smile on Mal's face there.
I completely missed it. Seems that he remembers this part. Gosh darn it! The next update can't get here soon enough!
"It's said that you can't keep a witch locked up."
"How? Clauditimancy?"
"Nah. Social engineering."
She's got fire in her heart. I like her.
So that's where Mal got his last name! And no wonder he prefers it to "Jack" - Enid O'Malley is probably the first person who was ever kind to him. I love his smile in panel 1.
(Even without the giveaway of the name, you can tell she's going to be important because she has a character tag already!)
That, and one of the more interestingly complex spirit projections. :D
Acedia's might be large and powerful, but you can trust Sloth to not be bothered to go to too much trouble to shape up. ;)
Interesting and cool thing, to contrast the two. Somehow Acedia's aura looks gross. But Enid O'Malley's spirit looks clean.
I think the best description of mini-Mal's expression is awe-struck.
MAakes you wonder what the "lowly" cleaners and handymen and trash collectors and burgers flippers have inside them, hey? ;)
L. Sprague deCamp's fantasy novel [Solomon's Stone](Â0Â "Â1Â") is mostly set on the "astral plane" - a dimension inhabited by people's fantasy selves. In the Army there, the lowest rank is General, since there are so mnay of them; the highest rank {and commander of the army} is Private ... because there's only one.
I like what everyone else said, of course, but I also like the way Acedia has seemed like "the adult in charge" for pages and pages, older and more powerful than Mal, of course, but also than the orphanage workers, but here, facing actual age and maturity, she looks like a teenager with a bad attitude. All that power pales in comparison with Mrs. O'Malley's personal gravitas.
Well said!
I love how Harry responds to seeing Mrs. O'Malley's spirit in panel 2. That's one unusual spirit!
My brain went, "boom."
Actually, I feel you that the purple might be a stranger feeling than just indifference. Maybe not as strong as dread, but she might be a bit suspicious or wary about what's in this place (with good reason).
Enid is beautiful.
Wouldn’t want to knock her pint over though.
Frankly, I think Mrs O’Malley would have been a far better witch.
AHA! AHAHA! :D Ohhh, this - this is beautiful!
Who wants to bet that little Jack is just the right size and shape to fill the hole in Mrs. O'Malley's spirit? :D
Entire fandom: "MOM LOCATED"
Mal once said upon seeing and knowing what blue was for the first time "I think I like blue." well i think we are beginning to see why he likes blue.
Ohhhhh, Nice! Well, guess that answers where he got his name from. ...So Wolfe reminded Mal of someone else in his 'there'ness, it seems?
I love how evocatively you draw people's auras.
...Ooooooooooooh
Now that is an interesting spirit. It reminds me a bit of Wolfe. His spirit stays pretty consistent, even when his moods change, just like this lady. Perhaps there's a reason for that? I mean, Wolfe has a calming presence even in times of stress, while Mrs. O'Malley seems to have a confident or determined personality. I also like how the flame in the middle changes color like a mood ring, rather than her entire spirit changing.
I daresay Mrs O'Malley would have something to say about knuckling down and getting done the things what need doing, whether you want to or not.
Mrs. O'Malley guarding her heart reminded me of something:
Back when Wrath burned down their business, Mal ran back to get Wolfe's violin. Wolfe's aura always has the violin. As far as Mal is concerned (at least emotionally), the violin is PART of him!
=== Mrs. O'Malley guarding her heart ===
I think this (initially) dark hole is a sign of some pain, some loss.
Perhaps she lost her child once. And when she saw a little poor lonely helpless boy, so coldly mistreated, her hart couldn't not light up with compassion.
I don't see it as a hole. It is a cool color, which to me says that she was startled and slightly guarded. (Who wouldn't be after interacting with Acedia?!) Then she saw the young child and warmed up immediately.
My impression wasn't so much loss and just, well, being guarded. She knows Acedia's bad news, but she needs the gig, so she's in Standoffish Defense Mode. (If you look at the expression of her spirit/aura/whatever in that first panel, it's pretty much straight up surprise, so I don't think she's necessarily entirely processed what she's just seen.)
Of course, there's a weird (but good!) dichotomy in panel 3: the head appears indignant (presumably at Acedia's callousness), while the heart seems to be transitioning to a somewhat warmer color (presumably reflecting her feelings about this child prisoner she's stumbled upon).
And then the last panel where the heart starts to flare up with flames in anger at Acedia's sheer cruelty-by-indifference.
Heh, after Acedia's laziness making her some kind of apex ambush predator this whole arc, it's nice to see the glaring weaknesses it gives her as well: it literally never occurs to her that someone would go out of their way to help someone in need. She just can't be bothered to imagine how someone else would respond to the situation (admittedly a tricky skill, but most of us try).